Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Archive for the ‘Granary’ Category

1984: We have always been at war with Fat

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Before we get started let’s do a…

Quick Review.

There are 3 macronutrients in the foods we eat.  Protein.  Fat.  Carbohydrates.  Your body metabolizes each of these 3 macronutrients differently.

Humans (and our predecessors) for millions of years ate food that consisted of these macronutrients roughly in the ratio of caloric intake of 30/40/30 for protein, fat and carbohydrates, respectively.

In summer were there more fruits with carbohydrates?

summer-fruit

In the Autumn were the animals fatter as they prepared for the winter?

animal-fatten-winter1

In the winter were berries absent with leaner animals offering a greater caloric percentage of protein in the diet?

lean-winter-animals

In Alaska the native populations’ diet consist of protein and fat with hardly any carbohydrates at all.   Perpetual “winter.”

inuit-hunt

These ratios are highly dependent on the geography and the season.  Very highly dependent in some cases ranging from 90% fat and protein with the Inuits to perhaps 70% carbohydrates in some tribes that ate a whole heckuva lot of tubers.  But for purpose of discussion, we’ll go with the  documented 30/40/30 macronutrient breakout as % of caloric intake estimates.

My n=1 take on it.

I personally don’t keep track of my macronutrient %.  However, given the variety that I eat with my diet that consists exclusively of water, meat, vegetables and occasionally fruit (with excursions into high quality 87% chocolate about once a month, wine on weekends, and coffee nearly daily), my caloric carbohydrate intake is rarely above 30%, perhaps some days much much lower.

I don’t eat nuts (unless they’re hidden in my food), I never really cared for them, and because I had/have diverticulitis, I tend to avoid them all together.  I tend to agree with Melissa regarding nuts and seeds.  Given my fear of a diverticulitis flare up, I just avoid them.  To each is own.

I have done a spot check on fitday.com every now and then, and the ratio is about 50/30/20, with fat always being 50% or more, followed by protein, then carbs at 20% or less.

I work out only once a week, no more than 20 minutes.  In the spring and summer, I’ll resume a weekly sprinting session.  Usually, I only do these sprints about once every 2 weeks though.  I have maintained my current weight now of about 215 pounds for the last 6 months or so.  My body composition gets better with each month.  I work many hours in the week, have a lot of household obligations with family, was traveling nearly 2 full days out of every week for the last 7 months.  I skip dinner once a week, usually Friday night, to do an intermittent fast that goes from about 1pm on Friday to about 9am on Saturday morning.  I try to do my weekly workouts on Saturday around 730am.  When this doesn’t happen, I work out on Sunday or Monday.

I indeed think there are benefits to working out in a fasted state, but my life right now doesn’t always allow me to work out when I want to, or twice a week.  I can’t always do an intermittent fast 1-2 times a week, and eat seafood as much as I’d like.  Could I be cutter?  Could I be even leaner?  Could my muscle mass be larger?  Could all of this happen quicker than the continuous improvement that I’m seeing now?

Well, perhaps, but to what end?  Over the last few months I have learned to enjoy the ride.  I have enjoyed consistent improvement in physical and mental health the more I have become at peace with trying to achieve insulin sensitivity and with the macronutrients of the natural human diet (with its normal carbohydrate content coming from fruits and vegatables, NOT grains).  It will take care of itself.

By the way, I don’t know why in every picture I’m so crooked.  I’m going to really work on symmetry and posture over the course of the next few months.   I post paleo transformation pics truly without the intention to be vain, for as you can see there’s “work” to be done!, but it will happen, over time.  I’m showing you warts and all without any bravado.  I’ve been doing this for 1.5 years now, but there is no picture at “the end” of this journey that I’m going to post as if to say, “This is it!”  My goal really is not to even give body composition or nutrition that much thought for the next year, just let it happen.  The content of this site will soon reflect that objective in the next few months.

Put simply, my maintained reduction of ~60 pounds since 2008, my improving body composition, my improving metabolic health… is simple.  I am not at war against carbohydrates or fat or protein.

I eat a NORMAL amount of carbohydrates that humans have eaten for millions of years.  In that regard, I would hardly call it “restricting carbohydrates”, I eat plenty of vegetables and fruit that have carbohydrates.

I eat a NORMAL amount of fat and protein that humans have eaten for millions of years.

I don’t eat an abnormal excessively high amount of carbohydrates unlike anything ever seen in the history of the human diet by simply avoiding sugar, high fructose corn syrup, grains (wheat, corn, rice, beans) and potatoes.  I also eat hardly any dairy, only cheese sprinkled on a salad when eating out at restaurants.  So, I’m at peace with all of the macronutrients.  In turn, my body is at peace metabolically.  My hormones work with each other as they should, my muscle mass stays lean, and my insulin sensitivity is enhanced by my natural diet and my weekly weight workouts.

In fact, by following my natural diet it has become impossible for me to become fat, because I’m not at war with the macronutrient of fat.  Excessive sugar, fructose and carbohydrate are causing the obesity and the other diseases of metabolic syndrome (must see video here).  Yet, currently, thanks to our buddy Ancel Keys (read Michael Eades write-up here) and misguided politicians (are there any other kind?) we are not at war with excessive carbohydrates, we are at war with fat.  1984.

We have always been at war with Fat

The public are blind to the change; in mid-sentence, an orator changes the name of the enemy, from “Eurasia” to “Eastasia”, without pause; when the public are enraged at noticing that the wrong flags and posters are displayed, they tear them down — thus the origin of the idiom ”We’ve always been at war with Eastasia”

-Wikipedia entry for George Orwell’s “1984″

The War With Fat.  This “war with fat” is only 30 years long, it started with a very flimsy casus belli (like many wars do), and the powers that be tell us we’ve always been at war with fat… or at least we should have always been at war with fat.  This recent study showing that fat is not the culprit as regards heart disease, of course, is being forced down the memory hole by lowfat/high carb Big Brother.

1984

Our bodies aren’t in conflict when they ingest fat.  They never have been.  We are not, nor have we ever been at war with fat.  We are becoming fatter as a nation as we eat less fat (and protein) because we are instead eating more and more carbohydrates from sugar, fructose, and grains.  But the Doublethink lowfat/high carb dogma out there tells us that fat is the enemy, that the war with fat is real!

Here’s an exchange from Orwell’s “1984″ rephrased by me for the context of this Orwellian nightmare we’re experiencing regarding the propagation of “healthy whole grains” and “fat is our eternal enemy” :

“In accordance to the principles of Doublethink it does not matter if the WAR ON FAT is not real or not possible to win.

The WAR ON FAT is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous.

The essential act of THE WAR ON FAT is the destruction of the produce of human labor.

A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance.

In principle, the WAR EFFORT AGAINST FAT is always planned…  to keep society on the brink of starvation.

The WAR ON FAT is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects.  And its object is not victory over Eurasia/FAT or Eastasia/OBESITY…  but to keep the very structure of society intact.”

Ok, before you accuse me of wearing a hat made out of tinfoil and hiding in the basement, let me first explain the following.  I am not a pacifist, I am not a hippie, and excuse me in advance to some of my UK readers, but I am not a big fan of John Lennon.  So give up the grains and…

All we are saying is give peace with fat a chance.  

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Granary, Normal Carb Diet | 5 Comments »

Soon they’ll tax all non-sugar, non-grain foods as medicine, too

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I have never been in better health.

The raging health care debate concerns me because I have seen the rubble of other countries’ health care systems that were created with utter socialism, and saw the underbelly (and saving grace!) of black market medicine.  Government medical care was/is so rationed in these countries, the facilities falling apart, and the prices controlled causing greater scarcity, it literally is a saving grace when the doctors moonlight by coming to your home for a house call.  They can earn an extra buck from their meager government salaries, you get the care you need when you need it.  All very dangerous for both parties involved, in the same way it was dangerous to sell watermelons above the government set price in the Soviet Union.

Life and death medical care paid for underneath the table.  Life sustaining food paid for underneath the table as the shelves in all the stores were bare.  In both cases, it was illegal, in both cases you were an enemy of the State.

I am not a schill for the doctors or the insurance companies nor lacking compassion for the poor amongst us that don’t have access to good medical care, but it concerns me to see such a large sector of the economy, like health care, becoming owned by the government.   I’ve seen this phenomenon in other countries which criminalizes/criminalized private medical care, and that’s why I’m concerned.

Banks and car companies… owned by the government.   More and more Health Care planned, controlled, owned by the government.  We may be on opposite ends of the political spectrum here, to whom it may concern, but we’re on the same side of the barricades when it will come to the rationing of medicine.   Will it come to food, too?

The piece of the pie of the economy that is falling into the hands of the government grows larger, and the remaining pieces under “private sector” control are a result of favors paid to the government by these companies to have tariffs, regulations, and subsidies put in place that benefit these said companies/corporations and squash their competition.  I am not anti-capitalism.  No, far from it.  I’m against corporatism.  I’m against the government giving special uncompetitive measures for certain companies.  There’s a big difference.

So, yes, I’m in the best health of my life.

Though we’re heading toward a collision course of rationed medical care, and drug prices are set to soar despite what may be promised, I’m comforted by the fact that I have my health.  I understand the toast so much more profoundly now, “Here’s to your health.”  Indeed.  I at this point in time don’t require any prescription drugs, and I believe I have reduced the likelihood of the need for prescription drugs in the future.

In addition to eating mostly an evolutionary diet, I provide my children Vitamin D supplementation between 400-1000 IU daily depending on the weather, depending on the level of their snotty noses, depending on whether I remember to and whether it’s in the house.

-With the healthy portions of meat, vegetables and fruit (and dairy products in a few dishes)

-the rare treats

-the near lack of wheat, corn, rice and potatoes

-and total lack of foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup

my kids are some of the strongest and healthiest on the block, and I’m not talking genetics here regarding height, etc.

They hiss and whine and moan, sure, but they’re less of the hissing monkey from Dr. Dan’s post on the lil’ monkey suffering from sugar withdrawals.  They are strong and healthy in the inside.  When I see an obese 6-year-old in the store with her/his mother with a shopping cart full of manufactured foods high in carbohydrates, high in inflammation causing sugar, I understand that both the kid and the mom will likely have a lifetime of prescription drugs to look forward to.

These drugs will be paid for by you and me, the need for these drugs will be caused by the officially approved American diet (with/without junk thrown in to top it off).  The officially approved American diet has seriously been influenced by lobbying from both the ag and drug cartels.  Many of the crops like corn, wheat and sugar (including HFCS) gained their government subsidies thanks to powerful agricultural lobbies.   The subsidies and tariffs that corn, wheat, and sugar enjoy really amount to a tax on non-sugar and non-grain foods, it really should be looked at in that manner.

So, in life, I know there may be some traumatic events, some expensive health care needs, some skinned knees that may require stitching best not done by me, and not cured by extra Vitamin D, but I feel safer as the health care debate rages around me…. until I read that:

MCCAIN WANTS FEDS TO REGULATE VITAMINS, SUPPLEMENTS…

h/t Drudge

In this perverted overly-regulated country, food is now toxic, and drugs and chemicals are safe for ingestion, no matter the harm that results. This inversion should remind us that those who best have the consumers health and safety interests at heart are the consumers themselves. It is big government that has a proven track record of not protecting the public.  And it is big government that is seeking to take away yet another individual freedom, the right to choose one’s own treatment.

What will be regulated next?  Taxed directly and “taxed” by an expensive regulatory process.   The cost of these extra regulations will be borne by the consumer because it will be more expensive for the manufacturers to comply with these regulations.  Will Vitamin D become available only by prescription?

In addition to Vitamin D and fish oil daily, I intermittently take various antioxidants, Branch Chain Amino Acids, and some other stuff.  From great sites out there and mentors like Arthur De Vany, from Peter’s Hyperlipid, to Stephen’s Whole Health Source, from Sisson’s Mark’s Daily Apple to the Eades’ sites and books, I have crafted together a rather good diet, understanding of fat, and a weekly supplement schedule that factors in when I take certain supplements based on my work out schedule, sleep schedule, when I plan to fast (usually just once a week on Friday night, btw), when I plan to break the fast.

I can tell you that my mitochondrial mass is the largest it’s ever been.  How’s that for a pick up line!?  Hey baby, I’ve got big mitochondria, what’s your sign?  See, I’m a believer in the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging, which along with a lot of other issues out there, fuses rather well a lot of studies on aging and what I’ve read from Peter’s Hyperlipid about toxicity and the peroxidation of lipids.  1) paleo/evolutionary diet is enough, 2) paleo/evolutionary diet with workouts better, 3) diet, workouts, and supplements pretty darn good.

However, if you’re eating junk, your workouts won’t be as beneficial, and your supplements won’t be a panacea for all of your resulting metabolic woes.  There is no ultimate panacea other than living your life by the way.

Based on the biochemistry and physiology research of Dr. Feinstein, Dr. Volek, and many others, I get it.  I may not be able to regurgitate it yet as coherently as a 1-st year biology or chemistry major, but I get it.  The paleo diet has worked wonders, the weekly strength workout with a sprint session thrown in once every 2-3 weeks are improving my health daily.  The supplements though, well, that’s been the paleo icing on the cake.

The diet alone I could live with.  I’ve worked out all my life, but I’m working out more smartly, and my goals are for improving my immune system, not for mass for mass’ sake.  I don’t necessarily want to “get big.”  The supplements are just that, supplementing what I’m doing, the time outside in the sunshine and the shade, just living life.  Too much measuring, too much analyzing of all of this can drive you batty.  Again, live and be respectful toward others, even those people who haven’t quite come to terms with Sat Fat.

Except for the egregious SAD propagandists who are wed to their points of view because of their financial stakes, the laymen like you and I, the doctors, researchers, we’ll all likely be more receptive to changing our views with a kind word rather than a shout.  Just about every well known name in this paleo community used to be one of those SAD zombies, and I would assume they were converted by a voice of reason, not by smugness.

So, as I was saying.  I have never been in better health.  I’m thankful that I know better, which resulted in this better health.  I’m thankful I have the means to afford healthy real food, which really is about the same cost as a crappy carb-filled diet, if you know how to shop.  How long that will be the case, I don’t know.  I’m thankful that I’m working out to improve my immune system, not out of pure vanity’s sake.

When I see a person in the gym that’s fat, skinny, weak, or shy, I’m always very thoughtful in welcoming that person into a new world.  A new world of metabolic health with lean muscle mass (h/t De Vany) and not the world that may have mocked them previously.  A bodybuilding Hans and Frans world that probably prevented them from checking out lifting weights because they were embarrassed by their weakness, ignorance or looks.  I’m thankful that in the paleo community there are voices of reason that may teach me new ideas about nutrition and health, and I’m thankful that I’m receptive to these new ideas.

I’m thankful that I have the choice to supplement, to top off my chances in this life for maintained health.  Why?  To live life.

IF health care is controlled, IF supplements are controlled, IF non-sugar, non-grain foods are squeezed out and become more expensive in comparison to subsidized high-carbohydrate monocultural crops of annual grasses, will the things in my life that I’m thankful for be diminished?

I have never been in better health.  

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Granary, Medicine | 1 Comment »

Huntington’s Disease: Drugs & Wheat or No Wheat?

Monday, February 8th, 2010

A couple of months ago I remember reading on Dr. Cordain’s website his answer to a question about Huntington’s Disease.   It’s the first question/answer on this link.

Listening to NPR this evening as I packed up around the house (I’m moving soon),  I heard this piece regarding a new drug treatment for Huntington’s.  My oh my, what a different story.  No mention of wheat.  A mention of mitochondria without really going into detail, and a very accurate statement regarding how this disease shares various symptoms with other autoimmune diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

If you have read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, he reviews quite well how the high levels of insulin may be the cause for Alzheimer’s given how an enzyme is too engaged with breaking down insulin rather than cleaning up the proteins that gather in the brain and are involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s.  Essentially, there’s not enough of this enzyme to clean up both the excessive levels of insulin and these proteins.

The common thread here from my limited readings is wheat, but perhaps for different reasons.  Gliadin from wheat being involved in the onset of Huntington’s and the high carbohydrate content of wheat causing the insulin spike involved in the accumulation of a protein that is involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s.  There appears to be a good amount of “counter-literature” out there that supports the hypothesis that Cordain is working with regarding wheat and Huntington’s.  It’s shocking to me that there hasn’t been a significant study regarding eliminating wheat from the diet of a person afflicted with Huntington’s.

I’m rather busy right now, and will be over the next couple of weeks.   If I had the time, I would write a longer piece attempting to piece together some of the research out there.  My hope is that I’ve put enough key words in here so that if someone is interested in hearing a different viewpoint on all of this, they will be directed on a different path than the one NPR led me down on.  Let’s just say that just about anytime I hear the latest drug research being touted on NPR and other news programs… 9 times out of 10 it’s for a disease that has some sort of connection to the non-human high carbohydrate diet brought to us by the food pyramid.

The real choice on so many diseases that afflict modern humans really comes down to relying on the pills or simply avoiding grains and high amounts of fructose and sugar.

red-pill-blue-pill

But we’re really never even given that choice if we were to only listen to mainstream corporate media outlets (whose advertisements and/or endowment donations are paid by whom?).  I believe that there are some fantastic professionals/researchers out there, putting on their lab coats every day highly motivated to find cures, highly motivated to extend our knowledge, to clarify the science.  Thank you for your work.  I ask you to please consider the picture above and consider whether you may someday ever think it’s worth it to:

to test a hypothesis that eating wheat causes Huntington’s with an experiment that would manipulate whether or not subjects ate wheat.  Thus, NOT eating wheat is the independent variable.  Each subject’s diet would be tested to see if wheat eating had any effect.  Thus, the diet is the dependent variable.  The subjects assigned to NOT eat wheat are in the experimental group, whereas subjects eating wheat are in the control group.

I mean… out of hundreds of thousands of things to eat on the planet, asking subjects to not eat wheat for 6 months doesn’t seem like it would be too controversial or expensive?  Oh, but it is controversial.  A viability study on feeding humanity without wheat and corn would have to be done before this research would ever be funded.  If an environmental organization were truly serious, they would consider funding both the Huntington’s research and this human feeding viability study.  A return to prairies and perennial crops may be what the folks in lab coats will help us achieve, though they may not understand the implications of their research at the time.  

Posted in Granary, Medicine | No Comments »

The Golden Rule and Evolution

Monday, January 4th, 2010

A long time ago, there was a place called Eden. Eden was a beautiful garden. And in this garden there was love, there was blood, there was birth, and there was death. And in this garden, people lived.

While living in the garden, even before teeth were sunk into that famous apple, something wondrous happened there. There was fire, and meat roasted on a spit.

The curly wisps of smoke like helixes rose up to the sky out of the flames. And in the smoky air over the years the faces and bodies around the fire began to change.

the-paleo-garden

The people learned to hunt together, for each other. They learned to gather, for each other. What they picked, dug up or stuck with a spear didn’t upset the balance of the garden (just don’t tell that to the mega fauna!). What they ate and metabolized allowed for the various cell colonies and organisms in their bodies to live in harmony. There was balance regarding what the humans took from the garden to eat,… for what they took was needed by the garden to be taken. And that which was taken by the humans to eat provided their hormones and cells an environment in which it was advantageous to work together.

They did on to each other, for themselves and the garden, as they would have each other and the garden do onto them.

But then one day, they ate a forbidden apple from a tree (although it might have really been crushed wheat that was their downfall, perhaps the serpent offered an apple pie?), and obtained a knowledge of agriculture, namely, how to domesticate grains, that challenged the garden’s hunting and gathering way of life. And for this, they were cast out. Out of the garden.

cast-out-of-eden

And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?

Hot ashes for trees?

Hot air for a cool breeze?

Cold comfort for change?

And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

-from Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”

And humans lived on. They began to grow plants and further domesticate animals.  And thousands of years later, this system provided them food very unlike how it was provided for them when they lived in Eden.

And they began to take more from their gardens than they put back into them. The wheat and corn and sugar and soy and rice began to strip the land of its wealth. They began to fight for the land and water and crops at a scale that brought a level of destruction that was unlike anything ever seen in a tribal war.

They cared not how they treated each other. The Human Action that created the economics of hunting, gathering and trading with each other their fruits and vegetables and meats for mutual health and wealth ceased. They just ignored the fact that their food was making them sick, and instead concentrated on fighting with each other over the power to see who had the authority to dole out the rations from the granaries.

And so appeared a top-down growing model, nothing like a garden, an agricultural system that grew to become based on fiat/paper money and ag subsidies. Their fields produced high fructose corn syrup for gluten and sugar laden foods begotten from an exhausted earth. These strange foods were even fed to their animals (and bees to make honey!), which made the animals as sick as the humans.

And the people cared not what they did onto the earth to grow their food, and the dying earth began to do onto them in the same way back. Famine, drought, and underproduction occasionally took their respective tolls on the centrally planned food system and accompanying centrally planned human societies founded on malinvestments in unhealthy sugars and carb-filled crops using the sandy bedrock of paper money that makes profits turn into debt and bankruptcy via inflation.

10,000 years after their exodus from the garden, the food that the people ate started to cause war among the colonies of cells within their human bodies. The high carbohydrate diet from the grains and sugar caused the adipose tissue to expand and horde nutrients at the expense of the organs and the brain. Hormones that used to work in harmony now spoke past each other in a cacophonous discord causing metabolic syndrome.

What they thought was enough food stored in their granaries was pure sugar, and it began to slowly cause them debt, and cause them to become sick. And they began to realize that what they thought would be enough, wasn’t. And they couldn’t grow enough anymore for everybody. Quite simply, the “real” price of their grains was becoming known, and it was an investment based on incorrect assumptions of currency stability, the food’s health benefits, and the ability of the earth to continue growing in unsustainable ways.

The Golden Rule preached 2,000 years ago which echoed the lost life of the garden, now in this day and age is forgotten by many. But not by all. These teachings are a part of religion for many, they are teachings that I indeed try to follow. There are many who don’t follow a religion, and instead explain the world solely through the scientific method. But these teachings are also part of our evolution, our lives both in and out of the garden, and in our bodies, and amongst our cells. The aspect the Golden Rule plays in our evolution can be understood by those who hold the Golden Rule as part of their religious outlook.

We may not be able to return to Eden, but the Golden Rule applied to evolutionary living will help us find a way to feed each other.  We are now the faces that may be seen through the smoke. We are the ones now sitting around the campfire once again figuring out a way to continue to live for our mutual health and wealth.

fire

Do onto others, as you would have them do onto you. This is part of us, this is how we may evolve if we are to continue.

We are part of this evolution right now.  

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Granary, Kairos, The Paleo Garden Party | 4 Comments »

Go Theory To Practice, and read this link, and then go here…

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Keith, excuse me for not asking for your permission first, but “The Perfect Storm” sketch picture below distills it all down to the purest element, and I had to share it, and of course properly attribute it at the same time!

I encourage you to click on this link to read “The Looming Health Care Trainwreck” by Keith Norris of Theory to Practice.

Keith’s post was in turn inspired by probably Richard’s greatest piece of writing yet on Free The Animal (as Uncle Lew notes he didn’t even have to say “fuck” once, kinda like Eddie Murphy doing a funny routine without saying “motherfucker”).  Seriously, Richard is a great writer on all things paleo inside and outside the kitchen, but his piece on Registered Dietitians Dispense Only Conventional “Wisdom“ is by far him at his best.

Read both of Keith’s and Richard’s latest pieces linked above.  The paleo community is on fire as of late, and its spreading in a stochastic and non-centrally planned way.  One idea feeds off of another and another.  It’s almost like (paleo) Glasnost ripping apart (lowfat/granary) Soviet propaganda.  I know that there are many low-fat enthusiasts/proponents that have their hearts in the right place, but their foundation of belief is made from a shaky unscientific sandy material of big pharma, big ag, big oil and big government that is not Capitalism, but a twisted form of Corporatism.

My mental definition of corporatism is basically the unholy union of fascism and socialism (pending on the appendage of the beast it’s either one or the other or both).  This beast wears the mask of Capitalism, but it’s nothing more than top-down Corporatism with less capitalism and free market and free choice until the union of fascism and socialism gives way to a purer form of Soviet-like communism.

The Perfect Storm that Keith describes first made us fatter.  It’s starting to pick up speed in making us sicker.  It’s starting to make us poorer.  And given our unsustainable food production system we’re hurdling down the road to become fat, sick, poor, starving people.  Once you go “Paleo” and once you decide that’s how you want to continue living, whatever end of the political spectrum we may find ourselves on these issues encapsulated by Keith’s diagram we are all on the same side of the barricades.  Even those non-paleo types in our midst!, we’re on the same side here, and the curtains hiding the lie must be ripped down.  And until we figure that out, the storm hovers over us, and we will remain in its Metabolic Syndrome Eye.   

Posted in Granary, The Paleo Garden Party | 4 Comments »

The Paleo Post has been updated

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

The latest from The Paleo Post may be found on the left hand column of the main page here at The Paleo Garden.

The highlight of the week goes to the legendary economist, .  I label his piece, “Joseph, Secretary of Agriculture”, the The History of the Granary, how ag subsidies enslaved us then and High Fructose Corn Syrup enslaves us now because, of course, much of what Chodorov was writing about during the Truman administration (and during biblical times) is so relevant today.  Especially, concerning the unintentional (or are they really intentional?) consequences of agricultural subsidies on the health and independence of people.

One of the key messages that’s trying to be brought home in the “Granary” category of The Paleo Garden is that grass fed beef, fruits and vegetables are at a disadvantage due to subsidies for corn, wheat and sugar.  These subsidies are paid for by money that’s printed out of thin air and are contributing to the devaluation of our dollar.   As our health declines as these cheap sugary carb-laden foods are presented to us in the supermarkets as healthy alternatives via public health dogma, we are blind to the hidden costs of metabolic syndrome.  When our purchasing power decreases as our dollar is inflated, the cornfed among us will cry out for even more subsidies for these monocultural crops to ensure that their grocery baskets stay full!!!  It’s a vicious cycle.  It’s bringing down our health, our dollar, and our freedom, as we become more dependent on the Granary.  Read Chodorov’s piece to understand just what is the underlying economic agricultural history that’s allowing High Fructose Corn Syrup to have so much power over us.

Also, Dr. Dan at Darwin’s Table deemed The Paleo Garden as being one of his new paleo friends.  The Paleo Post highlights Darwin’s Table very often.  It’s a great website, Dan has a very unique perspective in the evolutionary living community, and was a very positive influence in deciding how we wanted to put together The Paleo Garden.  Thanks, Dan!   

Posted in Granary | No Comments »

Human Action and evolutionary living

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Those that hold property rights and voluntary division of labor as a philosophy, truly do hold the Golden Rule true to their hearts. Those that believe or not in the religious sense, may not recognize that respecting property rights and voluntary division of labor makes them all part of one tribe. They are part of the remnant that may be scattered among various tribes, but when brought together and in leading by example in front of others they are one people and are our hope to evolve based on cooperating with each other regardless of what flag is flown. If this is not true, well, then those that believe in such things are just freaks of various tribes marching alone… and I’m cool with that either way.

As a Russian Jewish immigrant told me long ago during a conversation on politics and economics, etc., “The only economics and politics you have to worry about is within your own family.” A philosophy he learned the hard way in the Soviet Union. Now, on one hand this supports a sorted tribalism, but since many people alternatively give their money, faith and support to the State, it can be argued that the State has interfered with family/tribal society. The leaders of our government are now the heads of our clans? Despite how you feel about Obama’s or Bush’s politics, are they the leader of your household, the leader of your lives? I’ve had some political conversations and got the understanding that some people out there should have a picture of a political figure on their mantels rather than pics of their family.

In the same way that it retards markets, the State has retarded the family tribal unit… so maybe these flags and banners don’t represent the tribes we think that they do…  maybe if we were more tribal (e.g., putting the interests of our families first) there would actually be more peace. The only way to put your family first is to cooperate with all of the families around you at city, county, state levels… and there really doesn’t have to be State guided discipline to do that… International trade regulated is really a backbone for a club that hopes to monopolize the touch points between us simple folks, the simple folks who just want to trade apples for oranges across the border.

“Do onto others as you would have them do onto you” can only be if we can do that within our tribe… and we’re nowhere near that within our tribe in the cities, the states and among countries because the State has caused us to malinvest our time and resources in ways that don’t directly help each other… In fact, we spend a lot of the fruits of our labors that go toward governments plans that waste money, or plans that we disagree with, and we mentally absolve ourselves from having to help others. After all, why should I be kind to others when 60% of my salary is taxed and is supposed to replace me via the State from having to be charitable?  My point here isn’t a political one, if you believe in the Golden Rule, don’t outsource your responsibility to uphold the Rule in your life just because your tax rate is high (whether you believe in the taxes’ supposed objectives or not).

I really like the movie “Thin Red Line.” Here is an excerpt of a great review done by Nick Davis over at Nick’s Flick Picks:

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Wooden Nickels and Metabolic Syndrome

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

This great article by Eamonn Butler documents the fall of the Roman empire largely caused by the inflation and price controls that became yokes hoisted upon the citizenry.

But, as you read it, recall the beginning in which he explains the root cause of it all, agricultural subsidies.

Throughout history there have been numerous examples of governments taking over the grain trade and disrupting markets with price controls to maintain monopolies. This eventually leads to the debasing of the currency. In the Roman times, silver currency morphed into copper coins with tin coating, and the result was what one coin used to buy, now it took thousands. Does this sound familiarly corny?

In America, we have agricultural subsidies that favor grains and corn. True competition with grass fed meat and fresh fruit and vegetables is not a reality. Our pocket books tell us to buy the cheaper and higher calorie foods. However, the subsidies were paid for by our taxes, so in essence the cheaper grains have a hidden cost that aren’t in the price tag.

With what money are we paying for the porky agricultural subsidies here in the US? The answer is we’re printing more and more wooden nickels (a nickel is about what the dollar is worth 80 years ago).

We use these wooden nickels to pay for artificially cheap (for now) crops.

These crops are causing us to acquire Metabolic Syndrome on a level never seen before in human history.  Grains are not really that cheap, and the long-term health care costs and worse quality of life with poor health just don’t add up.

fat-david

Roman meal, indeed.  

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