The Mad Cow Disease Plague

There has been a lot of fear driven fantasies put out by the media about terrorist attacks and their use of some pretty nasty stuff like nerve gas, dirty bombs, stolen Russian nuclear weapons, and of course, biological weapons.  There are a lot of those, from simple to make ricin, to other stuff more complex like mutated flu viruses to anthrax to plague to some other really nasty things.  There are a lot.  They do make it a reality for Americans to fear the real possible threat of bioterrorism.  We need to look around us also to discover what threats there are in our world that have the same potential to destroy human life that manufactured agents have yet are being created in wholesale quantities in our environment by industry.  Specifically I'm talking about Mad Cow Disease and other PRION related maladies.

What's a prion?  Most people have never heard of these tiny things.  In all probability it's because no one wants us to know about them.  The media (I won't go into how 6 major corporations own 99% of the general media in America, and also are big owners of agribusiness as well) don't like to do stories on prions, or Mad Cow Disease, or some of the related maladies that affect humans, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome, or Kuru, All human diseases that are caused by prions.  Prions are little understood proteins that work within the cells, usually in the neuralnetwork and primarily the brain.  A prion is not alive, it is neither bacteria, fungus or virus.  They are protein chains that are bent.  Almost in half.  Sounds innocent enough, but those bent proteins enter neural cells and start a chain reaction bending other proteins, eventually leading to the cell failing to reproduce, to synthesize correct proteins, and then cellular death.  And when that happens, the bent proteins go out into the surrounding cells and the disease spreads.  Victims of any prion disease have a 100% fatality rate.  There is no cure, they all die.

Here is where it gets tricky.  The CDC states that it is possible that the incubation period for prion type diseases may be as long as 10 years in humans, and that there may be Alzheimer like symptoms for several years before it degenerates into full out CJD or GSSS.  At this time, they are uncertain of any links between the huge numbers of Alzheimer patients and the rise of prion type diseases.  And the big one, that pretty much anyone that is exposed to prions, via through contact with blood, or bodily fluids of infected persons with any prion type disease will in all probability contract one of the diseases. Even eating animal flesh that is infected gives you an extremely high probability that you will ingest the prions, and they will infected you.  Prions are not destroyed by cooking, sterilizing with any disinfectant, or heating in an autoclave.  There are recorded instances of people having had neurosurgery and the instruments were disinfected, then sterilized, and used on another patient with the new patient contracting a prion type disease. Read the second paragraph under the heading history here about it (CJD transmission)  It is estimated that 1 in 2,000 people in the United Kingdom is infected with prions because of the incidence of BSE (mad cow disease).

Now, this is where it gets scary.  Remember that I try to tell my readers about modern meat and how bad it is for humans.  It isn't just me being paranoid.  The USDA has this rule about steers.  They have declared that the head and spinal bones are not to be used for human consumption if the steer is over 30 months old.  This is supposed to stop the spread of prions that might be in any steer, to humans.  Those bones are not thrown away, they have two very big markets.  One is for the making of gelatin, for Jello.  And the other is to make chicken feed.  They are ground up and feed to chickens.  Now we come to the weird part, that chicken feed that drops to the chicken coops in large scale chicken CAFO's is routinely swept up, and whatever is in it, dead rodents, uneaten food (prion infected steer bone meal) dead chickens, feathers and whatever is then ground up and fed to steers in steer CAFO's.  Because it's cheap.  It also contains large amounts of arsenic, antibiotics, and again, uneaten food that is mainly genetically modified corn, soy, and canola meal.  If you read my blog at all, you know I don't like canola.  It by definition contains a toxic substance, erucic acid.  It is by law limited to 2% by weight.  Erucic acid is a cumulative toxin that builds up in an animal's liver, kidneys and, yep, brain.  And contrary to what Snopes.com or the Canola Council of Canada say on their websites, canola is a toxin. The very definition of the product, -Can Contain up to 2% Erucic Acid by volume- indicates it contains a cumulative neuro-toxin.

Today, there are over 6 million people with diagnosed Alzheimer's.  USDA rules to stop the spread of prions are lacking in any substance and do nothing to stop the spread of prions in the supply of modern meat through the CAFO model of raising steers.  At this time it is not known the extent, and I admit there may not be a problem, of just how infected our modern meat and meat products are.  And I'm pretty sure that no one wants to test it to find out.  It just might cause a collapse of the entire system. 

Pastured grass fed beef is more expensive.  But what is your life really valued at?  Or you can be like me, go vegetarian, and never eat Jello either.  It just might contain prions.  So back to the beginning of this essay, would destroying a population with an insidious long term disease that takes huge amounts of resources be the ultimate terrorist program to destroy this country.  Well, I think it is happening daily, every burger you eat just might be your downfall, and you won't know for years and years.

Uh oh, religion again. Sort of.

What is the purpose of religion?  I mean really, why are there faith based religions?  And conversely, does a belief in the inerrancy of science constitute a religion in the standard sense?  And of course the big one, why are we here?

Wow, tough questions for a weak mind such as mine here on a Friday morning after the hottest day of the year, and well, any year for this date.  But my mind is a natural collector of wisdom, fantasy and mirth, as well as diviner of the odd and mysterious.  So here goes.  The Baha'i tell us that the purpose of religion is the same, all religions are in fact multiple incurrences of the teachings of god's messengers.  And that by following any such message helps each of us as individuals, and as a collective growth of humanity as a whole to achieve oneness with god.  Also that in reality there is only one religion, that each of the divine messengers of god have given mortal humans pretty much the SAME message.  Which is pretty true if you think about it, don't all the major religions tell us the same thing, live a good life free of acts of sin against humanity itself?  Yeah, they do, it's just the other hokum that has gotten mixed in with the basic message that makes humans crazy.  Some readers might be thinking, "What is the Baha'i?"  Well, that's something that a lot of people have never heard of.  The newest of the major religions of the world, the Baha'i, involves The Bab, another messenger from god in the early Nineteenth century.  He was persecuted for having divine revelations about the Qoran and interpretations of god's divine message that differed from the rest of the muslim world.  And for that he was executed along with three thousand of his followers.  Bah'u'allah then came around a few years later and using a whole lot more tact, created the Baha'i faith.  The faith, pretty simply, is that we as humans are all part of the greatest of god's creations, humanity.  That god has created us to live good lives and to grow in our spirituality and become one with god, Oneness.  And that god has in fact sent many messengers to earth to tell us this bit of wisdom, only to have humans corrupt that message into what exists today.  These concepts are some of what I have written about in some of my previous essays about religion here in this blog.  I have great respect for the Baha'i because the message is so incredibly simplistic, and is loaded with actual common sense, and is believable.  Well, parts of it are.  I have related this particular story in order to remind you about the wondrous time in our history known as the Inquisition.  Oh shoot, let's also throw in the Crusades, the Romans vs. everyone, Emperor Wuzong of Tang, the Diocletianic Persecution, the persecution of the Serbs, the Shi'ites, the Suni, the American Indians, Jews, and wow, it does seem religious persecution has been popular in human history.  The point here is that one of the purposes of religion, is power. 

That might not be the stated purpose of religion, which those in the power positions within all the religions tell us is actually to provide a reason and purpose for life.  Noble indeed, however smarter men than I,

specifically Voltaire once said, "If god didn't exist, then man would have to create one."  Personally that better describes religion than the explanations from the church elders. However I am not one to tell anyone that they cannot partake in religion.  And of their choice as well.  This little essay is about what the purpose is for religion itself.  And the greater question, why are we here.  They do sort of go hand in hand.  First, there is the belief that religion exists to define the roles each member of mankind is to play within society.  To give guidance, structure and meaning to our earthly existence.  Morality. To that end religious leaders have historically built a base of monetary gratification exceeding that of their followers.  I'm sure that most everyone actually believes that their specific religion and their particular religious experiences have been for achieving enlightenment, progressing toward the prophesied heaven or paradise as promised.  The seeking of help and guidance in their current existence from their God through prayer or whatever, is a paradigm their religion utilizes and is also of tantamount importance.  I suppose you could say that religion, organized religion, is a way for those that worship to organize their lives.  From day to day morality, guidance as to what decisions need to be made to
achieve goals, and to insure a spectacular afterlife, as promised. Some people absolutely need religion in their lives.  There is more than one way to look at it. 

Reality can be so complex that equally valid observations from differing perspectives can appear to be contradictory.

I think that I will be safe in saying that the purpose of religion is to establish a base for human creation and to try to understand why human beings are here and to quell the never ending desire to understand the origins of humanity.  And lets throw in there that religion is a specific attempt to establish morality within a population.  I say attempt because let's be realistic, it doesn't always work.  Most of the tyrants in history have been very devout men of religious upbringing. And most of the persecutions of other humans have been done based almost exclusively on religious beliefs.  Nevertheless, through religion, people feel more comfortable with the fact that one day we will all die, and their faith gives them hope that they will be going to a better place. 

So, does a firm belief in science constitute a "Religion"?  That is something that will probably vary with the individual.  Hmmm, sort of like the faithful though, the devout pretty much all view their status within the hierarchy of their particular religion a little differently from everyone else.  And I know for a fact that various sects within any specific religion interpret their given religious documents differently at different times for different occasions.  So, to that end, science can definitely be called a religion.  It soothes and gives focus to the lives of those that believe.  Science is interpreted differently by, pretty much all the practitioners of all the various branches of science.  And the big one, those that are the leaders, the devout scientists, do so to garner more and greater fame and the big one, wealth, than those that suckle from the teat of knowledge.  Well if all that isn't a bona fide religion, I don't know what is.  

Finally, there is the one question that neither science nor religion have ever answered.  Why are we here?  That one is a tough.  Science tells us that we are a random grouping of organic compounds that spontaneously combined to create simple life which evolved into a broken down old fat guy sitting at his computer typing a lot of drivel about religion.  It's random.  Religions tell us we were created by god, to worship him (or her) and I'm sorry, that's a pretty lame explanation.  Why would a supreme being do such a thing if you he she or it had a whole universe to deal with.  Maybe I'm just projecting my concepts into what i would think that god would think.  Either way, that god made man to worship him does in fact go back to that bit about how religion is all about power.  And the whole thing is about god's power over mortal man.  Me, I have a different philosophy though, and I have written about it here before as well.  My beliefs explain the universe, what has transpired for us to get to this level of the communal consciousness, it explains what happens after this plane of existence, and it explains what we need to do here at this time and on this planet to further ourselves and our fellow travelers in this universe.  It does not tell us though why we are here.  Me, I personally believe this, we're here now, deal with it. 

Sigh, it's getting a bit old now.

Fiction, by me again. 

It's getting a bit old

by

Roy Marshall

"Come on Damian, we'll be late for supplication again if we don't hurry!" exclaimed Damian's friend Rudy as he floated off toward the brightly lit clouds in the distance.  Damian held back, slowed and settled upon an outcropping of clouds that formed a pleasing array of resting areas with wondrous views of the Earth below them.  Rudy turned and saw Damian sitting, slowed and came back to sit next to him. 

"What's wrong Damian, why aren't you heading over with everyone?" 

"I don't know Rudy, I just feeling a little lost.  Sort of thinking back to the before times, you know, when we were alive.  Down there." and he pointed down through the clouds to the Earth.  "I just, you know, miss the excitement."

"Damian, how can you?  I mean we are both part of the chosen.  We're here in heaven, part of god's chosen flock.  We made it Damian, we are here in heaven for all eternity now, that's something special."

"Well, I guess.  I mean is it really such an accomplishment though?"

"Damian, what on earth do you mean by that?"

"Look Rudy, realistically, look at who's up here.  Look, there's Richard Nixon.  And last week I was talking to Jimmy Hoffa.  They're up here too."

"Really, Jimmy Hoffa?"

"Yeah, seems he confessed his sins and accepted Jesus into his heart as they were pouring the concrete over him and so he made it in just at the last minute."

"Wow, Hoffa.  I bet he has some stories to tell you."

"Well, yeah, but like most everyone up here, we sort of don't talk about it much.  You know, I don't think anyone really knows what the protocols are.  We are all supposed to have accepted the wisdom and teachings of Jesus, and of course god himself into our hearts, and what happens if they sort of find out that maybe we were just sort of kidding about the whole thing and we're wishing we had done more, and not good things either.  Look Rudy, I mean here we are, it is a nice place and all, the heavenly ideal, clouds, comfort, everything.  But I'm never hungry, I don't need food anymore.  But that hasn't taken away the hunger itself.  I want to eat stuff, real wondrously delicious succulent steak and maybe a lobster as well.  Just because I don't need food, doesn't mean I don't want it anymore.  And women Rudy, I miss women.  Sure they are everywhere up here, but they all wear the same white robes and with their wings and all, but I never get to enjoy looking at women, and touching, and you know, making love to them.  Man, is this really heaven if the best things about being a living human are denied to us after we are dead and given access to what's supposed to be the greatest thing we could have ever possibly wanted when living that life?"

"Ixnay on the negative talk Damian.  You don't know what god or his kid will do to you if they hear you questioning the whole thing."

"Rudy, have you eve heard of anyone getting kicked out of here before?"

"Well, yeah.  I mean, you know, Satan.  I think that's the only one.  I don't remember hearing about anyone else though.  But then maybe no one has ever thought to go against the will of god and question why we are here.  I mean it is pretty simple, we accepted god into our hearts and now we get to exist here in heaven forever.  And all we have to do is worship god.  And you know, that isn't much different from when we were alive on earth and all right?  I mean I went to church all the time, prayed, never did anything against the teachings of his son and my reward came true, I'm here.  Yeah, but if I think about it, it's not really like living.  We don't eat, I do miss sex with my wife.  And she has her own friends up here now, we barely see each other anymore.  Yeah, I go to supplication when they call us, and give silent thanks and praise god and all that, just like I'm supposed to.  But you know, the thing I miss the most is coffee on a rainy morning.  Sitting on the back patio barefoot with my feet getting splashed with cold raindrops, and a cup of good joe in my hand.  Man, wow, hadn't ever expressed that feeling to anyone before Damian."

"You know Rudy, I bet that we aren't the only ones that feel that way.  Let's face it, after a fun and fulfilling life on Earth, watching life go on below us in our viewing areas and spending most of our time giving thanks to our god for creating us and bringing us up here, is getting kind of old.  Don't you think so?"

Rudy was looking nervously around him in all directions, then began, "Sorry, just checking about for any of the archangels, I may not be all that thrilled with my eternity so far here, but I have got to think that it's a whole lot better than the alternative.  You know, down there."  And with that, he pointed downwards. 

"I don't know, maybe.  How do we know.  I mean, that's what they tell us.  Look, here comes Gabriel to shepherd us to supplication.  Let's talk to him a bit."

A giant angel in long silky robes of the whitest white fluttered over to the pair, "You two, reverence and thanks to our lord is about to begin, why are the two of you sitting here viewing?"

Damian look over at Rudy who sat frozen in fear, then he turned toward Gabriel and began, "Gabe, I am just wondering what else there is to heaven.  When I was alive, I firmly believed that by my living a truly good life and giving myself to my god and his son then I would be rewarded in my afterlife with all good things and heavenly prosperity.  So far, it's just been look at the world we left and give praise all the time.  I kind of want to partake in some of those pleasures, you know, a steak, a woman, some good wine..."

With a gesture of his hand, Gabriel's wave caused a blinding flash of light and a puff of heavenly smoke existed where moments before Damian sat questioning heaven itself.  He then turned to Rudy, "Don't you think you should get off to supplication?"

Rudy flew off toward the bright lights of the gathering about the lord god as fast as his wings could take him.  Never again would he question how wondrous the dull and boring existence was here in the lord's eternal sanctum provided for him. 

Damian found himself as a newborn baby, reincarnated to begin to learn all over again what it means to be a human, and to find his place somewhere in the grand order of things.

The End

Experts recommend dietary plans for humans based on, what?

That is a difficult question to answer.  Dietary guidelines have been relatively new to the food scene here in America.  In 1977 the very first dietary guide came out from the Department of Agriculture as part of the efforts of one Senator George McGovern and the Senate subcommittee on Nutrition and Human Needs.  The guide (USDA First Guide) was pretty general and basically advised Americans to eat more complex carbohydrates and less sugar.  As well as a lot less saturated fat.  This was afterall the age where one scientist using incredibly poor methodology and dismissing data that didn't agree with his conclusions wrote a report that stated saturated fat was bad for humans.  The guy was Ancel Keys, developer of the K-ration, and the guy who made the transfat and margarine industry grow like crazy, and ultimately, and arguably, the cause of hundreds of thousands of premature deaths due to consumption of the stuff.  Anyway, right after that first guide came out, a grocery store clerk in Norway came up with the concept of the food pyramid, and it attracted a lot of attention, and of course, America had to come up with their own as well. 

Luise Light of the USDA was one of the developers of the original food pyramid that actually took quite a few years to develop.  Not that it took that long for the scientists to create, it took nearly three years for the agency heads to agree to changes that were demanded by the food manufacturing industries.  This is what she had to say about the ordeal, 

When our version of the Food Guide came back to us revised, we were shocked to find that it was vastly different from the one we had developed. As I later discovered, the wholesale changes made to the guide by the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture were calculated to win the acceptance of the food industry. For instance, the Ag Secretary’s office altered wording to emphasize processed foods over fresh and whole foods, to downplay lean meats and low-fat dairy choices because the meat and milk lobbies believed it’d hurt sales of full-fat products; it also hugely increased the servings of wheat and other grains to make the wheat growers happy. The meat lobby got the final word on the color of the saturated fat/cholesterol guideline which was changed from red to purple because meat producers worried that using red to signify “bad” fat would be linked to red meat in consumers’ minds.
Where we, the USDA nutritionists, called for a base of 5-9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day, it was replaced with a paltry 2-3 servings (changed to 5-7 servings a couple of years later because an anti-cancer campaign by another government agency, the National Cancer Institute, forced the USDA to adopt the higher standard).
Our recommendation of 3-4 daily servings of whole-grain breads and cereals was changed to a whopping 6-11 servings forming the base of the Food Pyramid as a concession to the processed wheat and corn industries. Moreover, my nutritionist group had placed baked goods made with white flour — including crackers, sweets and other low-nutrient foods laden with sugars and fats — at the peak of the pyramid, recommending that they be eaten sparingly. To our alarm, in the “revised” Food Guide, they were now made part of the Pyramid’s base. And, in yet one more assault on dietary logic, changes were made to the wording of the dietary guidelines from “eat less” to “avoid too much,” giving a nod to the processed-food industry interests by not limiting highly profitable “fun foods” (junk foods by any other name) that might affect the bottom line of food companies.

Wait a minute, government agencies doing things at the behest of industry?  Wow, that's a shock.  I don't think that I have ever written about any such phenomena before.  (LOL)  Granted that these are just guidelines and that the reality is that we as Americans are free to follow them or not as we personally see fit to do.  Welllll, actually, those guidelines are used to determine what needs to be fed to school children in breakfast and lunch programs throughout the country.  Those programs then determine that a box of Lucky Charms and skim milk are high quality food products and exceptional choices for kid's growing minds and bodies.   They have also determined that whole grain foods only need to be 51% whole, and the rest can be plain processed white flour, devoid of any nutrition whatsoever.  Just like the sugar and HFCS that are allowed, and in reality, promoted to be perfect for providing high energy for growing children.  They have also decreed that ten grapes is a serving of fruit, as is a half cup of apple juice.  Chocolate milk is also perfectly fine to give to kids.  Sugar, HFCS, fruit fructose juice with no fiber and processed so much as to be

devoid of vitamins, and cereals that are almost half starch and up to 30% sugar, these are fed to American children on school days at the recommendation of our government. Is it any wonder we are a nation of obese people.  We have a government that paves the golden street toward obesity with guidelines that promote it, and rules that line the pockets of all involved with cash. 

So we know that government guidelines are set by industry standards and desires.  There are a lot of other experts out there promoting dietary plans for us to follow. and they all claim that their particular plan is designed using "Scientific Principles of Nutritive Science".  I just haven't figured out where they get their science from.  It isn't logical.

One of the big ones is Dr. Mercola. (Mercola Food Pyramid) Here is his concept of a healthy scientifically sound diet.  I like ol' doc Mercola, he has a lot of clout, a lot of money and he does a lot of good in the REAL food industry.  But his idea of a healthy diet where he wants us to eat from 50 to 85 percent of our caloric intake to be fats is pretty far out there.  It is as he states in his articles, the way to get to a ketogenic diet and that is what humans need and evolved with.  It is of course, total bullcrap.  Dr. Mercola insists that we eat lots of good fats like avocados, pastured eggs, olive oil, organic butter and raw nuts.  I commend the man for insisting that we, everyone of us get as far away from modern foods as possible and go organic when possible.  Man did not evolve eating any of the crap that is sold to us as food today.  He also tells us that good organic pasture raised meats are an important part of his scientific diet.  And of course, he sells his supplements to help you get what his diet, and probably your diet, doesn't provide.  And that's why he has clout and is making tons of money.  Not a bad thing, but for me, I don't believe that anyone should take his concept of a scientifically based diet as gospel.  I don't see the science behind it.



Then we have the Paleo people and this is one of their pyramids designed specifically for the Paleo diet.

 Seems to be a lot like the Mercola pyramid, and it does in fact stress quality of the foods with organic and pasture raised meats.  But again, the absence of grains in the diet denies the actual way in which humans evolved.  I've written about that very thing here on this blog, extensively.  There are numerous articles here about it, grains are not bad, 80 percent of the world population lives on a grain based diet and we know, WE KNOW, that humans evolved eating various grains from at least 115 thousand years ago.  There is actual archaeological proof of Paleo ruins with grains and grass seeds in primitive excavations dating that far back.  

It's simple, the human body evolved with processes to store excess fats and carbohydrates.  From the main sources of carbs available at that time, grains.  And yes, storage of fats from nuts and high fat fruits. There is no system in the human body to store excess protein.  It doesn't exist.  And that is probably because early man did not start out as hunters, they were gatherers and somewhere down the road figured out how to hunt and that was a supplement to their vegetarian based diets.  And of course, a lot of that scavenging and gathering that took place also allowed for a large part of the diet to include lots of fermented foods.  I'm a big proponent of eating fermented foods, we have eaten them for hundreds of thousands of years, it is a part of of our evolution.  What isn't a part of our diet, is modern food.  

It's scary to think what this country is becoming.  This country is ruled by a government that treats corporations as human beings and grants them rights that are far greater in scope than those afforded the actual citizens. You are what you eat, don't let the government, or experts trying to sell you anything, do your thinking for you. 

Oh, sigh, love

Love.

That feeling that has become a permanent memory. A gentle touch, that knowledge that her hand as it lies against the small of your back, resting slightly on the top of your belt.  A warmth that is without description, unlike any other touch, or even any sort of contact be it animal, vegetable or mineral.  The warming touch of one you love, forever there, forever ingrained into your genetic makeup, as though eons of men throughout time have felt that same hand upon their back and been moved and humbled as if still an infant. She lays her head sideways and it now rests against my shoulder, she glances up to see me watching her and she smiles. Waiting now, just waiting for the check-out line to move faster, but hoping it stops completely and the moment lasts forever.  This human next to me, her hand on my back, her head resting against me, no other time in my life has my being felt so, well, so content.

After a long day working, a quick shower together, and hours of loving; we are now at a grocery store. The mundane rituals of modern life interfere with our existence together. It is as if the concept of lovemaking was invented by the two of us, for us alone.  Certainly no one else has felt the depths of that contentment and just plain satisfaction that we have just an hour before.  Broccoli, potatoes, green beans and cheese; all sitting in our cart awaiting the checker to push numbers on a register and continue the drudgery we live outside the serenity of our personal existence.  Two vegetarians, living our lives as one, complete in our lifestyle, our tiny corner of the universe, and with each other.

Time passed, we grew apart, in our lives, our philosophies, our diets.  A child, the product of our love grew, became an extension of the two of us, and lives and loves now as an individual.  Never forgetting the two lovers that created him, he remembers us.  What else is there in life?

So where are we with this gluten and grains are bad for everyone propoganda now days?

Whew, tough question.  Gluten is the target of a lot of bad press lately, everyone from Dr. Oz, Dr. Weil, Dr. Berg, Dr. Mercola, Dr Davis (author of The Wheat Belly) all the Paleo people proponents and, well, anyone that can make a buck by attaching themselves to an idea that becomes popular.  Oh yeah, realistically, everyone out there blasting wheat and spewing nonsense about how wheat and gluten are bad for you or make you fat are in fact making a lot of money off their proclamations.  Whether it is selling books, taking huge fees for speaking tours, selling ads on their TV shows or just plain selling supplements and other crap on their websites, they all are making money by proclaiming these half truths and in some cases out and out lies as loudly as they possibly can.

The very first accusation that we need to look at is the one that wheat makes people fat. The reasoning is simple, wheat flour consists of some protein and starch.  Starch is just glucose molecules in long chains.  Glucose is sugar, therefore eating wheat is like eating sugar.  I don't want to write 6,000 words explaining the glucose, sucrose and fructose metabolism in the human body, you can view it here (The Bitter Truth) Dr. Lustig does a great job detailing the hepatic sugar metabolism, suffice it to say that glucose fuels the body and pretty much bypasses the body's system to turn excess other sugars into fat.  Within reason, as always too much starch breaking down into glucose and although the body stores the majority of it as glycogen, however a tiny amount does go to fat.  The video in fact shows that what is making Americans fat and sick is sugar.  Not wheat.  This is clearly evident if you look at the world.  Not here, not where the average American gets 1.5 of every 10 calories consumed from fructose; but in countries like China.  Well northern China, where wheat is the primary source of calories.  The incidence of obesity in China is about 3%.  Here in America, it's over 35%.  Wheat doesn't make you fat.  What makes Americans fat is all the crap they eat with their PROCESSED white flour products.  Good whole grains are still the number one source of nutrition for 80% of the world.  Only in countries that have adopted the American way of eating, the Standard American Diet, the SAD, full of sugar and processed foods do we find obesity.  And sadly, it is growing in places like China, India and places that were traditionally a whole grain based diet. Everyone wants to be like the Americans, and of course the other thing is that high sugar foods are pretty addictive.

Lectins and phytates are bad.  Yeah, this is true.  Wheat, and all grains and legumes contain them.  I went into a great deal of detail about how to make grains, nuts and legumes healthier with simple processes.  (Healthier healthy food) was the first of the six articles, all are in mid May and contain lots of information and recipes that are easy to do to make these foods better because all the techniques destroy the lectins and phytates.  These techniques were developed from thousands of years of trial and error by primal man and every one of them take time.  In today's modern world, time is money and money rules over health of the consumer.  That's the reason I teach healthy cooking to people, it's all about using those techniques to neutralize the toxic parts of the foods we eat and maximize the flavor and nutrition.  The scary part is that even when they make white flour or white rice, they strip the nutrients but leave in the lectins and phytates.  Neither of these things are in such quantities that they kill you, it is just something that is a long slow degenerative effect on your body's digestive system.  Long slow deterioration.  Come to think about it, that's what most of the chemical additives do to your body that are in our food supply.  And yes, that's the reason I try to alert people to the condition of American food.  (Chronic vs Acute toxin)

The human body evolved eating large amounts of meat.  The difficult thing for most Americans to understand is that in the rest of the world, meat is not eaten every day.  Yes, I know, that's heresy to those Paleo people that seem to want us to believe that caveman ate meat all the time.  Not in any way true, humans didn't drop out of the trees and suddenly make spears and kill things.  It took a few millennia.  Humans can get along perfectly fine by getting all or nearly all of their protein needs by eating various plants.  Without any meat, supplements are needed, but it still is possible.  In fact, I have written about this very phenomena here before (No meat) and (Too much meat)  too much meat is a problem here as well, and that one details what happens to the human body with a high meat diet.  And there is also the problem with meat itself.  In America meat is an industrialized protein product designed to make money.  Meat is packed with antibiotics, chemicals designed to make the animals grow faster, fed foods that destroy the animals digestive, reproductive and central nervous system and packed with extremely dangerous and deadly antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.  This week was just one of a multitude of recalls of meat for this specific problem.  But meat is cheap. (Cheap Meat)
   
Some links to peruse if you feel like looking at some stuff written by scientists and not quacks or self professed gurus.  For fun you can view my brother's stuff as well, he states right on his blog that the whole thing is about what he KNOWS, and you DON'T (The Brother Guru) But this other stuff is for real.
(Fermented bread and Celiacs)  The NCBI doc on how fermenting wheat makes it palatable for Celiacs
(FAO charts grains, sugar, meat) This is the FAO of the UN, grains are the majority of calories in the world
(Wheat Production World)  Where and how much wheat is grown and consumed

An dof course, please look at my blog entries in mid May for how to make healthy foods healthier by using the simple and basic techniques of soaking, steaming, sprouting and fermenting. 

Supreme Court Ruling

The Multiverse, the Solipsistic View of Ego Driven Drivel

At some point in time, most people will be exposed to a concept called "The Multiverse".  This is a philosophy that is more of an exercise of a solipsistic expression of quantum physics rather than an actual viable concept.  Realistically, the entire idea of The Multiverse actually goes against the basic laws of physics.  And the whole idea was given credence because certain people needed a way to rationalize another concept of physics, "The Copenhagen Interpretation".  Whew, this one is actually believable sort of, it states that EVERY single event exists as a fluctuation of a wave on the time line of reality and that wave contains every possible outcome of the event.  The creators of The Multiverse claim that for an individual, usually themselves, they state that for every event in their life, there are a large number, up to an infinite number of possible outcomes.  Each possible event then branches off and creates a separate universe with new possible outcomes for every event.  It becomes like a tree, with the trunk the original event, and branching and dividing into an infinite number of possible universes with an infinite number of likely outcomes.  This is of course a solipsistic view as it does not in any way take into consideration that each and every other living being on the planet also has events in their life in which there are numerous up to infinite numbers of possible outcomes.  And as you are a living part of the universe, someone else's infinite number of universes would also contain your existence and from those possible universes there are another infinite number of possible universes based on possible outcomes to events based not just on your existence and theirs, but every other living person in the existence.  Whew, that rapidly turns into very huge numbers.  And here is the solipsistic viewpoint, it isn't possible.  The basic laws of physics state that the amount of matter and energy are constant, you can't just create a separate universe based on the possible outcomes of an event in your, the observer's, life.  Solipsism.  But then in my paltry existence I have found that those that believe that their viewpoint is greater than any other person's viewpoint, is pretty much viewing the world with a solipsistic view. 

An interesting treatise on Multiverse (Mind-Bending)

Part of the concept of The Multiverse is that I can do, and have done, every possible thing in some variant of the my timeline and my own personal Multiverse.  What this means is that geeky physicists are playing in the concept to explain to themselves that they have had sex with hundreds of swim suit models when in reality and in any universe, they are just geeks and that would never happen.  Years ago when I worked at AT&T customer service, I talked to Bo Derek when she called in.  In some universe somewhere that call led to her and I hooking up and her life being all the better for it.  REALLY?  Not ever happening in any universe.  Possible outcomes do not in any way alter the basic makeup of the personality of the one that conceptualizing the possible universal outcomes.  Ahhhh, wait a minute, if we take that thought to the inevitable conclusion we see that the possible outcomes of any given event are narrowed dramatically just by the given parameters of person of whom we are considering to have multiple outcomes.  It isn't possible to think that I would have married Bo Derek in ANY universe because she is a cognizant human with her own possible outcomes from an infinite number of decision events in her life and there is no way that any of them would lead her to Arizona to meet a broken down ugly old fat man.

Oh, wait, the Multiverse concept designed and conceived by geeky physicists does not in any way take into account that all the other humans in their perceived universe in fact have free will and that just because they themselves want those other humans to act differently does not in any way mean that they possibly could, or would do so.

It is a solipsistic view of what geeks want, and not of reality.  But then I have relatives that think that way, I have an ex that thinks that way, I have a few friends and a close acquaintance that thinks that way, and in some ways, I THINK THAT WAY.  Not all the time, but certainly sometimes.  I won't ever get a flu vaccine.  EVER.  But, this was just a bit of fun, I had some trouble sleeping and read that link above and thought about the universe and my small place in it as a part of the Universal Consciousness and my path to Oneness and laughed and laughed.  All those geeks pretending that in some part of their multiverse they are living the dream with lots of supermodels fighting to get into their bed with them.