The intermarriage of wisdom and selective optimization

Because it is too constant. In an age of rampant obesity, we are still routinely talked into the idea that more is better - that an all-you-can-eat buffet is a bargain - and somehow manage to be oblivious to the coals-to-Newcastle nature of that bargain. We are encouraged by Madison Avenue to look past the dreadful environmental consequences of large-scale pig farming, the dire abuses of highly intelligent animals, and the health effects for us and think of bacon as a fun and tasty garnish that should be draped over, wrapped around, stuffed into, or sprinkled on everything. Much the same is true, of course, on the other side of the energy balance equation, where every kind of labor-saving technology is the invention that gives birth to a new necessity. It's also high in calcium. Try plain Greek yogurt in place of mayonnaise or oil in recipes. Eggs are not only rich in protein but they contain zinc, which can help you feel more awake and energetic by regulating your metabolism and blood sugar. Breakfast of champions, indeed. Want some help keeping anxiety at bay? Peanuts are one of the best ways to elevate your mood because they contain the mineral selenium. Peanut butter works just as well. If your ex is visiting and you want to put out a snack, this may help everyone feel more at ease. You can use black beans to help you stay alert and focused on anything your divorce throws your way, thanks to their mix of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates, all of which help you get what's needed to maintain a healthy state of mind. Ask friends for healthful recipes. According to one woman, I wanted to change from the pill and asked [my doctor] for the IUD and she literally gave me a stack of information on everything I could possibly change to and then set up another appointment in a month and was like, we will talk about it in a month. Lack of physician knowledge and barriers to insertion led some women to question if it would be difficult or costly to remove a LARC method (Sundstrom et al. Why do some health-care providers resist providing some methods to young women or women who have not yet had a baby? Health-care providers may have misconceptions about the safety of LARC methods for young women or women who have not yet had a baby. Other providers may not be trained to insert these methods.

A recent study showed that almost one third of health-care providers had misconceptions about the safety of IUDs for women who had not yet had a baby (Tyler et al. In that same study, more than 60% of health-care providers rarely provided IUDs to women who had not yet had a baby. These misconceptions likely result from the history of IUDs in the United States and sociocultural expectations about young women's reproductive health. This hesitancy on the part of providers may make it more difficult for women to make the best contraceptive choices for themselves. I leave whole articles on that topic to others, but will simply note that we depend ever more on technology to track the ever less physical activity we do by virtue of ever more reliance on technology. There seems to be a joke in the mix here, but if so, it's a sad one. I doubt any of us could be paid enough to surrender the use of our legs, to give up our native animal vitality for good. But instead, we actually pay for the privilege of doing just that. Since it is the cultural norm, we simply fail to notice. The average inventory of a typical supermarket in the U. The stark reality is that ever more acreage, to the detriment of both the land and human vitality, has been allocated to mass-scale monoculture (growing just one kind of crop) and the production of wheat, corn, and soy. Those in turn, combined inevitably with some variety of sugar, similarly mass-produced oils, and chemistry where foods ought to be, are the basis for thousands upon thousands of products on supermarket shelves. The same several ingredients, just rearranged over and over. One could lay the blame for this solely at the sellers' doors, but that's a bit too simple, and a bit too benighted about our own complicity. Grounded in the latest scientific research, the authors present a fourteen-day plan that will help you increase energy and boost vitality. Includes ten different ethnic cuisines, and dishes that range from soups, pizza, and pastas to chicken, beef, and seafood. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan. This slender, easy-to-digest article shows that eating well doesn't have to be complicated. The handarticle includes straightforward rules for eating wisely, one per article, accompanied by a concise explanation. The contents of a person's refrigerator are like a window into their soul--or rather stomach.

Here's what we tend to keep on hand. Jill: Bai5 drinks, seltzer, Greek yogurt, spinach, cheddar cheese, low-fat milk, apples, whole-wheat bread, Mission brand Life Balance tortillas (25 grams of fiber), frozen turkey meatballs, and a good wedge of parmesan cheese. Suzanne: Pregrilled lemon chicken from Trader Joe's; Nova smoked salmon; Indeed, ACOG recommends that health-care providers counsel all women and adolescents to consider LARC methods as the best, first-line contraceptive option. Do I need an annual exam to get a prescription for birth control? In our research, many women described the challenges of an annual physician's appointment to obtain a prescription for birth control, including cost, transportation, child care, work conflicts, inconvenience, and embarrassment. These barriers led women to experience gaps in contraceptive use, which put them at risk of unintended pregnancy. According to the World Health Organization and ACOG, hormonal contraception can be prescribed without an annual exam. Although ACOG recommends an annual exam, it should not be used as a barrier to prescribing hormonal contraception. Furthermore, screening for cervical cancer (ie, a Pap test) or STIs is not medically necessary to provide hormonal contraception (ACOG, 2012). In addition, a pelvic examination is not necessary before prescribing or starting contraception, except for an IUD (ACOG, 2018b). In fact, experts are divided about whether healthy, low-risk, nonpregnant women ever need a pelvic exam at all. In 2014, a systematic review found that pelvic exams do not offer a health benefit and often cause discomfort, distress, and sometimes lead to unnecessary surgery. Most of us have heard the expression that those who don't learn from the follies of history are destined to repeat them. Much of the nutritional mayhem we call the standard American diet is reheated follies of history. When first advised of the likely harms of dietary sources of saturated fat, we did not shift preferentially to foods natively low in such fat, as they did in North Karelia, Finland, with tremendous benefit to show for it. The rational response to this boondoggle would have been the recognition that fixation on a single nutrient with inattention to the overall character of the food (or Frankenfood) or diet we were consuming was ill-advised. But that would have required learning from our historical folly. Instead, we repeated it, allowing ourselves to be talked into the silly idea that we had scapegoated the wrong nutrient class and should be cutting carbohydrates instead.

These follies persist to this day, just in new flavors. We have junk food free of high fructose corn syrup, junk food free of gluten, junk food free of genetic modification. What we don't have, of course, is junk food free of junk. That, then, is the greatest of all lies about diet in our culture. Carlotta: Feta cheese, carrots, Amstel Light, kale (hooked on kale chips), cauliflower and root veggies to roast, cashews, spring salad mix, sweet potatoes, and frozen tilapia. Meghan: Almond milk, premade smoothie packets in the freezer, green juice, turkey from the deli, lettuce, fresh herbs (the secret to making anything and everything taste better), natural peanut butter, and coconut oil. Iris: Juice boxes, mini water bottles, a pitcher of water with a few cucumbers or lemon (so much more delicious that way), pasta, leftovers, almond butter, yogurt cups, string cheese. Sweat the Small Stuff . As we faced frustrations and challenges during our divorces, we realized we needed a way to get the stress out of our bodies. Meghan took up kickboxing to pound it out on a bag. Carlotta got back to Spinning with Suzanne. Jill ran or used workout videos in her home if she had her kids. Finding ways to get your sweat on every day, if you can, or at least three times a week, helps release tension and keeps you strong and healthy. If you have budget concerns, there are plenty of no-cost exercise options, so don't let that discourage you. Based on this analysis, the American College of Physicians recommended that healthy, low-risk women did not need annual pelvic exams (Qaseem, Humphrey, Harris, Starkey, & Denberg, 2014). ACOG (2018b) recommends that pelvic exams be performed when women have symptoms or a medical history that warrants such examination. Without those conditions, the decision to perform a pelvic exam should be shared between the patient and provider (ACOG, 2018b). Can a pharmacist prescribe hormonal contraception? According to the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, 93% of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. That makes pharmacies accessible to most women in the United States.

For the first time in 2016, state laws in California and Oregon authorized pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception. Since then, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia passed statutes or regulations allowing pharmacists to prescribe birth control. Once the laws go into effect, however, not all pharmacies in those states will automatically offer the service. Some states may limit pharmacists to prescribing self-administered contraception (eg, the pill, patch, and ring). It is the lie on which our culture runs: that how things are is how they should be. That junk can be sold as food, that food can be junk and everyone should be OK with it. But let's end this entry with a hopeful note. Culture is a medium of our own devising; We can change it. The day a nation of loving parents and grandparents, concerned about the future wellbeing of children, says enough! The day enough of us say that multi-colored marshmallows are no part of any breakfast we would give a child we care about, the bubble of delusion will burst. Changing culture sounds daunting until we consider that culture is simply . The bacon boom was not an accident. Even if that attribution is uncertain, the link between a head of state and the statement is both logical and illuminating. Make a promise that you will make time to sweat out divorce stressors. Amali always knew that she had a Type-A personality. Her friends and colleagues would politely refer to her as intense, but she had a sinking feeling they meant she was tense. When she was setting up a home computer for a single mom in her neighborhood, the client invited Amali to try a free yoga class in her studio. Soon Amali found herself hooked on yoga, discovering that the focus on breathing and simple stretches helped her slow down and be in the moment. I'd leave class feeling an incredible sense of calm, she says.