Category Archives: Health

Gluten-Free: The Latest Dopey Food Fad

Posted on by
Reply

GlutenFree4 550x633

America is blessed with amazing amounts and varieties of foodstuffs. Unfortunately, it is also cursed with the amazing amounts and varieties of both charlatans and well-meaning-but-naïve citizens who preach wide-of-the-mark eating habits and diets. And a lot of those charlatans are large food companies with whopping ad budgets.

We have had low-fat diets, low-carbohydrate diets (e.g., the Atkins Diet), a flock of diet systems (Weight Watchers et al), the Mediterranean Diet, and lots of others. The latest is the gluten-free diet, which has nicely been debunked by Sophie Egan. Ms. Egan makes the interesting point that Americans are judging their food based on what the foods lack rather than what they contain, which probably is a consequence of people’s being more concerned about dieting to lose weight than about eating sane amounts of nutritious food to stay healthy.

The Dangers of Overweight and Obesity

Posted on by
Reply

obesityepidemic1 500x361

Fifty years ago a lot of Americans suffered (and some died from) hunger … and in a few countries some still do die . But today, they are much more likely to die from causes related to obesity, e.g., obesity-caused ailments such as as diabetes. Just how many deaths can be attributed to obesity or overweight depends on whose statistics you believe, but obesity is almost certainly an important cause of death. Today in most countries, expecially the U.S., eating too much is a bigger health problem than eating too little. Even people below the poverty level are eating too much, according to an “op-ed” (did you know that this stands for “opposite the editorial page”, and means it is an opinion rather than (presumably) factual news?) article by Harvard adjunct professor Robert Paarlberg, based on his book “The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism”. This example of people NOT below the poverty line shows the dangers of obesity: the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was “probably linked to obesity, diabetes, and coronary artery disease” according to his physician (and diabetes is often caused by overweight or obesity).

Man, Interrupted: Why Young Men Don’t Have Female Mates

Posted on by
Reply

ManInterrupted 550x319

A year ago we attended a Junior League dinner at the tony Menlo Circus Club in Atherton, California. We were struck by the numbers of unescorted Junior Leaguers. Some tables were filled only with women. Are these well-bred and accomplished women so choosy or so scary that they can’t find suitable dates from among among the numerous accomplished men in Silicon Valley for such an event? Apparently the problem lies in the men, according to a new book. Three years ago the authors had already posited in an earlier publication that boys and young men have been addicted to video games and online porn (both of which are compelling), with the negative consequence that they are unable to deal with real-life situations, including relationships with women.