Good ol' parsnips

It's amazing how a diet of whole foods had changed my taste. After being off processed foods, and avoiding sugar like poison for two years, some things I never liked have somehow become palatable.

So yesterday, after a few moments' deliberation, a bag of parsnips joined the carrots in the grocery cart. Since I am not an adventurous cook, I simply boiled the lot for twenty minutes. Today I had some as a side dish to my fatty pork roast.

To my surprise, parsnips are sweet and delicious!

I'm still working up to brussels sprouts and fiddlehead greens.

A hospital snack for diabetics.

Yesterday I had occasion to wait for a few hours in the emergency at the Montreal General Hospital. During my six-hour wait to see a doctor, I was quite interested to see how things worked.

An elderly gentleman, I'd say about 85 years old, had been admitted, his wife by him. I overheard the E.R. nurse's conversation with him, and overheard that he was diabetic, his current blood glucose being measured at 8.5 mmol/L (153 mg/dL), rather high.

Since the wait was long, he was offered a supper. It came on a tray, with a large strip of paper on it labeled "diabetic".

The supper consisted of:

• Vegetable soup
• a package of two soda crackers
• egg salad sandwich on white bread
• three raw baby carrots
• fruit salad cup
• 4 oz. "cranberry cocktail"

The man had half the soup, left the carrots, and finished the sandwich, fruit and drink. The hospital is giving crackers, white bread, fruit and sugar water to an elderly diabetic! I was pretty well horrified. I asked the wife casually if she didn't think it was odd that they feed sugar-water to a diabetic (12 grams of sugar in the cranberry drink). Her reply was, "I'm sure they know what they're doing."

Not seeing in front of their noses

There is an article in the L.A. Times concerning the obesity problem particularly in Hispanic children. This quote is key:

Looking more closely at the foods the kids ate, 68% of calories came primarily from soda, desserts, pizza, chips, fruit drinks, fruit juice, processed meats and burgers. About one-fourth of the children went over the maximum intake level of 25% for added sugars.

So, after having seen this, what do you suppose the headline is?

Hispanic children are getting most nutrients, but eating too much fat

Say what? That list clearly implicates sugar as the problem! Unbelievable!