By Bill
Ellis
Special to
ASSIST News Service
SCOTT DEPOT,
WV (ANS) -- In recent days, we have been reading and hearing a lot about
children being obese and running toward the eventual goal of becoming diabetic.
While living
at Wevaco up Cabin Creek, 30 miles east of Charleston, WV., in a coal mining
community, I thought I enjoyed the very best life had to offer – and just maybe
I did.
Each morning
we had a delicious and nutritious breakfast. We usually had eggs, oatmeal, a
piece or two of bacon, fruit or fruit juice, homemade biscuits and milk to
drink.
My first
four years in school, primer through the third grade, I could walk home in five
minutes so it was a hot lunch for Marie and me. Our breakfast and lunch was
similar to what Dad had for his lunch at the coalmines.
Mom might
make a skillet of chocolate fudge once a month and we usually got one piece a
day, but not every day. A bottle of soda was not on the menu, except for
special days.
Normal daily
diet included dried beans. Pinto bean soup with onions, cornbread and skim milk
is still a favorite dish. Not much fat in beans. Lots of protein and dietary
fiber. We also enjoyed food we could get out of the garden, eggs and meat from
chickens, milk from the cow, pork from a pig and beef from cattle. We ate well
and drank the best of drinks – water and milk.
Every day we
walked to school, played vigorously at morning and afternoon recess. We had all
a person could ever want. We drank spring water and it was delicious. We had
running water as far back as I can remember – every time we needed water, Mom
would ask me to “run” to the spring and bring in another bucket of water.
After I
wrote to this point I read a side bar feature in the Sunday Gazette-Mail,
Charleston, WV, February 12, 2012, by Dr. Pamela Murray, vice chairwoman of the
Department of Pediatrics and chief of adolescent medicine at West Virginia
University, who offered this advice for better health.
1. “Get
sugar drinks – and other calorie-dense foods – out of the house.
2. Almost
any regular physical activity will help you.
3. Eat
breakfast. It should be a non-sugar meal.
4. Portion
control is critical.
5. A little
bit of fat is good for you.
6. Start
with one thing you know you can do. You can’t change everything at once.
7. Starving
yourself sets you up for failure.
8. Eat
slowly. It takes the body at least 20 minutes to recognize that you have fed it
and to feel full.
9. Don’t
smoke.”
I think my
Mother, with her eighth grade education, could have been a splendid hospital
dietician. With gratitude to Dr. Murray for her “Tips for any age” and to my
mother who put it into practice all of my life.
My good
friend in the west, Cleo Carlile, says repeatedly, it is “Water, water, water”
when talking about what to drink. He should be lecturing to health care
professionals in all their conventions. Like me, he and I have never faced an
audience that did not need to hear our message about health and living.
One of the
most scholarly of all men, Paul who lived in Tarsus, and knew about Middle East
and European diets, wrote, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31).
Paul sounds
a lot like my personal physician, Dr. Stephen Smith, “Do all things in
moderation.” Just the correct amount or as Anacharsis, the Scythian sage of 600
B.C., put it, “Nothing to excess.” Do we need to learn again, what has been
known for more than 2,500 years?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bill Ellis is a
syndicated columnist, and convention and conference speaker on every continent.
He is the writer of more than 2,000 newspaper and magazine columns, articles
and contributions to books. He is also a widely known motivational speaker and
pulpit guest who utilizes enjoyment of life and just plain fun and laughter
while speaking to high school, university and professional sports teams as well
as to business and professional groups of all kinds.
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