The Story of Crisco (a sad story of an experiment performed on the American public for profit)2/21/2021  Credit for this post goes to @primatekitchen on instagram. Interesting, this a book you can find online at bookstores. Over the years I had heard some of this story detailing how a bi-product of manufacturing made its way into the standard American diet. Its not bad enough they needed a way to sell this goo... the real magic was in demonizing the natural competitors we had used for thousands of years and which were primarily animal fats like butter and in its day healthy versions of animal fats like lard. As with most things its a story of "follow the money" as the toxic transfat product made its way into our diet as a staple while the healthy natural fats were taken away by corrupt research and funding so called healthy non profit groups like the American Heart Assoc which would take 40 years to reverse and the incalculable damage done to our health. @Primatekitchen posted some good excerpts from the book I will copy below but check the posts out on their instagram for more info... primatekitchen Cottonseed oil had a long road to value, beginning as a nuisance waste of cotton ginning. A history of the industry reports that “many an antebellum cotton gin was setup on the bank of a stream so that the seed could be washed away,” spurring states to introduce measures such as Mississippi’s fine for dumping cottonseed “in any stream used for drinking or fishing purposes,” or for allowing it to accumulate within half a mile of a city or town (Nixon 1930, 73). One way to dispose of cottonseed waste was to extract oil from it, initially a product in search of a use. After an idiosyncratic itinerary as an illegal adulterant to hog lard and cheap alternative to animal fats in soap-making in the nineteenth century, it came into its own as a household culinary item with the development of deodorized Wesson cooking oil in 1899 and Proctor & Gamble’s Crisco shortening in 1911 (Pendleton 1999). In making oil from cottonseed, cottonseed meal is left as a waste product. The meal was discarded or shipped to Europe to be used as animal fodder.
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What is a "Healthy" glucose level? Its interesting many of the lab ranges used by conventional medicine are not based on healthy people or optimal health. Levels for all kinds of labs, especially nutrition labs, are based on known deficiency levels. In other words, if your level of vitamin D drops below 30, you are at risk for bone disease (Vitamin D is important for many other important functions in our body). So many doctors who see vitamin D at or around 30 will tell you your fine. Because of this many people now are exploring what is an optimal level for these labs and nutrient levels. What is optimal is largely undefined in humans... interesting we know a lot about optimal health of animals and because of that have fed them differently for many years. For this post I am linking to an interesting article on glucose levels. Levels Health and Nutri Sense offer Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) and consulting to help users understand what an optimal glucose level might be for them, as an individual. For years we've had to rely on random finger sticks and lab markers which can be a lot less reliable than we might think, A CGM allows you to track glucose levels every few minutes for days allowing you to see how your glucose fluctuates around your diet, activity and sleep levels. Oh, yeah dont forget stress :) Seeing this data can be life changing so if you have a chance check it out. This information along with a lab insulin level are key indicators of your metabolic health.... For info on CGM click below
 WHAT MAKES US EAT, & STOP EATING More more information follow @hubermlab on Instagram and youtube
Here I describe the neural pathways involved in signaling the rewarding aspects of certain foods. This has a profound influence on how much we enjoy food and want to keep consuming it. The molecule dopamine which tends to encourage more of whatever behavior led to its release is subconsciously controlled by the contents of the food you are consuming. Sugar in particular. Click the link below to watch  repost from @metabolic_mike follow on Instagram.com for more info
During the 1930’s Pediatricians at the Mayo Clinic published the first-ever long-term clinical trial showing the Ketogenic Diet was effective for epilepsy (60% seizure free, 35% improved, ~ 5% no effect). In 1938 the drug Dilantin became available; despite having sedative and loads of toxic side effects—and being less effective than the ketogenic diet in terms of seizure remission—doctors and patients opted for the pill 💊 instead of having to eat lower-carb foods. 90 years later politicians are closing gyms (even though exercise is an immune enhancer) while allowing people to continue to eat and drink highly-processed fake food that compromises immunity because the pill is coming. Diet and lifestyle change isn’t sexy or profitable, so it’s frequently relegated to unsubstantiated quackery, even though it’s often more effective than pills and shots.  repost from @livevitae follow on instagram or at livevitae.com
If you think about how we age, how some people seem to age better than others consider this image. Certainly, genetics have a role to play but if you have ever noticed someone who seems to be aging faster than normal or seem to be sick alot, its important to consider their environment. As you can see medications may have an impact but how much can they help if the environment or behavior that is contributing to poor health do not change.  repost from lonestarketogirl follow on instagram
Important to note not all cereal and grain products are bad but when you think about our governments diet recommendations for the last 40 years it is generally true we were told to consume massive amounts of highly processed grain products. Many highly refined products even carried the heart healthy logo. Many of these highly refined or processed products contained both the highly refined carbs from the the grains but also had large amounts of add carbs via added sugar. Anytime we eat an all carb meal, especially highly processed carb meals they are quickly digested and absorbed...mostly stored as fat, and in about 30 minutes you are hungry again. These kinds of foods also stimulate hormones and changes in our GI flora that drive our hunger for them.  This is repost is from Lara Adler, instagram environmentaltoxinsnerd Link to article http://linktr.ee/environmentaltoxinsnerd
A lot of times when people talk about chemicals & health effects, we hear folks say stuff like "these chemicals have already been tested and have been found to be safe."⠀ ⠀ Let's explore: ⠀ ⠀ Traditional toxicology studies typically look at higher levels of exposure than we're used to getting, & they work backwards to find the "safe" level. When they find a level that does not produce an adverse effect (think: changes in organ weight, cancer, death), they establish the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL). ⠀ ⠀ Then some safety factors are added to reach the "reference dose" or the dose at which exposures are *presumed* safe. Once established, research into exposure levels below it STOPS, and that reference dose is rarely tested directly.⠀ ⠀⠀ And levels FAR below the NOAEL, ie, levels that reflect normal human exposure, are almost never tested! They are just ASSUMED to be safe. ⠀ ⠀ While many substances do indeed follow what's known as a monotonic dose-response curve (ie, it's linear and predictable) endocrine-disrupting chemicals don't play that way. ⠀ ⠀ The U-shaped graph in this post is an example of a non-monotonic or non-linear dose-response curve; at very very low levels, FAR below what traditional toxicology examines, you can see a LARGER response. ⠀ ⠀ This matters because it means that, at least for EDC's, we cannot predict, or *assume* to know their behaviour based on high-dose testing unless we ACTUALLY and accurately test. ⠀ ⠀ And yet that's just what toxicology does, it ASSUMES the line of the curve is always linear - without testing to confirm. ⠀ ⠀ Why is this important to know?⠀ ⠀ Because the #1 response to talking about chemicals is "the amount is so small it doesn't matter"!!⠀ ⠀ If you understand, and can clearly articulate this concept, you'll do a dang better job at talking toxins with your clients, patients, or customers! ⠀ ⠀ This is a core piece of the conversation about why chemical exposures matter which is why this topic is covered extensively inside my Talking Toxins professional course. ⠀ ⠀ Thousands of health professionals have already been through this program! Check the linkinbio to learn more about it! Heading into summer we are seeing a lot of social media posting on hydration. We know the human body is mostly made of water and athletic performance is shown to decline rapidly with dehydration of just a few percent of body weight, but athletes workout and drink a lot of water, right? In my practice I do find that most athletes, around practice or athletic events, do consume plenty of fluids. (I would always argue we need more water and clean electrolytes not so much sports drinks, but for now we will just focus on fluids.) Many professional sports teams use bioimpedance testing to measure fluid balance in athletes understanding the importance of fluid for performance. I often ask the young athletes I see, how much did you drink after practice yesterday and before you went to bed and it is not unusual to hear in response, not very much or even none. I posted and linked to the TB12 challenge because it emphasizes the importance of hydration over time. Our goal with athletes is to be consistent with diet and hydration everyday to allow the body to perform at its best as well as optimize the ability to grow, heal and recover. Remember pregame is not the day before or the day of an athletic event pregame is everyday that week heading into the event. We now have the science to understand that consistent diet and hydration around your training allows your body to adapt metabolically for performance.  ESTABLISH YOUR HYDRATION BASELINE IN 14 DAYSAs spring turns into summer, and in particular on a day like National Hydration Day (June 23), questions like ‘What’s the best way to hydrate?’ and ‘How long does it take to get hydrated?’ get asked. These are important questions to mention since survey research indicates that 75% of Americans don’t drink enough water.
Studies also indicate that dehydration can drain physical and cognitive performance as well as harm digestion. Here are some key facts explaining why hydration is so important for your recovery and performance:
What does Tom Brady drink? The answer is 150 ounces of water (or more) supplemented with TB12 Electrolytes. This wasn’t always the case. When he was a college quarterback at the University of Michigan he drank relatively little water. “I drank a lot of other things—alcohol, juice, soda—that I later found out can be dehydrating,” he says. “I definitely experienced a lot more fatigue in my twenties than I do now.” He adds that unlike in his college years, he never gets headaches or cramps anymore. BEST WAY TO HYDRATE & REACH YOUR BASELINE
Ready to Eat Meals for Athletes......(and everyone else:) Been away from the blog for a while but will promise to do better. These meals are so healthy and so tastey I had to get back online to share. Thanks to my ole nutrition mentor DrLW I was connected with the folks at freshnlean and wanted to pass along this option to help those who struggle with time and eating healthy....which is nearly all of us. As practitioners we always know if our patients could just eat the way we asked for a period of time they would feel better, have more energy, better skin, less headaches and pain etc ...and thus have the motivation to continue. Then after our consults discussing healthy whole foods meal planning we would send them out the door to try to figure out how to do it. Many do fine as it is a simple concept but changing habits is hard and with everyones limited time we were always looking for ways to bridge the gap between knowing and doing. Meal services abound now so there are a lot of options for those who need a short cut to the world of healthy eating. Freshnlean has done a great job formulating, packaging and delivering high quality meals to consumers. This is one of few whole foods (hippy) meal services I have seen to really incorporate "healthy fats" which are often excluded due to cost.
I am trying out Freshnlean's new ketomeals but they have meals for everyone... athlete, non athlete, low carb, GF, keto, etc. For the keto crowd the freshnlean keto meals use the same whole foods approach we use in clinical practice. The way we want to do keto is to start with real whole foods then over time transition people to keto. This transition is to allows metabolism to adapt to using fat as a primary fuel and for many insulin resistance can impair fat burning so we are really allowing hormones to shift and it can take some time. The Freshnlean keto meals start people in a great place, at the threshold of ketosis, which is a great place to be when moving toward a ketogenic diet. For those who know my keto-nerd language the meals are formulated around the 1:1 ratio which can be a real happy place for a lot of low carb/keto people. Many people use modified keto or ketolight and never make it to the big show version which is the 4:1 ratio and that is fine. I always have the goal to find a spot where people feel better and it really works for them more than targeting a blood ketone number. If you try them out let me know what you think... randy@realbodyfuel.net https://www.freshnlean.com/performance/  Another entry for the lower carb peoples. This poppy seed muffin is super good....you would never know it is lower carb. The keto ratio is 1.88:2 so almost 2:1. This recipe is low carb already so the way you make it more ketogenic is to add more and more healthy fats. The two places I added fat to this recipe: the coconut oil - because I am using the monk fruit powder in place of pure maple syrup, I needed some more liquid subbed in some MCT oil for the glaze in place of some water in the original recipe. Just an example of how you can twist a lot of recipes toward lower carb and higher fat. Remember keto just means fat becomes a primary fuel. At or around the 1:1 ratio you are near the threshold of ketosis, certainly helping with hormone balance and inflammation. Even if you never go fully keto it is smart place to be. Most people dont know that a real/whole foods diet including healthy fat foods and oils can get you pretty close to ketogenic... so many people are close even if they dont know it. Disclaimer: lower carb meals and snacks go together. Dont try to do healthy higher fat foods along with a diet full of simple carbs/sugars, bread and pasta. Most of these lower carb recipes are best used with a real/whole foods meal plan. Ingredients
Muffins 3/4 cup coconut flour 4.5g pure monk fruit, I just jullian's bakery pure monk fruit, this would be 4.5 of the tiny scoops 1/2 cup organic coconut oil, warm up so it is liquid 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice zest of one lemon 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp baking soda 6 healthy eggs room temperature to keep the coconut oil from being cooled 1 tsp vanilla extract 2-3 tablespoons of poppy seeds Ok to add water or more coconut oil to make the batter more liquid if needed...this will only make the batter easier to handle and will boost the keto ratio. The muffin batter should be more liquid than solid, ie look like muffin batter. Glaze 1/4 cup cashew butter, I made my own by grinding a couple handfuls of cashews 1/2 tiny scoop or .6g of pure monk fruit powder 2 tsp of fresh lemon juice 1-3 tsp of MCT oil, MCT oil is the shorter fats of coconut oil, they are super ketogenic but mostly using them here to replace water and make the glaze thinner while adding some healthy fat Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees and add 12 paper muffin cups to muffin tin In a large bowl mix together the muffin ingredients using a wire whisk, until smooth, then add poppy seeds Poor batter into muffin cups, for 12 muffins, there will be a little more than a 1/4 cup of batter in each. Bake 20-25 minutes, I use a tooth pick to check, if the tooth pick comes out clean, they are done Let muffins cool while making the glaze For the glaze mix together the cashew butter, lemon juice and sweetener. Add the MCT oil one teaspoon at a time to help thin it out to glaze consistency. As you can see in my photo I leave it a little thicker so it looks more like frosting.... I keep the muffins in the frig then slightly reheat to eat them....they are soooo good!! Keto ratio 1.88:1 calculation: per muffin 7g total carbs - 3.1g of fiber + net carbs 3.9g 5.1 grams of protein add net carb and protein together to get total glucose potential 3.9 + 5.1 = 9g 17g total fat to find the keto ratio divide (fat) 17 by (total of carb and protein) 9 = 1.88 so the ratio is 1.88 : 1 meaning there is almost twice as much energy from fat compared to carb potential |
