Also on today’s menu:
Starch In The Diet
What About Grains?
‘Old Man’ Promoter Dick Hamilton Dies
Gov. Chris Sununu has offered positions in the state’s Parks Department and Cannon Mountain to the members of Gunstock Mountain Resort’s management team who resigned en masse on July 20.
Calling their departures “immeasurable for Gunstock,” Sununu expressed the hope that “this crisis can be avoided,” but according to recently resigned Gunstock President and General Manager Tom Day, the Gunstock Area Commission has offered no olive branch to them and has been unwilling to accept their offer to help in the transition to a new management team.
“They’ve totally ignored anything we had to say,” Day said.
Their departure has led to Gunstock’s closing to all but scheduled events as the Gunstock Area Commission works to address the crisis.
“As someone who has worked in the resort industry,” Sununu said, “I can say without hesitation that the management team at Gunstock who submitted their resignations yesterday are among the best New Hampshire has to offer, and the loss of their expertise will be felt at Gunstock for years to come.”
Since Day came to Gunstock, the county-owned facility has increased its annual revenues from $12 million to $18 million. Under Snow Sports Director Peter Weber, snow sports revenue increased from $800,000 to $1.2 million.
Starch In The Diet
Perhaps you have not heard of the Paleolithic or paleo diet, which focuses on foods that early humans would have eaten in the Paleolithic era, prior to the advent of modern farming around 10,000 years ago. The diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lean meat, avoiding processed foods, refined sugars, and starch.
Gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin has suggested that many modern ailments are due to our bodies’ inability to handle the changes in agriculture and food manufacturing. The paleo diet is based on the “evolutionary discordance hypothesis” which suggests that farming and manufacturing methods have outpaced our biological evolution, leaving us genetically ill-equipped to digest refined and processed foods.
However, scientists involved in an effort to sequence the oral microbiome of a 100,000-year-old Neanderthal — the oldest specimen ever examined — found the presence of bacteria associated with breaking down starch. The study indicates that our ancient ancestors had more carbohydrates in their diet than previously thought. Now the research team argues that a diet relatively high in starch was necessary for the advancement of human civilization.
The theory is that, in order to advance beyond other species, humans needed plenty of fuel for their comparatively large and powerful minds, and starches provide that fuel.
That means that a healthy diet should include potatoes as well as nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and lean meat.
What About Grains?
Today, plans call for Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey to meet in Istanbul to sign a deal to free up grain exports from Ukraine’s besieged Black Sea ports. Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat suppliers.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is attending the event, along with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, to see that the UN-brokered deal comes to pass.
Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin called the grain export agreement “critically important for global food security.”
The plan would enable Ukraine to export millions of tons from its grain stockpiles that have been stuck in the country’s Black Sea ports due to the war — or “special operation” — by Russia. An estimated 22 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine.
‘Old Man’ Promoter Dick Hamilton Dies
Dick Hamilton, a driving force in commemorating the Old Man of the Mountain following its collapse 19 years ago, died Tuesday at age 86 after an extended illness.
Hamilton served for decades as president of White Mountain Attractions, based in Woodstock, and he helped to establish the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund, which provided the money for Profiler Plaza on the shore of Profile Lake in Franconia Notch. The attraction honors the five-ledge formation on the southeast slope of Cannon Mountain that resembled an old man in profile. The formation collapsed on May 3, 2003.
Nineteenth-century statesman Daniel Webster had written of the formation: “Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoemakers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.”
Hamilton also was instrumental in getting the Kancamagus Highway and White Mountains Trail designated as National Scenic Byways.
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