The China Study, Part I-A, Intro, Footnotes.

I just wanted to make everyone aware - while I am able to type in the words easily, adding all of the authors footnotes was not easily done. I left them out, but you can be sure that any claim, study, chart, etc. is footnoted throughout the book. His reference chapter, in the back of the book, numbers 35 pages and gives credit and credence to most of the facts listed in the text. He took time and care in making sure readers didn't think he just pulled stuff out of thin air.

The China Study, Part I, Intro.

I'm going to share some sections of a book titled The China Study over the next few weeks. I picked it up after a friend recommended it, knowing how much I like to eat and that I also generally try to watch my weight (cycling, fitness, blah blah blah). I'll let you know right off the bat that some of it may sound a bit outlandish and you may stop reading, that's fine with me. For the people that do keep reading, you may want to pick up the whole book.

Here's the first section I chose, from his introduction:

"[Quote]... After a long career in research and policy making, I now understand why Americans are so confused. As a taxpayer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health, and disease are wrong:
- Synthetic chemicals in the environment and in your food, as problematic as they may be, are not the main cause of cancer.
- The genes that you inherit from your parents are not the most important factors in determining whether you fall prey to any of the ten leading causes of death.
- The hope that genetic research will eventually lead to drug cures for diseases ignores more powerful solutions that can be employed today.
- Obsessively controlling your intake of any one nutrient, such as carbohydrates, fat, cholesterol, or omega-3 fats, will not result in long-term health.
- Vitamins and nutrient supplements do not give you long-term protection against disease.
- Drugs and surgery don't cure the diseases that kill most Americans.
- Your doctor probably does not know what you need to do to be the healthiest you can be.

I propose to do nothing less than redefine what we think of as good nutrition. The provocative results of my four decades of biomedical research, including the findings from a twenty-seven-year laboratory program (funded by the most reputable funding agencies) prove that eating right can save your life.

I will not ask you to believe conclusions based on my personal observations, as some popular authors do. There are over 750 references in this book, and the vast majority of them are primary sources of information, including hundreds of scientific publications from other researchers that point the way to less cancer, less heart disease, fewer strokes, less obesity, less diabetes, less autoimmune disease, less osteoporosis, less Alzheimer's, less kidney stones, and less blindness.

Some of the findings, published in the most reputable scientific journals, show that:
- Dietary change can enable diabetic patients to go off their medication.
- Heart disease can be reversed with diet alone.
- Breast cancer is related to levels of female hormones in the blood, which are determined by the food we eat.
- Consuming dairy foods can increase the risk of prostate cancer.
- Antioxidants, found in fruits and vegetables, are linked to better mental performance in old age.
- Kidney stones can be prevented by a healthy diet.
- Type 1 diabetes, one of the most devastating diseases that can befall a child, is convincingly linked to infant feeding practices.

These findings demonstrate that a good diet is the most powerful weapon we have against disease and sickness." [End quote]

The following posts will take small sections from different chapters of the book. If anyone wants to leave comments on any of the posts, please feel free.

Discuss, Poll #36, BMI.

Use the chart below to find your Body Mass Index (or BMI). Then, chose your result on the poll.

You can also find a more accurate "calculator" for this figure online.

Some other posts I'm working on will tie into this weeks' poll.

Results, Poll #35, Celebrity News.

[for the 2nd time, I'm rewriting this whole post after doing something that Blogger doesn't like while editing the original. As I perform this editing, it removes/cuts the whole post, then Blogger "automatically saves" the entire, newly blank, page. It's an awesome Blogger feature.]

Anyways, here's what we all said about Celebrity News:
> 6 people (40%) chose 'yes, i'm addicted, all the websites are in my faves' - yikes, you should drop your venti latte and click over to salon.com.
> 8 people (53%) chose 'yea, i see some b/c it's everywhere, but i don't seek it out' - wow. it's certainly harder to stay away from this kind of news now than in the past. you can see it almost everywhere, besides the checkout line at the grocery store (which are now superstores). in fact, i've noticed a "celebrity" segment on many local news channels - yes, thanks for reporting the timely, topical, news of the day.
> 1 person (6%) chose 'not really, i try to steer clear as much as possible' - if you have some tips for us regarding how you do this, i'd like to hear 'em.
> 0 persons (0%) chose 'no, never' that's bad juju' - a bit telling, no?

So, is it the news sources fault for shoving it in our faces? Or are we all partly to blame? Kind of a shame really - I think it's a waste of our time and (some of) their talents.

An Old-Timey Place.

If you ever have the chance, stop by the Courier Cafe in Urbana, IL. They have great food for both meat and non-meat eaters (it is liberal Urbana), a great historical building, good service, and an old-timey feel that just can't be matched in most places.


Not a too-small space, but not so big (ahem, Cheesecake Factory) that you feel uncomfortable or get lost on the way back from the bathroom either.


They don't "make these like they used to". In fact, they've been replaced by computers... Progress?


And what little dude (or dudette) wouldn't want to push in a recently begged quarter and watch this contraption pick up and deliver a shiny new gumball? Not many.

Brain Teaser, #3.

If you add the age of a man to the age of his wife, the result is 91. He is now twice as old as she was when he was as old as she is now. How old is the man, and how old is his wife?

A Night of Legends.

Recently, I pretty much lucked into an event at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was at the Assembly Hall and was titled "A Night of Legends". The basketball program had deemed it time to hang some famous jersey numbers, and they wanted to invite everyone to watch, with an all-star UofI basketball game thrown in for fun.




Not only did we get to see a game played by such UofI stars as - [from the News-Gazette] "There could be some no-shows, and some unexpecteds, but the rosters (or confirmed attendees) for A Night of Legends at the Assembly Hall are taking shape. Players who have said they'll be there Saturday include four of the five starters from '04-05: Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Roger Powell." [...And] members of the 1989 Final Four squad who have said they'll be there: Kendall Gill, Nick Anderson, Stephen Bardo, Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty and Larry Smith. Then some others, spanning the Kruger-Self-Weber years: Kiwane Garris, Brian Cook, Frank Williams, Jerry Hester, Jarrod Gee, Kevin Turner, Lucas Johnson, Cory Bradford, Sergio McClain, Sean Harrington, Jerrance Howard and Victor Chukwudebe."

But we also got to see (from afar) Deron Williams' Men's Olympic Basketball Gold Medal and a very nice ceremony for the unveiling of the jerseys, done by each player or one of their living family members (some of the jerseys were from players in the 30s and 40s). All in all, a pretty cool, historical night to be a part of.

[I know, crap pic]

We also found a new place to hit before events at the Assembly Hall - Houlihan's. I know, I know, you're thinking "Houlihan's?" - but the food was good and better yet, you can arrive early for dinner, park in their lot, then literally walk across the street to Assembly Hall. The restaurant is part of a new conference center and hotel, just south of Assembly Hall.