Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I'm so bored with the Paleo's - Part Two

Warning:  This post is smack dab in the middle of Snarksville, so if you don't want to be caught in that bad neighborhood, better to take the next train out while there is still some daylight.

Well, the Ancestral Health Symposium was really fun, but the weeks beyond, the aftermath of the Taubes/Guyenet smackdown, has been painful, or pitiful, depending on how you look at it.

Lots of the hoopla happened over on Guyenet's blog, which has since been scrubbed considerably and on several levels.  Some of the discussion has been moved over to Hyperlipid. ("Use your quiet indoor voice, or I'll have to send you all outside!")  I had a few of Guyenet's minions really go after me on another board, and I don't even really post that much.  So yea, I would have to agree with some others that people need to do more reading, or at least get a life.

Guyenet seems like a nice guy in person, but after his post against Taubes, I'll have to say he has a bit of a passive-aggressive streak going there.  Good thing he edited, I guess.  Here are the clif notes of the controversy.

Guyenet on his blog:
1.  Hi, I'm Dr. Guyenet, and I have a PhD
2.  I am interested in obesity, and I have thought about this alot.
3.  I have REALLY thought about this for a long time, and it makes lots of sense, so I am sure I am right.
4.  Fat people are fat because they eat too much
5.  Fat people eat too much because they like tasty food
6.  Like I said, I know I am right, because even though I haven't actually ever really talked to or listened to fat people, or ever been fat myself, I have a PhD, and I have looked at lots of rat studies and listened to alot of rats.
7.  Rats like chocolate, and so do fat people.
8.  If fat people quit eating packaged food and chocolate and quit putting seasonings on it, they would be thin like me and my thin paleo peeps.

Inthewoo2 and others on Guyenet's blog:
9.  Guyenet, you ignorant slut!

Guyenet's peeps on Guyenet's blog:
10.  Inthewoo2 and others, you are just 2-bit tarts and bargain basement sluts!
11.  We have PhD's from fine universities and you don't
12.  Since we have PhD's like Guyenet, we have also thought about this alot and we know he is right.
13.  He da man!  you are wrong.
14.  You are just a fat person with no PhD.
15.  If you say he's wrong, that just proves how much you misunderstand these lofty PhD-type concepts.
16.  Now run along before somebody drops a house on you

Taubes at the AHS11 meeting to Guyenet:
17.  Guyenet, you ignorant slut!
18.  Fat people aren't fat because they eat too much!!!
19.  You're not a scientist, you're just a farmer.
20.  You're a cherry picker

Guyenet's paleotards all over the internet:
21.  It's gettin' real in the Whole Health Source parking lot.
22.  Taubes, you ignorant slut!
23.  Our homie Guyenet has a PhD so he must be right, despite your so-called evidence.
24.  We are sick of hearing N=1's from fat people, after all, they lie and cheat on their food logs.
25.  From now on, the sum of all the N=1's from fat people equals 0.
26.  We hate puffy, old, red-faced, low-carbing, metabolically-deranged fat people who drag our cult down and raise our insurance rates and eat too many omega 6's and then lie about it!
27.  Itsthewoo2, you are still an ignorant slut but we are scrolling past all your uninformed posts anyway.  Thought we would announce it right here, to you and everyone else anyway.

Itsthewoo2 on Guyenet's blog:
28.  It's like insulin resistance around here.
29.  If your cells won't listen, then I'll just yell even louder!
30.  GUYENET YOU IGNORANT SLUT!!!!!!!!

Guyenet on his blog a few days after AHS11:
31.  I've had time to think and reflect
32.  Taubes, you are still an ignorant slut.
33.  I was being nice before cause I thought you were one of my peeps

Sooooooo......here's MY blog and here's what I have to say about it.

First, I AM a two-bit researcher from a podunk university (OK, a bunch of them, and some of them not so podunk), so lets just get that out of the way early.  I don't give a rodent's-behind how many letters people have behind their names.  Since I am into data, I really like the N=1's.  I like my own N=1.  I might not know all the causes of my N=1, and might not be able to tease out all the factors, but that does not make my N=1 any less so.

DATA DATA DATA!  I cannot make bricks without clay!

My N=1 beats out anybody's clinical study.  My N=1 beats out anybody's ratscapades.  N is for Narcissist.  Period.

Here's the original video
(next:  part 3, my N=1)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Coconut Oil Adjustment Bureau

Oh, no, the dietitians with all those certifications and registrations are donning their hats again, nervously looking at the play-books handed down from their supervisors over at the ADA, and noticing that more and more people are following the road converging to the coconut grove.
My long-time readers remember the comical coconut oil post that resulted in me getting my final warning at the [redacted]people site.  If you haven't seen it yet, go here.
Too late.  We drank the coconut.  Ripples were created.  It is impossible to undo. Now the stars are getting into the act.  These are dangerous times indeed.
Here's the original movie trailer.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Study Notes for the Quilt - Why is Oprah Still Obese? Leptin Part 3....

This is Dr. Kruse's most popular blog post, and for good reason!  Lots of great information here.  See the link.
First off, Dr. K's summary.

"1. Why can’t you lose weight when you change lifestyle
2. What is an uncoupling protein (UCP)
3. The difference between Anthony Colpo and Robb Wolf and the Oprah!
4. Why Oprah is still fat?
5. Dr. Kruse’s screening question for assessing leptin status."

And....the Notes:
1.  We just covered leptin resistance in the liver.  Now, on to leptin resistance in the muscle cell.
2.  UCP - Un-Coupling Protein - in mitochondria.  This protein needs leptin and thyroid hormones in order to do its job.
[mitochondria are in your cells.  They are little power plants.  Think of them like batteries.]
3.  Pathway one in the mitochondria:  Food goes in => energy in the form of ATP comes out.
4.  Pathway two (using UCP3) in the mitochondria:  Food goes in =>  energy in the form of heat comes out.
5.   UCP3 helps you deal with unwanted energy
6.  This is why the calories-in-calories-out model doesn't really work in a simple way.
7.  People who are leptin resistant don't have the second pathway.  Excess food is stored instead of thrown off as heat.
8.  Anthony Colpo or Robb Wolf can throw anything in their mouths and their mitochondria will take care of it.
9.  Oprah can't do this, because her UCP3 isn't functioning optimally.  She can't just eat anything.
10.  Oprah continues to send any excess to be stored as fat, and meanwhile, her muscles don't get the energy they need.
11.   When muscles see too much food, more bad things happen.
     excess fat =>ALE's => BAD!!
     excess sugars =>AGE's => BAD!!
12.  UCP3 not working in muscles in diabetics => fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy
13.  A Wolf/Colpo/Dr. Oz exercise recommendation for Oprah won't work until her leptin is sensitive again.  [And, go directly to the post and scroll down to the last two paragraphs.  It's the leptin prescription and also how to tell when you have become leptin sensitive.]
14.  To check leptin sensitivity status, also measure reverse-T3
15.  If you are leptin resistant, don't exercise too much until you get leptin sensitive again!

Other resources:  ROS definition:  Reactive Oxygen Species  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_oxygen_species  Here's a cool slide showing what happens inside the mitochondria:
You'll notice the ROS (the O2- superoxide) being formed in the process on the left.  On the right, you'll see the two pathways Dr.K mentions.  One generates ATP, and the other path uses the Un-Coupling Protein and generates heat.  This slide is from a cool (but advanced) paper that you can find here.
Anthony Colpo is an author and blogger and rabidly anti-low-carb.http://anthonycolpo.com/
Robb Wolf is a paleo diet and fitness author and blogger.  He's not into eating wheat or grains, but thinks other carbs are fine to eat. http://robbwolf.com/
Oprah, of course, is a fat celebrity who has shared her weight battles with her fans.
ALE's:  Advanced lipoxidation endproducts
AGE's:  Advanced glycation endproducts
For more good info on ALE's and AGE's, visit http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/
There will be more on ALE's and AGE's in several places in the Quilt.

Wheat Belly

Come on, Dr. Davis.  I am sure you can show some more convincing research.  While it would be nice to see more information about this new strain of wheat, your chart doesn't show any correlation.   If you want to show correlation, you need to plot x vs. y, not a line chart against time.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/08/1985-the-year-the-dough-hit-the-fan/
Hey, maybe Dr. Davis' post will go viral.  But let's not chase bad data with more bad data, OK?

Sunday, August 21, 2011

It is What It Is

Years ago, I was discussing the status of a medical research experiment with a colleague.  Things weren't going well.  The data weren't co-operating with either our theory or our solution to a sticky problem.
My friend stopped by to take a look at some of the messy data in my lab notebook.  And, he offered a helpful comment,
"It is what it is."
Oh yea, it was supposed to be an experiment, and gosh what a mess, and we were proven wrong.  But, it is what it is.  That is also why you aren't supposed to tear the pages out of lab notebooks. But you also have to be careful about adding pages to the notebook that don't belong there.
Dr. Feinman just wrote another blogpost about the problems with "intent to treat" methods of analysis.  Please visit and take a good read here.
I am glad he decided to take another look at the ITT method and how misleading it can be.  This isn't the first time either he or I have brought the problem to the attention of others via blogging. And I am sure it won't be the last time I cover it.
You can read my earlier post here.
I am reminded that when a particularly ill-informed "expert" admonished people and told them that they should be reading the research, she probably didn't understand the problems with much of it. Well, go ahead and read the research, and you might be even more uneasy about what to eat than ever.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Study Notes for the Quilt - Leptin Part Deux....Liver

This post is about leptin resistance in the liver cells.  Here's Dr. K's reader's summary:
"Readers Summary:
1. Liver is the engine of metabolism and not the thyroid
2. What does the liver do in normal metabolic conditions and in leptin resistance
3. Where does cholesterol (LDL subtypes) fit into this leptin story.
4. How does Metabolic Syndrome commence and why does it happen.
5. Why your regular labs may be completely normal while your slowly dying."
Pretty good, then again, maybe after reading all the posts over and over, it is starting to look easy. Here's the link.

And now, the notes:
1.  Contrary to popular opinion, your liver controls metabolism, not your thyroid gland.
2.  When you eat, 60% goes to the liver for longer-term storage, 40% goes to the muscles and other places to be used right away.
3.  If the muscle cells are leptin-sensitive, all the 40% is used.  Yippie!
4.  If the muscle cells are leptin-resistant, the leftovers go to the liver.
5.  go to the liver => make fat => stored in fat cells or in the liver
6.  If your fat gets full of even more fat => more leptin (bad)
7.  If your liver gets full of fat =>inflammation =>BAD
8.  Uh Oh, here's more trouble!  If the liver cells are leptin-resistant, they tell any extra fat to go away.  ("Go away!  We aren't taking any more of your LDL's") =>LDL's stay in the blood (bad) => liver crams more fat into LDL's.
9.  Carbs go towards the making of small dense LDL
10.  Protein and fat go towards the making of large fluffy LDL
11.  If you are testing your blood lipids, the most important number is the sdLDL.  It should be as low as possible.  SdLDL particles are easily damaged and can cause plaque.
12.  eat too many carbs => make sdLDL => damage =>all sorts of diseases => BAD
13.  eat too much protein and fat => make fluffier LDL => fat storage (location depends on other hormones)
14.  Too much Fructose => makes even MORE sdLDL!!!!! (so don't do this)
15.  When our liver is leptin-sensitive, it sends its stored fuel to muscles, etc. when needed.
16.  When our liver is leptin-resistant, it doesn't send the stored fuel to muscles, but stores it as more fat.
17.  Liver leptin resistance => fatty liver => inflammation => metabolic syndrome + large waist + fatigue + can't lose weight no matter how little you eat + exercise doesn't help weight loss.
18.  So, you can have all these problems with a normal thyroid test.
19.  Waist size and hs-CRP are better measures of health, but start looking at hs-CRP early on.

Here's more to research:
LDL, or Low-Density Lipoprotein.  (Most of the lit still portrays LDL as "bad".)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-density_lipoprotein
Here's some information about a prominent inflammatory chemical:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_6
Here's some general info about the liver:  http://www.umm.edu/liver/liver.htm

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I'm so bored with the Paleo's - Part One

OK, not really, not all of it Just Yet. After all, this is only part one. But I stole refer to the title of Dr. Kurt Harris' blog post:
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/11/2/im-so-bored-with-the-kitavans.html
I had planned and started this blogpost much earlier before Dr. Harris did Paleo 2.0 and changed the name of his website, but I have had trouble finishing it.  Seems like I'm not the only ones bored with the Paleo's.  Now that all hell has broken loose after the Ancestral Health Symposium, I felt a need to finish this post so that I could jump right into part 2.

Its just that the Paleo scene kind of reminds me of the macrobiotic scene.  A bunch of passionate people who are mostly getting healthier while being on the diet, but every time they want to eat something, they have to run it up the flagpole and get a report by the expert.  And then its based on this pseudo-scientific "metric", whose validity cannot be argued.

My first reaction to Loren Cordain's popular diet book is that it seemed kind of trendy, with little data.  Now it may be true that he actually has lots of data somewhere else, and I probably would have preferred to delve into the more "scholarly" stuff first instead of the popular book.  But it seems like some people are being overly dogmatic about something that we really don't know about for sure.  When I read his book, I thought I was being talked down to.

Just look at the state of the current nutritional research.  We have gotten it so wrong using epidemiological data from a generation ago.  Now we are piecing together this clue and that clue from so far ago and we are to expect it to be any better?  And maybe it is, but I think we have enough trouble sorting out what is helpful or hurtful with our current diets.  Basing our arguments on what might have been the case thousands of years ago doesn't make it clearer, I think it just baits the detractors.

I have never studied ancient history much, only when it pertains to what I am currently interested in.  But, I have found here and there in my travels, reasons why I continue to not be much interested:

First, I find much of the older literature to be amazingly sexist.  Studies are written through the lens of university-trained European males.  I find many of them laughable.  They focus on men's activities, men's economic systems, and then might add a side paragraph about women, but usually only as it relates to child care.  And the ancient data seems to pertain mostly to what they were eating over there in ancient Europe, wherever ancient Europe actually was thousands of years ago.

Over on Mark's Daily Apple, there is much use of that mostly-naked barefoot male hunter logo with spear.  I was wanting to see women with nets and burden baskets, or yes, even a spear.  Or, how about men with burden baskets?  I sure see lots of the modern kind at the local Frye's.  Why are the Paleo's not called gatherer-hunters?  It is just starting to have a similar look and feel as the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign, with their various women archetypes that I am somehow supposed to identify with, but don't.

Second, I am really into baskets, and once I picked up a huge scholarly text on Native American basketry.  They had everything in there.  Baskets from every tribe, all different styles, sizes and shapes, all the wrapping and coiling techniques.  Baskets for cooking, baskets for babies, baskets for gathering, baskets for trapping (yes, baskets that women used for um, you know, hunting.)  It was arranged by geographical area.  So, I went to the geographical area of my youth, and found written there that these Native Americans didn't make baskets because they found no evidence.  And I am thinking to myself, "What a crock!"  I remembered the woods where I played as a child, with the large vines crawling up to the tops of the trees.  We would loosen them and swing from tree to tree, just like Tarzan.  I was always sure that the Native Americans in this area would have seen the twined trees and figured out how to make baskets, just as I had done by looking at them.  And now, just because a University-trained peer-reviewed basket researcher hadn't seen one, they didn't exist?

Happily, several decades later, I came across this great find, an account of a twined slipper found in a cave nearby, dated over 8000 years old.  Yes!  Of course they knew how to make baskets.  Baskets for walking.
http://www.s8int.com/sophis5.html

Now lets swing over to a more present time for a third reason.  I now live in an area formerly populated by a Native American tribe known for their basketry.  This culture is relatively unique in that they were "gatherer-hunters" till around the early 1900's, so they could be interviewed by modern researchers, and quite a few artifacts of their culture are still around.  I have been able to talk with their direct descendants and also experts in the culture, and come away with a very different type of "gatherer-hunter" culture than what is re-enacted in Paleo-land.  The Chumash diet included lots of fish and seafood, as many expect, but also quite a bit of carby acorns.  Nuts and carbs at every meal.

When I first moved here, I went for a long hike up Mishe Mokwa.  Along the way, I met a young man who seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge about the area, and he introduced me to yucca flowers.  They were quite sweet and tasty (especially after I had run out of water), and before that I had never known they were edible.   Now it turns out that the Chumash spent a good chunk of time each year travelling to places where yucca grew, and they made a kind of sweet yucca cake that was suitable for trade.  So this idea that gatherer-hunters didn't have sweet things just isn't true everywhere.  They were eating things we wouldn't even think to try.  The Native Americans in California also ate roots and tubers, and we know little about them today because the habitat has been destroyed and much of the knowledge lost.

Day-to-day activities involved getting shellfish, grinding and leaching tannin out of acorns, and cooking acorns in baskets.  During certain times of the year, they went inland to get the acorns, chia and yucca.  These don't sound like tasks that require lots of running and spears.  If you don't believe me, go ahead and try to catch some chia seed with a spear.  Them little buggers are hard to nail down!  There were few large animals either, maybe an occasional deer or bear.

It seems like in Paleo-land, there are plenty of armchair researchers who seem to know all about what grows in this area, and what time of the year all the carby fruits ripened, what time of they year they danced around and ate all these carbs and got fat for the winter.  But I say, if the diet is a good sound diet, all this stuff way in the past shouldn't really matter.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Study Notes for the Quilt - Living an Optimized Life "Chapter 1 on Leptin"

Whew!  Where do I begin on this one?  How about the link?  Check it out.

And....Here are the notes:

1.  Leptin is a hormone that controls how your body gets and uses energy and it also controls all other hormones.
2.  Leptin is made in fat and talks to your brain.  It tells your brain how much energy you have.  When it works wonky, we get leptin resistant.
3.  Leptin resistance = BAD!
4.  Symptoms of leptin resistance:
     a.  too fat
     b.  too thin
     c.  having what seems like a thyroid problem
     d.  can't lose weight from exercising
     e.  osteoporosis
     f.  trouble getting pregnant
     g.  inflammation
     h.  belly fat
     i.  low vitamin D levels
5.  Leptin resistance leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, obesity
6.  Leptin resistance => insulin resistance => adrenal resistance =>cortisol problems =>all sorts of chronic diseases and cancer.
8.  "Leptin resistance always precedes the development of insulin resistance" (by about 5-7 years)

9.  To determine if you are leptin resistant, you can measure reverse T3, ultra-sensitive crp, Vitamin D and look at your waistline.

Here are some interesting links:
Leptin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin
Cortisol:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol
Hormones:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Ancestral Health Symposium 2011 - Dreams, Memories, Reflections

OK, here's my take (and I stole the second part of the title from Carl Jung).  First, I am STILL trying to get caught up after clearing a couple of days from my calendar to attend.

First Impression

Everyone is shorter, thinner, younger, healthier-looking and just plain all-around-better-looking than their internet photos.  Oh, and so nice!  I disagree a bit with Dr. Emily Deans on the personalities.  People are lots tougher on their blogs.  Come to think of it, I wasn't all that snarky either.  Maybe it was in the water.

Second Impression

Despite being global trekkers, Paleo rock stars, or credentialed researchers, people don't know how to drive in LA.  Lots of serious misunderestimation of the time it takes to get to the next town, or just a short stretch down the highway.  Hope it goes better for you next time.  We want to see you there early and refreshed so we can get more pictures and stalk you better.

Third Impression

Some people were there to attend a technical/scientific conference.  Some were there to attend a festival and meet and mingle with rock stars.  At times, there wasn't alot of mingling between the two groups, both in space and in thought.  I was at the back of the room during the Guyenet/Taubes exchange and said to my neighbor, "Wow, did you hear that?" and he said, "Yea, what a jerk!"  But it was obvious to me that Taubes was attending a technical conference.  I found that the exchange was similar to the Feinman/Lustig exchange.  They were attending a technical conference, too.  For people at technical conferences, this is no big deal.  Hey people, if you don't want controversy and can't take the heat, don't let people like Taubes or Lustig into your audience.  Just do your webcasts and delete their comments. 
My neighbor was attending the rock festival, and hadn't read either Taubes books or Guyenet's food reward hypothesis blogposts.  He also seemed to not have much of an idea as to why some people are on low-carb paleo plans.  It was also clear to me that he doesn't attend technical conferences much.  But it was probably a good idea that we were sitting next to each other.
I was personally in the rooms where these exchanges took place, so my impression is not based on heresay.  I did hear about Dr. Kruse's exchange after one session.  Some people reacted negatively to that exchange as well.  I am sure that if I had heard it first-hand, I would have heard more the passion than anything.

Impression 4

Mark Sisson is HOT!  No not just that way, he has a really high metabolism.  I sat next to him during Dr. Eades presentation, and I needed a fan!

Fun Story

I told Gary Taubes that I had actually read his WHOLE book GCBC.  He told me I didn't need to read the other one.  I feel like I got a free hall pass.  How cool is that???  (Gary, if you are reading this, I want to know that I did read your cold fusion book, too, just not all of it yet.)

After-Impression 1

I read a bunch of stuff on the internets about the possible discovery that people on low-carb diets have puffy red faces.  I saw Dr. Kruse face-to-face and he looked sunburned to me.  The original post is  here.  I don't think stuff like this moves the cause forward.  I haven't responded online yet to this issue, but what I will say here is that since I went low carb, inflammation everywhere has gone down considerably.  Everyone knows that Dr. K was bobbing up and down into the salt water the day before, looking for his phone.  I don't know how the OP knows what everyone eats unless there was a macro-nutrient scanner at the entry doors.  They were cell-phone-scanning tickets, but I was not aware that phone technology has progressed so far.

After-Impression 2

Are black people all neolithic?  Where were they?  There were a couple of Latino's, a handful or two of Asians, and the rest all white.  This doesn't bode well for the paleo movement.  Some go on about how we don't need to eliminate entire food groups, but have we eliminated entire races?  There was lots of talk about Inuits and Kitavans, like people to study, not people to sit next to at a conference.
Most people I know get into paleo to lose weight and get healthy.  Many do this through a low-carb version.  I am troubled by what I have been reading the past few days on the internets.  Paleo folks, we can't expect a movement to grow if we trash the very people out there are are the most likely to try it.  We can't trash women, gays, fat people, old people with puffy red faces, vegetarians, Dr. Oz viewers, or others we currently disagree with.  If it is just by and for 30-year-old men and their six-packs, it will never lose the cult-like impression.

I have introduced several people to paleo, but frankly, too many people think it is some sort of weird cult.  I can't get some of my science buddies to even take a look.  I have sent some friends to the Mark's Daily Apple forum or to Paleohacks, but they come back telling me that the are full of alot of creeps.  Paleo's need to decide if they want to be the next big movement, or last years' faddish clique.


Monday, August 8, 2011

It's Pumpkin Time!

I met Dr. Mary Dan Eades at the Ancestral Health Symposium and had a nice chat with her.  I mentioned that her pumpkin blogpost is one of my favorites.  So many people had been asking about potassium, and also insisting that everyone needs to eat lots of bananas in order to get enough potassium.  I'm happy to report that she has set the record straight, so I send lots of people over to her site to read about the Great pumpkin.

I harvested my first pumpkin of the season yesterday.  It is a Baby Pam pumkin, and only about a pound or so.  It is curing on the patio, and I will probably "boot it up" next week.  By that time, the green taste will have disappeared.  I love this pumpkin because it is early, tasty and small.  The seed quality is fantastic, but unfortunately, it is not much of a keeper.  I grow it to eat in the summer and early fall, and it tastes terrible by Halloween or Thanksgiving.  I suppose I could have more if I had a root cellar.  Not gonna happen unless I dig a hole in the ground myself.

I also harvested a couple of tatume squashes.  I grow this variety because it is in my summer squash variety pack.  I enjoy it on the grill when immature, but this year, not only did I have a seed snafu, but all the other summer squash plants did well and I was overwhelmed, so I let the tatume's continue to grow.  The first years, I grew a few out, but didn't prefer the flavor to the sweeter varieties.  Since then, like the Mexicans, I have developed a liking for the tatume, and also other overgrown summer squashes.

Here's my new favorite soup recipe.

Squash soup
tatume, chayote or overgrown summer squash (4 cups chunks)
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon hot curry powder (my curry blend already contains a bit of salt)
lemon basil

Cut and peel the squash, cut into chunks and cook in chicken broth in a saucepan until tender.  (I usually start my chicken in a bit of bacon fat, and so enjoy the bacon flavor in the soup, too.)  Cool.  Blend the squash, add the curry, and then return to the pan and reheat.  Remove from heat and stir in the cream.  Garnish with lemon basil.
I also make the squash puree, add the curry, and then store it in the fridge.  It keeps well for several days, and I just add the cream after reheating the squash.

Here's Dr. Eades' pumpkin post:  http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/recipes/waiting-for-the-great-pumpkin-soup-that-is/
Here's another one of her pumpkin posts:  http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/pumpkins-back/  Check out her picture of Cinderella pumpkins.  I grow these, too, and the first one will be ready in a few weeks.  Even though you aren't really supposed to count the pumpkins until they hatch, yesterday I counted 12 Cinderella pumpkins.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Study Notes for The Quilt - Living an Optimized Life "My Epiphany..."

Here's the link:  http://jackkruse.com/my-epiphany-for-your-future%E2%80%A6%E2%80%A6/

So, here are the notes:
1.  Surgery sure has changed over the years.  Check out my link to a cool Ted lecture about the latest surgery tools.
2.  I want to make it so you never have to have surgery.
3.  We need to take care of our cells => no degenerative diseases => no surgeries
4.  The surgery machine costs 2 million dollars.
5.  Wouldn't it be cool if we took that 2 million dollars and used it to teach people how to avoid surgery?
6.  My epiphany?  Change your thinking......
7.  ....How to avoid surgery?  Eat a paleo diet and get leptin sensitive.

Here are some other interesting links.  Dr. K links to Catherine Mohr's TED lecture on robotics in surgery.  Kinda gross, but also really cool if you are into that sort of thing.  http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_surgery_s_past_present_and_robotic_future.html
Here's some info on leptin: 
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-your-brain-announces-youve-had-enough-to-eat.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-your-brain-signals-your-bodys-need-for-food.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin  Jump to the paragraph on obesity and leptin resistance.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Study Notes for the Quilt - "Living an Optimized Life - The Jack Kruse Story"

This is the intro blogpost. http://jackkruse.com/optimized-life-cenegenics-medical-institute-weight-loss-bioidentical-hormone-replacement-growth-hormone-how-to-live-better/
It has no number.  All the other posts have a number at the bottom corresponding to the position in the quilt.  Like many a good quilter, with more than enough yarn to go around, the Quilt keeps getting larger.  I just hope for his sake that the numbers are hyperlinked.

So....Here are the Notes:
1.  Hi, I'm Jack Kruse and I'm a neurosurgeon.
2.  I see sick people all the time.  I hurt my knee, and I was really fat.
3.  I figured out how I hurt my knee, and that got me thinking, so I started losing weight.
4.  I read a bunch of stuff about nutrition, medicine, longevity.
5.  I made alot of changes and I lost a ton of weight
6.  I was writing a bunch of books about it, but I just couldn't keep quiet anymore.
7.  So....I started writing this here blog so that you can get healthy.  Really healthy, not just sort of.
8.  It is going to be more about the why, and even though it may seem unintelligible, I promise you it will make sense in the end.

Here are some more interesting links for you to study:  http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/4119/474-dr-jack-kruse-low-carb-neurologist/

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Leptin Reset

I have been doing the leptin reset plan by Dr. Jack Kruse.  It has been very interesting, and I think I am finally getting off that plateau I was on for the last 3-4 months.

I used to think that chemists were quiet, and then after taking more and more chemistry, I just figured that they are quiet because nobody can understand anything they are talking about.  Now it used to be when I went to a party and someone asked me what I did and I said I was a statistician, they would say something like, "Oh, I hated that class..." and walk away.  Now I don't even bother, but I do seek out the chemists.  OK, OK, I'll admit that I have watched Dr. Lustig's sugar video waaaaay too many times.  But nothing prepared me for Jack Kruse.

When people ask me what I have been doing, sometimes I try to tell them, but it doesn't work out all that well.  Some think this paleo thing is just a cult, and they won't hear any of it.  Others say they want the re-cap, and I stammer, trying to find some words, and then just say that I am eating meat and vegetables, and every morning I eat a big breakfast.  My loyal readers have come to expect a coherent distillation.  I am not sure I can do that, but I'll try.

Here's the blog:  http://jackkruse.com/