A question.

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Why does everything have to be so complicated?

I have watered the plants today. One of the bell pepper plants is producing peppers already. It is the only plant of the lot I have any real hopes regarding. Two of the tomato plants are developing blossoms. The rest of the plants, though looking well watered and happy, are like the smiley kids in the back of the class who will end up digging ditches. No, there is no complication here. I will figure these things out over time and that is all good. Though next year I will probably plant my own seedlings indoors and earlier (or try), and use heirloom seeds at that in the hopes of collecting seeds for the following year.

The next task for the day, I decided to review the short term survival food list for my next visit to town, or at least my next shopping day. Being flusher than only having $10 over my limits a week, I decided to consider buying a months supply at once, perhaps more. With enough of a supply, I would also begin using that food as part of my diet sooner rather than after stocking up. I am reviewing as I write this. Herein lies the conundrum. Everything was looking good. Everything on the list, save one thing and initially I thought even it, was going to work well. I printed the file linked from D.C., then from it created a shopping list. The one thing I decided to buy online rather than at the store, after a price check anyway, is powdered milk, whole powdered milk.

I wanted to see what was in the powdered milk I had, through advisement from soandwhositz, decided to go with. It is called Nido and is made by Nestle. I purchased a can of it not so far back to sample it, and it is good (at least good enough but with even a nod beyond that, if it is not fresh either... as good a compliment as that type of product COULD get from me). While looking, I saw the ingredient 'soy lecithin' listed as the second ingredient, meaning the second most common element in the product. Something clicked. Soy... estrogen, phyto estrogen, sex issues, and such. So, I decided to review this ingredient. There is a big hubbub about soy products, for many reasons to include that most of the world is using unfermented soy, gmo soybeans (not an issue on my part), the amount of it sneaking into our diet, and the nutritional hazards it poses.

The Japanese, it is said, eat this stuff and do quite well. The truth is, I doubt the health of the Japanese people without knowing more, they eat far less of it than what we are often eating (in a typical diet, in large part due to our processed food consumption which is often protein bulked with soy byproducts), that the estrogen and vitamin blocking aspect of soy is problematic in large doses and at any dose level for babies (some nations are attempting to ban it from formula), the fact that unfermented (and to a degree any) soy products block receptors for vitamins we absolutely need (calcium and a host of others), the possibility that the estrogen in our foods is having profound effects on the emasculation of our boys (and men?) and infertility (if earlier pubation) and other reproductive issues with our girls, and other possible childhood problems (such as learning disabilities). Beyond that, even if I do not eat soy on a regular basis knowingly, just because it is used to feed livestock (BEEF! Pork! Chicken! Turkey!) I may be eating a LOT more than what I suspect.

In truth, if this is the one processed food I consume with soy, the problem probably does not exist. A glass or two a day of milk, with some product used in cooking or baking from time to time, and considering that even as the second leading ingredient, it is probably quite small in fact in overall percentage of bulk (I tried to find the exact amount to no avail), and the whole thing is probably moot.

However, without knowing how much soy is fed to cattle, how much of the estrogenony stuff is passed to both meat and milk, or even with chicken meat and eggs, or even how much is really in the dry milk product, I cannot assess the threat or possibilities of impaired nutritional value these foods offer and present to the rest of my diet. Yes, complicated. I doubt if I have the equipment, knowledge, or anything else to take on this problem. And I do not see dietitians or the medical field pulling up their sleeves and getting to work.

What a bother. No wonder national health is going the way of the financial markets. Fads, myths, and uncertainty rain on a people who grow more and more cynical and end up burying our heads in the sand because there is simply too much good and bad information, a lack of oversight or genuine consensus, too much government and industrial sway with researchers, too much activism beyond that, and we are left to fend for ourselves in a very complicated world. Are we really sure all that education is needed if this is the result? Uhrm, ignoring for the moment the 'quality' of that education, more so at the price.

Just saying...