How large is Greenland, really? Your map may be deceiving you : NPR
A reasonable sop to cattlemen 🥩
I was looking at the new nutritional guidelines put out by the Trump administration. Like so many things, I agree with the sentiment but I think they get it wrong with the details.
To Make America Healthy Again, we must return to the basics. American households must prioritize diets built on whole, nutrient-dense foods—protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains. Paired with a dramatic reduction in highly processed foods laden with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excess sodium, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives, this approach can change the health trajectory for so many Americans.
While so many things were broken in the old food guidelines – they were too unforgiving to processed foods and too pro-refined grains – the new ones are too much of a sop for the cattle industry. While a good glass of whole milk and a steak are a good treat, saturated fat still matters and eating too much red meat and dairy fats will still make you unhealthy. Cheese is wonderful, but it should be a dessert, not the center part of every meal.
If I were to build a pyramid, I would put fruits and vegetables, along with all the fiber they contain on the bottom of it. That has to be the basis of any healthy diet. Above that would be plant proteins like beans and legumes. On top of that is animal proteins, such as chicken, eggs, fish, and low-fat dairy. It’s not to say you can never eat a steak or drink a glass of raw milk or have a slice of a quality cheese, but it should be a treat just like that occasional slice of pie during a holiday feast when the family is all together. It shouldn’t be a pantry staple.
I get it that cattlemen and dairymen want to see their products have strong demand, so that at least in theory the commodity price goes up. But what we really should be encouraging is high quality dairy and meat products, not cheap every day meat and dairy. Spend your money on that quality grass fed steak from a local farm a few times a year, skip the hamburger and hot dogs. Get good locally sourced bacon, sausage, pork chops as an occasional – but pricey treat. But it doesn’t belong in your Walmart shopping cart every week.
At this point, the only time I eat meat is when I’m with family or at special events. I very rarely buy any meat. I do get skim milk for my coffee, but I don’t buy cheese to have at home, but if I get a chance to get a quality hard or soft cheese when I’m out or about at a special event or celebration, I will certainly try it. It’s protein, but it’s also heart-killing saturated fat. It shouldn’t be a daily staple. Long gone are those days of 2-lb blocks of cheese in my pantry.
Real foods matter. Dairying and castle-raising are an important part of our culture, but until modern times, meat and dairy were expensive, specialty items. People’s health would be much better off if they ate much more fruits, vegetables, and beans, and kept the animal agriculture products as something for special occassions, something you buy top shelf and savior as a treat rather then every day meal. And just say no to bringing any processed foods home, but don’t wreck family get together and those truly special social occasions with some good but not healthy food.
I agree, though. Eat real food.
Respect, knowledge, and listening
One thing I’ve learned as an adult is the importance of being a knowledgeable person about the subject matter that you are dealing with, but also realizing that in many cases you are not the subject expert. It’s important to listen, but be informed and give a judgement on the expert opinion you are receiving – as experts may be misleading, wrong, or just trying to sell you something.
It was pretty darn wet riding down to the dentist 🪥
Absolutely soaked in the 34 degree heavy rain leaving home, but it was too late to call an Uber or catch the bus to the dentist when I left home. I’ve actually never done one of those Uber/Lyft taxi services, so yeah, I wasn’t sure even how to get started. It was quick ride to the dentist in the rain, as when I was leaving to go to dentist, I realized I needed to put my 15-bean soup in the fridge, more grease on the chain after it rusted up after the road salt on Sunday the last time I rode. Made it to the dentist at 8:59 AM just in time, and the ride up to Menands wasn’t super wet or icy. It was kind of a blast riding down Morton Avenue. My jeans are drying out now in the warm office with the fan blowing on them.
New dental hygienist, Paisley that was covering for Hamid was nice, I agreed to see him for the next visit. New guy, but very friendly! Pretty obvious, he had the most rundown office in the whole clinic with paint peeling and obviously worn out equipment. Very through, spent almost 45 minutes, though he got me for with the $27 fluoride treatment scam, but whatever. He had that fluoride rammed in my mouth before I could object, and I feel like he deserved the extra $20 for the compensation for the fluoride or whatever he gets paid when the dental hygienists foist it on you. Next time he won’t get, but he made me feel a bit guilty, in a not mean way, for how stained my teeth where from all the coffee drinking I do.
Singing along with Arlo Guthrie and riding my mountain bike in freezing rain to my dental appointment 🦷
It had stopped and started back up so I expect showers all morning, but I’m still hoping to ride to my mountain bike to the dental appointment, the chain well greased up. I’ll bring extra socks in case I am completely soaked by the time I get to work, and it’s always ungodly warm in my office but then again I keep the heat in my apartment at 48 degrees so the pipes don’t freeze solid.
I started the 15-bean soup on the stove at 4:30 AM and realized I didn’t add additional pinto beans to the mix when I was soaking last night, 🍲 but whatever when those beans are gone, I’ll probably break open another bag of pinto beans, soak them over night and have the other two pounds of them for the remainder of the week. Also have bread 🍞 baking in the oven, and scrambled some eggs 🥚 with a bunch of onions, mixed vegetables, salt and some cornmeal, balsamatic vinger and Stevia. It’s fine, now just to clean my teeth good 🪥 before heading to the dentist. I really hope the rain holds off to west as I both want to ride to the dentist then over to Menands in the office. Probably just take Delaware down to Morton and from there the bike trail should be fairly clear or I can ride the various south end streets. 🚵 I don’t want anything to do the Capitol this morning, as I’m not dressed up as data frames don’t care, 💾 plus I like to avoid crowds. I really didn’t get out of bed until closer to 5:30 AM but with the 9 AM dentist appointment I actually will be going in later then if I had taken the bus to the shuttle to the office at 9 AM.
Continuing to read through that second book about buying cars I got out of Hoopla, 📚 and watching various videos on YouTube about perspectives on how to get a fair deal when buying a car. Much like investing money, there are is a lot of consensus on many things but also a lot of difference in opinion. ⚖️ I do think I have a fairly solid strategy, researching until February, test driving in February, then scouring dealer listings through March and making a decision near the end of the month, 🗓️ before the first quarter comes to a close. Study window stickers online, get internet quotes for out the door prices and a break down of what goes into the out the door price. Like shopping, stick only to models you can study the specifics carefully on the internet. Focus on the total out the door price, but also carefully review the components, and understand what each means to know how much bullshit they really are. 📧 Everything besides the the out-the-door price is bullshit, but some are easier to chew away at. There is a lot of things like dealer holdback, floor payments that go into that calculation that don’t appear on the bill but are worth further consideration when reviewing the bill. The nice thing about limiting yourself to specific stock numbers 📄 if you can fully research them. I plan to start out in Syracuse, Glens Falls, Bennington, Pittsfield, Newburgh, Oneonta dealers first and get total out the door quotes, 🎯 and see if local dealers will match it on trucks I like. It doesn’t seem like the F-350 regular cab long bed, with the XL appearance package and the rear locker is exactly an uncommon or high demand truck, though it seems like every dealer has at least one or two of them in back lot. Undecided about the XL off-road package. But I pretty much know what I want. I think though that I haven’t test drove, and fuel economy and shit stiff ride gives me pause. it seems like the F-350 1-ton axle is much more common then the F-250 3/4-ton axle, the main difference is towing and rough ride. 🏔️ But it’s a real truck. I want to be fair and informed, respected by the dealers, but also realize I’ll never know as much as they do, so it’s worthwhile to listen even if I do not ageee with eveything. 🤝
I don’t know, there often is an older gray SuperDuty regular cab truck parked along Eggy’s 🛻 which I kind of like. I should consider alternatives more seriously, but I don’t want a pissy little truck, and I share the concerns with many mechanics about all the blown, I mean supercharged engines, all the LEDs and fancy displays. Those SuperDuty’s with the XL package, the vinyl seats and floors, mechanical speedometers, really remind me of my old Ford Ranger, and I have good memories of that old truck. And I want a bigger bed. But fuel economy and ride quality, especially for long trips just gives me pause. Truth is though until February this is all just theoretical in my brain, 🧠 and it’s not like I am going to buy another truck until at least late in March, maybe longer, otherwise I would not have surrendered my plates and dropped my insurance. I still have the registration on my old truck, so I could get new plates and insurance if I want to get it back on the road too, but I admit that boat 🛥️ has probably sailed.
So I’m just watching the rain and how it’s going to turn to sleet. ☔ I’ll probably do the bike part of the way, but I concede busing it is the better option but with the schedule, it could mean a lot of waiting, so I’ll probably be riding in the rain unless I want to figure out the Uber/Lyft thing and pay. 🚖 I don’t know, I won’t melt in the rain and the damn truck is going to be so expensive. But I still want to travel and not own a 20-year old Honda Civic. So bike it will be in the early morning rain. 🚲 With lots of grease to resist to the road salt, as I’m sure it will kill my mountain bike in a few years, just like it did to old Big Red. Winter won’t last forever though, and eventually I’ll get back to the woods and have a good fire, 🔥 and these days will be behind me.
