The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.

–H.L. Mencken

My wife and I have an ongoing debate about how we will educate our now-4-year-old daughter going forward. She wants to send her to a private school while I want her to continue her Montessori education and, eventually, homeschool (or unschool/hackschool — whatever you want to call it). What follows is my reasoning. (The argument is actually more anti-public school than private school, but since many private schools have the same drawbacks, I’m going to lump them together. Sue me.)

A list of references and further resources follows the article.

1. The 19th Century industrial model of education that exists today has failed miserably. Its methodical conformity and standardization is only good for raising obedient slaves absent the ability to think independantly. John Taylor Gatto writes from experience:

   “School” is an essential support system for a vision of social engineering that condemns most people to be subordinate stones in a pyramid that narrows to a control point as it ascends. … This is training for permanent underclasses, people who are to be deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius. … I must conclude that one of the only alternatives on the horizon for most families is to teach their own children at home.

   JTG has another piece discussing how school trains children to be reflexively obedient employees and consumers. George Carlin seems to agree (explicit language):

2. Public schools kill creativity. Here’s a rather humorous TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson addressing this issue. He has another talk that discusses why the education paradigm needs to change and how divergent thinking is “taught” out of children.
   

3. Government propaganda is not a necessary part of any curriculum. Textbooks teach what the Powers That Be allow them to teach. Nothing more. Ron Paul says:

   When government usurps a parent’s right to control their child’s education, it is inevitable that the child will be taught the values of government officials, rather than of the parents. The result is an education system with a built-in bias toward statism. Over time, government-controlled education can erode the people’s knowledge of, and appreciation for, the benefits of a free society.

4. Our educational system does not prepare students for the real world. Charles Hugh Smith, whose work I really admire, recently wrote a piece about the erosion of practical life skills:

   “In my view, our education system is self-serving, i.e. the goal of institutional education is to qualify the student to enter the next level of institutional education, rather than prepare students to create value and solve problems in the real world…”

5. Compulsory school sends the wrong message. The use of coercion to force kids to go to school teaches them that coercion is acceptable, that the state has a just monopoly on coercion, and that the state is the ultimate arbiter of what one can or can’t do.

If you read nothing else, at the very least read John Taylor Gatto’s biting criticism of school and what he was really teaching over his 30 years as a public school teacher (the last of which afforded him Teacher of the Year honors).

References & resources:
John Taylor Gatto: The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher
John Taylor Gatto: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, and Why
George Carlin: The American Dream (video; ~3 minutes)
Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? (video; ~20 minutes)
Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Educational Paradigms (video; ~12 minutes)
Paul Rosenberg: The Hidden Side of History
Ron Paul: The Homeschooling Revolution
Charles Hugh Smith: Are We Losing Practical Life-Skills?
John Taylor Gatto: The Underground History of American Education (free book). And some reviews.
H.L. Mencken quote

(Photo by: Leland Francisco with CC license)

We just celebrated Halloween recently by taking the toddler to an annual trick-or-treat event at a local mall. There were a few costumes that proved to be quite frightening for our 2-year old. Upon noticing them, she immediately asked for “appu-appu” which, in toddler-speak translates to, “If you would be so kind, please pick me up and carry me so I may feel safe and secure.”

So what scares you?

I know of a single word that can illicit fear in many: Cholesterol.

Somehow we have been conditioned to fear it, to hate it, to demonize it. It’s as if there were a multi-million dollar PR campaign trying to stamp it out (which isn’t far from the truth).

The fable goes something like this: Eat a lot of cholesterol and your blood cholesterol levels increase. Elevated blood cholesterol leads to heart disease, heart attack, and a severe case of the “appu-appus.”

So let’s take a quick look at this supposedly monstrous substance.

Cholester-All Good

Fact #1: Cholesterol is necessary for all animal life, including humans. It is a necessary component to synthesize hormones, maintain cell membranes, and other things that keep us from croaking. Our liver is the primary producer of the cholesterol our body requires to survive.

Fact #2: Dietary cholesterol has essentially no impact on blood cholesterol levels. None. So egg yolks should no longer give you the heebie-jeebies. But this fact is moot when you consider…

Fact #3: There is no correlation between blood cholesterol levels and heart disease! In fact, total mortality increases as cholesterol levels fall!

Big Pharma & Statins: The Real Monsters

So if cholesterol is essential to life and is not a factor in heart disease, why are doctors prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs (commonly known as statins) in record numbers?

It’s no surprise that the pharmaceutical-health care complex in the US is in the twilight zone. It isn’t concerned with disease-prevention because there’s no money in it for them. But pushing expensive drugs through disease-management? Cha-ching!

Pharmaceutical companies (and their co-conspirators, including the government and mainstream media) continue to disseminate misinformation to keep the average person misinformed and on prescription pills.

This Businessweek article says:

What the shrewd marketing people at Pfizer [makers of the leading statin drug on the market, Lipitor] and the other companies did was spin it to make everyone with high cholesterol think they really need to reduce it,” says Dr. Bryan A. Liang, director of the Institute of Health Law Studies at the California Western School of Law and co-director of the San Diego Center for Patient Safety. “It was pseudo-science, never telling you the bottom-line truth, [which is] that the drugs don’t help unless you have pre-existing cardiovascular disease. [Emphasis added]

Make no mistake, statins are the darlings of Big Pharma. They are the most profitable, bestselling class of drug of all time. Which wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that the business model of Big Pharma depends largely on a sick and unhealthy population which they themselves help define. (See this article and scroll down to “Healthy Today – Sick Tomorrow” for the con game of constantly lowering the threshold of what is considered “safe” levels of cholesterol with the intent on getting more healthy people on their drugs.)

Did I mention statins don’t really work?

More from Businessweek about the overstated benefits of statins:

[The data shows] no benefit in people over the age of 65, no matter how much their cholesterol declines, and no benefit in women of any age.” […] Most important, the statin trials of people without existing heart disease showed no reduction in deaths or serious health events, despite the small drop in heart attacks. “We should tell patients that the reduced cardiovascular risk will be replaced by other serious illnesses,” says Dr. John Abramson, clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and author of Overdosed America.

Um, wow? Paging Dr. Eades…

But this decrease in deaths from heart disease is compensated for by an increase in deaths from cancer and other causes, so there really isn’t a gain. You’re still dead. […] Are you going to spend $200 per month for the rest of your life and stay on medications that may make you feel lousy and lose your memory just so you can die of something other than heart disease?

Go on, doc….

The only improvement in all-cause mortality has been in men under 65 who have been diagnosed with heart disease, and even that benefit is so small that many people question if the extra cost and side effects of the statins are worth it.

Would You Like A Side Of Diabetes With That?

Statin side effects resemble a witches brew of awful conditions: fatigue, muscle pain, and sexual dysfunction… mixed with liver dysfunction, kidney failure, and cataracts… and a dash of memory loss for good measure.

Oh, and heaping spoonful of diabetes:

In the Jan 9, 2012 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine in the Online First section an article appeared showing that women studied as part of the Women’s Health Initiative who were on statin drugs during the study developed diabetes at greater rates than those who were not on these drugs. According to the statistical analysis of the authors, being on a statin increased the relative risk of developing diabetes by 48 percent! […] These were observational studies and, as such, can’t be used to determine causality. But they are interesting nonetheless because according to one of the authors there have been other clinical trials showing the same thing.

So statins can cost you your sanity, your health and your life.

What about other costs? More from Businessweek:

And the widespread use of statins comes at the cost of billions of dollars a year, not just for the drugs but also for doctors’ visits, cholesterol screening, and other tests. Since health-care dollars are finite, “resources are not going to interventions that might be of benefit,” says Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb, associate professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine.

Natural Alternatives To Statins

Instead of relying on the health care industry or government to take care of you, be proactive and take control of your own health. In terms of costs, benefits, and side effects, simple lifestyle changes and cheap supplements will outdo statins any day.

I’m a big believer in using food as medicine. Transitioning to a Paleo diet would be the best place to start. We’ve already discussed how systemic inflammation is the likely culprit behind many diseases, including heart disease, and how dietary changes can drastically mitigate such inflammation.

Beyond switching to a Paleo diet, also potentially helpful in maintaining heart health are:

• Eating fish twice a week or taking daily fish oil supplements may also help to lower the risk of heart disease by reducing inflammation. Several studies suggest this may decrease the risk of heart attack even more than statins.

• Getting adequate sleep will help prevent the stress hormone cortisol from becoming chronically elevated. This can reduce the risk of heart disease as well as a host of other nasty conditions. Aim for at least 8 hours a night.

• Dietary supplements like CoQ10 and vitamin C may be more effective than statins. And here are more studies showing the effectiveness of vitamin C in reducing heart disease risk (scroll down to Disease Prevention).

• Exercise. It doesn’t have to be long or strenuous to be effective. As far as the output-to-benefit ratio, walking is the best exercise in the world. Thirty minutes a day would be a great start.

So there you have it. Cholesterol is not the bogeyman that Big Pharma shall have you believe. But if you’re looking for a scare, the mere thought of statins should send chills up your spine.

I researched and wrote this article out of concern for some loved ones that are on statins. Do you know someone taking cholesterol-lowering drugs? Show them you care by passing this article along to them.

(Photo by: Steven Depolo)

My public school education programmed me to be a good citizen and vote. I’ve been subjected to public service announcements informing me that my vote counts. And every election season, politicians on both sides of the political spectrum encourage me to cast my ballot through their get-out-the-vote drives.

So I did. I’ve voted for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. “My guy” won sometimes, lost sometimes. And guess what? Things never got any better no matter who was elected.

But that’s not why I decided to stop voting.*

Beyond the fact that, in our certified fascist political system, big business will get their way regardless of who’s in office. They lawfully bribe both candidates with campaign contributions and are all but guaranteed a nice return on that investment. The candidates are simply the facade. The real culprits of the swindle are unelected.

Beyond the fact that voter fraud is practically encouraged and occurs even in primaries.

Beyond the fact that your choice is between two sides of the same coin. Voting explicitly supports the corrupt two-headed, one-party system based on gang tactics.

Beyond the fact that voting for the lesser of two evils still represents a willful vote for evil.

Those are all great reasons not to vote. But the primary reason I refuse to vote is simply because it would encourage them. It would give them legitimacy.

The power of the state is only upheld by the majority who believe in it or accept it. The more people withdraw consent (by not voting), the weaker the regime becomes.

Thomas DiLorenzo gave a tiny history lesson about our Democracy and how voting plays into it:

Democratic regimes also base their legitimacy on their ability to claim that their rule is “the will of the people.” They believe in democracy with all their will, they tell us, so much so that generations of American politicians have believed that it was legitimate to wage war on other nations and to kill thousands of their citizens to impose “democracy” on them.

In fact, democracy is the greatest hoodwink ever pulled off by the ruling class. In medieval times, the king lived in his castle high up on the hill. So everyone knew where their taxes were going and where to direct their ire.

But in a democracy, the king has become decentralized making it all the harder to determine who the real opponent is. People now believe their taxes are going to benefit themselves — “the people” — while failing to recognize that “the king” has simply become “the state”.

DiLorenzo continues:

But America was not founded as a democracy. It was a constitutional republic. The whole purpose of the Constitution, James Madison wrote in Federalist #10, was to control “the violence of faction,” by which he meant democracy. That’s why, until the Lincolnian “Civil War Amendments” were added to it, every part of the Constitution was a prohibition of some kind of governmental power or activity. Democracy was made into a “civil religion” by Lincoln and subsequent generations of Lincolnites who have successfully overthrown the constitutional republic of the founding fathers.

These constitutional prohibitions or limitations are all but ignored today, of course. The Constitution does not provide for the central government to get involved in education, let alone sending a man — and untold millions or billions of dollars — to Mars. There are no longer any constitutional limitations on the central government.

One need not look far to determine that our civil liberties and personal freedoms guaranteed by the constitution have been substantially diminished by the state. Or that the state itself has grown ever larger and increasingly meddlesome in our daily lives.

DiLorenzo sums it up nicely:

That’s why it is unpatriotic to vote. Being patriotic in America means being devoted to the Constitution, if not the natural rights philosophy that motivated much of it. Since neither of the major political parties has any interest whatsoever in enforcing the constitutional limitations on the state, they are all traitors to the Constitution (with one lone exception, Congressman Ron Paul).

Anyone who supports them is also behaving in a traitorous manner. That is, anyone who votes for any of them. Voting only allows these traitors to the Constitution to proclaim that “the people have spoken” and “I am your president,” or congressman, senator, governor, or whatever. Their legitimacy rests solely on their ability to make this claim.

(*DiLorenzo’s exception is my own. I decided not to vote unless Ron Paul appears on the ballot.)

I’ll finish with some humor from the ever wise, always vulgar, George Carlin…

Agree or disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments!

(Photo by: Tony Fischer Photography)

In the last episode about Paleolithic Nutrition, I mentioned Wifey and I were in the midst of a 50-day Paleo Challenge sponsored by our CrossFit gym. What follows is my experience with the Challenge including my expectations, results, and tips for those looking to do a Paleo Chellenge of their own.

What Is a Paleo Challenge?

It’s an undertaking, typically by a group of people, with the goal of eating a strict diet of Paleo-approved foods over a predefined period of time. For many, a Paleo Challenge represents their first foray into Paleo eating.

It takes about four weeks of clean eating to allow a damaged intestine to fully recover from the irritation imposed on it by Neolithic foods. So the typical Challenge is 30 days, though I’ve heard of some lasting as long as 90 days.

Many a Paleo Challenge have elaborate rules, including a point rating system based on foods eaten and workouts accomplished. When it’s all over, there is usually a highly coveted prize awarded to the first place finisher.

In our case however, the rules were merely to keep track of and report daily food intake, while trying to adhere closely to the “no grains/legumes/dairy” mantra. Our trophy? Prestige and pride. And a t-shirt.

Goals of a Paleo Challenge:

• vastly improve health and energy
• restore gut integrity
• cure sugar and grain addictions
• develop cooking skills
• motivate diet adherence through group participation
• incentivise diet adherence through competition
• demonstrate that the diet works (improves health) via progress pictures and bio-marker tracking

Expectations & Experience

Going into the Challenge, I expected a few results…

• ditch the sugar addiction
• increase energy
• reduce canker sores
• cure body acne

Before and after the Challenge, we weighed ourselves, took full-body pictures and recorded measurements of arms, legs, waist, and hips.

As for the experience, it was easier than I thought it was going to be. This was likely due to our transition into a Paleo lifestyle that began months ago. If prior to the Challenge I was eating a ton of grains and processed food, it would’ve been a lot tougher.

Sticking with it was not difficult; we just took it one day at a time. It might have helped that her dangling carrot for a cheat-free Challenge was a Keurig. Mine was a real haircut at a real barber. (I’ve been cutting my own hair for the last seven years. At the conclusion of the Challenge, my hair was the longest and ugliest it’s been in 18+ years.)

My only semi-cheat was an occasional bite of 85% dark chocolate. And by ‘bite’ I mean an average of 25 grams. And by ‘occasional’ I mean an average of once/day. (Oddly enough, chocolate has been my weakness ever since my wife was pregnant. I know, weird right?) By the way, dark chocolate is generally Paleo-friendly.

Lessons Learned

Cooking is time consuming but worth it. I like knowing exactly what is going into my body. Gaining experience in the kitchen is priceless. TIP: Leftovers are huge time savers. Preparing at least two meals every time you cook will save a ton of time spent in the kitchen.

I wish I had taken blood tests. Comparing before and after biomarkers for disease and inflammation can be done through simple blood work. I suspect mine would’ve improved but now I’ll never know. TIP: The blood tests that Robb Wolf recommends are:

• total cholesterol
• HDL
• LDL
• LDL particle size
• triglycerides
• fasting glucose
• A1c
• C-reactive protein

Eating Paleo can be hard on a social life — if you allow it to be. Not once during the 50 days did I go out with my friends. Partly because I felt I would’ve fallen off the wagon with beer or some other tantalizing indulgence. TIP: Maintain social ties risk-free by inviting friends over to indulge in your Paleo home cooking.

Paleo Challenge Results

Addressing each of my expected results separately…

Energy. This was the biggest change we noticed by far — dramatically increased energy. What’s more, my daughter started waking up earlier in the morning which meant I was getting even less sleep than usual. Yet I still felt more rested and energized throughout the day.

Weight. Although I was trying to gain muscle weight, I ended up losing 1.5 pounds. (I started the Chellenge at a fairly lean 157.9 pounds on my 5’10” frame.) My trapezius and upper abdominals seemed to be the biggest beneficiaries of the weight/fat loss. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to discern a difference between the before-and-after pics (they look exactly the same). There was no change in any other body measurement.

Sugar/grain addiction. I no longer crave any grains. At all. Not even the formerly beloved white rice. But the sugar cravings? Ohhh the sugar cravings! They never left. I blame this on the copious fruit we ate throughout the Challenge. (I’ve since learned that a better approach is to go easy on fruit for at least the first 2 weeks, if not the entire Challenge.) The upside is that my sugar cravings are now directed at fruit instead of junk food.

Acne & canker sores. Acne was slightly reduced but not as much as anticipated (again, I blame this on the excessive fructose in my diet from excess fruit). Canker sores were reduced in both frequency and severity.

As for the winners of the challenge…

I ended up splitting first place with my friend. Which makes me the proud owner of this awesome Paleo t-shirt and (unstyled) haircut:

Have you tried a Paleo Challenge? If not, would you? Lemme know in the comments.

Consider that every single one of the trillions of cells in your body were built using the foods you ate, and it’s easy to see that diet is perhaps the biggest lifestyle factor that affects health.

Paleolithic nutrition is slowly starting to gain some traction thanks to organizations like CrossFit. Also known as the Paleolithic diet, caveman diet, stone age diet, or simply “eating clean”, it can be summed up as the optimal human diet for lasting health.

It’s an evolving framework of nutrition principals shaped by emerging research. It is a customizable eating plan that can be modified to fit individual needs and goals (e.g. weight loss, mass gain, athletic performance, health restoration, etc.). No calorie counting necessary.

The Paleo diet endorses eating foods we’ve evolved to eat while avoiding foods which don’t work with our genetics. This allows for effortless maintenance of health, weight, and energy while providing a higher micro-nutrient density than any other diet/nutritional plan.

But perhaps most importantly, it may allow you to avoid death! (Well sorta. More on this in a bit…)

Zealots Advocates of the diet, myself included, tend to view it as a way-of-life — a lifelong nutritional plan — and not a diet in the traditional sense of being temporary or faddish. (For simplicity, I’m going to continue to refer to it as a “diet” when I really mean “lifelong nutritional plan”. Capisce?!)

Many of the tenets of the diet are directly opposed to conventional wisdom and political correctness. If you subscribe to standard food industry dogma, prepare to have your mind blown…

Evolution: The Basic Premise of Paleo Nutrition

To understand the science behind this diet, we need to take a look back in time — like 2,510,000 years. That would put us roughly at the start of the Paleolithic “hunter-gatherer” period of evolution. During this era, humans nourished themselves via… *ahem*… hunting and gathering. This necessitated a genetic adaptation to digesting animal proteins, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. And oddly enough, these are the same foods recommended by modern Paleo diets.

The Paleolithic era ended about 10,000 years ago with the advent of the Neolithic period. With the Neolithic came agriculture, farming and the popularization of grains. Known as the Agricultural Revolution, this dramatic shift in human nutrition underlies the problem: 10,000 years has not been enough time for natural selection to allow humans to genetically adapt to these Neolithic foods — most notably: grains, legumes, dairy. (To put the evolution rate into perspective, only 0.02% of our genes have changed over the last 40,000 years.)

As one of the foremost authorities on evolutionary nutrition, Dr. Loren Cordain says:

The most powerful and pervasive idea in all of biology is evolution through natural selection. It has only been in the last decade that this organizing template has been applied to nutrition and health. Great strides are now being made in understanding how clinically demonstrated principles underlying proper nutrition can be traced to our genome. Our genome was conditioned and shaped by environmental selective pressures that occurred long before the Agricultural Revolution.

To be clear, supporters of the Paleo diet are not suggesting that people eat like Paleolithic era man. An impossibility, considering that our soil, atmosphere, food, and water supplies have been tainted for centuries by human intervention (through the liberal use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, industrial waste, synthetic hormones, drug residues, and other toxic pollutants).

Our Stone Age ancestors had vastly superior food quality because they did not have to deal with any of that shate modern toxins. Nor were they subjected to eating genetically modified plants or selectively-bred animals fed unnatural diets.

By eating Paleo, we are approximating the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors using the foods available to us today.

Avoiding Death

Okay, maybe you can’t avoid death altogether by eating Paleo. (**Spoiler Alert**… you’re gonna die no matter what you eat.) But you’re much more likely to avoid death due to Diseases of Civilization.

These are chronic illnesses that are commonplace today but are not evident in hunter-gatherer populations. The fundamental dietary changes that came with the Agricultural Revolution have been implicated in the rise of these diseases.

These include the biggest health problems in the U.S.: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. But also include stroke, arthritis, depression, osteoporosis, schizophrenia, infertility, metabolic syndrome, gout, myopia, acne, IBS and all autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, lupus, celiac, etc.).

The underlying cause of these diseases stem from destructive adaptations by the human body to Neolithic foods (again: grains, legumes, dairy, industrial seed/vegetable oils, and sugar). These maladaptations include:

• Systemic/Chronic Inflammation. Current research points to systemic inflammation as the likely culprit behind many Diseases of Civilization, including the leading cause of death in the US: heart disease. In fact, statin drugs which are prescribed for cardiovascular disease, work precisely because of their anti-inflammatory effects.
• Insulin Resistance. Here’s how it goes… Neolithic foods raise insulin levels and keep them elevated. Chronically raised insulin leads to insulin resistance which leads to metabolic syndrome, obesity, etc.
• Intestinal Permeability. Also known as leaky gut, it can lead directly to autoimmune disease and food allergies.

Not One-Size-Fits-All

Everyone has individual needs, food sensitivities, and health issues that need to be considered. So there really isn’t a single definition of what constitutes a Paleo diet. There are some basic principals common amongst most Paleo researchers (such as avoiding gluten grains entirely) and there are gray areas for certain foods (such as dairy).

The preferred approach to start the diet is with an initial 30 days of strict Paleo eating. This acclimation period restores gut health and allows the body to kick the sugar/grain addiction. After that, one may reintroduce ‘gray area’ foods into their diet and see if they cause any issues.

For instance, many people will have no problems with reintroducing white rice. Others may find that they’re sensitive to Paleo-approved foods like tomatoes and eggplant.

What To Eat On The Paleo Diet

I generally embrace Robb Wolf’s approach to the Paleo diet so that’s how these guidelines are slanted. (If you’re interested in others, here’s an overview of 5 slightly different Paleo approaches.)

Eat whole, unprocessed foods while avoiding Neolithic foods.

• Eat lots of animals: Seafood, poultry, eggs, pork (bacon too!), beef and other ruminant and game meats. Why? High quality source of protein; full range of essential amino acids; full of healthy fats.
• Eat lots of healthy fats. Animal fats, coconut oil, avocado, fish oils, olive oil, nuts & nut oils. Why? Anti-inflammatory; great source of fuel; promotes satiety. Fat — even saturated fat — is good for you. Yes, really.
• Eat lots of veggies and fruit. Why? Tons of micro-nutrients; high nutrient density.
• Avoid grains: wheat, barley, oats, corn, rice, etc. Whole grains or not, they’re both equally toxic. Why? See the truth about grains for details.
• Avoid industrial oils: corn oil, canola oil, margarine, soybean oil, vegetable shortening, cottonseed oil, sunflower, and safflower oils. Those containing trans fats and partially hydrogenated fats are the worst. Why? Heavily inflammatory.
• Avoid legumes: beans, soy, peanuts, etc. Why? Similar downsides to grains: anti-nutrients, gut irritants.
• Avoid added sugar: sodas, fruit juices, candy, etc.; artificial sweeteners and stevia are no better. Why? Spikes insulin, irritates the gut, reinforces addictions to simple carbs.
• Avoid dairy: milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. Why? Pro-inflammatory, gut irritant, spikes insulin.
• Avoid excessive salt. Why? Excessive salt leads to acid-base imbalances & leeched calcium from bones. Stroke risk, hypertension and even insomnia may improve on a low-salt diet.

So Glazed Wheat Donuts Fried In Corn Oil, Topped With Peanut Butter And Whipped Cream Are Out?

Um, let me think… Yes, that’s out. So are the majority of breads, pastas, cereals, noodles, beans, sweets, and most processed foods (which are typically full of grains, sugar and excessive salt).

Yep, I understand the these things are convenient and delicious. But those indulgent moments of fleeting gluttonous bliss are likely killing you.

At this point you may be thinking this link between food and disease is an elaborate theory. Or a nonsense diet that will eventually blow over. Like the twinkie diet. Or the amputation diet.

But the science is there and the body of evidence is growing.

This post really only scratches the surface of Paleo Nutrition. If disease-avoidance interests you at all, I encourage you to do your own research and educate yourself. For the nitty-gritty details on the how’s and why’s, check out the best resource on the topic.

But there is no better teacher than experience. Try it for a strict 30 days and see if you don’t look, feel, and perform better, with increased energy and less hunger pangs. (I’m actually in the middle of doing a strict 50-day Paleo experiment and will post the results, including the challenges I’ve encountered and some implementation tips.)

If you consider your body as your temple, put down that plate of Neolithic food and take this spear.

Let’s go hunting and gathering.

Do you eat Paleo? If yes, have you noticed any changes in your body, mood, or energy levels? If you haven’t tried a Paleo diet, would you? Share your thoughts in the comments!

(Photo by: Ozzybeef)

I’ve been duped. We all have.

For me, it started innocently in a college food science course in 1995. At the time we still had the first iteration of the food pyramid guide recommended by the USDA. We were essentially taught that this food pyramid was the pinnacle of nutrition; where breads and cereal grains were supposed to constitute nearly half of your caloric intake. The term “healthy whole grains” was barely starting to catch on.

Fast forward to 2011 when, for the first time since that college course, I started researching nutrition and came across Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

Imagine the oh-no-they-di’int look on my face when I found out my food science course was anything but science (actually more like bad science). That fats, especially saturated fat, was innocent all along, wrongly accused of causing heart disease. And that the refined carbs, including the breads and cereal grains that the USDA continues to recommend with impunity, are the more likely culprit. Taubes goes on to implicate refined carbs as the most likely cause of modern diseases including heart disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer.

(As an aside, Good Calories, Bad Calories is not an easy read. It’s not a book you curl up with on a rainy day. No, this is a book that you keep on your porcelain bookshelf precisely for the days when you’re hunkering down for a tussle with a high-friction stool. For a more accessible book covering mostly the same ground, check out his sequel, Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It. Though I haven’t read it, I understand it was written with a more general audience in mind.)

Grains Can Bite Me

Then I came across a free chapter from The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. It discusses the evil of grains and why you would be a lot healthier by eliminating all grains from your diet.

The reasons are three-fold:

1. Grains have chemical defense systems, including lectins, that irritate and can ultimately “bite” holes in the intestinal lining. A damaged gut lining not only makes it impossible to absorb nutrients in food, it puts us at exceptionally high risk for many autoimmune diseases and disorders including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, depression, infertility, and some cancers.

2. Grains contain antinutrients such as phytates which bind powerfully to metal ions like calcium, zinc, iron calcium and copper. When phytates attach to these minerals in our body, they are unavailable for absorption. Osteoporosis is one of many health problems that can result.

3. Grains are addictive which makes it all the more difficult to kick the habit. Wolf writes:

   Grains, particularly the gluten-containing grains, contain molecules that fit into the opiate receptors in our brain. You know, the same receptors that work with heroin, morphine, and Vicodin?

Gluten-ey, A Cardinal Sin

Then there’s the gluten problem. Many grains (including wheat, rye, barley, spelt, millet & kamut) contain gluten which is known to illicit systemic inflammation throughout the body. Chronic inflammation opens the door for a number of diseases that can affect all organs. Dr. Mark Hyman wrote a great overview of the dangers of gluten. He says:

A review paper in The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 “diseases” that can be caused by eating gluten. These include osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and almost all other autoimmune diseases. Gluten is also linked to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, migraines, epilepsy, and neuropathy (nerve damage). It has also been linked to autism.

Later, he adds:

American strains of wheat have a much higher gluten content (which is needed to make light, fluffy Wonder Bread and giant bagels) than those traditionally found in Europe. This super-gluten was recently introduced into our agricultural food supply and now has “infected” nearly all wheat strains in America.

A Conspiracy, C-O-N…spiracy

So given this information on grains, why would the current USDA Dietary Guidelines For Americans continue to recommend whole grains?

For starters, the agriculture and health care industries have their big profits at stake. You can bet they put a lot of money into lobbying the government and its agencies to keep promoting grains. As we blindly comply by eating processed (typically grain-filled) foods, and as disease starts to set in, the pharmaceutical industry is right there to peddle their drugs to us.

If any of this is new to you, it likely sounds very conspiracy-theory-ish. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Dr. Kurt Harris sums it up nicely:

Our cultural veneration of grains literally amounts to making a virtue of necessity, as 55% of world calories consumed is from grains. A paradigm shift is possible, though, if you are willing to read some more and adopt a radical skepticism of current government, mainstream media and industry supported nutritional dogma. I was initially as skeptical as you might be, and only came to my conclusions through investigation.

Going Against The Grain

So what’s the alternative to grains? Simply eat whole foods. Real foods like fruits, vegetables, and animal proteins don’t contain any grains or gluten. Shop on the outskirts of your grocery store where all the real food is. The grain-based Frankenfood is typically in the middle of the store in boxes, bags and cans. Better yet, shop at your local farmers market where you can often find cheaper, higher quality foods.

And ween yourself off of the cereal. Being a former lifelong cereal junky, there were many days I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My personal record was 47 boxes of cereal in my pantry at one time! If I was able to kick the habit, anyone can.

If you must indulge yourself in an occasional grain fix, make it white rice. Of all grain and grain-like products, white rice is one of the most benign since the bran is removed. The anti-nutritive factors like phytates and lectins are concentrated in the bran. And rice is naturally gluten-free.

But perhaps going completely grain-free is too big of a leap for you right now. At the very least, eliminate gluten from your diet, if only to test for sensitivity as Dr. Hyman suggests. You can find a list of gluten-free foods here and here. But always check food labels for gluten-containing ingredients.

You know the old adage… Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Think twice the next time you hear the term “healthy whole grains”.

(Photo by: Peter Castleton)

Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I started working out at a local CrossFit training center. So far it has been quite an experience. My body aches in places that I didn’t know could ache. Not having worked out with such intensity since high school football, the day after every workout feels as if I had been hit by a truck towing a bus full of Biggest Loser contestants.

I actually don’t mind the post-training muscle soreness. When I used to complain about muscle aches as a child, my dad’s sympathetic response was always, “Good. Come strong.” And that kinda stuck with me. One of the CrossFit coaches Zen-ly stated that muscle soreness simply indicates that we’re reawakening dormant muscles.

For the uninitiated, CrossFit is a high intensity exercise program that provides personal training in a group setting. CF bills itself as “elite fitness” where the focus is on broad, functional movement and optimal physical performance. CrossFit makes a distinction between being “healthy” and being “fit”, with the goal to put members squarely in the latter category. It welcomes people of all ages and fitness levels, males and females alike.

Every CrossFit session is designed to be completed in an hour or less. It starts off with some stretching, a warm-up and some mobility work. This is usually followed by strength and/or aerobic exercises with instruction on proper form for the exercises in question. The class always ends with a timed met-con (metabolic conditioning drill) which emphasizes a fast pace and high intensity.

Here is my take on CrossFit, based on my limited experience and a bit of research…

Benefits of CrossFit Training

Always fresh. What I like most about training CrossFit is it’s never boring. It’s nothing like my former 24-Hour Fitness workouts where I always started with 15 minutes on the “dreadmill” followed by a series of isolation exercises targeting one or two muscles.

With CF, on the other hand, we’re doing something radically different every day. One day we might be doing alternating 400-meter runs and 21 deadlifts. And the next day, muscle-ups, double-unders, and handstand-pushups. Then there’s the anticipation and excitement factor: you don’t know what you’re going to do until you arrive at the “box”. Variety + anticipation + challenge = fun.

You’re never on your own. If you ever have any questions about form, proper technique, or ways to scale the exercise to your fitness level, you have a coach there to answer them. It’s like having a personal trainer there to eliminate confusion and keep you on track.

Built-in motivation to maintain training intensity. CrossFit provides some powerful psychological tools to help motivate competitive people. First, the WOD (workout of the day) always includes a timed circuit where either you do a preset number of reps in as little time as possible, or AMRAP (as many reps as possible) in a preset time-frame.

Then there’s the WOD Board where your personal results are recorded and posted publicly for all to see. Being as competitive as I am, you can bet that I strive to at least beat the 60+ year-old members!

Built-in motivation to maintain the program. The lack of motivation to continue an exercise regimen is one of the biggest reasons why people quit. In fact, over 60% of people who start a regular exercise program drop out within 6 months. CrossFit helps to overcome that with a group exercise approach.

It’s psychologically comforting to see like-minded people going through the exact same rigors as you. But perhaps even more importantly, everyone is friendly and helpful — encouraging me to push my limits and power through the workout. It makes me want to return just to be around such awesome people.

Don’t underestimate the power of these simple motivational techniques.

Develops mental toughness. After just a few weeks of intense training, completing workouts that you never thought you were capable of, you, too, would start to feel like you can accomplish anything.

Nutrition education. I like that CrossFit advocates a Paleo diet and actively educates members of the benefits of such a nutrition plan. In fact, I found CrossFit through my research of the Paleo lifestyle, of which I’m a big fan. (More about the Paleo diet in a future post.)

CrossFit Criticisms

Pricey. It can be quite a bit more expensive than a traditional gym membership. At the worlds largest fitness center chain, 24-Hour Fitness, membership currently costs between $20-$90 per month depending on location and membership level. Whereas membership at a CrossFit gym may start at $100 per month.

Easy to get injured. Proper form and technique throughout each exercise is critical for reducing the chance of injury. Beginning CF’ers that lack a background in lifting technique are naturally more likely to get hurt. But even experienced CF’ers can easily put themselves out of commission. This article makes a good point:

A coach should not attempt to correct poor technique under conditions of high fatigue and load as this only promotes injury. […] As fatigue builds [during the course of high-intensity exercise], technique will suffer, so at what point do we draw the line in the sand and acknowledge that the risks outweigh the benefits? Asking individuals to know their own limits seldom works in a competitive environment.

The same article also implies that a CrossFit Level 2 Trainer certification should be the minimum training required of a CrossFit coach — one who typically oversees the Olympic lifts so common in the sport. The author states:

The reality is that many of these trainers do not possess the appropriate levels of knowledge commensurate with the complexity of many of the exercises performed.

If you ever decide to pursue CF, make sure you find a good coach, preferably one with a Level 2 Trainer certificate. And by all means, attend the CrossFit Elements classes which are designed to teach novice CrossFitters proper form for every exercise.

Easy to overtrain/burnout. One reason is the workouts are inherently competitive. But also because the sport tends to attract competitive athletes. Add intense workouts to the mix and you can find yourself in burnout city. Even the official CrossFit beginners guide states:

Countless people have after three spectacular CrossFit workouts stated a preference for a fiery death over coming back for a fourth workout. They went too hard — too intense.

CrossFit rookies need to be aware of the overtraining risk and perhaps even resist their coach’s recommendation to increase load/intensity.

No periodization. CF is all about going full-tilt 100% of the time. Athletics guru Greg Everett wrote a fantastic article that touched on why this model is flawed:

There is a very real limit to how much the human body can handle simultaneously, and attempting to perform at 100% across the board at all times is a guaranteed recipe for stagnation if not utter disaster.

To me, periodization is more of an advanced technique for squeezing out the last few drops of athletic potential. Just something to be aware of when you attain that level.

Weird lingo. This is more a barrier to entry than a criticism of CrossFit. Having to learn the language is part of the intimidation of starting such a program. (The upside is that you get to throw around quasi-sexual terms like “snatch”, “wall-balls”, and “clean-and-jerk”. Follow those up with a string of ominous repeating numbers like “3-3-3-3-3-3” and you have yourself a “WOD”.)

The Bottom Line

My three main fitness-related goals are to increase energy, strength, and flexibility. I feel CrossFit training will allow me to attain every one of them. All things considered, the benefits of CF far outweigh the drawbacks for me as I’m a sucker for competition. Motivation is not my strong suit so the motivational benefits are also huge draws.

Personal health investments pay some of the best dividends. If you’re exercise-deficient, and if CrossFit sounds intriguing, check out your nearest training center without risk — your first session is typically free. And if CF doesn’t sound like your thing, I encourage you to get active doing something you enjoy.

Do you CrossFit or have friends that do? What are you’re impressions?

References:
– http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/273/5/402.full.pdf+html
(Photo by Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson)

When I was a young tyke of 9 years, I went to see a movie with my family. Against my mother’s advice, I took along with me my brown paper sack full of my prized possessions including a few marbles, a plastic whistle, a metal whistle, some napkins and straws (if I ever found myself in the crossfire of a spitball fight), and $12 cash. I tucked the bag safely under my seat before gorging on my Junior Mints.

Afterward, on the ride home I realized the inevitable — I literally lost my marbles! I panicked and pleaded to go back. But since we were already close to home, Mom said something along the lines of, “Nope, I told you not to bring it. You’re a cotton-headed ninnymuggins.”

Still, she felt sorry for me. She called the theater to ask if they found my fat sack. No luck. I was devastated. All the money I worked so hard for by putting baby teeth under my pillow — all down the drain.

This experience taught me a few things. That money is fleeting; that it needs to be kept safe; and to not put all my spitball ammo in one basket. Since that time, my philosophy on money has evolved.

What I’ve Learned About Money

Money is necessary. Whether we have sufficient amounts of it or not enough, it has a dramatic impact on our lives. Every race, social class and income level is affected by money. It’s the number one reason why people seek employment. It’s the number one reason for divorce. It would therefore behoove us to gain a deep understanding of it.

Money is a metaphor for the way we feel about our life. We tend to spend recklessly when we feel inferior and save more when we feel powerful.

Money is more than what it can buy. Money is safety and security. Having a good amount of savings allows one the peace of mind to live life without worrying about financial catastrophe.

Spending money we don’t have often leads to financial ruin. It is generally a bad idea to obtain luxuries on credit. This is because most people don’t understand the true cost of debt (aka “modern slavery”).

Money is not evil. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having it or wanting it. (Those that insist that money is the root of all evil have never had the honor of changing my daughter’s dirty daipers.) No, money is not inherently evil. It simply reveals and magnifies the good and evil within us. Which leads to…

Money is power. Those with wealth have the power to either enrich or destroy lives. (Think philanthropy vs drug lords.) And power necessitates responsibility. So using the Transitive Property I learned in high school geometry, greater wealth demands greater responsibility.

Money is preserved only when we feel deserving of it. Money can enter our lives in many different ways. But unless we feel worthy of it, it won’t stick around for long.

Money can buy happiness. It’s true, but only up to a certain point. Naturally, improvements in quality of life are correlated with improvements in mood & happiness. But money can only take you so far. After core survival needs and basic comforts are met, additional money doesn’t buy as much happiness. And in fact, there comes a point where an increase in spending can lead to decreased quality of life.

We’ll be exploring all of these topics more deeply in future posts.

Take-Aways

Basic knowledge of money is necessary to building wealth. But an even deeper understanding of money — as a metaphor for the way we live, as a microscope into the human psyche, and as a powerful tool — can lead to dramatic improvements in our everyday lives. From improved relationships to achieveing life goals, money comprehension leads to greater prosperity.

What lessons have you learned about money? Share them in the comments.

(Photo by Jeremy Yerse)

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