I just finished my yummy breakfast of 5 slices of uncured bacon and
scrambled eggs.  For those of you who may not have gone to the trouble
of getting it from your butcher (mine refers to it as "fatback" and
sells it for $1.99/lb), I'd highly recommend it.

I hadn't heard of it until I read "Neanderthin" 3rd edition (not sure if
Ray mentions it in the 4th edition).  I'm sure glad I know about it now
tho.  Usually when I eat bacon from the store, I end up feeling a vague
sort of "yuk."  I guess that would be from all the sodium, nitrates and
other junk in it.  I feel great after eating this natural, uncured
stuff.  The only thing is that it seems to get much harder and crispier
than regular bacon, but that's ok if there's no getting around it.  Does
anyone have any insight about that in terms of cooking method?  I've
just been cooking mine in a pan like regular store bacon.  I also save
the bacon grease in a can in the fridge for later use as a cooking oil.

OK, I'm feeling particularly grateful this morning, so I have to get
this off my chest:

Ray, thanks for all your inspiration, born out of personal adversity,
gained insight and hard work.  More and more every day I feel more
secure in my commitment to and conviction about this way of life.  I
started out with Atkins simply to lose weight and quickly learned that
there is much more to it than just weight loss.  I still have about 225
lbs to lose (have lost 55 since October '99) so certainly that's
important, but my approach is increasingly that of "naturalizing" my
food plan according to paleo ideas and because of that I know I'll get
there eventually and be that much more healthy when I do.  I know this
is just "plain right" whereas my old dieting patterns never seemed
right.  I'm frustrated and anxious about why it's taking the mainstream
medical community so long to figure this out.  I mean, I know about all
the economic factors driving their "ignorance" but nonetheless it's hard
to believe that if they just took a little time to read a few key things
(especially items from Ray's bibliography), they wouldn't  wake up and
smell the roses.  Ok, enough of that - I know you all share my
sentiment  :)

And, thanks to everyone who supports the effort by posting to this list!

Chuck
440 (clueless) >>> 385 (learning each day) >>> future???  :)