A Bitter Sweet Visit With My Doctor

low carb for life

Following a routine HBA1c and cholesterol test recently, I was called back to my doctor to discuss a rise in my cholesterol. My HDL had increased from 0.9 to 1.4 and my LDL had also risen. My doctor, who two years ago said that my decision to start a low carb diet was stupid and unsustainable, explained to me that I was no longer considered diabetic but I now need to take a statin. No acknowledgement of my success at reversing diabetes, now his focus was cholesterol. I responded to his ‘concern’ by pointing out that my total cholesterol of 6.0 would have been considered as normal before the guidelines were lowered to a threshold of 5.0 by a panel of ‘experts’ with links and interests to the statin industry (Statin Wars) and thus making millions more people eligible to be put on statins. I also pointed out that my…

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Farmer discovers giant Byzantine-era pithos in central Turkey – The Archaeology News Network

via Farmer discovers giant Byzantine-era pithos in central Turkey – The Archaeology News Network

 

Ancient Cup awarded to 1st Marathon winner Spyros Louis returned to Greece

A German university returned to Athens a ancient Greek cup awarded as a prize to the marathon winner in the first modern Olympics of 1896. The Greek Culture Ministry said Wednesday that the 6th cen…

Source: Ancient Cup awarded to 1st Marathon winner Spyros Louis returned to Greece

 

Fine Wine & a Piss-Poor Vintage

Ancientfoods

Topic: Wine -What’s in a bottle

Two corked seventeenth-century wine bottles, one found on a wreck off the coast of the Netherlands, the other in the foundation of a demolished house in England, have yielded strikingly different contents: a rare example of 350-year-old Portuguese wine, and a putrid concoction of urine and hair designed to harm witches who cast spells.

The wine, possibly the private stash of a naval officer, was recovered from a Dutch warship sunk in the Wadden Sea, a shallow sound between the North Sea and the Netherlands coast. The onion-shaped green bottle is among the oldest corked bottles ever found with its wine intact.

The wreck was investigated by the Netherlands Institute for Ship and underwater Archaeology (NISA), a government-sponsored team that since the late 1980s has been conducting surveys of the Wadden Sea to inventory the more than 500 vessels, mainly Dutch, that are thought…

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This Wreck May Be the Sister Ship of Sweden’s Ill-Fated ‘Vasa’ Warship

via This Wreck May Be the Sister Ship of Sweden’s Ill-Fated ‘Vasa’ Warship

 

Farmed Norwegian Salmon – World’s Most Toxic Food

low carb for life

This documentary looking into farmed Salmon and Panga uncovers a murky world of disease, antibiotics and toxins lying beneath these overcrowded and unnatural waters. What was once considered a healthy part of our diet, is rapidly becoming as problematic as GMO’s, antibiotic filled livestock and Glyphosate sprayed crops.

Five times more toxic than other products in our supermarkets, farmed salmon is still a popular choice among consumers who are probably unaware of the situation. Toxicology researcher Jérôme Ruzzin from the University of Bergen is asked in the documentary if, after his findings, would he eat farmed fish, he replies “No I don’t, you simply must avoid exposure to these pollutants” Results of his research concluded that rats fed a standard western diet with the inclusion of farmed salmon became obese and diabetic from a massive increase in adipose tissue…sound familiar?

https://youtu.be/RYYf8cLUV5E

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Minoan settlement uncovered on tiny islet – The Archaeology News Network

via Minoan settlement uncovered on tiny islet – The Archaeology News Network

 

Ancient Greeks introduced wine to France, Cambridge study reveals

Ancientfoods

Topic: The Grape

France’s well-known passion for wine may have stemmed from the Ancient Greeks, a Cambridge University study discloses.

The original makers of Côtes-du-Rhône are said to have descended from Greek explorers who settled in southern France about 2500 years ago, it claimed.

The study, by Prof Paul Cartledge, suggested the world’s biggest wine industry might never have developed had it not been for a “band of pioneering Greek explorers” who settled in southern France around 600 BC.

His study appears to dispel the theory that it was the Romans who were responsible for bringing viticulture to France.

The study found that the Greeks founded Massalia, now known as Marseilles, which they then turned into a bustling trading site, where local tribes of Ligurian Celts undertook friendly bartering.

Prof Cartledge said within a matter of generations the nearby Rhône became a major thoroughfare for vessels carrying terracotta amphorae that…

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The last Neanderthal necklace – The Archaeology News Network

via The last Neanderthal necklace – The Archaeology News Network

 

English words from Japanese roots

The Squirrelbasket

The Great Wave by Hokusai, sometimes thought to depict a tsunami, but more likely a rogue wave – click on the picture to go to an interesting history of the artwork on Culture Trip

To coincide with the climax of the Rugby World Cup tournament in Japan I thought I would revisit my occasional series on English words from foreign roots.

Previously I have explored words with their roots in Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Celtic, Scandinavian, Indian and Spanish.

With Japanese it is probably a bit different as English speakers didn’t have much contact with the country until the mid-19th century. So most of these words are comparatively new additions to English and came to us along with newly-arrived foods, cultural or sporting practices. Here are some of my favourites – there are links throughout to more information – mostly but not only on Wikipedia. And click…

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