Sugar: your death sentence

Run away from sugar: it is your death sentence.
Read the food labels and learn to recognize the 56 names for sugar since approximately 80% of the 600,000 U.S. food items contain some kind of added sugar.

How to build a portfolio after age of 36

At my advanced age, I am desperately trying to create a retirement portfolio that can carry me over bad times. 

Considering that I started to work late (at 32, after obtaining my PhD degree), and was not eligible to participate in the measly University retirement plan until age of 36, building retirement funds has required perseverance and mindfulness (instead of frugality).  This period is mostly limited to the past four years, when we, as a family, finally found ourselves free of debt and mortgage-free. 

These four years have been a mad rush/frantic attempt to compensate at least in a minuscule way for all the lost decades of low stipends or fellowships. The pitiful financial situation has been compounded by the fact that both, my husband and I, are PhDs (OK, I know it is hilarious, but do not laugh too much).

Obviously, by starting to invest late in life, we do not have too much time for capital growth.  Also, we cannot observe the traditional financial advice. For example, I am not sure whether to keep up with the advice on asset allocation that the years till retirement (i.e., the years of investing) should determine the equities:bonds ratio in the portfolio. 

Currently, my best paid years and my increased ability to invest suddenly coincide with a time that I consider "close to retirement" for many reasons (in addition to our age, continuous employment is never guaranteed).  So, according to the commonly dispensed wisdom, at this time my asset allocation should include a healthy portion of bonds. 

If I oblige to this wisdom, I would entirely skip the aggressive stage of building a portfolio (i.e., the time when one invests 100% in stocks). The question is, considering the specifics of my retirement investment saga, should I consider bonds or not? Obviously, my return will go down by investing a percent of the funds in bonds, but would not a cushion of 20-30% bonds in the portfolio improve the situation in any financial downturn in the future?

Plagued by thoughts of my profound financial ignorance, I have been trying to read more on who weathered the largest stock market crashes and how. In this process I found a summary of the 10 biggest market crashes in the U.S.: Stock Market Crashes of 1930, 1937, 1906, 1929, 1919, 1901, 1973, 1939, 1916, 2000.

The largest crash was between 1930 and 1932, and during this time the stock market loss exceeded 86%. The estimate was that to recover $10,000 invested prior to this crash would have taken 22 years.  

On the other hand, according to this webpage, if one had continued investing $1,000/year in the stock market even after the Great Depression, the recovery time would have been 7 years.

I am aware that everyone in retirement should maintain enough cash to cover approximately three years of a stock market downturn (i.e., leave the stock and investments to heal), but how about having enough savings to cover seven years, plus additional funds to invest each year? This seems onerous to impossible to achieve.  

There are already too many bugaboos in our lives, and a life without hope is not worth living. Therefore, I hope that the current built-in U.S. financial mechanisms would prevent a prolonged downfall of the stock market in the future.  

I also hope that by doing my best now (i.e., by investing as much as I can, and by building healthy lifestyle habits), no matter what happens in the future, I would be able to look back without regrets.

Actionable
Keep reading J Collins and his stock series and maintain your health. In short, fight for your freedom.

When do you live?

Below are the requirements for the position of Assistant Professor in Biology in the University X (U.S.A.). This is one of the many similar job announcements for Ph.D.-level graduates. As I read these job descriptions, my heart cringes and my question is, when do Ph.D.s live? Remember that unlike other advanced degree-graduates, Ph.D.s start their careers late in life (in the U.S., at least after 5-6 years of academics) and at low, low salaries/fellowships.

Teach three courses (9 credits) each semester that fulfill the requirements for the Biology and Science degrees using traditional, hybrid and online delivery methods. Courses include but are not limited to at least one upper level course in plants or fungi, one upper level course in genetics, and introductory level courses in these areas.

Teaching assignments may require teaching day, evening and/or Saturday classes as needed.

Publish in refereed journals.

Participate in professional organizations and in course, curriculum, and program development. 

Advise students and provide career guidance.

Participate in campus, University, and community service activities. 
 
It seems like 24/7 job. I am yet to read a job description that states "the candidate should demonstrate a successful ability to balance life and work"?

Disappointed at the PhDs?

Have you seen the most recent post on mercola.com? It was about Gregory Hand, Ph.D., a former dean of the West Virginia School of Public Health.

Dr. Hand supposedly was forced out as dean because of his involvements with Coca-Cola.

(A) According to post, the company gave Dr. Hand more than half a million dollars to start a nonprofit group to "educate" our communities that lack of exercise, and not soft drinks, is responsible for obesity.

(B) The company also funded some "studies" that Dr. Hand conducted as a researcher.

If all this is true,  why does not our society demote this PhD and all other PhDs who lie? Just take away their "PhD" title  - it is not put to good use, obviously. Do we need more lies in our lives? Don't we have enough deceit already?

If you want to learn about more intricate lies and liars, read this.

Embelin Against Cancer

The herbal factor embelin may have utility against colitis-induced cancer through suppression of macrophages

Macrophages are a major component of inflammatory and tumor microenvironment. We previously reported that embelin suppresses colitis-associated tumorigenesis. Here, the role of macrophage targeting in the anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties of embelin was investigated. By using colitis-associated cancer (CAC) model, we demonstrated that embelin significantly depleted colonmacrophages by blocking their recruitment. Moreover, embelin attenuated M2-like polarization of macrophages within the tumor microenvironment and eliminated their tumor-promoting functions during the development of CAC. Embelin potently inhibited NF-κB signaling in macrophages and decreased the production of key pro-inflammatory cytokines and tumorigenic factors involved in CAC, such as TNFα, IL-6 and COX-2. In addition, embelin directly reduced the polarization of M2 macrophages in vitro even in the presence of Th2 cytokines. These results suggested that targeting macrophages is, at least in part, responsible for the anti-tumor activity of embelin in CAC. Our observations strengthen the rationale for future validation of embelin in the prevention and treatment of CAC.

Who Stole the American Dream

I just watched a thought-provocative talk: "How the Rich Bought America: Why the Middle Class Is Struggling - Personal Finance (2012)" by Hedrick Smith.

Smith was a reporter and editor for The New York Times, a producer/correspondent for the PBS show Frontline, and is the author of several books.The talk is based upon one of these books, "Who Stole the American Dream?". 

This book was published in 2012, made The New York Times national bestseller's list, and I never heard about the publication until today. The talk on YouTube probably re-surfaced because of all the commotion around the upcoming elections. It is ironic that everything Smith said in 2012 is still relevant and nothing has been done, no improvement has been achieved in the past four years.

If you have not read the book, might be of interest to listen to the talk. Especially NOW, before the elections of 2016. I was so impressed by the talk that I will seek to read the book.

Aspartame and the American Cancer Society: not so funny

Here is what I was reading today on the website of the American Cancer Society (ACS) about aspartame:

"In the body, aspartame is broken down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. Methanol can be toxic in high amounts, but the amounts that result from the breakdown of aspartame is lower than with many “natural” foods. For example, drinking a liter of diet soda would lead to consumption of 55 milligrams (mg) of methanol, as compared to as much as 680 mg of methanol from a liter of fruit juice."

At first I thought it was funny (if ignorant = funny), but then I got angry. How is it that a society of such a prestige does not advise its audience that both types of drink are not good (with or without aspartame)? But what do I expect from a society that organizes massive anti-cancer events that overflow with candy?

The additional information supplied by the website is intriguing:

"The FDA has set the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which regulates food additives in the European Union, recommends a slightly lower ADI for aspartame, at 40 mg/kg."

Consider this information. Compared to Europeans, Americans are somehow 25% more resistant to the effects of aspartame (and its ADI). Of course, I cannot blame ACS for this estimate, after all, FDA decided on this.

Supposedly, ADI is set to be about 100 times less than the smallest amount that might cause health concerns, based on studies done in lab animals. And here comes the discussion of the animal studies:

"Many studies have looked for health effects in lab animals fed aspartame, often in doses higher than 4,000 mg/kg per day over their lifetimes. These studies have not found any health problems that are consistently linked with aspartame.

Two studies published by a group of Italian researchers suggested that very high doses of aspartame might increase the risk of some blood-related cancers (leukemias and lymphomas) in rats. However, both the FDA and the EFSA have called these results into question, citing a lack of some important data in the published studies and other concerns."

How about the dangers of irritability, depression, deteriorated emotional condition, reduced brain function/learning capabilities, and overweight/obesity?


I had to look beyond the website of ACS for this information. Here is what I found:

1.The reason artificially sweetened beverages have been associated with depression may be because of psychological disturbances recently tied to aspartame (“Equal” or “NutraSweet”).

2. Case reports of fibromyalgia chronic pain sufferers cured by removing the artificial sweetener aspartame (Nutrasweet) from their diets.

3. Aspartame may be the reason that diet soda consumption during pregnancy has been linked to premature birth.

4. What effect do artificial sweeteners such as sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet & Low), aspartame (Nutrasweet) and acesulfame K (Sweet One) have on our gut bacteria?

5. People consuming low calorie sweeteners may overcompensate by eating more than they otherwise would.

6. The disconnect between sweetness sensations coming from our tongue and the lack of a caloric feedback loop in the gut may result in overeating. 

7. Case report of aspartame-associated brain disease.

You are what you do

The title is the abbreviated version of the full quote I liked:

"You aren’t what you think or say. You are what you do." 

And this quote comes from an excellent recent post on moneyboss.com:

What’s the Worst That Could Happen? Using Action and Momentum to Achieve Your Goals 

The Freshman 15

With the new college year starting, it is timely to consider the diet and weight of our young students.

From this Wikipedia page, one can learn that there is much controversy about the so-called "freshman 15," the notion that college freshmen tend to gain weight due to unhealthy eating habits, poor food choices, alcohol consumption, stress and other overall unhealthy habits.

There seems be a disconnect between studies on the topic, personal anecdotal observations and common sense interpretations of this topic.

My own person experience living away at college - oh those many years ago - is more consistent with the anecdotal observations than with anything else.  Besides the poor everyday habits (little rest, lack of consistent schedule, partying), and the typical consumption of pizza and soda, the truth of the matter was that the dining hall food was horrendous.

The best meal of the day was breakfast, and there the healthiest choices were eggs, hash browns, bacon sausage, white toast with butter and/or jelly, and oatmeal.  At least some of the egg meals tasted reasonably well, as long as the eggs did not feel not "rubbery".

Lunch was a step down in quality, but was still halfway edible - typically the healthiest choices (the adjective "healthy" is in a relative, not absolute, sense) were a bowel of salty soup and a hamburger with cheap gristle-filled meat.

But breakfast and lunch paled compared to the horrors of dinner.  Yegads!  Some sort of unidentifiable, tough meat, drowned in vomit-like "sauce," accompanied by plastic-like frozen vegetables, stale bread, maybe a salad with wilted lettuce and sugar-laden dressing.

At some point, the dining service started serving cereal and ice cream as a main meal for dinner - the students would line up in front of huge bins filled with Captain Crunch, before moving on the the ice cream dispensers.  The cereal was the main meal and the ice cream was the dessert, or vice versa, I can't remember.

So, the tastiest choices were relatively unhealthy, and the overall lousy quality prompted students to order from outside: the usual pizza with the ever present bottle of soda.  After the pizza, the next item on the agenda was partying and beer drinking.  Weight gain?  Are we surprised?

Sunday in pictures

The summer garden is still gorgeous

Phlox burst of color

My "August" thyme is blooming, I hope I have time to harvest some for tea

 The weekends are usually time to re-charge, but also time to embark on some necessary or not-so-necessary projects. For example, every weekend in good weather includes some garden work, but I also have "paint" jobs (see the chairs below) and maintenance projects (such as the driveway sealing).

Gorgeous blue hues to reanimate the tired August garden

My little project today: seal the driveway with the remnants of Ultra-Maxx. I did not have enough material to seal the entire driveway since I had just a couple of leftover buckets from the previous summer ordeal.

Well-deserved bouquet after a weekend of action

One of my previous Sunday weekend projects: injecting color in my sterile environment

Dinner tonight: fried squash

The wild flowers in the garden work against the exhausted in August garden

Weekend sorrows: the squirrel invasion

By Mariappan Jawaharlal, Wikipedia

Yesterday instead of our clean kitchen, we found a crazy mess. Let me explain.

We had left home only for one hour to do some food shopping and run a few other chores. When we came home loaded with grocery bags, instead of the tidy kitchen we left, we found "a brownie mess".

After the shock, we started to investigate. We had our kitchen window open to the garden, but we had (as always) the window screen on. I used to believe that the window screen was a sufficient barrier to animals. Not anymore.

The window screen in the kitchen was broken through in several places, and it became clear that a small animal must have entered the kitchen, and devoured a few brownies from a batch that I had left to cool down on the kitchen counter. Then obviously the pest became frantic (sugar rush?) and a few pots in the adjacent living room were overturned with the plants and soil strewn on the wooden floor.

The kitchen window, the screen and the window frame were all smeared with chocolate from the crumbled brownies. Of course, we looked through the house for the animal (whatever that was). Nothing. At the end, we decided (hoped) that whatever visited the kitchen exited it through the same path, the kitchen window screen.

The cleaning revealed multiple animal hairs: dark-colored, coarse, approximately two inches long. They were all over our kitchen sink and the toaster (these are right next to the kitchen window).

After bleaching and cleaning obsessively, and looking for the unknown intruder throughout the house, I was able to search the Internet for the problem. Here is what I found from this website:

Make sure you’re not attracting squirrels to the cottage: Move bird feeders away from the building, cut back overhanging branches, and remember that kitchen food smells—especially baking—will encourage them to climb right through open windows. (So don’t leave any pies cooling on the sill, Grandma.)

Now "Grandma" (me) knows better.

I still have to deal with the consequences: throw the toaster (it had animal hair on it, and probably in it), throw the sink sponge, bleach everything around, of course - throw the remaining brownies, and finally, repair the broken screen. Well, it is the weekend, after all, I could add more to my to-do list!

I hope that you have a better weekend!

Worth reading: recoil from the everyday crazy pace

Have you read the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series" by Alexander McCall Smith? I have read a few of the books and recently was enjoying again the "Blue Shoes and Happiness" book. 

The life in Botswana follows a different rhythm - this of self-respect and respect to everyone else. One can practice this conduct only if adopting a slower pace of life. 

Here is a sentence from the book. The major character, Mma Ramotswe, remembers her father and shares her hope that one day, when her life ends, she would be reunited with him. About this hope, she thought, "...but we surely had to hope, and a life without hope of any sort was no life: it was a sky without stars, a landscape of sorrow and emptiness".

Crystal Deodorant

This is a product I personally use.

The typical deodorants one finds in stores irritate my skin, causing intense itching, redness, inflammation, pain, and skin darkening. I tried some so-called "natural deodorants" but the same thing happened after a while. However, the crystal deodorants do not cause any skin problems. I was initially skeptical that the product would actually work as a deodorant, but it does, apparently by inhibiting the growth of odor-causing bacteria.

The road makes us more human

The title re-phrases a poet I read long time ago. The "road" can lead to a physical destination or could be a process of achieving a goal. Either effort feeds the soul.

What does not feed the soul is pessimism, negative news, dark movies and books … All of these are “junk” food for the soul. Therefore, negativism/pessimism should be avoided the same way we avoid feeding our body with junk food.

We should also avoid surrounding ourselves with people who are unhappy and pessimistic – such situation is reminiscent of a cafeteria full of junk food, where one has to engage all his willpower not to swallow whatever is served.

On the other hand, optimism, hope, and plans for a better future nourish the soul the same way healthy foods nurture our immune system, brain, and body functions.

Optimism means having goals and a life destination. The path to the destination should be as joyful as you imagine the final destination would be.  

However, on the road of achieving long-term goals, one could become fatigued and jaded. This is why we need short-term goals, the accomplishment of which boosts the self-confidence. 

On the way to financial and health freedom, we should also pose from time to time, and reflect on the future. Visualize ourselves already independent, but still filled with vigor. 

What would I do with my newly found freedom? I still do not know, but what I know is that once at the destination, the feeling of freedom will increase my creativity and broaden my mind. And this, at least to me, is the definition of happiness. 

Actionable
Stop being a passive consumer of negative and pessimistic news, books, and mainstream media "entertainment". Clarify your short-term and long-term goals and get on the path of your destination.