another example how women are pressured to feel guilty about eating.

It's a commercial of a yogurt that is supposed to make you feel "fuller for longer". It is full of tortured women eating celery sticks (well, I would look tortured as well, 'cause I hate that stuff), rice cakes, lettuce ... you would think it should be contrasted with real food. Instead it is contrasted with the "solution": fat-free yogurt which looks very thick, which means you are "satisfying" yourself with thickeners and preservatives and artificial colorants. Women are still not allowed to eat normal food.
And I won't even comment on the mechanization, as if women were brainless robots, repeating everything others do, suffering taken as normal and necessary to be slim and "attractive". And are there really only white slim women in Australia? (ok, one Asian).

Got my lab results finally

I did the lab two months ago, but only yesterday received a copy. Yep, it took them that long.

Anyway, I was very nervous to find out any changes in my blood work after switching to new way of eating. I started to change it around January (I think), but for the first three months or so it was back and forth between different ideas, eating generally low-carb, but with a lot of processed foods. I knew it was the right way to eat after reading Gary Taubes "Good Calories Bad Calories" book, but it took me a while to figure out where I wanted to be. Slowly I was cooking more, I stopped trying to create low-carb versions of old foods, wanted to eat more and more "real" foods. I started to read about Paleo/primal/evolutionary lifestyle and the more I read the more sense it made. I have been interested in pre-historical times, I loved learning about anthropology and evolution - so this approach is just perfect for me.

I can't remember exactly, but I think I made the switch to paleo around April? Around that time. I stopped eating processed foods whatsoever, and I was cooking by myself. Now I am still dairy eating paleo. I cut off gluten only after the tests. I kept on eating gluten (low-carb versions) b/c I wanted to have some in my body to make celiac testing. But after it took them so long to get my lab back, I decided to just go gluten-free no matter the results.

So, the results are after about a half a year of low-carb and three months of real food, paleo eating. I was comparing them to my results from roughly two years before that.

The good:

- Potassium, Calcium, Chloride and Sodium are all in the correct ranges, went up from under-ranges (esp. Potassium & Calcium) since last time.

- my lipid panel: even though my total cholesterol went up slightly (it's 210 now, which is considered "high"), my HDL levels went up even more and are now 78, when anything above 59 is considered beneficial and negative risk factor for CHD. My triglycerides are in healthy range as well.

- my vit. D is much higher, I had deficiency before. I am not scared of sun anymore!

The bad:

- It looks like I still have anemia. I've had anemia all my life, so I am used to it. Even though with eating all that meat you would think I should have enough iron.

I will still wait for my doctor to actually contact me and tell me her opinion about the labs, but I know for sure I am not changing the way I eat! I feel great, my lab results I think are pretty good as well.

Ode to an egg. Or rather to a yolk.

Eggs get recently a really bad rep. Too bad, as they are some of the best what nature has. Nowadays, with the ridiculous fear of saturated fat the yolk is seen as the worst offender, and we can see "egg white only" products popping up everywhere. The result? throwing away a nutritious treasury and leave the least useful part. Whites bring some protein and very little benefit beyond that. Many people who are sensitive or allergic to eggs are only sensitive to whites, not yolks. We know also that eating too much protein is not that great, and on paleo diet we get plenty of protein all right.

I love eggs. Sometimes I will use two full eggs and then add just yolks, throwing away the whites.

My expertise in nutrition is far from strong, so it's much better to refer to people who do know their stuff - this time it's an article on Paleo Diet Lifestyle with a lot scientific details for inquiring minds.

They contain 100% of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K as well as carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin found in the egg. They also contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, folate, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. Compared to the yolk, the white doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of nutrients. The gg white contains more protein than the yolk, but it’s only because the yolk is smaller.

food, budgeting and benefits of paleo eating

Posted in Fight Back Friday:

Just finished eating late lunch (I love the Mexican frying cheese! I added fried eggs to it). I cooked ground beef with a lot of garlic, onion, allspice, bay leaf and some ketchup. I added a small can of diced tomatoes. I added also extra fat from cooking beef stew pieces and spare ribs (slow cooker is my friend), so it's extra "creamy". All of that should give me base for quite a number of meals. I will try and not do any grocery shopping for a while, I need to save up a bit. It's hard to keep a balance between buying food that I know is good for my health and knowing the limitations of my budget. As for now I am doing pretty ok, I think. I try to buy the cheap cuts of meat and chicken. I got grass-fed offal and beef sausages online, which I am using almost like a spice, a touch of luxury. Even when I am talking about liverwurst or bologna! ;-) I don't eat much vegetables, so I try to rely on frozen only as they don't go bad the way raw do. Too often I had to throw away things I just didn't have time or wish for using. But I do buy real cream, organic grass-fed butter, organic coconut oil... I haven't checked, but I think when I would count all the crap and non-paleo I used to buy that I don't eat now, in the end I might actually come on "plus" with paleo diet.

I do spend more time cooking, that's for sure. A year, two years ago, I used to come back from work and veg in front of my laptop till it was time to go to bed. I hardly had energy to do anything. Very often my body was aching and my head felt as if it were made of lead. I didn't feel like cooking and when I finally was so hungry I couldn't wait any longer, I had to eat something at that moment, fast. And it never was a healthy choice. I was hungry often, was craving carbs like crazy. And I was hungry it was very nauseating, horrible hunger.

Now? I come back home and I have energy to do things. I might begin to cook something, clean kitchen, do workout, read, check internet for couple hours and then move to do something else... Sometimes I still have worse days when I am more tired. But it's unbelievable how my flu-like daily pains and tiredness simply disappeared. I have fibromyalgia, which supposedly has no cure. I tried CoQ10, a few different meds, stretching and nothing helped. When I tried exercising and my joints (esp. knees) cried out in pain the doctor basically told me to suck it up, b/c that's what fibro is.

Now? I have my life back. It's still not perfect, but it's so much better. So yeah, I do spend more time on cooking... but all of it is during the block of time that normally was stolen from me by fibro and chronic fatigue. Now I cook and I still have extra time left to do other things.

I eat almost 100% processed-free food. The only processed foods I use is protein powder (only once in a while), supplements, no-chemicals no-sugar or preservatives ketchup. Can't think of anything else... All other food is natural, in raw, frozen or canned form, or slightly processed by reliable meat plant (but with no hormones, chemicals, nitrites or preservatives).

A few years ago I would never believe myself being so food-conscious, reading tons on nutrition, evolution, genetics... I was the kind of person who would openly and with pride say that I didn't care about food, nutrients, health... I thought nutrition and carbs or protein talk was for some crazy organic-obsessed hippies. now I am one of them ;-)

oh, and shortly will add other benefits I've notices since going low-carb, and then completely paleo (no grains, no sugar, no beans, no processed foods. only meat, fish, animal products, vegetables, some fruits and nuts): my skin cleared, I haven't had cold in a long time, my nails are stronger, I have better stamina in general, I have bigger and stronger muscles, I can fast without nausea and can even workout hard while fasted feeling great and energetic, chronic muscle and joint pain almost completely disappeared (I still have heightened sensitivity to touch, trigger points and occasional stiffness in joints and muscle pains, esp. after longer activity), no bowel pains or painful bloating, less headaches, lighter periods.

Might be more, but that's what I can think of now.

the killer grains

Over at Fathead (Tom Naughton) the author brings dr. Cordain's paper Cereal Grains: Humanity’s Double-Edged Sword. I saved the article to read later, and at the moment I am using Fathead's choice of quotes (just because I am lazy, and it's soon time to go to work). Restating the evolutionary arguments for the beginning:

For the vast majority of mankind’s presence on this planet, he rarely if ever consumed cereal grains. With the exception of the last 10,000 years following the agricultural ‘revolution’, humans have existed as non-cereal-eating hunter-gatherers since the emergence of Homo erectus 1.7 million years ago.

It is apparent that there is little or no evolutionary precedent in our species for grass seed consumption. Consequently, we have had little time (less than 500 generations) since the inception of the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago to adapt to a food type which now represents humanity’s major source of both calories and protein. The sum of evidence indicates that the human genetic constitution has changed little in the past 40,000 years. The foods which were commonly available to pre-agricultural man were the foods which shaped modern man’s genetic nutritional requirements.

Generally, in most parts of the world, whenever cereal-based diets were first adopted as a staple food replacing the primarily animal-based diets of hunter-gatherers, there was a characteristic reduction in stature, an increase in infant mortality, a reduction in lifespan, an increased incidence of infectious diseases, an increase in iron deficiency anemia, an increased incidence of osteomalacia, porotic hyperostosis and other bone mineral disorders and an increase in the number of dental caries and enamel defects.

Consumption of high levels of whole grain cereal products impairs bone metabolism not only by limiting calcium intake, but by indirectly altering vitamin D metabolism. In animal studies it has been long recognized that excessive consumption of cereal grains can induce vitamin D deficiencies in a wide variety of animals including primates.

Consistent with populations from the fossil record showing a characteristic reduction in stature with the adoption of cereal-based agriculture, is the observation that present-day populations depending upon cereal grains for the bulk of their energy and protein also tend to be of short stature. Further, vegan and vegetarian children often fail to grow as well as their omnivorous cohorts despite apparently adequate intakes of amino acids and nitrogen.

Because primates evolved in the tropical forest, all of their potential plant food was derived from dicotyledonous species; therefore, the primate gut was initially adapted to both the nutritive and defensive components of dicotyledons rather than the nutritive and defense components of monocotyledonous cereal grains.

Consumption of monocotyledonous plant foods, particularly cereal grains, is a notable departure from the traditional plant foods consumed by the majority of primates. Consequently, humans, like all other primates, have had little evolutionary experience in developing resistance to secondary and anti-nutritional compounds which normally occur in cereal grains.

Lectins are proteins that are widespread in the plant kingdom with the unique property of binding to carbohydrate-containing molecules, particularly toward the sugar component. They were originally identified by their ability to agglutinate (clump) erythrocytes which occurs because of the interaction of multiple binding sites on the lectin molecule with specific glycoconjugate receptors on the surface of the erythrocyte cell membranes. Because of this binding property, lectins can interact with a variety of other cells in the body and are recognized as the major anti-nutrient of food.

Of the eight commonly consumed cereal grains, lectin activity has been demonstrated in wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, and rice but not in sorghum or millet. The biological activity of lectins found in cereal grains are similar because they are closely related to one another both structurally and immunologically. The best studied of the cereal grain lectins is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), and the in vitro biological effects of WGA upon tissues and organs are astonishingly widespread. In his comprehensive review, Freed has shown that WGA can bind (in vitro) the following tissues and organs: alimentary tract (mouth, stomach, intestines), pancreas, musculoskeletal system, kidney, skin, nervous and myelin tissues, reproductive organs, and platelets and plasma proteins.

Most food proteins entering the small intestine are fully degraded into their amino acid components and therefore do not pass intact into systemic circulation. However, it is increasingly being recognized that small quantities of dietary protein which escape digestive proteolytic breakdown can be systemically absorbed and presented by macrophages to competent lymphocytes of the immune system. Under normal circumstances, when the luminal concentrations of intact dietary proteins is low, absorbed proteins generally elicit a minimal allergic response because of the limiting influence of T-suppressor cells.

Because of their resistance to digestive, proteolytic breakdown, the luminal concentrations of lectins can be quite high, consequently their transport through the gut wall can exceed that of other dietary antigens by several orders of magnitude. Additionally, WGA and other lectins may facilitate the passage of undegraded dietary antigens into the systemic circulation by their ability to increase the permeability of the intestine. Consequently, dietary lectins represent powerful oral immunogens capable of eliciting specific and high antibody responses.

[Fathead comments: In other words, lectins can lead to leaky-gut syndrome. They poke holes in your intestines, seep into your bloodstream and are carried throughout your body, which then must produce antibodies to attack them. If that were the end of the story, it would be bad enough. But that’s not the end of the story. The amino-acid profile of lectins is similar to the amino-acid profile of many of your own tissues. The result of what Cordain calls “molecular mimicry” isn’t pretty.]

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body loses the ability to discriminate self proteins from nonself proteins. This loss of tolerance ultimately results in destruction of self tissues by the immune system.

So why are we told, over and over, that humans need grains to survive and reach optimal health? If for 99.6% of our existence as species we thrived without them, why suddenly they became the core of our health and well being?

fasted training

Once in a while I workout when I am hungry, or on really empty stomach (but not feeling any hunger at the moment). Since going paleo I can fast hours and feel ok, with a lot of energy and no touch of the old nausea as I used to have on old carb-focused diet. Most of the time I don't even plan on fasting (even though a lot of paleo do it for health reasons), it just happens - I forget to take lunch with me, or don't eat breakfast etc. There are many studies that show benefits of hunger and fasted state for human organism. Some hormones work better, the body has a chance to cleanse a bit, get a breath, strike a balance. If you workout when hungry, which was very common for paleolithic peoples (workout = hunting/gathering/escaping/building), your growth hormone is released, insulin sensitivity improves , and it's even more easy for you body to use fat as your fuel.

In this blog entry there is even more explanation on the benefits, with links to some new studies. Here is just a small excerpt:

As you can see, the fasted training group beat the fed training group on almost all relevant parameters. More importantly for some perhaps, the fasted training group saw significant improvements in all parameters relevant to improving body composition and health, where as the fed training group saw comparatively lackluster results here.

This study strengthens the notions I covered here, which is that fasted training may provide some unique benefits to those training in the fasted state, whether it be endurance training, conditioning or bodybuilding. However, this study may be somewhat more relevant considering the higher exercise intensity used, which is closer to, albeit not exactly similar, to CrossFit, kettlebell training and weight training. That is, activities which rely on glucose utilization to a greater degree than fat oxidation.

Paleo grocery list

Here is a good list of paleo foods to stack up on. It's simple and without too many complicated details.

I am a huge, huge fan of paleo lifestyle, and with each day I am even stronger. I read a lot, educate myself and dont' just blindly follow someone else's fad ideas... this is a solid, science and evidence based, way of living. not to loose weight (even if that can happen if your body needs it), not to look good naked (even if it's nice and probably will happen) but simply to be healthy and in sync with own genes and our species evolution.

And eve if it's anecdotal - my own amazing health improvement (esp related to fibromyalgia and GI issues) is enough for me to know I am on the right track.