Posted on 07/24/2009 3:37:21 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition Category: Roundups | Comments(15)
Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years.
To us, Suelo probably sounds a little extreme. Actually, he probably sounds very extreme. After all, I suspect most of you reading this are doing so under the protection of some sort of man-made shelter, and with some amount of money on your person, and probably a few needs for money, too. And who doesn’t need money unless they have completely unplugged from the grid? Still, it’s an amusing story about a guy who rejects all forms of consumerism as we know it.
The Frugal Roundup
How to Brew Your Own Beer and Maybe Save Some Money. A fantastic introduction to home brewing, something I’ve never done myself, but always been interested in trying. (@Generation X Finance)
Contentment: A Great Financial Principle. If I had to name one required emotion for living a frugal lifestyle it would be contentment. Once you are content with your belongings and your lot in life you can ignore forces attempting to separate you from your money. (@Personal Finance by the Book)
Use Energy Star Appliances to Save On Utility Costs. I enjoyed this post because it included actual numbers, and actual total savings, from someone who upgraded to new, energy star appliances. (@The Digerati Life)
Over-Saving for Retirement? Is it possible to “over-save” for retirement? Yes, I think so. At some point I like the idea of putting some money aside in taxable investments outside of retirement funds, to be accessed prior to traditional retirement age. (@The Simple Dollar)
40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home. A great list of both practical and philosophical lessons to teach your kids before they reach the age where they know everything. I think that now happens around 13 years-old. (@My Supercharged Life)
Index Fund Investing Overview. If you are looking for a place to invest with high diversification and relatively low fees (for broader index funds with low turnover), index funds are a great place to start. (@Money Smart Life)
5 Reasons To Line Dry Your Laundry. My wife and I may soon be installing a clothesline in our backyard. In many neighborhoods they are frowned upon - one of the reasons I don’t like living in a neighborhood. I digress. One of our neighbors recently put up a clothesline, and we might just follow his lead. (@Simple Mom)
A Few Others I Enjoyed
* 4 Quick Tips for Getting Out of a Rut * Young and Cash Rich * Embracing Simple Style * First Trading Experience With OptionsHouse * The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption * How Much Emergency Fund is Enough? * 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind * Save Money On Car Insurance
Hope you don't mind me jumping in here, but there is a really neat website all about making all kinds of rugs. Old rag rug instructions
http://www.netw.com/~rafter4/oldrugs.htm
Also, if you put this into google, RUG-MAKING -- you'll get quite a few U-Tube videos with rug making demonstrations at the head of the search results.
Sustainable Agriculture News Briefs - October 28, 2009
Weekly sustainable agriculture news and resources gleaned from the Internet by NCAT staff for the ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Web site. The Weekly Harvest Newsletter is also available online.
Share The Harvest: Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who might be interested in the latest sustainable agriculture news, funding opportunities, and events.
News & Resources
* MOSES Begins Land Link-Up
* Meat Shipment Rule Meetings To Be Held
* Oregon Department of Agriculture Launches Organic Certification
* Schools Use Local Food for Fundraisers
* Podcast Available of USDA Deputy Secretary Lecture
* Small Farms Conservancy Organization Launched
* Presentations Available from CalCAN
Funding Opportunities
* South Dakota Grazingland Sustainability Initiative
* Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Grant
* Pennsylvania Agricultural and Rural Youth Grant Program
Coming Events
* Exploring the Small Farm Dream Workshops
* Small Farm Today Conference
* North Georgia Agritourism Workshop
News & Resources
MOSES Begins Land Link-Up
http://www.mosesorganic.org/landlinkup.html
Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) frequently receives phone calls from folks interested in selling or renting out their farmland. In an effort to connect those folks with new farmers looking for land to farm, MOSES has launched a free online service titled, ‘Land Link-Up’. A form is available on the Web site for advertising farmland that is for sale or rent, or to submit an inquiry if you are looking to buy or rent farmland.
Meat Shipment Rule Meetings To Be Held
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB/.cmd/ad/.ar/sa.retrievecontent/.c/6_2_1UH/.ce/7_2_5JM/.p/
5_2_4TQ/.d/1/_th/J_2_9D/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?PC_7_2_5JM_contentid=2009/10/0517.xml&PC_7_2_5JM_parentnav=LATEST_RELEASES&PC_7_2_5JM_navid=NE
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is holding two public meetings on proposed regulations to implement a new program under which state-inspected establishments with 25 or fewer employees will be eligible to ship meat and poultry products in interstate commerce. The announcement will implement a directive of the 2008 Farm Bill and is one component of USDA’s ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative to help develop local and regional food systems and spur economic opportunity. The meetings will be held by teleconference and will provide the public with an opportunity to comment on the proposed rule.
Oregon Department of Agriculture Launches Organic Certification
http://news.opb.org/article/6049-oregon-can-now-certify-organic-farms/
Oregon’s Department of Agriculture is now accredited to certify farms as organic. For years, farmers who wanted to market their produce as grown under the National Organic Program, had to turn to private organizations like Oregon Tilth or to other states, like Washington and Idaho. But now, says Jim Cramer of the state Department of Agriculture, Oregon will be able to do its own certifications. Oregon is the 16th state accredited for the national program.
Schools Use Local Food for Fundraisers
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/10/18/news/700schools.txt
Six Bozeman, MT-area schools have teamed up with Gallatin Valley Farm to School program to sell healthy, Montana-made foods and gifts as a fundraiser. The products include roasted cereals and granola, specialty lentils and barley, fresh herbed delicacies, huckleberry preserves, syrups and honey, fresh winter produce, and greeting cards. Gallatin Valley Farm to School was created by parents and community members to increase whole and local foods in schools and support local farmers, community citizenship and environmental awareness.
Podcast Available of USDA Deputy Secretary Lecture
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2009/102309_Merrigan.html
The garden on the White House lawn is producing more than vegetables, says President Obama’s deputy secretary of agriculture Kathleen Merrigan. It’s a sign of high-level support for the many changes in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to build stronger connections with our food and farmers, ways to help young people enter agriculture, and add more funds for local and regional food systems. Merrigan spoke at Iowa State University recently to promote the USDA’s new ‘Know Your Farmer Know Your Food’ initiative launched in May. She said a primary reason for her visit was to start a national conversation about food with students on the first stop in a national tour of college campuses. A podcast of the lecture is available on the ISU Lecture Program Web site.
Small Farms Conservancy Organization Launched
http://www.smallfarmsconservancy.org/
A new organization called the ‘Small Farms Conservancy’ has formed with the mission of supporting small farms. Formed in partnership with the Small Farmer’s Journal, the Small Farms Conservancy mission is to educate, advocate, protect, sustain and inspire small farming worldwide. It is a broad-based non-profit public benefit corporation based in Sisters, Oregon.
Presentations Available from CalCAN
http://www.calclimateag.org/oct_2009_summit_presn.html
The California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN) Summit on October 1st was a great success. PowerPoint presentations from the Summit are now available on the California Climate & Agriculture Network website. Presentation topics include farming, climate change, carbon sequestration, and more.
> More Breaking News (http://attra.org/news/)
Funding Opportunities
South Dakota Grazingland Sustainability Initiative
http://www.southdakotaagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=898&yr=2009
Through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Grazingland Sustainability Initiative (GSI) is being offered. The purpose of GSI is to encourage intensive management of South Dakota’s grasslands to better manage the impact of drought through educational opportunities geared towards sustainability before and during drought while offering annual practice payments for prescribed grazing and rest. Any producers interested in the GSI should contact their local NRCS office located in the USDA Service Center.
Proposals are due November 20, 2009.
Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Grant
http://www.hfhl.umn.edu/grants/index.html
The Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute has released a request for interdisciplinary research projects related to food and health. The Institute will award up to one research grant of $50,000-100,000 in each of the following areas: food policy, prevention of obesity and chronic disease, and food safety. Criteria for funding are interdisciplinarity, innovation, potential impact, utilization of new collaborations, quality of the research proposal, and potential for future external funding.
Proposals are due November 23, 2009.
Pennsylvania Agricultural and Rural Youth Grant Program
http://www.pennsylvaniaagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=835&yr=2009
Direct and matching grants for projects that increase knowledge and awareness of agricultural and rural issues among youth are now available, announced Pennsylvania’s acting Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. Applications for the Agricultural and Rural Youth Grant Program are available for innovative projects in aquaculture, animal science, food safety and other agricultural topics.
Proposals are due October 31, 2009.
> More Funding Opportunities (http://attra.ncat.org/funding/)
Coming Events
Exploring the Small Farm Dream Workshops
http://www.airlie.org/activities/smallfarmdream09.htm
November 4, 11, 18 & December 2, 2009
Warrenton, Virginia
Have you ever dreamed of changing careers and breaking into agricultural pursuits? Do you have experience as a farm intern or apprentice and need guidance in deciding if launching your own start-up is the best next step? Or are you a current small farmer thinking of expanding your business or taking on a new enterprise? ‘Exploring the Small Farm Dream’ will help you decide!
Small Farm Today Conference
http://www.smallfarmtoday.com/tradeshow/schedule.html
November 5-7, 2009
Columbia, Missouri
This annual small farm show will have 50+ talks, 150+ exhibitors, a poultry exhibition, and demos. The stock dog clinic will be held on Wednesday, November 4, 2009.
North Georgia Agritourism Workshop
http://www.areg.caes.uga.edu/#Agro
November 5-6, 2009
Dillard, Georgia
Topics will include Expanding the Business Side of AgriTourism thru Regionalism; Learn how to Build an Effective, Affordable Website; Social Media Marketing; Financial Analysis, Taxes & Labor; Regulations & Zoning; Making Marketing Magic; and more.
> More Events (http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/)
New & Updated Publications
Small-Scale Egg Handling
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/10/06/small_scale_egg_handling
Biodiesel: Do-it-yourself Production Basics
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/08/27/biodiesel_do_it_yourself_production_basi_1
Procesamiento de Aves a Pequeña Escala
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/08/20/procesamiento_de_aves_a_pequena_escala
Question of the Week
What are some resources for information on guinea fowl production?
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/question.php/2009/10/26/what_are_some_resources_for_information__5
Website of the Week
The Aquaculture Network Information Center
http://attra.org/wow/
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Submit questions to our professional staff online
http://attra.ncat.org/ask.php
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Digital versions of recent Weekly Harvest and ATTRAnews newsletters are available online. ATTRAnews is the newsletter of ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.
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http://www.hhs.gov/news/healthbeat/2009/10/20091028a.html
HHS HealthBeat (October 28, 2009)
Sensitivity and when the moles show up
Little girl in front of the sun
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Take the Next Step
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Some people are more sun-sensitive than others – and show it, with moles, spots and other signs of sun-damaged skin. Researchers say those signs indicate a higher risk for skin cancer.
At the Colorado School of Public Health, Lori Crane compared fair-skinned children who tanned with those who had not tanned.
[Lori Crane speaks] ``Children who tanned had about 50 percent more moles than children who didn’t tan, and that was at the ages of 6, 7 and 8.’’
Crane recommends that fair-skinned kids avoid tanning by covering up with clothes when they spend time outdoors, especially when the sun is at its peak, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The study in Archives of Dermatology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
Last revised: October, 28 2009
Panel: $11M Air Safety Study Not Worth Much
An $11 million NASA-sponsored study had so many flaws that it could not provide useful insights about U.S. flight safety, a review finds.
MORE DETAILS:
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Vegas Still No. 1 For Foreclosures
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Nevada Sales Down 24 Percent In August
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Seven solar technologies from Israel that could change our planet Bookmark and Share
By Karin Kloosterman
October 27, 2009
Solar technologies create a cleaner environment and break our dependence on oil. ISRAEL21c takes a look at the top seven solar technologies being developed in Israel.
Solel-Seven-Solar-Israel-Technology
Photo by Chen Leopold/Flash90
Solel Solar’s parabolic solar collector in Beit Shemesh. The company manufactures solar collectors for solar fields all over the world.
They’re on investors’ hit lists and the green tech media is keen to monitor their progress. Environmentalists and key policy makers from the United States urge them on. Israeli solar technology innovators are channelling and shaping the sun’s energy and breaking America’s dependence on oil.
With organizations like the Cleantech Forum, an international business development firm that’s listing Israel in a league of its own, world rankings show that Israel is no small player in solar energy innovation.
A recent survey released by the Guardian newspaper in the UK and the Cleantech Forum chose five Israeli-based and two Israeli-developed companies among a global listing of 100. That’s a significant number, considering that Israel is about the size of a small American state.
Over the years ISRAEL21c has brought you many reports about home-grown Israeli solar energy technologies that are making our world a better place. We’d like to present you with a summary of seven of our favorites:
BrightSource Energy
BrightSource Energy (formerly Luz) is building solar power plants for utility and industrial companies around the globe. Combining decades of experience in designing, building and operating some of the world’s largest solar power plants, BrightSource is contracted to generate 2.6 gigawatts of power using its solar thermal technology. BrightSource and Southern California Edison signed the world’s largest solar energy deal in February this year. Founded by Arnold J. Goldman, the company’s mission is to minimize its impact on the environment and to help customers reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. With more than $160 million in financing, key investors and clients include Google, PG&E, Chevron, Morgan Stanley and Vantage Point Venture Partners.
ZenithSolar Zenith Solar develops solar energy power plants based on the technology of Prof. David Faimon of Ben Gurion University in the Negev. The core technology is a large optical dish upon which multiple flat mirrors are mounted. The company says that the system will harvest more than 70 percent of incoming solar energy (compared to industry averages of 10% to 40%). ZenithSolar already has a solar farm on Kibbutz Yavne that is supplying energy and hot water to 250 families. Investors include private business people from the US and Israel.
AORA
Aora (formerly EDIG) has based its technology on the shape of a flower. Alarmingly beautiful, the company focuses heliostats into the “petals” of its massive solar collector, which was revealed recently at the pilot plant in Israel’s Negev Desert. The world’s first solar thermal gas-turbine power station is based on the research of Prof. Jacob Karni, director of the Center for Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, and has been funded by EZKlein.
Tigo Energy Tigo Energy aims to take a stab at squeezing more power from existing power plants. The company has developed a box that renders these plants more efficient. Tigo Energy’s technology includes a real-time, always on monitoring system that it has devised so that power plant operators can receive constant updates on the performance of individual photovoltaic panels. Investors include Matrix Partners, OVP Venture Partners, and the IDB Group. Sales of the Maximizer technology are expected to begin within the next few months.
Solel Solar
Solel is one of Israel’s most talked about solar energy companies, up there with BrightSource and ZenithSolar. Building solar thermal power plants in Spain and the US, Solel has invested 14 years’ worth of R&D to improve the annual electrical output of solar fields. German electronics giant Siemens has just purchased Solel for $418 million. It is currently building plants in Spain, and a 553-megawatt project, the Mojave Solar Park 1, in California’s Mojave Desert. Major investors and clients include PG&E, Ecofin and private Belgian investors.
Di.S.P.
Distributed Solar Power holds promise for industrial rooftops. Based on the technology of Prof. Avi Kribus from Tel Aviv University, the DiSP solar collectors are small, but pack a lot of punch. According to their estimates, they will be able to collect up to 75% of the sun’s power and convert it to electricity. The technology is novel because it combines both a micro-sized solar concentrator and a heat transfer system, meaning that the sunlight can be used to heat water thermally, while also providing electricity to turn on your air con. In 2006, ISRAEL21c featured DiSP as the first in a series of articles about alternative energy solutions from Israel.
Enstorage
Based on the research of Prof. Emanuel Peled at Tel Aviv University, Enstorage develops low-cost energy storage systems for solar and wind powered plants. While the way the sun shines throughout the day is variable, Enstorage’s technology helps generate an even flow transmission back to the grid. Current investors include Siemens, Wellington Partners, Canaan Partners and Greylock Partners.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2299939/posts?page=3886#3886
The latest in solar energy.......
the next time you wash your hair, pour FULL STRENGTH Listerine Mouthwash all over your head and rub it well into your scalp for a minute or two.<<<
Thanks, I will have to try it and see if it works.
So the information is coming from REAL research and from REAL doctors, like John Lustig and Richard Johnson — but the same old advice about fruits, fruit juice, carrots, fructose-rich veggies, etc., keeps being given out.<<<
One could make a statement about who contributes to the politicians and those that they hire for gov work, qualified or not.
It has been shown several times that research continues as long as the grants last.
I have lived long enough, to see almost all the ‘claims’ recalled.
I use and prefer honey or brown sugar, mostly.
thanks for the homemade cheese recipes.<<<
Careful, cheese making can become a hobby.
Do any of your neighbors keep goats? if so try making cheese with their milk.
THX BIG.
Although I hate cooking, I find that after living in my new home for two years, I am still fascinated by my wood cooking stove. Even as a child, we never had a wood cooking stove. Our stove was the two burner oil style. Now, I have an appoximately 2x4 cooking surface with many temperature ranges, from very hot on front to simmering temps in the middle, to just warm on the back. Also have two large teakettles of boiling water at my disposal at all times. Soups and stews can simmer all day at just the temp you want.
Directions for making rag rugs-alas, I have to admit that when we moved two years ago, all the children helped me, and although we only moved about 200 feet from our old home, it was a confusing process to say the least. No organization whatsoever, things packed haphazardly, things not considered important (to them!!!!) shoved under the eaves. Since then, we have been so very busy, landscaping, making my precious flower beds and tansplanting from my old flower beds, cutting, splitting and stacking 6-8 cords of wood yearly with all our regular chores that I haven’t even started looking for missing items. My garden journals, quilting directions, rag rug making info and many, many other items that I realize I can’t put my fingers on. If and when these things are located, I will be happy to share the rag rug info.
Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome Driven by Fructose Sugar Diet - Science Café - UCSF
Sugar Is a Poison, Says UCSF Obesity Expert
By Jeffrey Norris
June 25, 2009
The rise of obesity is usually blamed on too much eating and not enough exercising, but Robert Lustig, MD, a UCSF pediatric neuroendocrinologist, asks us to look beyond the obvious.
Yes, more Americans are overweight today than 30 years ago. Kids are still getting heavier, compared with prior generations of kids. That leads some UCSF researchers to warn that heart disease and other health problems will grow in future decades.
But behaviors that some might refer to as gluttony and sloth are merely consequences of the true cause of the epidemic, Lustig says. Food was just as abundant before obesity's ascendance. The problem is the increase in sugar consumption. Sugar both drives fat storage and makes the brain think it is hungry, setting up a "vicious cycle," according to Lustig.
More specifically, it is fructose that is harmful, according to Lustig. Fructose is a component of the two most popular sugars. One is table sugar — sucrose. The other is high-fructose corn syrup. High-fructose corn syrup has become ubiquitous in soft drinks and many other processed foods......
Health Report - 9 July 2007 -
The obesity epidemic
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/1969924.htm
Robert Lustig: ....and then the third reason that exercise is important, which is somewhat not well known, but I'm trying to evaluate this at the present time, is that it actually helps detoxify the sugar fructose. Fructose actually is a hepato-toxin; now fructose is fruit sugar but we were never designed to take in so much fructose. Our consumption of fructose has gone from less than half a pound per year in 1970 to 56 pounds per year in 2003.
Norman Swan: It's the dominant sugar in these so-called sugar free jams for example that you buy, these sort of natural fruit jams.
Robert Lustig: Right, originally it was used because since it's not regulated by insulin it was thought to be the perfect sugar for diabetics and so it got introduced as that. Then of course high fructose corn syrup came on the market after it was invented in Japan in 1966, and started finding its way into American foods in 1975. In 1980 the soft drink companies started introducing it into soft drinks and you can actually trace the prevalence of childhood obesity, and the rise, to 1980 when this change was made.
Norman Swan: What is it about this, it's got more calories than ordinary sugar weight for weight hasn't it?
Robert Lustig: No, actually it's not the calories that are different it's the fact that the only organ in your body that can take up fructose is your liver. Glucose, the standard sugar, can be taken up by every organ in the body, only 20% of glucose load ends up at your liver. So let's take 120 calories of glucose, that's two slices of white bread as an example, only 24 of those 120 calories will be metabolised by the liver, the rest of it will be metabolised by your muscles, by your brain, by your kidneys, by your heart etc. directly with no interference. Now let's take 120 calories of orange juice. Same 120 calories but now 60 of those calories are going to be fructose because fructose is half of sucrose and sucrose is what's in orange juice. So it's going to be all the fructose, that's 60 calories, plus 20% of the glucose, so that's another 12 out of 60 -- so in other words 72 out of the 120 calories will hit the liver, three times the substrate as when it was just glucose alone.
That bolus of extra substrate to your liver does some very bad things to it.
Norman Swan: Dr Robert Lustig who's Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. And you're listening to a Health Report special here on ABC Radio National on how food manufacturers by adding fructose to our foods, either from corn syrup as in the United States or added sucrose as in Australia, may actually be making the obesity epidemic even worse, starting with damage to our liver cells, the hepatocytes.
Robert Lustig: The first thing it does is it increases the phosphate depletion of the hepatocyte which ultimately causes an increase in uric acid. Uric acid is an inhibitor of nitric oxide, nitric oxide is your naturally occurring blood pressure lowerer. And so fructose is famous for causing hypertension.
Norman Swan: High blood pressure. And what you're saying here is that the liver cell itself gets depleted of this phosphate and then you've got this downstream reaction.
Robert Lustig: That's right. And so when you have excess uric acid you're going to end up with increased blood pressure and we actually have data from the NHANES study in America, the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey in America which actually shows that the most obese hypertensive kids are making more uric acid and have an increased percentage of their calories coming from fructose.
Norman Swan: Are they getting gout as well?
Robert Lustig: Well not yet. They will.
Norman Swan: So what you're saying in fact is that whilst we are clearly eating too much, we're passively eating too much of the wrong thing, that the food manufacturing industry is putting stuff in which is fuelling the epidemic?
Robert Lustig: Absolutely, we're being poisoned to death, that's a very strong statement but I think we can back it up with very clear scientific evidence.
Norman Swan: There's clear scientific evidence on this fructose pathway in the liver?
Robert Lustig: There's clear scientific evidence on the fructose doing three things that are particularly bad in the liver. The first is this.....
Fructose-Obesity Connection Exposed: Can of Soda Metabolized Much Like Can of Beer, Says Lustig
Susan Beck
http://www.consultantlive.com/display/article/10162/1477987?verify=0
In his plenary address of October 19, Dr Robert H. Lustig delivered a powerful, scientifically rigorous indictment of the central role of fructose in the current epidemic of childhood obesity.
The fact that the epidemic now extends to 6-month-old infants makes clear, he said, that diet and exercise cannot be the sole culprits. Only a food exposure of some sort can explain obesity in a baby.
Dr Lustig, who is a professor of pediatric endocrinology and director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at the University of California, San Francisco, presented powerful evidence that the food exposure in question is fructose.
Because of the markedly increased use of fructose -- especially high-fructose corn syrup -- in prepared foods and beverages, Americans' consumption of fructose has risen astronomically in recent decades.
This trend was accentuated by the demonization of dietary fat and the craze for low-fat diets. As food manufacturers took out fats, they replaced them with sugars -- a large proportion of which were in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.
Fructose metabolized like fat -- just as alcohol is.
Dr Lustig did a masterful job of explaining the many ways in which fructose metabolism differs from human metabolism of glucose. When glucose is metabolized, it promotes a nice negative feedback pathway involving the liver, pancreas, and brain. The end result is that, through the suppression of ghrelin, the appetite for more glucose is suppressed and glucose consumption is kept in check. Insulin performs efficiently, and energy is stored in a usable form.
Fructose metabolism takes a very different form. In fact, it is metabolized by the liver in many ways just like a fat -- and 30% of fructose actually ends up as fat.
By-products of fructose metabolism include uric acid (which causes hypertension), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol and triglycerides (which contribute to dyslipidemia), and free fatty acids (which lead to insulin resistance). These are all components of the metabolic syndrome....
http://www.consultantlive.com/display/article/10162/1477987?verify=0
Hi everyone and sorry for those nicknames I missed, and new people:
We took a trip over to Texas last week. Wow, things are booming down there. Isn’t it amazing what freedom will do for people.
Granny, I dreamt about goat milk last night. Maybe God is trying to tell me something...
I missed you all! I’ll be back on here as time permits. I am going to a new oncologist next week. I feel great and my labs are good so I assume all is well. I guess I’ll find out.
I have read recently that the trouble with the bees is that many beekeepers are greedy and take the honey from the hive in the winter, and replace it with high-fructose corn syrup and water. It has a substance in it that the bees either die from or hate, and the hive collapses. One beekeeper says he takes wild hives out of buildings and the bees are quite healthy. He claims the bees are escaping from their tame hives and building new wild ones away from the HFCS.
If I weren’t allergic to bee stings I’d start keeping bees myself, now that I know what the problem is. I love those little guys.
By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: September 23, 2009
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Nephrology/Hypertension/16100
"...These results support the idea that fructose, such as present in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, could have a role in the epidemic of obesity and metabolic syndrome," Johnson said.
"Further, they suggest that [the two sweeteners] could have a role in high blood pressure, and that this might be mediated by uric acid."
Eating a lot of fructose -- typically from sugary drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup -- has previously been associated with increased levels of uric acid.
"It has been known for a long time that fructose can raise uric acid levels, and in the last few years epidemiological studies have also confirmed that those with the highest fructose intake have higher uric acid levels," Johnson said.
"Reducing sugar intake was an old treatment for gout as well, and was even espoused by Sir William Osler," the renowned physician widely credited with advancing modern medicine.
Robert Lustig, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, was a co-author on a paper in the Journal of Pediatrics published last summer that found evidence of this link in adolescents. The more sugary beverages the teens consumed, the greater their serum uric acid levels and, hence, their systolic blood pressure.
"The fact that this paper addresses this mechanism in humans rather than just rats is extremely important," Lustig said. But he cautioned that uric acid is likely not the only cause of the metabolic syndrome.
"I absolutely think that uric acid is the main driver of hypertension" with regard to fructose consumption, Lustig said. "But it may not be the driver of the visceral adiposity, the dyslipidemia," and other components of the metabolic syndrome.
Still, Johnson and colleagues wanted to know whether allopurinol, which is primarily used to treat gout, could combat the blood-pressure-increasing effects of a high-fructose diet.
So they evaluated 74 adult men who were put on a diet that included 200 grams of fructose a day, on top of their regular diet (typically, people in the U.S. consume about 50 to 70 grams of fructose per day).
Half of the men were randomized to allopurinol. After two weeks...[ ___snip___ ]...markers of the metabolic syndrome increased among men eating lots of fructose but not taking allopurinol. Incidence of the disease jumped from 19% at baseline to 44% after two weeks, Johnson said.
[ ___snip___ ]
Fructose is one of the sweetest naturally occurring sugars and is frequently found in fruits, some vegetables, honey, and some other plants. What makes it different from other sugars is how the body treats it.
Lustig noted that fructose can only be metabolized by the liver, unlike glucose, which can be used by all organs of the body. In the liver, fructose is phosphorylated, which depletes phosphate levels in the liver and increases uric acid production, he added.
"The liver is under greater substrate pressure with fructose than with glucose, which means you'll gen[erate] more uric acid for the same number of calories," Lustig said.
[ ___snip___]
Either way, Johnson added, the take-home message is that "we should probably reduce our intake of added sugars, and that the benefits may be greater than simple weight loss."
While the researchers "aren't ready to recommend lowering uric acid as a means to treat blood pressure," he said, the study suggests further "examining the role of uric acid in blood pressure."
Johnson reported financial relationships with Merck and a patent application related to lowering uric acid as a means of treating hypertension and metabolic syndrome.
The other researchers reported no conflicts of interest.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Nephrology/Hypertension/16100
Primary source: AHA Blood Pressure Research Conference
>>>We took a trip over to Texas last week. Wow, things are booming down there. Isn’t it amazing what freedom will do for people.<<<
LOL, I love the part of Texans that don’t think being broke is being poor - Just as being between fortunes...
WOW, sure glad you are doing so well... Prayers answered.
I am also very concerned about honey, itself.
Is honey made from a hive where the bees are fed HFCS safe to eat?
I don't know.
Does anyone know??
Honey itself, in its original form normally has so much fructose, that I avoid it -- but I have glass jars of honey in my survival stash, because honey is supposed to have an indefinite shelf life, (like cornstarch & cocoa, it doesn't go bad.)
Generally, in day to day life, the only reason I would knowingly consume any honey would be either due to an intense craving specifically for honey, or else if I had a very bad sore throat, I'd sip strong black tea with honey & a bit of milk.
When doctors start commenting that obesity in INFANTS cannot possibly be due to lack of exercise, nor due to television or to playing online games inside all day long .... lol .... it's obvious that something major has changed in the basic food supply when little babies are also sufferring from obesity.
When granny and I were young kids, we might know of maybe 3 adults in the entire neighborhood who were overweight, and maybe one who was actually obese. Those "overweight" adults of my childhood would be considered THIN today, I'm not exaggerating.
As the NORM, people were skinny. Nowadays what we consider to be a thin person and/or one of "normal weight" in today's terms ... would definitely have been considered hefty way back when.
If you watch movies made PRE-1935, you'll see that the only big people are the one or two cast to be comic buffoons. Everybody in real life looked thin, just like all the actors in early movies. Almost everybody. For instance, Oliver Hardy would NOT look obese in this century, but his weight was supposed be a big joke in the old days. And today Stan Laurel would be considered a victim of starvation, LOL
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