A very quick appointment. The Dr said that he had looked at my notes and didn't expect anything to be wrong and that I have a good history. During and after the inspection he said I have perfect teeth, and that “if everyone was like you, [Mr] Crabtree, we’d be out of a job!”. He also took an xray of my teeth, and said that normally they do this every two years (my last one was 2005), but in my case I am low-risk so they do it less often.

Tags: health, vexen

New page: "Birth Control and Contraception: Wisdom Versus Superstition" by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

Tags: aids, birth control, contraception, disease, dogma, health, hiv, overpopulation, pope, population, procreation, rcc, religion, sexuality, stds

"Smoking: Society, Health and the Freedom of Choice" by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

Tags: cancer, cigarettes, democracy, fags, freedom, health, human rights, public health, smoke, smoking, smoking in public

I've been coffee-tee-total for a week, and have dramatically cut down on chocolate consumption!

Tags: chocolate, coffee, diet, health

Added the following two bits to "Issues in Vegetarian Diets" by Vexen Crabtree:

Vitamin A:

Vitamin A (retinol) is found in animal liver (in abundance), cheese, eggs, oily fish (such as mackerel), milk, fortified margarine and yoghurt7. It only comes from animal sources. There is a chemical similar to vitamin A, called beta-carotene "a substance that the body can convert into vitamin A"[Byrnes 2000]. Dr Byrnes also notes that this conversion, however, only takes place efficiently when animal fats are present. Otherwise the amount coverted into vitamin A is very small. We can't convert all our beta-carotene into vitamin A though, because beta-carotene is itself an important part of our diet and in addition. Some people cannot do it at all. "Infants and people with hypothyroidism, gall bladder problems or diabetes (altogether, a significant portion of the population) either cannot make the conversion, or do so very poorly".

Iron:

“Iron deficiency, which causes tiredness, is the world's most common nutritional problem. In the UK around 20% of women are anaemic. Iron is the least plentiful nutrient in the typical British diet. It can come from plant sources (inorganic iron) or from animal tissues (haem iron). Haem iron is absorbed around five times more efficiently than inorganic iron - this is why eating red meat is recommended for preventing anaemia. Lead researcher Dr Andrew McKie said: "Currently pregnant women suffering from anaemia are given supplements of inorganic iron, but these are poorly absorbed and poorly tolerated.”
BBC News, 2005 Sep 10

It is dangerous for women to remain on a vegetarian diet during pregnancy. Not only is substitute iron less efficient, but some people cannot tolerate it at all. If a woman's baby is intolerant to inorganic iron, a vegetarian diet can be fatal for the baby and harm the mother more than normal as her iron requirements are much higher and only iron obtained typically from red meats is adequate and efficient for her.

Tags: diets, health, iron, tiredness, vegetarianism, vitamin a
Current Location: Germany
Listening To: "Jetzt ist es still" by E Nominé

Added 5.2. Vitamin D Deficiency and Vegetarianism:

Rickets is a childhood deficiency of vitamin D, which is called osteomalacia in adults. It causes bone weakness (causing fractures), bone pains and can cause muscle weakness and joint inflamation.

It is widely thought that sunlight on our skin provides us with a mechanism to produce vitamin D but this is largely untrue; you have to be outdoors every day at the right time, in order to achieve this, and in northern climates the required wavelengths of light are simply absent for four months at winter. Most vitamin D is, and always will be, sourced from our diets. In particular, vitamin D comes from animal fat and fish. Some plants contain a form of vitamin D denoted D2 (ergocalciferol) but this is not utilized very well in animals.

“Rickets and/or low vitamin D levels has been well-documented in many vegetarians and vegans (26), since animal fats are either lacking or deficient in vegetarian diets (as well as those of the general Western public who routinely try to cut their animal fat intake), since sunlight is only a source of vitamin D at certain times and at certain latitudes, and since current dietary recommendations for vitamin D are too low, this emphasizes the need to have reliable and abundant sources of this nutrient in our daily diets. Good sources include cod liver oil, lard from pigs that were exposed to sunlight, shrimp, wild salmon, sardines, butter, full-fat dairy products, and eggs from properly fed chickens.”

Dr Stephen Byrnes, 2000
Reference 26 is duplicated at the end of this page.

Tags: diet, food, health, sunlight, vegetarianism, vitamin d
Current Location: Germany
Listening To: "This Corrosion" by Sisters of Mercy

Many people are abhorred by some of the modern and inhumane methods by which animals are farmed and the conditions that they're subject to. It is honourable to wish to reduce the suffering of animals. It is good to insist that animals are farmed in ethical and compassionate ways. However, I think it is far better to support humane animal farming by buying meat produced by humane methods, rather than avoiding meat altogether. The massive meat industry is not affected by such passive vegetarian non-consumption protests. But if market forces dictate that ethical production methods sell better, the meat industry does listen. If you are morally concerned about the welfare of animals, as you should be, it is better to buy meat farmed ethically than it is to shun meat altogether, because that makes the entire market swing towards ethical methods and has a bigger impact than resorting to (self-harming) vegetarian protest.

The Economist magazine's special report (2006) explained that buying meat from those conforming to ethical standards is more effective at changing the industry than simply abstaining from meat altogether - "consumption, rather than non-consumption" is "far more likely to produce results" according to Ian Bretman of Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) International, the Fairtrade umbrella group.

Added to: "Vegetarianism: Consumer Activism and Economics" by Vexen Crabtree.

Tags: activism, animal rights, diet, fairtrade, food, food industry, health, ian bretman, vegetarianism
Current Location: Germany
Current Mood: busy
Listening To: "A am the light" by Kirlian Camera

I've added quotes on The Great Prayer Experiment to my page "Prayer: Scientific Studies of Prayer". The results come after this nifty little quote from Prof. Richard Dawkins:

"Darwin's cousin Francis Galton was the first to analyse scientifically whether praying for people is efficacious. He noted that every Sunday, in churches throughout Britain, entire congregations prayed publicly for the health of the royal family. Shouldn't they, therefore, be unusually fit, compared with the rest of us, who are prayed for only by our nearest and dearest? Galton looked into it, and found no statistical difference. His intention may, in any case, have been satirical, as also when he prayed over randomized plots of land to see if the plants would grow any faster (they didn't)."

Anyway, the results of the 1800-patient scientific double-blind study, was: (the patients were divided into 3 groups):

• Group 1: Received prayers, but were not told about them. This tests if prayers helped them recover more than normal patients. Their recovery was average.

• Group 2: Received no prayers, and were not told so. This tested if there was something about the experiment that was affecting the results. Their recovery was also average.

• Group 3: Received prayers and were told so. This tested the psychosomatic effects of knowing that one is being prayed for. This group "suffered significantly more complications".</p>

What amazing results! The rest of my page on Prayer is my normal blunt arsenal of stark truths!

Tags: charles bethea, christianity, health, prayer, praying, psychosomosis, richard dawkins, satanism, science, sociology, templeton foundation
Current Location: Germany

Launched: "The Dangers and Purposes of Vegetarian Diets" by Vexen Crabtree

Updates:

• 2006 Dec: Launched "Vegetarianism: Consumer Activism and Economics".

• 2006 Dec: Launched "Vegetarianism: Vitamin D Deficiency.</p>

Tags: activism, animal rights, animal welfare, carnivore, diets, fish, food, food industry, health, herbivore, omnivore, vegetarianism
Current Location: Germany

What a gorgeous, succulent, well-cooked steak I just had for evening meal! With lots of mixed veg, and some equally tasty & beatiful mushroom sauce stuff. Yum yum yum! *happy belly*

I've been eating very healthy for a week... lots of salad, veg, cereals... and much less fried sausages, bacon and deserts.

Not that I'm fat or unfit, but that I want to be fitter!

Oh and by request (kind-of) I'm trying to see what it takes to get a sixpack back!

In the gym I'm doing the same upper-body routine (my weakspot) that I planned on doing out here, but have also started adding more cadiovascular (my strong area) to the mix too, just to keep that side of things up.

Tags: fitness, food, gym, health, steak

"When [the body] is worn down and exhausted by hunger and thirst, the mind in its turn must feel the strain, that mental organ which must reap the fruit. No, inward calm is needed for success! Inward calm cannot be maintained unless physical strength is constantly and intelligently replenished. Only if the body is reasonably nourished can undue strain on the mind be avoided"

"Buddhist Sciptures" by Edward Conze p46
Quotes text from "Buddhacarita" by Ashvaghosha, vi 14-8,21-2,43-52

Tags: asceticism, buddhism, david blaine, exhaustion, health
Current Mood: blank
Listening To: "Cyberchrist" by Chaingun Operate