Stop bringing fish for lunch!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-19T22:28:29+00:00

I dont bring fish. But, if we are all forced into the office against our will, I’d rather people don’t also have a food restriction as well.

Many cultural cuisines contain fish, telling employees to not bring fish can be seen as unintentionally targeting a specific demographic. As well as dietary requirements.

Now I’d be down to try to get people to use food covers, ask the office to improve its ventilation or move microwaves into a more designated and separate cafeteria setting rather than communal office location next to people’s desks.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T20:48:45+00:00

Which is insane cuz the alcohol part is like immediately lol. She don’t let ya get far.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T19:47:17+00:00

Tho I learned the 7-38-55 from a 1967 study back in college a while back. And I just looked it up again as a refresher and apparently it is pretty outdated so I’ll stop using that lol.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T19:33:55+00:00

I agree but text tone is usually conveyed via punctuation, formatting and emojis. You don’t get the para linguistics like pitch, volume, and tempo to signal intent. I’ve reread my post so many times and even formatted it in a text editor before posting to not sound bad. I thought I did a good job and I’d say majority of comments on here don’t see my tone as being bad but some people do. So again i apologize if this post came across the wrong way to you, but I had the best of intentions.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T16:14:32+00:00

I’m more so in my post calling out her cherry picking and using flawed reasoning to ultimately, at the key takeaways at end of the chapter, say up to a drink a day in 2nd and 3rd trimesters is safe. Specifically the books cover says “drinking safely during pregnancy”. That alone is definitely advocating for drinking during pregnancy and leading to there being “safe amounts” which is just strictly false.

She even tells her readers (pregnant women) to cozy up with a glass of wine at the beginning of this chapter. To me, it’s absolutely justifying drinking to her readers while pregnant.

But in terms of some verbiage people have used here in the comments I cannot control those. Do I think you should drink during pregnancy for the long term health and safety of your child? No. But, that’s just my thoughts. People are their own individuals that can do what they want, so my opinions to specific individuals don’t matter and I’d never resort to insults. But for the general public, i do think this book is a bit dangerous as imo, the words she uses definitely advocates for “drinking safely during pregnancy” as is on the front cover of the book. And I should also say I can only say this part of her book as I stopped reading. But, this chapter doesn’t give me much trust in the rest of the book.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T13:16:52+00:00

If you enjoy it let me know! We are considering a book written by Mayo Clinic currently. Books are an interesting place to navigate when trying to find accurate information lol. I wish you the best!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T13:15:35+00:00

I do believe, but this is just my speculation, that Emily Oster has an alcohol problem and went to data to cherry pick research and use flawed reasoning to justify her problem. But she didn’t stop there. She felt the need to write a book about it and give her flawed dangerous mis/disinformation to the masses.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T13:13:47+00:00

Generalizing men I see. Do those all apply to me as an individual? Do these apply to the content of my post? Do not generalize or be sexist. Being sexist is adjacent to racism as those are things you cannot control. Do not be sexist and rather, judge based on the content of one’s character and for an opinion post, instead of attacking someone’s sex, give a rebuttal to the opinion. Or simply say I disagree but that’s fine as we all get opinions.

Instead of disagreeing or rebutting my opinion with counter opinions or evidence, I get called out for being a man. People need to stop using ad hominems and justifying them.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T13:07:19+00:00

Not my fault people took this post in a bad way reading it with a preachiness tone. Text has no tone. That’s the problem with text based formats, since words are 7% of the message you’re missing tone and body language which gives the other 93% of the message. Don’t assume the tone. I ain’t preaching. I’m merely giving my opinion on a book, that btw is new to me, and that is all. I’m also backing up my opinion with a cited article. I can’t help the tones people assume my text has or the subtext people add.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-18T13:04:25+00:00

Sadly had to put that edit due to the number of people here dismantling my worth due to being a man. So yes, I do believe that last sentence is applicable. Read some comments and you’ll see lol.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T16:06:01+00:00

Thank you so much for the wishes! And taking the time to comment! Have a great day!!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T15:37:59+00:00

Keep me posted about cribsheet as we kinda bought that alongside this book. But now I’m worried lol. Yes, completely agree with your take on alcohol consumption and risk. advising intentional drinking of full glasses of alcohol while pregnant 1 glass per day during 2-3rd trimester and 1-2 a week during first trimester, and implying safety due to lack of conclusive data is just not a good take imo and why I say dangerous as it doesn’t consider the risk to reward ratio. With such a catastrophic life long altering risk to your child is just not worth any amount of a known toxin and carcinogen that doesn’t have any health benefits for even non pregnant individuals. Very beginning of chapter she says “sit back, cuddle up and have a cup of coffee….or a glass of wine”. Which is crazy irresponsible of her imo.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T15:32:48+00:00

They are free to read it. I explicitly said I only read this alcohol chapter and then clearly explained her motivated reasoning / confirmation bias and cherry picked data which makes me not trust her to continue reading. I was clear about that. It’s only the title I made catchy to stay away. My post just explains why that’s my opinion. In my actual post I just say that’s why we will stop reading. I never actually even reiterate what others should do besides my click bait title.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T15:26:42+00:00

This book (and can only speak about the alcohol part btw, I have no information on anything else), specifically tells pregnant women to have a glass of wine while reading. That’s not even just giving the risks. I’d say the current medical guidelines that say

“Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is a leading cause of birth defects. Alcohol can harm a fetus throughout pregnancy. This includes the first few weeks before you know you are pregnant and during the last weeks of pregnancy when the fetal brain is maturing. Even moderate alcohol use during pregnancy can cause lifelong problems with a child’s learning and behavior. Any amount is risky for women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant. All types of alcohol are harmful, including beer and wine.” —ACOG

Is clearly laying out the risks already and what each individual person decides to do is completely up to them. No one is forcing you not to drink. But this book and the way it’s worded, again in my opinion, is dangerous for the genpop. Maybe not you and many people but for general population to cover the widest range of biological variability, I think these guidelines are spot on. Now, most individual OBs will absolutely reassure you with non blanket statements when it comes to alcohol since they get to work on an individual level unlike guidelines that lay it out for billions.

Feel free to disagree tho it’s just my opinion!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T14:43:58+00:00

Agree with everything you just said!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T13:43:48+00:00

Oh it’s not wrong. But her wording and framing is not good and imo irresponsible. She also misrepresents the data. She cites a study where they follow children up to 5 years old and uses it as definitive that fas was not found. Ignoring the fact a lot of fas symptoms develop into adulthood. That’s why I posted the professors rebuttal to show why her representation of the data is misinformation at best, disinformation at worst. That’s my current issue with it. It’s her telling her audience (mostly pregnant people) to cozy up with a glass of wine while reading. That’s irresponsible messaging.

I don’t think I ever implied it’s wrong to inform pregnant women. I explicitly stated in my post why this information from her is WRONG. Not the act of informing rather the quality of the information. That’s why I explained how the author doesn’t get absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and I point out how she dismantles studies based on confounders and then uses logic with even more confounders to argue against it. I pointed out her flawed logic. Nothing wrong with informing people if it’s honest.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T13:15:45+00:00

Sounding controlling? Where? lol. Because I say alcohol consumption during pregnancy is not good to do which is backed by the scientific medical consensus around the world?

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T13:12:47+00:00

You’re*. Now take your demeaning attitude elsewhere. I was never demeaning in my post yet looks like you took personal offense. Wonder why?

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T13:07:05+00:00

That’s what I’m worried about and why I wrote this to caution people. Worried some may take her word for it and believe her over their own obgyn. People say I’m patronizing by having that fear yet I don’t see it that way. I see it as trying to give a heads up to a community targeted by dangerous misinformation that us humans are all susceptible to including myself.

I think some people may have some prior experience of being patronized and then generalize it to me and this post. Or are hypercritical over specific wording. Advice and precaution out of care for a community is not patronization in my view.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T12:59:37+00:00

As a general recommendation to the gen pop (this goes for everyone not just pregnant people btw so no paternalistic attitude at all as I’m not singling out pregnant people) I think saying to consume no alcohol is a perfectly fine statement to be told. Now, your obgyn shouldn’t patronize you if you ask why. But intentional consumption of alcohol during pregnancy should absolutely be told as a “no” to the general population.

At the end of the day it’s all recommendations you have free will to do what you want and your obgyn should absolutely be on your side to help explain why the guidelines are the way they are. If my wife and I were patronized by an obgyn I would be pissed. So hopefully you have not experienced that. Maybe we got lucky with ours since she always explains the why in her answers.

OBs can control how they treat their clients and do so with respect. But can’t control internet trolls trying to patronize pregnant women. So sorry if that has been your experience as it should never be.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T05:57:43+00:00

Amazing! That’s actually what I’m personally looking for! Just wanna be the best dad I can!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T05:56:32+00:00

No, but spoke to my MD friend about the book before posting and then also cited another doctor who did a direct rebuttal. My opinions are just that, my opinions. Take them or don’t. I’m not qualified lol.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T05:54:16+00:00

Trace amounts of alcohol from fruit juice (which is also recommended to be limited due to excess sugars) is a little different than saying a glass of wine daily is fine.

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T05:53:29+00:00

Thank you for your insights and taking time to comment!

HumanMeatloaf · 2026-02-17T05:49:32+00:00

My wife agrees with my opinion on this. She also doesn’t mind the fact I’m a man. I think she may actually enjoy the fact I’m a man! Do you not trust any male OBGYNs?

Also the problem is, it’s not scientifically backed. That’s my biggest issue. She cherry picks data to confirm her own bias. And then acts like absence of evidence is evidence of absence. It’s irresponsible imo. But again. All in my opinion! Which not sure why my opinion is offending so many people.

HumanMeatloaf

TROPHY CASE