Free The Animal

I'm quite overdue on this, but here it is. I am increasingly overwhelmed by the great appreciation shown both in comments and emails. Here's some of the things that have been hitting the inbox, lately.

Pauline rings in from England:

I have been reading your blog/webpage since I discovered Art devany's and wanted to write that there are probably lots of us who go online to read and absorb your experiences and try to integrate them into our own lives. we don't necessarily add comments or feel ready to comment, your webpage is very easy to follow and is not too laden with scientific jargon which is hard for a layperson to follow. So, in a word, you are doing a fantastic job, even if we are marking your influence...we are listening and learning. I have been reading up on your archive material and have been wondering at what point you changed it to solely concentrate on the stone age diet EF/IF info, ie I am trying to catch up with you backwards from the start, if you know what I mean. Maybe other newcomers would like to do that and it would be nice to have a pointer to start from in the archive material. Is there a specific place where you tell your whole story, how you started, what pace you lost weight, your difficulties etc, or is it mostly in the archive materials. I have read bits here and there.

Many thanks for reading this, writing from england, originally from south africa. on a learning curve with regard to weight, diet and nutrition.

[...]

I absolutely love your new design and layout. It is so eye-catching and coming from south africa, it reminds me of the twilight, the bushmen, the trees and savanahs of africa. wonderful, inspiring. a friend of mine gave his son a spear for his 21st, an original one, as if to say go and hunt and seek out your future,let this spear be your resource, your protector and your guide. your website is an inspiration, if only I could get my partner to read it, but that's ok cos I am the cook and the shopper and the one who is always quoting him from things I read. you webpage is an inspiration and I discovered taubes lecture (I got his good calories bad calories for my birthday in june, on request) and also visited dr eades webpage today. can't get a reasonably priced copy of dr weston prices book, but will keep looking its on my wish list. I too love to write and read - thank good for the internet, its a great place to explore anything.

Thanks so much for the kind comments. To answer your question, I first began blogging about fitness in May '07, so you can certainly hit the archives and read from there. I was also blogging about other things -- politics and other aspects of current events. However, the post titles should give you a clue most of the time as to what's diet and fitness related. I announced my plans to head in a different direction early in August of this year and by September was blogging exclusively about health, diet and fitness.

Next, my good friend Robert rings in from just down the hall:

Was thinking about the heirloom tomatoes I had a few weeks back and decided to pin down the most precise def. of heirloom plants. Generally gardeners consider any plant variety not in existence before 1951 to not be heirloom because, and this is the interesting part, that year marked the beginning of widespread introduction of hybrid varieties. Heirlooms are originals, often deemed unsuitable for the mass market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant

Amazing to think of how much Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto and companies like that have shaped the foods we eat. While they deal mostly in grains and related products, they have their counterparts in all walks of agriculture. In all likelihood we have businessmen deciding what we (and the world) are going to eat.

It's pretty interesting to consider how "man made" so much of the stuff we eat is, and it's not just plants selectively bread, grafted, or genetically modified to be sweeter, less fibrous, more uniform in appearance, etc., but also the feedlot animals we eat. Even dogs and cats are essentially man made.

From Trygve:

First off, your blog is just super great so keep up the good work

I have some questions about the food,weight loss, asthma and allergy and i really hope you have the time to answear them. Would be really great.

Im a 22 year old guy. Ive tried alot of diets etc, currently I'm on the Rapid Fat Loss diet with fasting. Im around 10-12% bodyfat and have enough muscles. My goals in life are:

1. Get down to 6-8% body fat and remain there
2. Get the best health mentally and physical that i possibly can 
3. Get ridd of my asthma and allergy so i can live a life without medications. I believe people arent meant to take medications if they eat well
4. Be the best i possibly can be 

I also read that you eat less fat now? why is that? and how much are you eating now of the different nutrients?

My allergies are against dust, pollen, etc and also my stomach get uppset if I eat dairy products and also butter etc. I get a really enoying rash etc. and it's really frustrating

I see you recommend eating butter, cream, etc. many other foods that I can't eat and it seems so delicious your recipes.

I too suffered from allergies to dust, pollen, grasses and so on from an early age. Until January of this year I was on prescription medication daily for years; however, I just went through a whole spring and summer with barely a sneeze, no meds, and I used to be debilitated -- either unable to function because of the swelling, itch, congestion, runny nose, etc., or, I'd be doped and drowsy from the meds -- though that improved over time as better prescriptions became available.

I attribute the change to getting off grains in general and pretty much completely. I can cheat now and then to no effect, because that's an acute stress, not chronic daily intake. So, have you tried completely grain free, and if so, for how long? I'd say give it at least three months.

As far as dairy, I recently had an interesting experience there. I was drinking raw whole milk, figuring it would be OK, though not Paleo. One of my other issues was heartburn all the time and I had been on meds for that, which I stopped the same time as the allergy meds. However, I noticed I was getting heartburn more and more frequently, which I attributed to alcohol consumption. But guess what? I ran out of milk some weeks back and didn't get to the store for a number of days. Then, I realized: no heartburn. It wasn't the alcohol, it was the milk. Now, heavy cream or butter doesn't seem to bother me, at least not that I can tell, and I have dramatically cut my cheese intake to the level of a spice and replaced those fat calories with nuts. One thing you might try is ghee, which you can get at good stores (Indian food stores, too) or even make yourself. Ghee is 100% fat, i.e., all milk solids have been removed.

From Jay:

Over this weekend, I got time to read some of your old blog pieces and I am finding them quite fascinating. Your blog and Arthur Devany's have comparable ideas and you both have a sort of meals archive. However looking at Arthur Devany's, it encourages more of a lean meat, lower fat, wheras yours looks higher fat fattier meat. Now in all honesty I don't think fat is the true evil of American culture, but I want to raise the question. Do you think fats and oils such as a lard is terrible for the heart or is it the onion rings, fries, and fried chicken itself that causes heart disease. I was thinking about this because for a change I tried cooking my eggs in bacon grease and I had 3 strips of bacon (uncured from whole foods). In all honesty I do not feel like this is bad because I am not eating processed refined food and I am eating natural animal products. However, conventionally, people would frown on the idea of using lard or cooking/consuming bacon grease. Is animal fat such as bacon grease / lard really bad for us by itself or is it the stuff that it is used for that kills (i.e.french fries and onion rings)?

I think high fat is just dandy, but only in a relatively low-and-healthy carb environment, which is to say: carbs from veggies, fruits, nuts -- not cereal grains, refined sugars, etc. In fact, if your protein intake is where it should be and you're eating Paleo-style, it's almost guaranteed that your carbs are going to be low and your fats high -- and you ought to make them healthful fats, like all animals fats, olive oil and coconut oil. Lard and bacon drippings are just grand.

From Suzanne:

I was wondering if you can tell me what you know about the way pregnant women ate and lived way back when. I have been following a evolutionary fitness lifestyle making more and more changes as time went on. About 2 months after implementing a 24 hour fast 2 times per week I got pregnant with our third child. It seems silly to me to add grains back to my diet because I am pregnant...what about fasting? Do I just stop that all together? I understand weight loss is not my goal during pregnancy. But do you think body composition can still change during pregnany? I go to a crossfit gym 3 times a week for my intense bursts of training and do some low cardio walking etc. sporadically throughout the week.

Man I get a lot of questions about fasting and pregnancy. The short answer is that I don't really know. What I'm certain of is that we probably have evolved mechanisms that handle intermittent bouts of hunger just fine. But, there you are talking about survival and not optimal nutrition. My initial speculation when I first began thinking about this is that the logic of evolution / natural selection might suggest that when push comes to shove, nature is going to sacrifice you for the sake of the fetus. However, that appears not to be the case (PDF), at least not in rats. So, then, I suspect that if a high degree of malnourishment would damage the fetus over the health of the mother, it's because the mother is essential for the survival of the fetus and so there's no logic in compromising the mother's health for the sake of the offspring.

If you really want to fast, I'd probably limit it to once per week and keep it in the 15-18 hour range. More importantly, I would make really certain that you are getting plenty of A, D, and K2 (MK-4). If you search 'K2' on the blog you should get all the posts on that and the importance of A and D will present as well. Also, please read this recent post by Stephan on fat-soluble vitamin toxicity.

I would also strongly recommend Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price.

From Tim:

Thanks for the posts, great blog. I've forwarded your blog to numerous pals. Went down the same road, Feb 9, 2008 I was 230lbs at 5'11". I managed to hit 160lbs by May 1, 2008. Yowza. Turned 40 on May 12, 2008 and I'm in better shape now than in my 20s. Awesome stuff. I always thought I was a pretty "big guy" but it turns out I was just obese. IF and weight lifting are my current focus, and my winter project (cold here in SD) to examine some muscle mass gains.

I've been gaining knowledge on Intermittent Fasting, Hi Intensity Interval Training, lifting, low carb nutrition and all that jazz. I've sucked up all the info I can from Mark Sisson, Mike Eades, Loren Cordain, Gary Taubes, and many more blogs and websites (such as your fine fine favorite).

Just wanted to drop you a "fan letter" of sorts to say your Blog does more good than you may ever know. Thanks.

Wow, Tim. That's 70 pounds in three months. As you say: "Yowza!" It really works, doesn't it? Thank you for the kind comments; big, huge congrats to you, and never ever go back.

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