Thursday, July 22, 2010

Total Perspective Vortex and vegicide

For those who have failed to read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a little information about the Total Perspective Vortex is required. It's in context here.

The relevant quote is this one:

"To Trin Tragula’s horror, the shock completely annihilated her [his wife's] brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot have is a sense of proportion"

I hate to mention anyone with an annihilated brain after mentioning poor Dr Stanton, but here is the key quote from Dr T Colon Campbell (none of the rest is worth reading):

"In summary, Denise’s critique lacks a sense of proportionality."

Phew, just as well, we need Denise with a non annihilated brain to crunch numbers for us.

But the implication, unstated, is that Dr Colon has a sense of proportionality.

Explains a lot really.

Peter

BTW Zaphod eats the cake. There, ruined the series for you!

24 comments:

LeonRover said...

Surely not a Colon, more a SemiColon - maybe Denise can bring him to a Full Stop.

Unknown said...

One of the best series' ever, really deserves to be a part of every debate. Thanks for bringing it into this one!

Too bad Douglas Adams died on a treadmill, if i recall correctly. Narrowed arteries + fitness claims another great :(

More of Adams' always-applicable genius:

"To summarize: It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem."
--The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 1980

Thanks for the blog and everything you've done since the start, even if i'll never fully understand all of it.

Peter said...

Leon, I have a mind like a sewer, I was not thinking punctuation...

Hi Nathan, and Marvin is great too. Clearly based on Eeyore, who has some of the best quotes ever, though most refer to wildwater kayaking rather than nutrition (It's wet... etc)

Peter

LeonRover said...

Hey Peter, while yer still in Glasgie, youse gotta get a reason to post on Hamish Imlach, Hairy Mary and Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice.

Peter said...

Crackin' stuff

P

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Adams a vegetarian?

I vow henceforth to refer to Campbell as "colon"

Anna said...

Oh, Peter, you are too funny! Colon, indeed.

Joanne said...

I only came across your blog a month or so ago (but have read it widely) and think it's outstanding. I have a couple of queries - are you concerned about your calcium intake and have you had a recent DEXA, and assuming you wanted to run 10k, do you think your training effort or speed would be adversely affected in comparison to a higher carbohydrate diet? Thanks for taking the time to run your blog. It's very entertaining.

praguestepchild said...

Dr T, the only being in the Universe, other than Zaphod, with an ego large enough to survive the Total Perspective Vortex.

praguestepchild said...

Oops, I meant Dr Colon

LeonRover said...

Don't Vegan aliens indulge in Colonic Irrigation?

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's a silly question (and off-topic to boot), but what do you guys think of Dr. Atkins' cause of death?

when it happened I wasn't into nutrition and I missed the probable discussions, and what I find now on the net I don't know what's real.

could it be, as I suspect, that he just wasn't following a LC diet? just sell it?

gallier2 said...

Hey Gabriel, cracking ones skull by slipping on ice is really caused by low-carb diets... Had he been a Colon Campbell vegetarian it would not have happened, he would have been freezing so strongl he would never haved dared oout ;-)

Anonymous said...

I was actually referring to the autopsy that showed several heart attacks? and mrs. Atkins tried to stop it becoming public? again going off wikipedia and public sources here... not an expert. I'm actually feeling great on LC myself.

Anonymous said...

Gabriel,

Here's a link to facts about Adkins death:

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/atkinsdiet/a/dratkinsdeath.htm

Peter said...

Hi Garbiel,

Yes, more information on that would be worth having. I am certainly unaware of any evidence ever that Dr Atkins had any infarcts. The head injury is unarguable.

I believe that it is well known that Dr Atkins had a chronic myocardial problem which I believe had been diagnosed as viral in origin (seems to be a highly unlikely explanation to me, but I have no way of knowing what this diagnosis was based on). If I recall correctly the Atkins Diet does allow progessively increasing carbohydrate within weight stability and does not avoid gluten. As carbs increase the likelihood of gluten inclusion clearly rises.

Anyone with a mystery cardiomyopathy would do well to avoid gluten. In fact anyone alive who wishes to stay healthy might do well to follow that advice...

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/04/gluten-and-cardiomyopathy.html

So no, I doubt Dr A had three myocardial infarctions. We would have heard a great deal about it had this been the case. We all know Dr A's death certificate was obtained under fraudulent circumstances by the chap from PCRM (forget his name, but he's the only person to get plasma lipid deterioration in a study of the Atkins Diet).

Any reliable data would be much appreciated, keep looking but don't hold your breath while hunting!

Yes, LC does make you feel great, keep with it but don't forget the butter and eggs...........

Peter

Ned Kock said...

Talking about simplifying things Peter, do you have the link to that "weather rock" photo you posted sometime ago?

That's the one with you near a sign saying like things like "if rock is wet, rain; if rock disappears, tornado etc."

Anna said...

Gabriel,

Regarding various report of Atkins' "fraudulent health", don't forget that hospital patients on life support & IV saline will literally swell up from water retention, hence their weight also goes up. It isn't fat gain, tho.

On the other hand, Peter brings up some interesting points about the gluten. I *do* think it is possible to increase one's exposure to gluten on a LC diet, esp if making heavy use of processed LC "machine cuisine" products and recipes that simulate HC wheat baked products.

For instance, LC bread and baked products commonly have lots o' wheat gluten added to boost dough rising performance (also soy flour is commonly added to reduce starch and boost protein content). Those on Atkins-style LC diets (as opposed to grain-free Real Food LC) tend to eat a lot of LC processed "fake" foods, often ingesting a high amount of gluten in the process.

Anonymous said...

There is also no explicit PUFA restriction on Atkins so 6:3 ratios may be out of whack and add to any gluten eaten.

The fabled pork rinds were probably fried in safflower or corn oil!

I believe Atkins had a viral cardiomyopathy - not an uncommon diagnosis. Not quite as common as ischemic or alcoholic cardiomyopathy, but common enough. One could have areas of infarction on autopsy from a cardiomyopathy due to abnormalities of the microcirculation, so even if he had infarcts that does not mean Atkins had typical CAD.

Peter said...

Hi Ned,

It's about half way down this post

http://glasgowpictures.blogspot.com/2010/03/wee-blether.html

P

Peter said...

Hi Joanne,

No DEXA scan and no chance of repeating my coronary calcium scan in the near future.

I don't worry about osteoporosis as I aim never to be either hyperinsulinaemic or hyperglycaemic. Both of these conditions prodcue a loss of Ca along with Mg and PO4 in the urine. Eat carbs once you are insulin resistant and you can literally pee your bones down the loo.

Living within your level of insulin resistance should stop that happening and the occasional cup of bone broth should let you sort out your mineral balance without eating chalk...

As far as running the 10k, I've read Kurt's posts on the myocardial damage routine in marathon runners, so would personally avoid it like the plague. Walking 10k is great. My main unease about my own hill walking is the CV effort on the steep bits...

Most of the evidence I've seen suggest that ultimate performance probably does require carbs and sudden death is a small price to pay for winning, especially if it's not you who dies!

http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/11/1/cardio-causes-heart-disease.html

http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2010/3/21/still-not-born-to-run.html

L-C endurance athletes OUGHT to do well, but I'm not aware of any convincing evidence of this in the real world.

Back in the days when I was an high level athlete I ran on sucrose in large amounts. I would love to repeat the experience with what I know now. Flat water marathon kayak racing would probably lend itself to FFA fueled effort rather better than running. But ultimately I don't know how well it would work...

Peter

blogblog said...

Hi Joanne,
Dr Kenneth Cooper said that no one should ever run more than 5km. He also said that anyone who weighs more than 75kg should totally avoid running. In fact you only need to run 3km in 13 minutes twice a week to achieve optimum fitness.

Peter said...

That seems perfectly reasonable blogblog, but you know what humans are like. My horse is faster than your horse, oops there's the thoroughbred racing industry. My pug has a shorter face than yours, oops, there's Crufts. I can run faster than you, oops, theres a myocardial necrosis patch...

I have to admit that 10k was probably my favourite distance, very tactical compared to 500m or 46k. Mmmmmm, sucrose.

Peter

Joanne said...

Thanks for your comments. A fast 3k twice a week sounds a good compromise (and a manageable way to reduce the carbs further). To date I am not as low carb as Peter but since I got stuck into the cream and reduced the carbs to a more modest level it seems to have sorted the chilblains (live in NZ so mid winter currently)which I wasn't expecting. So a few less carbs and hopefully the osteoporosis will be sorted too.