On the Culture of Instant Gratification
I think the recent article on calorie restriction with optimal nutrition (CRON) in Slate gives more insight into the damaging culture of instant gratification - and instant results, or else - than anything else. "[Mary] Robinson told me how she came to adopt the CRON life six years ago. ... She joined the Calorie Restriction Society and wrote a computer program to track everything she ate and its nutritional value. It has vastly improved her health. Robinson was in a study of CRON followers done by Dr. Luigi Fontana at Washington University School of Medicine. Fontana found that the CRON adherents - many of whom, like Robinson, had been formerly pudgy - now had arteries as efficient as fire hoses and blood pressure readings like those of 10-year-olds. ... Is CRON crazier than having a doctor suck out your fat, or staple your stomach? Is it crazier than a world in which a drug company is looking to market a product to temporarily eliminate people's sense of taste and smell so they will lose weight? ... But can someone without any notable will power - me - stay on a CRON diet? I decided to try CRON for two months, but it's past that now and I'm still avoiding seconds and skipping my late-night snack. CRON was supposed to do much for me that it hasn't." All worthwhile results require a little effort and persistence.