Why haven't you heard about lipoprotein(a)?

1. July 2010 William Davis (26)
Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), is the combined product of a low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particle joined with the liver-produced protein, apoprotein(a).

Apoprotein(a)'s characteristics are genetically-determined: If your Mom gave the gene to you, you will have the same type of apoprotein(a) as she did. You will also share her risk for heart disease and stroke.

When apoprotein(a) joins with LDL, the combined Lp(a) particle is among the most aggressive known causes for coronary and carotid plaque. If apoprotein(a) joins with a small LDL, the Lp(a) particle that results is especially aggressive. This is the pattern I see, for instance, in people who have heart attacks or have high heart scan scores in their 40s or 50s.

Lp(a) is not rare. Estimates of incidence vary from population to population. In the population I see, who often come to me because they have positive heart scan scores or existing coronary disease (in other words, a "skewed" or "selected" population), approximately 30% express substantial blood levels of Lp(a).

Then why haven't you heard about Lp(a)? If it is an aggressive, perhaps the MOST aggressive known cause for heart disease and stroke, why isn't Lp(a)featured in news reports, Oprah, or The Health Channel?

Easy: Because the treatments are nutritional and inexpensive.

The expression of Lp(a), despite being a genetically-programmed characteristic, can be modified; it can be reduced. In fact, of the five people who have reduced their coronary calcium (heart scan) score the most in the Track Your Plaque program, four have Lp(a). While sometimes difficult to gain control over, people with Lp(a) represent some of the biggest success stories in the Track Your Plaque program.

Treatments for Lp(a) include (in order of my current preference):

1) High-dose fish oil--We currently use 6000 mg EPA + DHA per day
2) Niacin
3) DHEA
4) Thyroid normalization--especially T3

Hormonal strategies beyond DHEA can exert a small Lp(a)-reducing effect: testosterone for men, estrogens (human, no horse!) for women.

In other words, there is no high-ticket pharmaceutical treatment for Lp(a). All the treatments are either nutritional, like high-dose fish oil, or low-cost generic drugs, like liothyronine (T3) or Armour thyroid.

That is the sad state of affairs in healthcare today: If there is no money to be made by the pharmaceutical industry, then there are no sexy sales representatives to promote a new drug to the gullible practicing physician. Because most education for physicians is provided by the drug industry today, no drug marketing means no awareness of this aggressive cause for heart disease and stroke called Lp(a). (When a drug manufacturer finally releases a prescription agent effective for reducing Lp(a), such as eprotirome, then you'll see TV ads, magazine stories, and TV talk show discussions about the importance of Lp(a). That's how the world works.)

Now you know better.

How to have a heart attack in 10 easy steps

29. June 2010 William Davis (48)
If you would like to plan a heart attack in your future, here are some easy-to-follow steps to get you there in just a few short months or years:


1) Follow a low-fat diet.

2) Replace fat calories with "healthy whole grains" like whole wheat bread.

3) Eat "heart healthy" foods like heart healthy yogurt and breakfast cereals from the grocery store.

4) Use cholesterol-reducing plant sterols.

5) Take a multivitamin to obtain all the "necessary" nutrients.

6) Take the advice of your doctor who declares your heart "in great shape" based on your cholesterol values.

7) Take the advice of your cardiologist who declares your heart "like that of a 30-year old" based on a stress test.

8) Take a statin drug to reduce LDL and c-reactive protein while maintaining your low-fat diet.

9) Neglect sun exposure and vitamin D restoration.

10) Limit your salt intake while not supplementing iodine.



There you have it: An easy, 10-step process to do your part to help your local hospital add on its next $40 million heart care center.

If you would instead like to prevent a heart attack in your future, then you should consider not doing any of the above.

Kick inflammation in the butt

25. June 2010 William Davis (0)
C-reactive protein, or CRP, is a protein produced by the liver in response to inflammatory signals its receives. Thus, CRP has emerged as a popular measure to gauge the underlying inflammatory status of your body. Higher CRP levels (e.g., 3.0 mg/L or greater) are associated with increased risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular events.

The drug cartel have jumped on this with the assistance of Harvard cardiologist, Dr. Paul Ridker. Most physicians now regard increased CRP as a mandate to institute statin therapy, preferably at high doses based on such studies as The JUPITER Trial, in which rosuvastatin (Crestor), 20 mg per day, reduced CRP 37%.

I see this differently. Two strategies drop CRP dramatically, nearly to zero with rare exception: Vitamin D restoration and wheat elimination. Not 37%, but something close to 100%.

Yes, I know it sounds wacky. But it works almost without fail, provided the rest of your life is conducted in reasonably healthy fashion, i.e., you don't live on Coca Cola, weigh 80 lbs over ideal weight, and smoke.

How can something so easily reduced like CRP mean you "need" medication? Easy: Increased CRP means there are fundamental deficiencies and/or inflammation provoking foods in your diet. Correct neither and there is an apparent benefit to taking a statin drug.

Why not just correct the underlying causes?

Life without Lipitor

25. June 2010 William Davis (17)
One of the most common reasons people come to my office is to correct high cholesterol values without Lipitor. (Substitute "Lipitor" with Crestor, simvastatin, Vytorin, or any of the other cholesterol drugs; it's much the same.)

In the world of conventional healthcare, in which you are instructed to follow a diet that increases risk for heart disease and not advised to correct nutrient deficiencies like vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, then a drug like Lipitor may indeed provide benefit.

But when you are provided genuinely effective information on diet, along with correction of nutrient deficiencies, then the "need" and apparent benefits of Lipitor largely dissolve. While there are occasional genetic anomalies that can improve with use of Lipitor and other statins, many, perhaps most, people taking these drugs really would not have to if they were just provided the right information.

Anyone following the discussions on these pages knows that wheat elimination is probably one of the most powerful overall health strategies available. Wheat elimination reduces real measured LDL quite dramatically. Provided you limit other carbohydrates, such as those from fruits, as well, LDL can drop like a stone. That's not what your doctor tells you. This approach works because elimination of wheat and limiting other carbohydrates reduces small LDL. Small LDL particles are triggered by carbohydrates, especially wheat; reducing carbohydrates reduces small LDL. Conventional LDL of the sort obtained in your doctor's office will not show this, since it is a calculated value that appears to increase with reduced carbohydrates, a misleading result.

Throw vitamin D normalization and iodine + thyroid normalization into the mix (both are exceptionally common), and you have two additional potent means to reduce (measured) LDL. Not restricting fat but increasing healthy fat intake, such as the fats in lots of raw nuts, olive oil, and flaxseed oil reduce LDL.

While I still prescribe statins now and then, a growing number of people are succeeding without them.

(Note that by "measured" LDL I am referring to the "gold standard," LDL particle number by NMR provided by Liposcience. A second best is measured Apoprotein B available through most conventional labs.)

In search of wheat: Emmer

23. June 2010 William Davis (13)
While einkorn is a 14-chromosome ancient wheat (containing the so-called "A" genome), emmer is a 28-chromosome wheat (containing the "A" and "B" genomes, the "B" likely contributed by goat grass 9000 years ago).

Both einkorn and emmer originally grew wild in the Fertile Crescent, allowing Neolithic Natufians to harvest the wild grasses with stone sickles and grind the seeds into porridge.

Having tested einkorn with only a modest rise in blood sugar but without the gastrointestinal or neurological effects I experienced with conventional whole wheat bread, I next tested bread made with emmer grain.

The emmer grain was ground just like the other two grains, cardiac dietitian Margaret Pfeiffer doing all the work of grinding and baking. Margaret added nothing but water, yeast, and a little salt. The emmer rose a little more than einkorn, but not to the degree of conventional whole wheat.

I tested my blood sugar beforehand: 89 mg/dl. I then ate 4 oz of the emmer bread. It tasted very similar to conventional whole wheat, but not as nutty as einkorn. Also not as heavy as einkorn, only slightly heavier than conventional whole wheat.

One hour later, blood sugar: 147 mg/dl. I felt slightly queasy for about 2-3 hours, but that was the end of it. No abdominal cramps, no sleep disturbance or crazy dreams, no nausea, no change in ability to concentrate.

I asked four other wheat-sensitive people to try the emmer bread. Likewise, nobody reacted negatively (though nobody tested blood sugar).

So it seems to me, based on this small, unscientific experience, that ancient einkorn (A) and emmer (AB) wheat seem to act like carbohydrates, similar to, say, rice or quinoa, but lack many of the other adverse effects induced by conventional wheat.

Modern wheat , Triticum aestivum, contains variations on the "A," "B," and "D" genomes, the "D" contributed by hybridization with Triticum tauschii at about the same time that emmer wheat hybridization occurred. It is likely that proteins coded by the "D" genome are the source of most of the problems with wheat products: immune, neurologic, gastrointestinal destruction, airway inflammation (asthma), increase in appetite, etc. This is consistent with observations made in studies that attempt to pinpoint the gliadin proteins that trigger celiac, the area in which much of this research originates.

If I ever would like an indulgence of cookies or cupcakes, I think that I will order some more einkorn grain from Eli Rogosa.

In search of wheat: Another einkorn experience

23. June 2010 William Davis (6)
Lisa is a trained dietitian. Unlike many of her colleagues, she has "seen the light" and realized that the conventional advice that most dietitians are forced to dispense through hospitals, clinics, and other facilities is just plain wrong. 

I know Lisa personally and we've had some great conversations on diet and nutritional supplements. I told Lisa about my einkorn experience and how I witnessed a dramatic difference between bread made from einkorn wheat and that made from conventional whole wheat. So she decided to give it a try herself. 

Here's Lisa's experience:


This past Friday, June 18th, I conducted my "Einkorn Wheat Experiment".

7 am 
FBG [fasting blood glucose] 97 mg/dl

8 am-9 am 
1 hour high-intensity aerobic workout

10:05 am 
BG 99

10:05 am 
I embarked upon the journey of choking down, I mean enjoying, the hefty piece of Einkorn bread. Wow, was that bread dense!  It was a lot of work chewing. 

10:50 am 
(45 minutes after consumption, wanted to see what BG did a bit before the 1 hr mark)  BG 153

11:05 am 
1hr PP 120

11:35 am 
90 mins PP [postprandial] 113

12:05 pm 
2 hours PP  114 ... at this time I ate an egg & veggie omelet for lunch.

12:50 pm 
BG 100

Before dinner 5:10 pm 
BG 88

I was surprised with the BG of 153. However, it was good to see my insulin response is reactive and decreased BG 33 points in 15 minutes to end up with a BG of 120 1 hr after the bread.  

So, it appears my response is similar. A slight elevation of BG at the 1 hour mark, but not to the degree of conventional whole grain wheat bread.  

Of note, also, was the fact that I cannot remember the last time I ate a piece of wheat bread of this magnitude that did not make me bloated... not at all: No cramps, no brain fog, no headache and, did I mention not bloated?  

I believe you are on to something with tolerance of Einkorn wheat for those of us with wheat sensitivities, in addition to its apparent lower glycemic response.

Along with Lisa, I asked four other people with various acute intolerances (all gastrointestinal) to conventional wheat, i.e., people who experience undesirable effects from wheat within minutes to several hours, to eat the einkorn bread. None experienced their usual reactions.

Obviously, this does not constitute a clinical trial. Nonetheless, I find this a compelling observation: People like myself who generally experience distinct undesirable reactions to wheat did not experience these reactions with einkorn.

Note, however, that einkorn behaves like a carbohydrate. No different, say, from brown rice or quinoa. However, unlike modern whole wheat flour from Triticum aestivum,  in this little experience there were no immune reactions, no neurologic phenomena, no gastrointestinal distress--just the blood sugar consequences.

While this may not be true for all people consuming einkorn, it suggests that primordial einkorn wheat is quite different from modern conventional wheat for most people.

Increased blood calcium and vitamin D

21. June 2010 William Davis (50)
Conventional advice tells us to supplement calcium, 1200 mg per day, to preserve bone health and reduce blood pressure.

Here's a curious observation I've now witnessed a number of times: Some people who supplement this dose of calcium while also supplementing vitamin D sufficient to increase 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood levels to 60-70 ng/ml develop abnormally high levels of blood calcium, hypercalcemia.

This makes sense when you realize that intestinal absorption of calcium doubles or quadruples when vitamin D approaches desirable levels. Full restoration of vitamin D therefore causes a large quantity of calcium to be absorbed, more than you may need. In addition, two studies from New Zealand suggest that 1200-1300 mg calcium with vitamin D per day doubles heart attack risk.

We have 20 years of clinical studies demonstrating the very small benefits of supplementing calcium to stop or slow the deterioration of bone density (osteopenia, osteoporosis). These studies were performed with no vitamin D or with trivial doses, too small to make a difference. I believe those data have been made irrelevant in the modern age in which we "normalize" vitamin D.

Should hypercalcemia develop, it is not good for you. Over long periods of time, abnormal calcium deposition can occur, leading to kidney stones, atherosclerosis, and arthritis.

Until we have clarification on this issue, I have been advising patients to take no more than 600 mg calcium supplements per day. I suspect, however, that the vast majority of us require no calcium at all, provided an overall healthy diet is followed, especially one that does not leach out bone calcium. This means no foods like those made with wheat or containing powerful acids, such as those in carbonated drinks.

Heart health consultation with Dr. Joe D. Goldstrich

20. June 2010 William Davis (3)
Cardiologist, nutritionist, and lipidologist, Dr. Joe D. Goldstrich, is a frequent contributor to the Track Your Plaque Forum, where we discuss the full range of issues relevant to coronary health and coronary plaque reversal.

I have come to value Dr. Goldstrich's unique insights, especially in nutrition. Formerly National Director of Education and Community Programs for the American Heart Association and a physician at the Pritikin Center, his dietary philosophy has evolved away from low-fat and towards a low-carbohydrate focus, much as we use in Track Your Plaque. Like TYP, Dr. Goldstrich is always searching for better answers to gain control over coronary health. His unique blend of ideas and background has helped us craft new ideas and strategies. Dr. Goldstrich has proven especially adept at understanding how to incorporate new findings from clinical studies in our framework of coronary atherosclerotic plaque management strategies.

Dr. Goldstrich is offering to share his expertise with our online community. If you would like a one-on-one phone consultation with Dr. Goldstrich, you can arrange to speak with him at his HealthyHeartConsultant.com website.

Wheat aftermath

16. June 2010 William Davis (18)
Following my 4 oz whole wheat misadventure that yielded the sky-high blood sugar of 167 mg/dl, compared to einkorn wheat's 110 mg/dl, I suffered through a 36-hour period of misery.

After I obtained the blood sugar of 167 mg/dl, I biked hard for one hour. This yielded a blood sugar back down in the 80s. I felt spacey in the ensuing few hours, as well as a little queasy. However, about 12 hours later, I awoke with overwhelming nausea along with that hypersalivating thing that happens just prior to vomiting. It did not come to that, but persisted all through the following day.

The next morning, I could barely concentrate. Trying to read a study (admittedly on the complex topic of agricultural genetics), I had to read each paragraph 4 or 5 times. Abdominal cramps and a bloated feeling also developed, though I was able to eat.

The 2nd night was filled with incredibly vivid dreams and intermittent sleeplessless. I awoke about 5 times through the night, but periods of sleep were filled with detailed, colorful dreams. I dreamt that a large corporation was secretly trying to gain control over the world's water supply, and I snuck onto a complex underwater vessel that was exploring and mapping the coastline of the Great Lakes in preparation. Weird.

I recognized these odd feelings as various facets of wheat intolerance, since they were all reminiscent of feelings I used to experience before I removed wheat from my diet. They were amplified and compressed, likely because I had been wheat-free for so long.

The odd thing is that, despite the modest blood sugar effect of my einkorn experience, none of the gastrointestinal or neurologic effects of wheat developed. So far, two other people with acute gastrointestinal wheat sensitivities have consumed our einkorn bread, also without reproduction of their usual symptoms.

Einkorn contains gluten, though the structure of the many gluten proteins of einkorn differs from that of the wheat bread I consumed, an example of modern Triticum aestivum. 14-chromosome einkorn carries what biologists call the "A" genome, while Triticum aestivum has the combines genomes of 3 plants, the combination of the A, B, and D genomes. It is the D genome that contains the genes coding for the most obnoxious, immunogenic forms of gluten.

So einkorn may not be entirely benign, but it is a good deal less obnoxious than modern Triticum aestivum.

I am awaiting the reports from a few other people on their experiences.

In search of wheat: Einkorn and blood sugar

14. June 2010 William Davis (32)
There are three basic aspects of wheat's adverse health effects: immune activation (e.g., celiac disease), neurologic implications (e.g., schizophrenia and ADHD), and blood sugar effects.

Among the questions I'd like answered is whether ancient wheat, such as the einkorn grain I obtained from Eli Rogosa, triggers blood sugar like modern wheat.

So I conducted a simple experiment on myself. On an empty stomach, I ate 4 oz of einkorn bread. On another occasion I ate 4 oz of bread that dietitian, Margaret Pfeiffer, made with whole wheat flour bought at the grocery store. Both flours were finely ground and nothing was added beyond water, yeast, olive oil, and a touch of salt.

Here's what happened:

Einkorn wheat bread:

Blood sugar pre: 84 mg/dl
Blood sugar 1-hour post: 110 mg/dl

Conventional wheat bread
Blood sugar pre: 84 mg/dl
Blood sugar 1-hour post: 167 mg/dl

The difference shocked me. I expected a difference between the two, but not that much.

After the conventional wheat, I also felt weird: a little queasy, some acid in the back of my throat, a little spacey. I biked for an hour solid to reduce my blood sugar back to its starting level.

I'm awaiting the experiences of others, but I'm tantalized by the possibility that, while einkorn is still a source of carbohydrates, perhaps it is one of an entirely different variety than modern Triticum aestivum wheat. The striking difference in blood sugar effects make me wonder if einkorn eaten in small quantities can keep us below the Advanced Glycation End-Product threshold.
 
Learn how to eat from Survivorman

Learn how to eat from Survivorman

31. January 2009 William Davis (22)

Look no farther than Discovery Channel to learn how humans were meant to eat.

The Survivorman show documents the (self-filmed) 7-day adventures of Les Stroud, who is dropped into various remote corners of the world to survive on little but ingenuity and will to live. Starting without food or water, the Survivorman scrapes and scrambles in the wilderness for essentials to survive in habitats as far ranging as the Ecuadorian rainforest to sub-arctic Labrador.

What does Survivorman have to do with your nutrition habits?

Everything. The lessons we can learn by watching this TV show are plenty.

Survivorman plays out the life we are supposed to be living: slaughtering wild game with simple handmade tools and his bare hands, identifying plants and berries that are safe to eat, trapping fish, scavenging the kill of other predators. He's even resorted to eating bugs and caterpillars, particularly following several days of unsuccessful hunting and scavenging.

What is notable from the Survivorman experience is what is absent: In the steppe, desert, tundra, or jungle, you will not find bread, fruit drinks, or Cheerios. You won't find farm-fattened, corn-fed livestock with meat marbled with fat.

Imagine the result of such an experience for us, drawn out over 6 months. Even an obese, diabetic, gluttonous, XXX dress size 350-lb woman would return a lean 105 lbs, size 0, non-diabetic, fully able to run miles in the wild tracking game.

Survivorman's quiet desperation of living in the wild, preoccupied with worries over where his next meal might be found, is a stark contrast to the bloated, shelves stacked floor-to-ceiling supermarkets, and our modern society's all-you-can-eat several times per day lifestyle.

Am I advocating selling the car and house and chucking modern society for the "safety" of the jungles of Borneo?

No, of course not. I am advocating taking a lesson from the clever experiment conducted by Mr. Stroud, a return-to-the-wild experience that should teach us something about how perverse our modern nutritional lives have become.
Tags :

Comments (22) -

  • skylark826

    1/31/2009 4:53:00 PM |

    It is definitely true and I appreciate this article very much.  I've come to realize that our society has been brainwashed into this obesity epidemic.  We are bombarded with food at every turn in our day to day lives and I for one am tired of living like that.  I honestly, don't believe we should be eating as much as we do.  It's not natural and I plan to change.  Reading articles like this helps to cosign my own views about weight and society.  So thank you and keep up the good work>

  • Jenny

    1/31/2009 5:30:00 PM |

    A bit of romanticism here.

    Read The Last Gentleman Adventurer a memoir written in the 1920s but only recently published. It's by a man who lived with Canadian Inuit when they were still living a traditional hunting-based life.

    They ate their meat raw, which preserves many nutrients. They  ate the stomach contents of their prey which gave them nutrients from partially digested grasses which human stomachs unaided can't eat. Sometimes they starved.

    Humans eating a truly paleo diet eat a lot of things that would get you and me heaving. Lots of organ meats, brains, eyeballs, you name it.

    The paleo fantasy ignores the fact that hunter societies became agricultural partly because when prey were scarce they starved. There are only a few place on earth with climate where you can easily live a hunters life. Those are the areas where people kept hunting up through the 20th century.

    But The Native American populations that met Champlain in Canada in the 1500s, for example, were attracted to his settlements and began trading with him for food, because they experienced several years of deep snow where they were unable to find prey and where large numbers of their people starved to death.

    I'm a fan of low carb eating, but also a trained historian with an undergrad degree in Anthropology. My training in anthropology has kept me from getting quite as enthusiastic about the paleo concept as others, because too many of the concepts about that are bruited around in the diet world are mostly fantasy and don't mesh with the realities of how nonagricultural societies have really lived.

  • Anna

    1/31/2009 6:36:00 PM |

    Our family often watches this show (we far prefer it to the sensationalized Man vs. Wild show), and my 10 yo son has noted the difference between what one would eat in nature compared to what he sees eaten by our society.   That has really helped reinforce the perception our food supply at home isn't really "missing" cereals, sodas, packaged snacks, breads, etc.  

    And I want to scream at the TV whenever I see Man vs. Wild's Bear Grylls hawking trail mix cereal.  Sheesh!  My son called me to the
    TV and replayed the advert to clue me into that absurdity (the contradiction wasn't lost on his young mind).  If he has to use his celebrity status to hawk a food, couldn't he have found a jerky company to represent?  
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yIatQ7QVbg

    Somehow I doubt we'll see Les Stroud hawking boxed cereals.  I suspect he is far more principled.  We're going to miss his shows, now that production has ended.

  • Jeff

    1/31/2009 6:50:00 PM |

    Brilliant observation and well written, great post.  All the talk of "it's my genetics" just don't matter in the environment we evolved in.  Genetics or not, no one would be fat.

    I love the blog and read every post.  Keep up the excellent work.  I wish you were in my area so I could have you as my doctor.

  • Anonymous

    1/31/2009 9:27:00 PM |

    The other day, as I walked into the local supermarket, I noticed a male customer coming out carrying a plastic bag chock full of groceries.  Most prominent in it was a giant box of Cheerios.  Most prominent on the shopper? A giant, and I mean giant wheat belly.  Coincidence?  I think not.

    You can learn a lot about a persons health by taking a peek at what's in their grocery cart!

    madcook

  • Gretchen

    2/1/2009 1:01:00 AM |

    I've always liked your blogposts, but I think this is ridiculous:

    "Even an obese, diabetic, gluttonous, XXX dress size 350-lb woman would return a lean 105 lbs, size 0, non-diabetic, fully able to run miles in the wild tracking game."

    Not all overweight people are gluttons, and blaming them doesn't help them. Furthermore, how healthy is it to lose 200 pounds in 6 months?

  • Kipper

    2/1/2009 1:21:00 AM |

    I hope he's not about to eat that cute little owl creature!

    I love Survivorman, but there's one very important detail missing from his adventures: community.

  • michaelgr.com

    2/1/2009 5:54:00 AM |

    I like the new look. Nice work!

  • Dr. William Davis

    2/1/2009 2:58:00 PM |

    Hi, Jenny--

    Valuable insights.

    I'd love to hear more on this track. I wasn't aware of your anthropology background.

  • Dr. B G

    2/1/2009 6:05:00 PM |

    Kipper,

    I totally agree! Poor Les -- I think the monotony of loneliness counters many of the adventures he embarks on.

    Paleo man was very social. Our contacts and networking (like wolves v. lone coyotes) allow us to sleep at night -- pun intended -- and gain the restoration to be better hunter/foragers for the next day.

    -G

  • Scott Miller

    2/1/2009 10:43:00 PM |

    >>> The paleo fantasy ignores the fact that hunter societies became agricultural partly because when prey were scarce they starved. There are only a few place on earth with climate where you can easily live a hunters life. <<<

    Jenny, while this is true, it doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to eat a paleo-like diet as much as possible, even if it means we do our hunting-gathering at Whole Foods.

    I've yet to see anyone switch to a paleo diet and not have dramatic improvement in health (and fat loss).  This is a civilized paleo diet, to be sure, but still leaps and bounds better than the USDA sanctioned diet.

    My version of a paleo-diet is this: high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb.  No grains, no fructose (except naturally occurring in fruits/berries), no oils with over 10% polyunsaturated fat.

    Latest lipid readings:
    HDL - 89
    LP(a) - 3
    tri's - 47
    CRP - .02
    (I have about 100 health markers I measure, all in an optimal healthy range for a 30-yr-old -- I'm 47.)

    It would be impossible to get similar values on a USDA diet. If anything, turn the food pyramid upside down and you'll get a far healthier diet.

    Do you ever have your health markers measured?  What diet do you follow?

  • Sonny

    2/2/2009 12:32:00 PM |

    I attended a talk by Survivorman Les Stroud in Seattle a week ago. He was asked what skill he recommends for a beginner at wilderness survival to learn. He said a good first thing to study and to practice is recognizing edible wild plants.

    He also said that he's not giving up and plans to do a lot more shows, including an idea for a show where he sets teenage survival students on survival challenges. He said that it was just a rumor that he was quitting.

    When the subject of the other guy came up, the whole room broke into laughter, and Les said, "What Bear Grylls does is just entertainment. What I do is real." (Everyone already knew that Man vs. Wild was all planned and Bear stayed in hotels at night with his camera crew when he wanted. Bear's show was never claimed to be real, they just let viewers assume that.)

    Survivorman diet results: He says the first few times he got really hungry by the second day, but after doing that so many times, his body seemed to say, "So that's how you're going to live?" and started to deal with it. Now he can go more days without food before getting as hungry as he used to get and he doesn't get as weak. Regarding mental fatigue, he writes notes to remind himself what to try filming, so when he's the most tired and lonely, he can still get something done in a day for the show. (Of course, since it's real, he might not get that bow fire going, or whatever he wanted to try on camera.)

    From what I've seen on the show, he recommends "protein" to stave off hunger pangs, that is, to "keep [his] strength up" by "getting something in [his] system" when he's actually eating very few calories. He recommends various wild plants for having a lot of "nutrients." He also believes it's worthwhile in cold places to try getting something hot, "even if it's just hot water," to "make you feel more human" to "keep your spirits up" because hope can make the difference for survival. He doesn't seem to have anything against eating fruit, and eats it when he can find it. He has said that that best he ever ate on the show was in the Cook Islands {where he laid out a banquet for himself including coconut and shellfish.)

    If you were starving, trying to survive with your family in Paleolithic times, and in the forest or jungle you found a tree with ripe fruit on it, would you listen to someone who says, "Don't eat carbohydrates, only eat fat, because carbohydrates cause cardiovascular disease eventually, and especially don't eat fructose because that causes hyperlipemia, high blood fat levels after ingestion, and that sounds especially bad for you," or would you just say, who cares, it's food, and eat the fruit?

  • mike V

    2/2/2009 1:03:00 PM |

    Jenny:
    Do you think that modern man actually needs periods of starvation (fasting)? We appear to have no effective intellectual or metabolic defenses against persistent effortless plenty.

    (Perhaps we came up with recessions, depressions, and wars as a modern survival ploy?)

    Seriously, though, thanks for your comment which as usual, shows realism and insight.

    MikeV

    I have tried neither starving nor fasting. Nearest was growing up in Britain during WW2, with dad a 5 year POW.

  • vin

    2/2/2009 1:07:00 PM |

    Its great to know a modern day man can survive in the wildest areas of earth.

    I was just wondering what a paleo-man would select to eat if dropped in a supermarket or burger joint today.

    Would it be any different then what most americans choose?

  • Dr. William Davis

    2/2/2009 4:50:00 PM |

    Thanks, Sonny. Wonderful insights.

    I agree: In times of caloric deprivation, the composition of diet becomes much less important a factor. Just eat.

  • nonegiven

    2/2/2009 5:43:00 PM |

    DH watches one of those shows sometimes, it's gross.  He said that guy keeps trying to catch fish but isn't very good at it.

  • David

    2/2/2009 8:37:00 PM |

    I read this post with great interest. I'm a big fan of Les Stroud, and I've taught wilderness survival myself on and off for many years-- since I was in my early teens, if fact.

    I've done some wilderness trips similar to those on Survivorman. My last one was 10 days in length. In those 10 days, I traveled over 100 miles down a river to my destination. No food, no luxuries. I ate whatever I could find.  Crawdads, fish, frogs, snakes, turtles, insects... You learn to appreciate whatever you can find. Ate some vegetation. Watercress grew in springs along the river, which was a great treat, as it's tasty and packed with some good nutrients. Stinging nettle was also abundant, and could be eaten after boiling. For the most part, though, animals made of the majority of my diet, and that's what I was on the lookout for all the time. I was using an awful lot of energy every day, and the last thing I wanted was a salad. I wanted meat. Fat. That's the only thing that provided real satisfaction, but I did of course eat the vegetation when it was available. You have to eat whatever you can. When you're on the edge of starving, you can't be picky.

    The thing I appreciate about Survivorman is the high amount of failure that is reflected on the show. Stroud's ideas don't always work. They often fail, multiple times, in fact. And believe me, that is exactly how it is in real life. Gathering food and surviving takes time and effort, and you're not always successful.

    Let me tell you, if you want effective weight loss, this is the way to do it! In those ten days, I lost about 20 lbs. I was lean and strong. six-pack abs and not a shred of fat. I actually felt pretty good by the end, too. I could have probably eaten more/better if I hadn't been moving constantly (by allowing traps to do their thing, etc.), but I'm sure the results would have still been similar. It was far more effective than any "diet" I had been on up to that point.

    I've often wondered how popular it would be to start up a survival/weight loss school. A kind of "Paleo Camp," as it were. Take overweight people out for 2 weeks, teach them survival skills, and then have them test their skills in the wild to shed a few pounds (under a controlled setting of course). All the while, teaching them nutrition/how to eat, so they have principles to take home with them. Heh. It would probably be too intense, but it's a thought, anyway!

    David

  • Dr. William Davis

    2/2/2009 10:35:00 PM |

    David--

    That is an absolutely fantastic idea! I predict that you would have a waiting list a year long if you did something like that.

    Please let me know if you pursued this idea.

  • David

    2/2/2009 10:53:00 PM |

    Dr. Davis,

    I'll sure let you know if I end up doing something like that. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

    David

  • Anonymous

    2/3/2009 1:06:00 AM |

    As someone who prefers not to eat animal flesh I am so pleased to see Jenny's post.

    Doesn't a bit of Darwin apply in this case and maybe a little bit of physics; the conservation of energy.  If you eat more calories than you expend, you get fat.  Doesn't matter if it is wheat or pigs liver.  

    Trevor

  • Bruce W. Perry

    2/3/2009 7:49:00 PM |

    Have to jump in and defend Bear Grylls. He's the real deal; British special forces, climbed Everest, etc. even though he's churning in the hype machine right now. His show is based partly on artifice, but is full of gems. The information is very good, he's highly fit and strong, and very intelligent. My children and I watch survivorman for the laughs; he doesn't seem much better at surviving than we would be, and as for fitness, well...Suffice it to say they are very different, a somewhat larger than life character v. Everyman.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 9:11:14 PM |

    Survivorman's quiet desperation of living in the wild, preoccupied with worries over where his next meal might be found, is a stark contrast to the bloated, shelves stacked floor-to-ceiling supermarkets, and our modern society's all-you-can-eat several times per day lifestyle.

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