Year 2, Day 52: Concern, As Always

The past few days at work have seen me adding a snack to my morning routine. This is a bad sign. For the first few days it was accidental pistachios. Today it was a banana—I wanted to counteract the sodium of the lox (smoked salmon) with some potassium from the banana. But for the longest time I was able to go without one. I know part of it is stress, but it's self-fulfilling stress because I'm stressed out that I'm hungry. I've also been super hungry after dinner, and that is a concern to me. I don't know if it's just spring, and I'm more active and therefore more hungry, or it's just I'm more hungry. Also, I have it in the back of my head that eating matzoh is not that great a staple on ANY diet. Fortunately, today, Passover is over, and I can return to my beloved Balthazar bread.

Breakfast
1.5 Matzoh Boards
Cream Cheese
Smoked Salmon (700mg of Sodium)

Snack
Medium Dunkin Donuts Coffee (half Decaf)
1 small banana

Lunch: Peter's Kitchen
Greek Salad with Feta
Pita Bread

Dinner
1 Piece Arctic Char, 1 Piece Pork Cutlet
Salad with Feta
Asparagus

Etc.
A bite of Ruby's Sugar Cookie
2 bites sesame chocolate bar (WILD)

I meant to call people's attention to an editorial written by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times last week. It was a funny and frightening article warning us about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, and how it's worse than anything a terrorist could throw at us. To wit: "Americans over the age of 2 get an average of 132 calories a day from high-fructose corn syrup, which is the major sweetener in pop and also found in everything from ketchup to hot dog buns."

Sugary drinks now account for one-sixth of the calories we ingest. They are particularly problematic because there's evidence that calories in beverages don't give us feelings of fullness that we get from the same number of calories in food. "When kids snack on Cheetos, that at least spoils their appetites so that they eat less at meals. But when they chug Coke, they absorb as many calories -- and it doesn't spoil their appetites. What's the bottom line on these drinks? An extra 100 calories a day, all things being equal, adds about five pounds a year to one's weight."

For years I drank Coke or Snapple Peach Iced tea for lunch, and they both were a staple at the card game. There was always water or diet versions of these drinks, but I went from thinking "it's no big deal' to "I'm out of control." It's very hard to take that first step, say switching to diet coke, or diet Snapple—mostly because they don't taste as good—but it leads to so many other good things (when you exclude cancer from untested sweeteners).