Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JANUARY 13-19, 2016 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM We are in the early week s of our New Year's Resolutions, the period when we are enthusiastic about mak ing ourselves — happier, thinner, k inder, more focused, bet ter paid, or whatever it is we hope to become in 2016. I have resolved to lose 20 pounds, as I do ever y year, and to learn how to medit ate — something I f ind much more interesting than dieting. I have already begun researching medit ation practices and techniques online even though keyboarding uses few if any calories. I hope medit ation will help with what yogis call "monkey mind" and what ever yone else calls tossing and t urning in the middle of the night . I have plent y of company in the self-improvement resolution depar tment . Most — some say all — New Year's resolutions involve losing weight, and that is a good thing for those of us in Nor th Carolina, where we face a number of signif icant health challenges, including fat . The United Health Foundation rank s Nor th Carolina 31st in the nation in general health, with some good news and some not-so-good news. The good news is that we are up from 37th in the nation last year, and we are second nationally in childhood immunization rates. The bad news is, among other st atistics, Nor th Carolina is 33rd in the rate of diabetes, 44th in the number of dentist s, 9th in binge drink ing , and has a high disparit y bet ween the health of more educated people and those without high school diplomas. Bad news as well about our weight s. We are too heav y and get ting heav ier. The Rober t Wood Johnson Foundation, which track s such numbers, repor t s that our adult obesit y rate is now nearly 30 percent, up from 21 percent in 2000, and a petite 12 percent in 1990. Fewer children are obese, but then they have not had as much time and oppor t unit y to eat . Obesit y, of course, brings with it all sor t s of health woes including diabetes, hear t disease, high blood pressure, ar thritis and cancer. Blessedly, help of sor t s arrived earlier this month just in time to bolster our New Year's resolutions in the form of suggestions from the U. S. Depar tment s of Agricult ure and Health and Human Ser v ices about what we should eat and what we should not . No real surprises in the latest repor t, one that our government thoughtf ully issues ever y f ive years. In a nut shell, eat lot s of fruit s and veget ables, whole grains and not so much dair y and meat s, especially highly processed meat s. Take it easy on sat urated fat s, salt and sugar, which are singled out as par ticularly tough on the human body. The repor t says we t ake in our daily sugar quot a in on 16-ounce soda, a fact which should cause soda consumers serious pause. Many an element ar y school st udent has already mastered these general guidelines. It seems to be adult s who have trouble with them, probably because our bad habit s — which we probably did not k now were bad when we st ar ted them —are of long st anding. That is why we hope our resolve will hold beyond the month of Januar y. This year's repor t sounds li ke good sen se t o me, but w it h a l l due respec t t o ou r gover n ment 's t houg ht s about what shou ld pa ss ou r lips, I have a few of my ow n t o sha re. The closer the food is to it s nat ural st ate, the bet ter it is for you. For example, fresh apples and grapes have not been processed and are f ine. A piece of cheddar on occasion for sure, but processed cheese product in any form, especially powder, Y IKES! Apple pie — well — you get the point . Dit to for broiled f ish as opposed to a fried seafood plat ter and a small square of dark chocolate and a gooey s'more. If it — whatever it is — is larger than your palm, think t wice before you eat it . A slice of summer watermelon - yes, but a rib-eye steak, probably not unless you are 6 '5". If you read the ingredient s and cannot pronounce or spell them, don't eat it . There is simply no telling what you are put ting in your body. My red f lags also go up when the package list s more than f ive or six ingredient s. They may be just f ine but I do check . We all k now our forebears ate ever y thing they wanted that they could get their hands on, and some of us feel we should as well. Our forbearers' chow, however, was not laden with chemicals they had never heard of, and their life expect ancies were nowhere close to those of today 's Americans. And even if your resolutions fall by the wayside as most do, including my 20 pounds, which have been with me for quite a while now, do not despair. Agricult ure and Health and Human Ser v ices are probably already work ing on the nex t round of eating guidelines due to arrive in time for New Year's 2021. Another Year, Another Version of What's for Dinner by MARGARET DICKSON OPINION MARGARET DICKSON. Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200.