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It has been often said that being optimistic is incredibly helpful when you are struggling to lose weight. Admittedly, it is hard to be optimistic when you are faced with choking down that eighth glass of water for the day or you are trying to learn to love vegetables, but the fact of the matter is that modern dieters have it easy. Not only do we have a plethora of products that are packaged to help us with portion control, but many diets these days are loaded with foods that are, quite frankly, delicious.
It wasn’t always this way, my friends.
I grew up in a dieting household. When I was growing up my Mother (and, by extension, her children) took part in just about every diet craze that was out there. I can recall tuna fish diets, grape fruit diets, diets that involved granular shakes, and diets that with daily calorie intakes that would have the Olsen Twins duking it out in a cage match over a Snickers at the end of the day.
But what I remember the most is the liver.
A lot has been said over the years about the medical benefits of eating liver. From a health perspective, it is one of the best sources of Vitamin A, a compound that promotes healthy vision, bone growth, and assists in fighting off infections. It is also thought to help regulate blood sugar and aid weight loss efforts.
It is also…well…liver.
Please understand – I don’t want to take anything away from those of you who actually like eating liver, but you have to admit that for a large number of people even the thought of eating liver is enough to bring on a serious case of the DO NOT WANTS. That being said, there was a time when it was a regular staple in our household. You see, back in the early 70’s the folks over at Weight Watchers decided it was so important to eat liver that it was REQUIRED that you do so at least once a week. My Mother cleverly disguised it of course. She never told us we were eating liver, but that we were eating braunschweiger. It worked for a while, too, but eventually one of us actually read the packaging when she brought it in from the store and the jig was up.
The other day my Mom gave me a Weight Watchers cookbook from the early 80’s. By this point in the program history they had moved away from requiring liver, but it was still a pretty big focus of the recipe book – so much so that Liver has its very own section. Now I’m all for trying new things, but some of these recipes sound downright revolting, but my “favorite” has to be the Fruit ‘N’ Rice-Filled Liver.
In fact, I’m so grossed out by this particular recipe I’m gonna share the love.
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Orexigen, a San Diego based pharmaceutical company, announced on Monday that a new drug designed to help patients overcome obesity had passed three clinical trials and was now one step closer to FDA approval.