PaleoPhil's Journal

[klowcarb]

HI, Phil 

[PaleoPhil]

Hi Katelyn. Glad to hear you're doing well. Doing rather well myself.

Saw "Legends of the Fall" movie video. Brad Pitt did a good job as a "wild" young man who liked the lifestyle and ethics of Native Americans like his Cree friends and wife. I Wish that there had been more about the Native American characters, Pitt's character and his father (Anthony Hopkins) and less about the floozy Susannah and the others. In this as in too many other movies, Native Americans are just little-known bystanders who get casually murdered with little fanfare or are one-dimensional--even though the movie was narrated by one of them.

At the end Tristan's civilized brother Alfred tells the wild Tristan "I followed all the rules, man's and God's. And you, you followed none of them. And they all loved you more." In reality, Alfred sold his soul for money and power, broke his father's heart in the process and left his wife soulless and unfulfilled. Whereas Tristan never gave up his honor, loyalty, family, friends, pride, independence, and wildness.

I felt like saying to Alfred. "You followed the wrong rules. Tristan followed the right ones...the old rules, the old ways." The movie had the right moral.

[moises]

Phil,

Like you I have IBS, but, unlike you, it's predominantly diarrhea. Like you, I have been ZC for a while (>6 months, in my case). Unlike you, I eat cooked meat. Like you, I have been plagued with muscle cramps. I get them at night in my legs and in the day in my toes. Like you, I experimented with electrolytes.

I had read a few places that I could increase my intracellular magnesium, without getting diarrhea, by bathing in epsom saltwater. This studyhttp://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:KO8yMO7uJtAJ:www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/articles/Report_on_Absorption_of_magnesium_sulfate.pdf+absorb+magnesium+through+skin&hl=en&gl=us didn't measure intracellular magnesium, but it is suggestive. Bathing in epsom salts purportedly has the additional benefit of improving one's skin.

So, I decided to replicate the study I linked to and take an epsom salt bath nightly for a week. After about 4 days I got very, very bad diarrhea. I strongly suspect that the diarrhea was caused by the baths. I stopped the baths and the bad diarrhea ended as well. At some point I will need to test this further by taking the baths nightly again to see if I can replicate the bad diarrhea. But I am not ready for that yet.

In any case, I just wanted you to know that a 12-minute bath in warm or hot water, with 2 cups of epsom salt added can (1) increase your intracellular magnesium and (2) provide you some relief for constipation and (3) help with your acne, if it's on your body and (4) do all the other things that oral magnesium does with regard to muscle relaxation and the cardiovascular system.

I am new to this forum, and I am not a paleo zealot. But I suppose one could make the case that bathing in epsom salt is something that a paleo person could have done if she was fortunate enough to have lived in one of the few spots where there are high concentrations of the stuff. But she could not have taken magnesium as an oral supplement (unless there is some high-magnesium substance that exists naturally).

What drew me to epsom salt bathing was that I could get the magnesium while bypassing my digestive tract. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. It's something you might consider, however.

[Nicola]

That web page looks like it is written in German, Nicola. I doubt I could order from it and I can't read what the ingredients are.

I hadn't heard of black tears until Tyler mentioned it. What is it?

Sorry, I (my computer) can translate into all kinds of languages - also English forgot that I was on an English speaking forum!

http://www.webspirit.com/kahuna/produkte/oxypowder.htm

I have never heard of black tears, but if dates are dark then I can only see that this some how found it's way to the tear glands - in a good or bad way; who knows!

Nicola

[PaleoPhil]

I had read a few places that I could increase my intracellular magnesium, without getting diarrhea, by bathing in epsom saltwater. This studyhttp://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:KO8yMO7uJtAJ:www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/articles/Report_on_Absorption_of_magnesium_sulfate.pdf+absorb+magnesium+through+skin&hl=en&gl=us didn't measure intracellular magnesium, but it is suggestive. Bathing in epsom salts purportedly has the additional benefit of improving one's skin.

Ah yes, I meant to try epsom salt baths. I only tried it once in the past. Maybe I should try it multiple days in a row. Thanks.

If Paleo folk could bathe in or make mud packs from natural epsom salts, then they could also ingest it for medicinal purposes: "Epsom Salt is an FDA-approved laxative. Consult the package for directions. It's always a good idea to consult your doctor before ingesting any over-the-counter medication, however." http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/about_faq.htm I thin

My acne only breaks out significantly when I occasionally eat some carbs for social reasons. It broke out recently because I had some hard cider and raw honey to be social and celebratory for the holiday. I find that zinc helps greatly with it, but haven't noticed Mg helping any and it only broke out on the face, so I'm not sure if epsom salts would help at all.

[PaleoPhil]

I also got a little bit of reflux pain from the holiday carb cheating. My reaction to carbs appears to be about the same as what it's always been, no better, no worse. It hasn't calmed down like I hoped more than maybe a tiny bit, and I think the small improvement is mainly because I'm just healthier overall from going raw carnivore rather than improved digestion and tolerance of carbs, though it also hasn't gotten worse like Tyler warned about as a possible result of ZC--at least not yet.

[klowcarb]

Off topic, but the new Sherlock Holmes movie is fantastic. 

[PaleoPhil]

Thanks, I liked the Jeremy Brett TV version of Holmes.

[William]

Off topic, but the new Sherlock Holmes movie is fantastic. 

Name, please?

[PaleoPhil]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(2009_film)

[TylerDurden]

For me, there are only 3 actors who could ever play Sherlock Holmes faithfully:- Jeremy Brett, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

[PaleoPhil]

I tried a larger amount of high meat today and this time I left it in my mouth for a while--to test how well I can handle the taste (it's not awful, but not good either)--instead of bolting it down immediately and found I got a small bit of tingling and itchiness on my palate and tongue, the way I used to with walnuts, except less and with walnuts I would sometimes get it in my throat too. Anyone ever experienced this or have any idea what it is? Is there any acid in high meat or could it be some sort of reaction to the bacteria? I'm not worried about it or anything, just curious. So there's no need to put me at ease with "don't worry about it" type comments. I plan on continuing to eat high meat.

[TylerDurden]

Well, I've always found "high-meat" and aged raw cheese(in preRPD days) to taste very acidic. Never expereinced itchiness or tingling, though.

[RawZi]

... high meat today and this time I left it in my mouth for a while--to test how well I can handle the taste (it's not awful, but not good either)--instead of bolting it down immediately and found I got a small bit of tingling and itchiness on my palate and tongue, ... Anyone ... have any idea what it is? Is there any acid in high meat ... I'm ... just curious. ... I plan on continuing to eat high meat.

    I was thinking maybe there's niacin in high meat for a second, but then I remembered meat has nicotinic acid, not niacinimide for its Vitamin B3.  I had thought niacin flushing.  Have you ever flushed from niacin?  If not, I guess I could explain it.  I think it can't be from nutrients from the animal kingdom though. 

    I'm not sure how acidic nicotinic acid from meat or high meat is.  I assume not very acidic.  I don't know if fermenting meat raises the nicotinic acid content.  I guess it would, as I think the B vitamin producing bacteria would proliferate during the meat's fermenting process. 

    I think it would be nothing to worry about, but I'm not the person responsible for your health care.  You are much more likely to know what is safe or not, good or not for you.

[PaleoPhil]

I do flush from niacin, but the acidity factor seems the most likely cause to me. I wonder what type of acid meat bacteria produces and what the genus and species of the beneficial meat bacteria are. There is lots of info on dairy-eating bacteria (lactobacilli), but I haven't found anything on meat-eating bacteria. There are even bogus claims that meat eaters have "little or no friendly bacteria" (www.hps-online.com/colon-bacteria.htm).

Again, I agree that it's nothing to worry about and I'm not worried, I assure you. I just tend to have more than the avg level of scientific curiosity. Besides, worrying never helps anything.

In looking for info I stumbled upon this, which indicates that the much-touted lactobacilli may actually have detrimental dental effects: "Although considered beneficial, some Lactobacillus species have been associated with dental caries. [1] Lactobacillus count in saliva has been used as a "caries test" for many years. [2] This is one of the arguments used in support of the use of fluoride in toothpaste and lozenges. [3]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus)

I've reached my short-term goal of 140 lbs and 19.5 BMI (up from 125 and 17.4 before I started VLC). Unfortunately, some of it is belly and waist flab instead of muscle, so I may have to hold off on going much higher until I can get my body producing more muscle. I may get access to a weight room within months, so that could help.

[PaleoPhil]

I measured the temps of tallow in my crockpot. At the "low" setting it was 195 degrees Fahrenheit at the hottest area next to the sides of the crockpot, which was slightly below my guess of 200 degrees. The "warm" setting was warmer than I thought, however--about 130 degrees F. So it's not technically raw by the 104 degrees standard, but it is close to raw. If anyone has any ideas on how to conveniently heat suet at 104 or below without having to constantly stand over it, let me know. Until then I'll stick with my 130 degrees compromise.

[William]

If anyone has any ideas on how to conveniently heat suet at 104 or below without having to constantly stand over it, let me know.

If you mean render, it can't be done. I tried it, the stuff smelled rotten so I threw it out. Delfuego tried it too, and failed.

I have an advantage, in that I care if it is healing, and does not make me sick, which is after all the purpose of paleofood, as well as Hippocrates' advice.

[PaleoPhil]

In the past someone mentioned a device that the crock can be plugged into, which can be set to keep the crock pot temperature lower. Can someone please tell me again what it's called? Thanks.

[van]

Heh, it was me,  it's called a reostat, the dial you dim lights with.  Just wire it inline with the plug, and you can adjust the wattage/voltage/ temp to what ever you want.  I think I mentioned earlier, you might like to try it with water in to simulate the fat, instead of just being empty, and then when you've found your setting, fill it with fat and try it again.    ps  they have those plastic screw caps that screw over the connected wire strands, much better than wrapping with electrician's tape.

[PaleoPhil]

Ah well, my lady friend was considering aloud and said she can't ever marry me because I'm crazy on account of the raw meat. She has said it briefly before, but she sounded more serious this time.

Lex warned me not to low-heat and filter suet because I lose some fatty acids that way. So right now I'm not heating my suet.

[PaleoPhil]

I think William suggested that dehydrated fat tastes better, so I tried air-drying my suet and sure enough, it does seem to taste better and have a less-tough, more crumbly texture. It has less of the sort of musty-strong-taste to it. Maybe that comes from moisture while in the plastic packaging.

To me suet seems a bit too dry to start with, so I was surprised that drying it further actually seems to make it taste better. Maybe I won't need to make as much tallow anymore, which would be a time saver and enable me to be more truly raw. Thanks William.

I recently bought some brilliantly yellow organic suet that looked like GS's but wasn't 100% grass fed, to see what it was like and maybe get more iodine. Big mistake. It was rather gross, with the same excessive connective tissue and brown bits and less pure suet and less tasty. My regular suet is 100% grassfed but doesn't have the brilliant yellow color, but the farm says it's because of the type of pasture they feed on. The nature of that grassfed suet matches the other grassfed suet brand that's sold at my market, whereas the yellow fat was much closer to supermarket suet other than color, so the farm's claim seems reasonable.

So apparently grassfed is more important than organic or yellow when it comes to suet taste and quality, but I could be wrong because I'm not well versed on the subject.

[miles]

Could we please have some more terms than suet? It is hard to know what people are talking about... Suet is the fat around the kidneys, but people use it to talk about other stuff. Could we please find, or come up with some more terms. i.e. a general one for all the fat which is like suet, and ones to describe the suet-like fat from specific places..?

[PaleoPhil]

We could call it kidney fat, though that's a little misleading, since it's not fat from a kidney, but the fat surrounding the kidney and adjacent organs. Perinephric fat is another term, but most folks don't know what that means (around the kidneys). I've only ever seen it labeled as suet in markets.

[van]

Jersey cows and older females produce more yellow fat

[William]

Could we please have some more terms than suet? It is hard to know what people are talking about... Suet is the fat around the kidneys, but people use it to talk about other stuff. Could we please find, or come up with some more terms. i.e. a general one for all the fat which is like suet, and ones to describe the suet-like fat from specific places..?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suet
Main Entry: su·et
Pronunciation: \?sü-?t\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English sewet, from Anglo-French suet, siuet, from seu, su hard animal fat, from Latin sebum
Date: 14th century
: the hard fat about the kidneys and loins in beef and mutton that yields tallow
Learn more about "suet" and related topics at Britannica.com

I use the fat from the back just in front of the tail; makes better tasting tallow. Just call it back fat.