TBG's brother, Uncle Chuck, tries very hard to take good care of his physical being. That being has betrayed him more than once, but he doesn't begrudge it.
He's stoic where others (I, for example) would rail. He accommodates his ailments with moments of crisis, but Auntie Em is marvelous at calming the waters. He is a kind and gentle soul, without (as far as I can see) a competitive bone in his body. Team sports were never his thing; riding his bicycle has kept him in shape into his 70's.
There was a time in his life where a pan of fudge could keep him satisfied all day. As he grew older and wiser he became more vigilant about his diet. He read, he listened, he shopped. He thought about what went into his mouth, and he tried to make wise decisions.
For example, twice a week he treated himself to an enormous spinach salad at a local establishment. He and I used to fork-fight over the last of Hough's creamed spinach soufflé at family Thanksgivings; I can attest to the fact that the man love his spinach. This was a case where necessity and delight met happily and tastily.
And then, tests revealed substances appearing in unusual amounts in unusual places. Other tests showed other, even scarier results. New doctors and new insurance and the general lack of control hospitals engender had us all in a tizzy.
Gathering information, separating fear from fact, consoling and comforting and conjecturing... it was a very long week. He was discharged, with newer medications and different strategies. Questions were left unanswered, but he felt marginally better, and that, for the moment, was good enough.
And then, there was a new doctor and a new opinion and it was obvious to him even if it wasn't obvious to any one else who had treated Uncle Chuck in the last month that the problem was very simple: he had an over-abundance of Vitamin K in his system.... due to eating too much spinach.
He's altered his diet, though it pains him to do so.
Death by Spinach.... what would Popeye say?
I have actually heard of this. I think on the tv program, HOUSE. Too much of anything, even good stuff, can kill you.
ReplyDeleteYou are the first one who wasn't surprised!
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My husband loves salad bars and will fill his plate from them given the chance. He did this twice every day when we were working as junior high camp counselors until he became so sick you could not get out of bed and for two days I had to do his and my assigned tasks. I had hoped he learned his lesson, but this past Saturday found us at another mountain camp, with a salad bar. When Terry started to load his plate at dinner, after having done so at lunch, I warned him of the problem. "Oh it's just this one day, I will be fine." By Sunday morning he was very sick.
DeleteI've NEVER heard of this. I love spinach and eat it almost every day. I suffer from low iron; so I don't think I will ever have an issue with eating too much spinach. Just gobsmacked about this. Now I have to go look this up.
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought?
Happy Monday.
Megan xxx
Certainly, no one in our family thought of it!
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