I'm still stuck on Zombies. I think I'm going in the wrong direction, trying to make them more interesting in themselves, maybe the point is that we have vampires for that sort of thing. And after all, I do love a good subtext. Perhaps I need to embrace the idea that when we give up our humanity there's no way back. Ok, but I keep coming back to the 'but all we have to focus on in a zombie story is the survivors' side'.
And when I thought about it more deeply, it still seems to be oddly religiously themed.
Yeah, I know, a stretch, but this is what I mean.
If our bodies were able to keep on working after death, our brains would too, if you believe that they are mechanical. It's only if you believe there is some special aspect to mind or soul that it would be consistent for the brain to stop and not the other mechanical aspects of the body. Although, even that is self-defeating, because we don't actually BELIEVE in these beings, just tell stories about them, and really, there doesn't HAVE to be consistency within the paradigm.
Disappeared up my own backside? Maybe.
So...moving on. High fructose corn syrup. Whilst Alex has been working at a health food store, I have been learning more about healthy eating. One of the things I find most scary, is HFCS, because, like zombies, it's bloody well lurking everywhere. Earlier this year, yet another study came out, this time from U.S. university Princeton, confirmed the findings of previous studies, that this ubiquitous substance is helping to make human beings obese, more obese, and with high levels of triglycerides. The result is fifty percent more weight gain for those eating high levels of high fructose corn syrup and an adverse effect on metabolism.
It's very difficult to find foods that don't have HFCS in them. I now always look at ingredients, but I can still get caught out. I bought a salad that Kevin and I both like, from the deli counter in Fred Meyer at the weekend. You don't see the ingredients until you get your little tub with the barcode and voilà! There it was.
I'm glad to have been educated on this lurker. I'm pretty sure that we don't know half the problems it causes yet, but being at an age when my body chemistry is finding it hard to keep in balance, the last thing I want to do is overload my system with unnecessary crap.
Carpe high fructose corn syrup.
5 comments:
Read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. The first of three parts deals almost exclusively with the corn industry. Basically every packaged thing we eat has its roots in corn. One thing I didn't know was that "natural flavour" doesn't necessarily mean it's source is that fruit. No, in all likelihood, the source is corn. That just doesn't sound natural to me.
Snocha
oops - inadvertently used HTML tags - should have said "natural /insert fruit/ flavour"
I LURVE snocha - so descriptive.
I will look out for that book. Alex has warned me about the evils of 'natural flavour', it can also refer to MSG.
None of this is good news to a cooking-phobe like myself, but needs must when the corn-devil drives.
Maybe you could do a story about zombies and corn syrup. Corn was part of the strange movie The Informant also, although more specifically something about lysine.
I deffo think the two could be connected.
Strange film you say? I love strange films, I must seek it out.
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