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Does 'Supersizing' Supershrink Your Brain?
Rambo Tribble writes "As reported by the BBC, the journal Neurology is set to release the findings of a study in Oregon on diet and brain shrinkage in Alzheimer's victims. The upshot is: a diet rich in vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids is beneficial; trans fat and fast food are detrimental."
so if I start the day with a green smoothie (filled with raw veg and fresh fruits)... and then gorge myself on BBQ and fries for lunch.. I'm okay, right?
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
In short, there is nothing that is not damaging in an excessive amount. A lot of anything will bring bad consequences. This includes anything we consider "good" such as vitamins and minerals and HDL.
Good thinking! If we all just eat junk food and do whatever we want, there can't be any negative consequences! I'm glad there are people like you to show the way.
Reminded:
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
--Redd Foxx
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Hemp has the perfect ratio of Omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids, so always eat your marijuana.
The study found that high vitamin levels in the blood correlated with higher mental abilities, while higher levels of trans fats correlated with lower. The study says nothing about fruits, vegetables, or fast foods. There was also no evidence to conclude that this correlation is causative. They did not take people with high levels of trans fats and put them on a fruit-and-vegetable diet. If that were done, and their scores improved, they yes, they would have been justified in making such a recommendation. As things are, they made no effort to even determine where those vitamins and trans fats came from. If you ate hamburgers and too vitamin pills, you'd have high vitamin levels in your blood too. Another possibility is that people with lower mental abilities tend to eat more junk food with trans fats. That would create the same results in the study.
So, repeat after me: correlation does not imply causation. If you don't know this, you have no business being a scientist.
One Cinnabon and you're posting anti-science rants on slashdot. QED.
From TFA:
So they found that certain vitamins are beneficial to memory, but as none of their test subjects had Alzheimers there is no basis for any claim regarding the disease. Although I am curious what's in the actual paper (seriously, couldn't we wait a few days posting this until the actual paper is out?).
There is nothing pleasurable about trans fats. They are cheap and stable fats that make processing and cooking food *cheaper* not better. They are margarine and crisco, both of which are nasty and not nearly as good as their natural alternatives, butter and lard.
Depends. If you exercise, and vary which places you visit for a dining experience, it can be quite healthy.
If you eat the exact same thing every day from McDonalds, for a month, do not move from the couch, except to use the bathroom, then yes, it can be quite unhealthy.
I think everyone is aware that fast-foods tend to be somewhat lacking in micro-nutrients.
I am John Hurt.
If we all just eat junk food and do whatever we want, there can't be any negative consequences!
Yes, that was exactly the point of my comment. It's like how someone saying "It's okay to drive a car" is also *really* saying "It's okay to drive at 140 mph and disregard all other cars, FUCKIN' AY!!!!" Thank you for so eloquently clarifying what I really meant.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I don't go into the woods too often but there's a pretty fat squirrel lounging under our bird feeder in the back yard...
Ascalante: Your bride is over 3,000 years old.
Kull: She told me she was 19!
N, the medical profession doesn't think that way. This is just a study.
What we don't see is people talking about moderation and limits. This society is all about extremes: binge or deprive oneself. Nothing about moderation. Nobody says, "Sure, it's alright to have a cheeseburger, fries and that orange cream shake (McD's are AWESOME) every once in a while; just not everyday.
It's the same with drinking alcohol. The only exception would be smoking (anything). Smoking is something that one should never do.
It is a common myth that healthy food is expensive. Tasty, healthy food is very cheap. I get 109% of my daily nutrition and less than 30% of my calories from breakfast and lunch (5-6 days a week) and I have been doing so for many years now. 6 vegetables + 2 nut + 2 bean medley for lunch 200-250 kcal ($0.40/lunch ~$0.90-1.10 if I add avocado) (OJ,almond milk, granola, oat flake, flax seed, spinach + 3 vitamin pills for breakfast 400kcal ($1.20). I don't know, these seem like food shelf prices to me and total less than $60/mo. 20% of the time I can't follow this diet, 7% I don't eat, 7% I eat out, 6% I eat garbage. I then gorge myself for calories on tasty pasta, bread, sauces, etc for supper. $5.00 for a total cost of roughly $150.00/mo. (The bill for 2 is less than $300) A fast food meal costs me about $5 - $13, where as I could add fine cheese/meat//fish and easily beat that cost per meal at home with healthier, tastier cuisine that is lower impact, more conscientiousness, makes me feel good, does not cause behavior problems in children, and does not slowly transform me into a burden for society. Even fast food value meal crap in the morning or lunch (or similar processed food from the market) would be significantly more expensive than eating the right healthy food.
the squirrel I have been making obese with peanut butter, cashews, pecans and other nuts over the last 7 years has far outlived the normal 4 to 5 years. And the truth is human lifespan has dramatically improved since your nostalgic caveman days, even in the last 50 years with fast food and "chemicals". I'll agree with you the exercise is good, probably even more important than eating "health food diet".
I bet they make more on the soda...with fries a close second.
(hence all the upselling when you order - note that the burger stays the same size, only the fries and soda get bigger when you 'upgrade')
No sig today...
By the same token, not getting enough of certain things can have bad consequences. It's a complicated balance and it's different for every person.
It is my personal theory that the correct diet for an individual is similar to whatever tribe they came from back before modern times when we had to eat whatever was available. Some ate a lot of meat, others mostly grains, some had only fruit, and still others had access to a variety of foods, etc. What is healthy for you depends on what type of tribe you are descended from. This is part of the reason why it's so hard to be healthy these days, it takes a lot of work to figure out what is correct for you from the vast array of choices.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Except democracy. You can't have too much democracy.
Except maybe the case of two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner...
Excuse me, but have we determined, to any degree of certainty whatsoever, that actual cattle are involved in the production of McDonald's hamburgers?
Beware of the Leopard.
Giving up smoking can add ten years of being old to your life.
Fries and soft drinks... they're insanely profitable even with the free refills and if they're self-serve, there is almost no labor component to them.
I've been out of the restaurant management business for about 5 years, but things couldn't have changed that much. It costs about 3 cents for the cup and about 10 cents on average to fill it (various size cups, not every refill is a full cup, etc). People get their initial fill, most people get one refill, few people get more than one. So, if we just assume everyone gets 2 refills, it costs 23 cents for your beverage, which they sell to you for anywhere from $1.50-$4 depending on the restaurant. That gets you a ~500% profit margin.
Fries also have a good margin, though there is a higher labor component, the cost of cooking them, keeping them frozen, lowered yield (waste, broken fries, etc). In fact, most fryer side orders are pretty profitable (a half dozen mozzarella sticks might sell for around $5, but you can buy a 4.5 pound case for around $11, which will yield about 10 orders).
The sandwiches aren't nearly as profitable, particularly the meat sandwiches, but the sandwiches are what get people in the door. A 1/3rd pound burger costs around 75 cents for the meat, 20 cents for the bun, 15 cents for the cheese, and up to another 25 cents if it is dressed. They need to be refrigerated, you lose yield (overcooked, fell apart, etc) and are relatively labor intensive (especially if you patty them yourself). For that $1.40 investment (not counting labor, yield, etc), you sell it for about $3.
Factor in that somewhere around a third of all of your revenue goes to labor and another 30-40% goes to food costs depending on your model. On top of that, you still have your overhead - mortgage/rent/property taxes, heating/cooling, gas/electric, etc. Profits are pretty thin in the fast food/diner/family restaurant market and without the profitability of the side orders, most of them can't stay in business for long (hell, most of these non-chain restaurants fail in the first year anyway). Upscale/fine dining is a whole different beast.
Don't leave your mind so open that your brain falls out. Don't close it so much that you cut off the blood.
No, we haven't. From my sources at the Institute of Freaked-out Rumor and Hyperbolic Pseudoscience, not only does McDonald's use kangaroo meat, but they also clear cut 1,000 acres of rain forest every day to raise the cattle they don't use for their food.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
No, it's like the weimaraner republic, with less dog.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
You mean like Congress today?
As someone who ends up eating more fast food that I would prefer, I agree with you to some extent. If you count calories and are generally active, you can eat fast food regularly. But you do have to watch out for the high sodium and high fat content in that food and that can make it very difficult to balance your meals on a daily basis. I also found that by cutting soft drinks down to "merely" three times a day, I lost ten pounds over a few weeks. So, the trans fats and salt is not the only culprit.
If your metabolism is not very high, you will find that the high calories in the fast food makes it impossible to keep your calorie count down while at the same time getting all of the nutrients that you need. That means that even if you eat only 1500 calories a day of fast food, that 1500 calories would come with a lot more fat and not enough fiber or other nutrients you need. You can sustain many vitamins and minerals with supplements, but other things can be difficult to manage that way.
In the end, fast food isn't exactly The Devil, but you can't make it the centerpiece of your eating habits or you will be in serious trouble.
I'm a mix of Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, English, German, and Dutch heritage, tracing back just a handful of generations to the source of immigration to the States. I'm either doomed, or I can eat anything. Possibly both.
My daughter has it much worse, though, because my wife is Scottish, Irish, French, and German, as best they can tell. Her family has been in Texas since the annexation, though, so there's a good chance all that has been absorbed and is now just Texan, or so I have come to understand.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
FALSE:
As it turns out, fast food is loaded with nutrients. That's not the problem... hell for the vast majority of Americans they get more then enough 'micro nutrients'. IT's the fat and sugars that are the problem.
But go ahead and believe what the unregulated, low quality controlled, vitamin industry tells you.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"sustain many vitamins and minerals with supplements,
most supplements do exactly nothing. Besides, the fast food you eat is fortified.
Eat more then you burn, you gain weight.
If you ate only 1500 calories a day, and you are a man, you will probably loose weight with no exercise.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
No one? who the fuck do you ask, they guy in the mirror?
There is mountains of evidence that eating a healthy life style and reasonable exercise leads to longer life.
Does it mean you won't be hit buy a bus? no. Does it mean you WON"T have a heart attack? no. IT doesn't mean you are less likely to. And if you aren't running get a check up before you start, and start slow and short.
Smoking just doesn't substantially increase the odds you will get certain cancers, it also weaken the tissue in your spring, injures your heart, and a variety of other effect.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&term=physical%20exercise
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=eating%20healthy
And that's just a start.
However, you are just making mental excuses so you don't change.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Dude, based on how you keep that level of meticulous tracking of your food and calorie intakes, I'd also say you have an eating disorder.
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
Yes, and the difference is that your brain becomes resistant to glucose over time, which means it takes more to feel full, which means you eat more carbs, and then it takes more to feel full, so you eat more carbs... sugar rushes are addictive and wonder bread and sugar and the typical cracker are all essentially the same thing. Of course, the worst things you can eat that aren't just invented from stocks of chemicals made by putting other chemicals in vats and running currents through them are french fries, which have immense caloric value due to the fat and and the big carbo bomb, and a sugar soda since that's just a big wad of carbs in liquid form, which is the form in which it is absorbed by the body most readily. You might as well be injecting it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
People say that all the time, but there are plenty of useful effective supplements. Many of the vitamins, for example.
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
By eating organic cardboard and drinking distilled water you will not live any longer...
but it will seem like forever!
I can see why sugar and fat can be the problem. Even more reason to not consume junk food in excess.
If being a vegan was so great, why did you quit?
Check out my world simulator thingy.
Fast food, last I checked, had adequate levels of macro nutrients, but suffers from a lack of micro nutrients (the levels are too low to be considered 'good' enough as the sole source of food).
Here's a study detailing fast food / its lack of micro-nutrients and its effects on rats -> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18718129
Granted, these are lab rats, which ave plenty enough problems as they are, but it does support my argument.
As for the 'vitamin industry,' I can assure you that I am a scientist, and view their claims with less credibility than you do (goes in the same pile as homeopathy or various cures for cancer via Royal Rife machines).
I am John Hurt.
"Do gorillas spend all day on a couch?"
Yes, gorillas spend most of their day sitting around, particularly the adults.
"Do chimps eat hamburger?"
Chimps are enthusiastic predators and eat meat whenever they can catch and kill something.
"Do orangoutangs worry about their weight?"
I don't know. The life expectancy of an orang in the wild is 30-45 years though.
I believe that there is growing scientific evidence of a link between blood sugar spikes and dementia. I have read of scientists who hypothesize that one of the reasons older people get dementia is that their ability to moderate their blood sugar levels decreases as they get older. This seems perhaps to link in with TFA. Here is a preliminary survey of the scientific literature.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
"His two rules of eating: if it tastes good, spit it out."
That's why everything out of his power juicer is so delicious, eh?
The *REAL* phrase is "If you enjoy it, you can’t have it; if you don’t like it, you can eat all you want."
And it was penned by Mike Royko.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.