Disc golfing for exercise

Over a year ago I discovered disc golfing at a local park here in Bloomington and have been impressed by the sport. It's much more physical than golf, getting one out and walking in a park or down hiking trails, and it's much more eco-friendly in that the playing course does not need watering and much extra care. In comparison to the golf, it is much more of a working-class sport - the very opposite of uppity. The only cost is that of the discs; most of the courses, around 87% says Wikipedia, are free. Even better, the courses use the natural environment for obstacles and don't look so aesthetically false like in golf.

Here are some related links to the sport:
Wikipedia Entry

The picture above is a course I found difficult in Eureka, Illinois, which on many fairways was like throwing down a forested hiking trail. The courses here Bloomington, while having trees, are more open.

Sugar is the main culprit

A recent study, published in our local paper the Pantagraph, supports Gary Taubes' contention that sugar is a major culprit for hypertension. It focuses on this link only, not purporting to support Taubes' other claims that sugar is the cause of higher cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, possibly Alzheimer's, or as Taubes puts it, practically all the major diseases of modern civilization.

Nutrition websites

Every time I want to look up information on the nutritional value of a food, a quick search results in a website that provides such information on every food imaginable. Recently, because I have to justify adding radishes to my salad (being not that fond of them), I found comprehensive information on this vegetable on the website NutritionData.com. I thought that a worthwhile project would be to investigate these websites, their pros and cons, and see which ones I prefer and which ones might be good to avoid. Below is a list of such sites; in the future I'll include reviews.

Nutrition Data

Winter is over and allergies begin again

I hate winter cold, but the one benefit winter brings to my life is a long break from allergies. Yesterday, being the first nice day of March, my wife and I did some yard work, and today my allergies are back with a vengeance. Awhile back I bought masks to wear during yardwork, but I'm sceptical they actually will do some good and so have failed to wear them most times. Well, today I'm convinced that I need to do something about these allergies! In the future I'll be doing some experimenting with wearing the mask and will report on my blog what I find out. Another strategy I have, and didn't follow yesterday, is taking a shower immediately after yard work to remove dirt and pollen from your hair and body.

Dr. Gabor Mate

I watched Amy Goodman interview Dr. Gabor Mate yesterday (2/3/2001) and was very impressed by Dr. Mate's analysis of addiction and other "disorders" of the mind as environmentally induced. His book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts is most definitely on my reading list.

Is diet soda bad for you?

This question has been on my mind for awhile now. Searching the web for an answer, I easily found this typical response of the "experts", this one written by Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., that says 1 to 2 cans of diet drink a day shouldn't harm most people. Immediately after, though, she further qualifies her position, relating that some studies are suggesting that diet drinks increase your risk of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. Huh? She then say it is preferable to go with healthier alternatives. Why?...If the diet drinks aren't that harmful?

Searching a myriad of other websites, skeptics counter with possible problems with diet drinks: the possible effect of sweeteners on our metabolism, bringing us to eat more sweets and food in general; studies that have linked aspartame to cancer in lab rats; the acid in diet drinks harms are teeth; and drinking too much diet drink crowds out water intake.

My own position on the issue is expressed best by Wes Jackson's idea that we adopt "an ignorance-based worldview." Jackson argues that we should always assume that we are more ignorant than knowledgeable on an issue, which would lead me to suppose that we might not know the negative effects of aspartame and other sweeteners because they haven't yet been discovered by scientists. Mainstream doctors and nutritionists always declare the safety of engineered chemicals because studies haven't found problems with them. But I think we should assume these chemicals are problematic, especially if they are ultimately unnecessary and don't have any positive health benefits.

I admit that have consumed diet drinks, recently drinking 1 per day or two. For the reasons enumerated above, it is definitely time that I quit. Above all, companies such as Coke and Pepsi contribute to environmental unsustainability and have a long history of oppressing workers. In Colombia, Coke has been in league with death squads. If not for my own health, I should quit drinking diet drinks for the health of others.

Long winter illnesses

It seems like I get sick at least once a month in the winter. Recuperating from my most recent illness, I listed a number of questions regarding the common cold that I've had for some time, including:
Can a person be sick too frequently? What would be abnormal in terms of illness frequency?
Why do my colds last a full week, sometimes two weeks, when as a child they lasted a day?
How long should a person stay away from work when sick?

In doing some casual research on WebMD, I did find that an answer to the question regarding children. It happens to be the case that children suffer illness for much shorter durations. And their sicknesses tend to be much less severe, which means that they tend to not stay home and end up spreading illness. I found this claim to confirm with my own experience in childhood and adulthood. As a child, my illness rarely lasted two days, most often they ran their course in a day. Now, when I get a cold, I'm sick for at least 4 days, most often for a week, and sometimes for two weeks. These longer illnesses in adulthood have caused me to be extremely careful to not contract illnesses, almost paranoid. Perhaps working in a school is the culprit!