Internet Bad or Good? or Both?

[joej627]

I have been thinking about this a lot lately with my own health and healing process.  It seems that there is an endless supply of information and opinions in the world.  Not mentioning anything besides diet there are people who have healed their problems on:

-raw vegan
-raw paleo
-cooked paleo
-macrobiotic
-fruitarian

The list could go on forever.  Then in this community, we have:

-people who cook some vegetables
-people who do or don't eat eggs
-people who do or don't drink raw milk

It's like for every person who gets a good reaction from eggs somebody else has a bad one.
So the question goes

How much does having access to the internet and the opinions of others 24/7 influence what we choose to do with our own health?

I realize that even 30 years ago it was your friends, family, maybe a health book or 2, but other than that, you basically decided what your body liked and did not like for yourself.  I think there are ups and downs to the Internet.  Ups would be that there is a lot of information out that people would not find otherwise.  For instance, i wouldn't have thought about giving raw paleo a try but it seems to be working for me.  I still do some cooked veggies and slow-cooked/rare meats.  The downside seems to be that we can drive ourselves nuts reviewing everyones opinions on what is good and what is not good.  Personally, i have struggled.  It's like i will eat some raw eggs and feel good then i read somebody thinks raw eggs are bad for you so i question it.  So i think it is a good and bad thing.  It is a tool that needs to be used appropriately.  We need to have a balance between finding information, but also listening to our gut instincts and intuition.  What is good for you may not be good for me type thing.  Instead of buying into the strict 100% raw.  A lot of people mention Henry Beiler the medical doctor.  He healed massive amounts of people with some cooked vegetables in the diet.  Anyways, just ranting today, but what do you guys think?  What are the pros and cons of having access to such an unlimited source of information and opinions at your fingertips every day?

-Joe

[goodsamaritan]

It's not unlimited yet.
But the internet has sped up my self education.
And I'm a self educating type of person.

And I can make sense of all the varying opinions out there.

[joej627]

GS, do you think that growing up in another country has affected that?  I think we all try to be self-educating but sometimes people get mixed up.  Growing up in America we are basically constantly brainwashed and advertised/marketed junk to.

[Alive]

How many people do I know in person that are into raw food?
1 x RVF
0 x RAVF

So having access to all of you around the world who are on a similar wavelength, to discuss ideas, talk through issues, and soon to boast about awesome progress is really amazing. In this way we are very lucky to live in this digital age. At least you can ignore the media now you have an alternative - its much easier for us to think a bit differently than past villagers who were smothered by gossip, god, and guilt!

My take on eggs is that even chimps would eat them, so they are a historic food source. I don't buy into fertilised eggs being much different from unfertilised ones.

Regarding dairy, it illegal here to sell raw (except maybe small quantities at the farm gate) so this is not an option for me anyway.

On eating some cooked food, if you are healthy and eat some steamed veges / slow cooked meat then you are still going to be healthy. My main issue would be perverting my taste buds and starting to overeat cooked, and then moving on towards less healthy processed foods. So I suspect its easier for me to just eat all raw.

[TylerDurden]

While eating slightly cooked foods will not harm a healthy person in the short-term, it will mean that conditions in old age will be  worse in effect, such as arthritis etc., due to the slow buildup of heat-created toxins.

[Wolf]

I think most people on this site tend to be open about the fact that everyone is different.  Some here do better on eating only raw animal foods, while others do better adding in some plant foods too.  I haven't really felt like anyone here has told me what I myself would do better eating, other than of course eating more raw and more paleo.  Even so, I don't let that affect my own personal opinion, so I will still experiment with different foods to find out what works for me and what doesn't.

As for eggs, I find it's extremely difficult to actually find high quality eggs.  I was eating those organic, free-range, cage free eggs raw sometimes, but I stopped eating them because they started making me gag too much and I'd also get a bit of discomfort in my stomach afterwards.  But just a few days ago, I was able to get a few eggs from my aunt, and a few eggs from my uncle, who are both raising their own chickens in good conditions on a good diet.  Yesterday morning I tried eating(drinking?) one raw, and it didn't really make me gag and didn't give me a stomach ache or anything, in fact I felt really good yesterday.  The yolk on the egg was also a really rich, deep yellow, much darker than any of the ones I get from the store, so if someone had a bad reaction from eggs, it might just be because of the quality of the eggs.  Even though I got a bad reaction from the store-bought eggs, I didn't let that deter me from thinking that eggs are good for you.  I just knew that it was because of the quality of the eggs.

[intrigued]

Agree completely with the self education piece.  I will say that without the internet, it's very unlikely I would've ever tried raw meat, I'd definitely say it's a force for good if you know how to root through the b.s. and be true to yourself about whether something actually works or not.  Those are some big if's though.

[joej627]

Yea, i mean i'm probably the same with trying raw meat but so many people seem to follow the "conventional" wisdom even if it means their downfall and someone tries to give them real information

[svrn]

Theres pros and cons to everything. as far as the internet goes, it was created by the cia so that every single thing we do can be monitored and detailed profiles of all of us can be built to the point where the spies know us better than we know ourselves in many ways. on the other hand its an endless source of information which has taught me a lot about how the world works as well as how health works. Iv never been without the internet so I dont know if id be better off without it but I do know iv learned a lot through it.

[aLptHW4k4y]

as far as the internet goes, it was created by the cia so that every single thing we do can be monitored and detailed profiles of all of us can be built to the point where the spies know us better than we know ourselves in many ways.

here please educate yourself a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

[svrn]

wow wikipedia. what a great source of historical information. thank you so much for this 

now why dont you try reading some REAL history instead of "educating" yourself with wikipedia.

http://mises.org/daily/2211

[aLptHW4k4y]

Haha so that's REAL history huh, even though in the end it's the exactly same stuff.
My point was, the below is nonsense, which you'd realize if you knew just a bit about the history of computers/internet or just in general think a bit more.

as far as the internet goes, it was created by the cia so that every single thing we do can be monitored and detailed profiles of all of us can be built to the point where the spies know us better than we know ourselves in many ways.

[svrn]

If you got that this article was the same stuff then you need to learn to read.

all the info anyone needs about the government inventing the internet and its origins in ARPANET are in that article for anyone whos interested to read it.

i will not be arguing about this simple subject with you anymore since it is a waste of time. Its a historical fact that arpanet was the precursor to the modern internet and you can find plenty of info on arpanet which is completely out in the open.

why dont you look into facebook and google as well. also both even more obviously cia front companies with plenty of documented  fact to back this up for anyone with a brain. But I guess facts arent important when you have the consensus view of wikipedia to guide your simple little mind.

[aLptHW4k4y]

all the info anyone needs about the government inventing the internet and its origins in ARPANET are in that article for anyone whos interested to read it.

The exactly same info is in the wikipedia article.. no one is arguing here about this historical fact. I.e. you need to learn to read.
Here let me quote the first few lines for you:

The history of the Internet began with the development of computers in the 1950s. This began with point-to-point communication between mainframe computers and terminals, expanded to point-to-point connections between computers and then early research into packet switching. Packet switched networks such as ARPANET, Mark I at NPL in the UK, CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet, and Telenet, were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s using a variety of protocols. The ARPANET in particular led to the development of protocols for internetworking, where multiple separate networks could be joined together into a network of networks.

[svrn]

so then now you agree with me that the government created the internet. thats alright with me.

[aLptHW4k4y]

Well I never disagreed on that.. but the purpose of the initial work of DARPA on the Internet that you somehow figured out is still nonsense: "so that every single thing we do can be monitored and detailed profiles of all of us can be built to the point where the spies know us better than we know ourselves in many ways"

Here let me quote from your link, since it has a more REAL history according to you:

The internet indeed began as a typical government program, the ARPANET, designed to share mainframe computing power and to establish a secure military communications network.

or from wikipedia

The network was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense for use by its projects at universities and research laboratories in the US.

[svrn]

the difference is that the wikipedia article downplays the whole thing by saying darpa funded it. It didnt just fund it, the internet was created by the pentagon from the very beginning to create the situation we have today in which the government excercises total information awareness, and total means just that.

i have no time to argue with you things which should seem completely obvious to anyone who knows how to think for themselves and not have a preconditioned rejection of things which should be obvious. I am completely done arguing this with you now.

[joej627]

You know whats crazy guys?  It seems the older i get and the more wisdom i gain I admit that i don't know hardly anything for sure.  "Facts" are sometimes not "facts" eh?  Anyway, happy eating 

[svrn]

True. but some things should be obvious. Like if you know that the internet was created by the pentagon and thing it only accidentally got to this stage of total information awareness then you have some issues with your interpretation of reality. It was clearly planned like this from the beginning.

[Alive]

Just because the US government created the internet in the beginning doesn't mean they have been controlling it since then - mostly its been a free-for-all.

However since 9/11 they have been spending money fast and so far have recorded around 20 trillion internet 'transactions'. The NSAs current plan is to store everything and then data mine it later, so they are building a $2B  web spying data center in Utah - it has so much data storage and computing power that the complex has its oen 65MW power station! Warrant-less eavesdropping doesn't sound like part of the constitution, lets hope they mainly use it for valid terrorism intercepts:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1

[svrn]

so let me get this straight. You think the government created the internet let their creation go for a while and then began controlling it again? This is somewhat of a bizarre statement to me that the continuity would break in that manner.

Nope, it was definitly controlled by them all the way through for these reasons of total information awareness which you have just outlined. To think that such a convenient accident would happen for them to allow them to do this is pretty absurd and anyone who doesnt realize this has my deepest sympathies.

[Alive]

The best thing about the internet for US Government is it has generated huge profits and therefore heaps of taxes and party donations, and helped US company world expansion continue.

[cobalamin]

The source of information can be beneficial if you as an individual can go through the bias and form proper hypotheses to come to the truth. It can also be beneficial if a person decides to experiment and learn from their mistakes along the way.

The internet can be bad if it gets in the way of a persons daily routines. Eating, exercising, cleaning, etc...

[raw-al]

I love the internet. I have learned an enormous amount from it. My horizons have expanded. There is a down side but it is beat to a snot by the upside AFAIAC
There is misinformation but there are ways to filter that part. Partly by asking on this site.