Nutrition and Physical Regeneration

 

 

Those of you who follow the meanderings of our government and its monetary policy know that things are not well with our country politically and economically speaking. The dollar is now on the verge of losing reserve currency status and that will make things even worse. True unemployment is a lot higher than the government is reporting. You don't have to be an economist to figure this stuff out. People are uneasy and it shows in their economic behavior.

Whether this is the big enchilada I don't know, but America is truly at a crossroads and for many of us life potentially will never be the same again. If you track the numbers you know we are in the midst of what one writer has called the greatest depression. Despite what many talking heads are saying things are not getting better. Never before in the history of the world have so many governments all at once engaged in the practice of fiat money, a practice which has without exception always led to economic and political disaster. If you don't know what fiat money is I suggest you check my post out on ending the Federal Reserve titled $10,000,000 For A Loaf Of Bread.

The practical and potentially devastating aspect about this is that here in America (and increasingly so around the world) most of us are accustomed to "just in time" shopping. We buy enough food for a week or so. We expect when we go to the store what we need will be on the shelf. The thought of a shortage or a crisis is the farthest thing from our mind. After all, the food truck(s) for Whole Foods show up every morning at 2:00 am right on schedule, so why should I be worried?

If you have been fortunate enough to be shut in because of inclement weather, or lived in an area affected by a trucker's strike, or lived where there was a predicted shortage of a particular item (like toilet paper), then you know there is reason to worry. I say fortunate because that experience may have taught you how tenuous your life line to food really is – a boycott, a natural disaster, inclement weather – and all of a sudden the food stops rolling and for those who are unprepared it can be a very unpleasant experience.

How and why Americans got away from the farming mentality of saving during the summer for the upcoming winter, or saving during good times for the inevitable bad times, is a story for another occasion. We who for the most part do not garden or produce our own food are extremely vulnerable to any kind of disruption in the market place – be it a trucking strike, getting snowed in, losing our job, or God forbid, a hyperinflation.

In light of the current economic woes, storing food has become very popular. The problem for traditional foodies (for whom lack of animal fats is not an option), is that there isn't a lot of choices available in terms of what to eat. One of the basic principles of food storage is store what you eat, since an abrupt change in circumstances is likely to be exacerbated by the need to consume strange foods that you and your family wouldn't normally be eating.

I think this principle is sound for short term crises although I don't think it bears any relation to reality if one were involved in a long term breakdown. The greatest sauce in the world is hunger, and otherwise strange food can become pretty tasty when there is nothing else available. This is what Stefansson had to say regarding his Adventures in Diet:

 

During the first few months of my first year in the Arctic, I acquired, though I did not at the time fully realize it, the munitions of fact and experience which have within my own mind defeated those views of dietetics reviewed at the beginning of this article. I could be healthy on a diet of fish and water. The longer I followed it the better I liked it, which meant, at least inferentially and provisionally, that you never become tired of your food if you have only one thing to eat."

 

Let us hope none of us ever find ourselves involuntarily in a situation where we are forced to eat only one thing. Stefansson further adds in relation to the men who journeyed with him:

 

Still, as just implied, the verdict depends on how long you have been on the diet. If at the end of the first ten days our men could have been miraculously rescued from the seal and brought back to their varied foods, most of them would have sworn forever after that they were about to die when rescued, and they would have vowed never to taste seal again – vows which would have been easy to keep for no doubt in such cases the thought of seal, even years later, would have been accompanied by a feeling of revulsion. If a man has been on meat exclusively for only three or four months he may or may not be reluctant to go back to it again. But if the period has been six months or over, I remember no one who was unwilling to go back to meat. Moreover, those who have gone without vegetables for an aggregate of several years usually thereafter eat a larger percentage of meat than your average citizen, if they can afford it.

 

For a traditional foodie there is currently little to store if you are out of electricity for a week and you do not have a generator to keep your electrical items running. Unless you normally eat canned meats or other canned animal products it won't be a pretty picture. The one item that is really needed under duress for cognitive awareness is fat, and not just any old fat, but saturated fat. Going around the blogosphere is a recent excerpt from the author's of Protein Power, Michael and Mary Dan Eades, who have written The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle: The Simple Plan to Flatten Your Belly Fast!, on the necessity of saturated fat:

 

1) Improved cardiovascular risk factors

Though you may not have heard of it on the front pages of your local newspaper, online news source, or local television or radio news program, saturated fat plays a couple of key roles in cardiovascular health. The addition of saturated fat to the diet reduces the levels of a substance called lipoprotein (a)—pronounced “lipoprotein little a” and abbreviated Lp(a)—that correlates strongly with risk for heart disease. Currently there are no medications to lower this substance and the only dietary means of lowering Lp(a) is eating saturated fat. Bet you didn’t hear that on the nightly news. Moreover, eating saturated (and other) fats also raises the level of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol. Lastly, research has shown that when women diet, those eating the greatest percentage of the total fat in their diets as saturated fat lose the most weight.

Editor's note: Those of you who have read the series on this site called Slaying the Low Carb Dragon know that the same is true for men. The Kitavans, whose saturated fat intake is 80% or more of the fat they consume, are free of obesity, heart disease, and other degenerative diseases that plague the West. By the way, the Kitavans eat a high carbohydrate diet (69% by calories), although the Eades in their various bestselling books preach a low carbohydrate lifestyle. It is worth noting that the Kitavans apparently don't need a 6 week cure for the middle aged middle.

 

2) Stronger bones

In middle age, as bone mass begins to decline, an important goal (particularly for women) is to build strong bones. You can’t turn on the television without being told you need calcium for your bones, but do you recall ever hearing that saturated fat is required for calcium to be effectively incorporated into bone?

According to one of the foremost research experts in dietary fats and human health, Mary Enig, Ph.D., there’s a case to be made for having as much as 50 percent of the fats in your diet as saturated fats for this reason. That’s a far cry from the 7 to 10 percent suggested by mainstream institutions.

If her reasoning is sound—and we believe it is— is it any wonder that the vast majority of women told to avoid saturated fat and to selectively use vegetable oils instead would begin to lose bone mass, develop osteoporosis, and get put on expensive prescription medications plus calcium to try to recover the loss in middle age?

Editor's note: Mary Enig is a sharp lady but you can go well beyond the 50% level when it comes to saturated fats and enjoy extremely good health.

 

3) Improved liver health

Adding saturated fat to the diet has been shown in medical research to encourage the liver cells to dump their fat content. Clearing fat from the liver is the critical first step to calling a halt to middle-body fat storage. Additionally, saturated fat has been shown to protect the liver from the toxic insults of alcohol and medications, including acetaminophen and other drugs commonly used for pain and arthritis, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs, and even to reverse the damage once it has occurred. Since the liver is the lynchpin of a healthy metabolism, anything that is good for the liver is good for getting rid of fat in the middle. Polyunsaturated vegetable fats do not offer this protection.

Editor's note: That is an understatement regarding polyunsaturated fats. See Chris Masterjohn's Special Report on why PUFA's may be dangerous for your health.

 

4) Healthy lungs

For proper function, the airspaces of the lungs have to be coated with a thin layer of what’s called lung surfactant. The fat content of lung surfactant is 100 percent saturated fatty acids. Replacement of these critical fats by other types of fat makes faulty surfactant and potentially causes breathing difficulties. Absence of the correct amount and composition of this material leads to collapse of the airspaces and respiratory distress. It’s what’s missing in the lungs of premature infants who develop the breathing disorder called infant respiratory distress syndrome. Some researchers feel that the wholesale substitution of partially hydrogenated (trans) fats for naturally saturated fats in commercially prepared foods may be playing a role in the rise of asthma among children. Fortunately, the heyday of trans fats is ending and their use is on the decline. Unfortunately, however, the unreasoning fear of saturated fat leads many people to replace trans fats with an overabundance of polyunsaturated vegetable oils, which may prove just as unhealthful.

 

5) Healthy brain

You will likely be astounded to learn that your brain is mainly made of fat and cholesterol. Though many people are now familiar with the importance of the highly unsaturated essential fatty acids found in cold-water fish (EPA and DHA) for normal brain and nerve function, the lion’s share of the fatty acids in the brain are actually saturated. A diet that skimps on healthy saturated fats robs your brain of the raw materials it needs to function optimally.

Editor's note: This is precisely what you don't want to happen in the midst of a crisis.

 

6) Proper nerve signaling

Certain saturated fats, particularly those found in butter, lard, coconut oil, and palm oil, function directly as signaling messengers that influence the metabolism, including such critical jobs as the appropriate release of insulin. And just any old fat won’t do. Without the correct signals to tell the organs and glands what to do, the job doesn’t get done or gets done improperly.

 

7) Strong immune system

Saturated fats found in butter and coconut oil (myristic acid and lauric acid) play key roles in immune health. Loss of sufficient saturated fatty acids in the white blood cells hampers their ability to recognize and destroy foreign invaders, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Human breast milk is quite rich in myristic and lauric acid, which have potent germ-killing ability. But the importance of the fats lives on beyond infancy; we need dietary replenishment of them throughout adulthood, middle age, and into seniority to keep the immune system vigilant against the development of cancerous cells as well as infectious invaders.

Editor's note: The only readily available significant source of lauric acid after weaning for most people is coconut fat. See Mary Enig's, Coconut: In Support of Good Health in the 21st Century.

 

As you can see your need for saturated fat doesn't go away in a crisis, it is enhanced!

The unfortunate rub is that you will not find a food storage program that is high in traditional saturated fat. MRE's don't do the trick. Canned meats aren't the answer for most folks and grain based programs don't fit the bill. Yes I know that the body can make saturated fat from excess carbohydrates (and such fat is 100% saturated, unlike almost anything you find in nature except for coconut fat) but it is still not very pleasant to have to depend on a diet like that when you are accustomed to something else. Fortunately you don't have to depend on such a diet.

What follows are three foods that will serve you well in a crisis of any nature. I start with a food that will serve you no matter how long the crisis. Then I move to a food that will serve you for at least six months. The last food I recommend is one which is good for at least a week fresh and much longer if canned. My recommendations are based on the worst possible scenario, meaning no power at all. Obviously if you have access to a generator or power is available during the crisis then things will be different and you can adjust accordingly; but what follows will cover you food-wise no matter what.

 

Survival Food Number 1

Pemmican – up to 20 years

If you haven't read my post on "The Bread of the Wilderness" you should stop and do so right now. Pemmican is lean beef, beef tallow, and sometimes berries mixed together in a one to one ratio of beef and fat (you go slightly lower on the fat or lean if you are using berries).

The value of pemmican is this: all by its lonesome, whether or not you are going through a personal financial crisis, pemmican can sustain life. In fact you can thrive on pemmican. It has a very small footprint. You don't need much on a daily basis to be completely satisfied and well nourished, therefore it can go a long way. 3/4 of a pound of pemmican will provide approximately 2200 calories. 10 pounds of pemmican per person is enough food for two weeks.

I would suggest adding pemmican to your diet now, so that if need be you can acquire a taste for it. Some purists argue that berries should not be a part of pemmican, but I wouldn't worry about that. Unless you are on the all meat diet feel perfectly free to eat berry pemmican. The best way is to make your own. There are several links in my "Bread of the Wilderness" article instructing you how to do that. You can also buy pemmican from US Wellness Meats (disclaimer: I have an affiliate relationship with this very fine company).

However do not buy it from any retail store that sells anything that claims to be pemmican. It is not. To the best of my knowledge, other than US Wellness Meats, there is no real pemmican available at retail in the US. If a reader knows of someone who is producing the genuine article, please let me know. Otherwise do not gamble with your health by purchasing an inferior product. Either make your own or buy the real stuff. You can also experiment using coconut oil as part of the fat ration. Coconut oil is much more saturated than beef tallow (and tastier).

 

Survival Food Number 2

Ghee – up to 6 months 10 years

I have a video on this site for making ghee. Ghee is butter with the milk solids removed. I would definitely make my own ghee as it is really easy to do. All the water needs to be removed and the best way to ensure that is by doing it yourself (it is also very important that you remove all the water from beef tallow when making pemmican).

You can buy Ghee online. One brand I bought (Purity Ghee Farms at Whole Foods) went moldy after a few weeks. Apparently all the moisture was not removed from the fat. So to be on the safe side you might want to buy a few jars now and then begin making the rest for your private storage. The same goes for pemmican. You can buy a few boxes from US Wellness Meats and then begin to make your own.

Update: I have learned from a nutritional group that I belong to that ghee when properly made can last well over 10 years! Now that is a survival food on par with pemmican!

 

Survival Food Number 3

Fresh coconut milk – one week if vacuum sealed (perhaps longer) / 5 years canned

You will need some kind of vacuum sealer if you plan on making and storing your own coconut milk. See my post on how to make coconut milk and soon I will be posting a pictorial showing you how I make my own coconut milk. For the advanced among you check out my post on Serious Juicing for Serious Juicers, which demonstrates the ideal way to make coconut milk. Coconut milk is loaded with that magic compound, saturated fat, and in many parts of the world, coconut and its derivative products are considered a miracle food.

Coconut milk makes a great dairy substitute in a crisis (either the cream scooped from the top of the milk or the entire food as a whole). For those of you who eat cereal grains coconut milk is a tasty substitute for dairy milk. If you don't want to make your own on a regular basis I would definitely buy canned coconut milk. [Update: Reader Lucy pointed out in a recent comment that you can buy frozen coconut milk, which obviously in a crisis would last as long as you could keep things cold or cool). The only canned brand I am aware of at the moment that doesn't add water is Thai Kitchen Pure Coconut Milk. This is just too good of a food not to have on hand in a crisis or any other time for that matter.

So there you have it, the complete traditional foodie storage program that gives you beef fat, butterfat, and coconut fat, which will transform any food storage program both taste wise and nutrient wise.

In closing let me add a few things regarding the concept of surviving a personal or society wide crisis. The following resources are non-negotiable in a worst case scenario:

1. The ability to handle human waste
2. The ability to purify water
3. The ability to barter for what you don't have
4. The ability to extend the daylight
5. The ability to provide your own food.
6. The ability to provide security for your home and property

All of the above can be done cheaply and systematically if planned for in advance (in other words before everyone else is trying to do it in the midst of or in preparation for a major crisis), but it needs to be done with focus, precision, and a sense of urgency, especially if you live in the city.

I have only covered #5 here, but the rest will be discussed in an upcoming post on my other blog, Michael's Daily Bread, which is currently taking a look at The Ugly Truth About The Roman Polanski Affair.

[This post is being featured this week as a part of the Modern Paleo Blog Carnival: The Paleo Rodeo. Please visit and check out the other posts that are a part of this week's carnival. ]

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Michael Miles is the editor of Nutrition and Physical Regeneration

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