From the Editor Suzanne Boyd
DIETS. I’ve been on a few. My favourite was the Fast Metabolism Diet, which I ironically or perhaps just necessarily heard about at a caloric-dense six-course dinner, accompanying a whisky tasting. The organic “clean” eating aspect of it appealed (doesn’t it always, the morning after) as did the brisk scientific approach that the diet’s creator, nutritionist Haylie Pomroy, took with it. Using her background in animal husbandry, she breaks the diet down into three almost excruciatingly specific and work-intensive phases, strictly controlling what foods one could eat when, with the surprising encouragement to eat more to lose more. I dove into it with the religious zeal of a recent convert, and it worked spectacularly. Of course, it was difficult to maintain. But, on the other hand, I enjoyed the regimentation, the sense of control and the results before sliding back into my wayward ways, starting with a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio!
I share this because in the “Your Age, Your Weight” package (pg. 64), we focus on all the ways biology, lifestyle and time intersects with food to influence your size. We also breakdown the most popular diets and let you know whether they are friend or foe. It is important to find that balance, on the scale and in life and, as we like to say here a Zoomer, it’s never too late.
And beyond ourselves and our health, there is a new sense of urgency. The shared values for fairness that have broadly flourished for more than half a century are fighting it out with a new world order, and everything becomes metaphor. The Patriots, the preferred team of U.S. President Trump, who is the preferred president of team owner Robert Kraft and star quarterback Tom Brady, had a stunning comeback victory in Super Bowl LI. The losing team, the Falcons, is from Atlanta, a predominantly African-American city and a cradle of the civil rights movement. It felt like Nov. 8 all over again when, shockingly, Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the electoral college to win the White House.
At this writing, the American Senate stopped Senator Elizabeth Warren from reading a letter that Coretta Scott King, the late wife of Martin Luther King Jr., which had already been read on the senate floor in 1986 by the late Ted Kennedy. “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted” was the infinitely meme-able reason Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave for shutting Warren down.
Everything is metaphor. Two women went down in defeat, perhaps only temporarily – Warren 2020? – but it’s women who are taking a stand. Elizabeth Renzetti was on the ground at the Women’s March on Washington. In “These Boots Were Made for Marching” (pg. 42), she shows how inclusive this moment was, as many men took part. Gloria Steinem was there and, like civil rights icon John Lewis, the congressman from Atlanta, is a walking reminder of the effective protest movements of the ’60s and ’70s. As the song goes, “There’s something happening here,” which perhaps proves how relevant Clinton’s statement she made as first lady during a trip to Beijing in 1995 still is: “Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.”
In this issue, for our second instalment of “My Canada” (pg. 12), the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell shares her story of immigration and opportunity. A teacher by training, Dowdeswell’s career in public service has spanned provincial, federal and even international borders, serving as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Before being appointed Ontario’s 29th lieutenant governor in 2014, she was president and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies.