Monday, February 28, 2011

When you know nothing, stop talking.

I've consulted frequently with the Trading Kellys editors about really getting this thing going, or just packing it in. We're currently in the netherworld of uselessness: We want to do it, but refuse to put in the effort. And then we see an article like this:

And read this masterly sentence:
The initiative, dubbed "Soldier Athlete," bans soda, refined grains, and fried foods in favor of healthier options such as low-fat milk, whole grains, and veggie wraps.  
That first line is awesome. As someone who is nutritionally competent, you know that "soda, refined grains, and [seed-oil] fried foods" are garbage. But, because you competent, you also know that "low-fat milk, whole grains, and [gluten-loaded] veggie wraps" are also garbage.* So you naturally walk away from those two lines puzzled. 

Let me shed some clarity. It's not you; it's the author. Everything listed in that sentence is, in fact, horrible for you [to one degree or another] and should be avoided if possible. It is a slavish adherence to U.S.D.A., the pharmaceutical industry, & counter-logical [alleged] logic that would lead to such a sentence.

But what should our fine military personnel eat? The author gave us an answer, actually:
Two years into the Revolutionary War, a surgeon general in the Continental Army issued a pamphlet on nutrition. "The diet of soldiers should consist chiefly of vegetables," Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote[.] "The nature of their duty, as well as their former habits of life, require it." [Dr. Rush's] counsel ... probably fell on deaf ears. It was routine, in Rush's time, for soldiers to consume a "pound or two of flesh in a day."
It should come as no shock to the reader that the Continental Army, surviving as it did on pounds of flesh, beat down the Redcoats, who no doubt survived on the their beloved whole grains in the form of biscuits & English muffins. The good Dr. Rush, like 99.7% of doctors today, clearly knew nothing about nutrition.

*Why would refined grains be worse than whole grains? They are terrible for identical reasons. Whole grains might actually be more destructive. 
**If the preceding footnote vexes you, please do not return to Trading Kellys. 

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