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"On Diet and Health"   -- D R A F T

Dear Friend:

I started writing the following a couple of months ago in California. On the way back from Grand Canyon, a Swiss girl asked me: "Why don't you eat meat". Here's a long answer to a short question. I am not trying to preach; just sharing something I think is important. I have to admit, when it comes to food, like when it comes to the Beatles, I am a purist – perhaps a fanatic – but I have lived unhealthily before so I know the other side, and I believe taking good care of the body is really essential in having a good quality of life. Persians have a saying: a healthy mind is in a healthy body. Health doesn't mean not being sick, it means having a subtle body. Subtle food makes subtle body. There is more to total health than just physical health, but that would make this another 10 pager. I'll just include a paragraph I wrote in a recent attempt:

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It is really important to solve our psychological problems so that we can go on with a fresh, untainted mind. The beautiful and exciting thing is that most psychological problems which do not have a biological root can resolve when I fully observe them (must note that the observer, the "I", is the observed). And this art of looking is an act of emptying and gaining insight into "what is". What is, what I am, how I feel, my problem, can radically change, transform, trans-mute, when fully understood. This seems to be a natural law. For example, writing or talking to a good friend can be acts of emptying, observation, and insight. Thinking can be like a prison and if we do not - if itself does not - understand its limitations: where it belongs and where it does not be long, and how it is timebound - it creates sorrow, creates confusion, and when its limitation is understood, it remains silent when it is not necessary for it to work - and it stops being the ironbars which keep freedom out.

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As a baby I used to hate meat but they forced me to eat it because it was supposed to be fortifying (a British Beefeater conditioning). Then I turned into a total meat-lover. I stopped eating meat (first red meat and subsequently all meat) on March 31, 1980. I abstained for a month and then I could taste the awful taste of blood in meat (iron-like taste), which was a major turn-off. My taste sense had changed. I ate fish recently after the longest time in order to not let down my friend's mother who went out of her way to make me fish, but I am happier without it. To keep it short I think there are various classes of reasons: ethical, health, environmental.

1) To survive, we must kill. Killing has various degrees (criminal justice agrees with this statement). I want to kill as little as possible, so I kill a pear, and not a sheep (can you imagine how awful it is to kill for fun as hunters do?). Also, there is a lot of crime, brutality, suffering, and pain that goes on behind the scenes, but it is presented to us with a happy face of McDonald's packaging. Most people are not ruthless enough to be a butcher, but if someone else does it they eat it - isn't that hypocrisy? Nature rewards us for not killing higher forms of life for food, as a meat-free diet is much healthier. Have you ever seen a helpless animal being killed under a butcher's knife? If you had, and had a heart, you'd not eat that animal and all the pain it went through.

2) Many health reasons exist for not eating meat. Human's intestines and colon least resemble those of carnivores who have a very short intestine so the meat stays in their system for only a short period - otherwise it would decay and cause e.g. colon cancer which is the second most common cause of cancer in America, but in China where meat consumption rate is very low, colon cancer is very rare (Cornell university study). There are many other health reasons for not eating meat which I won't go into now. The difference is in the quality of the energy produced: you are what you eat (including the antibiotics and growth hormones in meat, and even the fear the animal went through when facing execution!)

3) There are many arguments that industrial cattle-farming is horrible for the environment: water pollution, etc.. I won't try to reproduce the volumes written on the subject. One interesting fact is that it takes 10 kilos of grain to feed a cow to get 1 kilo of meat. You can feed many more people with 10 kilos of grain than with 1 kilo of meat, etc. etc.

What about protein? It is easy to get complete protein (8 essential amino acids) if we eat a balanced diet. I read recently that you don't even need to eat complementary amino acids together: the body uses its stored amino acids to complete the eaten protein. Many foods have protein, legumes, nuts, grains, dairy products…

Other tips on diet: refined sugar is bad news - it disrupts the working of the hormonal system, depletes the cells from B vitamins, and as in Caffeine it alters the blood sugar which causes mood swings: high energy followed by lows (and you wake up in the morning down) - I like the high, but I can live without the lows, so best place to be is in the center: stable energy level throughout the day. The body needs sugar, but natural sugar which is found e.g. in fruits. So, when you think you crave for sugar, you could munch on dates or raisins, or apple… but I never get such cravings. A craving is the body's signal that something is lacking. Without understanding the body and nutrition, such a signal can be misinterpreted.

It is important to have a balanced diet, eating greens, fruits, grains, legumes, etc. (I like dairy products too), but also to eat "essential fatty acids" which are contained in all nuts, cold-pressed oils (e.g. extra-virgin olive oil), avocado, etc.. Fatty acids are needed for hormonal balance.

To live a super life - not a mediocre life - and this has nothing to do with wealth or circumstance - one has to have a good diet. Otherwise, one is at the mercy of blood sugar fluctuations and petty little addictions and the stress of various uppers and downers, generally respected in our society, such as Coca Cola. Can we live without stimulations? For most people, medically, stimulants such as caffeine and teine mean stress. Alcohol puts me to sleep and too much of it kills brain cells specially in older age. Many people drink to get happy and uninhibited. Others might smoke to get high. Healthy, happy, is naturally drunk and high… I get drunk from the smell of honeysuckle trees these beautiful summer evenings...

Food manufacturers don't care about your health, so it is a good practice to read the package labels. I avoid anything which contains artificial flavor and colors, and preservatives. (in German "preservative" means condom!). There’s controversy about white vs. whole grain bread. There also what’s called half-white bread. I always try to eat whole-grain bread. It has more fiber and so is better for the digestive system, and it is more nutritious. Some doctors prefer white bread for strange reasons. If you put a bag of white and a bag of whole-wheat flour in the garage, which one do you think the ants will go for first? Obviously, the whole-wheat one – they’re smart! In the USA there’s a bread called Wonderbread – white – and the wonder must be that you can roll it up to a little ball because it’s all air! And they advertise it as "enriched". First they wash off all the nutrients then enrich it – I guess because as the old Persian saying goes, "people’s minds are in their eyes". I’ve read that some of the elements in whole-wheat prevents the absorption of calcium so it is better, for this reason, it may be advisable to not to take it simultaneously with dairy products.

I like to take supplements: a few grams of vitamin C every day (if 'buffered' or 'time-release' it doesn't upset the stomach). Dr. Pauling, winner of 2 Noble prizes took 18 grams of vitamin C a day. I also pop other supplements sometimes: vitamin E and selenium, multi-vitamin, B-comples, B-12. Other supplements I like are Spirulina (algae), Kelp, Alfalfa, and Royal Jelly. Supplements are not necessary if you eat a balanced diet. But in today's polluted world, vitamin C supplement is helpful. Unlike many animals the human body does not make vitamin C.

Everything we eat leaves a residue of certain PH level. The blood’s natural PH is high (the blood is alkaline). And It is healthiest for us to eat food that leaves an alkaline effect – e.g. all raw fruits and vegetables. Almonds, millet, and dried figs are specially high alkaline. All animal products leave acid residue. I actually feel it in the body when acidity is high (e.g when I have too much cheese).

FOOD COMBINING

HAND HEALTH

Food combining: There’s a school of thought on diet which advises against eating carbohydrates (e.g bread, potato) and proteins (dairy products, nuts) together. (Vegetables are neutral). I have experimented with this quite a bit. There’s definitely some truth to it but there are also many exceptions based on genetics, etc.. As a general rule, I try to avoid combining complex carbohydrates with complex proteins as much as possible. Being a guitarist and a computer user, this is very important with me because lack of proper combining leads to fermentation (because proteins and acid fruits requires a higher PH for digestion, and carbos’ and sweet fruits require lower PH and eating the two together causes mal-digestion). And fermentation increases the body’s acidity and leads to inflammation. Inflammation of tendons (tendonitis) is a guitarist and typist’s worst enemy. Hands stiffen because of tendon’s inflammation and because the veins in the hands are very small so the circulation is not very good, so, the residue of acidity of the fermentation does not circulate very well. This is my understanding based on what I’ve read and years of struggling with hand problems. Talking about hands and use of the body and problems associated with the modern life’s abuse of the body, I found the Feldenkrais method and Alexander Technique to be very very useful. Also *gentle* yoga is helpful. Shoulderstand is NOT recommended as it tends to strain shoulder nerves which effect the hands. Extra vitamin-C with Bioflavinoids help to contain free-radicals and inflammation (and other supplements against inflammation and free radical control such as odorless garlic maybe helpful. Enzymes are known to help with inflammation - as far as I experienced both tendinitis and carpel tunnel are related to inflammation and "wrong use of the self" as FM Alexander puts it). Walking is the best exercize... [re: hands: when brain is well rested it is quiet (good sleep), when 4 hour sleep in a night brain is agitatd, easier for hands which occupy large part of brain to be agitated]

I know many who lose their hair. I knew a doctor who said best thing for hair is to stand on your head everyday (in yoga it's called headstand). Many other things help, e.g. silica gel, vitamins, and reduction of stress. The amazing thing I have observed in myself with regards to white hair is that white hair comes with stress, and actually reverses itself if the being is well taken care of subsequent to the distress. Of course, the course of time and aging is a fact, and hair eventually whites – one doctor explained its purpose as distinguishing older ones from younger ones for various reasons – respect, etc. - who knows?! Talking about the head, a recent medical study showed brain of men shrink in size with age. No wonder "grumpy old men" are well known [2004: STUDY possible REFUTED] . I think, yoga helps with that. I really love yoga postures. They really tune the body up, message the glands, reverse gravity, release tension and stress (a tense person usually doesn't know he is tense), and keep the body flexible – doctors know well that a flexible spine is a key to a healthy body.

Some people say, why live so healthy, since you could die any day anyway, but the point is quality not quantity. Healthy go happy go lucky…

Affection,

Reza

UPDATES:
Please also see: misc_health.html

Matanya Ophee wrote in message <96gtdsgkqt62akvv7745isemp1mo03nb0o@4ax.com>...
>"Reza Ganjavi" <NOSPAMreza@dtc.ch> wrote:
>
>>Baby back ribs? I meant Bob Ashley - not his ribs when he was a baby or his baby's ribs!
>>Do you know how much cruelty goes behind the scenes to put that plate of baby-back-ribs on the table.
>
>You never learn, do you? preaching vegetarianism now? do you know how
>much cruelty goes behind the scenes to put lettuce and tomatoes on the
>table? broccoli? poor miserable plants!
 

POINT 1) you said non-guitar related talk is ok since we are guitarists. I think we're about to take it too far and people will start to complain. Since you mentioned: you're right, a lettuce is also killed. But the point is that killing has degrees. We must kill to survive. Killing a carrot is a lower form of killing than killing a cow for example. We can discuss this offline if you like.

POINT 2) as for preaching, I would not exactly call it that. You're calling this, or someone saying smoking is bad for your health as moralizing acts. The way I see it, we're a community, we talk. X tells me I eat baby ribs. I say, I like Rib, he's a best friend, but think again, look at what happens behind the scenes. I don't have the guts to murder a cow myself so I don't eat it - if you're so cruel todo that, go for it. But in our culture, someone does the act in the background, the pain, suffering, ugliness, and they put a nice McShit smile on it and feed it to the kids. You can call it whatever you want. I don't tell another how to live but I can't shut-up either. Those poor animal have to shut up.

>
>Does our cruelty towards the baby back ribs is any worse than the
>cruelty of the lioness or the cheetah towards the zebra and the
>springbok? don't you think these ugly vicious predators should be
>taught a lesson once and for all? how dare they, when there is all
>this fresh savanah grass to eat?

Are you a cheetah or a lion? Their intestines are much shorter. Meat goes in and out. Your intestine/colon is much longer - that's why colon cancer is one of the biggest causes of death in USA: meat stays in the system for long time and decays. [Cornell study]

>Do yourself a favor. Read D.H. Lawrence's Reflections on the Death of A Porcupine.
 

Thanks. I'll look for it.
Cheers
Reza

> I am in favor of feeding all livestock beer before
>their time comes.  Let them get real drunk
>first, then they will not suffer.

We used to slaughter lambs by talk softly and petting them to keep them calm
and then blowing their brains out. If they are nervous the adrenaline taints
the meat
>
>Reza, you made me feel real bad.  I was thinking about all those live
>oysters, mussels and lobsters not including
>the fish, eel, shellfish and frogs I've murdered.  Particularly the
>oysters I ate while still alive.  They were screaming for mercy but I
>didn't care.  They were burning from Tabasco sauce I dumped on them, I
>put salt in their
>wounds.  The only thing I can say in my defense,  I did try and
>anesthetize them with drinks on the way down.
>I am surly going to Hell.  The last Maine lobster I dropped into boiling
>water called me a S.O.B  ( Salt On the Brain) as he began to turn red.
>
>
Lobster is better broiled than boiled. You have to split them from stem to
stern while they are still alive. They do not like this. After you split them
you pour lemon juice and butter onto the flesh. Since they haven't figured out
that they are dead they do not take this well. The first time I prepared 100+
lobster this way in one evening I dreamed of being attacked by Giant Lobsters
(ala the old SNL skit). If the food chain were reversed, they would gladly
split me and pour lemon on my flesh.

"Unlike carbohydrates and fat, protein contains large amounts of nitrogen, which the body cannot store. It must either use it immediately as a source of amino acids or jettison the excess by converting it into urea, then peeing it away. If you consistently get more that 35 percent of your calories from protein, the liver can't produce enough urea, and nitrogen builds up in the blood as ammonia. Death follows.... livestock on modern, intensive farms usually eat a diet enriched with nourishing grain that could otherwise feed human mouths..." From New Scientist March 2000

Sugar function as an immunosuppressant in a number of ways. It :
1. lessons the germ-killing ability of white blood cells for up to five hours
2. interferes with the production of antibodies, which attack invaders in the bloodstream
3. disrupts the distribution of vitamin C
4. causes mineral imbalances that weaken the immune system and are sometimes responsible for allergic reactions.
5. makes cell walls more permeable and therefore easier for invaders to penetrate by neutralizing the action  of essential fatty acids.