- Nassim Taleb likes Sheila Bair’s new book about the financial crisis
- Arsenic in food
- ADHD drugs suspected of causing high rate of bad side effects. “Dr. Derryck Smith, an ADHD specialist in B.C. [British Columbia], says monitoring side effects is the government’s job. “That’s why we have Health Canada,” he said. . . . Health Canada told the Star it does not have the technical expertise to analyze the adverse reaction reports.”
- New treatment for multiple sclerosis to be tested in Canada.
Thanks to Anne Weiss and Dave Lull.
Nice juxtaposition, there.
Arsenic is only one of many toxic substances in our environment and our food.
Instead of obsessing over each toxin separately, maybe it would make more sense to take broader actions that would protect against multiple hazards. For example:
1. Eat more organic foods, containing lower levels of pathogens. And don’t argue about whether a food meets some government standard for safety. The fewer toxins the better. Period.
2. Take very good care of your gut bacteria. Your intestinal microbiome is very important to your health, by keeping bad stuff from crossing from the intestines into the bloodstream. Do all you can to support your gut bacteria.
2a. PREBIOTIC FIBER: Your good gut bacteria love fiber!
I take a Jarrow brand of high-fiber prebiotic supplements with FOS and insulin (that is inulin, not insulin). I also eat a lot of high-fiber fresh produce.
2b. PROBIOTIC GERMS
I also take a high-dosage probiotic called VLS#3. And I also eat plain yogurt with live cultures. I prefer plain Greek yogurt.
Interestingly, the same toxins that hurt our bodies also harm our gut bacteria, so reducing toxins will give us a double benefit by strengthening our microflora.
So eat your yogurt, but not the “fruit-flavored” junk yogurt. Have some plain Greek yogurt, with real fruit like apple slices and red grapes and banana slices. And sprinkle on some inulin powder, or a stevia brand that contains inulin.
I’ll see you at the Whole Foods Market. I’m the old bearded guy checking out the yogurt.
Reading Taleb’s comment got me reading the other books he’s raved about. This one might be up your alley:
https://www.amazon.com/review/R1YDOM1Y5TR6FA/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
I agree with Jim Purdy here that obsessing over individual toxins often misses the larger problem, which is the industrial production of food, and the wrong types of food, at that.
In the case of rice, the plant has a greater affinity to take up arsenic than other grains, and especially in wet (irrigated) conditions.
The arsenic is mainly in the husk, another reason to avoid brown rice.
As for the yoghurt, I’d suggest go a step further and use kefir instead – it has a far better mix of probiotics than any yoghurt. You can learn more than you ever thought possible at Dom’s Kefir Site (google it).
You can also make kefir, yourself, on your countertop, simply by mixing some store bought kefir with milk at about 10:1 ratio. Let it sit for 24 hours and then refrigerate and leave for another few days. I also use it for culturing mil to make my own cheese, culturing cream to make my own butter, and the whey for pickles and sourdoughs!
Better still if you get kefir grains to do it the proper way…
Unlike yoghurt, kefir works over a wide range of temperatures, and is best at room temperature – in other words – it’s hard, very hard, to go wrong with it!
So then you can just buy milk, save the money and reduce your support of the food processing industry. When you can buy a gallon of milk and make kefir for the less than the price of a quart tub of yoghurt, you are making much better use of your money, and supporting the *production* of food, not the *processing* of it.
Paul N, I bought the Kefir granules. I think I will try water but it does not look so easy.
Willy,
The kefir granules only work with full fat milk – they actually “digest” the milk fats in some way.
For doing water (with sugar) you need “water kefir grains” (also called sugar kefir grains, or Tibicos). they are a different beast, good with sugar solutions, fruit juices, coconut water (but not coconut milk), etc.
Dom’s kefir site explains it all, and examples of different recipes are at https://www.kefirgrains.info
I have the water kefir grains and use them for making carbonated “coconut beer”, ginger beer, and a few other things. Left in there long enough, they will make vinegar. ( I also have kombucha that can do that too…)
Once you get into making stuff -fermented and otherwise – from just ingredients, it is amazing how much better it is, and how much cheaper too. Well worth an hour every few days.
An easier to buy as many ingredients as possible (fruit, veg, eggs) from the producers directly – farmers markets and the like.
As Joel Salatin says, the problem is not getting the really good (non-industrial produced) food into the supermarkets, the problem is to get people out of the supermarkets and buying direct from producers.
Supermarkets, by their nature, encourage corporate food production. Try going for two weeks not buying anything from a supermarket. Not easy, but you will seek out sources of (fresh) food you never knew existed in your area.