On Thu, Sep 08, 2011 at 08:50:43PM +0530, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > 6. Yes you can cook cheap (beans and rice with hot sauce) or you can cook > cordon bleu gourmet with imported cuts of meat and spend a fortune on sous > vide vacuum sealers and temperature controlled cookers if you think you're > Ferran Adria's long lost doppelganger. Most people find a golden mean > somewhere between the two. And again, the cents you save by living on beans > and rice with hot sauce will probably translate to several hundred dollars > worth of medical expenses starting with blood work for cholesterol.
A beans-and-rice diet is pretty healthy, and whatever its deficiencies might be, raising your cholesterol isn't among them! <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-blood-cholesterol/DS00178/DSECTION=risk-factors> lists "smoking, obesity, poor diet, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, diabetes, and faimly history of heart disease" as the known major risk factors, and their description of "poor diet" is "foods high in cholesterol, ... saturated fat, and trans fats". Beans and rice contain no cholesterol or trans fats and almost no saturated fat. > 7. Yes, you can grow a herb garden in your yard if you have a house with a > yard rather than a shoebox apartment, get access to good herbs, pesticide, > fertilizer and such [not to mention having some of your herbs either just die > on you for no reason or get eaten by birds, say] If you have a house with a yard, you can grow a lot more than an herb garden. You can grow an herb garden in pots in window boxes if you have windows. My last apartment was 35 square meters, IIRC. The balcony was full of pots. We have a lot more space now. We never used pesticide or fertilizer on them. The whole point of planting herbs first is that they are useful in much smaller quantities than bulk foods like rice or even spinach, so even window-box quantities are useful. > 8. I'll agree with the bicycle part though you can catch a cold just as > easily riding a bicycle + getting soaked in rain as you can by sitting next > to someone with a cold in a crowded bus (which is anyway stuffy and > overheated before you step out into chilly, snowy weather) Probably not. From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold#Risk_factors>: > * The role of body cooling in causing the common cold is controversial.[17] > It is the most commonly offered folk explanation for the disease, and it has > received some experimental evidence. One study showed that exposure to the > cold causes cold symptoms in about 10% of those exposed, and that the > subjects experiencing this effect report far more colds overall than those > who do not.[18] However, a variety of other studies do not show such an > effect.[17] > ... > > 17 ^ a b c Mourtzoukou, E.G.Falagas, M.E. "Exposure to cold and respiratory > tract infections". The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung > Disease, Volume 11, Number 9, September 2007 , pp. 938-943(6). > > 18 ^ Johnson, C, Eccles R. "Acute cooling of the feet and the onset of common > cold symptoms." Fam Pract. 2005 Dec;22(6):608-13. Epub 2005 Nov 14. It snowed here in 2007 once. > 9. As for adapting to chilly weather, if you want you can learn from the > netbsd developer known as "der mouse" who wears nothing except shorts, > tshirts, flip flops and a beard to rival zz top, even in the height of a > montreal winter. > > https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=543483293097&set=o.7853633068&type=1 ...that's awesome, but he's also wearing a jacket and cap. Also, those are Birkenstocks, not flip-flops. Birkenstocks are warmer but lead to smelly feet. They also don't make the "flip, flop" sound as you walk. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flops> are what I am talking about. In any case, clearly I need to start taking cold showers to strengthen myself. > 10. A wall that's painted but not decorated, fine. A dish that isn't washed > means you're up to your ass in cockroaches. A knife you haven't sharpened > means you just can't cut a damned thing with it [and there you go, with > another do it yourself task in front of you, sharpening a blunt knife and > washing dishes] They're all missed opportunities to create harmony in my surroundings without spending a significant amount of income. So far the cockroaches have stayed away this winter. As spring comes around, we'll have to be more disciplined about the dishes. Kragen
