Food for thought, or because of thought?

This morning I was listening to the radio, as I nearly always do when I have the option. At 0930, the recording of Dr. Dean Edell's thirty second item de guerre was aired.

Today's topic was the results of a study that had concluded that people who ate in response to thoughts or feeling were more likely to become obese, less likely to lose weight, and more likely to gain it back should they somehow manage to lose any in the first place.

Hmmm....

As an example of how, as Dr. Edell rightfully points out nearly every time the results of a study are released, this is just a statistical shift. None of this stuff can be rightfully construed to be cause and effect in nature. For instance, if you smoke, your odds of developing carcinoma in the lungs is significantly greater than if you didn't, but there's absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that you will get cancer because you smoke, or that you won't because you don't. We all know people who smoked their entire lives and are still in fair health or died from other causes. If you poke around, you can probably find a number of people in your family or community somewhere who died of lung cancer who were non smokers. Meaning: 1) Medecine is far from an exact science, partly because people are so incredibly complex, and 2) There really are no gurantees in life, one way or the other. True, if you fall from a great height, you're probably going to not live to talk about the experience. But, I can think of cases I know of where exceptions to this existed. One in particular was the tail gunner in an Avro Lancaster bomber on an ill fated raid over Germany at night during World War II. Flak and fighters had doomed the four engine plane, and it was losing altitude fast. The pilot had ordered the crew to abandon ship, so officers and gunners began bailing out. The tail gunner manned four .303 Browning guns in a powered turret at the end of the plane. He was largely all right, though extensive battle damage had been inflicted on that part of the plane. The turret was cramped, so he'd placed his parachute pack just outside of the turret doors, which were now jammed shut. The Perspex glazing of the turret had been shattered, and more than likely the plane was on fire and burning up at this point, perhaps just seconds away from erupting in a ball of Avgas fueled flame. Deciding he would rather die hitting the ground than burning alive, he flung himself out through the now open turret, at an altitude of about 10,000 feet, or almost two miles. He fell through the darkness only to land on soft ground and sustain little more than a broken leg.

I can think of a number of people who were in car wrecks through the years and weren't wearing their seat belts, despite which they survived with minor injuries, sometimes after damaging the interior of the car when they struck it. I can also think of a number of cases where the nylon restraints did little more than hold the victim in place for the coroner, and in one high speed wreck that happened south of town here a few years back, the seat belts may as well have been made from piano wire. I recall the impact speed being estimated at somewhere 'north' of 120 mph, though the rear seat passenger did survive and made his way most of a mile to the nearest farm for help. About a dozen years ago a 'borrowed' Dodge Viper was burning up the pavement on the south 'main drag' here and bisected a Ford Fairlane or similar vehicle that pulled out from a two way stop into its path. The investigation 'pegged' the impact velocity at 11o mph, and no one was hurt. The rear seat passengers of the Fairlane, or whatever it was, however, suddenly found themselves sitting in the street. Unlikely, I know. But it happened. There have been people who have survived being shot by twelve gauge shotguns and large-bore, high powered rifles and handguns (some of the .30 caliber and 'up' rifles, .40 caliber and larger handgun numbers, in both standard and 'magnum' varieties), and other people who have been killed by a .177 airgun pellet fired from more than a block away. Rodney King just survived a gunshot a week or two ago, but most of us remember seeing an outtake from the 1991 video clip showing LAPD officers beating him with their batons after a taser jolt and pepper spray didn't faze him. However, a bouncer or at least a man who was acting in that capacity, at a Des Moines, IA bar was punched while attempting to break up a fight about ten days ago and now there's a murder warrant out for whoever it was who hit him. People are extraordinarily tough and resiliant on one hand, and at the same time also incredibly fragile.

When I heard Dr. Edell's take on the study results, I knew right away that I must not be normal...I eat in response to thoughts and feelings. More specifically, the thought, "Gee, I guess I'd better eat something", and the feeling, "Damn...I'm hungry!". Those who know me personally will tell you that I'm 130 pounds and have a 30" waist and that I've been that way since the age of 13 when I stopped growing.

Just goes to show that you've got to take some of this stuff with a grain of salt. Not too much, though; you wouldn't want to raise your blood pressure, you know...

Tim Gordon