This Is Why We Hate New Year's Diet Resolutions

This Is Why We Hate New Year's Diet Resolutions

Note: this piece is not written by a doctor; nor a nutritionist; not even a dietician. It's written by a food lover, and a serious one at that. Please keep this in mind as you read on. Also, understand that we are only talking about vanity diets, not the ones that are crucial for good health.

If I could make one wish, it just might be that the idea of diets completely disappears from our consciousness. And if that's too much to ask, I'd settle for doing away with the losing weight New Year's resolutions that nearly half of the population succumbs to. I'm generally a pretty easy-going person, but New Year's resolutions that have anything to do with not eating food make me mad.

It's not that I don't understand people's rationale behind the diet resolution. It's a new year, you want a new you AND you've just eaten your way through the holidays, meaning your clothes no longer fit. A diet quickly becomes an easy fix. (I myself have made this resolution more times than I can count.) But resolving to diet is a waste of a resolution -- especially when you can take this opportunity to make an awesome resolution, like mastering sourdough.

Going on a New Year's Eve diet is not only lame, but it's also like saying you love to fail. While everyone makes this resolution with the right intention, it's entirely unrealistic. Especially because most diets include giving up EVERYTHING we like -- which means you're resolving to live in a constant state of torture. In what world does that sound like a good idea? It's just not. Statistics show that some diet resolvers give up before the very first week is over; others give up before the end of the month, and nearly none make their goal by the year's end.

While I'm not going to get into the problems diets create when it comes to self-image, shame, guilt and so on, I can't help but feel angry about the fact that it makes people hate food. Food is not the enemy. Food is good. No wait, food is great. It keeps us alive, nourishes us, shapes our cultures, traditions, families. And diets, they destroy that.

When a diet tells us not to eat butter or to stay clear of carbs, it's teaching us to hate bread and to turn to (questionable) chemically-produced butter substitutes. It's teaching you that food is the enemy. And what did food ever do to us? Sure, if we ate a stick of butter for every meal a la Paula Deen, that would not be wise -- and could lead to serious health problems -- but if we eat it in moderation, we could probably partake in the joys of butter, every day, every year, for the rest of your life. Now that sounds like a good resolution to me.

So rather than waste a resolution that will most likely spark self-loathing and contribute to the unjust hatred of food, why not make a resolution that will focus on adding something positive to your life? Check out the New Year's Resolutions we made at HuffPost Taste. And if you've already made the resolution to diet, just know that it's not to late to change it.

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FDA Approves First New Tuberculosis Drug In 40 Years

FDA Approves First New Tuberculosis Drug In 40 Years

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.

The agency approved J&J's pill, Sirturo, for use with older drugs to fight a hard-to-treat strain of tuberculosis that has not responded to other medications. However, the agency cautioned that the drug carries risks of potentially deadly heart problems and should be prescribed carefully by doctors.

Roughly one-third of the world's population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. The disease is rare in the U.S., but kills about 1.4 million people a year worldwide. Of those, about 150,000 succumb to the increasingly common drug-resistant forms of the disease. About 60 percent of all cases are concentrated in China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Sirturo, known chemically as bedaquiline, is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. That's a form of the disease that cannot be treated with at least two of the four primary antibiotics used for tuberculosis.

The standard drugs used to fight the disease were developed in the 1950s and 1960s.

"The antibiotics used to treat it have been around for at least 40 years and so the bacterium has become more and more resistant to what we have," said Chrispin Kambili, global medical affairs leader for J&J's Janssen division.

The drug carries a boxed warning indicating that it can interfere with the heart's electrical activity, potentially leading to fatal heart rhythms.

"Sirturo provides much-needed treatment for patients who have don't have other therapeutic options available," said Edward Cox, director of the FDA's antibacterial drugs office. "However, because the drug also carries some significant risks, doctors should make sure they use it appropriately and only in patients who don't have other treatment options."

Nine patients taking Sirturo died in company testing compared with two patients taking a placebo. Five of the deaths in the Sirturo group seemed to be related to tuberculosis, but no explanation was apparent for the remaining four.

Despite the deaths, the FDA approved the drug under its accelerated approval program, which allows the agency to clear innovative drugs based on promising preliminary results.

Last week, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized that approach, noting the drug's outstanding safety issues.

"The fact that bedaquiline is part of a new class of drug means that an increased level of scrutiny should be required for its approval," the group states. "But the FDA had not yet answered concerns related to unexplained increases in toxicity and death in patients getting the drug."

The FDA said it approved the drug based on two mid-stage studies enrolling 440 patients taking Sirturo. Both studies were designed to measure how long it takes patients to be free of tuberculosis.

Results from the first trial showed most patients taking Sirturo plus older drugs were cured after 83 days, compared with 125 days for those taking a placebo plus older drugs. The second study showed most Sirturo patients were cured after 57 days.

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LOOK: World's Oldest Identical Twins Celebrate 103rd Birthday

LOOK: World's Oldest Identical Twins Celebrate 103rd Birthday

On Monday, the world's oldest living identical twins celebrated their 103 birthday!

Charlotte Eisgrou and Ann Primack of South Florida and Daytona Beach, Fla. are still in the best of health, despite their age. Neither uses a hearing aide or reading glasses, reported the Daily Mail.

"I feel wonderful. I have all my faculties," Eisgrou told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Although the pair was unable to spend their birthday together since they are both recovering from recent falls, they still consider each other best friends.

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The twins were born two months premature in Chicago in 1909. They weighed a combined 7 lbs. Since they were born before incubators were invented, they wrapped in blankets and put in the door of a stove to keep warm, reported the Daily Mail.

From then on they remained inseparable.

Eisgrou moved to Florida in 1949, and Primack followed her in 1971. There, they enjoyed the majority of their lives, outlived their husbands, and had one son each.

They're both astonished by their record-breaking age.

"I can't believe it, that I've reached that age. The good thing is our minds are sharp. That's the only good thing," Primack told ABC.

Amazingly, the twins continue to live almost completely independently.

Eisgrou started driving at age 78, and didn't stop until four years ago, when her now 71-year-old son told her "I shouldn't get a new car with all the hijackings," reported the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

They both use a cane to walk, but are healthy and independent. Primack even survived ovarian cancer years ago.

Their longevity may in part be due to their sense of humor. They recalled to the Daytona Journal that they often used to switch husbands when they visited each other.

"I used to visit Daytona and we'd switch husbands and walk in the temple," Primack said, "And they'd say to me, 'Charlotte, you look so good.'"

"Nobody ever knew the difference. And by the time they found out, they were hysterical," Eisgrou told ABC. "We had so much fun."

"They are very funny," Jerry Primack, Ann's son, added. "They bicker constantly."

Although the sisters have always been close, they cannot agree on what has led them to live such a long life.

According to the Daily Mail, Primack credits genes and "never being fat" while her twin Eisgrou says it's because she drank lots of milk.

"Everybody asks me that. I don't know what it was," Primack told ABC. "I didn't watch my food when I was young. I smoked. We all smoked."

Eisgrou added: "I don't know the secret to a long life. And I wouldn't tell you if I knew it."

"We love each other and we always will," Primack told ABC.

Eisgrou and Primack are the second oldest twins in the world, born 39 days after non-identical twins Edith Ritchie and Evelyn Middleton from Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

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