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Archive for August, 2012

When it’s time to give diet and exercise a rest

Posted in Ancestral health, Weight stigma on August 30, 2012 | 15 Comments »

I’ve been thinking more about how paleo (or at least the 2012 PaleoTM version) is not a panacea for some of us.

For a long while I’ve just been thinking about it from a purely compulsive eating perspective, but since AHS12 (and the fallout), I’m starting think a bit more about weight loss, obesity stigma, and connection (or lack of it).

In particular, I keep coming back to a comment hopefulandfree made recently on her blog. She writes re the paleo fixation with offal:

It’s not the venison, or the ox tail that MATTERS—what matters, and what creates HEALTH, are the social bonds of trust, respect, and certainty—the security of knowing you are not a separate person who must find her/his own food or construct shelter without the help of all your extended “family”. We are sick and suffering and succumbing to so much illness in this culture precisely because we are essentially on our own (as individuals or as individual families) and we know: NOBODY HAS MY BACK over the long haul.

Eating liver rather than McDonald’s is certainly a good idea, but it’s not the holy grail. Nor is getting in your WOD at the local Crossfit box.

(more…)

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Quote of the day

Posted in Ancestral health, QOTD on August 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Frank Forencich on “near-religious fervor around food“:

The vegetarian-carnivore shouting match has become a polarizing and destructive noise machine. And all sides seem to miss the big picture. That is, food is an incredibly complex subject with many layers of meaning. It is physical, personal, cultural, emotional and spiritual. Food has genuine health effects to be sure, but humans do not live by biochemistry alone. We are omnivores by evolution and nature, but the body is incredibly resilient and can thrive with many different kinds of diets. This, in large measure, is why humans have been so successful. …

If you’ve discovered a formula for eating that balances the competing demands of health, morality, sustainability and pleasure, then by all means, practice that formula. But don’t assume that your formula is right for everyone else. Important as it is, food is only one dimension of a healthy life.

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Quote of the day

Posted in QOTD on August 29, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Bill Nye:

I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it, because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can — we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.

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Quote of the day

Posted in Ancestral health, QOTD on August 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »

From the Whole9 folks via Paleo Drama:

The simple absence of grains or dairy or whathaveyou in stuff you eat doesn’t make it “Paleo.” A Paleo way of life is about choosing to partake in a “nutrient-dense life,” complete with deeply nourishing food, emotionally satisfying social relationships, and genuine interaction with the natural (i.e. outside) world. Embrace the spirit of the lifestyle instead of seeking ways to work around it. Relying on a blend of dried fruit and nuts isn’t “Paleo” - it’s just overeating trail mix.

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Study: Coaches Can Help Weight Loss

Posted in Research, Weight loss on August 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Via Michael Prager come these reports of a small, fairly short, yet interesting pilot study recently published in Obesity.

Researchers found:

that obese individuals participating in a low-intensity behavioral weight loss program who were supported by either a professional health coach or a peer coach lost clinically significant amounts of weight (at least 5 percent of their initial body weight)

Interesting tidbits from the reports and abstract:

  • 44 participants met for 12 times over the course of 24 weeks (weekly for 6 weeks, bi-weekly for 6 weeks, then monthly)
  • there were 3 study arms featuring professional, peer (another group member) or mentor (successful weight loser) coaches
  • retention was 95% (!)
  • professional and peer-coached participants performed similarly, outperforming the mentor-coached participants:
    ♦ percent losses at study’s end were 9.6, 9.1, and 5.7 for the professional, peer, and mentor-coached groups respectively
    ♦ half of the professional and peer coached participants lost 10% of their weight compared to 17% of the mentor-coached participants

It will be very interesting to see if the findings hold up in larger trials. In particular, I’ll be very curious to see if the difference between the groups is repeated, since that is very intriguing!

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Quote of the day

Posted in Ancestral health, QOTD on August 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »

My post about Frank Forencich’s view of the paleo movement led commenter hopefulandfree to reply at length on her blog. A snippet:

Paleo enthusiasts can copy ancient hunting weapons and styles, they can encourage their children to weave dream catchers to hang above their beds, they can imitate the leather footwear, or attempt to duplicate traditional diets, or mimic the physical activities our ancient ancestors followed as a matter of necessity, or participate in the ritual sacrifice of a rabbit or a quail or a squirrel–to honor the sacred customs handed down father to son, or Paleo believers can attempt to live as closely to *nature* as humanly possible in our modern world.

And they will be missing the point entirely. They will not sense the shared heart beat of the clan’s lived experience–as a clan. They will overlook completely the dense core of solid security within the day to day, and year to year, and decade after decade of inextricable bonds, unimaginably powerful social relationships and meaningful life moments, shared between all group members. And they will be blind to the irreplaceable social and material conditions so profoundly fundamental–so critical–for the development and maintenance of a healthy social structure–for the nurturing and growth of a true community.

I find this very intriguing in light of yesterday’s post. Be sure to read the whole post.

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Another week, a lotta links

Posted in Links on August 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Computer keyboardYeesh, has it been over a year since the last links post?! Ah well, you know what they say about the road to hell.

Now that AHS12 is behind me and I only have a move to another state in front of me, I thought it’d be a good time to bring it back ;).

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a collection of links I didn’t have time to blog but found interesting enough to save or tweet.

Ancestral Health

  • You Are What You Eat — Resources related to a meeting held at Harvard in March 2011 on the history of dietetics and the science of nutrition.
  • Leda Cosmides & John Tooby’s Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer — An overview of this husband and wife team’s views about this field of psychology that uses a natural selection lens.
  • Evolution in Four Dimensions — A video lecture from Eva Jablonka positing that there are four “dimensions” in evolution: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic.
  • The Really Healthy Diet — GAPS diet founder Natasha Campbell-McBride talks about the importance of a nutrient-dense real foods diet.
  • Old Stone Age Diet Depended On Latitude — Implications for a paleo diabetic diet based on a review from a University of Liverpool paper (PDF).
  • Miki Ben-Dor’s How varied could past Paleo diets have been and does it really matter? — Argues that the variability of the diet during the paleolithic is largely irrelevant to the paleo diet as practiced today.
  • My Paleo Media Diet — Think paleo is just about food? Think again! See also: Man does not live by food alone

Diet

  • Yoni Freedhoff in US News: Sensational Nutrition Headlines: Ignore Them — A great read on why it’s wise to take any media report on nutrition with a huge grain of salt.
  • Harvard School of Public Health’s The Best Diet? One You Can Follow — It’s about compliance!
  • If You Eat Excess Protein, Does It Turn Into Excess Glucose? — Lucas Tafor makes the claim that eating extra protein doesn’t raise glucose.

Misc

  • Addiction Books For the Beach — Ha, the sub-title for this post is “When 50 Shades of Grey doesn’t cut it.” I wish it included Brownell and Gold’s Food and Addiction tho!
  • athletic body diversity reference for artists — “fitness does not always equal perfect washboard abs.”

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