Monthly Archives: October 2010

Man Cannot Live On Bread Alone

cave1

And contrary to a new discovery published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal last Monday, prehistoric man never lived on it at all.

As I see it, the grain advocates are getting really sneaky now. A recent article declared that prehistoric man ate “bread.” But was it really bread? Let’s see what the researchers found:

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal on Monday, indicate that Palaeolithic Europeans ground down plant roots similar to potatoes to make flour, which was later whisked into dough.

Ahhh…they used plant roots, not grain. In other words, these prehistoric people ate paleo-potato pancakes not Mesozoic-multi grain bread. (Note: I know that the Mesozoic Era ocured long before 30,000 years ago but I used the word because it sounded good.)

How very sneaky on the part of the reporter to title the article: Bread was around 30,000 years ago. For shame, Ms. Goh, for shame. (Oddly enough, she was at one time an intern for a company called Potato Productions.) Might the reporter now be working for Conagra? Oh, c’mon, I kid Ms. Goh.

But more than this, who says they made food out of the rooty stuff they ground down to a paste using stone grinding tools? Says Ms. Goh:

Starch grains found on 30,000-year-old grinding stones suggest that prehistoric man may have dined on an early form of flat bread, contrary to his popular image as primarily a meat-eater.

While it is a distinct possibility that they ate the starchy mess, it is also just as possible that they used the ground up goo for other things such as adhesive, body talc, hair stiffener or as an aid to making cloth or to stiffen hides, etc.

According to Regina Wilshire:

History is filled with uses for various starchy roots other than food, yet in this instance, we’re told, sans any real evidence other than the existence of the hand-sized grinding stone and starchy residue, that it was used to make bread.

And let’s not forget the many medicinal substances that early Jane and Joe ground root substances into like tumeric and licorice.

So before you go on a bread binge because some article tells you that Oog and Og were pita bread eaters, know that no one has yet proven that our paleolithic brothers and sisters ate pannini.

Keep your diet paleo my friends and that means no grains. “No grain, no pain.”

Bill Clinton and his Vegan Voyage

protein-cartoon

The cartoon to the left is a good example of vegan propaganda. Here they suggest that eating meat makes you obese and being a vegan makes you slim and strong. I guess this could be true given all the obese, lions, tigers, Cheetahs, panthers, etc. that exist in the world.

Though ludicrous, these little propaganda-bits do help to solidify false notions in many people’s minds.

A client emailed me this morning and said:

Gotta check this out Fred. How can he be so misinformed?”

She is referring to the former President adopting a vegan-ish diet. According to the interview he is doing it to heal his heart.

How can he be so misinformed? Well, like Mark Twain said “The truth is easy to kill. But a lie well told is immortal.” Most people, even highly intelligent people like Bill Clinton, are easliy persuaded by the zeitgeists of the times. They take at face value what appears to be true and sadly, cannot tell the difference between association and cause and effect.

Example: If you quit smoking and start drinking green tea at the same time and lo and behold your lungs heal, you can’t say “Wow! Green tea has great healing properties!” But this is exactly the sort of mental mix up many people fall prey to when they go vegan.

Like Clinton, they quit inhaling cheese-doodles, ring dings, drinking Pepsi, eating cheeseburgers made from processed meat and fake cheese served on buns that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup etc., switch to a vegan diet and their health improves. Then they say “Wow! A vegan diet has great healing properties!”

Sheesh. Poor President Clinton. Even a Rhodes scholar screws up. (Did I just say that?) If he sticks to a vegan lifestyle with an already compromised heart, I’m afraid he’s not long for this world.

What Makes Us Happy?

Lard

As funny as this ad is, it’s true.

Fats are extremely important for cellular health especially those that make up our brains. In fact, if we restrict healthy fat intake (saturated fats and monosaturated fats) too much, it can lead to depression and other mental disorders. In short, they are really, really good for us.

So eat (grass-fed meats), drink (raw cream and full fat milk) and be merry!

Science as a Candle in the Dark

nhanes obesity

That of course is the subtitle of the late Carl Sagan’s 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. (Affiliate link.) A book I read on my honeymoon 14 years ago on the island of St. John. A book that changed the way I view everything.

Not many things in life affect a person profoundly (though I believe that more things should.) We are often numb to things that should have great meaning to us and rather than embrace the experience, concept or idea, we give it short shrift or ignore it completely. This is a shame because we have such precious little time here. We are all too often walking in our sleep.

While sauntering around in our human fog, it’s commonplace to kid ourselves and talk about things – things we know little or nothing about – with staunch conviction. We often blindly accept concepts that we do not understand; concepts we have not researched or studied but which require such. And one of them is nutrition.

The USDA recently came out with its 2010 guidelines. The major changes from the last published guidelines are:

1. Eat even less saturated fats
2. Eat less salt

That’s about it.

The table at the top of this post indicates the rising levels of obesity in the U.S. since the USDA has introduced its guidelines. Yep – we’re getting fatter – a lot fatter. The excuse of course is that no one is following the darn guidelines! But that is not true. Take a look at the NHANES data for macronutrient consumption:

feinman1

As you can see, we have indeed complied. We have decreased total fat intake and increased carb intake.

Many of the proponents of the current guidelines poo-poo this and state that this is because the type of carbs that people have been eating more of are the refined carbs, not fruits and vegetables.

OK but the refined carbs are what the USDA wants us to ea the most of. Take a look-see:

mypyramid

So we have indeed complied. And we have indeed gotten fatter and sicker. Since the powers that be are clearly motivated by profit and impervious to nutritional reality, who do we call for help? Ghost Busters?

Enter the Metabolism Society. Enter Science as a candle in the dark.

If you care about your family, if you care about yourself, if you care about your fellow man you will read this paper in its entirety.

Here we go. Paul Revere would be proud.

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