Go Nuts

Here's a good example of why I like Dr. Michael Greger -- the information is great, but his style makes it totally enjoyable (three good laughs in 2' 33"):

Stuff I Want 1.0

Pulled up next to this at a stoplight earlier this week. Welcome to North Califorlina:

Financial Calculators

An amazing collection of personal financial calculators for help with financial planning and decisions. Link.

The Sinking Ship U.S.S. America

This five minute analysis of the federal budget is a clear picture of why the budget cannot be balanced under present circumstances. When I see the image in the video of the combined House and Senate gathered for a State of the Union address, sitting in their positions of power, it's almost nauseating to think of how utterly incompetent they are as evidenced by their lack of action concerning the financial crisis we face. Though the presenter in this video is a career accountant, you don't have to be an accountant to understand the numbers he points out, and how they cannot ever equal a "balanced" position.

Eye Candy

Irresistible photos from the last couple of days:

First, a shot of Canon's professionals' gear room at the London Olympics—shelves of massive Canon telephoto lenses, smaller lenses, and DSLR cameras. Neither the C/NET article where I saw the pics, nor the Flickr account of the photographer (Gerard McGovern of Getty Images), explained the purpose of this treasure trove. Does Canon sell or rent this equipment to photographers? Don't know—I'd just like some nice Canon person to drop a 1D X and their biggest lens in a box and ship it to North Carolina. Really—would they miss them?

From cameras to craftsmanship of a different kind—is this the coolest use of space you've ever seen? Note especially the drawers built into the kickplates on the three steps on the right. (I can't remember where I found this picture. If it's yours, let me know so I can give you credit.)

Rise in Popularity of Vegan Diet

New U.S. News and World Report article on the surging popularity of a vegan lifestyle, mainly for health reasons. Link.

The Dust of His Feet

I had never noticed this verse in Nahum before: ". . . and clouds are the dust of His feet" (1:3).

The whole sentence, from The Message, provides a fuller context:

Tornadoes and hurricanes are the wake of His passage,

Storm clouds are the dust He shakes off His feet.

What if they really are—clouds, the dust of God's feet? Just as we can track little Pig-Pen through the frames of a Charles Schulz Peanuts panel by the trail of detritus he leaves in his wake, what if we can track God's path through the heavens by the clouds that are the dust from His feet?

Give me credit for knowing that clouds have a scientific explanation, and for knowing that anthropomorphisms were common to the ancients when describing their deities (including the Bible's authors).

But I also believe in what missiologist Paul G. Heibert called "The Flaw of the Excluded Middle" in his seminal article by the same name that lit up Christendom's "chat rooms" in 1982. Heibert, a missionary-scholar, had found his Western, scientific worldview totally inadequate to explain the spiritual phenomena he encountered in non-Western, non-scientific cultures. There, he found an interaction between heaven and earth that the West, on the basis of observable science, didn't believe existed: the overlap of heaven and earth, spirit and matter—a third dimension where the spiritual activity of heaven impacts the physical activity on earth. As a gentle rebuke to Western Christianity, Heibert accused us of having a flawed cosmology—flawed for having excluded (ignored) the middle realm that exists between heaven and earth.

As a biblicist, he knew that middle realm existed in Scripture (e.g., Daniel 10:1-21; 2 Corinthians 11:12-15; 12:1-6), but it had been excluded by Enlightenment-bred thinkers. He preposed that the middle domain be re-acknowledged as a way of better explaining what we observe on, and from the vantage point of, earth.

Back to clouds—I have no way of knowing whether they are the dust of God's feet or not; whether they tell us anything about the activity of God in heaven. But the more I find myself thinking like a scientist ("No, clouds having nothing to do with God"), the more willing I am to simply say, "I don't know." Why be dogmatic about something I can't possibly know for sure? Why treat the ancients, who wrote such things, as primitive poets rather than insightful realists?

My goal in life is to see God's footprints and fingerprints everywhere they exist and to know His movements better as a result. Not to see what isn't there, but not to miss what is.

Selective Biases

All of us are probably guilty of selective biases, as this illustration demonstrates: "Hey, I'm happy to give up chicken to make my point. Give up gasoline? Not so much."

How Not to Die

The always entertaining Dr. Michael Greger's latest hour-long survey, based on last year's scientific research, on how not to succumb to the leading causes of death. Might be the best hour you spend this year.

Risk, Fear, and Worry

Seth Godin has the enviable skill of seeing things clearly and describing them plainly. I found his description of risk, fear, and worry particularly helpful. (Original on his blog.)

They're not the same.

Risk is all around us. When we encounter potential points of failure, we're face to face with risk. And nothing courts risk more than art, the desire to do something for the first time--to make a difference.

Fear is a natural reaction to risk. While risk is real and external, fear exists only in our imagination. Fear is the workout we give ourselves imagining what will happen if things don't work out.

And worry? Worry is the hard work of actively (and mentally) working against the fear. Worry is our effort to imagine every possible way to avoid the outcome that is causing us fear, and failing that, to survive the thing that we fear if it comes to fruition.

If you've persuaded yourself that risk is sufficient cause for fear, and that fear is sufficient cause for worry, you're in for some long nights and soon you'll abandon your art out of exhaustion. On the other hand, you can choose to see the three as completely separate phenomena, and realize that it's possible to have risk (a good thing) without debilitating fear or its best friend, obsessive worry.

Separate first, eliminate false causation, then go ahead and do your best work.

Much from Little

My "garden" at present consists of a small plot in front of my house that gets good sun—a bit less than 100 square feet. Even with my limited skills, this small plot produces well. In due course, I'll replace these summer plants with fall greens.

In these four photos, you can see the progression of growth:

Here's a collection I brought in Friday morning:

Unfortunately, for the first time, I have had a problem with birds sitting on the tomato cages and helping themselves to the tomatoes. At least they have good taste—here is a decimated Brandywine. Brandywine's are an heirloom and not prolific producers, so every one lost to the birds is missed sorely. Tomato purists say the Brandywine is the world's best-tasting tomato, but they are low producers (though large, with big shoulders) and susceptible to all manner of disease:

I've had at least three different kinds of volunteer squash come up from seeds in the compost I spread. I'm not sure what variety is in the first picture, but the second looks like it will be the beautiful half-yellow and half-green zephyr squash:

Live and Learn

The back "corner" of my lot was filled with pine trees which I greatly dislike. They drop dead branches, pine cones, and fall over in ice or wind storms (though none of mine ever did). I always wanted them gone and should have tackled it when I first moved in this house 12 years ago—when the trees were 12 years smaller. I finally, on impulse (a bad move) decided to remove them.

The two pictures (the only ones I could find quickly) show what the back corner looked like with the trees in place:

When a crew of ne're-do-well tree cutters came through the neighborhood looking for work, I hired them to just drop the trees and trim the limbs into a pile. My plan was to then hire somebody with a chipper to chip the limbs into mulch, and find a wood harvesting company to give the trees to for free if they would haul them off. All the above was a really bad idea. With the building business off, I discovered nobody wanted my huge pine trees—not even for pulp. They weren't worth the cost of retrieving them.

So this is what I was left with (plus a big hole in my wallet). Somehow, these trees look much smaller in these pictures than they actually were standing next to them. Most were 50-70 feet tall before being cut.

So, I had to bite the bullet and hire a professional tree service to come in and clean up the mess: grind up the branches and limbs, grind the stumps, take down four more huge trees still remaining, and haul off the logs. They told me they could have done the entire job from scratch for just a little more than what I paid them to clean up the mess the other crew left. Ouch.

They took down four more trees and cleaned up all the mess in about six hours. And they had the equipment to do it:

I had never had stumps ground before, so was fascinated with this machine. I had originally planned to have a backhoe dig the stumps out because I wanted the surrounding roots pulled up as well so I wouldn't hit them when I dig new holes to plant new trees/bushes. But this grinder digs a hole 2-3 feet wide, cutting out the large roots on either side of the stump:

I want one of these: (I kept all the mulch from the grinder and had them spread it out since I won't be planting grass in this area. My plan is to fill the area with fruit trees and bushes.)

So, here's what a couple weeks and way too much money accomplished. It was an expensive education, but I learned my lesson: Go slow, get numerous estimates, DON'T hire people that knock on your door looking for work. The fence on the left is my property line. My neighbor's pines will continue to drop pine cones and limbs into my new clean space, of course—but at least I can now toss them back over the fence into his yard instead of having to get rid of them myself. (The owner of the clean-up tree crew and I were talking about fruit trees, and he told me about the fruit trees he had seen on a recent cruise to Belize. Apparently the tree business is good thanks to guys like me.)

Hangin' with Katie

A few snaps of my new granddaughter, Katie:

Getting some puppy love from Blue:

Laughing at the photographer (thanks, Katie!):

Chillin':

Enough pictures already! Time for my eighth 15-minute nap of the day, after which will be my ninth meal-from-Mom of the day. It's a pretty simple schedule actually: nurse, nap, play, fuss; nurse, nap, play, fuss; rinse and repeat all day. In other words, just being a newborn. Hang in there, Mom (and Dad).

Summer Staples

The eggplant I'm growing like what their roots are in, apparently. They are bearing prolifically, this plant having five purple orbs at present:

Here's a cool summer treat I put together: one frozen banana cut in small pieces, one 16-oz. tub of silken soft tofu, one avocado, a quarter-cup-plus-some of carob or cacao powder, and a couple tablespoons of maple syrup. Blend until smooth in a food processor with the S-blade. Sliced strawberries and shaved almonds on top. Makes enough for two of these parfait glasses full (don't ask).

Two Good Signs

I'm able to see what topics people are searching for that bring them to my blog, and, over the last few months, the top two Google searches have been . . .

#1: The ANDI nutrients-per-calorie food table popularized by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

#2: The life cycle of squash bugs.

These are both positive indicators—people are interested in eating nutrient-dense foods and even growing some of their own (and battling the bugs that make it a challenge).

Diet and Prostate Cancer

Excellent post from Dr. Gabe Mirkin on prostate cancer and diet. Dr. Mirkin is by no means a vegan, but he will report whatever the science says. And regarding prostate cancer, he says things like . . .

"Multiple studies by Dr. Ed Giovannucci of Harvard show that a plant-based diet is the best way to help prevent prostate cancer."

"A study from the University of Hawaii showed that prostate cancer occurs much less frequently in men who eat yellow and orange vegetables such as corn and carrots, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. A report from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle showed that men who eat three or more servings of vegetables a day have a 48 percent reduction in prostate cancer compared to those who don't eat vegetables. Other studies show that men who eat soy foods, which are full of flavones, have a lower incidence of prostate cancer."

"Eating meat raises your chances of developing prostate cancer. So does drinking large amounts of milk and taking calcium supplements that deplete your body of vitamin D. Low levels of vitamin D are a major risk factor for prostate cancer."

He also cites the Omega-3 fatty acids in fish as being a healthy defense against prostate cancer. But the Omega-3 fatty acids in fish come from the algae they eat—a plant food. Admittedly, eating fish is more tasty (because of the flavor of cooked fat) than eating algae, but you can get some of the same Omega-3 EFAs (long-chain DHA and EPA) from taking algae-derived Omega 3 supplements, as well as by taking in large amounts of other plant-form Omega-3 (like flax, chia, and hemp seed, walnuts, purslane, and other dark leafy greens), from which the body gets the EFA alpha-lenolenic acid (ALA) which the body partially converts to DHA and EPA. So eating fish is not mandatory—but getting adequate DHA/EPA essential fatty acids is.

Dr. Mirkin concludes by saying . . .

"At this time, the best diet to prevent prostate cancer is loaded with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and other seeds, and deep-water fish; limits meat and whole milk dairy products; and has ample amounts of vitamin D (preferably from sunlight)."

In other words, eat a plant-BASED died (the above diet is BASED on plants), or better yet, eat a vegan (all plants) diet.

You can read Dr. Mirkin's short post here.

Turn Here Sweet Corn

I wrote in March about Atina Diffley's new memoir, Turn Here Sweet Corn, and there is now a trailer for the book (cool idea). This is a beautifully written book that gives incredible insights into land and food and the kind of people who love both. Whether one is a farmer/gardener or not, I wish everyone would read this book. Folks like Atina and her husband make many of us look like slackers. I have had greater appreciation for what it takes to bring organic food to my plate, and for why I'm happy to support gardeners like the Diffley's who produce it.

Physician, Heal Thyself

Hold the Sugar

There is a growing amount of attention focused on the deadly impact of sugar, in all its forms—yes, even natural sugars in fruit, though this impact is partially mediated by the fiber in fruit.

Three points in this post that create a macro-connection:

1. The rise in death by cancer from 1900 until now: 64 deaths per 100,000 in 1900 versus 185.9 deaths per 100,000 in 2010 (graph from The New England Journal of Medicine).

2. The prevalence of sugar in the American diet, obesity rates being the most obvious sign. All one has to do is read food labels to see how much sugar is in the packaged foods we buy. Just last weekend, I went through my pantry and tossed out a number of jars and packages of food containing sugar: Trader Joe's Peach Salsa, Trader's Joe's Corn Salsa (sugar was second ingredient on the list), agave nectar (duh), dried figs (concentrated sugar in smaller, dried, form), etc.

3. Research released on June 26, 2012, in Molecular Systems Biology, that shows how depriving cancer cells of sugar leads to their apoptosis (death) without harming other normal cells. Dr. Gabe Mirkin has pointed out that chemotherapy and radiation will never be a cure for cancer because they both kill normal cells as well as cancer cells. To generate levels strong enough to kill all the cancer cells would destroy too many normal cells. But when cancer cells are deprived of sugar, their only source of energy, they die on their own. (Read Dr. Mirkin's report on this research at his website, here.)

Here's the opening paragraph from Dr. Mirkin's report:

"This week a realistic cure for cancer was presented by Thomas Graeber of UCLA (Molecular Systems Biology, June 26, 2012). His team showed that depriving cancer cells of the sugar, glucose, kills them by causing the cancer cells to accumulate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). As ROS accumulate in cells, they damage the large molecules in cells, such as DNA and RNA, and cause apoptosis, the programmable death of cells. This specifically kills cancer cells without harming normal cells."

So, connect these three macro-dots: A huge increase in cancer rates in America coupled with a huge increase in the consumption of sugar in America, and brand new research that shows depriving cancer cells of sugar leads to their death . . . .

Even with this research, I wonder how many cancer patients will continue to be fed sugar as part of their hospital meals, and how many will be told by their doctors to remove sugar from their diets. I'm not suggesting that eliminating sugar is a cure for all cancer, but the big trends seem to suggest it could be part of the cause now that we know how dependent cancer cells are on sugar for survival.

Takeaway: An accepted notion is that every human body has rogue (cancer) cells in it all times. If those cells don't "take root" and become "cancer" it's because the body's immune system has eliminated them before they have a chance to multiply and spread. Therefore, the goal is not to wait until we "get cancer" to try to fight it by eliminating sugar from the diet, etc. The goal is to maintain an "anti-cancer" inner-environment all the time so cancer cells have little opportunity to find food (sugar) and become established. Such an inner-terrain is an alkaline environment (sugar being the opposite, acidic) fed by cancer fighting foods, specifically cruciferous veggies, dark leafy greens, and other anti-cancer foods and herbs. (See sources like AntiCancer (2nd edition) by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber and Foods to Fight Cancer by Dr. Richard Béliveau and Dr. Denis Gingras.)

And, the point of this post, the elimination of sugar, cancer's main energy food.

It's easy to forget that sugar is a processed food. It's also easy to rail against the "processed food" plague while consuming vast quantities of other processed foods (oils, sugars, etc.) along with our organic, locally-grown, whole-foods fare. If sugar had been left where God created it—in the fruits and some vegetables like carrots and beets—we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

Processed foods are another example of not everything that is possible being helpful (1 Corinthians 10:23).

Addendum: Because a good question was raised in the comments on the distinction between glucose, fructose, and sucrose in the study mentioned above, I contacted Dr. Mirken for clarification, which he promptly provided:

"All sugars are inter-convertible. For example, glucose is the only sugar allowed to circulate in your bloodstream. Fructose goes directly to your liver and is immediately converted to stored sugar called glycogen,. When your body needs sugar, the glycogen is released as glucose. Sucrose is a double sugar made of glucose and fructose bound together in a single molecule. Your body cannot absorb double sugars. It absorbs only single sugars. So the sucrose is split into glucose and fructose and each is absorbed individually. Then fructose goes to your liver to be stored as glycogen. If you have too much, it is converted to a fat called triglycerides."

Therefore, the study focused only on glucose because it's the only one the body makes available to cells for energy.

Peter Cottontail

Saw my rabbit pal from the upstairs window, just chillin' out in the unusually cool afternoon yesterday. I went downstairs and got a picture from inside the kitchen window:

Then I went outside and snuck around to the corner of the house for a closer shot. His ragged right ear suggests a life in the wild:

I then started inching my way across the yard in full view until I invaded too much of his space:

His white cottontail was the last thing I saw. I was afraid I had scared him off for good, but he was back this morning, though it was too dark for photos: