On a sunny afternoon

Good morning 🌳 

Here's your daily dose of Andrew's Apples, a small white bag of four fresh *fruits* to nourish your soul and make you feel great. Your venti triple-shot espresso of health. In under 2 minutes. Let's go picking. 

1. 🚬 Just smoke whatever's left. Walmart will stop selling cigarettes in their stores. The biggest retailer in the US, which has 4,700 stores and ~$400b in annual sales, made the move after years of "internal debate" (lmao). "Health officials say cigarettes are linked to 480,000 deaths in the country each year," says the article. In high school, we called cigs "pigs", and instead of smoking a cig, you were "choking a pig." This parlance made it seem pretty cool in 2010. The price of being cool today may just mean skipping the buy-by-the-carton Walmart option, and instead nabbing your smokes a-la-carte at the local gas station. At the checkout counter is a greasy teenager who, behind the bulletproof plastic shield, puffs on his vape.

2. 🦾 Arm and a leg. A zip code in South Carolina contains a disproportionate amount of diabetics losing their limbs. Doctors are amputating limbs of residents (most are black and low-income) because narrowed arteries cannot send blood successfully to arms and legs. Heavy stuff. One piece that stood out to me: "Much of the ZIP code is a food desert where access to the dietary needs of diabetics, including fresh produce, is limited." Eastern medicine traditionally understands that a part of the patient is the whole patient. Said another way, your body parts talk to each other. Meanwhile western medicine says the ailing part of the patient is merely one part of the patient that needs fixing. If you're living in that zip code, your diet sucks because you can't find broccoli at the bodega, and if you can find broccoli it's too expensive. Food deserts are scary and more common than you think. Health concerns almost always stem back to food. And bad food is the most direct path to death, or losing a leg.

3. ☀️ On a sunny afternoon. So, the pandemic happened. Lol. Flashback: I was born in the early '90s, a simple time of lava lamps and inflatable furniture. Then 9/11, then '08 $ crisis, then Trump (however you felt about him/it), and then C19. People and businesses flocked to the Sunbelt for lower taxes and warmer weather. But newbies to the south will also inherit a near endless list of benefits: regular exposure to sunlight contributes to the prevention of cancers, lymphoma, MS, hypertension, diabetes, and improved circadian rhythm. Risk of skin cancer? Not if your exposure is regular. Melanoma is mainly caused by an intermittent pattern of exposure. Now that's hot.

4. 🥚 Egghead. In the '70s, many doctors told patients to avoid eggs, or at least egg yolks, to minimize cholesterol and saturated fat intake. This all ties back to the sugar industry at the time vilifying fat, because if (saturated) fat is to blame then sugar is not. That's show business, baby. Just another episode of Clown World, fine. Aside from pasture eggs being one of the best pound-for-pound health foods, eggs are great for your liver due to their choline content. Choline, found in ample amounts in egg yolks, is an essential nutrient for your brain, nervous system, cardiovascular and liver function; plus, it prevents fatty liver disease. Egg whites on their own is a make-believe yoga-mom recommendation. An unfortunate aspect of human thinking is that the best story wins, and story is health-agnostic.

How do you like them Apples? Suggestions? Hate me? If you ever need anything, I am here. 

Your friend, 

Andrew 🍎 

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