It really doesn’t matter whether or not you made a pig of yourself two days ago when, in accordance with tradition, you’re allowed to. On this day, though, what really does matter is if you’re willing to learn from one.

A pig, that is, and a lying one at that.

Meet Squealer, the smooth speaker in George Orwell’s timeless novella Animal Farm, which is also the name of the estate where the animals, led by a porker named Napoleon, have overthrown Mr. Jones and taken control. Squealer is second in command but second to none when it comes to selling false narratives.

After the animals fend off a neighboring farmer’s attack in which his crew blow up the windmill, inflict heavy casualties, and at one point are in control of nearly the entire farm, Squealer calls for the firing of the gun to begin the celebration of their victory. Even Boxer, the hard-working, albeit dimwitted horse who’s Napoleon’s greatest supporter, has trouble understanding just exactly what the animals have won.

So Squealer takes pains to explain “the mighty thing that we have done. The enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we stand upon.”

Boxer mulls this over and then replies, “Then we have won back what we had before.”

“That is our victory,” Squealer says assertively, and among the animals only Benjamin the donkey is shrewd enough to know that’s not quite so. But if Squealer was speaking about a health-related battle instead of the Battle of the Windmill, it unquestionably would be.

Anyone who’s needed to lose weight a second (or third or fourth) time because they’ve regained the LBs they hoped were long gone will agree to that. And this following stat from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will attest to, whether it’s your first time or your fifth time dieting, success in doing so is certainly cause for celebration.

For the current rate of Americans who are 20 years of age or older and are also overweight or worse stands at 73.6 percent.

So let’s dive a bit deeper into this idea that getting back the good health you once had truly is a glorious victory. Not into waters as clear as the Caribbean Sea, however, but ones as murky as the lake that holds the Loch Ness Monster.

For considering it to be a glorious victory to once again walk or speak after injury or illness is a no-brainer. And the win is nearly as good for sure when you reclaim muscle lost from being bedridden or aging by weight training.

But what about a murkier situation, those times we all experience when you’re not exactly sure why, but you can’t shake the feeling that your health’s just a little bit off? When there’s nothing obviously wrong, no specific need to see a doctor, yet you just know you’re just not firing on all cylinders.

Being able to eliminate that feeling is a glorious victory, too, purely based on what its absence allows you to do. Keep a positive mindset, stay motivated, and focus on the things you need to do to engender good health.

Like eat in a way that keeps you from becoming one of the 73.6 percent of American adults currently overweight or worse — or removes you from that less-than-glorious group.

While you might think there’s little I could offer to rid you of a foreboding feeling that’s unique to you, that’s not true. I just need to borrow Squealer’s soapbox and once again stress something I normally remind you about once or twice or thrice each year.

That you’re not quite like anyone else. Because of that and because you’d like to have the best possible health, you need to be willing to experiment.

Frequently.

Which is something you’re hard pressed to do intelligently without the proper information. So let’s return to the fact that nearly three out of every four American adults are overweight or worse and review yet another study that suggests the consumption of ultraprocessed foods plays a significant role in that.

Published in the December 2024 issue of Obesity Science & Practice, the study’s goal was to have 14 people reduce their consumption of ultraprocessed foods. To aid in the endeavor, all participants attended weekly group-strategy sessions, received individual meal-planning sessions, some financial support, and were told to keep a comprehensive log of everything they ate.

Eight weeks later and when compared to baseline logs, those daily food logs showed that the 14 had cut the number of UPFs eaten each day by nearly half, to 49.7 percent. Moreover, they consumed about 600 fewer calories per day while doing so, 37 percent less sodium, and 50 percent less sugar.

Considering that weight loss wasn’t a goal, the fact the participants also lost an average of 7.7 pounds during the study is just as significant.