The Changing Picture on Food Health

Food has crazy effects on me sometimes. I’ve never been one of those picky types who only eats certain things. Sure when I was a kid there were foods I didn’t like, mostly vegetables like carrots and asparagus. I grew out of that though and I love to try new things. I like spicy stuff but I need to take it easy because it doesn’t process as easy as it used to. Suddenly though a lot of what I eat makes me queasy. I can’t tell what though since I eat a lot of different types of food. The thought of having to cut out whole food groups because of stomach irritation is too depressing to comprehend.

I like the summers because double up on the amount of fruit. Strawberries and watermelon are only good in the summer so I buy a lot of them. I take a container to work every day. As for vegetables I do the same but reluctantly. I eat them because they’re good for me not because I like the taste. I started doing this about 3 years ago, taking fruit and vegetables to work. If nothing else it keeps me from filling up on chips and cookies. And I still get the benefits of balance, which if the ‘pyramid’ is correct, is essential to a healthy diet.

I say “if the pyramid is correct” because new information about food seems to trickle out daily. In the past couple of years ‘sacred cows’ of nutrition have been tipped over in the fields of scientific discovery. My favorite example is the “How much salt is too much?” debate. For over 200 years the link between high salt intake and high blood pressure was taken as doctrine. Today it might be changing. Some nutritionists are arguing for taking more of it. Mostly though it seems some of the early research suggesting high intakes of sodium (more than 2.5 grams per day) caused hypertension. Turns out it isn’t so simple.

Research by the Framingham Offspring Study (2017) showed participants who keep their sodium intake to less than 2.5 milligrams per day showed higher blood pressure rates than those that consumed higher quantities.  Although the research expected to show a link low sodium intake and high blood pressure, the ones who increased both sodium and potassium showed the lowest blood pressure. The opposite was true for the low sodium low potassium group. We don’t know what the rates might have been without the potassium, but the study covered 16 years and included over 2500 people who had regular (healthy) blood pressure rates at the beginning. None of this suggests more salt alone is good for you, but it does show that other factors come into play.  

Another sacred cow to get tipped over is the ‘proof’ that saturated fats lead to clogged arteries and an increase in bad cholesterol. Most people take it as doctrine that too much dairy and red meat increase the risk of heart disease due to the high fat content. Some early trials (done in the 1970s) showed that countries with high saturated fat diets also had high rates of heart disease. It was assumed that fat raised cholesterol and cholesterol in the blood clogged arteries and raised risks for heart disease. Most of current research shows mixed information on saturated fats, but failed to show that it clogs arteries.  

If nothing else this shows how little studies that aim to prove something specific run into problems. Sometimes the data is misinterpreted and sometimes the methodology is flawed. A popular Finish study showed a “50% relative risk reduction in cardiovascular mortality” to patients that had once been on a high intake of saturated fats. Once they switched to a lower fat diet they improved. But the study had major control problems, over half the participants left before it completed. The myth of saturated fats and heart disease persisted though.

I glanced at a quick summary (of current research) done by the nutrition coalition because their conclusions surprised me.

“Regarding the observational evidence, meta-analyses of this data consistently find no association between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, there is a substantial observational finding that low consumption of saturated fats is associated with higher mortality and higher rates of stroke.

At the very least it’s fair to say we don’t know as much as we thought we did. Could saturated fat cause heart disease? Sure, but it isn’t definitive and if scientific studies can’t be replicated how ‘scientific’ are they really?

 It’s because of endless research, claims, counter research and counter claims that I don’t follow strict eating habits. Moderation is probably the best approach to eating, so far at least, no one thinks exercise is bad. I’ll admit to discounting things I don’t agree with though. Call it selection bias for the consumer. If I hear that coffee is great for the heart I think “I knew it! Perfect, Yes I will take a to-go cup” It doesn’t matter what the specifics of the research. I love coffee so naturally I agree. Studies that suggest negative effects of coffee on the central nervous system are “total nonsense!” and I stop reading.  

So what’s going on with all the studies, counter-studies and different interpretations? One possibility is this, small dietary changes have big consequences; the human body is more complex than we realize, changes in diet are tough to draw grand conclusions about. Also, in the same way that microscopes become more complex every couple of years and are able to see more detail, scientific research gets more specific with better information.

Even when controlling for certain factors like age, ethnicity, and lifestyle factors, bodies process foods differently. Some are sensitive to gluten and dairy, others don’t function well without a lot of a lot of water. To say nothing of the huge impact that heredity has on each body. Each person may go through changes in diet during their lifetimes Physiological makeups are altered with better or worse food choices. I drink twice as much water on a daily basis as I did 10 years ago. How has this affected other functions, organs, metabolism, and blood pressure? Probably.

With big health research projects, like the ones from Harvard and Johns Hopkins, the goal is to study a particular subset, like hypertension and sodium. It reminds me of what economists do when they try to influence a particular subset of the economy. If they need banks to start loaning on a larger scale they have the Fed buy bonds to increase the amount of cash on hand for lending. It works but there all always consequences to tweaking the money supply. Prices for things like groceries and electronics rise but credit is easier to get. One problem gets targeted while others are ignored. Increasing sodium or fat or potassium might show better overall health in one person, while worse health in another.  

Testing whether or not some health issue was better understood because of the study is tricky because changing even small portions of a person’s diet can affect the whole body. Its complex physiology (like the economy) is dependent on an array of processes that work in tandem, only a few of which are food related.

I realize that medical studies are the best process we have for researching effects of food and health; they represent a statistical average of the population at a given time. But public policy is written in response to current research that could change in a few years. For this reason I’m skeptical about sweeping changes to laws that require specific levels of salt, corn syrup, gluten, saturated fat, and trans fats that manufactures must adhere to. Besides, it isn’t the business of lawmakers lay out recipes for producers to follow.  

Individuals should make decisions based on whatever foods they enjoy or don’t.

 Speaking of which, I have a half gallon of peanut butter cup ice cream in the freezer calling my name. Later.

  

Drug Legalization: The Human Cost

I’ve been listening to a lot of self-described Libertarians explain their position on drug legalization. I don't mean marijuana. I mean all drugs. They frame it as a ‘liberty’ issue (obviously). To paraphrase, governments shouldn’t be allowed to set limits on personal freedom. Drugs constitute personal choice and are therefore off limits for enforcement. Cartels and gangs are powerful because of the money they make from illegal sales. This keeps them strong and violent. Making all drugs legal would remove their power and keep petty drug users out of jail.

I don't pretend all pro-legalization types are drug users themselves, but it’s disheartening when a major social crisis destroying families and communities is said to be an issue of liberty.  I’ll try to be fair because a lot of the writers I like (Kevin Williamson, Megan McArdle) support drug legalization. But nothing says insane like allowing someone to burn their house down and standing back to watch because “It isn’t my mess”.

Legalization would increase the number of addicted and add a monumental burden to social services, not to mention ruin a generation of kids. Keeping laws in place ensures a lot of people will never try them or at least not use as often. Removing the punishment removes the stigma.

Almost everyone agrees the ‘war on drugs’ feels like a loss. Not because law enforcement hasn’t had success. Drug busts and high profile arrests do happen on occasion but the sheer volume of abuse and violence tells a story of loss. The drug war will always be difficult because of the high demand for drugs. High demand means suppliers (local and foreign) rake in cash. The money creates incentive to produce more. More production means increasing security and enforcement to protect the product. The violence from street gangs and large cartels leads to turf wars, reckless killing and paying off officials. If you want a good picture of what happens when a drug economy takes hold, check out Mexico.

Libertarians will say “Mexico is a violent hell-hole BECAUSE the substances are illegal; making them legal would eliminate the violence”. But making drugs legal will only cut down on some of the crime. The violence is tied almost solely to black markets, it doesn’t matter what product or service is offered. Members of street gangs and cartels won’t suddenly apply to law school because drugs are legalized, they’ll move on to the next thing. They’re power comes from operating in an illegal environment. Mostly that means vices like prostitution, gambling, and narcotics.

Gambling is legal in a lot of states as long as you go to a casino. Yet it isn’t hard to find illegal games or unsanctioned betting. If drugs were legal they would likely operate in a similar way. They could be sold through licensed federal (or state) facilities where the quality gets approved by federal officials. But what would stop illegal sellers and cartels from undercutting official sales with unofficial lower quality stuff? What makes proponents of legalization think the black market would dry up? It goes against every historical understanding of market forces. Remember Eric Gardner who was choked on a New York street by police trying to arrest him? He was selling cigarettes (a legal product) without a license, a common practice when prices are too high.

Another justification for legalizing is in cutting down the number of prisoners in overcrowded prisons. I’m sympathetic to this argument, but large populations of prisoners should not be a reason to overturn sound policies. Tweak some things on the margins, like offering more work release and lower sentencing. My first thought when hearing we have the largest prison population in the world is, “We have a big problem with drugs”. Libertarians hear that and think, “We have a big problem with laws”.

If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, than the reaction to legal drugs would be runaway social costs. We already have a heavy social cost with illegal drugs and only a part of that is because of violence. A lot of it is just ordinary drug addiction, the kind that states spend millions on every year through rehab programs, counseling and family services. Families with addicts suffer immense pain and lose years fixing damaged health and broken lives, wrecked relationships. Pro-drug enthusiasts want to add an extra layer of destruction to the already bleak national picture. Legalization makes it more likely that others will try it and become addicted. 

Legalization is the lie of ‘choice’ gone too far. At some point your ‘freedom’ interferes with others and the mess you leave behind is what others clean up. I think at the core of legalization theory is something selfish and cruel that makes proponents tout liberty while encouraging slavery. Liberty is a wonderful thing and restrictions on personal choice should be small and measured. But drug addiction strains social welfare and destroys lives, not only for the addict but also those in his/her circle. Removing the law against it opens up a real chance that a generation of Americans (kids especially) will be lost to reckless social engineering.

    

Libertarians tend to see the individual as the highest moral authority in a society. But individuals make choices that affect others in the process of discovering their individuality. Laws against keeping a Bengal Tiger in your apartment aren’t because the predator might kill you. They exist to keep the people near you unharmed. Personal choice ceases to be ‘choice’ when your obsession gets out of control.

 In other words, your choice takes away the liberty of others. Liberty goes both ways after all.  

I Peter 2:16 (MEV) "As free people, do not use your liberty as a covering for evil, but live as servants of God".

Last Flag Flying: Review

I watched the film Last Flag Flying last night.

 The story unfolds at a bar where two former Vietnam veterans catch up on old times and past regrets. We quickly figure out the impromptu meeting has a larger purpose. “Doc” Shepard lost his son in the Iraq War recently and wants his Vietnam buddies to help him bury him at Arlington. One friend of the Doc is a preacher (Laurence Fishburn) and one is a bartender (Brian Cranston). Tension between ‘sinner’ and ‘saint’ is the subtext as the three men help an old friend discover how to deal with loss. The conflict is played for laughs despite the very real difference in spiritual maturity between Sal (Cranston) and Mueller (Fishburn).

Apparently the trio got into trouble during the Vietnam War and Doc was the fall guy. He spent a couple years in the brig for his insubordination. The guilt over the incident still affects the three men, one of their fellow marines died during the debacle. The details are sketchy but come out in drips and drabs as the movie unfolds. I didn’t realize it at the time but this film keeps the characters from a 1973 movie The Last Detail, while changing the backstories. It isn't exactly a sequel but the characters would be familiar to anyone who saw that movie. 

Last Flag Flying manages to be somber and heavy but punctuated by hilarious incidents. Like when Sal (Cranston) jokingly hints to the Uhaul sales clerk that he and buddy Mueller (Fishburn) are working with Al Qaeda. He doesn’t give a return date for the rental truck, acts coy about the reasons for the truck and pays with a wad of cash. Homeland Security gets alerted and Fishburn is taken into custody for being a suspicious ‘holy man’. 

After Doc sees his son’s body he changes his mind about Arlington and decides to take the body to his hometown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This scene, at the airport, changes the direction of the story and Doc quickly reverts to back to his anti-authority roots. Once he discovers the truth about his son’s death, killed buying drinks at a convenience store, he becomes disillusioned with the war. The Marines told him a different, more heroic version of the truth. He agrees to let the military pay for transport to Portsmouth via train after some haggling with a cartoonishly nasty colonel.

The trio ride the train while swapping old stories and generally complaining about their war, and the current one. Old men see war different than the young. The arguments they make have been made for millennia. Like the famous scene from All Quite On the Western Front (1930) where Paul lectures his propaganda spewing professor “He tells you ‘Go out and die’ Oh but if you’ll pardon me it’s easier to say go out and die than it is to do it.”

One particular scene from the train journey shows all three men talking with a young marine (Washington) who accompanies the body to Portsmouth.  

Washington: “I’d rather be fighting them over there than in our own back yard.”

Sal: Said to Mueller sarcastically “Sound Familiar?”

Mueller: “Oh, yeah”

Sal: “See we fought the commies on the beaches of Nam so we wouldn’t have to fight ‘em on the beaches of Malibu.”

Washington: “I guess it worked”

It’s a funny line but supports a larger truth that gets overlooked in good war/ bad war debates. The merits of war are easier to sort out after the conflict ends, but what isn’t easy is figuring out what might have been. History only tells us what happened in the war, never what might have happened without the decision to engage in it. Anti-war films always describe the ugliness of battle but can’t possibly say that without war things would have been better.

The ‘commies’ never attacked the Malibu beach but they would have likely put missiles in Cuba without the blockade. What happens after that? No one knows. We may not fight them here, Red Dawn style, but other considerations come into play.  There are too many variables to consider in conflict, including threats to allies and loss of influence, an enemy with larger territory and a new front from which to conduct terrorism. Mistakes are made constantly and overreach is a frequent problem of military campaigns to be sure. Telling a story from the perspective of former Vets who ran afoul of the leadership is a little like asking former Walmart employees who got fired, what they think about the company. Their view is certainly relevant, but it isn’t the whole story either.

Anti-war movies are small and focused, small because the tragedy of loss is personal. Films like Deer Hunter and Born on the Fourth of July show loss and transformation, from patriotic to bitter and wounded. Pro war movies (if that’s even a term) like The Longest Day and the Band of Brothers series keep the larger frame of the conflict front and center. We understand the big picture, allies, leadership, geopolitical calculation, strategic maneuvers, and enemy advances. If anti-war movies are like the board game Life, than pro-war movies are chess.

I generally liked the movie. The camaraderie between the Vets is funny and proves that despite the ugliness of war, long lasting friendships survive. A telling moment is when the three men meet the mother of the soldier killed in Vietnam. For years she believed the official report that her son was killed in action. They have a chance to set the record straight with her. They were with him when he died after all. How they handle the meeting tells the viewer a lot about truth in war and why it is so hard to talk about.  

Lessons from Rocky IV

The older I get the more I appreciate Rocky IV. Not for the reasons most people think of though. The film gets criticized as American propaganda constantly. It’s easy to see why. Rocky Balboa is the best of American grit and determination, a working class hero. Ivan Drago is the opposite. He reflects a cheating Soviet Union interested in winning at all costs. He is the product of drug enhancement, cruelty and fitness tech run amok. The theme most people see from the movie is that honesty and fair play beat underhanded state influenced cheating. Or as I like to say "We kicked your ass Russia!"

Rocky IV predicted the Russian tricks that cast a pall over the Winter Olympics in 2014, accidentally of course. Their state sponsored doping program got them banned from the last Olympics. But for the obvious good versus evil messaging in the movie, it holds up today because of the conflict it imagined between technology and human achievement. This theme runs in the background like antivirus software, scanning the plot points and making sense of the Cold War.

If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, here it is in nutshell. Rocky’s longtime nemesis turned friend, Apollo Creed, challenges the powerful Russian, Ivan Drago, to a boxing match. It takes place in Las Vegas under a garish patriotic display. The most famous image is off a muscular Creed in an American flag top hat dancing to James Brown’s “Living in America”. Creed gets beat up bad but refuses to let Rocky throw in the towel. Drago eventually kills Creed with crushing hay-makers and a total lack of emotion “If he dies, he dies.” Rocky feels responsible and challenges Drago to a match in Moscow, to avenge Creed. At this point the training begins. Rocky in the snowy mountains cut off from all technology and distractions, while Drago trains machine like in the gym/lab.

Early in the film there is a scene with Rocky’s pugnacious brother in law Paulie. Paulie complains about the butler robot rolling around the house fetching drinks and helping with basic chores. He quickly gets comfortable though. Paulie’s discomfort with the robot falls apart when he realizes the machine makes his life demonstrable easier. The inherent message is clear, technology can make life better in some ways. The question from the film that plays out is this “When does technology begin to alter human behavior?” Ivan Drago shows that it can be manipulated.

He isn’t just a tool of a merciless regime using sport for dominance. He is also part machine. Doctors, engineers and politburo officials remain a fixture in his training. His gym is a gaggle of equipment monitoring his progress, trainers injecting him with steroids, punching bags registering impact. In the character of Ivan Drago we see the dark side of technology, something used to transform human nature. Rocky is human grit; Drago is cold mechanics. The geo political framework (United States and the Soviet Union) is embedded in the plot, but the secondary plot of living with technology is more prescient. 

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What strikes me is how timely this part of the story is to today, especially in sports and fitness. Former Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson has a show on Netflix investigating how trainers and tech companies are creating better athletes through science. A lot of it is gadgets like wearable sensors in clothing and monitors that track breathing or show muscle exertion. The developers are clear about the limits of their products though. They aren’t intended to take middle aged dads from TV watcher to world class Olympians, but they do think tech provides slight advantages to competitive athletes. Most of it seems unlikely to improve performance on a grand scale, but it suggests a certain comfort Americans have with altering human physical constraints.

 A company called “Halo” makes a brain stimulation device that sends electrical pulses to the motor cortex. The electrical signals supposedly increase endurance by allowing neurons to fire quicker. These gadgets are mostly unproven (internal research aside) but they could also be the beginnings of brain enhancement. Since competition at high levels requires thought control, mind altering tech isn’t that far off.

A lot of this new technology in analyzing athletic prowess is probably an attempt to sell to high end gear to the general public. Parents with kids in high school sports certainly want to stay on top of safety and performance improvements. The fact remains that innovation in wearables, and especially cognition, is seeping into competition at every level. At what point does this technology become too much? At what point does it create a person become more machine than human? We are quite a ways from creating superhumans in labs but it isn't out of reach either. The best of the new innovation for athletes is in monitoring vital functions and injury prevention, which isn’t new really. They’ve just gotten better at gauging things like muscle fatigue and oxygen levels. The bulk of research is in concussion prevention for football helmets and headbands. There is a lot focus on training to prevent injury through muscle development.

Expensive training facilities like Michael Johnson’s in Dallas offer the best of what was once exclusive to NFL teams and Olympic facilities. The ones who show promise and can pay hefty fees have advantages that high school teams have never had.

Our collective comfort with the future of sports tech will be balanced by the importance we place on competition. I am a bit pessimistic on this. I’m not against improving performance or in using gadgets to monitor vitals. The safety innovations are great also. But if improvements start to replace biology than sports become about something other than human ability. Steroids and blood doping are considered by everyone to be cheating. Tech opens up a new frontier though for new developments in enhancement and cognitive improvements that didn’t exist before. The conflict in Rocky IV is with us like it never was in 1985.

I won’t draw lines yet, but at some point we might have to.