[conspire] CABAL meeting this Saturday

Fri Mar 12 16:23:23 PST 2010

And if I'm going to have corn syrup, I'm going to have it in something
I enjoy more than balsamic vinagrette.

Jelly beans, perhaps.
Pepsi, perhaps.

But not frakkin' vinaigrette. That's just wrong.

Deirdre

On 3/12/2010, "Rick Moen" <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

>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
>
>
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