DIET | DETECTIVE^®

“Look at me!” wailed Martha, a 40-something realtor. “I used to be able to see my waist. Now I can’t even see my toes.”

Martha had started taking a popular antidepressant about 4 months earlier because her recent divorce had left her unable to shake the depression that followed. “My doctor said I might gain a few pounds but not 20.  I am seriously thinking of stopping the pills. I would rather be sad and slim than happy and fat.”

As the hours of sunlight shrink these weeks of mid fall, our good mood seems to shrink as well. The cheerfulness, energy, patience and enthusiasm that may have characterized us in the spring and summer seem to be replaced by grumpiness, impatience and irritability. As the sun goes down, fatigue goes up, and the idea of going for a walk or to a gym late in the afternoon or early evening has as much appeal as sleeping on an ice floe. 

A few days ago I was shopping in an organic market that gives out food samples. Contrary to my own advice I had gone food shopping  while hungry and  was walking around trying to see what I could buy and eat immediately, Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a table filled with small cups of something that smelled wonderful. I strolled or more accurately jogged over and saw that the cups were filled with  a mixture of couscous, roasted corn and string beans . I took a cup; the salad was warm and delicious. In fact so good I could have (and would have) made lunch out of it except that it would have been rather rude to eat all the samples myself.  As I moved on, continuing my food shopping, I noticed almost right away that I no longer was prowling for foods to satisfy my hunger as soon as I left the store. Instead the only items I put in the cart were those on my  shopping list.  And by the time I reached the check out counter, it occurred to me that I was not longer particularly hungry.

A few days ago I was waiting in line to return something when I noticed a sign tacked up on the wall. It was an official notice from a department in my state government telling customers to report attempts to mislead them about the true weight or measurement of something they might buy. The sign detailed ways in which scales and other weighing devices could be rigged so the customer is mislead.  As I was in a department store, not a grocery store, it was hard to see the relevance of this sign.

Would people complain to the state about trying to fit into a pair of pants, which should have been the right size but were impossible to pull on?  If they tried on a dress, which would have been a size 12 a decade ago and now is labeled a size 10, would they feel duped if the dress fit? Do we really care how much things weigh outside the supermarket? But as I was musing about this (the line was very long), it occurred to me that we very much care about how much things weigh when we are the ones being weighed.