“Seeing is not always believing” (Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968)

 

I admit it. I am suffering  from massive information overload. I felt bombarded from all sides with breaking news (usually bad), dire weather reports, conspiracy theories, the latest fad from some new guru, self-serving politicians or celebrities holding forth on subjects they know little about. I watched some of my friends obsessing about issues in the political scene over which they had absolutely no control or influence. In defence of my sanity I limited my TV watching to dance and cooking competitions (recorded to watch later sans commercials) and my newspaper reading to the crossword puzzle pages specially the cryptic crosswords. But I couldn’t completely escape the digital deluge without shutting down my computer and smart phone, and I need both for my work.

 

The books you see in the picture above are some of those I am reading to review, one group focuses on different approaches  to preserving brain health; others are part of my interest in nutrition as medicine, and others on traditional or “natural” remedies.

 

Accustomed as I have been for years, to reading and assimilating large amounts of information, these days I feel often as if my mind is swirling in a whirlpool of contradictory theories, that I do not have the time to personally research.  The nutrition field is particularly rife with fad diets often presented as cookbooks with recipes designed to maintain health of a particular body system - the gut, the brain, the joints …or just life. My solution is simple. Forget about the beans/no beans, dairy/no diary, grains/no grains, vegetarian/paleo ... and on and on ... and just eat what I enjoy, in moderation, enough to keep me happy and in good shape.

 

It’s not as easy to cut a path through the flood of other “stuff” out there. Especially when “seeing is not always believing.”  A smart ten year old with the right software or an app on a phone,  can photoshop me to look like a slinky six-foot runway model, or edit a video to show only the clips that they like. We have all wondered wide-eyed at some of the effects produced on film.  So when you see a digital clip that purports to prove some outlandish theory, only reason can help you question the “evidence” unfolding before your eyes. 

 

Just thinking about this makes my neurons curl up in horror! No more. It’s time for bed.