Alright time to connect dots and integrate. What does a Paleoish diet look like now, in my view?
Let’s make it really simple. I could shoot you tons of research, references, etc. Best you just give it a whirl for 30 days or more, see how you feel. Any Qs, drop ’em in comments. Calories count, but we needn’t bother counting them. This ought 100% alleviate any need for that (for most folks, anyway). Tons of folks are doing great with this style and it’s easy and flexible, with tons of options.
- REPLACE all wheat and other gluten grains (barley & rye) from bread, pasta, cereals WITH white rice, beans, and potatoes (or other starchy veggies) as your “staple” foods and substrates for your proteins (meat, fish, shellfish, fowl, veggies).
- If you do bread and pasta (but best not often), get gluten free. Whole Foods has a lot of varieties, increasing all the time. I particularly like anything by Udi or Glutino (their crackers are the bomb). http://udisglutenfree.com and http://www.glutino.com. But stay away from all the sweet stuff (cakes, cookies, etc).
- Corn tortillas are fine, too.
- Minimize ADDING fat to stuff, as well as sugar. Eat fruit for sweet; cook with butter, ghee, lard, tallow, bacon drippings, coconut oil, red palm oil, or extra virgin olive oil. My favorite of the later is the Kalamata Greek Olive Oil from Trader Joe’s. Dump all industrial processed oils (canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, etc). One exception is high oleic sunflower oil (often called “high heat”). Completely different fat profile than regular sunflower oil and it’s not GMO, but natural plant breeding. Also, avocado and macadamia nut oil are fine ($$$). 90% of the time, I only use OO raw, on salads or a little drizzle on meat/veggies.
- Cooking white rice. You can use whatever (basmati, jasmine, etc.) but strangely enough, Uncle Ben’s original parboiled rice is the most healthful on a number of levels. Way more nutrition and the parboiling process forms something called “resistant starch” that feeds your healthful gut bacteria critters. To up things even further, cook rice with chicken stock (or beef, or vegetable, or mushroom, etc.). Kitchen Basics is THE BEST and I have tried them all (you can do your own stocks…but pain in the ass). Once cooked, put the leftover rice in the fridge or freezer, rather than letting it sit in the cooker. This forms even more resistant starch. RS, in addition to feeding your critters, also blunts blood glucose spikes significantly by slowing the rate of digestion.
- Stay away from canned beans. Do them yourself the traditional way. Cover with warm water and let them soak for 24 hours or more, up to 48 where they even ferment; drain, rinse well and then cook in beef stock (add water as necessary). The best beans nutritionally, as well as minimal toxins such as lectins (the soaking process removes much of these too) are: BLACK, LENTILS, PINTO. Red kidney beans are probably the worst. For those, minimal only, like a bit on your salad when at a salad bar (but load up on the garbanzos!). A great way to cook awesome pintos after soaking, and in the pot: a sprinkle over the whole surface of real bacon bits, garlic powder, desiccated onion flakes, and black pepper. Salt to taste when they are done cooking.
- Do potatoes any way you like (boiled, roasted, baked, nuked). Rather than deep fry, make oven fries with far less fat. coating with a combo of coconut and red palm oil and oven roasting (400 for 20m or so) is the BOMB. Minimize the butter and sour cream with baked or mashed potatoes. For mashed, better to reduce beef stock by 3/4 and thicken with a potato starch slurry—for a tasty sauce/gravy—than to load up with the butter and cream. Or, just do a classic red wine reduction using onion and shallot you strain out. Splurge with the added fat sometimes, just not all the time or often.
- Dump all the bottled salad dressings because they are all made with those same garbage industrial oils that were originally developed as machinery lubricant. Jet engines use vegetable oils to lubricate turbines. Mouth watering, eh? Instead, use any combo of olive oil, vinegars, lemon, lime, soy sauce, dijon mustard, onion, and whatever other herbs & spices and such you like to make a vast variety of your own salad dressings.
- Veggies. Anything, cooked any way, but blanching or parboiling is far better than steaming. Ideal is a variety of raw, cooked, blanched. Also, fermented veggies such as sauerkraut, kimchee. Eat seaweed for the iodine. Eat BIG ASS SALADS. I’m talking salad bar salads with all those tons of ingredients including the beans, beats, etc. I go to Whole Foods often, load up a box from their bar, then take it home and dress it myself. If you get those packaged salads for lunches like my wife does, toss the dressings and take along your own in a container.
- Fruit. Anything, but avoid juices, except the way they used to be consumed—in those little 4 oz juice glasses for breakfast. The dose makes the poison.
- Nuts. No more than a handful per day (normal handful). Macadamias have the best fat profile by FAR. Brazils are good for the selenium. Filberts are good, but I forget why.
- Meats. Anything, but again, minimal added fat in the form of gravies, sauces, etc. A pat of butter or drizzle of OO is fine. Meat already has fat in it. Try to eat organ meats like liver—the most nutritionally dense food on the planet by order of magnitude. If you can’t tolerate liver, you can: a) hide it in ground beef. You won’t be able to taste 2-4 oz of chopped up liver in a pound of ground beef, or b) eat good quality pâté regularly, or liverwurst or braunschweiger.
- Fish. Anything. As liver is the most nutritionally dense land food, oysters are the most nutritionally dense seafood. Highest source of zinc on the planet. Hopefully, you adore raw oysters, so any time you see ’em on a menu, have some. Trader Joe’s has decent smoked oysters that are packed in olive oil (instead of crap cottonseed oil like most brands—search it out). 1/2 – 1 can per day with your rice, or on some Glutino crackers is excellent. Also, mussels and clams are really fine. When I go to a restaurant, the first thing I check is if they have oysters, mussels or clams.
- Fowl. Anything, but don’t buy into this white meat bullshit. Fowl also has the worst omega 6 to omega 3 ratio (the primary reason all the crap vegetable/seed oils are crap). 6:3 is a yin:yang kinda thing. 3 is anti inflammatory, 6 is pro inflammatory. Traditional diets have a typical 3:6 ratio from about 1:1 to 1:3. The typical American diet is 1:15 to 1:30…way out of whack in the balance of nature, and it’s primarily because of all the cheap, crap “heart healthy” oils used…and the shifting to chicken everywhere. Eat your chicken & turkey, but it’s no panacea.
Ok, so how do I envision “a perfect day?”
BREAKFAST
A bowl of beans from the fridge (beans also have RS and cooling forms more of it), nuked for a minute while you fry up an egg or two in butter. Place egg(s) on beans, eat with a spoon. A small portion of breakfast meat is fine, but keep it real. 4 oz of juice ought to be fine too. Small glass of milk too, always WHOLE MILK, raw if you can get it. With milk, we’re not only talking nutritional density (it’s designed to be exclusive mammalian nutrition) but relative balance nutrient-by-nutrient as determined by mammalian evolution.
LUNCH
Big ass salad with or without protein; OR, rice bowl with protein (meat, chicken, or fish) and veggies…bonus for fermented veggies and a dusting of dried seaweed.
SNACK
Smoked oysters or liver products (pâté, etc., as mentioned) on gluten free crackers/toast or with veggie sticks
DINNER
Meat or seafood & potatoes, meat or seafood with rice, or meat & seafood with beans—or a rice/bean combo. Veggies if you like but my preference is to make dinner more of a starch bomb, with lunch being big ass salads.
DESSERT
Whole real fruit that you chew. Adding some real cream, real cream whipped, or ice cream you made can up the ante for a nice Friday or Saturday dessert after dinner. Dark chocolate (80% cacao or better) can also make an appearance now & then.
EXERCISE
- Hike a lot, but make it good. That is, places where you hike for less time but do way more vertical. It’s not a stroll, not a walk. Those you can do anytime as much as you want and they don’t count any more than a walk to to the bathroom to pee.
- Lift heavy things in compound fashion once every week or two.
SUPPLEMENTS
Here’s my go-to short list. When I use “most days” or “most days but not all,” it means that I mix things up. Sometimes I’ll go 2-3 days or more without any supplements. So, I treat them somewhat just like I treat food. If any is worthy of daily consumption, like eggs, it’s the liver tablets. [Update: since originally drafting this I’ve made a few changes, including learning the importance of soil-based probiotics, which I’ve added. Make sure to read it and check out the most awesomely nutritious smoothie for you and your gut, ever.]
- Carlson Labs Solar D Gems Natural Vitamin D3, 4000 IU, 360 Softgels (1-2 per day, most days but not all)
Life Extension Super K with Advanced K2 Complex Softgels, 90-Count (1-2 per day, most days but not all)
- Uni-Liver, Argentine Liver Formula, 500 Tablets (5-10 per day, most days)
- Prescript-Assist Broad Spectrum Probiotic, Advanced Orthomolecular Research Probiotic-3, and Primal Defense Ultra (I choose to use all three, 1 cap of each per day; alternatively, one might just take one of one kind per day and rotate)
- Doctor’s Best High Absorption Magnesium (200 Mg Elemental), 240-Count (1 per day, most days)
- Himalaya Herbal Healthcare LiverCare/Liv.52, Liver Support, 180- Vcaps (2 per day, most days)
- Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch, 24-Ounce (Pack of 4) (2-4 Tablespoons most days, taken in cold food or liquid)
- Banana Flour (1-2 Tablespoons odd 7 random days, taken in cold food or liquid)
- Plantain Flour (same as with the green banana flour).
The last three are all about the Resistant Starch, which you can read up on until your heart’s content.
Now, I ask you: Does all this make rational, logical sense over the endless fidgeting and obsessing over calories, portion sizes, avoiding natural fats, and catechismic strict dietary protocols and bored-to-death exercise routines?
I hope so, and if it does, giver it a whirl and see what you think. If you do, I predict you’ll conclude:
- So liberating.
- So flexible. A million options.
- So delicious.
- So filling, satiating. You’ll find yourself skipping meals regularly which is fine, healthful actually.
- Loads of energy.
- Great digestion.
- Feel great.
- Sleep great, and find a new world of vivid dreaming you remember.
- Over lots of time, unwanted pounds melt away naturally, while lean mass is preserved.
- You will love it.
Just a word of caution. When entering the resistant starch realm, you may not have a gut microbiome that’s up to the task initially. You may experience discomfort, headache, and most frequently reported: aggressive flatulence. But most report normalization in a few week as the allies you’re feeding (the good bacteria) overwhelm their enemies (the pathogenic ones). Most will find also that flatulence is both highly dose dependent, as well as dependent upon whether taken alongside food—or just downed in water. So on this score, you are on your own to figure it out.
Here’s what you have to look forward to. It’s only the very best gut microbiome yet tested, counting 5,000 subjects; and the punchline is that he’s collaboratively driven this Resistant Starch emphasis in the diet right along with me: Resistant Starch: American Gut Project Real Results And Comparison (Very Big News).
sootedninjas 
tatertot 
Ray 
David 
Gordon 
Brian 
Matheus
Found a bag of Glutinous Rice Flour at the Asian Market that I was going to use for kimchi, but didn’t care for it in my veggie ferments. Thought of your RS experiments. Should work, right?
FTW !
Waiting for my RM Potato Starch to come today. I want those vivid dreams and deep sleep. excellent recovery mechanism after a HIT/HIIT gym workout. I use Tai Chi and Kung Fu for active recovery instead of hiking. And of course meditation. nothing wrong with hiking just don’t enjoy it personally. do what you enjoy to do for a satisfying life.
just saying :)
based on a research. glutinous rice has the lowest RS. 1st indica rice (long grain), 2nd japonica rice (short grain Japanese Rice, Sushi Rice ?), 3rd Waxy Rice BUT not by much.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12165/abstract;jsessionid=F650CA8D52290C3BAC79D2B3AD0DEB9B.f04t02
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_rice
I have a feeling these guidelines are going to become the norm in paleo soon.
Uncle Bens Parboiled converted Rice is using long grain rice.
Parboiled info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice
Lucky for me I found converted rice in Winco @ 68 cents per pound. it even looks exactly like Uncle Bens Converted rice.
I have been tweaking my diet over the last 2 years and pretty much similar to what Richard outlined. except for the RS which is now being added to my latest tweaks.
Seems like a lot of feedings in your ‘perfect day’….. lol
Beans/Eggs/High Fat Yogurt
Big Ass Salad with Meat or Fish
Potatoes/Meat/Cooked Veggies
That’s it…dessert, Organic Heavy Cream with Stevia and mixed berries
:)
I like this idea, based on YOUR plan, Ill try it for a bit!
Simply perfect.
Tatertot, what’s your reason for taking 2 liver supplements? Are they necessary for most people? What if you actually eat liver? And how about choline if not eating liver?
Excuse me if I have missed this from previous posts but why “Minimize ADDING fat to stuff”. Are you not in agreement with Kresser and Sisson that we can eat as much saturated fat as we like. Sisson has got me eating butter straight out of the pack and it is delicious.
I’m going to give cooking my own beans a try, I’ve learned how to cook meat over the past few years (cooked a heck of a Thanksgiving turkey), time to move on to vegetables.
Been relying on the canned stuff.
Re flatulence I adapted pretty quick, some crop dusting at the gym at first (“Maybe if I walk fast they won’t know who did it”) but nothing really noxious.
Stomp the floor and swear at “those barking spiders.” (Not original but can’t remember the source.)
Great summary, thanks Richard.
Aggressive flatulence? I prefer to call it horse farting. No offence to horses.
I’m really hoping here I’m not the only person but it seems that I just don’t digest stuff like split peas or lentils. Nothing else in me seems to be digesting them either because they don’t give me gas. They just go out looking exactly how they went in. It’s not a matter of chewing because pureed peas come out like pureed peas. Reminds me of corn.
I know that meat gets totally digested because meat + split peas = split peas.
I can’t do the gut bug project because it’s only available at this time for Americans. So I don’t know if there’s something missing here but potato starch doesn’t give me gas either. I’ll keep taking it though because it’s easy.
Richard,
Thanks for posting this. Like David, I’m also curious on why you don’t favor adding fat to foods. Where would you draw the line? A common meal for me is a steak topped with a good chunk of raw milk blue cheese, or a pan sauce with a bit of cream (maybe a tablespoon or so) and a pat of butter. I don’t typically load up on extra fat in anything I make, except for mashed potatoes, and I probably use a bit too much fat when cooking greens, which is an easy fix.
Also, I was wondering if you could go into your opinion on beans. By and large, your layout seems fairly similar to the Jaminet’s PHD, but the beans seem to be the biggest difference (and the added fat, which I suspect will actually be a minor difference). I apologize if you’ve posted on this, but what are you seeing that they aren’t? Or, is this more of an N =1 experiment, where as long as you tolerate them, you don’t see a problem?
Now when I feel lazy, I can get Chipotle without guilt! Woohoo!!
Thanks,
Steve
Look what I found – fermented black beans – http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Douchi-Fermented-Black-Beans/dp/B003K3KOM8/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
OK, now anyone has experience with this stuff? Looks like a perfect kind of beans but it’s made in China.
Maybe Dr. B.G knows a thing or two about it.
T-Nat
First of all, wow. Looks like this might be quite a comment thread, as was and is the last post on Tim’s gut results.
@MAS
You’re never far away. Since I’ve been doing PS and plantain flour and the foods such as I mention, I stopped the work of fermenting. I think emphasis ought be on feeding rather than trying to get them in there. That said, still love kefir, but I tossed my grains and just do a store bought quart over about 2 weeks. I’ll typically mix 50/50 with milk or OJ and stir in 1-2 TBS PS and let it sit for 10 minutes for the critters to attach to the RS, and get a safe bus ride on down to the colon.
@Ray
Good observation, man. I _almost_ never eat that much but I purposely did not want it to look austere (plus, no portion sizes). I trust people and I think that if they eat right, just like animals in the wild, hunger will take care of itself and so will body composition. That’s my hopefully not foolish bet.
@marie
You should know, cherie; and who knows me the best? I’ll get to those recordings tonight. :)
@David
It’s a sensible middle. We have the fat mongers on the LC/VLC side, and the lean meat folks on the “Corleo” side. What we don’t have is someone who says, “ok, eat your fatty ribs and pork belly all you want, and any other fatty meat,” but you don’t need to glutinously add fat. Between fatty meat, fish, poultry skin nice & crisp—as well as cooking with fat—it’s plenty. No fear of fat. Let me put it this way. Suppose you smoke weed, as I do sometimes. Legalizing it will not change my frequency.
Moreover, fat is touted because why? To replace carbohydrate, sugar and starch. Thing is, fat is pretty nutritionally vapid, just as is starch and sugar. However, if you get starch from real food, there’s nutrition there. If you get fat from real food, there’s nutrition there. Since these guidelines reintroduce starch, it makes sense to limit fats generally to what you get from fatty foods.
Make sense?
Milk. What about milk? Raw as kefir?
Yes, but butter tastes so fucking good on rice or potatoes.
@Steve
“Where would you draw the line?”
Here:
“A common meal for me is a steak topped with a good chunk of raw milk blue cheese, or a pan sauce with a bit of cream (maybe a tablespoon or so) and a pat of butter.”
So very good and sensible, and I’m the guy with the Fat Bombs and Fat Bread, if you know about that.
I make sauces all the time. For example: Good chunk of butter, sauté chopped shallot and shrooms. Deglaze with 1-2 cups red wine and reduce to syrup. Add 1/2 to 1 quart of kitchen basics unsalted beef stock (all depends on portion size and I’m typically cooking for 2-4) bing to boil and simmer. When about half reduced, strain out all the chunks. Continue reducing. Save a bit of cold stock, and slurry 1/2-1 tsp of potato starch and introduce when volume matches your portion needs. Salt & pepper to taste.
Very little fat, blow your mind taste. Try it.
With regard to beans? I simply looked at my parents-in-law, my wife, and all of her family (Mexican descent and very in tune with the cuisine) and concluded they were right about that and everyone else was wrong.
See:
https://freetheanimal.com/2013/11/success-years-beyond.html
Mike:
So does meat, fish, fowl and spicy sauces like you can get all over Asia and south America.
I sometimes wonder if half of America’s obesity problem is because they’re so pussy when it comes to hot spice. :)
Seriously, I’ve been in bars in Thailand chatting it up with a young “working girl” at the bar, taking her break and eating a soup. She offers me a bit. I spend the next hours in agony, burning lips. Well, that was a long time ago, and I’m pretty good with hot now.
I think one has to make a basic choice: high fat, to whatever level, or, 30-40% from starch sources. I know which way I’m going, so I’m not going to load up on BOTH starch and fat. Personally, given the choice and the versatility of starches as a substrate, it’s no contest for me.
@ Richard, re: my query about milk, I just read the “meal plan”. I see raw milk for breakfast. Meal plans bore me so I did not read it earlier.
Can you make your own potato starch? I would assume you just puree raw potato and dry it in the sun or oven.
Maybe different folks respond to things differently. I know: ‘duh’. This week-end I couldn’t take it anymore. Made a Hungarian stew with meaty pork belly, onion, garlic, yellow sweet peppers, cayenne, paprika etc. and sauerkraut (it was fizzy already). Serve with 30% sour cream…………….. heaven on earth. F**k it’s good. Hits the spot. Sourdough rye bread to wipe the bowl. I can send you a picture if you want. This stuff rocks my world. It’s an addiction.
Now is sauerkraut and kimchi season. Thank dog. Happy stomach food.
I found garlic imported from Spain. Now these are garlics! Beautiful.
Fair point.
I love spicy food. My favorite foods are mostly Asian. I’ve only limited exposure to South American foods, but I’m game!
You’ve issued enough of a challenge to get creative at least with rice and learn some new dishes. At least when I want fat and starch I can take solace in my fortune of being one of those people with a high metabolism and hoping to keep it that way with athletic endeavors and a good eating regimen.
Mike. Here, knock your socks off and you can do many variations. Did this for breakfast Saturday.
Google sinangag.
While saying I’m not a fan of the texure of the potato starch got me called a wimp in the earlier thread, I’ve done some experimenting in the last couple of days with putting it into fruit-based smoothies to get to a ratio that effectively hides the starch.
In a Magic Bullet-sized blender, the following works for me now:
2 T potato starch
2-3 heaping T of yogurt
Frozen fruit (half full)
Almond milk
For those of you who need to prove your toughness to someone, keep taking it straight. The simple reality is that, while I did take it that way a few times, it was unpleasant enough I found myself avoiding it. I’m self-aware enough to recognize patterns in my own behavior and, rather than sitting in judgement, seek out solutions that work.
Why not steamed vegetables? I thought that was better than blanching or parboiling
Because with those, much of the nutrition ends up in the water, whereas with
steaming it stays in the vegetable. Or is your point that blanching and parboiling
are brief? In that case, why not “brief” steaming?
Richard,
Thanks. So basically, don’t go crazy with the fat constantly: got it. :D I’m rather curious what kind of macro ratios will end up being “optimal,” assuming such a thing exists.
Regarding beans: fair enough. I’m not a big fan of them, so I’m not sure how often I’ll eat them, but there are times where nothing but a plate of good rice and beans will do.
re beans : Tater says not to rinse, you say do. Could you guys say why you differ?
Any thoughts about how putting a green banana in the freezer would affect RS?
Makes good sense Richard. Thanks for the reply, and of course the original post. I love fried rice and look forward to welcoming it back into my diet.
@J Wynia
I don’t think anyone is trying to prove tough guy status. I drink it in water and it’s about as innocuous as drinking… water.
@Richard
I like the list. I read your point about not worrying about lots of fermented food, but instead to feed the bacteria down there. I agree that you don’t need that much fermented food for the bacteria, but I think that’s missing the increased availability of some nutrients in fermented food (particularly K2). I guess it’s easy to supplement, but I like the taste of fermented vegetables (just finished a pile of fermented root veg with some black pepper and cumin).
This is similar to the PHD, perhaps minus the gelatin/bones emphasis, plus beans. Thank you so much for collating the guidelines – almost makes me want to start drafting a cookbook around them.
I have the same question as Ellen regarding steamed vegetables.
I guess Mr. Bulletproof decided to try RS protocol.
I’m curious as to why you dropped the Green Pastures Fermented Cod liver/butter oil blend.
@doggie
Don’t worry about it. Don’t have time to look it up, but Bob’s red mill is so minimally processed as to make hg’s blush. It’s basically just chopping up raw taters, making a slurry and sieving it to get the starch granules. Zero heat or chemicals,
Beans for breakfast? I would never have thought of that. Convenient too – I can get them extremely cheaply at my local Hispanic mart.
And I missed why corn tortillas are ok. I thought corn was still a no-no? I’ll have to scour the archives.
This is a great post to appear at the moment. Starting Thursday, I’m beginning to reintroduce exercise after a slipped rib. Comprehensive and synthesizing posts like this are just what the doctor (my own reason) ordered.
Interesting story about the slipped rib actually. Hurt it, didn’t realize until a few days after the event that it was injured, immediately scoured the internet for information. Didn’t touch my phone to call a Herr Doktor. Read. Studied. Learned a bunch of anatomy etc. Realized a Doktor couldn’t help. Upshot: 2 months of no exercise to rest the area until it felt ready for action; didn’t waste my money getting a “second opinion”; about ready to start my own physical/dietary therapy. Total cost: $0. Given this Obamacare BS, I probably saved a few hundred/thousand $ (they’d do MRI’s, X-Rays, several meets, blah blah). Sure, I didn’t enjoy that fabled “peace of mind” that comes from paying “experts” to “give their opinion”, but I got by.
I always had a great metabolism and great gut health. Two years ago I had my 4th baby and a few weeks later found out I had cancer. Since that time, I have had some IBS type symptoms – not sure if it is due to age (late 30’s), or medication side effects, or cancer or what, but I don’t like it.
I started thinking about when I felt my best, and what it was that I would eat. The answer: potatoes or potatoes and eggs. In my teens and early twenties, I used to pack a cold boiled potato for my lunch and dip it in some salt. I feel great after I eat baked or boiled potatoes with some melted butter, drenched in buttermilk, and topped with salt. Any kind of left over potatoes warmed up and served with over easy eggs. Mashed potatoes with gravy. Potato salad. These are foods that make me feel good.
I googled “potato diet” and found this site. It makes sense to me, and I have returned to eating lots of potato dishes, simpler foods, and added the potato starch to my diet. My stomach is starting to feel better.
I was raised in a family that NEVER ate out. Family vacations – we pulled out the ice chest or found a park with a BBQ. Kind of weird, I know, but I really think that the simple good foods we ate gave me the healthy metabolism. I think a lot of people have never really felt good; they are used to feeling lousy. I was raised on “poverty food” and home grown fruits and vegetables, and I know what it feels like to feel good.
By the way, Richard, have you read the book “Tortilla Flats” by John Steinbeck? Chapter 13 stands alone as a short story, or works with the novel, but it a story about about beans and good heath and some real characters and it is just hilarious. Not worth paraphrasing, but well worth reading. If you have not read it, you should.
@ Richard. Making your own potato starch will cost a lot more money and take a check of a lot more time than buying good premade stuff. Just buy it and spend your extra time and money at the gym.
Richard, merci chéri :)
Meanwhile, I do see mention of going without food for some time, but if one makes a point of integrating regular fasts of multiple lengths in your plan, they’d have the diet of Crete, which seems to be the origin of the “Mediterranean diet” term in the 1990’s and its association with longevity and good health.
(that is, before popular wishful thinking turned “Med diet” into olive oil, wine, pasta and baguettes !)
The islanders have only few grains too, not much point trying to grow wheat on mountain slopes or in seaside salt-plains. Potatoes though are in every terraced hillside farm, as are legumes, olive and fruit trees, vegetables of all sorts….and those ridiculous mountain sheep and goats that seem to hang off the slopes upside down.
Then also, the seafood is so varied and plentiful that it too is a daily diet ‘staple’.
However, I wouldn’t discount the grapes either… ;)
Excuse-moi Richard … but I think you forgot to mention tea and coffee somewhere ;)
Great summary! It’s the PHD with beans :D :D
Good info here, Richard. I admit to being very hesitant about trying RS regularly in my diet. I’ve been on the weight loss roller coaster too long and finally dedicated myself to LC, completely gluten-free, and am losing weight and I can’t tell you how the thought of eating a potato drives me to paranoid distraction, like a few bites of potato or a few tablespoons of rice mean I’ll be five pounds heavier tomorrow and I’ll never wear jeans or a bathing suit again.
It’s irrational. Can you imagine living a life fighting a war against food and your body forever? I’m so tired of it but I finally found the discipline to stay LC and it’s helping.
But your posts on RS intrigue me. On Saturday I made a huge beef stew for a family dinner and used PS to thicken it – about 2T for a six-qt crock pot full of stew. No BS spikes that I noticed (I don’t test, I go by how I feel, I’ve suffered chronic hypoglycemia for as long as I can remember). Talk about vivid dreams, my gosh I was shooting snow geese and driving around a technicolor city all night long with 80s dance music playing in the background. And I remembered every detail.
Rice also seemed OK, I had 1/4 cup with a venison stir fry I made. I did notice that my appetite was elevated after the rice, but I hadn’t chilled it prior to eating it, just cooked and ate. Haven’t tried chilling it yet.
I’m not ready to go with daily RS. The body war is a tough fight and I just don’t know if it’s a good strategy for me right now. Maybe when my weight comes down. I’m just scared to go with so much starch right now and that I’ll hit a stall or fuck up my appetite so bad I’ll start scarfing down food nonstop like I used to every time I’d eat bread or sugar.
I’m grateful for this information, though. I’ve bookmarked every RS post so I can read up on it. I’d love to have my beloved mushroom risotto back once in a while, or the Cuban black beans and rice I loved so much when I was a fat bloated cow. Wait, I’m still one of those, and that’s what scares me. Becoming a bigger cow.
Why so many supplements? Given such a great diet, is 12 to 19 supplement pills plus the tablespoons of starch a day really necessary? I would have thought that real food such as this would be enough.
Hi Richard,
Great stuff. Quick question. Are you suggesting that someone adds in BRP (beans, rice and potatoes) when they are trying to say lose 20-30 lbs or take on this style of eating once they have hit their goal weight and use it more as maintenance mode. It just seems like potentially a lot of daily carbs that could reverse weight loss. I started eating more like the 4HB Ferris style and saw my weight start gravitating upward. Or maybe eat this way only on days in which one is uber active (sprints, lifting, hiking, etc). Would love your thoughts on those folks trying to lose weight.
One other question. I have been thinking about taking K2. Have there been any of your markers change as a result of it? I have slightly elevated oxidized LDL and I was curious if it can get that going in the opposite direction.
What about wine, beer, and spirits?
So. I’m in.
Bought a bag of tapioca starch today. In the UK, Bob’s Red Mill PS isn’t that easy to find. The health store I bought the tapioca at had “potato flour”, which I wasn’t so sure about. The ingredients were “organic potato flour” rather than potato starch. Ingredients of the tapioca flour were “tapioca starch” so I went with that, knowing they are pretty much the same as far as RS goes.
Have had some digestive problems recently, so will see what this thing of yours might do. Hoping the fartage won’t be that bad. Starting with a heaped tablespoon with a bit of cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Pretty good, can’t really taste the starch.
Excited.
@Richard, me thinks that your burning lips my not have been from the Thai soup :)
Great post, I am sure the Paleo nazis will cry over your suggesting beans, but who care right?
I like the simple approach, and thanks again to you and ‘Tater for the wonders of PS, just started it, already sleeping better, here’s hoping for a better gut!
For supplements have you seen LEF makes a D,K and Iodine complex in one capsule, super convenient. I usually do it in the winter when I want the 5,000 IU of D.
Do you ever recommend HCL supplements to people with digestive issues?
Cheers.
You’ve outlined almost exactly the sort of diet I’ve found myself eating after tinkering with paleo for some time. Financially its nice not having to buy so much meat. Also, including plenty of tubers, rice , and some properly prepared legumes frees up the budget for buying more high quality animal products when they are consumed.
@Brian
My thoughts on LDL, for what its worth: Theracumin form of Curcumin, loading dose 3 x 600 mg per day for a week, then one a day, Pantathene from Jarrow 2 pills a day with meals, Tocotrienol (take away from Vit E at least 6 hours, or it wont work) – Designs for Health brand, one a day with evening meal, Liposomal Glutathione 500mg per day (this shit is expensive, but worth it). The Pantathene takes up to 9 months to reach full effectiveness if it will work for you, so I would wait at least 3 -6 months before I retest. Remember while you are loosing weight, some peoples cholesterol tend to spike, so keep that in mind and focus on the weight/diet/fitness. Also consider getting the LDL Particle Count done if you are worried about cholesterol, do a search for NMR LipoProfile test, its the cutting edge test.