No Leaf Clover

Post-Economic Collapse, Argentina 2001

"And it comes be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel....is just a freight train coming your way."

I've seen a lot of naysayers and offhand critiques deriding the MAndrosphere for "fantasizing about the collapse" or calling it "Doomsday Porn." Many folks have made statements claiming they can't wait for it to all come crashing down, so the rebuilding can begin.

It seems we have a dichotomy of generalized opinion on a potential economic collapse of Western society going on...those who can't wait because they are confident in their abilities to survive societal upheaval, versus those who believe it can never happen, or that it might happen, but even if it did, there is nothing we can do, so live and let live, whatever may come, will. I don't adhere to either viewpoint....since I'm a conspiracy-theory realist and cynic, I already know the collapse is coming, it is deliberately engineered, and it will be accomplished to achieve an abominable and inhumane agenda - total population control.

This viewpoint is considered crazy, delusional and paranoid. I'm fine with that.

Just call me Cassandra.

My only answer is to say open up your eyes and LOOK.

How can you not see that our current society is unsustainable? We are a society that is perpetually taking on new debt to simply service the debt we already have.

$15,064,816,000,000- The U.S. GDP in 2011. The debt as of Jan 1st, 2012 is 15,170,600,000,000. United States now owes more money than its yearly production (GDP).

We cannot keep up this charade in perpetuity. The bill always come due, and perpetual debt-spending by a Government to keep the lights on eventually results in bankruptcy and the lights getting cut off.

Thanks to immersing myself in the Shit-Hits-The-Fan-Prepper-Sphere, I discovered a slew of first hand accounts of what an economic collapse in a modern country looks like - Argentina in 2001.

In 2001, I was a daily reader of both national and local newspapers and periodicals, as well as a daily watcher of Tell-A-Vision "news." I don't recall any reporting whatsoever about Argentina's economic collapse and subsequent descent to third-world, hellhole conditions. Of course, we had other world changing events that dominated the headlines back then...

Anyhow, looking at what happened in a formerly prosperous, "first world" society, the parallels we are seeing in the rest of the "first world" to the events leading up to the Argentinian collapse of 2001 are foreboding.

You think it can't happen here? Think again.

 One man's account describes it like this:

“How can I prepare for an economic collapse?” is one of the most common questions I get. It usually takes me a second to start to explain how complex such a question is. It’s like asking an auto mechanic, “Say, how do you build a car?” or asking a computer engineer, “What’s all that stuff inside my laptop?”

I do have some first-hand experience in this matter, though. The economy in my country, Argentina, has gone through various crises, but none as large as when the economy collapsed in 2001 after a decade of apparent prosperity. The currency devaluated, and Argentina defaulted on its USD$132 billion debt, the largest default ever. The middle class took to the streets after bank accounts were frozen, and the president was forced to resign, escaping the presidential building in a helicopter.

That's all it takes to get the catastrophe ball rolling.

The Government simply declares a default, the banks freeze all accounts, and the basic necessities of living that everyone has become dependent on acquiring from our Just-In-Time distribution Supermarket and Big Chain Retail suddenly start doubling and tripling prices as panic hoarding kicks in and the shelves are emptied in a matter of hours.


In my lifetime, I've seen the store shelves here in Hawaii get emptied several times...two hurricanes, a pending tsunami and an earthquake all kicked off a frenzy of grocery hoarding and mile long lines at gas stations. In all of those instances, order was restored and "normalcy" of our current corporatist consumer-driven society resumed in a matter of days.

But when (not IF, but WHEN, as a default is coming. It is inescapable. Maybe tomorrow, maybe 10 years from now...but make no mistake, it's coming,) USA Inc. defaults, the dollar crashes, the bank accounts of the masses get frozen and the grocery and hardware stores get emptied, the "return to normalcy" is not happening.

It's going to be much worse in the US than what happened in Argentina.

For the Argentinians, the freezing of bank accounts instantaneously cast the entire middle class into poverty.

In the USA Inc., this will be terrible...but we also have a large poverty class living a virtual, debt-driven "middle class" consumption lifestyle, financed by the entitlement-dependency programs of the Federal Government. We are at a new record of dependence here: New record: 15 percent of Americans on food stamps


When the bank accounts get frozen, and at the same time all the EBT cards that are now feeding 15% of the nation no longer work, The Shit is Going to Hit the Fan and it will be the End of the World as We Know It.

Are you prepared for this? No? It's still not too late...

 

Take the advice of people who have been there and done that.

Here's a condensed version of some excerpts  taken from the SHTFplan blog:

Step #1: Acquiring precious metals (I generally recommend 20% of your savings but each person is a separate case) and a month’s worth of expenses in cash, kept safe at home. Every single Argentine wishes he could go back in time, close his bank account, and put that money into gold. We would all do that if we had a time machine. Since you can’t guess the future, all you can do is estimate what can happen and play the odds in your favor. In the event of a full economic collapse, if you have 20% of your savings in physical gold and silver, that’s a percentage of your savings that is spared. It’s not an investment; don’t go crazy over gold and silver going up or down a few dollars, just be content that it’s not getting any lighter as it sits in your safe. If the economy collapses or even if there’s simply inflation (as there clearly will be), that percentage of your savings in precious metals is safe and will likely go up in price beyond its standard purchasing power as things get worse.


During the first stages of a severe economic crisis, you will see ATMs running out of money fast, and many stores won’t be accepting credit cards. {and EBT-SNAP cards too.}

As the saying goes, “Cash is king” during those times. Your precious metal can be sold to a dealer, but you better keep that stored for now. When everyone is running around looking for an ATM with a few bucks in it, having a month’s worth of expenses in cash means you won’t be one of them. Why not more than a month´s worth of expenses? Because if the economy fully collapses, that paper money will lose its value within hours. It may drop 50%, 60%, or 75%, as happened in Argentina. Who knows? All you know is that as the currency loses value, the value of the precious metals you have stored goes up in proportion. Still, during those first days, a wad of cash gets you what you need.


Step #2: Stock up on food. The more you have, the better. There may be periods of civil unrest like the ones we saw where stores are being looted and closed after that. There may be problems with resupply because of logistical complications. It’s better if you already have 6 to 12 months worth of food in your expanded pantry. Also, keep in mind the food you buy now will be considerably cheaper compared to post-inflation prices.


Step #3: Acquire the essentials by putting together a survival/emergency kit. This will include your typical camping gear: a tent, sleeping bags, a stove (have enough fuel for it in case services are disrupted), first aid kit, medicines, LED flashlights and several spare batteries. Depending on how bad civil unrest gets, there may be problems with the infrastructure. After the economy collapsed in Argentina, the power company simply couldn’t afford the repairs needed, and it hadn’t planned for something like this, either. Rolling blackouts became common, and having LED lights and rechargeable batteries was a blessing. You could easily spend two or three days without power during summer. {Worse for North Americans...power outtages during Winter could be fatal rather than simply uncomfortable in the southern hemisphere's summer heat.}


Step #4: Improve your personal and home security. During the first days after the economy collapsed, civil unrest, rioting and looting was out of control. A state of siege and military law was declared, enforcing curfew hours after 10 pm. This lasted a few months, and for months after that, while order was recovered in the capitol district, there were still occasional revolts and looting. The sense of lawlessness extended way beyond the visible accounts depicted by the TV and general media.

It’s during times like these that you realize you must have means of defending yourself and your family. My advice is to make your home as secure as possible against criminals that may take advantage of the lack of control during the worst of the rioting. After that, a better security plan for the entire family must be worked out. As things get worse, you understand that you can no longer afford to be lax about your personal and home security. Those that are quickly become vicitims. With a more secure home, you may want to consider having a weapon to defend yourself. Certainly not an easy decision, and one you must be extremely serious about. If you have the self-control and maturity to handle one, having a firearm and getting the minimum training to know how to use (it if it ever comes to that) is something you should consider doing.

Crime and insecurity will be one of the greatest threats people all across USA will suffer, and very few will be ready for it. It won’t happen one dark gloomy night after watching the latest horror movie. It will happen in the Walmart parking lot at 3 pm, with plenty of people around (people who will hurry out of the way, pretending not to see anything). You’ll be thinking about what you just bought, that you maybe should have bought Lucky Charms instead of Corn Flakes. That’s when the nice-looking person with two other buddies, all well-dressed (with neat hair cuts, too), pulls a gun on you. Developing a sense of awareness will be the most important part, as well as making the rest of your family comprehend that times have changed and you can no longer be careless regarding security.


Step #5: Embrace a different mindset.When Argentina went through its economic collapse, people handled it differently. Maybe the most common response was denial. The “I can’t believe this is happening “ attitude was pretty popular. Others complained, but you soon understood it changed nothing: It only made you feel more miserable, more stressed, and that was something you could do without. Others just ended their misery. Suicide rates doubled after the collapse, with people sometimes jumping under the train at early rush hour in a desperate attempt to make their misery noticed by others.

What you need to do is become more positive, more active. Be someone who, while accepting those things you can’t change, does something about the things you can. Get involved now, do what I just recommended right now, it will bring you peace of mind. Remember to stay positive and put every problem into perspective. Complain less. You’ll have enough to complain about when inflation gets worse. Soon you’ll understand that material things can be replaced, and you become more grateful for what you have instead of worrying about what you don’t.

It’s essential to keep a positive attitude. Being someone that gets easily depressed will be the end of you as the economy worsens. Problems much worse that what you are used to will be a daily occurrence. You’ll just have to roll with it and learn to cope with the new world you live in. Reinforce your relationships with people. Fight stress by finding a hobby you enjoy, hopefully one that has a practical side as well. After the collapse, lots of people started their own businesses when they realized there were no jobs to be found. It would be better if you get started now, just in case you ever need it in order to earn a living.

These are my recommendations. I know many people could have used such advice back when our economy collapsed. - Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre at TheModernSurvivalist.com

 

 There are some fundamental differences between the state of the USA Inc. and Argentina in 2000-2001, just prior to their economic collapse.

We probably have the most heavily armed populace the world has ever seen. When the SHTF, it's going to be a total warzone once fighting over the basics of survival commences. I have family members who are staunchly "anti-gun" and are utterly opposed to anyone owning guns. They always vote for gun control politicians, and always challenge and question my beliefs and ownership of numerous weapons.

Yet they have food storage and are preparing for possible societal catastrophe (not because they believe as I do, but rather due to past experiences with hurricane preparedness). When I tell them they are just creating storehouses for the looters with guns to come and take it from them when the SHTF, they act like they don't even hear what I'm saying. It's cognitive dissonance at it's worst. Don't let your political ideology get in the way of your preparedness. You think the cops are minutes away from saving you NOW, imagine what it will be like when the cops are in the midst of society wide rioting and unrest?

There will be no one coming to save you.

Ask the Korean C-Store owners in L.A. in 1992 about that.




I also believe the huge segments of our populace that are dependent on Federal Government entitlements to get their daily food are also the sort of people who will in a matter of hours begin looting, rioting, robbery and other such predations on people who may have food stores and other material consumables when the banks freeze, the EBT cards stop working, and the store shelves are emptied.

They already have an entitlement mindset, as well as a healthy sense of envy and covetousness of those in the upper economic classes....and in America, they are already well armed, or one household burglary away from getting heavily armed.

Don't be sheep waiting for the ravening wolves to come to devour you and your family when the time comes and law and order disappears in moments.

Get armed, get trained, and be ready. The financial apocalypse of the greatest economy the world has ever seen is inevitable, and most likely destined to happen within our lifetimes - and probably sooner rather than later.

Raising Boys in This Brave New World

A reader asks Heartiste the best way to go about raising her son to mitigate or avoid all of the regularly scheduled programming of spiritual, physical and mental emasculation in our mass media-driven Brave New World Order. For a guy who doesn't have kids, and has expressed many times that he won't, his list is surprisingly good, and echoes many of the same approaches and strategies I have in being a "red pill" parent.

 I've been contemplating a post like this for a long while, but have had a bit of writer's block lately that comes and goes, depending on what's going on in my part of the world. Nothing like ripping off another great blogger using another blogger's post as a springboard to get over that hump.

I'm going to take the bits of advice I agree with (I don't necessarily agree with them all) and expand on them a bit with my own perspective, than offer my own list on what Fatherhood to boys entails from a red pill perspective to conclude.

1. Boys don’t need to hear about decline. What they need to hear about are enemies to fight.

Too true. I'll add to this that as they get older, they'll need to recognize that the greatest enemy they will have to fight is themselves. That nothing in life comes easy, that anything worth having or accomplishing requires hardship and struggle, and the biggest obstacle to success will be his or her own fears, doubts, laziness and lack of gumption and toughness.

4. Give your son room to grow into a man. Let him take risks and flirt with danger.

As a Father, this is where his most important task lies - being the guard against over-protective smother-mothering. From the time I was 5 to pre-teen adolescence, my mother didn't want me to have a skateboard, ride a bike without a helmet (in the 80's only dorks and dweebs wore helmets while riding BMX...I always took mine off and hid it in the bushes the moment my mom was outta sight), wouldn't let me sign up for tackle football, martial arts classes, nor let me get a surfboard, nor shoot my friend's BB guns. I eventually got to go and do all that on my own, as a rebellious teenager.

5. Your son will learn how to successfully deal with women by observing his father deal with his mother. The best thing Dad can do for his son is game his Mom.

The greatest influence parents have on their children is setting the example and living the way you want your children to become. Don't be an Average Married Chump.

7. Your son will not want to “share his feelings” with you or Dad. If you want to know what’s on his mind, tell a story lesson from your life. He will subconsciously ingest your story and relate it to his own problems.

Now this is one of the best things Heartiste advises in the entire freakin' post. I grew up with a mother, female public school teachers, Churchian adult influences thoroughly indoctrinated in the Idolatry of Pussy worship, and a mass media culture that all promoted the idea that boys and men are stifled and damaged and stunted by society's expectations that they not cry or talk about their bad feelings. I was always told and encouraged to "share my feelings" and talk about how something made me feel. No matter how many times I was told this, I still remember that it just somehow felt wrong and off kilter to talk about "feelings" and emotions. Everyone said it was supposed to make me feel better, but it never did. It just made me feel gay.

Now I KNOW it's doing this precise thing that leads to men becoming stifled, stunted and damaged! You do not make better boys by trying to raise them as girls! Boys need to be trained to ignore their feelings and not let their emotions cripple them with fear and inaction in the face of adversity. Most boys need to be goaded, berated and taunted (age appropriate language of course) to motivate them to overcome their inner fears and doubts, then praised and rewarded when they do so. Don't be a pussy, you fag.
 

12. Never humiliate his father in front of him. You may find it satisfying, but you’re doing your boy a disservice.

For Mothers, this is probably THE most important thing in the entire post that they need to be mindful of. Not just humiliate, but always speak of the boys Father with respect and deference...even if he's a drunken, abusive, cheating lout that abandoned you and the kids. If you got nothing nice to say about the man you let impregnate you, than keep your mouth shut. Every time you denigrate or humiliate a boy's Father you are doing it to him as well.  

For Fathers, if your wife ever disrespects or tries to humiliate you in front of your children, you need to put the foot down and nip that shit in the bud immediately and with forceful authority. Do not tolerate it one bit. This is where you draw your line in the sand, and if she crosses it, you need to let her know that there are consequences for it.

18. If you are atheist or agnostic, swallow your pride and ensconce him in a religious tradition. The presence of a powerful overseer, true or not, will help ground him and gird his will.

This makes the very first instance I can ever recall such a hedonistic-nihilist-atheist like Heartiste recommending boys need religion. Good call...just avoid exposing him to idolatrous Churchianity. Especially avoid ANY religion being taught on the tell-a-vision.

20. No social media. No iPads. No iPhones. Boys don’t become great men with their eyes glued to a screen like a plugged in Matrix pod. They become great men with their eyes up and searching the horizon.

No X-box. No computer with internet access in their own room. The Palm Zombie Apocalypse has gone Global and the worst thing for his development and growth is to get addicted to the intermittent rewards of electronically transmitted affirmations or worse, developing a regular compulsion to fap to teh Pr0n.

Quarantine them from it as long as you possibly can so that they don't virtually disconnect from the real world.



Heartiste made his list for Mother's raising boys.

Here's my top10 list for Father's raising Boys in our Brave New World:

1) Be militant about his diet, make sure it is nutrient dense and avoid the NAD as much as possible. Don't feed him fast foods, convenience foods, microwaved meals, nor snack foods. As the child grows up, they will be exposed to these things from family, friends, peers, institutions, organizations and group activities. It's unavoidable unless you micro manage every waking moment of their lives. The only thing you CAN do, is make sure they're not getting that crap at home, and that when they do leave the home, they are already full and fueled up with great, healthy food, so even if they do end up eating the junk, they won't eat as much because they are already full of good stuff. It's also good to let him go hungry every so often. There's a difference between hunger and starvation.

There's a reason why I put diet number one on the list. A well fed child (as in given nutritious food and kept from junk feed) is a well behaved child.The differences in behavior between nutritionally nourished children and SAD junk fed ADD rug rats are astounding and dramatic. It is my personal belief born of experience, that feeding them right over a lifetime, will make everything else dealing with parenting much easier.

2) Learn to identify and avoid all feminizing and potentially long term damaging substances found in food, water and personal care products. Soy, fluoride, MSG, artificial sweetners, BPA, GMO foods, all sunscreen products and Big Pharma's utterly ludicrous vaccination schedules.

3)  Unless the boy experiences a serious injury, downplay and ignore all minor bumps, scrapes, falls and bruises. Tell him it's nothing, stop crying (if he is) and get over it. Mother's will want to give comfort and make him feel better. Let her, that's what she's there for. Additionally, as he gets older, you can tell him that the only person in the whole wide world that will ever care if he feels sorry for himself, is his Mom. Don't go seeking sympathy from a single other soul. Nobody but their Mothers cares when males cry. The faster they learn this, the better.

As Dad, your job is to toughen him up. It's a cruel world in current social upheaval and decline, and as things get worse, only the strong will survive and thrive. As soon as the boy is walking and talking, you should be preparing him for this.

4) Let the boy play in the dirt. Let him get covered head to toe in it...and don't let his Mother get upset or try to keep him from getting dirty or from tearing up the grass. Don't be so obsessed with keeping him away from all germs. This will compromise his immune system and impact his long term health. If you're outside doing activities, don't be so freakin' anal about making sure he washes his hands before eating...unless he's been handling raw meat or dogshit, it's okay to eat your lunch with dirty hands. Of course, setting a standard of cleanliness for the dinner table and being presentable amongst fellow diners is a good thing to instill...but don't make Germophobia and the pursuit of immaculate cleanliness an obsession.

5) Make sure you always have at least one family meal a day - preferably dinner, but if it's not possible to have every member present, make it the meal where most if not all can be there. Do not allow the Tell-A-Vision to be on while you eat. Make it a standard daily ritual where the only thing allowed is eating and talking. And most importantly, as a Father, YOU SIT AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE. I cannot stress that last one enough. Do not let anyone - especially your Wife or Daughter - usurp your place at the table. If you're a religious family, either you say the prayer, or you delegate who blesses the meal.

6) Teach him about honor, and keeping his word. The worst punishments he should ever receive is for acting dishonorably and deliberately lying to manipulate people. Don't make promises you know you can't keep, and keep every promise you make. Also come down hard on him for any and every attempt to try and sow dissension between his Mother and yourself. You must support each other as a united front in matters of discipline and punishment.

7) As soon as he's old enough, martial arts and firearms training. Weight training and both solo and team sports if he's interested as he gets older. Whether he gets interested in sports or not, make sure he receives training and discipline in the arts of violence and strength development as soon and as often as possible. Along with the learning of the ways of violence, instill the appropriate lessons of discipline, control and when to use it. Start nothing, finish everything.

8) When he gets older and approaches puberty, it will be time to teach him "Game." As Father and Patriarch of the household, the best way to teach him this, as Heartiste notes in his tip #5, is by example. He should have no trouble understanding the concepts of Game, attraction and the differences between males and females, since he's already spent his whole life observing the example set by his dad. When you sit him down for 'the talk' and say you cover something like Rollo's excellent Lessons for my Son, you should be able to point out your own actions, behaviors and demeanor as the primary examples demonstrating those principles.

9) Controlled, temporarily painful but not damaging, age-appropriate corporal punishment, measured out dispassionately and sparingly, will be one of the most effective means of instilling respect for your authority. In the past, many Father's relied on their belts, or switches etc. Nowadays it's considered abusive and grounds for CPS taking your kids away. Make sure you only dole it out in private, and that you do so deliberately and unemotionally so as to avoid crossing the line from discipline into abuse. I don't believe men should ever use anything other than their bare, open hands for physical discipline. But a little of it, effectively applied, goes a long way. Done right, the implied threat of physical discipline will be more than enough to ensure compliance and obedience 99% of the time. Your boy should definitely fear his Father.

10) Always make regular time for Father-Son exclusive physical activities AT ALL AGES, doing something you can mentor him in. Hunting, fishing, skiing, surfing, diving, skating, dirt biking, rock climbing, hiking, camping, car re-building, woodwork  etc. It's good for both of you physically, and it gives you something to bond over for a lifetime.

 

Now that's my top 10, but there's one more thing I needed to add that I think is so important, it should stand alone from this list. While I have written about avoiding making boys talk about their feelings, etc., as well as instilling healthy fear of his Father into a boy, as Dad, you also have to demonstrate positive masculine affection and love. This is especially important after you've had to give some corporal punishment. Nothing wrong with hugging or kissing your boy, and telling him explicitly that you love him. You have to be a hard ass most of the time, so that you raise him to be a hard ass, ready for a hard, cruel world. But all stick and no carrot will make him come to hate you, and will also leave him stunted and unable to cope with many of his own conflicting feelings. Show him that as a man, he has no fear or shame in expressing love to other males, and that his own feelings of affection for other males (no homo) are perfectly normal, okay and nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about.

As a man, can you look at your male family members or close male friends straight in the eye and unflinchingly and without any hang ups and say "I love you?" If you can't, then you are letting your emotions cripple your actions.

Oh, and my final thoughts on raising boys (and girls) in our dysfunctional age of declining civilization is also important enough to stand alone from the top 10 list as well: institutionalized education.

Homeschool > Private Same-sex Religious School > Private Same-sex Secular School > Running Wild in the Streets.


Avoid the Government public schooling brainwashing and indoctrination system at all costs. As Vox likes to say, Homeschool or die.

To Cook Is to Love

From a recent phone conversation I had: "You have to work and can't make it to our party? Darn! I was really looking forward to whatever dish you were going to make..."

Amongst my circle of families, friends and acquaintances, I've gained quite the reputation as a cooker of good food. It's not that I'm the second coming of Chef Avril or anything...it's just that I'm one of the guys who cooks with real food, high-quality, fresh ingredients, and I actually cook from scratch. Not to mention, at most pot luck events, I'm also usually one of the few people (sometimes even the only one!) that brings home cooked dishes to begin with. Nowadays, most everyone brings takeout, fast food, or pre-prepared platters from grocery stores.

I'm quite certain others who could not make the event I was regretfully informing the hostess I could not attend, were not regaled with the same regret she expressed to me...

"Darn, I was really looking forward to that bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken you always bring!"



One of the goals of the social engineers that designed to break up the Patriarchal family and get the women into the corporate workforce en mass, was to outsource the feeding of the family from the oppressed, exploited Mothers chained to the home stove, and make we the sheeple reliant on the corporate run, fast food and convenience food industries for the majority of our meals.

From Obesity Epidemic in America:

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s there was exactly one hamburger stand in our town, Wetson's. We frequented it very, very infrequently, like maybe 3x a year. We also had a Dunkin' Donuts. My dad had a sweet tooth, so he got us a dozen donuts after church every couple of weeks (we went to church every week, we just didn't get donuts every time). On Friday nights we were allowed TV dinners. Other than that, we ate home-cooked food. If we dined out, it was a special occasion. My mom wasn't big on cooking, so if fast food had been more available, I've no doubt we would have been first in the drive-thru line.


Fast-forward to the present as I'm raising my son. Working full-time is not an excuse for laziness in the meal planning department, it's simply part of this equation. We have soccer practice after school, games and tournaments on weekends. My son goes through various evolutionary phases in his choice of fast food. First McDonald's, then Burger King (always Burger King for French toast sticks and hash browns, the breakfast of late-for-school champions). He flirts with Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, In ‘n Out Burger, finally declaring Wendys his all-time favorite.

Ninety percent of these "meals" are consumed in transit. Despite the fact that my German car has no cup holders (think they might be onto something here?), we regularly eat and drink while driving.

Hmmm...it's almost like these uber-busy schedules with both parents (or a single mommy household)  too busy with work and extra-curricular activities for the kids to waste time actually preparing healthy food to eat in a pleasant setting at home, are conditions brought about on purpose? Deliberately designed that way? 

Maybe we need to re-think these things, no?

Not only are we as a nation getting fat, sick and lazy, thanks to all of this lack of home cooking, we are also raising an entire generation of kids who won't have the kind of cherished memories that stick with kids for the rest of their lives.

Cooking food is one of the ultimate expressions of love a person can do for others. It's no accident the feminist movement defines women cooking in the kitchen for their families an act of slavery, or to deride it as toiling away in the oppression of the "comfortable concentration camp." That's because feminism sells people on the lie that "love" is a feeling you experience. Love is not an adjective. Nor is it a feeling.

It is a verb describing actions you do for others.

Next to smell, taste is one of the strongest memories and connections we have.

There's a reason "Mom's Home style Cooking" or "Just Like Mom Used to Make" are some of the most well used marketing slogans to sell fast/convenience and restaurant dining in commercials, bill boards and advertisements.

Expect this practice to become outdated and forgotten within the next decade, since for most of the current generation of kids growing up, this phrase will become utterly meaningless.

Feminism has done more than break up the marriages between men and women, it's also broken one of the strongest, most sentimental bonds we human beings attach to our Mothers as children.

Memories of eating meals with Mom in the 20th Century:

Memories of eating meals with Mom in the 21st Century:

Got no time for a sit down meal at home, too busy havigitall!

Anyone feeling nostalgic for a meal with Mommy, like in those good ole days?

Extreme Dietary Interventions

I intended to name this post "Dieting for Dummies" but then thought better of it. We are all victims of a massive, global propaganda campaign to deliberately delude us all into adopting diets that are extremely lucrative and profitable for a wide variety of industries and entities. 

I've spent years carefully eating...years carefully eating what I thought was the right way, then years of carefully eating what I now know is the right way. I say so definitively, because my personal experience makes this self-evident, as I've experienced dramatic results in terms of weight loss, body composition, quality of life, and overall good health over a long, sustained period of time. I have gotten to a place where I really enjoy eating the food I prepare and cook, and I experience almost zero bad effects from the foods I regularly eat with gusto and great enjoyment.

It's extremely liberating to sit down to a large meal, and to eat everything, savoring every bite, without worrying about my weight, my "diet" or whether or not I'm eating too much or not enough. All the worrying and considerations happens before hand, when I select ingredients, preparation and cooking. Once that's done, it's just time to enjoy eating without worry, until feeling fully sated.

I've gotten to this point, having years of reading so many blogs, books, testimonials, anecdotes and comments on the topic, I've come to the point where I've forgotten more than I remember. When I go and re-read some of my older posts on these topics, I laugh to see various aspects of this topic that I've forgotten about.

One thing we must always remember - we are all going to die some day.

There is no grand prize for achieving the perfect diet...and in fact, there is no such thing as a perfect diet.

That being said, I'm at a point where I'm seeing the same topics going round and round and round. Everytime newcomers stumble upon one of the blogs that discusses (to borrow a recent turn of phrase) the "dark enlightenment of neo-reactionary diets" and discover the dietary red pill, they all seem to fall into the same modes of thinking.

Just because you tried any of the Atkins/Ketogenic/Paleo/Vegan diet and lost a bunch of weight and felt a lot better, doesn't mean you've found dietary perfection, nor the long term solution to an eternal life of robust health.

I think most of us have in these fringes of teh Interwebz, have heard the following type of argument from the low carb/very low carb and ketogenic diet advocates before:

"The government and food production industry embraced the demonization of saturated fat and cholesterol - aka "The Lipid Hypothesis of Degenerative Diseases," and instead promoted everyone onto high carb diets."

While this is not wrong, it is a misdirection that indicts "carbohydrates" as a class of macro-nutrient as the primary culprit of all the ill health and diseases we now see as pervasive amongst we the sheeple of the Brave New World Order's global feedlot.

Yes, the type of carbs you eat are important. Wheat, and other grains like oatmeal, barley and rye contain gluten and other anti-nutrient substances that can contribute to all sorts of maladies. But I've come to a point where I now believe carbohydrates, even the "bad" ones, are not the primary culprit (though an important part of the equation) of so many maladies that afflict the people on the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet.)
 
The anecdotes and testimonials of people who've embraced some form of low-carb dieting and experienced dramatic improvements in health and weight are legion. I've made my fair share of them myself throughout the history of this blog.

BUT....there also exist a wide number of similarly dramatic turnarounds from people who also embrace diets from the opposite end of the carnivore - herbivore spectrum of conflicting dietary paradigms. I know of folks who experienced some life and death diagnosis like cancer, who then embraced a raw food, vegan diet and find themselves in miraculous remission, improved health and weight loss. According to the more dogmatic of the ketogenic-embracing factions, this simply does not compute.

What's the one thing the carnivorous ketogenic low carbers and raw food vegans have in common when they embrace these so-called fad diets and experience near-miracle changes in health? I've recently come to the conclusion that it really does come down to two rather simple concepts: cellular inflammation and the health of your gut bacteria.

In either case of the extreme dietary interventionist, they stop eating the largest source of inflammation-promoting foods: foods made from grain flours that compromise gut permeability and prevent absorption of critical nutrients, foods sweetened excessively with various forms of sugars, and the inflammatory lipids of Big Agriculture: Round-up Ready Soybean "vegetable oil," partially hydrogenated Round-up ready Soybean oil, rancid Rapeseed oil (aka "Canola"), cotton seed oil, sunflower seed and corn oil.

You want the tri-fecta of modern poisons (what Dr. Kurt Harris calls NADs, or Neo-lithic Agents of Disease) found in a single food item, look no further than the typical doughnut.

The NAD Trifecta: Refined and bleached white flour, plenty of sugar, and deep fried in rancid, pro-inflammatory vegetable/grain oil. 

Dr. Art Ayers, a molecular biologist (NOT a medical Doctor, but a scientist who studies cellular and molecular biology) identifies these same foods as the true culprits for the plague of S.A.D.-caused maladies and diseases. His advice, as his blog title indicates, is Cooling Inflammation. Inflammation on a cellular level, caused by the regular consumption of pro-inflammatory foods, the NADs. Avoiding the inflammatory foods also cultivates a healthy garden of gut bacteria, which is integral to your immune system and overall health.


In either case, when a person has a certain amount of stored body fat, whether they switch to the carnivorous-side or the herbivorous-side of extreme dietary interventions, there body begins to burn off it's stored body fat for energy.

On the hardcore carnivore side (the ketogenics and VLC'rs), they go into an extended state of ketosis and their body must process both ingested and stored protein and fats to keep their blood glucose levels stable.

Meanwhile, on the hardcore herbivore side, the raw food vegan enters a state of starvation from the lack of consuming essential proteins and fats, and there body begins to burn off it's stored adipose tissue for the essential fatty acids the body needs to function.

In either case, the extreme dietary interventionist inevitably goes through a period of dramatic health improvement and feeling of energetic well-being, thanks in part to the biological process known as gluconeogenisis.

As WinstonWiki notes:

Gluconeogenesis (abbreviated GNG) is a metabolic pathway that results in the generation of glucose from non-carbohydrate carbon substrates such as pyruvate, lactate, glycerol, glucogenic amino acids, and odd-chain fatty acids.

It is one of the two main mechanisms humans and many other animals use to keep blood glucose levels from dropping too low (hypoglycemia). The other means of maintaining blood glucose levels is through the degradation of glycogen (glycogenolysis). Gluconeogenesis is a ubiquitous process, present in plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms. In vertebrates, gluconeogenesis takes place mainly in the liver and, to a lesser extent, in the cortex of kidneys. In ruminants, this tends to be a continuous process. In many other animals, the process occurs during periods of fasting, starvation, low-carbohydrate diets, or intense exercise.

This is my basic assertion here the one common thread found on both ends of the extreme Dietary interventions of the ketogenic carnivore versus the vegan herbivore, is that both inevitably lead to their bodies turning to their stored body fat to get the essential fatty acids needed to function.

And yet, on both ends of the spectrum, if you read enough anecdotes and observe people long enough, the one thing you see on either end, is that long term, once the stored fats are used up for energy and bodily functions, other health problems can develop if they rigidly adhere to the extreme interventionist diet (everyone's situation and baseline health, as well as other lifestyle factors undoubtedly play a role.)

For the ketogenic, zero and very-low carbers, some have reported experiencing insomnia and adrenal fatigue; while for the long term, raw food vegan, the lack of protein and essential fatty acids as well as deficiencies in micro nutrients that are mostly found only in animal foods lead to health problems of their own.

Now if I were to err towards one side of this spectrum or the other (I have tried both, though the vegan experiment didn't get past 5 days before I surrendered in the face of a bacon cheeseburger,) I'd certainly prefer the ketogenic/carnivorous end of the spectrum, as some folks have reported living in ketosis for years without health problems... nevertheless, it's not rocket science to understand that the human bodies physiological characteristics indicate we are an omnivorous species (that link was written by an activist-vegetarian no less!), and carbohydrates can and do play an important role in optimal nutrition. This is why I now consider both a purely carnivorous diet and a purely herbivorous diet to both be extreme and should only be used for a short period of time as an intervention for health and weight problems.





That all being said, long-time "paleo-diet" proponent Richard Nikoley at Free the Animal has spilled a lot of virtual ink as of late on the topic of resistant starch (aka teh evil Carbz), which really focuses on the latest area of fascination amongst those of us highly interested in diet and physiology of the human body: the role of the gut micro-biome and overall health.

Full disclosure: based on reading the extensive posts and his logical reasoning behind his latest promotion of the benefits of resistant starch, I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill potato starch and proceeded to eat the prescribed dosage (4 Tbsps. daily) with a bowl of organic, full fat yogurt for close to two weeks until the bag was all gone. I didn't really experience any change in my digestion, sleep nor energy levels nor increased gas that many others including Richard himself report. However, as I no longer possess a blood glucose meter, I was unable to really test my blood sugar response to it, and many diabetics and pre-diabetics have reported dramatic improvements for incorporating resistant starch into their daily diet. In my own experience, I didn't personally experience anything, positive or negative.

I don't take my personal experience as a negative on the entire idea at all. Rather, I think it confirms that many of the dietary changes I've adopted over the past 5+ years have succeeded in already giving my gut biome a diverse garden of flora that eating resistant starch is purported to promote. For years now, my diet has incorporated daily servings of fermented foods (and drinks) and I didn't realize it at the time, but I also believe I already  have had a fair amount of resistant starch in my diet to begin with, as I eat white rice at nearly every meal.

Now, according to the resistant starch protocol Richard is advocating, white rice needs to be cooked, then chilled before eating. I've been doing this for years, as I often cook a large pot of 3-4 cups of rice whenever I cook a fresh batch. While the initial meal with a freshly cooked pot of rice is eaten hot, the next 3-4 meals over the course of the next couple of days, I always eat the rice cold, straight from the fridge, served alongside the hot, fresh cooked foods. It was not something I consciously did for any sort of health benefit, but rather because re-heating refrigerated rice results in the reheated rice sticking to the bottom of the rice cooker and requires vigorous cleaning of the rice pot before it can be used to cook a fresh batch again.

So apparently, for years now,  ever since I got off the low-carb bandwagon and embraced the idea that carbs are not the devil, I've been eating regular portions of resistant starch at almost every meal, based on my sheer laziness over having to clean stuck rice from the inside of the rice pot. Heh. As anyone who lives or has lived in Hawaii knows, we eat rice at nearly every meal. The only time I don't, is when I eat some other staple carb like poi (fermented taro paste), or some sort of tuber fried in coconut oil.


So for myself, I don't think I'll be buying another bag of potato starch, as it really didn't do much for me. But for most folks that don't eat a lot of cold rice, especially if you're diabetic or pre-diabetic, you should go and check it out, you've got nothing to lose but a few bucks that it costs for a bag of potato starch. It may be one dietary intervention you can try that may prove very beneficial to your overall health, and at such a minimal cost to try it out, it cannot be considered extreme at all.