Raw Milk

This message is brought to you by cows across the country. It might look like a plug from Chick-Fil-A but really, it's actually just me explaining what milk is all about.

Sarah Kay is lactose sensitive which just means that I have to be careful how I talk about milk in front of her otherwise she might start crying. Actually, that's a joke. She just doesn't process regular milk and dairy very well... or so it seems! Let's take a look at a gallon of milk and see what information we can glean from the data presented on this beloved substance:

Notice this lovely icon of the modern grocery store. This beautiful Kroger gallon of skim milk is interesting for several reasons.

1. It is self-promoting. Grade A with Vitamins A&D. Imagine two basketball players: LeBron James and me. LeBron is a magician on the court and practically flies when he goes in for the dunk. I'm a dude who hasn't spent a bunch of time playing basketball and I'm not fantastic. I suspect few people would need convincing to have LeBron on their team. I would have some persuading to do. That's because I am not obviously good. In fact, in order to get on a team, we might have to dress me up a bit with some nice Air Jordans, Nike Apparel and sweat bands. That's called self-promotion.

2. It has impressive longevity. Cool story, we can kind of resist the aesthetic effects of aging through artificial processes. Botox, plastic surgery and a shelf of fancy creams and lotions extend our looks and delay undesirable visual traits. However, even a 40-year-old who looks like a 20-year-old is still a 40-year-old. I'm not so sure all milks are good just because they haven't rotted yet.

3. It's pasteurized so that we don't get sick. Pasteurization is named in honor of the French scientist Louis Pasteur. He figured out that by bringing beer and wine to high temperatures, most of the bacteria responsible for spoiled beer and wine would be eliminated. This process has been used to rid our milk of dangerous pathogens that could potentially harm us. Unfortunately, this process also kills the enzymes that help us digest milk. But still, the dangers are real. Here is a statement from the CDC:

Among dairy product-associated outbreaks reported to CDC between 1998 and 2011 in which the investigators reported whether the product was pasteurized or raw, 79% were due to raw milk or cheese. From 1998 through 2011, 148 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC. These resulted in 2,384 illnesses, 284 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. 

Ok that's a little scary. So now if you want to sell raw milk, you must have a permit. If you want to buy raw milk, you need to sign a waiver indicating you know the risk. But when was the last time you had to sign a waiver in order to buy your other grocery items? Let's compare milk statistics to other diseases from just the year 2011. According to the CDC:

Illnesses due to Staphylococcus aureus in 2011: 241,148

Hospitalizations due to E. coli in 2011: 2,138

Deaths due to Camplyobacter spp. in 2011: 76

All of these were food-borne related diseases (references at the end of the post). Apparently, the 13 years of data on raw milk related diseases pale in comparison to other food-borne diseases in the year 2011 alone. Plus, people have been drinking raw milk for thousands of years. So it might be possible that we overreacted to these statistics just a bit.

4. It's homogenized so that the fat is equally distributed throughout the milk instead of rising to the top. Wouldn't it be nice to equally distribute our body fat over our whole body? Probably not. I think it might improve the appearance of some people but in general, that would look rather odd. And I don't think it would be healthy for us. Well, here is what we do to milk when we homogenize it:

First, notice the little yellow circles (henceforth called fat globules) passing through this pump. This is done at very high pressures. What comes out the sides are smaller fat globules. Success! The fat doesn't rise to the top anymore. But wait! There's more. These fat globules are now exposed to certain enzymes that break down fat and make the milk taste awful. So how do we solve that problem? Boil and kill them (pasteurization). In the end, the chemistry of the milk is compromised and that can lead to heart disease and other chronic issues.

Let's talk about an alternative called Raw Milk. This stuff is as good as it gets. It is important to point out two different kinds of raw milk you can consume:

Raw milk from grain-fed cows is actually not as good as it gets. Since it is cheaper and produces meat with more fat, many farmers choose to feed their cows corn fed diets. Unfortunately, cow physiology doesn't process grain very well and it alters the milk that they produce. It's not healthy for the cows and definitely not the best.

Raw milk from grass-fed cows is definitely as good as it gets. This is the diet and lifestyle cows have been living for years. Grass-fed cows pass good nutrients on to the consumers of its milk.

In short, other kinds of milk are not necessarily bad but there are definitely trade-offs. You can choose between cheap, long-lasting and less healthy milk or expensive but way healthier raw milk. And we should be grateful we have the choice! 

Remember Sarah Kay's lactose sensitivity? Well, turns out it might just be pasteurization sensitivity. Raw milk (and the yogurt we make from it) seem to treat her just fine. Considering the health situation Sarah Kay and I are currently in, we definitely favor raw milk. In my last post I said that we eat real food. I'd like to make an addition. We eat real food that eats real food.

The data I referenced can be found by clicking on the following link: CDC Foodborne Illness and CDC Raw Milk.

Also, a decent video: Pasteurization and Homogenization

The Indomitable Machine

This is food. It might look kind of obvious but I've been surprised at how my perception of food has changed dramatically in the recent past. It all starts with my wife Sarah Kay.

We were married in early May of 2014. It was a phenomenal event thanks to the vision and work of quite a few people, in particular our families. We had an unorthodox honeymoon. We backpacked into the Grand Canyon and camped in Havasupai for 3 nights.

Sarah Kay wasn't feeling super strong but that wasn't super concerning. She was able to hike the rugged 12 miles in and 12 miles out pretty well. And thanks to some ingenious (but admittedly frightening) packing, we almost ran out of food which means we didn't have to carry excess food as we hiked up and out of the Grand Canyon. We probably should have packed more food...but instead of admitting to a lack of preparation we like to think of ourselves as being pretty fit and (mostly) smart.

After an awesome honeymoon, we headed out to New York City where an internship awaited Sarah Kay and unemployment awaited me. Sarah Kay loved her Graphic Design internship at Studio Case but I wasn't too fond of unemployment so I ditched it and successfully started a math tutoring business. We had so much fun and ate some really delicious food. Sarah Kay began showing signs of discomfort. Back and neck pain, difficulty swallowing and general fatigue were constant companions. Of course we thought she was probably just a little stressed from working so much and pushing her body pretty hard. Massages and running were our answers to deal with the stress. We noticed she had lost a lot of weight. Toward the end of our summer stay, we found a lump in her shoulder and two on her neck. That was odd. And then she nearly collapsed of fatigue on one of our morning runs. That was atypical. We knew something was wrong.

We moved back to Provo to continue school and immediately went to the doctor to see what was up. After surgery on a fateful September 11, the surgeon came out and told me that it looked like lymphoma. This was confirmed just a few days later.

BOOM! Cancer. In my face. Well, actually more like in her lymph nodes. Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage II, non-bulky, unfavorable was the official diagnosis. Fortunately, unfavorable does not refer to living statistics (which are very high thankfully) but instead indicates that the lymphoma is in more than one spot.

By this point, Sarah Kay had already lost a bunch of weight but she was still over 100 pounds. Since weight loss is common among cancer folk, we asked our doctor what to do about it. His answer was to increase the calories per bite. His examples? Eat ice cream topped with chocolate. Eat cake with whip cream. Eat toast with lots of butter. Hamburgers and fries—and make sure you eat them with sauce. Now this was a little strange. I don't find those examples particularly convincing if we are trying to aid a body in its fight against a life-threatening illness, although they are indeed calorie packed.

Sarah Kay was experiencing some digestive issues that needed to be taken care of before we started chemotherapy. What started out as a simple hemorrhoidectomy turned into 5 different hospital visits in one month where we experienced excruciating bowel movements and no healing (I say we because I have had to help her through a majority of bowel movements up to this point). Finally, the doctor ordered a colonoscopy. As some folks know, a colonoscopy is not the most pleasant experience—particularly for one who has open wounds that won't heal. We got the results of that procedure just a few days ago on December 3, which just happens to be Sarah Kay's birthday: Crohn's disease.

Let's take a break from this story to talk a little bit more about food. Food is stuff we eat. More specifically, it's stuff that we create for our bodies from things that the earth produces in hopes that it will give us the proper energy and strength to do the things we love and get things done. Somewhere along this line, we lost track of the whole focus on our bodies and instead, food production was outsourced to companies. A brief note on companies from Econ 101: their main focus is to maximize profit, not to give us energy and strength. When we outsourced our food production to companies, this produced a miracle—it bought us time. It saved us some money too. It also decreased the quality of our food. Of course, not all companies want people to be unhealthy. So they give us lots of choices and try to point out the different advantages of various goods. Gluten-free, antioxidants, calcium, omega-3, whole grain, fiber and the list goes on. These nutrient-words are printed with good intentions on things we can buy and eat from the store. Where don't you find these words? On fruits and vegetables. On meat and eggs. They don't need it. It is so incredibly obvious that they are foods. They don't need to say anything for you to know that they are probably good for you. Look at the picture at the top. That food doesn't need to convince you it's food. However, some of the things we have engineered have sure saved us a bunch of time but it is still a poor approximation of what really provides us with proper energy and strength. At the end of the day, companies end up selling us bundled nutrients instead of food.

Back to the story. At the time Sarah Kay was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, she weighed 87 pounds. Talking about 87 pounds is like talking about one million dollars. It's really hard to comprehend what that number even means or looks like. Unlike one million dollars though, it's not a lot. It's the combined effect Crohn's disease and Cancer on the body. We estimate that Sarah Kay has lost approximately 40 pounds since January. We probably look like idols as we visit our doctor every two weeks for a check-up at his office which is also a weight loss clinic. As a brief introduction to Crohn's disease, your body attacks the healthy bacteria in your digestive system which causes severe ulcers along the digestive tract. Sarah Kay's are mostly in her colon. They don't know why it happens and there is no cure for this life-long disease. They can only treat the symptoms using immuno-suppressors. If there is one thing Sarah Kay does not need right now, it is a compromised immune system.

There is a distinct link between food and Crohn's disease. Gluten and casein (a protein found in milk) have been found to be common culprits of inflammation and discomfort. Many people find that they can successfully control Crohn's disease by eating healthy food. We are still unsure what triggers Sarah Kay's symptoms but we have started by cutting out dairy (except homemade yogurt), grains, legumes and sugar. Already, the moment we began eating this way (shortly after the colonoscopy just before Thanksgiving) we started seeing some immediate results. Sarah Kay is no longer confined to a bed. She can walk around now which is saying a lot! She gained a pound. 88 pounds! One more pound and we could say it's symbolic (see D&C 89). She can have a bowel movement by herself. Our doctor said he finally saw the open wounds closing up at our last visit this past Tuesday. I suspect the yogurt to be instrumental. She didn't have any yogurt today and her bowels didn't feel quite as good. I think we might be on to something.

I think we often substitute the hard question of "Is it healthy?" with "Does it have any nutrients I recognize?" Worse, we sometimes replace "Is it good for me?" with "Does it taste good?" It's very expensive and time consuming for companies to produce meals that are healthy. It was very time consuming for us—that's why we outsourced it. It is even harder for companies to stay relevant and make a profit. That's why when faced between producing healthy foods and making a profit, the company will choose to live and make a profit. Not all companies sell us things that are unhealthy, but there are very few who actually produce real food.

We believe in Western medicine and we will gratefully take advantage of the knowledge and products available to us. We also believe in common sense and in giving the body what it needs and thrives on. We believe this is an unbeatable combination. Modern medicine with a diet of ice cream and cake sure sounds a lot like leaning on the arm of the flesh to me. Our bodies are machines with surprising capabilities. When we fuel them right, we can run and not be weary; walk and not faint. 

Most people, after learning what we don't eat, ask us "So... what do you eat?"

Our answer is one word: Food.

Real Thoughts in a Complex World

The title of this blog comes from a math class I started taking this past semester. My professor told the class that "Calculus is the taming of infinity", by which he meant that we can use finite processes to tackle and understand problems that deal with the infinite. Infinity is a hard concept to wrap our minds around. There are many things in life that are like infinity. Learning math can be tough. Hearing that a loved one has cancer is tough. And sometimes, working with big, messy datasets is tough. This blog deals with some of these issues and addresses how I am learning to "tame infinity". So first I want to start with data.

Data is beautiful. We have an incredible capacity to process, learn and make decisions from data. Data can take many different forms: numbers, pictures, sounds, the senses. I hope to tell some beautiful, fun and mysterious stories of my life through the lens of data.

I suppose I should consider myself a scientist. I love the pursuit of knowledge and understanding the behavior of the universe—especially as they pertain to data and mathematics. In contrast, my wife is a graphic designer who has a keen eye for beauty and quality work. She is my personal guide through the world of art, a wonderful incarnation of beauty itself (akin to Aphrodite). She expanded my knowledge of art from Van Gogh to other prominent artists like Mondrian and Rothko, and introduced me to artistic ideologies that inspired great movements around the world. It would be naive to say that art and science are unrelated. Each draws inspiration from the other whether directly or indirectly. I want to show the beauty of the world through data as it has been shown to me through art.

So that I can effectively share this beauty, some future posts will be organized into the following outline:

1) The Data: This is the information I want to post about. The data could be structured data (numbers, figures, graphs, equations, etc.) or unstructured data (such as pictures, letters, text messages, works of art, thoughts, etc). The challenge is to represent data in a way that is different from what we think of as data or that is at least interesting.

2) The Analysis: The goal is to figure out what information we can glean from the data. Just like great literature or a work of art, I ask myself the questions: How do we read data? How should we look at it? What do we notice about the data and what can we infer from what we see?

3) The Story: Here is where I tell the real story of what the data actually say. It might be a life experience or something I learned in a class. It might be the story of a friend or an allegory from another culture. It might be a joke or something funny I heard. This will be the meat of my posts.

The title of this post, Real Thoughts in a Complex World is a play on words for two different kinds of numbers in mathematics. One set of numbers are called real numbers. These are the ordinary 1, 2, 3s as well as fractions like 1/4, 2/3, 5/8 and decimal numbers that go on forever like Pi = 3.14159...
The other set of numbers are called complex numbers. They contain all of the real numbers, plus other "imaginary" numbers like the square root of -1. It's kind of like saying, "All New Yorkers are Americans but not all Americans are New Yorkers." Similarly, all real numbers are also complex numbers, but not all complex numbers are real numbers.*

It has been said by some mathematicians and physicists that we live in a complex number world more than a real number world. In a similar way, I believe that data give us a "real" insight into a world that is more "complex" and that data only tell part of the story. There is a data element and a human element to our mortal experience. I want to capture and beautify data in the context of a broad, fulfilling human experience—the one we call life.

—Derek



*For more rigorous understanding about real and complex numbers, look up "Real Analysis" and "Complex Analysis" on Wikipedia.