7 Comments
Oct 3Liked by John Hawkins

not sure anyone cares but re the Lincoln quote in the article, Lincoln was quoting someone else...from his King James Bible: Matthew 12:25, "And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 city or 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱"

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Oct 2Liked by John Hawkins

In reference to question #8:

Americans are in a historically unusual, and perhaps even unique position of being able to eat anything at any time, anywhere. I'm convinced this isn't a good thing on-balance. The amount of sugar and starch we've been consuming has spiked over roughly the last 100 years, while our metabolisms are still in pastoral mode.

The trick to reversing this problem would be to accept that everything we've learned about nutrition throughout most of our lifetimes from the USDA has been an abject lie, foisted upon us by the agricultural-industrial complex. Then, we must start exercising a level of discipline that most Americans are unfamiliar with, let-alone capable of.

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author

I have heard a lot of reasonable theories as to why Americans have gotten so much fatter since the seventies, but there is still so much disagreement among smart people I respect that I don't 100% know what to think about it. Also, I think if we truly understood the whole thing, we'd have at least some level of success in reversing obesity -- and statistically, we have nearly none.

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Oct 4Liked by John Hawkins

Consider that there is one thing absolutely prevalent in the American diet today that has been considered a *luxury* throughout most of human history when it even existed: white refined sugar.

Also consider the like prevalence of seed oils. How much corn oil and soybean oil do we consume in a year's time, versus how much oil we would get in our diet by actually consuming corn and soybeans? How much corn or soybean would you have to actually eat in order to get a tablespoon of oil from them?

If you want to get a good idea of what's making us fat, just look at what's changed. Correlation may not be causation, but I think most people are smart enough to figure it out for themselves when they look beyond their own lifetimes to use history as a guide.

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Maybe. I've just heard a lot of very smart people who mean well, understand the science and don't think the problem is seed oils or sugar per se. Are they right? I don't know. Something has definitely gone completely haywire over the last fifty years and those do seem like potential contenders, but.....I just don't know.

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Try cutting fast carbs and seed oils out of your diet and see how your metabolism responds. What harm could it do to garner a little firsthand experience of your own?

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Oct 4Liked by John Hawkins

Well, yeah, here we are. I think the United States is on the proverbial bobsled because the conservative values we used to have are no longer valued; instead they are ignored or ridiculed. "Do what thou will," is the slogan of the adversary, and yet it is also the operant principle of most people in the United States today. You know how it is for addicts, they can't force themselves to change unless and until they hit rock bottom. Unfortunately that bottom will be devastating to the US, and the world. There's always a bail out, never an accounting, so I can't see anyway this mess gets cleaned up, unfortunately. We will spend and borrow until we can't, then the crash will come. Western civilization is on the decline, so probably the future will look a lot like "1984." I think we need to put our own houses in order and remember that God will protect His remnant, and ultimately renew the Earth... Thanks for posting this article, it's good for people to practice "high-aim" driving or big picture thinking.

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