Friday, August 12, 2016

the pitfall of a hurried dinner

When we've been busy on a hot summer day like yesterday was, meal-preparation becomes a bigger chore than it needs to be.  We had no leftovers ready to nuke, i had thawed some "tenderloin tips" and so i decided -- what the hell, i'll just make stroganoff, and serve it on some rice-noodles J ordered:  THEORETICALLY fettucine, according to the amazon-dot-com description.

The stroganoff was good as usual, but the noodles were barely linguini-width, and despite all the good reviews, they didn't cook up as expected.  I boiled them the maximum time suggested, and though some were tender, others were unpleasantly chewy and they stuck together badly.  I do NOT recommend Tinkyada brand....

But here's the rub -- i had fries with my bunless lamb-burger at our favorite pub at lunchtime, thinking i'd work off the carb while shopping.  But the noodles added too much carb for one day.  I slept long and woke up dopey, almost as bad as in my pre-Atkins days.  This morning i've had that can't-find-the-word-i-want problem -- every comment i wrote lambasting idiots on FB, i wrote much slower than usual ... and you know how important it is to insult idiots with words they'll probably have to look up in a dictionary!  [evil grin]

Ya know all those Trumplodytes who can't handle vocabulary beyond the fourth-grade level?  The ones who display a look suggesting they live on beer and Doritos?  Do you suppose it IS the beer, Doritos, Little Debbies, and cheap doughy pizza which CAUSE them to be so dense and resistant to logic...?

On a more serious note, there HAS been some planned dumbification in this country.  Textbooks for much of the country are printed in Texas, where the head of the state school board is a home-schooler who is a young-earth fundamentalist and doesn't believe in evolution;  where REAL teachers protest listing MOSES as a founding-father of America, to deaf ears.  Despite the inefficacy of ingested fluoride in improving dental health, most of our cities STILL insist on poisoning its denizens with the stuff, which has been credibly shown to damage developing brains (it easily crosses the placental barrier).

It's very hard to get anyone outside the paleo/ancestral community to believe that malnutrition affects mental function.  Our credulous acquaintances have vague ideas about the virtues of protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber, but they usually get the details wrong.  I firmly believe that PART of our appalling national foolishness -- irrational fundamentalism and deification of firearms, among much more -- is the fault of bad nutrition coupled with improper mental culture.  Our society is encouraged to dope itself with "bread and circuses," mindless religiosity, absurd jingoism, and condemnation of "elitist" "intellectuals."

...In the country where Thomas Jefferson once praised our "aristocracy of Virtue*"....  [smh]

**********
*  By "virtue" TJ meant "great qualities" like intellect, upright behavior, etc.

8 comments:

  1. I suspect you are correct. I've noticed the items ordered in restaurants, by the masses and their apparent cognitive abilities.
    I have intact myself , recently eaten a carb-y meal and felt the same, dopey.
    I fear we are doomed unless we have an intellectual revolution.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really find it hard to believe that we haven't lost IQ points, as a country. :-( I ardently hope that the interest in politics, which Bernie stirred up this election season amongst millennials, will cause them to start being PERSONALLY active in local offices.

      Delete
  2. I am sure the effect of an unhealthy metabolism and widely fluctuating blood sugars on a general mental health AND public behavior is grossly underestimated. You should add to it the effect of medications which often negatively influence mental health (statines, many blood pressure meds, cannabioids, antydepresants...), not to mention a high blood pressure negative influence on a mental health. I remember reading that George W.Bush was prescribed statines for a cardiovascular diseases prevention. May be it contributed to some of his verbal mishaps. Sometimes I wonder what Donald Tramp is taking or what else could cause such remarkable unruliness, aggression, repetitions, a tendency to believe in delusions like Obama being a muslim.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard the rumors that Trump was on Tenuate Dospan in the '90s and phentermine for a couple of years. That would explain a lot. Then, as you say, i wouldn't be at all surprised to find that he's on statins as well.

      I always remember the prison study which Emily Deans wrote about a few years ago. Most of the inmates were the control group, and another group was given a simple multi-vitamin-mineral supplement; there was significantly less trouble from the treatment group. I've been convinced that poor nutrition might be behind a lot of the civil unrest here, for a long time!

      Delete
  3. It is a difficult time of the year for me - I have no troubles to resist cakes, pizza, cookies and chocolate, but peaches and mangoes in a season are very often irresistible for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean! :-D I think we're wired to fatten ourselves up in summer and fall, preparing for a winter dearth that never comes!

      Delete
  4. I'm sure bad nutrition ... un-wise choices do not help ... anybody!
    I'm really not too sure where 2016 will feature in the fullness of history, we shall see.

    Hope your August finishes on a high and positive note.

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jan! We're on another road-trip as we speak -- we've owed my mother-in-law a visit for a year or so now, so we are doing a little extra driving, and hitting a few tourism sites before and after. Yesterday it was Badlands National Park, and today we're moving on to Mt. Rushmore, the Crazyhorse Memorial, and more extreme scenery. :-D I hope your summer is going well!

      Delete