“Let’s go merck!” — Dustin Pedroia

Merck makes a wide range of pharmaceuticals, I'm not sure which one Dustin is taking.

Merck makes a wide range of pharmaceuticals, I'm not sure which one Dustin is taking.

If I had bad allergies, I'd probably be pretty excited about Claritin.

If you had bad allergies, I'd advise you you explore the concept of "food combining".

Proper diet cures all.

This concludes my sermon for today.

Joe is right: bad love life, try the "lose weight fats" diet. Bad allergies: don't eat things you aren't allergic to! Too much student loan debt: try the ramen noodles and pork and beans diet!

Not quite. It's what you eat, when you eat it, and what you eat it with.

I can't play shooters on consoles. Hopefully they start to integrate keybosrd-mouse more.

"The 27-year-old outfielder has turned himself into a baseball-playing behemoth. With Ethier now lifting an inhuman amount of weight, the memories of when Pedroia first met the once-skinny kid from Phoenix seem a lifetime ago."

Sure, the steroid era is over.

Reggie Bush squats 550 and benches 400.

How much can he leg press?

No idea. Just heard Moose Johnston tell Dan Patrick the above 2 stats yesterday.

Dusty Pedroia + Andre Ethier = BFF? Odd.

It's what you eat, when you eat it, and what you eat it with.

And that's gonna fix my cat and grass allergies?

Dusty Pedroia + Andre Ethier = BFF? Odd.

As it says in the article, they did go to college together.

And that's gonna fix my cat and grass allergies?

Sure. Just make a salad out of this.

what's his gamer tag for call of duty? now that's one xbox live chat session i wouldn't mute!

...and benches 400.

Is that believable? Maybe he is, but I doubt there are many in the NFL at his body weight doing that.

for all intent and purposes

Ladies and gentlemen, professional writing.

Proper diet cures all.

This is absolutely, unequivocally, and almost without exception untrue. Nothing I eat is ever going to change the fact that I'm violently allergic to grass, dogwood pollen, and bees. This kind of mumbo-jumbo attitude kills people.

Sure, the steroid era is over.

My thoughts exactly. Moreover, what sort of fool would freely submit to this sort of article, even if clean, in the present environment? This is how reputations are destroyed. Or made, I suppose.

Is that believable? Maybe he is, but I doubt there are many in the NFL at his body weight doing that

Does not surprise me that an NFL running back benches 400. Seems like it would be typical. I work with several people who can bench close to that. I would be shocked if a class of elite athletes in a strength-dependent sport were not as strong as elite office workers.

One thing about the bench press is that short arms are much better for lifting weights than long arms. My guess is a guy like Ray Rice at 5'7 benches more than Todd Heap at 6'5. Todd's size might give him advantages in other feats of strength, but not the bench.

And that's gonna fix my cat and grass allergies?

Stop eating cats & grass. I mean, duh.

How many MVPs do you know who play Call of Duty?

for all intent and purposes



Ladies and gentlemen, professional writing.

The singular "intent" could just be a typo, though. Whereas the oft-seen "for all intensive purposes" is just a proclamation of "hey, I'm not very bright!" (See also: "one in the same" for the correct "one and the same," "tow the line" for "toe the line," "the Yankees are OK" for "the Yankees should be destroyed," "gef is not a genius" for "gef is a genius," etc.)

The singular "intent" could just be a typo, though.

Quit raining on my parade, man.

#12...please Google "Food Combining" and read. You'll see a a simple theory that...works. I will attest that after almost 4 weeks on the diet, I am feeling much better than I did before I started it (which was awful). No more digestive problems, and there is a connection between poor digestion and many ailments, including allergies.

So as long as I eat the correct thing with a peanut, I won't undergo violent, anaphylactic death?

Yeah, I'll be over here not testing that theory.

I wasn't referring to food allergies. We were discussing allergies to cats and grass. Yeah, I said "proper diet cures all." Hyperbole. If you don't believe eating foods in "improper combinations" leads to digestive problems, which lead to all sorts of ailments (like allergies), then you're closed minded. I know that when I follow the program, I feel much much better, and am close to a full remission from my latest flare of ulcerative colitis. So, be skeptical, or explore the possibilities.

#12...please Google "Food Combining" and read. You'll see a a simple theory that...works.

To be fair, if it's on the Internets it must be true.

Right, everything on the Internets is BS...except Sabermetrics.

The most important rule, is this: Don't mix starch foods with protein foods at the same meal.

But, but ... this is everything good. What if I want a sandwich? Do I eat the meat now and the bread two hours later?

I know. No meat sandwiches is a tough thing to take.

I have pita pockets with hummus, romaine lettuce and red bell pepper. Or eggplant subs, with sauce, no cheese. That satisfies my sandwich cravings (I'm a bread guy...need my bread).

No meat sandwiches? That's just the beginning! No meat and potatoes. No chicken and dumplings. No pork and beans. No spaghetti and meatballs. No bacon with breakfast, or no toast. Can you even do sushi? You are living a nightmare.

Reggie Bush squats 550 and benches 400.

Yeah but he couldn't run over my grandma if she were playing safety.

I wasn't referring to food allergies. We were discussing allergies to cats and grass. Yeah, I said "proper diet cures all." Hyperbole. If you don't believe eating foods in "improper combinations" leads to digestive problems, which lead to all sorts of ailments (like allergies), then you're closed minded. I know that when I follow the program, I feel much much better, and am close to a full remission from my latest flare of ulcerative colitis. So, be skeptical, or explore the possibilities.

If your point is "a healthy and balanced diet will make you feel better" I think you will get little argument from anyone (though around here there is always someone). Your original statement was pretty far from that though.

No meat sandwiches? That's just the beginning! No meat and potatoes. No chicken and dumplings. No pork and beans. No spaghetti and meatballs. No bacon with breakfast, or no toast. Can you even do sushi? You are living a nightmare.

Big damned deal. I haven't been a vegetarian in something like 7 years, & even so I never* eat anything you just named.

As for what I do eat ... hell, apparently nothing. (And when the Indian place discontinues its lunch buffet in a month, I guess I'll be eating less than nothing.) Even though I look like I had Boog Powell for lunch. *sigh*

But, uh, I'm not allergic to bees, grass or cats, by god.


*Not quite true -- I think I had chicken & dumplings once last year.

Big damned deal. I haven't been a vegetarian in something like 7 years, & even so I never* eat anything you just named.

There's something extra weird about imagining a naked burger on a plate, and then the bun and fries coming a few hours later.

32...no, I WAS living a nightmare. Food isn't what makes my life satisfying and fulfilling. Health is. Now, I'm healthier, on my way to good health.

34.."Balanced diet" means different things to do different people.

It is weird eating the hamburger without the bun, but unless I want to eliminate hamburger completely, then that's how I eat it. I still use mustard and ketchup, though.

I blame the turn this thread took for my deciding to pick up a meatball sandwich on the way home last night. And for my not feeling so great after eating it.

Damn you all! Well, except for Bivens, I suppose.

I work with several people who can bench close to that.

Do they weigh 200lbs though? Four hundred pounds is a lot of weight.

Joe - Before you started "food combining", did you follow a structured diet? My experience with people going on these sorts of diets is that they have very good outcomes from the careful structuring of the diet and the constant attention to what they eat. These are good diets, and people should follow them, and I'm sure your seeing real improvement in your life and I'm happy because that's a happy thing. But I'm profoundly skeptical that the precise arrangement of the structuring of this diet has any real effects beyond that it's a healthy, structured diet.

I remember a friend of mine in college went on a "blood type diet." It said that since he was A-negative, he needed to be eating more greens and fewer white starches, as well as a variety of more obscure vitamins and such. After a month on a diet, he was feeling much healthier and telling everyone in our apartment that they needed to start the blood type diet. He was talking to another friend of mine, a really soft-spoken Southern girl who majored in bio. She sat there for ten minutes, listening politely as he ran through his blood type diet spiel, explained the evolutionary basis of the diet and offered his testimony on how much better he felt. She paused, then asked, "do you know what a blood type is?"

I didn't want to tell Paul to stop talking about the blood type diet because obviously taking care of what he ate was really good, and the diet he'd undertaken was fabulously healthy. It just had nothing to do with his blood type.

There's simply no scientific basis to the underlying claims of "food combining", and there are no even mildly rigorous studies which show effects beyond the effects of keeping to a structured diet. But paying attention to what you eat is really good, and if this diet helps you do that, then fabulous.