Eat & Read at Your Own Risk

Greetings to y'all from the Soy City...that's right; perhaps here in Decatur, Illinois more of that fermented sauce is produced than any other place in the world; thank you Jesus for corn and soy beans aplenty.

I just returned from grocery shopping, I always go very early mornings. I will not read another thing the rest of this day. My eyes are blurry from reading all those dad gum ingredient labels. Back in my younger days, I never looked at labels; never knew that ingredients were listed on products and didn't give two hoots' hell what I was eating...if it tasted good and I liked it, I ate it! I ate all kinds of stuff: fried ham, bacon, bologna, braunschweiger  luncheon meat and I always mopped up thick gravy with a half-loaf of bread. I recall those wonderful days of yesteryear when I ate everything in sight.

My calculations look something like this: during my 74-years, I have eaten 88,727 meals and 32,526 snacks. This does not included 837 various candy bars and Twinkies devoured 'on-the-run.' Well, times change and so has my youthful attitude towards foods. Study after study and warnings a upon warnings cause me to 'read' those damn ingredient labels.

I will share one recent eating experience a few months ago. I was looking for the quintessential healthy snack. Someone told me about 'Smart Cakes;'  after much searching I found 'Smart Cakes' and read the label: Listen up...)...fat 0, saturated fat 0, trans fat 0, cholesterol 0, and calories 0. I bought the Carmel covered Smart Cakes. After eating one Smart Cake, I thought I had just experienced eating a piece of Styrofoam coated with Carmel icing. I became fascinated with the consistency of the Smart Cake and placed one Smart Cake in a saucer of milk and placed it in the refrigerator over night. The next morning, I noticed the Smart Cake was still floating in the bowl of milk indicating that Smart Cakes absorb 'nothing!' IT tasted like a piece of Styrofoam, which had been left out in the rain.

It did take me awhile to find a bit of good 'eating news' to pass along to you, I found a study supporting the opinion that 'dark' chocolate is good for you...as soon as I read that in the study, I read no further so I cannot comment on any suggested daily amount of dark chocolate to eat....Use your own judgment as do I.