Pain, Pain, Go Away!

If I'm ever in a trench defending my homeland from barbarians, I want Linda Wells, Editor-in-Chief of Allure magazine, next to me. She's spent her last couple of vacations at a boot camp eating vegan food, sans booze, caffeine, gluten and sugar and going on five-hour hikes, getting blisters along the way. She doesn't feel (or sound) self-righteous. She's lost eight pounds, but says she's ready to "re-tox." The same issue of the magazine describes the program of a weight loss clinic called Medi-Weightloss: 500 to 800 calories a day of protein (around 125g to 200g), supplements, laxatives, and a prescription appetite suppressant called phendimetrazine. Jesus wept. Starvation diets--and this diet is well into starvation territory--have been well studied. They're known to cause weakness, fatigue, loss of libido and psychosis . Low-fat diets can cause depression, among other problems . And what's with the heaping helping of protein? Plugging in th...

Re: the movie Cereal Killers , a documentary about a man who starts researching heart disease and puts his own hypothesis to the test, has reached a milestone. This just in: We are delighted to report that Cereal Killers has reached the 100% funding milestone on kickstarter folks! To each and every one of the 183 persons who have carried us over the line and into new terrain - THANK YOU! SO...What happens next? Well for us, we just take a deep breath and we keep going.... The momentum, awareness and goodwill generated by a successful kickstarter campaign is only bettered by a super successful kickstarter campaign. Sometimes projects REALLY catch fire and that's where we're aiming next. Kickstarter promotes projects that look like they're gonna take off, and they do that based on the number of pledges and the hype a project is creating on the internet. Now that we have reached our target, every £1 pledge or tweet or facebook share adds weight to our visibil...

There's a lot of conflicting dietary advice around, but conventional wisdom contradicts itself on diet for a healthy heart v. diet for healthy teeth. The commonly recommended heart-healthy diet is low-fat, little meat, lots of whole grains, and fruits and vegetables. That doesn't quite square with "Foods and Drinks Best for Your Teeth" from that pillar of medical dogma, WebMD.com: The best food choices for the health of your mouth include cheeses, chicken or other meats, nuts, and milk. These foods are thought to protect tooth enamel by providing the calcium and phosphorus needed to remineralize teeth (a natural process by which minerals are redeposited in tooth enamel after being removed by acids). Other food choices include firm/crunchy fruits (for example, apples and pears) and vegetables. These foods have a high water content, which dilutes the effects of the sugars they contain, and stimulate the flow of saliva (which helps protect against deca...

The polite brush-off answer: because I'm not you or them. Answers that require more thought: Metabolism doesn't improve with age. I could eat crap, or have nothing but a bun or soda for lunch, when I was nineteen and it didn't bother me. Much. Most people that age can say the same. Now that I'm 44, I usually can't fast and more than a little carb makes me tired and hungry and gives me a stomach ache. A high-nutrient, low-carb diet and three meals/snacks a day is my way of dealing with it. Genes. I'm from a family full of diabetes and hypoglycemia and used to have most of the symptoms of hypoglycemia listed in Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution. Expecting someone like me to do well on a "balanced diet" (i.e., lots of starch, little meat) of three meals a day is like putting gasoline in a diesel truck and wondering what's wrong. Natural and Artificial Selection. Richard Dawkins has written about animal species undergoing natural selection wi...

If you read Fathead , you've heard of exvegans.com and the documentary Cereal Killers . But if you didn't follow the links, you've missed out on some great stuff. Want some eye candy or a good laugh? You must check out www.exvegans.com . The site is a directory of "ex-vegans" and "vegan sell-outs" that names names gives the cities, descriptions and photographs of vegan apostates. Where can I meet one of these ex-vegan guys? Most of them look like magazine models and sound more interesting than dating site bios that try to sound interesting. Raw Brahs, San Diego: "Pretty boys who make videos famous-for-being-famous but not much more." Sean Dunaway, Las Vegas: "Originator of 30 bananas a day sucks.   Was vegan and 'got too skinny' so is now a meat-eater and body builder.  This guy plays favorites on the forum and takes sides.  He is  very cruel how he socially manipulates the forum and you get a sick feeling around him .  He...

Tom Naughton's post on breakfast cereal inspired me to post photos of a box in the window of my neighbors' house down the street. Click photos to enlarge. Almost makes crap-in-a-bag sound good.

They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no. -Amy Winehouse My mother is home from the hospital, where she arrived weak and dehydrated last Thursday. She thinks that an antibiotic made her ill.* My mother uses a wheelchair but she can stand up and she can walk with a walker. She couldn't use her legs when she went to the hospital, but by Monday, she could transfer herself from the bed to the wheelchair with no help, just someone to spot her. The hospital wanted her to go to rehab, but like Amy Winehouse, she said no, no, no, for good reasons: She felt well enough to go home. Rehab is expensive. They feed you a crappy diet at rehab--crappy meaning full of carbage. It's especially unhealthy when you're diabetic, like my mother. Got normal blood sugar? They're johnny-on-the-spot with the orange juice to jack it back up. Mom was assaulted at a rehab center a few years ago. The person was never brought to justice. Being home and careful about her diet...