tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post1275798526415218747..comments2024-03-25T17:38:55.490-07:00Comments on Dar Kush: Damning OurselvesSteven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-13393631330069245272008-02-25T20:36:00.000-08:002008-02-25T20:36:00.000-08:00Steven,I love much of your writing, but I have to ...Steven,<BR/><BR/>I love much of your writing, but I have to take issue with a lot of your ideas about being overweight. As a start, I suggest that you read Gary Taubes' new book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories" to see what the science actually says about diet and nutrition and weight.<BR/><BR/>Let's start with your basic assumption, which is stated explicitly as "If you want to lose weight, you must START by controlling intake (food) on one end, and output (exercise) on the other."<BR/><BR/>True, insofar as it goes, but hidden behind it is the assumption that every calorie is the same, whether saturated fat, trans fat, whole grain carb, refined carb, or protein. Which the science says is almost certainly not true.<BR/><BR/>The pre-civilization Inuit diet contained no plant matter and no carbs (there is one plant root available to eat, but it apparently tastes so bad that they won't eat it unless they are starving). They existed on caribou meat, whale and seal, the very occasional bear, and fish. Obesity, cancer, diabetes, and scurvy were essentially unknown. And this is not genetic, because Europeans who spent years with the Inuit (including Richard Henry Dana of _Two Years Before the Mast_ fame) ate the same diet without problem. Twenty years after the diet of civilization became common (meaning white flour and sugar), obesity and diabetes became an issue. Similar stories are told by doctors working with primitive tribes throughout the world.<BR/><BR/>Our bodies are complex systems that attempt to preserve a healthy state. Because of this, we have a highly evolved endocrine system that regulates us: our energy use, fat storage, conversion of fat back to energy, etc. That system does not consider all calories to be the same, and the overuse of certain kinds of calories perturbs the system dramatically, making it easier for us to gain weight (store calories) than to lose weight (convert stored calories to energy for use). As Taubes says: we don't gain weight because we eat too much, we eat too much because we gain weight. Our homeostatic system gets out of balance and requires us to eat more to reach satiety. Restoring the homeostatic balance by eating the right food types makes it easier to eat less and lose weight.<BR/><BR/>Only about 2% of people who diet according to the "calories in, energy expended" paradigm lose weight in the long term, especially if they eat a low fat diet. Any system that has a 98% failure rate (and blames the user/victim for that failure rate) is pretty clearly bankrupt.<BR/><BR/>Taubes spent 5 to 7 years researching Good Calories, Bad Calories and it is a long, hard, dense read. About 20% of the page count is notes and references. But it shows just how screwed up the public heath recommendations for diet, nutrition and weight are in the US (and most of the rest of the world as well).<BR/><BR/>I won't spoil the read by telling you what the science says about diet, only that our assumptions are largely incorrect. Following the information Taubes provides (there's no diet plan in the book), I've lost 4% of my body weight in three weeks without ever feeling hungry or losing energy. Quite the opposite: I don't binge eat, my brain feels more active and happier than I remember it being for quite a while, my energy level is up, and my martial arts have improved all at the same time.<BR/><BR/>If I believed in miracles I'd call this one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-27143182133205167852008-02-23T20:34:00.000-08:002008-02-23T20:34:00.000-08:00Rory:Three deep bows in recognition of your author...Rory:<BR/><BR/>Three deep bows in recognition of your authority and experience, as well as honor for your service. It is my belief that honorable men like you make the penal system something more than the utter hell it could clearly be, and has sometimes been.Steven Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-84751258542027274032008-02-23T09:55:00.000-08:002008-02-23T09:55:00.000-08:00The problem as I see it, Steve, is a combination o...The problem as I see it, Steve, is a combination of sampling error and attempting to stretch the norms of a very comfortable, very sheltered society to a world or time where those things are rare. Mix in a desire to believe that anything you haven't experienced is closer to what you have seen on television than what you know about real people. And sources who make more money for emotional reaction than for reporting the status quo. Humans work to maintain homeostasis- the truly extraordinary efforts of ordinary people to retain ordinary values in ugly circumstances are heroic, and make for boring news.<BR/><BR/>So someone violates the ROE and civilians are killed- that makes the paper. Someone chooses to follow the ROE, knowing damn well that he is risking the lives of his team, that doesn't make the paper. The survivor just writes a book that doesn't sell very well but is passed hand to hand from veteran to veteran.<BR/><BR/>I'm aware of the history, Steve. Even have some ideas about why things changed. Shortly I may have an opportunity to see how it works in a different cultural context and will be able to see far more.<BR/><BR/>You just hit a nerve. One of our local papers implied that deaths and rapes are common in my facilities. There's been one murder in the seventeen years I've been there. We average about one suicide a year (in a 2k bed system) well below the national average. Every allegation of sexual <I>contact</I>, much less assault, is followed through hard and all but a handful have proven to be false reports.<BR/>RoryRoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08483616030072739190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-73390373193996484592008-02-23T08:24:00.000-08:002008-02-23T08:24:00.000-08:00Rory--I must absolutely grant you superior first-p...Rory--<BR/><BR/>I must absolutely grant you superior first-person expertise in the arenas you have excelled, Rory. A question for you, however: I wasn't speaking of count, city, or state lockup. My understanding is that these have undergone rigorous overhaul over the decades in America, with strongly supervised chains of command and much oversight. I mean what happens when prisoners are kept in the shadows, with no one directly responsible for what can happen, and the prisoners themselves are considered less than fully human. The history of slavery, for instance, is filled with horrors that occurred when the behaviors did not match expectations--and the human beings were not considered fully human. I know of no war in which prisoners were not maltreated at times, or civilians abused. Not that soldiers are less noble than typical human beings, but the context itself leads one to exploring the darker corners of the psyche. I'd bet that highly trained, psychologically supervised men, the result of centuries of study into how to provide incarceration humanely, do a VERY fine job. But the question of why that careful selection, and psychological oversight was necessary has to be factored in.Steven Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-82272951374229803012008-02-23T00:47:00.000-08:002008-02-23T00:47:00.000-08:00"Add this up, and what happens away from our sight..."Add this up, and what happens away from our sight, in dark cells, behind closed doors, is supposed to be limited by what’s in a book or manual? Bullshit. "<BR/><BR/>Personally, I think it is limited by hearts and souls. I've spent a long time in those dark places, Steve, more than the most hardened of criminals and haven't seen anything that approaches the freak show horrors that some imagine. The Zimbardo experiment did not show what happens when people are put in authority... it showed what happens when untrained children who have <I>already been told by their college professors</I> that anyone who wants to wear a badge is an atavistic personality type will do what they have been told is expected.<BR/><BR/>If you can find a copy, pick up "Signal Zero" from the same era. Or spend a few days with me at work.Roryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08483616030072739190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-62292901243300826902008-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:002008-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00I'd like to add a couple of thoughts to being over...I'd like to add a couple of thoughts to being overweight:<BR/><BR/>First, low metabolism is linked to asthma, which is rampant: probably coming from the environment of our homes, the air we breath, and a result of allergies. I saw my allergist yesterday because I had a couple of bad allergy weeks. I had gained 5 lbs, and he told me that the asthma decreased the amount of oxygen in my system, and my metabolism slowed proportionally. (I do not have asthma as severely as Anonymous, and his story is very scary for me.)<BR/><BR/>Second, high-fructose corn syrup, which is in so many foods, not only prepared foods but also some ingredients. One has to go to raw or whole foods to avoid it.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your blog. You nailed it.<BR/><BR/>I do have one thought for Anonymous, if you have not done this yet, see if you have food or environmental allergies. Nasal allergies, which are usually to pollens and scents get most of the attention because the drug companies are able to fix adequately for huge profits (don't jump on me about profits, I know how to make them). <BR/><BR/>Food and environmental allergies are more difficult. For example, I am allergic to most of the legume family (including soy), rice, and any number of other things that ceased to be food to me, so I can't even think of them. I am also allergic to penicillium (it is spelled correctly), and other molds. My food allergies are also environmental because I cannot handle them, or, in some cases, breathe the air when they being cooked. <BR/><BR/>Penicillium gives me a variety of symptoms, but one of the worst is swollen joints. Rice gives me extreme intestinal problems. And so on. Allergies can make you depressed, need to sleep 10 or more hours a day, and anxious. Also, any of these can close down your air ways causing asthma, and death.mjholthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00626250928180743075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-23523333657959729982008-02-22T10:00:00.000-08:002008-02-22T10:00:00.000-08:00Here was my comment:"And ANYONE who marries someon...Here was my comment:<BR/>"And ANYONE who marries someone without concern for their emotional health is, in my thinking, a fool."<BR/><BR/>I didn't say that you can't marry anyone with emotional problems. I said that you must be concerned. Must factor those in to the overall quality of the relationship. It appears you did.<BR/>##<BR/>Of COURSE I didn't factor in your specific health issues, friend. That's your defensiveness kicking in. If you were my student, I would need to consult with your doctor, see exactly what your limitations were, and work within them. If your weight is currently stable then, yes, you could lose weight with the addition of 15 minutes of the right kind of exercise. What would that "right" exercise be? Can't say. But given your limitations, I would think Coach Sonnon's FlowFit would work well. But again, I'd have to know exactly what you can and cannot do, the health of your joints, etc.<BR/>But if you can walk, stand up and sit down, you can exercise sufficiently to lose weight, assuming you have control of your caloric intake, and understand what you are doing, yes.Steven Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-7338334550588629192008-02-22T09:44:00.000-08:002008-02-22T09:44:00.000-08:00You say I don't need more than 15 minutes to get t...You say I don't need more than 15 minutes to get the necessary exercise, okay but did you take into account that due to certain health problems when I play knock down the silly pins with my grandkids I have to make them reset up the pins, because I suffer dizziness if I bed over to setup the pins myself. Or that I suffer from COPD and need to use an inhaler. My son has been using an inhaler since he was eight. My father did too. The Marine ad says be all you can be. Some people just are limited in what they can be no matter how much they want to be else wise. The secret is too be happy with who you are.<BR/>By the way I may be a fool by your standards. My wife had many emotional problems when I married her and I knew it. She came from an abusive family, her brother was a drug addict, and her sister ran away from home at fifteen. There were problems to deal with the first couple of years of marriage, but did pretty well dealing with them and I have never regretted my decision to marry her despite the problems.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com