The Weekly Watch

Sugar, the Tobacco of Our Time

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Dr Robert Lustig has tried to warn us for years about the dangers of sugar, particularly the fructose portion of table sugar. His presentation, "The Bitter Truth About Sugar" from over a decade ago, has been viewed many millions of times. His big push is to promote the consumption of Real Food rather than the processed junk that comprises the standard American diet (SAD). He had a discussion this week with neurologist David Perlmutter.

Dr. Robert Lustig on the podcast talking about his new book METABOLICAL. This new work addresses nutrition, food science, and global health, and explains how by focusing on real food we can reverse chronic disease and promote longevity. For the first time, all strands of this pandemic—the medical, the economic, and the environmental—are pulled together into one clear narrative. And to be sure, the pandemic we are referring to is the pandemic of chronic, noninfectious, preventable diseases, not COVID-19.
Describing the eight pathologies within the cell that belie all chronic disease, Dr. Lustig illustrates how they are not “druggable” but rather “foodable” (i.e. medication can’t cure what nutrition can) by following two basic principles: protect the liver, and feed the gut. He uses this science to chronicle the breakdown in our current healthcare paradigm, which has succumbed to influence from Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government. In the special chapter “Food in the Time of Corona,” Dr. Lustig addresses the way “pre-existing conditions” (i.e. diet-induced chronic diseases) make us vulnerable to succumbing to acute infectious diseases like COVID-19. He also argues that the Nutrition Facts label hides information from the consumer by omitting what’s been done to the food, which is more important than what’s in the food.
Weaving together the interconnected strands of nutrition, disease, medicine, environment, and society, METABOLICAL provides the scientific bases for a series of iconoclastic revelations, among them:
Medicine for chronic disease only treats symptoms, not the disease itself
You can diagnose your own biochemical profile
Processed food isn’t just toxic, it’s addictive
The war between vegan and keto is a false war—the combatants are on the same side
Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government are on the other side

Dr. Robert Lustig's Top 10 Health Tips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qIvUhle7-c (8 min)
1. Know a difference between glucose and fructose (0:30​)
2. Keep your fructose under 20g/day (1:08​)
3. Avoid big fruit and honey (1:41​)
4. Berries (2:22​)
5. Get both soluble and insoluble fiber (3:00​)
6. Low-carb (3:42​)
7. Dilute salt with water (4:32​)
8. Focus on inflammation (5:25​)
9. "Type 2 diabetes is a processed food disease" (5:57​)
10. A calorie is not a calorie (6:30​)

A couple of years ago he was in the UK at the public health consortium where his presentation was entitled Corporate Wealth or Public Health.

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The food industry puts profits over public health using big tobacco’s playbook.

Big Food and Big Tobacco share some common bloodlines. It wasn’t very long ago that some of these companies were one and the same. RJR Nabisco, for instance, once simultaneously contained the companies that made Camel cigarettes and Chips Ahoy! cookies. Until the mid-2000s, the companies that manufacture Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes were part of the same conglomerate, Philip Morris (now Altria), which manufactured Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Kool Aid. Those companies have since split their tobacco businesses from their food businesses, but heavy-handed product marketing may be ingrained in the companies’ DNA.

https://cspinet.org/big-food-sounds-lot-big-tobacco

Big Food Uses Front Groups to Influence Public Health Policy. Guess who is influencing our dietary guidelines?

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Junk food giants are influencing public health recommendations for the worse, even as doctors and scientists stress the important role good nutrition plays in strengthening the immune system and resisting COVID.
More than half of those appointed to the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) have ties to the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), a junk food industry front group.
Junk food giants are thoroughly intertwined with public health recommendations pertaining to food and nutrition — to the detriment of public health.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/big-food-uses-front-groups-i...

When we follow the money that’s involved with governments, food companies, Big Pharma, media and Healthcare operators, it’s easy to see why all five groups want to keep us fat and sick.
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Government Dietary Guidelines – Government dietary guidelines published in 1980 for the first time promoted low-fat diets with increases in carbohydrate consumption. These recommendations have led to more obesity, heart disease, and diabetes! Brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are rampant in society.
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Despite overwhelming evidence, the Food Pyramid advised Americans to eat the things that made them sick and to avoid the things that made them healthy.
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These foods were packed with high amounts of carbs and sugars. Food producers love processed foods full of carbs and sugars.

Why?

Because sugars and carbs are highly addictive, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. Their study found that 92% of study participants had addictive-like behavior towards some foods. Participants had a desire to quit eating these foods, but were unable to (anyone trying to diet knows how food cravings can kill your best intentions).

See, it’s much easier to sell a product when people are addicted to it. Profits are higher too, as it costs less to produce.

https://thedrswolfson.com/governments-food-companies-big-pharma-media-he...

So, it is these corporate interests who create our recommended dietary guidelines.

The United States government recently issued its Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This happens every five years so we are now going to have these guidelines in place until 2025.

Unfortunately, as you will see, these guidelines are profoundly insufficient as they relate to nutrition. They are administered to all Americans and become the backbone of nutrition for schools and the military and the general population of our country. In fact, the diet that is recommended is designed only for healthy people, and ultimately that represents only about 12% of our population. This is a one-size-fits-all diet that does not reflect the diversity of our country in terms of race, culture, and importantly, variations in metabolic health.

The diet recommends greater than 50% of calories coming from carbohydrates and includes three servings of refined grains per day and up to 10% of calories coming from pure sugar. And all this despite the fact that an expert committee provided incredibly robust science, accumulated over the past decade, showcasing the profoundly detrimental health effects of the very diet that was approved.

https://www.drperlmutter.com/how-are-we-to-interpret-the-new-dietary-gui...

As a result of these poor recommendations, we have terrible health outcomes.

Only 1 in 8 Americans are considered metabolically healthy (think obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension). Our poor metabolic health is driving our chronic disease epidemic and putting people at higher risk of experiencing severe complications from COVID-19, if they are to get the virus. The good news is that it is possible to become metabolically healthy in a matter of months, if not weeks.

In recent conversations with Dr. Aseem Malhotra and Chris Kresser, Dr. Hyman discusses the drivers of poor metabolic health and how, with the right support, making changes to your diet and lifestyle can rapidly optimize your health.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a founding member of Action on Sugar and was the lead campaigner highlighting the harm caused by excess sugar consumption in the United Kingdom, particularly its role in type 2 diabetes and obesity. In 2015, he coordinated the Choosing Wisely campaign by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges as lead author in a BMJ paper to highlight the risks of overuse of medical treatments. In the same year, he became the youngest member to be appointed to the board of trustees of UK health think tank, The King's Fund, that advises government on health policy. His first book, co-authored with Donal O' Neill, The Pioppi Diet, has become an international bestseller.

Here's a 12 min except from a longer conversation between Drs Hyman and Malhotra

Humans were healthier when we were hunter gatherers. Declining health, height, tooth decay and heart disease all become common when we shift to farming and grain consumption.
Dr. Michael Eades - 'Paleopathology and the Origins of the Low-carb Diet'

Dr. Paul Saladino shares his findings from a recent trip to Africa where he visited the Hadza tribe, who are among the best still-living representations of the way humans have lived for tens of thousands of years.
• The Hadza tribe are among the best still-living representations of the way humans have lived for tens of thousands of years. They’re nomadic hunter-gatherers whose diet is primarily meat-based
• Chronic disease is rare among the Hadza, who remain vital well into old age.
• The Hadza primarily eat meat, including organ meats and connective tissue, tubers, berries, and fruit and honey from the baobab tree. As such it is relatively low to moderate in fiber.
• Raw honey contains nitric oxide metabolites that are converted back to nitric oxide when consumed. Research shows honey increases nitric oxide and total nitrite concentrations and improves endothelial function. Heating decreases the nitric oxide metabolites in the honey.
There’s an intrinsic happiness that spontaneously arises when you engage in certain types of behaviors, and topping that list is the regular immersion in the natural world.

Here's a 3 minute excerpt from a detailed hour discussion

There are many people going full carnivore these days. Here's an hour chat with Stephen Thomas and Ivor Cumming on the optimum diet to reverse diabetes, autoimmune and many other conditions - he's achieving stunning success with his clients - you can too...! Find Stephen here https://www.ketocarnivore.co.uk/​ and at his more technically detailed site here: https://www.optimalhealthcoaching.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMc2pWpZWSY (1 hour)

As a gardener, going full carnivore is a step to far to me, but some people have great success with an all meat (including organs) diet. Dr Ken Berry is a carnivore proponent.
https://drberry.com/video_categories/carnivore-diet-101/
So is Dr Georgia Ede. Her expertise is nutritional psychiatry. Dr. Ede has eaten a low-plant ketogenic diet since 2013.

I keep coming back to the notion sugar, processed carbohydrates, and seed oils (like canola) are the primary drivers of our poor health. But, it isn't just what we eat, it is also when (how often) we eat.

Jason Fung has been posting short 10 minute guides and tips every Sunday for the last few months. Here's a few examples.

Fasting is his key technique to lower insulin and improve over all health.

Hacks are quick tricks to make a fasting diet easier, and I present my top 6 hacks as well as my #1 Rule for Fasting. Always be safe while fasting. There is always another day to fast, so if you are not feeling like it's quite right, then you should stop fasting and get some help. Hacks can make fasting diets a lot more successful and let you lose weight.

Type 2 diabetes can be reversed naturally, but only if you understand the basics of how type 2 diabetes became an epidemic and what were the causal factors. Dr. Jason Fung explains why the diet is the most important factor in type 2 diabetes and how we can use dietary methods to reverse type 2 diabetes. See https://thefastingmethod.com​​​ for more.

It is a pretty good sign you're hyperinsulinemic if you can't skip a meal or two. The good news is your body can learn to be metabolically flexible (using fats for energy) by shifting your diet and gradually increasing the use of fasting.

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As we discussed last week, the US ill health system is based on profits not prevention. If you improve your health by fasting and eating wisely, there's no money for the profiteers. Have you noticed the number of drug ads on commercial TV?

Big Pharma is not in business to cure your ailments or prevent disease. There is no money to be made in cures or prevention. Big Pharma needs you to be sick so they can keep selling you stuff at high profit margins. See, Big Pharma meds only treat symptoms. They don’t cure things. That’s why people are constantly on prescription medications. A study from the Mayo Clinic showed that 7 out of 10 Americans take at least one prescription drug.
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Big Pharma advertises to you so you’ll want more. In fact, Big Pharma is one of the top spenders of ad dollars of any industry. According to Advertising Age, Big Pharma spends more than $9.6 billion annually on ads, and that number is rapidly increasing. Advertising and marketing is so important to this industry that 9 out of the top 10 industry leaders spend more on marketing than on research and development. Big Pharma are marketing agencies, first and foremost.

Big Pharma is also big spenders when it comes to influencing government policies. Big Pharma spends more on governmental lobbying than any other industry, almost two times as much as its nearest competitor.
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With media companies so highly dependent upon pharmaceutical advertising, it is little wonder reporting favors positions supported by Big Pharma and government. Big Pharma spends nearly $10 billion annually on advertising. A USA Today article on prescription drug spending shows that 72% of all commercial breaks during the CBS Evening News had a drug ad and trying watching a sporting event without a barrage of erectile dysfunction ads.
...the Journal of Marketing Research from the American Marketing Association conducted an interesting study about “The Impact of Advertising on Media Bias.” This study found that advertising did indeed influence media reporting.
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Healthcare is a for-profit endeavor in this country. Doctors, insurance companies, medical equipment vendors, hospital and clinic operators – all of them need you to be sick to make money. Healthy people don’t fill up hospital beds. They don’t use MRI machines. They don’t buy extravagant insurance plans with premiums and little benefit. Healthy people don’t need places like the American Heart Association (AHA), which is nothing more than a lobbying organization that promotes the interests of its major funding sources, which just so happen to be Big Pharma and Big Agriculture chemical producers.

https://thedrswolfson.com/governments-food-companies-big-pharma-media-he...

Just as we are ill informed about how to maximize our health, the misinformation about Ivermectin as a effective treatment for COVID also continues. John Campbell explains why (IMO) in the screen shot below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYv30g7TKVM (17 min)
Here's the paper he discusses...
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-208785/v1
...and its conclusion

In addition to behaviour prophylaxis, two-doses (300 μg/kg at a gap of 72 hours) of ivermectin chemoprophylaxis reduces COVID-19 disease by 83% among healthcare workers for one month. Ivermectin is safe and may constitute a cost-effective strategy to prevent COVID-19 disease until a vaccine is available for general use. Further research is required to guide the frequency of chemoprevention, acceptability, and cost-effectiveness in the community setting.

In the video John calculates the cost of the ivermectin treatment

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...about one third of a cent. He suggest making it into a tablet would cost more than the drug itself.

You think that might be the reason that information about its effectiveness is being suppressed? And that is despite the thousands of deaths each day in India and around the world. How many lives might be saved by its use?

But there is good news...

...in its desperation to regain control of the virus, India’s government quietly changed its treatment guidelines last week. The new guidelines include the option of prescribing two repurposed medicines for mild Covid patients: budesonid and ivermectin. The former is an inhaled steroid that has been shown to reduce the time to recovery and need for urgent medical care. The latter is an off-patent anti-parasitic that has been discovered to have powerful anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/05/india-just-became-latest-country...

So add India to over a quarter of the worlds countries...

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These countries are having excellent results...

Here’s what happened in Mexico after the country’s Institute of Social Security (IMSS) allowed ivermectin to be prescribed to outpatients with Covid, on December 29. (The following graphs come courtesy of Juan Chamie, a data scientist from EAFIT University in Colombia).

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“Big Science vs Little Science”—April 14, 2021 Drs. Jose Morgenstern and Jose Redondo of the Dominican Republic share their new ivermectin study and tell the story of how they discovered the efficacy of ivermectin in April, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6gsk8irBps&t=8m

The evidence is there, but is being ignored and suppressed https://ivmmeta.com/

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Dr. Kory with a powerful description of the suppression of more than just ivermectin, it is the overwhelming pressure of big pharma to shape public recommendations. He discusses his struggle to promote steroids and the fact the dose is still too low, his efforts to convinence TPTB that COVID is spread by airborne transmition, and finally on to his ivermectin efforts. A well spent hour to understand how the system is gamed.

Here's some of Dr. Kory's info in his presentation...

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At least some US judges are siding with patients to support their request for ivermectin.

We sit down with Ralph Lorigo, of the Law Office of Ralph C. Lorigo to discuss NY court cases regarding Ivermectin and Covid-19. His firm have represented a number of elderly patients who have taken on their respective hospitals who refused to continue to administer doctor prescribed Ivermectin for the treatment Covid-19. This episode does not discuss the efficacy of the drug in relation to the virus, but rather, the legal fight surrounding it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6um8TZO0rE (19 min)

Doesn't this make it obvious? As I've often suggested this is a pandemic managed for profit. Just like our diet we are being misled in order to maximize profits.

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Despite the medical con, we can take control of our health by eating well and creating a positive lifestyle.

Speaking of suppression I want to close today with an epic take down of the BBC by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan (about 3 min) "Look in the mirror!"

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I hope you are all happy and healthy. Have a great Mother's day!

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Comments

Ha, just kidding.
Sugar is a jones, no doubt.
The food pyramid has been changing slowly.

Processed foods are not good for you.
Since the junk food industry makes the
recommended guidelines for nutrition,
it's no wonder obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension
are the scourges of our health.

Thanks for the OT!

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8 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS

...and yes no wonder the guidelines created by the junk food industry are so bad.

The shame of it is most doctors don't know to use diet to heal people...they've been trained to use a script pad or scalpel (mostly by big pharma). Just like escaping the political parties (and the hope that politics will help us), I think it is best to get outside the medical system and tend our own health. You are lucky if you have a doctor that is open minded.

I sent most of this info to my mom who inspired this essay. She was complaining she couldn't remember things. They have desserts with both lunch and dinner at her complex, and she goes for them. She over weight for the first time in my memory as a result. She had never heard about the health problems associated with sugar.

I also sent her Bredesen's book
The End of Alzheimer's Program: The First Protocol to Enhance Cognition and Reverse Decline at Any Age
and Perlmutter's The Grain Brain.

At her party the other week she said she was looking forward to next year when she could join the 90's club at her facility... which made me want to give her the opportunity to learn about a healthy diet.

Well have a good one!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

(or continue to be) the contrarian, but I eat plenty of "carbs" and think that it is not at all unhealthy to do so.

Pharma flogs meds. The food industry flogs theoretically comestible substances. Diet book and fad authors flog dietary regimens.

Meanwhile everybody abuses the words carb-carbs-carbohydrates in their own way and for their own purposes. Carb = Cx(H2O)y. Raw potato, Wheaties, Brown Rice, Wonder Bread, soba, whole wheat pasta, inulin, cellulose, glycogen, rolled oats, oreo cookies and on and on and on; all "carbs". All da kine same-same? Not on your life. Back when I was a half way avid cyclist of the distance ilk I decided to try, for grins, the low carb wonder diet, bonk city, miles from nowhere and not an ounce of energy or reserves left. Why? No carbs == no glycogen or glycogen reserves, which distance cyclists run on. Extreme case, but empirical evidence for me - try it yourself sometime.

My point is that the term is far too broad and too general it contains multitudes, even rna iirc. Vastly more specificity is required. Cellulose and inulin, for example, keep your gut happy and healthy. Anything that you will convert into glycogen, within reason, gives you stamina. A diet of nothing but pepsi and wonder bread will probably kill you. (Some animals that eat only/primarily grains and grasses suffer massive deficiencies and deformities if fed lots of processed white bread which they will quickly learn to love all the same)

Just my 2 or 3 cents worth.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris

Whole grains are ok if you're metabolically healthy (have normal insulin levels). Lustig specifies real food, things without labels.

Diabetics IMO should avoid carbs of most types.

If you're healthy and feel good, eat what you want. Although I would recommend occasional fasts...as someone who isn't a doctor.

Be well!

Edit to add: Lustig specifically answers your criticism in his comments about a calorie isn't a calorie.

One more edit: Just to point out many, especially endurance, athletes improve performance with low carb diets. It requires a period of adjustment to allow your body to burn fat as fuel. You can't go right off carbs and crank up fat burning. Even fasting it takes 3-5 days.

Ketosis, the metabolic response to energy crisis, is a mechanism to sustain life by altering oxidative fuel selection. Often overlooked for its metabolic potential, ketosis is poorly understood outside of starvation or diabetic crisis. Thus, we studied the biochemical advantages of ketosis in humans using a ketone ester-based form of nutrition without the unwanted milieu of endogenous ketone body production by caloric or carbohydrate restriction. In five separate studies of 39 high-performance athletes, we show how this unique metabolic state improves physical endurance by altering fuel competition for oxidative respiration. Ketosis decreased muscle glycolysis and plasma lactate concentrations, while providing an alternative substrate for oxidative phosphorylation. Ketosis increased intramuscular triacylglycerol oxidation during exercise, even in the presence of normal muscle glycogen, co-ingested carbohydrate and elevated insulin. These findings may hold clues to greater human potential and a better understanding of fuel metabolism in health and disease.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27475046/

But there are other studies which show the opposite.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

or Lustig, it was just a complaint about the everyday use, by most people and pundits, of the words carbs and carbohydrates.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

The term carb is as meaningless as calorie. It is about our metabolism. Fiber is a carb. So is sugar. Fiber is good, but sugar isn't and that was my main point.

We are all unique and have different metabolisms. What works for one, might not another. That is my attraction to functional medicine....find the root cause...mold, mercury, hyerinsulinemia, leaky gut, and so on.

Have a lovely evening. It is windy and feeling like rain here. Quite a cool spring for Alabama.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

mimi's picture

what a Weekly Watch today! So much to digest. I try to figure out how much processed food I eat. I do eat lots of potatoes. I don't drink fruit juices anymore, after I was told it is bad for my blood sugar levels. I eat more green vegetables especially spinach and broccoli My blood sugar levels were reversed within weeks. I might eat too much white wheat bread, but not really. I eat not much meat, basically because I can't stand how the animals are raised. If we were allowed to have some animals in our private gardens, I had a pig. They are so cute. And if I had a little pond I would raise some fish. Sigh. If, If, If...
I never drank or drink soft drinks. Tasted like sugary pipi. (sorry)

Oh, I forgot it is Mother's Day today. But I am a mother any day. So, who invented Mother's Day? Did the mother's make a profit from it? I doubt it. May be we mothers could sell them fathers something ...

Have a good Sunday and be well, all. It's our first real warm sunny day here in my neighborhood. Smile

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@mimi
Every body is different. I find a glass of 100% apple No Added Sugars apple juice to be very restorative and energy boosting. I agree with Enhydra Lutris that all sugars are not equal.
Man is an ape, descended from other tropical apes. I can't believe that tropical fruits and juices are bad for us. Cane sugar, yes. In mid-summer I gorge on my home grown organic peaches. I've had blood tests during that time and my blood sugar levels are no different from tests taken in winter.
I do worry when I read that fructose is bad. My doctor, a definite pill pusher, tells me that I can eat all the raw fruit I want but to restrict cane sugar and bakery goods. And NO "soda". Nor adding sugar to my coffee which she tells me to restrict but I don't.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

The fiber in whole fruits is protective and prevents rapid sugar absorption. The paleo crowd recommends eating fruit when it is in season (rather than fruits shipped from the southern hemisphere in winter).

Juice will spike blood sugar, but if your metabolically healthy you can handle it.

All the best!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
Interesting point about the fiber. Don't understand why whole fruits from Chile wouldn't have fiber. I like to eat my own fruit and (from friends) because it is truly ripe and so much more flavorful than store fruit which would spoil in shipping if picked ripe. Leaving it on the counter softens fruit but doesn't add flavenoids. Even the lowly Golden delicious is a taste treat picked and eaten at the peak. And various ancient varieties are out of this world! the old varieties often are ugly and ripen over a long period. Modern Americans want pretty (but tasteless) fruit. For home use, a wide ripening window is good. commercial growers want to hire a crew and send them into the orchard to pick everything all at once. cheaper for them. And as I said, less shipping loss in green fruit. I stopped once in Georgia on my way back from Florida and visited a peach canning plant that had public tours. green baseballs dropped from another conveyor belt feet higher and rolling and bouncing down the belt. Ripe fruit would just splat and make a mess. "Ripening" apparently comes from cooking the green fruit.

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

...is that evolutionarily we feasted on fruit in the fall when it was ripe. That fattened us up to make it through winter. I'm not a paleo follower, but I try to eat local, so that approach works for me.

The Chilean fruit has fiber, but took lots of petrol to arrive in IL. However I do buy Chilean wine which is kinda the same thing.

Be well!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
IIRC they don't grow here. Florida was looking into it but it's fringe even for Florida.
Getting the good c9old water fish and bringing it to IL or AL also takes petrol. Maybe big nuclear powered ships can replace oil fired tankers. Someone is saying "AAAAGGGGHHHH" reading this.

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2 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

I used a couple of bananas this week as a coconut cake sweetener along with raisins. Kept me from using sugar and no one even noticed the cake had no sugar...coconut flour, oil, flakes, milk, baking powder, salt, and mashed bananas and raisins as the sweetener.

It isn't about being perfect, just better...or as we say, better than we were when we were so bad.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

mimi's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness
I believe is healthy. I haven't bought apple juice in years if not ever. Tropical fruits are ok, because we descend from the people who lived in tropical climate? It's a concept. Never thought about it this way. I guess my eating habits were influenced by my African in-laws. So, that means, very tropical folks... Smile I drink lots of water and cook from scratch the way my 'tropical' former deceased husband was used to eat. I don't remember having eaten a lot of fruits in Africa when I was there. I ate lots of fish and chicken and tomato sauces with peanuts. Peanuts and peanut butter were made by hand, not processed peanut butter. Peanut oil was hand pressed.

I really don't have anything intelligent to comment to the subject at hand, but I believe I eat pretty healthy ... but since I had to return to Germany it became worse. I can't always resist pastry. And that's definitely too much sugar. My sister eats nothing but sugary things.

I would say just enjoy what you have to eat, that's the most important thing.

Be well and don't do what I do too often, not taking the pills the doctors say I should. I am a pretty bad girl. Wink

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@mimi

Bad Boys love Bad Girls.

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3 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@mimi

...of Mother's Day. But have a good one anyway.

We're lucky to have local pasture raised meats. You do have to look around to find the right farmers even here. None the less we eat mainly out of our garden. Lots of salad and greens these days.

Enjoy the day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout or so I recall reading somewhere. Too lazy to research today; had two grandkids visit for the first time since you-know-what and I am beat!

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Lookout's picture

@TB mare

Great you got in a visit with the kids. Understand the need to recover.

Happy Mothers day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@TB mare

Moms Day was invented by a known individual as a religious thing and the inventor came in later years to bemoan the commercialization of her holiday.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris And for the facts

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Lily O Lady's picture

@TB mare

by commercializing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

mimi's picture

@Lily O Lady
they knew quite well that they were privileged and mothers were the work horses. Smile

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Lookout's picture

@Lily O Lady @mimi

The modern holiday was first celebrated in 1907, when Anna Jarvis held the first Mother's Day service of worship at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia.[1][11] Andrew's Methodist Church now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day

Learn something new everyday. Regardless of the origin, have a good one!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lily O Lady's picture

@mimi

Is considered the founder of the modern Mother’s Day in the US. Happy Mother’s Day!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Jarvis

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

hoppity muthus daze

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

Here's an old one back atcha...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPABe-5AP8A]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

...but not regenerative animal production.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b_33dgw2sA]

Guess I'll go eat worms...or there's Gate highly processed impossible burger

Emperor Gates has a new decree: “All rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef.”

Bill Gates has invested in Impossible Foods whose CEO, Pat Brown, says his genetically engineered synthetic meat substitutes will replace the use of animals by 2035.

You’d think Impossible Foods would focus on the horrors of factory farming. Instead, Gates and Brown take aim at regenerative organic agriculture and grass-fed beef. According to Fortune.com:

“Gates and Brown believe that genetically modified seeds and chemical herbicides, in the right doses––and not land-intensive organic farming––are crucial to curbing carbon emissions.”

https://www.organicconsumers.org/newsletter/biodemocracy-or-biofascism/r...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lily O Lady's picture

@humphrey

populations. Must we eat the few that are left?

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Lookout's picture

@Lily O Lady

to insect production. Reminds me of soylent green

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

This is so-called democratic leadership.

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/552550-clyburn-says-hes-w...

Clyburn says he's willing to compromise on qualified immunity in policing bill
© Greg Nash
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Sunday said he is willing to compromise on qualified immunity to pass a policing reform bill through Congress with bipartisan support.

In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper said there is tentative agreement for policing reform legislation in Congress, but noted that the main sticking point involves qualified immunity.

When Tapper asked if he would be willing to pass a bill that the qualified immunity doctrine, Clyburn said he “will never sacrifice good on the altar of perfect.”

“I just won't do that. I know what the perfect bill will be. We have proposed that. I want to see good legislation. And I know that, sometimes, you have to compromise,” he added.

March, the House passed the George Floyd Justice in policing Act in a 220-212 vote, with no Republicans supporting the measure.

The bill calls for ending qualified immunity for law enforcement.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) has introduced a counter-proposal in the upper chamber, dubbed the JUSTICE Act, which covers many of the same areas of concern outlined in the Democrats’ bill, including the banning of chokeholds.

Compimise with the likes of this?

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/552556-georgia-governor-signs-b...

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a bill on Friday which prohibits cities and counties from making large cuts to their police budgets, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The legislation bars cities and counties from reducing their law enforcement budgets by more than five percent in a span of five years.

Kemp said during a signing ceremony at a gun range that “radical movements” were the reason why he signed the bill into law.

“Radical movements like the ‘defund the police’ movement seek to vilify the men and women who leave their families every day and put their lives on the line to protect all Georgians,” Kemp said, according to the Journal-Constitution. “This far-left movement will endanger our communities and our law enforcement officers and leave our most vulnerable at risk.”

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

...and Brian Kemp is a dick (IMO). He cheated to win as he was SoS in GA in charge of elections. Clyburn classifies as a dick too IMO. He worked against Bernie and is a Hillbot.

So rethugs and dimwits are not our friends.

As Nick Branna said this week...

In 2009, Obama and Biden entered the White House in the middle of the Great Recession, which was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression at the time. Instead of using the crisis to enact structural change, they chose to preserve the economic and social status quo that had produced the crisis. Their actions pushed the country deeper into an increasingly authoritarian oligarchy.

Twelve years later, Biden returned to the White House, during the new-worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Once again, he was backed by Democratic majorities in Congress. And just like Obama, Biden has chosen to preserve the economic and social status quo. The result will be to push this country still further into authoritarian oligarchy. Biden’s first eight years produced Trump. His next four will produce something much worse.

Sadly things don't look to be improving despite the rhetoric...
biden.png

Remember to treasure your days. Thanks for the links!

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@humphrey https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/06/chauvin-lost-but-the-murderers-won/

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

Not too surprising is it? You know as well as any of us the travesty of our injustice system.

Thankfully there are successes and lawyers like you.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout What has changed in my 35 year career is detention, i.e., knowing that a cop has you detained and that you are not free to go. Further, not knowing you are being detained, and not knowing have a right to remain silent. As an example, a cop knocks on your door, asks if everyone is ok, and you tell them your spouse was goofed up when he/she called 911, but got the correct meds taken, so all is well. The cops step away from the door, talk to each other, so you close the door and go back to eating your dinner right at the table with your spouse. Suddenly, door banging, threats to break in the door or windows, you open the door and before you can ask wtf, you are thrown face down on a concrete sidewalk, cop sitting on you, cuffed so tight your hands turn blue, and you are arrested for evading arrest. No cop searches for, or checks on the safety of the 911 caller.
I am describing a situation of a middle aged black man, same thing in an elderly, disabled white man. They are both facing a damn jury trial. What law did they knowingly and intentionally break? Same scenario, two different cases, both within a year. A trend, huh?
Seems anything you do is considered disobedience, when obedience to cops BEGINS with being DETAINED. Until then, you obey the law.
Cop killer mentality is off the charts. These cops are not brave, they are not deserving of respect, and they do not need military equipment, thanks, Obama.
They need an appropriate salary, some self-protection gear, and proper training that is focused on protecting and serving the people. Some psychological testing would be nice, and some way to do a background check that might discover they are in some social media group, such as advocating for white supremacy law enforcement, or joining an elite group of cops that shot and killed a black person.
I have represented some biker gang members, and KKK members, and they had to kill someone to be a member. Nowadays, there are cop gangs that have the same requirement, except they have qualified immunity.
Sigh...

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lily O Lady's picture

@on the cusp

the coolest thing would be to live in the 21st century. It hasn’t lived up to the hype.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady @Lily O Lady I just traveled through 3 states, noticed how military-ish cop vehicles are getting. They mean to frighten you when all you did was exceed the speed limit. They could kill you for that.
I recommend either getting out of your vehicle as soon as you are pulled over and stopped, with hands up, or sit still, hands on the steering wheel, and ask the cop to unlatch your seat belt, if you haven't done it already.
While blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be killed, whites are killed also. Nobody is safe from killer cops.
Nobody.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

We're like the Nazis now.

What is funny about the cops, is that if you know them, they won't mess with you, wave you through road blocks and such. For years we played the local trooper Xmas party. We always joked that they paid us with a "get out of jail free" card. Kinda true unless you really screwed up.

So justice for some, injustice for the many. Like I said, a sad state in which we find ourselves. Another sign of end of empire.

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@on the cusp https://abcnews.go.com/US/officers-shouldnt-fired-breonna-taylors-home-d...

Newly released documents from an internal probe into the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor shows two investigators determined that none of the officers involved in serving a 2020 narcotics warrant at the 26-year-old's apartment should have fired their gun, but the findings were contradicted by senior officials in the Louisville Metro Police Department, according to a new report from two investigators.

Sgt. Andrew Meyer of the police department's Professional Standards Unit determined in a preliminary report dated Dec. 4 that the three officers involved in the March 13, 2020, shooting should have held their fire after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot one of them, according to the documents obtained by ABC News.

"They took a total of thirty-two shots, when the provided circumstances made it unsafe to take a single shot. This is how the wrong person was shot and killed," Meyer wrote, according to the report.

Meyer made a preliminary finding that Louisville police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg during the incident, and former officers Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison all allegedly violated department use-of-force policy by ignoring the significant risk of hitting someone who did not pose a threat, the internal report reads.

In his preliminary report, Meyer wrote that deadly force should only have been used against Walker, the person who presented a deadly threat by firing one shot at a team of officers who rammed down Taylor's door and entered the apartment to serve the warrant.

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@humphrey Poor woman. Dying for what? There was no damn warrant for her.
So innocent. So dead. So little recourse for her family and loved ones.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

now turning to noises in the night.
Our bird feeders magically emptied when we left for a vacation. We saw signs of raccoons. Just now, I heard scratching noises, but by the time I got a flashlight, no animal was around, but the bird feeder was swinging.
I occasionally eat something with sugar in it. Also, some cooking oil. Most of the time, it is from scratch, fresh food stuff that is the best quality available. I am 100 miles from a farmer's market. Location, huh?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

occasionally eat sugar.

No problem using oils. We use lots of butter, olive oil, and other fats. It is the seed oils that are the problem. It is a complicated chemical extraction process that result in a toxic product. How can you get oil from corn? It takes nasty solvents and lots of processing.

We have had squirrels, raccoons, and even a bear clean out and tear down our feeders. We finally caved and no longer use sunflower seeds to attract them. We try the have plantings that promote them, but we don't get near the show we had with feeders.

Hope you had a good night's sleep.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

on this subject of food. Much appreciated.

I've been doing my own version of critiquing and revising my own SAD diet over the years. It's an ongoing process and I'm forever trying to sound the alarm to my own immediate circle of people. It's a hard sell.

I have Alzheimers in my immediate family and will look at the book you mention above. Right now I am reading Dr. Daniel Amen (The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience Is Transforming Psychiatry). It's a book about brain function, neurobiology, and the connection to diet. It appears to me that there is a direct connection and our diet (and other toxins like glyphosphates) are tremendously damaging to our health.

Once again, you have provided a whole host of info for me to look at throughout the week, many thanks. Best to you lookout, hope all is well on the farm.

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Lookout's picture

@randtntx

Bredesen has reversed Alzheimers in many of his patients
https://www.apollohealthco.com/

As has Perlmutter
https://www.drperlmutter.com/yes-alzheimers-can-be-reversed/

There are many causes but perhaps the most common is leaky gut which allows bacterial fragments into your blood stream. In the brain the defense is to build plaque around the fragments.

We have a good friend whose sister with Alzheimers continues to decline. She eats lots of cookies and ice cream and such. I suggested to my friend that they try to wean her from her sugar addiction, but...

Diet is a big deal to people and very personal. Add in food addictions and you simple can't have a discussion about it. It is like religion and politics.

Best of luck with your family member!

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