Cornerstone #1: Eating a whole food diet

While doing some research for another post I came across an interesting article by Spreadbury about how the type of carbohydrate differs in an ancestral diet compared to a western diet.  The article, “Comparison with ancestral diets suggests dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity.” was just published the other month, and is available for free online.

The article is really great and is well worth the read.  He starts off by explaining the discord between much of the data for macronutrient ratios and obesity.  While both high fat and high carbohydrate diets have been implicated in the development of obesity in western society, these diets result in very healthy people when consumed in a “traditional” culture.  Since these diets only promote obesity in a western culture, there must be some other factor that makes these diets cause obesity, rather than the carb/fat ratios themselves.

Brain Fuels

If you ask many people what the primary fuel for your brain is they will most likely tell you that it is glucose.  In fact many sources used to say that the brain could ONLY use glucose as a fuel.  However, it has been known for some time that ketones are more efficient fuel source for our brains.  In fact this article says that ketogenic diets have been used as a treatment for epilepsy since the 1920’s!  And now, an even more efficient fuel is being talked about: Lactate.  Peter from Hyperlipid has a good write up about a paper that talks about the brain using lactate, and why he thinks it is such a good fuel.

This is all well and good, I am all for feeding my brain the most efficient fuels.  If we evolved primarily to support such big and “expensive” (energy consumption-wise) brains this would seem a very important thing to do to maintain good overall health.  However, after reading all this I am left wondering: How am I supposed to get all this lactate to feed my brain?  I can’t eat lactate. Also, with all these fuels for our brain, is there an optimal ratio of fuels?  Let’s take a look.

Trying new things

I think that one of the most rewarding parts of switching over to an ancestral lifestyle is that you are always willing to try new things, and things that once bothered you don’t anymore.  I am sure there is a more scientific explanation for this, but it is just something I have noticed.

When I was younger I HATED trying new foods.  If it wasn’t something I was comfortable with, I didn’t touch it.  In fact, my family was known to create chants to help me finish off certain foods at the dinner table (Peas and cream corn come to mind).  However, after living an ancestral lifestyle for the better part of 3 years now I have no problems trying new foods.  I went from being the least likely person to try new foods, to the most welcoming of the new experiences. 

I think this also holds true with other things in life.  Those who follow an ancestral lifestyle are just more willing to do say yes to new things.  We are more likely to go with the flow.  Other lifestyles are rigidly structured by meal times, work times, travel times, and all other routines.  But, when you adopt the ancestral lifestyle you throw a lot of that out the window and just start doing!  You also make more room for play, and have structured stress reduction techniques.  Is there a link between stress reduction and a willingness to try new things?  Most likely, especially because the kind of stress we are most accustomed to is the worrying, anxious feeling we get in an out of the ordinary situation.

I think this all ties together through play and fun.  Trying new things is exhilarating and gives you a rush and satisfied feeling.  This also is pretty similar to Mark Sisson’s recent posts on IE. 

So, with that let’s all go out and try something new today!

A human need for fiber?

Well after attending AHS 2012 the other week I came home with more questions then I could have imagined going into it.  All of the presentations were fantastic, however the safe starches panel seems to be the most talked about.  This was very interesting, as it seemed like the panelists covered almost the entire spectrum of a carbohydrate intake continuum.  Another point that was brought up was the need for dietary fiber, and, being somewhat unsure about this topic, I decided to dig a little further into it.

Hygiene Hypothesis and you

I was involved in an interesting conversation at work the other day about how some of co-workers manage to get out of the bathroom germ free. Some of the ideas ranged from waiting until someone else came in, the classic foot flush, and a delicate dance where you open the door with a paper towel, wedge it open with your foot, then proceed to throw the paper towel into the garbage. Now, while I do wash my hands after using public bathrooms, I've never heard of people getting so worked up over germs, and it brought to mind the idea of the Hygiene hypothesis, so I thought this would be a good time to take a look at it.

Is the Mitochondria the answer?

I have read Nick Lane's Power, Sex, Suicide. I have read the FIRKO mouse paper where they gave FIRKO mice the gold thioglucose treatment that is supposed to cause obesity. And now we come to the next paper by these same researchers, studying the mitochondrial gene expression of their FIRKO mice.

Eating Pork: Safe or Not?

Here is a recent post by Paul over at Perfect Health Diet:

Pork: Did Leviticus 11:7 Have It Right?

While not a bad article, it did make me consider my pork, and even alcohol, consumption, but I did have some real problems with it.