Archives for January 2015

Here’s the post that came across email yesterday.

After four years of successfully staging annual Ancestral Health Symposiums, we regretfully announce that AHS15 will not be held. We were looking forward to it so much that we began planning for it before AHS14 took place, but despite our jump on the process, we hit several speedbumps along the way that eventually contributed to the event not coming together.

Apparently, they’re looking to ramp up their Journal of Evolution and Health which, frankly, with a single published issue in 2013 is a journal in name only.

I can’t say I’m surprised and moreover, I’ll be surprised if this isn’t really the prelude to the eventual end. Having an ancestral health symposium is a decent idea and I thought AHS11, the inaugural, was really great. I still recall Stephan Guyenet commenting “this is like being in the Internet.”

I also attended AHS12 at Harvard and am particularly proud of my presentaton at that event. It turns out I came within a “cunt hair” of being disinvited. I can’t divulge the source, but long after those events, someone forwarded the entire email thread between those board or committee members charged with the decision (I’d called some women, including Melissa McEwan, a very bad word on Twitter). Ironically, it was Seth Roberts and Melissa McEwan herself who intervened to keep me on the schedule.

That knowledge gave me a bit of added perspective on why, after this post slamming comments by an AHS12 volunteer, McEwan launched a Tumblr campaign against me.

I did not attend the last two symposiums, nor did I submit a proposal for a presentation. Many reasons, but I guess primarily, it comes down to my observation that it was increasingly becoming a giant exercise in lots of confirmation bias, or, simply a get-together where the same speakers, year after year, offer up essentially the same general narrative.

At AHS11 there were really no vendor tables I can recall—just the kind souls at Grassland Beef offering up endless free samples of their wares in the form of beef jerky and pemmican.  Contrast that with AHS12 were there were a dozen vendor tables—a good percentage of them were for various “paleo” treats and bars—along with the embarrassing irony of conducting a “safe starch” panel in the other room (hosted by Jimmy Moore) were its tantamount to a potentially taboo subject. Go get your “paleo” bars, but be very careful not to get taken with the idea that our ancestors ever ate a starch granule.

In retrospect, the iron grip control the LC community in general has exercised over AHS is possibly what’s killing it now. And if that’s the case, justice is served.

I looked closely at the program for AHS14, hoping to see lots of presentations exploring the rapidly burgeoning science on the gut biome. Nope, just a few tokens, the rest largely the same old LC schtick that generally ignores the biome.

In short, the ancestral community has evolved past the Ancestral Health Society. Hopefully, Keith and Michelle Norris will integrate whatever lessons they perceive from this in going forward with their Paleo f(x) Conference. I wish them well and in fact, months ago began hearing whispers that lots of people were seeing more value there.

No Idea outcomes, but it’s my birthday tomorrow; just arrived up here today, will be here for 5-6 days, depending on when I feel like leaving. Family is coming up starting tomorrow. Lots. Haven’t seen my long haul truck driving baby bro in almost a year and I get weepy when I think about seeing him.

…In a manner of speaking.

I’ll blog when I want, absolutely and only what strikes my total fancy. No sun much here, so I’m not likely to get any blisters in it.

Perhaps though, you’ll dance along with me. In my world of fantasy.

…Just know that we’ll eventually take different roads and love will tear us apart.

But we’ll be in peace, and in the name of love. Right, Bono?

I’ll see you later.

She doesn’t want to you to see it in her Jan 23, 2015 comment thread.

Duck Dodgers has left a new comment on the post “Lose Weight, Body Fat, Improve Blood Glucoses and …”:

I’ll try again, P1, and hopefully Grace won’t censor me this time. [The cunt did – Ed].

P1 said: “Duck, can you share some of the points about honey that you have learned?”

For starters, see: Honey as a Source of Dietary Antioxidants: Structures, Bioavailability and Evidence of Protective Effects Against Human Chronic Diseases (Free Download)

P1 said: “I think you are not giving Grace’s points their due. She is just objectively pointing out which types of fibers feed known good families of bacteria, and she is also pointing out that RS2 largely feeds bacteria that are harmful.”

I’m sorry, but the evidence that’s been presented has been extremely weak and was mostly conjecture if you read it closely.

P1 said: “No one is really responding to or denying the truth of those claims, and she does provide links to research.”

I suggest you read the evidence she presented more closely, and with a critical eye. The studies often do not reach the same conclusions being presented here.

P1 said: “If you accept those claims”

I’ll stop you right there. Saying that something feeds “bad” bacteria or “good” bacteria is mostly marketing speak. Just about any food feeds “bad” bacteria. And there has been no discussion as to what levels of “bad” bacteria are helpful.

Raw honey often contains spores of some very pathogenic bacteria and pathogenic yeasts. Is that a reason to avoid honey given that is seems to provide significant benefits to those who consume it?

P1 said: “I think it is pretty fair to ask what would be the presumed health benefit of taking large amounts of RS2? And I think it is quite appropriate for her to evidence that question by further pointing out that recent human trials of RS2 fail to meet good endpoints.”

The evidence in those studies is rarely as conclusive as it’s been presented in Grace’s posts. Again, it’s mostly conjecture. Secondly, nobody advocates “high doses” of RS2 anymore. So, I fail to see what the point of these posts are about.

P1 said: “The dose makes the poison in all things, but the fact that everything has a toxic dose isn’t really a response to her post.”

Actually it is. You could literally write the same exact series of posts using any food, fiber or liquid.

Cheers.

What a laf. That’s too much for her, even after she tried—in Fake Doktor ways—to claim Duck has chronic fatigue syndrome and how’s that going in light of PS consumption (both are actually false).

Tell you what, go leave respectful, critical comments but copy them. If they get deleted, email to me and I’ll post every single one, so long as they meet the respectful criteria. Slinging shit is my job, so don’t encroach.

I’m still working on another post about honey that will be up soon.

Finally:

Beyond the sin of having a really head shaking, Dumb-ass-Name, I merely recall some time ago flocks having ruffled feathers, squawking on and on—like they’d had their heads chopped off—about how the chain was interfering with various pecking orders…or something.

There’s been one around here for some time and so I decided to check it out.

The food—as fast food goes—was excellent. Chicken nuggets of actual chucks of chicken dredged in flour? Green leaf lettuce on sandwiches? So discriminating…as fast food goes, anyway.

Worrisome though: all the employees were lean to normalish in body composition, conservatively groomed, sporting well fitting, relaxed fit uniforms in a conservative black & white fashion.

But worst of all: there were no tats, piercings, and one could easily tell males from females!

What in the fuck is this world coming to?