Archive for February 2009
Commenting Note
I’ve discovered a problem with TypePad’s new commenting platform (TypePad Connect) that those who comment need to be aware of. If you look at my three comments in reply to the troll on this post, let me inform you that I composed that as a single comment and could not get it to post no matter what (via email, directly on the form, with Safari, Firefox, IE; Mac or PC). Nothing worked. And, what happens is that when you post, the comment just goes away. No error with a return to your compose screen. Nothing. So, if you haven’t saved what you’ve written, it could be lost. The way I got it all up there was to break it into three parts, and that worked. So, that suggests the problem is with the length — fabulous news for those who put the most effort into adding value to a post. So, if this has happened to you, I’m dreadfully sorry. I have alerted TypePad and will keep on them. What I suggest is that when you compose a comment, select the text and copy into your clipboard. For added safety, a good method is to paste it into an email…
Read MoreReader Questions and Results
Let’s plow through another group. First up is some results from Deborah. I stumbled across your site probably on a blogroll from someone else (Mark Sisson maybe), and have been enjoying your writing immensely. I’m trying very hard to stick to a Paleo diet (or the Eades plan or Atkins … anyway, a way of eating based on principles of all three), and I find that it really helps to read all the bloggers. I just turned 56, and have had the same 25-30 pounds on my frame for so long I surely can’t call it “baby weight” anymore. The babies are 21 and 19, for pete’s sake. My husband, who is most marvelous in every other way, isn’t particularly supportive of this way of eating, though at least he doesn’t try to sabotage it (he’s been told by the doc to skip the chicken skin, lay off the butter, all the usual doctorly advice). Anyway. Deciding to take control of my own diet, I’ve finally lost a few pounds (I need to get from 185 or so down to at least 160, which on a large-boned woman who does weight training is, I think, reasonable), by eating protein and…
Read MoreGrassroots Health D Action
Thanks to commenter Dave, who alerted me to a great vitamin D study and service at GrassrootsHealth. It’s called D Action, and for $30 you can get a your vitamin D levels checked. You can do it once, participate for a year for two tests, or every six months for five years. I just signed up for a year’s participation.
Read MoreThe Latest Nonsense
By now, many have heard of the latest “study.” Oh, sure. It’s already in the news. We randomly assigned 811 overweight adults to one of four diets; the targeted percentages of energy derived from fat, protein, and carbohydrates in the four diets were 20, 15, and 65%; 20, 25, and 55%; 40, 15, and 45%; and 40, 25, and 35%. The diets consisted of similar foods and met guidelines for cardiovascular health. [emphasis added] That emphasis hides a lot of sin, I’ll bet. Well, no need to guess, as they provide a reference for such guidelines: …consume a diet rich in vegetables and fruits; choose whole-grain, high-fiber foods; consume fish, especially oily fish, at least twice a week; limit intake of saturated fat to <7% of energy, trans fat to <1% of energy, and cholesterol to <300 mg/day by choosing lean meats and vegetable alternatives, fat-free (skim) or low-fat (1% fat) dairy products... No wonder "high fat" is only 40%, and I'll bet they had a tough time getting even to that level. If I recall correctly, the average American diet is already about 30% from fat, so what are they showing? They certainly aren't emulating the Tokelauans at 50%...
Read MoreWarning: Respond Immediately to Philip Downey’s (pedlrd2@comcast.net) Emails
No, really. Seriously. This is serious… Judge for yourself. ~~~ From: Philip Downey
Reader Questions (Part 1)
I accumulated a number of questions while away, so this is where I’ll attempt to deal with them. I’ll have Part 2 up tomorrow (I went from oldest working my way to newest). Michael asks: I recently subscribed to your blog. I had tangentially followed dietary issues over the years, but never put much thought into what I ate. A few months ago, though, due to some new medicine I was on which decreased my appetite quite a bit, I started eating a lot less and what I did eat tended to be relatively high in fat. I’ve lost 15 pounds since then. Now, having discovered that there’s a whole way of managing diet that lines up with my recent experience, I want to start doing it right. So, what’s the best place to start for someone who needs to learn from the beginning about paleo eating? Any advice you can give will be very much appreciated. Well, I think right here is a good place, as well as my other resources. It’s not well organized, but over time — not much — you’ll really start to pick up on things. I am attempting to organize things better on this…
Read MoreNews Flash: Above 40% Dietary Calories From Fat Virtually Eliminates Heart Disease
The data is in: Now quick, quick, and go see the shocking rest. (Note: Ancel Keys was an utter fraud.) And later: I hope everyone gets the tongue-in-cheek about this post…
Read MoreDo You Need to Gain Weight? Try Paleo
For the most part, because it’s the chief problem most face by far, people come and follow this and other blogs in order to lose weight (fat), recompose their bodies (lean to fat ratio), and to maintain. But for a (lucky?) few, that’s not the problem. Rather, they are skinny and can’t seem to add muscle mass. For that, here’s Nathan’s story. ~~~ Two years ago, I tipped the scales at just over 130lbs. I’m 5’10” and living in Southern California, that didn’t make for me feeling especially great about myself when hanging out at the beach. Don’t get me wrong, I was not horribly depressed with the way I looked or anything, I just knew I could be better. I have always been the skinny guy, was sick of it and wanted some shape. I started hitting the gym 4x/week and following the “standard” bodybuilding diet of eating as much as I could, with very little effort to make sure it was quality food. Last summer, I was at a solid 150 and quite pleased with myself. On Oct. 1 I crashed my motorcycle and that quickly led into the holiday season, so I went for three months without…
Read MoreEnlightened Heart Surgeons and Cardiologists
Hopefully, this sort of ignorance, that I blogged about here, will someday be a thing of the past. Surgeon Shyam Kolvekar from The Heart Hospital at University College London, who performed Mr Haj’s triple bypass, said cases like this were increasingly common and highlighted the dangers of eating too much saturated fat. A priori thinking: “his heart is clogged with saturated fat, thus eating saturated fat is what caused it.” That’s false, as well as being ignorant of the research; it’s also ignorant of the fact that high saturated fat-eating primitive cultures don’t get heart disease. As you know, I’ve many times highlighted the work of Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist who used to be ignorant, just like the guy above, and who now detects and reverses heart disease, all the while his patients eat plenty of fat. Then just recently, I highlighted another hero: heart surgeon Dr. Dwight Lundell, in two parts (Part 1 / Part 2). You know what Dr. Lundell says about himself? He says that he “made a big mistake.” Now comes Dr. Steven Gundry, Director of The Center for Restorative Medicine at The International Heart and Lung Institute for Advanced Cardiac Surgery in Palm Springs,…
Read MoreSprinting
Still trying to get to the lingering emails and comments I’ve not replied to. They will all be handled today as my head is now above water. Well, I had hoped to maintain or even lose fat on my vacation, but it was not to be. I gained 3 pounds. I ate pretty Paleo the whole time, excepting a few sessions with a few corn tortilla chips with salsa and/or guacamole (I usually felt awful for several hours after — I’ve simply lost my tolerance for them, just as you can build and then lose tolerance for alcohol, nicotine, caffein). Speaking of alcohol, that was another issue, most likely. I consumed it daily in immoderate amounts of spirits over a long period of time (afternoon to late evening), though never enough to become noticeably intoxicated. The other thing is that I didn’t fast until beginning the trip home on Sunday, where I had breakfast in Puerto Vallarta, then went trough the process of enjoying the last few hours on the beach, getting to the airport, flying to LA, driving 1 1/2 hours down to Vista, spending the night, then getting up in the morning for the 7 hour drive back…
Read MoreSugar Feeds Cancer
I’ve previously posted on this, one post you should definitely read. Via a comment on Art’s private blog, I see even more evidence that that ingesting sugar (including too much grain and/or fruit / juice) in the presence of cancer kills people a lot faster. Read what Patrick Quillin, PHD, RD, CNS has to say. A mouse model of human breast cancer demonstrated that tumors are sensitive to blood-glucose levels. Sixty-eight mice were injected with an aggressive strain of breast cancer, then fed diets to induce either high blood-sugar (hyperglycemia), normoglycemia or low blood-sugar (hypoglycemia). There was a dose-dependent response in which the lower the blood glucose, the greater the survival rate. After 70 days, 8 of 24 hyperglycemic mice survived compared to 16 of 24 normoglycemic and 19 of 20 hypoglycemic. This suggests that regulating sugar intake is key to slowing breast tumor growth. In a human study, 10 healthy people were assessed for fasting blood-glucose levels and the phagocytic index of neutrophils, which measures immune-cell ability to envelop and destroy invaders such as cancer. Eating 100 g carbohydrates from glucose, sucrose, honey and orange juice all significantly decreased the capacity of neutrophils to engulf bacteria. Starch did not…
Read MoreWhy You Got Fat
I’m back and getting in the swing of things. I hope to get to most, if not all lingering emails and comments throughout the day, among other business matters to attend to. The day before leaving for Puerto Vallarta, I was fortunate to get my Amazon order for Fat Head and watched it during the flight down. This is a must see, folks. It’s really two movies in one. In the first part, he thoroughly discredits that lying, opportunist bastard, Morgan Spurlock. Tom Naughton also goes on a fast food diet for a month, but a sensible one, keeping total calories to about 2,000, and total carbs to 100 grams (400 calories, so 20% of total kcals). He loses about 8-10 pounds, as I recall, and most of his blood work is improved. The second half (the best) is about the awful state of nutrition science and dietary advice in America. Naughton even employs an evolutionary basis, as seen here. Now Tom has up an additional clip from the movie that explains pretty well how you get fat and diabetic. Do note: I am always hearing people talk about “diabetes in the family.” That’s utterly false, folks — for Type…
Read MoreWrapping Up & Heading Home
Well it has been a glorious week, and we fly out this late afternoon just around the time we arrived last Sunday. It’s a flight to LAX, a drive down to Vista, CA, spend the night, pick up the doggies, and drive back to San Jose tomorrow morning. Here’s a fruit plate mom cut up the other morning. On another note, I profiled Erwan Le Corre of MoveNat a while back. Chris Highcock also did an interview. Got an email from Erwan the other day. He’s in the LA area, just now, and Steve Maxwell did a writeup. Take a look and enjoy. I’l be back with you soon.
Read MoreFeelin’ Like a Million
I really can’t believe how good I feel, here in the sunshine. I’m convinced that while heavy supplementation of D3 is huge in terms of well being, there’s simply no substitute for the real thing. Actually, I’m doing both. Since this is just a week, I’ve not backed off the 6k IU per day. I’ve also been spending about two hours in afternoon sun each day and I’m now pretty damn dark — even more that at the end of last summer and I spent some time at least 4 days per week in the sun. Anyway, here was my dinner tonight. A whole red snapper, grilled, with some fruit (coupla slices of star fruit, and about a half a lime squeezed on it). Couldn’t finish it, and other than a few raw oysters and (small) raw scallops prior, I had nothing else. On a different topic, there are tons of free roaming dogs here, all extremely lean, but with solid musculature — rather like wild cats. Guess what? Every single one is of the most docile temperament I’ve ever seen in dogs, pits included. We’ve seen dozens of then, and have yet to see an agressive action, even a…
Read MorePaleo for Everyone, All the Time, for Universal Health Improvement
I noted this a few days back, here. And now Stephan-the-Great has really done a wonderful and fascinating job interpreting the whole deal. Read the whole thing, please, but here’s the punchline. On to the results. Participants, on average, saw large improvements in nearly every meaningful measure of health in just 10 days on the “paleolithic” diet. Remember, these people were supposedly healthy to begin with. Total cholesterol and LDL dropped, if you care about that. Triglycerides decreased by 35%. Fasting insulin plummeted by 68%. HOMA-IR, a measure of insulin resistance, decreased by 72%. Blood pressure decreased and blood vessel distensibility (a measure of vessel elasticity) increased. It’s interesting to note that measures of glucose metabolism improved dramatically despite no change in carbohydrate intake. Some of these results were statistically significant, but not all of them. However, the authors note that: In all these measured variables, either eight or all nine participants had identical directional responses when switched to paleolithic type diet, that is, near consistently improved status of circulatory, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism/physiology. Translation: everyone improved. That’s a very meaningful point, because even if the average improves, in many studies a certain percentage of people get worse. This study…
Read MoreI Know What I’m Doing
But not everyone agrees. Here’s an email I got yesterday. While I appreciate the effort and obvious concern that went into it, needless to say that I disagree with most of it. The one part I do agree with is that’s it better to eat free range animals eating their natural diets, rather than grain fed. That said, I do not believe it’s the issue that some make it out to be. While I do eat a lot of grass fed / finished meat, I still do eat some from decent quality sources that’s grain finished, out of convenience. However, my napkin calculations suggest my n-6 intake is not all that high (no processed oils or foods), and I take n-3 in the form of fish oil and CLO, I eat lots of seafood, and so my ratio intake is pretty Paleo even in the face of some less than optimal meat. Also, legumes are in no way, shape or form part of a Paleo diet (nor are psyllium husks). In my opinion, ingesting toxins from legumes is orders of magnitude worse than eating grain-fed meat. So, here’s the email, and I hope it generates some discussion (Monica, Dr. BG,…
Read MoreMid-Week Check in from Puerto Vallarta
Yes, I know there are emails, comments, links and such to get to, comment on, et cetera, et cetera. Here’s why I’ve been so lax. First, a view from our master bedroom terrace, past one of the two guest bedrooms, with me on the living room terrace (this is one huge condo, in excess of 3,000 square feet). Now, down at the pool, a daily affair. And what would a trip to a place like this be without a huge platter of grilled fruit de mer? All to myself? This one had fish, a lobster, octopus, shrimp, prawns, mussels, and crab. It was excellent. This was at La Laguna Tino’s. Maybe a post or two more a bit later, unless I get sidetracked, which as you can see is quite possible.
Read MoreResults from Others
The other evening I ran into a couple of friends of mine, Kevin & Joseph, and was glad to see a big improvement in both of them. Kevin had contacted me a few month back, had been reading my blog, and expressed frustration at trying for so many years to lose “a measly 15 pounds.” We met for breakfast, I gave him a few insights, he picked up The Paleo Diet and went to it. A few weeks back, he emailed to say that he’s cut 10 pounds already. What I didn’t know is that his partner, Joseph, was apparently following the prescriptions as well. Well, let me tell you: they both looked great, and Joseph’s face, in particular, was markedly leaner and thiner — and shined with health and vitality. His progress, so far? 17 pounds. I asked Joseph how he felt, and he said something quite relevant: “I feel like a normal person, again.” I wish the both of them much continued success in their new life way. Now, keep Joseph’s insightful comment in mind as I quote an email from Aaron: First of all, I just wanted to write thanking you for the work you’re doing on…
Read MoreAnother “Nutritionist / Trainer” Moron: Bob Harper of The Biggest Loser
You know, I’m going to name names every damn time I see it. With Google’s help, we can do a lot of teeth kicking of supposed “experts.” In this case, I’m spared the task of the know-nothing, dumbshit takedown, because Dr. Eades has already done a superb job. What are the many reasons that “you can’t cut an entire food group out of your diet?” First, carbohydrates aren’t a food group; they’re a macronutrient. And why can’t you cut them out of your diet? Are there carbohydrate deficiency diseases, Mr. Harper, that you know about that the rest of the nutritional world doesn’t? I’ll clue you in: there aren’t. But there are both fat and protein deficiency diseases written about in every internal medicine textbook. What about fat? You recommend cutting that. Why aren’t those people who are totally deprived of fat not going to “rebel and fall off the wagon in a big way?” Or is that different than cutting carbs? […] And how about your idiotic statement that people who do choose to exercise need carbohydrates? Another whopper. Most studies show that after a period of adaptation, people who exercise while following a low-carb diet have better endurance…
Read MorePoison Soy
I last blogged about the dangers of unfermented soy here. And, actually, I’d only use fermented soy very sparingly. Here’s another article on soy (Thanks, Uwe), and interview with Kaayla Daniel. The whole thing is worth a read (though I do wish they’d ditch the exclamation marks), but what comes out most prominently is the danger of feeding infants soy-based baby formula. Soy lowers Testosterone levels! Just about all soy products on the market contain the phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) known as isoflavones. Plant estrogens have lowered Testosterone levels in rats, monkeys, and other animals as well as humans. For grown men, this usually leads to decreased libido and lower sperm count. There’s an old wives tale that Japanese women punish their straying husbands by feeding them a lot of tofu! We can joke about that but not about the effect on baby boys fed soy formula. Pediatricians are reporting more and more cases of emasculated boys reaching puberty with breasts and tiny penises. Undescended testicles are also far more common than they were in the past. […] Infants on soy formula are extremely vulnerable. Remember that soy formula constitutes most if not all of their diets. Based on figures from…
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