Jay Lake: Writer

I totally agree with the guy from Ireland about the culture of fear in the US. It’s probably not as notable, if you are exposed to that sort of thing all the time, but it is very notable from the outside. And like the poster, I’ve also found the US scarier in some parts than most other countries I’ve visited.

As for the iO9 article, they can pry my wheat and my carbohydrates from my cold dead fingers, to quote the NRA. Apart from genuine celiacs – which are rare – wheat is a perfectly normal and healthy food. And I’m getting very sick of the American war on wheat and carbohydrates and the resultant rise of gluten free products – not diet products, but regular stuff, especially since the substances used to replace gluten are usually stuff I cannot eat. Unless you have celiac disease – and if you do, you’ll know – there is no reason to eat gluten free. It’s a fad diet, nothing more. That’s something else that the Irish guy forgot to mention in his post – the extreme American faith in nutritionists and fad diets. Just look at the uproar about changing the bloody food pyramid, whereas no one outside the US ever cares about such things as food pyramids. I think the only place I ever saw the food pyramid was on the back of a Kellogs cereal box.

What helps is making an effort to eat a balanced diet, don’t eat too much processed food and additive laden stuff and cut down on sugary softdrinks.

Besides, every person’s metabolism is different. I have always had problems metabolizing proteins and fats. It was much worse when I was a child and couldn’t eat any meat, eggs, diary and overly fatty foods at all. It got better as I grew older and I now drink milk, eat eggs and meat, though I’m still careful about meat, eggs and fat. Meanwhile, I never had any problems with nuts, shellfish (seafood was the only protein I could eat as a kid), wheat and carbohydrates, which goes completely against the grain of current US nutritionist wisdom.

So if wheat and carbohydrates the only thing your chemo-stressed body can digest right now, then forget the nutritionists and iO9 (I really wish they would keep out of science topics at all, since they always do it badly) and eat what you feel comfortable with.