Ever noticed how idealistic and hopeful happy people are? Ever wonder why? Sometimes carrying hope around with you and being consistent in your idealism can bring about positive actions in your life. Here are my top 5 reasons to always have hope for yourself, your future, your country, your society, and the world.

Thanks to vegan soap box for the image

5. Hope gives you something to focus on

4. Filling your mind with hope leaves less room for negative energy

3. Hope can keep you going when there’s nothing else

2. Hope can bring a smile to your face even in your darkest hour, and

1. Hope manifests into excitement

Excitement manifests into belief that it’s possible

Belief manifests into action

Action manifests into reality

Hope will bring about whatever you can imagine for yourself.

If you’re seeking more…

• Here’s some motivation for life change.
• I am Ready for thing to Change.
• I am Ready to see Compassion, Love, and Gratitude shown to others on a macro-scale
• I wish for everyone to find contentment in their daily lives
• I do my best to practice daily steps towards change in my life
• I believe that we all expend too much energy worrying
• I believe we should all expend more time being grateful

I believe that we can all make the world a better place with even the tiniest steps, and the tiniest shifts in attitude. Hope is a good place to start!

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For the next part of my Nutrition Series, we’re talking about the current conventional food system, specifically eating organic and natural. There are two aspects to this- produce and meat. I have touched on each here, but I implore you to educate yourself. There is much to be learned about our food system, not just the health effects of it, but the political and environmental aspects of it as well.

In our house, we call our grass-finished ranched beef "A Happy Cow"... we figure that's the truth.

Organic vs. Conventional Produce

We all know that eating organic is healthier. It is a current trend that has finally started to gain some ground in the last 10 years. There are numerous reasons to choose organic over conventionally grown produce (by conventionally grown, I mean grown with the use of man-made pesticides and herbicides). The most obvious reason to avoid them is to decrease the number of harmful chemicals and compounds you put into your body. There are at least 107 active pesticide ingredients that are known to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing). Here are some other reasons why you might want to consider organic.

• When produce is left to defend itself against pests and diseases, it generates phytochemicals, which help it to ward off any harmful invaders. Those phytochemicals are super health for us, acting as antioxidants, they stimulate detoxification enzymes, boost the immune system, and act as antiviral/antibacterial agents. When we eat conventionally grown foods, they lack these compounds because they received outside help.

• Consider your children, if you have a family. If they’re eating conventional, their bodies are smaller and therefore the volume of pesticides they’re consuming relative to their body size equates to a much higher concentration of pesticides in their body.

• Conventional farmers do not replenish the soil, but instead use chemical fertilizers and such to keep producing. The health of the soil is a direct function of the health of the plant. Without any regeneration of nutrients (and instead a healthy concentration of man-made chemicals), we end up with contaminated, sick soils. These soils erode and contaminate our water sources and our groundwater through infiltration of rain.  Organic farmers use natural fertilizers which restore the nutrients to the soil without creating a toxic environment.

• Conventional farming has high environmental and societal costs such as costs involved in generating the chemicals, pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and environmental damage. Organic food costs more to you directly, but doesn’t come with the same hidden costs to our society and our planet. Buying organic makes a statement about how we care for ourselves and the world as a whole.

What do you do if you can’t afford to eat organic? There are a couple things you can do to help decrease the amount of chemicals you’re consuming. First, consider that the thicker the skin, the less danger there is of the fruit or vegetable absorbing the pesticide, herbicide, or fertilizer. So, things like Oranges, bananas, cantaloupes can be bought conventional with minimal effect to you since we don’t eat the skin (the drawback here is that by doing this we still support the system that is causing damage to the environment). Other fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears, potatoes, and carrots can be peeled, removing most (but not all) of the chemicals. Here is a handy list of what fruits and veggies can be eaten conventionally, and what are considered to be harmful if not purchased organic.

OKAY As CONVENTIONAL
Fruits:
Avocado
Bananas
Coconut
Dates
Figs
Grapefruit
Guavas
Lemons
Limes
Oranges
Papayas
Passion Fruit
Pineapples
Tangerines
Watermelons

Vegetables:
Alfalfa sprouts
Asparagus
Beets
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cassava
Cauliflower
Fennel root
Jicama
Leeks
Peas
Radicchio
Red chard
Snow peas
Yams

Only SO-SO for CONVENTIONAL

Fruits:
Cantaloupe
Honeydew
Pomegranates

Vegetables:
Broccoli
Squash (with very thick outer peelings)

MUST HAVE ORGANICS

Fruits:
Apples
Apricots
Blackberries
Blueberries
Casaba
Cherries
Currants
Grapes
Kiwi
Kumquats
Lychees
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Persimmons
Plums
Prunes
Raisins
Strawberries

Vegetables:
Bean sprouts
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Celery
Corn
Cucumbers
Green Beans
Hot peppers
Lettuce (all kinds)
Mushrooms
Onions & shallots & garlic
Potatoes
Rhubarb
Spinach
Sweet potatoes
Winter squash (yellow squash)
Zucchini

Meat and Factory Farming  101

So, we now have a basic understanding of the importance of eating organic fruits and vegetables, but what about meat? Well, depending on the animal, there is a nightmarish story for each with respect to factory farming. My first comment here would be to say that realistically, the direction that humanity took in maintaining a food supply for our ever-growing population was logical. I think as with all things, people look for ways to industrialize everything they do, and farming was no different. It was efficient, financially prosperous, and it insured a stable food supply. However, what we are seeing today with the health of our meat is a result of something that seemed like a good idea but is now being realized as a huge mistake on our part. This is where I will warn you before you continue reading. Ignorance truly is bliss sometimes, and if you think that you’re not capable of the work and or money demands that it might take to make a different choice, then I would suggest you stop reading. This information is disturbing enough that it becomes difficult to turn a blind eye to it. That said, here’s a little bit of background on how we manage meat in the US.

Factory farming began in the 1920s soon after the discovery of vitamins A and D; when these vitamins are added to feed, animals no longer require exercise and sunlight for growth. This allowed large numbers of animals to be raised indoors year-round. The greatest problem that was faced in raising these animals indoors was the spread of disease, which was combated in the 1940s with the development of antibiotics. Farmers found they could increase productivity and reduce the operating costs by using mechanization and assembly-line techniques.

There are two kinds of chickens raised in the industrial farm setting: broilers (the kind we eat) and layers (the egg-making chickens). Broiler chickens are selectively bred and genetically altered to produce bigger thighs and breasts, the parts in most demand. This breeding creates birds so heavy that their bones cannot support their weight, making it difficult for them to stand. The birds are bred to grow at an astonishing rate, reaching their market weight of 3 1/2 pounds in seven weeks. Broilers are raised in overcrowded broiler houses instead of cages to prevent the occurrence of bruised flesh which would make their meat undesirable. Their beaks and toes are cut off to prevent damage resulting from fights, and the broiler houses are usually unlit to prevent fighting among the birds. Many birds are sick from the chemicals and the obscene growth rate they’re subjected to; as a result, the farmer must go and collected the dead birds through the crowded house each day. Here is an 8-minute video on the Life of a Broiler Chicken. Go to a health store and see what kind of other options you have . There is a different between organic, all natural, and free-range. Organic chickens may be simply on organic feed, but are still raised conventionally, where are a free-range chicken may not be in a broiler house, but is still pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones. Educate yourself about what you’re buying, and make comprises on what you can to keep your food budget under control.

Layers are held in battery cages that are very small with slanted wire floors which cause severe discomfort and foot deformation. Between five and eight birds are crammed in cages only 14 square inches in size. Since the birds have no room to act naturally, they become very aggressive and attack the other birds in their cage; to help combat this behavior, the birds have their beaks seared off at a young age. The layer hens are subjected to constant light to encourage greater egg production. At the end of their laying cycle they are either slaughtered or forced to molt by water and food deprivation, which shocks them into another layer cycle. Many birds become depleted of minerals because of this excessive egg production and either die from fatigue or can no longer produce eggs and are sent to the slaughterhouse. Eggs are similar in that there are organic, all-natural, free-range, etc. choices available. You may startle at the price of a dozen organic AND free-range eggs, but consider what you spend on beer, or a single Starbucks latte to put it in perspective.

Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals… and are definitely the most intelligent among the animals we eat. Pigs are highly social creatures, and are confined in narrow cages where they cannot even turn around. Many pigs become crazy with boredom and develop vices like mouthing, and nervous ticks; their tails are cut off at birth to prevent other pigs nervous chewing habits from being confined. Pigs are born and raised inside buildings that have automated water, feed and waste removal. They don’t see daylight until they are shipped for slaughter. Dust, dirt and toxic gases from the pigs’ waste create an unsanitary environment that encourages the onset of a number of diseases and illnesses, including pneumonia, cholera, dysentery and trichinosis. As with chickens, they are fed an unhealthy, abundant diet of antibiotics and hormones to keep them from getting sick from their living situation and to hurry the growth process.

Cattle are first raised on a ranch where they eat grass and roam the countryside until they reach a certain weight. Once that is achieved they are transported to the feedlot. Most beef cattle spend the last few months of their lives at there, crowded by the thousands into dusty, manure-laden holding pens. The air is thick with harmful bacteria and particulate matter, and the animals are at a constant risk for respiratory disease. Feedlot cattle are routinely implanted with growth-promoting hormones, and they are fed unnaturally rich diets designed to fatten them quickly and profitably. Because cattle are biologically suited to eat a grass-based, high fiber diet, their concentrated feedlot rations contribute to metabolic disorders. Because they are no long given grass (what they are designed for), they become ill… so ill in fact that were they not sent to slaughter, they would really only survive a few months longer. Think about that. We’re eating animals that are near-death sick. I can’t imagine that their meat is healthy, but rather as sick as they were when they went to slaughter. If beef is something you enjoy and desire to keep in your diet, consider grass-finished beef. This can be found at some health food stores, as well as from local ranchers in your area. Make sure you ask if it is grass-finished; however, because many cows are grass-fed and then sent to feedlot to fatten up on a feedlot diet. Remember, that as a meat eater, I am not necessarily advocating a meatless lifestyle, unless you can’t obtain alternatives to factory-farmed meat. Here’s a good educational series about factory farming, but in a less-disturbing and more enjoyable setting.

In all of these cases of meat, these animals live in close confinement, standing in their own feces for most of their lives. Its no wonder that we see cases of e-coli and salmonella becoming increasingly common. Ever wonder why we occasionally find those things in our spinach and other produce? The sick animal waste is contaminating our water sources which of course are used to water our other crops.

This issue of factory farming is a much bigger picture than I have painted here. This is MUCH abbreviated version of the whole picture. I would recommend a couple places for additional information.

Michael Pollen is a writer of books on this exact subject. He is a very realistic, whole food, health-minded person. He still eat meat (burgers for that matter), and has looked at our society’s way of managing the food economy and how the corporate food system is creating food that is making us all sick. My favorite book of his is The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Joel Salatin is a farmer who has achieved a farming system that not only creates healthy animals, but also gives back to the Earth at the same time. He has the most amazing farming system (I learned about him in the Omnivore’s Dilemma) and is now an author. His books are stories about the road he has traveled and battles he has fought to be able to keep his farm the way it is. He is a great writer. I would recommend Everything I Want to do is Illegal, although he has a bunch of great books to choose from.

If you’re not much of a reader, I would check out Food, Inc., a documentary on the food system. It’s is an eye-opening documentary. I watched it twice. Once on my own and a second time with my significant other because I wanted him to understand why I was making us spend so much on food!

Here are a couple good online resources as well:

• Nutritional value of fruits, veggies is dwindling
• Food and Water Watch has lots of information
• Check out Food CEO- a site for sustainable food
• Check out this article “Meet Your Meat- Why we Should all care where our Burger comes from”

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Well, I made it through one full week. If you didn’t get a chance to check out what this experiment is all about, check out my first post in this series. I think overall it went pretty well. I had a couple set backs, but for the most part I think I stuck to the plan. I have noted some positives and negatives thus far. Here they are:

The Good Stuff

• Increased energy during the day
• I feel much more alert and clear headed
• It looks like I’ve dropped a couple pounds

The Not-so-Good Stuff

• My body doesn’t seem to be fully adjusted yet, as I have to go the bathroom a lot, and it’s not what I’m used to “seeing”, if you know what I mean.
• I found myself eating the same things simply because they were easy, so there wasn’t much variety this week.
• I’m not sure if the couple pounds I dropped are legit or are just water weight.

So, I have three more weeks of this, and I am going to try to make sure I don’t have any slip ups… it’s not always easy if you’re somewhere with limited fare. For example, I went to an NFL game last night… not the best choices for the Paleo Diet. I will continue to log my progress every Monday, so stay tuned for more!

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On Monday, I started my new series Quest for Nutrition. In that post, I discussed an nutrition experiment I was planning to run. In order to document the results of this test I’m running, I will be jumping ahead a bit in the series and discuss some different diet perspectives (this diet is not what I would consider to be mainstream). I started this diet on Monday, August 22, 2010. I plan to continue this test for four weeks, charting my progress and interesting details each week. I must say that for the most part, I have been eating this way for some time; however, I haven’t really achieved a solid, cohesive 4-weeks without some kind of break in the plan (e.g. my son’s birthday cake). In fairness to the experiment, changes in the way I feel may not be as drastic as they would have been had I just come off of a normal “American Diet”.

Before I explain what it is I’m going to do, let me explain how I got here. For the last few years I have been plagued with digestion problems. Frequently, I would end up with pain and bloating in my lower GI that I couldn’t explain. At first it seemed to coincide with my menstrual cycle, so I figured that was the problem; but as time went on both the pain and the frequency got worse and I began to think that it was a result of something I was eating.  IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) just seemed like everyone’s excuse for everything GI-related, so I continued searching for other possibilities. The problem was, I couldn’t pin down what it was that was causing the problem. There were days when I would eat something and be fine, and the next day I would eat the same things and be miserable all afternoon. It was until about a year ago that I began to think it had something to do with certain types of bread products.

After a solid year of trial and error, I concluded that I had a gluten allergy. For those of us who aren’t gluten experts, gluten is a component of wheat and is now used in thousands of other things as well. Due to our increased consumption of it, many people are now intolerant and/or allergic. As an experiment I took myself off gluten and my problems miraculously vanished. I think I probably could have figured this out a lot sooner, but I was not ready to accept that I would have to give up so many things that I love.

The last few months I’ve been living completely gluten-free and I have felt amazing. I don’t think I realized how bad it was until it stopped. I started buying cookbooks and trying to learn to bake gluten-free bread and other treats. I’ll tell you what, baking gluten-free is no small task. Many of the flour options are other grains such as rice or tapioca, and in my opinion, they suck. The bread is dry and just not the same. In fact, I disliked the gluten-free alternatives so much I decided I would rather go without.

During this transition from away wheat and bread products, I was doing tons of research  and I happened upon a particular diet that actually advocates a grain-free lifestyle (among other things). I was nearly grain-free, having been so disappointed by the wheat substitutes I had tried. What I read I found intriguing, especially since I had pondered some of the same things.

The diet is called The Paleo Diet. It first became well-known in the early-1970′s; however, the premise of it was researched and expanded on by Professor Loren Cordain at Colorado State University. It operates under the following principles:

• Man has only been eating grains for the last 10,000 years and our bodies have not yet genetically adapted to them.

• What man has lived on for many thousands of years longer was meat, fat from meat, fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds.

• While fruit and veggies come with a peel or skin that is edible in its raw form (and usually very good for us), grains are coated with an exterior that is actually toxic to us. Hence why grains must be processed and modified so much for us to eat them and hence, why they are considered “bad” on this diet.

• Given that we know carbs are not essential to our diet, and that too many of them send our insulin machines into overdrive, there’s no detrimental effect on our bodies to avoid grains.

• Man was not meant to consume dairy products past our toddler years. When we’re born,  lactase enzymes are present in the small intestine to enable us to consume our Mother’s Milk. As we get older  lactase disappears from our bodies and by the age of 4 or 5 we can no longer digest it property. More than 70% of the world’s population can’t digest dairy products.

• Sugar in refined form is also not something that we have eaten in large quantities until the agricultural revolution. Sugar causes all the same problems (obviously ) as large quantities of grains ,and therefore should not be eaten.

So, this is a lifestyle that attempts to mimic what we have spent most of human history eating (aka, what we are more evolved to eat). From my research, I have noticed that there are several different variations to this type of diet. Some are pretty hardcore (Professor Cordain’s plan being one of them), even forbidding yogurt and legume because they cannot be eaten in their raw form and therefore would not have been available to Paleolithic man. Other people follow a more “modernized” paleo plan which includes some of the healthier foods that we didn’t have back then. The primary things that never change, however, are no grains, no dairy, and no sugar.

Paleo diet pyramid thanks to: Mark's Daily Apple

To be realistic about this experiment,  I have questioned a few things relative to Cordain and others findings. First, if we truly haven’t evolved to the agricultural processing of today’s world, then why are so many of us perfectly fine eating so many carbs? Why should we ignore things like beans just becuase our ancestors lacked the ability to cook them? I am sure as I plug along I’ll have other questions as well. I aim to see if I can answer some of them along the way.

There is a multitude of sites online which follow and discuss this diet. In addition,  Cross Fit trainers all across the US follow this diet and recommend it to all who join. I’ve tried a lot of different diets, and have experienced the ways in which food effects my daily mood, energy level, and health. As I stated in a previous post, I was vegetarian (nearly vegan) for man years, so my experience with different diets is well-rounded. I have even tried Atkins, which is a no carb diet. The problem with some of these extremes, is that I could never come to terms with not eating fruit or many types of vegetables. EVER.  That just seems wrong. One attractive aspect to the Paleo diet is that it doesn’t tell me that I can’t have something healthy like fruit, and it doesn’t recommend I chow down on fried cheese and pork rinds instead. Rather, it is asking me to only eat the most unrefined and natural products I can. So while initially this concept seems extreme (no grains! no dairy! oh my!), the more I break it down the more reasonable it seems.

My experiment is going to fall somewhere closer to a “modern paleo” diet. I have definitely chosen to stay gluten, dairy and sugar free but I have also found a few places where I think I can bend the rules and still stay true to the diet. For instance, I drink coconut milk in my lattes, and I have found yogurt made from coconut (and yummy ice cream too).  Here’s a snapshot of what I’m eating every day.

• For breakfast I have a coconut milk latte and a gluten-free, dairy-free protein shake.

• I have a mid-morning snack (if I’m hungry) which includes a serving of raw almonds (not roasted!) and either a hard-boiled egg OR a piece of fruit.

• For lunch, I eat a full plate of dark leafy greens (this also ties into nutrient density, which we’ll discuss in another post), I have a sub sandwich wrapped in lettuce instead of bread (the sandwich typically has avocado instead of mayo and a couple different kind of meat and veggies). This is an example… while the salad is a permanent fixture at lunch my protein choice changes.

• If I’m hungry I have another snack mid-afternoon which is typically a serving of sunflower seeds and raw veggies.

• For dinner, I fill half of my plate with a vegetables (my favorites are broccoli, green beans, or asparagus), a chicken breast, lean steak, or other protein, and then another piece of fruit. I try for fruits low on the Glycemic Index, meaning they have less effect on the body’s insulin response; however, if I’m going to have something (tropical fruits as an example) with a lot of carbs/sugars then I make sure to eat it with a larger meal to slow down its effect on my blood sugar. One note here: green beans are a legume and so are not part of a strict paleo diet. This is one place I am breaking the rules.

• Notice that I’m still getting carbohydrates- plenty of them. I’m just getting them from natural, unprocessed foods (fruits and veggies mostly) that don’t wreak havoc on my blood sugar levels.

How does this fit into a macro-nutrient breakdown? Based on the menu above,  my breakdown is 40% protein, 40% fat, and 20% carbohydrates. Of course the diet itself doesn’t recommend that anyone worry about macro-nutrient break downs, or that you count calories. They also don’t appear to advocate any kind of eating cycle… simply to eat when you’re hungry. While this is different from today’s typical “eat every 3 hours, eat a huge breakfast even if you’re not hungry” strategy, it also seems pretty rational.

I will be posting every Monday on this experiment, detailing my experiences and any changes from the previous week. One thing to remember is that while I am writing about all of this nutrition information… about how to live your healthiest life, there also must be balance. I am sure there are many who read all of this stuff and think about quality vs. quantity. “Do I want to live a long life, or do I want to enjoy the time that I’m here?” It’s a legitimate question that we all have to ask ourselves. I fall somewhere in between, choosing to practice a healthy diet 85% of the time, and allowing myself that other 15% to treat myself on special occasions.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about this diet, here are some helpful links of places that I went to when I first started researching. Remember, as with any diet, there are people to scientifically back it up, and there are just as many to scientifically refute it. It is one of those things that you have to decide for yourself what you believe.  Happy reading.

• Professor Cordain’s Paleo Diet Blog- contains an email newsletter sign up where he provides a multitude of reference for each of his articles. This is a good site for the scientific buff who’s not bored with all the technical stuff. He also has a book available on Amazon.
• Mark’s Daily Apple is a great site with lots of good info. The Primal Blueprint 101 is a great post about how it works and where to start. It’s a little less technical and a little more reader-friendly.
• Of course, Wikepedia has a good reference paper on the subject as well.
• The Modern Paleo blog provides some additional perspectives on what to eat; it is a little less strict and allows for some additional foods that we know to be healthy. The idea is that the paleolithic people missed out on these foods, but that doesn’t mean we should.
• Here at Everyday Paleo you can follow a Mother of three who is living a Paleo lifestyle. This blog has some great info as well as some good recipes.

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