[Tomorrow's skies]

To be fair I meant me and my bf, what we're willing to do and cut down on.

In most cases organic foods are the prices that food would be if we didn't have the market over-saturated with industrialized products. Also in other cases organics can be expensive because grocery stores are too picky about what they accept and so the price goes up.

I still eat meat, too, but we'll be looking into butcher shops or other places that would know where their product comes from (and how to properly cut it)

And I reject soy, I do not think it's worth all the ethical debates. Whether it's the monopolies of one corporation in the US, or the crops that are destroying the Amazon -- I'm not supporting that industry at all.

[sunnykerr]

Yeah, I've been trying to address that topic on the Business Thread, incidentally.

In terms of my own personal principles, I do have issues with the price of food in general. It's all I can afford, but I know full well that I can afford it because someone at the bottom of the economic food chain isn't being paid enough for their own labour in growing, tilling, producing... the food in question. I'd be remiss to not realize that.

It's interesting, though, to talk about the ethics of food on a health thread, right? I mean, the need to maintain one's health could be argued to be an ethical concern in and of itself. And if eating organic significantly contributes to that, then that's certainly worth noting. But, in the meantime, I think there's something to be said for looking out for our own best nutritional interest as well.

[Sea Horse]

Thought Dr. Eades had a nice new posting on his sight about weight loss and diets. Like this quote in particular on how to view loosing weight and keeping it off, best to think long term.

"The best low-carb book in print"

The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. � The best low-carb book in print

...Obesity is a medical problem caused by a damaged metabolism, which is why one person, without the damage, can eat the same foods without gaining weight that pack the pounds on someone else. Once you realize you have the underlying problem that leads to obesity, you simply have to recognize that you have to deal with it for the long term. Let’s look at it in terms of another medical problem: high blood pressure. For argument’s sake, let’s ignore the fact that about 80 percent of cases of high blood pressure can be reversed with a low-carb diet, and let’s just assume that the case we’re talking about is responsive only to high blood pressure medication. If you were the patient with the high blood pressure, and I gave you a pill that brought your blood pressure down to normal, you would consider the medication effective. Would you then say, Hey, my blood pressure is normal, yippee! now I can quit taking the medicine? I doubt it. You would say, Great, the medicine is working. Furthermore, if you quit taking the medicine and your blood pressure went back up to what it was before you started taking the medicine, would you say the medicine didn’t work? Of course not. Your high blood pressure was kept in check with the medicine, and your BP, not surprisingly, went back up when you quit taking the medicine. The medicine itself was effective. Same thing with dieting. If you have an obesity problem that responds to a low-carb diet and you lose to your target weight, then go back to your old way of eating and gain your weight back, it isn’t the low-carb diet’s fault. You have a problem that responds to a low-carb diet, and you pretty much have to stick with a low-carb diet (although not in nearly as extreme a structure as when you are trying to lose) for the long haul....

[sunnykerr]

That makes a world of sense, but I do think obesity needs to be looked upon as a symptom/consequence of addiction, too.

The reason people eat too much are both emotional and physical. The release of endorphins creates the notion that one's happiness is tied to food. It's literally habit-forming.

But the long-term approach is, I believe, the only way to go about this.

[Nick HeyRee]

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post) But them I moved away from home. To Montreal. Where there's plenty of grocery stores to be found, but they don't exactly know the guy who raises the chickens and the fish pretty much comes from a merchant. So what am I supposed to do here? No legumes, no soy, no nuts of any kind... how am I supposed to have a balanced diet (one I can actually afford to maintain) without including some kind of meat, even if I can't necessarily vouch for its origins and the humane way in which it was obtained?

Do you not have marks of quality, source, origin .e.t.c. on food in shops in Canada? Admittedly it's not the same as knowing the farmer personally or trusting a lcal butcher say, but a legal standard can be a welcome sign.


Re: Obesity
I suppose i would look to lesser amount of activity of modern times. Advances in technology and societal trends don't necessarily help matters either.

[Barstool Prophet]

People don't do natural exercises as much anymore, like walking.

[sunnykerr]

Do you not have marks of quality, source, origin .e.t.c. on food in shops in Canada? Admittedly it's not the same as knowing the farmer personally or trusting a lcal butcher say, but a legal standard can be a welcome sign.

Can't speak for other places in Canada or even in Quebec, but by and large it seems to me that most products that can be bought in grocery stores are indeed tracked (by Health Canada and its inspection branch) but by codified labels. You do have the standard "product of Thailand" or "from Mrs Brady's farm in East Angus" labels on all products, too, but the industry standards are left up to Health Canada.

As far as I'm aware anyway.

[Isa_DS]

I didn't go to my doctor yesterday because I know think that you can find all the info on the Internet. I mean, what is the point of paying someone for some info when you can get it for free on the web ?

[Cristofle]

Well, this is...special.

A bill to allow Utah schools to drop sex education classes — and prohibit instruction in the use of contraception in those that keep the courses — moved significantly closer to becoming law Wednesday. The House passed HB363 by a 45-28 vote after a late-afternoon debate that centered largely on lawmakers’ differing definitions of morality. "We’ve been culturally watered down to think we have to teach about sex, about having sex and how to get away with it, which is intellectually dishonest," said bill sponsor Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden. "Why don’t we just be honest with them upfront that sex outside marriage is devastating?"

Utah House passes bill to allow schools to skip sex ed | The Salt Lake Tribune

Now, am I reading this wrong or are they actually OUTLAWING schools' ability to give instructions to teens on how to use birth control? Per the bolded part.

[Avatar]

Seems that way.

[sunnykerr]

That doesn't just seem crazy. That seems counter-productive and stupid.

Schools can't afford to play this like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

[Avatar]

I know the guys that are against contraceptives are usually against abortion too, but what they fail to realize is that if there's one thing that stops abortion, it's contraceptives. So, yes, counter-productive seems about right.

[_vega_]

Maybe Utah needs babies.

[sunnykerr]

I know the guys that are against contraceptives are usually against abortion too, but what they fail to realize is that if there's one thing that stops abortion, it's contraceptives. So, yes, counter-productive seems about right.

Look who picked up what I was laying down.

I do think that education is the easiest way to reduce abortion rates. Heck, send in my mum. Woman traumatized me with the sheer quantities of knowledge she imparted on me at an early age with regard to all things "sex ed."

Believe me, this isn't an area where the more you know, the more it makes you want to do it.

Maybe Utah needs babies.

Then they should stop throwing their young men out of the polygamist communities.

[Avatar]

Exactly. People don't get aroused from sex ed - if they're anything like me, they get mortified. In this issue, more than anything, knowledge is indeed power. Not just to stop unwanted babies, but to prevent the spread of STDs.