May I help you?

I think Rocky Balboa said it best.  Pointing to his face he said, "See this face?  Is this a face you can trust?  They should put this face on a stamp."

That's how I've been feeling lately.  I must have a very trustworthy face.  Little old ladies take me aside in stores and ask my opinion on the products they're thinking of purchasing.  Like today.  A woman in the bread aisle touched my arm.  "Excuse me, dear.  Can you read this number?  Does that say 155 mg of sodium?"  

I looked closely at the numbers on the back of the bread bag.  "No, it says 135," I told her.

"Oh," she said.  "Is that good, 135?  I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol."

I pondered for a few moments.  How should I answer this?  I'm not a doctor, not a nutritionist, not an expert on sodium and blood pressure.  I do have my own issues with blood pressure and cholesterol though.  We struck up a conversation about the two conditions.

She was adamant that once you're on high blood pressure pills, you're on them for life.  I told her I was planning to go off of mine soon since my blood pressure has come down quite a bit.

She asked how I managed to bring it down.  Exercise and eating right, I told her.

She asked what kind of bread she should be eating for good health.  I recommended pita bread.  Her face twisted into one of those "Ewwwwww" expressions.  "It doesn't taste that great," I admitted, "but it does seem to be healthy."

She asked if there were any other things I was doing to lower my blood pressure.  I figured I'd shock her a bit by revealing one of my latest accomplishments.

"Well, I did take a belly dancing class."

Her eyes kinda went wide.  

Maybe I didn't look so trustworthy after that.