Lex's Journal

[wodgina]

This made me lol

LOL to!

[Craig Magnon]

Here's an apt article while on the topic of toilet stools:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/squat-poop/

It links this product called Nature's Platform:

http://www.naturesplatform.com/index.html

[Paleo Donk]

Lex, What does your family think of your lifestyle? How about friends/neighbors? Have any of them changed their diets because of you? Do you ever go out of your way to try and help others who are struggling with their health?

[lex_rooker]

Paleo D,
Well, my family and friends think I’m nuts (a nice nuts but nuts just the same).  They’ve accepted that I will do what I want to do and there is not much they can do about it.  What concerns my wife most is that I will embarrass her in front of her friends, so I keep my lifestyle low key.   None have changed their diets, mostly for the reasons outlined below.

I’m not an evangelist for the raw paleo movement.  What I do, I do because it works for me. As for helping others, I never bring up my diet to anyone, even if they are ill, unless they ask me first.  I’ve found that most people are very happy in their misery.  They love to talk about their poor health, and are proud of all the medications they are taking – it’s like a badge of honor. Few are interested in changing as they will lose all the attention they get from being in poor health, and that is a price they are not willing to pay.

I’m also not interested in giving advice though I’m happy to answer questions about my personal experiences and what seems to be working for me.  You see, I spent 20 years as a dedicated vegan, totally convinced I was on the correct path.  I preached the vegan gospel to anyone who would listen, and unfortunately some people took my advice.  They reaped the same reward of declining health that I did.  Today, I’m not nearly so sure of myself.  The most I’m willing to do is tell people what I’m doing, and the results I’m achieving.  I then suggest they do their own due diligence and see if their experience and/or conclusions are consistent with mine.  That is what this Journal is all about.  I hope that you and other readers are finding value in it.

Glad to answer any questions,

Lex

[PaleoPhil]

.... I’ve found that most people are very happy in their misery.  They love to talk about their poor health, and are proud of all the medications they are taking – it’s like a badge of honor.

Yes, I've noticed the same thing. Many people love to go on and on about their health problems (especially the elderly--Florida is full of elderly people complaining about chronic ailments), especially when they see I'm a good listener. If they ask me about my health and I reply honestly about my improvements it seems to irritate many of them. I think they want to hear that someone else is sharing their misery. If I let them know that there is hope for alleviating their suffering, they tend not to be interested or even get annoyed. Like you, I don't push nutrition info on anyone, but if someone goes on and on about their ailments, letting them know about possible help does at least get them to stop complaining.

One person occasionally even asks me what the causes are of her health problems, and the solutions, but she doesn't really mean it, because if I start talking about possible solutions she just gets angry. I think that she too just wants to be consoled.

When people say that I cured them or talk about "Phil's diet" that helped them, I say, no, it's not my diet. I didn't invent it--it goes back thousands of years, and I didn't cure you, I just gave you some info and you helped yourself.

[invisible]

One person occasionally even asks me what the causes are of her health problems, and the solutions, but she doesn't really mean it, because if I start talking about possible solutions she just gets angry. I think that she too just wants to be consoled.

Absolutely agree. Many people I think they don't want the solution to their health problems to be so simple. Food is entertainment, it's social etc. Some people will not give these up for anything.

I also think it's possible people feel offended when discussing that their ill-health may be diet related, as if it is implying they brought this poor health upon themselves. They like to complain about it, but like to be told there is nothing that can be done and there was nothing that could had prevented it - they just had bad luck.

[Josh]

Sometimes people don't know they're doing it though. It's two confilcting processes in their mind...sometimes they're trying their best to be healthy from their perspective but there's more powerful processes keeping them where they are.

I agree it can be frustrating if someone you care about won't make changes. I think 'dammit if you're not going to try what I say try something else...but do something' People don't allow themself the possibility of change.

[PaleoPhil]

I also think it's possible people feel offended when discussing that their ill-health may be diet related, as if it is implying they brought this poor health upon themselves. They like to complain about it, but like to be told there is nothing that can be done and there was nothing that could had prevented it - they just had bad luck.

Yes, good point. I think that was part of the reason for her negative response.

[PaleoPhil]

I agree it can be frustrating if someone you care about won't make changes. I think 'dammit if you're not going to try what I say try something else...but do something' People don't allow themself the possibility of change.

Yes, I told her there's three basic options I know of: drugs, surgery or nutritional therapy. I got frustrated and said something along the lines of "If you're unwilling to try any of them, then please stop asking me what to do and complaining about it."

[cherimoya_kid]

All I know is, raw just seemed like the natural thing to do next when I was in my early 20s. I was busy helping my ex-wife to find weight loss methods.  We stumbled on juice fasting, which worked really well for that. I just kept going more and more raw. After reading Price's book I felt that eating raw animal products, at least raw fish and shellfish (and maybe raw dairy, I haven't made up my mind 100% about dairy yet) just seems like a no-brainer. I can't speak for others.  They have no willpower.  In many cases, they also lack motivation.  Finally, they are ignorant as well.  I used to try to save  the world, almost as an automatic response, without really thinking about it.  I'm starting to realize that I can't, and that it will just have to save itself, pretty much. Other people are going to have to find willpower, motivation, and knowledge pretty much on their own, without me. 

[PaleoPhil]

Luckily I realized early on that trying to save the world was an impossible and futile task. Some people I helped continue to ask me to do things like make documentaries and write to celebrities (like Michael Fox, who has Parkinson's) and the like. I suggest to them that if they feel that strongly about it that they do it themselves (which they never do, of course), but I warn them that they will likely not make enough money to pay for the documentary and celebrities will consider them kooks. I suggest they consider how they would have reacted, before they learned about Paleo, if they were a celebrity with an illness and some stranger had written them a letter telling them they should adopt a radical diet. If it even managed to reach the celebrity it would probably be discarded after he/she read the first few lines. I focus on my closest relatives and friends and only offer health info when they ask for it or I already know that they would be interested.

I did create a blog at a friend's urging, and thought of trying to promote it to help more people, but decided instead to use it mainly as a site to direct people to who specifically ask for info, and for my own reference. I don't feel I know enough at this point to be broadcasting to the world anyway.

[Paleo Donk]

After reading GCBC, subsequently dropping carbs and seeing nearly every aspect of my life change in some manner for the better, I have endured a sort of internal struggle about how to dispense of this new information. I have yet to take serious action but have had a number of different ideas, some quite radical to get the word out. I realize that GCBC was my first book/anything on nutrition and I have fallen for it hard, but I have done an enormous amount of other research outside this book and am now fine with any biases I still have.  I also felt extremely fortunate to come across this information, like I did nothing to deserve it. Why should I reap all the benefits of this diet by nothing more than luck, when there are others that would surely benefit if they could just read the same information?

I have yet to go out of my way to impose my diet on anyone that is struggling though I have talked about my diet to nearly everyone. Its hard not to since so many social situations involve food. I keep it simple and focus on the evils of refined carbohydrates, which is easy enough for everyone to get behind. Even though a good chunk of people think I've got a little crazy in me, I think I've found that there is much more fascination and almost no one except my parents have expressed much concern, only that I get the occasional blood test. Perhaps this is because I hang around people 24-30 years old.  I've gotten several of my friends to try raw steak and even got one to crave the stuff to the point where we'd make an early morning run just for that. Its also extremely easy to convince them that it is fine since literally no one has any clue or even seemingly an ounce of quality information outside of what they were taught in health class in 7th grade.

But my real struggle is with those that are suffering. One of my Dad's closest friends died last week from complications with diabetes at 55. He was quite overweight and taking insulin shots multiple times per day. He was very friendly and would talk to me for ages about different business ideas he had in mind for me and my brother. I never once brought up my diet that if I were a betting man(actually I am a betting man but thats another story..) would put at least 50-1 that it would have extended his life indefinitely. I don't actually feel bad, for some reason Im not sure of, but its a strange feeling to know that there is something out there that I am so sure will work to save lives. Perhaps my assumptions are wrong about the probability of this diet working, but I am willing to put my money where my mouth is and if you want to bet against me go right ahead.

I really would love to see a carnivorous diet be open discussion to the public. From all the crazy ideas I've had, which have had me contemplating chaining myself up outside the NIH eating nothing but raw steaks to actually studying for the mcat just to have a face to face with real doctors, I think I've settled on something. Cancer patients seem to be the most likely to try something radical to save their lives. I mean, they literally have a sitting clock counting down to their last breath, why wouldnt they want to try something so simple as a change in diet?  There was that time magazine article not too long ago that gave the all-meat diet its first mainstream exposure with very positive results. Apparently, there are more clinical trials going on right now testing the same thing. I think that it could be possible to gain some momentum working specifically with cancer patients, since they are most likely to change their diets.  If the carnivorous community could rally behind this one thing we might really have something that is ready to spread.

[van]

you might like to check out Ron Rosedale Md site.  There are those out there doing maybe just what you'd like to do.  I have spoken at length with him. Great guy!

[PaleoPhil]

What's the URL for the website?

[William]

What's the URL for the website?

http://www.drrosedale.com/

[PaleoPhil]

Thank you brother William.

[Chester]

Hello Lex, I've got a question for you. Since earlier in your journal you stated that you read that approximately 58% of eaten protein will be converted into glucose aren't you certain that your current intake of of 85 grams protein will not be enough to meet your body's needs?
Or are you hoping that eating such a low amount of protein your body may be more likely to stop using glucose and converting protein to glucose for some of its energy? I'm asking this because if you could get your body to stop converting the protein so all of the protein went to repairing your body many good things would come from that. For instance many people on this diet would only need to eat about half the current amount of meat that they eat now which would be easier on the body plus it would of course cost less. Also it would keep your blood glucose lower. So do you think its possible to stop the conversion of protein to glucose or is that something that will always happen?
Edit:oh man I got stuck with the 666th post

[lex_rooker]

Hi Chester,
Boy have you hit a hot subject.  I really have no idea and I’ve been asking all the experts the same question.  There seems to be two major camps that feel they have the science behind them.  Camp #1 thinks that some portion of all protein eaten will turn into glucose regardless of whatever else is eaten in the diet.  Camp #2 believes just as strongly that protein is converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis ONLY when blood glucose or glycogen stores are low, AND only if no carbs are consumed as carb consumption supposedly halts gluconeogenesis in its tracks.

At this point in the debate I’m a solid member of camp #1 as my experience clearly shows that the greater the percentage of protein in my diet the higher blood glucose rises up to around 100 mg/dl where it then levels off.  At this point, by reducing my protein intake from 150g/day to 85-90g/day my blood glucose has dropped to around 85 mg/dl, which is a significant improvement.

As for whether I’m getting enough protein?  Who knows?  I’m 58 so I’m not competing for an Olympic record.  I’m pretty excited if I can wrestle my trash cans to the curb on trash day without throwing my back out in the process.  For a younger person looking for performance and building muscle mass through weight lifting etc it may be important, but to me, keeping blood glucose and glycation products as measured by HbA1c levels low is more of a priority.  Since my experiments seem to support the idea that some portion of protein is always converted to glucose the question boils down to how much and then is there sufficient protein (amino acids) left for lean tissue building and repair.  Not sure how to know so the best I can do is go by how I feel and my ability to perform my normal tasks and so far all seems well in that department.

I’m going to stick with the 85-90g protein until the first of the year and then get my HbA1c tested as well as my 25 (OH) D3 levels.  I’ll decide where to go from there once the test results are back.

Lex

[van]

    Ron Rosedale writes about this very thing.  You might like to look at his opinions.

[Chester]

I guess I was sort of preaching to the quire with that last post. And Van thanks for "introducing" me to Ron Rosedale so far what I have read from him is interesting.

[van]

  Your welcome.  I have spent a couple of hours talking on the phone with him.  He really is a real person.  Very kind.  I think he would find Lex and his questions fascinating, and would love for the two of them to brainstorm together.  And of course I would learn, as I think we all would, from that exchange. 

[PaleoPhil]

Heh, my own rule is to avoid devotion to any "guru," but Lex almost inspires me to cast aside that rule, ironically in part because he wisely goes out of his way to dissuade people from making of him a guru.

[van]

I agree, but it's the brainstorming aspect that I would love to witness.  I ran an R&D lab for years,  and from brainstorming collectively, greats things were invented or at least discovered.  Also both Lex and Ron seem to be after the truth, regardless of what it is.  That's rare.

[lex_rooker]

I've read some of Dr. Rosedale's work and there is very little on his list of nutritional foods that I would eat.  His appeal seems more directed at the healthfood crowd that frequents places like Whole Foods Market, Mother's, and other upscale food emporiums.

Lex   

[van]

  I agree, as regards to his diet list. But I do believe he is trying to help a general populace.   That in particular is one of the items that I think he would find fascinating about your diet. 
Specifically that your fat intake comes predominately from beef fat, rather than the other listed fat sources, many from plant sources.    He is very much into lab testing.  Thus it is my bet he would love to run some tests with you.  Yours and my diet is almost identical.  But you have been following it pretty much day to day for I think five years?   That should be long enough to gain some valid markers off of.  I am also interested to see if he would like to do some testing with Charles.  For Charles has many times thrown out the challenge of putting his health against any one else's.   I would be happy to contact him and make the suggestion;  that is Lex, if you would be interested in participating.    He does follow his own diet.  He might learn something from you?