I am curious how many folks incorporate fasting in their health regimen?

I am on day 4 of a planned 10-day, water-only* fast based on Dr. Jason Fung's protocols in his book The Complete Guide to Fasting. My ghrelin levels (as estimated by the prevalence of hunger pangs) peaked on Day 2, and have declined steadily since. On Days 2 and 3 I ate very small cubes (1/2 inches on a side) of raw pork fat when the hunger pangs got so bad I was having trouble focusing, and that quieted them down. So far today I have not had any hunger pangs at all, and it feels like I should be able to get through the day without eating anything.

*Fung's protocols allow for up to 1 tablespoon of liquid fat in the form of butter, ghee, MCT oil, etc. added to coffee and tea per day (about 100 kilocalories). Since my fat cubes are small (I estimate about 20 kilocalories each) it seems to me that eating them did not violate the protocol so I consider myself to be fasting even though I did eat a tiny bit of solid food.

I am planning on producing, in the near future, a video on the costs and benefits of cooking. I want it to be honest and thorough, at least as far as naming all of the costs and benefits. What are some points that folks would particularly like me to research and touch on in the vid?

Greetings folks. I have alluded to my intentions to start a YouTube Channel, and have finally gotten around to do this. Here is a video where I talk about eating raw wild-caught salmon.

Eric Eats Wild-Caught King Salmon

Comments, feedback, and Patreon support are all welcome. I am particularly interested in folks' thoughts on whether I should put 'raw' in the title of the video, or just leave it as is.

Greetings folks. A couple months back I posted on the forum that I was looking to have someone on my podcast, A Worldview Apart, to talk about raw food. Our own sabertooth (Derek Nance) stepped up, and a few weeks ago we had a great phone conversation. This became Episode 45: The Raw Paleo Diet, with Derek Nance. In addition to listening through this link, folks can also listen on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and other podcast apps that draw RSS streams from these aggregators.

As folks know, Derek has been featured in a number of media pieces, including articles by Vice and Men's Health, and in the docuseries Million Ways to Live. Let me know what you think of the episode, once you have a chance to listen.

Cheers,

Eric

Greetings folks. As some of you might know, earlier this summer I started a podcast called A Worldview Apart. Episodes have explored a range of topics, and I'd love to add raw food to the list. I'm on the lookout for someone who I can engage in a conversation with on raw foods who meets the following criteria:

1. They speak fluent English (accents are okay).
2. They can participate in the conversation without cursing.
3. They will not go off on tangents about conspiracy theories (not to say I don't think some conspiracy theories have merit, just that I want to keep my episodes focused on specific topics and I want this episode to focus on raw foods).
4. They have been eating raw foods for at least 5 years, ideally at least 10. They don't have to be 100% raw, but raw foods, including raw animal foods, need to be a substantial part of their diet.
5. To reiterate part of #3, they must be omnivores. I'm not interested in interviewing a raw food vegan for this.

If anyone on this forum meets ALL of these criteria and would be interested in coming on, let me know. Also, if you know of someone who doesn't participate in this forum anymore who might be interested, I'd be grateful for an introduction to them.

Cheers folks,

Eric

Public service announcement: This is the time to buy suet, either from cattle that were recently slaughtered or from other ruminant animals that have not been fed grain. They have been on lush young grass for the last few months, so the fatty acid profile of their lipid tissue is as good as it's going to get (best Omega 3 : Omega 6 ratio you'll see all year). As the summer progresses, grasses will mature and head, making their leaves and stems more fibrous and less nourishing to cattle and other ruminants. These animals will also happen to eat the grass seeds that develop, which will push their fatty acid profiles to favor Omega 6 fatty acids, like grain-fed cattle's lipid tissue does.

I just scored about 8 pounds of luscious suet from a grass fed operation near my home in Burlington, VT. I bought one small pack last week to taste test to make sure it was good and not all dry and crumbly, and it was exquisite. The fat was moist, chewy, and satiating, so I emailed the woman right away and told her to save all that she had from that cattle for me. I picked it up earlier today at the farmers' market for $3 per pound. That's an amazing price when you think about it. Fat contains about 9 kcal per gram, which means that at a price of $3 per pound I'm paying about 7 cents per 100 kcals, or about $1.50 for every 2,000 kcals. That's so cheap! And for such high quality food!

The woman who sold me this fat will be sending another steer to slaughter in early July, and I asked her to save the fat from that animal for me too. Another grass farmer will also be saving me backfat and suet from a couple animals he's sending to slaughter mid-July. The warmer, rainy spring we've had in VT has made this an amazing year for grass farmers, although haying has been tricky because of all the moisture. I'm looking forward to stocking up on amazing quality fat, in addition to the many jars of bear fat I still have from last fall.

The notion that agriculture as a means of food procurement is the result of ancient people's addiction to opioid peptides found in cereal grains and milk has come up in the forum before. I've done a fair amount of research into this theory and its intricacies, and explored the idea in the most recent episode of my podcast A Worldview Apart. Folks who are interested are welcome to give it a listen, either on my website or on iTunes. Comments and feedback are welcome!

For those who are interested, over the past couple months I've posted twice on my blog about my experiences taking Wim Hof's online class on using cold exposure to reset the body's hormonal and immune systems. The two relevant posts are Embracing the Chill and The Art of Pushing Beyond. I will probably post about raw paleo topics too, although my time is consumed by other projects right now.

An intriguing article I saw on the Rewild Yourself Facebook group:

The First Race: Out of Australia, not Africa

Looking forward to hearing what people think about this.

Found a couple really fascinating videos on the intelligence of plants that I thought others might find interesting.

First is called Mind of Plants:

http://youtu.be/NeX6ST7rexs

Second is called What Plants Talk About:

http://youtu.be/T7MOe5clOtI

Fun stuff!

For those who aren't aware, Dr. Mary Enig passed away on September 8 at the age of 83. She's known for her work on the health benefits of certain types of fats - including saturated fats - and for her criticism of the diet-heart hypothesis and of trans fats. She wrote Eat Fat, Lose Fat and Nourishing Traditions with co-author Sally Fallon, as well as the must-own reference book on all types of fats and their health benefits/detriments: Know Your Fats.

As I get ready to travel for the 2014 Regional Wise Traditions Conference, organized by the Weston A. Price Foundation, I'm sad that I never had a chance to meet her in person.

Just posted a new piece titled To Cook or Not To Cook: The Question of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. I'll post on advanced glycosylation end-products next.

Greetings folks, I just posted a new piece on my blog titled To Cook or Not to Cook: The Question of Heterocyclic Amines. As one might surmise, it's a brief post that summarizes some of the literature on the toxic effects of heterocyclic amines and how they're formed in meat exposed to high temperatures during cooking, particularly grilling, broiling and frying.

My goal is to do a series of posts on heat-created toxins in foods, starting with this post on HCAs, then with a post on acrylamides that I hope to finish by next Monday. If anyone has recent (1990-present) references for studies on heat-created toxins, particularly that focus on epidemiological evidence linking them to particular diseases or recent literature reviews that are comprehensive, I'd love to see them. I'm doing a fair amount of research too, of course.

I'll post future pieces on the topic of heat-created toxins here too, probably in their own threads.