Diet Is a 4-Letter Word

Maybe it’s the influence of lessons learned when I lost 20 pounds as a “Weight Watcher” several years ago. Maybe it’s my local TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group and their emphasis on lifetime weight maintenance. Or maybe it’s the implicit groan I hear when people talk about dieting.

Whatever the cause, I avoid the word diet. For one thing – diet used as a noun simply means “daily intake of food.” If we eat, we’re on a diet – whether it’s high-fat, low-fat, Western, Eastern, or Indian.

Second, “to diet” implies a temporary solution to an ongoing problem. When someone says they’re on a diet, they usually mean, “I’m depriving myself for a while because I need to take off some pounds. Once those pounds are off, I’ll start enjoying myself again.” This implies that to eat healthfully is to deprive oneself of the best things of life.

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Recently I heard of a casual acquaintance who went to an impoverished African country as part of a mission group. Their aim was to give medical aid to sick children. As is usual when Americans travel to such places, she was astonished by living conditions, particularly the quality of their food sold in open marketplaces with no access to refrigeration.

However, it’s not cholera or dysentery that is killing their people. It’s AIDS and malaria.

An African man asked one of the Americans what our most common diseases are.

“I suppose they’re heart disease and diabetes,” said the American.

“What’s the cause?” asked the African.

“We don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables,” replied the American.

“You mean you can’t get fruit and vegetables in your country?” asked the African.

I don’t know what the American replied, but when I heard the story, I gasped. It makes what we do to ourselves even more tragic. The African man couldn’t fathom anyone having access to prevention and not using it.

Not all heart disease and diabetes can be prevented, but we all know most of it can. It’s an ironic luxury we enjoy – this ability to choose to kill ourselves when we are surrounded by an abundant supply of prevention. It’s like an African country refusing vaccines that would cure their epidemics.

It makes our excuses – too much trouble, too expensive, too many “bad” foods available – seem rather feeble, doesn’t it?

Talk to me. What was your initial reaction to the story? Do you think it’s really that simple, that all we need to do is eat our vegetables?