1 week results on the Zero Carb Carnivore diet

typical meal

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water

1 week results on the Zero Carb Carnivore diet

I lost 10 lbs! and feel so much better. This way of eating is simple and easy. I am never hungry, lost all carb cravings, my clothes fit a bit better and I am able to buckle my belt one notch more! I am wearing my 34 size jeans again! This way for eating is not for everyone, but is works for me as I have no willpower when it comes to carbs. so eliminating them is a good thing.

restart

I just came across the Zero Carb concept.

see: this site:

www.zeroinginonhealth.com

the basics are simple:

drink water, eat meat and fat until full.

combine with high intensity muscle building exercise

I will discuss the science/biology of this in later posts.

reboot

It's the one year anniversary of my resumption of going on the paleo diet. By May 2009 I had lost almost 30 lb. fealt great and went down 2 pants sizes. Unfortunately, a hernia operation and elbow tendinitis gave me the excuse to stray off the diet completely. Now I'm back to 220 lb., and back to 36 waist size pants that are feeling extremely tight. My office is starting the Biggest Loser weight loss contest. Here I go again!

The rules: avoid the 7 deadly sins of obesity

The 6 deadly food sins:

1. Grains (all grass seeds including corn) white or brown

2. Refined Sugars

3. Legumes

4. Dairy

5. Potatoes (white, Yams, sweet Potato)

6. Processed foods

and

7. Not exercising (especially weight bearing exercise or muscle building exercise)

Braised Rabbit with onion

Ingredients:
2 Rabbits cut into sections
4 Med Yellow Onions
1 Bunch Green onion
4 strips uncured Nitrate Free Turkey Bacon(Trader Joes)
1/2 tsp Dry Sage
1/2 tsp Dry Thume
1/4 tsp iodized sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 large bay leaf
1/4 cup red wine
cooking oil/fat

cut up rabbit by slicing it in 1/2 length wise, remove les, cut torso into 5 pieces horizontally. This makes manegable pieces. slat peper the rabbit. Brown rabbit in oil using a large cast iron skillet. brown the onion. add oil and fry the bacon. cut bakon into small bits. In a dutch oven or a heavy metal pot layer the rabbit over some onion and sprinkle with herbs and bacon bits, continue layering. place bay leaf in the middle layer. deglaze skillet with red wine. pour over the rabbit.
cook on low (braize) for 1.5 hours.

Set backs

I am ashamed to say that I have not been very strict lately. A hernia surgery and an elbow injury has kept me from the gym in the past 7 weeks. I have also been indulging in desserts and noodles as well as cheese (which form a diet perspective is not bad, from a Paleo Diet perspective a no-no). All together this culminated into a weight gain of 6-7 lbs and it shows. Time to get back on track. going hard core again.

Cherry crop

The cherries ripnend on our little cherry tree! this is the whole crop.

They were a bit sour and a litle sweet, a far cry from the JUMBO Cherries we buy at Costco.

It was fun picking them with my son.

More of my Paleo Garden:

Pear tree

the berry patch: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries

mellon patch

cherry tree

appple tree, kind of sad looking

assorted veggies

more veggies (I have no idea what I planted)

My Paleo Garden

This year I started 3 gardens from seeds and palnted 3 fruit trees so I can forage in may back yard.

My loittle cave man foraging! (hates raddishes)

first crop! Raddishes

Last year's goose berry bushes

Eating my way through Chinatown

Last Friday I spent the day with my little sister exploring Chinatown

New York City. The rule was: Paleo friendly food.

We have something very special in common: We love to eat! We are definitely "foodies". Unlike my wife, my sister is culinarily adventurous. I see many more culinary adventures in our future.

Our first stop was a Chinese BBQ joint. There are many of these all over Chinatown. very cool "window shopping"

BBQ duck, BBQ pork skin on/skin off versions, BBQ pigs ears and tripe, side of veggies

close up of the tripe and pigs ears.

definitely interesting and different, but it all kind of tastes the same as they use the same flavorings for everything. my favorite was the pork with crispy skin.

having gorged ourselves we decided to walk around and let the tasty meal digest. there are many stores and street stands with a myriad of seafood, fruits and trinkets.

fruit stand with mangoes, cherries , lechee and several other related fruits whose name I forget.

we bought a little of every fruit to take home, but wound up snacking on the cherries.

To quench our thirst we shared a roasted young coconut. the vendor just pokes a hole, hands you a straw. Not bad for $1.50 and very Paleo.

We ended the day in a Vietnamese restaurant:

veggies
Pork intestines with sour cabbage. I've had pork intestines before and after having it twice I can definitely say this was my last time. To me they taste awful. My sister agreed.

Snails in ginger sauce. this was my favorite dish both for flavor and the fun factor. you have to suck, pick, and extract the tasty morsel.

Suck

Pick



Extract

My sister's favorite dish was the Grilled Beef with Green Mango salad. it was phenomenal.

we also had fogs legs in ginger and scallion sauce. I was so busy with the snails I forgot to take a photo. They were very tasty!

Mother's Day the Paleo way

For Mother's day I had my family over. It was all paleo food.

Sauteed mushrooms and onions in goose fat.

Sauteed asparagus and almond slivers in canola oil

Cauliflower faux couscous

grilled zucchini, pickled mushrooms Russian style

mamarinated chicken and pork shishkabob

Field green salad

Plaoe wife

Paleo Parents

Not so Paleo son.

Paleo sister and boyfriend (working on him)

It was a fun day, and we all ate well.

Pork Shoulder Roast stuffed with garlic

Today my Mom came over for a visit. I asked her to help me make one of her signature dishes that I never made before: Garlic Stuffed Pork Shoulder Roast.

Ingredients:

• 1 pork shoulder roast (pork Butt)
• 1 tbsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 tbsp koser (coarse) salt
• 6 clove garlic sliced into wedges

Directions:

Using a boning knife remove skin. Poke a 1 inch hole with the boning knife. Dip index finger into pepper and shove into hole, dip index finger into salt, shove into hole. Stuff garlic wedge into hole. Repeat all around about 1 inch apart. Rub with canola oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. place into a roasting pan. Cover with aluminium foil. Place into preheated 375 degree oven for 1.75 hours. Remove foil and roast for another 10 min on Broil until golden brown and delicious!

remove from oven, cover with foil and allow to rest for 15 min.

Makes great leftovers!

Cauliflower curry "coucous"

Cauliflower is a relatively bland vegetable closely related to broccoli. It has the ability to take on flavors and can be made to resemble starchy foods. For those who have been low carbing for a while may be familiar with faux mashed potatoes made from boiled and purees cauliflower and heavy cream. This dish is inspired by a dish I had in Atlanta Georgia at the Upstairs Room Restaurant. Its texture is very close to couscous, a Middle Eastern grain dish.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower de-stemmed and coarsely chopped

1 large carrot peeled and sliced

1/2 cup canola oil

4 tsp yellow curry powder

Directions:

working in small batches run the cauliflower and carrot in a food processor on high until all of the veggies are super-finely pulverized. transfer to a mixing bowl and add oil and curry powder. mix well to combine.

Easter Brunch

I left my camera in Atlanta, just got it back. Here are some pictures from Easter Brunch Buffet:

Appetizer: shrimp and crab claw cocktail and raw oysters and clams. I had 3 helpings of this!

Salad, duck liver pate' and some cold cuts

Roast leg of lamb and grilled veggies and cucumber salad

Mixed berries for dessert

Muscle developing exercise more important for women.

Read the below link on why weight bearing exercise (weight training) is more important for women than low intensity, steady state exercise (such as running, walking, cycling or stair climbing).

http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?page_id=301

The Dose-Response Relationship of Exercise

Below is a link to a very interesting writing regarding exercise. I highly recommend reading it it better understand how exercise works on our body.

http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?page_id=221

MythEGGology

After decades of misinformation and poor research eggs are about to be 'rehabilitated' in the UK as well as the USA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7882850.stm

now you can eat your eggs without guilt and fear, whew!

I would recommend buying the Omega 3 eggs if you can get them to improve your omega 3 to omega 6 ratios.

A tale of two peoples

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...nter-gatherers/

This is an interesting comparison of agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers. The two groups of people are compared from the same region (same hunting grounds) and probably the same genetic heritage, just at different points in history. One group were farmers the other hunter gatherers. care to wager which group was healthier??? Read on...

low intensity stedystate excersize, are we built for it??

One of the points that Doug McGuff, the author of Body By Science makes is that low intensity, steady state exercises(walking, jogging, stair climbing, cycling, rowing, etc...) is not our optimal way to get fit and stay healthy due to accumulative damage to our joints and ligaments or chronic wear and tear. One of the premises of the Paleo-Lifestyle is to eat and move in tune with what are bodies are naturally evolved for. Our bodies are made for intense explosive motion, not steady state low intensity motion. Think about our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and how they hunted and lived. Case in point a recent post by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple Blog:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/did-humans-evolve-to-be-long-distance-runners/

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, today is my 39th birthday! My lovely wife nad son got me a Kayak! I am really excited. if the weahter is good I will make my maiden voyage! All I need now is a life vest and a fishing pole holder.

More Body By Science

This is a great short, 6min, interview of Dr. Doug McGuff on youtube giving you a brief synopsisof the Body By Science excersize and diet principals.

I have been following this regimen of excersize for the past 3 weeks. I will hold off on posting my results, but I will tell you, have already seen strenght improvemnts!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahIKTdJaXPE

here is another interwiew and workour demo of the author

http://www.kens5.com/news/health/stories/KENS20090209-BodyByScience.35a4bbf6.html

Enjoy!

Collared Greeens

Inspired by my recent trip to Atlanta Georgia!

Recipe adapted from Alton Brown's Good Eats

Ingredients :

• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 1/2 pounds smoked turkey or pork parts*
• 2 pounds stemmed collard or turnip greens
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus extra if desired

Directions :

Place the water and turkey legs in an 8-quart pot over medium-high heat. Cover, bring to a boil, and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, remove any large stems from the greens and wash them thoroughly; do so in a sink with at least 5 inches of water. Moving the leaves around in the water and allowing them to sit for a few minutes to allow the sand or dirt to fall to the bottom of the sink. Once clean, chop pieces in half. You should have 2 pounds of greens once they are stemmed. (Weigh the greens after stemming, but before washing.) (I bought 4 bunches, that seemed to be about right.)
Once the turkey legs* have simmered for 10 minutes, add the greens, salt reduce the heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer gently for 45 minutes or until the greens are tender. if using a smaller pot, you can add the greens in batches as the leaves cook down a bit. Move the greens around every 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and season with additional salt, if desired. Serve immediately. The southerners like to add hot sauce to the greens for a little kick.

* I used smoked pork necks, but any smoked pork or turkey parts will do, I have seen smoked turkey necks and wings as well. I like the flatter pieces as they sit better at the bottom of the pot.

Family going Paleo!

I am happy to announce that my wife has been doing well on the Paleo Diet. In fact, I am surprised how strict she has been. she occasionaly allows herself to cheat with dessert and has been much stricter than I thought she would be. My sister has also began Paleo Eating.

This weekend I had a sit down with my parents and expressed my concerns about their diet and poor health. Both of my parents are overweight, and high blood pressure. In addition, my father has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. they both agreed to change their diets and eliminate grain, refined sugar, dairy and legumes form their diet. I gave my mother my copy of good calories bad calories in the hopes that it will motivate her further (as she is the cooke in the family). I alos offered to train them every sunday at my gym using the body by science principals.

Crock pot BBQ Beef

Ingredients:

• 5 LBS bottom round
• 4 med onions, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup low salt chicken broth or other flavorful liquid
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
• 3 Tbsp mustard
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• cooking fat

Directions:

Slice bottom round into 1.5 inch rounds. Heat an iron skillet. (I used the trimmed fat from the bottom round and rendered it as the skillet heated to use as the cooking fat) brown the meat on both sides. Pour 1/4 contents of crushed tomatoes at bottom of crock pot, place a layer of meat on the bottom of the crock pot. Brown the onions and garlic, place over the first layer of meat, pour 1/2 the contents of the crushed tomatoes over the onions. Brown the remainder of the meat and layer over the onions. cover with remainder of tomatoes. Deglaze the skillet with chicken stock and pour contents into crock pot. Set on high for 6 hours. Pull meat apart with 2 forks until shredded, add mustard, BBQ sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Cook on low until liquid is absorbed, maybe another hour. This recipe works great with pork loin or pork shoulder as well.

Lebanese Kaftas

I had some leftover groud lamb, so I decided to make traditional Lebanese Kaftas. very paleo!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground Lamb (beef can be used as well)
• 1 med onion, minced in food proccessor
• 4 cloves garlic, minced in food proccessor
• 2 cups tighly packed washed and picked parsley
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves or 1 tbs dry mint leaves
• 1/4 tsp each ground cinammon, cloves, nutmeg
• saltto taste
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• wooden skewers

Directions:

In a food processor finely mince onion and garlic, add parsley and mint. Remove nad fold into the meat along with the spices. take a habd full of meat mixture and apply to the skewers making a sausage with skewers in the middle. Heat an Iron skillet, add cooking fat, and cook the Kaftas untill golden brown all around, turing every 2-3 min.

Nutrition Data

this is a great site to investigate the nutritional data of food. I use it to check glycemic load and net carbs. Just plug in the food name and category. very simple and informative.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/

beef stew with carrots and radish

this is a low carb stew using low Glycemic Load root vegetables The lowest Glycemic Load root vegetables are radish and turnip (GL 1 per 100g) followed by carrot (GL 2 per 100g)

I just happened to have a Dakkion radish laying around. (also known as Chinese radish)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb stew beef cut into 1.5 inch cubes
• 3 med carrots sliced into 1/3 inc rings
• 1 dakkion radish, cubed
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (or other flavorful liquid)
• 2 med onions chopped
• 5 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp dry thyme
• 1/2 tsp dry sage
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
• cooking fat

Directions:

In an iron skillet render fat (I used beef fat, but you can use canola oil or any cooking fat). Brown beef, transfer to heavy pot such as a dutch oven. Brown onion, then add garlic and cook for 2-3 min longer. Transfer to pot. Deglaze with broth, or red wine. Pour liquid into pot. Add herbs to pot. Bring to a boil, cover with lid and simmer for 2 hrs on lowest heat possible. I had to transfer to a small burner to keep it at a gentle simmer. This is technically a braise cheaper cuts of meat with lots of connective tissue such as shoulder cuts (chuck) work best in braises. Add carrots and radish. Cook for another 45 min - 1 hr until veggies soften. The radish looks and has the texture of potatoes without the carbs. Turnips may be used as well, but they have a stronger flavor. Next time I will try it with regular radishes.

Adverse effects of horomones found in cow milk

The following isw an excerpt form Dr. Cordain's PaleoDiet news letter.

Insulin
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease in which immune cells (T-lymphocytes) mount an attack on the cells of the pancreas that produces insulin (beta cells) resulting in its destruction. These patients have to rely on insulin replacement therapy to live. Last week, we discovered that bovine insulin (BI) is present in commercially pasteurized milk and infant formulas. We also learned that BI has good oral bioavailability since antibodies to BI are a common phenomenon among children who have consumed infant formula containing cow's milk. This is very important information for children who have a genetic predisposition for T1D because BI differs from human insulin by only three amino acids. The immune response induced by BI in these children may react with human insulin and lead to β-cell destruction, especially if children are exposed to infant formula containing cow's milk before the age of 3 months. This is a period of high intestinal permeability or leaky gut. As expected, various epidemiological studies have associated cow's milk consumption with T1D in genetically susceptible children, especially when the initial exposure begins in the first months of life. Thus, exclusively breastfeeding during the first 6 months and avoiding formulas based on cow's milk is highly recommended.

IGF - 1
We already know that cow's milk is associated with increased plasma IGF-1 concentrations in both children and adults. Furthermore, there is evidence that cow's milk increases the IGF-1/IGFBP-3 ratio, setting a hormonal cascade that may ultimately result in epithelial cell cancers and acne, among other diseases.

Betacellulin
Humans have a hormonal receptor called the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (in the skin, gastrointestinal tract, lung, kidney, mammary gland, pancreas, prostate gland, ovary and other tissues) that binds the EGF family of hormones, including Betacellulin (BTC). BTC is a hormone found not only in liquid cow's milk, but also in whey and cheese. Why is this relevant? There is a very good probability that BTC may survive degradation by gut enzymes, bind the luminally expressed EGF receptor in the gut, and thereby enter circulation. If this chain of events occurs, then BTC may also bind the EGF receptor bound in all epithelial cells. This is where it might contribute to the pathogenesis of epithelial cell cancers and acne since up-regulation of the EGF receptor pathway occurs in acne31 and in a wide variety of cancers including breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, pancreatic, gallbladder, stomach, testicular, kidney, and head and neck cancers.

Estrogens

Various milks contain estrogen metabolites and that the most prevalent form of estrogen in cow's milk is estrone sulphate, which has high oral bioactivity. This is potentially alarming for the following reasons:
In vitro and animal studies support the notion that estrogens are implicated in prostate cancer.
Estrogens may adversely effect the ovarian epithelium.
The use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is associated with an increased incidence of corpus uteri cancer in the United States, and it should be remembered that estrone sulphate comprises 45% of the conjugated estrogens in Premarin and Prempro. These are the most frequently prescribed hormone replacement therapies for menopausal women.
Estrogens can initiate breast cancer and promote the growth of existing tumors in breast tissue.
Elevated plasma concentrations of endogenous estrogens are associated with increased risk of breast cancer.
Exposure to estrogens through HRT and oral contraceptives is associated with an increased breast cancer risk.
Whole and low fat milk were found to promote 7,12-dimethylbenz(a) anthracene induced mammary tumors in rats.
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) precursors As mentioned last week, commercially pasteurized cow's milk contains progesterone, 5α-androstanedione and 5α-pregnanedione that are dihydrotestosterone (DHT) precursors, and DHT is implicated in acne and prostate cancer.

Unfortunately, we aren't aware of any study that has looked at the absorption of these hormones, so we don't know if this is really a problem. Nevertheless, evidence that other hormones have good oral bioavailability suggests that it may indeed be a cause for concern. As expected from the evidence presented, dairy intake is strongly associated with a higher incidence of acne, moderately associated with prostate cancer, and mildly associated with ovarian cancer. Dairy consumption has also been associated with an increased incidence of testicular, kidney, and head and neck cancers. There have been very few studies looking at this, so it is difficult to draw more significant conclusions. Although epidemiological evidence can't show cause and effect, and clearly, many more studies need to be conducted, the current evidence strongly suggests that cow's milk may be implicated in a variety of cancers as well as acne.

The Paleo Diet, by emulating the nutritional characteristics of hunter-gatherer diets, avoids the consumption of milk and other dairy products. Thus, the Paleo Diet protects us from the potential problems inherent in dairy consumption. Yet, when combined with sufficient sun exposure and proper exercise, the Paleo Diet still optimises bone health because it:
1. Provides all the micronutrients (including calcium, which can be obtained from green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli and kale) needed to optimize bone health and prevent osteoporosis
2. Includes enough fruits and vegetables to be net base yielding (a net acid yielding diet can cause calcium and magnesium losses
3. Includes sufficient protein (which increases intestinal calcium absorption and has an anabolic effect on bone, particularly in the context of a net base yielding diet
4. Has a lower omega 3/omega 6 ratio (a diet with a high omega 6/ omega 3 ratio can cause bone loss and a low glycemic load/insulinotropic effect (high insulinemia causes calcium loss)

To subscribe to The Pale Diet Newsletter go to:

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/newsletter/

Understanding fat loss

Obesity is a reaching epidemic proportions in the US. Just look around. I sat in the Atlanta Mall yesterday, just people watching. The majority were fat, there were few lean people. Much of the problem is our misunderstanding of energy metabolism due to decades of misinformation from our government. This is in part due to recommnedations by scientists with large egos barking up the wrong trees, making incorrect assumptions and sticking to their flawed hypothesis despite poor support evidence and evidence to the contrary.

Fortunately, our understanding of energy metabolism has improved and the misguided scientists with big egos either retired or died.

It is critical to understand nutrient metabolism in order to understand the science of fat loss.

Body fat storage is dependant on the macro-nutrient that is least available. For the past 2 million years of human evolution the least available macro nutrient for our hunter gatherer ancestors was carbohydrate. When the least abundant macro-nutrient is in greaqt supply it is a signal for the body to store fat. This occurs in the late summer and early fall months for omnivorous mammals: us. The hormone insulin's largest role is in energy storage, therefore body fat storage is dependant on the hormone insulin.

Insulin's function is to move sugar from the blood to storage organs. The biggest glucose (sugar) storage organs in our bodies is MUSCLE, and to a much lesser degree the liver. Once the muscle cells are full to capacity with glucose, the insulin receptors on the muscle cells will decrease in insulin sensitivity so that no more glucose will enter the cells. This raises the sugar levels in the blood which in turn stimulated an increase in insulin which now causes the storage of the excess sugar in the form of FAT in adipose (fat) tissue (since muscle and liver are full to capacity). As you can see when there is an abundance of available carbohydrate fat storage results.

Fat is mobilized from adipose (fat) tissue via the hormone insulin sensitive lipase. This can only occur when insulin levels drop, since insulin sensitive lipase is inactivated by insulin. This can even occur at a calorie deficit as seen in low calorie/high carbohydrate diets. Basically whenever insulin levels are elevated you will not loose fat. And carbs raise insulin levels, especially the refined carbohydrates such as sugars and grains.

Once you understand the above scenario food metabolism. you can appreciate the fallacy of low fat/ high carb diets that are still encouraged by our government agencies. Carbs are the culprit, especially the unnatural carbs we consume today in the form of dairy, beans and the greatest of all culprits: grain (including corn and rice). Which were never part of our NATURAL DIET.

If you have not had it yet, I hope this has been your eureka moment!

Something else to ponder: Our bodies are able to manufacture sugar for energy from fats and proteins, but we cannot manufacture all the necessary proteins and fats. This is why we have essential fatty acids (fats) and essential amino acids (protein). So why would a diet that restricts fats or proteins be healthful???? We can survive without carbohydrates, but we cannot survive without protein and fats. This is the flaw in vegetarian and low fat diets.

Today's Eats

Today's culinary excursions are better documented...

Breakfast was once again at the hotel

egg omelet with mushrooms and onions, side of sausages and bacon, bowl of mixed fruit, ice water infused with splash of cranberry juice. (beats drinking boring water), hot earl grey tea.

Lunch was a simple staple: grilled chicken breast over mixed field greens in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. this can be had in any basic eating joint any time any where.

Dinner was at Aja, an Asian fusion restaurant in Atlanta. The decor and atmosphere were top notch. and the food was amazing. This is Twist's sister restaurant.

Appetizer of chicken wings in some Asian dressing and Coconut shrimp soup

Tofu with sauteed spinach in garlic sauce (I skipped the tofu)

Seafood and vegetables in spicy sauce

pepper steak with vegetables. my favorite!