Hi everyone! I decided to go back to the old set up for my Sunday Readings. At least for today since I don’t have too many different articles. I guess maybe it is because I have been more focused on Thanksgiving than news? Or maybe I’ve been trying to think about Christmas, which is hard coming up with stuff I want. Weird right? I guess maybe it is because I know there is a bunch of stuff I want that I can’t get (like a puppy) Anyways, I hope everyone likes these reads!
How Humans Saved Gourds
Apparently humans are the only reason why the gourd exists today. It is interesting to hear about the evolution of fruits and how they try to be eaten to spread their seeds. It is also nice to hear that humans saved something for once rather than killing them.
Big in Israel: Vegan Soldiers
This is a quick little article about how Israel is handling the growing vegan community. It is a shame there is no programs like this for American soldiers but this article shows that society can adapt to the growing vegan demands. So saying it just isn’t how people do things is proving to be false.
Your Gut Bacteria May Be Controlling Your Appetite
I love reading articles that further prove there is more to weight than diet and exercise. This one is talking about how what we crave might be controlled by the bacteria in our stomachs. This is probably a good theory since it might explain why people crave different foods once they change what their diet looks like.
Teachings Grown-ups How To Eat
I have a lot of beef with the “child obesity” debate. I know someone close with a child who they are trying make loose weight, which rubs me the wrong way. One of the major reasons is because they don’t change everyone’s diet, they just restrict their child’s. The article points out that we need to be more flexible about what we eat, and we are lucky, we are ominous, it is part of our nature to switch up what we eat.
Highways Destroyed America’s Cities
This article made me think about when I lived in Philadelphia and how roads shaped where I would go with friends. I remember hating some walks to movie theaters because it meant walking under highways, and certain areas were pretty much dead zones because of the roads.
Sarah Claire
My little sister has recently been put on a diet, heavily restricting her eating. She is 9 and needed to lose about 15kg. This means she is limited to 80g of carbs (which is like 3 spoonfuls of rice) and 100g salad. And 80g meat.
When I was babysitting her for the whole month, she was strictly vegan and I wasn’t as tight on the serving sizes… Anyway, she lost 8kg in that month! Just from eating vegan. She’s back eating meat now, and has lost a total of 12kg in the 3 months since she started. I wish my parents were more inclined to change her diet and not just the portions…
I’ve seen it a lot in criminal law though (and therefore likely applies everywhere) that where someone has grown up believing that the truth is one thing, and this truth is later disproved; those people will try extra hard to deny the second (and real) truth. So teaching those old people to eat more variety of food at 80 years is so impressive!
Jennifer
Yeah, it is frustrating hearing what some older relatives say about nutrition like “I try and eat healthy, you know eat more fish and cheese” or “their so weak because they don’t get enough protein” etc. And it is funny hearing my bosses complain about certain new food trends. My boss was saying how this one restaurant was “weird” and her example was that they put kale in their cocktail. I think was surprised when my response was “you never heard of anyone doing that before?” XD
I think in particular it is bad to have kids eat different foods from adults. It re-enforces yo-yo diet culture, like once you look x amount of pounds you can eat that food again. And that is kind-of the problem from the start. I sympathize you and wishing your sister would eat differently because most of my family is similar, particularly my father (mostly my father) He eats meats and fats and sweets and apparently many of his friends have voiced some concerns about my father’s diet (granted most of his friends are nurses and doctors)
Mary Ellen @ VNutrition
Great links! I’m so obsessed with the role of probiotics in our bodies so the Gut Bacteria article was really interesting to me.
And I totally agree with you about having adults have their kids eat different foods from them. Like something they did was “wrong” and they’re almost being punished for it. Adults should set a good example on what to eat.