orthogonal
Registered Senior Member
Fraggle,
You're killing me, man.
My brain is hard wired to have sex with every gorgeous woman I see, but luckily, there's another part of my brain that tells me to think again. I similarly have enough discretion to pass over the cheesecake and pick up the dish of broccoli. In his book, How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker refers to New York Cheesecake as pornography for the taste buds. It has all the creamy fat that our primitive ancestors wanted to load up on to make it through the next lean period.
Life is very much worth living even though I have to pass up having sex with everyone except my wife. Likewise, life is still worth living even though I skip the cheesecake. Humans brains have evolved into enormously complex organs that routinely shun short-term pleasures for long term benifits. I'd rather go hiking than go to work in especially nice weather, but I realize that a paycheck will come in handy when the weather turns bad. I could give a dozen examples of how we routinely exchange short term pleasure for long term benefits.
However, Fraggle, the fact is that I enjoy French Pastry dripping with butter. In my favorite Montreal patisserie (Boulangerie Premiere Maison on West Sherbrooke) I eat the most sinful croissants you've ever tasted. There's another patisserie I love called Owl's Bread up in Owl's Head, Quebec in which I make a little ceremony of having a nut filled tart with my coffee (Mmm..I so love talking about food). My point is that I only eat this way once in a blue moon (maybe six to eight times a year). I wake up in the morning like a kid at Christmas thinking about what the tart will smell like, and wondering what coffee I'll get. My wife and I once traveled to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth II. We dressed for dinner each evening and ate incredibly rich food. But I was so sick of the rich food that on the way home that I began having them bring me a plate full of boiled vegetables. You can eat healthy food and still have an occasional rich pastry. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Diet is one of the most difficult things for a person to change. So, I imagine there are some folks that might think the food I eat is bland. Nonetheless, I still look forward to every meal. Tonight we're having calzones filled with Swiss chard (from the garden), tofu and walnuts. We had a carrot cake last week (well, I did say the root cellar is filled with carrots)
Cheers,
Michael
You're killing me, man.
My brain is hard wired to have sex with every gorgeous woman I see, but luckily, there's another part of my brain that tells me to think again. I similarly have enough discretion to pass over the cheesecake and pick up the dish of broccoli. In his book, How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker refers to New York Cheesecake as pornography for the taste buds. It has all the creamy fat that our primitive ancestors wanted to load up on to make it through the next lean period.
Life is very much worth living even though I have to pass up having sex with everyone except my wife. Likewise, life is still worth living even though I skip the cheesecake. Humans brains have evolved into enormously complex organs that routinely shun short-term pleasures for long term benifits. I'd rather go hiking than go to work in especially nice weather, but I realize that a paycheck will come in handy when the weather turns bad. I could give a dozen examples of how we routinely exchange short term pleasure for long term benefits.
However, Fraggle, the fact is that I enjoy French Pastry dripping with butter. In my favorite Montreal patisserie (Boulangerie Premiere Maison on West Sherbrooke) I eat the most sinful croissants you've ever tasted. There's another patisserie I love called Owl's Bread up in Owl's Head, Quebec in which I make a little ceremony of having a nut filled tart with my coffee (Mmm..I so love talking about food). My point is that I only eat this way once in a blue moon (maybe six to eight times a year). I wake up in the morning like a kid at Christmas thinking about what the tart will smell like, and wondering what coffee I'll get. My wife and I once traveled to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth II. We dressed for dinner each evening and ate incredibly rich food. But I was so sick of the rich food that on the way home that I began having them bring me a plate full of boiled vegetables. You can eat healthy food and still have an occasional rich pastry. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Diet is one of the most difficult things for a person to change. So, I imagine there are some folks that might think the food I eat is bland. Nonetheless, I still look forward to every meal. Tonight we're having calzones filled with Swiss chard (from the garden), tofu and walnuts. We had a carrot cake last week (well, I did say the root cellar is filled with carrots)
Cheers,
Michael