Pick Your Hurdles

If I had waited a few days to write my last post (Morning Minefield, May 30), I could have added a few more things for all of us to worry about.

CNN is spending the week looking at various toxins around us and has also provided a list of "dirty" and "clean" vegetables. If you are munching on a non-organic celery stick right now, you could be in danger. Those pesticides don't wash off easily.

Several years ago we were invited to dinner at the home of a British journalist and his wife. At one point the wife said, "You Americans think if you jog every day, swallow lots of vitamins and are careful about what you eat, you will never die. Guess what? You'll die anyway."

Even though I stiffen when any sentence begins with "You Americans" and thought our hostess was generally full of herself, I never forgot what she said. I find myself thinking of it each time we are cautioned to stop doing this or using that.

I'm schizophrenic about how I react to all the yellow and red lights that are constantly flashing in our lives. I want to know about the dangers but only take a few of them seriously enough to change my habits.

We don't smoke and don't like to be around the second-hand stuff. It makes sense that this habit is not healthy.

Ever since taking an environmental course in university years ago, I have been careful about the water I drink. There have been studies that claim city water is as clean or cleaner than bottled water, but if you turn on the tap and smell chlorine and the water has a metallic or oily aftertaste, it probably isn't as pure as a bottle of Panna. I am more aware of drinking out of plastic now (possible BPA) but still do it.

Make-up and perfumes may contain toxins but I'm not giving them up or changing brands. I will always be ready to try the latest anti-aging cream or long-lasting lipstick, and I loved it when I heard one of my daughters say, "That perfume reminds me of Mom when we are in Italy."

I stay away from artificial sweeteners and diet drinks on the theory that if I am going to eat or drink something sweet, natural sugar might be better than pure chemicals.

We don't have artificial air fresheners and try to use "green" cleaning products (except laundry detergent, which is the same one my mother used).

We have non-stick pans but got rid of the Teflon because it scratches off if you don't use the right utensils (and my husband doesn't). Digesting it probably isn't good for us.

We have a Mediterranean diet, but should eat even more fish.

I worry about electro-magnetic fields now and then, but we still have cordless phones, wi-fi, etc. Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN says he always uses headsets with his cell phone, and I've been thinking about doing that for long conversations. Maybe we all should. That seems like a reasonable precaution against possible future brain tumors.

Let's do what makes sense to us and retain our senses of humor about jumping through another hurdle whenever a new report comes out. Keep in mind those studies can soon reverse themselves, as they did regarding vitamin E, selenium, hormones, statin drugs, sunscreen, to name a few.

The healthiest approach to the perils of life came from a friend commenting on the last post: "Look at it this way, all of those terrible things are making our immune systems better little warriors."

Or as another friends says, "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."