Over the past months I’ve started to write about a subject for this site several times. Each time before starting I reviewed what I had written in past years and discovered that I had covered this or a very similar topic in past years: there isn’t that much to healthy eating and lifestyle- eat mainly whole plant foods (as Michael Pollan told us so well); get at least a moderate amount of exercise most days; avoid tobacco, illegal drugs and excess alcohol. Add in a good night’s sleep, cultivate relationships and community, make use of meditation or other relaxation techniques. Most who do these simple, common-sense things will be happy, healthy and have the much better likelihood of avoiding premature death and chronic illness.

Our local grocery store on Kauai makes tasty vegetarian and fish sushi on site daily. This is a staple for many neighbors and we enjoyed it too until we read the ingredients listed in very fine print on the label. They find it necessary to include lots of things which we never suspected including “wheat protein” (gluten). Since I have celiac disease I can’t eat this. Presumably, one of the commercial sauces they use for binding includes gluten and several other unusual ingredients. Fortunately a local food truck makes similar, even better, vegan sushi without all the chemicals.

The food industry loves complexity including a wide variety of chemicals for preservation and flavor enhancement. Review of the contents of most popular, commercial, “healthy” whole grain breads typically shows 25-30 ingredients, many of them chemicals of some sort. I don’t know health effects of each of these chemicals but I’d be amazed if at least some of them aren’t bad for you. Healthy eating habits require a magnifying glass while grocery shopping outside the produce aisle.