Archives for September 2009

So here’s my attempt at "Meatza," which I mentioned a couple of posts ago, and where you’ll find the basic recipe.

Meatza Makings

I used two pounds of 80/20 ground beef I had in the freezer. I also had the idea to create an edge, to keep in toppings. See the recipe for the other ingredients in the "crust."

The Pre Cooked "Crust"

Here’s how it looks after 10 minutes at 450.

Cooked "Crust"

I used standard Pizza sauce from Trader Joe’s, and do notice that the veggies should be sauteed, which I did in lard rather than olive oil. I used mushrooms, green pepper, and very thinly sliced onion, which I did not sauté.

Ready for the Broiler

And Its Meatza

We all liked it very much, and I liked it better than the various paleo crust recipes I’ve tried, like cauliflower and such. Also, this was very easy and quick to make. To my mind, this is sort of like a good meatloaf you eat like pizza.

It’s definitely worth a go.

Reader David rings in with some interesting blood pressure experiences on paleo. Good weight loss, but very high BP, but looks like he may have found a solution that worked in just a few days.

~~~

I am 6′ even, 47 year old, ex-infantry (so my fair share of abused joints, and strongly aware of what the body can do when in condition). I’ve been out for about 10 years and not been working out enough, in part because it just hurt.

We eat well and have taken some herbal supplements for years, with proven effect – they have stopped my migraines. Several years ago we ditched wheat for a while to address some health issues with the kids, but once they seemed to be under control, we slid back.

About 9 months ago I hit about 195 lbs and seemed to be racing to 200, whereas my fighting weight had been about 155. Something had to change. Coincidentally, a friend of mine got me interested in glutathione and after doing some research I was intrigued. Very quickly I was able to run every day with minimal knee pain (now I am doing about 6-8 km most days, in comfort and good wind). Shortly after that initial success with the joint pain, I figured I had to dump weight too and decided to drop what grains I still had in my diet. As of today, I have lost over 30 lbs and am approaching my old fighting weight – and I feel stronger than I have for years.

So several months into this process I was feeling great, losing weight, joints were more comfortable and so on. But, I was a bit concerned with cardiovascular progress.

My resting pulse has always been on the low side and is now 46 to 56 bpm, which is back down to where it was in my 20’s. BP was high though and just wouldn’t come down. Yes, my work can be very high stress, and yes, I often have to go with far too little sleep, but I figured that between exercise and losing weight my BP should drop. If anything it seemed to be creeping up. I eliminated as much sodium from my diet as I could (and already ate almost no processed foods and rarely ate in restaurants even when on the road). Then I started pigging out on high potassium items, especially dried apricots and small potatoes (lots of skin for the amount of the potato itself). No change. Four days ago I hit 160/98 and was not happy. I figured I needed to do something a little more aggressive to change the sodium/potassium balance in my body and bought a potassium supplement at 50mg per day. This morning I went to the mall to get a few things. There are two stores in that mall with BP machines, so I thought I would check to see if there was any effect. The first one gave me readings of 130/81 then 123/74 five minutes later. I was amazed. I also know that this machine tends to read a bit low compared to the other one, so I figured I had better go see what it would show. 124/79. That indicates the readings were real and not just one machine needing to be calibrated.

In four days I dropped over 30 points systolic and about 20 points diastolic. My hypothesis in starting the potassium supplement was that my sodium/potassium balance was off and that for some reason, my body was holding that balance even as I lowered sodium intake and increased potassium intake. So I figured I needed to do something to surge the potassium level in my body.

I would like to know what thoughts your readership has on this. My intent at the moment is to stay with the potassium supplementation until I hit my goal of 110/70, then start weaning off the supplement to see if the body holds the BP or not. Ideally, I will hold at 110/70 without the supplement and with eating properly. In other words, I hope my body establishes a new potassium/sodium balance facilitating normal BP.

~~~

Wow, that’s quite a normalization in a very short time. Back in 2007 when I embarked on my own journey, one of the things that really gave me pause was my BP, which was consistently 140-150 / 90-100, sometimes higher, rarely lower than 140/90. At first I didn’t alter diet much, just twice per week to the gym for 30 minutes, but intense resistance training. I have a measuring device that stores your readings and I was able to plot them on a chart as my BP readings began to come down immediately and within only a couple of weeks I was typically in the 130s / 80s, and that’s about what it seems to be most of the time now.

How about you? Anyone have any insights for Dave?

~ Attention all: David-Dorian Ross wants everyone to know that he has "lectured on exercise science for the past 15 years, as well as having been on the executive committee of the National Association of Health and Fitness…" and on that basis rather than argument, wants you to know that I "really have no idea what [I’m] talking about on just about every point," and further, that "the ‘paleo diet’ — when generically applied — is bad science." What do you think?

~ Dr. BG’s posts are often pretty challenging for the non-professional, but if you can follow along, here’s an amazing rundown on cholesterol particle sizes and what they mean to you (link removed).

~ I’ve blogged this before, but it pays to review. Jack Lalanne always knew what he was talking about.

~ Monical Reinagel, MS, LDN, asks whether Paleo is the new Mediterranean over on The Nutrition Data Blog. Lot’s of excellent comments from paleo practitioners, too. Bear in mind that Paleo Trumps Faux Mediterranean.

~ Some pretty wise words from the world’s oldest living man. in addition to eating only breakfast & lunch and skipping dinner for the last 35 years, his favorite meal is liver & onions.

~ Here’s another take on paleo-primal pizza: a meat crust from Chef Rachel. Meatza. I did this Friday evening with excellent results. Photos to follow. And by the way, if you missed my interview of the Chef, be sure to take a look.

Before I place a montage, there’s inspiration. Back ’round the 4th of July weekend, we happened to have missed being with friends who happened to be with mutual friends. Make sense? OK, they ended up going to Gordon Ramsay’s LA restaurant and posted more than a dozen pics of what they ate. This was one.

Pork Belly at Gordon Ramsay, LA

The caption read: "Slow braised pork belly, crispy pig’s head, pickled red onions and pea purée." Count me in.

But this is merely the beginning; the inspiration.

My friend Robert features prominently on this blog, as does his wife, Julie. They both do. While not usually mentioned, much, most of the cooking for friends I do is for them, and they do equally for us. And we play cards — advanced Spades, if you must know.

But sometimes the girls and their friends get tired of Robert & I winning all the time, so they have their once-monthly girl’s-night-out get-together, and, you get it: Robert & I were on our own last night.

And we decided to push boundaries.

…Well, actually, he did. My original idea was grilled burgers.

He wasn’t moved. I knew this when I called him yesterday afternoon about various arrangements and found him at the meat counter acquiring the pork belly I’m about to feature. We decided at that point to go outside boundaries. He decided to do pork belly, and I, Belgian endive. …I began, not liking it much when first encountered in France — always sauteed — it seemed to have a bitter taste. But I got to like it, but always wondered if I could do better. I believe I did.

Pork Belly & Co

This was a lot of fun. The pork belly is simply seasoned with a little (a little) coriander, cumin, salt & pepper. It’s then roasted at 450 for 15, then down to 350 for two hours. At the end, baste it with its juices a couple of times and fire it under the broiler.

I decided on Belgian endive, sauteed, then braised for 15 minutes covered, in 350 (lower rack in the same oven). Right before it went into the oven.

Belgian Endive

I used no spices or herbs. Endive. Two slices of bacon. Onion. Pecans. I sauteed in the drippings from very lightly cooking the two strips of bacon, leaf lard & butter. Once soft, into the oven.

The other notable thing is that Robert made a roux with the pork fat drippings out of the oven. He sprinkled in a bit of dried basil, then it was 1 1/2 tbsp potato flour and about one cup heavy cream. Even more to be fearless about…

Dinner Service

Plate Number One

Plate Number Two

 Aw, what the hell, eh? I’d embed, but it’s disabled:

Tracy Bonham: Mother Mother (Live).

Big fan of that song & performance for long times.

Reader Alexander Thorn in the UK put together some impressive work using data from the British Heart Foundation and emailed it to me the other day. Let’s take a look. You can click on all the graphs for the much larger "lightbox" image, and/or click on the links below each graph to download the files.

You can download the linked file here. Explains Alex:

Taking the same European countries and plotting the incidence of the various diseases against each country ranked in ascending order of the amount of saturated fat consumed as a percentage of total calories — from 3.9% for Bosnia to 15.5% for France — I got some very definite trend lines — all sloping downward toward the countries with the greatest saturated fat intakes (France being the highest, of course).

Unlike Keys, I used all the countries with the relevant data available (no cheating!). While there is the odd outlier on both sides of the divide — some countries with high disease rates and high sat fat and some with low disease rates and low sat fat — the vast majority, I think, echo the overall trend of more disease for less sat fat that is eaten as a percentage of total caloric intake.

But Alex wasn’t satisfied there. He noted that in using DALY figures, population size of the countries would make a difference. He explains.

Just thought I’d better clarify some points re the graph. The figures for CHD, stroke and other CVD are actually DALY figures – that is Disability Adjusted Lost Years – and it is per 100,000 of the countries’ populations (I hadn’t registered this distinction at first).

The DALY figures were already ‘age-adjusted’ and include not only the years lost due to mortality from the particular disease but also disability. It is calculated – as follows – from relatively accessible incidence data (ICD codes). Years of Lost LIfe (YLLs) is based on the inputs life expectancy at age of death and age at death, while Years Lost to Disability (YLDs) is based on the inputs duration of disease/injury, disability weight of disease/injury and percentage of long-term cases.

The only possible criticism I can foresee is that the population size of each country is obviously going to have a bearing on the DALY statistics. So I have just re-entered all of the data into another spreadsheet and made adjustments for the population size of each country. This has obviously made the graph less ‘exciting’ to look at but the trend lines for all diseases still slope downward toward the countries with the highest saturated fat intake.

And, it should also be noted: they don’t slope upward, so, where in that does one imagine a testable hypothesis where increased saturated fat intake causes anything bad?

Download the file here.

Then he had the idea of plotting on a logarithmic scale. The simplest way to explain that is that it scales to percentage change rather than absolute values. So, for example, in a graph with a vertical axis from 1-100, 10 would be halfway, since the change from 1-10 in terms of percentage is the same as the change in 10-100.

Download the file here.

But he still wasn’t finished.

Taking the same DALYs statistics from the last graphs (but this time combining the figures for CHD, stroke and other CVD) I have plotted the countries in ascending order of the total DALYs per 100,000 head of population (left to right along the x-axis) against the macro-nutrient ratio (C:P:F) for those same countries (along the y-axis) and plotted the linear regression (or trend) lines for each macro-nutrient. The relationships are pretty clear in the bars themselves but the trend lines confirm it: The less (total) fat you eat the greater the DALYs score (line slopes down toward the higher scores at the right-hand end of the x-axis) but even more telling, the more total carbohydrate you consume the greater the DALYs score (the line slopes upward toward the right-hand end of the x-axis). Protein appears to be neutral, with a perfectly level trend line.

So, more saturated fat, better, more carbohydrate, worse, and protein is not associated.

Download the file here.

Now let’s take a look at something related: total cholesterol. It so happened that Ricardo Carvalho rang in around this same time, calling attention to some data crunching of his own.

Download the file here.

As I’ve speculated before, a total cholesterol of 200-220 seems to be the sweet spot for total C. Ricardo is calling it 200-240 and that looks like a good call, to me. Bear in mind, this does not equal causality, only association. Any individual can die of anything with any cholesterol number, or live to 101.

What this does accomplish, however, is tantamount to utter falsification of the hypothesis that either "high" saturated fat intake or "high" total cholesterol is independently causal for heart disease, stroke, or indeed, death from any cause.

I’m pretty sure it was Roger Ebert, somewhere along the line, who taught me the principle that underlies this paraphrased statement:

Judge a film by what its makers intend to deliver, not by what you think it should deliver.

And so we’re back again with Lierre Keith and The Vegetarian Myth. My previous mentions & reviews have been here and here and here.

This time I wish to stay on particular point and just write about her chapter on “moral vegetarians.” The book is essentially four parts beyond the first chapter, where she explains her reasons for embarking on her punishment (if you’ve checked out some of the vegan boards, as I have):

1. Moral Vegetarians
2. Political Vegetarians
3. Nutritional Vegetarians
4. Manifesto (that’s not a derogatory usage of the word, per se)

Here’s why I mentioned Ebert: I don’t agree with Lierre’s moral code. I’ll get to that, but that’s a difference in philosophy and it doesn’t mean she didn’t make a consistent argument according to her premises — she absolutely does, and a devastating one. In the meantime, this chapter is really the essential meat of the book, as it should be. We are moral beings and morality informs our politics and our actions, including our nutritional choices and our idealism.

Lierre Keith certainly accomplishes what I believe she sets out to do: use the vegetarian moral code against vegetarians by exposing their ignorance. In page after page she describes beautifully the whole cycle of life, from microbe to human being, and how everything that lives has to eat, someone or thing has to die, and that everyone is just taking their turn. Even us. Eventually, we’re food for worms, bacteria and other crawlies. “We all take turns at the table,” says Keith.

And in taking our turn at the table — responsibly, respectfully, sustainably — far from inflicting harm to anything, we are actually playing a crucial role in this whole cycle that is life on the planet.

And here’s where I learned the most from this book: agriculture, in terms of raw destructive power, is the cat’s meow. Global warming? Ozone depletion? Pollution? Whatever you may think of those and other issues, Keith has news for you: they pale in comparison. She convincingly demonstrates that the practice of stripping land (she calls it “biotic cleansing”) to grow annual monocrops is far more destructive and devastating to ecosystems and, above all, topsoil — alive with trillions of microbes in a mere cubic yard.

And here’s a good thought for you environmental skeptics out there. Many systems, in particular climate, may be far too complex to be sure of what man’s contribution is, if any. On the other hand, there’s no doubt about what agriculture does to ecosystems. Moreover, so much of it now is devoted to the growing of corn, such that HFCS is in virtually everything. And it’s being fed to cows, an animal that is designed to eat cellulose. Paraphrasing Keith: Cows eat grass, bacteria eat the cellulose — multiplying into the trillions — and the cows eat the bacteria. Corn makes cows sick and it’s inhumane to feed it to them.

The trickle down havoc wreaked by agriculture is a pretty easy case to make (once you have information) and Keith makes it very well.

In the end, the “moral” vegetarian has nowhere to go. If indeed their moral code is not anthropocentric, as is mine, Keith has nailed them to the wall. If, indeed, all life is more or less morally equivalent in their eyes, then in seeking to do no harm by promoting agriculture, they have instead unleashed the most destructive harm imaginable, in far greater magnitude. But it doesn’t end there. There’s an economic and political side, too. By promoting big-agra, they have made it very difficult for ecosystem preserving, topsoil building, humane and sustainable local polyculture operations to exist.

So then, what if your moral code is anthropocentric, i.e., one that essentially regards humans (whether by design or evolution) as being qualitatively different in an essential way from the rest of the animals, such that we possess a certain natural dominion? Does that make Keith’s arguments invalid? I don’t think so.

Keith does try to convince the reader that animals are as morally important as we are with a number of examples of animal and even plant “behavior” that certainly looks like human behavior, including self-sacrifice for offspring, a herd, or even a grove of trees.

But I had this nagging essential question: could any of these animal or plant entities unilaterally, willfully opt out of behaving in accordance with their designed or evolved natures? See, humans can choose to live by their natures; they can choose to strive to live above their natures; they can sink far, far below their natures; they can blow their own brains out.

Humans, unlike other animals, have to willfully determine what values are necessary for survival and prosperity, and then they have to decide whether or not they are going to pursue them. They have a choice by nature. Other animals seem to simply “know” what values they require and automatically set about to acquire them. If their environment is sufficient, they thrive, and if not, they perish. They have no willful choice in the matter.

And since a prerequisite for morality is to have a choice in matters, I have to conclude that morality applies only to human beings, and that we are naturally moral beings, since it is our very nature that demands we chose. Moreover, that choice, by nature, implies the right to choose, by nature, and so I cannot accept the notion that animals have natural rights in the sense humans do.

Alas, though very important to me from an ethical and political standpoint, I am actually quite open to dealing with folks who by virtue of the values they have chosen to live by, wish to hold themselves to what they see as a higher standard. Accordingly, though I do not ascribe morality and rights to animals, I have never been cruel to one in my life, and never would. And anyone who does is my enemy.

In the end, Keith and I don’t share the same moral code, but we hold many of the same crucial values. Thanks to her book, I now have a couple of particularly important additional values to hold dear and promote than I had before.

To the right, I have finally decided to add a donations button. Donate whatever amount you like, and/or, you can purchase from the products shown at the right, from our recommended items at our Amazon store, or, you can support the work at Free the Animal with any purchase at Amazon.

In the last year I’ve managed to put up over 450 posts. That’s a lot of work, when you think about it. And now, I have been going through the painstaking process of organizing every post I’ve written on health, fitness and diet since May, 2007, for the purpose of the book project. That’s not to say that the book is going to be a reproduction of the blog — it’s not — but I need those posts for reference into what areas I need to address, what research I need to look up, and just plain to make sure I don’t miss anything.

So if you look at it this way, a $25 yearly subscription comes out to about 5 cents per post.

But why should you do it? After all, if you don’t, I’ll still be writing posts no doubt, and so why not just ride for free? And, anyway, look how many other free blogs there are out there, most of which don’t even ask for donations?

Well beyond the issue of simple value exchange, those are questions you have to answer for yourself. Certainly you can’t subscribe or donate to everything, but I do hope you might have a top two or three that you’d donate a reasonable amount to, then let me worry about getting there, in your mind.

And what will subscriptions and donations accomplish? In order of importance:

1. Make me more serious than I already am about treating this as a long-term endeavor. It will put me on the hook to deliver.
2. Provide compensation for the expenses of writing the book, i.e., books that I need to purchase for reference, and photocopying of book sections and research studies at the library.
3. Provide me with an added moral boost; that what I’m doing here is not only helpful and beneficial for many, as has been demonstrated in posts and comments, but appreciated a bit beyond nice emails and comments.

I read a lot of blogs out there and the one thing I have noticed is that very few put out the volume I do, with often weeks passing without much of anything. Not here. Since November of 2003 when I started this blog (originally political), I have posted almost 2,500 posts — an average of 416 posts for each of the nearly 6 years I’ve been at this.

So, in closing, I would submit to you that I think I’ve demonstrated that I have what it takes to stick around and really deliver on the exchange of value represented by a subscription or donation.

I hope you’ll consider it.

1/12/2010: I have decided to forego the automatic renewing subscription option and have cancelled all renewals in PayPal (so those who selected that option will not have an automatic renewal).

One-time or anytime donation.

At my Cafe Press store.

Here’s a zoom in on the image. Click to enlarge.

These are prime filets given as a birthday gift to Bea by her brother. And, while I often feature the meals I do for guests as my biggest efforts, I decided to put in similar effort for a Friday evening meal for just the two of us. Bea has been non-stop go over the last week with her birthday party, family visiting, and partying in general that it was time for a quiet evening. Plus, we’ll be headed out shortly to Carmel by the Sea to attend the wedding of our next-door neighbors. More party on the horizon!

Dinner Workings

My first idea was to do a beef stock reduction as per usual, but then I had a better idea, owing to these being such large & tender filets. I decided to do a mildly browned butter with  toasted garlic & shallot, and also a bit of bacon drippings. So, I pre-heated the grill on high, then turned the burner I was cooking the steaks on to low and left the indirect one to high, covered. Five minutes on one side,  brush with butter, 5 minutes on the other, brush with butter, then cooking burner to full high and about five minutes of turning and brushing every minute. Done. Click for the high-res version.

A Big Filet

I also did a salad. Simply EVOO vinaigrette with salt & finely ground pepper, a dollop of dijon mustard and enough apple cider vinegar until emulsification was achieved. Then, blue cheese crumbles. Top it off with coarsely ground pepper.

Beefsteak Tomato Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

Back on the topic of cooking different cuts of meat to different levels of done, this is exactly the kind of tender filet that I like rare. It’s like great Ahi tuna. This was absolutely fork tender.

Rare Filet

Bea’s was about the same weight, but a bit thiner, and thus more of a medium rare, which she prefers.

Very quick. Cardiologist William Davis reports on the unexpected benefits his patients achieve after some months completely wheat free.

First, the expected benefits.

A patient would come to the office, for example, with a blood sugar of 118 mg/dl (in the pre-diabetic range) and the other phenomena of pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, high inflammation/c-reactive protein, low HDL, high triglycerides, small LDL), and the characteristic wheat belly. Eliminate wheat and, within three months, they lose 30 lbs, blood sugar drops to normal, blood pressure drops, triglycerides drop by several hundred milligrams, HDL goes up, small LDL plummets, c-reactive protein drops.

And now, the unexpected ones.

–Improved rheumatoid arthritis–I have seen this time and time again. Eliminate wheat and the painful thumbs, fingers, and other joints clear up dramatically. Many former rheumatoid sufferers people tell me that one cracker or pretzel will trigger a painful throbbing reminder that lasts a couple of hours.

–Improved ulcerative colitis–People incapacitated with pain, cramping, and diarrhea of ulcerative colitis (who are negative for the antibodies for celiac disease) can experience marked improvement. I’ve seen people be able to stop all their nasty colitis medications just by eliminating wheat.

–Reduction or elimination of irritable bowel syndrome

–Reduction or elimination of gastroesophageal reflux

–Better mood–Eliminating wheat makes you happier and experience more stable moods. Just as wheat is responsible for a subset of schizophrenia and bipolar illness (this is fact), and wheat elimination generates dramatic improvement, when you or I eliminate wheat, we also experience a "smoothing" of mood swings.

–Better libido–I’m not sure whether this is a consequence of losing a belly the size of a watermelon or improvement in sex hormones (esp. testosterone) or endothelial responses, but more interest in sex typically develops.

–Better complexion–I’m not entirely sure why, but various rashes will often dissipate, bags under the eyes are reduced, itching in funny places stops.

Of course, one would do well to just eliminate all grains, sugar, and industrial vegetable oils.

So, who are the real adults here, and who are the real children? Who is who?

Schoolkids vote 13-1 to slaughter lamb

A GROUP of schoolchildren who reared a lamb from birth and named it Marcus have overridden objections by parents and rights activists and voted to send the animal to slaughter.

[…]

The decision has provoked fury among animal-loving celebrities, animal and human rights campaigners and the parents of some of the children, and led to threats against Lydd primary school and its teachers, according to a member of staff.

Well, clearly, this is all about the children ("animal-loving celebrities, animal and human rights campaigners and the parents of some") and not about the adults who…

The children also look after ducks, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs.

The intention had been to buy pigs with the money raised from slaughtering Marcus, but those plans have been put on hold following the furor created by the lamb’s culling.

The school said the program may now have to be stopped.

"It’s all up in the air," said a member of staff.

"There’s been so much pressure on us as a result of all this."

Nope, it’s all about the children.

But opponents branded it heartless and cruel, with animal rights campaigners asking why Marcus could not have been used to teach the children about wool, and human rights campaigners worried about the emotional impact of Marcus’s death on the children.

A popular talkshow host offered to buy the lamb and give it sanctuary and Facebook groups sprung up to rally support to keep Marcus alive.

But at least the adults had the final say.

But the children had the final say.

The school defended the children’s decision, calling it educational.

"When we started the farm in spring 2009, the aim was to educate the children in all aspects of farming life and everything that implies," the school said.

"The children have had a range of opportunities to discuss this issue, both in terms of the food cycle and the ethical aspect.

"It is important for everyone to move on from this issue, so the children can focus on their education."

The continuing education of these adults is not what these children are after. Indoctrination is what they’re after.

In the end, they’ll probably succeed in turning these adults into children, just like themselves.

(Reader Tin Tin emailed that in the other day)

I’ll bet some of you already know where I’m going. There’s so much nonsense out there virtually every day that it would be tough for you not to know.

So, alright, I’ve seen a barrage of emails and other communique over the last couple of days. What should I begin with, how saturated fat stimulates hunger and makes us eat more, how 85% of type 2 diabetics are eating too much saturated fat, or that saturated fats clog your arteries just like your plumbing?

Well, it doesn’t matter where I begin, because they’re all pretty stupid.

Here’s some examples.

Ice Cream May Be Controlling Your Brain

Burger, ice cream fat ‘sends signals to brain’

Junk Food That Tells Our Brain To Carry On Eating

Those are just a few. They all read pretty much the same. The essentials:

When we eat, hormones such as leptin and insulin send out signals telling the body it has had enough.

But palmitic acid –a fatty acid present in saturated fats – goes straight to the brain and tells it to ignore these signals.

The research, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, was carried out by Dr Deborah Clegg of UT Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas.

That would be right here, and Deborah Clegg isn’t the only grant whore. We also have: Stephen C. Benoit, Christopher J. Kemp, Carol F. Elias, William Abplanalp, James P. Herman, Stephanie Migrenne, Anne-Laure Lefevre, Céline Cruciani-Guglielmacci, Christophe Magnan, Fang Yu4, Kevin Niswender, Boman G. Irani, and William L. Holland. Grant Whores.

I mean, what else could such useless research mean? I’ll leave the scientific debunking to the real experts out there. This is just a typical hit & run, for me. But let’s cover the basics. Yes, there’s some evidence I’ve seen to suggest that saturated fat might induce temporary mild insulin resistance. And leptin resistance too? I dunno, never heard that one, but perhaps it’s plausible. Can you think of an evolutionary reason for that?

What’s being ignored is saturated fats have been with us forever, and grains only a brief time. Processed foods packed with sugar, grain derivatives, and processed vegetable oils, only a short time. So, naturally, it’s the bit of saturated fat (typically less than 50% of total fat, even in junk food) in the tiny little frankenmeat stuck between two massive buns, alongside the fries done up in industrial oil, and the soda packed with sugar.

In other words, hunter-gatherers and other non-industrial populations who existed on lots of meat & fat must have been really obese, because, as we can see now that the American diet is about 60-70% carbcrap, people are now lean and trim everywhere.

So, one might presume that the best nutrient there is, meat with it’s saturated fat (our own body fat is highly saturated, and our bodies can and do manufacture saturated fats), might be so important that we evolved a "gorging mechanism" for when we had it around. That’s speculation, of course. But one thing we didn’t have built into our genes is how to handle a sugar load such as the average person consumes today.

The mind boggles. Grant Whores. Here:

"With respect to applying to humans, I can only make an educated guess, but I believe that when humans eat diets high in saturated fat, and palmitic acid in particular, hormones such as leptin, which normally regulate food intake and body weight will be less effective," says researcher Debbie Clegg. This helps explain why you wake up ravenous the morning after Thanksgiving — all that butter and cheese is literally toying with your brain.

Now Clegg, you stupid cow, I think you probably know damn good & well that the reason people are ravenous the next morning (just like after an enormous pasta dinner), is that they have dumped hundreds of grams of carbohydrate (sugar & grain) over the space of a few hours into a body whose total amount of blood glucose is about 4 grams at any one time. That’s less than a teaspoon in an entire body, and you idiots mean to tell us that the 5 grams of palmitic acid in that burger is what’s causing the problem, and not the 200 grams of carbohydrate in the bun, fries, and soda and perhaps dessert — 50 times more sugar than a normal person has in circulation?

You want to know what really causes insulin and leptin resistance? Over carbing (grains & sugar) drives insulin secretion, drives leptin resistance and fat storage, drives insulin resistance and more fat storage. This is the causal chain, everyone knows it; but, they’re Grant Whores.

Or, Frauds; take your pick. Want to have a real education about leptin and resistance? See here, and note the links to Stephan’s posts on leptin toward the bottom. Also, see how fat improves memory. Can you think of an evolutionary reason? Don Matesz speculates.

Far and away the most common benefit experienced by the paleo dieter — most of whom are in the 50-60% range of energy from fat, and depending on how much coconut fat they use, probably 25-50% total energy from saturated fats — is getting back to normal hunger regulation. It is nearly universal: "I’m never really hungry." That has certainly been my experience in losing 60 pounds while eating very high fat and saturated fat including palmitic acid. It has also been the experience of every single friend and family member.

These Grant Whores are despicable in every possible way. They should be immediately pelted about the head & shoulders with rotten vegetables.

~~~

Now to the next set of Grant Whores: Mara Z. Vitolins, DrPH, RD, Andrea M. Anderson, MS, Linda Delahanty, MS, RD, Hollie Raynor, PhD, Gary D. Miller, PhD, RD, Connie Mobley, PhD, RD, Rebecca Reeves, PhD, RD, Monica Yamamoto, PhD, RD, Catherine Champagne, PhD, RD, Rena R. Wing, PhD, Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, RD.

Most diabetics falling short on healthy eating. Well it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? It’s tautological: "Diet induced health problems are the result of unhealthy eating."

…researchers found that of nearly 2,800 middle- aged and older U.S. adults with type 2 diabetes, nearly all were exceeding the daily recommended fat intake. When it came to artery-clogging saturated fat, 85 percent were consuming too much.

[…]

The "most important thing" in managing type 2 diabetes, Vitolins noted, is balancing calories in and calories out to help shed pounds or at least avoid weight gain. The choice of foods is also vital in getting enough beneficial nutrients…

Here’s the abstract. No mention anywhere of whether they considered the role of SUGAR in…DIABETES.

Grant Whores.

~~~

Finally, I’ll leave the sarcasm to Tom Naughton, who has scientifically, rigorously proven that EVERYTHING clogs your arteries.

Update 5/11/2010: I was contacted by one of the researchers, Dr. Stephen Benoit, from the fist of those studies cited and in the end have decided that I targeted the wrong folks and that the science is good and valid, just reported wrong by the media. "Is Eating Crow Paleo?" Check it out.

If you haven’t noticed on the right sidebar, I have an ad up for a Bay Area company, Evolution Catering, run by Katherine (Kat) Strange, a reader. As part of the deal, I got some free food to try out, and I also got a couple more things out-of-pocket. The way Kat works is that there’s a new menu every week, you place your order, and it’s delivered on Monday. Most things in my order would keep at least 2-3 days in the fridge.

Here’s how it came delivered, to my door. Not included was a nice mixed greens salad with, I believe, grilled chicken and feta. That went to work with Bea and she reported loving it. Also not pictured is a hearty tomato soup with meatballs. That was Bea’s lunch today, though I had two of the meatballs with the soup cold and I could have easily eaten the whole thing cold. Really delicious.

Evolution Catering Packaging

So, we have grilled broccoli, grilled Brussels sprouts, salmon & fennel salad, stuffed flank steak, and chicken piccata. Of course, heating instructions were included as everything is pre-cooked. The salmon took the longest at 10-15 minutes in the oven, and everything else was heated in skillets in a few minutes with leaf lard, even the veggies.

An Evolved Meal

So, I took the three entrées and two veggies and divided them between Bea & I. I could not resist doing a quick pure red wine deglaze and reduction in the pan I used to heat the flank steak. Takes under a minute, and just a literal 2-3 finger pinch (1/4 tsp) of potato flour made a paste of it.

Evolution Catering

While I really loved the flank steak, my favorite was the chicken piccata (I believe the breading is coconut flour, but not sure). Amazing. I also really loved the veggies and in particular, the Brussels sprouts. My least favorite was the salmon, but that’s probably because it was a pretty big meal and I finished off the meat & chicken first.

So isn’t this a great thing? Sorry it’s really only applicable to those is the San Francisco Bay Area, but maybe there are other entrepreneurs out there. Maybe some that could even work with Kat to expand to other areas. Who knows? Alternatively, perhaps you could contact catering companies in your area and suggest they look into paleo options, or even contact Kat for expansion opportunities. You never know.

As a final thought, you know I advocate that everyone learn to cook paleo and that they cook their own meals most of the time. Yea, this means generally eschewing restaurant food. You just don’t know what you’re getting (well, yes you do: tons of omega-6, even if you order completely low carb). This is a far better deal than restaurant food. No frankenoils in Kat’s kitchen, for sure.

Another idea: since many of you have to pack a lunch anyway…

Oh, almost forgot. If you place an order using "ANIMAL" as a promo code, you get $15 off your first order.

Here’s a couple of examples of the beef portion of a couple of grassfed beef meals. In these cases, I did not use anything like almond, coconut, or potato starch to thicken the sauce (and it never takes much — usually less than a teaspoon), and I did add quite a bit of fat in the form of butter, lard, and duck fat to both (but in different ways).

At any rate, here’s the grassfed burger, which was just amazing. The sauce is primarily beef broth reduced, with blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries added, and 1/3 tsp or so of cinnamon, which was a great choice. It was strained before serving.

Grassfed Beef Burger

Next up were the two fillets I got from La Cense. Very tasty, but, quite expensive pound for pound. Plus, I usually like more than 5-6 ounces of meat in a sitting. This sauce is more garlic, red wine, onion and I can’t remember what all else.

Grassfed Beef Filets

One thing I always hear from people is how they like their meat cooked (blue, rare, m. rare, medium, m. well, well, etc.). I used to be a medium rare guy, myself, but could certainly enjoy rare or medium. Then as I began doing this more and more, I realized that different cuts of meat called for different cooking. Thus, a nice filet can be anything from something like seared ahi to a nice rare to medium rare. But a ribeye? Well, I have found that for me, a ribeye is tastiest when the fat is melted, and that seems to take place somewhere between medium rare and medium.

I had the presence of mind to snap a photo of one of the filets, above.

Grassfed Filet of Beef

Some would call that rare, some medium rare, but I think it’s between the two. It was sure good.

I should probably stay away from this altogether, and in view of that, I’ll endeavor to make this brief, to the point. Since this is a health and fitness blog and we tend to have our own ideas about "reform" (like: eat real food; and the fact that’s not even materially in the debate ought to be a big clue right there), feel free to raise your own issues in comments.

So, I’ve been stewing about it a bit since reading this op-ed from Michael Pollan sent by friend and reader Kathleen:

Big Food vs. Big Insurance

Let’s cut to the chase.

As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be good business, but, at least under the current rules, it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients overboard when they become ill.

But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change.

The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.

When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system — everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches — will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t really ever had before.

So, think it’ll work? Let’s just say I’m skeptical: all mega-corporations (which I consider a branch of the state: they exist by state statute and are protected by statute) will do whatever it is that brings them the most revenue at least cost because officers, directors & owners are shielded from liability. If Pollan’s logic, above, turns out to be that which accomplishes that objective, then it might work. Otherwise, it will just be more and more money out of your pocket.

But let me be generous and pretend that Pollan’s scheme is sure to work. Well, guess what? I don’t care.

You see, I have this irritating instinct. When someone asserts that something is sure or likely to work, I have an automatic response: work for whom, and at whose expense? And with striking — I jest: it’s not at all striking — regularity, institutions and programs of state are designed to "work" for those who aren’t bearing the expense. It’s kinda the point, right? After all, if everyone was bearing their own expenses, with resort only to friends, family, church and community charity…ah, never mind. …That would never "work."

But what of the "right" to health care? There can logically be no such thing as a right to goods and services produced by others. We used to have a word for it: slavery.

Sorry; call me overly principled, old-fashioned, or something. I’m just not pragmatic enough. After all, how would the Pyramids have been built? And how about the agrarian Southern United States, circa 1800? I could go on all day, y’know? There’s just no end to folklore about how great the state is when they "make the trains run on time." But I know…this is just too important not to have a final solution. After all, final solutions typically "work" for somebody.

So what’s my plan, you ask? I don’t have one. I might suggest genuine freedom and real free markets — since that’s never beed tried — but, you know…"that would never work."

I’ll end with a modest plea. I’m happy to shut up if we can simply call it what it is, and I’ll offer a suggestion: a complex protection racket funded by extortion. And it just might "work." Anyone got anything better?

Many of you are quite well aware of this, but for those who aren’t I encourage you to take a look at the comment thread over at Tim Ferris’ blog, the 4-hr Work Week.

It is indeed very extensive and Doc Eades’ contribution must be brutal on his time. But he’s doing a great job of combating conventional "wisdom" and modern ignorance.

He has also put together part-1 of a series on why we’re naturally meat eaters and not vegetarians.

I should tell you that she objected to the montage.

That’s not fair. In the first one, I look like I just got out of bed. In the second one, I was all dolled up!

So, if that’s what you think too, then blame me and not her!

A bit over a year ago, as Bea had been following my diet somewhat, and then began a resistance training effort, I decided to snap a photo for reference. The one to the right is a crop from her Big 5-0 birthday party Saturday night.

Bea Nikoley 15-month Comparison

Those who know what they are looking at will definitely understand what’s going on here. paleo / Primal / EvFit always has the same effect, and that is to reset a person’s physical attractiveness — particularly around the face, neck, and shoulder — back 10 years and more.

Alright, just to make it a more fair comparison, here’s a shot from 21 months ago, December 2007.

Bea Nikoley & Nanuka

See how much more rounded she is in the face, and far wider neck? And here’s an iPhone shot from the party.

 More Bea Nikoley

I’d say she’s about 80% paleo. But her results have been accelerating of late, and that’s why I’m posting this. What’s happened? Well, there are a number of developments, so I suspect it’s a combo.

She eats way more meat owing to the tasty sauce reductions I make. Until then, she would never eat more than three or four ounces of a steak. Now, she’ll easily handle eight ounces and more. This, of course, has the double effect of replacing carbs or other junk she’d have otherwise eaten, as well as satiation. Like me, she never eats an early breakfast. She eats when she’s hungry and that almost never happens before 10 am. She has also discovered the wonderful world of coconut fat in the curries I make with coconut milk; and then there’s the coconut oil, and her spoonfuls of coconut butter. On the workout front, she had added to her two resistance sessions per week some classes down at the gym: aerobics with weights, pilates, yoga, and some martial arts thingy she likes.

Whatever it is, it’s working.

To those friends & family readers of the blog who attended the party, thanks for honoring her as you did. Here was the setting for the roughly 100 folks in attendance.

Beas Big 5 0