Quick notes for Labor Day Weekend 2015

Updated 9.7.2015
Interesting items gleaned from open browser tabs.

Disclosure is not enough?

The New York Times writes another article about industry supported university research. Marion Nestle applauds, then points to a study that says disclosure is not enough. Who, precisely, one wonders does the good professor think is going to fund research? She's been asked this repeatedly in comments but has offered no answer. For me, the answer remains transparency. If a researcher discloses industry ties or funding, then examine their methods and results more closely. Less research does not seem to me to be a viable solution.

Google decides to take on diabetes

But this interest isn't driven by a founder's suffering, but rather because there's serious money to be made.

Now salad is under attack?

First it was exercise, and now eating salad is under attack? Because just as people apparently move too much— insert eye roll here— people also eat too many vegetables? What the hell is wrong with these people. If you hate salad, then don't eat it. Personally, I LOVE salad. I can (and have) eaten an entire head of lettuce in a sitting. If that's not your cup of tea, that's okay, have something else. And where is it written that a salad has to be only or even primarily lettuce?

I don't eat salad to conform to any "beauty standard" either. I eat it because I enjoy the flavor or crisp fresh vegetables. Nor do I believe or accept that by the time I buy the vegetables most of their nutrients are gone. Good lord, have these people never heard of a farmer's market? And even if the vegetables are local, they still have more nutrients than freaking chips. What a manufactured controversy.

Bottom line: Enjoy salad? Then eat it. Don't like salad? Eat something else.

Imagine: e-cigs work with cannabis

This story should surprise no one. The only thing that surprises me is that it took so long to to get a study published about it.

Thinking tiny? Think carefully.

And check the zoning laws before your plans get too far. Many tiny home owners find they can't put their home where they want, nor can they hook up to municipal electric or water. Personally, I think the tiny house notion is better in conception than in reality.

Controlling your "runger"

"Runger" is a new term to me, it stands for "running hunger." Some people (such as Gary Taubes) assert that exercise is useless because it increases hunger, and aerobic exercise, which of course, running is, is worst of all. This article purports to give hints as to how to control your "runger."

I still think it's a matter of mind set. Don't approach exercise as a means to be able to eat more, at most use it as hedge against over estimation of intake (which happens to be my approach). Unless you are doing extreme exercise (training hard for a marathon or the Olympics) you do not need to eat more than what this calculator would suggest. And even then, you can over eat if you feel you've "earned" the extra calories. If you are exercising to the extreme or over compensating after exercise, then by all means try their hints.

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