#Children’s Vitamin B

[masterdisastre]

Hey science side of Tumblr and autistic side of Tumblr!

I have a question.

I've recently started taking some vitamin B supplements, under suggestion of my pharmacist, because I was feeling mentally exhausted to the point that it was slightly impacting my work.

Now, I am in fact able to focus better and I complete my work tasks flawlessly. My colleagues say that I look way better too.

The thing is, almost at the same time my autistic issues (over sensibility and understanding social cues and such) have worsened a lot.

I've read everywhere that vitamin B helps children with autism with their symptoms, but since the world is dominated by neurotypical people, my question is: does it just make us better at masking or does it really help and this is only coincidental? Am I worsening my condition by helping my focus capacity?

Tagging @autistic-af in case you can help me spread the question.

Thank you all in advance ❤️

[littlegodzilla]

YESS REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!!!!

Ok I literally had a dream of this 😂

Can you write something where the reader is pregnant with Daryl’s baby (they have been a couple pretty much since the beginning) and he does not know she is pregnant. She’s terrified to tell him and stuff, in her mind if you don’t think about it than it isn’t real. So she’s hidden her pregnancy well for the past few weeks…one day her and Daryl (and anyone else you’d like to include) are out walking and they are high up on a high. They take a break and miles and miles away in the distance they see a gigantic herd. When the reader sees this she panics and starts crying cause she’s absolutely terrified to bring a baby into this world and stuff like that. Daryl sees her in tears, asking her what’s wrong and she tells him. His reaction can be whatever you’d like.

Thanks!!!

Hii Anon!!😊

I liked your idea/dream 🤭 but I changed some things I hope you don't mind and you'll like the story as well.

Enjoy!!

*******

Pregnant.

Daryl Dixon x PregnantReader.

One shot.

Anon request.

Warnings: Angst (sorry I couldn't stop...This was going to be a sad ending but I stopped in time)

Words: 1400

Taglist: @phoenixblack89 @browneyes528 @lilythemadqueen @darylsgarden @thefemininemystiquee @green-eyedladywrites @hail-yourselves @ruinedbythehobbit @xxtinasxxblog @ravenwings73 @spenciepoo338 @b-tchymoon @minervadashwood @darylssluttt @let-love-bleeds-red @ravendixon

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"Have you lost your mind!?" Denise shouts at you as you enter Alexandria again. "How can you even think of going on a mission in your state?!"

"Yer state?" Daryl looks at you confused and you feel yourself struggling to breathe. Denise is suddenly speechless.

"You didn't tell him?"

"Told me what?" he growls looking at the two of you, frowning.

**********

Pregnant...

Denise's words keep ringing in your ears, you're unable to get out of your stupor at the same time as your friend's smile grows wider and wider, but you can't reciprocate.

It's impossible for you to be pregnant.

You have never been able to get pregnant before and the few times you did, you had aborts because your pH was too acidic for sperm and you had a genetic problem with your blood, it was thicker than normal and you would get clots; which caused the fetus to have complications and you would abort. So you were very doubtful that now, in this shitty world you could make it.

But apparently Daryl Dixon had a magic penis and had managed to hit the bull's eye.

"Are you okay?" Denise looks at you worried since you haven't reacted yet.

No, you're not okay, there are a lot of doubts suddenly assailing you. How are you going to tell Daryl, how is he going to react, what if he doesn't want to have kids?

You know Daryl likes kids, always keeping an eye on Carl, with Judith he created a special bond, but this is different, you've never been completely sterile, but you told Daryl you couldn't stay in a state and yet now....

"How far along am I? Can't we do something?"

"Do you want to have an abortion?" Denise looks at you in surprise and you place your hands on your belly.

You don't really want an abortion, you've always wanted children, you love children, you've always seen yourself taking care of at least a couple of them, but now you don't know what to think. Is it really right to bring new life into that world? Many couples with stability within those walls have formed their own families, but there are still threats, there are still dangers, is it fair to subject children to that constant fear?

"Listen to me." Denise speaks, pulling you out of your thoughts. "It's a delicate pregnancy, you need to have as much rest as possible." She explains. "Talk to Daryl, I'm sure he'll be thrilled with the idea and will help you with whatever you need." She encourages you and hugs you. "We'll need vitamins and a few other things, I'll make a list."

"Denise...let me talk to Daryl first, please."

"Yeah, sure, no problem."

And there wasn't, you had a plan, talk to him, tell him what was going on and wait for his reaction. Good or bad you're sure you're going to go through with that pregnancy, maybe your own body will reject it and you'll abort at any point in gestation, or maybe it will all work out and you'll give birth to a beautiful blue-eyed boy, or a girl. You've never cared much about sex, really.

You're at home, studying your monologue in your head, thinking about everything you're going to say to Daryl when you hear the door and he appears through the living room, your heart stops and your palms sweat.

"Hey, hi." He greets you by giving you a soft kiss.

"Hi..." Then you notice the backpack on his shoulder. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna out for a little round." He explains. "Everything's quiet, but Denise needs a few things for the clinic." He shrugs. "Wanna come?"

"It's a risky pregnancy, you need rest." You hear your doctor's words in your mind.

"Yeah, sure, I could use to clear my head."

"Why? somethin' happened?" He looks at you worriedly and you quickly shake your head.

"No! Just...you know...girl stuff." You grimace and Daryl quickly averts his gaze, there are some topics he still has a hard time talking to you about.

So the two of you hop on Daryl's bike, once you've packed your backpack and weapons, and head out of Alexandria with the list of errands Denise has given the archer.

*********

"Pregnant!" Daryl shouts, fidgeting nervously in the infirmary.

"Daryl..." You try to reassure him but he quickly lets go of you.

"Ya out of yer mind!? ya could have died!" He barks again.

That's right, the smooth mission turned into a huge problem due to a herd of Walkers cutting you off. Getting to the nearest town without being looted was easy. Entering the pharmacy and taking medication and toiletries, too, but there was a hospital, there was a market, everything seemed intact so you decided to take a chance and go for more supplies.

Yes, the place was intact, but it was also full of Walkers who made it very difficult for you to escape.

When you got to the bike and escaped you were aware of the risk you had taken, that you could have lost your baby and you cried against Daryl's back without him noticing.

But now everything is chaos.

"I told you, you should rest, it's a complicated pregnancy and..." Denise scolds you, but now you don't need it, Daryl's furious eyes fall on you and then on your friend.

"Complicated pregnancy? What do ya mean?" he roars rebuking the doctor.

"Well it's... from her tests I've detected that her blood is thicker than usual, a genetic problem, that can lead to clots, if she isn't careful or get too stressed..."

"Denise, stop it, I think I'm the one who should..."

"No." Daryl cuts you off. "Go on, if she gets too stressed..."

"S- she could have an abort..." She whispers lowering her gaze.

Daryl breathes in agitation, his nose catching as much air as possible, his chest heaving up and down with speed, his heart pounding, anger bubbling under his skin. His brow is so tightly knit you could play that his eyebrows have knitted together. He turns toward you and you take a step backward out of inertia. He walks to your position, fast, lethal. Angry.

"Ya know?" He asks in a hoarse voice, gritting his teeth so hard you hear them grind.

"Daryl I..."

"Did you know?!" He yells and slams down on the gurney next to you making you jump.

"Yes! I knew it was a risk to get out, but I didn't..." You're scared, you've never seen Daryl like this, not with you.

"And why ya came!" He howls again. "Why didn't ya tell me!!! Why ain't ya...?" He mumbles angrily biting his lip. "Ya wanna abort? Is that it?" he gasps almost voicelessly and your chest burns.

You look at him and discover pain, all that anger, that initial rage is gone and his eyes are shining with disappointment and pain.

"Daryl, listen to me..."

"Don't touch me." He growls and slaps your hand so hard it hurts. "If ya wanted me to touch ya so little, ya could have told me and I would have left yalone."

"For God's sake, no, I love you!" you tell him full of nerves.

"Then why didn't ya tell me? How long have ya known?"

"Since..." You lower your head. "Officially since two weeks ago..."

"Two? Two fucking weeks and I find out now?" the disbelief in his voice cuts through you like a knife.

"I didn't know how... I was afraid..."

"Of what? me?"

To tell you the truth yes, you are afraid now. You've never seen him like this before, the anger and hurt his words spit out every time they come out of his mouth, they scare you. You're afraid you might lose him for keeping quiet.

"You've always been so careful and I thought that..."

"A condom ain't just prevent a baby, y'know? I was afraid I might give ya something I didn't even know I had." He huffs angrily and runs his hands through his hair nervously.

"Daryl, I'm sorry..."

"No, no, yer a selfish bitch." He growls again walking away from you, your heart breaking into pieces with every step he takes away. "Not only could we have lost our baby, I could have fucking lost ya too." Daryl suddenly feels like throwing up.

"Daryl..." You insist but you see that his gaze is still charged with fury.

"I'm gonna take care of ya, of our baby, but listen to me..." He walks over to you pointing at you. "If ya move, if ya get up, if ya open yer mouth for anything but food... I'll tie ya to the fucking bed."

"I'm not invalid..."

"I am NOT gonna lose ya, ya hear me?" He repeats and a tear runs down his cheek. "Neither of ya, I'm ain't gonna let anything bad happen to ya two."

*******

The End.

***

I'm sorry I think I used too much dialogue and not enough narration, but it seemed more correct.

I hope you liked it!!

See you in the next stories!!

[tinystepsforward]

latest shenanigans from my parents include

father:

ignored specific instructions that i would pick something up from their house to rock up to mine with it, then freak out bc i was weightlifting in my garage in a sports bra and therefore showing like 1.5" of midriff, and leave it on my driveway and run away. not super surprising from a man who stopped hugging me when my weird hormone sitch meant i started puberty at 6ish but what

mother:

ignored specific instructions that i would pick something else up from their house to rock up to mine with it, then get very surprised/cowed by my wife answering the door bc she's still pretending i'm not married

a variety of 60-year-old-fundie-woman-on-fb shenanigans, including:

sending me and her other adhd child clickbait about how cashews are better than prozac and b vitamins reverse adhd

sharing yet more posts from conversion therapy organisations for "suffering parents of wayward children" saying that this easter we need to remember that it is sooooo hard to love betrayers like judas but jesus did it anyway

making a huge post about how this one plant in her garden looked promising but bore no fruit and the fig tree in the bible and maybe her life is like that, secretly rotten under the surface. really makes you think

anyway my therapist was like "you always talk about 'my mother' or 'my parents' but not really about your father on his own and i'd like you to think about that" and. i Guess remembering that he's a fucking fundie dickhead about girls and women existing has opened a few old cans of worms to bring to her next week

[ecstacy-appleofmyeye]

children of thanatos headcanons

a/n: the hcs will be updated and edited as i come up with more

even before they get claimed, thanatos kids have this aura around them and sick looking faces—like they're at the brink of death.

most get claimed at night. a black smoke appears above their heads in the shape of a butterfly fluttering its wings.

lots of campers are at best afraid of them and at worst completely distrusting.

thanatos kids don't have their own cabin. instead, they share with the hypnos kids—since their godly parents are twins. some thanatos kids like going from cabin to cabin, mainly the hades, hypnos and hecate cabins. they're most welcome there.

just like hypnos kids they have wings!! not all of them, but the majority, in contrast the hypnos kids where a few have them.

they like bitter things. like a lot. especially dark chocolate.

in hoo, thanatos is described as having black sky, like the night sky. so most of his kids are black, or mixed. their hair types range from 3a/b to 4c. their eyes are either a very dark brown or pitch black where you can't even see the light being reflected.

being grandchildren of nyx, they also have some of her blessings, like enchanted eyesight in the dark.

others have shadow manipulation. nothing too big, but they feel more connected with her and her childern.

they have a strong bond with hypnos and nyx kids. they're inseparable. they all get along so well. it's impossible to go around camp and not find thanatos/nyx, thanatos/hypnos kids having fun in a corner somewhere.

thanatos kids like to mess with hebe kids and vice versa. whenever they touch the flowers of the hebe cabin to make them wilt, hebe kids one up them by making a flower path wherever they go. it's all petty things they do.

other than that they get along, mostly.

if you ever go into the hypnos cabin and hear emo/metal/jazz/rap blasting, it's thanatos kids.

hypnos kids are this 🤏 close to revoking their mp3 privileges

got labelled as the goth/emo kid at school.

their tired of the 'grumpy/black cat/emo/goth/metal kid' stereotype others force upon them. lots of them are balls of sunshine, the sweetest sweethearts you'll ever meet.

they love winter and winter holidays, no matter which religious/non-religious holiday they choose to celebrate.

they know how to make syrup out of everything. demeter kids are equally amazed and try to one up them.

thb i see lots of thanatos kids leaning into the whole vampire/un-dead aesthetic. it just suits them so much!!

very into astronomy and astrology (they're different and thanatos kids will go on a one hour rant on how different they are and how frustrating it is that others dont know this common knowledge!! like, seriously ppl,,,,)

they're very good with sculpting

they're severely lacking vitamin d (and it doesn't help that they're literal hermits, never leaving their cabins)

(it also adds to their vampire aesthetic)

(but anyway)

no one really pays attention to them at camp. they're just there 🧍 they are forgotten easily but they dont care that much

they also don't go on many quests. they prefer it that way anyway.

they like harvesting strawberries (and also stealing some of them in thw process but everyone at starwberry field duty does this so who's surprised)

[beautyandlifestyleblog86]

Vitamin A plays a crucial role in preventative medicine by supporting various aspects of health and wellness. Some of the key functions of vitamin A in the body include:

1. Vision: Vitamin A is essential for maintaining healthy vision, particularly in low-light conditions. It is a key component of rhodopsin, a protein in the retina that helps the eyes adjust to changes in light intensity.

2. Immune function: Vitamin A is important for supporting the immune system and helping the body fight off infections. It plays a role in the development and function of immune cells, such as T cells and B cells.

3. Skin health: Vitamin A is beneficial for skin health, as it helps maintain the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes. It supports the growth and repair of skin cells and may help reduce inflammation and promote healing.

4. Growth and development: Vitamin A is essential for normal growth and development, especially in children. It plays a role in cell growth, differentiation, and gene expression, which are important processes for overall growth and development.

5. Reproductive health: Vitamin A is important for reproductive health in both men and women. It is involved in the production of sperm and the development of the placenta during pregnancy.

Some examples of vitamin A-rich foods include:

1. Liver: Liver (such as beef liver or chicken liver) is one of the richest sources of vitamin A, providing high levels of preformed vitamin A in the form of retinol.

2. Sweet potatoes: Sweet potatoes are a good source of beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A that the body can convert into retinol.

3. Carrots: Carrots are another excellent source of beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A.

4. Spinach: Spinach and other dark leafy greens are rich in beta-carotene and provide a good source of vitamin A.

5. Eggs: Eggs contain vitamin A in the form of retinol, as well as other important nutrients.

Including vitamin A-rich foods in your diet can help ensure that you meet your daily requirements for this essential nutrient and support overall health and wellness. It's important to consume a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods to meet your nutritional needs.

[orthopoogle]

I really hate how COVID made actual anti-vaxxers feel emboldened enough to be all like, “See?! Big Pharma IS out to poison our children! This is why I don’t want my baby to get the vitamin K shot at birth! This is why my children won’t be getting flu vaccines or Hep B shots! *Posts links to random unverified blogs ‘proving’ that the whooping cough vaccine kills more babies than actual whooping cough does or whatever.* Do your research!”

And because some people don’t have any critical thinking, these insane idiots are excused more now, because, “Well can we really blame them after what happened with the COVID vaccines?!?!” Like…yes? We sure can! They would’ve found any other excuse to push their shit anyway had COVID not happened, so the controversy surrounding COVID vaccines isn’t what caused their way of thinking!

[trashy-0possum]

Niccolo Carpediem hcs!

Cause its his b-day <3333

ITALIAN🇮🇹🇮🇹 (not even a hc its cannon but sameee)

Smokes (cannon)

Probably smells like smoke but tries to use perfume to overcome the smell

Nervous af

Probably picks his skin or bites his finger nails when stressed

Takes vitamins

Definitely has iron deficiency

Passes out- alot xd

Really good at drawing since he studied Architecture (or wanted to)

Morning person-

Will probably sit on the balcony and drink coffee till he has to go

He can cook!

Since he has a sister he will take care of her children which are his Nephews/niece's

Will treat the children like his own

Will buy them everything they want just to make them happy and be a good uncle!

Best uncle ever>>

Loves his family and has a big bond with them

Him and cappuccino (the charakter) are besties 😌

He loves libraries but since he is a mafia boss he cant go so often :(

Hes a bookworm-

Has a big ass shelf in his apartment/house and loves to read in his free time

Sweetest person ever

Has the most high pitched scream ever-

Is scared of insects and ildio has to kill them for him

Probably locked himself in his room alot after his dad died

Needs comfort

Buys his sister flowers everytime he visits her and her husband

Cant stand high temperatures

Bangs? Cuts them himself

Loves late night walks at the sea

Tries not be in a relationship because they could be targeted by other mafias :(

Takes care of the stray dogs in italy cause he doesnt have time for a own pet

Dog person>>

Loves big and comfy clothes (only wears them when hes alone)

Pookie needs more attention 😿 anyways HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICCOLO I LOVE UUU😻

[naturalrights-retard]

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Sun exposure is necessary for endogenous vitamin D production, which radically upregulates your immune system and improves your ability to fight infections, including COVID

The near-infrared rays in sunlight also create structured water, which is important for cellular integrity and energy distribution, and trigger the production of melatonin — a powerful antioxidant — in your mitochondria

Linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fat found in vegetable oils and seed oils, massively increases oxidative stress and lowers your metabolic rate, which in turn prematurely ages and degrades your body

One of the foundational concepts of health that I’ve radically revised my thinking on is the idea that a low-carb diet is the best way to optimize your metabolic health. That was misguided, because when glucose is absent, your body releases cortisol to produce endogenous glucose. Cortisol sacrifices lean muscle mass, bone and your brain to make glucose, which triggers inflammation and impairs your immune function

Most people can likely benefit from aspirin, as it’s anti-lipolytic, lowers cortisol, regulates an inflammatory pathway called NF kappa B (NF-kB), helps increase testosterone and progesterone, increases metabolism and helps normalize blood pressure by lowering aldosterone

May 8, 2023, I was interviewed by Polly Tommey on the Children’s Health Defense Tea Time program. In it, I reviewed several of my top diet and lifestyle strategies that will help optimize your health, with a focus on my latest revisions and updates.

As most of you know, health is my passion. I've been involved in health education for over five decades. Health is also a journey, because as you learn new information, your views on even the most fundamental aspects evolve. I’ve recently evolved my thoughts on the dangers and importance of healthy carbohydrates in your diet, which I will share here.

As I mention in this program, we’re currently in a lull with respect to global tyranny, as lockdowns and other mandates have been lifted in the U.S., so this is a great opportunity to regroup and commit to strategies that can radically improve your health so that you’re better prepared for whatever comes next.

Sun Exposure Strengthens Your Immune System

One foundational basic that has not changed is the importance of regular sun exposure. For the last century, we’ve known that sun exposure is necessary for endogenous vitamin D production, which in turn radically upregulates your immune system and improves your ability to fight infections, including COVID.

In October 2020, I published a scientific review1 detailing how vitamin D reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection and its severity. Since then, that evidence has only grown stronger. I also published a vitamin D guide, available for download on StopCOVIDcold.com.

Optimizing your vitamin D to a level between 50 nanograms per milliliter and 80 ng/mL is probably one of the simplest, least expensive and most foundational strategies to sustain your health. In Europe and Canada, the blood level you’re looking for is 150 to 200 nanomoles per liter.

If for whatever reason you can’t get enough sun exposure to reach that ideal level, consider taking an oral vitamin D3 supplement. As a rule, adults who don’t get sun exposure will need about 8,000 IUs a day. If you’re obese, you’ll want to increase that a little bit, because vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, so it’s easily stored in your fat.

Other Health Benefits of Sun Exposure

That said, sun exposure also has several other health benefits that are unrelated to vitamin D production — and which cannot be obtained by swallowing a vitamin D supplement.

For example, the near-infrared rays in sunlight create structured water,2 also known as EZ water, which acts a bit like a battery, in that it gets charged with energy. This structured gel-like water is important for cellular integrity. It also enhances the ability of red blood cells to flow through your capillaries. It also plays an important role in the energy distribution within your body.

Another major health benefit of sun exposure is the production of melatonin in your mitochondria. This too is produced by the near-infrared in sunlight. Melatonin is a profoundly effective antioxidant, but it also causes your body to produce other endogenous antioxidants, such as glutathione.

It's important to have high quantities of subcellular mitochondrial melatonin to help regulate your body's oxidative stress. You can learn more about this from my interview with Dr. Russel Reiter.

Sunlight also allows vitamin A to be converted into retinoids, which is the active form, and vitamin A is almost as important as vitamin D. Another hormone that's important is testosterone. If you get sufficient sun exposure it will increase your testosterone levels. Men obviously have and need more testosterone, but it’s also an important sex hormone for women.

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The Hazards of Omega-6 LA

The importance of avoiding LA — an omega-6 fat — is one of the foundational health components that I’ve come to realize in more recent years. LA, which is found in vegetable oils and seed oils, massively increases oxidative stress and lowers your metabolic rate, which in turn prematurely ages and degrades your body.

I’m convinced excessive LA intake is one of the most important drivers of chronic disease today — far more so than sugar. The main reason why excess LA causes disease is because it prevents your mitochondria from working well. Mitochondria are subcellular organelles responsible for producing most of your cellular energy in the form of ATP, and without ATP, your cells cannot function and repair themselves normally. Processed seed oils can also:

Damage the cells lining your blood vessels

Cause memory impairment and increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease (canola oil has been linked to Alzheimer's)

Strip your liver of glutathione, thereby lowering your antioxidant defenses

Inhibit delta-6 desaturase (delta-6), an enzyme involved in the conversion of short-chained omega-3s to longer chained omega-3s in your liver

Impair your immune function and increase mortality

Make your fat cells more insulin sensitive, thereby causing insulin resistance

Inhibit cardiolipin, an important fat in the inner membrane of your mitochondria

Last month I submitted a narrative review article on linoleic acid (LA) to the journal Nutrients. It’s currently under peer review. I’ve also published an extensive article on LA, with a comprehensive video, on my Substack, which is quite comprehensive. The video took many months to create to help you understand this complex topic. The article is free to read for everyone.

Beware: Most Fish Oil Supplements Are Garbage

There are two basic types of fatty acids, based on how many of their carbon bonds are paired with hydrogen: saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are further subdivided into monounsaturated fats and PUFAs, depending on how many pairs of hydrogen atoms they are missing.

Because your tissues are made up mostly of saturated and monounsaturated fats, your body requires more of them than PUFAs. The main dietary PUFAs are omega-3 and omega-6 fats, and while your body does need these, it needs them in relatively small quantities.

Again, LA is an omega-6 fat that should be avoided as much as possible. It’s found naturally in most foods, so it’s nearly impossible to become deficient if you eat real food. Processed food, of course, is loaded with it, so you’re guaranteed to get excessive amounts in those. Most Americans get 50 grams a day or more of LA, and the daily requirement is only 2 grams.

Omega-3, on the other hand, is not readily available in a wide variety of food. It’s only found in fatty cold-water fish. Most probably know that omega-3 is important for heart health and more, and fish oil is one of the most popular supplements on the market.

The problem is most of these supplements are worse than garbage. In addition to the problem of most being rancid, they’re also not in the form of triglycerides, which is what you find in the fish itself. They’re distilled synthetics in an ethyl ester form that never appears in nature. So, I don’t recommend taking most fish oil supplements. Instead, get your omega-3 from small fatty fish, like wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and mackerel.

Another alternative is cod liver oil. The fatty acids in cod liver oil are in the natural triglyceride form, so as far as omega-3 supplements go, I think it's one of the best. I take it every day.

You do need to be careful, though, because like fish oil supplements, many of cod liver oil supplements are rancid by the time you open the bottle. The taste of the cod liver oil should be completely neutral. You shouldn't have to hold your nose and swallow it. If it tastes or smells bad, it’s rancid and should not be used.

Why I Changed My Mind About Low-Carb Diets

One of the foundational concepts of health that I’ve had to radically revise my thinking on, based on the work of the late Ray Peat and his student Georgi Dinkov, is the idea that eating a low-carb diet long-term is the best way to optimize your metabolic and mitochondrial health.

I now realize that this was misguided, and the reason for that has to do with the fact that your body requires glucose and if you aren’t eating it you will go into a hypoglycemic coma and die. Obviously, your body has safeguards to prevent that and the major one is the hormone cortisol.

In medical school, we learned that cortisol is a glucocorticoid. Gluco means glucose (sugar) and cortico means it comes from the adrenal cortex. It’s also another word for steroid. We were told that cortisol is responsible for maintaining glucose homeostasis, but led to believe its primary purpose was for inflammation.

Well, that’s just not true. While cortisol certainly contributes to glucose balance, its primary purpose is to raise your blood sugar when it is too low and you don’t have enough glycogen reserves in your liver.

How Does Cortisol Work?

But just how does cortisol increase your blood sugar? It does it by breaking down your muscles, bones and brain. It sacrifices your lean muscle mass to release amino acids that your liver converts to glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis.

So, ultimately, cortisol also is going to cause inflammation and impair your immune function. And it increases food cravings. So, you do not want your cortisol to be elevated. For a long time, I was a proponent of a low-carb diet, but now I realize that chronic low-carb is not a good idea.

As a fuel, glucose is vastly superior to fat, and this was something I simply got wrong. The same thing goes for fasting. Both low-carb and fasting are great interventions in the short-term for those who are overweight and metabolically inflexible.

However, once you’ve regained your metabolic flexibility, it is important to revise your strategy and add healthy carbs back in, or else these strategies will backfire and lead to decreased metabolic health, compromised mitochondrial function and impaired metabolism.

Cortisol happens to be the primary aging hormone. If it is chronically elevated, you simply will die prematurely as it is highly catabolic, meaning it will break down your body tissues. To stay healthy as you age you need to be anabolic and build healthy tissues like muscle and mitochondria. Elevated cortisol will seriously impair those efforts.

Important Cautions Before You Increase Carbs

So, it is clear that you need to be doing everything you can to keep your cortisol levels and chronic inflammation low. But it would also be a major mistake to increase your carb intake if you are still on a high-fat diet. I did this experiment in the mid-‘80s after I read the book by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond called “Fit for Life.”

They suggested having fruit only for breakfast, which I tried. Then I did my lab work and found my fasting triglycerides and lipoprotein profiles had exploded for the worse. I prematurely concluded that a high-fruit diet was nonsense and remained relatively low-carb for nearly four decades.

This was until I encountered Ray Peat’s work and reevaluated my initial impression. I now understand that I was missing important parts of the strategy. And now I eat 3 to 4 pounds of watermelon virtually every morning at 5:30 as my first meal, followed by three eggs and 8 ounces of white rice and 2 ounces of maple syrup one to two hours later.

That sounds like a lot of carbs, and it is. I have additional fruits later in the day and now my carb intake is about 475 grams a day. You might wonder what has happened to my weight and blood sugar with all these extra carbs.

Well, I thought my weight was good at 192 as I increased my muscle mass, but it has decreased by 10 pounds to 182 with no change in muscle mass. My fasting blood sugar has dropped 10 points. So far it seems to be working for me.

The Vital Metabolic Switch You Need to Understand

This is one of the most important principles in food science that I never learned or understood until recently. My strong guess is that this is also true for most natural medicine clinicians. That is why I created the figure below to help you visualize so you can better understand this vital concept.

Low-carb diets have helped at least tens of millions of people improve their health for a very good reason and that is there is a stealth switch that controls what fuel your mitochondria can burn as they can only burn one fuel at a time: either fat or glucose.

The switch has been given the name the Randle Cycle, but it is more helpful to visualize it as a railroad switch that changes the tracks of the train, and the train can only travel down one track, not both. This is because only one type of fuel can be burned at a time.

The best-case scenario is you metabolize, or burn, glucose in your mitochondria without any reductive stress (a term I will explain in my upcoming interview with Georgi Dinkov). When you do this, you will generate only 0.1% reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Not only does this route generate less ROS but it is also incredibly efficient at energy production by creating 36 to 38 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for every molecule of glucose that is metabolized. It will also generate metabolic water and carbon dioxide, which are also important for your health.

For this to occur, as indicated in the figure above, you will need to consume less than 30% of your calories as fat. When you consume significantly more than that amount the switch changes to burn fat in your mitochondria and you will not be able to burn glucose until your fat decreases to less than 30% of calories.

Since glucose is unable to be shuttled into the mitochondria to burn, it winds up backing up into your blood stream, raising your blood sugar. This is a major contributor to diabetes. What little glucose is burned for fuel is done by using glycolysis which is a primitive pathway that bacteria and cancer cells use.

It is great we have this pathway as you absolutely need it for quick fuel when you are activating your Type II muscle fibers. But if this is the primary way you burn glucose you are in a catastrophic metabolic state as you are creating loads of lactic acid as a waste product instead of healthy CO2, and you are only generating two ATP for every molecule of glucose, which is 95% less energy.

Lactic acid increases reductive stress, which causes reverse electron flow in the mitochondria and causes reductive stress, which increases the ROS to 3 to 4%, which is 30 to 40 times more than when glucose is burned efficiently in the mitochondria. You likely don’t yet understand reductive stress, the opposite of oxidative stress, but will have done an interview with Georgi on this and will be posting it later this month.

Why Lactic Acid and CO2 Are so Important

Remember when you are burning glucose efficiently in your mitochondria, the glucose is converted not only to 36 to 28 ATP, but when the electrons from the glucose are ultimately handed off to oxygen, metabolic water (deuterium-free) is made and, very importantly, carbon dioxide.

This is vital to understand as carbon dioxide is a potent stimulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, which will increase the number of mitochondria that you have so you can make even more energy.

Conversely, when you are burning glucose far less efficiently in glycolysis, you are only generating two ATP and, rather than creating life-sustaining carbon dioxide, you are generating life-damaging lactic acid, which will degrade your mitochondria and make them die sooner.

Updated Time-Restricted Eating Recommendations

I now believe that for most people, fasting is not a good idea, and the reason for that has to do with the fact that most people have large stores of LA in their body fat. When you have excess harmful fat in your body, the last thing you want to do is start burning it, because once you do, it’s going to liberate proinflammatory molecules and increase cortisol, which also causes inflammation.

For a long time, I’ve taught that one of the strategies that will get many people healthy is time-restricted eating (TRE), where you compress your eating window and eat all your meals within a set number of hours, typically six to eight hours each day.

This is still a useful strategy because most people, especially those who are overweight, eat for more than 12 hours a day. That can be a recipe for metabolic disaster, but you also don’t want to restrict your eating to just one or two hours a day, because then you’re fasting too much.

As a rule, you want your eating window to be anywhere from eight to 12 hours and regularly vary the length of the fast. Maybe go a little shorter in the winter and a little longer in the summer when the days are longer, as your metabolism is also keyed or synchronized to the light-dark cycle.

The key rule is to stop eating three or four hours before you go to bed. You need seven to eight hours of sleep every night, and you need 10 to 11 hours of not eating. That's what you get automatically when you stop eating three to four hours before bed. So that's my revised TRE recommendation, based on how it impacts cortisol.

Updated Carb Recommendations

For the reasons I just reviewed above, I’ve revised my own macronutrient intake. In the past, I would restrict my carb intake to 100 grams, and sometimes to less than 50 grams. Now, I’m eating 450 grams of carbs a day, so the majority of my calories come from carbohydrates — but not just any carbohydrates.

Simple carbs — sugars — have long been considered to prematurely age you, while complex carbs were believed to be preferred since they feed your microbiome. However, that notion seems to be turned on its head with the new understanding of how endotoxin is a major problem sabotaging your metabolic health. The best carbs to eat are ripe fruits.

The complex carbs that aren’t digested in your stomach travel down to the intestine where they indeed do feed your bacteria, but after the bacteria grow and multiply and die, the gram-negative bacteria release endotoxin, or LPS (lipopolysaccharide), which increases allergic reactions, organ dysfunction and even sepsis.

Endotoxin also catalyzes a series of metabolic reactions that converts tryptophan in your gut to serotonin. This is another shocker because most people think serotonin is good, but mostly, especially higher levels are not good for your health. You do not want high levels of serotonin, because it’s an antimetabolite.

This means it suppresses your body's ability to create energy in your mitochondria, in the electron transport chain, so you become tired and fatigued, your metabolic rate slows and you gain weight.

The bioenergetic model is based on the concept that your body craves energy, and if you can get the fuel into the subcellular spaces like the mitochondria, burn it properly and create ATP, then you're off to the races. Your body will self-repair automatically.

Four Ways to Improve Your Metabolic Health

With that background, you can now understand why longer fasts can backfire. If you're not eating, you’re not feeding the bacteria in your gut. Hence there's no endotoxin being produced. As a result, your inflammation goes down, your cortisol level comes way down and you start feeling better.

But after a day or two, you’ve exhausted your body stores of glycogen (sugar) in your liver. And because you don’t have any, your cortisol will rise, activating lipolysis that releases the fatty acids from your fat cells. PUFAs like LA are not burned for energy but stored in your cells, and if your fat cells are loaded with LA, then lipolysis can really wreak havoc. The LA needs to be released slowly and carefully, over time. To do that, I recommend the following four strategies:

Increase your NAD+ level by taking 50 milligrams of niacinamide, three times a day.

Optimize your circadian rhythm by going to bed around sunset or shortly thereafter (in the summer) and getting up around sunrise.

Engage in moderate exercise. Avoid strenuous and high-intensity workouts, as that will release LA from your cells and raise your cortisol.

Take a high-quality vitamin E supplement at a dose of 100 milligrams to 150 mg. The specific isomer you need is D-alpha tocopherol, which is the active form. Avoid the “DL” form. You also want the other tocopherols (beta, gamma and delta) and a small amount of tocotrienols. Vitamin E helps counteract the adverse effects of the LA, so that when it’s liberated through lipolysis, it won’t cause so much oxidative stress.

The Surprising Benefits of Aspirin

I’ve recently evolved my views on aspirin and recently wrote an article on why. I now suspect aspirin can be a supplement that most people can benefit from. For example, aspirin is a powerful anti-lipolytic, which means it decreases the breakdown of PUFAs released from your fat cells. Aspirin also:

Lowers your cortisol levels

Is a master regulator of an inflammatory pathway called NF kappa B (NF-kB)

Helps increase testosterone and progesterone, which are two of the most important sex hormones in your body

Increases your metabolism by uncoupling the mitochondria, which helps weight loss. Uncoupling mitochondria means that instead of making ATP, your body is going to make heat. So you don't get energy overload and oxidative stress; rather the energy is released in the creation of heat

May decrease the risk of COVID death by 50%

Lowers aldosterone, which helps normalize blood pressure

I now take aspirin daily. Baby aspirin is one option, but I believe a daily dose of 325 mg, once a day, is better for most unless you are using it to prevent a clot, then a baby aspirin once or twice a day is likely better. Avoid enteric coated (timed-release) aspirin as they contain questionable additives. Instead, look for ones that contain only aspirin and corn starch (in this case, the amount of corn starch is not a concern, as we’re talking minute amounts).

[yoga-onion]

Legends and myths about trees

Children of the tree - Treasures of the forest

Mushrooms are known in Japanese as ‘Kinoko’ literally translated as 'children of the tree'. It just so happens to grow in forests, at the base of trees or on old fallen trees. When you come across a fresh tree cub, you will feel as if you have discovered a treasure. Quite a few people are rather particular about tree cubs in the forest.

Many animals other than people eat mushrooms. Squirrels and other animals are known to dry mushrooms on the tips of tree branches and use them as winter food. Numerous insects also eat mushrooms. Slugs and snails also often use mushrooms as food.

Mushrooms are either edible, toxic, or psychoactive. Those edible ones are rather nutritious, being rich in B vitamins, vitamin D and minerals.

Mushroom yokai monsters are traditional to the west Japan. These yokai monsters are said to be found in mountains and forests, and look like children of about three or four years of age, wearing clothes made of leaves or blue-coloured clothing. When humans see them, they look like shadows and it is not clear whether they are there or not. They are the mountain forest version of kappa (Ref).

They usually play in groups. They are often seen by loggers and people working in the mountains, and are said to be not so unusual for them. However, if they are not careful, they can play tricks on them, such as stealing their lunch boxes, and in such cases they are said to chase them away with a stick.

木にまつわる伝説・神話

マッシュルームのことを日本語では���木の子」とよんでいる。

まさに、森の中で木の根元に、あるいは老朽した倒木に生えている子供たちだ。新鮮な木の子に遭遇したときには、まるで宝物を発見したような気分になるだろう。森の木の子に夢中の人は割といる。

キノコを食べる動物はヒト以外にも多い。リスなどがキノコを木の枝先にかけて乾かし、冬期の食料として利用する例も知られている。昆虫にもキノコを食べるものは数多い。ナメクジやカタツムリも、しばしばキノコを餌として利用している。

キノコには、食用、毒性、または精神作用がある。食用のものは、ビタミンB群、ビタミンDやミネラルも豊富に含まれ、むしろ栄養価が高い。

日本には近畿地方に伝わる木の子の妖怪もいる。山間部や森の中にいるとされる妖怪で、外観は3,4歳ほどの子供のような姿で、木の葉で作った衣服、または青い色の衣服を着てる。人間がその姿を見るとまるで影のようで、いるかいないかはっきりしないという。河童（参照）の山林バージョンだ。

普段は群をなして遊んでいる。樵や山で仕事をしている人々にはその姿をたびたび見かけられており、彼らにとってはそれほど珍しくない存在だという。でも、油断をしていると、弁当を盗まれるなどの悪戯をされてしまい、そんなときには棒を持って追い払うという。

[ahedderick]

Checkup

I'm going to have some bloodwork done this week, so I stopped taking any vitamin or mineral supplements around Christmas time . . so they can get a good 'baseline' value. But I am very, very much looking forward to taking them again. No matter WHAT I eat this time of year (I am so good about fruits and veg!) I need a bit extra in the way of vitamins. D, B, whatever. Finding out that adhd folks may be prone to needing higher levels of B vitamins (we use more of it? We don't process it from food as well? Don't know.) was one of the really, really helpful "Tumblr-anecdotes I read and looked up more info on later." Seriously. If you don't take posts at face value, but do further research and check with your own doctor about stuff, you can learn SO MUCH from Tumblr.

On that note. Want to hear a c-r-a-z-y story about perimenopause? This might save some 40ish cis woman some trouble, and may simply be of interest to trans folks.

One day in October of the year I was 41, I woke up a different person. I mean I literally went to bed as myself and woke up feeling completely different. Over the next two weeks I barely slept more than a few hours a night and barely ate; had no appetite whatsoever. I kept up with mom duties and farm duties, but spent all my alone-time with my head in a fog.

Over the next few months I considered asking for medical help, but I didn't quite know what to TELL my Dr (a grumpy but reasonable old guy). I couldn't quite describe my experience on words, except to say I felt like a different person. Gradually I began to fell much, much more energetic. My strength increased bizarrely, even with no more than my usual farm exercise. LOVED that! The acne, moustache and chin whiskers were unwelcome. The mental fog was distressing, but my kids were only in third grade and kindergarten respectively, and my father was still completely independent - so I didn't NEED to be all that mentally sharp to keep up with what I needed to. You may be wanting to smack me upside the head by now, but it wasn't until I started growing black, wiry chest hair that I FINALLY figured it out.

My system had stopped estrogening and started androgening. Completely at random. I am, I must stress, a cis-woman, always felt female, and had 5 pregnancies with two live children. The very sudden onset of it is what made me feel so mentally disoriented at the beginning.

By the time I figured it out, months after it began, I could already feel the effects starting to wane. There were no real health effects that I needed to see a Dr about, and I wasn't sure I wanted to go to the trouble of trying to get him to understand what happened. I've never met another woman who talked about having this experience - but we often don't talk about perimenopause. I had read BOOKS about menopause issues, and this wasn't in them! Since hormone disruption is foundational to perimenopause, I'd bet money that SOMEONE else has had this happen. If you're nearing that age, it might happen to you - and it isn't the end of the world.

[haifengg]

Pairing: RengokuxGN!Reader

Note: Hopefully this is the first KNY work of many. Requests are currently open, so if you find a work of mine for some other random that you enjoy don’t hesitate to request it for The groups stated in the blog description.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

He shows his affection by acts of service. His definition of ‘I love you’ is ‘I will do things for you’. Rather than wanting you to do stuff for him he loves it if he can be of help and if you rely on him. Of course there are days when he’s worn out and needs being taken care of but mostly he’s full of energy.

B = Before (What were they like when they had a crush?)

Painfully obvious. He would ask everyone about you. Talk about you relentlessly. Try everything to be around you more.

At some points your mutual friends would go to you and beg you to go on a date with him just to make it stop.

C = Confession (What was their confession like?)

After that whole story I don’t think it needed a confession. As Rengoku was aware. He probably would have loved to properly confess but … yeah he kinda blew it.

D = Date (What was the first official date they went on?)

For the both of you the first date wasn’t an actual date. It was just one of the times he rescheduled everything to be with you on some actual lame thing like … studying or whatnot but because this man was so obvious there had already been sparks all over the place.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

I suppose you would already know before it even happens. His demeanor and way he behaves when you’re around would already have changed. I can see him trying to pull through and hoping for things to get better but once he notices that won’t happen he break up very fairly. If you already live together he’d move out. Just because his romantic feelings for you have changed doesn’t mean he doesn’t still care about you. And since it is him breakingup he’d want you to be as comfortable as possible with the change of situation. (Maybe he’d even ask mutual friends to check in on you from time to time.)

F = Fights (What would fights look like? What are things that upset them?)

It’s difficult to fight with him because a) he can be _intense_ and b) storms out and doesn’t come back.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

His Love language is (apart from acts of service) physical touch. Therefore I can’t see him talk much rather than listening to you and hugging you on the sofa or holding your hand across the table.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Rengoku yearns for physical touch. He hugs you often, at all different kinds of occasions and in so many different ways. He pulls you closer by your waist when introducing you to someone or puts his arms around you on an escalator.

I = Intimacy (What is their favorite form of intimacy? Do they have problems with it?)

Getting ready together. It is important to him that you take good care of yourself. He enjoys seeing you do skin care and taking vitamins because it’s a sign to him that everything is in order.

Rengoku also enjoys taking you out to eat for the same reason.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Uhm… hm … difficult. I’d say he would only get jealous if there is a reason. For example that you talk about them too much or spend too much time with them (to the point you don’t have time for him anymore) or if there’s a shared past/trauma. Other than that I suppose he’s chill bc he knows and trusts you.

K = Kisses (Are they a good kisser? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

His favorite place to be kissed is the back of his neck. When you hug him from behind and place a small peck in his neck. He loves it.

His favorite place to kiss you is inner thighs *coughs* you didn’t get that from me.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Of course. I suppose if you read this you’ve seen him with his brother. And please, those genetics really gotta be passed on.

M = Messages (How often do they text his S/O?)

Since Rengoku is usually at work he doesn’t text much. One thing you like about him is being serious about everything he does but that also includes following the no-phone rule at his workplace almost up to 100%.

I can also see him not texting you ‘good morning’ but leaving a note on the table when he leaves home. ANd definitely kissing you goodbye if you’re also awake that early.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Most of the time Rengoku comes home late. Once you confronted him about it (bc you’d like to see your boyfriend once in a while and actually have dinner with him) but when he explained it to you all your anger just poofed away. It turns out that he had been staying late in the office to help some new coworkers with their chores. It turns out that their boss is pretty pernickety so it established soon that experienced employees help the new ones.

After you made sure that said coworkers are either male or married you let it go. But you also made sure you got your message across and Rengoku promised he would try to come home earlier.

O = Opinion (Would they ask for their S/O’s opinion a lot? How important is it in terms of decisions?)

He gives a lot about your opinion since your taste in certain things is one of many traits that made him attracted to you.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Since Rengoku is not just a saint himself but also an experienced team leader at work he has an insane amount of patience. If he should get angry or annoyed he’d stuff it down and get real quiet. Maybe he avoids you for a few hours and then goes back to normal.

Confronting him or fighting with him is probably really difficult.

Q = Quizzes (How does a bar trivia night teamed up with them look like?)

This. Man. Is. So. Motivated. But doesn’t know shit. Rengoku would enter the competition extremely eager and ready to declare war but eventually wouldn’t know how to answer anything because he genuinely doesn’t follow pop-culture.

His face would stay the same tho. The same confident and dumb-ass  crazy smile he’d put on every day.

R = Remember (How much do they remember about their S/O or their relationship in general?)

He remembers a lot. Not everything but most stuff. Especially the things you’d like him to forget immediately after they happened. Stuff that made you embarrassed? He’d remember you constantly and tease you.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Rengoku is protective. No doubt. But since he knows you can stand up for yourself he sometimes also enjoys just being you cheerleader and watching you rule.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Depending on how much effort his partner puts into it. Sometimes Rengoku would love to go full out but he learned how to dial back and how less is more. What he really enjoys are weekend trips. Getting away and just enjoying the quiet with you.

U = Unique (What makes them unique as a S/O?)

Rengoku is a man that oozes respect. For nearly everything and everyone but most of all for you. He is someone who knows his own flaws and works on them relentlessly. He is also the most loyal boyfriend one could find, willing to work on a relationship that’s worth so much to him.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Semi. I mean, sure he is clean and everything but since he has his one look and never changes everything about it he surely doesn’t pay too much attention to these things. If you’d mention a certain look you’d like to see on him you would also have to go shopping with him because there isn’t much reliance on his fashion sense.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without their S/O?

Definitely.

X = X-Ray (How transparent are they?)

Rengoku probably doesn’t tell you everything but will disclose if you  ask. A lot of things have happened in his life before they met you and he doesn’t want it to weigh on you.

Y = Yuck (Everyone has flaws. What is theirs?)

Dude can’t whisper.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Insists on going to bed together. Since most times you don’t see each other much during the day because of your different work schedules - he enjoys brushing teeth together and the little bathroom talks you have from time to time. Watching you get upset about something that happened that day, threatening things with a toothbrush sometimes is the highlight of his day.

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If you want to be put on the taglist send me a message or ask w/ how you want to be tagged. If you want to update your tags please follow same procedure.

[merv606]

“I mean, Terry may have left Daniel alone in the interim but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t keeping tabs 😈”

Right?

“Danny Boy? I thought he was kicking the competition with the four dealerships he started in 2001, married to Amanda Steiner since 1999, with two children and living in a $2.6M 9200 square foot 6 bedroom mansion in Encino, currently on prescription level Vitamin D and iron supplements, and recently kicked a cold and had sushi for lunch today?”

Kreese: …?

Silver: …?

Right 😆

[sanguinifex]

Y’know the “classic children’s literature” canon is largely pretty fucked up.

C.S. Lewis was racist and homophobic and sexist, not to mention Extremely Christian and trying to convert you (seriously, there are exactly 2 books where the bad guys aren’t women or Muslims by another name, and one of those 2 doesn’t even have an antagonist once Eustace gets un-dragoned)

Roald Dahl was notoriously antisemitic and just kind of misogynistic in general. Keeps trying to sell the idea that ugly people are inherently evil and pretty people are inherently good. Also like the Oompa Loompas are a) canonically black in the books and b) slave labor, and this is promoted as positive? Charlie’s dad would’ve had a job if Wonka hadn’t been literally stealing people to avoid paying workers. Also, like, the nerve of leaving a chocolate factory to a random kid who knows nothing about chocolate except it tastes good, when probably at least a dozen of the Oompa Loompas are qualified to run the place. Like, Dahl is great at giving people nightmares, but the inherent assumptions begin the worlds he builds are not something I want to give to a 10-year-old and tell them it’s Great Literature and something to emulate, the way I was. (Also, I was actually 8, come to think of it.)

JKR. Well. Besides the TERFery and racism/antisemitism. There’s just a complete disregard for bodily autonomy that’s so present in her work that it becomes obvious it’s part of how she views the world? Like, it’s supposed to be a funny joke to slip someone a potion that turns them into a canary. Admittedly the delivery of that line was 109% but like. What if he’d got stuck like that? You can’t just transmogrify people like that without asking them. You also shouldn’t do the “muggle” equivalent like putting Nair in someone’s shampoo. That’s assault, Joanie. I think this also feeds into her transphobia, because she just doesn’t seem to have anything that would hold her back from swapping someone’s gender for giggles if she were able to. It’s not just the HP series, either, it’s her works aimed at adults as well. Like, she’d be the type to barge into the bathroom while you’re peeing and then get offended when you’re upset by this because “We’re all girls here.” But oh it’s a modern classic and you have to read it to understand nerd culture…well, you could make that argument 10 years ago but it’s a bit less solid in 2023. I wouldn’t ban a kid from reading it, but I wouldn’t give them a box set. If they brought it home from the library I’d give a quick talk that I’m not mad at them for reading it but they should be aware that the author is a jerk.

Stephanie Meyer: Completely inescapable if you were a tween girl anywhere between 2005 and 2010. You had to plough through 4 doorstoppers of toxic Mormon heterosexuality just to understand what anyone was talking about. Like, I think it should be shelved with a pamphlet about healthy vs unhealthy relationships in it. Also, like, Meyer profited off the names of Native people and didn’t give them a cent. Also Bella you need a vampire like a fish needs a bicycle, just take some vitamin D supplements and you’ll get over him

Again, I’m not saying “don’t read these books.” Many of them are well-written and have historic and sociological and literary value. This post is about how we tell children that these demonstrably bigoted authors, whose bigotry shines through in their writing because they’re too unaware of it to file it down, that these are Great Writers and suitable to emulate. It’s not just that bigotry could be absored by young readers, it’s also that ir build a false foundation that will crumble under literary analysis, creating a life of doubting one’s own word choices, among other problems!

[todaysdocument]

Label for Chocolate Flavored Ovaltine, certificate of registration dated 12/28/1937. 

“Untouched by hand”!

Record Group 241: Records of the Patent and Trademark Office

Series: Case Files for Registered Product Labels

Transcription:

[ORANGE LABEL WITH BROWN AND CREAM COLORED DESIGN ELEMENTS. TEXT IN BROWN AND BLACK] 

[Left section of label] UNTOUCHED BY HAND 

CHOCOLATE FLAVORED 

OVALTINE for many years has been highly recommended by physicians throughout the world as a building, and restorative food; as a means of inducing calm, natural sleep without the use of drugs; for growing children particularly those under par, underweight and nervous; for expectant and nursing mothers to maintain their strength and promote the flow of milk; as a sustaining food for elderly people and convalescents. Used widely in place of coffee and tea as a daily beverage. 

CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE appeals especially to children and all who like a sweeter chocolate flavor. Those who rebel against drinking plain milk find a new delight in delicious Chocolate Flavored Ovaltine 

NOT TO BE EXPORTED 

[Center panel of label] CHOCOLATE FLAVORED 

OVALTINE SWEETENED TRADE MARK REG. U. S. PAT. OFF. 

CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE contains the highly nutritious ingredients of OVALTINE blended with sucrose and high quality cocoa. Its rich chocolate flavor is especially designed for those who prefer OVALTINE with a sweeter chocolate taste. 

READY TO SERVE CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE comes to you sweetened and ready to serve when added to milk. 

A PROTECTIVE FOOD CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE supplies valuable protective food elements. In addition to quickly available carbohydrates, proteins and fats, it contains the accessory food factors, vitamins A, B. D and G, as well as calcium, iron, phosphorus and other essential minerals. NET WEIGHT SMALL SIZE 9 OZS. 

[right side of label] REPLACE LID AFTER USING --- KEEP DRY 

CHOCOLATE FLAVORED 

TO SERVE COLD Use three of more heaping teaspoons of CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE to one glass of ice cold milk (a few chips of ice may be added if desired). Shake up in a shaker. 

TO SERVE HOT Stir three heaping teaspoons of CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE into a cup or glass of hot (not boiled) milk. 

NOTE: If Evaporated Milk is used, take one part of it to two parts of water for HOT CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE For COLD CHOCOLATE FLAVORED OVALTINE take one part of it to one part of water and shake vigorously with cracked ice. 

COPYRIGHT THE WANDER COMPANY 1937 

[banner across bottom of label] MANUFACTURED AT VILLA PARK, ILLINOIS, BY THE WANDER COMPANY GENERAL OFFICES: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (MAIL ADDRESS)

[stardewsnail]

Harvey SFW Alphabet

SFW Alphabet requests are CLOSED

Bold  = complete

Italicized = available

crossed out = in progress

Remaining: Y, Z, X, W, V, T, S, Q, O, N, G, F, B

Snail’s Directory 

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Harvey loves to cuddle, but not while sleeping. His favorite way is to hold his partner while they watch a movie or a show—sharing a blanket and some snacks and just being close and spending time together.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Harvey wants to settle down so badly. Literally chomping at the bit for domesticity. He wants to be a husband, he wants to be a father, he wants to take care of a partner through sickness and in health. Look at him, he’s simply spouse shaped

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Harvey would be very gentle but honestly it’s only the fact that, as a doctor,  he has good bedside manner. Even so—he’s almost certainly going to cry even if he’s the one doing the dumping. (All I can imagine is a very somber tone and prepared speech but tears are streaming down his face)

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)Harvey loves loves loves hugs. He will wrap his arms over his partner’s and just lean, pulling them close. Will crush you if you let him.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?

Harvey has every intention of holding off and really waiting until he’s sure, but c’mon, he’s sure. It just slips out while you’re helping around the clinic or hanging out on the couch watching a detective show (Harvey loves Monk and Columbo). It’s just quiet and simply true and he blushes at the admission and buries his face in the crook of his partner’s neck. 

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Harvey does get a little jealous from time to time. It’s nothing extreme, he’s not going to start a fight or anything but he might mention it. Mostly he’ll just seek extra reassurance and move on–he trusts his partner. 

Jealous Bachelors

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Harvey always takes off his glasses or pushes them up when he kisses his partner. It’s so fast and fluid it’s like a magic trick. He likes to be kissed on his neck. On his partner he loves to kiss their forehead—he’s a tall guy so there’s usually a height difference. Loves to do the hug and forehead kiss combo.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Harvey became a doctor because he’s a nurturing person. He loves kids, although he’s awkward with them. Prime dorky dad material, jokes and all. He’s terrified of having kids but excited about the prospect nonetheless. He’d be a good dad.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Harvey’s up early right along with his farmer partner—he’s got a clinic to run. He and his partner have a seamless routine of getting ready together in the morning, mostly without even speaking.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

O = Open  (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say  everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

This man has endless patience until you keep getting wrecked in the mines. Genuinely aside from his nerves I think that’s the only time he’d really let you have it. He isn’t angry per se, just very worried and upset that you don’t seem to care enough about your well being. 

Q = Quizzes  (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little  detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

Harvey has two favorite moments. The first is more obvious—the hot air balloon. The second moment  is smaller and softer—they had identified his new model plane before he had even begun to explain. When he pressed they admitted they’d been reading up on the hobby so they could talk about it with Harvey. He cried. He’s a big crier.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

Harvey sleeps like an old man. You’re lucky if he makes it past 8:30. King of “just resting his eyes” on the couch.