EL: Given time, very soon we will all be consuming pills instead of real food. Eventually everything will be found to be bad for at least one person on the planet.

That written, Martha Stewart devoted her entire program this AM to the hot dog. While it was tri-state-NY centered, it was interesting to see what some restaurants put on their dogs. Mac and cheese? GAK! It just goes to show that a simple casing of beef (or pork or filler or whatever) can masquerade as a gastronomic pleasure, or a work of art, or something completely different. (Did you know that some folks go to hot dog emporia and order a menu item, hold the dog, because they're vegetarian but love the fixings?)

I didn't know that about cholesterol lowering drugs. I have to take Crestor yet my cholesterol numbers were excellent at last check in July.

My doc says the numbers are better because of the med. I say its because I've changed my eating habits.

It's only common sense that if your trigliceride level is so high that your blood in the tube appears whitish or pink, you need to be on meds.

I also think that we're all going to go sometime from something, so we may as well enjoy while here. I guess I kind of believe the Weight Watchers saying 'all things in moderation'.

BTW, P Rob, I saw a Travel channel show on hotdogs, and in Miami, they have "fish" hotdogs. While I adore Miami, I can't get with fish dogs!

Ha! Cholesterol drugs are a joke. They trash your liver, have unknown long-term negative conbsequences and most importantly don't do a damned thing to improve your life expectancy. The next time you see a print ad for one, look at the fine print. They all say the same thing, that there is no proven health benefit. The cholesterol theory is just that and it is falling fast. It's really a cholesterol myth.

Eat like a farmer.

People with very low cholesterol develop mental impairments and have a much higher risk of cancer and death.

Start here:
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtnutrition.html

no meat or fish, and maybe even no wine, but no avocados? No nuts? No fat of any kind? No dairy products other than skim milk (which I can drink by the gallon)? No olives? No, gasp, sugar?

Crap...I was so dumbfounded by the list, I forgot to ask my question before I posted it.

Question: what is left that would differentiate us from, say, a rabbit?

Again: live fast, die young and leave a well-punctuated legacy.

As someone here recently said about another diet, will this one make you live longer, or will it just seem like it?

I just cannot live in a world without cake, fat, and booze.

I am loving the weight watchers online system though. It definitely stresses the moderation thing.

I am saving up points this week for a big fat piece of Smith Island cake at Catonsville Gourmet!

Placebos work as well as cholesterol lowering drugs because exercise and diet change always accompany them (on average).

My favorite medical study on low cholesterol linked that to increased of suicide. Maybe that's a direct consequence of giving up avocados and other foods that make life worth living.

MPT had a special on hotdogs around the country. What regionals eat on them and funky places selling them. Hey, I don't have cable...

Very low cholesterol may be linked to anxiety, depression, suicide and hemorrhagic stroke.

OMG wrote: "People with very low cholesterol develop mental impairments and have a much higher risk of cancer and death."

Eve wrote: "Very low cholesterol may be linked to anxiety, depression, suicide and hemorrhagic stroke."

My doctor took me off one of these drugs because my cholesterol got too low. He didn't say anything about the above. I do take a different one now and either it, or my expectations seem to be working.

Doctors don't know s*** about this topic because none of them can read the original research papers critically, because they are not trained in research methods or statistics or real nutrition. Plus they are in bed with drug companies from the minute they enter med school. To them it's not whether a drug is the right treatment but which drug. Their thinking is, well maybe these drugs don't do anything but let's take a chance that they do. Right, because all these drugs are safe. It's a paradigm problem and it can't be fixed.

Now I have some duck that has been marinating all day and is ready for grilling.

I'm in the same camp with PCB Rob. The drugs alone didn't do squat until I changed up my eating habits. I now keep a little log book with me -- and the first thing it showed me was that I was nibbling around the office to the tune of 400 calories or more that I wasn't aware of. The good news is that there are fifteen fewer pounds of me since 1 September, and my last numbers were normal for the first time in years.

I think the cholesterol (did I spell that right?) thing may very well vary from person to person. One of my coworkers has a brother who was a poster child for "diet and exercise to lower cholesterol". But when my coworker did the heavy diet and exercise thing (including bicycling to work between Annapolis and Baltimore), he ended up with his cholesterol numbers being even worse. As soon as he relented and went on statins, his numbers got right in line.

Hal, you are assuming that high cholesterol is bad. It isn't necessarily. Statins are definitely bad though. This topic makes me insane (one of several). I give up. In twenty (or five) years they will laugh at our stupidity.

Well I just created a really cool photoshopped image for Thursday's merriment, so I feel like I've acomplished something tonight. Time to put on pants and visit a beer.

I miss Bourbon Girl. She works too much.

you are assuming that high cholesterol is bad. It isn't necessarily. Statins are definitely bad though.

I'm not one to blindly trust the medical establishment, but I'd still want a bit more evidence before taking medical advice from Owl Meat Marcus Welby.

This topic makes me insane (one of several).

This doesn't surprise me. :-)

OMG, we shouldn't be talking down Big Pharma; we should be sucking up to them. The Drug Industry is all about giving out the perks and freebies, and who here wouldn't like perks and freebies?

I try my best to eat like a European: Light on munchies and desserts, small breakfast, decent sized portions of lunch and dinner. Oh, and usually one drink a night. The one area I'm still working on is stress.

When it comes to stress, I think the difference between Europeans and us is they get mad and get glad again. We tend to bottle it up. That can't be good.

Also, I spent one weekend day recently eating and drinking moderately from noon to midnight. I talked to a buddy of mine about how European that was.

He said, "Yes, that part is European. The guilt you feel the next day is American."

Truth.

I wouldn't take my word either, but I follow my own advice since I did some of the cholesterol studies myself and know the others initimately.

I know exactly what BS they are because I was part of the machine that foisted this lie (and plenty of others) on the public. LDL was the hammer and everything looked like nails to us. Cause: money. There's no career or funding in finding no link between LDL and heart disease. The truth is not out there. You can't get the answer when you ask the wrong questions.

Were the results lies? Not mine, but when we find no link or the opposite of what we are looking for, we disregard it. Those kinds of results NEVER get published. The research industry is corrupt to the core. Your doctor has no clue, because he gets all his info and treatment guidelines from a Treatment for Dummies magazine. They all do.

Even if they could critically analyze research papers, they would never be close to the truth because the real truths are not published, only those that benefit the drug companies, NIH funders, the researchers and the prevailing paradigm.

I'm betting my actual life on it.

Hey Owl,
Might this be the Thursday where you reveal the true identity of the happy flaming banana thing doing the hula?

I think happy flaming banana hoola hoopa guy is just our mascot now. His name is Funzo.

I still think that Owl's unwillingness to reveal the truth about happy flaming banana hoola hoopa guy is an indication that it's not a real logo, but rather something that Owl made up.

I still think that Owl's unwillingness to reveal the truth about happy flaming banana hoola hoopa guy is an indication that it's not a real logo, but rather something that Owl made up.

Nah...Owlie made something up? I know you're the VoR, Hal, but next thing you'll be telling us is that Santa isn't real...

Nah it's real, just obscure and SO obvious that is I ever told you you would cry a little. At this point I think I will just keep him as the mascot of the Owlgonquin Roundtable.

I still think Funzo is the logo of some obscure company in the far east.

Or perhaps of some Latin American company that sells banana peppers?

Or maybe Chiquita tried to market habanero-flavored bananas and it tanked royally?

c'mon Owl, fess up. Bourbon Girl was also real curious but I guess you've now clued her in since you two have hooked up.

Too corny to say - but I will anyway. Too bad Funzo's not a mushroom cause then he'd be a "fun guy"...get it? fungi? ... ok, going to have some wine now...

Why we can't start disregarding concepts because "science" has disproven them. The key is to redefine the concepts so that your position is once again relevant. This is what was done with Global Warming. Now, the global temperatures quit increasing sometime about ten years ago. No problem, just change Global Warming to Climate Change. It gets hot...covered. Gets cold....covered. Everybody wins, most importantly Al Gore.

I still think Funzo is the logo of some obscure company in the far east.

Bourbon Girl is sworn to secrecy about any of the operations here in the Nest of Iniquity™.

True, but not just a company, the logo for a well known product. You're so close. Pull the trigger!

Funzo is the logo for on the sticker of Chiquita Bananas??

Funzo is the logo on the sticker on Chiquita Bananas??

I could swear I remember Funzo from a Simpson's episode. I have no memory of what it looked like but I think it was bad.

No bananas.

Oh yeah, Funzo was the robot toy that spied on the kids, using them as an unwitting focus group for toy companies?

No, it was a killer robot? I don't know.

"Pull the trigger!"

Funzo is the logo for a horse meat company?