Let's try someone new in 2020!

Bill the Cat for President!

Let's face it! Obama was a complete loser, while Trump has become somewhat of a cool bully! So, come 2020, I propose we elect a real idiot to give running our government a shot!

Right back at ya kneelers!

Trump urges fans to boycott the NFL!

Just hours before Sunday’s NFL games were to begin, President Trump urged fans to boycott the sport until owners “fire or suspend” players who protest during the national anthem.

“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country,” he tweeted, “you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!”

I agree 100%! The NFL is not a political engine – it is a sport that is played by highly paid men who get that sort of life, in part, because of the men and women soldiers who have died protecting and ensuring a life of freedom of which the flag is a symbol.

For that reason, I stand proudly with the President on this and will refuse to watch NFL games in the future...

And while the majority of the team owners have agreed that kneeling is a protected form of freedom of expression, I then also plan to mentally give all of them the 'finger' every Sunday about starting time. Individuals who disrespect the flag and what it stands for are complete cruds, in my view. I'm not going to waste my time cheering such individuals on in an arena where they make millions of dollars while others, who are now fighting and those who have fought and died for the flag and the nation it represents, pay the ultimate price tag for freedom.

A ketogenic friendly style lunch!

After posting a short piece on counting calories in raw versus cooked hamburger patties, I decided to go that route for lunch on an otherwise nondescript Saturday in September!

My approach to dieting, in general is to go for a ketogenic approach which emphasizes a low carb high protein method of eating. This is a proven path to weight loss that is not without some cautionary warnings for people with certain health conditions.

Quarter pound, 4 oz, 113 grams!

OK, so my approach for this particular meal was to eliminate the buns, throw on a slice of onion and garnish with a side of Lima beans. Why Lima beans? Well, Lima beans are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, (as are most other legumes). In addition to lowering cholesterol, Lima beans high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making these beans an especially good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia. So, a high protein and fiber addition to this meal was not a bad thing!

When I cook my burgers, I like to use an old Joe Foreman grill. The design insures that a lot of the grease will be drained from the finished burger. After cooking, three on a slice of white onion along with a generous amount of ketchup. The pat of butter was the real thing while the salt I used was potassium chloride not table salt.

The end nutritional result? 260 calories, 15 carbs, 15 grams of fat and 16 grams of protein! The meal was also delicious and filling!

Calories in cooked versus uncooked ground beef!

The infamous DanO burger!

Whenever I eat anything, these days, I try and get some idea of the number of calories I'm putting in my mouth! For many foods, that's easy to do as you can read the number right off the package. However, some other foods are not so easy to figure out! Hamburger patties and spaghetti come to mind. Well, here's a tip. When looking at the published calories, nutritionists are most often referring to either the uncooked or dry weight of the product. That said, there can be other mitigating factors to consider. In the case of hamburger patties, there is also the fat to lean ratio to consider. Read on...  
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So, which is healthier for us humans to consume? A hamburger made from 75% lean ground beef or one made from 95% extra-lean ground beef?

Here are the numbers. Let’s start with two uncooked hamburger patties, each weighing 4 ounces (a quarter pound or 113 grams). The uncooked 75% lean patty has about 330 calories, (28 grams of fat and 18 grams of protein). The uncooked 95% lean patty has only about 155 calories, (6 grams of fat and 24 grams of protein). As you can see, the leaner beef has more protein, and therefore far fewer calories than an equal weight of the less lean beef. (The leaner patty is also higher in water and a little lower in cholesterol).

Cooking results in a loss of weight (and nutrients) in both patties, as the drippings fall away. The 75 percent lean patty, which drops from 4 ounces to about 2.5 ounces after cooking, will now contain 195 calories, 13 grams of fat and 18 grams of protein. After cooking, the 95 percent lean patty, which drops to about 3 ounces in weight, has about 140 calories, 5 grams of fat and 22 grams of protein.

The above information was excerpted from an article by Edward R. Blonz, Ph.D. Written in August of 2013!

World running out of effective antibiotics!

World Heath Organization – A September 2017 report released by WHO shows a serious lack of new antibiotics under development to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. It seems that most of the drugs currently in the clinical pipeline are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics and are only short-term solutions. The report found very few potential treatment options for those antibiotic-resistant infections identified by WHO as posing the greatest threat to health, including drug-resistant tuberculosis which kills around 250,000 people each year.

"Antimicrobial resistance is a global health emergency that will seriously jeopardize progress in modern medicine," says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. "There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery."

The report went on to conclude that there is a serious lack of treatment options for multi-drug and extensively drug-resistant M. tuberculosis and gram-negative pathogens, including Acinetobacter and Enterobacteriaceae (such as Klebsiella and E.coli) which can cause severe and often deadly infections that pose a particular threat in hospitals and nursing homes....

See Antibacterial agents in clinical development.

A poem by someone who will not quit his day job!

On lazy days, while I sometimes ponder,
I find myself on roads to wander.
As late summer sun turns to fall,
my feet carry me forward body and all.
Eyes wide open in silent wonder,
I greedily suck in such visual plunder!

God Bless all who live in the US!