Seems like a lot of the dark side of how the sugar Industry has corrupted what we view as healthy has been coming to light recently.

Im guessing your grandma comes from a generation whose life expectancy isn't too far off to what it is now though for my daughter. What I mean is, I've heard recently that my generation can expect a shorter life expectancy than our parents for the first time in generations despite all the medical advantages that come from living a first world nation. So your grandma's generational life expectancy must be close to what my child's generational life expectancy is and your grandma had doctors who recommended she smoked cigarettes to treat high blood pressure. Wtf?!?

Well said. This part is especially fascinating to me too:

"Man, to a be a fly on the wall in some of these meetings and negotiations..."

Because I can't wrap my head around enough people selling out their own human race, their own families and friends for a few extra bucks. How does a big corporate fixer go to his kids soccer game and not feel like a huge, guilty asshole? Also, how do people actually talk in those meetings? I've never been good with the subtleties of social conversation so I can't understand how these people can stammer their way through a session of bribing or fixing research results and "yes sirs" and not realize how fucked they are for bending over to some asshole telling you to poison the planet for a few dollars more than anyone would ever need and do it in a way that gives the bosses plausible deniability. I would be fucked in a conversation like that, because I don't have the finesse once I figure out what is really going on not to just say outright "No sir boss man, you're an asshole and I'm gonna burn your entire life down for even trying to corrupt me into poisoning kids." Then I'd probably get in a car accident or accidentally blow my head off.

People around here got all upset about a proposed sugar tax on sodas awhile back. They said it was racist cause it targeted low income families. I thought, Jesus, low income families are the ones that need the education and the push to get off shitty food more than anyone. So what if soda costs more, buy a fucking water for less money and feel better about your budget and your health. Fucking white upper middle class DJ's and talking heads telling poor minority people their government was racist against them cause of a goddamn soda tax. So gross and backwards.

"In the case of milk, I have no idea WTF that irritant would be."

Probably the antibiotics in the damn milk.

"I take store milk and make yogurt or kefir with it (it's really easy, something everyone should know how to do)."

Wow, nice tip. I like a shot of plain kefir in the morning. I will be googling this. Maybe make a post about it like another user suggested. Thanks for that one.

I'll look into it, thanks. Although I'm realizing the amount of citric acid in tart candy upsets my stomach enough it's just not worth it anyway, so im just about good with that. Not sure on how tartaric acid will play into that. Maybe it's in tart candy and that's what's upsetting my stomach? Idk, but I do know citric acid soda bugs my guts way more than phosphoric acid soda which actually seems to help my digestion sometimes, although that's no justification to drink too much of it. Also, stevia in my coffee works great. I'm gonna just have to try and be cool on the chocolate though, a little, maybe once a week should be alright.

Sry about your mom. Kratom is a bug gamble. Luckily where I live we have a pretty good store that gets consistent supply and stays all legal. I can't remember any scandals about bad kratom locally, but I do worry about how it's processed. Im not sure I would order it online. If your mom hasn't looked at stem cell therapy/injections, maybe that might help. Good luck.

Kratom is pretty good stuff for us so far. My wife also has chronic pain and uses kratom a couple times a week. Its kinda expensive compared to opiods rx. It's also unregulated which gives me pause, but you can boil it so that should help a lot with potential contaminants. Also we only buy ground up kratom, not pills, because it's a fair bit cheaper. That means we have to mix it in usually a citrus drink. It tastes awful. That alone holds off addiction. Also, take too much and most people get sick before they really get high. It helps my wife's pain a fair bit more than mine, pills work better for me for pain than her, different body chemistry. She doesn't like to get high, I literally can't get high on kratom, at least not enough to justify the taste and potentially getting sick. When I was weaning off of opiods a few years ago it was a godsend because I could take a dose and be functional, almost normal. Took away the sweats and weird loopy feelings from withdrawal and helped tame that "electric buzz" feeling I was getting from with-drawls and let me sleep, cut down the rls big time. And like I said earlier, I've been using it on average maybe every other day, sometimes more, sometimes less for 3 years and when. I take a break I feel about zero cravings. I don't think if my joints flare up or an old injury aches and I want some Kratom that's a real craving. The only thing is I can't really recommend in good conscience because of all the unknowns. It must be better than a full blown heroin addiction. But with an RX for pain pill idk, just because of the regulation factor. If you get a tainted batch of opiods from the pharmacy you have recourse. Not sure what kind of recourse one would have if you got some tainted kratom. There are a couple documented deaths from Kratom number of years ago, but to my knowledge, it was only due to being spiked with o'desmethyltramadol and/or being combined with other drugs. I honestly don't see how you could ingest enough to die, you'd puke way before that.

Sry so late getting back, hope this helps.

If he has the means, he needs to get his hormone levels worked out. Drug addiction wrecks havoc on hormone levels and new treatments developed in conjunction with football players and soldiers who suffer TBI and/or TBI related PTSD/depression and all the drug regimens that come with it are just now coming to light. The link to JRE below has guest Dr. Mark Gordon who is at the forefront of this research/treatment and dude with him is an ex-green Beret. They have a ton of patients that have gotten off massive doses of drugs and fixing their depleted hormone levels was a huge part of it. I'm over-simplifying and this episode deals with TBI related PTSD in particular, but there is a lot of crossover to someone with just a drug problem. Even if your friend can't afford fancy hrt, I know from experience, exercise and good diet alone can boost testosterone levels and help enormously in getting clean. Rogan touches on this at the end of the show as well. He's had Dr. Mark Gordon and spec-ops dudes with similar success stories several times if you want to go back farther, but this episode is the most up to date and also more concise at just over an hour rather than the usual 3. Hope it helps.

"In the case of milk, I have no idea WTF that irritant would be."

Probably the antibiotics in the damn milk.

"I take store milk and make yogurt or kefir with it (it's really easy, something everyone should know how to do)."

Wow, nice tip. I like a shot of plain kefir in the morning. I will be googling this. Maybe make a post about it like another user suggested. Thanks for that one.