Contrasting coffee and tea

In the Washington Post Anahad O’Connor, Aaron Steckelberg, and Garland Potts have an interesting article (no paywall) whose focus is the contrast between coffee and tea. (Comparing two things is pointing out the ways in which they are similar; contrasting them is pointing out how they differ. Thus the traditional school directive “Compare and contrast…”)

One comment in the article surprised me:

So far, studies haven’t found a link between tea consumption and cancer prevention. One meta-analysis of 113 studies found “little evidence to support the hypothesis that tea drinking is associated with cancer risk.”

What?! I have long been under the impression that green tea reduces the risk of cancer substantially, and white tea does so even more. So I quickly DuckDuckWent and found this study at the top of the list: “Cancer prevention by green tea: evidence from epidemiologic studies.” The abstract:

In contrast to the consistent results of an inhibitory effect of green tea extracts and tea polyphenols on the development and growth of carcinogen-induced tumors in experimental animal models, results from human studies are mixed. Both observational and intervention studies have provided evidence in support of a protective role of green tea intake in the development of oral-digestive tract cancer or an inhibitory role of oral supplementation of green tea extract on a precancerous lesion of oral cavity. Evidence in support of green tea intake against the development of liver cancer risk is limited and inconsistent. An inverse association between green tea intake and lung cancer risk has been observed among never smokers but not among smokers. Although observational studies do not support a beneficial role of tea intake against the development of prostate cancer, several phase 2 clinical trials have shown an inhibitory effect of green tea extract against the progression of prostate premalignant lesions to malignant tumors. Prospective epidemiologic studies so far have not provided evidence for a protective effect of green tea consumption on breast cancer development. Current data neither confirm nor refute a definitive cancer-preventive role of green tea intake. Large randomized intervention trials on the efficacy of green tea polyphenols or extracts are required before a recommendation for green tea consumption for cancer prevention should be made.

Michael Greger MD frequently (and vehemently) inveighs against applying to people the results of nutritional studies based on tests in mice or fruit flies or other non-human subjects, and even more against applying the results of in vitro studies whose findings are based on what happened in a petri dish.

At any rate, I learned something new, though I think I’ll stick with tea as my morning beverage and have coffee only occasionally. But that might change.

What I hate about coffee is that if I am drinking it regularly, then if I stop I have painful physical withdrawal — lethargy and debilitating headaches. So even if I do drink it, it will be a once-a-week beverage at most.

“Your Money or Your Life”‘s Vicki Robin interviewed

Many years ago, I read Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, and over time it altered the trajectory of my financial life. (The current version is an update of the original.) The book is among those I find myself repeatedly recommending, and for good reason. (It’s listed in the Personal Development section.)

Today Helaine Olen of the Washington Post has a report (no paywall) on her visit with Robin:

When I told Vicki Robin I wanted to visit her at her home on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound just north of Seattle, she told me it might be difficult: She could offer me only a foldout sofa. She was renting out her guest rooms below market rate, she said, to people who needed housing.

I laughed. The woman who once famously lived with her companion on about $1,000 per month didn’t want me or The Post — owned by Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world — to pay for a hotel?

Before the hustle economy and the “Great Resignation,” there was Robin and her partner, Joe Dominguez. Their book “Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence,” published 30 years ago this fall, asked us to take control of our financial and work lives by eschewing mindless spending and instead concentrating on what matters, such as family, friends and hobbies.

The book is a thought-provoking mix of common-sense financial advice, philosophical exploration and scathing critique — of both consumer culture, and the way we allow work to dominate our lives. It is an argument that, in many ways, foreshadowed our times.

Yet today, “Your Money or Your Life” — which still sells thousands of copies a year — is rarely mentioned in the context of our current labor moment. Instead, its legacy is mostly celebrated by the tech-bro-heavy, more apolitical FIRE movement — that’s Financial Independence, Retire Early. Adherents have embraced the frugal philosophy and desire for freedom, but not the book’s greater ambitions.

Robin appreciates her younger acolytes, but is concerned that a vital piece of her message has been lost in translation. The FIRE iteration, she says, is often “absent any social or political critique.” But “Your Money or Your Life” was never supposed to be just a self-help guide to saving your own financial life. For Robin, the vision 30 years ago — and the one she still believes in today — was always about how to rescue us all.

Robin, now 77, and Dominguez came out of 1960s alternative counterculture, embracing its critique of American consumerism as a personally and environmentally destructive force. Dominguez, a Wall Street analyst, calculated he would need to save $100,000 and invest it in government bonds to live modestly on the passive income it generated for the rest of his life. When he came up with that sum, he resigned.

The heart of “Your Money or Your Life” is . . .

Continue reading. (no paywall)

The budget planning and tracking system I now use owes a lot to Your Money or Your Life.

Achilles ‘n Ascension

Yesterday’s soap included Scotch whisky, and today’s includes Kentucky bourbon whiskey (with appropriate spellings). Van Yulay soaps are a favorite, and I’m getting to the end of my tub of Achilles shaving soap, whose ingredients are:

Stearic Acid, Coconut Fatty Acid, Palm Stearic, Castor, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Tobacco Tea, Aloe Vera, Coconut-Emu-Tallow-Meadow Foam-Borage-Argan- Oils, Kentucky Bourbon, Sodium Lactate, Herbal Ground Tea, Calendula, Extracts, Poly Quats, Allantoin, Silica, Bentonite & Kaolin Clay, Glycerin Soap, Tobacco Absolute, Mica and Fragrance.

I think I might but a new tub of this one, which I like a lot: “Tobacco with the perfect amount of Kentucky bourbon, Earthy wild notes with rosewood, cedar, smoke, and sweet birch.” At the link above, the description discusses the efficacy of various ingredients. (One thing that Meißner Tremonia (yesterday’s soap’s maker) and Van Yulay have in common: the formulation varies from soap to soap.)

My pre-Vulfix Simpson Persia Jar 2 Super easily created a super lather, and Phoenix Artisan’s Ascension glided smoothly through the stubble, removing every track in three very comfortable passes.

A good splash of Achilles aftershave (with no need for Hydrating Gel — very nice formula for this as well), and the day begins.

The tea this morning is Murchie’s Editors’ Blend: “Ceylon adds depth and a brisk sparkling finish, Yunnan provides smoothness and sweetness and Keemun ties it together.”