By Rob Archangel, 180DegreeHealth.com staff writer
Well, time to wrap up kiddos! The Real Food Summit ends today, and this will be my last roundup. ?On deck: Jordan Reasoner and Steven Wright talking about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and Kaayla Daniels talking about enhancing fertility.
First up, Jordan and Steve talking about poop. They have an engineering background and take a pretty methodical approach to helping people deal with digestive disorders. ?Jordan was diagnosed with Celiac disease several years ago, and Steve experienced undiagnosed digestive distress. Going on a specific carbohydrate diet seemed to help them regain their lives. The idea behind SCD is that unhealthy guts can’t tolerate complex carbs well, and so you avoid them either permanently or provisionally to allow your gut to heal. You can still have simple carbs (sugars) like fruit and honey and certain legumes.
I don’t have much experience with the specific carbohydrate diet, and don’t have strong opinions about it. ?It seems like it’s worked wonders for some, and that’s awesome. My only concern is that it may be overly restrictive for others, and might prove unsustainable. ?With so many people on the bandwagon to reduce or eliminate this or that food, and well-meaning listeners doing their best to incorporate all the plausible suggestions, we may end up with literally everything verboten by some authority or other. ?So be hesitant about any drastic dietary deletions, and very clear about whether it makes sense for you *specifically* (haha).
One other thing: RRARFing has helped lots of people overcome things like gas,bloating, constipation and food intolerances. Increasing the metabolism is a game-changer, and can also greatly improve digestive function.
Next on deck: Kaayla Daniels. She talks about the ways we can enhance fertility and some of the environmental and dietary agents
at play. ?Soy is not a big focus here, though she’s written a lot about its possible downsides, especially when consumed in vast quantities. ?It has both goitrogenic (thyroid-suppressing) qualities and high levels of plant estrogens, both of which are no good for baby-making. She points out that Sylvester Graham (as in Graham crackers), and John Harvey Kellogg (as in the cereals) both pushed plant-based diets as a way to minimize the sex drive, since they saw sex as immoral. ?Their observation was that animal foods are great for fertility and libido, though curiously this has gotten turned on its head by modern PETA ads suggesting that meat-based diets lower sexual performance. Here are some of Matt’s thoughts on the Fertility Diet.
That’s all for me, y’all. ?It’s been fun. Matt should be back soon here causing trouble. Catch you on the flip side.
?One more thing: you can tune in tonight 5pm PT, 8pm ET for a live Q&A with Matt, David Getoff, Jenny McGruther, Kim Schuette and Donielle Baker on Sean Croxton’s Underground Wellness radio show. Feel free to give Matt a hard time.
<>
How can you even say “may”? Collectively-if we take into account all the various diet gurus from Paleo to Ray Peat to Durianrider-everything is “verboten”.
Touch?- I amended that.
Can we start spelling out all these acronyms? I have no idea what they mean
Hey Burn- my apologies. SCD= Specific Carbohdrate Diet. PETA is a pro-vegan group (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). The name is unimiportant- I switched the post to say ‘pro-vegan ad.’
RRARF is a 180D special- Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Re-feeding. It’s the program Matt came up with to help create a nutritional and caloric superabundance, coupled with taking it real easy. The aim is to de-stress and get the body back into a a high metabolic state.
So what are your thoughts on the other presentation? The Pam Killeen one?
yes, I wanted to hear thoughts about Pam’s presentation too!
Sorry y’all- didn’t catch it.
A lot of orthorexia in the conference overall in my opinion. I thought about buying the set but the main things I was interested in was Chris Masterjohn’s rundown on Weston Price. Salatin’s talk was good too but you can hear that anywhere. I didn’t want to pay $67 for the one interview.
Other than that, there was a lot of carb-hating and promoting of orthorexic tendencies. Did you get your bone broths? Did you get your fermented foods? Don’t eat fruit, it’s just sugar. Oh yeah, also have a social life and don’t freak out in social situations.
So glad I’m on the Matt Stone bandwagon. I felt like Matt’s message was being lost though, maybe I’m wrong. Sean was pushing the idea that simply eating real foods will lead to weight loss. We know it’s not that straightforward. Both he and Matt have a lot of experience working with people. I wonder if Sean sees a lot of consistent results and if so whether it’s long term weight loss and not just people forcing it off.
In the case of the gurus, their livelihood (and ego) depends on Orthorexia. In the case of people who follow health gurus, many of them are desperate and think they are out of options. I am also of the opinion that “health foods” become a sort of god, a bad religion. Take away their orthorexia and their lives would have no meaning. That’s why they go from one diet to the next, looking for a better god. People (mostly with reason) accuse Big Pharma with corrupting science and medicine, but what are health gurus doing? One might argue that they are well-intentioned. I would argue that they are no more, no less than medical doctors.
Some people really are desperate. It sucks to have your body not feel right and not know how to fix it. I got myself there with a combination of high stress, over-exercising, poor sleep, and controlling food behaviors. Carry enough things on for long enough and the body will start to wear down. Good luck getting it back to normal. That’s the real problem with the diet/exercise culture. It praises mild obsessiveness. It’s easy from there to go off the deep end. Although most of us here took the much worse path of following low-carb or veganism, which are much harder on the body than normal dieting.
That being said, there are glaring problems with modern nutritional and exercise dogma. Anybody trying to escape these paradigms is a sucker for the other dogma floating around out there. It’s difficult to get the science straight and it’s difficult to not become obsessive when you realize most modern foods violate one or more rules. I got very sucked in by this because I very much do not want to get chd/obesity/diabetes and honestly, most modern foods are garbage in some way or another. I mean why would we even have a Real Food Summit in the first place?
But one thing Matt Stone has taught is it just isn’t as straightforward as all that. Stress is a big factor. Socioeconomic status is a big factor. It’s honestly better to eat some Oreos than have some super strict, stressful regimen.
Oh, and yes. The science is very corrupted. That’s one reason I really dig Chris’ rundown on Weston Price. Not only does it make you understand what real science it is but you realize there were traditional cultures that knew how to practice it and those that didn’t. It’s the ones that did that had good health. From that perspective we’re a culture that believes we know how to practice good science even though we obviously don’t. Our health is far below those traditional cultures and the standard papers that get published in nutritional research have nothing on Price’s work. It just becomes so clear (and also frustrating) once you start following people like Chris and Denise.
Aaron, I don’t doubt that Chris Masterjohn does good science, but isn’t this belief that we have to get the last word in science part of the problem? I mean, is it that difficult to eat food? I like Matt’s expression, “Just eat the food.” It may be somewhat simplistic, but the point is that eating should not require you to hold a PhD in Nutritional Science. I have f*cked myself up so many times following the latest in science by some guru whose credentials seem rock-solid. On this count, I really like the book “The Yoga of Eating.” It sounds new-agey and flakey, but it is actually a very good book. The basic message: trust your body to make the right food decisions. Obviously that is easier said than done. However, it is worth the effort and doesn’t require a PhD in order for you to decide what you’re going to put on your plate.
‘The Yoga of Eating’ is written by Charles Eisenstein, the same guy who wrote ‘Transformational Weight Loss,’ among other books. I really dig him.
It’s an interesting counter-assumption to make, that we already have the information we need about food ourselves. I mean, eating is comprised of whatever we can know about the food, and then how it impacts us as individuals. The whole emphasis on taking different approaches for different people is predicated on this idea that one substance might have very different effects depending on who’s consuming it.
So in a way, since we have direct access to that side of the equation, the ‘how does it affect me’ side, we may not need the ‘what can I know about this food’ side, since food is ultimately just a means to that end.
Yes, Rob, I agree. I am trying to do just that, eat what my body tells me to eat. Of course, it’s a little more difficult than it sounds, because you have to wean yourself from all of the theories you have in your head issued from gurus of “perfect diets” past :)
Here is the problem with the “scientific” approach to food, at least when taken to obsessive extremes: you are dealing with a complex system-the body. Most nutritional fads-despite giving lip service to the notion of “wholism”-end up looking at the body from a narrow point of view, looking at things in an isolated manner. My working hypothesis is that that wouldn’t happen if you are keenly attentive to your body language and follow its indications. Eisenstein is a real bright guy and writes with a lot of wisdom beyond the purely intellectual.
And he was a vegetarian who couldn’t get it up….
I have to second (or third, or fourth) the good remarks for Charles Eisenstein. Definitely one of my favorite writers. Too bad he doesn’t go to the WAPF conferences anymore, but I suppose it’s best that he didn’t get stuck on writing about food for too long. He’s since moved on to more important topics, in my opinion, though his underlying themes are largely similar.
Derek, agreed that Eisenstein is good that he has gone on to write about other stuff, like economics, politics and alternative social systems, because, let’s face it, diet is getting very boring!
Well yes and no. Believe me, I have fucked myself up trying to follow the latest in science. I think there’s too much we can’t know. The body’s intuitive wisdom IS the best guide for today’s modern food environment.
But as Chris points out, Price observed traditional cultures that did pay attention to their diet’s effect on health and traditional cultures that didn’t. And there were noticeable effects even prior to modern foods.
Modern nutritional science isn’t really “science”. I think we know that. You are correct that we are better off chucking most of it out the window (be it conventional wisdom, paleo, low/carb, or vegan), and just following intuition. But I think it helps to just be aware of a few things and try to incorporate those principles, as long as you’re not obsessive.
Here are principles that I currently presume to be true:
-The body can tolerate a large amount of junk, so don’t obsess about things like cake and cookies.
-Stress trumps all else. Make sure you are getting decent sleep and have effective stress management techniques. If eating some cookies helps you mellow out and you need that, then just eat some damn cookies.
-The body knows what it needs. Don’t eat sausage and sauerkraut when you are craving OJ. Follow your cravings.
-Provided you have good digestion, continuing to include enough whole food sources of starch and sugar will keep it good (this is based on personal observation).
-Saturated fat and cholesterol are not bad for you. The body needs nutrients that come along with them. Make sure to eat things like butter and eggs.
-Carbs are not bad for you. There’s a wide variation of carb/fat ratios that are okay in the diet. Don’t worry about it.
-PUFAs are probably bad in excess. How much so is tough to say. My belief is the body will preferentially use low quality foods as fuel first, rather than for structural purposes. I have not seen any positive evidence for PUFAs. Advice is too limit as much as possible w/o getting stressed about it or causing social isolation. Unfortunately PUFAs extends to all chips, crackers, a lot of cookies, commercial salad dressings, most processed foods, and a lot of restaurant foods. Unless you are cooking from scratch, they are simply ubiquitous.
-Real food sources generally taste better than process or refined. For example no refined sugar product is going to match the tastiness of pure maple syrup or raw honey.
Aaron, I agree with you. What you write there makes a lot of sense.
Great, message, Aaron. These are actually principles I follow and it works pretty well for me. I’m one of the few people I know with a truly stable weight and very few cravings. The body really does know what it needs, once you tune in and listen, and I would add that avoiding chemicals is huge. Also, people should always remember that food alone may not fix their issues. Although it is far from mainstream, I recently saw a classical homeopath and the homeopathic remedy I have has been doing wonders to fix the issues that have been lingering since my summer of stress last year. I would highly recommend it (with a good practitioner – need to do your homework) to anyone feeling their body is “unbalanced.” Food cannot fix everything, IMO. Sleep, happiness, therapy and/or simple positive thinking can also work wonders, in my experience. It’s not all about the food.
Amy, I am happy that the homeopathy is working for you, AND I agree, food won’t fix everything. That said, Alternative medicine is another area populated with gurus and many of them are worse than allopathic doctors in my opinion. At least, many allopathic doctors will tell you that they don’t have a cure for a particular problem. My experience with MANY alternative docs is that they will string you out for a long, long time and you will spend a boat load of money before you finally figure out that they don’t have a clue about how to address your problem. Despite the sound of saccharine New Age muzak piping through their waiting room speakers, they are in it for the money, and they will wipe out your bank account quick, all the while commiserating with you about evil Big Pharma and mainstream Doctors. That’s my experience, at least.
Amy, I want to be clear that I am not doubting that you have benefited from homeopathy. However, the same problem exists in the “Alternative Medicine” realm as in the dietary realm. One can easily give up one’s own power, get sucked into it because your practitioner appears to be knowledgeable or you buy into the system rather than TRULY pay attention and adopt a healthy skepticism. We have all been suckered by the placebo effect and carried on due to cognitive dissonance.
Oh, yes, I agree! Actually I found a homeopath that I think was a quack first, and after 2 appointments saw the writing on the wall. This new Dr is very different. I saw a huge change after starting to take the remedy (after 1 appt), she was available (no charge) when I had questions, and I do not anticipate (from my experience, and what she has indicated) that I will need more than 1 more appointment (so 3 total). Please note that a classical homeopath is very different than a naturopathic doctor. But, this is why I indicated people would need to do a lot of homework before using this approach, and us caution and common sense.
BTW, I had been to another classical homeopath years ago and had good experiences (and no quackery or extortion) with that either.
-the body can tolerate a large ammount of junk
Yeah sure, the body can tolerate it, good example are budgies who were massbreed on bread soaked in water as to faster raise the young and breed more often.
Sure they tolerated it, but when you looked at the offspring, every generation got weaker and weaker.
Or what do we feed dogs, horses, bunnies…junk food or food that meets their need to have the best result in the end?
Cows can be feed big ammounts of grains to make them gain bulk and grow fast..unsurprisingly it totally f** up their digestive system and results in azidosis, low omega3 content in the meat and …
..it might not matter that they have a shorter lifespan than pasture feed cows. But in the end we are what we eat and it is a lesson about junk food.
And junk food is not just fries and burger from Mc D.
So what about the people whose body can not tolerate junk as well, or in the long run, but who trust your word that junk is ok and the body can tolerate it..and they believe it because it is much easier to go the nice way of eating junk and ignoring your body signals. People are good with ignoring.
-make sure to meet your needs…the body often seems to need much more minerals and vitamins than advised.
The RDA, the ammount of vitamins and minerals we need is often the ammount that prevents damage to show up in the matter of weeks, but often enough it is not enough to stop all the small aches and pains we go through and see as normal.
And it isn’t enough to just throw in a supplement and be done, there are four kinds of folic acid, in enriched flour and supplements is only one kind, the same problem with carotines…we put one in supplements.
Vitamins and minerals only work well when they are in a natural compound…cancer in smokers through beta carotene doesn’t happen with natural combinations of beta carotenes.(cancer can happen, but it is not triggered by natural carotenes as it is with outsingled beta carotene)
And so on and on..or Selen, Selen is low in the body of most people.
Supplements are turning toxic at a certain level, but eat Selen through natural foods and nothing bad can happen.
Your so called PUFAs are junk food..it will get turned into extra body fat when you do not have the micronutrients to turn it into fuel.
The body needs micronutrients to turn food into energy. Junk food is mostly devoid of micronutrients.
Minerals and vitamins are key ingredients to turn fuel into energy..just like you can not put gas into a car and expect it to run when you don’t have screws in your car that keep everything together, or missing on oil.
I am loading up on 3 times the normal ammount of micro nutrients because I have seen that my body needs them and functions best.
Cholesterol is not one of them….
The ‘cholesterol is good for you’-hype doubled not only my bodyweight over 20 years, it also gave me a fatty liver, gallstones, fatigue and a bad mood.
Unfortunately I thought it was normal because it slowly went worse over the years and I thought I felt good, but I didn’t.
Stereotypes are not good..and good things can be bad for you too..like iron or phenylalanin…one a mineral, the other an essential amino acid that turns out dangerous for some people.
If you don’t turn into account that everyone is different, some might be fine, some only for a certain time and others will have it real bad, you always leave room for attack.
There is even a rare disease where the body can not produce its own cholesterol, but for the big mass of people cholesterol is not something they need.
Just like cats do not need extra vitamin c because they produce it themselves and extra might even lead to kidney stones in cats.
Cholesterol is needed in the body, but if you are not in the age of needing to be nursed(which is normally up to 3-5 years in natural tribes) or have some rare diseases, you do not need extra dietary cholesterol.
Certainly not in the way the people say who now try to twist Weston A.Prices findings about dietary needs and proclaim beef broth,raw liver and egg yolk as a preferable substitute for breastmilk for newborns.
“The basic message: trust your body to make the right food decisions. Obviously that is easier said than done.”
I assume the author does mean that message eating whole foods? ….cause when I eat refined foods,I become loike a junk and want ‘more&more” though it’s actually detrimental to my health.However there’s no message coming through by the body what it really needs bc it’s used to be fed crap,or is it bad gut flora stimulating it?
These last couple of days I’m again craving all the wrong foods and it’s becoming harder to resist it. I’m pondering if I should give in to it tomorrow bc part of me just likes eating it but then there’s also the alarms in my head going off about the physical things it’s gonna cause and the ‘rehab’symptoms again.
I hate this fucking mess that’s supposed to be called life……
Dutchie, from seeing several of your posts, I wonder if you have some depression. Have you considered seeing a therapist specializing in food issues? Or actually if there are homeopaths in the Netherlands, I would think you might be someone that would benefit from homeopathy. Just think your issues may have to do with something more than just food.
I’ve seen many therapists in the past and currently one again. (funny,well not so funny,but he’s struggled 15years with anorexia.I never struggled from the classic anorexia.
I’m just stuck….I know I can’t go back eating all the foods I love,yet sometimes somehow craving them like crazy. On the other hand I keep fearing whole foods,too much fats,carbs etc. )
This week I wanna go back to join the gym and start doing Stronglifts(though I probably won’t achieve decent weights anytime soon) and start eating 3 square meals a day and start the gaining process ……which also kinda scares the f*ck out of me,bc I feel once it’s one there’s no more going back&room for cheats.
Then I’ll also hope I’ll find some peace&quiet again to do some creative things,bc now for some reason being at home during the day/doing stuff that I used to enjoy gives me these crippling anxiety attacks for no reason. And I hope I’ll get my mental creative juices flowing again. And finally figuring out what I’d like to do professionally….
I’m just scared that I’m gonna gain and I’m still not gonna feel better,crap digestion,weird/low energy levels etc. bc of the Lyme&Co.
Hi Dutchie,
If you don’t mind me adding to the conversation, I would recommend a book called Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani. In it, she writes about her near death experience from terminal cancer and what she learned while she was on the other side. She learned that it was fear that actually caused her cancer and it is her belief that fear is what causes most diseases. She was like so many of us in that she ate a “perfect” diet and avoided things like BPA and all those other things they say will kill us because she was terrified of getting cancer. Do you know what she has to say about food and the perfect diet? She feels happiness is what matters…not the food! Makes sense to me. It seems that all the diet gurus and health authorities spend so much time analyzing the diets of the longest lived people, but never take into account what is probably the biggest factor…happiness! They all eat very different diets from each other and what we are left with is that they tend to be happy! They can be poor and not have the latest and greatest of luxuries(Okinawans or the Vanuatu people) yet they are truly happy and know how to live and love life to the fullest. Anyhow, you are like so many of us who need to take back our own power and if you want to eat then eat, but have no regrets about it. It’s hard to silence those alarms in our heads, but once you can master that, the peace of mind you will feel will be SO worth the effort. Try to channel that fearless inner child…the one that would devour an ice cream cone and would go back for seconds with not an ounce of fear, shame or regret! Read Anita’s book if you can get your hands on a copy or visit her website http://anitamoorjani.com. Trust me…you will gain so much insight from her message. I would say this book is the best investment you can make towards your health, yet it gives no advice on what foods are safe to eat or what workouts are best to sculpt your body. You won’t ever look at yourself the same way again. You will realize how precious and pure love you truly are. It just takes some courage to be true to yourself. That’s all it takes! If the true you wants to eat something without fear or regret then you know what you have to do! Bon appetit! I would recommend this book to anyone and hope that all who read my post will check Anita’s story out! We need to finally let ourselves off the hook and stop torturing ourselves. We all deserve to be happy and we will never get there if we keep handing our power over to someone else or those negative thoughts that have been ingrained in our heads . Our bodies aren’t trying to do us in!
Blessings and love,
Jennifer
Thanx 4 the book recommendation Jennifer.(there are still so many books on my list to buy. You wouldnt happen to know if theres a free downloadable version of it somewhere?)
Many times the thought of ‘i wish i had a near death experience or they keep me in a coma and erase my memory’ sprung into my head. The thing is thhat unfortunately its not so black&white as in just eat what makes you happy:( I did that in the past and it tirned out to not have been good for my health at all physical as well as emotional.
For instance…if i’d were to go to the chinese buffet 2nite,i know i enjoy the food and the awesome dessertbuffet(though im still wondering if its just bc of the sugar,wheatflours,additives/msg,bad gut flora),however i know ill feel like crap tomorrow,let alone the fact of the constant bad cravings/cycle to battle yet again which becomes harder everytime. However there’s also a voice that says ‘go for a medium delicious baked hoikaido pumpkin’ and i know the repercussions will probably not bad tomorrow. I like pumpkin too,but that other voice keeps whining that it’s way more fun eating at and the stuff from the restaurant etc. So,i try to keep trying to find good ressons to shut that voice off(like: think about how bad youll feel afterwards,buying a pumpkin is a cheaper meal than paying for th3 buffet etc.) And still trying to feel content. Thats the reason why i usually lose that battle at the very last moment. So,there r3ally is a thing such as food addiction. I know its easy to just write it off as me being depressed,but ive experienced 4myself that it has a lot to do with certain foods i ate,crappy digestion/obstipation,mineral&vitamins and energybalance.
So….whats it gonna be tonight 4 dinner:s
Sorry for butting in here, but when you talk about addiction, I thought of ‘Wheat Belly’, which is a book and the author has a blog with a ton of good information. Here’s one very recent blog article about the topic of modern wheat having addictive properties.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/07/doped/
Letting go of the wheat may not be easy, but it may be just what you need… it turns out I had to get off all gluten, but that’s another story.
Maybe you should think less about food and more about other things in life that will make you happy.
In fact, when I started my eating disorder recovery, my therapist specifically told me to focus on my emotions and not food/eating habits because those would fall into place when I worked though my emotional issues.
Hi Dutchie,
I don’t know of any free down-loadable versions. Wish I did! The only thing I can suggest is that you visit her website and also do a google search of her and you will get many interviews she has done that can give you an idea of the wonderful advice she has to share. You probably wouldn’t even have to read the book with all the interviews that are out there. The great thing is she has no bias. Not with food, religion ect. and she is a very sweet non-judgemental woman. Also, I hope my post didn’t come across as writing off your worries as depression. That’s not at all the message I was trying to convey. Looking at the example you gave me of the merry- go- round of thoughts you have when deciding if you should let yourself eat the Chinese food or not sounds just like as if you were in my head. Trust me I understand! The one thing Anita mentions in her book is that to be fearless we need to do away with our beliefs and disbeliefs. I guess in the scenario you gave me, one would have to never have that merry-go-round conversation play in their head before they eat. That in itself is fear and is damaging. Since our stomachs and brains are so tightly linked, if I’m thinking that a food will cause me a problem before I even eat it, my brain probably sends this message to my stomach and it senses the food as an evil invader and bad digestion is soon to follow. I don’t know, but this is where the “doing away” with a set belief comes into play. I have had the same thought as you, though. I use to eat what I wanted and it didn’t turn out so well for me, but I have always been fearful, in my head analyzing and just a plain old stress ball of a person without even knowing it. I now realize that in my case, I can’t do all the blaming on the food. I honestly don’t know the last time my thoughts and beliefs weren’t influenced by outside sources. How could they not be. Between the stuff we see in the media, hear on the radio, see on the television, what we have learned from our parents, how could I have possibly grown up without being influenced! For me now, the goal is to not let what has bean ingrained in my head predetermine how I feel about something. I have been trying to look at things as if I’m seeing them for the first time. Sort of like doing away with the beliefs of other people that have mysteriously taken up residency in my head. My brain only has enough space for my thoughts now! :-)
Blessings and love,
Jennifer
@The Real Amy Actually I find most of my moods (depression,anxiety attacks,OCD etc.) are influenced by what I eat and/or my crappy digestion and thus influence heavily how I feel about stuff that ‘makes me happy’ cause truth is nowadays I don’t feel for a lot to be happy about……and/or sometimes at the weirdest time schedules. (Sory for the gross picture in advance) but I feel energetically and especially mentally the best when I have a huge splurge of diarrea. Eventhough I catch myself looking at food/wanting to eat it,I try to postpone it and wish I’d never have to eat anything anymore bc I just want to hold on some longer of that feeling….of feeling great,anxiousfree,loving life again! and then I also seem to be able to rationalize everything better.
@Jennifer No worries,I didn’t take your post as you writing me off simply as just depressed.:) That was more the feeling I got by a previous comment of The Real Amy,though I don’t mean my comment as an attack:)
You know what the killer of it all is….I went to the Chinese buffet again and everytime it’s becoming more&more of a letdown as in me thinking “it’s really not that specialtasting and/or has nice flavour to it,it’s just sweet” That’s the culprit of it all…..I know it,the repercussions,the letdown yet I can’t seem to get that switch turned permanently which I really hate bc it’s just such a waste of money,health,enjoyment etc. (though the only small upside is the not having to prepare meal myself and just the thought ‘of eating/dining out’. Though in the past I also really could look forward,after an hour of slaving on the Cardio machines,to rewarding&preparing myself with my favorite tossed together salad with HFCS-dressing and focaccia&sinking or couple of Subs/baguettes in front of the tv with my fav.downloaded tvseries/movie.That really was my ultimate relaxation&food/dinner,which happened to be not healthy at all for me. If I knew I were to die in a week/month I wouldn’t give a shit about all the shit it caused afterwards and go right back to those dishes in an instant.)
Just curious, does Sean Croxon’s JERF (just eat real food) approach accomodate everything from Sisson paleos to 30 Bananas-a-Day to McDougal starch type eating? It seems like it would. Or does he still have a low-carb bias?
My understanding (based on what I can recollect) from reading the Dark Side of Fat Loss is that he has a moderate low-carb bias, similar to Schwarzbein.
What does he write are ok sources of carns?and does he have a carb curve too such as sisson?
In my pre whole foods,eating refined foods days i never thought much about macros,quantities et. (i was just into lean proteines and lowfat/aspartame hfcs filled stuff:s ) but seeing this carb curve,pumpkin/beets/carrots let alone banana&plantains as hoghcarb sources only to be eaten after heavy workout really pushed me over the edge and made me scared of eating too much veggi3s….let alone eating fruit/honey fre1uently (though i cant eat any free highfructose stuff such as apples or sweet potatoe despite the fiber.) Thats where i got my eating disorder from. I just cant eat anything anymore without calculating it in my head and/or if i have moved enough or should move some more etc. I sometimes reminisce about the days where i would just hang strung out on the couch at night in front of the tv,bc of the constant tiredness of all the cardioing and wheat/sugar/hfcs eating.
I guess im a hopeless case,cause now when i feel good i get antttsy and need to move….and basically im never doing anything creative bc it gives me anxiety attacks.(despite the fact that i cant sit anymore bc i have a standing desk)
I see. From looking at the sales page for the conference, it suggests that mercury from fish may not be a concern (due to some mechanism in fish), but fruit just ain’t what it used to be. I have a feeling these distinctions are based more on defending your paradigm (low-carb) than honest science.
I’m no expert, but I understand that plants largely get their nutrients from photosynthesis, so the “poor modern soil = inferior fruits & veggies” argument may not be as strong as they suggest. And I’ve talked to marine biologists who are hesitant to eat any fish very high up the food chain–or ones from certain bodies of water. I still eat both fruit (a lot) and fish (some), for what it’s worth.
Anyway, it’s confusing. It’s advertised as “just eat real food and quit bickering over fad diets” while they apparently hold on to a pretty strong low-carb bias.
Nothing can get “nutrients” from photosynthesis. It’s just light. Energy, it other words. Plants have roots for a reason- to draw up water and nutrients from the soil.
My personal opinion on this is that it is entirely plausible that conventionally-grown fruits and veggies have declined nutritionally as soil are depleted, but they still can have a beneficial role in your diet. Fiber is good, at the very least. I know that I feel better including a lot of (home-grown) veggies in my diet.
Well, probably even the poor-nutrient fruits are better than nothing. You get antioxidants and some nutrients. I agree, I feel better, and look better, when I include plenty in my diet. Not to mention it makes the diet a lot more interesting. I do go for organic or at least locally-grown.
I wonder if there’s ever been a study comparing the nutrition of organic produce to mass-produced/commercial? That would be interesting. I’d like to see a third-party do it, though–someone with no connections to either Big Ag or the “100% organic” crowd.
I know a farmer and his son happens to be a food and drug inspector.
They won’t eat any produce that is growing by their friends around them. The farmer says everyone growing potatoes has to deal with one buying group, so everyone oversprays (past the safe date, too) The food and drug inspector recently cited a strawberry grower. This grower had 5 years worth of stocks of an herbicide that is outlawed. The grower was outraged when they removed the herbicide accusiong the inspector of ruining the profession.
Hopefully the organic growers have more scruples!
This is why people always say “know your farmer.” I think one plus of a farmers market is that farmers and customers interact face-to-face, You’re less likely to want to poison people you’re chatting with each week than a faceless, nameless group of customers you reach only via a middleman who’s nickel-and-diming you. Not to mention that farmers get much better prices by selling directly to the customer.
An off-topic question for anyone who has experience and insight to share, I’m desperate…
I believe my 4 year-old son is hypothyroid. He’s also an extremely picky eater. I’ve watched him drop food after food for the past 2-3 years, but as much as I want to believe he’ll grow out of it, nothing indicates he will, but rather the opposite.
He eats 4-5 main foods now. For the past few months he’s getting even pickier, and I think if I let him, he’d eat just bread. White commercial bread. In fact today I’m feeling like I either need to let him eat just bread, and keep my fingers crossed that his internal wisdom will kick in and he will choose healthy foods, or remove all of his staple foods to force him to eat other things.
It seems that the more bread he eats (or treats when we make it at home, or have it elsewhere), the more he craves it and the more he resists other foods. Not sure if this is psychology driven or if the bread and sweets put his body more out of balance. My husband’s brother has celiac disease, not sure if it’s something hereditary or not. As far as low thyroid, he must have gotten it from me. I’ve had symptoms since I was little, and before getting pregnant with him, I had a particularly bad case of it.
I need some kind of strategy I can focus on to avoid tension around mealtime. I’m just so stressed about this and my son is very sensitive to it. It sure doesn’t help him feel more confident. As a baby, he was very excited to try solids and I let him explore as much as he wanted. But once he hit toddler hood he got more and more suspicious. He’s still very interested in food however, loves cooking and checking out what other people are having, just ‘can’t eat it’, as he says.
I’ve also thought of taking him to the doctor to rule out specific diseases like Hashimoto’s or Graves. But what sort of tests do I make sure he gets?
I’d love to get him on a an overfeeding program. Just he won’t eat. His appetite is usually pretty good though.
Here’s a quick rundown of what he eats currently: bread/crackers, salami, french fries (baked and then re-fried in bacon fat), bacon, pizza (likes to remove the cheese though), orange juice, home made chocolate milk, FCLO, honey, soured buckwheat pancakes, and regular pancakes (including high-egg ones, though a couple nights ago he threw up at night after eating them) and of course sweets (but picky in that department too).
Having a bit of trouble taking his temp, but seems to be 36.4.
Sounds a lot like my 4-year-old. He could live on bread and cereal alone. What I do: I make my own bread so at least I know it isn’t full of chemicals. Cereal I am not so picky about- I buy organic ones if my budget allows it, if not then it’s Kellogg’s. But mostly I make him drink tons of RAW MILK. Will your kid drink milk? Every night I make him a cup of “honey-milk”- about 1 TBS of honey and a raw egg yolk mixed in. He doesn’t even know the egg is in there. Then at least I know that whatever else he has or hasn’t eaten throughout the day, he had at least 1 cup of raw milk, and one egg yolk. That, and a chewable vitamin C every day, and he stays really healthy.
I also by accident discovered that the one veggie he really likes is LIMA BEANS so sometimes you have to look for the unexpected!
Hi, and thanks for responding!
He drinks milk only if it’s got cocoa mixed into it. However, he does still breastfeed every day. We don’t have access to raw milk where we live now (Sweden). Hoping we’ll be back in the US in the next few months though.
Hi guys,
this is off topic, but don’t know where else to post. I have been reading Matt’s blog for years now. I lost 100 pounds about 8-9 years ago, but am still very heavy at 250+ and have been since then. My weight does go up easily and the only thing that seems to help maintain my current weight is doing the hcg injections diet every 4 or 5 months. I lose 10-20 pounds and then it takes me a few months to regain and then I diet again. Anyways, I don’t want to do that anymore because it is hard and obviously doesn’t work very well. I am normally quite active, shopping, housecleaning, running after son, etc., but for the past two weeks I have been walking/hiking for one hour, 5 times each week. I walk at a fast pace and do lots of hills. I have not changed my diet, I eat mostly whole foods all cooked by me and I eat around 2000-2400 calories per day. The crazy thing is that I have gained 3 pounds since starting to walk. I like walking and hiking and feel I should continue doing it, but at the same time, I don’t want to gain anymore weight. All other websites only say that it is pretty much impossible not to lose weight while walking and that I’m probably just eating too much. This is so frustrating! Any advice would be great, thanks…Vida.
Its probably muscle weight you have gained. Go by how you look, not by the number on the scale.