More Government advice

According to the government's Pyramid Plan, women should have three cups of milk, two cups of fruit, two and a half cups of vegetables, 5.5 oz of protein, and 6 oz of grains, a day.

In general, 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish, ¼ cup cooked dry beans, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or ½ ounce of nuts or seeds are the equivalent of one ounce in the protein category.

Obviously, the point of eating is to keep the brain thinking, the muscles moving, the skeleton rebuilding, the cells repairing themselves, etc. My doctor has a bug up his butt about calcium intake. "Are you getting enough calcium?" he asked me. "Do I look like I'm not eating enough cheese?" I wanted to say. I think I have the fat craving gene. The three cups of milk requirement worries me, because I could easily meet or exceed it, but is that much dairy really good for you?

When I was researching how much I should spend on groceries, I consulted the USDA's website. The USDA's Thrifty Plan is used to determine the amount one gets in Food Stamps. There are three other Plans, reflecting higher spending increments. The Low Cost, Moderate and Liberal Plans supposedly contain more waste, as opposed to just more food. I didn't find these "Plans" very helpful, because it just looked like lists of food and how much you get a week by weight, i.e, in the Thrifty Plan you get five pounds of fruit, 2.77 pounds of grain, 7.40lb of vegetable, 11.53lb of milk products, 4.38lbs of protein and 1.91 lb of "other". Who goes to the store looking for 11.53 lbs of milk? Talk about bureaucratic gobbelty gook.