Diabetes Down, COVID Curiosities, New Glasses after Accident

Diabetes Down Despite Dietitians' Directions

Last Sunday when I wrote about the grifters over at EatThis.com, which calls itself "Eat This, Not That," I was worked up enough to tweet to their medical expert board members if they stood by the site's article flogging sugary drinks and fast food for St. Patrick's Day. The site has over 1,300 articles, mostly puff pieces, on McDonald's and a news feed full of "the most important breaking news" on Doritos, burger joints and Chips Ahoy! I asked a dietitian who responded to me what exactly the "not that" part was in "Eat This, Not That."

Important news about what you should eat!

I was worked up until I remembered the saying, "You can't cheat an honest man." Meaning that this con, like a lot of others, requires some dishonesty on the part of the mark. Every Joe Six-Pack knows that cookies, chips and coffee-flavored milkshakes from Starbucks aren't health food. It takes some motivated reasoning to let a site with a veneer of respectability convince you that junk food is part of a healthy diet. 

It’s important to note that all foods can fit into a healthy eating pattern. St. Patrick’s Day is a fun holiday & the article highlights festive foods to celebrate. It did not claim them as healthy foods, more of a fun way to enjoy something celebratory, which is a part of life.

— Amy Goodson (@amy_goodson_rd) March 18, 2024

Most people have caught on that it's mostly an excess of carbs that lead to weight gain and diabetes. Age-adjusted diabetes has been on a downward trend since 2009, about the time that low-carb and paleo diets started a resurgence. Inflated insulin prices probably played a part, too.

The Lands that Time Forgot

The pandemic has been over for almost two years, more or less, here in central Indiana. We speak of it in the past tense on the rare occasion it comes up and you might see one in a hundred people wearing a mask. We're normally behind the times, but we're ahead of the West Coast. Vinay Prasad reports that the University of California at San Francisco is having their match day (a medical school event) outdoors and they're contact tracing. In 2024. Up in Washington state, "Vending machines dispensing free COVID-19 and flu tests have started popping up around Washington state, with more to be installed in the coming weeks." But here, Indiana's attorney general is about to "unveil the results of a report he commissioned to expose the actual numbers associated with the coronavirus lockdowns" tomorrow on the fourth anniversary of the governor's stay-at-home orders.

More Safetyism

I'm getting over an eye infection that happened after I was hand-weeding and a stick flew up and whapped me in the eye. I was so miserable that I missed two days of work, closed all the curtains in the house, and had to go to several doctor appointments. Note that I was weeding by hand, not using a weed whacker. I wear eye protection whenever I use a weed whacker or any other machinery that could lead to something hitting me in the eye. When I was 15, something got in my eye when I was mowing the lawn and it wouldn't come out. By sheer luck, my sister-in-law had an eye appointment the next day and took me with her. The doctor put some liquid in my eye and he picked out the "foreign object." I've worn glasses while mowing the lawn ever since. Now I'm going to wear them while weeding. Getting hit in the eye while pulling up grass was a freak accident, but I seem to be prone to freak accidents. I've lost track of how many I've written about here over the years. 

I bought this pair of safety glasses (Milwaukee Clear Safety Glasses Anti-Scratch Lenses for less than $10) and I'm very happy with them--they're lightweight, comfortable and they fit well. I might look like a nerd, I might seem like a safetyism dork, but that's better than a sharp stick in the eye.