If your guru's ideas have an expiration date, maybe it's time to find one whose ideas have a longer shelf life.

Have you just stumbled upon an old book, blog post, interview, etc. from your favorite guru only to have someone exclaim how old that is and how your guru's opinions have changed?  It might be time for a new guru.

Quick background here.  First, no I haven't dropped the Paleo ApprovED issue, but there are some things related and lots of stuff unrelated going on that have eaten up time and energy to blog on the subject.  It is a sensitive issue and needs more "care" than your run of the mill blogging.  It is also rather stressful and defeats one of the purposes of this blog as an outlet for my sarcastic side -- for which a post such as this is perfectamundo!    So that said, as I was looking for a post on Robb Wolf's blog (this one) my search also popped up the following post:

Insulin: Anorexic?

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Paleo Water Update

Wasn't sure where to discuss this, but I figured it might as well be on the blog.  A week or so ago, I blogged on Paleo Water.  James Fell also blogged on this atrocity that popped up in ads on Jimmy Moore's Livin la Vida Low Carb blog.  His post:  Paleo has jumped the shark.  

At that time, the Paleo Water page was green and looked like a spoof.  There was a caveman top left, Jimmy Moore's eight year old "thinker pose" photo on top right with “As recommended by Jimmy Moore of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” .  It then listed, along with alkalinity, all the ways paleo water was more like the water our paleolithic ancestors drank.  Free of bacteria and parasites, the water was touted as "as close as scientifically possible to the water our genetic blueprint demands – but no longer receives".  

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Low Carb Circus Acts ...

In the Center Ring:

Jimmy Moore was on the Christian Broadcast Network's 700 Club yesterday.  I was going to leave this just for the social media stuff, but the appearance was quite disturbing in a few ways so I thought I'd share a few thoughts on that.  

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Paleo Water?!

A quickie here, but I know many of my readers don't do the whole social media thing and this is just too something for words (can't even think of a good adjective there!)  

I try and read Jimmy's stuff in a reader to avoid the ads, but there it was ... screenshot right.

So I couldn't resist clicking ... and no, it's not April Fool's Day and no it's not a spoof!  Awww shucks ... you go to the link today and the paleo header is not displaying at the moment :(  It was a Geico-style cave man juxtaposed with Jimmy Moore's "The Thinker" and the LLVLC promo.  Hope they bring it back!!

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A tale of two "Wheat Bellies"

Before Dr. William Davis' name became synonymous with the elusive* Wheat Belly, he was well known for his subscription Track Your Plaque website.   This website currently charges $90 (all prices rounded) for the first year with yearly renewals at $72, for the basic membership ... more for shorter "contracts".  That's just the membership fee, that basically affords you discounts on various TYP products such as your Basic Membership Kit for $70 (reg. $110) or a Supplement Kit for $175 (reg. $215) or the testing kit for a cool $530 (reg. $570).   In the marketplace you can purchase all manner of testing supplies, etc.  

Now Davis is a huge backer of Jimmy Moore's Cholesterol Clarity book.  He contributed to it as an expert, provided an Editorial Review for Amazon.com and, as if that weren't enough, offered up a glowing 5 Star review on same, entitled Cholesterol bashing at its finest.  In it he writes:

Widely-held beliefs, many of them propagated by "official" agencies like the FDA, USDA, American Heart Association, Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition, American Diabetes Association, etc., are crumbling under the scrutiny of informed people uninfluenced by the pharmaceutical industry, agribusiness, or the excessive profiteering ways of modern "healthcare."

Uninfluenced by them, but influenced by profiteers and profiteers in their own right nonetheless.

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Jimmy Moore's Cholesterol Clarity ~ Ongoing Review and Information ~ Most Recent Update 9/19/13

The original opening to this post can be read by scrolling to the end or using your browser search function to find ##### .

The intent of a single post is that for as long as this content is relevant, I will add new information to this post and "bump" it to the top of the feed.  If it grows to be unmanageable, I'll have sections with search strings for easy navigation.  For now, each update will get popped to the top of the feed reader.  New "entries" will be at the top, and will be separated from prior content with "▼▼ Content added XX/XX/XX ▼▼".    Different topics within each update will be separated by ***** and a horizontal line ... like this:

***** ▼▼ Content added 9/19/13 ▼▼ 

---

Interpreting Cholesterol Panels?

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When Size Matters (and when it doesn't) ...

Off the bat notice:  This will not be one of my usual referenced posts.  It's off the top of my head but based on research and the statements of others made in the past.  So if I get something wrong please let me know, if you want links and references, please ask and as soon as time permits I will get to them.  I am very busy with other matters besides this blog at the moment so please be patient.  Thanks!  

I think it is fair to say that Dr. Dayspring is "the particle number guy".  For good reason.  Of the various lipoprotein biomarker predictors these days, apoB and LDL-P seem to be the leaders of the pack.  But what of LDL-C?   For all the caution expressed by those clinging to TWICHOO about not throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, these same people seem more than willing to throw out the bathtub, fixtures and attached plumbing!

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JimKKKins: The Saga of Jimmy Moore and David Duke

Random Replay:

I had just recently updated this post to put the summary and links but didn't think it was necessary to bump.  As far as I was concerned, this whole sad saga was in the past, and the members of the paleo and low carb communities spoke with their actions, for better or worse.  Newbies will find it pinned on the sidebar as the most popular post here ... not exactly sure what that means in the end.  I still can't for the life of me figure out why people continue to promote this guy, but to each their own.    Just they can't say they didn't know ... and Jimmy can't claim to be wrongfully accused ... and I still think the Paleo community could learn a thing or two from the Paula Deen story ... 

But then this past week,  Jimmy Moore is at it again bringing up this issue.  Why I have no idea, because one would think he would rather this faded away into the archives.  But in a really strange turn of events, Joe Salama of The Paleo Movement interviewed Jimmy Moore and Jack Kruse:  Jimmy Moore and Jack Kruse discuss controversy within the Paleo community.  

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The Grand Carbohydrate-Cholesterol Switcheroo ~ Are We Repeating History?

In Deep Nutrition, one of the World's best health experts* Dr. Cate Shanahan writes this of cholesterol:

Genetic Experimentation—On You

You may have noticed the various cut-off levels over the years to identify people at “high risk” of a heart attack.  Years ago, if your total cholesterol was 300 or less, your doctor would have said you were fine. Soon, that number was lowered to 200.  Now people also watch their LDL, “safe” levels of which have been lowered from 200 to 160, to 130, to 100, and now 80.  Currently, the average person’s LDL level is still about what it’s always been, around 120–130. The controversial 2001 revision of the cholesterol guidelines means nearly half of the US population can now be labeled “high risk.”  And drug companies are raking it in.

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Crying Wolf II

Crying Wolf

In a 12 point email* to Charles Grashow, dated April 1, 2013, Mark Sisson wrote:

Why discuss this now? Oh ... it probably should have been dealt with months ago, but somehow I expected this would have settled down by now and this wouldn't need to be aired. 

You see, Robb Wolf got mad at me for asking what the paleo diet that the Reno First Responders were counseled to consume actually entails. Or near as I can figure that's what first got under his skin. Either that or the fact that he couldn't then, and still can't now, take a solid position on carbohydrates in the paleo diet. Either way, he felt the need to lie on his website, in this comment:

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Crying Wolf?

NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather
news story link

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Cookies & Calories

As many of my readers are likely aware, I have attracted the attention of a few true bullies and stalkers who consider it noble to ridicule my every word and move.  In line with this, they have picked apart my interview with Jimmy Moore and made fun of various parts.  Two of the issues both happened to involve cookies, hence the title of this post.

My (long, long ago and one time) Cookie Diet:  

The purpose of my interview with Moore was ostensibly to discuss my issues with the science of Gary Taubes.  It wasn't to discuss my own life, weight, history, etc.  However this was around the time of the Twinkie diet so I guess Jimmy felt compelled to waste time (less for the real issues) discussing that.  In that context, I related a story from long ago.  I don't remember exactly what year that was, but as I recall what apartment I baked in I would have been under 25.  My weight struggles were continuing at that time having began with a crash diet in my late teens and progressed through frank eating disorders to mostly a yo-yo weight cycling.  

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Fast or Feltham III

This will be the last of the post with this title, until perhaps sometime in September when Sam Feltham plans to do another publicity stunt the oh so insightful will fawn over and promote as science and whatnot.  However, the post title is a play on "Feast or Famine" and intended to highlight the great disparity between the claims about calories in the "alternate" community and the actual practices engaged in by long time converts to the "opposite of everything we've ever been taught about nutrition" folks.    See: Fast or Feltham and Fast or Feltham II.

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Fast or Feltham II

Busy weekend here!  I'm working on a couple of posts, one of which is a closer look at the 5000 calorie/day stunt by Sam Feltham as that provides a context in which to discuss some common CICO strawmen.  But a comment came across the feed reader yesterday that caught my eye with a few more thoughts in the vein of my first Fast or Feltham post. 

I'm not going to say much more about Feltham here except to say that his experiment was basically "nuts".  The majority of his calories (53%) were from walnuts, pecans and almonds, to the tune of a pound a day, containing more than the entire claimed caloric surplus, and almost the full claimed surplus in nut fat calories.  This was a stunt that demonstrated nothing other than that Feltham likely doesn't digest nuts well, and is using this to promote a rip-off of Jonathan Bailor's clogged sink scam.  But stunts like this bring the calorie deniers out of the woodwork as various folks will be like "did you see this?" and link to various other overeating stunts of years gone by.  LCHF is being sold, still, as a diet where calories don't matter, "overeating" is inane, and you can eat thousands of calories more and not gain weight.  

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Fast or Feltham ...

The title of this post is a play on "feast or famine".   One of the things about blogging, for me anyway, is that over time you accumulate a draft bin full of posts that never get published.  Some of these are on studies I never got the chance to fully flesh out, others are on the "goings on" during a particular time that never seemed appropriate to hit Publish on by the time they were ready.  They are the closest thing I have to a diary and it can often be interesting to read back through the draft bin.  

It is hard to believe that I've been blogging over three years now, and involved in this community for more than another year longer than that.  Barely a blink of an eye compared to some but my how times have changed.  This time four years ago Mark Sisson published Primal Blueprint and Jimmy Moore weighed around 245 lbs after getting down to the mid 230's earlier in the year.  Nobody would have known about or considered eating nothing but eggs for weeks on end ... they would have to wait almost a year and 35 more pounds for that stunt.  This was the hay day of CarbSmart and other companies selling all manner of LC fair from Dreamfields to Julian Bakery to Chocoperfection and more!  

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If they don't buy in ...

Why did he email me?

Why did he answer my emails? 

Why did he invite me to his LinkedIn?

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Terms of Detente.

First, it has been brought to my attention that Richard, who is not involved in this in any way other than devolving once again into derangement, has offered some terms to a detante.  Here is my response:  Remove all of your crap, apologize, make restitution and then read the science on my blog. That's it.   Same for Melissa.

It has also been brought to my attention by a true stalker that there is some "embarrassing" stuff out there about me.  Consider that it is not true and then consider this folks:   There are people out there, including but not limited to Richard who have made actionable statements.  If these impact the life I most certainly have outside of this blog, that's what is called damages.  That's the legal threshold to sue someone, which is usually pretty high, but I don't think any here would argue that this would not qualify if it ever comes to pass.   You can better believe that if pushed, I would spare no expense to hold those responsible to account.  Since I won't have a life (ha ha) I'll have a lot more time on my hands, and think how much more freeing being shackled by this would be.  This includes you Wooo. Speaking of which, take a good look,  all you paleo powers that be,  at who you are aligning with there, if not for my sake but because she and Peter Dobromylskyj have pretty much made their "careers" out of trashing Stephan Guyenet since AHS11.  Wooo better not be employed as a nurse if any of this makes my life difficult or hers will be made difficult as well.  This time that is a promise.  And Carole?

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WOW

Robb Wolf just posted on ItstheWooo's blog.  He is seriously clueless.  Oh he so just buried himself here.  First off he posts on a blog that regularly derides respected Stephan Guyenet.  Second, I didn't "drug him into" Krusegate.  I have emails & tapes.

T'em plates are for display only

This post is inspired by a comment (several actually) left by Libby on Define Paleo first!.  Libby writes:

I simply don't understand the need for so many to vehemently attempt to ridicule or discredit the "Paleo" lifestyle. Whole foods, organic and grassfed when possible. How shocking! And really? Attempting to discredit it because cavemen didn't eat ice cream or something? That's silly. Anyone who understands Paleo realizes its an idea or template, even just a starting point to regain control over one's health, it's not about wearing loincloths and hunting mastodons after a good night's sleep in a cave. All this contention is a waste of time. The USDA, FDA, AHA, ADA....THAT is where contempt belongs, not towards anyone following a whole foods diet and spreading the good word about it. Why be hatin'?

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RCT or Observational Study or Anecdote -- Define Paleo first!

Well, I might as well weigh in on the post of Robb's that got to me on several levels.

Evidence Based Medicine: Fraud, Double Standards And Ignorance

Robb seems upset that some unnamed Twitter adversary who probably got him riled up linking to a piece on Marlene Zuk's Paleo Fantasies book.  The response to this book has been interesting to watch but boils down to "she's all wrong, it's not about re-enactment".   Well blow me down isn't that exactly what the whole Grok thing is? I Caveman?  Some in paleo definitely take that schtick to a greater degree.  But what of the diet?

Can I ask yet again for a definition of what a paleo diet is?  The Paleo Diet (TM Cordain) used to include canola oil ....   Near as I can tell, paleo = grain free.  All else is negotiable.  Dairy?  Grok could have killed a lactating beast so ...  Eat meat morning, noon and night, or just night and by all means eat a lot of fat ... just make sure it's from a grass fed cow.  I mean come on, if there is stereotyping about what the paleo diet is, the paleo peeps have only themselves to blame.  And if there's laughing at their expense, it's only because it is utterly ridiculous to make paleo ice cream and consider putting a stick of butter in your coffee to enjoy with a brick of dark chocolate somehow righteous and evolutionary and really that much different than a home baked chocolate cake or, non-God forbid, a Twinkie. 

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