Robb Wolf The Food

Transcription

Robb Wolf The Food

niv
e!
yr Issu
1-ersary
An
Carbohydrate Conundrums
& Fat Fallacies
with Nora Gedgaudas
Digestive Issues
Overcoming through diet
Pearly Whites
Diet and healthy teeth
Community Supported
Agriculture
The Food
Nut Free Maple Granola
Recipes kids will love
Almond Macaroons
Shrimp Ceviche
Egg Custard
Beef Brisket
Beet Kvass
Support your local farmer
Apr/May 2012
Robb Wolf
Q&A with the
Paleo movement’s Big Daddy
paleomagonline.com $5.99
Header Info
Header Info
Contents
56
30
MOVEMENT
62 Moving Naturally
23
LEARN
23 The Benefits of Joining a CSA
By Clifton Harski
By Diana Rodgers
This issue’s combo explores what it really means
Joining a local CSA gives you more benefits than
to move naturally.
saving money or getting awesome produce.
NUTRITION
30 Digestive Illness & Paleo
28 Give Beets a Chance
By Lisa Herndon
The health benefits of Beet Kvass and a “no-miss”
recipe to make it at home.
By Adam Farrah
Adam reveals how eating a Paleo diet helped him
overcome Ulcerative Colitis.
59 Paleo and Dental Health
By David Csonka
What role does food play in our dental health and
how can a Paleo diet help keep teeth healthy.
40 Carbohydrate Conundrums & Fat Fallacies
By Nora Gedgaudas, CNS, CNT
Dick’s Kitchen
Nora gives her take on the role of carbohydrates,
Business Spotlight (pg 20)
and fats, in a Paleo-oriented diet.
With a constantly evolving
ON THE COVER
• Springtime on the farm.
Photo: © Fritz Langmann | Dreamstime.com
menu, and a never-ending
search for better ingredients,
Dick’s Kitchen is at the
forefront of restaurants
working to provide
healthy alternatives to
the home cooked meal.
4 Paleo Magazine Apr/May 2012
contents
62
40
THE FOOD
34 Kids Meals The Healthy Gluten Free Life Cookbook
COLUMNS
18 The Exuberant Animal
Got picky eaters at home? We’re giving you four great
tasting meal ideas kids will love!
34 Paleo Kids
52 Beet Kvass Lisa Herndon from LisasCounterCulture.com
Don’t be scared of fermentation and ensure success, right
from the start, with this tasty recipe!
53 Shrimp Ceviche Sarah Fragoso from EverydayPaleo.com
37 Paleo RD
47 From the Doc
Incredibly fast and easy, a tasty dish that can be made
ahead of time.
48 Paleo Body
54 Beef Brisket with Roasted Veggies Primal-Palate.com
A fantastic holiday dinner option, allowing you to make the
entree and side dish at the same time.
55 Nut Free Maple Granola The Paleo Magazine Kitchen
Super fast, super easy and perfect for anyone with a nut
allergy who wants to enjoy granola.
65 Average Joe Paleo
IN EVERY ISSUE
9
Editor’s Note
10 Short Plate
56 Egg Custard Primal-Palate.com
Egg custards with bacon, mushrooms and chives. A fun
way to spice up a family brunch!
57 Passover Almond Macaroons Primal-Palate.com
A perfect “not-so-sweet” treat for the end of any meal.
15 Research Roundup
17 Reviews
20 Business Spotlight
26 In Season
Paleo Magazine Apr/May 2012 5
The Healthy GF Life, LLC
dba, Paleo Magazine
Publisher
Contributing Writers
Executive Editor
Find more info on our contributors at
Cain Credicott
www.paleomagonline.com/contributors.html
Creative Director/Photographer
Tammy Credicott
Clifton Harski
MovNat
Graphic Designer
Jason Kremer, DC, CCSP, CSCS
Advertising
Amy Kubal, RD
Cain Credicott
Ask the Doc
Q&A with the Paleo RD
Sales@paleomagonline.com
Tyler Miles
Research Proofreader
Average Joe Paleo
Amy Kubal, RD
Contributing Photographers
Paul Cary Goldberg
Bill Staley
Liz Wolfe
Paleo Body
Frank Forencich
Exuberant Animal
Paleo Magazine
PO Box 2066
Bend, OR 97709
(541) 350-6088
www.paleomagonline.com
Follow us
@paleomagonline
Like us
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Paleo magazine is published bi-monthly by The Healthy GF Life, LLC dba
Paleo Magazine and may not be reproduced without express written permission,
all rights reserved. No liability is assumed by Paleo Magazine or The Healthy
GF Life, LLC regarding any content in this publication. It is vital that before
implementing any diet or exercise routines, you first consult with a qualified
health care provider.
Paleo Magazine and The Healthy GF Life, LLC are not responsible for
advertiser claims. We reserve the right to refuse advertising without
explanation.
Contributors
David Csonka is a blogger and
natural health enthusiast living in
Denver, Colorado. His blog,
NaturallyEngineered.com, covers
topics ranging from evolutionary
diets to barefoot running and natural
movement. His interests include
exercising outdoors, hiking and
exploring.
Adam Farrah is a popular blogger
Nora Gedgaudas, CNS, CNT,
Lisa Herndon, the founder
of Lisa’s Counter Culture
(LisasCounterCulture.com), is
passionate about real food and
loves being able to share her
recipes and techniques for creating
nourishing and traditional food. She
is especially interested and skilled in
fermentation.
Diana Rodgers, NTP is the owner
Diane Sanfilippo runs the popular
(PracticalPaleolithic.com) and author
of “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing
Link.” He holds a BS in Chemistry
Cum Laude from the University of
Connecticut and multiple CrossFit &
IKFF Kettlebell certifications. Once
suffering from Ulcerative Colitis he’s
regained his health through Paleo.
of Radiance Nutritional Therapy
and lives with her husband and two
children at Green Meadows Farm,
a CSA north of Boston where they
raise organic vegetables, pasture
raised chickens, pigs and sheep.
She’s a crossfitter and author of “The
Cultivator” the farm’s CSA newsletter.
is the author of the ground breaking
book, Primal Body, Primal Mind. A
sought after speaker and lecturer,
she maintains a private practice in
Portland, OR. You can listen to her
Primal Body Primal Mind podcasts on
iTunes and find out more about Nora
at Primalbody-Primalmind.com.
site, BalancedBites.com and is a
Holistic Nutritionist specializing
in Paleo nutrition, blood sugar
regulation, food allergies/intolerances
and digestive health. She believes
that the only way to truly change
someone’s diet and lifestyle is to help
them to create new habits.
Reader Board
Mail’s Getting Through
“Yeah! The February/March issue
arrived today! Your new service is
working well!!!!”
Ruth L. (from Facebook)
more of a granola as they don’t
appear to be able to stick together.
This is where a proper food processor
would have made all the difference.
Tasty all the same!
Victoria W. (from Facebook)
Lovin’ This New Lifestyle
A Paleo Preacher
“My boyfriend and I are finishing up
our first month of hardcore Paleo and
we are stoked about the results. We
have more energy, more stamina, less
gas (!), and the weight loss is more
than we expected. I’m down 22 lbs,
he’s down 26. Still a long way to go,
but we love this lifestyle and I can’t
imagine going back to our old, SAD
diet.”
Kristi L. (from Facebook)
Great article [Paleo Is Here To Stay,
Paleo Mag Feb/Mar 2012], just today
I was doing my sales pitch on a
potential partner to my gym “Paleo
Boot Camp”. I told them Paleo is not
a fad diet, people who eat paleo most
likely never go back to wheat gluten,
If they cheat its with gluten free food
and the longer they do paleo the
cheating becomes less and less, due to
how crappy they feel, physically and
mentally. I am paleo preacher, I don’t
care how crazy people think I am
now, because as time goes by more
people become believers. In 2004
when I read “The Paleo Diet” and
“Dangerous Grains” and I told people
grains were bad, especially wheat, I
got some strange looks. Today its gets
easier and easier to get the message
across. Thanks to people like Robb
Wolf, Matt Lalonde, Dr. Cordaine
and now Paleo Magazine.
Rob R. (online)
Tanning Bed Fail
“@paleomagonline I was excited to
read the new issue, then thoroughly
dismayed by the article advocating
the use of tanning beds #fail”
@McGMar (Twitter)
Editor’s Note: The article, A Safe Tan?
Weighing the costs and benefits (PM
Feb/Mar 2012), and the quoted research
citations, were presented as an opposing
view to the bombardment of negative
publicity to UV exposure, both
from the sun and tanning beds.
As we noted in the accompanying
research summary, “We are not
advocating for or against tanning
bed use, and the choice is ultimately up
to you...”
Equipment Is Key
“So I made Macadamia Nut Bars
last night from a recipe from Paleo
magazine. (A few substitutions, of
course) The mix tastes great but it’s
Sound Off
Have a comment,
suggestion, praise or
criticism you want to share?
Contact us at
soundoff@paleomagonline.com
OR
Paleo Magazine
PO Box 2066
Bend, OR 97709
From the Editor
It’s Our Birthday!
It’s been one year since we decided to launch Paleo magazine, and
what a year it’s been, both for us and the Paleo community as a whole!
To accommodate the huge growth of the Paleo movement, we’ve
seen the first ever gathering of the Paleo community - leaders,
practitioners, educators and individuals wanting to learn more - with
the Ancestral Health Symposium last August at UCLA. (This year’s event will be held at Harvard) This massive
event is now being complimented by, what will hopefully become another annual event, PaleoFX, which was held in
Austin, TX in March.
There has also been an explosion of cookbooks and guidebooks dedicated to the Paleo lifestyle, all of which are
enjoying tremendous sales as more and more people hear about this amazing lifestyle; most of who try it and never
look back.
Paleo magazine continues to grow, expanding into digital versions and adding to our distribution with every issue.
With each issue, we slowly inch closer to my goal of having this magazine sitting next to all the other “health” and
“fitness” magazines in as many stores as possible, and staring people in the face as they wait in the checkout line at
their local supermarket.
As I look back on this year, I am excited about where Paleo magazine, and the Paleo movement, is heading and am
extremely proud to be a part of it. The support that this community shows is absolutely amazing and I am humbled by
the response we’ve received from everyone this past year.
Thank you for your support and for an amazing first year. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings!
Cain
Short Plate
Word on the Street
IBS affects between 25 and 45
million people in the US and roughly
9% to 23% of the population
worldwide.
If you’re one of them, try
homemade bone broth to aid
digestion.
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/why-broth-is-beautiful
“Demand references from absolutely everyone
who tries to influence your health.”
Jason Seib, (www.facebook.com/jaseib) on the importance of research
“We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”
Carlos Castaneda, author
One Tough Nut
“If a product is shouting its health claims, its
probably not that healthy.”
It takes 300lbs
per square
inch to break
the shell of a
macadamia nut!
Lori Zanteson, (lorizanteson.com) on the importance of reading food labels and
the truth about food and health claims (from Whole9Life.com guest post)
Grass Fed:
Better for
More than
Your Health
Modeling
work by ARS
researchers in
University Park,
PA found that
total emissions
for methane, nitrous oxide and carbon
dioxide were 8% lower in pastured
production systems than in CAFOs.
They also found that keeping dairy cows
outdoors year-round reduced ammonia
emissions by 30%.
“Self experimentation is the only way to truly know what
works for YOU!”
Big Tim, (bigtimsprimaljourney.com) talking about the importance of
knowing your own body, rather than relying on “experts”
“I think very few people actually have any idea
how important it [sleep] is; not only for fat
loss and muscle recovery, but for your nervous
system, hormones, brain and immune system.”
Tyler, (Evolutionaryhealthsystems.com), about the importance of sleeping in
complete darkness
Short Plate
Just Breathe...
Reducing stress is key in
maintaining your overall health.
While there are various ways to
alleviate stress - exercise, breathing,
meditation - aromatherapy can also
play a key role in helping you relax.
Next time you’re feeling stressed, give
these essential oils a try.
Lavender (Lavandula
angustifolia) has been shown
to calm, relieve tension
and depression and can be
effective for insomnia.
Palmarosa (Cymbopogon
martini) is used to calm and
help uplift and clear the
mind.
Bergamot (Citrus
aurantium var. bergamia)
may help relieve depression,
stress and tension.
Frankincense
(Boswellia carteri) has been
used to help calm anxiety
and is great to use when
meditating.
Short Plate
As
the popularity of farmers markets has
exploded, growing from 1,750 to over 7,100 in
the last 15 years or so, there has been an increase
in the criticism of local food. Critics claim the
prices at farmers markets make the food out of
reach for average people, seniors and the poor.
A study by SCALE, Inc (www.ruralscale.com),
published last fall, attempted to find out how
farmers markets compared to supermarkets in
regards to cost.
While there are limitations to the study
- specific geographic area, time of year, small
number of markets - the findings do show the
criticism of affordability may be misplaced.
According to study authors, overall, the farmers
markets studied were highly competitive with
mainstream supermarkets in the pricing of
produce, meats and eggs. They also found:
74%
communities studied where produce
was less expensive at the farmers markets
Average savings of that produce?
22%
88%
communities where organic produce
was less expensive at the farmers markets
Average savings of that organic produce?
16%
“When the lowest priced comparable item was
used for comparison, farmers markets were
less expensive than supermarkets in 74% of all
cases, by an average of 12%.”1
1 “Is Local Food Affordable for Ordinary Folks? A Comparison of
Farmers Markets and Supermarkets in Nineteen Communities in
the Southeast” Flaccavento, Anthony, SCALE, Inc. Nov. 1, 2011
Cows living in a natural environment are better for the, uhh...environment.
Last year, a team of scientists collected data from different grazing
systems and manure management and plugged it into a computer model
to see what the environmental effects of four different dairy farms would
be over 25 years. All four of the farms in the model used the same land
and were standardized to produce about the same amount of milk, once
adjusted for fat and protein.
Here’s how the four farming systems were set up.
Farm A
• Confinement farm with a herd of 85 large-framed Holsteins and 76
replacement heifers. Each cow produced 22,000 pounds of milk every year.
Farm B
• Confinement farm with a herd of 100 moderate-framed Holsteins
and 80 replacement heifers. Each cow produced 18,500 pounds of milk
every year.
Farm C
• A herd of 100 moderate-framed Holsteins and 80 replacement
heifers were allowed to graze for up to 7 months each year. Each cow
produced 18,500 pounds of milk every year.
Farm D
• A herd of 130 small-framed Holstein/Jersey crossbred cows and 95
replacement heifers were outside year-round, calved in spring and managed with rotational grazing during the summer. Each cow produced
about 13,000 pounds of milk every year.
Researchers found that the total emissions for methane, nitrous oxide
and carbon dioxide were 8% lower in the year round production system
than in the confinement system farms. The ammonia emissions were also
about 30% lower by keeping the cows outdoors year-round.
Carbon sequestration levels shot up from zero to as much as 3,400
pounds per acre every year when fields formerly used for feed crops were
converted to perennial grasslands for grazing. Sediment erosion fell 87%
to an average of 330 pounds per acre and runoff of phosphorus dropped
from 57 pounds to 44 pounds per acre when cows were allowed to forage.
“Putting Dairy Cows Out to Pasture: An Environmental Plus” May/June 2011 issue of
Agricultural Research magazine. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/2011/may11/cows0511.htm
Know Your Food
Short Plate
New Hampshire Red
New Hampshire Reds are a relatively new chicken breed. They were
originally bred by farmers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, from the
Rhode Island Red breed in 1915 and were admitted to the Standard in 1935.
They were bred for rapid growth, fast feathering and early maturity. Intended
as a dual-purpose bird, they produce more meat, but less eggs (about 120/year)
than the Rhode Islands.
While still relatively common, New Hampshire Reds are listed as “Watch”
with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (www.albc-usa.org). This
Photo Credit: blog.bigpig.net
means there are “fewer than 5,000 breeding birds in the US, with ten or fewer
primary breeding flocks, and an estimated global population less than 10,000.”
As their name implies, New Hampshire Reds are red/reddish-brown in color and at 7-8 pounds, are a decent sized bird. The
hens generally make good mothers and have a good instinct to “go broody”, where they stop laying new eggs and incubate their
eggs until they hatch. While the birds can be aggressive with other chickens, they tend to have good temperaments with people
and are usually easily handled. They prefer a free-range environment and are particularly hardy, with the ability to cope well in
most climates. They are not the best flyers, excellent runners and can be contained, if necessary, with a low fence.
New Hampshire Reds can be an excellent choice for the backyard “farm”. To find a breeder near you, visit www.albc-usa.org/
heritagechicken/producers.html.
If actually raising the birds yourself isn’t your thing, you can find a farmer in your area that produces this particular breed, or
other heritage birds, by visiting www.localharvest.org/features/pastured.jsp
Short Plate
“… the perfect crashcourse for regaining that
essential connection.”
—Foreword by Mark Sisson
author of The Primal Blueprint
Eating Paleo
Discover the health and weight loss
benefits of eating like our ancestors
Neely Quinn, ICNT, CLT, and Jason Glaspey
You can now add another book to your
Paleo library wish list!
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Eating
Paleo offers readers a guide not only to
the diet and science behind the diet,
but guidance on how to follow the plan,
tips and tricks for sticking to it and key
insight on enjoying the long-term health
benefits that are a result of this ancestral
way of nourishing our bodies. In
addition, The Complete Idiot’s Guide®
to Eating Paleo contains meal plans and
over 100 delicious recipes that are true to
the Paleo lifestyle.
The authors, Neely Quinn, ICNT, CLT and Jason Glaspey, are the founders of
PaleoPlan.com, a website that provides a weekly meal plan subscription service and an
ebook to help make Paleo as affordable and easy to do as possible. By providing you
with delicious recipes and a companion shopping list for the entire week, it’s easier
than ever to follow a Paleo diet!
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Eating Paleo will be released on April 3, 2012.
PORTLAND’S
STONE AGE DINER
We feature a selection of tasty Paleo-friendly meals.
From 100% grass-fed hamburgers, other game, wild salmon and
veggie burgers... to fresh veggies, salads, soups and home-made
desserts... offering many gluten-free and non-dairy options!
Palæo
The Paleo lifestyle continues
to spread, with more
restaurants beginning to offer
menu items that appeal to
those following a Paleo diet.
Some though, are ditching
the more “Neolithic” foods
altogether. Palæo, located
in Copenhagen, is one such
restaurant.
A “fast-food” restaurant,
offering 24-hour take out,
Palæo is the brain-child of
Thomas Rode Andersen,
an award winning chef who
started eating a Paleo diet
back in 2005.
The creative menu, available
online, is enough to make any
Paleo dieter start to drool.
Some of the items include
• Meatza (ground beef topped
with tomato compote, pickled
mushrooms and parsley pesto)
• Vegetable “spaghetti” with
duck heart meat sauce and
parsley pesto
• Hot Dog (egg based
wrapper with organic pork
sausage and mushroom
remoulade)
Check out their menu online
http://www.xn--palo-xoa.dk/
palaeo_menukort.pdf
Research Roundup
Fructose consumption
and Cardiometabolic risk
markers
This study looked at the association
between total fructose intake and
markers of cardiometabolic risk in
adolescents aged 14-18 years.
In addition to looking at physical
activity and fat-free/fat mass, researchers
measured BP, fasting glucose, insulin,
lipids, adiponectin and C-reactive
protein. They found that the kids that
consumed a lot of fructose, and had
excess fat around their midsections,
had higher blood pressure, fasting
glucose, insulin resistance and other
cardiovascular risk factors. These same
kids also had lower levels of HDL and
adiponectin (a protein hormone that
regulates the metabolism of lipids and
glucose).
While these increased risks were
apparent in kids with the biggest bellies
who ate a large amount of fructose, it
was not seen in those without the excess
belly fat.
Pollock, N., Bundy, V., Kanto, W., Davis, C.,
Bernard, P., Zhu, H., Gutin, B., Dong, Y. (2012).
Greater fructose consumption is associated with
cardiometabolic risk markers and visceral adiposity
in adolescents [Abstract]. The Journal of Nutrition,
142(2), 251-257. doi:10.3945/jn.111.150219
Intestinal microbiota and
myocardial infarction
This animal study suggests that
by looking at the types and amount
of bacteria in the gut, doctors could
potentially predict the likelihood of
someone having a heart attack and that
manipulating that microflora could help
reduce the risk of having a heart attack in
the first place.
For this study, researchers used
three groups of rats - the first was fed
a regular diet, the second was treated
orally with Vancomycin (an antibiotic)
in their drinking water and the third was
fed a commercially available probiotic
supplement, Goodbelly.
They found that, compared to the
rats fed the regular diet, those given
the antibiotic had a 38% decrease in
circulating leptin levels, which resulted
in less severe heart attacks (27% less) and
improved recovery (35%). The rats given
Goodbelly experienced a 41% decrease
in leptin levels, a 29% reduction in heart
attack severity and a 23% improvement
in recovery of mechanical function.
Lam, V., Su, J., Koprowski, S., Hsu, A., Tweddell,
J., Rafiee, P., Gross, G., Salzman, N., Baker, J.
(2012). Intestinal microbiota determine severity
of myocardial infarction in rats [Abstract]. The
FASEB Journal. doi:10.1096/fj.11-197921.
Estrogens in the daily diet
Most food contains a variety of
estrogen-like compounds and exposes
us to endocrine active compounds.
However, phytoestrogens, especially
from soy, are the major dietary source of
estrogenicity. Researchers utilized the
Yeast Estrogen Screen, , to determine the
total estrogenic activity of 18 different
food samples and five milk based infant
formulas.
While they found dietary estrogens
in all the samples, the soy-based
products contains “potent estrogenicity
of 100-1500ng estradiol equivalents
per kilogram,” with soy lecithin
demonstrating strong estrogenic activity.
The levels in soy-free products was much
lower at 10-40ng EEQ/kg and three of
the infant formulas contained significant
amounts at 14-22ng EEQ/kg.
Researchers concluded “that dietary
estrogens are omnipresent and not
limited to soy-based foods” and that
while our exposure may be lower than
previously thought, there are still many
different foods that need toxicological
evaluation to identify estrogen-like
compounds.
looked at 451 people between 30-74
years old with pancreatic cancer and
1552 healthy controls. They interviewed
all participants and had them complete
a detailed questionnaire, which among
other things, included dietary intake of
86 different food items five years before
diagnosis for those with cancer and five
years before the date of the interview for
the controls.
They found “no consistent
associations...with [the] consumption of
preserved animal foods, fresh red meat,
organ meat, and poultry.” There was also
a 40-50% reduction in risk between
those that ate the most fat and protein
and those that ate the least.
Ji, B.T., et al. (1995). Dietary factors and the risk of
pancreatic cancer: a case-control study in Shanghai
China. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &
Prevention, 4, 885-893. PMID 8634662
Continued next page
Behr, M, et al. (2011). Estrogens in the daily diet:
in vitro analysis indicates that estrogenic activity
is omnipresent in foodstuff and infant formula
[Abstract]. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 49(10),
2681-2688. PMID 21801783
Diet and risk of pancreatic
cancer
This study, originally published
back in 1995, looked at the effects of
diet on pancreatic cancer. Researchers
Research Roundup
Fiber, saturated fat and
cardiovascular disease
Researchers looked at data
from 8,139 male and 12,535 female
participants of the Swedish populationbased Malmo Diet and Cancer cohort to
look at the association between incident
ischemic cardiovascular disease (iCVD)
and specific macronutrients and fiber.
During an average follow-up of 13.5
years, they identified iCVD cases in
1,089 males and 687 females. Once the
study authors adjusted for age, diet, BMI,
smoking, education, alcohol habits and
other factors, they concluded • Coronary Events - “a low intake
of saturated fat in women was associated
with higher risk of CE.”
• Ischemic CVD - “fiber intake was
negatively and significantly associated
with iCVD in women (24% lower risk in
those with the highest intake compared
to the lowest).”
• There is a “potential 3-way
statistical interaction between gender,
saturated fat and dietary fiber [that] was
strongly statistically significant for both
CE and iCVD.”
• “This study shows that a high fiber
intake may lower the risk of CVD in
general, although the evidence is stronger
in women than in men.”
• “This study provides little support
for the independent effects of specific
macronutrients in the causation of
ischemic CVD. Saturated fat, long
suspected as a causal risk factor of
CVD, was generally not associated with
disease, although women with the lowest
intake had higher risk of CE than other
women, after adjustment for fiber.”
Wallstrom, P., et al. (2012). Dietary fiber and
saturated fat intake associations with cardiovascular
disease differ by sex in the Malmo Diet and Cancer
Cohort: A Prospective Study. PLoS ONE, 7(2):
e31637. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031637
To see more about these great products, visit the “Subscriber’s Only” section of
our website and use password “PaleoMagFan”
Reviews
READ
Well Fed
Ginger-Lime Grilled Shrimp. The Best Chicken You Will Ever
Eat. Mango-Shrimp Rolls. Avocado-Salmon Rolls. Meat and Spinach
Muffins. Cumin-Roasted Carrots. Fried Apples with Bacon and Pecans.
These are just a few of the 80+ recipes in the new cookbook, Well Fed
(Smudge Publishing) by Melissa Joulwan, founder of the blog, The Clothes
Make The Girl.
The great tasting recipes in the book include prep/cook times, easy
to follow directions and most include suggestions on how to pair the
different recipes as well as tasty variations. The book has great info on the
Paleo diet - what it is, what to eat, what not to eat, how to make your life
easier in the kitchen and how to “feel the difference between ‘cooking’ and
‘making dinner’”.
www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/wellfed
EAT
Steve’s Original
While the Steve’s Original products - Paleo Krunch, Paleo Kits, Just
Jerky, Chicken Jerky and Paleo Stix - taste absolutely amazing (Beef Jerky,
Coconut & Strawberries anyone??), with these guys it’s about so much
more than the food. Every time you purchase these amazing products,
you can feel good, knowing you are helping to support a great program.
100% of the profits from these products goes directly to Steve’s Club,
a 501(c)(3) national non-profit that provides a national network of
programs giving at-risk or underserved youth the ability to join in the
CrossFit Community at reduced or no cost.
www.StevesOriginal.com
EAT
Lava Lake Lamb
Lava Lake Ranch is located just southeast of Sun Valley in Idaho.
The beautiful, expansive ranch consists of about 900,000 acres of mixed
federal and private grazing land, extending from the deserts of the Snake
River Plain to the Boulder and Pioneer Mountains.
The lamb is certified organic and 100% grass-fed, sticking to a natural
diet of grass, herbs, forbes and legumes (like alfalfa). You can order
everything from ground to chops to shanks to whole lambs online.
We were fortunate enough to try several different cuts from Lava
Lake, and all were absolutely amazing. It is some of the best lamb we’ve
ever tried - one of our testers, who claimed to not like lamb, found herself
thoroughly enjoying a lamb chop for the first time in her life.
www.lavalakelamb.com
The Exuberant Animal
By: Frank Forencich
But Is It Paleo?
We’re hearing the question more and more these days, as
ancestral health enthusiasts discuss and compare the myriad
possibilities for healthy living in the modern world. Mostly we
talk about food and training; we rant about the dangers of grains
and sing praises to the virtues of barefoot running. But are we
getting down to the true core of the Paleo experience? Perhaps
not. After all, we can be sure that our primal ancestors weren’t
discussing the biochemistry of food or the merits of sets, reps and
mileage. In fact, they would find our current obsession with diet
and training to be mysterious, even incomprehensible.
Instead, our native ancestors would have been talking
primarily about their experience in habitat. They would have been
“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”
talking about plants, animals, weather, soil and sensation. They
John Muir
would have been talking about their experience of their bodies in
and on the land. They would have been telling stories of their hunting and gathering adventures. In fact, they would have sounded
less like biochemists and more like naturalists.
Much of today’s conversation about ancestral health is focused on athletic development; many of us take an evolutionary
approach to training so that we might excel at our various sports. But this is not Paleo. Sports are modern inventions; most are
abstractions that are divorced from habitat. In fact, our primal ancestors had no particular interest in becoming better athletes;
their primary desire was to become better hunters and gatherers.
Of course our ancestors valued robust physicality and health. Of course they desired physical strength, agility, power and
coordination. But these physical skills were always seen in context of the larger objective: integrating the body-mind-spirit into
habitat so as to stay alive. Learning the land came first and this, more than anything else, is a matter of attention, sensation and
awareness. In fact, intimate knowledge of the land will almost always trump raw physicality.
The hunter and the athlete are two completely different animals. The hunter needs good physical competence, but his or her
primary skill lies in relationship to habitat. Hunting success is more about sensation, observation, awareness and experience than it
is about powerful quads or even cardiovascular fitness. Strength, power, speed and endurance mean nothing unless they are applied
in context.
In many cases, we are now using our knowledge of Paleo diets and lifestyle to advance pursuits that are distinctly not Paleo.
For example, I could, if I desired, use Paleo knowledge to become a champion bodybuilder or a bike racer. Such a training program
would probably even “work” in the sense that my optimized diet would improve my metabolism and in turn, my performance. But
this ignores the fact that bodybuilding and bike racing are abstractions, specialized sports that have nothing to do with habitat. I
may become faster or win more competitions, but I will learn nothing about the natural world that ultimately sustains me.
Even running, as it is so often practiced in the modern world, is not Paleo. Most of our modern running practices are
completely independent of habitat; they are practiced as sport, as competition or as medicalized health promotion. The marathon
distance of 26.2 miles is derived from Greek mythology; not only is this number habitat-independent, it also has no relationship
to human ecological history. Similarly, the triathlon was cooked up by some blokes in a pub, not by experienced hunters or
evolutionary biologists. Arguably, a mindful and attentive walk in the park is more Paleo than the typical marathon or triathlon.
When we use Paleo knowledge to advance non-Paleo pursuits, we practice a sort of “Paleo-lite” or “faux-Paleo.” Our diets may
be perfect and our sets and reps right on the mark, but unless we’re engaging our experience, sensation and imagination in habitat,
we’re really missing the point. We’re missing a huge opportunity to really learn something important about the history and the
future of our minds, bodies and spirit.
Naturally, this discussion begs the question: Who’s more Paleo? The attentive naturalist who roams the natural world, but
eats an occasional grain-based meal? Or the nutritionally perfect athlete who’s blind to habitat? Consider John Muir, America’s
most famous naturalist. He paid intense attention to habitat and integrated himself into the natural world at every opportunity.
He’d stuff his pockets with a few “gluten bombs” and head out into the high country of the Sierras for a few days of environmental
engagement, immersion and integration. If anyone in our modern world deserves the title of “Paleo,” it would be Muir.
Clearly, the most vital element in Paleo training is integration with habitat. Yes, real food is important. Yes, grains and refined
sugar are certainly toxic to health. But once we’ve learned how to eat real foods, it’s time to pay attention and expose our bodies to
the natural world. Start by becoming a naturalist: that’s Paleo.
Frank Forencich studied human biology and neuroscience at Stanford University and is author of Exuberant Animal, Change Your Body, Change the
World (www.exuberantanimal.com) and Stresscraft: A Whole-Life Approach to Health and Performance (www.stresscraft.com)
Healthy Gluten-Free Recipes to Satisfy Your Primal Cravings
Paleo
Indulgences
Tammy Credicott
Author of The Healthy Gluten-Free Life
Pre-order yours today from Amazon.com
Official release - August 2012
Business Spotlight
While not specifically a “Paleoonly” restaurant, Dick’s Kitchen
(dkportland.com), located in Portland,
Oregon, is on a mission to provide
foods that are fresh, healthy,
sustainable and local. They strive to
be a place where vegetarians and those
following a Paleo diet can both be
happy (Paleo-friendly veggie burger
anyone?) With a constantly evolving
menu, and a never-ending search for
better ingredients and better menu
combinations, Dick’s Kitchen is at
the forefront of restaurants working
to provide healthy alternatives to the
home cooked meal.
Richard Satnick, owner and
mastermind of Dick’s Kitchen is a man
on a mission, and he has been for some
time. About 15 years ago, Richard was
dealing with health issues that required
him to take a fresh look at his own diet.
This exhaustive search, where he spent
countless hours researching different
foods and their affects on the human
Air-baked potato and yam fries
from Dick’s Kitchen. Done in the
oven, with just a touch of locally
sourced high-oleic safflower oil.
body, first led him to open Laughing
Planet Café (laughingplanetcafe.com) in
1995. However, unlike Dick’s Kitchen,
Laughing Planet is not very Paleofriendly. Other than a few mentions
of natural chicken, most items on the
menu include grains, tofu or beans.
Fortunately for us, Richard’s vision
continued to evolve and Dick’s
Kitchen was born.
The menu at Dick’s Kitchen
gives a healthy, forward-thinking
twist on classic diner foods like
burgers, sausages, hotdogs and fries.
The beef is local and grass-fed, the
turkey is organic and the salmon is
wild-caught; the burgers are cooked in
cast-iron skillets; the ketchup, mustard,
kimchee and other sauces are made
in-house; the fries are brushed with oil
and air-baked in the oven; and they use
as little salt as possible, providing sea
salt at the tables. With menu options
that include The Dork Burger (ground
duck and lamb), Heritage Meats
Kielbasa, Lamb burger, Thai Burger
Bowl (their signature Paleo dish), Yam
Fries and Pickled Veggies, it’s easy to
find something delicious to eat and
stay on the Paleo path.
The focus on healthy eating
doesn’t stop with the tasty menu
options either. According to Richard,
everything that’s done at Dick’s
Kitchen – every change, every addition
– it’s all done for a reason. If they
find that a particular food is more
problematic than they thought, they’ll
replace it with something else. Right
now they are looking at how they
can go completely gluten-free with
their menu. When they wanted to
look at how they could reduce their
environmental impact, they reached
out to more local vendors. Currently,
Dick’s Kitchen sources as much of
their ingredients as possible from local
farmers and food artisans. Depending
on the season, they’re working with a
dozen or more local companies at any
given time.
Richard is a true believer in the
Paleo lifestyle and diet and constantly
works to fit it into a viable business,
without “turning off ” any new
customers. For example, they have
a protocol in place for when people
come in to eat. This involves doing
small things to help educate them
about their food choices, answer
any questions they have and at least
introduce them in some way to the
Paleo way of eating. It’s obviously
working, as they’ve recently opened a
second location in Portland and are on
the lookout for more opportunities for
additional locations (maybe in a city
near you!)
In the meantime, the next time
you find yourself in the Northwest,
do yourself a favor and stop by Dick’s
Kitchen in Portland. You’ll find
mouth-watering, Paleo-friendly fare
and help support a business working
to change the way the masses look at
“fast” food.
Contact Dick’s Kitchen
www.dkportland.com
3312 SE Belmont St.
Portland, OR
503.235.0146
AND
704 NW 21st. Ave
Portland, OR
503.206.5916
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Joining a CSA
By: Diana Rodgers
the experience of watching a chicken
scratch at the ground and seeing
a dog working to round up sheep.
Kids will usually try string beans
they’ve harvested themselves.
Sustainable farming actually
improves the environment and
sustains genetic diversity.
A
t age 26, my husband Andrew,
an environmentalist who was working
a corporate job and finding himself
philosophically against the products he
was helping create, decided to become
an organic farmer. Today, we host 400+
CSA members who visit the farm each
week to pick up their weekly produce
share. Pigs roam the woods, sheep graze,
and chickens eat grass and bugs. We
have a farmstand open to the public
where the public can buy local artisan
products like raw milk cheese, sauerkraut.
Our kitchen produces bone broth,
renders lard and makes pate from our
chicken livers. We also run education
programs for children, adults and future
farmers.
CSAs keep small farms alive and
preserve open space.
Small farms across America are
dying and being replaced by shopping
plazas and housing developments
(sometimes creatively named after the
dead farm). CSAs are an alternative
financial model which helps the
farmer lock in guaranteed sales for
their produce, regardless of weather
conditions, crop failure, insect infestation
or a variety of other factors which can
Not many other industries
today do this. We are adding
compost, fish, seaweed and minerals
like boron and magnesium to the
soil and healthier soil produces more
nutrient dense produce. In addition
to improving the soil, we strive to
raise heirloom varieties, preserving
seed lines and breeds of animals
that once were plentiful but are now
threatened with extinction because
they cannot thrive on a CAFO
Photo Credit: Paul Cary Goldberg
(Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operation). While Americans are
consuming a more limited variety of
reduce yield and price. The consumer
vegetables, fruit and animals, a CSA
pays upfront for their “share” of the
offers a large diversity of produce and
harvest and the farmer gets their money
many small farmers are bringing back
before the season starts for costs like
rare breeds of animals like Tamworth
seeds, labor and new infrastructure. The
pigs and Horned Dorset sheep.
consumer then is paid in dividends each
week during the growing season with
Buying from your local farmer also
high quality fresh
keeps your money in
produce.
the local economy.
When you
purchase your food
at a big box store, not
only is your produce
The produce
less fresh but more
that members receive
petroleum was used
is of much higher
to bring it there.
quality than what
According to the
can be purchased at
United Nations, the
a big box store. In
United States alone
most cases, it was
consumes 6.4 billion
harvested that day,
pounds of bananas
which is fresher
per year.1 There
and means higher
is a lot of poverty
nutrient content.
and social injustice
CSA membership
on large farms
has many other benefits. For example,
across America and especially in other
our CSA members are part of the
countries. A banana worker in Central
community of our farm and families
America makes as little as $1.20 per day.2
often spend many hours each week
Small farmers on the other
enjoying the farm. They attend potlucks
and pig roasts and get to meet each other
and the farmers. Children need to have
Continued next page
It’s about more
than the financial
savings.
Continued from page 23
hand, generally pay a living wage to their
workers. Small businesses buy their
supplies and services locally, spending
twice as much of their revenue in the
local economy.3 In fact, three times
more money stays in the local economy
when you buy goods and services from
locally owned businesses
instead of large chains.4
Many CSA farms like
ours also run apprentice
programs to teach new
young farmers, ensuring
the future of sustainable
farming.
maybe you’ll learn about a tomato blight
or recent hail storm that damaged the
crop.
Get involved
Volunteer and find out what it’s
actually like to work for a day as a farmer.
Instead of going to the gym for an hour,
lift some heavy water buckets or squat
to American culture--our health,
economy, personal relationships, morals,
and spiritual values--is more timely than
ever.”
References
1 FAOSTAT: ProdSTAT: Crops. UN Food &
Agriculture Organization. (2005)
2 Prieto-Darron, Marina, Corporate Social
Responsibility in Latin America.
(2006). Journal of Corporate
Citizenship, Issue 21, 85-94
3 Thinking Outside the Box: A
Report on Independent Merchants
and the Local Economy, Civic
Economics. (9/2009). http://
www.staylocal.org/pdf/info/
ThinkingOutsidetheBox_1.pdf
4 The Economic Impact of Locally
Find a farmer
Go to eatwild.com
or localharvest.org to find
a farm near you and visit
the farm to see the fields.
If they have animals,
look at their living
conditions. Do
the animals look
healthy and go out
on pasture, or are
they living in a mini
CAFO? Find out
how long the farmer
has been in business
and ask how their
previous years have
been. Ask what
percentage of their produce is actually
grown on their farm. In our area, some
farms taken the CSA concept and have
adulterated it into a produce buying club
where a share includes all kinds of long
distance, conventional produce. Seek
out experienced farmers who grow the
majority of the produce themselves, who
have a strong, happy membership base,
and give you an opportunity to connect
with the farm.
Do your research
Learn to love new produce items
like kohlrabi, mustard greens and tatsoi.
“Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking
Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce” put out by
the Madison Area CSA Coalition is a
great one for CSA members. Instead
of complaining that there aren’t enough
tomatoes, read your farm newsletter and
Owned Businesses vs. Chains: A
Case Study in Midcoast Maine.
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
and Friends of Midcoast
Maine. (9/2003). http://
www.newrules.org/
midcoaststudy.pdf
CSA Resources
for hours weeding. Learn what it’s like
to eviscerate a chicken.
Set your expectations
Most CSAs can’t grow everything so
you may have to supplement (especially
for fruit). Also, your June distributions
may begin small and contain mostly
lettuce and greens. You may be surprised
to learn that your farmer’s tomatoes don’t
ripen until August, but that the ugliest
ones are the tastiest.
Learning more about agriculture
issues
I highly recommend “The Unsettling
of America: Culture and Agriculture”
by poet/farmer Wendell Berry. From
the inside flap, “Berry’s assessment of
modern agriculture and its relationship
Websites
• www.eatwild.com
• www.localharvest.org
• www.foodroutes.org/
• www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/
csa/csa.shtml
• www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/
csa/csaorgs.shtml
Books
Sharing the Harvest
Elizabeth Henderson & Robyn Van En
Farms of Tomorrow Revisited
Trauger Groh & Steven McFadden
PALEO:
EAt grEAt...fEEL grEAt...
Personal Chef Cindy AnsChutz, of Cindy’s Table, is transforming
common dietary practices up and down the East Coast. Specializing
in Paleo cooking, Cindy provides not only in-house chef services, she
offers recipes, cooking shows, access to her Paleo-focused blog and
meal planning tips through her website. Learn more about the efforts of
Cindy’s Table to educate people about the properties and benefits of a
Paleo diet by subscribing to her newsletter and following the progress
of her Italian-inspired cookbook. Then, sit back and relax while letting
Cindy prepare a Paleo meal for you, your family and your friends in the
comfort of your own home.
VISIT WWW.CINDYSTABLE.COM
FOR MORE PALEO RECIPES & VIDEOS,
& TO SIGN UP FOR A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
FILLED WITH GREAT PALEO RECIPES
Directions:
• Take chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper
GRILLED CHICKEN, TOMATO
& AVOCADO STACK
• Heat a saute pan and set to medium heat, add olive oil then add chicken.
Cook for 4 minutes on each side (until each side is brown).
When done put on a poultry board and let cool.
2 (4-ounce) boneless and skinless
chicken breast halves
• Take each plate and line the bottom with your lettuce.
3 tablespoons Paleo Mayonnaise
• Slice tomatoes, avocado and chicken
2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced
• Add a little mayonnaise in the middle while building your stack
1 large avocado, thinly sliced into 8 pieces
• Taking each ingredient create a stack and add the red onion slices
on top.
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
Romaine or your favorite lettuce
Sea salt and Pepper
• You may want to drizzle a little olive oil or fresh herbs on the top
avocado and chicken.
1 tablespoon Olive oil, a little more to drizzle
Fresh herbs for garnish, optional
Video Production By:
Entertaining
Paleo on Facebook
In Season
Oysters
Where Do They Come From
With the exception of the polar regions, oysters can be found in most of the oceans of the world. While they used to be mainly
wild-caught, overfishing, pollution, disease and habitat alteration have had a significant impact on wild populations. In 1952, the
wild capture of oysters was a little over 300,000 metric tons. In 2003, world production was about 4.7 million metric tons, with
farmed oysters making up all but about 200,000 metric tons.
Impacts Of Farming
The environmental impacts of oyster farming are low, with farmed oysters receiving the “green fish” approval from the Blue Ocean
Institute and a “Best Choice” rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch.® While adult oysters are not mobile,
making the risk of escapees low, there is some concern as the interest in developing “genetically-improved” oysters increases.
Farmed oysters can be left behind during harvesting, and the impact of GMO oysters introduced into the wild is unknown.
However, there is documentation of negative interactions with wild species when non-native oysters are introduced.
Why Should You Eat Them
According to NutritionData.com, while there is very little difference in the macronutrient profile of wild and farmed oysters, there
are some variances in the micronutrients, vitamins and minerals. For example, wild oysters are higher in Vitamin A, Vitamin D,
Choline, Magnesium and Zinc. The two are very similar in Vitamin B12, Calcium, Iron and Selenium. Omega-3s are quite a bit
higher in wild oysters, however, so are the Omega-6s.
Selecting & Storing
Like most shellfish, steer clear of oysters with open or cracked shells. Stick with those that are uncracked and close their shells
if you tap or run cold water over them. Oysters spawn in the summer and produce a milk sac that some people find unpleasant.
Oysters need to stay cool - ideally between 35oF and 45oF - and do best stored covered with a loose, damp towel or cloth. Don’t
store on ice. Clean them before eating, not before storing. Live oysters should be eaten within a week of buying them. Shucked
oysters can be stored in the freezer, immersed in their own juices, for up to a year. Always cook thawed oysters, never re-freeze
them.
In Season
Rhubarb
Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum L.), first cultivated in China over 2,500 years ago, was originally grown for medicinal purposes. It
spread to Italy in the early 1600’s, Europe in the late 1700’s and finally made its way to the US in about 1800. While the Chinese
variety contains specific elements that give it its special medicinal properties, the types grown in Europe and the US are grown as a
food plant only.
Growing It
While easy to grow, this perennial plant needs cold winter temperatures - below 40oF to stimulate spring growth and summer temps that average less than 75oF to really take
off. It will grow well in just about any soil, but prefers fertile, well-drained soils free
of weeds - the more compost and manure, the better. A sunny location is best. Don’t
harvest during the first year to give the plant time to establish a strong root system.
Rhubarb leaf spray
Great alternative to composting
rhubarb leaves. Spray will keep
for 1-2 days after making it. Keep
away from kids.
1. Boil a few pounds of rhubarb
leaves in a few pints of water
for 15-20 minutes.
Rhubarb contains decent amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Potassium. While
2. Allow to cool.
it does contain a decent amount of calcium, it’s bound by oxalic acid and isn’t easily
3. Strain the liquid into suitable
absorbed by the body. Rhubarb can also be used to clean pots & pans and the leaves can
container
make an effective insecticide for leaf eating insects (sidebar).
4. Dissolve some soap flakes in
the liquid.
Choosing and Storing
5. Use on aphids, cabbage
caterpillars and other leaf
Look for deep red stalks, which are generally more flavorful. To store, trim and throw
eating insects.
out the leaves. Fresh stalks can be kept in the fridge, unwashed and wrapped tightly in
plastic, for up to three weeks. It can keep for up to six months in the freezer.
Source: www.rhubarbinfo.com
What’s The Big Deal
Precautions
Remember - only the stalks are used for eating! The leaves contain high amounts of calcium oxylate, a poison that can be deadly.
While the vast majority of the oxylates are found in the leaves, it can travel to the stalks, especially in frost bitten plants, so steer
clear of those. If you are growing
your own Rhubarb and have kids, be sure to teach them to eat the stalks only and
not the leaves.
Give Beets A Chance
By: Lisa Herndon
My first taste of beet kvass was a
sample at a local farmer’s market and
it wasn’t awful, just ok. Certainly not
good enough to shell out my money to
take some home. I am not, in general,
a fan of beets. They’re ok when juiced
with greens, but that’s it in my opinion.
Yet when I started reading the books,
Nourishing Traditions and Wild
Fermentation, I began to reconsider if
only for the health benefits.
Like many recipes for fermentation,
there is a lot of ambiguity on how to
ferment the juice and many of the recipes
call for vague quantities of ingredients
and differing lengths of time to ferment
it. After a few failed batches, mostly
due to the fact that I was not using an
anaerobic fermenting system (Pickl-It
Jar), I got one that was actually quite
tasty. Surprisingly, my kids even love this
stuff and even like the fermented beets
left over from making the tonic. A good
recipe can really make all the difference.
Now, before I share the secret to
delicious beet kvass, let’s talk about
why you should consider drinking it.
Fermenting the beets greatly reduces the
sugar content so you are left with a very
What is “die-off”?
Chances are good that unless
you’ve been eating real food and
avoiding all processed foods for
a long time there is some kind of
imbalance in your system even
if you feel great. As we start
ingesting beneficial bacteria, the
balance is changed and the good
bacteria start doing their job of
balancing out the other flora
in your gut. These cells die and
release toxins.
If you ingest sufficient beneficial
bacteria those other bacteria die
quickly, in large numbers and
produce toxins faster than your
body can clear them out. This is
what causes the symptoms of die
off. Don’t be afraid of die off – you
are leading your body back to
better health.
low sugar/carbohydrate tangy
beverage. Since it is lactofermented (dairy-free), it is
also full of little lactobacillus
and other beneficial bacteria
and yeast (probiotics).
During fermentation the
cultures are metabolizing
the sugars in the beet cubes,
converting them to lactic
acid and co2, and releasing
the vital nutrients into the
liquid. Beet roots can go as
far as 10 feet down into the
soil, picking up trace minerals
that have virtually vanished
from the top layers due to
repeated cultivation. These
nutrients include important
trace minerals like calcium,
magnesium, phosphorus,
potassium, and sodium. As
well as small amounts of iron,
zinc, copper, manganese, and
selenium. Beet kvass is also
a natural source of Vitamin C, folic acid,
Vitamins B1, B2, B3, and Vitamin A
in the form of beta-carotene. It is also
a good source of silica, which helps the
body utilize calcium for healthy bones,
skin, hair, and nails. The rich purplish
reddish pigment of beetroot comes from
Betacyanin, which is a pigment that
has demonstrated the potential to help
protect against oxidative stress as well as
certain cancers.1,2
Like many fermented foods, beet
kvass can improve digestion, restore the
proper balance of bacteria in the gut,
and add rich enzymes to make digesting
easier and more effective. According
to Sally Fallon (2000), “Folk medicine
values beets and beet kvass for their liver
cleansing properties and beet kvass is
widely used in cancer therapy in Europe.
Anecdotal reports indicate that beet
kvass is an excellent therapy for chronic
fatigue, chemical sensitivities, allergies
and digestive problems.”
Beet kvass is considered a tonic
drink and if your system is out of
balance, you may experience “die off ”,
so I recommend drinking it in relatively
small amounts, especially if you are new
to fermented foods. Symptoms of “dieoff ” can include fatigue, digestive upset,
low-grade fever, or dizziness/headache.
While you may be able to find
a local vendor selling beet kvass, it
generally won’t be properly fermented in
a closed-air system or for long enough
for optimal nutritional content. If it is
not fermented anaerobically, the chance
of having a large population of the good
bacteria is significantly decreased while
allowing undesirable yeast and other
bacteria to establish themselves. This
option also results in a less desirable
flavor, which is why many are not yet
fans of beet kvass. Try it yourself with
my recipe (pg 52) and the flavor is quite
compelling!
1 Kapadia, G., Azuine, M., Subba Rao, G., Arai,
T. (2011). Cytotoxic Effect of the Red Beetroot
Extract Compared to Doxorubicin in the Human
Prostate and Breast Cancer Cell Lines. AntiCancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, 11,
280-284.
2 Kanner, J., Harel, S., Granit, R. (2001).
Betalains-A New Class of Dietary Cationized
Antioxidants. Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry, 49, 5178-5185. doi: 10.1021/jf010456f
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Digestive Illness
A Holistic, Paleo Approach to Recovery
By: Adam Farrah
I
n 2004 I was diagnosed with
Ulcerative Colitis. It was a
difficult and scary time for me
and my family – as were a number of
years that followed. I made more trips to
doctors, Gastroenterologists, alternative
medicine people of all genres and
emergency rooms than I care to think
about. There were times I was so weak
from dehydration and anemia I could
barely climb the stairs in the house I
lived in. There were times I wondered if
I was going to die and there were times I
didn’t really care if I did.
Most frustrating of all was
the pervasive attitude of the health
practitioners I visited. Virtually all
of them told me that the illness was
incurable and would be chronic and
nearly all told me that it was entirely
unrelated to diet.
I even had the head of
Gastroenterology at a major university
hospital recommend I eat “bread”
because my diet of only raw fruit
smoothies and steamed vegetables,
which seemed to be making me feel
better and reduce the pain of digestion,
wasn’t of adequate nutrition and nutrient
“deficiencies” might result without bread.
Bread…
In truth, I
was suffering
from an illness
of diet and
lifestyle that
resolved when
I changed
course and directed my life in a way that
was much more suited to my genetics,
evolution and my higher spiritual
callings.
It’s still amazing to me now, with
all the perspective I have from my years
of research and interaction in the Paleo
community, that no one back then could
help me. The solution is so simple and
elegant. Of course, simple and elegant
solutions don’t tend to create much profit
for anyone…
That I’m writing this article in 2012,
in complete health, is a testament to
the effectiveness of a Paleo approach to
diet and lifestyle in treating digestive
disorders.
The Paleo Journey…
The conventional medical
community generally considers digestive
illnesses like Ulcerative Colitis to be
“incurable.” I don’t necessarily disagree
with this attitude – not because I believe
the illnesses themselves to be incurable,
but because I believe the vast majority of
people who have them to be unwilling
or unable to make the necessary diet and
lifestyle changes required to make a full
recovery.
Recovering from any chronic illness
is a long and difficult process.
In my own experience, recovery from
a chronic and life threatening digestive
illness is possible, but it is a long, hard
road and it requires constant work and
experimentation to learn to listen to your
body and give it what it needs when and
how it needs it. It also requires giving
up habits, behaviors and beliefs, the
ones that got us sick in the first place,
and that is a profoundly difficult and
uncomfortable process.
Putting Paleo Into Context…
One thing I strived to do in my
book, “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link,”
is present
Paleo as a
foundational
approach to
eating and
living as
opposed to a
“diet.” Paleo is
so much more than a diet.
Paleo principles are foundational
to health and represent indispensable
information about what we require to
live and thrive as human beings.
Though Paleo principles are
foundational to recovery from digestive
illness, their application is highly
individual and requires a scientific and, at
times, even an artful approach. Learning
to heal your body – and, yes, you must
learn to heal your body – requires a level
of body awareness and sensitivity that
we’re all capable of, but virtually all of us
have unlearned through modern life.
I’ve come to believe that modern life
is a profoundly numbing and body-
Recovering from any
chronic illness is a long
and difficult process.
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Animal Husbandry Terms
Free-Range
Free-range, free-roaming, and
pastured imply that a product
comes from an animal that was
raised unconfined and free to
roam. “Free-range” claims on
beef and eggs are unregulated,
but USDA requires that poultry
have access to the outdoors for
an undetermined period each
day.
Grass-Fed
A diet for livestock that consists
of freshly grazed pasture during
the growing season and stored
grasses (hay or grass silage)
during the winter months or
drought conditions. Grass
feeding is used with cattle,
sheep, goats and bison.
Heritage
A term applied to breeds of
livestock that were bred over
time to be well-adapted to
local environmental conditions,
withstand disease and survive in
harsh environmental conditions.
Heritage breeds generally have
slow growth rates and long
productive lifespans outdoors,
making them well-suited for
grazing and pasturing.
Courtesy Of
For more info visit
www.farmersmarketcoalition.org
invalidating institution.
As it turns out, one of the greatest
gifts I received from the illness, and
there were many, was a level of sensitivity
to the effects of food, lifestyle and
environment on my body. I also found
my true calling in life, my spiritual path,
made friends with my body and found a
deeper, more primal energy within.
Paleo Diet Factors for Success…
By no means an exhaustive list, the
following are a few Paleo diet principles
that make it so
effective when it comes
to healing digestive
problems. I’ve also
addressed a few
common issues that I
believe need to be kept
in mind.
Grain Free – Not Just
Gluten Free
It’s now pretty
well established that
virtually all grains
have “gluten-like”
compounds in them.
This is the main reason
that people with things
like Celiac Disease
don’t fully heal on
a gluten free diet –
they’re still eating
plenty of grains. I
messed around with alternative grains
and stuff like quinoa, etc. for years. In
the end, it wasn’t worth the pain or the
effort. Dropping grains entirely for
several years was what it took for me to
heal.
Dairy Free
This is another area of contention.
There are some “Paleo-inspired” authors
who espouse an approach that includes
raw pastured dairy from cows or goats.
Those in the goat camp will say that
the proteins in goat milk are completely
different from those in cow milk and,
therefore, aren’t allergenic.
In my own experience, no matter
how inspiring and wonderful the idea
of happy pastured animals producing
a wonderful, healthy fat-filled, protein
rich milk was, virtually every time my
health declined some form of dairy was
involved. Sometimes it took several
months for the effects to be apparent, but
I’ve never gotten away with having dairy
in my diet long term, no matter how
high the quality or what source it came
from.
What about probiotics and cultured
dairy?
It’s almost a Paleo cliché at this
point: Someone asks a general question
about Paleo for digestive illness and a
well-meaning Paleo
proponent advises
that cultured dairy
is also a great idea
because people with
digestive disorders
need the probiotics. In
practice, dairy tends
to make a mess out of
the digestive tract and
immune system of a
person with a digestive
illness no matter how
carefully it’s prepared
or cultured.
Short Fasts
Nothing freaks
people out more than
fasting. To some,
you would think we
evolved shoving a
bar or a shake in our
mouth every two hours, and death will
come sure and swift if we don’t. Fasting
for a few hours in the morning, or even
for most of the day, is very normal and
natural to our physiology.
For me, there are situations when
fasting is just plain easier. This is
particularly true when I’m very busy and
stressed. Instead of eating and possibly
digesting my meal poorly, I’ll just use
that period as a fasting period.
Fasting Gives the Entire Body a Break
from Digestion
Digestion is a big energy drain
for a healthy body. For a body with
compromised digestive function,
digestion is exhausting. Giving the body
a break can improve energy and mood
and give the body a chance to rest.
If you want more reading on
short fasts and some very intelligent
commentary on a variety of issues,
check out “The Warrior Diet” by Ori
Hoffmekler. (Note: Ori doesn’t take a
Paleo approach to diet, but his views
on fasting and human history are
fascinating.)
Nothing Processed
I always chuckle when someone
tells me they’re sensitive to this or that
in food (Hint: It’s almost always gluten
or dairy) and they say how they have
to “read labels carefully.” Of course, if
they stopped eating stuff that came in a
package with a label they’d automatically
cut out 95% of the things they have a
problem with and save a lot of time and
energy besides. A great rule I got from
Paul Chek is this: If you can shop once
a week or less, you’re not eating as fresh
and healthy as you can.
Some Parting Words…
I’d like to offer some words of
wisdom for those suffering from digestive
illness, as someone who lived with it for
many years and fought his way back to
health. First of all, don’t give up. It can
take a long time and often it feels like
you’re not getting anywhere. You didn’t
get sick in a week or a month or a year
and you likely won’t get well in a short
time period either. It’s a process.
Further, diet is the tip of the iceberg.
Even a Paleo diet that’s perfectly
individualized to you won’t do a lot if
your lifestyle is seriously at odds with
what your body needs and is evolved for.
If you’re living anything like a modern
lifestyle and you’re sick, you’ll need to
seriously renovate your life to truly heal.
My personal opinion is that healing
a chronic digestive illness, and many
other types of illness, is a process of
“taking away” or “letting go of ” the
causes of poor health as opposed to
adding some key or magic food or
supplement or drug or practice. Modern
life is full of confounding and destructive
things. When it comes to health and
the human animal, simple, primitive and
minimalist is most healing of all.
To read Part 2 of this article, visit us online
at www.paleomagonline.com/2012/02/29/
digestive-illness-part-2/ or scan the code
below with your smartphone or tablet.
Paleo Kids
Anyone with kids knows that every now and then it can be hard to make meals or snacks that the kids like. Especially if
you’re changing their diet from one that contained a lot of processed, artificially flavored/colored foods to one with whole, natural
foods. Sometimes, as their taste buds are transitioning from being over stimulated with fake flavors, it can take a while for them to
appreciate, the way real food tastes.
If you’re finding yourself with picky eaters, or having trouble pleasing multiple kids at the same time, these recipes should
definitely help! We’ve pulled these from the newly released cookbook, The Healthy Gluten Free Life (Victory Belt Publishing). And
while this book is not a Paleo book, almost half of the 200 recipes are Paleo-friendly, with the others using gluten-free grains. The
following recipes have our kids happily eating, with zero complaints, and we hope your kids will enjoy them too!
Sausage Veggie Hash
Ingredients
1 TBSP coconut oil
3/4-1 lb of breakfast sausage (links or bulk works fine)
1 small organic yellow onion, diced
2 medium organic sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean and diced
3 medium organic zucchini, scrubbed, sliced in half lengthwise, then cut
into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 of a medium avocado, sliced
Process
1. In a large electric skillet or nonstick frying pan, heat 1 TBSP oil.
2. Add sausage and cook until done and no longer pink. Remove from skillet. If using links, cut them into bite-size pieces. Set aside and keep warm.
3. Add onions to skillet. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Add potatoes. Cover and cook until browned and soft, about 15 minutes.
5. Add zucchini and cook for about 5 minutes, or just until softened.
6. Add sausage back to pan, stir to combine.
7. Serve bowls full of hash, topped with sliced avocado.
Hammin’ It Up Morning Scramble
Ingredients
1
1
1
1
TBSP coconut oil
cup organic cooked sweet potato cubes
cup cubed GF ham
cup organic spinach leaves, chopped
Process
1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook
until slightly browned.
2. Add ham and heat through, about 4 minutes.
3. Add in chopped spinach, stir and remove pan from heat.
4. Serve immediately.
Paleo Kids
Coconut Chicken Strips
Ingredients
For the Chicken
4 organic, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
For the “Breading”
1 cup finely shredded organic
unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2
1/2
1/2
1/2
tsp
tsp
tsp
tsp
freshly ground pepper
granulated onion
granulated garlic
paprika
Process
1. In a shallow dish, combine breading ingredients. Set aside.
2. Drizzle half of the coconut oil over chicken strips. Dredge strips in breading, covering all of the chicken.
3. Place breaded chicken in a greased 9” by 13” in a glass baking dish. Pour remaining oil over strips.
o
4. Bake in a 375 oven for 20 minutes.
5. Change oven to Broil and broil chicken about 5 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Mini Meatloaves
Ingredients
For the Chicken
1/2 medium organic yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs organic ground beef (US Wellness Meats)
1-1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 TBSP GF Worcestershire sauce
1 cup organic tomato sauce (about 1/2 of a 15oz can)
1 tsp granulated onion
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp dried basil
3/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped (or 1 TBSP dried parsley)
1 egg
For the sauce
3 TBSP organic tomato paste
~ Remaining can of tomato sauce (about 3/4 cup)
3 TBSP raw organic honey
1 TBSP raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp granulated onion
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp sea salt
~ Freshly ground pepper to taste
Process
1. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic until
soft. About 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add beef and remaining meat ingredients. Add
cooked onions/garlic. Carefully stir and combine meat mixture until all
ingredients are incorporated.
3. Grease muffin pans with coconut oil. Fill muffin pans, just to the tops, with
the meat mixture. Press down slightly to level tops.
4. In a small bowl, combine sauce ingredients.
5. Place a small spoonful of sauce on top of each mini meatloaf. With the
back of the spoon, spread the sauce evenly over each loaf.
6. Fill any empty muffin cups halfway with water so meat bakes evenly. Bake
in a 375o oven for about 30 minutes, rotating trays halfway through. Meat
should be cooked through and top edges just turning brown.
Q&A with the Paleo Dietitian
Amy Kubal MS, RD, LN, Paleo Dietitian
Q
If you have a question for Amy, the Paleo RD, you can email
them to her at therd@paleomagonline.com!
I have been eating “mostly” paleo since January of 2011. I
have a history of allergies and asthma. I had gotten myself off all
meds but had an exposure to mold this summer that resulted in
flared asthma and anaphylactic shock. I was treated with two
rounds of prednisone, but am now off all meds. My
last routine blood CBC came back abnormal.
My family has a history of autoimmune
disease. What do you have to offer? It’s been a
rough road.
A
I am sorry to hear about your recent
health issues. I’m sure things have not
been easy! It is difficult for me to say what
may be causing the abnormal blood work
or what was behind your flare this summer. It is possible that
the mold exposure was environmental as opposed to dietary,
but that is difficult to determine. You do not indicate which
results on your CBC were abnormal, so again it is difficult to
troubleshoot.
There are a few things that I can tell you. You say that
you are “mostly” paleo and that you have a family history of
autoimmune disease. This tells me that your reaction and
blood results may be nutrition related. I recommend trying
the paleo autoimmune protocol – this entails eliminating all
gluten, dairy, soy, nightshade vegetables (eggplant, potatoes,
tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, etc.), eggs, and nuts. Follow this
for a period of three months, remaining completely compliant.
During this period monitor your symptoms (they should
disappear), and have your blood drawn again at the end of the
trial. If the cause of your reaction, symptoms, and/or abnormal
blood values is related to diet will likely be improvement.
Again, not knowing more about which values were off on
the CBC it is impossible for me to tell you what changes to
make to your diet that may improve the results. Eat a variety
of autoimmune friendly, paleo foods (meats, vegetables other
than the nightshades, fats from sources other than nuts) to ensure
adequate nutrient intake; get adequate sleep; and avoid a great
deal of stress if possible. Hang in there!
Q
I’ve been off dairy and sugar for about 8 months. Two
weeks ago I eliminated all grains (which only included corn
tortillas, steel-cut oats, and brown rice). Since going full paleo,
I have been exhausted. I’m eating a ton of protein, veggies, and
fruits, but I feel so groggy. I don’t think it’s the ‘carb-flu’ because
I didn’t eat junk food beforehand. I exercise a few days a week
and get plenty of sleep (8-9 hours/night).
What’s going on? I expected to have boundless energy, but
I’m so tired & brain-fogged!
Variety is key
A
Congratulations on jumping all the way into the paleo
lifestyle - you definitely won’t be sorry!! Rest assured that your
brain-fog and grogginess will pass. This is very common when
transitioning to grain free living.
Your body is currently adapted to running on primarily
carbohydrates for fuel. It often takes a little time (1-3 weeks)
to start feeling that ‘boundless energy’. Your body must learn
to use fat as its primary energy source instead of relying on the
steady stream of carbs that it is accustomed to. While you’re
waiting for the fog to clear there are a few things you can do
that may help boost your energy:
• Stay hydrated. Dehydration leads to tiredness and brain
fog too (it’s not just the carbs sometimes!!)
• Give fat a chance! You mention that you are eating
protein, veggies and fruit. It is also important that you are
getting some healthy fat in the mix too.
• Mix it up! Make sure that you are choosing a variety
of proteins, veggies and fruits instead of the same things over
and over again. This will ensure that you are getting all of the
nutrients you need.
• Don’t overdose on fruit. Turing to fruit for every snack
will do you no favors in the sustained energy department, as it
results in blood glucose fluctuations due to the sugar content.
When you do eat fruit pair it with some fat and/or protein to
slow the digestion and prevent energy peaks and valleys.
• Got post-workout fuel? Another thing that may help
is incorporating a post-workout meal on the days that you
exercise, especially if you are doing long and/or intense
Continued next page
workouts. Within 30-45 minutes of your activity add a
meal/snack that incorporates some starchy, vegetable based
carbohydrate (sweet potatoes, yams, winter squash, roots and
tubers) along with some animal-sourced protein. This will not
only help restore energy, but will enhance muscle recovery.
Stay the course and try these things to help you through
the rough times knowing that the fog will clear and there are
bright skies ahead!
Q
I am gluten intolerant, so this way of eating would really
work for me; except when I last tried my muscles were tired and
fatigued all the time and I had a headache every day. I am a
multisport athlete and am currently in the off season from that,
but am training for a marathon. How can I get this way of
eating to work for me?
A
A Paleo lifestyle for athletes, especially endurance
athletes, takes a bit more time and effort to ‘dial in’. Due to
higher levels of activity, a traditional paleo style of eating will
likely not work best for you. It is important that pre-, during,
and post workout fueling are adequate to support activity and
promote recovery. It sounds like you are cutting yourself short
in the high-quality carbohydrate department. Adequate carbs
are needed to restock glycogen following training sessions.
Adding a good dose of starchy, vegetable based carbohydrate
(sweet potatoes, yams, winter squash, white potatoes with the
peel removed, and/or other roots and tubers) along with some
high-quality animal sourced protein within 30-45 minutes of
workout completion will provide muscles with the fuel that
they need to replenish depleted glycogen and protein stores.
This ‘refueling’ also speeds the recovery process; thereby,
enhancing performance during your next workout. The post
workout ‘meal’ is most effective when the ratio of carbohydrate
to protein is in the 4-5:1 range. Additionally, incorporating
a small pre-workout meal consisting of carbohydrate (from
starchy vegetable and/or fruit sources) and a small amount of
protein, 15-30 minutes prior to training serves to ‘jump start’
your body and get you going! If your session is going to be
longer than 60-90 minutes it may be necessary to fuel during
the workout also.
In any case, it takes some trial and error - but it can, and
does work - even for the most serious competitors. I currently
have athletes that are successfully competing in Ironman
events, ultra-marathons, and getting ready for the 2012
Olympic trials! Let me know if I can help you too!
Q
Is Manioc/Cassava/Yuca considered Paleo? I don’t really
care for almond flour and have found that this alternative flour
has less “taste”.
A
Cassava (also called manioc or yuca)
is an edible, starchy tuber that is high
in carbohydrates. When dried it is
commonly referred to as tapioca flour.
Being a root/tuber, cassava may be
considered paleo in the same sense as
potatoes, rutabagas, taro, etc. From a
nutritional standpoint it is comparable to
a potato, but contains more potassium and
fiber. Using tapioca/cassava flour instead
of almond flour for making paleo baked
goods is fine; although the final product
will differ in taste, texture and nutritional
value.
Paleo baked foods, pancakes and
other items made with alternative flours
should not be staples in your paleo
lifestyle, but rather treats. These types
of foods should never take the place of
grassfed, or lean, meats and proteins,
vegetables and healthy fats.
Additionally, the best time to enjoy
roots/tubers and/or paleo baked items
is in the post workout period (within 30
minutes of exercise completion), as this is
when insulin sensitivity is at its peak and
the body is best equipped to handle the
carbohydrate load.
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Carbohydrate Conundrums
and
Fat Fallacies
By: Nora Gedgaudas
O
ne of the hottest topics
in the Paleo genre these
days seems to be the role
of carbohydrates and whether sugar and
starch-based foods have their rightful
place in a Paleo-oriented diet or not.
There also seems to be a question of
what the role of fats should be. Between
Staffan Lindeberg’s Kitavans and
Michael Eades’ (in reference to Michael
Richards’ research) stable isotopic
analysis, Stephan Guynet’s “food
reward” theory and Gary Taubes
dogged low carb stance, not to
mention the likes of Paul Jaminet’s
“safe starches” and Ron Rosedale’s
rebuttals, it seems that there is more
controversy over this than there is
woodwork for it to ooze out of.
Anyone who has read my book,
Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the
Paleo Diet For Total Health and A Longer
Life (Healing Arts Press) knows which
side of the fence I lean toward when
it comes to some of this. I have been
watching these debates happening from
the sidelines for a number of months
now and I’ve remained on the sidelines
mainly due to the demands of my own
professional life which have prevented
me from taking the necessary time to
meaningfully weigh in. I am grateful
to Paleo Magazine for offering me the
platform here to offer my own thoughts
on the matter. Fully recognizing that
the point is not to pretend to offer the
final word but instead offer thoughtful
and respectful discourse to an ongoing
debate.
diets or epidemiological studies of select
populations cannot soundly provide.
Don’t get me wrong, I strongly support
the idea that any approach to optimal
health must, of obvious necessity, take
into account the manner in which we
evolved as a species. If we’ve been eating
a certain way - as hunter-gatherers for the better part of the last 3 million
years, then this is more than sufficient
enough time to have established for
us our physiological makeup and
nutritional requirements. But, in my
view, this is only an essential starting
place. My book expands on this idea
considerably so I’ll leave the reader
to refer to that for more details and a
deeper exploration of this idea.
The world we know and even
climate we live in today is substantially
transformed - even twisted - from what
our most primitive ancestors knew
throughout most of our evolutionary
history. We are far removed from
our natural world, largely ignorant of
Nature’s natural cycles and rhythms and
adrift in a raging sea of self-serving,
multi-national corporate influence and
How do we combat,
compensate for or even
begin to sort all this out?
I am a foundational and functional
thinker by nature so for me it makes
sense to start there and not simply ask
“what did our ancestors do?” but also,
“what were we best designed to do?”
and finally, “what approach confers the
greatest and likeliest advantage to our
most optimal health and longevity?” This
is something mere mimicry of ancient
control coming at us from every side.
What was once entirely self-evident
(as in how to eat) now is fraught with
confusion, emotional and political/
economic agendas. It’s a wonder we’re
even still here.
How do we combat, compensate for
or even begin to sort all this out? One
starting place, going “Beyond the Paleo
Diet” as the subtitle of my book suggests,
is to look at the basic macronutrients that
play a role in our diets and the role these
play in our physiological makeup. This is
something our ancestors might not have
taken the time to consider, of course, they
just ate what was available to them in
order to survive. In my view, we do very
much need to look slightly beyond this
as a modern day model because we are
being challenged to an extreme in today’s
world that even our heartiest ancestor
might not have weathered very well.
This does not mean the hunter-gatherer
diet is invalid to us in any way, just that
we may want to take a few modern day
things (including longevity science) into
consideration to help it work better for
us in this day and age.
Most of us have been taught by
mainstream authorities that we all must,
out of absolute necessity, depend on
glucose as our primary source of fuel,
overlooking the fact that we are actually
designed to make use of at least two basic
forms of energy: carbohydrates (glucose)
and fats (ketones/free fatty acids). But
were we really meant to rely on glucose,
first and foremost? I make a detailed
case in Primal Body, Primal Mind
for why this is fundamentally absurd
from a physiological and evolutionary
standpoint and why it is only really
conditionally true. It’s only true if we
have unnaturally adapted ourselves to a
dependence on glucose as our primary
source of fuel. This is unfortunately the
case for the majority of our Western
culture today, to the considerable
detriment of all but a very few who
handsomely profit from this addiction.
Nature never would have been so stupid
as to design us to be predominantly
dependent on something so volatile,
unreliable and damaging as glucose (i.e.,
sugar and starch). In fact, our bodies
are actually obsessed with maintaining
the lowest level of blood sugar necessary
at any given moment (probably due
to its damaging potential). As such,
this source of energy is prone to large
fluctuations of availability and must be
constantly replenished in anyone mostly
dependent on it. And as the availability
of glucose fluctuates in those dependent
on it, so do moods, energy, cognitive
function and endocrine stability. Good
times.
Most readers are aware that the
primary macronutrient most influential
in stimulating elevations in insulin levels
are carbohydrates and longevity studies
across all species (thanks to the brilliant
award-winning work of Cynthia Kenyon)
have shown that the less our need for
insulin is over the course of our lives the
longer we live and the healthier we are
likely to be by far. Dr. Ron Rosedale,
whose research in this area, and whose
brilliance and integrity I deeply admire,
has stated: “If there is a known single
marker for long life, as found in
centenarian and animal studies, it is low
insulin levels.” This concept helps explain
the mechanism behind the myriad of
benefits associated with modified caloric
restriction--well established as the
ultimate longevity enhancing approach
in everything from yeast to primates.
Consider for a moment those
animals physiologically designed to truly
depend on a carbohydrate-based diet, in
other words, ruminants and herbivores
(of which we are neither). What does
one see them doing all day long? Their
faces are in the bushes and on the
ground eating constantly to sustain their
nutrient, energetic and physiological
needs (of course, the irony here is that
not even ruminants are ultimately fueling
themselves with carbohydrates, but are
instead converting the carbohydrates
they are consuming to saturated fat
through bacterial action--but I digress).
Most Americans don’t look much
different in their feeding behavior (in
a manner of speaking) and the vast
majority of people today are constantly
preoccupied with where their next snack
or meal is coming from.
Continued next page
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Now who do you suppose benefits from
us all eating constantly like livestock? I
can think of a few off the top of my head:
Big Agribusiness (and the petroleum
industry it is dependent upon), the
Food Industry, Big Pharma, the medical
industry, the diet industry and I would
imagine undertakers, too are making out
like bandits. A lot of money, mainstream
nutritional “education”, political effort,
medical advice and big-buck advertising
go into seeing that we all depend mostly
on carbohydrates as our primary food
source. As a result, few people are
more than two missed meals away from
a total state of physiological and mental
chaos. When you really think about
it, nothing could be more profitable, or
fundamentally controlling.
Those of us seeking optimal health
certainly are not the recipients of any real
benefit from this kind of dietary advice.
Unfortunately, most of the Western
World has become physiologically
dependent on sugar and starch (whole
or refined - makes little difference) as
primary sources of fuel. The evidence
that this is problematic lies everywhere
we look, from the obesity epidemic
(and other consequences of metabolic
syndrome), the growing prevalence of
diabetes, heart disease, cancers (long
associated with excess sugars and
insulin levels), autoimmunity, cognitive,
attentional and mental health issues
and on and on and on. And many
of these disease processes, emotional
and cognitive disorders are showing
up in younger and younger people. It
doesn’t take 50 years of metabolic abuse
to see the evidence of the damage
carbohydrate-based diets result in
anymore. This stuff is showing up in
young - even very young children. And
it certainly doesn’t take 50 years to see
what kinds of miracles low carb diets can
do to reverse these issues.
What is the evidence behind the
long term health effects of very low
carbohydrate diets? One poignant
example is certainly Arctic peoples,
whose diet traditionally consisted of
mostly fat and meat (in that order) with
virtually no dietary carbohydrates of
any kind. In his extensive travels over
100,000 miles across the globe studying
the health effects of primitive and
traditional diets over ten years, Weston
A. Price seemed particularly impressed
by the extraordinary physical and mental
robustness of the Inuit. In Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration he wrote:
“In his primitive state he has provided
an example of physical excellence and
dental perfection such as has seldom
been excelled by any race in the past or
present...we are also deeply concerned
to know the formula of his nutrition
in order that we may learn from it the
secrets that will not only aid in the
unfortunate modern or so-called civilized
races, but will also, if possible, provide
means for assisting in their preservation.”
There are some who believe that
some dietary sugar and starch is essential
for their health because of discomfort
they experienced eliminating these and
relief following their re-introduction.
This may be too oversimplified an
association to justify carbohydrate
“necessity”. To a long-time heroin addict
in recovery, for instance, the physiological
affinity for that fix can remain and
“management approach” is an option
reactive compound with wheat, soy,
the person may even experience some
nowadays. One can certainly spend time millet and corn³ ⁴ ⁵ (and associated
“relief ” if they get another dose or go on
constantly managing one’s blood sugar
with allergy/hypersensitivity¹ ³ and
methadone.
in the name of whatever rationalization,
also enterocolitis²), or that nightshades
A low carb diet can also upset
but is it really how you want to live? I
like potatoes are an extremely common
certain unwelcome internal denizens
personally have better things to do with
source of food sensitivity⁶ ⁷ ⁸ (known, too
such as parasites and other chronic
my time.
to be cross-reactive with corn⁹), also; as is
microbial critters that favor the carbs
In my view - although this is a
tapioca¹⁰ mentioned as a healthy starch
and make you unhappy for reducing or
common and accepted option employed
option by Jaminet (so much for “safe”).
eliminating them. That doesn’t mean
by mainstream nutritionists and those
Most people are unlikely to be aware of
carbs were our friend, after all. Excess
offering medical advice, it’s a mistake.
their own immunologic vulnerability to
protein consumption in a new low-carb
Why? Because it serves to maintain a
these foods without accurate testing (see
paleophile can lead to continued glucose
dependence upon a fuel to which we
www.CyrexLabs.com, Array 4 panel).
dependence, as excesses to a significant
as a modern day species are growing
Autoimmunity is silently becoming
extent in the previously sugar addicted
increasingly intolerant, addicted and
a pandemic issue and food sensitivities
are readily converted to glucose, keeping
vulnerable. One that we know from
to post agricultural foods are a major
the craving unwittingly alive. As such,
modern day longevity research is far
contributor. Furthermore, potatoes,
this unnecessary carbohydrate addiction
more likely to shorten rather than
white rice and cereal grains all exceed
(let’s call it what it is) is in constant
prolong the quantity or quality of our
even refined table sugar in their known
search for its rationalizations - the
lives. The health risks of our modern
glycemic and potentially detrimental
term “safe starches” (of which I see
world have never been more pronounced
insulin-provoking effect.
as a bit of an oxymoron) comes to
There is another alternative, and
mind. Perhaps “safe starches” serve
it is the one we were best designed
Dietary fats in the presence
as a form of “methadone” for those
for from the beginning. We are best
who tend toward a certain persistent
of carbohydrates behave very designed to make use of fat - ketones
carbohydrate affinity due to deeper
and fatty acids - as our primary
differently than dietary fats in source of sustainable, even burning
functional disturbances.
That glucose plays some needed
the absence of carbohydrates and reliable fuel. Fats, in general,
roles in the human body does not
play a remarkable variety of essential
mean we necessarily need to consume
roles in our physical structure, brain
sugars or starches to meet that need.
and we have never been so vulnerable.
and nervous system, immune function
There is such a thing as glycolysis
Very, very few people in our
and health. Carbs, by the way, make
and gluconeogenesis, and it should be
modern day society have the genetic
up no more than 2% of our physical
more than sufficient for the majority of
and epigenetic robustness that might
structure - none of which must, of
us to meet whatever need for glucose
give them resistance to metabolic or
necessity, come from the diet.
there is - as long as we have become
immunologic dysregulation. By offering
One fact that gets overlooked in
metabolically adapted to the utilization
absolution for what is a widespread
this debate is that of the three major
of ketones as our primary source of fuel.
addiction in our culture (carbs) with
macronutrients we have available to us
Without question, many of our human
use of the term “safe starches” I find
dietarily, protein, fat and carbohydrates,
ancestors have gone long stretches of
myself highly concerned by where this
the only one for which there is literally
our evolutionary history without access
rationalization might lead for many. It’s
no essential human dietary requirement
to sugary or starchy carbohydrate foods.
not that Paul Jaminet and other Paleois carbohydrates. We can make all the
Were we genuinely dependent on dietary oriented carb proponents don’t make
glucose we need from a combination of
carbohydrates in any fundamental way
some intelligent, thoughtful and even
protein and fat. According to the work
we simply would not have survived as a
compelling points. If all someone wants
of Dr. George Cahill from the Dept. of
species.
to do is eat a small serving of more
Medicine at Harvard University, perhaps
Much emphasis in mainstream
nutrient dense and lower glycemic sweet
the best known expert on starvation
nutritional approaches today is placed
potato or turnips once in a while or toss
metabolism, “Total splanchnic glucose
upon the “management” of blood sugar
a few pieces of jicama in their salads
production [to fulfill body needs] in
issues. This typically comes with the
then I’m not about to start wagging my
several weeks’ starvation amounts to
advice to “eat a big breakfast, never skip
finger at them. When it comes to rice
approximately 80 grams daily.” This is a
meals, eat every two hours…etc”. Can
or regular potatoes, however, there are
significant gap between what is known
you imagine what hellish challenges
potential problems. And cooking doesn’t about what the body’s response to its
our Ice Age ancestors would have faced
solve them.
own needs and the figure of 100+ grams
with this set of so-called “requirements”?
Many are unaware that apart
per day of the proposed dietary glucose
We would long since have gone the
from the starch/insulin issue, rice is a
way of the dodo bird. Of course, this
potentially (and increasingly) crossContinued next page
need offered by Jaminet
(this, of course, would be in addition
to whatever one might internally
manufacture, as well). Furthermore,
Cahill asserts through his own research
that: “An approximation for clinical
use is that if a diet contains over 100
grams carbohydrate, there is no ketosis
(<0.1 mM)”11. According to Siegell,
et al 1999 in the textbook, Basic
Neurochemistry “cerebral utilization
of ketones is increased more or less
in direct proportion to the degree
of ketosis.” It is our red blood cells
alone that do maintain a true constant
dependence upon glucose at all times,
but the needs of our red blood cells are
of necessity easily met by glycolysis and
gluconeogenesis. Our brains (and the
rest of us) certainly can and do make
some use of glucose-particularly in states
of emergency or with extreme exertion.
Although the brain does continue to
make some very small use of glucose
under fully adapted ketogenic conditions
this is a far cry away from the claim by
some (not necessarily Jaminet) that it
should be our primary source of fuel all
the time. It was never meant to be so.
Glucose is meant to be an auxiliary
and supplemental fuel for us. It is
anaerobic and fermentative in its nature
and transient in its surges of availability.
It is our version of rocket fuel. Who
needs rocket fuel in their engines to drive
to work every day? Do you really want
your engine to burn that hot all the time?
Would you want
to take this sort
of toll on your
vehicle? Rocket
fuel is great for
providing that powerful “lift
off ” when you really need
it but isn’t necessarily what
actually gets you all the
way to the moon.
The vast
majority of
everything
our
brains do
every day,
once metabolically adapted, can not
only comfortably depend on but even
thrive on ketones. And unlike glucose,
ketones do not promote free radical
activity, inflammation or glycation, much
less sympathetic over-arousal. Ketones
don’t damage nerve tissue or brain
cells. Ketones are not disruptive of our
endocrine function, nor do they elevate
insulin levels or compromise our immune
function. Moreover, even the slenderest
among us has ample body fat to maintain
a constant, even supply of vital ketogenic
energy for long, extended periods of time
- even in the absence of regular meals.
Does it not make sense that
nature would have allowed for a
foundational physiological design
that could compensate for less than
regular food availability (especially
for Ice Age humans, of which we all
are physiologically)? There can be
nothing more liberating metabolically
or energetically than cultivating a well
adapted ketogenic metabolism. By the
way, as an aside, if you happen to be
an elite athlete then we need to have a
slightly different discussion. For now, I
am mainly speaking to average people of
all ages leading average and moderately
active lives.
In truth, it takes time to restore a
healthy metabolic dependence on fats
rather than sugars as a primary source of
fuel. It can take a number of weeks for
the average person to effectively make
this metabolic conversion. For some this
transition happens almost seamlessly
and for others (more entrenched in this
dependence, addiction, or metabolic
dysregulation) it seems to constitute
more of a struggle. Chronic parasitic
and other types of infections make this
harder, as one’s internal unwelcome
guests can generate carb cravings
and dysglycemia all on their own. In
my experience much of the more
common types of potential discomfort
can be averted by using intermediate
supplements or by adding more coconut
oil as “training wheels” during the
transition (I talk about these and how to use
them in my book).
Keep in mind, too, that (as Dr.
Richard Feinman would put it) dietary
fats in the presence of carbohydrates
behave very differently than dietary fats
in the absence of carbohydrates. In the
absence of that sugar and starch, natural
dietary fat (animal fats of all kinds, seeds
and nuts, olive oil, avocados, fish oils,
etc) can be enjoyed to satiety and are
unlikely to contribute to weight gain
or metabolic issues by themselves. No
need for special restrictions. The amount
of fat we eat takes care of itself in the
presence of leptin. If you’re eating a
starchy baked potato with that scoop
of butter, though, then all bets are off.
Also, not entirely related, in a person
having compromised hydrochloric acid
production (an extremely prevalent issue)
the combination of starchy foods and
complete protein could well be further
impairing of this problem.
Given the overwhelming evidence
of the potential problems associated
with a carbohydrate diet in our modern
day culture, over-run with those who
struggle with being “metabolically
deranged”, as some might put it; given
the constant need for fuel replenishment
that comes with being a “carbovore”, the
commonality of digestive impairment,
the overall inferior nutrient density
of carbohydrate-based foods; given
what is known from modern longevity
studies about the benefit of minimizing
insulin’s role in our bodies over the
course of our lives (and maximizing
“nutrient density per calorie”), given
the association between blood sugar
surges, endocrine dysregulation and
inflammation (and all this implies), the
free radical activity and sympathetic
over-arousal blood sugar surges readily
promote, the addictive nature of “carbs”,
the presence of dietary lectins, gluten and
other sources of common food sensitivity
reactions in many carbohydrate-based
foods (commonly leading to autoimmune
conditions - presently the third leading
cause of morbidity and mortality in the
industrialized world); given the fact
that they feed yeast overgrowth, cancer
cells and other microbial and parasitic
overgrowth (all of which can also result
in carbohydrate cravings in you which
aren’t even yours), plus the cumulative
(uncontrolled, non-enzymatic) glycation
effects of sugar and starch and the fact
that there is literally no essential human
dietary requirement for dietary sugar or
starch whatsoever make the lower-carb
argument side to this debate a no-brainer
for me.
Overall, it feels much “safer” for me
on this side of the fence. I’ll personally
pass on the potatoes and rice, thank you.
• Cavemen did it!
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• Squatting aligns the body
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References
1 Asero, R, et al. (2007). Rice: Another potential
cause of food allergy in patients sensitized to lipid
transfer protein. Int Arch Allergy Immunol, 143,
69-74.
2 Gray, HC, et al. (2004). Rice-induced
enterocolitis in an infant: TH1/TH2 cellular
hypersensitivity and absent IgE reactivity. Ann
Allergy Asthma Immunol, 93, 601-605.
3 Lehrer, SB, et al. (1999). Corn Allergens: IgE
antibody reactivity and cross-reactivity with rice,
soy and peanut. Int Arch Allergy Immunol, 118,
298-299.
4 Urisu, A, et al. (1991). 16-kilodalton rice protein
is one of the major allergens in rice grain extract
and responsible for cross-allergenicity between
cereal grains in the poaceae family. Int Arch Allergy
Immunol, 96(3), 244-252.
5 Yamada, K, et al. (1991). The involvement of
rice protein 16KD in cross-allergenicity between
antigens in rice, wheat, corn, Japanese millet, Italian
millet. [ Japanese] Arerugi, 40(12), 1485-1492.
6 Castells, MC, et al. (1986). Allergy to white
potato. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 78(6), 1110-1114.
7 De Swet, LFA, et al. (2007). Diagnosis and
natural course of allergy to cooked potatoes in
children. Allergy, 62(7), 750-757.
8 Racusen, D., Foote, M. (1980). A major soluble
glycoprotein of potato tubers. J Food Biochem,
4(1), 43-52.
9 Castells, MC, et al. (1986). Allergy to white
potato. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 78(6), 1110-1114.
10 Ibero, M, et al. (2007). Allergy to cassava: a
new allergenic food with cross-reactivity to latex. J
Investig Allergol Clin Immunol, 17(6), 409-412.
11 Cahill, Jr., George F. (2006). Fuel Metabolism in
Starvation. Annu Rev Nutr, 26, 1-22.
Paleo and “safe” starches
• Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution
Episode 69
http://www.robbwolf.com
/2011/03/01/
the-paleo-solution-episode-69/
• Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb.com
Is There Any Such Thing As ‘Safe
Starches’ On A Low-Carb Diet?
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/
blog/is-there-any-such-thingas-safe-starches-on-a-low-carbdiet/11809
• PaleoHacks.com
http://paleohacks.com/
questions/68656/dr-ron-rosedalesrecent-posts-about-safe-starcheswhat-do-you-think#axzz1o00Qqsm9
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From The Doc
Paleo - How Can You Not?
By: Dr. Jason Kremer DC, CCSP, CSCS
As I promote the Paleo lifestyle among my patients, colleagues, friends and family, I am often met with puzzled looks
and skepticism. It’s not surprising that many have a hard time understanding why removing things like grains, dairy, and soy
from one’s diet would possibly be beneficial. After all, isn’t wheat the “staff of life” and dairy is what makes our bones strong?
While these products are certainly marketed to be necessities in any healthy diet, I’m actually convinced that they are in fact not
necessary food groups.
You simply can’t avoid the fact that we are what we eat and I’m a firm believer that consuming a healthy balanced diet is the
best way to ensure that you are leading a healthy, balanced life! In an effort to address the skeptics and the critics, I’ve compiled
the following top ten reasons why I use and promote the Paleo diet for many of my patients. Keep in mind that this doesn’t have
to be a one-size-fits-all plan and can be catered to each individual’s needs and goals.
1
Limited
GMOs
According
to the USDA, over 75% of
corn and over 90% of
soy have been genetically
modified and over 75% of
the processed foods in our supermarkets
contain genetically modified ingredients.
While GMO’s haven’t been around long
enough to understand the damage that
they can do to our health, neither have
the recently discovered unidentified
strains of proliferating bacteria in our gut.
Connection?
2
Nutrient Balance
Paleo encourages a more
balanced intake of proteins,
carbs, and healthy fats. The
primary role of grains (and carbohydrates
in general) in the body is to provide energy,
while proteins and fats help with everything
from combating inflammation, to repairing
tissues, vitamin absorption, and promoting
cognitive function. Thus, a balance of
these nutrients is vital for optimal health
while an imbalance of these nutrients, as
in the typical Western diet, will promote fat
accumulation and other health issues.
3
Elimination of Gluten
If you’ve been following my
column I’m sure you know where
I stand when it comes to the
health issues related to gluten. Current
statistics are showing that many, if not
most, people have some type
of sensitivity to gluten and
these numbers continue
to rise.
4
Elimination of
Aspartame, Nitrites,
High-Fructose Corn
Syrup, MSG, Artificial Food
Colorings, Sulfur Dioxide,
Trans Fats, Sulfites, and
other Sweeteners, Fillers,
and Preservatives
Do I really need to explain how nothing
good can come from the above
ingredients? That will be an
upcoming article all in itself.
5
Eliminating
Common
Food Allergens
Did you know that humans are
the only mammal that consume
dairy as an adult and in fact
most people have some degree
of dairy sensitivity or lactose
intolerance. In addition, cases
of peanut allergies, gluten sensitivities,
Celiac disease and soy allergies are
increasing daily. Currently, soy, dairy,
peanuts, wheat, eggs, shellfish, fish and
tree nuts are the top allergens in America.
The Paleo diet automatically rids four of
these major allergens.
6
Increased Fruit and
Vegetables
The vitamins, minerals and
phytonutrients found in fresh fruits and
vegetables have been linked to everything
from fighting inflammation, to lowering
cholesterol, reducing bodyfat,
improving cellular function and
preventing cancer.
7
Anti-inflammatory
8
Healthy Body
Composition
9
Mindful Eating
Inflammation is known as the
Silent Killer. As we’ve known for
years, there is a link between
inflammation and heart disease, cancer,
Alzheimer’s and many other diseases.
Paleo encourages foods with antiinflammatory properties and avoids those
which increase inflammation.
The obesity epidemic is still on
the rise. Paleo not only improves body
composition but also eliminates the Yo-Yo
dieting which stems from many fad diets.
The Paleo diet promotes a more
mindful relationship with food.
With Paleo you must plan ahead,
shop for your food in advance and take
time to prepare your food before enjoying
it. These acts of actually having to ‘hunt
and gather’ food help enforce a more
mindful and appreciative relationship with
the nutrients being consumed.
10
Family
Togetherness
A Paleo lifestyle can also
bring a family closer together by promoting
healthy, home cooked meals over dining
out. This lifestyle can also be a great
way to get kids involved in selecting and
preparing meals, shopping or even growing
a garden of quality organic foods. These
practices instill healthy eating habits that
children will be able to draw upon as they
grow.
Paleo Body
By: Liz Wolfe
I’m pretty passionate about “natural” body and home care. And I don’t
mean the “natural” cleaning sprays and lotions you buy at the corner (largecorporateconglomerate) drugstore. Those are, in most cases, just another money
drain.
“Natural” isn’t a regulated term, it means whatever the manufacturer wants it to
mean. When I say “natural,” I mean the stripped-down, no-frills, back-to-basics stuff
our grandparents used before Brand X convinced us that we weren’t clean, fresh, or
sanitary without their product.
I’ve written about the “Holy Trinity” – vinegar, baking soda, and coconut oil. If you
could only use three things to clean and refresh your body and home for the rest of your life,
those would be the three. If you could have one more, I’d say opt for some Soap Nuts (I wrote about
these in a previous issue), if not because they’re amazing, at least because of the funky, intriguing name.
To that solid initial offering you could add soda ash and Borax, some lemon juice, and a few essential oils. A good rag or two
ensures you’re as environmentally-friendly as possible. (Self-satisfied smirk encouraged.)
But what happens when the truly natural turns around and bites you in the coconut? Case in point: Essential oils. These
aren’t to be toyed with. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can literally burn your face off. (Thank you, Oregano oil, for
teaching me this valuable life lesson.) Plenty of legitimate “natural” products are created by well-meaning enthusiasts who don’t
know that Tea Tree Oil may not belong on your eyelids.
And what about those lovely grease marks all over your favorite clothes? Coconut oil may be a great moisturizer, but too
much of it is likely to create a suffocating oil slick.
I certainly wouldn’t advocate traveling with a “No Shampoo” setup including vials of baking soda and apple cider vinegar. (For
the less criminally inclined: imagine the consequences of attempting to board an airplane with what looks like hard drugs and a
clean “specimen.” Not smart.)
Even natural, granny-friendly items like soda ash and borax should be used intelligently. I have to be careful when homemaking certain cleaning products, as they’re not so lung-friendly when inhaled accidentally.
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Paleo Body
So “home-made” and “natural” aren’t always the methods that’ll provide the greatest return-on-investment. People are often
surprised when they come to my home, because my vanity is stocked with more than a few sodas, vinegars and coconut oil. I
actually really enjoy a few select (chemical-free, well-made, truly natural) commercially-available products, and am happy to spend
my hard-earned money on the few that are worth using. These are a few of my favorites!
This list is my no means exhaustive, and I’ve toyed around with plenty of Cave-Girl-Approved products that have caught my
eye since I started this “Paleo” journey. If you have others you’d suggest, drop by my blog (CaveGirlEats.com) and let me know
your favorites. Above all – watch where you put that Oregano oil!
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps
The real Dr. Bronner was a holocaust survivor and
eccentric soap-maker whose deepest
beliefs are still splashed across the very
information-dense Dr. Bronner’s labels.
These soaps are environmentally
friendly (as long as you re-use
the bottles) and a combination
of things like saponified
coconut and olive oils, hemp oil,
peppermint oil and Vitamin E.
I travel with a sample size and
use these soaps to do everything
from stain removal to hair
washing (always followed by a
vinegar rinse).
DrBronner.com
Grandma’s Lye
Soap
Soapmaking is an
art, and I prefer
not to do it myself.
While we truly don’t
need body soap for
much more than
the pits n’ “bits,” I
firmly believe that a
good lye soap is one
of the most gentle
cleans you can get.
My favorite is this
one, made of lard, lye
and water, and sold at
many hardware stores or online at
SecretsofSuzanne.com
Great Marsh Skin Care
Peppermint Lavender Foot
Soak
My feet are disgusting after a long day (or a short one), and
this artisanal, individually made bath goodie makes them...
well...not.
www.GreatMarshSkinCare.com
Tropical Traditions
Cleaning Supplies
For those folks who prefer to
outsource the creation of their home
cleaning products, Tropical Traditions
has a whole lineup of totally
biodegradable, SLS and phthalatefree items –
from counter cleaner to laundry
and dishwashing soap. I keep a
5-lb container of laundry soap
nearby for when I run low on
Soap Nuts, and their hand
soap is a great substitute for
chemical-filled, Triclosanbased “sanitizing” sinkside
hand soaps.
TropicalTraditions.com
Green Pasture Beauty
Balm
This facial balm is literally
baby’s bottom-izing. It
makes my skin so soft, I’ve
forced many a stranger to
stroke my cheek. (Okay,
not really. But I’ve come
close.) It’s a combination
of shea butter, actual butter
oil, fermented cod liver oil,
and coconut oil. It doesn’t
have that greasy, coconut-oil-overdose
feeling and is absorbed beautifully. I
love it under the eyes – and pretty much
anywhere else.
www.GreenPasture.org
Paleo Pantry List
Courtesy of Diana Rodgers
Just getting started on Paleo? Congratulations! Here’s a basic shopping list to get
you going.
Beverages: Water, electrolyte enhanced water, coconut water and herbal teas.
For those who still choose to drink alcohol, tequila is a better choice than beer or
sugary mixed drinks. Mix two shots of tequila with the juice of one lime over ice,
and top with soda water for a Robb Wolf “NorCal Margarita.”
Proteins: Look for grass fed meats, pasture raised eggs, free range chicken and
wild caught fish. Eggs, pork (including bacon and sausage), poultry, beef, veal,
lamb, game meats (venison, elk), fish and shellfish. Jerky and sardines are great for
snacks.
Fats for cooking: Coconut oil, ghee, butter, lard, tallow.
Vegetables: Visit your local farmers market or seek out the freshest, local produce you can find. Cooked vegetables are easier to digest than raw. Roots and
tubers should be peeled. A basic list could include: onions, garlic, carrots, celery,
cauliflower, cucumbers, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, cabbage, mushrooms, peppers,
broccoli, sweet potatoes and winter squash.
Fruits: Go easy on the fruits and focus on berries. Avocados, tomatoes, limes and
lemons are great to have at all times.
Nuts: Just like fruits, go easy on the nuts. They contain high amounts of omega-6
fatty acids and have
anti-nutrients like phytates. It’s best to soak and sprout nuts. The best choices are
macadamia nuts, cashews and hazelnuts.
Herbs & Spices: As many as you can find! Watch out for blends that may
contain fillers or MSG. Fill your cabinets with herbs and spices, and look for fresh
ones like cilantro, basil and parsley at the farmers market or store. Switch your
table and Kosher salt to sea salt.
Other Random Items: Coconut milk, chicken and beef broth, canned tomatoes,
tomato paste, capers, olives, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, canned fish (tuna
& sardines), almond butter and other nut butters, canned chipotles in adobo sauce,
mustard, cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, curry paste, coconut
aminos and wheat-free tamari, almond and coconut flour, olive oil (for salad dressing and light cooking), honey, maple syrup for occasional use in those fun Paleo
muffin recipes.
Paleo Shopping Resources
Meats
US Wellness Meats www.grasslandbeef.com
Lava Lake Lamb www.lavalakelamb.com
Black Pig Meat Company www.blackpigmeatco.com
Fats
Tropical Traditions www.tropicaltraditions.com
Kasandrinos Imports www.kasandrinos.com
Paleo Sample Weekly Menu
My nutrition clients always find it helpful when starting paleo to see what a sample
week meals looks like. Please adjust portions and carbs to your specific needs. For
a more tailored daily or weekly menu, based on your personal food preferences,
check out www.personalpaleocode.com.
Monday
From Diana Rodgers
Tuesday
Breakfast Hard boiled eggs and 1/4 cantaloupe
Breakfast Breakfast sausage with one cup pineapple
Snack (Optional) Handful of macadamia nuts with one
carrot
Lunch Roast beef rolled up with avocado and lettuce
inside, side of sweet potato fries
Lunch Salad with canned wild salmon, cucumbers,
peppers, tomatoes, olive oil and lemon juice for dressing
Dinner Roasted chicken, sage and butternut squash
soup (recipe link below), sauteed kale with garlic in
coconut oil
Dinner (Out!) Burger with no bun, side of roasted
sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli
Wednesday
Breakfast Morning Paleo Smoothie (recipe link below)
Lunch Last night’s leftover roasted chicken over a
green salad with fresh orange and fennel
Dinner Last night’s leftover roasted chicken in a curry
with coconut milk, curry powder and bok choy. Side of
mashed sweet potatoes.
paleodietlifestyle.com/morning-paleo-smoothie
Friday
Breakfast Ham steak, sauteed spinach and onions, side
of sauerkraut
Lunch Paleo salmon salad, using last night’s leftover
salmon (recipe link below*)
Dinner Paleo Grass-fed Beef Shanks (recipe link
below**) with side salad
*paleolunchrecipes-lunchpaleorecipes.blogspot.com
**cavemanstrong.com/2011/12/paleo-grass-fed-beef-shanks
fastpaleo.com/sage-and-butternut-squash-soup
Thursday
Breakfast Omelet with sundried tomatoes, spinach
and onion, side of bacon
Lunch Chicken Chili Soup (recipe link below)
Dinner Roasted salmon with a veggie stir fry
everydaypaleo.com/2010/11/12/chicken-chili-soup
Saturday
Breakfast Grain-free Zucchini Pancakes (recipe link
below)
Lunch Leftover beef shanks from last night
Dinner Primal Moussaka (recipe link below)
*balancedbites.com/2011/02/easy-recipe-grain-freezucchini-pancakes.html
**marksdailyapple.com/primal-moussaka/#axzz1jSfueqPt
Sunday
Brunch Eggplant Hole in the Head (from Make It
Paleo Cookbook, pg 46)
Snack Beef jerky with berries
Dinner Apple and Bacon Rosemary Pork Burgers
(recipe link below*) with Flourless Chocolate Cake
(recipe link below**) for dessert
*paleomg.com/paleo-apple-and-bacon-rosemary-pork-burgers
**masteringtheartofpaleocooking.com/2011/01/25/flourlesschocolate-cake
Beet with
Kvass
Ginger & Cayenne
From: Lisa Herndon
Food
Be sure to read this recipe all the way through before you start.
This will ensure that your first batch comes out great!
Ingredients
• Pickl-it Jar (I recommend the 1.5 Liter or 2-Liter to start)
• Organic Beets (peeled and chopped into approx 2-inch cubes)
• Natural Salt (not iodized salt and no anti-caking agents in ingredients)
• Ginger (peeled and sliced in 1 inch pieces)
• Filtered or spring water (NOT tap water because the chlorine will kill the
beneficial flora)
• 1/8 teaspoon or less of cayenne (optional – added after primary fermentation)
Important Tips
Primary Fermentation
• Beets should be large and detached from greens for at least a week to
concentrate the sugars
• Try to choose beets that are at least the size of your fist.
• You can vary the color of the final kvass by choosing different varieties
of beets. The orange
• Golden beets result in a beautiful orange tonic, Chioggia or striped
pink/white results in a light pink tonic, and the traditional purple beets
results in a deep wine colored tonic. The chiogga and the golden beets
are milder in flavor or less “beety.”
The key is to use 1/3 beet volume to 2/3 brine
1. Place clean peeled chopped beets into glass jar so that it is 1/3 of the volume.
2. Add a few small 2-inch chunks of peeled ginger. Make sure that the beets are not too small otherwise it will ferment too
quickly.
3. Make brine. Add about 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of salt per quart - you may prefer more and can adjust for the next batch.
4. Dissolve salt completely.
5. Fill brine to the shoulder of the jar. Add airlock with filtered water. Keep out of direct light at room temperature.
6. Keep this in a warm place (mid 70s to low 80s) for 7 to 9 days - you may see bubbles forming on the top - this means you have
some active cultures thriving. Taste it after several days - mine usually takes at least 8 days maybe longer in cooler weather. It
should not taste like salty water.
A Salty water – keep going with the first or primary fermentation.
B Not salty water – than proceed to the second fermentation.
Secondary Fermentation (To add some fizz and depth)
Strain the beets and/or ginger out - put the juice back into a flip-top glass bottle (I use a 1-Liter bottle)
Optional:
Add cayenne or alternative flavor listed below (less than 1/8 teaspoon), seal and let it go for a several more days – even weeks. If
it tastes good - than go ahead and stick it in the fridge - it tends to develop better taste over time. It will become richer, deeper in
flavor and become fizzier. Some of my best kvass is several months old! I prefer to drink it cold.
Note: The beets that are taken out are now fermented or pickled – you may find them tasty and if so, save them with a light salt
brine. Alternatively you can continue to ferment the beets for a few more days – they will become more “pickled”. My kids love
them but I don’t care for them… see what you think.
Everyday Paleo Shrimp Ceviche
From: EverydayPaleo.com
Ingredients
Process
1 lemon, sliced into rounds
4-6 cups water
1 lb extra large, wild caught raw shrimp,
shelled, deveined and tail removed
1 cup full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup red onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, diced
Juice from 1/2 a lime
1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Sea salt and white pepper to taste
1. In a large pot, bring the water and lemon slices and a big pinch of
sea salt to a boil.
2. Add the shrimp and cook for 3 minutes, or until they turn pink and
rise to the top.
3. Remove the shrimp immediately from the boiling water and dunk
into ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain shrimp and set
aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
5. Add the cooled/drained shrimp to the coconut milk mixture,
mix well and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.
6. Serve in Martini glasses for a fun twist.
Option
Top with diced mango!
Food
Beef Brisket with RoastedFrom:Vegetables
Primal-Palate.com
Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover, this brisket is a fantastic holiday
dinner option. The brisket roasts with a host of colorful vegetables,
making both the entree and the side dish at the same time.
Ingredients
Process
2-3 lb grass-fed beef brisket
1 vidalia onion, quartered
3 turnips, chopped
5 large carrots, chopped
10 whole cloves of garlic, skin on
1 large handful each of fresh thyme and fresh sage
1-2 cups homemade beef stock (or bone broth)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to bake at 350o.
2. Rinse brisket under cool water and pat dry with a paper towel.
3. Season generously on both sides with salt and pepper.
4. Place vegetables into the bottom of a large roasting pan or
dutch oven.
5. Place brisket on top of vegetables and pour stock over meat and
vegetables.
6. Top with fresh herbs and place in the oven, uncovered, for one
hour.
7. After one hour, turn oven temperature down to 325o, cover
dutch oven and continue to bake for five more hours, or until the
brisket is tender.
Food
Nut Free Granola
From: Paleo Magazine Test Kitchen
Ingredients
Process
1/2 cup organic raw pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup organic raw sunflower seed kernels
1/4 cup organic raisins
1/4 cup organic dried cherries
1/4 cup unsweetened organic coconut flakes
1/4 cup pure Grade B maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
1. Mix all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl, coating
everything well with the maple syrup.
Option
Instead of dried cherries, try diced apples and
add some cinnamon for fall flavor!
2. Spread the mixture evenly on a parchment lined baking
sheet.
3. Bake in a 350o oven for 12-15 minutes, or until coconut
is golden. Stir once half way through.
4. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. If you
choose, now is the time to toss in a few pieces of crushed
dark chocolate.
5. When completely cooled, mixture will be crunchy and
delicious! Use as a snack or put some in a bowl with a little
coconut milk for breakfast cereal in the morning.
Food
Egg Custard
with Bacon, Mushrooms
and Chives
From: Primal-Palate.com
These are a fun way to spice up a family brunch. Enjoy this
breakfast with a side of fresh fruit, sauteed vegetables or both!
Ingredients
4 eggs
5 strips of bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
1 cup of white mushrooms, chopped
2 TBSP chives, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Process
1. Preheat oven to 350o.
2. Fry bacon in a cast iron skillet on medium heat
until crispy.
3. Remove bacon from skillet and reserve excess
bacon fat in a small glass dish.
4. Saute mushrooms in seasoned skillet until tender
about 3 minutes.
5. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk eggs and
coconut milk until fluffy.
6. Season eggs with salt and pepper.
7. Crumble bacon and add to egg mixture.
8. Add mushrooms and chives and stir until all
are evenly combined.
9. Pour egg mixture into four
6-oz ramekins.
10. Place ramekins on a
baking sheet.
11. Bake for 30-40
minutes or until
eggs are set.
Food
Passover Almond Macaroons
From: Primal-Palate.com
These tasty macaroons are the perfect “not so
sweet” treat for the end of any meal. The hint of
lemon zest compliments the slightly sweet flavor
of almonds beautifully in this recipe.
Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp pure almond extract
Pinch of salt
1 TBSP lemon zest
1 cup blanched almond flour
Process
1. Preheat oven to bake at 350o.
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whip egg whites
until frothy.
3. Add vanilla extract, almond extract and salt.
Continue to whip on high until egg whites form
stiff peaks.
4. Fold in lemon zest.
5. Slowly fold in almond flour, 1/4 cup at a time.
6. Drop balls of batter on a parchment lined baking
sheet.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly brown on
the top.
Organic Pastured
Sustainable Heritage Free-Ra
Grass-Fed
Find Local Produce
Local Harvest
www.localharvest.org
Eat Well Guide
www.eatwellguide.org
Local Dirt
www.localdirt.com
Slow Food USA
www.slowfoodusa.org
Free-Range Grass-Fed Herit
Paleo and dental health
By: David Csonka
The World Health Organization
estimates that there are close to 1.9
million dentists and related dentistry
personnel employed throughout the
world, and they all certainly have their
hands full. Just take a look at some of
these statistics.
About 78 percent of Americans have
had at least one cavity by age 17, and
almost 80 percent of the U.S. population
has some form of periodontal gum
disease. By all accounts, maintaining
good dental health is a battle, one that
many people are losing.
One reason might be steadily
increasing costs of dental treatments and
health care insurance coverage in general.
According to the U.S. Department
of Health & Human Services, dental
services expenditures are expected to
increase steadily at a compound annual
growth rate of approximately 5.4 percent
through 2019.
However, lifestyles, and most
importantly diet, have a far-reaching
effect on dental health. The generally
high-carb, and predominantly sugarladen foods found in the Standard
American Diet are a significant
contributor to the development of
cavities in even otherwise healthy people.
Tooth decay is caused by specific
types of acid-producing bacteria
that cause damage in the presence of
fermentable carbohydrates such as
sucrose, fructose, and glucose. The
mineral content of teeth is sensitive to
increases in acidity from the production
of lactic acid via this carbohydrate stock.
But cavities aren’t the only problem
we’re facing, periodontal or gum disease
is just as potentially devastating, and it
seems that just about every child grows
up needing orthodontic braces of some
sort to straighten out their teeth. So
what can you do as a concerned parent or
patient?
For one, keep dental health care
coverage as important as standard
medical care. The sad truth is that
untended dental caries can lead to
deadly infections and abscesses. As well,
periodontal disease correlates
strongly with heart disease
and strokes, potentially due
to increased inflammation and
subsequent vascular damage.
Luckily for you, somebody
eating a paleo-style diet has a
much better chance than the
average person at avoiding these
health risks.
First of all, a paleo diet is
generally lower in carbohydrates,
reducing your intake of sugars like
sucrose and fructose, which are feeding
those harmful bacteria in your mouth.
While a paleo-style diet doesn’t have
to be low carb, the usual experience
for most people is that when they start
excluding processed foods, breads and
sugary drinks, their carbohydrate intake
drops significantly.
Other carb foods, such as sweet
potatoes, while broken down somewhat
in your mouth by enzymes like amylase,
are primarily starch which is not as
immediately accessible by the bacteria,
but there is not much evidence that this
provides much protection.
The truth is, your teeth are in
a constant state of breakdown and
remineralization. The process of eating
food causes damage to your teeth and
the acids formed by your oral bacteria
further weaken their enamel. However, if
all necessary nutrients and minerals are
available, your body is able to repair the
damage, maintaining the status quo.
That is where food quality and even
the types of carbohydrates you eat come
into play. First of all, many grain, nut,
and legume based plant foods contain
large quantities of phytates. These
compounds cause necessary minerals
to be chelated, or made bio-unavailable
during digestion. Heavy reliance on
foods of these types are one reason that
many people are deficient in the minerals
that are needed by the human body to
help remineralize the enamel in their
teeth. You can either choose to avoid
those foods entirely, or employ tactics
like soaking them in water in order to
reduce the amount of phytic acid present.
However, even if you avoid
compounds like phytates, the amount
of useful minerals in the food supply
is limited at best, due to years of
unsustainable agriculture. Don’t be
fooled by the RDA labels and listings
provided by the government, as this is
based on decades old information. To
combat this problem, it’s important to
make sure you get enough magnesium,
most easily through supplements like
Magnesium citrate, and balance this
appropriately with your intake of
calcium, through dark leafy greens or
bone broths, and also phosphorus.
Another critical component to the
process of enamel remineralization is
the famous “Activator X”, discovered
by the dental pioneer Weston A. Price,
and more recently concluded to be
Vitamin K-2. Price found that when
he combined this compound with
high vitamin cod liver oil, his patients
exhibited a profound ability to repair
existing cavities over time, in some cases
completely remineralizing dental caries
with a new layer of enamel.
The science behind this
phenomenon has since caught up, and
determined that Vitamins A, D, and
K-2 all interact synergistically in the
processes of up-regulating the activity of
osteoblasts (which grow bone), increasing
mineralization of teeth and bones, and
properly funneling necessary minerals
to those appropriate tissues, rather than
vascular and soft tissues. The trick is to
Continued next page
ensure that you get adequate amounts of
all of these important vitamins.
A paleo-inspired lifestyle will
certainly help you to accomplish
this. Plenty of activity outside during
bright summer days will let your body
synthesize adequate amounts of Vitamin
D. Supplementing a few thousand
units of D3 a day will help to offset any
deficiencies due to modern life. Organ
meats like liver will make sure that there
is plenty of Vitamin A in your diet.
Supplementing with high vitamin cod
liver oil can be an easy way to get these
levels up without eating meat.
Vitamin K-2 can be acquired in your
diet in sufficient quantities by eating
foods like pastured and grass-fed animal
products. Weston A. Price utilized butter
oil from grass-fed dairy cows as the other
component (along with cod liver oil) to his
miraculous tooth healing medicine.
It’s essential to recognize that
simply asserting that Paleolithic humans
did not suffer from tooth decay, and as
such we should eat this way, would be
incorrect. There is ample anthropological
evidence to suggest that dental health in
general was widely variable during the
Paleolithic.
Cavities are a problem that
humans have faced for a very long time.
Incidental environmental changes and
poor quality of food supplies meant that
even our hardiest of ancestors ran into
problems with their teeth. It’s important
to remember that by sourcing the highest
quality foods, avoiding those which cause
problems, and ensuring that we obtain all
of the necessary vitamins in appropriate
amounts, we can help our body to do
precisely what it evolved to do: give us a
sparkling smile.
References
1 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_industry
2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_caries
3 www.adha.org/media/facts/oral_health_fast_
facts.htm
4 www.dentalplans.com/press-room/dental-carefacts.asp
5 www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/publications/factsheets/
sgr2000_fs1.htm
6 www.nidcr.nih.gov/OralHealth/Topics/
GumDiseases/PeriodontalGumDisease.htm
7 www.westonaprice.org/notes-from-yesteryear/
understanding-weston-price-on-primitive-wisdom
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The first and only magazine dedicated to the Paleo lifestyle and evolutionary health.
MOVNAT
RECONNECT TO YOUR TRUE NATURE
Moving Naturally
By: Clifton Harski
A species-specific approach is at
the core of the MovNat philosophy and
practice, and it is what makes MovNat
so unique in the field of fitness. Indeed,
MovNat focuses first on “moving
naturally” and second on “moving in
nature.” While “moving in nature” could
involve any type of physical activity, from
conventional fitness to tango, mime,
freestyle walking, or mountain biking,
“moving naturally” does not.
Of course, if you were to understand
“moving naturally” as moving
spontaneously or even randomly, then
any movement would qualify. You could
also argue that, since we all have natural
bodies, (we haven’t traded them for
cybernetic ones, at least not yet) then all
movement patterns produced by those
natural bodies are automatically natural.
But our point is not to discuss the
naturalness of each and every possible
movement pattern a human body could
perform. Instead, we want to better
understand and define what essential
principles make a fitness concept and
movement practice such as MovNat
qualify as “natural.”
So, does any physical activity,
obviously involving some form of
movement, qualify as “natural”? If yes,
then why would yoga be more natural
than body-building for instance, and
why would running be more natural
than skiing? If any movement a human
body could perform could be labeled
as “natural,” then why bother talking
about “natural” movement or moving
“naturally”? Wouldn’t it be simpler to
just talk about “movement”? My point
is, if we’re going to associate the words
“natural” and “movement” then this
association must refer to something
specific and meaningful.
So what does it really mean to
move naturally? To move your body
in a natural environment, barefoot and
shirtless, regardless of the way you
move? To solely practice calisthenics,
i.e., body-weight conditioning drills?
Is it yoga or tai-chi? Is it a strength
and conditioning program based on
using only stones and logs?
This is not moving naturally, this
is conventional fitness in the woods!
For sure some exercise is better
than none, and spending some time
outdoors is better than being indoors
all of the time, but…Moving naturally
is none of those things.
How would a human animal
move? Simply put, moving naturally
for humans means moving the ways
the human animal moves when living
a natural life in a natural environment.
It is doing exactly what the tiger, wolf,
elephant, dolphin, or eagle all do:
performing the movement aptitudes
that belong to their species in order
to ensure their survival. Birds fly, fish
swim, snakes slither, monkeys climb,
horses run, kangaroos jump. What
about humans? Human beings possess
locomotive skills, such as walking,
running, jumping, balancing, crawling,
climbing, or swimming. In addition to
these locomotive skills, human beings
also utilize manipulative skills, such as
lifting, carrying, throwing, and catching,
and combative skills, such as striking or
grappling.
In a nutshell, if you’re wondering
what moving naturally means for human
beings, think of human species-specific
movement aptitudes. Visualize how the
human animal would move in nature
for his survival - that is natural human
movement. For instance, running would
be one of the primary abilities used for
locomotion. Today, with the emergence
of the barefoot running trend, more
and more people are looking for a more
natural way to run. But…
Aren’t there more natural
ways to move naturally than
just running?
Yes, and in this issue’s combo, we
will focus on intensity a little more
than in the past by moving through 3
movements for a continuous 10 minutes,
trying to complete as many rounds as
possible.
Lift & Carry an object 100 yards
Drop from your run onto hands and feet.
Your hands should be directly below your
shoulders, and you should have straight
arms as to not always be flexed. Your knees
should be below your hips, not pulled up
to your chest, so that you aren’t all smashed
together. Move your right arm and left leg
together(ish) forward, then the other two
limbs. Keep your butt level with your upper
back throughout. As you tire, if you must
drop your knees, that’s fine, but you must go
the 50 yards.
Crawl for 50 yards
Run for 200 yards
Begin with and maintain good posture with
an ever so slight forward lean. Be light on
your feet by landing on your forefoot, and
letting your heels “kiss” the ground. Keep
your arms relaxed throughout.
Lift (once) and carry an object for 100 yards (stone, sandbag, med ball, or in this case a cinder block)
To lift Start by pushing your hips back, while keeping a good lumbar curve and straight spine as you lower your upper body to
reach and grab the object between your feet. Once your grip is secure, press with your legs until the object clears your knees, at
which point you will extend your hips forward to meet the object and end in the hang position. Make sure you maintain a lumbar
curve and relaxed arms throughout the entire movement. To carry From the hang position you will raise yourself onto your toes
and shrug your shoulders and pull the object up toward one shoulder with your elbows flaring sideways. As the object approaches
shoulder height, drop your body underneath the object and catch it precisely and gently on your shoulder and hands. Be sure to
choose an appropriate weight that allows you to keep excellent form.
Resources
Advertise in
our next issue!
For More Information Contact
the Paleo Magazine Team:
541.350.6088
cain@paleomagonline.com
Advertiser Directory
Steve’s Club...................................... 2
Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show........ 11
Paleo Treats....................................... 13
Dick’s Kitchen...................................14
It’s A Lifestyle................................... 15
Steve’s Original................................. 16
Paleo Indulgences..............................19
Cindy’s Table.....................................25
US Wellness Meats............................31
Farmer’s Market Coalition................ 32
Primal Pacs........................................ 33
Caveman Fuel....................................36
Inov8 Skins........................................38
PrimalChef.........................................39
Gluten Free RN................................. 41
WellCor..............................................42
Squatty Potty......................................45
Paleo People...................................... 48
Paleo Blends...................................... 50
Paleo Pax........................................... 60
Ancestral Health Symposium............68
Average joe paleo
Judgement Day
In January of 2011, I officially
made the switch to the Paleo Diet. In
reality, I had started making changes a
few months prior, but nothing is truly
set in stone until your wife is onboard
as well. You know how it is…
The change in eating habits did
not come without skepticism from
friends, family and colleagues. I was
told more times than I could count
that all the eggs and red meat I was
eating would raise my cholesterol and
result in my imminent demise. Not
to mention the risk I was taking in
eliminating all those heart healthy
whole grains from my diet.
I was comfortable with my
decision, though, and had plenty of
research to back it all up. What I
didn’t have was tangible, n=1 proof.
Sure I looked and felt better, but I
wanted those inarguable metrics that
showed my cholesterol falling through
the floor. That would show all those
naysayers!
Judgment Day came in March
of 2011. I had my annual physical
scheduled, where my doctor proved
the commonly cited theory that
physicians simply don’t understand
nutrition. Fortunately, no arguments
or criticisms were imparted – but
there may have been a few raised
eyebrows and inquisitive stares during
the explanation of my new diet.
Regardless, my blood work was set up
for later that week and I was properly
fasted and ready to pump when the
morning finally arrived.
About two weeks later, the results
were delivered. I saw the envelope
in the mailbox and immediately
rushed inside to open it and see what
the verdict was. Would my theories
and beliefs hold true, or would the
antagonists prove correct in their
doubts about the Paleo diet?
Right away, I noticed my
cholesterol was high. I didn’t have any
previous blood work to compare to, but
my Total Cholesterol was 197 - which
was right on the fringe of that 199
“danger zone”. My eyes next gazed
to the LDL figure: 120 - definitely
higher than the recommended upper
limit of 99 indicated on the printout. I
immediately panicked. What would I
say to people that had insisted the diet
would raise my cholesterol and cause
heart disease? Was I really digging my
own grave by eating eggs and bacon
and smothering everything in butter
and coconut oil? All the while, my
wife was calling me nuts – how wasn’t
she freaked out about this too?
I frantically started searching
the various blogs and forums to find
answers. Have others experienced
About the Author
Tyler lives in New Hampshire with
his wife Kristyn and his dog Cassius.
He enjoys all things fitness,
nutrition and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Probably more than his full-time
employer would prefer...
By: Tyler Miles
this? What did it mean? Was I doing
something wrong?
It didn’t take much searching to
stumble across some helpful writeups around how to read your blood
lipid results. I immediately realized
my HDL of 64 was quite good.
Apparently, high HDL is strongly
correlated with better cardiovascular
health; anything over 59 is considered
above average. Not bad!
I also discovered that my
Triglycerides, which might be a better
overall health marker than LDL, were
a very low 66. High triglycerides could
indicate an increased ratio of “smaller”
(read evil) LDL particle size, which
is bad news. The printout indicated
normal fell between 0-149, so my 66
was pretty darn good.
At the behest of some
helpful forum posters, some quick
math (HDL/Total Cholesterol,
Triglycerides/HDL) confirmed
my wife’s suspicions that I was
overreacting to this whole thing and,
in fact, was in terrific health - well, at
least physically speaking! A lot of my
initial concerns were wrapped up in my
Total Cholesterol and LDL reading,
but like everything else - it’s much
more complicated than that.
Four months later, I would get my
blood work rechecked at a free clinic
offered at work. My Total Cholesterol
came in at 190, Triglycerides
<45, HDL at 69 and, because the
triglycerides were so low, they weren’t
even able to obtain an accurate readout
of LDL. Steady improvement I would
say!
If and when you get your blood
work results and notice some higher
numbers in there, don’t panic! Do
some research and look into the
numbers a little deeper before
clutching your chest in anticipation of
a heart attack. Chances are, if you’re
following the diet and eating the way
we were all meant to eat, everything
will be just fine.
ancestryfoundation.org
AHS12
August 9–11
Ancestral Health Symposium 2012
A (pre) historic, three-day event that unites the Ancestral Health movement.
Harvard University In association with the Harvard Food Law Society.
The Ancestral Health Symposium fosters collaboration among scientists, healthcare professionals and laypersons who study
and communicate about health from an evolutionary perspective to develop solutions to our modern health challenges.
Design: Sarah Rebich
Sponsored by the Ancestral Health Society and the Harvard Food Law Society

Robb Wolf The Food

Transcription

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