...And I Will Tell You What You Are
It’s been a couple weeks since my abdominal pain has been taken care of. For several weeks, it remained a mystery, defeating diagnosis by blood sample, urinalysis, x-ray, cat scan, and colonoscopy. However, the cure was effected, ironically, by diagnostic testing; flushing out my intestines in preparation for the colonoscopy let my bowels unkink and restore proper bowel movement. The gastroenterologist said beforehand that it might work out that way. The pain hasn’t returned for a while now, so it looks like I’m out of the woods. Mostly.
To prevent a recurrence, I need to adopt some minor changes to lifestyle, and especially to diet, and most especially an increase in fiber. So I’ve been particularly conscious of how much fresh fruit, vegetables, and whole grains I take in, and also of how my body reacts to a diet that varies wildly from day to day as I experiment with different combinations.
All of which keeps reminding me of an interview with a nutritionist I heard a few years ago. The dialogue turned to an idealized food, the one-meal pill. With advances in nutritional chemistry over the past century, science fiction postulated a concentrated pill, or handful of pills, that could give you all your nutrition for the day. You might not enjoy the dining experience much, but the convenience couldn’t be beat. Where, the host asked, did such promises go? The nutritionist replied, in essence, that the promises were never made seriously by anyone who knew anything about nutritional chemistry. Yes, we can concentrate certain nutritional supplements, notably vitamins and trace elements, in a pill, but the body needs considerably more than the chemicals needed to regulate metabolism. We need the raw materials to metabolize, as well: fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. And, while some foods are considerably richer in calories than others, even a sedentary life demands more calories than can be packed into a pill. A single M&M, or an aspirin-sized globule of lard, essentially pure caloric food, couldn’t keep you going for a sizeable chunk of the day. Dietary fiber alone comes to several spoonfuls. The food we eat contributes a significant portion of the eight cups of water we’re supposed to take in every day, too; even with a super-pill, we’d need the same volume of water, and water doesn’t compress to pill size.
In short, the nutritionist concluded, the closest we can come to that kind of super-food is: food. Because we enjoy eating well, and because our ability to regulate our appetite to our actual needs depends in part on a sensation of bulk in our stomachs, we might as well eat proper food, although, of course, we could stand to take in a bit more leafy greens and a bit less Frito Lays.