My housemate and I were wrangling over the topic of what to eat, in what quantities, when the following occurred to me:

My genetic background has its roots in Scandanavia, Wales, North American Indian. It's a well-established fact that people from southern climes have trouble digesting milk and milk products as adults, but people from colder parts of the world don't.

Makes perfect sense, since growing grains was a chancy proposition in Scandanavia and thereabouts. The bones of the land show through the grass--the topsoil is thin--and, especially in winter, survival depended on being able to digest milk (cheese, yogurt) as well as meat.

If you killed your animals for meat, that was short-term productive only. If you lived on cheese and yogurt, the animals survived to reproduce and you to live another season.

Grains also might be an issue. In warmer climates, grains grow readily and people adapted to eat and metabolize them properly. Folks from northern parts of the world adapted to store food as fat whenever possible and did not adapt to carbohydrates the way southerners did.

Therefore, it might be that how one eats today in modern America, where every food of every type is readily available, should be tailored to one's biological heritage. I have avoided carbs for over a year now, going easy on the pasta, bread, potatoes and eschewing sugar. Not only have I lost weight, I feel better.

A couple of days ago we had a potluck at work, heavy on the tortillas, enchiladas, beans and rice. I ate sparingly (compared to my companions), yet I felt logy and uncomfortable for the rest of that day and the next. I'm just not able, I think, to deal with refined carbs in the offhand way my Mexican and Italian friends are.

So I'm sticking with my fruits and vegetables, cheese and yogurt, nuts and whole grains and beans (sparingly). And (my favorite) homemade chicken soup.

Works for me.