Mindconnection eNL, 2009-11-01

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We aren't this way because we're stupid, stubborn, or inherently dishonest. We're this way because our brains try to prevent a phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance." This is why it is so very hard to change another person's mind on certain types of issues.

This leads to the question, "Why are you trying to change another person's mind?" Generally, it's not worth the bother. And who is to say if a particular opinion is actually wrong? Does it really matter if it is--what harm is being done?

Sure, if you have a friend who is engaging in self-destructive behavior you should probably endeavor to do some mind-changing. But in most cases, the effort is an unwarranted intrusion. It's an ego slap, and that simply makes the other person more resistant to accepting anything outside his/her current worldview.

Often, the whole thing becomes a contest of abuse, contest of will, contest of endurance, or in some other way something that must be endured rather than enjoyed. And because of the discomfort, people who engage in these "battles" polarize into "us vs. them" camps--surrounding themselves with people who think just like they do instead of expanding their mental horizons.

Here's another approach to consider. Engage the other person in a respectful way. Try to understand that viewpoint. Question it. Ask "why?" Discuss the evidence that supports it, and ask "what about" in reference to evidence that contradicts it. Insist on fairness during this discussion. Look for points you agree with, and try to say "Yes, and" rather than "Yes, but."

And keep it a discussion rather than a contest of "who can win." The reality is that in such a contest, both people  lose. It may appear as though one person has "beaten" the other, but both participants are the poorer for the way things turned out.

You and the other person don't have to reach any conclusions or admit to changing your viewpoint. You don't have to share the same views to share a friendship. You just have to share respect and inquisitiveness.

This approach is much less stressful than proselytizing, and it can open the minds of both parties. Some people have a name for this approach: "honest debate." I don't know if labels give the correct picture of things, so while I like that particular label another person might hear something that isn't meant to be conveyed. For example, it's common to be perfectly honest (stating what you believe to be true) even if you are saying untrue things.

This approach moves us from the position of mindlessly repeating clichés, slogans, and talking points to actually digging in to a subject along with another person. In this way, people complement each other precisely because they are different.

That's an amazing return on investment. And it's an amazing indictment of our political system. It means we are not a democracy or a republic or any mix of the two. We are a prostitute-ocracy. There is a solution, and I'll mention it in a moment.

"It’s a sign when a corporation’s most profitable enterprise is lobbying," said Stephen Mazza, a law professor at the University of Kansas and coauthor of the study with colleagues Raquel Meyer Alexander and Susan Scholz.

That's right--businesses make far more money buying and selling members of CONgress than they do producing goods and services or employing people.

Another 231-page report issued by the Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation, "Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America," shows that, from 1998-2008, Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance companies made $1.725 billion in political contributions and spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists. If you recall a few facts about the financial meltdown of the past couple of years, you may recall that the people who caused it were in these same industries.

So, what's the solution?

Very simple. Disarm these attackers of prosperity by taking away their weapons. The next time you vote, cast your vote against The Party. There is still this pervasive, fact-defying myth that the Democrats and Republicans somehow differ in some way that matters and are somehow two different parties. They are, in fact, the same party with merely two different versions of rhetoric. No matter which wing is in power, the same prostitution occurs. We get the same irresponsible behavior, theft, runaway spending, etc. All of the things we don't like keep happening because we keep putting The Party back in charge.

Picking up a turd by its left end or its right end does not change how your fingers will smell. Your only rational choice is to not pick up that turd. So don't vote for The Party. Vote for anybody else. There is a second major political party, and it has had great success at the city and county level. Once people find they get improved services at lower cost and actually get reductions in their property taxes, they tend to vote those Libertarians back into office.

So far, so good--if you want to waste your money, the only harm done is to your wallet.

But suppose you drink this stuff? Now we have a problem. You aren't actually going to build stronger bones by drinking this fortified juice. In fact, you are likely to weaken your bones by doing so.

When you bypass a set of normal digestive steps with fruit so that you are drinking only the juice instead of eating the whole fruit, you are getting sugar in a concentrated, unintended (by nature) form. This causes a glycemic response, which depresses testosterone. More about that, in a moment.

If you eat a whole orange, you also get a glycemic response.

However:

• It's somewhat muted by the fiber in the orange. That is, it takes more time for the sugar to reach your bloodstream vs gulping down juice so the effect is more of a ripple than a spike.
• We aren't talking a lot of juice from a single orange vs. the juice of several oranges that it takes to make a glass. So, correspondingly less sugar.

Basically, you can't go wrong eating a piece of fruit. Juice, on the other hand concentrates the sugar that is meant to flavor the whole fruit. While fruit sugar isn't "bad" in the sense of being toxic (as is high fructose corn syrup), your body simply isn't set up to handle it.

When you get that glycemic response, your body is trying to rid itself of this sugar in the bloodstream. To do that, it will do one of two things:

1. 1. If your muscle cells are empty of glycogen (a condition that exists after a night of sleeping or after really hard exercise), it will shuttle as much of the sugar as possible to those cells.
    
2. 2. Under normal conditions, it will turn the sugar into fat.

To turn the sugar into fat, your body needs the right hormonal environment. So it's going to raise your insulin level. And as mentioned earlier, it's going to depress testosterone. What's bad about the drop in testosterone is this is the hormone that signals your body to store calcium in your bones.

It doesn't matter how much calcium is in that fortified juice. If the sugar that goes along with it tells your body not to store the calcium, they it's going straight to your kidneys. If this doesn't eventually cause kidney stones, count yourself lucky.

Now, what about abnormal conditions? Don't most people who have juice do so at breakfast? And wouldn't the fat also consumed at breakfast blunt a glycemic response? Yes, quite true. So a small glass of juice with breakfast may not hurt.

But if it's fortified with calcium, is your body going to use the calcium? Consider that only 30% of the calcium in milk is bioavailable. Is there any reason the calcium in juice should fare any better? Probably not.

And if you read the label and see it's elemental calcium (or oyster shell calcium or similar) rather than a calcium complex that also provides the phosphorous and magnesium your body needs to use that calcium, then your kidneys will be its next destination.

There are worse products than calcium-enriched orange juice. But it's not the health food it's made out to be. And it can actually prove harmful, especially if you drink it outside the glycogen depletion window that makes up a very small part of any given day.

Here's an article that explains more about the topic:

http://www.supplecity.com/articles/orangejuicebones.htm

As regular readers know, I'm 48 years old in the picture (above, right), taken in December 02 2008. I don't diet down for summer. I don't have good genes for maintaining a lean body, I really have to be conscientious and disciplined about it. That doesn't mean I suffer, eat bland foods, or starve myself.

At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

Nor does it mean being hungry all the time (you are less hungry on six small meals a day than three large ones), being weak from hunger (on a proper dietary regimen, you will have much more energy than otherwise), or "giving up pleasures" (I have no idea where this concept comes from, unless a person considers being sick a "pleasure.").

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Discontinued.

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