If you had a relative that had a traumatic brain injury and was basically in a coma and on a feeding bag (that goes into the stomach, not the veins) what could you do? Are there different formulations for that stuff? Would fish oil be good for brain repair in that situation? Anyone know of any science in the area?

Yo. I have a friend with MS and she likes hearing about foods she can cut out of her diet that contribute to inflammation, and I suppose on the other end foods she can add that either don't contribute to inflammation or reduce it. But mostly it seems like there's info out there about nightshades and vegetable oils. I sent her a link to the Loren Cordain write up about hot peppers and other nightshades, and was wondering if you guys could rustle up some other stuff in that vein. Scientific journal articles or journalistic write ups are what I'm looking for, anything about foods that cause inflammation. Thanks!

Back story:I've been feeding my cat raw meat for at least a couple of years now. Occasionally someone helps me take care of him and he might get a can of commercial cat food or some canned fish, but his diet is overwhelmingly raw meat. At least that's what I feed him, but he's an indoor/outdoor cat and might be digging through garbage or people might be feeding him.

A day or two ago I saw two little worms in my carpet, at separate times of the day. I was surprised and just picked them up and threw them out. Then today I'm on the phone laying on my couch telling my girlfriend about it and look down at the carpet: dozens of the worms. They were all over, seemingly coming out of the carpet itself. My first thought was that they were the larval stage of fleas since my house had fleas before. But afaik flea larvae are minuscule and these were about a cm long. Then I thought of my cat. What kept me from being sure it was him is that the worms are in places he can't get to, like under the couch and all against the walls. Some of these places haven't been available for contact since I moved my furniture around months ago. That gives more evidence to the flea egg/larva theory.

Anyway I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow and hopefully grabbing a worm to take with me. This episode brings some doubt into my mind about natural health and all that. Maybe he did get into some garbage, but still having to give an animal medication attacks the foundation of belief in paleolithic health strategies.

This topic has been moved to Off Topic.

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com?topic=2756.0

I got the impression from a lot of people on this forum that for some reason suet was superior to hide fat. I remember reading that hide fat is tough and hard to eat. I tried it a couple of times and didn't find that at all. It's harder than suet, more so in that it doesn't crumble and squish like suet. It seems like it might be denser as well.

Anyone else try hide fat and have an opinion vs. suet? Ever try to render it?

It's a step towards bacon I guess from suet. Any other reasons it's not as good? I might prefer it, or maybe just like to go back and forth for a change.

An offer I made on a house just got accepted today. So now I have to sign some contracts and settlement is set for May 7th. Hopefully I can have some raw paleo people over for raw paleo parties soon. Anyone in the Philly/South Jersey area?

What do you guys know or think about them? I'm looking for ways to enhance or alter my mental abilities.

I have cut on my foot under and to the side of my smallest toe on the side where it faces the next toe. It's a spot that gets moved a lot while walking so it's having a hard time healing. I looked through AV's books sure that he would have some kind of remedy, putting meat and stuff on it or some poultice, but nothing could I find. I tried putting a piece of meat on it for a few hours while I took a nap one day but I didn't try it again and didn't notice anything. I'm a little worried about it, have stopped going to the gym because wrestling mats are known to give people some nasty stuff and I really don't feel comfortable rolling around on wrestling mats with a foot with an open cut almost right on the bottom of it. Not to mention the grappling would use foot strength and probably spread it open even more than walking does.

Any suggestions? Sometimes it hurts when I walk, sometimes it itches, and sometimes it doesn't feel like anything.

I got this in an email from Paul Lundkvist who is the guy who first introduced me to RAF back when I was a raw vegan posting on David Wolfe's rawfood.com or now sunfood.com forums. I need to be presented with information like this often or else I forget and am tricked by marketing. That's a scary thought since I think I'm probably the least prone of anyone I've ever met IRL of being tricked by marketing.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The only examples of anything like a raw paleo diet are isolated tribes like Inuit and maybe some Africans and South Americans, but these are getting few and far between.

When people get blood work done and their "numbers" and with the "normal range" what does that mean? The normal range of people in a society that is extremely unhealthy? Where does the idea of "normal" come from? This is an important idea since we don't consider the diet and lifestyle of most people as "normal" and definitely not healthy.

There's height/weight charts for growing children, food guide pyramid and other information based on caloric needs determined by weight, and a ton of other standard measures. And other than them are the non standard measures such as how a person looks, what people think constitutes a healthy looking individual. Things like morning sickness in pregnant women, getting "colds" a few times a year, food poisoning from bacteria are al considerd "normal" and not viewed as symptoms of a persistent state of poor health. Add to that list a 1 in 3 (or even greater, keeps increasing) chance of getting cancer, good odds also of heart disease, impotence in men, increasing infertility of men and women and a slew of digestive, skin and muscle disorders are being seen as normal afflictions that are not caused by the lifestyle of the individual. Even a disease like diabetes which is so obviously caused by diet is starting to be viewed as genetic in origin.

The concept of health in a community such as the raw paleo forum is so disconnected from the concept in the greater population. What can this mean in the greater context?

I for one do not always enjoy being on the fringe. I tend to always be, politically, art tastes, diet and general lifestyle choices of mine are usually at least a little on the edge of society and very often way off in the fringe area. This leads some people to have suggested in the past that I do things that are unique or rare just to appear special or just to not conform, which is a form of conforming itself (conforming to nonconformist attitude). But I don't, I choose what I do based on whether I like it or not. I'd love for society at large to have attitudes on the above topics closer to mine. I don't like having to angrily change the radio station every time I hear a story (public radio) about the latest pharmaceutical researcher receiving a Nobel or hearing some politician lie about something.

What about the health of society? There is debate about the issue, but many believe that older societies had less intra-societal violence, disease, insanity/mental retardation etc. Are people in most of today's modern societies taking these macro-health issues as normal as well? Do most people consider it normal to have dozens or hundreds of murders every year in major cities? For a certain percentage of people to become insane or otherwise mentally impaired and become a danger to themselves and others? It has been normal for a while now for the world to be constantly poised towards war, in fact since WWI I don't think there has been global peace for one second.

So what is the normal human condition? Do we believe that we know it or are we striving for something we cannot see or understand yet? Is the breakdown of societal and human health the eventual outcome of a species with such controlling powers over their environment? Could human history have happened any other way? And more simply, what does health look like?

Last time I saw him was yesterday (Wednesday) morning, and the food I left out for him this morning looks to be still all there. I keep thinking I hear him meowing but I tend to imagine that often. It's unusual for him to stay away this long, and the food thing is the biggest worrying piece of evidence. He doesn't have a collar so someone could have grabbed him for themselves, he could have been hit by a car somewhere, or attacked by something/someone. I looked all around the house anywhere I think he could trap himself, and walked around the neighborhood a little bit. If he's still gone into the weekend I'll probably put up missing cat flyers with a picture.

That means all the moderators and anyone else who has ever posted a link or full story of a science study or journal article.

It would be a wonderfully huge favor if you guys could go back through some of the science literature you've read and/or posted on this topic (diet, raw, natural stuff, debunking medicine, etc) and look for studies done at institutions or by scientists. I trust your judgments, so I'll just tell you what I'm looking for and you can decide what fits. I'm looking for institutions and/or scientists who are conducting research in this area that I would try and contact to potentially work with. I just got a job but I'm thinking ahead and behind about the fact that I always wanted to eventually go for a PhD and also will not want to work where I am forever. So I'm looking to get in contact with scientists who are working a little outside the box, but not so much outside the box that they don't get anything done. I remember seeing names from Europe on carb studies, stuff like that.

Because when you want to study under someone for a PhD in science (at least for biology) you need to basically apply to a person or group of people who are doing research, not really so much the institution itself. Even if you have the grades to get into the institution you need to be able to work in the research which means there needs to be a spot for you and the senior researchers need to want you there. And since the vast majority of research is NOT in this area at all it would be incredibly difficult to go through all of the various scientific institutions in the world and look for people doing this work. It would be much easier to look at the work that is already done and try to contact those responsible and then work towards possibly studying at their institution and working with them.

For anyone that helps I'd like to give a preliminary big thanks!