Springhole.net Blog

High Blood Pressure? 10 Food Swaps to Bring it Down

Great article. Everyone should follow its advice, and not just because of the salt.

For 90% of the US, bottled water is worse than useless. Why? Go to Tapped The Movie and watch the free clips.

Also, Story of Stuff (now The Story of Stuff Project) deals with a couple of other issues: bottled water and cosmetics.

I discovered a great channel on YouTube: MenstrualCupInfo.

There are many reasons to switch over to menstrual cups. While the cups themselves are initially higher than traditional menstrual cups (I paid around $40 for my Mooncup), they will last for years, saving you money in the long run. Plus, they help you cut down on your garbage output, and goodness knows the world could do with a little less plastic trash floating around in it.

The human stomach releases more acid when meat is consumed.

Sounds like an adaptation to meat-eating to me…

Skeptics of homeopathy are gathering together to make a demonstration: their plan is to overdose on homeopathic pills to prove that sugar pills that might have a molecule of medicine in them don’t do diddly.

Comments from those upset by this demonstration are lulzy. Some claim that it shows their ignorance because swallowing more pills will have even less effect.

Really? Is that why homeopathic medicines have dire warnings to contact a doctor or poison control center in case of an overdose? Is that why they tell to to take more pills if the effect you’re getting isn’t strong enough? Going by the instructions and warning labels, I think the skeptics’ demonstration is pretty valid.

I don’t see why those who believe in homeopathy are so upset by this, anyway. If homeopathy actually does work, we’ll have a lot of ill skeptics on our hands and you’ll be vindicated. If not… well, then it’s time to swallow the bitter pill of truth and move on.

Read the article (and lulzy comments) for yourself here.

I just found a great video about Henri VIII’s terrifying 5000 calorie-a-day-diet.

Aside from eating an insane amount of food overall, he also, as royalty did in that day, ate insane amounts of white bread and drank sugared wine. No wonder the guy was so fat.

(The other part of his liquid intake comprised of ale, which of course isn’t a very healthy way to go, either.)

Henry VIII also didn’t eat vegetables: the Tudor family didn’t go for that kind of thing, believing they were indigestible.

If Henry VIII had cut out the sugar and white flour and had eaten that nasty peasant food called “vegetables” instead, he probably wouldn’t have been able to stuff himself like he did. Sugar/white flour tends to mess up your appetite, making you feel hungry when you shouldn’t. And not only does it mess up your appetite, it just plain messes you up.

I recently found out that PETA president Ingrid Newkirk just turned 60.

My brain reeled, and the first thought that registered was, “ONLY 60?” Honestly, I thought this woman was older. Maybe nearing 70. Especially after the time she fell and snapped her wrist bones trying to catch herself.

So much for vegan diets slowing down the aging process…

Oh, and apparently PETA got butthurt because President Obama killed a fly. Um. Right. Can we possibly get any stupider?

A step-by-step refutation of PETA’s “Is Eating Meat Natural?” pages, placed on YouTube for your viewing convenience.

Humans ARE Omnivores – Part 1
Humans ARE Omnivores – Part 2

Okay, okay, just to clarify, I don’t have a problem with vegetarians or vegans. If you want to try a veg*n diet, fine. If it works for you, then congratulations.

What I have a problem with are veg*ns who subscribe to utter nonsense (humans ARE natural omnivores – the only way you can believe otherwise is with a heckuva lot of cherry picking) or insist that they are soooo healthy when they are essentially walking skeletons with dry, brittle hair that they can’t grow below the shoulders.

Anyway, my sister was reading around the Internetz when she came across an interesting blog, Mark’s Daily Apple. Mark posted an interesting story about a week-long vegan party he attended. Here’s a summation of the good bits.

A lecture was given by a long-time vegan proponent, Dr. McDougall. McDougall gave a lecture on the evils of meat and most soy (can’t argue with that one, actually), and apparently implied that when you eat vegetarian, you can eat as much as you want.

Funny stuff indeed, Mark! Most of us low-carbers know that grains and starches aren’t particularly filling. It’s easy to overfeed yourself on corn or bread, but quite difficult to do the same with meat. Few people appreciate that meat and fat is one of the best appetite suppressants there is.

Anyway, once the lecture was over, the people went for the food, which was probably some of the most pathetic vegan fare you could imagine. Loads and loads of grains, a few piddling vegetables, a “salad” of chopped Romaine lettuce, and no dressing. The only fat Mark could find was in a guacamole spread. Fresh fruit was available, which is a good thing, but the drinks turned out to be oversweetened fruit drinks. Yuck!

Now, here’s where it gets really lawl-worthy: these people, as far as Mark could tell, were not healthy. He watched as overweight people piled their plates high with grains and filled their cups with sugary juice. Sometimes they went back for seconds. I agree with Mark: This is a type-2 diabetes epidemic in the making.

Mark observed that people following the McDougall program for years didn’t look too healthy, either. They were thin, yes, but they had no muscle to speak of. They were mainly bones, a bit of fat, and skin.

A 62-year-old triathlete competitor who’d been on the McDougall program for 15 years told Mark that he was a fool to eat meat and that he should give the program a try. Mark was not impressed by her lack of muscle mass and overall unhealthy appearance.

Remember the ol’ vegan question: “Have you ever actually seen someone with a protein deficiency?” Well, it sure looks like Mark has!

You can read the full blog post here.

Really, vegans can be so funny. They often claim that meat is an unnatural addition to the human diet, that our bodies just aren’t cut out to handle all that protein/fat/whatever, and that’s why we’re dying left and right of all these horrible modern diseases. Yet they pile their plates high with heaping helpings of tubers, grains, and legumes which were not in the human diet in any significant amount until the agricultural revolution!

They yarp on about how toxic animal foods our to our poor little herbivorous bodies and that if we eat raw meat we shall surely die (actually, we don’t – we’re fully capable of eating raw meat unless it’s contaminated), merrily ignoring the fact that the plant foods they depend on contain toxins which are dangerous unless cooked out.

Silly, silly people. Let’s hope they learn before it’s too late.

For those who haven’t heard, Indigo Children are supposed to be the beginning of a shift or rise in consciousness: special souls who are incarnating on the Earth for the first time in order to teach humanity how to leave in peace and harmony. (I would also like to mention that Indigo children are not necessarily supposed to have indigo-colored auras. This is a common misconception that annoys the original proponent of Indigo children very much.)

Indigo children are said to have a sense of purpose in life; they know they are special and sent to do something important in our world. They also have a difficult adapting to our social structure: they have trouble with authority and doing “dull” things like waiting in line. They are said to often have trouble socializing in school; they do not open up very well at all except to other Indigo children.

These signs are often considered indicative of developmental disorders.

Now, I obviously can’t prove or disprove the existence of Indigo children, but we know that some cases have been pretty well debunked. Such was with a boy named Dusk. He said he had trouble in school because he could hear the thoughts of his classmates. He also claimed to be an “avatar” who could “recognize the four elements of earth, wind, water and fire,” and that the next avatar wouldn’t come for another hundred years. The boy was declared an Indigo child, and his story was published in the Dallas Observer.

Dusk’s shiny indigo balloon was burst when TV-savvy readers realized the boy was repeating concepts used in the popular children’s show, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Believers in Indigo children maintain that Indigos are misdiagnosed as having ADD or ADHD. This, they say, explains the sudden rise in ADD/ADHD cases.

It’s certainly easier for a parent (or individual) to tell themselves that their child’s (or their) symptoms are not signs that something is wrong, but rather that their child is special and important. The concept of having (or being) indigo child gives parents (or oneself) an imaginary “get out of jail free” card for the perceived stigma and trouble of having (or being) “challenged.” All those nasty doctors and pediatricians were wrong – they aren’t mentally handicapped; he/she is a special being who will someday save the world! You’ll see!

*sigh*

A far more likely explanation for the increase of mental disabilities in children can likely be found in your own pantry. Food additives have been linked to hyperactivity. Poor diet in general is noted to both trigger and aggravate learning disabilities.

Another culprit may be lurking in the toy box or dish cupboard. Bisphenol-A, used to harden plastics, is linked to a number of problems including hyperactivity and learning disorders.

So please, before taking the position that your child’s social or learning disabilities are part-and-parcel with some psychic power you think he or she may have, consider taking steps to keep your child from becoming exposed to toxins that we know make these problems worse.