The 12 points are valid health recommendations but for longevity, Italians are 7th in Europe.
Ultra-processed Is Fromulated To Be Addictive
I received this in a newsletter from Nathan Crane:
Here’s something wild:
People ate over 500 extra calories a day on an ultra-processed diet. (Hall et al., 2019 – PubMed)
When food is designed to be extra tempting, your body can end up eating a lot more without you deciding to.
Not because you’re lazy.
Not because you lack willpower.
But the food was designed to override your body’s natural signals.
So if you’ve ever felt like your cravings are out of control, it’s not always a character flaw.
It’s sometimes chemistry.
The Real Story Behind the Russia–Ukraine War—and What Happens Next
Notwithstanding the historic fluidity of borders, there is no case whatsoever that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was “unprovoked” and unrelated to NATO’s own transparent provocations in the region.
The details are arrayed below, but the larger issue needs be addressed first.
Namely, is there any reason to believe that Russia is an expansionist power looking to gobble up neighbors which were not integral parts of its own historic evolution, as is the case with Ukraine?
After all, if despite Rubio’s treachery President Trump does manage to strike a Ukraine peace and partition deal with Putin you can be sure that the neocons will come charging in with a false Munich appeasement analogy.
The answer, however, is a resounding no!
The final week of the year begins with silver adding to a stunning month of gains, topping $83 for the first time
On Friday, we saw a record high price spike for silver that produced a record high price for the white metal. Meanwhile, we saw record high prices for gold on the same day.
This has never happened before, and that shows the currency crisis long predicted is here.
https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/when-prices-move-awful-lot-bad-things-become-possible
This Will Get You to 0% Visceral Fat in 30 Days (Men Over 40)
Robby Krieger
In 1965, a shy guitar player walked into a Los Angeles rehearsal with a problem.
Jim Morrison, the charismatic front man of their new band, had been writing all the songs. But they didn’t have enough material. Morrison looked at the quiet guitarist and said something that would change music history.
“Why don’t you try writing one?”
Robby Krieger had never written a rock song in his life. He was a flamenco guitarist. He finger picked without a pick. He studied meditation while Morrison chased chaos. But that night, he went home to his parents’ house, sat down with his guitar, and tried anyway.
By morning, he had written the bones of “Light My Fire.”
He brought the unfinished melody to rehearsal. Morrison added a verse. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek layered in a baroque organ intro inspired by Bach. Drummer John Densmore suggested a Latin rhythm. Four musicians, four different backgrounds, one hypnotic seven-minute masterpiece.
There was just one problem. Radio stations in 1967 refused to play seven-minute songs.
So their record label cut it down to under three minutes, stripping out the extended solos. The shortened version exploded. It spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard charts and became the anthem of a generation.
And the quiet kid who created it? He stayed in the background.
While Morrison drank, provoked audiences, and courted destruction, Krieger avoided alcohol and cigarettes. While Morrison grabbed headlines, Krieger quietly wrote hit after hit. “Love Me Two Times.” “Touch Me.” “Love Her Madly.” These weren’t Morrison songs. They were Krieger songs.
When Morrison died in Paris in 1971 at just twenty-seven years old, everyone expected The Doors to collapse. They were wrong.
Krieger, Manzarek, and Densmore kept going. They recorded two more albums, sharing vocals, pushing deeper into jazz territory. The albums weren’t commercial blockbusters. But they proved something important. The Doors were never just one man.
After the band officially ended in 1973, Krieger kept evolving. He formed new groups. He explored jazz-fusion. He experimented with sounds Morrison never would have attempted. For decades, he and Manzarek toured together, keeping The Doors’ music alive until Manzarek’s death in 2013.
But Krieger’s own journey had its darkness too.
In his 2021 memoir, he revealed a truth that shocked longtime fans. The guitarist known as the “clean Door” had battled his own demons. After years of avoiding substances, he struggled with heroin and cocaine addiction—the same monsters he’d watched destroy Morrison. He got clean. He beat stage four cancer. He kept playing.
Today, at seventy-nine years old, Robby Krieger is still bending strings.
He was never the wild man. Never the poet. Never the face on the posters. But he wrote the fire that made The Doors immortal. And he spent a lifetime proving that the quiet ones sometimes burn the longest.
Some legends flame out fast.
Robby Krieger lit the match, walked through the fire, and never stopped playing.
Healthy Mouth Wash
Insulin Resistance
After adding the previous post to my newsletter, blog and social media I thought to create a chapter on Insulin Resistance from the various references to it in my book. After all, if blood sugar spikes and insulin resistance are so destructive to our health, it pays to point up the factors we can implement to reduce our exposure to them. This is the result. If you would like access to a compendium of my over 17 years of gathering health tips, here is the link to my book: https://howtolivethehealthiestlife.com/
(Also read the preceding chapter Glycemic Index for more important data on insulin resistance.)
Frequent blood sugar spikes force the pancreas to release more insulin repeatedly. Over time, this constant demand can cause insulin-producing cells to wear out or stop working properly. This contributes to insulin resistance and reduced insulin production—both key drivers of Type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes develops gradually, with insulin resistance and inflammation starting decades before symptoms appear.
High blood sugar and insulin levels dramatically speed up the aging process and are primary risk factors for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, reduced immunity and more.
Fasting Insulin Level
According to Dr Mercola, your fasting insulin level should be under 3. The higher it is the more at risk you are for a bunch of diseases, type 2 diabetes being a major one.
Antibiotics
A primary contributor to insulin resistance and diabetes is dysfunctional gut barrier. This can be caused by a single course of antibiotics.
Artificial Sweeteners
Research has repeatedly shown that artificial sweeteners promote insulin resistance and related health problems just like regular sugar does, including cardiovascular disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is an adaptogen, meaning it helps your body adapt to challenges by balancing your immune system, metabolism and hormonal systems. The root reduces cortisol levels, restores insulin sensitivity and helps to stabilize your mood.
Body Weight
Mitri noted that excess weight is tied to inflammation, “Someone with a higher BMI may have more difficulty responding to insulin,” she said, noting that this can worsen insulin resistance.
From: https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/french-fries-versus-baked-potatoes-one-raises-diabetes-risk-20-percent-the-other-doesnt-5897553
Butter
And this presentation is very informative and enlightening on the benefits butter has even in what many would consider excessive daily amounts. Weight remained constant, glucose and insulin levels went DOWN on 10 spoons of butter a day!
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhNGRB14TTE
Carbohydrates
If you were to elect one single bad guy to target right now, day one, it would have to be simple carbohydrates. Because every starch turns into sugar as soon as it hits your blood stream carbs are just sugar in disguise. They set the stage for insulin resistance.
Chromium
The mineral chromium enhances insulin activity playing a major role in the regulation of insulin release and its effects on carbohydrate, protein and lipid metabolism. Chromium also assists in metabolism of carbohydrates.
Diets
…all of the diets listed require that sugar and ultra processed foods be avoided. That grains are either eliminated or severely curtailed. Which means that the “western habitual diet” was least beneficial at improving a lipids profile, insulin resistance and inflammatory markers.
Want to get healthy? Stop eating ultra processed foods, sugar and excess grains.
From: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15010076
Interesterified Fats
Due to all the bad press trans fats have received of late, food manufacturers in the US are replacing trans fats with interesterified fats. Similar to the hydrogenating of vegetables oils, this produces hard fats as well as molecules that do not exist in nature. They contain chemical residues and other hazardous waste products full of free radicals that cause cell damage.
“Studies show that interesterified fat raises your blood glucose and depresses insulin production. These conditions are common precursors to diabetes, and can present an even more immediate danger if you already have the disease.
“After only four weeks consuming these fats, study volunteers’ blood glucose levels rose sharply – by 20 percent. This is a much worse result than seen with trans fats.
“Natural vegetable oils that have been processed in any way will create problems for your body at the cellular level. These fats are no longer in their natural state, and your body doesn’t know how to handle them. Your system will try to make use of them and in the process, these fats end up in cell membranes and other locations where they can wreak havoc with your health.“
From http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/24/Trans-Fats-Can-Be-Deadly.aspx
Food Sequencing
Read the chapter Food Sequencing to learn about the benefits of eating veggies and protein before starches.
French Fries
“French fries are typically deep-fried at very high temperatures, which can produce harmful compounds,” Mousavi said. One such compound is acrylamide, which is formed during browning and linked to inflammation, insulin resistance, and blood vessel damage.
Keto
While short-term ketogenic diets may aid weight loss, new research links prolonged ketosis to liver stress, impaired insulin secretion, and cardiovascular problems.
From: https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/food-cooking/studies-raise-questions-about-keto-s-impact-on-liver-and-heart-health/
Malnutrition and Hunger
When your body lacks the nutrition it needs, it sends hunger signals to your brain. These signals make you crave sugary, starchy junk foods that rapidly convert to blood sugar which stimulates insulin. Excess blood glucose is stored in the liver and muscles but they can only hold so much of it so the rest is stored as… …that’s right – body fat!
The solution are two-fold:
1. Don’t starve yourself so you fall victim to cravings.
2. Eat high nutrition foods, not empty calories.
Maltodextrin
The Carbohydrate That’s More Dangerous Than Sugar.
Glycemic Index:
Sugar…65
High Fructose Corn Syrup…87
Glucose…100
Maltodextrin…136
A Carbohydrate not classified as sugar, but acts like sugar in a much more deadly way because it spikes insulin….
Maltodextrin is a type of carbohydrate, but it undergoes intense processing. It comes in the form of a white powder from GMO rice, corn, wheat, tapioca or potato starch.
Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide derived from starch hydrolysis and used as a thickener and filler in processed food. On labels, it does not have to be listed as sugar or added sugar, even though it has a higher glycemic index & causes blood sugar to spike and contributes to insulin resistance.
Labeled not only as Maltodextrin, but also Modified Food Starch, Modified Corn Starch and within the “blanket term” Natural Flavors.
Food manufacturers add the powder to a wide range of processed foods such as artificial sweeteners, baked goods, yogurt, beer, nutrition bars, weight loss supplements, cereals, meal replacement shakes, low fat and reduced calorie products, condiments, sauces, spice mixes, salad dressings, chips, pie fillings and snack foods.
Starches
Some great data on how to do one of the most effective things you can do to reduce your insulin spikes.
Cook your rice, potatoes and pasta with a teaspoon of coconut oil, then cool it for 12 hours (24 is better) hours before reheating.
This simple process can increase the resistant starch content of rice by up to 10 times! The coconut oil interacts with the starch molecules, making them more resistant to digestion, while the cooling process further crystallizes the starch.
The body cannot process resistant starch so it becomes a probiotic, feeds the gut bacteria and more butyrate gets produced. This is great for reduced colon cancer risk.
From: https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/food-cooking/the-shocking-truth-about-white-rice-and-how-to-make-it-healthy-again/ and to view Dr Mandell’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxTIt43exM0
Dr Mandell On Starch
Some great data on how to do one of the most effective things you can do to reduce your insulin spikes.
Click to view the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxTIt43exM0
Claire Sylvia
She woke up craving beer. She’d never liked beer. Then came the chicken nuggets. And the green peppers. And a walking stride that wasn’t hers. Inside her chest: the heart of an 18-year-old boy who died with chicken nuggets in his jacket. What happened next made doctors run when they saw her.
May 1988. Claire Sylvia was dying.
At 47, the professional dancer could barely breathe. Primary pulmonary hypertension—dangerously high blood pressure in her lungs—was killing her. Her heart was failing from the strain.
Without a transplant, she had weeks. Maybe days.
Then Yale-New Haven Hospital called. They had a donor. Heart and lungs. She’d be the first person in New England to receive both organs at once.
The surgery took three hours. When she woke up, a reporter asked what she wanted most now that she’d received this miracle.
“Actually,” Claire heard herself say, “I’m dying for a beer right now.”
The words shocked her as they left her mouth.
She had never liked beer.
That was just the beginning.
Within days of leaving the hospital, Claire stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken—something she’d never done before—and ordered chicken nuggets. With green peppers.
She’d always hated green peppers. Would pick them out of any salad.
Now she craved them.
Her daughter noticed her walk had changed. Claire moved differently—a heavier, more lumbering stride. More masculine.
Her energy exploded. At 50, she backpacked through Europe, something the delicate dancer she’d been would never have considered.
She felt restless. Hyperactive. Like her heart was running faster than it should.
And she kept having the same dream.
A young man. Tall. Sandy hair. The initials T.L.
In one dream, she kissed him and inhaled him into her body.
She woke up knowing—somehow knowing—that Tim L. was her donor.
But transplant recipients are never told their donors’ names. Privacy laws protect both families.
The hospital refused to tell her anything except that the donor died in a motorcycle accident in Maine.
Claire couldn’t let it go.
Nine months after the transplant, she had another dream. In it, her friend Fred Stern dreamed about an obituary for Tim L. the night before they met at a local theater.
When she told Fred about the dream, he was stunned. He’d had the exact same dream.
They went to the public library together and searched through Maine newspapers from the week before her transplant.
And there it was.
Timothy Lamirande. Age 18. Saco, Maine. Killed in a motorcycle accident. The day before her transplant.
Claire stood there reading and felt her knees go weak.
Tim L. from her dreams was real.
She wrote to the Lamirande family. Asked if she could meet them.
They said yes.
When Claire walked into their home, Tim’s sisters gasped.
The way she moved. The way she carried herself. Her energy.
“It’s like meeting my brother all over again,” one sister said. “Seeing him alive.”
Claire started asking about Tim’s personality. His habits. His likes and dislikes.
The family confirmed everything.
Tim had been hyperactive since childhood. So energetic his parents kept him on a leash as a toddler or he’d run off. At 18, he was working three jobs while attending college.
And yes—he loved beer.
Claire mentioned her strange craving for chicken nuggets.
Tim’s sister stared at her. “Are you kidding? He loved them. But what he really loved was chicken nuggets.”
The green peppers?
Tim’s favorite.
Then the family shared one more detail.
When they collected Tim’s belongings from the accident, there was a box of chicken nuggets under his jacket.
He’d died with them.
Now Claire was craving the exact food that had been with him in his final moments.
The implications were staggering.
How could she crave foods she’d never liked? Foods that happened to be her donor’s favorites?
How could she dream about a man named Tim L. before she knew his name?
How could her walking stride change to match his?
Claire spent the next decade researching. She found other transplant recipients with similar experiences.
One woman received a heart and developed an inexplicable craving for the donor’s favorite foods.
A man received a kidney and suddenly took up his donor’s hobby.
A child received a heart and began having nightmares about the donor’s murder—details that proved accurate when investigators checked.
Claire formed a support group for transplant recipients. Not everyone experienced these changes—most wanted to forget about their donors and move on.
But enough did that she couldn’t dismiss it.
In 1997, she published her story: A Change of Heart: A Memoir.
The medical community was split.
Some doctors dismissed it entirely. Coincidence. Suggestion. The power of belief.
Others weren’t so sure.
Dr. Paul Pearsall documented 74 cases of transplant recipients experiencing personality changes matching their donors. Heart recipients seemed most affected, but kidney and liver recipients reported changes too.
The theory: cellular memory.
The idea that cells—particularly heart cells with their complex nervous system—might store memories, preferences, even personality traits.
It sounds impossible. Memories are in the brain, we’re told. Not in organs.
But the heart has 40,000 neurons. It sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to it. It responds to emotions before the brain registers them consciously.
What if organs remember more than we think?
Claire never claimed to fully understand what happened to her.
“I’m not saying I know the answer,” she wrote. “I’m just telling you what happened.”
The Lamirande family believed her completely.
Joan Lamirande, Tim’s mother, said: “As long as she was living, it was as if my son was still alive.”
Claire kept in touch with Tim’s family for the rest of her life. She’d call on his birthday. They’d share memories—hers from after the transplant, theirs from before.
She learned Tim’s favorite colors were blue and green. She’d been drawn to those colors since the transplant.
The Lamirandes were French Canadian. Claire developed an inexplicable desire to visit France.
On what would have been Tim’s 22nd birthday, Claire dreamed about 22 motorcycles revving up for a commemorative ride. She woke up, realized the significance, and asked a friend to take her on a motorcycle ride.
It was exhilarating, she said. Something the old Claire would never have done.
In 1998, ten years after the heart-lung transplant, Claire received a kidney transplant from a former dance partner.
The same thing happened.
She suddenly developed a love for cooking and baking—activities she’d never enjoyed. Her donor’s mother had been an avid cook.
“Doctors run when they see me,” Claire joked in interviews. “They don’t know how to take it.”
She appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, 20/20. Her book was published in 12 languages and made into a TV movie starring Jane Seymour.
Claire died in August 2009 at age 69, 21 years after receiving Tim Lamirande’s heart and lungs.
Joan Lamirande said through tears: “Now that she’s gone, I know that my son is gone.”
But Tim’s sister Jackie had said it best years earlier:
“Why would she dream about her donor unless God was trying to tell her who we were? To show that there was good out of everything.”
Science still hasn’t explained Claire Sylvia’s story.
Maybe it’s cellular memory. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s something we don’t have words for yet.
But one thing is certain: Claire Sylvia craved chicken nuggets and green peppers after her transplant.
Timothy Lamirande died with chicken nuggets under his jacket.
And that’s not a coincidence you can explain away.