The phrase “a piece of cake” usually implies something that
is easy or simple and often even pleasant to do. Often though when this phrase
is used in regards to many different tasks the reality turns out to be
something quite different. For example when told by someone at the hardware
store that changing the leaking parts in your toilet bowl will be “a piece of
cake” when it actually turns out to be several hours of hell and eventually
involves calling a plumber!
A similar meaning phrase that seems to have creped into the
vernacular these days is “easy-peasy”. The use of which seems for some reason
to make my skin crawl and a nearly overpowering urge to slap the crap out of
whoever just said it comes over me.
However, I plan to address this phrase, Piece O’ Cake, for purposes of this Story Telling group by turning
it into a question, approaching it in very concrete fashion and then twisting
into a LGBT call to arms! Which reminds me of a criticism I used to get flung
at me much more in the 1970’s and 1980’s which was “why does everything have to
be political for you”. So here goes.
The issue for me, and most of us aging LGBT folk, is the
cake. The last fucking thing we need in our lives is cake. Specifically the
sugar that comes with the cake to say nothing of the processed flour it is
embedded in.
It is now indisputable that many of our chronic health
problems are aggravated if not directly caused by what we put in our mouths for
what passes as food. Over the ages we queer folk have often been accused of
diabolically putting in our mouths things god and nature did not intend to have
in there. I want to redirect the conversation away from tongues and genitalia
to the real evil shortening our lives and compromising the quality of the
golden years and that would be the sugar we put in our mouths!
The literature and science to back it up on the true poison
of sugar is voluminous. I would refer you though to the writings on diet by a
man named Joel Fuhrman. I need to extend a H/T to Betsy McConnell for turning
me on to this man’s writings about a year ago. I had been a neurotic student of
diet long before being turned-on to Fuhrman’s writings but I currently consider
him to be the last word on matters of food, at least for now!
The first step, and this is true for me, is admitting that I
am a sugar addict. Disturbing research using brain scans has repeatedly shown
that the same parts of the brain are titillated and light up from sugar as they
do from cocaine.
A close friend just sent me a piece from The Sun over the weekend that was an interview with a fellow named
Daniel Lieberman. A short quote from the article sums things up nicely in
regards to the evils of sugar:
“Sugar as a modern,
industrialized product has created an incredible amount of misery, starting
with slavery and the plantation system. Today it is increasing rates of disease
and death because our bodies can’t handle it. But we love it. We are addicted
to it”.
The litany of health problems related to poor diet is a long
one from diabetes to stroke to heart disease to obesity to several forms of
cancer. You can actually without too much effort connect the dots and relate
global warming at least in part to sugar and certainly processed foods. Animal
product of any source is of course a bigger culprit in regards to global warming
but that is a topic for another time.
As with many evils in the world sugar often creeps into our
lives in very insidious ways. The first step for me was becoming aware of the
staggering amount of hidden sugars in our food. Reading labels is a great way
to begin raising one’s consciousness in this regard. Of course as one of my many
health gurus, one Robert Lustig, has emphasized we should be eating real food
and that would eliminate anything that comes with a label on it.
There are no “healthy sugars”. Fruit juice for example has as
much sugar as equal amounts of any soda and your pancreas and liver could not
give a rat’s ass where the sugar comes from, it all has to be dealt with the
same be it O.J. or Pepsi.
I can hear the hue and cry now that there are no bad foods
and if we just approach things in moderation no harm no foul. Bullshit! The
words of the great Texas populist Jim Hightower apply here: “the only thing in
the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead Armadillos”. And I would guess those Armadillos had type 2
diabetes.
So in my admittedly very biased opinion the LGBT community,
particularly the over 50 crowd, would be much better served in the long run by
moving the issues of diet and climate change ahead of marriage equality and
military service.
This sea change in queer priorities I think would bring us
much more in line with a whole host of other pertinent social issues from
racism to income inequality to the devastation of the planet. And it would go a long way towards reducing
our unwanted belly fat.
 |
| Eat more fruit and vegetables. |
© March 2015
About the Author
I was born in La Porte Indiana in 1949, raised on a farm and schooled
by Holy Cross nuns. The bulk of my adult life, some 40 plus years, was spent in
Denver, Colorado as a nurse, gardener and gay/AIDS activist. I have currently returned to Denver after an
extended sabbatical in San Francisco, California.
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