FitFemaleForty

…instead, read Dr. Michael Eades most recent blog post!   I am not a vegetarian, vegan, nor do I eat a diet made up of “mostly whole plant foods”.  I’m a paleo eatin’ carnivore.  Although my support for Dr Eades’ blog post is due to my own “confirmation bias”, he does do an excellent job of highlighting key examples of Dr. Campbell’s own “confusion, ambiguity, distortion  in what is basically a book-length argument for a personal opinion masquerading as hard side science”.  As Dr. Eades most eloquently states, The China Study is a “master piece of obfuscation”.   Correlation does not prove causation.     Take the time to read Dr. Eades commentary on the seemingly never-ending protein debate:

Dr. Eades “The China Study vs the China study”

Also, while on the topic of  protein you can read more about the original protein debate between Dr. Cordain author of  “The Paleo Diet” and Dr. Campbell author of “The China Study” in a recent Robb Wolf post titled “The China Study:  Junk Science and Lies”:

The Protein Debate

Loren Cordain, PhD and T. Colin Campbell, PhD

I awoke this morning surprised to find an article on The Paleo Diet in my small hometown Sunday newspaper.  It would be nice to see The Paleo diet go a little more mainstream. Imagine the number of folks that stand to benefit significant improvements in overall health from following a diet of grass-fed meat, veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starches, no grains, and no sugar.  Improvements in over all bio-markers of health that I know occur from my own personal experiences (see my blog post “Robb Wolf:  Paleo Nutrition Guru” and “Large, Fluffy and Buoyant Can Be A Good Thing!” )!

More “Paleo Diet” articles showing up in common places:

• Article From the Sacramento Bee featured in today’s Ocala Health and Fitness Section:  “With the Paleo Diet, prehistoric food no longer thing of the past“

• 2010 May/June issue of Psychology Today feature story on The Paleo Diet:  “The Way We Were - Our bodies are best adapted to what our Paleolithic ancestors ate and that’s food for our brains as well.”

• From the Washington Post in January 2010:  “Paleolithic diet is so easy, cavemen actually did it”

• The New York Times January 2010 article:  The New Age Cavemen and the City

• The Huffington Post February 2010 article: Is It Healthier To Eat Like A Caveman?

• 2010 April issue of Woman’s World Magazine features The Paleo Diet success story of Eva La Rue from CSI Miami

FIGURE 1 (chart from Eatwild.org)

The Paleo Diet recommends that all protein sources should come from “grass-fed” animals.   “Grass-Fed” vs. “Grain-Fed”,  what’s the big deal?  You may be surprised to learn that grain-fed beef can be detrimental to your health.

I recently read an article in James Fitzgerald’s OPT on-line newsletter by Jeremy Gordon of CrossFit Hampton Roads.  Jeremy does an excellent job of not only sharing the ill-effect grain has on protein quality, but also on his own personal, self-enlightening journey into health and wellness.  Jeremy has kindly given fitfemaleforty permission to re-post his article below. written by

Grown-Up Thinking

Jeremy Gordon

One year ago, after viewing the movie, “Food, Inc.,” my family started a journey. This is a journey towards independence from an industrial food system. It is a journey vectored by critical thinking, fueled by a passion for wellness (self and earth) and the road is paved with “grown-up thinking.” (i) While we are still taking our first steps in this journey, the end-state (in my mind) is clear: we consume foods grown using sustainable, humane, local, organic methods; preferably raised by my family on our own property. Continue reading

Government Food Pyramid making us sicker?  Today’s modern diet is mostly made up of processed foods – whole wheat bread, brown rice, cereals, granola bars,  etc.   Little do folks realize that these type of foods, especially the ones listed as “low fat” can increase your risk of heart disease (see recent blog post titled “Processed Carbs – Not Dietary Fat – Increase Your Risk of Type II Diabetes, Heart Disease and Obesity”).

Do your research -  fat is not the problem!  Refined carbs, not dietary fat contribute to overall greater metabolic damage (elevated blood pressure, Obesity, Type II Diabetes, blood fat disorders, etc).  An Editorial published in the April issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition titled “Are Refined Carbohydrates Worse Than Saturated Fat?“discusses the importance of reducing refined carbs in your diet instead of fat.

50 grams of fructose may be too  much.

That’s what researchers from the University of Florida recommend in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article “How safe is fructose for persons with or without diabetes?”  After analyzing the results of several studies involving the consumption of fructose and its metabolic effects, these researchers concluded “…obesity and diabetes rates were low when total fructose intake was in the range of 25–40 g/d.”

Fruit juice is even more efficient at making us fat as reported recently  in the Science Daily in Fructose-Sweetened Drinks Increase Nonfasting Triglycerides In Obese Adults.  Similar findings were also reported in  The Journal of Clinical Investigation in “Consuming Fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans”.

All of these studies confirm what we’ve already known instinctively – don’t “over-do”  fruit.   Bottom line (no pun-intended): if you’re trying to lose weight or stubborn fat around your middle, it’s a good idea to keep your fructose consumption low.   There are some who would even recommend your total fructose intake be as low as 25 to 15 grams a day! Continue reading