I HATE "BONE BROTH!" a.k.a. Collagen/Gelatin for People Who Hate Broth (a.k.a. Awesome Cuts of Meat You're [Probably] Not Eating: Pork Feet and Hocks)!

Get a load of that gelatin! NICE!

Nutritionist confession: I HATE BONE BROTH!

There, I said it.

I hate broth, I hate stock, and I dislike soup. Kick me out of the nutrient-dense real food club, excommunicate me if you must, but I’m a coffee girl through and through. I gag at the thought of starting my day with a “steaming hot mug of broth,” the way other people happily brag about on social media. Yuck. I know others find broth to be a great way to start their day, but frankly, for me, it’s coffee or bust, and if I have to turn in my membership card, so be it.

I’ve made a few batches of chicken and beef stock in the past, but being that I have zero interest in drinking a mug of this stuff straight-up, and I’m not a big soup fan, what typically happens is, I freeze several quarts of it, and about 18 months later (sometimes longer!), I defrost them and dump ‘em down the drain. It’s not that I don’t understand the benefits of bone broth; it’s that I just plain don’t like it. I’ve used collagen protein powders in post-workout shakes in the past, and I eat a fair amount of meat on the bone, with some other connective tissue bits along for the ride. So it’s not like I’m deficient in the particular amino acids bones and joints are especially rich in (if there is such a thing as being deficient in these). I just prefer to get my collagen and gelatin from sources other than long-simmered bones and joints.

That being said, I haven’t used collagen powder in a long time, and I know I should probably be getting more of that good collagen and other connective “stuff.” (There are no specific ailments I’m looking to improve by way of this, but I ain't gettin’ any younger, and it would be nice to keep my bones, joints, skin, nails, and tendons in good working order. Plus, maybe, just maybe, increasing my intake of this will help reduce the crow’s feet and wrinkles that have taken up residence on my face the last couple years. Eek!)

So, with that in mind, I’ve been looking for some other ways to get this into my diet, and I’m thrilled to report my recent discovery of the wonders of pig’s feet! Yes! Pigs feet, pork hocks, trotters…they’re all good! I’m Jewish, but I don’t keep kosher, and thank goodness, because frankly, life without bacon and prosciutto is no life at all. (And if you're thinking turkey bacon is a good substitute, please just close the window you're reading my blog in, back away slowly, and never come back. You are dead to me.*)

Those of you who’ve been eating these cuts and making broth for ages may have been using feet and hocks all along, but all I know is, I’m very glad to have found a way to get lots of collagen/gelatin into my diet in a way that is actually really palatable, enjoyable, and delicious.

How does it work?

Not So ... Fast ... (Part 2)

In part 1 of this rant, I got a little hot-headed about having to explain to people who should not be fasting that fasting is not appropriate for everyone. In this follow-up and continuation, I’d like to say a couple more things because these ideas have been nagging at the back of my mind, and they won’t go away unless I get them out. I don’t think anyone will learn anything from this one, and that’s okay. I rarely use my blog as a plain ol’ brain dump with no educational tidbits whatsoever, but I suppose I’m entitled to that once in a while.

Before I start, let’s clarify something:  if you feel good doing what you’re doing with regard to diet, exercise, fasting, and sleep, then keep doing it. But if you don’t feel good, there might be reasons why you don’t feel good. And my intention in writing about some of them (aside from letting off steam, because this is all starting to really get to me) is to bring attention to the mere possibility—just the chance—that any of this might make sense. Please know that this is wildly speculative. I’m thinking out loud. That’s all. My blog isn’t a doctoral thesis I’m required to stand up and defend against a panel of experts geared up to prove me wrong. It’s just my thoughts and opinions, which, as always, you are welcome to read and ponder, or completely ignore. You can even disagree with me; I ask only that you do so in a civilized, polite way to facilitate discourse like the intelligent adults we are. :-)

Constitutional Obesity Resistance Vs. Constitutional Obesity Propensity

Although activity on my Facebook and Twitter accounts might suggest otherwise, I’m not a big fan of social media. I participate in it because I feel like I “have to,” not because I particularly enjoy it. Then again, as I am extremely introverted, it’s a great way to interact with people without having to really interact with them. I can unplug and disengage the second I start feeling uninterested, overwhelmed, or exhausted. That being said, one of the great things about Twitter is that I get to interact with some quite brilliant people whom I would never otherwise have “met,” and I am regularly presented with ideas that blow my mind. (That’s how I came across the stuff about Dr. Kraft’s insulin assays, which inspired the insulin series.) Often, these are ideas and concepts that should be pretty obvious to me, and the only reason they aren’t is that I’ve just never stopped to think about them. And not only are they pretty obvious, but they’re often put out there or tweeted about casually, as if the writer is saying something relatively simple. A one-off post or a couple of lines about something that seems like no big deal and is a total no-brainer to them, but which, upon reflection, turns out to be a huge deal to me.

For example: the registered nurse who goes by the online nickname “Woo” frequently drops knowledge bombs that send me into a hurricane of thoughts. She holds no punches and does not suffer fools. Her writing style takes some getting used to, but she is truly one of the most intelligent and insightful people currently writing about metabolism, endocrinology, calories, ketosis, fat adaptation, body weight regulation, PCOS, and lots of other things many of us are interested in. Time and time again, something she posts makes me see things in a new light. So much light, in fact, that she should buy stock in General Electric, Phillips, or some other company that manufactures lightbulbs, because that is how many of those things go on over my head when I read her work.

Case in point: a few days ago, Woo made the correct observation that, in many cases, children who are put on a ketogenic diet (KD) for epilepsy can actually stop the diet after a couple of years and remain seizure free for life. Something about staying on a KD for some period of time during one’s formative years seems to actually permanently correct the underlying problem, such that the diet can be abandoned later on and the seizures do not return.

Coupling this fact with some observations about people on low-carb and Paleo diets, she came to some rather fascinating conclusions, and proposed an observational study. First, I’ll tell you about the study, and then we’ll work through the rationale for it, via exploring some intriguing things about body weight, and why some of us are so incredibly prone to accumulating excess adipose tissue, while others are not.

The observational study would be intended to test the following hypothesis:

Food for Thought Friday: Modern Medicine Rant

Pop Quiz:

The failure of institutions such as the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, and American Medical Association not just to acknowledge the undeniable efficacy of carbohydrate restriction for myriad chronic health complications, but also their failure to do what they should be doing—which is shouting it from the rooftops louder than any ol’ no-name blogger, and actively encouraging people to give it a try—is the result of which of the following:

A)  Stupidity

B)  Willful Ignorance

C)  Conspiracy

D)  Narcissism

E)  Malpractice 

F)  All of the above

Yeah. You can see where today’s rant is headed.

Food for Thought Friday: Rickety, or Robust?

I have bad news, everyone: we’re going to get old.

All of us. Every single one of us.

If we’re lucky, that is.

If God, or nature, or the universe, or whatever, sees fit to let us ripen to an old, old age, it will no doubt be a bumpy ride. Predictable and unpredictable ups & downs and trials & tribulations await us. As a dear friend’s grandmother used to say, “It’s hell to get old, but the alternative isn’t any better.” (Getting old really is a privilege. Not everyone is so fortunate.) (Aside, to MW: I don’t know if you still read my blog or not, but if you do, it was your grandmother, HC, who said that.)

If we’re also lucky, we will retain most of our physical and mental/cognitive capacities well into old age. Some of these will inevitably decline—the physical more so than the mental/cognitive. And if we do start to experience cognitive decline, guess what? Alzheimer’s is the result of "REVERSIBLE metabolic syndromes." And for once, that’s not me saying so, but rather, the MD who knows it’s reversible, because he’s done it. But I digress…

It’s just not reasonable that an eighty-year-old will have the same strength and speed they had in their younger years, even for individuals who devote a significant amount of time and effort toward preserving strength and mobility as they age. We can slow the loss of muscle mass and muscle strength, but we cannot stop them completely.

Talk in West Virginia!

WEST VIRGINIA PEOPLE!

I’m giving a talk on Thursday, January 21^st at 6pm, at the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown. If you’re in the local area, come on out and say hello! There’s a $13.95 charge, but that covers your enjoyment of an all-you-can-eat low carb buffet. (I receive no speaking fee. Just doing this for fun and to help lots of low-carb newbies!)

The event is a meeting for a low-carb support group run by Mark Cucuzzella, MD. I reached out to Dr. Cucuzzella after hearing him on episode 1005 of Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ la Vida Low Carb Show. Listening to him talk with Jimmy, I felt like I was hearing a kindred spirit. Not only is he in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, but he’s a LCHF-fueled distance runner as well as a low-carb-friendly physician bringing the low-carb and real food message to the bigwigs who decide what recruits eat at basic training. Can you imagine the fighting force we’d have if more of these young people were eating low-carb? As if that weren’t enough to keep the guy busy, he’s also on a mission to transform the health of people in West Virginia (which has the sad distinction of being one of the most obese states in the nation).

Turns out, Dr. Cucuzzella heard me on Robb Wolf’s podcast, and had been planning to contact me as well. Go figure!

I’m told the group I’ll be addressing will be about 50/50 low-carb newbies and people who’ve already been doing it for a few months. So I’m planning to give a (funny and educational) general talk about why and how low-carb works. It'll be sort of the live version of my fuel partitioning series. (If you’ve read that, you’ll probably recognize some of my slides, hehheh.) So I probably won’t be saying anything you don’t already know, but if you’d like to come eat some yummy food, see me in person, and meet other low-carbers in your area, come join us! Plus, we’ll have a Q&A, so if you want to ask me something more advanced or off-topic from the talk, this is your chance.

See the flyer below, and if you’d like to attend, please RSVP to Melanie Miller, at melaniemillerconsulting@gmail.com.

Remember: Amy Berger, M.S., NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician. Links in this post and all others may direct you to amazon.com, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through my affiliate links.

Why Am I Not Losing Weight on LCHF? (Pt.4 - Effect a Change, a.k.a. The DIScomfort Zone)

Since I might not have been clear about things in the previous posts in this series on stubborn fat loss, allow me to clarify something before we add another post to the pile:

When I talk about carb and caloric intake, nutrient deficiencies, and thyroid function as factors that may be interfering with body fat loss, please know that I’m writing for the folks with significant amounts of body fat to lose: 30, 50, 100 pounds, or more. This series isn’t really intended for people who are looking to get rid of “the last ten pounds” (or five!). Of course, some of the concepts I write about might well be applicable to people who are in the home stretch, and if so, great. But to be honest, getting those last few pounds off—and keeping them off—may require slightly different methods than those that led to an initial, much larger loss. (Most of us recognize it’s very hard to lose those last few pounds, so if that’s all you’re trying to lose in the first place, you might face an even tougher battle than someone who wants to lose 100 pounds, but for whom the first 75 melted off relatively quickly.)

That being said, some of the general principles I’m going to address today could apply to anyone who’s struggling to lose body fat. Those among us who are working very hard to lose weight, but who aren’t making any headway, sometimes claim we’ve “tried everything.” We’ve “done everything” to lose weight, and “nothing works.”

Really?

Really?

You’ve tried everything?

Every single thing under the sun?

Podcast Interview: Real World Paleo

My third podcast interview is in the hopper and ready for you to go have a listen! First, it was Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ la Vida Low Carb Show, then it was Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution Podcast, and now, I’m talking about real food, low-carb, and Alzheimer’s on the Real World Paleo Podcast. I’ve also recorded a fourth show, which I’m told will air sometime in December. (Details to follow.) Hey, it’s almost like I kinda-sorta know what I’m talking about! (Either that, or I’m doing a great job of fooling people into thinking I do!)

If you’ve never heard of the Real World Paleo Podcast, that’s probably because it’s pretty new. The first episode went live just this past September. The hosts are Christine Lehmann, MS, NTP, and Stephanie Ewals, NTP. Christine lives in Alexandria, VA, not far from me, and she and I met when we took the Nutritional Therapy Practitioner training together back in 2013. Christine is the “Reverse Diabetes Coach™,” and Stephanie practices nutritional therapy at Out of the Woods Nutrition, in Minnesota.

Both of these ladies know what they’re doing, and it was a privilege to be able to share my Alzheimer’s research with them and their audience. If you’ve read some of my past posts about Alzheimer’s disease, then most of what we discussed won’t be new to you, but hey, a little refresher never hurt anyone! (Unfortunately, there was a little bit of feedback on my mic again, but not as bad as when I recorded with the great Mr. Wolf.)

You can download the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or listen directly through Christine’s website: http://www.reversediabetescoach.com/episode-11-how-you-can-delay-alzheimers-and-dementia/

The show notes in the link above include helpful links to some scientific papers that might be of interest to you if you’d like to delve into the metabolic and mitochondrial underpinnings of Alzheimer’s.

By the way: the Real World Paleo Podcast is a great show for any friends and family members who are new to LCHF, Paleo, Primal, and just plain real food. Stephanie and Christine do a great job of introducing complex concepts and explaining them in simple but informative ways, kind of like I aim to do on my blog. It might be old news if you’ve been eating this way for a while now, but for people who are just starting to dip their toes in these waters, this show is a down-to-earth, non-intimidating way to learn about healthy fats, the importance of good quality proteins, finding the right amount and types of carbohydrates for different goals, etc.

Remember: Amy Berger, M.S., NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition.

ITIS -- It's the Insulin, Stupid (pt 5/8)

In part 3 of this series, we covered the role of insulin as a counter-regulatory force that keeps catabolic glucagon in check. (Reminder: in the absence of insulin, glucagon run amok will cause the body to waste away by catabolizing its own muscle and fat tissue for fuel). And in part 4, I mentioned that lowering blood glucose (BG) is probably not insulin’s primary function, but rather, one of the ways by which insulin helps keep BG in check gives us a clue as to one of its more important functions: it is anti-catabolic. While several other hormones break tissue down in order to provide glucose and fatty acids to fuel the body, insulin builds tissue up.

That’s right. Insulin is an anabolic hormone. It stimulates tissue growth, be it of muscle or adipose. (If the phrase “stimulates tissue growth” reminds you of cancer, hang onto that thought. I’ll be addressing insulin eventually in the cancer series.) If a lack or insufficiency of insulin causes type 1 diabetics to waste away due to catabolizing muscle and fat, then that tells us that insulin helps build up muscle and fat. (Or, at the very least, insulin hinders its breakdown.) Veteran bodybuilders can tell you that insulin spikes (properly timed) can help build muscle mass, and veteran low-carbers can tell you that insulin spikes can help build fat mass. Remember: insulin isn’t “toxic.” It’s all about context. Since we’re focusing on obesity here, we’ll leave muscle out of the discussion and focus on fat.

ITIS -- It's the Insulin, Stupid (pt 4/8)

“Insulin is vital for lipogenesis. Its role as a lipogenic hormone is underplayed, but we know that without insulin, you can’t get fat.”
                                        --Dr. Roger Unger

Having raved about Dr. Unger’s lecture in the previous insulin post, obviously, I think he’s pretty brilliant. That being said, chronically elevated insulin isn’t the only mechanism by which people accumulate excess adipose tissue. (For the newbies out there, “accumulating excess adipose tissue” is the fancy way to say “get fat.”) I prefer to use the word adipose instead of fat, because I am trying to make a distinction between dietary fat that we consume in food, and the body fat that we all love to hate so much on our bellies, hips, thighs, and elsewhere. Even if they both occur in the form of triglycerides, I still want to keep them separate, since eating dietary fat does not automatically result in said fat depositing itself on our rear ends or forming second and third chins.

Apart from insulin, there are several other things that contribute to the regulation of body weight, and, perhaps more important, the composition of that weight. And I’m not ignoring those. Sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll be writing a post about the myriad other reasons someone might not be losing weight on a low-carb diet (unrelated to this insulin series). For our purposes right now, though, we’ll stick with insulin. Because even if there are other factors playing a role in excess adiposity, when we look at changes that have occurred to the food supply and the general dietary guidelines from various government and professional medical/health organizations during the last several decades, systemic hyperinsulinemia is probably one of the largest influences, if not the single largest.

In tackling the role of insulin on the accumulation of adipose tissue, first we need to explore just a few more things about insulin’s biochemical & physiological roles. After that, we’ll see how it all plays out in the real world—that is, in the body.

ITIS -- It's the Insulin, Stupid (Pt 3/8)

If you made it through the encyclopedic posts that were part 1 and part 2 of this series on insulin, and you’ve come back for more, thank you! It is one of my biggest flaws as a writer: brevity is not my strong suit. (But at least I admit I have a problem. That’s the first step, right?) This post is no exception. In fact, it's probably longer than the first 2. So go grab a cuppa joe, or tea, or whatever you like, and hunker down for a nice, long read.

Okay. So I left off last time pointing out that, in covering the effects of elevated insulin and glucose on the cardiovascular system, reproductive function, the brain, kidneys, eyes, and inner ear & balance mechanisms, I had not said one word about obesity. I hope we’re all on the same page and can agree that insulin resistance is not something limited to people who are carrying around a few—or a couple hundred—extra pounds. Obviously, there are millions of non-overweight people who are infertile, have heart disease, kidney disease, vision problems, dementia, and more. (I have written about this before. One of my personal favorite posts on this entire blog is the one where I explained that obesity is simply one more effect of metabolic derangement, rather than its cause. I also wrote about this topic for Designs for Health.)

Nevertheless, we’d be missing a substantial piece of the insulin puzzle if we didn’t talk about the role of insulin in regulating body weight. Before we get to that, however, we first need to look at the actual functions of insulin, as well as the pancreas. It is an unfortunate byproduct of our epidemic of “diabesity” that we automatically think of blood glucose when we hear the word insulin. And there’s no doubt insulin does have an important role in regulating—or, more specifically, lowering—blood glucose (BG). But that’s not insulin’s only function. In fact, I would argue it’s not even the primary function. We will get to weight, I promise. But just like we did in the cancer series, we’ve got to trudge through a lot of biochemical weeds before we get to the good stuff. So here goes.

Time for a brief extremely verbose endocrinology lesson.

Food for Thought Friday: Yes, You *Are* Hungry

One of the frequently repeated claims about low carb and ketogenic diets goes something like, “I don’t get hungry anymore.” Many people find that being in ketosis suppresses the appetite. In some cases, the higher the ketones and/or the free fatty acids, the less desire there is to eat. But is this really true? If you follow a low carb diet, will your appetite go away completely? Will you never be hungry? I find this hard to believe, so let’s dissect this claim, shall we?

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while (and if so, I thank you!), then you know I’ve reserved these Food for Thought Friday posts as my place to do a little ranting, albeit in a humorous way. I hope I’m not becoming too negative, though. It’s just that I get pretty hung up on language, and I don't like us playing fast and loose with how we say things. It’s probably the writer in me. So I got a little annoyed the other day when I was catching up on Robb Wolf’s podcast, and I heard Perfect Health Diet author Paul Jaminet say something about this phenomenon of magically disappearing hunger.

ITIS -- It's the Insulin, Stupid (pt 2/8)

Warning: This is a ridiculously long post. I was going to break it up into two, but I figured, what’s the difference between one really long post, and two semi-long ones? You can always read a couple paragraphs and then come back later if you don’t have time to read it all at once.

Also: My blog has a very eclectic audience. I have physicians, PhDs, and others well-educated in biochem and A&P reading this, but I think the bulk of my readers are interested laypeople. I try to tailor my posts to the laypeople, keeping in mind that they are of above-average intelligence, and certainly above-average knowledge about all this low-carb, high-fat, Paleo, and ancestral health "stuff." Just wanted to remind everyone of the diverse audience here, because this post, in particular, contains simplified explanations of complex processes, and I apologize if any of the pros find themselves bored. :-/ 

OKAY! Now we come to the next part of why all of this insulin stuff is so important. (Missed the first part? Click here. And you’ll notice I’ve changed the title of this post to say it’s part 2 of I-don’t-know-how-many. In starting to write part 3, I realized this is going to be more like 5 or 6. I am learning new things about this every day that I feel are important enough to write about, and the number of posts it will take to include them keeps rising.) 

Here we go...

OH - EM - GEE!

HOLY.

CATS.

!!!!!!!!

http://robbwolf.com/2015/09/15/episode-287-amy-berger-nutrition-and-alzheimers/

Remember: Amy Berger, M.S., NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition.

Deja Vu All Over Again - Keto vs Carbs: STOP IT ALREADY!

How many times am I going to have to write this blog post?

More than once, it seems, since it failed to have the desired impact last time I wrote it.

(BTW: I can’t help thinking of that line from Aladdin, where Jafar says to Aladdin, “How many times do I have to kill you, boy?!”)

Am I the only one who feels like the more we learn about biochemical individuality, genetic polymorphisms, epigenetic triggers, the whole-body microbiome—i.e., things that make people different—the harder and deeper the warring nutritional factions dig their heels in, hold their positions, and stand their ideological ground in insisting that we are all suited to thrive on one type of diet? When we constantly discover downstream effects of differences in biochemical pathways and mechanisms such as methylation, starch digestion, liver detoxification, and muscle fiber distribution (i.e. fast-twitch versus slow-twitch fibers), shouldn’t that make us more open-minded, rather than less, about the different diets on which individuals might thrive?

Maybe I am alone in thinking this. It sure feels pretty lonely out here on this limb.

But since it didn’t seem to sink in the first time I wrote about this, here we go again.

Metabolic Theory of Cancer: Speculation on the Causes of Cancer -- and How to Mitigate Them (Pt.4)

We’re in the midst of exploring a few potential causes of cancer, and ways to possibly reduce risk. Up today: carcinogens. (If you’re new here, this post is pretty far down the line in a series that started back in November 2014, in which we are exploring the metabolic theory of cancer. Click here for the first post. Each one will end with a link to the next.) 

I have been saying that sometimes, people can do “all the right things,” and still end up developing some pretty gnarly health issues. I have also said that some of the diet and lifestyle factors we suspect might cause cancer (mostly by way of disrupting mitochondrial function) probably apply less to little kids than they do to older folks. So, aside from what we’ve already covered—viruses, age, and freaky mutations to mitochondrial DNA, what else might be causing cancer in babies and other people with no obvious risk factors?

Metabolic Theory of Cancer: Speculation on the Causes of Cancer -- and How to Mitigate Them (Pt.3)

Graphic modified from Seyfried, et al. 

Cancer as a metabolic disease: 

implications for novel therapeutics. 

Carcinogenesis. 2014 Mar; 35(3): 515–527.

VIRUSES

The potential cancer cause we’ll look at today is viruses. Some cancers are known to be viral in origin, and this makes total sense. Viruses hijack a cell’s replication machinery, right? They hijack the replication mechanisms such that the virus’ own DNA or RNA gets copied like crazy, so we’re left with lots of cells that contain tons of viral DNA/RNA. I am not a microbiologist, nor do I play one on TV. But I have to assume that having lots of viral DNA or RNA floating around in a cell probably isn’t good for mitochondria. Either way, if certain viruses do cause cancer, my guess would be that they do so by affecting mitochondrial function.

As a potential cause of cancer, viruses can strike people of any age. I suspect viruses are one of the primary drivers of cancer in children. I can’t imagine much else causing it. Like I said, older people have had many more years to abuse their mitochondria via diet, lifestyle, and unknown environmental exposures. But little kids? Not so much. Something else has got to be driving cancer in younger people. (And like I've said before, it’s entirely possible there’s a role for maternal & paternal health/diet at the time of conception and during gestation, as well as environmental exposures in utero, but, like the authors of the paper I mentioned in an earlier post said, if you think I’m about to blame the parents of a child with cancer for causing that child’s cancer, you are crazier than a vegan at a Brazilian churrascaria.)

In terms of prevention,  We can’t do much about this except to make sure our immune systems are up to snuff. I have said before that most of us probably “get cancer” all the time. We have cells behaving badly and doing wacky things left and right, but our immune systems go to work and kick those misbehaving cells to the curb. (Or the cells engage in apoptosis, commit suicide, and save our immune systems the trouble.) So how might we try to ensure our immune systems are up to the task? I was originally going have a separate post (or two or three!) about cancer prevention, but it seems more logical to address potential prevention/mitigation strategies in the same post as I write about putative causes. (I would be embarrassed to admit how much time I’ve spent going back and forth over this issue, about which most of you probably don’t care one way or the other.)

Metabolic Theory of Cancer: Speculation on the Causes of Cancer -- and How to Mitigate Risk (Pt.2)

If the previous post in this series on cancer (before the video) was unsettling, good! It was supposed to be. It was meant to remind us that cancer is a vile beast, and that it can spring up seemingly from out of nowhere. It strikes people who are total health trainwrecks, and people who, by all accounts, are healthy. (That is, except for the cancer...) It strikes old people, young people, fat people, thin people, rich people, poor people, PhDs, high school dropouts, men, women, and everybody somewhere in between.

We are working under the theory that cancer is a metabolic disease. Something damages mitochondrial function to the point that cellular metabolism is derailed, and all the nefarious things cancer cells do can be understood as logical sequelae of broken mitochondria and cells that are fighting to keep themselves alive. (Anyone else hearing “Eye of the Tiger” playing in their head right now? Hehheh. [BTW…to anyone out there in the Philadelphia area, I did the Broad Street Run several years ago and someone on the sidelines about a mile from the finish line had a boom box and they were playing that song, and it was awesome. Especially because the original Rocky is one of my all-time favorite movies, but I digress. Adrian!!])

I left off last time saying that, according to the metabolic theory of cancer, anything that contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction can be considered a potential cause of cancer. I think the reason older folks tend to have higher rates of cancer is simply that their bodies have been exposed to potential cancer-causing dietary, lifestyle, environmental, and unknown factors for longer than younger people’s bodies have been. That stuff’s gotta add up over time, no? Frankly, in this day and age, I think if you make it to 85 without getting cancer, you’re kind of a living miracle.

But recall that I made a point to emphasize that babies and toddlers get cancer, too, so it’s not only a matter of physiological insults building up over time. And it’s not just eating too much vegetable oil, or slurping down too much sugar, or being sedentary, or smoking, or being exposed to too much radiation, or whatever else we might speculate could cause cancer. There are other factors at work here.

Thoughts on the Brain Fair (Rant Warning!)

Greetings, Earthlings!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, on April 18^th I had a table at the American Academy of Neurology’s Brain Health Fair, which was part of their annual convention. The event was free and open to the public, and as far as I could tell, it was mostly the public that came through the exhibit hall, since I didn’t get any doctors sidling up to my little corner of this shindig. (None that I know of, anyway.) My presence at this thing coincided with the launch of my e-book on Alzheimer’s disease. I am pleased to report that I had people coming up to me all day. People were very interested in hearing about the influence of food and nutrition on brain health. I don’t expect a lot of book sales to come from it, but I think I’ll be hearing from a few new clients. (And I made an Indian woman very happy when I told her it was okay to eat ghee again!)

There were some encouraging moments, and I think I dropped more than a few “knowledge bombs,” as Sean Croxton likes to say. But there were many discouraging moments, too. In fact, my main feeling on the event can be summed up in two words:

Holy, and crap.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

It’s a boy!

It’s a girl!

It’s a book!

I did it! The e-book I’ve been dropping hints about is finally finished and available for sale! Go check it out:

The Alzheimer’s Antidote: A Comprehensive Nutrition and Lifestyle Strategy to Fight Alzheimer’s Disease, Memory Loss, and Cognitive Decline.

I apologize for hawking my wares here, but I’ve got to get the word out, right? Just be thankful I am completely clueless about web design, otherwise you’d have annoying things popping up right in your face the minute my site loads, as you might be familiar with from other sites you frequent.

And since I am the least tech-savvy person alive, before I even tell you anything about the book, I would like to express my deepest and sincerest thanks to Ms. Ellen Davis, for her untiring support and encouragement on this project … and, oh, yeah, by the way, she did all the design and layout. I am not kidding when I say this book wouldn’t exist without her. I sent her all my writing in MS Word, sent all the images I either created or purchased (from iStock Photo, in case anyone’s curious), and she magically transformed them into the e-book that is going to change the way people think about Alzheimer’s and cognitive impairment. Ellen is not just a great designer, however. She is the mastermind behind the Ketogenic Diet Resource, the single best blow-your-mind, one-stop-shop I know of for information on low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets. (She also happens to have a master’s in nutrition, and is the author of the fantastic, amazing book, Fight Cancer with a Ketogenic Diet. Her most recent project was a collaboration with Keith Runyan, MD, on Conquer Type 2 Diabetes with a Ketogenic Diet.)

Okay. Now that we’re done with the preliminaries, let’s get down to business!