Saturday, February 9, 2008

Oh Happy Day!

Guess who came home with us!? We picked Montana up from the shelter today around 3:30. So far he's chomped on a plant, romped around the yard with Tundra, and peed on the kitchen floor. We have a puppy!!

Montana's back legs are shaky from the surgery, of course, but he's moving around like a champ. We learned today that he has no hip bone because of the accident. The ball of his ball and socket joint is where the fracture was, and there is no way to fix that. The doctors removed it, and now he'll have to strengthen the muscles, ligaments, and tendons to compensate. He may also grow new bone, since he is so young. I've already spent at least an hour just mooning at him (that would be the "gazing" mooning...) and I just caught Larry doing so. Montana just stares back with these placid, icy blue eyes. Holy cow he's cute!

On a completely different subject, I just finished reading Michael Pollan's latest book, In Defense of Food. The subtitle, "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." sums it up well. The book goes over some of the same ground as Omnivore's Dilemma, but there's new research and information here. I particularly enjoyed learning about what has been termed "nutritionism," which like every other "ism" has its pitfalls. Though the links are circumstantial, I have to agree with him that "nutritionism" combined with our government's policies toward food have helped to create the obesity epidemic we're seeing in America.

The advice he gives (mainly fleshing out the subtitle so it's less cheeky and more helpful) makes sound sense. Avoid foods with ingredients that you can't pronounce/that look like the stuff of chemistry lab ingredients. Shop the outside of the grocery store, or better yet the farm or farmer's market. Pay for organic when you can afford it. (He discusses the average amount of money Americans pay for food versus what people in healthier societies pay--we pay way less, and have waaay more health problems. We also eat waaay less well. Microwave meals instead of a three course Italian meal enjoyed with family and friends, anyone?) Focus on leaves, versus seeds and meats. By leaves he means plants, of course. By seeds, he means soybeans, corn, rice, wheat, etc. Though they can be healthier than an all meat diet, seeds are higher in fats and proteins which causes us to gain more weight than if we ate from the leaves side of the animal kingdom. And the chapters dealing with the high fat/low fat debate are really enlightening. In fact, reading this has freed me up some around that issue. Too long to explain here, though. Anyway, it was a good book.

I think I'm going to read Fast Food Nation next. Might as well; it's not like I can be any more convinced that eating fresh and organic, and local when possible, is the way to go!

Did I mention there's a really cute puppy (and a beautiful older puppy) in the house? :)

1 comment:

Lee Ann Spillane said...

That sounds like a really good book-- and I like your review of it : ) You know, reading your blog brings me back to our writing project days. It's nice to drop in and hear your voice.