BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!

Subject: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 11:11 PM

Aha! The voice of western officialdom out there has finally discovered something I discovered many years ago by reading Taoist books and TCM (traditional Chinese Medicine) books on health, diet, etc...

They've discovered this (article on my Yahoo homepage):

Sugar and salt, like yin and yang, they are seemingly opposite tastes, but did you know that too much salt could be causing your sugar cravings?

Too much salt creates an imbalance in your body, which may in turn lead you to crave salt's yin cousin, sugar.

To beat your sugar cravings, try focusing first on reducing your salt intake.

And you don't have to worry too much about the saltshaker – studies show that 75 percent of our daily salt intake comes hidden in the form of foods like ketchup, bread and canned soups. The American Heart Association recommends eating no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day – and most of us consume that much before lunch!

Uh-huh. The Chinese divided everything up into Yin (feminine) and Yang (Masculine) categories, according to how its energy worked in nature. And among food substances, they said that sugar is extreme Yin, while salt is extreme Yang...that is, they are exactly opposite in an energetic sense (in terms of how they would affect your body and how they would taste, in all probability). So if you consume too much sugar, your body begins craving salt. If you consume too much salt, your body starts craving sugar. I think the fast food industry figured this out long ago, because they give you one set of stuff that is drenched in way too much salt...and another set of stuff that is drenched in way too much sugar. The one kicks your body violently in the Yang direction, and you get an urge to take a big hit of the other...and it kicks your body the other way...and so on...very good for their cash register, not so good for your health!

Anyway, I learned a long time ago from studying those Chinese health books that I should be moderate in my intake of both sugar and salt, and that they have opposite effects on the body.

This came in useful one time when my girlfriend had eaten some sugary stuff, and she complained that it was really making her teeth hurt (it's quite acidic and it attacks tooth enamel and causes irritation to surrounding tissues). I said, "Put some salt in warm water and swish it around in your mouth. That should help."

She did so, and was immediately relieved of the discomfort, much to her surprise and relief.

Everything that sugar does to your body, salt will do the opposite. Too much of either will do harm.

Don't get misled about the Yin being "feminine" and the Yang being "masculine"....it doesn't mean that women are all Yin and men are all Yang. They actually both need to balance Yin and Yang within themselves to be most healthy and stable, but the Chinese saw the feminine archetype in Nature as being Yin (wet, cool, flowing, soft, sweet, moonlight, night, water, etc.) and the masculine archetype in Nature as being Yang (dry, hot, solid, rigid, salty, sunlight, day, fire, etc.).

Some foods are seen as almost perfectly balanced between Yin and Yang, and among those is rice, so it makes a good staple for one's diet.

Some foods are a combination of Yin and Yang. A soup is Yin in that it is liquid, but if it's hot and/or spicy that brings in lots of Yang energy. Yang warms you up. Yin cools you down. Yang excites. Yin calms. Yang is forceful. Yin is yielding.

Although a man and a woman both need about equal amounts of Yin and Yang in their diet and their internal bodily systems and their general lifestyle to be healthy, they appear outwardly to embody the 2 archetypes that make up the whole. In uniting the apparent opposites in equal measure, one finds health and balance.

Some of you will be open to these concepts. Others won't, and will delight in scoffing at the whole idea. That doesn't really matter, but if you are interested in it, it's quite a fascinating subject.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:15 AM

Thanks, Little Hawk. I agree that most people need to reduce their salt intake. But don't cut it out completely. I've known a couple people who've had to be hospitalized because they weren't getting enough salt.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:44 AM

Definitely. We all need a normal amount of salt in our diet. Natural sea salt is the best way to go, as the commercially made salt has quite a bit of harmful additives in it, but when you eat out you won't have much choice about that.

Neither Yin nor Yang are bad...they're just harmful when taken in excess. For instance, too much heat will kill you, and so will too much cold. Too much dryness will kill you, and so will too much moisture. And so it goes.

As for sugar, people would get enough of that if they just ate normal amounts of fruit and carbohydrates without adding any processed sugar at all to their diet.

Salt, by the way, is absolutely great for brushing and cleaning your teeth and your mouth and tongue if it is mixed with some water. You just spit it out when you're done.

Among the foods that are best balanced between Yin and Yang are most fresh vegetables and a number of grains. Meat tends to be more to the Yang side, fruit tends to be more to the Yin side. In a cold climate you need more Yang food, because it helps warm you up. In a hot climate you need more Yin food, less Yang food. The traditional Inuit ate a diet (meat and fat) that was almost totally on the Yang side...very well designed for the very cold northern climate they had to endure...in the warm season they could get food from certain plants, and that would work well to balance their diet to match the weather conditions. Nature usually provides pretty much what is needed according to the climate of the area you're living in.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Taconicus
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 01:44 AM

I emptied my salt and pepper shakers and filled them with yin and yang instead. Never better.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 05:34 AM

I have always enjoyed the Big Yin

L in C#

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 05:38 AM

I don't add salt to anything, but there's enough in most ready made stuff to last me, I'm sure. I hardly add any sugar to anything - but alcohol is really sugar in disguise :(   

Now if there's anything that will magic away the additional circumference largely caused by sugars (and alcohol) I would be glad to know.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:13 AM

I think 'everything in moderation' is quite a good motto. If by Big Yin you mean Billy Connelly, Les, I enjoy him too!

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Lox
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:19 AM

Interesting - I have too much of both!

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: freda underhill
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:21 AM

Glad to hear it LH - Yindicated at least!

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:39 AM

It's not just the salt police who are not always right. For several years I have been worried about the dire warnings about the dangers of exposure to the sun - in England! Yes, you do have to use common sense in summer but I have been more worried about the dangers of rickets, and cases of rickets have now been reported in Southampton and Newcastle.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 08:59 AM

Salt, sugar, alcohol, grease, and chocolate -- the five building blocks of life. But in moderation, and don't be excessive in your moderation, either. Moderation in moderation only!

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 10:38 AM

Hmmm. Ya know what, Taconicus? Both salt and pepper are extreme Yang. ;-) For a hefty dose of Yin, you would have to fill your salt and pepper shakers with sugar and/or alcoholic beverages which are extreme Yin. I guess chocolate would be strong Yin too, if it's sweetened, but I'm not sure what it would be if it's not sweetened.

As for the Sun, Taoist teachings and TCM would recommend a fair bit of exposure to both sunlight and fresh air for good health...but sunlight in moderation, of course. The time to avoid direct sunlight is during midday and early afternoon in summer when the rays are the strongest...as is well understood by people in the tropics.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 11:02 AM

I thought vindication had something to do with wine bottles.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 05:26 PM

Topsie, I have understood that the rickets problem is because of cultural diet. In England, vitamin D is added to margerine to combat rickets, but people who use Ghee instead of margerine, and wear enveloping clothing, reducing the sunlight on their skin, are vulnerable to rickets.

My information may be out of date now, but that is the way I read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 05:38 PM

Vindication....sex with a wine bottle

vin = wine

dic = penis

ation = filthy oriental practices

Its from the Latin.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: gnu
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 05:50 PM

Al.... hahahahahaa.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 05:57 PM

Fornication = Sex with someone to whom one is not married.

Vindication = Sex with someone too drunk to know or care whether or not he or she is married.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 06:05 PM

The former is an example of Yang sex, while the latter is an example of Yin sex. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 07:11 PM

Thanks Little Hawk(yo-ho)...that means I don't have to give up my favorite candy cigarettes??


GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 07:13 PM

Gurney - the current concern is about white children spending too much time indoors, and wearing factor 50 sunscreen when they do go out, through fear of skin cancer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/hampshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9363000/9363679.stm

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 03:35 AM

Topsie, you can't do right for doing wrong, can you!
Use sunblock and you get rickets, don't use it and you get skin cancer.
Sports injuries or lack of flexibility.
Allergies or restricted diet.

Factor 50 sunscreen is ridiculous. This means that if the burn-time is 30mins (common here in NZ in summer) then you would be protected for 33 hours of sunbaking, considering 8 of them are nightime.
Or have they changed the coding? You used to multiply the burn-time by the protection factor when I was involved in a firm that made it.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 04:26 PM

Fornication = Sex with someone to whom one is not married.

Vindication = Sex with someone too drunk to know or care whether or not he or she is married.

Obfuscation = a result of Sex with someone who will get you into trouble if the truth comes out.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Slag
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 04:53 PM

Any good cook knows that salt enhnaces the taste of sugar. In a like manner fat carries the flavor of most foods, especially meat. The best in pastries has the sweet, enough salt that you know it's there and oil or butter. With such ingredients they will hang around a long, long time.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 03:30 PM

"vitamin D is added to margarine to combat rickets, but people who use Ghee instead of margarine ... are vulnerable to rickets"

Using ghee is not the problem - it is made from butter and therefore already contains vitamin D. The vitamins are added to margarine to bring it up to the standard of butter, because people were using margarine instead of butter, which used to result in vitamin defficiency.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 10:28 AM

I've always thought that salt was used in excess commercially to mask the fact that ready meals and other convenience foods are made with crap, tasteless ingredients. A certain large retailer, more noted for its ladies' underwear but which now also deals in "premium" own-brand grub, has made a big thing of cutting down salt in its foods. Now they all taste like crap. Or crapper than before, shall we say.

Subject: RE: BS: Ha! Vindicated at last!
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 01:56 PM

hhmmmm... I do not like salt. I purposely avoid processed food because it has too much salt in it.   Sometimes I get salt deprived (especially if I have been drinking a lot of water) and get cramps in legs and feet. If raw celery (which I love) has a salty taste I won't eat it.   

But I still like my sugar and hate honey. I like dark bitter chocolate. I don't like aubergine (egg plant) because it is bitter.

Love lemon sourness... hate grapefruit sourness?

What's up with that?