I often focus on the bigger facets of the disease of civilization. Things like cardiovascular disease and cancer, which are major killers and the subject of intensive research. But the disease of civilization is a spectrum of disorders that affects the body in countless ways, large and small.
I recently read an interesting paper written by an all-star cast, including Loren Cordain, Staffan Lindeberg and Boyd Eaton. It's titled "Acne Vulgaris: A Disease of Western Civilization". The paper presents data from two different groups, the Kitavans of Papua New Guinea and the Ache hunter-gatherers of Paraguay. Both were systematically examined by doctors trained to diagnose acne. Out of 1,200 Kitavans and 115 Ache of all ages, not a single case of acne was observed. Hunter-gatherers and other healthy non-industrial cultures have nice skin. I dare you to find a pimple in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
In Western societies, acne is a fact of life. The paper states that 79 to 95% of modern adolescents suffer from some degree of acne, along with about 50% of young adults. That's an enormous difference.
The paper presents a very Cordain-esque hypothesis to explain the high incidence of acne in Western societies. In sum, they state that the Western diet causes hyperinsulinemia, which is thought to promote acne. This is due to insulin's effects on skin cell proliferation, its interference with the retinoid (vitamin A) signaling pathway, and its effect on sebum production.
They then proceed to point the finger at the glycemic index/load of the Western diet as the culprit behind hyperinsulinemia. It's an unsatisfying explanation because the Kitavans eat a diet that has a high glycemic load due to its high carbohydrate content, low fat content, and relatively high-glycemic index foods. I think the answer is more likely to reside in the specific types of carbohydrate (processed wheat) rather than their speed of digestion, with possible contributions from refined vegetable oil and an excessive sugar intake.
nachos
Ingredients:
2 cups Cooked pinto (or black, or whatever!) beans, cook down the water
or
A can of pinto or black (or whatever!) beans. cook up an onion in some water, and add some cumin and oregano, then add that to the beans. can add some cilantro and lime too.
or
A can of no-fat refried beans
A ripe avocado
some cilantro or your favorite herb
Salsa which you can buy or make by cutting up a fresh tomato (or use ones from a can) and a little onion, little hot pepper if you like, little cilantro, little lime
Soft corn tortillas
A lime
It's basically, beans, guacamole, and salsa on corn tortillas. blend the beans in the blender to make the bean dip. For the guacamole, mash the avocado with a little garlic, lime, and cilantro. Cut up the tortillas into chip-size wedges. Add the bean spread, top with salsa and guacamole. Put in the oven on 350 degrees for 6 minutes. Not too long or the chips get overdone and hard to chew. Housemate really liked it. I thought it was good.
Collard green smoothie
I recommend this only for advanced green smoothie drinkers. For newbies, substitute spinach and/or baby romaine for the collard greens and kale. Or try this one.
Ingredients:
3-4 large collard green stalks
a couple of kale leaves and/or spinach if you want.
1 banana
a bag of frozen berries
1 cup orange juice or other juice
2 Tbsps ground flaxseeds (optional)
1-2 Tbsp sunflower or pumpkin seeds (optional)
1-2 Tbsp sunflower or pumpkin seeds (optional)
any ripe fruit you want to throw in (optional)
1-3 tsp of lemon juice
Blend the seeds and juice. Rip the greens off the stalks and blend them. add the bananas and berries and blend some more. If you need more liquid, add some water or juice or non-dairy milk. This makes 2-3 servings depending on how much extra fruit or greens you add (more than a quart). The lemon juice is good for taking out the bitter taste of the greens but don't put in too much or it gets too lemony. When starting out, use smaller amounts of greens. Over time, you start liking it more and more and add more and more.
sept. 28-29 food
sept. 28
Breakfast: rest of yesterdays green smoothie.
Lunch: nachos
Dinner: leftover ratatouille. dessert, apple. later on, oops, 4 (eek) dates stuffed with walnuts. I was bad. oh well, the dates are gone now. Ironically I'm not in the mood for them right now which is why I finished them off.
sept. 29
Breakfast: Collard green smoothie. This was good enough I finally made a recipe out of it.Lunch: leftover ratatouille. dessert, 2 small apples.
Dinner: rest of green smoothie.
I'm super busy at work for at least a few weeks, so will probably drink two smoothies a day a lot. It takes less time and hopefully gives me more energy.
The Meaning of Mission
I just returned from ROME, Italy, following a spiritual retreat for the Board of Trustees of Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP) a large not for profit system headquartered in Cincinnati OH. I have been on the CHP Board for ten years and this retreat was the culmination of our visits to the "mother houses" of the orders of sisters who have come together to help form the system. For me, this was a journey to learn more about the mission of CHP and to see it in action in real time!! We visited various key Vatican dicasteries, or Papal Offices, concerned with health care world wide. We had a chance to meet with key leaders within the dicasteries and to further our understanding of the role of the Catholic Church in global health issues. Among the highlights of the trip was our participation in the weekly Papal audience with our special seats just a few feet away from the Holy Father.CHP is a mission driven organization with a core goal of taking care of the poor and underserved. In these challenging times, seeing the mission in real life and almost being able to actually "touch" it made me better appreciate its meaning. As always, I am interested in your views here too. Thanks for your support, DAVID NASH
Ratatouille
This is just eggplant, tomatoes, other vegetables on hand, and herbs cooked together in a pot. At the store last night I was looking for local vegetables and ended up with eggplant and parsnips.
Ingredients:
1 eggplant
2 16 oz cans tomatoes
The rest is whatever vegetables and herbs you have on hand. here is what I had:
2 small green peppers
some mushrooms
a giant leek (or onion)
6 garlic cloves chopped
3 parsnips
a bunch of kale chopped
edamame (boiled and shelled)
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
5 fresh figs
lots of basil, some tarragon, rosemary and marjorum from the garden, chopped
sept. 27 food
Breakfast: green smoothie. this is pretty much the spinach-mango green smoothie but I am still low on bananas so used fresh figs and pineapple instead of the banana. I don't desire the dates for sweetening anymore, because I like the fruit sweetening and the taste of the greens now. I went grocery shopping last night and got an 8 oz bag of locally grown spinach, yum, so that's what I used instead of the garden collard greens and kale which are still flourishing. I'll get back to those tomorrow. I also got the fresh figs. I really like those now. And I got some bananas but they can use a day or two of ripening.
Late lunch: Ratatouille. I had several helpings so called it dinner too.
Dessert: 2 small apples and a small pear (all local--so juicy!)
sept. 26 food
breakfast: rest of yesterday's green smoothie
lunch: what was left in the fridge: 2 beets, a sweet potato, half a leek, fresh local edamame (yum!), half a cauliflower. I started the beets, leek and cauliflower boiling in maybe a cup of water. then cooked the edamame separately (boil for a few minutes) and shelled them (squirt the peas out of the pod), then added the sweet potatoes, cooked for about 10-15 more minutes, added the edamame, added some chives, parsley and basil from the garden. It was very good. the water boils away mostly so you get all the nutrients. dessert was an orange.
dinner: leftover lunch, dessert was an apple. it was locally grown and, wow, they are much better than the ones shipped from thousands of miles away. then I was bad when I got home and snacked on a couple of dates with walnuts (take the pits out of the dates, replace them with walnuts, microwave for 10 seconds), and another small apple.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is milder form of NASH, in which the liver becomes enlarged and accumulates fat. Ready for a shocker? The prevalence of NAFLD is thought to be between 20 and 30 percent in the Western world, and rising. It's typically associated with insulin resistance and often with the metabolic syndrome. This has lead some researchers to believe it's caused by insulin resistance. It's a chicken and egg question, but I believe it's the other way around if anything.
There are certain animal models of human disease that are so informative I keep coming back to them again and again. One of my favorites is the LIRKO mouse, or liver-specific insulin receptor knockout mouse. The LIRKO mouse is missing its insulin receptor in the liver only, so it is a model of severe insulin resistance of the liver. It accumulates a small amount of fat in its liver in old age, but nothing that resembles NAFLD. So liver insulin resistance doesn't lead to NAFLD or NASH, at least in this model.
What else happens to the LIRKO mouse? It develops severe whole-body insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, high fasting blood glucose and hyperinsulinemia (chronically elevated insulin). So insulin resistance in the liver is sufficient to cause whole-body insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and certain other hallmarks of the metabolic syndrome, while liver and whole-body insulin resistance are not sufficient to cause NAFLD or NASH. This is consistent with the fact that nearly everyone with NAFLD is insulin resistant, while many who are insulin resistant do not have NAFLD.
In all fairness, there are reasons why NAFLD is believed to be caused by insulin resistance. For example, insulin-sensitizing drugs improve NAFLD. However, that doesn't mean the initial metabolic 'hit' wasn't in the liver. One could imagine a scenario in which liver insulin resistance leads to insulin resistance in other tissues, which creates a positive feedback that aggravates NAFLD. Or perhaps NAFLD requires two 'hits', one to peripheral insulin sensitivity and another directly to the liver.
In any case, I feel that the most plausible mechanism for NAFLD goes something like this: too much n-6 from polyunsaturated vegetable oil (along with insufficient n-3), plus too much fructose from sweeteners, combine to cause NAFLD. The liver becomes insulin resistant at this point, leading to whole-body insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, impaired glucose tolerance and general metabolic havoc.
There are certain animal models of human disease that are so informative I keep coming back to them again and again. One of my favorites is the LIRKO mouse, or liver-specific insulin receptor knockout mouse. The LIRKO mouse is missing its insulin receptor in the liver only, so it is a model of severe insulin resistance of the liver. It accumulates a small amount of fat in its liver in old age, but nothing that resembles NAFLD. So liver insulin resistance doesn't lead to NAFLD or NASH, at least in this model.
What else happens to the LIRKO mouse? It develops severe whole-body insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, high fasting blood glucose and hyperinsulinemia (chronically elevated insulin). So insulin resistance in the liver is sufficient to cause whole-body insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and certain other hallmarks of the metabolic syndrome, while liver and whole-body insulin resistance are not sufficient to cause NAFLD or NASH. This is consistent with the fact that nearly everyone with NAFLD is insulin resistant, while many who are insulin resistant do not have NAFLD.
In all fairness, there are reasons why NAFLD is believed to be caused by insulin resistance. For example, insulin-sensitizing drugs improve NAFLD. However, that doesn't mean the initial metabolic 'hit' wasn't in the liver. One could imagine a scenario in which liver insulin resistance leads to insulin resistance in other tissues, which creates a positive feedback that aggravates NAFLD. Or perhaps NAFLD requires two 'hits', one to peripheral insulin sensitivity and another directly to the liver.
In any case, I feel that the most plausible mechanism for NAFLD goes something like this: too much n-6 from polyunsaturated vegetable oil (along with insufficient n-3), plus too much fructose from sweeteners, combine to cause NAFLD. The liver becomes insulin resistant at this point, leading to whole-body insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, impaired glucose tolerance and general metabolic havoc.
sept 25, 2008 food
breakfast: rest of yesterday's green smoothie
lunch: rest of yesterday's daal with peas and quinoa. This was even better today because I added orange juice. I also put in a bit too much cilantro so I'll have to remember not to try to fix a recipe with cilantro. I really like this dish now. I will update the recipe to include the orange juice. Also had a salad--lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms (all local!), and leftover blueberry dressing that I froze (made from frozen blueberries, figs and sunflower seeds).
dinner: green smoothie. I'm low on bananas so this one had 2 large collard greens, a bunch of kale leaves, a bag of concord grapes (local, and good!), and a frozen bag of cherries. and then the usual Tbsp each of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (raw and in my freezer), and 2 Tbsp of ground flax seeds. I put in the extra seeds since I split this into two servings. I also had a delicious local pear. This is a great time of year for local food!
I've gotten pretty good at not snacking lately. Fuhrman is right that once you do it for a while (just a few days in my case), and if you eat healthy, you lose your "toxic hunger" that most people get a few hours after eating. This makes life simpler because I spend less time thinking about eating and more time on the rest of life, which is probably healthy mentally. I'm slowly getting over my trip exhaustion. Could that have been the detox that Fuhrman talks about when you stop eating unhealthy food?
daal with quinoa and peas
This uses the daal recipe, and adds quinoa and peas and 1/2 cup orange juice. it was easy and good.
I started with the daal recipe but only put in 1 cup of lentils and half the spices. I soaked the quinoa in water for the first 20 minutes while the daal cooked, then rinsed it and added it (soaking is not necessary but I understand rinsing removes a bitter taste). About 20 minutes later I added the peas, and 5 minutes later it was done and I added the lemon and cilantro. actually you can then wait about 15 minutes for it to cool and it cooks a bit more. so an hour's cooking time is about right. It tasted a bit flat without salt (I must have got used to salt during my last trip) so I added a chopped fresh ripe fig to each bowl. That was yummy. You could substitute any sweet like grapes or dates or maple syrup or agave nectar. Alternatively, the next day I added 1/2 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed). This was easier and tasted great. It didn't feel flat anymore. I like this a lot, better than regular daal. Plus the dilution of the lentils gave me much less bloating and gas!
blueberry fig sorbet
This is pretty much stolen from Dr. Fuhrman's website, though I use orange juice instead of pomegranate. oh, so I changed 1/3 of the ingredients so maybe that's okay...(rationalization).
Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen blueberries
2-3 fresh figs or dried figs (may have to soak a bit)
about 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
blend in a blender. I think this is my favorite dessert! I must be weird. It's not even that sweet but it is so creamy and tastes just right to me. if you want it sweeter you could replace some of the juice with maple syrup or agave nectar.
what this blog is about
Just a quick note to clarify what I'm doing here: I'm sharing what I eat to show that it's easy to eat healthily. However, it's completely foreign compared to the Standard American Diet, so this is meant as a guide to this foreign way of eating. What better way to learn than by example?
For a few weeks I was writing down my exercise but I don't want to put in the effort to continue that. Plus, that is not so easy to emulate. Everyone has different schedules and environments and most people can figure out how to get their exercise if they want to. Suffice it to say I do think exercise is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle and I try to exercise 5-6 days a week.
Next, I should point out that I eat my main meal of the day at lunch due to housemate's schedule. Like everyone else, I have too much to do and don't make the time to cook 3 big meals a day. I make a nice lunch and then scrounge at dinner. The scrounging is usually fun but quick. So if your main meal of the day is dinner, you would be more interested in looking at my lunchtime meals for examples.
that is all I wanted to say at this moment. carry on.
sept 23-24 food
sept. 23 breakfast: rest of yesterday's green smoothie
Lunch: leeks and potatoes. leeks add a nice flavor to potatoes. I just cup up a leek and part of an onion, peeled and cut some potatoes, and boiled them in water for 20 minutes. added some frozen peas in the last 5 minutes. added some chives and parsley from the garden. also made some cabbage salad. This was the best yet and the easiest. I will update the recipe.
Dinner: cabbage salad and snacked on lettuce while making today's smoothies. I probably ate half a head of lettuce. It was local and fresh and delicious, and I am often too lazy to make a salad but don't mind just eating the lettuce as is. I also had an orange.
sept. 24 breakfast. green smoothie. this had 4 (big) collard green leaves, two bananas, a bag of frozen raspberries, and it needed something else so I added some fresh squeezed orange juice--that goes really well with green smoothies. plus I added my usual 1 Tbsp each of flaxseeds and sunflower seeds.
lunch: I made daal with quinoa and sweet peas. I thought this was very good.
dinner: cabbage salad, followed by my favorite dessert: blueberry-fig sorbet. I absolutely love this. I'm not sure why. It sounds kind of boring and it's not super sweet. I ate the whole thing, but it probably wasn't even that many calories, 200-300?
Agave Syrup
Anna brought up agave syrup in a comment on the last post, so I thought I'd put up a little mini-post so everyone can benefit from what she pointed out.
Agave syrup is made from the heart of the agave plant, which is pressed to release a juice rich in inulin. Inulin is a polymer made of fructose molecules. The inulin is then broken down either by heat or by enzymatic processing. The result is a sweet syrup that is rich in fructose.
Agave syrup is marketed as a healthy, alternative sweetener. In fact, it's probably as bad or worse than high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They are both a refined and processed plant extract. Both are high in fructose, with agave syrup leading HFCS (estimates of agave syrup range up to 92% fructose by calories). Finally, agave syrup is expensive and inefficient to produce.
The high fructose content gives agave syrup a low glycemic index, because fructose does not raise blood glucose. Unfortunately, as some diabetics learned the hard way, using fructose as a substitute for sucrose (cane sugar) has negative long-term effects on insulin sensitivity.
In my opinion, sweeteners come with risks and there is no free lunch. The only solution is moderation.
Agave syrup is made from the heart of the agave plant, which is pressed to release a juice rich in inulin. Inulin is a polymer made of fructose molecules. The inulin is then broken down either by heat or by enzymatic processing. The result is a sweet syrup that is rich in fructose.
Agave syrup is marketed as a healthy, alternative sweetener. In fact, it's probably as bad or worse than high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They are both a refined and processed plant extract. Both are high in fructose, with agave syrup leading HFCS (estimates of agave syrup range up to 92% fructose by calories). Finally, agave syrup is expensive and inefficient to produce.
The high fructose content gives agave syrup a low glycemic index, because fructose does not raise blood glucose. Unfortunately, as some diabetics learned the hard way, using fructose as a substitute for sucrose (cane sugar) has negative long-term effects on insulin sensitivity.
In my opinion, sweeteners come with risks and there is no free lunch. The only solution is moderation.
How to Fatten Your Liver
Steatohepatitis is a condition in which the liver becomes inflamed and accumulates fat. It was formerly found almost exclusively in alcoholics. In the 1980s, a new condition was described called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), basically steatohepatitis without the alcoholism. Today, NASH is thought to affect more than 2% of the adult American population. The liver has many important functions. It's not an organ you want to break.
This week, I've been reading about how to fatten your liver. First up: industrial vegetable oil. The study that initially sent me on this nerd safari was recently published in the Journal of Nutrition. It's titled "Increased Apoptosis in High-Fat Diet–Induced Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis in Rats Is Associated with c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase Activation and Elevated Proapoptotic Bax". Quite a mouthful. The important thing for the purpose of this post is that the investigators fed rats a high-fat diet, which induced NASH.
Anytime a study mentions a "high-fat diet", I immediately look to see what they were actually feeding the animals. To my utter amazement, there was no information on the composition of the high-fat diet in the methods section, only a reference to another paper. Apparently fat composition is irrelevant. Despite the fact that a high-fat diet from coconut oil or butter does not produce NASH in rats. Fortunately, I was able to track down the reference. The only difference between the standard diet and the high-fat diet was the addition of a large amount of corn oil and the subtraction of carbohydrate (dextrin maltose).
Corn oil is one of the worst vegetable oils. You've eaten corn so you know it's not an oily seed. To concentrate the oil and make it palatable, manufacturers use organic solvents, high heat, and several rounds of chemical treatment. It's also extremely rich in n-6 linoleic acid. The consumption of corn oil and other n-6 rich oils has risen dramatically in the US in the last 30 years, making them prime suspects in NASH. They have replaced the natural (more saturated) fats we once got from meat and milk.
Next up: fructose. Feeding rats an extreme amount of fructose (60% of calories) gives them nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), NASH's younger sibling, even when the fat in their chow is lard. Given the upward trend of US fructose consumption (mostly from high-fructose corn syrup), and the refined sugar consumed everywhere else (50% fructose), it's also high on my list of suspects.
Here's my prescription for homemade foie gras: take one serving of soybean oil fried french fries, a basket of corn oil fried chicken nuggets, a healthy salad drenched in cottonseed oil ranch dressing, and wash it all down with a tall cup of soda. It's worked for millions of Americans!
This week, I've been reading about how to fatten your liver. First up: industrial vegetable oil. The study that initially sent me on this nerd safari was recently published in the Journal of Nutrition. It's titled "Increased Apoptosis in High-Fat Diet–Induced Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis in Rats Is Associated with c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase Activation and Elevated Proapoptotic Bax". Quite a mouthful. The important thing for the purpose of this post is that the investigators fed rats a high-fat diet, which induced NASH.
Anytime a study mentions a "high-fat diet", I immediately look to see what they were actually feeding the animals. To my utter amazement, there was no information on the composition of the high-fat diet in the methods section, only a reference to another paper. Apparently fat composition is irrelevant. Despite the fact that a high-fat diet from coconut oil or butter does not produce NASH in rats. Fortunately, I was able to track down the reference. The only difference between the standard diet and the high-fat diet was the addition of a large amount of corn oil and the subtraction of carbohydrate (dextrin maltose).
Corn oil is one of the worst vegetable oils. You've eaten corn so you know it's not an oily seed. To concentrate the oil and make it palatable, manufacturers use organic solvents, high heat, and several rounds of chemical treatment. It's also extremely rich in n-6 linoleic acid. The consumption of corn oil and other n-6 rich oils has risen dramatically in the US in the last 30 years, making them prime suspects in NASH. They have replaced the natural (more saturated) fats we once got from meat and milk.
Next up: fructose. Feeding rats an extreme amount of fructose (60% of calories) gives them nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), NASH's younger sibling, even when the fat in their chow is lard. Given the upward trend of US fructose consumption (mostly from high-fructose corn syrup), and the refined sugar consumed everywhere else (50% fructose), it's also high on my list of suspects.
Here's my prescription for homemade foie gras: take one serving of soybean oil fried french fries, a basket of corn oil fried chicken nuggets, a healthy salad drenched in cottonseed oil ranch dressing, and wash it all down with a tall cup of soda. It's worked for millions of Americans!
"Spaghetti"
Ingredients:
small or part of an onion
few cloves garlic
1 16 oz can tomatoes
several leaves fresh basil (5-ish)
other herbs you like if you have them (I used my favorite, chives)
1 carrot
1 medium zucchini
2 Tbsp pine nuts
This serves 1, so double it for 2. Cut up onions and garlic into not small pieces, say 0.5-1 inch. Start cooking them in juice from can of tomatoes. Grate the carrot into the cooking pan. Let this cook for say 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, until onions are tender. Add the basil and herbs.
Now for the fun part. Peel the zucchini and then run it through a spiralizer. Here's a link showing a spiralizer from amazon.com (if it gets out of date just type zucchini spiralizer into google and you'll find one). This was my first use of my new spiralizer and it is really cool and easy to use. The result looks just like cooked angel hair pasta, but zucchini is way healthier and I really like raw zucchini.
Next, toast the pine nuts in a pan on the stove (no oil). Then smash them in a mortar&pestal, or grind them a little in a coffee grinder, or smash them however you can think of. Pour the tomato sauce on top of the "angel hair" zucchini, and top with the pine nuts.
I enjoyed this a lot, but if you are used to a lot of oil and salt you may notice the lack of salt. For a treat, you could add olives, which are salty. I might do that next time for a treat.
food sept 21-22
Yesterday and today I was exhausted! I slept well both nights but I think the excesses of my trip must have caught up to me. Let's see, there was jet-lag, caffeine (not much but enough), alcohol (maybe a little too much), adrenaline, sleep deprivation while in Germany, and not my usual healthy eating. I'm not sure what dominated but I've only felt this exhausted once before and that was after a 2-week marathon work situation (working on a Space Shuttle mission) with similar amounts of sleep deprivation and much more adrenaline. Hopefully I will recover soon...
Lunch: salad and fruit salad. the salad was just lettuce, mushrooms and dressing made from blueberries, figs and sunflower seeds blended (really good!). The fruit salad was strawberries, banana and pineapple. It was easy to make this and we had it for a picnic while hiking.
Dinner: rest of smoothie
sept 22 breakfast: green smoothie made from 4 large collard leaves, 2 bananas, an apple, a bag of frozen mangos and an orange.
lunch: 1/2 small watermelon.
early dinner (didn't have enough lunch!): "spaghetti". I enjoyed this a lot, but by now my taste buds have changed so I'm not sure what you'd think if you like a lot of oil and salt.
food Sept. 20, 08
The garden is bursting with collard greens and kale so I may have to eat two green smoothies per day. That's okay because I'm super busy with many things and don't have time to cook dinner anyway. I'm still working out my green smoothie recipe but think I'll post what I try so I can remember what works and what doesn't until I figure it out.
Breakfast: green smoothie with 4 collard leaves, 2 bananas, half a small watermelon (the red seedless didn't taste that good so I put it in the smoothie), a couple of pears. plus vitamins, DHA, and 1 Tbsp flaxseed, and 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds. Those last four ingredients will go into all the smoothies (sunflower seeds would be replaced by almonds or walnuts sometimes). this makes two smoothies. I think it would be better with 3 collard leaves. they are gigantic. tomorrow I'll try 3 and a few kale leaves that need picking. this was an okay smoothie, not great, probably not recipe-worthy. For housemate, I made the usual berry smoothie.
Late Lunch: made some salsa with can of garden tomatoes that didn't seal, onion, chives, green pepper, basil. it could use some cilantro but we didn't have any. Toasted some sprouted corn tortillas with pesto on them. put a spoonful of salsa on them and they were very good. Also, cooked up some edamame, tossed it with some salsa and pesto and ate that up. that was really good.
Late dinner: rest of the green smoothie.
I enjoyed this all more than anything I ate in Germany. and it was so much more healthy. an interesting thing about those green smoothies is that they give me an energy boost, so I don't need coffee.
back from my trip
I got back from Germany yesterday and I'm very jetlagged. As part of my usual splurge when a trip is over with, I ordered a medium decaff soy mocha yesterday. Well, it wasn't decaff! I was nervous all day and couldn't sleep at night despite my lack of sleep from the night before. it was awful. my left eyelid was twitching. That was two shots of espresso. It's mostly worn off now and I'm tired and just have to get through the day. I had a great yoga class today. I always have a great yoga class when I'm jetlagged, I don't know why. Anyway, this blog isn't supposed to be about jetlag. So I was not super healthy on the trip. I drank about one 16 oz beer a day, and German beer is pretty strong. I drank about 1 small decaff soy latte per day. At first I ate too much because going out for lunch and dinner is just too much. Then I got into a groove where I had museli and fruit for breakfast at the hotel, fruit from a fruit stand for lunch, and then dinner from a restaurant. That worked out well. At least I didn't eat too much until the evening . We rotated between Italian and Thai food mostly. I had one meal at a German restaurant, and even though I got all vegan food, it was still rich and gave me a stomach ache. The Italian and Thai places were pretty good. I ate a lot of bread at the Italian place. I hope it didn't have milk in it. I ate curries at the Thai place. Everything tasted very salty since I'm not used to it, especially the bread. I had a great time socially and professionally. It was a great trip. I am weird though the way I succumb to peer pressure with the alcohol. I don't even really like drinking any more and yet I drank. Another weird psychological thing is my desire to splurge when I get home. So I had a Nothing Muffin and two (vegan) cookies at the Co-op when I got home. The muffin was good. The cookies taste like flour and salt. They either aren't good bakers or I'm not a big fan of cookies anymore. But it's weird how I want to splurge on this stuff even when it doesn't even taste that good. For comparison I made a "shake" with frozen banana, carob powder and dates, and it tasted better than the unhealthy stuff I splurged on. but I still wanted to splurge. Maybe it's just a habit that will die away over time as I realize I don't want it that much. It takes me a long time to break habits though I eventually succeeded with the caffeine and alcohol (almost, except when traveling!). oh, a funny thing about the caffeine. it makes my forehead crinkle. I used to have a crinkly forehead all the time and I noticed over the last year that I don't have it anymore. Then yesterday I saw that I had it again. it's the caffeine! it makes my eyes pop open and my forehead crinkle. I notice my friend Mike's forehead does the same and he drinks a lot of coffee. I'm going to start looking more at people's foreheads and see if it's common. My forehead definitely looks better without caffeine.
I went grocery shopping and got all kinds of wonderful food. There's so much local harvest now. And I decided I don't want to be raw, at least not 100%. For one thing, I haven't seen any science that shows it's better. Plus, winter is approaching and to eat raw in Wisconsin, I'd have to get all my food from the tropics. That's not eco-friendly. Plus I am getting in the mood for fall foods like potatoes and squash. I'm even thinking of eating beans again. One thing I recall is that beans didn't used to bother me so much and maybe it's because I used to eat more grains. So I think I'll try eating beans with grains when I eat them. So I'll probably go back to more of the Fuhrman and McDougall eating plans now. That means eating lots of leafy green vegetables and other vegetables, fruit, some grains and beans, and a few nuts and seeds. The thing you should not eat are oils and salt. And I think I might try to avoid wheat since that is not as healthy as other grains. so that should be easy enough. Today I enjoyed my healthy food more than anything I ate in Germany I think. I'll post that next.
A New Toy
I bought a new toy the other day: a blood glucose meter. I was curious about my post-meal blood glucose after my HbA1c reading came back higher than I was expecting. A blood glucose meter is the only way to know what your blood sugar is doing in your normal setting.
"Glucose intolerance" is the inability to effectively control blood glucose as it enters the bloodstream from the digestive system. It results in elevated blood sugar after eating carbohydrate, which is not a good thing. In someone with normal glucose tolerance, insulin is secreted in sufficient amounts, and the tissues are sufficiently sensitive to it, that blood glucose is kept within a fairly tight range of concentrations.
Glucose tolerance is typically the first thing to deteriorate in the process leading to type II diabetes. By the time fasting glucose is elevated, glucose intolerance is usually well established. Jenny Ruhl talks about this in her wonderful book Blood Sugar 101. Unfortunately, fasting glucose is the most commonly administered glucose test. That's because the more telling one, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), is more involved and more expensive.
An OGTT involves drinking a concentrated solution of glucose and monitoring blood glucose at one and two hours. Values of >140 mg/dL at one hour and >120 mg/dL at two hours are considered "normal". If you have access to a blood glucose meter, you can give yourself a makeshift OGTT. You eat 60-70 grams of quickly-digesting carbohydrate with no fat to slow down absorption and monitor your glucose.
I gave myself an OGTT tonight. I ate a medium-sized boiled potato and a large slice of white bread, totaling about 60g of carbohydrate. Potatoes and bread digest very quickly, resulting in a blood glucose spike similar to drinking concentrated glucose! You can see that in the graph below. I ate at time zero. By 15 minutes, my blood glucose had reached its peak at 106 mg/dL.
My numbers were 97 mg/dL at one hour, and 80 mg/dL at two hours; far below the cutoff for impaired glucose tolerance. I completely cleared the glucose by an hour and 45 minutes. My maximum value was 106 mg/dL, also quite good. That's despite the fact that I used more carbohydrate for the OGTT than I would typically eat in a sitting. I hope you like the graph; I had to prick my fingers 10 times to make it! I thought it would look good with a lot of data points.
I'm going to have fun with this glucose meter. I've already gotten some valuable information. For example, just as I suspected, fast-digesting carbohydrate is not a problem for someone with a well-functioning pancreas and insulin-sensitive tissues. This is consistent with what we see in the Kitavans, who eat a high-carbohydrate, high glycemic load diet, yet are extremely healthy. Of course, for someone with impaired glucose tolerance (very common in industrial societies), fast-digesting carbohydrates could be the kiss of death. The big question is, what causes the pancreas to deteriorate and the tissues to become insulin resistant? Considering certain non-industrial societies were eating plenty of carbohydrate with no problems, it must be something about the modern lifestyle: industrially processed grains (particularly wheat), industrial vegetable oils, refined sugar, lack of fat-soluble vitamins, toxic pollutants and inactivity come to mind. One could make a case for any of those factors contributing to the problem.
"Glucose intolerance" is the inability to effectively control blood glucose as it enters the bloodstream from the digestive system. It results in elevated blood sugar after eating carbohydrate, which is not a good thing. In someone with normal glucose tolerance, insulin is secreted in sufficient amounts, and the tissues are sufficiently sensitive to it, that blood glucose is kept within a fairly tight range of concentrations.
Glucose tolerance is typically the first thing to deteriorate in the process leading to type II diabetes. By the time fasting glucose is elevated, glucose intolerance is usually well established. Jenny Ruhl talks about this in her wonderful book Blood Sugar 101. Unfortunately, fasting glucose is the most commonly administered glucose test. That's because the more telling one, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), is more involved and more expensive.
An OGTT involves drinking a concentrated solution of glucose and monitoring blood glucose at one and two hours. Values of >140 mg/dL at one hour and >120 mg/dL at two hours are considered "normal". If you have access to a blood glucose meter, you can give yourself a makeshift OGTT. You eat 60-70 grams of quickly-digesting carbohydrate with no fat to slow down absorption and monitor your glucose.
I gave myself an OGTT tonight. I ate a medium-sized boiled potato and a large slice of white bread, totaling about 60g of carbohydrate. Potatoes and bread digest very quickly, resulting in a blood glucose spike similar to drinking concentrated glucose! You can see that in the graph below. I ate at time zero. By 15 minutes, my blood glucose had reached its peak at 106 mg/dL.
My numbers were 97 mg/dL at one hour, and 80 mg/dL at two hours; far below the cutoff for impaired glucose tolerance. I completely cleared the glucose by an hour and 45 minutes. My maximum value was 106 mg/dL, also quite good. That's despite the fact that I used more carbohydrate for the OGTT than I would typically eat in a sitting. I hope you like the graph; I had to prick my fingers 10 times to make it! I thought it would look good with a lot of data points.
I'm going to have fun with this glucose meter. I've already gotten some valuable information. For example, just as I suspected, fast-digesting carbohydrate is not a problem for someone with a well-functioning pancreas and insulin-sensitive tissues. This is consistent with what we see in the Kitavans, who eat a high-carbohydrate, high glycemic load diet, yet are extremely healthy. Of course, for someone with impaired glucose tolerance (very common in industrial societies), fast-digesting carbohydrates could be the kiss of death. The big question is, what causes the pancreas to deteriorate and the tissues to become insulin resistant? Considering certain non-industrial societies were eating plenty of carbohydrate with no problems, it must be something about the modern lifestyle: industrially processed grains (particularly wheat), industrial vegetable oils, refined sugar, lack of fat-soluble vitamins, toxic pollutants and inactivity come to mind. One could make a case for any of those factors contributing to the problem.
The Assemblies of God
Here's a great article by friend Rich Tatum to help the public understand what the A/G is about in light of Sarah Palin's affiliation.
10 Rules of Political Bluffing
Here's the guts of the article, which is worth reading in whole:
The Ten Rules
What are the Ten Rules to the Academic Bluff for Politicians (which will not set off pundit alarms about your smarts):
1. Never answer a question directly if you can avoid it.
2. Always rephrase or repeat the question using the terms found in the question at the start of your response.
3. As you are setting up your soon to come answer, use words like “subtle” and “complex” to describe the problem.
4. Compare your coming “subtle” answer with the “unsubtle” view of your foe.
5. At this point, you might be able to work in regret that you have run out of time and can stop. Do this as soon as you can. If you have a compliant interviewer, you can set up the question for a long time and then stop. You have survived the question without saying a thing! You will be given points for how your complexity cannot be fit in a brief video clip. You are now officially “deep.” You will make the interviewer feel cheap and shallow and lucky to have been able to partake in a moment of your constant First-Mover-like internal monologue.
6. Learn academic noises (”hmm. . . .”) that take a great deal of time off the clock while giving the appearance of thinking. (Don’t make the McCain “mistake” at Saddleback of actually answering questions . . . this goes quickly and leaves your interviewer time to ask more potential stumpers.)
7. Cite books and smart people you have read or consulted, but do NOT mention who they are. Have one all purpose book or person to use as an example . . . and when pressed to give an example, keep talking about that book or example until you run out of time.
8. Work in other issues (pollution in China) and connect them. If you have kept your earlier framing of the issue vague enough, you can make a quick connection that actually changes the subject. If pressed on global security, on which you might know less than you fear people want you to know (often unreasonably), this is a great strategy. You can say, “Pollution impacts us all. It is a global security problem.” Actually, it isn’t really (in the context security does not mean that), but it will get you points as a person who can connect Big Ideas on the fly!
9. If you are going to use no facts in your answer, use the word “facts.” Talking about facts is a great way to avoid mentioning any.
10. Leave your audience with the sense that you are “still in process.” Keep clarifying the question and expanding its scope until you run out of time. (Look at the quote above and tell me what the Obama doctrine actually is.) You will sound as if you had so much more wisdom to share, but the demands of commercials (darn it!) cut you off.
Joe Biden is a master of this if you are looking for another good teacher, but he is not Senator Obama’s equal since he often says bizarre things while filibustering.
Theology in Real Life
From Between Two Worlds:
"Amen to this quote from Donald Macleod's The Humiliated and Exalted Lord, cited by Ligon Duncan:
"Amen to this quote from Donald Macleod's The Humiliated and Exalted Lord, cited by Ligon Duncan:
:Theology exists in order to be applied to the day-to-day problems of the Christian church. Every doctrine has its application. All scripture is profitable and all the doctrine is profitable. Similarly all the application must be based on doctrine. In both the Philippians example-passage and the Corinthian example-passage, Paul is dealing with what are surely comparative trivia, the problem of vain glory in a Christian congregation and the problem of failure of Christian liberality. As a Pastor one meets with these difficulties daily. They are standing problems. Yet Paul, as he wrestles with both of them, has recourse to the most massive theology. It’s not only that you have the emphasis on the unity between theology and practice but you have the emphasis on the applicability of the profoundest theology to the most mundane and most common-place problems. Who would ever imagine that the response to the glory of the incarnation might be to give to the collection for the poor? Who might imagine that the application of the glories of New Testament Christology might be to stop our quarreling and our divisiveness in the Christian ekklesia? That is what Paul is doing here. He is telling them: You have these practical problems; the answer is theological; remember your theology and place your behavior in the light of that theology. Place your little problems in the light of the most massive theology. We ourselves in our Christian callings are to be conscious of this. We must never leave our doctrine hanging in the air, nor hesitate to enforce the most elementary Christian obligations with the most sublime doctrines. [emphasis from ahavafriend]
Hypocrit
So here's some funny numbers to illustrate that Obama is long on rhetoric but short on practice. And this from an independent watchdog group. In part:
"...On average, according to these data, women in McCain’s office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, all other things being equal, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart - while adding $10,726 to her annual income - by leaving Obama’s office and going to work for McCain...."
Fairness in Interviewing
Here's a great post that contrasts how Charlie Gibson interviewed Palin and how he interviewed Obama just a couple months before. It's such a stark contrast, they have to be embarrassed about it. Or maybe not.
Global Warming Justifies Breaking the Law
Here is a shocking story from Britain regarding how far the Global Warming Hysteria has come:
"The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.
Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.
The not-guilty verdict, delivered after two days and greeted with cheers in the courtroom, raises the stakes for the most pressing issue on Britain's green agenda and could encourage further direct action...."
Hurricane Journalism
Can anyone please explain to me why TV anchors feel compelled to stand outside to report on hurricanes? To me, it only makes them look stupid. Is there any value to it besides attempting to prove they are tough and willing to "go where the story is"?
I wish someone would tell these people "Don't you have the sense God gave a goose? Get inside!" Other than great blooper video footage when a huge wave knocks Geraldo Rivera to his knees or you catch them swearing at the wind [forgetting their mic is hot], is there really something more to this whole charade?
I wish someone would tell these people "Don't you have the sense God gave a goose? Get inside!" Other than great blooper video footage when a huge wave knocks Geraldo Rivera to his knees or you catch them swearing at the wind [forgetting their mic is hot], is there really something more to this whole charade?
Inactivity and Weight Gain
Most of the papers I read in the field pay lip-service to some familiar stories: thrifty genes; calories in, calories out; energy density; fat intake; gluttony and sloth.
It may sound counterintuitive, but how do we know that inactivity causes overweight and not the other way around? In other words, isn't it possible that metabolic deregulation could cause both overweight and a reduced activity level? The answer is clearly yes. There are a number of hormones and other factors that influence activity level in animals and humans. For example, the "Zucker fatty" rat, a genetic model of severe leptin resistance, is obese and hypoactive (I wrote about it here). It's actually a remarkable facsimile of the metabolic syndrome. Since leptin resistance typically comes before insulin resistance and predicts the metabolic syndrome, modern humans may be going through a process similar to the Zucker rat.
Back to the paper. Dr. Nicholas Wareham and his group followed 393 healthy white men for 5.6 years. They took baseline measurements of body composition (weight, BMI and waist circumference) and activity level, and then measured the same things after 5.6 years. In a nutshell, here's what they found:
It may sound counterintuitive, but how do we know that inactivity causes overweight and not the other way around? In other words, isn't it possible that metabolic deregulation could cause both overweight and a reduced activity level? The answer is clearly yes. There are a number of hormones and other factors that influence activity level in animals and humans. For example, the "Zucker fatty" rat, a genetic model of severe leptin resistance, is obese and hypoactive (I wrote about it here). It's actually a remarkable facsimile of the metabolic syndrome. Since leptin resistance typically comes before insulin resistance and predicts the metabolic syndrome, modern humans may be going through a process similar to the Zucker rat.
Back to the paper. Dr. Nicholas Wareham and his group followed 393 healthy white men for 5.6 years. They took baseline measurements of body composition (weight, BMI and waist circumference) and activity level, and then measured the same things after 5.6 years. In a nutshell, here's what they found:
- Sedentary time associates with overweight at any given timepoint. This is consistent with other studies.
- Overweight at the beginning of the study predicted inactivity after 5.6 years.
- Inactivity at the beginning of the study was not associated with overweight at the end.
Liberal Pro-Abortion Feminist DEFENDS Palin
Here is a jaw-dropping article by the liberal columnist, Camille Paglia, that is best read first-person. The end of the article:
"...The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances.
Let's take the issue of abortion rights, of which I am a firm supporter. As an atheist and libertarian, I believe that government must stay completely out of the sphere of personal choice. Every individual has an absolute right to control his or her body. (Hence I favor the legalization of drugs, though I do not take them.) Nevertheless, I have criticized the way that abortion became the obsessive idée fixe of the post-1960s women's movement -- leading to feminists' McCarthyite tactics in pitting Anita Hill with her flimsy charges against conservative Clarence Thomas (admittedly not the most qualified candidate possible) during his nomination hearings for the Supreme Court. Similarly, Bill Clinton's support for abortion rights gave him a free pass among leading feminists for his serial exploitation of women -- an abusive pattern that would scream misogyny to any neutral observer.
But the pro-life position, whether or not it is based on religious orthodoxy, is more ethically highly evolved than my own tenet of unconstrained access to abortion on demand. My argument (as in my first book, "Sexual Personae,") has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature's fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive.
Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue. The state in my view has no authority whatever to intervene in the biological processes of any woman's body, which nature has implanted there before birth and hence before that woman's entrance into society and citizenship.
On the other hand, I support the death penalty for atrocious crimes (such as rape-murder or the murder of children). I have never understood the standard Democratic combo of support for abortion and yet opposition to the death penalty. Surely it is the guilty rather than the innocent who deserve execution?
What I am getting at here is that not until the Democratic Party stringently reexamines its own implicit assumptions and rhetorical formulas will it be able to deal effectively with the enduring and now escalating challenge from the pro-life right wing. Because pro-choice Democrats have been arguing from cold expedience, they have thus far been unable to make an effective ethical case for the right to abortion.
The gigantic, instantaneous coast-to-coast rage directed at Sarah Palin when she was identified as pro-life was, I submit, a psychological response by loyal liberals who on some level do not want to open themselves to deep questioning about abortion and its human consequences. I have written about the eerie silence that fell over campus audiences in the early 1990s when I raised this issue on my book tours. At such moments, everyone in the hall seemed to feel the uneasy conscience of feminism. Naomi Wolf later bravely tried to address this same subject but seems to have given up in the face of the resistance she encountered.
If Sarah Palin tries to intrude her conservative Christian values into secular government, then she must be opposed and stopped. But she has every right to express her views and to argue for society's acceptance of the high principle of the sanctity of human life. If McCain wins the White House and then drops dead, a President Palin would have the power to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, but she could not control their rulings.
It is nonsensical and counterproductive for Democrats to imagine that pro-life values can be defeated by maliciously destroying their proponents. And it is equally foolish to expect that feminism must for all time be inextricably wed to the pro-choice agenda. There is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism -- one in fact that would have far more appeal to third-world cultures where motherhood is still honored and where the Western model of the hard-driving, self-absorbed career woman is less admired.
But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.
Stuff White People Like .com
Here is a great website I found, thanks to my friend Angie, who has a history of making fun of white people (she is Latina) (Angie, if you dispute this, all I have to say is "Cracka's in the Coachhouse!"). She loves white people and I believe deep in my heart that she really wants to be one of us. But I digress.
I will link this on the side for future and frequent visiting. I found the guy's writing to be very intelligent and funny. Let me know what you think.
I will link this on the side for future and frequent visiting. I found the guy's writing to be very intelligent and funny. Let me know what you think.
Catholic Politicians and Abortion
You may be aware of the scuffle between Nancy Pelosi, and now Joe Biden, and the Catholic church regarding the issue of abortion. Both Pelosi and Biden have recently made comments that suggest the church is not certain as to when life begins and that their role as Catholic politicians is not to "impose their views" on the nation.
Well, the Arch Bishop of the Denver Catholic Church has responded clearly that this is an unacceptable view for Catholics to hold. It's a powerful letter for all Christian believers to read, and respond to.
Well, the Arch Bishop of the Denver Catholic Church has responded clearly that this is an unacceptable view for Catholics to hold. It's a powerful letter for all Christian believers to read, and respond to.
Sowell on Competing Visions in the '08 Election
Here is a brilliant post addressing the issues of the Left and the problem with their vision of America and the hot-button issue of experience. In part,
"...It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political left. The only reason for rejecting the left's vision is that the real world in which we live is very different from the world that the left perceives today or envisions for tomorrow.Most of us learn that from experience-- but experience is precisely what the young are lacking.
...
Ordinary working class people did not lead the stampede to Barack Obama, even before his disdain for them slipped out in unguarded moments.
The agenda of the left is fine for the world that they envision as existing today and the world they want to create tomorrow.
That is a world not hemmed in on all sides by inherent constraints and the painful trade-offs that these constraints imply. Theirs is a world where there are attractive, win-win "solutions" in place of those ugly trade-offs in the world that the rest of us live in.
...
Personally, I wish Ronald Reagan could have talked the Soviets into being nicer, instead of having to spend all that money. Only experience makes me skeptical about that "kinder and gentler" approach and the vision behind it."
A Practical Approach to Omega Fats
Hunter-gatherers and healthy non-industrial cultures didn't know what omega-6 and omega-3 fats were. They didn't balance nutrients precisely; they stayed healthy by eating foods that they knew were available and nourishing. Therefore, I don't think it's necessary to bean count omega fats, and I don't think there's likely to be a single ideal ratio of n-6 to n-3. However, I do think there's evidence for an optimal range. To find out what it is, let's look at what's been done by healthy cultures in the past:
I think there's a simple way to interpret all this. Number one, don't eat vegetable oils high in n-6 fats. They are mostly industrial creations that have never supported human health. Number two, find a source of n-3 fats that can approximately balance your n-6 intake. In practical terms, this means minimizing sources of n-6 and eating modest amounts of n-3 to balance it. Some foods are naturally balanced, such as grass-fed dairy and pastured lamb. Others, like coconut oil, have so little n-6 it doesn't take much n-3 to create a proper balance.
Animal sources of n-3 are the best because they provide pre-formed long-chain fats like DHA, which some people have difficulty producing themselves. Flax oil may have some benefits as well. Fish oil and cod liver oil can be a convenient source of n-3; take them in doses of one teaspoon or less. As usual, whole foods are probably better than isolated oils. Weston Price noted that cultures throughout the world went to great lengths to obtain fresh and dried marine foods. Choose shellfish and wild fish that are low on the food chain so they aren't excessively polluted.
I don't think adding gobs of fish oil on top of the standard American diet to correct a poor n-6:n-3 ratio is optimal. It may be better than no fish oil, but it's probably not the best approach. I just read a study, hot off the presses, that examines this very issue in young pigs. Pigs are similar to humans in many ways, including aspects of their fat metabolism. They were fed three diets: a "deficient" diet containing some n-6 but very little n-3; a "contemporary" diet containing a lot of n-6 and some n-3; an "evolutionary" diet containing a modest, balanced amount of n-6 and n-3; and a "supplemented" diet, which is the contemporary diet plus DHA and arachidonic acid (AA).
Using the evolutionary diet as a benchmark, none of the other diets were able to achieve the same fatty acid profile in the young pigs' brains, blood, liver or heart. They also showed that neurons in culture require DHA for proper development, and excess n-6 interferes with the process.
With that said, here are a few graphs of the proportion of n-6 in common foods. These numbers all come from nutrition data. They reflect the percentage n-6 out of the total fat content. First, animal fats:
.png)
Except salmon oil, these are traditional fats suitable for cooking. Except schmaltz (chicken fat), they are relatively low in n-6. Next, vegetable oils:
.png)
These range from very low in n-6 to very high. Most of the modern, industrially processed oils are on the right, while most traditional oils are on the left. I don't recommend using anything to the right of olive oil on a regular basis. "HO" sunflower oil is high-oleic, which means it has been bred for a high monounsaturated fat content at the expense of n-6. Here are the meats and eggs:
.png)
n-3 eggs are from hens fed flax or seaweed, while the other bar refers to conventional eggs.
A few of these foods are good sources of n-3. At the top of the list is fish oil, followed by n-3 eggs, grass-fed butter, and the fat of grass-fed ruminants. It is possible to keep a good balance without seafood, it just requires keeping n-6 fats to an absolute minimum. It's also possible to overdo n-3 fats. The traditional Inuit, despite their good overall health, did not clot well. They commonly developed nosebleeds that would last for three days, for example. This is thought to be due to the effect of n-3 on blood clotting. But keep in mind that their n-3 intake was so high it would be difficult to achieve today without drinking wine glasses full of fish oil.
- Hunter-gatherers living mostly on land animals: 2:1 to 4:1
- Pacific islanders getting most of their fat from coconut and fish: 1:2
- Inuit and other Pacific coast Americans: 1:4 or less
- Dairy-based cultures: 1:1 to 2:1
- Cultures eating fish and grains: 1:2 or less
I think there's a simple way to interpret all this. Number one, don't eat vegetable oils high in n-6 fats. They are mostly industrial creations that have never supported human health. Number two, find a source of n-3 fats that can approximately balance your n-6 intake. In practical terms, this means minimizing sources of n-6 and eating modest amounts of n-3 to balance it. Some foods are naturally balanced, such as grass-fed dairy and pastured lamb. Others, like coconut oil, have so little n-6 it doesn't take much n-3 to create a proper balance.
Animal sources of n-3 are the best because they provide pre-formed long-chain fats like DHA, which some people have difficulty producing themselves. Flax oil may have some benefits as well. Fish oil and cod liver oil can be a convenient source of n-3; take them in doses of one teaspoon or less. As usual, whole foods are probably better than isolated oils. Weston Price noted that cultures throughout the world went to great lengths to obtain fresh and dried marine foods. Choose shellfish and wild fish that are low on the food chain so they aren't excessively polluted.
I don't think adding gobs of fish oil on top of the standard American diet to correct a poor n-6:n-3 ratio is optimal. It may be better than no fish oil, but it's probably not the best approach. I just read a study, hot off the presses, that examines this very issue in young pigs. Pigs are similar to humans in many ways, including aspects of their fat metabolism. They were fed three diets: a "deficient" diet containing some n-6 but very little n-3; a "contemporary" diet containing a lot of n-6 and some n-3; an "evolutionary" diet containing a modest, balanced amount of n-6 and n-3; and a "supplemented" diet, which is the contemporary diet plus DHA and arachidonic acid (AA).
Using the evolutionary diet as a benchmark, none of the other diets were able to achieve the same fatty acid profile in the young pigs' brains, blood, liver or heart. They also showed that neurons in culture require DHA for proper development, and excess n-6 interferes with the process.
With that said, here are a few graphs of the proportion of n-6 in common foods. These numbers all come from nutrition data. They reflect the percentage n-6 out of the total fat content. First, animal fats:
.png)
Except salmon oil, these are traditional fats suitable for cooking. Except schmaltz (chicken fat), they are relatively low in n-6. Next, vegetable oils:.png)
These range from very low in n-6 to very high. Most of the modern, industrially processed oils are on the right, while most traditional oils are on the left. I don't recommend using anything to the right of olive oil on a regular basis. "HO" sunflower oil is high-oleic, which means it has been bred for a high monounsaturated fat content at the expense of n-6. Here are the meats and eggs:.png)
n-3 eggs are from hens fed flax or seaweed, while the other bar refers to conventional eggs. A few of these foods are good sources of n-3. At the top of the list is fish oil, followed by n-3 eggs, grass-fed butter, and the fat of grass-fed ruminants. It is possible to keep a good balance without seafood, it just requires keeping n-6 fats to an absolute minimum. It's also possible to overdo n-3 fats. The traditional Inuit, despite their good overall health, did not clot well. They commonly developed nosebleeds that would last for three days, for example. This is thought to be due to the effect of n-3 on blood clotting. But keep in mind that their n-3 intake was so high it would be difficult to achieve today without drinking wine glasses full of fish oil.
Launching a New School
As our regular readers know, Thomas Jefferson University has enthusiastically embraced the creation of a new school on our campus called the Jefferson School of Health Policy and Population Health----unanimously approved by the Board back on July 28 of this past summer. Our team has been hard at work building the new school and I want to share aspects of this challenge with our readers. We are in the process of searching for some key new leaders to help us build the Masters Degree in Health Care Quality and Safety. This is a tall order as we are looking for persons who can teach, do research, and instill enthusiasm for this nascent field. We are also creating a new curriculum from scratch along with bylaws, a faculty committee structure and the like. Of course, we are also preparing the marketing plan and any day now, we will launch our first national press release. Our work is guided by a New School Task Force that meets every other week and reviews all of the key decisions. We also recently held our second New School Advisory Committee and received all kinds of input from across our own campus. Finally, we have had fruitful meetings with our colleagues at the University of Delaware and at Dickinson College. I will be providing our readers with regular updates now that the summer is over and we are in full swing with the operational blocking and tackling. Buckle your seat belts and hold on tight for this exciting ride!! I look forward to hearing from all of our readers. DAVID NASH
The Church and Evangelism
Here is a great post from Between Two Worlds regarding the relationship between these two things. I am thrilled someone is articulating this view, which I rarely see in the modern American church. If church leaders would use the Bible to define their ministry priorities and philosophies, we would see things more closely similar to what this post describes and defends.
food sept. 6-7
yesterday
Breakfast: collard green smoothie--the other half of Friday's. I added some blended grapes and I thought it was quite good. But as I said before, I think it's an acquired taste so newbies should start with something like the spinach mango smoothie.
lunch: corn on the cob, leftover cabbage salad, watermelon.
dinner: collard green smoothie, the other half from a few days ago, orange.
today, well, the refrigerator was getting empty and there was no corn at the corn stand, so I ended up eating cooked food!
Breakfast: green smoothie that was in the freezer
Lunch: For housemate I boiled potato, carrot, sweet potato, and peas in a small amount of water which mostly boiled away. Then added avocado spread. And I made a big salad of lettuce, mushrooms and fresh cherry tomatoes. The dressing was juice of one orange, some walnuts, and the rest of a pineapple, blended in the blender. Okay, so for me I thought I needed something to go with the salad (mistake) but I didn't have much in the fridge, so I blended up a carrot, celery, tomato, half a sweet potato, and half a small green pepper in the blender. yuck. I added some avocado spread, didn't help. it was okay but not terribly appealing. meanwhile the cooked stuff looked good so I tasted it and it tasted good so I thought, well, I went raw for 8 days, let's see how cooked food tastes. It was good, especially the sweet potato. I ate it much faster than I eat raw stuff, so had to consciously tell myself to slow down. It did feel a little different digesting cooked food, maybe I felt a little heavier feeling in my stomach but that could be my imagination. After my blended veggie experiment, I understand now why raw people juice their vegetables. I think carrot juice probably tastes a lot better than blended carrots. my problem with this is that it seems so wasteful. Dr. Fuhrman also recommends juicing carrots and celery and putting that into soups. We would compost the pulp, and carrots and celery aren't too expensive, so maybe I will try juicing some in the future, when I get back from my trip.
okay for dinner, well, since I went off raw for lunch, I decided a splurge was in order, so at the co-op I got a peanut butter cookie (vegan), a maple/fruit/oat bar, and a little bowl of a rice/edamame salad. The cookie was not that great, tasted like flour and hung in my throat. The fruit bar was pretty good, as was the salad. The only problem with eating this stuff is that I'm then too full to eat my favorite stuff like grapes and watermelon. Then I made twelve breakfast smoothies and four chocolate smoothies for housemate to eat while I'm out of town! Pretty funny eh? It was partly procrastination because I have so much to do before leaving town and don't want to face it. I'll regret it in the morning. And I just had 2 computers crash and not boot up so have to waste time tomorrow morning at the Apple store. I do have a bit of a tummy ache but that's just from overeating the sweets and snacking on the smoothies while making them. I feel a little more tired than usual, but again, overeating rich food of any kind will do that to you.
Omega Fats and Cardiovascular Disease
I noticed something strange when I was poring over data about the Inuit last month. Modern Inuit who have adopted Western food habits get fat, they get diabetes... but they don't get heart attacks. This was a paradox to me at the time, because heart disease mortality typically comes along with the cluster of modern, non-communicable diseases I call the "diseases of civilization".
One of the interesting things about the modern Inuit diet is it's most often a combination of Western and traditional foods. For example, they typically use white flour and sugar, but continue to eat seal oil and fish. Both seal oil and fish are a concentrated source of long-chain omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids.The 'paradox' makes much more sense to me now that I've seen this:
It's from the same paper as the graphs in the last post. Note that it doesn't take much n-3 to get you to the asymptote. Here's another one that might interest you:
The finding in this graph is supported by the Lyon diet heart study, which I'll describe below. One more graph from a presentation by Dr. Lands, since I began by talking about the Inuit:
Cardiovascular disease mortality tracks well with the n-6 content of blood plasma, both across populations and within them. You can see modern Quebec Inuit have the same low rate of CVD mortality as the Japanese. The five red triangles are from MRFIT, a large American intervention trial. They represent the study participants divided into five groups based on their plasma n-6. Note that the average percentage of n-6 fatty acids is very high, even though the trial occurred in the 1970s! Since n-3 and n-6 fats compete for space in human tissue, it makes sense that the Inuit are protected from CVD by their high n-3 intake. [Update: I don't read too much into this graph because there are so may confounding variables. It's an interesting observation, but take it with a grain of salt.. SJG 2011].
Now for a little mechanism. Dr. Lands' hypothesis is that a high n-6 intake promotes a general state of inflammation in the body. The term 'inflammation' refers to the chronic activation of the innate immune system. The reason is that n-3 and n-6 fats are precursors to longer-chain signaling molecules called eicosanoids. In a nutshell, eicosanoids produced from n-6 fatty acids are more inflammatory and promote thrombosis (clotting) more than those produced from n-3 fatty acids. Dr. Lands is in a position to know this, since he was one of the main researchers involved in discovering these mechanisms. He points out that taking aspirin to 'thin' the blood and reduce inflammation (by inhibiting inflammatory eicosanoids) basically puts a band-aid over the problem caused by excess n-6 fats to begin with. [Update- this mechanism turns out not to be so straightforward. SJG 2011]
The Lyon Diet Heart Study assessed the effect of n-3 fat supplementation on CVD risk. The four-year intervention involved a number of diet changes designed to mimic the American Heart Association's concept of a "Mediterranean diet". The participants were counseled to eat a special margarine that was high in n-3 from alpha-linolenic acid. Overall PUFA intake decreased, mostly due to n-6 reduction, and n-3 intake increased relative to controls. The intervention caused a 70% reduction in cardiac mortality and a large reduction in all-cause mortality, a smashing success by any measure.
In a large five-year intervention trial in Japan, JELIS, patients who took EPA (a long-chain n-3 fatty acid) plus statins had 19% fewer cardiac events than patients taking statins alone. I don't know why you would give EPA by itself when it occurs with DHA and alpha-linolenic acid in nature, but it did nevertheless have a significant effect. Keep in mind that this trial was in Japan, where they already have a much better n-6/n-3 ratio than in Western nations.
In my opinion, what all the data (including a lot that I haven't included) point to is that a good n-6 to n-3 ratio may be important for vibrant health and proper development. In the next post, I'll talk about practical considerations for achieving a good ratio.
One of the interesting things about the modern Inuit diet is it's most often a combination of Western and traditional foods. For example, they typically use white flour and sugar, but continue to eat seal oil and fish. Both seal oil and fish are a concentrated source of long-chain omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids.The 'paradox' makes much more sense to me now that I've seen this:
It's from the same paper as the graphs in the last post. Note that it doesn't take much n-3 to get you to the asymptote. Here's another one that might interest you:
The finding in this graph is supported by the Lyon diet heart study, which I'll describe below. One more graph from a presentation by Dr. Lands, since I began by talking about the Inuit:
Cardiovascular disease mortality tracks well with the n-6 content of blood plasma, both across populations and within them. You can see modern Quebec Inuit have the same low rate of CVD mortality as the Japanese. The five red triangles are from MRFIT, a large American intervention trial. They represent the study participants divided into five groups based on their plasma n-6. Note that the average percentage of n-6 fatty acids is very high, even though the trial occurred in the 1970s! Since n-3 and n-6 fats compete for space in human tissue, it makes sense that the Inuit are protected from CVD by their high n-3 intake. [Update: I don't read too much into this graph because there are so may confounding variables. It's an interesting observation, but take it with a grain of salt.. SJG 2011].
Now for a little mechanism. Dr. Lands' hypothesis is that a high n-6 intake promotes a general state of inflammation in the body. The term 'inflammation' refers to the chronic activation of the innate immune system. The reason is that n-3 and n-6 fats are precursors to longer-chain signaling molecules called eicosanoids. In a nutshell, eicosanoids produced from n-6 fatty acids are more inflammatory and promote thrombosis (clotting) more than those produced from n-3 fatty acids. Dr. Lands is in a position to know this, since he was one of the main researchers involved in discovering these mechanisms. He points out that taking aspirin to 'thin' the blood and reduce inflammation (by inhibiting inflammatory eicosanoids) basically puts a band-aid over the problem caused by excess n-6 fats to begin with. [Update- this mechanism turns out not to be so straightforward. SJG 2011]
The Lyon Diet Heart Study assessed the effect of n-3 fat supplementation on CVD risk. The four-year intervention involved a number of diet changes designed to mimic the American Heart Association's concept of a "Mediterranean diet". The participants were counseled to eat a special margarine that was high in n-3 from alpha-linolenic acid. Overall PUFA intake decreased, mostly due to n-6 reduction, and n-3 intake increased relative to controls. The intervention caused a 70% reduction in cardiac mortality and a large reduction in all-cause mortality, a smashing success by any measure.
In a large five-year intervention trial in Japan, JELIS, patients who took EPA (a long-chain n-3 fatty acid) plus statins had 19% fewer cardiac events than patients taking statins alone. I don't know why you would give EPA by itself when it occurs with DHA and alpha-linolenic acid in nature, but it did nevertheless have a significant effect. Keep in mind that this trial was in Japan, where they already have a much better n-6/n-3 ratio than in Western nations.
In my opinion, what all the data (including a lot that I haven't included) point to is that a good n-6 to n-3 ratio may be important for vibrant health and proper development. In the next post, I'll talk about practical considerations for achieving a good ratio.
food sep. 5
Breakfast: another green smoothie. this one was pretty good. I'm still not sure I want to make it a recipe. I don't recommend collard green smoothies to newbies. Spinach is the best because you can't taste it and it just tastes like a delicious fruit smoothie. But I have to admit, the collard greens are growing on me, which is good because the garden is full of them. I got the idea from the Vita-Mix website--oh, shoot I forgot to add grapes and an orange. I picked this one because I had all the ingredients. So let's see, I put in some collard greens and kale, and my usual nuts, seeds, vitamins and DHA, two bananas and 2 pears. I thought it was pretty good. I made the usual berry smoothie for housemate. All of these make two servings so I end up freezing the other one. So now I have to stop making them and just eat the frozen ones until I go out of town. I'll continue making berry smoothies for housemate so she'll have something to eat while I'm gone. She is as helpless in the kitchen as I am at yard work.
Lunch: cabbage salad and corn on the cob with avocado spread. I improved the cabbage salad greatly by adding mashed avocado (i.e., avocado spread) and chopped walnuts, so I modified the recipe. This suggests to me that adding fat to things adds flavor, and I've heard this said before but never was sure it was true. But I believe Fuhrman when he says that you should only eat the healthy fats, not oils. Plus, avocado tastes better than any other fat, it's better than butter, better than olive oil, so there's no sacrifice here. I also had some watermelon for dessert.
Dinner: cabbage salad, watermelon, grapes, an orange, and some mushrooms. that was a bit excessive. I could have done without the watermelon but for all I know, when I return from my trip to Germany, there will be no more watermelon. But in that case, then I could have done without the grapes and the orange and the mushrooms.
Omega-3 Fats and Brain Development
Another interesting study that Dr. Hibbeln sent me is about the link between maternal seafood consumption and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. The study is about as powerful as epidemiology gets, with an enrollment of 11,875 mothers.
The bottom line is short and sweet: compared to the children of mothers who ate 340 grams or more of fish per week, children whose mothers ate very little fish had an increased risk of low verbal intelligence, poor social behavior, poor motor skills, poor communication skills, and poor social development. These associations remained after adjusting for 28 potential confounders, including social status, level of education, stressful life events, smoking, alcohol, and several others.
In support of this association, in another study the four-year-old children of mothers who were given DHA and arachidonic acid supplements had higher IQs than those given "placebo" (corn oil). There have been a number of trials of varying quality that have shown varying results with n-3 supplementation, so I'll leave you to decide what you think of this. A 2007 review I found on n-3 supplementation and brain development states that "the evidence for potential benefits of LCPUFA [long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid] supplementation is promising but yet inconclusive".
I do think it's interesting to note that the brain has the highest concentration of long-chain n-3 fats of any organ, and eating n-3 fats in the form of fish, fish oil or cod liver oil increases the amount in tissues. Eating too much n-6 depletes the brain of DHA and adversely affects neuron development in piglets. n-3 deficiency affects the release of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) in rat brains.
Put it all together, including the data from the last two posts, and I think there's some evidence that a good balance of n-3 to n-6 fatty acids is important for optimal brain function and perhaps development.
The bottom line is short and sweet: compared to the children of mothers who ate 340 grams or more of fish per week, children whose mothers ate very little fish had an increased risk of low verbal intelligence, poor social behavior, poor motor skills, poor communication skills, and poor social development. These associations remained after adjusting for 28 potential confounders, including social status, level of education, stressful life events, smoking, alcohol, and several others.
In support of this association, in another study the four-year-old children of mothers who were given DHA and arachidonic acid supplements had higher IQs than those given "placebo" (corn oil). There have been a number of trials of varying quality that have shown varying results with n-3 supplementation, so I'll leave you to decide what you think of this. A 2007 review I found on n-3 supplementation and brain development states that "the evidence for potential benefits of LCPUFA [long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid] supplementation is promising but yet inconclusive".
I do think it's interesting to note that the brain has the highest concentration of long-chain n-3 fats of any organ, and eating n-3 fats in the form of fish, fish oil or cod liver oil increases the amount in tissues. Eating too much n-6 depletes the brain of DHA and adversely affects neuron development in piglets. n-3 deficiency affects the release of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) in rat brains.
Put it all together, including the data from the last two posts, and I think there's some evidence that a good balance of n-3 to n-6 fatty acids is important for optimal brain function and perhaps development.
corn and zucchini salad
This was inspired by this recipe, but I didn't have most of the ingredients, so consider this an example of how you can modify recipes.
Ingredients:
2 ears corn, kernels cut from cob
1 zucchini, peeled with a potato peeler into strips, or cut up however you like
part of an onion
lots of cherry tomatoes, halved
cucumber, sliced
avocado spread, make a double batch if you want
mix it all together. The avocado spread was a great touch. That made me realize it would be great in potato salad. I was going to add sunflower seeds but I forgot. This was really good but it could be because I had fresh local corn, fresh local zucchini, fresh local onion, fresh tomatoes from the garden, fresh local cucumber, fresh herbs from the garden, and all organic. so in the dead of winter when you are getting this shipped from California, maybe it's not as good.
food sept. 3 and 4
yesterday
breakfast: berry smoothie
lunch: corn and zucchini salad. This was very good. I probably had watermelon for dessert or a peach, I'm already forgetting. I was hoping my cleaned up blood vessels would improve my memory but that doesn't seem to be happening.
dinner: leftover lunch, a peach. some watermelon, grapes. snacked later on because housemate brought a ripe peach home and it needed to be eaten.
exercise: body power and yoga classes at the gym
today
breakfast: experimented with a new green smoothie. I'll be trying green smoothies for a few days. I don't want to write this as a recipe because I don't really think it tasted that great, though it was okay, and I can see how you could acquire a taste for it. I think it's hard to make a great tasting smoothie with collard greens. but we have a bunch in the garden and they need to be eaten. I did a google search on the web for collard greens and green smoothies and found a few. They usually consist of greens, bananas and berries, so I put collard greens and kale filling about half the blender, 3 bananas, a bag of strawberries, then my usual small addition of sunflower seeds, walnuts, vitamins and Fuhrman's DHA (to keep my fragile heartbeats regular). It makes two 20 oz servings, so quite large.
lunch: corn on the cob with avocado spread, salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes from garden, mushrooms), orange-cashew dressing (made with walnuts instead of cashews). I ate the corn raw! ha. it was really good. it's even sweeter than cooked. I could see throwing it in the boiling water for a few seconds to warm it up. but I didn't see the need today. The co-op has corn so we are back to corn until they run out.
snack: peach and some grapes
dinner: leftover salad (lots) and dressing, watermelon for dessert.
exercise: fit class at the gym.
Palin Acceptance Speech!
Here's a hilarious live blog of Palin's speech last night. It's basically immediate thoughts posted throughout the speech, which one could read while the speech was happening. However, to read them afterwards is hilarious. Make sure to start from the bottom of the post. Two of the LOL lines have to be:
7:36 p.m.: How uncomfortable is that boyfriend? He should be at his senior prom, not on display at the RNC.
7:37 p.m.: Mother of a military man. Mother of a special needs child? What’s next? Mother of a pregnant teenager? Hold on.
As for my thoughts, I actually stayed up so I could watch the speech again when they replayed it. I loved the whole thing. Her humor and wit are priceless. I think I have a crush! There were so many great one-liners. Wow! Can't wait for the VP debates.
7:36 p.m.: How uncomfortable is that boyfriend? He should be at his senior prom, not on display at the RNC.
7:37 p.m.: Mother of a military man. Mother of a special needs child? What’s next? Mother of a pregnant teenager? Hold on.
As for my thoughts, I actually stayed up so I could watch the speech again when they replayed it. I loved the whole thing. Her humor and wit are priceless. I think I have a crush! There were so many great one-liners. Wow! Can't wait for the VP debates.
Palin on Energy
Here is a repost of a letter that Governor Palin wrote to Senate leader Harry Reid regarding his inaction on a comprehensive energy plan. This might give you some glimpse at her sense of things, both on the national and international stage.
Experience
Here is a great article from George Will regarding the topic of experience in the political arena. He starts by referencing the Federalist Papers, which mention "experience" 91 times. He goes on to explain:
UPDATE: Here is another great article, this one by Thomas Sowell regarding "Foreign Policy Experience."
"...Buchanan was the most qualified person to run for president, before or since.The article goes on to suggest that Palin is possibly the fusion of the needed traits, which will help Washington in this time. I am excited to see if this is true. I have an inkling it is.At least he was if varied experience in high offices fully defines who is "qualified." But it does not.
Buchanan had been a five-term congressman, then ambassador to Russia, then a two-term senator, then secretary of state, then ambassador to Britain. Buchanan then became perhaps the worst president.
Clearly, experience is not sufficient to prove a person "qualified" for the presidency. But it is a necessary component of qualification.
So are two other attributes. One is character. Richard Nixon was qualified by his experience as congressman, senator and vice president, but disqualified by character. The second is a braided mental rope of constitutional sense and political common sense."
UPDATE: Here is another great article, this one by Thomas Sowell regarding "Foreign Policy Experience."
Sept. 2 food
okay, I'm on a raw kick. I'm thinking of doing it until I go on my next trip, next week. So about a week. I've been talking to a raw guy. He's very fun to talk to. So far every book I've read on raw food eating, I hate to say this, I'm don't like being critical, but they are full of hogwash. I'm okay with saying you feel better when you eat raw. But to make up whacko pseudoscience to go along with it bothers me. I know most of the raw foodists mean well and are just quoting from the "experts". But some of them, the "experts" making up this stuff, must know they are just making it up. Also all the raw cookbooks I've seen are, well, I'm sorry to say this too, garbage. The recipes are full of nuts and salt and oil. They think sea salt is somehow better than regular. Sure, it probably has less chemicals, but sodium chloride is sodium chloride, if it comes from the sea or a chemical plant, and it's not good for you. And the amount of nuts these recipes call for is crazy. I tried a raw recipe once and got sick from all the nuts. This is because there are two ways to get your calories when you eat raw: nuts or fruit. I'm in the fruit camp, with a small amount of nuts. Of course, you also need lots of greens for your health. I've found a few websites that promote a more healthy kind of raw. For example, organic athlete, Steve Pavlina (and links therein), and Zenpawn. I've heard of another guy that might be good but I haven't had time to check him out. So, to get to my point, even though I haven't seen science to back it up, I have to admit, I feel much more energetic when I eat raw, and I am satisfied and don't have cravings---maybe that would change if I did it for a month. So I'm experimenting this week, doing my own science study to see if it's true, and so far it is. But I don't know what I'm doing as you'll see. Here's what I ate today:
Breakfast: smoothie
Lunch: For housemate, I made potatoes stewed with tomatoes and peas with chives and basil and rosemary and parsley (from the garden). She loved it. For me, I didn't have much fruit lying around so it was up to the vegetables to fill me up. I've been wondering how you eat collard greens raw. You have to blend it. So I blended it up with some kale and tomatoes and garlic. it actually wasn't bad. I poured that over chopped okra, green pepper, celery, carrots, and kohlrabi. It was okay in small quantities. It took forever to eat with all the chewing. I only ate about 1/3 of my plate. Fortunately I had one peach left. I was full and didn't get hungry until the usual time at dinner. then I went grocery shopping, thankfully.
Dinner: 1/4 watermelon, grapes, mushrooms, a small pear (I didn't realize these were ripe at lunch or I could have had a feast), an orange, a handful of walnuts.
I'm thinking the healthy raw diet needs a green smoothie every day or a big salad. and then you can have a lot of fruit and some nuts. and you can learn how to make some stuff too which I'll figure out. I bought a zucchini today. That will be easy to chew and eat and I like the taste.
Exercise: I kicked butt today! We did sprints and it was about 90 degrees outside and I started at the end of the line like always, so people wouldn't have to pass me, and I passed everyone except one guy---I'm not sure who finished first because we took a different route on the last one. We did 12 x 50 yards, with 50 yard rest in between, 6 x 100 with 100 yard rest, 2 x 200 with 200 yard rest, and 1 x 400. It really wasn't that hard but the heat destroyed everyone but me. I got hot but it was no big deal. On a cooler day I probably would have been at the back of the pack as usual. I'm pretty sure I am the oldest one in the class, probably by 10-20 years over most people. ha. I also recovered quickly after each run--that's where I passed everyone was in the walking. I was ready to go after each walk was done. That's those cleared up arteries doing their job. That's why athletes can benefit from a healthy vegan diet.
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