When my wife was 11 years old, she was mesmerized by Peter Tork, a member of the Monkees. Depending on whom you ask, the Monkees were either actors in a TV comedy or musicians in a rock-band. Or both. My wife would say both, and more, but her focus was always on the blond, hazel-eyed Mr. Tork. It still is. All of this explains why she and I drove to Merrillville, Indiana, yesterday to watch the Monkees (three of the four, anyway) perform at the Star Plaza Theatre. It was a stop on the group's 45th anniversary tour. Since "the guys," as Anita calls them, were in their early to mid-twenties when their TV program launched, they are all now pushing 70. This is not a dig. I've gotten older since 1966, too, and I have to admit that the Monkees still put on a good show. Or as Anita would … [Read more ...]
Beliefs can cause inflammation of the brain
How dangerous is that beef-steak? Beliefs, dogmas and habits of mind are powerful things. I'd sooner have them on my side in an argument than the puny forces of reason and evidence. Take the belief that saturated fat is the source of all evil in the modern diet. It's a deeply and widely held notion in the Western World. Somehow, we all just know that eating red meat will kill us by clogging up our arteries with its saturated fat. Doctors, nutritionists, media pundits and ordinary people have repeated the idea so often that it has taken on the aura of folk wisdom. You could hardly be blamed … [Read more ...]
Great foods for a low-carb diet (part 1): almonds, avocados, macadamias
If you're like me (which you probably aren't, but let's pretend), you may find your food tastes expanding as you adapt to a low carb way of eating. Over the last few months, I have added several foods to my dietary repertoire, and I have eaten more of some other great foods than I ever did in the past. In general, I eat more whole foods now than processed/ packaged foods. Nuts, seeds, berries and fish are classes of foods that I always liked, but eat significantly more of on my low-carb plan. Of course, I eat somewhat more meat, cheese and eggs now than in my high-carb days, but that … [Read more ...]
Weight gain, weight loss in two short periods
Last weekend, Anita and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary with a short trip and a stay in an historic bed-and-breakfast. I did my best to be true to both my wife and my diet. The B & B provided me with eggs, meat, and coffee in the morning. I ignored the platter of chocolate-chip cookies available 24 hours a day. (Anita did not.) We picked restaurants where I could put together tasty low-carb meals. All in all, things went fine, until I weighed myself the morning after our return. Did I discover that romance was an aid to weight loss? … [Read more ...]
DNA, diet, and weight
Can spitting into a test-tube tell you which diet is best for you? Earlier this year, Anita and I each sent in a sample of our saliva to 23 and Me, a company that does commercial genetic testing. I'm not plugging the service, and this is not intended to be a full-scale review. But some of our DNA test results are relevant to the topic of diet. We both opted to receive ancestry and health-related reports of our DNA. At first, I was only going to get the ancestry report, but changed my mind after getting that report and seeing Anita's full set of reports. (Note: Anita has agreed that I may … [Read more ...]
Food facts vs food myths with Dr. Zoe Harcombe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdznfiWvGq0 … [Read more ...]
A real person eating (mostly) real food
One day, in a fit of flexibility, I changed the tag-line of my blog from whatever it used to be to "a real person eating (mostly) real food." I feel I ought to explain -- to define my terms, or at least try to. First, what do I mean by a "real person"? I mean me, of course, good ol' Jim Anderson -- as ordinary a guy as you will ever meet, with an ordinary name, the son of a factory-working man and a home-making woman. A guy born in a city whose name denotes a hard, sharp, slivered rock -- the ideal material for sparking fires or shaping arrow-heads. I don't think any of that makes me … [Read more ...]
Baked, broiled or deep-fried: how do you like your variables?
Study: Baked, Broiled — But Not Fried — Fish Is Good for the Heart – TIME Healthland, May 26, 2011. Want a healthier heart? Try adding fish to your diet. But be careful how it's cooked, a new study warns: baked or broiled fish will boost heart health, but fried fish is probably better left uneaten. Heart failure risk lower in women who often eat baked/broiled fish--American Heart Association, Press Release, May 24, 2011. This study showed that the type of fish and cooking method may affect heart failure risk. The researchers found that dark fish (salmon, mackerel and bluefish) were … [Read more ...]
Presenting The Best of Life after Carbs
Available across the Web! My ebook, The Best of Life after Carbs, is now in wider release. You can find it at multiple online stores: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Just click this Universal Book Link, and then select your favorite store. The book is part memoir, part how-to. The 30+ chapters in the book are based on posts from this blog. Yes, you could read them all here for free, in some form. But if you enjoy ebooks, and want to support my efforts, here's your chance to do us both a favor. I'll take it as a sign I'm doing something right! A few of the questions addressed … [Read more ...]
Mice live longer, healthier on ketogenic diet, studies claim
A couple new studies find that a ketogenic diet promotes a longer, healthier lifespan. That's great, but the results have only been confirmed for lab mice. I've written about mouse-based dietary studies a few times over the years. None have impressed me much. Some have seemed quite odd. For instance, way back in 2011, I wrote a post entitled "Eating fish makes mice fat, study claims." Scientists fed some little rodents farmed raised salmon, and some the same diet without salmon, and found the fish-eating mice suffered more insulin resistance, visceral obesity, and glucose intolerance. As the … [Read more ...]
What’s a reasonable weight loss rate?
Week One Report I ended the first week of my Keto Diet Reboot down three pounds. On Monday, September 25, I weighed in at 227.5 pounds. On Sunday, October 1, I weighed 224.6 pounds. So, to be precise, I lost 2.9 pounds. But hold on -- Monday morning to Sunday morning isn't quite a week. It's 144 hours. There are 168 hours in a week. One more full day. … [Read more ...]