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Overheard
“Hey Michael!”
Michael is a trainer at the Y. He’s a former semi-pro basketball player, and very fit. A woman is shouting at him, trying to get his attention. He’s obliging and addles over to the treadmill where she is walking.
“Guess what! I decided to get healthy.” I’ve seen her a lot at the gym, and like many of us, she is struggling with finding effective ways to get healthier. “I bought a juicer! Didn’t you say getting a juicer was the way to go? My whole family’s doing it.”
Michael smiles. “Well, Juicing is alright.” He’s agreeable, and doesn’t want to disappoint. “It does get nutrients into the body fast. But…” He pauses for a second.
At one point, Mike probably juiced. But he’s realized that this was now questionable advice.
“The benefits are that it goes into the bloodstream quickly. But the fiber is also useful.”
“Oh.” She thinks about the consequences of this.
“So…” he’s tries to find a way justify her expensive health food toy. “If you can find a way to use the fiber, save it somehow, you know, because it’s also good for the body…. But juicing for some people isn’t a good idea.”
“Really?”
“Well, for some, juicing isn’t good at all. Without the fiber it’s not great for diabetics.”
She looked perplexed. “So perhaps I shouldn’t juice. At all?” She need just a little empathy. She was so enthusiastic. And now the disappointment of not getting a health fad right.
“Well,” he smiled sheepishly, “if it helps you eat vegetables, then that’s a good thing.”
“I do love vegetables.” Most likely, she’ll put the juicer away in a cupboard, and in a few years she’ll have a garage sale, and some other person looking for a way to get healthy quick will buy it for a Jackson.
I do use one of those juice extractors for cooking. A good cook always has a handful of lemons and limes around; and it seems that if you want to have orange juice it merits putting a little elbow grease for it. Once in a while a v-8 juice hits the spot.
Even with the salt, it’s better than a Snicker’s bar.
Old Stone Epicurean 