Senior Citizen's Diet

It is said that the world is peopled by two kinds: those who eat to live and those who live to eat. The first category is supposed to be better. For them eating is only a means to a higher and nobler end, that is living a life worth living. For them the purpose of eating is to remain alive and getting adequate energy. It is left to each individual to put herself/himself in either of the two categories. However, a few people find it difficult to make the choice. They enjoy both living and eating. Some are very good in gastronomy, the art or science of eating. Out of this kind of persons, some definitely live a life worth living.

By these standards, senior citizens occupy quite a different space. Many of them, in the views of their ex-employers, have passed the productive part of their lives, having retired from their job or profession. However most of them have a feeling that there was no justification for their release from their jobs as they feel that they still have both the mental and physical stamina for doing what they were doing earlier.

Recently i visited my family physician who runs a specialty hospital in diabetes. After conducting an endless series of tests and after looking at the reports, he sent me to his dietician. The lady welcomed me with an ear-to-ear smile and after looking at the reports, she prepared for me a Daily Diet Chart, starting at 6.30 A M and ending at 10 P M. I was advised to take something every two to two and a half hours. It reminded me of my childhood when I used to feel hungry every one hour and my mother used to get tired of providing eatables at such intervals. But nowadays, i find it difficult to feel hungry! Coming back to the Diet Chart, it prescribed for each stage, a detailed a list of items which are either a must or prohibited. It went on to specify the quantity, ranging from 19 grams to 236 grams and specified the prescribed calories ranging from 37 to 1673! So, i will have to procure devices to measure the weight and calories with precision. 

When i went through the items/dishes permitted/prohibited, i felt that Dietician’s Golden Rule is: If anything tastes good, don’t eat it!

It is a tragedy that when a person is young and has the appetite, he does not have the money to buy what she/he craves for, and by the age he/she has the money, there is no appetite and there is the dietician’s command! And there is the unsympathetic and ever vigilant spouse with her/his watchful eyes, which one can ignore only at his/her own peril!

Somewhere i read that by 2050, medical science would have found a cure for things like diabetes, heart attacks, organ-failure and cancer, among others. All that one will have to do is pop a wonder pill!!! Scientists are also reported to be working on diet pills which will eliminate the guilt-trip of a senior citizen when she/he eyes butter chicken or that alluring sweet dish! So the future is bright and has the unlimited disease-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free promise. 

This is very good news but the bad news is that this not for those who have left more years behind them than they have ahead. 

The problem with the future is that it is never present. :(((((((((((((((

TAIL PIECE

Calories don't count; they multiply!

2. If one eats beyond what is needed, it goes to waist!!!

POST SCRIPT

Food is much more than fuel for the body. It is used to overcome feelings of loneliness, sadness, anxiety and frustration. It is indulged to satisfy craving, desire and greed. It is used to celebrate, congratulate and even to punish!