"Daft to Build a Castle on a Swamp"

From the King of the Swamp, Monte Python and the Holy Grail:

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp.

"So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp.

"So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp.

"But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England."

Well, my daft reader, keep on building.  It took me from 1996 until 2007 to get the right combination of habits, information, support, and old habits (finally) kicked to eat in the way that makes me feel my best.

First, take a 30 day challenge of nothing but meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch.  Eat all you want of the meat and veggies, eggs and bacon, sour cream, hard cheeses, coconut oil, butter, MCT oil, avocado (with salt and either champagne vinegar, red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar, as you prefer), sunflower seeds and macadamia nuts.  Take magnesium, salt, and potassium liberally, sip water continuously.  What you'll notice is that even though there's no conscious restriction of intake, and that you have a green light to eat whenever hungry, you'll eat less than your prior approach.  After you get through the pain of putting a foundation in the swamp (teaching your body to use fat for fuel most of the time), you will feel incredible!  You'll think that building castles in the swamp is the best idea ever. 

After the 30 days, make your best effort to sustain your wheat and sugar free life; zero is good, but many people do well by limiting these foods to one day per week.  So can slam down all you want of the nasty food on Sunday, but no other day, for example.  If this keeps you off of the junk Mon-Sat, it's a good trade.

Booze - try the same approach as above.  Use vodka, gin, or tequila at first.  The famed NORCAL margarita:  shot of vodka, gin or tequila, an entire lemon or lime, and carbonated water to taste.

After you get this up and running, your castle will sink into the swamp.  It will happen slowly, but surely, and you'll notice one day that your "I'm doing great, I can eat this bite of cake" has turned into "I'm doing great, I'll eat another whole cake for lunch.  That breakfast cake was great."  Or the "Yay, beer and shitty carb foods on Saturday!" becomes "Hey, I only drink a half case of Sam Adams six days a week, why am I bloated and dehydrated all the time? Why can't I fit into my new clothes I had to buy?"  Well, the reason is your paleo lifestyle castle sank into the swamp, my friend.

And when you feel bad enough, mentally and physically, and you can no longer see your toes, or tie your shoes without groaning about how damned hard it is to reach the laces with that huge belly in the way, you'll start to rebuild your swamp castle, even though everyone will say you're daft, there's no use trying.  But you'll do it anyway, just to show 'em.  And that one will sink into the swamp too.

When I was in Iraq in 2006, and hit 225 pounds (PR!) with a girth of 39 inches around my belly, I knew my castle had burned down, fell over and was sinking into the swamp.  So I built the fourth one, and after 11 years, that 2007 swamp has lasted.  You can have one too. 

PS: you don't have to make it this hard. If you build just one castle on dry land and it's good from the start and your castle never falls over, that's fine too.

Vitamin D - You Need More Until Proven Otherwise By Testing

This Mercola article is a great summary of the vitamin D link to cancer.

An optimal vitamin D level is critically important in minimizing your cancer risk; a study of menopausal women showed that maintaining vitamin D serum levels of 40ng/ml cut overall cancer risk by 77 percent.

GrassrootsHealth founder Carole Baggerly believes 90 percent of ordinary breast cancer is related to vitamin D deficiency; in fact, breast cancer has been described as a “vitamin D deficiency syndrome”.

Vitamin D can stop breast cancer cells from spreading by replenishing E-cadherin, one of the glue-like components giving structure to those cells.

In addition to being a strong cancer preventative, vitamin D is crucial for pregnant women and their babies, lowering risk for preterm birth, low birth weight, and C-section; 80 percent of pregnant women have inadequate vitamin D levels.

The most important factor is having your vitamin D serum level tested every 6 months, as people vary widely in their response to ultraviolet exposure or oral supplementation; your serum level should be kept between 50 and 70 ng/ml for optimal health.

Studies Show That Studies Show 0% Accuracy

"Back in 2007 when I first published Good Calories, Bad Calories I also wrote a cover story in the New York Times Magazine on the problems with observational epidemiology. The article was called "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?" and I made the argument that even the better epidemiologists in the world consider this stuff closer to a pseudoscience than a real science. I used as a case study the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, led by Walter Willett, who runs the Nurses' Health Study. In doing so, I wanted to point out one of the main reasons why nutritionists and public health authorities have gone off the rails in their advice about what constitutes a healthy diet. The article itself pointed out that every time in the past that these researchers had claimed that an association observed in their observational trials was a causal relationship, and that causal relationship had then been tested in experiment, the experiment had failed to confirm the causal interpretation - i.e., the folks from Harvard got it wrong. Not most times, but every time. No exception. Their batting average circa 2007, at least, was .000."
http://garytaubes.com/2012/03/science-pseudoscience-nutritional-epidemiology-and-meat/

We used to say, because we like alliteration, "How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?"

Well, how about "How much truth could an epidemiological nutritionist find if an epidemiological nutritionist could find truth?"

Yes, I know, mega dork.  C'est la vie.

Bulletproof Coffee

I have come to enjoy intermittent fasting very much - independence from eating, feeling good, and the ability to go for long periods without eating or discomfort are a few of the benefits.

A new tool I've grown to really like in the diet wars is bulletproof coffee!
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-coffee-recipe/

In general, I'm interested in reducing my coffee consumption.  I've run hard for years on as many cups per day as I could stand (two pots/day was a "good start"), but I finally burned out some receptors or something and found myself with negative symptoms as a consequence.

One way to break a very strong pattern of behavior is to simply never do "the thing" unless it is very, very good.  Chocolate?  Sure I eat it but I only eat very good chocolate (enough to equal 10-20g of sugar every work day for lunch, during the spring/summer), never that mass produced shite that you can get for a dollar anywhere/everywhere you go.  After a while of only eating good chocolate, the low grade shite tastes like .... well, not too good.

Ditto with beer.  I never drink the swill I used to drink in college.  I have become a beer snob, much to my own benefit.  If it's not expensive, very interesting beer, I just leave it be.  This is also much to my benefit.

So with coffee, the first rule was "no shite".  The second rule was to avoid coffee when I habitually want it the most - first thing in the AM.  To do that I substituted decaf.  To enjoy decaf more, I added Kerry Gold salt free butter and MCT oil a la "bulletproof" coffee (salt free because salt doesn't go with good coffee, I eat plenty of that in my other meals).  That's a good move for daily energy levels (low that slow burn from short and medium chain triglycerides in butter and MCT), and it pushes back my start time for coffee without fighting any sense of deprivation.  

I'm drinking about 3 cups per day now of caffeinated coffee.  Achieving independence from habit/addiction always feels good!

Since I'm downing all this fuel first thing in the AM, I don't know if I'm really doing intermittent fasting any longer - but I still don't have a meal most days until 1100 (unless I want one earlier).

All this means to you is, first, there are experiments you can try to start you off on the path to a good food day, and good food days are the goal.  Second, the same tips that work to reduce coffee consumption can work to change any habit.  First, just try to eat the "food" you need to get rid of less frequently, and only when it's not your favorite time to eat that food.  Then, find a substitute that doesn't do as much damage.  Try to avoid thinking "I can't have that" and think "I can wait another hour to have that", or, "I can have that if I do something I need to get done, and then I get the "junk" as reward." IOW - use a dose of the "junk" to inspire you to complete a task, and use the task as a delay tactic so you interrupt the "craving-satisfaction of craving" cycle.

Each of these tactics has been helpful as I reduced my diet cola consumption from several per day (40-60 ounces), to one per day (20 ounces), to perhaps 2-3 per week.  That experiment, by the way, hasn't made any noticeable impact, but I don't like the stuff as much any more, so the bottom line is - I have more money to spend on good coffee, good butter, and good chocolate.

The Only Thing You Need To Know About Saturated Fat

What about saturated fat? It’s true that some studies show that saturated fat intake raises blood cholesterol levels. But these studies are almost always short-term, lasting only a few weeks. (5) Longer-term studies have not shown an association between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol levels. In fact, of all of the long-term studies examining this issue, only one of them showed a clear association between saturated fat intake and cholesterol levels, and even that association was weak. (6)

Moreover, studies on low-carbohydrate diets (which tend to be high in saturated fat) suggest that they not only don’t raise blood cholesterol, they have several beneficial impacts on cardiovascular disease risk markers. For example, a meta-analysis of 17 low-carb diet trials covering 1,140 obese patients published in the journal Obesity Reviews found that low-carb diets neither increased nor decreased LDL cholesterol. However, they did find that low-carb diets were associated with significant decreases is body weight as well as improvements in several CV risk factors, including decreases in triglycerides, fasting glucose, blood pressure, body mass index, abdominal circumference, plasma insulin and c-reactive protein, as well as an increase in HDL cholesterol. (7) 

If you’re wondering whether saturated fat may contribute to heart disease in some way that isn’t related to cholesterol, a large meta-analysis of prospective studies involving close to 350,000 participants found no association between saturated fat and heart disease. (8) A Japanese prospective study that followed 58,000 men for an average of 14 years found no association between saturated fat intake and heart disease, and an inverse association between saturated fat and stroke (i.e. those who ate more saturated fat had a lower risk of stroke). (9)

http://chriskresser.com/the-diet-heart-myth-cholesterol-and-saturated-fat-are-not-the-enemy

Grab the steak, eggs and bacon - bon appetite! And don't forget the heavy cream for your coffee ...

Bacon Avocado "Sammies"

"Some of y'all may or may not know this (and if you don't you're either new or haven't been paying attention) but I have been on a bit of a health kick for the past 4-5 years. So, two things you must know..

"#1 - Carbs are evil and are subsequently responsible for every terrible thing that has ever happened

"#2- I hate oatmeal, seriously.

"Don't believe me? Well, before the 2011 season, I sacrificed my health to the football gods to secure a 'Bama natty title and they rewarded us handsomely...YOU'RE WELCOME"

Wisdom from the blog www.rollbamaroll.com:

• "Stop believing the lie that fat is bad for you. Eating healthy fats is good; eating processed carbs is bad.
• "Organic veggies and protein > Processed crap.
• "Carbs should only make up about < 15-20% of your daily calories, Protein 35-40% and Healthy Fat 45-50%
• "For something to taste good, it doesn't HAVE to be deep fried and does not necessarily HAVE to be swimming in BBQ sauce. I know, shocker, right?"

The recipe that follows is a marvel - bacon and avocado sandwiches!  Read and enjoy.

http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2013/5/20/4347950/tailgating-food-for-thought-avocado-bacon-sammies

Cholesterol Eaten, Cholesterol Made, Cholesterol in Arteries

On any given day, we have between 1,100 and 1,700 milligrams of cholesterol in our body. 25% of that comes from our diet, and 75% is produced inside of our bodies by the liver. Much of the cholesterol that’s found in food can’t be absorbed by our bodies, and most of the cholesterol in our gut was first synthesized in body cells and ended up in the gut via the liver and gall bladder. The body tightly regulates the amount of cholesterol in the blood by controlling internal production; when cholesterol intake in the diet goes down, the body makes more. When cholesterol intake in the diet goes up, the body makes less.

This explains why well-designed cholesterol feeding studies (where they feed volunteers 2-4 eggs a day and measure their cholesterol) show that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on blood cholesterol levels in about 75% of the population. The remaining 25% of the population are referred to as “hyper-responders”. In this group, dietary cholesterol does modestly increase both LDL (“bad cholesterol” and HDL (“good cholesterol”), but it does not affect the ratio of LDL to HDL or increase the risk of heart disease. (2)

In other words, eating cholesterol isn’t going to give you a heart attack. You can ditch the egg-white omelettes and start eating yolks again. That’s a good thing, since all of the 13 essential nutrients eggs contain are found in the yolk. Egg yolks are an especially good source of choline, a B-vitamin that plays important roles in everything from neurotransmitter production to detoxification to maintenance of healthy cells. (3) Studies show that up to 90% of Americans don’t get enough choline, which can lead to fatigue, insomnia, poor kidney function, memory problems and nerve-muscle imbalances. (4)

http://chriskresser.com/the-diet-heart-myth-cholesterol-and-saturated-fat-are-not-the-enemy

Grab the eggs, bon appetite!

However, eggs every day may not be great if you have any egg sensitivity.  Paleo man probably ate all the eggs he/she could find, but he/she could only find them seasonally, and there's some evidence that every day consumption may create issues.

For men: Tim Ferriss recommends an egg or two every night before bed, as cholesterol is the raw material for testosterone production, and you make T at night when sleeping.