sport

Many may not realize that I was not raised in a home that taught me any nutritional basics. I love my mother dearly, but she was caught up hook, line, and sinker in the conventional thoughts of what was healthy. My mother never graduated high school and worked nights, weekends, and most holidays as a waitress. So what that meant was that we frequently relied on highly processed foods for our meals which could be heated up long after she left to go to work. My mom also made sure there were plenty of snacks at home, and I had my fair share of cookies, Pop Tarts, and Hostess Twinkies. Breakfast usually consisted of cereal and perhaps white bread toast loaded with margarine, sugar, and cinnamon. I continued the toast and margarine practice into my early medical school days, but I did substitute whole wheat bread for the white bread—and believed I was doing well. Except for fruit, I rarely had raw food. I clearly remember one of my friends in college eating a raw pepper, and I was a...