JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000

The holiday season is over. Life is back to normal. Holidays are fun, a bit tiring, a supper at Gerard's, a brunch at Teresa's, a dinner at Gaston's. I feel as though the only thing we do for two weeks is eat and drink. Have you taken the time to stop and look at what we eat ? Well, I have and to my great surprise, I eat things that I do not know and cannot even spell! I'll explain: at my last meal, there was an entrée that I thought was cheese sticks. Wrong! It was a bacterial culture of milk with rennet and pepsin wrapped with a flour enriched with thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid. The latter also contained sodium and calcium alginates. To my great relief, there was at least something natural: the aromas. I have decided to avoid alcoholic drinks, so my choice went to a small glass of water to which was added colour, sugar, invert sugar and artificial sweeteners. There was also, in my drink, caffeine, food additives of the "S family" and of course, flavour enhancers. It was delicious! I am sparing you the details of the copious meal since I would need another ten pages. It went from lettuce powder to carbohydrates. To those, whom like me, have a difficult time understanding it all, don't miss the article "What's for dinner?" in our chronicle "What's new?". In the Health File, you will find all you need to be in shape in January 2000 and in the chronicle "From Yesterday to now" read all about Gotu Kola or brain food. Jacqueline B.Blouin