PaleoPhil's Journal

[PaleoPhil]

Celery on the other hand, tends to be hit or miss. Some celery tastes pretty good, a bit like one of my favorite veggie genuses--brassicae/crucifers, but most times it's pretty "meh" and carrots/parsnips have better snappy crunch.

I try to share the bad and ugly here as well as the good. I've been absent for some days because my computer decided to die and then I got violently ill, maybe from some miso soup I had with sashimi at a local favorite restaurant. Normally I just take a sip or two and then let the waitress take the rest, but this soup tasted particularly good, so I consumed it all. The next day I was violently ill. I don't know for sure if the miso soup was the cause and it was a rather delayed reaction if it was, but it was the only thing especially different I did from the usual. I did eat some French sausage the next morning, but I've never gotten that bad a reaction from it before, whereas I have had some bad reactions from soy in the past, though not that bad (and it would be surprising, given that there were only tiny bits of tofu in the soup).

Danny Roddy shared some info that seems relevant to me, and maybe to others:

"Cream, butter, eggs, and liver are good sources of vitamin A. When people supplement thyroid and eat liver once or twice a week, their acne and dandruff (and many other problems) usually clear up very quickly. It was acne and dandruff that led me into studying the steroids and thyroid, and in the process I found that they were related to constipation and food sensitivity." --Ray Peat

This opened me up for a HUGE reinterpretation of what was going on in my own body. I thought about all the vexing reactions I had to many of the foods Peat recommends for increasing metabolism. Dandruff and chapped lips, both symptoms of vitamin A deficiency (and a lot of other things), were consistently the result of consuming a large amount of orange juice, honey, and dairy.

Adding vitamin A rich foods (raw yolks, raw liver) remedied these problems literally overnight. Once again, another example of how studying Peat's work has improved my well being, even if he or I are way off.

http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011/6/27/becoming-the-warmest-man-alive.html

Could this explain why I get chapped lips and dandruff when I eat too much fruits or honey? It does seem that I'm tolerating carbs better since I've been emphasizing raw eggs, cod liver oil and liver more.

[PaleoPhil]

I tried tamarind today, for which I had been keeping a lookout for quite some time. It's a legume that's edible raw and is supposed to be good for constipation, as cassia fistula, another legume fruit, is. I found it to be much tastier and less nauseating than cassia fistula. Time will tell how well I handle it, as it is known to cause gas and diarrhea in some people and GS reported one less than stellar result:

I made some errors today.

Yesterday I had some Thai tamarind, imported, in a box,  Made me fart so much and made my tummy grumble.

Tamarind even looks a bit like a turd, but it tastes like to me like citrus candy.

[klowcarb]

Ewwwwwwww, Phil!

[PaleoPhil]

LOL. Meh, I ate some more and got tired of them. They don't thrill me, they're sticky, they gave me some gas, and they didn't do anything positive for my bowels.

[PaleoPhil]

I discovered that my favorite local healthfood market carries "raw" cheeses, which I hadn't noticed before. So I bought some samples. Tres cher, but the Spanish sheep's milk cheeses were pretty tasty. I've ranked them best to worse in terms of my taste preference from top to bottom:

Zamorano Spanish raw sheep's milk cheese $17.29/lb: sharp, tangy, firm, my favorite

La Marquesa Rosemary Spanish Raw Sheep's Milk $14.29/lb: sharp, tangy, flavorful due to the rosemary spice (but it became a bit overwhelming, the more that I ate, so if I were to eat a lot, I would choose the unspiced Zamorano cheese)
Ingredients: salt, cheese culture, rennet, lysozyme, lard

Twig Farm Square Cheese Raw Goat Milk $22.99/lb: soft, creamy, mild flavor

Springbrook Farm Raclette (style) Raw Cow's Milk $17.99/lb: firmest, becomes creamier when chewed, but also gluey, blandest taste of the bunch

Caveman Blue raw cow's milk cheese $21.99/lb: soft, crumbly, too salty, the mold is also a little overpowering

I didn't notice any negative effects from these cheeses, though they were just small wedges of cheese. I didn't get the positive feelings I get from some foods, like raw red meats, raw liver and raw egg yolks. I might buy the Spanish cheeses again on occasion. The others I wouldn't bother with.

What do raw Paleos who eat cheese accompany their cheeses with, if anything? Probably not crackers, right?

[klowcarb]

I would just put the raw cheese on raw beef. Or eat with slices of prosciutto.

[rawcarni]

Hey Phil,
I just wanted to tell you that I so love reading your posts! Everytime I am here or on DCF I read all the threads where your name appears as the one who posted last - I always think that must be an interesting read and in the vast majority of cases it is-love all the research and especially your philosophical side 
Cheers
Nicole

[PaleoPhil]

You're velcome Nicole! Hope you didn't mind my tamarind turds photo.

[rawcarni]

Hope you didn't mind my tamarind turds photo.

Nope 

[PaleoPhil]

Found some wild (feral, former domesticated) grapes growing locally today. As with the black raspberries, there only seems to be a week or two window where they are nearly fully ripe and not yet shriveled or dried up. These were already starting to shrivel on the vine so it looks like the end of the season is nearing. They are tiny and taste sour--even more so than the wild black raspberries--and contain large, hard seeds. Not something that would appeal to most people. One definitely wouldn't want to have to rely on fruits for survival here in Vermont. Grapes aren't even native to the USA, so pre-European-contact Native Americans would have had even fewer wild fruit options than Vermonters do today.

Note: the grapes in the image appear much larger than they actually are.

[TylerDurden]

Over the last 6 weeks, I have been eating endless hundreds of plums from 2 trees near my local river. Suddenly, the plums have disappeared completely both from the tree and from the ground, perhaps the birds got to them.

[PaleoPhil]

I haven't seen any plum trees. Are they indigenous to England or did they spread from planted trees?

One of the strange things is that I haven't seen any evidence yet of birds or animals eating the berries or grapes. What I didn't eat was left to shrivel up.

There's also two species of blackish berries that mature later in the year, as I recall from last year. One is bland tasting and the other nasty. I'm pretty sure the nasty ones are an invasive species, I forget what, based on what I found when I googled them last year. I've never seen a bird eating them even though there were quite a lot last year and they were also left to shrivel.

[miles]

There are berries that grow wild here. They're lots of little black balls each containing a seed, and they're all clumped together, like a raspberry but black. When they're ripe they're very nice, much better than any berries from shops. You have to get them when they're ripe though - when they're big, soft and come off the stalk very easily. You should also chew lightly so as not to break the seed, and swallow it all down. These don't ripen until September some time, though I've come across a small number which have been ripe already.

[Projectile Vomit]

Hi Phil, I bet one of the black berries you found last year was some type of wild cherry, or chokecherry. Was it growing on a tree, shrub, vine or herbaceous plant? Hawthorne berries also ripen late in the year, and elderberries should be ripening soon but grow as umbels.

The thing about foraging wild foods that makes me think we were meant to be largely carnivores is that most any wild food eaten in quantity can have negative effects. This is even true of wild raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and certainly wild grapes. These fruits are potent and can be strong diuretics (cause you to urinate excessively) and laxatives (you know what this means already, I hope). They can also have other qualities, depending on species and growing location. Wild grapes are particularly potent, and I treat them solely as a medicinal, much like greenbriar berries.

[PaleoPhil]

Correction, it looks like the wild grapes I picked may be the vitis labrusca, aka fox grape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis_labrusca), which is believed to be native to East-Central USA and Canada.

Hi Phil, I bet one of the black berries you found last year was some type of wild cherry, or chokecherry. Was it growing on a tree, shrub, vine or herbaceous plant?

IIRC, the nasty type was growing in great quantity on trees and the bland one was on bushes.

The thing about foraging wild foods that makes me think we were meant to be largely carnivores is that most any wild food eaten in quantity can have negative effects.

I guess it would mainly depend on the quality of the fruits in ancestral northeastern African, Europe and West-Central Asia.

This is even true of wild raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and certainly wild grapes. These fruits are potent and can be strong diuretics (cause you to urinate excessively) and laxatives (you know what this means already, I hope). They can also have other qualities, depending on species and growing location. Wild grapes are particularly potent, and I treat them solely as a medicinal, much like greenbriar berries.

I know what you mean. I tried to see how many of the wild grapes I could eat, and it's not many. They're turning me into a sour puss. Do you know how Native Americans ate them? Did they dry them and mix with meat or something to make them more palatable?

I did some foraging and noticed that the shriveled ones are in direct sun, whereas some in deeper shade aren't ripe yet.

[PaleoPhil]

Before bed I decided to do a bit more searching and found a more likely candidate for the grapes I found--Vitis riparia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis_riparia --or River Bank Grape or Frost Grape. It's also indigenous to the Northeastern US and looks more like the grapes I found and it was growing not that far from a river, so it seems a more likely match.

[TylerDurden]

I haven't seen any plum trees. Are they indigenous to England or did they spread from planted trees?

No idea, they just grew wild by the river-bank.

[PaleoPhil]

I had a dental checkup today and I still have the cavity in the enamel of one tooth. There was additional improvement in plaque and gums.

[PaleoPhil]

The wild river grapes in the shade are finally starting to dry up. They last longer than I expected. They taste a bit sweeter, less sour, than earlier in the year.

[PaleoPhil]

I received a genetic report from 23andme that says that a low fat diet may increase my waist size, which it did (by adding body fat, especially in the love handles and belly, and also neck and man-boobs):

"A low fat diet may lead to increased waist circumference but a diet high in monounsaturated fat protects against increased waist circumference and may lead to reductions in BMI."

Apparently, at least this gene of mine is designed for a higher-fat diet, which matches my experience. The two biggest improvements in my health came from adding more animal and seafood fats (especially raw grass fed or wild animal/fish fats) and eliminating gluten grains.

[PaleoPhil]

Chris Kresser said in a podcast that there is research supporting the effectiveness of zinc tally test liquid in determining zinc deficiency and I noticed that some of my remaining symptoms matched the symptoms he mentioned indicating zinc deficiency. Plus, I know that zinc supplements helped my acne and white spots on my fingernails in the past, and I still get acne if I eat too much fruit and still get a fingernail white spot every now and then (though much less than in the past), so I figured I'm probably still somewhat zinc deficient and purchased a bottle of zinc tally . Sure enough, it indicates deficiency, despite the fact that I eat a lot of zinc-rich raw Paleo foods. This is pretty convincing evidence that raw Paleo diets don't always quickly resolve existing deficiencies and foodlements (or if there's not other option, supplements) may be beneficial in some cases, like mine.

[Dorothy]

Glad you were able to figure that out!
So what are the foods that you eat that are high in zinc?  I know that pumpkin seeds are... but you probably wouldn't eat those.

How are you feeling otherwise? Do you have any changes in your health, energy etc. to report?

[PaleoPhil]

My experience doesn't match exactly the measured zinc content of foods. Zinc levels in the body depend not just on that, but also on what is actually absorbable by an individual's body and what isn't chelated away by antinutrients. In my case I don't notice any benefit to my zinc deficiency symptoms from pumpkin seeds, but I do notice it from raw red meat, and more so than any other food. Pumpkin seeds also upset my stomach if I eat more than a small amount and I'm not very fond of their taste or insubstantiveness, for lack of a better term. I like the mouth feel and savoriness of a good chunk of meat in the mouth. Fruits actually worsen my zinc deficiency symptoms, as do grains, but I haven't eaten grains beyond occasional small amounts of white rice, such as with sashimi, for a long time.

I'm feeling good, but I seem to have reached another plateau. So, for example, my dental plaque is softer, but I still get it and my gum inflammation is less, but there's still some, I have far fewer white spots on my fingernails, but I still get one or two, my acne is gone and my tolerance of carbs seems improved, but I get a new zit or three and mild foot/toe cramps and sometimes some throat and sinus mucus if I eat more than what most would probably consider a small amount of fruit. It would be nice if I could improve things further by resolving the underlying issues that are causing the remaining carb intolerance and nutrient deficiencies and perhaps improve the symptoms further. To that end I've been trying various raw fermented foods, as I suspect that lifelong gut dysbiosis inherited from my mother's inadequate gut bacteria and worsened by the SAD is a major factor.

If I don't get further improvements, then I'll live with that, but it's been my experience in the past that what can be achieved is much more than what I had thought possible. I'd reach a certain level and decide that that was the best that could be achieved and that I'd live with it, only to later discover that further improvement was possible. For example, I thought that cooked Paleo was the best one could do until I learned about raw Paleo and tried it. So I've learned not to assume that health issues can't be reversed. I'd like to get to a point where Lex is where he has found what works super well for him and can just do basically the same thing every day without spending much time or thinking on it (not necessarily eating the exact same foods every day like Lex does, but something rather simple).

[Dorothy]

That was a nice update.

When reading your update I had a little internal movie running of you on a ledge/plateau of a cliff resting, looking up bracing yourself for the next exertion.

I wondered if maybe hitting a plateau might mean not that something has to change to continue further, but maybe just some time doing the same thing on that plateau and when the body is ready it might make another leap up the cliff.

Those were just my little mind wanderings - but thought I'd share them. Thanks for catching us up.

[PaleoPhil]

No problem, you are most grateful, most grateful indeed my dear.