Category Archives: diet

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An addition to the famous Liver Post: Eat the Offal!

Dr. Colin Champ is a radiation oncologist and author of the Caveman Doctor website. He has written and podcasted for several years on nutrition, lifestyle, and exercise. In this post he discusses how the Masai, who are tall, well muscled, attractive people drink blood and eat the organs and leave the ‘scraps’ for the Europeans!  I happen to like liver but I was raised by farm folk who gave it to us periodically. High school swimmers, who absorb massive numbers of calories, are not picky eaters so thank goodness they gave me liver.

 

What gets in the way of your eating the good stuff instead of that wimpy muscle meat or (whew) chicken breast?

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So do the predators eat the muscle or the liver first?

You gotta know they go for the “offal.”  Here is a photo to prove it. Liver? Full of vitamins (B12, folate, B6.) Full of iron. It’s a meaty vitamin pill.  Brains? Huge amounts of omega three fats. (go to the bottom to the fat section.) PaleoPathologist is a big liver eater. I’ve done brains a few times; once had Brains and Eggs at a little diner in Durham, NC and had some sheep brains in Thailand.

So, what do you think? Why do you or don’t you eat liver, heart, or kidney?

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PaleoPathologist on a Jimmy Moore low carb podcast.

Jimmy Moore is well known in the Low Carb community and fairly well known in the Paleo group as well. He is a real success story, having lost 180 lbs on the Atkins diet ten years ago. (That’s more than PaleoPathologist weighs, total!) Jimmy has quite an empire around “Livin La Vida Low Carb” with podcasts, forums, a useful blog, a Low Carb Cruise, all kinds of things. There is a good intro to Low Carbing that covers a lot of useful details (as I’ve said many times, you don’t do Low Carb by just axing flour and sugar!) He has also written a couple of books, Cholesterol Clarity and Keto Clarity, with a co-author, Eric Westman, who is an internal medicine professor at Duke.  PaleoPathologist was a student there and the Internal Medicine professors were very smart people.  I sent my story in to Jimmy (it’s on about page 172 of Keto Clarity) and he invited me to come on his Low Carb Conversations show. What a blast–he is well informed but a kind and generous host. Listen here!

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An interesting review of the “gut microbiome”

PaleoPathologist has as a “hobby” a PhD in Microbiology. He knows his bugs, especially Parasites and Fungi. He views some of the discussions about “gut microbiota” on the various Paleo websites with suspicion, but more and more articles are coming out in mainstream journals. This one came across on the Medscape email newslist that comes to my email. It’s a review article of the various interactions between the bacteria we carry around and how we behave!  Fascinating. The little monsters may be manipulating me into eating ‘taters!

If you are a fellow doc and haven’t found this corner of the literature, take a look; it’s a pretty easy read.  PaleoPathologist is now eating KimChi, Sauerkraut, full fat Kefir, and Bob’s Red Mill unmodified potato starch. (Start slow with the starch!  I had some volcanic episodes early on when the bacteria smelled the starch, yelled “whoopee” in their tiny little voices, and produced abundant methane.)

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Diabetics, can you really get off insulin with diet alone?

Apparently. Here is a link to a brand new review article on exactly that subject. If I were a diabetic I’d be on the low carb ketogenic diet in a heartbeat…oh, wait, I already am.  I have a friend who is doing paleo-autoimmune for various conditions, a type II insulin dependent diabetic, and she is now completely off insulin. I’ve also heard type I diabetic physicians interviewed who say their blood sugar control is much less brittle if they restrict carbohydrates. (They still need some insulin, but not nearly as much and their Hemoglobin A1c levels are better.)

Please note there is a big difference between type I and type II diabetes!  Type I usually means the pancreas cannot make insulin, while type II usually means your body has become insulin resistant no matter how much insulin your poor pancreas tries to pump out.

And please don’t just “go low carb” without getting with your own physician. I hear reports of people’s insulin requirements dropping in a few days and you could get hypoglycemic without guidance. Dangerous and unpleasant. Test, test, and talk with the doc. Give them the link. My blog is definitely only for education, not for individual health advice.

What experiences have you had with diabetes?  Ever try a decent low carbohydrate diet?

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Lupus study shows possible links to gut bacteria

PaleoPathologist  has been around the block with snake oil salesmen, cons, and the worst of all, well meaning people who are just out and out wrong. The gut thing has been the source of all three of the above for centuries. People used to invent machines that would pump water through you at high speed to give you a good colon cleanse. Of course some people died from water intoxication causing electrolyte problems, but hey, “they were probably too far gone to survive the treatment they needed”, right?

kimchi picture

The Paleo community has some thoughtful people but there are fringes that I at times am afraid of and many are in the “gut flora” camp. Imagine my chagrin when this article came up on Medscape, announcing that serious immunologists think that Lupus (SLE; systemic lupus erythematosus) may have disordered gut bacteria as at least part of the cause. Humility, PaleoPathologist, humility.

PaleoPathologist spent four years doing microbiology research back at Mr. Duke’s in North Carolina. Go Blue Devils. I cannot even imagine doing research on the gut flora; hundreds of species, predominantly anaerobes which are a pain to grow, trillions of mathematical combinations, and besides, it smells bad. I am so glad that there are people who feel the calling to investigate this area.

In the meantime PaleoPathologist will be snarfing kefir, kraut, and kimchi. Incredible Wife grew up in the southern USA and she says, “Every child should eat some dirt!”

So what do you do about YOUR gut flora?

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Where can you find Liver and Onions in Denver?

We’ve said it before. Most pathologists just won’t eat liver, and most Americans have unfortunately lost the taste. Not PaleoPathologist!  I’ve always liked Liver. Below is the Blackeyed Pea Senior portion (watch it out there) with broccoli, spinach, and butter which is going on the broccoli in a moment. The vinegar is for the spinach.

liver onions blackeyed pea

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People look at me like I’m from Mars when I ask for heavy cream in my coffee.

PaleoPathologist was at Whole Foods La Jolla and asked for a 16 oz Americano with cream. Ha. People still think that fat is bad for you, the product of decades of bad science and bad government. I told the Barista that natural fats are not bad for you and he gave me the Martian look of disbelief. I said, “No, really, the newest science says good fat is good for you.” “Well, dude, we have some half and half over there with the skim milk.” I’m tempted to ask, although it would do NO good, why they don’t put out some heavy cream with the skim milk and then people could put half milk and half cream if they wanted to! Butter, cream!

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