long winter making my eyes tired!

^^^  attempt at humor -- don't take it seriously.

It remains cold and snowy here in St. Louis!  I like cold and snow, but we're not getting the breaks we usually do.  The midwest can usually count on a significant "January thaw;"  it just isn't happening that way, this year.  And although one CAN take walks when there's ice and snow on the pavement, i don't get the same kind of effect -- one doesn't stride the same way, and one keeps some muscles tensed to avoid slipping and tripping ... and different shoes DON'T help significantly.

I've been doing what i usually do when there's a good reason to stay inside (which applies to heatwaves, too):  i cook and do housework, i run the errands i must, i work on any special project we might have on hand, i interact with my husband and dog, and i read.  In this extended cold season, i've read a LOT.

The last two days i read the entire archive of one blogger with whom i almost entirely agree, despite the fact that he's "normal" -- he realizes people are different and doesn't paint with too broad a brush. Harris, like Sisson, seems to understand that ideal starch intake will vary with carb tolerance and activity level.  It looks like his diet was similar to mine, until he started doing a lot of physical work.  He even expressed his doubts of the universal wholesomeness of low-carb vegetables which jibes with my experience.  Too bad he stopped blogging, but maybe said all he really had to express....

Wooo's last few posts combined with what i read certainly confirmed my philosophy:  food, for normal people, is fuel;  food, for people with significant physical limitations, is fuel AND MEDICINE.  The dual role cannot be allowed to go unappreciated!

Normal people can take in any reasonable mixture of foods (even a little of the "neolithic agents of disease"), make energy out of it, extract the necessary minerals, amino acids and fats, convert provitamins to their active counterparts, store what's left over from required processes, and retrieve as needed.

People with genetic predilections toward ABnormal processes, or who have been infected, injured, or otherwise damaged so that their bodies do NOT perform as described above, don't have the luxury of eating like a traditional Swiss or Kitavan.  We have to tweeze out every little detail of our bodies' misperformance we can identify, and consciously counteract and work around the limitation.  We can't eat without taking into account what we REQUIRE for health, but can't convert, manufacture, or absorb.

To use me as the poster child of FFFery, i can't rely on my digestive system to pull out the iron i need to keep my thyroid function adequate, despite the generous quantities which i'm THEORETICALLY getting from my diet.  I make every effort to eat red meat at least every other day, and i breakfast on eggs any time i breakfast at all.  If i don't use an iron supplement every other day, i start losing hair generously.  Back when my husband was working out of town i had plenty of time to experiment, and it became blatant -- stop supplementing, lose hair; start supplementing, hairbrush and bathtub much less "cluttered."  Over and over -- lather rinse repeat.  A certain "mineral zealot" who comments on a number of blogs warned me how DAAAAANGEROUS iron is ... but you can't GENERALIZE in the world of foodasmedicine!  My digestive system just doesn't tease out the iron in my food....  Incidentally, i alternate copper supplements with the iron, except on the days i eat liver or oysters, because i DO seem to get the benefit of my minerals from those sources -- don't ask me why!

One of the major improvements in energy i observed came when i began supplementing REAL vitamin A.  To this day, it INFURIATES me when i read about this or that vegetable contributing A to the diet -- i don't always manage to restrain myself from cyber-screaming YOU CAN'T GET VITAMIN A FROM ANY VEGETABLE SOURCE!!!  NO vegetable has vitamin A, and almost half of the women in a British study CLEARLY could not convert carotenes adequately.  Yet the lies are reproduced over and over and over again.  Sadly, the lies are repeated by people with very good intentions, too.

"Normal" people do fine, and "abnormal" people are accused of lying on their food logs....

Until people in the medical industry start listening to and believing their patients AS THE DEFAULT, patients who are willing to do what it takes to get better have only one choice -- SELF-EDUCATION.  The system does everything it can to discourage this, and to protect its monopoly.  Thank god there are HEALERS out there who are willing to share the intellectual wealth!  I don't care if they DO sell books or supplements on the side, the fact that they pour streams of free, useful, empowering information into the world from their websites is the intellectual generosity that deserves our gratitude and admiration!

What works for people who are similar to us MAY NOT work for us, but what clearly does NOT work for the majority of people hasn't got a snowball's chance of being effective.  Professionals who have seen thousands of people, and who have benefitted a large number of them, are a damn good reference.  People who may have a bit of a swelled head....  People who may want to make some extra money (who doesn't?), but who are pleased when their knowledge helps someone....  People who get irritable when arguing with the stubbornly ignorant....

[...back to my reading.  great thing about the internet, you can magnify the pages....]