What/Who to Trust

I was speaking with my boss today, and she mentioned that you shouldn't have more than one egg yolk because of the cholesterol. I just yesterday read a section in Real Food, in which the author talks about the political nature of the official rceommendation of 300mg or less of daily cholesterol. As the account goes, the group of sciemtists in charge of this were not looking at any studies- they came up with a number based I think on what folks were then consuming, on average, and roughly halving it, in accordance with the idea that cholesterol consumption is tied to heart disease.

So I told my boss this, that there is no scientific reason for that, and she recounted some of the trite dismissive allegations of global warming skeptics, 'You can say the same thing about global warming.' And I said that the majority of the world's scientists agree on the basic tenets of global warming. She asked where I heard that, and I said I didn't remember, and she noted that wherever I read it could have been lying or mistaken. My co-worker chimed in that all of the major peer-reviewed publications have been in agreement about the basic ideas of global warming for decades. I tried to point out that general consensus doesn't mean everyone agrees on every point, or that everyone will ever agree on anything, but I'm not very good at arguing, and I don't think she wanted to hear that, so it was sort of left at that. She said, back to the egg yolks thing, that her mother has high cholesterol and her doctor told her not to eat too many egg yolks.

I didn't want to get into a long conversation about how her doctor could be wrong too, and lots of people can belief a mistaken idea, and I knew she would be very defensive, and suggest essentially that, because I didn't have the hard facts to force her to believe it, that I wasn't really credible. One thing about my boss is that she can be very defensive and unreceptive; I should start working on Ran's suggestion to try in these moments to expand my sense of self outward and spread love, but I'm afraid of the pain it will probably cause initially.

It's just so frustrating trying to interact with people who are defensive. I used to love it, because I'd have my facts and figures down, and logically force people to ackowledge and accept my position. It's so violent, and I don't have the energy for it anymore, or, I hope, the spiritual will.

All of this highlighted another thing to me: what are we to say when others won't accept your words or ideas? If my boss wants to say that the peer-reviewed articles on global-warming aren't valid, or that she won't believe them, what is there to do. I think that once we stop experiencing things ourselves, this realm of doubt is cast upon us and all our ideas and exchanges. I mean, if someone doesn't wnat to think something, short of maybe some Orwellian sort of torture, one can't force them to. And why should I want to force them, except for self-serving reasons? Having a set of shared understandings does make coexistence easier, thhough, so that's one reason.

It can get tricky, and I think it's related to solipsism. The exchange just reminded me, in a roundabout way, that we aren't grounded, and when we live in a world of ideas and man-made constructions, it can be hard to remind people that others exist outside of oneself.

More Food Stuffs

Here's a great article by Michael Pollan I read a week or two back, but never mentioned.

He makes a few good points that I really like. He suggests more greens, less grains, eating in traditional ways (which as I've come to learn via the Weston A Price Foundation, often has mre wisdom than we at first may recognize), and he also responds satisfactorily to an issue that I've often been troubled by with from low-carb diet advocates. That is, while they like to point out that 'people have been eating less fat and more carbs, just like the authorities say, but have been getting fatter' in the last generation, that criticism has been addressed by John Robbins in The Food Revolution. Robbins response, like Pollan's, is that, sure that's what the recommendations are. But what's going on on the ground in people diets is, they've just been eating more carb-rich food, and shitty carbs like white grains and sugar. You can't really say that there's a mass experiment underway in which people are eating low-fat and hight-carb diets, and hey, look how bad it is; the truth is, people haven't actually been eating this way, so fair's fair- don't trace the obesity epidemic on the by-the-letter USDA guidelines that aren't being followed.

Makes me think about the criticism of low-carb diets that I haven't seen adequately addressed: our brains need carbs for energy, and ketones that result from high-protein consumption, are unhealthy for us. Now, it could be an issue in which there's just a fundamental clash of interests and perspective, with some people saying ketones are bad, and others are good (like with saturated fat or cholesterol). If that's the case, one has to sift through the competing info and figure out what seems legit, what seems like petty politics, and what the conclusion ultimately should be. I'll keep that all in mind.

Anyway, my food choices are ok. Kind of a two steps forward, one step back deal. I was ill recently, and got very lazy and ate out more frequently than I had been because I didn't have the energy to prepare food. I've also had some white rice and flour, which I had eschewed totally for a while. I'm seriously considering eliminating grains entirely for a while, maybe a week or two. I just feel so gross after eating crappy starchy food. I'll focus on more greens, fewer fruits (which I tend to overeat at times) and good quality meats and eggs. I'm also planning on experimenting with EFT, which may be kind of hokey, but so am I often.

It's unfortunate, though, if I avoid grains, because I just started making sourdough bread, and was hoping to keep working on it. My first loaf was pretty ok- dense, which I can work on, but slightly sour in taste and pretty nice.

On the positive side, I remember a week or two ago, I hadn't had grains all day, or most of the day, and had some coconut oil and felt energized in a different sort of way from carb-energy. Sort of a cleaner-fueling energy, if that makes sense. I was barely conscious of it, but with more time away from grains and with green, I suspect I'll have a chance to explore it more.

Also, there have been some serendipitous events recently as my worldview is widening, which
is encouraging me along the way.

Much love, friends.

Energy

Still not much substantive to say. This dovetails with what's going on at Ran's site recently, though:

I've been attuning myself more closely to people energetically recently, and have felt especially sensitive to the energy people put out. I've always been a pretty sensitive and intuitive person when it comes to people's bad moods, and thtat's still my strong suit, but I'm beginning to intuit simple life energy more. The other night, for example, I was asleep and woke up, thinking about my partner and our roommate (out late together), and within a minute, I heard them moving up the stairs.

Coincidence? Sure, if you want to. But also not.

I'm also just beginning to sense the meaning in small events like that, which in the past I might not have noticed, or might have wrritten off as chance. I don't know if there needs to be intention behind them, but I do think they point to a dance of meaning that the universe conveys when you want to listen.

Much love, y'all.