In the last post, Meagan from Mutritious Nuffins?asked me if I was serious about ice cream being more similar to human breast milk than any other food. And I am. In the words of Uncle Rico, “Oh I’m dead serious.” While ice cream is looked at as one of the king of junk foods, there is no question that it is more similar to human breast milk than any other food. There are some differences too.
One difference, for example, is that ice cream has a much lower ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids. Because modern humans eat tons of omega 6 and very little omega 3, and don’t have as great of a power to convert these fatty acids into monounsaturated fats like a cow, the result is milk that is much higher in total polyunsaturated fats and omega 6 polyunsaturated fat in particular. ?This is probably one of the reasons why the breast milk of most mothers is subpar, and makes kids sick (although most studies show it is still superior to formula ? but I would argue that it depends entirely on which mom’s milk we’re talking about here). We’ve already discussed long ago the differences between the breast milk of a normal mom and that of a diabetic mother.
Okay moms, don’t get your panties in a wad. I mention this to open your minds about ice cream, because your kid may need some ice cream to improve his or her health. Ice cream is a powerful metabolism stimulator, and if you think breast milk is nutritious you should see ice cream! Higher in omega 3 fatty acids, protein, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, riboflavin, B12, B6, Pantothenic acid, thiamin, and Vitamin E. Don’t overglorify breast milk and overfear ice cream. The two are practically identical in many ways?
% fat ?
Ice cream ? 53%
Breast Milk ? 55%
% sugar ?
Ice Cream – 39.8%
Breast Milk – 38.7%
% Protein
Ice Cream ? 7.3%
Breast Milk ? 6.3%
% Saturated Fat
Ice cream ? 57%
Breast milk ? 45%
% Monounsaturated Fat
Ice Cream ? 27%
Breast Milk ? 38%
% Polyunsaturated Fat
Ice Cream ? 3.5%
Breast Milk ? 9.7%
% Omega 3 fatty acids
Ice Cream ? 1.38%
Breast Milk ? 1.19%
% Omega 6 fatty acids
Ice Cream ? 2.2%
Breast Milk ? 8.5%
Calcium per 100 calories
Ice Cream ? 59 mg
Breast Milk ? 46 mg
Cholesterol per 100 calories
Ice Cream ? 40 mg
Breast Milk ? 20 mg
Okay, so the main difference is that breast milk has less cholesterol, less saturated fat, increased monounsaturated fat, and increased polyunsaturated fat. Thus, the same differences between ice cream and breast milk are the same differences between normal breast milk and the milk of a diabetic mother, which was found to have the following?
1) low cholesterol content, only one-fifth of normal milk; 2) decreased medium-chain [Saturated] fatty acids, suggesting impairment of fatty acid synthesis in the mammary gland; 3) increased oleic acid; and 4) high concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids, suggesting increased chain elongation.
I don’t think there’s any question that ice cream is not only healthy, but far healthier than most human breast milk. The only thing it is missing is vitamin C, so get all soccer mom on the kids and get some orange slices in ?em too. Overall in a battle of Ice cream vs. Human Breast Milk, I give the title to ice cream. “But Matt, breast milk is natural! Nature knows best!”? Haha.?Modern breast milk isn’t much more natural to our species than Pam Anderson’s milk dispensers.
***NOTE*** I’m in no way suggesting that ice cream should be a substitute for breast milk when nursing an infant. That is not the point of this post. There are too many intangibles with breast milk and breastfeeding to expect ice cream, or any substitute, to fully take its place. But human breast milk certainly has room for improvement!
Info. for this post came from www.nutritiondata.com.?French Vanilla soft serve?vs. Milk, human
Now if only ice cream with the five basic ingredients, and without all the extra flavors, stabilizers or fake sweeteners, was easier to come by.
No wonder I love ice cream so much.. And women with large breast..
Small or large, I prefer women with 2 breasts. Not just one!
uni boob :) or triple nipples from Total Recall, the female form occupies to much of my thoughts …..way too much and you go do a post like this.
I can’t get boobs and ice cream out of my head all day ….no hagen daz for over 100 miles… damn you
I completely agree…That Vida chick with baby oil and now this what the hell. I didnt sign up for this! I suppose the information is out there but I wonder how big the poly to saturated ratios are in corn vs grass fed etc…
Chief the one and only Rok:
Boobs are but just a distraction on the way to the Holy Land. Which is Dairy Queen naturally.
Love your blog, I will be trolling it regularly.
da haggiest
lots of love for you too Deb, ( note to haters I’m not trying to steal her from hubby)
Not a huger fan of dairy queen, but yea, pesky boobs are getting in the way of my world domination.
Blue Bunny Premium All Natural Vanilla passes the test with THIS Mama! :)
I’ve read human breast milk is higher in vit D, from ‘healthy’ mothers, and also is loaded with ‘healthy’ bacteria and anti-bodies.
For infants, that gives the nod to their mothers milk.
I’d love to suck some mommas milk again. I don’t remember anything from the time I was a baby. I’ll ask my future wife.
I’ve still never had human breast milk. So I can’t speak from experience as to which is healthier. I’m already envisioning quite the future dietary experiment though! http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story'section=news/health&id=6833788
I’ve got a much better link matt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12569011
it’s better than breast milk or ice cream !
What about Human Cheese! Saw this a good while back. The Lady Cheese Shop ===> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm4cNMSuiRI and Matt, if you really were a tool what tool would you be? Perhaps a ThermaFractoMatt-er
It tastes like melon. Kinda like cantaloupe.
At least mine did.
Kinda sweet, Like AM says. Kinda milky. No surprises there. :-)
Yeah! Exactly! My nursing bras and shirts always smelled like cantaloupe by the end of the day. I could never figure out how to describe that smell until I read your post. Thank you.
I can arrange that for you if you want to try it. There is such a thing as breast milk ice cream. I’m a crunchy mama. I know lactating women….and they would be happy to donate for the cause. Just give the word, thunderbird…..they are called “lactivists”. I’d be interested in testing the breastmilk of vegetarians, vegans, WAPers, Paleo..ers, etc.. Who has the most nutrient dense milk??Hmmm
Ok..so I didn’t check the other link that linked to the breast milk ice cream story. Breast only is best for this guy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040606/New-father-Curtis-living-diet-just-wifes-breast-milk.html
I want a Peatard’s breast milk!
Thanks Matt, this was very informative.
Matt,
Since all ice creams aren’t created equal, (like breast milk) which brand/brands
do you think offers the most benefit?
I don’t know. I like Breyer’s because I find Haagen Dazs to be too fatty for me personally if I’m eating it in any kind of quantity. But I really don’t eat that much ice cream. Overall you gotta go with Haagen Dazs or Breyer’s though. Other ice creams have too much weird shiz in ’em.
Have you ever had Double Rainbow Organics Super Premium French Vanilla Ice Cream? It has a real low % of overrun so the ice cream is not pure AIR like Breyers which has something like 94-96% overrun. It’s dense and creamy and no hormone milk is used.
Sounds dreamy nuffins. I haven’t had it though. I live in Florida. Organics can still be pretty hard to find down here.
When you come to LA you should pick some up. Or we should feast on some after Animal
I like Blue Bunny all-natural, it doesn’t have all those icky gums that tend to bloat me up and instead uses egg yolks. Haagen-Dazs uses egg yolk too, but for the price..its a bit too expensive since it has more sugar and fat.
Mattie I will take you to Fosselman’s, our local handmade joint. It’s really damn good. Sam digs it. Kids know this stuff.
So do you advocate giving ice cream to babies, if the mom is lo-metabolism, etc? Once again, you reach new heights of awesome with your blog illustrations.
I dunno Nippler. I don’t think it would make a suitable substitute due to all the potential intangibles. I think I would prefer to have a mother to eat lots of it and then spurt out ice cream quality breast milk in an ideal world. But it would certainly make for a good weaning food to accompany other things. And I have no problem giving it to a kid with obvious low metabolism symptoms.
heh heh he said Nippler heh heh
Sincerely, Beavis and Butthead
Moral of the story- women should eat more ice-cream:D
Pregnant woman and nursing mothers should eat more ice cream. No wonder they crave it so much.
If only ice cream could come in the same type of container.
lol …yes yes it would prolly be even awesomer if we could evolve as a species and boobs would just produce ICE CREAM!
and they would just have different flavors, mmmm an ice cream buffet ( Homer Simpson drooling voice)
bbe listening to much of that ice cream song
“One love to my chocolate deluxes, keep your nails done
And your wigs tight, word up
One love to my butter-pecan Ricans for calling me papi
That’s for real
One love to caramel sundaes, with the cherries on top
Yeah
And big up to my french vanillas
Parlez vous, francais, mi amor, merci, oui oui, bon bons
And all that good stuff That good stuff”
I wonder how babies would handle the fructose in the ice cream if it were used instead of breast milk. Sally Fallon says that if the mother is not eating a “Traditional Diet” (in other words, buy her book haha), then the baby should not breast feed… of course she recommends raw milk and liver pate instead of ice cream haha
NT can be a little overboard on all the things you’re supposed to do about diet. I would still give a baby human milk over milk from another animal. The nutrient breakdowns are different for different animals.
I’m not big on the whole fructose-bashing either. I know it’s more complex than all that. Danny Roddy talks about fructose being an antioxidant that protects the liver and Chris Masterjohn talks about fatty liver having more to do with choline levels. My guess on how babies would handle it would be: depends on their nutrient status.
I hate the way people look at gross categories of nutrients and fail to see that the specific micronutrients matter. Ice cream and breatmilk have different fats, different kinds of proteins, different sugars, and ice cream could sensitize a small infant if someone really thought they were similar.
There is sucrose rather than lactose in ice cream, Sucrose is fructose plus glucose. Not at all the same. The crosslinked proteins are indigestible to an infant. But ice cream isn’t a frankenfood that would disqualify a mother from breastfeeding and she definitely ought to rather than feeding ice cream to her infant,
Someone with sense.
That’s not really sense. No one is suggesting that ice cream should be a substitute for breast milk. The post is showing the similarities between the two TO ENCOURAGE ADULTS TO NOT BRAND IT AS A NUTRITIONLESS JUNK FOOD. Either Karen didn’t read the post or is a complete idiot.
My 2 yr old has suddenly become a very picky eater and isn’t eating much these days. I’ve been giving her homemade ice cream after lunch everyday, hoping it would at least keep her from losing any weight. After reading this I don’t feel so bad about giving her the ice cream :).
We make our own ice cream over here. When I had kefir grains I’d actually kefir the cream before adding in some raw eggs yolks, real vanilla, and whole cane sugar. Delish! I’ve even made it for my kids for breakfast before. :-)
My mom ate ice cream every day when she was pregnant with me. I believe this is why I’m the only kid in the family who didn’t need braces. That and I was the only one who loved liverwurst and ate it like 3x per week.
My husband said mine tasted like the milk left over after a bowl of frosted flakes, and I thought that was pretty spot on, not sure what that said about my diet though.
Is it wrong to say that makes me thirsty?
I agree that homemade ice cream (with raw milk) can be a healthy snack. However, ice cream is very cold (duh). In Chinese medicine sweet and cold foods harm the spleen qi, creating dampness and phlegm and can contribute to weak digestive fire. So I agree it can be good, but in moderation. :)
So it is super nutritious, more nutritious than breast milk, which is often considered the healthiest food there is… Yet you don’t eat that much of it? Hmmmm.
I don’t really like eating that much fat. Beyond a certain point fat becomes like dead weight. Exercise performance and recovery really suffers. Energy declines. High-fat food like ice cream is great for the growth phase of life though. I did put away two giant ice cream cones yesterday though!
I would like to see a comparison to real ice cream, (Cream, milk, sugar, egg yolk, flavor) as most soft serves are a mixture of highly processed ingredients, rather that whole foods.
This has to be close to the stupidest thing I have ever read. You are a tool.
I get that a lot.
Haha. Funny we were just talkin’ bout that!
K, gotta get to sleep. Have a couple miracles to pull off tomorrow. Better get an early start in the morning :)
lol.. still laughin’ at this one
every time I pass it up scrolling I laugh, ohh how I needed some good laughs today
Okay, I literally laughed out at this one.
Tools are useful. And they have a pretty good band.
that they are
Hey undertow
how is your progress coming any updates ?
Hey Chief,
Things are better then before, still have some issues. Main issue would be low morning basal temp, stalled at 97.6 (oral) over the last two years and still not going up. Secondary issue is I still have 2am to 4am sleep wakings.
Been avoiding pork and other RBTI style no-nos for few months and still pounding the food. Massive breakfast and lunch, carb focused and including unrefined sucrose (molasses, maple syrup, sucanat, coconut sap sweetner, fruit, and pure fruit juices…)
Been making strength gains on my deadlift, squat and overhead, and leaning out slowly.
I fast with a light or no supper maybe once or twice per week.
Low carb really fucked my sleep, 2yrs and its still very light and with night wakings, I do not have to pee at night.
Should I be eating bags of sugar to replenish liver glycogen, not sure what I try next.
post workout high calorie density focused on carbs is a good idea if you are making the strength gains it’s a sign your responsive. sugar wouldn’t do any damage there especially not any of your sources you mentioned.
I’ll stop in your area on the next trip home, we’ll chop game and rarrf it up. I got a few things to do there.
Awesome sounds good, house is always open for a fellow rarrf,er
Pretry good? C’mon haggis they are my favorite!
Oh sorry Mattie. I thought your fave was David Lee Roth. You know, “The Ice Cream Man”. :-)
The same thing was said to Galileo and pretty much any major historical figure who bucked conventional wisdom and made greater contributions than their critics. While this article isn’t earth-shattering, it’s something unqiue to think about. That’s why we love Matt.
Hey Matt,
You seem to forget one major difference: breast milk contains lactose while ice cream contains refined sugar. If you ate nothing but ice cream, you would be full of tooth decay, don’t you think?
(I am saying this although I had one ice cream nearly every day as a kid and teenager and never had tooth decay, although it could be due to some protective stuff the dentist put on my teeth… and good dental hygiene)
there’s lactose in most commercial ice cream too.
refined sugar doesn’t melt your teeth off so much as it does not “feed” your teeth and make them strong enough to “take a hit” the cavities can be avoided by having stronger teeth. I’ve never had one.
I don’t think the type of sugar itself exerts any kind of different property on the teeth and tooth enamel. I have had serious tooth pain on a zero sucrose diet, and have managed to overcome that eating about the most sucrose of anyone I know!
I seriously doubt this. Oral hygiene is no replacement for diet when it comes to tooth decay. If you have had no cavities, than your internal environment is promoting strong teeth. I think this has more to do with things like calcium/phosphorous balance and pH, etc. The dairy fats in the ice cream could very well have been playing a protective role, making the ice cream an overall negative as far as cavities were concerned for you.
I have also never had cavities but have noticed when something made my teeth not feel right (i.e. I really need to brush). The worst offender was pop, not sweets (might have to do with acids). When I was eating RBTI style, I almost completely forgot to brush (it just didn’t feel necessary) in spite of the diet allowing pie, cookies, ice-cream, etc.
Its hard to try to draw a correlation with teeth and overall health, I have had health problems since I was a baby and have never had a cavity. Even now I brush my teeth only about twice a week (gross i know), and still never have tooth pain
How about ice cream made WITH human breastmilk? Two birds.
Alison , if you clicked my link in my comment a little ways above you’d see some crazy ass beat you to the punch, it is actually for sale.
Yeah they called it “Baby Gaga”… and within 2 months not only had Lady Gaga tried to sue them, but the council also seized samples and demanded they stop selling it while they did “stringent safety testing”
I love me some ice cream. I’m spoiled because I have two ice cream makers and I’ve been making my own with milk, cream, honey, yolks, and vanilla (and sometimes mint). But I also love me some Breyer’s! Homemade ice cream is also really good with maple syrup or rapadura.
Spoiled or not that sounds awesome. Love when people make their own stuff like that! Of course, the cow does most the work =P Oh, and the bees, chickens etc… =)
I’m in no way a ‘breastmilk is always best’ type of person, but I think this post was way off. The nutritional comparison is data from regular, factory farmed ice cream, and breast milk from a subpar (factory-fed) breastfeeding mama, I assume. You say modern breastmilk is neither natural nor healthy which is why many kids get sick from it, but milk from a cow that is neither natural nor healthy is supposedly healthy for kids? I’m way lost here. As I see references to Haagen-Dazs or Breyer’s, we’re not just talking raw ice cream from grass-fed jersey cows here.
If regular ice cream is a healthy nutritious food, then it follows, obviously, that regular, standard breastmilk is just as healthy, unless cows are somehow more immune to eating an unnatural diet than human mothers. Or, if breastmilk makes kids sick, then ice cream will similarly make a child sick.
In my mind, both milks are sort of healthy from a nutrient stand-point, and sort of unhealthy at the same time. I also don’t see how a mom eating a SAD diet (and thus affecting her offspring aversly by giving the child her subpar milk) is going to give her baby a NT style formula. I only see the point in cases of severe malabsorption or hormonal disturbances.
I think you could have made a much better case for the nutrional value of ice cream by skipping the contrast between nutritional inferiority of modern breastmilk and traditional milk. Few people are capable of turning around generations of poor nutrition in just one generation, and not succeeding to have the highest quality breastmilk and breed immaculately healthy children, should not be considered failure. Breastmilk and nursing is, as you know, soooo much more than say, a balanced fatty acid profile. And as parents we can only do so much with our inherited imbalances, but it is still more than enough. This time around.
Cows are more immune to eating an unhealthy diet than humans. Most of the food they eat is fermented in their stomachs and turned into saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Humans can’t make that conversion, and end up having a bunch of anti-metabolic, pro-inflammatory fat in the milk depending on the composition of the diet. I also wouldn’t assume that an unnatural diet is by definition unhealthy. Unnatural diets have shown to create superior rates of growth and reproduction. In fact, I believe the primary reason humans have fared so well as a species is the unnatural thing we did to our food – thus making our diets superior over all other creatures… We cooked it.
cooked it…… and engineered it through agriculture ! carbs made us kick ass too.
moral of the story growing “unnatural ” carbs is as awesome as boobs and ice cream!
I don’t think the diseases associated with unnatural food & diets should be considered superior. Before unnatural foods we didn’t have the cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. The cavemen weren’t battling obesity or dying of clogged arteries.
“The cavemen weren’t battling obesity or dying of clogged arteries.”
No they weren’t. They were battling each other for the limited natural food and dying from open arteries when they were cut with dirty rocks and sticks. I for one will take a decent young adulthood with its unnatural diet and an unnatural amount of reproduction practice and risk some cancer or diabetes than spend all day hoping I can eat so I have a little reproductive energy.
Maybe one day, humans will have the best of both worlds but for now, this is what we have.
If it wasn’t for the unnatural diet of the people before us we would probably not have been born so I’ll take it.
This is the old mortality/lifespan argument. Traditional/indigenous cultures do have lower life expectancy, but you have to correct for child and infant mortality. If you also correct for violent causes of death, you find that the typical human in a “primitive” environment lived as long or longer than we do, except without diabetes, heart disease, etc. So jill’s point is absolutely correct.
Hi jill, it’s difficult to define “unnatural”. I think that’s why there are so many splits into different dietary camps: vegan, paleo, gluten-free, etc. The problem is humans are designed to eat “processed” foods. We have small jaws and weak digestive tracks so that energy can be diverted to our brains. This is part of our evolutionary history, which fire helped facilitate. All cultures grind, heat, soak, and ferment their foods to some extent. All of these things increase energy availability and digestibility, which is coincidentally what modern processing methods also do. There are contexts where modern processed foods are useful. My guess is the modern diseases have a lot more to do with nutrient balance, stress, oxidation, etc. In that sense, it’s more than just the processing methods. It’s also the farming methods, soil quality, etc. All play a role.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to that Aaron. I was having trouble mustering the energy to do it, and definitely couldn’t have said it better myself.
Aaron wrote:
“My guess is the modern diseases have a lot more to do with nutrient balance, stress, oxidation, etc.”
Totally agree Aaron.
Yes, nutrient/mineral imbalance – from eating so much UN-processed, raw, indigestible, “natural” foods and not enough processed foods – which are more easily digested and therefore more nutrients/minerals/calories are assimilated.
And… yes definitely stress too – chronic mental and/or physical stress.
Well yes and no Corena. The main difference between traditional and modern processing methods is the preservation vs. the removal of nutrients. Some modern methods destroy foods in ways that make them inflammatory. Traditional methods tend to be a lot more gentle. Raw foods can be rough on the digestive tract for someone in a weakened state. I would choose traditional over modern methods, but I understand the place for things like pizza.
“The main difference between traditional and modern processing methods is the preservation vs. the removal of nutrients. Some modern methods destroy foods in ways that make them inflammatory. Traditional methods tend to be a lot more gentle.”
“I would choose traditional over modern methods…”
I think those are mostly just widespread notions people came to believe because they seemed to sound logical – like “eat less move more” & “calories in calories out” – but are just speculation.
My research and real life experience doesn’t agree. And I don’t think it’s a question which method is more gentle. I believe food is more resilient than we think. Sure some nutrients and minerals are gonna get lost in the processing – with both modern and traditional methods.
If we eat a wide variety of foods (which is the point I keep making) – both refined and unrefined – we’ll get plenty of what our bodies need. And your body can do the sorting out. It will use what it needs and throw out what it doesn’t. Unless you’re eating all day and/or under chronic mental or physical stress – and eating all day IS a chronic stress on the body – in both cases you’re body will more likely store the extra (that it doesn’t need) in the fat cells instead. IMO, one big feast a day of everything is plenty. But another small meal IF you ‘truly’ get hungry again is fine.
IMO, raw and unprocessed foods are more inflammatory than processed foods – most especially for someone in a weakened state. Eating more processed foods would be more metabolically healing. Supplement with minerals if it makes you feel better (as with RBTI). Just don’t be afraid of processed foods.
I’m not saying eat cheeze whiz and oreos over say mac-n-cheese. I’m saying eat mac-n-cheese or cooked corn-on-the-cob over raw broccoli or a salad. And eat pizza (no pork) over steak and a salad. And don’t forget the ice cream… preferably made of cream, milk, sugar, and not much else if you can find it.
When I say processed or refined foods, I’m not talking about junk food or frankenfoods like cheeze whiz and pop-tarts.
In my experience so far the whole processed food scare that engulfed me after immersing myself in the works of people like Weston A. Price and T.L. Cleave years ago is blown way out of proportion. Many people that Weston A. Price studied ate virtually nothing but white flour fried in vegetable oil covered with sugar with canned fruit in syrup and meat out of a can. Of course that’s an unhealthy diet, plus this was such a rapid transition from the diet of generations prior to them that it was too much. And none of those foods were fortified with vitamins like today’s modern processed foods (excluding white sugar and HFCS). Yes of course we can overdo the processed and refined modern junk foods and suffer consequences from that. But to think that we need to practice strict avoidance of those foods or that those foods can’t even play a role in overcoming health problems (particularly those that stem from a low metabolic rate – as those foods provide the greatest abundance of easily-absorbable calories), is what I have a problem with.
Hmm… you’re giving me a lot to think about :)
I guess I’m still trying to puzzle out what is causing our modern diseases. Why are diabetes and obesity continuing to increase? Why are we still having major problems with cancer and heart disease? If modern forms of processing aren’t that strong a culprit, what is? I feel like there has to be some major factors. Is it really just too much soda, sugar, etc? Or have we just been gradually deteriorating over time?
Hey AaronF,
I’ve been pondering that same question for so long now. What is causing our modern diseases? I know that as time goes on our soils are just becoming more and more depleted, but there has to me more than just that. If we look at the fact that there are long lived people who when asked what they do that keeps them so young, you hear them reply…”I smoke a pack a week” or “I eat a candy bar every day” and they make no apologies for it. Almost like they are proud. It seems they just stay true to themselves regardless of what is considered socially correct. They just don’t give a flying leap. Some people just need that candy bar a day and it makes them happy. Meanwhile we spend hours on the computer doing research and reading every study on how to eat, just so we can be the “iron man” or the picture perfect “Vitruvian Man” or the definition of perfect health. Again this whole trying to be super healthy is driving us nuts. We are doing the exact opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish. We’re making ourselves sicker and sicker. Mentally, physically and spiritually. I know we all know that smoking can lead to cancer and I am in no way saying someone should smoke given what we know about it’s consequences. I mean..I won’t even touch alcohol of any kind, but there is something to be said about being true to yourself and not worrying what others have to say about it. I’ve been eating a clean diet to the point of being anal about it for as long as I can remember. I was the girl at Pizza Hut who ate from the salad bar. Still do love those fruits and veggies!:-) This has in no way done me any good. I’m a 30 year old with the Osteoporotic bones of an 85 year old whose spine crumbled under her. So I had to figure out what it really was that was keeping me so ill. Maybe it was being molested as a child and keeping silent about it till the age of 29. Maybe it was the extreme low self esteem that crippled me. Maybe it was trying to be perfect when all I really needed to do was just adjust my definition of perfect to God’s/ the universes definition. I have pretty much been sabotaging any true internal peace that comes my way. We all do it. Most hold many secrets and past hurts. We all come with baggage. How could we possibly not? We are after all human and we are raised by people who are also human and come with there own set of baggage. Whether heavy or light the baggage is there. Have to wonder what that does to even the simplest things like digestion. I don’t think we can over look the mind body connection. As our stomachs shrank our brains grew bigger. Shows how deeply connected the two are. My goal lately has been to be true to myself and ever since doing that, I’ve been getting stronger like you wouldn’t believe. That’s the only thing I’ve changed. I’m still piling on the fruits and “evil” carbs.:-) I just changed my mind. Hey…I’m a girl and it’s my prerogative! ;-)
Blessings and peace,
Jennifer
Jennifer
like button clicked, and letting go of the shame and pain by putting your abuser out in the open is a stress reliever. eat the food, be true to yourself and enjoy every minute of every day.
Jennifer wrote:
“It seems they just stay true to themselves regardless of what is considered socially correct.”
“Meanwhile we spend hours on the computer doing research and reading every study on how to eat, just so we can be the ?iron man? or the picture perfect ?Vitruvian Man? or the definition of perfect health.”
“We?re making ourselves sicker and sicker. Mentally, physically and spiritually.”
“there is something to be said about being true to yourself and not worrying what others have to say about it.”
“I’ve been eating a clean diet to the point of being anal about it for as long as I can remember. I was the girl at Pizza Hut who ate from the salad bar. Still do love those fruits and veggies!:-) This has in no way done me any good.”
“I’m a 30 year old with the Osteoporotic bones of an 85 year old whose spine crumbled under her.”
“Maybe it was trying to be perfect when all I really needed to do was just adjust my definition of perfect”
“I have pretty much been sabotaging any true internal peace that comes my way. We all do it.”
“I don’t think we can over look the mind body connection.”
“My goal lately has been to be true to myself and ever since doing that, I’ve been getting stronger like you wouldn’t believe. That’s the only thing I’ve changed. I’m still piling on the fruits and ?evil? carbs.:-) I just changed my mind.”
My sentiments exactly Jennifer. No surprise there, huh? :)
That was absolutely beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing that with all of us. And I’m sure it will help others who read it. So happy to hear that you “changed your mind” to be happy. Awesome!! :)
Legendary comment. On the candy bar front – I’ve come to feel that a candy bar is not a healthy food. But wanting a candy bar and not eating it is infinitely MORE unhealthy. Or even being uptight about candy bars or any food really. Our bodies know what they need in certain situations, and when they scream “candy bar” it’s usually to shut down some form of biological stress. Avoiding the candy bar is like stress on top of stress.
Thanks Guys! Yeah…definitely loving everyday now! :-)
Blessings and peace,
Jennifer
When I stopped forcing myself to eat a certain way, and just let myself eat exactly what I really wanted, the desires to eat a lot of those ’emotionally charged foods’ just went away. Now, I just ask myself, ‘do I really want to have that in my mouth??” and often the answer is ‘no.’ Now, I do make sure to eat plenty of real food, but I wouldn’t tell myself, ‘No candy bars!” That just turns a candy bar into a carrot when I might rather have a carrot.
I think I got lost midway in my own metaphor, but you get the idea.
Hi JIll,
one thing that was noted among my peeps was the lack of cancer and other diseases of civilization in studies up until the early 1900’s.
we definitely went hard on processed and un natural foods evaporating maple sap to concentrate the sugars and grinding “evil” corn grain to make cornbread for instance. if you look at description given by Jauques Cartier of our shortest women being a head taller than their men it’s a sign of robustness this un natural diet creates. Certainly if there was a cheerio necklace among them it would have been noted. This robustness surely made stronger soldiers that defeated other armies and moved those people of the world who ate this un natural diet forward.
I NEED your help chief, it would be greatly appreciated. I’m tryin to eat most of my calories in one meal sometime after work in the evening. As you know I work outside. It feels like I have shitty circulation but my damn feet (hands somewhat too) wont get warm. Even with nice wool socks and insulated boots they feel chilly. They almost feel like they lack blood altogether sometimes lol. I’m even using vapor barrier socks. In desperation I’ve chugged pop before and I’ve gotten them to warm up. Its such a problem in the back of my mind I’ve even thought about taking a few shots of something strong before work. I don’t know if doin a big dry meal in the morning would work but I don’t digest very good cuz I’m doing strenuous things. and I like eating after work as I’m sure you’d understand. Something I thought of, but may be silly, is when it first started getting cold (the fall) I started consuming a lot more vitamin C because I cannot afford to get sick. I’m talkin 5-10 grams a day. I am interested in the whole iron/vitamin c correlation and am wonderin if I’m like anemic or somethin. Like what if I’m lifting heavy things so bloods diverted to my muscles and then I don’t have enough blood to fill up my feet lol. For a long time now I thought a lot of vitamin C was good cuz when you read about that stuff it makes so much sense, like Linus Pauling etc…Very confusing..If my feet are cold my days are miserable, and I’m still kinda scared of gettin sick if I don’t take vitamin C.
if your running at an optimum level and eating enough to keep your body temp up you wont get sick or at least not very likely. Everyone around me gets sick except those that follow my lead and avoid pork and eat like a champ and whatnot. I highly doubt the blood is not going to your feet when you lift heavy things. it takes an anchor to lift so even the feet are involved.
without alot more detail it would be difficult to say exactly what is causing your issues. but I can tell you working like a badass will not decrease your digestion so the “doing strenuous things” is not to blame.
I know you mentioned being not so well off shoot me an email and I’ll see if I can’t help you some way at least point you in the right direction.
I think you have to slowly transition into this. What I’ve noticed, and even John Berardi notes this when trying to do Leangains and eat breakfast at 1pm, is that it’s really difficult not to get cold hands and feet during this period. In the evening it’s much easier to be fasting and still be warm, when sugar levels are natually higher. But in my RBTI experience, sugar levels really start to plummet at about 10am if you haven’t eaten any food. I do believe that Chief has his own system and that many systems can work. But miss important parts of the system and the system doesn’t work. A car can’t work even if there’s one missing part if that missing part is vital to its function.
“But miss important parts of the system and the system doesn’t work.”
this is very very true and why so many people get bad results trying to self-coach. like read one article on fasting and decide to “not eat and see how that goes”.
I do have a system but sadly at this point it is not a one size fits all style and I have to take everyone’s history into consideration so approaches vary form person to person.
I’m working on a “choose your own adventure” approach that will funnel people towards the same proven method in then end and take out all the guess work regardless what their starting situation is. I’m doing a documented run through (yes before and after pics) in the coming months by mid 2012 everyone familiar with 180 should understand it for the most part and be able to benefit from it. I was trying to start jan 1st but native issues/politics and some non profit causes I’m involved in have kept me too busy. just a few weeks behind ;) I’m posting as fast as I can.
Bob,
I meant to tell you this when I first read your comment, but I got distracted and forgot. Sorry. Matt’s reply reminded me lol.
I agree with Chief that if/when you get your metabolism and temp up you won’t get sick. I never do – even after being exposed to sick people. And I agree with Matt about ‘transitioning’ being important in establishing a fast/feast schedule, as Chief was saying before about switching schedules. You should read and heed their discussion about it starting here:
http://180degreehealth.com/2012/01/diets-are-like-new-girlfriends#comment-54230
But as for guarding against getting sick in the meantime DO NOT take Vit C everyday. Taking Vit C everyday is another silly widespread notion perpetuated by the manufactures of synthetic Vit C. It can be more harmful than helpful (even aside from screwing with iron). But you didn’t totally waste your money on the Vit C.
Here’s a tip that will help you keep from getting sick until you sick-proof yourself with a strong metabolism and high temp. Anytime you feel the slightest, and I mean the SLIGHTEST symptom of a cold or flu – tickle/soreness in the throat, sneezing, coughing, runny nose, congestion, flu-like body aches and fatigue – Zinc is what you need to take. But Vit C does help your body absorb the Zinc.
So… take at least 100mg of natural (not synthetic) Zinc with at least 1000mg of Vit C every 12 hours. This will wipe out the symptoms after about 24-36 hours. BUT… the trick is you must be sure to start as soon as you notice the ‘slightest’ symptom. If you wait too long you will miss your window of op to get it before it gets you. And you must be sure to take it every 12 hours to keep it in your system. Also, keep doing so for about 3 days after symptoms disappear. But don’t take it for more than 7 days.
This has worked for everyone I’ve given that tip to. The only time it didn’t work for someone was when they admittedly didn’t start right away and/or didn’t take it every 12 hours. But it did work for them the next time – when they did it the right way. I recommend taking the Zinc/Vit C on an empty stomach right before you eat. It tends to upset an empty stomach.
Hopefully you won’t need to do it. And if you ETF and get your metabolism and temp up you won’t! :)
Chief, Matt, Corena I just want you to know that I feel so honored when cool, intelligent people like yourselves respond to others and myself trying to help out. It’s seriously awesome, and your time and wisdom is priceless, sort of hehe. I got excited when I hit ctrl+F typed Bob Dean, and scrolled down ;-) (probably a better way?)
Chief-
I just meant that if I was possibly anemic chief that my blood would be diverted and if I didnt have enough then there would be a lack in my feet haha. But you dont think eating a big meal like rbti style and doing strenuous things is a problem? (i.e, pukin if you ate a meal before workin out, or that terrible knot in ur stomach!) I’m not sure I understand you. But I shall email you when I get a chance.
Matt-
I definitely will be conscious now of the whole transitioning deal. I realize that trying to follow advice without the bigger picture can be problematic but I think I’m doin decent =) I’m wondering if you seen how I said chuggin pop helped me haha. If I absolutely need to warm up I want there to be a better way. what food, drink would you suggest? take half n half with added sugar to work or somethin? haha
Corena-
Your zinc suggestion is very much appreciated and I am also very interested in how it works. I don’t know much about zinc unfortunately. It’s in centrum commercials though! haha.
The vitamin C thing boggles me. The stuff I read back in the day about megadosing, and how most animals besides guinea pigs, us an primates or somethin have large amounts of vitamin C flowing through them at all times and is also elevated in times of stress and how we lack just ONE enzyme to turn sugar into vit c or somethin. =\ It’s called subclinical scurvy folks, and maybe I don’t have it…lol Definitely will be reading that transition discussion when I get the chance.
Thank you everybody for being legit as f_ck =D
Juice is good my friend.
Bob, to second what matt said, juice is a good “snack” and snacking on anything would get the best results in typical heavy workdays. if you are hitting things hard enough to go through a massive amount of calories like, a lumberjack in ontario or montana in the late 1800’s then your body adjusts to take big meals in relatively short times. the lumberjacks in those days did not have unions to push for mandatory lunch breaks and only had about ten minutes for lunch and breaks were not common. The work was intense enough to go through easily 5000 or more cals in a day. You would pass from fatigue if it wasn’t a big meal. blood flows to the intestinal track after eating a meal and less blood elsewhere means inefficient muscles. All depends how hard you work only you would know if your lumberjackin’ it or “make pretend workin’ ” like typical union guys today that are “keepin busy”.
oh yea, try to space the “snacks” out evenly every hour or so.
Aww, it’s cuz we love you Bob! And all you peeps.
If you do end up using the zinc tip let me know how it works for ya, k? :)
I have taken the vitamin c and zinc together after I eat in the evening whenever I think my throat feels a little funny. Which by the way seems to correlate with lack of sleep a lot of the time too. Makes sense to me. Less sleep, shittier immunity etc…I’m not sick so far this winter =) Soo whatever is happening thank you anyway!
Lack of sufficient sleep is much more detrimental than even the crappiest diet in my own personal experience. Of course, crappy diet can really ruin sleep. So it’s hard to separate the two sometimes.
I ate ice cream just about daily (haagan daz) while breastfeeding, both my kids thrived on it. We did ‘baby lead weaning’ and neither of my kids wanted solids til about a year. And they grew and were very healthy.
However, I just weaned my son in September (at nearly 3 years) and the same ice cream habit caused me to gain 15 lbs in 2 months LOL! I had to cut it out and I’m losing so I can fit back into my pants again, I just thought it was an interesting observation.
Ice cream is definitely the ultimate growth-promoting food. Great for starving, underweight people and those with low metabolism, which is who I tend to recommend ice cream to.
Does cream itself have this same effect or is the sugar and milk found in ice cream critical? In other words, could I get the same affect if I just drink whole cream instead of eat ice cream?
Jason in Sacramento
No. The carbs are needed, the palatability is needed, and the milk contains the protein and minerals. Of course, all of us eat totally different diets, and adding cream can help achieve the desired effect due to its calorie density and great fat profile. One of the keys in this scenario (young boy mentioned in last post) was easy digestibility and of course, this was one of the kid’s favorite foods. He needed to eat more, so presenting him with more of his favorite foods was essential. His favorite foods were limited and he disliked eating because of it – at least that was part of the problem. But anything can have this type of effect if it goes from being restricted to unrestricted. If that makes sense.
Okay, first things first…
In the words of Uncle Rico, ?Oh I’m dead serious.
Ha! :)
Second…
Yep that’s another one! Haha.
And I gotta agree with the Nipper. The pics are totally boobylicious!!
I’ve seen that look on a few big boy’s faces too. Haha.
Nice. Totally agree.
Can’t get any better than that!
But this comes close…
I agree. And these ideas would make for great starts…
Posts like this, humor like that, and pics like those make this the best freakin’ blog in its field! Without a doubt. Hands down!
You make it look so easy :)
@Josefina
You’ve made some good comments. There are too many variables in all this. Even breastmilk varies from day to day, from person to person and even from one end of a feeding to another. Where did these stats come from?
Ice cream is not a living product (well maybe if it’s made from raw milk). Breast milk from the source is alive. It contains enzymes and antibodies which any processing will destroy. Same with cows’ milk.
Re: Breyer’s Ice Cream…check the ingredients. I believe last time I did I found that it was no longer as pure and simple as it once claimed to be.
Exactly. Breyer’s is total junk food.
First of all, breastmilk is for babies, which is why adults don’t have it. It is designed to keep babies fat & thriving. It is full of nutrients and antibodies that make it far superior. Everything in it absorbs in the babies system without any trouble. Which is untrue of refined sugars, processed foods, and milk from another animal. Dairy products can actually disrupt & take away from a human cell’s calcium.
If children needed the fat & calories of ice cream they should just have breastmilk. Most likely if they live in America, they don’t need to be on that type of fatty diet just like they no longer need breastmilk.
Adults obviously don’t need breastmilk, or ice cream, or sugar. Have an avocado.
Adults having the type of fats found in avocado is exactly what causes human breast milk to suck and be fully of omega 6 polyunsaturated fat!
This is the strongest criticism to Matt’s argument and I was thinking the same thing myself. At the same though, I agree with Matt both that ice cream is a lot healthier than the mainstream makes it out to be and *is* maybe one of the best things for an undernourished or growing person. It helps me to realize I shouldn’t be so quick to demonize or exonerate certain foods. Thoughts like those are the precursors to disordered eating. For some people, ice cream may be exactly the thing to help them get healthy.
Actually, I don’t find it a very good argument in these modern times.
Jill wrote:
“breastmilk is for babies, which is why adults don’t have it. It is designed to keep babies fat & thriving. It is full of nutrients and antibodies that make it far superior. Everything in it absorbs in the babies system without any trouble.”
Maybe in a perfect world. And yes, in a perfect world, that’s what breastmilk is “designed” for. But a perfect world this ain’t. And neither is most modern human breastmilk.
And incidentally is what makes this UNTRUE…
Jill wrote:
“Which is untrue of refined sugars, processed foods, and milk from another animal. Dairy products can actually disrupt & take away from a human cell’s calcium.
If children needed the fat & calories of ice cream they should just have breastmilk.”
Jill wrote:
“Adults obviously don’t need breastmilk, or ice cream, or sugar.”
Actually, ice cream, sugar, etc., is just what some (actually a lot of) adults do need more of. Especially some pregnant and nursing mothers. That’s why craving ice cream is so common among them.
Breastmilk would most probably win on the level of emotional health. I agree with Josefina that breatfeeding is so much more than just nutrition. However, serving icecream directly from breasts would be a nice alternative… I already can imagine happening that!
When you get that store up and running be sure to post :-)
While an interesting read, this article is bound to confuse any newcomer to the health world. A lot of disclaimers seem needed for something like this.
True coconut milk is also very close in nutrient content to human breast milk as well.
Actually Jill, my grandson, mentioned in the post….. who could “wear a cheerio” for a necklace was eating avocados and look where that got him. Now, within one week of bulldozing ice cream into himself and the result has been incredible. His body is on the mend for the first time in months after almost bleeding out in the hospital. The proof is in the pudding….er ice cream for sure! Oh, and the doctors stated it had nothing to do with nutrition. I hope we can all learn something from this.
The eye-popping photo that references this article on the main page sure makes it hard to keep this site up at work…but I’m not complaining. :)
So, Matt, I have an anecdote: riddle me this–
–Two early teen identical twin boys I know, born prematurely, tall, very skinny, some behavioral difficulties, act years younger than their age. Maybe slightly autistic. Some neglect/abuse before they were adopted.
–Their adoptive parents are in mainstream medicine, so no danger of diet dogma or “whole foods” ideas!
–These kids basically eat nothing but ice cream and white food, occasional bits of meat but the fried chicken breading has to be the perfect even gold all over or they won’t touch it. No fruit, no salad. Poor appetite, but can be tempted with mac and cheese, ice cream (so long as it’s exactly the right flavor, and each boy has a different flavor)… Oh, and they drink milk by the gallon.
It doesn’t seem to me that the way they’re eating is helping them to thrive! My guess was that they seriously needed to rebalance their omega 3’s and get some probiotics into them.
What do you say?
thanks,
Ela
Ice cream is the best food in the world unless it isn’t.
oh matt you have the sense of humor of a 13 year old boy.
I have a question about something completely unrelated. If someone were to do a leangains type eating schedule with eating from 12-8 or something like that but eating rrarf style during that time period, would healing be possible, stunted…non existent? I feel so good not eating in the mornings but I have read the adrenals need food asap. Thanks!
Hi Callie
I can tell you it is very possible, however it is influenced by what you are doing before breaking your fast ( exercise) and a few specifics in regards to eating and drinking as well as lifestyle choices and finally if you had time before plowing food for a week or 2 of serious rest.
option 2) if no exercise is present and you are doing a full rest (couch ridden) from that you would need to most likely go above normal appetite and most likely (75% chance) of temporary weight gain or at least ten percent of starting weight for men and around 15 % for women.
option 3) no serious exercise no eating beyond appetite but eating exactly to appetite and never going below or hungry but allowing for many months of recovery by eliminating stressful thinking and stressful situations which you can not control your thoughts in relation to them.
Oh I think if you eat hard you’ll be fine doing that. I have noticed that there is a tendency towards cold feet and sugar crashes during those mid-morning hours though without food. But I think as long as you eat plenty during your feeding window the food from the prior day will have no problems carrying you through until noon the following day.
Thanks Matt. What are your thoughts on the fasted workout issue?
“oh matt you have the sense of humor of a 13 year old boy. ”
Yeah. Isn’t it great?! Men who can still embrace their inner child make the best men. Same is true for women. Don’t grow up. “Grown-ups” are boring, stressed out, and unhappy! :)
I agree with that. I just wish so many of the people I refer to this site weren’t turned off by some of the crude humor. I’d hate for them to miss the point in the midst of the packaging.
thanks Chief for your response. So what about doing 20 minutes of a rehabilitative type workout in the mornings? the workout I do helps with hormone balance and lymph drainage as well as muscle density. and place it makes me feel happy ish:)
thoughts?
I am honestly trying to avoid the weight gain because I have a health imbalance that is made exponentially worse by gaining excess fat weight. Thanks again
fasted workouts are not best for everyone and may not be a good idea period except in very specific circumstances. Without knowing a great deal about your circumstances it’s hard to give specific advice. I give general advice in comments and little tips but this is a major issue and requires alot attention and I could easily make a mistake that would cause you more harm then good and I’m not big on making mistakes that cause people to suffer.
getting back to the advice, in using rarrf eating to correct some health issues fasted workouts would be a bad idea beyond walking at a leisurely pace. try to do them right before breaking your fast and don’t break your fast with a “healthy salad ” after a workout. I think this advise would pertain to anyone in general but again I don’t even know if I would advise you to fast at all without an in depth understanding of your situation. Some followers on here such as undertow for instance I have followed their comments for quite a while and I’m not to worried about telling him to try eating alot of cabs and possibly sugar after a workout.
Cool Chief I appreciate your input and appropriate caution. I am dealing with pcos rooted in insulin issues which started from anorexia 8 yrs ago. Had severe adrenal issues several years ago but they seem to be much improved. My temps have come up close to a degree since starting traditional rrarf, but I am also trying to address estrogen imbalance that is made worse by gaining or carrying extra weight.
ok, extra weight in terms of fat you mean, where as muscular weight would not have the same effect. It is quite possible that scenario number 2 would have increases in muscular weight and depending on other info I don’t presently have could actually be a great benefit. Alot of times people have very low muscle mass and rarrf eating can result in muscular weight gain simply by supplying nutrients and no training present as well as the balancing of hormone levels.
I suspect this is one of reasons so many middle aged women have reported losing weight on the traditional rarrf protocol.
I re-read and noticed you mentioned fat weight specifically sorry Callie.
I’ve seen some evidence fasted workout increases subcutaneous fat production although less problematic than visceral it may have an equal effect on your hormone issue and there is the higher stress aspect of it to consider. but the happiness you mentioned could outweigh all other factors. :)
No problem chief I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
I am amazed at the similar compositions of ice cream and breast milk! I don’t know that I’d go so far as to give ice cream the win, though, considering the amazing immune benefits of breast milk due to the antibodies being passed to the baby (and I eat a nutrient-dense diet so the quality of my milk should be very good). But nonetheless, bring on the ice cream!
After reading and watching some of your information, I’ve been letting my daughter have ice cream whenever she asks for it at Grandma’s house (and it is Haagen Daz, mmm). We don’t usually have ice cream in our house, but I think I’ll get a few extra pints of raw cream and remedy that right away. Thanks for taking some of the fear out of foods.
As for the taste, human milk is pretty sweet and tasty but the flavor seems to rapidly degrade. For instance, pumped milk doesn’t seem to taste nearly as good. Makes me wonder what cow milk tastes like straight from the source, but not curious enough to find out!
Can I re-post the nutritional stats on my site (with attribution to you, of course)?
Of course!
Here is MatLalonde on Ice cream “Ben & Jerry’s ice cream contains some nasty legume-derived stabilizers and thickeners such as guar gum, xanthan gum and locust bean gum. The carbohydrates in the gums are really problematic for some folks, especially those with irritable bowel disorders.” http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=155715531177120&set=a.151909551557718.38456.116169665131707&type=1&theater
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=157119924370014&set=a.151909551557718.38456.116169665131707&type=1
@ Lance – Ben & Jerry’s is not real ice cream! It’s processed crap.
That said, I have seen worse. Was round at a friend’s for dinner, and the orthorexic in me couldn’t resist scanning the list of the ingredients on the empty tub of ice cream (probably because it hadn’t tasted remotely like ice-cream).
Vegetable fat, Isolated Milk Proteins, Thickeners, Flavourings, Gluten and a list of other weird crap as long as your arm. No doubt this crap will kill you and make you ill, but there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Proper ice cream should just contain milk, cream, egg yolks and sugar, plus some natural flavourings. I’d agree with some of the comments above that excessive consumption could lead to a little too much fructose, but providing you’re not guzzling sugary drinks and sweets all day I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it!
LaLonde is an intelligent guy, but he needs to learn to live a little – Maybe his diet of slow cooked meat and veggies, with zero sugar or alcohol will let him live to 150, but it’s going to be a pretty dull life!
If you think LaLonde is going to live to 150 on that diet you better think again. That is a shitty diet, and those who don’t “live a little” don’t typically live very long.
human milk 3.2 – 3.25 % fat
http://www.ajcn.org/content/41/4/787.full.pdf+html
Yeah, fructose is completely ignored here. A few commenters got it – but Matt didn’t reply. I also think it is the most important distinction between the negative health effects of ice cream when compared with breast milk. If we wanted to reduce obesity to a single food additive/nutrient – which we can’t – then I think fructose would play a leading role. That’s not just me, either, Robert Lustig’s research on fructose is respectable and shouldn’t be excluded for this comparison.
If ice cream were made without processed sugars, then it would be one of the most similar foods to breast milk – and our favorite white powder is ignored.
I don’t usually write comments – and I’ll get around to writing you some emails someday, Matt – but while I’m writing this one I would like to give a short summary of the research I did while in academia about sugar and metabolism. That is, this blog reflects fairly well the metabolic stimulation that can result from sugar intake. The problem, I believe, is that this stimulation is jarring! There have been some interesting claims of procedures to stimulate without maladaptive effects (adipose tissue, deregulation of insulin and leptin, etc) – like Broda Barnes with coconut oil and sucrose – as usual though, it will be hard to implement any one-size-fits-all procedure to the fat masses.
Paying attention to how you feel after (in ~5m and in ~35m) you eat different things is still the best tool I know of to correct one-size-fits-all procedures.
Fructose used to be the primary focus of this site. Long before Lustig came out with Sugar: The Bitter Truth. But then we realized the mistakes being made in the war against it, and had to face the contradictions. http://180degreehealth.com/2008/04/fruc-fructose
I’m not sure what you’re saying. You said it first? Lustig was not the first to publish on this – and he had articles about fructose effects published in the peer reviewed literature by 2009. I like eating pints of ice cream – which can occur in about 10 – 25 minutes. Off the top of my head, a pint of ice cream will have about 40 grams of metabolically available fructose. Since ice cream is basically a liquid and has no fiber, this is absorbed very quickly.
This is more fructose than a can of soda has – but one can argue that the fat helps offset the side effects – but is this to such an extent that one could call it roughly equivalent to human milk? I doubt it. It’s roughly equivalent to human milk with ~80 grams of sucrose added, right?
This reduces the scope to the following tangent: How much fructose (or sucrose) is significant per day or per meal when determining the minimum amount of side effects for most people. For example, I think we can agree that the amount of fructose contained in a handful of blueberries (per day or per meal) is too little to give the majority of people any health problems.
Maybe we should list the contradictions of “fructose is bad for you” – as I’m inferring you implied – and match them up with real world instances of fructose intake?
Human breastmilk contains stem cells. Let’s see ice cream do that.
When we avoid stripped sugars and grain products and refined seed oils, sickness is much less frequent, and something interesting is that my teen kids skin stays clear and their mood and energy is better. Both I and my hubby had acne, my hubby’s really bad and grew up eating a lot of pizza, sugar, refined flour, etc. We pretty strictly avoid processed anything, as per nt recommendations. We grind wheat and soak in buttermilk and make pancakes, waffles, biscuits, etc. When we do eat the stripped versions of these foods, the effects are seen in the form of pimples, behavior issues, coughs, allergies, etc. From experience I believe whole heartedly that nutritionally stripped foods are very detrimental. I can understand the desire to deny that, because it is much easier than making your own and cheaper. In the past there was someone usually a woman at home who devoted much of her time to nourishing the people of the household. I think it is best to be that way and then there is much less temptation to eat stripped junk. Being the nourisher of a household is very noble, important work that doesn’t get the honor and respect deserved in our society.
This may be one of the most bizarre blog posts I have ever seen. Breast milk has room for improvement? I think it is the perfect food for babies and there is no human way to improve something like that anyway. So weird.
Depends on whose breastmilk we’re talking about here. It’s weird that you don’t have the intellectual capacity to grasp that possibility, or that some other mother might raise her kids on breast milk with horrendous results. There is a great deal of individual variation in breast milk quality.
Oh, and breastmilk is subpar? And makes kids sick?? I wish you would link to the proof for that because I nursed 3 children and they are all in excellent health. Again, totally bizarre.
this article explains so much, lol. however, i truly don’t think store-bought ice cream should be a staple, look at ben and jerry or at your favorite personal ice cream lover. same syndromes as everyone else. ice cream IS good for a treat that isn’t horrible for you.
the comment that ice cream has no stem cells isn’t true about raw ice cream! and there will be beneficial bacteria as well. arrange to pick up raw milk and cream from a local farmer. add a few yolks for creaminess. true maple syrup or honey to taste. salt as well. vanilla. feed it into your ice cream maker and you are good to go.
pickles and ice cream aren’t at the top of the hit list for pregos for no reason. vinegar to aid digestion, and all the nutritents listed above. according to my mother she ate tons of ice cream while pregnant with me. i’ve been moderately healthy, but i do have crooked teeth.
sadly, many women are nutritionally and biotically deficient both during pregnancy and even more at lactation. still and all mom’s milk will be better than formula. best always to improve the mother’s status and continue with breastfeeding. there may be situations in which a home-made formula must be cooked up–when the baby isn’t thriving–how many know that there are recipes for such things? for example in “nourishing traditions”.
Matt what do you think about the people who say that milk is cancerous. I’ve heard that in hospitals when people are going through chemotherapy, they are recommended to avoid all dairy products.
Chemotherapy induces leaky gut, so the patients may become dairy intolerant after receiving it.
And if anyone reads this article and believes it. They are as dumb as can be.
It’s complete foolishness to compare ice cream and breastmilk. And that’s why it takes a long article of rationalization to push this falsity off on people.
Kids don’t get sick on breast milk. What a stupid assumption. It doesn’t matter what the media says. I personally have seen many kids in my family drink it. None got sick. All my kids drank from mom’s boobs. And they are more healthy than any other. But ice cream, no matter how you make it or buy it could never compare. Its stupid to even make the suggestion. Breast milk doesn’t work like “dairy”. But ice cream does.
Well, yeah, that is easy to spot differences between the 2: ice-cream is usually using milk from COWS!! That is quite different from HUMAN milk. The protein sub-groups for example, the different types of fat sub-groups and relative proportions, etc. So many differences. Looking only at macros or common micros like vitamin C or calcium is really like saying the tip of the iceberg is the entire iceberg.
I’m agree with Joe M789. Stone is not even touching the medicinal properties of breastmilk… so totally not a fair comparison. Breastmilk is made of live, dynamic cells that change according to the baby’s needs – for example, breastmilk at 8 a.m. is different than noon or midnight. Can we say that about ice cream? No. Does breastmilk contain antibodies that fight off RSV or asthma or allergies or help prevent SIDS? No. Value of ice cream – about 10 cents an ounce. Value of breastmilk, over $100 an ounce. I rest my case – there is NO comparison. As much as I love ice cream, it doesn’t come close to the GOLD LIQUID of breastmilk, which saves lives every single day by preventing life-threatening illnesses. This article is a public disservice because you have people now wondering if they can substitute ice cream for breastmilk. This article is ridiculous.
No literate person would think that this article is suggesting ice cream as a substitute for breast milk. But the problems with breast milk should be scrutinized, and moms should be made aware of how they can improve breast milk composition. Likewise, if ice cream is considered junk food, then why is the most similar food on earth considered the elixir of health? Clearly our collective ideas and biases about what constitutes healthy food should be more closely and fairly examined.
I know this is an old post, but I am just now seeing this. I have a 7 year old girl that still likes breast milk. I have a 15 month old that just now weaned himself, but when he was nursing still and I had to pump, my 7 year old would ask for it. Then, she would beg me to pimp so she can have the milk. She loves ice cream, too. She would prefer my milk to any other milk. She has always been like that. She asked for the milk from my last 2 children. Also, someone said that breast milk has the probiotics and ice cream does not. Well, if you made the ice cream from raw milk, it would have the probiotics. I used to have goats and milk them. The ice cream was pretty good from them. We don’t anymore because it was too much to handle with 4 goat kids and 4 children. All goarpt kids are the same age as my youngest child.