YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER…
I’ve returned from my weekly water fight with my 96 year-old mother. We don’t throw balloons at one another. That would be more fun than coaxing my parent to sip a few drops of the liquid to stay hydrated. Drinking water is something she’d rather not do and I’ve exhausted my bag of tricks to convince her otherwise. Why water offends her, I don’t know; but when coerced to drink, she makes a face as if her finger has been slammed in a car door.
(courtesy: ussearch.com)
I tell her she’s lucky water is her main medication. Others her age are likely to be found with tubes up their arms. But my argument has no effect and I know getting people to do what’s good for them is impossible if they are unwilling. If doing what is good for you were easy, more people would give up smoking and the illicit drug industry would be dead instead of the users.
Dr. Neal D. Barnard, M. D. has written a book on nutrition and good health, “Foods That Fight Pain,” which is full of good advice. His main thesis is that human should stop eating meat and become vegetarians. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 11 but I’ve never managed to convince single person of the benefits, including my mother.
Should anyone be curious about the current research, however, here’s a list of benefits that Dr. Barnard provided:
- People who eat fewer animal products or none reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes.
- Vegetarian men weigh less and have lower cardiovascular disease risk than non-vegetarians.
- In a recent comparison between patients who followed vegan diets (no animal by-products like eggs or cheese) and those who followed the diet of the American Diabetes Association, the vegan diet proved better at controlling blood glucose and cholesterol.
- Vegetarian Diets may reduce the levels of hormones that contribute to cancer, particularly breast cancer. (Quoted from Good Medicine, winter edition pgs 5-17)
Okay, enough said. I’m not lecturing….honest.