Resistant Starch on Jimmy Moore's Livin La Vida Low Carb Show- do not miss this one!

The show!  Click there to listen!

I am just throwing this out there- you guys have to hear this podcast!

This resistant starch thing is just too important- you need to implement this into your paleo/ancestral/barbarian lifestyle!!  

Don't be like Robin!

Just listen to the podcast, with Richard Nickoley and friends, and make up your own mind!

You too can be like the BATMAN!  Strong, healthy, and FIT- because you have incorporated resistant starch into your Paleolithic lifestyle and diet!  

Take that, Robin!!

J

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe #73 A Healthy Gut means a Slim Body and a Happy Mind

How cute- HAPPY gut flora- happy gut buddies!!

Did you know that, if you get and maintain a healthy GUT, you will get and maintain a healthy weight, that is a healthy body composition of low fat to more muscle?  This is the fascinating stuff that is emerging from new research, and the studying of past research from the 1950’s…

It seems that of the many beneficial strains of intestinal bacteria, or “gut bugs” that live within each and every one of us, there are some bacteria “gut buddies” that help us to maintain a healthy weight of less fat!  When these bacteria are killed off, via antibiotics, we are unable to regulate this healthy ratio of fat to lean tissue- thus, WE GET FAT!

The other way we inadvertently kill these beneficial “fat regulator gut buddies” is by eating a processed food diet, with none of the resistant starches to
feed them- if we eat a corn/soy/corn syrup diet, we feed exactly the wrong, bad microbes that we do NOT want in our guts- the ones that make us fat, and SICK.  You know, the diabesity foods that lead us down the now all-too-typical path of fat gain, disinclination to movement and exercise, depression, more fat gain, pre-diabetes, diabetes, and ultimately heart disease and/or cancer…

Back in the early 1950’s, there were experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies that determined that the new antibiotic drugs were effective for weight gain- first it was tried on chickens, and then cattle…  this is the reason antibiotics were originally introduced in cattle feed!    It was not to prevent disease- back then most cattle did not get sick, since they were raised on grass, in typical farms of open air grazing and humane treatment, which kept them healthy.  But, too skinny and lean from the farmer’s point of view- after all, the fatter he could get those cattle, the more money they brought at the sale barn.  So, the new antibiotic feed was in great demand- it made the cattle FAT!

They really didn’t know how the drug made the animals fat- they were just glad it did… it was later that they realized that, since the antibiotics also had the effect of preventing disease under unsanitary conditions, that the CAFO model of animal farming reared its ugly head-

NOW ANIMALS COULD BE CLOSELY CONFINED, FATTENED QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY VIA GRAIN FEEDING, AND THEY COULD BE KEPT ALIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SLAUGHTER!

All thanks to these miracle drugs put in their feed…

Then, there were also experiments done on humans- and the results were the same!  Humans also got much bigger and fatter!!  (Remember: this was in the 1950’s, when bigger was better!  They all wanted to be BIG!)  Nowadays, when almost everybody is big and fat, right down to the kids, we all want the opposite, and rightfully so.

And now, we know just why  the drugs work for fattening animals (and humans), or at least are starting to figure it out- certain strains of gut bacteria are being killed, and other bad strains are being cultured, the first by the drugs, and the second by a bad, grain and sugar based diet.

A tip of the hat to Angel Coppola at www.latestinpaleo.com for going into depth on all of this on his latest podcast, Latest in Paleo, which I highly recommend.  Check it out for more in depth on this topic…

But as a takeaway, remember this- a healthy gut biome means a healthy you!

And so, consume fermented foods, like sauerkraut, naturally fermented pickles, and kimchee… put potato starch in you daily green paleo smoothie- that is key-it feeds your healthy gut bugs better than anything- eat some resistant starch like Uncle Ben’s parboiled (converted) rice- cook it, and then freeze and reheat for a more effective prebiotic, meaning it feeds the beneficial gut microbes so they can multiply, and thereby stop YOU from multiplying your fat cells!

I have an interesting side note to offer on this topic, my own N=1 experiment on myself:  since adding in potato starch to my smoothie, with no other changes in my otherwise quite healthy lifestyle, my waist has dropped a full inch… and I thought I didn’t really have any fat to lose!  Rather startling, really- and just by feeding my gut buddies well for about a month or so.  I believe it was visceral fat;  the kind that is deep within and around the organs- not really visible, but the most damaging kind… and so, good riddance visceral fat!

The one other thing I’d like to say, is this: that by feeding and healing your gut fauna, by including ample prebiotic food for them in the form of potato starch and other resistant starches like the reheated parboiled rice and green bananas, you are allowing these beneficial little microbes to regulate your weight properly; but you are also letting them influence your mind  as well!  You will find that you are much calmer, much more “in the moment” in daily living, and also you will have very interesting, compelling, lucid dreams on a nightly basis…

At least I, in my experiment of one, have had these results.  Last night, my daughter came over (in my dream) with a 150 pound little elephant, and the next thing I knew we were leading it on an expedition up a huge hill…  it was really fun, and we both loved that little elephant…

YOUR DREAMS MAY NOT CONTAIN ELEPHANTS!!

But that’s OK- all dreams are fun, and I believe are manifestations that our subconscious is healthy and happy, and communicating with our conscious mind.  And they are great fun as well!  I look forward to my “other night life” quite a bit now, and it makes going to bed early and getting my ideal 8 and 1/2 hours of nightly restorative sleep all the more appealing!  The dreams are much better than network television!!

So, shed your fat, build your brain and psyche, and get down with your sleep!  Just avoid antibiotics as much as possible, feed your gut buddies, and build your health along with that of your little “friends” within.

J

P.S.  We Love You!!

Your gut buddies

PJSC Podcast #67 The importance of Gut Health for Mental Health!

Cook- reheat- voila!  Resistant Starch!  Gut buddy food!!

This whole subject of gut health, or of a healthy, diverse flora of colonies of diverse microbes within the human intestine is becoming a subject of huge interest- almost a Paleo Microbe Diet in and of itself!  Sure, WE need to eat healthy, real, nutritious foods...

But so do our gut buddies!  And they need food that we can’t even digest, so that they can continue to help us in our mutual symbiotic relationship- they do so much for human health and wellness, both physical AND mental, that this is a huge new realm of largely uncharted potential!

Everything is not, and probably will never be known about these bacteria that live within us, but very much already IS, and what they do for us is irreplaceable!  Some bacteria produce butyrate, which is a crucial ant-inflammatory agent.  Others produce vitamins, and digest short chain fatty acids, prevent the growth of harmful, infectious bacteria, and actually can determine whether or not we are lean and fit or fat!

And all of this is just some of what we already know- there is very much that we as of yet do not.  But suffice it to say that, the importance of a healthy gut is every bit as much important as, say, any other healthy organ in the body!  In fact, the gut and its biome are every bit as much important as our liver, or kidneys, or... you name it!  The gut can be thought of as a forgotten organ.

There have been experiments where fecal transplants are performed- a bit of healthy bacteria from the gut of a healthy subject is put into that of a fat one...

And the fat person becomes slim and healthy!

This has been done repeatedly with mice, and now also with humans!  And this transplantation of bacteria is also very effective against disease as well- ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and my main point of this post is- autism and other forms of mental irregularities.

In case you’re thinking “Oh well, this is just nut-case PaleoJay speaking...” here is a link from the Mayo Clinic backing me up-
http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/digestive-diseases/quick-inexpensive-90-percent-cure-rate

Children with autism is a new epidemic, with 1 in every 50 children afflicted.  Just 10 years ago it was 1 in 1000, and 15 years ago, 1 in 10,000!  We are talking huge, growing epidemic here- think Black Plague or something along those lines.

It appears that the guts of children, exposed to a bad, modern Western diet of processed foods and sugars, lots of gluten that destroys their gut lining, allowing undigested food particles to migrate right into the bloodstream and triggering autoimmune diseases along with mental problems, are largely to blame.  The guts of Autistic children have been shown to have just a few strains of gut bacteria- naturally, they would be the less beneficial strains that thrive on sugar- and autistic children also have lots of gastrointestinal distress.

What to do?  A Paleo diet consisting of real foods, as made by God, not man will feed the child the best.  But the GUT needs special consideration- harken we back now to http://www.paleojay.com/2014/01/paleojays-smoothie-cafe-66-more-on.html, the subject of resistant starch that has consumed me, and other folk like Richard Nicholey and Tim Steele at www.freetheanimal.com

Adding in some resistant starch, which is easily done with Bob’s Potato Starch in your daily green Paleo smoothie, will feed the good bacteria in you and your child’s guts in the form of a prebiotic, meaning that it encourages those good gut microbes to thrive and multiply, rather than simply a probiotic, which is those microbes themselves.  The problem with probiotics, besides that they are sometimes expensive in pill form, is that they often don’t survive the stomach to get to the gut alive!

Doubly beneficially for potato starch is that if you take probiotics along with the prebiotic of the resistant potato starch, (say by having kefir in your smoothie along with potato starch), the starch seems to protect the living probiotic microbes by combining before reaching the acid of the stomach!  Talk about a double whammy!!

It’s like the old Certs tv commercial from my ancient youth-

“It’s two- two-two mints in one!!”

Well, it’s not a mint- but it is two great things in one!  Have some potato starch, my friend, and wash it down with some kefir.  Have Greek yogurt for dessert!

Your brain will thank you, from the bottom of it’s...GUT.

J