The test of using freezer zip lock bags in the food saver device results in one bag still sealed and one that has slowly let in air. This may be the bag I pulled off of the machine without remembering to wait, introducing a small leak. It deserves more testing, and in the meantime I am thawing that package to make soup with stock that needs using (I can't freeze it all). A neighbor brought over some vegetables that she thought wouldn't last during the 10 days they'll be out of town, so I'm going to figure out a chicken soup with cabbage recipe.

I'm 2/3 through the next Gary Taubes book, The Case Against Sugar. Chapter nine, "What They Didn't Know," pulls together the threads of my interest in cholesterol research and follows a few researchers who finally broke through the standardized opinions about low-fat/high carb diets to show how sugars actually behave in the metabolism. Table sugar is half glucose (that registers in blood work) and fructose (that doesn't, because is broken down in the liver first, contributing to fatty liver problems). All of this leads into the larger class of "metabolic syndrome" that is the progenitor of "Western diseases" of diabetes and heart disease, etc. And how products like high fructose corn syrup contribute to so many of those problems, all the while the sugar industry has insisted that sugar belongs in the "Generally Recognized As Safe" group of food additives. The glycemic index only registers glucose, so HFCS became somehow acceptable for diabetics. I have a short list of the most helpful blood work to show me the actual state of things. From last year to this the only thing that went up was the LDL cholesterol; my current diet has improved my triglycerides and HDL levels (they were already good, now they're better). And those are the numbers that actually seem to be more important, along with a test for inflammation. For more details I have a couple of papers to look up. He has great notes and 36 pages of references, making that further reading easy.

Down here we're into spring - Patty, are you seeing wildflowers in your neck of the woods/desert yet? If you had good rain last fall it should be an excellent year. Seasonal rainfall and flowering plants research was conducted by botanists in the years I was working in the Arizona desert, something I like to share. My daffodils are starting to open and the weeds in the turf like henbit are blooming away.