Meatasaur

Real Mozzarella

2010-03-26T23:14:20-07:00

I love mozzarella cheese, but the ubiquitous part-skim stuff just doesn't jive with my high-fat ways, and whole milk mozzarella is usually pricey as hell and only found in natural food stores. I was at Safeway, today, though, and found some Lucerne whole milk mozzarella at a pretty reasonable price. It's heaven in cheese form; I can barely stand to eat the regular stuff anymore.

Passing thought: what's up with lactose intolerance and cheese avoidance? Lactose is a sugar, and there's less than a gram of it in most cheeses. I can't tolerate milk, but cheese, butter, and other naturally lactose-free dairy has never given me a problem. I suspect that intolerance reactions to cheese are mostly placebo, or allergies to other dairy components (casein, maybe).

Paleo Hunks

2010-03-19T10:00:00-07:00

Eating Paleo is a recipe for a sexy bod for life. Most vegetarians either get emaciated or fat as they age, but eating your fat and keeping away from the sugar keeps you young. Keep in mind, none of these guys take hour runs every day, none of them count their calories, none of them ever buy low-fat anything. A couple short, intense workouts a week, good eating, and low stress is all it takes for bodies like these.

Keith Norris, Theory to Practice. Over 40, I think.

Mark Sisson of The Primal Blueprint. 55 years old.

Michael G. Harris of PaleoNu. 47 years old.

Mmm...hope I look like that at 50.

Modern Paleo Principles

2010-03-18T17:47:43-07:00

Modern Paleo is a new site by Diana Hsieh. It's not anything groundbreaking—none of these paleo sites really are—but it's a well-written, solid approach to the philosophy:

A "paleo" approach to health uses the evolutionary history of homo sapiens, plus the best of modern science, as a broad framework for guiding daily choices about diet, fitness, medicine, and supplementation. The core of paleo is the diet: it eschews grains, sugars, and modern vegetable oils in favor of high-quality meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables.

My favorite part of the site is her "Paleo Principles" page, in which she has 23 principles of the paleo lifestyle, referenced to articles on various sites supporting each one. If you ever get into a conversation with someone about the reasoning behind Paleo, this would be a great place to send them. The list is in a rough order of importance, starting with commonly-held principles like sugar avoidance, and getting into less common lifestyle ideas at the bottom. Here are the first twelve (go to the site to see the references for each):

Eat real foods, prepared well. Prepare your own food as much as you can. Beware the junk ubiquitous in convenience and restaurant foods.
- Cooking Real Food: 15 Tips For Beginners by Ann Marie of Cheeseslave
- The New Diet and What I Eat by Diana Hsieh of Modern Paleo
- Real Foods Take On Fake Foods and Real Foods Vs. Fake Foods by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- Posts on Recipes on Mark's Daily Apple
- Posts on Real Food on Whole Health Source
- Posts on Recipes by Robb Wolf
- Posts on Real Food and Posts on Food Porn on Free the Animal
- Posts on Recipes and Posts on Eating Out on Modern Paleo
Don't eat wheat, corn, rice, or other grains. If you choose to eat some grains, eat them sparingly and prepare them to minimize toxins, such as by sprouting and soaking. Wheat seems to be the worst of all the grains, while rice seems to be the most benign. Whole grains are not better than refined grains.
- The Definitive Guide to Grains and Why Grains are Unhealthy by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- The Argument Against Cereal Grains, Part 1 and Part 2 by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- Avoid Poison or Neutralize It? by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- Posts on Grains on Free the Animal
- Posts on Wheat on the Heart Scan Blog
- So What's The Real Scoop On Whole Grains? by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- Fiber... Overhyped? by Mike O'Donnell of Fitness Spotlight
- How to Eat Grains by Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source
- Be Kind to Your Grains...And Your Grains Will Be Kind To You by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
- Posts on Gluten and Posts on Lectins on Whole Health Source
- Posts on Grains on Modern Paleo
Don't eat sweets: avoid sugar, corn syrup, agave nectar, honey, maple syrup, and artificial sweeteners. If you must have some sweetener for a dish, you might try a bit of stevia. With time, your tastes will adjust: ordinary sweets will taste cloying, but formerly bland vegetables will seem delightfully sweet.
- What Sweetener Should You Choose?, Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Weight Gain, Real Sugar Vs. Artificial Sweeteners, and Why High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Worse Than Sugar... And Why It's Not by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- Sugar Feeds Cancer and More on Sugar and Cancer by Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal
- What About Diet Soda? by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- Carbohydrates Are Addictive by Dr. Michael Eades of Protein Power
Don't eat modern oils derived from grains and seeds -- such as canola oil, corn oil, or soy oil. Make your own mayonnaise and salad dressing. Don't eat fried foods in restaurants: rancid vegetable oils are standard for frying. Avoid all hydrogenated fats; they contain damaging artificial transfats. Instead, use liberal amounts of animal fats -- like butter, ghee, lard, and tallow -- as well as unrefined coconut oil and olive oil. (Reserve your bacon grease: it's delicious rendered lard!) Do not fear saturated fat: it's healthy, including for your heart.
- Know Your Fats from the Weston A. Price Foundation
- The Definitive Guide to Fats and The Definitive Guide to Oils by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Fats and Oils by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- The Tropical Oils by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- Lardy, Lardy When Will They Learn? by Dr. Mary Dan Eades of Protein Power
- All Diets Are High-Fat Diets and Losing Weight is Pretty Much Like Eating Lard by Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal
- Posts on Fats on Mark's Daily Apple
- Posts on Fats on Whole Health Source
- Posts on Low-Fat Ignorance by Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal
- Butter, Margarine and Heart Disease by Stephan Geyenet of Whole Health Source
- The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- The Importance of Saturated Fats for Biological Functions by Mary Enig, Ph.D
- The Definitive Guide to Cholesterol by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Posts on the Cholesterol Con on Free the Animal
- Fats and Fatty Acids on The Paleo Diet
- Posts on Fats on Modern Paleo
Don't eat soy. Some fermented soy might be okay, if tolerated. However, all soy is goitrogenic and contains estrogen-mimicking hormones.
- Spilling The Beans: The Trouble with Soy by Lorette C. Luzajic
- Soy Alert from the Weston A. Price Foundation
- Scrutinizing Soy by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Ditch the Soy by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
Don't eat beans and other legumes. If you choose to eat some legumes, eat them sparingly and prepare them to minimize toxins, such as by soaking them.
- Beans and Legumes by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Lentils by Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source
Watch your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, as well as your total omega-6 intake. Most people eat far too much omega-6, both absolutely and relatively. Today, the average ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in Western diets is 17:1, but the ideal ratio looks to be between 2:1 and 1:4. To achieve that you'll need to limit omega-6 intake by eliminating modern vegetable oils and eating high-omega-6 nuts sparingly. You'll likely need to supplement with high omega-3 fish oil too.
- A Practical Approach to Omega Fats by Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source
- Posts on Omega-3 Fatty Acids on the Heart Scan Blog
- More on Omega by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids Content of Fish and Seafood on The Paleo Diet
Eat plenty of high-quality meat, preferably from pastured animals. Grass-fed meats have a better ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fats than grain-fed meats. Avoid meats treated with antibiotics and hormones, if feasible: the animals are likely treated better, and they taste better. Enjoy plenty of red meat. Try uncured bacon and other breakfast meats. They might not be any healthier, but they taste so much better!
- Why Your Doctor May be Wrong about Meat by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- Are We Meat Eaters or Vegetarians? Part I and Part II by Dr. Michael Eades of Protein Power
- The Problems with Conventionally Raised Beef by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Meat and Mortality and Another Reason to Eat Grass-Fed Beef by Dr. Michael Eades of Protein Power
Eat eggs, preferably from pastured chickens. Eggs enriched with omega-3s are a good option too. Prefer nutrient-dense egg yolks to nutrient-poor egg whites.
- Smart Fuel: Eggs by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Omega-3 Eggs and Pastured Eggs by Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source
- The Truth About Free Range, Organic, Cage Free Eggs Nutrition by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
Eat fish and shellfish periodically, preferably caught wild rather than farm-raised.
- Salmon: Factory Farm vs. Wild and Better Fish Choices by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
For workouts, ditch the standard "cardio" sessions. Try short, high-intensity workouts instead: you should be able to kick your own ass in ten minutes or less. Try weight training, sprinting, and barefoot running. For more structured programs, try CrossFit or Body by Science. Also, move around a lot. Ladies, don't be afraid to weightlift: you will not turn into Ahnold overnight.
- A Case Against Cardio, Chronic Cardio, and More Chronic Cardio by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- "Cardio" Causes Heart Disease by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- The Definitive Guide to Low Level Aerobic Activity by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- CrossFit: Three.. Two.. One.. GO! by Greg Perkins of Modern Paleo
- CrossFit
- Body by Science
- Primal Strength Training for Women by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Posts on Fitness and Posts on Lifting Heavy Things on Mark's Daily Apple
- Posts on Body Conditioning and Posts on Cardio on Free the Animal
- The Tabata Method by Dan John
- You Walk Wrong And Your Shoes Are To Blame by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- Learning to Walk by Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal
- Cure All Running Injuries ... by Mike O'Donnell of Fitness Spotlight
- Posts on Primal Feet by Don Matesz of Primal Wisdom
- Posts on Fitness on Modern Paleo
Eat vegetables, but don't think of them as the holy of holies. They are particularly good when slathered in good fats. Beware the goitrogenic effects of some vegetables, particularly when eaten raw.
- Spring Vegetables, Summer Vegetables, Fall Vegetables, and Winter Vegetables by Worker Bee of Mark's Daily Apple
- Plants and Plant Compounds Are Not Essential or Magic by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- Paleo Problems: Large Amounts of Vegetables by Don Matesz of Primal Wisdom
- 10 "Vegetables" You Shouldn't Be Eating by Worker Bee of Mark's Daily Apple
- Are Raw Vegetables Healthier Than Cooked Vegetables? by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
Eat fruit sparingly. Fruits are often high in sugars, particularly fructose: tropical fruits are the worst; berries are the best. Fructose is particularly hard on the liver.
- Fruit Sugar Table on The Paleo Diet
- Best Fruit Choices and On the Problems of Cultivated Fruit by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- Paleo Problems: Too Much Fruit by Don Matesz of Primal Wisdom
- Diabetes from Fruit by Dr. William Davis of Heart Scan Blog
- Fructose vs. Glucose Showdown by Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source
If tolerated well, eat some high-fat dairy, preferably raw and/or fermented. Avoid low-fat dairy like the plague. You might need to limit dairy if you're trying to lose weight. It can be helpful for building mass, however.
- A Campaign for Real Milk by the Weston A. Price Foundation
- How to Evaluate a Raw Milk Dairy on eHow
- Milk, Does It Do A Body Good? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 by Scott Kustes of Fitness Spotlight
- The Definitive Guide to Dairy and Is All Cheese Created Equal? by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple
- A Taste of Dairy by Dr. Kurt Harris of PaNu
- Posts on Dairy on Modern Paleo
Eat nuts, if you like, but beware the omega-6 load in some nuts. Grouped and ranked from least to most omega-6 content, we find: (good) macadamias; (okay) cashews, hazelnuts, almonds, and pistachios; (worse) pecans, brazil nuts, and pinenuts; and (terrible) walnuts. Nuts may require soaking and drying to eliminate toxins. Remember that peanuts are legumes, not nuts. Avoid rancid nuts. You might need to limit nuts if you're trying to lose weight.

There are a few other solid principles lists out there: Mark Sisson's Definitive Guide to the Primal Blueprint is a friendly, accessible list (my favorite characterization: "the best paleo site for your vegetarian girlfriend"), but Dr. Harris' Getting Started with PaNu is probably my favorite. Harris is an MD, and has a lucid, no-bullshit style that separates the practical, evidence-driven parts of paleo from the more nature-worshiping hippie stuff.

Milestones

2010-03-18T15:20:17-07:00

I'm in a weight training class, and just pushed through some new milestones:

Bench press: 155, 2x5

Squat: 225, 3x5

Deadlift: 200, 1x5

Pull-ups: 18

Not bad, considering I weigh 130. I'd like to finish this semester doing 20 pull-ups, benching 165, and squatting double my weight. If I keep this up, I think it's doable.

I've been using the Starting Strength program, which is the simplest, most effective workout I've found. You do big, compound lifts (Press, Squat, Deadlift), 3 sets of 5 reps, a couple times a week. Besides that, you stay out of the gym, eat enough, and sleep.

Post-Workout Nutrition

2010-03-03T20:05:28-08:00

Way back in high school, I can remember worrying about what I ate after a workout. "Gotta get enough protein!" I'd think, looking for energy bars with 15 or 20 grams, or putting turkey or cheese slices in a sandwich. People told me you needed creatine, amino acids, and vitamins to really recover and profit from exercise.

These days, I eat the same thing after a workout that I do at most other times: a pound or so of beef. I checked it out on NutritionData, and guess what? One pound of chuck roast has:

* 87g protein

* All essential amino acids

* 5g creatine

* Every essential vitamin and mineral except for vitamins C & D

The perfect exercise food, no? I guess you could argue that it takes a little more work than a Clif bar, but you can turn it into pemmican for nutrition on the go, or use Sous Vide to have it ready to eat any hour of the day.

The real reason no one talks up post-workout meat (or cheese, or eggs) is the difficulty of selling it in overpriced packages to suckers at the gym. If it says it's good for you, be wary. Real food doesn't have nutrition labels.

meatpaper

2010-03-03T19:59:51-08:00

At once divisive and universal, delicious and disturbing, funny and dead-serious, meat polarizes us unlike any other food.

Us, we’re ambidextrous here at Meatpaper — no agenda except to gnaw on the ideas, artistic excursions and bone-deep emotions the subject inspires. We invite you to dig in with us.

via www.meatpaper.com

I think I need to subscribe to this right now. Amazing!

Interesting Video: Ornish vs Taubes

2010-02-22T08:55:54-08:00

I've been arguing with my dad recently about the healthiest diet for your heart, and he pointed me to Dean Ornish, the doctor who has reversed numerous cases of heart disease with a combination of low-fat vegetarianism, exercise, yoga, and meditation.

The evidence that low-carb diets reduce risk factors for heart disease is pretty incontrovertible, but what do we make of the comparable success of Ornish's extreme low-fat diet?

I've got a few theories about why the Ornish plan works:

Reduces refined sugar and flour, two of the largest culprits in elevated blood sugar and the host of metabolic diseases that follow.
High vegetable intake leads to calorie restriction, which has positive metabolic (and possibly life-extending) effects.
Focus on yoga, meditation, and other stress relief techniques reduces cortisol and promotes general well-being.

Below: a panel discussion about the controversy surrounding obesity, diet and nutrition in America with guest host Dr. Mehmet Oz, Director of the Columbia University Heart Institute. Guests include: Barbara Howard of the American Heart Association, journalist Gary Taubes and Dr. Dean Ornish. The panel also discusses alternative diets that may ultimately address this crisis. I think Taubes actually outclassed here; he's a better writer than debater.

Cholesterol Results Are In!

2010-02-15T13:48:49-08:00

Total: 242 (reference range 125-200)

HDL: 87 (reference range >40)

Triglycerides: 42 (reference range <130)

LDL: 147 or 108, depending on formula (reference range <130)

The people at the health center were pretty funny. The nurse told me that I looked way too strong and healthy for what I eat, and that she was surprised I wasn't suffering from any vitamin deficiencies. They were shocked at how good my HDL and Triglyceride figures were, and told me the high total and LDL figures were probably due to genetics. Given that my diet seems to give me great HDL and Trigs, and there's no evidence changing it would improve my LDL, I'm pretty happy.

A simple take on my feelings about cholesterol:

Primers on Cholesterol:

The Definitive Guide to Cholesterol

The Statinator Paradox

What Do You Think You Know About LDL?

Harm Reduction for Carb-Eaters: Intermittent Fasting

2010-02-07T13:42:00-08:00

From Michael Eades' blog:

There is a way to reduce blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood pressure, increase HDL levels, get rid of diabetes, live a lot longer, and still be able to lose a little weight. All without giving up the foods you love. And without having to eat those foods in tiny amounts. Sounds like a late-night infomercial gimmick, but it isn’t.
Before I get to the real nitty gritty of how such a thing can be done, let’s look at a method that has been proven in countless research institutions to bring about all the above-mentioned good things. It’s called caloric restriction.
When researchers restrict the caloric intake of a group of lab animals to about 30 to 40 percent of that of their ad libitum (all they want to eat) fed counterparts, they find that the calorically restricted animals live 30 percent or so longer, don’t develop cancers, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity. These calorically restricted (CR) animals have low blood sugar levels, low insulin levels, good insulin sensitivity, low blood pressure and are, in general, much healthier than the ad lib fed animals.
Most of the work in caloric restriction has been done on rodents, but there is a long term study on Rhesus monkeys (17 years at this point) that appears to confirm the rodent data on longevity and health with CR in primates. There are no human longevity studies, but there are a number of human studies on CR and health that show that human subjects under CR conditions reduce blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood pressure, etc., so it stands to reason that if humans reduced their caloric intake by 30-40 percent for their entire lives, they would also live longer.
Caloric restriction is a terrific way to lose weight and get healthy; problem is, it’s not much fun. When rats live out their little ratty lives calorically restricted in their cages they seem to show signs of depression and irritability. Primates do for sure. If primates don’t get enough cholesterol, they can actually become violent. But, if you’re willing to put up with a little irritability, hostility and depression, it might be worth cutting your calories by 30 percent for the rest of your long, healthy miserable life.
Doesn’t sound so cheery? You’re not ready to sign up yet?
Well, there is a better way.
A number of different research teams have studied a method by which rodents can get all the health and longevity benefits of caloric restriction without calorically restricting. And the method has been studied in humans and seems to achieve the same health benefits and, if an old Spanish study can be believed, maybe even an increase in lifespan.
What is this magic method?
Intermittent fasting.
In regular fasting one goes entirely without food, which is caloric restriction carried to the extreme. Going entirely without food in the short term leads to improvement in health, but also leads to an extremely short life unless the fast is aborted.
Intermittent fasting (IF) is just as its name implies: a period of fasting alternated with a period of eating.
But isn’t that what we do anyway? We eat breakfast, then fast until lunch. Then, after lunch, we fast until supper. Then we fast all night. Uh, not exactly.
In research settings animals that are intermittently fasted are fed every other day, so they eat whatever they want for a day, then they are denied food for a day. Interestingly, on feeding days most of the animals eat a almost double the amount that their ad lib fed mates do. Thus the IF animals eat about the same number of calories overall that the ad lib fed animals eat, but, and this is a huge ‘but,’ the IF animals enjoy all the health advantages that the CR animals do, and, in fact, are even healthier than the CR animals.
Like caloric restriction, intermittent fasting reduces oxidative stress, makes the animals more resistant to acute stress in general, reduces blood pressure, reduces blood sugar, improves insulin sensitivity, reduces the incidence of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and improves cognitive ability. But IF does even more. Animals that are intermittently fasted greatly increase the amount of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) relative to CR animals. CR animals don’t produce much more BDNF than do ad libitum fed animals.

The article goes on to talk about the particulars of their IF strategy, and some studies that have been done on the practice. Mark Sisson also has a pretty good post on the subject.

I practice IF, but not intentionally. Fasting and hunger kind of create a feedback loop: as you get less hungry, you eat less often, which decreases your insulin levels, which keeps you from getting hungry, and so on. I occasionally eat breakfast, but most of the time I eat once after classes (either at noon or around 3, depending on the day), then again sometime between six and bedtime. Some days that means 14-15 hours without food, some days more like 10-12, but it's definitely in light IF territory.

The Japanese do this, though they don't call it intermittent fasting. My host dad would always tell me, "Eat all you want at meals, but don't eat outside of meals. Bedtime snacks make you fat." Since dinner was at 7 or 8, this means that everyone fasted for about 12 hours a night. This may explain why the Japanese are in such good shape, considering the high carbohydrate content of their diets.

Carbs and Cancer

2010-01-29T08:48:25-08:00

A new study explores whether we should classify cancer as a metabolic disease. This is big- given the incredibly strong connection between carbs and other metabolic diseases, low-carb diets may offer hope for preventing or slowing the growth of cancer.

Abstract: Emerging evidence indicates that impaired cellular energy metabolism is the defining characteristic of nearly all cancers regardless of cellular or tissue origin. In contrast to normal cells, which derive most of their usable energy from oxidative phosphorylation, most cancer cells become heavily dependent on substrate level phosphorylation to meet energy demands. Evidence is reviewed supporting a general hypothesis that genomic instability and essentially all hallmarks of cancer, including aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect), can be linked to impaired mitochondrial function and energy metabolism. A view of cancer as primarily a metabolic disease will impact approaches to cancer management and prevention.

Article available for download from Nutrition and Metabolism