Saturday 7

Published: Sat, 07/13/24

Updated: Sun, 07/14/24

Good morning!

Here's your Saturday 7 roundup!

⚠️ What did(n't) work:

In 2016 Chile decided to combat their skyrocketing rates of obesity. (r)

In one of the world's most ambitious attempts to encourage healthy eating, they put strict regulations on foods high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat.

Companies switched from sugar to stevia to avoid the new "STOP" warning labels. Tony the Tiger disappeared from cereal boxes. Schools couldn't sell ice cream or potato chips.

Studies showed it worked. (r, r, r, r)

Consumers bought fewer items with "STOP" labelling and there were declines in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat.

But it didn't work.

In a 2019 review, 3 years after implementation, researchers found that obesity just kept on climbing. (r)

Could it be that they targeted the wrong foods?
What if it's not sugar, salt, or saturated fat that is driving obesity?

What if instead they would have just banned seed oils?

I bet they would've seen different results.

Of course, this would be impossible because most of the grocery store would disappear.

💊 What else doesn't work:

Multivitamins don't really work.

Researchers tracked 400,000 people for 20 years to discover multivitamins don't lower the risk of heart disease, cancer, or death. (r)

In fact, "mortality risk was 4% higher among multivitamin users."

You can't supplement your way around a poor diet.

🥩 What DOES work:

If the dietary guidelines were thrown out and replaced with these 2 rules, the sick care system would collapse.

1. Do not consume vegetable oils
2. Do consume at least 1 pound of beef per day

💡How to live courageously:

“People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.”

The biggest debate we should have is with ourselves.

What the heck are you doing in life?

Stop majoring in minor things.

🧠 What quote I've been thinking about:

"You will spend 40,000 hours of your life trying to make money. It's worthwhile to spend 100 hours figuring out how to keep it."

– Michael Saylor, on studying bitcoin

🥈 What is 2nd best:

In 2013 I started exploring bitcoin.

With the halving 3 years later, it re-appeared on my radar. That's when I did a deep dive into blockchains. I took courses, read papers, and listened to experts.

One kid caught my attention — Vitalik Buterin.

He was a teenager and he was a polymath. Cryptography, computer science, distributed systems, mathematics, software, hardware, economics, finance, governance. A child prodigy.

Vitalik started a project called Ethereum. It was like the Apple App Store but for blockchain applications.

I was fascinated by blockchains, impressed by Vitalik, and intrigued by Ethereum.

I bought some.

I thought Ethereum would be second best to Bitcoin.

However, in the intervening years, Ethereum's complexity soared and competition arose. But perhaps more importantly, it moved from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

My confidence in the project has dwindled ever since, which might seem odd because...

In about 2 weeks the Ethereum ETF will make it's debut on Wallstreet. It's going mainstream.

I don't know what the future holds, I think Ethereum probably has good upside potential in the short term, like over the next 6-18 months (which is why I haven't sold my ether yet), but I'm less confident long term.

What is more more clear than ever is that bitcoin is in a league of its own.

There is no second best.