Odds and ends and rants

Several rants here:

• The Bran Bud Caper - Got an email from my sister stating she thinks she has IBS, has had diarrhea and stomach cramps for a month and is going to see the doctor as she doesn't know what's going on. She's lost about 60 lbs on a low carb diet and eliminated her acid reflux, migraines, joint pains, etc. However, she's over 50 so it's not my place to be the diet police. After a lot of poking and prodding and squeezing the information out of her it turns out she's been eating "Bran Buds" and after me hitting the roof she finally sent me an email that since she's eliminated the bran buds her problems disappeared. Well imagine that? Seems she was unable to conclude on her own that since she started eating them her digestive problems started. BANG HEAD ON DESK.

• Girl Guide Cookies - Two lovely young girl guides came into my place of work selling girl guide cookies. Now I've always been tempted to tell children who are eating anything with sugar that it will make them fat and ugly like me, today was the day I was able to pull it off. Have you ever seen a deer or a moose in your car headlights? That's what these poor girls looked like. I told them to move along to the next door and a lovely young lady would probably like to buy their cookies as they hurriedly moved along. She eased their confusion and fear by buying a box. Once they had left, she came out and laughed out loud about how funny it was listening in to my conversation with them.

• Wheat Sensitivity - Now here's a CBC story about wheat sensitivity which has given me much hope as to the future of wheat research looking into non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Of course the Dietician they interviewed stated what we all hear so often that had no bearing on the story covered, and spouting all the usual nonsense about gluten free products having no nutrients, etc. (like wheat does?). However, reading some of the comments made me livid. Some babbling dissonance about the uselessness of anecdotal information/cures for one. So, let's say I've got a condition like RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) for example. The doctors tell me there is no hope, no cure and that I will continue to deteriorate and die a slow and painful death even with drugs. Do I just lay down and take their word for it. Not on my life. I start exploring the internet and check out all anecdotal information I can find. If it doesn't kill me outright like hanging by my toenails over Niagara falls (ok that one I made up), then I'll try the ginger root juice cure, the apple cider vinegar and honey cure, the no-grain cure (I actually found these within minutes of googling). What the frig do I have to lose, right? Yet this person is rejecting anecdotal information out of hand. Actually I'll take anecdotal over anything else nowadays.

• Cancer Death - one of our long standing Tech people who was my age died yesterday of brain cancer. He followed his wife's dietary advice (low fat), rode his bike to work and yet seemed to have a paunch. I recall a conversation I had with him about 5 years ago when I was losing weight on a low-carb diet. He told me he had been doing Atkins but his wife put a stop to that basically saying she'd kill him if he continued doing Atkins. Those were his words. Well I'd say she probably had a lot more to do with his death than she knows, however I can't tell anyone about it except you readers. It's so sad. When I think of Vlad I think of our conversation and whether or not he would have gone so soon if he'd continued low-carbing. We will never know. May he rest in peace.