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Raw Milk Got a Bad Rap
For this bit of science, I’m going to link to the Wall Street Journal article, because there are actually three different studies about raw milk that have been published.
Raw Milk Is a Low-Risk Food
New Studies Confirm: Raw Milk A Low-Risk Food
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Forget Relieving Stress – Here’s How to Prevent Stress
This might seem a bit obvious, since most of us are pretty aware that exercise is a good way to blow off some steam and de-stress. However, it’s actually even better than that.
Here’s the paper (with a very long title):
In this study, the researchers made some mice run on a regular basis and let the others be lazy. They then subjected the mice to stress (cold water) and measured activity in a region of their brain called the ventral hippocampus.
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Study Reveals Significant Fat Loss From One Change
Treadmill desks have been all the rage lately, although I sadly still don’t have one.
This, however, is the first big study I’ve seen on the matter:
Treadmill desks: A 1-year prospective trial
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1 Easy Trick to Get Fewer Wrinkles. This Really Shouldn’t Surprise You.
Turns out that getting “beauty” sleep may not be such a myth after all.
Recently, a group of researchers from Cleveland released this paper:
Effects of Sleep Quality on Skin Aging and Function
The paper is about exactly what you would think it’s about.
In their study, they looked at a number of things, but the one that’s gotten the most attention is the effect that not getting enough sleep has on your skin.
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Review of Part Time Paleo
If there’s one thing that Louise and I love to focus on, it’s simplicity and practicality.
To be fair, I go far beyond simplicity and practicality in many areas of my life. At various times, I’ve been obsessed with music, dance, academics, health, and…girls (before I met Louise of course!). I believe it’s healthy and fun to be obsessed with some things in life. And what those things are depends a lot on what you enjoy and want to become great at.
Nutrition isn’t necessarily something that everybody wants to be GREAT at. We all want to be healthy, to look good naked, and to feel great. But not everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, race in Ironman triathlons, or be a super model.
And that’s why Louise and I love focusing on simplicity and practicality. Even if you do want to be great, you need to start somewhere, and overcomplicating matters is a sure path toward discouragement and resistance.
Nature, Stress, and Salivary Cortisol
That’s a really sexy title for a paper.
(That wasn’t actually the title, but maybe it should have been. Who am I kidding? It’s the worst title for a paper ever.)
Stress is one of those things that we all know we need to control, but very few of us make significant progress.
In many ways, it’s harder to fix than diet, exercise, or sleep.
Nature Kills Stress
In the April Issue of Landscape and Urban Planning (not a journal I usually read, but Mark Sisson linked to the study, so here I am), researchers published this paper:
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The Scientific Way to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies
This is an age-old problem.
What four-year-old really wants to eat his or her vegetables?
Apparently, a large portion of the children in this study decided that they did:
Conceptual Change and the Potential for Increased Vegetable Consumption
How To Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies
The researchers in this study got some of the kids to voluntarily double their vegetable intake during snack times.
How did they do it?
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Is Cheese Off-Limits on a Paleo Diet? – Is Cheese Paleo?
I get questions all the time about different kinds of foods that may or may not be Paleo.
Mostly, it’s about foods that are either in a grey area or else are just sort of exotic.
On the other hand, though, certain types of dairy come up often, and cheese is one of them.
Cheese Is One of the Last Foods I Ever Gave Up
It took me many years.
I could (and will) write an entire article on all the different types of dairy and all the concerns with it, but here are the main considerations:
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How Do I Eat Healthy and Paleo While Traveling
I’ve been Paleo for a very long time. Around 9 years at the time I’m writing this.
And at first, it was very hard for me. But after 3-4 years, it just got easier and easier.
But one thing never seems to get easier.
Traveling is the Hardest Part of Staying Healthy
I love traveling.
In fact, Louise and I often live on the road, without a permanent home. So you can imagine that we travel a lot and face this problem all the time. Check out Louise’s posts of her Top 10 Paleo Snacks For Air Travel here.
It’s also the most popular question I get asked, along with how to eat out well.
How to Stay Healthy and Paleo While Traveling
The most crucial thing you can do is to pack food that you can take to keep you full and not tempted to eat junk.
This may vary from person to person, so I’m going to tell you what we do:
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You’re Going to Love This. How to Use Chocolate as Sunscreen!
Yeah, I really couldn’t resist writing about this study as soon as I saw the title:
(Not as catchy as Chocolate as Sunscreen, but pretty much the same thing.)
Chocolate is Delicious. And Protects Us from the Sun???
Obviously, I immediately imagined smearing myself in chocolate, but the study is actually much more fascinating than that (and has a conclusion that you’ll like more).
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Natural Alternatives to Sunscreen: Can You Use Coconut Oil?
I’ve heard that Pacific Islanders have used coconut oil as sunscreen for many thousands of years.
However, I’ve never been able to find any solid evidence of this.
And over the past few years, this study from India has also been discussed a lot.
In that study, however, coconut oil was shown to block only about 20% of the UV radiation from sunlight. For reference, SPF 15 sunscreen blocks about 94% of UV radiation.
So on the basis purely of how much UV radiation is blocked, coconut oil appears to be a very poor sunscreen.
Natural Alternatives to Sunscreen
What’s So Bad About Soy? Don’t Asians Eat a Lot of It?
I’ve talked about legumes before.
They’re definitely not the worst things you can eat, but you certainly don’t want to make them a big part of your diet.
However, soy (which is a legume), along with peanuts, is probably the most problematic legume you can eat.
Why Soy is So Unhealthy
Like other legumes, soy is generally low in nutritional density compared to many other foods (veggies, meat, fruit, etc.).
It also contains various proteins which tend to irritate the gut.
However, there are 2 issues that are particular to soy:
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What’s the Difference between Paleo and Clean Eating or a Real Foods Diet?
Depending on where you live, what you watch and/or read, and who you talk to, you might hear about many different ways of eating that seem to be the same or very close to Paleo.
And, to be fair, there may or may not be any difference.
It’s almost impossible to pin down every single type of diet/eating plan that comes along.
More and more of the most effective plans/diets are extremely close to Paleo.
Why?
Mostly because it’s what works.
Paleo Versus “Clean Eating”
Ancient Japanese Superfood Will Change Your Life
It’s been described as “strings of soy slime.”
But don’t let its pungent smell, sticky texture and musty taste (which some just call “interesting”) turn you off.
Natt? is anything but nasty when it comes to enhancing your health.
All About Natto
Although made from soy, which Paleo usually says is a no-go, natto is a special kind of soy.
As a nutrient-dense traditional food that originated in Japan, it’s made from whole soybeans that have been soaked, then boiled or steamed and then fermented.
The bacterium strain used in the soybean fermentation is Bacillus subtilis natto, and it takes the soybeans from ho-hum legumes to a potent food supplement with high levels of vitamins and other beneficial qualities.
For the moment, if you’ll suspend natto’s lack of aesthetic appeal, check out…
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What is the Difference Between Raw Honey and Honey?
This is an excellent question, but let’s get something straight first.
Honey is barely Paleo to begin with.
Sure, your ancestors would have eaten whatever honey they could have gotten their hands on, but they didn’t find it very often.
More importantly, honey is still predominantly sugar.
Sugar is not toxic in small amounts, but honey – like any other form of sugar – is very easy to overeat.
Honey, Raw or Otherwise, Should Be Used Sparingly
The difference between raw honey and honey that raw honey is not pasteurized or processed (and is usually not filtered).
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