Eat your words?

I've found out that by exercising your mouth, teeth, jaw, cheeks, throat, you can lose lots of calories... what I mean is, to talk non-stop while eating!

Food facts, nutrition nuggets, and weight watching.

If you can't claim any knowledge or direct experience with regard to any of the above – chances are that you spend most social gatherings in complete silence, possibly chomping away on fried food, submerged in a fog of masochistic defiance and gloom.

Seriously – the world may be burning up on several levels – but general conversation centres primarily on weight issues – Weight lost, Weight regained, and an avalanche of food-centric facts thereof.

And Commerce responds at once.

Take departmental stores.

Now, you kind of expect it of those high-end, cater-to-the-Page-3-variety-of-customers types.

But when good old Shop-Around-the-Corner, the guy who used to once ply you with tons of homemade vadam, now talks knowledgeably of 'superfoods', 'nutrient dense', and nutraceuticals, you know civilisation as you knew it has changed forever.

Those who once thought 'Omega-3' was a character in a sci-fi movie, now lecture on probiotics – (something entire generations thrived on in this part of the world without even realising it).

Obviously, there are benefits to healthy eating – but sometimes it feels like we're missing the French Fries of Life for the Bitter Gourd of Appearance.

Well, as in most things, perhaps the Middle Way...?