You Are What You . . . Read?

I’m wondering if what we feed our brains can be compared to what we feed our bodies.

A balanced diet
As diet fads come and go (Atkins, South Beach, Grapefruit, Gummy Bear) in the end, health gurus always add a caveat about a “balanced diet” being the best way to go. Bingeing on one thing for an extended amount of time has never been seriously recommended, and neither has consistently leaving out an otherwise needful nutritional element (carbs aren’t really the devil).

Brain food
So, does the same concept apply to our minds with our choice of reading material? Does it follow that we should have a balanced diet of selections from both the canon and contemporary lit? From fiction and non? From short stories, novels, plays, poetry, essays and biographies? Is literary bingeing bad for the brain? Is consistently leaving out cornerstones of the literary landscape ultimately detrimental? Or is a consume-whatever-suits-your-cranial-palate philosophy acceptable?

I hate brussel sprouts. They smell and taste like stinking, ogre-pleasing, dirty-after-tasting cabbage. But they’re good for you. Is there a literary equivalent to brussel sprouts? Complete this analogy: brussel sprouts:body::________:mind. Can such an analogy be fairly completed? Obviously, I have more questions than answers on this topic.

Why I’m worried
My reading diet has been severely limited lately. Most of it is out of necessity, but I’ll admit that some of it is out of desire. I’m currently taking a time-consuming class, so most of what I’ve been reading lately is a Spanish Civilization textbook. On the other hand, I’ve also gotten swept up in campaign fever and I’ve been bingeing on cnn.com’s political ticker, New York Times op-ed pieces, and issues of Newsweek. Sure, it keeps my appetite for all things political satiated, but is it akin to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner simply because you crave them?

I’m just afraid that my poor brain, while managing on its Spanish Civ/pundit postulation intake, is suffering in the long run.