Daniel Dessinger

Category: health

  • 9 Foods My Wife Has Craved

    I’ve been thinking that this would make a good topic. Heather’s just now starting to get beyond the initial morning sickness phase. It was intense for three weeks. So here’s a list of the Top 10 foods Heather has craved during her pregnancy:

    1. Green Olives – as disturbing as this may sound to you, Heather not only craved green olives, she literally ate nearly two bottles of green olives in one day. Yes, she ate them by themselves, and, wait for it….. she drank the juice. Major ick-factor.

    2. Chocolate Chip Cookies – one of the more enjoyable trips to the grocery store thus far consisted of extra chocolate stuffed chocolate chip cookie dough which we baked in the oven and ate with milk….mmmmm. Sadly, this was a short lived craving.

    3. Potato Chips – the days of greasy food begin! On with the show!

    4. French Fries – suddenly, the uber-healthy wife transformed into the uber-junk food wife. French fries were a popular culprit.

    5. Vanilla Shakes – along the same vein as #3, Heather developed a sudden need for vanilla shakes twice a day.

    6. Mango & Pineapple – though this one was short lived, it was good to see her craving something that represented an actual food group

    7. Limes – yes, limes. Whole limes. She ate at least two limes with salt in one sitting. She just peeled them out of the rind, added salt, and down the hatch! Yeah, I couldn’t do it either.

    8. Orange Juice – we’re starting to see a theme here. What is it about citrusy / tropical fruits that her body needs so desperately? Who knows, but I’m enjoying it too. Apparently, she’s not the only one in need of a few vitamins.

    9. Popcorn – what is it about salty foods? Salt is apparently more important than we realize. She’s always liked popcorn, though. Maybe she has a sodium deficiency (shrug).

    There you have it! The list is complete.

    Strange how many things pregnancy affects that you don’t expect. Not only has Heather had wicked morning sickness, our eating habits are worse than when I was a bachelor (is that even possible?). This is due to the fact that for three weeks, Heather couldn’t prepare a meal without getting sick at the sight of it and then being unable to take a single bite. Hence, no more food prep… hence, fast food for Daniel….. hence, slightly rounder Daniel.

    One can only hope that this extra roundness will not last. To quote Scripture (with a slight twist), “She must increase, and I must decrease.” So be it, God willing.

  • Is HPV the Result of Pesticide Spraying?

    Amidst the uproar over Texas Governor Rick Perry’s HPV vaccine mandate, there are rumors over the causes of the virus. While news stations including WFAA Channel 8 (Dallas/Fort Worth ABC affiliate) continue to describe the human papillomavirus as a “sexually transmitted disease” (STD), there are rumors surfacing about the true origins of HPV.

    Some sources claim that a form of HPV is actually transmitted via widespread chemtrails and/or pesticide sprayings. Toxins in the air both weaken the immune system and carry poisons which the human body will react to in various defensive ways. These sources believe that Merck & Co. is responsible for the STD revisionist history, with hopes to capture the state’s and eventually the nation’s approval for production and implementation of HPV vaccinations.

  • Texas Governor in Bed with Big Pharmaceuticals

    Texas Governor Rick Perry is serious about mandating that every public school girl receive a vaccine for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). This is the time to start worrying. Why? Every major vaccine people receive causes undesirable and even dangerous side effects. Think of several million girls in Texas all passing along some birth defect or mild retardation to their future children because they all received this experimental HPV vaccine.

    First and foremost, always be concerned when government demands that the people receive a certain type of medical treatment when said treatment can only be provided by one company. This is dangerous! Merck is the giant pharmaceutical company awarded the contract of providing all of these vaccine shots. Doesn’t that make you nervous? The question each and every one of us should be asking is: What is the government getting in return from Merck?

    Is it payday for Rick Perry? Are they going to fund his next political campaign? What money and/or power has been promised in return for this multi-million dollar business deal?

    These are questions that need to be asked because the motivations of a government and a pharmaceutical drive them to make the decisions they make. Is Rick Perry on the take? Why are thousands upon thousands of adolescent females now the guinea pigs of a “tested” vaccine which has not been tested long enough to determine long-term side effects, especially in relation to childbirth?

    Someone needs to demand answers. Don’t let Rick Perry and Merck stick a needle in your arm because they’re bigger than you.

  • 7 Reasons Why They Sell You Deadly Foods

    Unless you belong to the 1% of Americans labeled “freakishly strange” or ” for your health conscious diet, you’ve been taken for a ride by just about everyone involved in the sales and production of food. What’s the deal? How could so many companies possibly be so bad as the conspiracy theories say?

    Food product manufacturers build their companies and their profits upon a few accurate suppositions:

    1. You are most concerned with how products immediately make you feel
    2. You are not a chemist
    3. You do not know what most of the chemical ingredients are
    4. You do not know how those chemicals affect the human body
    5. You do not care, because it’s inconvenient to pay attention
    6. You do not believe that corporations could be so evil as to hurt their customers in order to make a profit
    7. You disassociate yourself from the affects of the food they eat because you don’t want to accept responsibility of finding and preparing healthy food

    Some things we know are dangerous. It’s illegal in New York to sell foods made with transfat. Most people have heard by now about the dangers of red food dye. But what about high fructose corn syrup? Or genetically modified corn? Or artificially created folic acid?

    The list goes on and on. Everything the average American eats is deadly. The ancient Greeks displayed amazing insight when they claimed, “Death begins in the colon.”

    Think about it. And ask yourself whether all those companies should make a profit off of your unwillingness to get involved.

  • Insomnia Breeds Crazy Talk

    I’ve had 1.5 hours of sleep in the past 37 hours. Luckily, my body hasn’t hit that point of hell on earth that sometimes comes with lack of sleep. But I’ve not made much sense in the past few hours.

    I went up to Home Depot again today. Got the right part this time. Unfortunately, I cause a leak by fixing one. Figures. I’m no plumber. Now I have to call a guy to come out first thing tomorrow and probably shut the water off to the house before I go to sleep.

    Once upon a time, in dreamy land, the milk said to the caboose that it’s legs were tired… My honey is dripping from the tree, it cried. I could not sit by and watch as the children were taken off into slavery… so i stood. I stood and I watched and I waited and I listened and I cried and I yelled and I hollered and I wondered what I was doing making so much noise. Then I realized that this must be delirium because I’m never this relaxed. The dog smoked a pipe while my house shrank, and the shirt was too shiny for the opera. I need another shirt, I cried to no one in particular… and heard no one respond as expected. The shoes were a different story entirely. One which cannot be uttered for fear of how hard it would be to respond to the questions of the innocents.

    It’s never over ’til it’s over, I think she said. Then again, she was half-dead and crying in her bowl of cheerios as I bowled a strike. Ever notice how bowling shoes are never stylish? That must mean something to someone.

    Where was I? Oh yes, the syrup. It flowed like honey from the dead willow tree. Why a willow tree? Mostly because the maple was busy. Or was it the oak? Who can remember, really? It’s all about nothing in the end. Just people and zombies. Zombies and people. Pod people and split peas. Peas in a pod and pods in a people. People in a pea and peas in a person.

    Split pod-people soup is not very appetizing after Lent. It’s never a good idea to wear feathers after Kwanza. Lucia is the name of the gardener I don’t have. He keeps everthing in order, even during the winter. Of course, I don’t have to pay him since he’s not my gardener, but he does good work. Why does his name end in an “a”? Isn’t that reserved for females and she-camels? I couldn’t really say, to be honest, since my license was revoked for smoking too close to the mirror. I never knew it was a mirror, I told him, but he said it didn’t matter so long as I inhaled. I, of course, always inhaled.

  • Parasites and Colon Cleansing Ads

    So I just added Google Adsense to one of my blogs last night. Guess what the first ads contained! You guessed it! All of them were ads for human and pet parasites. How disturbingly cool is that? Yes, that was rhetorical.

    I actually visited one of the sites advertised on my own blog, just to see what it would show. I got more than I bargained for. Somebody started doing a colon cleanse and took their digital camera into the bathroom every time they had a bowl movement. They took pictures of some of the nastiest stuff I have ever seen. It looks like foot-long stringy rubber.

    Sorry, I know that I’m being unusually graphic and improper, but it was a powerful testimonial. You get to see pictures and read journal entries, following this timeline of the entire cleanse.

    Why do I even bring this up? Because from what I’ve been reading, as much as 1 out of every 2 people have parasites of some sort. These parasites are ingested through food and water, and they cause all kinds of problems including constipation, chronic fatigue, bleeding, irritable bowel syndrome, severe gas and bloating, weight gain, acid reflux, stomach pain, diverticulitis, as well as skin and hair problems.

    To learn more about parasites, common ailments, and treatment options, visit DrNatura on the web at www.drnatura.com. Intensely grotesque pictures of parasites and parasite removal journal entries can be found here as well.

  • BMI: Bodyweight Mass Index

    Models in a recent fashion show were actually turned away for being too thin. Women were accepted or denied based upon their BMI, or bodyweight mass index. BMI is found using two measurements: a person’s height and a weight. While not always a uniformly accurate or fair form of mesaurement, it seems to be a workable method for scenarios such as fashion shows. 0-18 dangerously underweight 19-25 normal 26+ overweight Women scoring 18 or below were turned away. It has caused some controversy.

    Skinny, nearly dead women everywhere are up in arms, though it looks more like a toothpick revolution. Women on the opposite end of the BMI scale seem to feel somewhat justified that the skinny girls are finally being told that they are unhealthy, not voluptuous. This is a tricky subject. Far too many women have been encouraged to starve themselves to look good. We cannot condone this obsessive lifestyle.

    Women have intrinsic value regardless of size, color, or shape. Each person is unique and valuable. We need to back up statements like these by practicing what we preach. On the flip side, however, there are women who can eat whatever the heck they want as often as they want, and they still stay thinner than most of us can ever dream of becoming. Why should a woman have to endure snide looks and vicious remarks from overweight women simply because she was born with a predisposition to be thin? It’s no more fair than treating an overweight woman as though she is repulsive.

    This subject is near to my heart because my wife is regularly misjudged. She literally cannot help the fact that she is gorgeous and thin. She does not shy away from food, trust me on that! The girl can melt a whole stick of butter for one meal! As a matter of fact, we have made it our mission to eat more fats and proteins than most people. My wife would like to gain a little more weight, but is finding it difficult. It is my hope that women will begin choosing to heal rather than hold all of their hurts inside and lashing out at each other. Every person who needs to lose or gain weight should empathize with the plight of others and wish them the best in their endeavors.

    Just remember before you judge that large or small person that sometimes genetics is involved, and give the person the benefit of the doubt.

  • Medical Tourism in the News

    ABC News featured a story tonight about the ever-growing trade of medical tourism, especially to India. The cameras followed Dodie Gilmore of Caddo, Oklahoma across the United States, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia. Dodie is a real estate agent and owns 180 acres. She travels regularly across the acreage, feeding her cows. Arthritis in her hip has made such routines painful and difficult. The hip resurfacing she needed would cost her anywhere from $28k to $40k in the U.S. She was introduced to the idea of inexpensive surgery in India, and decided to take the plunge. She managed to save two thirds of what she would have spent in the States. She also managed to see part of the world she never expected to have the opportunity to see. Medical tourism providers, like Global Surgical Solutions, provide all the information and help necessary for a medical procedure in India.

    Procedures that can be scheduled by GSS include cosmetic surgery, infertility treatments, dental procedures, hip replacement, knee replacement, pacemakers, coronary bypass surgery, balloon valvuloplasty, coronary angioplasty, electrophysiological study, coronary angiography, heart valve replacement, liposuction, gastric bypass surgery, and several holistic therapies. For more information on surgery in India or medical tourism, visit GSS on the web at http://www.globalsurgicalsolutions.com/.

  • Live Foods Lack Some Essentials

    Living on Live Foods, by Alissa Cohen, is the book my wife and I have been following for the past 25 days. Alissa Cohen is apparently a pretty big figure in the world of live food diets these days. She provides scores of recipes for live food meals. Some are so good you could slap your mamma (no offense, Mom); others are so sub par that we’ve cringed at the amount of money and food spent preparing a dish that offends the palate.

    Since we began this diet/lifestyle on August 6th I have been steadily losing some weight; not much, mind you, but enough to notice the difference. Unfortunately, I have also been losing strength. I feel weaker. I notice it most when I play basketball at the rec center and when my whole body feels like mush and doesn’t want to move. I am still reserving judgment. I’ve been told that detoxing can take awhile (especially when you have excess fat to burn – darn root beer belly!). It’s possible that my weakness and occasional sluggish feelings stem from the detoxifying process. Then again, I could just need more good protein and fat.

    Here’s what you miss out on with the Live Food lifestyle: milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, sour cream, beef, pork, chicken, fish, venison, baked breads, and various other wonderful goodies. My mother-in-law’s personal research is beginning to reveal the possible need to re-include meats and dairy. We need certain vitamins that we seem to only get from eating meat, such as Vitamin D and Vitamin B12. Sure, you can get Vitamin D from sitting out in the sun, but who has the time or the willpower to sit out in 100 degree weather just to get a little bitty vitamin? We also need a certain level of cholesterol in our bodies which is apparently difficult to maintain without some amount of fat in our food. We obviously can’t eat avocados until we burst just to get a fraction of the fat we could quickly get with a slab of yummy beef. Did I say yummy? Well, pretend I didn’t.

    Tonight we will have hamburger patties in an attempt to raise our pathetically low cholesterol levels. And for the love of everything sacred, please don’t believe all the addle-brained hype about lowering your cholesterol. Scientific studies are currently so conflicting that some say you need to eat fatty foods to maintain healthy levels of cholesterol while others are saying eat only lean cuts of meat to lower your levels. My wife, in her God-given nutritional wisdom, believes that some amount of fatty meats are necessary, and that the truly bad levels of cholesterol come from eating processed and chemically enhanced foods.

    Yes, my friends, that is correct: Whataburger and Sonic hamburgers do not constitute a healthy dose of meat, bread, and vegetables (I know – real shocker). They still taste really good, but it is junk food (fake food) that raises harmful cholesterol. I don’t mean to come across as preachy. I still crave all those tasty chemicals too. I’m not judging anyone for what they eat. But I do think that we become responsible for the knowledge we come across. It is the difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance is living with a lack of information. Stupidity is making the same decisions over and over after hearing how they are bad for you and expecting to get a different result than everyone else in America.

  • Cravings Signal Detoxification

    Whataburger sounds really good right about now. So does fettucine alfredo. And chips with queso. Mmmm… Okay, okay, I’m going to do permanent damage if i don’t stop. August 6th marked day one of the Dessinger live food diet. That was seventeen days ago. Cravings are popping up out of the woodwork. I was warned about just such a possibility. I was told that after a while of burning off excess fat, the body begins to detoxify itself. As the toxins are flushed from their places of residence (fat cells), they often affect a person with cravings for the very foods he or she is trying to avoid. Then again, if you’re addicted to the hormone and chemical releasing properties of junk food, you may just be feeling the cravings of an addict. I fit into one of the two categories… just not sure which one.

    The first sounds more positive and productive: “I’m flushing toxins from my system!” Then again, I was told that a majority of the fat has to be burned off before this detoxifying begins. Sadly, I have not yet attained such nirvana. Seventeen days in, and life really isn’t bad. My number one problem is driving by dozens of fast food restaurants I used to visit like old friends. Then there’s the good old lunch meeting institution which is sometimes unavoidable as I watch someone eat a hamburger or steak or God knows what else. It truly is a ying-yang kind of experience. I can focus on the goal and feel nothing but positive energy and attitude. I can focus on what everyone else is eating and feel deprived, neglected, abused, and needy. All of that changes with a simple shift of focus. That’ll preach. Pressing on, I reach toward the prize… what is this prize?

    For me, the prize is the end of joint pain, sudden mood swings, attention deficit disorder, back pain, and sluggishness. For me, the prize is waking up and feeling more consistent and calm than I ever have before in my life. The prize is actually having a chance at living this “Christian life” with endurance, patience, and humility. There is nothing quite so humbling as denying your flesh its greedy little desires.