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Sunday, September 21, 2014

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe Podcast #86- DON'T Fatten Yourself Like a Farm Animal!

It’s already happened to us all: we all have been ingesting antibiotics for years!  Primarily through medicines given us rightly, or wrongly and unnecessarily through medical doctors prescriptions since we were young, but also by eating animals that have been fed loads of it.

In the 1950’s, a new drug was developed- the first antibiotic, something that would kill microbes!  At the same time, it was discovered that this same drug, this antibiotic, would make animals gain substantial amounts of weight! Of course, this sounded great to farmers and ranchers, who are paid for the animals by the pound, and so they jumped on board.  They bought low grade, leftover antibiotic “slurry” from the manufacturing process by the tank load, and watched their cattle and chickens grow really fat, really fast.

And another thing: they noticed that the animals that were fed this antibiotic laced feed also seemed to not get infections easily, at least for the short life that they led up until their slaughter.  And so, the Confined Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO was born- animals could now survive in filthy, overcrowded conditions better, thanks to antibiotics!

In fact, in 1955 Pfizer sponsored a contest among pharmaceutical salesmen to see who could gain the most weight. (1955 was very different from today- it was a time when bigger was better, even in people!)
The salesmen who took antibiotics gained much more weight than those who did not.

The other thing that was happening, though, is that although the antibiotics were truly wonder drugs in healing bacterial infections, they were literally “carpet bombing” anyone who took them, destroying beneficial bacteria in the patients system that did helpful things like, oh, regulating weight and appetite, digesting and then releasing helpful compounds from foods that helped our mood, cognitive abilities, and many other facets of our lives.  And now, about 1/3 of Americans are obese, and about 5% are severely obese.  We weigh on average 25 pounds more than we did in the 1960’s, and children are much fatter and are even coming down with adult onset or type 2 diabetes in grade school!

So, if you want to “lean out” and go back to the 1950’s:

Only take antibiotics if you really need them for an acute infection.  Look at it as seriously as surgery!
Try to avoid CAFO animals, and go for local, pastured chicken and beef and pork.
Build  your beneficial gut microbe health by eating probiotics like real fermented sauerkraut and pickles, kimchi and kefir.  Consider taking soil based probiotics, but definitely get out gardening, and walking barefoot, and otherwise getting in touch with the soil- good soil is absolutely loaded with the microbes we evolved with, and are as much a part of us as gravity.  Without them we perish!
Feed your gut microbes by eating resistant starch!  This means undigestible parts of starchy plants like really green bananas and plantains, and potato starch in an unheated form.  Ideally, this means including these foods in a Paleo Smoothie made in your trustyVitamix on a daily, or near daily basis!
Keep the “Prebiotics for BAD bacteria” out of your system- this means keep out sugar, all forms of bread and pasta (which immediately turn INTO sugar) and all other forms of gluten, which is a harmful component of wheat.  Sugar feeds the bad bacteria that infects us, and makes us sick.   Also, skimmed milk is another form of sugar to be avoided at all costs- heavy cream is actually good for you though!

That’s about it.  If you do all of that- avoid sugar and grains, eat lots of healthy, pastured and wild caught animals, and plenty of fat from pastured animals, fatty fish like salmon and sardines, along with your daily Paleo Smoothie loaded with pastured eggs, pastured butter, coconut oil and milk, and loads of veggies and some berries, both you, and your gut microbes will be in healthy and happy synergy.

I feel it in my gut!
YOUR CHOICE- THIS?

OR THIS??