My Paleo Blog

I don't eat those foods and don't want my food eating them either. After all, we are what we eat eats.

Here is a great recipe for Wild Caught Salmon that has been fed it's natural diet.

“We can't digest grass. So to take land that is not good enough for agriculture -- that's growing grass and nothing else, that's been doing that for 10,000 years since the buffalo -- and put a cow on it ... there's something beautiful about that, and it's just the way it was meant to be.” Michael Pollan.

As a Paleo dieter who throws around heavy weights, I can’t think of a more powerful food than grassfed beef. The news might tell you that red meat will lead to cancer and death but I’m here to show you how grassfed beef will actually fight cancer while building lean muscle!

I’m pissed. The last two times I’ve visited New Seasons Market to pick up some quality flesh (Grass Fed Beef) I have left empty-handed. I eat Paleo and depend on these organic markets to provide healthy food in an ethical way. I spend more money on quality foods because besides my conscience mind, my “body temple” is the one thing nobody can take from me while I am still breathing.

“Humanely raised, vegetarian fed and grown without the use of
antibiotics or growth hormones” is the advertisement I always see when I enter New Seasons Market for their “Country Natural Beef”.  

“We’re not hurting the land; we’re working with it” claims Connie Hatfield from CNB. Hell yes, I am down with that. But hold on a minute I came here for grass fed beef...

I am 100% for preservation and happy cows (and dogs everywhere), however are we really getting the whole picture? While I know Country Natural Beef and New Seasons Market is definitely a step in the right direction, I’m not sure we are getting the entire story here.

Our bodies are programmed to adapt to different situations. Get attacked by a lion and hormones like adrenaline are released to provide extra abilities like strength or clearer thought processing. Likewise, Inflammation is a natural, healthy immune system response to our environment we put ourselves in. Let me say it again, Inflammation is a good thing, it is a natural response to a stimulous in an attempt to protect us.

There are two types of Inflammation; Acute and Chronic.

Pretend we are running down the street and suddenly trip and brace ourselves upon falling down. Pretend we land on our wrist wrong and suddenly it begins hurting and turning red. Next we notice it is swelling -- we know something is up. This is acute inflammation. Injuries like getting hit, burned, scraped, and sore neck are all types of acute inflammation.

The redness and swelling we see is extra blood being transported to the injury to clean and fix the problem. Our bodies have natural defense systems, and this is one of them. The loss of function and pain to the injured area is to remind us that we need to give that area a rest while our body naturally fixes the problem.

Clearly, acute inflammation is not a bad thing, but rather a good thing that keeps every one of us alive. We do something stupid, our body fixes our mistake, awesome. But what happens when these sort of things happen more regularly? When inflammation becomes a regular occurance is when Chronic Inflammation occurs. Diseases such as heart disease and obesity are associated with Inflammation. First lets look at other causes for inflammation.

-Chronic Stress
-Toxic Diet (unfamiliar foods we are not adapted to digest such as sugar and other processed food)
-Low Omega 3, High Omega 6
-Leaky Gut Syndrome
-Not Enough Down Time (Recovery)
-Lack of Exercise

After looking at this list, it is easy to see why many people today are dealing with Chronic Inflammation. The two that stick out the most are toxic diet and lack of exercise. Of course chronic stress is another huge issue.

Inflammation and Disease

So it makes sense how acute inflammation works to help us and that there are factors that can lead to chronic inflammation. But how does inflammation go from helping our wounds to causing a heart attack?

Like insulin resistance, it is not completely clear what causes Chronic Inflammation, but we do know what increases our chances at getting it. Whichever factor affects chronic inflammation the most, what we do know is that inflammation turns bad when our body thinks we have an injury when we really don't.
 
Chronic Inflammation occurs when our body thinks we have a damage in a blood vessel (example) and send proteins (TNFa, NFkB, IL-6, CRP) to observe, fight, replicate, and clean the area. We get a huge roadblock in our blood vessel for no reason. This eventually can completely block the pathway leading to a heart attack. In some cases these proteins actually eat away tissue such as arthiritis.

Fat and Inflammation

The adipose tissue (fat on our body) is more than merely energy storage. Fat releases hormones such as leptin (hunger control) and cytokines (which include TNFa and IL-6). This makes sense how a toxic diet (which makes us fat) can lead to chronic inflammation. By having more fat than the body wants, our body will be releasing too many of these hormones into our blood, leading to chronic inflammation. Another reason why lean people lead healthier lives.

Foods that Cause Inflammation

-Trans Fats and Saturated Fat- hydrogenated oil found in crackers, cookies, etc
-Meat with high omega 6 content (grain fed cows) (Mcdonalds)
-Fatty Meat with Nitrates (Cheap bacon)
-Seed Oils - The term vegetable oil is a lie altogether. "vegetable oils" are actual soy, corn, canola, sasame)
***It is important to note that while saturated fat in pro-inflammatory, saturates like Unrefined Coconut Oil or Red Palm Oil are filled with anti-oxidants that are also anti-inflammatory.

Carbohydrates and Inflammation

As we know, excess glucose in the blood can lead to insulin resistance. But extra glucose in the blood (from excess carbs) also releases the two messenger proteins TNFa and IL-6 which in excess can eventurally cause a roadblock. This is another reason to limit carbohydrates until you need them with exercise or other activity.

Conclusion

At this point it is clear how these 4 messenger/fighter/cleanup proteins work to help fix our cuts and bruises, even sickness. Obviously it is less clear how these proteins affect chronic inflammation, but we are getting close. We do know that diet and life choices greatly affect our bodies natural ability to fight off disease. This is another great reason to switch to the Paleo diet.

On the Paleo Diet, trans fats are a non-issue. On the Paleo Diet, omega 6 fatty acids are reduced and omega 3 is increased. Seed oils are avoided and replaced with Omega 3 Grass Fed Butter and Unrefined Coconut Oil. Green Vegetables eaten on the Paleo Diet also are proven to be anti-inflammatory.

They call Inflammation the Silent Killer. We don't see it coming until it is too late. Now that we are learning the importance of inflammation, it is clearer than ever the importance to reduce the damage it can cause. The Paleo Diet is a great place to start.

The Paleo Diet often gets rejected by people because of its difficulty. "It's expensive and hard to prepare the meals" they say due to all of the cooking. 

Well I am going to start adding meals on the blog to demonstrate how you can create full meals while on the Paleo Diet...without breaking the bank or spending too much time in the kitchen.

Unless you're exercising in the morning it makes sense to eat a protein breakfast, Paleo-style lunch, and a Paleo/Japanese style diet in the evening (allowance of starchy carbs like rice or potatoes). This was originally suggested by Nate Miyaki. 

This template restricts any major spikes in insulin throughout the day.Less insulin spikes = less likely your cells are to become resistant. Remember, you want your cells to be as sensitive to insulin as possible, and you do that by playing hard to get.

Also, by keeping these insulin spikes down you are priming our body for muscle gain. When you do get an insulin spike (ideally after during/exercise) our bodies will use the nutrients for muscle gain rather than store as fat deposits.

Without any further delay, here is a sample day on the Paleo diet.

-2 Omega 3 Eggs
-Grass Fed Flank Steak
-Fresh Mixed Veggies (Brocolli, Peppers, Onion, Mushrooms)
-Salt, Pepper, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

Preperations; Oil pan with either Unrefined Coconut Oil or Grass Fed Butter. Throw on meat and veggies until meat begins to brown. Once browned, push the mix over to one side of the pan and throw on the eggs (add more oil if necessary). Once eggs are almost finished, I like to mix everything together to make it nice and juicy! Enjoy 

This is a Pork Tenderloid cooked in slow cooker for about 8 hours. It has peppers and onions added as well. Once cooked, I like to put it on the stove over low/med heat and add some spices and green chilli sauce to add flavor.

This is really easy to make, totally customizable and great with an avocado as a topping. It is also like 4-5 meals total.

Mixed salad with mixed veggies (red onions, celery, carrots, avocado, cucumber)...and my guilty pleasure blue cheese.

Salad dressing is a custom mix of Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar. I add salt and pepper to the dressing and it is delicious. Sometimes I add Apple Cider Vinegar as well.

Grass Fed Beef Pinwheels Found here. These are packed with protein and healthy fat. A great protein dish for any meal.

**If this is your post workout meal, it would be a good idea to replace this with a more lean protein such as a chicken breast or white fish.

Realistically, unless you are really trying to add mass, this is probably enough meat to feed 2.

Baked sweet potatoes, plain and simple.

How To Prepare: Poke numerous holes in potatoes (this is 3 here), and bake in oven for about 1 hour. Make sure to put foil down because the potatoes will bleed out delicious juice.

I top mine off with grass fed butter.

Throw in some veggies (maybe asparagus) with this meal and dinner is served.

Now this is simply a template to give you an idea of how meals should look like on the Paleo Diet. Obviously this isn't going to be the only things going passed anyone's lips in a given day, but this is the foundation. 

I drink protein shakes usually between my 1st and 2nd meal. Everything is relative to your goals. 

If you are trying to get lean, use this template and be and the more strict you are, the better results you will get.

If you are trying to gain mass, throw in some extra protein and maybe some starchy carbs, hell, even oatmeal every now and then. 

It all depends on your goals, but start here and ask questions about anything else.

As discussed in the first blog about fish oil, omega 3 Fatty Acids ensure that our cell membranes are not too hard or soft, allowing messages to enter and leave the cell. These are important messages like “I am hungry” or “I am full”. Obviously if these messages do not get sent/received we will either be not eating enough or maybe even worse – overeating and getting fat due to missed messages. Omega 3 Fish Oils (DHA,EPA) ensures this doesn't happen!

When message are being sent successfully, the body is less likely to overeat leaving us with the perfect size meal for what the body needs. This perfect amount of fuel will lead to a lean physique. When the body has limited fat and a decent amount of muscle, our body will respond to glucose in the blood more efficiently. Muscles use glucose in the blood for fuel to move our bodies, fat doesn’t do this. This is why lean people tend to stay lean, and fat people have a hard time losing weight. Muscular people have their muscles on their side pulling glucose out of the blood (glucose is sugar in the blood – too much over a long period leads to diabetes) and using it for fuel. Obese people (high fat, little muscle) will have glucose running through their blood all day, and without muscle and/or exercise to deplete it, the glucose will soon be turned to fat.

As you can see, our body works synergistically. Everything is a system. We need omega 3 fish oil so our cells can receive/send messages. If this is done properly, we should stay relatively lean, if we are lean and muscular (and exercising), extra glucose should not be in the blood as it is being pulled out constantly.

On the flip side, an obese person who eats high dosage of omega 6 (little omega 3) will not be able to receive messages. This person is already obese due to diet choice and due to unhealthy cells the person is getting fatter. This person isn’t getting messages that they are full of energy from the meal currently being eaten, and the cells are not able to send the message to the brain. So the person keeps eating and getting fatter. At the same time, since there is so much fat and little muscle (along with no exercise), the glucose in the blood has nowhere to go and keeps circulating, leading to diabetes and inviting many other illnesses.

-Grassfed Flank Steak - Lightly seasoned

-2 Poached Eggs (Omega 3) - Lightly seasoned

-Kiwi Fruit - Sliced (can be eaten whole!)

As you can see, this is a relatively small looking breakfast. It is however packed with nutrients. Healthy omega 3 fats and high protein, plus the kiwi will provide tons of vitamins and minerals. They also have tons of anti-oxidants and more vitamin C than an orange!

“Saturated fat is bad for you; it will clog your arteries”! We’ve all heard this, this is known as the Lipid Hypothesis and it has been beaten into our brains. For the last hundred years, Doctors and other“professionals” have been suggesting a low fat (especially saturated fat), high carbohydrate diet to live optimally. But is this really justified?


Due to the Lipid Hypothesis, between 1910 and 1970 our fat intake has been reduced by 21%, refined oils (vegetable oil – bad fats) has increased by 400%, and studies show that sugar has increased about 60%. Based on what has been suggested by the SAD (Standard American Diet), we should see a reduction in Coronary Heart Disease and the like. However we don’t. We’ve actually have seen the opposite.

Studies from the AHA tell us that today 75 Million Americans suffer from Heart Disease, 20 Million have Diabetes and 57 Million are on the brink. These numbers continue to get worse.

Well Jimmy, I think the Lipid Hypothesis has not withstood the test of time. It has failed us. It was a good hypothesis, however incorrect. At least we tried. Now it’s time to try something else. (It seems Inflammation may be the cause of Heart Disease – read this article to learn about Inflammation).

So if saturated fats aren’t the devil, does that mean we can, or perhaps SHOULD include them into our diet? Let us look at some facts and make a decision that makes sense.

We are going to look at saturated fat and its effect on vitamins uptake, DHA/EPA Absorption, its effect on immune health and its hormonal effects. There are other benefits, but these are the most relevant to our goals of living a healthy life with a lean physique.

Fat can be broken down into 3 categories; Short Chain, Medium Chain, and Long Chain Triglycerides (Fatty Acids). Short and Medium Chain Fatty Acids are used for sustained energy, and due to the essence of the nutrient, is not likely to be stored as fat in the body unless consumed in excess. Unrefined Coconut Oil and Grass Fed Butter are great examples of food staples that include Medium Chain Triglycerides.   

There are two types of vitamins, Fat Soluble and Water Soluble. Fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E, and K. The idea of the Paleo Diet Evolved is to provide healthy nutrients (vitamins, minerals, macro-nutrients) so our bodies can perform optimally. Fat soluble vitamins need fat in the diet so these vitamins can be properly transported and absorbed. These fat soluble vitamins play crucial roles in our bodies and without enough fat to help them get absorbed, vitamin deficiency can occur. These vitamins tend to work synergistically. For example, vitamin A and D build certain proteins, and vitamin K will activate it. This cannot happen without saturated fat in our diet.

We have all heard that Fish Oil (Omega 3) is great for our health, but according Mary Enig in her book “Know Your Fats”, including saturated fat in the diet can help our bodies retain Omega 3 in our cells and even help convert ALA to its usable form DHA. This can help reduce insulin resistance and thus lead to weight loss. Omega 3 Fatty Acids are essential to our diets and this is something that cannot be ignored. Omega 3's need saturated fat to function properly!

When making educated choices about where to get your saturated fat from, you will likely be choosing Grass Fed Butter and/or Unrefined Coconut Oil. Both of these oils are great for cooking (they will not oxidize with heat like olive oil) and have a high content of Lauric Acid (found in Medium Chain Triglycerides). Lauric Acid is absorbed more easily and thus are more likely to be used for energy than to be stored as fat for later fuel. Due to these properties, coconut oil can help in boosting metabolism which also helps burn unwanted fat.  Studies are still being done on this subject and will continue to evolve – however things are looking very promising. Lauric Acid is also highly anti-microbial and can help our immune system! It is also found in breast milk and is currently being tested as an HIV prevention method!

Saturated Fat can also have an effect our or hormonal response. Every cell membrane in our body is made up of 50% saturated fat and 50% unsaturated fat – it needs to be properly balanced to send and receive messages (hormones transported). What is also interesting for us trying to add lean muscle to our physiques is that a low fat diet can also restrict the amount of free testosterone in the body (testosterone has a muscle building, fat burning effect). This is because low fat diets increase Globulin Levels which binds to testosterone, making it unavailable for use – not good. 

Clearly saturated fat has a place in our diet, ranging from vitamin absorption to our bodies hormonal response. However this doesn’t mean to have a hay day with saturated fat and eat mass amounts. While eating a diet consisting of healthy fats, HDL (good cholesterol) will be increased, but its brother LDL (bad cholesterol) will also be increased. With that being said, this isn’t something we should be terribly concerned about because;

A.     You will not be eating massive amounts of Saturated Fat and when you do, it will come from healthy
sources like Coconut Oil/Grass Fed Butter (Healthy Balance of Omega 3) and
B.     The increase in LDL will be offset by both the increase in HDL to remove cholesterol from bloodstream and from the other healthy food choices the Paleo Diet offers. 
 
So the question remains; Is Saturated Fat bad for you? Well…no. Like many things in life, saturated fat CAN be bad for us in excess, but when included in a healthy diet in small portions saturated fat can give you all of its benefits while restricting the only negative property it holds – increasing LDL. While this is a serious issue, it is not something so serious that one should lose all of the benefits in fear of the small risk. Based on the findings in this article, and knowing the other healthy foods that are included in the Paleo diet (green vegetables), you can afford to eat a variety of foods, knowing that you are feeding your body what it wants so it will be able to take care of itself the way it was evolved to.


Take home message about Saturated Fat

Don’t be afraid to cook with saturated fat; coconut oil, grass fed butter, and lard. Doing so will give you a healthy cooking oil that will not oxidize when heated and provide the benefits of saturated fat

-Saturated fat can help Fatty Acid (Omega 3) and vitamin (A, D, E, K) absorption 
 
-Saturated fat helps with hormonal function and our immune health
       
-Saturated fat can provide sustained energy while increasing metabolism.

Include Saturated Fat in your Diet!

Fish oil pills, everybody and their parents are taking it, but why? It makes me happy to see people getting off the “fats are bad for us” or Lipid Hypothesis bandwagon; however I am willing to bet most people don’t know why they’re taking this  fish oil supplement. Due to the importance of the Omega 3 Fatty Acid in the diet, I am turning this into a 3 part article; what are Omega 3 fatty acids, the benefits, and how much should we take to pack on lean muscle.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids are Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids that are essential to our health (Essential means that we must consume these nutrients through our diet because our bodies cannot make them). Omega 3 Fatty Acids are made up of Long Chain Omega 3’s (DHA, EPA) and Short Chain Fatty Acids (ALA).

Omega 3 Fatty Acids DHA and EPA are the mega nutrients! DHA is the main fatty acid found in the brain, eyes and nerves! DHA has been shown to help with cell and brain development (memory, behavior, mood). Check out this article for multiple studies showing the effects of Omega-3’s in both elderly and young with brain
disorders (dementia,ADHD).  EPA is more responsible for delivering blood to the brain affecting mood and behavior.


The Short Chain Fatty Acid included in the Omega 3 group is Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA). This fatty acid is often added to foods for marketing purposes. However the truth is that ALA’s are inferior to DHA/EPA because it must be converted over to DHA/EPA before it can be used.

Our bodies are made of many cells. Messages are sent and received in the cells that make up our bodies. The importance of Omega 3 fatty acids and our cells lie within the shipping and receiving department. Every cell in our body (including fat cells) is surrounded by a cell membrane. The membrane is the protector, allowing messages in and out (like I am hungry or full). If these type messages are not transported, your brain will never get the message that you have eaten enough and your appetite will never be filled.

The fluidity/rigidity of the membrane is dependent on what it is made of. Saturated fats tend to harden the membrane, while unsaturated fats (like Omega 3) allow the membrane to soften to allow messages in and out. There must be a happy median.

It is easy to see why this is important. Many people today are not getting enough healthy fats and due to an unhealthy diet, messages may not be getting communicated as efficiently as they could be…leading to overeating. This can all be solved by simply intaking more omega 3 fatty acids.

Find them here;

More Omega 3 Benefits Coming Soon!