Julius Caesar's accounts of invading Britain, 55 BC, include observations about the Celtic tribes. One detail stands out: they ate enormous amounts of butter.
The Romans found this disgusting. Civilised people used olive oil. Butter was barbarian food. The mark of primitive Northern tribes who didn't understand proper cuisine.
Celtic Britons didn't care. They churned butter, ate butter, cooked with butter, and exported butter to other tribes. Butter was wealth. Butter was medicine. Butter was what kept you alive through British winters.
The Romans, eating their "civilised" olive oil and grain-based diet, noted that the Celts were significantly larger and stronger than Mediterranean peoples. Taller. Broader. More physically capable.
Fast forward to medieval Ireland. Bog butter. The Irish buried firkins of butter in peat bogs for preservation. Some of it aged for years before consumption. Archaeologists find 2,000-year-old butter in Irish bogs today.
Why butter? Because it was calorically dense, nutritionally complete, shelf-stable, and didn't require cooking fuel in regions where wood was scarce.
Fast forward to Victorian England. The stigma against butter intensifies. Not because of health concerns: those came later. Because butter was associated with rural poverty and "backwards" farming communities.
Upper classes used it minimally. Progressive doctors recommended against it. Butter eating was vulgar.
Then margarine arrives in the 1870s. Invented by French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès as cheap butter substitute for the French military. Made from beef tallow and milk.
Margarine was modern. Scientific. Progressive. Better than primitive butter.
By 1900, margarine manufacturers were adding yellow dye (originally it was white) and marketing it as healthier and more hygienic than butter. The campaign worked. Butter consumption declined among educated classes.
1950s: The anti-fat crusade begins. Butter becomes "artery-clogging saturated fat." Margarine becomes "heart-healthy spread."
The Celts, eating butter by the pound, were barbarians.
The Irish, burying butter in bogs, were primitive.
Your great-grandmother, cooking with butter, was killing herself.
Modern you, eating seed oil margarine, are being healthy.
Except the Celts were healthier than the Romans.
The Irish had better bone density than their colonisers.
Your great-grandmother lived to 90 without heart disease.
And you're on statins at 45.
The stigma against butter wasn't new. It's been around for 2,000 years. It just kept changing its justification.
First it was cultural superiority. Then it was class distinction. Then it was scientific progress. Now it's health guidelines.
The pattern is consistent: Butter eaters are doing something wrong. Regardless of outcomes.
The Celts knew better 2,000 years ago. Shame we forgot.
The new US Dietary Guidelines for Americans are slated to be released tomorrow! This policy is by far the most important nutrition reform of this administration.
Sadly, butter will not be back, after all. See this and other changes to the guidelines--a sneak peek in this column. No paywall.
https://t.co/M1Vt0px7OK
1920s: Dr. Russell Wilder at Mayo Clinic develops the ketogenic diet for pediatric epilepsy.
The results are extraordinary. Children with uncontrollable seizures see 50-90% reduction. Some become completely seizure-free. Ketones change brain metabolism.
By 1930, it's standard treatment. Thousands of children successfully treated.
Then 1938: Phenytoin is discovered - the first pharmaceutical anti-seizure medication.
It's less effective than ketogenic diet. Serious side effects. Requires lifetime prescribing. But it can be patented.
Pharmaceutical companies market aggressively. By 1950, ketogenic diet use drops 90%.
The diet is largely forgotten until the 1990s when Jim Abrahams' son Charlie develops uncontrollable epilepsy. Multiple medications fail. Hundreds of seizures daily.
Abrahams discovers the old Mayo Clinic research. Within days of starting ketogenic diet, Charlie's seizures stop completely.
Abrahams is furious. Why wasn't this offered first? He founds the Charlie Foundation in 1994 to promote ketogenic research.
Slowly, the diet returns. But it's listed as "alternative therapy" or "last resort."
First-line treatment? Still pharmaceutical drugs with lower efficacy.
We had a cure in 1920. We abandoned it for 70 years because pills are more profitable than food.
Charlie has been seizure-free for 30 years.
How many children suffered during those 70 years when the treatment was "forgotten"?
🔁 RT if you think 🇳🇴 @AbraJonas is the Super-combative of the #TDF2025!
🔁 RT si vous pensez que 🇳🇴 Jonas Abrahamsen est le Super-combatif du #TDF2025 !
BREAKING: In cooperation with the Amsterdam police, I have returned 25 precious objects to the National Archives of the Netherlands, one of the most renowned archives in the world. Many of these items are part of UNESCO World Heritage and were stolen 10 years ago by an employee. Perhaps the most interesting recovery in my career. These masterpieces, primarily from the 17th century, offer fascinating insights into events in Europe, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Latin America. They include accounts of naval wars, negotiations at imperial courts, distant voyages to barely explored regions, and tales of knights.
- A ship’s log (1640–1642) by Michiel de Ruyter, one of the world’s most famous admirals, describing his FIRST naval experience, at the Battle of St. Vincent.
- A report of the first meeting of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602. The VOC was the world’s first multinational corporation and ruled over large parts of the globe. It also features the first depiction of their famous logo, the world’s first corporate logo.
- The book containing the secret meetings of the States General (the government at the time) between 1592 and 1604.
- The VOC’s report of its 1700 journey to the court of the Great Mughal in India, the emperor at the time.
And much, much more. In the next days I will post about more items. On one of the pictures I’m with Frits de Ruyter de Wildt, a 12th-generation descendant of Michiel de Ruyter.
1/ They lied to you about FAT.
They lied to you about SUNLIGHT.
And they sure as hell lied to you about RAW MILK.
Let me redpill you on nature’s most demonized superfood. 🥛
A THREAD 🧵
Ambulancen kommer frem, og ambulance-redderen stiger ud. Han ser Ina, og siger til hende:
”Du har corona.”
Ina svarer:
”Nej, det tror jeg ikke. Jeg hoster ikke, har ikke feber. Men jeg er bange for, at jeg er ved at få en ny blodprop i hjernen.”
Ambulance-manden svarer:
”Jo, du har corona. Jeg har set det mange gange før.”
På vej i ambulancen, hvor Ina jo først og fremmest frygter, at hun oplever en ny blodprop i hjernen, ringer ambulance-redderen nu til hospitalet, og meddeler, at de kommer med en coronapatient.
Ambulance-redderen understreger, at patienten ikke er færdigvaccineret, og at de skal have sprøjten med Covid-19-vaccine klar.
https://t.co/671Zne3oI4
Fredsforhandlinger/Ukraine/Iran/Kina - meget er sket på få dage:
Et kort møde imellem Trump og Nato-Generalsekretær Rutte endte med følgende erklæring fra Rutte:
'Ukraine’s entry into NATO is no longer being considered.'.
Med denne udtalelse er EU NATO delens selvstændige 'invitation' til Ukraine også stendød.
Mystisk hvordan vor Udenrigsminister på TV2's stort anlagte - og følelsespornografiske - Søndags show, alligevel botaniserer om en mulighed der ikke eksisterer.
Hvad der er mere bemærkelsesværdigt var Rutte's efterfølgende udtalelse på Bloomberg TV:
'Post-war, it’d be reasonable to gradually rebuild ties with Russia, but we’re not there yet' (læs: NATO er nu officielt bag den amerikanske inklusionsstrategi som den bærende støtte for fred, og ikke militær tilstedeværelse).
Fredsforhandlingerne viste sig - som forudsagt - i weekenden at fokusere helt og holdent på Iran.
Allerede Lørdag mødtes Rusland, Kina og Iran i Beijing (hurtigere end jeg havde forudset dagen før), og det blev en total afvisning af USA's ønske (båret ind via forhandlingerne med Russerne) om at Iran unilateralt skal afstå fra atomoprustning.
Mødet konklusion blev yderligere underbygget af det kinesiske udenrigsministerium der 'glædede sig over' Irans samarbejdsvilje :-) Den samarbejdsvilje begrænses til at Iran vil overholde ikke-spredningsaftalen for atomvåben (!) og at man inviterer USA til at genindtræde i 'Comprehensive Sageguard Agreement' - som USA trådte ud af under sidste Trump-regering, og ikke har den fjerneste plan om at genindtræde i.
Allerede Søndag morgen bekræftede Trump så på Fox News, at han nu 'havde sendt et brev til Iranerne', og på ABC samme morgen forklarede National sikkerhedsrådgiver Michael Waltz, at USA ikke vil acceptere at dette spørgsmål ikke er en del af 'fredsaftalen' (læs: han bekræfter hermed det er en del af snakken med russerne), og at der 'meget meget snart' vil blive taget stilling til indgreb overfor Iran.
Det samme sagde Trump i sit interview på sædvanlig 'Trump-agtig måde', men da USA samtidig angreb stillinger for Houtis i Yemen kan vi nu se, at det ikke længere er snak.
Og natten til Mandag (CET) blev det foldet ud af Marco Rubio, at Iranske 'assets' nu også ville komme under beskydning (i Yemen).
Hvor står vi så nu ?
Kina har afvist at hjælpe med at løse 'det Iranske problem'. Dette skyldes at Marco Rubio samtidig har afvist at Taiwan kan komme i spil under nogen omstændigheder.
Russerne kan derfor ikke levere den løsning som led i snak med amerikanerne om Ukraine, og det er nu op til en samtale imellem Trump og Putin i morgen Tirsdag, at afklare, om USA så trækker sig fra mæglingen af en våbenhvilke for Ukraine - eller - fastholder den, men hvor Iran-sporet da udlægges til en militær løsning med Israel (og det bliver snart).
Ruslands ønske om at man er enige om 'bullit-punkter' i en endelig aftale med Ukraine er selvfølgelig, og vil blive godtaget af amerikanerne.
Kursk er ude af det politiske problem med Ukraine omkring arealafgivelse, da ca. 10.000 Ukrainske soldater blev tilladt tilbagetrækning af russerne efter appel fra Trump til Putin.
BBC News bragte i weekenden beretninger fra Ukrainske soldater ved fronten i Kursk (5 forskellige - navngivne- interviews) og jeg må indrømme, at jeg måtte holde vejret for ikke at få tårer i øjnene.
Den vanvittige operation har kostet Ukraine dyrt blandt deres bedst trænede specialtropper, og uden noget andet formål end PR. Zelensky fyrede hærgeneralen Søndag, formentligt i et forsøg på at holde ansvaret væk fra sig selv. Kursk er ude som tema.
I EU tosser Macron og Starmer rundt.
I Rusland sagde en talsmand at man ikke havde tid til at snakke med dem.
I Kina meddelte Xi (Søndag) afbud til 50-års fejringen af EU-Kina samarbejdet om kort tid.
Og i USA holder man dog kontakt med 'en håndfuld Europæiske stater', men EU gider man ikke bruge tid på (for et par uger siden blev EU's 'udenrigsminister' jo også bedt om at vende om i indkørslen til US State Department fordi Marci Rubio måtte aflyse mødet grundet 'rescheduling problems'!).
EU's insisteren på militær tilstedeværelse, ender nok med at blive til noget, fordi uden udstationering af 2-3 batallioner europæiske soldater i en 'fredsbevarende styrke', vil Starmer, Macron og Frederiksen stå - politisk set - totalt afklædte, og nærmest til grin. For alle tre er krisen - og frygten - deres eneste - politiske kapital. Og muligvis russerne æder den del, mod at de får hele Donbars området, og ikke kun de besatte dele (minus lidt kraftværker og andre 'assets' der skal fordeles anderledes).
Med Kinas nu klare holdning, Israel-Iran problemet og EU og Zelenskeys virkligehedsfjerne strategi, så er det noget af en opgave at få en våbenhvile på plads.
Mit gæt er at Trump har så meget politisk kapital på højkant at den kommer, men som en aftale imellem USA og Rusland. Det ved vi mere om Tirsdag.
En aftale imellem USA og Rusland vil så blive vidergivet til godkendelse af Zelenskey og udvalgte Europæiske stater (NATO er ude - og EU kommer aldrig ind), og hvis de afviser eller saboterer den, så er konklusionen formentlig at så må de selv klare det (uden amerikanske våben og vidensdeling).
I Iran tyder alt på en militær eskalation, og spørgsmålet er om det bliver grunden til at Rusland ikke kan lave en aftale om våbenhvile. Det bliver antagelig Kina der kommer til at afgøre den del.
Og herhjemme bruger medierne tiden til at skabe frygt og rædsel. Hændervridende udtalelser fra Frederiksen og fordummende gentagelser fra Rasmussen.
Men frygt intet: Alt bliver helt fint - men vejen derhen stadig noget uklar, ikke mindst på grund af de problmer vi selv er med til at holde liv i.
#dkpol #dkmedier