If you are sixty-five or older, expect to be called elderly. This term is used in statements of national health policy and, unfortunately, conjures up a picture of a frail individual, walking very... Read more >>

Television advertisements for highly caloric, yummy-looking foods have been around for so long that some of us avert our eyes when they appear so we won’t immediately give into the... Read more >>

I know it does no good to shout at a TV screen but I do it anyway. Watching advertisements for upcoming specials on “obesity in America” or “best diet tips” or “the... Read more >>

A friend who has reached the age of discounted senior bus tickets told a funny story about herself a few days ago. She was about two blocks away from her stop when she saw her bus coming. “I... Read more >>

Most women’s magazines advise the reader to use accessories to refresh a winter wardrobe or to update last year’s clothes. Given budgetary restraints, it is obviously much cheaper to buy a... Read more >>

This winter has seen the typical array of gimmicky diets ranging from cookies to drinking green tea and puréed grass (the last just overheard in the gym). Thus, it was refreshing to come across... Read more >>

Eating when you feel down, stressed, underappreciated, overwhelmed, frustrated, or anxious is so common that it is often the basis of advertisements. Every so often, we see, in a TV ad, a lovely... Read more >>

An article in the March issue of Details, a magazine devoted to men’s fashions, entertainment, sports, and food, devoted a long article to the evils of eating carbohydrates. Normally I do... Read more >>

“Next to Normal” is a Broadway musical dealing with the common, but rarely sung about, problems of mental illness and the impact this has on the family. Despite its theme, the musical is... Read more >>

An advertisement by North Face in the May issue of Runner’s World magazine shows an extremely fit runner on a mountain trail. On the opposite page the caption reads, “When life’s... Read more >>