As I head off to a family reunion this weekend, thoughts of good times and plenty of food fill my head. It’s summer and of course BBQ will be the mainstay of our evening meals.Always the consummate life insurance agent, I had pegged the travel as our biggest mortality risk. No problem. I’m a pretty safe driver, especially when my wife is with me.

So, as I am packing up and getting ready to head for Wyoming I come across an article that I clearly don’t want to see about the dangers of BBQ’d food. Coming on the heels of finding out that my favorite bottled water, AquaFina, is nothing more than filtered tap water, well, my world is a bit shaken.

The warnings were of increased risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer. I was relieved to find out that BBQ was not on the banned list, but rather that certain guidelines should be used when preparing the food, guidelines that I seemed to be at least already somewhat aware of.

I remember a time recently when I came to the realization that the chances of me making it to a long natural life were pretty slim if you put any stock in all of the studies of unhealthy habits, lifestyles, food, and even medicine. Fortunately there is at least a chance, as none of the studies say that all of us who do a certain thing will come to a premature demise.

Bottom line. We can’t avoid everything that might have some chance of causing us harm, but we can at least stay aware of those things that we know aren’t good for us. So, no Transfat milk shakes for me this weekend.