An email from a reader this morning. It was very timely because I’d just browsed through these 11 charts again, about everything that’s wrong with modern diets. When I posted it on my Facebook profile, I wrote:
A Paleo or Primal Diet Completely corrects 11 of 11 of these. Even caloric intake normalizes for most people. This is why it’s the hot diet. It works. Just include your starches please, at a reasonable 30% ish of calories, you’ll do great. Insufficient carbohydrate intake is the root of all problems I see on Paleo diets.
Then I clicked on email and read this from Tricia:
~~~
I was urged to write to you and share my story of a sort of miraculous healing of salmonella. And diabetes. And gluten intolerance. All thanks to soil based probiotics and resistant starch.
In August 2013 I was diagnosed with diabetes from a random blood test. I thought I was “healthy.” I was already exercising 6 days a week and had been paleo for 5 years. I was also gluten allergic (began after I started the paleo diet and eliminated gluten for 60 days and then found I could no longer eat it without ending up in an itchy swollen rash). I occasionally ate rice but pretty much no grains; I had minimal sugar in my diet. I didn’t have much I could change and realized that diabetic medication was in my future if I couldn’t work this out on my own. So I decide to see a nutritionist. She says, lose 10 lbs and make better nutrient dense calorie choices. Huh? Ok. I trimmed my 110lbs down to 100lbs. I cut out bananas, grapes, potatoes, and rice. My fasting blood sugar went from 130’s to about 110-100. That’s OK but it’s still in the glucose intolerant range, and certainly not the picture of health for a 43 year old 5’0″ female athlete who weighs about 100lbs. At that point I did my own research and I realized that this was not sustainable (no fruit nor potatoes) so I stopped restricting any fruits and vegetables and started adding in resistant starch. About a TBSP a day. Some days I got up to 3 TBSPs, but no more than that.
And then I went camping.
I ate some poorly cooked chicken from the campfire. Enter salmonella. I was terribly sick, but recovered about 2 weeks later. Come to find out that when you have a diagnosis of salmonella, you’re unable to return to work if you are a food handler or a healthcare worker until you stop shedding the bacteria. I’m the latter. The Department of Public Health banned me from practicing medicine and wouldn’t let me return until I had two negative stool samples. No problem, I thought, I felt fine. I submitted a sample and alarmingly, I was positive. Fluke, I thought. I retested and again I was positive. Again and again I was positive. For MONTHS I tested positive. A small percentage of those that get salmonella become chronic, I find out. I saw two infectious disease specialists, both of whom suggest I stop testing for salmonella, take a round of antibiotics (Cipro) for 8 weeks, then retest two weeks after I end the antibiotics. OK, so I practice medicine for a living and I consider this treatment plan (while in my frustration of being unable to work for over 5 months because I was continually testing positive for salmonella) and I know what Cipro will do to my intestinal flora in one day, much less 8 weeks. So, I decide not to follow their treatment suggestion. No, I’m not doing Cipro but I decide I would do my own curative plan for myself. I decide to add probiotics for 8 weeks and then retest. I was already on daily kiefer and taking some chintzy Trader Joe’s probiotic tablets that may have been inert. I decided that I really needed to up my game because I didn’t do all that graduate school in order to be banned from work because of a bacteria. I added three different types of soil based probiotic capsules and continued the resistant starch. I started with one probiotic capsule at breakfast for about 3 days, then added another at lunchtime for about 3 days, then finally added another type at dinner and continued this therapy of three different probiotic capsules a day for 10 weeks. I continued my kiefer and resistant starch addition of about 1-3 TBSPs a day for this duration.
10 weeks later I retested.
My fasting blood sugar was in the 70’s and continues to be in the 70s every morning. My culture: negative for salmonella. No cipro, no jacked up intestinal flora, in fact it’s probably the happiest it’s been for decades. And get this: I can eat gluten now. I no longer end up in a rash from gluten or any other grain. The only restriction I maintain is no processed sugar–I can eat any fruit (but potatoes still elevate it a little) without an elevated blood sugar. I have my theories of why all this happened, but I think the bottom line is that our intestinal health has a much more pervasive influence on our overall health than our culture realizes. Even the paleo culture. Because I got diabetes while I was paleo, active, and had a BMI of 19. Because I was gluten allergic for 5 years. But because of some soil based probiotics and resistant starch I was able to eliminate salmonella, bring my blood sugar to a normal daily range and correct my inability to digest gluten without my body resulting in a fit of inflammation. Crazy, true stuff. I hope this helps some poor soul out there.
~~~
I’m sure this could have all been cleared up in a heartbeat with straight shots of vinegar, but whatever. What works works, right? So do what you like. Fix your diabetes, gluten intolerance, and chronic salmonella infection with vinegar, or try my plan.
Or, hell, have a shot of Apple Cider Vinegar in some club soda now & then with a wedge of lime, or slice of cucumber, as I do. I’m sure that’s the true source of all my benefits since I bought that one quart bottle a year or so back. The 28 ounces consumed so far (including in recipes) over the year have really done the trick. I’m stoked!
Ray 
Adam 
tatertot 
sootedninjas
Did I miss something? What is the deal with the vinegar recommendation?
turn on the sarcasm radar Mart.
Woo had a blog post recently saying that Apple cider vinegar’s antimicrobial effects lead to all sorts of positive results: itsthewooo.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-to-resolve-gi-dysbiosis-or-sibo.html
I actually have been taking RS and probiotics recently, and developed symptoms very similar to what she describes with severe bloating and constipation alternating with diarrhea. Bought a bottle of Apple cider vinegar and did shots four times a day for a couple of days and it resolved. Not proof, but evidence.
I’m not disputing that ACV can help. I used it a lot way way back. I think from WAPF stuff.
It’s no panacea and perhaps RS+dirt isn’t either, but that latter is a lot closer and Wooo is just being her dunning-kruger KIA self, as usual. As has always been.
Nothing against vinegar. I use it daily in salads (oil and vinegar dressing), actually I rotate different brands and colors (apple, white or red wine vinegar, balsamic, etc.)
Interesting reading on Vinegar: Medicinal Uses and Antiglycemic Effect
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1785201/
There don’t seem to be any research papers in regards to the following:
‘It is only a leptin augmenting intervention if the following is true:
•Fat is lost, without a decline of T3, rise in cortisol/HPA, or lower action of the gonadal axis.’
Basically a person can pig out on a super high fat diet and lose weight, keep hormones normal and etc.
I have not been able to find anything on PubMed to support this. But there are ‘believers’ so it must be true.
I’m awaiting the backlash. As per usual. No criticism allowed. Anywhere, anytime by anyone.
But Richard knows all about this. It’s lots of fun when people who are afraid to put their own identity out there lash out and get ugly at people who do.
“It’s lots of fun when people who are afraid to put their own identity out there lash out and get ugly at people who do.”
Get this. Robb Wolf graciously invited dinner. And just like when I offered promotion via guest posting and such: declined.
Anonymity is her most prized possession. What’s funny is that it could be crashed in a day by anyone who really cared enough to go to the trouble.
Maybe the selfies aren’t.
She has daddy issues, no? :)
Anyway, ACV doesn’t exactly work like an antiseptic the way she implies. If that were the case, she should be drinking clorox bleach. ACV is concentration of acids, flavonoids, polyphenols, pectin, enzymes and minerals. Therefore, it has a fair amount of glycans and this suggests that the gut flora is metabolizing these pectins and polyphenols into various metabolites that cure things.
I don’t think so, Duck. Vinegar has all those things, but in low quantity. The main therapeutic chemical is the acetic acid which slows gastric emptying.
Christopher. Take a look at any high ORAC food, or even beta-glucans in Larch Arabinogalactan. I’m not talking about large quantities of prebiotics in terms of feeding your flora. I’m talking about microbial metabolites that are very potent. You only need a tiny amount for the microbial metabolites to get benefits.
opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/6534
Take a look at the undigestible Larch Arabinogalactan. The average dose is usually a teaspoon or less. It’s nothing from a prebiotic standpoint (maybe 3g), but it can have big results once the microbes unlock the metabolites.
Whoops. No beta glucans in Larch Arabinogalactan. I meant beta glucans or Larch Arabinogalactan. Both have potent immune-enhancing properties metabolized by gut flora that have nothing to do with providing gut flora enormous amounts of food.
So you think the ACV with mother, etc., is worth the money over supermarket ACV?
Not disagreeing, just asking.
Also, my current morning slurry is:
• 4 tablespoons mixed whey concentrate and isolate protein powder containing 1 g of green tea extract
• 2 tablespoons raw potato starch
• 1 tablespoon inulin
• 1/2 tablespoon creatine monohydrate
• 1 teaspoon amla fruit powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baobab fruit powder
• followed by either a Prescript-Assist or Primal Defense Ultra capsusle plus another spice capsule (clove or turmeric, alternated), herb capsules (various adaptogens, cycled), and other supplements
Does that sound synergistic and reasonable as far as prebiotic goes?
Oh, and 10 g of dark chocolate.
By the way, I don’t get the relevance of that scientific reference. It’s talking about substances produced in minute quantities by bacteria, not substances fed to bacteria in sources such as ACV.
That’s the whole point. Feed bacteria a literal “pinch” of polyphenols (or other glycans) and they will break them down into various metabolites that can have an effect. Apparently we don’t need massive quantities of these metabolites for them to have an effect on our bodies. I suspect it’s a bit like making a weak broth in one’s gut that causes a modulation or a chain of events to take place.
yes as it is organic and non gmo.
Yeah, tell us more about vinegar. Does it kill Samonella?
Sonia:
Don’t you know? Vinegar fixes all gut problems. Makes your farts smell like perfume, too.
Gives you a really pretty face.
@Mart
@Sonia
You would have to check this wooooo blog to understand the sarcasm.
itsthewooo.blogspot.ca/2014/04/how-to-resolve-gi-dysbiosis-or-sibo.html
Btw, it is doubtful vinegar could kill salmonella germs. They are too clever and can hide. What probably happened is that they were crowded out / took the rode out with the starch granules. At least the latter is true for cholera, see:
Adhesion of Vibrio cholerae to Granular Starches
aem.asm.org/content/71/8/4850.full
Ha, here we go with fibre:
Dietary supplementation with soluble plantain non-starch polysaccharides inhibits intestinal invasion of Salmonella Typhimurium in the chicken.
“Soluble fibres (non-starch polysaccharides, NSP) from edible plants but particularly plantain banana (Musa spp.), have been shown in vitro and ex vivo to prevent various enteric pathogens from adhering to, or translocating across, the human intestinal epithelium, a property that we have termed contrabiotic. Here we report that dietary plantain fibre prevents invasion of the chicken intestinal mucosa by Salmonella.”
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24498347
Gemma, true. The protocol for cholera rehydration and diarrhoea is getting starch included.
Gemma
I like psyllium because it has oligosaccharides and mostly soluble fiber and can help the small intestines where pathogens (like Salmonella, shigella, yeasts, pathogenic bacteria, etc) like to adhere and target. The SI s a lovely paradise! Food galore and not acidic compared to the rest of the tract.
Well, good to know in case salmonella attacks again. My son had it when 5 years old (yes, tested and confirmed, Gab), he had high fevers and diarrhea with a risk of dehydration. I fed him teaspoons of sauerkraut and grapefruit juice. He refused Smecta cleaning clay (hello, Duck) and I knew nothing of the healing properties of starches and fibres at that time.
This is probably a really ignorant question I’m about to ask…but…
I’m taking chlorella – shit tons of it – as part of a TCM/Dr. Klinghardt detox protocol. Tater was kind enough to reassure me that the garlic (natural antibiotic) capsels would not kill off Richard’s suggested SBO’s. Would chlorella work like psyllium in that the bad things attach to the it and then leave via the stool? Sorry for the the TMI but my TMI is often nearly the same color as the chlorella.
Grace/Dr.BG
Psyllium. Whenever we added Psyllium the results of digestion were very much like rubber. Could this also be result of different microbiomes, different results?
Peace.
Bernhard, how much psyllium?
The instructions on the package I have say 2 tablespoons. One night I think I lost my mind and actually took that much with liquid as per instructions. My guts had to work awful hard to move that stuff along. Will never do that again, that’s for sure.
When I take psyllium, it is one scant teaspoon with the PS in yoghurt. Then I drink a glass of liquid as a chaser.
gabkad
Half a teaspoon that is at the max. Still the outcome is rubber.
Bernhard, LOL!
What about cooked vegetables like okra, mushrooms, asparagus, beets, bean sprouts, courgettes, squash, etc.? I make sure I get at least 2 cups of cooked vegetables every day. Usually 3. Raw vegetables do not have the same effect. Not for me, at least. Salads are fine but I don’t rely on them for poop consistency.
If someone is hypothyroid or has some other reason for why their transit time is slow, then it takes quite the effort to keep things from turning hard. I was undertreated for thyroid problem for years. Still not 100% but much better. At least I now have the urge to go every morning. That’s a bonus.
Some meds like narcotics really slow things down. I don’t eat gluten because it affects my guts the same as codeine: stops movement. Made the mistake last week-end to go out to a faux vegan restaurant (not my choice) and ate a faux burger and fries. Very bad consequence. I did chew the burger but it reformed into a very large hockey puck in my colon. :( The French fries transformed back into a very hard lumpy potato. :( Even worse.
Since Blaser’s new book came out, and not wanting to get left behind on the ‘antibiotics scene’ I have been digging into antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. AMAZING. Since Day 1, researchers knew it was unsustainable as antibiotic resistance would stay two steps ahead of the science.
We are so far down the road with antibiotics and the damage they have caused it is unreal. I can see why science is ignoring RS, they have their hands full with all the problems caused by antibiotics.
Antibiotics found in nature are tiny signalling molecules used for cross-talk, we collect these tiny molecules and dump them on microbes and it kills them, and microbes that aren’t killed quickly become resistant to the unnatural amounts. In nature, antibiotics don’t kill, they instruct. Huge difference!
As seen in the blog, there are better ways to kill pathogens, this is a fantastic example! Thanks for sharing.
Acetate or acetic acid (from vinegar) is a SCFA byproduct of fermentation. It is thought that RS principally degrades into acetate and propionate via primary degraders (bacteroides). It’s some of the the secondary degraders (firmicutes) that can take acetate and use it to produce butyrate.
Providing you have the right species in place consuming vinegar could be a good way to produce additional butyrate. I don’t think the wooo knows this though. lol.
Consuming vinegar does not compare to consuming fiber for acetate production.
“So does this mean drinking vinegar can help you lose weight? Frost noted that to get the same effect as eating fiber, a person would have to drink a lot, because vinegar is digested and much of the acetate in it breaks down. “You’d have to drink enough for it to get to the brain,” he said. Drinking so much vinegar would be unhealthy — the chemical is quite acidic.”
huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/30/high-fiber-weight-loss_n_5242334.html
It’s along the same lines as consuming butter for butyrate. Doesn’t work. You’d have to somehow get the butyrate from digesting like other fats. They have used butyrate enemas and butyrate pills, enemas work. Pills only work if they are coated with something that won’t dissolve until it reached large intestine.
To your first statement, you can’t possibly conclude that from the link you posted. Also it really depends on the fiber. RS appears to produce acetate vs butyrate in a near 3:1 ratio.
The study you linked is irrelevant. I don’t care how much acetate makes it to the brain, the goal is to increase butyrate and if that happens sufficiently less will be available for the brain.
My conclusion is that you produce more acetate/acetic acid by eating fiber than consuming palatable quantities of vinegar having 5% acetic acid. Do you disagree?
Tater is right. The acetate in vinegar is broken down during digestion to produce meaningful quantities in the gut.
Tsk tsk tsk, EF.
Wooo knows everything. She’s 30, and of her over 17,000 tweets in like 6 months or so (by comparison, I have 20k, but going back to 2008 or 9), about 50% are selfie pics.
Well, it’s good to be in love with one’s self, I suppose, especially if you’re a 30-yr-old virgin.
Yeah – the selfies of her fingernails are not as good as the ones of her smoky eyes….
EF
Here’s my personal fav of her selfies.
twitter.com/ItsTheWooo/status/455892280994701313
When she shits on me in twitter, I tell her that the cool leather belt would look great around her ankles (in pant loops, of course).
Oh I know – I follow your banter with her in real time. The first time I read that I laughed out loud.
I do not hate her, actually like her on many levels. I suppose I should be thankful that I get her panties in a bunch.
Haven’t done much banter on twitter (with much of anyone) in a while. Just don’t have time. The blog and the FB works better for my style. I’ll check in and see 6 to a dozen tweets where she’s tagged me and all can seem to muster is “seriously? Get off my Twitter.” Laf.
I never took it as hate. Barbs for personal amusement, yes, but I never thought it was mean spirited. She just gets so fired up so quickly it’s probably hard not to poke her back. I respect her for being so open.
Richard, you are a dirty old man. Just making sure you remember……;)
Gabs:
I never want to forget it. Don’t want Wooo to, either.
Damn, but that’s a cool leather belt, though. :)
she’s publicly stated she’s a virgin?
If not, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true. Usually the loudest fucking idiots are compensating for such deep insecurities and wounds that they employ a arsenal of defense mechanisms. Denial and cognitive distortions run amok..
Not that all virgins or most are of wooo wooo but still. It’s like the 40 yr old still living at home, okay a few have legitimate reasons but the rest are unfortunately self-loathing and helpless toddlers. Sad :(
Oh, I don’t know for sure. Just returning the favor for the ‘purv’ shit she tosses my way. Thing is, most of the stuff I say in that regard is intentionally sarcastic and schtick. Leaned it from my grandfather, a notorious dirty old man, but always with tongue in cheek and twinkle in eye.
Dr Bg or whoever can give some insight about
Saccharomyces boulardii
How important is Saccharomyces boulardii on Garden Of Life Primal Defense Ultra Formula ?
Because there is another Garden Of Life Primal Defense that have the same HSO Probiotic blend except WITHOUT Saccharomyces boulardii. However, each dose will have 610mg as opposed to the Ultra version that only has 410mg of the formula.
Out of the 3 recommended (Prescipt Assist and Probiotic-3) only Garden of Life is within my budget at the moment.
Regards….
“within my budget at the moment”
What you do is get each one as you can. Then, you take only one cap of one per day and rotate.
This means you get max diversity, but for the same cost. So, you’re taking one cap of one brand on once every three days, which ought to be plenty.
Since Paleoman was always in the soil, I think it means we should be introducing all the time, but every three days ought be plenty.
that sounds like a good plan. thanks for the suggestion.
@sooted
This one comes highly recommended and is quite affordable too.
swansonvitamins.com/swanson-probiotics-l-plantarum-inner-bowel-support-30-veg-drcaps?SourceCode=INTL…
Sootedninjas
The dose determines the cure. But actually your pre-existing microbiota, diet, deficiencies and toxins and likely what determine the mileage from SBO probiotics.
S boulardii alone in clinical trials can prevent the serious and sometimes fatal antibiotic induced C difficile colitis. It’s not a native, indigenous flora like some is the SBOs but humans have transient food related microbes coming thru like a train station thru the millennia.
Someone has said that SBOs don’t colonize and that is a misconsception and falsehood. Some do and others we may not have the technology (e primers) to assess accurately yet. Evolution is goddess — of course some colonize. Our colons are compost bins!