Diet soda diet
An old friend of mine had a terrific line about Twinkies. We were standing together in a 7-Eleven at some point in the early ’90s. My friend was an avid consumer of the cream-filled treats, and we noticed in the store display that Hostess Brands had introduced Twinkies Lite, a diet version of their flagship snack cake. He remarked, “man, I wish they made Twinkies Heavy.”
Reduced-calorie iterations of food products are alluring, but often wholly unsatisfying. The thin versions leave consumers wanting more. My friend knew instinctively those diet items led only to compulsive, mostly joyless eating of ever more junk. Further, compromised facsimiles of regular, non-diet stuff invariably contain many difficult-to-pronounce carcinogens. The wisdom of my friend’s observation still resonates with me a quarter century later.
In the absence of desire, one may find contentment. I plan to give up ten drugs. Ten is a nice round number, and I figure that after the removal of ten drugs and drug-like elements from my life I will be happier and healthier. I began this mission in 2014 by stopping my intake of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco. The next habit to fall was coffee in 2015. Dropping those “big four” was an impressive start, but I still have six more to forgo.
I would like to cease caffeine ingestion entirely. In addition to coffee, I will also have to abstain from tea, soda…
