Millions of folks, and I’m one of them, have gradually put on the pounds as the years roll by. Most of us try in one way or another to curb the growth of our girth by dieting, portion control of our meals, periodic fasting or through some kind of pharmacological solution.
But, alas, we spend years going for our annual wellness checks at the doctor’s office, just to hear ol’ Doc give us the same ol’ retread advice on weight loss.
Well, a good friend of mine, ol’ Ben Gainen, recently went for his annual wellness checkup with his family physician, Dr. Will Pokque. After all the poking, prodding, and questioning wuz over, Doc told Ben, “Step on the scales and I’ll get your weight.”
After Ben stepped off the scales, Doc checked his chart from Ben’s previous wellness visit, arched his brow, and commented, “Look’s like you need to quit eating so much fatty.”
Ben questioned back, “You mean quit eating so much fatty foods?
Dr. Pokque shot back wryly, “No, I mean quit eating so much, Fatty!”
Now, that wuz blunt medical advice.
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The new federal food and dietary guidelines, The Food Pyramid, seems to have upset both the medical community and the skin care community.
One of the prime recommended changes is the use of beef tallow for frying foods. The medicos are not convinced that beef fat is the way to go toward good health. They are still clinging to their long-held belief that veggie oils are better for you.
As for me, I don’t know which is best for my health, but there is no question that foods fried using beef tallow are yummier. And so, at my age, I’m going to follow my personal taste test and eat what tastes best.
Now, for the reason that the skin care companies are upset with the beef tallow is that are is losing sales to a growing trend of folks making their own homemade skin conditioner using tallow.
You can see why they are concerned by going to the DuckDuckGo search engine and looking for homemade tallow lotion recipes. One site shows 29 such recipes.
The website gushes that “homemade tallow lotions offer a luxurious and deeply nourishing way to care for your skin. They are packed with natural vitamins and fatty acids — these DIY recipes are perfect for soothing dryness and achieving a healthy, radiant glow.”
The basic process is rendering beef suet down into tallow and then mixing it with other ingredients that please you. It says you can “discover how simple ingredients can transform your skin care routine into a truly pampering experience.”
Just glancing through some of the tallow lotion ingredients shows castor oil, shea butter and honey, olive oil, beeswax and jojoba oil, magnesium, herb infused oil, and lavender.
I don’t know how many harried farm and ranch wives are finding the time, or are so inclined, as to make their own tallow skin conditioner. But, apparently, there are enuf women somewhere who are making tallow lotion that it’s affecting the skin care market.
I say, “who cares?” It’s a good thing if the new use for tallow does nothing more than help keep beef prices high.
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It’s amazing what I find by cruising the internet looking for column material. This week was pretty normal. I found these tidbits in the news.
• Researchers in three different studies have found out that some bird species have figgered out for themselves that putting used cigarette butts into their nests keeps down the incidence of pests such as various flies and gnats, fleas, insects and mites that harm the newly hatched chicks.
• In the war in Ukraine, they are using rifle-carrying robot dogs to advance to the front lines and kill Russian soldiers. Makes me think that such weaponized dog-bots may become useful in trimming feral hog numbers or for keeping furry critters from raiding sweetcorn patches.
• A dancing/entertaining robot in a cafe went berserk and started destroying the place and panicking customers. Security folks had to overwhelm it and escort it out and turn it over to the rob-cops.
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Speaking of going nuts, that’s what the weather has been. Four days ago, the temperature was in the 70s. Then within a few hours the temp plunged to 10 degrees with snow flurries. Today started with temps in the 20s and right now the temp is 77 degrees.
Plus, included in that cold weather wuz winds up to 50 mph that scattered sheets of tin I had stashed for using in my shop construction all over the east side of Damphewless Acres. And, it peeled away some of the weed-control carpeting around my raised garden beds. Later today I plan to retrieve and re-stack all that tin. The wind changed direction daily from south to north, and then repeat.
I wuz surprised that some, probably a third, of my early-planted radishes and lettuce survived the icy weather. Another sign of impending spring is a pair of killdeers arrived before the cold snap. I hope they survived.
My words of wisdom for the week are: “There are three kinds of persons on the world. Those who can count and those who can’t.” Have a good ‘un.
