More thoughts from other people trying to figure out all this health and wellness stuff…

Once again, I am paraphrasing and putting segmented ideas together for a little reading flow…

Joel Jamieson, conditioning coach, 8 Weeks Out:
Exercise preference often stems from brain chemistry. Low dopamine levels lead to needing things like crossfit. Do cardio that has variety. Check out Road Work 2.0 for examples. Heart Rate Variability could be one of our best tools for gauging the stress status of the body.

Dr. Thomas O’bryan, gluten researcher, TheDr.com:
20% of human calories are from wheat. Just think about that. 20%. Lectins, a major component of wheat, probably cause water retention which is often why you see some immediate weight loss following removal of wheat from the diet. Here is a catch in going for gluten limitation: Partial removal doesn’t get most of the results. Full removal is best. In terms of celiac disease, mildly elevated liver enzymes (measure of dead liver cells exceeding new cells) may be indicator of celiac. A few other conditions to think about: osteoporosis could be caused by gluten sensitivity. ADHD gets 100% better without wheat. The bottom line is to help someone’s health or condition you’ve got to address the underlying tissue damage, which often stems from inflammation caused by inappropriate dietary choices.

Angelo Coppola, health podcaster, Latest in Paleo:
How much does the food industry probably love the health focus shifts? Low fat? Sure. Low carb? Done. Gluten free? No problem. A new product for every health trend. Similarly, supplements may not be the best idea for everyone, particularly year round. We probably do not need the same vitamin levels day after day every day of the year. It’s okay, and probably natural, to have vitamin level fluctuations with the seasons. We need to constantly be aware of the streetlight effect: don’t look for information only where the light is because there is quite a bit in the dark you’re missing.

Frank Forencich, health philosopher, Exuberant Animal:
It’s about communicating the message. Paleo is a meme- an idea that replicates with variation- like genes. It is important to keep clarity and focus to the message because there is HUGE diversity in all aspects of Paleo. From environment to diet to physical challanges to barefoot terrain. We need to be smart about our decisions, particularly exercise. Be smart about when to run and when to move, don’t do it blindly. Use your judgement. Every system in the body follows use it or lose it. We want to reinforce the systems that we want to thrive. For more, check out the One Health Initiative.

Richard Nikoley, health researcher and blogger, Free the Animal:
Instread of trying to prove yourself right try to disprove your hypotheses. Health is all about self experimentation, test and see. But test all parts of your life (e.g. news restriction). Be your own expert. The experts aren’t always right. Saying to someone who skips breakfast “you should eat breakfast” is basically saying you should eat when you’re not hungry.

Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatric obesity researcher, UC San Francisco:
Fructose, when in excess of liver glycogen storage, metabolizes into uric acid and inhibits nitric oxide, leads to triglyceride storage and fatty liver, inflammation and muscle and liver insulin resistance. This process blocks leptin and the cycle continues.

Mat Lalonde, Ph.D., organic chemist, Harvard:
Don’t make inferences based on observation. Seeing something does not mean it is true, there are too many variables. Do we know that paleo foods are best? No. That’s an inference. We can adapt to new foods. Consider all hypotheses. Don’t think that just because evolution supports your hypothesis it is right. You need to have some basic organic chemistry knowledge to back up your hypotheses. You also need to be honest with the science/research you are citing. Don’t be like the people we criticize. You can’t say that humans are “not adapted” to eat a certain food. You need to say that evidence suggests there has been insufficient time to adapt well to using seeds as a food source.

Melissa McEwan, anthropological and health researcher, Hunt Gather Love:
Evolution didn’t stop- it is accelerating.

John Durant, lifestyle researcher, Hunter-Gatherer:
Zoos teach us about removing animals from their natural environment. Humans and animals in zoos have much in common. Humans now are much like animals in zoos. Removed from our natural habitat. To obtain natural health in their animals, zoos currently try for habitat immersion. Let’s learn from this and replicate salient aspects of the habitat(s) we are adapted to.

Robb Wolf, health researcher, RobbWolf.com:
What is the least I can invest to get better?
Evolutionary novel does not mean it’s bad.
Exercise: find what you like and do it.

Joel Salatin, farmer and permaculture advocate, Polyface Farms:
There now exists an artificial chain reaction from fertilizer to medication. When you feed plants artificial food on one end you get artificial people on artificial life support (medicine) on the other end. Permaculture is self sustaining. It is minimal input with maximal output. Feed the natural small farms, don’t feed the beast (big agri-business) or it will get bigger and stronger and consume the little runt. The one we feed will grow. Feed the small, sustainable farms that do it right. Use our ripple of influence.

Notes from different interviews on the Underground Wellness podcast, hosted by Sean Croxton, health researcher, Underground Wellness:
These are all separate ideas from different people…
Acid based diets are not studied in real organisms.
Acute high doses of nutrients can show some results but how often does life involve such acute high doses?
If people slept they would be hard to kill.
Take care of the body first then worry about weight loss.
Bacteria extracts different amounts of calories from your food. A calorie ingested does not always mean a calorie digested.
Most of the body’s immune system is in the gut but also in the throat and lungs.
Cortisol suppresses immune function. Stress = weak immune system.
Elimination diet: start there, it’s the gold standard. Work backward by adding in one thing at a time.
You have to be dedicated to healing- if not, your priorities aren’t in order.
The Food Pyramid is a compromise for all food industries, it’s not based on science.

Notes from different interviews on the Livin La Vida Low-Carb Show, hosted by Jimmy Moore, blogger and podcaster, Livin’ La Vida Low Carb:
These are all separate ideas from different people…
Ketones are a normal and daily energy source. The body makes ketones all the time: pregnancy, nightly, end of a workout, kids growing between meals.
LDL decreases with any diet, as does HDL. HDL will often increase with high fat, low carb diets.
Protein in excess is bad as it gets converted into glucose. The amount of “excess” protein depends on your protein needs. When dieting, if you are making ketones you will not waste muscle.
Fat and fiber is misunderstood. This is becoming more clear every day.
Low-carb produces much less waste (body wise).
Poorly designed studies usually get publicity- scientists trying too hard to make a splash.
Scientists/companies/universities don’t want something to prove them wrong.
People are almost always well intentioned but often misinformed (e.g. low fat peanut butter was made to fit the trend but isn’t natural).
A lot of doctors say they have known the truth about carbs and fat for a while but were afraid to buck the trend. Now there is science to back it up.
Low fat diets lead to gall bladder removal.
People might need to be a little bored to lose weight.
Walking is huge. It means we need to make less insulin.
Mother nature is way smarter than we are. (Bare 5 note: This is one of my favorite thoughts)
We are living short and dying long.
Science is always evolving. It might be frustrating but that’s the best way.
Take a list of all the healthiest foods and you figure out which ones you want to eat.
If tired drink water.
Yeast and Candida – crave sugar for growth. Massive sweet cravings may be a sign of yeast and/or candida.
USDA: it’s job is to sell food & protect food supply – hence the food guide pyramid.
Insulin drives endomethial smooth muscle proliferation- increases risk for cardiovascular disease.

Here are a few miscellaneous thoughts that I do not remember where they came from but I jotted down because I thought they were worth remembering.

If you don’t eat saturated fat your body will crave carbs to make saturated fat.
Antibiotics, blood transfusion and anesthesia only good biological advances.
Don’t divide meat by color. Divide by quality/source. Beef has the best fat breakdown including mono/sat/poly and omega 3/6.
Most of our nutrition advice was based on associations not causation.
Mosquitoes are attracted to high glucose blood.
Cancer feeds off sugar. Vitamin C is huge for dealing with cancer.
Don’t assume we know what nature wants (e.g. plants don’t want to be eaten). Nature develops and evolves characteristics over time.
In 1893 Adolph Fick proved that living cells are not heat engines. A Harvard 2003 calorie and diet study was able to show that people on a low carb diet could eat 25000 more calories over a 12 week period than a high carb diet group (a calculated 7 lb weight gain). Calories are determined by how much energy/heat released when burning a food. In humans this is not always the case. Some calories are used for energy, some for structure. Sugar burners convert more calories to energy and less for structure. Muscle burns 7-10 calories/day/pound. Fat burns 2-3 cal/day/lb.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!