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What To Do With The Junk

Who is wise? He that learns from every one.
Who is powerful? He that governs his passions.
Who is rich? He that is content.
Who is that? Nobody.
–Benjamin Franklin

So you’re eating well. What on earth to do with that pantry full of staples? That big bottle of corn oil, the cola, the flour, the oats, the cornstarch, the sugar and brown sugar and corn syrup? Do you just throw them away?

Absolutely not! We’re nothing if not thrifty here at askmehowithappened.com, so here’s some things to do with that stuff besides poison yourself with it. Continue reading What To Do With The Junk

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly III

Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.

― Criss Jami

We’ve looked at the good. We’ve looked at some bad. Now…the ugly.

  • Eating protein will kill you in middle age, and then somehow–magic, I think we can assume–becomes protective after age 65. Variations of this article came out all over the news about two weeks ago. It was such a headline that I had several people ask me about it. It took me about a week to get the time to find the actual study, and then more time to get around to writing about it. But here we go.

As you probably already guessed from the idiotic statement that the same protein that will kill you if you’re 64 will suddenly protect you from death once you turn 65, this is a load of baloney. This contention alone ought to be enough to put every reasonable person on alert. Continue reading The Good, The Bad and The Ugly III

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly II

I’ve always thought that explaining how science goes wrong is the best way to explain how science really works. There is a beauty in the clever ways that trials can be rigged by design, and it speaks to the reasons we do trials in the first place: because we want them to be fair test of which treatment works best. 

–Ben Goldacre

In the first installment, we looked at a couple good things in the news of health and nutrition. But sadly, there’s even more in the bad and ugly. Today…the bad. Tomorrow…the ugly–a brazen attempt by “researchers” with a vested financial interest in non-animal protein sources to scare you into not eating meat. It’s very ugly, and it’s what I’m most anxious to get to. Several of you Faithful Readers have also asked me about it, and your suspicions are right: it’s horrific science and meaningless to your eating habits.

However I don’t wish to ignore other bad science. That wouldn’t be fair, so I’ll restrain myself and save the protein article for the last post.

The Bad:

Continue reading The Good, the Bad and the Ugly II

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly I

There’s a patch of old snow in a corner
That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I’ve forgotten —
If I ever read it.
–Robert Frost

There’s good, bad and ugly in the news. How about the roundup? We’ll start with the good.

The Good:

Experimental Fun

While you are experimenting, do not remain content with the surface of things.

–Ivan Pavlov

In the last post you’ll perhaps recall our Calorie Math™ conundrum. I had exercised about 400 calories worth and then eaten over 2,800 calories that day. Despite being told that I should eat 1,300ish calories to lose a pound in the course of a whole week and 1,660 calories to stay at the same weight, I somehow managed by the next day to reach the smallest number I’ve yet seen on the scale.

After eating all that, I wasn’t particularly hungry for a few days. I ate what I wanted; and I have now gone to the trouble of figuring out that it ran around 1,500 calories a day. Yet despite under-eating for several days, I didn’t lose any weight. Stayed the same. This is fairly typical.

The other day, however, I wondered: What if I ate 2,800 again, only this time with a large proportion of carbohydrates?

LET’S SEE!!

Continue reading Experimental Fun

2 + 2 = 4ish

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

–Albert Einstein

Anymore, I can’t resist the ads that pop up on my screen inviting me to investigate some surefire way to lose weight. I almost always know what I’ll find, and I’m always excited that it might be good fodder for the blog. Since I’m regularly researching health news now, the ads come fast and furious no matter what I’m doing.

Plus, I like to blow up online calculators.

Continue reading 2 + 2 = 4ish

Eggstraordinary

An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow.

–Benjamin Franklin

When you saw the title you probably thought I was going to talk about the amazing goodness of eggs. I could, but I’m not. If you want to know more, read here.

No, what I’m going to talk about is how I managed to eat eggs, being allergic, and one recipe for a fun way to eat them.

Continue reading Eggstraordinary

Who’s Hungry?

The belly is an ungrateful wretch. It never remembers past favors; it always wants more tomorrow.

–Alexander Solzhenitsyn

It’s time to think about some more recipes! There are, by the way, some great sites out there to search for Primal or Paleo style recipes. If you haven’t already found some you like, I’ll provide some links. Some of them will or will not use dairy–if you use dairy, you might have more luck googling “low carb” and “primal” than “paleo.” Some of them fully embrace the whole carbs-that-aren’t-carbs idea, which I’m not a huge fan of. But there’s some great recipes, as well as ideas to get you using your own imagination. It’s not all just bacon and eggs people!

It’s mostly bacon and eggs, but not all.
Continue reading Who’s Hungry?

Some One Had Blunder’d

‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldiers knew
  Some one had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

–Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Before we begin, calm yourself by watching the video delicious sardines. I took it at an aquarium in Japan. It’s called the Sardine Tornado, which would be a great thing for Aquaman to be able to create, if you ask me.

Continue reading Some One Had Blunder’d

Ours is But To Do Or Die

“Poirot,” I said. “I have been thinking.”
“An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.”

–Agatha Christie

In the last post we asked the question: WHY? Why so much sugar in a recipe when it wasn’t necessary for taste or texture?

Today I have a new “why.” It comes from this article, a form of which has come out on every major American news agency going. If you don’t care to read it all, I’ll summarize: you should now brush your baby’s teeth with fluoride toothpaste so he won’t get a cavity before he’s five, like most kids do.

WHY? Why should I give fluoride to a small child? Why has the cavity situation grown so dire that kids are developing them that young? I want to give the American Dental Association the benefit of the doubt. I can’t imagine it’s fun for a dentist to treat a five-year-old’s cavity, so I understand the dentists’ perspective here.

Continue reading Ours is But To Do Or Die