Ever wanted a sous vide cooker? Or wonder what it is and what kind of results it can produce? Check out my latest video where I show you how I prepare the roast to cook, soak it, and finish it off in a cast iron skillet. Also, check out NomNomPaleo for her amazing book, iPad App, and Paleo Recipes like the one for Magic Muschroom Powder I use in the video. A Sous Vide is PERFECT for any Paleo Kitchen!
What We Can Learn From Those Who “Age Gracefully”, It’s Not Just About the Genes!
I happen to have access to a wealth of knowledge from a very good and reliable source, my elderly patients! I often ask them questions about all sorts of things just to learn from their vast experience at life. Whether it be tips on growing better tomatoes or fixing an issue with a car, they always come through with what I need.
This morning I saw a gentleman. He is 96 years old, takes only a few medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and a baby aspirin a day. He is normal weight, and despite his age still mows his own lawn, maintains a garden, and rides his stationary bike daily! I asked him today what his diet was like, and here are highlights of what he said, and I’m paraphrasing…
“I have always eaten mainly vegetables and fruit. I don’t mind meat, I just eat enough to get what I need. What I really like is fresh vegetables from my garden.”
“I’ve never been a big bread eater, and I really don’t like pasta because it’s too filling. I’ll eat a sandwich every once in a while, but it’s never been my thing.”
“I don’t eat cheese or really drink milk. It has never agreed with my stomach so many years ago I decided to stop torturing myself and I just don’t eat any of it.”
“Although I like sweets, my momma always told me that too many sweets were bad for me. I’ve always just made a general rule not to overeat sweets. In my 30’s I figured out that when I eat sweets like cookies or cakes I feel tired, they just drain me doc. I just gave them up pretty much 50 years ago or so…”
Who needs all these fancy studies telling us what to do when we have real flesh and blood people whose long-term habits clearly show the secret to longevity! I asked him one more question, what he would choose as his last meal!
“Just give me a big tomato, a knife, and a little salt, and that’s all I need. But, the tomato has to be from MY garden!”
Look for advice from the best possible sources! Look around you, find people who seem healthier than you, fitter than you, maybe even older and wiser as in this case! Compare this case to the hundreds of people I see who are in their 60’s, morbidly obese, on 4 shots a day for diabetes…and their last meal would be Chicken Fried Steak with a Side of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy! It does not take an MD to see the pattern here 🙂
Eat Clean, Find an Adventure the MOVES You!
-Ernie
What is Paleo Truly Guilty Of? – Carb Addiction and the Industry That Supports It
When people are passionate about things, they tend to get very defensive. Question someone’s child, and they are bound to get upset in a hurry. I certainly do! So why is it people get so defensive when you start explaining the Paleo diet to them?
Today I saw a lady at my office. Fairly typical middle-aged, over weight female with poorly controlled diabetes. She recently started on an insulin pump but her glucose control is no better at all. I had a suspicion why, and again started to question the details of what she eats. Of course, she eats carb after carb after carb. Whole wheat this, and low fat that. She has tried to cut the carbs in the past, and actually had pretty decent success, but quickly falls back into your carbilicious ways. Why? Why go back when a change in diet shows clear improvement in her sugars?
Another gentleman today saw me for his second visit with me. He changed from another physician because he heard I was good at treating diabetes, and felt his prior physician was not doing a good job. During his first visit he explained what he was looking for; excellent sugars with minimal medications, and to be able to eat what he wants. No problem right?! Over around 20 minutes I proceeded to deflate his balloon to the point it may have actually been a black hole by the end of the visit. He was very frustrated because his sugars were regularly bottoming out, yet his Hemoglobin A1C (90 day sugar average we use to direct care of diabetics) was still too high. He was essentially convinced that the labs were repeatedly wrong. He swore his sugars were always “around 100.” So, luckily for me, and unluckily for him, I did a 72 Hour Glucose monitor on him. This is a device that is connected to your belly via a microscopic fiber, and it checks your glucose every 5 minutes for 72 hours. What did we find? For three days in a row the pattern was clear… Every evening his sugar shot up around 7:30 like one of the Blue Angels during an air show. It would hover around 400 a few hours, then slowly drop overnight. In the morning, as he would typically skip breakfast it would plummet. By noon he would eat a “sandwich and chips” and it would shoot up to around 300 for a few hours before things started again before dinner. So, clearly his prior physician was doing a terrible job (insert sarcasm here) and all I had to do was change a few things up and it would be ok!
On todays visit we reviewed the 72 hour glucose monitor, and I broke it down for him that if HE wanted to control his sugars we could do it, but HE would have to make some significant changes. What kind of changes? Changes of OMISSION. I started to tell him the typical Paleo diet rules…and he became, you guessed it, very defensive. “But how do I eat a sandwich???….”
I would love someone to please answer this question for me; What is so terribly crazy about the Paleo Diet? You hear it talked about on the news and they make it sound so revolutionary or “different.”. Simply stated, Paleo is not about what you eat, it’s about what you DON’T eat. The Paleo diet does not ADD anything to your diet that is out of the ordinary, extremely controversial, or generally crazy. Even the devil that is an egg is getting off the hot seat lately. All it truly does is OMIT certain things from your diet. But not all diets of omission are so highly scrutinized. Remove meat and become a Vegan and it’s “chic and trendy,” cut out carbs and it’s reckless and dangerous! Give me a break! So why is it so crazy? Why are people so, and I mean this literally, offended by the notion of changing to a Paleo lifestyle? It’s because they are passionate about their carbs…
People are addicted to carbs. Tell a heroin addict you are going to take away their heroin, and they get very defensive. Tell a carb addict you are going to take away their pasta Primavera and it’s time to break it down Bruce Lee style. Let’s look at this simply, eating Paleo allows you to eat meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, and nuts. All these are 100% natural, nothing fancy here. Please, how is this dangerous or controversial? The extra meat you eat to replace the pasta is dangerous? “But there is no data that so much meat is good for you…” Well guess what, there is plenty of data that too much pasta is BAD for you. Want data? Talk to my two patients above. They both love pasta, and they are both diabetics in their 50’s who keep eating pasta and can’t control their blood sugars.
Can meat hurt you? Can vegetables hurt you? Can fruit hurt you? Can eggs hurt you? Can nuts hurt you? Barring actual allergies, I say the answers are no.
Ok, let’s look at the other side. Can dairy hurt you? Can grains hurt you? Can sugar hurt you? Can artificial crap hurt you? I’m going to go with yes on these, and there is science to prove it. (See rising rates of diabetes, lactose intolerance, fatty liver, cancer, auto-immune disease etc, etc)
So, what is Paleo truly guilty of? In my opinion, it is guilty of exposing people for what they are…carbohydrate addicts. It can’t possibly be guilty of making people eat un-natural foods, or unrecognizable concoctions companies sells as “food.” It’s not a fad diet, as fads make you eat things that come in and out of style. What is a fad anyway? It is defined as: an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object’s qualities; a craze. Last I checked meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, and nuts have been around a long time. Probably a little longer than a tortilla chip or fat-free cheese. A rice cake…now that was a fad!
What do addicts do? They generally know what they do is bad for them, and they have periods of clarity where they do better. Eventually though, the pull of their drug of choice draws them back in. Or, they slip up and use just a little and BAM…right back to square one. They feel shame for their addiction, people look down upon them for it, and they wish so badly they could make a permanent change, but they always fall back into old habits. Now, imagine a heroin addict who is advised to control the addiction by sticking with “moderation” because of course, everything is good in moderation right?
Sadly, if you insert carbs as the addiction in this scenario, you might as well see pictures of my two patients above. They literally can’t imagine life without eating their daily carbohydrates. There is real fear and confusion when I try to take away what makes them feel best. Heroin is clearly bad for you, but a loaf of french bread or rice and gravy certainly can’t fit in the same category can they? Well they certainly are not as ACUTELY dangerous for you, but a long-standing addiction to carbs lead to the same result as any other addiction. Without the same pattern of addiction is there regardless of the “drug” of choice.
What’s worst than that? Diabetics are told to control their sugars by using the very carbs they are addicted to in “moderation”…and somehow we are surprised that they can’t stop over eating carbs. As the Hartwig’s in their book It Starts With Food label it, OVER-carbsumption. Paleo simply OMITs the drug…and somehow it is a bad thing… The current food pyramid does the same thing with obesity! Lose weight by eating the things that make you gain weight in moderation. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Oh, and one more thing Paleo is guilty of. It makes the sugar people, and the wheat people, and the dairy people, and the soybean people, and the corn people….you guessed it, defensive 🙂 Their “bottom line” is very defensive about their products potentially being a major cause for obesity and chronic disease. They rely on the government to make sure that nothing about their industry gets labeled as a potential problem. Can I blame the government? Yes and No. But, that’s a whole other blog post entirely…
Meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts…these actual foods, 100% natural FOODS can’t hurt you. Instead Paleo is guilty of simply exposing people, industry, pundits etc for who they are. They are either addicted to carbs, their livelihoods depend on your carb addiction, or their election depends on your carb addition. It’s sad, it’s true, and I’m afraid it’s here to stay.
-Ernie
By the way, do you agree with this post? Do you know people who could stand to hear it? Do me a favor, share it everywhere you can. Post on Facebook, tweet it to followers, reblog it, pin it on pinterest to your heart’s content. In many ways I preach to the choir. Most who follow my blog agree with these concepts because you already follow a Paleo Lifestyle. But, many do not. The only way to bring about change is to spread the word! So, if you want to help, share away! Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. Please comment all you want, conversation is a good thing!
Video
Geocaching 101- What is Geocaching and How Can I Join in the Fun?
Ever heard of Geocaching? Heard of it, but don’t really have a clue as to what it is?
Check out the latest video on my YouTube channel and learn everything you need to know to get out there Geocaching in no time! Trust me, you’ll love it. If you have kids, you’ll be parent of the year 🙂
Where Are YOUR Priorities? – How the Choices We Make Affect Our Health Long Term
One of the things I hear most often about changing to a Paleo Lifestyle is that it simply costs too much. A few months back when my family and I were on a trip to the Ouachita Mountains along the Oklahoma/Arkansas border we stopped for supplies at a Wal-Mart (certainly no Trader Joe’s in sight in those parts!) As I was checking out the cashier looked at what I had and said “man you eat healthy…this stuff is way to expensive for me and my family!”. What did I have? Meat and Veggies (and I admit, supplies for Smores over an open fire!) I believe the general trend is to assume it is too expensive, and then it becomes a convenient excuse as to why Paleo is not “possible for me.”
Yes, it is more expensive to eat real food than to fill up on processed food. But, let’s look at this example for a moment. Let’s say you go to the local gas station, and there is a mysterious new pump labeled “Discount Gas.” You read at the pump that the gas is absolutely usable in your car, but that it is probably not good for your car in the “long-term”. Short-term it will get you where you need to go, but over the long haul it may lead to some damage to the inner workings of your engine. The kicker is, this gas is HALF THE PRICE of regular unleaded. So, instead of $1.99 a gallon, you can rock $0.99 a gallon! Many of the people using this gas get by, even for a long time, but no doubt eventually it will lead to your engine’s early demise.
So, what do you do? I believe most of us would say that a car is such a big investment, that its just not worth the risk to use discount gas. We simply depend too much on our vehicles to consider using gas that will hurt it’s engine even if the price is so drastically different. Sure, some don’t care and go for the cheap short-term fix, but most would argue that they just can’t easily replace a car, so the extra for better gas is worth it. If you agree with this statement, but you continue to argue for the inclusion of highly processed, nutrient devoid “discount food” into your diet than you need to rethink your priorities! Think about it, you have more concern for the life of your car engine than for your life!
So, where do you get the extra money to pay for real food? Again, have a priority check. What is more important that your health and the health of your family? What is worth more of an investment than that??
- Does your mortgage have you trapped in a house you should not afford?
- Have you leased a car you should not afford, or are you driving a car that uses too much gas for your own good?
- Do you have a cell phone plan that includes everything under the sun just in case?
- Is your cigarette bill so high that you can’t afford better food?
- Do you chronically overspend to the point you are drowning in credit card bills?
- Do you actually watch 300 channels on your cable?
- Do you eat out so much that you are ashamed to actually tell how much you spend eating out every month?!
These are just a few examples, and I’m sure that most of you could think of more. Now I can hear plenty of people saying “Doc, stick to medicine and don’t tell me how to spend my money.” Trust me, I will, I’m not trying to tell you how to spend your hard-earned dollars. I am simply answering a question I get asked all too often, “How can I afford this.” In so many ways where you spend your money is a direct indication of where you place your priorities in life. If you do not place your health at a high enough premium to be worth more of a monetary investment, it is going to be hard to make real long-term changes. In America for some reason food is something where “going cheap” is perfectly accepted, and in fact the norm for most people. Buy cheap food in order to afford other things. The smell of fresh car leather may be nice, and that bigger iPhone 6 screen may make you the envy of all your friends and co-workers, but trust an internist; when you are older, you will envy your friends who seem to have good health. They avoid the hospital stays, surgeries, doctor visits, and significant medical bills you seem to be suffering with. It’s just like saving for retirement. You can spend it all now and work till you are 80, or give up some earthly possessions now to enjoy your later years with less stress and more free time.
So, the question you should be asking yourself isn’t “How can I afford this,” but instead “How can I NOT afford this.”
Start today, start right now. Change your diet, change your life, and change your health once and for all.
Eat Clean, Be Safe, and Find an Adventure that moves YOU!
-Ernie
Why Paleo Works – The Myth of the Essential Carbohydrate!
What happens if you don’t eat bread, or milk, or pasta…wil you die? 😉
Is there such thing as an essential carbohydrate? Well, no there isn’t! Your body can’t make fat, and it can’t make protein, but your liver can make sugar via a process called gluconeogenesis. Odd chain fatty-acids can be converted into glucose and that process can be your friend!
Your body is designed to utilize glucose in the blood as “fast energy” and once it runs out, it tasks the liver into producing more glucose through gluconeogenesis. Fat turns into sugar for use by the brain and other organs…that is a good thing if you are trying to lose weight. Why does restricting carbohydrates lead to weight loss? Simple, when you limit carbs your body has to turn to your fat stores to produce glucose. This is basic biochemistry, and if you choose to, you can use it in your favor to lose weight and be healthier. If you over eat carbs your body rarely has to utilize it’s fat to make glucose, and in fact extra glucose gets STORED as fat.
So, what’s your choice?! Are you going to utilize the pathway God gave you to burn fat for energy, or are you going to “lock” that fat in there by overeating carbohydrates? You can complain all you want about “just wanting to eat a sandwich” etc or you can understand the science of your body, and work WITH IT instead of AGAINST IT!
Pretty simple! Now, make your choice. And please, make the right one!
-Ernie
Real Patient Results – The Accidental Paleo and a Priority Check
Greetings everyone. I saw a patient yesterday that I have seen for quite some time, and I noticed right away reviewing her chart before going in the room that she had lost 19 pounds since her last visit 4 months ago. When I went in to see her I asked how she was, and she said she felt great. Turns out she had gone to see a nutritionist and was following her advice. Also, she was trying to walk more, but not too succesful with that endeavour. I asked her what the nutritionist had recommended, and this was her answer. “Well, essentially I can only eat meat and vegetables. I can’t eat much fruit and no dairy or grains. Basically doc, it’s meat and veggies. And man, do I miss cheese!” As we reviewed a bit more, you guessed it, she was basically eating a paleo diet without calling it one. But, here is the kicker. Once she reaches her goals, the nutritionist says she can slowly introduce things back into her diet and just watch her weight. She could see in my face that she had finally said something I did not agree with!
So, how was she doing? As expected she had lost weight (actually 19 pounds in two months since starting this), she had tons of energy, she had lost a total of 9 inches body wise, and “doc I sleep like a log!” I can’t tell you how many people who go Paleo that swear that they have never slept so good in their entire lives. It’s so predictable it’s not surprising anymore at all.
Labs you ask? Well, fasting sugar from last visit was 105, this time 87. Cholesterol? Well she takes a statin for cholesterol because her numbers were as such off the meds 283/146/46/208 (Total Chol/Trig/HDL/LDL). On the meds they had dropped to 197/150/43/124. In the last two months she had decided to DROP her statin dose to every other day, and her numbers today were 166/73/46/105. So, her numbers were much better on both the Paleo diet AND her statin every other day. Then she revealed her secret…she had stopped the statin completely 5 days ago and was hoping to stay off. I asked her if 1) she was planning on continuing her lifestyle change and 2) if she was willing to re-start the statin if off of it her numbers went back up to worrisome levels. She said yes to both, and we hatched a plan to keep her off her meds for three months and see how she looks then. We will recheck her cholesterol and hope we can keep her off the statin, and hope that she continues to lose more weight. To be continued!
Now quickly, back to the nutritionist and her plan to “phase” things back into the diet after “goals are complete.” Let me explain something to everyone, if your health related goals are “short-term” goals, you will create nothing but “short-term” health. Why, why on earth would you do something that helps you lose weight, feel great, and sleep like a log for a while, then go back to your old ways?
Let’s say you made a ton of bad decisions, and get yourself in tons of debt. You decide enough is enough, and you visit a financial planner who comes up with a comprehensive plan to get you out of debt. Kill the credit cards, stop the travel, no more eating out etc. Then he tells you “Once you get out of this hole, we will slowly re-introduce all your bad habits and hope for the best.” No one in their right mind would say that’s a good plan! But, since we LOVE cheese, we think re-introducing it after reaching our goals seems reasonable, if not “fair” in some way. I mean after all, how can we survive without cheese??! In reality, this is the theory behind every “diet” in the books, and that my friends is why diets don’t work!
Most of us care for and manage our money much more than we do our health. Where are your priorities? We put junk in our mouths when we would never think of putting 50 Octane gas into our precious vehicle. We get the cheapest meat we can find and buy the most expensive cell phone and plan we very well can’t afford. We afford the expensive car lease but not the gym membership that we so desperately need. (The Nav and leather seats were only $40 more a month!) Why? I would love to hear a good answer 😦
Your health is a long-term investment, don’t make it about short-term gains. Your short-term gains lead to my long-term gains…my bank account that is.
Eat Clean, Be Smart, Think LONG-TERM
-Ernie
Paleo Recipe Series – Moroccan Saffron Chicken
Check out my first YouTube Paleo cooking video! In it you will learn how to cook a Paleo Moroccan Saffron Chicken. It sounds fancy, but it’s really old fashioned home cooking with a twist! Simple ingredients, short prep time, fast cooking time, and a very versatile end product. What’s not to love!
Like the video? Please subscribe to my channel and be the first to know when a new cooking, or any other video is publshed on the channel. Thanks for all the support, and I hope you guys enjoy!
I’m working on making the videos more advanced and professional, so give me some time while I learn more about what I’m doing and how to make things look the way that I want!
-Ernie
Disaster Preparedness Series – Shutting Off Utilities in Case of Emergency
You do NOT have to be a prepper to know certain things, and this YouTube video reviews one of the most important tasks any homeowner should know how to accomplish. Learn how to shut off the utilities to your house in case of emergency. If there is some sort of emergency you need to know how! Examples?
If there is an earthquake and natural gas lines are compromised, it is a real possibility that your home could be subject to secondary explosions or fires. Shutting that gas off keeps your home safe…
If there is a compromise of the water system, whether it be from a chemical issue, or simple contamination from day to day occurances, isolating your home from the contaminated water supply can be of great benefit to you and your family. Most homes have traditional water heaters, and those are excellent resoviours to keep potable water for your family in case of emergency. This video both shows you how to shut off water to your home, and how to access that water from your water heaters.
Anyway, as I said, every home owner should know how to do this. It could save both your life and your property from serious damage in any emergency! So go ahead, take 10 minutes of your life and watch the video. You just may be glad you did one day! And while you are at it, subscribe to my channel! You just might learn from some of my other videos past and present.
-Ernie
A Simple Answer to a Complex Question
People ask me all the time for “evidence” that the Paleo diet helps prevent chronic disease, and I have come to look at this two ways. There are certainly scientific studies for and against this lifestyle, each with their own inherent biases. So lets look at this very practically.
1) Look around you. Look at America, look at the world. Look at the rate of obesity and diabetes, look at the rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. Look at what we eat in America, how our diet has evolved over time to shift away from protein and fat and towards a carbohydrate based diet. Look at the growth of the “health food” industry which is based primarily on cheap processed carbohydrates. Look at the dramatic increase in diagnosis and incidence of auto immune disorders like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune thyroid disease. Look at the dramatic increase in cancers around the world. LOOK, open your EYES. Do we have 100% definitive proof that our diet causes all this? No! But, what if, what if we are right. What if the very logical link between what we eat and what we are seeing in the health of humans does have something to do with our diet! What if…
God is pretty smart in my humble opinion. He knew how humans would best introduce badness to our bodies…so he put 80% or so of our immune system in our gut 🙂
Want proof, open your eyes!
2) You want a study telling you how Paleo will make you feel? Do your OWN study, just try it for 30 days. In scientific literature the power of a study is largely determined by the number of patients in a trial. I certainly agree. But, when there is not clear defining evidence, my opinion is that the most powerful study has an “N of 1″…YOU! So, certainly eating only meat, fruits, and vegetables won’t kill you for a month. So try it, do your OWN study! You’ll be glad you did
-Ernie
PaleoHikerMD 