IF ARTERIES COULD TALK WOULD YOU LISTEN?

Ever see one of those Plavix commercials on TV...? You know, where the carotid artery is clogged with all that gunky red plaque getting loose and hurrying toward the brain. The camera doesn't show you the results -- a stroke -- but you get the idea.

The idea becomes grossly personal when you're being wheeled into surgery, told that 95% of your artery is clogged with this stuff. But then, a few weeks later after a grateful recovery, you read about the annual July Fourth Hot Dog Eating contest in Coney Island, NY. Where this year's winner stuffed down an orgy of 68 hot dogs in just 10 minutes!

Now here's the irony to this sanctified gluttony. The same NY Mayor Bloomberg who banned city restaurants from using artery-clogging trans fats, welcomes this annual event on ESPN. Equally ironic is that one of the sponsors is, you guessed it, Pepto-Bismol.

How one wonders does deep-throating 68 hot dogs become something to celebrate...? A fun fest for already over-weight spectators...?

Different theories abound. One has to do with denial -- filtering out reality with this inner voice that whispers but-not-me. Another has to do with good intentions -- starting right after tonight's prime rib I'm going to start-watching-my-diet.

Long before we ever heard about trans fat, Ralph Waldo Emerson thought this thought: "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you have lost something else." Could it be that in gaining today's vast array of exotic medical knowledge, we have lost some of our old, un-exotic common sense?

You know, like when Mom used to tell us, "eat your vegetables!"