when i made my last blog post, i sort of expected people to come out in defense of veganism or against meat-eating. it’s a topic that tends to ruffle feathers. i was very happy, then, when the discussion came around and it wasn’t the same old straw man and ad hominem stuff that you tend to see. yay, friends!

at any rate, i did have thoughts on the matter that ended up getting too lengthy for a comment reply, so here we go, in blog form:

one problem that occurs when discussing nutrition is that there is a line between diet and philosophy that is blurred, sometimes intentionally so.

and, although my blog post inadvertently did such a thing–arguing that the best human diet is a carnivorous, high fat, low carb diet, because that’s how it’s been for all of human history–my personal view on it is that the science says so, and not just because the idea of it makes sense (which, it also does).

in other words, i’m not a paleo guy (though, i eat much closer to paleo than the standard american diet). as such, i try not to argue explicitly from the standpoint that we should eat like paleo man, because paleo man didn’t have cancer or heart disease. but, i do recognize that paleo man ate a diet that science would definitely back.

so, i hope that’s clear. i’m not arguing for ancestral diets from a philosophical point of view. i’m arguing for science, and giving ancestral diet as a great corroborating example.

THAT SAID, i will try to keep separate the science from the ethical/moral implications. and, i will still attempt to address both, so long as it’s within the same scope.

1. cancer cells feed on glucose. cancer can be slowed or stopped, on a carb-restricted diet, studies have shown. cancer doesn’t exist in non-westernized societies, including places where they eat meat, almost exclusively. any study linking meat to cancer is an observational study, with many confounders, which can give non-conclusive results. in other words, maybe people who eat meat ALSO tend to be the ones that do OTHER THINGS that might make them prone to getting cancer (a great example would be that the many hamburgers we consume in the standard american diet also happen to come on buns). correlation does not equal causation.

2. heart disease is caused by small, dense LDL that can get stuck and cause inflammation. animal products do not make this kind of LDL. animal products make large, fluffy LDL, which hold more cholesterol (so, your “total cholesterol”–a meaningless measure–might be higher), but are harmless. this also explains why some people get heart disease, while having “low total cholesterol”. because that tells you nothing about the LDL pattern type.

further, animal products increase your HDL and lower your triglycerides. carbs do the opposite–they raise your triglycerides and lower your HDL. again, i would reiterate that when we consume a typical hamburger with a bun, we may end up with heart disease, but the blame could be almost exclusively placed on the bun, and not the meat.

3. toxic substances are toxic substances. some are even naturally occurring. peter attia gives a great example of the tetrodotoxin, naturally found in puffer fish, toads and other animals, as well as tobacco, ethanol, etc. does moderation make them ok? i don’t know.

is even a small amount of soy and fruit bad for some? perhaps. every body reacts in varying degrees, but they all react. just like we all react to the sun, but some of us burn more easily than others. does that mean we should all avoid the sun? i don’t know. maybe moderation? maybe sunblock? that’s up to the individual to figure out.

4. vegans tend to consume more carbs than any other diet, simply based on the fact that they restrict so many fats and protein sources. while you could certainly eat nothing but olive oil and avocados (in order to match the caloric ratio of, say, paleo man or the inuit), that’s certainly not the typical foods that vegans eat.

in fact, not to talk too much trash, cause vegans are good people, but i’ve been fed “vegan cookies” many a time, and there’s nothing in those but animal-safe sugar and animal-safe starch.

5. there is a large body of science that certainly seems to implicate animal products as the culprits in the diseases of modern man, certainly. but, that doesn’t make it good science. epidemiology is a beast, and i’ve been learning more and more about its flaws. again, i’ll refer back to the problem of confounders.

the size of tv screens have been going up, along with our waistbands. tv screen size, thus, correlates with obesity. but, does that mean that buying a big screen tv will make you fat?

well, maybe.

because, maybe the types of people that buy big screen tv’s tend to watch a lot of tv and never go for a walk? or maybe they drink a lot of belgian beer? haha.

or, maybe they don’t! that’s the point. there’s absolutely no conclusion that could be drawn. likewise, there’s no conclusion that can be drawn from studies like the china study (the study that gave birth to the vegetarian movement of the 60s, with help from the coinciding attack on saturated fat, from the likes of ancel keys, a scientist who was a very bad scientist).

finally,

6. with regard to sustainability and the moral dilemma of being humans that have higher thinking abilities, such as the ability to feel empathy towards other sentient beings (because, let’s face it, this is a human issue. bears and tigers will not stop to consider whether or not it’s “cruel” to eat you. they will simply eat you)… this is something that cannot be argued for, either way, because morals are a product of our environment.

in other words, depending on where you were born and when you were born and to which parents, you are going to have a different moral compass. this is why they have no problems eating dogs, in some parts of the world, while we would be horrified at the thought, here in the states.

alas, i can’t offer any food for though (pun intended), other than this: we are a part of the circle of life. and even though the agricultural and industrial revolutions dramatically changed our role in the local ecology, we are nonetheless a part of the food chain, on a bigger scale.

as a wise, talking, animated lion once said: “when we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. and so we are all connnected in the great circle of life.”

much like pro-choice doesn’t mean pro-abortion, being a meat eater doesn’t mean i’m pro-factory-farming. does my demand for meat contribute to the need for factory farming? certainly.

but, no industry is free of faults. the very computers we are doing our learning and discussing on were probably built by people in less-than-desirable conditions.

so, we have to pick our battles. of course, i dream of a world where apple computers are made by unionized workers in america, with universal health, and where i can walk a block to my local butcher to buy some locally-grown grass-fed beef. i get hard thinking about it.

but, for now, baby steps. starting with fixing my body, so that i can live long enough to see the changes that i’d love to see in the world, so that we’re all living better.

a bigger person eats more, because they are a bigger person! just like an adult is bigger than a child, and a cow is bigger than a mouse, the bigger the mass, the more energy they must take in.

being that the energy requirements of a smaller person are less, the smaller person will also be driven to exert more energy (exercise), if they take in more energy than their body needs. likewise, a bigger person might be driven to conserve energy (“sloth”), if they aren’t taking in as much energy as their bigger body demands.

that’s ALL the first law tells us. the first law of thermodynamics tells you nothing about WHY the person or animal GOT bigger. so, “gluttony” and “sloth” are SYMPTOMS of obesity, not causes.

what CAUSES obesity?

fat stores are controlled by the fat tissue themselves, in the various parts of our bodies, driven by the hormone INSULIN. some tissues (thighs and butt, in women, for example) react differently than the fat tissues in other parts (say, their foreheads).

why does our body secrete insulin?

because insulin is the SAME hormone that shunts sugar (one form of energy) from your bloodstream into your organs! so, when your blood sugar rises, insulin is released to lower it. this allows us to consume CARBOHYDRATES as ONE source of energy.

and that’s how our bodies work, in NORMAL people.

however, if you are constantly raising your blood sugar, and insulin is constantly being secreted, our bodies will NOT react to the same dose! in other words, we become INSULIN RESISTANT, meaning that it takes MORE INSULIN to lower our blood sugar. that’s hyperinsulinemia, and it’s the CAUSE of type 2 (“adult onset”) diabetes. it’s sad that the wikipedia entry includes “it is hard to determine whether hyperinsulinemia causes obesity or obesity causes hyperinsulinemia”, because we know that insulin causes both, and that’s why they’re linked!

stop the insulin, and you’ll stop the obesity AND the diabetes.

how do we lower the amount of insulin we secrete?

by keeping our blood sugar low. and how do we do that? we CUT THE CARBS!

it really is THAT simple

“but, doesn’t our body require glucose to function?”

no! our bodies metabolize fat into energy just fine (this is called NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS, NOT to be confused with diabetic ketoacidosis). our brains PREFER this energy source (which is why we treat many neurological disorders–including epilepsy and alzheimer’s–with “ketogenic” diets). and for the little glucose that our bodies DO need, our bodies can make it on their own, through a process called gluconeogenesis!

what does this all mean?

it means our bodies run on fat! fat from our diet and fat from our fat stores.

almost seems like the way nature intended, doesn’t it?? after all, animals don’t have mirrors and scales to gauge whether or not they are putting on weight, yet they manage to stay thin. animals eat what they eat, and that’s that! no complications! and there’s where things went awry for human animals.

what do human animals eat, today? NOT what we’re supposed to (wheat, sugar, fruit juice, etc.). and when public policy officials told us to eat less fat, less red meat, and more carbohydrates, guess what happened? we got more fat and more sick! and exercising didn’t help, at all!

instead of feeling guilty about eating delicious food, and instead of beating yourself up on a treadmill for hours (hurting your joints, in the process), just eat a diet that is high in fat (including saturated fat from animals, but excluding the man-made “trans fats” of hydrogenated vegetable oils), with moderate protein, and that is low in carbs, like we did for 2.5 million years!

eat bacon! get thin! live the dream!

Lustig is another researcher and doctor who finds fault in the calories in, calories out model. “I don’t believe in the energy balance model, which is calorie-centric,” he says. “I believe in the fat deposition model, which is insulin-centric. The reason is that by altering insulin dynamics, you can alter both caloric consumption and physical activity behavior. This has been my research for the past 16 years.” What Lustig means is that by increasing circulating insulin — often as a result of consuming too much fructose — people become hungrier and more fatigued, which results in overeating and little motivation to exercise. [emphasis mine]

does anyone else see the problem?? the writer has quoted lustig (correctly) as saying he doesn’t believe in the energy balance model (ie. he doesn’t believe that people get fat because they eat too much and exercise too little), and then concludes it by putting explicitly contradictory words in his mouth!

ugh.

in other news, hey blog! it’s been a while! haha. i will try to update more, as every blogger says and never does.

i am at the merch tent for “medina lake” (is that a band? i’ve never heard that name before, but it sounds like a warped tour band), when a sudden gust of wind starts violently blowing it (but none of the other tents) away. i grab on to the poles and am lifted upwards towards the sky.

i suddenly begin steering the makeshift glider over the city, and expertly (as if i’d this sort of thing before), i land in front of the home of my friend, anthony ciatti (only, again, it’s not his home at all). there, i walk in the door and find another old friend, michael warren, returning my hi-hat stand that he borrowed (in dreamland, not in the real world), without either of us caring or saying a word about the fact that i just landed a medina lake merch tent glider in the street.

the end.

this is not photoshopped.

i was stumbling on reddit the other night and stumbled on that picture. being the skeptic that i am, i looked into it and found out that it is, indeed, real and there are more where that one came from. the guy’s name is stig pedersen and he plays in the danish rock band, “d-a-d”. according to the article:

Stig’s bass guitars only have two strings or three strings. He found out in the late ’80s that he only used the E and A string when he played, and made it his mark, to have funny, good looking basses. He is also seen using a one string bass at gigs (only one string away from an air guitar). Stig designs his own bass guitars based on his own ideas and imagination.

funny? definitely. good looking? that’s up for debate. judge for yourself:

i wonder how many "are you ready to rocket?" jokes were made.

i like to imagine that he used an entire car to make this one.

this one isn't even ironic or funny. it reminds me of a weapon you'd find on world of warcraft.

of course, none of those even remotely compares to the biggest atrocity that has ever existed, in the bass guitar world. having more than 4 strings:

waste of wood and nostalgia.

summer time

hey, blog. sorry i’ve been neglecting you! i promise to think about maybe, perhaps updating on occasion, for the most part. also, this election season, i promise to keep the rage to a minimum–although, i can already tell that it’s gonna be tough, with michelle bachmann in the running. i can’t believe that wack job is from my state! haha.

anyway, i just got back from a (too) short run of shows, co-headlining with the get up kids! those guys are definitely some of the funniest dudes out there that give none fucks. they do things that other bands joke about, like closing every night with black sabbath riffs.

today was a great father’s day. my whole family got together for brunch, and then headed down to boom island to board the mississippi queen paddle boat. what is it about boats that’s so much fun? i think it’s the same as airplanes. they allow us to be places that we wouldn’t normally be. they give us different perspectives, like the undersides of bridges and whatnot. i dunno. it was awesome, though!

so, what’s in store for me? not sure. sadly, our next big tour isn’t until the fall. i believe there are random things here and there, but for the most part, the summer is completely open. i haven’t decided if i should try and find a job, or if i should spend the summer learning, enriching, biking, etc. i mean, i would do those things normally, but i was entertaining the thought of coming up with a regiment to stay busy. i dunno. reeks of effort. haha.

what should i do with myself??

pick up in minneapolis or pay $5 shipping/handling (within the continental USA only).

to order: email me and tell me what you want.

note: if you’re not picking up in minneapolis, be sure to include your name, mailing address and phone number. i will send you an invoice, which you’ll have to pay, before i send stuff out.

thanks for looking!

if something appears multiple times, it means I have multiple copies! i will update this list, accordingly.

The following have NO JEWEL CASES:

photo by Hart Van Denburg

i don’t own a car, but i have in the past. and, like most car owners in minnesota, i know what it’s like to get stuck in the snow. so, when i see people outside my apartment getting stuck, i can’t help but want to help.

and that’s what i did today. a lot.

so, it’s with wisdom that i bestow on you, my rules for driving in blizzards:

rule #1: don’t drive in this shit!

when buses cancel all service, when tow trucks are getting stuck, when hennepin county calls back its plows because they can’t keep up with the snow, and when mndot advises NO TRAVEL, guess what? you don’t drive in this shit!

i know you might think that your car is invincible, and that it’ll never happen to you, but i’m pretty sure a similar lesson was taught to all of us in high school health classes? you don’t have sex without protection. you don’t drive in this shit, cause you WILL get stuck.

rule #2: keep your wheels straight!

i know it seems counter-intuitive, especially when you’re trying to make a turn, but keep your wheels straight, when you’re being pushed! you will get way more traction that way. when you turn your tires, all you do is create a nice, slick little pad of ice and snow that you will never get traction from.

i think i told one particular individual approximately 15 times to keep his wheels straight, and for some reason, he wouldn’t listen. i almost gave up on him, until–fortunately–a couple more good samaritans showed up and–without my prompting–all started yelling at him, “keep your wheels straight!” he finally listened, and guess what? we got him out.

rule #3: go straight home!

unless you’re going to the hospital to watch your child being born or a parent pass away, whatever you’re driving to isn’t that important. go home!

one particular example that i witnessed twice tonight was people getting stuck, pulling into the gas station. you know what’s more important than gas that will allow you to keep driving? your sanity! so, instead of pulling into the same gas station that you just watched two other cars get stuck pulling into, run out of gas and call a tow truck to tow you home. it’ll be easier and cost you not much more than the $3/gallon gas that you were gonna buy.

rule #4: for fuck’s sake, don’t drive in this shit!

i guarantee you that you can walk to where ever you’re going in less time than it will take you to drive/get stuck/drive/get stuck/drive there.

bus service won’t resume until 10am tomorrow morning. and if a fleet of 12-ton buses have the foresight to wait until then, you should, also. trust me. i’ve racked up enough karma points and i’m not longer looking to get any more. haha.