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Try To Make Good
May. 21st, 2019 10:34 amI reminded myself this morning why I have an informal rule about "don't read the comments." I follow Nutrition Facts.org on another platform. Actually I follow Dr. Greger's podcast because it's interesting and I'm a nerd, but anyway. Today he posted a link to an article suggesting that diets higher in plant foods and lower in processed and animal foods may help with depression. Notice some of the key words I'm using here - may, suggests, etc. Some people who went on vegetarian or vegan diets apparently had a reduction in depressive symptoms. Cool and good.
Cue the pile of people commenting about how much better they feel since they started eating meat again, "I've been vegan for 15 years and I'm still depressed," the remarks about how this doesn't actually help people with mental health issues but suggests that they should drop their medications and just eat flowers, and so on.
I was tempted to comment myself, but why bother? No one's listening, it's a frantic clown fiesta of desperate people trying to get noticed online by being the most special and most outraged.
Also, your health, whether mental or physical, isn't a zero sum game. If going with a more plant based diet helps ease some of your depression symptoms, then yay! I've experienced an easing of both anxiety and depression with a lot of the lifestyle changes I have made, but I still take my anxiety meds because I know my brain chemistry is such that I'm not likely to ever be NOT anxious. But it's nice to have much fewer episodes of depression, and shorter, less intense ones when I do. Obviously I'm not trying to say you should just get yourself some organic produce and don't listen to what Big Pharma is trying to sell you - yes, Big Pharma does pull some seriously shady shit and they need to slow their fucking roll with a lot of their schemes. But if the pills help, take 'em. Saying that you won't try a lifestyle intervention because it won't "fix" your depression is frankly stupid. Personally I would not refuse a 10% improvement simply because it isn't a 100% improvement.
ANYWAY!
I tackled the pantry closet today. It's been lurking at the corners of my consciousness since I started decluttering and today I just said fuck it, I'm doing this thing. About an hour later, the floor is cleared, shelves are organized and old food either thrown out of put outside for the animals. I found some stale peanuts - no salt - so I scattered those around for the squirrels and crows. I'm probably going to make a dump run tomorrow, and take a load of things for donation, but with the kitchen and pantry done, I feel like my minimalism and decluttering project is over the halfway mark now. This is good.
Cue the pile of people commenting about how much better they feel since they started eating meat again, "I've been vegan for 15 years and I'm still depressed," the remarks about how this doesn't actually help people with mental health issues but suggests that they should drop their medications and just eat flowers, and so on.
I was tempted to comment myself, but why bother? No one's listening, it's a frantic clown fiesta of desperate people trying to get noticed online by being the most special and most outraged.
Also, your health, whether mental or physical, isn't a zero sum game. If going with a more plant based diet helps ease some of your depression symptoms, then yay! I've experienced an easing of both anxiety and depression with a lot of the lifestyle changes I have made, but I still take my anxiety meds because I know my brain chemistry is such that I'm not likely to ever be NOT anxious. But it's nice to have much fewer episodes of depression, and shorter, less intense ones when I do. Obviously I'm not trying to say you should just get yourself some organic produce and don't listen to what Big Pharma is trying to sell you - yes, Big Pharma does pull some seriously shady shit and they need to slow their fucking roll with a lot of their schemes. But if the pills help, take 'em. Saying that you won't try a lifestyle intervention because it won't "fix" your depression is frankly stupid. Personally I would not refuse a 10% improvement simply because it isn't a 100% improvement.
ANYWAY!
I tackled the pantry closet today. It's been lurking at the corners of my consciousness since I started decluttering and today I just said fuck it, I'm doing this thing. About an hour later, the floor is cleared, shelves are organized and old food either thrown out of put outside for the animals. I found some stale peanuts - no salt - so I scattered those around for the squirrels and crows. I'm probably going to make a dump run tomorrow, and take a load of things for donation, but with the kitchen and pantry done, I feel like my minimalism and decluttering project is over the halfway mark now. This is good.
