Exercise Alters Our Microbiome

The part about putting the fork on the left and the knife (blade facing the plate) and spoon on the right was useless filler. When they added in salad forks and dessert spoons, I really had to wonder how many rich people just got tired of screaming at their servants for putting the soup spoon where the dinner spoon should go. A practical class would have graded us on our use of chopsticks, instead of the correct placement of the asparagus-tickler for a 15-course banquet.

They never taught us about peanut-butter burritos that require no cooking, water, or refrigeration--great for when you have no utilities turned on. They never mentioned the magical amino-acid balance of beans-rice-corn or ordinary potato, for when you can't afford actual meat. They certainly didn't say anything about the locked trash containers behind the grocery store or haggling over the coupon policy. They didn't go into any detail about how the remains of one meal can be used to stretch the next. That would have been useful stuff to learn for the bottom economic quintile we were to be dumped into after high-school graduation.

My own kids don't even have it as an elective. Future food comes from a box or a vending machine. I suspect that the last master chefs will be programming DLC modules for all the auto-cook robots.

I have seen one study that concluded that boiled white potato was the most filling of all the foods tested. I don't recall whether bananas were included.

Equal-calorie portions of specific foods were given to volunteers, who were then allowed to consume until sated from a buffet. Those who ate boiled whole potato first ate fewer calories from the buffet than any other "appetizer". Noteworthy was the fact that french fries and baked potato--made from the same stuff--scored abysmally by this measure, almost the worst of all foods.

Boiling, chilling, and reheating your potato to plate temperate may even enhance this effect through the process of starch retrogradation.

Bananas are typically eaten uncooked. Potatoes are barely ever eaten raw. And it would also appear that the method of preparation has an effect.

It would certainly be possible to test the experiment result at home with a food diary, to see if adding one food in particular to your diet causes you to eat more or less in total than is usual for you.

Generally, my staple stores are Kroger, Target, and Costco. Wal-Mart, Dollar General, and Aldi fail on one of two fronts: you can't buy everything you need from there at the same time, or the things you actually want are not really cheaper. In both cases, the cost-per-mile of making the trip determines whether it is worth going.

The grocery business has a lot of local variability, though. In a lot of places, even some near here, Wal-Mart actually would be cheaper, to the extent that I would put up with their goods that are not quite what I am looking for, with little ingredient substitutions that nickel-and-dime you on the quality. It's like how chocolates that used to have cocoa butter in them are now "chocolate candies" that have palm oil in them instead. Sure, they're cheaper, but they're no longer edible.

Wal-Mart does that all over. The garbage bags will be a fraction of a mil thinner. The chicken has just a tiny bit more brine solution added. The reconstituted juice bottles have just a little less concentrate and a little more water in them. Sometimes, a major national brand will go missing from the shelves for weeks or months, then come back with less shelf-distance allocated or a higher price, stocked immediately adjacent to the store generic.

I would almost rather make not shopping at Wal-Mart part of my diet. I can't eat calories that I can't afford to buy, so the ones I do eat have to count for more. And then I can remind myself how making X myself instead of buying it at lower cost from Wal-Mart is actually accumulating significant savings out of my stress budget. But I have plenty of competition to choose from. If it was a choice between Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, I know which one would not bankrupt me.