An observant writer's take on relationships, health, living in Chicago, unusual experiences, the news, retirement, books, hobbies, volunteering, smart shopping, and anything else that's on my mind
“Every day I ask myself the same question: How can this be happening in America? How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having an hallucination.”
Think that’s from a recent news story? Nope. It’s from Philip Roth’s 2004 speculative fiction novel The Plot Against America, which HBO later adapted for television.
I usually don’t write about politics because I don’t have anything to say that professional pundits have not said already. But every now and then the news is so bad that to ignore it is callous.
Normally I would not pay attention to anything coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the new USDA dietary guidelines, released earlier this month, have some good recommendations: more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, unprocessed foods, unsweetened beverages, and adequate protein.
However, the top of the new inverted food pyramid shows foods high in saturated fat: meat, cheese, and whole milk. Recommending them as prime sources of protein contradicts another recommendation to limit saturated fat, which clogs the arteries and leads to heart disease. (We can’t expect consistency from anyone in the Trump administration.)