Pollywogs!

Another damning nail in the coffin of Aspartame:

“A statistically significant increase in the incidence of malignant tumors, lymphomas and leukemias in rats exposed to varying doses of aspartame appears to link the artificial sweetener to a high carcinogenicity rate, according to a study accepted for publication today by the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The authors of the study, the first to demonstrate multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered to rats in feed, called for an “urgent reevaluation” of the current guidelines for the use and consumption of this compound.

“Our study has shown that aspartame is a multipotential carcinogenic compound whose carcinogenic effects are also evident at a daily dose of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg), notably less than the current acceptable daily intake for humans,” the authors write. Currently, the acceptable daily intake for humans is set at 50 mg/kg in the United States and 40 mg/kg in Europe.”

Either rats are as a species highly susceptible to the carcinogenic effects of aspartame (unlikely in my mind considering how constitutionally stout rats are in general, if anything I’d suspect the opposite) or aspartame is a potent, hell a deadly, carcinogen.

Artificial sweeteners = bad. High Fructose Corn Syrup = bad. Plain old sugar = looking better every day, in moderation. There are a growing number of alternatives out there in the sweetend drink catagory, teas and other flavored beverages which have between 40-80 calories per serving, often sweetened sparingly with cane sugar or simple crystalline fructose. My personal favorites include Honest Tea’s peach oo-la-long with 30 calories per 8 oz. serving (oh, and an organic free trade beverage, put that in your pipe and smoke it), and Fuze White Tea with 60 calories per 8oz. serving.

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Speaking of eating/drinking a little healthier, the fact that I’m not wild about fruit has bugged me for a long time. I started drinking Naked Superfood but they are very expensive, so I started rolling my own. No, not with a blender, with a bunch of different bottles of cheaper stuff!

Each morning, I start out as so: I take a nice not from concentrate pulp free orange juice (pulp = gag), usually around forty percent of the glass. I add about twenty-five percent Berry Boost from Bolthouse, twenty-five percent Vedge from Bolthouse (a recent addition) and a splash (perhaps 10%) of Mona Vie Active. What does this add up to?

Acai, Apricot, Aronia, Acerola, Purple Grape, Passion Fruit, Camu Camu, Banana, Lychee Fruit, Nashi Pear, Kiwi, Pomegranate, Prune, Wolfberry, Pear, Bilberry, Cranberry, Blueberry, Orange, White Grape, Marion Blackberry Puree, Boysenberry Juice, Red Raspberry Puree, Strawberry Puree, Blueberry Puree, Apple Puree , Banana Puree, Tomatoes, Carrots, Celery, Beets, Parsley, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Spinach, Watercress, and Bell Pepper

How does it taste? Surprisingly neutral. I rather enjoy the flavor, even Kelley admits is isn’t bad. The Vedge is a very odd flavor, much like V8. Salty tomatoes. The other ingredients really cut the salt with their sugary taste, and it ends up being something I feel very good about drinking every day. Sometimes I’ll replace the Berry Boost with a different Bolthouse variety, and eventually I’ll run out of Mona Vie and not buy any more (shit is fucking expensive).

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Combating binge drinking early with experience… Ahh, if I could only combat my own tendencies to drink without regard. I’ve got to start practicing self-restraint.

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This would have saved, oh, about $454 BILLION DOLLARS and a half-million lives (and counting)…AND Bush and Cheney are war criminals:

“El Pais, the highest-circulation daily in Spain, today published what it said was the transcript of a private talk between President George W. Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on February 22, 2003, concerning the coming U.S. invasion of Iraq. It took place at the ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The conversation took place on the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The confidential transcript was prepared by Spain’s ambassador to the United States, Javier Ruperez, the paper said.

Bush purportedly said he planned to invade Iraq in March “if there was a United Nations Security Council resolution or not….We have to get rid of Saddam. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March.”

He said the U.S. takeover would happen without widespread destruction. He observed that he was willing to play bad cop to British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s good cop.”

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Speaking about what worthless cunts our President Bush and Vice President Cheney are, Dan Rather is finally striking back for getting fucked in the ass by his corporate masters at the administrations bidding. Oh, hello Mister Supeona, boy have I been missing you!

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Truth:

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More truth:

“American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane…

The scope of their triumph is breathtaking. Over the course of the last three decades, they have moved from the right-wing fringe to the commanding heights of the national agenda. Notions that would have been laughed at a generation ago-that cutting taxes for the very rich is the best response to any and every economic circumstance, or that it is perfectly appropriate to turn the most rapacious and self-interested elements of the business lobby into essentially an arm of the federal government-are now so pervasive, they barely attract any notice.

The result has been a slow-motion disaster. Income inequality has approached levels normally associated with Third World oligarchies, not healthy Western democracies. The federal government has grown so encrusted with business lobbyists that it can no longer meet the great public challenges of our time. Not even many conservative voters or intellectuals find the result congenial. Government is no smaller-it is simply more debt-ridden and more beholden to wealthy elites.”

May we start the revolution now, please?