When I was looking at condos in Charlotte, there is a pretty clear pattern to housing prices. Same age construction, similar units. If the property is in a “white” neighborhood, it will sell for $100 sq/ft. If the house is in a “not all white” neighborhood, $45 sq/ft is not uncommon.
My close relatives thought I must not be thinking straight when I said I wanted to look at those places. In the Chicago apartment, my guess is that “white” people who speak English as their primary language was 10% of the renters. I felt right at home.
So I decided to hang with my peeps at Family Dollar and Walmart over on East Independence Boulevard – the main East/West surface street on the East side of town, heading to the SE.
When I got to the Walmart shopping center, I spotted the Super G International supermarket.
I didn’t see much in the flyer I recognized. I was racing the sun, so I didn’t go in. If I had, I would have looked around to see if I find food with transfats.
Did anyone else read the Cambridge study that showed no connection between consumption of saturated fats and heart disease? On fact, following the American Heart Association’s low fat diet (essentially replacing fats with carbohydrates) causes a massive increase in cardiac events.
Agreed that a lot of the national obesity is due to bad regulation and misguided science. For example, they banned cyclamates because there was some evidence of causing cancer and replaced them with saccharine that once tested proved to be an even more powerful cause of cancer but once that was known, they stuck with the cyclamate ban and saccharine was the only legal artificial sweetener for many years. They still sell food with cyclamates in Canada and England http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_cyclamate
Similar with butter. It was the worst possible thing and everyone was urged to replace it with margarine at home and transfats in the food plants. Turns out butter is much better than the trans fats.
Worse than that is the substitution of sugar from sugar cane through high import duties with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) from corn grown in the US. The sugar cane sugar is absorbed slowly by the body, but the HFCS is absorbed suddenly causing spikes in insulin that lead to diabetes and a craving to replenish the spike leading to obesity.
Lastly, fat people we urged to eliminate foods with fat in them. Everywhere you go, you see non-fat products where the carbohydrates replace the fats. See this article that I just learned about last month and had shared on SRG: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html?_r=0&referrerfromCCofSRGlol I wish I had know about this years ago – I have been eating the OPPOSITE of what I should have been eating. I just tried to reverse my eating habits after reading this article and have lost 10 pounds and have none of the hunger cravings of my former no/low fat diet.
Take a trip north of the border, people are much much thinner despite the colder weather – different regulations. Obesity rate in Canada is 24.1%, in the US it is almost 1.5x that rate at 34.4%
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db56.htm
Good article, but some folks should read it about 3-4 times to get the message. One quote, “the food industry — which makes enormous profits from highly processed products derived from corn, wheat and rice…” should tell us something about why we need to make our meals from “scratch” aka, natural food, as much as possible and not rely on eating so many prepared foods.
Another problem are the GM foods.
So – cut down on or cut out processed foods and specifically remove simple sugars and HFCS from the diet? Is that the deal? I read it twice so far – it’s windy – I think that’s the suggestion.
That NYT article talks about carbohydrates in general. In the past, people thought that consuming fat calories was made people fatter than consuming nonfat carbohydrate calories because it takes the body some calories to convert carbohydrates into fat to store them.
This articles does not dispute that but says that more significant is the insulin spikes that carbohydrates cause in the bloodstream – they lead to sharp feelings of hunger and overeating.
Look at the salad dressings in your supermarket. They had been mostly oils (fat) but nowadays many are non-fat, replacing the oils with carbohydrates.
I am only a sample size of one, but since reading that article, I have stopped my mostly non/low fat diet and lost weight because I am not hungry the way I used to be – I eat less often and I eat smaller portions now.
That article doesn’t mention HFCS so much, but it is the worst form of carbohydrates. Google HFCS health effects and you will find many articles. HFCS causes the most severe insulin spikes and resulting hunger binges.
PS – Disclaimer: I am a googler, not a doctor. I don’t even play a doctor on SRS. 😉
Yeah, you got it. Plus, fruit, proteins and fats in moderation. I eat away from home 4-8 times a month. I prepare most of my meals from recipes using wholesome, unprocessed food. Time consuming of course, and clean-up has to be done.
My niece is arriving back to America soon now that her job in China has ended. I’m going to make Tiramisu for her from ‘scratch’. Funny thing about the Chinese is that they rarely have any dairy products in their food stores, and I know she will be starved for a really heavy, creamy dessert.
A large percentage of Asians are lactose intolerant. As a result, you see very little dairy in Asian recipes. Soy milk replaces animal milk.
That sounds right to me. The enzyme for adults to digest milk was an adaptation as some cultures began to domesticate cattle. Being able to digest milk is important to survive when food is scarce, like in winter in northern climates. Milk also doesn’t spoil quickly up north. The Mongols have a diet heavy in milk – horses, yaks, goats, cows – and fermentation is used to get rid of the lactose.
Slate has an interesting explanation
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_evolution/2012/10/evolution_of_lactose_tolerance_why_do_humans_keep_drinking_milk.html
If you read to the end, it turns really stupid. The general theme might be the Louis Farrakhan belief that the ability to digest milk is a genetic defect that afflicts Europeans rather than an important adaptation.
The “expert” then makes the preposterous claim that the development of agriculture led to the downfall of humans – we would be better off running around as hunter gathering nomads. The proof? Humans started to develop cavities. Oh really? Perhaps the reason the hunter gatherer early humans didn’t have cavities is they didn’t live long enough to get them!
I’ve thought for quite some time that all these studies about what’s healthy and what isn’t seemed suspiciously skewed against certain foods, like fats. I’ve always maintained a moderate consumption of saturated fats, but never eliminated them.
Other than the fact that I’m dying, I’m in pretty good health.
Any regular reader here knows I’ve posted on the perils of the Agribusiness’ pushing their Genetically Modified foods, and the election fiasco in California regarding the popular vote to compel food labels to disclose if any GM foods are present in any food product we buy from the grocers. Well, if you were to investigate the results then you could discover the vote count was stopped with just over 3 million or so votes left to be counted and the measure went down to defeat. That’s the Demoncrat way of course.
The seed and grain crops most people care to consume have been genetically modified to withstand being drenched by weed killing substances e.g., glyphosates, the active poison in Roundup. They are also modified to resist the toxic affects of heavy metals, i.e. aluminum, which are found in Chemtrails.
Farmers have been spraying their crops like corn and soybeans with glyphosates, and of course it is taken up by their roots and into the seed or grain. Hence, whether we like it or not we are eating glyphosates via the foods we consume.
Professor Don Huber, emeritus at Purdue University has been an outspoken critic of glyphosates, found in Roundup. His career as a scientist in professional and military agencies found that cattle and dairy herds fed a diet of corn and soybeans from crops treated with glyphosates experienced infertility and spontaneous abortion rates as high as 45%. His findings were summarized and he sent them to US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack asking for additional funding to study the problems and asking for a delay in making regulatory decisions. Of course, the Regime did not heed Dr. Huber’s advice, it’s the Demoncrat way. There are videos of Dr. Huber’s interview by Dr. Mercola on You Tube, just do a search.
But, not to worry your minds too much because the First Lady’s mission is to endlessly warn all of us about Food Deserts and against eating saturated fats and other toxic substances.
Oh my, here’s another bit of news sure to please al-Obama; Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has recently announced Russia will no longer import any agricultural products containing Genetically Modified Organisms.
Not only Russia, but the other BRICSA nations are going to adopt a similar policy, to the possible detriment of the American farmer. Oh, I’m certain al-Obama was pleased to hear the news. It’s the Demoncrat way, of course.
Wonder if al-Obama will now flood the North Korean markets with all the surplus seed and grains, and other soon to be nearly worthless GM food, or just keep it here at home and force Americans to choke down an extra portion at every meal?
Only slightly related / the natural gas pipeline going from Russia to Europe via Ukraine exploded today. It exploded 6 feet underground due to loss of pressure. Russia had turned off the pipeline because of a billing dispute with Ukraine. Authorities can’t figure out the reason for the decompression, but the good news is there was no effect on the pipeline.
I may be losing my sanity. That news account made no sense.
Maybe they meant “imploded due to loss of pressure” that would make more sense.
Anyways, those Ukrainians are really poor, that’s why the EU wanted Ukraine to join in the first place. It had nothing to do with al-Obama wanting to choke-off Vlad’s access to the Black Sea via the naval ports in Crimea.
So, what would make more sense; a) the natural gas pipeline going from Russia to Europe via Ukraine exploding due to lack of pressure, or (b) al-Obama’s attempt to choke-off Vlad’s access to the Black Sea via the naval ports in Crimea?
Oh, by the way. Remember the furor over the UKIP leader’s statement that he admired Vladimir Putin?
Art, the apartment you rented in Chicago was sort of a smorgasbord of nationality’s as I remember your posts. So, are you telling us that your condo cost you about 50% less than if you had purchased one in some ‘hoity-toity’ neighborhood?
The cost is a consideration, but a relative minor one. It has more to do with people I come in contact with. This has a lot to do with me, not them. One small anecdote – there is an upscale chain supermarket maybe 500 feet from my front door. On maybe my second visit there, I’m walking the aisles looking at brands, prices, etc… and the stock guy is set upon by this middle aged woman who is just irate that she can’t find any organic [rice?]. He’s trying to be somewhat helpful, but she’s frenetic that she MUST find organic rice or her life will have no meaning.
This is exactly the behaviors I left Connecticut to get away from. I’m not interested in $20 a pound fresh tuna and food flown in from halfway around the world – the same people who readily agree that people should be monitored to make they unplug a 1/2 watt power supply for “wasting energy” from “our” power grid.
The other day, I went to a different McDonalds in a more middle income area. Rather than being sneered at as being “out of place” in the country club neighborhood, as I was walking toward the door, a nice young black kid/guy went out of his way to wait for me to open the door and hold it open – almost to the point of making me uncomfortable the other direction.
An anecdote from my earlier time – I’ve told this to my niece and nephew with no effect. I had a 1969 Chevy Impala (probably 1977). I had been working on the car back when I was stupid and played with fixing cars. I got in the car to check my work and drove to I-77 and the Berkshire Freeway, and as I went around the curve realized that I had run out of gas. I pulled over and looked suitably distressed – but not as distressed when I realized I had left my wallet at home. No money, no ID,no driver’s license. This was before cell phones of course. The fine busy white people whizzed by, pretending I wasn’t there. About the point I decided I was going to have to walk somewhere, an elderly black couple pulled over – I explained my predicament – they told me not to worry. They were clearly religious people who felt Jesus told them to help me. They drove me to my apartment (maybe 2 miles) – I got my wallet, they took me to a gas station, and we got gas to the car. They refused my attempt to give them money for their help.
Back in 2009, when I had my medical problem, my Nigerian housekeeper was the only person I felt had a genuine interest in my well being.
My frustration with this country is all the forces pushing people so they go though life without knowing people different from themselves. it’s very unhealthy all around.
When I recently ran out of gas, my nephew made the observation – in the presence of the helpful policeman – of “maybe you shoukdn’t go in these bad neighborhoods”. This was two blocks from the main intersection in downtown (uptown?) Charlotte. It is a street that runs to Johnson C Smith University, the historically black college on the west edge of downtown. The gas station closest by is in the “black” neighborhood just north of downtown. I drove there by myself and didn’t feel slightly unsafe or unwelcome, although there were still the vibes of “are you lost? We don’t see many people like you here”. I’m not Satan – really!
When I was here with him and the real estate agent, the two of them got into a conversation the general content of which was how real estate people have to walk a fine line to answer white people’s questions about where the blacks live – without getting in legal trouble. Their entire conversation is typical of the whites moving here from other places who think they understnd “the south” and spoke volumes about my nephew. (the real estate guy moved here from the north about 20 years ago)
Keep in mind he was an organizer for Obama ’08 – his last trip he was going to pay homage to the Civil Rights movement by visiting historic sites. I haven’t talked to him since to see what he learned (or taught to his children)
His acceptance of black people appears to be limited to snooty upper class well educated people. He might find it interesting to attend an AME Zion church service and get a dose of reality.
What about the people that buy a new $100,000 luxury car every year and complain that your used Honda doesn’t get enough mph, so there needs to me some federal regulation?
Or my niece who thinks nothing of hopping on an airplane and going to Europe for the weekend but wants me to unplug my half watt iPhone charger.
If I was brave (and perhaps stupid), I would ask my nephew when he last used public transit in Charlotte (especially the $540 million LRV line to Whitelandia). He honestly believes his humongous motor home is “green” when they drive it around the country.
It’s been a year since my sister died. We were nowhere as close as some families appear to be, but we would have long phone calls a few times a year and email exchanges when she would get to the library. Her children thought she was a shut in keeping to herself because she rarely talked to them, or more likely they didn’t listen to her. She visited her grandchildren a few times, but had the same level of discomfort with her son that I do. She stayed in the servant’s house at back but wouldn’t let her go to the supermarket to buy meat (he became a mostly vegan out in Seattle). The other grandma is always there to supervise things (she lives in South Carolina). She is a retired public school administrator who purports to be a rich Texan.
One of the reasons, among many, that I resist watching/monitoring any TV programing is the vast numbers of commercial advertisements that are full of disclaimers (after extolling the benefits of their new wonder drug), which can cause heart failures, strokes, suicidal thoughts, dementia, loss of memory, loss of hair, and/or excessive bleeding. Who among us has not imagined that someday in the too distant future one of these commercials will be forced to admit their drug/product will lead to terminal flatulence, impacted colons, dissolved stomachs, liver failure, rapid fingernail growth, hives, shingles, excessive sensitivity to sunlight, addiction to moonshine, or what-have-you.
But, what about the truth for a change? How about a commercial that discloses the ill affects of withdrawal from taking their medication/product that could lead to becoming a mass murderer, child molester, wife/husband beater, tax cheat, or (gasp) a Pea Tartier, or an admirer/follower of the Koch brothers?
I recommend you consider a tuner card for your PC- you can get an external one that uses USB or a network based one. It will turn your PC into a DVR so you can skip commercials. No monthly fees if you connect it to an antenna. Otherwise your cable company will charge your about $5 per month for a cable card.
The software is part of Microsoft Windows and is quite good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center
OK, thanks. So, next all I would need to do is find out if there are any worthwhile programs to watch. I sometimes go to the PBS site and watch a few of the old Frontline and Nova programs. I suppose the current programming is still good.
Here is the link to an interesting article to read and there is a link to a well produced, thought provoking film buried at the end.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/origins-written-bible.html
There is also the free hula.com but it does had some ads.
I am considering joining Amazon Prime when my membership to Costco expires. The Free Shipping will pay for itself and I understand they have a large list of streaming videos similar to Netflix that are included for that price.
Amazon Prime? OK, so how long do we wait to get your Review? My backcountry internet connection is not really that fast for streaming vids, Vimeo is OK but not great since I have to start then pause within the 1st couple of minutes to let the buffer fill a bit, then I can restart the action and usually the stream. Youtube is always poor speed. I have a couple of programs that will download from a url and that’s what I do when I want the video saved to the HD.
Probably have to wait a couple years for me to pull the trigger and go with Amazon Prime. If I do, I will post a review… I am sure there are many reviews on the internet.