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franklanguage

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  1. I apologize for being flippant - but I did use a smiley! As a matter of fact, I was put on a diet - by a doctor who happened to be obese himself - at the age of ten, and another at eleven, and by the time I was out of my teens I decided I was through with diets. Well, I have posted Not-milk several times on eGullet. There is also Milk Sucks!, which includes its own links page. (Hey, folks: I don't make this stuff up.) I also try to be diplomatic, and I'm well aware that my views are unpopular here. It is true that a group of humans in the Andes once were forced by circumstances to eat their frozen dead comrades just to survive, but in a world where we are often able to choose what we eat we can sometimes make educated choices. The Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine has a page entitled "Shoudln't I drink milk?" which puts a lot of commonly-held beliefs to rest. I am also the first to admit that dairy products are enjoyable, even addictive. Cheese is undeniably delicious, and most people are willing to put up with the consequences - possible discomfort or worse - of eating it. Cheese, after all, contains casomorphin, which is an opioid substance. When I say it causes respiratory distress, I mean that it causes everyone to produce varying amounts of mucus. This is established; people of Nordic backgrounds tend to metabolize dairy products better than many other ethnic/racial groups, and people of African ancestry can't metabolize dairy at all, which makes it positively criminal for the milk-mustache ads to target African-Americans the way they do. ("Hey, folks, I don't make this stuff up.") But I digress. I hope I've provided enough links.
  2. One of the several reasons I stopped eating meat and dairy was because I had been practicing yoga since the middle of last year. Although the practice of yoga doesn't require someone to be a vegetarian, I think it was a natural progression of the practice of yoga and the philosophy of non-violence to stop eating animal products. I also wouldn't be able to breathe effectively if I were still eating cheese. (Notably, I know an instructor of iyengar yoga who insists she still eats dairy "so that I'll still be able to tolerate it". All I can say is your mileage may vary.) The most dramatic thing about quitting meat and dairy - dairy especially - is that it's a very effective way to lose weight fast and keep it off. Also - and I know this is a very unpopular view - if you knew of all the blood, pus, and fecal matter that goes into a typical gallon of milk - evem "organic" milk - you probably would find it easier to quit eating dairy products. You realize, don't you, the laughable thing about this thread is that it's all fat people telling you how to lose weight. I remember in high school there was this obese and unpopular girl who would tell anyone who would listen about the diet that worked best for her. Unfortunately, she apparently wasn't able to stick to it very long at a time. Oh: but the one thing you might also keep in mind is that boosting your fiber intake will help you - if not actually lose weight - absorb fewer calories by running food through your system faster. It will also lower your risk of colon cancer.
  3. There was, and I believe still is, a Chippery on 23rd street just east of the Flatiron building. I went there once just to try their ketchup variety - but I tell you, I still prefer Herr's ketchup flavor potato chips. Bemelmans bar on Madison in the 70s reportedly has freshly-made potaro chips, although I only went in to look at the murals one time.
  4. Yeah, like how about "Pork scratchings"? And don't they have chips flavored with prawns? (Not to say they don't in Chinatown, too, but the Brits make such a deal out of it.) Although I've never been to England, Paul Theroux paints a brilliant picture of it in "The Kingdom by the Sea"; I was actually sorry to finish that book. Oh: but Kettle Chips make one variety that's "Oh-my-god" good - their "salsa and mesquite" chips. I can't believe how good they are; I bought a bag the other day, and was leaving the deli and popped one in my mouth and stopped in my tracks. I brought them back to work and my boss ate most of them.
  5. Interestingly, I've developed hayfever these past few years because the atmospheric pollen in New York has been unusually bad in the spring. In response, rather than running to my doctor for a prescription - or even trying something over-the-counter like Allerest - I've chosen to take bee pollen from an upstate farm. (I'm aware that more local pollen would probably be more effective, however.) It seems to have worked reasonably well - probably as well as anything over-the-counter I could have gotten. Notably, my symptoms were less anyway this year, and I attribute that to my cutting out dairy from my diet - although, of course, it could have something to do with variations in the pollen count from day-to-day and year-to-year. I would guess that to start with a small amount to see if you're able to tolerate it before graduating to a larger amount would be a good way to "ease in" to this. However, if you have a long-standing history of allergy, it's probably best to avoid the allergenic substance altogether; I just tried to imagine myself suggesting to someone who was allergic to nuts, "Why don't you just start with little dabs of peanut butter...?" Nah. Don't jeopardize your health in the pursuit of flavor!
  6. The meaning of Life, right? I never even saw the film, and I even know that. (I think I saw the scene, though.)
  7. Yeah, it's funny: I've almost never had a birthday party, and even this year (which will be the big 4-oh) it's likely I won't - unless you e-gulleteers throw me a surprise party. I feel awfully funny about birthdays anyway. I've actually been thinking of having a 45th birthday party this year, because people always seem to guess I'm already in my 40s; ever since I turned 35, it seems I've been on the cusp of 40. I even bought a stack of 45 RPM records (remember them?) to hang from the ceiling in the event I rent a party room with a ceiling to hang them off, but I'm already getting cold feet about that - plus I have no money to throw a party with. As for food, I generally go to some place with outstandingly good cake and get a piece to unapologetically eat all by myself. (The past couple of years it's been Ceci-Cela; if I were on Death Row and had one last wish, I'd probably ask for the chocolate cake from Ceci-Cela. With coffee, goddamnit.) And I never heard the thing about it being bad luck to bake your own cake, so in past years I've baked myself a chocolate cake, sometimes with orange or lemon icing. Sometimes I've baked myself a blackberry pie, because as luck would have it, blackberries are right in season around my birthday. I also smoke my only cigar of the year, in honor of Fidel and Alfred. I don't know if I'll do that this year, because I've been wheezing from World Trade Center syndrome, but the upshoot of all this is that, like most people, the older you get, the less you want people to acknowledge your birthday anyway; I'd just as soon celebrate alone. My perfect strategy is to lie about my age, but to lie up, so people won't say, "You're not really 38; you look much older!" but instead will say, "48? I would have guessed you were more like 40!"
  8. Beachfan, have you considered doing standup? Absolutely true: I went to a neighborhood pizza joint (Five Roses, which used to be called Rosemarie's before she incorporated her daughters) and was excited to see "Vegetarian Lasagne" on the board. I forgot that at this place, "vegetarian" means "without meat" and has nothing to do with cheese. After I had placed my order, I turned back and said, "Oh, does the lasagne have cheese on it?" "Yes, it does." 'Oh, I can't eat that." "You can take the cheese off." I guess she forgot that the ricotta filling is cheese. "No, I can't have that." I changed my order to the "straciatella siciliana", kind of a french bread pizza without cheese which I love. Eating anything these days has become a minefield; I'm forever reading ingredients labels. Is it worth it? To me, it is.
  9. franklanguage

    Buttah!

    Here's a link that probably talks about what your friend was talking about. It mainly says that the company's practices are the standard corporate-type practices - not shocking, but not very savory. My opinion - if you had asked - would be: Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread is great. Amazing - and contains no trans-fats or cholesterol. But it's just my opinion; others, of course, have also found it's great to use in cooking or baking, or even just to spread on bread. (I know: this thread is about butter; sorry.)
  10. franklanguage

    Corn

    Hey, corn is a starchy vegetable, okay? You can have jellybeans with your steak for all I care; the current line is that it's just better to have many colors on your plate - not just beige and brown. I suppose you don't even have a green salad. The link I'm adding here is called "Eat A Rainbow Every Day" and is geared to kids; it appears the Food Rainbow is replacing the Basic 4 Food Groups and even the Food Pyramid. (I always thought it sounded like a pyramid scheme anyway.)
  11. Okay, I tried the BK Veggie the other day and I liked it. It helped that it was fresh off the assembly line. Only thing I hated was the mayo; I'll definitely tell them to hold it next time. But even in spite of the white-bread bun and iceberg lettuce and pink tomato, I finished it and was thinking about it half an hour later. It may not be the healthiest burger, but it sure beats meat - in my opinion.
  12. Sounds like a bourbon sno-kone to me!
  13. Well, I don't know; NYC tap water just tastes to me like pool water. In fact, there is plenty of documentation of fluoride's hazards (not to mention chlorine, which changes chemically to become dioxins, the stuff they found in Love Canal); I think people have been hearing the warnings for so long they've tuned it out. Actually, I know one of the bottled-water companies has introduduced water with fluoride added.
  14. Puslane is a weed, and it grows like a weed; I've seen it peeking up through cracks in the sidewalk - and of course my dog peed on it. It's a highly nutritious plant, though, and last year I was able to get it all the time through my CSA (community supported agriculture). I put it through the juicer (with other veggies) as often as not.
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