Eating keto, eating paleo Both diets feature quality meats, wild-caught fish, and healthy fats. What else do they have in common? What are the important differences? Which diet should you eat? Attribution: https://zerocater.com … [Read more...]
What about dietary fat and fatty liver disease?
A while ago, I published my annual blood test results for the last seven years. In terms of cardiovascular indicators, the tests were good. I did a little victory lap, celebrating (1) that I was still alive and (2) that the test results showed my LCHF diet seems to be doing me more good than harm. Then I heard something that gave me pause. It wasn't about heart health or clogged arteries. It was about fatty livers. I heard the claim in a podcast, the Tim Ferriss Show for May 12, 2017. … [Read more...]
The world goes paleo
Saturday Short Takes My focus this week is on the Paleo Diet, which gets a lot of press all over the world, pro and con. The basic premise of paleo eating is that the 10,000 years of the agricultural era has been too short a span for evolution to adapt us to farmed foodstuffs. So the paleo dieter avoids grains, dairy, and legumes. Cutting grains generally means cutting carbs, whether or not cutting carbs is the stated goal. Therefore, I view paleo as in the family of LCHF diets. Frequently, … [Read more...]
Whole grain consumption and/or many other factors may help you live longer
From the headlines, you'd think that just eating more whole grain would enable you to live to a very ripe old age. "Eat Whole Grains For A Long Life, New Study Says" (Forbes). "Fiber From Whole Grains Linked To Longer Life" (Huffington Post) "More Whole Grains May Boost Life Span" (WebMD) It turns out that things are more complicated than the headlines. There are many factors determining when you bid the world good-bye, with how much whole grain you chewed your way through possibly being … [Read more...]
What to do when your vegan diet doesn’t work? Go “Beyond Broccoli”
I've never been tempted to become a vegetarian, let alone a raw foods vegan, and after reading a new book by Susan Schenck, LAc, I'm glad of it. Schenck spent several years eating and promoting a raw vegan diet before realizing it was seriously compromising her health. She then curbed her carb intake and added animal-based protein. She has written about her experiences in Beyond Broccoli: Creating a Biologically Balanced Diet When a Vegetarian Diet Doesn't Work (247 pages, Awakening … [Read more...]
My problem with wheat
"Wheat... lots of wheat... fields of wheat... a tremendous amount of wheat." Woody Allen as Boris in Love and Death, 1975. Grains are the humble seeds of grasses and of civilization. Without grains, we wouldn't be where we are today: fat, miserable, malnourished -- hunched over an iPad or a plate of Fettucini Alfredo. No, where we would be is hunched atop a rock with our trusty spear in hand, waiting for some game to come by, hoping that the game would be the kind we could eat and not get … [Read more...]
Loathsome, tiresome exercise
When it comes to exercise, I'm a Mark Twain kind of guy. At his 70th birthday party, feted by 170 people in the Red Room at Delmonico's in New York City, Twain said, "I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any. Exercise is loathsome. And it cannot be any benefit when you are tired; I was always tired" (The New York Times, Dec. 6, 1905). Twain lived a few more years, dying at age 74. Seventy-four was a decent old-age in that era, and it would be … [Read more...]
Exploring the HuffPo: Sugar, Paleo and Plaque
Man does not live by steak-and-eggs alone. Woman either, from what I can see. Having consumed plenty of editorial red-meat in recent days, I decided to venture beyond the low-carb blogosphere this weekend to see who else was writing about diet and health. There was bound to be somebody. I ended up at the Huffington Post. All Internet roads seem to lead there. The HuffPo (as we insiders call it) is the New York Times of the Digital Age, except that apparently the HuffPo doesn't pay its … [Read more...]
Diets ranked and raked
"What Is the 'Best Diet' for You?" asks US News and World Report. According to the magazine'srankings, the DASH Diet is the best overall. Atkins and other low-carb approaches finish in the second-division. Despite claims of a rigorous methodology, the rankings betray a conventional and increasingly suspect thinking about fat, carbohydrates, and health. The usual low-fat/ high-carb approach wins because it is presumed to be balanced, healthy and effective. But presumption is not … [Read more...]