Saying good-bye to yellow #5: a stranger in the grocery finally changed Tod Goldberg's diet

Better Nutrition, August, 2005 by Tod Goldberg

There have been several instances in my life when I've paused to take note of my diet, declared that I was going to change my habits dramatically and swore I'd no longer consider Yellow #5 a staple food item. Each time, I made a game effort: two weeks on the cabbage soup diet, a month on the grapefruit diet, six awful weeks on Atkins. But at the end--and there was always an end--I'd find myself face-to-face with a box of donuts, or a gallon of Rocky Road ice cream, or a plate of fettuccine Alfredo, opting to dive headlong back into fat and happiness. My body is my temple, I'd decide, and this temple has a drive-thru serving fried foods and decadent desserts.

In a generic way, this attitude served me well: I ate what I wanted without guilt. When my wife voiced concerns about my long-term health, I'd tell her that I was indestructible. Part of me believed this to be true (the part that ate mounds of corned beef and anything with "Cool Ranch" on the package), but another part knew it was a lie. My family tree is filled with branches broken by heart disease.

It took a complete stranger to convince me that I needed to reevaluate my life.

I was standing in line at the grocery store, my mind filled with tabloid headlines concerning Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and found a woman staring at me gravely. "I don't mean to frighten you," she said, which is the only way to start a conversation when you truly want to strike fear in someone, "but did you know you have a crease bisecting your earlobe?"

"Yes," I said, not remotely frightened, though struck by the oddity of a woman at the grocery store pointing out the various folds and divots in my skin. "I had an earring when I was 17."

"No," she said, "the other ear." I reached up and felt my right ear. Sure enough, there was a fold bisecting my earlobe. "You should know," the woman continued, "that in some people, that's a sign of heart disease. My husband had one just like yours. He developed heart disease and died very young."

I looked down at my basket. My old friend Yellow #5 stared up at me, smiling. That night, after my wife went to sleep, I got online and did some research on this ear crease issue. I saw the words "genetic marker" and "coronary heart disease" and "increased risk" flash across the screen before I turned the computer off and headed for the closet where we keep the photo albums. There, I found three close-ups of my grandfathers and my father, all gone from heart disease, and I couldn't help but notice that their ears had bisected lobes.

I went to our kitchen pantry and threw out all the cookies. I went to the freezer and threw out all the ice cream and frozen pizzas. I went to the refrigerator and threw out the bacon, the individually wrapped cheese and the whipped cream. I woke my wife and told her that I wanted to change, that I was prepared to become healthy and that we needed to go grocery shopping in the morning. "I want to live!" I shouted. I was, admittedly, a little manic.

"Okay, honey," she mumbled, turning over. "That's great."

Since that night, I've made a concerted effort to eat right. I'm not on any particular diet, nor am I attempting to affect sea change with first tide. Rather, I'm finally paying attention, treating my body not like a temple, but like a vessel that operates at optimum speed only with the correct fuel. I've removed fast food and soft drinks from my diet entirely. I've entertained the idea that vegetables can be an entree. And I've learned that my moving parts should, in fact, move.

Red meat is still a part of my diet, though substantially less so--in part because I'm an inveterate grill chef and love grilled chicken and fish. Smeared with a little olive oil and a dash of Santa Maria seasoning (my personal all-purpose spice), both skinless chicken breasts and Alaskan King salmon are delicious cooked over an open fire (or, in the winter, broiled). Ditto my new best friends, asparagus and bell peppers, both healthy and tasty alternatives to butter-soaked potatoes. Desserts and snacks remain my Achilles' heel, though I've learned that peaches taste pretty good on the grill too.

Will this enlightenment last? Temptation toward a sedentary, cream-filled way of life constantly pulls at me, but I'm a marked man now, and I don't intend to let my family tree branch break easily.

tod's grilled peach

After removing the skin from the peach, cut it in half, remove the pit and cut in again into quarters. If it's summertime, season lightly (or heavily) with cinnamon. In the winter, a dash of mint liquor or rum is a nice baste in addition to the cinnamon. Grill over medium heat for about 3 minutes per side, or until browned. Serve warm.

is there any truth to the ear crease?

While the presence of earlobe creases doesn't destine you to heart disease, it might be a good reason to have your doctor check other possible risk factor: family history of the disease, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, diabetes and obesity.