Tuesday, July 22, 2014

lalalalala...

Just like Mr-i-have-to-eat-what-i-like-to-eat, who died of pancreatic cancer last year, there seem to be a LOT of people out there who don't want to know that their choice of diet is literally killing them.

I suppose there could be a lot of reasons for it.  I just think they're stupid.

EVERYBODY likes yummy food.  For some it's sweets, and for others it's savory snack foods.  There's the surprising case of the "low-carber" who was willing to take all her carb-grams in the form of candy, and the case of my mother who virtuously "dislikes" sugary things but has a significant addiction to potatoes and popcorn.  My next-older sister has never been into food, but it seems to me that everything she likes is low-fat and starchy.  My eldest sister has had appalling triglyceride numbers for a long time, and was told by her doctor that she NEEDS to go low-carb, but can't (or won't) make herself do it.  It's always something....

But THINK ABOUT IT!  People who are UNWELL, but don't want to even hear that they can FEEL BETTER by changing their diets....  My mind boggles.

People who are otherwise very intelligent and insightful.

People who jeer at the idea that wheat -- "the staff of life" -- is problematic, and DON'T WANT TO KNOW that modern wheat is very different from classic varieties.

Lalalalalala -- i can't hear you! -- lalalalala ....

On the Low Carb Cruise, a surprise speaker (Dianne Sanfilippo) encouraged us to NOT PROSELYTIZE, and it made a lot of sense.  I agree -- trying to convince others of ANYTHING when they're not interested is futile, a complete waste of time, and to me it's productive of sadness because i know how powerful food and supplementation can be.  I see young people with burdening overweight and bad skin, and realize how much their lives would be transformed by removing the deleterious ingredients from their daily fare.  I hear of cancer, heart attacks, and other serious illnesses afflicting my contemporaries (and often people a decade younger) -- two of my favorite people of the crowd i associated with over the weekend have recent diagnoses of T2D -- and i KNOW how they could be protecting their health by only knocking back their consumption of glucose-producing components of their diets....

"It's an orange!" ... "No, it's the juice of eight oranges, separated from the part of an orange that has the power to fill him up." ... "It's an ORANGE."  [sigh]

People don't want to know.  They have been brainwashed to think that fruit is a perfect food, and don't want to KNOW that it's all been a marketing trick.  They've been told that bread is the staff of life, and they can't imagine that the USDA, FDA and AMA are not on their side.  Even these people who live and breathe History don't realize that twentieth-century diseases like Alzheimers are not normal consequences of aging -- even these people who SHOULD know that old statistics of longevity are artificially low because of infant mortality.

Even people who eschew religion as mythology, superstition and irrationality have their illogical beliefs.  They think Science is performed as it should be, and that peer-review has the power to weed out the bullshit, not that what they hear via the media is a form of academic cronyism dominated by inflated egos.  They believe in Genetics, and have never heard of epigenetics -- they don't WANT to.  Just like a fundamentalist (of ANY form), they want to believe their fate is in the hands of some supernal entity and that if they follow the rules, that's all they can really do.  From my point of view, it's just as unreasonable to follow dietary dicta from the McGovern committee as to obey the reproductive advice of the pope, or handle rattlesnakes at revivals.

8 comments:

  1. Yep, I totally agree. About all we can do is lead by example, and hope they get desperate at some point and ask for help.

    p.s. my blog location has changed, so if you could get rid of 'against the grain' and replace with this, I'd be very appreciative!

    http://thesunnycoconut.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes -- i'm still getting back up to speed after my happily-exhausting weekend! :-)

      unfortunately, even when we provide a good example, a lot of people assume it's that we have "good genes" or that we're resorting to artificial means of appearing younger than our ages. it's heartening when we actually DO get through to people -- and often they come around if they only consent to try the "whole thirty" or "two-week test". :-D my daughter and my closest friend are converts, and my husband isn't oblivious -- i consider that a victory!

      Delete
    2. Yep! Well, I'm talking about people that have been around us long enough to know the unhealthier, fatter versions of ourselves. The longer they see us 'maintain', the better likelihood, I like to think, to them questioning themselves at some point. Call me Pollyanna. I've been called worse. ;)

      Delete
    3. you great maintainers are inspirations to everyone who knows your stories! my reenacting friends see me at most four times a year, and all they see is someone who is slightly overweight and refuses to eat the bread, potatoes and dessert. they don't know that i'd weigh three hundred pounds if i ate like they do! :-)

      Delete
  2. But they see us and still don't change a damn thing..? Oh sure they want to know the magic secret diet thingy, but they won't do it. I just don't care anymore. I do my thing and feel sorry for them but don't worry about them either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i certainly relate to your point of view! :-( we help the ones we can, but consign the ones we can't, to their own chosen fate....

      Delete
  3. I know better than to preach LC to strangers, but I am sort-of guilty of proselytizing about the danger of statines, which are not a yammy staff by all means. It is getting to be the popular modern American remedy in Russia, unfortunatelly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the sad thing is, even after the tide starts turning when it comes to diet and medication, MOST people STILL believe information they learned decades ago, which is pretty conclusively proven to be mistaken....

      we WANT to share what has helped us -- it just feels selfish to keep the information to ourselves!

      Delete