[1] Success Stories: Thanks so much to everyone who reports their results on the blog. Here are a few recent reports:
Matt, an amateur bodybuilder, reports success on PHD: “I’m getting leaner and my muscles are developing better. What’s really surprising is that my calorie intake is higher and I’m losing fat mass!!”
Robin reports that rice cured her constipation.
Karin reports that the ketogenic variant of our diet has cured migraines and other problems:
I’ve been on the keto diet for nearly a month and it is the best thing that has happened to me. I’m migraine free and medication free. My mood is incredibly stable, I fall asleep quickly and stay asleep all night, I have lots of energy, I can concentrate for hours on end, etc. I’ve lost weight also, a much loved side effect. Thank you for writing this!
Brian reports rapid progress against his diabetes.
Jeanie Graham Campbell on Facebook: “My husband is doing fabulously on the PHD…. I felt great. Once I get down to where I want to be (another 7 or so pounds), I’ll be rockin’ the PHD!!!”
Meanwhile, it’s not exactly a testimonial, but I want it known that “Super Newell” Wright can run down young criminals and retrieve stolen computers while carrying a 50 pound suitcase.
[2] Music to Read By: Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band, passed away last week. Here they were at Woodstock:
Here’s Levon singing “The Last Waltz”:
And one more for the road:
[3] Interesting posts since our last Around the Web:
Toxoplasma infection is a major cause of birth defects. Treatment of pregnant mothers improves the health of their babies.
Laura Schoenfeld reviews the people of PaleoFX – and the real stars.
Via Dr. Jay Wortman, two attempts to explain why Asian rice eaters are thin on 70% carb diets: Peter Attia and Andreas Eenfeldt offer three and six reasons respectively. I half-agree with half their reasons, but the comments on Dr. Eenfeldt’s post held the most interest. Is Robert Lustig the new Ancel Keys?
Paleo for Powerlifters discusses the benefits of rice consumption.
Paleo has become too limiting for Richard Nikoley. Jack Kruse is also progressing beyond Paleo: in his talk at TEDx Nashville (video not yet online) he reported self-injecting with MRSA. If you find Jack’s posts too long, you’re in luck: one of his fans is putting Jack’s best lines up on Twitter.
“Only Dave Asprey would come back from a Cloud Computing conference with frostbite.” A Paleo conference is the place for that … Keith Norris had a nice post on cold exposure, and Kamal Patel (in comments) reminds us, “What killed the dinosaurs?” Elsewhere, Kamal makes a case for Fire Perspirogenesis.
Melissa McEwen recorded a podcast, and it’s got “nude” in the title. It’s got “sauna” too, so maybe there’s something about Fire Perspirogenesis.
Pal Jabekk quotes Tristram Shandy.
Mark Sisson discusses 5 common nutrient deficiencies. Adam Bornstein of Livestrong.com references Mark, Martin Berkhan, and Brad Pilon in explaining why he has taken up intermittent fasting.
Red wine turns materials into superconductors. (Via Instapundit) Might be a good beverage to consume while earthing.
Dr Briffa thinks earthing may work. I actually bought an earthing mat and put it under my keyboard so that my hands rest on it as I work, but haven’t noticed any effect.
Jimmy Moore has started experimenting with carbohydrates. He tried half a sweet potato per day, mashed with 3 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp honey or stevia, and found that his blood sugar was under control, but he gained a bit of weight.
Scroll down to read how CarbSane imagines the safe starches panel at AHS 2012 will go.
Carl Zimmer in the New York Times discusses a growing sense among scientists that science itself is getting dysfunctional.
That paper on plant microRNAs affecting gene expression in the liver is being questioned. No surprise there.
Don’t tell Ray Peat: Women who drink two cups of sugary soda per day are 37% less likely to become pregnant than women who drink two cups of tea a day. And a New Zealand woman died of a Coca-Cola overdose.
Don Matesz poses the “panda paradox”: Pandas didn’t evolve to eat bamboo but can survive on it. The inference, I guess, is that humans didn’t evolve to eat vegan but we might survive on it.
Via J Stanton, green tea may inhibit hepatitis C virus infection.
Matt Metzgar: what does chocolate have to tell us about food reward theory?
Wired wonders: if there are probiotic viruses, maybe we don’t want antiviral drugs.
Cogito Ergo Edo discusses the Leptin Marketing Miracle.
In the comments, André Risnes offered a corollary to Ewald’s hypothesis.
New Zealand confronts Marmageddon.
Via Newmark’s Door, why do children wet their beds? Constipation! Try giving them magnesium.
Is bee colony collapse disorder due to a corn pesticide in the high-fructose corn syrup that bee farmers have been giving their bees?
Chris Kresser discuss how stress upsets your gut. Chris has a terrific series on salt: this post has the meat of the matter.
Walter Willett defends that red meat study. But Prof Dr Andro says red meat is good for rats. Michael Greger reports that muscle meat is only about 10% of fast food chain burgers; the rest is “waste and by-products including connective tissue, nerve tissue, cartilage, bone, and in a quarter of the samples, Sarcocystis parasites.”
In our book we emphasized that, after processing by the digestive tract, all mammals eat high fat diets. Miki Ben Dor follows this line of thought in his analysis of the diet of chimpanzees.
Dr BG is back! With a major demything.
Jim Stogdill of O’Reilly Radar has started the Perfect Health Diet. Fit Element has had good results:
From my personal experience over the last few weeks adding back more of the safe starches have given me better energy than just eating vegetables alone as the only carb intake in a day. I’m no longer suffering from tremendous DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and the recovery is quicker. I have lots of energy to do daily tasks and be quite active otherwise. And not to mention that I sleep so much better! Even more muscle definition is coming along in difficult areas such as thighs.
Yoni Freedhoff has the secrets to a happy marriage.
Via Tyler Cowen, the US government is stifling a breakthrough innovation: Tacocopters.
[4] In honor of our friends at Psychology Today:
[5] A culinary color wheel: From Nicole Kosek Caulfield, via Shari Bambino:
[6] Not the weekly video: Rocky’s speech to his son in kinetic typography:
Via Tony Federico. Original speech here.
[7] Shou-Ching’s Photo Art:
[8] Weekly video: The Great Bell Chant:
The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.
via this link:
“Carl Zimmer in the New York Times discusses a growing sense among scientists that science itself is getting dysfunctional.”
Paul, don’t you and Shou-Ching work in the publish or perish trenches? I’d be interested in hearing what you think is wrong, if anything, with science these says.
Hi Sean,
Shou-Ching does. What’s not wrong with science these days? It would take a long blog post to answer that. Might be a fun topic.
I love the video but most of the images are taken from Ron Fricke’s documentary, Baraka. For the full effect watch the whole thing-though Baraka does not have the voice-over and subtitles.
Thanks for the mention (link) Paul, much appreciated!
Science has become way too enamored with itself. While the scientific method of analysis won’t be topped anytime soon it’s much the same with anything else, a little success breeds bigger egos and with bigger egos comes the quest for bigger egos. We can’t leave out Money’s interactions either. Both convolute what is supposed to be an objective quest for truth in nature. Some of the blame lies in language: if we would go back to calling scientists natural philosophers, we would see less of this I believe simply bc adding philosophy to the end of anything implies a certain obscurity. Science may be our only real tool in this life( and I say that tentatively) but we are still living in a complicated world. J Stanton touched on this in a recent post when he compared our brain to a dashboard saying (paraphrased) that if we are running out of gas, we don’t blame the gauges. I think conducting ourselves with this mentality could serve to remedy a lot of the current problems science has with itself. That and the media can’t forget those suckers. They destroy good science every chance they get.
Then again, I could be wrong…..And you’re right Paul, this would need a long post to really get into as I know I’ve left out tons of conflicting opinions. I almost hesitate to submit this comment…..
Cheers
Thanks for the link Paul!
Seems more and more writers in the paleosphere are getting unconfident about the basic paleo doctrines. This religion didn’t last long.
“Don’t tell Ray Peat: Women who drink two cups of sugary soda per day are 37% less likely to become pregnant than women who drink two cups of tea a day. And a New Zealand woman died of a Coca-Cola overdose.”
Don’t know how serious you were but drinking 8-10 liters of diet coke per day while smoking 30 cigarettes and eating almost nothing is not really representative.
In the first study non-sugary soda led to the same likeliehood so it’s either the displacement of nutrient-dense food or a general unhealthy lifestyle in soda-drinkers.
^Wheres the actual study, they don’t specify how much the fizzy drinks decrease chance of pregnancy. Also I would wager the majority of people in europe drink tea with sugar/milk so obviously its not that.
Hey Paul,just wanna throw out an idea to you.I will start with a story of my past.When I was around 25 I got a job in a restaurant and started eating tremendous amounts of food everyday.Prime rib,ice cream,lobster bisque etc.A coworker who was around 50 told me a secret….run the buildings 22 flights everyday and you will never get fat.Well I did just that and to the astonishment of my coworkers I lost weight eating large amounts of rich foods.
So I have a theory now that ones aerobic condition dramatically alters body composition.I am back to running stairs and found that I am not in the shape I thought I was.3 flights first day,then 4 and then 5.Now I am up to 8 flights straight run and all I can say is that my life is getting better the better my conditioning gets.I am eating a balanced diet like you propose but with more wheat(sandwiches etc).Funny thing is that my severe hypoglycemia has lessened tremendously! 🙂
So I ask you,could it be that obesity is just aerobic conditioning deteriorating over time?Take 99% of obese people and ask them to run some stairs and what happens.Yep,most obese people are so out of shape they cant even walk on level land let alone run a flight of stairs.
Just food for thought……just get in shape peeps….and I do not mean walking as I walk ALL day as a Fedex Courier.Its a huge difference when your heart starts pumping and you get a burning feeling.You force adaptation of your body to a more fat burning ability the higher your VO2 max goes.
Hi Wolfstriked,
I definitely think exercise and fitness is a factor. I don’t think obesity is “just” lack of fitness, but it certainly contributes. I think causality runs both ways – bad diet and the ill health induced by it makes people disinclined to move. So lack of activity is an effect of ill health and bad diet, but loss of movement compounds the ill health.
Your right Paul,I guess I went a bit over in thinking its just lack of fitness.Just wanted to put it out there to mingle since you guys are the movers and shakers.;)
Another thing I think could be fixed with better fitness level is candida.My candida diminishes and I guess that it could be it thrives in low oxygen environment.At one point in my life it was so bad that I would drink a soda and my gut would distend like I drank a gallon of liquid at once.My ex-GF would be amazed when it would happen.I also had anal leakage and at times I would literally stink like yeast.Very embarrassing to put it mildly.When I get in shape my gut feels tight with little bloat.I have been eating alot of kimchee lately so that helps also.And beer drinking is not as bad as it is when I have bad candida. 🙁
As for exercise sucking,well I have always been a big follower of the less the better.I can build a decent physique by doing one set of pullups,one set of chinups,one set of wide pushups and one set of diamond pushups.Same with stair running.No need to do hours when you can just force adaptation by getting to the point of exertion and ending the session.Today I ran 10 flights and its getting easier to the point where I then jogged to get breakfast.
Hello Paul,
I sure enjoy your posts! You’re amazing!
Is Robert Lustig the new Ancel Keys? Could you pleeeze elaborate on this thought? Isn’t Dr. Lustig correct?
The food plate looks so luscious!
And a comment on the stair climbing…this is also a weight lifting exercise. I do agree that it is generally a great way to keep fit and keep the weight down. (I’m sure if we all lived in big cities where it is more convenient to walk instead of drive, we’d all be a lot better off).
Hi Wolfstriked,
Very interesting about your gut! I’ll have to look for papers on exercise and immune function and gut integrity.
Hi Heidi,
“Robert Lustig is the new Ancel Keys” was stated by Richard D Feinman in the comments of the Eenfeldt post. Richard is the head of the Nutrition & Metabolism Society, a biochemist, and he doesn’t pull punches. He things Lustig exaggerates and mis-states science for public influence.
Lustig is the “pop” version of John Yudkin, who did much the same thing more convincingly, with proper scepticism and caution, back in the 70s. Thus it is easy to be convinced by Yudkin. Lustig has been convinced by Yudkin, but he has forgotten that what made Yudkin so convincing was his understatement and the scientific method.
Drinking 7-10 litres of water a day will probably mess you up.
But if cola wasn’t addictive she wouldn’t have drunk so much water. I don’t know why she swallowed the fly.
Marmageddon – I preferred vegemite as marmite has added iron, vegemite doesn’t. The fortified B vitamins in these yeasty things are the same ones in bread, minus folate. So have marmite on white bread, and get a double dose.
Rice – why it’s white rice in the Asian diet might not be all about phytates. In “Escape from Hong Kong” the author traverses China in 1942 and in 200 miles doesn’t see a single tree. All cut down for firewood to cook with.
White rice cooks in half the time it takes to make brown rice digestible.
Could there have been an economic/environmental reason for milling rice initially? Firewood was always a scarce resource in China; central government had the power to order milling to conserve it.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for sharing … lots of great tidbits!
I enjoyed reading Feinman’s comments about Lustig and fructose. I have to admit, through the info I’ve come across, I have thought of fructose and alcohol being metabolized the same and shunted to the liver as toxic.
On a related note, Gary Taubes favors starchy carbs over fructose in Why We Get Fat … on pg. 138 referring to fructose:
“It’s quite possible that if we never ate these sugars we might never become fat or diabetic, even if the bulk of our diet were still starchy carbohydrates and flour. This would explain why some of the world’s populations live on carbohydrate-rich diets and don’t get fat or diebetic, while others aren’t so lucky. The ones that don’t (or at least didn’t), like the Japanese and Chinese, were the ones that traditionally at very little sugar.”
It was also fun to hear Melissa chat in sort of a casual setting.
Thanks,
Mark
I posted this question to paleo hacks,
http://paleohacks.com/questions/114097/organic-japanese-sweet-potato-doesnt-grow-is-it-really-organic. I want to see what you think.
Also, I think that the Japanese sweet potatoes have lower vitamin A content than the orange fleshed varieties because color indicates vitamin A.
Hi JRM,
False labeling is a problem. Good experiment!
Primordial: “Seems more and more writers in the paleosphere are getting unconfident about the basic paleo doctrines. This religion didn’t last long.”
* Stirring up controversy is much easier than doing science.
* N=1 isn’t science even if you’ve got letters after your name.
* I’ve found none of it interesting or convincing so far…and some of it is flat wrong.
JS
Paul,
Can you please help me understand what a high, out of range number of %NK (CD56/16) means? Is this linked to autoimmunity?
Hi Acai,
I’m not sure what it means, there are many possible causes. I saw a paper recently that germ-free mice grow up to have high NK cell counts, while those exposed to microbes early have low NK cell counts. I’m sure there are pathologies or infections which will raise NK cell counts also. There are even NK cell lymphomas. Is this a lifelong thing, or did it develop recently?
I was tested for it for the first time recently, so I don’t know how long it’s been that way. I have an unresolved thyroid issue with a high reverse t3, high TSH and t4 in the high normal range and t3 in the low normal range + high cholesterol. My TPO levels have been 11 (normal range 0-34) throughout the last year, so it’s not clear it’s an autoimmune condition I have, so that’s what I’m trying to figure out. The wierd thing is that even though I was on VLC from late 2010 and to late 2011 and my TSH increased from 2,9 in early 2011 to 5,3 in late 2011, adding in 400 carb calores a day for 5 months almost didn’t do anything. (recent blood work showed TSH: 4,8)In addition my insulin tested below range at 14,3 pmol/l (normal range 43-194) and my calcitriol level at 62 pg/ml.
I know my gut flora is poor aswell (e.g. wasn’t breastfed). Maybe I was raised in a too clean environment, judging by the result of the study you refered to.
My interest in Matesz diminished after his anti-paleo conversion, but didn’t completely disappear until he posted about raw milk as a disease vector. I don’t have faith that he thinks critically, except to support his predisposed notions. So nowadays, I have no time for him.
I’ve always had concerns about too much red meat in the diet. Why are Paleo people okay with eating so much red meat and not okay about eating small or moderate amounts of traditional soy foods like tofu? They’ll eat copious amounts of red meat, not worried about high iron levels…..too much Iron is carcinogenic but yet Paleo folks will cite biased interpretations of soy studies.
Hi Jana,
Why are soy studies biased? Iron is dangerous if one gets too much, but is a necessary nutrient. The levels of meat we recommend are not dangerous.
I am not saying the amount recommended by PHD is dangerous but that I see many Paleo forum members recommend amounts which would produce extremely high levels of Iron. A real life example, I was eating lunch with few of my friends who are also Paleo dieters/ cross fit fanatics. All of them had consumed in excess of at least 4 servings of beef/ veal/ lamb during lunch, all the while giving me grief for choosing edamame and veggies/ tofu stew instead. The things they were telling me sounded like the anti-soy articles on websites like Weston Price and Dr Mercola. Of course animal studies that has the subjects fed humongous amounts of isolated soy are going to produce malnutritioned or ill subjects. To then extrapolate such studies to indict even small or moderate soy consumption, is in my opinion, biased. I just think a bit of moderation is needed; it is becoming as annoying as Vegans telling me why/ how unhealthy I am based upon my food choices.
Hi Jana,
I do think that very low-carb Paleo diets that make up for the lack of carbs with extra meat can raise a risk of excess protein or iron.
Moderation helps with all toxic foods, since “the dose makes the poison,” but I don’t see any significant benefits to soy which would justify even a modest exposure to its toxins. Fish would be much better.
I used to think soy was good, in fact I still think soy isoflavones are useful and fermented soy like miso or natto fine, but after eating tofu maybe twice a week for a year I started getting hideous symptoms; my skin would thicken, crack and go all elephant man on me immediately after eating it. Definitely the soy, and unlike any other food allergy.
It was an acquired reaction that I got after eating soy, which makes it unlike say a peanut allergy and more like gluten grains.
Has anyone had any experience with the fat palm olein? I noticed it as an ingredient on a back of dried plantains, and I’m wondering if it is healthy’ish.
The saturated/monounsaturated profile looks about the same as palm oil; however, it is more highly processed.
On good science gone bad, I highly recommend this lengthy collection of blog posts on the topic by Bruce G. Charlton:
http://thestoryofscience.blogspot.com/
I’m not close enough to the inner chambers of science to say whether he’s right, though it sounds plausible and I think I’m going with it until I learn otherwise. If nothing else it’s a great read — one of those “better than fiction” missives. And incidentally might reshape how you see the world. I read it all in one morning, laughing the dark laughter of the damned (so to speak..)
———-
OT: Paul, on the q&a thread you asked me to keep you posted on my ‘foot flushing with warmth’ problem, and odd sensations in limbs. You suggested I cut the selenium supplementation. I cut pretty much all supplements (I missed where you said to keep the iodine) except for LE’s K2 (every 4 days) and I have had an occasional (once a week?) multi-mineral or multi-vitamin (containing small amount of selenium.)
Well, at first it continued unabated, then I thought it was decreasing in response to cutting Se supplements (or Brazil nuts and tuna on some days), then there were intermittent peak days and valley days. Now it lingers on, milder and less frequent, but still an occasional visitor.
So, I’m not quite sure what to think.. For now I’m wary of supplements.
Tim, I had this problem on zero-carb. Figure it is peripheral uric acid because I noticed it when eating sardines, but I’m not sure. It faded when I introduced 100g carbs from rice. I also found bicarbonate of soda (with citric acid) and magnesium useful; I take these before bed and have never noticed it at night… which come to think of it suggests a postural component too. The rice has slowly relieved it. I get it in fingers too.
When I supplemented Se at very high doses (900mcg) for a long time I did get hot flushes in feet as neuropathy, which was a different thing, but has also happened on zero carb, but corrected very quickly with rice.
I have theorised that the ketogenic rejuvenating effect on nerves can go too far and either make nerves over-sensitive, or awaken nerves that take time to reconnect properly.
Interestingly Inuit have periodic flushes of blood to extremities, not seen in other people, which prevents frostbite. What if this is an effect of diet rather than purely adaptive?
Always check the selenium content of your area before supplementing
http://tin.er.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/averages/se/usa.html
as some regions of the USA are very high already.
e.g. South Dakota, Wyoming
http://www.ajcn.org/content/52/5/858.short
selenium and dysglycaemia:
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/7/1/21
Fascinating, thank you George. I will research uric acid, I don’t know anything about it. I do eat sardines fairly often, if that’s a factor.
I did experiment with VLC for several months a while back, then I dropped it and have been trying to follow PHD. I do eat rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. though I’m not really sure what amount it is in grams, I just try for a “reasonable” portion size.
I notice the foot flushing thing more in the morning, typically less often during the course of the day and evening.
I think one cup of cooked rice is around 50g carbohydrate, and a small serve of Macdonalds french fries is 44g according to the wrapper (but perhaps NZ Happy Meal fries are smaller in NZ than say in US?).
Peas have half the carb of pumpkin which has half the carb of sweet potatoes.
That’s all I know, it seems to be enough…
@Acai
NK cells are a sign of an activated cellular immune system. They are the first line of defense and often elevated in the early phase of infection or inflammation. Some allergic or autoimmune conditions can lead to high NK cells as well as some tumors. Acute stressors (exercise, donating blood, sleep deprivation) often induce transient NK cytosis. NK lymphomas are extremly rare.
Sooo…I wouldn´t overinterpret it.
@JS: (Sorry for answering that late)
“* Stirring up controversy is much easier than doing science.”
Indeed. Science is what gets us forward, not the paleo doctrine “Only eat what people had access to in the paleolithic”. The evolutionary history of our race gives us hints but evolution didn’t begin in ice age and didn’t end 15.000 years ago.
“* N=1 isn’t science even if you’ve got letters after your name.”
Nevertheless it’s interesting that people have not exclusively good experiences with paleo so we should ask questions.
“* I’ve found none of it interesting or convincing so far…and some of it is flat wrong.””
What is wrong for example?
I think of the paleo doctrine as the beliefs that
a) fat oxidation is superior and carbohydrates should be limited
b) neolithic foods are toxic because we aren’t adapted
Both claims aren’t backed up by science. The Perfect Health Diet is a breath of fresh air in this community. Not because I agree with everything but because of the basic approach: It is about the (scientific) truth, as Paul said, not about some dogma. Paleo HAS to fail in the end because it is only a dogma. Many people try to fit the science into this dogma, but it should be the other way round. Only then an evolutionary model makes sense.
What paleo got “accidentally” right, because it rejects refined modern foods, is the following:
– high nutrient density
– not much toxins and polyunsaturated fats
– healthy saturated fats
But it’s also a philosophy, it’s about environmental sustainability and personal responsibility. It goes against the grain of the junk food, grain and PUFA mafia.
And that’s the reason I really like this community. We have figured out a lot of the right things, both regarding diet, lifestyle and environmentalism.
But due to the dogmatic approach paleo also got some things wrong:
– demonizes carbohydrates due to the fallacy of confusing the symptoms of diabetes with the cause
– often overlooks the problems of iron overload
– ignores the science behind “neolithic” foods like potatoes, legumes, dairy, fruits and some gluten-free grains which is not in favor of paleo.
– forgets to explain the implications of chronic stress (due to hormonal imbalances) on the body
– says fish oil is benign
It is not about accepting these theories blindly but at least discussing it with an open mindset. A lot is still unknown and the first step to truth is the absence of dogma. But that can’t happen if people try to fit everything into the paleo idea.
Of course, more an more people in the paleosphere write about the above things and the original paleo-idea is being watered down. When I talk about the doctrine which is dying I mean the hardcore paleo dogma I already discussed. Fortunately more and more bloggers are discussing the limits of this dogma and realize that potatoes, dairy, fruits, and carbohydrates aren’t evil.
Cordain’s diet, which you coined the term “faleo”, was taken down very fast because it was just crap science for the most part. Paleo 2.0 (more saturated fats, whole animal, butter fat, starches if tolerated) was as step in the right direction.
However, I am convinced this idea is more or less dead and paleo today is nothing more than an umbrella under which different diet philosophies exist which include evolutionary frameworks.
You can see the evolutionary version of “Paleo” as a train that goes from prehuman primates (mostly vegetarian – fruitarian), early hominids (scavengers of animal foods and occasional thieves of vegetable caches) through paleo (mainly hunters) through mesolithic (hunter-gatherer) and neolithic (whole-grains and organic farming), getting off at whichever stop suits you, moving backwards and forwards from one station to another as you please. None of us knows from theory alone where our genes fit best on this continuum.
For me, having read hundreds of papers and thousands of abstracts over the years, “Paleo 2.0” on Kurt Harris’ blog is the least innaccurate generalised and condensed dietary statement I know, and this blog of Paul’s, and the PHD, the most conscientious attempt at providing all the finer details of what amount to much the same ideas, arrived at independently.
Hi Paul,
I have already written here on your website for my health issues but now I am coming back with a doubt and a question about PHD.
I have read many pages of your book and appreciate that many of your suggestions and cocnlusions are based on facts. I would like to try your diet but I have a doubt. This is originated by another “knowlegde” I have acquired recently: Gerson therapy for chronic diseases and cancer.
Many of the statements of both diets are opposite.
Have you ever heard about Gerson therapy? If yes, how would you explain its effectivness in curing disease?
Thanks
Ciro
Hi Ciro,
All I know about Gerson therapy is what I read on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerson_therapy#Gerson_Therapy.
Toxins are an issue in many diseases, but they are often a symptomatic issue (eg, from pathogen die-off), and detoxing protocols may relieve symptoms but not cure anything. Vegetables have a variety of anti-cancer compounds — most natural anti-angiogenic compounds and HDAC inhibitors are found in vegetables — so a cancer diet should be vegetable rich, but this doesn’t mean it needs to be vegetarian.
Vegetarian diets are generally far from optimal, and things like coffee enemas and castor oil enemas are unproven therapies. So I would consider this diet suboptimal as a general approach, and highly speculative in some of its elements.
Whether it is effective in curing disease is a matter of dispute. See the Wikipedia article.
Best, Paul
Paul,
Are you aware of any cookbook that follows the principles outlined in the “Perfect Health Diet” or alternatively do you plan to publish one?
Thanks,Pete
Hi Pete,
We do plan to publish one, but it will take a bit of time before it comes out. In the meantime we have recipes on the site. Another tactic is to adjust classic dishes from any cuisine by substituting ingredients. Eg in French cooking replace wheat with rice/potato/tapioca.
Most East Asian/Southeast Asian/Pacific dishes are already PHD compatible.
Thanks for replying so quickly Paul. Yeah I was just checking out some of the recipes on the site and the Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs)look awesome lol. My fiance is Filipino so you can imagine my relief finding out that white rice is a good starch! Telling a filipino that they can’t eat rice….well you might have better luck telling them to stop breathing ha ha. Now my biggest problem is finding a substitute for wheat based bread. I will be ordering your book tomorrow. Does it include info on grains that can be used to make bread that don’t compromise health like wheat does?
Thanks again, Pete
Hi Pete,
There are gluten-free breads made with rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch. Those are the ones to go for.
Best, Paul
Hi Paul,
Is edamame allowed on PHD?
Thanks
I personally wouldn’t eat them, but if they’re soaked and cooked they’re probably not bad.
I am looking for any commentary on the environmental hazards of animal consumption. I have had great results from PHD after a year but I have been running into the ethical issue of the effects of raising and consuming animals and animal by-products relative to global warming.
Even though I buy the science of PHD I have a hard time justifying it’s unsustainability. I would appreciate the thoughts of others on this issue.
I hope you can find a biodynamic farm to buy your meat from. It’s not only sustainable, but a necessary way to grow food.
If you google Polyface farm or Joel Salatin, you will find out what I mean.