Columns

Column #191

Frank M. Mitloehner, a professor at the University of California, Davis, is on a mission. He’s constantly promoting climate friendly foods and explaining where meat products rank in terms of friendliness. As an Air Quality Extension Specialist he knows how to make a very compelling pitch, but should we listen to him?

I was reading an article he wrote and its first link was to an article from Fortune Magazine titled “How Your Diet Can Save the Planet.” You get the drift of that article from this quote: “Conscious consumers are making the world a better place by following the three ‘R’s of eating: ‘reducing’ and ‘replacing’ consumption of animal products and ‘refining’ our diets by choosing products from sources that adhere to higher animal welfare standards. These types of ideas have become mainstream.”

Yes, for meat producers that’s disturbing rhetoric especially from a mainstream business magazine. But did I mention that instead of being a wild-eyed, frizzy haired PETA fan, Dr. Mitloehner is a Professor of Animal Science? Now do I have your attention? Well, Dr. Mitloehner is a man to reckon with because of instead participating in a lot of frenzied arm waving while spouting scaremongering anti-meat stories like the one in Fortune Magazine, he is heavily science based. In the end, I thought his story was very compelling and we should all take notice.

Column #190

Farm and ranch families make up about 2% our nation’s population. Yet they own more total acreage than do all urban land owners. Many of them reside in states that have very small populations. For this reason, as a tiny minority little understood by the urban majority, they are frequently running scared.

The same can be said for any minority that does not receive overwhelming support from the majority. There’s a modern saying, that in part, says democracy is “two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” It vividly describes the primary concern our Founding Fathers had after winning the War of Independence in 1783. How could they structure a government of the people and for the people so that it protected the rights of minorities? How could they protect the rights of small states versus large states? How could they protect the rights of citizens in low density population centers versus those in the large metropolitan areas? How could they protect the weak versus the powerful?

Column #189

Lectins are controversial. There’s research and many opinions on both sides of the isle about the health risks from eating foods high in lectins. Consequently because of strong opinions for and against, even the middle ground can bring on reader outrage.

In the health food industry there’s one relatively famous individual who has made lectins a big business. Dr. Steven Gundry has produced many books and online videos with warnings about consuming foods high in lectins. He believes that lectins are linked to diabetes, aching joints, Parkinson’s disease, depression, IBS, infertility, cancer, baldness, brain fog, weight gain obesity, high blood pressure, “bad” cholesterol, inflammation, autoimmune diseases (celiac disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis), and many other serious medical conditions including heart disease. He has also developed quite a business selling his expensive “lectin blocker” supplement.

Column #188

Dirty Electricity

A reader responded to my “5G Radiation” column and recommended a book: “Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization” by Samuel Milham, MD MPH. It’s only 100 pages but it definitely adds to the discussion about radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMF) beyond what many of us would normally consider.

Everyone is aware of radiation from radioactive elements, x-rays, cell phones, tanning booths, older microwaves, ultraviolet sun rays, and high tension electric power lines. But when it comes to EMFs there’s more, much more and often it’s right inside your house in the form of extra frequencies piggybacking into your home on your regular 60 cycle 110 voltage where it radiates into your living environment. Since animal bodies are electrical, these stray frequencies can interact with bodily functions and cause diseases, especially cancer.

The three main types of EMFs are magnetic fields, electric fields, and radio frequency (RF) fields. Power lines, electrical wiring, lights, appliances, and most other electrical devices are common sources of magnetic fields. All have been linked to biological effects.

Column #187

What came first, the chicken or the egg? While we ponder that question another egg scare is back in the news. A report from Northwestern Medicine finds that adults who ate several eggs per week with additional high amounts of dietary cholesterol had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death from any cause.

Like many studies this one was flawed because it lacked controls. The analysts did interview nearly 30,000 racially and ethnically diverse adults between 1985 and 2016. But only during the initial visit did they establish the dietary habits of each participant. That was accomplished by filling out an extensive questionnaire based on what a participant remembered eating during the previous month or year. The study lasted 31 years with a median of 17.5 years for all participants. During the study the group experienced 5,400 cardiovascular events and 6,132 deaths from any cause.

Column #186

Every year “U.S. News & World Report” comes out with its diet rankings. This year it ranked 41 different diets. I call it the diet war for determining which diet is the best of all. Every year there are a lot of folks pulling for this or that diet to be the winner to justify what they tell others.

U.S. News breaks the diets down into these classifications:
●    Best Diets Overall
●    Best Weight-Loss Diets
●    Best Diabetes Diets
●    Best Diets for Healthy Eating
●    Best Fast Weight-Loss Diets
●    Best Heart-Healthy Diets
●    Best Plant-Based Diets
●    Easiest Diets to Follow

Column #185

The conversation at lunch turned to the radiation threat from 5G, the next generation of mobile and wireless technology. The conversation took place in a unique location because we were in an open air restaurant with the sun shining in. Directly across from us were the area’s electric power lines. The restaurant had microwaves in use. Several patrons were on their phones, Wi-Fi was available, fans were spinning, lights were on, and music was playing.

Internet scuttlebutt has it that 5G will crush the human population as men become sterile. There are additional fears:
●    Damage to the eyes – cataracts, retinal damage
●    Severe sweating
●    Skin damage
●    Immune system disruption
●    Metabolic disruption
●    Neurological disturbance
●    Leakage of blood brain barrier
●    Increased risk of cancers
●    Collapse of insect populations, the base of food for birds and bats
●    Rise in bacterial resistance and bacterial shifts
●    Damage to plants and trees

Is that for real? Is there even another side to this?

Column #184

The Summary of Food Groups in the New Food Analysis Tables makes several food groups appear rather dismal because they are:
●    high glycemic
●    deficient in Omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs)
●    high carbohydrate
●    loaded with sugar
●    nutritionally deficient

But within most groups there are some good selections hidden amongst the bad and ugly. If we steer around the worst foods, we can still eat a very healthy diet while nibbling in most food groups.

Column #183

The Merriam-Webster definition of bias is:
●    1a: an inclination of temperament or outlook especially: a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment: prejudice
●    b: an instance of such prejudice
●    c: bent, tendency
●    d (1): deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the quantity it estimates
●       (2): systematic error that’s introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others

We are all biased. No one is immune. Columnists quickly learn that readers can respond differently to words and ideas with one person launching a verbal attack while another calls the author a genius.

Column #182

According to National Public Radio, the new Congressional bill proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), called the Green New Deal (GND), has many “lofty goals:”
●    “upgrading all existing buildings” in the country for energy efficiency;
●    working with farmers to “create a sustainable, pollution and greenhouse-gas-free food system that ensures universal access to healthy food and expands independent family farming”;
●    “Overhauling transportation systems” to reduce emissions — including expanding electric car manufacturing, building “charging stations everywhere,” and expanding high-speed rail to “a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary”;
●    A guaranteed job “with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security” for every American;
●    Provide to all Americans “high-quality health care, housing, economic security, and healthy food.”