Weight: 170.0 (huh?  that’s 3.6 lbs down in three days without restricting calories…)

Breakfast:

3 eggs with 2oz. Dubliner cheese (I want to see if cheese spikes insulin and makes me hungrier earlier than usual)

6 oz. coffee with 3 tbsp half and half

Lunch:

1 bowl chili (beef, tomatoes, onions, water, seasoning)

1 spoon of pb with chocolate chips

Blueberries (handful)

 

Dinner:

 

18 hot wings

Copious club soda

Weight: 178.4 lbs.

Breakfast: 3 eggs, cooked in bacon fat, with 3 pieces of bacon and coffe with 3 tbsp of half and half.

 

Lunch: 6 oz. of ground beef (and 1 spoon of peanut butter with chocolate chips and half a bag of popcorn. crap).  If I can do this ~80/20 or 90/10 then I’ll be satisfied.  Hopefully, overtime the cravings for sugar will go down.  I finished a MCAT practice test and had a raging sugar craving so I ate 4 chocolate chips.  This awoke the dragon and I ate a few more but was happy I controlled myself to just the high-carb crap listed above.  In the past, once I started eating sugar (esp. combined with starch-think chocolate chip cookies) I couldn’t stop.

 

Dinner: chili (beef, tomato, onions) with broccoli sauteed in butter ( I ate around 2/3rds of this).

Weight: 177.6 (down 3 lbs from yesterday – a temporary fluctuation in fluids?)

Food journal:

Total calories eaten today = ? (going to stop counting calories as accurate estimate of serving size impossible)

Breakfast: 3 eggs with 1/2 onion fried in bacon fat, 3 pieces of bacon, 6 oz. coffee with ~3 tbsp half and half.

Breakfast eaten at 7:30am.

Lunch: 2 pieces of smoked turkey, a few carrots and broccoli stalks with hummus (at luncheon)

Snack: 1 piece of Dubliner cheese (~1 oz.) – not Paleo, but low-carb and delicious (though I’m curious about my insulin response to dairy, even the fermented kind)

Dinner: 10 oz of ground beef sauteed in garlic butter with 1/2 lb brocolli sauteed in garlic butter.  Very carnivorous but also kind of Italian.

Goal: 165 lbs.

Weight: 180.6 lbs.

Waist circumfrence: 37 inches

Body fat: ~21% (21 mm on caliper skin-fold test) *I’m not confident in this estimate as I’m not sure of the accuracy of calipers and this was the first time I’ve used them.

Generic late-20’s American male on a high carbohydrate diet – bloated, soft, vulnerable…

Yikes. I look like a dough boy.

Back bacon...

Hunger & cravings (degree/time):

-1:30 pm: not hungry, even 6 hours after eating breakfast, had to force myself to eat.

-3pm: experienced mild hunger. ate snack.

Exercise: 1.75 hrs of singles tennis from 515-7pm

Total Calories = ~1800 (the only beverage consumed, besides coffee w/ cream, was water)

Food journal: (calorie estimates are not exact – no food is actually weighed so just a rough estimate based on approximate serving size)

Breakfast: 600 calories

3 jumbo eggs (90 cals each)

3 slices of thick-cut bacon (70 cals each)

1 cup of coffee with 3 tbsp half and half (40 cals/tbsp)

Lunch: ~400 calories

Spring greens salad (20 cals) with a few oz. of rotisserie chicken (4 oz. = 140 cals), 20 almonds (~150 cals), 20 raspberries (20 cals), and olive oil (assume ~50 cals consumed).

Mid-afternoon snack: 30 almonds (210 cals)

Dinner: ~600 cals

I ate an extra thigh so 2 thighs (220 cals), 1 drumstick (90 cals), and 1 wing (100 cals) (all baked) plus salad (~200 cals: raspberries, almonds, a little goat cheese).

“I do think that vegetarian communities and low carb/paleo folk need to band together in spreading the message that refined carbs and sugars may be uniquely fattening and are unnecessary to a healthy human diet as they’re very low in nutrients and push out other, more nutrient-dense, foods from the average American diet.”

-Me

Source: http://www.gethatched.ca/2011/06/10/mad-science/

I’m very excited about adjusting my diet and hopefully observing a change in body fat, energy, and sugar cravings.  After putting on 5 extra pounds of padding during the winter, my wife has started referring to me as “oink, chub, pig,” in that order, albeit in a loving way, and my pants are a little tight…so it’s time for a change.  Please read my “Insulin Resistance and Diabesity” page to acquire the knowledge to understand much of what I will be discussing throughout this experiement.

Now let’s set the stage for this experiment by defining the changes I will undertake, the definitions of these changes, and the expected results form these changes based upon the”conventional” dietary wisdom and the “alternative” dietary wisdom of the paleo movement.

Changes:

Diet:

What I won’t be eating:

I will stop the consumption of all refined grains, starches, and sugars.  This means no more bread, pasta, bagels, popcorn, starchy vegetables (even whole grains, and starchy veggies such as peas though I will eat small portions of carrots), or anything sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) (such as sugary drinks like Coke, Vitamin Water, and desserts like ice cream, cake, chocolate, etc.).   I will also avoid legumes (peanuts, and beans) which upset my digestion.

What I’ll be eating sparingly:

High-glycemic fruits (bananas, grapes), cheese (maybe a few bites every other day or once-a-week), cream (only once-a-day in coffee), caffeine (only once-a-day in morning coffee), honey (once-a-week in weekly paleo-style desert).

What I will be eating:

I will eat as much of I want of the following: all meat, fish, fowl, eggs, non-starchy vegetables (“%5 vegetables” whose carbohydrate content is low and bound in fiber like brocolli, spinach, asparagus, etc.), fibrous, low-GI fruit (such as berries, and the occasional apple), and nuts and seeds (like walnuts, almonds, and pecans).

Where I will be deviating from generally accepted Paleo guidelines:

I will be eating some dairy (again, once-daily cream, and occasionally eating fermented dairy like cheese), drinking small amounts of coffee, and not buying organic, grass-fed meats (supposedly higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and more evolutionarily natural than conventional, grain-fed animals).  I’d love to buy all organic, grass-fed, free-range meats but I am a graduate student and simply do not have the money to do so.  I also don’t have the time or resources to “cowpool” (see Sisson’s “Primal Blueprint” for discussion of this habit).

Overall, I will be making very drastic changes in dietary habits that are largely Paleo-based.  I will try and take pictures of every food consumed.  At the very least, I will keep a daily food journal.

Expectations:

Weight loss – According to the Conventional Hypothesis of Obesity:

Using the conventional wisdom of weight loss, I should expect no weight loss with the Paleo diet as I will simply be swapping moderate consumption of grains, dairy, sugars, and other foods for moderate consumption of meat, veggies, fruits, and nuts.  Also, according to the conventional wisdom, I should not be overweight as I’ve been eating “moderately” (i.e. a balanced diet of all food groups until feeling full) and exercising at least 3 times a week (usually singles tennis) while doing daily pullups (I could do around 12 in a row 4 weeks back before injuring my wrist in tennis).  Yet, despite these habits, I have too much body fat (which I will measure as soon as calipers arrive in mail), have low energy mid-day, and have sugar cravings.

Using the conventional wisdom regarding  the causes of excess body fat (a positive “energy balance” from over-eating and sedentary behavior),  I should expect no difference in weight loss between my current moderate consumption of grains and sweets and dairy and the new diet consisting of moderate consumption of paleo foods if I consume similar amounts of calories in the new diet as in the old (which I assume will be true).  Period.   A calorie is a calorie, excess body fat is due to eating more than I burn (or burning less than I eat), and my excess body fat is my fault according to health authorities like the WHO, AHA, AMA, NIH, CDC, and Jillian Michaels. (see ref. 1-7 below).

While I haven’t documented my exact pre-experiement diet, it consists mainly of moderate portions of all foods and eating until I’m full: grains (sandwiches with whole wheat bread, oatmeal, pancakes, bagels, pasta, chips), dairy (milk with meals, cheese, cream with coffee),  meats and eggs (chicken, beef mainly), vegetables (spring greens with nuts, cheese and veggies for salads, broccoli, spinach), the weekend beer and cocktails (bourbon!!!) and sweets when desired.  Again, I’ve been eating moderately and exercising 3 times a week (usually tennis) and doing daily pullups yet I’m still overweight, have low energy, and crave sugar constantly.  So this is evidence that, for me and many like me, the conventional “energy balance” hypothesis of obesity is inadequate and/or incorrect and  must be reformed (or simply discarded).

Weight loss – according to Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity:

The Paleo Diet should allow me to lose excess body fat, even when consuming similar amounts of calories as before and no change in exercise, because the removal of refined carbohydrates (grains, starches, and sugars) and dairy will lower my insulin levels enough to allow for my fat tissue to be burned for fuel (by downregulating LPL and upregulating HSL enzymes on the adipocytes), which, according to Yallow and Berson, the Nobel-prize winning inventors of the radioimmunoassay to measure insulin levels, is all that’s required for fat loss (see ref. 8-10).

 According the the carbohydrate>insulin hypothesis of obesity espoused by Gary Taubes, Dr. Robert Lustig, and many biochemistry textbooks, obesity is not a problem of energy imbalance but of the hormonal deregulation of the fat tissue driven by the overconsumption of refined carbohydrates (like grains and sugars) that drive insulin and insulin resistance (and de novo lipogenesis in the liver due to fructose) which drives the insulin resistance associated with the fattening process and with the metabolic syndrome and many other chronic diseases (i.e. the carbohydrates dysregulate the fat tissue and cause it to store excess fat) (ref.- 8-24).

Humans are mammals, no mammal will become obese (store unhealthy excess body fat) in the wild, even with prosperity and unlimited food, and the only way to make a mammal obese is to alter the regulation of its fat tissue (either through surgical disruption of its hypothalamus or force feeding it an unnatural food supply -such as fructose to monkees or fat to rabbits and mice) (ref. 25-26).  Yet human beings of all ages, genders, and ethnicities are becoming obese at record levels in the U.S. (ref. 30-38).  Why?  Probably because of the recent alteration of the food supply to include evolutionarily-novel levels of fructose (from sugar and HFCS) and grain consumption.

The obvious conclusion from the biochemistry of adipose tissue, food consumption data, and RCTs comparing carbohydrate-restriction versus calorie restriction, it is the refined carbohydrates, and sugar/HFCS especially due to their liquidity and fructose content, that have driven the insulin resistance that has driven the diabesity epidemic (and possibly caused many other related chronic diseases of metabolic syndrome even in lean individuals) (see ref. 39-53 for info. on RCTs).  See my capstone paper which has a huge amount of information on this topic.

Exercise:

I will not change my exercise levels at all (meaning, in science-speak, that I will “control for exercise”).  This means that there should not be differences in exercise levels before and after the dietary intervention that might confound the results.  The fact that I will not increase my exercise habits to lose weight runs counter to the nearly universally accepted conventional assumption that exercise is necessary for weight loss (“Let’s Move!” Campaign) and weight maintenance (though the evidence to support this assumption is “not particularly compelling,” at least according to the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine). (ref. 27-28).

Energy Levels and Ketosis:

Reduction of refined carbohydrates will likely reduce blood sugar spikes (and drops) that result in energy fluctuations; also, entering ketosis will possibly also help provide constant energy to my cells and brain and should result in the need for less sleep (see ref. 29 quote below).

“When I interviewed ketosis experts, however, they universally sided with Atkins, and suggested that maybe the medical community and the media confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis, a variant of ketosis that occurs in untreated diabetics and can be fatal. ”Doctors are scared of ketosis,” says Richard Veech, an N.I.H. researcher who studied medicine at Harvard and then got his doctorate at Oxford University with the Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs. ”They’re always worried about diabetic ketoacidosis. But ketosis is a normal physiologic state. I would argue it is the normal state of man. It’s not normal to have McDonald’s and a delicatessen around every corner. It’s normal to starve.”

Simply put, ketosis is evolution’s answer to the thrifty gene. We may have evolved to efficiently store fat for times of famine, says Veech, but we also evolved ketosis to efficiently live off that fat when necessary. Rather than being poison, which is how the press often refers to ketones, they make the body run more efficiently and provide a backup fuel source for the brain. Veech calls ketones ”magic” and has shown that both the heart and brain run 25 percent more efficiently on ketones than on blood sugar.”

-Gary Taubes, “What if It’s all Been a Big Fat Lie?,” New York Times, 2002 (ref. 29)

Reduction in Sugar Cravings:

The combination of cessation of sugar consumption, moderate fruit consumption, and ketosis may reduce my cravings for sugar.  We shall see…

Data Collection:

Weight:

I will weigh myself every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon after work (and utilize a three day average from each  week to provide an analysis of trends while avoiding daily fluctuations in body fluid storage that generate statistical blips in weight).

Waist circumfrence:

I will measure my waist every Monday afternoon after weigh-ins using measuring tape.  I will measure from my belly-button.

Body Fat:

I will take daily measurements Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of every week and average the results to get a general idea of my body fat percentage (I will write down the procedure used after the calipers come in the mail tomorrow).  I wish I had a DXA scan…

 Photos:

I will photograph myself every Tuesday afternoon, shirtless!!!  It will not be pretty but this is a necessary step to assess changes in body composition and embarrass myself enough to stick with the plan.

 Check out the references below for more information and I’ll talk with you tomorrow.

---

References:

1 WHO. (2011). “Media centre: Obesity and overweight.” Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.

2 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011). Overweight and Obesity: Defining Overweight and Obesity. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/index.html

3 American Heart Association. (May 5, 2011). “Obesity Information.” Retrieved from: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/Obesity/Obesity-Information_UCM_307908_Article.jsp#.T0e_ZPF5F8E.

4  Larry King Live. (Oct. 19, 2007). “2 of 2 Gary Taubes on Larry King Live 10/19/2007.” Youtube. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LNH0RPXI0M.

5 NIH, NHBLI. (Nov. 1, 2010). “What Causes Overweight and Obesity?” Retrieved from: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/causes.html.

6 US Dept of HHS, US Public Health Service. (2010). “The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation.” Retrieved from: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/obesityvision/obesityvision2010.pdf.

7 National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health. (2012). “Balance Food and Activity: What is Energy Balance?” Retrieved from: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/healthy-weight-basics/balance.htm

8 Taubes, Gary. (2010). “Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It.” New York: Anchor Books. Pg. 106-126.

9 Bjorntorp, P. (April 20, 1996). “The regulation of adipose tissue in humans.” International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, Vol. 20(4), pg. 291-302. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8680455.

10 Leff, Todd, & James. G. Grannerman. (). “Adipose Tissue in Health and Disease.” Wiley Publishers: , pg. xix-xixi, 98, 143-152.

11 Lustig, Robert, et al. (2012). “The Skinny on Obesity: Episodes 1-7.” The University of California San Francisco College of Medicine.  Youtube.  Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0zD1gj0pXk.

12 Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. pg. 393-395.

13 Goodman, H. Maurice. (2009). “Basic Medical Endocrinology: Adipogenesis.” Academic Press, Fourth Edition.  Pg. 165. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?id=gjpi2MYVKGAC&pg=PA165&dq=insulin+AND+adipocyte&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CVtJT7XVIsWatwent7TyAg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=insulin%20AND%20adipocyte&f=false.

14 Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. Pg. 378-380.

15 Lustig, Robert H. (2009). “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” Youtube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

16 Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. Pg. 200-201.

17 [iii] Malik, et al Circulation. (2010). Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk.” Circulation, Vol. 121, pgs. 1356-1364.  Retrived from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/121/11/1356.full.pdf+html .

18 Seneff, Stephanie, Wainwright, Glyn, & Luca Mascitelli. (Feb. 7, 2011). “Is the metabolic syndrome caused by a high fructose, and relatively low fat, low cholesterol diet?” Archives of Medical Science, Vol. 7(1), pgs. 8-20. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258689/pdf/AMS-7-1-8.pdf

19 Stanhope, Kimber L., et al. (May, 2009). “Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Vol. 119, Number 5, pgs. 1322- . Retrieved from: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37385.

20 Mayes, Peter. (1993). “Intermediary metabolism of fructose.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 58 (5), pgs. 7545-7655. Retrieved from: http://www.ajcn.org/content/58/5/754S.full.pdf.

21 Dekker, Mark J., et al. (May 10, 2010). “Fructose: a highly lipogenic nutrient implicated in insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, and the metabolic syndrome.” American Journal of Physiology, Vol. 299 (5), pgs. 685-694. Retrieved from: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/299/5/E685.long#ref-94. Figure 1: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/299/5/E685/F1.expansion.html.

22 Seneff, S., Wainwright G., and L. Mascitelli. (Feb. 7, 2011). “Is the metabolic syndrome caused by a high fructose, and relatively low fat, low cholesterol diet?” Archives of Medical Science, Vol. 7(1), pgs. 8-20. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258689/pdf/AMS-7-1-8.pdf.  Figure 1: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258689/figure/F1/.

23 Taubes, Gary. (2010). “Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It.” New York: Anchor Books. Pg. 138.

24 Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. Pg. 378-380.

25  Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. Pg. 372.

26  Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. Pg. 274, 362.

27 Haskell et al (2007). “Physical Activity and Public Health: Updated Recommendations for Adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association.” Circulation, Vol. 116, pgs. 1081-1093. Retrieved from http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/116/9/1081.long

28 First Lady Michele Obama. “Let’s Move! Get Active!” Retrieved from: http://www.letsmove.gov/learn-facts/epidemic-childhood-obesity.

29 Taubes, Gary. (July 7, 2002). “What if It’s All Been  a Big Fat Lie?.” The New York Times.  Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm.

30 Ogden, Cynthia, & Margaret Carrol (2010). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NCHS Health E-Stat: Prevalence of Obesity Among Children and Adolescents: United States, Trends 1963-1965 Through 2007-2008. Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_07_08/obesity_child_07_08.htm#figure1

31 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). NCHS Health E-Stat Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Extreme Obesity Among Adults: United States, Trends 1960–1962 Through 2007–2008. Retrieved from:http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_07_08/obesity_adult_07_08.htm\

32 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Diabetes: Successes and Opportunities for Population-Based Prevention Control: At a Glance, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/AAG/ddt.htm

33 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Diabetes Public Health Resource: National Prevalence of Diagnosed Diabetes. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/ .

34 Ogden, Cynthia L., Carroll, Margaret DKit, ., Brian K., and Katherine M. Flegal, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (January 2012). “Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2009–2010.” NCHS Data Brief, Number 82. Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.htm .

35 Ogden, Cynthia, & Margaret Carrol (2010). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NCHS Health E-Stat: Prevalence of Obesity Among Children and Adolescents: United States, Trends 1963-1965 Through 2007-2008. Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_07_08/obesity_child_07_08.htm#figure1

36 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). NCHS Health E-Stat Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Extreme Obesity Among Adults: United States, Trends 1960–1962 Through 2007–2008. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_07_08/obesity_adult_07_08.htm

37 Ogden, Cynthia L., Carroll, Margaret DKit, ., Brian K., and Katherine M. Flegal, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (January 2012). “Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2009–2010.” NCHS Data Brief, Number 82. Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.htm .

38 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NHANES. (June 2011). “Specifying Weighting Parameters.” Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/tutorials/nhanes/surveydesign/Weighting/intro.htm .

39 Dyson PA, et al.(Dec. 2007).  “A low-carbohydrate diet is more effective in reducing body weight than healthy eating in both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects.” Diabetic Medicine;24(12). Pgs. 1430-5. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17971178 .

40 Krebs NF, et al. (August, 2010). “Efficacy and Safety of a High Protein, Low Carbohydrate Diet for Weight Loss in Severely Obese Adolescents.” Journal of Pediatrics Vol. 157,  pgs. 252-8. Retrieved from: http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(10)00120-4/abstract .

41 Brehm BJ, et al. (2003). “A Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and  Metabolism , Vol. 88, pgs.1617–1623. Retrieved from: http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/88/4/1617.long.

42 Samaha FF, et al. (2003). “A Low-Carbohydrate as Compared with a Low-Fat Diet in Severe Obesity.” The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 348, pgs. 2074–81. Retrieved from: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022637.

43 Sondike SB, et al. (March 2003). “Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor in overweight adolescents.” The Journal of Pediatrics. Vol. 142(3), pgs. 253–8. Retrieved from: http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(02)40206-5/abstract.

44 Aude YW, et al. (2004). “The National Cholesterol Education Program Diet vs a Diet Lower in Carbohydrates and Higher in Protein and Monounsaturated Fat. A Randomized Trial.” Archives of Internal Medicine, Pgs. 164:2141–2146. Retrieved from: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/164/19/2141.

45 Volek JS, et al. (2004). “Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women.” Nutrition & Metabolism, Vol. 1, pg. 13. Retrieved from: http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/1/1/13.

46 Yancy WS Jr, et al. (2004). “A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia. A Randomized, Controlled Trial.” Archives of Internal Medicine, pgs. 140:769–777. Retrieved from: http://www.annals.org/content/140/10/769.long

47 Nichols-Richardsson SM, et al. “Perceived Hunger Is Lower and Weight Loss Is Greater in Overweight Premenopausal Women Consuming a Low-Carbohydrate/High- Protein vs High-Carbohydrate/Low-Fat Diet.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Vol. 105, pgs. 1433–1437. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Perceived%20Hunger%20Is%20Lower%20and%20Weight%20Loss%20Is%20Greater%20in%20Overweight%20Premenopausal

48 Gardner CD, et al. (2007). “Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and learn Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women. The a to z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial.” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 297, pgs. 969–977. Retrieved from: http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/297/9/969.long

49 Shai I, et al. (2008). “Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, mediterranean, or low-fat diet.” The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 359(3), pgs. 229–41. Retrieved from: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0708681.

50 Summer SS, et al. (Mar 31, 2011). “Adiponectin Changes in Relation to the Macronutrient Composition of a Weight-Loss Diet.” Obesity (Silver Spring). [Epub ahead of print] Retrieved from: http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v19/n11/full/oby201160a.html.

51 aly ME, et al. (Jan 23, 2006). “Short-term effects of severe dietary carbohydrate-restriction advice in Type 2 diabetes–a randomized controlled trial.” Diabetic Medicine, Vol. 23(1), pgs. 15–20. Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-5491.2005.01760.x/abstract;jsessionid=F2FCA81A7A0BD31D425BCDD7291C4D9E.d03t01?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+2+July+from+10-12+BST+for+monthly+maintenance.

52 Westman EC, et al. (2008). “The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low- glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus.” Nutritional Metabolism (Lond.), Vol. 19, pgs. 5-36. Retrieved from: http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/5/1/36.

53 Taubes, Gary, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” 2007. New York: Knopf Publishing. Pgs. 50-53.

              =              ?
Source: The West Ranch Beacon                                                           Image credit: dailymail.co.uk

I just came across an interesting NY Time’s “Room for Debate” post by Dr. Drew Ramsey, of Columbia University and co-author of “The Happiness Diet,” entitled, “Meat is Brain Food.”  He makes an interesting argument that some  degree of meat-eating (at the very least, consumption of certain animal products like dairy, eggs, and mussels or oysters) is essential to human health and that a totally vegan diet is inherently unhealthy for man as it lacks (either completely or adequate amounts of) essential vitamins/nutrients like B12, vitamin D, omega-3 fats, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

This dovetails with the evolutionary argument proposed by many anthropologists such as Dr. Loren Cordain (and filmmakers like CJ Hunt) than the human brain evolved to its current size and capacity due to the caloric jolt obtained with the introduction of meat-eating roughly 2.5 million years ago.  The introduction of meat selected for a larger brain (and smaller GI system) and allowed man to become the dominate species on the planet.

The key question emerging from this meat-brain hypothesis is: Presuming a paleo diet and high meat-consumption is ideal for most people, how do we nutritionally support the Earth’s 7 billion people on a paleo diet?  The inevitable future battles with the USDA aside, if everyone on the planet woke up tomorrow and said, “Mmm-kay, I’ll go paleo,” how would enough meat and vegetables be produced to sustain them?

I think Robb Wolf and/or Mark Sisson has an interesting podcast on the logistics of turning all agricultural fields into grassland for buffalo/cattle grazing and I’ll try to find it.  I’d be curious to see if any academic or lone-wolf paleo researcher in their basement has computed the land, water, feed requirements, methane output and ultimate carbon footprint of such an endeavor and compared it to the current system of U.S. agricultural production.

I’d be pretty cool to drive across the U.S. and see open grassland with roaming buffalo compared to the fields of corn and wheat we now see.  Maybe Ted Turner could be converted to paleo?  He’s got a lot of buffalo after all…

This blog is about one man’s quest to reclaim his youth through the “Paleo” diet.

After my lean, injury-free teenage years, I’m heading towards 30 as a fatter, less-fit, and more injury-prone 27 year old.  I want to lose the extra 15 lbs. of body fat I’ve slowly acquired since 18.  I want to stop the aches and pains I feel after two hours on the tennis court (I nearly threw out my back on Tuesday after 1.5 hrs of singles tennis).  I want to stop the sugar cravings that leave me cranky.  I want to stop the subsequent “crash” after satisfying this sucrose-corn syrup craving.  I want my health back.

I’ve decided to try the “Paleo Diet” to achieve these goals (see food pyramid and the “MyPaleo” plate, a knockoff of the USDA/HHS’s recent “MyPlate” above).  After reading articles, books, and watching videos by researchers like Dr. Loren Cordain (“Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet”), fitness gurus like Mark Sisson (“The Primal Blueprint”), and brilliant scientific minds like Gary Taubes (“Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101”), I’m starting to learn the basics of the diet.  The Paleo Diet consists primarily of animal products  (meat, fish, fowl) along with non-starchy vegetables, fibrous fruit, nuts/seeds and is devoid of any evolutionarily “recent” foodstuffs like grains, dairy, salt, and sugars.  The premise of the diet is that an organism is healthiest when consuming foods it evolved to eat.  This diet is meant to establish a nutritional foundation that restores “biological normality” (to borrow a term from the UK epidemiologist, Geoffrey Rose) by ingesting foods that our bodies evolved to consume and run optimally on during the vast majority of our evolutionary timeline (from ~2 million years ago to 10,000 years ago-see Cordain video).  The idea is that evolutionarily recent foods like agricultural products (i.e., grains ~10,000 years ago), dairy (milk and cheese, ~7,000 years ago), salt (~10,000 years ago with peak usage during the 19th century with pre-refrigeration and increasing usage since modern processed foods), sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup (~300 and 30 years ago, respectively) are unnatural and therefore unhealthy and should be eaten sparingly if at all.  My shift from the modern American diet to a more biologically normal diet should, I hope, reduce my body fat, increase my energy, and improve my mood through the absence of high-GI, insulin-stimulating foods, addictive foods like sugar, and the metabolic state of ketosis.  Will eating “Paleo” in the hypothetical fashion of our hunter-gatherer ancestors reduce my body fat, increase my energy, and improve my mood?  Will I regain this “biological normality?”  We shall see…

The test commences Tuesday, May 1st.  I will thoroughly document weight, body fat (using calipers), and waist measurements in three-day averages (to reduce statistical noise).  I will also exhaustively document all food consumed through pictures.  I will utilize Mark Sisson’s book “The Primal Blueprint” and “The Primal Blueprint Cookbook” as a guide to what I should eat and incorporate various academic articles on the Paleo Diet that I find (especially works by Drs. S. Boyd Eaton and Loren Cordain).  Exercise will also be cataloged after I recover from a recent lower-back injury (sustained on April 24th while getting whomped on the tennis court).

I’m excited to begin the process and see what happens.  It’s on!!!

References (I’m not sure how to create footnotes in HTML so here we go…):

For information on the carbohydrate>insulin hypothesis of “diabesity” (all largely based on the condition of insulin resistance), read “Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It” by Gary Taubes (Anchor, 2011).  Also, watch a video by Dr. Peter Attia on his “n of 1” ketotic dietary experiment which resulted in extremely counter-intuitive weight loss and lipid profile results that should make registered dietitians burn their diplomas immediately after watching.

For an article discussing human health promotion and disease prevention through the lens of evolution, read “Evolutionary Health Promotion” (Eaton, S. Boyd et al, 2002).

I’ll dig up more references from my capstone paper but don’t have time now.  Read/watch anything by Gary Taubes and Dr. Robert Lustig.