From: aldridge@netcom.com (Jacquelyn Aldridge)
Newsgroups: ba.singles
Subject: Re: Advise needed
Date: 21 Jan 93 05:26:02 GMT
Distribution: ba
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

DeadHead@cup.portal.com (Bruce M Ong) writes:

	Actually I wrote this (J. Aldridge):
>>
>>	In the meantime...we don't know what causes a lot of things in
>>humans. And there are plenty of insecure types that want to believe that
>>everything is controllable. Get a little older and find out for yourself. 
>>
>>
>>-jackie-

>	Oh c'mon now. Granted that being over weight is not 100% across the 
>board controllable, and granted that the medical causes you cited are valid,
>I would still say that most people -- if they have the will to do so -- can
>do something about it. It has a *LOT* to do with one's dietary habits, and
>also work out habits. You cited a source which concludes that our daily
>food intake is too rich and refined for most people to-day. And I totally
>agree. However, most people *can* change their eating habits and their diets 
>to reduce the  fat intake -- the question is *will* they do so?

>	Staying in midwest the past few days on business, my biggest complaint
>is the food I was subjected to in this town that i was in. It's *TOTALLY* a
>meat and potato country -- that's what people eat there, and it's not
>surprising that many people there are over weight. In the company where I
>was consulting at, they are actually starting a program for the employees
>of the company to lose the extra pounds, and they are concentrating on the
>dietary habits of the people there. I was glad to find on employee's desks
>copies of articles like "how to lose the pounds and keep them off", etc.

Some deleted 

>	A friend of mine loaned me her veggan bible, "A new diet for
>america" few months ago. And -- other than the guilt trip it's trying to
>lay  on you about atrocity against animals, etc., I find it very informational
>on the subject of the dietary habits of a person and personal health. I would
>suggest that people read that, and make a conscious choice about their
>diets.

	One can eat a totally vegetarian diet and still maintain/gain
weight. And without dairy and eggs. Admittedly, it's easier not to gain
weight on this kind of diet. But our ancestors didn't simply eat
vegetarian. They ate unrefined, often uncooked foods. The uptake of
nutrients is less in such. In some areas an ability to gain and keep weight
was worth the tendency to become obese. Until food supplies became
plentiful  and reliable a tendency to obesity was desirable. Farm animals
are still bred this way.  

	Oddly enough I can lose weight easily. As long as I ingest nicotine
I steadily lose weight. Every person in my family who's slim smokes. One
can refer to I Richard Wurtman's work as to why this happens. It has to do with
the formation of neurotransmitters; to allow the pre-cursor molecules to
fall together to create three neurotransmitters (aceytlcholine, serotonin,
and norepenephrine)  requires a elevated level of of insuline in the blood.
Nicotine replaces acetylcholine, in fact it is 5 times more effective.
Apparently, for me, a need for acetylcholine stimulates my appetite. With
nicotine some other indicator stimulates hunger but at a much reduced
level.
	So the healthiest people in my family don't smoke and
are plump. Longevity is from 85 to 105 years despite the added weight. 
Smokers never make it much past 85. No cancers, no heart disease.
Eventually a stroke. Pritkin didn't make it to 70. Good diet, bad genes.  

	That's what I object to in commonly held medical opinion. Itt
doesn't take individuality into account. There are people from the
Mediterranean areas that have wildly elevated cholesterol levels. It's easy
to say not to eat cholestorol containing foods and you won't have a problem
but it's not accurate. Cholesterol can also be elevated because of hormone
imbalances. Sometimes it's treatable, sometimes not. Every time I have
a check up and the nurse/doctor compliments me on my blood pressure and low
pulse rate it's hard not to laugh.   

>	[Damn. I am afraid I am gonna piss off few people with this msg. Oh
>well. Anytime one has a strong opinion about something, one will piss off
>few others. C'est la vie, I guess.]

	No, one is or isn't attracted to people. I think often because of
past associations. If one has known someone who was particularly pleasing
then it is common to seek other people who share that characteristic. If
has had a negative experience with another person then one learns to
discrimate based on the characteristics one associates with that person. 
	And because people also learn from other people it is easy to learn
predjudices from them. Some are valid, some aren't.

	In reproduction it's worth discriminating against potential mates
that carry undesirable genes. But it's a matter of trading off. Avoiding
absolutely undesirable dominant traits, trying not to pick up something 
that re-enforces your own  negative traits, attempting to gain desirable ones.
 
	But to make character judgements of people based on one physical
characteristic is ignorant predjudice. 

-Jackie-
Newsgroups: ba.singles