[conspire] CABAL meeting this Saturday

[Rick Moen]

CABAL is tomorrow!


Food neepery follows.

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:13:20 -0800
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: skeptic at lists.johnshopkins.edu
Subject: Re: Author of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' an unrepentant atheist

Quoting Paul W. Harrison (intereng at netti.fi):

> Michael D. Sofka wrote:
> > There's a nice essay by Douglas Adams about this in "The Salmon of
> > Doubt," the posthumous collection of essays a few years ago....
> 
> It's sort of scary when you read how someone only in his 40s is just
> suddenly struck down -- Adams suffered a sudden fatal heart attack
> during a rest period at the gym: he was reportedly unaware he even had
> a heart condition.

Atherosclerosis leading to heart attack with arrhythmia.

Roll of the genetic dice plays some role in this, of course, but my
suspect would be the Western industrialised diet, where most food
including meat and fish is crammed with (taxpayer-subsidised) corn
(maize) and unfermented soybean products, artificially hydrogenated
vegetable fats, and unsaturated trans fats.  Which seems pretty well
established to lead to type 2 diabetes, circulatory disease, obesity,
etc.

I imagine a bunch of you will want to argue with me about that, but I
think I'd rather just outlive y'all.  Meanwhile, bon appetit!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradox

----- End forwarded message -----

Relevance to CABAL is that longtimers will recall that we eat healtily
around here, serve to guests only food we'd want to eat, and ask guests
to please not leave at our house brought-along food when they leave.

A CABAL attendee recently brought and left behind a colossal 32 fl. oz.
bottle -- a quart! -- of California Classics brand Balsamic Vinaigrette
Dressing.  I'm not complaining:  He checked with me before doing so, and
said he wouldn't have any use personally for a giant-sized bottle of
salad dressing.

But I thought it worthwhile looking at what's in this bottle of glop.
I brought the still-unopened bottle with me for my salad at lunch, 
poured some, and regrettably was unable to eat most of my salad, on
account of the oily, sugary mess.

   Ingredients:  Water, soybean oil, balsamic vinegar, high fructose
   corn syrup, salt, distilled vinegar, olive oil, less than 2% of:
   garlic, spices, roasted garlic, xanthum gum, onion, sodium benzoate
   and potassium sorbate (preservatives), calcium disodium EDTA (to
   protect flavor), oleoresin paprika (color).

Soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup:  Walking down the middle aisles 
of supermarkets, almost everything you see is heavily industrialised
food-like edible products crammed full of several taxpayer-subsidised
grains processed into a huge number of forms:  unfermented[0] soybeans,
corn, and to a lesser extent wheat.  Even most of the meats in the
butcher department are from animals that have been crammed with these
grains _instead_ of being allowed to eat their natural grass diets.
Also, even many fish are fattened up on corn and soy in fishfarms.
And the oils in those foods -- many of them from unfermented soybeans
and corn -- are often processed in dangerous ways.[1]

This stuff is pretty much provably bad for you, and it's been processed
into many foods you wouldn't suspect -- especially foods in bottles and
boxes.  And every time you hear about Congress passing a 'farm bill',
it's usually not for farmers:  It's for companies like Monsanto and
Archer Daniels Midland that are driving tax-subsidy scam for corn and
soybeans.  E.g:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_Security_and_Rural_Investment_Act_of_2002

Anyway, the quart of salad dressing didn't even taste very good:  As I
said, my tongue picks up mostly the oil made sticky by the high-fructose
corn syrup.  I was considering giving it away, but, let's face it, it's 
bad for human beings, and there's nobody nearby whose health I want to
damage.  So, I'm dumping it.

Douglas Adams died suddenly at the age of 49, of one of the diseases
this sort of food-like edible substance probably helps cause.  I'm now
51, and would like for me and my family to live a long and healthy life --
and to have you-all at CABAL be alive and healthy alongside us.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradox and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet for an eye-opener.  Why
do Americans have epidemic levels of type 2 diabetes, circulatory
disease, cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's?  It's the diet, stupid.)



[0] As I've mentioned before, all traditional cultures that cultivate
soybeans know they're bad for humans until fermented.  However,
industrialised food companies don't care, omitting fermenting because it
adds a bit of cost.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybeans#Nutrition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_protein#Food_uses
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_soy_protein

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triglycerides
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-density_lipoprotein#Dietary