One of the most enjoyable aspects of 2011 was the opportunity to speak about our diet.
Meeting readers and making new friends was delightful. And preparing the talks forced me to think about what parts of our message were most important, and to find the most powerful supporting evidence and images for each point. I feel
Thank You!
I’m grateful to everyone who attended my talks this year, but most deeply grateful to:
- Sally Fallon and the Weston A Price Foundation for inviting me to speak at Wise Traditions 2011.
- Court Wing, Hari Singh, and Joshua Newman for the opportunity to speak at CrossFit NYC.
Wise Traditions was a tremendous conference; if you ever have a chance to go, don’t miss it.
Court Wing was a wonderful host, the audience was fantastic – we took questions for about an hour after the talk – and Shou-Ching and I had a great time. CrossFit NYC has just moved into new space, so if you’re looking for a gym in New York, be sure to check them out.
When I get a chance I’ll go through these talks, find replacements for any copyrighted images, and post the slides.
Dr Mercola Video Interview
One of the happiest outcomes of the Wise Traditions conference was my meeting with Dr. Joseph Mercola. Since the conference we’ve spoken for several hours and traded emails, and I’ve been impressed with his friendliness and his ability to get to the heart of matters and boil complex issues down to essentials.
Dr Mercola recorded a 90-minute video interview with me which will go out in his newsletter on Saturday, January 7. However, his team has already posted it on Youtube. I hope I’m not stealing any of his thunder by embedding it here:
Dr Mercola is a tremendous interviewer and I really like the content. I hope no one minds that I shift my weight back and forth. I wasn’t aware that I was doing this, I suppose it’s a habit developed from working at a standing desk.
Jimmy Moore, Encore Week
I’m appearing tomorrow, January 3, on Encore Week of Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.
Jimmy hasn’t posted the interview yet (UPDATE: The interview is here), but he does have a preview. My preview segment runs from 3:00 to 5:30:
Jimmy used a photo from this site that dates from 2009, when my rosacea was bad. One more reminder that it’s time to update all our photos!
Joanne Nelson, Joanne Unleashed
Joanne Nelson of Joanne Unleashed has also posted an interview with me. It’s another excellent introduction to our diet.
Upcoming Interviews
Miriam Knight of New Consciousness Review will interview me on January 4, and will air Tuesday January 10 at 9 am on KWRM 106.9 FM in Seattle, and on NCReview.com and iTunes.
Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness has invited me to appear on his radio show on Thursday, January 19 at 5pm PST/8pm EST.
I’m excited about all of these opportunities, and I hope you enjoy them too!
via this link:
Hi! I’m a young student hoping to be a Medical Doctor one day, and I just wanted to thank you so much for the video, your book, and all the resources on the blog.
You, your wife, Dr. Mercola, and Dr. Catherine Shanahan (Deep Nutrition) are all-together a huge inspiration for me, and I hope that I will one day be able to help others heal & prevent their illnesses through diet/ nutrition.
I have a question: what are your opinions about sprouted grains and legumes? I come from a Korean family and I ate lots of sprouted mung and soybeans growing up. I also love sprouted brown rice – the sweet, chewiness is just so delicious! Since I’ve read “Deep Nutrition,” I thought sprouted grains were superior to the non-sprouted. Would you recommend them?
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks!
Sprouted grains are superior to non-sprouted, but I would still generally avoid them. They are not toxin-free. Once in a while we eat mung bean sprouts, usually in Pho, but not often.
Best, Paul
Hi Paul, that was a really awesome interview. It seems Mercola is as excited about your theories and ideas as we are.
Would be an exciting project if you could work together with Natasha Campbell-McBride, Chris Kresser, Jack Kruse, Mario, Bryan Walsh on a super book with all your knowledges combined on diet, nutrition, toxins, gut, hormones, pathogens, herbs, labs testing and supplements. You’ve got many facts straight, but combining those with real experience from practitioners would go even further. For instance you recommended against fermented cod liver oil and chris kresser responded that long history of treatment with fermented cod liver oil has shown the oil to be beneficial. I tend to believe experience over science in those cases. It would be a cool project, right?
I’m looking for information on how nutrition, toxins, inflammation, cortisol or really any imbalance within can cause bad posture, vulture neck and for instance tendencies to sprain the ankles. I’ve never really been convinced by the chiropractors, naprapaths and physical therapist insisting that these problems are caused by too much sitting and/or too few ours in the gym. When I found and read Todd Hargrove’s blog on neuroscience it seemed more logical to me that the culprit is a malfunctioning brain or nervous system. Also when I look around among family and friends it seems that those with back problems also have other health problems (specifically gut issues in many cases I suspect). The ones that seemingly have no health issues at all have no back or posture problems either. Of course this is a very limited set of people, but I find it interesting. Do you have any idea of what can cause postural/neuro/muscle issues?
I’ve read many books and blogs about health, but still applied very few of the recommendations. I think it’s time to spend a little less time reading and a little more time really learning to cook good food and applying the good ideas. But I think I have to keep reading your blog though, I’ll cut down on some others.
Thank You for the response! If you don’t mind me asking another question, I was wondering if items such as sweet-potato-noodles (made with its starch), or acorn-starch-jellies were considered safe?
Thanks!
I like the Mercola interview, I’m glad that he’s giving you some time to explain basics.
And Underground Wellness radio! That’s the big time, at least for me. That was the first health podcast I ever listened to, and I still do. Looking forward to it and another year of blogging.
Cheers.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the interviews. I find it is a good review for me and I always seem to learn something, too.
I like the video interview idea. Would be nice to have a split screen and include Dr. Mercola. The YouTube video was fuzzy with out of sync audio for me.
Looking forward to your planned 2012 blogging (and cookbook). Seems these last couple months have been very busy for you.
Thanks again!
Mark
Paul,
Really enjoyed the Mercola interview. Learned a few things I had missed in my repeated readings of your book and perusals of your blog. Slow learner I guess 🙂 I confess I usually skip over interviews unless there is a transcript, but am more than willing to make an exception for the PHD. Thanks for the great service you and Shou-Ching provide. You are improving the quality of life for everyone who has been willing to give PHD a try. I am eagerly anticipating all of your 2012 blogposts!
Good interviews Paul. My family and friends claim to be too busy to read and understand diet books and articles. Yet, they’ll listen to an interview. So I’m glad I can refer them to hear your ideas. Keep up the good work with this method.
Dr. Mercola relies too heavily on scaremongering hyperboles in which scientific studies get distorted to support his own conclusions and opinions. This is not a diss on you, Paul, just that your presentation and scientific analysis are much more fair and measured than Dr. Mercola’s tactics.
I listened to your interview with Jimmy Moore. I have two questions
1/ Your explain and treatment for dawn responses in diabetes is totally different from Dr. Bernstein. You both uses scientific researches but seem opposite? Did you read his book?
2/Bulletproof executive claims mycotoxins from food and spice, dried herbs can’t be destroy by heat, cooking… Your book did not mention anything about mycotoxin? Would you look into that topic?
You also look chubby in the old photo and slimmer now.
Hi Sue,
That was puffiness from a mild hypothyroidism. My TSH level has always been a good indicator of the severity of my infections.
Paul, you mentioned some initial difficulties in adjusting to a paleo diet. Would you expand on that? I am transitioning to the PHD and have found that sometimes a high-fat breakfast gives me heartburn. That seems to be going away, so I’m not sure if it’s a phase or what.
Hi Andrea,
In my case I had both bacterial and fungal (Candida) infections when I started Paleo, and the Candida infection flared, in part due to a sudden mass die-off of white blood cells that were infected by the bacteria. After my white blood cells came back the Candida receded, but gradually became more severe again due to the ketogenic nature of the diet.
Re the heartburn, I’m curious what you’re eating. A good PHD breakfast might be a banana or potato and 2-3 eggs.
Hi phuong le,
Perhaps I shouldn’t have made the statement I did about the dawn effect. The interplay of hormones is complex and this is really an empirical question. Depletion of glycogen can elevate hormones like glucagon and cortisol that exacerbate the dawn effect; on the other hand eating carbs has the potential to introduce fluctuations in insulin that can create a rebound hyperglycemia after an earlier hypoglycemia. I think the insulin fluctuations tend to die down by the end of a 12 hour fast, so the other issues (including circadian rhythms which may be enhanced by some daily carb feeding) tend to dominate, but I respect Dr Bernstein’s clinical experience and empirical evidence will be the final determinant. (NB – I was thinking of Type 2 diabetics, not Type 1.)
Mycotoxins can be a problem, but the doses tend to be pretty small. Our diet forbids peanuts, and grains and legumes generally, which may be the leading danger. Obviously any moldy food should not be eaten. In general fresh animal foods and low-calorie plant foods have reduced mold danger. As a practical matter I don’t think it’s likely that a thorough consideration of mycotoxin dangers would alter any of our advice.
Paul, typically I am having one egg, some potatoes or sweet potatoes, a tomato slice, and a cup of coffee. Sometimes instead of the potato I have a piece of bacon or sausage.
Hi Andrea,
That sounds like a good breakfast. I also often have tomato with breakfast. However, some people do report that tomato can give them heartburn: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4912902_do-tomatobased-foods-cause-heartburn.html.
I tend to suspect some sort of bowel dysbiosis in acid reflux. I need to put together a post or two on that.
PS – Shou-Ching tells me that coffee gave her reflux.
Hi Paul,
I really enjoyed the interview you did with Mercola.
I have a few unrelated questions if you don’t mind. In December, my vitamin D tests showed 25D levels at 38,5 ng/ml and too high, out of range levels of 1,25D. But earlier last year in April, my tests showed too low 25D (21,7 ng/ml) and completely normal 1,25 (46,4 pg/ml).From April to December I added only 2000 IUs of D from cod liver oil, besides sun exposure in the summer. Does this mean that my VDR receptors still works quite well, and hasn’t been completely high-jacked by the infection yet?
I’ve done antibody tests for different infections. Only positive was IgG for toxoplasmosis and h plylori from tests done in April. Could either of these explain the rise in 1,25D levels?
Lastely, I’ve read a comment you made in response to the user “qualia” in the past, where you said that upping iodine to 50 mg would lower the 1,25. Would this help the immune sysem get rid of the infection and therefore lower the 1,25D? I also had a high TSH at 2,9 in April, increasing to 5,2 in december (all while being strictly paleo). Both high total cholesterol and LDL in April and December. Regarding TSH, I’m thinking this might be due to the immune system stripping iodine from thyroid hormones.I’ve recently upped my carbs from one year of very lowcarb, so it might be that the low carb intake is to blame. I also had a high reverse t3 and high counts of NK cells (CD56/16).
I don’t know where to go from here. Could the addition of high dose iodine alone resolve this? If not, what kind of antibiotics should I ask my doctor for?
Thank you.
Hey Paul,
First off, I wanted to say how much I loved this site and your book.
I was happy to see your interview with Dr. Mercola. I tend to visit both your sites frequently and was glad to see that the two of you were able to bounce information off each other.
I did have a question about your mother who was diagnosed with cancer when she gave birth to you. What type of cancer did your mother have?
The reason I asked was that my wife recently gave birth and was diagnosed with Kidney cancer. After the removal of her surgery, we have tried to stepped up our eating habits tremendously and we have food this book to be great help.
Any advice as well?
Her GFR is normal. I’m looking to optimize her diet to help provide the nutrients she needs to get the best results.
@Erik, Hi Erik, with your cod liver oil, you may just want to make sure that you are not getting more Vitamin A then you intend.
If i were to dose my natural non-fortified CLO to get 2,000 IU of Vitamin D, i would end up getting 15,625 IU of Vitamin A.
Personally i take the CLO for the Vit A (not D3) & take a dose of approx 3g to 4g per day (1 metric teaspoon or less) which is approx 2,000-2,700 IU Vitamin A (in the CLO that i use).
Hi Darrin. Thank you for commenting on my post.
From what I’ve read about vitamin A, as long as you get it from natural sources, there shouldn’t be a problem with toxicity. The weston price foundation has written exstensively about this. However I would be more worried about supplementing with 15,625 IUs with synthetic vitamin A. Vitamin A and D seems to work synergistically, so that if you’re severely deficient in either, by supplementing high levels of one, you would probably experience toxicity at a lower level. Vitamin A toxicity has rarely been documented, except for acute toxicity (artic explorers who consumed liver from polar bears, which contains millions of IU’s of vitamin A, according to WAPF) and the documented toxic effects from chronic supplementation of vitamin A, were usually from supplementation of the synthetic form, using amounts like 100,000 IU’s per day for many months. I might also add that WAPF estimates that the tribes people Weston Price visited consumed on average about 50,000 IU’s of natural retinol a day with no ill effects. Also, eating liver once or twice a week I believe, will get you on average per week, more than 15,625 IU’s a day.
Darrin, maybe I misinterpreted your post. I’m not sure if you were thinking about vitamin A toxicity or only about getting excess levels of vitamin A. Reading your post again, I see that you don’t mention the word “toxicity”. Anyway, I think the amount of vitamin A I’m getting from my cod liver oil is only beneficial for me. I use the “green pastures” brand, which I think is excellent. It’s the only fermented oil on the marked that I know of. Is it the same that you use?
Can you add a ‘like’ button and not share button on your webspages. It can also say ‘recommend’ and both are 1-click share.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/like-button-plugin-for-wordpress/ WordPress
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/ HTML
Hi Eirik (sorry i misspelt your name last time),
My comment was more about being aware of how much Vitamin A you are getting from your CLO dose.
It sounds like you know your stuff tho.
I posted because some people are unaware of (or ignore) the Vitamin A content in CLO and solely focus on the Vitamin D content.
I do not use Green Pasture, its a bit pricey for me. I am in Australia and use a brand called Melrose, which is a fraction of the price of Green Pasture, it is flagged as ‘Good’ by Western Price (not ‘Best’ like your stuff).
The Melrose has an A to D ratio of 7.8:1 (eg. 4ml/3.7g contains 2,500 IU Vit A & 320 IU Vit D3).
Do you know want the A to D ratio is for the Green Pasture? I would be interested to know.
@44min in first video re: low carb diets haven’t been studies much (and Jimmy says Atkins beats them all I believe 20min in his interview)
What about low carb plant based diet beats Atkins / animal based one on mortality @5min :
http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/53397-contest-this-paleoatkins-people/page__view__findpost__p__494324
Hi Darrin,
The A to D ratio for the Green Pasture brand is around 1:5, with one teaspoon providing around 9500 IU’s of vitamin A and 1950 IU’s of vitamin D. I don’t know how much cheaper your brand is compared to the Green Pastures, but it looks like the green pastures brand contains more of the vitamins A and D pr ml then the brand your using, so you would be able to get away with a smaller dose using the Green Pastures brand. Maybe then the price difference isn’t that great.
Thanks Eirik,
Looking at the latest test info on the Green Pasture web site located under ‘Test Data’ (which i have just discovered),
The A & D content in the latest FCLO batches is even stronger, with Vitamin A approx 3,000 IU per ml and Vitamin D (mainly D2) approx 700 IU per ml
Hi Paul, New Topic-I have been on a perfect health diet for one year now. In this time I have had peri-oral dermatitis once, and now I have it again. The first time I was given a topical antibiotic lotion, and it went a way after 10 weeks. I am using the same topical antibiotic now, but it is not working, so was recently prescribed doxycycline, which I have not begun yet. I have a couple of questions. When taking this 30 day tetracycline type med, should I continue to eat Krauts, and take probiotics? Many people feel that doing so makes the drug less effective, and others feel that it is necessary to stay well. Also, can you shed any light on why I’m getting this condition, and what I could do to get rid of it.I see from blogs that it is very difficult to get rid of.I would be very grateful if you could share any information you may have on this condiiton.Thank you
Hi susan,
It’s a great question but it’s hard to know the answer.
First, as to why you got it, very likely there were some bacteria or other pathogens that were capable of causing the condition present in your mouth and gut, and dietary changes that nourished them or promoted virulence triggered the condition to flare up. Eating fermented vegetables or kimchi for the first time can deliver new genes to old bacteria and cause them to generate new symptoms; eating more vegetables can add nutrients which certain bacteria can eat, eg eating more sulfur-rich vegetables like onions and garlic can lead to growth of sulfur-metabolizing bacteria.
Exactly how these changes lead to specific symptoms is not known, there are many possibilities but a specific cause for rosacea or perioral dermatitis has never been pinned down. I expect the cause could be a combination of oral infections, possibly both bacterial and fungal, with circulating amines and other toxins from gut bacteria, plus inflammatory excitation of the immune system by gut bacteria.
The gut flora is a dynamic, living ecology, so the consequences of adding new flora and foods is sometimes unpredictable. Fermented foods and vegetables are usually associated with improved health, but in any given case they can have negative effects.
Against rosacea, I found amoxicillin worked best, then doxycycline.
I tend to favor continuing to take fermented foods and probiotics during the antibiotic treatment. If you had a life-threatening infection, I wouldn’t, because the new bacteria might bring antibiotic resistance genes to the existing infection. But for a less serious infection I think it gives you more chance to reshape your gut flora in a positive direction.
I would also be careful about oral hygiene, and pay close attention to foods that trigger symptoms. Alcohol is frequently problematic, and a wide range of foods can trigger gut flora to act up. You might look at SCD or GAPS sites for lists of foods that can be problematic.
Saline mouth rinses, and adding more salt and water to your diet, may also help.
Best, Paul
Susan,
Over the course of about 8 years I had perioral dermatitis three times. I took antibiotics the first time but when it came back a year later I didn’t take anything. It eventually went away. I don’t know why. But then it came back a third time. It was still there six months later when I started PHD and when some experimenting with a ketogenic diet brought about some curious symptoms, Paul helped me to figure out that I had a fungal infection that ketosis was exacerbating.
Eliminating the mold ripened cheeses and kefir that I had been eating daily reduced the rash greatly along with adding some carbs back in to my diet. (I had been very low carb for a long time.) I also started cooking with as many antifungal herbs as I could, but wasn’t able to include much turmeric in my food so I added capsule of curcumin with bioperine. That made the rash disappear completely.
Do you happen to have a toenail or foot fungus? I did and had it for so long (35 years) that I didn’t think about it anymore until Paul helped me connect the dots
Thanks, Ellen.
Susan, if it’s a fungal infection you may be eating too few carbs. Adding some starches to the diet may help.
Ellen, Thanks for sharing. Funny you should ask about the toenail fungus. I’ve never had it in the past, but a month ago or so I noticed a change in my nails and realized I had a small amount on each big toe. I’m nearly rid of it now as I’ve been treating it with Tee Tree oil, but chalked it up to the hot yoga studio, which I frequent.
With regard to the perioral dermatitis,it’s sure good to know that it will go away! It is a nightmare, and I feel very self conscious at present. I will try increasing the carbs, and I’m going to scale back my diet to very basic foods, until I can track it down. I am reluctantly going to begin the antibiotics tomorrow. Thanks so much.
DrGreger did come out against fermented foods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yp3-5UuLU4
(from the 2010 series http://is.gd/fuE03j) Kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut. Not sure if it’s against a daily dose or cut out completely, but I cut out completely when I saw it 2 yrs ago (PDF is somewhere in there http://tinyurl.com/drgregerPDF).
–
And MatLalonde has come out on a radio show against Alcohol, citing dysbiosis:
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=212989748788094&id=710880533 (for those without facebook: http://is.gd/vwXseL mp3)
And his cited studies after someone asked “I’d love to see some of what you like to reference regarding alcohol and leaky gut/dysbiosis”:
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151152389020534&id=710880533 (without facebook: http://paste2.org/p/1868043)
@Ellen, @Susan
Thanks for mentioning the foot fungus! Reminded me of my athlete’s foot problem. I think I got mine when I was in the military (Long days with boots for 7 years). I treated it “successfully” with Lamisil multiple times. My toes have been OK lately, but the skin between the smallest toes still seems to be somewhat red. I suspect there is still some fungus hiding there. My symptoms are adding up and I’m starting to strongly suspect I have a fungus problem.
I’m now trying to tweaking my interpretation of the PHD to an anti-fungus PHD diet. I’m going to add:
Fermented foods (Just ordered pickl-it jars)
Olive oil
NAC ( N Acetyl Cysteine )
cranberries, blueberries, etc
Increase iodine. Currently at 600mcg from kelp, change to potassium-iodine and increase dosage.
Epsom salts
Activated charcoal
Remove:
Cheese, Coconut oil
I’m also currently researching:
A herbs supplement strategy (ProEnt2?)
Lufenuron http://lufenuroncandidacure.owndoc.com/lufenuron.pdf
Just in case it’s of interest I have tried to track down and highlight everything Paul has said about fungus on the blog: http://www.diigo.com/user/ogrodas/fungus?type=all
I have been snacking on home sprouted mung beans. I started because they are fresh and inexpensive in the winter, and are said to draw heavy metals out. But now I just like their green crunch.
Could you please say more about the specific nature (good and bad) of SPROUTED grains or legumes?
Hi Marg,
We generally recommend that beans be soaked overnight and then thoroughly cooked. The soaking leads to germination/sprouting which reduces toxicity.
In generally sprouted beans are safer than unsprouted, but they should still be well cooked.
Hey there just wanted to give you a quick
heads up and let you know a few of the pictures
aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue.
I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.
Paul,
Thanks for the precious contribution you have done to all of us. I would like to come back on the topic of mung beans sprouted. I read your feedback , but could i kindly invite you to read the below link , and advise whether you would integrate occasional mung beans in the diet for the purpose described in the article , or on the contrary it’s not worth it because of toxicity (or alternativelly OK under conditions, such as supplemented with modified citrus pectin):
http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2014/1/turn-off-the-cytokine-switch/page-01
Hi pierre,
Paul has said that mung bean sprouts are “low in toxicity and more like a vegetable” (http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2011/02/pho-vietnamese-noodle-soup/). I eat them regularly (cooked in soups).
I only briefly skimmed the article, but it appeared to be about compounds in mung bean seed coats. Note that the seed coats fall off the sprout after germination, so mung bean sprouts do not contain the seed coat. This is actually part of why they are low-toxicity; the seed coats are the most toxin-rich part of the legume.
Best,
-Eric