Here’s a diet to heal your intestines and stomach.

These guidelines should help the following: celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, h. pylori infection, multiple food allergy syndrome, gallbladder problems, ulcers, bloating, cramps, gas, constipation, and diarrhea.

The best foods for intestinal issues are eggs, fresh meats, fish, shellfish, fresh vegetables, small amounts of fruit in season, garlic, olive oil, and coconut oil.

Eat a mix of raw and cooked vegetables. It is important to have some raw vegetables with meals because they contain enzymes that help the body digest meat and they also have fiber that helps with constipation.

For the most part, fruits should be eaten on their own, not with meals, they are harder to digest.  When your stomach feels okay, you can try fruit between meals.

Enjoy plenty of natural, healthy fat in every meal in the form of meat, butter, ghee, coconut oil, or cold pressed olive oil.  Animal fats are particularly good for your digestion.

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir also play an important role in boosting vitamin K2 and restore a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut.

Learn to make your own soups and stews made from meat or fish stock.  Drink a cup of warm stock with every meal.

Meat stocks, kefir and fermented food will assist in stomach acid production, rebuild the “brush-border” of your intestines, and create a favorable balance of healthy bacteria that naturally live in your colon.

Try to avoid processed, canned, or artificially colored or flavored foods. They have fewer nutrients and make the digestive system work harder.

Eat fresh foods in season whenever possible.

• Avoid cereal grains, especially refined flour.
• Avoid Omega-6 industrial seed oils such as corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean, etc.
• Avoid sugar and especially high-fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid processed soy products soy milk, soy protein, tofu, soy flour, etc.
• Avoid legumes: beans and peanuts.
• Avoid excessive lactose. Dairy fats, like butter and cream, are better tolerated than milk itself.

• Eat some fermented foods like kefir, Greek yogurt, sauerkraut, or kimchi.  Taking a high-quality, multi-species pro-biotic tablet might help, too.
• Eat eggs including the yolk.
• coconut oil is a super food for damaged intestines, also bone broths.
• Eat bone broths and fish or meat stocks. (Make your own. The store versions of these are basically flavored water.)
• Avoid NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen) or PPIs (prilosec, Nexium) if possible.
• You might need stomach acid supplements.

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ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER DIET AND LIFESTYLE TIPS

• Nutrition plays a critical role in mental function.  Our brains require energy, nutrients, and vitamins.  Our brains require sleep. Our brains require a circadian cycle of light and dark, and also warm and cold stimulation patterns.  Our brains require physical play.
• The brain uses 20% of the body’s energy.  It needs fuel. The brain is 80% fat, mostly cholesterol. The lining of the nerves, called myelin is made of fat. The brain needs adequate levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and nor-epinephrine.  These are made from protein primarily. The brain also needs a low inflammation, low stress, and adequate hormone levels to work optimally. Many hormones are made from cholesterol. Eating for your brain, so to speak, means eating healthy fats and proteins and getting key vitamins from vegetables and a bit of fruit.
• The biggest nerve in the body travels from the gut to the brain. It’s called the vagus nerve and it tells the brain what you’re eating. If you keep your gut happy, the vagus nerve will help keep your brain happy. This is called the gut-brain axis.
• The brain derives its energy from 2 sources: sugar and fat. Our liver can easily make sugar for us, even if we don’t eat much of it. We can’t “make” fat however. We have to eat it. This is the problem with “low-fat” diets. We don’t get enough Omega-3 fatty acids (without which we will die) and don’t absorb the fat-soluble vitamins (D, A, E and K.) Healthy fats are essential for brain function and longevity. Don’t be afraid of “healthy fats.”
• Super-foods for the brain are fish, red meat, butter, cream, coconut oil, all vegetables, fruit, garlic, and macadamia nuts.
• Lousy foods for the brain are sugar, wheat, and high omega-6 oils like corn, soybean, or canola oil. Pop, fruit juice, fruit snacks, bread, pasta, and foods fried in bad oils are bad for the brain.
• Sugar and grain put your metabolism on an “insulin roller coaster.” This causes food preoccupation, excessive appetite, stress, and hormone imbalances. Sugar can actually cause brain damage due to “glycation.” Grains cause inflammation in the brain that can affect attention. The grains also cause damage to the gut which decreases the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper, selenium and other vital minerals for brain function.
• Processed foods that have artificial colors, flavors, additives, and preservatives make ADD worse.
• The brain needs time off. It needs sleep. Turn down the lights in your house after dinner. Don’t play video games, watch TV, or do computer work at night.  A lot of attention problems go away with 8 hours of sleep, kids need 10-12. Try to get homework projects done early, so the evening can be about pure relaxation. Keep the bedroom cool and dark.
• Getting out in nature really helps with ADD.
• Playful, fun exercise is essential.
• Stimulants increase the rate of brain metabolism, so eating the right food helps the brain keep up with the quick turnover of neurotransmitters.
• Everyone with ADD should have a comprehensive lab work up to check for low Vitamin D, thyroid problems, body inflammation problems, sugar issues, and lipid and hormone abnormalities.

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Chris Martenson recently did an interview with Jim Rickards, author of a masterful book about economic history Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis (Portfolio). Preparedness-minded individuals and families can learn a lot from this interview. Give it 25 minutes of your time. You won’t regret it.

Quotes from Jim Rickards On The Cause of Currency Wars:

• A currency war in the simplest form is basically when there is too much debt and not enough growth. The overhang of debt impedes growth because it clogs up bank balance sheets and clogs up the savings to investment mechanism and has a lot of negative effects. So there is not enough growth to go around. So countries, in effect, try to steal growth from their trading partners by cheapening the currencies.
• And indeed, the Fed and the Treasury are trying to do that right now. They are trying to cheapen the dollar, probably for the reason I mentioned. The problem is it does not stop at that. It invites retaliation…
• A couple things happen. Number one – we cheapen our currency but other countries try to cheapen their currency also, so you get into these tit-for-tat devaluations where nobody wins. All you do is unleash inflation, restrict world trade without anyone getting an advantage. I like to say that in the currency wars, all advantage is temporary. You give it up pretty quickly.
• The other thing is that for countries that cannot necessarily devalue, they can use capital controls, they can use import excise taxes. Currency wars can turn into trade wars. Ultimately, they can even turn into shooting wars. So you get all these bad effects.
• So if the US could cheapen the dollar in isolation, if nothing else happened, maybe there would be some quick advantage. But that is not what happens. But it is a temptation that politicians and policymakers can not resist, but it ends very badly.

Quotes from Jim Rickards Regarding Current US Monetary Policy:

• There is no question. It is quite clear that the Treasury and the Fed are trying to inflate their way out of the problem and debase the dollar.
• The problem I see is they might not get there, and here is why. The Fed thinks they are playing with a thermostat. You know, you can, if the room is too cold you dial it up. If the room is too hot, you dial it down by adjusting the money supply and working a little bit with expectations on the behavioral side that can gradually tweak economic behavior and lending and spending velocity and money supply that achieve a desired result. The problem is they are actually playing with a nuclear reactor. They are playing with a complex system that is in or near the critical state. Now, you can dial a nuclear reactor up and down but if you get it right, the consequences are worse than having to put on a sweater. The consequences are catastrophic. You can melt down a reactor and ultimately, the entire financial world.
• So the danger I see is the Fed thinks they are playing with a thermostat. They are playing with a nuclear reactor and they risk collapsing the entire system.

Quotes from Jim Rickards on Importance of Understanding the Scope of the Problems:

• So that is what the Fed is trying to do. They are trying to get that lending/spending machine going again, get the velocity of money up and kind of inflate their way out of this problem.
• A couple problems with that. Number one, two percent inflation is not so benign. Two percent inflation cuts the value of the dollar by seventy five percent in the course of a typical lifetime. So it cuts it in half in thirty-five years and then in the following thirty-five years, cuts it in half again. So now, you are down seventy five percent from where you started. So from the time you are born to the time you die, your dollar is going to lose seventy-five percent of its value. That is at two percent inflation. At four percent inflation, it will cut the value of a dollar in half by the time your children go to college. So these are cancerous rates of inflation. Two percent sounds warm and fuzzy. It is not.
• The other thing economists say is, you know, who worries about inflation because your wages are going up and it all comes out in the wash. Well, I mean, this is the kind of thing that only an economist could say. But the fact is some of it does come out in the wash on average. But we do not live on average. We live our individual experiences.
• And the fact is in inflation, there are winners and there are losers. The winners are people who can see it coming, who understand what you and I and hopefully the listeners are talking about and hedge their position by getting gold or silver or land or fine art or investing in railroads as Warren Buffett is doing, some kind of hard asset play. The losers, those are savers, people with insurance policies, annuities, pensions, retirement plans – anything denominative dollars that are not going to go up when the inflation kicks in

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You don’t need a Soloflex, a Bowflex, a treadmill, racks of weights, or a gym membership. Just do these basic exercises and you will be fitter than 95% of the population.

Five Basic Exercises to Get You Fit:

Push-up

Squat

Plank

Pull-up

Shoulder Press

Courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple

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Did Bad Science and Big Business Create the Obesity Epidemic?

David Diamond, Ph.D., of the University of South Florida College of Arts and Sciences shares his personal story about his battle with obesity. Diamond shows how he lost weight and reduced his triglycerides by eating red meat, eggs and butter. Sound a lot like the paleodiet, yes?

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Tips for Overall Health

This is how I try to stay healthy:

Optimizing health and preventing disease involves eating well, being physically active, avoiding toxins, and enjoying good mental health.

Eating well:

The average American diet is, well, awful.  Americans suffer from more chronic health problems than any other culture. Why?  We eat low-vitamin-content food that our bodies aren’t designed to use in an optimal way.

Much modern “food” messes up digestion, leads to obesity, and triggers or exacerbates many auto-immune diseases.

You are what you eat after all, right? Why not eat what the human body is designed to consume?  Eat real food! (Just in case you were wondering, a Twinkie is not real food.)

Here’s what I avoid eating:  1) refined sugar, 2) grains, and 3) vegetable oils.   Along with the “big 3” listed above, I don’t eat many legumes.

The above mentioned foods are toxic to some degree for most people. Although these foods don’t typically make us acutely ill, we are more likely to develop “chronic” symptoms if we eat them for long enough.  I call these chronic problems diseases of civilization, because they rarely existed prior to the modern diet or among present-day indigenous cultures that eat natural foods. These diseases include diabetes, auto-immune diseases, heart disease, some cancers, degenerative neurologic diseases, and many others.

If you avoid “the big 3” mentioned above, you are unlikely to be obese or get diabetes, and you’ll also reduce your risk of cancer, auto-immune disease, and heart disease. Here’s a short explanation why I don’t eat these foods.

• Sugar causes insulin spikes.  Insulin is a hormone that keeps your blood sugar from going too high after you eat.  The human body doesn’t know how to handle a cup of sugar. Insulin spikes are bad because they trigger excessive appetite and eventually, obesity. Insulin spikes also burn out the pancreas, which leads to Type 2 diabetes. Sugar in the diet also causes “glycation”, an oxidative process that damages tissues, especially arteries, thus increasing the risk of heart attacks.  Sugar makes you fat, especially around the waist, and the bigger your belly, the more likely you are to have a diabetes or heart problems.
• Grains trigger a hyperactive immune response in many people and damage the protective lining of the gut. This makes the gut “leaky” which allows all sorts of bad things to enter the circulation that shouldn’t.  The immune system has to deal with more than it can handle. This causes a well-tuned immune system to go a bit haywire, inappropriately attacking “innocent bystanders” like thyroid tissue, brain tissue, lung tissue, etc. This haphazard stimulation of the immune system can exacerbate thyroid problems, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, eczema and many others.  Another problem with grains, it that they spike insulin levels just as much as pure sugar does. So with grains, you give yourself a double whammy:  hyperactive insulin and a hyperactive immune system.
•  Just like grains, vegetable oils and margarine have chemical structures that fire up the immune system in an indiscriminate fashion. Vegetable oils such as those derived from sunflower, safflower, canola, corn and soy contain an excessive amount of omega-6 fatty acids relative to omega-3 fatty acids.  If you eat too much omega-6, your body overproduces inflammatory proteins that can lead to health problems.

So, what’s good to eat?

• Pretty much all veggies in any quantity you like.  Get all the colors: green, yellow, red, purple, orange, and white, but go easy on the starchy potatoes.
• Fruit: 2-3 pieces of fruit a day is okay, but eat less if you have diabetes, or need to lose some weight, or have irritable bowels.
• Fish, including the skin if you like it. Salmon is a super-food. Eat fish often. If you don’t like fish, take a fish oil, cod liver oil, or krill oil supplement to get your Omega-3 fatty acids.
• Grass-fed or “free-range” meats:  beef, lamb, pork, turkey, chicken, etc. Wild game is great, too.  Grass-fed meat has higher omega-3s and many other nutrients than does “feed-lot” produced meat.  Find a local rancher.
• Shell-fish if you’re not allergic.
• Butter and cream from pasture-fed cows. Dairy fats are easy to digest and cause less insulin activity than lactose, the dairy sugar in milk. Some people do fine with lactose, but if you get bloated or gassy with milk, hold off.  Whole milk is okay.
• Eggs, especially from “free-range” chickens that can eat insects, worms, and grass.
• Organ meats like liver and heart.
• Use butter, ghee, lard, sesame, or coconut oil.
• Small amounts of nuts.
• Something with “healthy” bacteria: kefir, Greek yogurt, homemade sauerkraut, etc.
• Seaweed. Yes, seaweed.
• Dark chocolate.
• Drink plenty of water. Avoid other beverages.

Beans and other legumes are okay when sprouted or cooked for a long-time, but these foods have proteins that can damage the gut lining in some people, just like the grains do, so I can’t give them a total green light. They might be okay in small amounts.

What do I eat? I love grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, salmon, pastured eggs, butter, cream, yams, beets, carrots, squash, cabbage, kale, parsnips, potatoes, greens, berries, oranges, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and small swallows of unsweetened grape juice.  A chunk of dark chocolate is a great treat. Compared to the high sugar, grain and vegetable oil diet, it is much easier for me to stay at a healthy weight or lose a few pounds if I want to.

If eating this way sounds too complicated, you can get started on the way to much better nutrition by simply cutting way down on sugar, grains, and vegetables oils, and eat “everything else.”

If you want to lose weight, keep your daily carbohydrate intake between 50-100grams and get the rest of your calories for the day from fat and protein. If there is a secret to weight loss, this is it. The magic number for weight loss is around 1600 cal/day, give or take a few hundred calories.

Here’s a site with plenty of recipes: http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex

You can track your calories at https://tracker.dailyburn.com/v

Eating this way will raise HDL, lower triglycerides, and improve the lipoprotein pattern.  It will also keep insulin, body inflammation, and autoimmune responses down.  It will also decrease abdominal fat. These parameters are just as important as total cholesterol or LDL.

Make sure you are Vitamin D replete: Many people living in northern latitudes  are deficient.  Aim for a Vitamin D level of 60-80.  If you’re never out in the sun, this might necessitate taking 1,000-4,000 IU of Vitamin D daily. Get your level checked a few times a year. (Summer and winter, for example.) Low Vitamin D is associated with bone problems, asthma, heart disease, dementia, cancer, depression, sluggish digestion, and hormone imbalances.

Exercise: Both resistance and “aerobic” exercise have benefits. Belonging to a gym isn’t necessary if you don’t want to. Running is okay, but most of us weren’t meant to be marathoners. “Jogging” is not the best use of your exercise time in most instances.  It’s pretty boring and pounds your joints.  Instead, try resistance exercise, like push-ups, chin-ups, weight lifting, kettle-bells, and flexibility exercise, like yoga or Pilates. Strength and flexibility are just as important as cardiovascular fitness, so mix things up.  My basic routine is a daily walk, calisthenics or weight lifting twice a week, and wind-sprints once a week.

Avoiding toxins:  

Avoid smoking, excessive alcohol, illicit drugs, or getting hooked on prescription drugs. These highly addictive “toxins” will ruin your health, as well as your family-life and career.  Just don’t go there. If this is a problem for you, get support, and get off these damaging substances. Additionally, don’t eat packaged, canned, or genetically modified food if you can help it. Avoid artificial flavors, colorings, or sweeteners.

Sleep:  Sleep is an under-appreciated component of good health. Get 8-11 hours. Dim the lights after 6pm. Don’t drink caffeine after noon, if at all. Lighted screens such as the T.V., computer, and iPads activate the “awake” center in the brain, so turn them off after 8pm or so. Your bed should be for sleep, not reading, worrying, watching T.V. or doing computer work. Keep a regular sleep schedule by going to sleep and waking up at the roughly the same hours on both weeknights and weekends. Try to avoid sleeping pills. Don’t exercise right before bed. Keep your bedroom dark, cool, and devoid of gadgets or any blinking or flashing light sources.  If you snore, are overweight, or fall asleep at movies, get checked for sleep apnea.

Mental Health: Most people are stressed-out, sleep-deprived, over-worked, depressed, or anxious. Not good! Stress causes or worsens all sorts of diseases. If you can make some basic changes that make your life less stressful, do it! Simplify.  The diet mentioned above will go a long way to improve mental function, too.  In addition, meditate, sleep (8-11 hours), take slow deep breaths, engage in pleasurable activities, exercise, get outside, play, go dancing, and explore your passions. A life without pleasure and zest is no life at all. Balance relaxation with productive work. Nurture your relationships. If you’re in an abusive situation, by all means get out, and get help.  In most instances, however, no one cares about you as much as your family and friends, so nurture those close associations for your mutual benefit and health.

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Mark Steyn Says America Is on Its Way to Armageddon.

Mark Steyn is the bestselling author of the book America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It.

His writing on war, economics, politics, the arts, and culture has appeared in almost every major newspaper around the world, from The Wall Street Journal to The Irish Times to The Australian. In the United States he is National Review’s “Happy Warrior,” as well as a regular guest-host on America’s top talk-radio programs.

In the video that follows, he lays out a case for what’s wrong with America, including California :).

Here’s Mr. Steyn at his irreverent, witty, and controversial best:

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An insightful, lucid conversation with the grand old man of energy science, Colin Campbell. He discusses peak oil, conservation, and human adaptation to less energy per capita.

In conversation with Dr. Colin J Campbell… by LocalCampus

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What to eat when you’ve cut out sugar, grain, vegetable oil, legumes, and lactose?

Well, lots of awesome stuff: grass-fed beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, pork, ahi, salmon, halibut, trout, kale, cabbage, spinach, squash, onions, garlic, leeks, lettuce, yams, carrots, parsnips, oranges, grapefruit, bananas, peaches, pears, apricots, walnut, hazelnuts, and… butter!

How’s this sound for breakfast? Steak and eggs with garlic, mushrooms, onions, steamed spinach and some oranges wedges.

Yeah, I love eating this way.  I feel satisfied, strong, and lean.

Here’s some great websites to get you thinking about how to cook…PaleoStyle.

Websites with PaleoDiet Recipes:

Balanced Bites

Nom Nom Paleo

Every Day Paleo

Paleo Comfort Foods

Well Fed

Health-Bent

Here are some excellent books, too:

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Here’s what I avoid eating: 1) refined sugar, 2) grains, and 3) vegetable oils. Along with the “big 3” listed above, I eat very little dairy, legumes, or nuts.

The above mentioned foods are toxic to some degree for most people. Although these foods typically do not cause “acute” symptoms, you are more likely to develop “chronic” symptoms if you eat them for long enough. I call these diseases of civilization, because they rarely existed before the modern diet or among present-day indigenous cultures that eat natural foods. These problems include diabetes, auto-immune diseases, heart disease, some cancers, degenerative neurologic diseases, and many others.

If you avoid “the big 3” mentioned above, you are unlikely to be obese or get diabetes, and you’ll also cut your risk of cancer, auto-immune disease, and heart disease. Here’s a short explanation why I don’t eat these foods.

• Sugar causes insulin spikes. Insulin is a hormone that keeps your blood sugar from going too high after you eat. Insulin spikes are bad because they trigger excessive appetite and eventually, obesity. Insulin spikes also burn out the pancreas, which leads to Type 2 diabetes. Sugar in the diet also causes “glycation”, an oxidative process that damages tissues, especially arteries, thus increasing the risk of heart attacks. Sugar makes you fat, especially around the waist. The bigger your belly, the more likely you are to have a heart attack or a stroke.

• Grains trigger a hyperactive immune response in many people and damage the protective lining of the gut. This makes the gut “leaky” which allows all sorts of bad things to enter the circulation that shouldn’t. This causes a normal well-tuned immune system to go a bit haywire, inappropriately attacking “innocent bystanders” like thyroid tissue, brain tissue, lung tissue, etc. This haphazard stimulation of the immune system can exacerbate thyroid problems, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, eczema and many others. Another problem with grains, it that they spike insulin levels just as much as pure sugar does. So with grains, you give yourself a double whammy: hyperactive insulin and a hyperactive immune system.

• Along with refined sugars and grains, vegetable oils are also too “new” from an evolutionary standpoint to be part of a proper diet. Just like grains, vegetable oils have chemical structures that fire up the immune system in an indiscriminate fashion. Vegetable oils contain an excessive amount of omega-6 fatty acids relative to omega-3 fatty acids. If you eat too much omega-6, your body over-produces inflammatory proteins and makes too many oxidized “free radicals” that damage your body.

So, what’s good to eat?

• Grass-fed or “free-range” meats: beef, lamb, pork, turkey, chicken, etc. Wild game like elk, venison, or bison is great, too.
• Fish, including the skin if you like it.
• Shell-fish if you’re not allergic.
• Eggs, especially from “free-range” chickens that can eat insects, worms, and grass.
• Organ meats like liver and heart.
• Pretty much all veggies and fruits. Get all the colors: green, yellow, red, purple, orange, and white. You can’t over-eat vegetables. One or two pieces of fruit a day is good.
• Butter from pasture-fed cows.
• Small amounts of nuts.
• Dairy fats are okay.
• Seaweed.
• Dark chocolate.

Beans and other legumes are okay when sprouted or cooked for a long-time, but these foods have proteins that can damage the gut lining in some people, so I can’t give them a total green light. They might be okay in small amounts.

What do I eat? My staples are grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, salmon, pastured eggs, butter, cream, yams, beets, carrots, squash, parsnips, potatoes, greens, kale, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, berries, oranges, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and small swallows of unsweetened grape juice. A chunk of dark chocolate is a great treat.

If eating this way sounds too complicated, you can get start on the way to better nutrition by simply cutting down on sugar, grains, and vegetables oils, and eat “everything else.”

Eating this way will raise HDL, lower triglycerides, and increase the size of lipoproteins to healthful levels. It will also keep insulin, body inflammation, and autoimmune responses down. It will also decrease abdominal fat. These parameters are more important that total cholesterol or LDL. Terry Wahls MD Cured her MS with a PaleoDiet. Who knows what you might cure?

Eat well!

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