Asian Squirt: Fill & Download for Free

I never noticed that.I travel a lot and doubt the Chinese people actually wash their hands less than any other groups.I have read and heard so many times about travelers getting sick and blaming it on street foods or new foods in foreign countries but as a frequent traveler I tell people to ALWAYS wash their hands before they eat when traveling. I think hand washing when traveling is rather uncommon, causing plenty of Montezuma's Revenge or Asian Squirts.BTW; in 51 years of traveling the world I have only been sick twice, the last was shortly after eating at McDonald’s in the Manila Philippines airport.

Here’s the skinny on China: It is no longer skinny.The obesity rate has tripled in the past ten years.China has the largest number of obese children in the world.“China also had 57 million obese adults, second globally to the United States with 79 million.”This is in part due to the higher population; no doubt they will surpass the US. However, this is all based on BMI. This is merely a relationship of your height and weight.Asians often have smaller frames and less muscle (not always, just often, see below+left), and thus naturally have less body weight per unit height.Anecdotally, I see a lot of skinny-fat people here. They probably are not overweight based on BMI, but they have a sizeable belly, filled with visceral fat that is causing inflammation and sickness.And the numbers don’t lie; back in 2010, the adult diabetes rate was 11.6%; prediabetes was around 32%. These numbers have certainly increased. Many are undiagnosed — the numbers could be closer to 15% and 40% by now.Only 25% receive care; this disease is often not talked about.The above difference in frames and muscle mass is why Asians typically get metabolic diseases at a lower BMI than westerners do; it’s not the weight that causes the problems, it’s the inflammatory nature of the belly fat.Before I get called a racist, this is merely observing scientific data to answer a question. I love China and have lived here almost a decade; I just find it sad that I have to add that qualification to every post that might somehow be construed as not adorational towards the country.Now, is rice causing these issues? Noodles? Or other traditional foods?Hunanese food, where my wife is from.Dim sum, perhaps?Or is it simply the encroachment of Western hamburgers and pizza?Or perhaps bubble tea blowing up?The answer, no doubt, is a mixture — increased calories are what make you fat, not just carbs.However, there are other factors unique to China.First, China is becoming wealthy.Incredibly so, in some circumstances, which partially explains that some cities have an over 20% obesity rate, while other places it's relatively low. Increased food consumption is just what happens when you have more disposable income: you tend to dispose some of it on food.Second, it wasn’t that long ago — around 1960 — that China was starving.How many Europeans or American 60–75 year olds grew up 吃土 — “eating dirt”?Not many.How many in China?A lot.Tens of millions died, something often ignored or covered up; it is simply not talked about, but that age group is different. You can see it in their eyes…they went through some dark times.This changes you, mentally. I see many of that generation have a different attitude towards life, and in particular, food. Many are still in a “scarcity mentality.” Furthermore, the Chinese family is much closer than in America and other countries.The grandparents live with the family in the majority of cases, and are the ones that raise the children. They are heads of the household. They cook. They feed the little squirts. This “scarcity mentality” often results in overfeeding, sometimes drastically so. This extends to when eating out; I occasionally see a child get full and then the grandparents literally scream at them in the middle of the restaurant that they need to keep eating. (你没吃饱啦！多吃多吃！！！！）However, these aren’t just mentality changes. It goes deeper than that.Who survives a famine?Those who are efficient at processing and storing calories. Those who have slower metabolic rates. Those who can survive and thrive with less muscle mass. Those who were fatter to start with. Those who were smart or cunning or hardworking enough to get food when there simply wasn’t enough for everyone.These types of natural selection events are, without exaggeration, how evolution happens, and starvation often leads to those with increased caloric seeking and storage capacities to survive, and pass on their genes.Right now is a time of plenty like never before in Chinese history. For the younger generation, this has resulted in a lot of health problems, as they are fundamentally biologically not suited to this caloric landscape.Follow me on Instagram for daily diet and training tips! Subscribe to my YouTube channel for longer form, informative content. Or both. Keep that immune system strong :)

This is the most depressing painting I have ever seen:All images courtesy of GoogleIt isn't the fact that the lines are simplistic and childlike, or that this painting, and others like it, are selling from anywhere between $250–5,000 in online galleries and auctions.It isn't because the painting isn't very good or even yet, that art collectors the world over are lending rave reviews online; the reviews adding to the artist's popularity, and making people want to seek out their work, ensuring it will be a very long time before this artist can even contemplate a rest, or phase out into an easy retirement.This artist is set for life!Such is the demand for their art.So, why then, is this painting so depressing to me?This painting is depressing because it was painted by an elephant!Suda, the artist, resides in the Maetaeng Elephant Park in Northern Thailand. Suda lives there, along with other Asian elephants, who spend their long days painting, in order to entertain the many visitors to the park.These tourists buy the paintings created by the majestic creatures, innocently believing they are helping support a good cause.What they don't realize is, these elephants have been painstakingly trained, and tortured, in order for them to learn the basic brushstrokes to create these “masterpieces” they are paying top dollar for, just to hang on their walls.The elephants have been taught to recreate the same paintings over and over and over again.The same basic shapes on every canvas!The mahouts stand very close to the elephants, with bullhooks at the ready, and give them cues as to where the brushstrokes belong.In actuality, it is the mahouts who are painting these works, by proxy!The tourists don't know this is a trick.What the tourists see when they visit Suda's park (and others like it) is an elephant with a paintbrush and canvas, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, while painting a relaxing self-portrait and using its creativity of its own volition.These elephants are not being creative.Elephants do not like to paint!They like taking mudbaths to soothe their sunburned skin.They like to squirt each other while taking a dip in the pond.They like socializing and frolicking with their friends.They like exploring, and pulling leaves, touching each other with their delicate trunks, and verbalizing with their unique, trumpeting songs.They like to play.Elephants like bananas!Oh, sweet, delicious bananas!And they know they will get a reward, maybe a banana, if they do their “circus tricks” for the crowd.Just like any captive creature that humankind has dominated, imprisoned and exploited for financial gain; an elephant knows that to complete a trick will bring about a reward.What a rip-off!Elephants that paint, stand under the glare of the hot sun all day. They get painful sunburns without the benefit of a mudbath to protect them.Tourists don't like dirty elephants.They slave for us humans. We ride on their painful, sunburned backs.They are constantly bullhooked by cruel mahouts if they don't mind.Their delicate ears show the scars from a hundred “corrections” used in training a single proper brushstroke.When I look upon Suda's painting, I do not see the brilliant work of a clever, “artistic” elephant, but a tortured, imprisoned soul.I see elephant tears.Maetang Elephant Park (Chiang Mai, Thailand): Top Tips Before You Go - TripAdvisorThailand's elephant tourism industryElephant Artists? Here’s Why Making an Elephant Paint is Cruel, Not CuteELEPHANT CRUELTY IN THAILAND | Organic Fair Trade T-Shirts