Archives For Paleo

Review: my posts, links and more for weeks of June 10 & 17, 2012

June 24, 2012 — Leave a comment

Posts

Links

Consumer Products

Miscellaneous

Quora/LinkedIn

  • How can I monetize selling other products on my site? ow.ly/bEPS8 My Quora response posted.
  • What are common gross margins (or just retail markup) for a high-end food store? http://b.qr.ae/KWm0YA My Quora response posted.

Odds & Ends

Sue and I on a short hike at Dawson Butte Open Space

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mowing headgear. Its bone dry around here with our lack of rain and I’ve been getting all the fields mowed to keep the fire danger at a minimum.

 

Recent sunset



Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to brands, products or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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What I eat on the paleo diet: Part 5

June 18, 2012 — 1 Comment

This is the fifth and last post in a series about how I turned my health around.  This post will detail what I eat on the paleo diet and how I have modified it to fit my needs.  My previous posts on this subject are as follows:

  1. When my health fell off a big cliff
  2. My experience with doctors and pharma drugs
  3. How I turned the corner on my failing health
  4. The health diagnostic and treatment protocols that I am using

Eligible Foods on the Paleo Diet

As a general rule, the paleo diet, which I am on, avoids grains, including rice, beans and legumes, and dairy.  Allowable foods include meats, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds.  The main books about the diet that I have read and the blogs I follow stress the importance of food quality, especially grass feed and free-range meats, wild caught fish and free-range eggs.  As much as possible, stick with organic vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.  Avoid processed foods and sugars, and keep high glycemic foods to a minimum, such as natural sugars like honey and maple syrup, fruits and potatoes.  Certain foods that are considered vegetables but which may be unsafe for certain people are russet potatoes, especially the skins, which really no one should be eating due to compounds that are hard to digest.  Russet potatoes are also high on the glycemic index. Nightshade vegetables can also affect some people – tomatoes, eggplant and peppers (all types) – and may need to be avoided.

How My Diet Has Changed Since I Went Paleo

When I first went on the paleo diet, I was having 8 meals a day, sometimes 9.  I was so hypoglycemic that I had to be eating constantly and a lot of it.  A year later, and I eat 4-5 meals a day.  Part of this is because my hypoglycemia has improved significantly as I have gotten better and part of it is due to some diet modifications, especially the reduction in eating sweet potato, explained further down.

My protein has not really changed at all since I first went on paleo.  I consumer 150-200 grams of protein per day, mostly from red meat and chicken.  I eat about a dozen eggs a week and fish a few times a week.  It’s all grass fed, free-range and wild caught.  For eggs, I buy organic eggs that are not feed any soy in their diet.  Soy is heavily used in most chicken feeds.  In about 6 months, hopefully, we will have our own chickens (I am getting them as chicks soon and they need to mature to about 20 weeks before they start laying).  I eat very few nuts and seeds, so protein intake from these sources its pretty negligible.  The only thing that has changed is that I upped my protein consumption for breafkast from around 30 grams per meal to 50-60 grams, sometimes more.  I read that eating a big load of protein for breakfast can help with balancing insulin response throughout the day.

A tasty meal of 8 ounces bacon, 4 egg omlette with ground round and fresh vegetables

My fat intake has increased and I seek it out and consume as much of it as I can.  Fat seems to agree with me quite well and I find it to be very fulfilling and really good with my hypoglycemia.  As an energy supply, fat is awesome and I think its because of it that my system has adjusted to be a fat burner, hence, I can now get by with 4-5 meals per day.  I think it will also be the basis for allowing me to get back to doing longer training and exercise sessions, like I use to do back in my racing and hard training days.  I don’t have any desire to do long hard training and racing like I use to, but I do want to be able to go hiking or skiing all day long.

Besides the meats that I eat and the fat they contain, I consume the following foods rich in fats:

  • bacon about once a week;
  • 1-2 avocados per day;
  • some days I eat a lot of almond butter, which I love, but I usually have at least a little everyday;
  • Small quantities of nuts and seeds daily;
  • The skin from whole chickens;
  • Eggs;
  • Cod liver oil supplement (3-4 teaspoons per day);
  • Beef tallow that I use for cooking (I got a screaming deal on 5 pounds of organic tallow, so my freezer is loaded with it and I use it quite generously when I cook);
  • Coconut oil, but only a few times per week;  I cook with the tallow because it has a better Omega 3/6/9 profile than coconut oil;
  • Sometimes, olive oil.

My carbohydrate intake has adjusted quite a bit since I first started paleo.  I was concerned about getting an adequate amount of carbs, because low carb intake can lead to weight loss and less energy.  I have read that 100-150 gram per day for my body weight is about average.  To get to this range on a vegetable and limited fruit diet, I was eating 1-2 sweet potatoes per day.   When I started experimenting with eating no sweet potatoes or only a little bit each day, I did not lose any weight and my hypoglycemia improved.  I found my meal consumption went from 6-7 down to 4-5 per day.  Sweet potatoes are high on the glycemic index.

I can only conclude that if I keep my insulin response low, my body does not burn up the glucose from the increased insulin, and thus, my food lasts longer.  I find it hard to believe that the first 40 years of my life was largely supplied by grain-based carbs, with fairly high and consistent loads of workout foods like bars, gels and juices, and to top it all off, pretty good hits of chocolate, cinnamon rolls, coffee, etc.  I love deserts.  That diet was like jet fuel to my system with a constant insulin overload.  Now,  I am guessing I consumer around 50 grams per day and I up it on days when I am doing a long hike or doing something active around the house.

I eat very little fruit because of the glycemic load.  At most I consume one small serving per day, and some days I go without.  A serving for me is a half-cup or less of blueberries/raspberries or a quarter of an apple and I usually only eat fruit before or after a workout.

I did not eat any of the nightshade vegetables for quite a while and only added them back in the last few months.  I seem to be doing fine eating these vegetables.   I eat tomatoes, and I know they are classified as a fruit, but I consider them a vegetable.

Another item I’ve added back is chocolate, which I am really happy about.  However, the chocolate I eat is 100% cacao powder, blended with heated coconut oil and stevia.  I allow it to cool in the fridge.  I find it to be quite satisfying and I don’t miss milk chocolate with sugar at all. I eat it a few times a week.

So, what do I drink?  Water, and that is it.  Alcohol has too high a glycemic load for me, as does fruit juice; dairy is out; caffeine is out as well, so no coffee or tea.  However, I would like to eventually add back in some herbal tea here and there and maybe a half cup of coffee once in a while.  I love coffee and use to drink it regularly.

I try to avoid water with chlorine and fluoride, all of which puts pressure on the thyroid, among other things.  The water we drink at home is well water and very good quality.  It’s not that I can’t drink regular city-treated water that contains lots of chlorine and fluoride - I seem to be fine if I do – I just try to avoid it as much as possible.  I am now in the habit of having 2 gallons of water with me that I leave in the car.  That way, if I am out and go through the quart I always bring with me, I can resupply from my stock in the car.

In the winter, I will have hot cups of water with stevia, which is pretty tasty.

An Average Day

An average day might include the following:

  • Breakfast: 4 eggs, ground round cooked in tallow; broccoli, romaine lettuce, avocado, cucumber, tomato, 1-2 brazil nuts (rich in selenium);
  • Lunch: Red meat, red leaf lettuce, broccoli, avocado, zucchini, pecans, onions, radish;
  • Late-afternoon: chicken, carrot, yellow squash, onion, lettuce, celery, almond butter;
  • Dinner:  chicken in broth or red meat in broth, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, garlic, spinach;
  • Late-evening snack: small serving of meat, celery with stevia powder, a few walnuts.

Brocooli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, garlic, spinach and chard are always steamed.  All other vegetables are uncooked.

A few other points:

  • Either before or after a workout, I might add some fruit or sweet potato to a meal.
  • Snacks, if I need them or feel like eating, might include beef jerky, almond butter, and some vegetable.
  • Eating during long hikes is pretty much a meal with meat and vegetables and maybe some fruit.  If I have to eat during a high intensity workout,  its apple with almond butter.
  • My supplement intake is in an earlier post, here.

So, there you have it, the full story of how my health got turned around from the paleo diet.  Will I every eat grains, bean/legumes or dairy again?  Certainly, I will never go back to gluten, as that seems to be more and more of a universal problem for people.  For the other foods, I am not sure.  With how sick I was, I just don’t want to ever get anywhere near that again.  It might be nice here and there as a treat, but before I do that, I will want at least another year under my belt on a 100% paleo diet.

Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to brands, products or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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How I turned the corner on my failing health: Part 3

June 12, 2012 — 6 Comments

This post continues a series about my health issues, with all the posts in the series as follows:

  1. When my health fell off a big cliff
  2. My experience with doctors and pharma drugs
  3. How I turned the corner on my failing health
  4. The health diagnostic and treatment protocols that I am using
  5. What I eat on the paleo diet

 

This is the third post in a series about the health issues I went through and how I got myself back to health. The first post covered the conditions I was experiencing, while the second post covered my experience with health care practitioners. In this post, I will cover what I did to get well.

By now, it was April 2011 and I had debilitating issues going on for almost a year and a half, which had continued to get progressively worse. By now, I was deep into my own research to determine what was going on with my health, since I was not getting answers from the people I was paying to fix me.  I had read different books about adrenal fatigue, thyroid disorders, fibromyalgia and other issues, not to mention the hours I spent on the Internet.  I stumbled on the paleo diet (also referred to as the primal diet) through a friend of my parents.

I was referred to The Paleo Solution, which I downloaded on Kindle. The book introduced me to the concept of auto-immunity and how foods play a direct role in these conditions. As I read the book, it just seemed to click. God was telling me that this was a direction I needed to go. I read the book in less than a day and by dinner, I was on the paleo diet 100%. 24 hours later, I wasn’t well by any stretch, but the constant low level of anxiety that I had been experiencing for over a year was now gone. And, it was an amazing relief! I knew by then that I was on the right track.

One major thing I learned through the paleo diet was that many classes of foods that we traditionally consider as harmless and good for us can actually cause serious issues. For me, I had to get off all grains, including rice, beans and legumes, and dairy. Also, caffeine, sugar (including fruit, honey, agave, etc), and alcohol. It would appear that these classes of foods were causing an auto-immune response against my Thyroid, primarily, but also were giving me problems elsewhere as well, including my adrenal glands and my blood glucose/insulin response. I also had some serious over-growth of Candida coursing through my body, which I will document in a later post.

In early 2010, when all this started, I tried many different diet variations, including removing gluten, then removing all grains, but sticking with beans and legumes, then removing dairy, then going back to gluten free grains and removing beans and legumes. I had never considered a diet that was just meat and vegetables because I was taught that you needed to eat grains or beans/legumes for fiber. So, if I removed grains, I would have to eat beans/legumes. I mean, come on, the government, nutritionists, and my health care practiconers were all telling me the importance of fiber from these foods. No one told me about the paleo diet or to go on an anti-inflammatory diet of meats and vegetables, and that if I did, I would still get getting plenty of soluble and insoluble fiber through vegetables.

The other problem was that my system had become so sensitive from eating these foods that I could not ingest any vitamins or supplements, which I obviously needed. For example, I had chronically low vitamin D that would go nowhere despite taking supplements and hanging out in the sun. In fact, when I took supplements, I would always feel worse.

So, with my switch to paleo in mid-April 2011, I began to recover my strength and symptoms began to dissipate almost immediately. By mid-May, I was doing really easy weightlifting, walking and working around the yard. By September, I was a good 75% back in terms of energy and general well-being. By November, I was back to my normal fighting weight; in fact, I was 5 pounds heavier, a good thing for someone like me who has always been lanky, rail-thin and 5% body fat. By June 2012, or as of this posting, I have regained what feels like 100% of my health and am feeling better than I have in at least the last 10 years.

And, I know it wasn’t the synthroid for my Thyroid or the adrenal support that turned me around, nor the various other treatment protocols I was following, which I will get into in a later post.  I had started the paleo diet before I went on these drugs and was getting better.  I think these drugs merely helped support and knock my system back in line faster.

Of the original conditions I was feeling, here is what I still experience:

  • Occasional mild bloating and belching.
  • My sleep is still not 100%, but it is slowly getting better.  I rarely take prescription sleep meds and for the most part, I feel like I get enough sleep. If I do need to take a sleep med, its usually 1 to 2.5 mg, not the 15 mg I was previously on each night.
  • Occasional tired eyes, but its mostly at night when I am probably just normally tired from the day anyway.
  • I still get hypoglycemic when I go without food for too long. However, the interesting thing about the hypoglycemia is that it has always been an issue for me and in the last few months, it is better than it has ever been in my life.

Of the original clinical conditions I was experiencing, the only medication I am on is for my Thyroid, which I may be on indefinitely. But, sometime in the future, I will research more about my thyroid to see if I can get off of the medication for it.

However, my environment is still pretty controlled. I carefully watch what I eat and drink as well as the quality, quantity and combinations of what I consume. Although, I am starting to relax that a bit and seem to be doing fine.  I have not really done much travel yet, either for pleasure or work, which can mess up a routine in eating, sleeping and exercise. And, I have not done any extended training, beyond a 3-hour hike.

The interesting thing is that when I started to get well, my doctors wondered why and I told them about the paleo diet. Several said they knew about it, but they equate it with a diet that weightlifters use and not an auto-immune diet.

So, isn’t my diet boring and don’t I have cravings for breads, cheese, milk chocolate, coffee, alcohol, cinnamon rolls…., etc, etc.? Well, no, not really. I mean, I have to be honest, that stuff is good and it would be nice to consume, but I don’t crave it or miss it like you’d think I would. With the paleo diet, I find that it satisfies me so that I don’t have cravings for these foods. And, that is an awesome thing!

There are a number of paleo resources that I have read and keep up with. The books I recommend include:

  • The Paleo Solution: - easy to digest and a pretty easy read with food and sample diet plans;
  • The Paleo Answer: more in-depth with lots more reference to studies, including food and sample diet plans (there are 50 pages alone of references).

I also read the blogs and visit the forums on these sites, which are quite active and have a wealth of information from paleo diet followers:

So, you may think, since I don’t have an autoimmune issue, the paleo diet is not for me. Well, you might be missing the opportunity for better health if you assume that. I was not experiencing a lot of the digestive disorders associated with auto-immune, like cramping, diarea, blood stools, etc. I had wicked-bad gas  and some loose stools.  There is more and more evidence emerging that a wide range of diseases and conditions are associated with our intake of grains, bean/legumes and dairy.

The challenge authors and influencers in the paleo community make is to try the diet for 30 days and see how you look, feel and perform. But, its not just going on a meat, vegy and nuts/seed diet. You have to stick with natural foods, such as grass fed meats, free-range chickens, wild caught fish and organic vegetables. Unfortunately, it is not a cheap diet. Our government subsidizes grain crops, which is why they are so cheap compared to meats and vegetables. Further, while mass-produced meats and vegetables are cheaper than free-range or organic, they are grown with pesticides and additives of various kinds.

In my next post, I will get more in-depth about Candida, a fungal overgrowth which I discovered after I went on the paleo diet. Candida overgrowth can occur in diets rich in grains, fruits, sugar and other foods that are not paleo-safe, foods which I had been on all my life.   I will also discuss the health diagnostic and treatment protocols that helped me, in addition to the paleo diet.

Disclosure: I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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Chicken fat and death

May 11, 2012 — 1 Comment

This post ultimately provides some info about the primal diet and cholesterol.  I am on the primal diet due to serious health issues that I went through.  Paleo is another name for the diet, and I think it’s the more popular name given for the diet, but I happen to like primal better.

Fresh chickens out of the oven, with the skin already consumed. Have I grossed you out, yet?

It has been a year since I went on the diet and my recovery has been awesome.  Things still aren’t perfect, and I continue to work on some nagging issues, but they are minor.  I am currently working on a series of posts that chronicle the health issues I had, my experience with doctors and drugs and my experience with the diet after a year.  I hope to have that out in the next month.

I basically eat meat and vegetables, with a few nuts and a little fruit mixed in.  My diet is predominantly organic, with free range/grass feed/wild caught meats and eggs.  I eat lots of meat.

Since I can’t have the really tasty foods, like cinnamon roles, donuts, ice cream, milk chocolate – basically all of the stuff that it appears we as humans should not be eating anyway – I delight in more simple pleasures, like fat.

Yes, I love meat fat.  My favorite ritual is to eat the cooked skin off a fresh chicken coming out of the oven, or to pound down a full 8 ounces of bacon, and save the grease for cooking in other meals.

Heart attack candidate, you think?  Well, something will eventually kill this body, and your’s, too!  but I can tell you this: the primal diet and my indulgence in fat won’t kill me as quickly as all those other foods that the government, doctors and pretty much most everyone else says are good for you – whole grains, beans and legumes.   Those buggers are poison to me and so is dairy.

A typical meal - meat and a ton of vegetables. The bowl has a few berries

So you’re probably wondering how bad my cholesterol is.  Or, bad relative to the current way that doctors and labs seem to interpret it.  Yes, without a doubt, I am a red flag. And, I need to get on an immediate IV solution of Lipitor, or whatever the latest drug of choice that the pharma companies are pushing.

However, if you consider my cholestrol levels using a different method (links to one of my favorite primal content websites), I am as healthy as a horse. And in fact, when I run my cholesterol levels through this method from tests done 3 years ago, I have a few toes in the grave. That cholesterol test was included in my annual physical and my doctor gave me an A+ for health.

I don’t go to that doctor anymore.

 

 

 

 

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Recommendations for a Paleo-Friendly Early Stage Food Start-up

August 19, 2011 — Leave a comment

This post presents a small CPG brand that I recently met.  What follows are the facts I know about the company, its current state and my recommendations.

Company

This company is 6 months old with four founders who serve as the sole employees.  They work for other companies and are growing this opportunity in their spare time.

Product Innovation

There are two consumer retail products that the company has developed and is selling.  The products are sold in the bakery section.   They are gluten-free and Paleo friendly.

Production

The company outsources its production to a commercial co-packer.

Logistics

Given that sales result only from a local farmers market, the owners currently handle warehousing and logistics.

Marketing

The product appears to be unique in the marketplace and has no direct competitors, although substitute products are numerous.  The company has so far relied on customer word-of-mouth and sales at a local farmers market as its marketing vehicles.  I have not seen its packaging and it does not have an operational website.

Sales/Retail

The company has been approved to sell its products through a local natural products retailer and expects to be on shelf in the near future in one location.

Finance

The founders have supplied all capital to date.  Net income is negligible.

Founders

The owners wish to increase retail distribution and are considering hiring a production manager to oversee the co-packer so that they have time to spend on sales and marketing.

Pros:

  • The founders work for an existing natural food products conglomerate and are leveraging their experience and connections to help grow their business.
  • There is funding available among the founders to help grow the company.
  • The products are currently unique in flavors/ingredients.

Cons:

  • The products have limited proven sales track record.

My recommendations to the founder’s are as follows:

  1. Use the initial retail location to test every aspect of the product, including product taste and performance, packaging appeal and if possible, different areas in the store for shelf placement.  Use in-store marketing methods to test ways that help drive product sales.  They can include, but are not limited to, product sampling, shelf-tags, in-store posters, and endcaps.  Optimize the packaging size and price to maximize profitability and product turn.
  2. Launch a website with company and product information.  Setup e-commerce capabilities through Amazon so that customers can make purchases (but the company fulfills).  Amazon does an amazing job optimizing SEO of its products.  In addition, the ability for customers to submit product reviews on Amazon, if they are positive, will help sales.
  3. Develop a set of attributes that the company can own to help identify and differentiate its brand.  Be mindful of the future, especially technology trends, and position the brand so that it can evolve and stay relevant into the future.
  4. Develop a product innovation strategy and timeline that enables you to quickly develop and launch flavor variations or new product lines to capitalize on customer interest.
  5.  Take full advantage of current employer in learning about how to develop, market and grow your products.
  6. Gather research to help you understand your category.  Organizations that can provide good information include the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade and Mintel.

This small company is pretty early out the gate.  But the founder’s have experience in the food industry and are positioning themselves to capitalize on the growing interest in the Paleo friendly foods, which excites me because I am on this diet.  I look forward to seeing them in retail.

Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to brands, products or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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Links, Tweets and Re-tweets From Week of July 11 2011

July 18, 2011 — Leave a comment

Retail

 

Technology & Mobile

  • Twitter and blog influence analysis engines: http://bit.ly/oKZvdZ via@steverubel
  • Nice summary of G+, its history, where it sits between FB and TW and how its better.
  • What are the most creative examples of mobile/retail commerce? http://b.qr.ae/rsXybr

 

Health

  • Just finished listening to last week’s Paleo podcast. Highly recommend this diet, these podcasts and the forum.: http://bit.ly/pYGAZ3

 

Business Models/Plans

 

Google+

 

Other

  • When people ask me why I blog, I tell them It’s about BRAND, not BREAD. http://bit.ly/cMKkN

 

 

 

 

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