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Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty

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Snowbunny
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
I'm sure if they made organic dortios his pee would be bright orange instead.

Seriously. If all I ate was fruits and vegetables (the cheap, hormone filled kind) and other natural food I'd be a health superstar too.
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rebelyell
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
He could not find organic food on some days?? I am thinking this man does not live in San Francisco. It's hard to find a restaurant that is NOT organic here! I was talking to friends in NYC and they told me that the slow food, organic, and locally-and-sustainably grown food movement is not as prevalent there. Come on, east coast! catch up time.
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SharonTaint
12/03/08

@yurita: Your friend is bananas.

I've lived in Brooklyn for 3 years and have been eating locally grown, organic food for that entire time.
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funnyface
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
I recently got into an argument with my FIL about organic foods. I do try to eat organic foods when possible and when price permits. I also try to limit my red meat intake. I also try to eat locally-grown foods. But not because I necessarily believe it's better for ME. Mostly because I believe it's better for the planet, and because I like supporting independent growers and my local economy. I also limit my red-meat intake because from a world-hunger perspective, I'd rather grain be used to feed people, not livestock. If there is any added health benefit to consuming organic foods, like, not ingesting chemicals, or not being exposed to antibiotics or hormones, I see that only as an added benefit on top of my real reasons for doing it.
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Decaye
12/03/08

@funnyface: You claim to care about world hunger, but you support organic foods? Ok.
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funnyface
12/03/08

@Decaye: I understand that there is some tension between my interest in local/organic foods and my interest in the problem of world hunger. I try to remedy this tension by giving money to world hunger organizations, by supporting microlending, and by buying fair trade when I can. Most of my food comes from my local farmer's market, honestly, because I like to know the guy who grew my broccoli, and because I believe less emissions leads to a better planet for all of us, hungry kids in foreign lands and lil ole me right here at home all together.
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Red-headed bookworm
12/03/08

@funnyface: I think you can care about world hunger and support organic foods. Look at how much food that is gorwn covnentionally is wasted. Hunger is not always a factor of not being able to grow enough food, but more of not being able to get the food to people who need it. Also, conventional farming can lead to overuse of land in areas, adding to the hunger issue. Sustainable farming techniques, which can include either organic or conventional farming, need to be practiced.
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farmersdaughter
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
His desire to make a point is laudable. I have to wonder if his feeling better is possibly a result of eating less processed food as someone upthread said, or just a placebo effect from the project he was doing. Personally, I happen to think that eating only local food would be a bigger accomplishment and something I would personally like to see get more press, but that is nothing but a personal opinion.
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Penny
12/02/08

@farmersdaughter: I have the same opinion.
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sequined
12/02/08

@farmersdaughter: I was at a restaurant the other day that had several items on the menu that "adhered to the 150-mile eat local challenge" or something like that. I was surprised, frankly, that more weren't on there, but pleased that they even bothered to do that much.
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Penny
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
Also, CSA does not necessarily equate to organic. Just because you get your food from a local grower does not mean it's grown sans pesticides.
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BlondeGrlz
12/02/08

@Archetype: I lived on a farm for a while and would walk out my front door, pick an apple and eat it standing under the tree. It was non-organic but there is no way you are going to convince me buying an organic one grown 3,000 miles away would be healthier.
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cwisto moweina has got yer goat
12/02/08

@Archetype: produce can still be organic but be grown using pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. They just have to be specific kinds, mostly natural (this coming from someone who has worked on an organic farm).

Whatevs, as my toxicologist dad says, "a neurotoxin 's a neurotoxin, doesn't matter if it comes from a plant!"
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Penny
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
You can get similar results from taking vitamins. I certainly don't fault anyone for wanting to eat organic. I just find it laughable how easily people can get wrapped up in it, until it's this freakish ideological obsession.

Not to mention the fact that labeling laws for food SUCK, and this was the main reason I was pissy about Prop 2 passing in California. When I buy something that says it's hormone free, it had better damn well be.
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cchristian
12/02/08

@Archetype: I thought Prop 2 was only about animal living conditions, not labeling. But please explain further, because labeling is something I am very interested in.
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Penny
12/02/08

@cchristian: I just felt labeling reforms should have been addressed first, personally.
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Lymed
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
Maybe it's not that the food is organic, but that eating only organic has forced him to eat less processed and healthier foods because that's what is available?
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Penny
12/02/08

@Lymed: I think this is FAR more likely.
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aShinyGumWrapper
12/02/08

@Lymed: Definitely. I was about to post that.

It's not the organic that's causing the healthiness, he could do the same on non-organic. He just has to choose carefully.

I also think vegetarian diets are just as unhealthy as mean ones. It's just that when people become vege, they generally are just making more of an effort to eat healthy so they do. It's not the vege that causes it.

I am vege and I eat complete shit. Bread, bread, bread.
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Alys Brangwin can't stop the beat
12/02/08

@aShinyGumWrapper: @funnyface: Best of all, it is better for you because you live on the planet!
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LindsayC: doctoral hilarity ensues
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
All I can think of is: "I pee pretty! Oh so pretty! I pee pretty, and witty and BRIIIIGHT!"
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Mafalda para Presidente
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
Aren't all studies academic ones?

Well, semantics aside, I think this is an important experiment. Meaning that it proves to an extent that what we put into our bodies does indeed matter. It's not within everyone's reach (at least not yet) because organic products remain a luxury. Until the market of those things becomes more widespread and people change their spending habits (more carrots, less Doritos) it will remain a luxury.

PS. Also, I must mention this because it irks me: many doctors don't practice what they preach in terms of eating healthy, because JESUS, have you ever worked at a hospital? There's barely time to pee sometimes, let alone get a decent meal. Many residents and doctors live off vending machines and cafeteria food while in the hospital. It's not necessarily hypocritical as much as necessary at the time. When you have 10 minutes to eat, and you haven't eaten in 8 hours, you're going to eat whatever you can find.
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Penny
12/02/08

@Mafalda para Presidente: I actually had an argument with my boyfriend's sister (an MD) about trans fat. She thought it was great it was restricted, I thought it was good, but wouldn't reduce all the fat people eat and therefore kind of moot.
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Mafalda para Presidente
12/02/08

@Archetype: Fat is necessary and good for your body, but the reason trans fat are so evil is because of their particular effects. I really think restricting them is great, though when it comes to nutrition in general, I would say most Americans still lag behind and am not sure how much of an effect any of these restrictions have in our overall health. We have too many crappy foods accessible at low prices while nutritious foods are overpriced and out of reach of a lot of people. Combine that with terrible school meals and many kids never grow up knowing how to eat well. It's a bad cycle, really.
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Lawyerette will perform legal services for food
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
Three years later, he says he has more energy and wakes up earlier. As a pediatrician regularly exposed to sick children, he was accustomed to several illnesses a year. Now, he says, he is rarely ill. His urine is a brighter yellow, a sign that he is ingesting more vitamins and nutrients.

Wait, aren't these all regular "side effects" of limiting your meat intake? Just sayin'.
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GoldenRatioφ (aka -girl11)
12/02/08

@Lawyerette, FTW!: Not when you replace it with bread like I occasionally do. But theoretically, replacing some meat with veggies and beans and whatnot, I would imagine you'd feel stellar.
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happysquid
12/02/08

@Lawyerette, FTW!: Are they really?? Cuz that is pretty cool to know... seeing as all my coworkers are really sick and coughing and I've been on the vegetarian train, even on Thanksgiving.
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Mafalda para Presidente
12/02/08

@Lawyerette, FTW!: Who says he limited his meat intake?
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Lawyerette will perform legal services for food
12/02/08

@goldengirl11: What about replacing meat with chocolate; Will that make me bright eyed and bushy tailed?
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Annabellie
12/02/08

@Lawyerette, FTW!: Well, certainly bright-eyed, anyway. And if it was me, it would make me bright-faced, too, with sugar zits.
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N i s t h a
12/02/08

In reply to Guy Eats Only Organic For 3 Years, Pees Pretty
Hn. I thought bright urine was a sign of not drinking enough water. Or maybe that's cloudy urine?
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GoldenRatioφ (aka -girl11)
12/02/08

@N i s t h a: No, that's what I thought too. Whenever I have to do the pee test for a UTI they yell that I should drink more water because it's bright yellow. However, I do drink a ton of water, and I feel like they just yell at you when you get a UTI no matter what.
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Lymed
12/02/08

@goldengirl11: Dark urine is a sign of dehydration. There is a really bright color it turns when you take more vitamins than your body can abosrb, and it's a very different color than the dehydration urine.
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FourInchHeels
12/02/08

@N i s t h a: Clearer urine is a sign of drinking enough water .. I've heard totally clear means you're overhydrated. I'm not sure if he means sunshine yellow as opposed to a nice goldenrod, though. I was a bit confused as well.
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Sukie in the Graveyard
12/02/08

@N i s t h a: Cloudy urine is bad - I think you have to see your doctor or something (at least that was what I was told after my first kidney infection).

If you could imagine (please just imagine) reading a newspaper through the urine in the bowl - then it's fine. If it's entirely clear, perfect. That's how we got our bodies ready for cross country meets. No dehydration (again) for me!

The brightness depends I guess. If I take a multivitamin, I get neon yellow urine.

So, um, is all this TMI?
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Dauphine
12/02/08

@FourInchHeels: The totally clear urine can mean some funky electrolyte-imbalances due to overhydration/water-loading.
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lilredpanda
12/02/08

@Sukie in the Graveyard: Um, did your cross country team include yells about peeing clear in your cheers? Because mine totally did. We always got weird looks. ("What are we going to do at our race? WIN! What else are we going to do tomorrow? PEE CLEAR!")
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Tart of Darkness
12/02/08

@Dauphine: You can also pee clear if you have nonfunctioning kidneys.
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Sukie in the Graveyard
12/02/08

@lilredpanda: YES!!!! oh god, I am not alone.

Pee Clear! (fist in air)
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jemandtheholograms
12/02/08

@N i s t h a: So he's taking in a lot of vitamins, but then he's peeing them out because his body doesn't need them, so it sort of doesn't matter that he consumed them. Or in the brilliant words of my biochemistry professor "American's have the most expensive pee".
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sumerfish
12/02/08

@N i s t h a: I have been trying to make Rainbow Pee Pills for years now. I have orange and green (Azo and blueberry Naked Juice, respectively) and now know what I need to make blue!

Anyone know what makes red or purple and is kind of safe?
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stagbeetle
12/02/08

@sumerfish: Beets can make it red. I had red beet pee once and boy did I freak out until I figured out what had caused it.
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Red-headed bookworm
12/03/08

@stagbeetle: Me too. As someone who has had a kidney infection before, I was worried until I remembered I had beets. Duh...silly me.

I only pee a weird, bright yellow when I take vitamins.
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