Sunday, January 4, 2015

whirlwind week, good and bad news

Whew!  :-)

The kids JUST left, after being with us for a week....  Too bad it didn't snow for our little Texas visitors, but it probably made our running-around easier.  We walked all over the zoo and City Museum, ate all sorts of carby things (cuz ya CAN when you exercise), and had a great time!  My daughter has one of those bracelet-thingies that tracks her movement and sleep, then plugs into her phone to report in -- i may have to get me one....

We managed to get rid of almost all of the food gifts -- four thumbs up (in the American sense, it's a good thing).  ;-)  We're looking forward to being more disciplined again.

On a sadder note, ANOTHER of my reenacting friends has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  It always seems to be the "good ones" who get sick, doesn't it?  :-(  This gentleman is the small-farmer in northeastern TX, who raises Highland cattle and chickens -- they just built a new house on their 30 acres last year.  A delightful pair of musical old hippies....  This is the worst news that i've had in a long time.

16 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your friend. At least he has access to good food (livestock), which may extend his life.

    I got rid of my gift cards--there are various web sites that buy them.

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  2. I hear a lot lately about people getting pancreatic cancer and Lou Gehrig's disease, which I though were rare diseases. Sorry about your friend, Tess.

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  3. Sorry to hear about your friend. Pancreatic cancer is a tough one. So sad.

    On a more positive note, I love my fitbit flex. Motivates me to walk more.

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  4. thank you all, for your kind sympathy! what a lovely set of people you are! :-)

    it IS disturbing that previously-rare diseases are becoming more and more prevalent. I sure hope Glenn's doctor knows about ketogenic diets for cancer! it's always so tempting to suggest reading materials to sufferers and their families, but i know that most people don't want to hear it, and some really NEED to keep their faith in their specialists....

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  5. So Tess, you are really great at analzying 'the latest and greatest' research results/studies....what do you make of this one?

    http://www.organicauthority.com/sugar-molecule-in-red-meat-linked-to-increased-cancer-risk-study-finds/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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    1. :-D what i'm good at is finding interesting tidbits in the archives of really good bloggers like Peter, and passing them on....

      I haven't read it all the way through, but I found some rather suspicious items already. First the outright lies: "There have been numerous studies in recent years implicating red meat as carcinogenic and generally bad for our health" (thoroughly discredited by proper scientists without a vegetarian agenda), and "Red meat consumption in the U.S. and other developed countries has been steadily increasing in the last century, right alongside the increase in rates of various types of cancer." Red meat consumption actually dropped off significantly in the last quarter of the 20th century -- it's chicken and carb consumption that went through the roof. Then, one should ALWAYS look askance at mouse-studies -- mice are less like humans when it comes to response to diet than rats are. They said, "The research team fed the mice diets high in Neu5Gc for a 12-week period," and we know that "diets high in X" tends to be shorthand for supraphysiological quantities!

      I'm not the right one to ask about this study -- Peter or Kindke would be much better choices -- but just like ALL the other red-meat-demonizing papers out there, i'm inclined to doubt the good faith of the "scientists" who print this kind of stuff.

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    2. Yes, there were several suspicious bits. However, they just recommend not to eat too much proteins, like max 70 grams a day - the amount in almost three lamb shops. I agree to choose mostly fatty red meat. According to nutritional site http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/ribeye-steak-boneless-grilled-8-oz-correct-132612613,
      8 oz of rib eye stake contains 20 gram of protein. So , if you eat rib eye for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you can safely add snack of 10 more grams of read meat.

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    3. "Linked to" and "risk" make this sort of study not worth bothering about. "Linked to" means a statistical correlation. It doesn't mean red meat is *causing* cancer. And this doesn't sound like it actually even measures cancer, just "risk." And a risk factor in mice, at that.

      Given humans have been living on red meat for 2.5 million years, it seems an unlikely carcinogen.

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    4. Besides, statistical correlations supposed to be used to form a hypothesis which may be proven by further experiments or not. Nowadays we see too often that what used to be the base to form a very slight suspicion is used as a trampoline to jump to a conclusion based on personal pre-judgments.

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    5. :-) I didn't even mention the fact that charring your steak is the fastest way to turn a wholesome dish into a carcinogen-containing one.... And who knows but what some of these substances are like AGEs -- they're bad if we make them in our own bodies, but we can ingest them with impunity!

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    6. I forgot to put in my comment that the author of. the article was vegan herself.

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  6. Tess, my first thought/action when reading it was to look at the header to see if it was a Vegan site. Seriously. I also knew enough to question the mouse/rat thang...like you said mega doses are often used. Who knows the funding of the study, too. But thanks for confirming what I was already suspecting, and adding a bit more. :)

    And thanks Galina, for the math explanation. I hate math. :)

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    1. :-) I went to the "about" page to see if the site seemed vegan, too, but the authors/founders didn't proclaim it -- then I went to the recipe page to see if there were any meat concoctions there! on the second page there was ONE grassfed-beef recipe, so at least they're not hardcore.

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  7. So very sorry to hear about your friend Tess. Sometimes there are no easy answers to our question WHY? My thoughts are with you, your friend and family.

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    I have heard that 'fitbit flex' is excellent as it makes people far more aware and want to do exercise. If you do get one let us know how it goes .....thanks.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Thank you, Jan! I've been a bit worried about this guy before, because he mentioned once that he was on a statin.... :-( That very possibly contributed to his current situation.

      My daughter has had her Jawbone for some weeks now, and she seems to like it very well. Unfortunately, the reviews on Amazon indicate that it sometimes just craps out after a while -- hope hers lasts better than some do.

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