On Information and Nutrition

T.M.I. Too much information. As a nation-we are inundated with too much information. So much information that I am confused. For example:I don't know anymore what is good for me nutritionally anymore.
Water was supposed to be the essence of life. You can live without food for awhile but water- that's a different thing. We need water. Eight 8oz. glasses of water a day. Even more if you can hold it or if you are trying to lose weight. I read that if you drank the number of ounces of water equivalent to the number of pounds you weigh, that you will loose weight quicker. You know if you weigh 150 lbs, you need to drink 150 oz of water to effectively loose weight. But wait, I just read in the October 2008 issue of "Woman's Day" that research now shows that we only need to drink enough water that is required to quench our thirst. WHAT?????!!!!! I read a lot of contradictory information like this in that publication. Especially since they changed their format recently. I've been a subscriber for many years but I'm tired of being confused so I am not renewing my subscription. I don't think I need to constantly here what the latest research is, I want to know the truth. I took statistics in college. I know how easy it is to manipulate a study. I never fell for the bottled water push. I never believed that there was anything special about the water in the bottle. But I did notice that increase in the amount of trash. All that waste from those bottles. Look what we've done now!
What about butter vs. margarine? For years we were told that butter is bad. If you eat it you'll have high cholesterol . You'll have a heart atack! Don't eat it! Margarine is healthier! But wait...I just received an email telling me that margarine is bad. It is one molecule away from being plastic. Do you want this in your body? I suppose the correct answer is not to eat either.
Meat scares me. Although personally, the thought of what I am eating freaks me out. Although I am not a full scale vegetarian, I am very picky about meat. I can eat a hamburger, (it's all ground up so you can't tell what it was). I can eat chopped up chicken. I have roasted the occasional chicken and then of course, turkeys at Thanksgiving for my family, but not without the occassional dry heave or being grossed out enough to pass on the poultry at the table. As humans we were meant to be carnivores, I realize this, but I still have a problem with it. But I digress, we went through the whole chicken "growth hormone" thing and mad cow disease. I guess we shouldn't be eating meat either with all the recalls. Salmonella poisoning. I guess we shouldn't eat poultry either.
We shouldn't eat processed foods. That's a given. We knew all those preservatives would catch up to us sometime. Maybe that is another reason people are living longer or maybe why some people look so good when they are getting up their in the years. Well that... and plastic surgery. I look at celebrities that are my age. I know that airbrushing does wonders but even so-take Demi Moore and Heather Locklear for example, we are about the same age. If you put us in the same room, you might think I could be their mother. You certainly wouldn't guess we are the same age. Even if I had the money, I wouldn't bother spending it on my looks, there are many more important things in the world that could use that money, poverty sticken countries, alternative energy, saving the enviroment, etc.....
I'm sure I'll have more to say about nutrition in the future.