Not so long ago, there was a scourge upon the land. More American men were having heart attacks at a rate not previously recorded. It was the late 1950s and 1960s, when the economy was good and food plentiful. So why was heart disease on the rise?

Scientists looked all over for a cause and solution. (The notion that the rising rates of cigarette smoking may have been a contributing factor was discounted as the tobacco companies claimed that cigarettes were harmless.)

Food dyes Red #40, Yellow #5 and #6, and Blue #1 are chemicals that most Americans feed their children on a daily basis. They make food look pretty but how certain are we that they are safe?

True, the FDA has concluded, based on long-term animal studies, that these dyes “do not pose significant health risks.” The amount that is “safe” for children has still not been ascertained. And the fact that some dyes have been found to produce tumor growth in animals while others contain small amounts of benzene, a known carcinogen, has not yet shaken the FDA from its conclusion about their “probable safety.”[1]

With the increasing number of words being misused or so overused as to render them almost meaningless, I want to throw in my two cents. Not literally, of course – though from what I hear around me, some people may be waiting for me to ante up. When did so many people become enamored of the word “literally”? When did it morph from meaning “free from allegory or metaphor” to “really” or “very”?

Okay, I get that “really” became boring, but do we really need “really” (or “literally”) in most cases? Or do some people just think the more words they use the smarter they sound?

But beware: That plan can backfire – as when Sean Hannity proudly announced that “some politicians literally hate my guts.” I don’t think it’s your kishkas they dislike, Sean. 

Or when an eyewitness to a crime tells the reporter she was “literally shocked by what the man did.” I hope there was an EMT unit nearby.

My favorite example of the misuse of “literally” is from the book reviewer who interviewed the author of a harrowing account of a war-torn part of Africa. The reviewer concluded that the author had “literally been to hell and back.”

Now that’s a person I’d like to interview!