Bringing Good Cheer

Now grocer’s trade
Is in request,
For plums and spices
Of the best
Good cheer doth with
This month agree,
And dainty chaps
Must sweetned be.
Mirth and gladness
Doth abound,
And strong beer in
Each house is found.
Minc’d pies, roast beef
With other cheer
And feasting, doth
Conclude the year.

–”Poor Robin” 1677

As you head into Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and then New Year’s and all the attendant feasting, what kind of a plan do you have?

I can’t tell you what plan will work for you; I can only tell you what my plan is. Read it if you like; ignore it if you will; adopt parts for yourself and throw out what you don’t like. It’s up to you–just don’t go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house with nothing more than a vague hope that you’d like to “eat well.”

To develop a good plan, you need to know the ground. It’s no good figuring out how to arrange the cavalry if you don’t even know in which direction the enemy is. In our case, the preliminary information we need is from our new, and better, understanding of reality.

Continue reading Bringing Good Cheer

Stu·pid (ˈst(y)o͞opid/)

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

I had intended to write another post about information from the last Scientific American article. I also plan another recipes post. But my attention was drawn last night to this article, and the stupidity involved was so spectacular that I couldn’t let it pass without a comment.

It really makes me depressed, and what makes me depressed isn’t the behavior of the McDonald’s patrons. Instead it’s the spectacular ignorance of human nature displayed by the designers, analyzers and reporters in question. It’s so stupid that I sat here for a few seconds just now trying to decide if I even had the heart to discuss it.

Continue reading Stu·pid (ˈst(y)o͞opid/)

Calories In, Calories Out

If the mind, that rules the body, ever so far forgets itself as to trample on its slave, the slave is never generous enough to forgive the injury, but will rise and smite the oppressor.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you’re not familiar with the term “calories in, calories out,” or CICO, it refers to the dearly held belief that somehow the laws of thermodynamics demand that if we eat X number of calories (energy in) and expend Y number of calories (energy out) that our weight will change by Z according to how much we over- or under- ate our caloric needs. This formula is trotted out as the ultimate answer for obesity.

And it’s idiotic.

Continue reading Calories In, Calories Out