All of the food this week was organic and it was all consumed whole (no juicing, no blending, as usual):

2/18 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/19 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/20 – zucchini, dates.
2/21 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/22 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/23 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/24 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.

My wife had an ultrasound this week, the first she’s had during this pregnancy.  It looks like there’s a healthy baby boy in there!  My wife’s official due date is July 12, but based on the ultrasound, the baby is a little farther along than that…the ultrasound predicted a birth on July 2 (I think my wife’s tendency to ovulate early explains the discrepancy).  Rose was quite cute during the scan ("why is she wearing gloves?", etc.).  It was reassuring to see that the heart, other organs, etc. have developed normally.  My wife got this done at around 20 weeks…about halfway through the pregnancy.  At this point, the basic body structure is there, and baby just needs to spend the next several months gaining weight.  Based on the measurements of the head size, femur length, etc. made during the scan, they calculated his current weight to be 15 ounces (just under a pound).  Unless something out of the ordinary occurs, I don’t think they’ll be a need to do any additional ultrasounds during this pregnancy.   

I really think that two kids, a girl & a boy, 4 years apart, is perfect…I guess what I’m really saying is that I don’t think we’ll plan on having additional children.  If we had two boys or two girls, the thought of a third child would sound a bit more tempting.  With two kids, we can still drive a normal-sized car.  If we had three, a minivan might be necessary. 

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At a check-up with the midwife in late January, she drew some blood from my wife to check for a number of things, including her levels of vitamins D & B12.  When I mentioned to the midwife that I’m a vegan who doesn’t take a vitamin D supplement, and who tries to get a fair amount of sun, she expressed an interest in testing my vitamin D level too, because she was wondering how high a person’s can be in southern California in the winter who doesn’t supplement. 

This week we got our test results back.  My wife’s vitamin D level tested at 20 ng/mL, whereas my level was 25 ng/mL.  Prior to that, my wife was taking a prenatal multivitamin daily containing 400 IU of vitamin D and also getting a little sun, while I was not supplementing at all and getting more sun than my wife.  Rose gets about the same amount of sun as I do, so her vitamin D level is probably around mine.   

After getting these results yesterday, I told the midwife I’d look into it a bit more, and today I sent her this message:

“Check out this 2 minute youtube video made by MD Michael Greger summarizing some recent vitamin D research, including the “U shaped mortality curve” I mentioned to you yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etzh51dLy1Y.

In regards to how long it takes for vitamin D levels to rise after supplementation, a number of websites say that it takes 4 or 5 weeks (see, for example, http://www.livestrong.com/article/532981-how-long-does-it-take-to-feel-the-effects-of-vitamin-d-supplements/). Thus, I am inclined to think that my result of 25 ng/mL in late January is acceptable, because this is probably the lowest my vitamin D levels get the entire year.

On the other hand, I do think that my wife’s result of 20 ng/mL is a bit too low. Prior to that test, she had only been getting 400 IU a day in her multivitamin, along with a very small amount of sun. But then we picked up a vitamin D supplement at the beginning of February, and since then she’s been taking 2500 IU a day. According to Dr. Greger, this is probably about right in order to get her levels up to somewhere around 30 ng/mL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADFvhM6tcf0).

And regarding B12, at home on our bookshelf, we’ve got the book “Could it be B12?” (http://www.amazon.com/Could-It-Be-B12-Misdiagnoses/dp/1884995691/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361711245&sr=8-1&keywords=could+it+be+b12). According to this book, the most accurate B12 test is the urinary MMA/creatine ratio test (available at http://www.b12.com/). And Dr. Greger agrees that the MMA B12 test is a better test than serum B12 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48IYo8XSGQM). You mentioned to me yesterday the MCV test for B12. It is true that B12 deficiency can cause an abnormal MCV test result, but many other things can too (http://www.medfriendly.com/meancorpuscularvolume.html), so this by itself is not sufficient to diagnose a B12 deficiency.”

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In my last post, I commented that recently I’ve noticed a “gradual increase in my strength”.  Well, since I started eating lots of zucchini about five months ago, I’ve also noticed a gradual increase in my weight.  In fact, I’ve gone from about 150 lb to about 168 lb in that time span (weighing myself naked when I wake up in the mornings).  During this time, my activity has consisted primarily of body weight exercises done in our home.   I’ve run very little in recent months (I tend to run more in the summer than in the winter, unless I’m training for something). 

So I’m going to give my thoughts on this observation, but first, let me back up.  I’m about 5’ 9’’.  For my height, I’ve got a pretty solid skeletal frame.  My shoulders are broader, and my arms are longer, than most people my height.  A way to quantify this is with the “ape index”, which is a measure of a person’s arm span relative to their height (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape_index).  Take your arm span and subtract your height (in inches). For an average person, the answer is zero (according to Leonardo da Vinci, and other people).  I've got an armspan of 73 inches, but am only 5 feet, 9 inches tall (i.e. 69 inches), and so have an ape index of +4 inches.  This is certainly above average.  Hence, I will naturally tend to be a bit heavier than most people my height.   

And, I love to eat.  Prior to switching to a raw vegan diet, I was always mindful of eating too much and gaining excessive weight.  I was always athletic and health-conscious, and I always felt that I had to exercise a lot, and eat less than what I wanted, in order to avoid becoming chubby (this is no longer the case on a raw vegan diet).  Over the past dozen years, I’ve also experimented with the frequency of my meals.  I’ve tried one meal a day up to five meals a day, and the past couple years I’ve stuck with eating twice a day. 

From about age 16 in high school, through all of undergrad, and during my first few years of grad school, I usually weighed in the 170s.  At the time, I jogged a bit, but my primary athletic interest was in weight lifting.  I was a pretty muscular ~175 lb.  I always had access to a gym during those years, and pumped iron on a regular basis.  But then, in 2005-2008, I had a shift in my interests.  I gradually lifted less and less, and ran more and more.  I started racing marathons and ultramarathons, and dropped weight.  I found that I ran my best when I weighed in the 140s.  Part of the initial reason why I adopted a raw vegan diet was because I found that it was easier for me to maintain this lighter weight when I ate this way. 

In my adolescent and adult life (spanning the past 20 years…I’m 34 now), my weight has ranged from about 120 lb to about 180 lb.  I got down to 120 lb, as an experiment, in 2009.  I didn’t fast, I just consistently under ate (and thus, felt hungry most of the time when doing this).  The real reason why I did it was because I was curious.  I knew that I ran better when I weighed in the 140s than I did when I weighed in the 170s.  Would it follow then that I’d run better when I weighed in the 120s than I did when I weighed in the 140s?  After all, African marathon runners are really thin.  I got down to 120 lb to test this hypothesis, and my wife said that I looked “scary” at the time.  The conclusion I drew from this experiment was that I ran better when I weighed in the 140s.  When I weighed in the 120s, I felt too weak to run well.  Apparently, some professional runners my height run their best when they are in the 120s.  But, not me.     

After I learned in 2009 that I don’t run well when I weigh in the 120s, I started eating more raw vegan foods, and gradually gained weight.  At the time of the fruit festival in 2012, I weighted about 150 lb.  And at that time, I thought that was as heavy as I could get while eating a fruitarian diet, because I was eating as much as I wanted, and my weight had been pretty stable in the year prior to that.  So, initially I was surprised by my weight gain over the past several months when I started eating more zucchini.  However, in retrospect, it isn’t too surprising.  By eating more zucchini, I have significantly increased my protein intake.  A common symptom of a low protein diet is “weight loss”, and so thus it isn’t too surprising that I gained weight when I started eating more protein.  Despite the fact that I seem to have gained about 18 pounds in the last 5 months, I do not appear to have had an increase in body fat.  In fact, I think that my body fat percentage in recent months has gone down a bit.   

My wife, it’s worth mentioning, likes it when I’m heavier and stronger.  Given this, and the fact that I have no intention of running a marathon in the near future, I’m inclined to think of this recent weight gain of mine as being a good thing. 

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I also mentioned in my last post about how I enjoy eating simply.  A second, scientific, advantage of eating this way is that just eating a few different foods makes it easier for me to deduce with confidence what effects the different foods have on my body.  Over the past few years, I may have been able to come to conclusions that other raw vegans cannot, simply because there are fewer variables in my diet which might be responsible for the effects that I observe.
 
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Here’s a fascinating new TED talk on how speakers of different languages behave differently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3YTbubyjI.

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And, bowing to pressure, the White House has recently moved to make the results of federally funded research available to the public for free: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/24/us-usa-whitehouse-information-idUSBRE91N01C20130224.  I consider this to be a step in the right direction. 

Take care,
Jeff 

All of the food this week was organic and it was all consumed whole (no juicing, no blending, as usual):

2/11 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/12 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/13 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/14 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/15 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/16 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/17 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.

It seems to me to be entirely possible that homosexuality is an adaptation to aspects of tribal culture.  Quite often it may have been that groups of men went off on long trips away from their tribes, either for hunting or for combat with other groups.  The men most willing to go off on trips like this, perhaps lasting for weeks, would have been men without strong bonds to the women and children back with the tribe.  Thus, the men most willing to help the tribe in this way may have been the homosexuals.  An additional benefit of these gay relationships may have been to strengthen the male bonds in the group, which probably would have been advantageous during a hunt or in a battle.  Thus, if these men developed homosexual tendencies, the tribe as a whole may have been better off. 

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The degree to which people base their self-esteem on coincidences is the degree to which they are hostile towards differences.  Examples include having pride in one’s race, sexual orientation, nation, religion, and local sports team. 

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I don’t want to harp against Israel too much on this thread, but I do recommend reading about the way in which Israelis have been treating arrivals to their country recently: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100200874/how-true-is-it-that-israel-deceitfully-gave-ethiopian-jews-birth-control-injections/.

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Computer simulations suggest that, without the Moon, the Earth's axis tilt would have been very different than what it is today. The Moon actually seems to stabilize the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis over the course of billions of years.  Without a moon, the tilt would have been a great deal larger at times, which would have resulted in the seasons being more extreme.  Life on planet Earth would have been very different without the moon (http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=2507).   

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My wife has had an almost vegan pregnancy so far.  She’s had a few shrimp a couple times over the past few months, and has a couple eggs most weeks, but that’s really been the extent of the animal products in her diet.  Overall, I’d say that her diet so far this pregnancy has been better than how she ate when pregnant with Rose.  She’s been having a salad pretty much every day, and sometimes she’ll eat a fruit meal.  Most days she’ll also stir fry some vegetables or have some cooked carbs like noodles.  Like many pregnant women, my wife has had some cravings.  One of the things she’s been craving lately has been watermelon, and naturally I consider this to be a good thing.  But also, she’s been craving beef jerky, and of course I tend to think that this isn’t so good.  So, rather than consuming the genuine thing, I’ve suggested that she try some of the vegan alternatives.  And, she has.  We’ve ordered a bunch of different vegan jerkys from http://www.fakemeats.com/, and her favorite thus far is Primal Strips Hickory Smoked flavor.   

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I ordered a couple books recently: “Active Birth” by Janet Balaskas (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558320385/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00) and “Ina May's Guide to Childbirth” by Ina May Gaskin (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553381156/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01).  I’d like to get them both read by the time my wife goes into labor, and naturally, I’ll encourage my wife to take a look at them too.  Rose has been fascinated by some of the pictures in these books.  I actually didn’t get around to reading any books about natural childbirth during my wife’s pregnancy with Rose.  During that time I was reading more general books about pregnancy, childcare, and psychology instead.   

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I think it is helpful to ask my wife on a regular basis “Is there anything I can do to improve your experience of being married to me?” Participating in the consumerism of Valentine’s Day has never been one of her answers. Her answers are usually along the lines of “I’d like you to shave” or “I’d like you to get a PhD in physics”.

Take care,
Jeff 

All of the food this week was organic and it was all consumed whole (no juicing, no blending, as usual):

2/4 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
2/5 – zucchini, dates.
2/6 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
2/7 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/8 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/9 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.
2/10 – 1 pineapple, zucchini, dates.

Fundamental to the notion of physical property is the trait of scarcity.  For example, if I am driving this car right now, then no one else can be driving it at the current moment.  Thus, a car is a scarce resource.  An idea is not scarce in this way.   Unlike with a car, you can share your idea with someone while you continue to possess it.  So this trait of scarcity does not apply to intellectual property (IP).  The difference between physical property and intellectual property is that IP can be copied while retaining the original.  This is not the case with physical property.  A way to think about property is to say it is “that for which it is valid to use force to protect”.  In the same way that it is valid to use force to protect the property that is your kidney if you are being attacked, I think it can be argued that a legitimate use of force is to protect your car if it is in the process of being stolen.  On the other hand, if an idea of yours is “stolen”, there is no direct loss to you, because there is no scarcity.  Even after someone takes your idea, you still possess it.  From this perspective, IP is not “genuine” property.  In my opinion, the process of locking someone in a cage for making a copy without taking the original cannot be ethically justified. 

As an example of the harm caused by IP protections, consider the record industry.  The technology changed, and rather than embracing the innovations and adapting their business model to evolve with modern society, they sought a legal solution.  Consequently, the industry which brought the world the Beatles adopted the practice of suing children. 

Giving everything away for free keeps you on your toes, and encourages you to constantly innovate.  I think society would be the best off if producers were to adopt a “pay after consumption” model where you donate what you think it was worth after seeing it.  Without IP protection, producers need to focus on the customer, without relying on force from the state.  Furthermore, government IP protections lead to a greater degree of wealth inequality within a society, and so this is an additional reason as to why they are detrimental.   The protection of intellectual property rights is one of the primary justifications given for the existence of the government.  Thus, anarchists / voluntarists / libertarians should be opposed to state-enforced IP protections. 

Consider an analogy.  Being open with respect to IP is akin to being “naked”.  And, being naked is an extra motivator to make you want to be “buff” (i.e. innovative in the IP context).  When naked, fitness is no longer optional.  Your products must have good value, because value is evident as never before when naked.  Sunlight is the best disinfectant.  We need as much sunlight on this troubled planet as we can get.  Openness brings freedom.     

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For a long time social scientists in the US have been trying to figure out why crime increased so rapidly between the 1960s and the 1990s, and declined thereafter.  A convincing article appeared in Mother Jones recently indicating that environmental lead may very well be the culprit (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline?page=1).  The biggest problem, it seems, was leaded gasoline.  Lead in gasoline has been banned for a while, and crime has dropped.  Unfortunately, not all the lead is gone.  It settled in the soil.  Further money spent on the cleanup of environmental lead will likely more than pay for itself in the long run because of the drop in crime. 

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In the coming years, the rapid development of China & India is going to cause a huge strain on the environment: http://science.time.com/2013/01/29/the-scariest-environmental-fact-in-the-world/.  Everyone should do what they can to help with this.  A good first step is to consume a vegan diet.  Besides that, Rose, my wife, & I try to do what we can.  We never use the heat or air conditioning in our home, and opt for sweaters & fans instead.  We still drive more than what I’d like, but at least now we drive a Prius.   

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In order to more fully understand the whole left-right paradigm in political philosophy, I highly recommend this talk by the Yale philosophy professor Tamar Gendler: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8asJxdcds.  Again, I think that the obvious way to resolve these differences is with peaceful parenting and anarchism. 

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Here’s a video put out by Dr. Michael Greger this week summarizing the research on the relationship between cavities and fruit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8BKmlTLwUo.   Frederic Patenaude, the author of a couple books on the raw food diet, has been outspoken in expressing his love of pineapple, and has also suffered from a lot of teeth problems.  This new Greger video leads one to believe that his pineapple consumption was very likely a causal factor in the development of his dental cavities.  I do like to eat pineapple sometimes in the winter, but I am now mindful of this relationship.  In general, ripe fruits are less sour.  Many of the organic cherry tomatoes I buy aren’t optimally ripe.  The ones we grow during the summer in our garden are a lot better in this regard.       

Take care,
Jeff 

Thanks for the kind words Roberta and Tinah.

Rose is really interested in learning about the insides of the human body right now.  Almost every time we’ve visited the bookstore or library lately, she asks me to pull an anatomy book off the shelf so that she can look at the pictures, and have me explain to her what she’s looking at.  So naturally, she’s interested in my wife’s pregnancy.  We’ve shown her diagrams in books of growing babies in the womb.  She’s also been interested in the birthing process, so we’ve actually shown her some youtube videos of that, and not just of human mothers, but also of other animals giving birth (dogs, cats, etc.), so she gets the idea that this is a process common to mammals.  I’ve also explained to her that babies need lots of care, and won’t be able to walk, so that we’ll need to carry the baby most of the time.  And she’s expressed an interest in watching #2 breastfeed, and in helping to change #2’s diaper.  We’ll just have to wait and see how she handles my wife’s labor, but we’re certainly doing what we can to prepare her for the birth, and for having a baby sibling.         

All of the food this week was organic and it was all consumed whole (no juicing, no blending, as usual):

1/21 – bell peppers, tomatoes, dates.
1/22 – bell peppers, tomatoes, dates.
1/23 – bell peppers, zucchini, dates.
1/24 – bell peppers, zucchini, dates.
1/25 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
1/26 – zucchini, dates.
1/27 – zucchini, dates.

I didn’t have any zucchini on Monday or Tuesday this week.  I just couldn’t find any organic ones.  The organic zucchini I get in the winter come from Mexico, and I’m learning that shortages happen occasionally this time of year.  I think it depends on the weather. 

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All the people who are invited to speak at the Woodstock Fruit Festival are going to agree that “whole fresh ripe raw organic plants” are the optimal foods for humans to eat.  It’s just that type of gathering.  Nevertheless, when it comes to specifics (B12, vitamin D, overt fat, protein, vaccines, etc.), there are some different opinions among the speakers.  Last year the festival lacked a forum where these differences could be illuminated.  I suggest that a roundtable discussion, consisting of 4 or 5 “pioneers” with differing views, be added to the schedule.  The purpose of the roundtable would be to clarify and discuss these differences, with the goal of ensuring that the followers of fruit-based raw vegan diets avoid the trap of dogmatism. 

Along the same lines, I have one further critique of the fruit festival format.  Last year, my wife, Rose, & I travelled on the fist & last days of the festival, and so we missed the opening & closing ceremonies.  However, from what I’ve seen of the videos, I deduce that these ceremonies involved a fair amount of “hero worship”, for the “pioneers” in general, and Doug Graham in particular (this partially explains my propensity to criticize DG on this thread lately).  While there is no doubt that this kind of idolatry is very profitable for those “pioneers” who make a living one way or another out of the “raw food movement”, this excessive adulation is surely detrimental to the movement as a whole in the long run.  All the “pioneers” have faults, and none of us should be followed blindly.  As mentioned, I’ll be skipping the 2013 festival because my wife is scheduled to give birth in July.  Given how critical I’ve been of various things since the 2012 festival, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m not invited back to speak there again.  I feel that the free expression of contrarian viewpoints, while undoubtedly detrimental in the short run to those making a living in the raw vegan community, are exactly what the movement needs in order to remain robust. 

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I recently learned that one of my so-called “very liberal anti-war” friends who lives in Washington DC is going to start working for the lobbying group named AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.  This is a good example of rank hypocrisy.  AIPAC lobbies to have US support for Israeli aggression (http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/ten-reasons-why-the-israel-lobby-aipac-is-so-dangerous.html).  This link is from Mondoweiss, which covers the news from a progressive Jewish perspective.  Informed liberals oppose AIPAC.  I urged my friend not to work for such a harmful organization, for the well-being of the Palestinians in particular, and for world peace in general.  As long as ostensibly “good” people are willing to serve evil, the survival of humanity remains in doubt.   

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The fact that no nuclear weapons have been used against people since WWII is a minor miracle. 

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When people identify with small groups, conflicts are more likely to arise.  It’s best to remind everyone that “it’s a small world”, and that we are all human beings.  It’ll be a more peaceful planet once everyone considers themselves, and everyone else, to be nothing more than citizens of planet Earth.   

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“It is the independent, critical thinkers, not the ‘My government, my god’ crowd that historically has propelled mankind forward, especially in terms of liberty and mental and psychological development.” - Jacob G. Hornberger (http://fff.org/2010/12/02/wikileaks-conformists-individualists/)

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True leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. 

Take care,
Jeff 

All of the food this week was organic and it was all consumed whole (no juicing, no blending, as usual):

1/14 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
1/15 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/16 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/17 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/18 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/19 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
1/20 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.

I’ve got some new stuff to say this week about B12. 

My wife weaned Rose in August, shortly after Rose turned 3 1/2.  I wasn’t concerned with Rose’s B12 status while she was nursing, because we have reason to believe that my wife’s B12 levels are adequate (she’s not completely vegan, and plus she’s been tested before).  I said during my parenting talk at the fruit festival that I felt that Rose should get a B12 test soon, because I didn’t want her to supplement if she didn’t need it, but also wanted to make sure that she wasn’t deficient.  Well, after we got home from the festival, we faced the prospect of paying $200 for the urinary MMA/creatine ratio test (available at http://www.b12.com/) for Rose, or just giving her a little bit of the methylcobalamin which we already had in the refrigerator (for my wife), as a precaution.  We opted to give her some B12.  So, we’ve been giving Rose a little B12 regularly since August, and she’s still never had a B12 test.   

I’ve been a vegan since 2007 and have always felt fine despite going 5+ years without taking B12.  However, I myself took some B12 in late September, and have had it occasionally since then.  I haven’t felt any different since I started taking it, and the reason why I began taking B12 is unusual (which is related to my wife’s pregnancy, and this is why I postponed this B12 post until after the announcement last week).  It took about six months for my wife to get pregnant this time (unlike with Rose, when it happened the first month we sort of tried).  Prior to becoming pregnant, this delay was causing my wife to doubt her fertility at her current age of 37.  Naturally, I tried to comfort her fears at the time.  In one of these discussions in which I was attempting to soothe her, I mentioned that there is some evidence that a low B12 level decreases male fertility (see, for example, here http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/1040005.html).  After saying this, my wife immediately urged me to start supplementing with B12.  For the sake of maintaining marital bliss, I obliged.  Perhaps coincidentally, she became pregnant soon thereafter.   

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This week I took Rose to see the dentist.  This is the second time she’s been there.  I don’t think I mentioned here the first time we took her, but it was very brief and uneventful.  We took her to a different dentist this second time, and he examined her more carefully.  He looked in her mouth while she was sitting on my lap, and Rose was fine with that.  I didn’t want to let Rose get dental X-rays without good reason, and this dentist didn’t think that X-raying her would be useful at this point.  He said that Rose has a couple cavities, but that they are small, and that no dental work needs to be done right now (it sounds as though they won’t be causing her pain anytime in the near future).  He gave me a prescription for some fluoride gel to put on Rose's teeth - he thinks this may slow or stop the growth of the cavities...but I am hesitant to put this in her mouth.  We’ve never given her fluoride before.  Water fluoridation is not done in our city (plus our whole-house reverse osmosis unit would filter it out even if they did), and we've always just used water to brush her teeth (no toothpaste).  My feeling is that fluoride is probably a human carcinogen (see, for example, this report http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/hazard_ident/pdf_zip/FLUORIDE070811.pdf or this new documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpw5fGt4UvI).  Now I think that a topical application on her teeth wouldn’t be as bad as drinking it, and that she could spit most of it out.  But undoubtedly she’d still ingest a bit if I put it in her mouth, and I’m leaning against doing this.  Do you have any other thoughts on fluoride? 

I suspect that the cavities are a result of my wife & I being rather lackadaisical with brushing Rose’s teeth when she was younger.  Recently, we’ve been good at diligently brushing her teeth twice per day, but I admit that two or three years ago we were less consistent with this.  Her baby teeth will probably start falling out in 2 or 3 years.  One can speculate that perhaps that Rose’s diet, and particularly her relatively low protein intake, may have played a role in her development of cavities.  In her case, I doubt this had a huge effect.  When she was younger, she had a lot of breastmilk, and around the time my wife’s supply began to diminish significantly was when we introduced nuts & seeds into her diet.     

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This fantastic TED talk put on youtube this week http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh9lDWPMWrM has the potential to increase awareness of the health benefits of sun exposure.   The new research explained in this talk indicates that the benefits from sunlight are not just because of the vitamin D.  I know that a lot of raw foodists already suspected that this was the case, however research like this is helpful in convincing the masses.   

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In the news recently has been which Bible Obama is going to use for his 2nd inauguration.  My feeling is that religious books should have no place in the ceremony.  It’s a secular government, not a theocracy. 

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"The greatest threat to any government is the freedom of information and the distribution of knowledge - for the smarter the citizens of the world become, the less likely it is they will need their governments." – ?

This fact is why the “open access movement” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_movement) is so crucial to the continued progress of humanity.  And this is also why I will always give away all of my ideas for free.  If I ever write a book, I’m going to make sure that it’s available for free on the internet. 

If raw vegan “gurus” were living true to their ideals, they would offer their services for free and take a donation-based approach (something along the lines of what the anarchist Stefan Molyneux has successfully done at http://www.freedomainradio.com/).  Granted, it’s easy for me to say this as a stay-at-home dad.  Still, it has always struck me as odd that there are people in this movement who charge “consultation fees” to people.  Molyneux offers consultations to people too, but he does them for free and then he releases them to the public as podcasts, and then asks for donations.  This strikes me as being a far more humanitarian way to disseminate information. 

So anyway, if anyone reading this is considering paying a “consultation fee” in order to get the opinion of a “raw vegan guru”, I encourage you to not do it.  I’ll give you my opinion for free, and I won’t even ask for a donation.     

Take care,
Jeff 

All of the food this week was organic and it was all consumed whole (no juicing, no blending, as usual):

1/7 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
1/8 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
1/9 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/10 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/11 – 2 pomegranates, zucchini, dates.
1/12 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.
1/13 – tomatoes, zucchini, dates.

I’m happy to announce that my wife is pregnant.  Thus, we can be confident that eating a 100% fruit diet for three years hasn’t made me infertile.  The baby is due in July.  By that point, Rose will be almost 4 1/2, and I think that she’ll be a great big sister.  Rose had a vaginal birth in the hospital, and my wife got an epidural.  Neither my wife nor I enjoyed the hospital birthing experience.  So, we’re going to try to not do that again.  My wife is currently under the care of a midwife, and we’re planning to give birth this time at the local birth center. 

My wife and I always thought that two kids would be a nice number to have, but we didn’t want them too close together.  Babies require lots of care, and we didn’t want our kids to feel neglected because they were closely spaced.  In addition, a child spacing of about four years is a natural one, I think. 

“Although birth spacing varies among populations of hunter-gatherers, and maternal age and number of children previously born to a woman affect birth intervals, these data have led anthropologist Jane Lancaster and others to conclude that a four-year pattern of birth spacing caused by frequent exercise and the habit of continual nursing through the day and night was the regular pattern of birth spacing during our long evolutionary past.” - Helen Fisher, Ph.D. in the book “Anatomy of Love”.

Overall, I do think the world is overpopulated with humans, and so I have thought about the morality of us having a second child.  And some nefarious institutions are in favor of population growth.  Governments like people to have kids because they need new tax payers.  Churches like people to have kids because indoctrination is easier than conversion.  But, I think we are good parents, and so hopefully our kids will go on to do some positive things in the world which would offset any negative environmental effects of them being alive, and I’ll do my best as a parent to prevent my kids from falling into the traps of nationalism and religiosity. 

So I was a speaker at the Woodstock Fruit Festival back in August, and Rose, my wife, and I had a fantastic time there.  I haven’t heard from the organizers whether I’m going to be invited back to speak at the festival again in 2013 or not.  If my wife’s pregnancy goes as planned, we’ll have a one-month old at the time of the 2013 festival.  If I’m invited back, our options will include travelling with a one-month old, or just Rose & I going (leaving my wife & baby at home), or the four of us skipping it entirely.  We’re going to opt for the last option.  I’m going to have to skip the 2013 festival as long as my wife’s pregnancy proceeds normally.  We can tentatively plan on coming in 2014, however.  I think going to the festival with a 13-month old would be fun.   

My wife, as I believe that I’ve said here before, doesn’t eat a completely raw diet, or even a completely vegan diet.  Given that we’ve been married since 2002, and that I’ve been 100% raw vegan since 2007, my wife already knows my feelings on nutrition.  I think it should be obvious, and I shouldn’t have to say this, but my wife is free to eat her cooked nonvegan food in the house…she’s not made to feel as though she has to “sneak” around with it.  The reason why I make this point explicitly is because there has been at least one instance of a raw vegan “guru” for which this was not the case (http://30bananasadaysucks.com/2013/01/case-files-roger-haeske-abuse-of-a-family-member/).   Given that we are both semi-prominent raw vegans, both fathers, and both have partners which didn’t eat raw during their pregnancies, I think that Roger and I are in semi-comparable situations.  And, I find the ways in which Roger has abused his family to be deeply disturbing.  At the heart of veganism is nonviolence.  This extends to people too.  In my humble opinion, Roger ought to spend some time talking to a psychologist.   

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On Friday, a well-known software developer & internet activist named Aaron Swartz committed suicide.   He was awaiting trial for downloading a large number of academic journal articles that he had access to.  Aaron apparently had the intention of distributing them for free.  Aaron’s courageous act was civil disobedience in the truest sense of the word.  I encourage you to spend a little time learning about his brief life on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz), reading a bit of what he wrote (http://pastebin.com/cefxMVAy) and hearing what he had to say (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Fgh2dFngFsg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzNXDdjtXQI).  I strongly feel that his work was for the public good, and that his death is a loss to us all. 

Take care,
Jeff 

Peter,

So basically you’re implying that I sound hypocritical when I espouse the ideals of anarchism and at the same time disparage Doug for the money laundering incident.  I anticipated that someone would say this when I wrote my initial critique of this last week, so I appreciate the opportunity your comments have given me to elaborate further. 

I admire those who refuse to pay taxes as an act of civil disobedience.  Taxes fund some acts which are absolutely abhorrent.  “Civil disobedience” is generally defined as the nonviolent public refusal to obey certain laws or commands of the government for ethical reasons.  Of course, when a single person doesn’t pay taxes, it’s a mere drop in the bucket.  The power of civil disobedience lies in its ability to inspire others to commit similar acts. 

When it comes to Doug, the relevant keywords in the definition of civil disobedience are “public” and “for ethical reasons”.  Doug has attempted to hide this incident from the raw vegan community (the vegsource thread on the topic is no longer visible from the main page), and Doug gave no indication that his actions were “for ethical reasons”.  Had he made a public declaration of his motives in this case, I would be 100% behind him.  But, since he has not done this, I have no respect for his behavior.   

The way to affect change is not to covertly avoid taxes.  Instead, the way to change society is to increase awareness of the evils of government and the intrinsic harm of taxation.  This has the potential to spur a mass movement of people which may simultaneously refuse taxation on some coordinated future date.  If the number of people involved is large enough, the government won’t be able to deal with it.  I have spoken out against the government in this way, and Doug has not.

I said that Doug was “dishonest” because it sounds like he kicked a fanny pack of ~$10,000 under a table at the airport.  I’d say that sounds pretty dishonest.  On the other hand, had he announced that he wasn’t going to pay taxes, I’d call that “principled honesty”. 

I wasn’t aware that there has been censorship on 30badsucks.  Thanks for bringing that to my attention.  At least there hasn’t been any on iheartfruit, to my knowledge.