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Free The Animal

Ex Navy Officer. Owner of Businesses. Digital Entrepreneur. Expat Living in Thailand. 5,000 Biting Blog Post on Everything since 2003.

You are here: Home / 2016 / Archives for March 2016

Archives for March 2016

The Potato Hack is Making Potato Great Again

March 31, 2016 74 Comments

IMG_0146

I hadn’t mentioned it in a previous post, but we’ve been up here at The Cabin since last Friday, with guests over the weekend, and I just plain haven’t felt that much like writing on the blog. It happens.

But I wanted to get a quick note out that Tim’s book, The Potato Hack: Weight Loss Simplified, is now out and available in print and Kindle. I saw a draft PDF copy, and it was great, and since then, Tim has added about anther 100 pages, including—I hear—many excellent photos by his award-winning photographer aunt. I haven’t seen the final yet, and it’s probably sitting in the mailbox at home, awaiting my return on Sunday.

In other news, I recorded a podcast with Tim last Sunday, and I hope to get that up soon, but I was waiting for the Kindle version to pop on Amazon since only the print was available as of a few days ago.

Well, let’s keep this short. You could search this blog to see what the potato hack or potato diet is all about but in this case, just get Tim’s book.


Filed Under: Food, Health

My Podcast Interview About Resistant Starches and Grains

March 28, 2016 2 Comments

Here was part one of this interview with the Well Travelled New Zealander Jake Shuster. I’d hate for you to listen to part 2 without first hearing that part one.

Here’s part 2: Podcast #43: Tubers, The Wheat Question and Iron Hypotheses with Richard Nikoley.

If part one of our interview with FreeTheAnimal.com owner Richard Nikoley was a primer on resistant starch and the modern microbiome, part two here is where we get really controversial. This celiac actually discusses whether or not it’s a good idea to eat wheat!

What can we learn about Islanders tuber consumption for gut health? How does microbiome in the air and supermarket impact wheat’s impact? Why is iron in everything?! Don’t miss Richard Nikoley’s controversial opinions here!

Do as you please.

 

Filed Under: Podcast

Low Fat Bests Low Carb In Six Month Trial And Low Carb Advocate Honestly Admits It

March 26, 2016 18 Comments

Will the critics say “the carbz weren’t low enough!”? REALLY?

Filed Under: Food, Health

Probiotics As Targeted Antibiotics

March 24, 2016 34 Comments

The primary mechanism by which probiotics work is better thought of as targeted antibiotics. NOT as a multi-vitamin that plugs deficiences.

Filed Under: Health

“Boiled mashed potatoes for miracle satiety?” Why, Yes, Peter.

March 23, 2016 40 Comments

Petro Dobromylskyj aka "Peter," has put up a post that I think is wrong but I also think is very cool and essential to understanding.

Filed Under: Food, Health

Just Let Life Get In Your Way And Embrace All Experiments

March 22, 2016 21 Comments

the last year is filled with more upheaval in my life than ever—I'm someone who moved lock, stock & barrel—in overseas shipping containers

Filed Under: Food, Living

A Low-Fat, Low-Meat 15-Bean Soup That Will Fill and Satisfy You For Weight Loss

March 21, 2016 13 Comments

You understand by now that The Potato Diet is not magic. It’s perfectly explainable and logical, based on the observations.

It happens to turn out, rather ironically, that unlike chips and fries which are crazy go-to hyper-palatable rewarding foods that people flock to and overeat by heaps and bounds, plain potatoes are the most satiating food ever measured in controlled conditions (for most people).

I’ll show you the conspicuous chart, once again.

fullness-factor

Funny how an orange is on par with a steak, both being roughly four times as satiating as potato chips. But plain potatoes blow everything else out of the water. Not by an exponential factor, but certainly by orders of magnitude.

Anyway, various readers have been finding similar satiation with a couple of other things, primarily oats, and legumes. While lentils and baked beans are on the chart and toward the right, they aren’t as clearly outlying. However, here’s where art comes into play, in my book. Essentially, we’re looking at an experiment where you get a bunch of people off the street and have them test various foods, pretty much blindsided.

But how about to the aficionado? The potato artist? The tater-Tot!?

What if the practice and discipline to eat nothing but plain boiled potatoes for a few days to a week causes some profound changes, where other common, peasant-like staples—such as oat groats and legumes—do the same thing: help you feel full for more hours. And being in an energy deficit for some hours to days is no longer as big of a deal to you?

Isn’t that what it boils down to? For whatever reason, you don’t seem to be getting the same hunger signals or impulses to eat at the same intervals, or at the same amplitude. It’s as though it’s all attenuated or dampened. I’m very curious to explore the potential psychological, neurological, and physiological underpinnings of all of that and wish to use my new podcast platform to do that the best.

I wrote this simply titled short post in January of 2009: HUNGER.

The longer I go down this path of paleo-like eating, the more I am convinced that hunger is the key. I tell people, now: ultimately, this is not a battle of the bulge, fat, or weight. This is a battle over hunger and ultimately, your hunger is going to win in the long run unless you simply have the rare constitution to be miserable all the time — like many of the calorie restriction folks do.

Unfortunately, my vision as to the solution was still very incomplete:

Fortunately, there is a solution, and that solution is to eat a natural diet of plenty of meats, fish, natural fats (animal, coconut, olive), vegetables, fruits (moderation), and nuts (moderation too).

The post continues. Lot’s more wrong or incomplete stuff. But it also got an essential thing right, and we know that’s right because it’s prima facie. You can only get fat by eating. Not eating does not make you fat. Not being hungry all the time has you eating less, less often; quod erat demonstrandum.

So to some extent, I was still embroiled with the idea that so long as it’s a “paleo” food, then it’s going to solve hunger, and you’re not going to overeat it chronically. Uh, yes, very many of you will. Whether it’s pastured eggs, nuts, huge fatty cuts of meat, avocados, coconuts, or whatever. Unlimited access, combined with a carefree budget, all licensed by a paleo or Low-Carb green-light card, will have very, very many of you overeating these foods (and if not paleo, add butter, bacon, and cheese to the list—and if paleo-ish, add nut butter and nut flours).

We’re so very invested in defending all of these great foods and indeed, they are great. All of them. For decades, they’ve been unjustly maligned, and it’s understandable now, that we feel a huge sense of relief in seeing butter in the cold section again, and news articles telling us that perhaps bird and reptile exo-wombs aren’t so bad.

But unless we have pocketbook constraints, or have to hunt, gather, and fish these foods, or otherwise go to the work of pasturing and producing, then yes, we can overindulge in them. And so it comes down to eating like a poor peasant.

Here’s the next recipe. It’ll set you back a few bucks, but it will also delight and satisfy.


Ingredients

  • 1 lb smoked pork necks (alternatively: smoked ham hocks)
  • 1 lb package bean soup mix (mine was 15-beans)
  • 2 medium yellow onions, diced
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley; chopped leaves, discard stems
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 3-4 small carrots, diced, with skins
  • 1 small head green cabbage; 1/2 – 2/3 chopped about 1″
  • 2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes (I use the ones with oregano, garlic, etc. herbs)
  • 1 quart Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock
  • 1 quart Kitchen Basics Beef Stock
  • 1 TBS ground black pepper
  • Salt and additional pepper to taste when finished

Directions

  1. Bring pork necks, chicken and beef stock to a boil. Add water to make sure they’re covered and stay covered. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until meat falls off the bone with a fork poke. About 2 hours.
  2. Remove the necks to a bowl and let them cool so you can handle with bare fingers. In the meantime, strain the cooking liquid and run it through your Fat Separator batch by batch. Pick the pork necks thoroughly, breaking up all the lean meat into small bits and toss them into the pot with your fat-separated cooking stocks.
  3. Add in the beans, onions, garlic, parsley, carrots, tomatoes, and pepper. Use water as necessary, but careful. Cooking releases moisture from the veggies. You can always add water.
  4. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cover. About 2 hours.

I pictured this bowl with only minimal soupiness to illustrate what’s in play.

IMG_0367

Here’s what it looks like as just plain old soup.

IMG_0370

For the “gluttons” out there, this recipe is adapted from one of my mom’s that’s a super quick & easy (like 30 minutes or so). It’s a pound of Polish sausage chopped up, a couple of chopped onions, 2 cans diced tomatoes, half head of chopped cabbage, salt & pepper to taste. Enough water to cover, boil until done. Crazy delicious.

 

Filed Under: Food, Health

A Completely Saner Bacon, Egg, and Fried Potato Breakfast Picture

March 18, 2016 33 Comments

I wanted to cook a bacon, egg, and fried potato breakfast using just the fat from one rather lean, thick slice of applewood smoked bacon (Hempler's, if you're interested...excellent stuff).

Filed Under: Food, Health

Podcast #2 – Angelo Coppola Talks Podcasting, Paleo, and Low Meat & Fat Plant Paleo

March 17, 2016 27 Comments

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The brief 7-minute introduction to my new podcast can be listened to right here. Of course, much of that is superseded. The podcast will be as short or as long as it needs to be instead of 30-minutes, and instead of trying to have two guests for short interviews, it will be one guest. So, basically, conventional. I’ll likely toss in other elements along the way.

Today I interview Angelo Coppola, a seasoned blogger and podcaster for over six years, with a very high production value.

We discuss podcasting itself, plus, his personal journey from fat kid to super lean as an adult with four children and a fifth on the way.

You might be surprised about what he discovered about everyone having a piece of a puzzle, but not the whole picture. He had to put that together himself, and he’s going to tell you how.

Being 6′ and 250 lbs, he went a good part of the way with a conventional high-animal paleo Diet and kept the weight off. However, it wasn’t until he adopted a more plant-based paleo approach with relatively far less animal foods did he shed the final 30 pounds to become super-lean at 160 lbs.

The podcast isn’t yet available on iTunes but should be soon. In the meantime, I’ve got Soundcloud and YouTube.



Show Notes

  • Angelo’s Website: Humans Are Not Broken
  • What does ‘Humans Are Not Broken’ Mean?
  • The Plant Paleo Diet
  • Articles related to The Plant Paleo Diet
  • Angelo’s Podcast: Latest in Paleo
  • Episode 17 – The Diet of No-Diet (Richard Nikoley guest)
  • Latest in Paleo 74: House of Experiments (Richard Nikoley guest)
  • Latest in Paleo 97: Perfect Resistance (Richard Nikoley and Tim Steele guests)
  • Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: The University of Newcastle Research with Diet Plan
  • In Defense of Low Fat: A Call For Some Evolution of Thought (by Denise Minger at Raw Food SOS)

Thanks for listening in. You can support the show by checking into Elixa Probiotic, or by clicking here and shopping Amazon for whatever you want at any time. You can also help by promoting it on your social networks, clicking Like, a thumbs up, or whatever it may be wherever you access it.

My next scheduled guest will be Tim Steele of VegetablePharm and we’re going to be talking about potatoes.

Filed Under: Health, Podcast

Fun With Potatoes, Fun With Food, Fun With Life

March 15, 2016 61 Comments

I have crazy amounts of fun since incorporating plain old and lots of potatoes into my daily fair. The Funny thing is, it’s not much to blog about concerning alluring food. On the other hand, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, as they say, and the word I’m getting is that more and more are doing just that and learning a great deal about themselves and food, as I have. I think just the mental rewards themselves are enough to me. Wish I knew all the elements but those, combined with a calm, sound sleep, stellar energy, never feeling run down, heightened productiveness and more are plenty for me.

Of course, there will come a time soon enough when you know you’ve conquered your Stupid Dog Brain and are ready to incorporate some additional food elements, but ones that keep with the theme. It has also changed the way I prepare regular meals. The biggest thing there is that I now cook with or add little fat of any kind. For this post, I’ll focus on the addition of beans and oats to your list of tools. In a subsequent post, I’ll cover some of the other food I’ve been preparing and how.

But first, a bit of a good-natured dig at paleo. I’ve had to have a laugh the last two mornings when I saw my own daily Paper.li come out (RSS), which is auto-generated from those I follow on social media and what of their stuff has been popular.

…

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Filed Under: Food, Living

Long Time Low-Carber is Finally Successful Shedding Vanity Pounds on The Potato Diet

March 14, 2016 23 Comments

Yesterday was week three of doing lots of potatoes most days. It’s going well. Didn’t make the weigh in, as I was busy with other stuff, so perhaps I’ll just relax, keep eating potatoes, and drive it home for the 1-month result next Sunday. In the meantime, let’s check on a few other folks and extend some credit where it’s due, eh?

Brian says:

2-week update: down to 224 lb from 235. I’m 6’3″.

Crazy stuff. I’ve eaten more potatoes in these two weeks than have I have in two years. Biggest things I’ve noticed are:

  1. less desire to have alcohol – I’m normally a 1-2 glass of red wine guy per night
  2. less desire to eat meat. I’m almost feeling like I’m vegan (omg…did I just say that)
  3. I used to do potato starch but it didn’t nearly have any effect on my appetite so I think I can write that off as cool experiment
  4. been also eating lots of lentils which I think the combo is mighty
  5. not thinking about food really at all. late night binge of a bowl of cereal, jar of PB, etc. are gone.
  6. wondering if the magic will continue or if this is just a temporary situation.

This weekend I’m cooking up a huge portion of Chickpea and Potato Curry from the Moosewood Cookbook. Would love to have others share their updates.

…

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Filed Under: Food, Health

Using The Potato Diet to Leash Your “Stupid Dog Brain”

March 13, 2016 40 Comments

Back when I was drafting this big post on the practicalities of The Potato Diet, I was already receiving comments on some other posts that caused me to add this blurb:

“So, my conclusion is that boiled potatoes occupy some outlier niche where they’re mensch enough to give your stomach something substantial to feel, palatable enough to eat without choking them down (I drink plain, room temp water with them), but not so palatable that you’ll just normally gorge on them. In other words, when your stomach feels as though there’s enough of them in it, the palatability feedback shuts off, and you push it away.

“And this suggests a potential cure for those few people who, in spite of eating lots of boiled potatoes, nonetheless feel ravenously hungry an hour later. What to do? Then you eat another potato, plain, no salt. Still a problem an hour later? Then eat another one, stone cold out of the fridge. In other words, every time you get that deep hunger eat the most unpalatable cold boiled potato possible until you’ve whipped your dumb dog brain into submission.

“And verbalize it. “Ha, you stupid dog brain! You thought you were getting chocolate cake and ice cream, didn’t you? Ha, you dumb dog!” See, it’s rather like training your dog not to beg at the dinner table immediately after you fed him first. Sure, you can try to shame and submit him, order him around, etc. But what if you give him something off the table he doesn’t like at all?”

…

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Filed Under: Food, Health

Podcast Interview at Well Travelled Wellness

March 13, 2016 2 Comments

"Richard Nikoley might give the fewest f*cks of anyone on the internet."

Filed Under: Podcast

Yep. I’m Going To Do A Podcast and Here’s Episode #1

March 12, 2016 12 Comments

Hear what you think. It’s a short initial intro, 7 minutes only. The main thing today was getting the intro and outro music right.

I like it, and getting it as I liked it so easily in a short time was a big motivator. I hadn’t planned to get anything up in perhaps weeks, but the preliminaries were so damn easy and quick (first time using GarageBand ever) that I just wanted to put something together.

Here’s the SoundCloud link.

So stay tuned.

You can subscribe by RSS Feed here.

…

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Filed Under: Living, Podcast

Talking Just Living, Playing With “Work,” and Food

March 8, 2016 11 Comments

I’ve been meandering back to some of my roots, lately. Maybe you’ve noticed. I’ve been getting way more interested in preparing good food regularly for just one example. Here’s an unfinished project. I’m putting up some of my homemade stuff on Pinterest.

For another thing, I have a blog redesign in the works. This is ancient history, but Alec and his beautiful Foliovison Team in Bratislava moved this blog from TypePad to WordPress in about 2009 and hosted it on their servers until around 2014. We had a difference in management philosophy and so, I moved it away—but still retained them for urgent tech needs now & then. Anyway, I’m back to fully managed hosting, and Ivana is leading on the tech (when the blog is a dozen years old, there are always issues). As part of the package, they’re setting me up with a new theme and look, led by the Canadian expat himself, Alec—who always seems to self-cultivate just the right amount of hubris regarding stylistic elements. I’m very anxious to see what his keen eye has in store for me. I’ve unequivocally extended Carte Blanche to his strong disposition in this matter. Never micro-manage. Find competent people and let them loose.

…I’ve been meandering as well in the drafting of my Stupid Dog Brian post. Learning so much myself, using potatoes as my primary food.

…

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Filed Under: Food, Living

Low-Carb & Keto Diets Are Good At Managing Diabetes; But Is There a Cure?

March 6, 2016 62 Comments

Some more interesting findings recently, regarding a potential cure rather than the conventional management of diabetes (Type 2). It goes back a few years—at least, that’s when I first heard it—when someone noted that most patients who had undergone bariatric surgery for obesity experienced a sudden cure of T2DM.

But even earlier, back in 2008, I blogged about Dr. Gabriel Cousens putting a group of mostly obese and sick folks through 30 days of raw vegan eating, curing them.

Reading that post from seven and a half years ago makes me LOL at how easily I missed the boat and dismissed it because it wasn’t “paleo.” Nothing against effective management and some folks in both Paleo and Low-Carb do a damn good competent job at it.

…

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Filed Under: General, Health

The Potato Diet Day 10 Update: Weigh-In, Meals, Workouts, and Blood Glucose Measures

March 3, 2016 57 Comments

This post wasn’t expected (again). But I got some interesting feedback, so I’ll save my “Your Stupid Dog Brain” post for soon. Quick general recap of my process, thinking, methods so far:

  1. Can Eating Mashed Potatoes With Your Meals Cause You To Eat 30-40% Fewer Calories?
  2. Why Am I “Attacking” The Low-Carb and Paleo Diets?
  3. I’ve Dropped 13 Pounds In Four Days With No Hunger Or Cravings And I’m Going To Tell You Precisely How
  4. The Potato Diet Practicalities: Dropping Big Weight Fast With High Energy and Without Hunger

That last post is the one with the practical stuff, including an amazing low-calorie, low-fat & protein potato soup to up the palatability for those who can handle it and have solidly whipped and lashed their Stupid Dog [Brain]—or for between serious “hack” sessions, or just normal maintenance mode. Otherwise, No Soup For You!

That last post also contains a significant section on the 13-pound weight loss in the first four days, with an update for day seven—another 4 pounds for a total of 17 by last Sunday at the one-week point. Since then, every day except perhaps one (Sunday night; Oscars; Pizza…lots, about 2/3 of a large…zero heartburn; probably a first, since college days) has been a big caloric deficit of 1,000+ per day. The only other non-potato-oriented meal was Monday dinner (nothing but potatoes during the day):

Crispy Lemongrass Pork over Noodles & Bok Choy in a Sriracha Chicken Broth, Garnished with Scallions and Fresh Lime. 650 calories.

…

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Filed Under: General, Health

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About FreeTheAnimal

I'm Richard Nikoley. Free The Animal began in 2003 and as of 2020, has 5,000 posts and 120,000 comments from readers. I blog what I wish...from lifestyle to philosophy, politics, social antagonism, adventure travel, nomad living, location and time independent—"while you sleep"— income, and food. I intended to travel the world "homeless" but the Covid-19 panic-demic squashed that. I've become an American expat living in rural Thailand where I've built a home. I celebrate the audacity and hubris to live by your own exclusive authority and take your own chances. [Read more...]

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