Eat More Butter

Now that my husband and I are middle aged and more demanding about our creature comforts (okay, we're cranky), there are certain things we just won't tolerate. For Marty, it's packaged bread. For me, it's run-of-the-mill butter. I want unsalted imported butter. I buy average butter for baking.

Why I'm writing about this is that there was an article in yesterday's The New York Times about a woman celebrating her 107th birthday. She has all her marbles and even got up on the dance floor. Naturally, everyone wanted to know her secret, which came down to this: no exercise, no pills, eat as much butter as you like, and never look back.

Since the health/medical world flip-flops on exercise being good or bad for you, I can see why people throw in the towel. Personally, I believe moderate exercise is good for most parts of the body, especially the mind. I take a lot of pills, but I have a chronic illness and it would be counter-productive to stop taking them since I'd die. But I constantly try to talk my doctors into reducing them. Don't look back is a valuable mantra--you won't see Time's winged chariot drawing near. Or that guy chasing you with a steak knife. Seriously, looking back at your life can be informative, as long as your regretometer stays at a very low level.

My mother loved butter. No nasty margarine for our family. Sometimes she would eat a glob of butter. I remember her spreading butter on her pizza crusts. Eating lots of butter didn't kill her, cigarettes did.