Vitamin Ch

Because I'm always concerned about your health...

Mars (the candy company not the planet) has been sponsoring research into the health benefits of chocolate. As today’s NY Times article says, “Industry-paid research raises alarm among public interest groups, but Mars stressed that it had published its research in more than 70 peer-review journals.” A couple of 2003 studies reported:

…certain cocoa and chocolate could provide significant amounts of heart-healthy flavonol and improve cardiovascular health not only by improving vascular endothelial function but also by delaying harmful clotting that could improve circulation in the feet and hands and reduce inflammation.

Yeah, and it tastes good, too. Mars is testing out its high-flavanol CocoaVia brand online.

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Bueno

My new stash has arrived.

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A sus órdenes

Somehow I find this all too easy to believe.

Leslee was a Nervous Butler in a past life. Discover your past lives @ Quiz Me

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Grateful for life's twists and turns

One of the pleasures I would miss if I didn’t get the paper delivered is Donald M. Murray’s column in the Boston Globe. The Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist is now in his late 70s. He often writes movingly about aging and about caring for his wife, who has Parkinson’s, while reflecting back on moments in his life. He has a wonderful knack for sharing anecdotes that are very personal and specific and yet are the universal stuff of what a life is. I think his columns are a great model for writers of personal essays. He’s also our own wise village elder showing us how to grow old fearlessly, and how to embrace our lives while we’re still young.

This morning ("Grateful for life's twists and turns") he begins by remembering when as a boy he found a way to enjoy even the sleet, then he meditates on how the changing patterns of our local weather are like the patterns of his life. A couple of passages:

Mother Nature in New England, at least, has a sense of humor, a talent for surprise, and a mean streak that makes her virtues all the more delightful. I wake before dawn to see what she will bring, knowing that what is promised at sunrise may be contradicted by noon…

 

I realize again that you cannot have love without loss, success without failure, dark without light, pleasure without pain, confidence without fear. Listening to every changing pattern of wind-driven sleet against the windowpane, I can wish for no more than the life I have lived.

fyi - You can find past Donald M. Murray columns here.

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