Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Seed Oils Not an Only Option)

 The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a commonsense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week will will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Seed Oils Not the Only Option for Cooking Oil

The new guidelines recommend oils and fats such as olive oil, butter, or beef tallow.  It does not include vegetable oils such as soybean oil and corn oil as options unlike past recommendations.  

Authors of the scientific reasoning report wrote that to recommend eating seed oils such as soybean, corn, canola, and cottonseed oil is based on flawed science.  They wrote that seed oils have more polyunsaturated fats which are more prone to oxidation when heated.  This can be harmful to people with metabolic disease.  Not to mention that seed oils undergo an extensive processing to make them shelf stable and neutral in flavor.

Reality Filtering & Instructions Before Visiting Earth

These two instagram reels offer a bit of food for thought.  I hope that you may be able to view the link directly.  

The first demonstrates that YOUR brain filters your reality by what YOU deem important in the moment.  Your brain filters your reality

The second shares Instructions Before Visiting Earth, by James McCrae offering insightful instructions to the energy you that is within your body.  

Together these two reels demonstrate that your brain filters your reality and you are not just your brain.

If you are unable to view these videos directly I apologize.

The Spiral Grain of Time

Have you ever had a problem that you just keep revisiting over time? Many think of this as "linear time" bouncing back and forth between the present and the past, or of “not being able to let go of a problem. But what if, like trees and many plants, "time" grows like a spiral grain of a plant?

Does Our Brain Have Quantum Computer Components?

In preparing a brief presentation for our DSU lunch I found in my writing stack an article on Quantum Entanglement in Neurons May Actually Explain Consciousness which points out that Shanghai University physicists in China explain how entangled photons emitted by carbon-hydrogen bonds in nerve cell insulation could synchronize activity within the brain.

Their findings draw attention to a highly speculative theory on consciousness called the Penrose-Hameroff 'orchestrated-objective reduction' model. Proposed by the highly respected physicist Roger Penrose and the American anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, the model suggests networks of cytoskeleton tubules that lend structure to cells – in this case, our neurons – act as a kind of quantum computer that somehow shapes our thinking.

YOUR GREATEST POWER – Choosing

This short book by J. Martin Kohe was first published in the 1950s. Kohe argues that the ability to make conscious choices shapes every aspect of our lives. Kohe was an American author and psychologist born in 1908. This short series of excerpts highlights the concepts shared in this book.  The reader is encouraged to purchase the book for the in depth explanations that it offers.

The Second Chapter – Choosing

You are what you think you are is an old wise saying.  Kohe points out that often what we think is our limiting factor.

“That is what we need, if we are going to improve our...positions. If we do not change our thinking, we can never hope to change our ...positions. What most of us fail to realize is that a tooth grows from the inside out. So we much change our inner thoughts. As we change our inner thoughts...the outward change is bound to come about. So let us choose good, healthy thoughts."

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Recommendations on Dietary Fat)

The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a commonsense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week will will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Recommendations on Dietary Fat

Saturated fat comprises the majority of animal fat and is usually solid at room temperature.  The saturated in the name means that the fat molecule has the most number of hydrogen bonds possible within its structure.  In comparison, unsaturated fats contain one or more double bonds between carbon atoms so more hydrogen bonds can be formed.  Unsaturated fats are mainly found in vegetable oils and are normally liquid at room temperature.  Artificially saturating a vegetable oil (called hydrogenation) results in an unsaturated fat becoming a "trans-fat" and solid at room temperature.  Limiting saturated fat intake has long been recommended for cardiovascular health.  Previous reviews found that reducing saturated fat reduces the risk of a cardiovascular event by 17 percent, but does not affect overall mortality.

YOUR GREATEST POWER – Discovering It

This short book by J. Martin Kohe was first published in the 1950s. Kohe argues that the ability to make conscious choices shapes every aspect of our lives. Kohe was an American author and psychologist born in 1908. This short series of excerpts highlights the concepts shared in this book.  The reader is encouraged to purchase the book for the in depth explanations that it offers.

The First Chapter – Discovering It

"You are the possessor of a Great and wonderful power."

"Millions of people are complaining about their lot, disgusted with life..."

"Once you recognize this power and begin to use it, you can change your entire life and make it the way you would like to have it."

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know and understand this power?  This short study series highlights excerpts from the book Your Greatest Power by J. Martin Kohe.  Your ability to make choices is the greatest power you have as a human being.  Learn more in this short series.

Keeping Harmony in YOUR Minature Universe

A Health article titled Your Body is a Minature Universe. Here's How to Keep it in Harmony offers the good advice of "the best remedy for calamity is to avert it; the best remedy for sickness is prevention." I then introduces us to the concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It starts with the concepts that the human body is a microcosm–a miniature representation of the universe.

"TCM is far more profound that just acupuncture and herbs," the article notes. "It has a central concept, namely the dao and qi (pronounced "chee")". This article describes the dao as "the fundamental principle or the cosmic law. It is the rulebook that nature follows–be it the change of seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, or the cycles of life. While qi is the life energy that dynamically moves through everything. Think of the movement of qi as the flow of a river, and dao as the riverbed. Just as the flow of a river follows its natural path, qi flows harmoniously when it follows its cosmic path–the dao." 

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Eat More Protein)

 The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a common sense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week will will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Eat More Protein, Especially Animal Protein

Previous protein intake recommendation was 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.  These guidelines are a minimum, and not an optimum.  This threshold was intended to be the minimum needed to maintain nutrient adequacy.  Previous guidelines suggested the minimum quality fuel rather than the optimal quality fuel.  

🌙 Sleep Is the Key to Healing Your Mind & Body

A post by Light Body Technology, with thanks to Casey Christine

😴 Sleep is not a luxury.  It is biological repair. 

While you rest, your body shifts into rest-and-repair mode — the parasympathetic state where true healing happens. 

When you sleep:

🧠 The brain detoxifies

Your lymphatic system clears waste and inflammatory byproducts that build up during the day.

💛 Hormones rebalance

Cortisol lowers. Growth hormone rises. Blood sugar stabilizes.

🛡️ The immune system strengthens

Your body produces and regulates immune cells while you sleep.

🌿 Tissues repair

Muscles rebuild. Cells regenerate. Inflammation decreases.

🪐 Memory and emotions process

Sleep integrates learning and regulates mood, helping reduce anxiety and depression. 

 

🫩 What Happens When You Don’t Sleep? 

The Surprising History of Tarot Cards

Tarocchi Cards

A news story, The Surprising History of Tarot Cards, relates that tarot cards have carried an aura of mystery for many centuries.  To many they are tools for reflection, storytelling, or spiritual insight.  To others they are simply beautiful art.  To some they are a source of fear or disdain.  But few are aware that tarot's earliest history has nothing to do with divination.  They were simply a card game.

Tarot emerged in northern Italy in the early 15th century at the height of the Renaissance.  Card games were a fashionable diversion among aristocratic courts.  Wealthy families commissioned ornate decks to play a game called tarocchi.  The exact rules have not survived intact it seems that Tarocchi is a trick-taking game a bit like bridge.  Using a special trot deck the game involved bidding for tricks.  Play involves following suit, or trumping, and scoring points.  Players aim to capture high-value cards, particularly the powerful trump cards (The Fool, The World, the Sun, the Moon, The Angel).  Players bid to declare how many tricks or points they think that they can win.  Play typically moves counter-clockwise and players must follow the suit led if possible; if not they can play any other card, including a trump.  The highest trump wins. If no trumps are played, the highest card of the suit led is the winner of the hand.

Born to Be Good: The Science Behind Children’s Inner Moral Code

A news article of the same title suggests that science indicates that even infants recognize helpfulness and hinderance, in essence the ability to discern right from wrong.

A 2025 study showed young children videos of either a robot or a peer grabbing something that wasn’t theirs or refusing to share.  Then they asked “was the behavior right or wrong?”  The children’s verdict was clear.  Stealing and refusing to share were always wrong.  Study authors concluded that “morality is present even in the youngest children–and it is powerful.”