Applause!! I couldn't agree more, Sandy, and if you like Michael Pollan, take a look at Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Awesome book. I always go back to Julia Child, who used to comment "I don't understand why people are so afraid of their food." Well, we should be afraid of the garbage Big Food throws our way, but there's nothing to fear in moderate amounts of sugar, butter, cream, and beef - if you know where it came from. My philosophy, learned from my mother, is "Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you're full." And yes, sometimes I like a good Dorito!

Real food is wonderful but that other food-stuff is addictive. /sigh

I've kicked the can but now I have to work on the rest of it. Great post, Sandy.

Ah yes, I completely agree with you hear Sandy, and of course with Norma. We have become so disconnected with where our food comes from and what we put into our bodies. I was saying the same thing to the hubby the other day. Point in case? A recipe I was reading in my cookbook where you serve the whole fish, head, tail, fins and all. Anywhere else in the world folks wouldn't bat an eyelash, but here in good 'ol Kraft-Mac-N-Cheese-America, it would be met with "Eeewwwwwww!" We are also getting back to the basics, our garden is going to triple in size this year.

If you eat good (real) food when you're feeling ill, you'll feel better in quick fashion, me thinks. We all need to eat better and think about what goes into our bodies.

Sugar - well, my doctor told me that what makes cough drops effective is the act of sucking on hard sugar. So no more eucalyptus yech for me. Now I buy hard peppermints for me, or sour balls. My DD prefers lemon drops.

Don't be too hard on the sweetener ingredient. It has a long and honorable tradition in patent medicine.

Third piece of advice: please get better!

I've read where a spoonful of honey is as effective or more so than most cough syrups. You might want to try that.

I've not read that one yet (on the wait list at the library!), but Omnivore'sdilemma has really changed how I think about food and what I eat. It's what prompted me to sign up for both a veggie and meat CSA last year, both of which turned out to be excellent. I like knowing the people who produce as much of my food as possible.

If you like the book, take a listen to KCRW's "Good Food" (it's online and available as a podcast). Michael Pollan is often on discussing, well, food.

Pass the corn.

I love that Norma, but I think she really could use a nice glass of a wine about now.

The problem with declaring never again with a food is that your body will crave it within the next 12 hours.

Maybe we should restart kick the can... What do you think?

Funny about the Reese's egg timing, there....

Oh, and while I agree that HFCS is evil? If it helps make cough syrup taste anything like palatable, that's one I'm willing to let slide....

I so agree with you on the sad state of our food. I'm waiting for "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan, and I just added "In Defense of Food" to my list at the library. Thanks for talking about it! My sister and I are trying very hard to weed all the bad food out of our diets. Finding good stuff isn't always easy, though. We have joined a fruit and veggie co-op for the summer, and can't wait for all that good, organic food to start flowing our way. And we have only bought locally raised beef for years now. (Now back to my Easter candy!)

You will be happy to know that the Dean of the Medical School of the university where I work -- trying to foil Googlers, dontcha know -- highly recommends this book. Mainly, what they are trying to teach me (re-teach, really, because I used to be SO GOOD, but I've become less good over time) at that university (well, not ME, but I'm hearing it as, "NORMA, THIS MEANS YOU!!") is REAL food. Natural food. Which of course we all know, but we have such a hard time remembering, and such a hard time avoiding all the crap that is hidden in stuff. NO CORN PRODUCTS at all is what they're saying. Corn was not meant EVER for human consumption. And that high-fructose corn syrup? Well, don't even get me started. It's a waste byproduct. I've already ranted about this enough before, and you know it already. And wheat follows closely behind. And our meat that we eat should NOT be corn-fed. Same with the chickens we eat, and the (wait 'til you hear this if you didn't know it already) -- the friggin' farmed fish (salmon, etc.) that we eat -- it's all corn fed, and it should NOT be. And all that stuff comes home to roost, so to speak, in OUR bodies, our cells. We are killing ourselves.

Perhaps I should go take a valium now, since you've got me all het up!!!! Hee.

Nope, instead I'm going to the gym. And when I come home? I'm eating some real food. Thanks, Sandy!

P.S. Next up? I gotta kick that can. I HAVE to. But one battle at a time, k?