If you must know, I am starting this post the Friday before Memorial weekend. I am done with work and hiding out in my office while my wife has a message appointment. This was as fast as I could get to this because it is difficult to move things around once I have committed to a schedule. I think the information is really timeless but the irony is timebound. Hence I wrote the previous sentences.

I have had on my watchlist on Pluto for several months some well known documentaries. Those would be “Supersize Me”, “Food Inc.” and “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. Believe is or not, I sometimes get tired of having Podcasts run in the background as I work. Sometimes, I want to actually listen attentively and so I stop podcasts until I can dedicate time to pay attention.

Well, two days ago I turned on “Supersize Me” for the first time. I have been in tune with diet for many years. The main character’s name was Morgan Spurlock. He had a film where he only ate from McDonalds for thirty days straight. There were a couple easy rules, he could only Supersize the meal if they asked and he had to try everything on the menu at least once.

All the while, Spurlock was testing his metabolic panel as well as other exterior metrics like blood pressure and weight. There were very few surprises in the film but I would say one was that he gained 25 pounds in a month. I had no idea we could put on weight that fast. The other was increase in blood markers like triglycerides was scary fast. The third was that it took 14 months to lose most of the weight. Some of it never came off.

The irony was that I was checking a headline this afternoon and I saw another one that Morgan Spurlock died today at the age of 53. I had just gotten to know about him only to find out that he had terminal cancer. One has to wonder if some of his extreme behaviors like the “Supersize Me” movie sewed the seeds of disaster.

Way back in 2012 after my wife’s first cancer, I read the “Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf. I have this theory that all of her illnesses are related to her auto-immune problems. I also belive that auto-immune problems are diet triggered. So, we did it. It was part of our kick-off to running a half marathon at the age of 40.

Her psoriasis disappeared for years. I lost twenty pounds in a month. I think that she lost a little less than that. There is something clearly related to intake and health. I hate to say that we have subsequently degraded from strict paleo to a much more normal diet. And viola, problems come back again.

If it were strictly up to me, I would get rid of all of the junk food in this house. My view is that it is a treat, not a pantry item and should be eaten in moderation. My observation is that junk food constantly is eaten first until there is nothing left but food that has to be cooked. This goes on the list to be restocked next month if we can make it that long.

I am not perfect, I like to drink the beer that I make. I eat what we eat in moderation. But even moderation is too much as well. I have packed on more weight that I would like since I started working again. I am really not going to give advice here other than do your own research. I believe that Paleo is proper and healthy and I know a lot of people have metabolic data to prove it.

Back in my early thirties, I found out that I had high triglycerides. At that time, I thought that I was doing OK other than gaining some weight. When I really looked at my diet it was sugary cereal in the morning, a soft drink at dinner among other habits like that. I thought that was moderation at the time. I have cut most of that out since the Paleo experiment. I really do not have time to properly discuss the science of all of this. Suffice to say that I am not in my early thirties anymore.

End Your Programming Routine: I have worked amongst the food industry for many years. I have seen with my own eyes what these documentaries talk about. If there is one thing more nefarious than the food industry, it is the pharmaceutical industry. It is time to seriously consider health. Thanks Morgan Spurlock for reminding me what absent minded eating will do.