Vitamin K

A newly published study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition points to Vitamin K2 as associated with lower rates of cancer incidence and mortality. The main sources of Vitamin K2 are animal products, including meat and cheese. There is a vegan source of the vitamin, "natto", a Japanese fermented bean dish, but most people outside of Japan probably don't eat or have access to it. Vitamin K2 also has been associated with good bone health and there is some evidence to suggest it may help prevent Alzheimer's.

Of course, this is all associative data, which means it doesn't show conclusively whether or not Vitamin K2 has a direct causative role in preventing these diseases. Another thing to keep in mind is that this particular study was done in Europe. Meat and dairy farming practices are a bit different there than in the States, so the Vitamin K2 sources those people are getting might be more beneficial. Still, it does warrant a re-evaluation of the common "animal products are bad" mantra.

As a final note, Vitamin K (like vitamins A, D, and E) is fat-soluble, which means your body won't absorb it properly if you're not consuming fats. This means getting it in a multivitamin taken without eating some fat with it might render it useless. If you are getting it from cheese or meat, however, it will be better absorbed.

Confounding Variables

Did you know smoking while driving reduces your chance of dying in an auto collision? That's right, cigarettes, when combined with a healthy routine of staying within speed limits, wearing safety belts, and abstaining from driving while intoxicated, lowers your car accident mortality a great deal!

It sounds ridiculous but this is how a lot of diet studies are done. Instead of being controlled (where only one variable is being tested), the experimental group in the trial changes a number of factors in addition to the one ostensibly being tested. They might promote their study for its reduction in saturated fat intake, but will also reduce trans fat intake, increase fruit and vegetable intake, and reduce refined carbohydrate intake as well. These bad studies can often be spotted because while a particular cause of death goes down in the experimental group, the rate of death over all stays the same. If go from driving without smoking or seatbelts to driving with smoking and seatbelts, your chance of car accident mortality will probably go down, but your chance of cancer mortality will go up.

Keep this in mind when reading meta-analyses (top level studies of multiple individual experimental trials), in which you're unlikely to get the whole story.

The "Other" Trans Fat

Did you know that the trans fatty acids that occur naturally in beef and other ruminant meat is actually good for you, unlike the trans fat produced from hydrogenating vegetable oils? I just learned this today.

I'm going off of only a few resources but I don't think this is even controversial like my feelings about saturated fat. Weird that you never hear about it. I guess the amounts anyone would eat are too small to ever really worry about either way.

My Food Rules

Based on what I've learned so far, I try to eat a diet that's based on high nutritional density and representative of early man's diet. Foods that require more technology I try to limit.

Most vegetable oils contain a lot of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which have been implicated in a variety of maladies (cancer and heart disease), so I try to limit them as much as possible. Olive oil seems the least harmful, especially when uncooked (heating/frying with oil alters its chemical structure to be more reactive in the body), so if I have to use oil, I use that. The exception is coconut oil, which is mostly saturated. I have yet to find any, but I'd like to get some and start cooking with that. Vegetable oils require factories to extract, so that's seems to support avoiding them.

Bread is a pretty old food, but it seems like that more ancient breads were MUCH much higher in fiber. They also were not always wheat, but I'm not sure if that's important. What I do think is important is the fact that most ancient breads were sourdoughs, meaning that bacteria had a role in sort of "pre-digesting" it. Modern bread is pretty low in fiber comparatively and has a lot of additives. Finally, bread seems essentially void of nutrients when compared to other food. So, I eat a little simple, fiber-rich bread occasionally (especially if it's a sourdough), but I usually avoid it if possible.

Milk is a lot older than bread (you don't need any sort of technology or civilization to get milk). Nomads led cows around with them as food sources. The use of dairy seems to be specific to particular areas of the world, though, as some populations are lactose intolerant. So, if you are lactose intolerant, perhaps dairy is a bad idea. But I think it is nutritionally good otherwise, although full-fat products should be preferred and grass-fed sources should be sought. Additionally, a lot of yogurts and cheeses have barely any lactose left in them (aged cheeses often have effectively zero grams of carbohydrate, which lactose is, per serving). Also, clarified butter (or ghee) has no lactose because all of the milk solids have been removed.

I think fish oil is necessary because of the omega-3 fatty acids. There really aren't any good sources elsewhere (flax is ridiculously inferior), except perhaps for algae-based supplements (have not been able to find these yet, though). Eating oily fish is good, but taking a supplement of oil may be sufficient.

Meat in general I'm not sure of. It does contain a lot of nutrients you can't really get without supplements, and I'm not sure the supplement versions will get absorbed properly. Grass-fed, sustainable meat should always be preferred. I also avoid pig because I believe pigs are too intelligent to use for food ethically (and they don't really provide unique nutritional benefits). If you don't eat meat, you're going to have a hard time getting enough fat and protein, not to mention iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, etc. But I think if you're careful and eat a lot of eggs and dairy you might be OK. Beans are also crucial if you don't much or any meat (although their relative novelty in human culture does make me wary).

I think dark-colored vegetables are pretty flawless. Potatoes are OK, but they seem pretty nutritionless. They're probably better than bread though, because our ancestors would have been able to easily obtain potatoes. Sweet potatoes and yams are definitely preferable (and tastier in my opinion). Leafy greens are fantastic. Fruit should be eaten only in moderation (our ancestors only had seasonal, limited access to it). More sugary, less nutritional fruits should probably be avoided altogether (watermelon, apples, bananas). Berries are probably best.

Good Reads

I'm going to start a weekly post of articles that I found interesting from the week before

Source

Gluttany Is a Bliss is my new favorite source for "food porn" (ie, beautifully photographed delicious-looking food).

How to be a Positive Person, from ZenHabits, in 300 words. I am a strong believer that perspective is one of the most powerful forces in our lives.
 
The Paleolithic Mind, from paleonutrition advocate Stephen Guyenet, is a reflection on how the differences in mindset between ourselves and our ancestors might reveal where we're going wrong.

Crock Pot Recipes, from The Simple Dollar, a personal finance blog. I personally like a more active style of cooking (I feel like it gives me more control), but if you'd rather just sit back while dinner cooks itself, you should look into getting (and using) a slow cooker.

Family Decisions

Family is a crucial part of what I consider "life eating". They provide a backbone for everything that you do. They offer support, they add strength, and they carry on your traditions and beliefs after you are gone.

However, one thing you cannot be in a family is ideologically rigid. Even families who share core values will differ on specifics. Everyone has different priorities, everyone has access to different evidence, and everyone filters that evidence through the lens of their unique experiences. A family that cannot bend collapses.

When I met my wife, our diets were very similar. We both ate little meat, little junk food, and preferred what we considered healthy food (whole grains, veggies, low-fat items, etc). They were similar for different reasons, however. My main concern was personal health--environmental and animal ethics were secondary by far. For my wife it was the reverse--animal welfare and the environment came first, and personal health second.

Lately, I have started to shift my opinions on nutrition to a more fat and protein based diet, and have learned of the importance of several compounds difficult to acquire without animal products. On the other hand, my wife has become increasingly concerned with animal welfare, and has reduced her meat intake to the rare piece of fish and is trying to reduce her dairy intake as well.

One key to avoiding conflict is not to get into arguments about who's right and who's wrong. We both have very personal reasons for our priorities--nobody is going to convince the other person. It isn't a logical issue, it's a moral one. Of course, we live in the same house and, for the most part, eat the same foods, so some choices have to be made. I don't need to eat a primarily meat diet, so I don't. She doesn't feel as strongly about dairy as she does meat, so I focus my fat and protein intake on that (when plant products are insufficient). I try to limit my diet, where controversial, to what I deem most nutritionally necessary and she tries to limit her objections to what she deems most inhumane. If we focus only on our higher priorities, a lot of potential conflict is avoided.

Finally, I think the most important thing is to embrace common ground. Neither of us know a lot about sustainability, but we both care about it a great deal. Sustainable food options are more humane, better for the environment, and better contributors to health. If animal products are bought, they should be as local as possible, as natural as possible, and as humanely produced as possible. The same goes for other food products as well.

If our schedule permits, me and the wife are going to take our son to a year round farmer's market that I just discovered here in Chicago. We will never agree on everything (do any two people ever?) but we can grow, and in turn, help our son to grow in our committment to better and more sustainable food for everyone involved.

Your bowling ball of appetite

Imagine that you hold in your hands a bowling ball. If a crane lifts the ball to a certain height and drops it, you have to catch it, or you get given a bigger ball. Obviously you would prefer if the ball gets dropped reasonably close to your hands.

When you eat food, your blood sugar goes up, and then down again. Eating carbohydrates makes your blood sugar go up very high very quickly. Refined and simple sugars are the worst, but even a slice of whole grain bread will do it. On the other hand, eating protein and fat will have less of an effect on your blood sugar, and the effect will be slower, since it takes your body more time to break those two macronutrients down.

After your blood sugar goes up, it must come down again. If it started very high, it will crash, leaving you quickly craving food again. On the other hand, if your blood sugar is following gradual peaks and valleys, you will only slowly get hungry again.

Eating a carb-heavy diet is like having the bowling ball dropped from above your head. Some people are able to catch it anyway, but a lot of people will drop the ball--meaning they will not have the will power to resist snacking. Of course, snacking usually entails more sugar and more carbs, since those kinds of foods take least preparation and are immediately satisfying. The "ball" gets bigger because the more spikes your blood sugar has, the more it takes to satisfy your cravings, and the harder you get hit on each crash. The more carbs you eat, the hungrier you feel, and the more likely you are to indulge and eat even more carbs.

Eating a fat and protein heavy diet, on the other hand, is like having the bowling ball only dropped from a few inches up. If you are used to a high carb diet, your ball will still be very heavy, and it may be difficult to transition from the huge spikes in blood sugar. But if you stick to it, your ball will shrink, and you'll be able to go all day without crashing and without having to indulge. You'll find yourself even able to go long periods of time without eating at all.

I'm not saying you can't survive on a high-carb diet. People do. But you need an extraordinary amount of willpower and strength not to overeat and not to indulge your cravings. Do you have it?

The Dessert Method

We typically eat the worst food for dessert. Dessert is for food that you don't eat because you're hungry--you just eat because it tastes good. Desserts are typically high in saturated fat and high in refined sugars. If you're trying to reduce your carbohydrate intake, you only have to worry about one side of the equation. Still, it helps to take things gradually so you're not tempted to give up and go back to your old diet.

Week 0: You eat high sugar and high fat items. Examples: ice cream, candy, cake.
Week 1: Begin to cut out a little sugar. Eat darker, less sweetened chocolate. Skip the frosting on your cake. Eat smaller portions.
Week 2: Begin to replace refined sugars with more natural sources. Eat fruit-based desserts. Have some whole grain toast with honey, jam, or molasses on it.
Week 3: Use only minimal carbs to frame a more fat-based dessert. Have fruit with lots of unsweetened whipped cream. Wrap a thin crepe around cream cheese and berries. Have some lightly sweetened nuts.
Week 4: Continue to explore more ways of making dessert without needing the sweetness of sugar. Have a bowl of whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings. Have a cheese plate. Have some bacon!

Your methods may differ depending on the amount of carbs you want to ultimately consume on a regular basis. But targeting dessert as an axis of change means you target your weakest point. It can help prevent making excuses and cheating on your new regimen.

Permission to Fail

I bought some "bitter melon" last week after reading about its supposed health benefits and high antioxident content. I had to go to an Asian market to find it, but they had a lot of them there, and they all looked relatively fresh and in good condition.

I finally worked up the courage to try and cook the little bugger. It resembled a slightly mutated cucumber, and was somewhat rubbery in texture. I sliced it half, scooped out the pithy, seeded center, and stir-fried it up with some other vegetable in my usual way.

I was prepared for a strong taste. It is notoriously difficult to get accustomed to--its name is altogether appropriate, or so I read. I tried to surround it with other flavors to give the taste "room to breathe." I cooked until tender, according to instructions I had seen elsewhere.

It was next to inedible. I am a fan of stronger tasting vegetables--brussel sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, garlic, onions, what have you--but this was a foreign taste. It was incredibly acrid, resembling perhaps nail polish remover or hair spray. My tastebuds associated it with chemical bitterness, not plant bitterness. Dinner was a failure.

But, I long ago learned, an important part of becoming a decent cook (and I'm sure this is true in other areas as well) is giving yourself permission to fail. You can make grilled cheese all your life, but your life will be incredibly dull. You have to stretch your boundaries. And when you waste your time, money, and dishes on failed meals, you have to brush it off.

I'll probably try bitter melon again in the future, perhaps using some of the "de-bittering" techniques I've read about. Still, I'd rather eat foods I don't have to hide or dilute the taste of (I hate the idea of smothering broccoli with cheese sauce, for instance). I'm not in a huge rush, though. Who knows, maybe I'll stumble upon what all the hubub over it in Japan is.


(Yes, that is a little bitter melon mascot on a can of bitter melon drink)

Another reason to take Vitamin D

Some research done in Copenhagen has revealed that Vitamin D, which people commonly only know as vital to bone health, also plays a role in maintaining a healthy immune system. Add this to the fact that it has a powerful anti-cancer effect, and you must ask yourself--why aren't you taking a Vitamin D supplement right now?


Link to Study
Link to Article

3 Ways to Enrich Your Life

Get up. Go to work. Go home. Go to bed.

It's easy to let life slip into a soulless routine. But why are we alive? Is it to earn more money? Is it to work longer hours? Is it to have more things? Life is about having a rich, happy existance.

1. Take a Challenging Walk You'll see "Take a Walk" on a lot of lists like this, and for good reason. Fresh air and sunlight both mentally and physiologically (Vitamin D) improve your mood and energy. Remember that at the very least, our ancestors had to walk in order to find food. If you're already walking, try doing something to shake things up. Walk on an especially snowy or icey path to improve your balance. Walk somewhere you've never been to explore a new part of your neck of the woods. Walk while carrying a heavy load (I try to walk to and from the grocery store whenever possible). Walkuphill, walk off beaten paths, walk where you've previously avoided walking*.

2. Savor a Meal from Beginning to End Start with a recipe, maybe something complicated you've been wanting to make but haven't had a good reason to. Try to find farmer's markets or specialty grocery stores to get your ingredients. Start from the most fundamental ingredients as possible, and ponder the quality of each item. Smell the produce (don't be embarrassed!). If you're not working with raw materials, consider the components of what your buying, and if you really want those things in your body. Bring the ingredients home and put on some music while you make your meal. Don't rush it, plan out each step and take your time. Take in the aromas as your food is cut and cooked. When everything is ready, take the time to arrange everything artfully on your plate. Consider how items look in different configurations. Finally, eat at the table--not on the couch--and savor each bite. Don't rush. Share with family and friends.

3. Create Something Every Day I can't tell you what form this will take. It depends on what skills you have, although you don't have to be particularly skilled at what you're doing. You're creating for you. Write a poem or a short story or a journal entry. Draw a simple picture or paint. Build or carve something. Pull out the guitar or sit at the piano and write a short song. Knit a hat. It doesn't have to be difficult or complicated, but the personal rewards are extraordinary.

* Hopefully this isn't necessary to include, but if you live near dangerous areas, use good judgment when picking places for a stroll. Don't make yourself a target for wild animals, natural pitfalls, or criminals.

This Week in Food Experiments

1. Discovered the heaven which are collard greens. My method: cover with water or stock and boil for about a half hour (there's a lot of wiggle room here). Add a teaspoon of cider vinegar, some salt maybe, or herbs at some point. Drain the water and finish it off with some onions maybe, or garlic, or just some liquid smoke. They taste and have the texture of artichokes to me. Probably would be awesome with butter.

2. Enjoyed goat cheese on toast. I know, I know--I'm supposed to be going low carb. I'm having at most like one slice a day of this. It just...replicates and indeed exceeds the yumminess of cream cheese too much to resist.

3. Opened and de-meated a coconut. It was a chore but the fruits of my labor have been sitting in my fridge and have been a priceless snack. Just a mouthfull of it keeps hunger at bay.

4. Tried sardines. They tasted like garbage and stunk up my whole kitchen. Maybe it was just the brand but I'm not looking to get more anytime soon.

5. Bought and whipped creme fraiche. It's basically a slightly soured (read: cultured) heavy creme. Whip it with the smallest amount of sugar (it was really quick, even with a hand wisk) and you have a luxurious dip/topping for fruit. It's possible to make your own with heavy creme and buttermilk, so I might try that in the future.

I also finally found some bonafide grass-fed cow product, some cheddar cheese from New Zealand (found at Trader Joe's). Everyone in the house (include the 2 year old) agrees it is divine. Happy and healthy animals make tasty tasty food.

Tofu Snack

So I was at my local Asian market looking for some "bitter melon" (more on that later) and I thought I'd try something which appeared to be "tofu jerky".

I thought I probably would regret it, but it wasn't that expensive, so what the hell. I love beef jerky, and I've never tried a vegetarian substitute.

It was terrible. The texture was all moist and squishy, and the flavor was...like sort of beef-like but not really. It was enough to remind one of meat, but not enough to remind one of edible meat. It was like somebody took slices of a semi-amorphous, tentacled alien space cow, soaked them in sugar water, and put them in happy, yellow packaging.

My guess is it matches up to the palettes of whatever its country of origin is (China I presume). It did not match up to mine, though. Blech.

I was going to do a taste test with myself and my son, but I don't think I can do that to the poor boy. Into the trash they go.

Why Do People Love Olive Oil?

Olive oil is widely touted as a health food, but not everyone knows why. Even among nutritional experts there is some controversy.

You might think that olive oil is healthy because it contains low amounts of saturated fat. While it is nothing like milk butter or coconut oil, it contains about the same as corn and soy oil, and actually significantly more than canola oil. (If you're buying "vegetable oil" in the store, it's probably one or a combination of these three.)

What it does have is a large amount of monounsaturated fat versus polyunsaturated fat. For a long time I didn't really think there was much difference between the two--I figured polyunsaturated fat was maybe better just by the way it sounded. Some polyunsaturated fats are very good--the "omega-3" variety that I've been advocating lately are polyunsaturated fats. However, some polyunsaturated fats are not so good--they're known as omega-6 (don't ask me why they're called that; I don't know the biochemistry). When your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats gets higher, you become more prone to disease. A high 6:3 ratio has been linked to body-wide inflammation, which in turn causes a host of conditions, from arthritis to asthma, from cancer to cardiac arrest, from stroke to...well, you get the picture. Olive oil isn't radically low in omega-6's, but it does beat out most other common vegetable oils.

As for monounsaturated fat, pretty indisputably and simply, leads to good health in higher consumption. Olive oil is about three-quarters monounsaturated fat.

Additionally, olive oil contains high amounts of antioxidants, which also aid in reducing inflammation. The jury's still out on how big of a role antioxidants play in disease, however. I'm not convinced that people who are healthier after consuming antioxidant-rich food aren't just healthier because they've been eating better in general. If you are looking for especially antioxidant-rich olive oil get the best quality (extra virgin) you can.

If you aren't convinced by the evidence that saturated fat is not as bad as people crack it up to be, olive oil is your best bet for a fat source. High monounsaturated fat, low omega-6 fat, high antioxidant. And personally, I think it's the tastiest.

Nevertheless, what does our evolutionary history suggest to us? Do you think our ancestors had the factories we require to extract canola, soy, corn, and olive oil? Fattening vegetables like avocado or coconut (which, by the way, contains a high amount of saturated fat) might work for certain cultures. But if you're stuck in the woods and hungry, you're not going to get fat from squeezing seeds. You're going to eat meat. You're going to get a lot of saturated fat, a lot of monounsaturated fat, and more omega-3's than omega-6's. That is what we're designed for.

They said butter was bad and gave us margarine. Then they realized trans fats were bad so they tweaked it a bit. It's a matter of time before they realize that omega-6 fatty acids are killing us and vegetable-based spreads and oils are simply no good.

Genetics Determine Best Diet?

The Wall Street Journal reported today that researchers have found a genetic test that determines whether someone will do best on a low-carb or low-fat diet. This is an interesting finding. However, the measure of success was weight loss only, so we don't know if other health factors were affected negatively or positively by either diet.

Really, I wonder at the claim of low-carb or low-fat diet prone genes. What kinds of genes are they? How do they express themselves? Do they correspond with certain populations?

I wish I had more information, but unfortunately the article was not very detailed and there was no link to the original study.

Did You Know?: Omega-3's

Did you know that there are three main types of Omega-3 fatty acids? ALA, DHA, and EPA.

Guess which kind is least useful in our bodies? ALA

Guess which kind is overwhelmingly present in most supplements? Yep, ALA.

Our bodies can convert ALA to DHA and EPA, but very inefficiently (at about a rate of 5-10%).

The only source of DHA and EPA is algae. Fish is rich in these fatty acids because they eat algae and it builds up in their system. This is why fish oil is the best omega-3 supplement you can find.

I've heard of (but not seen) vegan DHA/EPA supplements that are made from algae colonies. If you can find these, great, but don't think just because your food or supplement says "omega 3" that you're getting full benefits. It probably just has flaxseed in it (which is all ALA).

Fish Oil

I had been thinking about buying some fish oil supplement to up my omega-3 intake. There seems to be near unanimous agreement that omega-3 fatty acids help prevent a myriad of diseases (especially heart disease). In the UK, fish oil tablets are even regularly prescribed after heart attacks.

The problem I have is that the pills are huge. I have always had a lot of difficulty getting pills down, and these are twice the size of anything I've been able to swallow. And you have to take multiple pills a day.

The idea of taking fish oil straight (ie, in liquid form) seemed a bit disgusting, but apparently Carlson Labs makes a product that is remarkably pleasant tasting. I'm not sure where I can find it--I know Walgreens doesn't have it but I may try GNC. I can always get it on Amazon in a pinch, but it'll probably be more expensive.

Salmon Patties and Coconut

I've been making salmon patties for a while now, but I'd always used bread crumbs or flour as a binder. As I'm trying to cut out grains from my diet, I decided to see how they'd come out without the wheat. I added some lentils to try to give them more substance.

Ingredients:
2 six-ounce drained cans of salmon (skinless and boneless if you can find it, that's all I've ever used)
1/2 cup finely onions (I used scallions today)
2 eggs
1/4 cup lentils
Dash of Baking Powder (not sure if this is necessary or why it's in the recipe; it was in the recipe my mother first gave me so I've always added it)
Salt and Pepper

Just mix it all together in a big bowl. I used to have the hardest time shaping the patties, and I was dreading shaping these since they were bound to be looser, but then I thought: ice cream scoop. And voila, problem solved. Butter up a pan over medium heat, and put 3 or 4 scoops down, flattening them out into patties gently. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes per side (they should be golden brown and hold together well).

These babies beg for some sort of acid. Lemon, lime, malt vinegar, whatever catches your fancy. (You might try altering the recipe and add some acid right in the mix.) Personally, I like some tomatoes and spinach quickly sauteed in olive oil and lemon juice. Delicious and low carb!

I also bought a coconut for the first time today and cracked it open all by myself. Ok, it was one of the "easy open" coconuts, but I'm still proud. Getting the meat out was a chore, I had to try a few methods before I could get it out efficiently, and even then it took forever. My son loved it, which was a pleasant surprise. I'll be bringing some to work tomorrow for a snack.

Crustless Quiche

Last night I made crustless quiche for the first time. I didn't used to be an egg person but I am starting to be on this low carb experiment. Egg acts as the perfect foundational ingredient when you can't use rice, pasta, or bread.

This picture (source) isn't actually of the quiche I made (we gobbled it up so fast I didn't even think to take a picture), but it came out looking pretty similar. Here's my recipe:


Ingredients:
5 omega-3 enriched eggs
~1/2 cup herb and garlic goat cheese
~1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 bell pepper
5 mushrooms
1 cup roughly chopped scallions
As much baby spinach as would fit in the skillet

I wisked the cheeses with the eggs, and sauteed the veggies in butter until they were all soft. Then I combined the two in a greased up pie pan and cooked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. And it was magical. Especially with a smidgen of pineapple salsa on top. I'm going to make this again!

I'm starting to fall in love with goat cheese. It's tangier and softer than cow cheese and, from what I've read so far, more nutritious. It's also great spead like cream cheese.

I highly recommend eating omega-3 enriched eggs unless you can get local, free range chickens which have access to bugs and such. Purely grain fed chickens aren't going to be as nutritious.

Review: The Blue Zones

I recently read The Blue Zones. It looks at four areas/cultures of the world with unusually high longevity: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Loma Linda Seventh Day Adventists (California), and Nicoya (Costa Rica). The author boils down his experiences in these areas into nine pieces of advice. I enjoyed the book very much for its collection of stories of vivacious, happy, and productive 90+ year olds. It gives me hope for golden years where I'm not completed dependent and debilitated. However, I do think some of the advice Buettner gives is a bit hasty.

What's in a name?

My wife immediately noticed that the name of my blog is a play on a term from the Harry Potter series (for the uninitiated, the "Death Eaters" are followers of the main villain, Voldemort). Its geeky origins aside, Life Eaters has two meanings for me.

First, it is from the philosophy that whatever we eat affects our entire life. We don't just eat food. It isn't just raw fuel. We eat a longer life. We eat strength and vitality. We eat good vision, good hearing. We eat better moods. We eat our success. Whatever you put into your body determines what you're going to get out of it.

Second, on the flipside, eating isn't just about what we put into our mouths. It's taking walks. It's getting healthy doses of sunshine. It's smiling (I once heard a centenarian call it her "Vitamin S"). It's getting clean air. It's getting a good night's sleep. It's forming and maintaining meaningful, human bonds.

A "Life Eater" to me is someone who consciously works to enrich their lives.

Got Milk?

I admit I used to be a milk skeptic. I thought its health benefits were widely overpromoted. But the more I look at studies of milk drinkers, the more I wonder if I've been wrong.

We live in the era of low-fat milk, especially here in the states. It is dastardly hard to even find full-fat dairy products anymore. Almost everything is "low-fat" and a lot is "skim". Science, however, is quickly discovering that the old adage that "you are what you eat" isn't always perfectly true.

It's sugar which makes you fat, and even elevates your risk for heart disease (study). And you know what you're left with when you take the fat out of milk? Nothing but sugar water with a little protein and few vitamins.

Women who drink fuller fatted milk products tended to have lower BMIs than women who drank low-fat or skim products. High fat dairy has been associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease in men. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that these studies were all done on Swedes.

Does this matter? It might not. Maybe Swedes get more of their dairy from grass-fed cows. Maybe they have some genes Americans lack. Maybe it's the result of other factors interplaying with full-fat dairy consumption.

Still, whole milk or even cream is starting to look pretty good.

There are free doughnuts in the breakroom at my office. Stay strong, old top. You've come this far...

Some Ape Facts

Did you know that all apes eat some degree of animal matter? And that our closest relatives, chimpanzees, actually hunt small mammals?

Another interesting note: apes who eat fruit that has been bred by humans often experience gastric bloat and get sick because the sugar in the fruit is too readily available. Their digestive tracts are designed to break down tougher fibers and starches, not to handle a huge influx of fructose.

One author I've read is fond of calling our domesticated produce "frankenfruit," because it in no way resembles what a primate or ancient human would have found in the wild.

The Morality of Meat

Should human beings eat animals?

Against: Animals feel pain and should not be made to suffer
For: Animals are animals and their suffering does not matter
My Take: I think we're less morally obligated to be concerned about the suffering of animals which are less intelligent. Some meat animals have been shown to have a high degree of intelligence (ie, pigs), so obviously more consideration should be given to those. That said, an animal which is not genetically designed to do anything other than which it would do being raised for meat (eg, a cow grazing in a field) is not really suffering during life. And, with diligence, the slaughtering process can be made almost painless, especially compared to natural modes of death for that animal (such as being eaten alive by a predator). As a final note, suffering and stress causes the release of hormones in an animal which degrades the quality of the meat. So meat farmers really have much to gain by making their methods more humane.

Against: Eating animals is unnatural
For: We are evolved to eat meat; we cannot get nutrition from plants alone
My Take: Using current FDA guidelines, vegans can get full nutrition by careful diet planning and by taking a few supplements. However, a vegetarian diet may be undesirably high in carbohydrates, if the low-carb advocates are correct. Furthermore, since our ancestors indisputably ate some amount of meat and/or dairy, we really don't know what nutrients are bodies are designed to rely on but can't get without animal products. Nevertheless, some people do live long lives without much if any animal matter.

Against: Raising animals for meat hurts the environment
For: Raising animals for meat helps promote the survival of species
My Take: I definitely think certain kinds of farming (ie, the kinds most prevalent in the US) hurt the environment. And I'm not sure that sustainable farming methods could feed the world. I do think that raising animals in close to their natural condition for meat will have a net zero or positive impact on the environment, but I think we need to scale down our population before this is ever possible everywhere.

Against: Eating a corpse is gross
For: Eating meat is delicious
My Take: This is a personal choice. If it just comes down to being able to stomach eating something which once had some degree of awareness, then you may not want to eat meat.

In Summary: I think that raising and slaughtering animals in humane, natural environments is not only good for us, but also good for the animals and the environment. I think extra care should be given to more intelligent animals (such as pigs), and perhaps those animals should not be eaten at all.

Hopefully, some day all our meat will be raised in a petri dish and live meat will become nothing but a novelty.

Don't Eat Sick Animals

Cows are grazing animals. They're designed to wander through open fields, eating whatever grasses they find along with perhaps a bug here and there. Their droppings enrich the soil and help more grass to grow.

How do we raise cattle for consumption? We stick them in a tiny pen and don't let them move around. Then we feed them grain instead of grass because it's cheaper, which makes them malnourished and sick. So we inject them with hormones to keep them growing until we slaughter them for meat. Their droppings fall on the floor; they don't touch the soil.

I know at the very least the total fat in beef from the latter scenario will be greater, and the proportion of unhealthy fat (omega-6) to healthy fat (omega-3) will be greater as well. I imagine other vitamins and nutrients which would naturally be present in beef are in short supply or completely absent as well.

There's additionally an environmental aspect. Cattle naturally produce methane--a greenhouse gas--in their excrement. Grass-fed cattle produce a little more than grain-fed, but when their put out to pasture, the manure gets absorbed by the soil. So while methane does get into the atmosphere, the soil is also enriched such that it actually absorbs more carbon than the methane is releasing. You didn't think ruminants create global warming in their natural state, did you?

Then of course there's the moral aspect. Shouldn't animals be given an environment which is natural and enjoyable to them rather than penned up and given nutritionally empty gruel? Of course, there's the question of whether to eat meat at all, which is the subject of my next post.

If you're going to eat meat or other animal products, make sure it's from an animal that had a healthy, natural life if possible. Maybe some unhealthy animals still produce healthy meat, and don't negatively impact the environment in their raising, but it seems intuitive that the converse would generally be the case. You don't eat fruit or vegetables that are sick-looking; don't eat sick animals.

Fruit and Appetite

I've been reading about leptin recently. It is a protein hormone which regulates metabolism and appetite.

I have for a while suspected that certain foods decrease appetite satisfaction more or less than other foods. Specifically, that "junk food" is less likely to satisfy appetite. The effect certain nutrients have on leptin seems to verify this.

Studies (here's one) have shown that fructose specifically (uniquely among all types of sugar) increases "leptin resistance" which basically mean your body isn't as receptive to leptin and your appetite doesn't go down as you eat like it should. Eating fructose suppresses appetite reduction that would otherwise normally occur.

Eating a lot of meat or fat should make you feel full since it's calorie-dense food. But if you have a glass of Coke with your food, you're not going to feel as full after or while you eat. You're going to eat more.

I've read a few evolutionarily-minded people suggest that prehistoric humans ate fruit (and thus, fructose) only seasonally, at times when they needed to put on weight to prepare for winter, and I agree this makes sense. Fruit-bearing plants also benefit evolutionarily by this effect, since they need fruit-eaters to digest and distribute their seeds.

So, despite that the corn lobby's commercials are correct in saying high fructose corn syrup is identical to regular sugar (sucrose) in many ways (calories per gram, etc), fructose is NOT biochemically identical to sucrose.

My advice would be to stay away from high fructose corn syrup containing foods, and to keep fruit in moderation ONLY, especially if your diet consists of high calorie foods that are easy to overconsume. You should find yourself, over time, being more satisfied by less food as a result.