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RNA in our food

What you eat can influence your gene expression.

A post titled Eat Your Grains says:

RNA from our food can survive digestion, sneak into our cells, and control our genes

Researchers studied MicroRNAs from rice that affect cholesterol levels in mice. The effect appears harmful, which is a kind of defense against predation I’d expect from something that hasn’t evolved to cooperate with animals. (Grains have probably evolved some traits that help humans, but only where farmers have long been aware of the traits). Oddly, the researchers say “miRNAs may serve as a novel essential nutrient”, but I expect them to be harmful on average, except in fruits (which have evolved to attract animals).

Interplay

Interplay is something which seems helpful at making me more spontaneous. Interplay is hard to describe, but it has aspects of meditation, dance, yoga and improv.

I’ve been to the SF group twice and the Oakland group once, and I plan to continue attending the SF group occasionally. There are a fair number of other places where you can find Interplay.

A description from SF Interplay site:

Learn to have more ease and openness through improvised movement, story, voice and stillness. The spiritual practice of InterPlay can facilitate deeper connections with the divine, other people and our planet. As improvisation becomes easier in our bodies, we have more access to our own wisdom, making us less afraid of what might cross our path. Rather than reacting with fear and paralysis in the face of what is unknown, we can breathe, dance, and find fullness.

Brainiac Dating recently added two search features which create the potential for it to be one of my favorite dating sites: one that matches people based on books listed in their profiles, and one that matches people based on overlap of all the words in their profiles.

Unfortunately, before adding those features the site was sufficiently uninspired that few people joined, so it’s hard to verify that the features are working as advertised. Please spread the word that they’ve become worth trying.