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Agriculture--its foods, its civilizations--is the end of the world. There is no peace in the warfare that agriculture demands, no justice in the slavery it requires, no life in the bare, salted rock it leaves behind. And there is nowhere else to go. These are our choices, as bare as that dead rock: accept our place as animals, a place both humble and wild, or impose ourselves and our food across our living home of land and sea and sky until the planet dies.

The Vegetarian Myth
by Lierre Keith

I have not yet had the opportunity to read this book, but I have heard nothing but great things about it. Here is what Dr. Eades had to say about this book on his blog:

But I can tell you that Lierre Keith’s book is beyond fantastic. It is easily the best book I’ve read since Mistakes Were Made, maybe even better. Everyone should read this book, vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike. If you’re a radical feminist, you should read this book; if you’re a male chauvinist, you should read this book; if you have children, especially female children, you should read this book; if you are a young woman (or man) you should read this book; if you love animals, you should read this book; if you hate vegetarians, you should read this book; if you are contemplating the vegetarian way of life, you should definitely read this book; if you have a vegetarian friend or family member, you should this book and so should your friend. As MD said after she read it, “everyone who eats should read this book.”

My copy should arrive sometime next week and I am looking forward to reading it. Based on what I have read of it so far, I would urge the rest of you to do the same.

Some of you have recently seen your doctor and had a basic lipid profile done. After getting your results and reading my explanation of them, some of you are now looking to improve on your already solid scores. Let's start with your HDL and see how you can go about trying to get into the triple digits:

• Alcohol - HDL increases due to the ethanol content, but stick to wine and spirits to avoid the grains in beer.
• Fish Oil - The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil will reduce triglycerides which accelerate the destruction of HDL.
• Grains - Eliminate the grains to directly and indirectly (through weight loss) increase HDL levels.
• Saturated Fat - This one is pretty straight forward, eat lots of saturated fat and watch your HDL go up.
• Vitamin D - Achieving normal levels of 25(OH) vitamin D will raise your HDL similar to losing 30+ pounds!
• Weight Loss - Shedding excess body fat can have the most profound effect on your HDL levels.

Show us your lipids!
Submit your blood work to me so that I can share your wonderful results with everyone who reads the blog. If you have numbers from before CrossFit/Paleo feel free to include those too. Thanks!

Let me start by warning you that there aren't any worthwhile shortcuts in life. If you want something, you are going to have to earn it. The same holds true when it comes to weight loss. Crash diets, magic pills, and cleanses are all marketing scams targeted at those of you who are looking for something quick and easy.

I received an email from a friend yesterday asking about the Master Cleanse. Sure, the advertising looks pretty and promises things that we would all want, but proceed with caution. Here was my response:

Play along for a minute, will you?

How many calories a day do you typically consume?

Subtract 750 from that number.

Multiply your new number by 7.

Now, divide that number by 3500.

What did you come up with?

I bet it is somewhere around 2-6.

In theory, that is the number of pounds of fat you would lose while on this "detox diet" for a week if "calorie in/calorie out" worked the way most people wanted it to. Instead, your body will begin to slow down to preserve as much energy as possible. Remember, you aren't fat because you are lazy and eat too much, but rather, you eat too much and are lazy because you are already fat. Check out my post on "calorie in/calorie out" for further details.

In reality, you may lose that amount of weight, but I give you the Bill Yundt GUARANTEE that it will not be fat. Instead, it will be lost water weight. Hopefully you don't dehydrate too much while trying to force a laxative diet on your body.

Think about the components of the drink and tell me it isn't a lemonade laxative. Water, OK we need that to live. Lemon juice, has nothing to offer except flavor and some sugar. Maple syrup, why maple syrup? Once in your body, sugar is sugar is sugar. It will be broken down into fructose and glucose and handled appropriately. The fact that it is maple syrup plays on people's gullibility. It tricks you into thinking it is something magical. Cayenne pepper, to irritate your gut and hopefully cause diarrhea and thus increase the amount of weight lost.

Now, I know that almost everyone who does the cleanse is doing it for quick and easy weight loss and justifies it by touting some bullshit health reasons.

There is nothing, I repeat, nothing healthy about a sugary laxative. I am being 100% serious here. It is harmful and can KILL you. You do your body more harm than good during this week or two of "cleansing" and the weight will come right back on as soon as you return to feeding your body. Not to mention the additional bloating that will result from starving yourself and then returning to normal eating.

In the words of one of my dearest friends, "What the french, toast?!"

As an alternative, why don't you give up carbs instead and lose the same water weight without having to worry about having enough energy to tie your own shoes or better yet, enough energy to LIVE!

Limit the carbs to less than 20g/day for 10 days and only from green vegetables such as broccoli, asparagus, and spinach. You can even forgo the carbs altogether and just eat ribeyes until you are busting at the seems.

Lovingly,
Common Sense

Now, there is something I clearly forgot to touch on in my reply. That is, insulin resistance. This specific detox drink contains almost 200g of sugar! Consuming that much sugar every day is not going to help anyone correct their insulin issues. Chances are, if you are doing this diet, you have some weight you would like to lose. You are also more than likely already insulin resistant, so consuming more sugar is not going to be very productive.

If you have tried some sort of nutritional shortcut in the past, share your experience in the comments.

One of our loyal members sent this article to Jennie earlier today. As you all would have guessed, Jennie decided that I should have my feathers ruffled so she forwarded the link to me. Let's take a look at what I would so appropriately dub as "Scientific Garbage", shall we?

Generally, I'm not interested in what others have to say about the science; just give me the data and let me think for myself. Most of the public will do the opposite though. They have no interest in trying to make heads or tails of the study and instead, look for the convenient, easy way out. What I mean by this, is that an individual, or team of individuals, will draw a conclusion at the end of a study and major media outlets will write flashy headlines based on that conclusion. Mindless souls the world over will then read said headline and believe it to be the new gospel. This study, and the subsequent article about it, are a perfect example of this:

"High-Fat Diet May Make You Stupid and Lazy"

We all know that our less-informed friends and family members will recite this headline to us over and over again as we sit there, trying to enjoy our juicy steak. Little do they know, they are reciting "Scientific Garbage"!

This specific article goes on to quote one of the authors of the study:

Western diets are typically high in fat and are associated with long-term complications, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart failure, yet the short-term consequences of such diets have been given relatively little attention," said Andrew Murray, co-author of the study and currently at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

The fact that Mr. Murray references the lipid hypothesis right from the beginning lets me know that I should put on my boots because I am going to have to wade through quite a bit of B.S. The truth is, scientists are almost forced to support the lipid hypothesis less they risk losing their funding. I digress.

Getting back on track, I will have you know that Western diets are NOT typically high in fat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the percentage of total food energy derived from the 3 major macronutrients is as follows: carbohydrate (51.8%), fat (32.8%), and protein (15.4%). As you can see, Western diets are high in carbohydrates. It is the carbohydrates and polyunsaturated fats (i.e. vegetable oils) that are causing the obesity, diabetes, and heart failure.

Later in the article, Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of the FASEB journal, goes on to say:

"A long weekend spent eating hotdogs, French fries, and pizza in Orlando might be a great treat for our taste buds, but they might send our muscles and brains out to lunch."

I would expect this type of logic from my 10 year old daughter, not a supposed doctor! The deleterious affects of those foods have nothing at all to do with the amount of fat, but rather the type of fat. Those foods are all high in unhealthy, unsaturated fats while also being very high in carbohydrates. All of which should be avoided. Remember, there are other fats in this world besides the man-made ones used in frankenfoods.

As for the study itself, why wasn't there any mention of carbohydrate withdrawal and its known symptoms? You see, it is a known fact that carbohydrates are addictive and like other addictive substances there is a period of withdrawal whenever intake is drastically lowered. With carbohydrate withdrawal you may feel shaky, jittery, fatigued, depressed, nauseous, irritable, unable to concentrate (i.e. "brain fog"), etc. This will generally last anywhere from 2-10 days, but everyone is different. It is during this time that your body is calling out for more carbohydrates (i.e. glucose). If you can stay strong and resist the temptation to give in, your body will eventually convert over to burning fat for its energy purposes. In fact, it has been shown in other studies that the heart and brain both run 25% more efficiently on fat than on carbohydrates, after the switch occurs.

I'll concede that the researchers may have been right in concluding that a high-fat diet in its infancy may bring about fatigue and brain fog, but it isn't due to anything other than the fact that you are a junky trying to get clean. Stay in the fight and you will come out ahead.

All in all, this garbage reminds me of a bad movie where the main character continues to chase the wrong guy when all of the evidence points directly to someone else. As the viewer you are left to sit there, screaming at the screen, hoping irrationally that the idiot might actually hear you. Eventually, you realize though that you're better off just turning it off and throwing it in the trash where it belongs.

It has been my experience that most doctors are slaves to the pharmaceutical companies and don't do much thinking for themselves. That is why they still believe in the diet-heart hypothesis and will steer you in the wrong direction when reading your lipid results. Here is what the numbers really mean:

Total Cholesterol - Don't be fooled here. Total cholesterol is not a good predictor of much unless you are setting a low score. In which case, you will likely suffer from dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression, cancer, or a stroke as you get older.

HDL - Often referred to as "good" cholesterol, the higher the better. 60-80 mg/dL is a good place to be, but if you work hard and get a score above 100 mg/dL, I'll give you a high-five!

LDL - Often referred to as "bad" cholesterol, this guy gets a bad rap. The size of the LDL particles is much more important than the generic number most doctors will give you. That's right, size does matter. Large and fluffy are nothing to worry about, while small and dense just might kill you.

Triglycerides - The lower the better here. The amount of triglycerides in your blood goes hand-in-hand with LDL particle size and insulin resistance. Because of this, your triglyceride level can generally be used as an indicator of your LDL particle size as well as your level of insulin resistance. Lower tri's equals large, fluffy LDL particles and less insulin resistance. Higher tri's equals small, dense LDL particles and a higher level of insulin resistance. A score less than 60 mg/dL is ideal.

Brian's comment from the "Grain-fed Cattle vs Grain-fed People" post:

Bill-

I tried explaining the paleo diet to a few runners this weekend after our weekly softball game and they had the same dietary mantra that I had before I got brainwash...I mean, before I learned from you. "It doesn't matter what you eat, if you burn off more than you put in, you won't gain weight." I tried to explain to them about body composition and the role of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, but I'm pretty sure they just didn't believe me.

Is there a short, like no more than 2-3 paragraph answer to this common refrain that you have handy that we can all use?

Thanks.

Overweight individuals are not overweight because they ate too much and/or exercised too little. Instead, they are overweight because of the hormones in their bodies. You see, we all have the same hormones, but our lifestyles will dictate which ones are released and in what amount. Therefore, if you fuel your body improperly (i.e. frankenfoods) or stress your body too much (i.e. chronic cardio, lack of sleep, etc.) you will be promoting the production and release of hormones that may drive you to become fat. Once you are overweight, you will eat more and exercise less because that is the signal your body is now conveying. This happens because the hormones being produced in overweight people are triggering the fat cells to be greedy and not release the fat to be used by the body as energy. The body compensates by:

1. going into conservation mode (i.e. inactivity/lethargy)
2. signaling for more fuel through hunger/appetite.

A good example of this are growing kids. They don't go through growth spurts because they are taking in more calories than they are expending. Instead, they take in more than they are burning because they are going through a growth spurt. This means that the growth hormones in their bodies are signaling for an increase in energy so they can grow. Thus, the large appetites of children when they are growing.

Another good example would be someone who has been eating and exercising the exact same for a long time while maintaining a steady body weight and then they inexplicably put on a few extra pounds. This is because they have been following the calorie-in/calorie-out mantra for far too long and it finally caught up to them. They destroyed their inner workings to the degree that they are now insulin resistant and fat storing machines. The fat cells have become greedy and this will drive them to obesity unless changes are made to what they are eating, not how much.

Dr. Davis, of The Heart Scan Blog, has posted yet again on the dangers of fructose. His most recent post, Fructose is a Coronary Risk Factor, concludes with:

Make no mistake: Fructose is a powerful coronary risk factor.
There is no doubt whatsoever that a diet rich in fructose from fruit drinks, honey, raisins and other dried fruit like cranberries, sucrose (table sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup is a high-risk path to heart disease.

Also note that many foods labeled "heart healthy" because of low-fat, low saturated fat, addition of sterol esters, or fiber, also contain fructose sources, especially high-fructose corn syrup.

In an earlier post, Goodbye, Fructose, Dr. Davis gives the following warning:

...fructose is yet another common food additive that, along with wheat, is likely a big part of the reason Americans are fat and diabetic.

Fructose is concentrated, of course, in high-fructose corn syrup, comprising anywhere from 42-90% of total weight. Fructose also composes 50% of sucrose (table sugar). Fructose also figures prominently in many fruits; among the worst culprits are raisins (30% fructose) and honey (41% fructose).

Also, beware of low-fat or non-fat salad dressings (rich with high-fructose corn syrup), ketchup, beer, fruit drinks, fruit juices, all of which are rich sources of this exceptionally fattening, metabolism-bypassing, LDL cholesterol/small LDL/ApoB increasing compound. Ironically, this means that many low-fat foods meant to reduce cholesterol actually increase it when they contain fructose in any form.

When you hear or say "fructose," run the other way, regardless of what the Corn Refiners Association says.

I have said it before and I will say it again, fructose will kill you! It isn't the saturated fats and red meat that are causing high cholesterol and heart disease; it is the grains and fructose!