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A batch of the best highlights from what Todd's read, .
A cat with a mouse—the cliché example of cruelty. I want to say clearly that I do not believe any animal is capable of being cruel. Cruelty implies consciousness of another’s pain and the intent to cause it. Cruelty is a human specialty, which human beings continue to practice, and perfect, and institutionalize, though we seldom boast about it. We prefer to disown it, calling it “inhumanity,” ascribing it to animals. We don’t want to admit the innocence of the animals, which reveals our guilt.
No Time to Spare
Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Joy Fowler (Introduction)
I believe the reason that animals on a low-calorie diet live longer is that there is a cost to putting on fat. The food we eat is either broken down into immediate energy (which we call adenosine triphosphate, or ATP) or turned into stored energy (such as fat). Usually the calories we eat are turned into immediately available ATP. To instead store these calories for later, our cells must reduce the production of ATP and divert the excess calories to fat. Our research group determined that this is done through exposing the cells’ “energy factories” (also known as mitochondria), where most of the ATP is produced, to a phenomenon called oxidative stress. Thus, the cost of storing fat is some oxidative stress to our energy factories. If sustained for decades, this stress can lead to reduced function in—and even the loss of—these factories, which are responsible for the energy we need to maintain our bodies at full throttle.
Nature Wants Us to Be Fat
Richard Johnson and David Perlmutter
Self-discipline refers to achieving desirable behavior. Self-control refers to avoiding undesirable behavior.
Triggers
Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
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