#she would also love any and every meat on the planet and blood-based foods

[venusararara]

Would Gatherine like human food?

"HISS, HISS!!! MY KATSUP!!!"

#she would kill for a bottle of ketchup if she knew what it was #thats what angels taste like owo #she would also love any and every meat on the planet and blood-based foods #gathasks #vemusgatherine ☆ #venusmocs #murder oc #no she doesn't really have a snake tongue

[loralee01]

Food Pyramid is all Wrong! Obviously.

I’d like to share my opinion about something important to me— that I believe the food pyramid is incorrect and that the majority of us are eating all wrong. Perhaps the food pyramid works in some ways, but it cannot be not entirely accurate and should not be used as a standard for everyone. I believe each person may do best by creating their own food pyramid. The way our food pyramid is treating us, simply isn’t working.

           I love to study health and nutrition and I have done so all my life, but without formal training of any kind. I wouldn’t accept formal dietary training by most people anyway, since I believe in listening to our bodies, and I think I know my body best. I have heard that our health and fitness is based 20% on exercise and 80% on what we eat, though heredity can skew these numbers by 70% (learned this as I worked in the medical lab). Studies have shown that slim to medium-sized people, and those who rarely vary in weight, live the longest and have fewer health problems. I have incorporated these evidences into my studies of what might, and what seems to work best for my goals of life longevity, and overall health, and quality of life.

I first became aware of nutrition when I was five years old. I had always been taught that candy wasn’t healthy for my body and that dinner was, but I didn’t understand why— until one day, I listened to my father comment to my mother that he was getting fat, and that he would prefer she not serve him fatty foods. This was the first time I understood (and to a small degree) about being what we eat.

I began, as a teen-ager, trying to find out what types of foods were best for me. I knew I would need self-discipline to be healthy without the help on my mother. I had mostly eaten whatever my mother served, and that had worked alright, but I wanted to go into the world as an adult having some sort of guide or even some rules to follow, and I wanted a good-looking bikini body. I started trying different things. I began to practice not eating when I was already full. I always remembered to eat my veggies. I stopped trick-or-treating on Halloween. I very rarely ate out, and I always avoided soda. I liked taking control of my nutrition.

Living on my own made it very easy to experiment and learn what worked best for me. This is when I created my own personal food pyramid, which I believe can work better for everyone, than the food pyramid we are all familiar with. Americans are known to have a longer life expectancy than many other countries. But we are also known for being obese and diabetic. How much longer could we live healthy lives if we had a healthier standard or guideline of what to eat?

Discovering those foods that seemed to work best for me, showed me how far I had gone from following the familiar food pyramid. So, I started a little month-long research, studying and finding what may very well be the healthiest food for humankind. I wondered which food should really be on the bottom of the food pyramid. My findings weren’t extremely surprising to me and probably won’t be to anyone else either.

           I found wild salmon to be the healthiest food a human can eat— only because it contains almost all the nutrients necessary to sustain life. Salmon lacks fiber, and is low in iron and vitamin c, but all other nutrients found in it can also be found in bread, an assortment of vegetables, dairy products, eggs, and nuts. Now, I love salmon so this was exciting to me. But I also love to save money, and I began brainstorming how I could reduce my grocery bill by adding salmon to it. I found several other food items I could go nearly without if I was eating a certain amount of Salmon. Bread (not grains), pork, chicken, dairy products, cold cereal, canned and boxed foods, never enter my grocery cart. I don’t recommend going entirely without any specific food item, however. We need nutrients from all food.

I created a food pyramid from my own studies, and for myself, that I absolutely love. Here is what I have created: I have Salmon and other seafood on the bottom of my pyramid. The second level contains dark leafy greens. The third level up contains nuts, legumes (beans), and olive oil. Level four has all vegetables (besides the dark leafy greens), the fruits and the grains. Then red meat and egg yolk are on the very top triangle. There is no dairy on my pyramid, though I don’t consider it to be harmful in every case— I just find it unnecessary when eating lots of seafood. Too many of our dairy products have massive amounts of sugar or salt added as well, which we should be careful not to eat too much of.  There also are no meats besides the seafood and red meat. Salmon has enough protein and nutrients to cancel other types of meat out. But red meat contains things only red meat has, which are essential for healthy blood and skin and hearts.

Did you know there are people who live off only seafood, coconut, and limes? When I saw this on some islands surrounding Thailand, I was amazed this was possible. Natives of the snowy north live off only seafood, other meat, and berries. A man was stranded on a ship in the early 1900’s for 3 years. After finishing the food on the ship, he was left to just fishing, and for two years, he ate only raw fish which provided most of his water as well. These are signs to me that fish is substantial and nutritious. Nobody ever lived off just vegetables for very long. Bread can come close if served with occasional vegetables and a protein. But certain types of fish alone can feed us for a very long time. Salmon can feed us the longest.

My food pyramid is very high in protein, so to follow my food pyramid correctly, I need to drink a lot of water.  I know this is very different from the food pyramid taught to me as a child. The food pyramid from my childhood is the one that has grains on the bottom, then fruits and vegetables on the next bar up, then meat and dairy, then some pyramids I have seen contain oil and even candy on the very top. Candy on a food pyramid? And why does the food pyramid change so often? Are we still guessing what should be eaten?

The problems I see with the food pyramid where bread is on the bottom and candy is on the top, is that the people who live in places this is taught are mostly overweight and have diabetes and heart problems. They can still live long lives, however, but at what quality of life? Humans are made of meat, not bread. Besides, bread is a step away from grains as it is made of not only grains, but other ingredients as well including preservatives— grains are most nutritious when they are as minimally processed as possible. We eat too much also, which may be the main reason our food pyramid doesn’t serve us well. It is easy to eat too many grains as they are convenient and affordable. It is more difficult to eat too much fish, which often needs cooked before consumption. This is another reason fish is on the bottom of my pyramid. I can’t understand why candy is even on any food pyramid when candy should never be ingested.

Now some of us have health concerns. I have hypoglycemia and high hematocrit (iron), so I made sure my food pyramid would work well for this. I have pasta more frequently than may be necessary for other people since I process the sugars from pasta differently, and it helps me to have energy and to not slip into a dangerous low blood sugar level. I eat red meat less than some others should because of my higher hematocrit (which could cause a stroke. My food pyramid was put together with health concerns in mind. Our current food pyramid would not cater well to anyone with blood sugar issues because of the amount of grains and fruits recommended, which can mess with blood sugar levels.

Most Americans are fortunate to live with plenty of food options. There is usually no excuse to not eat right, except that we may not know how to do it. Some do not get to choose how they eat and then they must be happy with what they get. But, for those who are fortunate enough to decide for themselves, I have offered a suggestion to try— my food pyramid. See how it works for your budget, lifestyle, and body. If my food pyramid doesn’t work for you, then try creating your own, or even sticking with the one we use now.  Regardless of what your food pyramid looks like, it is yours. To have a general food pyramid for everyone can be dangerous if we use it as our only or main guide to nutrition. There should be as many different types of diets as there are people on the planet.

I care about my life and my kids and friends. That is why I care about what goes into our bodies.

[dahniwitchoflight]

Candy 18-21

oh, oh no

I’ve heard things about Jane x Gamzee

now I get to experience them, oh boy...

Gamzee gets, strangely serious about stuff for once, huh, who would have thunk it

yeah, It’s clear Jane’s political stuff seem to stem from some kind of fear that one day humanity won’t exist on Earth C for whatever reason

that over time, the population of trolls versus humans will eventually skew so much that there won’t be any adam and eve left to match up with each other

in her mind she really doesn’t hate trolls, cuz its not really about the trolls, not at all, but obviously her actions are equivalent to someone who does hate them and she just doesn’t get that

and like, yeah if you just left them to their own devices, maybe that would happen, but then (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) Gamzee has an extremely good point that they already did that when they plopped all the ectokids down and called it a day for a 1000 years, like, they managed to figure it out on their own just fine

and also

ectobiology will literally never stop being a thing so like, as long as some of the god kids stick around, eventually you can just make more humans it’s no big deal to restart the human gene pool since it will be identical to the first time they started it

there’s no reason to make sure this system runs smoothly the “natural way” it won’t, this situation is unnatural for both species

Jane’s just gotta realize that if she wants humans to keep sticking around, she just has to keep supporting the human population, that’s it, whatever trolls do or don’t do doesn’t matter for that goal

course it doesn’t help to compare trolls to animals when talking about their breeding rate and how it naturally evolved over time unlike the apparently non animal humans Janey

Also Alternian society is def not how troll society naturally is but like how could she know that? And how could any troll near her really explain that? 

aaaand I got so up in taking this seriously I forget who was talking

Jane’s into troll blackrom though that’s interesting and unexpected 

oh wow, Jake was there the whole time

Did they really name Jake and Jane’s baby Tavros??? oh jeesus

Yeah Kinda figured the Jane x Jake thing wasn’t gonna actually be happy

I’m really surprised Jane’s version of happiness apparently involves boinking a weird funny man I mean, she canonically likes clowns and jokes, so at the same time I’m not surprised, I mean, she WAS raised by the condesce, it’s just weird how that influence comes out in her sometimes versus how it doesn’t come out in her

literal Jake nightmare scenario though I think lol

really hammering home how the passions of youth don’t really translate well to happy adult relationships

Oh, so there’s the part where Jade reveals she has Bec biology, considering the fandom reaction you’d think we were gonna get some kind of gross M rated sex scene where she pegs Karkat or something

but all she does is talk about how she’d love a normal family and home life and lament that her circumstances ended up not really allowing that and giving enough hints that we can figure out why that would be

it’s not handled grossly at all, even if the subject matter is odd and it doesn’t come off as some sort of character sabotage

this whole time what we’ve known all Jade was that she was lonely and just wanted a family, not that hard to figure out why, girl’s got the same complex as Joey Claire about her family situation, but she’s more reserved about her feelings since she didn’t get to have a comparison of role models like Joey did with her babysitter and also Jade’s food and shelter needs were somewhat taken care by a planet guardian so the affect was somewhat lessened on the outside, she just didnt get the same chances as Joey to be able to articulate her emotional turmoil about it

aww Jade’s not happy either, well, that’s how it goes when you make relationship decisions based on flimsy passions that are more about fulfilling the needs of the self than about actually wanting good things for a partner

More like Jade’s sort of realized that Karkat and Dave don’t have a genuine romantic interest in her and she’s the only one keeping this ship afloat

oh shit, a dead younger jade, oh damn wait she’s the one from Meat that was trapped in the house juju and then immediately died from space razors

Yeah’s she’s a bloody symbol of meat that’s for sure, theyre making that pretty clear

“Her eyes go wide and she feels the breath go out of her for a moment. She looks directly upward. Where did this body come from?”

Again, if we take that symbolism circle of Breath = Sugar = Drugged up High =  Breath

This little dash of meat falling into wonderland would break the breathy haze for a bit wouldn’t it?

So if this kind of thing can happen to others besides John, there’s hope yet for something of value to come from Candy

“ There’s a peaked skylight at the top of the foyer that splits the morning sun like a prism, spilling multicolored dots across every surface below. Amongst those dots are drips of teen-Jade’s blood. It’s so dark on the spotless tile that it looks nearly black. “

I wish I could draw things, I’d love to draw this exact scene here, it’s pretty and morbid

Yeah, the relationship theme of Candy seems to be that everyone’s jumping into Kismesis plus Matesprite threesomes, that seem to be neither of what anyone actually wants in totality

There’s some realization that their Candy filled atmosphere is actually more a drug or a poison, teen jade can’t be revived, and it’s not because of what happened to her, but more because of the environment she is in now

Ah Roxy, ever the social chameleon people pleaser, not working this time though

Jade’s is easily explained already as she has the social graces of an elephant

It is kinda sad tho to see most of the human characters actually aren’t that good at being cool about troll stuff

“CALLIOPE: pUrple roses traditionally represent love at first sight, however these roses are actUally red roses that we prepared Using a blUe dye.CALLIOPE: the blUe rose is the most elUsive and mysterioUs of all flowers.CALLIOPE: the combination of red and blUe in this context is meant to evoke the dUal natUre of death, in that there is nothing more mysterioUs and impossible to comprehend than the vast void of the afterlife, bUt also there is nothing that makes Us appreciate the life and and love that we already have than the mystery of death.CALLIOPE: while death is terrifying, there is always joy to be foUnd among the sorrow. each time we witness death, we fall in love with the important people in oUr lives all over again.“

Why do I get the feeling Calliope is talking about actual rose here somehow?

Is it because she started off with “here’s the symbolism of Purple Roses”?

a Red Rose dyed Blue

Now if Cascade taught us anything Blue and Red certainly represent a mutual destruction of opposites coming together to create a third new thing in the blaze of the aftermath, but that thing was a Green Sun, not something purple, so why bring Rose into mind for all of this?

We have been seeing the effects of what happens when people in candyland awaken from their drug haze with a smattering of blood, but in that case why not make the symbolism more clear by saying a Blue Candied Rose dyed Red as if with Bloodied Meat?

is it more to mean that the correct path lies NOT in Candy being dyed Red, but in Meat being dyed Raspberry Blue?

I Mean, Candy!Rose certainly seems shaken here, having gotten jolted out of her drugged haze at some point, but unable to See, and she’s actually starting to be concerned about that and Meat!Rose is kind of out of commission at this point, So I guess to get things back on track, Candy!Rose would have to go back to the Meat somehow, or might be the influence needed to snap Meat Rose out of her daze

Though I don’t like how this is taking place in the context of a funeral, specifically bringing to mind how Dirk did the same thing using the vessel of Death, I hope Candy Rose doesn’t try to just, off herself

with Dirk taking control of Rose’s ultimate self in Meat, Candy!Rose might be the only true Rose left to take heroic action

Aww, Callie is still head over heels for Roxy, I’m really surprised with this theme of threesomes that nothing ever came of a John x Roxy x Callie, but then again all the threesomes so far have been painted Black and Red, and unless John or Roxy was to form a Kismesis with Callie, I don’t see it happening at all

OH SHIT SPEAKING OF RED AND BLUE

Damn, Sollux and Aradia are here

“KARKAT: MAYBE FUCKING NEPETA IS ABOUT TO POUNCE FROM BEHIND THAT GROTESQUE STATUE OF THE HUMAN SUFFERER T-POSING OVER THERE.”

Karkat don’t tease me about Nepeta but also again WHY is actual Jesus here.

Is Roxy a christian in this timeline? Was she legit just praying to actual Human Jesus? That’s so, weird, especially for Roxy to do, what the fuck in Roxy’s upbringing on an apocalypse earth would make her want to worship Jesus?

Oh wait, that’s obviously what she thinks that every other human sincerely does, since she only had human media to go off of, and like, technically no human has ever said they DONT worship christian gods to her.

“GAMZEE: wHeN tHe DoOr Of ThAt FrIdGe pOpPeD oPeN iT wAs LikE i Be AlL sEeIn ThE lIgHt AnD sHiT.

SOLLUX: well yeah

SOLLUX: that’s what happens when s0me0ne 0pens a d00r t0 a t0tally dark encl0sure.“

Gamzee has had a weirdly meta understanding of what’s going on so far, for some reason, I can’t fathom what could be the Lighty influence that he’s gotten

unless...

Dirk really IS starting to subsume Ultimate Rose, and that’s bleeding over to every Ultimate self connected to Dirk

the more Gamzee knows meta shit and says oddly correct things, the more we know Dirk is “winning” over Rose

Oh, that’s why Gamzee is really here isn’t he? I mean, storywise? He’s a Dirk thermometer/gauge/thing, he’s our way of measuring how far Dirk’s influences are going in Meat

“ARADIA: its so nice that you believe all that gamzee

ARADIA: i think i can honestly say

ARADIA: im reasonably happy for you?“

lol

“blue smoke”

You don’t really tend to describe Smoke as being Blue right? At least, I don’t think that’s usual

But if we’re straight up associating Candy with Blue  to complement Meat with Red now, it’s just making the whole Sugar = Breath thing that much stronger

*EDIT* DUH OF COURSE OF CANDY’S COLOR IS BLUE

BLUE GUSHERS. OBVIOUSLY. *end edit*

and I mean, what is Breath but a weird bluey smoke?

Roxy just wants to be happy with all her friends, that’s all

It is a good shake at trying to explain the nature of infinite possibility, that in reality, there isn’t really more weight put into one possibility over others, that’s how it works in real life anyway

unfortunately a storyline of canon is going to favor some version of events over others, and people make choices because they have preferences for that choice over other choices, something that seems kind of lost on Candy!Roxy who seems to just be okay with going along with anything because everything has an equal chance for having happytimes in this place

Roxy may be starting to lose her sense of self as well, and with her knowledge on things and how’s she’s been described as immutable so far, I wouldn’t be surprised at her having easily and subtly slipped into Ultimate Self hood herself and just being really okay with the idea that there is no one true Roxy, that she is just one piece of many, and not like, needing to delve into that further, not needing to connect with all her alternate selves, happy just being singular but at the same time completely malleable

Oh! Baby time.

Oh fuck, Al!Calliope in Jade time.

Why is Callie so afraid of Alt!Callie? That didn’t come across in their meetings in Homestuck as much, so why is that different here?

Is it because of Jade’s earlier comment of “there can only be one instance of a person here” and Callie doesn’t think she can win against Alltie?

Also, all these instances of Alltie appearing in Jade’s body is making me worried Alltie is doing something to both of their Ultimate Selves, like she’s subsuming Jade somehow like Dirk is subsuming Rose

I mean, they are fighting one another, so if Dirk’s doing something she has to keep pace right? In her mind, it’s probably totally justified

this is getting long enough for this post though, off we go again but I’m still reading

#Homestuck #Meat or Candy

[fetus-cakes]

Xenomorph biology

A conversation I had with @palavengarden​ about how the xenomoprhs from the Alien franchise reproduce, any additions are welcome

fair warning, xenomorphs reproduce by injecting their parasitic larva into live human beings and the whole franchise is very unsubtle about this being rape and forced pregnancy, so the discussion is about this topic

charlie: okay but so here is the thing i still dont understand tho even just doing the first 2 movies the queen lays an egg the egg lays penis vagina deepthroat rape crab the  penis vagina deepthroat rape crab lays a smaller egg the smaller egg hatches into a tiny screaming snake which hatches AGAIN and then runs away then suddenly there is a 9 foot tall 15 foot long black monster that wants to eat humans then it takes a nap then if its on a planet instead of in space it wakes from its nap and eats everyone on the planet? builds a house in the warmest place available somehow a queen happens in all this fetus: ok think of it as an insect life cycle egg > larva > nymph > full grown adult likewise, xenomorphs only have one egg everything else is metamorphosis of the same body face rape crab BECOMES chest embryo charlie: no, cuz the rape crab dies after throat fucking you fetus: chest embryo leaves host body and BECOMES full grown adult no it doesn't die it's a shell it MOLTS like cicada shells or tarantula shells heck or a snake skin charlie: okay so egg hatch into a crab crab lives for literally 20 seconds then pukes its self down your throat? fetus: face rape crab is a discarded shell think of the embryo as being inside the crab the crab must stay attached to the face for a few hours to complete the transfer of the embryo charlie: i will resentfull accept this but still 2 more questions 1. why is it that the screamign snake inside the chest doesnt seem to eat anything? it just wants to curl up and take a nap while it grows bigger. the person usually keeps walkign around and just gets a little winded when it sits on their lung fetus: GOOD QUESTION charlie: 2. where does the queen happen in all this fetus: I HAVE ANSWER the embryo needs to stay inside because it's EATING this is where alien will get it's food and if it's a drone, all it will ever eat charlie: you would THINK so but no one seems to know they are chest bursted though the only time ive seen that seemed like maybe their insides were being eaten was in the avp book fetus: because they have been injected with what is basically painkillers charlie: everyone else justs seems fine fetus: this is why the transfer from crab to chest is delicate because the embryo is vulnerable it's to the embryos best interest to NOT be removed before it's ready charlie: the face crab is injecting painkillers or the screaming snake? fetus: face crab injects painkillers into HOST there is a period of time between transfer of embryo and embryo being ready to hatch that the host might be walking around it's for the embryos best interest to not be detected charlie: okay so... the face crab throat fucks you, and its just spitting crazy amoutns of pain killer down your gullet and once your insides are all the way numb and youre a little loopy it pukes the screaming snake into you and since your insides are fucked up with painkiller you dont feel it chomping down and can just continue about youre time, no issue walking and no numb tongue or throat until it breaks yoru sternum, which you CAN feel fetus: you got it charlie: dumb but fine fetus: painkillers are probably not strong enough to prevent someone from noticing their ribcage breaking charlie: i wish that it made your tongue and throat numb fetus: ok so; face rape crab grabs victim, sedates them, transfers embryo and pumps the victim's bloodstream full of anesthesia charlie: okay i accept that grumpily, but i accept it fetus: when transfer is finished the crab falls off and the victim might think they survived charlie: makes sense More or Less fetus: lol why so grumpy charlie: i still think the face crab looks like a whole different animal, not a cicada shell fetus: metamorphosis man ok so the QUEEN charlie: QUEENS AND DRONES PLEASE fetus:  the queen is modeled after ants, bees and termites, so it's a similar process: certain larva are selected by the drones and given the equivalent of Royal Jelly so they'll grow up being able to reproduce like all larva have the POTENTIAL to become queens but only the ones introduced to royal jelly will all others become drones or warriors charlie: okay BUT i know a LOT about bees basically all bees a female with a small handful of stupid males fetus: xenomorphs are technically all females since they all have the potential to become Queens but I guess you could say drones and warriors are sexless and only queens are true females charlie: okay so in alien 2 the one single xenomorph did the whole facehugger THING and scurried away, as normal living in the vents or whatever why did it become a queen and who fucked it to get it to lay eggs? you need at least 2 and you need something to make a queen fetus: WAIT WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN I don't remember that charlie: so just one egg hatched and attached to the dad on the planet, right? and he got evacc'd to the town (or whatever that was) we know from experience that it probably chest bursted within a few hours and scurried into the vents so we should have had 1 drone just eating people unable to lay additional eggs fetus: drone probably went back to mother ship for more eggs it was within walking (driving) distance charlie: and like... carried them? and put them close to humans? fetus: yeah, why not? drones are ONLY concerned with taking care of eggs and queen charlie: then when that one hatched you have 2 drones hell, I'll bet this drone captured humans but them somewhere they couldn't escape and then put the eggs around them ensuring more births did they just by hand carry a shit ton of eggs to the colony until one of them coincidentally was a queen, or did they have to DO something? fetus: royal jelly charlie: okay where tho fetus: whatever the xenomorph equivalent is charlie: okay so in bees fetus: I dunno how they make xenomorph jelly, maybe it's a hormonal excretion drone #1 went and made more drones, until they had enough to make the royal jelly and made a queen charlie: okay fine i checked with the bee expert i remembered royal jelly wrong fetus: what did you think royal jelly did? charlie: no i know what it DOES but i was remembering ti as 'the queen spits out royal jelly, gives it to every single baby, but if she gives a LOT of it to one then it becomes a queen' but no, its something young bees make charlie: all of them so when a young bee hatches and wanders over to the nursery to take care of its sisters its spits a little royal jelly on all of them so yeah okay fine fetus: oh I was remembering royal jelly wrong too then I thought it was scarce charlie: 1 human gets face hugged, the xenomorph goes back to the eggs which it can probably smell on the wind, carries one close to humans, then when the baby hatches and hides in the vents he vomits a bunch of royal jelly in its mouth and it just doesnt stop growing until its a full queen fetus: there you go :D charlie: only possible if its a female xenomorph, though, because every bee you will ever see is always a female the males literally only exist to fuck yougn queens (and die doign it) the queen still couldnt lay eggs though theyd have to just hope that one of the eggs in that ship was male already fetus: oh? why not? charlie: male bees dont fuck the queen in their own hive, thats their mom they are supposed to go out and find virgin queens fetus: well what's to stop xenomorph from being like clownfish and changing their sex based on environmental factors? charlie: the virgin queen fucks one single time then uses that one single time to lay eggs forever fetus: heck, normally I peg aliens as being like whippet lizards: they have developed an entire reproductive cycle without males charlie: because clownfish dont have HIVES fetus: they have harems if I remember correctly though you're right, they DO something to avoid incest charlie: look i spent like 3 months learnign everything about bees and i came out afraid of bees, okay i wanna know what xenomorphs do fetus: HEY I'M LOVING THIS CONVERSATION MAN charlie: technically anyone from that ship would be part of the same 'hive' so they probably wouldnt fuck them though they may well not CARE fetus: THIS IS LITERALLY MY FAVOURITE TOPIC charlie: ;) lets see... okay so to do yours and it woudl make sense it would just be very alien (ha) egg is born, egg is female egg hatches, is female egg develops inside host, is female hatchest again as female a secondary adutl female spits on it, its a queen lays additional egg no sperm anywhere here but MAYBE maybe if the QUEEN spits on a baby it can become male? because the queen oughtta not be able to have any babies until shes fucked shes a virgin queen so maybe the first helper xenomorph catches a human, brings it to the nest holds the human in place THE QUEEN SPITS IN THE HUMAN then when the egg gets lain in the human it eats both human meat and queen spit the queen spit neutrtalizes the painkillers (hence why people in those weird tar traps always seem in pain, where people walkign aorudn with chest bursters seem fine) but the queen spit makes it be born male it fucks her (incest but whatever, aliens) NOW she can lay a million babies ofrever and they capture more humans to make more males thats why its usually a room with only like a handful of humans stuck in it, because you onyl need a couple males after that i think my only leftover complaint is that the babies grow too fast and also nothign seems to eat, a lot of them seem to just murder for fun rather than food fetus: YOU CRACKED THE CODE well, it's established in the first movie that at the very least, alien embryos inside humans drink their blood like a fetus would it's quote possible they eat their organs too so a gestating embryo will take a LOT of resources from its human host and this is actually true to life too: there are several insect, especially fly, species where the maggots will spend their entire time eating but the adults lack an actual digestive tract so alien embryos spend all the time inside the host eating charlie: i probably need to see 1 again, its been a couple years i think fetus: in Alien one, after John Hurt wakes up, he shows signs of pregnancy: he's hungry and nauseous and Ash says he looks anemic charlie: im just thinking about the guy thta chest bursted in 1, how he was walkign around and laughing and felt fine before he suddenly exploded which means to me that it didnt eat the heart or lungs, since he didnt spit up blood and probably slithered into his intenstines before chewing through and maybe going for his nutrient rich liver first its pretty BIG is the thing every bite could easily be fatal so it cant be biting anythign remotely important or he would just instantly die, or start coughing up blood, or lose the ability to walk oh, so i have to see 1 again fetus: I just made a theory; normally embryos would eat the entire host like wasp larva do but embryos are capable of sensing danger so when the embryo burst from John Hurts chest, it realized that it was surrounded by hostiles so it ran away instead of finishing eating him charlie: oh that could be! it would make sense like in Cubed she had hers in her chest for like... nearly a week fetus: because most chestbursters are born surrounded by drones and their hosts are immobilized but aliens are versatile creatures, so they're able to thrive even in less than ideal conditions heck, Alien 1 is probably the WORST case scenario for a drone: born away from the other eggs and the queen ooooh you're right queens have longer gestation period charlie: my strongest memory from 1 is that she put al lthat effort into blowing up the ship and it was getting hot and screaming and flashign lights and shes desperately running to the escape shuttle with her cat and once the place blows she realizes the xenomorph had curled up to take a nap in the only dark queiet place on the whole ship it didnt even seem that aggressive she put so much effort into killing it and its jsut like.. sleepy and slow moving like 'why you bulyl me' 'i am the baby' fetus: I  KNOW!!!! I  FUCKING LOVE THE FIRST MOVIE SO MUCH ALL THE PREGNANCY AND BABY IMAGERY USED FOR HORROR Alien 1 does a better job with pregnancy horror than a lot of horror movies featuring actual human babies or demon babies and you're so right little drone in Ripley's ship just wanted to nap btw do you mind if I put our alien biology lesson into one post? charlie: go for it! have all the fun 'please, im trying to psyche myslef up to becomeing a queen or something, im lonely, im the baby, let me nap' fetus: I'm still laughing that you said Ellen is bullying the alien bully the murderous parasite charlie: SHE IS HE WAS TAKIGN A NAP NOT BOTHERIGN NO ONE he wasnt even hungry at that moment! fetus: he was lonely the loneliest xenomorph charlie: partner says that he thinks the baby is a normal parasite and curls itself up in the stomach, eating your food, until its too large to fit, then bursts out the chest maybe the 'dick' that comes out of the facehugger is the 'head' of the xenomorph and it just drops the rest of the body once its ready to and the reason you cant remove a facehugger is the baby latches on with teeth and fucks you up if you try to pull it off fetus: there you go I was thinking it was more of a tongue than a dick but yeah charlie: okay so random though imagine if when the baby hatched otu of that one dudes chest? what if instead of screamign at it they had said 'so cute!' 'welcome little baby!' ''i love you!' let it crawl up their arm put it in a soft warm little baby bubble in the medical ward gave it snacks and head pets it loves them then you have a 200 pound gigantic xenomorph monster within a few horus somehow who loves you and aggressively protects them FROM SPACE PIRATES fetus: ok but that thing just killed warrant officer Ash wait no, Dallas? what was John Hurt's character name KANE ok so warrant officer Kane is dead and the crew just adopts his murder baby? we go from RIP Kane to Kane? don't know her charlie: well the baby didnt MEAN to hatch from his chest its a baby fetus: the chest was just in the way

#alien #xenomorph #long post #fetus talks #fetus talks to Charlie

[theambivalent]

Why I went Vegan

For the most part, when people find out I’m vegan, I get one of two reactions:

1: “wow, that’s great! I wish I could do that”

2: “but.... why????”

I’ve struggled with writing this post out because I wasn’t sure if others would read it with an open mind. But I honestly don’t care anymore. I created this blog so that I could be honest... and in order to be honest about why I'm vegan I have to go way back to my childhood. 

...Yes, that’s really when the realization resonated with me.

[Note that I'm not telling you how to live your life. You do you, boo! I’m just telling my story.]

Childhood

I grew up in a Los Angeles suburb with my family of 9 total people (7 siblings). Dad’s income was the only money we had to support ALL of us. (Thanks dad!)  

So in order to make ends meet, dad raised animals for food at home. Not for EVERY meal, but almost every animal we had was meant to be food ...eventually.  

We had a huge walk-in chicken coop and ducks, rabbits, and even a goat at one point. In short, we had lots of animals. In the midst of the clucks and the quacks, there was 5 year old me, playing with all these cute little guys. I would greet them every morning. Gave them names. Say goodnight to each individual one by the end of the day.

I had milk from the goat, eggs from the chickens; I ate rabbit stew; goat meat, and roasted duck; but was too naive to think of where my food was coming from. I would ask dad about our missing duck/chicken/rabbit ...and he’d simply tell me they’d run away. It wasn’t until I caught my dad killing a chicken that I realized these beautiful creatures I'd play with ended up on my plate. I was devastated. 

 You see, at that time, I was a pretty lonely kid. I had just started elementary school, and wasn’t making many friends; these animals were my only friends...and it just broke my heart to think that they were dying just so that I could have a meal.

That was the first time I decided to go vegetarian. At the time, no one in my family had ever heard of veganism, so that thought never crossed any of our minds.  

But mom and dad sort of freaked out. “how could I feed my child vegetarian while making sure she’d get all the nutrients she needs?”

They didn’t know.  

What was their answer? To sneak in teeny bits of chicken broth, or super tiny bits of meat into nearly everything they served me.  

I had no chance.

There was nothing I could do but go back to eating meat. My parents didn’t have the resources to do the research. We had no internet in the early 90s. At least not in our house. Forget cell phones. There was literally only what we heard on the news about health. And this influenced my parents... and me.  

Teen Years

My first job was at a KFC near my house. At the time, it seemed like a great idea because I could easily walk there from home, as it was only a couple of blocks away.

By this time, we had less animals at home. As most of my older siblings had already moved out of the house, so dad was able to stretch his income a bit more. It was the summer before my junior year in high school.  

I just had to get a job because my parents were cutting my allowance. KFC was the first interview that I got, so I just had to take it.

There was virtually no training. The manager gave us a menu that had to be memorized overnight, and we watched some safety video. Everyday I'd come home smelling like chicken. There was no actual ‘break room’ for employees. We had to have breaks either outside, or grab a free meal for our lunch and eat with other customers. I was so sick of chicken that I couldn’t eat the food. I would’ve brought my own meals, but there was no fridge, because again... there was no break room. I had no choice but to eat the free meal offered by management. I was stuck with coleslaw and wedges. I hadn’t gone vegetarian yet, but I just got so sick of chicken that I couldn’t eat it anymore. One day, I saw a huge cockroach fall into the fryer where we make the wedges... and no longer craved them either. It was 100% coleslaw for me. I lost a TON of weight. I started getting dizzy spells and even lost my period for a few months. The worst part was that after I quit and went to school the next year, everyone was telling me how great I looked. I wanted to scream at them, ‘i’m sick’, but most of them were genuinely trying to be nice. ...ugh.

Redirecting my attention back to vegetarianism, I had decided to become pescatarian. Why not FULLY vegetarian? Because at that time, I still didn’t have great resources and believed I needed some kind of animal fat in my system in order to function well. And since I was constantly sick, I thought this would help me. I ate crackers and tuna when I felt sick, but had salads often.

To be 100% honest, I don’t believe I had an eating disorder & I was never diagnosed. But I did think that my actions were leading me down that path and going pescatarian actually helped me get better in that instance. Unknowingly, it was still harmful to my body, as I would later learn.

Adult Years

After becoming pescatarian, I decided to go full on vegetarian again, because as an adult in the 21st century, I could easily find so much information than I ever could have as a child!  

I found which plant foods had the most protein, iron, and other essential nutrients; while still eating eggs & dairy.

I had always been lactose intolerant, but it never affected me too badly ...until adulthood.  

Yes, milk is for baby cows. As children we only need milk from our own mothers, and just for the first few years of our lives... it makes sense!  

But at that time, I found myself reaching for medication to take care of my stomach issues because ‘mmm....ice cream!’. Looking back.... I realize I would have saved SO MUCH $$$$ by just buying vegan ice cream instead of that over the counter bean-o... .seriously!

My husband (fiance at the time) and I decided to go to this awesome restaurant for our anniversary dinner. It sat on a hill in Orange County, so we could kinda sorta see the firewords from Disneyland as we ate. I had a super huge salad, and he ordered a burger. As soon as we got home... boom! Food poisoning. He suffered pretty bad that night.

The next day, he looked up any info about eating better for your stomach, and we discovered veganism. We both decided the same day we’d go for it.

This is a short summary (probably too short?) of what our research lead to:

For the Animals

Paying for the foods we eat, literally fund the process by which the food is made. More money going into hamburgers, for example, meant slaughterhouses would breed more cows to kill for the purpose of supplying our demand. By slowly cutting down on meat, the meat industry will breed less and less animals to kill because they wouldn’t want to miss a profit. This is also why, there wouldn’t be an overpopulation of cows if everyone went vegan.

For the environment

Meat/dairy agriculture is the #1 cause of deforestation.  

Some people will tell you that buying soy products is the same issue. Problem with that is 80% of the land used to grow these soy products, is owned by the meat/dairy industries to feed their animals. On top of that, raping and force-breeding an excess of cows also causes a build-up of gas emissions, polluting our air. All of the land used by meat & dairy industries could be instead used to grow plant crops that would feed thousands. Also, more plants help to clean the air.

For Health  

People say, ‘if it’s in your genes, it doesn’t matter what you eat’. But what you eat can literally activate, or de-activate specific genes in your DNA. You can’t have high cholesterol if you don’t eat cholesterol, which vegans don’t. High Blood Pressure runs in my family and I was feeling its effects, and even had to go to the hospital because of it prior to going vegan. Changing my lifestyle made it completely go away. I’ve never had blood pressure issues after that.  

Going plant-based was the best decision we’ve ever made....EVER.  We’ve been vegan for about 5 years now and honestly find it mind-boggling that others still eat animals + animal products. It seems so barbaric to us.

I can’t imagine going back to meat/dairy after seeing how great I’ve been feeling mentally and physically compared to how shitty I felt before that.  

I love animals, and always will...  

Just like I love my body and always will...  

And like I love the planet and always will...

#vegan #why #crueltyfree #plantbased #lifestyle #positivity

[janescymour]

anew. (explicit)

can be read alone or as a sequel to full. darkish emperor kylo and empress rey with a fair bit of fluff at the end because i’m a weak soul. also available on ao3. anyway, enjoy. xo e. 

They rule together in robes of black and burgundy satin and silks, the stitching immaculate as the fabrics coat their bodies and fall across their skin. Rey looks every bit an empress, her hair long and dark, half of it knotted at the top of her head like an intricate crown. Her face is stone, always, never wavering. She is a queen of ice on the outside, stoic and commanding. Her eyes are harshly rimmed with kohl, her lashes impossibly long. She loves to command and rule, to dispense justice where it is needed and reward loyalty when it is due. Kylo tells her all the time this is what she was meant for. He sends her images of their galaxy through the bond — a dark castle on a planet, a new capital, a buzzing city that flits beneath their palace. Crowds worshipping at their feet and Rey drowning in admiration from their people. This is the world they will build together.

***

She thought destruction was what awaited her, but she will rebuild with her emperor at her side. She takes his hand, as she always does, when they are wed and crowned on the very same day. Rey doesn’t think of the friends who have found new purpose now. She does not even miss them. How could she when she is in a crowd of twenty thousand cheering citizens, chanting her name, filling that awful, dark part of her that fears rejection still? She sits facing Kylo, down on their knees together in front of everyone, as if to say we shall only bow to each other and no one else. The silver coronet ladened with the finest jewels is lowered on her head, sealing her fate for all the world to see. She smirks when Kylo is crowned Emperor — the title of Supreme Leader is useless to him, he says, what power does he really have with something so blatantly made up? Rey grins and tells him he has all the power in the world — he can burn cities and planets to the ground in an instant if he wishes. That’s what matters. “Eyes on me,” she mouths, instilling herself as an anchor.

***

The coronation feast is in excess. There are tables and tables of food: sweets, savory meats, rich and ripe vegetables and harsh and light wines. It is more than Rey has ever seen in her life and she hates that. It feeds through the bond, wide open like a flood, her anger besting her in this moment until Kylo wraps one hand around the back of her neck, lips at her ear: hush now, beautiful girl, the world belongs to you. You will have everything. He towers over her, long and broad, lanky, his darkened form casting shadows in front of where Rey stands. It is utterly possessive and he’s hardly touching her. She eyes him and then the tables once more. He is right.

***

Kylo feeds her from his hand, slick juice from the fruit dripping from his wrist as he presses it to Rey’s sweet lips. She moans in pleasure when it touches her taste buds, unable to recall anything quite so nice, even on the Resistance Base where food had never been an issue. He cuts something new up for her before he spreads it on his fingers, letting her mouth draw his digits in to suck them clean. Rey can feel the excess dribble from the side of her mouth, leaving a trail of stickiness across her jaw and neck before it dips to run down the front of her chest. It is now Kylo who looks starved and denied. He looks as hungry as Rey has always been. Rey hooks a leg around his hip, pulling him in closer as greedy little fingers work their way to the fruit tray beside her head. “More,” she says. “Please.” After a beat.

***

They take their chambers together — there is no point in being apart. The bond screeches when Kylo and Rey are separated and it is a consequence neither wishes to recognize. They are tied together, intertwined; one cannot live without the other. Rey clings to him when they fall into their plush mattress, the sheets and duvets swallowing their bodies. “Kylo,” Rey murmurs, gracefully sliding her legs over his hips so she straddles him.

“Rey,” he replies, inching his fingers up her thighs, pushing up the silken night gown until her perfect cunt lies exposed to him. “You’ve always been so beautiful. Even when you had no idea what you were capable of.”

She leans down to kiss him fiercely, sealing their fates once more.

***

The emperor and his empress are slow to rise in the morning, preferring to spend the early hours in sleepy pleasure. Kylo rises before Rey, his little scavenger finds comfort in her rest after all her difficult years. She no longer has to be up at sunrise to have food. But he always gets antsy, wanting her awake with him, to have her attention — to have her hazel eyes staring at him like he’s all she needs.

He wakes her gently, curling his body around hers, hands draping over her chest. He palms her breasts slowly, sighing as Rey’s flesh molds to his own. Her tits are small but pert, fitting perfectly in the palm of his hand. She was made for him, carved with his form in mind — Kylo is sure of it. He peppers kisses across her shoulder, lips trailing every inch of skin he can reach before he turns Rey to her back, moving slowly down so that he slips between her thighs.

Kylo always loves the way his girl tastes, licking long stripes up and down her center until she’s bucking and sobbing with how badly she wants to come, back bowing in a sharp curve as she presses herself down on his tongue. He’s too happy to let it slip inside her as Rey fists her tiny hands in his hair as her thighs tighten around his head, caging him in so he can’t stop, can’t get away, so that his tongue is the only thing she knows. She cries out his name when she comes, heels digging into his shoulder blades as she rides it out.

He lays between her legs, cheek pressed against her thigh, his face still damp with her orgasm. Kylo watches Rey’s face with lidded eyes, brown irises searing as he watches her reactions when his hand strokes up and down her center. Her pretty cunt is swollen with arousal and she’s absolutely dripping, coating his fingers where he touches her. “The way you taste, Rey...” he mumbles into her skin as he slips his index finger inside her once more. “The way you smell.” His tone is reverant. 

Kylo groans, nipping her skin with his teeth as he drags his finger out of her and upwards until he reaches her clit.

Rey whimpers and bucks her hips against him, “Too sensitive,” she whispers, reaching down to tangle her hand in Kylo’s hair.

“I know,” he croons, moving his ministrations lower before he rises to his knees, throat going dry at the sight of Rey spread so bare and wantonly before him. Her wetness pools at the base of her cunt, staining the sheets below her. He takes a deep breath through his nose as he spreads it messily on her thighs, entranced by the way it dries and leaves a slick sheen on her tanned skin.

“Want you,” he says, trembling with desire as he dips his thumb into her entrance. Rey rocks against it with a moan before he drags it downward, dripping with wetness, past her perineum to the tight ring of muscles that seem so deliciously forbidden. “All of you.”

Rey’s breath hitches when Kylo presses against it, though he does not enter her.

“Yes,” she breathes.

***

Rey does not expect denunciation from the galaxy, even if comes in the form of a lone planet. It has a population large enough that it makes her blood boil that any citizen would dare have the audacity to oppose their rightful rulers in a new world. She watches her empire’s base be destroyed via Hux’s holovid and tightens her fists in anger.

“Destroy them,” she commands, standing from her position in Kylo’s lap where she had been perched upon their shared throne. Rey’s bare feet bounce across the smooth floor in her fury as she approaches the redheaded general.

“ — Empress, if I could...” Hux begins, “There might be one other...”

His throat constricts before he can say anything else. Hux’s face turns a deep red as Kylo takes his place behind Rey, his hand wrapped gently around the back of her neck. It is terrifying how sweetly he touches his queen when he is strangling a man at her feet and yet it feels as though it is the most natural thing in the world.

“It was not a suggestion,” Kylo says, voice raw. “It was an order.” He releases Hux without another word, the man remaining on his knees in his rulers’ shadows.

***

Rey always thinks her name sounds like a prayer on Kylo’s lips. It sounds best when his mouth is dark pink and bruised with her harsh kisses and the bites she leaves with her teeth. It sounds best when he has her pressed to her knees, hands locked in her long hair, thrusting his cock in and out of her mouth. He fucks her throat with no qualms, fingers moving to trace her jaw gently, coaxing it open so that he might slide deeper. The emperor always calls out for her, over and over, grunting her name when her nose presses to the thatch of hair his pubic bone.

She’s so absolutely good for him, his little scavenger, his empress, moaning and mewling around his length as tears stream down her cheeks from lack of oxygen and the way he gags her. Maybe it should feel like a punishment but it doesn’t — not with how he’s telling her you are everything, I’ve waited my entire life for you, I would burn down the galaxy for you before his words turn filthy, Rey, I’d fuck you forever, you take my cock so well, don’t you, sweetheart? Is this what you’ve wanted? Tongue out, Rey, and swallow.

Rey keens and heaves for breath when Kylo releases his hold on her, her hazel eyes wide and watching Kylo as he takes his length into his hand and pumps, fisting himself up and down and up and down until he spends himself on her taste buds. She adores the taste of him, lapping it up and catching what slips out of the side of her mouth, licking it greedily off her thumb.

***

Perhaps they are depraved. Perhaps they are greedy. Perhaps they are simply devoted. It is a mix of all three. “Do you hear the way they cheer for us?” Kylo whispers, pressing his left hand flat against the glass next to Rey’s head.

“Mmm,” she hums.

“It is how it should be. You were meant to stand by my side.”

Rey fits her fingers into the empty spaces between his, nodding. “Always.”

“Have you everything you’ve ever dreamed of?”

“Nearly.”

***

Rey asks to take a ship to see the planet that’s in active rebellion destroyed. She demands it to be just her and the emperor, as it always should be — as it always will be. She’s in a new role but she’s still Rey, still the same little scavenger from Jakku that begged and pleaded for a place to belong. Still a pilot.

Kylo stands behind her, hand braced on the back of her neck, fingers playing in the stray strands of hair as they watch fire rain down, burning the city to the ground and all those that inhabit it. She almost wishes they were on the ground watching those who dared claim she and Kylo have no right to rule fall where they stand. She'd like to see them fall at her feet in something other than reverence. 

“No,” Kylo says immediately, sensing her thoughts as soon as she thinks them. Her mind is just as much his and his hold on her tightens reflexively. “Absolutely not. You’ll stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

“I know,” Rey replies, bottom lip pouting out. “I just…”

He shushes her with a finger to her lips.

Kylo fists the back of her tunic in his free hand, sliding it up so he can touch the smooth surface of her skin as his leans forward to press his lips to the nape of her neck. “You did this,” he whispers, “This is all you.”

She can’t help the whimpering moan that falls from her lips.

He takes her there, hard and heavy, fingertips bruising her hips as he thrusts his cock into her from behind, sliding deep inside her cunt. The explosions from below shake their ship and it only sends Rey higher, encouraging her to move, to thrust her hips back to his so he can bury himself within her cunt. Her toes skim the surface of the floor as Kylo fucks her, pushing her up against the control panel of the ship, breath fogging up the view panel. “Harder,” she whispers, leveraging as she bends over fully, winding her hand between her legs to rub at her clit. She still finds it incredible to feel Kylo’s length sliding in and out of her when she touches herself. It’s enough to send both of them falling over the edge of oblivion.

She comes when the final explosion rings out, signaling the end of those who would oppose them.

***

Rey lays her hands flat across her swollen belly, padding lightly around the room as Kylo sits at the desk in the center of the room. There’s work to be done but he can’t take his eyes off Rey for more than a second to even think about starting it.

He’s entranced with the way she moves slowly now, her back arched with the growing baby in her belly. She carries their heir, a strong one, if what they both feel through the bond is anything to judge by.

“I have everything I wanted,” Rey says, face lighting up into a smile — one that isn’t cruel or bent on creating or destroying — one that is just peace.  “Do you?”

“Yes,” he murmurs, holding his hand out to her. “I do.”

#reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo smut #kylo ren/rey #kylo rey #reylo oneshot

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “I’ll Be Bake” & “Blissfully Unaware”

No, I wasn't unaware of these. Part 1 of 2 of the four shorts they put up alongside Power of Four!

I’ll Be Bake

Wow, that is a lazy pun. Such laziness is not unfitting for this short, really.

As the title implies, this episode is all about baking. It would be a good break from the norm if the Reboot Puffs doing normal things in this reboot wasn't the norm. I'd be fine with this if it was doing the norm in a superhero way, but it's not going to be very apparent in this short.

The short starts with Blossom preparing to bake a cake. Bubbles and Buttercup show up, holding vases. They argue over which vase is more priceless, and immediately break them as soon as they see Blossom. Already, this short establishes that Bubbles and Buttercup are going to be on the insufferable end of their new personalities.

Bubbles and Buttercup beg Blossom to have them help her bake that cake, which she allows, but only if Bubbles and Buttercup are filling to follow the steps precisely. There is a potential for comedy there, though it never really pays off.

We also learn that she's making it for Student Council, in that wording. This is the only line in the short that raises any sense of urgency, but it does raise a question: didn't she forfeit the Student Council in Presidential Punchout? Maybe she could have meant making the cake for the Student Council, possibly to appease them to give up one of their seats, or maybe this is something the writers didn't think about. I'm going with the latter.

As predictable as it is, the rest of the episode is essentially just a bunch of scenes where Blossom tries to tell them something to do, and Bubblescup ruins it somehow. I say "Bubblescup", but one thing I can give this short over Bubbles Beauty Blog (But On Video) is that they try to give them things to mess up the cake in ways that fit their character.

For example, when asked for milk, Bubbles persumably steals a cow. She did have that habit of bringing random animals to the Powerpuff household in Helter Shelter, but I think it's more of an "oh, that silly Bubbles" joke. There's also Buttercup using tons of mixers with the butter, leading to a shot of a window getting covered in butter. Like blood! That's the closest this short gets to a joke I can recognize. Oh, and she says this before she does it:

Buttercup: Hasta la vista, budda.

Oh, so that's why it's called I'll Be Bake! It has a random Terminator reference! After Bubbles and Buttercup decide to play with the icers instead of using it to ice the cake, she's had it. What is she going to do? Is she going to inspire them to use their creativity in a good way? Is the cake just going to be ruined?

No, she just ties them up with duct tape, and finishes the cake herself. At least duct tape a step up from ordinary rope and rubber bands. What lesson did we really learn here? Don't let incompetent people work on anything?

This is pretty much that Bubbles Beauty Blog short, but with cooking instead of fashion, and it's Blossom being tormented instead of Bubbles. I don't look back at that episode too fondly, either. Other than some cutesy scenes that are somewhat relatable, as hard as calling anything in this reboot cute can be, this short just felt pointless in the end.

Blissfully Unaware

Oh yeah, I’m unaware of any bliss when it comes to this show, but that's not the bliss they're talking about.

But first, this short starts with an overly muscled chef named Chef Mussel. He's all about flexing his muscles, and adding a pinch of salt. For a show about little girls that can do feats of strength despite looking like cutesy little girls, they sure like muscle-related humor. At least there's some humor in the contrast.

If you haven’t guessed, this short involves everyone’s favorite character, Bliss. Just assume this happened between Bliss appearing and Bliss moving Saturn all by herself by just how amazingly not powerful she is. It really does sound like an exaggeration, but that’s actually what happens. Bliss can move entire planets, while the Powerpuff Girls you all know and love can be stopped by duct tape!

We get to know one more thing about Bliss the special didn't get into: she likes pizza. She asks the Professor if he's making pizza, and he says she's close.

The Professor is actually making something called Broccoli A La Grossier, which is filled with all the things that make 6-year-olds, and apparently 16-year-olds, squirm: broccoli, brussel sprouts, and parsnip sprouts! You know it's gross when they have to use actual photographs!

Bubbles: That’s more sprouts than I can count with my fingers!

I hope the joke is that she can only count to zero. Bliss isn't a big fan of the brocolli-based dish, either. I guess she was on an island for 10 years, so I should cut her some slack on never learning to eat her greens, or beat them for that matter. So she decides to do a plan.

While the last short was about throwing a bunch of jokes and hoping one of them sticks, this one focuses on one joke, for the short's benefit. She telekinetically moves all of the healthy food away. That sitcom dad ends up being blissfully unaware that his replacements aren't necessarily healthy. I can't say the title doesn't fit!

Bliss and the girls, their involvement is so little in this short that they might as well have a "and the rest" credit, remain smiling throughout this, acting like innocent little angels. That screenshot looks really important for some reason!

We get a montage of Bliss magically swapping the ingredients, and the chef saying things that remind me of the "Stir, Whip, Stir" scene from the Star Wars Holiday Special. PPG 2016 reminding me of great things, let me tell you. At least it's slightly funnier due to how over the top the chef is, though that's not a high bar to clear.

...the Rude Broccoli is finished, which looks suspiciously like a deep dish meat lover's pizza. Of course, the Professor looks at this, and, in a shocking twist, he doesn’t notice a thing even after staring at it. On one hand, he did say pizza was close to what he was going to make. He's happy to see the girls happy, and he promises that he'll make broccoli every night, causing them to gag. Maybe even the girls knew Bliss was temporary.

I found this better than I'll Be Bake, even if most of it is on a technicality. At least it involves a superheroine using superpowers, something that was extremely rare in the last short. I would complain about the Professor being the oblivious sitcom dad rather than the genius he should be, but that's sadly consistent with his character in the reboot.

I probably could have done all four shorts in one go, but then I’d have nothing for next Saturday. Also, I needed the break so I could use more time to study for my midterms. See you next week!

← Power of Four (Parts 3-5) ☆ Bedtime & Mojo Jojo Builds A Shelf (shorts) →

#fpb reviews #fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network

[firingmaincannon]

all that I want is to wake up fine

(okay here’s an actual fic post with a description now that the episode is out for everyone)

Title: all that I want is to wake up fine

Rating: T

Characters: Grif

Relationships: none

Tags/warnings: depression, red team angst, trauma, suicidal ideation (kind of), drug use (also kind of)

Summary: Grif keeps himself occupied during his retirement. (spoilers for rvb15x6, “Reacts”)

(View on AO3 here!)

FYI @flame-cat made an amazing podfic of this as well! You can check it out here, please do, it’s so good, I can’t believe it

Day Zero.

Grif watches the transports take off, keeps staring until they’re blips in the distance. Sits down near the water, stares at the sun until it disappears behind the mountains across the lake. Has bright spots on his vision afterward. Doesn’t really care.

Not gonna be much to look at here anymore, anyway. No reason to keep his guard up.

He closes his eyes and lays his hands flat on the rock, feels its heat burn him. He doesn’t move, though. It’s not a big deal.

Day One.

He can’t sleep, which is bullshit. There’s nothing to do here but sleep now. He loves sleeping. Why the fuck can’t he sleep? He buries his face in the pillow and reflects. Come to think of it, it’s been years since he’s tried to sleep somewhere this quiet. There’s nobody shouting, no gunfire, no windows rattling from mortar shell testing. They fucking took his ability to sleep in regular human conditions, on top of everything else, the bastards.

He gives up on sleep, checks the fridge. Only thing left is Simmons’ meth-meth couscous. Son of a bitch didn’t even throw it away. What, was he planning to finish it?

He tosses the couscous out the nearest hole in the base wall and doesn’t think any more about Simmons. Eats ketchup out of the squeeze bottle, because there’s no one to stop him now. He’s all-powerful.

He eats too much ketchup and pukes. Decides not to eat ketchup by itself anymore, but not because other people would care.

Throwing up tires him out and he goes back to bed. He turns a fan on as loud as it goes and crawls under the sheets. Hopefully the droning will be enough for him to pass out.

Day Two.

He wakes up--late? Looks like the sun’s been up a while, but he doesn’t care to check his alarm clock. Thinks twice. Unplugs it. Goes back to sleep. When he wakes up again, it’s dark. Goes back to sleep. Still dark next time he wakes up. Goes back to sleep. Wakes up. The faintest pink light is starting to come through the window. Gets up and pulls the blinds shut. Goes back to sleep.

Day Four.

Turns out sleeping for more than a day makes you really fucking hungry. He’s almost excited about it. Been a long time since he’s slept this long. There’s not much to choose from, mostly ration bars and MREs. Same old pre-Chorus shit. Donut just had to fuck up all the fresh food that Kimball sent them, didn’t he? Motherfucker.

He finally finds instant pancake mix, and on a whim decides to mix in some coffee grounds. Maybe he’ll wake up a little. The coffee makes the pancakes a hideous color and the smell like death, but he eats them anyway, with his hands because like hell is he doing any dishes today. They’re bad. He considers if adding ketchup would make them worse or better. Decides against ketchup when his stomach reminds him with a sickly gurgle what happened a few days ago. So he just deals.

Sometimes they had eggs back at Blood Gulch. On lucky days he’d get to fry them up, supposedly for the entire base. But Lopez can’t eat and Donut is always watching his waist and Sarge says he only eats meat and Yoo-Hoos and Simmons hates runny eggs and fuck you, Simmons, he’s making his imaginary eggs so runny right now, you couldn’t eat them even if you were here.

He misses….

He misses eggs, is what he misses.

Day Eight.

Donut was right. The park’s gone, but the water’s still there. He doesn’t have a bathing suit, but there’s no one around to say shit, so he goes in naked. Sits at the bottom of the pool and closes his eyes. He’s a good swimmer. Had to be, growing up on the oceanside with a little sister who liked to get caught in undertows. He can hold his breath a long time.

He holds his breath. Keeps holding it. Keeps holding it. Keeps holding...

Day Thirteen.

He’s never had a problem rewatching Battlestar before, but all he can think about now is how much Simmons hated Starbuck. What kind of shithead hates Starbuck? The kind that’s scared of women, that’s who. Every time she’s on screen he can hear Simmons’ bitching. And she’s on screen a lot. Once he hears the whining so clearly that he snarks back out loud without thinking.

After that he snaps the DVD in half. He’ll watch Donut’s romances or Lopez’s novelas instead.

Day Eighteen.

He wakes up on the floor covered in developing bruises, yelling his fucking head off. Another dream about the old base, before Blood Gulch. His old squadron. It’s like he can still smell the blood. These have been happening a lot lately, more than they used to. For a second he wishes he wasn’t alone here, that he could tell someone about it. Simmons, maybe. But no, never mind. He woke up screaming a few times when he first got to Blood Gulch and all he got for it was shot by Sarge. Nobody ever asked why.

He picks himself up off the ground and goes to sit in the kitchen like he’s always done. No one teases him for midnight snacking. No one comes out to comfort him, either, but that’s not new.

Day Twenty-eight.

He plugs in all the stupid Christmas lights they used to communicate with Caboose when he plane-shifted (and seriously, fuck Blue Team and everything they do). Watches them flicker. Tries very hard not to read what they might be spelling out. Fails. Gives in and starts keeping track. He gets to AGNDIIVW before he decides it’s complete gibberish. There definitely aren’t any ghosts trying to communicate with him. He thinks if there was one, it’d probably be Church asking for more fucking favors. He rips the plug out of the wall and the lights go dark.

Day Forty-one, maybe.

Today he realizes that Blue Team had their own stash of Oreos hidden in Caboose’s room. And Grif’s supposed to be the selfish one? Fuck you, Tucker, he’ll show you selfish. He takes the pillows from every single bed in both bases and throws them on the floor, drops onto them as hard as he can. They’re all his now. He is the pillow dictator.

Actually the pillows smell kind of terrible by themselves and worse together. It’s awful but he can tell which one belonged to which idiot just by smelling. Donut’s is floral and overpowering. Throws that one out of the pile. The one that must be Tucker’s is fucking unspeakable. He wraps his hand in several layers of paper towel to pick it up and toss it too. Motor oil, aftershave, whatever weird organic shampoo Carolina uses, fucking bubblegum scent from Caboose (complete with the actual bubblegum stuck on the corners, the guy is a goddamn animal)…. They all fail inspection and get chucked. Eventually he’s left with just two. His own, and….

The smell isn’t unpleasant but he still wants to puke. He throws Simmons’ pillow across the room. Fuck it, he’ll stick with his own.

Day Fifty(? Fifty-one? Fifty-two?)

He settles down on top of the base (the wreckage of the base, Donut can fuck himself, he’s so glad Donut’s gone) with his guitar and an amp. Plays a little. He can’t quite get the tuning right. Might be the humidity out here.

Finally gets all the strings in tune. It sounds weird anyway. Maybe he’d just gotten used to Carolina’s caterwauling. “You can’t sing for shit,” he says out loud, because he never could say it out loud to her before. Doesn’t feel scared saying it, or thinking it, for once. He feels a little mean, though. She wasn’t that bad. Not compared to everyone else in the group. He wonders if she ever sings now, on her Freelancer adventure bullshit with Wash, or if it was something she only did when she was around the Reds and Blues. He hopes she does sing, a lot. Wash deserves it.

Day ???

It’s beautiful today, and that pisses him off. Makes it hard for him to stay inside and do nothing, which is all he wants to do most days. But on a whim he hops in the Puma—because he can call it that now, god dammit, and not get shot in the face for it—and takes off.

In his head, he goes a long way, takes a trip past the dinosaur-robot warzone, up the mountains to the east of their bases, into the plains. It’s a nice mental trip he has laid out. But the Puma shits itself an hour away from the base and he can’t get it started again for the life of him. Et tu, Puma? he thinks, and kicks the treads. So. Great. He’s stranded out here now, and it’s not like there’s anyone to come pick his ass up. Not that they probably would anyway, unless they needed the vehicle. But whatever. This is where he dies, apparently.

…Or not, because when he wanders into the shade of a nearby thicket to die in comfort, he stumbles upon more meth-meth mushrooms. With these he can probably run all the way back to the base. Or his heart might stop. Either way, at least he won’t starve to death.

They taste like shit but he feels fucking incredible. His heart might be exploding right now but who cares he is running so fast he is the fastest person on the planet and that would be true even if he wasn’t the only person on the planet can he run on water right now? he can probably run on water right now oh hey look it’s the base woops he passed it but might as well keep running anyway and maybe he’ll set a new record for how far one person can run he’s probably already set a record because he’s so, so fast and Sarge will be so mad that Grif’s the best at something and oh huh maybe he’s not going so fast anymore maybe it’s starting to wear off and oh, god dammit, he’s coming down, he hurts everywhere and now he’s an hour away from the base in the other direction. Fuck.

It takes him hours to recover, and the better half of a day to walk all the way back. He feels fuzzy for a couple days afterward but he’s pretty sure he’s not dying. Probably. But it doesn’t worry him too much.

Day ???

He’d figured they’d call, eventually. They must have found the source of the stupid message by now, right? It’s been weeks. Months maybe. He’s pretty sure all the analogue calendars burned with the bases and his HUD’s been fucked since before they left. But it can’t take them that long. The fucking reporter seemed pretty singleminded about her investigation, and she’s smarter than the rest of them put together, so she at least must have found Church by now. And he’d thought that once the others found Church they’d come back, or send a message, or something. Apologizing for everything—no, no way. Yelling at him more for not wanting to deal with Blue Team problems, more likely. Something.

Just…

He’d figured they’d call.

Day ???

He wakes up from another nightmare. It’s been so long that he doesn’t remember the faces of his old squadron, but it doesn’t matter, because tonight they’ve been replaced by newer people. Faces he doesn’t want to see here on this planet right now, yelling at him or smirking or thinking things they know nothing about. But not faces he wants to see dead either. Not that.

Day ???

He breaks his E string while playing and suddenly wants to smash the guitar so bad he can hear the wood of the neck creaking under his fingers. He doesn’t do it. Smashes Tucker’s bass instead. Smashes it to tiny pieces against the wall of their practice space. He wishes he felt like Pete Townshend while doing it, but he just feels tired. He sits down amongst the shattered chunks of wood and plastic and breathes hard for a long time.

Day ???

They’re not going to call.

Day ???

He sits by the lake, the same spot where he watched their ships leave orbit, and thinks of Kai. Wonders what she’s doing right now. If she’s in as much of a mess as he is. If she thinks about him, most days, the way he thinks about her. If he’s even a blip on her radar. If not, he doesn’t blame her. She’s always had her own life, which is exactly how he wanted it. It scares the shit out of him, every time she disappears, but he fought like hell to give her a chance to do whatever dumb shit she wants to do. And honestly, if that means she forgets about him sometimes, whatever. She knows he loves her, and she loves him back, in her own freakish way. That’s how their family has always worked.

“You gave up a lot for her,” Simmons told him once, when they were back in Blood Gulch and shitfaced and Kai had just showed up and he’d had to explain their whole deal. Grif had shrugged, because it’s just how life worked for them. It wasn’t a big deal, was it? He was never going to be a great success anyway, it wasn’t like working a shitty job or dropping out of school really hurt him any. He wasn’t giving up much.

Now he’s years older and a millennium more tired and he’s so, so angry. Not at Kai, because she doesn’t know what he did for her, and never will, because if she did she’d feel bad and he doesn’t want that. No, he’s angry at Simmons, and Sarge, and every single person he ever even thought of as something resembling a friend. They all chose the military, they all chose this, and he didn’t get a choice. None of this was ever his choice. That’s nothing new. That’s been his life since the day he got drafted. And okay, maybe he could deal with that, because that’s how his life has always been.

But he never wanted any of this, those fuckers never noticed. They never asked. They never cared.

None of them cared at all, god dammit, they just called him lazy or stupid or fat and maybe all those things are true but why would he be anything else if he hasn’t had something worth choosing or living for since he stopped being Dexter and started being Private Grif of the fucking Red Army? Why would he bother being a complex person when nobody around gave a shit about him either way? Why trust people with his private shit when nobody wants to hear it? Why care about them, after all this time he spent fighting with them and watching their backs and taking bullets for them, when the first time he tells them he can’t do this anymore, they leave him behind? Why invest a fucking second of his time in them when they’ve never asked anything about him, never wondered why he might not want to fight anymore, never questioned why he sleeps all the time and eats all the time and does his best not to care about anything?

Because that’s the problem. He’s tried so hard not to care, and he’s spent years failing, and they don’t know because what he feels doesn’t mean anything to them.

“Grif cares about his friends,” the reporter said. Yeah, no shit. They just don’t care about him.

#rvb #red vs blue #rvb15 #grif #dexter grif #rvb15x6 #fmc fic

[jesseneufeld]

Why We Should All Be Eating Organ Meats

Today we welcome a post by guest author Ashleigh VanHouten, health and nutrition journalist, public speaker, certified health coach, and host of the Muscle Maven Radio podcast. Here, she explains why we’re missing out if we’re only eating boring boneless cuts of meat from the grocery store, and makes the case for eating nose-to-tail, for both our health and for our enjoyment. Her new cookbook, It Takes Guts, is available for preorder and hits the shelves in late October.

“It’s good for you and for the planet – and it’s easier and tastier than you think!” – Ashleigh VanHouten

Modified excerpt from It Takes Guts, shared with publisher permission.

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me, “I just can’t get my head around eating [insert type of organ meat here] because I didn’t grow up eating it,” I could retire now and live out the rest of my days eating animal hearts on a beach somewhere — but I have a secret for you. I didn’t grow up eating organ meat, either; I grew up eating cereal and bread and chicken breast, and while I always gravitated toward animal products, I certainly wasn’t eating liver or sweetbreads.

But as someone who has dedicated their career to researching, studying, and experimenting with nutrition, I believe strongly that one bite of something new won’t hurt you, and it just might open up a whole new world of pleasure and health. It’s a fact that organs are generally the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal, so if we can find fun and creative and even subtle ways to enjoy them, we’re winning. And by eating the whole animal, we’re also honoring and respecting the beings who sacrificed for our dinner plates by ensuring none of it is wasted.

I wrote my nose-to-tail cookbook It Takes Guts because I am passionate about honoring the animals we’re eating, and enjoying the full bounty of delicious and healthy options available to us. As the saying goes, the way you do anything is the way you do everything, and I believe we should all be approaching our plates, and our lives, with a sense of adventure and enthusiasm.

Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the reasons why eating organ meats is a good idea:

It’s Sustainable

It would be wasteful to buy a huge house and use only one or two rooms, right? Adopting a whole-animal approach reduces waste, and buying from local farms and butchers helps decrease the carbon footprint created when meat is brought to you from far-flung places. In the process of breaking down an animal, less than half of it will usually end up as boneless cuts, or the type of meat you normally pick up at a grocery store. Much of the rest is bone, hide, blood, and organs – the latter being the most nutrient-dense part of the animal, which we are essentially giving away to then eat the less nutrient-dense muscle meat!

If you’re reading this, you probably eat animals, and if you’ve accepted that eating animals is a natural part of living, the best way forward is to ensure that the animals you’re eating lived a healthy, natural life and were slaughtered humanely, and that we honor the animal’s sacrifice by not wasting any of it over arbitrary (and misguided) beliefs that some part of the animal are acceptable to eat and others aren’t.

It’s Healthy

It’s a fact: organ meats like liver, heart, and kidney are nutritional powerhouses, not just for their individual nutrients but for the synergistic effect of consuming these nutrients together. Nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin D, and magnesium work together with other food-based compounds. That’s why taking many of these nutrients on their own (in pill form, for example) doesn’t have as much of a positive effect on your body.

And to debunk a big myth about these cuts, it is untrue that organ meats like liver and kidney store and contain toxins. Organs like the liver filter toxins, usually moving them to the kidneys, from which they are eventually expelled through the urine. Toxins are removed from a healthy, well-functioning animal’s body via these miraculous organs just like they are in ours; eating fresh, healthy organs is the same as eating fresh, healthy muscle meat. If toxins do linger in the body, they are generally stored in fat cells (this goes for us too), which is why it’s crucial to source high-quality animal protein that is raised without pesticides or antibiotics, because that’s where they’ll end up: in your delicious, fatty rib-eye.

Organ meats are so nutrient-dense that you can eat very small amounts and get more benefit than you would from nearly any other food on the planet. A few ounces of beef liver contains your daily needs for many nutrients, including iron, copper, zinc, folate, choline, and vitamins A and B12. So even if I can’t convince you to love the taste of organ meats, I hope I can help you understand that these are superfoods that can dramatically improve your health.

It Saves You Money

Often, organ meats are less expensive than muscle meats simply because they aren’t in high demand. Imagine the nutrient-dense parts being sold for scraps while the basic protein is sold at a premium! Unlike prime cuts of grass-fed beef, grass-fed beef liver and heart are pretty cheap. A beef tongue can feed a party of six for about ten bucks; chicken hearts are often sold for a few bucks a pound; and you can buy a bag of tasty, protein packed chicken gizzards that will serve a whole family for less than you’d pay for a fancy salad at your local fast-casual restaurant.

If you want to get the best nutritional bang for your buck with protein, your best bet is to throw some offal in there. Make friends with your local butcher, too, so you learn about and source the best stuff!

It’s Fun (and Ancestral!)

If you can reframe your perceptions of organ meat being “gross” or extreme and see it for what it really is—just a different part of the animal you’re already eating, and a much more nutritious part at that—you can start having fun with different recipes and preparations.

Nose-to-tail eating is also a celebration of culture and history, honoring the traditional foods off different countries; a time when people were less swayed by grocery store marketing and more driven by instinct; when we gave more respect to the time, skill, and labor of providing meals for our families, and when nourishment mattered more than hyperpalatability.

It’s Tasty (Really!)

Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it—that’s what I’m always telling my skeptics. While certain organ meats have stronger flavors and unique textures and may never appeal to some people, the same can be said for less controversial foods (don’t even get me started on broccoli—now that’s an acquired taste!) I know I’ll never win everyone over, but if you’re willing to at least try,

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how delicious, delicate, and decadent offal can be. If you’d like to learn more about the health, history, and deliciousness of organ meats, including my personal journey and more than 75 offal-based recipes created by myself and a range of other fantastic chefs, you can pre-order my book, It Takes Guts, now!

Ashleigh VanHouten is a health and nutrition journalist, public speaker, certified health coach, and self-proclaimed muscle nerd. She has written for Paleo Magazine for more than eight years, along with a number of other health publications. She hosts the Muscle Maven Radio podcast, which has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times, where she’s interviewed some of the biggest names in health and wellness, including Mark Sisson, Dave Asprey, and Steph Gaudreau. She’s also worked with other top-rated health-related podcasts, such as Barbell Shrugged, Muscle Intelligence, and Paleo Magazine Radio. Combining her formal education and professional experience in marketing and communications with her passion for healthy eating, exercise, and learning, Ashleigh works in a consulting role for a number of professionals in the health and wellness world, working alongside individuals like Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Ben Pakulski, and Elle Russ. Find out more at ashleighvanhouten.com.

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[lauramalchowblog]

Why We Should All Be Eating Organ Meats

Today we welcome a post by guest author Ashleigh VanHouten, health and nutrition journalist, public speaker, certified health coach, and host of the Muscle Maven Radio podcast. Here, she explains why we’re missing out if we’re only eating boring boneless cuts of meat from the grocery store, and makes the case for eating nose-to-tail, for both our health and for our enjoyment. Her new cookbook, It Takes Guts, is available for preorder and hits the shelves in late October.

“It’s good for you and for the planet – and it’s easier and tastier than you think!” – Ashleigh VanHouten

Modified excerpt from It Takes Guts, shared with publisher permission.

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me, “I just can’t get my head around eating [insert type of organ meat here] because I didn’t grow up eating it,” I could retire now and live out the rest of my days eating animal hearts on a beach somewhere — but I have a secret for you. I didn’t grow up eating organ meat, either; I grew up eating cereal and bread and chicken breast, and while I always gravitated toward animal products, I certainly wasn’t eating liver or sweetbreads.

But as someone who has dedicated their career to researching, studying, and experimenting with nutrition, I believe strongly that one bite of something new won’t hurt you, and it just might open up a whole new world of pleasure and health. It’s a fact that organs are generally the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal, so if we can find fun and creative and even subtle ways to enjoy them, we’re winning. And by eating the whole animal, we’re also honoring and respecting the beings who sacrificed for our dinner plates by ensuring none of it is wasted.

I wrote my nose-to-tail cookbook It Takes Guts because I am passionate about honoring the animals we’re eating, and enjoying the full bounty of delicious and healthy options available to us. As the saying goes, the way you do anything is the way you do everything, and I believe we should all be approaching our plates, and our lives, with a sense of adventure and enthusiasm.

Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the reasons why eating organ meats is a good idea:

It’s Sustainable

It would be wasteful to buy a huge house and use only one or two rooms, right? Adopting a whole-animal approach reduces waste, and buying from local farms and butchers helps decrease the carbon footprint created when meat is brought to you from far-flung places. In the process of breaking down an animal, less than half of it will usually end up as boneless cuts, or the type of meat you normally pick up at a grocery store. Much of the rest is bone, hide, blood, and organs – the latter being the most nutrient-dense part of the animal, which we are essentially giving away to then eat the less nutrient-dense muscle meat!

If you’re reading this, you probably eat animals, and if you’ve accepted that eating animals is a natural part of living, the best way forward is to ensure that the animals you’re eating lived a healthy, natural life and were slaughtered humanely, and that we honor the animal’s sacrifice by not wasting any of it over arbitrary (and misguided) beliefs that some part of the animal are acceptable to eat and others aren’t.

It’s Healthy

It’s a fact: organ meats like liver, heart, and kidney are nutritional powerhouses, not just for their individual nutrients but for the synergistic effect of consuming these nutrients together. Nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin D, and magnesium work together with other food-based compounds. That’s why taking many of these nutrients on their own (in pill form, for example) doesn’t have as much of a positive effect on your body.

And to debunk a big myth about these cuts, it is untrue that organ meats like liver and kidney store and contain toxins. Organs like the liver filter toxins, usually moving them to the kidneys, from which they are eventually expelled through the urine. Toxins are removed from a healthy, well-functioning animal’s body via these miraculous organs just like they are in ours; eating fresh, healthy organs is the same as eating fresh, healthy muscle meat. If toxins do linger in the body, they are generally stored in fat cells (this goes for us too), which is why it’s crucial to source high-quality animal protein that is raised without pesticides or antibiotics, because that’s where they’ll end up: in your delicious, fatty rib-eye.

Organ meats are so nutrient-dense that you can eat very small amounts and get more benefit than you would from nearly any other food on the planet. A few ounces of beef liver contains your daily needs for many nutrients, including iron, copper, zinc, folate, choline, and vitamins A and B12. So even if I can’t convince you to love the taste of organ meats, I hope I can help you understand that these are superfoods that can dramatically improve your health.

It Saves You Money

Often, organ meats are less expensive than muscle meats simply because they aren’t in high demand. Imagine the nutrient-dense parts being sold for scraps while the basic protein is sold at a premium! Unlike prime cuts of grass-fed beef, grass-fed beef liver and heart are pretty cheap. A beef tongue can feed a party of six for about ten bucks; chicken hearts are often sold for a few bucks a pound; and you can buy a bag of tasty, protein packed chicken gizzards that will serve a whole family for less than you’d pay for a fancy salad at your local fast-casual restaurant.

If you want to get the best nutritional bang for your buck with protein, your best bet is to throw some offal in there. Make friends with your local butcher, too, so you learn about and source the best stuff!

It’s Fun (and Ancestral!)

If you can reframe your perceptions of organ meat being “gross” or extreme and see it for what it really is—just a different part of the animal you’re already eating, and a much more nutritious part at that—you can start having fun with different recipes and preparations.

Nose-to-tail eating is also a celebration of culture and history, honoring the traditional foods off different countries; a time when people were less swayed by grocery store marketing and more driven by instinct; when we gave more respect to the time, skill, and labor of providing meals for our families, and when nourishment mattered more than hyperpalatability.

It’s Tasty (Really!)

Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it—that’s what I’m always telling my skeptics. While certain organ meats have stronger flavors and unique textures and may never appeal to some people, the same can be said for less controversial foods (don’t even get me started on broccoli—now that’s an acquired taste!) I know I’ll never win everyone over, but if you’re willing to at least try,

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how delicious, delicate, and decadent offal can be. If you’d like to learn more about the health, history, and deliciousness of organ meats, including my personal journey and more than 75 offal-based recipes created by myself and a range of other fantastic chefs, you can pre-order my book, It Takes Guts, now!

Ashleigh VanHouten is a health and nutrition journalist, public speaker, certified health coach, and self-proclaimed muscle nerd. She has written for Paleo Magazine for more than eight years, along with a number of other health publications. She hosts the Muscle Maven Radio podcast, which has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times, where she’s interviewed some of the biggest names in health and wellness, including Mark Sisson, Dave Asprey, and Steph Gaudreau. She’s also worked with other top-rated health-related podcasts, such as Barbell Shrugged, Muscle Intelligence, and Paleo Magazine Radio. Combining her formal education and professional experience in marketing and communications with her passion for healthy eating, exercise, and learning, Ashleigh works in a consulting role for a number of professionals in the health and wellness world, working alongside individuals like Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Ben Pakulski, and Elle Russ. Find out more at ashleighvanhouten.com.

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[batterymonster2021]

The food we were born to eat: John McDougall at TEDxFremont

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/the-food-we-were-born-to-eat-john-mcdougall-at-tedxfremont/

The food we were born to eat: John McDougall at TEDxFremont

Translator: Denise RQ Reviewer: Luis Tsai Hsu Starch! (Laughter) Yeah, its starch. You already know, rice, corn, potatoes, candy potatoes. Its starch that has healed enormous quantities of my sufferers. For example, a young girl from the Bay discipline had deforming rheumatoid arthritis, to the factor the place she couldnt seize her mom. Juliea Baker determined, at 17 years old, she was once going to vary her weight loss program. She used to be going to stop the cheese, the meat, and the oil; and change to a food regimen based upon rice, corn, and potatoes. And it took about seven days before she started getting higher. Or, from Sacramento, Robert move. He used to work in the lawyer generals place of work. He had horrible chest pains; excessive blood pressure, diabetes, high ldl cholesterol, chubby. He went to his medical professional for a solution. Speedily ended up in front of the cardiologist, who endorsed what? A coronary heart surgery. He said, "No.Ive received a better notion". And he switched to a starch-established food regimen. He lost 60 kilos, dropped his ldl cholesterol from 300 to 150, and cleaned out his arteries. Or Deb Tasic, from Chicago. He had horrible a couple of Sclerosis. In fact, she fell down, stayed down for a month, couldnt get up. Her doctor advised her shed be in a wheelchair in five years, and certain bedridden or lifeless in 10. She stated, Im no longer going to try this. So what she did is, she switched to starch. Yeah, starch. Im health care provider John MacDougall. Ive been in this business for 44 years. And Im the luckiest health care provider on the planet in view that my patients get good.It began out… (Applause) I have got to let you know, it started out through slightly of an accident. I was once in Michigan, and determined to move to Hawaii for my internship, again in 1972. I stayed in Oahu for a yr, practiced simply normal inside treatment or internship variety of application. And then after a year, I fell in love with Hawaii and didnt need to leave. So, I took a job on the significant Island as a plantation physician. And there I worked as a general health care provider for 3 years. I caught infants, I stated folks lifeless, I did brain surgery in the core of the night. However Ive discovered the whole thing that i know today for the period of these three years from my patients. First thing I discovered was once that I wasnt a very good surgeon. I idea I was once going to make all these dazzling cures. I imply, I watched Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Marcus Welby. I knew what a real surgeon did. And i went into this normal apply on the enormous Island of Hawaii, and i began caring for these 5000 sugar plantation sufferers.And i gave them the pleasant tablets I would in finding, I despatched them off to the great surgeons in Honolulu. And they wouldnt get good. They just stayed fats and ailing. At first, I notion it was once considering I was a nasty physician. I realized my obstacles as a health practitioner for the duration of these three years; I used to be humbled. The 2d thing that I discovered from my sufferers, It was a particular atmosphere on the gigantic Island of Hawaii, within the sugar plantation, is I realized devour. When you consider that I used to be taking good care of 5,000 people who ate otherwise. I used to be taking good care of first, 2d, 1/3, and fourth generation of Filipinos, jap, chinese, and Koreans. Now, my first generation, they learned about how you can eat when theyre sons and daughters in their native land: the Philippines, Japan, China, Korea. They learned a weight loss plan of rice and greens. Then, they had the fortune of relocating to the significant Island, to start new households, a new existence, however with them they took their common weight loss plan.And they endured to devour rice and vegetables. The kids, who have been influenced a bit bit by means of the western food plan, started to alter. And by the point you obtained to the grand-youngsters, youre looking at persons who ate the natural western weight loss program. Now, have an understanding of these are people of the same genetics, equal type of labor for over a hundred years on the sugar plantation yet, before my eyes as a surgeon, I saw persons residing on rice and greens No dairy, just a little bit of meat at most. Trim, healthful, hardy men and women. No MS, no arthritis, no diabetes, no coronary heart disease in that first generation dwelling on those common diets. Then, I watched the second new release get fatter and sicker as they abandoned starch. After which, the third new release, which feared starch, – rice, corn, potatoes – and took on meat and dairy of their diet, and oils. They bought fats and in poor health similar to each different American.Well, after three years, I had to depart as a health practitioner. I went again to Oahu to become a board-licensed internist. And that i spent the subsequent two years studying within the scientific library, within the clinical Library, subsequent to Queens scientific Centre, to see whether or not anybody else had made this remark: that humans who live to tell the tale starch – rice, corn, potatoes, candy potatoes – are skinny, healthful, hardy, young-looking. No longer just on the earth at present, however in the course of historical past. And once they swap to a well-balanced weight loss plan, the wealthy American weight loss program, with plenty of protein, calcium and different of these unusual vitamins and minerals, do they get fat and sick? What I found out used to be that scientists over the prior 100 years had made this commentary. Correctly, it goes extra again than that. That was main, because that informed me right there and then, that ageing didnt imply getting fat and unwell; it didnt have to be that manner. However as I read in the science, I found out anything that used to be relatively profound, and Im definite its going to be convenient for you to recognize.Whilst you stop doing things that make humans unwell, they get good. And so, if I had discovered that consuming a well-balanced eating regimen, plenty of meat and dairy made men and women in poor health, then the only subsequent clue I wanted was the suggestion that I could be a miracle medical professional. I could fulfill what I desired to do as a healthcare professional, which is to aid different people with the aid of making use of this very simple precept. That is, to feed humans a food regimen for human beings. You know, there’s a weight-reduction plan for people.I do know you perhaps amazed considering the kind of what everybody eats. But there’s a eating regimen for human beings. Each and every of you ought to be competent to reply that question for your self, for your spouses, in your kids, to your associates. You should be competent to have that reply. When any person says, "What do people eat?" I imply finally you realize what a cat eats, right? Cats are carnivores. Horses, they’ve a weight loss plan, and parrots have a food plan, You in no way take and feed your parrot meat or your cat nuts and seeds. So each animal have to have a weight loss plan. What’s the food plan for human beings? Historical past will inform us what that’s. While you look again via history, which you could go back 2.5 million years, and also you see that the bulk of human beings have lived on starch-based diets. We’ve proof from forty four,000 years ago that stated that the Neanderthals lived on starches.And from 30,000 years in the past, we’ve populace stories in Europe, that talk about individuals dwelling on starch-founded diets. I mean, thats pre-agriculture, so they say. Thats pre-civilization, so they say. However how about over the final 10, 12, 14, 000 years? Now we have particularly direct proof, we now have written evidence about what persons ate. And if youre a man or woman of history, you realize what people ate. During human historical past, all large, victorious populations of folks, have bought the majority of their energy from starch. Im certain plenty of examples are popping on your intellect. Youre serious about the Aztecs and Mayans; the men and women of the corn. And in case you go just a little bit extra south, and you appear on the Incas; they lived on potatoes. Besides after they went to fight then they’d change to quinoa And should you go to the middle East, these people are from the bread baskets of the sector.In Asia, I believe most folks can relate to the rice-based diets. And believe about these humans. Trim, hardy, healthy, robust warriors. The food plan of human beings has been commonly and normally shall be a weight loss plan established on starch with the addition of fruits and greens. What occurred is persons became more effective at gathering calories. And the richer individuals in every society, what occurred to them is that they no longer needed to eat the starches. They may be able to as a substitute eat the animals that were consuming the starches. And for this reason, there is a targeted section of population in the course of all of human history that grew to become wealthier than the leisure of the folks. And these individuals might devour meat, pheasant, or pigs, or different varieties of animals, and put the starches as aspect dishes.We had the pharaohs, the kings, the monks and the priestesses of three,500 years ago who were described as fat. The examination of their bodies, 3,500 years later, shows horrible atherosclerosis, gallbladder disorder, and all varieties of other problems of Western civilization. Good, we had few kings and queens again then. After which, as time went on, more and more persons had been competent to consume like kings and queens. You recollect King Henry 8th and his court. What did they seem like? Americans. Thats what they gave the impression of. And then, as time went on, we grew to become extra efficient at gathering food. Humans grew to be wealthier. We had the economic revolution in its midst of 150 years in the past. And we had the invention of fossil gasoline And as a consequence, almost everybody in western society can consume like kings and queens. And what’s the effect? Cant you see it?! Cant you see it? When people abandon their starch-based diets of rice and corn and potatoes, with the addition of fruits and vegetables; as an alternative, they devour the meals of royalty, as humans do in western society, what would you assume?! That youd have individuals that appear like kings and queens, and are in poor health with diabetes, and coronary heart disease, and melanoma, and more than one sclerosis.Anyway, thats the atmosphere of the country at present. The statistics are very familiar to you, Im sure. We reside in a society the place men and women are fat and ailing. No longer simply the adults, however the children too. 30% of the children are chubby. Not most effective they may be overweight; however deep beneath the dermis, theres numerous sickness. These kids have atherosclerosis; they’ve arthritis; they endure precocious puberty. Little boys are going by way of puberty at the age of nine, little ladies round age eight. Thats five-six years before supposed. We now have a society of ill youngsters. Now, come on. Civilized men and women dont let youngsters be harm. But by some means we do in our society. Come what may its k for the youngsters to be in poor health. Well, its no longer k. People will have to stand up to the celebration and shield their youngsters, How about our squaddies? Our squaddies are ill. We send our men and women across the world to symbolize us, yet, half of of the squaddies are overweight. And underneath that weight problems theres plenty of health problem. What kind of society tolerates men and women who battle in our defense, tolerates them being in poor health? On account that the rich western food regimen feeds them a eating regimen of kings and queens.Is unnecessary at all. How about our companies? We are competing in a global market and our workers are fats and in poor health?! How will we compete with people in Japan who live to tell the tale a starch-headquartered eating regimen? Or China, or India? Oh, i know how; we simply wait untill they swap to the american weight-reduction plan and get fat and ailing, correct? I consider there is a higher way. We will work tough to get our staff healthy. How about our wellness care system, the place 20% of our gross countrywide product is predicted to be spent on ailment? How will we ever get ahead? How do we remedy the deficit? How might we fix this world? When we have now an international the place folks look, suppose and function like kings and queens? The answer is unassuming, but it doesnt favor trade. We have a social gathering right here. George McGovern. Senator George McGovern died last month. October 21st, 2012. George McGovern used to be very nearly the author of dietary targets of the us, which were published in January 1977. These targets have been to be just like the surgeon Generals record of 1964. The general practitioner Generals file of 1964 changed the usa. It changed the Western world. Back then, in the 70s,, half of the population smoked. Today, fewer than 20% of the folks smoke. Back within the 70s, obesity used to be half of what it’s in these days; diabetes was once half of what it is in these days. Industry has received. Americans have misplaced. However now we have an alternative to change that. By using becoming told about what the human being eats. The individual is a starch eater. All of you available in the market which might be struggling, your families are struggling. And youre watching to latest medication for a solution; discontinue looking. Theyre now not going to healing dietary diseases with a tablet or a surgical procedure.Youre going to repair dietary ailments through fixing the main issue, which is the food. And when you fix the food, what occurs is persons get healthful. You as participants, sick with various diseases, communities, nations, and the arena, can get healthful by making a simple change, back to a starch-established food regimen. And that i suppose it is going to make economic experience to have a healthy country. I suppose its valued at doing. I know a variety of you who’re new to this; you believe about altering your weight loss program, and a person says to you, "well, you have got to give up meat, you need to give up dairy, your ice cream, your cheese, your chook, your steaks". You say, "Im going to starve to loss of life; its like asking me to give up respiratory, or asking me to give up consuming water". You feel its unattainable assignment. Thats given that youve been confronted with a serious untruth about starches. You like starch; i know you do. Once I mention rice and beans, you’ve gotten an awfully constructive reaction. If I mention pasta, you say, "good, thats relief meals". Potatoes, "I was once raised within the Midwest; If it wasnt for mashed potatoes, I wouldnt be right here at present".So when an individual says, "You have to quit meat and dairy", they usually fail to finish the sentence, What you need to do rather is, you must survive starch. On oatmeal for breakfast, hash brown potatoes; for lunch you have got to have bean soup, pea soup, lentil soup; for dinner you have got bean burritos, pasta with marinara sauce, mu-shu vegetables and rice. You say, "i can do that!" Of course you can, you like these meals.That is the form of education that we want. We need new dietary goals for the USA. We need a govt with a purpose to arise and tell the truth to the folks. We’d like a society so one can no longer tolerate uncivilized behavior like letting our kids be in poor health, our army be ailing, our terrible persons be unwell, and our workers be ill given that of the food regimen of kings and queens. And when we do this, we are able to exchange it, can not we? We will make a difference. Thanks very so much! (Applause) .

[airoasis]

The food we were born to eat: John McDougall at TEDxFremont

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/the-food-we-were-born-to-eat-john-mcdougall-at-tedxfremont/

The food we were born to eat: John McDougall at TEDxFremont

Translator: Denise RQ Reviewer: Luis Tsai Hsu Starch! (Laughter) Yeah, its starch. You already know, rice, corn, potatoes, candy potatoes. Its starch that has healed enormous quantities of my sufferers. For example, a young girl from the Bay discipline had deforming rheumatoid arthritis, to the factor the place she couldnt seize her mom. Juliea Baker determined, at 17 years old, she was once going to vary her weight loss program. She used to be going to stop the cheese, the meat, and the oil; and change to a food regimen based upon rice, corn, and potatoes. And it took about seven days before she started getting higher. Or, from Sacramento, Robert move. He used to work in the lawyer generals place of work. He had horrible chest pains; excessive blood pressure, diabetes, high ldl cholesterol, chubby. He went to his medical professional for a solution. Speedily ended up in front of the cardiologist, who endorsed what? A coronary heart surgery. He said, "No.Ive received a better notion". And he switched to a starch-established food regimen. He lost 60 kilos, dropped his ldl cholesterol from 300 to 150, and cleaned out his arteries. Or Deb Tasic, from Chicago. He had horrible a couple of Sclerosis. In fact, she fell down, stayed down for a month, couldnt get up. Her doctor advised her shed be in a wheelchair in five years, and certain bedridden or lifeless in 10. She stated, Im no longer going to try this. So what she did is, she switched to starch. Yeah, starch. Im health care provider John MacDougall. Ive been in this business for 44 years. And Im the luckiest health care provider on the planet in view that my patients get good.It began out… (Applause) I have got to let you know, it started out through slightly of an accident. I was once in Michigan, and determined to move to Hawaii for my internship, again in 1972. I stayed in Oahu for a yr, practiced simply normal inside treatment or internship variety of application. And then after a year, I fell in love with Hawaii and didnt need to leave. So, I took a job on the significant Island as a plantation physician. And there I worked as a general health care provider for 3 years. I caught infants, I stated folks lifeless, I did brain surgery in the core of the night. However Ive discovered the whole thing that i know today for the period of these three years from my patients. First thing I discovered was once that I wasnt a very good surgeon. I idea I was once going to make all these dazzling cures. I imply, I watched Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Marcus Welby. I knew what a real surgeon did. And i went into this normal apply on the enormous Island of Hawaii, and i began caring for these 5000 sugar plantation sufferers.And i gave them the pleasant tablets I would in finding, I despatched them off to the great surgeons in Honolulu. And they wouldnt get good. They just stayed fats and ailing. At first, I notion it was once considering I was a nasty physician. I realized my obstacles as a health practitioner for the duration of these three years; I used to be humbled. The 2d thing that I discovered from my sufferers, It was a particular atmosphere on the gigantic Island of Hawaii, within the sugar plantation, is I realized devour. When you consider that I used to be taking good care of 5,000 people who ate otherwise. I used to be taking good care of first, 2d, 1/3, and fourth generation of Filipinos, jap, chinese, and Koreans. Now, my first generation, they learned about how you can eat when theyre sons and daughters in their native land: the Philippines, Japan, China, Korea. They learned a weight loss plan of rice and greens. Then, they had the fortune of relocating to the significant Island, to start new households, a new existence, however with them they took their common weight loss plan.And they endured to devour rice and vegetables. The kids, who have been influenced a bit bit by means of the western food plan, started to alter. And by the point you obtained to the grand-youngsters, youre looking at persons who ate the natural western weight loss program. Now, have an understanding of these are people of the same genetics, equal type of labor for over a hundred years on the sugar plantation yet, before my eyes as a surgeon, I saw persons residing on rice and greens No dairy, just a little bit of meat at most. Trim, healthful, hardy men and women. No MS, no arthritis, no diabetes, no coronary heart disease in that first generation dwelling on those common diets. Then, I watched the second new release get fatter and sicker as they abandoned starch. After which, the third new release, which feared starch, – rice, corn, potatoes – and took on meat and dairy of their diet, and oils. They bought fats and in poor health similar to each different American.Well, after three years, I had to depart as a health practitioner. I went again to Oahu to become a board-licensed internist. And that i spent the subsequent two years studying within the scientific library, within the clinical Library, subsequent to Queens scientific Centre, to see whether or not anybody else had made this remark: that humans who live to tell the tale starch – rice, corn, potatoes, candy potatoes – are skinny, healthful, hardy, young-looking. No longer just on the earth at present, however in the course of historical past. And once they swap to a well-balanced weight loss plan, the wealthy American weight loss program, with plenty of protein, calcium and different of these unusual vitamins and minerals, do they get fat and sick? What I found out used to be that scientists over the prior 100 years had made this commentary. Correctly, it goes extra again than that. That was main, because that informed me right there and then, that ageing didnt imply getting fat and unwell; it didnt have to be that manner. However as I read in the science, I found out anything that used to be relatively profound, and Im definite its going to be convenient for you to recognize.Whilst you stop doing things that make humans unwell, they get good. And so, if I had discovered that consuming a well-balanced eating regimen, plenty of meat and dairy made men and women in poor health, then the only subsequent clue I wanted was the suggestion that I could be a miracle medical professional. I could fulfill what I desired to do as a healthcare professional, which is to aid different people with the aid of making use of this very simple precept. That is, to feed humans a food regimen for human beings. You know, there’s a weight-reduction plan for people.I do know you perhaps amazed considering the kind of what everybody eats. But there’s a eating regimen for human beings. Each and every of you ought to be competent to reply that question for your self, for your spouses, in your kids, to your associates. You should be competent to have that reply. When any person says, "What do people eat?" I imply finally you realize what a cat eats, right? Cats are carnivores. Horses, they’ve a weight loss plan, and parrots have a food plan, You in no way take and feed your parrot meat or your cat nuts and seeds. So each animal have to have a weight loss plan. What’s the food plan for human beings? Historical past will inform us what that’s. While you look again via history, which you could go back 2.5 million years, and also you see that the bulk of human beings have lived on starch-based diets. We’ve proof from forty four,000 years ago that stated that the Neanderthals lived on starches.And from 30,000 years in the past, we’ve populace stories in Europe, that talk about individuals dwelling on starch-founded diets. I mean, thats pre-agriculture, so they say. Thats pre-civilization, so they say. However how about over the final 10, 12, 14, 000 years? Now we have particularly direct proof, we now have written evidence about what persons ate. And if youre a man or woman of history, you realize what people ate. During human historical past, all large, victorious populations of folks, have bought the majority of their energy from starch. Im certain plenty of examples are popping on your intellect. Youre serious about the Aztecs and Mayans; the men and women of the corn. And in case you go just a little bit extra south, and you appear on the Incas; they lived on potatoes. Besides after they went to fight then they’d change to quinoa And should you go to the middle East, these people are from the bread baskets of the sector.In Asia, I believe most folks can relate to the rice-based diets. And believe about these humans. Trim, hardy, healthy, robust warriors. The food plan of human beings has been commonly and normally shall be a weight loss plan established on starch with the addition of fruits and greens. What occurred is persons became more effective at gathering calories. And the richer individuals in every society, what occurred to them is that they no longer needed to eat the starches. They may be able to as a substitute eat the animals that were consuming the starches. And for this reason, there is a targeted section of population in the course of all of human history that grew to become wealthier than the leisure of the folks. And these individuals might devour meat, pheasant, or pigs, or different varieties of animals, and put the starches as aspect dishes.We had the pharaohs, the kings, the monks and the priestesses of three,500 years ago who were described as fat. The examination of their bodies, 3,500 years later, shows horrible atherosclerosis, gallbladder disorder, and all varieties of other problems of Western civilization. Good, we had few kings and queens again then. After which, as time went on, more and more persons had been competent to consume like kings and queens. You recollect King Henry 8th and his court. What did they seem like? Americans. Thats what they gave the impression of. And then, as time went on, we grew to become extra efficient at gathering food. Humans grew to be wealthier. We had the economic revolution in its midst of 150 years in the past. And we had the invention of fossil gasoline And as a consequence, almost everybody in western society can consume like kings and queens. And what’s the effect? Cant you see it?! Cant you see it? When people abandon their starch-based diets of rice and corn and potatoes, with the addition of fruits and vegetables; as an alternative, they devour the meals of royalty, as humans do in western society, what would you assume?! That youd have individuals that appear like kings and queens, and are in poor health with diabetes, and coronary heart disease, and melanoma, and more than one sclerosis.Anyway, thats the atmosphere of the country at present. The statistics are very familiar to you, Im sure. We reside in a society the place men and women are fat and ailing. No longer simply the adults, however the children too. 30% of the children are chubby. Not most effective they may be overweight; however deep beneath the dermis, theres numerous sickness. These kids have atherosclerosis; they’ve arthritis; they endure precocious puberty. Little boys are going by way of puberty at the age of nine, little ladies round age eight. Thats five-six years before supposed. We now have a society of ill youngsters. Now, come on. Civilized men and women dont let youngsters be harm. But by some means we do in our society. Come what may its k for the youngsters to be in poor health. Well, its no longer k. People will have to stand up to the celebration and shield their youngsters, How about our squaddies? Our squaddies are ill. We send our men and women across the world to symbolize us, yet, half of of the squaddies are overweight. And underneath that weight problems theres plenty of health problem. What kind of society tolerates men and women who battle in our defense, tolerates them being in poor health? On account that the rich western food regimen feeds them a eating regimen of kings and queens.Is unnecessary at all. How about our companies? We are competing in a global market and our workers are fats and in poor health?! How will we compete with people in Japan who live to tell the tale a starch-headquartered eating regimen? Or China, or India? Oh, i know how; we simply wait untill they swap to the american weight-reduction plan and get fat and ailing, correct? I consider there is a higher way. We will work tough to get our staff healthy. How about our wellness care system, the place 20% of our gross countrywide product is predicted to be spent on ailment? How will we ever get ahead? How do we remedy the deficit? How might we fix this world? When we have now an international the place folks look, suppose and function like kings and queens? The answer is unassuming, but it doesnt favor trade. We have a social gathering right here. George McGovern. Senator George McGovern died last month. October 21st, 2012. George McGovern used to be very nearly the author of dietary targets of the us, which were published in January 1977. These targets have been to be just like the surgeon Generals record of 1964. The general practitioner Generals file of 1964 changed the usa. It changed the Western world. Back then, in the 70s,, half of the population smoked. Today, fewer than 20% of the folks smoke. Back within the 70s, obesity used to be half of what it’s in these days; diabetes was once half of what it is in these days. Industry has received. Americans have misplaced. However now we have an alternative to change that. By using becoming told about what the human being eats. The individual is a starch eater. All of you available in the market which might be struggling, your families are struggling. And youre watching to latest medication for a solution; discontinue looking. Theyre now not going to healing dietary diseases with a tablet or a surgical procedure.Youre going to repair dietary ailments through fixing the main issue, which is the food. And when you fix the food, what occurs is persons get healthful. You as participants, sick with various diseases, communities, nations, and the arena, can get healthful by making a simple change, back to a starch-established food regimen. And that i suppose it is going to make economic experience to have a healthy country. I suppose its valued at doing. I know a variety of you who’re new to this; you believe about altering your weight loss program, and a person says to you, "well, you have got to give up meat, you need to give up dairy, your ice cream, your cheese, your chook, your steaks". You say, "Im going to starve to loss of life; its like asking me to give up respiratory, or asking me to give up consuming water". You feel its unattainable assignment. Thats given that youve been confronted with a serious untruth about starches. You like starch; i know you do. Once I mention rice and beans, you’ve gotten an awfully constructive reaction. If I mention pasta, you say, "good, thats relief meals". Potatoes, "I was once raised within the Midwest; If it wasnt for mashed potatoes, I wouldnt be right here at present".So when an individual says, "You have to quit meat and dairy", they usually fail to finish the sentence, What you need to do rather is, you must survive starch. On oatmeal for breakfast, hash brown potatoes; for lunch you have got to have bean soup, pea soup, lentil soup; for dinner you have got bean burritos, pasta with marinara sauce, mu-shu vegetables and rice. You say, "i can do that!" Of course you can, you like these meals.That is the form of education that we want. We need new dietary goals for the USA. We need a govt with a purpose to arise and tell the truth to the folks. We’d like a society so one can no longer tolerate uncivilized behavior like letting our kids be in poor health, our army be ailing, our terrible persons be unwell, and our workers be ill given that of the food regimen of kings and queens. And when we do this, we are able to exchange it, can not we? We will make a difference. Thanks very so much! (Applause) .

[findingmyami]

The V Word

No, not vagina. Vagina, vagina, vagina, vagina. Although I’m a big fan of people who have them.

The cringe inducing word to which I’m referring is “vegan”. It conjures a rather disagreeable image for many. Much like an alcoholic is imagined to be a homeless person with a paper bag, vegans are often thought of as waif like creatures with a distinctly crunchy style and earthy smell. They are weak, certainly not athletes, and they are proselytizers, not people one would desire to engage in conversation.

Now, I don’t know that I am the candidate to dispel this precise image. I have hippie genes coursing through my DNA and I get rather preachy when I’m feeling manic. Overall, though, I’m just a person trying to make the best life choices I can for myself and my family. As with other struggles I’ve overcome in my life, I do believe that my story can benefit others, though your decision to trudge the same path does not inhibit me in my own health journey. I will, as always, continue to do what I do, and help anyone who asks for my help. I have found that attempting to help people who don’t want my assistance leads to resentment and heartache and immeasurable, unnecessarily expended energy. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

So if you care to know, this is my story, as it pertains to food and my health.

My parents divorced when I was 5 or 6. My father was an alcoholic in the throes of a disease that told him to throw his family aside for the sake of the disease’s survival. Until his death at 51 (I was 19), I watched his weight climb and overall health decline sharply as he was unable to maintain any sort of routine sleep schedule or balanced diet, due to his workaholism and of course, alcoholism. He was a man with a brilliant mind, beautiful heart, and a sense of humor that could disarm the coldest individual. He was, however, trapped in a body that deprived him of a full life and robbed him of watching his children flourish, or meeting his grandchildren. I could say he was a great example of how not to live, but choice has nothing to do with my father’s life. Genetic predisposition is powerful and I inherited those same genes. His story could easily be mine without the blessing of divine intervention. It’s often hard to understand why I have the gift of carrying on to tell my story, while James Petkus’ story ended so abruptly. I do know that the ultimate sacrifice of his life brought me to my knees sooner than I ever would have got there. And if I hadn’t got there, I may not have lived much longer. The story is not mine to question, only to relate.

At the time of my parents’ divorce, my mother was going through a transformation that brought her to a new career in the holistic health field, as well as exploring healthier ways of feeding her family. A vegetarian cooking class in particular brought foods like tofu “meatballs” into the dinner rotation. I dined on hummus sandwiches and banana chips for lunch at my small Catholic school, jealously eyeing those with Oreos and PBJs. I was embarrassed by it all: by the food; by my mother’s lack of a “normal” job; by my father’s lack of ability to show up for his family.

My palate was refined. I ate every vegetable put in front of me, and there were many. My mother did a wonderful job of nourishing my body and soul. But sometimes, love and care is not enough. My genetic predisposition is to consume anything I can to excess in the hopes of quelling a raging internal storm of fear, doubt, and insecurity. Food soon became my shelter and my foe.

On the outside it was eating for comfort or out of boredom. On the inside, the shame cycle began in my early teens. Food fed my hunger, my loneliness and my low self esteem. Overeating (alone, as I preferred it) stoked the flame of self loathing. What started as a flicker, the obsession with body and my desire to control this thing I was trapped in, soon consumed me.

Losing my father was like losing any reason I had to maintain the facade of happiness and success. Coupled with binge drinking, binge eating and purging pulled me down into a morass of shame I was powerless to climb out of.

The things I did to myself I will spend a lifetime overcoming and forgiving. I hurt others, but I hurt myself in ways my broken soul could not withstand and did not deserve.

Help came in the form of rock bottom and spiritual enlightenment and angels on Earth. It was slow and treacherous and thoroughly painful. I was brought back from the brink and broken down completely in order to be built back up into the kind of person I always thought I could be. My life is a miracle. I am still unfolding and make so many mistakes and hurt myself and hurt others. The difference today is hope and an unwavering desire to seek and speak the truth in all its forms. Without the truth, I am sick and alone. I can no sooner turn a blind eye to the woes of this world, than tell a lie to save my own skin. As I work toward groundlessness I feel exhausted, and the urge to give up sneaks in. There is nothing left to hide behind. There is nothing left to fill me up and numb the pain. My eyes are wide open and the invisible line has been crossed. So here we are.

The difference between recovering from substance addiction and food addiction is that it is not possible to completely abstain from food. We need to eat to live! And therein lies the problem. We are eating beyond what we need to live and we are risking our planet, the well-being of other sentient creatures, and if we are honest, our own moral compasses to do so.

When I was 22, Tom and I backpacked Europe for 3 months. We were constantly walking with packs on our backs; we were starving and ate voraciously. It was the first time in a long time I was eating for fuel and not worrying about the calories. It felt exhilarating and was a much needed shift in my attitude toward food. We tried a great variety of cuisines in each country we visited. We did not discern. By and large we skipped fast food establishments, but our diet was heavy on meat and convenience. Along the way, I picked up a copy of Fast Food Nation at a free library in a youth hostel. It changed my life. It truly had never occurred to me (nor would I have cared during those 4am blacked out and slovenly McDonald’s excursions) where my food came from. In retrospect, it wasn’t my time. For so long I simply lacked the mental and emotional stability to safely process such information. The truth is painful. The truth is unsettling. The truth has slowly turned my whole world upside down.

I read as much as I could tolerate and stunned myself into vegetarian submission. It didn’t take much. A book simply entitled, 101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian catapulted me into action. The image of Tyson factory farm workers torturing chickens haunts me until this day.

Almost 2 years into my vegetarianism (a way of life being lived alongside a partner who happily ate meat at almost every meal) I suffered a health crisis leading to emergency surgery and a long road of mental and physical recovery from the event. Soon after my surgery, my mother and I observed that I simply wasn’t healing. My wound wasn’t closing properly and my weight had plummeted. My energy was zapped. Reintroducing protein in the form of meat seemed like the logical answer.

Our culture tells us we need meat for protein, and milk for vitamin D. These lies are literally shoved down our throat from so early on, it can be hard to combat them with even the greatest of logic. If I had even scratched the surface of nutritional knowledge in my quest to eat better, I could have saved myself years of dieting, fluctuating weight and a constant feeling of lethargy. During the post-surgery sickness, I failed to examine the many ways proper nutrition evaded me that had nothing to do with my vegetarianism. A diet full of simple carbs, sugars and dairy, and low on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, is a true recipe for disaster. I was depriving myself of whole foods and wondering why I felt I was dying a slow death. Meat was a seemingly much easier answer than the truth.

I am a master of deception, most adept in deceiving myself. After all of the knowledge and compassion I had amassed, I was able to shove it all aside for the sake of convenience and comfort.

During the many years I should have known better, I became a mother. Unfortunately for my children, health has a trickle down effect. I did my best, with the information I had, and now I am paying the price. I am detoxing my children off of dairy, avoiding meat at all costs, and begging them to eat vegetables of any kind.

More than even me, Zelda is reaping the benefits of my newfound knowledge and was the initial catalyst for changes I so desperately needed. After a disastrous effort at breastfeeding Louise, who was allergic to both milk and soy as a baby and ultimately survived on an abhorrent hypoallergenic formula, I was determined to do better with Z. Like her sister before her, Zelda was covered in an itchy, uncomfortable, red and often weeping rash from just a couple of weeks old. Also like Louise, she developed a desperate and sad case of acid reflux. Despite the many attempts to relieve her pain topically and through oral medicine, it became apparent the answer had to come from within. Up until she was allergy tested, I had great trouble with the elimination diet. For me, deprivation is a surefire way to ignite an inner rebellion, and I didn’t believe that after all the trouble I would get any clear answers anyway. No matter, the results of the blood and skin tests revealed conclusively that my baby was suffering from a severe milk allergy. The jig was up.

Some time during the latter months of my pregnancy with Zelda, Tom had done his own research and had taken action as part of his ongoing health journey. Even in his new role as endurance athlete, he ventured into veganism or “plant based eating” and was firm in his beliefs and his choices. He had found a new guru in Rich Roll, a sober, vegan, endurance athlete and brilliant author. As I listened to Tom’s retelling of Mr. Roll’s transformation, I was brimming with skepticism. However, as I was already giving up dairy, and had very complicated feelings toward eating animals, I made the transition to eating plant based. It happened slowly, but naturally.

During this new journey into eating exclusively plant based, mostly whole foods, I needed to add to my resolve. Convenience and comfort are the greatest demons in my fight to eat in a healthful way and moments of weakness were inevitable. I endeavored to read more articles as well as watch documentaries to add to an arsenal of protection that would keep me from making the detours I had taken in the past. What the Health, a documentary available on Netflix, was particularly enlightening and motivating to me. It is my first recommendation to anyone who is interested in taking a step toward improving her quality of life. Potent, powerful, and lacking in ghastly slaughterhouse scenes, the message gets across easily. All you have to do is listen.

Clearly, I am new at this approach to eating and am not a health expert. All I have is my story and my research, albeit condensed. Take from all of this what you will. Let it spark your own questions and a quest for your own answers. For now, here are the answers to the the most common questions I field when I broach the subject of my diet:

Where do you get your calcium?

I get the bulk of my calcium from kale. Stay with me. I start every morning with a giant smoothie. Frozen fruit is the overwhelming flavor. Kale merely provides color, but also the sought after nutrients, calcium being the one that most concerns people.

Where do you get your PROTEIN?!

Well, from black beans, chickpeas, lentils, wild rice, peanut butter, almonds, chia seeds, oatmeal, cashews, pumpkin seeds, edamame and tofu. To start. Spinach and broccoli are a couple of favorite sources, too. Yes, plants have protein! Per calorie, broccoli has more protein than beef, which is about 4.5 grams per 30 calories. Broccoli is also packed with amino acids, fiber, Vitamin B6 to improve your mood and is one of the best vegetables linked to fighting cancer. Take that!

Where do you get your Vitamin D?

From the sun. Turns out, you can’t get the right amount of vitamin D your body needs from food! This renders the need for dairy milk obsolete. It’s about as useful to us as monkey’s milk. (Ew.) On another note, new studies (not funded by the dairy industry) show that those who drink milk are actually at an increased risk for fractures. Strong bones, my ass.

How can you enjoy the holidays or other events?

Holidays and parties are not difficult. With just a little bit of planning, I never go hungry. And for the first time ever, I came away from this holiday season without feeling bloated and remorseful. It was incredible.

Can you go on vacation and eat like this?

Again, with the planning. Again, with the no remorse. We just got back from Disney World. I ate a good deal of vegan junk food, I must admit. But I did not feel deprived. Once I got over being that person who asks the food service person a few questions, the whole world opened up for me.

People often tell me how little dairy they consume. My retort at this point would be, try giving it up. It is only then that you will see how much you do actually consume. This is never more true than when on vacation. Case in point: At our lunch in Epcot, I conferred with my waiter about my meal preferences and ordered the vegetable soup. Soon after, a cook emerged from the kitchen to disclose that the vegetables were initially cooked in butter and I canceled my order. Milk is so pervasive, despite how many alternatives exist. Even choosing a bag of potato chips or crackers has become disturbing when I realize how often milk is unnecessarily included. So while I do find myself on guard, it doesn’t prevent me from eating. It just makes me a smarter consumer (and forces those Disney chefs to get creative).

In addition to these impossible tasks, I trained for a marathon while exclusively breastfeeding a Fleck baby (Have you seen them? They’re huge!) for 9 months, all while eating a vegan diet. Suffice it to say, veganism is not limiting. It is life saving and life sustaining.

It would be easy to quote sources and copy and paste disturbing facts and images, but I believe it is up to the individual to do her due diligence. Your body, your world, your responsibility. My takeaway from the information I’ve synthesized about living plant-based is this:

1.It’s the only true way to be an environmentalist. It takes 1,799 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. And this is just the tip of the iceberg (or receding glaciers?) for what animal agriculture is doing to our planet.

2. It’s the best way to ensure being here for the long haul for my children. Of course, I could get hit by a car on my run tomorrow, but anything I do have control over I will do my best to harness in order to increase my odds of a longer life. And with a diet rich in ingredients that fight disease, and void of the foods that increase one’s susceptibility to disease (dairy and meat products are linked to various cancers, decline in cardiovascular health, high cholesterol, hypertension, Alzheimer’s and much more) I have more than a fighting chance.

3. As a self professed animal lover, it is hypocritical of me to eat animals. It’s that simple. It is only our culture that has lured us into believing that some animals deserve to die, while others get to be our pets. There is no rhyme or reason to it except that it is traditional, and breaking tradition is not easy. There is such a disconnect between the origin of our foods and what ends up packaged in the store and lands on our plate. Most people would not be able to stomach the process that gets animals onto our table. Eating meat is eating the terror an animal experiences throughout its life until its dying breath. The wish to live is as strong in them as it is in us. Through sheer brute force and selfish desire, we have stopped caring and stopped seeing this. It is the meat and dairy industry’s job to shield us from this. It is our duty to stop being willfully blind.

Growing up, my mother kept a card with this Goethe quote taped to the fridge. It bounces around my brain still, reminding me that my words and actions carry great weight, and that meaningful change can start with my own actions. I just have to start somewhere.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

[sj2themoon]

Vegan Mac n’ Cheeze + Queso Recipe:  Bring a medium- large pot 1/2 filled with water to a boil Set to medium low and add 1 1/2 cups chopped red or yellow potatoes 1 c chopped carrots 3/4 c chopped onion (Chopping is optional but will cook faster) Cook until potatoes are tender In a blender, while veggies cook, add 3 TBS nutritional yeast (more to taste once combined if you like) 1 TBS miso 1/2 c cashews (soaked overnight if no high- speed blender) 3 TBS lemon juice 1 garlic clove or 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp chili powder or paprika 1 tsp salt(+more to taste) Optional- 1 tsp turmeric 1/4 tsp mustard powder Pinch of cayenne Once veggies are cooked, add 1/4 c of the broth water to your blender, set aside another 1/4 c in case you like your cheeze a bit runnier. Strain the veggies and add them to the blender. Blend until creamy deliciousness!!! (You may need to stir a few times to get it going depending on what kind of blender you have) I have recently discovered this cheeze pairs best with zoodles! Or zucchini noodles. But can be added with any noodle of your desire. For zucchini noodles use a vegetable spiralizer, a julienne peeler or a potato peeler for fastest zoodles.   Peeling the skin off is optional. And finally to make this cheeze into queso, blend in 1-2 TBS of your favorite hot sauce or salsa For chunky queso add into your used pot 1 small-medium minced spicy pepper like jalapeño 1 small-medium tomato diced 2-4 TBS green Chiles or diced bell pepper Dash of pepper Simmer until it sizzles, then add your cheeze. Mix it all up and BAM! Best. Queso. Ever. How and why the best you ask? It is free from preservatives, dairy, guilt, and cruelty AND is loaded with good for you veggies and medicinal spices! It is creamy, cheezy,  spicy, tangy goodness. Dip with chips, bake a sheet of tortilla chips with beans, onions, tomato, jalapeños, corn, and any nacho toppings you love to a crisp and add the queso on top for rockin’ nachos, or add to zoodles for mac n queso, pour on your tacos, taco salad, steamed broccoli, YOU NAME IT. This queso does it all.

Vegan Lifestyle- Q&A with Taylor

  Me: How long have you been vegan now Taylor?

Taylor: I decided to dive into this lifestyle September 2015, so almost a year and a half now. It seems almost impossible that it has been that small amount of time because it feels as if I have been this way my whole life. It aligns so perfectly! And after I shifted, it feels as if I’ve been rebirthed. So, it honestly feels like it’s been forever! It’s quite an interesting phenomenon.

Me: What is veganism? (What does it entail?)

Taylor: Veganism to me put simply, is the consumption of no animal products. This includes no eating it, purchasing of it in retail, or buying anything that consists of animal products at all. Also cruelty-free, not tested on animals etc. But it’s so much more than that. Much much more. Go deeper and it’s the integration of a lifestyle with a heightened awareness and new perspectives. It often allows for many more realizations, perceptions on reality and life changes into health and wellness for all aspects of life. Including mental, physical, emotional and spiritual, that is if you choose and if that’s your desired journey. Basically, it can open up many beautiful doors for you. On this note, I would like to add that I typically like to call this diet “Plant-based” for several reasons. Some of them will be answered in further questions.

Me: What first inspired you to make the plunge and become vegan?

Taylor: My story may be a little unique compared to an average story.  I had been mostly a vegetarian for 9 years, and towards the tail end of that was what a dear friend of mine called “opportunitarian” where you don’t buy meat, but if it’s offered you might it eat, or if it’s about to be wasted then you definitely eat it. So along my journey of life, I suddenly was feeling unfulfilled.  I had examined my career, traveled a lot, and still something was off. I began to try and self-reflect for answers on what I needed in my life. After months of coming up short, quitting my job, becoming lactose intolerant (or more so, becoming aware of my intolerance) I would spend my days sipping tea and reading books in my tiny house, having the whole day to do what I enjoy, only to have found myself miserable. So much so, I just cried out! Literally screaming out crying one evening to anyone who could hear me, even if it was just myself. Asking what in the flippin flyin jahobees should I do? Humor put aside, it was with much pain, confusion and desperation. And then with complete surrender, two words came to my mind and my heart. They were “Go vegan, Go vegan go vegan.” Over and over. It was then that I began my deepest research and discovery on the topic with many sub-topics that were brought to my attention. Where as a lot of people really discover things that motivate them to go vegan, and research before committing. For me, it was the other way around.

Me: Compared to your initial decision to become vegan, would you say there is a bigger/deeper reason why you are vegan now?

Taylor: Yes!!! I would say it was always as deep as the great blue sea, but now I see why much more clearly. At first, it was mental and emotional, then environmental, then physical and medicinal and now spiritual. It has allowed me to cleanse my body and see my life with clarity, to hear clearly my inner guidance, to feel a deep sense of connection with all of existence, and to better understand my true self at the core. I could honestly go on forever.

Me: What is your personal motivation for sticking to the vegan diet?

Taylor: This is another unique question pertaining to me because I don’t need motivation for the vegan diet, that is, the food choice is part of this lifestyle. It is such a part of me now. It is so natural. Like I said before, it is as if I have been reborn and this has been my way of life forever.  Now, this did not come without trials and errors. Before the initial decision to shift to a plant-based diet, I definitely used to let the food addiction take over me. With cheese of course! Becoming utterly aware of my lactose intolerance, due to cutting out most other harmful food, after a few times of getting sick, on every level (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual) the time came for enough is enough. Just like if you drink too much alcohol and get blacked out every time, when is enough enough? You emotionally binge eat and feel horrible afterward multiple times a week. You lose yourself on social media instead of exercising or spending time with loved ones. You continue telling yourself hateful thoughts about yourself. Or an extreme example, addicted to a harsh drug. At some point, you have to make a choice and just decide to be done, and take the baby steps to get there. It’s the same for any addiction, any habit. When will you choose to change your life? When will you choose to become truly happy and conquer your unfavorable habits by replacing them with new ones that nourish every part of your being?

Me: What are the health benefits of being vegan?

Taylor: There are SO many! And that is if you do it right! You see, Oreos are vegan. But we cannot live healthy, thriving lives by eating processed food, just because it doesn’t contain animal products. For starters, the biology and chemistry of plant foods is much more conducive to the human body than that of heavy animal products. Plants have the purest and most simple vitamins, minerals and amino acids that match to our bodies chemistry, DNA, and biology. Therefore, you get a much cleaner functioning body, more energy, more flexibility, more mental clarity, and are very less likely to get cancer. Whole food, plant-based diets have helped cure IBS, type 2 diabetes and more. Another health benefit is disease prevention, such as arthritis, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of death in America, plus many more. Some more benefits are weight loss, healthy skin, almost no chance of a stroke or heart attack, having a longer life and helping or obliterating allergies. Dairy and meat have so many hormones and extra heavy compounds. I mean, milk from a cow is to make a calf grow around 400 lbs in 7 months for Pete’s sake!  That’s 1400 pounds in 2 years, 700 pounds by one-year-old, and that’s small. That’s to say if a calf is drinking it’s own mother’s milk, which guess what, they don’t! Humans drink cow mother milk and baby cows get fed formula. Then, they get shipped off to be slaughtered for veal (baby cow meat), raised and fattened up for meat, or to become a dairy cow slave then butchered when she’s not qualified anymore. Oops sorry, truth tangent.

Anyway, more benefits. There are so many more! As for me and mental/emotional health, I noticed a huge drop in depression, mood swings, irritability, anger, anxiety, fear and much more. I felt more energized, more at peace, connected to all of life. I felt so fulfilled knowing I was aligning with my heart’s truest desires. It has also been found by dozens of doctors that people on healthy plant-based diets have far better blood results than those on the typical American Standard Diet. It’s funny how animal product consumers worry about vegan’s nutrients and protein when in fact THEY are most likely not getting enough nutrients, and FAR too much protein themselves, which leads to clogged arteries, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and much more. This greater awareness gives the space to shift you into a holistic place that then naturally encourages you to stop eating processed foods, refined sugar, and just allows you to become more aware of your health and the health of the planet. Thus more health benefits!

Me: What are the environmental benefits?

Taylor: Wow! Again, so many! To put an easy number on it, the average of resources you’re saving per day with a plant based diet is 1100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 Sq ft of forest, and 10 lbs of c02. There’s also the fact that 40% of the land on earth is used for agriculture. A huge part of that is to grow crops to feed to the animals that we are going to eat. We could feed near 800 million people with the crops we grow for animals in less than a year. And if those crops were exported, it would give the US trade balance an estimated boost of near 80 billion dollars.

Me: Overall do you feel like you have developed self-mastery being able to stick to a diet that is typically known as being a hard one to follow? -There must be a sense of pride knowing that you have such self-control over your body.

Taylor: Not pride as much as humility and humbleness. This has been such a blessing for me. It has opened up the gateway to getting to know my true self and to begin to learn to fall in love with every part of me, even the shadows… especially the shadows! Opening up to compassion for all parts of life has opened me up to compassion for myself and practicing what self-love means for me. I’m still on my journey of self-mastery, as I think I always will forever be! But as far as what I put into my body, what products I buy, what companies I support, how I spend my time and my energy, and how I continue to practice self-love and self-care, which translates to love for all of life and vise versa, yes. I have integrated the level of awareness and knowledge for the planet, for all aspects of my body, my health, for the animals, and for humanity, to a level that it just makes sense. It all clicks. It’s absolutely a part of me and there’s no going back.

Me: I know how passionate you are about veganism, what is one thing you wish everyone would know?

Taylor: I wish everyone would know it’s not hard! If you eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables, which you definitely SHOULD BE, then it’s easy peasy! Depending on how simple or not you like to be in the kitchen, this could mean fewer dishes, less prep time, etc. This also means more visually beautiful, vibrant, colorful foods on your plate! Physically, mentally and emotionally good for you and your body from the inside out, making you look and feel more beautiful and vibrant!

Me: Does it get easier as you go? What was the hardest part?

Taylor: It definitely does! Just like any old habit, psychology research tells us that it takes about 14-21 days to reprogram our mind and bodies. You’re letting go of old deeply ingrained ways and replacing them with new ones. This can be quite difficult, depending on where you stand in line with yourself and with your life, as well as your other programming that has brought you to your current thought patterns, beliefs, and perceptions. However, getting through that difficulty will cause a ripple effect for transformation in all dimensions of your life. Once you cleanse away the impurities and the things you crave due to chemicals being released in the brain(for example the chemical that binds cheese has a very similar addictive effect on the brain as heroin)and you detox from these things, your taste buds change and you actually begin to crave natural whole foods and the things your body needs. You may find a miraculous sense of freedom from not being unconsciously controlled by unhealthy food choices and other unhealthy life choices.

The hardest part of this journey for me was probably the opposition I faced at the beginning and the extreme passion I had to want to share this with everyone. Not everyone is ready to hear these things, and I learned that the hard way. But if you face that, it also gets easier fast. You just have to lead by example from a place of love and understanding. This mindset is infectious on conscious and subconscious levels. I learned is it’s just simply better for everyone that way. No one feels pressured, you’re not pushing anyone away, and you’re not getting constantly hurt or shot down. It’s a win-win.

Me: Isn’t it expensive? How do you manage to eat this way on a strict budget?

Taylor: Well first off, let me ask you, how much does your health and happiness cost? And no way! It’s not expensive. Again, if you’re doing it right. If you’re buying fresh produce and not eating it, therefore letting it go bad and having to throw it out, then yes, you will waste money and it can then add up to be expensive. In fact, on average, eating a whole food plant-based diet can cut your grocery bill in half, depending on how you shop. But, it most certainly will not be more expensive than an animal foods diet. The cost for rich plant-based proteins such as beans and legumes is about 1.4 cents per gram of protein, whereas eggs are 2.5 cents per gram of protein. Beef 4.5. And that’s the internal cost! There’s also many external costs that you don’t see leave your wallet in that moment you’re checking out at the grocery store. This includes the cost of health care, doctor’s visits, and hospital bills! Eating a highly plant-based whole foods diet is preventive medicine. As Hippocrates said, “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.”

Personally, I am living a life with very minimal work right now. I manage this minimal budget by volunteering on a farm once a week in exchange for way more produce than I can eat. I receive mostly vegetables, but for fruit, nuts, seeds and other plant foods, I buy what’s on sale and discounted at a wholesale market up the road. Buying these foods as well as beans, rice and legumes from bulk bins, adds up in savings. Buying locally and seasonally is cheaper, as well as buying in bulk for a discount from your local farmer or grocer. Also, deciding what products feel right to buy, not organic or organic can help the budget. I like to reuse my bags and containers, as well as use reusable cloth grocery bags, which also saves me money in the long run.

Me: Do you consider veganism to be the right path for everyone? For ex. I was instructed by a doctor to eat more red meat to help my thyroid. What would you do in this situation?

Taylor: I would say the journey to full health IS for everyone. Everyone deserves to thrive and be happy. But everyone’s path is going to look different. Dietary changes and nutrition will/can be a huge catalyst for major transformations and other changes in your life. There are also other variables to be incorporated into having a fully happy, healthy, thriving life. For example, to decide to make a change in your life for the better and stick with it is to honor and love yourself, to have courage and support. These can also come in any linear order, encouraging the next to evolve like a domino effect depending on the person. For me, it was changing my job, nutrition, then friends, then hobbies. This will look different for everybody.

As for the direct question is a plant based whole foods diet for everyone? My answer is yes! Plant based, which means a diet highly based in plant foods, is for everyone (with current extreme exceptions of course) But this can look so different for a variety of people. For example, right now my body wants super clean raw foods, with the occasional lightly cooked foods, and even more occasional cooked starches, and if any oil, then coconut. No gluten, no animal products, no beans, and low in fats unless highly physically active or on my menstrual cycle. Whereas my partner, right now his body wants healthy bread, lots of good fats, cooked starches, tons of raw fruits and vegetables, cooked vegetables, the occasional soy product, no animal products but a lot of rich protein. Any suggestions from a health practitioner I would say go within and seek your own answers. Research, or go to other doctors. One doctor only has the information they have ever learned. Some schools and teachings can be biased, or limited. So do your own studying, internally and externally.

Again, that’s what this lifestyle is all about. Opening your eyes, making conscious decisions for yourself, what feels best for YOU. Find what works for you in each moment! Do what feels best in your heart because you are ever changing and constantly evolving, as well as your choices and ways of being. There are so many variables when it comes to living a conscious life. Such as, if one finds they actually need a type of meat or animal food for whatever reason in some part of their life, what’s the best action for that? It would seem easier to just buy meat from a local butcher, but wild meat from your area may actually be better for some people. It’s well worth finding someone you trust that may have hunted or fished humanely, or even raised the animal themselves. You see, when humans ate natural meat, that was naturally occurring because man domesticated farm animals as we know them for food. Yes, this was a part of our progression as humans but, even to that degree, practices were done with much more balance, more understanding of nature, and with much more respect.

To sum it all up…

This all may seem like SO much information,  and difficult to live an aware life. It may feel like you just want to run back into the safe closet of what you know, your old habits. I am bearing my truest testimony when I say it’s NOT! It is just an illusion that it seems so difficult! This is due to the myriad of distractions, commercials, fast food, and junk cluttering our minds and lives. It’s completely worth your life to take the extra steps, to do what appears as some extra work, to make decisions that you fully feel good about in each moment. This is absolutely worth your time and energy to align with your heart, to feel deeply and live a life of meaning and compassion, of harmony and understanding. As the ball gets rolling, it becomes natural. Then you remember what it’s like to be human, an animal connected to all of Mother Nature, a very part of nature herself. And for this, it requires balance. Awareness will give you balance. Awareness inside and outside of self will set the path for you to take charge of your life, be empowered, create your happiness and to feel alive! You deserve it, beloveds!

For easy ways to raise your awareness, I would recommend watching some documentaries such as Food Choices, Earthlings, Cowspiracy,  Food Matters, Forks over Knives, and other related films that you can find on Netflix.

Thak you Taylor for taking the time to educate and empower us all! I hope this paints a clearer picture and enlightens many. Everyone, take care of your body in the best possible way you know how.

Stay Wild, Moon Child

#becomingbohemian

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