September « 2009 « Quick Reality Check Articles

September 29, 2009

Quick Realty Check – Unsustainable Health Care versus sustainable living

* All human activities consume resources including energy and materials.

* All human activities produce waste byproducts.

* If we consume energy and resources within what the sun and earth can provide in each year and we reuse and recycle our waste products, we can create a sustainable society.

* In 2007, the U.S. spent $2.26 trillion on health care, $7,439 per person, which represents approximately 15% of the Gross domestic product of the country.

* In the United States in 2007, 31% of medical costs were spent on hospital care, 21% spent on physician services, 10% spent on pharmaceuticals, 8% spent on nursing homes, 7% spent on administrative costs, and 23% spent on diagnostic laboratory services, pharmacies, medical devices etc.

* Health care activities represented one of the most significant uses of energy and materials in the United States.

* Therefore, we must focus significant efforts on simple sustainable ways that individuals can preventing the leading causes of illness and death thereby avoiding the huge resources associated with treating illnesses.

* The leading causes of death in the United States as of 2008 included heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, and Alzheimers.

* We will be creating a spin-off blog for those interested in ideas on sustainability through healthy living to prevent and treat illness.

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QRC – Energy Use 2002

Filed under: Energy, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , energy consumption, energy deficit, energy use, solar energy stored — Administrator @ 22:45

A BTU or British thermal unit is defined as the energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water degree Fahrenheit.

A quad is 1,000,000,000,000,000 BTU (1015 BTU)

In 2002, the total energy used in the world was 446 quads.

In 2002 the total energy used in the United States of America was 97 quads.

In 2002 the population of the United States of America was approximately 289 million.

In 2002 the population of the world was 6.2 billion.

In 2002 the population of the Unites States was 4.66% of the population of the world and consumed 21.7% of the total energy on earth.

In 2002, every person in the United States of America used the equivalent energy of 2,687 gallons of gasoline or 98,366 kWh

The energy used in the Unit States alone exceeds the total amount of solar energy captured by the entire world in a year!

Our entire world is running a MAJOR energy DEFICIT versus the available energy from the sun.

This “DEFICIT” which is being “FUNDED” by using oil which is actually solar energy stored over millions of years.

Our energy use is obviously unsustainable.

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September 17, 2009

QRC – Cooking beef, chicken, pork or fish can significantly increase risk of cancer

Filed under: Food, Health, Quick Reality Check — Tags: barbequed meat, breast cancer, carcinogens, cooking temperature, HCA, stomach cancer — Administrator @ 23:30

* Research has shown that some methods of cooking muscle meats such as beef, pork, chicken, and fish can form carcinogens (chemicals which may cause cancer) such as heterocyclic amines (HCAs).

BBQed meat

* HCAs form when amino acids in proteins chemically react combine with creatine in muscles at high cooking temperatures.

* Studies have shown that an increased risk of developing colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancer is associated with high intakes of well-done, fried, or barbequed meats and HCAs may be the reason.

* Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as well as by Japanese and European scientists have identified 17 different HCAs resulting from the cooking of muscle meats that may pose human cancer risk.

* Various studies have found that people who ate their beef medium-well or well had a three times higher incidence of stomach cancer than those who ate rare or medium rare beef.

* Frying, broiling, and barbecuing produce the largest amounts of HCAs because meat cooks at very high temperatures.

* Research has found that cooking at 250°C versus 200°C (482°F versus 392°F) increases HCA formation by 300%.

* Oven roasting and baking typically done below 150°C form much lower levels of HCAs however, gravy made from meat drippings does contain substantial amounts of HCAs.

* Stewing, boiling, or poaching are done at or below 100°C (212°F) produces negligible amounts of HCAs.

* Foods cooked a long time (“well-done” instead of “medium”) by other methods will also form slightly more of the chemicals.

* Partially cooking meats in the microwave oven before flame grilling or barbecuing will reduce the amounts of HCAs and helps to decrease mutagens by destroying precursors.

* If you microwave defrosted meats for at least 2-3 minutes at full power prior to cooking them, you can reduce HCA formation by up to 90 percent, and even more if you pour off the juices formed during microwaving prior to further cooking.

* Do not eat gravy made from meat drippings. Many simple recipes exist to make “gravy” such as caramelizing some onions in olive oil, adding some nice mushrooms, and then adding water and boiling the mixture to form a gravy. Starch can be added to thicken if desired. This type of gravy will not contain HCAs.

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September 14, 2009

Quick Reality Check – Water Hidden in the food you Eat

Filed under: Food, Quick Reality Check — Tags: gallons of water, water in food, water use — Administrator @ 23:55

* The average water use per person in North America for personal hygiene and cooking is about 100 gallons per day.

* The most significant water use by each person each day is the water used to grow their food!!

* One pound of Potatoes uses 60 gallons to grow and provides 422 calories;

* One pound of Wheat uses 108 gallons of water to grow and provides 518 calories;

* One pound of Corn uses 168 gallons of water to grow and provides 428 calories;

* One pound Rice uses 229 gallons of water to grow and provides 596 calories;

* One pound of Soybeans use 240 gallons of water to grow and provides 786 calories.

* One pound of Beef uses 2,500 gallons of water to grow and provides only 1,210 calories.

* Obviously, eating grains and cereals directly rather than eating meat can reduce the “hidden” water use of our society by over 90% !!

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Quick Reality Check – The Rice, Wheat, Corn and Oil – the real axis of evil

Filed under: Food, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , Corn, hydrocarbons, Rice, rotation of crops, Solar energy, sustainable farming, Wheat — Administrator @ 00:07

* Rice, Wheat and Corn have been the dominant agricultural crops for over 10,000 years.

* Rice, Wheat, and Corn convert solar energy into a dense carbohydrate bundles which can easily be stored or transported for future use.

* Rice, Wheat, and Corn therefore represent an accumulation of wealth and are more than just “food”.

* Historically, there were two forms of sustainable farming.

* One form of sustainable farming was practiced around rivers where annual “floods” would scour the land and leave behind nutrient rich flood planes where wheat, corn and rice can thrive. This can be a sustainable practice however, many flood planes are now covered with cities and are no longer available for growing food.

* Another form of sustainable agriculture involved a rotation of crops and could be used everywhere. Some years wheat or corn would be grown. Other years crops which add nitrogen to the soil would be grown while in other years specific crops would be planted and plowed back into the ground to maintain the fertility of the soil.

* Today, we plant the same crops in the same fields each year and we use about 5.5 gallons of fossil energy to “restore” fertility to an acre land. This means that every year we are using about 400 to 500 years worth of “solar energy” in the form of hydrocarbons to maintain our “unsustainable society” also termed “catastrophic agriculture” by some scientists and historians.

* It is true that sustainable agriculture requires more labor and is not as “productive” per acre but if we considered a more “balanced” diet containing 75% less meat, we could sustain ourselves and our society.

* We must eat more foods in their natural “unprocessed” form in order to maintain our health and to ensure that we can feed future generations.

* Our modern farming practices have eliminated our “arable land”. Every single calorie we eat is backed by at least a calorie of oil, more like ten. In 1940 the average farm in the United States produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil energy it used. By 1974, the last year in which anyone looked closely at this issue, that ratio was 1:1 and it understates the problem.

* The problem of finding and recovering oil is an ever increasing problem as well. In the 1940s we would use the energy from one barrel of oil to gather 100 barrels. Today, we must spend the energy of one barrel of oil to recover only ten barrels of oil, and this number is constantly being reduced.

* We currently devote about 82% of farm land to corn and grain which is “manufactured” into foods which creates huge profits for the “manufacturers” but not for farmers.

* In addition to the direct social and environmental costs, scientist have proven that “manufactured” foods are unhealthy because of the high levels of salt, fat and preservatives which they contain and are therefore fueling our health care crisis and epidemic levels of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease and contribute to our “overweight” society.

* Corn, wheat and rice are themselves not evil. Our society has allowed corporations to use these grains plus inexpensive oil to create an unsustainable “false economy” which is polluting our environment, destroying biodiversity, and damaging the health of individuals.

* Omachron’s scientific team is working on developing sustainable farming methods which operate entirely within the solar energy available in a year because the time for action is NOW while we have some oil reserves that we can use to build a sustainable infrastructure before it is too late.

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September 12, 2009

QRC – Some consequences of seeds and the poisons that they are immune to – the cause of future famine

Filed under: Food, Quick Reality Check — Tags: biodiversity, crop diversity, genetic crop diversity, genetically modified seeds, herbicides, Irish potato famine, pesticides — Administrator @ 22:11

* Historically, farmers in different regions of the country grew different species of the same crop therefore wheat or potatoes or corn grown in different areas would be genetically different. This crop diversity is the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants grown by different farmers. For instance, different types of corn may differ in their seed size, branching pattern, height, flower color, fruiting time, or flavor and most importantly they will vary in terms of their response to heat, cold or drought, or their ability to resist specific diseases and pests.

A corn field in Liechtenstein

* In the past, humans have cultivated thousands of plant species for food whereas we now rely on less than a dozen species for 80% of our food needs.

* Even within these dozen species, genetic diversity is being purposefully eliminated by the sale of genetically modified seeds along with the pesticides and herbicides that they are immune to.

* It seems that if current trends persist as many as half of all plant species could face extinction in the next decade. The Irish potato famine has already shown us the risks of relying on a single crop as a primary food source yet we are potentially setting ourselves up for a similar problem again.

* Large companies now sell and promote genetically modified seeds which are resistant to herbicides and pesticides. This effectively creates a “mono-culture” where there is no genetic diversity between the crops grown in different places. This means that if a disease arises which the current “mono-culture” species are not resistant to, this disease could potentially wipe out an entire crop year of corn or wheat or sugar beets with devastating consequences for society.

* In the past herbicide use had to be done carefully because herbicides could damage or kill the crop as well as the unwanted weeds. The genetically modified crops are immune to the effects of the herbicides and/or pesticides and can therefore be sprayed with them more often to produce larger yields. The problems with the increased use of herbicides/pesticides is that these materials are now found at elevated levels in the food that we eat.

* I believe that we cannot scientifically ensure that the levels of pesticides and herbicides in in the food we eat are not a health risk.

* The loss of biodiversity is considered one of today’s most serious environmental concerns.

* The wise use of crop genetic diversity in plant breeding can contribute significantly to protecting the environment. Crop varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases can reduce the need for application of harmful pesticides because more vigorous varieties can better compete with weeds.

* Drought resistant plants can help save water through reducing the need for irrigation.

* Deeper rooting varieties can help stabilize soils.

* Varieties that are more efficient in their use of nutrients require less fertilizer.

* Most importantly, perhaps, productive agricultural systems reduce or eliminate the need to cut down forest or clear fragile lands to create more farmland for food production.

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P. S. My family and I are now growing about 50% of the fruits and vegetables we eat and we are cultivating 15 species this year. We plan to grow 100% of the food needs next year, we plan to cultivate 60+ species. We have developed new advanced hydroponics and efficient LED lighting systems and other technologies to enable cost effective, environmentally sustainable means of growing plants year round in small spaces even in colder climates such as where we live – near Toronto Canada.

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September 10, 2009

QRC – Livestock – The Hidden Polluters & The Real Costs of Eating Beef

Filed under: Food, Health, Quick Reality Check — Tags: caloric intake, Eating Beef, Farm animal, grain produce, Livestock, reduce world hunger, reduces chances for cancer — Administrator @ 22:55

- Wheat yields are typically 1,800 to 3,000 lbs per acre and requires a rainfall of 150 to 300 gallons per pound of grain produced.

- Many of the poorest people on earth rely on grains as their primary diet so that when we choose to eat meat, the livestock we are feeding compete with the needs of those people.

- It takes 10 to 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, thereby converting 16,000 to 25,600 calories of grain into just 1,210 calories of meat (beef).

- The grain to produce the beef for a single meal could feed a person directly for 8-12 days.

- Farm animals consume 70% of the grain grown in America.

- If we reduced our meat consumption by HALF, and replaced it with legumes (beans) or soy products, we would save enough grain to feed 190 to 304 million people!! If we just enjoyed smaller cuts of meat, or a single burger rather than a double, we could make a big difference in the availability of grain as food for people.

- Farm animals consume 50% of the water used in America.

- Farm animals in America produce 86,000 pounds of excrement per second — about 130 times as much as is produced by all the humans in the United States. This enormous amount of pollution is huge.

- A single cow creates more pollution than driving a car every day.

- There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire human population yet more than 840 million people still going hungry every day.
Our meat-based diet is partly to blame, as land, water, and other resources that could be used to grow food for human beings are being used to grow crops for farmed animals instead.

- It takes 10 to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh such as beef.
It takes 3 to 4 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible chicken flesh.
It takes only 2 to 3 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible fish.

- My family and I are working with systems to use hydroponics to create food for people and to feed fish raised to be eaten. This provides a healthier diet for us with less waste and less water use. We have chosen to reduce our beef consumption to 1 meal per week. This will save 1,581- 2,529 pounds of grain which is enough to feed 4-6 people FOR A YEAR!!! This will also save 395,281 gallons of water.

- As an added benefit, reducing our meat consumption and controlling our total caloric intake reduces our chances for cancer, diabetes and heart disease and will likely extend our lives by 3-5 years. A simple choice to create a more sustainable future, help reduce world hunger, and still enjoy a great steak or burger once in a while.

Related article: QRC – Eating Meat and Your health
http://omachron.com/articles/2009/09/09/qrc-eating-meat-and-your-health/

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September 9, 2009

QRC – Eating Meat and Your health

Filed under: Health, Quick Reality Check — Tags: colon cancer, meat digestion, prostate cancer, red-meat — Administrator @ 23:55

I am not a vegetarian and do not advocate a vegetarian lifestyle. I am an omnivore who has decided to reduce my meat intake. I will continue to enjoy smaller portions of my favorite high quality meats thereby improving my health and potential for longevity.

Eating meat is an important health consideration.

The digestion of meat is inefficient and therefore requires the body to burn oxygen in a process called oxidation which results in the production of free radicals in the body. Many medical and scientific researchers believe that free radicals damage your body and are associated with disease and aging.

Whey, a natural bi-product of cheese manufacture is a high quality protein that is easy to digest and can be efficiently broken down by the body to provide needed protein with lower levels of free radicals produced compared to meat digestion. Simply cutting back on eating meat and getting some of your proteins from legumes, soy, or whey can potentially improve your health.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that “Men who eat red meat as a main dish five or more times a week have four times the risk of colon cancer of men who eat red meats less than once a month”. Heavy red-meat eaters were also found to have twice the risk of prostate cancer in a study of 50,000 male health professionals.

The risk of colon cancer increases with red meat consumption and may be associated with the methods of cooking the meat which can also introduce or create carcinogens.

It has also been found that all meats including beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, eggs, and fish form acids in the body which are known to increase the risk of many illness and disease, since the highly acid forming diet causes a large accumulation of debris and hardened mucoid plaque (mucous) in the colon. Once the colon is damaged in this way, the body’s immune system, and ability to eliminate toxins becomes compromised.

My family and I still enjoy light quality lean meats, in much smaller portions, less frequently, and our physical health is enjoying the benefits.

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