Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 19 April 2024…
Hey Y’all!
Good morning and happy Fast-Jet Friday from Air2Ground Farms! The fast jet today is the Mighty-Mighty F-15E Strike Eagle with our very own Hannah “HAIL” Slayton in the front seat. This photo captured her as she was about to touch down after a flight returning from the NorthWest coast of Florida to RAF Lakenheath, England. She flew non-stop from Florida to the UK with multiple inflight refuelings. Just above the main landing gear, you can see the "travel pod." These are Vietnam-era napalm containers that have a small door cut into the side so that you can carry your duffle bag sized luggage. Speaking from experience, it's best to wrap your duffle in a trash bag so your clothes aren't soaked and frozen when you arrive! Don't confuse the travel pod with the much larger external fuel tank hanging on the wing. The weather is cool today after a few storms passed through yesterday. It should stay cool for a week or so and then warm back into the upper 70s. The top pic is the beef herd as they moved into what we call the long pasture. They are very excited to be on the move and grazing! They ran and kicked up their heels as they entered the pasture. The next two pics are my attempt to show you the scale of what I mean when I say we’re giving them a lot of grazing space. I am standing about 1/3 of the way into the pasture as I took the pic. The pic that looks like it is just grass actually has the cows in it, all the way at the end of the pasture. I zoomed a bit in the next pic so you could see them. The following pic is of one of the frost-free cattle waterers in the long pasture. When we have very young calves in the herd, we remove one of the floating balls so they can access the water. As they grow up, they learn to push the balls down, like the bigger cows, in order to get a drink. The remaining pic is the end result of our garden-prep project. Our friends, Kevin and Sarah from Living Traditions Homestead, came over and provided their expertise in installing the weed fabric and drip irrigation system. They recorded a video while we did the project to offer a look for their 800,000+ subscribers at how to do the install. Their video should be out in the next couple of weeks. We are excited for the time and effort we will save throughout the garden season and the ease of harvesting and weeding. As we plant the garden, we will also do a video to show the project upon actual completion.
Today, I ask you to join me in a thought journey that will help you understand my contempt for the food and medical establishments. I’m sure you watched Thursday’s Dust’er Mud podcast where we discussed the conflict of interest regarding the pharmaceutical companies and even the Idaho Potato Commission sponsorships of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Last night, I read an article regarding a lawsuit levied by a former ADA chief nutritionist who was allegedly fired for her refusal to recommend a couple of salads with loads of Splenda as an ingredient. NOT surprisingly, the request to add Splenda as an ingredient came after Splenda “sponsored” the ADA with over $1M. Previously, the ADA had internal guidance that they would not offer recipes that included non-nutritive sugar substitutes (sugar-free sweeteners be they natural or artificial) for vegetables but only for a sugar replacement in things like baked goods. So far, I’m not shocked but am feeling even more justified in our rant during the podcast. That’s when I decided to dig a bit deeper into Splenda. Splenda is by far the most popular sugar substitute in the USA with over 51 million people saying they use it most often, more than double the 25 million who say they use Sweet’N Low. They tout that they have sold more than 100 billion yellow packets since it launched in 1991. They say that Splenda, “Zero Calorie Sweetener is a delicious tasting sugar substitute that can be used almost anywhere you would use sugar.” Here’s where the shock set in. They are allowed to say it is zero calorie due to a loophole in FDA guidelines. They carefully crafted the size of the packet, and serving size on their larger bags, such that the amount contained within has only 4 calories, under the 5 calorie limit the FDA imposes to be considered “Zero Calorie.” It gets better (worse). Splenda is actually only 1% Sucralose, the product developed in 1991 that is 600 times sweeter than sugar. What’s the remaining 99%, you ask? By dry weight, granulated Splenda No Calorie Sweetener is made up of 99% maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is a starch-based carbohydrate that acts as a filler and has a high glycemic index (GI) ranging from 106 to 136, higher than table sugar. That’s right, higher than table sugar. Which means Maltodextrin can cause insulin levels to spike because it's quickly broken down into glucose in the body, leading to a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. This increase in blood sugar triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas to help transport the glucose into cells for energy. Let’s go back to how we got on this topic…Splenda’s sponsorship of the ADA and the inclusion of Splenda in recipes recommended for diabetics. Remember, a spike in blood sugar is exactly what diabetics should avoid. A quick review of WebMD reveals their claim that “Splenda sweetens foods and drinks but doesn’t make your blood sugar levels to spike the way that regular sugar does.” This is because they only consider the 1% of Splenda that is Sucralose, not the 99% of Splenda that is Maltodextrin. I wonder who is sponsoring WebMD? If you can take ONE thing away from this thought journey I would ask you to not simply trust the bought organizations and associations you expect to be able to trust and actually examine the ingredients on the “sugar-free” sweeteners you use to determine for yourself if they are actually Worse Than Sugar.
If you haven’t watched the Dust’er Mud podcast where we look at the $BILLIONS$ of dollars that companies are making off of keeping over a third of Americans diabetic or pre diabetic, please check it out!
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
Florida to UK non-stop...with no flight attendants, and no ability to get up and walk around? Yikes!
As to the Splenda nonsense? Grrrrrrrr!!
Same question! Just can’t handle black coffee. 😁
Do you have a recommendation for a zero calorie sweetener that is preferable to Splenda?