What kind of nootropics do you use?

Yep. This is only the first step, but it's a HUGE first step. Long overdue...

How about back to nootropics?  I want to be a 2000 rated player and I only have about 600 points to go.  What pill do I need to accomplish this goal?  

idk, it seems to me that there may not be a magic bullet. So far we have suggestions for some possibly dangerous nootropics of dubious effectiveness. You may have to rely on native ability. Maybe the best we can do is BHB, either endogenously via a keto diet, or exogenously via "ketones in a can".

BHB looks like interesting stuff.

And if you're ever in Western Pennsylvania, don't forget to eat  here --

https://eatbakn.com/

And give the gift of BACON.   

Now, let's dovetail some recent news with our "wide-ranging" discussion above.

My core (unstated) contention was that the Keto diet (might) work for people who are either border-line diabetic, or full diabetics.  Either way, it's a life and death matter for these people and "carbs" might be a trigger.  Sounds eminently reasonable to me.

BUT our Standard American Diet (SAD) is top-heavy with processed meat.  Many foods and sauces are professionally designed by Ph.D. chemists to be irresistible, and some of the drugs designed to work against diabetes are "just for profit drugs," that essentially prey on peoples' confusion and desperation, regarding what food to put into their mouths.

 Here's the latest example (from the BBC) of theses dangerous drugs --

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49795237

Who really knows (or believes) that cavemen ate "lots of meat," and that some variation of this diet can be the basis for a healthy diet for the public?  To me that sounds like "unscientific-mumbo-jumbo."  Nobody knows what cavemen ate.  Why assume it was anything more than occasional meat (that was likely gorged) since nobody had refrigerators at that time.

So what's a good book to read, about what to eat?  Try this --

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/a-decade-after-the-omnivores-dilemma-michael-pollan-sees-signs-of-hope/2016/06/06/85cdadfe-2c0a-11e6-9b37-42985f6a265c_story.html

Do you really believe an advanced degree in Chemical Engineering gives you greater insight into "What Cavemen Ate," than the argument presented in Michael Pollen's book, or what a Ph.D. biochemist, Professor Emeritus from Cornell, (Colin Campbell), whose research was funded by NIH, and played a important role in the original USG food pyramid and the McGovern Committee, when our nutty food fight from hell first broke out in in the USA nearly 50 years ago?

Your choice.  Free country.

**Never tell people what food to put into their mouths, and never tell them how to spend their own money.  Both are fools' errands.  Just saying.  The Jokes on Us, unfortunately.    

As do we all, or at least those of us with the "good sense" to know better.   

Sugar, salt, oil, and flour.  The 4 Horseman of Processed Food.

Small example  -- I'm still hooked on SALT, from eating canned soups as a kid.  You get trained to like "added salt."  I still add salt to both tomatoes and buttered corn-on-the-cob.

Who can resist?  LOL.

Panko breading, or simple bread crumbs and eggs, makes great fried chicken tenderloins.  Irresistible.  Great minds think alike.  Never met a calorie I didn't like.    

Sorry but, no.

Sodium chloride is sodium chloride (NaCl).  The store stuff is around 99.5% sodium chloride.  That pink stuff is 98% NaCl.  There is nothing in the store stuff that is not in the pink stuff.  However there is stuff in the pink salt that is not in regular salt.  Mainly some traces of minerals that give it its magical color. 

And store salt is no more "processed" than the pink stuff.  Salt is abundant in nature.  It comes to our table from mining (rock salt), or more commonly from evaporating salt water.  My quick google of Himilayan salt shows that it is also mined.  

There is a lot I could say about that Himilayan propaganda, but in general you should read any kind of nutrition and health food claims with a skeptical eye.  there is no industry more saturated with BS than the health food and supplement industry.  

But just a couple of points:

- Again salt is not heavily refined.  It is found in nature in a very pure form.  And it is very cheap because there is very minimal processing needed.  Evaporation of water.  

-All the negative health effects of salt listed in the left column are true.  It is no less true for a 98% pure NaCl than it is for a 99% pure NaCl.

-Salt (NaCl) raises blood pressure by the very basic chemistry of how our bodies work.  To advertise that Himilayan salt can lower blood pressure is such a complete lie and utter garbage that that bullet point alone should make any discerning reader immediately recognize that piece for the nonsense that it is.  

From Costco I have bought both Royal Basmati Rice and Himalayan Pink Salt.  The rice tastes and cooks like no other, great stuff.  Ditto with the salt.  Both items I choose for taste only.

Unlike many years ago, (today) we don't need salt to preserve food.  Nor do we haul ice from up north and store it underground to preserve meat, much like George Washington did in Old Virginia.

As for "a fist-full of supplements,"  I'm still following some of the (many) vitamin recommendations from Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, based on their repeated appearances on the Merv Griffin TV show.  Our ages are showing?  LOL. 

https://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/1999/7/interview/page-01

On balance, I believe Durk and Sandy are as eccentric as most avid chess players.  Agreed?

Big Band and Swing Dancing still go hand in hand.  

Durk Pearson is now a 76 year old man who looks like an 86 year old man.  Don't think he got the formula quite right.  

Must be Durk's caveman genes.  Probably too many drugs in the 60s, as well.

I never heard of that Durk Pearson guy before. I don't know what to think of his "growth hormone releaser" idea or some of his specialty supplements, but a lot of his other ideas (insulin responses, glycemic index, etc) seem fairly accurate, at least coming from the 1980's knowledge base. I don't think he knew how bad fructose can be, though. (We know a lot more now.)

Regarding Sandy Shaw, idk, every time I look at her, I see images of Gilda Radner's "Roseanne Roseannadanna" character.

Regarding the "table salt vs. sea salt" controversy, idk, I often use Redmond's salt. but I sometimes use regular table salt, too. I haven't tried the pink stuff, too expensive. Going forward, I'll probably lean more toward Redmond's. I need to do some more reading about the salt issue. (I have DiNicolantonio's book "The Salt Fix", but I haven't read it yet.

I know I should probably drop the salt topic at this point, but I've spent every spare moment today with my nose buried in the book "The Salt Fix". I'm about halfway through it - well worth reading so far. What might be the "money quote" of the book is on page 89:

"The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study examined over 100,000 people in seventeen countries and found that the lowest risk of death or cardiovascular events was in those consuming between 3,000 and 6,000 milligrams of sodium per day. The group consuming less than 3,000 milligrams of sodium per day had the greatest risk."

Possibly, but I'm sure it depends on what foods you're eating. Also, there might be other reasons why you might need to supplement with salt. For example, vigorous exercise can sweat out large amounts of sodium that need to be replaced. Also, you might need to add iodized salt if your diet doesn't supply enough iodine. And then, us guys on keto typically need even more sodium than normal due to the fact that a keto kidney excretes much more sodium than a non-keto kidney. There are a few other reasons, but those are the big ones.

BTW, I finished the Salt Fix book. Recommended.

There ya go! Two recommendations for the book! Well, sort of... haha