Government is not reason, it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
-George Washington
George Washington could have said that about a lot of things. There are many things in this world that are fine in certain context, but when it gets out of control: look out.
I’m sure you’re thinking of some others right now…
–Mao Zedong (Mount Liupan)
Over the last few years I have heard and read a lot of people who insist that exercise is dependent upon carbohydrates to some degree or another. Some of them will assert that this is the case for just about any exercise other than taking a leisurely stroll, such as these guys at the bodybuilders.com website:
–Daffy Duck
I keep meaning to write about salt, and then I see insanity like what I’m about to share with you today. I feel constantly compelled to write about it lest someone be fooled. Of course, no one is actually reading my blog and thousands of people are reading these articles, so it’s much like hoping you can stop a tornado with a desk fan.
First in the WAIT JUST A COTTON-PICKIN’ MINUTE category we have this headline: N.J., Del, still getting fatter, says report; Pa already is. (Any of you who work in editing might be advised to calm down. Don’t smack the desk with your head. It’ll only hurt.) Now first, weren’t we just told a few months ago that we’re not getting fatter anymore? That we’d reached Maximum Fatness? More importantly…are these people serious?!?!? Here’s the explanation from the brain trust behind this study:
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are many confusing things in the world today. Just scroll through the headlines.
I know I’m confused. For example, I’m confused about why anyone cares if Alec Baldwin yelled at someone again? And I’m really perplexed about why anyone with the sense God gave a squirrel–celebrity or not–would take a picture of themselves naked and then put it into a “cloud” of digital information that is out of their own control. And why are people confused that nations who have been enemies for all of their existence are shooting at and invading one another? And those are just the first three questions that popped into my head after scanning this morning’s headlines.
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.
― Dale Carnegie
Every morning I get a slew of articles on health. I read them when I have time, which unfortunately is not often these days. But today there were several that were just too good to pass up. To start us off right, let’s read about this poor woman:
I am proud to be an American. Because an American can eat anything on the face of this earth as long as he has two pieces of bread.
-Bill Cosby
On my vacation in America, I have learned some very important things. This is my second time to really observe Americans in the wild since eating differently, and here’s some of what I gleaned:
Diet Coke with lemon…didn’t that used to be called Pledge?
–Jay Leno
Not long ago I was at a friend’s house. My friends are pretty typical Americans. They have a large kitchen with two long counters, a normal American-sized fridge and freezer, above- and below-counter cabinets, and a pantry. Here’s what was in them:
Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.
–Leonardo DaVinci
If you read any news from the low-carb/Paleo sort of world, you can’t help but have been assaulted recently by all the screaming about resistant starch. It’s the New Big Thing.
Now, don’t let my sarcasm fool you. There might really be something to it. The theory seems sound. It’s just that a lot of stuff remains unproven and is down to personal experience. That doesn’t mean everyone promoting it won’t be proven correct in the next few years. It just means a lot remains unknown. Plus, I’m always leery of the New Big Thing. So let’s talk very briefly about what it is and what’s going on. I’m just going to do a basic rundown because there are far better, in-depth analyses of this that have been done by others. If you want to really get into this, I recommend these:
The rate of cardiovascular disease suffered by both rural and urban Chinese males is almost indistinguishable from the rate experienced by American males, while the rates…for both rural and urban Chinese women is significantly higher than those suffered by American females….The notion that the Chinese don’t have disease of the heart…is what we like to call a vampire myth–it simply refuses to die.
–Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades
They go on to explain that part of the issue leading to confusion is that heart disease normally manifests as stroke in the Chinese, but as heart attack in Americans. A city-dwelling Chinese man only has half the heart attack risk of his American comrade–but six times the stroke risk. The underlying cause is exactly the same: coronary heart disease.
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.
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.
Ask Me How It Happened 