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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #95 Our Children are the Canaries in the Coal Mine


pqtd 95  Our children are our canaries in the coal mine

 

I’m afraid that this sad fact is the truth- our children in America, and increasingly world wide, are suffering at ever earlier ages under the scourge of autoimmune conditions.

 

I have been witnessing this process for years now; I have been paleo for about 10 years or so now.  I have evolved, and slowly added in more good things (like better exercise, higher quality food, better sleep and meditation), and benefited greatly!  I am now 63 years of age, and in far better shape than I was at 50: no more painful joints, knee or shoulder pain (from weight lifting, running, and an inflammatory diet).  No more migraine headaches (primarily, I found out, from gluten- when I eliminated gluten and in fact most grains altogether, I never got another headache again.  I threw away my pharmaceutical medicine...

 

On the other hand, most of my friends and peers, who are mostly in the 40 - 60 year age bracket, have picked up numerous diseases and conditions.  Diabetes and “diabesity”, of which the second predicts the former have happened to many, along with heart disease, gerd, acid reflux, sleep apnea and snoring, and even some cancer.  And the list goes on... 

 

These are the ones who do not listen to my advice.  They eat the standard American diet of pizza, fast foods, processed crap, bread and pasta.  Most try to “cut their fat intake” by switching exclusively away from butter and full fat dairy, and try to “cut calories” by drinking skim milk, and cereal for breakfast, along with “healthy whole grain toast” with margarine on top.

 

Almost all of them are on statins, against my arguments about it’s uselessness and extreme danger.  Many dose themselves almost daily with high doses of aspirin, tylenol and ibuprofen to deal with their many aches and pains.  Exercise?  They walk at the mall...

 

Those that have followed my lead are about as healthy as I am!  Many have reversed conditions like diabetes (type 2), skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, and all sorts of digestive ailments.  Most don’t exercise nearly as much, but they have had wonderful results, healthwise, regardless!

 

But they are the older generation, on their way out.  What is troubling me now, is that all of the diseases that my middle-aged friends have are now turning up in children I have known since birth!

 

Type one diabetes in 13 year olds to 30 year olds.  Diverticulitis, Arthritis, hasimotos, and infertility, Hashimoto thyroiditis, type I diabetes, lupus, and vasculitis. It is starting to run rampant among young people, this taking them down by having their own immune system attacking their very own body!  Why?  And why is this new?  This stuff didn’t happen, or very, very rarely in my generation when we were young.  Now it hits younger and younger people, in more and more numbers!

 

When I was young, in the 1950’s, it really was like the movie Back to the Future.  Families ate at home, things like pot roast and vegetables, everyone got plenty of sleep before school, high fructose corn syrup had not been invented yet, and pesticides and herbicide use was very little.  Most meat was raised on small farms, and was pastured on grass, not corn.  There was the local “malt shop”, but this was just for high school socializing and things like sodas and milkshakes, real ones, which are a far cry from the chemical laden, crap-meat fast food in most fast food joints today! 

 

Fast forward to today, or even to 30 years ago: increasingly BOTH parents have to work, primarily to pay the TAXES that have escalated in this country.  Now, there is no “home maker” to make the nutritious, healthy, home cooked quality meals anymore.  The parents just rush the kids to a fast food joint, and buy them corn syrup or (worse) artificially sweetened soft drinks, fries cooked in vegetable oil, and gluten covered crap grain fed meat covered in sugar (ketchup) and mayo (vegetable crap oil)...  day after day after day after day... 

Then, when the mom does actually have time to cook, like on weekends, she buys those biscuits in tubes, and canned cheap soups, and other processed foods, throwing them together in quick recipes that make a gluten sugar bomb of a meal... over and over and over again!  And then, for a change, they order pizza!

 

10 to 20 years of this, and your gut lining is leaky and destroyed.  Toxins from this bad food, and actually from anywhere that get into your digestive system and have nothing to stop them- they go right into your bloodstream!

 

At this point, your immune system can hardly tell the difference between your own bodily cells, and all of these invaders- it goes into maximum fight response!  And it winds up attacking your own bodily parts- your digestive system is often the first to be attacked, since it is right there.  (Diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease)

 

But, it can go anywhere- attacking your joints (arthritis), your pancreas (Type 1 diabetes), your skin (eczema or psoriasis), or your thyroid. (Hashimoto’s disease)  It can even result in your own immune system attacking your brain.  This, I believe, could be one reason for the huge increase in autism, severe mood disorders like depression, and many other behavior problems in children today!

 

And so, where does that leave us? 

The state of nutrition and lifestyle in America today has reached a low ebb.  From the very hard, physical, yet nutrient richness of our great grandfathers and grandmothers we have come to this- the world of Wall.E. 

 

If you have never seen this Disney movie from 2008, I recommend you do.  It pretty much depicts where we are headed: Wall-E shows a future human race that is so lazy and decrepit that everyone just rides around all day in little electric carts, and drinking soft drinks from giant cups as they go all day.  Robots do everything for them, and all they do is to...barely exist!  Seemed so far-fetched just 7 years ago, and now- it seems like we are half way there!

 

Remember my analogy in the title of this podcast? 

 

Our children are our canaries in the coal mine!

 

If you are not aware, many years ago, coal miners would let down a basket of canaries into a coal mine shaft to determine if it was safe to breathe the air down there.  If they pulled up the basket by the rope, and the canaries were dead, or really sick, they knew they could not yet send humans down.

 

Our children are sick.  They are OUR CANARIES!

 

 

 

 


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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #94 Have your CAKE, and be Healthy and Slim Too!


pqtd 94 sugar alcohols eating your cake and being healthy too

 

It has always been known that if you eat “bad” foods, things like candy, cake, and cookies, why then you were setting yourself up for dental disease, lots of fat on your body, and poor health in general.  Diabesity would be in your immediate future...

 

But did you know that, with a few judicious substitutions, you can make delicious brownies, cookies, cakes and even by candies that are not only delicious, but actually really, really healthy for you!!??

 

First, the good news:  just by substituting xylitol for sugar in your recipes, you will-

 

Improve your dental health

NOT gain weight from your desserts

Actually become super healthy by eating “treats”!

 

I’m not saying you can just add xylitol to crappy recipes using Pillsbury Doughboy biscuits and flour- far from it.  You still have to stick to a Paleo type of diet- no wheat, pastured dairy and meats, green smoothies on a daily basis for maximum results! 

 

BUT, you can add in wonderful, tasty home-baked treats indistinguishable from those that everyone else enjoys, except the ones you make will be incredibly healthy along with being delicious!

 

You can just use Xylitol, which looks just like sugar, and tastes just like sugar; but has 1/3 of the calories, and 70% less carbs- and, it doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels. (Ideal for diabetics, and for all the rest of us who don’t want to become diabetic)!

 

Erithritol is another sugar alcohol sweetener, similar to Xylitol, and both are derived from, originally, birch tree bark. And Erithritol has no calories that are absorbed!

A good solution is to use a mixture of 1/2 Erithritol, and 1/2 Xylitol... but to start, Xylitol wins hands down- it’s easy to find and purchase, and it improves dental health.

 

Actually, it’s kind of interesting: it was discovered in 1890, and was derived from birch bark. (Erithritol was discovered in 1848).  It is a completely natural substance that is included in small amounts in many products of nature.  Now, it is derived from non-GMO, organic corn cobs, which are chemically identical to those from birch bark sources!  You can still buy the birch variety, but there is really no justification.

 

Many Scandinavian, Asian and European countries use it extensively- in Finland, large quantities of Xylitol are used in chewing gum and candies provided to the Finnish children by the government, since all dental care is provided at no cost to the Finnish people-

 

Xylitol candy saves them money!

 

For whatever reason, here in the USA we went with chemical, artificial sweeteners and toxic fluoride in our drinking water. Two of many, many mistakes our government has shoved down our collective throats over the past 50 years or so...

 

But you and your family don’t need to follow blindly down this toxic nightmare path! 

 

Get some Xylitol, both of my local grocers carry it, and it’s also on Amazon.  I’m sure Thrive Market carries it as well.  Make yourself some cookies; I will post a recipe I made today at www.paleojay.com.   

 

Get some chewing gum made of Xylitol (PUR), and have a couple every day- your dental health will improve a LOT, since the xylitol makes the interior of your mouth a hostile environment for bad bacteria that love sugar.

 

If you are a new mom, chew this gum yourself, and if you are breast feeding, the benefits will transfer to your baby!  And, most research seems to suggest that the benefits of using xylitol for a year or so turn out to be...permanent. 

 

And then, when he or she starts “chewing” their own food- give them some xylitol candy!  Cookies, cakes and brownies!! 

 

Not only will they really, really like it...

 

But you are making them really, really healthy!!

 

 

 

 

This is a very healthy Chocolate Chip cookie recipe made with Coconut flour and Coconut Oil.

. . . . .

yield: 2 dozen cookies

active time: 14 -15 minutes

total time: 30 minutes

. . . . .

added by: Trevor

cuisine: Snack

Ingredients

1/2 cup Coconut Oil, melted

1 cup Xylitol

4 eggs (room temperature)

1/2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla

1/8 teaspoon Sea Salt

1 1/2 cups grated or shredded Unsweetened Coconut

3/4 cup unsweetened Chocolate Chips (or wafers quartered) 

1 cup sifted Coconut flour

Preparation

 

Melt coconut oil by putting it in the microwave for a few seconds. Make sure that the eggs are at room temperature so that the coconut oil does not solidify when mixing.

 

Mix together Coconut Oil, Xylitol, eggs, vanilla and salt. Stir in Coconut, chocolate chips and coconut flour. Drop batter in spoon-size mounds 1-inch apart on cookie sheet greased with coconut oil. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 C) for 14 to 15 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

 


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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #93 The NEW Paleo Miracle Drug!


pqtd 93 The New Paleo Miracle Drug

 

It is often said that there is “nothing new under the sun”.  And this is no exception- the “new paleo miracle drug” is actually as old as fire- but it is a miracle drug nonetheless!

 

This paleolithic elixir is bone broth.  Not just soup stock, which is when you boil bones and ideally the marrow and connective tissues as well, but bone broth, where you simmer the bones to extract the very essence of human nutrition and healing; and you extract them for at least 12 hours, and as long as 48 hours or more!

 

This is the key for maximum health benefits, and what separates bone broth from the mere flavoring agent of simple beef or chicken stock.

 

Not only will bone broth give you all of the nutrients needed to heal problems with your joints and bones (it really works miracles in that department), bone broth also heals your gut, which is so very important.  Listen- all of us have damaged, or “leaky” guts, where bad cells can slip through our digestive tracts and right into our bloodstream. 

 

This is where all autoimmune diseases have their start!  And these are the diseases that are killing, and hurting all of us so badly.  Name the scariest diseases you know- they are all autoimmune, in which the body starts attacking itself.  Cancer, arthritis, alzheimer’s, chron’s disease, diverticulitis, type 1 diabetes, and even heart disease is initially a form of autoimmune disease. 

 

And ever since we started eating massive amounts of gluten from genetically altered wheat, and adding tons of chemicals to our environment in the form of pesticides, herbicides, fluoride and chlorine, along with antibiotics in our meats and more chemicals in our toxic cleaning products... well, back when I was young, in the 1950’s, Cancer was quite rare!  As were most diseases- I never even heard of diabetes until I was grown, and it only struck old people.  Now, autism, diabetes, cancer- almost everyone winds up with one or several of these horrible diseases. 

 

Not to be a PollyAnna, which would be to take the name of my little sister, Polly Ann in vain, but simply taking in bone broth on a near daily basis would counter most of this insult.  Bone broth heals your gut lining- better than anything else!  Along with eating LOTS of green veggies, ideally in the form of a green smoothie, and grass fed meats and pastured dairy, bone broth will heal you, and make you immune to most of our modern enemies:

 

I guarantee, if you get out your slow cooker, put in some soup bones (my favorite is a Marrow Bone!), a chicken carcass, or a combination of bones from healthy animals, add a little sea salt and apple cider vinegar (just a splash, to help get the minerals out), and let it simmer for a couple of days, and then drink a cup- you are on the road to health my friend!

 

Healthy skin (this first is actually quick, and quite remarkable, since the skin is the mirror of the gut)- clear and healthy. 

 

Healthy weight- proper digestion ensures satiety, and you will not desire junk foods like sweets and pastries

 

Above all- a healthy gut!  This is important for the whole human body- Hippocrates himself said that all health comes from the gut!

 

You can either keep the slow cooker simmering away for days and days, or you can do like I do:  I simmer a couple of days, then ladle into canning jars, leaving the sick little depleted bones behind.  Put the canning jars into the fridge, and heat up whenever- I try to have a cup or so per day.  You can even whisk an egg into the cup you have heated in the microwave, and “instant egg drop soup”!  Tastes great, too...

 

Or, you can use them as a soup base, as I did with my PaleoJay’s chili earlier this week.  OR, you can take one 16 oz jar of bone broth, and add some new potatoes, carrots, grass fed stew meat and onions- slow cook them for about 2 and 1/2 hours- and then do like I am going to do right now:

 

Go eat my beef stew!

 

So be like me; be BAD TO THE BONE!


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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #92 Summertime Blues!


pqtd 92 Don’t get the Summertime Blues- Train with Rings

 

I know, this time of the year is when those of us who live in the north country get the blues- the Summertime blues- since summer is over, the leaves are changing, and the weather is getting...colder! 

 

“Omigosh!” we say to ourselves, “I have been exercising so well outdoors, carrying my little heavy hands dumb bells and pumping them as I go, and stopping for periodic pushup intervals- it’s been great!  But what do I do when it gets really cold, and snowy??”

 

Well, for me, that doesn’t stop my outdoor walks with the little weights- I just put on boots, and slog through the forest trails of snow!  But, if you like to retreat more indoors in the winter months, fear not.  Here is your answer, your salvation, your holy grail:

 

Get a set of gymnastic rings!

 

I don’t care if this seems intimidating, you think you are too big and heavy to do those crazy muscle ups and skin the cat moves- trust me, this little, inexpensive ring setup will change your physique, your life overall, and especially the way you train.

 

I got a set a few years ago, the setup was a little over $20.  I got some hardware to hang the rings up on my basement rafters, and it is the BEST money I have ever spent on training! 

 

Especially if you are somewhat de-conditioned or heavy, these are a lifesaver.  You can do pushups on them at any angle you choose- if you can’t do a regular pushup on the floor, you can do them standing up, on a slight angle!  Or at any gradation in between.  Just by moving forward or back, you make the pushup exercise harder or easier. 

 

And, doing pushups on the rings puts your body in the most joint sparing, yet total range-of-motion position that is possible.  And, if you know me, you know that the pushup is probably the ultimate exercise for total body fitness!

 

But the pushup is not all, no no no!  Rings are ideal for pullups, dips, and pistol (or one-legged) squats, which are the perfect lower body exercise.  Also, for rows, pullovers, tricep presses, and flies- all done perfectly safely, and easily graduated so that anyone, of any fitness level, can do them safely and productively.

 

The rings are kind of like a tiny, inexpensive, incredibly versatile power rack, or “cage”. I have one of these as well, from my old ill-advised weight lifting days, and it is literally a steel cube that holds your weights, so that they can never fall on you- and also, so that you can start at any point in the lift on “pins” that support the bar at various levels.  VERY hands, indispensable really, for serious weight trainers!  Also, really big, bulky, and expensive!!

 

The rings are better! Yup, not just OK, but BETTER.  You can do squats on one leg, and assist yourself with your arms a little if you can’t quite do it... same with chins, and dips, rows and even curls- just experiment, and any exercise that you could do with a power rack, mountains of weights, and specialized Nautilus and other types of machines, well you can duplicate them, and even do them one step better on a simple set of rings!

 

Rings are also convenient, and lend themselves to impromptu mini-workouts whenever you feel like it- they are just hanging there, waiting for you!  You can instantly adjust them up for squats and wonderful ab exercises like L-sits, or lower them for pushups.  You can elevate your legs to make the pushups harder, or stand more upright to make them much easier... infinitely and instantly adjustable!

 

I have totally rehabbed my shoulders, damaged from years of heavy weights, by using rings.  The total range of motion, and the ability to stretch the shoulder joints by leaning forward on the rings is amazingly therapeutic. 

 

So grab the brass ring!  Set yourself up for a Winter’s worth of fitness and health!  I know it seems a little depressing when the leaves start to fall, but once the cold arrives, you have a new “hang out”- whether it is in your basement, or your garage, or wherever you have a high place to hang a set of rings- all kinds of mounting hardware is available, so you will get the “hang” of it eventually...

 

And then, you will never, ever again have the summertime blues! 


Check out this episode!