"Start each day with expectation"

Inc. recently published 9 Daily Habits That Will Make You Happier by Geoffrey James. Habit number 1:

Start each day with expectation.

If there's any big truth about life, it's that it usually lives up to (or down to) your expectations. Therefore, when you rise from bed, make your first thought: "something wonderful is going to happen today." Guess what? You're probably right.

The Paleolithic Diet, Part II: What is the Evidence?

In The Paleolithic Diet, Part I: A New Look at Our Oldest Diet, I described the background and nature of the modern Paleolithic diet, popularly known as the Paleo diet and medically known as the ancestral human diet. The Paleo diet eliminates grains and dairy and consists of lean meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries.

But, is there evidence for this diet? On one level, evidence comes from general medical science as it struggles to answer, why, despite the most advanced medical treatments available, health in the U.S. seems to be declining. A consensus is slowly developing that we are straying ever further from our natural diet and have made rash decisions with minimal or flawed evidence. Journalist Marni Jameson, in the article A reversal on carbs published in Los Angeles Times December 20, 2010, quotes Dr. Frank Hu, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health:

The country's big low-fat message backfired. The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today.

And, quoting Dr. Walter Willet, Chairman of the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health:

Fat is not the problem. If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

As part of this reassessment of contemporary dietary advice, evidence favoring the ancestral human diet is slowly building. Many persons have adopted this new (yet, very old) nutritional approach out of frustration. Their passionate, self-reported cases, describe how they have overcome obesity, anorexia, diabetes, and other forms of malnutrition. (Some of these cases can be found through PaleoTerran.com. Select Success Stories in the right hand menu.)

Research Studies

One of the earliest research studies on the Paleolithic diet, performed by Kevin O’Dea, was published in Diabetes in June 1984. Ten Australian Aborigines, who as young adults had moved from the Outback to rural areas, and then became overweight and developed type 2 diabetes, were asked to consider returning to the Outback and eating like they had during their childhood.  They agreed and, as described by Dr. Loren Cordain in The Paleo Answer, for 7 weeks lived on “kangaroos, birds, crocodiles, turtles, shellfish, yams, figs, yabbies (freshwater crayfish), freshwater bream, and bush honey.” The results: “the average weight loss in the group was 16.5 pounds; blood cholesterol dropped by 12%, and triglycerides reduced by a whopping 72%. Insulin and glucose metabolism became normal, and their diabetes effectively disappeared.”

In a study published in Cardiovascular Diabetology in July 2009, Jönsson and colleagues investigated whether 13 persons with type 2 diabetes would do better on a diabetes diet or on the Paleolithic diet. Even though the study was small, it was designed in a powerful manner called a randomized cross-over study. The subjects were placed on a Paleolithic diet and a diabetes diet “during two consecutive 3-month periods.” The results were clear: study participants became healthier on the Paleolithic diet. Their weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) were lower and their waist circumference was smaller on the Paleo diet. In addition, they had lower diastolic blood pressures, improved diabetic blood test (HbA1c, blood glucose) and lower triglycerides, along with higher levels HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).

In August 2009, Dr. Frasetto and colleagues published a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition on the effects of the Paleolithic diet in 9 inactive volunteers that were not obese. The Paleolithic diet was matched to the same number of calories they had previously consumed. After just ten days on the Paleolithic diet, all had lower blood pressure, improved oral glucose tolerance test, and  “large significant reductions in total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and triglycerides.” Their health on the Paleo diet markedly improved even though they consumed the same number of calories as they had previously. In addition, as Dr. Cordain noted, “What is most amazing about this experiment is how rapidly so many markers of health improved – and that they occurred in every single patient.”

How does the Paleolithic diet compare to the Mediterranean diet? In a separate study in the November 2010 issue of Nutrition & Metabolism, Jönsson and colleagues compared the satisfaction provided by both diets. (In medical terms, we are “satiated” when the meal satisfies our appetite.) Fourteen persons ate a Paleolithic diet of “lean meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, root vegetables, eggs, and nuts” and 15 were on Mediterranean diet consisting of “whole grains, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, fruit, fish, and oils and margarines.” The results: calorie for calorie, the Paleolithic diet was more satiating. It takes more calories with the Mediterranean diet to satisfy hunger, another win for the Paleolithic diet.

Summary

In summary, the modern Paleolithic diet is an approximation of the ancestral human diet consumed before the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry. It has been our diet for over 90% of our existence and is part of our genetic heritage. The Paleolithic diet is non-inflammatory, an important factor in disease prevention. While the evidence is just developing, the Paleolithic diet is proving to be an important means to reclaiming our original health. The story is just beginning.  

(Article initially published in Living Well magazine)

Read Part 1 here.

Milk consumption is down - just don't switch to beer!

Milk is what cows feed their babies, in theory. If you’re anything like me, it’s been years since you’ve suckled on your mother’s breast. And even when you used to do that, if you did, I bet you never found yourself faced with the dilemma of whether you would rather drink milk from your mother or from a cow. Even if you grew up on a farm, even if you were breast-feeding in the barn, and even if you were old enough to make rational decisions (which I hope you weren’t), I doubt you thought, maybe that nipple dragging around in that hay is better!

Milk sales have declined sharply, perhaps because we aren’t all babies
Grist

The Paleolithic Diet, Part I: A New Look at Our Oldest Diet

According to Duke University and the CDC, 42% of Americans will be obese by 2030. Despite advances in health care, the number of people with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and other modern diseases continues to increase. What is going wrong?

Some attribute the increase in obesity, an underlying factor in many of the modern diseases, to a lack of will power, a puzzling argument that fails to explain the increasing body mass over the past three decades. Others blame easy availability of food and lack of exercise: we take in too many calories and don’t burn enough. The simplistic solution proposed: eat less and exercise more. While our sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity, the real culprit is low-quality fuel. We chose, and are surrounded by, low quality foods. Physical anthropologist Gary J. Sawyer puts it simply:

“We do not know how to eat properly. We feed ourselves, but we fail to give ourselves proper nutrition.”

A new look at our oldest diet

Fortunately, we are beginning to understand the underlying factors triggering modern diseases, among them, chronic inflammation. According to the December 2010 Science journal:

“Over the past decade it has become widely accepted that inflammation is a driving force behind chronic diseases that will kill nearly all of us. Cancer. Diabetes and obesity. Alzheimer’s disease. Artherosceloris. Here, inflammation wears a grim mask, shedding its redeeming features making sick people sicker.”

The typical Western diet is inflammatory; the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors was non-inflammatory. While the agricultural revolution around 10,000 years ago, and animal husbandry a few thousand years later, led to modern civilization, they also began to undermine our health. We became shorter and developed bone mineral disorders and nutritional deficiencies. We became less robust and developed smaller jaws. As summarized in a recent study: “Early Farmers Were Sicker and Shorter Than Their Forager Ancestors.”

What is the Paleo diet?

Interest in the ancestral human diet is growing. For over 180,000 years before agriculture, our diet was simple, yet more varied than the modern diet. Loren Cordain, professor of Health & Exercise Science at Colorado State University and one of the world’s leading experts on Paleolithic nutrition, has analyzed the diets of over 200 hunter-gatherer societies and described the ancestral diet in two recent books: The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Answer.

Our pre-agricultural ancestors “ate no dairy,” which triggers the immune system and causes a similar rise in insulin as white bread. Except in conditions of starvation they did not eat grains. Unlike ruminants, humans can’t ferment grains and only extract significant energy from grains when processed.

The role of grains as a cause of inflammation is coming under greater scrutiny. While gluten allergy and sensitivity are recognized conditions, only recently are we recognizing that gluten can affect the nervous system and in some people cause gluten ataxia, gluten spinal inflammation, and gluten neuropathy.

The non-inflammatory Paleolithic diet consists of varying amounts of lean meats, fish, seafood, vegetables, fruits, tubers, nuts and berries and significantly reduces, or eliminates, grains and dairy.

Vegetables are “rich in a long list of nutrients,” and, per calorie, non-starchy vegetables have seven times the fiber of whole grain cereals. The typical modern diet contains “a measly 8 grams” of fiber “compared to 47 grams on the Paleo Diet.”

Fruits are “almost as nutrient dense as vegetables.” Dr. Cordain believes you “have to consume huge amounts to get much fructose.”

Fish and shellfish are rich in fatty acids crucial to nervous system function. It is probably not a coincidence the first signs of human consciousness 70,000 years ago were produced by ancestors living next to the sea and thriving on a diet rich in fish and seafood.

Meats have twice the “thermic effect” of fat or carbohydrate (they increase metabolic rate) and have the highest “satiating value” (satisfy hunger). Meats increase good HDL cholesterol, are the best source of iron, B12, and zinc, and are rich in the building blocks of enzymes and brain neurotransmitters.

The right fats are essential to human health. Unfortunately, the typical diet tilts heavily to saturated fats. Cordain’s laboratory found “that despite their high meat content, modern-day Paleo diets actually contain lower quantities of saturated fats than are found in the typical U.S. diet. Two-thirds of all of the saturated fats that Americans consume come from processed foods and dairy products.”

(Article initially published in Living Well magazine)

Part 2 will review the developing medical evidence favoring the Paleolithic diet.

Trees on the edge

Seventy percent of the 226 tree species in forests around the world routinely function near the point where a serious drought would stop water transport from their roots to their leaves, says plant physiologist Brendan Choat of the University of Western Sydney in Richmond, Australia. Trees even in moist, lush places operate with only a slim safety margin between them and a thirsty death.

Trees worldwide a sip away from dehydration
ScienceNews 

3 Takes on the changing climate

1

 2

 3

Last month’s “weather event” should have taught us that. Whether in 50 or 100 or 200 years, there’s a good chance that New York City will sink beneath the sea. But if there are no patterns, it means that nothing is inevitable either. History offers less dire scenarios: the city could move to another island, the way Torcello was moved to Venice, stone by stone, after the lagoon turned into a swamp and its citizens succumbed to a plague of malaria. The city managed to survive, if not where it had begun. Perhaps the day will come when skyscrapers rise out of downtown Scarsdale.

Is This the End?
The New York Times 

Eating herring from San Francisco Bay

Bypass the big farmed fish that eat forage fish (in the form of fishmeal) and instead eat these little fish yourself. Even better, forage for your dinner: Get wet and muddy and come to know your coastline. If you go fishing, clamming, searching for mussels, or foraging for seaweed, you’ll be part of the changing of seasons, the movement of tides, and you’ll get glimpses into the marvels of our natural world. These are all ways to enter the realm of the whole fish. Anything you catch will taste that much better. And you’ll bring yourself into the food web in a healthy and intimate way.

Learn more at How eating more whole fish can change your life

Mark Sisson's training deload week

A deload week is a “take it easy” week. It’s a break from training hard and training often, and scheduling a deload week is often how hard-charging athletes and weight lifters (a notorious bunch who never want to take a break) force themselves to recover from their pursuits. Exercise, you see, especially effective, intense, hard exercise, requires that we recover. It’s just like any injury, wound, illness, or stressor faced by our body. We have to recover before we can get stronger. In fact, you don’t get stronger from the act of lifting weights. You get stronger by recovering from the act of lifting weights. 

Learn more at The Deload Week: What It Is, How to Do it, and Why It Might Help You Get Stronger

"Super-local" community supported agriculture in Denver

Five years ago, Debbie started Farm Yard CSA. It’s similar to a traditional community-supported agriculture (CSA) scheme, but rather than source all the food from a single farm outside the city, or even a few coordinated larger farms, hers is a neighborhood CSA. All Farm Yard produce grows in front and backyards within a five-mile radius of her house. Debbie’s house is a half-block from my house, and I’ve been enjoying walking to pick up my fresh produce all summer and fall.

Learn more at Yard times: Denver’s super-local veggie box

MDA Success Story: Impact of Paleo nutrition on Shawn's Type I diabetes

From Mark's Daily Apple comes another great success story:

Around January of this year a friend exposed me to the paleo diet. I checked it out and was intrigued. I started doing extensive reading and research (during which I came across this website) and decided to give it a try. I slowly started purging out the sugars/carbs/processed foods that were poisoning my body (especially cereal which was a staple of my diet at the time), and whaddya know…my blood sugars and overall health improved drastically, and my insulin requirements dropped like a rock!!!

Read more here.

Is the Mayo Clinic warming up to Paleo?

Eating Lots of Carbs, Sugar May Raise Risk of Cognitive Impairment, Mayo Clinic Study Finds

Those 70-Plus Who Ate Food High In Fat And Protein Fared Better Cognitively, Research Showed 

That's it. That's the title of an article recently in posted on the Mayo Clinic website on October 16. It doesn't get much more Paleo than that. 

The study by Mayo Clinic epidemiologist Rosebud Roberts, M.B., Ch.B. and colleagues was published in January 12, 2012 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. While the type of carbs is not listed in the abstract, carbs in the typical U.S. diet are mostly grains and added sugars.

Those who reported the highest carbohydrate intake at the beginning of the study were 1.9 times likelier to develop mild cognitive impairment than those with the lowest intake of carbohydrates. Participants with the highest sugar intake were 1.5 times likelier to experience mild cognitive impairment than those with the lowest levels.

But those whose diets were highest in fat — compared to the lowest — were 42 percent less likely to face cognitive impairment, and those who had the highest intake of protein had a reduced risk of 21 percent.

When total fat and protein intake were taken into account, people with the highest carbohydrate intake were 3.6 times likelier to develop mild cognitive impairment.

The conclusion from the abstract:

A dietary pattern with relatively high caloric intake from carbohydrates and low caloric intake from fat and proteins may increase the risk of MCI or dementia in elderly persons.

Bottom line: More evidence Paleo nutrition sustains brain health. More evidence the low-fat advice is mistaken. 

Reference

J Alzheimers Dis. 2012 Jan 1;32(2):329-39. doi: 10.3233/JAD-2012-120862.
Relative intake of macronutrients impacts risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

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• Quotes: High carb diet and Alzheimer's Disease
• Brain Health: Fish oil helps maintain brain volume  

The Arrow People: Catching a glimpse of Paleolithic man

Writer and journalist Scott Wallace joined an expedition deep into the Amazon “to track one of the planet’s most isolated and dangerous indigenous tribes, the mysterious Arrow People.” An excerpt of Wallace’s book documenting the expedition, In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes, was published in the Fall 2012 issue of Mizzou Magazine. 

Expedition leader Sydney Possuelo, dedicated to encountering “vestiges of isolated tribes,” attempts to find and contact these rarely seen people. Describing what is known of the Arrow People, and “rapt with marvel and admiration,” he notes:

They live from hunting, fishing, and gathering.

To facilitate contact and communication with the tribe, Possuelo recruited members of friendly tribes. From Mizzou:

Much like Lewis and Clark’s exploration of North America 200 years earlier, the team includes members of three friendly tribes … to get information he needs to protect them.

Upon entering the land of the Arrow People, the 34-member team found vestiges – palm leaves on the ground of a small clearing used as sleeping mats and partially eaten patuá fruit – but no signs of the “flecheiros.” They moved deeper in to their territory. Suddenly, expeditioner Paulo Welker yelled:

Over here! Over here, they’re crossing the river!”

Soldado and Paulo Welker were heaving deeply, hands on their knees, by the time we reached the bluff above the river. Behind them rose the upended roots of an enormous tree that had fallen into the water. Another tree of similar dimension had fallen from the opposite bank, some 30 yards distant, an the two trunks met halfway across the river to form a single span, in the shape of a shallow V, like a bridge that had taken a direct hit in the midsection and had collapsed into the water. Vines had been strung between the barren branches that protruded vertically from the prostrate logs to form a makeshift handrail. Clearly, this was a regular transit point for the flecheiros.

“I saw one!” Welker gasped, still struggling to recover his breath. “He was naked, with long hair. Broad shoulders. Strong. He ran across the bridge. Disappeared into the woods.” He pointed across to the far side of the river.

Soldado had caught a glimpse of two flechieros (Arrow People) and added a detail: “They were naked – but for a string around their waists.”

The expeditioners left gifts signaling their wish to communicate, but there was no response and threat was palpable. It would take time for the flecheiros to mobilized members from other villages. The expeditioners backed out of the area.

We stared across the river into the trees beyond the far bank. We saw nothing but the high wall of jungle, but we could feel their eyes upon us. All we could hear was the incessant flow of the water and the rush of the blood pounding in our ears. 

References

• The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes
• Lost and Found, Mizzou Magazine