In the ‘80s, I guzzled soy milk by the gallon. Oh, and I didn’t just drink the stuff, I traveled far distances in search of soy products, like the ice cream, the cheese—all of it. I was also known to toss tofu into everything—salads, soups, stir-fries and more. Oh, I was a soy proselytizer, too. I would tout its virtues to anyone in earshot. My soy knowledge made me feel slightly smarter—and definitely healthier—than others. This firm (and silken ☺) commitment to soy was the start of my love affair with seeking nutritional ways to heal my body.
I went further on that quest and began living an extreme low-fat existence. Had
I realized at the time that I was at the beginning of what was to become such a low-fat craze, I would have bought stock in SnackWell’s and any other low-fat fad treat. These low-fat choices I was making also made me feel just a tad “superior,” and I would tell anyone that would listen all the bad things about fat, like “Fat will kill you” and “Hello, it’s fat—fat makes you fat, duh.”
So, it is with a bit (OK, a lot) of embarrassment that decades later, I have discovered that too much soy may be linked to breast cancer, and that fat, well, it actually seems to be good for you. So, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. What’s a person to do? Like I tell my kids, you can’t look back with regret. The only thing you can do is look back to learn. Knowledge is power, so take the information in the article “Thumbs Up on Fat,” and be excited because apparently “butter’s experiencing a comeback as a healthy fat as its benefits become more widely known” and “the omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in butter help the brain function properly and improve skin health.” The truth is, over the last five years, the scientific evidence has been mounting that high-fat diets outperform low-fat diets for weight loss.
Never has information been more conflicting with regard to health than it is now. Dr. Joseph Mercola, featured in our Wise Words, tries to clear up some of the confusion. Some ideas he discusses fly in the face of past conventional advice, including practicing intermittent fasting rather than the all-day-grazing craze of the last decade.
Natural Awakenings Long Island prides itself on being your ultimate body, mind and soul magazine, and perhaps my favorite article in this month’s useful, information-packed issue is one that has 
nothing to do with what we eat but how we nourish our soul. In “Reframing Your Life Story,” the author points out a great reminder—that every individual is simply living out his or her own “story line,” and that if we focus on just that idea, we may establish greater connections to each other, and more importantly, greater empathy and ability to forgive. But forgiveness and empathy are not just for others; time and again, we must possess forgiveness for ourselves. I am reminded of my feverish pitch for soy and forgive my ego, which fueled it. I understand now that time and research will change my ideals, and that being “right” is not a constant. Hey, I offer myself early forgiveness for this letter, and may even find myself, after more time and more studies, right back where I was in the ‘80s: happily indulging in soy ice cream once again ☺!
Malama Pono!
Kelly Martinsen, Publisher
Kelly Martinsen’s book, A Year of Inspired Living, is available on Amazon.com. Preorder for $7.80 and plan your 2018 as the most inspired year yet.
