Read my post at the Skintervention Guide blog!

The post Skincare Saturday: safe alternatives to toxic toothpaste! appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

If you’re consistently tired at 3 o’clock in the afternoon (I call it Liz’s College Crash), that’s a bright, flashing sign that you’re dealing with major, chronic blood sugar imbalance. That is not fun. For anybody.

Blood sugar imbalance can seriously screw with your work life, too. As I said in this week’s Email Monday, at one of my previous jobs (which shall remain nameless) I would crawl under my desk nearly every day at 3pm for a nap.

As much as I hate Snickers, those commercials (even though they present the exact opposite of a sensical solution to the Blood Sugar Crazies – ie, eat a Snickers) are fairly accurate. When you’re hungry in the throes of a blood sugar crash, you’re not yourself.

Even folks who follow a whole-foods diet can deal with this. If you’re massively intolerant to sugar of any kind, even healthy carbohydrate-dense foods can send you crashing.

REMEMBER: that’s not everyone. I am NOT carb-phobic. I absolutely love my fruit, my sweet potatoes, my butternut squash, and all that starchy-sweet deliciousness. But my blood sugar is well-controlled, and I know how many carbs are right FOR ME.

Most people CAN handle dense sources of whole-food carbohydrates, like fruit, roots or tubers. Most people NEED them, and for most people they’re perfectly healthy. Contrary to the beliefs of some more militant low-carbers, fruits and starchy veggies actually DO have nutritional value.

But they’re not right for everyone, all the time. And whether you’re just toying with the idea of a dietary overhaul OR you’re already eating whole foods yet you still don’t have a grip on your blood sugar, it may be time to look at your diet…in particular, at the proportion of CARBS to sources of dense protein and healthy fat.

So here’s where I’d start:

As a baseline, breakfast is the place to begin. Some folks aren’t hungry at breakfast time, and if your blood sugar is well-managed, that’s cool as can be. Do what you want. But if your blood sugar is whack, start with breakfast. As in, eat it. And make it good.

Prioritize dense protein and healthy fats first. Here are a few ideas:

Grass-fed steak & eggs.
Eggs & 2-minute Hollandaise sauce. (Over sauteed spinach if you like).
Buffalo chicken meatballs (anything is breakfast if you eat it for breakfast).
Bison Butternut Bowl (with low-starch spaghetti squash). Fabulous for crappy cooks – like me.

These types of breakfasts have been powering sane, stable hard work since long before Kashi GoLean Krunch.

You don’t have to have a huge plate of these goodies. A little goes a long way – chew, eat patiently, enjoy your food, and you may find yourself full fairly quickly – and for a long time after breakfast ends. (No “second breakfast” necessary, as Diane would say of her granola-bar days.)

If breakfast doesn’t seem the same without your fruit or starchy carbs, fine: add them to your plate, but don’t eat them until you’ve finished the rest. By that point, you may not be hungry for ‘em any more. (Little trick you can play on yourself.)

From there, your breakfast-balanced-body will be equipped with the sound mind to choose something equally healthful at lunch: chicken salad with homemade healthy mayo, chicken thighs, or a Cobb salad with hard-boiled egg, avocado, bacon and Extra-virgin olive oil. You’ll likely make it to lunch without needing a “snack.”

Adjusting to a blood sugar management protocol may take a week or two, but from there it should be smooth sailing (if not, it’s time to talk to a practitioner who can dig a little deeper). Then, you can try adding starchy or otherwise carb-rich whole foods (fruits, roots and tubers) into your plan and gauge your blood sugar tolerance from there.

For extra guidance, I highly recommend the meal plans in Practical Paleo or the 21 Day Sugar Detox program.

Easy peasy, right?

How do you identify when you’re in the throes of sugar-crash induced drama? How do you keep your blood sugar in check? If you’ve got some good advice, leave it in the comments!

Recommended Reading:

The post Blood sugar issues: where to start? appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

Remember – If you’re enjoying these podcasts, please leave us a review in iTunes. Thanks!

Episode #81: Salt, Shakeology, yeast infections, & calorie counting

Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of the amazing new book Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertainingby Hayley Mason & Bill Staley (The Food Lovers) – releasing everywhere on April 30th!

Topics:

1. Salt on a Paleo diet? [9:30]
2. Yeast infections [18:18]
3. Pre-workout nutrition for early morning workouts / fat for fuel? [26:04]
4. Paleo = weight gain?? [31:04]
5. Counting calories on Paleo [31:47]
6. How does Shakeology shake up? [49:30]

Click here to download this episode as an MP3.

The episodes are currently available in iTunes, Stitcher & Blog Talk Radio.

1. Salt on a Paleo diet?

Megan says,

Hi ladies – I have three questions for you. (Side note: they’re all long and totally unrelated to each other, so please feel free to pare down if you can’t accommodate all of them)

First, Loren Cordain feels very strongly about not adding any extra sodium chloride to one’s diet, but no one else in Paleo-land seems to talk about it at all. Dr. Cordain’s was the first book I read when I originally went Paleo, but making salt-free recipes resulting in BORING FOOD. I’m much happier with the Practical Paleo recipes, but I’m concerned that I may be missing something important. Can you explain whether or not you agree with his position on table salt, and why?

2.Yeast infections

Second, my health has uniformly improved since going Paleo two months ago – lots of little niggly symptoms like breakouts, heart palpitations, and stuffy noses have disappeared completely. The one thing that doesn’t seem to be improving is my yeast infections. I get one about once every month or two. I can sometimes trace it back to a bacterial exposure (during sexual activity, for example), but not always. I treat them pretty successfully with vaginal probiotic suppositories or Monistat for the external ones, but I feel like Paleo nutrition ought to have decreased the frequency of my candidiasis breakouts. Is there something in a Paleo diet that could be exacerbating the yeast balance, or some other change you’d suggest?

3. Pre-workout nutrition for early morning workouts / using fat for fuel

Third, for Diane: you suggest in “Practical Paleo” that eating before working out leads the body to use the energy present in the food rather than stored fat get you through the workout. But does this same rule apply to fat- and protein-based pre-workout meals? I work out at 6am and feel a little icky if I don’t eat at least a little something when I wake up. I don’t actually need the food energy to get me through the workout; eating is just part of the ritual of waking up for me. So if I eat an egg with avocado, or make Coco-nutty Grain-Free Porridge (OMG BEST THING EVER!!), will my body be using that fat and protein immediately as an energy source, or will it be dipping into stored fat?

Thanks to you both for all your great work!

4. Paleo = weight gain??

Michelle says,

What the Heck! Why am I gaining weight on paleo?!?! After years of a crap diet, skipping meals, and what I now know are unhealthy eating patterns, I started eating paleo in Sept of 2012. It took a few months to transition fully, but I now eat 95% paleo. I have also GAINED 15 pounds, when I need to lose around 30. I am trying to heal a leaky gut after years of low calorie diets and low fat, reduced calorie foods, but the gaining weight makes me want to revert to old habits of meal skipping and calorie counting. I do have a cheat meal occasionally, like a cupcake on my birthday, or maybe some organic corn chips with salsa, but my boyfriend does this as well, and he has LOST weight since we have began eating paleo. What gives?

Sleep is 8 hours a night. I recently joined the YMCA behind my house, but am trying to stick with only yoga and walking to keep cortisol levels down. Supplements are .125mcg synthroid, 80 mcg potassium, 650 mg ferrous sulfate (iron), and magnesium if I want any hope of going to the bathroom on a regular basis. I recently began taking marshmallow root and drinking peppermint tea in hopes of helping my gut heal.

Thai food 3x/month, tortilla chips 2x/month, dairy 2x/month

5. Counting Calories on Paleo

Jodi asks,

In order to lose weight on the Paleo diet, do I need to be counting calories?

6. How does Shakeology shake up?

Rachel says,

I’m just wondering what your take on Shakeology is and if you feel its safe for Paleo diets? I understand whole food is better than any form of shakes but I just started ordering the vegan form of Shakeology and would like to continue using it along with trying to eat as close to Paleo as possible. I’m just beginning to understand more about the Paleo way of eating and there are times that some of the info gets to be a lot, so any insight from you would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Thanks for listening!
Liz & Diane

The post Episode #81: Salt, Shakeology, yeast infections, & calorie counting appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

To read more about my involvement with Steve’s Club and Steve’s Original, click here.

Jacob is one of the outstanding young adults of Steve’s Club Camden. He not only receives mentorship and personal guidance from the program, but he serves as a mentor and leader as well. He leads by example, and is dedicated to keeping his friends and loved ones on the right path.

One of the first things Jacob told me about himself was representative of everything he’s about: “I’m a hard worker. I don’t give up easy.”

Jacob, like many Steve’s Club youth, lives in one of the most dangerous cities in the nation, with a per-square-mile crime rate over 16 times the national average. This is not the only challenge Jacob has overcome in his life. At five years old, Jacob – who is a triplet – was diagnosed with leukemia. At seven, his cancer went into remission.

These challenges are what makes Jacob’s story so powerful: he has thrived, set goals, made plans, and served his family and friends as an example of what hard work, honesty and integrity make possible. No excuses – just dedication to making progress and moving forward.

At one time, school was rough for Jacob. “I wasn’t the smartest kid ever and my grades weren’t perfect,” he told me, but “Crossfit [gave me] a new beginning…my grades improved. I made honor roll, and as of now I have straight As.”

“I started just trying to SUCCEED. I actually started studying more. I used to fail my history quizzes, and now I haven’t got less than 95 on any test or quiz.”

Jacob’s family has been a point of strength for him. The most important thing in Jacob’s life right now, he says, is his mother. “She’s the one that was there for me when I was sick. She had to be a single parent raising 3 kids, so she’s definitely a big influence in my life.” Much like Jacob, her strength is “not giving up.”

Jacob remembers starting with CrossFit at Steve’s Club – his first workout was a 10-minute AMRAP of 10 push-ups,10 overhead lunges, and 20 lateral hops. Remembering what he was able to do then compared to what he’s able to do now serves as proof of the power of hard work: he now counts his favorite workout as one much more challenging than his first – a 500m row followed by 3 rounds for time of 10 front squats and 10 box jumps, followed by another 500m row.

“I remember the first time I did a workout here, I was so tired,” Jacob told me. “Ever since that first day, I never felt better. Doing that workout made me feel so good, I just wanted to keep coming. I ended up accomplishing a goal – I lost about 15 lbs in 1 month.”

Jacob is constantly working to improve his performance in CrossFit, a large focus at Steve’s Club. He has taken advantage of the academic mentoring program at Steve’s Club as well – yet another way he continues to move forward and create new opportunities for himself.

Jacob is also an avid reader, focusing mostly on British Literature. His favorite book is 1984 by George Orwell.

His one piece of advice for everyone: “life’s not easy, so don’t be afraid to get back up and keep on trying.”

It was truly an honor to sit down with Jacob and learn more about his life and future goals.

Jacob has plans to go to college, become a physical therapist, and “give back” to others who have given to him – people like his mother, who survived hard times to keep a roof over Jacob’s and his brothers’ heads; people like Steve Liberati, founder of Steve’s Club; and people like the doctors who were there for him through his battle with leukemia.

“My main priority,” Jacob says, “is to help people.”

The driving force behind our ability to work with and train these kids are sales of Steve’s Original PaleoGoods products, like Paleo Kits, which benefit the non-profit. The original Paleo Kit was made to give the kids of Steve’s Club a healthy option during the day. I love promoting them, because I love seeing the kids come in, get in a good workout, and grab a PaleoKit using Steve’s Club Store points they earned through their hard work. Paleo Kits are yummy. You should buy them (wink).

…And you should buy them this week. With the code cavegirl2013, you can get FREE shipping! Show some love, and help support an organization I love!

If you order, feel free to leave a comment and let me know so I can thank you personally.

Remember, Steve’s Original PaleoKits is a business supporting a non-profit, so the following details are required!

• Free shipping code cannot be combined with wholesale offers or any other promocodes (no gift certificates or refund codes)
• Sorry, we aren’t always able to post discounts in advance.
• We cannot retroactively apply the discount (sorry if you just placed an order)
• All sales are final
• Discount is applied at checkout
• Orders must be placed online at www.stevesoriginal.com
• If code is not entered at checkout, we cannot apply discount after order is placed
• Code cannot be used for any orders outside of the continental US.

The post Changing Lives, part 2: meet Steve’s Club athlete Jacob appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

My favorite show of all time, the Andy Griffith Show (no, I’m not an octegenarian. I’m just a “youngun” with great taste in TV), had a handle on this stuff way back in the sixties.

Of course, if this were today, Barney’d watching his intake of meat, fat, and “processed” sugar – but maybe he’d have indulged in plenty of Tofurkey loaf, Benecol, AND the apple pie (sweetened with organic agave, of course). Add a side of statins, blood pressure meds, aromatase inhibitors and stomach acid blockers and you’ve got the Modern Dinner Table.

The post Watch the ol’ Carbohydrates and Glucose! appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

I skip workouts. (MANY workouts). I pop zits. Sometimes I watch Vampire Fiction and delight in the antics of churlish New Jersey Housewives.

(Sadly, I haven’t had much time for television lately – so I’ve been staging my own little vignettes using finger puppets. I call them “The Real Vampires of Paleo Township”)

(Brilliant, babysitter-friendly finger puppets from LaAnt Crafts)

Another thing I do that’s not perfect is…I waste things. I buy single-use plastics and non-reuseables. I’ve gone through more than my fair share of Starbucks to-go cups and I’ve definitely used a plastic bag or two (contributing to the 500 billion plastic bags consumed annually and an ocean deposit of degrading plastics approximately the size of Texas). Yeouch.

I saw the movie Bag It recently and, aside from being delightful (who doesn’t love a self-deprecating narrator with an affinity for crotch jokes), it made me realize that I do some things that are downright lazy.

Lookit. I hate being preached at. I’m not about finger-wagging, whether as a nutrition professional or in environmental matters. I likely won’t re-arrange my life such that I produce absolutely no garbage or never use a plastic bag again. But there are a few things I’d be a jerk not to do that are, at the very least, steps up from the alternative. Here are 5 better choices we can make that aren’t overly hippie or obnoxious.

Thing Number One: Don’t use the disposable cups at the coffee shop.

Aside from the Soy Milk and bad soundtracks, Starbucks does one thing right: they give a discount for bringing in re-usable coffee cups. Let me be an uber-jerk and say this: There’s really no excuse for single-use coffee cups. The number of gas-station and coffee-shop cups that must be discarded every day is staggering. Don’t make it worse.

If you can afford to buy coffee, you can afford to invest in a re-usable coffee cup. Above: Re-usable vessels for Iced coffee AND hot.

Thing Number Two: Don’t buy products built to buttress human ineptitude.

What I mean is, there are certain products that simply scream “I KNOW YOU’RE INCOMPETENT! EMBRACE IT!” Bag It made me realize that the plastic-screw-top carton is one of those products.

Back in “the day” – which was a Wednesday, btw* – people knew how to open cartons. These days, cartons – those remnants of times gone by – are equipped with convenient screw-tops. I contend these screw-tops serve to surreptitiously degrade your self-esteem – because, apparently, you are unable to navigate the difficult world of folding back, then pushing forward to access your full-fat dairy. Let’s be real - the first rule of BEING A CARTON is that you open like this: 

I understand that this is still a throwaway item. But if I’m going to keep enjoying heavy cream in my coffee now and then, it’s going to be from a carton that A) respects my intelligence and B) doesn’t generate more waste in the form of a ridiculous plastic cap.

*Not my joke. I think it’s Dane Cook’s.**

**Please excuse me for knowing AND re-using a Dane Cook joke.

Thing Number Three: Buy stuff that can be reincarnated.

Standard shampoo bottles are generally useless once you’re done with them. But Dr. Bronner’s Castille Soap – which I use to supplement my “No Poo” regimen - comes in bottles (made from recycled materials) that are easily re-used for pre-made laundry soap extracted from Soap Nuts (see Thing Number Four) or as a shaker for my Apple Cider Vinegar hair conditioner.

Great Marsh Artisan Skincare (a favorite company of mine that produces crap-free products from seasonal herbs that the owner, Amanda, infuses herself) packages their Peppermint Food Scrub in easily re-used mason jars.

When I’m traveling, I snag the miniature mason jars containing jelly and syrup and give them a new life – they’re perfect for holding coconut oil lip balm.

Thing Number Four: Quit the detergent. Buy soap nuts in bulk.

(Note: I have an article on soap nuts in the latest issue of Paleo Magazine.)

Soap Nuts are amazing little dried fruits that contain saponin, a natural surfactant. They’re perfect for a variety of cleaning tasks, but I love them most for their incredible clothes-cleaning abilities. After using soap nuts to wash our laundry, I could never return to using even the most “green” detergents – they leave residue that is simply filmy, not to mention many are full of icky, unnecessary, and potentially toxic ingredients.

You can purchase soap nuts in bulk here.

Thing Number Five: (Ladies Only)

I’ll be blunt. Think of all the waste we create with our tampon applicators and time-of-the-month products. While Lunapads and Divacups aren’t right for everyone, we can – at the very least – bear the inconvenience of using applicator-free tampons.

Update: Oh. Mah. Gahd. Stacy just alerted me to these. I’m ordering them NOW!

What other ideas or advice do you have for living just slightly less wastefully more perfectly?

The post 5 things that’ll make you slightly more perfect (but not obnoxiously so). appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

This post also appears at Steve’s Original, where I serve as Nutrition Advisor!

You may be interested to know that before I could begin this post, I had to run to the kitchen and fry up some bacon for a snack. When it comes to well-being, I’m not at 100% until I’ve had a bit of cured pork belly.

Bacon seems to be an item that Paleo/Primal folk regard as a bit of an indulgence. A won’t-make-me-healthier, won’t-make-me-less-healthy, tastes-so-good kind of indulgence. I’ve heard it described as Meat Candy. I’ve wrapped 10 things in it.

I also think most of us are sick of talking about it. We’re tired of debating the relative merits and downfalls of bacon and all the hand-wringing and artificial debate that surrounds it. I get it.

But I ran across a very interesting study in my quarterly journal from the Weston A. Price foundation, and I just had to share.

In the pilot study, the Foundation designed a live-blood analysis intended to evaluate the effects on live blood after consuming various forms of pork (with the addition of lamb as a sort of evaluative control).

Quote: “The blood is the tissue most easily monitored…that shows rapid changes in response to nutrients.” Translation: The blood’ll tell ya if you’re doin’ it right.

The goal: to understand whether “traditional” methods of processing pork – methods like marinating, salt-processing and smoking (read: BACON-izing) were actually affecting the human blood, and how. Traditional cultures have often regarded pork differently than other meats – in some belief systems, it has been considered “taboo” to eat pork. Many cultures who did eat pork employed techniques of marinating and salt processing. Is there some ancient wisdom behind these ideas? To paraphrase Chris Masterjohn, PhD candidate in Nutritional Sciences with a concentration in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition at the University of Connecticut: when we don’t know something, or if the science is debatable, it’s wise to learn from the wisdom of traditional peoples.

The study used unmarinated pastured pork chop (no salt processing); vinegar-marinated pork chop (no salt processing), uncured pastured prosciutto (marinated, also using the added technique of salt processing); uncured pastured bacon (marinated, also using the added technique of salt processing); and unmarinated pastured lamb chop.

The result: Blood showed marked platelet aggregation (considered an adverse change) in unmarinated, unsalted pork. While I cannot reproduce the images contained in the journal, the blood change looks something like this

(on the left, prior to eating unmarinated pork; on the right, platelet aggregation 5 hours after eating unmarinated pork). Left is normal, right is definitely NOT.

Blood showed virtually NO aggregation after eating marinated, salt-processed pork (prociutto and bacon). The study’s conclusions as they appear in the Fall 2011 issue of the Wise Traditions quarterly journal (Volume 12, Number 3):

“The results suggest that unmarinated cooked pastured pork may be unique in producing these coagulation effects on the blood, which also appeared quite rapidly, in less than ten minutes after blood draw, and did not clear up during an hour of observing the blood under the microscope.

“The early blood coagulation and clotting observed after consuming cooked unmarinated pork are adverse changes in the blood…associated with increased systemic biochemical inflammation as well as the possible formation of blood clots in the body…

“The processing of pork in customary ways by salts and acidic marinades makes pork safe for consumption…traditional processing of pork also seems to prevent the inflammatory and blood clotting effects as observed here through live blood analysis, although we do not know why. We speculate that raw pork contains a toxin, unidentified to date, and that heat alone from cooking cannot destroy it, but that fermentation with salt, and also acid plus heat, do so.”

The lesson? Bacon is probably the best type of pork you could eat. I’d call that a MAJOR win.

The caveat? It’s got to be good bacon, from pastured pigs raised humanely in a natural environment. There’s really no getting around the fact that meats are healthier when raised under these ethics, but based on the speculated “toxin” in pork, it may be most important to prioritize the purchase of quality pork products. You can find a farmer at EatWild.com.

And while you’re buying your pastured pork, you may want to sport a t-shirt that proclaims what we already knew: Bacon is the new Black.

The post Is Bacon Actually BETTER For You? appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

Look. I have three readers. One is my grandmother. (Hi Gammy!) The other two are spam-bots who leave me awesome comments:

What I’m saying is, I can write about whatever I want. And we may be purchasing a new mattress.

Sos’ you three readers can be sure you know what I’m talking about, here are a few of my word vomits posts on Weston A. Price:

From this blog:

Paleo/Primal + Weston A. Price, WAP Me Pretty., Paleo + Weston A. Price: Dietary Domination

From my professional website:

Fermented Beverages: A New Post-Workout Strategy?, Nutrition for Athletes, Part 1 and Part 2, Super Saturated Fats

From another professional website, Steve’s Original, where I serve as Nutrition Advisor: (at this point, you can surmise that I either spend more time typing than I do being a normal human being; or I simply plagiarize. A lot.)

Farms, Activism, and CrossFit (caution: sound), Paleo Plus: All About Dairy, Part 1, Paleo Plus: All About Dairy, Part 2, Paleo Plus: Broth

So yeah. I love Weston A. Price. But I don’t love it alone. There are four of us in this Ancestral Health bed: Myself, Weston, and the 2 “P’s” – Paleo and Primal. (So I guess there are, like, several million people in my bed. I may need a shower.)

We’re all targeting our own health and the health of the planet from an ancestral perspective, and together there’s a synergy that’s unfathomable. Collecting the best from each camp is like having a dinner of grass-fed steak wrapped in bacon, topped with crabmeat and a pat of raw butter. YEOWZA!

So I attended the 2012 WAP conference in Dallas last weekend (appropriately entitled “Mythbusters!” and I did a recap today for Steve’s Original – find it here.

A few of the more important tidbits I gleaned from a weekend filled with Science, Braunschweiger and Hero worship:

Science. Braunschweiger. Hero Worship. #Nerdgasm.

1) Vitamin D3 supplementation may be counter-active. I’ll follow the work of MIT researcher Stephanie Seneff, PhD for more on this topic; until then, I may save up for a light box. Also, thanks to Stephanie, I more fully understand the action of sulfur within the body.

Her last lecture, “How Statins Really Work Explains Why They Don’t Really Work,” truly incensed me – to think how many fathers, grandfathers and loved ones are literally dying or losing all quality of life because of Statins absolutely kills me. As Stephanie said (paraphrased), “I would never encourage someone to lower their cholesterol. Cholesterol is doing what it’s doing for a reason.” 

This post from Butter Believer articulates my rage.

2) Arachidonic Acid isn’t the “bad guy” that Barry Sears makes it out to be. Yes, we want to avoid excess Omega 6 from “industrial oils” and processed foods (See Paleo 2.0, scroll to “Excess Linoleic Acid”) but, according to Chris Masterjohn, Arachidonic Acid actually has some really important functions in the body. So enjoy those damn egg yolks and chicken skins, or you’ll answer to my limp fish iron fist.

3) My heroes are actually regular people. I had the privilege of hanging briefly with Chris Masterjohn (most of that time was spent apologizing for a grossly inappropriate Tweet – #Headsmack), eating dinner with a table of Movers & Shakers including Paul Jaminet (to whom I said the word “Awesomest” – #DoubleHeadsmack) and Denise Minger (who, if she noticed my totally awkward, Tourette’s-like “fangirl” behavior, treated me totally normally) and talking the future of the ancestral movement with Kimberly Hartke. It was like introducing Tween Liz to Devon Sawa, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and the BackStreet Boys all at once. I may have lost control of all bodily functions.

4) New friends are awesome. Laura of AncestralizeMe, a future RD and Paleo-oriented WAP VIP, is definitely too smart and pretty to be hangin’ out with a Hippie Blogger like myself. Despite the disparity in coolness, we became attached at the hip and terrorized that conference quite handily. There are some MAJOR Ancestral Health projects in the works, including a call for Weston Price-oriented athletes! Nicole of Sweet Mesquite Acres and Hannah of Kombucha Kamp were so nice and a pleasure to chat with and learn from. Kombucha project forthcoming!

I’m still getting through all the reviews from the weekend, but I’d love to hear from anyone else who was there! What were your favorite tidbits? Do you see the Weston Price, Paleo and Primal movements merging?

The post WAP FTW appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

“Phytic acid occurs in nuts and seeds in two forms – Phytic acid and Phytic acid salts [Reddy, NR and Sathe, SK (Eds.) Food Phytates. CRC Press, 2001]. Both are generally referred to as “phytates.” Together, these two compounds make up the total percentage of phytates reported in various foods. However, they do not possess the same chelating power. So the chelating effect of the phytates of corn, wheat or soy are not the same as those in coconut. You cannot predict the chelating effect based on total phytate content alone.

“The mineral-binding effect of the phytates in coconut is essentially nonexistent. It is as if coconut has no phytic acid at all.”

Fife goes into greater detail, but it’s great to hear an “expert” view of the topic.

(Excuse my ratty writing – I’m stuck in an airport where service is spotty and fog is impeding my journey to the WAP Conference! Naturally I’m using the time to review my WAP journals. Join the WAP Foundation – the quarterly journals are worth their weight in gold!)

The post Bruce Fife on Phytates in Coconut appeared first on Cave Girl Eats.

(Actually, if you’re looking for Monday Motivation to last all week, click over to Balanced Bites. Immediately.)

Luckily my week is short – I’m heading to the Weston A. Price Foundation conference in Dallas over the weekend to learn all about Things. Lots and lots of Things. Unfortunately, a few WAP bloggers have been slightly antagonistic toward “Paleos” in the last few weeks. I ask you – wassap with that? I believe the movements are complementary. Where one fails or flounders, the other fills that space. The Paleo movement understands that grains – whether sprouted or not – are probably not worth the investment and that exercise and natural movement play a key role in long-term health; the WAP Foundation knows fat-soluble vitamins, organ meats, bone broths and fermented foods inside & out (forget the “lean meats” garbage).

I plan on flying my Paleo Freak Flag proudly at the conference. Some of the best and brightest in the Ancestral Health movement (Chris Masterjohn, Denise Minger) are presenting – Let’s all push this superhero-heavy movement forward TOGETHER!

Now, some Great Links…

The last few days have been saturated with health-related links that pertain to the AHM (Ancestral Health Movement). Since I don’t like to harass folks too frequently on the CGE Facebook Page, I’ll get some weekly round-ups going. For today:

Mrs. United States Embraces Paleo Lifestyle. Now if somebody could just tell her to EAT THE DAMN EGG YOLK.

California Sues “Biodegradable” Plastics Firms. Do you know the difference between bio-degradable and oxo-degradable?

How to Talk to you Doctor About Nutrition. PrimalMedEd does it again! One of my favorite bloggers.

What Really Causes IBS? Via The Food Lovers: “FODMAPs are getting some major attention from The Wall Street Journal today. In addition to a large article on page d2, there is also an online article and a short video.”

Vitamin Study Flawed? A supplement company publishes a blog defending the “judicious use of supplements.” I tend to agree, actually. Food – especially that from nutrient-depleted soil – may not always be enough to correct long-term nutritional deficiency. It’s a tough balance to strike, but worth some thought.

The Paleo Diet and Kidney Stones. Always a fun topic.

Potatoes Back on the Menu. Thank goodness, since we’re having steak & potatoes tonight.

And, to round out the fun – Caption This!

(My Caption: “What’s the difference?”)

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