i remember the first time i met the eccentric dr. larry lee. it was july 2019, and my brother and i both happened to be visiting my mom at the same time. Dr. lee was an old family friend and ex-neighbor of my parents back when they used to live in wisconsin with my older sisters and brothers, shortly before i was born. after my parents moved away they’d lost contact with dr. lee’s family until he and my mother accidentally bumped into each other at a nutrition talk which dr. lee was giving to a taiwanese senior community in washington state shortly before my brother and i arrived in town to see my mom. dr. lee and my mom had, unbeknownst to each other, moved within a mile of each other and were once again practically neighbors on the other side of the country. dr. lee was eager to meet me for the first time and reunite with my brother, whom he hadn’t seen in over 30 years.
although he was well into his 80s, dr. lee had skin the texture of cool jade and a head full of thick hair which I’m pretty sure he dyed, as I’ve never seen someone over 60 with that shade of jet-black covering their head. dr. lee leaned in to tell me and my brother his nutritional secret to health and longevity, the first words out of his mouth stunning us both: eat more salt. i wish i could remember the exact reasoning he gave - it sounded scientific enough at the time, but now i’m second-guessing - it had something to do with our han chinese ancestors having lived in the mountains way above sea level, and higher salt intake being necessary at those elevations in order to ensure survival. later, sometime during COVID lockdown, my mom told me that she didn’t trust dr. lee’s advice, and that he’d separately told her that she should avoid spinach for reasons she found dubious. besides, she didn’t think he looked as healthy as he claimed to be.
i was reminded of dr. lee while leafing through a nutritional brochure at the clinic which Ulrich and I visited yesterday. My attention was drawn to the German recommendation for salt intake: not to exceed 5g a day in order to maintain healthy blood pressure, although according to the U.S. FDA the correct amount is more like 2.3g, less than half of what the Germans are allowed. Then I noticed the table of foods which commonly cause inflammation and other ailments. There was a row labeled “highly sweetened foods”, with examples of what to avoid: pastries, candy, donuts, and sugar substitutes commonly found in diet drinks. Conspicuously missing from the list was cake - yes, that cake of Kaffee und Kuchen fame! depending on who you ask here in Germany, “coffee and cake time” is either once-a-week-on-sundays when socializing with friends and family, or rather daily between 3 and 4pm - the latter school being the one which Ulrich subscribes to. Ulrich and I have gotten into heated debates over whether the sugar content in cake is of noteworthy concern.
“I wonder why they listed candy and donuts as dangerous but not cake,” i chuckled, reading the pamphlet out loud to Ulrich.
“it’s because they’re germans, and most of their clients are german too,” Ulrich answered dryly.
“huh!” i said, a light bulb suddenly going off in my head. i wondered what deliciously salty, guilty-pleasure treat Dr. Lee had been busy rationalizing to my me and my brother when we met him back in 2019.
So interesting! And also I love when Ulrich arrives on scene in one of your essays