Blog is moving again!

I've created a new blog. The motivation for this was to improve the quality of the posts and write a clearer guidelines for my readers. I have had some experience with clients and there are a lot of misunderstanding people have when reading about paleo (at least what i think are misunderstandings). I hope the new posts at Paleo in Vancouver will offer readers a better understanding of this diet.

PALEO IN VANCOUVER

R2H will remain here as an archive for old posts.

My Current Regimen

I have since taken a convservative view on supplementation. Supplementation should have a high benefit/risk ratio with the risk being low. Human metabolism is so complex that for us to think that we know what we should be supplementing with is very naive. The science on health is infantile so anyone who is taking lots and lots of pills are doing themselves a disservice. Marketing can make us believe something is good for us and it could make sense but we just can't know for most things.

The human mind is quite amazing and we can convince ourselves of anything. Take a stroke patient for example that has paralyzed the right side of his body. If you ask them if their right side is paralyzed they will answer no. If you ask them why they aren't moving there right side, they will answer: because I don't want to. Hook them up to the most advanced polygraph test and they will pass. This is why we must use evidence, logic, reasoning and science to direct our lives.

So I have cut down on my supplementation (which also makes it cheaper) to this:

Vitamin D3 (get blood levels over 30ng/ml)
Vitamin K2 (120mcg)
Magnesium (200mg not oxide form)
Omega -3 (however lower your Omega6 first, don't want too many PUFA's in our body)
Green Tea Extract (200mg ECGC)
Probiotic (every third day)
Maca (feels good)
Xylitol Gum

This is all you need for the average person. If you don't understand what a supplement does don't take it. If you don't know how to read the science don't believe the companies. Supplementation is supposed to be healthy, so don't kill yourself supplementing. I do run a consulting business that elaborates on some more supplements for individual problems and you can contact me in my email if you would like some more information. If you don't want to pay head to ImmInst and do some posting/reading.

Fasting and something extra

Something a lot of people have a problem with on this lifestyle is the fasting component. I am a big fan of fasting because it decreases the intake of some bad things and also provides our bodies with many benefits.

Fasting Benefits:

-Increased lean mass

-Increased fat loss

-Increased energy

-More mental clarity/focus

-Increases insulin sensitivity (always a good things, this is the opposite of diabetes)

-Reduces mitochondrial damage

-and the good part, more autophagy

What is autophagy? Today we live in a world with toxins we have never encountered in such high concentrations before. Processed foods, such as sugars, and trans fats, hormones/pesticides in our foods, environmental chemicals/drugs, lack of nutrients, and overall stress and minimal amounts of activity, and the list goes on and on. These things cause considerable damage to our cells at the microbiological level, causing accumulation of toxins, and the misfolding and damage of proteins.

Proteins. The tools that sustain our lives. We are not perfect machines, because our proteins do not stay perfect. As time passes by and the onslaught of the environment takes its toll, these proteins that make us work gets damaged and gets trapped, causing a backup in our system, decreasing our efficiency. So to prevent this we take a two prong approach. Prevent, and Remove.

Prevention is simple, decrease the damage. Don't eat processed foods, stay away from sugars, and transfats, and increase the amount of activity you do and take some healthy supplements (green tea extract, vitamin D etc...).

Removal is more difficult, but this is where autophagy comes in. By fasting we deprive our bodies of external sources of material, thus our bodies must rely on internal sources. And what does our bodies go after first? the damaged proteins. By fasting we basically send the damaged proteins to the garbage disposal where it can be recycled and removed.

So how do you fast?

There are two ways:

1. I like to do a 24 hour fast every 3rd day. So I would eat on Monday and Tuesday, but on Tuesday dinner will end at around 5 or 6, then I won't eat until Wednesday at around 7-9. This is a bit more than 24 hours because I'm taking into account the digestion time.

2. Condensed eating window. Eat in a 6 hour window fast for 18 hours. So you only eat from 12 to 6. Outside of this window you don't eat.

For those of you who do not like the idea of not eating. I will offer you an alternative. A protein fast. Basically for 24 hours you don't eat protein, only vegetables, fruits and clean carbs. By depriving your body of protein, it should result in the recycling of your internal proteins. This way you can still eat.

For athletes? This should work, just go onto leangains and check out his results on IF, pretty impressive.

Extra, Extra

Men's testosterone levels have been decreasing over the last two decades, probably explains the infertility rates. I have read studies showing lower testosterone levels lead to longer lives, but screw that. I would like to keep my testosterone levels normal. Those on the PALEO diet have better hormone profiles.

Tracking our diet

Haven't made a quality post on my blog for a while and I have lost lots of readers. Oh well. I am sorry but I have been busy. In the future look forward to quality posts once a week.

This post will be about nutrition. One of the best things you can do is buy yourself a food scale and when you cook use a measuring spoon and record everything you eat. Then input it into a nutrition software or in an online site (such as fitday.com). I use Cron-O-Meter, which is easily customizable and easy to use. I'll show you my dietary break-down for a day:

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Nutrition Summary for October 17, 2009

Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.6

===========================================

General (93%)

===========================================

Energy | 2259.7 kcal 84%

Protein | 98.2 g 109%

Carbs | 86.0 g 123%

Fat | 173.7 g 87%

Vitamins (73%)

===========================================

Vitamin A | 5628.2 IU 188%

Folate | 293.6 µg 37%

B1 (Thiamine) | 0.8 mg 66%

B2 (Riboflavin) | 1.7 mg 133%

B3 (Niacin) | 16.6 mg 67%

B5 (Pantothenic Acid) | 5.6 mg 112%

B6 (Pyridoxine) | 1.5 mg 117%

B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 8.3 µg 346%

Vitamin C | 66.4 mg 74%

Vitamin D | 176.0 IU 4%

Vitamin E | 16.0 mg 107%

Vitamin K | 238.0 µg 198%

Minerals (82%)

===========================================

Calcium | 708.2 mg 71%

Copper | 1.8 mg 196%

Iron | 18.0 mg 225%

Magnesium | 376.8 mg 94%

Manganese | 6.8 mg 298%

Phosphorus | 1533.3 mg 219%

Potassium | 2639.6 mg 56%

Selenium | 114.8 µg 209%

Sodium | 1291.7 mg 86%

Zinc | 22.5 mg 204%

Lipids (85%)

===========================================

Saturated | 76.3 g 382%

Omega-3 | 2.3 g 54%

Omega-6 | 14.9 g 88%

Cholesterol | 1062.7 mg 354%

As you can see I'm lacking in Vitamin D and folate (I'm also lacking Vitamin K2, but there's no data on that). On most days when I don't eat almonds or pecans I'm low in magnesium so I supplement it usually. I keep nut intake low to keep Omega-6 low. The Omega-6 dietary content is kinda high so I supplement with fish oil.

The iron intake is high so I take IP6 which chelates iron and I also donate blood. Everything else is fine. As you can see if I take multivitamin pills everyday my nutrient intake would be through the roof. And for those of you who think that my protein intake would be high on this diet your wrong.

Minimum protein intake is around 1g/kg/day. I weigh 80kg and I take in 90g of protein a day. I'm usually pretty active so a little more won't hurt. I repeat again, this is not a high protein diet, if anything its pretty low.

For those of you who think this diet gets expensive, you can offset the cost with like 40% vegetable protein. Hemp, beans, fermented tofu such as tempeh, miso, sprouted soy products etc...

This is what I ate that day:

Beef, ground, 75% lean meat / 25% fat, patty, cooked, pan-broiled	3	patty ( yield from 1/4 lb raw meat )
Broccoli, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt	1	1/2 cup, chopped
Egg, yolk, raw, fresh	3	large
Butter, salted	3	tbsp
Cereals, oats, regular and quick and instant, unenriched, cooked with water (includes boiling and microwaving), with salt	0.5	cup
Crustaceans, shrimp, mixed species, canned	0.3	cup
Nuts, coconut milk, canned (liquid expressed from grated meat and water)	0.35	cup
Nuts, almonds	35.75	g
Nuts, pecans	0.25	cup, halves
Rice, white, glutinous, cooked	0.2	cup
Blueberries, wild, frozen	0.6	cup, frozen
Candies, chocolate, dark, 70-85% cacao solids	0.2	bar
Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat	1	cup
Spinach, raw	0.8	cup
Yam, cooked, boiled, drained, or baked, with salt	0.3	cup, cubes
Fish oil, salmon	3	g
Fat, beef tallow	1	tbsp

You don't need a multi-vitamin!!!! And this diet won't kill you, it'll just make you stronger.

Weird. Tropical fruits taste sweeter but they have less sugar. I'll have to get to the bottom of this.

Tropical fruits

• mangos: 2.90 grams per 100 grams
• pinapple: 2.12 grams per 100 grams and 3.5 grams per cup
• bananas: 4.85 grams per 100 grams and 7.28 grams per cup.
• guava: 1.9 grams per 100 grams
• papaya: 2.7 grams per 100 grams
• star fruit: 3.2 grams per 100 grams
• passion fruit: 3.1 grams per 100 grams

Non-tropical fruits

• apples: 5.9 grams per 100 grams and 7.38 grams per cup
• pears: 6.23 grams per 100 grams and 8.72 grams per cup
• blueberries: 4.85 grams per 100 grams and 7.36 grams per cup
• cherries: 5.37 grams per 100 grams and 7.41 grams per cup
• raspberries: 2.40 grams per 100 grams and 2.89 grams per cup
• grapes: 8.13 grams per 100 grams and 12.28 grams per cup

Data from USDA website.

If you look at this site: Fruits

The numbers are a bit different the high sugar fruits are still the same. Stay away from "grapes, bananas, mangos, sweet cherries, apples, pineapples, pears and kiwi fruit." everything else in moderation.

Fructose Sucks!

We are WEAK!

Modern man 'a wimp', says anthropologist

Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

I would have to agree with the article. We Are Weak!

The Foundation of the Paleo Diet

Richard Dawkins talks about his new book "The Greatest Show on Earth" and takes questions. A must-read book and must watch lecture: