If the Mayans knew so much...

...why did they lose their civilization to an environmental

--not supernatural--

disaster?

Maybe we should ask ourselves the same question.

Happy Warmer (and hopefully smarter) New Year!

The secret of life

Gas exchange!

Oxygen (green) out of the blood into the tissues;

Carbon dioxide (blue) OUT of tissues into blood;

INTERNAL RESPIRATION!

Carbon dioxide (purple) out of the blood into the alveoli;

Oxygen (red) into the blood out of the alveoli.

EXTERNAL RESPIRATION!

I'll take my Nobel, now!

You gotta have...OXYGEN!!

If the cell doesn't do it, the body doesn't either.

The cell's mitochondria produce energy through respiration (glycolysis, Kreb's cycle, oxidative phosphorylation), which requires oxygen. It's no coincidence that the "macro-process" of breathing is also called respiration. 

Most people think that the most essential substance for life is water. Not so! Water is actually a "waste" product of respiration.

The most essential substance for life is OXYGEN. Without it cells begin to die in seconds. Glucose is next in importance but it takes much longer for cells to starve than to suffocate. Breathing is job #1!!!

So, be good to your lungs and they'll never let you down. Or out!

Weak in the knees!

One of the many pieces of odd but important evidence that supports evolution, and particularly "non-directed" evolution, is the fact that humans are simply not "designed" to stand upright. 

The knee is barely able to support us, and, as athletes can attest, is easily damaged and even destroyed.Simple aging wears its components down rapidly. Had we been "meant" to walk on two legs the knee and hip would be much bigger, bulkier, and stronger.

Evolutionary biologists suggest that the first "step" in humans branching off from our ancestor common with the apes was, in fact, standing on two legs. This "freed" our brains and hands to develop as they have.

I'd rather have a big brain and exquisitely fine-tuned hands (not to mention speech!) than strong knees. Wouldn't we all? If you can't "do it all", do what counts. Unfortunately that big brain has convinced us that we can do things with our knees we were never "designed" to do. 

There is no free lunch!

Boost your immune system!

Expose it to antigens!

Foodies and quacks talk more about the immune system than they do about anything other than oxidants (about which they know nothing, either). They love to recommend supplements and miracle foods to "rev" the immune system. Pish-tosh!

The fact is that for the vast majority of people--including children--the best way to strengthen the immune system is to expose it to antigens. Early and often.

Data clearly show that exposure to antigens stimulates the immune cells in the best way possible--by making them do their job. Think of it as aerobic exercise! For example, despite widespread folklore to the contrary, the influenza vaccine, which does NOT cause "the flu", makes one healthier by decreasing illness due to ALL respiratory pathogens. That "sick" feeling that a very few people (who manage to spread their experience to millions of gullible listeners) get after vaccination is a GOOD thing--it is a sign that their immune system is in fact doing just fine. And the myth, spread by criminally ignorant non-scientists and frauds, that vaccines cause diseases such as autism is just that--a lie. The person who did the original "research" on this issue (subsequently proven to be fraudulent) believes that HIV doesn't cause AIDS and not only was stripped of his British medical credentials but is being pursued as an international murderer for convincing the then-president of South Africa that his insane ideas were true. Beware the know-nothing who is absolutely sure of his or her "facts"!

SEVERE dietary deficiencies can affect the immune response in a negative fashion--but for these people that is the least of their problems. The theory that if a little is good a lot is better--fashionable among the foodies and quacks--is simply false. It has been DISPROVED many times (a hallmark of REAL science). Zinc, for example, which is a food fad favorite, is a metal that can, like other metals such as lead and mercury, cause severe neurological damage if taken in excess.

So, eat well, don't smoke or drink, take your shots, and get a little dirty from time to time. You'll be healthier for it!

It's still only food!

Eating is not a competitive sport.

Enjoy it in moderation!

Dem dry bones?

They are anything but!

Like all tissues, bones are alive and composed of specialized, very active tissues. In addition, they store calcium, an element critical to growth and homeostasis.

Also, during the course of evolution, the bone marrow, which is where red and white blood cells are formed, migrated here (hence its name) from other locations, notably the spleen. Why? Well, young blood cells are mitotically very active and therefore extremely sensitive to environmental factors. "Tucking them away" in the safest place possible makes sense!

Of course the skeleton provides the basic framework upon which our muscles act and into which our other organs are packed. But it is so much more!

And it ain't dry!!!!

Skinny

There are many human anatomical and physiologic features that are subject to misconceptions and, to put it kindly, folklore (and quackery). Skin surely is at the top of this list.

Skin is an organ system (integumentary), not a "bag". It participates in all general bodily functions and has some special ones as well, including being the primary locus for the reception of the sensations we call touch (of which there are several, by the way). As such it is our major interface with the world.

In addition to the myriad of primary skin diseases (cancer, psoriasis, and various infections being just a few), many (if not most) systemic diseases involve or affect the skin. Diabetes kills nerves, renal failure suppresses healing, cancer and its treatment make it more vulnerable to infection, autoimmune diseases lead to almost countless lesion types--and on and on.

Then there is the cosmetic aspects of skin--color, wrinkles, scars, "blemishes".

The money spent by people in developed nations on this aspect of their skin would probably exceed the GDP of some developing nations.

For the clinician skin can be a window on the patient's health--if he/she knows how to see through it!

Skin--so much more than a sack to keep your organs from getting out!

Bloody...

...good.

While its primary job is to carry oxygen to and carbon dioxide away from cells, the fact that in doing so it touches all of them has resulted in some fantastic exaptations (evolutionary adaptations in which something that evolved for one purpose is used for another).

These functions include: carrying hormones and other proteins from the site of origin to the site(s) of effect; coagulation; and, most significantly, immunity.

Red cells themselves have no immune function--but carrying oxygen and CO2 is enough! It is the white cells and the serum that have evolved to protect us from the pathogens. Their functions are complex but precise, and not subject to casual abuse or well-meaning but physiologically impossible interventions.

A lot of foodie folklore and quackery surrounds immunity ("EAT ZINC", "live on antioxidants", "boost your immune system with"...whatever). The immune system generally takes care of itself--and YOU--without a lot of help. Where genetic anomalies, catastrophic disease, or iatrogenesis (diseases caused by medical treatment, of which there are myriad) interfere the result can be disastrous, of course. But zinc is not going to help then.

The best care for the immune system is to maintain general good health. In addition, vaccination is a true medical miracle--far more significant than antibiotics--that everyone should take advantage of UNLESS SPECIFICALLY CONTRAINDICATED. A healthy immune system will not be "overwhelmed" by vaccines--just the opposite, in fact (to address just one immunity lie spread by know-nothings).

So, don't smoke or ingest toxins, get your shots, and leave the zinc supplements on the shelf (heavy metals are poisons, by the way....). Your blood is on the job.

Genotype v. phenotype

GENOTYPE

The genotype of the organism is the actual genetic material--the DNA and the genes for which it codes.

This is determined through the processes of meiosis and fertilization.

In "translating" from genotype to phenotype--which is what protein does--significant epigenetic (gene "control" mechanisms) and environmental factors effect the manifestation of traits. In addition, the physiologic expression is subject to "penetrance" and "expressivity" factors that are unique to the genes themselves.

 

The phenotype of the organism includes the traits that the organism DISPLAYS--color, shape, size, etc. This would include "abnormal" gene expressions, i.e. diseases.

PHENOTYPE

It's not that diffcult, really....

...but scientific language can make it seem so.

These two processes are only distantly related, but the names make them seem more closely so. 

Mitosis occurs in SOMATIC cells, or body cells. The PURPOSE is to produce two IDENTICAL daughter cells. We see it in growth and healing processes, and when it goes "haywire" it is the template upon which malignancy occurs. 

Meiosis occurs in GERMINAL cells, or sex cells. It's PURPOSE is to poduce GAMETES, or egg and sperm, with an array of parental genes, each in one version (allele) which can combine with the complementary gamete to produce a zygote. In addition, during the two stages of meiosis the genes "crossover" such that each gamete is unique. This is the basis for the egnetic diversity that is the basis of successful natural selection. 

When one considers the POINT of each process, it's not that difficult, really....

Math!!!???

Math (the Brits call it "maths") is the language of science, and that includes biology and medicine. From measuring body temperature to figuring out cardiac output, the clinician must have number skills. Acid/base parameters, blood counts, electrolytes--numbers all.

We are not talking differential calculus here, but just basic arithmetic and some simple algebra. In addition, we use the metric system, like every country in the world EXCEPT the U.S.  If you don't like conversions, blame the fact that we have to do it on American exceptionalism, not scientific elitism.

If you accept this calmly and work with it, it will be your friend. The quantification of things is, after all, important. Dosages, rates, basic measures of metabolic stability or instability--these are the tools of our trade. And we need to be able to use them with patients, as well (blood glucose, anyone?).

So, when we talk numbers and equations, we will keep it simple. 

But these numbers are critical--you cannot play Calvin Ball with them.

The most important element is...

...oxygen. Not water (which isn't an element anyway), not even glucose, and certainly no vitamin, mineral, or foodie/quack "superfood".

Our bodies are essentially oxygen delivery and utilization systems. We cannot store it so every nanosecond of our lives is dedicated to getting it and using it to create energy. Every cell needs it, every process requires it. Without it death begins within seconds. 

There is no "why", there just is. Homeostasis is basically the situation in which all systems that require oxygen are getting enough. Disease always involves some sort of oxygen delivery or utilization problem.

So, look to the O2. 

Without it there can be no life, but with it we have real power. In a very real sense, the practice of medicine is all about oxygen.

Deep breath...

...enjoy the weekend!

Metabolism, shmetabolism

"Metabolism" is a word the foodies, charlatans and quacks love. It is impossible to go anywhere in our food-and-fat obsessed culture without seeing headlines screaming about the latest easy way to "boost your metabolism". Bah-low-nee!!

Metabolism consists of anabolism, which is the process of taking in  (in chemical or nutrient form) and storing energy, and catabolism, which is the conversion of this stored energy into kinetic energy, or "heat" as the diagram calls it. This energy is used by the body to do all of its work, internal and external. More in than out = weight gain (stored energy); more out than in = weight loss (excess energy expenditure). 

In between anabolism and catabolism lie a number of genetically programmed and environmentally influenced (epigenetic) PHYSIOLOGIC processes, like digestion, absorption, transport, protein synthesis, and on and on. None of them can be magically bypassed by blueberries, complex carbs, non-gluten pretzels, or anything else. Supply and demand is the rule, via an organism that evolved mostly in nutrient-poor environments and so is highly effective in absorbing and storing calories (energy). This energy can only be used as such--it cannot be willed, wished, eaten, or otherwise magically shifted to the non-existent "away". Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant or lying or both.

The first law of thermodynamics says that there is no such things as a free lunch, i.e. energy/mass--which we now know are the same thing thanks to "dearest Albert" #2 (#1 was Queen Victoria's consort)--can neither be created nor destroyed. All those calories have to be used by work-creating processes or stored; one food cannot cause the "metabolism" of another, for example. This latter myth is a favorite of the diet quacks because it sounds so plausible. If something sounds too good to be true, especially in biology, it is

Metabolism. Live with it...or don't, in which case it won't matter one way or the other.

Ultimate beauty, precision, and elegance....

...in a single cell.

The human zygote!

Flail! How to not....

This wicked-looking device is a flail. I don't think I need to say that it is a weapon of great destructive power.

It is the origin of the term, "to flail", which means, "to beat or thrash about, as with a flail". The implications is that "flailing" causes a lot of damage.

I have seen medical situations that lived up to the term "flail". Generally this occurs when too many people, or too many INEXPERIENCED people, are involved in a medical emergency or situation that suddenly goes "wrong". In such situations the great advice given in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind, "Don't panic!"

It took me a long time as a physician to resist the urge to panic when confronted with a medical emergency. One of the principles that helped was my "OXYGEN, GLUCOSE" mantra--it doesn't matter what you do to the patient if they are not being oxygenated and are not getting any usable energy. The procedurally perfect "code" is useless if the person's heart never starts beating.

I had a professor in med school say that, "...everyone should be allowed to die in perfect metabolic balance." The problem with this maxim, though, is obvious. 

A few key principles can mean the difference between saving a life, which is often simpler than it seems, and failing. DON'T PANIC, OXYGEN, and GLUCOSE are mine.

The real stuff of life....

The brain uses 20% of all we inhale; the kidney dies rapidly without it. No matter which body system we study, that system runs on, depends on, has many systems to conserve, and dies without  

oxygen.

Combined with glucose it creates the energy each and every cell needs to transcribe and translate DNA into protein, which is all that a cell does. From there we get what we call life.

Every homeostatic mechanism is prioritized to preserve oxygenation. Every organ has several systems to protect itself from oxygen's temporary reduction or loss.  The brain will sacrifice all other organs to get it. Beside it water is a waste product (literally). Glucose is useless without it. A billion people will die within minutes if the oxygen zombies suck it up.

So, make sure you get your oxygen. 

Smokers are chronically starved of it,
drinkers use it unwisely,
the obese waste it.

Sniff it up and enjoy!

Cherchez le O2!

Acids and bases--MINI-TUTORIAL

The body is a marvelously adapted and regulated organism.

One of the manifestations of this is the balance demonstrated in its handling of acids and bases. 

Firstly, at its simplest, an acid is a molecule that donates protons (positively charged) or, more relevantly, receives (sucks up!) electrons (negatively charged). The degree to which a substance dissolves (or dissociates) in water to produce these hungry (needy?) protons is the STRENGTH of the acid. Sucking up electrons (or donating protons) to molecular substances leads to their breaking their chemical bonds. 

This is WHY (how) in the "macro" world acids dissolve things!

Bases are molecules that suck up protons, or "neutralize" acids. 

They keep acids from attacking and destroying molecules.

Strong bases, which produce molecules hungry for protons, can also break chemical bonds and cause "melting" of substances.

pH = negative log of the concentration of H+ (protons). 

The scale is 1-14, with 1 being strongly acidic and 14 strongly basic (remember it is a NEGATIVE logarithm).  Neutral = 7, where the concentration of H+ and the base (negatively charged) is equal. A solution that is acidly neutral is also electrically neutral. Remember that acids, since they are hungry for electrons, conduct electricity (which is flowing electrons). COOL, and LOGICAL.

The body produces a LOT of acids, which are as potentially damaging to its molecules (and therefore cells and tissues) as it is to other substances. Therefore the body has, of course, evolved a super-effective buffering (neutralizing) system that relies primarily on the kidneys. 

Another reason to take good care of those beans!

Mystery?

When "most people"--including clinicians--think of brain and nervous tissue they think first of neurons. These are the big bosses, of course, and have the real mysteries within them. They are also essentially eternal, not reproducing and therefore maintaining continuity, but once gone are (as of today) gone forever.

But "the other nervous tissue", neuroglia, consisting of several types of supporting cells (micoglia, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells, Schwann cells) is as critical to nervous system functioning as neurons. These cells feed, protect, insulate, and generally allow the neurons to do what they do--"think" and send orders (signals) to all other cells of the body. The "blood brain barrier", which is a function rather than an organ, is a neuroglial function. The special immune properties of the central nervous system (CNS) are mediated by microglia. 

Recent research has also suggested that it is these cells that are responsible for forging connections between neurons, and therefore are responsible for learning and adaptation and even evolution. They have one very serious "weakness", however, and that is that they divide rapidly and often, setting themselves up to be the target of genetic decay. Over 98% of malignant brain tumors are neuroglial in origin, and they are also involved in many neurologic disorders, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and several other neurodegenerative diseases.

The brain--both types of cells--takes 20% of our oxygen and at least 15% of our glucose even though it is no more than 2% of our body weight. It is the first organ to develop and the last to die. In between it is a miracle of sublime and elegant power and complexity.

Precision!

The kidney is, gram for gram, the most elegantly and effectively evolved organ in the body after the brain. The basic unit of function--the nephron, composed of glomerulus, tubules, mesangium, and the craftily-named juxtaglomerular appartus--is the most precise "filtering" system ever known. It controls fluids and electrolytes, and has a major role in all other functions of the body--blood, bones, GI system, reproduction, on and on. The only thing it doesn't do is "think"--a number of its mechanisms come close, though!

It is no wonder that chronic renal failure is the most devastating of diseases. Anyone familiar with the life of the dialysis patient knows how miserable it truly is to not have kidney function. Kidney transplantation is an option with better outcomes that dialysis, but it is still not a "cure" and most people who need such a transplant cannot get one.  

The truly unfortunate fact is that chronic renal failure (CRF), also know as chronic kidney disease (CKD) or the uremic syndrome (uremia), is on the increase, especially in the developing world and in the West where longevity is increasing. This is truly unfortunate since in most cases early diagnosis and treatment of the major risk factors--diabetes and hypertension--can prevent it. Make sure you and your loved ones get regular risk assessments and if a disease that effects the kidneys is present get it treated! NOW!

Power!

The liver

Beauty

Neurons!

Efficiency...

...one of thy synonyms is "pancreas".

Involved with BOTH digestion and anabolism, as well as making cuboidal epithelium into a number of wondrous subspecies, the pancreas is a marvel of evolutionary skill. 

Take care of yours today--lay off the booze!

Strength

The human body has evolved

a control and movement system

that allows us to do a broader range of things better than any

other mammal.

From running to painting,

singing to sleeping, we are superbly adapted to a complex and changing environment. 

Ultimately, this all-around strength is NOT due to big or powerful muscles but to the most

awesome "engine" known--the human brain and nervous system.

Food!

This is the "new food pyramid". The best nutritional advice is NOT on the web or on TV or in the grocery-store checkout lane--it is here.

The major problem with the nutritional state of Americans, contrary to the latest foodie propaganda, is not gluten or antioxidants or vitamins--it is CALORIES.

Specifically, too many! By 2020 40% of the adult U.S. population will be obese (BMI > 30).

There is no magic except this, and I give it for free: 

eat less, exercise more. If you take in more calories than you expend--FOR WHATEVER REASON--you will gain weight. If you expend more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. 

And sorry, Dr. Oz (who is not trained in nutrition, btw)--there are NO "fat burning foods".  The only thing that "burns fat" is energy consumption, which is done by our cells, not our foods, and only after all available glucose has been used. Glucose metabolism cannot be "bypassed" and all the other "eat more and STILL lose weight" diets are simply lies.

And carbohydrates are not poison!

Science is a method, not a philosophy

Association does NOT equal causation!

Back to class!

Welcome back to my Chamberlain students! I am so glad to see you!

During this session we will be studying muscles and nerves in A&P II, and the GI, renal, and reproductive systems in A&P IV. My blog postings will address topics relevant to these areas. Feel free to comment!

A general update to the blog's contents will also be undertaken.

For all of us!

Back in September!

Is anyone really this dumb?

I am afraid that in the U.S. there are many people who are.

True elegance

The endocrine system is the ultimate "fine focus" of the body. Taking afferent impulses from the periphery and cortex, these organs monitor and respond to homeostatic parameters on a continuous basis.

It is the endocrine system and its hormones, plus neurotransmitters from other efferent aspects of the neuroendocrine array, that makes us the thinking, FEELING organisms we are.

Be good to your hormones and neurotransmitters today, and don't believe the gigabytes of pseudoscientific "information" about them that floods the Web. The reality is beautiful enough, and the product of millions of years of highly successful evolutionary development!

Afferent v. efferent

The real foodie problem

If the energy put into foodie propaganda and lies such as "lose weight drinking tea" (Oz's latest scam) and antioxidant stupidity were used to actually help reduce caloric intake 
we wouldn't be heading 
toward a 40% obesity rate.

The ONLY way we get input!

Not through magic waves, not through voices of the dead--through our nerve endings.

The ONLY afferent signals we can process are composed of some form of energy--light, heat, chemical, pressure--that is translated into the chemical and electrical energy processed by our nerves.

And we have four efferent pathways, all mediated by the same chemical and/or electrical energy: sympathetic & parasympathetic (autonomic), motor (voluntary), and endocrine (hormonal).

The carefully and successfully evolved neuroendocrine system is elegant and more than sufficient to navigate our complex relationships with each other and our environment--no "magic" need be invoked. And that spark of life--the spiritual part of us--can also be explained by this. 

As to the ORIGIN of it all--"Let there be light!"

Bogosity!

The dietary supplement industry is huge (as in $BILLION$ in profits), and most of the money foodies and foodie victims spend on these very expensive capsules, tablets, and powders is wasted or goes to fund whacko organizations that prevent people from getting real preventive health care.

People think these items are controlled by the FDA, which they are not. (Congress caved to the supplement lobby over a decade ago, classifying these things as food. Probably some nice bribes and kickbacks were spread around to the almost universally scientifically illiterate Congresspersons there!)

The health claims made are outrageous (and reversed,right on the packaging, through the use of asterisks, daggers, and nanoprint), the "science" absent, terrible, or "pseudo", and even so they don't address the major dietary problem we have in this country--obesity (despite the ridiculous claims about "fat burning", which my nutrition class demonstrated is physiologically impossible this side of absolute starvation). 
Antioxidants, beloved of foodies everywhere, can actually kill (by interfering with cellular energy production), cause anemia (through blocking effective oxidation of iron in hemoglobin), or increase the aggressiveness of cancer if taken in excess, and there is essentially no data to support that they prevent anything! Some supplements, especially those with fat-soluble vitamins and heavy metals, can kill directly if taken in excess.

Buyer, beware, indeed!!

...and most of them useless.

Another miracle....

...the spinal cord.

Most life forms don't need much more than this, thanks you. Maybe a brain stem.

The cord is a part of the central nervous system, which means that it does a lot of its processing, bit afferent and efferent, with no help from the brain. In fact, without spinal cord reflexes we probably wouldn't survive infancy.

It has been in the area of spinal cord injury that a good deal of stem cell research has been aimed hopefully. Neurons in general don't reproduce themselves (mitose), though they may regenerate to a degree, especially along the axon, and we know that new interneuronal connections can be made. Unfortunately stem cells have not panned out here, as in so many other places.

So, protect your spinal cord! Wearing seat belts, not doing stupid things--whatever it takes!

No water = no life

People simply do not internalize the reality that we have all the water we will ever have, that there has been essentially no new water added to the system since the Earth was formed (with the exception of the occasional comet). 

The positive side of this is that there is no less.

The issue is "usability".

Humans are wasteful in many ways, and particularly in regard to water. The contamination of our fresh water is accelerating, and though it can be cleaned up it is increasingly difficult and costly to do so. A plurality of the human population does not have access to clean water. It would seem to me keeping it clean in the first place in places where that is possible (like the developed world) would allow us to focus our efforts on the developing world, where lack of clean water is a major health issue as well as an economic one.

It would seem....

Why are we are so fat?

We don't know our own basic physiology so are easily duped.

We don't know how to read research and rarely even demand it when outrageous claims are made by supposedly reputable entities. 

We engage in wishful thinking in preference to facts.

We hate anything that is difficult.

We are Americans!

One of my favorite experiences in this regard occurred in a San Diego hotel restaurant, at the omelet stand. (I LOVE omelets, and eggs in general!) The lady in front of my (BMI no less than 35, I'm sure) asked for a plate of the "veggies" that the chef was using to make his egg dishes. She took great pains to explain that she was on a "raw food" diet (a fairly recent food fad). She was completely oblivious to the fact that several of the items were, in fact, cooked. 

Use your education today where it counts--on what goes in your egg-hole! :-)

Poison?

I think not.

Our bodies need fats and oils as sources for fatty acids, which in turn are used as energy storage, as structural components in cells, and in constructing hormones. They also contain some important fat-soluble vitamins.

Someone once said Americans are more afraid of fat than we are of nuclear war. This is unnecessary!

As part of a calorie managed diet, fats are fine. In fact, we would die without them. 

The real problem is that Americans are more afraid of moderation than they are even of fats....

The source!

Neuron and synapse--

where it all happens!

Perfection in molecular biology!

Brought to you by:

GLUCOSE

+

OXYGEN!

And not so much....

...pretty, that is.

In order for muscles to get bigger, they must be "damaged" first, such that additional proteins are laid down within the fibers so as to heal them.

On the other hand, muscles can be conditioned to be more effective and efficient without increasing their size at all.

Which is better?

Pretty?

Deadly?

Well, maybe a bit of both.

This is adipose tissue, composed of fat cells.

We are born with our full complement of these cells, and they have some really important uses--as a back up source of carbon energy for the Krebs cycle,  as padding and protection for organs, as a source of structural components, partcualrly for  But when they get BIGGER, we get fatter. Latest data suggests that by 2040 42% of Americans will be obese. There are no "fat-burning foods", no magic "eat all you want and lose weight" diets--just calorie restriction and/or increased calorie expenditure. We want it easy, and it is, at least, simple. 

Push away from the table sooner, eat ONE portion (NORMAL sized), only eat when you are hungry--there are many USEFUL tips to help you restrict calories. But in the end it's the only way!

The real food problem....

Americans eat too often and too much, and we are infecting the world. 

Instead of selling bogus claims about "superfoods" and lies about "antioxidants" and gluten, foodies need to focus on this issue.

The miracle cure? Eat less, exercise more.

Nobel Committee, are you listening?

Not me.

Foodie propaganda is all around us. (Antioxidants can kill, did you know?)

More interesting is the question, "What does 'unnatural' mean?"

Most "diets" are bogus, and work only if they result in decreased caloric intake.

A study published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (5 worms!) documents this fact: the only "miracle diet" is the one that causes you to eat less.

Have a nice weekend!

What does this mean?

Amino acids

When we eat, we don't just break our pasta down into smaller pieces of pasta and absorb past bits into our cells. The reason we can eat so many different things--unlike koalas, who can only eat eucalyptus--is that our system breaks foods into a few basic types of molecules. Critical are the amino acids, which in turn build proteins, out of which everything in out body is constructed. "Essential" amino acids must be taken in--we cannot make them. The foodies would have you believe that we absorb huge molecules (like modified DNA) directly into our cells--WRONG!! A great exercise would be to identify two or three basic errors of cellular biology in every single foodie press release, including pronouncements from their "scientists"--slam dunk!