What did you learn today TIL

[_priapism]

HTH means "Hope That Helps.”  And Jules *is* hotter than hell.

[Remington555]

HTH means "Hope That Helps.”  And Jules *is* hotter than hell.

Yeah. What he said. 

Remmy

[RopeFiend]

Huh.  Turns out I'm courting LIVER FAILURE with one part of the high-performance diet I'm on.

One of the things that my gut tells me is GOOD STUFF, MOAR OF THAT PLEASE! is cinnamon.  I knew it was high on the ORAC scale (a rating of how much antioxidants it has) so I had no problems boosting my intake.  All told I'm doing around 1 teaspoon (2 grams) per day from 3 different foods I use it in, some cooked, mostly raw.  

I've been doing lots of antioxidants per day for around 20 years, and I attribute my utter lack of ANY lung problems to the antioxidants attaching to the tars & nicotine and breaking them down (PubMed says that helps).  I had another lung scan recently, and it came back utterly clean "No evidence of pre-emphysema-like symptoms", though I've been smoking a pack of menthol cigarettes per day for >40 years.  

Unfortunately, the Vietnamese cinnamon I'd been using until recently ALSO has the highest coumarin content.  The max daily limit in the EU works out to around 1/4 teaspoon of Vietnamese cinnamon (3 to 4 times higher than Chinese cassia); going above that and you run the risk of liver failure.  For regular cassia the EU limit is around a teaspoon for an adult.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/side-effects-of-cinnamon

I've been researching Ceylon cinnamon (almost no coumarin), but the results are problematical:  95% of the people say it's great, 5% say that their last batch tasted like spoiled sawdust but not quite as sweet, and that's for all organic vendors I could find.  Grrr.  I've switched to non-Vietnamese cinnamon, but there's no telling how much coumarin is in cinnamon that doesn't have an identified 'source', presumably Chinese.

For anyone interested, here's the top 100 antioxidant foods.  Oh, lovely, unsweetened cocoa powder is high on the list.  That's a major ingredient in my phat fudge.  I have a couple of grams of that every day, too.


ORAC Value list, Top 100      
      
1   Cloves, ground            314446
2   Sumac bran            312400
3   Cinnamon, ground         267536
4   Sorghum, bran, raw         240000
5   Oregano, dried            200129
6   Turmeric, ground         159277
7   Acai berry, freeze-dried      102700
8   Sorghum, bran, black         100800
9   Sumac, grain, raw         86800
10   Cocoa powder, unsweetened   80933
11   Cumin seed            76800
12   Maqui berry, powder         75000
13   Parsley, dried            74349
14   Sorghum, bran, red         71000
15   Basil, dried            67553
16   Baking chocolate, unsweetened   49926
17   Curry powder            48504
18   Sorghum, grain, hi-tannin      45400
19   Chocolate, dutched powder      40200
20   Maqui berry, juice         40000
21   Sage                  32004
22   Mustard seed, yellow         29257
23   Ginger, ground            28811
24   Pepper, black            27618
25   Thyme, fresh            27426
26   Marjoram, fresh            27297
27   Goji berries            25300
28   Rice bran, crude            24287
29   Chili powder            23636
30   Sorghum, grain, black      21900
31   Chocolate, dark            20823
32   Flax hull lignans            19600
33   Chocolate, semisweet         18053
34   Pecans               17940
35   Paprika               17919
36   Chokeberry, raw         16062
37   Tarragon, fresh            15542
38   Ginger root, raw         14840
39   Elderberries, raw         14697
40   Sorghum, grain, red         14000
41   Peppermint, fresh         13978
42   Oregano, fresh            13978
43   Walnuts               13541
44   Hazelnuts               9645
45   Cranberries, raw         9584
46   Pears, dried            9496
47   Savory, fresh            9465
48   Artichokes               9416
49   Kidney beans, red         8459
50   Pink beans               8320
51   Black beans            8040
52   Pistachio nuts            7983
53   Currants               7960
54   Pinto beans            7779
55   Plums               7581
56   milk chocolate            7528
57   Lentils               7282
58   Agave, dried            7274
59   Apples, dried            6681
60   Garlic powder            6665
61   Blueberries            6552
62   Prunes               6552
63   Sorghum, bran, white         6400
64   Lemon balm, leaves         5997
65   Soybeans               5764
66   Onion powder            5735
67   Blackberries            5347
68   Garlic, raw               5346
69   Cilantro leaves            5141
70   Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon      5034
71   Raspberries            4882
72   Basil, fresh            4805
73   Almonds               4454
74   Dill weed               4392
75   Cowpeas               4343
76   Apples, red delicious         4275
77   Peaches, dried            4222
78   Raisins, white            4188
79   Apples, granny smith         3898
80   Dates               3895
81   Wine, red               3873
82   Strawberries            3577
83   Peanut butter, smooth      3432
84   Currants, red            3387
85   Figs                  3383
86   Cherries               3365
87   Gooseberries            3277
88   Apricots, dried            3234
89   Peanuts, all types         3166
90   Cabbage, red            3145
91   Broccoli               3083
92   Apples               3082
93   Raisins               3037
94   Pears               2941
95   Agave               2938
96   Blueberry juice            2906
97   Cardamom            2764
98   Guava               2550
99   Lettuce, red leaf            2380
100   Concord grape juice         2377

Oranges are around 2100 (all types of oranges).  I have a small Valencia orange every morning to get my vitamin C, plus a C supplement with the evening meal.  Oranges are WAY lower on the scale than cinnamon is, so even though there's a much higher quantity (140 grams vs 2 grams) it's still half the total antioxidant value of a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Apparently only 'certain people' are sensitive to coumarin content, but I'm that 1-in-1000 or 1-in-10,000 on a few medical issues, so I'm guessing I could be in that special group.

[Remington555]

RF:

What would be a good daily target value for total ORAC? The first thing on the list that I eat with any frequency is halfway down (#49).

My pack a day is non-menthol, but >40 is closing in on 50 years.

Thankfully, when my doctor sees me (a rare event) he just shakes his head and says if everyone were as healthy as I am he'd be out of business. I take exactly one prescription drug, a statin for high cholesterol, which is now well within normal levels. My BP is consistently 120/80.

I certainly can't credit my lifestyle so it must be good genes. My 87-year old mother smoked until she was 80.

Thanks for the list. I'm going to print it out for future reference.

Remmy

[_priapism]

Dim, yet brilliant.  The stunning Woodlite headlamp.



I’ve noticed them from time to time at car shows and on Velocity, but never read about them.  Woodlites were a fashionable accessory in the late 20’s and early 30’s, that did nothing for nighttime driving, but did look awfully cool.

[RopeFiend]

RF:

What would be a good daily target value for total ORAC? The first thing on the list that I eat with any frequency is halfway down (#49).

My pack a day is non-menthol, but >40 is closing in on 50 years.

Thankfully, when my doctor sees me (a rare event) he just shakes his head and says if everyone were as healthy as I am he'd be out of business. I take exactly one prescription drug, a statin for high cholesterol, which is now well within normal levels. My BP is consistently 120/80.

I certainly can't credit my lifestyle so it must be good genes. My 87-year old mother smoked until she was 80.

Thanks for the list. I'm going to print it out for future reference.

Remmy

You have to be careful with that table.  Those numbers are µmol/100g, and a lot of other people use mmol/100g (micro versus milli, factor of 1000, 3 decimal places).  It seems most folks are using mmol, so with that scale I do somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 per day.  The USDA previously recommend 3,000 to 5,000 per day before they pulled their ORAC database in 2012.  Lots of folks were using the data for essentially false advertising, so the USDA threw in the towel and yanked it.

Here's a good reference, if you want to start looking into it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841576/
  and the companion "Additional File 1" is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120722002055/https://www.biomedcentral.com/content/supplementary/1475-2891-9-3-S1.PDF

Here's the old USDA ORAC database, removed in 2012:
http://www.orac-info-portal.de/download/ORAC_R2.pdf

Don't get overly swayed, as ORAC is but ONE measure of how useful a food is for you.  From some of the stuff I'd read on PubMed antioxidants are helpful in eliminating nicotine & cotinine, so that's not a BAD thing.

Genes do have something to do with it.  25 years ago I had my first lung CT, and the doctor didn't believe the results.  He made me go back and take it again, saying I'd gotten someone else's file.  The radiologist (on going back the next day) said it's rare, but some people apparently metabolize the tars and nicotine, which minimizes any damage to the lungs.  She said I was in the range of 1:1000 to 1:10,000 people, so a fairly rare mutation.  Since I've been eating healthy most of my life, and that probably had something to do with it as well.

[ChirpingGirl]

I learned I can save a lot of money cutting my kids hair myself. 

I did not destroy my 6 year olds hair. She's still got most of it. 

[_priapism]

Dog beds are cheaper at Walmart.

[RopeFiend]

My pack a day is non-menthol, but >40 is closing in on 50 years.

I do one other thing for my lungs, and have for a long, long time: I have a large carrot every day, so over 150% the RDA of Vitamin A (not counting other foods).

You probably think Vitamin A is only for your eyes, or at least that's what folk wisdom says.  HOWEVER, the largest reservoir of retinal in the body (both by concentration and by quantity) is in the lungs.  Babies have even more of it than adults do, and in more tissues.  Studies on supplementing with above-normal retinol in adults have been inconclusive for lung problems, though.  Some studies showed an improvement in lung health, some showed the reverse (with roughly similar levels of supplemental retinol).

It's not a typo: retinol is Vitamin A, and retinal is what the body converts retinol into.  Retinal is the active form.

You're probably better off with non-menthol cigarettes.  Menthol keeps cotinine (the break-down product of nicotine) in the bloodstream longer, so it retards elimination of cotinine through the kidneys.  Unclear why, but that's the data.  Menthol doesn't appear to have any effect on breaking nicotine down, only on the elimination phase.

[wayne3218]

MEN who have had more than two oral sex partners are “significantly” more likely to contract HPV, a viral infection that can develop into oesophageal cancer, a new study has found.

HPV, or the human papillomavirus, causes about 20-25 per cent of oesophageal cancer cases, said Professor Shan Rajendra from UNSW’s Ingham Institute.

Men are three times more likely than women to contract HPV through oral sex. Smoking and drinking are also big risk factors causing oesophageal cancer

“This particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus.” Douglas, the husband of Catherine Zeta Jones, told The Guardianin 2013. “It’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer.”

[IdleBoast]

...which is why boys should get the HPV vaccination, as well as girls.

[psiberzerker]

...which is why boys should get the HPV vaccination, as well as girls.

Well, that and a lot of the current generation of infected children are Born with it.  Because it wasn't tested for back when it was just "Genital Warts," and considered a nuissance.  In fact, if you do a search nowadays online (Instead of at the CDC, or Planned Parenthood,) you'll still be led to believe that this is rare, compared with sexual contact.

TBPH, it's pandemic, because it wasn't taken seriously.  If you ask me, every child born in the United States, Canada, and European Union (Because both have the systems in place to make it practicable) from now on should be tested, so that we can get something approaching accurate numbers in 1 Generation.

[watcher1]

That 25% of all births globally are now occuring on the African continent and by the end of this century it is estimated to be 50% of all births globally. Unfortunately,  Africa has the highest poverty rate.

[Levorotatory]

African countries will need to do something about overpopulation if they ever want to be anything but poor.  It isn't just Africa either - wealth and birth rates have become inversely related in rich countries as well, which reinforces the inequality.

[_priapism]

I learned the difference between LCD and LED monitors.  Which struck me as odd that I had not been paying attention.  So I promptly went down the hall and stole two LED monitors from an empty office.  Vast improvement.  LOL.

[Katiebee]

Silly boy!

[Levorotatory]

I have a LED main monitor with two older, smaller LCDs on the sides (they are 17 inch 5:4 aspect ratio, with the same dot pitch as the 23 inch 16:9 main).  I find the LED has better color and better contrast, but I'm not sure if I would notice the difference if I weren't using them side by side all the time. 

[_priapism]

I have a LED main monitor with two older, smaller LCDs on the sides (they are 17 inch 5:4 aspect ratio, with the same dot pitch as the 23 inch 16:9 main).  I find the LED has better color and better contrast, but I'm not sure if I would notice the difference if I weren't using them side by side all the time. 

I’m rather blind, and I get a lot of morning sun in my office.  Lots of squinting, despite having brightness and contrast dialed all the way up.  The picture resolution is much better, and readier to read, on these LEDs.

[psiberzerker]

I’m rather blind.

Have you tried taking off your sunglasses?

Joke, that's a joke.  I love your avatar, BTW.  Always have.

[msslave]

I learned Pastys are really good. First time I've tried them.
Millions of tons of ore was dug out of Michigan's UP by miners who went underground with just tool, a candle and a pasty to eat.

Basically it's just dough wrapped around meat and potatoes with a little onion. Our group all had them tonight. The bakery that made the said it's an old family recipe they've had for over 100 years. No trip up here is complete 'til you've tried one.