The other day, on a yahoo group of which I am a member, a lady asked this question:
I'm considering storing some food for emergency. We recently had evening without electricity and it made me worried. I guess it should be wise to plan for at least a week supply. What foods would you suggest?
Fluoridation of community drinking water began in Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 12, 1945. It was the brainchild of two people who worked for Andrew W. Mellon, founder of the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA), Drs. H. Trendley Dean and Gerald J. Cox. Mellon was US Treasury Secretary, which made him (at that time, in 1930) head of the Public Health Service (PHS). He had Dean, a researcher at the PHS, study the effects of naturally fluoridated water on teeth. Dean confirmed that fluoride causes mottling (discoloration) of teeth, and he hypothesized that it also prevents cavities. Cox, a researcher at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, was urged to study the effect of fluoride on tooth-decay in rats. Determining that it had a beneficial effect, he proposed, in late 1939, that the US should fluoridate its public water supply.
Fluorine is a halogen, like chlorine and iodine. It is the smallest and most reactive element in the halogen family (elements with 7 electrons in their outer shell). Fluorine exists in nature attached to other elements as the negatively charged ion fluoride, most notably to hydrogen, calcium, sodium, aluminum, sulfur, and silicon. Sodium fluoride, a by-product of aluminum smelting, initially was used to fluoridate water. Silicofluorides (fluoride combined with silicon), wastes of phosphate fertilizer production, are now used almost exclusively for fluoridation. Fluorine is also present in compounds called organofluorines, where fluorine atoms (not fluoride anions) are tightly bound to carbon. Teflon (poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene), Gore-Tex, and many drugs, Prozac (fluoxetine), Cipro (ciprofloxacin), and Baycol (cerivastatin) among them, are organofluorines.
Doctors and public health officials did not think sodium fluoride, used commercially as a rat and bug poison, fungicide, and wood preservative, should be put in public water. The Journal of the American Dental Association said (in 1936),
A brief conversation on twitter today (relating to sunscreens and sunburn) and some recent work by Matt Stone on the problem with Omega 6 fatty acid consumption (even among those who try to follow traditional food diets) has raised the issue of PUFA's (polyunsaturated fatty acids) in my mind once again.
Once upon a time, outside of the venerable Ray Peat, I was a near lone figure (at least in my circles) in thinking that the whole EFA issue was over-hyped if not downright dangerous. I drew that conclusion after a casual introductory review of the literature. My initial response was, "folks are calling this science?" Without adopting Peat's no essential fatty acids view, I didn't have the time or inclination back then to really pursue the issue, so I rested contentedly in the knowledge that one day the truth would win out.
Fast forward a few years and Chris Masterjohn steps into the fold, largely provoked (I think) by the notorious internet character known as Bruce K (at one time his email address was something like Bruce "no truce" Rensielk at hotmail, which should give you some idea of his personality), and his research on the issue has been masterful thus far. Below is an abstract of his first report on the PUFA issue and I believe a second one is due to be published relatively soon.
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Abstract
Current reviews and textbooks call the omega-6 linoleic acid and the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid "essential fatty acids" (EFA) and cite the EFA requirement as one to four percent of calories. Research suggests, however, that the omega-6 arachidonic acid (AA) and the omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are the only fatty acids that are truly essential.
The true requirement for EFA during growth and development is less than 0.5 percent of calories when supplied by most animal fats and less than 0.12 percent of calories when supplied by liver. On diets low in heated vegetable oils and sugar and rich in essential minerals, biotin, and vitamin B6, the requirement is likely to be much lower than this.
Adults recovering from injury, suffering from degenerative diseases involving oxidative stress, or seeking to build muscle mass mass may have a similar requirement. For women who are seeking to conceive, pregnant, or lactating, the EFA requirement may be as high as one percent of calories. In other healthy adults, however, the requirement is infinitesimal if it exists at all.
The best sources of EFAs are liver, butter, and egg yolks, especially from animals raised on pasture. During pregnancy, lactation, and childhood, small amounts of cod liver oil may be useful to provide extra DHA, but otherwise this supplement should be used only when needed to obtain fat-soluble vitamins.
Vegetarians or others who eat a diet low in animal fat should consider symptoms such as scaly skin, hair loss or infertility to be signs of EFA deficiency and add B6 or animal fats to their diets. An excess of linoleate from vegetable oil will interfere with the production of DHA while an excess of EPA from fish oil will interfere with the production and utilization of AA. EFA are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) that contribute to oxidative stress. Vitamin E and other antioxidant nutrients cannot fully protect against oxidative stress induced by dietary PUFA. Therefore, the consumption of EFA should be kept as close to the minimum requirement as is practical while still maintaining an appetizing and nutritious diet.
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The PUFA Report Part 1: A Critical Review of the Requirement for Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
Chris Masterjohn – Cholesterol-And-Health.Com Special Reports Volume 1 Issue 2. 25 pages, 3 figures, 114 references. $15.00$12.00 for readers of Nutrition and Physical Regeneration
(note: I get a small commission from each report sold).
The name of this site, Nutrition and Physical Regeneration, is a takeoff from the title of Dr. Weston Price's book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Dr. Price, in my opinion, was the greatest nutritional field clinician of the last century. Anyone who writes in the area of health and nutrition and has yet to read this book might as well be considered a blind man trying to tell what you the sun looks like because he happens to have his head pointed toward the sky.
Anyone who is interested in their own health and doesn't avail themselves of this resource is severely hampering their progress, needlessly subjecting themselves to the whims and fancies of every modern who comes along and thinks they have discovered the nutritional way.
In the clip below Dr. Price describes himself as a missionary from the tribes he studied to the modern people of the world, bringing with him the accumulated wisdom of the various places his travels led him. Featured in the clip are the Swiss of the Loetschental Valley, the Inuit, several African tribes, the South Sea Islanders, the Maori of the Outer Hebrides (Scotland) and the Australian Aborigines.
Notice that the diets of all these groups varied greatly: from high carb to low carb; from high fat to low fat; from seafood and grains; to dairy, beef, and fish. Price's message was never about specific foods or macro-nutrients or paleo versus neolithic, or any other current categorical controversy. It was about getting rid of the displacing foods of modern commerce and returning to the life-giving foods of our ancestors. In short, real food, in all its macro-nutrient variety, as the means to restore our health.
Now for the first time many of you can see and hear Dr. Price in his own voice.
Enjoy!
[update: It goes without saying for those of you familiar with Dr. Price's work, but for those who are not Dr. Price never found a healthy vegan population or a thriving genuinely vegetarian population. The ratio varied, as noted above, but all the healthy groups he studied included seafood and/or meat in their diet. No exceptions.]
Trans fats have been nicknamed "stealth fats" because they have not been shown on food labels. Some food products may show 17g of Total Fat, 3.5g of Saturated Fat, and nothing else. What kind of fat is the remaining 13.5g? Nobody knows without doing a laboratory analysis. Technically, trans fats are unsaturated fatty acids with uncommon configurations that have been implicated as causing cardiovascular diseases. Some margarines, like Benecol margarine, claim to have no trans fatty acids. The ingredients, however, show the presence of partially hydrogenated oil that cannot be manufactured without creating trans fatty acids. The claim takes advantage of the FDA regulation that allows rounding to zero any ingredients that account for less than 0.5 grams per serving. Reduction of serving sizes to implement this type of misinformation became more frequent when the new FDA regulations requiring disclosure of trans fats went into effect in 2006.
In my own life, I've always rubbed wrong with authority and the status quo. Consequently, I've shunned the typical life path by becoming a full-time RV-er, which allows me a great deal of liberty in that I can pick up and go where–and when–ever I wish. Like a nomadic Mongol, except I don't travel with a horde! A downside to this (or upside, depending on your point of view) is that I'm unable to carry a lot of stuff but the few items I do keep with me are top-quality and highly functional. My personal quest for freedom includes first-class workouts independent of gyms and health clubs. As most of you probably know by now, I love training outdoors in beautiful, natural settings; I find this utterly soul-soothing.
It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals' grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant's roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.
Vegetables Taste Great With Butter And Cheese
Honestly, what doesn’t. Even asparagus, really even asparagus. I know there are some people who will say butter and cheese aren’t healthy, but hey I’m a kid and actually I think these are true foods or “real foods.” They aren’t chemically made in a laboratory. They come from recipes not chemical compounds or lab experiments. Maybe that is too harsh. But I understand eggs and cheese, I know where they come from. I don’t know what SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE is, so I Googled it (here is what Wikipedia says – Polyphosphates are moderately irritating to skin and mucous membrane because of their alkalinity). Hmm. Not really interested in eating that.
12 Things Kids Should Learn on their Own about Food – 12 year old Orren Fox Teaching Us About Food
Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip…and why?
Welcome to the Food Timeline! Food history presents a fascinating buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts. Some people will tell you it's impossible to express this topic in exact timeline format. They are correct. Most foods we eat are not invented; they evolve.
Some of you may remember my linking up to Richard Nikoley's post not to long ago that got a lot of attention both online and offline (in fact, it has turned out to be his most popular post):
Well it's over six months, now, and I really don't want to do this post.
Why? Cause it's too weird, I fear. We don't live in caves without modern convenience, I'd not want to, and I loath the possibility of Paleo becoming a Luddite-esque religion. I blogged about that (The Paleo Principle is Neither Authoritative nor Dogmatic)…
So, I guess, take this with a grain of salt. I'm merely reporting on my own experience.
I haven't used soap or shampoo anyplace on my body for six months, save hand washing in advance of food prep. That's it. Let me just report my observations and leave you to judge.
Richard Nikoley -- Paleo I Don’t Care: I Like No Soap; No Shampoo
Sooooo……two days ago I started the Paleo I Don't Care Experiment. So far so good. I never thought I could go without soap or deodorant but using hot water with a good wash cloth and apparently I am good to go. Already my skin is softer and for the first time in my life I haven't needed any deodorant. Amazing. Truly amazing.
I dated a girl once, in fact the only girl I ever dated who was full on into traditional foods and Weston Price, who never used deodorant. I thought she was just genetically blessed or something where she didn't perspire or smell in her armpits. Well I'm here to tell you there is nothing genetic about it. I was sure by the mid-point of the first day I would be ripe, but it never came to pass. The morning of the second day I was a little musty but a good shower and scrubbing and all is well with the world, even late into the night.
Clearly all the stuff we put on our skin affects its natural homeostatic balance in some way, and cleaning with water and a good scrub cloth only does not disturb that balance while still leaving us fresh and ready to go. 
I'm sure diet has something to do with it as well. Whenever I go on a long term fast my sense of smell becomes quite acute. To be frank, people stink! Sometimes it is so overwhelming I can't get on a bus or be in a meeting without feeling nauseous. And please, if someone is sick, God forbid! It is like I can smell every individual germ that is inhabiting their body. Ugh!
Showers don't help the smell issue either (when I am fasting). Nope, it just becomes the nauseous smell intermingled with artificial and chemically created odors. Ugh!
The reason I think diet comes into play is because people eating a SAD diet have a distinctive smell that is quite noticeable when I am fasting, and people eating an ethnic diet (not quite as SAD) have a distinct smell related to the foods they are eating that is also quite noticeable (but different than your average American SADer) when I am fasting.
I wonder how the Paleo I Don't Care Approach would work with a SAD eater? I have to believe anything would be an improvement, at least somewhat. Maybe this is why the great fasters of history often did it in solitude!
I have previously read how daily bathing is not good for your skin. I believe Jordan Rubin mentions it in his book The Makers Diet, as one of many who have done so. But I knew that would never happen with me. Not only because I wasn't willing to mess with my personal hygiene given my professional and social commitments, but because I find a daily shower healing, refreshing and exhilarating. If that meant not being as healthy as I could possibly be in terms of external skin care, so be it.
Now however my skin feels good, there is no smell under my arms or my private parts, and the only soap I use is some homemade shampoo for my hair made out of saponified coconut oil (castille soap) and herbs. I have kept that because it was part of the regimen I discovered a few years back to help thicken my hair and it worked.
I still might be able to get rid of the shampoo if I can determine whether other parts of the program are actually the difference maker or perhaps even diet alone since each time I do the Milk Cure my hair gets very full and soft. I will leave that for a future experiment.
In closing let me leave you with a very funny commercial I am sure many of you have seen. This man thinks he smells good, but the truth is if he only knew, he would want to smell like me.
I want to start with an apology. I regret that I have not been able to individually answer every email I’ve received in the wake of my essay, "Why I Quit HIV." I am grateful for this forum, and I hope that I will be able to clear up some confusion people appear to have experienced. I’d also like to express my gratitude for the many, many positive and indeed inspirational letters I’ve received.
Now I'd like to address some common questions I received.
Many people inquired what impact the article would have on my job or career. I have not quit my job, nor have I been fired (so far). I’ve simply abandoned one area of research – I doubt I’ll ever be able to publish in mathematical biology again, but that was the risk I knew I was taking. Thank you all for your concern.
A few individuals kindly suggested that I inject myself with the blood of a late-stage AIDS patient. While such an act might sensationalize my viewpoint, there are a number of problems with such an "experiment." First, I can only imagine the non-HIV contaminants that might be found in such blood. Second, the data and results contained in the literature are sufficient to cast doubt on HIV. But most importantly, such an "experiment" would hardly settle anything, given the "latency period" of 10-15 years for progression to "AIDS."
As I write this…we are more than twenty years into the AIDS era. Like many, a large part of my life has been irreversibly affected by AIDS. My entire adolescence and adult life – as well as the lives of many of my peers – has been overshadowed by the belief in a deadly, sexually transmittable pathogen and the attendant fear of intimacy and lack of trust that belief engenders.
To add to this impact, my chosen career has developed around the HIV model of AIDS. I received my Ph.D. in 2002 for my work constructing mathematical models of HIV infection, a field of study I entered in 1996…It might seem early for me to be looking back on and seriously reconsidering my chosen field, yet here I am.
My work as a mathematical biologist has been built in large part on the paradigm that HIV causes AIDS, and I have since come to realize that there is good evidence that the entire basis for this theory is wrong. AIDS, it seems, is not a disease so much as a sociopolitical construct that few people understand and even fewer question. The issue of causation, in particular, has become beyond question – even to bring it up is deemed irresponsible.
Of course carnitas and tacos al pastor are different dishes. And they definitely do NOT involve sous vide techniques. But stay with me here and see what may be the best dish I have ever cooked.
The first thing I ask Salatin when we sit down in his living room is whether he's ever considered becoming a vegetarian. It's not what I had planned to say, but we've been in the hoop houses with the nicely treated hens, all happily pecking and glossy-feathered, and I've held one in my arms. Suddenly it makes little sense that this animal, whose welfare has been of such great concern, will be killed in a matter of days.
Naive, I know, and Salatin seems surprised. "Never crossed my mind," he says. The problem that's leading the "animals-are-people movement", as he refers to it, is two-fold, in his view. First: "The industrial food system is so cruel and so horrific in its treatment of animals. It never asks the question: 'Should a pig be allowed to express its pig-ness?' And the second thing of course is the urbanisation of the world, to the point where people are not now connected to their ecological umbilical, so that the only connection anyone has to an animal is a pet cat or a pet dog. And that really gives you a very jaundiced view of cycles of life – death, regeneration."
Gaby Wood – The Observer: Interview with Joel Salatin
See also: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal
In the city. The inner city. The ghetto. Prostitutes. Pimps. Drug dealers. Pot growers. Mostly liquor stores. But she found a way. Own garden. Own food. Raised animals for food. In touch with her food supply. Inspiring. Amazing story. In the middle of the 'hood.
Enjoy!
