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Giving Thanks to Your Low-Carb Ancestors: A Recipe for Brain Health

Nov 21st, 2011
by Dr. Cate.
17 comments

A lot of folks keen on losing weight have been convinced that a diet low in fat and protein and high in carbohydrates is the way to go. Seems intuitive, doesn’t it?: Don’t eat fat and you won’t get fat. That’s why, odds are, this year someone at your Thanksgiving table will be giving thanks without giving your perfectly browned holiday turkey a second look. Instead they’ll be opting to load their plate with their favorite high-carb “health foods”—sweet potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

Grain-fed turkeys gain weight faster but have significantly smaller brain size than their omnivorous wild cousins of the same breed.

If you’re a regular reader of my blogs, you already know what I think of high-carb diets as a means for losing weight: I’m not a fan. But today, I’d like to skip the weight loss discussion and, instead, focus on some of the unintended health consequences of cutting healthy fats and proteins from your diet.
(more…)

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Posted in: Mind-Body, Nutrition, rants and insights and etc..

Mahimahi recipe: Amazingly fast and easy way to cook this amazing fish

Nov 5th, 2011
by Dr. Cate.
6 comments

I had no idea how easy it is to steam fish until I watched the rouxbe.com video (below) and I had no idea how beautiful mahimahi looks…while alive. Luke, who actually cooked the fish for us today in a matter of 8 minutes, said that when he went on a fishing boat tour with his friend Howard the fisherman (back when we lived in Hawaii) he was amazed and horrified.

The mahimahi comes flying out of the water, struggling with the power and ferocity of a wild animal fighting for its life — makes sense, that was happening — and the color of the fish was shimmering and blue green and beautiful. But as the life force drained away, so did the color. By the time it lay still and lifeless, the once intense slice of rainbow was entirely gone and the fish looked grey and dull as if it never had been any different.

So here’s a video, courtesy of my friends at Rouxbe.com, on steaming basics that Luke applied to mahimahi. (more…)

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Posted in: Instructional Video, low carb recipe, Mind-Body, Nutrition.

Can Coconut Oil Help With Weight Loss (Part 2)

Oct 18th, 2011
by Dr. Cate.
13 comments

Lately, weight-loss hype seems to have shifted from pills to natural products. Coconut oil, widely touted as the ‘secret’ to effortless fat loss, represents the newest craze. But just how useful is coconut oil for fat loss?

Unlike pills, coconut oil offers real nutrition and therefore has the potential to help your metabolism operate in a healthier way, thereby assisting with weight loss. But whether you can actually lose fat faster by adding coconut oil to your diet depends entirely on whether or not you are already getting equivalent nutrients from other foods.

Breakfast Smoothie: 1 Hass avocado, diced 1/2 cup plain yogurt 1/2 cup whole milk 1/4 cup cream of coconut 8 ice cubes Directions Combine avocado, yogurt, milk, cream of coconut, and ice cubes in a blender; blend until smooth. Effective Carb: 6

For the duration of my ten years in Hawaii, I think I only managed to consume the equivalent of a coconut or two. I DO love the rich, nutty-sweet flavor of coconut in all its forms (fresh, toasted, etc.). But since my personal chef, Luke, was more into using butter and olive oil, coconuts just didn’t make their way into many of our meals. If you’ve read Deep Nutrition, you already know that while in Hawaii I shed about 20 lbs without even trying and that this minor miracle was accomplished (more…)

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Posted in: Insights, Nutrition, Weight Loss.

Why Vegans and Primal-Paleo Dietary Types Should All Just Get Along

Oct 16th, 2011
by Luke.
8 comments

When nutritional conditions disallow normal chin development, some people turn to augmentation surgery. According to Dr. Barry Eppley, who took this photo of a client: "The shape and strength of the jawline is an essential component of male facial attractiveness. This is evidenced not only in the images that we see today in male models and advertisements but in many of our most popular male celebrities and actors. This is not only a contemporary desireable male feature but has been so for a long time. It is also fair to say that a weak chin or a short and poorly defined jawlone has never been viewed as a favorable male facial feature."

I hate my chin.

Seriously. I have a weak chin. And I really don’t like it.

That’s why I’m not a big fan of rooms with mirrors on three walls. I’m thinking of the dressing room at Macy’s, and the place where I get my hair cut, and the bathroom at the YMCA where Cate and I go every week to swim laps.

Standing there in the Y bathroom in my goofy swim trunks, seeing myself from this So this is how others see me perspective, I’m usually able to convince myself that my shoulders are sort of wide, and that maybe all the running and swimming and better eating are paying off.

But then I find myself looking at my chin, and I realize how I’ll never swim my weak chin away. There it is. It will always be there. And there’s just no avoiding all those mirrored rooms waiting to remind me.

I bring this up so that you’ll understand that I really do get it when people get all fired up over the opening chapters in our book Deep Nutrition, which deal in part with the way our looks (Cate would say “our anatomies”) are affected by dietary choices. (more…)

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Posted in: Healthy Child, Nutrition, rants and insights and etc..

What is celiac disease? A recipe for recovery beyond gluten free.

Oct 7th, 2011
by Dr. Cate.
23 comments

Celiac disease is a set of symptoms associated with gluten intolerance.

Celiac disease develops when a person makes antibodies against a wheat protein called gluten such that eating anything containing gluten results in intestinal discomfort and a variety other symptoms including joint pain, skin rashes, and fatigue. Gluten is also present in barley, oats, triticale, and a few other seeds, and is often added to baked goods as a separate ingredient.

Why is gluten intolerance suddenly so common?

You could say gluten is the new cholesterol, in that gluten is being identified as the cause all kinds of illnesses and it has been suggested that nobody should ever eat it anything containing traces of it. But as is the case with cholesterol, pinpointing this single food component as the new universal-scapegoat is misguided. The way I see it, celiac disease is part of a larger epidemic of allergic disorders that include all food allergies, allergic rhinitis, and asthma—all of which are in the midst of a dramatic rise.

Whenever something new like this comes over the horizon, I like to always take a step back and examine the larger picture. When I do, I see the new explosion in rates of gluten-intolerance not so much as the result of anything inherently unhelathy about gluten, but rather as a sign that the processing that renders gluten harmful has lead to widespread immune system confusion. So in that sense, gluten is the canary in the coalmine, warning us of a potential impending explosion in the rates of intolerances to all kinds of processed foods. (more…)

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Posted in: For Science Geeks, Instructional Video, Reversing Inflammation.

The China Study: Does Avoiding Animal Protein in Pregnancy Help or Harm?

Oct 1st, 2011
by Dr. Cate.
24 comments

Click on image, link to player

Lessons on Health From The China Study:

Author T. Colin Campbell, PhD, makes the following argument to support a vegan diet:

  • Avoiding animal proteins cuts a woman’s estrogen and progesterone levels
  • This delays the onset of puberty, stunts her growth, and leads to early menopause
  • Which may reduce her risk of breast cancer.

Therefore, he argues, mothers should put their daughters on a strictly vegan diet. Skeptical? Me too.

Maybe you’ll be convinced if you hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. From page 164 of The China Study:

(more…)

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Posted in: Healthy Child, rants and insights and etc., Women's Health.

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