ASB Partners Nuggets 11.29.24
This is a short weekly email that covers a few things I’ve found interesting during the week.
Interesting Links/Reads
Many links are sourced from Marginal Revolution
John Gray reviews Jordan Peterson.
“The Bible is the library of stories on which the most productive, freest and most stable and peaceful societies the world has ever known are predicated – the foundation of the West, plain and simple.”
Who Americans spend their time with, by age
Trump’s pick to lead the FDA understands what is so messed up about many aspects of modern medicine
In the book, Makary is sympathetic to HRT, skeptical about a lot of antibiotic use (microbiome issues), says it is fine to ingest the cholesterol in eggs, and he is critical of earlier attempts to separate mothers and their babies. He believes silicone breast implants got a bum rap, and thinks we have screwed up the treatment of peanut allergies. A common theme is that there is too much groupthink in modern medicine and medical research. He wonders if we should be suspicious of fluoride, in part because of microbiome issues. He briefly worries about the ingestion of microplastics. I would not say I have concrete views on these questions, but overall I came away from this book comfortable with him running the FDA, at least relative to past candidates
Podcast/Videos
I appreciated the viewpoint of Second Wind Capital, which invests in small-cap, under-the-radar, and special-situation stocks.
How parents can optimize their children’s bone health through diet (calcium and vitamin D), sunlight exposure, and physical activity [27:30]
Lifestyle interventions to allow our kids to reach their genetic potential
Peter asks, “What can I be doing to ensure that my 7-year-old, 10-year-old, and 16-year-old are set up for the best life possible when it comes to bone health, given that I’ve already given them something pretty good? [genetics]”
The low-hanging fruit is diet
A balanced diet is important for everything
You probably need about 1000 mg of calcium a day and vitamin D so you can absorb it from your gut
Dairy by far is the most abundant and bioavailable source of calcium, and you can get most of what you need from 250 mL of milk (8.5 ounces), 3 times a day
“Not too many people drinking that amount of milk.”‒ Belinda Beck
There are other sources: cheese, yogurt, ice cream
Low fat milk actually has more calcium in it just by virtue of the fact if you take the fat out, you can fit more calcium in the same volume
Most milk is fortified with vitamin D
By far the easiest way to get vitamin D is the sun
In Australia, the sun is extremely strong, and there is a high rate of skin cancer ‒ so people cover up, slather in sunscreen, hats to the extent that we’ve set ourselves up to have vitamin D deficiency
The best sports and activities for promoting bone health, weight training for kids, and advice for parents [36:30]
Do you ever get asked the question, “Are there certain sports that are going to be better than other sports?”
It absolutely is extremely important, the type of loading you’re doing for bone
If we’re talking about heart, lungs, mental health, metabolism, virtually anything is better than nothing
But if you really want to make a difference for bone, get most bang for your buck, then you absolutely are looking for high load activities and they include things that include jumping and landing, and strong muscle movements
The other thing that is probably important is variety within the sport and across sports
I hope you enjoyed it.
Adam