Fat

Introduction: 
God may have created all men equal (at least regarding unalienable rights), but God did not create all Fats equal.  We have Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, Monounsaturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, and subcategories of some of those are Essential Fatty Acids like Omega-3 & Omega-6.  Course, and from that you don't just go out to the store and buy "Saturated Fat" or "Omega-3 Fatty Acids".  Generally we get our fats from the foods we eat, and the foods we eat contain a mixture of some, all, or none of these.  Meats are generally known for their Saturated Fat content.  Oils for their unique mixtures of Mono/Polyunsaturated.  Processed Fast food for there trans and saturated fats.  If you include heavily processed oils and junk food you can get your Trans fats and include other weird fats like Interesterified Fats. 

Stance Summary:
So with such variety available in fats, what are my views on them?  Regarding Fat as a whole, I like it.  Our body needs a large amount of fat to keep us going.  It is a vital fuel for all of our cells.  That being said, some fats help our body in the process of being fuel, and others hinder.  Fats that I consider unnatural, like processed fats (Trans) are to be avoided!  They do little to benefit the body, but do much to break it down.  Saturated Fats, especially those from healthy, free range animals, are wonderful.  Not only do they taste good and benefit your body, they reduce your overall calorie count by keeping you satiated (and not wanting that extra roll).  Mono/Polyunsaturated fats are difficult because it appears that both are necessary in the body, but they are needed in pairs.  Thus some oils are better than others.  Olive Oil and Coconut oil are comparatively healthier in their fat mix when compared to Corn or Vegetable oil. 

Personal Actions Based on Stance:
I have personally attempted to reduce my overall carbohydrate intake and increase my healthy fat intake.  Overall I have lost a couple pounds (at my weight a couple pounds is pretty big), and feel slightly better I think.  I don't work out more necessarily, but I feel more fit.  My skin feels tighter across my chest, and not in a bad, constricting way.  Hopefully a healthy diet will keep my skin youthful and tight around my arms and legs as I age so I don't have too much skin flapping around there.

Expansion:
Whenever I read about Fats, I am usually surprised by how many calories you should be getting from fat.  The source below² states that we should be consuming 20%-30% of our daily calories from Fat!  Now, even though I often go against the 'Conventional Wisdom', I am still surprised by this.  Though it does make sense when you look at how much Fat is used in our bodies.  I only state one source for the high fat caloric diet, but that is not an abnormal number from the variety of sources I've read on the matter.  It has definitely helped me improve my diet by not worrying so much about butter, lard & fat on meat.

Though with regards to fat on meat, one has to be careful with that because the fat in animals (and humans as well) is where many toxins will gather.  Fat is a storage medium.  If the body has toxins to store, it will store it in fat as well.  If the animal you are eating is unhealthily fatty due to diet, lack of exercise and general mistreatment, a portion of those toxins will be ingested by you and processed by your body.  So obviously the meat source matters, healthy animals makes for healthy meat, which makes for healthy humans.  Consider this, if you were a cannibal, would you rather eat a People of Walmart³ person, or someone who really cares about their diet and what goes in their body like Mark Sisson⁴?

Closing:
I like meat.  I like fat.  I like vegetables.  I like feeling healthy, eating healthy, enjoying a variety of foods.  Though to be truthful, my diet consists of the same 3 animals for meat, and the same ~6 vegetables for a majority of my food intake.

Sources:

1. Marks Daily Apple: Definitive Guide to Fat - Link
2. 60 in 3: Fat is Bad!  Fact or Myth? - Link
3. People of Walmart - Link
4. Marks Daily Apple: About Mark Sisson - Link

Suggested Reading:

1. Marks Daily Apple - Link
2. 60 in 3: Fat is Bad!  Fact or Myth? - Link
3. NY Times: What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? - Link

General Purpose of Life

Introduction
Obviously this is a big one, which will change as my life goes on.  I'm pretty young to be attempting to answer such a question, but in reality I don't truly mean to answer it.  All I desire to do right now is to codify my early thoughts in the matter.  I'm young, recently married, recently into my first house, 5 or so years into my career.  A good time to be considering the overall purpose and direction of life in general, and specifically my life.  My life specifics will have to wait for another day.  But to life in general, well I'd like to take a stab.

Stance Summary

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
And he said to him, "'You shall love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."¹

Christ, when asked what the greatest commandment is (thus the one thing we should all do), gave the statement above.  I see in his response something defining our general purpose of life which is foundational to our very nature.  If the two great commandments are to love God and love people, then the general purpose of life is relational.  And not just relational, but positive, loving, affirmative relationships. Relationships with God, Spouse, Kids, Family, Friends.  That is our general purpose.


Personal Actions Based on Stance
So to make that a little more specific to me, what relationships are or should be, most important to me?  God.  Wife.  Family.  Friends.  In that order.  Basically, all I do should be in some way assisting, or benefiting the relationships here.  Especially the two biggest relationships in my life, my Wife and my Savior.  That's a good reminder to me to make sure when I'm at home that I'm not wasting time, or being separated from my wife by stupid arguments or not helping when I could help.  That means making a specific effort to love my wife in words (by saying truthful and uplifting things to her), in actions (by serving her to the best of my ability), and in my thoughts (by not focusing on the hardships, but rather the blessing she is to me).


Expansion
Reading my Stance on the Primary Foundational Principle² goes through these verses in more detail and is foundational to some of the logic that is used to derive a General Purpose of Life from these short verses. 

What is a purpose?  It can be defined as a function, or an objective.³ So what is the objective, or functions of our lives?  There can be a purpose of a specific life chosen by an individual (either that individual or his master) but as stated above that is a different stance.  Instead, what is the objective or function of all of us? Kind of a crude way to put it, but the only entity able to define the purpose of the human race in general is the one who created them.  If there is no creator, well then there can't be a purpose to the overall human race, just individual, potentially conflicting purposes.  As a Christian I believe that God created us, and thus God can and has given us purpose.
 
One of the movies that touches on this in a way that I appreciate is Into the Wild (2007)⁴ where the protagonist, independent and lonely reads this passage from Dr. Zhivago

And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness,

Upon reading that, the protaganist scribbles in the margins

Happiness is only real when shared

Despite all his desires to get away from it all, to be completely and utterly independent, he came to understand that without others, without relationships, one can not be happy.  The purpose of life is gone.  Our protagonist in this move was not a Christian which removes that relational possibility as well. 

Sources

1.  Matthew 22:36-40 - link
2. Primary Foundational Principle - link
3. Purpose Definitions - link
4. Into the Wild - link 

Closing
empty