You remember it well, since it happened every night. You sat at the dinner table with your family, staring at a pile of steamed spinach with a frown, listening to your mother tell you that "spinach is not only good for you, but it will make you strong, like Popeye!" Blah blah blah. You didn't listen. And it really didn't matter if it were spinach, broccoli, peas, or carrots.
But now, as an educated, intelligent, mature adult, you know that Mom was right. In fact, Mom was right about a lot of things. She may have had some twisted reasoning, but in the end, she was right. Here are eight things related to food that Mom was right about:
1. Don't eat too fast - Eating slowly allows your brain to catch up to your stomach. Besides, don't you want to enjoy the company of your date?
2. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" - An apple is so boring, especially now since that's probably the most common fruit you ate when you were in school. However, as mundane as an apple may be, what with accessibility to exotic fruits from all over the world, there's a reason apples are on Mayo Clinic's list of Ten Great Health Foods. In addition to pectin, a fiber that lowers cholesterol and glucose levels and vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps the body absorb iron and folate, apples contain quercetin, a flavonoid that serves as a building block for other flavonoids.
3. Wash your hands - Do I even have to explain this one? I'll let someone else do it.
4. Spinach will make you strong - Sing it with me now. "Popeye the sailor man..." It may not make you strong enough to be able to pop open a tin can with your bare hands like our favorite cartoon sailor, but WebMD does call it the "powerhouse of the vegetable kingdom" for phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals (especially folate and iron) that fight disease, protect against heart disease, and preserve your eyesight.
5. Always start your day with a hearty breakfast - I don't think I could count how many times I've heard dietitians and weight-loss experts advise us about how breakfast will help stave off binge-eating later in the day. Weight loss aside, a lot of breakfast foods are good for you: oatmeal, fruit, and yogurt.
6. If you're sick, eat chicken soup - It sure makes you feel good when someone is babying you by bringing a bowl of soup to you in bed, and that steam rising up from the bowl might temporarily clear the sinuses, but there might be some science behind it all. According to the Mayo Clinic, something about the broth "acts as an anti-inflammatory by inhibiting the movement of immune system cells that participate in the body's inflammatory response." And don't worry, if you're too sick to make it from scratch, most canned chicken soups were shown to have the same effects.
7. Don't go swimming right after eating - It's a myth. It's a fact. It's a myth. It's a fact. The arguments are pretty good for and against Mom, depending on what you want to believe. According to the American Red Cross, swimming right after eating is not "life-threatening." However, they do advise that going into the water before your body has properly digested a meal makes you susceptible to cramping or exhaustion. Just use your head. Now eating after swimming is a different story...
8. Eat all your vegetables - We've singled out spinach, but it really goes without saying that you should eat all your vegetables for there isn't a single one that doesn't have some sort of benefit, and better yet eat all kinds of vegetables.
What did I miss? What did your mother tell you when you were a kid for which you must give her credit now?
What Can I Get You Folks? - Eating Out for Thanksgiving
In Defense of Guy Fieri
'Top Chef Vegas' - And Then There Were Five
