New Life in the Wild

A program about an incredible self sufficiency from a resourceful 25 year-old living largely in isolation out in the Appalachian Mountains.

Plant Rights

I disagree that veganism and vegetarianism reduces animal suffering.  As J.Stanton once said, "it pushes the killing to where it cannot be seen".  One look at the biodiversity of pasture, and then a consequent look at the chemically-managed, industrial, mono-cropping of machine-farmed arable land is evidence of this.

This issue of suffering however, has just got a whole lot more complex,

• "Plants are intelligent. Plants deserve rights. Plants are like the Internet – or more accurately the Internet is like plants. To most of us these statements may sound, at best, insupportable or, at worst, crazy. But a new book, Brilliant Green: the Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by plant neurobiologist (yes, plant neurobiologist), Stefano Mancuso and journalist, Alessandro Viola, makes a compelling and fascinating case not only for plant sentience and smarts, but also plant rights."

Just as we've changed our belief that animals are 'unthinking automatons', Stefano Mancuso attempts to do the same for plants.

His presentation on TED can he seen here:

Having lost the health argument some time ago, now the moral argument for v*nism is looking increasingly shaky.

What's the Story?

The HuffPo ask Are All Calories Created Equal? It isn't a bad article and covers the more nuanced ideas behind obesity that you'll have read around these here parts for the past seven years:

- A calorie is a calorie (ACIAC).
- We are not bomb calorimeters.
- A physicist would correctly state calories in vs calories out (CICO) as fundamental to an increase in the mass of the human body. But obesity is a problem of biology, not of maths.
- CICO contains no causal information, it just restates the problem.

Still not convinced? Consider this; we could get two people (unknown to one another and with no contact), to each write a story in any genre they wish - the only constraint being that they use the same number of letters and the story is in English.

The physicist or mathematician could state that the number of letters in each story were identical.

What are the chances these two stories are the same? 

A letter is a letter. A word is a word. English is English (notwithstanding dialects and patois). Grammar is grammar.  All these statements are true, but this tells us little about the subject of each story.

It's about time this nuance in the story of obesity became mainstream.

Arthur Haines on Grains

I still largely avoid grain food but would not be averse to some grain in my diet, particularly if they grains form part of a traditional food culture and especially if they are prepared in a traditional style/method (but not necessarily using traditional technology).

But make no mistake;  most grains I'm likely to encounter in my ever day life come in the form of sugary cereals, sliced bread and heavily processed baked foods made from a few grains industrially processed to optimise profit not quality.  I can live without it.

The excellent Arthur Haines makes the case for why anti-grain rhetoric in the paleosphere lacks biological and anthropological sense.

Tricks of the Trade

Nature on real food and obesity:

"As long as the animal eats the foods that it evolved to consume, this balance is maintained. The trouble comes when it eats a diet with a disproportionate quantity of a particular macronutrient, either because of a lack of appropriate foods in the environment or because its appetite control systems have been fooled or subverted."

Nothing new here, but good to see 'common sense' go mainstream.

The problem with highly processed food is that its familiarity makes it appear harmless.

How the Immune System Works

Excellent post on the topic above!

Not Just What, But Where & How

Check out @wiredscience's Tweet:

In Western Tanzania tribes of wandering foragers called Hadza eat a diet of roots, berries, and game. According to a new study, their guts are home to a microbial community unlike anything that’s been seen before in a modern human population — providing, perhaps, a snapshot of what the human gut microbiome looked like before our ancestors figured out how to farm about 12,000 years ago.

You Are Never Alone

The Gut Bacteria Living Inside You (INFOGRAPHIC) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/gut-bacteria-infographic-microorganisms-bugs_n_4576256.html

Fast Food Salads

http://youtu.be/Q1kDezVCTE8

Sat Fat: BMJ Letter

Saturated fat is not the major issue | BMJ

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6340/rr/675595

Natural Law

Green Finger

This is an interesting piece and comes from an angle I have mentioned before. If you were in the wild and had to hunt/forage for food, what confidence would you have in sourcing non-toxic food?

Outside of some seasonal berries and fruit I think most of us would be wary of foraging. Even skilled foragers make mistakes when it comes to, for example, mushroom picking.

But hunting is altogether easier. Bar eating too much liver, pick a large mammal (especially a herbivore), eat pretty much all of it. Hack meat off and cook over a fire. Job done. You don't really need specialist skills bar the actual hunting bit.

Can’t get children to eat greens? Blame it on the survival instinct

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/10453749/Cant-get-children-to-eat-greens-Blame-it-on-the-survival-instinct.html

Baby Food

Low in nutrition and high in sugar, this is a good example of the processed food I would seek to avoid as a parent.  

The story is likely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ready-made foods whether you buy baby or adult food.

If you want to know what isn't 'paleo', here it is.

http://www.theguardian.com/p/3tj66/tf

Play & Evolutionary Fitness

Play is an important component in the palei model. I look forward to paleocritics making the argument that paleo folk didn't have gym equipment nor did they play ball sports!

Play your way to evolutionary fitness.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929330.800-play-your-way-to-evolutionary-fitness.html#.Ui3xjdK-pH8?utm_source=NSNS%26utm_medium=SOC%26utm_campaign=twitter%26cmpid=SOC|NSNS|2012-GLOBAL-twitter

Seizures

Ketogenic diet resolves epilepsy (hat tip to Escape The Herd):


What is frightening is the lack of awareness of the medicinal quality of diet.

My Own Hands