#that supermarket was massive and my brain was too small to account for all the times they changed the products' positions

[moodyseal]

I know I'll sound like a lunatic but I miss working in customer service SO MUCH. My favourite thing was when a random customer would approach me and go "Hey uh excuse me, do you know where I could find canned beans?" I have no fucking clue sir let's go find out

[gaiatheorist]

Plastic straws, and platitudes.

I should be breathing an enormous sigh of relief, having the tribunal panel’s decision that I qualify for a three year period of having an ‘official’ disability on paper. It’s me, though, I’m caught up in a turmoil-Tsunami about what could go wrong next. Not the physical fact that my eyes have been consistently ‘bad’ for four days now, and the third aneurysm is sitting in the part of my brain that controls the blood supply to my retinas, that’s too obvious. I’ll have a scan in September, hopefully I won’t go completely and permanently blind before that. What I’m over-processing is the fact that DWP can still attempt to block or delay the legal overturn of their original ‘decision’, that I’m not-disabled-enough to qualify for support.

DWP’s ‘decision’ wasn’t really a decision at all, it was a copy-pasted nightmare of jumbled-assumptions, in the hope that I’d go “Oh, well, that’s that, I’d better just get on with it on my own.” Like I did the first time, I’ve found my original eloquent-articulate self-doubt post on one of the forums I used at the time of the first application, and, ‘reading for content’, I was a plastic straw person at that point. Not to be confused with a ‘strawman’, like, say “People faking disability to claim benefits.” 

The plastic straw people have been out in force since the government had the bright idea of ‘banning’ single-use plastic straws, in a vain attempt to be seen to be doing something positive, in amongst all the negative, and all the nothing they’re currently doing. Straw-splainers are very fond of the phrase “Can’t you just...?”, because ‘just’ is a very tiny word to them; I can’t ‘just’ do a lot of things, ‘just’ is not a small consideration for me. Plastic straws are not an issue for me, but there’s another wave of insidious not-disabled-enough rhetoric bubbling up amongst sections of the non-disabled public, just what I don’t need after horrible years and a few very stressful months of evidencing that I am disabled-enough. 

Before the brain haemorrhage, I still had a plethora of medical issues, I used to joke that I did my Christmas shopping on the NHS direct website, but I could mostly ‘pass’ for whatever-normal-is. I could ‘just’ say “Can I move seats, I can’t sit in this light?” or “Will you help me with this, please? My left hand has reduced function.” I could ‘just’ keep my office blinds closed to reduce the risk of losing working hours to photo-sensitive hemiplegic migraine, and patiently re-close them every time some other person came in and trilled “Oooh, I don’t know how you see anything in here!” I could ‘just’ wear extra layers of clothing, to ease the impacts of the Raynaud’s and Arthritis, I could ‘just’ say “No, thank you.” to foods that I knew would flare my stomach issues up. I could ‘just’ keep going through the sporadic stretches of poor mental health. That perseverance and pragmatism is hard-wired, even when I really, REALLY want to give up, I don’t, which has put me in mind of Venus DeMileage’s utterly beautiful book ‘The Avenue of Regrettable Farewells: A Tale Untold In The Telling’, but I mustn’t get sidetracked. I was a plastic straw person. I ‘could’ function, despite my veritable telephone-directory of underlying ailments, so I couldn’t see why other people couldn’t. (Another side-rabbit-hole I mustn’t go down is how consistent with Autism some of my beliefs and behaviours are.)

I know what the plastic straw people are doing, because, to a lesser degree, I used to be one of them. Some of them ‘see no ships’ from where they are, and some of them think that a stiff upper lip is a panacea. Some of them, however, are insensitively deluded that everyone has the same level of functionality that they do. The dismissive “Can’t you just...?” crew, lacking in the empathetic department. *I* can do all manner of things that ‘most’ people can’t, but, after the initial tut-and-head-shake that Brenda from accounts can’t un-jam the printer, or Doris can’t lift a five-litre water bottle, or Bob doesn’t know how to gut a fish, I don’t spend hours me-splaining, I ask if they want help. (Part of my undoing was seeing ‘help’ as a four-letter-word, most people learned to be cagey-cautious around offering to do things ‘for’ me. That tenacity was do-able before the brain injuries, less-so afterwards, but the pattern was embedded.) 

What I’m seeing creeping through my internet window on the world is an increase in the not-disabled-enough nonsense, and I know that some of ‘us’, with less-visible disabilities are catching the sharp side of it. Personally, I’ve modified most of my behaviours and activities to ensure that my disability has as little impact on others as possible. I just don’t like inconveniencing people, so anything I ‘need’ to do is done early in the day, while I’m more lucid, and less fatigued. The dread-of-being-caught creeps in here, because I ‘can’ sometimes walk to Tesco, and manage a basket around the shop without incident. Only ever during the early part of the day, and certainly not every week. Process that, plastic straw people, sometimes I’m not physically capable of ‘popping into Tesco for milk.’ (There’s a 25-page document I didn’t present at my tribunal, detailing all the things I could remember having difficulties with, and how I adapted to avoid risk to self or others, I just chose ‘popping to the supermarket for milk’ as an ‘everyday’ example.) Yes, Janet, you DID see me in Tesco three weeks last Tuesday, and no, that doesn’t mean I’m fully functional, and a benefit fraudster. 

In the same way as I ‘can’ do what I need to to survive, thousands, if not millions of other people in the UK are adapting to their limitations, at variable levels of cost to themselves. I don’t drive, so I haven’t been tutted at for parking in a disabled bay, and I consciously try to avoid the need to use public toilets, so I don’t have an argument with any randoms that “That toilet is for disabled people.” I don’t need to use plastic straws to drink, so I haven’t had to justify to anyone why their ‘just’ alternative wouldn’t be viable. ‘Had to’ is my issue, I don’t ‘have to’ explain myself to anyone, BUT I deliberately go out of my way to avoid situations where people might think they were owed justification of why I appear to have stopped to tie the laces on slip-on shoes. (It’s vertigo, I’d had instances of it before the aneurysm ruptured, it’s always there now, at a background level, sometimes it peaks, and I feel like I’m going to fall over, ‘tying my shoes’ puts me closer to the ground when I do actually wobble, and I’ll always make every effort to ‘get out of the way’ when I do squat down.) 

The platitudes. Gods save me from the in-laws, who are due to pick up my son this afternoon. To their minds, I’m ‘better’, in part because I’ve minimised my difficulties for so long, and in part because I avoid them like the plague. They don’t see me shambling about the place half-blind, because I deliberately sit down when they arrive. (In my alcove ‘office’, so they can’t try to touch me.) They don’t believe in mental illness, and they’re ancient, so they know a LOT of people with disabilities and health conditions that they class as ‘worse’ than the level of superficial functionality they see in me. I didn’t have to have speech therapy, like uncle Roger did after his stroke. I don’t have visible scars from cancer surgery like two of my ex brothers-in-law. I don’t have a blue badge in my car. I don’t answer the door to them in food-stained pyjamas, so I’m “Looking well!”

They, and other older people, LOVE to talk about other people’s infirmities, but, with my adaptations that don’t include plastic straws, I appear functional for the narrow windows they see me in, so it’s platitudes-ahoy. “It could have been worse, lass.” “You’re lucky, lass.” I have to be very cautious with that one, because the father-in-law’s first wife died as a result of a brain haemorrhage. That cagey-caution led to one of my dodgy coping strategies, the practice of telling people I was ‘fine’ when they asked, because I simply couldn’t tolerate the platitudes that would pour out of them if I said anything else. Everybody seemed to have a next-door-neighbour’s distant cousin three-times-removed who’d had brain surgery, or a stroke, and were ‘so brave’ about it, putting the increasingly-automatic adaptations I was making just to exist into perspective. I rarely mention in ‘real life’ that I have a constant background headache, that most of the time I feel as if the room is spinning around me, or that I have roaming blind-spots that frequently join up, leaving me ‘legally blind.’ There’s a massive catalogue of constant and fluctuating symptoms that come with my damaged brain that I just don’t mention, because the emotional/psychological side of the brain injuries have reduced my capacity to deal with platitudes. 

Yes, it could have been worse, and yes, it’s lovely that your next door neighbour’s sister-uncle had a stroke, and learned to ride a unicycle afterwards, but it’s not particularly relevant to me, is it? It’s not even just lay-people and random acquaintances, it’s medical-people, too, I wanted to bite my counsellor’s nose off every time he said “Some people wouldn’t have been resilient enough to come through that!”, and every time my (lovely) GP starts one of his rambling “Some people...” anecdotes, it’s really hard not to look at my watch. Even the neuro-psychologist did it, and I’m sure she wasn’t prepared for my ‘Good enough ISN’T enough’ response.

I know it’s social conditioning, that, faced with an unpalatable truth, the vast majority of people will default to ‘look on the bright side’ and ‘it could have been worse’ responses, before starting with the unsolicited advice. For me, no amount of mindfulness, or yoga, or fish-oil, or ANYTHING is going to undo the fact that I have brain damage. My son ‘gets it’, and will occasionally joke “Have you tried just NOT having brain damage?” when he catches me doing something more-odd-than-usual. I am relatively functional for a smaller part of the day than a fully-able person, and I’m only able to sustain that window of functionality through masses of exhausting adaptations. Have I tried not-adapting, to extend my lucid window? No, I haven’t, because the adaptations are what keep me more-safe. Without always knowing where the next thing I can grab, or lean on is, I fall over a lot. Without having sufficient notice to plan any journey, my anxieties about the potential difficulties I could have tip me into a what-if loop that makes me physically ill. There are multiple tedious adaptations to every aspect of my life now, and plastic straw people don’t see what I can’t do. 

I don’t know where I’m going with this any more, I’m in limbo with the disability benefit and the unemployment benefit, and I’m scheduled to meet my work-coach AND be re-assessed by the mental health team next week. The work-coach will give me ‘chin up’ platitudes, and the mental health team will be baffled that I know what I’m doing wrong, but don’t seem able to stop it. What I’m doing wrong is trying to survive as a disabled person in a very able-focused world. The disability and unemployment processes in the UK are hideous, skewed-snapshots of whether I can hold a pen and such, rather than whether I’d be able to hold a pen all day without sticking it up my nose when the cognitive fatigue kicks in. The plastic straws that the government want to ‘take’ are the visible tip of the iceberg, the underlying part being the insidious restructure of support and benefit systems, that the people who don’t need plastic straws aren’t aware of. They’re aware of the bluff and bluster about ‘making work pay’, and ‘more rigorous testing to reduce fraud’, and, of course, they’ve all seen the newspaper reports and TV programmes about benefit cheats. The disabled aren’t just disadvantaged, we’re virtually demonized, then damned if we do/don’t. This ignorant backlash against something as seemingly innocuous as plastic straws is a ripple in a stream that was already turbulent, it’s spreading, while-ever fully able people feel they’re entitled to judge, question, and make assumption about the abilities of people with disabilities.   

To some people, it’s ‘just’ a plastic straw, and, for some of those people a platitude about their great-uncle Bulgaria who lost both legs, and then crawled a marathon is meant to either motivate or shame the disabled person who still has both legs. We’re not looking at life from the same angle, it’s not fair to assume that because ‘you’ can perform action-x, everyone can, that’s how children think, not adults. (With the exception of adults with disabilities consistent with Autism...) It’s not ‘just’ a straw, for some people this guilty-until-proven-innocent society we’re becoming will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.    

[sandralmuller]

A little bit broken

This week’s theme is ‘broken’. It was a week where not every broken thing was harmful. Sometimes breakage can be a good thing, a very good thing, especially when it comes to rules. There’s a bit of an anarchist in all of us and when I can find a societal or business rule or convention to challenge, it’s almost as lovely as cuddling a friendly llama.

Give value without expecting anything in return

Something keeps coming up for me over and over again. I keep seeing the signs and I know I need to pay attention. It’s my reticulating activating system (RAS) at work – my brain, not the universe, not a divine message.

Here’s one of those signs:

In a thoughtful piece on Medium, Tim Denning recently wrote 19 Harsh Truths You Don’t Want To Hear But Must (You’ll Be 10 Times Better For It).

Number 11 is the one that got the attention of my RAS:

11. Create value ahead of everything else.

That’s why I have no payment walls, masterminds or courses. When you create massive value for free, everyting you need comes at you at 100 miles an hour.

The question is whether you’ll help other people get what they need so you can get what you need.

You’ll never to have to worry about money again when you focus on creating the most value you can growing through personal development.

Tim Denning

I’m a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuck and his Youtube Channel. Gary turns the traditional model of digital marketing on its head and advocates giving away everything for free. Even your best material that you think should be behind a paywall. That course you spend weeks or months creating? Give it away.

I came across this gem from Gary this week:

Put as much content out there as you can. There are people in your field who will hate you because you’ll be offering up information for free for which they often charge. That’s okay. When viewers need accounting help, who are they going to want to do business with, the guys who hoarded information or the person who proved himself to be open and honest and generous?

Gary Vaynerchuck

My RAS is telling me to give away all my valuable resources and knowledge for free via this website. I’m listening.

I will admit though that I’ve not yet created anything of significant value yet that makes me suck my breath in through my teeth at that thought. I get why some people might suck their breath in at the thought. I’m starting with a clean whiteboard.

The passive income Kool-Aid

I admit it. I’ve taken big deep slurps of the passive income Kool-Aid myth in the past. It’s not that I believe in true passive income or a 4-hour work week. But I’ve been dabbling in the online passive income world for a long time, about eight years, and actively for about three. I’ve made a modest income from my online adventures. A bit of extra pocket money here and there. And I absolutely love doing it. But it’s certainly not enough to replace my income or retire to my country property where I pat my pet llamas all day.

And that’s OK because I enjoy the consulting work I do. I enjoy trading dollars for my time. Yet I always come across people telling me that trading dollars for time is limiting my ability to make money. But for me, it’s not all about the money. I live a simple life, by choice.

And that work I do keeps me sharp, gives me more experience and makes me a better all-round content strategist. I know where I’m best suited – to the longer-term, big enterprise content projects – and that’s where I’ll focus to bring in more work, at least for the medium term. I feel good about this goal. I want to keep being a do-er, not a tell-people-how-to-be-a-do-er.

Maybe there’s a disconnect between this site and my consulting site, but maybe it will funnel the right people and the right kind of jobs through. I’m somewhat ironically calling it my ‘anti-sales-funnel’ funnel.

I’m looking at breaking the business norms of creating something of value, giving something small but valuable away to build my email list and then sell my high-value item to said list.

If you want it, you can have it. If you want to give me your email address, cool. If you don’t, that’s cool, too. You can still have my free things. Including the big ticket things I create.

Other lessons learnt this week

The Big Government Project went into meltdown this week. Somebody (not me) authorised a major upgrade of GatherContent. It broke. Not the good kind of broken, either. Support and communication to our team was almost non-existent (plus the time zone difference causes delays) and many GC team members were off to the US for a conference (also not ideal in the middle of a major upgrade).

It’s been rolled back, thank goodness. Back to regular business next week.

Shiny new online software toys tools

But the upside of my whinging about GC is that I discovered an Australian alternative. It’s called Content Snare and it looks really affordable for smaller budget projects. I’m going to look into it as an alternative to GC, not because of the upgrade issues, but because GC is like driving a Ferrari to the supermarket when sometimes all you really need is a reliable Corolla. I’ll check it out further and if it’s worthy of a write-up, I’ll review it.

I also discovered Coggle, a collaborative mind mapping tool. Who doesn’t love a good mind map? Looks like this tool will be freeing up plenty of space on my whiteboard. And it’s so pretty!

Over to you.

Is anything broken in your world? Anything that needs shattering? Let me know in the comments.

A little bit broken was originally published on The Smarter Writer

[sherristockman]

Nutella Unmasked Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola If you haven't experienced a slice of toast with Nutella, you may not be missing as much as advertisers would like you to believe. Nutella, advertised as a pseudo-healthy sweet, is a chocolate spread used on pancakes, toast and fried in wontons. In fact, the product has a large group of enthusiasts both in Europe and the U.S. Unfortunately, while advertised as a healthy addition to your morning breakfast routine, Nutella doesn't live up to the hype. The simple ingredient list contains just five items, the greatest of which is sugar. Nutella has celebrated its 50th year anniversary and appears to be well established in their niche market of spreadable chocolate. Interestingly, crimes related to the product have also made the news. In 2013, thieves in Germany snatched a little over $20,000 of the jars from a delivery truck.1 In that same year, Columbia University discovered students were taking jars of Nutella from the dining facility, costing the school nearly $6,000 a week to replace.2 Ingredients in Nutella May Surprise You While customers seem to love the taste, bordering on addiction, its ingredients may surprise you. In this short advertisement from Nutella, you're told your children need the enticement of chocolate each morning to get them to eat breakfast. But, before you pop out to the store to get a jar, take a peek at what's inside. The advertisement talks about hazelnuts and a hint of cocoa, but neglects to mention refined palm oil and a massive dose of sugar. The label claims there are 8.5 grams of sugar in a 15-gram serving.3 That means more than half of any serving is composed of sugar. However, when dishing out Nutella, you likely are not weighing the product and there is no indication of a teaspoon serving size. In a statement, Nutella's parent company, Ferrero, said: "One of Ferrero's core nutritional beliefs is that small portion sizes help people to enjoy their favorite foods in moderation. The labeling on all our products enables consumers to make informed choices and helps ensure that Nutella can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet." Sugar and Palm Oil Do Not Make for a Healthy Breakfast That sounds good, but an infusion of sugar is not part of a balanced diet. In fact, eating sugar triggers natural opioids in your brain and may be as addictive as cocaine to some people. Sugar increases your risk of disease, tricks your body into gaining weight and may trigger behavioral changes. Learn more in my previous article, "The Truth About Sugar Addiction." The second ingredient making the news is palm oil, which has predominantly been harvested from the forests of Malaysia and Indonesia, contributing to the deforestation of those countries and having a significantly negative impact on the environment and the animals who depend on palm trees for survival. Ferrero has made a point of using sustainable palm oil they claim is not contributing to deforestation and is part of a broad effort to create sustainable methods of production of palm oil.4,5 However, sustainability is not the only concern with the palm oil used in Nutella. Health Effects of Refined Palm Oil Called Into Question The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), akin to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, recently released a study6 finding the chemical contaminants that result from refining vegetable oils (including palm oil), may increase your risk of cancer. The substances causing concern included: glycidyl fatty acid esters (GE), 3-monochloropropanediol (3-MCPD), and 2-monochloropropanediol (2-MCPD) and their fatty acid esters. When refined at approximately 200 C (392 F), palm oil and palm fats had the highest number of contaminants, including GE. No tolerable or safe levels have been set for GE as the group found sufficient evidence it is genotoxic and carcinogenic.7 The panel's review did find levels of GE between 2010 and 2015 were cut in half through voluntary measures taken by producers. Ferrero claims their palm oil, refined to take out the characteristic red color and unusual taste, is responsible for the texture and taste of Nutella. The company states its palm oil is refined at temperatures just below 200 C and under low pressure to reduce contaminants. Moving away from palm oil would not only change the taste, but also have economic repercussions to the company. Cost Is a Factor in Production Palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil, costing $800 per ton, compared to $845 for sunflower and $900 for rapeseed.8 Ferrero uses 185,000 tons each year, so switching could increase costs between $8 to 22 million annually. Although the World Health Organization and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization also flagged refined palm oil with the same risk, they did not recommend banning the ingredient. The palm oil industry, valued at $44 billion, has found a vocal and passionate supporter in Ferrero. Without prompting, and following the release of the study, a large supermarket chain in Europe decided to boycott processed palm oil. Barilla has also eliminated it from their products.9 However, Nutella, going on the offensive, began running a series of advertisements to assure the public in Italy their product is safe.10 Unilever and Nestle have also continued to include palm oil in their products despite the report from EFSA. However, Ferrero is the only company, to date, mounting such a public defense of their use of palm oil. Ferrero, a privately owned company, says global sales have been unaffected by the EFSA announcement and are continuing to grow approximately 5 percent per year.11 Health Benefits of Unrefined Palm Oil It isn't the effects of palm oil that are in question, but rather what happens to the oil during the refining process to remove the color and neutralize the smell. In an unrefined state, palm oil is high in healthy saturated fats and contains a number of nutrients important to your health. Historical accounts suggest palm oil was a part of the diet of indigenous populations. At present, it has become the second most traded oil crop in the world, after soy, with Malaysia and Indonesia as its main producers.12 In its natural state, palm oil is red. If you find white palm oil it has been refined and stripped of a dense nutrient profile. Studies have found that unrefined palm oil plays a role in promoting cardiovascular health. In one study published in the British Journal of Biomedical Science, it was reported that despite the high levels of saturated fat in palm oil, the oil did not contribute to atherosclerosis and/or arterial thrombosis.13 Researchers suggested that this is due to the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats in the oil, as well as its rich nutrient profile. The tocotrienols found in palm oil support your heart against stress and have a protective property against heart disease. Studies suggest the antioxidant properties in palm oil help prevent various types of cancers including skin, gastrointestinal, lung, breast, prostate and other cancers. Palm oil is an edible oil you may use in an unrefined state to get the most nutritional benefits. It does have a strong taste you may not find to your liking. You may also apply it directly on your skin to enjoy some of the benefits. Injuries such as bruising, sunburn and cuts heal faster when unrefined palm oil is applied. To purchase palm oil certified sustainable, look for certification from the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil.14 Consuming large amounts of unrefined oil has no major adverse effects, save for a slight yellowing of the skin from high levels of carotenes in the oil. This change also means your protection against harmful UV rays is enhanced. Topically, the oil may cause your skin to turn a yellow-orange color that comes off with washing. The oil will stain your clothing. Slow Rise to Popularity Nutella has enjoyed a raving fan base in Europe for a number of years. Introduced in the U.S. in 1983, it took decades for the spread to become popular. After an advertising campaign that started in 2009, sales skyrocketed to $240 million. Thanks to a number of devoted fans, the spread is more than a financial success; it has become a food phenomenon.15 Admirers in the U.S. have created Facebook pages, recipe books, Twitter accounts and even developed a holiday, celebrated the first time on February 5, 2007.16 Initially the family owned business tried to squash the efforts of fans to spread the word, but the number of those devoted to Nutella has only grown. Interestingly, experts think Nutella's fame has grown as millennials do not want to eat the same nut spreads of their parents and are searching for something unique to their food culture. In Europe, Nutella has been on the shelves for decades, but in the U.S., it satisfies the desire for a growing cult-fan base bent on eating something different.17 Recognizing the need to stay ahead of the curve, the company has been vocal about its product safety, created advertising campaigns to reassure its fan base, and is holding strong to its brand which invented the hazelnut, chocolate and sugar concoction. Who's Watching Out for Your Health? Unfortunately, it is not possible to depend upon governmental agencies, manufacturers or even independent agencies to police the products and foods that make it onto the grocery store shelves and pharmacies before landing in your home. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is one such organization. The organization was started in 1978 to publicly support:18 " … evidence-based science and medicine. Then, as now, too much of what passes as "news" is little more than hype based on exaggerated findings. Activist groups have targeted GMOs, vaccines, conventional agriculture, nuclear power, natural gas and 'chemicals.'" While the rhetoric is believable, the historical comments from the organization fail to live up to their mission.19 For instance, in an article in the Huffington Post, Elizabeth Whelan, late founder and then president of ACSH, criticized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for funding research into chemicals that may trigger disease in children, claiming:20 "Unfortunately, the recipients of the grants from EPA to study "environmental chemicals" include those who have built their careers claiming that trace levels of industrial chemicals make children sick … Despite conventional wisdom, there is no mainstream scientific evidence that points to children's health being imperiled by trace levels of chemicals in the environment." Whelan often found herself defending industries that partially financed her efforts against environmental groups and agencies.21 In a commentary, Mark Shapiro, author of "Exposed," a book evaluating global markets and toxic chemicals,22 wrote:23 "In her post, Dr. Whelan, President of the American Council for Science and Health, claims that 'there is no evidence whatsoever — not even a hint — of health problems from phthalates used by children or adults.' Alas, there is far more than a "hint" of such evidence. My book contains abundant, peer-reviewed evidence of such claims." ACSH Claims Carcinogenic Rating for Palm Oil Worse Than 'Fake News' Case in point is the ACSH's standpoint on DDT, a common insecticide used until 1972. During a radio interview Whelan commented that the fervor to ban DDT was based on emotion and not scientific fact.24 Yet scientists have linked DDT to obesity, type 2 diabetes,25Alzheimer's disease26 and an increased risk of heart disease.27 The ACSH continues to fight against health with their current stand on refined oils.28 In the organization's article commenting on the new research suggesting refined palm oil is carcinogenic, they write:29 "Anyone who searches long enough can find that pretty much everything has been linked to cancer. Bacon. Cell phones. Wi-fi … At some point the insanity has to stop. Unfortunately, we have yet to reach that point. Variations of the headline 'Nutella may cause cancer' are going viral. As usual, there is almost no support for such hysteria." The hysteria the ACSH refers to is the considered and evidence-based research that demonstrates significant negative effects on health. For instance, when vegetable oils are heated they become unstable, producing large numbers of dangerous oxidation products, including aldehydes associated with lung cancer.30 Vegetable oils also have large amounts of biologically active omega-6 fats that lowers the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in your body,31 which may trigger cardiovascular disease, asthma, cancer, obesity and rheumatoid arthritis.32 When you eat foods high in omega-6 fats it increases the amount of inflammation in your body, contributing to the development of the illnesses listed above.33 The less omega-6 fats you eat the less omega-3s you need to maintain a healthy balance. An imbalance of omega-6 fats increases your risk of cancer,34 ,35 even without the additional toxic load of GE molecules from the refining process. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), glycidol has been classified as a 2A carcinogen. In the IARC monograph they state:36 "Glycidol is probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A). In making the overall evaluation, the Working Group took into consideration that glycidol is a direct-acting alkylating agent that is mutagenic in a wide range of in-vivo and in-vitro test systems." Make Your Own Chocolaty Goodness at Home Nutella could easily be made in a healthier fashion that doesn't spike your insulin levels or increase your risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. You can make similar desserts at home using the following recipes. The first recipe is nut-free courtesy of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition,37 and the second is one of my favorite chocolate recipes I commonly make with macadamia nuts, but you can substitute hazelnuts if you like. Hemp Chocolate Spread Ingredients • 1/4 cup hemp seeds • 1/3 cup raw cacao • 1/4 cup ghee or coconut oil • 2 tbsp honey • Pinch of sea salt Instructions Process all ingredients together until smooth. Add more sweetener as desired to taste. Dr. Mercola's Macadamia Nut Fudge Recipe Ingredients: • 300 grams (10.5 ounces) of cocoa butter • 200 grams (7.05 ounces) of coconut oil • 200 grams of raw, organic pastured butter • 300 grams of macadamia nuts • 8 full droppers of stevia (can use Luo Han as a substitute) • 1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract Instructions: 1. Mix the butters and oils under low heat for three to five minutes. Once the mixture cools, add the stevia drops and vanilla extract. Pour the fudge into 8-ounce wide ball jars. 2. Spread the nuts evenly across all jars. 3. Refrigerate until the fudge reaches the desired consistency. This macadamia nut fudge recipe makes eight servings.