I have been thinking about reaching out to Jordan to come on my podcast.

I think the decrease in involved members and posts stems from a few things, in no particular order:
1. Social media sites like Facebook provide the equivalent of 1-stop shopping, so are outcompeting sites like this for people's attention,
2. People grow tired of being back-stabbed and harangued by certain folks on this forum, so invest their time elsewhere,
3. People who see the benefits of eating more raw food often see the benefits of other things like staring at computer screens less, spending more time outdoors, interacting with actual people more, etc.
4. People avoid this site because some of its moderators use the site to plug unrelated political and conspiracy theory silliness,
5. People seem to be attracted more to audio and video as means of sharing information

I suspect I could come up with more reasons, but these are a good start. I used to post here a lot. Not so much anymore. I do plan on starting a YouTube channel though, and already have a podcast.

As far as whether Phil's theory about starches holds water, his thinking on that evolved over time so it is hard to characterize it as a static theory. Is there a particular post or set of posts you were curious about?

I have never gargled Epsom salts, but that sounds like something worth trying. I definitely gargle sea salt with good results. That is a standard in my dental health regime.

That has been my experience too, as back when I ate solely animal foods plaque and tarter was not much of an issue. But even animal foods have carbs in them. Milk has lactose, while organs and muscle meats have glycogen. But the glycogen in muscle meat is obviously far less than the glucose and other sugars in ice cream, for example, or potato chips.

Prior to recent visits to have a cracked filling replaced, I had not been to the dentist in almost 12 years. I had gotten the filling back in 2004, before I was as learned about dental health as I am now and before I had the confidence to ask to see x-rays and challenge a dentist's or doctor's diagnosis.

At any rate, I noticed the filling was cracked when it frayed my dental floss starting a few weeks ago. After asking for recommendations from various friends, I chose a local holistic dentist who is Weston Price-friendly and made an appointment to have them look at the filling. They did a fairly comprehensive exam as part of their new-patient on-ramping, which included many x-rays and a thorough look around my mouth. I am happy to say that aside from a very small amount of decay that had started beneath the cracked filling, they found no other dental decay in any of my teeth, and no signs of gum disease. The filling was replaced last week, and this morning I went in for a cleaning mainly so they could scrape some built up plaque off a few of my teeth.

I figure that our teeth are our canary in the coal mine, so to speak. When our health is poor for whatever reason, dental health problems are one way that poor health manifests. It feels good to know that the diet I am eating (mostly raw, about 50/50 animal/plant by calories) seems to work well for me.

Also, does anyone have any resources they can recommend about which foods to eat or avoid to reduce plaque build up?

I am sure that Derek is right in that small exposures to trichinosis are probably fine. I am sure I have a few cysts and perhaps worms living in me, given all of the wild game I have eaten uncooked. But eating an omnivore like a boar, regardless where it is raised, is playing a risky game. Some of those animals can be infected with huge numbers of parasites. You do not need to eat much meat to end up in the hospital, on those cases.

Taking a tiny sip of apple cider vinegar right before a meal can also help coax the body to secrete stomach acid. And I agree with ys, I think your problem is low acid production in your stomach, not a lack of bacteria, at least as far as digesting meat goes. Are you seeing undigested meat in your stools?

The taste and texture of animal fat changes substantially over the course of the year. I've found that suet tastes quite good when the animal is slaughtered in the summer after it's been eating the first fresh, green grass of the season for a couple months. Suet from cattle slaughtered at this time, around late June or early July, has the taste and consistency of fine butter. But as the season progresses, and as cattle (or other ruminants) are forced to eat drier and drier forage, their fat becomes dominated by longer chain fatty acids and it becomes more waxy and crumbly. It still tastes good, at least to me, but I'm not fond of the texture. So when I buy suet, I focus specifically on getting fat from animals slaughtered in June or very early July. Once they've left that window, I do not buy their suet.

Back fat is generally of better consistency, though I can't say that I notice a difference in taste. Back fat is often, but not always, less crumbly or waxy than suet is. So back fat from an animal slaughtered in August might still be okay.

Another thing you might do if you want to eat raw fat but it's not palatable when you eat it by itself is to chop it up finely, or send it through a meat grinder, and mix it in with meat of some sort. You can turn this mixture into tartare, or another recipe. Finely chopped suet mixed with raw honey is quite nice too, although it's obviously sweet. The high fat concentration seems to balance out the excess sugar.

And although it isn't raw, consuming meat stock can also help a leaky gut. Meat stock is made by gently cooking a piece of meat with bone in it (and connective tissues like ligaments, cartilage, and tendons) in water for a few hours. This is very different from making bone broth, which is generally cooked for much longer periods, sometimes 24 hours or more. This light cooking at lower temperatures (below boiling) draws collagen into solution without damaging it too much as would happen with prolonged boiling, and that collagen has been proven to help the gut heal. Certain herbs can also help the gut heal, particularly herbs that promote the re-growth of collagen fibers like common plantain. If you can find some, i would recommend eating a few whole, raw plantain leaves at various points throughout the day. These leaves are very fibrous, so chew them thoroughly and swallow them. Not very tasty, but proven to help heal collagen-rich tissues.

I would say that there are better things to eat than potatoes, but there are worse things too. They're cheap calories, so if you're poor, then sure, potatoes can be a useful thing to have as the cornerstone of your diet. They're better than wheat, for example, since they don't have gluten.

If you have to eat potatoes, some methods of cooking are better than others. Frying and baking are quite bad, as they chemically create toxins in the potatoes. But eating potatoes raw isn't so good either, as potatoes contain alkaloids that can cause harm if consumed consistently. They build up in the body. If you want to eat potatoes, I'd steam them, or, as was mentioned, boil them in soups or stews.

Other tubers you can eat raw more easily, without having to worry about alkaloids so much. Sweet potatoes are like this, and Jerusalem artichokes are great raw. If you can gain access to these tubers, they can be a calorie-rich dietary cornerstone that can be eaten raw.

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

I will. I've PMed her about other things recently and received no response though. She's not spending much time on the computer these days.

What are you up to Jessica? I haven't seen you posting much.

I was hoping you'd speak up. We definitely have our differences, but I think most of them stem from how you presented yourself through Vice and other similar outfits in the past, rather than how you actually live or what you eat. What's the best way to get in direct contact with you? I think we were friends on Facebook at one point, if we still are I will message you my contact info. I think this will be fun!

And I'm open to talking with more people too, including international folks provided they meet all of the criteria and have access to Skype.