Tag: fat

Mass Confusion

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.

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I’m Ok, You’re Ok

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:

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Don’t Give Up The Fat!

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.

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What’s In Your Fridge

May your phone never run out of battery and your refrigerator never run out of food.

–Ancient Cathodic Blessing

Here’s what’s in mine after a month’s meat order arrived and two weeks of grocery stocking:

  • Coconut milk–1 gallon
  • Mascarpone–2 pounds
  • Creme Fraiche–35 ounces
  • Greek yogurt–25 ounces
  • Coconut oil–.5 quarts
  • Soda water–10-15 cans
  • Eggs–94
  • Bacon–4 1/2 pounds
  • Beef in steak, ground and roast forms–22 pounds
  • Leg of lamb–5 pounds
  • Chickens–8.3 pounds
  • Goat’s cheese–2 pounds
  • Cow’s cheese (different kinds)–2 pounds
  • MCT oil–20 ounces
  • Butter, salted and unsalted–3.5 pounds
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Bell peppers
  • Mint
  • Tomato
  • Cilantro
  • Cucumbers
  • Strawberries
  • Dill pickles
  • Pepperocinis
  • Apples
  • Coconut–a
  • Lemons–many, many lemons

I’ll also be eating some chocolate, some pecans, some macadamia nuts, a little peanut butter, cocoa powder, and the occasional raisin. But what’s in the fridge is pretty much it.
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Stuff and Bother

It was the year my Aunt Clara went to visit her cousin. Now, her cousin was not only gifted on the glockenspiel, but being a screech owl, also sang soprano in the London Opera.

–Owl

The long silence has been due to illness. I got the flu and it was just too much to blog while living the rest of life. The main problem was not the illness per se, but all the pollution that greatly exacerbates the breathing difficulties of any illness that affects the respiratory system.

However other than having difficulty breathing, which is related to air quality, this illness was not nearly as bad as it used to be.

This is one of the benefits of living a life without refined flours and sugars: better health in general. You don’t get as sick as often, and generally when you do get sick it isn’t as debilitating or as lengthy. We all understand here that I’m talking about common illnesses, right? I can’t say what will happen if you go get malaria, tuberculosis, or polio.
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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

A Dairy Good Time Was Had By All

After cheese comes nothing.

–English Proverb (from the Latin)

Having discussed whether we should avoid dairy entirely solely because our supposed Paleolithic ancestors are believed not to have eaten it, let’s now consider a couple other thoughts, shall we?

The next thing to think about is this:

2. What’s up with the conflicting studies? Why does one study show that dairy will kill you, while another claims that it is a health food?

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Fallout

Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.

–Laurence J. Peter

You knew it would happen. Thanksgiving is over, and now we must be subjected to a slew of articles about how to lose that holiday pound. Some of this advice is even packaged in implications designed to make you feel guilty: if you/us big fat Americans didn’t eat all this meat and all this fat at the holidays and get all fat and lazy and gorge yourselves/ourselves on fat and meat the whole world would be a better place.

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No Hospitality For Trouble

You can’t keep trouble from coming, but you don’t have to give it a chair to sit on. 

–New England Proverb

When I was visiting Brother #3 in this summer he asked me:

Is there anything your magic diet doesn’t help with?

We both laughed–it was meant in jest, and he himself had seen some real benefits from changing up his way of eating. But what I said and thought at the time is: No. It does help just about everything.

Even though you weren’t there at the time, I’d like to clarify that statement for you. By it, I do not mean that I think eschewing grains, sugars, and Frankenfats and eating lots of saturated fat and meat is a miracle cure of any ailment. There are three things I do mean:

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