The stupidity of the masses, little things kill!

OK, a LONG time ago, like 20 years ago, the Surgeon General warned us about salt and high blood pressure. Before I go on, how many of you think that salt causes high blood pressure?

Well, not all that long ago, extensive research proved that salt does NOT cause high blood pressure, but in RARE CIRCUMSTANCES an excessive amount can cause a blood pressure problem to become worse! The main scenario is when sodium becomes a substitute for potassium in a person with a potassium deficiency. Eat a banana!

Anyway, it was on the news yesterday that some star marathon runner died of a sodium deficiency. Nice! An athlete in the prime of life struck down by his own belief in a falacy.

You see, people tend to believe the first thing they hear from a "trusted source", whether it be the Surgeon General, a police officer, etc. And any facts that later come to light tend to be ignored.

A perfect example is this article I saw in one of my wife's magazine. It starts out with a title like "10 ways to reduce salt in your diet". It points out the problem with excess sodium causing water retention in women, and the problem with low potassium, mentioning the later found facts as an afterthought, and then says that the biggest problem with salty foods is that so many of them are high in fat, such as pizza, french fries, etc. Then it suggest of all things you refrain from putting salt on your vegetables? LMAO, since when are veggies considered a high source of fat?

It's not the big things that show the true stupidity of man, like deforestation, war, polution, etc. Those are caused by greed, and greed is part of nature, even animals fight each other for food. Instead it's the little things, like killing yourself over rumors that salt is poison, buying electric cars to help the power companies polute the earth because you've been told their "cleaner", assuming that any police suspect is guilty because the "police must be doing their job", buying a Dell because it's "America's favorite PC", etc, etc, etc.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

That's like the whole egg thing. At first eggs were bad because they were high in cholesterol. Then eggs were suddenly okay again because it was <i>good</i> cholesterol. Or something funky like that.

Or even like the whole Vitamin C thing. Everyone always suggests taking massive doses of Vitamin C. (Or at least taking enough to avoid scurvy. Heh heh.) But I semi-recently read an article linking steady overdoses (such as if you're taking daily vitamin pills without actually measuring how much you take against suggested amounts and your average daily diet) of Vitamin C to <i>causing</i> cancer.

My absolute favorite article though was one I recently read in my dentist's waiting room. It was printed in Time magazine. The title of the article was something like "I was a teenage vegetarian" or something silly.

Anywho, this article goes on to state how while in <i>theory</i> vegetarianism has the potential to be good for our bodies, the vast majority of vegetarians don't properly balance their diet. As a result, they lack the protiens and nutrients to stay healty and on average are in <i>worse</i> health than the rest of us omnivores. Why? Because most vegetarians simply aren't educated enough to know what to eat to keep their body running. All they know is to not eat moo cows.

I had to laugh at that, because I've seen it first-hand. My uncle went vegetarian after hearing on public radio how you shouldn't eat "anything with a face". (Never mind that he still can't explain why he won't eat scallops.) The guy just constantly lives on tofu though. Then he wonders why he's putting on more weight than when he ate meat.

Hmm. Gee. I wonder. Maybe because tofu is soy curd. Maybe because eating a brick of tofu is not very different from chugging a bottle of vegetable oil. You think living on deep-fat-fried foods is bad, try living on the oil and cutting the real food out of it entirely! This is tofu. It is meant to be used to supplement a diet, not to live on by itself.

Then there's the whole 'eating animals is eating fat' myth that many vegetarians just don't get. Sure, if you live at McDonalds that might be true. If you actually shop for your food though, you'll find it's just a load of tofu. I can get 93% lean or better ground beef if I look hard enough. (I usually aim for 95% to 98% from my local butcher.) Lean cuts of steak (while a bit less flavorful) are pretty easy to find too. Prepared right they're just as good as a t-bone. Lean chicken and turkey are a cinch to find. Even lean pork can be found with relative ease. Even better than all of that though, <i>buffalo</i> is an incredibly lean and nutrient-filled meat. (And the flavor kicks beef's arse. I love it.)

So I eat my buffalo steak with carrots and asparagus tips. I have my glass of low-fat chocolate milk with it. I get my protein, I get my nutrients, and all with hardly any fat. Yum!

The moral of the story? We're omnivores, pure and simple. And unless you're going to actually take the time to educate yourself fully and devote your mind to it with the same will that you devote your stomach, you're better off just ignoring the advice from the 'intelligent' people of the world entirely and just live on instinct.

If you have a craving, follow that lead. Don't deny yourself anything just because someone said that it is 'bad' for you. Chances are that your body is smarter than you are and it <i>knows</i> what it needs. All that you have to do is make sure to keep your consumption in moderation.

It's an easy system.

<A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/171.htm" target="_new">The corpse you find may be your own.</A> - Black Mage

...actually he's right, they are really good...but you gotta cook them right to really appreciate the flavor....

.....I actually tried crocidile meat once....bring your dentures, coz you'll be chewing for hours.....

Wingding - The Forum's Official Bottom Feeder

.....OK...it is extremely confusing, trying to decide what is good or harmful.....I have two kids and naturally I want to give them healthy, nutritous food, but honestly I don't even trust the food labelling because it's usually misleading or not informative enough....

....while I'm on the subject, does anyone buy the concept of organic food? I'm a bit sceptical......

Wingding - The Forum's Official Bottom Feeder

Organic is more or less a marketing ploy to charge more money.

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">A better place to be</A>

lol, about right. I did bodybuilding a few years back, damn great obsession with the mirror that was, but we were so into what we eat and taking the massive supplements too. Now that’s an expensive pee I tell ya.

Organic foods do cost more to produce as most of it is done with hydroponics to get the perfect result, which generally has added nutrients in the water and who knows what else they put into it, prolly use growth hormones too but they say its chemical free!

I think we should be more concerned with genetically modified foods, although genetics has been improving farmers crops for years with new hybrid bug resistant and water efficient plants being engineered all the time.


<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">A better place to be</A> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Scotty35 on 08/15/02 07:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

I don't think I would wanna eat the goat after that!~ Let alone see how the kids turn out.hehe

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">A better place to be</A>

Not as WingDing intended right!

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/index.php" target="_new">A better place to be</A>

that would be something, add plenty of ladies to that island and I´ll be ther faster than a (fast animal).


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No no, god forbid!
that would ruin the paradise.

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"Anyway, it was on the news yesterday that some star marathon runner died of a sodium deficiency. Nice!"


MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What the hell was that movie? Demolition Man?
And Sandra says "salt is bad for you; hence, it's illegal."

I laughed my @$$ off; probably more than once, but it's the first time that counts.

Hello, mcfly. Sodium is *essential* to life. So is potassium, calcium, chlorine, oxygen, cabon, sulfur. All the origs. Potassium excretion is quite nearly a renal function. Sodium is shed through tear ducts, sweat, and kidneys. So, if you are sweating, you need sodium long before you need potassium. Classic moment in sports. Definately a candidate for a Darwin, IMHO.

And strictly speaking, I can't think of anything that, in sufficient quantity, does *not* cause cancer. They load these cute, fuzzy, little Black Norweigen's up with about 50 million times the amount that you could ever possibly take; that is, unless you have a Phd. and access to college level laboritory equipment. Vitamin C, clay, tree pollen, silicon, beer, jet exhaust, ozone; cancer sticks, all of 'em.

Then, the study comez out, the media absolutely *HAS* to make money, and they only make money if there is a problem. The larger the problem, the more people read/watch, the more ca$h they make. Nasa looses ca$h if there *isn't* a problem with the ozone, so it's in their best intererst to find a problem with it. A 10 microBecquerel release from the local nuclear power plant disaster really makes headlines; regardless of the fact that, literally, the radiation released could not be detected by the current technology available and the backup systems functioned exactly as they were designed.

I also like these vegetarian people saying "protein is bad for you". And how the American Indians are so prone to diabetes.

DUDE!

You're a regular naturopathic physician.

Slvr Phoenix, ND.

Funny you say that, about the oils.

Me and a friend went to a shop earlier today and found these oils with funny names, claiming to be "good for your health".

hmm, maybe I should by one and try...I sniffed one of em that claimed to be a "refreshener", did it work?...hmm, maybe a little...probably just placebo.

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