Normally when I eat, if I am eating alone, I do other things while I'm eating - writing, reading, and most of all, I am almost always listening to music. Sometimes however, I like to grant myself the relaxation of eating in peace - not doing anything at all but eating, tasting, and appreciating the nourishment I am giving myself. But even then there is usually music playing in the background. Today, however, I cut it all off to enjoy this salad, and suddenly, I am acutely aware the the sound of myself stuffing copious amounts of spinach into my mouth and crunching up each bite sounds strangely familiar. It sounds the elephants I heard grazing on wild bushes.

Also, why are salads so good in Spain?? Is it the delicious cherry tomatoes? Is there something special about their eggs which you know are always so fresh because when you buy them in the store they are not even refrigerated?? They are very tasty eggs. Or is it the vibrantly green olive oil and the balsamic vinegar from a couple countries over (in Italy)?? I don't know, but I love Spain for its fresh produce and its affordability. I bought the bag of Spinach for 1 euro and it was the super-duper family size that no one in their right mind could expect to finish when feeding a family, and you'd have to be out of your mind to imagine finishing it as one person... ahem, ahem... Four titanic salads and one Eggs a la Rachel later, the bag still looks more than half full. I'm still gonna try to kill it before it spoils.

There was one other time when I noticed a comparison to the way us humans eat to the way animals eat. My brother and I were having dinner, and I don't know what it was, but somehting about the way he was sort of slurping the lettuce into his mouth made me think of rabbits. It's ironic to me though, that it's only happened twice that I've made the comparison, as we humans, distinct as we may try to be, are nothing but animals. I think actually if we all tried to eat more "like animals" true to what our dietary requirements are or within the realms of pertinent dietary enhancements, as if we didn't have omnipresent access to all kinds of food, beneficial or mishegossical at the snap of our fingers we'd all be a lot healthier and happier.

The trouble for me (well and it's sort of a mission) is distinguishing what exactly is a healthy diet? What are our "dietary requirements"? And what kind of a diet could enhance our well-being beyond the basic requirements?? When you think about it tho, it's not difficult to identify and eliminate foods that are detrimental to our health. But it's true that with researchers finding evidence of benifits in foods such as coffee, chocolate, and beer, one may find it difficult to find reason to abstain from eating foods such as these. I suppose for as long as advice has been given, "moderation [seems to be] key".

I tend to think that it is not only what we eat, but our eating habits that are important. For example, how often we eat, binge eating, and even the very eating itself (eg. if it is is rushed and we barely chew). In fact, with regards to the latter characterization, I'd like to perform a study as follows:

1) Collect a misc. group of 100men and 100women.

2)Provide them with some really delicious, well-calculated food. Take a baseline measure of pertinent nutrients (eg. ascorbic acid) and baseline of other health indicators. Have them eat the food as normal, and monitor the time it takes to chew each bite (maybe get an average). Monitor the level of any nutrients that are detectable in their serum for however many hours afterward that are necessary for humans to process food/nutrients. Have them collect all their shits for processing of nutrient levels.

3)Repeat #2 but this time regulate that each and every bite is chewed for some appropriate function longer before it is swallowed. (i thought some sort of function would be better b/c if you have someone that inhales their food, 20% longer won't really add much, but maybe it's best to go with some percentage, so that the ratio's are neater... Anyway, this function would be determined after #2 has been performed and chew times have been compared across the subjects.)

4) Analyze: a) Determine if chew time matters whatsoever in terms of reaping the benefits of your food.
b) If chew time is relevant, determine the optimal range for chew time.
c) Note any other interesting correlations (eg. if women chew less than men...)