Something unexpected, rather frightening and possibly consequential, but a good thing, possibly a very good thing.
I am now terribly worried that the universe is going to suddenly explode.
Or that a piano is going to fall out of an airplane onto my head.
Which would be just like this world, wouldn't it.
~
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Everything you think about nutrition is wrong
Sorry.
Here it all is with helpful graphics. (Just ignore the advert part.)
~
Monday, July 30, 2012
Spam n' aliens
I suggest putting it on your speakers, cranking it up, turning everything else off, lying down on the floor and listening to it fully. Do nothing else but listen. It's ten minutes, 25 seconds long. It won't kill you.
~
Convenient death
Modernity never ceases to amaze me in its incredible thoroughness. There just doesn't seem to be any tiny corner of human life that it hasn't managed to poison.
And I think it is clear that what Modernity has done to food, "poison" can be taken literally.
I think it's very significant that the woman talks (in possibly the most annoying, nasal American accent I've ever heard) about the traditional methods of food preservation. Now, ask yourself how this was possible. Who was doing the food preparation and preservation, and how did they learn these skills? Women today do not know how to cook even with the inferior processed foods available to them. Their domestic skills are limited to ironing their suit blouses before work.
It is clear that the degeneration of food-related domestic skills, and therefore the good health of children, men and future generations, is yet another victim of the feminist revolution. No one is feeding the family, and the "obesity crisis" is the result.
And the word, "convenience" is starting to become my most-hated word in the English language. I remember once talking to a young man I knew who was complaining about the expense of running his car. He also complained that he was gaining weight because he wasn't getting enough exercise. I observed that in the eleven years I had lived in Vancouver, the city had become almost uninhabitable, hellish, because of the increase of the number of cars, private vehicles, on the roads. I think the government issued a notice that the number had increased about 65% in the first five of those years. I suggested that since he didn't have steady employment, and since he lived in a city with an excellent and cheap public transit system, that he get rid of his car.
He said, "Well, it's convenient." And I think he meant that to be such a sound argument that no further disagreement was possible. And in a way he was right. He had made it clear that nothing, not money, nor his interest (which was real) in the environmental damage cars are doing in cities nor even his health, nor any other thing topped "convenience" on his list of priorities.
We are addicted to it, but it is convenience that is, literally, killing us.
~
And I think it is clear that what Modernity has done to food, "poison" can be taken literally.
I think it's very significant that the woman talks (in possibly the most annoying, nasal American accent I've ever heard) about the traditional methods of food preservation. Now, ask yourself how this was possible. Who was doing the food preparation and preservation, and how did they learn these skills? Women today do not know how to cook even with the inferior processed foods available to them. Their domestic skills are limited to ironing their suit blouses before work.
It is clear that the degeneration of food-related domestic skills, and therefore the good health of children, men and future generations, is yet another victim of the feminist revolution. No one is feeding the family, and the "obesity crisis" is the result.
And the word, "convenience" is starting to become my most-hated word in the English language. I remember once talking to a young man I knew who was complaining about the expense of running his car. He also complained that he was gaining weight because he wasn't getting enough exercise. I observed that in the eleven years I had lived in Vancouver, the city had become almost uninhabitable, hellish, because of the increase of the number of cars, private vehicles, on the roads. I think the government issued a notice that the number had increased about 65% in the first five of those years. I suggested that since he didn't have steady employment, and since he lived in a city with an excellent and cheap public transit system, that he get rid of his car.
He said, "Well, it's convenient." And I think he meant that to be such a sound argument that no further disagreement was possible. And in a way he was right. He had made it clear that nothing, not money, nor his interest (which was real) in the environmental damage cars are doing in cities nor even his health, nor any other thing topped "convenience" on his list of priorities.
We are addicted to it, but it is convenience that is, literally, killing us.
~
Pretty new dress
Quite some time ago, I bought a length of beeyoo-ti-ful robin's egg blue linen, 2.5 meters 60" wide. I've been vaguely daydreaming about making it into a nice blouse, but just this evening looked at it and realised I've got enough to do a whole dress.
I've been idly clicking through the dresses on sites like Modcloth and Burda Dresses and have observed that all the dresses I like best are all more or less along the same lines. A fairly closely fitted bodice with a pleated, or A-line or gathered skirt, just knee-length.
As I said to a friend the other day, while I was sick I made quite a few promises to myself about how my life would be when I started getting better. One of which was to finally get on with fulfilling a sort of girly-dream I've had for many years: to make myself a whole wardrobe of exquisite, one-of-a-kind, hand-made clothes, and I think the time has come. It's a thing I can do at home that isn't too strenuous but more fun that net-surfing.
I've long-since come to the realisation that the clothes I want to wear simply aren't available in shops. And the clothes that I do occasionally find in shops that I like are so badly made that it seems a pity to waste money on them. The mass-manufacturing of clothes really has contributed mightily to the Great Uglification, and it's time I stopped participating in it.
I've got quite a few vintage things, and a few things I've picked out of the mass-o'-crap that aren't too bad, but I've always wanted to dress well, and I think there aren't many ways to do that in our times. Aside from having a Giant Pile of money, probably the best way is to just hunker down and start making them yourself.
It's been years and years, but maybe that's because it's been that long since I've been really settled. But there was a time when I had a whole sewing room. Shelves full of boxes of all manner of fabrics, interfacings, linings, yarn, thread, trimmings and notions, a bulletin board covered in hand-drafted patterns in brown paper, a pegboard all hung with arcane tools and my late, great, indestructible Singer sewing machine. I hardly remember what happened to it all, or how long it's been really since I've done any of that.
But it still seems perfectly normal to me to go to a fabric store instead of a dress shop to go clothes shopping. And while she was here, Vicky made a wonderful discovery; the fabric store where the Versace people shop. It's a huge, huge barn of a place, three stories in an old building near Torre Argentina; floor to ceiling shelves, twenty feet high, full of wonder and magic. Of course, some of it is out of this world expensive, but there's something for everyone.
So, for the robin's egg blue linen, I think something along these lines:
~
I've been idly clicking through the dresses on sites like Modcloth and Burda Dresses and have observed that all the dresses I like best are all more or less along the same lines. A fairly closely fitted bodice with a pleated, or A-line or gathered skirt, just knee-length.
As I said to a friend the other day, while I was sick I made quite a few promises to myself about how my life would be when I started getting better. One of which was to finally get on with fulfilling a sort of girly-dream I've had for many years: to make myself a whole wardrobe of exquisite, one-of-a-kind, hand-made clothes, and I think the time has come. It's a thing I can do at home that isn't too strenuous but more fun that net-surfing.
I've long-since come to the realisation that the clothes I want to wear simply aren't available in shops. And the clothes that I do occasionally find in shops that I like are so badly made that it seems a pity to waste money on them. The mass-manufacturing of clothes really has contributed mightily to the Great Uglification, and it's time I stopped participating in it.
I've got quite a few vintage things, and a few things I've picked out of the mass-o'-crap that aren't too bad, but I've always wanted to dress well, and I think there aren't many ways to do that in our times. Aside from having a Giant Pile of money, probably the best way is to just hunker down and start making them yourself.
It's been years and years, but maybe that's because it's been that long since I've been really settled. But there was a time when I had a whole sewing room. Shelves full of boxes of all manner of fabrics, interfacings, linings, yarn, thread, trimmings and notions, a bulletin board covered in hand-drafted patterns in brown paper, a pegboard all hung with arcane tools and my late, great, indestructible Singer sewing machine. I hardly remember what happened to it all, or how long it's been really since I've done any of that.
But it still seems perfectly normal to me to go to a fabric store instead of a dress shop to go clothes shopping. And while she was here, Vicky made a wonderful discovery; the fabric store where the Versace people shop. It's a huge, huge barn of a place, three stories in an old building near Torre Argentina; floor to ceiling shelves, twenty feet high, full of wonder and magic. Of course, some of it is out of this world expensive, but there's something for everyone.
So, for the robin's egg blue linen, I think something along these lines:
~
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Help: bumped up
A good friend here, a theology student with a rather poorly paid job, has had his computer stolen. He's in sight of the finish line for his Licentiate in Sacred Theology, and, thank God and all the Guardian Angels, his thesis was stored on a separate hard drive, but it's a big loss and he hasn't much money to spare.
Thieves are pretty clever here. These were a pair working the Trastevere train station. My friend was tired after a day at work, and had put his computer down on the bench on the platform next to him. A guy came up to him asking about train times, and pulled his view away so the computer was just out of his line of sight, and his accomplice just came up in my friend's blind-spot and carried it away.
This sort of thing happens rather a lot here, and visitors are often amazed at how incredibly bold the thieves can be.
I hope y'all won't mind me asking if anyone has a few dollars they can spare to help buy a new one. It's very expensive to ship things over here, but, believe it or not, still cheaper than buying in Italy. He's ordered the new thing, but the Visa bill is going to be pretty hefty.
If you feel up to donating, drop me an email and I will forward my friend's name and Paypal info.
Thanks always for your kindness now and in the past.
Update: the O's P email address is posted on the sidebar. Scroll down to find it spelled out in anti-spammer slang.
Update 2: Special thanks to the three readers, Andrew, Paula and Margaret who have donated to my friend's computer fund.
~
Thieves are pretty clever here. These were a pair working the Trastevere train station. My friend was tired after a day at work, and had put his computer down on the bench on the platform next to him. A guy came up to him asking about train times, and pulled his view away so the computer was just out of his line of sight, and his accomplice just came up in my friend's blind-spot and carried it away.
This sort of thing happens rather a lot here, and visitors are often amazed at how incredibly bold the thieves can be.
I hope y'all won't mind me asking if anyone has a few dollars they can spare to help buy a new one. It's very expensive to ship things over here, but, believe it or not, still cheaper than buying in Italy. He's ordered the new thing, but the Visa bill is going to be pretty hefty.
If you feel up to donating, drop me an email and I will forward my friend's name and Paypal info.
Thanks always for your kindness now and in the past.
Update: the O's P email address is posted on the sidebar. Scroll down to find it spelled out in anti-spammer slang.
Update 2: Special thanks to the three readers, Andrew, Paula and Margaret who have donated to my friend's computer fund.
~
It's not just for normal people
...even the slightly creepy and weird should be healthy too.
I apologise for boring you all with this health kick. I seem to be turning into one of those annoying proselytising health nuts. I'm sure I'll get back to normal eventually.
In the mean time, while I have no idea who this Jorge Cruise guy is or why he has such a rage about processed foods, or health in general, or why he seems slightly creepy and weird, or why the people he interviews often seem slightly creepy and weird, but there's some useful information about the badness of sugar here.
~
I apologise for boring you all with this health kick. I seem to be turning into one of those annoying proselytising health nuts. I'm sure I'll get back to normal eventually.
In the mean time, while I have no idea who this Jorge Cruise guy is or why he has such a rage about processed foods, or health in general, or why he seems slightly creepy and weird, or why the people he interviews often seem slightly creepy and weird, but there's some useful information about the badness of sugar here.
~
Friday, July 27, 2012
How sugar makes you fat
The mechanisms may be a little obscure yet, but there are some researchers who have figured out quite a lot of the process. The evidence is saying more and more that it is the habit of eating sugar, and the consequent constantly high levels of insulin, that is making everyone fat. The "no grains" thing comes in when you learn that foods made with grains get converted very efficiently into sugar in your blood, which you don't use and that then gets stored as fat.
This series is rather poorly paced, but it does give the basics. The guy is Dr. Robert Lustig whose work is a bit "controversial," but no more than the whole idea that you should entirely cut out processed sugar and pre-processed foods in general. I'm not a scientist, but I have stopped eating sugar (mostly) and I can tell you it has made a huge difference in my recovery and general health.
I think the most horrible part is the fatty liver disease part. Not only does sugar it make you fat, it turns your liver into fois gras.
I've been using the basic nutrition template found on the "Primal" diet websites, like Mark Sisson's (He's also on the sidebar). These seem complex, and there are lots of debates in the "primal community" over this or that food, and I've been doing some research. But the basic thing is really easy: cut out sugar and grains. That's it. Don't eat sweet stuff, and don't eat things made from flour. So I eat a whole lot of fruit (because it's Italy and it's wonderful), veg, meat, chicken, fish and dairy. The debates rage all over the net about which combinations of things to eat, which specific foods within these categories are better or worse, about cutting out dairy and eating too much fruit. But the rock bottom basic thing is still: no sugar, no grains. If you do that, you're doing it.
No matter what I did, I have never really lost very much weight. Fortunately, I've never had a very bad diet and have mostly avoided pre-processed foods most of my life. So I've never been really fat and probably never will be. Therefore, I've never really needed to loose a whole lot of weight. Before the diagnosis just over a year ago, I had already started cutting back on sugar and grain-oriented food and had gone down a bit. But I was in my forties, and I was slowly, year after year, creeping up and getting more and more rounded. I wasn't obese, but I was certainly larger than was comfortable and a lot larger than I liked.
Cancer sort of interrupted everything, but I've taken advantage of the weight loss and decided to keep going in a serious way with improving my diet. And everything I've read, everything, has told me that sugar more than anything else is the biggest factor in poor overall health and weight gain.
In March, I purged my kitchen, getting rid not only of sweet things like jam and Nutella, but all processed foods. Which meant all packaged soups, boxes of juice, condiments with HFCS or sugar in the label, anything at all that came with an ingredients list that included sugar, and honestly, that was nearly all of it. I have kept a little German mustard and a bottle of ketchup which I use to flavour some sauces and soups and my precious tub of Thai green curry paste. Yesterday I finally gave in and tossed my equally precious jar of hoisin sauce (sigh).
The one thing I'm really flopping on is honey, but I think I can live with that. In addition, I got rid of anything made with flour or grains. All bread, pasta, cereal, cookies, crackers or biscuits. Any baked goods. (And corn is not a vegetable. It's a grain. Corn is the seeds of a grass plant. Don't eat it or anything made from it.) I guzzle yogurt so much I've started making it myself. And any "diet" that involves me eating as much whipped cream and strawberries as I want is the diet for me!
Not having the stuff in the house has made all the difference in the world. It's no problem giving it a pass at the grocery store and I do most of my grazing when I'm at home working, and only having fresh food in the house to graze on has meant that there just isn't anything here to be "tempted" by. Now my pattern is to eat fruit and home-made Greek yogurt in the morning with tea, a lunch of meat and salad or veg, and "dinner" is usually a little salad or home made soup. My sleep is still pretty wacky and I'm often up in the wee hours of the mornings, and then the snacking kicks in, but if there's only fruit, cheese, olives, yogurt and left-over chicken, it's hard for that to be a big problem.
Likely because the surgery has made a lot of very large metabolic changes, I'm not (yet) really losing weight the way other people do when they eat like this. But I have no problem with this. I went down about 6 kilos (13 pounds) since this time last year. At Gardone I probably went up a bit (haven't checked), because the meals were all set for us, even though they were very good about substituting when asked, and I decided to have a gelato-oriented holiday. But again, not really bothered by this. I'm back to my normal eating now, and I know that I won't gain significantly. I've got a pretty good handle on how my body will react to things, and have more or less figured out how to manage it, when to say no and when it's OK to go easy. When I found out that people who have had (H-word) gain an average of 25 to 40 pounds in the first year (!!!), I remember that it's been seven months now and I'm actually losing weight a little bit, so I figure I'm winning.
Now, truthfully, I've had a pretty bad slump since the end of June. Just exhausted, and can hardly move or stay awake. But I think I simply overdid it. I had consciously given myself until April 9th to recover, and wasn't going to spend one more minute waiting. Art classes started then and I was going and that was that. I was feeling so much better, so I did the thing I always do and jumped up and ran off into full time life, going into the City five or six days a week, running about doing things, taking classes and working and even going to Pilates classes twice a week. I was able to keep it up for about six weeks, and then just fell flat on my face and stayed there.
Since then, I've just been very very tired and struggling with what were undoubtedly sleep-related problems with depression. The other day, I went into the City for Mass and then after the lunch went over to the Forum to do some drawing (someone's paying me!!) and stood there like an idiot in the blazing hot sun. Unsurprisingly, this totally did me in and I've spent the rest of the week paying for it.
But these systemic things, like chronic fatigue and insomnia, are just going to have to work themselves out over time. The good news is that I can work, almost as much as I did before, and I can go to the beach, see my friends and look after my house and Winnie, so it doesn't seem to matter too much that I sleep a lot more than before.
This morning, I made my little trip round to see the doctor and he says I'm doing remarkably well. I'm still about 2 months ahead of the normal, expected recovery time, and he agreed that cutting out sugar has probably had a lot to do with that. The Italian doctor is always very sanguine. Mostly he tells me not to worry, that I'm doing fine. Relax, have a holiday, go swimming more often... It's very Italian.
He's suggested that I try getting super-B-Complex vitamin shots to help speed up recovery of the nerve damage. As soon as I can find someone to help with calling the undoubtedly Italian-only phone number, I'll get that sorted. I've got to go have those endocrine system blood tests, which I put off because of Gardone, and after that we'll be able to tell for sure what my blood sugar and insulin, leptin and other hormone levels are, and whether I'm insulin-resistant, or what.
But it's been a fascinating experiment. Of course, it's impossible to tell how I would have responded if I had just carried on eating as I did before - you can't really do a proper experiment without a control - but I think the experience of other people is a good place to compare and if so, I'm way ahead. Way.
Stop eating sugar. Really. Everything will work a whole lot better.
~
This series is rather poorly paced, but it does give the basics. The guy is Dr. Robert Lustig whose work is a bit "controversial," but no more than the whole idea that you should entirely cut out processed sugar and pre-processed foods in general. I'm not a scientist, but I have stopped eating sugar (mostly) and I can tell you it has made a huge difference in my recovery and general health.
I think the most horrible part is the fatty liver disease part. Not only does sugar it make you fat, it turns your liver into fois gras.
I've been using the basic nutrition template found on the "Primal" diet websites, like Mark Sisson's (He's also on the sidebar). These seem complex, and there are lots of debates in the "primal community" over this or that food, and I've been doing some research. But the basic thing is really easy: cut out sugar and grains. That's it. Don't eat sweet stuff, and don't eat things made from flour. So I eat a whole lot of fruit (because it's Italy and it's wonderful), veg, meat, chicken, fish and dairy. The debates rage all over the net about which combinations of things to eat, which specific foods within these categories are better or worse, about cutting out dairy and eating too much fruit. But the rock bottom basic thing is still: no sugar, no grains. If you do that, you're doing it.
No matter what I did, I have never really lost very much weight. Fortunately, I've never had a very bad diet and have mostly avoided pre-processed foods most of my life. So I've never been really fat and probably never will be. Therefore, I've never really needed to loose a whole lot of weight. Before the diagnosis just over a year ago, I had already started cutting back on sugar and grain-oriented food and had gone down a bit. But I was in my forties, and I was slowly, year after year, creeping up and getting more and more rounded. I wasn't obese, but I was certainly larger than was comfortable and a lot larger than I liked.
Cancer sort of interrupted everything, but I've taken advantage of the weight loss and decided to keep going in a serious way with improving my diet. And everything I've read, everything, has told me that sugar more than anything else is the biggest factor in poor overall health and weight gain.
In March, I purged my kitchen, getting rid not only of sweet things like jam and Nutella, but all processed foods. Which meant all packaged soups, boxes of juice, condiments with HFCS or sugar in the label, anything at all that came with an ingredients list that included sugar, and honestly, that was nearly all of it. I have kept a little German mustard and a bottle of ketchup which I use to flavour some sauces and soups and my precious tub of Thai green curry paste. Yesterday I finally gave in and tossed my equally precious jar of hoisin sauce (sigh).
The one thing I'm really flopping on is honey, but I think I can live with that. In addition, I got rid of anything made with flour or grains. All bread, pasta, cereal, cookies, crackers or biscuits. Any baked goods. (And corn is not a vegetable. It's a grain. Corn is the seeds of a grass plant. Don't eat it or anything made from it.) I guzzle yogurt so much I've started making it myself. And any "diet" that involves me eating as much whipped cream and strawberries as I want is the diet for me!
Not having the stuff in the house has made all the difference in the world. It's no problem giving it a pass at the grocery store and I do most of my grazing when I'm at home working, and only having fresh food in the house to graze on has meant that there just isn't anything here to be "tempted" by. Now my pattern is to eat fruit and home-made Greek yogurt in the morning with tea, a lunch of meat and salad or veg, and "dinner" is usually a little salad or home made soup. My sleep is still pretty wacky and I'm often up in the wee hours of the mornings, and then the snacking kicks in, but if there's only fruit, cheese, olives, yogurt and left-over chicken, it's hard for that to be a big problem.
Likely because the surgery has made a lot of very large metabolic changes, I'm not (yet) really losing weight the way other people do when they eat like this. But I have no problem with this. I went down about 6 kilos (13 pounds) since this time last year. At Gardone I probably went up a bit (haven't checked), because the meals were all set for us, even though they were very good about substituting when asked, and I decided to have a gelato-oriented holiday. But again, not really bothered by this. I'm back to my normal eating now, and I know that I won't gain significantly. I've got a pretty good handle on how my body will react to things, and have more or less figured out how to manage it, when to say no and when it's OK to go easy. When I found out that people who have had (H-word) gain an average of 25 to 40 pounds in the first year (!!!), I remember that it's been seven months now and I'm actually losing weight a little bit, so I figure I'm winning.
Now, truthfully, I've had a pretty bad slump since the end of June. Just exhausted, and can hardly move or stay awake. But I think I simply overdid it. I had consciously given myself until April 9th to recover, and wasn't going to spend one more minute waiting. Art classes started then and I was going and that was that. I was feeling so much better, so I did the thing I always do and jumped up and ran off into full time life, going into the City five or six days a week, running about doing things, taking classes and working and even going to Pilates classes twice a week. I was able to keep it up for about six weeks, and then just fell flat on my face and stayed there.
Since then, I've just been very very tired and struggling with what were undoubtedly sleep-related problems with depression. The other day, I went into the City for Mass and then after the lunch went over to the Forum to do some drawing (someone's paying me!!) and stood there like an idiot in the blazing hot sun. Unsurprisingly, this totally did me in and I've spent the rest of the week paying for it.
But these systemic things, like chronic fatigue and insomnia, are just going to have to work themselves out over time. The good news is that I can work, almost as much as I did before, and I can go to the beach, see my friends and look after my house and Winnie, so it doesn't seem to matter too much that I sleep a lot more than before.
This morning, I made my little trip round to see the doctor and he says I'm doing remarkably well. I'm still about 2 months ahead of the normal, expected recovery time, and he agreed that cutting out sugar has probably had a lot to do with that. The Italian doctor is always very sanguine. Mostly he tells me not to worry, that I'm doing fine. Relax, have a holiday, go swimming more often... It's very Italian.
He's suggested that I try getting super-B-Complex vitamin shots to help speed up recovery of the nerve damage. As soon as I can find someone to help with calling the undoubtedly Italian-only phone number, I'll get that sorted. I've got to go have those endocrine system blood tests, which I put off because of Gardone, and after that we'll be able to tell for sure what my blood sugar and insulin, leptin and other hormone levels are, and whether I'm insulin-resistant, or what.
But it's been a fascinating experiment. Of course, it's impossible to tell how I would have responded if I had just carried on eating as I did before - you can't really do a proper experiment without a control - but I think the experience of other people is a good place to compare and if so, I'm way ahead. Way.
Stop eating sugar. Really. Everything will work a whole lot better.
~
What is sugar doing to your blood?
It's horrifying...
Who on earth would eat Pop-tarts for breakfast?
Or for anything else?
~
Who on earth would eat Pop-tarts for breakfast?
Or for anything else?
~
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