August 16, 2012 (Thursday)
I came across a teaser headline that read, “Five foods that cause memory loss.” I clicked on the link and was taken to a windy speech illustrated by little simple cartoons. I realized it was going to last forever, or at least until it presented an opportunity to buy some kind of product, so I went to Google and searched for “5 foods that cause memory loss,” and got the condensed version. The foods are: Soy & soy products, Meat & Poultry, Dairy products, Alcohol, and Sugar. I eat little soy, I think, and consume no alcohol, except for the mouthwash that trickles down my throat, but I am guilty of eating meat, poultry, dairy products and sugar. The key words that appear in the article are “excess” or “excessive amounts,” or “large quantity.” In other words, if you eat sensible amounts of them, these foods will have no effect at all on your memory.
Most of us learn how to eat by doing it. Little by little we learn that too much of a good thing can be bad for us, regardless of what it is we’re eating. I’ll always remember the time I ate as many home-made rolls, made with lots of yeast, as I could. Then I drank a lot of something–I don’t remember what it was, probably water. Wow, did my stomach ever swell! It was scary. I never did that again. I was just a kid. We learn through experience. Doubtless, all of us can recall eating too much of something and suffering the consequences in various ways. It’s very unlikely, then, that we will be unwise enough to eat certain foods in amounts so excessive that they result in neural damage. Of course, it’s possible, but not very probable.
The fact is, as nearly as I can tell, the article and the video are all about scaring us (the video was mostly about Alzheimer’s Disease) into buying whatever it is that they are selling. I’m not interested enough to keep on reading or watching long enough to find out. I’ve already got enough stuff that I’m not using as it is.