Talenti Gelato

Truth be told, I’m not totally on board the Haagen-Dazs train when it comes to the “healthiest” or “cleanest” commercial ice creams. I spent three years eating a diet with an astronomical amount of fat – typically 300 grams of fat per day – much of it from cream, milk, and butter. I didn’t even get a t-shirt for this great feat of human extremism, which is unfortunate because my body odor was so strong on this diet I could have used a few extra shirts.

So when it comes to eating ice cream, I’m not in search of the richest, most fatty ice cream even if there are only 5 simple ingredients – milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla like that found in Haagen-Dazs vanilla. If I want to feel good (better, faster, harder, stronger) I eat more carbohydrate – only eating enough fat to keep calories high, the food palatable, and my mood solid.

So when I look for ice cream, I like something with more sugar and less fat. This is precisely what Gelato is, and stores nationwide are now selling Talenti Gelato which I greatly prefer over Haagen Dazs for my own physiology and lifestyle demands.

Now before you nutrazis cringe in disgust at my dietary lenience, please understand that, at the end of the day, I am now starting to believe that one could rehabilitate their metabolism with ice cream just as effectively, if not more effectively, than without it. If I had to cast all my beliefs aside and pick one food that unanimously causes more heat generation, and a warm buzz of heat that radiates out to the fingers and toes, there’s simply no question in my mind that ice cream is that food. It makes me feel like I’m going to spontaneously combust, and my heart rate races up to resting levels I’ve never known (over 60 bpm, wow, getting up almost to normal!).

I certainly believe that I would have fared much better on the gelato diet (don’t worry, I’m not considering this!) than the milk diet, having more metabolic stimulation with far fewer negatives such as congestion, constipation, increase in allergies, etc.

Anyway, I’ve tremendously enjoyed the metabolic stimulation of Talenti Gelato as of late. The coconut flavor is excellent and full of coconut, which I view as a metabolic bonus – especially for you coconut oil haters. And recently I tried their Sea Salt Caramel flavor which, to those that haven’t been pounding fruit and juice for over a month, would find disgustingly sweet (it’s only 39% fat by percentage of calories). But when the first 6 ingredients are caramel, milk, sugar, cream, eggs, and coconut oil – ya can’t complain. Sure, there are some gums added to it, but ultimately I’d rather eat guar gum and feel good than eat Haagen-Dasz and feel congested and have chest pain (I’ve noticed that adding sugar to dairy can really improve my reaction to it – the more sugar the better).

Anyway, that’s about all I have to say about that. I certainly get excited about the prospect of having the 180DegreeHealth metabolism enhancement program discussed in THIS FREE EBOOK containing a new element of total lenience and the incorporation of a lot of “favorite foods” such as ice cream, pie, fruit juice, fruit, and so forth that were previously excluded. This would open it up to a much broader segment of the population in need of metabolic health enhancement, remove a lot of the intimidation and inconvenience behind the program, and create much deeper psychological and emotional healing with people’s relationship with forbidden foods. Recently watching someone lose four pounds in two weeks with a visible reduction in hypothyroidism-induced edema around the eyes and cheeks eating half a pie for breakfast and gelato for dinner has been an eye-opener (no pun intended).

Soon we’ll discuss some of the unique properties of sucrose that really intrigue me, one in particular that Ray Peat (poor sucrose’s only fan) has not discussed as far as I’m aware, that I have personally overlooked since the beginning, and what I find to perhaps have the greatest significance.

Some Mammals Require Dietary Carbohydrate

But they’re ruminants, and we aren’t

I’ve been busy since the last post. I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given, but it is a challenge! I made a commitment (dare I say a “resolution”?) to post items to this blog on the 1^st and 15^th of each month. Looks like I’ll miss this one by just a bit. I’ll try to get back on track for the next post, although the next few weeks will include presentations at the Douglas County Livestock Association’s Spring Livestock Conference on April 9^th in Roseburg, Oregon and at the Small Farm Trade Fair in Madras, Oregon on April 16^th.

Since my last post I’ve given a presentation, attended a conference, and tried to work my way through a couple of books. And I’m constantly being reminded of just how much we have to do to before “the system” is fixed.

I spoke to the Crook County Stock Growers Association’s Annual Banquet on March 19^th. The event was held at the at the Crook County Fairgrounds in Prineville, Oregon. The well attended event was, in part, a fund-raiser for their Beef For Kids initiative. They are striving to get good-quality, locally-grown beef back on the menus of Crook County public schools. A truly worthy goal. I know that the cattlemen in Malheur County are already engaged in a similar initiative, and I hope we’ll see this effort spread throughout the nation. The “food” we provide to our school children via our school meal programs is truly abysmal. And the chance to repeat the message, in various ways, that animal products are fundamental to human health should never be missed. My presentation, “Food For Thought,” was well received. Several folks kindly shared their personal experiences with me. I was grateful that I could again direct people to the sources of information that have so profoundly changed my own life. Eventually I found myself standing in the dinner line next to a long-time friend. Suddenly I became aware of one of the paintings that were hung on the wall over the pass-through from the kitchen. Oh, the irony!

Figure 1:How to fatten a hog, and a human!

I also attended the Oregon Forage and Grassland Council’s 2011 Annual Meeting in Albany on March 24^th. This year’s keynote speaker was Neil Lane, an Australian dairy farm management consultant from Intelact. He shared a wealth of information about pasture-based dairy management in Australia and New Zealand. What he tried to impart to us can have an immense impact on the Pacific Northwest. Our environment is unique to North American. The potential for grass-based animal agriculture in our region is huge. We have progressive grass farmers here, but there’s room for many more!

“We don’t manage paddocks – we manage tillers!”

                                                                                  - Neil Lane

Now a clump of perennial ryegrass might look like a single plant, but it’s actually a collection of tillers. While each tiller has its own leaves and roots, it is connected to neighboring tillers at its base. These tillers share water, nutrients and carbohydrates via this connection. A newly-established ryegrass plant consists of one tiller until it reaches the 3 leaf stage. If there is a low tiller density, sunlight will penetrate to the base of the sward. This stimulates the production of daughter tillers. These daughter tillers grow from buds in the leaf axil, appearing first as small one leaf tillers growing inside an older leaf at the base of the plant. This older leaf soon dies and disappears. The new tiller continues to put out leaves and soon becomes a separate tiller with its own root system. Each new leaf emerges on the opposite side of the tiller to the previous leaf.

Figure 2. A ryegrass tiller with 3 1/2 leaves (from Guest, 2008)

A perennial ryegrass tiller maintains a maximum of 3 live leaves. As each new leaf emerges after this 3 leaf stage, the oldest leaf dies. Maximum perennial ryegrass yield is achieved by allowing the tillers to grow to 3 leaves as each subsequent leaf is bigger than the previous leaf. The 1^st leaf contributes 15–20% of total pasture biomass, the 2^nd leaf 30–35% and the 3^rd leaf 45–50% with little difference in metabolizable energy content between the 1^st and 3^rd leaf (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Leaf stage vs. yield (from Guest, 2008)

Provided water is not limiting, leaf growth rate is controlled mainly by temperature. Perennial ryegrass will usually grow a new leaf every 6–7 days in the warm, sunny days of early fall, but could take 10–13 days or more in the colder, shorter days of mid to late fall.

Tillers form glucose and then other water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) in the leaves via photosynthesis. These WSC (also known as Non-Fiber Carbohydrates, or NFC) are used to provide energy for ongoing growth and respiration. The availability of WSC in ryegrass tillers has a marked effect on the plant’s re-growth potential and ability to persist after grazing. When the fourth leaf emerges and the oldest leaf dies, there is no further build up of plant WSC levels (Figure 4). Proper grazing management must take into consideration this relationship to promote improved utilization and production. Improved pasture utilization and production will lead to optimal profit.



Figure 4. Leaf stage and water soluble carbohydrate levels (from Guest, 2008)



Studies have shown that it is best to use leaf appearance intervals

to decide when to graze, not pasture height.

- Kelly Guest, 2008

Grazing at the 3^rd leaf stage doesn’t just improve pasture production and utilization. It also improves animal performance. Proper rumen function requires at least as much NFC as Ruminally Degradable Protein (RDP) in the herbage eaten. If there is too much RDP, it is converted to ammonia in the rumen. This excess ammonia needs to be detoxified to urea and excreted in urine. This process requires energy, and can have a negative effect on both production and reproduction in the grazing animal. Green growing pasture contains more than enough RDP for any ruminant’s requirements, but the NFC are frequently limiting. Recent research has shown that the ratio of RDP to NFC becomes more balanced after the 2-leaf stage, as NFC levels increase with re-growth, while RDP levels decline due to leaf maturity. The ratio of RDP to NFC can be as high as 5:1 at the 1^st leaf stage, declining to 1:2 at the 3^rd leaf stage. The levels of minerals in perennial ryegrass change markedly with re-growth, too. Potassium, which is usually at levels far in excess of the animal’s requirements, declines, while calcium and magnesium, important for milk production, increase with re-growth to the 4-leaf stage. One indicator of appropriate mineral status for performance of dairy cows is the ratio of potassium over calcium and magnesium. This ratio should be below about 2.2 to reduce the incidence of grass tetany and other metabolic problems. The ratio falls from about 6 at the 1^st leaf stage, to below 2.2 at the 3^rd leaf stage. Another indicator of appropriate mineral status is the ratio of calcium to phosphorus. The recommended ratio for milking cows is above about 1.6:1. In perennial ryegrass this ratio changes from about 1:1 at the 1^st leaf stage, to over 2:1 at the 3^rd leaf stage.

Table 1. Nutrient values of perennial ryegrass herbage at different leaf stages. (Donaghy, 2005)

There is abundant evidence of farmers increasing their profitability by using leaf stage for grazing management. But new ideas aren’t always embraced by the farming community. If the New Zealanders are lagging in their adoption of this philosophy, as Neil told us, then how long will it be before it’s adopted in the US? Seven-plus dollar a bushel corn may help the adoption rate!

Figure 5: Spring in Western Oregon

References:

Donaghy, D. and B. Fulkerson. 2005. ‘Principles for developing an effective grazing management system for ryegrass-based pastures’. Press release Dairy Research and Development Corporation, Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research. http://www.crtkyneton.com.au/seeds/heritageseeds/dairy-pasturemanagement.pdf

Guest, K., 2008. “Pasture Phase Farming – More Than a Passing Phase: A Handbook to Ryegrass Management on the Esperance Sandplain.” Lemon, J., J. Ryan, M. Ryan, N. Witham, and J. Lucey, Eds. South East Premium Wheat Growers Association. http://www.sepwa.org.au/pastures/book.html

Whee, This Health Stuff is Easy!

I don't like throwing out personal stories I receive from others too often.  A lot of health gurus out there make a bad habit of selectively sorting out all the favorable testimonials they receive and busily go about propagandizing their work - and believing it themselves.  I may have once been into telling everyone how awesome I was, mostly because I knew I had really stumbled upon something amazing and no one was paying attention and it was driving me crazy.  But I don't have that kind of time anymore, I'm too busy learning.   This, however, is a classic case of honeymoon chasing, and restricted eating gone awry - and it's well-written enough to be VERY enjoyable to read. 

We'll keep it totally anonymous, but I will say I'm glad I took her by surprise and made her realize.  She wanted me to post it tomorrow, but I told her "I can tell you right away I can't wait another day."  Sorry, I'm on like a total 80's binge right now.  I met a girl who crimps her hair and owns the movie Space Camp, so I'm really trying to step it up.  By the way, the title of this post stems from the fact that I'm starting to believe that this whole speeding up the metabolism and healthy eating/living thing is a heck of a lot easier than I ever imagined.  Which is amazing news.

For more discussion on many of the topics covered below, download THIS FREE EBOOK.    

"I was alternately vegan and vegetarian for years, had an interim period of (still mainly-vegetarian) SAD omnivory, and then discovered paleo after a crippling six month bout of IBS/chronic diarrhea. Prior to paleo I also had: a multi-nodular thyroid adenoma appear that would occasionally blow up to the size of a ping-pong ball, severe amenorrhea (maybe two menstrual periods a year), severe depression, reactive hypoglycemia, arthritis, anemia, non-stop respiratory and sinus infections, seasonal allergies, lethargy, memory problems and brain fog and probably some other stuff I am forgetting.

Most of this stuff cleared up after going paleo, luckily. However, after the honeymoon period of like "Holy shit! I can run around and do stuff now and feel good! AAAHHHH! This is the best diet in the world!" (about 9 months), I found many of the health problems creeping back into my life. The biggies were: my hair became so brittle that I eventually had to chop it off because it was breaking off every time I touched it, my daily diarrhea came back, my thyroid cyst started to increase in size again, I became fatigued as hell, my now regular period became plagued with cramps, my blood pressure was super low, and the original mental clarity I got started to fade. Total fast track to bummer town--I wasn't sure where to go from there.


Then I found your site. I had been aware of it, of course, but hadn't really checked it out until recently due to the whole "Matt Stone is a douche" thing that seems to have a life of its own in the paleosphere subconsciously steering me clear. Then, two weeks ago, Chris Masterjohn linked your "Protein--A Closer Look" article and it was one of those really formative light switch moments. I empathized with your diet history because it paralleled mine in many ways—initial good experiences with mostly fruit going downhill, initial good experiences on LC going downhill, etc. I read the whole thing closely, went on to read other entries, watched some of Josh Rubin's videos, downloaded your free e-book, and looked up everything I could find about Ray Peat.

Holy #$%*ing shit! Between all of them it was like the smack I needed to try something new and it all made so much sense intuitively. I found a summary of Peat's dietary guidelines that someone made on the internet (noting that he emphasizes a lot of the things that I love to eat and crave often and that paleo dictum advises to limit, like dairy products and fruit, and deemphasizes a lot of the things that paleo folks fetishize but that I have to force myself to choke down, like tons of red meat.) I combined these guidelines with your HED ones and modified my current diet thusly:

--less muscle meat
--more bone broths and supplemental gelatin
--more coconut oil, less bacon grease for cooking
--addition of some daily fruit
--less oily fish and more white fish and molluscs
--more dairy products
--addition of white rice
--upping veggies and starches (was never VLC or anything, but eliminated the guilt of taking more veggies than meat on my plate)
--having a little homemade sweetened tapioca pudding every couple days

Small changes in the grand scheme of things, but evidently a big friggin' deal to my body. Within a single WEEK my temperature went from the high 95s/low 96s (where it has consistently been for most of my adult life) to staying somewhere between 98.5 and 99.3. In fact, the heating system broke at my work three days ago and I didn't even notice--normally I would have been bundled up and shivering. The white coating on my tongue that has been there for the past six months is gone (so the whole discussion of reversing thinking on candida diets in that interview you did with the Rubins made me high five the air!).

I have tons of energy, am sleeping much better, my breath and body odor is noticeably better smelling, my brain is working again, my thyroid cyst is noticeably smaller, my bowel movements are solid once more, my libido is coming back and no menstrual cramps this month. How much of this is the diet, how much the return of spring and sun, and how much is joy about throwing old attitudes out the window I do not know, but whatever the percentage, thanks, dude--I feel better than I have in many many months. Keep on researching and blogging and adapting--you are totally helping people."

Proton Therapy for Lung Cancer: The Most Advanced Radiation Therapy Available

Lung cancer is the nation’s leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. Penn Medicine offers a comprehensive team approach for treating lung cancer, including proton therapy, the most advanced form of radiation therapy available today. Radiation oncologists at the Roberts Proton Therapy Center use high-speed protons to create a particle beam that delivers precise radiation directly to the tumor. Proton therapy allows patients to receive higher, more targeted doses of radiation, which helps preserve surrounding healthy tissue. For patients, this means fewer side effects.

• Watch survivor stories from lung cancer patients treated at Penn Medicine
• Learn more about Penn Radiation Oncology

Reproductive Health Options for Adolescents

For adolescent females, the normal changes related to puberty may occur too early, too often or not at all. Many teenagers experience irregular or absent menstrual bleeding, pelvic pain, excessive hair growth and ovary cysts. These symptoms may be the sign of an endocrine disorder, which can affect future fertility and overall reproductive health. Penn Medicine's reproductive endocrinologists diagnose, manage and treat endocrine disorders that affect menstrual and reproductive function.

• Learn more about adolescent reproductive health at Penn Medicine
• Read about the adolescent reproductive health conditions Penn Fertility Care treats
• Request an appointment

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Emergency Treatment for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide is among the leading causes of poisoning death in the U.S. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can prevent brain injury and death from carbon monoxide poisoning by speeding up the removal of carbon monoxide from the blood. The staff of Penn Hyperbaric Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is on call 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year. Emergency hyperbaric oxygen therapy is coordinated by Penn’s emergency response teams, including PennSTAR, to provide rapid, high quality care. Patients are treated by experienced physicians and clinical staff in a large multiperson chamber.

• Learn more about hyperbaric oxygen therapy
• See the hyperbaric chamber

Advanced Surgical Options for Patients Requiring Colorectal Surgery

Colorectal surgery has long been associated with invasive procedures, long hospital stays, and painful recoveries. At Penn Medicine, specialists are putting a new face on colorectal surgery by offering patients the latest minimally invasive procedures, including transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), single-incision laparoscopic (SIL) colectomy, sacral nerve stimulation, and robotic-assisted surgery using the da Vinci® Surgical System.

Transanal-endoscopic Microsurgery

Offered to select patients with rectal tumors, TEM allows surgeons to excise large polyps and high rectal tumors that would otherwise require major surgery.

“Previously, if a patient had an early cancer or sizable polyp in the rectum that was not accessible transanally, it would require radical surgery to remove it,” explains Joshua Bleier, MD, FACS, FASCRS. “With transanal-endoscopic microsurgery, we can access areas that were previously too high for transanal approaches.”

TEM is a relatively painless, minimally invasive procedure that requires little to no hospital stay and offers a significantly lower rate of recurrence.

“With TEM, surgeons have a 3D perspective of the operating field, allowing us to remove the tumor in its entirety while sparing much of the rectum,” says Dr. Bleier. “This is a distinct advantage over transanal excision, which can cause the tumor to fragment and result in recurrence rates as high as 30 percent.”

Even though TEM has been in existence for several years, very few surgeons possess the training necessary to perform the procedure. Dr. Bleier is one of only a handful of surgeons on the eastern seaboard and the only surgeon at Penn performing TEM.

SIL Colectomy

Patients at Penn who require a right colectomy for the treatment of polyps or cancer may benefit from an advanced laparoscopic procedure called SIL colectomy. Offered by Brian Kann, MD, FACS, FASCRS, assistant professor of clinical surgery, SIL colectomy affords patients the benefits of a traditional laparoscopic approach, but with smaller and fewer incisions.

“With traditional laparoscopic approaches to right colectomy, surgeons make three or four port incisions and then an additional large incision,” says Dr. Kann. “A distinct advantage of SIL colectomy is that it requires only a three- to four-centimeter incision to perform the entire resection. Additionally, because the surgeon uses only one point of entry, a high degree of technical expertise is required.”

To date, Dr. Kann has performed several SIL colectomies. Penn is only one of a few centers in the country offering this procedure.

Sacral Nerve Stimulation

For patients experiencing chronic fecal incontinence who have failed or are not candidates for conventional therapies, a minimally invasive treatment option called sacral nerve stimulation may help them regain complete bowel control.

The sacral nerves regulate the muscles of the pelvic floor. For some patients with fecal incontinence, these muscles do not function properly. Sacral nerve stimulation is a therapy that uses an implantable device to stimulate the sacral nerves with mild electrical pulses to restore normal function to the pelvic floor and help patients regain bowel control.

“Sacral nerve stimulation works in more than 75 percent of potential patients, and when it works it can be profoundly life-changing,” says Dr. Bleier.

The first step in treatment is a test phase to determine if the sacral nerve stimulation will work. The test phase does not require permanent implantation of the device. Therefore, if the test is successful the internal, pacemaker-like device can be implanted with the knowledge that the treatment will work. If the test phase is not successful, unnecessary implantation of a device can be avoided. Both procedures are very safe and cause minimal, if any, discomfort.

Robotic-Assisted Surgery

In January 2011, surgeons at Penn became among the first in the region to perform minimally invasive colorectal surgery using the da Vinci® Surgical System. Robotic surgery offers distinct benefits to both colorectal surgeons and their patients.

“The pelvis is often a difficult area to operate in due to anatomic constrictions,” explains Dr. Kann. “With the robot, we have enhanced visualization of the operative field due to high-definition, magnified, 3-dimensional views. This is instrumental in identifying and protecting critical structures such as nerves in the pelvis. Additionally, the range of motion with traditional laparoscopy is limited to moving the instruments up and down, back and forth, and in and out. A key advantage to the robot is that the ends of the instruments articulate like our wrists, adding an additional range of motion and facilitating the ease of surgery."

Used mainly for rectal surgery, a significant advantage to robotic colorectal surgery is its potential to preserve nerves that control key bodily functions such as urination or ejaculation. In addition, it allows for more complete excision for rectal cancer. Drs. Kann and Bleier both perform robotic-assisted colorectal surgery at Penn Medicine.

“The addition of these procedures demonstrates our commitment to providing patients with the most advanced treatments available for their condition,” says Robert Fry, MD, FACS, FASCRS, chief of the division of colon and rectal surgery, chairman of surgery, Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Emilie and Roland deHellebranth Professor of Surgery. “We take an enthusiastic, multidisciplinary approach to treatment. Patients are seen within a day or two of their initial call and referring physicians receive regular updates on their patient’s care.”

Penn’s commitment to training future colorectal surgeons distinguishes it from many other programs in the nation. Its colorectal residency program is one of only 50 in the United States and offers aspiring surgeons the opportunity to receive specialized training in this field.

“Our program, while comparatively young, offers participants the opportunity to train with a highly skilled, widely renowned team of colorectal specialists,” says colon and rectal surgery program director Dr. Kann. “I feel that our ability to really push the envelope in terms of treatment and research makes this a great place for surgeons to train and practice.”

For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 800-789-PENN (7366).