@Octane Of course you're allowed to chime in, this wasn't a closed-off conversation, and any and all points of view are welcome, far as I'm concerned, and may even serve to further the conversation in a positive and/or constructive manner.
Good point you made. Still doesn't explain how we all but halted AIDS, and largely crippled cancer, though.
It's not like these are simple diseases either. It would seem, from the outside looking in, that especially in the case of cancer, more attention is paid to it, and more effort is put into it, compared to "smaller"/lesser diseases, that either aren't directly lethal or not lethal at all, regardless of the fact that these too can still have a rather lasting and sometimes even debilitating effect on one's life.
I would know, seeing as my dad is both a diabetic and a Parkinsons patient. He has to take a lot of pills each day, and had to severely adjust his diet and daily habits.
And trust me: looking at price differences, (rather sudden) uprising of certain diseases and/or distribution of certain types of meds, it most certainly isn't all that strange to suspect that there's more than meets the eye there. No need for conspiracy theories either. Just look at how smaller companies are strangled/crippled, just because they were somehow able to manufacture certain types of pills for much cheaper, which was also happening in the Netherlands, recently.
Pharmacy is a business first and foremost, eradicating any and all diseases has slowly been surpassed as the primary goal. Businesses can't thrive on being good Samaritans alone...
As for not being able to objectively compare severity of diseases: yes we can. The simplest differentiating factor could be lethal or non-lethal, and another could be the disease having a lasting effect or not, even after having been cured. All of which can have a whole range of effects on somebody's life in a variety of ways, the most severe one obviously being ending someone's life prematurely.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
Phew...
Good morning. 🤓
I woke up from my bedtime just now. 😉
My body told me to wake up quickly for today due to Super Mario Maker 2 Direct that will be aired Live at 5 am in my country.
Okay... I think i want to play some 3DS / NDS games again, preparing my lunch box, having my breakfast, take a bath and get dressed while waiting the Direct.
@ThanosReXXX Both of my grandmothers are that way, though one is way more so than the other at this point as my dad's mother is significantly slowing down; the dear woman is already 91! She loves baking but just doesn't have the energy to do hardly any of it these days, much less leave her own home. It's a shame as I'd argue that she has some of the best chocolate chip cookies ever...though I may be biased.
The main culprit at this point is my maternal grandma; besides some health issues that she's keeping in check, she's still pretty spry and adores cooking. Her ice cream logs and cakes are certainly unique...and delicious! She definitely overdoes it with the helpings though. XD
Food is love to these wonderful ladies and, I'd argue, a lot of their generation as well.
@bimmy-lee As do I. IIRC part of the problem other than dad's general discomfort with the machine is that, even before he started showing the classic symptoms, he historically was and still is quite an active sleeper and moves around quite a bit/is a bedhog. He'd end up pulling the mask off without even being aware of it. Mom even bought him something for Christmas that should help, but to my knowledge he still hasn't tried using it.
Unfortunately I don't know what else I can do at this point. He typically listens to my mom the best (and, due to similar personalities in some respects and to very different interests and outlooks on humor and life, he and I don't see eye to eye half the time) but is also a very stubborn person; convincing him to do something half the time is like trying to tell a mountain to do backflips.
My grandfather - his dad - was hospitalized when I was very young due to a stroke and died during his hospitalization from a heart attack. Due to their physical and mental similarities, I'm worried that he's heading in the same direction.
It's difficult to convey in text how terrifying it is to wake up to someone gagging horribly.
Currently playing: Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (Switch)
@Tyranexx And yet, somehow, most of them became as old as dinosaurs. All of my grandparents passed away either in their late eighties, or well into their nineties, an age that I'm wondering if I'll ever even reach, regardless of me living a relatively healthy life, eating fresh foods, taking care of my sugar and salt intake, and minimizing alcohol and not smoking.
My takeaway from that is that back then, they were using far more natural ingredients, which were naturally high in fat and nutrients (edit: healthy, saturated fats that the body knew how to deal with). Nowadays, almost everything is low fat, low carb, sugar free or there's a lot of processed foods of which you wouldn't even suspect, that they have sugar in them.
Decades ago, like before and shortly after the second World War, products didn't have nearly as much trash and sugar in them, as they have now. Which, if you ask me, is also where the upsurge in diabetics is coming from, as well as the obesity problem. Well, of course the expansion of fast food chains is also partly to blame. Then again: our grandparents were also already drinking milkshakes and eating burgers and fries...
If you're interested in the topic, look up the BBC documentary "the truth about sugar". It can probably be found on Netflix, or maybe even on YouTube. I found it to be highly enlightening and educational.
@ThanosReXXX Thanks! I'll have to look up that documentary.
My findings generally agree; natural sweeteners, sugars, fats, etc. aren't bad in moderation. The main culprit seems to be all the processed stuff that gets created and added for cost-saving purposes. Trans fats obtained from processed sugars and some oils are high on my avoidance list (though I still indulge in something fried or syrupy once in a while), but I'm happy to have natural saturated fats like real butter in moderation. That stuff was demonized for awhile. Eggs were hated for some time too, but not only are they actually VERY good to have in your diet, I love them besides.
Edit: I've heard/read that some foreigners think American food is too sweet. There's a reason for that; besides over use of sugars in general, a lot of the processed sweeteners are VERY sweet. It's something that one DOES notice after curbing their own sugar intake a little.
As mentioned before, I also don't think eating carbs is a sin, it just depends on where said carbs come from. Things like gluten-free are unnecessary unless someone has Celiac's IMO. As for organic or free range food, it's pretty much just another marketing label. Some of the stuff I buy is labeled organic, but that has more to do with the ingredients in it vs. non-organic; there aren't as many options here as there'd be in a more urban area in terms of healthier/less processed food, so we don't have anything like Trader Joe's. XD
Everything in moderation with more fruits and veggies thrown in for me. I also eat less red meat than I used to in favor of other things, but I ultimately can't do without any of that either besides maybe pork. I love all the food groups, my favorite ones just happen to contain the stuff that you shouldn't eat too much of.
@Tyranexx - Yeah, we’re pretty stubborn animals, aren’t we? I’d imagine a grain farmer who can work hard from sun up to sun down doesn’t want to hear he has a health problem, especially one he can’t see. The symptoms come on over years, it’s subtle but compounds over time. He’s probably accustomed to the way he feels and doesn’t see it as a problem. Health conversations are awkward and can easily backfire. I had to get pretty low before admitting it was a problem. I used to look forward to grinding my coffee beans in the morning so I could take a 30 second nap. Things like that. I only agreed to try it so that I could say I tried. I only stuck with it because I decided I should be alive and awake for my family. Hope something gets through to him. Keep chipping away at him. Even if someone gets irritated with the conversation, they’re probably still flattered that someone cares enough to have the conversation.
@bimmy-lee Thanks, we'll keep at it. Getting him to do anything for his health, barring any immediate and obvious issues like a fractured arm a couple years back, is extremely difficult. His condition affects everyone, my mom the most. She deals with mild insomnia already (mostly age related IIRC) and is on OTC meds for that, but his raising the roof with his snoring definitely doesn't help matters.
Currently playing: Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (Switch)
Remember with Super Mario 64 DS, Mario would say ".....BBBYYEEE BYYYYEEEEE!!!" really loud, could never escape Mario's wrath, it was basically the Mario from the Youtube Poops only in my pocket.
I made Sheldon & Mr. Randoms back on Flipnote Hatena, now i'm a kangaroo mod that has a funko pop collection!
I'm not keen politics since that stuff is spooky, I'd rather watch SpongeBob over Fox News anyways!
@Tyranexx All true, but we already agreed on moderation. An interesting fact is also that people living in the so-called blue zones are generally getting much older than we do, on average, and (although in moderation) they all eat and drink to their heart's content, including a lot of foods considered to be too fat by modern society, so one could seriously start wondering about the how and why...
Personally, I stick to somewhat of a similar regimen as you do: fresh vegetables and fruit, I make my meals with all fresh ingredients as well, I never eat white bread (only spelt bread), eat quite a lot of chicken filet, have a non-meat/meat-free day at least one day a week, but usually two. Besides that, I also rarely eat red meat, also to make sure that I still consider a good steak or roast beef as an actual treat instead of as a regular part of my diet, and the only other red meat that I consume, is lean ground beef, which I use when making pasta dishes or my chili con carne.
Other than that, it's also quite smart to have at least one day in the week, on which you eat any kind of fish that's rich in fat and fish oils, such as salmon or tuna. I often buy a big piece of salmon, and just bake it like a piece of meat, in olive oil, only slightly seasoned with pepper, garlic and a pinch of salt.
I don't know if that's available in the States, but over here, we also have quite a large variety of smoked fish. In the summer, when it's sometimes too hot to hang over a stove and cook, I simply put smoked mackerel on a sandwich, with a bit of mayonnaise underneath, instead of butter.
As for processed foods and their sugar content: it's also added as a preservative, which is what makes it so hard to turn things around and come up with a solution, because practically the entire world is now used to this, and removing the sugar from all these foods will make it taste considerably different, and for quite a lot of people probably not palatable anymore.
Organic and/or biological foods don't really have any superior value over non-organic and/or industrially harvested foods. Over here, we recently had a test to see if nutritional values were higher or lower in vegetables from all these various sources. Surprisingly, there were no differences, so the only benefit is basically supporting smaller farmers, who don't leave such a big imprint on the Earth, but other than that, there's no gain for personal health. In fact, there's only a disadvantage, due to prices for these type of foods often being higher than for those harvested in far larger quantities by industrial means.
Anyway, be sure to give me a heads up when you've watched that sugar documentary. I'd be interested to hear what you think about it, and if you were able to glean some new info from it, because you already seem to be quite informed about the topic.
It's on YouTube, by the way. I've already found it by searching for "The Truth About Sugar BBC"...
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