How Will You Spend Your Time and Money in 2013?

Source

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An Anti Cancer Diet???

Credit: Diet Doctor

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Choose Your Exercise Carefully

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It is Happening Folks....

The Paleo/Primal, Ancestral, Evolutionary health and wellness movement is becoming extremely popular.  I am going to highlight only a few recent signs of this.

First is an article today from a Connecticut based site writing about how 5 of their local restaurants are featuring paleo friendly dishes on their menus.  I wonder if they cook these dishes with butter, coconut oil, or lard?  Who knows but it is encouraging that businesses are recognizing a need to offer these healthy options to their customers.  

The second example is from UCLA.  They recently announced a curriculum called "Evolutionary Medicine".  

"Evolutionary medicine is an emerging field that combines the disciplines of ecology and evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and zoology with medicine to create new paradigms for investigating and understanding disease. The field is growing both nationally and internationally as leaders from varying fields recognize that novel translational insights can be gained by adopting a functional perspective."

I hope this revolutionises healthcare.  I am hopeful but I won't hold my breath.  This will not become the standard of care any time soon.  It will turn out some smart people who will hopefully rock boats and rattle cages.  I am interested to see if there will be other institutions that will follow suit with similar programs.

The last example I have is an interview by actress Judy Greer.  She has a video series on Yahoo called "Reluctantly Healthy".  It appears to be a chronicle of what is popular today in nutrition and fitness.  Anyway, this little interview appears to be a chill conversation among the cool kids.

This is all great stuff.  The message is obviously spreading to a wider audience and for good reason.  People who clean up their diet with paleo end up being advocates because of the many positive results they see.  The weird thing is, the less proselytizing I have become, the more people engage me about this stuff.  Maybe there is a lesson here.

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This Is An Enlightening....and Frightening Video

I first want to say that I am not advocating a ketogenic diet for everyone.  I do believe it can be safe and effective for many ailments such as neurologic disorders, diabetes, and cancers .  This video simply illustrates the problem with medical care today.  Although this video is almost 20 years old, the problem seems as bad as ever.  So many physicians practicing medicine today take the Hippocratic oath, written by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine.  The sad thing is most doctors don't know about one of his most profound quotes:

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

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Dr. Davis is Perfecting His Message

I follow his blog and whenever he is interviewed on TV, he posts the interview there.  He is getting very good at delivering a clear and concise message as to what his book is about.  Over a year after the initial release of the book, he is still being interviewed by major networks.  I suspect his book is having a real impact.


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My Epic Weight Loss Fail

This was me Wednesday afternoon.

I've written about this topic in the past.  I think the goal of "losing weight" is stupid.  It should be about getting healthy and losing body fat.  There is a distinct difference between that and "losing weight".  Setting a target weight goal is even more ridiculous but sometimes necessary.  In the past year I have competed in 2 weight lifting competitions.  I have done well for myself but have not won anything by any means.  

I have competed in the 83 kg (about 183 pounds) weight class.  According to my home scale,  my everyday walking around weight is about 172 pounds and I am relatively lean.  I am competing against guys who cut their weight down from about 190 or so.  They are bigger than me and stronger than me.  I knew I wasn't going to be winning any championships but my competitive spirit got the better of me.  Tomorrow I am competing again.  A while ago, I decided for this competition I would compete in the 74 kg weight class to have a better chance of placing higher.  That meant I had to lose about 9 pounds.  Last November during a stressful time I dropped to the low 160s so I thought I could get there again through some careful restriction of food and water.

Last week I started dialing back my food a bit.  A few days I skipped breakfast and lunch only to eat at night.  I figured I would dial back my calories and carbs.  Then I could sweat out a bit of water and I would get there by Saturday morning.  This past Tuesday I was down about 5 pounds with only 4 to go.......until I got on a different scale.  On Wednesday at my globo gym, I had just finished a very sweaty session of light exercise and some time in the hot tub.  I was hoping to wring out some water weight.  After I was done, I got on their scale with only shorts on.  I weighed 170.  WHAT?!?  How could this be?  Which scale was right...this one or my home scale?  That night I went to a store and stood on 8 different scales and what I discovered was that my home scale is lite by about 4 pounds.  I immediately stopped trying to lose weight because I knew it wasn't in the cards for me to be that lite AND also be able to be strong enough to compete.

This short weight loss mission was very stressful for me.  Since I changed my diet almost 6 years ago, I have had the good fortune of being able to eat a lot of food to maintain my health and body composition.  I enjoy indulging in many different types of food without calorie restriction.  It was a very weird change.  Starving myself to reach that number was mentally hard.  I have never had to do something like this before.  

I noticed some negative health issues flaring up.  I had weird muscle pains despite really dialing back my training.  I got some acne and dry skin blemishes.  I got a cold sore on my lower lip.  And I got a slight cold.  While eating well and to satiety, I had been coasting along feeling pretty damn good without these problems.  I attribute these recent issues to lack of nutrients, dehydration, and stress.

This whole fiasco reaffirmed my hatred of "weight loss".  The mirror, how you feel, and an accurate body composition test should be one's barometer for a successful body transformation.  If a poundage number is your goal, you may be very disappointed when you possibly gain muscle OR when you step on a different scale.  In the last year or so, I have changed the way I trained.  My wife and I have noticed visually changes in my body and the scale has crept up a few pounds.  But I have realized, I cannot get down to the low 160s again.  I think I have put on a few pounds of muscle, which is good.

This was a tremendous learning experience for me.  I have sympathy for those starving  themselves hoping to see a difference on the scale.  I don't feel sorry for them though.  They need to change their goal and change their focus.  Their physical appearance may not change overnight but they need to realize their isn't a quick fix to a problem created over a lifetime.

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Real Answers based on Real Science

This is interesting.  I am curious to see what comes out of this group.

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Plant Based Diets Are NOT Inherently Healthier

It is quite sad really.  People often cut meat from their diet for the perceived health benefits.  I am sure there are more healthy ways to do this than others but the bottom line is, meat is not the evil, human killing food it has been made out to be.  It is an integral part of a healthy diet.

I have to admit a morbid habit I have.  Every time a celebrity passes away, I Google their name with the words "vegan" and "vegetarian".  I am not sure why these diets seem to be more popular among the celebrity crowd but it doesn't seem to be saving them from chronic diseases.  Although I suspect their diet could be part of the problem, I am not going to make that absolute deceleration because I don't know everything about these people.  What I will say is that this way of eating does not seem to be saving their lives.  The latest celebrity to pass who was also a vegetarian was Michael Clarke Duncan.  He died September 3rd of complications from a July 13th heart attack.  He was 54.  He was a vegetarian for the last 3 years.

He follows these celebrity vegan/vegetarians who also passed recently:

Robin Gibb – died of liver and colon cancer at age 62
Davey Jones – died of heart disease at age 66
Steve Jobs – died of pancreatic cancer at age 56
Adam Yauch - died of salivary gland cancer at age 47

I feel bad for the family, friends, and fans of these celebrities.  By all accounts they were good people who passed too soon.  Please when considering a diet change, do a deep dig into how it came to be assumed that a plant based diet was a surefire way to achieve long term health.  You will be surprised to find that much of the negative claims against meat are false.

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Chicken....Meh

BORING!

Chicken bores me.  Compared to pork, beef, and seafood, it does nothing for me.  I know it is a decent protein source that is widely available and relatively inexpensive.  I just find it kinda bland and tasteless.  I do eat it though because of the previously mentioned attributes and it is popular with other people I eat with.  I get the less expensive but more flavorful dark meat cuts on the bone.

I WILL NOT cook chicken in my house without brining it first.   In my opinion, brining has a wide definition but it typically involves a salty marinade for a period of time.  I have done many different brines of my chicken.  Just pick some flavors you like and let the chicken soak at least overnight to impart the desired flavor.  Do yourself a favor and google "brining chicken"and try it yourself.  You will not be disappointed.  You will however, change how you cook chicken forever.

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All Calories are Not Equal

This is a follow up to a post I did on this study a while back.

Fill your diet with nutrient dense, satisfying foods to get yourself on a path toward better health.  The latest research says meats (especially organ meats) are the most nutrient dense, then veggies, then fruits.  Most grains cannot be eaten without being processed and cooked.  In the end, these grains end up being pretty nutrient deficient in comparison to many other foods.  Of course using this information in a helpful way requires one to seriously question the validity that fat and cholesterol in our food is detrimental.  That subject has been beaten to death on this blog and by many, much more educated experts.  I do think even some of the most ardent followers of conventional wisdom are starting to question the whole cholesterol/ fat hypothesis.

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I Don't Care.....

I really do not care if I rarely do original thought posts anymore.  I always thought my blog as more of a gateway for people to dig deeper elsewhere and find more detailed information that helps them. I will always pass on pertinent info after I find it.  For me, there will be no shame in this because I feel it is working.  Information like I post here is getting to the masses and it is having a great effect.  Credit to DietDoctor for sharing this:

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This Should Inspire Anyone

Credit to Physical Living for sharing this gem.  Hopefully this will inspire many to get off the treadmill and stop staring at the TV while they exercise.  For the greatest results, engage your body and mind while challenging yourself.



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Cavemen in KC

KCTV 5

Cancer Minus Glucose Equals Dead Cancer Cells

Yesterday's post discussed how maintaining weight may be easier on a very low carb diet.  I have heard over and over that obese people tend to get chronic diseases more often than non obese people.


Here is another interesting study regarding low carb.  This comes from  Molecular Systems Biology.  Here is a quote from an article about the study on Science Daily:

In research published June 26 in the journal Molecular Systems Biology, Graeber and his colleagues demonstrate that glucose starvation -- that is, depriving cancer cells of glucose -- activates a metabolic and signaling amplification loop that leads to cancer cell death as a result of the toxic accumulation of reactive oxygen species

This basically means starving cancer cells of glucose will result in the death of those cells.   These are just a few foods that will provide glucose to the body (including cancer cells); fruit, whole wheat bread, table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, candy bars, and sweet potatoes.  It is not just sugar that raises blood sugar (also know as blood glucose).  


Everyday in our body, new cells are created and cells die.  It is known that cancer cells are formed when the creation of new, normal cells go wrong.   It is speculated that this happens in everyone.  In healthy people, the body recognizes these faulty cells and kills them. In unhealthy people with weak immune systems, the faulty cancer cells proliferate into tumors.  If there is a constant supply of glucose, these tumors will continue to grow.  


Bottom line is that it would be wise to assure you always have a strong immune system and keep your blood sugar at a healthy but low level.  The sad thing is that this is not at all new information.  Yet, I rarely here of glucose deprivation as a cancer treatment or prevention.


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An Interesting Study Was Just Released

You can read much of a recent study published in JAMA in the following link:

Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance

In the study, scientists measured the effects of three maintenance diets, very low carb, low fat, and low glycemic index.

Here are some interesting quotes from the study:

The results of our study challenge the notion that a calorie is a calorie from a metabolic perspective. During isocaloric feeding following weight loss, REE (resting energy expenditure) was 67 kcal/d higher with the very low-carbohydrate diet compared with the low-fat diet. TEE (total energy expenditure) differed by approximately 300 kcal/d between these 2 diets, an effect corresponding with the amount of energy typically expended in 1 hour of moderate-intensity physical activity.

 Although the very low-carbohydrate diet produced the greatest improvements in most metabolic syndrome components examined herein, we identified 2 potentially deleterious effects of this diet. Twenty-four hour urinary cortisol excretion, a hormonal measure of stress, was highest with the very low-carbohydrate diet. 

C-reactive protein also tended to be higher with the very low-carbohydrate diet in our study, 

 In conclusion, our study demonstrates that commonly consumed diets can affect metabolism and components of the metabolic syndrome in markedly different ways during weight-loss maintenance, independent of energy content. The low-fat diet produced changes in energy expenditure and serum leptin that would predict weight regain. In addition, this conventionally recommended diet had unfavorable effects on most of the metabolic syndrome components studied herein. 

So people who ate a very low carbohydrate diet with all other factors being equal burned an average of 325 calories more per day than the low fat participants.  The equivalent of 1 hour of moderate exercise.  WOW, that is significant!  The C reactive protein was higher for the low carb group but during the test phase it dropped significantly from a 1.75 baseline to get well below the supposed safe threshold of 1 mg/L.

Cortisol, the stress hormone, definitely did go up for the low carb group.  This study was done on obese individuals who have probably dieted before.  In the test phase they were fed 2000 calories.  Not starvation but probably lower than they are used to on their average day.  My guess is the participants probably had tried to restrict fat in the past so this was probably nothing new to them.  I wonder how stressful it would have been to take away nutrients they likely lived on for years, carbohydrates, while replacing them with nutrients, fat, they feel would cause them to gain the fat back that they had just lost.  Could this type of diet cause an increase of stress in the short term for people not used to it....I'd say yes.

I am sure every agenda will cherry pick data from this study just as I have.  Bottom line is, this is just another reason to question conventional wisdom if you haven't already.  JAMA is probably the premier medical journal in the world.  You can be sure medical professionals will be surprised.

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What If Lowering Risk Factors Doesn't Work???

What happens when doctors focus on treating risk factors that may not be actual risk factors?  You end up with a multi-billion dollar class of drugs that don't seem to be helping all that much.  In fact, these drugs are probably doing more harm than they are doing good.


Statins are used to lower "high" cholesterol.  "High" cholesterol is classically seen as a risk factor for heart disease.  Problem is, lowering cholesterol doesn't seem to be doing much good for the people taking these medications.  Here is the question, is the perceived risk factor valid?





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It Pays to Cook in Bulk

Thrown Together in 10 Minutes

So yesterday was a busy day for my family.  My wife and I worked all day.  My son when to a "farm park" for a field trip.  It is a working farm that people pay money to get tours of.   You see, near major urban areas farms become tourist attractions.  It was a neat experience for him.  My daughter had a swim test in the morning and her last tee ball game  of the season at night.  The kids were fed by their grandma before the game.  By the time we got home at 7:30 my wife and I looked at each and wondered what the heck we were gonna eat.

Soon we discovered that it pays to plan ahead when you forget to plan what to eat at the end of a day.  We always cook in bulk so we will have left overs for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner.  The great thing about nutritious and delicious leftovers is that they are versatile.  

I ventured into the fridge to figure out what I could do quickly and easily.  We had a spicy rice + chicken dish (made from a leftover roasted chicken), a dozen of the best eggs I can buy, and some steamed greens and broccoli from our garden.  I scrambled 6 eggs with the rice and cooked it in left over bacon grease then topped with a sliced avocado.  The garden is bursting with greens and broccoli right now.  On separate occasions in the last few days, we steamed the mixed greens and the broccoli.  I sauteed the two together with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

After ten minutes while using one pan, we ended up with a great meal that I felt confident would nourish us in many different ways.  The moral of the post is to cook in bulk as often as you can because you never know when the hectic schedule of life will make it challenging to feed you and your family well.

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Still Think Saturated Fat is Dangerous?

This is a graph recently posted on Dietdoctor.com  It was published in The British Journal of Nutrition.  It is yet more glaring evidence showing that it is extremely likely saturated fat is not the killer nutrient it has been made out to be.  I have had my head  buried in the paleo sand for so long that I kinda forgot that most people try to avoid saturated fat for health purposes.  I did a detailed blog post regarding saturated fat almost 2 years ago.  With the myriad of evidence out there showing no correlation with sat fat and heart disease, I feel that the experts should look outside of the box and question whether the status quo is the healthiest option.  

I was recently asked to talk with a group regarding my nutrition philosophies.  The group mostly consisted of classically trained dietitians.  I was pleased that on many counts we were very much on the same page.  They are a progressive group in that they tend to get updated frequently on the latest information on nutrition.  On the other hand, there were some points I made that I don't think they had been presented with previously.  Saturated fat was definitely a point of contention during our conversation.  

Evidence like the graph above will definitely continue to open the eyes of the objective experts.  The sooner we can get over this perceived villian, the sooner we can move on to hopefully find truly dangerous foods and nutrients.


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"Paleo" Commercialized

Organic Cigarettes....Really?

The paleo diet is continually becoming more popular and even the most harsh critics cannot deny this.  Ebooks and conventional paper + ink books are being released at an impressive clip.  The mainstream media has definitely taken notice by doing more stories on the phenomenon.

Before jumping into this foray, please educate yourself on the foods of the diet.  For the purpose of this post I will boil it down to this, this diet revolves around fresh meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit.  In simplest terms, that is it.  Buy these items unprepared and create meals out of them yourself.  Don't rely on a restaurant, a bakery, or a factory to create "paleo friendly" foods for you.


That is exactly what I have noticed with paleo and gluten free.  Many businesses are jumping on the popularity of these trends by creating foods that they say fit within the parameters.  Great, I am all for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.  But do not assume that just because a muffin or loaf of bread is gluten free and "paleo friendly" that it should be anything more than an occasional treat.  It is highly processed, nutrient poor crap....plain and simple.


Highly processed, nutrient poor food is the cause of many of our lifestyle diseases.  I have seen many obese people dedicated to gluten free.  I wonder how this is possible because I just assume they must be eating paleo or primal.  Then I see what they eat and it only differs in that they now substitute gluten free foods in where gluten containing foods were.  The opportunity to add in nutrient dense, whole foods while removing highly processed, nutrient poor foods is completely missed.  


So next time you think about buying a paleo muffin, think about the organic cigarettes pictured at the top of this post and just say "really?".  


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Andrew Weil is Making a Splash

 

He recently wrote an article with this quote in it:

No one's health is improved by swapping out natural saturated or monounsaturated fats for skim milk, sugars or processed grains.

 His writing has been leaning more paleo/primal lately.  It is going to take more big name "experts" getting messages like this out to the public.  Robb Wolf and Loren Cordain do a great job but few people have heard of them.  Many more have heard of Dr. Weil.  The more we are good examples of health, strength, and vitality, the more our ideas will be taken seriously by the media darlings.


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Why Don't People Bring Steak to the Office as a Treat?

*warning: this post is off the cuff, written quickly, and may be kinda hard to follow.  but heck, this works at some of the most wildly popular blogs out there.*


To answer the title, it's because animal fat is vilified as a killer in our country.  I think everyone knows a doughnut may make them fat if you don't eat them in moderation but they do not think it will kill them.  This crap is constantly brought into the office.  My office mates are always complaining about their weight and/or health.  There is definitely a disconnect.

I often wonder why the default snack generous people bring in to share is some sort wheat laden handful with sugar on top.  No one brings in fruit, nuts, or jerky to share.  There are many reasons I can think of for for that.  Wheat covered in sugar is cheap.  Wheat covered in sugar is convenient.  To bring in the healthier options would require more money and more effort.  That is what is wrong with our food system.  The good stuff is harder to acquire.


I can easily say no to this crap.  My addiction to it ended years ago.  Part of me wants to bring in some fruit as an experiment but some of the doughnut fairies in my office will see right through my scheme and most likely get offended.  Screw it, I am gonna do it anyway.  I wonder how long bananas and apples will last in the common area.  Maybe after that, I will bring in a small beef appetizer.  I will let you know how it goes.


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"Drugs Don't Work"

I love some of the quotes from this interview:

"Drugs don't work.

"We need a different solution." 

          "It is 100% reversible." 
             
          "You can't medicate your way out of a bad diet."


I don't like that he feels public policy is needed as a solution.  Parents need to wake up to the fact that the crap they feed their children and allow them to consume is detrimental to their health, plain and simple.  There needs to be a paradigm shift in the thinking about nutrition.  We sure as hell cannot rely on our government in that regard.  They may come around in 20-30 years but that will be too late for millions of adults and children.  Don't let today's children live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents or grandparents.  Are you going to wait for our government to save you and your children?


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Someday.....I Will Have Chickens

Joel Salatin called chickens the ultimate recycler.  They turn kitchen waste into eggs, meat, and fertilizer.




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How Do You Become REALLY Good at Something?

So let's say you decided you want to become the best tennis player you possibly can.  Would you play tennis once a week and expect to reach your greatest potential?  Or would you go to a coach once every six months and expect to fully reach your potential?  If you answered yes to either of these questions you have no idea what it really takes to reach your full potential in a sport.  


To be the best you can, you will need to have a constant focus and frequently practice what it takes.  I am sure there are many tennis gurus out there.  It would be wise to read their perspectives and draw from them what works for you.  To expect to be your best at tennis without being a bit obsessed with learning as much as you can about how to be great is not realistic.


The same is true regarding health.  In the modern world we live we cannot expect to reach our full health and vitality without much time and effort.  The norm of a sedentary lifestyle and highly processed food are antithetical to health and vitality.  It takes knowledge and constant practice to achieve and maintain health.  It also takes prioritizing.  We can be pulled in thousands of directions on a daily basis but time must be blocked out for healthy activities and acquiring knowledge.  I bet if you asked someone suffering from a chronic sickness whether they wished they spent more time on making money and doing housework or if they wished they had spent more time on cultivating their health they would choose health.


No one can force you to make the needed sacrifices.  It has to be a conscious choice by you to do what it takes.


CP

Hmmmm.  That sums it up nicely.  But how can so much fat, no whole grains and no dairy be good for you?  source:  balancedbites.com


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60 Minutes Sugar Editorial

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Don't Let the Average Influence You

Average is not always normal and is rarely optimal.  Never be afraid of being an outlier.




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Is Total Cholesterol of 220 the Sweetspot?

I stumbled upon this VERY eye opening graph at Skyler Tanner's blog.  What it plots is average total cholesterol vs. mortality rates in 164 countries.  The bold blue line shows age adjusted, all cause mortality rates per 100,000 citizens in those countries.  As you follow that bold blue line you see that mortality rates dip to their lowest point at approximately 220 (mg/dl) total cholesterol.  Ain't that a kick in the nuts for the cholesterol lowering business and advocates.  It appears that to focus on lowering cholesterol below 200 for "heart health" seems to increase your chances of dying of something else.

click to enlarge

The red dotted line shows mortality from cardiovascular disease.  The optimal cholesterol level in regard to this parameter appears to be 210.  In fact, cardiovascular health seems to hover between 180 and 230 total cholesterol.  Is your doctor telling you this?


Hmmmm, makes you rethink things a bit doesn't it?  In my case, I stopped buying into that low cholesterol crap years ago.  Seeing information like this just makes me want to rent a billboard and post it along highways.  I can't afford that.  For now, I will just post it on my virtual billboard for people read on the information superhighway.


CP

Primal Diet Healthy for the Heart

Don't Throw That Red Meat Away!

If he would just cut out the red meat...

 I am sure you heard by now about the recent study released eluding to the idea that red meat consumption may shorten one's life.  The media took this one and ran with it.  I saw it on the news this morning and tonight.  Here are just a few of the headlines at the top of a Google search: "More support for passing on the red meat" "Eating All Red Meat Increases Death and More Reasons to Never Eat Meat" "Study: Red meat linked to risk of premature death" "Red Meat Shortens Life? What to Do".  It seemed pretty damning toward red meat.  I had to do some digging to see if I was killing myself and my family.


It wasn't hard to find some intelligent analysis of the study.  The study results were based on food questionnaires filled out by subjects every four years.  What the numbers actually show is there was less than ONE more death out of 100 people in the group that ate the most red meat compared to the group who ate the least over the 28 year study.  Hmmm, not such a big risk in my opinion but still a difference.  There were some interesting statistics not reported by most media outlets.  Here is what I have not read and probably will not see on the news regarding the group who ate the most red meat:

1. They also had the most smokers
2. They were the least physically active
3. They ate the most calories 
4. They had the highest rate of diabetes
5. They drank the most alcohol
6. They had the highest body mass index

In all those categories, the differences between the group who ate the most red meat vs. the least was actually pretty significant.  Is it possible there was a slightly lower death rate in the lowest red meat consumption group because they were more health conscious and just took much better care of themselves than the highest red meat consumption group?  Sure seems like a possibility.  Was the lower red meat consumption the reason for the lower risk of death?  I don't know, maybe we should look to India who has a large vegetarian population yet heart disease and diabetes are on the rise.  Huh, maybe red meat isn't the problem.


I have to wonder, is it safer to be a vegetarian and a smoker?  Or how about a vegetarian and a couch potato?  Better to be a vegetarian and a diabetic?  Or does nothing else matter except to just not eat red meat???  Well, when the news only talks about the red meat and leaves out all the other risk factors it sure seems that is what they want us to think.


Again, these attention grabbing headlines have failed to change my opinion regarding what I feel is the healthiest way to feed myself and my family.  My ship keeps on sailing.....stay the course.


For more detailed reading on this study go here, here, and here.


CP

Will a Gluten Free Diet Be Banned as a Performance Enhancer?

Will gluten antibodies be tested for in athletes.  Will the subjects without them be penalized for an unfair advantage?  Pro women's golfer, Michelle Wie, has decided to adopt a gluten free diet.  Here is what she had to say:

“I am allergic to everything in this world, I don’t really digest food very well,” the 22-year-old Hawaiian of Korean descent said. “So I just thought maybe if I cut out gluten, I can feel better because I heard that it causes inflammation, everything ... but it’s been week three and I feel a big difference.”

Here is a picture of her before the change:




And here she is after the change:





WOW!  What a difference.  Of course I kid but it is funny isn't it?  It is interesting how people whose potential earnings are tied to their health and performance are willing to make greater diet sacrifices.  I guess health and physical performance just aint that important for the rest of the world.  


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The Proper Cattle Diet Explained

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Evolution and Health.....

.....It's starting to catch on.

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A Corporation That Gets It

I have seen delivery trucks dropping off chicken at a local Chipotle.  It is not free range, pasture raised chicken but it is better than what was shown in the movie Food, Inc.  Chipotle isn't perfect but they are trying much harder than most to get better.  Large businesses talking the talk then walking the walk is a good thing.  It will make quality food more affordable for the masses.  It will bring the importance of food quality to the forefront of many more minds.


CP 

"It's Not Rocket Science."

"We can live to be 100 if we but honor our genetic endowments."




"People don't own their well being."


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Eating in Moderation Will Give You The Sugar

"The Sugar".  A common slang term for Type 2 Diabetes.  Well, Paula Deen has recently announced she has had Type 2 Diabetes for 3 years.  Here is a gem of a quote from her recent coming out party.

"I have always eaten in moderation,"

I despise that supposed healthy solution to eating right.  It rarely works.  Eating in moderation got Paula Deen The Sugar.  People get sick when they try this as a life long strategy.  Eliminate the crap from your diet to help avoid getting chronic diseases.  


CP

It Shouldn't Be About the Weight

 

I know this is semantics but I feel it should be understood.  Now is the typical time of year when people resolve to "lose weight".  Why I don't like this goal is it can be frustrating for people if that is the only measure they use to determine their success.  I believe better measurements for people to monitor would be body composition and health status changes.

Many people will be embarking on an exercise program this time of year.  They are going to get serious about consistently doing some sort of activity they deem to be exercise.  This is great and I hope they stick to it.  One of the positive results of this usually dramatic change in their life may be that it shocks their body into adding muscle mass to accommodate this new physical activity.  Over several months it may result in a few pounds of additional muscle which by rational thinking would be great.  This will be counter to one's goal of losing weight but should not be viewed as a negative.  Also, if the diet is changed to a lower carb content than what they are used to they will be consuming more protein and fat than they had before.  This also will help you put on muscle mass.  Putting on muscle is great but it will definitely confuse your scale into thinking you aren't losing weight or are not losing as much as you think you should.  The Bodpod device is an affordable and accurate way to measure body composition.  Find a Bodpod location and see what your actual body fat and lean tissue percentages are.  Measure again in 6 months to judge your progress.   This will give you a more clear picture of the changes going on..

Another possible side effect of this quest to lose weight is an overall improvement in health.  This shouldn't be just an afterthought but a primary goal of anyone who is chronically sick and/or taking prescribed medicine on a consistent basis.  If the diet is cleaned up and the exercise is happening, you will see health improvements.  This should be celebrated regardless of weight loss.  Typically you need to be healthy before you can look great.  Although that isn't always the case.  

As people embark on this journey to "lose weight" they should rethink what they are really trying to accomplish.  If they lost 20 pounds but still had the same body fat percentage and felt like crap, should they be happy?  Goal attained?  This weight loss goal is so redundant and generally unsuccessful, maybe it's time to try something new.  Just get healthy and look better.

CP

Now That There is Funny!

New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

Sure, this is satire but it seems people are always looking for easier ways to get crap in their mouth rather than slow down and cook a delicious, nourishing meal.  This clip just points that fact out.


CP

"I'm Getting Old"

I hate that saying.  It should be "I'm letting myself get old."  The mind set needs to change.  You need to think young and act young to feel young.  Age is not a condition, it's just a number.  Stop using it as an excuse.....stop letting yourself get old.





What permanent changes are you willing to make to feel younger?


CP