The Paleolithic Solution – Episode 20

Jay,

First quote you listed says that there’s no evidence that Western disease is cause by low vegetable and fruit intake by itself. That’s not to say that high vegetable and fruit intake is bad.

His Omega 3 comment is based off a meta-analysis, a study type that can easily be cherry picked. However, I’m not saying it’s incorrect.

The carbohydrate part of the article seems to me to be a quantity versus quality debate. He’s saying that carbohydrate restriction in its own right does not improve weight loss or fasting insulin/glucose in the long term. This is based off people on the Atkins diet who could easily be eating bread for their minuscule allotment of carbohydrates. In my n=1, low carb eating leaves me feeling full after less food and for a longer time, and I have an especially hard time getting full off pizza (my main cheat item in the past 2 months). To summarize: Low-carb isn’t as important as what carbs you eat.
4: There’s so little information conveyed that I really can’t tell if he means antioxidants have no positive effect at all or if they don’t increase longevity when specifically dosed in lab rats, and I do not feel like reading through the cited study to figure that out.

I really think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, and I believe you misinterpreted the first quote. Eating vegetables isn’t bad for you, he is simply saying that lack of them doesn’t cause Western diseases. This still all boils down to meat & vegetables, some fruit, nuts, and seeds. As Robb would say, try different things in your n=1 and see how you look, feel and perform.

Hey Robb,

Really diggin the podcasts. One question from #20. You recommend not taking Cod Liver Oil because the Vitamin A (Retinol) has an effect on Vit D somehow. COuld you explain this for me? I’ve only heard good things about CLO and Vit. A from the Weston A Price Foundation and you seem to contradict them. Are the bad effects of Vit. A only present with synthetically added supplements?

Thanks

Robb…
Whats your take on Greek Yogurt? I’ve been playing around with it after reading a recent post on MDA, I really havn’t had any problems with it as of yet, the full fat Greek Gods style. The only other dairy product i use alot of is the Kerry Gold brand from TJ’s…thats shit is TASTY! the only negative since i’ve been filling my pie hole with the GG’s is some smelly gas..my wife is ready to sleep in a different bed.

Thanks for your show…I’ve been flying the freak flag high in Wisconsin!

Note on Greek Yogurt –

So easy to make your own for 1/4 of the cost.

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/greek-yogurt/

Hey Robb,
Been reading about the Okinawans and had a question. They are the longest lived people, have the fewest amount of disease and senility, and maintain the most functionality into old age. It is not uncommon for them to live well into the 90s and sometimes even higher, with no disease and fully self sufficient. The authors have noted that they eat a diet which seems to me to be pretty paleo except for the fact that they consume a pretty large number of whole grains. Given what I know about grains, how is this possible?

Hey Robb,
I recently came across this post as quoted from the book “good calories, bad calories”

“Look at this another way. When Bruce Bistrian and George Blackburn instructed their patients to eat nothing byt lean meat, fish, and fowl-650 to 800 calories a day of fat and protein-half of them lost at least forty pounds each. That success rate held true for “thousands of patients” from the 1970s on, Bistrian said. “It’s an extraordinarily effective and safe way to get large amounts of weight loss.” But had they chosen to balance these very low-calorie diets of fat and protein with carbohydrates-say, by adding another 400 calories of “wonderful fruits and vegetables,” as Bistrian phrased it-they would then be consuming the kind of semi-starvation diet that inevitably fails: 1,200 calories evenly balanced between protein, fat, and carbohydrates. “The likelihood of losing forty pounds on that diet is one percent,” Bistrian said.

The bottom line: If we add 400 calories of fat and protein to 800 calories of fat and protein, we have a 1,200-calorie high-fat, carbohydrate-restricted diet that will still result in considerable weight loss. If we add 400 calories of carbohydrates to the 800 calories of fat and protein, we have a balanced semi-starvation diet of the kind commonly recommended to treat obesity-and we reduce the efficacy by a factor of fifty. We now have a diet that will induce forty pounds of weight loss in perhaps one in a hundred patients rather than one in two.”

so if one were looking to lean out, do you think it would be best to drop the green veggies, etc? 50 g carbs comes out to 200 cals, not quite the 400 mentioned here, but I wonder if it may be a factor.

Re Vitamin A in cod liver oil.
The ratio of preformed vitamin A to D is too high – vitamin A blocks the vitamin D

This vitamin D council newsletter looks at some of the studies.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/vitamin-d-vitamin-a-and-cancer.shtml
Mercola also explains it here
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/16/warning-new-proof-confirms-if-you-take-this-supplement-vitamin-d-will-not-work-as-well.aspx

On the inedible topic of plastic bags, pollution and endocrine disruption -
Don’t know about rest of Europe but the small wet island(s) of Britain still give away plastic bags at the majority of stores. One of the mainstream (and most expensive) supermarkets and most independent ‘health’ food stores charge for bags (made from corn and they break before you get home), all the others are hanging back on making a decision.
Tend to carry rucksack by default so usually not an issue – can’t see it taking off unless charging is introduced across the board.

Rob will you discuss xenoestrogens (estrogen analogs) at some point?

Holy Cats!

Another awesome episode, guys.

Rob – idea for you: Throw a chapter in your book on paleo for infants/children and even nursing mothers.

My wife and I love when you talk about this in these podcasts as we went paleo right after the birth of our first child. He is eating solids now and is all paleo. Super healthy, no gut irritation, no (excessively) stinky poops. Other kids his age on rice and what not are sickly, have ear infecions, etc. We’re not sure its all paleo related, but in our pseudo-scientific house this is the reason we hang our hat on!

All the best. Looking forward to the book, man.

Farley

Hey Robb,
I’m dealing w/ what is most likely high cortisol levels from metcons I believe. I am starting the 531 wendler program tomorrow and I have a couple of questions I’d like your opinion if u don’t mind. First, do you think it would be wise to begin w/ a deload week (coming off mebb for the last two months) and secondly I saw u were doing sprints on the wendler program as he recommends. Do u think that double unders are a suitable substitute without taxing the system like metcons do?

Thank you sir….
Ian

The new China study. “China becomes world’s new diabetes capital”. Man I never expted to see that headline. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62N66220100324

Tom

Heard this on NPR today….thought you might like it.

Are We Overselling The Sunshine Vitamin?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125226703

cool thanks Robb. Are short (under 5 min metcons) a bad idea when recovering from high cortisol (overtrainin) or can I work one or two in per week as long as they are not very long in duration. I am having a hard time giving up fran or as many burpees as possible in 5 min. two of my favorites…..

So since sprints are preferred to metcons when recovering from overtraining, would you want to have full recovery between sprints?

One more Robb, so doing a program like wendler’s 531, even though there are some max effort aspects to it, is cool while trying to get the adrenals and cortisol back in order? Along w/ sleep and solid paleo nutrition of course……and lots of fish oil, magnesium and vid D.