Various Changes in Life

 

I was thinking that Grand Canyon University teaching would continue, but 20 years there (and 20 years at University of Phoenix) were enough for wear on the eyes. I saved toward retirement and aimed at more through worship, the blog, etc. 

I am reaching the 77-year mark, thanks in part to the doctor showing how I had decreased cholesterol and foolishly increased blood sugar. A member started me on walnuts (anti-cholesterol) - and Dr. Fuhrman did the same on greens, beans, vegetables, and nuts.

Our congregation is just starting to use Gmail as a version of email. Instant response works well. It looks like we will have other tools working.

I am looking forward to a computer helper.

Fasting Diet - But Only in 12 Hours - Moderation

One person told me he lost pounds by following basic nutrition. I pointed out how the lack of food did the same for me when eating pretzels on long-distance flights, followed by "free breakfast" each day I was in California. Breakfast included several micro-muffins and coffee. I ate fabulous food at a home once and also at a social gathering. The climax of this adventure was - fasting in moderation.

I went back to the Fuhrman books and looked up how this could be, not eating for 12 hours, yet easy to do from 8 PM in the evening followed by 8 AM breakfast. Late night food fuels the appetite and slows down digestion. 

Eating fats, eggs, bread and butter for breakfast is certain to fuel an appetite before lunch. 

For breakfast I eat a variety of fruit - lots of bananas and Crisp apples, oranges, etc.

Lunch is always greens (spinach, kale), vegetables (brussels sprouts, onions, green peppers, frozen peas, mushrooms) blue berries, and walnuts. I include sliced meat and sometimes sausage. Lately I eat the lunch menu in two portions, the second one serving for supper.

Spices matter a lot - and they offer many medical options.

Hungry at night from growling at the news programs? Apples and oranges are good with bananas and walnuts. Slow eating really helps.

Medicine versus the Pharmacy - Three Categories

 

Hard Candy and Sugar Syrup

Many forms of sugar are dispensed promiscuously in the pharmacy, since family drugstores faded away decades ago. Some cough syrups have pungent flavors that make the hard candy or syrup seem medicinal. Their value is psychological. Hard candy means "hard to stop eating."

Prescribed Pills and Shots To Reduce Symptoms

These are wonderful, because they devour medicine costs via the back door, through medical insurance, Medicare, and gubmint welfare plans. Many cost as much as a jet fighter or even an aircraft carrier in the Navy. Best of all, prescriptions beget prescriptions, either by adding even more items - or by playing prescription roulette, where the potions are magical, mystical, and an endless source for conversations.

Vegetables and Fruit

Visit a Walmart to compare inexpensive medicine from Creation (vegetables and fruit) with the stupendous aisles of:

• Chips, cookies, soft drinks, desserts, and ice cream.
• Milk, cheese, variations of cheese, and eggs.
• Candy, wine, and ready to eat or heat dinners, even pizza and chickendale dinners.

The shock - which came late in life for me - is the low cost and mega-value of nutrition - at the bottom of cost but the height of effectiveness. 

The way to quell the craving for desserts is to load up on fresh fruits, which are quite filling and preventative - even curing - for many ailments. Chew an apple or a vitamin pill - who wins the most and pays the least?

Greens should be eaten daily because they have so much nutritional energy - kale, spinach, collards, and various leafy items. Our beloved country has dedicated itself to fiber - smoking marijuana, once manufactured for fibrous ropes. 

Fiber makes it possible for the body to slowly engage in re-arranging the various ingredients in beans, peas, carrots, onions, fruits, and many more items. A fast-food meal will provide little of what the human body needs, but lots of sugars, fats, and grease, which become addictive.

Protein is found in beans, but many other plant medicines too. 

Healthline -

Chick peas packed with nutrients

Chickpeas boast an impressive nutritional profile.

They contain a moderate number of calories, providing 269 per cup (164 grams). Approximately 67% of these calories come from carbs, while the rest comes from protein and fat (1Trusted Source).

Chickpeas also provide a variety of vitamins and minerals, as well as a decent amount of fiber and protein. A 1-cup (164-gram) serving of cooked chickpeas offers (1Trusted Source). Healthline

• Calories: 269
• Protein: 14.5 grams
• Fat: 4 grams
• Carbs: 45 grams
• Fiber: 12.5 grams
• Manganese: 74% of the Daily Value (DV)
• Folate (vitamin B9): 71% of the DV
• Copper: 64% of the DV
• Iron: 26% of the DV
• Zinc: 23% of the DV
• Phosphorus: 22% of the DV
• Magnesium: 19% of the DV
• Thiamine: 16% of the DV
• Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
• Selenium: 11% of the DV
• Potassium: 10% of the DV

Walnuts and certain seeds are included in these plant-based programs.

All the Nutrition And Weight Loss Books Distilled in One Post

 

These Are the Bad Categories - Easy To Remember To Avoid

Dairy 

Milk products - milk, cream, ice cream, cheeses, cottage cheese, yogurt. The fat content is high and the protein is over-done, except for baby cows.

Eggs

Eggs are very satisfying but loaded with fat.  They attract salt the way milk attracts sugar, which is not good.

Prepared And Fast-Food Meals, Often Frozen

Swanson TV Dinners bequeathed the Swanson House in Fayetteville to M/M Bill Clinton  (not my fault). The Jacksons ate those salted up frozen dinners while watching TV in the 1950s. Lots of salt and a tiny dessert. 

Frozen pizza - easy to microwave, loaded with cheese, salt, and fat.

Fast-food joints - the product is delivered to the little restaurants, thawed and often soaked in grease to make them delicious (ha!). Lots of salt is used in them and on them, with the addition of mustard (salt) and ketchup (salt) etc. Anything made in a real restaurant is far worse in fast-foods. Sugar and sweeteners add to the disaster.

Candy and Treats - Heavy with Sugar, Salt, and Fat

Candy and treats are mostly sugar and oil, often stale but who cares when the cravings crave and no one is watching? The main advantage in retail is their high volume, high cost, and long shelf life, or rather, stale life. The instant jolt of sugar is enhanced with fat and some salt. Added nuts make sweets look more like food. 

The candy aisle at Walmart is simply gigantic, competing with only small areas of various frozen vegetables and fruits, tip-toing into ready made versions (seasoned? you mean salted!). A dash of salt vastly increases frozen food prices and profits.

Stop! Lots of Nutrition Below in Simple Categories

Fresh Produce - Paradise Forgotten

The best part of a grocery store is filled with apples, oranges, peaches, berries of all types, pineapples, bananas, vegetables, and more. The juices are merely colorful delicious sugar water but not nutrition.

Note that cashiers are appalled that a septuagenarian is filling his cart first with fruit, especially apples, bananas, blueberries, and oranges. Fresh fruit makes up two out of three meals each day, which means an enormous amount of God's Medicine is being consumed. 

The pharmacy knows - most of their products are very expensive but seldom heal, and only treat symptoms. Cough syrup is a sweet potion that can make matters worse not better. Apples help - a lot. 

Enormous jars of powdered protein (milk) are sold in pharmacy, without doubting the long-term effects. Numerous over-the-counter meds and magic formulae make much more money to the store than fresh produce. 

Greens and the Incredible Creation Factory 

As far as I know, lettuce is worthless, except for decoration on a plate.

In contrast, leafy greens are ignored, shunned, and ridiculed. Whether fresh or frozen, leafy greens are the Mayo Clinic of genuine healing and strength.

Let's be frank, even when Frank is not frank anymore, but calls himself Franklin.  God has given us the miraculous system of turning delicious foods into effective medicines of all types.

Without asking, the body starts the use of foods by chewing, swallowing, and mixing in the stomach. Shamelessly, the body shifts the food into the small and large intestines. This slow process allows the bacteria and other helpers take apart food, to combine what is needed at the right point. Fiber and resistant starch slow down the action that turns food into healing and support for the body.

My blood results were horrible in 2022. Worst was blood sugar in the diabetic range, with cholesterol and blood pressure high. I was eating walnuts to reduce cholesterol, but I always enjoyed them on vanilla ice cream, sometimes taking second helpings. The doctor saw great results later, and his successor was equally astonished - 40 pounds of fat storage gone from a menu of greens, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and some meat.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book convinced me about leafy greens and the enormous internal factory provided by all the foods I used to ignore in favor of fast-food joints, ice cream, candy, donuts, pizza, colas, and similar low nutrition foods. The medicinal value of  greens, beans, vegetables, and nuts is difficult to comprehend in variety and power. Best of all, eating valuable foods changes the craving to modest amounts of all those things generously given by the Creator for our benefit.

Gardening with Charlie Sue. Cooking with Fuhrman.

 

Patterdale-Chihuahua Charlie Sue is a constant delight.

We are having a real drought here, and it is quite hot in the afternoon. Charlie Sue manages me skillfully. She loves to see me put on my clodhopper shoes to go outside. We go out together and she practices leaping at me. When I have a heavy shirt on, she jumps up to gently clamp on my forearms, grinning about her nimble running, leaping, and teething. 

She has a lot of friends along the north (doggie day care), south (DustMop and Porchie), and west (Pug). Patterdales are sociable and bossy with other dogs and cats. 

Even our weeds are drooping, so I did some extra work today. I made sure she had fresh water in a clean dish and brand new rigid play pool, just like the old one with cracks. An even older pool was was torn apart by Charlie. I soaked all the roses yesterday and expect rain tonight. 

I hosed the Joe Pye Weed and Poke Weed. Joe Pye will soon be blooming for the hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. The hummingbird feeders are so busy I can take them apart with bees sipping the ports (no stinging, they know who loves them). 

The pesticide salesman was impressed by the magnificent splendor of all the large flowers and shrubs. All the large and small plants work to shelter the beneficial insects fashioned by the Creator at the beginning of time. Imagine the predators taking billions of years to wait for the prey. They would have starved much sooner than that. 

Animals can teach us about our food too. They only eat plant-based and raw meat foods. The meat comes from nasty little bugs that eat my roses. The beneficial bugs prosper where the damaging insects are having a riot. Soon the populations balance. The elegant roses provide branching stems that make wonderful nets to hold the spiders' webs. Those roses have almost no damage.

Can anyone imagine animals eating large amounts of fat, sugar, and salt in their diets? Those are the main ingredients in our grocery store foods. I only buy fresh produce, frozen vegetables and greens, and a small amount meat for the week. 

Charlie digs her own, besides getting Science Diet. She rushes into the garden before the sun is up. Creatures rush out. 

I finally caught on to the Crash Diet program, which has increased the weight of anyone who tries it. Certain foods are eliminated, such as all ice cream and candy. Weight drops immediately and that loss continues, until the craving comes roaring back, doubling the previous delicacies to come back to the norm and beyond, even way beyond. Crash Diets have paved the way for many medical types to earn fortunes as they process the Crash Du Jour plans.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman gave me his ideas about craving. It is bad to take away everything - or too much - only to lose a lot and get it all back. Many are the pour souls - like me - who decide they have sacrificed enough and now want vengeance upon that aching, empty stomach and general lack of energy. Race to the top! of the biggest weight gain of the past.

I have learned to take away one temptation at a time, over two years, close to 45 pounds (with many small ups and downs). Here is my list  of fat-makers, weight-gainers, health-wreckers:

All Dairy Products

Ice cream in particular - fat and sugar.

Any form of cheese - fat city.

Butter - the hardest to give up, the best to excommunicate.

Eggs - fat bombs with choline, which is bad.

All Sugar Products

Candies - betcha can't eat just one.

Chocolate - delicious but a fat product.

Candies with nuts and chocolate.

Fruit juices - a burst of pure sugar, not healthy at all.

Meats

All drive-through fast foods - grease, sugar, salt, cheese.

Fish - high in grease and pollutants.

Too much meat at home because of fat and salt content.

Prepared Meals

Driven to your house - guaranteed expensive, fat, salt, sugar.

Frozen at the grocery store - pizza, various "meals," easy to eat puddings, yogurts.

Restaurants and bread palaces.

Sugary Fruity Fails

Caramel apples - guilt and health balanced in the process.

Apple and fruit sauces - huge sugar, no fiber.

Orange juice - no fiber at all, often has corn syrup added (Paul Newman)

All juices - no fiber, lots of sugar, no excuse for "sugar free."

Big Bucks for Horrible Food

In conclusion, all the processed food is expensive and loaded with excessive fat, salt, and sugar. Eating from the simple foods at home is far less costly and truly delicious. I will post more on the good foods. I reached the lowest weight so far because I cut out almost every thing on the list above, a certain amount at a time, a few steps backward, weighing and charting every day.

Food is medicine. Bad food is toxic medicine. The pharmacy and the Over the Counter fakes will reduce symptoms but few of them actually heal. 

A nutritional choice in foods is healing, as revealed in my blood tests. I tested diabetic and got serious in 2022. All my tests came back normal over time. I am working on blood pressure now. Our bodies sent out capillaries to feed and manage our blubber. Ove time that pushes the blood pressure higher, but it can go down when its extra mileage is gone from weight loss.

Yesterday I Confronted the Pharm Tech with Chick Peas

 

Greger's short essays and videos are fun to watch and read.
There are many of both on each topic, just fill in the blank.
He likes to joke where he can fit in some medical humor.

I got absorbed in the free essays of Dr. Michael Greger today, so I am going to do more on Reformation Seminary tomorrow. 

I was picking up my eye drops and talked to my favorite pharm tech, who was at this Walmart from the beginning, as I was. She was curious about my groceries, so I said, "Blueberries, apples, chick peas..." She said, "Chick peas! What can you do with them!?" She was quite animated. I said, "I enjoy them daily because they are anti-cancer and satisfying." I told her my weight loss and she was stunned, asking for the name of the nutritionists. 

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/blocking-the-cancer-metastasis-enzyme-mmp-9-with-beans-and-chickpeas/

Today I was looking at the value of sweet cherries, thanks to Dr. Greger and I looked up chick peas (Garbanzo, aka Cicero Beans). Anti-inflammatory is the word -

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/anti-inflammatory-life-is-a-bowl-of-cherries/

I am not against meat, but I find the thought of eating chicken revolting. I know too much about the industry and see too many trucks filled with crates of half-dead chickens. No wonder our town's nickname is Chickendale, home of Tyson.

As I wrote before, I studied the nutrition. I saw that fast food and highly processed food were robbing me blind financially and wrecking my blood panel results. I really enjoy the food too, just as Charlie Sue does. 

My vegetable consultant has pointed out many good ideas about food. He moved me into spices, so I replaced the ancient and unused relics with cumin, turmeric (wild ginger, anti-oxidant), allspice, mustard powder, and ground flax seed. 

The beginning of this change was eating walnuts every day, sternly advised by another member. Cholesterol went down to perfect, A1C went up to diabetic, because I put the walnuts on Schwan's Vanilla Ice Cream, a dessert to die for. 

I have repudiated eggs and butter by leaving them in the fridge for the last three months, both because of their value in adding fat.

I am no expert on nutrition, but I have followed two doctors who are. That shook me on how important this list is - and I follow it.

1. Greens - lowest in calories and fat, highest in nutrition, inexpensive and filling: kale, collards, turnip greens, spinach.
2. Beans - Cicero beans are the best in all categories, no need to add salt and oil, humus addicts.
3. Vegetables - A wide variety of colors makes lunch fun and very healthy.
4. Fresh fruit - Switching from apple pie to apples is not torture. Ditto blueberries vs. blueberry muffins.
5. Nuts and seeds - Walnuts and almonds are tops. Ground flax seeds are almost free - many other seeds add to nutrition.
6. Spice has many nutritional bonus points plus livening the food. 

Nutritional Change Simplified

 

I read Joel Fuhrman books almost every day. There is a lot to learn, so I have listed some simple lessons for simple people like me. Everything is related to God's Creation (John 1:3).

Greens

God made the cheapest and lowest calories for the poor and the healthy. They lose none of their nutrition values, whether cooked or not:

1. Spinach
2. Kale
3. Turnip greens
4. Collards

They are filling and yet in the chopped form hardly get noticed in a vegetable dish.

Rainbow Vegetables

Colorful vegetables have almost no calories, lots of nutrition, and are also inexpensive. The colorful vegetables are quite tasty and low in calories. A variety of vegetables will give the eater a wide variety of nutrition and taste. Potatoes (starchy) and corn (high glycemic) are relatively fattening.

Beans

Garbanzo (chickpeas) and other kinds of beans are high in protein, fibrous like other vegetables and very satisfying.

Fruits and Nuts

Fresh fruits are the best possible replacement for dessert. We have to learn that the sugar foods and medicines and liquors are a massive part of every grocery store - and that includes sugar-free and "low-sugar" concoctions. Walnuts and almonds remove bad cholesterol.

Now I Get It - The Creator's Design for Fat Burning

 

Who took this photo? I need the name, address, and passwords!

I have been writing back and forth to a number of people about nutrition. I read Joel Fuhrman's books because he does not have a "Fuhrman Diet" but a lot of good ideas about food as medicine and medicine as a bonanza for physicians and pharmacists.

Someone else broke down the fat issue by pointing out the common-sense concept of fat burning. Our bodies start activities by burning sugar, from what is called glycogen storage, FIFO, first-in first-out. Sassy has made the morning walk a non-negotiable demand. On an exercise day, I walk with Sassy, go to the gym for the dreadmill and various weights, then walk around Walmart.

If we start the day with donuts, Danish, toast, and jelly, the glycogen storage is topped off and so is immediate energy. However, this sugar storage does not last long and fat must be used. This is where people start eating this and that to get more energy. They do not cut into fat storage but probably add to the fat deposits, which can be for days, months, and years - like bank deposits.

Exercising in the morning - without eating first - is the best way to burn calories (fat). That also provides a lot more energy.

The Creator fashioned dogs to whimper, bark, dance, and get excited for the morning walk. I have no doubts about that. 

The energy provided by stored fat gets past the sugar high - which is followed by sugar blues, the source of all craving. Our imperious stomachs demand sweetness and lots of it to satisfy food craving. A nutritious source of food will satisfy hunger without feeling stuffed.

I am now at my lowest weight for a long time, 189 pounds. Looking at what worked, the key ingredient was avoiding these sugar sources:

• Ice cream, its crafts and assaults
• Sugar added to cinnamon toast
• Breakfast rolls
• Donuts (which are atrocious around here)
• Cookies 
• Toast (a gateway drug for butter)
• Jelly, jam, and honey'
• Hard candy - any candy
• Diet juices and colas
• Corn, popcorn, kettle corn, Fritos.

Many prepared foods have lots of sugar, salt, and fat, so it is better to cut way back on prepared meals, fast food meals, and restaurant meals.

The meal plan is simple and fun.

Breakfast - vegetables, greens, blueberries, walnuts, and chick peas.

Lunch - fruits: apples, oranges, pineapple, pears.

Supper - round two of the vegetable dish, with variations, such as mushrooms, lots of onions and green peppers, sweet peas.

Late night - only fresh fruit, never canned and hardly ever coated with caramel and nuts. 

Furhman is right - cutting back and being 95% nutritious will continue to be frustrating. 100% reduction of sugars, fats, and salt will drop weight as much as one pound a day. 

A Cure for What Ails Us, From Esselstyn - Father and Son

I was looking for nutrition advice while I was eating beans, vegetables, onions, green pepper, peas, blueberries, and walnuts for lunch. I looked for Dr. Joel Fuhrman videos and found this TED talk from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

Note the information below, a different Esselstyn - the surgeon's son!

• Heart Disease
• Breast Cancer
• Prostate Cancer
• Diabetes
• Obesity

Those are the top diseases in America and they absorb 75% of our country's health care cost.

The video below is a bit raw but no different than a visit to a doctor.

Cancer Prevention - G-BOMB Foods

 

 The article is below, verbatim.

Every woman can personally fight against breast cancer. Women must know they are not defenseless in the war to end breast cancer. Scientific studies show there are powerful preventive lifestyle measures to protect against breast cancer. One must not rely on mammograms for early detection as the only defense as they do not offer significant benefits. Staying slim and active, focusing on healthful natural foods, and avoiding the disease-causing foods of the Standard American diet are strategies women can use to win the war on breast cancer.

Unleash the immune system’s special forces with G-BOMBS

As I describe in my book Super Immunity, G-BOMBS (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries and Seeds) are the foods with the most powerful immune-boosting and anti-cancer effects. These foods help to prevent the cancerous transformation of normal cells, and keep the body armed and ready to attack any pre-cancerous or cancerous cells that may arise.

G — Greens

Green vegetables (the cruciferous family in particular) contain compounds with anti-cancer properties and substances that protect blood vessels. Cruciferous vegetables, which contain phytochemicals, inhibit a wide range of cancer-promoting cellular processes, including angiogenesis (new blood vessel growth), which is needed for tumor growth and fat tissue growth.6-9 Eating cruciferous vegetables regularly is associated with decreased risk of breast cancer and has even been shown to increase survival in women after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

It is important to also note that these greens also promote healthy vision and reduce diabetes risk.1-5

B — Beans

Beans are unique foods because of their very high levels of fiber and resistant starch; carbohydrates that are not broken down by digestive enzymes. A recent analysis of ten scientific studies has shown that the higher your fiber intake, the lower your risk of breast cancer. 12-17

The fiber and resistant starch in beans reduce the total number of calories absorbed from beans,10-11 reduce cholesterol levels, and are converted by healthy gut bacteria into many substances that protect against colon cancer.

O — Onions

Onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives, and scallions not only lend great flavor to meals, they have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular and immune systems, as well as anti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects. 18-21 These vegetables are known for their characteristic (and eye-irritating) organosulfur compounds, which slow tumor growth and kill cancer cells.

Eating onions and garlic frequently is associated with reduced risk of digestive cancers. 22-23 These vegetables also contain high concentrations of anti-inflammatory flavonoids--antioxidants that contribute to their anti-cancer properties.18,24-26

M — Mushrooms

In a recent Chinese study, women who ate at least 10 grams of fresh mushrooms each day (which equates to about one button mushroom per day) had a 64 percent decreased risk of breast cancer! 27 All types of mushrooms have anti-cancer properties.28-34

Plus, mushrooms are unique in that they contain aromatase inhibitors--compounds that can block the production of estrogen. Aromatase inhibitors are thought to be largely responsible for mushrooms' preventive effects against breast cancer. Even the most commonly eaten mushrooms (white, cremini, and Portobello) have high anti-aromatase activity. 27,35-36

Mushrooms also contain powerful angiogenesis inhibitors.33,37-38  Keep in mind that mushrooms should only be eaten cooked. Several raw culinary mushrooms contain a potentially carcinogenic substance called agaritine, and cooking mushrooms significantly reduces their agaritine content. 39-40

B — Berries (and Pomegranate)

Berries’ plentiful antioxidant content helps reduce blood pressure and inflammation, prevent DNA damage that leads to cancer, protect the brain against oxidative damage and stimulate the body’s own antioxidant enzymes. 41-46

Berries and pomegranate are anti-angiogenic foods, and have anti-inflammatory effects that may protect against cancer and other chronic diseases. 47-53 Pomegranates (similar to mushrooms) is one of the few foods that contain natural aromatase inhibitors; substances that inhibit the production of estrogen, which can reduce breast cancer risk.54

S — Seeds

Seeds and nuts are healthy fat sources that increase the absorption of nutrients in vegetables in addition to supplying their own spectrum of micronutrients including plant sterols (which help to reduce cholesterol), minerals, and antioxidants. Some seeds — sesame, chia and flax in particular — are rich in lignans, plant estrogens that protect against breast cancer.

In one fascinating study, women were given flaxseeds daily after being diagnosed with breast cancer and reduced growth and increased death of their tumor cells was found after just 4-5 weeks.55

Instead of Breast Cancer Awareness, make it Breast Cancer Prevention! Eat your G-BOMBS every day!

 

References

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a board-certified family physician, seven-time New York Times bestselling author and internationally recognized expert on nutrition and natural healing, who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional methods. Dr. Fuhrman coined the term “Nutritarian” to describe his longevity-promoting, nutrient dense, plant-rich eating style.
 
For over 30 years, Dr. Fuhrman has shown that it is possible to achieve sustainable weight loss and reverse heart disease, diabetes and many other illnesses using smart nutrition. In his medical practice, and through his books and PBS television specials, he continues to bring this life-saving message to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

The Dreadmill and More - Inexpensive Healthy Eating versus Sugars and Stealth Sugars

The dreadmill at the gym is named for the feeling we get at starting. The reason? - we burn sugar fuel first and then begin burning fat. The benefit, soon realized, is wanting to use the dreadmill. Exercise makes us crave exercise, which is doubtless a good plan, even though it goes against the Old Adam in us.

Sassy craves a morning walk. She could easily go outside in the backyard, but she really enjoys the chance to see human and canine friends. That is not a wish for her, but a non-negotiable demand. She learned that watching too much TV and a smart pet will learn the vocabulary.

Sassy expects to be dried with a bath towel if three drops of rain or snowflakes land on her back, but she will rest on the cement driveway waiting for Ranger Bob to come over and call her Chow Dog. 

Dr. Joel Fuhrman emphasizes nutritious food and exercise. Stronger muscles also develop stronger bones, and everything goes well. However, time takes us away from the habits or necessities of exercise. I walked or biked to Augustana College in the 1960s. I had a bike in Midland in the 1980s.  I bought a stationary bike for the 2020's. 

I was intrigued this morning by a video on getting rid of sugar in my diet.  The speaker was dismissive about fresh fruit (neglecting the profound effects of soluble and insoluble fruit fiber) but startlingly scary about everything else. 

Sugars and stealth sugars are probably the worst part of what we consume, often unknowingly. Stealth sugars are chemical versions that still have the same effect of sugar, but less appealing. 

The problem is, sugar enhances almost everything we eat, including many items in the pharmacy area - where hard candy is promoted as throat lozenges and cough drops (heavenly Smith Brothers "cherry" cough drops)...I could go on. Many syrups and potions are based on sugar, too.

Paul Newman's orange drink? - the first ingredient is corn syrup - sugar. Many food products are enhanced with sugar, too. 

 

Habits and Addictions

 

Christina and I worked at the Yale School of Medicine. She carried out research for a well-known expert in raising children, Joan Fassler. I retrieved articles on a wide variety of maladies at the main medical library. We took the campus bus to the Sterling Library and visited with Roland Bainton

The Yale medical doctors explained how the human body works in dealing with drug addiction. The liver - a complex chemical factory - learns how to break down the newest chemicals and improves its breakdown speed during the first dose. 

I worked the medical library in the stacks to retrieve journal articles for various researchers. My favorite magazine titles were The Journal of Railway Injuries and Medical Pickwick (humor).

That is the genius behind Antabuse, where the pill stops the breakdown of alcohol and makes the patient violently sick. The same blocking mechanism is used with statins, a very expensive replacement for walnuts and almonds. The oil in those nuts takes bad cholesterol out of our systems, which was proven to me by two blood tests, months apart. The second test, after daily doses of walnuts piled on ice cream, had perfect numbers for cholesterol. However, the blood sugar level was scary, but it went back to normal after losing 35 pounds (no ice cream).

That weight loss convinced me that Dr. Joel Fuhrman was the most sensible and accurate advisor about weight.

 Sterling Library at Yale

Breaking the Cycle

Doubtless we all get used to certain foods, even addicted to them. Grocery stores are fanatical about providing the worst foods in the most alluring way, maxing the highly profitable and hiding healthy foods in the corner.

My change to vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries was almost monastic. I dropped the high fat, high sugar, salt drenched foods, with a mixture of reluctance and disdain. 

One thing really helped - becoming habituated to healthy foods. Frozen vegetables are low in salt and delicious when warmed up together with beans and tomato paste:

• Onions and peppers
• Sweet peas
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Cauliflower

Each ingredient became more delicious and satisfying. Raw greens did not appeal to me, so I tried chopped, frozen greens in the mix - very inexpensive, tasty, and easy to parcel out. I added blueberries and walnuts to the mix warming on the stove. The frozen greens are turnip, spinach, and kale - all loaded with nutrition.

When my father had blood sugar problems, he had all kinds of trouble. He ran into the Jackson 70-year pancreas warrantee - and lived another 15 years quite handicapped by his habits.

Desserts

My mother taught students how to distinguish the desert from desserts in her English classes. "The desert has only one s, but we always like two desserts - two s's." And she brought donuts to class - the best donuts in the region.

They do not have Antabuse for desserts, but something else works better - fresh fruit. Apples replace apple pie and become far more appealing than mounds of sugared cooked apples surrounded by crust made from white flour and grease, crowned with ice cream or whipped cream or cheese - all fat products. Raw apples bind up the sugars in fiber, which is lost in cooking. Cooked apples are candy. 

I look for favorites in the frozen vegetables but I start with fresh fruit - the best apples are Number 1. They seem expensive but are nothing compared to the cost of prepared food and prescriptions. Some other fresh delights are:

1. Blueberries
2. Pineapple
3. Oranges

Meanwhile, I read over various articles and books about nutrition. I laugh at the special diet fads that promote the "latest thing" while ignoring the medicine of God's Creation in plain, undoctored foods. 

Exercise is another potential habit or addiction. More later.

 Yale Divinity School

 YDS - Day Mission Library

For campanologists - the Harkness Tower

 More for Church Mouse Campanologist

 Harkness Bell Tower