Paul Sassone

Is it really possible?

Can ignorance actually be bliss?

That’s a question I have been asking myself a lot recently.

You see, what I have been eating lately does not come from a menu, but from a list prepared by nutritionists.

Pretty much everything — and I mean everything — I like to eat is on what my wife calls the Naughty List.

Someday, if you live long enough, you will be handed a Naughty List of your own.

These lists are possible because of the enormous strides medical science has made. Proper diet helps keep us alive.

Yet, there was a time when medical science didn’t know so much. And we were left to make our own food choices.

My father is an example of this lifestyle.

Though he didn’t start work until 8:30 a.m. he would get up in the dark and be out of the house by 6.

He rode the El Downtown, bought a paper and ate a leisurely breakfast of bacon (or sausage) and eggs, toast, hash browns and coffee. Then he would go to work.

Imagine: bacon and eggs five days a week for years.

Yum!

Nutritionists would scream in horror.

Such a diet would not be tolerated by the medical profession today.

And yet …

Doesn’t bacon and eggs for breakfast every day sound good to you? Of course.

But, it’s no use.

We aren’t ignorant anymore. We know eating a fried breakfast everyday will not do us any good. It could do us harm.

We have learned too much — not for our own good, but certainly for or own enjoyment.

So, it’s back to the Naughty List for me, whether I like it or not.

–Ignorance is bliss when it comes to nutrition–