Archive for October 2008
Reader Food Pics
Adam sends this along. Meat & eggs, over some greens. Never thought of putting eggs with greens, but why not? Do you sometimes want something light, different, and a little unconventional for breakfast? Brigitte emails this one.
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“Raw For 30 Days” – Vegan Cure for Diabetes
Well why not give the other side of the spectrum a little recognition? Just doing a quick round of research on Rebee Gabriel Cousens, he seems a fine gentleman to me. Now, I don't know why anyone would want to adopt the diet of hominids that went extinct about 2.5 million years ago, but on the other hand, modern civilization now makes it possible for a modern human to eat vegan and survive. So be it. Not my preference; not only am I essentially an animal -- one with a very carnivorous side; naturally -- but I think there are tons of important nutrients in the muscle, fat, organs, milk, and eggs of other animals -- nutrients that are very important to a healthy and fulfilled life as a human being. After all, our lines didn't go extinct. It was the high-density nutrition of animals that not only carried us, but gave us the huge energy-gobbling brains we have -- brains that can now be put to work resurrecting failed evolutionary paths. Knock yourselves out, I guess. But, and it must be emphasized, we're on the same page about a lot of things: whole, natural, preferably organically produced real foods....
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Hold Everything! Cauliflower-Crust Pizza?
Well just as I was finishing up a comment on Stephan's latest entry (the whole "acid-base balance" thing) -- ironically enough about not being so obsessed with food -- I decided to go check out Debs' fabulous food blog, as it had been a while (I'm gonna have to put that in my Other Resources roll). Holy Brassicaceae, Batman; it's Cauliflower-Crust Pizza! I think I know what's for dinner, tonight. And what was I saying about obsession? Seriously, I love love love pizza. It hates hates hates me. In a big way. We're talking nuclear heartburn, virtually every time. Of course, it doesn't ever help that because I love it so much, I tend to hugely pig on it when I eat it -- or used to, anyway. I've probably had a total of less than a dozen slices in the last year, a slice or two at a time, at various events. That didn't seem to bother me as much. In the old days, a dozen slices was an average pizza night. Here's Debs' creation, but you'll have to head over there to get the recipe. I'll let you know how it goes. This sounds very promising, as I've...
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Reader Real Results
Well this one thrills my heart. Back when I decided to go all out and leave the politics and other ramblings to others, one of the things I did was to send out an invitation to essentially my entire email contact list. I included descriptions of some of my own results and offered that people to receive an email notice with each post. All but about four have opted remain on the list One gentleman, someone I've not seen in a few years, replied to say that my notice was very timely, that he has breached the 300 pound barrier, and feels both physically and mentally awful. We exchanged a couple of emails where I gave a tip or two, and then I haven't heard from him. Just the other day I was wondering if he was sticking with it, but decided I'd leave it to him to let me know. I woke up to this wonderful email this morning. Well, I emailed you one month ago… and I have been rock solid, I still need to increase my workout, but I have not “cheated” on carbs for 4 or 5 weeks, and I am down about 30lbs! I finally...
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Paleo v. Mediterranean — Curing Type 2 Diabetes
Stephan has up a couple of follow ups to those studies I posted about the other day. It's a really nice roundup of the whole thing, which you can find here and then here. Most interesting is that the Paleo diet seems to have cured Type II diabetes with 100% effectiveness, and it may not even be primarily the low carbs that did it, but simply the elimination of grains completely. I'm becoming convinced of this view. It's the grains way more than the carbs. Perhaps my "cheating" by eating a potato now and then isn't even a big deal at all. If I were a Type 2 diabetic, I'd sure eliminate all grains from my diet and see how things go. By going this route and eating your other carbs (fruits and vegetables), you could avoid some of the problems with ultra-low carb while still remaining on insulin therapy, but of course, anyone ought to check with their doc. On that subject, Jimmy Moore has provided a wonderful resource in creating a blog to list doctors who specialize in low-carb dieting. They're listed on the right sidebar, by state. If you're diabetic and your health insurance doesn't have a...
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Mind-Body Dichotomies — The Evolutionary Approach
I alluded to this back when I announced the new name of this blog. You're welcome to review that, but here's the gist of the particular reference, from two sources: Wikipedia and Objectivism Wiki. The most concise way I can describe it is the notion of either "body and mind," for the more secular among us, or "body and soul" for the most religious / spiritual. In essence, the idea seems to either call for "balance," such as in eastern mysticisms, to a more mind-centric philosophy at the expense of bodily urges, to a near complete rejection of the body ("pleasures of the flesh") in some religious philosophies. Why is this important? First, I reject them all on the basis of evolutionary biology. My approach is materialist (every thing is composed of matter or "material"), with a caveat: we either have free will, or our belief in our own free will is sufficient to be tantamount to free will (i.e., the determinism of our own biology is so complex that we can't as yet begin to comprehend or unravel it, so it is, to us, free will). Another way to think of it is that values seem to transcend the...
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Evolving to Eat New Stuff
As I wrote previously, you don't have to believe in evolution. It's not the belief or confidence in it that helps you out, anyway. What makes the difference is acting as though it were true, along with hypothesizing or educated guessing what was probably true for us, over eons, then simulating and modeling a life to capture those advantages for yourself. It's worked for me and plenty of others, has generally been a blast and natural, and most importantly, affords us a life way going forward that can remain a blast, and natural. This is the essential beauty of it. I think diets would be a lot more effective for a lot more people if they could honestly look forward to living that way for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine living on the Dean Ornish chubby-face diet, for life? But, in order to really capture the advantages and become your own authority, you do need to at least understand what it is that the theory of evolution postulates. And here's something along those lines. Carl Zimmer takes a look at the 20-year (and running) experiment by biologist Richard Lenski. The notion of evolution, most simply, says that...
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Brain Fuel
Chris Highcock emailed this interesting bit of info the other day and I'm just now getting to it. The brain seems to be able to shift to lactate for fuel during strenuous exercise (info: lactate). Purely speculating, but this may be why some people who get headaches while fasting (low glucose levels) can make them go away with a bit of iron pumping. Also; it suggests, once again, that most exercise experts -- those who counsel you to feed before, after, and often -- just have no serious clue about complex energy pathways naturally selected for over millions of years. The evolutionary life way is so much smarter. From an evolutionary perspective, the result of this study is a no-brainer. Imagine what could have or did happen to all of the organisms that lost their wits along with their glucose when running from predators. They were obviously a light snack for the animals able to use lactate. As another example of this sort of modern ignorance, anyone recall the fasting and blood glucose experiment performed by myself and others a while back, where our glucose levels increased markedly during exercise and remained elevated for some time, even though fasted for...
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The Market
As a former full-time derivatives options trader, I feel a bit compelled to comment on yesterday's activities in the market. I'd have probably missed all this had not every TV in the gym been tuned to CNBC. Virtually everyone, excluding yours truly, was riveted. 'Twas interesting listening to the commentary on TV and amongst the gym-goers -- as if anyone really knows what'll happen next, or what to really do about it. Two things: first, I wish I had a lot of spare cash laying around. I'd have been buying (long) all day (intending to hold long term). Second; no regrets. I'm glad I hung it up. Two years of that kind of stress is enough for one (my) lifetime. One of the few traders I still pay any attention to -- primarily because of his general agnosticism as to market direction, long or short -- is Carl Futia. Here's a couple of short posts that "bear" keeping in mind. The Intolerance of Crowds. A crowd is distinguished by the inability and unwillingness of its members to think independently of their fellows. Instead each member of the crowd accepts the same set of "facts" which become slogans to be repeated...
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Paleo Trumps Faux Mediterranean
I'm so far behind in blogging about some of the astounding stuff Stephan has uncovered over the last few months that I better not get any further behind and just run this one up the flagpole instanter. But I haven't even gotten to the best part yet. Well, just click on over to get the whole thing. Nothing I can add, except perhaps the comment I posted concerning his correct, first-hand (like mine) identification of the faux in "Mediterranean Diet" here in America. What we think it is and it's reported to be; it aint. I'll add this. Even as fat as I was, when Bea and I did our whirlwind three-week Europe tour a couple of years back (France, Spain, Italy), I took off 2-3 pounds in spite of the fact that we ate good and lots. It's the food, folks. There are Good Calories Bad Calories.
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Real Raw Dog Food
As I mentioned just recently, I’m interested in trying raw food for my dog-people. So this morning I was out and about and noticed a shiny new store, a pet food express. Turns out they have a few companies supplying various forms of raw food product. Nature’s Variety offers both Raw, as well as a……...
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“Average” is Fat and Ignorant
If you keep this up, you're eventually going to get someone tell you you're "too skinny," that you look "unhealthy," or some such other baseless judgment. Here's a good comment exchange over on Art's blog. Peter says: So I’ve changed my mind about my thin “look.” I think we’re all just too fat is the problem, with an “average” look being 40 pounds overweight. To which Art responds: It does seem that people are used to a certain look that is, on the whole, swollen from subcutaneous fat and intramuscular fat, along with the puffiness of inflammation and extracellular water. EFers are a new breed that express the health and look of the active genotype. Eat right -- Real Food -- get some brief but intense exercise, go hungry now and then, and let your genes do the rest. They know what they're doing.
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What to Cook With
I previously blogged about how to cook. Now, I've just received an email from a reader who's in the market for new cookware, asking if I had any recommendations. Well, this is what I installed in the kitchen of our downtown loft last April. Most of those pots & pans are a semi-commercial hard anodized version of Magnalite and are no longer in production. I've since taken then up to the cabin and replaced with All-Clad stainless steel. It's quite a different cooking experience, but fun. The other thing I'm using more and more is a good large cast iron skillet. For doing bacon and eggs where you wish to fry up your eggs in the bacon drippings (up, or over easy), there's nothing better than the cast iron. It's also great for liver and onions. Notice: no dipping in flour. Absolutely not needed. Here's a tip for beef liver, however, which I obtained from Sally Fallon's must-have cookbook, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Simply squeeze a couple of fresh lemons and let the liver marinade in the juice for an hour or so. Rinse and dry, and cook it in bacon...
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Money
From time-to-time -- not every weekend but some -- I'll do the briefest commentary on current events that are not necessarily diet fitness related. First up, Francisco d'Aconia, a character from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I was reminded of this yesterday in a reader's email. Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed. That was published in 1957. Consider it in the midst of the current financial crisis, "bailout," and whatnot. Here's a link, probably among many if you search, where you can read the whole d'Aconia "Money is the root of all evil" speech.
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“Orcas in the ER”
Here's the enormity of it, folks. An ER doc writes in to Art De Vany relating a 6-hour shift where only 2 of 18 patients weighed less than 300 pounds. ...They are on Avandia (increases insulin sensitivity in muscle and fat-cells that are desperately trying to protect themselves from excess glucose), Glyburide (increases glucose uptake in cells that are trying to avoid the sugar onslaught). They are on Zoloft (serotonin uptake inhibitor to increase serotonin because their receptors are worn out from the spikes and crashes Dr. Devany describes above). They are on Lipitor and Niacin (trying to control the disruption in hormone synthesis when excess sugar in the face of high insulin results in shunting to the liver and conversion to triglycerides and LDL). They are on asthma inhalers (albuterol), antihistamines (zyrtec), and leukotriene inhibitors (singulair) to deal with chronic systemic inflammation. They are on long-acting non steroidals from their obesity and inflammation driven arthritis. They are on Prilosec for reflux and gastritis due to chronic overeating and loss of Grehlin sensitivity, not to mention the irritation of their arthritis meds. They are on ACE inhibitors to deal with increased vascular tone and BP from chronic vascular inflammation [...]...
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Quick Note
Regular readers: you'll note there is now a 1-5-star rating widget at the end of each post. May I ask that from here out, you take the micro-second to give my your gut, visceral reaction. Don't be afraid to issue a 1, a 5, or anything in-between. It's all about you, now, and this will help me focus on what you like the best. Also associated with this widget is the "most popular posts" thingy to the right, just under the search function. As you all rate posts, other readers will be directed to what you believe is the most worthwhile. Also, there's a poll on the right sidebar, so feel free to indicate your top two types of posts.
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Is The Tide Turning?
I like to think that other than accounting for long tails (lottery-style luck) that, for most, where you get in life is somewhat related to (less than 'directly proportional to' or 'a function of') how well you see coming trends and modify your life in ways that capture the tide. This could be as basic as an employee of a buggy-whip manufacturer finding a job with a steering wheel manufacturer (when he'd have been in high demand, i.e., early) to a master-level electrical engineer inventing the next [..?]. The point is twofold; first, that lots of people see changes coming enough that they make a wide range of changes in their lives with a consequent variety (meaning: distribution) of upheaval; and second that, a very few pin the tail on the donkey, and change our lives forever. This is the rational 100% of the Animal at work and, it's what differentiates us from the others (in some function; there are other differentiations). This is why we must -- now more than ever -- respect our Animal evolution. The Age of Obesity isn't a fad -- not as I see it -- but a direct consequence of our ability to increasingly...
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“Quick, Get Me Some Sugar Before I Start Burning Fat.”
As ridiculous as it sounds, that's what it boils down to for millions upon millions stuck in the sugar crack-house. "Hypoglycemia" has to be the most overused, misunderstood condition in existence, perhaps with the exception of "I got the flu" (most of what people identify as "flu" is simple food poisoning). I had an interesting experience over the weekend, when I took part in a fairly rigorous hike, about 4.6 miles round trip, but with three miles of that on an average 15% grade. To make it more interesting, we were camped up top, so it was first about 3/4 mile on pretty flat terrain, then the descent for 1.5 miles. It was steady, as though along a canyon wall, not a switchback trail. I took along about 3/4 of a pint bottle of water, no food. Others had their hydration packs and other supplies. Three of us reached the bottom 10 minutes ahead of the group of four behind us. I wasn't thirsty, so I didn't take on water. Once the other four arrived, out came the Cliff Bars, nuts, fruit, and other things. I was offered, but politely declined. What those hikers did, but probably didn't realize they...
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