Health Urban Myths

[Steven]

Behold, my scientific i.e. totally obvious findings from a fasting adventure:

After the days when I take a break from fasting & eating healthily, and basically eat some lightish treats (crisps, choc etc), I feel much worse. Almost ill sometimes. So therefore, my advice is: don't eat rubbish or you'll feel like poop.

 

[escargot]

Behold, my scientific i.e. totally obvious findings from a fasting adventure:

After the days when I take a break from fasting & eating healthily, and basically eat some lightish treats (crisps, choc etc), I feel much worse. Almost ill sometimes. So therefore, my advice is: don't eat rubbish or you'll feel like poop.

I love that expression, eating rubbish. I use it a lot.
Everyone seems to know what it means.

 

[brownmane]

Possibly.

Filippo Berio was always considered one of the better 'cheaper' makes if you see what I mean and it was around £5 for 500ml, but very often reduced to £2.50 (often enough that I never had to pay the full price).

I just checked and it's now £8.60!

Lidl does some good Greek/Italian ones, but they've also gone up now. Still, not as much as the 'main' supermarkets though.

Here, we only have olive oil. We don't have "Greek" or "Italian" in the description. Is that only in reference to the country it comes from?

 

[Mythopoeika]

I love that expression, eating rubbish. I use it a lot.
Everyone seems to know what it means.

 

[AgProv]

3:55am and insomniac - binge-reading an entire thread which is new to me.

Half my family comes from Staffordshire and has accents to match: places like Cannock and Stoke. It's interesting they had a sort of "thing" which the Lancashire/North Wales Borders half of my ancestry doesn't. Aunts from Staffordshire were keen on a thing which they only approached in a strange euphemism - the vital importance of the Daily Doors. If one of us was ailing or under the weather, they'd anxiously ask my mother if he/she had opened their Daily Doors today and if not,, when, you know, was the last time....

It took a long time to get this peculiarity.

Apparently if you do not have a daily bowel movement, it causes problems because it's in there and steadily accumulating, thus retaining unwelcome toxins and bad humours in the system. The road to good health lies in having a consistent steady record of daily bowel movements, so as to give it no chance to lurk and go off. As even as a kid I could go two or three days without troubling the toilet pan, and I felt in no perceptible bad health for it, this concept perplexed me. As I grew older and wised up, I used to put on a pretence: I'd go to the toilet anyway if one of my aunts were in the house, so as to keep her happy. I reckoned reading the Beano or the Dandy would do it and allow enough time: close toilet lid, sit on it, withdraw folded comic from pocket, read comic, flush an empty lav, wash hands if I remembered (I discovered the sound of running tap and the sight of clean damp hands added to the pantomime) and go downstairs again. Daily Doors duly attended to. Female relatives happy.

In still later life, I read that this was a big thing in late Victorian and Edwardian times prior to WW1, (when people discovered more pressing things to concern them): that bowel health was associated with daily movements and constipation was seen as a debilitating evil. People like Kellogg made a big crusade out of this - cornflakes marketed as an aid to digestive health, et c. As my mother's grandparents would have been of that era, I can see how this might have been transmitted down the family even after the premise was largely debunked. As to why this might have lingered longer in Staffordshire... well, it's called The Potteries for a reason. And one sort of chinaware that every house will have is of course.... I'm guessing the people who made the toilets would hold on to an idea like this for longer?

 

[Floyd]

Here, we only have olive oil. We don't have "Greek" or "Italian" in the description. Is that only in reference to the country it comes from?

Really?
I think that here they have to say where it comes from.
I even saw a Palestinian one a few months ago.

Is it the same with olives as well?

 

[Floyd]

Never thought about it before. Next time I'm in the local wholesalers, I'll do a price check.

They do 2L tins in Sainsburys.

This is a great one that I bought a while ago for £7 (over £13 now though!)

 

[escargot]

I'm guessing the people who made the toilets would hold on to an idea like this for longer?

Your consciousness is still suffused with the concepts of elimination and evacuation.
How very Freudian.

Have to say, my own childhood experience wasn't like yours re the bowel movements obsession. Our family diet was rich in fresh home-prepared and cooked vegetables. We rarely ate less roughage on any given day than would a freely grazing Fresian cow.

My diet is still similar; loads of fruit and vegetables but without the meat.
I've always thought this is because of learning about the connection between eating meat and contracting bowel cancer back in my teens, with a side of healthy regular bowel-emptying/toxin flushing action.

Now I'm wondering if it was just a rationalisation of what I'd known all along.

 

[brownmane]

Really?
I think that here they have to say where it comes from.
I even saw a Palestinian one a few months ago.

Is it the same with olives as well?

The type of olive is on the front of the label, eg. Manzanilla or queen, black or Kalamata olives. The country of origin shows on the information label. I don’t recall any olives from Greece. My whole family loves olives.

 

[Floyd]

Have you noticed how much it’s shot up in price recently? The olive harvest has been disastrous for the past 2 years in Spain, due to lack of rain I think. A good idea to stock up now - I think it’ll only continue to increase in price.

I bought some from Lidl two weeeks ago and it had gone up by a pound.
Had a look today and since then it's gone up by another 30p!
This is getting ridiculous.

Rapeseed oil seems to be holding its price though at £2.50 for 500ml.

 

[Stormkhan]

Bertolli brand oil has shot up in price.

 

[hunck]

I bought some from Lidl two weeeks ago and it had gone up by a pound.
Had a look today and since then it's gone up by another 30p!
This is getting ridiculous.

Rapeseed oil seems to be holding its price though at £2.50 for 500ml.

I’m running out so due to get some. Preparing myself for the shock.

 

[Yithian]

Behold, my scientific i.e. totally obvious findings from a fasting adventure:

After the days when I take a break from fasting & eating healthily, and basically eat some lightish treats (crisps, choc etc), I feel much worse. Almost ill sometimes. So therefore, my advice is: don't eat rubbish or you'll feel like poop.

Well, take your pick.

The BBC says it increases your risk of premature death considerably:

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/intermittent-fasting-cardiovascular-risk-2

But the BBC says it's good for weight loss and health benefits:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220110-the-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting-the-right-way

 

[brownmane]

Well, take your pick.

But the BBC says it's good for weight loss and health benefits:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220110-the-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting-the-right-way

Yith, you may have missed this statement at the end:

With a careful approach, intermittent fasting might help your body to perform its own repairs and recoveries. Autophagy appears to decline with age, so giving yourself a boost later in life might be useful. But be aware that it might not be the right strategy for weight loss, and there is no replacement for a balanced diet.

 

[Steven]

I'm scared to death about dying by being healthier now.

 

[hunck]

I’m running out so due to get some. Preparing myself for the shock.

Feck! A 3 litre can is now upwards of £40 in a local Greek shop. I think the last one I bought there was under £20 so it’s more than doubled since last year.

Then I found a 2 litre can of Spanish in Sainsbury’s for £16.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

It may be worth scouting around TK-Maxx for those Heritage-style cans and bottles, which have a slower, inflationary cycle?

Truth to tell, I think the more exotic EVOOs are very prone to deteriorate under less-than-optimum conditions, so I rarely splash out on them.

 

[Tempest63]

Feck! A 3 litre can is now upwards of £40 in a local Greek shop. I think the last one I bought there was under £20 so it’s more than doubled since last year.

Then I found a 2 litre can of Spanish in Sainsbury’s for £16.

This thread reminds me of a shop in Chelmsford that closed many years ago.
Walking in it looked like an old apothecary shop with large quantities of olive oils and vinegars in big glass containers. You were able to sample the oils and vinegars before buying and could then purchase in various quantities.
Another fad that faded into obscurity.

 

[maximus otter]

…an old apothecary shop with large quantities of olive oils and vinegars in big glass containers. You were able to sample the oils and vinegars before buying and could then purchase in various quantities.
Another fad that faded into obscurity.

Not so much: l was recently in a bijou little établissement which has opened up in a delightful market town near me, the setup you describe being their USP.

They are not uncommon, and becoming more widespread.

maximus otter

 

[Stormkhan]

A friend of mine from school started up a business, the idea of which she saw in Germany.
A shop that sells cereals, dried produce like fruit, vegetables, pulses etc. really cheap ... because they weigh it out and you provide the container! Any liquids, such as oil or vinegar, they fill your container or supply glass bottles that you pay a returnable deposit on.

 

[Floyd]

A friend of mine from school started up a business, the idea of which she saw in Germany.
A shop that sells cereals, dried produce like fruit, vegetables, pulses etc. really cheap ... because they weigh it out and you provide the container! Any liquids, such as oil or vinegar, they fill your container or supply glass bottles that you pay a returnable deposit on.

We have a brilliant one here- herbs and spices/pasta/nuts/chocolate/laundry detergent/washing liquid/dog biscuits/rice/eggs/tahini/oils/seeds/flour.....

(It also sells soaps/deodorants and lots of other stuff).

A jar of say, parsley/oregano etc that will cost you at least a quid in the supermarket, is about 20p.

 

[Yithian]

Yith, you may have missed this statement at the end:

With a careful approach, intermittent fasting might help your body to perform its own repairs and recoveries. Autophagy appears to decline with age, so giving yourself a boost later in life might be useful. But be aware that it might not be the right strategy for weight loss, and there is no replacement for a balanced diet.

I took that to mean not 'this might or might not be an established correlation', but rather 'there is an established correlation, but it might or might not result in weight loss for you personally—because you may or may not be physiologically typical of those studied, or your psychological disposition and/or lifestyle might make the fasting method hard to accomplish'.

The final clause about a balanced diet it a meaningless disclaimer.

 

[brownmane]

I took that to mean not 'this might or might not be an established correlation', but rather 'there is an established correlation, but it might or might not result in weight loss for you personally—because you may or may not be physiologically typical of those studied, or your psychological disposition and/or lifestyle might make the fasting method hard to accomplish'.

The final clause about a balanced diet it a meaningless disclaimer.

And I read the article as its focus being using intermittent fasting as a means to promote autophagy rather than weight loss. There was a lot I had to look up as I didn't even know what autophagy is.

A short article about autophagy:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24058-autophagy

 

[Mungoman]

True. Mind you the guys in Vietnam used to dip joints in liquid opium apparently. Must have let it dry out first.

It has. I have given up even looking at it in the main supermarkets and buy it from lidl now. They do a reasonable range and it is very good.
They have Greek and Italian ones as well.

The Greeks are the heaviest consumers of olive oil- about 2 litres a month.

And keeping on the subject- putting oil in your ears. I don't think that does much either, except clog them up.

We'd buy opiated thai sticks during the 'Offensive' in Vietnam - it was a good idea to not eat before indulging.

 

[Mungoman]

I eat (not quite drink) prodigious quantities of olive oil and feel subjectively (without testing) that it does me noticeable good.

Having heard of price rises in Europe, I inquired with the quartermaster of our household whether she'd noticed an increase (in Korea), but she said that if there had been one, it was very small. Most of the stuff we buy is Spanish, too, so perhaps someone further up the chain has been absorbing the price rise in order to maintain consumption?

Down here in this great Southern Land, I buy Remano brand, which is Spanish in origin at AU$28 for 4 litres - extra virgin.

Usually from Woolworths.

 

[hunck]

We'd buy opiated thai sticks during the 'Offensive' in Vietnam - it was a good idea to not eat before indulging.

Thai sticks were an exotic rarity in the 70s in UK with premium price. Nepalese temple balls even rarer. Pokey as hell.

Did you do service in Vietnam?

 

[Mungoman]

3:55am and insomniac - binge-reading an entire thread which is new to me.

Half my family comes from Staffordshire and has accents to match: places like Cannock and Stoke. It's interesting they had a sort of "thing" which the Lancashire/North Wales Borders half of my ancestry doesn't. Aunts from Staffordshire were keen on a thing which they only approached in a strange euphemism - the vital importance of the Daily Doors. If one of us was ailing or under the weather, they'd anxiously ask my mother if he/she had opened their Daily Doors today and if not,, when, you know, was the last time....

It took a long time to get this peculiarity.

Apparently if you do not have a daily bowel movement, it causes problems because it's in there and steadily accumulating, thus retaining unwelcome toxins and bad humours in the system. The road to good health lies in having a consistent steady record of daily bowel movements, so as to give it no chance to lurk and go off. As even as a kid I could go two or three days without troubling the toilet pan, and I felt in no perceptible bad health for it, this concept perplexed me. As I grew older and wised up, I used to put on a pretence: I'd go to the toilet anyway if one of my aunts were in the house, so as to keep her happy. I reckoned reading the Beano or the Dandy would do it and allow enough time: close toilet lid, sit on it, withdraw folded comic from pocket, read comic, flush an empty lav, wash hands if I remembered (I discovered the sound of running tap and the sight of clean damp hands added to the pantomime) and go downstairs again. Daily Doors duly attended to. Female relatives happy.

In still later life, I read that this was a big thing in late Victorian and Edwardian times prior to WW1, (when people discovered more pressing things to concern them): that bowel health was associated with daily movements and constipation was seen as a debilitating evil. People like Kellogg made a big crusade out of this - cornflakes marketed as an aid to digestive health, et c. As my mother's grandparents would have been of that era, I can see how this might have been transmitted down the family even after the premise was largely debunked. As to why this might have lingered longer in Staffordshire... well, it's called The Potteries for a reason. And one sort of chinaware that every house will have is of course.... I'm guessing the people who made the toilets would hold on to an idea like this for longer?

Hiya Agprov.

North Staffordshire Mum here, and she was always rattling on as a young'n about KYBO (keeping your bowels open). When ever we'd be away, staying at rello's places, the last instruction was always...'and remember! K.Y.B.O' (spelt out)

If Mum noticed that we weren't regular we'd get, and I quote the Lady Herself, 'A dollop of opening medicine'. Which was usually castor oil...every now and again, we'd get a 'jollop' which left all four of us with eggy burps for 36 hours.

God knows what that was...something sulphurous I'd imagine.

 

[Mungoman]

Thai sticks were an exotic rarity in the 70s in UK with premium price. Nepalese temple balls even rarer. Pokey as hell.

Did you do service in Vietnam?

No hunck...cousins did, mates did - my marble didn't drop. We got a lot of R&R grunts down here though.

An interesting fact hunck:

Me and a mate did a bit of dealing in our youth and we'd buy these sticks. They came in compressed blocks of 40 or so and we'd steam the blocks to decompress them. We always wondered how we could get this stuff when there was no Rest&Recreation for the American troops at that time in Sydey.

We get friendly with a couple of those young Americans while they were here, and the scuttlebut between them was that the tonnage coming through Sydney was due to 'diplomatic immunity for Government Agencies'.

With a little study, it seems that the CIA and the Montagnards were associates from the end of the 50's, and that the Montagnards were Farmers. I'll say no more.