My goodness! After that previous Blog, let’s take a breather and talk about something that won’t generate as much heated controversy. (By the way, welcome to our website, Heath. You made it interesting.) 

Again, I want to discuss something that grows, but you won’t find it in your teeth.  Eyelashes. We all have them. (Unless you have that awful disease where you lose your eyelashes and they don’t grow back. Alopecia-Areata, I believe it’s called.) If you’re a guy, I’m 99% positive that you were born with amazingly long lashes. It’s one of God’s cruel little jokes. My own little brother had eyelashes so long, his four sisters who were eyelash-deprived, loved nothing more than to dress him like a girl and put mascara on him to make instant spider legs. (Don’t worry. Despite our best efforts, he turned out to be quite “the man.”)

I would venture a guess that most women wish their eyelashes were longer. The longer they are, the more flirty and coquettish they make us. You can usually accomplish this with an eyelash curler and a good tube of mascara. Or you can go the eyelash extension route, which is quite popular these days. And now, there’s another alternative: Lumigan. I just heard about it myself. It’s an ophthalmic solution approved by the FDA for people with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. It helps with vision loss.

But really, it’s one of the side effects of Lumigan that is getting all the attention. Apparently, it causes eyelashes to grow and become darker.  I lifted this from the safety disclaimer off the website  (www.lumigan.com/):

"LUMIGAN(bimatoprost ophthalmic solution) 0.03% has been reported to cause darkening (pigmentation) of eye color, eyelid skin and eyelashes, as well as increased growth of eyelashes. Pigmentation changes can increase as long as LUMIGAN is used. After stopping LUMIGAN , darkening of eye color is likely to be permanent while darkening of the eyelid skin and eyelash changes may be reversible. The effects of increased darkening beyond 5 years are not known."

As scary as it sounds, some dermatologists are now marketing Lumigan as this miracle eyelash grower. And it does work. I observed the results on a Lumigan patient. A very noticeable improvement. But I don’t know . . . I would be afraid of pigmentation changes around the eye area. How about you? Would you be brave enough to give it a try?

Keep in mind that Botox was originally approved by the FDA to treat eye-muscle disorders. Then clinicians discovered it also temporarily eliminated wrinkles and frown lines. And, well, you know the rest of that story!

A friend introduced me to a guy once who I had had my eye on for a while. It was at a comedy club. We had just finished eating dinner. I had a salad with all kinds of veggies and cilantro in it. I stood talking to him for a good half hour, smiling as often as I could because I know men think women are more approachable when we smile. When I got home that night, I looked in the mirror and was mortified! Two pieces of cilantro were wedged between different teeth. That meant that Bob, let’s call him, saw all this icky green stuff between my teeth while I was doing my best to impress him with my smile. (No wonder why he never called!) And what’s really amazing is that he carried on as if everything were normal. Never said a word or even looked at me funny. I lost all faith in "Bob," and we hadn't even  dated.

But it got me thinking: Should Bob have said something? Did he not tell me I had food in my teeth because it creates an awkwardly intimate moment between strangers? Personally, I would want someone to point this out to me to avoid further embarrassment.

Take a look at this list I've come up with, a rundown of social faux pas that we’ve all been party to at one time or another. Which of these do you think is socially acceptable to tell a perfect stranger?

• They have food in their teeth

• His fly is open

• Her shirt button is unbuttoned and you can see her breast

• There’s a piece of toilet paper on their shoes

• They have a visible booger in their nose

• She has lipstick on her teeth

• Their shirt tag is sticking out

• Her mascara is smeared or running

• They have their shirt on backward

• She forgot to take a curler out of her hair (This really happened to me at a high school basketball game, and no one said a word to me.)

Fads, trends and buzzwords come and go – even in the food industry.  These days, it’s all about trans fats and antioxidants -- a once not-easily-understood, five-syllable word that now rolls easily off our tongues. There has been a nutritional awakening across the country. We now understand what antioxidants are and the key role they play in fighting free radicals in our bodies. Food companies, recognizing an easy profit when they smell one, are now promoting the antioxidant-rich properties in their products . . . and we’re buying into it hook, line and sinker. Look, when people tell me that eating dark chocolate is good for me, I’m going to listen to them!

And now I hear that eating ice cream can make me smart! What a country we live in, huh? The latest buzzword creeping into our lexicon is Omega-3 fatty acids, which nutritionists say are essential for the healthy functioning of our brain and heart. Coming soon to a freezer near you will be a new brand of Breyer’s Ice Cream containing Omega 3s. I never thought eating ice cream was a smart thing to do. But now you can order a double scoop and feel scholarly about it.

And keeping this dairy theme going, I have to tell you about a controversial advertising campaign out of Brazil for itambé fit light yogurt that you’re sure to hear about very soon (just remember you heard about it here, first!). It’s like the Dove Real Beauty campaign, but in reverse. The ads depict extra-plus-size models reenacting classic movie scenes: There’s that famous scene with Sharon Stone sitting in the chair from “Basic Instinct,” and Marilyn Monroe with the gust of wind blowing up her white dress. But these look-alikes are both about a Size 30. The tagline is: “Forget about it. Men’s preferences will never change."

So the message, as I understand it, is: “It doesn’t matter who you are. If you’re fat, men aren’t going to think you’re sexy.” Of course I am profoundly offended by this message. BUT, I must admit, it really is a brilliant way to market yogurt. The brainchild behind them AT LEAST should get high marks for creativity. To see for yourself, copy and paste this link into your own browser. I'm having some trouble with it:

http://popbytes.com/archive/2007/
06/controversial_yogurt_ads_from_brazil.shtml

A few weeks ago, my children said something that shocked me: “Mom, we want to start eating healthier. No more cookies. And more fruits and vegetables.” Wait a minute! Isn’t that my line?  

I’m not sure what they’re teaching our children in school these days, but apparently it’s working. My children have FINALLY made the connection between eating and good health. It’s taken me nearly all my life to figure it out, so they’re way ahead of me.

Almost immediately, I went out and bought good stuff: fruits, nuts, whole wheat bread and at the urging or my youngest daughter, edamame.  I had NO IDEA what edamame was until then. Soy beans, sure. But I had never heard it called edamame.

As part of our campaign to eat healthier, I signed them up for a nutrition workshop called “Food For Life,” which is offered through a youth development program called “Life Is Forever Transitioning” (lifetransitioning.org). In one afternoon, they learned how nutrition impacts health, what to eat instead of junk food and how to read food labels. Then they made healthy pizzas.

The workshop was taught by Jodi Jones, a certified sports nutritionist and founder of Vitality Gourmet (vitalitygourmet.com), a service that delivers gourmet, nutritiously balanced meals right to your doorstep.

If you have children, I highly recommend that you sign them up for Jodi’s next class. It’s funny how you can preach to them all their life, and yet they seem to listen more to what strangers have to say. Oh, well.  I’m just happy they’re so excited about eating healthier.