Nutrition and Physical Regeneration

I can't even begin to tell you the number of blogs I have in my RSS reader (actually I can, it is 249 and counting). That doesn't include the numerous email groups and various forums to which I belong. Just opening up my reader is enough to cause the lights to dim. While I enjoy many of them time and again there are a few that rarely fail to be both informative and engaging.

Most of the time that means no technical blogs (while often informative, very few writers have the ability to be technical and engaging) or blogs that rarely post (it is amazing the number of inactive blogs in cyberspace). So here, in no particular order, is my list of some rather interesting blogs from last year which should provide some good reading in the new year.

Enjoy!

1. The Accidental Hedonist – No, Kate Hopkins doesn't maintain a nutritional health blog. The Accidental Hedonist is a food and drink blog and she does an amazing job of letting you in on her experiences of eating/drinking through her posts.

Her general modus operandi is to find a subject that interests her, and then immerse herself in the topic attempting to learn all she can about it. One such adventure led to her book 99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist's Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink.

Recently she has been writing about all things Dim Sum, and has guides on her site covering topics like beer, cheese, chocolate, and Italian food. There is more, much more than what I am alluding to here.

Wrapped too tight purists who don't know how to separate the chaff from the wheat will have a heart attack but for those who enjoy food for food's sake and are adept at converting recipes (or choosing wisely when eating out) or just like fun reading it is well worth a visit.

2. Free the Animal – Richard Nickoley is an atheist. I am Orthodox. So if you know anything about Richard (or me) you know we don't see eye to eye on the issue of religion and if we ever got into a discussion I'm sure he would let loose with a few swear words.

Yet when it comes to food and breaking down substantive technical information in an engaging and informative manner Richard is well worth the read. Is he rude sometimes? Yes. Does he say things the way I would say them? No, but one thing he has going for him is that he is a paleo who doesn't think the "paleo way" is a dietary prescription thundered down from Mt. Sinai.

Don't get me wrong. Richard has plenty of paleo chops and has firmly identified himself as among that crowd. He without a doubt thinks a paleo diet is the best place to start, and that diets like the Kitavans on the high carb end, and the Inuit on the high fat end, while certainly viable, don't represent the optimal diet for most folks.

Nonetheless his non-dogmatic thinking keeps him from falling into some of the ideological ruts that other paleo/low carb bloggers end up embracing, and thereby not sounding much different than the fervently dogmatic low-fat folks of the mainstream world who say their way is the only way, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Using the principles of Eat Stop Eat (a book whose basic concept both for health and weight loss I highly recommend) he went from 230+ pounds (5'10) in May, 2007, at 33%+ body fat, to 10% bodyfat today, losing 60 net pounds in the process. Got a weight problem? You could do much worse than following Richard's advice. You can check out his transformation pictures here.

[Update: Richard followed the paleo diet while using the Eat Stop Eat Program. You can pretty much use any dietary approach you like with Eat Stop Eat, but that is how he did it.]

Even more, he is one of those rare birds in the food world who gets it politically, understanding that government is a huge reason we are in this nutritional pickle in the first place. In my opinion his Health Care Through Force article is a jarring (to some readers) but good read for namby pamby health food writers and readers who think government is our well intentioned friend looking out for our best interests despite a few mistakes here and there (and yes, I'm the Michael that appears throughout the comment thread).

3. Whole Health Source – Dr. Stephan Guyenet is another one of those precious few who can write with substance in an easily understood manner. I shamelessly cribbed his six part series on the Kitavans and re-titled it, Slaying The Low Carb Dragon. You can also find an article by him titled A New Way To Soak Brown Rice in the archives of this site.

From my vantage point Dr. Guyenet is busy dropping bombs in the paleo world without their knowledge, given that he to seems to self-identify as a paleo.

[Update from Stephan: "I'm actually not paleo myself, I'm more like Weston Price minus the gluten. Although I do make an effort to keep my intake of neolithic foods modest. I try to eat at least one "paleo" meal per day."]

Check out this quote toward the end of part 6 in his series on the Kitavans (emphasis added) whose diet is 69% carbohydrates, 21% protein, and 10% fat (despite the overall low fat intake, the Kitavans intake of saturated fat is higher than the percentage consumed in the west since it makes up over 90% of the fat they do consume):

The ideal diet for humans includes a lot of possibilities. I believe the focus on macronutrients is misguided. There are examples of cultures that were/are healthy eating high-fat diets, high-carbohydrate diets and everything in between. What they do not eat is processed grains, particularly wheat, refined sugar, industrially processed vegetable oils and other modern foods. I believe these are unhealthy, and this is visible in the trail of destruction they have left around the globe. Its traces can be found in the Pacific islands, where close genetic relatives of the Kitavans have become morbidly obese and unhealthy on a processed-food diet.

I mention the above, not to take a shot at paleo bloggers, whom I read much and highly respect (and several who are on this list), but to veer away from the kind of dogmatism and authority that afflicts the mainstream low-fat folks and now seems to have crept into the paleo/low carb world.

A lot of paleos think Weston Price is a nutritional giant, but most of the groups Price studied and the diet Price determined was the best from his studies (keeping in mind Dr. Price did not believe it was necessary to slavishly follow any one particular dietary approach) are not paleo as usually understood, not by any stretch of the imagination. Paleo was simply one data point that Dr. Price observed during his studies of the dietary continuum that would become his legacy. The quote from Dr. Guyenet above could have easily been uttered by Dr. Price.

To be fair, Stephan does qualify the above quote before closing out his essay:

One last caveat. I do still believe in the efficacy of low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss and health. The Western diet and lifestyle can damage the metabolism severely, particularly glucose metabolism. It seems to be somewhat reversible, but it depends on the extent of the damage and the individual. People with a history of overweight or poor glucose control should be careful with carbohydrate. It’s possible that some people will not be able to handle normal amounts of carbohydrate in any form. Be aware of what your body is telling you.

I think you can partially attribute the above to the problem with science and the rest to be right on the money.

Dr. Guyenet's technical approach to the subject matter will probably prevent him from being a high flying internet superstar in terms of numbers, but despite his apparent love for all things Cordain (who by the way seems to be getting better on certain subjects like saturated fat), he is a rising star in the world of nutrition and health, and in my opinion, a must read.

4. Lew Rockwell – The number one libertarian news site in the world. "Uncle Lew" (that is how I refer to him privately) is constantly posting articles about food, health, medicine, and so on.

He has graciously posted a number of my articles over the years, the first being this little ditty on Osama Bin Laden, and the most recent being What To Eat In A Crisis.

You can read the other articles I have had published by Lew Rockwell and elsewhere on my other blog, Michael's Daily Bread.

Needless to say we don't eat in a vacuum. Many of our food choices are constrained and informed by political considerations and Lew's site is a great place to go to put it all in perspective.

5. Timothy Ferriss – Mr. Lifehacker himself. The Mr. Olympia of lifestyle design and engineering. Author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The 4 Hour Work Week and editor of one of the most popular blogs on the web.

I'm not going to lie, Tim's writings have changed my life. I have been slowly implementing his concepts since 2007. Ordering your life in such a way so that you can pursue your calling, doing the things you really want to do without the typical obstacles most people face is no small matter.

I was so impressed I bought several extra copies of his book for family and friends, none whom to my knowledge have read the book. That is a pity. These last few months have seen a drastic acceleration of lifestyle engineering in my own life (and no, despite what you might think when first reading the subtitle, it doesn't require a boat load of money. In fact nearly everyone reading this blog already earns enough money to become a part of the "new rich").

A few months ago I decided to go back and re-read the first edition of his book. Since then I have bought the new expanded edition and have been a regular reader of his blog. The light bulb has come on in a huge way.

He touches on nutrition and exercise from time to time, and while he is a big fan of Gary Taubes and Dr. Michael Eades, his ideas and concepts are about lifestyle design, of which nutrition and health are only a small part.

Some of you may find his post, How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days…Without Doing Any Exercise, of interest.

You will see the fruit of his work in my life throughout the next year (most notably more time devoted to this blog and original research), although I'm likely to mention the various happenings on my other blog rather than here unless it is specifically nutrition related.

If you haven't read the expanded edition of the 4 Hour Work Week (which is loaded with case studies from readers) I would suggest you click on the link and order a copy before reading further. Trust me, it is a decision you will never regret.

6. Summer Tomato – Okay, so I accidentally found Darya Pino while commenting on the Four Hour Work Week site. I usually click on the all the comments with links embedded just to see what is out there. When I read her diet history and her rejection of the low carb mantra as the dietary way I was intrigued and wrote her off-line.

A self described scientist, foodie, and lover of seasonal food (who also occasionally blogs at The Huffington Post), I haven't spent enough time on her site to get a full handle on things, and admittedly I'm leery when someone suggests that vegan screed wrapped in the veneer of science by T. Colin Campbell called The China Study is right on the data but wrong on the interpretation, but that is just a minor quibble (since it is true to a certain extent).

She is a huge lover of vegetables and is nearing the completion of her Ph.D in neuroscience, joining the likes of Stephan Guyenet and Chris Masterjohn as young credentialed academics whose message is decidely different from mainstream academia.

More, I like her moxie. Anyone who calls a major article by probably the most popular paleo writer and blogger on the web, B.S. of the week, is well worth reading on a regular basis.

7. Wendy McElroy – Wendy, an individualist feminist and voluntaryist, occasionally touches on nutritional subjects. Her Super Sizing Statistics article is one of the most well read on this site.

True blue traditional fooders will find the type of food she recommends, usually in relation to food storage, problematic. Still, one would be hard put to find better information concerning freedom as it pertains to food and many other issues. The material she and her husband post on health care alone is worth visiting the site on a regular basis (which I do).

On a more political note it was Wendy's lecture on the immorality of voting that answered for me all the questions and misgivings I had developed over the years about coercing someone to do what they didn't want to do via the tyranny of majority rule (yes, this is quite applicable to the health care debate).

She also magnanimously published a recent controversial article of mine about the Roman Polanski affair.

Her and her husband Brad do yeomen work, and deserve your support and attention.

8. Karen Decoster – Think Free the Animal without the F-bombs or anti-Christianity (in fairness to Richard, due to the increased popularity of his site, he recently announced he is dropping f-bombs and rants, as amusing as some of his readers may have found it) and you have a good idea what to expect from her site nutritionally.

Karen is primal paleo and a freedom loving voluntaryist (but I repeat myself). The subtitle of her blog says it all, "resisting tyranny one word at a time."

She graciously posted my article, What To Eat In A Crisis, on her site. It was from her that I got the video for my post, Watch Out 24 Hour Fitness – Here Comes The Ghetto Pass!

Every time I read Karen's author bio I wonder to myself, "are there any single women of marriageable age like her floating around?"

Karen DeCoster is an accounting/finance professional and writer. She rides a Harley, shoots lots of guns, and recently became a 1911 addict. She likes to put in long miles on her hybrid bicycle, lift heavy weights, use the crock pot, overindulge on Gouda cheese, do primal workouts, play Frisbee, get lost in the woods, and hang out at Bass Pro Shops. She won’t trade in her clunker for cash and it is highly unlikely that she will become a Czar in the Obama administration.

For a taste of of her writing check out The Tyranny of Weight Control.

You can find a full archive of her lewrockwell.com articles here.

9. Steve Maxwell – Yes, Steve posts very infrequently (breaking one of my criteria for being on this list) but anyone who can get me to embrace body weight exercising deserves a medal of honor. Anyone who can get me to not only embrace but also recommend it to others is a miracle worker.

Of course it all makes sense. Our ancestors didn't head to the gym to keep in shape. The Kitavans surely don't. Minimal or no equipment is the way to go for many people (though not necessarily for gym junkies like me) both in efficiency and likely stickability (the best exercise program in the world means little if you don't do it). Check out my post on the ghetto workout to see how you can turn your own world into a 24 hour fitness pass.

Oh by the way, I think Steve is 57 years old. He has a dream of a girlfriend. He travels constantly. By all accounts he is doing what he loves. That's right. No excuses. At any age.

10. Matt Stone – Mr. 180. I have written about Matt before. He is one of my favorite bloggers. He pushes the limits, challenging the prevailing orthodoxy both mainstream and alternative, reading, researching, and writing about many of the forgotten nutritional giants of old, without getting caught in the rut that one of them had a special message from God telling them their way was the only way.

As the title of his site and blog suggest, his conclusions are usually 180 degrees apart from not only the conventional wisdom, but also that which passes for conventional wisdom in the alternative nutrition world as well.

Some of his musings (note: like many good researchers, his views do change from time to time):

Eat food, as much as you like, mostly animals

Author Michael Pollan, writing on the ethics of food and a healthy diet, makes the simple suggestion, which mainstream health authorities would almost unanimously agree with, that we should “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Eating mostly plants, besides being irritating to those with impaired digestion, is a key ingredient in the recipe for eating too much. This advice is like telling someone to get plenty of rest by staying up all night. Eating mostly animals, although it's not the only way, it is the best way to properly regulate the balance between appetite and metabolism.

Spend more time in the sun, without sunscreen

Sunlight doesn’t cause skin cancer – an unhealthy state within the body that causes skin to be unable to protect itself causes skin cancer, and spending time in the sun without sunscreen, allowing natural vitamin D synthesis, decreases the chances of virtually every other health condition. Vitamin D is the most important and deficient vitamin in modern man. Sunscreen also has never been able to effectively prevent skin cancer, and its widespread use, along with increased awareness of skin cancer and ultraviolet rays, has paralleled a massive increase in the disease.

Heredity has much to do with our health problems, but has absolutely nothing to do with genes

Genes are thought of as set in stone, something we are stuck with, that have been passed down for generations and will continue down the line – our lot in life. What we inherit has much more to do with the cumulative effects of the lifestyle and environment of prior generations than actual genetic material and can be drastically modified. In other words, everyone in your family may be fat, have crooked teeth, and be diabetic – proof of inherited tendencies, but can be completely overturned because it is not a result of genetic programming.

Finally, he is big into personal experimentation, which is one of the best ways to counter all the armchair scientists knee deep in their studies but with little practical experience. It also makes for very interesting reading.

Probably the most significant of his experiments/research/conclusions, and a key focus of his work, is that metabolism is a key issue in health, and that someone with a healthy metabolism is capable of thriving on a mixed diet that is not on either end of the macro-nutrient spectrum.

Read him. Agree or disagree, you will be better for the experience.
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Michael Miles is the editor of Nutrition and Physical Regeneration