I was writing a nice blog in my head about the 4-5 pounds that I put on during January and February. This happens every year. It’s not holiday weight. I think of it as winter weight, because it usually goes away in the spring. I was going to ponder whether it is caused by cold weather, a slightly more sedentary winter lifestyle, or some unknown factor.

I was also going to write about belly fat. While winter weight gain happens every year, this year it stuck around my tummy. That has never happened before. I was going to ponder whether the change was related to hormones, age, or some unknown factor.

It would have been a good blog. I would have tied in statistics about belly fat’s relationship to other health problems and about my resolve to shed the pounds before it was warm enough to wear shorts.

Then I read the article about a starving mother trying to deal gently with her starving children in Africa. I posted that article, and began to ponder why I (and most other people in affluent societies) am so obsessed about weight gain. There are no obese people among the poor in India. There is no overweight problem in impoverished countries in Africa. They don’t gain weight because they don’t have enough to eat.

I on the other hand am bombarded by ads for diet programs, diet pills, and diet books that promise me that I can over eat and not gain weight. Bunk!

True, eating the wrong kinds of food can make someone put on weight faster and make them put on fat instead of muscle. That’s one of several reasons I follow the BTD. But basically if I am already eating healthy food and I want to lose weight, I should eat less.

Before I go on – I have to issue a caveat. I went through 3 years of an eating/exercise disorder with my Darling Daughter. If your BMI is low, you do not need to lose weight. If you are obsessed with making your body look like some model’s body you do not need to lose weight. Only in affluent countries do women voluntarily starve themselves. I am more firmly convinced than ever that eating/exercise disorders are spiritual problems.

So first of all find a website that calculates your BMI. If you really need to lose weight, cut back on your food intake.

Before you say you couldn’t possibly eat less, think of the millions of starving peoples around the world. They would think it was a miracle if they had two of the three meals a day that we normally eat.

As the sun is setting and the day is ending, a mother starts a fire and puts water in a pot to boil for dinner. For the next few hours, she stirs the pot and answers her children’s continuous question: “When we will eat, Mommy?” The mother responds back, “Look, I am making it now. You just have to wait a little longer.” The children grow tired, until they finally fall asleep without getting any food. Afterwards, the mother takes the pot off the fire and puts the fire out. The problem is not that the children fell asleep too early to get the food, but rather that there is no food to be found. People are starving in Mali.

This was on the International Mission Board prayer request list for today. But yesterday I came in from doing yard work an hour past lunch time and said, “I’m starving.”

The BTD is about eating the right foods so that I will be healthy and energetic. But I never want to be so self focused that I forget that there are millions of people who have no food at all.

I am NOT writing this because I want some government to step in and solve the problem. Perhaps my favorite quote about poverty is this: Socialism says, what’s yours is mine and I’ll take it. Christianity says, what’s mine is yours and I’ll give it.

I hope to be less self indulgent this year and more generous to IMB World Hunger, Compassion International, Neverthirst, and other volunteer organizations who are working to solve the root causes of starvation.

I made a double batch of chili a few weeks ago, and froze half of it. The weather was cold and rainy last weekend, so I got the leftover chili out of the freezer. I was going to make millet bread - which tastes so much like cornbread that it goes perfect with chili, but I was out of eggs. Instead I made garlic toast with the ends of spelt bread for HH. I had rice bread with ghee. It was adequate, but not as good as chili with cornbread. There was enough chili left for one meal. I grocery shopped and bought eggs.

Wednesday I started warming the last of the chili, and began again to make millet bread…I was out of millet. I was so frustrated as I stared at the shelf. I had quinoa, amaranth, rye, and buckwheat, but no millet. Rather than have toast with our chili again, I ground 2 cups of buckwheat groats into flour.

I made the bread exactly like I would have made it with millet. The first hint of success was the way the bread smelled while it was baking. I knew it was going to be good.

The buckwheat bread was a little drier than the millet bread, but it was not too dry. In a way, the texture suited the different flavor of the buckwheat. However, I might add a little more milk or oil next time I make it.

The chili is all gone, but I’m looking forward to another slice of buckwheat bread this afternoon.

If you missed the millet cornbread recipe, here is the link: millet cornbread

We got home from a perfectly relaxing vacation, but when I went to the health food store to buy spelt bread for HH, the delightful feeling of calm vanished. The checker handed me a flyer that said in big red letters “The FDA will take away thousands of supplements unless you act now.”

According to the flyer and articles on google news, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 it restricted the Food and Drug Administration from exerting authority over supplements as long as manufacturers made no claims about their products treating, preventing, or curing diseases.

In 2011 the FDA surprised supplement manufacturers with a proposed Guidance that would require “all dietary ingredients introduced into the marketplace since 1994 to undergo drug-like safety testing prior to marketing.” News reports go on to say that the new guidelines would require tests that could cost millions of dollars for each new ingredient.

Opponents of the guidelines say that many of these dietary supplements have been on the market for over a decade without significant side effects. They say that the FDA's proposed new dietary ingredient guideline appears to be nothing more than an expensive paperwork exercise intended to eradicate many safe products from the marketplace.

HR 3380 has been introduced by Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana to stop the power grab by the FDA.

As I often remind you, I am a volunteer blogger. I have never met Dr. D. I have not talked or corresponded with him about this issue. These are my own thoughts.

I buy supplements from several sources: some online and some at local stores. I have tried a number of D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition supplements, and I take two of them regularly.

Dr. D wrote “Eat Right 4 Your Type” in 1997, and developed his supplement line after that. It looks to me like Personalized Nutrition products would be among those requiring the new and expensive FDA testing.

News reports say that for now, industry associations want to lobby the FDA to withdraw the proposed NDI Guidance. I’m sorry for my cynicism, but with the Obama administration seizing control over ever widening aspects of health care, I find the idea of the FDA paying attention to anyone who asks them to go in a more conservative direction highly unlikely.

Rep. Burton is a Republican. As I see the current climate in Washington, almost every bill that passes the Republican controlled House, is tabled and never comes up for a vote in the Democrat controlled Senate. However I did contact my Congressman’s office and express my support of HR 3380.

There are lots of issues involved in the 2012 Presidential election. Health Care is only one of them. But I believe that people like us on the BTD will have to seriously evaluate how much freedom to manage our own health in a preventive and manner we want to keep, and how much control over the manner in which unexpected health problems will be treated, we are willing to give up.

I think I need another vacation…but I can't afford the gas.

When we turned onto our street last night, we saw that the live oak trees were brown, and one of the brownest was in our front yard. Our hearts sank. First impression was that after hauling gallons of gray water last summer during the drought, we had still lost a beautiful native tree. Then we laughed. Spring arrived in central Texas while we were in Oklahoma. The live oaks are supposed to lose their leaves and put out new growth as soon as the danger of a hard freeze is past. This morning I see that a few wildflowers are beginning to bloom. When I walked the dog I passed a lovely patch of verbena.

We left DG and EG in Oklahoma City and went to visit DB and NB in Tulsa. Tulsa appears to be one of those outdoor-oriented cities. There were bike and walking trails everywhere. We saw lots of signs pointing to green belts along the river. HH and DB first became friends when they were in college together and found that they not only shared a love for engineering but a love for hiking as well.

We went to Swan Lake and took several laps around the lake. There really are swans at Tulsa’s Swan Lake, and the sunset was beautiful. We had dinner at Los Cabos. The menu was lower carb and more BTD friendly than the Tex-Mex food that is prevalent at home.

We didn’t have WiFi for the last part of the trip, but I had to find a way to send work files to clients, and we both had to check e-mail. We started off going to McDonalds for lunch because they have free WiFi. I would pack a meat and veggie bowl in the morning and would eat my lunch in the car. That way I could log onto the laptop while HH ate a grilled chicken sandwich. He could check his e-mail after he finished his lunch. The grilled chicken sandwich was adequate for him, but McDonalds fries proved to be too much of a temptation.

The third day on the road we stopped at a Subway, and were told that most Subways not only have WiFi, but offer a free secure connection. You get the code when you buy your meal. This is a much healthier choice for HH. I can even get a salad, though I prefer to make my own meat and veggie bowl.

We stopped to see DD and HH’s Mom on the last night of our trip. Drum Roll…..I want you all to know that DD and ESS are engaged. She has bought her wedding dress, and she modeled it for her grandmother and me. I still have the smile on my face when I think about the moment. I’m sure I will be blogging about wedding food choices as the summer wedding date gets closer.

We are staying with our friends DG and EG in Oklahoma. My Honorable Husband and DG served together in Vietnam. Our conversations are always lively because we all share the same views about politics in both the 1960s and in 2012. We also share the same love for Jesus. We laugh a lot and we solve all of the world’s problems…if only the authorities would listen to us.

The first night we were there DG grilled hamburgers. They were wonderful. HH had not had a hamburger in many months, so this was a treat for him. Not something he will indulge in often, but one hamburger will not hurt him.

For lunch yesterday EG fixed one of her Mom’s old favorite recipes. I’ll give you the original version. It’s not bad for any Blood Type as it is, but it can be tweaked to make it a little better if you are seeking a higher level of compliance. As with many recipes that are handed down, there are no measurements – just ingredients. Use your creativity. EG used a very small amount of dressing – so small that at first I didn’t think there was any dressing at all.

Mrs. C’s Salmon Salad.
Canned salmon, celery, English peas, green onion. Make a dressing with mayonnaise, soy sauce and lemon juice.

After lunch we went to the Oklahoma City Zoo to see the baby tigers. There were four of them, born 7 months ago. They are getting big, but they still play like kittens. We stayed for a long time watching them and laughing at their antics. This is a city zoo and there is an exhibit of wild animals native to Oklahoma. HH and I saw white tail deer and said, “But we have those in our back yard.” People around us looked up with surprise. A little further we saw wild turkeys. Again we said, “We have those in our back yard.” It is a peculiar feeling to see animals in caged habitats that you are used to seeing running wild and eating your landscape plants.

EG’s father was a pastor in India, and she grew up there. On previous visits she had introduced us to Indian food. Last night we went to Gopuram, an Indian buffet. I tried many delicious foods, but two stood out because they were new to me. One was fish curry. It was chunks of boneless white fish in a spicy curry sauce. The other was carrot pudding. This was on the dessert bar and I’m going to try to find a recipe. It was made of shredded carrots. EG thought it tasted like rose water was one of the ingredients.

The nice thing about my Honorable Husband being retired and me being underemployed, is that we can take little trips at odd times of the year. As long as I have my laptop with me, I can keep working.

We are on our way to visit friends in Oklahoma. We packed up the car and headed north, but we didn’t get very far. A major accident brought the highway to a complete stop. I turned off the engine to save gas, and we sat completely still for 20 – 30 minutes. When traffic began moving again we saw the scene of the accident about a mile in front of us. Skid marks were across all three lanes. Ambulances and tow trucks were still parked on the access road. We never knew what had happened, but it was sobering to think that the last annoying delay before we started might have kept us from being in the middle of the wreckage.

We were thankful to arrive safely in the Metroplex where HH’s mother lives and where DD works. HH’s mom has passed her 91st birthday. She lives with a lot of pain from osteoporosis and arthritis, but she is happy to have wonderful caregivers and neighbors who make it possible for her to be remarkably independent.

DD and ESS joined us for dinner and a power walk. We picked up food at Fuddruckers and brought it home so we could all eat together. Fuddruckers has two things on their menu that I like to eat: salmon salad and hamburger with sweet potato fries. Last night I went with the hamburger. I tossed the bun, but got enough lettuce and tomato from the produce bar to have a salad. It was delicious.

Most of the time the servers at Fuddruckers cooperate with DD. She orders a side salad without cheese and croutons, but with extra egg. Because she is taking off two ingredients, they usually don’t charge her for the one add on.

For HH we ordered a turkey burger, and for his Mom (also Type A); a grilled chicken sandwich. Fuddruckers is quite friendly to those of us on the BTD.

Our power walk was a rapid 30 minute walk around the neighborhood pumping 3 pound weights as we went. We will sleep well tonight!