Archives for May 2012

Far for being a Luddite, I do love some of the implications being raised in the previous comment thread about the implications of science qua science.

After all, we already know that many studies are corrupted, and even relate in abstract in a way that the full text doesn’t really support (because so many only read abstracts). I’ll go out on a limb and contend that human animals have been engaging in science for thousands of years, and perhaps tens of thousands or more. My talk at AHS11 was: Self Experimentation; The Best Science. I meant it. And I still do, bias and confounding variables notwithstanding.

If you’re going to test how sitting on your ass and eating Hot Pockets and drinking Coke all day effects you, you’re probably going to just eat Hot Pockets and drink Coke. It’s only when you exercise your mind to undertake disciplined self experimentation do you try to deal with biases and variables. Because: you have a vested interest. Scientists, for all their fame, have no personal standing in the thing most valuable to you: your life and the lives of those you love. They just have a paycheck. Nope, no bias there. Nada.

My point is that bias will always exist, as will confounders—where you can’t tell what’s causing what, because too many variables are in play. But, I also presume you care about yourself; and such an audacious presumption, that. I’ll go out on another limb: you care more about yourself than do scientists care about you, earning paychecks you didn’t sign.

But yea, the work they do is valuable. It’s just not all valuable, and it certainly never, ever trumps your own science. I didn’t say experience. I said: your own science. If you observe the state of your environment, wonder what results you might get if you change something up, and you reasonablly take stock in that self experiment, you are the scientist as close to home as you will ever find…the one who care about you the most.

Take note: SHE blinded you. So, guys, now you know what all you’re up against. :)

Warning: This post is vulgarity free. Read at your own risk.

For sure, lots of folks are miffed at me in various ways (see comments). Understandable. See, I have this quirky thing about me where I tend to overlook errors, even lots of errors when, on balance—in my exclusive judgment—the balance sheet is in the black. We have this thing called a paleo, primal, evfit, caveman, ancestral movement where, dang it, and in spite of all of our mess ups, people seem to be getting better, improving in large numbers.

Who’s responsible for that, for adding value and promoting it in general? Art De Vany, Loren Cordain, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Gary Taubes, Jimmy Moore, Tom Naughton…and a host of others. But you get the idea. These folks don’t all agree with each other on everything. In fact, it’s probably a safe bet that any one of them thinks all the others are wrong, even terribly wrong, on some things.

What do they do about that? They continue to produce values, continue to promote; they avoid being a squeaking pip that metastasizes into a cancer. The whole advancing deal, and the people being helped in large numbers are too important to risk turning away because when they heard that a certain guy or gal really had good info, and then when their search dropped them onto certain blogs, they found out how wrong and bad and a promoter of junk science the guy is—and in the context of that blogger being in or on the periphery of the general paleo community—they just went back to their Hot Pockets and liter of soda. Or, they were simply blinded by science.

Should errors be pointed out? Absolutely. But babies don’t need tossing out with bathwater. Science, in sociological terms, doesn’t come without its downsides and in general, science operates at both glacial pace and speed of light—to move things slowly, or change everything overnight. But mostly, people are concerned, this morning, with what’s going to work for them right now.

…So there’s a brief intro into promoting even more value producers who are helping people to get on the right track to fat loss and health every day, mixed results included. Fortunately, there’s so much value being published and promoted to help people right now, by so many and so frequently, I have neither time to read everything thoroughly, or to blog about them all individually (this is a good, non squeaking-pip thing). However, I have looked at each of these books, wandered here and there in them, and I can honestly recommend them as excellent resources for anyone, even children in one case.

Dr. John Briffa has been kind enough to email a few times about this post or that post I’ve done, and I’m always surprised and humbled to get noticed by him in that way.

I was even more surprised when a few months back, he emailed me with an advance PDF of his book and that this FTA blog got a mention in the resource section at the end. I loved what he wrote, too.

“Richard writes a good and irreverent blog…”

Later, in email he told me it was better to be irreverent than irrelevant, and I promised to do my best to hold up my end.

Escape the Diet Trap is a template for a the sort of meta-diet-book I’d like to see going forward. A lot of it is about unravelling what has proven not to work: low-fat, exercise, eat less, etc. Oh, and diet, diet, diet. And move more, more, more. Enough, already. Humans don’t work that way.

It’s sort of a low-carber’s intro to a more paleo or primal way of looking at things and includes even breaking through plateaus with fasting and exercise. This is near and dear for me. Lot’s of originality and synthesis in this book. has their already not been enough written? Isn’t it time to synthesize and show what may be wrong and what may be right?

Unfortunately, the book is still not available in the US via Amazon (a few used copies appear to be available). So, if you can get it via the UK Amazon site, go for it.

So what can I say more about the amazing Stacy and Matthew? I was so enamored with what these two accomplished with not only themselves, but their kids, I decided to do a 2-part interview series. You can see part 1 here, and part 2 here, including my silly commentary on the whole thing.

My delight was to me, palpable, as this was all going down. I don’t think I’ve ever been so enamored with demonstrated life change. The next time you hear it’s about the children, think of Matt & Stacy.

I didn’t really know at the time that Stacy and Matt had designs of their own to help people, parents and children alike. While I absolutely knew they weren’t Squeaking Pips by any means, I didn’t really know that they were keeping their awesome talents for being values to so many others a bit closely held.

But low and behold, I got a book in the mail one day and it’s simply insane as a way you might be able to outcompete the kids who come to school every day with bags of junk that your kids envy.

…I have it on very good authority from many sources that the way to do this thing is to send your kids to school with leftovers of the real food almost no kid has ever seen. Once your kids are envied for their varied, delectable lunches, you will have hit them at the right social spot, and they’ll be paleo zealots. Then, you’ll have another issue to deal with, but you’re starting from a better point.

Buy enough copies of Eat Like a Dinosaur to have your kids give it away a few to friends, creating even more resentment and envy.  That’s the Free the Animal way to go about things politely.

Dean Dwyer isn’t funny at all, which is his major problem. And, he seems to attract more women to his increasingly popular blog than men. What’s that all about?

To see just how much more funny I can be than Dean; he, in desperate hopes of getting you to conclude the contrary, did a 2-part video interview with me: part 1 and part 2. There was enough footage for 4 parts. I guess he gave up. Good move.

Another good move on his part was to get his butt busy writing a book from his unique perspective. One might call it a book on life & shift change epistemology, only he’s not funny, and women seem to love him. And Oprah’s off the air.

So where does he go? He continues to strive to be as funny and captivating as possible, only not so much as to ever eclipse me, which would be a tough nut to crack.

You can love Dean as I do, even though he’s way less funny. Toss him a bone anyway, and get a copy of Make Shift Happen. Do it for his harem. Buy another or two for your depressed women friends because Oprah’s off the air.

Solid, quick work, Dean.

As funny as Dean is not, way hot is Ashley (image Google Ashley Tudor). You ought to buy her book Sweet Potato Power on that premise alone, because way hot girls get certain privileges, ordained by evolution and base survival. And it so sucks for not-so-hot guys. That’s why some of us have to be funny, and why things can get so tough for Dean.

It was on the heals of one of my posts about starches that I got wind of Ashley’s book. “Someone just wrote a book about sweet potatoes?” “No way.” “Really?” “Sweet p-o-t-a-t-o-e-s?” “A whole book?”

Indeed. And I got two copies. One from the publisher and another directly from Ashley with TABS PASTED IN IT. Obviously, she thinks I’m more sciency than hot. …There was no phone number.

It’s easily one of the more smashing and original books in Paleoland. And, it’s not only about sweet potatoes. If you want something to really munch down on, try this out. I’ll be using it in an upcoming post on what I think is the most important thing about paleo, and it’s not anti-nutrients. It’s nutrients.

Dallas & Melissa Hartwig.

I have a confession to make. For various reasons having zero to do with anything they have ever done or contemplated, I was not a fan of them…Whole 9, Whole 30, or whatever. I didn’t promote them ever, never tried to reach out at AHS11.

My bad.

The truth is, I have no good excuse for why—and the best excuse is only a poor excuse anyway. I guess someone emailed me once, dissed then about how strict they were…I’m busy, and so I let a random email substitute for my own impression and judgment.

Then one day I decided to look into it and it’s fitting that they’re the last edition to this edition. They are superstars in their passion to create, build, learn, tweak, and, and, and, help people who so need it. Do they know the science? Yes. Does it matter. Sure, but in context. Must one know, understand and cross their chest with the science before they can be helped? I don’t think so, and I don’t think Dallas or Melissa think so either.

I’m a fan. The book is great, only having skimmed through parts of it. But here’s a very thorough review from someone I trust: Stefani Ruper, who will soon have a guest post up here, likely about women’s issues.

…Dean: you better put that one on your calendar.

While controversy rages in my Paleo circles owing to individual values, choices, assessments, allegiances, bias—and who you’d rather get drunk with—let’s take time away from the window breakers (ref: Bastiat) to highlight and celebrate someone who has never done anything but try to help average folks who don’t read PubMed or medical journals, and don’t really care much whether the science is all in, good or bad.

Their lives are at stake. They care mostly about themselves. And, because they need to.

So while some choose to pinch pimples amongst largely like minded folks, others choose to spend their limited time finding values and helpful information here and there, test it on themselves and—where it pans out, here and there—pass it on.

…I first blogged about my friend Steve Cooksey way back in 2009. More recently, I did what turned into 3 posts about his problems with the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition:

• Menace to Society: North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition (NCBDN)
• Clear Thinking, Drawing Distinctions and North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition vs Steve Cooksey, Diabetes Warrior
• Who’s The Worstest of Them All?

That’s the background for those who want to dig deep. Those, however, who insist the science has to be in before they can eat breakfast in the morning, may be disappointed: Steve is a straightforward, smart guy who really, honest to God, helps people. Does it include a little “bad science” here and there, or up-for-grabs science? Maybe. Could be.

America is messy. That was the point.

Y’see, Americans who really get the sprit of the ethic of the thing, kinda grok that everyone lies, everyone effs up, everyone behaves at times in a manner that would not be considered their best. America is about being willing to take the risk in dealing with whomever you want—even if you make a non-optimal choice.

Whatarewe? Idiots? Go ahead. Fool my stupid ass. Teach me a lesson! Let’s see how well I do next time. “Idiot” ought to be contextual in time. It usually is, and that’s America Underground. The story underneath the story.

…I contend that Steve, even if not perfect always, is a counter to average idiocy, as are many other individuals in myriad ways. However, who is to arbitrate that sort of complexity? Or, is it way too complex when freedom to speak is a value at stake…and then, shouldn’t everyone just be left to figure it out for themselves? I’m not a fan of the state—as everyone who who reads me knows—but the 1st amendment is Darwinian in terms of information. And I’m a fan of Darwin; and more importantly, what that means in the long view. And I think: you ought to be too. That’s my advice—while still legal to give it.

And so, yes, Steve is suing the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition in Federal Court, backed by a bunch of really bright Constitutional lawyers at the Institute for Justice, led by the well spoken Jeff Rowes. Thanks to Steve, Bob Ewing at The Primal Challenge (and Director of communications at IJ), and of course Jeff, for giving me the opportunity to have the scoop on this story a full day and a couple hours ahead of the official announcement and press conference.

Can the government throw you in jail for offering advice on the Internet about what food people should buy at the grocery store?

That is exactly the claim made by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition. In December 2011, diabetic blogger Steve Cooksey started a Dear Abby-style advice column on his popular blog (www.diabetes-warrior.net) to answer reader questions. One month later, the State Board informed Steve that he could not give readers advice on diet, whether for free or for compensation, because doing so constituted the unlicensed, and thus criminal, practice of dietetics. The State Board also told Steve that his private emails and telephone calls with readers and friends were illegal, as was his paid life-coaching service. The State Board went through Steve’s writings with a red pen, indicating what he may and may not say without a government-issued license.

But the First Amendment does not allow the government to ban people from sharing ordinary advice about diet, or scrub the Internet—from blogs to Facebook to Twitter—of speech the government does not like. North Carolina can no more force Steve to become a licensed dietitian than it could require Dear Abby to become a licensed psychologist.

That is why on May 30, 2012, Steve Cooksey joined the Institute for Justice in filing a major free speech lawsuit against the State Board in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division. This lawsuit seeks to answer one of the most important unresolved questions in First Amendment law: When does the government’s power to license occupations trump free speech?

But I’ll get to the well spoken Jeff in a minute. In the meantime, this Englishman somehow makes a good narrator for all things caveman.

That’s pretty damn clever.

• Here’s the IJ page for the case launch.
• And the pre-litigation background info.
• The Press Release. I’ll post a link to the actual filed complaint when I get it.

Finally, I got Jeff Rowes on Skype a few days back to get a lead attorney take on this whole case, what it means in the large, and did a bit of devil’s advocacy. Take a look.

See also this IJ video on the explosion in occupational licensing in the US.

For Justice. For advancement. For celebrating and lauding values. For rationally accounting for error that everyone’s susceptible to. For dumping those who fake notoriety by being squeaking pips.

My identical comments at his identical postings here (awaiting moderation) and here. I have to draft another post for the morning, 9:30 am EST, and it has to publish precisely to military precision and when you see it, you’ll understand why. So, you’ll have to read Fuckface Keieger’s stupid post yourself, where he tries to impress you with his stock trading prowess by means of overwrought, non-sequitur and just plain stupid analogy. …Which is no surprise, as he can’t even beat himself out of a wet paper sac on the meaning of hypocrisy.

Of course, that moron cunt Evelyn at CarbSane couldn’t wait to suck his cock over it (comments).

James is also a master of Latin phrases for logical fallacies.

Laf. If so, it’s probably the first time she ever heard of them.

Alright, my comment. Tear it to shreds if you like.

Ha, and yet here I sit, such a fan of “Larry the Liquidator.”

But, as Larry explained in that speech at the stockholder’s meeting, it was time to cash out. This wasn’t breaking windows to “create value,” it was redeploying assets to more profitable uses. And if people care to, they can see just how many times I admonished Evelyn to “redeploy” her assets during our exchange, when she dropped 85 comments on my blog in the 2 or 3 Kruse posts I did.

…There’s nothing hypocritical about beating up on a bully, taking stuff from a thief, or killing a wanton murderer. Your thinking is laughably muddled here. A better case for hypocrisy and one tougher for me to defend, is that I often rail against various reporters, dietitians, and even researchers whom I often refer to as “grant whores.” There, I’m going against CW and institutionalized dogma that has clearly failed; as people keep getting fatter, more diabetic, more unhealthy. The individuals are simply convenient cross-hair targets of opportunity. I don’t keep chasing and chasing those individuals.

The problem with the pump & dump analogy is that there are people who signed up for the risks and they’re on both sides of the trades. You don’t call it right on all your trades, either, James; and sometimes, it was because you got effed for whatever reason by those luckier, smarter, or with better information than you. I traded options full time for about 3 years—credit spreads on the SPX—so I do have a bit of familiarity with the terminology of the square analogy you’re trying to force into a round situation. I was totally agnostic as to market direction. At any one time, I’d have as many short spreads as long—they were simply placed at different times, in different contexts.

I’m not arguing against scientific critique. I went after Evelyn, again, because she seems to me to just want to entirely discredit Lustig rather than politely point out whatever errors she thinks he’s making while acknowledging a lot of the good he has done like raise awareness—which to me comes down to: drinking a lot of sugar in juices, sodas and energy drinks that don’t satiate is very likely to have you eating several hundred calories a day more than you need. Here’s an example of a critique I love:

http://evolvinghealthscience.b…

Note:

“Part of the issue is about balancing the argument. I think we can learn a lot from someone like Robert Lustig because he has done the knowledge translation piece so well. Whether he’s done it intentionally or not, he has brought a lot of attention to his issues. On the other hand, we’ve done — at least the people with a more balanced view — a very poor job at trying to communicate that balanced view. Yes, there may be some signals [that fructose has an adverse effect] or, no, there aren’t, or it may be conditional on energy. With all the nuances, we’ve done a pretty bad job at communicating it as opposed to the simple message of “Fructose at any level is poison.” We’re trying to say it depends on the dose, it depends on the energy, and that’s a hard message to communicate. We’ve been dwelling on harm. We’ve been saying “Well, it doesn’t support harm except where there is excess energy.””

But then there’s all this stuff asserting that he even thinks whole fruit is bad when I am quite certain I heard him say on either or both of the Jimmy Moore podcasts he did that fruit is good (because it has fiber, which satiates).

So, to return to the very poorly thought out trading analogy, you might consider that the stock that just got pumped to $120 isn’t worth that, and soon people are going to figure that out, so go short. But you probably don’t think it’s worth zero (and trying to drive it to zero would likely involve securities fraud, not to mention plain unethical) and probably no less than $80.

So, in reality, the analogy you’re offering actually supports my contention as concerns Evelyn. Tell me she’s not trying to drive the stock of Taubes, Naughton, Moore, and now Lustig to zero. If you short enough shares and a stock does go effectively to zero then well, you get to go live the rest of your days on a tropical island with luscious brown skinned girls serving you drinks with fruit and umbrellas in them. And your conscience is clear.

A stock only goes to zero when it _should_ go to zero and I assume you know why.

I saw you cross posted this and so I’ll cross post this comment as well. I saw mention on the other post about Colpo and whole grains. First off, I’m on good terms with Anthony. Secondly, I told him Martin is cool, but he kinda made fun of me for that. Perhaps in time. On the whole grains issue, this is another area where my thinking is evolving. I used to buy into the whole anti-nutrient thing. Could be something there, but I think it pales in comparison to nutrient density. Grains are plain bankrupt nutritionally, which is why they’re often “fortified.” Simply put, grains (and sugar) crowd out high quality nutrition.

Compare equal caloric portions of bread to either beef liver or salmon:

https://freetheanimal.com/2011/…

One day I’m going to actually calculate it out nutrient by nutrient. I think it’s safe to say that liver is thousands of % more nutritious and salmon hundreds of %.

Even fruit:

https://freetheanimal.com/2011/…

Takes 5 pounds of mixed fruit to equal the nutrition of 4 ounces of liver. So, this is really my focus with Paleo: nutritional density.

To wrap up an egregiously long comment, Evelyn and others like her, who have largely built whatever attention they have on the backs of people like Taubes, Naughton, Moore, Lustig, still haven’t figured out that “bad science” is not really what it’s all about if you care about people dropping the weight and improving health. Both good and bad science got us into this mess and both good and bad science will get us out. What’s important is personality, drive, sensation, conniving, influence, and a whole list of human attributes people pay attention to, in the end.

If you were real scientists, you’d understand that as the meta-science. Yes: good and bad results can be obtained by good and bad science. In the end, the best salesman wins. Thousands of people, including myself, can credit Taubes, et all, with being that one thing that got us on the right track.

And as for Lustig, isn’t it so awful that perhaps thousands of people might be questioning the idea of having their kid down a quart or more of fruit juice per day because it’s cheap and “healthy,” all based on “bad science.”

Alright Jamie. Ball’s in your court, fuckhead.

Here’s what the thing looks like.

Torture Chamber

Not really. It’s so surprisingly easy to do. and Tore Gustafsson from Sweden says he treats people in their 80s. My initial reaction? Drugs are overrated. I still like my cold water dips of course. This is simply another tool in the toolbox. I’m about 30 minutes out of the chamber and continue to have just an aura of well being that seems to even be increasing. The effect is supposed to last for quite some time, ramping up metabolism, with a calorie burn in the ends of between 600-800 kcal per session.

They are purported to be cumulative, in that it trains your body to run at a higher metabolic rate 24/7, with regular sessions. 2-3 per week for a few weeks, then backing off to once per 7-10 days according to Tore. He’s a way cool guy, by the way.

I’m not going to divulge Tore’s prices, because I don’t want to muck stuff up for any other small businessman out there, or for Tore. Negotiate your own deal.

So, he shot a video of part of the deal.

Alright, find one in your local area if you can. This one is Viking Performance in Los gatos, CA.

…Alright. I have to get ready. My brother arranged for a limo from his place in Sunnyvale up to San Fran, to visit two of world renowned chef Michael Mina’s places; first RN74. Then we’ll go to Michael Mina—namesake restaurant—where I’m told both Michael Mina and Jeremy Tyler of the Golden State Warriors will be joining us for dinner.