Challenge motivation

Hi everyone, The 6-week challenge starts in 2 hours.  Here are some motivational thoughts that help keep me on track:

1) I live in my food universe.  There is infinite variety of delicious foods to choose from in this universe.  I will be satisfied and happy if I stay in this universe.   Today I watched a friend eat a big ole' burger and fries.   It did not compute.  :)

2)  Now is as good a time as any to get started, regardless of our current circumstances.  Once you are healthy and thin, you will have circumstances too and that won't stop you from continuing to be healthy and thin (I hope).  I'm happy to see a lot of people doing the challenge even though circumstances during the 6 weeks are not ideal (vacation, parties, restaurant plans, hanging out with old buddies).  That is life!

3) I am most likely to stray and overeat when I'm tired.  Maybe I should just go to bed early if I'm tired.  I consider that a luxury!  more satisfying than eating!

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off.  When I get back in the evening, I'll post the challenge participants and brief goals--unless there is objection to the latter.  I'll also post my food logs since some people like to see an example.

I think I will go experience the luxuriousness of bed now.

Challenge starts in 27 hours!

Well, some of us eager beavers started already.

So far I have 26 participants though I don't have all the info for all of them.  I will post all the participants (screen-names) on Sept. 1 so you can check to see if I missed you.

If you have any questions, please comment to any post or email me at bwhitney@chi-squared.org.   If you want a review of the challenge, you can just scroll back to read some posts, or go directly to these posts:

http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/2011/08/6-week-challenge-for-vita-mix-heres.html
http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/2011/08/join-my-6-week-challenge-and-you-are.html

I wrote some tips for beginners here:
http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/2011/08/tips-for-beginners.html

Some people like me to post my daily meals so I am fine doing that during the challenge. For fun, I can even log my food with cron-o-meter.  Talk about making me accountable!   Just note that I consider my food to be pretty boring.  I like it, but I don't do anything gourmet.  During the week, I throw together my meals in the morning before work, and during the weekend I'd rather play outside than cook.  I like veggies a lot and stay away from the sweet treats.  I link to other blogs (below at right) that show much more thrilling recipes.   I love healthy sweet treats and would like to convince all my nutritarian friends to make them for me on special occasions but I'm not interested to make them myself.  I'm looking forward to eating great food at Dr. Fuhrman's weekend immersion in November.

Add your comments/progress reports to any post and I'll note them.  I get an email notification of each comment.

Eating Healthfully when traveling

Excellent travel advice from Carrie on Vegan:
http://www.carrieonvegan.com/2011/08/29/4-ways-to-eat-healthfully-when-traveling/

I've got several posts describing what I do when I travel:
http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/search/label/travel%20logs

Guidelines for Healthy Nutrition and Weight Loss

Howard at Lifestyle Power developed this graphic that describes how to eat healthy.  It looks pretty good.  What do you think, is it useful for you?
http://lifestylepower.blogspot.com/2011/08/guidelines-for-healthy-nutrition-and.html
His blog has lots of good information and links to articles, including a recent show from CNN called The Last Heart Attack.

fun Oatmeal recipes

This is from Healthy girl's kitchen ,who I believe is joining our 6-week challenge, yea!
http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/08/breakfast-duel-green-smoothie-vs.html

Today's food

In case this helps newbies starting the 6-week challenge, I'll try to log the food I eat (like I used to).  You can let me know if this is useful to you or not.  Here's what I did today.

Brekky:  went on an early-morning bike ride.  stopped at a bakery.  don't worry I didn't eat anything there--my friend had something or another.  I could have gone to the co-op next door for some fruit but I got distracted by a flat tire.  ate a large peach and some raw veggies when I got home.

Lunch:  yummy salad, super yummy corn on the cob, yummy tomato.  The salad had cabbage, spinach, summer squash, cilantro, edamame, tomatoes, bell pepper, balsamic vinegar, and seed mixture.


snack:  kiwi, raw carrots and sugar snap peas

dinner:  lots more  of the lunch salad, small baked oriental yam (these are the best sweet potatoes!).  dessert:  small bowl of frozen blueberries and mango.

Tips for Beginners

Some people starting the 6-week challenge have not read or finished Dr. Fuhrman's healthy eating books.  I highly recommend reading either Eat to Live or Eat for Health.  I think until you ingest the information, you will not understand fully what healthy eating really is and what it can do for you.  In the meantime, here is a set of posts I've written in the past on healthy eating that might help guide you a bit as you get started:
http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/search/label/healthy%20eating

Here's another link Jim sent me today that could be very helpful for someone starting out:
http://www.21daykickstart.org/
It's a program to try healthy vegan eating for 21 days.

Also you may be motivated now but if you need a little help later, here are some posts about motivation:
http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/search/label/motivation

Week -1, post your progress here!

Some people, including myself are starting the challenge early.    Add your comments below on your goals and progress.

I will post in the comment section too so we're all on equal footing.  My screen name is "kneecap" by the way.

My goals for the 6-week challenge

Here are my goals:
Eat health promoting food, not too much.  Don't eat disease-promoting food.

How to do this?  I like Dr. Fuhrman's 6 week plan, described in his book Eat to Live and this blog post. Another healthy plan is Dr. McDougall's Maximum Weight loss plan, described in his book, and in this newsletter.  Both of these can be modified if more calories are needed by adding additional grains, starchy vegetables, fruit, and nuts and seeds.

I misbehaved several times this summer, enough to say I'm not "walking the walk."  So I want to reset and I want to stick with this forever.  From my experimentation this summer I learned that I'm not missing much.  Sure, some things do taste really good (the most unhealthy things), but most of it is not as desirable to me as my healthy food.  As Laurie, a famous nutritarian from the Fuhrman forums, puts it, she likes to live in the universe of nutritarian eating.  She looks for all her food and treats and desserts in the nutritarian universe, and doesn't venture into the SAD (Standard American Diet) universe.   I've always liked this concept and would like to adopt it as mine.

6 Week Challenge for a Vita-mix--here's the plan!

Okay, I got feedback from readers here and on the Fuhrman forums and the eat-to-live yahoo group and here's the plan I've come up with:

1) Set a goal or goals for yourself.  You might want to pick something you think you can reasonably accomplish, or maybe you want to take on the world.  I recognize that the same goal can be easy for one person and hard for another.  We're all at different levels with different challenges.

2) Send me your name and a screen name (which could be your real name if you want), and your goal(s).   I will post the screen names of everyone participating, along with your goals.   Send this info to my email address:  bwhitney@chi-squared.org

3)  For accountability, try to post a comment here on the blog once a week, stating your progress.  I won't be strict about this, it's just a goal.  You can post every day if you like.

4)  At the end of the challenge, if you want to win the vita-mix, send me via email a short essay (200 words max) describing how you did in the challenge (remind us of what your goals were), and why you want the vita-mix.  I will probably have a hard time deciding between lots of entries and will have to do a lottery because I'm sure you will all have compelling stories!

5) I would like to post the winning essay and maybe excerpts of others.   I will ask you for permission before posting.  I will give runner's up the option to not let me post excerpts of your essay but I will require the winner to let me post their essay.  :)

6)  You can start anytime between now and Sept. 1.  I know several people on the Fuhrman forums started today!  I'm starting tomorrow.

7)  I will try to post often during the challenge. You can post your progress as a comment to any of my posts--probably the most recent will be easiest.   I am going on vacation for 2.5 weeks during the challenge so I might miss some days.

8) Please post you progress here rather than or in addition to other forums you are members of (Dr. Fuhrman's member center, or the Eat-2-Live yahoo group).

9)  The winner will have to pay shipping costs for the vita-mix.  I hope that is okay.

Let's have some fun!

McDougall Advanced Study Weekend

I've been intrigued by the McDougall Advanced Study Weekends because he invites many different experts to speak, often the big names in the area of healthy whole plant foods research and eating and psychology and society and science and cooking, and probably more.   I haven't made it to one of these yet because, California is a long ways away and I don't enjoy flying anymore and it makes for a relatively expensive trip.  But the great thing is, he makes an internet broadcast of the entire weekend available.  If you sign up now, you can get it for $125 (for the upcoming Sept. 9-11 weekend).  That seems like a pretty good deal.  You get to watch/listen to it for 6 months and then it disappears.   I decided to try it out.  I'll let you know if I think it's worth it.

PeerTrainer

Someone I respect told me that they use PeerTrainer to help them with their eating/fitness program, so I got on their email list to find out more.  It is led by Jackie Wicks, who promotes a relatively healthy eating program, similar to Dr. Fuhrman.   Her emails sometimes include some interesting articles, like this one about 7 steps to overcoming emotional eating.  If you want further support, they have a emotional eating mini course.  I have no idea if this is good or not, I'm just pointing it out since it was in the email I received yesterday.  She also linked to another program they do called Point of No Return, for dealing with the psychological barriers of dieting.  If any of you have ever tried these programs, I'd be interested to hear what you thought of them.

Join my 6-week challenge and you are entered to win a vita-mix!!!

I just came up with a crazy spur-of-the-moment idea and then acted on impulse so here we go!   There is a great organization called the Nutritional Research Project.  If you donate $1000 to them by Aug. 27, you get a vitamix blender.  Well, I already have a vitamix, but I feel strongly about this organization, so I thought, I could offer my vitamix to one of you guys!   Let's do a 6-week challenge together starting on Sept. 1.  I'll work out the details in the next few days.  I'm taking the day off work tomorrow to have fun, and I have lots of other stuff to do tonight.  Plus I'd like to hear your ideas for how we should award the blender.  I'm not sure I want to make it a competition but if I make it a lottery, anyone could say they are joining in and then not do anything.  So maybe it should be something in between.  You send me some info before sept. 1 (I'll clarify soon), and then send in your story at the end of 6 weeks and I choose one that is inspiring to others.  I want everyone to have a chance, from beginners to long-timers.  You don't necessarily have to lose weight if you are already healthy, for example.

Okay, I have to go fix tomorrow's meals, so will send more details later!

Oh, and if you have the means and would like to support a worthy organization and guarantee yourself a vitamix, feel free to donate to the NRP!

Guest Commentary: A Fellow's Reflections on the 10th Annual Quality Colloquium



Zoe Clancy, PharmD

Fellow, Health Economics & Outcomes Research

Jefferson School of Population Health



In the words of Paul Wallace, MD, co-chair of the Harvard Tenth Quality Colloquium, “The test if you learned something is if you can go back home and talk about it.” This past week I attended the Tenth Quality Colloquium and I would like to think that I learned a lot. This is the first professional conference I have attended as a Health Economics and Outcomes Research Fellow at the School of Population Health and it was a rewarding experience.



Attending this conference has really highlighted a lot of topics and issues that I am learning about through the fellowship. The sessions I attended on health informatics, value-based purchasing, and quality improvement in the patient experience were led by leaders in their fields. Many topics about the culture of safety were discussed, such as accountable care organizations, meaningful use, and electronic health records.



The session devoted to Using Data to Improve Health Care Quality, Safety and Efficacy was interesting to me as a fellow in an outcomes research program. One of the main ideas I learned from the session was that data banks and the amount of information may be growing, but Health Informatics is still only a tool to access that data. Automating healthcare is important, but it is not enough. Training of personnel in informatics is needed in order to use data collection to its full potential.



In the Value-Based Purchasing seminar I became more familiar with Meaningful Use and other quality incentive programs. I was first exposed to these concepts by working with the JUP Quality Improvement team here at Jefferson, and after attending the session I look forward to applying what I learned to future JUP projects.



I noticed that pharmacists were mentioned frequently during the colloquium. It was brought up numerous times that pharmacists, being the medication experts, can play a crucial and valuable role in patient safety by becoming involved in medication safety. As a pharmacist, I am inspired by all that I heard, and am energized to utilize those principles in my fellowship.



I look forward to the opportunity to attend more conferences and sessions like the Tenth Quality Colloquium in the future.

Seed Oils and Body Fatness-- A Problematic Revisit

Anthony Colpo recently posted a discussion of one of my older posts on seed oils and body fat gain (1), which reminded me that I need to revisit the idea.  As my knowledge of obesity and metabolism has expanded, I feel the evidence behind the hypothesis that seed oils (corn, soybean, etc.) promote obesity due to their linoleic acid (omega-6 fat) content has largely collapsed.

Read more »

Food Palatability and Body Fatness: Clues from Alliesthesia

Part I: Is there a Ponderostat?

Some of the most important experiments for understanding the role of food palatability/reward in body fatness were performed by Dr. Michel Cabanac and collaborators in the 1970s (hat tip to Dr. Seth Roberts for the references).  In my recent food reward series (1), I referenced but did not discuss Dr. Cabanac's work because I felt it would have taken too long to describe.  However, I included two of his studies in my Ancestral Health Symposium talk, and I think they're worth discussing in more detail here.

Read more »

Pleasurable eating

I had a few dalliances with SAD (Standard American Diet) food this year.  My urge to stray was greater this year than in all the 6 years I've been eating healthy.  Maybe I'm trying too hard to be perfect, or maybe I just got bored with it all, and wondered what I was missing--and forgot how awful I felt all the time before eating this way.   The memory of pain does wear off over time.  So when I went off plan (a total of 4 times for a few days each), I tried to sample everything I've been missing.  I even went non-vegan and non-vegetarian!   I tasted a bratwurst and some fries and fried onions.  I had the local favorite ice cream and custard.  I had dinner at a local favorite vegan restaurant--I was really looking forward to it and was surprised to find that I didn't enjoy anything I ate there (food was too oily and salty, dessert too gooey and yucky).  I had a bagel with butter and cream cheese.  a veggie burger (good) and fries (bla) and a root beer (too sweet!).  and some vegan ice cream sandwich bars.  and a few cookies and a muffin.  I think that pretty much sums it up. oh, and some dark chocolate truffles (extremely yummy).  I observed several useful things.  1) I don't like restaurant food.   No more need to be jealous of other people's restaurant food.  2)  I don't like meat or dairy!   I mean, it's not just that I don't want to eat it, I don't like it.  Even the ice cream.  well, it tasted great at first but it left a yucky animal aftertaste and the 2nd half of my scoop didn't taste as good as the first few bites.  and the butter too, stayed on my hands and mouth and smelled for hours afterwards. 3)   However, I did like the vegan versions.  I totally enjoyed the junky vegan ice cream bars.  and vegan buttery spread and jam.  4)  okay once I established that I like the vegan stuff I did comparisons of that with healthy stuff.  Sad to say, the vegan buttery spread and jam on a delicious whole wheat bread tasted better than the home-made date nut butter on same bread.  That's because salt and sugar is a powerful pleasurable combination, and the texture of the "butter" and jam fit well with the bread (more liquidy than the date nut butter).  On the other hand, after the vegan ice cream bars, I made a mango/blueberry/sunflower seed sorbet to which I added 1-2 tsp of agave nectar.   That tasted as good as the sandwich bars!   That was a surprise.  I mean, if you are going to go offplan, a couple of tsp of agave nectar is way way better than all that artificial chemical goop in vegan ice cream sandwich bars!  5) dark chocolate truffles still taste good.  oh well, I can live with that, and I can even have one on rare occasions.   6) and finally, now getting closer to the point of this post which is nowhere near where I started:  after eating all this crap, I also ate one of my favorite healthy treats for comparison, that is a banana with pecan butter spread.  It was tasteless!   Once your taste buds adapt to SAD food, healthy food tastes bland!   Fortunately, the opposite is also true:  once your taste buds adapt to healthy food, it tastes just as good as SAD food (possibly except for the chocolate truffles but I will accept that).  And that is what makes this all doable and even desirable.

And now this is what I really meant to post about but I got totally off track:  today I had as pleasurable an eating experience as my SAD dalliances.  It was the banana and pecan butter spread.  Here is a picture of  this treat:

Now it doesn't look like much, does it?   But it's not just what you eat, it's when and where.  I had just finished a good workout at the gym, it was 7 pm and I hadn't eaten since lunch, and I love a fruit treat after exercising.  I stopped at the co-op and saw they had perfectly ripe bananas.  yes!  I found the pecan butter spread in the refrigerator.  yes!  I had a little butter knife in my bike bag (I was hoping for this even though I was gambling on the ripe bananas).  The pecan butter spread comes in a 1.5 oz container.  It's a combination of raw pecans and cashews and hemp seed.  I bought the treat and a few other groceries and sat outside in the warm evening air and slowly enjoyed this wonderful treat.

This was more pleasurable than the ice cream a few months ago.  Isn't that cool?!?!??!   okay, I admit a chocolate truffle would will stimulate more pleasure centers but it's not good for me and keeps me awake at night.  so I'm happy with fewer pleasure centers stimulated and a good night's sleep, and good health too.

And, in case you are wondering, I do hope I've satisfied my curiosity about the SAD food (pretty please!).

The 10th Annual Quality Colloquium at Harvard





For four days this week the leaders in the quality and safety movement from all over the nation converged on the campus of Harvard University for the 10th Annual Quality Colloquium co sponsored by the Jefferson School of Population Health. In the first morning of the program, three key leaders, including the CEO of the IHI in Boston, the National Patient Safety Foundation, and the AHRQ, set the tone for the rest of the week by challenging the audience to get further engaged in the movement.These leaders reminded us all that medical error remains the fourth leading cause of death in the US and more must be done to protect our patients from harm. The research presentations covered a wide range of topics including the latest research on safety improvement in both the hospital and the office setting. Others presented an update on the role of hospital governance in quality and called for a renewed commitment on the part of board members to this agenda. In the pre conference workshop, nearly 100 persons spent a day in a special "boot camp", with myself and my colleage Dr Ed Walker from the University of Washington in Seattle. Together, we gave a day long overview of the field and we too challenged the attendees to return to their home institutions with a renewed sense of energy and new tools to tackle the epidemic of harmful errors. Our team is already hard at work planning the August 2012 session!! I sure hope that you will think about joining us next summer. DAVID NASH

Another great DVD by Douglas Lisle

I think Douglas Lisle is my new hero.  There are several heroes in the healthy eating community:  Drs. Fuhrman, McDougall, Esselstyn, Campbell, Ornish, and Barnard.  I have to add Dr. Douglas Lisle to this list.  He's a psychotherapist who works at the True North Health Center.   You can read some of his articles here.  He has lectured at a few McDougall conferences and I think the DVDs are taped from these events.  This one I just watched is called "Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind."   He talks about 3 major obstacles to losing weight:  1) the pleasure trap, 2) the ego trap, and 3)  the pull of other's demands.

1)  He's talked about the pleasure trap in a few other lectures, DVDs and a book.  I highly recommend the book or DVD.  Very briefly (and hopefully somewhat correct), the pleasure trap is about how it is perfectly normal to prefer chocolate candy to an apple. We evolved in an environment of scarcity of high-caloric food and we are hard-wired to prefer it.  If you can abstain from the artificial food for a while, for example, with a fast, your taste buds re-adapt and you can enjoy the healthy food just as much.  But it aint always easy to say not to that high calorie-dense food.

2) The ego trap.  I loved this because he described me.  The ego trap is where you or others have high expectations of you, perhaps because of a previous success, and you know deep down you can't live up to those expectations so you quit before you fail.  In your mind, quitting is preferable to failing.   This is what sometimes happens to me with healthy eating.  I achieved success sort of accidentally, just experimenting with this.  Then I joined the Fuhrman forums and started a blog and became something of a role model.   I didn't feel comfortable being a role model and started doubting myself and suddenly eating healthy became harder than it was before, and the temptations, which were almost non-existent before, became greater.  Dr. Lisle says the solution to this is to lower your expectations.  Pick a goal that is better than where you are, and achievable, something you are pretty confident you can do.  You can even pick a goal that is insulting to you so you say, of course I can do that, in fact I can do better than that, I'll show you.  He described working with kids and saying, do you think you can get B/C grades?  and the kid says, yes, I can do even better than that!

3)  other people's demands.  He described how we evolved in an environment of 30 people where everyone knew what everyone else was doing so they couldn't demand too much because they already saw everything you are doing.  Nowadays, our spheres are so separated, your boss doesn't know what you home/community demands are; your spouse and kids don't know your work/community/friend responsibilities, etc.  So everyone wants the most out of you and this situation benefits naturally pushy people and hurts naturally nice people.  You have to learn to say no and you don't have to say why.  You say, "I've got something else I have to do."  "I made a promise and have to take care of something else."  And you don't say what and it becomes clear that it's none of their business and they don't have a right to know.  You have to be able to say no so you can make priorities for yourself.  If you are going to change your diet and develop and exercise program you need time to commit to this.  It IS high priority.

I'd be curious to know what other people think of this lecture.

I Got Boinged, and Other News

The reaction to my post "The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination" has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly among the scientists I've heard from. 

On Saturday, the inimitable maker and writer Mark Frauenfelder posted a link to my post on the variety blog BoingBoing.  BoingBoing has been on my sidebar for three years, and it's the place I go when I need a break.  It's a fun assortment of science, news, technology and entertainment.  BoingBoing was originally a zine started by Frauenfelder and his wife in 1988, and it has been on the web since 1995.  Today, it has multiple contributing authors and it draws several hundred thousand hits per day.  I'm thrilled that Frauenfelder posted my article there.  Apparently he likes my blog.  Thanks!

I added a new section (IIB) to my original post.  It discusses what human genetics can teach us about the mechanisms of common obesity.  It is consistent with the rest of the evidence suggesting that body fatness is primarily regulated by the brain, not by fat tissue, and that leptin signaling plays a dominant role in this process. 

fruity oatmeal

I had this today and tomorrow.  Then I'll run out of oatmeal and will do some experimentation with kamut berries and oat groats.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup long-cooking oats
2 small figs or 1 medium fig, chopped (optional)
3-5 fresh sweet cherries, chopped
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 banana, sliced
note:  substitute any fruit available:  strawberries, blueberries (can be frozen), dates, raisins, mango, etc.
1/2 cup water
1/2-1 Tbsp seed mixture (optional)

Combine and soak overnight in fridge (except for the blueberries).  Heat in the microwave for a minute or 2 (until hot).  Let sit for a few minutes.  Add the blueberries and heat up until they are warm.  enjoy!

If you didn't think of this idea until breakfast time (like me this morning), heat everything except the blueberries and bananas in the microwave for a minute or 2; let sit while you do some other things; heat again; let sit.   do this until it's the consistency you like.

Here's tomorrow's breakfast, soaking in the fridge:


Here was today's breakfast:



food lately

I've had lots of visitors lately and was busy at work so didn't have much time to post about food.  One of my visitors liked my food and asked me to post the recipes.  I didn't use any recipes,  or write down what I did, but I did snap a few photos.  So hopefully I can re-create them from the photos.  It was more of a method than a recipe which I can describe here.

The meals lately usually consist of beans, greens, salads, and corn on the cob, pretty much all locally grown.  and fruit for dessert (not so much local).    The beans are prepared on the weekend and frozen into daily containers.  Right now I have two batches in the freezer.  One is made with "runner cannellini" beans from rancho gordo.  This is what they looked like after soaking--gigantic!
 I cooked them up with mushrooms and onions.  They are creamy and yummy.   The other batch of beans I made with yellow-eyed beans (I don't see them listed right now on the rancho gordo site), and carrot juice, onions, mushrooms, and a little unhulled barley and black rice--really good!  I describe how to cook this up here.

That's the beans.  Then for the most of the veggies, I've been using kale, collards and herbs from the garden (basil, rosemary, chives, dill, cilantro--no rhyme or reason to this besides it grows well), and local produce from the co-op or garden which lately has been summer squash and zucchini and eggplant.  If I use the white beans, I add tomatoes from the garden.  I cook up the veggies in the pressure cooker while the corn on the cob is prepped and boiled.    After the veggies are done, add the beans and 1-2 Tbsp of seed mixture.

Here are some beans & greens:


Here's another batch served up with our usual corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes:


Salads consist of lettuce, maybe some cabbage because the local cabbage is real sweet right now, fresh garden tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, bell pepper, occasionally broccoli from the garden, maybe peas or edamame, and dressing made from a little fresh squeezed orange juice (optional), vinegar (d'angou pear, riesling raisin or a good balsamic) and seed mixture.  Here's today's salad (with cabbage and spinach, forgot to buy lettuce):


We often add some Penzey's no-salt seasonings to the veggies, salads, corn and tomatoes.   Our favorite is mural of flavors, but we also have been trying out sunny paris.

Sometimes instead of greens and beans, we'll have fresh green beans from the garden and salad and corn.  I'll combine the green beans with potatoes and herbs for housemate and guests.

Here's something I made up one night when I was concerned that my guest might be tired of greens and beans.  This was a vegetable curry:


I didn't have much in the fridge so the vegetables were summer squash and cabbage, onion, mushroom and frozen peas.  It looks like there's a potato in there too.  I don't usually make potatoes for myself but I probably thought the guest would like it.   Eggplant would have been good too.  Now I know from experience that curry without salt and sugar tastes bitter and bland.  Since I don't use salt, I needed a sweetener.  I had banana and frozen mangos which I thawed.  I cooked up the squash, cabbage, onion, mushroom, and potato in the pressure cooker with about, 1 tsp of curry powder and 1/2 tsp of garam masala.   Then added the peas to cook in the hot veggies as they cooled.  I blended up the water that the veggies cooked in with 1/2 banana and some seed mixture (1-2 Tbsp).   Then pulsed it with about 1/2 cup mango.  Added that back to the veggies.   As usual, we had this with corn on the cob.  This recipe was a big hit, which is funny because I just made it up spur of the moment.

I think that describes everything except my latest yummy breakfast which I'll describe in my next post.  I also like to eat raw veggies:  carrots, kohlrabi, and sugar snap peas.  Today I added some lime and cilantro but I don't think it's worth the bother. They are great all by themselves.

For fruit, I usually buy what's in season and on special (discounted that is).  Lately it's been delicious organic cherries, both from Washington state and our own Door County.  Blueberries have been on special too.  And grapes occasionally.  Earlier we had a fabulous strawberry and raspberry season.  They are both still good, just no longer on special.    Local watermelons and muskmelons are in season now.  Fresh figs are available (from California).    We are getting peaches from Door County which are wonderful.  I'm sure I'm missing something. There's so much to choose from right now.  It's a great time of year.  I think the cherries are my favorite though---they are really good right now.

Food Which Makes You Old Quickly

That is not the delicious bratwurst, chips, cookies, steak or soft drinks like lemonade and cola tried. All these foods can indeed give you the feeling and joy but try to start thinking twice, not to eat these foods too often. According to nutrition experts, the type of food as it can accelerate the aging process.



The database contains most of the dietary fat and sugar content is very high, resulting in negative effects on the body. Here are seven types of food / drinks after a nutritionist who will quickly become:



Soft Drinks

These drinks have high sugar and low in nutrients. Sugar in these drinks can also lead to overweight, increasing the risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.



Research on nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health was conducted, a can of soft drink every day has been, a person can cause a gain of 7 kg per year.



Sausage

The NI it was very tasty, but unfortunately, according to new research in Europe, these foods may cause cancer risk. The culprit is that of N-nitroso substances that are carcinogenic. This substance is formed when nitrite is mixed with other ingredients of processed meat.



In addition, the sausage is usually made from lean meat. Chemicals and other additives in the organ block can anyone work harder to neutralize.



Coffee

Coffee contains caffeine. The most important thing, not many people know caffeine is the substance proved to increase as stress hormones and their effect can last for hours after eating.



In fact, one of the greatest contributions to premature aging of the stress hormone cortisol is called. Cortisol levels, which bounces muscle fatigue, which excludes a rapid decline.



Chips and French Fries

Food is processed by frying at high temperatures and triggers the formation of trans fatty acids fatty kind. Habit of eating foods with trans fats is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease.



Biscuits/pastry

These foods are high in sugar, which can lead to obesity. Pastry is also often made with hydrogenated oils contain trans fats.



Hydrogenated oil is obtained by adding hydrogen to liquid oils to make it more compact and easier to store. But this chemical process also creates trans fats. Examples of this process are hydrogenated fats margarine or butter.



Trans fat increases the risk of heart disease than saturated fats are growing because they can not remove the good cholesterol (LDL) cholesterol and bad cholesterol (HDL) in blood. In addition, the combination of sugar and trans fats will the pancreas and liver work harder.



According to experts, the organs do not work harder forcing the means to invite free radicals. When the anti-aging food intake is not sufficient to fight free radicals, which means that the age of the body faster and more susceptible to disease.



Red Meat

Red meat contains proteins that are important for tissue repair. However, eating too much animal protein can cause calcium loss from bones, invites the risk of osteoporosis. Some studies show that protein intake high poliartritis occurs in middle age to inflammation, inflammation in more than one type of seal attached.



Rice and White Bread

These foods contain little fiber, so in the category of foods with high glycemic index. Such food digested and absorbed into the bloodstream quickly, causing levels of blood sugar rise very quickly.



This will change the cell and mature more quickly which reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, gall bladder, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and some cancers. Other foods high in mashed potatoes glkemik Index, wheat, sugar and processed cereals.

Ways to Reduce Toxins in House

Healthy living is not only a clean and beautiful, but also free of toxins. Much of the research has shown that this chemical is slightly toxic substances in our environment and our country, such as pain and the carpet.



Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment (CPCHE) reported exposure to chemical agents, various health problems in children, causing asthma, cancer, developmental disorders and birth defects. For this CPCHE issued five recommendations to reduce exposure to toxins at home.



Wiping the dust

Be diligent in wiping the dust off your furniture with a damp cloth, because dust is a major source of exposure to toxic substances. Wipe is the dust with a dry cloth is not recommended because it flows into the air.



"The house dust is the major source of exposure to toxic substances at home, including lead, even at very low level," says Bruce Lanphear, Children's environmental health expert at Simon Fraser University, Canada.



Environmentally friendly cleaning products

CPCHE recommend switching to a cleaner that is nontoxic. Since the use of baking soda to clean the sink or bathtub. Vinegar mixed with water, is a surefire formula for cleaning various surfaces, including windows and flooring.



Scientists said the polishing is not necessary to work cleaning lady. In addition to an air freshener is also best avoided. To wash, choose fragrance-washing and avoiding perfume spree dryer because this product may contain harmful chemicals.



Home improvement with appropriate

Renovation project at home can be a source of toxic exposure for children and pregnant women, since the components could be used by colors, adhesives spread a toxic gas.



Ideally, you and your family have temporarily moved out of the house is being renovated. But if only a partial renovation, it is advisable, the area that was renovated with the meeting to cover to avoid dust and other pollutants.



CPCHE recommend switching to a cleaner that is nontoxic. Since the use of baking soda to clean the sink or bathtub. Vinegar mixed with water, is a surefire formula for cleaning various surfaces, including windows and flooring.



Scientists said the polishing is not necessary to work cleaning lady. In addition to an air freshener is also best avoided. To wash, choose fragrance-washing and avoiding perfume spree dryer because this product may contain harmful chemicals.



Careful use of plastic

CPCHE recommended to ignore the term "microwave" and never plastic containers or plastic wrap in the microwave should be as harmful chemicals will leach from plastic into food.



Place the food in glass or ceramic and the consumption of fresh food as possible. The chemicals used in plastics, especially bisphenol A (BPA) has been shown that it is dangerous because it interferes with brain development and function of hormones.



In addition, it is also advisable to avoid toys, PVC (vinyl) to contain, especially if the child still likes to bite. These chemicals include phthalates that are banned from use in toys in the U.S. since June 2011.



Reduction of mercury

Mercury is a metal that is toxic to the brain. This material is often found in several species of fish and shellfish. Make sure memiilih fish, especially in polluted water.

Causes of High Blood Pressure

The causes of high blood pressure - there are several things a person has high blood pressure. There are factors to high blood pressure, which can not be controlled. It is also, you can control, so that it can cope with the disease pressure. Some of these factors, among others, due to heredity, age, food intake, and so on.

Genes

This factor can not control. If a parent or relative of someone who has high blood pressure, then it is likely that he suffered from high blood pressure is higher. Statistics show that the problem of high blood pressure is not higher for identical twins are twins as identical. One study showed that this derivative evidence of a gene for high blood pressure problems.



Age

This factor can not control. Research shows that age increases a person's blood pressure rises. We can not expect your blood pressure is the same when I was younger as you age. But you can control to get there, not the upper limit of normal.



Salt

These factors you can control. Salt can increase blood pressure quickly and some people, especially diabetics, people with mild hypertension, people with old age, and those who were black.



Cholesterol

These factors you can control. Excess fat in the blood can cause cholesterol deposits in artery walls. This can constrict blood vessels and increases blood pressure. Take control of your cholesterol levels as soon as possible.



Caffeine

These factors you can control. The caffeine in coffee drinks, tea or cola can cause high blood pressure.



Obesity / overweight

These factors you can control. People who weigh more than 30 percent of ideal body weight are likely to suffer from high blood pressure.



Stress

These factors you can control. Stress and emotions are not stable conditions can also cause hypertension.



Cigarettes

These factors you can control. Smoking can also raise blood pressure is high. Smoking can increase the risk of diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Therefore, the habit of smoking, to continue if it has high blood pressure continues to be a very dangerous combination, the disease that causes heart and blood.



Alcohol

These factors you can control. Excessive alcohol consumption also causes high blood pressure.



Poor Sport

These factors you can control. Lack of exercise and movement, blood pressure increases in the body. Regular exercise can make your blood pressure, but do not do vigorous exercise if you have high blood pressure.

Dr. Fuhrman's 3 Steps to Incredible Health!

Wow!  Dr. Furhman did this PBS pledge program called 3 Steps to Incredible Health.  To support Dr. Fuhrman, I pledged to one of the stations that gives a bonus gift.  Well, I guess I didn't read the fine print, but the bonus gift consists of 2 books, a workbook, 6 DVDs, a 3-month membership to the Fuhrman website, oh, and a refrigerator magnet.



The books look outstanding.  They look like a rewrite of the Eat for Health 2-set series.  One book describes the science of eating healthy, why to eat this way and what to eat.  The second book describes more how to do it in 3 phases, and gives lots of recipes.  The workbook gives an overview and exercises to work through.  The DVDs are  "3 Steps to Incredible Health," which is the show that airs on PBS, then "Eating for Incredible Health," "The Skinny on Fats," "Say No to Heart Disease and Diabetes," "Winning the War Against Cancer," and "Success Stories Before and After" (I'm the last one featured, hee hee).   I'm really impressed with the quality of this material.  This seems to be the perfect toolset for someone just starting out.  I guess $150 is a lot of money but I think it's worth it for this package of materials.  I highly recommend it to anyone starting out on this program, or anyone wanting to recharge their nutritarian batteries.

The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination

Introduction

I'd like to begin by emphasizing that carbohydrate restriction has helped many people lose body fat and improve their metabolic health.  Although it doesn't work for everyone, there is no doubt that carbohydrate restriction causes fat loss in many, perhaps even most obese people.  For a subset of people, the results can be very impressive.  I consider that to be a fact at this point, but that's not what I'll be discussing here. 

What I want to discuss is a hypothesis.  It's the idea, championed by Gary Taubes, that carbohydrate (particularly refined carbohydrate) causes obesity by elevating insulin, thereby causing increased fat storage in fat cells.  To demonstrate that I'm representing this hypothesis accurately, here is a quote from his book Good Calories, Bad Calories:

Read more »

Guest Commentary: Collaborative Care's Crucial Role in Population Health



Amanda Solis, MS

Project Director

Jefferson School of Population Health



A focus on population health requires a creative and collaborative approach to care.

The traditional perspective in healthcare has been fairly physician-focused. As we seek to fulfill the mandate to become more patient-centered in our outlook, it is important to leverage the important roles of pharmacists, physical therapists, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, health coaches and nutritionists.



To illustrate my point, here is one example of the role a collaborative care team can play in the management of chronic disease that specifically highlights the community pharmacist. Beginning in 2006, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) launched a program named the “Diabetes Ten City Challenge.” Originally born from the Asheville Project, also conducted by the APhA Foundation and funded by GlaxoSmithKline, this program was aimed at implementing a patient self-management program for diabetes using community-based pharmacies as the base of operations.



The Diabetes Ten City Challenge (DTCC) consisted of 3 main objectives:



1. To implement an employer-funded, collaborative health management program using community-based pharmacist coaching, evidence-based diabetes care guidelines, and self-management strategies designed to keep patients with diabetes healthy and productive.



2. To implement the patient self-management training and assessment credential that equips patients with the knowledge, skills, and performance monitoring priorities needed to actively participate in managing their diabetes.



3. To assess participant satisfaction with overall diabetes care and pharmacist care provided in the program.



Patients in the DTCC program worked with a community pharmacist to develop their knowledge, skills, and performance related to self-management of diabetes. This unique approach established the community pharmacist as a patient coach and leader of the care team. Community pharmacists are in a prime position to serve this role, since they have so much regular contact with patients



DTCC program outcomes included statistically significant improvements in A1C, LDL cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure measures. Patients also reported higher rates of influenza vaccinations, and being current in terms of eye and foot examinations.



In addition to improved clinical outcomes, average total health care costs per patient per year were reduced by $1,079 (7.2%) compared with projected costs. Full results and more information can be found here http://www.diabetestencitychallenge.com/index.php.



The DTCC illustrates an important opportunity to shift the model of care, improve health outcomes, and lower cost. As we face a reduction in primary care physicians and an increase in the number of patients with chronic conditions, we need to work toward implementing creative and collaborative solutions to meet the needs of our citizens.

And Then I Go And Spoil It All By Saying Something Stupid Like "I Love You"

I think everyone was young and struggled to find the words to tell the Apple of Their Eye how they felt....and then after practicing it over and over again and lying awake for weeks on end, planning for the perfect moment to say it, and having the moment finally arrive and getting to at-last SAY IT....it ruined everything!  Or am I the only one that happened to?

I do know the neighbor girl had a crush on me, and when she finally spilled the beans to me and confessed her love, in my youthful ignorance and clutziness I tripped on it, stepped on her heart and accidentally broke it I think.  *sigh*.   Youth is wasted on the young. My mother saw the whole thing - it wasn't deliberate - but I sure got a scolding for that one. 

This originally was sung by Frank and Nancy Sinatra in 1967 - later re-done by Nicole Kidman and Robbie Williams. 

Anyways, great song with a great voice that captures a part of life I think we'd like to forget perhaps - though I really enjoy the SOUND of Robbie & Nicole's version (They went overboard with the video)



AL Gore Rant - Loses It In Aspen.....

This is just audio (PG13). 
Interestingly in the audio clip (below) that he's not focusing on science....he's focusing on culture...on what's acceptable....on catch phrases, rather than actual science. Common among democrats. Democrats hate facts.

I thought science had proven all this.....rather than rant about culture, disprove the other theories. 

Let me pull out my puny little bachelors degree and put it up against Al Gore and Global Warming/Climate Change/An Inconvenient Truth:
What are ALL the variables that could affect climate?
Is CO2 the only one?
Is it the independent variable?

Its the only one I hear about from him.  Yet I know that other things can affect temperature of our planet as well as weather patterns:

Ocean currents
Solar activity
Other forms of pollution such as volcanic activity - which produce more pollution and CO2 than mankind has in his entire history.....


Let me tell you what I think all this is - and I actually believe this.  I believe God is showing those who are paying attention that mankind is foolish and that we better beware who we follow or what we put our trust in or what cliff we go running off of as a society in the name of "good."   I actually believe this. 

Interestingly, if you think about it - science has been wrong more than religion has in terms of how often it has changed and been proven wrong.  Leeches, anyone?  Bloodletting?  How about sacrificing virgins for rain? (Duuuuhhhh! - for those of you who've seen the movie YEAR ONE). 


Ancestral Health Symposium

Last weekend I attended the Ancestral Health Symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles, organized by Aaron Blaisdell, Brent Pottenger and Seth Roberts with help from many others.  It was a really great experience and I'm grateful to have been invited.  I was finally able to meet many of the people who I respect and admire, but knew only through the internet.  I'm not going to make a list because it would be too long, but if you take a look at the symposium schedule, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from.  I was also able to connect with a number of Whole Health Source readers, which was great.  I recognized some of them from the comments section.  Now I know it wasn't just my mom with 57 Google accounts.

The symposium was the first of its kind, and represented many facets of the ancestral health community, including "Paleolithic" diet and exercise patterns, low-carbohydrate diets, Weston Price-style diets, traditional health-nutrition researchers as well as other camps.  For the most part they coexisted peacefully and perhaps even learned a thing or two from one another. 

I was very impressed by the appearance of the attendees.  Young men and women were fit with glowing skin, and older attendees were energetic and aging gracefully.  It would be hard to come up with a better advertisement for ancestrally-oriented diets and lifestyles.  I saw a lot of people taking the stairs rather than the elevator.  I like to say I'll take the elevator/escalator when I'm dead.  I think integrating exercise into everyday life is healthy and efficient.  Escalators and elevators of course make sense for people with physical disabilities or heavy suitcases.

The first talk was by Dr. Boyd Eaton, considered by many to be the grandfather of the paleolithic diet concept.  I was very impressed by his composure, humility and compassionate attitude.  Half his talk was dedicated to environmental and social problems.  Dr. Staffan Lindeberg gave a talk titled "Food and Western Disease", which covered his paleolithic diet clinical trials as well as other evidence supporting ancestral diets.  I like Dr. Lindeberg's humble and skeptical style of reasoning.  I had the great pleasure of having dinner with Dr. Lindeberg and his wife, Dr. Eaton, Pedro Bastos, Dr. Lynda Frassetto, Dr. Guy-Andre Pelouze and his son Alexandre.  Pedro gave a very nice talk on the complexities of traditional and modern dairy.  The following night, I was able to connect with other writers I enjoy, including Chris Masterjohn, Melissa McEwen, John Durant, and Denise Minger

Dr. Pelouze is a french cardiovascular surgeon who strongly supports the food reward/palatability concept of obesity.  We had a conversation the evening before the conference, during which he basically made the same points I was going to make in my talk.  He is particularly familiar with the research of Dr. Michel Cabanac, who is central to the food reward idea.  He eats an interesting diet: mostly raw, omnivorous, and extremely simple.  If I understood correctly, he mostly eats raw meat, fish, fruit and vegetables with little or no preparation.  He sometimes cooks food if he wants to, but most of it is raw.  He believes simple, raw food allows the body's satiety systems to work more effectively.  He has been eating this way for more than twenty years, and his son was raised this way and is now about my age (if I recall correctly, Alexandre has a masters and is studying for an MD, and ultimately wants to become an MD/PhD).  Both of them look very good, are full of energy and have a remarkably positive mental state.  Alexandre told me that he never felt deprived growing up around other children who ate pastries, candy et cetera.  They woke up early and ran six miles before the conference began at 8 am. 

I gave my talk on Friday.  Giving a talk is not like writing a blog post-- it has to be much more cohesive and visually compelling.  I put a lot of work into it and it went really well.  Besides the heat I got from from Gary Taubes in the question and answer session, the response was very positive.  The talk, including the questions, will be freely available on the internet soon, as well as other talks from the symposium.  Some of it will be familiar to people who have read my body fat setpoint and food reward series, but it's a concise summary of the ideas and parts of it are new, so it will definitely be worthwhile to watch it.  

We have entered a new era of media communication.  Every time someone sneezed, it was live tweeted.  There are some good aspects to it-- it democratizes information by making it more accessible.  On the other hand, it's sometimes low quality information that contains inaccurate accounts and quotes that are subsequently recirculated. 

It was a great conference and I hope it was the first of many.

Another dietician's advice

I’ve recently been reading and watching material from Jeff Novick, a dietician who used to work with Dr. Fuhrman and now works with Dr. McDougall.  It’s been interesting to compare advice from all three of these guys.  I think they all offer very healthy eating plans.  The average advice is pretty similar but the ranges are different.   Here is a description of Dr. McDougall’s Maximum weight loss program.  Here is a description of Dr. Fuhrman’s 6 week plan.

From what I’ve read, I think all three would agree that 1-1.5 oz of nuts and seeds per day is an okay amount to eat.  All of their food plans include some nuts and seeds in some of their recipes, and none in others.  They differ in their minimum recommended amounts.  Mr. Novick says you shouldn’t go above 1-2 oz for normal activity, or 2-4 oz for very active folks per day.  Dr. Fuhrman says active people and athletes can go up to 4 oz or more.  Both Novick and McDougall say your minimum can be 0 and I think they recommend that when trying to lose weight.  In Novick’s video on fats, he says you can get all you need from vegetables:  “Where do you think corn oil comes from?”   I’ve asked Dr. Fuhrman explicitly even for small people or overweight people with low metabolism, and he says everyone should eat a minimum of 1 oz of nuts or seeds per day and more active people should consume more.  I find nuts hard to digest and feel better when I stick to under 2 oz per day.   I have tried going super low-fat in the past with no nuts and seeds, and my irregular heartbeats returned (I used to get them all the time before adopting a healthy diet).  Dr. Fuhrman has discussed this, and this is one reason he recommends nuts and seeds.  Dr. Fuhrman says you need to eat fat to burn fat.  Dr. Mullin, who is on Dr. Fuhrman's staff, explains why:

Healthy fats communicate with your genes in a different way compared to unhealthy fats. Healthy fats bind to receptors called PPAR receptors which improve insulin sensitivity and enhance fat burning. Trans fats do the opposite. 

Since eating 1 oz of nuts and seeds fits in with the guidelines of all of these guys, I will stick with that recommendation.

Regarding sweets, I like the advice of Novick.  He says all sweeteners are the same as far as health goes.  Pick whichever one you want and keep it to less than 5% of your calories—and he includes that with all unhealthy calories including oils, etc.  So he’s saying your total unhealthy calories should comprise 5% of the total, not just your sweets.  This is consistent with Dr. Fuhrman’s “Life Plan”, where he says no more than 10% of your calories should come from less healthy sources.  Dr. Fuhrman distinguishes refined sweeteners (sugar, agave nectar, honey, maple syrup)from dried fruits such as dates and raisins, which are whole foods.  Almost all of his dessert recipes use dried fruits as sweeteners.   I think many Fuhrman followers go overboard with their use of dates and other dried fruits.  I know I did for a while.  I thought it was okay because it was a whole food.  But after a while I realized it’s having the same effect on my body, a sugar surge (probably an insulin surge too), and cravings for more.  Combine this with nuts and you have very high-calorie, hard to digest food.  I once got sick on “healthy” brownies made from dates and walnuts and cocoa powder.  I learned the hard way that I can eat too many dried fruits or nuts.  I tend to agree with Novick and prefer to think of all sweeteners, including dried fruit, as in the 5% category.

With salt, Fuhrman wants you to include no added salt in your diet.  McDougall is more relaxed about it.  He allows people to add salt at the table in small amounts and most of his recipes include some sodium in the form of salt or soy sauce, though it is much less than processed foods have.  McDougall’s advice might be easier to follow and it still cuts way back on salt.  I started out following McDougall’s advice and then eventually decided to go cold turkey, following Fuhrman’s advice.   There is an advantage to this, which is that you taste all the subtle flavors in produce.  I can taste the difference in sweetness from one carrot to the next, and one pea pod to the next.  Even kohlrabi and broccoli taste sweet when your taste buds are sensitized again.  My sweat still tastes salty, so clearly my body has learned to extract what it needs from whole foods. Dr. Fuhrman talks about the many harmful effects of salt in his teleconferences, mainly related to heart disease and stomach cancer and the increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke for people with lower cholesterol.  There are two disadvantages to going without salt completely:  1) Some recipes and especially grains can taste bland.  However, this is often solved with a little sweet flavor which you can get from any number of sources:  fruit, carrot juice, fruit juice, dried fruit.  You don’t need much and these can add a nice creative dimension to a recipe.  2) It makes it harder to find acceptable food to eat in restaurants.  Soups are especially bad.  Your best best is salads without dressing or fruit plate.  Unfortunately, these can be pretty lame at a lot of restaurants.

Another way I agree with Novick is that he seems to like simple recipes, and he isn’t a big fan of smoothies and juices and other ways of processing your food.  I think of smoothies, “ice creams”, and sorbets as treats, a once a week type thing rather than daily.  Even carrot-juice sweetened beans and soups I save for special occasions, partly because it’s more work, ha. 

Regarding supplements, I think McDougall and Novick say that you only need to supplement B12.  I’m not sure where Novick stands on vitamin D, but I know McDougall thinks you can get enough D from exposure to sunlight.  Dr. Fuhrman says that vitamin D is so important to your health (in fighting cancer for one thing) that if you don’t want to take the supplements, get your blood levels checked to verify that you are not deficient.  He says the same thing about DHA.  That makes sense to me. 

Regarding animal products, I think McDougall would recommend an all-vegan diet, Novick probably too, though I’m not sure, and Fuhrman says animal products could be included in your 10% of unhealthy calories, unless you have certain conditions such as heart disease and some autoimmune illnesses where an optimal diet is required to reverse your condition.

Then there is the grain/starchy vegetable debate.  Again I think all their recommendations intersect and you can design a diet that agrees with all of them.  Dr. Fuhrman emphasizes eating more leafy green vegetables.  He also emphasizes cruciferous vegetables, onions and mushrooms to fight cancer.  I can get on board with that.  Then how should you fill out the rest of your calories?  I think many Fuhrman followers eat too much fruit and nuts and therefore too many calories (I speak from experience)—and for me, that also leads to a stomach ache which I have no interest in getting.  Novick says it’s better to fill out your calories with starchy vegetables and grains.  Dr. Fuhrman would say the best starchy vegetable to eat is beans.   Novick and McDougall don’t put particular emphasis on beans and include it as one of many healthy options, including white potatoes.  Fuhrman thinks white potatoes are one of the least healthy vegetables and would recommend other vegetables above them.  Fuhrman recommends a minimum amount of beans per day (1 cup).  Novick and McDougall have no such minimum.  Once you get your GOMBS in, (Greens, Onions, Mushrooms, Beans/Berries, and Seeds/nuts), Dr. Fuhrman is fine with filling out your calories with starchy vegetables and grains, though he would prefer you eat sweet potatoes instead of white.

What do I do?   I’ve chosen to follow Dr. Fuhrman’s approach.  I think McDougall’s plan might be easier to adopt for a person starting out (though I found their recipes more bland than Fuhrman’s so maybe it’s a tossup, or depends on your taste preferences).  I really like Novick’s advice, which is practical and makes a lot of sense to me.  I follow the daily guidelines that Fuhrman recommends:  lots of vegetables, especially leafy greens and cruciferous, and onions and mushrooms, 1 cup of beans, 1 oz nuts/seeds, 1-1 ½ lbs of fruit.  Then to fill out the rest of my calories, I prefer starchy vegetables and beans over nuts and fruit, in agreement with Novick.  I love baked sweet potatoes.  In the summer it’s sweet corn.  In my beans, I can add some unhulled barley (yum), or wild rice or wheat berries or oat groats (these look a lot like brown rice).  In the winter I might have oatmeal at breakfast.  I don’t like to eat many dried fruits or smoothies or juices, in agreement with Novick.  I like some, but not on a daily basis, more like weekly.  I like the idea of 5% play calories, in agreement with both.  That means that no food is forbidden which is useful psychologically, given the culture we live in. 

Smart Dog....

Sent to me by Howard.  I've got little ones in my home so I can relate....

 An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.  I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly  that he had a home and was well taken care of.

 He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head  He then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall,  curled up in the corner and fell asleep.
  
 An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

 The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside  and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour.  This continued off and on for several weeks.

 Curious I pinned a note to his collar:  'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is
 and  ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my  house for a nap.'

 The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his
 collar:   ‘He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 -  he's trying to catch up on his sleep.
 Can I come with him tomorrow?’

I Know What I Saw 2011 - History Channel Documentary

I remember this.....the AZ governor with the masks....lol.....anyways, yes, I remember the report of something huge coming up over the city.  The ones that are interesting are where the military expresses interest....and the ones that are really interesting is where the military is apparently in denial about it.

I did see a plan for a propulsion - don't know that you could actually call it propulsion as in propelling - pushing - but that would actually make incredible speeds possible without sound - interstellar speeds - capitalizing on theories of relativity of speed, space and time that I think could work actually.

Interestingly though, to me, is all these UFO's have the same capability - to travel noiselessly and hover....so long as I don't suffer interstellar date-rape where they fly across 20 galaxies just to look up my bum and then dump me feeling drugged on a highway to be ridiculed and smelling like alcohol....I'm fine with it all.

Anyways, fun stuff....

Late night....cartoons....



Wow....even Jimmy Carter didn't achieve this.....

The US is stripped of its AAA credit rating and downgraded to AA+.  For the first time.  Ever.  In history.  With Jackass in office barely over 2 years.  And only 2 more to go.....and we're not even halfway there.

Remember, he didn't say "Change you can believe in tomorrow!"



GDP - fairy tale is right....

Good choice!

I'd have figured a way to use it for toilet paper, to pick up doggy doo, loaned it to a nursing home for a vomit tray cuz I know *I* would feel better after puking on it....but this works too. I like the kids reasoning, but then I think he shouldn't have waited until then...could've done it sooner.

Reach Out And Touch (Faith)

This is a sweet music video to go with the previous movie trailer.....Gotta Love Depechemode.  I guess this is a video from them performing live in Milan with the video they showed to the music.  Anyways, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer died......along came Faith....the vampire slayer....who turned evil.....

The Devil's Double - (R) - Movie Trailer

There's four types of movies I really like:
CIA movies
FBI movies
Mafia movies
Movies like "Dumb and Dumber" or "Liar Liar."

Not that I've ever been a mafia - I do know what it's like to have people wet their pants when I show up - to have that.....power.

And to want more.

And to be infuriated when their knees don't quake enough when you're about to let them have it......and to look at someone and see them look at you and know you have the upper hand.  To see inside a soul while you say "you or me" with your finger on the trigger....that moment.  When you decide.  Wanting to pull it.  Waiting.  Wanting.  Feeling the rush.  And the faster things moved, the calmer I became.....everything in slow motion.

Anyways, not that I'm in favor of depravity, it leaves me feeling empty and conflicted.....but its a rush when it happens...and yet I couldn't help but try to remind myself that was a human being and that I would be judged one day for what happened....and yet feeling myself separate from my weapons and yet feel like they were a part of me....everything in slow motion.

I don't think I have the patience to screw with people's minds like this - but wanting and wanting more and having so much I can say from experience makes you only want more and like what you have less and less.

Anyways, this looked sweet for a movie - I might actually go watch this one.

I love to singa......Owl Jolson

For some reason, this has been stuck in my head for a month or so.  So, I'm gonna just post it here to get it out of my head or stuck in someone else's. 

"Its symbolically idiotic!"

I think I can handle making my own...beans...cheese....beans....whatever....
16 countries have filed a brief against Alabama (home of Forrest Gump) for its law making it a crime to be an illegal alien in the state. 

According to the article, countries like Mexico and Brazil are interested in protecting their criminals illegal immigrants law breakers identity thieves crooks liars "citizens" who sneak into other countries by breaking the law and faking identities and pretending we owe them something in order to suck off their welfare system because countries like Mexico and Brazil suck so badly that it's better to be here. 

However, they only filed a legal BRIEF - it doesn't carry much weight and is only symbolic.

Or, according to my wife, "it's symbolically idiotic!" (That's my wife!).

Facebook Status Update....

Okay - just so everyone knows - we have firearms in our house. Most of them are loaded. My kids have learned about firearms and know what they do and they know they aren't toys. We also have knives in the kitchen. We also have cleaners under the sink. Scissors in drawers. The toilet bowls aren't locked and someone could drown in them. Gravity is in force in our place and things could fall down. If this makes you or a government agency uncomfortable to be in our home....tough tiddlywinks.

A BIG MESSY TOUGH DEMOCRACY......

Y'all - our president's a mental case. 

Obama is telling us  "I didn't say change we can believe in tomorrow..." - okay - so - from the psychology standpoint...this is him telling you  that YOU were wrong.  That YOU misunderstood him.  That this mess with the government is YOUR fault because YOU want it now.  Trust me on this, people.


Then saying we got a "...big, messy, tough democracy" - well....that doesn't sound like he sees it as a positive does it?  By its self that might not mean much, but in context with everything else about Obama its a pretty telling statement and its not a positive thing.

Obama hates America. 

I could go on, but it's pretty simple: "By their fruits ye shall know them."

If we can't tell this guy is bad for America by now, can't tell he hates his country, can't tell he's a fraud and a liar....then I don't know that me going on and on about it in my blog is going to clear it up any.

The only good thing he said was that "We're not even halfway there yet!" - well - GOOD!  Alongside Rush, I hope he fails.  I don't want to get halfway there.  Halfway to what? Utter deconstruction of the United States of America? Throw the bum out!

N.A.V.Y. - Never Again Volunteer Yourself!!!!!

Interesting video on some Cold War CIA experiments....okay....somewhat morbid....there's a reason NAVY stands for Never Again Volunteer Yourself......

If you've ever studied the history of psychology, you'll find this is actually nothing new - eugenics was pretty common and the US may have actually more resembled Nazi Germany in its theology on racial purity, abortions, sterilizations and the like up well past the 1940's.  Okay - and here we go again - I'm from Oregon - which has one of the worst records in this department with the last forced sterilizations and eugenics experiments done I believe as late as 1986 against those who were deemed "inferior" and who should not be having children or propagating their seed. 

ANNND if you're not from Portland, Oregon, we have less racial diversity here than Salt Lake City.  It's one of the least racially diverse cities in the US, annnnnd, in Portland its self, you may notice an increase in the number of colored...can I say colored?  Non white?  people who live in North Portland and them being virtually nonexistent downtown in terms of living or even working....its because at one time they weren't allowed to live anywhere else and the Klan was very strong here as well and for some reason that seems to continue. If you think I'm bad for writing this, try getting a degree in psychology - talk about a degree that's not politically correct!  

BE THAT AS IT MAY......here's the video on CIA experiments......FWIW - all sides do this.  You got the Viet Cong implanting bombs in children, Palestinians putting bombs on children, communists doing....everything that communists do.....it's a dirty game.  Just....if we've succeeded as a nation so far, it's not because we were better at these games than anyone else but because God blessed us as a nation, I believe.

Unfortunately, I learned first hand in the military - freedom carries a price that goes far beyond those killed - and.....that's all I'm going to say on that topic.   Now....the movie.

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