Carb Addiction! (Expanded post).

We have been giving a little thought to why there is seemingly so much resistance in the medical and nutrition communities to the notion of sugar and refined carbs being a major factor in progressive physical and mental degeneration. There is a rather obvious answer to this question which doesn't seem to been sufficiently discussed. Like so many areas where logical analysis seems to be ignored by one group or another, it is worthwhile considering the personal and self-interest angles, though this always feels uncomfortable. But here are some propositions:

1) Medical doctors and associated nutrition experts and policy makers are inclined to ignore the theory and supporting evidence around sugar and carbs because they themselves cannot bear the thought of giving them up -- which would be the inescapable conclusion if they allowed themselves to accept these ideas.

2) Doctors and scientists are more likely than the general population to grow up priding themselves on their intellect, possibly in exclusion of their physical capabilities; this is natural because it is seen as their competitive advantage. Many have also experienced achieving great success (careerwise at least) by focusing on their mental achievements and ignoring the physical side as far as diet and exercise. As they age any mental decline they are aware of is a) expected- everyone knows that mathematicians typically do their best work before they are X yrs old- usually 40 is quoted b) to some extent compensated for by increased knowledge and experience. A tendency develops, and we were under the same possible delusion, that the brain and body are independent systems that can be successful independently and decline through time 'naturally'. A much more natural hypothesis is that brain health and efficiency and body health and efficiency are intertwined. Progressive degeneration of one system -- resulting from a lifetime of sugar and carbs -- is mirrored in the other. This is a very disturbing possibility for those who have grown up focused on their mental muscle and the advantages it brings them.

But who can blame them. A brief search of the internet, a visit to a bookstore, or a stroll down through a city neighborhood exposes the impressive energy and effort being poured into increasing their appeal of desserts through the perfect balance of sugar, salt and fat. Looking back say 20 years, it seems inescapable that there has been a dramatic increase in variety, quality and ubiquity of tantalizing pastries and desserts, aided of course by the internet and the associated foodie culture. If a brewing company introduced an extra-high alcohol content beer, there would undoubtedly be a certain amount of outcry over the dangers of abuse, at least in some populations.  But apparently carbohydrates and sugar are still held to a very different standard.

Here are some people lining up for 100 varieties of pie in Little Rock, AK and some other
examples of products humans managed to live without for many thousands of years:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/07/this-week-at-serious-eats-world-headquarters-20110729-slideshow.html#show-176604

And there are artists who just do cakes and donuts etc...  is it meant to be ironic? Or is it a way of feeding the addiction, heightening the intensity in between snacks?

And then there is the cupcake proliferation:


View Larger Map

And from the Research Labs, the innovation continues around the clock...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811876373/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=cakespycom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0811876373

And whatever side of the culture wars -- Red State, Blue State or something else -- there is a place in the high carb universe for you:

It isn't enough to try to argue the medical science, and the statistics; this appears to be a full-fledged society level addiction which needs to be confronted head-on.  There are significant economic forces at work here, just like on the pharmaceutical and agribusiness side of the battle .

Primal Body, Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas

My bookshelves are groaning under stacks of new nutrition books; a subset of these are definitely worth reading carefully from cover to cover, and others are even more valuable. Primal Body, Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas, a nutritionist based in Portland OR, is one of the keepers. I didn’t think so at first. The book suffers from a dense, technical style (interspersed with humorous comments) - but soon enough the author’s unflagging attention to details and connections started to resonate. I was particularly struck by her identification of emotional and mental disturbances as related to lifestyles. Beyond the high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and dementia we’ve all heard are related to carbohydrate consumption, Gedgaudas reminds us that other conditions such as depression, anxiety, allergies, irritability, and even cognitive impairment are also impacted by a carb-based diet. And that’s when I started to take notes in the margins.

We all know people who demonstrate insulin resistance or even metabolic syndrome, those who seem hyped up by sugar overload, and then lack energy when others are still going strong, or those who gain weight easily even on a “balanced“ diet. But even more distressing are those seemingly healthy, normal individuals who are suffering mentally: anxieties, poor sleep, depression. Did you know that young people who have undiagnosed Gluten Sensitivity are 400% more likely to suffer cognitive functional decline and underachievement in post-secondary education? Gedgaudas prefers to consider gluten sensitivity, or celiac disease, a neurological condition, as opposed to a “mere” gastrointestinal problem. Lateral connections and insights like this abound in this book and hook you into intense and careful study. Whether or not all of her connections and hypotheses are born out by empirical investigation, she has certainly established some very compelling areas for investigation.

This is an excellent handbook for choosing a diet wisely, for additional nutrients to consider, and reasonable exercise advice as well. Now, I want to thank her for writing this book.



We are now selling this book through Amazon and soon through our store at great prices.







From the publisher

This book reaches credibly across disciplines and gives you the greater "aha!" of how various aspects of health actually fit together-including aspects of diet, physiology, modern anti-aging research, weight loss, supplementation, brain health, mental health, and even physical fitness.

Nora Gedgaudas' slides from her presentation at the Ancestral Health Symposium.

Very easy, almost fool-proof, pb-almond-*-protein bars

Re-posting of a favorite recipe from our old blog.

Very easy, almost fool-proof, pb-almond-*-protein bars

A number of people (n=1) have begged for our recipe for healthy, low-carb, high fat protein bars. The term recipe implies that this there is a precise prescription that, if followed, will result in a particular, predeterminable result. We would rather think of our food design approach as a Darwinian process. The good news is that this recipe, and most low-carb oriented cooking, is amazingly robust. The emphasis is on the ingredients, not the precise proportions or the technique of the Chef-de-meat_course, Chef-de-SimulPasterie, or Enginuer-de-Assemblage-Protbar. (These are all made-up French words in case you can't tell.) The recipe development process followed in our Lab is correspondingly rigorous. Try something that seems to have the desired nutritional profile-- eg 25 gm protein to 18 gm carb to 10 gm sugar, infinite calories -- and mix together a few ingredients to get there. Usually it comes out fine the first time. The next time it will get slightly better. Attempt #3 is inevitably a disaster. But #4 is fine and refinements are perturbative in nature thereafter.


So without further rambling, here it is.

Ingredients

Bar Base
(makes enough to make you quite full, even distressingly so, if eaten by yourself within 24hr.)


Almond Flour 300g
Peanut Butter 350g (Almond Butter may be substituted but be sure to remove the PB from your recipe cataloging system)
Whey Protein 225g
Butter 150-200g (!) - depends on desired consistency
Eggs 220g (this is about 4 eggs; note the generous concession here to people without kitchen scales.)
Honey 120g (this can be replaced with your favorite sweetener, agave nectar works well too. Can be reduced arbitrarily)

Additional Flavor Enhancing Components Choose 0 or more (the "*" in PB-Almond-*-Bars)
Blueberries 200g -- these have essentially the same Carb & Sugar by weight as the recipe above. Adding them dilutes the protein content but will not change dramatically the BSPAC* index. (Bad-Stuff-Per-Amount-Consumed)
Dark Chocolate Chips or broken up dark chocolate (100-200g). We prefer 90% dark chocolate. Guittard 72% dark chocolate chips are a sweeter option for those still assessing their level of anti-sugar fanaticism. In any case, look to control the sugar by weight to align with the proportions of 20% or less sugar by weight. Lindt 90%, for instance, has 7.5%; the aforementioned Guittard over 25%.

Procedure

Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl.

Spread into a pan 1-2.5 inches (whoops! we've been metric untill now. Perhaps I should have said 2.5 - 2.5^2 cm thick...)

Bake at 375 degrees F [ (375-32)*5/9 degrees Celsius] until brown around edges and all that butter is bubbling up. Why this temperature? A lot of cookie recipes use this setting and we saw no reason to experiment with this parameter. But we may.

Cool

Eat
and/or
Eat (later) -- They seem to taste better the next day but that may be because you tasted so much of the batter during preparation.

The only knack is in putting the ingredients together in such away that it is easy to mix. We haven't solved this problem yet. Melting the butter, adding the whey protein slowly, and using ones specially evolved food-preparation appendages (hands, washed) is helpful.


Note added: Our editorial department has, with its routine perspicacity, identified an omission in the preparation of this recipe. If using chocolate, it is an entirely acceptable variation to first melt the chocolate and then homogenize it with the rest of the ingredients. The resultant choice of food-proxy target is thought, within certain erudite circles, to have considerable psychological significance. See for instance: S. Leefield and D. Hinesdorf, "Chocolate Chunk Cookies or Brownies, the choice is yours- or is it?", Annals of Food Hallucination, 1985 V2, No.5.

Approximate nutritional content by weight for the base
Protein - 26%
Carbs - 17%
Sugar - 10%
Calories/gm - you don't want to know... Oh, ok. 4.8
Sodium mg/gm - 50 (assumes salt-free butter, pb, ab, & Bob's Red-mill Whey Protein)
Fat - yes.


A 45gm bar - roughly 2.5^3 cubic cm - will fill you up nicely.

Feed Your Brain, Lose Your Belly (9781608321018): Larry McCleary MD: Books

This is a fairly new (April 2011) book by Larry McCleary, MD a Neurosurgeon. Although the same themes have been written about elsewhere, In the first section of the book he connects the dots between the physiology of obesity, brain degeneration and food reward in a clear and compelling fashion that we haven't seen elsewhere. Of course, there is a heavy reliance on his own clinical observations and anecdote. The later sections of the book with his own take on higher fat, moderate carb diets and exercise are less interesting with most of the guidance stated without much motivation.

McCleary comes down in the healthy fat, lean meat and fish camp. There is also an odd chapter at the end recommending his own nutritional supplement. But all-in-all this book provides a useful perspective book. As far as the potential connection with brain degeneration, if you were looking for yet another reason to go low-carb and avoid the progressive effects of insulin resistance, it is hard to think of a more motivating "better safe than sorry" story.