I live in Britain and we've had wall-to-wall media coverage of Corbyn for what seems like months now. The latest I heard this morning on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme was that Corbyn would prefer to stay in Europe. I think it is too early to say just what his precise plans are; if he'll be more inclusive of the more middle-ground members of the Party or not. I think Armstrong is being a little sensationalist in the way he's presenting the story, to make his point. I agree that the money printing seems rather naive. Many people here are feeling financial pain and Corbyn seems to be offering hope for them, however realistic or unrealistic that might turn out to be.

TPTB_need_war I remember initially you had forecasted BTC sub-100$ bottom in October 2015 but then you delayed the deadline to Spring 2016. What was the rationale behind this change?

There is not really a cooling "trend" shown by his source.

Sea Ice Has Expanded Hundreds of Miles — Welcome Global Cooling!

The reason I say this is that in the last 20 years we have seen the hottest years on record.

Not sure what thread is now the right place to post technical questions, so gonna post here:

* If there is no mining incentive, why mine the chain?

* If difficulty is low enough for joe public to mine their own transactions (and assuming only the sender can mine his own transactions), doesn't that open the chain to attack by server farms under the control of one individual?

This guy's post and my response to it I think define what "Blockchain 3.0" will be and what metrics are actually important for it:

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,18434.0.html

Armstrong has stated that predicting specific events and the short-term is much more noisy. Precisely for the reasons I have stated, which is that the chaos relevant to our needs is much more dominant in that case.

His model is incorporating the largest database every assembled on this subject matter. He invested over $1 billion in inflation adjusted dollars just compiling the database. His A.I. models have searched for hidden order in many dimensions. And thus the model is likely more sophisticated than you are contemplating.

It does do short-term prediction, but with time and price as orthogonal predictions, thus leaving a wide variability for outcomes. For example, back when oil was $100+ the model predicted that if time and price coincided, then the closing price for 2014 for oil could be $54, which was precisely the outcome.

So yes the big turns of major macro economic trends are much more predictable. For example, back in 2012 he predicted that the DJIA stock market would reach at least 18500 by 2015. It was unclear if the phase transition would be before 2015.75 or after, and it was dependent on whether the public confidence in US stock market would invert its public vs. private role and join private assets for their renewed bull market after 2015.75. He said he would know by end of 2014. So now it is clear that the DJIA has paused and the predicted run to 30,000 - 40,000 level will be delayed until 2017 (with the USA collapsing after 2017.9 on the ECM turn). And the explanation for the strong dollar and DJIA coming is because the rest of the world is $9 trillion short the dollar in dollar bond issues that were the carry trade from the QE. The Fed has no choice but to raise interest rates because otherwise pension funds will go bankrupt and besides as the speculators follow the trend into dollars, then they will exit bonds and into stocks because of the bull market. This will cause more short covering on the dollar and a self-feeding spiral will ensue. The Fed won't be setting interest rates, the markets will and the Fed will follow otherwise it loses credibility.

I don't know much about Armstrong.  I have a feeling it's not really modeling any of this stuff to the extent people claim, and is only using primitive calculations like figuring out the total amount of liquid capital on earth, finding what markets it resides in, then just like how wind is a pressure gradient, uses past market history as a prediction model, then calculates where money flows from there.

So yea, it's a lot of work linking together all those prediction models of each sector, but it could give you very accurate analysis.  The only problem is, you're not being told to "buy google on X day", you're just being told when things like gold are likely to be in a bear or bull market.  This prediction analysis is probably used to shave money from the market with indexes yearly, and I bet it gets them wrong a decent amount of time as well.  There's no way it can't get things wrong a lot when we have a centrally controlled market, unless he has a friend working at the 50 tentacle squid.

Anonymint, good to see you're still around. Ethereum was a joint effort with many people involved from the beginning. I did my part as did Vitalik and the rest; apparently, the Ethereum org doesn't want to call me a founder thus I guess my role was minimal, but it was a lot of fun. It is true Mint and I had many discussions about finance both during my time at Invictus and after. My memory fails to recall all the things that were said, but I do like his outside of the box thinking and also love of Scala. Although I'm still a Haskell man.

Cheers

http://gutcritters.com/small-intestinal-bacterial-overgrowth-part-seven-the-role-of-plant-lectins/



Edit: I think drastically increasing my cayenne pepper consumption is also a significant factor in being able to correct my gut dysbiosys:

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/benefits-of-cayenne-pepper/

About ten years ago I went to a class on “How to Make Sourdough Bread.”  My daughter had gluten intolerance and we found that she could eat sprouted bread without the side effects created by regular bread. I had heard that sourdough bread achieved similar results to the sprouted bread, and I wanted to try it. What I learned shocked me. The man teaching the class explained that the process of making sourdough was an ancient art and one that had many benefits that we are unaware of today. Why do so many of us struggle with gluten today? There are all kinds of books and websites dedicated to gluten-free living, and rightfully so, because the bread we have today is very different from the bread we ate for hundreds of years. But why is gluten intolerance an epidemic in this day and age? What has changed?

Before the 1950’s, most bread bakeries ran two shifts of workers because the dough was fermented throughout the night with a long and slow process using a culture that contained the lactobacillus bacteria. This slow process was necessary for bread to be properly digested. In the process of making sourdough bread, the bran in the flour is broken down during the long rising time, releasing nutrients into the dough. Only when wheat gluten is properly fermented or sprouted (to learn more about sprouted breads click here) is it healthy for human consumption.  When not, it is potentially one of the most highly allergenic foods we eat. The phytic acid in grain needs to be 90% neutralized in order for the minerals to be absorbed by the human body. When you naturally ferment or sprout bread, you eliminate all phytic acid. About 90% of the phytic acid remains in breads made with instant yeasts, unless it is sprouted bread.

In their efforts to increase profits and speed up the the bread making process, bakers began using new techniques that took only three hours to make a loaf of bread – and now can even take only one hour. They used the new instant yeasts, which made the old way of making bread (using cultures and fermentation that not only help to preserve food, but also increase the nutrients available for our bodies) unnecessary.

During the making of sourdough bread, complex carbohydrates are broken down into more digestible simple sugars, and protein is broken down into amino acids. Enzymes develop during rising.  These enzymes are not lost while baking since the center of the loaf remains at a lower temperature than the crust. This fermentation, partly from lactobacillus, also allows for a bread that is lower on the glycemic index, thus making it better for those with blood sugar issues. The fermentation also helps restore the functioning of the digestive tract, resulting in proper assimilation and elimination.

These changes in our bread have had devastating effects on our gut. I believe that along with the overly processed foods, soil depletion, and the loss of fermentation and probiotic foods that heal and protect our bodies, our diets are wreaking havoc on our guts. This, in turn, is causing the rise in all kinds of food allergies. Our diets are a dim reflection of the nutrient-dense whole foods we used to eat years ago. Someone at a recent class asked why we are living longer if our diets are so bad. But this is actually not the case any more; we are not living longer, this trend has stopped. Not only that, the quality of our lives is in sad shape. How often do you see someone living vibrantly and without sickness or ailments?  It is increasingly becoming the exception and not the norm. Pharmaceuticals are the norm and not the exception, and food allergies and gut issues are rampant along with a host of other health issues. The average consumer is unaware of these changes in our food supply and then labels gluten and breads as the enemy, when they don’t realize the culprit is the dramatic changes in the actual process of making bread today.

A study done experimenting with sourdough fermentation as a means for making wheat bread safe for people with celiac disease had great results.  While the study was small, it did show that individuals with celiac disease who ate specially prepared sourdough wheat bread over the course of 60 days experienced no ill effects.

It was my daughter Maci’s inability to digest wheat that started me on a journey learning about foods that were transformed when they were sprouted or made with sourdough. People who came to my classes and website were experiencing the same results when eating bread that was made with sourdough cultures or sprouted. Even some with Celiac disease seemed to do really well. Now, not everybody who is gluten intolerant can handle it right away. They need to heal their guts first with cultured foods on a regular basis. After this occurs, I have seen so many people thrive when eating breads as long as these breads were fermented or sprouted.

Sourdough bread, fermented for at least 7 hours or longer, is the time it takes to transform the bread. Then it not only easily digested, but often can be handled by those who are gluten intolerant.

Before the advent of commercial yeast, most bread was made in the “sourdough style,” with its signature cavernous holes. Those holes develop during the process of fermentation, which traditionally happened, at the very least, overnight. During the fermentation process, good bacteria breaks down the gluten proteins, thereby reducing or even eliminating the gluten content all together.

A team of scientists in Italy in 2010 showed that gluten content was much lower in breads that were made in the traditional, old-world style. The difference was so stark that celiacs in the study were able to consume the sourdough with no ill effects. (Could this be why so many of my gluten-sensitive friends do fine on bread and cheese in France or love the pizza in Italy?)

Most commercially made bread in America (even those branded “sourdough”) goes from mix to bread in a matter of hours. Without the longer fermentation time, you may not get the same value. Microbes take time to do their work!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of water to a boil. Carefully add ¼ cup baking soda to the boiling water, it will bubble up.

Gently remove pretzels from baking pan and drop into the boiling water. Simmer about 30 seconds, turn and simmer an additional 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and return to the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pretzels.

Sprinkle pretzels with kosher or flake salt, or sesame or poppy seeds. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.

How come Harley needs to eat almost double the calories required for his needs? This seems an incredible waste of food resources. He also has a very high fibre intake. Looks like he might spend half the day on the toilet. Don Matesz has an excellent article explaining this:


I wonder how much time Harley does spend on the toilet?

Polyunsaturated: These types of fats have two or more double bonds and therefore lack four or more hydrogen atoms. Like monounsaturated fats, these double bonds are kinked so they don’t pack together well making them liquid even when refrigerated. Polyunsaturates can be further classified by the position of their first double bond in relation to their omega end. Polyunsaturated fats are called omega-6 fatty acids when their first double bond is in the sixth position from this position. Vegetable oils are very high in omega 6s.

Polyunsaturates with their first double bond from the third position of the omega end are called omega-3 fatty acids. Fish and flaxseed oils are both omega-3 oils yet differentiated by the length of carbon atoms they contain and their unsaturation.

These types of oils are extremely delicate and prone to oxidation when subjected to heat, light, pressure and free radicals in the body. They should never be used for high temperature cooking. Unfortunately, that is exactly what many vegetable oils are used for. They are routinely utilized in fast-food chains, restaurants and are common in processed foods.

All fats are combinations of different fatty acids. Canola oil, for example, is 62% monounsaturated fat, 6% saturated fat and 32% polyunsaturated fat. Butter fat is 56% saturated fat, 29% monounsaturated fat and 32% polyunsaturated fat.

Trans fats, implicated in both heart disease and cancer, are manufactured fats. They are made from polyunsaturated vegetable oils after the partial addition of hydrogen atoms to empty spots on their carbon chain. Olive oil and lard can also be subjected to partial hydrogenation to extend shelf life. Any lard you see that is not refrigerated is partially hydrogenated. Because hydrogenation straightens out the carbon chain, they have similar physical, although by no means biological, characteristics to natural animal fats. These are true Frankenfoods and should be avoided at all costs if you want to avoid a heart attack or stroke.

Your cells will reflect the type of fat you eat. Lipid peroxidation is the degradation of fats by oxidants leading to their damage and is not something you want happening to fats that are incorporated into your cellular structures. Of the fats mentioned, saturated fats are the least susceptible to this process.

Polyunsaturated oils, however, both omega 6 and omega 3, are particularly prone to lipid peroxidation by virtue of their missing hydrogen atoms. Omega 6 fatty acids are also inflammatory in excess.

While extremely delicate, omega 3 oils reduce inflammatory responses and are good for you as long as inflammatory stress in the liver is not an issue. Omega 3s subjected to oxidation can be very damaging.

How do we know this? Because the fastest way to cause alcohol-induced liver injury in an animal model is to feed them fish oil along with their Hooch. If you are prone to binge drinking, I really do not recommend that you wash down your fish or fish-oil capsules with loads of alcohol.

The by-product of cotton processing, cottonseed was considered virtually worthless before the late 19th century. While cotton production expanded throughout the 17th, 18th, and mid 19th centuries, a largely worthless stock of cottonseed grew. Although some of the seed was used for planting, fertilizer, and animal feed, the majority was left to rot or was illegally dumped into rivers.

In the 1820s and 1830s Europe experienced fats and oils shortages due to rapid population expansion during the Industrial Revolution and the English blockade during the Napoleonic Wars. The increased demand for fats and oils, coupled with a decreasing supply caused prices to rise sharply. Consequently, many Europeans could not afford to buy the fats and oils they had used for cooking and for lighting. Many United States entrepreneurs tried to take advantage of the increasing European demand for oils and America’s increasingly large supply of cottonseed by crushing the seed for oil. But separating the seed hull from the seed meat proved difficult and most of these ventures failed within a few years. This problem was resolved in 1857, when William Fee invented a huller, which effectively separated the tough hulls from the meats of cottonseed. With this new invention, cottonseed oil began to be used for illumination purposes in lamps to supplement increasingly expensive whale oil and lard. But by 1859, this use came to end as the petroleum industry emerged.

Cottonseed oil then began to be used illegally to fortify animal fats and lards. Initially, meat packers secretly added cottonseed oil to the pure fats, but this practice was uncovered in 1884. Armour and Company, an American meatpacking and food processing company, sought to corner the lard market and realized that it had purchased more lard than the existing hog population could have produced. A congressional investigation followed, and legislation was passed that required products fortified with cottonseed oil to be labeled as ‘‘lard compound.” Similarly, cottonseed oil was often blended with olive oil. Once the practice was exposed, many countries put import tariffs on American olive oil and Italy banned the product completely in 1883. Both of these regulatory schemes depressed cottonseed oil sales and exports, once again creating an oversupply of cottonseed oil, which decreased its value.

It was cottonseeds depressed value that lead a newly formed Procter & Gamble to utilize its oil. The Panic of 1837 caused the two brothers-in-law to merge their candlestick and soap manufacturing businesses in an effort to minimize costs and weather the bear market. Looking for a replacement for expensive animal fats in production, the brothers finally settled on cottonseed oil. Procter & Gamble cornered the cottonseed oil market to circumvent the meat packer's monopoly on the price. But as electricity emerged, the demand for candles decreased. Procter and Gamble then found an edible use for cottonseed oil. Through patented technology, the brothers were able to hydrogenate cottonseed oil and develop a substance that closely resembled lard. In 1911, Procter & Gamble launched an aggressive marketing campaign to publicize its new product, Crisco, a vegetable shortening that could be used in place of lard. Crisco placed ads in major newspapers advertising that the product was "easier on digestion...a healthier alternative to cooking with animal fats. . . and more economical than butter.” The company also gave away free cookbooks, with every recipe calling for Crisco. By the 1920s the company developed cookbooks for specific ethnicities in their native tongues. Additionally, Crisco starting airing radio cooking programs. Similarly, in 1899 David Wesson, a food chemist, developed deodorized cottonseed oil, Wesson cooking oil. Wesson Oil also was marketed heavily and became quite popular too.

Part of the nerve cell that is damaged in people with MS is the myelin sheath, a fatty electrically insulating layer along the axon. Myelin is about 70% fatty acids and Omega 3 is a major building block.

...

Omega 3 rich foods, ... wild fish and seafood. And you could add fish oil.

Intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) is a brush-border enzyme expressed by absorptive cells (enterocytes) of the small intestine. It is secreted into both the lumen, or interior, of the digestive tract as well as the basolateral or systemic end.

Unlike gut flora, highest concentrations of IAP are found in the first section of the small intestine (duodenum) and decline the further down the digestive tract you go.

IAP secretion, just like any other small intestinal enzyme, is dependent on the health of enterocytes comprising what is known as the brush border. Intestinal cells that are chronically inflamed are by definition unhealthy, which is a major reason why those battling small intestinal dysbiosis are often deficient in these enzymes.

As you know, inflammation can be due to a number of factors: gluten, acetaldehyde, unsaturated fatty acids, enzyme inhibitors, gut infections, drugs, yeast overgrowth, thin to non-existent mucus layer, viruses, etc.. Whatever the cause, inflammatory cytokines will affect not only the shape of these cells and the tight junction proteins that bind them together, but their ability to properly secrete enzymes.

IAP has some very important functions. First, it’s involved in regulating secretion of bicarbonate in the duodenum.

Bicarbonate helps to neutralize the very acidic semi-digested food (chyme) entering the small intestine after passing through the stomach. Failure to raise pH here can lead to acidified chyme injuring cells lining this part of the digestive tract. That can increase inflammation and intestinal permeability.

But IAP’s most important role is detoxifying lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) derived from the cell wall components of gram-negative gut bacteria. (1) It is therefore an important defense against endotoxemia.

LPSs initiate inflammatory immune responses by binding to proteins known as toll-like receptors (TLRs), and in particular toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). This in turn induces two separate inflammatory pathways.

The first is nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB). NF-kB is a protein that regulates inflammatory immune responses, and chronic activation of this pathway has been linked to cancer and autoimmune disorders.

The second pathway initiated by TLR4 activation is release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). As you recall from this post, TNF-α is a very powerful and potentially destructive inflammatory cytokine.

The binding of TLR4 is a necessary condition for immune responses to gram-negative gut bacteria when they come into direct contact with intestinal epithelial cells and the submucosa. This inflammatory cascade is always accompanied by an increase in cortisol generation and synthesis via activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and by increasing intracellular expression of the enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) via the cortisol-cortisone shunt.

Now this immune complex causes the release of IAP as a defensive mechanism. IAP’s ability to detoxify LPSs prevents further immune stimulation. IAP also prevents NF-kB from migrating to the nucleus of enterocytes. So by both detoxifying LPSs and halting NF-kB, IAP serves as a vital anti-inflammatory intestinal enzyme.

Conversely, cytokines like TNF-α and interleukin 1 beta (IL1-β) depress the secretion of IAP from enterocytes. Why this is so no one really knows. However, as mentioned above, oxidative stress no doubt has something to do with it. Very little is more stressful to gut cells than being subjected to the chronic onslaught of inflammatory cytokines.

Therefore as a general rule it’s safe to say that anything that chronically inhibits IAP intestinal expression will increase the risk of LPSs initiating inflammatory immune responses at the gut wall that can result in a leaky gut. In very severe cases sepsis can result should these bacterial components reach systemic circulation in appreciable amounts. At the very least, LPSs reaching the liver will provoke inflammation capable of damaging cells in that organ.

Dietary Fats and Intestinal Alkaline Phosphatase Expression

IAP expression is partly influenced by the type of fatty acids present in the small intestine after a meal. As I covered in this post, unlike short- and medium-chain fatty acids, long-chain fatty acids do not go directly to the liver absent a leaky gut:

“Longer-chain fatty acids…re-form into triacylglycerols within the enterocyte. Together with phospholipids, cholesterol and proteins, they form large particles within the absorptive cell. If there are lipopolysaccharides in the vicinity, these too hitch a ride on the newly formed lipoprotein vehicle or chylomicron.

As I wrote then, chylomicrons and all members of the cholesterol family bind to and inactivate LPSs with varying degrees of efficiency, which is a good thing as Homo Sapiens have been eating long-chain fatty acids for approximately 195,000 years, with most of these lipids coming from animal sources.

However, cholesterol isn’t the only biological substance that defends us against endotoxins. In animal models, IAP secretion has been consistently shown to rise in the presence of saturated fatty acids.

If as a normal consequence of absorbing these fats, LPSs come into direct contact with brush border cells, it’s not at all surprising that this enzyme would be excreted as part of an innate immune defense against these potential troublemakers.

But while saturated fatty acids increase the secretion of this anti-inflammatory enzyme, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)–both from omega 6 and omega 3 sources–have been shown in both pigs and rodents to either not provoke IAP release, or actively suppress it.

This is a decidedly undesirable state of affairs.

LPSs carried across the gut wall by long-chain PUFAs are also inactivated once incorporated into chylomicrons. However, the failure to increase IAP secretion when LPSs either reach enterocytes, or slip between them when tight-junction proteins are compromised, inevitably causes immune activation. Couple this with the propensity of these fatty acids to easily oxidize and generate lipid peroxidation byproducts, and the risk of inducing leaky gut and endotoxemia goes through the proverbial roof.

Is it any wonder then that rodents chronically fed alcohol while simultaneously fed PUFAs experienced the liver damage I showed you in this post, while saturated fats were protective under the same chronic alcohol feeding?

In pigs fed either corn oil or beef tallow for four weeks, corn oil feeding consistently decreased a number of brush-border intestinal enzymes (4)

Omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6) fatty acids are two separate distinct families...Table 2 shows significant differences in n-6:n-3 ratios between grass-fed and grain-fed beef, with and overall average of 1.53 and 7.65 for grass-fed and grain-fed, respectively

In this post, I discussed how unlikely it is that normal digestion of long-chain fatty acids–whether saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated—is the source of the pathogens initiating arterial plaque formation. If anything, I showed how protective chylomicrons are in preventing just that. This then leaves us with increased intestinal permeability as the most likely source of translocating pathogens.

While today’s post will focus on the role of dietary fat in “leaky gut”, I once again need to emphasize that once you have intestinal dysbiosis, ANY food you eat will increase the translocation of bacteria, yeast, larger food molecules, etc. into the bloodstream leading to the liver and to a smaller extent, systemic circulation. The more often you eat, the more frequently this happens.

Since small-gut dysbiosis increases hunger and cravings by its negative effects on gut hormone secretion and nutrient absorption, reigning in overeating can be challenging until dysbiosis is tamed via dietary change and resolution of bacterial and yeast overgrowth.

Increased intestinal permeability will allow long-chain fatty acids, that would normally only be incorporated into chylomicrons, access to the blood flowing to the liver also carrying with them antigens and bacteria that will provoke an immune response. As more fat is now reaching the liver, more cholesterol will be synthesized to export it. As I said, changes in cholesterol levels are a marker of endotoxemia, not the cause of it. I’ll have more to say about this in an upcoming post.

OK, let’s look more closely at the anatomy of the small intestinal gut wall:

...

We know that gluten opens these junctions. (2) Plant lectins are also disruptive. (3) Alcohol, especially binge drinking, also compromises intestinal integrity. (4) Small intestinal dysbiosis, and the inflammation that results from such an overgrowth, directly impacts these protein structures for the worse.

All oxidation from gut inflammation has the potential to affect these proteins. Oxidation is a normal process of cells that use oxygen to produce energy from various substrates, including those cells lining the intestinal tract. This process is called oxidative phosphorylation, and it would take an entire book to cover. Should you be interested, this Wikipedia entry is a good place to start. As this article makes clear, the gram-negative pathogen, E. coli, is quite adept at growing in an oxidative environment.

Most oxidation within cells will be harmlessly converted to water but not all. Two very harmful intermediate substances normally produced are superoxide anion and peroxide known collectively as reactive oxygen species or ROS. These are highly unstable agents. They have the potential to damage DNA, proteins, fats and intestinal cells, including those producing protective mucus. There are a number of built-in defenses that cells use to guard themselves against these harmful substances but suffice it to say that these defenses can be overwhelmed in times of intense free radical production as part of an immune response.

Anything that increases oxidation in the intestinal tract will also disrupt beneficial bacterial populations. Especially vulnerable are Lactobacillus species that predominate in the small intestine. These bacteria do not handle oxidation well, certainly not as well as gram-negative pathogens like E. coli. Bifidobacteria species in the colon are also negatively affected.

One substance that can be extremely oxidizing is fructose. Fructose forms half of the sugar molecule and can comprise anywhere from 42% to 90% of high-fructose corn syrup. We are well adapted to handling moderate amounts of it in its natural form where it comes packaged with fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and phytochemicals. Strip it of these protective substances during refining and we become far more prone to its ill effects. In large quantities, fructose produces lots of free radicals in those intestinal cells that are able to metabolize it because of its ability to rapidly degrade ATP to uric acid. (5)

Fructose, gluten, lectins and alcohol are not the only dietary components that increase oxidative stress in intestinal cells. Some fats do too.

You’ve all heard of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. The difference between these fats comes down to whether the carbon atoms that compose them contain double bonds.

Saturated: These fats do not have any double bonds between carbon atoms, and are saturated with hydrogen atoms. Saturated fats are very stable and not prone to oxidation when subjected to heat or free radicals in the body. For this reason, they are ideal for high-temperature cooking. Because they are straight in form, saturated-fatty-acid chains pack together readily and are solid or semisolid at room temperature. Saturated fats are found in animal fats and in tropical oils like palm and coconut oil.

Monounsaturated: These fats have one double bond which means two carbon atoms in the chain are double-bonded to each other. For this reason, they lack two hydrogen atoms. At the double-bond, these fats form a kink, so they don’t pack as easily as saturated fats. They are therefore liquid at room temperature although will congeal somewhat when refrigerated. While stable, these oils are more prone to oxidation than saturated fats. Oleic acid is a common form of monounsaturated fat found in our food and is the main component of olive oil. Almond, pecan, cashews, peanuts and avocados are also rich in oleic acid as is lard. Lard is 44% oleic acid, 42% saturated fat and 10% polyunsaturated fat. As fats are typically classified by the predominant fatty acid contained in them, lard should be classified as a monounsaturated fat, not a saturated one.

Polyunsaturated: These types of fats have two or more double bonds and therefore lack four or more hydrogen atoms. Like monounsaturated fats, these double bonds are kinked so they don’t pack together well making them liquid even when refrigerated. Polyunsaturates can be further classified by the position of their first double bond in relation to their omega end. Polyunsaturated fats are called omega-6 fatty acids when their first double bond is in the sixth position from this position. Vegetable oils are very high in omega 6s.

Polyunsaturates with their first double bond from the third position of the omega end are called omega-3 fatty acids. Fish and flaxseed oils are both omega-3 oils yet differentiated by the length of carbon atoms they contain and their unsaturation.

These types of oils are extremely delicate and prone to oxidation when subjected to heat, light, pressure and free radicals in the body. They should never be used for high temperature cooking. Unfortunately, that is exactly what many vegetable oils are used for. They are routinely utilized in fast-food chains, restaurants and are common in processed foods.

...

Any fat in the presence of gut wall dysfunction, along with protein and carbohydrate, will cause translocation of gut pathogens. The majority of these pathogens will end up in the liver creating oxidative damage and disease. A small portion will bypass the liver entirely and directly enter the bloodstream. In more advanced cases of “leaky gut” and subsequent hepatic damage, these pathogens will also escape the liver and enter systemic circulation. Cholesterol will try to neutralize these substances and repair the damage they cause in arteries, but along with other responding immune cells, form atheromas and fibrous caps. If unstable, these complexes can rupture producing a heart attack or stroke.

In populations where gut dysbiosis and endotoxemia are rampant, encouraging people to substitute highly reactive and inflammatory omega 6 polyunsaturated fats for saturated fat is nothing short of dietary madness and a denial of the basics of fatty acid structure and biochemistry.

The cause of heart disease is metabolic endotoxemia. Binge drinking, excess consumption of sugar, trans fats, overeating, omega 6 oils, tooth decay, respiratory infections, gluten, stress, aging, poor anti-oxidant status, cigarette smoking, etc. are all risk factors for cardiovascular disease because they can all negatively impact gut wall integrity and beneficial bacterial populations. Correcting dysbiosis through changes in diet and resolving bacterial and yeast infections while replenishing and maintaining beneficial gut flora populations is the only hope you have for preventing this potentially deadly disease.

there are two families of lectins that have toxic effects in humans if they appear in our food.

Lectins found in legumes (beans and peanuts) and gluten grains are the most problematical. Whole-gluten grains like whole-wheat is a particularly rich source of a lectin called wheat-germ agglutinin or WGA for short. WGA is found in highest concentration in the germ of the plant. This makes the most evolutionary sense as the seed of the plant contains the genetic material necessary to propagate the species.

Lectins have shown very active biological properties when studied in animals and humans and entire books have been written on the subject. It is not my intention to summarize all these findings here. Rather, I want to concentrate on those factors that are directly relevant to acquiring small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

But first, let me clear something up. Recently, there has been talk in the “Paleo Diet” and health blogosphere that concerns about lectin toxicity in the diet are overblown and should not unduly worry anyone because cooking inactivates them.

Yes, wet-heat cooking does indeed inactivate these pesticides. Subjecting beans to prolonged, high-heat cooking renders them a harmless and nutritious, albeit fiber-rich and gassy, source of food. And subjecting wheat-based foods to wet heat as in boiling pasta or noodles also inactivates WGA. So far so good.

However, dry-heat cooking methods as exists in baking or breakfast cereal manufacturing does not seem to inactivate them.

...

I need to make one other clarification before proceeding. The findings I refer to were conducted in animals using raw bean or wheat lectin which are pretty much interchangeable as they attach to the same gut structures and intestinal flora.

This obviously doesn’t mimic how humans consume these foods in real life. No one is eating uncooked legumes (except for peanuts) or gnawing on a stalk of wheat. If they are they have bigger problems to contend with.

But that doesn’t mean that these research findings are irrelevant. Far from it. While human exposure to these natural pesticides is at far lower concentrations than what was used in animal studies (or at least I hope so), the impact on gut health from low-grade, chronic exposure would be expected to be the same although not manifest as quickly.

In a culture where wheat is the “king” of grains and consumption of processed-wheat products is pervasive, exposure to lectins begins at a very early age and extends for a lifetime in most. Meal after meal, day after day, year after year and the damage begins to pile up.

Lectins, inflammatory gluten peptides, gluten opioids, adenosine and increased zonulin production really make this noxious grain and its siblings a true biohazard of the first order for the gut. Throw in other gut-destroying practices like repeated courses of antibiotics, drugs (both licit and illicit) and alcohol and the negative impact skyrockets.

Lectin’s known effects on gastrointestinal function

Lectins are extremely efficient at attaching themselves to the mucosa of the small intestine. The interior lining of our small intestine is called the sugar coat for a reason. Here, cells and bacteria present a surface coating that consists of sugar molecules attached to either protein (glycoprotein) or fat (glycolipid) creating a kind of “slime” that serves both a protective and attachment function.

In lectin-fed rodents, lectins bind to and strip away the mucous coat exposing the underlying cells to the contents of the lumen. They also inhibit repair by blocking mucus secreting cells from producing this important protective lubricant.

Rodents fed lectins are incapable of properly utilizing the protein content of their diets. If sufficient quantities of lectins are present in their food, the rate of protein breakdown and loss from their body exceeds the amount of protein taken in.

Lectins bind to the epithelial cells of the small intestine resulting in disfigurement and damage to the digestive brush border.

Lectins cause rapid cell division, growth and turnover in the cells lining the small intestine. Because of this, these cells are too immature to properly digest food or maintain proper intestinal barrier function.

In rodents, lectins consistently increase the size of the pancreas.

Lectins bind to and interfere with cells responsible for the production of various gut-satiety hormones. Satiety hormones tell your brain, gee, I’m really full and can’t eat another bite. When they aren’t produced or produced in lower amounts than normal, hunger is a constant companion. I’ll explore this topic in a future series on gut health and weight regulation.

Lectins bind to and interfere with the gut-associated lymphoid tissue or GALT system. This is the gut’s immune system that protects against infections from pathogens.

Finally, lectins have been shown to directly disturb gut flora populations in animals.

I want to put forward the hypothesis that lectins are uniquely toxic to our beneficial gut flora. As disturbed gut flora seems to be a necessary condition for the initiation of infection in the small intestine, this is not a minor issue.

This theory revolves around the fact that lectins, like WGA, have a high affinity for gram-positive bacteria. Beneficial Lactobacillus and Bifodobacterium species are of this type.

...

Bean lectins like phytohaemagglutinin or PHA which is found in red kidney beans and wheat germ agglutinin found in gluten grains are specifically designed to attach to cellular structures that express N-acetyglucosamine. If this name sounds familiar, it’s because the word glucosamine is part of it. Glucosamine is what a lot of you take to treat your aching joints.

Because peptidoglycan has two sugar components with one of them being N-acetyglucosamine, these lectins attach to it rather readily. Because the peptidoglycan area of gram-positive bacteria is large and exposed, it can be said that these types of lectins have a high affinity for them.

Conversely, because the peptidoglycan membrane in gram-negative bacteria is thinner and protected behind an outer lipopolysaccharide layer, these lectins do not bind to them or disturb them in any way.

...

The bad news is that these lectins are also harmful to beneficial gut flora.

Because gram-negative bacteria are not affected by these lectins, they are more likely to proliferate when beneficial gram-positive gut flora populations are reduced or absent.

In the book Plant Lectins we learn:

“Food and some of its components, particularly the lectins, may directly interact with the bacterial flora or, alternatively, they may indirectly affect bacterial proliferation in the small intestine through interference with the binding of selected species to epithelial tissues. Whichever of these two mechanisms operates, the end result is the potential inducement of selective proliferation of some species of bacteria in the digestive tract, including the small intestine.”

And in animals fed red kidney bean lectin:

“…concurrent with increased toxicity, there is a dramatic overgrowth of Escherichia coli in the small intestine of conventional rats fed on PHA-containing diets…Similar studies with other animal species have fully confirmed the existence of this causative relationship between the presence of PHA in the diet, E. coli overgrowth and toxicity. Although the mechanism of the selective overgrowth and how this affects nutritional efficiency is not clear, one possible mechanism is that the lectin-induced virulence of coliforms [gram-negative pathogens] in the small intestine of kidney bean-fed rats is the result of the elimination of competing species.”

I reiterate again that this is only a hypothesis and has yet to be proven true in humans because no one that I’m aware of has subjected this to clinical investigation.

If beans are a large part of your diet, make sure they are cooked at high temperatures for a sufficient length of time. Many people have been made ill eating undercooked red kidney beans. Don’t be one of them.

I don’t eat beans in restaurants or out of a can because I have no way of knowing how thoroughly they were cooked. The only beans I eat are those I cook myself, and I would recommend you do the same.

Avoid peanuts as they are high in lectins and dry roasting them does not inactivate these toxins.

As for wheat germ agglutinin, make sure your gluten-food product is subjected to wet-heat cooking. Ready-made processed gluten foods are best avoided. Hell, I think gluten grains are best avoided which is why I don’t eat them whether sprouted or fermented.

It is possible that sourdough fermentation may neutralize WGA but I haven’t read anything in the literature to that effect. If anyone out there has info on this, please share.

To counter the negative effects of lectins in the diet, consider supplementing with prebiotics and probiotics found in food or supplements.

Also consider taking a glucosamine pill with every meal containing beans or gluten grains. This will act as a decoy and bind lectins before they can do any damage to your mucosa, digestive cells, and friendly gut flora.

Why Armstrong Can Predict The Future Inspite of the Butterfly Effect of Chaos


I bring to readers' attention the link to my posts within that "triggering the double pendulum" argument about the unpredictability of the Butterfly Effect of chaos.

Order is relative to the observer. For the macroscopic observer, the chaos at the microscopic level is significantly irrelevant to the order that is perceived at the macroscopic level. This can be further extended to the chaos (Butterfly Effect) we perceive at the human level, is significantly irrelevant to the order that the Earth perceives relative to the Sun's cycles. This can be further extended to the chaos the solar system perceives is significantly irrelevant to the order that the Milky Way galaxy perceives.

And these relative perspectives are not just on the scale from microscopic to macroscopic, but also in terms of the number of dimensions considered. For example, if a human considers space and time orthogonally (what most humans perceive except for the occasional Doppler effect that humans can typically perceive with their senses), one gets a different reality than if one considers spacetime as in relativity (what governs quantum mechanics and astrophysics). Armstrong's model has pulled such multi-dimensional order out of what we normally perceives as chaotic because we only consider the market price data in one or two orthogonal dimensions.



Edit: the "strange attactor" is a hidden order in what normally appears to be chaotic from a different perspective. Thus finding that order is about reorienting your perspective:

http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/research/economic-thought/by-topic/chaos-theory





Edit#2: Why Cycles Must Exist

I provided a theoretical proof of that in my 2012 essay on the The Universe in the section Matter as a continuum.

Armstrong explained it with less theoretical precision than I did above.

http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/11934


Armstrong's point is that energy is required for change, i.e. for any system to be alive and not static and dead or in other words for any system to exist and be perceived. Without energy, life does not exist. And then he notes that energy moves as a wave through a medium.

But why a wave (i.e. with a frequency and thus a cycle)? Friction. Without friction, then the speed-of-light would be infinite and the past and present would collapse into an infinitesimal point and nothing would exist. You see that for energy to exist, friction is required. But friction then gives rise to momentum and inertia. And momentum and inertia cause overshoots and undershoots, which thus leads to oscillation and coupling (resonance). And thus the fundamental matter of the universe is frequency and phase.

Let me thank you all for your insight and reasoning. IMHO, there's nothing you can "definitely" predict under any circumstances. In any case you would be subjected to that "tiny" turbulence within the chaotic spin of the series of events that will ruin your soup. I've been talking about this with a Jew friend over the net and he said to me "this is all BS - no one knows WTF will happen". He added though, that this kind of predictions have the "attractor" effect (ie: They tend to "create" the "circumstances" for it to happen).

In Physics terms it's just like triggering the double pendulum in order to pinpoint a certain trajectory within the next -short time- period (after a long while, it won't truly matter). I know the above may sound bogus, but they do have a great logical and scientific basis. Nevertheless, I cannot say for sure that that's the way things work...

PS:
Today's the day you know. The end of the 49 year cycle of Shemitah and the beginning of Jubilee year. Let's see what the cat will bring in...

...

Before i sleep, some links:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aarmstrongeconomics.com+hidden+order

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355212.msg10890931#msg10890931

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=365141.msg9566419#msg9566419



See also his entropy model for a stochastic momentum model.

The Lorenz Strange Attractor is a 3-dimensional dynamical system that exhibits chaotic flow, noted for its interesting shape revolving around two invisible strange points in space-time we call Strange Attractors. The map shows how the state of a dynamical system with three variables of a three-dimensional system evolves over the fourth dimension time in a complex, yet non-repeating pattern. In other words, here is a visualization of duality – what appears to be randomness (chaos) yet simultaneously there is a broader clear pattern of order. The same identical structure appears in light where it is both a wave form and particle, as we see in the economy where we retain our individuality yet at the same time we are part of a broader collective pattern. This is the very essence of the Invisible Hand – or in Lorenz terms, a Strange Attractor.

Therefore, Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including meteorology, physics, engineering, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory investigates the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions and subtle changes in the input can created drastic alternative in the outcome. This has been explained as the “effect” which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Slight differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general without comprehending dynamic analysis that is cyclical based.

This chaos that appears is complex, yet it masks a hidden order beneath. The complexity of variables creates the illusion that these systems are unpredictable yet they can be extremely deterministic when viewed correctly. The future behavior of such systems is entirely determined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved whatsoever. In other words, the deterministic nature of these systems allows them to be predictable when approached objectively by a computer eliminating the randomness of human judgment. This type of behavior is best described as Deterministic Chaos.

Understanding that everything in nature moves in a cyclical manner is vital to comprehending the world around us. This is how energy moves. The waves in the ocean give the impression the water is moving when in fact if you throw a bottle that floats into the water you will notice that the bottle rises and falls but does not move with the waves that pass below. WHY? Because the wave is just energy moving THROUGH the water, not the water itself moving. Water movement is the current that takes place separate and distinct from the wave movement.

Once you wake up and begin to see that energy moves THROUGH the medium be it space, the air, or crowds of people causing collective behavior we call panic, then you can begin to see the world in a whole new light. This fall, we will see more chaos in weather.

For those who are doubting how there would be natural cycles that repeat, remember the Sun has a cycle and it deeply effects our food supply and climate which thus impacts our economy. I hope you all are ready for the Little Ice Age coming over the next decades, which will radically reduce the ability of Northern Europe and other areas to feed itself:


http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/34854


http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/37141




http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/33918



http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/35118

Maunder Minimum Petri Dish of Political Change

The global warming pseudo-scientists are desperately trying to keep their funding. Now these con artists are trying to claim that that the oceans’ surface water is cooling and below the water is warming. Those who stop driving to work, opting to walk or ride a bicycle instead, are perhaps speaking at least of what they believe, rather than crying that the planet is warming and we need to hand them billions of dollars to figure out some new technology to reverse the trend.

Meanwhile, real scientists who study the cyclical movement within nature are observing what we have been warning – a coming Ice Age, not global warming. We should see the collapse in temperatures faster than we suspect, for it will mimic a Waterfall Event in our market terminology. This is the true nature of how things simply move. Real scientists are starting to warn that we will see temperatures plummet by 2030. We are entering the Maunder Minimum Petri Dish of Political Change and nobody seems to comprehend the political ramifications ahead.

Global Warming/alternately Climate Change Guide for Dummies

QUESTION: Martin,  you go into more detail about the time frame for global cooling, and its ramifications, what to do to prepare oneself etc…

ANSWER: This downturn should be greater than the last one in the 1700s according to our models. Volatility rises so the swings in climate become much more dramatic with the turn of these cycles. It is similar to a stock market crash. Once it breaks, the volatility rises and market prices appears very choppy. So there will be a burst to the upside, followed by new lows on the downside. I am in Paris. Nowhere near as warn as the States. People are wearing jackets on the street. Northern Europe never really warmed up this year. When I was here in the Spring, I had to go buy sweaters for it was much colder than I expected.

These cycles in climate were originally discovered from ice core samples from the North Pole which revealed a 300 year cycle in climate defined as the energy output of the sun. When I saw the presentation presented by Harvard scientists back in the 1980s, I immediate saw their chart was close to the 309.6 year cycle in the ECM. The sun has been documented now that it is a thermodynamic system which beats like your heart. The cycle defines maximum and minimum over a 300 year period and explains migrations and the rise and fall of civilization.

The last downturn was pretty bad. They also seem to line up with the revolution cycle. It probably aggravates society and they move toward civil unrest. Some 2500 men died at Valley Forge from exposure during the winter encampment. Clearly, this is the cycle that has driven war by conquest and is linked stimulated by a change in climate that has marked a reduction in food supply.



It will be this turn down in global cooling which will spark a rise in food prices on the horizon. The Global Warming/Climate Change crowd as always try to reduce all blame to a single factor. This type of thinking process has seriously retarded our evolutionary process. They are incapable of dynamic thinking and are incompetent insofar as just observing the world around them. They destroy our future in every possible way for their ignorance condemns us to repeat history in every field they use this primitive means of thinking – always reducing whatever the issue if to single cause and effect.

...

It appears that we would enter a White Earth Effect and die as a planet if the volcanic activity ceased. That is the source of warming up the planet again when the sun turns down. Sure, man may add to volatility, but we by no means possess the power to change the climate cycle. There is ABSOLUTELY ZERO proof the the long-term 300 years cycle has changed. People who believe this nonsense should not read this blog for you you must also be a deep-rooted Marxist and believe all the BS of governments. If you buy into that, you might as well buy into everything they say.  Only an idiot can possibly think we have the capacity to alter the universe or how it functions. We are incapable of even grasping all the variables at play.

If you have a basement, you can grow your own food without land and this may be the next hot trend.

Britain Headed Back to a Mini Ice Age

We have been warning that the danger is by no means global warming, but global cooling. The energy output of the sun has turned down. Now scientists are warning that what we have reported is crashing rapidly. The collapse in the energy output of the sun is so intense that climate experts are now warning that the amount of light energy released by the sun is dropping to levels “not seen for centuries”.

The collapse in the energy output of the sun functions on about a 300-year cycle or roughly six waves of the ECM 51.6 year frequency creating the 309.6-year wave. The 1400s saw the Black Death and the start of Capitalism as serfdom came to an end and wages reappeared for the first time on any major widespread level since the fall of Rome in 476 AD.  Roughly, three 309.6-year waves brings us to the Black Death. The next wave takes us into the 1700s and the fall of Monarchy with the American and French Revolutions.

It was time for the peak in global warming and turning this down sharply once again. The problem is that this seems to correlate with plagues and disease as well. So those looking for global warming, you better move south.

We Are in the 21st Year of Declining Temperatures

It is amazing how government is trying to claim the existence of global warming, simply to introduce a carbon tax. We are entering the 21st year of declining temperatures; not rising temperatures. This is akin to the tax on cigarettes; people smoked less and governments cried that they were losing revenue, causing many places to tax electronic cigarettes. Governments are also losing tax revenue as cars have become more efficient. Gasoline sales have declined as many cars now have pollution controls with better gas mileage. Additionally, more people are buying from the internet and driving to the local mall less. The solution to the collapse in tax revenues: states are now preparing to tax people based upon the number of miles they drive, requiring odometer readings to register cars. It is never about what they pretend to care about – it is just a new scheme to raise taxes. Regardless of the truth about global warming, governments need this bogus research to raise taxes.

The global warming crowd is the MOST unethical and corrupt group of pretend scientists ever to exist. When I was called upon for research to form the G5, I wrote the White House a warning that manipulating the dollar down would create volatility and a crash within two years (1987). I was told I would never again be asked by government for anything. They told me outright that I was to conduct the studies –– government would provide the conclusion up front –– and I would earn millions each year for bogus research reports. I said, “No thanks!” This is how the government conducts and funds studies. They ALWAYS tout the desired end result to support some predetermined objective. Government studies are simply an exercise in political corruption, no matter what the field.

Global warming is another great scam. Clearing the air – yes, we all want that. Yet it is extremely arrogant to assume we have the capability to alter the climate cycle.

I suppose you are thinking that if I want people to believe my predictions of a Bitcoin low price this Spring, then a raging bull market after that, then I need credibility?

Have you ever considered that I don't really care if fools want to lose their money. I offer information for serious people. Fools will do what ever they want to do. It is not my job to make my credibility perfectly politically correct so that fools won't be fools. You wish for the implausible, as any good socialist does.


My signature line has my former usernames.

Again perfect credibility is implausible and when it seems to appear, it is the lie of the politician that says everything everyone wants to hear, i.e. socialism and promising the implausible. Remember Ethereum?

Did you know that Ethereum was basically hatched by Charles Hoskinson. Do you know who he was recruiting to be the lead developer after he split with Daniel Larimer and before he found Vitalik Buterin. Yes he was talking to me in Skype. But I told him my ideas weren't yet well formed enough and I could sense he wanted to create a bloated financial structure, so I declined and after that he found Vitalik. He asked me to look at Vitalik's white paper for his early version of a proof-of-work hash function and I told him frankly it wouldn't be resistant to parallelization. Later Vitalik realized I was correct.


Incorrect. Armstrong's model is a statistical and structural A.I. model of chaos. This is science. And no he is never wrong about the major trends.

And no we are not wrong about the dollar. Fools again will choose to not believe us and again they will lose. Just like when we told them back in 2011 that was the peak in gold and they rode the damn thing all the way down. And we are still telling them the coming lows are below $850 (< $700 likely) and for Bitcoin below $150 ($100 likely). Just like when oil was $100 in 2014, and Armstrong predicted the closing price for 2014 at $54, which ended up being exactly the case. No one else saw that one coming. Or for example how in May of this year when Bitcoin was in the low $200s, I said the summer high would be $315 and then it would head back down for the coming lows under $150. Or just like my silver prediction in 2010:

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article23786.html

Please I don't have time for the fools. I can't write a refutation every time they spout off their foolish mouths. They will be wrong yet again.