Changing direction, a little

This morning I had a shower thought. You know, those little epiphanies that occur when you’re taking a shower. I admit, I also get them running sometimes, which is somewhere in the top 10 reasons I like to run, but that’s beside the point. I came across a little article here that explains that the non-linear thinking that leads to shower thoughts is a result of a mindless-repetitive task that allows your brain to go into idle mode, relaxation, and likely the time of day.

So, my shower thought was this. I have a lot to say. I think a lot about getting a post out, but don’t do it very much because I’ve made it a lot of work. I didn’t mean to make it a lot of work, I just did because that’s how I roll. When I put something out there, I want you to know that it’s something I’ve thought about, researched, and vetted. I want you to know that I’m not just making things up or passing along some quackery. So every post is extensively footnoted with links to the source article and this takes a lot of time. And, I’m guessing, that those few of you out there who read these posts either never noticed the links or, if you did, rarely followed them to read the source material. And this was my epiphany. To make this process much easier and fluid on my end, I’m not going to do that anymore.

Here’s my solemn promise to you, reader. If you ever want to know the source material for something I say (as long as it’s not blatantly opinion) please just ask in the comments. That way I can post the relevant links for you (and the world) to see, keeping my promise to only bring you fact and not fancy. But there’s so much cool stuff out there and I’m dying to share it with you. For just a glimpse of the things rattling around in my head here’s what I’ve been reading lately:

“How Not to Die” by Michael Greger, MD & Gene Stone. Dr. Greger is the “host” of NutritionFacts.org and I’m a huge fan. This is fact based nutrition at it’s best. The book is not an easy read, but it’s so jammed full of fun stuff that I need to share.

“Finding Ultra” by Rich Roll. Rich is an interesting character and many of you know him from his very popular podcast. He’s an alcoholic (in remission) ultra man athlete. No, not the old TV show, the crazy double Iron Man race in Hawaii. 6.2 mile open ocean swim, 261.4 mile bike followed by a 52.4 mile run. I, personally, think Rich totally missed the mark on his comments on soy in the book (and I emailed him and told him so), but it’s an interesting read. If you want to skip the book, check out the podcast. He did a show with Melanie Joy a couple of months ago that was very nice.

“I Contain Multitudes” by Ed Yong. I have written in the past about the amazing science and discoveries being made regarding the human gut microbiome, the ecosystem of bacteria that live within our guts. Ed Yong’s book is a grand tour of all the amazing and cool things that are happening in the science of microbes and microbiomes. I don’t say this lightly, but this is literally paradigm shifting stuff. Really, our entire understanding of we live with bacteria is changing.

Finally, it’s cold and flu season coming up (as I look at the lovely fall colors from my window as I write) and that means the insane pressure for flu shots is just ramping up. I will have a post early next week and will show you why you don’t really need one.