Fruitcake

If you're old enough to remember The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson then you might remember the joke Mr. Carson repeated that there was really only one holiday fruitcake -- it was just being sent from one person to another and never, ever eaten. At Dr. Feiz & Associates, we sometimes wonder what would be the health benefit if all sugary/fatty desserts were treated with such disdain, or never eaten at all!

Yes, we know it's a pipedream. We humans are hardwired to desire sugar and fat laden foods, an extremely powerful vestige of the very long periods of human history in which calories were relatively hard to come by. Even so, there would be less need for the constant pleas for Americans to take up a more healthy lifestyle if we could all cultivate more of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude towards the most fattening holiday comestibles.

After all, the point of a holiday celebration is to spend time with family and friends and, for very many of us, there is also an important spiritual and religious meaning to the holidays. No part of that demands the over consumption of holiday treats. So, at your family holiday feast this year, maybe pretend that that second (or third) helping of stuffing or egg nog you don't need is fruitcake. Not bad tasting, really, but do you really need to eat or drink that?

If, on the other hand, your weight issues are a well beyond a little holiday overindulgence, then you can call us to find out more about weight loss surgery in Los Angeles. It might just be the best gift you've ever given yourself.