HOW CINDERELLA WAS REALLY CHOSEN….

“Do you know how hard I've worked for you? Do you really? I've set up this ball to find you the perfect wife and all you do is whine and complain. I've brought all the most beautiful girls and princesses from all the kingdoms around and all you do is sulk because you have to make a choice! “

To herself… (Really, some boys are so spoiled! Can’t even lift a finger in their own interests. Tsk, tsk…)

“I don't want to make a choice. It feels so unfair. If I choose just one, all the others will be slighted and kingdoms could go to war over it.

“I can't choose!”

“Well, then, I'll choose for you. She might not be a princess, mind you. “

“Yes, yes!  Just choose someone for me. I can't do it.”

“OK. I choose that girl over here.”

“What!!!! She's....  

“She's a scullery maid!

“She’s dirty and ugly and her hands are all rough. “

“How dare you refer to your future bride in those terms!

“You said to choose and I chose.

“Now get down on your knee and propose already!”

“Yes, ma'am....”

And it came to pass that Cinderella really WAS the best princess for the prince.  She had no pretensions to royalty and didn’t try to run the country. She wasn’t demanding at all, and the least kindness set her heart fluttering. She cleaned up nicely and was widely regarded as the most beautiful princess for miles around. She produced the required heir and spare with minimal fuss along with a passel of girl children, due to her hearty genes and wide hips. And the castle was never cleaner and more well-run in all its history!

Grapefruit diet?

I remember the "grapefruit diet" from over 40 years ago. It was a popular, fad diet. All you ate was grapefruit. It excluded other foods.

However, there is a new blind study that shows grapefruit should be an addition, not a solitary source of food for weight loss. In the study, the subject eats 1/2 grapefruit before each meal. Grapefruit juice was nearly as effective. The effect was genuine when compared to placebo.

Here's the latest study...
http://bit.ly/1V8x2XJ
Also found here....
http://1.usa.gov/1WWNpgl

This latest research also supports gut health studies found elsewhere. 

I was sharing some of the information on gut health with a person who doesn't believe in probiotic science, calling it "woo-science." Even though the ties to health are documented in blind studies conducted by real scientists. I've heard of people nay-saying science before, but this was my first experience with one. 

Probiotics and gut health may be all the rage, but that doesn't mean they aren't important. We are just learning about this stuff. Science and health news is still developing because nobody thought to study good health, only disease mechanisms. 

I'm interested in all this because of disease and it's link to a healthy lifestyle. The links to nutrition are impossible for me to ignore. I don't know if I'm a throwback or what, but I have always believed that food, nutrition and lifestyle are the basis for a healthy life.  

I may not always eat in a healthy way, and my lack of exercise may be partly to blame for my health problems. But that doesn't mean I don't see the connections!

Project Progress

I got discouraged. That's all....

I was writing a book without reading all the research. That is not a good way to do it. So I stepped back.

I loaded all the research into Scrivener and I'm reading each document/webpage/article/case study...

I'm taking notes on each research item and including that as a separate document in the chapter or section where it belongs. In some cases, the research points to more than one section. That's as it should be. I'm including a reference back to the original document in my notes.

The binder will be a huge file when I get done, but it will be done right.

Then I can transfer it into Word, and format it. Then I'll print two copies for editing.

This all started because I found a report about Omega 3s vs Omega 6s that I'd misunderstood. Then I noticed that the page numbers were all messed up. I'd re-ordered paragraphs and chapters after putting in the page numbers. So, my file was corrupted.

I thought I was near finished when I ran into these two issues. I had 75 pages written of raw content plus the pretty stuff and bibliography. It was a nice-sized project. Not my target (over 120 ppg), but respectable.

And I had a hissy-fit. I got discouraged. I sat back and looked at the work; looked at the body of research and realized what happened. I got ahead of myself and I had to start over with reading and digesting the research.

Hey! If I want to make this scientific jargon understandable, then I have to understand it! I don't have to throw out all the work and words I've written so far. But I will need to edit them. Extensively.

I have about 160 research documents. That means I should have at least 150 pages finished. That's allowing for some duplicated research and small amounts of added content from a few of them.

After I write the content, I'll add the bibliography to make a final project. The glossary is good and will be expanded and included. I'm still doing a 2-part format: description and definitions; then the practical changes that can be made to lifestyle to address it.

It's about 8-9 chapters, with lots of subheadings. That isn't so important right now.

The important thing is that I haven't stopped on it. I didn't walk away. I kept at it. I slept on it and solved my problem. I'm not a wimp who is letting this project beat her. I'm going to make it through this project.  And it will be good.

Starting Over

The research is much more detailed than I was.

I started digging deeper into the research I've dug up on Metabolic Syndrome-X, and it's much more detailed. Some of the hypotheses don't hold water and other studies are just too small to make blanket statements.

The indications for probiotics hold up, but a lot of what I was saying is just not right!

It's like I had blinders on, or maybe I was making a lot of assumptions based on misunderstanding the information. I read deeper tonight into a couple of the pieces, and I just can't publish what I have without making it right. Yep, that's probably it - misunderstanding things.

For one example, Omega 3 vs Omega 6 Fatty Acids and their indications for pre-diabetes. Reading deeper, I found that the research didn't prove the hypothesis. This is highly-technical writing about microbiology, so without some understanding of the concepts, it's easy to be misled. I was misled. I got straightened out, but it took about three times through each paragraph to get there.

So, I'm tossing everything I've done so far and starting over. Not that great a loss, but for the sake of accuracy and honor, it's only right.

Back to the drawing board!

New Project Research Indications

I've been researching adult onset pre-diabetes for my new book project. All the research is leading back to gut health. It's absolutely amazing!

Periodontal disease, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, kidney diseases, Diabetes type 2, retinopathy, inflammation, and so much more....

These conditions are somehow affected by gut health. And if someone has had antibiotics just once in their lives, their gut health has been compromised.

That means that most of us have compromised gut health.

So, what to do about gut health?  Well, I can tell you that most probiotic or prebiotic supplementation doesn't survive the stomach acids. The stomach is designed to break down food which is then sent to the small intestine where the nutrients are extracted. Most of our beneficial bacteria live in the small intestine. Probiotic and prebiotic supplements are attacked by stomach acids in normal digestion and don't live through the process.

This does us no good at all. Most of our supplements are not "live cultures" so a typical vitamin tablet would be fine in this process. But because pre- and probiotics are live cultures, they mostly don't survive. Out of a typical 30,000 cells, perhaps 3,000 survive to inhabit the small intestine. But there is a better way....

To date, the best indications to supplement or improve gut health include using apple cider vinegar and fermented foods.


The long-term solution is to consume fermented foods several times a week. Miso, sauerkraut, kefir, kim chee, and the like.... There are several good websites on how to prepare your own fermented foods.

For short term and to jump-start the process, try some apple cider vinegar.

Stay tuned. I'm not finished with the book yet. I'm learning an awful lot about this.
These findings are so incredible, I just had to share them now.