# Let the truth



## Zimalia22 (Jun 15, 2021)

If we knew what all was going on, we'd be shocked.

Here's one for you,

Agent Orange. My husband died of multiple cancers all caused by his exposure to Agent Orange in Viet Nam. Multiple Myeloma, Leukemia, Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. 
Now they have discovered that if the veteran's own children missed getting anything from that, the grands will. Hand and arm, foot and leg deformities are very common with the exposure in the future generations. Cancer is very common in the own children, grands, etc. 
The scariest? They have no idea how many generations will be affected by it. 

The "gift" that keeps on giving.


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## AliceCT (8 mo ago)

My mom would have extreme anxiety and anger issues when she ate aspartame. She is usually the sweetest, happiest person you know, so it was a huge personality change. It got to the point where if she was acting irrationally, we could ask if she had had something with artificial sweeteners in it and she had.


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## jgnmoose (May 27, 2015)

I was having a conversation about this with someone somewhat recently, and we were talking about how much healthier everyone looked in photos from the 1970s than they do by comparison today. Most of us wouldn't feed a horse, dog or cattle the lousy quality food we eat and don't think twice about it. Very hard to convince a family that likes sugar and snacks to change though...


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

jgnmoose said:


> I was having a conversation about this with someone somewhat recently, and we were talking about how much healthier everyone looked in photos from the 1970s than they do by comparison today. Most of us wouldn't feed a horse, dog or cattle the lousy quality food we eat and don't think twice about it. Very hard to convince a family that likes sugar and snacks to change though...


I'm not sure I agree. I think all the smoking, tanning, and other common lifestyle choices used to age people a lot faster!

(Not to say anyone in Cheers looked particularly bad, and I know this is the 80s -- this just popped up on my timeline yesterday -- but hooo I would have guessed much higher numbers!)


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## jgnmoose (May 27, 2015)

Okay, good point lol. I would have placed Norm and Cliff in late 40s to be honest.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Smoking used to age people terribly. It made them look healthier and younger to a point. That is what made it so enticing. Then the consequences hit, and people either died or looked ancient at 60. Still, consider this: Canola oil was invented in the 1970s. NO ONE used Canola Oil in the 1960s. There is a lot to be said for the idea that_ if you need to read a list of ingredients to find out what it is, don't eat it!_








FWIW, I used to use aspartame and it had no discernable effect on me. I use Splenda now. Doesn't seem to cause me issues and has to be better for me than sugar. Nor am I worried at my age about passing on anything genetically.... 😜

BTW, I did come across this picture of horses being used in New York City sometimes before the automobile era, and there are some women in it who aren't exactly slender. The horses are kind of skinny, but not all the humans were:


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

I knew aspartame was bad but didn't know about generational--wow.

Almost all sugars or sugar substitutes make me itchy so I try to avoid them. There's only a few that don't--stevia, xylitol and maybe erythritol--last two are sugar alcohols. 

By the way Splenda is bad too--

"Sucralose is a chlorinated sucrose derivative. This means it’s derived from sugar and contains chlorine.

Making sucralose is a multistep process that involves replacing the three hydrogen-oxygen groups of sugar with chlorine atoms. The replacement with chlorine atoms intensifies the sweetness of sucralose.

Originally, sucralose was found through the development of a new insecticide compound. It was never meant to be consumed.

However, it was later introduced as a “natural sugar substitute” to the masses, and people had no idea that the stuff was actually toxic."









5 Reasons to Avoid This Artificial Sweetener


Products with this substance are labeled as healthier alternatives to sugar, but is this artificial sweetener really a better option?




draxe.com


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## Animalia (Nov 10, 2019)

bsms said:


> Smoking used to age people terribly. It made them look healthier and younger to a point. That is what made it so enticing. Then the consequences hit, and people either died or looked ancient at 60. Still, consider this: Canola oil was invented in the 1970s. NO ONE used Canola Oil in the 1960s. There is a lot to be said for the idea that_ if you need to read a list of ingredients to find out what it is, don't eat it!_
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I know we are very obese in the modern world, as a people. But I don't agree with the BMI charts. My husband, right after finishing cancer treatments was down to 165lbs. He's 5'11" and was always muscular and "big-boned". He finally put back on about 10lbs (still needed another 20lbs or so. )He was looking SO scrawny and skinny. His then primary doctor told him he was in the obese category according to height and weight or BMI charts. WHAT?? They don't take into account muscle mass vs fat, bone density, different body shapes. etc. There was no way my husband was obese--you could see every rib. But his doctor insisted. We need a better way.


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## Animalia (Nov 10, 2019)

I am very against all the chemicals in our food--or "fake foods". We (me and my husband) do our best to eat whole, natural foods and lots of veggies. Low carb and minimally processed foods. I had Thanksgiving at my sister's house and they shop cheap grocery store, commercial, standard fare. The turkey just about made me sick, as did the Stove Top stuffing and other prepared foods. I could tolerate my homemade mashed potatoes and the naked, baked buternut squash. And I don't must mean I didn't like the other stuff. They physically made me feel ill, very yucky. I couldn't eat the leftovers at all, just turned and soured my stomach. I am very sensitive to preservatives and other 'yuck" in food. i haven't touched aspartame or Splenda in many years. I will do saccharin once in a great while in a restaurant if I have to--but it's rare. It may cause cancer, but that's in large doses. And i doesn't give me gut rot and urinary pain like the other sweeteners do.


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

Animalia said:


> I know we are very obese in the modern world, as a people. But I don't agree with the BMI charts. My husband, right after finishing cancer treatments was down to 165lbs. He's 5'11" and was always muscular and "big-boned". He finally put back on about 10lbs (still needed another 20lbs or so. )He was looking SO scrawny and skinny. His then primary doctor told him he was in the obese category according to height and weight or BMI charts. WHAT?? They don't take into account muscle mass vs fat, bone density, different body shapes. etc. There was no way my husband was obese--you could see every rib. But his doctor insisted. We need a better way.


Oh man, yeah, BMI is terrible and does nothing to take into account a person’s build. Or muscle mass.

I’m 5’4” and about 155 lbs which puts me technically in the overweight category. While i have a little squish around the middle that I’d like to see go — hey I’m 41 so my shape has changed somewhat — most of me is muscular from running and riding, and I don’t look my weight.


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## marymane (Feb 2, 2020)

I think it's a combination of various things in regards to where we're at now.
1. technology has advanced such that living no longer requires expending much physical energy for a lot of people, while it's certainly not true that everyone in the past was slender, many of them were fit, they had to be to work and get around, even the things they did for entertainment/fun usually required moving around too
2. for many their only options for diet were a more natural diet from local food and local animals, especially if you weren't rich
3. many people couldn't afford to eat more than was necessary, rather than having to self-discipline they just had no other option, it took more effort to grow food/animals for food, more effort to work to pay for it, sweets were occasional treats and not something you could/should just eat because they're there and you want to
4. time constraints: working out isn't fun and if you have to do it in your free time after work or anything else it's going to be difficult to get yourself to do it, and even the fact that working out to maintain your body is something relatively new as opposed to something that happens naturally due to your lifestyle

Of course, body types vary and individuals put on weight harder or easier than others but not to the extent some people try to excuse, at least not for the majority of cases. Simply an excess of food that's not good for you paired with a sedentary lifestyle. If you're a habitual soda drinker just cutting out the soda can make a huge difference in how you feel.

Ben K. Green (who I've been reading recently) wrote a short bit about changing diets/lifestyles and how it effected the type of beef people wanted. I don't think it can be found online posted by itself but it's interesting if anyone gets a chance to read it (or already has).


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

pasomountain said:


> I knew aspartame was bad but didn't know about generational--wow.
> 
> Almost all sugars or sugar substitutes make me itchy so I try to avoid them. There's only a few that don't--stevia, xylitol and maybe erythritol--last two are sugar alcohols.


I was under the impression "Stevia" is a plant and natural flavoring....
Sweet is a understatement it is so sweet as are many or the artificial sweeteners to me...
Can't stand the white residue Truvia leaves behind which is made from Stevia plant leaves... what I see left behind in my tea cup though...just gross.
Wonder if the no reaction is because its natural, not some man-made designer chemical contraption...
So scary what we were led to believe is safe to use and consume and what in reality it has done to us and in essence our children and their children and goodness knows how long the shelf-life of ongoing generations it shall play havoc on...
🐴...


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

@horselovinguy--I think the itchiness is caused by an inflammatory response in my body and for some reason stevia doesn't affect it that way. I never add it or any other sweetener to my food/drinks though. But I can eat cookies with just stevia and chew gum with only xylitol and have no reaction so at least that's something good.


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

SteadyOn said:


> Oh man, yeah, BMI is terrible and does nothing to take into account a person’s build. Or muscle mass.
> 
> I’m 5’4” and about 155 lbs which puts me technically in the overweight category. While i have a little squish around the middle that I’d like to see go — hey I’m 41 so my shape has changed somewhat — most of me is muscular from running and riding, and I don’t look my weight.



I've always been slender. Twiggy as a young teen. As a young adult I always weighed about 120lbs. I was very muscular and solid. As I got older and not as active, I still weigh about 120 lbs but a little less muscle and a little more fat. My composition has changed but I weigh the same.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

BMI is a statistical tool. It is 100% irrelevant to the individual. When in the military I had a commander who thought otherwise. I had a couple of guys working for me. One had wrists that were literally larger than my ankles. Super wide shoulders. Strong as an ox - and my commander was upset about his "weight". Another guy was of Filipino descent. Tiny waist. Small shoulders. Good runner but no upper body strength. My commander thought he was in great shape.

BMI is very good for populations. If you want to know if the 7 million people in Arizona are getting obese, BMI is useful. Any doctor trying to use it for an individual patient is practically screaming, "I'm an idiot! Run away!"


marymane said:


> Of course, body types vary and individuals put on weight harder or easier than others but not to the extent some people try to excuse, at least not for the majority of cases.


For people who have never become fat, I think calorie in / calorie out works well. Those of us who have been very fat face a different problem. In the process of gaining weight, our hormone system is_ driven _out of whack. It isn't what causes the weight gain to begin with, but becomes a huge problem in trying to lose weight. As a 5'8" guy, I've dieted down to under 125 in my 20s and still had a thick layer of fat on my abdomen. Using Keto & fasting at 60, I'm now in the low 150s and have less than a quarter of the belly fat I had in my 20s at 125.

Having done yo-yo dieting for 45 years, I fully sympathize with those who give up. If you've been on 20 diets, never lose all the fat and gain it right back, why bother? Gary Taubes makes an interesting argument: We don't get fat because we overeat. We overeat _because_ we're fat.

Nutrition science is barely good enough to be called science. Like the original article suggests, there are biochemical, hormonal and genetic implications we never considered. Growing up in the 1960s, I was the fattest kid in my class. Drop my 10 year old self into a modern classroom and I'd be normal looking. My Mom offering me chocolate chip cookies 3 times a day sure didn't help. But then, my sister never wanted the cookies. Why? Don't know. I craved sugar as a kid and she did not.


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## Animalia (Nov 10, 2019)

Yep, this all makes sense! I was just telling my husband today, as he was slightly judging my family for their large meal portions and very large (fat) bodies. It's not all about just "eating too much". My sister has polycystic ovaries which makes it incredibly hard to lose weight--to NOT gain weight no matter how little you eat. Similar to me with my Diabetes, which we think is more due to my inflammatory diseases--and for years I ate very little and mostly chicken breast and salad and never lost a pound. Fasting has been the answer for me. And my whole family has hypothyroid, including me and anxiety. Talk about recipe for becoming fat! LOL I have fared a little better than the rest of my family. I'm squishy, but I've been active my whole life--doing very hard labor jobs, lots of hiking and swimming and of course horseback riding. Now, at 51, I LOOK bigger, but some of that is due to a bloating issue related to inflammation--I often look 8 months pregnant. And re-distribution of weight too since menopause--fat deposits in my neck, as well as chronically swollen glands from fibromyalgia. Ugh. It's a nightmare. But I've been working hard to focus on being "healthy" rather than looking good. I just wonder if I hadn't put all that chemical and processed food in my body when I was younger how much better off I'd be. I used to love Twinkies!! Yuck! LOL


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