mediterranean diet

[bcbm]

going along with my new jogging and not smoking and doing other healthy shit program i thought changing up my diet to something healthier would be good. unfortunately i don't know anything at all about this sort of thing and most of my diet is pasta, gruel and other things you can make with a minimum of effort and money. anyway this diet sounded good because i have been to the mediterranean and i enjoyed their food.

but looking it up online all i get is crap like 'eat low fat yogurt with low fat granola for breakfast' and everything is low-calorie, low-fat, etc, etc. i mean i get its like a fad weight loss diet right now or something but it seems a bit of a misnomer. i don't think many people in greece were eating low-fat stuff, at least where i was hanging out.

so someone who understands these arcane complexities, please tell me: can i just eat more nuts and fruits and yogurts and salads and pita bread and get the same effect without eating lots of low-cal whatever crap? because that goes against my personal beliefs.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

so someone who understands these arcane complexities, please tell me: can i just eat more nuts and fruits and yogurts and salads and pita bread and get the same effect without eating lots of low-cal whatever crap? because that goes against my personal beliefs.

In a word, yes.
I'd also suggest, as much as possible, ditching refined cane sugar and cow's milk, if it's feasible (maple syrup! goat's milk!).

As for "low fat" crap - it's a whole lot of bullshit. For one, the idea that all fats are unhealthy because deep-frying food into cardboard is unhealthy is . . . missing the point. Also, "low fat" food is often full of artificial sweeteners that your body will metabolize into fuck-knows-what.

General rule - just try to eat exclusively things that you could theoretically grow/ferment in your garden/kitchen without any specialized laboratory equipment.

0yw5Mf9RlW0

[Os Cangaceiros]

Just eat a ton of vegetables, lean protein & complex carbs. That's what I plan on doing, now that my health is fucked beyond all belief and I feel like shit constantly. Although I don't know how to cook, so I guess I'll just plan on eating mostly raw food, like a giant rabbit.

*ugh*

[ANTIFA GATE-9]

meditarenean diet involves a lot of olive oil, vegetables and fruits. Also involves whole food meaning whatever you eat must be natural and not have stuff added to it, so straight from nature.goat milk is really healthy but dosent have the best taste. I live in the meditarenean and I've been watching my grandfather grow older and more fit than me(I'm pretty fit but still embarrassing when your grandfather can lift more weights than you) by eating traditional meditarenean diet all his life. The most important thing is olive oil so whenever your having something traditionally meditarenean put some it. I would name some meditarenean foods that go with olive oil but I don't know their names in English. Fish with olive oil goes i guess. I'm not a dietologist I'm just naming stuff from personal experience and traditional food we have in our country.

[Alan OldStudent]

going along with my new jogging and not smoking and doing other healthy shit program i thought changing up my diet to something healthier would be good. unfortunately i don't know anything at all about this sort of thing and most of my diet is pasta, gruel and other things you can make with a minimum of effort and money. anyway this diet sounded good because i have been to the mediterranean and i enjoyed their food.

but looking it up online all i get is crap like 'eat low fat yogurt with low fat granola for breakfast' and everything is low-calorie, low-fat, etc, etc. i mean i get its like a fad weight loss diet right now or something but it seems a bit of a misnomer. i don't think many people in greece were eating low-fat stuff, at least where i was hanging out.

so someone who understands these arcane complexities, please tell me: can i just eat more nuts and fruits and yogurts and salads and pita bread and get the same effect without eating lots of low-cal whatever crap? because that goes against my personal beliefs.

Congratulations on trying to take some measure of control over your life, Comrade.

I'd say eat a wide variety of minimally processed food. Look for colors in veggies. If you eat meat, emphasize lean. If you decide to seek advice, don't do it in a health-food store. Talk to someone who actually has some academic qualifications. In the United States, that's a registered dietitian, somebody with RD after their name. Don't go for extremes, avoid tobacco, and if you consume alcohol, do it minimally. Make sure that whatever regimen you go on tastes good and you enjoy it, or you won't stick with it.

Regards,
Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates

[bricolage]

what antifa gate-9 is really it. the problem is you need to swap loads of oils/things you eat cooked with oils for olive oil to really get the benefit of it. the problem is that outside the mediterranean olive oil is really expensive so it's not too affordable.

that knob jamie oliver recently came out with a thing in the UK saying how poor people are dumb cos they buy big tv's at eat shit food and how if you go to sicily street cleaners will buy mussels and cherry tomatoes for 60 pence or whatever... excluding the fact that this isn't sicily here and you aren't gonna get mussels and cherry tomatoes for 60 pence. anyway that's a side track.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

mediterranean diets often aren't low fat, they're often high fat, but contain good fats. I.e. they drizzle (love that word) their salad with olive oil, eat a lot of olives, capers, anchovies.

The basic rule of a mediterranean diet is to eat a mostly fish based diet in terms of your main meal, have a lot of salad (fresh stuff) with your food, cover your salads with vinaigrette (olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed), and grilled your meats, steam your veg. That last bit about the cooking method is most important.

Snack on natural yoghurt and exotic fruit (or cheap fruit, whatever), eat a moderate amount of olives and capers, peppers dipped in humous, humous and pitta, avocado, fresh fruit juices etc.

Above all, whatever diet you choose, the golden rules are just to watch how many calories you eat, make sure your diet is clean (i.e. no processed foods, tinned crap, ready meals or trans fats, don't cook in butter and attempt to grill and steam everything, or if you do fry, fry in a small amount of olive oil for as short a time as possible) and exercise regularly. As long as you do that, it doesn't really matter what diet you eat.

[bcbm]

after this post i went grocery shopping before i bothered to wait for people to tell me what to do. i got a bunch of veggies and salad, some fruit, greek yogurt, some pita bread, some bran cereal, some juice and some hummus. i cheated and got some turkey, salami and havarti cheese. and kraft mac and cheese cuz whatever fuck you.

then i went to the bar and got drunk for the first time in a month on gin and tonics and beer and then bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked two of them.

but i had a nice snack of broccoli and carrots and hummus and a veggie pot pie. and realized i hated everyone at the bar and everything associated with it and smoking sucks and i want to continue being a health nut/shut in. thanks for the good advice yall:cool:


and cow's milk

i have never been vegan but i fucking hate cows milk and will never, ever drink that shit.

i like cheese though.

go figure


. the problem is that outside the mediterranean olive oil is really expensive so it's not too affordable.

nah you can get extra virgin olive oil pretty cheap here, its just probably made from olives grown in i dunno some weird place in michigan or something. but i always figured the extra expensive 'real organic from italy' shit was probably a lie anyway so its cool. i bought some 'greek salad dressing' that has olive oil (imported!), vinegar, black olives and feta in it so i will probbaly just dumpt hat on everything for the next month

[Quail]

Houmous and pita/olives/pepper/carrot/pretty much anything is a good snack. I think (although I'm not sure) the Mediterranean diet is high in fat, but "good" unsaturated fat. If you're wanting to lose weight, or eat healthy portions, it's actually good to include high fat foods like olives, avocado, olive oil, etc in your meals because you'll feel more satisfied.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Cicadas and locusts are packed full of protein.

[Alan OldStudent]

Habitual excessive alcohol use destroys brain cells and is implicated in dementia. It can cause alcoholic kidney disease, alcoholic nephropathy, alcoholic blindness. It ruins your internal organs, is high-calorie with little nutritional value, is implicated in the onset of type 2 diabetes, interferes with your ability to maintain an erection and to perform sexually.

What is excessive alcohol use? For a start, getting drunk is excessive alcohol use. Drinking enough to get you sick, interfere with judgment and impulse control, driving under the influence are all excessive alcohol use. Following on that, excessive alcohol ruins not only your life but the lives of everyone else involved in any degree in your life.

I don't mean to be hard on you, but you said you were trying to get healthy. Excessive alcohol use reverses all that.

How do I know about excessive alcohol use?

I grew up in an alcoholic family and worked as an interpreter and coordinator in an alcohol and drug abuse facility in an inner city clinic in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the United States. I also have worked in emergency medical settings and have interacted with literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who use alcohol excessively. I can spot them a mile away.

I choose to be a teetotaler, but I know many people who use alcohol responsibly. They seem to suffer no ill effects, and I believe a little wine or beer may even be healthy for some. However, I seem to be sensitive to it in a negative way.

Getting drunk is not responsible, and it interferes with rational thinking. When I look at pictures of Stalin, I see the face of what looks like alcohol abuser to me. Stalin may well have been an alcoholic. I suspect it's alcohol that made him so meshuggah and paranoid with that weird delusion about the Jewish doctors' plot. He probably was fairly bright as a young man. When he died, he seems to have been suffering from paranoia and likely psychosis. He certainly exercised bad judgment that resulted in the needless death of thousands.

Please use alcohol responsibly, comrade. We need your talents.

Regards,
Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates

[bcbm]

myself and most people i know are probably alcoholics, so i know what it looks like. and i am becoming less comfortable with that. thank you though

[Philosophos]

Olive oil is propably the base of mediterranean diet. I don't know if you can afford it but feta the greek cheese (it's something like 70% sheep and 30% goat milk) is fucking awesome and I eat it all the fucking time. So if you eat these things and fish, vegetables and drink like one glass of wine every day you're having a mediterranean diet.

The best thing with it is that you can eat like the double portions from butter based food and you won't get fat. When I first lost 30kg/60 pounds I started having a healthy diet and I've kept my weight in conrtol.

Good luck with quiting smoking.

[DDR]

I don't belive there's such a thing as mediterranean diet, what we eat in one side of the Mediterranean isn't eaten in the other. Although there's one common denominator, olives. So cook everything with olive oil (for better taste try to stay away from the Italian one), use it for salads, when you boil pasta and/or for tomato sauces, grill your meat and never forget lentils, chickpeas and beans (good sources of iron and proteines) but I belive that lentils and chickepas are really expensives in the States (if you cannot find them try Mexican stores). Also, potatoes (in omelette, with alioli, in stew, etc.)

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

yeah bcbm you gotta give up alcohol, or at least getting smashed. A few beers or whatever probably won't set you back too much though, as long as it's occasional.

I like beer, I must say.

[Alan OldStudent]

myself and most people i know are probably alcoholics, so i know what it looks like. and i am becoming less comfortable with that. thank you though
Recognizing that excessive alcohol use causes you problems is step one. From what you're saying, you're becoming less and less comfortable with it. From your first post in this thread, one can see that you're trying to become healthier. Becoming uncomfortable with excessive alcohol use is part of your becoming healthier.

This isn't a matter of morality or character. But it is a tragedy to see excessive alcohol use ruin a revolutionary's (or even any human) life.

Alcohol abuse is not cool. You say most of the people you know are alcoholics. If they think it's cool to get drunk, that might make it more difficult for you to cut back or quit. Our friends to influence us.

I saw a couple of young guys on the bus the other day bragging to each other about how hung over they were the previous weekend. They thought it was cool.

Regards,
Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates

[BIXX]

In regards to drinking, I have mixed feelings. On one hand it gives me an excuse to say shit that I'd normally want to say but am unable to, on the other hand, I get depressed as fuck and drink myself to a puking mess.

[Alan OldStudent]

In regards to drinking, I have mixed feelings. On one hand it gives me an excuse to say shit that I'd normally want to say but am unable to...
Maybe you’d find it useful analyze what kind of things do you want to say but are unable to unless you are drinking? Do you have angry words or hurtful words that you want to express to someone, maybe someone you love?


... on the other hand, I get depressed as fuck and drink myself to a puking mess.
The reason you feel depressed and nauseated is that excessive drinking is poisoning yourself.

Can you have a talk with yourself about excessive drinking? Maybe you can make a sheet with plusses and minuses and weigh them.

Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper and then put “Reasons To Drink Excessively” on left side and “Reasons To Not Drink Excessively” on the right side.

On the left side, you might have this:
Reasons To Drink Excessively


I can excuse saying hurtful things to someone I love.
I can momentarily dull any pain I may be feeling
I momentarily feel strong, powerful, manly, clever, in control.
*****
*****
*****


On the right side you might have this:
Reasons To Not Drink Excessively


I get horribly depressed afterwards
I poison myself enough that I feel sick to my stomach and have a horrible headache.
I regret things I said when I was drunk.
People I love get angry at me, maybe nag me.
It is harder for me to perform on my job, and it may give an excuse to the boss to fire me.
*****
*****
*****


Maybe the specific pro’s and con’s I’ve listed don’t apply, but make your own list. Take a long hard look at it. Read it before you decide to have one-too-many or maybe even before you drink the first brewski. I hope I don’t sound too much like a noodgy yenta, but I’ve lived a long time and seen a lot in those years.

Regards,

Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living—Socrates

[Ann Egg]

myself and most people i know are probably alcoholics, so i know what it looks like. and i am becoming less comfortable with that. thank you though
Heroin helped me quit booze, why don't you give it a shot? It's actually safe if you use it right. Stock up on Naloxone, don't use alone and make sure to do a tester shot first if you get a new dealer.

[Quail]

Heroin helped me quit booze, why don't you give it a shot? It's actually safe if you use it right. Stock up on Naloxone, don't use alone and make sure to do a tester shot first if you get a new dealer.
Worst advice ever.

Okay, if heroin was legal and it was possible to get it safe and uncut then it might be healthier for your body than alcohol, but I don't think swapping alcoholism for heroin addiction is really addressing the issue at its source.

[Ann Egg]

Worst advice ever.

Okay, if heroin was legal and it was possible to get it safe and uncut then it might be healthier for your body than alcohol, but I don't think swapping alcoholism for heroin addiction is really addressing the issue at its source.
If used properly heroin is perfectly safe and harmless, unlike alcohol or tobacco, which slowly kill you even if consumed properly. And who said anything about heroin addiction? To develop an H addiction you need to shoot 3-4 times a day for several weeks. The only dangers when it comes to H are the following: OD(either because you misjudge your tolerance, because you were wrong about the purity of the heroin, or from adulterants), dirty needles and poor diet. All of this is easily avoidable if you stock up on Naloxone, if you do tester shots and if you eat right and don't fuck around with dirty needles.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

^^This is terrible advice and should be removed.

Advising someone to ingest a seriously addictive and harmful substance like heroin is really irresponsible and is just not on.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Dude. You just opened up the gates of Falafel. FALAFEL. Sure, its Arab, but don't arabs live on the Mediterranean? Are not Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria Mediterranean?

No, im not too proud of this but go to some hippie dippie whole foods or something (and then break a window for good measure, you know, the Oakland treatment) and get some falafel chips and some hummus. probably not the healthiest shit but its made with fava beans and chikpeas.

Red Hill, Siggis (i think), bell weather farms, make goats milk yoghurt. There is also Chobani, Fage, and Stonyfrield which have thicker Greek Style cows milk yoghurts. The only problem with them is they are all reduced fat crap but the yoghurt is delicious.

Also, i dont know what people think about Musli but get some musli and some light yoghurt or maybe some Kefir. There are some drinkable yoghurts like El Mexicano(Saborico) Glenn Oaks, and i think Wallaby too. But yeah, Mix in some yoghurt with some musli (shit with apples in it or something) let it sit for a while in the fridge then bam.

Im no dietician either but i deal with this shit all day working for a certain distributor.


there do exist ingredients packs to make your own falafel though it might be expensive, i dont get to see the prices very often. especially Store Retail Prices.

As for quitting smoking. Im there with ya. In june i went a week without smoking then told myself "no smoking during the work week" which i could manage easily. then i caved in mid july then went a whole week in august then caved. im working my way back. but i switched to light cigs (camel blues) so hopefully it will make it a little easier.

i just hate how easily i can get furious at work when i dont smoke.

[Alan OldStudent]

If used properly heroin is perfectly safe and harmless, unlike alcohol or tobacco, which slowly kill you even if consumed properly. And who said anything about heroin addiction? To develop an H addiction you need to shoot 3-4 times a day for several weeks. The only dangers when it comes to H are the following: OD(either because you misjudge your tolerance, because you were wrong about the purity of the heroin, or from adulterants), dirty needles and poor diet. All of this is easily avoidable if you stock up on Naloxone, if you do tester shots and if you eat right and don't fuck around with dirty needles.

Hey Comrade Ann Egg,

With respect, that’s utter hogwash. Heroin is one of the most rapidly addicting drugs around. Very few people can avoid addiction by shooting it “3-4 times a day for several weeks.” Where did you get such misinformation? You don’t cure a headache by cutting on your arm to lessen the head pain. That’s daft.

I worked as an interpreter in a drug-abuse facility back in the 1970s, and I knew a few people who got addicted after only one or two uses. Many people become addicted in a week.

Heroin is extremely seductive because the first time or two one uses it, it is extremely pleasant. But after a very short time, you need more for the effect, and a short time after that, you’re shooting just to avoid the horrible sickness that withdrawal brings. The pleasure becomes unobtainable.

Alcoholism is a long-term condition, and you can’t cure it by heroin use. If you’re using heroin and have been doing it long, you’re in denial.

One of the things I noticed about alcoholism and addiction is that addicts lie to themselves about what they’re doing, and they blame everyone else for the negative effects of their addiction.

Are you lying to yourself? :crying:

Check out this FAQ (http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/facts/drugsheroin) and this FAQ (http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin) and this FAQ (http://alcoholism.about.com/od/heroin/a/heroin.htm), as well as this Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin_addiction).


Regards,
Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living

[Alan OldStudent]

Moreover, because it's black market, you can't know if you're exposing yourself to dangerous chemical cuts or the potency of the drug. There is a high correlation between heroin use and transmission of hepatitis C, as well as other diseases.

I live in the United States, and our drug policy is really unenlightened here. At least in Canada, as well as parts of Europe, there are safe places to shoot up and they give clean needles. From what I understand, Portugal has the most sensible drug policy.

Regards,

Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

there do exist ingredients packs to make your own falafel though it might be expensive, i dont get to see the prices very often. especially Store Retail Prices.

Aren't falafells basically chickpeas or fava beans ground up with some parsley, garlic and maybe cumin? I made falafels once, I don't think they were that difficult. Now tahini, you have to buy that premade, otherwise you end up with... something that isn't tahini and probably isn't fit for human consumption.

Oh, you could try combining Italian and Arab cuisine. Like, a bowl of pasta (semolina, accept nothing else) with tomato sauce topped with falafels.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Spaghetti and Falafel.



you just blew my mind, because spaghtetti sucks and this might make it good.

[Ele'ill]

eggplant hummus wraps

eggplant parmesan

[bcbm]

Heroin helped me quit booze, why don't you give it a shot? It's actually safe if you use it right. Stock up on Naloxone, don't use alone and make sure to do a tester shot first if you get a new dealer.

i found my roommate dead from a heroin overdose a few years back, so i think i will take a pass on this 'advice.'

[Quail]

Falafels are amazing. They're not too hard to make from scratch but I think you can also buy packet falafels which are fairly cheap (less than £1 for a pack which makes 4 servings here). There's a Greek place in Sheffield which does falafel wraps so they probably count as Mediterranean.

[Quail]

Sorry for the tangent but I couldn't leave this post alone.

If used properly heroin is perfectly safe and harmless, unlike alcohol or tobacco, which slowly kill you even if consumed properly. And who said anything about heroin addiction? To develop an H addiction you need to shoot 3-4 times a day for several weeks. The only dangers when it comes to H are the following: OD(either because you misjudge your tolerance, because you were wrong about the purity of the heroin, or from adulterants), dirty needles and poor diet. All of this is easily avoidable if you stock up on Naloxone, if you do tester shots and if you eat right and don't fuck around with dirty needles.
I can't quite get my head around the idea of using heroin to quit drinking and not ending up a heroin addict. If you're an alcoholic/borderline alcoholic then you're going to be wanting to drink daily, which would implies you'd need to use heroin daily which I'm pretty sure would lead to addiction very quickly - unless heroin gives you a unique insight into why you should recover from your alcoholism, which is extremely doubtful. Even if you were only using a drug like heroin every weekend or something, the issues that drove you to alcoholism would make the heroin that much more seductive. I find even codeine too addictive to use on a regular basis and compared to heroin that's nothing.

The only drugs that I can think of that might be beneficial to recovery from alcoholism are psychedelics, partly because of the perspectives they have given me and partly because of the scientific evidence that suggests they can be useful for addicts and people with other mental health problems.

[bcbm]

The only drugs that I can think of that might be beneficial to recovery from alcoholism are psychedelics, partly because of the perspectives they have given me and partly because of the scientific evidence that suggests they can be useful for addicts and people with other mental health problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine

[Omsk]

Woah what garbage. Eat pork every day and drink damn lard and brandy. That's also Mediterranean food..

[bcbm]

a diet of lamb and ouzo would suit me fine

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

In regards to drinking, I have mixed feelings. On one hand it gives me an excuse to say shit that I'd normally want to say but am unable to, on the other hand, I get depressed as fuck and drink myself to a puking mess.

I never drink if I'm depressed, bad experiences. Normally I try to work out what's making me depressed, what I could do better the next time I face a similar situation etc. Then I make a note of how I subjectively could have handled the situation better, put on awesome music and get drunk.
When people are over, I have to drink to be able to talk without restraint. The saying is true that I don't have a problem with alcohol, I have a problem without alcohol. It's good to realize that I think, so that most of the times that I'm not smashed I try to confront my fears and improve my sober functionality as a person as well.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

gonna be controversial here and say that falafel is overrated. Houmous however is a different story. Probably the best dip to have ever existed.

What I really love is rice wrapped in vine leaves, with an olive oil brine-y sort of dressing. Get them from the local international food store, so nice!

[Vanguard1917]

General rule - just try to eat exclusively things that you could theoretically grow/ferment in your garden/kitchen without any specialized laboratory equipment.

0yw5Mf9RlW0

That wouldn't be a Mediterranean diet. It's not very practical to produce or grow your own fish, olives, eggs, dairy, wine, beans etc, in your kitchen or garden. And dead prez categorically say no fish and no dairy, so i don't see what relevance their vegan fundamentalism has here.

Plus, before the green revolution (mechanised large-scale agriculture and all that good shizzle) reached the Mediterranean and transformed its backward peasant economy, large chunks of the Med were impoverished and living off pasta or bread. Not exactly 'health food'.

------

A Mediterranean-type diet is great, but so is any diet which is balanced and contains all the necessary macro-nutrients, preferably from food sources like fish, poultry, eggs, lean red meats, whole grains, legumes, fruits and veg, nuts and so on.

[Devrim]

What I really love is rice wrapped in vine leaves, with an olive oil brine-y sort of dressing. Get them from the local international food store, so nice!

Zeytinyağlı Yaprak Sarması (olive oil wrapped leaves) I have just finished cooking it for my girlfriend. It is her favourite food.

Devrim

[Rafiq]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulukhiyah This is the shit

Anyone ever try this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arak_(distilled_beverage)

[Rafiq]

Getting drunk is not responsible, and it interferes with rational thinking. When I look at pictures of Stalin, I see the face of what looks like alcohol abuser to me. Stalin may well have been an alcoholic. I suspect it's alcohol that made him so meshuggah and paranoid with that weird delusion about the Jewish doctors' plot. He probably was fairly bright as a young man. When he died, he seems to have been suffering from paranoia and likely psychosis. He certainly exercised bad judgment that resulted in the needless death of thousands.

Please use alcohol responsibly, comrade. We need your talents.

Regards,
Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates

That's preposterous. You can't possibly, really believe that the deaths that occurred were linked to Stailn's alcoholism.

[Devrim]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulukhiyah This is the shit.

Yes, it is OK, but nothing amazing in my opinion.


Anyone ever try this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arak_(distilled_beverage)

Yes, it is very common everywhere across the Middle East. I am quite fond of it. In Turkey it is called Rakı. It is probably best know in the West by its Greek name, Ouzo.

Devrim

[Rafiq]

This is sort of off topic, but never have I believed that alchohol is directly the cause of domestic violence, etc.

While yes, alcohol can activate domestic violence, alcohol only really exemplifies pre-supposions held by males, if a man is abusive because he is an alcoholic, it is because he originally adhered to patriarchal values that he deemed as a breath of fresh air, i.e. as a given, the mechanisms which compel him to become violent are already inherent in his subconscious and were only activated by the consumption of alcohol.

I do agree alcohol can really fuck you up though. Life is shit, this is a given, and anyone who drinks knows that in the short term alcohol really helps and makes you forget.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

gonna be controversial here and say that falafel is overrated.

You are this generation's Bob Avakian.

[Vanguard1917]

If used properly heroin is perfectly safe and harmless, unlike alcohol or tobacco, which slowly kill you even if consumed properly. And who said anything about heroin addiction? To develop an H addiction you need to shoot 3-4 times a day for several weeks. The only dangers when it comes to H are the following: OD(either because you misjudge your tolerance, because you were wrong about the purity of the heroin, or from adulterants), dirty needles and poor diet. All of this is easily avoidable if you stock up on Naloxone, if you do tester shots and if you eat right and don't fuck around with dirty needles.

Lol, what are you trying to do to our bcbm?

[argeiphontes]

I'm not a dietician but it's kind of a hobby since I'm vegan, so here goes...


chunks of the Med were impoverished and living off pasta or bread. Not exactly 'health food'.

Actually, pasta and bread (with enough exercise to burn off any excess calories) would be a great basis for a heart-healthy diet, even better if they were the whole-wheat type. Traditional populations tend to consume low-fat, low-animal product diets. For example those long-lived Okinawan centenarians got over 80% of their calories from sweet potatoes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20234038
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17986602

AFAIK the "Mediterranean" (whatever area that is) diet was recommended based on some older studies of a previous generation of people in the region (most likely Italy) who were eating a diet relatively high in vegetables and fruit, not the oil-drenched food currently popular. It's likely that pasta and bread formed the caloric basis of their diet, not whatever crap they serve at Olive Garden.

Plant oils are not a health food. Even olive oil is 12-14% of calories from saturated fat, whereas recommendations are usually ~7% of daily calories from sat fat. The studies on which the recommendations for oils are based actually derive their benefits from *substitution* of plant oils for other, less healthy fats like lard or shortening and not the addition of oils to an otherwise healthy diet. That has the effect of making the healthy, naturally low-fat diet worse. Whole, natural, unprocessed foods, those we evolved to eat, tend to be very low in fat, with the obvious exception of seasonal foods like nuts and seeds.

For a truly healthy diet, check out http://http://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/free-mcdougall-program/ Unfortunately it's vegan :) but it's best for you (has shown heart disease reversal in addition to weight loss), the planet (in terms of human population sustainability and energy efficiency), and nonhuman animals (it's vegan). edit: The discussion board at that site is great for having your questions answered in a science-based way.

It's also the food of the world's indigenous people and/or those of low socioeconomic class, which historically has tended to be the healthiest since unhealthy ingredients have until recently in history been expensive.

[bcbm]

i'm just going to eat what i want and try to avoid purely junk food, this is all way too much effort. or someone make me up a weekly meal plan that is easy to follow and recipes take less than 30 min, thanks. ;)

[Alan OldStudent]

i'm just going to eat what i want and try to avoid purely junk food, this is all way too much effort. or someone make me up a weekly meal plan that is easy to follow and recipes take less than 30 min, thanks. ;)

You'll probably be okay if you do that, Comrade. Try not to eat too many highly refined foods, go for color, taste, and variety, don't overeat.

Regards,
Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates