Is Pork Bad?

I have heard lately, and from people I respect greatly, that pork is a dirty, unhealthy meat, and is best avoided!  It provoked thought, and I researched it ad nauseum...

While it is troubling that CAFO raising of pigs, (CAFO is "Confined Animal Feeding Operations", or basically Concentration Camps for pigs) is as unsanitary and unhealthy as it sounds, to extrapolate this to all pork is wrong-headed.

Especially if you obtain your pork from a pastured, old-style pig raising farm as I do; if the pigs your meat comes from were happy and healthy porkers, the chance for contamination is small.

If your pork, in addition, is cured (as in BACON), the chance of disease goes down...

AND, if you cook it well, meaning thoroughly (NOT rare!), the chance goes down to...

almost nil!

Here is Chris Kresser, Paleo Guru extraordinaire, giving a brief synopsis of the Pork Principles:

So, that is the ultimate Pork Primer. 

I hope you all have seen the light, and are anxious to add some well cooked, delicious Pork; and especially BACON to your diet!   I know I will...

J

Paleo Gadgets you MUST HAVE! and, Eat LOTS of Nutrient dense foods to lose fat!

Paleo Jay’s Smoothie Cafe #13

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Paleo Food Prep Gadgets

Fill up with Nutrient Dense Foods to Lose Fat


Today, let’s talk about Paleo Food Gadgets, like the inimitable Vitamix-
Best way to incorporate whole raw foods into your diet
Maximum absorbability
Huge variety of antioxidants, spices and herbs- all in one convenient, tasty package!

Crock Pots!  Crock pots are the best and easiest way to COOK your food, slowly and delectably, breaking down all the fibers and cell walls of your ingredients- rather like a “slow cooking Vitamix”, but much slower, and hotter- but with a lot of the same results.
Use one daily, for bone broth it is unsurpassed.
Breaks down collagen in bones, releases marrow; best thing for our own bones are the nutrients from the bones of other animals.

http://aerobie.com/products/aeropress.htm
The Aerobie Aeropress!

If you drink coffee, (and I recommend you do!) get this gadget!  It makes the BEST coffee you’ve ever had, period, and it does so easily.  It is also quite cheap to buy!  But also get the stainless steel coffee filter http://prima-coffee.com/able/disk-fine

The paper filters that come with it are fine, but they also tend to “shift” when making multiple cups from one load of coffee ( I like to make 3 cups per day from one loading- I add more water from my teapot after each cup, and, using the stainless steel filter, the filter never “shifts” and lets in coffee grounds, like the paper ones did!

I make “Bullet Proof” coffee, sort of- I just use a good organic coffee, and dissolve coconut oil in the cup by pouring the coffee on top, and then top with real whipped cream, cinnamon and cloves...  very, very healthy, inexpensive (bullet proof brand coffee is $18.75 for a 3/4 pound bag), and, I prefer to put my pastured butter in my Paleo smoothie rather than in my coffee, and whipped cream and coconut oil have a vastly superior taste, and double the bang for your buck to boot of good fat!

My other gadget?  A dehydrator!  You can easily make jerky, and kale chips.

Oh- a Weber grill!  I grilled today, and it is 12 degrees outside.  Grass fed beef roast, pastured bratwurst, and sausages...

My last point is this: fill up with as much nutrient dense foods as you can!  Don’t even think of “eating less” to lose fat- that whole mindset is completely wrong.

If you start out with a nutrient super dense Paleo smoothie in the morning, along with eggs and pastured bacon, have some more smoothie mid AM, have a huge, meat or seafood topped salad with mixed greens and real oil and vinegar dressing (no soy!), have almonds and dark chocolate for a snack, some more Paleo smoothis mid-afternoon-

I swear you will be so stuffed you will NOT be tempted by any junk foods, like bread or pasta or candy or cake or cookies etc.   You will just be TOO FULL!

You may wind up like me, and usually just skip supper...

BECAUSE YOU ARE JUST TOO DARN FULL!!

That’s great; you are now “intermittantly fasting”, which has numerous benefits of its own!

Go to bed early, and wake up HUNGRY- you have a lot of food to eat:
A Paleo Smoothie, eggs and bacon, coffee with coconut oil and whipped cream...

Got it?  Stay FULL, and you will LOSE FAT and be HEALTHY!

I PROMISE!!

J

Go Paleo- at Panera "Bread"!!??

As a Paleo Persona, I have been granted advance notice of a wonderful event:

The Introduction of PALEO BREAKFAST items at Panera Bread franchises- NATION WIDE!

"Here's how you get the dishes -- just tell one of our associates that you're ordering from the "Hidden Menu", and they'll take care of it from there."

The above is a quote from the Panera site; so, just to reiterate, order from the hidden menu, and you will have access to ALL KINDS of "hidden" TREASURES to order!

Paleo foods that will POWER your day, and give you the ancestral type of nutrition that you have been lacking!  Bring your kids, and your reluctant spouse, and show them what is available!!

The bottom line is this:

Our health, and the health of our children has been vastly compromised, since we stopped actually preparing meals at home that were healthy, and nutrient dense.  Hopefully, this step by a Drive-up type of restaurant that is ubiquitous and "ok" by kid standards will INSPIRE ALL of us to graduate to actually making the step to having traditional, ancestral MEALS AT HOME that follow this restaurant template, and actually go it one better!!

This Paleo meal idea was concocted in conjunction with Tim Ferriss  "The Four Hour Chef" fame, and Scott Davis, Panera Bread's Chief Concept Officer, who requested Tim Ferriss' help on the effort...

Bravo, Tim and Scott!!

So, now all of you urban dwelling fast food junkies can go Paleo, easily!  DO IT!!

It just might inspire you to get more into this healthy lifestyle, the diet of our grandparents, and hopefully, all of our future generations!!  

They also have a "hidden menu" of Paleo meals for lunch and dinner as well!

 Power Steak Lettuce Wrap for lunch:

!!

And not everything is steak!!  But I will say it tickles MY fancy!

Sure beats a bagel!

PJ

PALEO QUICK START: Dr. Terry Wahls interviewed by Sean Croxton on Underground Wellness! Good stuff- Y'AALL!

PALEO QUICK START: Dr. Terry Wahls interviewed by Sean Croxton on Underground Wellness! Good stuff- Y'AALL!

Paleo Quick Tips #12 up and ready!

Paleo Quick Start #12

     
Straight legged situps- best ab exercise ever?

Bodyweight exercise for real world strength

Appetite is the best sauce

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Have you ever done really straight-legged situps?  They are probably the best ab exercise ever- along with simultaneously efficiently stretching out your entire spine and neck with each repetition!  How you perform them is key, however:

Lay flat on the floor, and raise yourself until your elbows, cradled behind your head, come as close to your outstretched legs as possible- and do not anchor your legs under anything!  Your legs should stay down through abdominal power alone; this is what makes this exercise so very effective!  At first, you’ll probably only manage a few, but , done regularly, the progression is quite fast (as is the strengthening of your abs)...
Done eventually in “sets” of, say, 30-50 or even more, they are another form of “intense interval training”, just as are pushups done in such a manner.  In fact, it’s great to alternate the two exercises in opposing sets... Before very long at all you will find you are knocking out a couple hundred of each in surprisingly short periods of time- this is akin to sprinting!, in that it is strenuous in the extreme, for short “bursts” of time- the ideal exercise protocol for simultaneously building muscle and building up your cardio system at the same time!  Add in some planks and some hindu squats, and your whole body is worked to the max, quickly and very efficiently, not to mention naturally- nothing like “machine isolation” and such.  Perfectly Paleo exercise indeed!

Speaking of which, I don’t really mean to bad-mouth weightlifting, but, well, someone has to come out on the other side!  I really think that heavy, dedicated, long hours of weight lifting, just like endless, long sessions of cardio is ultimately... harmful!  There, I said it!  In the old days, weights were used to demonstrate strength.  Lifting platforms full of people, carriages, huge boulders- to demonstrate just how strong they were!
But the strength they were demonstrating was generally gained by... body weight exercises, visualized resistance type exercise, isometrics, and such like exercise!

Lots of heavy squats, for instance, really can give you a bulky, chunky type of physique- is this what you really want?  Also, the strain on your neck and spine can be damaging, as is also the effect on your knees.  I mean, why do them, if you only want to be strong and healthy, and are not in the NFL and need to be really big, strong, bulky, and even somewhat fat to achieve your goals?  Do natural exercises, the types of exercises that animals like tigers and lions do instinctually, and build a cat-like, strong and functional body rather than a bulky travesty that will be lucky to survive past the 50 year mark...  You can build a FAR better physique, man or woman, if you stick to Perfectly Paleo Exercise!


If you have not yet gotten yourself a Vitamix blender, please do so!  This is the mainstay of the Paleo Jay’s Smoothie Cafe, and the bedrock of Paleo Quick Start ultimate nutrition and health.  All the enzymes, anti-oxidants, fiber, vitamins, and other health benefits raw, Ancestral types of eating are unlocked with this “wonder tool”  Order from the link on www.paleojay.com, and your shipping will be free- (best deal anywhere on a Vitamix), new or reconditioned.    And just remember- as the Spartans used to say “appetite is the best sauce”.  I bring this up because today is Sunday, my “fasting/relaxing” day of the week.  I’ve only had a cup of coffee with coconut oil dissolved in it and whipped cream on top so far today, and it’s almost 3PM now!  After this podcast is done, I will do my basement, most intense workout of the week for about 30 minutes, and then “carb backload” for the rest of the night- I have some fried rice, and some sweet and sour chicken, beef and broccoli planned, along with popcorn, and maybe some Vitamix made ice cream made with whole cream and cocoa powder, raw honey and stevia...

Not even a Paleo Smoothie this morning!!

And I will say, that by the time I eat, I realize the Spartans were right:

“Appetite IS the best sauce!!’‘    EVERYTHING will taste AMAZING!

Oh, and that is daughter Holly singing with me on “Newborn Paleo”!
Isn’t she amazing??  Thanks Holly!

PJ

Must See Paleo Movies for 2013

The Paleo diet is going mainstream!  Yesterday, I visited Barnes and Noble bookstore-

Wow!  A whole table of books in the front, at least 2/3 of which were Paleo themed!  What was once a small niche market is getting bigger all the time- this is great news for the health of America, but the movement is still just getting started.  What we all need to do is to reprogram ourselves.

Our negative, low calorie, low fat, healthy whole-grain brainwashing began about 50 years ago... you have probably partially reversed this process, at least somewhat, but your friends and family probably have not.  Save them!

What to do?  Well, there are excellent Paleo books out there now, Nora Gedgaudus' Primal Body Primal Mind, springs to mind, as well as Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution, not to mention the incredible eBooks by yours truly:
Paleo Quick Start and Perfectly Paleo Exercise.

But sometimes people are affected more by a movie than they are by the written word.  So, here are some movies to influence not only yourself positively, but your friends and family as well:

First off is King Corn- the whole movie on youTube!  
 

Next, Statin Nation- (only the trailer on this one)

 

Food Inc. (entire movie!)

Next, explore the fact that perhaps there really already is a cure for cancer!!  Burzinski, the whole movie again available here:

Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, again the entire movie!

And lastly, just the trailer from the recently released "Doctored", which exposes the shameful attempt by the American Medical Association to discredit and shut down the competition!

So, what else can you do to "spread the good Paleo gospel?"  Well, if you put your little dog into THIS outfit:


Well, who could resist immediately drinking a Paleo Smoothie??




And, if you or a friend is an avid golfer...

Many more items are available at
Paleo Jay's Smoothie Cafe


Have fun shopping!

PJ

Go Paleo This New Year!

Start your caveman journey this year with a smile on your face, incrementally moving towards your goal bit by bit...

Say you are starting out as a budding cavewoman:



Some of us read about the Paleo diet, immediately grasp the principles behind it, agree with the theory, and grabbing the bull by the horns, immediately adopt the diet by:

Cutting sugar consumption dramatically (this includes orange juice and pop)
Eliminating grains and  industrial seed oils (Crisco, margarine, vegetable oils)
Adding LOTS of vegetables to the diet,(ideally in the form of salads and especially Paleo Smoothie blended drinks as outlined in Paleo Quick Start)
Getting rid of legumes, like beans and peanuts (Peanut butter is especially bad!)
INCREASING the consumption of good fats, (like free range chicken eggs, pastured butter, coconut oil and milk, avocados and fatty fish)
Eliminating pasteurized dairy (raw dairy is best; grass fed and fermented, such as in the form of kefir or Greek yogurt is better)
Eating significant amounts of grass fed beef and wild-caught seafood
Stopping of eating artificial sweeteners completely, such as in soda pop (raw honey is the best acceptable sweetener, followed by the herb stevia)
Limiting of fruit consumption to once or twice per day
Using good herbs and spices (such as a good sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and others such as cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, kelp and cayenne liberally)

Like I say, some of us can do all of the above, right away!

But, experience has shown me that, for most of us, such  an extreme change is unlikely, and leads to giving up on such a huge change all at once.

I'm here to suggest that you approach your Paleo journey "Back to the Future" by doing it incrementally...

What I did personally, was to first replace my morning daily breakfast with a good, green Paleo Smoothie!   This really got me going to a good place fast.  But, if you'd like, you can just replace your usual cereal and skim milk with eggs and bacon.  Do that for a week, and notice how much better you are feeling, how you don't "crash" early in the day...

Then, when you are ready, replace your afternoon sandwich and chips with a big salad topped with plenty of meat or seafood and plenty of olive oil and vinegar dressing, perhaps a hard boiled egg or two...

What about afternoon snacks?  Cookies, pie, chips, ding dong doritos, absolute crap like that?
Try taking a mix of almonds and dark chocolate chips along.  Hard boiled eggs.  Beef jerky.  All are great choices!

Supper?  Grilled or roasted meat, chicken or seafood.  Crockpots are GREAT!  Just limit the potatoes, or replace with sweet potatoes, and don't touch the bread!  I guarantee there is no need to EVER  get hungry eating this way!

Work on breakfast first... after awhile lunch, and then tackle dinner... It's incremental, and you will feel incrementally better each step of the way!

Add in some Perfectly Paleo Exercise along the way, and your Paleolithic Journey may have you arriving at your desired destination sooner than you think-

Just keep on with your destination in mind, and it will happen!

PJ