While writing the comments on Facebook, I wrote about the circle of life.
It got me thinking about how we are damaging the circle of life.
Humans are using up a lot of resources. We eat some and we waste a lot.
Also we send human wastes into garbage dump, and then throw it into rivers.
The minerals in our wastes must be returned to the lands where we grew up the food. Otherwise we have taken out the minerals, transported it to elsewhere and thrown it down the river. The land has grown poorer, and the sea has gotten too much of some minerals that it doesn't want.
The problem with this is that we have too many algal growth in the seas, and too little nutrients in the soil.
Then we add artificial fertilizers. Substituiting some minerals that we know about. What about the minerals that we don't know about?
We might think that the food industry is not causing any environment problems, but it is probably causing more problems than the fuel industry.
Friday, October 1, 2010
I had the following exchange recently on Facebook.
Anand Srivastava It is interesting that the spike in obesity happened exactly when the food pyramid was created. Check out the graph. Do you need any more evidence that the food pyramid is evil?
Somebody: Couldn't it be a coincidence? Correlation does not imply causality and all that.
Someone said to me that America is the only place where the poor are obese :)
Anand Srivastava You can find those in India too. They are not that common though. They are mostly found in the food industry ;-). Sugar is cheap these days. Refined oil is cheaper (compared to the natural fats).
Anand Srivastava It is not really a coincidence. If you look at how our body deals with different food items, you will understand it. Read about Glucose effects on insulin. Insulin effects on fat storage. InFibers effect on the intestine. Wheat Germ Aggluti...nin's effect on Intestines. How gluten/casein causes auto-immune diseases. How Fructose causes high Hba1c, and insulin resistance. Inflammation/anti-inflammation signalling of Omega6 and Omega3 fats.
When you have gone through all these, things will begin to fall in place and you will understand that it is actually the food pyramid (ie the low fat high carb regime) that is causing the obesity, the heart disease, the cancer, the diabetes, etc.
Anand Srivastava Correlation does not imply causality is a good thing to remember when you read newspaper headlines on food studies results. They are normally mistaking correlation with causation.
The studies are mostly designed carefully and interpreted appropriately (or sometimes grossly incorrectly) to bring about a specific outcome, namely getting a new grant. This normally involves following the party line, ie fat is bad.
Somebody: Good stuff, Anand. The best advice is still to eat a balanced diet - it has worked for 5,000 years. No more analysis or proof needed :)
Anand Srivastava That depends on the definition of a balanced diet. What we want is a diet that had worked for a 100,000 years not the last 5000years.
Homo-Sapiens evolved 200,000years ago. Agriculture has been around only 10,000years ago. Our body has not a...dapted sufficiently for the agricultural products ie grains or legumes, and also milk which we adapted for lactose digestion around 8000years ago.
The other theory is that plants also need to protect their children, just like animals. They use a number of mechanisms. Nuts use a very hard shell. Fruits use a softer covering and a smaller harder seed to avoid getting broken, and enough toughness to pass through the digestive systems.
What have grains got? We might think they use nothing, but they use poisons, called lectins. WGA is a lectin which causes damage to the intestines so that rest of the grains can pass by. That mechanism was meant for herbivores. We grind them anyway, so no grains can pass by. But nevertheless it does damage the intestine, the result is celiac. Coeliac is known to be a gluten insensitivity issue, but is actually caused by WGA.
They do feed grains to cows in the USA, to fatten them up before slaughter. Funnily nobody puts two and two together, to understand that grains cause humans to get fat as well. Humans are probably better adapted to grains than cows.
Anand Srivastava From my reading of the issues, a good balanced diet would be
Meat/fish
Tubers, eg potatoes, onions.
Greens
Coconuts
...other vegetables.
Where proportion of plant matter is higher than meat/fish, by weight rather than calories.
No milk, no grains, no legumes.
Somebody: And if you have an ethical concern about eating meat/fish?
Anand Srivastava That will be a tough one.
If they are religious in nature, then nothing can be done about it.
But if the concerns are really ethical, then you might want to read The Vegetarian Myth.
The book is written by a former Vegan, who was an ethical vegan, and now is an ethical meat eater ;-). The best part of the book is when she meets a chinese master.
He asks her what she eats.
She says that she does not eat anything from animals.
He says, bigger fish eat smaller fish.
She says she is not a fish.
He says, we all are.
It is very arrogant to disown our place in the circle of life. Our nature is to eat animals and plants, we are omnivores. And in turn we will be eaten by the animals and plants when we die. It is also illogical to not consider plants as living things.
Search and read about the Temple of Eden. It was a very fertile plain which was destroyed by agriculture. It is possibly the location where agriculture was born. It is also the place referred by Bible as the Eden. Humans had to leave the place because it became barren, hence the allegory.
Agriculture destroys more land than feeding animals on grass, and eating them. The current high population is not supportable by the Earth.
Anand Srivastava If concern is religious then drinking milk cannot be avoided. There is a reason that raw milk, curd, and ghee are considered Amrit. They are that much important for a vegetarian. They are the only source of animal fats, fat soluble vitamins... (A and K2), zinc, and Vitamin B12.
White Rice and Dal (the split lentils, after removing the covering) are much less problematic compared to other grains and legumes. You would want to ferment them to increase the mineral availability and killing the remaining lectins, before cooking and eating them.
It is no wonder that Indians developed the Idly, Dosa, Vada etc. They are the healthiest way of eating grains and legumes. Swiss make their bread after fermenting for several days and then leaving the cooked bread to become stale before eating them. Such bread does not cause problem to coeliacs, even though it has gluten in it.
You have to go traditional, leaning towards the South Indian food rather than North Indian. North Indian food requires a lot more nutrition, which is no longer there due to the intensive farming methods. Also try to eat more tubers, like potatoes and sweet potatoes. They should be more of a staple, than Idly, dosa.
Anand Srivastava I guess this applies to cultural vegetarians as well. It is difficult for vegetarians to eat meat when they have never eaten it.
There is a reason why we are the only cultural vegetarians in the world. Vegetarianism requires all year Sunligh...t, and milk consumption, in addition to an advanced society, where thinkers go beyond what is considered in the realm of possibilities. You could not be a vegetarian in say Tibbet. No wonder The Dalai Lama eats meat. He could not survive without it. He has tried vegetarianism before without success. He loses his health and has to return to meat.
Anand Srivastava It is interesting that the spike in obesity happened exactly when the food pyramid was created. Check out the graph. Do you need any more evidence that the food pyramid is evil?
Somebody: Couldn't it be a coincidence? Correlation does not imply causality and all that.
Someone said to me that America is the only place where the poor are obese :)
Anand Srivastava You can find those in India too. They are not that common though. They are mostly found in the food industry ;-). Sugar is cheap these days. Refined oil is cheaper (compared to the natural fats).
Anand Srivastava It is not really a coincidence. If you look at how our body deals with different food items, you will understand it. Read about Glucose effects on insulin. Insulin effects on fat storage. InFibers effect on the intestine. Wheat Germ Aggluti...nin's effect on Intestines. How gluten/casein causes auto-immune diseases. How Fructose causes high Hba1c, and insulin resistance. Inflammation/anti-inflammation signalling of Omega6 and Omega3 fats.
When you have gone through all these, things will begin to fall in place and you will understand that it is actually the food pyramid (ie the low fat high carb regime) that is causing the obesity, the heart disease, the cancer, the diabetes, etc.
Anand Srivastava Correlation does not imply causality is a good thing to remember when you read newspaper headlines on food studies results. They are normally mistaking correlation with causation.
The studies are mostly designed carefully and interpreted appropriately (or sometimes grossly incorrectly) to bring about a specific outcome, namely getting a new grant. This normally involves following the party line, ie fat is bad.
Somebody: Good stuff, Anand. The best advice is still to eat a balanced diet - it has worked for 5,000 years. No more analysis or proof needed :)
Anand Srivastava That depends on the definition of a balanced diet. What we want is a diet that had worked for a 100,000 years not the last 5000years.
Homo-Sapiens evolved 200,000years ago. Agriculture has been around only 10,000years ago. Our body has not a...dapted sufficiently for the agricultural products ie grains or legumes, and also milk which we adapted for lactose digestion around 8000years ago.
The other theory is that plants also need to protect their children, just like animals. They use a number of mechanisms. Nuts use a very hard shell. Fruits use a softer covering and a smaller harder seed to avoid getting broken, and enough toughness to pass through the digestive systems.
What have grains got? We might think they use nothing, but they use poisons, called lectins. WGA is a lectin which causes damage to the intestines so that rest of the grains can pass by. That mechanism was meant for herbivores. We grind them anyway, so no grains can pass by. But nevertheless it does damage the intestine, the result is celiac. Coeliac is known to be a gluten insensitivity issue, but is actually caused by WGA.
They do feed grains to cows in the USA, to fatten them up before slaughter. Funnily nobody puts two and two together, to understand that grains cause humans to get fat as well. Humans are probably better adapted to grains than cows.
Anand Srivastava From my reading of the issues, a good balanced diet would be
Meat/fish
Tubers, eg potatoes, onions.
Greens
Coconuts
...other vegetables.
Where proportion of plant matter is higher than meat/fish, by weight rather than calories.
No milk, no grains, no legumes.
Somebody: And if you have an ethical concern about eating meat/fish?
Anand Srivastava That will be a tough one.
If they are religious in nature, then nothing can be done about it.
But if the concerns are really ethical, then you might want to read The Vegetarian Myth.
The book is written by a former Vegan, who was an ethical vegan, and now is an ethical meat eater ;-). The best part of the book is when she meets a chinese master.
He asks her what she eats.
She says that she does not eat anything from animals.
He says, bigger fish eat smaller fish.
She says she is not a fish.
He says, we all are.
It is very arrogant to disown our place in the circle of life. Our nature is to eat animals and plants, we are omnivores. And in turn we will be eaten by the animals and plants when we die. It is also illogical to not consider plants as living things.
Search and read about the Temple of Eden. It was a very fertile plain which was destroyed by agriculture. It is possibly the location where agriculture was born. It is also the place referred by Bible as the Eden. Humans had to leave the place because it became barren, hence the allegory.
Agriculture destroys more land than feeding animals on grass, and eating them. The current high population is not supportable by the Earth.
Anand Srivastava If concern is religious then drinking milk cannot be avoided. There is a reason that raw milk, curd, and ghee are considered Amrit. They are that much important for a vegetarian. They are the only source of animal fats, fat soluble vitamins... (A and K2), zinc, and Vitamin B12.
White Rice and Dal (the split lentils, after removing the covering) are much less problematic compared to other grains and legumes. You would want to ferment them to increase the mineral availability and killing the remaining lectins, before cooking and eating them.
It is no wonder that Indians developed the Idly, Dosa, Vada etc. They are the healthiest way of eating grains and legumes. Swiss make their bread after fermenting for several days and then leaving the cooked bread to become stale before eating them. Such bread does not cause problem to coeliacs, even though it has gluten in it.
You have to go traditional, leaning towards the South Indian food rather than North Indian. North Indian food requires a lot more nutrition, which is no longer there due to the intensive farming methods. Also try to eat more tubers, like potatoes and sweet potatoes. They should be more of a staple, than Idly, dosa.
Anand Srivastava I guess this applies to cultural vegetarians as well. It is difficult for vegetarians to eat meat when they have never eaten it.
There is a reason why we are the only cultural vegetarians in the world. Vegetarianism requires all year Sunligh...t, and milk consumption, in addition to an advanced society, where thinkers go beyond what is considered in the realm of possibilities. You could not be a vegetarian in say Tibbet. No wonder The Dalai Lama eats meat. He could not survive without it. He has tried vegetarianism before without success. He loses his health and has to return to meat.
Friday, January 22, 2010
General Obesity cause and solution
There are two major hormones that affect weight gain and loss, Leptin and Insulin.
Leptin governs appetite, insulin controls glucose (and by effect fat metabolism).
The brain uses leptin to determine how much fat we have. If it thinks that there is too much it will suppress appetite, increase body temperature, make us fidgety, and all sorts of things to burn off the excess fat. If it thinks there is too little then we will feel hungry.
We get fat because of two problems, either leptin is not being secreted (rare condition), or leptin is not being received by the brain (leptin resistance common problem).
Hypothalamus (in the brain) may not receive leptin if there is something wrong with it.
There are two known ways in which this happens, leptin receptors becoming bad because some sugars get attached to them or there is inflammation.
Glucose normally does not attach easily, but other sugars like fructose (in sugar or fruits), galactose (milk) attach readily to these receptors. Artificial sweeteners are also not safe. It is better to cure the sweet tooth than trying to seek replacements.
Omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) is used to provide inflammatory signaling in the body. Omega3’s provide anti-inflammatory signaling. When the two are equal in concentration then our body works best. If there is too much difference, then we get problems. Its not easy to get Omega 3. We are getting huge amounts of Omega 6 from our vegetable refined oils. Just look at their PUFA ratios, eg suffola contains 54% Omega 6 and 7% Omega 3.
The bad ratio can cause a lot of problems, including inflammation of hypothalamus.
If you have got leptin resistance, then you will get fat, and the fat gets deposited around the liver and other organs.
The fat deposition interferes with Livers well being. Liver being the main organ that controls metabolism, we get what is called metabolic syndrome. This causes the beginning of Insulin resistance.
Insulin’s main job is to tell all cells to store glucose and other nutrients. When glucose is high, insulin is secreted to reduce the glucose levels. It also tells the cells to stop using fat, so that glucose level can be reduced more efficiently. Our body does not like glucose levels to be high at all. The total glucose in the blood should be less than 5 gms.
Glucose is not a problem for people who don’t have insulin resistance. You can know this if you get your PP blood sugar (2 hours after eating rice) and it is around 80. Don’t do this test after eating some slow digesting carbs like whole wheat. You will not get the best results.
To lose fat you want to keep your insulin down for a long time, so that the body can use fat.
The solution is to eat less number of times (not more than 3 times, no snacking in between). Also eat less amount of carbs, and eat simple starches, like potatoes and rice, rather than complex ones which will keep the insulin high for a longer time.
In addition you can skip meals ie fasting. It is also very good to skip carbs in a meal entirely if you can eat only meat at a meal.
In a nutshell.
1) Get rid of all high omega 6 sources, like refined oil, large quantities of nuts (cashews and almonds are OK).
2) Use low Omega 6 sources like Desi Ghee (vegetable ghee like Dalda are poisons), Coconut oil, Olive Oil.
3) Use high Omega 6 but with nearly equal amount of Omega 3 oils like mustard oil or Canola oil. Avoid cooking with these ;-), as PUFA are unstable.
4) Supplement Omega 3 to fix the imbalance by eating some fish (oil). Flax seeds are not very useful, but possible for vegetarians.
5) Get rid of concentrated sources of fructose like commercial drinks including fruit juices, coke etc.
6) Reduce consumption of sweet fruits like Apple, Pineapple, Melons, etc. They are bad in excess.
7) Eat at most 3 times a day, no snacks in between.
8) Skip meals, when not feeling hungry or deliberately if you can handle it.
9) Eat more fat and less carbs at each meal.
10) If non-vegetarian sometimes skip carbs completely, by eating only a meat diet.
11) It is useful to eat more protein when wanting to lose fat, as protein helps by satiating and forcing the body to use fat.
Weight training can be used to increase metabolic rate by building muscle mass and increase insulin sensitivity by burning excess glycogen. Both will help in reducing fat. Sprints and high intensity training also help the same way. Treadmills don’t help and are bad for the knees. The best way to exercise does not require machines. A Bar and weights are all that you need. Squat and Deadlift are the best exercises.
Calorie in Calorie out is good in theory, but in practice it does not work. Our body’s energy requirement is not constant. It increases and decreases with food availability. The trick is not to give it less food, but to fix the system which manages fat.
Leptin governs appetite, insulin controls glucose (and by effect fat metabolism).
The brain uses leptin to determine how much fat we have. If it thinks that there is too much it will suppress appetite, increase body temperature, make us fidgety, and all sorts of things to burn off the excess fat. If it thinks there is too little then we will feel hungry.
We get fat because of two problems, either leptin is not being secreted (rare condition), or leptin is not being received by the brain (leptin resistance common problem).
Hypothalamus (in the brain) may not receive leptin if there is something wrong with it.
There are two known ways in which this happens, leptin receptors becoming bad because some sugars get attached to them or there is inflammation.
Glucose normally does not attach easily, but other sugars like fructose (in sugar or fruits), galactose (milk) attach readily to these receptors. Artificial sweeteners are also not safe. It is better to cure the sweet tooth than trying to seek replacements.
Omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) is used to provide inflammatory signaling in the body. Omega3’s provide anti-inflammatory signaling. When the two are equal in concentration then our body works best. If there is too much difference, then we get problems. Its not easy to get Omega 3. We are getting huge amounts of Omega 6 from our vegetable refined oils. Just look at their PUFA ratios, eg suffola contains 54% Omega 6 and 7% Omega 3.
The bad ratio can cause a lot of problems, including inflammation of hypothalamus.
If you have got leptin resistance, then you will get fat, and the fat gets deposited around the liver and other organs.
The fat deposition interferes with Livers well being. Liver being the main organ that controls metabolism, we get what is called metabolic syndrome. This causes the beginning of Insulin resistance.
Insulin’s main job is to tell all cells to store glucose and other nutrients. When glucose is high, insulin is secreted to reduce the glucose levels. It also tells the cells to stop using fat, so that glucose level can be reduced more efficiently. Our body does not like glucose levels to be high at all. The total glucose in the blood should be less than 5 gms.
Glucose is not a problem for people who don’t have insulin resistance. You can know this if you get your PP blood sugar (2 hours after eating rice) and it is around 80. Don’t do this test after eating some slow digesting carbs like whole wheat. You will not get the best results.
To lose fat you want to keep your insulin down for a long time, so that the body can use fat.
The solution is to eat less number of times (not more than 3 times, no snacking in between). Also eat less amount of carbs, and eat simple starches, like potatoes and rice, rather than complex ones which will keep the insulin high for a longer time.
In addition you can skip meals ie fasting. It is also very good to skip carbs in a meal entirely if you can eat only meat at a meal.
In a nutshell.
1) Get rid of all high omega 6 sources, like refined oil, large quantities of nuts (cashews and almonds are OK).
2) Use low Omega 6 sources like Desi Ghee (vegetable ghee like Dalda are poisons), Coconut oil, Olive Oil.
3) Use high Omega 6 but with nearly equal amount of Omega 3 oils like mustard oil or Canola oil. Avoid cooking with these ;-), as PUFA are unstable.
4) Supplement Omega 3 to fix the imbalance by eating some fish (oil). Flax seeds are not very useful, but possible for vegetarians.
5) Get rid of concentrated sources of fructose like commercial drinks including fruit juices, coke etc.
6) Reduce consumption of sweet fruits like Apple, Pineapple, Melons, etc. They are bad in excess.
7) Eat at most 3 times a day, no snacks in between.
8) Skip meals, when not feeling hungry or deliberately if you can handle it.
9) Eat more fat and less carbs at each meal.
10) If non-vegetarian sometimes skip carbs completely, by eating only a meat diet.
11) It is useful to eat more protein when wanting to lose fat, as protein helps by satiating and forcing the body to use fat.
Weight training can be used to increase metabolic rate by building muscle mass and increase insulin sensitivity by burning excess glycogen. Both will help in reducing fat. Sprints and high intensity training also help the same way. Treadmills don’t help and are bad for the knees. The best way to exercise does not require machines. A Bar and weights are all that you need. Squat and Deadlift are the best exercises.
Calorie in Calorie out is good in theory, but in practice it does not work. Our body’s energy requirement is not constant. It increases and decreases with food availability. The trick is not to give it less food, but to fix the system which manages fat.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Learning from Evolution
We can learn a lot from Evolution. If something goes contrary to evolution, it couldn't be right.
We evolved from a primate very much like Chimpanzee, some 5 million years back. Chimpanzees are omnivores, they eat mostly fruits, but some bugs, ants etc, and once in a while some meat. We evolved with that basic diet. During the next 4 million years we developed tools which allowed us to become hunters and add more meat to our diet.
During the last million years humans developed the technology to control fire. This was a major step, in our evolution. It allowed us to cook the meat, and made it easier to digest it. We could also cook the tubers and other previously indigestible matter.
During this million years our diet became predominately carnivore, as meat became easily digestible. It also increased our survival, by allowing us to eat tubers when meat was not available. The simplified and plentiful diet, allowed us to increase our brain size. It also reduced the need for the large colons of primates, which resulted in a reduced pelvis.
Our diet was predominately carnivore, when meat was available, and starchy tubers when it was not available. Starchy tubers were not completely nutritious but provided us the required energy, in times of need. Our main source of nutrition for all practical purposes was meat.
Consequently, our body prefers a meat and fat diet, but can handle a large amount of carbohydrates. No other animal can handle such differing diet. This also allowed us to handle the grains, when we started to farm.
Grains are not our natural diet. We only began farming some 10,000 years back. Archeological evidence shows that whenever a group of hunter gatherers adopted agriculture, they lost stature, lost a healthy bone structure, and showed dental troubles.
Genetic adaptation requires selection pressure. The grain diet does not do any damage in the early years. It does not prevent a person from having children. This does not give any selection pressure, to adapt for the grain diet. Still there must be inevitably a very small amount of adaptation, but its not enough, to let us handle this diet.
I will be writing more posts about what Evolution and Science have shown about our diet, and our medical establishment has ignored.
Monday, June 15, 2009
More about me.
I had never actually exercised with any consistency till July 2008. I had lived in mountains for about 5 years, for studies, which probably gave me a good base. Since then I had been gaining fat, a couple of Kgs every year. I had reached around 95Kg till last year.
I love food. I also am very miserly with leftovers. I finish them all off. I also love sweets.
I love food. I also am very miserly with leftovers. I finish them all off. I also love sweets.
During the past year, I have attempted to change my self. I started with Swimming in May. I felt good doing it and then started to get serious about it. I continued to improve swimming, and eventually could swim for 30-45 minutes continuously. This helped me get in better shape, but resulted in no loss of fat.
I also started reading a lot. I came across the truth about six pack abs website. I joined the newsletter. I read a lot there. It showed that weight lifting was the way to go, and also to change my diet. I followed this September and October. Then I came across exrx.net, and discovered Starting Strength by Rippetoe. From November I started following the exercise advise from there. I lost 10 Kgs on the diet and exercise routine. It helped me a lot, but not where it counts, the belly.
People on exrx.net used to talk a lot about Atkin's diet. I used to think it was too extreme. Then in April I came across, Free the Animal website, and discovered Paleolithic diet principles. Since then I have lost another 10Kgs and I am at 78Kgs. This time I have lost a substantial amount of belly fat. Now I am discovering Evolutionary Exercise principles.
Whole Health Source gave me a lot of appreciation of the science behind the Evolutionary diet principles.
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