Food and Medicine

I worked briefly with a redneck surgeon. He was a colorful character who's family owned a grocery store in the deep, deep, deep south. It was so deep (how deep was it) that the kudzu covered it completely. It was so deep that that the there was a confederate national guard unit stationed there (his words). Anyway, he told me once that his granddad told him to go into medicine or the grocery business "cuz, vryone haz to eet, and vryone gits sik."  He imitated his grandpa badly, but he was a hell of a surgeon.

Great wisdom in a strange sort of way. As I watch the eating around me on this microcosm of the world, I realize that it is, in some ways, the one that is feeding the other. We are what we eat, and we are generally pretty sick. As we begin to study internal medicine from the inside out (the biochemical nature of life), it is becoming more apparent that health, and disease are intrinsically tied to each other, beyond the commerce of Eastside Grocery.  Exhibit one, the "Triple Bypass Burger" at the Heartattack Cafe. Priceless. I want to be a cardiologist near that greasy spoon.