OK, got where you're coming from. Funny thing is that I haven't been on this forum for a long time due to the madness of a poster who is no longer around, but I realize I've come back in a definitely defensive mood because of them (won't ID who they are now), so was already to get into it with you, but it's so nice not going there, being able to have an exchange of ideas without a flame war! PS - don't know how long you've been retired, but we're a lot closer in age obviously than I think you think, and in fact I remember diets that you've forgotten :-). I do know that for me, high cholesterol and all, the Atkins/protein thing works fast and well (though it's almost impossible to avoid some carbs after all), compared to others (though I'm not a 'dieter', never needed to be one until a lot more recently than otherwise). Metabolic syndrome is a consequence of our society, and how sad is it that we want to chop pieces off ourselves to 'fix' it! I do have a pretty good take on what foods are made up of though, for the record, e.g. starch is sugar is fat is... so can we KAMU? We're probably going to agree on it all anyhow :-).

I have both the David Stone and the Peter Beales DVD and they are worth it. Because I started with HTs, I was used to pruning a lot in the spring. Each year my neighbor comes over and says 'wow, you really hacked those down', like clockwork. Then she comes over a few weeks later and says 'wow, those really took off, you're lucky.'. Of course now she wants me to help her with her poor pathetic rose tree that she has in almost total shade. I even noticed that my hydrangeas, which I doubted would bloom this year because I had to cut them down to the ground after the freeze, are back, and look better than ever! Also, I just bought the AHS Pruning and Training book. I saw it in the store and it looked great so I ordered it online. A great reference for any pruning and training.

Sally2, I went and checked my son's other allergies. Regarding the cobalt allergy, it's easy to avoid clothes that have rivets and metal zippers and when it's not avoidable you can cover the metal with clear nail polish. Toluene free, preferably. And I forgot to mention the BIG one that he's allergic too: Fragrance. Fragrance is not always listed as Fragrance, sometimes it is listed are Parfum. I don't know why the French spelling is in otherwise English language labelling, but there you are. As an aside, there are chemicals called Pthalates that are the carrier for the fragrances. Pthalates are bad for you, I think they are petrochemical based and carcinogenic too, you want to avoid them even if you aren't allergic. They are in most personal care and scented home products. For cleaning more often than not I used organic Dr. Bronner's with either the Peppermint or Tea Tree essential oil. You can even use this as a body wash and some people brush their teeth with it, it's that safe.

I think about this a lot and often wonder if it's a natural thing or the way I've chosen to eat that has changed my tastes. When I was 20, I started the long process of learning how to live without processed and store bought foods that are laden with other "stuff". It took a few years, but I got there and now, thankfully, there are lots of organic and natural things to buy. I'm 39 now and I, too, like stronger breads and cheeses. I used to love tuna salad and salmon patties, now I can't stand either one. They are both so fishy now and I don't remember them being that way. The tuna dislike started a couple of years ago. Broccoli was the first green vegetable that I fell in love with at age 12, now I've just gotten to not like it too much. It's ok drowned in cheese sauce, but I used to adore it. Up until about age 20 I really liked sweets. After cutting out all the store bought foods (not just sweets - they put corn syrup in everything) my craving for sugar plummeted and I still don't care for many sweet things. I had a room mate at age 23 who loved to bake and after we both moved on to other cities I found I had some sugar cravings for a few months. I really do believe that sugar is addictive! I grew up with a cajun mother. My father's mother lived next door and she was from Georgia. I'm sure you can imagine the type of foods I was used to - rich, fattening, spicy and complex, depending on whether it was deep southern or cajun. Anyway, at 16 I moved to Norway and lived with a Norwegian family for a year. Talk about a palate change! That experience turned me into a foody because it got me out of my little, safe comfort zone. In fact, I was forced out of it. Norwegian food isn't known for being the best but there were a few things I came to love. Two things I didn't have for an entire year were chicken and beef. When I came back the first thing I wanted was a steak. Then roast, etc. Ugh, it took me a whole year to get to where I could eat beef without feeling bad. It was exactly like lpink said. It felt like it was just sitting in my stomach and not digesting. But, I'm back to eating beef again. No problems now. I used to love pork chops, but they are starting to have an off taste to me now. Almost gamey. I used to detest fat of any kind on meat. Now I love it. I also love chicken skin now and I used to hate it so much that I would pick all the breading off of fried chicken, remove the skin, then dip the chicken meat into the cooked breading! I quit smoking about 10 years ago and my tastes changed radically during that time. I only quit for 6 months then started up again. I'm in the process of quitting right now so I'm sure I'll be changing again. Last time I was practically a vegetarian because I couldn't stand the taste of meat (not even gravy!) nor the smell of it either. Raw or cooked. Strange.