Another year has faded into the past, with a brand new one upon us; an end to the year, and an end to the decade. The end of a year, a decade, and the beginning of the next. My life (and my family's) has changed in significant and measurable ways during the past year. This has all happened across the backdrop of increasing demands from work, additional extracurricular pursuits, and possible business plans/ideas about which GM2 and I have been talking for over a year.
It is with the last idea in mind that I have officially decided to close the books on this blog. Yep, thats right, as of 1 Jan 2010 I will no longer be posting on this website. It has been a good four year run. Actually to be honest with you, this thing has morphed into something that has much exceeded my expectations. Hundreds of people have viewed and read my posts, people of who I have never met. Some of my posts from Iraq in 07 were cited in a few serious political blogs, which surprised the hell out of me. Mostly though, it kept my friends and family updated with my life and general ramblings. The funny thing is, during 2006 I thought for sure I was going to just let the blog fall by the wayside. But as I look back at my activity, each year I posted more articles, rants, pictures and movies.
I would like to thank all of my readers for the comments and support throughout the four years, especially during the 15 months in Iraq. You guys are the reason I posted everything.
But wait!
It is not all doom and gloom!
As the title of this post suggests, it is the end of an era (Duty, Honor, Country) but it is a new beginning for a completely NEW website!
That's right! I'm proud to announce the official launch of THE ANVIL website!!
This website is another step in the crazy gym idea/dream that Garry and I have been building in our respective homes for the past year and a half. It is still in its infancy stage really, with only a handful of clients, none paying. However, I couldn't think of a better time to launch the site. At first the website will be much like this blog was, nutritional and health rantings, feats of strength, updates on the gym. But we (Garry, April, and I) hope that it will become much more than that.
I'll leave the blog up for a couple of months, but after that, its all coming off the web.
So, here's to the new year, the end of a successful blog and the beginning of new success!
And for the last time,
Hanlin out
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
New Addition to the Anvil
Thanks to my wonderful wife we are the proud owner of the Sorinex FNGHD. A state of the art piece of equipment. The Anvil sorely needed one of these things.
Friday, December 18, 2009
My Wife's New Blog
When we started eating Paleo last winter April really jumped into the challenge of cooking in that paradigm and she came up wiht some amazing recipes. I mean, the food was so good that I told her she should write a book and try to get it published.
She's done the next best thing.
Check out my wife's new blog. Its called "What I Feed Rory"
What will it be about? I think its pretty self explanatory. She will be posting recipes for the Paleo food that we eat in the Hanlin household.
This is a gem in the blogoshere, trust me. There will be some amazing recipes in the blog.
check it out here
Hanlin out
She's done the next best thing.
Check out my wife's new blog. Its called "What I Feed Rory"
What will it be about? I think its pretty self explanatory. She will be posting recipes for the Paleo food that we eat in the Hanlin household.
This is a gem in the blogoshere, trust me. There will be some amazing recipes in the blog.
check it out here
Hanlin out
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Top Ten Most Common Nutrition Myths
I was sitting around with my wife this weekend and we were talking about what we will feed Aubrey in the years to come, and how we would combat all of the common nutrition myths out there today. There are so many that April and I tried to come up with a few of the most popular. I thought I might share our list and see if it sparks a bit of ire.
1. Dietary fat makes you fat and causes heart disease
2. A diet high in cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease
3. If you want to lose weight, you must reduce caloric intake
4. Consuming excess calories causes people to grow fatter
5. Dietary salt causes hypertension
6. Exercise burns calories, thereby causing people to lose weight
7. Dietary fiber is important for a healthy diet
8. All apples are nutritionally equal, no matter where they are grown. Similarly, all beef is nutritionally equal, no matter how its raised
9. The US government food pyramid is a good place to start to learn about a healthy diet
10. Good tasting food must be bad for you
Hanlin out
1. Dietary fat makes you fat and causes heart disease
2. A diet high in cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease
3. If you want to lose weight, you must reduce caloric intake
4. Consuming excess calories causes people to grow fatter
5. Dietary salt causes hypertension
6. Exercise burns calories, thereby causing people to lose weight
7. Dietary fiber is important for a healthy diet
8. All apples are nutritionally equal, no matter where they are grown. Similarly, all beef is nutritionally equal, no matter how its raised
9. The US government food pyramid is a good place to start to learn about a healthy diet
10. Good tasting food must be bad for you
Hanlin out
Friday, November 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Corn is not cheap
Another common argument for the ubiquity of corn in the American diet is its extremely low price. The price of corn (and its little brother, the soybean) today is lower than it has ever been. This is due to the miracles of genetic, chemical and biological science, government subsidies and, frankly, cheap immigrant labor working harmoniously together.
In fact, it is indeed true, that at face value, the expense of food in general (mainly because of corn and soy) as a percentage of total income is lower than it has ever been.
This is of course, if you practice a certain type of accounting. That is, the type that hides the high cost of cheap food produced from corn.
Michael Pollan: "The ninety nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn't take account of that meal's true cost-- to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc, costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly and invisibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illnesses and obesity) and the environment (in the form of pollution)"
There are literally a thousand examples of the truly high cost of cheap corn on the American public, and especially the poor.
Take obesity for example. Obesity is arguably the most pressing public health epidemic of our time, costing the health care industry an estimated 90 billion a year. Three of every five Americans are overweight, one of every five obese. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born after 2000 has a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes. Obesity is worse the poorer you are.
How is this linked to corn you ask? High Fructose Corn Syrup is now the leading source of sweetness in the American diet. It was created in 1980 and added to the American diet shortly thereafter. Since 1985, an American's annual consumption of HFCS has gone from forty-five pounds to sixty-six pounds. One might think that this growth would have been offset by a decline in sugar consumption, but that didn't happened: during the same period our consumption of refined sugar actually went up by five pounds.
There are other examples of the cost of industrial corn on the lives of Americans:
1. The dangers of trace amounts of pesticides and herbicides that industrial farmers use on their crop is real. Astonishingly small exposures to residues of atrazine (0.1 part per billion) the berbicide commonly sprayed on American cornfields everyday in this country, has been shown to turn normal male frogs into hermaphrodites. Frogs are not people of course, but every European government has banned the subsistence. Why haven't we?
2. An average Mcdonalds meal costs over 4,500 Kilocalories to make. This is because it takes 10 Kilocalories of fossil fuel to deliver 1 kilocalorie of food. 1/5 of all gas in America (as much as all automobiles) is used to ship food.
Why has the incidence of food-borne illness spiked in the country in the last twenty years? Why has the obesity rate tripled in as many years? Why is the incidence of type II diabetes most commonly found in the poor? Why are farmers receiving billions in subsidies and yet cannot stay in business? Why does the average industrial farm produce more toxic chemicals and pollution that the average paper mill?
Answers to all of these questions have something to do with the industrial use of corn in the American food supply.
I could go on and on, but this post is already too long.
Hanlin out
In fact, it is indeed true, that at face value, the expense of food in general (mainly because of corn and soy) as a percentage of total income is lower than it has ever been.
This is of course, if you practice a certain type of accounting. That is, the type that hides the high cost of cheap food produced from corn.
Michael Pollan: "The ninety nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn't take account of that meal's true cost-- to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc, costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly and invisibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illnesses and obesity) and the environment (in the form of pollution)"
There are literally a thousand examples of the truly high cost of cheap corn on the American public, and especially the poor.
Take obesity for example. Obesity is arguably the most pressing public health epidemic of our time, costing the health care industry an estimated 90 billion a year. Three of every five Americans are overweight, one of every five obese. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born after 2000 has a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes. Obesity is worse the poorer you are.
How is this linked to corn you ask? High Fructose Corn Syrup is now the leading source of sweetness in the American diet. It was created in 1980 and added to the American diet shortly thereafter. Since 1985, an American's annual consumption of HFCS has gone from forty-five pounds to sixty-six pounds. One might think that this growth would have been offset by a decline in sugar consumption, but that didn't happened: during the same period our consumption of refined sugar actually went up by five pounds.
There are other examples of the cost of industrial corn on the lives of Americans:
1. The dangers of trace amounts of pesticides and herbicides that industrial farmers use on their crop is real. Astonishingly small exposures to residues of atrazine (0.1 part per billion) the berbicide commonly sprayed on American cornfields everyday in this country, has been shown to turn normal male frogs into hermaphrodites. Frogs are not people of course, but every European government has banned the subsistence. Why haven't we?
2. An average Mcdonalds meal costs over 4,500 Kilocalories to make. This is because it takes 10 Kilocalories of fossil fuel to deliver 1 kilocalorie of food. 1/5 of all gas in America (as much as all automobiles) is used to ship food.
Why has the incidence of food-borne illness spiked in the country in the last twenty years? Why has the obesity rate tripled in as many years? Why is the incidence of type II diabetes most commonly found in the poor? Why are farmers receiving billions in subsidies and yet cannot stay in business? Why does the average industrial farm produce more toxic chemicals and pollution that the average paper mill?
Answers to all of these questions have something to do with the industrial use of corn in the American food supply.
I could go on and on, but this post is already too long.
Hanlin out
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Corn is not a vegetable
My friend Peter Ketchem commented in regards to the last post I had entitled, "Corn is in everything"
"You make it sound like its a bad thing"
I think this is important to address. The idea that, well, corn is a vegetable and so it must be good for you, right? And whats wrong with corn being in a lot of stuff, thats good for the corn farmers right?
I'm here to tell you that corn is NOT a vegetable and the fact that there is an overabundance of corn is terrible for corn farmers.
Short of reading the book Omnivore's Dilemma there really isn't enough space to illustrate how exactly corn is ruining America's health and nutrition.
I'll start with a short, but informative post on corn here
More will come
Hanlin out
"You make it sound like its a bad thing"
I think this is important to address. The idea that, well, corn is a vegetable and so it must be good for you, right? And whats wrong with corn being in a lot of stuff, thats good for the corn farmers right?
I'm here to tell you that corn is NOT a vegetable and the fact that there is an overabundance of corn is terrible for corn farmers.
Short of reading the book Omnivore's Dilemma there really isn't enough space to illustrate how exactly corn is ruining America's health and nutrition.
I'll start with a short, but informative post on corn here
More will come
Hanlin out
PR Rack Jerk
Rory 365 Split Jerk from Garry Michael Martin II on Vimeo.
Hit a big PR for the Rack Jerk of 365lbs. Thought people might want to see it.
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