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Menace to Society: North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition (NCBDN)

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Today I have a story for you about heroes vs. villains…about the innocent vs. the guilty, the benevolent vs. the parasite, and the honest vs. the automatic liar. In the end, it’s really a story about evil, corruption, and force. But this is the Court of the Internet, so you get to judge for yourselves.

Back in 2009 I got an email from Steve Cooksey. He relayed his story to me, which I relayed in this post. I’ll give an excerpt.

Long story short, I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance with a BG reading of 700+ and an A1C that was literally “too high to read”. Three days later I was discharged home as a Diabetic and while the doctors were not sure, I was told that I was likely a Type 1 and that I would be on insulin and medications for the rest of my life.

While still in the hospital, I was given an ADA Food Pyramid by the “hospital nutritionist” and upon inquiry was informed to “eat the food groups” but stay below 2200 calories. This seemed odd to me but at the time, I was a mental wreck — having been given several body blows — so I took the advice and ordered my meals from the hospital menus. To be honest…they looked a hell-u-va-lot like what I ate ordinarily….

So, I go home and start researching what to do. I was determined to do ALL I could to stop taking insulin and medications. I’d seen too many relatives go down this road…and quite frankly…I did not like the destination nor the ride to get there.

A couple days later after discharge, a home health nurse came by — I also quizzed her about my diet — SHE HANDED ME ANOTHER ADA Food Pyramid and told me to “eat the food groups”.

A couple of days later my doctor told me to check out the Low Glycemic Index to see if that would help…it did and it started me on a journey that lead me to Mark Sisson’s website where I explored all things Primal.

Today, with the benefit of a great workout program and a Primal diet, I am 75 pounds lighter and I take -0- insulin and -0- medications. My latest blood work showed NO EVIDENCE OF DIABETES NOR OBESITY!

I have been insulin and medication free for about 6 months. Because I know how utterly confusing and hopeless life can be when diagnosed with diabetes, I have attempted to reach out to “spread the word” about paleo / Primal eating and living. I often “befriend” people in social media groups and strike up a conversation.

Multiple times — I’d say at least 4-5 times — I have began a conversation with a “Certified Diabetes Educator”. EVERY SINGLE TIME — NO EXCEPTIONS — they do not HAVE A CLUE when it comes to paleo / Primal eating. Honestly…I find this disgusting. Especially when I have to hear (or read) how they are required to go to X number of hours of recertification classes and how they are trained on the latest…blah, blah, blah. ALL of this is bad enough, but here’s the kicker…

THEY ATTEMPT TO CONVINCE ME TO STOP!!! …And go back to eating grains, beans, rice, pasta etc. THE AUDACITY!!! EVEN AFTER they know that I have lost weight and kicked diabetes in the ass they try to get me back on the train…the train to hell.

WHY? Why would they do this?????

Why? Well, for starters, go re-read the first paragraph.

before after
Steve Cooksey Before & After

That’s Steve “Before;” that is, when registered dietitians—licensed & regulated by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition (NCBDN)—were advising him to eat in such a way as to remain fat, diabetic and dependent upon them. After, is when Steve realized that if they were not actually, explicitly trying to kill him early, it was way too difficult to draw distinctions—so he simply took matters into his own hands.

Well, why wouldn’t he? Let’s examine the track record of the NCBDN, established in 1992.

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60% + of North Carolinians are Overweight or Obese
nc diabetes
1995-2010, Percent of NC Diabetics Who are Obese (~40% – 60% in that span)

Great job there, NCBDN! Keep up the “good work.”

You know, given that level of demonstrated “competence,” I can offhand think of a bunch of things the NCBDN ought not be entrusted with…fetching my mail, taking out the trash, clearing a stopped up toilet, pumping outhouses, cleaning up behind my dogs, and properly disposing of used tampons all come to mind…

And yet…yet, what they are being entrusted with is the health and dietary habits of a whole state, and in particular, those with serious medical conditions such as diabetes that require even more attention.

…And even as egregiously wrong as that is, morally, it doesn’t stop there. Nope. They’re not content to simply wallow in their own incompetence and let caveat emptor prevail. Nope, they actually, with a straight face, seek to stop those who actually do get real results. So now, let’s continue on to make the case that this isn’t simply mistaken ignorance, but evil of a sort that actually seeks to harm people, explicitly.

When Steve, through his own research and dedication, fixed his own problem, he sought to help others via his website, Diabetes-Warrior.net. Perfectly natural, benevolent, etc. And he’s very effective, as you’ll see if you read through the success stories so many have shared on his website. You’ll find similar things in the comments to his posts. Now, contrast that with the record above.

Now let’s drop the other shoe. This same den of incompetents launched an official “investigation” into Steve’s private affairs—publishing his website for the benefit of anyone who wishes to read it—and they issued a “report” (PDF). Here’s an update on the whole deal, along with an 8 minute interview Jimmy Moore was kind enough to get out there quickly.

So you can read through as much of the “report” as you like, but it all reads the same. It’s all based on the same thing. Nowhere is there any indication of moral or conscious thought along the lines of: ‘he helped himself marvelously and is helping others.’ Or: ‘wow, if more North Carolinians did this it would be a great thing for the obese and diabetic.’ Or: ‘maybe we can learn something from this guy.’ Or even: ‘we have discretion here, let’s just close this case out.’ Or even more: ‘he does not appear to be hurting anyone.’

None of that. Just as your average German bloke in a foot soldier’s uniform in the early 1940s, charged with loading men, women and children into boxcars—cognizant of a certain destination and fate—chose not to listen to the voice of his own conscience…(it was “legal”), so it is with the NCBDN, willing, in all their demonstrated incompetent glory, to shut someone down who’s obviously helping people and not hurting a soul—unlike, obviously, the NCBDN is doing.

It’s an upside-down world so perverse that the bigger the lie, the easier the sell. And look, it’s not as though it ought to be all that difficult to expose those who might, somehow, someway, manage to do more harm to the average diabetic than the NCBDN already does. For instance, how tough would it be to catch someone advising diabetics to shoot rat poison in place of insulin? And even then, at least that offers the prospect of a quick death, rather than the slow & debilitating one the NCBDN offers with its “education” and “consultation.”

There’s not an ounce of morality or righteousness or honesty or heroism in the whole thing, that “report.” It’s just simply spouting laws.

“I’m just doing my job.”

…And last but not least, let’s just not forget how this rolls, eventually and to the very end. At the end of the line of the NCBDN’s cordial admonishments, nice words and “helpful” guidance…somewhere, at some time or place down the road, if Steve doesn’t buckle under, there’s a gun.

There’s always a gun and it ultimately always comes down to force.

Update: Oh, I forgot to take names.

  • Michelle Futrell, MS, RD, LDN – Chair, Public Health
  • Brenda Burgin Ross, MS, RD, LDN – Vice Chair, Clinical
  • Richard W. Holden, Sr. – Treasurer, Public Member
  • Kathleen Sodoma, RD, LDN – Secretary, Management
  • Christie Nicholson, MS, RD, LDN, Private Practice
  • Phyllis Hilliard, MPH, Public Member
  • Cathleen E. Ostrowski, MS, RD, LDN, Education

Ice Cream with Bacon Bits

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I didn’t suppose this was really anything new, given the vast array of things that seem to come with bacon—not to mention the saying that everything’s better with bacon. I’ve even tried one of the dark chocolate bar brands that contains tiny bits of bacon—not enough in my view.

…I engaged in two indulgences on my birthday, Sunday. The first was that eggs benedict for breakfast. The second, and final, was ice cream after the dinner our good friends prepared for us.

On hand, they had tubs of Trader Joe’s Mocha, and the Dark Chocolate. But Julie had also made a good batch of bacon bits earlier for the bisque (and I also sprinkled some on my ribeye, with butter). There were plenty left, so I had an idea: let’s finish them off on the ice cream.

IMG 0798
Mocha and Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Bacon Bits

When I made my intentions known, there was a uniform sigh of trepidation. Each of the three others vowed not to even try it. And then I placed it on the table like this.

IMG 0799
Four Spoons

Everyone dug in, and apparently, everyone liked it and focussed mostly on which was better.

I should mention, Julie makes awesome bacon bits because, rather than draining them on a paper towel or equivalent, where they sit in the fat and soften up, she uses a wire strainer so they retain their crunch and crispiness. In all, the combination between the texture, chewiness and saltiness…it was definitely a winner and I can’t wait to serve it up to unsuspecting guests one of these days.

Rejoinder: A Podcast, a Birthday Weekend, and an Unexpected 5-Star Book Review from Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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I hurt last Friday.

I hurt so much that I was almost ready to ask my wife—who was doing and had done everything for a weekend away—to call it off. But I observed over the morning hours how she was getting everything prepped, how much she was looking forward to it, and how she was kinda hoping against hope that I’d suck it up and just go for it.

I surmise that had it not been for the fact that instead of doing a weekend in San Fran as we’ve done so many times for my birthday—deciding instead on the upscale, dog-friendly Carmel—that she’d have pressed me to call it off. But she was enamored of the whole idea. The doggies were coming along. I was suffering, but tried not to let it show too much.

So how did it work out?

I’ll get to it later. In the meantime, I’ve done another podcast and it has just gone live at Fat Burning Man. I’m getting better at this because, 1) I’m trying not to go through the same story I’ve related in so many other podcasts and, 2) we cover a whole bunch of stuff about the book. And also, Abel is able. He does a very good job covering new ground in nutrition and health that I haven’t covered before. As I always do, I listen to the whole thing before linking it up and I think it’s a decent listen even if you know it all; but of course, you get to judge for yourself. It’s the Internet.

Interview with Richard Nikoley – Free the Animal

At that link, you’ll find the whole 50 minute streaming audio interview and as well, a 15-minute YouTube of excerpts, mashed with photos of Abel, myself (fat and leaner), and some of my food porn.

…Yep, Friday I about wanted to curl up into a ball. I have hardly, if ever been sick in years but this one knocked me out. Who knows what it was, and it’s silly to dwell on detail, but there are times in life when you just want the whole fucking world to get out of your face, leave you the fuck alone..and try back later.

It’s harder when it’s your birthday.

We took the hour and a half drive, checked it, got situated and headed out. Clint Eastwood’s old place, the Hog’s Breath Inn has been a Carmel staple of mine since 1989, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been there since (dozens). I even patterned a back yard of mine after it, once—pavers, raised flower beds, fire pit, trees and what he didn’t have: an in-ground spa.

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A Small Portion

…But Beatrice worked her butt off for this, calling hotels to inquire…making sure we had the best place, dog-friendly, with a fireplace. That in itself is healing in a sense.

We were only a minute walk away from Hog’s Breath, but on that day, Friday, I was in a state of healing myself, which is to say: fever. I walked over with two sweatshirts and a jacket on, and was still cold. And I was dumping water rapidly. No appetite at all. So no drinks, no food. But I enjoyed the ambiance and just observed, quietly. Then later, a walk around the town, to be followed by a night of horrors—with deep lung coughing and cold sweats, just to round everything out.

Saturday was a different day from minute 1. By this point I had decided to push vitamin D severely, to the tune of many thousands of units (25K+) and began to feel relief within hours. So I knocked off all the OTCs, like Mucinex, decongestant, nasal spray and so forth. I continued taking 25K vitamin D through Sunday and the cold or whatever seems dead as I sit here.

But who knows? Could have been on the way out anyway. No woo here. Just try it yourself if you like.

By Saturday evening I was feeling grand, good enough even for some alcohol, so we began on a rooftop.

Vesuvio
Vesuvio

Then another place and finally, as is my preferred method—no reservations…keep trying—we landed at Le San Tropez. Pastis instead of whiskey, oysters on the half shell with red vinegar—as God commanded or should have—escargot, blue cheese stuffed dates, and a main course of fleet with sauce béarnaise. Dessert was a perfectly done cafe. Not too short like the Italians do, and certainly not miles long like the Americans do.

Oh, and a soufflé. Only, it was a real one, which you have likely never had unless you had one in France or in a French restaurant with ideals. A real soufflé is not the slightest bit sweet. It’s not a puffy sugar cake. It’s like a fluffy omelet with unsweetened chocolate in it. Then, you pierce the top and add in the semi-sweet, hot dark chocolate. A good soufflé isn’t overly sweet at all, and if you didn’t get that you’re primarily eating an egg dish, then you’re getting fake soufflé. Désolé.

…Later, we called it a night and I woke up the next day to my birthday. I called a Paleo time out and had a 3-egg benedict at Katy’s Place. I had sliced tomatoes instead of the potatoes but hardly touched them.

We walked the dogs off leash on the beach as we had the day before, watching them socialize normally with hundreds of other similarly situated free animals. Amazing how so much of the aggression melts away when dogs are off leash and as such, on equal terms. In two days and over two hours walking miles along the beach and hundreds of off leash dogs, we heard not so much as a single growl. This is by far from my first experience like this.

So next time you watch the news and politics and feel aggression, just ask yourself: who’s on the leash, and who’s not?

Alright, I’ll finish with a bit of book promotion. I’m happy about it. The print version is now available on Amazon for those so inclined, and after a couple of weeks of frustration with my publisher chewing up the Kindle chain of command, it’s finally coming available on the Amazon international sites. Copies sold are 1,200 and climbing, and since I’m in it for the long haul, that’s just great. Feedback has been so positive, like this email from Scott.

Thank you so very much for your blog, and the information you give out.

I came to your site originally from Tom’s FatHead website, after being sent to view the movie by a very dear friend of mine who is a chef. I guess you could say the rest is history.

I’m not in bad shape, but thanks to you and the inspiration of others doing similar work, I am by far after the past year in the best shape of my life. I eat real foods, and skip over the crap. Sure, every now and then Steak and Shake will lure me in (maybe once every 2 or 3 months,) but I know I’ll pay the price for it, and I accept it under those terms.

I ordered your ebook, and that day I read it. And then I read it again. I read it a third time. Congratulations… it really was that great a read. I’ve sent a number of friends the link, hopefully they will join in the health.

Thanks also for bringing Denise Minger to those of us in your regular readers, holy cats, man, she is amazing.

Glad to see the work you do, inspiring people to live their lives.

The Amazon reviews are so far, still 100% 5-star. There’s 12 of them now, and the 12th was just dropped in on Saturday, but I didn’t check until this morning.

charming and motivating, January 28, 2012

By N N Taleb “Nassim N Taleb”

A charming primer on the paleo idea, with an illustration through the authors own life. I read it in one sitting.

I left a comment thanking him for his great work with the best selling Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Both of those books and in particular the former, really set me off initially in about 2006 after a very bad week trading options, to eventually prefigure what I was to do vis-a-vis paleo and beyond.

…It seemed quite a coincidence when a year later, stumbling upon Art De Vany and his work in Evolutionary Fitness—that got me started in all of this—that he and Nassim Nicholas Teleb were friends and that NNT was undergoing his own Paleo/EvFit transformation.

Is it too much to observe that the world of the truly prescient and intelligent is rather small?

Heading Out

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Taking the rest of the day and weekend off and heading out of town, since I’ll be turning 51 on Sunday.

Circumstances could be better. The bit of possible food poisoning incident I blogged about the other day appears to have morphed into a full blown head cold, with all the usual symptoms. But that’s just the way things roll, sometimes.

Seeya.

More Clues Toward Determining Optimum Vitamin D Levels

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Yesterday I got an interesting email from The Vitamin D Council reporting on a new study that measures the vitamin D levels of the Masai and Hadzabe of Africa.

It seems there’s a good amount of epidemiology for vitamin D levels in people with various illness and disease; as well, there’s epidemiology for disease incidence by latitude (as surrogate for vitamin D levels), but not really anything measuring the vitamin D levels of a a group of normal people one might expect to have reasonably high levels.

Previously, there was only a 1971 study of 8 sunbathing, white lifeguards who maintained levels in the range of 50-80 ng/ml.

So here’s the abstract of the new study:

Traditionally living populations in East Africa have a mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration of 115 nmol/l. Luxwolda MF, Kuipers RS, Kema IP, Janneke Dijck-Brouwer DA, Muskiet FA.

Dr. John Cannell explains the study thusly:

The Maasai are no longer hunter-gatherers but live, along with their cattle, either a settled or a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They wear sparse clothes, which mainly cover their upper legs and upper body, and attempt to avoid the sun during the hottest part of the day. They eat mainly milk and meat from their cattle, although recently they began to add corn porridge to their diet. Their mean 25(OH) vitamin D level was 48 ng/ml (119 nmol/L) and ranged from 23 to 67 ng/ml.

The Hadzabe are traditional hunter-gatherers. Their diet consists of meat, occasional fish, honey, fruits, and tubers. They have no personal possessions. They wear fewer clothes than the Maasai in that the men often wear nothing above the waist. Like the Maasai, they avoid the sun during the hottest part of the day. Their mean 25(OH)D was 44 ng/ml and ranged from 28 to 68 ng/ml.

It was also reported in the study that all subjects had black skin types that require the most sun to produce robust vitamin D.

So I guess if you unpack all of that, a 25(OH)-vitamin D level of 50 ng/ml that the Vitamin D Council has recommended is right about in the sweet spot.

But there’s a few other things this suggests to me:

  1. Since these subjects have the most difficult kind of skin to stimulate D production, that levels higher than 50 and perhaps even way higher might be less of a concern than others have suggested. Perhaps it’s less of an “experiment” now in the longer term.
  2. You really need to pay attention to what I called in my book, being a “fish out of water.” These subjects were on the equator where the sun is most effective, combined with skin that’s least effective. Things get dicey with modern migration and relocation where you have very efficient D generating white skin near the equator (too much D) and the less efficient dark skin at advanced latitudes (too little D).

But it seems to me that the latter situation is the far riskier one: a darker skin person at higher latitudes, such as northern Europe, Northern areas of the US, and Canada. The white skin person can always avoid over-exposure, use some sunscreen, etc., but the dark skin person suffers a double whammy of having less efficient skin for synthesis, combined with a sun that’s only effective in stimulating vitamin D for part of the year (the higher the latitude, the less effective).

How about the health of the Masai, in general? Do I really need to answer that question? I recommend Dr. Stephan Guyenet’s series:

  1. Diet and Body Composition of the Masai
  2. Masai and Atherosclerosis
  3. More Masai
  4. Nutrition and Infectious Disease

That 4th link wasn’t actually in the series but deals with the Masai, as well as vitamins A & D, which we now know work in synergy (along with K2). Here’s an excerpt:

…However, their colleagues had previously noted marked differences in the infection rate of largely vegetarian African tribes versus their carnivorous counterparts. The following quote from Nutrition and Disease refers to two tribes which, by coincidence, Dr. Weston Price also described in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:

“The high incidence of bronchitis, pneumonia, tropical ulcers and phthisis among the Kikuyu tribe who live on a diet mainly of cereals as compared with the low incidence of these diseases among their neighbours the Masai who live on meat, milk and raw blood (Orr and Gilks), probably has a similar or related nutritional explanation. The differences in distribution of infective disease found by these workers in the two tribes are most impressive. Thus in the cereal-eating tribe, bronchitis and pneumonia accounted for 31 per cent of all cases of sickness, tropical ulcers for 33 per cent, and phthisis for 6 per cent. The corresponding figures for the meat, milk and raw blood tribe were 4 per cent, 3 per cent and 1 per cent.”

So they set out to test the theory under controlled conditions. Their first target: puerperal sepsis. This is an infection of the uterus that occurs after childbirth. They divided 550 women into two groups: one received vitamins A and D during the last month of pregnancy, and the other received nothing. Neither group was given instructions to change diet, and neither group was given vitamins during their hospital stay. The result, quoted from Nutrition and Disease:

“The morbidity rate in the puerperium using the [British Medical Association] standard was 1.1 per cent in the vitamin group and 4.7 in the control group, a difference of 3.6 per cent which is twice the standard error (1.4), and therefore statistically significant.”

This experiment didn’t differentiate between the effects of vitamin A and D, but it did establish that fat-soluble vitamins are important for resistance to bacterial infection.

So, there appears to be a dietary factor as well, which should make perfect sense, since we evolved over millions of years outdoors, at latitudes appropriate to our skin’s ability to produce vitamin D, and we ate real foods—not nutritionally bankrupt serial grains and all the processed crap they make from them now.

Just one more thing. How about cancer? While I looked but could find no references for cancer rates in the Masai, I do have some epidemiology for various cancers by vitamin D levels as well as latitude.

It’s from this very long and complex presentation: Dose-Response of Vitamin D and a Mechanism for Prevention of Cancer (PDF). Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H., F.A.C.E., Edward D. Gorham, M.P.H., Ph.D., Sharif B. Mohr, M.P.H., and Frank C. Garland, Ph.D., Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
UCSD School of Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center, December 2, 2008.

This first slide is a plot of renal cancer rates in males (left) and females (right).

Latitude

What do you make of that? Can anyone think of anything that might explain it better, with less assumptions (Occam’s Razor style) than vitamin D?

Dose-response relationships from cohort studies were used to estimate the number and percent of cancer cases that could be prevented worldwide by vitamin D3 supplementation:

Vitamin D Level

Basically, what this estimates is that keeping your level of 25(OH) above 50 ng/ml dramatically reduces your risk of cancer.

And so now, given the above, I see no reason anyone should not be setting about to ensure it. And eat real food while you’re at it and better your chances even more.

Here’s the list of cohort studies that were used in that last graph:

  • Gorham ED, et al. Am J Prev Med. 2007;32:210-6.
  • Garland CF, et al. Am Assoc Ca Res Mtg San Diego April 14, 2008
  • Li H, et al. PLoS Med. 2007;4:103.
  • Tworoger SS, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007;16:783-8.
  • Mohr SB, et al. Prev Med. 2007;45:323-4.
  • Mohr SB, et al. Int J Cancer. 2006;119:2705-9.
  • Purdue MP, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007;18:989-99.
  • Lappe JM, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85:1586-91.

What Do You Do When You’re Sick?

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Last evening, I went to dinner with Dave Asprey of BulletProofExcec, Grace—AKA Dr. BG—of AnimalPharm (link removed), and Patrick, creator of PaleoHacks. Grace’s lovely sister and my lovely wife Beatrice were also in attendance. It was at Birk’s, in Santa Clara. They have grassfed steaks. Dave knew this, and actually metioned it in the podcast I recorded with him a couple of weeks back—which should come out soon.

And then, that asshole Patrick ordered a dozen oysters on the half shell and being the hog I am, I downed four of them. And within an hour or less, already having ordered and received my grassfed filet, I had them box it for me. I excused myself from the table, went out, found a secluded flower pot, and did exactly what my dogs do when they don’t feel quite right.

The difference is, I didn’t return to it.

I have no idea what the human reluctance to vomit is all about. When you feel like you need to blow chunks, fucking blow chunks! And guess what? You’ll feel immeasurably better almost instantly. Why do you insist on putting your will to not be embarrassed, beyond your physiological nature?

And guess what else? Why not trust your inner animal? It’s telling you that something is very fucking wrong. Why try to overcome that physical urge with a potentially lifesaving natural physical response. You can actually die from a bad enough dose of bad shit. Really. It’s happened. And for the sake of saving face, you’re going to feel like crap for hours, suck it up, and take the risk? Not me.

Flower pot. Yea, there were oyster chunks in that shit.

I got this email earlier that motivated me to this post, and I’d intended on taking a post break for today.

I’m really enjoying your blog and looking forward to your forum starting up. In the meantime, I have a question regarding a recent experience of mine. I was the unfortunate victim of food poisoning earlier this week, and was wondering what I could have done to recover from it. I’m familiar with the BRAT diet, and realize that half of that formula isn’t paleo friendly. So what kind of diet is recommended for a stomach that’s recovering from some kind of insult? I ended up eating bananas and applesauce, but wondered what else I could have eaten to help me recover.

Here’s how I replied:

I do just like a typical animal does, even my dogs. At the slightest hint of a problem, I stop eating until I feel better. You don’t eat anything; you rather, divert all resources to healing. Your body already has all it needs. Yes, you may deplete certain nutrients somewhat, but if you eat nutritionally dense you’ll quickly fill them again when you are hungry and feel good, at which point you eat.

Once again, it’s always about “what do I eat”: to cleanse, to lose weight, to recover from illness.

How about: Try Nothing.

I hadn’t eaten much yesterday and after that experience, had no desire of food until about 11AM. Anticipating this, I had set my filet out all morning to get up to room temp. I fired and basted two sunny eggs in butter, set them aside and re-seared my $32 untouched filet in the same butter. It was all awesome.

…The coolest place I ever emptied a stomach was on the island of Diego Garcia in the dead middle of the Indian Ocean—about 2 deg south of the equator, if I recall correctly. We’d been 60 days at sea, we arranged for an officer’s kinda dinner ball with gold cummerbunds & all—or crumb catchers, as you prefer—and we went to town.

I think I lost it the most when Erik, a fellow officer friend of mine, got up and toasted to true manly character, defined as whether or not you get out of the shower to pee.

Vitamin K2, Menatetrenone, Weston A. Price Activator X…or Whatever…It’s Amazing

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Among the many hacks we do in this Paleosphere, pushing out crap food in favor of real, nutrient dense food has to be the biggest bang for the buck. As I’ve blogged before but is hard to overemphasize, nutritional density counts for Big Lots. For review: 4 ounces of liver vs. 5 pounds of mixed fruit. And a loaf of bread vs. an equal caloric intake of beef liver or salmon.

There’s really two, maybe three ways to approach this whole deal. As in my post of yesterday regarding the health & longevity spectrum, one approach is to simply eat a good amount of real food, even if unaware of what the bad stuff is. The other, most notably my friend Dr. kurt harris‘ approach, is to be primarily proscriptive; i.e., cut out the neolithic agents of disease (NAD: flour, sugar, vegetable oils). The second approach is obviously superior because it gets you to the first approach anyway, and with more knowledge.

A third approach, however, might be to go with the second, above, but combined with really zeroing in on high nutritional density—focussing on it. This is what I’m gravitating toward. In that endeavor, both Dr. Stephan Guyenet and Ad. (almost doctor) Chris Masterjohn have always been my go-to guys. Over years of reading their stuff, one thing always seems to ring important: nutritional density.

…And it was via both of them that I first became enamored of the nutrient which is the subject of this post. It was June of 2008, when Stephan did his first post on the subject. That led me to Chris Masterjohn‘s very extensive article on it from February of the same year.

I’m an integrator, a synthesizer…rather than doing anything really original. I hate jigsaw puzzles, but seem to like connecting dots…and all these dots just seemed to fall into place.

At this point, I’m just going to point you to the number of posts I’ve done on Vitamin K2 that seem to signal that it’s somewhat of a “miracle” nutrient. But not really. I don’t buy into any of the “superfood” crap, really—unless maybe you’re talking beef liver, oysters, mussels, fish roe, etc…and who does that? In point of fact, it’s not a miracle at all but rather, something that was relatively plentiful in ancestral diets and is almost absent now—with the possible exception of those of the low-fat paradigm who “cheat” on good cheese.

So rather, let me tell a story.

To preface it, I must mention a dentist of the early 20th century, Weston A. Price, who had a clever idea. Rather than try to find out directly why he had teenager patients with rotted teeth to the tune of 1 in 3, and whom he was fitting for dentures—not to mention the corrective orthodontic work that often needed doing—he set out to find out if there were populations without either of those problems (rotten teeth and crowded teeth).

He found it in spades. You can read all about it for free with lots of photos, courtesy of Project Gutenberg: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, published in 1939, I believe. Over about 10 years in the 1920s and 30s, he and his wife travelled the world to seek out primitive populations that were out of normal contact and trade with the modern world. That is, they lived by their own means. He found what I consider to be three very important things: almost no dental cavities (about 1 tooth in 1,000 vs. 1 in 3 in the modern world), wide dental bridges (no need for “braces”), and near effortless childbirth (wide birth canals in females). To round things out, he came home and used what he found to correct tooth decay in his patients. That is, he got cavities to remineralize.

Now we’re talkin’ minerals, the unifying, connect-the-dots theme!

It was in the mid and late 90’s when I began to have regular appointments with the dentist and his hygienist. They referred me to a periodontist, a surgeon who specializes in gum issues. Seems I had some “deep pockets,” as they call them, towards the back of my molars where cleanings could not get to. (I had both corrective orthodontics—”braces”—as a kid, and had my “wisdom” teeth pulled in college—and loved the “percs”.)

…Never did I stop to wonder how animals in the wild can possibly manage…without regular brushing, flossing, cleanings and…dental surgery.

Because I was still struggling along in business, several years away from hitting a stride, I just opted for the cleanings every three months over the surgery that would set me back a few thousand. I had no insurance, and wasn’t interested in having any of you—or anyone else—pay my way. …I’m so fucking weird about that shit…

In 2001, with things looking up, I went for the dental surgery—two of them…one side top & bottom, then the other. It helped. While I still had to use the numbing mouthwash before each cleaning, it was more effective in those deep pocket areas that used to catapult me to the ceiling in pain when the hygienist would probe them with her sharp poker. This went on for years. The surgery was like a reset button. OK, now 3 cleanings per year, and while things are back to reasonable, it’s still only a progression until such time that surgery is required again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

And then in 2008 everything changed. I attribute it to both the better paleo diet, but also the micronutrient; again, the subject of the post.

I initially went with Green Pastures Butter Oil capsules, and that was remarkable. After a couple of rounds, I went on the cheap and got the synthetic drops from Thorne. Didn’t notice much difference either way and so later, I began with the K2 Complex from Life Extension Foundation—that I remained on up until a few months ago. The small gel caps were convenient. But the thing is, some of the luster went out of the whole experience. I seemed to still get calculus buildup on my teeth and they felt “rough” in a number of places. It’s especially severe on the inside of the lower front teeth. I would at times stick a wooden toothpick through there and important chunks of mineralized deposits would break off.

I still had cleanings; and while things were actually improving rather than getting worse, there was really nothing to write home about. But still, I haven’t had a cleaning in at least over a year. It may be approaching 2 years…and the dentist office has stopped calling to schedule.

I was kind of getting to the point of forgetting about the whole problem, comfortable in the knowledge that things weren’t optimal, but at least not totally out of hand, as they were before.

But a few months ago, I ordered the original butter oil from Green Pastures—Price’s original formulation. I noticed some improvement over the first several days, much like I recall from the beginning. It’s in the smoothness of your teeth, particularly upon waking in the morning. And I thought…huh…why not go the distance? So, when my first two bottles ran out and I re-ordered again, this time I also got the fermented cod liver oil caps. Two caps per day of each and the measurable results have been nothing short of phenomenal.

Gobsmacking phenomenal!

But shit-hell all over the place…it goes to all that bullshit on the Internet, does’t it? Yea, some berry from the rain forrest that 99% of the evolved people on Planet Earth never ate is some “superfood” you just can’t do without. Well, guess what? The nutrient I’ve been talking about is relatively prevalent in all natural diets—so long as you eat the whole thing. At the equator. At the arctic. At sea level. At 16,000 feet. And everyplace in between. Just eat the whole animal.

…Or, as a modern person like me, find ways to supplement when you aren’t regularly chowing down on bone marrow, organs, fish eggs and the like.

So to conclude the story, here I sit, about 10 years after having gum surgery with before and after experiences of several major teeth cleanings per year and I really don’t even find a need to brush my teeth. I can literally go days and my teeth remain as though they were pearls in an oyster shell and my tongue is the flesh that explores them. And my gums have not the slightest hint of inflammation, swelling, or anything of the sort. It is remarkable.

Whatever.

Aside from the weight loss via paleo that got me started on this track in the first place: this, of all things, has been the most remarkably significant and easy to verify aspect of the whole deal. …And while supplementing vitamin D has also seemed to have a big impact, I don’t really have concrete results I can point too. Yea, Beatrice and I rarely, if ever, get sick anymore, and I seem to be able to kill a cold in a day or two by upping the D sups, but it’s simply not so much of a concrete and profound result confounded by variables and randomness as has been the K2, given my history of teeth and gum issues.

Update: 2 things. First, someone mentioned in comments about bleeding gums, especially during brushing. Yes, that too. I always used to bleed when brushing and haven’t done so a single time in years, now.

Second, someone wanted the product links to what I use. I didn’t put them in there originally because I didn’t want people to assume I had any affiliate relationship. I don’t. I use the capsule form of these: butter oil, and fermented cod liver oil.

Update 2: This just in, a pretty good TEEVEE video on K2, though it doesn’t make any distinction between subforms. But listen for the theme, about K2 being the thing that causes calcium to go where it should (bones & teeth) and not where it shouldn’t (soft tissues like coronary arteries). Been saying it since 2008.

I blogged about this book back here.

The Paleo Health & Longevity Spectrum

36 Comments

Got a comment from longtime reader, commenter and fellow pilot, Bill Strahan.

…Have you considered looking at or writing about why you pursue what you do in regards to diet, exercise, and health?

For me I consider it a triple point optimization: I want to feel great, I want to perform well, and I want to live a long time. If I have any bias amongst the three, it’s for performance. I enjoy competing physically.

So, would you trade performance (let’s lump sports and sex together) for longevity or vice versa? Healthy, active sex life until 78 at which point you drop dead, or sex until 70, and then just kinda hanging around till 85?

There are many points at which all three points benefit from the same choice. Take hydrogenated oil as an example. Eliminating it will result in longer life, better performance, and better health. But what happens when you’ve taken all the low hanging fruit and what’s left is to either just take what you’re getting, or specifically choose options that will favor one value over another.

Obviously you see where my head is these days. I’m your junior by many years at 44, but I do wonder how a triple point optimization like this resonates with you. And if it does, what are your biases?

It’s an interesting set of interconnected questions. I don’t have any sure answers and even if I did, who’s to say my priorities—and hence answers to the questions—don’t change over time? I turn 51 on Sunday. My dad turned 74 this last Saturday. …He’s spent the last 10 days doing the painting cost estimate for the new San Francisco 49ers Stadium in Santa Clara, and tells me he probably has another 9 or 10 days to go. He keeps active and working, and he has to meticulously go over complex, large project blueprints and specifications (he can bid painting on any project, no matter size & scope, and has been for 40 years). …Don’t get him started an architects who use boilerplate specs. Especially after a couple of drinks around a campfire…

Considering these questions requires in some sense, at least to me, taking a look back at my ancestry. I had the rare privilege of growing up not only with 4 grandparents alive until well into my 30s, but having all of them living in the same city: Reno, NV. And I even had a great grandmother who didn’t die until I was 28! Yea…Depression era…she left home with a guy, and got knocked up young with my grandmother (14 yrs old, if I recall). Of course, in these days today, my great grandfather—whom I never knew—would have been a “molester” felon serving a prison sentence. …And how might that have effected lives & legacies downstream?

But we’re so “progressive.”

At any rate, they were all lovers of life…good food, parties—and most were smokers and drinkers. My maternal grandfather and grandmother were avid fishermen, and deer & bird hunters. My childhood focussed substantially on hunting and fishing trips and often, just day trips…like to Pyramid Lake. And we lived right alongside the Truckee River where my grandfather taught me to tie my own flies and then use them to catch fish. I saw him many times catch dozens of trout on a summer afternoon after a long day in his on-site workshop where, as a lifelong artist—but needing to make a living—did most of the hand painted sign work for Reno’s most prominent casinos. This was back when all the sign work was done by hand.

With the exception of my paternal grandfather—who used to tell me stories of how they, as German soldiers, would make fun of all the Hail Hitler saluting and genuflecting bullshit they had to do—all the other grandparents and the great grandmother were overweight. Not obese, just standard plump for old people in the 60s, 70s and then 80s.

And all five of them lived into their 80s. And for most, they lived pretty active lives until reasonably near the end. (Side note: one of my dad’s grandmothers whom I never met, lived to 96, in Germany). The great grandmother had dementia of a sort not diagnosed, but this happened after she was 80, and she made it to 85.

Not a single one of them darkened the door of a gym their whole lives. Three of them smoked until they died, my paternal grandmother quit early on and my maternal grandfather quit in his mid-60s, but was the first of all of them to die, of leukemia.

And so, what am I to make of all of this?

I’ll tell you what, and it’s the very most important thing: they all loved good real food. They all knew how to source and prepare their own food, did so daily, and some of them hunted & fished it. I don’t have a single recollected image of any of them eating a fast food meal, though I’m sure it happened. Yea, and in particular, my maternal grandmother, she had typical crap in a box around…but they were of a different culture in that, you simply didn’t sit down and go through a bag of chips  or crackers.

I think that the eating of real quality food is absolutely the most important thing you can do—especially if you eat crap sometimes.

No matter what else you do in terms of indulgences, addictions, or anything else, make sure to get plenty of high quality, nutrient dense food regularly. Then, feel free to up your game, as many of us do around here.

None of this answers Bill’s questions, of course, but it does give you something to consider when figuring out that’s going to work for you.

For example, what if you just hate everything about the gym? There’s nothing you try that you like. Let’s say that going to the gym and doing the prescribed intense exercises gives you five extra years of life. But if you hate it, are those estimated extra years worth 40, 50, 60 years in the gym 2-3 times per week…doing something you hate?

That’s an analogy for the essence of the tradeoff. It means you have to really think about what your values are and determine a sensible way to pursue them.

In some sense, I just wonder if optimality is rather a fools chase, ending up in diminished returns because you did a lot of stuff you didn’t really enjoy, ending up diminishing you’re life with not much, little or less to show for it.

But eating a lot of good real food? If you don’t want that, then you’re dysfunctional and so who cares? But if you do, then the other things might not be so important as you might believe.

C’mon Man!

3 Comments

One of the more amusing parts of Monday Night Football is the C’mon Man! segment.

It’s exactly what I thought first, when I saw Charles Barkley doing the “Lose Like a Man” campaign for Weight Watchers and then today, I see Terry Bradsaw in there for Nutrisystem.

C’mon Man!

Let’s review, men: Meat. Fish. Fowl. Vegetables. Fruits. Cook. Hunt it if you like. Eat like a man, man. C’mon!

 

So Richard, How’s the New Paleo 101 Book Going So Far?

30 Comments

I’m so glad you asked.

But first, thanks so much to the hundreds of you who’ve popped for it, with zero refunds (just confirmed by the publisher). I’m in this for the long haul, which means: I want there to be something out there that’s inexpensive, quick, easy to read and gets that random person motivated and excited to begin right now…Today: you can be on your way to a better life inside of 3 hours or so!

I got an email from the totally awesome Denise Minger yesterday.

…Opened your book with the intention of “taking a peek”… and a few later I’m at the last page barely aware that any time had passed.

THAT is the mark of a good book.

Comprehensive, engaging, and fabulously written. When I get emails from people asking for the best health resources, this puppy is now on the list.

Truly awesome job, Richard. You should be really proud of this. Let me know if I can do anything to help spread the word.

It was almost embarrassing to read, given the exhaustive nature of what that cute little smarty pants does. Red-faced & happy, I guess you could say. Relieved, too. :)

Of course, there was a risk in disappointing the long time readers with what might be perceived as a review of lots of info they already know. Thankfully, that’s not what I’m hearing. in addition to the many positive tweets and Facebook comments—and comments on the blog—the Amazon reviews at the time of this writing are still batting 1,000.

Raf Laurent just posted a question/comment on the FTA Facebook page:

Rich I’m a huge fan and I’m curious what makes your book different???

That’ll be answered in the Amazon reviews I’m going to copy into this post right now. So here they are, 10 so far, all 5-star.

Betsy in Portland, Or:

Richard Nikoley came to paleo as an already-established entrepreneur, whipsmart independent thinker, and no-holds-barred individualist.

And he brings all of those characteristics (regularly visible on the Free the Animal blog he created to talk about his paleolithic journey) to this book, distilled from both popular posts on his site and augmented by pointers to other sources, resources and leading ancestral thinkers.

It’s the book I wish I would have had last April, when I came to paleo as an obese 40-something woman flirting with type 2 diabetes and recently diagnosed with high blood pressure & metabolic syndrome. (And after dragging myself, kicking & screaming to the paleo side of the fence – what, no baking bread any more? AIIIEEE? – I’ve rid myself of all of the labels, significantly lowered my blood pressure & lost 42 lbs in 8 months.)

Richard’s no-nonsense style and ability to reference compelling facts (without bombarding you with statistical analyses & charts up the yin-yang to make his point) just makes sense. And since an average reader can blast through it in an evening & the book costs less than an overpriced fancy-schmancy coffee drink? There’s no real excuse to avoid buying this book.

If you, too, like to think of yourself as a smart, independent thinker and *your* health and well-being matter to you, that is.

Maria from Planet Earth (I’m assuming):

I love the way Richard tells a story, in a matter of fact way, to the point you feel like you’re talking to the guy at a pub or coffee house. Very intimate and friendly read about his journey from an unhealthy lifestyle to the paleo lifestyle. (There are plenty of links for the research enthusiasts.)

When you finish the book, you long for a second… so that you can revisit that pub with Richard and have another fascinating discussion about living life to its fullest.

Read it and enjoy!

Primal Pig, also, from Planet Earth—and that needs no assuming:

I’ve been paleo-ish for about two years now, and wish I had this easy to read, no flub e-book from the beginning. Not that I don’t appreciate the longer round about journey I took to get to where I am now, but Richard’s Free the Animal hits it right on the head. He digests a lot of the very compelling data out there from Paleo/Primal resources all over and makes it so straightforward that it’s hard to fail.

Just eat REAL food – meat, veggies, fats, eggs, nuts and occasional fruit; no processed grains (and even whole grains are just that – processed), seed/grain oils or sugar. But Richard also puts special emphasis on humans as ANIMALS, instinctively eating when and what their bodies need in order to stay vibrant, lean and alert.

You’ll possibly want to flesh out your knowledge afterwards with a few books from Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson or Loren Cordain if you feel the need to intellectualize it to your peers, but this book gives you all you need to get back on to the healthy path we’ve been carving out for hundreds of millions of years.

And lastly, I love that Richard went the e-book route as it makes it so accessible as well as empowers most readers to instantly validate his resources… a steal @ $3.99!

Darren Reed:

Simple, practical, no holds barred paleo for those who like to eat big, lift heavy, be lean and live well. Richard knows his stuff and his easy to understand, no holds barred writing style is a joy to read. Like a fine single malt whisky, this is paleo eating and living distilled perfectly down to its essence. Must have.

J. Jones “Bones” from Arizona:

For those that aren’t interested in delving into the medical mumbo jumbo of some of the other paleo books, Richard does a great job of getting to the meat of issues and ignoring the fluff. If you are a fan of his blog, this book is a must read. If you’re just starting to research and read about the paleo diet, add this to your list and think about reading it first so you can get all the basics (and nothing that isn’t needed).

John Cole:

Using the ideas and advice found in Richard’s book, I have lost seventy pounds and no longer have to take blood pressure or cholesterol medications.

I have never felt better physically or psychologically. Physically I can eat “real foods” until I’m full- I NEVER go hungry. Psychologically, I feel confident in the idea that my weight troubles now make sense: eating “processed” foods, developing insulin resistance from a diet high in refined sugars, and believing the myth that all fats are created equal and, therefore, inherently evil.

Richard’s book focuses a great deal on listening to your body and experimenting with real foods and how you respond to them. For example, I can tolerate dairy with little trouble while others struggle with digesting them. In the end, Richard stresses listening to your body and following the basic principles of eating real food.

No diet is for everyone, but I recommend taking a look at the ideas found in this book. It has changed my life for the better and for that I am eternally grateful.

Will:

I’ve recently read Wolf’s paleo Solution and Nikoley’s Free the Animal. I think they are exact compliments. Wolf – TONS of info to justify nearly every assertion in the work. Important and helpful for a certain crowd. Nikoley – well, concision is the word. Short, sweet, to the point. Exactly what a bunch of people need, who aren’t looking to know all the medical ins and outs, but simply want the goods on “how to.” I’d recommend this book in a heart-beat as a first-rate intro to a Primal/Paleo way of eating. Not quite the “colorful” language you get on his blog, but if you read him much you can sort of fill in the expected… Read it – you’ll be glad you did!

Robert Rio from Florida:

For me the chief benefit of paleo has come from preparing my own meals instead of just heating processed food in the microwave. That by itself has made a tremendous difference in my life.

Cooking was a totally alien, incomprehensible practice to me until fairly recently. I learned a lot of what I know about cooking from Richard, he de-mystifies it and explains it in terms that the cooking-challenged can understand and replicate in the real world. He doesn’t present recipes written by professional chefs and leave it at that, he presents his dinner and explains how you can make it yourself.

twoidhd from Oklahoma:

I’ve been following Richard for a couple of years and this is a great starter book if you are interested in the paleo way of life. He covers it all in a short, direct, and thorough way. It’s all here….all you need to do is follow the ideas laid out in this book.

Good luck with your journey.

It’s worked for me. I’ve lost 100lbs since going paleo and have never been in better shape in my adult life.

And finally, Jimmy Moore who was the very first up with a review, which is cross-posted to both his blog and Amazon. It’s longish, so go to his blog to read it. Here’s the first paragraph.

I have been a BIG FAN of the writings and work of paleo health blogger Richard Nikoley from the insanely-popular “Free The Animal” blog for several years and consider him a great friend and champion of what healthy living is really all about. His no-holds-barred style is in-your-face and unapologetic as he seeks to help others find the health and weight changes that have eluded them for years. Sure, he can be a bit rough around the edges for some people with his colorful, expressive language. But it’s indicative of a sincere passion that runs deep and wide at the root of everything Nikoley shares with the paleo community through his thought-provoking posts. With the highly-interactive e-book Free The Animal: Lose Weight & Fat With The paleo Diet, he is taking the best of everything he has personally learned through this journey and wrapping it up in a convenient package designed to arm virtually anyone who desires weight loss and vastly improved health to make it happen for themselves. There are so many clickable links to a treasure trove of information included in this e-book that you’ll spend months trying to go through them all!

And dear Chris Highcock from Scotland, who has been an Internet friend from day one, also blogged about it.

And Erwan Le Corre of MovNat lent me a hand as well.

I thank you all, am humbled by the support, and in particular, the clever, individual ways you have found to send the message of what this is about.

I didn’t write it for you, stalwart readers. I wrote it for the people you love the most.