-
Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
Upvote
0
Upvote
0
Common low-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds
- By ThatRobGuy
Seems like it's possible one of those odd dynamics where, in efforts to replace one thing (aspartame, which is artificial, and has been linked to some problems), they "fast tracked" the usage of a replacement for it, and falsely assumed "natural = better", which obviously isn't always the case when it comes to food additives.
The thing that all non-caloric or low-calorie sweeteners seem to have in common (artificial or natural-derived), is that they appear to mess with the body's metabolism and insulin response.
The thing the human body is evolved to do (or designed to do if that's what people prefer) is to trigger a particular chemical and metabolic response to the foods we eat.
Under normal circumstances, when you consume something sweet, in nature, that means there's sugar in it, so your body would be "expecting something" (and produce the appropriate insulin response), over time, if you accustom your body to "I just drank something sweet, but no need to do anything, there's 0 calories and 0 sugar in it", when you do actually eat sugar, things aren't going to respond appropriately because you've been "tricking your body" in a sense.
Cleveland Clinic and Harvard have even done some write-ups on it
Sad but True: Diet Sodas Are Bad for Your Health
You kicked your regular soda habit, and now you’re sitting on cloud nine. But if that cloud is made of diet soda, you may have just created new problems. We talked to a dietitian about why diet soda is bad for your health, how to stop drinking it and alternatives to try instead.
health.clevelandclinic.org
They call what I was referring to "insulin confusion"
That's why I mentioned it all comes down to willpower in the end. There's no magical shortcut that's going to allow someone to eat cookies till they feel full, washed down with a soda of some sort, several times a week, and still maintain health.
With the hype around the new weight loss drugs like Ozempic, it's become pretty clear that people are looking for the "magic bullet" so to speak.
"At every meal, I want to satisfy my cravings for fullness, satiety, and decadence/richness...I don't want to have to sacrifice any of those 3 things, but I still want to be able to lose weight", that's where the market demand for these weight loss drugs and artificial replacement foods come from.
Same can be said for a lot of the 'fad diets' that pop up all over the place.
It's rather conspicuous that in all of the 'fad diets', none of them ever seem to incorporate "yeah, you have to eat broccoli once in a while instead of garlic bread". They're always these "you can eat all the ABC you want, just so long as you <insert trivial ineffective thing here>"
My mom's side of the family is all from the portion of the south that's known for not eating well. They're a "big bunch". They jump on all the bandwagons.
"I'm trying this new diet...you can eat all the <insert unhealthy food here> you want, just so long as you have one glass of cranberry juice with it, and don't have any carbs after 8pm, and take a teaspoon of oregano oil right before bed"
And burn through a bunch of those diet fads, and when they don't lose a pound, dismiss it as "It's just genetic, I've tried everything and I can't lose weight" (while conveniently ignoring that I come from the same genetic line they do)
...when in reality, they haven't "tried everything", they've tried everything except eating less and eating things that may not taste super great, but are better for them lol.
They'll spend more time googling reasons not to eat the healthier foods. I have this conversation with my cousin down there at the yearly holiday gatherings. He's a big fella, lots of fast food, lots of pizza, lots of fried food. I tried telling him that if he kept it 1800 calories a day, cut down on the sweets, and ate things like a 5oz chicken breast and 2 cups of broccoli as a staple meal, he'd lose weight.
3 days later, I got an email from him with links to some stuff he found on google from carnivore diet "gurus" warning against "the anti-nutrients in green vegetables" and "why broccoli and kale aren't actually healthy" and why "red meat has more bioavailable nutrients than chicken" (ironic that he doesn't have a problem with chicken when it has the skin still on and fried in oil lol).
"Anti-nutrients" and "bioavailability" are nonsensical debate points from a person who's under 6 foot tall and tipping the scales at 325 and eating a bunch of garbage. They're just excuses for not having to make sacrifices.
Upvote
0
Upvote
0
Upvote
0
Pope Francis praises Father James Martin’s book on the resurrection of Lazarus
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 10 Replies
Pope: Jesus didn’t just talk about eternal life, He gave it to us - Vatican News
Pope Francis pens the preface to the Italian version of the book "Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle" by ...
www.vaticannews.va
Upvote
0
Report: Pope Benedict’s Former Secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein to Be Appointed Papal Nuncio
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Appointment to Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius is in the works, according to an Italian Catholic news outlet.
The long limbo of Pope Benedict XVI’s former longtime personal secretary may be ending soon.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who fell from influential papal aide to no assignment in the Catholic Church, will soon be appointed papal nuncio to the three Baltic countries, according to a report from an Italian Catholic news outlet.
The story, published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and citing unnamed sources, said the archbishop will become papal nuncio to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania — a position that also includes similar duties in neighboring Latvia and Estonia.
It’s not the first time the high-profile prelate has been linked to a far-flung foreign post, however. In March 2023, a Spanish religious news website reported that Archbishop Gänswein might become papal ambassador to Costa Rica, which has not so far come to pass. More recently, in April 2024, an Argentinian newspaper, La Nación, reported that Archbishop Gänswein would soon become a papal nuncio to a country not named in the story.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
The long limbo of Pope Benedict XVI’s former longtime personal secretary may be ending soon.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who fell from influential papal aide to no assignment in the Catholic Church, will soon be appointed papal nuncio to the three Baltic countries, according to a report from an Italian Catholic news outlet.
The story, published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and citing unnamed sources, said the archbishop will become papal nuncio to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania — a position that also includes similar duties in neighboring Latvia and Estonia.
It’s not the first time the high-profile prelate has been linked to a far-flung foreign post, however. In March 2023, a Spanish religious news website reported that Archbishop Gänswein might become papal ambassador to Costa Rica, which has not so far come to pass. More recently, in April 2024, an Argentinian newspaper, La Nación, reported that Archbishop Gänswein would soon become a papal nuncio to a country not named in the story.
Continued below.
Report: Pope Benedict’s Former Secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein to Be Appointed Papal Nuncio
Appointment to Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius is in the works, according to an Italian Catholic news outlet.
GIVEN forum equips young women to pursue their unique callings
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
(OSV News) — Young Catholic women face a lot of pressure today as they try to discern their vocations in life amid a secularized and polarized culture.
One group, originally founded by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in 2018 after a successful 2016 event, is helping women find affirmation and guidance through a unique mentorship program that encourages them to discover and embrace their God-given gifts.
The GIVEN Art of Accompaniment Mentoring Program
Over 300 Catholic women from all walks of life will gather in Washington from June 8 to 12 to participate in the GIVEN Art of Accompaniment Mentoring Program and the Catholic Women’s Leadership Forum. It will be the fifth GIVEN forumsince the group’s founding; the previous forums were held in 2019, 2020 (online), 2021 and 2022.“Our mission is to help activate the gifts of young Catholic women for the church and the world,” GIVEN Executive Director Michelle Hillaert told OSV News just ahead of the gathering. “We do that by leadership development, faith formation, one-on-one mentoring with our art of accompaniment mentoring year.”
Continued below.
GIVEN forum equips young women to pursue their unique callings
Over 300 Catholic women from all walks of life will gather in Washington from June 8 to 12 to participate in the GIVEN Art of Accompaniment Mentoring Program and the Catholic Women's Leadership Forum.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Locked up: Meet the elderly and infirm women now in prison for pro-life activism
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
CNA Staff, Jun 6, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
Since she has been in prison, Jean Marshall, 74, a Catholic and pro-life nurse from Massachusetts, told CNA that she’s received over 150 letters of support, which have lifted her spirits.
Marshall and three other women with major health issues spoke with CNA about their imprisonment and their treatment by the justice system under the Biden administration.
Their crime? In an attempt to save the unborn on Oct. 22, 2020, they participated in a human chain, blockading the inside of a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic run by well-known late-term abortionist Dr. Cesare Santangelo.
The women are among 10 protesters who participated in the attempt to save the unborn at the clinic that day who were convicted on federal charges under the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which has largely been applied to the prosecution of pro-life activists. All of them, including Marshall, are now incarcerated.
Santangelo’s clinic made news in 2022 when the secular pro-life group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) announced that it had obtained the remains of 115 aborted babies from the clinic by a driver for a medical waste company.
Five of those babies appeared to be of late-term gestation and have become the center of a public dispute between federal lawmakers, pro-life groups, and the D.C. medical examiner’s office — which possessed the remains — over the medical examiner’s refusal to conduct an autopsy to determine whether the babies were killed in an illegal partial-birth abortion.
Continued below.
Locked up: Meet the elderly and infirm women now in prison for pro-life activism
Joan Andrews Bell, Jean Marshall, Heather Idoni, and Paulette Harlow are four pro-life women serving time after being convicted on federal charges for for blockading the inside of an abortion clinic in 2020. / Credit: Chris Bell/Laura Gise/Heath...
www.catholicworldreport.com
Upvote
0
The Sacred Heart of Jesus leads us from misery to mercy
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Our world needs to hear the message of mercy, perhaps as no other age before. A culture of violence, death, destruction and despair can be healed only by mercy.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is so central to a healthy biblical spirituality that we don’t acknowledge this divine love only once a year; thanks to the apparitions of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the seventeenth century, we commemorate and celebrate the love of Christ for us unto death on the First Friday of every month.
Indeed, one of my fondest memories of grammar school is that of Masses on the First Friday of the month for the entire student body. Since an important part of preparation for receiving Holy Communion in those days called for a three-hour fast from solid foods, that meant that most of us came to school actually fasting from the night before. Right after Mass, we proceeded to the school cafeteria, where our pastor treated us to crumb buns and hot chocolate. Thus, our celebration spilled over into a common meal.
Years later, I would relish the lyrics of the lovely hymn, “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Teather,” with the verse that prays, “May all our meals be sacraments of Thee!”
I share that recollection because of another experience I had many years later. I was seated on a plane, hoping that the seat next to me would go unoccupied. Just minutes before the plane door was shut, a man rushed in and, yes, took the empty seat next to me. While we were still taxiing on the runway, he turned toward me and asked, “Are you a Catholic priest?” “Yes, I am.” “I used to be Catholic.” “What are you now?” “I’m saved, I’m a Christian.” “You weren’t saved as a Catholic?” “No, it was just a lot of rituals. I never heard about the love and mercy of God.” “Did you go to Catholic school?” “Yeah, for a few years.”
“Were you,” I asked, “brought to Mass on the First Fridays?” “Yeah, I think so.” “Well, what were you told about that devotion?” “Oh, something about going nine times and going to Heaven.” “You mean you weren’t told about the love and mercy of Christ, so great that He died for you and that love is experienced every time we make a good confession and receive Holy Communion worthily?” “I guess I wasn’t listening too well.” I hope everyone here this evening has listened better than that poor fellow.
The heart is a symbol with a rich biblical lineage. In Hebrew, both the heart and the bowels represent the very depths of a person—where the cognitive and the affective meet in unity and harmony. Hence, we find passages in the Bible that speak thus: “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred” (Hos 11:8). Far more than an organ of the body, then, the heart suggests the source of compassion, tenderness, kindness—in short, what we call “mercy.”
An interesting piece of biblical trivia: A quick survey of a biblical concordance reveals that the word “mercy” is used more than 200 times in the Sacred Scriptures, while the word “heart” appears over 600 times! No surprise, then, that St. Augustine, playing with the origins of the Latin word for mercy (misericordia), tells us that God’s grace moves us “a miseria ad misericordiam” (from misery to mercy). “Misericordia,” you see, comes from two words which combine to mean “having a heart for the miserable.”
Continued below.
www.catholicworldreport.com
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is so central to a healthy biblical spirituality that we don’t acknowledge this divine love only once a year; thanks to the apparitions of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the seventeenth century, we commemorate and celebrate the love of Christ for us unto death on the First Friday of every month.
Indeed, one of my fondest memories of grammar school is that of Masses on the First Friday of the month for the entire student body. Since an important part of preparation for receiving Holy Communion in those days called for a three-hour fast from solid foods, that meant that most of us came to school actually fasting from the night before. Right after Mass, we proceeded to the school cafeteria, where our pastor treated us to crumb buns and hot chocolate. Thus, our celebration spilled over into a common meal.
Years later, I would relish the lyrics of the lovely hymn, “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Teather,” with the verse that prays, “May all our meals be sacraments of Thee!”
I share that recollection because of another experience I had many years later. I was seated on a plane, hoping that the seat next to me would go unoccupied. Just minutes before the plane door was shut, a man rushed in and, yes, took the empty seat next to me. While we were still taxiing on the runway, he turned toward me and asked, “Are you a Catholic priest?” “Yes, I am.” “I used to be Catholic.” “What are you now?” “I’m saved, I’m a Christian.” “You weren’t saved as a Catholic?” “No, it was just a lot of rituals. I never heard about the love and mercy of God.” “Did you go to Catholic school?” “Yeah, for a few years.”
“Were you,” I asked, “brought to Mass on the First Fridays?” “Yeah, I think so.” “Well, what were you told about that devotion?” “Oh, something about going nine times and going to Heaven.” “You mean you weren’t told about the love and mercy of Christ, so great that He died for you and that love is experienced every time we make a good confession and receive Holy Communion worthily?” “I guess I wasn’t listening too well.” I hope everyone here this evening has listened better than that poor fellow.
The heart is a symbol with a rich biblical lineage. In Hebrew, both the heart and the bowels represent the very depths of a person—where the cognitive and the affective meet in unity and harmony. Hence, we find passages in the Bible that speak thus: “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred” (Hos 11:8). Far more than an organ of the body, then, the heart suggests the source of compassion, tenderness, kindness—in short, what we call “mercy.”
An interesting piece of biblical trivia: A quick survey of a biblical concordance reveals that the word “mercy” is used more than 200 times in the Sacred Scriptures, while the word “heart” appears over 600 times! No surprise, then, that St. Augustine, playing with the origins of the Latin word for mercy (misericordia), tells us that God’s grace moves us “a miseria ad misericordiam” (from misery to mercy). “Misericordia,” you see, comes from two words which combine to mean “having a heart for the miserable.”
Continued below.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus leads us from misery to mercy
www.catholicworldreport.com
Upvote
0
