The whole grain elephant in the room?

Were you watching 60 minutes last night? Sugar is bad, sugar is toxic, sugar can give you cancer, okay I’m paraphrasing here but the segment was on after the one about the space program and with a hook like that who wouldn’t put down the chocolate and pay attention. The scientist, Dr Robert Lustig has been researching the sweet stuff and his findings are alarming. I’ve posted the link below.

However there is another staple that you’ve probably had some of this morning or will be eating some of today that needs to be cut back as well. Wheat. Working in a bookstore I get to read the back of plenty of books when I’m shelving them, but one, Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis really caught my attention so much so that I bought it. Davis’s opening remarks about constant exercise and lack of weight loss struck a chord with me. I’m not exactly fat but I have to work out every day to maintain my weight well I did but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The next thing that got my attention was that the wheat we eat isn’t what my parents and grandparents used to eat, the grain was cross-bred with other varieties to make it smaller, more resistant to disease, double yield and stave off famine in developing countries. The only thing they didn’t do to it was test the effect it had on humans.

Then I got to the bit where wheat messes with your brain chemistry and I very nearly put the book down. Oh come on! I thought, this was all going so well and then you have to go all junk science on me. So I put Dr Davis to the test, substituting my normal cereal for one of his recipes and didn’t feel the need to snack, had lunch (again wheat free) and then dinner. I didn’t feel the need to eat anything extra and all the usual temptations were there I just didn’t want them. I’m not completely wheat free because my husband insists on pizza Saturday nights and I don’t want to eliminate wheat completely because accidental ingestion can cause some pretty bad reactions. So Saturday night bad things get eaten but for the rest of the week I have my willpower and that’s not all.

Eight weeks in and I’m down one dress size, I exercise twice a week instead of every day (I think if I kept up the seven day a week thing I could drop another dress size but I don’t need to) and my energy level is through the roof. I still eat plenty of meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, chocolate etc just no wheat. Links to both the CBS article and a link to the book itself are below. I never recommend something without first trying it. I highly recommend this.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57407294/is-sugar-toxic/?tag=pop;stories

http://www.kingsenglish.com/book/9781609611545

Gullible US?

My family has a saying never discuss religion or politics with people you want to stay friends with.

Politics in the US wears its heart on its sleeve, I knew that when I moved here. As those of you who’ve read this blog before know I don’t exactly give a flying fig for it. In the UK it’s easy to ignore-sure I voted back home and if you know me well you might be surprised who I voted for but that’s not the issue here. Because right, left or independent should never be the basis for liking someone, and should never ever be hurled as an insult. Yet in the US it never fails to be and this election campaign is one of the bitterest insult-ridden yet. You can blame technology for a lot of it, citizen journalism, one click and your facebook comment or tweet can go around the world if it is controversial enough. Negative attack politics is rife. Now I know that honest politician is an oxymoron but we didn’t come out of the womb with a political party symbol tattooed on our butts we choose our political affiliation or lack of it, the same as we choose our best friends, our lovers, our jobs, the food we eat, or how we use our brains. Here’s my favourite trick, don’t listen to the words, use the mute button and look at the body language every politician has a ‘tell’ when they’re lying or flip-flopping the trick is spotting it and that's a lot easier when you can't hear the spin.

NB

In the UK Monster Raving Looney party candidates stand quite often for local government-and they’re a joke. In the US tea party candidates stand for election and Americans take them seriously even voting some into office.

http://www.loonyparty.com/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/felkins2.html

What’s so dangerous about daytime running lights?

I used to think DRLs were a necessary evil, they come on when I turn the key, I have no say in the matter unless I want to hack my car (and I don’t) When it’s dark or overcast as a matter of habit I put my main ‘dipped’ headlights on. Most people in the US seem to rely on DRL and according to various websites DRLs have reduced front and side impact crashes by 5% or 0% depending upon which data set you look at. The word you should pay attention to here is front-not back. At the back DRLs don’t operate the tail lights which is fine in clear visibility but drive in rain, spray, fog or snow and unless you put the main lights on no one can see the back of your car, until you either brake and your brake lights come on, you indicate to pull out, or they run into the back of you. Brake lights and tail lights are not the same thing. Driving back down I15 yesterday from NV to UT in snow and heavy spray, I saw multiple cars with their DRLs on and nothing else. There were also some drivers who didn’t have DRL but hadn’t turned their lights on. Don’t take my word for it, have a friend check the back of your car and see what comes on when you have only DRL. On one of the sites I visited (lightsout.org) they equate DRLs to stone age technology when sensors could be installed that would turn the lights on automatically or better yet, improve the driver training programs and stop relying on safety devices that don’t make us safer.

http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/drl.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp

http://www.lightsout.org/story.html#ourcase

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-life/auto-therapy/spotlight-on-daytime-running-lights/article2191954/?service=mobile

Who's the victim here?

A YouTube clip that is causing controversy across the UK. You may have seen it, I hadn't. Until we landed yesterday I'd no idea it even existed. A student on a train in Scotland with the wrong ticket is ordered off by a conductor who is old enough to be his grandfather. Said student verbally abuses both the conductor and the other passengers in that carriage until a big chap steps in asks the conductor if he needs help with the problem and when the conductor says yes puts the kid off the train. After he does this he gets a round of applause from the other commuters. You cannot see the student's face and what should've happened is that the unnamed student learned a valuable lesson and the public got to realize that we can stand up for ourselves and others. What actually happened is this. The student revealed himself to be 19 year old Sam Main (remember that HR departments this little charmer will be looking for a job once he's graduated) and has been photographed looking like an angel with a scuffed face, I'm betting he isn't giving the money he gets from the interviews to any good causes. He loftily admits that he was out of order with the verbal abuse but says that he shouldn't have been thrown off the train especially by a member of the public. Seeing as the conductor couldn't have lifted a bag of sugar let alone an abusive 19 year old kid methinks he doth protest too much. And the have a go commuter? He has been charged with assault. Oh and the conductor is now under investigation. So here's the message loud and clear, don't interfere, standing up for your fellow man will get you a criminal record.

Who threatens Santa Claus?

A British teenager instead of writing a letter to Santa, has sent him an ultimatum. Give me the presents or Santa gets it (and I'll cook his reindeer). The little charmer (I'm being sarcastic here spoilt little brat would be far more appropriate) has a long list including the real Justin Bieber she is quoted as saying 'I don't see any problem with the letter, I want all of these things and I don't see why I shouldn't get them.'

 

Her mother says that she's going to try and get most of the things on her spoilt little kid's list. I don't know about you but I have two huge problems with this.

Firstly, she's thirteen! and still thinks that Santa exists and second and worst of all, her mother is indulging behaviour that will carry on into adulthood. What the kid needs is a good slap and no Christmas presents, instead she gets publicity in a national newspaper. If I could be a fly on the wall at their house on Christmas morning the meltdown when she doesn't get what she wants is going to be spectacular!

Here's the link to the article.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073907/Christmas-list-Spoilt-girl-13-demands-presents-says-Santa-Claus-die.html

Your bargain or your life?

Ah Black Friday. Every year I think to myself, should I do it. I mean get up at 3am and queue in the freezing cold. Think of the money I'll save. But here's the truth, I am a lazy shopper and I shop local not big box and at 3am the only place I'm going to be is in bed. Looking at what happened over the weekend my opinion of 'the running of the bargaineers' still hasn't changed. The woman who pepper-sprayed a crowd to get her greedy little paws on an Xbox, the grandfather who may - or may not have been shoplifting but was brought to the ground by a zealot police officer who tackled him as if he was a suicide bomber and slammed him face first into the concrete floor. And the poor guy who had a heart attack and died, people just stepped over him. Also when they put up those lists of the worlds deadliest jobs, you would think the poor sap who has to open the doors of any store on Black Friday would get a mention. Bargains are material possessions, I prefer to enjoy Christmas with my family not in an emergency room.

What do the 99% and the Arab spring have in common?

My what short memories we have.  Arab Spring - peaceful sit-in protests in the middle east that led to a lot of changes, people died, some dictators were removed, the sheer will of the people did this.  Now cut to Occupy Wall Street, peaceful (mostly) protests all around the US (Salt Lake has an 'occupy' protest down in Pioneer Park) and in many cities around the world.  Our citizens saying that they've had enough of the culture of corruption that the banks have been getting away with for years.  Even after we bailed them out (remember that - your tax dollars paid for it) they're back to their old ways.  And when we try and do something about it - the police are ordered to break up these camps using force.  Laws are rushed through local government to rid us of this public nuisance.  These 'occupiers' are from every walk of life and they are expressing their discontent in the only public way they can.  They can't bring down these banks or large investment houses only the super rich can dismantle their little eyrie and why would they want to do that?

And what do we give these (mostly) peaceful demonstrators for their trouble?  Violence. Demonstrator Scott Olsen - an Iraq war veteran , 24 years old. He survives fighting for US freedom and he gets a fractured skull courtesy of a smoke grenade from the Oakland police force.  Using excessive force on your citizens here at home makes you look like a bunch of bullies. And unlike middle eastern countries where refusing to obey an order meant you could be shot, if the police refused to take these orders they would only lose their jobs not their lives and that would be a sign that the 1% were losing ground. Taking away the generators the NY protesters are using for warmth because they constitute a 'fire hazzard' also smacks of the 'the man' sticking it to us. Occupy Wall Street is a way for people to express their discontent with everything that's gone wrong in this country.  A safety valve if you will.  And neither negative media coverage, nor dismissive politicians have managed to put this upstart movement to bed - the protesters say they are in it for the long haul.  Six weeks in they've no clear message, they don't have an agenda, they're all ages, all races but they are still occupying.

There are those who read those post and will assume I'm a democrat.  Guess what I don't support any political party, the left is wet, the right is so far right that if we moved them back in time to Berlin in 1933 they'd fit right in.  Moderates are few and far between, if I could find one I would support them.  Oh and speaking of history, you might want to look up that time the French 99% turned on the 1%.  They skipped the peaceful protest - it wasn't pretty.