Xplo

Beat the Taurus Demon on the first shot and immediately got roasted to death by the dragon on the bridge.

The true Dark Souls begins here?
 

Man, I fucking hate that dragon. I dunno if I'm just not using the right strategy or what, but I can't beat him unless I can cheese him with arrows. Even with fire-resistant armor and rings, that overhead firebreath is practically a one-hit kill and it's nearly impossible to get away from. And if I do somehow survive it, then he nearly always flies back and switches to the long firebreathing swoops instead of staying in melee range. Gotta be the hardest miniboss in the game.

 

What the...? That was supposed to be an edit, not a quote... oh well, whatever.

Beat the Taurus Demon on the first shot and immediately got roasted to death by the dragon on the bridge.

The true Dark Souls begins here?

Is this really the right thread for such a debate? I mean obviously the subject matter matches up, but morally, is this really the space for a "meat is bad" / "no it isn't" conversation?

It probably isn't, but look - you've got Rize offering this medical advice. If I've got some objection to it, my choices are:

1. Say something
2. Just let it stand
3. Let it stand here, but start a new thread that people interested in this one may or may not actually see

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if it's not alright for me to contradict Rize, then it wasn't alright for him to post what he did in the first place. It's ridiculous that the first person to say something controversial has to just be allowed to get away with it because no one else is allowed to respond to it. (And anything having to do with diet and medical science is pretty controversial.)

Anyway, I don't have piles of HARD EVIDENCE proving Rize wrong. I just meant to point out that what he was saying was kind of generalized/oversimplified/questionable and ought to be taken with one or more grains of salt. Which I did, so I'm done now.

. . .

Damn, xoc, for some reason I thought you were in your late 20s. Anyway, best of luck with your recovery.

Heart attack, in a way, is a symptom of long term cardiovascular disease which is a life long condition that EVERYONE on a western diet is suffering from to greater or lesser extent depending on genetics, diet and other risk factors (smoking).  My understanding is that all the animal products we eat are loaded with bacteria that produce toxins....   heating kills the bacteria and prevents an infection but it doesn't get rid of the toxins.  The older and funkier the meat (processed meat is worse than red meat is worse than fresher meats like chicken which are still not great) the more loaded with toxins.  The toxins cause chronic low grade inflammation in our arteries and that leads to plaque build up and thus heart attacks (and strokes and impotence).

Not all bacteria produce toxins, though, and our immune systems have ways of neutralizing them. And I wouldn't expect processed meat to have more bacterial toxins, because the processing... uh... process tends to pasteurize the meat (steaming, smoking), load it with stuff that's antibacterial (smoking, salting, various additives), and/or colonize it with harmless organisms that crowd out harmful ones so they can't grow (dry aging).

I'm not saying this is wrong, exactly, but take it with healthy skepticism. Especially since it comes from a vegan (no, no bias there).

Absorption of saturated fat appears to be the pathway by which the toxins get into our blood stream

Sounds like crap to me. Fat-soluble molecules aren't that picky; unsaturated fats would work just as well.

Sous vide is neat. I'd have a proper homemade rig if my girlfriend wasn't vegetarian. As it is I've experimented with doing ribs in a pot of water in the oven, I don't recommend this if you really want to do sous vide, but the results were encouraging (if inconsistent).

I've read that weird things happen to onions and garlic if you sous vide them... off flavors or something. YMMV.

Habanero hands are a learning experience. I don't know why you're worried about sodium, though, unless you have bad kidneys or high blood pressure or something.

Speaking of sodium, I tried making a cheese sauce with sodium citrate the other day. The citrate does something, I'm not exactly sure what, to keep the cheese from breaking, so that you get a nice smooth texture instead of a gloppy greasy mess. Worked like a charm. I tried it on macaroni, which I wasn't 100% happy with, because normally I make the sauce for that from a bechamel, and I'm just used to a different flavor or texture. I'm sure it would kick ass as a queso/nacho cheese base or broccoli/baked potato topping, though.

If you can get citric acid crystals at your local supermarket, you can make your own sodium citrate by mixing equal parts baking soda and citric acid in half a cup of water. About 1 teaspoon of each will give you enough to emulsify about 4 cups of cheese. Whichever one you add first, add the other one gradually because it'll act just like a grade school science volcano if you dump it in all at once. When the mix is mostly done fizzing, stir it pretty vigorously until it doesn't bubble up at all anymore (it'll fizz a lot more while you're stirring).

Add that along with a little more water (or cream... or maybe beer or white wine, dunno what that would do to the cheese though) to a saucepot over medium heat and whisk in about 4 cups of cheese, a handful at a time, until it's all melted and blended together. Add other ingredients if you want. Put on whatever food you want covered in melted cheese.