Horse meat, and dads/dudes without testicular fortitude

There was a "scandal" this past week in regards to the actual contents of  the "meat" in some products sold by the grocery chain, Aldi's.

Namely, said meat products turned out not to be beef, but horsemeat.

It turns out, Aldi isn't the only food supplier that has been doing this.  Back in January, Burger King finally took off the crown and admitted (after two weeks of denial) that it indeed had been using patties that contained horsemeat, in their Whoppers.

The initial outrage from consumers was generally one you'd expect from nutritionally uneducated American's.

"OMG I will never eat at Aldi's again."

"That's why I never shop there.  Disgusting."  

"That's the worst thing I've ever read."

I literally read that last one.

The WORST thing you've ever read?  Were you the person they based that awful Tom Hands movie Castaway on, and you just found the internets?  I can find something worse than that in the local grammar school newspaper, and they make reports on who colored the best dinosaur and who did the best cartwheels at recess.

Please, give your faux outrage a rest.

Horses are animals.  Animals have meat on them.  Which makes them a potential food source.

To borrow from those articles....

In regards to Aldi -

"We believe that the two particular cases of the frozen burgers from Tesco and the lasagne from Findus are linked to suppliers in Ireland and France respectively.

In regards to Burger King -

The contaminated burgers were made by the Irish-based processing company, Silvercrest, which is part the ABP Foods Group.

So apparently we have the Irish to blame for sending us a higher quality of meat in replacement of the shit "beef" we've been stuffing down our fat consumer throats.  This makes sense.  The IRA was in Ireland.  And they were considered terrorists by some.  Maybe they have reformed and are now terrorizing everyone by replacing processed "beef" with nutritionally heavy horsemeat.  However, the French appear to be doing it as well, and all they do is act like pussies and make love to each other.  So that's out.

However, in regards to the French, they eat horse meat all the time.  It's sold over there just as regularly as beef is sold here in the states.  Le French do not bat an eye at it.  In fact, it's been on the rise again according to this nifty article here, which also mentions the frozen lasagna "scandal".

The difference in the French and the States, in regards to horse meat I mean, is that the French aren't up in arms over the fact that it's horse meat.  They are more interested in the quality of process of the food manufacturing industry.  Which is what WE should be doing, rather than acting like idiots over the fact that it's horse meat.

I understand the concept of "want to know".  We want to know what we are eating, if we buy from the store or from the fast food joint.  And I agree with that.  I think it's important to know that what you claim is on the label, is indeed lining up with what I'm putting into my body.

However that isn't what the outrage was over.  It was over the fact that it was horsemeat.  Obviously the horror stemmed from people who grew up watching "The Black Stallion" way too many times as a kid, or perhaps had a pony as a child.  Seinfeld already went over the fact that no one likes anyone that grew up with a god damn Pony.  So there's that.

To add, from a woman that has a degree in horse science (yes, I didn't know there was one either) that wrote on my Facebook page........

I have a degree in Horse Science, and I can't tell you how many arguments I got into with fellow peers over the fact that I believe Horse Slaughter is a necessity in the States. These animals are starving and abused by the thousands, simply because there isn't a use for them.....so why not process them for consumption (they're an extremely lean, sweet meat!) and turn a profit like we do in the beef industry? They sell like hotcakes in foreign meat industries. 

And, although horses are considered companion animals by a great majority, they were FIRST and foremost used as a food source; then they were used at a beast of burden in both commercial and agricultural fields, and additionally in wars. After the introduction of the automobile and other forms of technology in the early 1900s, the horse became an obsolete and overpopulated creature......and again, the pendulum swings back to implementing horses (considered a "livestock" animal) as a food source.
So there you have it.  Horse meat, is good.

I do agree that Aldi's and Burger King and every other company that is in the food industry should label their products correctly, or to the best of their knowledge, however American's need to also pull their head out of their assholes.  Most of them got their Jimmies in a rustle because well, it's horses.  And horses are pretty, and all of that fucking bullshit.  Somewhere out there are people that also think that pigs and chickens and cows are pretty, yet we're not laying off the slaughter of those animals for consumption because of it.

The "looks" of an animal shouldn't be a qualifying factor in terms of whether or not we should be using it in food consumption.

Dads, modern males, and testosterone....or lack of it - 

I meant to touch on this some time ago, however I'm busy as fuck most days and can't get around to everything.

For you dads out there feast your eyes on these two reports.......

Here....

and here.

Some snippets from those articles.........

A new study from Emory University finds that men who tend to be a loving parent also have smaller testicles. The research, released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved 70 men of varying ethnicities — most were Caucasian, five were Asian and 15 were African-American – with at least one child under two years old.

Prior studies have suggested that decreases in testosterone may suppress mating efforts, which potentially channels a man’s energy toward the care of infants and make these men more empathetic.

“Our data suggest that the biology of human males reflects a trade-off between mating and parenting effort,” says Emory anthropologist and study lead author James Rilling,From the New York times piece..........

Experts said the study was a significant contribution to hormone research because it tested men before and after becoming fathers and involved many participants: 600 men in the Cebu Province of the Philippines who are participating in a larger, well-respected health study following babies who were born in 1983 and 1984.

Testosterone was measured when the men were 21 and single, and again nearly five years later. Although testosterone naturally decreases with age, men who became fathers showed much greater declines, more than double that of the childless men.

And men who spent more than three hours a day caring for children — playing, feeding, bathing, toileting, reading or dressing them — had the lowest testosterone.
This should make sense to most people, if they will just use some common sense.

Testosterone is the male hormone that drives you to sexual conquest.  When you submit yourself to fatherhood, your body responds by dropping test levels so that your desire to seek out sexual conquest wanes, and you become more prone to providing for the highly needy infant.

This is why I make jokes that dudes driving mini-vans and watching chic flicks have indeed lost their man card.

Because in a way, they have.

You're a little less of a man than you were before..... from a hormonal aspect, anyway.

Becoming and being a great father is the greatest blessing I believe that a man can have.  However, there are indeed risks associated with low test levels, and they are very real.

Here is a list of some of the common health problems tied to low testosterone:
Anemia
Cardiovascular issues
Diabetes
Increased Body Fat & Obesity

Prostate cancer 

These all suck, of course.  However even worse.........

Men with low testosterone had a 33 percent greater death risk over their next 18 years of life compared with men who had higher testosterone, according to the study conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor and colleagues at the University of California at San Diego.

Death seems like a fairly big risk associated with low test.

If you have been feeling lethargic, grumpy, lack of sex drive, noticeable decrease in body composition (you are getting softer and fatter, but diet and training have still been on point), find yourself ok with driving that baby blue minivan and sitting through god awful Sandra Bullock movies.......then you might want to get in to your doctor, and get your test levels checked.

Being a dad is still about being a MAN.  I personally think we see so many of these emasculated married males these days because test levels in general, have fallen off the map in comparison to where we were 60+ years ago.

In 1992 the British Medical Journal published the most comprehensive study to date regarding sperm count and found that their study of over 15,000 men from over 20 countries worldwide prescribed how sperm count had reduced by over 50% between 1940 and 1990. The ongoing trend into 2012 and beyond has evidenced that a 30 year old male today has only 25% of the sperm count of his fellow 30 year old from 1940.

Over and over again research points to environmental factors as being the cause for low test levels.

Linkage......

U of M researchers were able to establish that testosterone levels in infancy are in factnot inherited genetically. This was achieved by comparing the testosterone levels of 314 five-month old pairs of twins, both identical and fraternal.

Researchers took samples of saliva from the 314 pairs of 5 month old twins and measured their levels of testosterone. They then compared the similarity in testosterone levels between identical and fraternal twins to determine the contribution of both the genetic and environmental factors. By comparing the testosterone levels of the five-month old pairs of twins, both identical and non-identical, researchers were able to establish that testosterone levels in infancy are “not inherited genetically but rather determined by environmental factors.”

My personal opinion is that this has happened because so many males now have resigned themselves to being stay at home dads, and so many males being raised by single moms (I have no scientific research to back this, it's just a hunch).

It never fails that when you see a man get divorced, that he sheds the minivan, grabs a car HE wants, generally gets back to the gym (or other such lifestyle changes), because he needs to make himself more desirable on the "market".

I completely believe that this is driven by test levels rising again, once he's away from "being dad and husband" 24/7.  These two things are actual counter productive for a male's long term health.  It is not a "I don't want to be part of my family" concept.  Anyone who has read my blog for any amount of time knows I believe that family comes first, and that being a dad is the greatest thing in the world.

However, in order to be the best dad you can be, you also have to take care of YOURSELF first.  And part of maintaining health is in fact maintaining healthy test levels.  And when men submerse themselves in nothing but cater to their woman's "honey do" list, and changing diapers all day, his test level drops, and he eventually loses part of what makes him who he is.  He becomes "dad", which is great, but he also stops being who he was before, that got him to the point of being desirable, i.e. your woman wanted to mate with you in the first place.

Make sure that even AS DAD, you make time for your buddies.  Have a "bros night out."  Make time to be away from the wife and kids.  Don't isolate yourself off from the world because the wife and kids dictate that to you.  That is NOT healthy.

I've always said that long lasting healthy relationships are the ones where people don't lose themselves in the relationship.  You don't become "Sarah's mom" or "Sarah's dad".  You have that role, but it doesn't encompass your life wholly.  I see so many parents whose lives are wrapped up in nothing but being a god damn taxi.  Every day is spent shuttling their kids to some soccer game or music lessons, etc.  Where did YOU go?

Whether you decide you need to go on test therapy is a decision you will need to make along with your doctor.  I can tell you this, if you do decide to go that route, you'll wake up and realize one day that you hate that god damn minivan.  You'll stop watching those god awful chick flicks, and you'll suddenly realize that the girl working down at Wal-Greens is way hotter than you remembered her being.  None of these things make you less of a husband or father.  If you believe that, then you are already emasculated or have bought in to the social construct that men are to be submissive and subordinate beings to their women (this is usually cleverly disgusted in phrases like "I think you have to respect her wants and wishes all the time" and other such retarded phrases.)

Part of being "dad" is being a fucking warrior.  Someone asked me a few weeks ago what keeps me so driven in terms of getting stronger, and working as hard as I do.

"My kids." I said.

"How is that?" they replied.

"I want them to always feel protected.  That dad is strong, and can take of them not just emotionally, and financially, but physically.  I want them to see that a strong man physically, is ideal."

This is not a "rah rah ALPHA MALES!" post.  There's plenty of "science" above that backs up my opinion about the decline in real males in our society now.  It's not a battle cry to high school males about what real men should be.  It's factual.  Men need to be more cognizant of their health, test levels, and what that means to their quality of life, and quantity of it as well.  Low test level having emasculated men are going to see the grave far sooner than those of us that believe being a "man" is still vital to living a long and fruitful life.