Posted on - 5 Comments on Two Years on the Shangri-La Diet

Two Years on the Shangri-La Diet

Alex Chernavsky, who often comments here, has updated his Shangri-La Diet (SLD) page. It now shows his weight over four years: two years before he started SLD and two years that he has been doing it.

Before he started SLD he was slowly gaining weight. After he started SLD, he went from 220 pounds (BMI = 32) to 193 pounds. He slowly gained a few pounds. Then (on my advice) he added a tablespoon of nose-clipped coconut butter and the steady climb stopped. Ffor about nine months has been steady at 195  pounds (BMI = 28). In other words, there is no sign that he is regaining the lost weight.

Because Alex has added a lot of omega-3 to his diet (via flaxseed oil), I’m sure his health has improved in other ways. Because he is a vegan, he had no interest in a conventional (Atkins) low-carb diet.

Alex reminded me that a doctor named Quigley left the following comment:

I’ve tried to find data that your diet works for SUSTAINED weight reduction in a study that would be applicable to a generalizable population. As you know, temporary weight loss is relatively easy. Sustained weight loss (wt loss > 2 yrs), is hard. If your diet can do it, I’d prescribe it every day.

 

Posted on - 17 Comments on Flaxseed Oil Alleviates Psoriasis and Lichen Planus

Flaxseed Oil Alleviates Psoriasis and Lichen Planus

Two months ago I wrote that camelina oil might be a good source of omega-3. A few days ago, a reader named Evelyn Majidi commented as follows:

Based on this suggestion, I ordered camelina oil from the good farmers in Saskatchewan and began taking it using the same dose (3T/day) that I had been taking of flaxseed oil for relief of psoriasis and lichen planus. Unfortunately, the slow but sure improvement I had been experiencing over the past year with flaxseed oil stopped immediately and after a week my skin and mouth began to deteriorate. After using about 1/4 of a bottle of the new oil I went back to flaxseed and am delighted to report that I am [again] having good results with it. Since both of my conditions wax and wane without any reason identified by medical science I cannot state that it was simply the flaxseed oil that has led to this success. Based on my experience, however, I intend to continue taking the oil regularly and I recommend that others with psoriasis or lichen planus try it. For me, two tablespoons a day were not enough, I needed three tablespoons of the oil to see a change. I don’t think it advisable to take capsules, you’d need to take too many to equal 3T of oil.[emphasis added]

Psoriasis is a skin disease that usually involves “thick, red skin with flaky, silver-white patches called scales”. Lichen planus is “an itchy rash on the skin or in the mouth”. To give some idea of how common they are, psoriasis has 36 million Google hits; lichen planus 1-2 million. (“Heart disease” has 64 million.)

Eveyln’s experience provides four pieces of evidence that suggest flaxseed oil (FSO) improved her psoriasis and lichen planus:

  1. When she started taking FSO at 3 T/day, they started improving. They did not improve with 2 T/day.
  2. Over the first year of FSO, she saw steady improvement in both in place of the usual up and down.
  3. When she replaced FSO with another oil, which she hoped would be better, the results were the opposite of what she wanted: The improvement stopped and the two conditions got worse.
  4. When she switched back to FSO, the improvement resumed.

I can think of no plausible alternative to the conclusion that FSO helped. There is plenty of other evidence that supports this conclusion: the evidence that omega-3 is anti-inflammatory, FSO is high in omega-3, most of us don’t get enough omega-3, and so on, including my own experience. You could write a book about the evidence that supports it. (Evelyn tried flaxseed oil because of reports on this blog that it improved/cured bad gums.)

In any case, the conclusion that FSO reduces psoriasis and lichen planus is new, in the sense that FSO (or another source of omega-3) is not a popular treatment for either condition. Here are about 16 treatments for psoriasis, including topical corticosteroids. None includes omega-3. Here are eight “lifestyle and home remedies” for psoriasis, including “take daily baths” (seriously, Mayo Clinic Staff?). None includes omega-3. After going through about forty-odd treatments, I found a reference to fish oil: “Other research has suggested that taking oral fish oil supplements containing 1.8 to 3.6 grams of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) a day may bring improvement.”

Same thing for lichen planus. FSO is not a popular treatment.

If you take flaxseed oil or other omega-3 source to treat psoriasis or lichen planus, I hope you will let me know what happens.

Posted on - 21 Comments on An Unbiassed View of What We Should Eat . . . From a Rat

An Unbiassed View of What We Should Eat . . . From a Rat

In nature animals must choose a healthy diet based on what tastes good. This doesn’t work for modern humans — lots of people eat poor diets — but why it fails is a mystery. There are many possible reasons. Are the wrong (“unnatural”) foods available (e.g., too much sugar, too little omega-3, not enough fermented food)? Is something besides food causing trouble (e.g., too little exercise, too little attention to food)? Are bad cultural beliefs too powerful (e.g., “low-fat”, desire for thinness)? Is advertising too powerful? Is convenience too powerful? Lab animals are intermediate between animals in nature and modern humans. They are not affected by cultural beliefs, advertising, and convenience (the foods they are offered are equally convenient). Their choice of food may be better than ours.

Nutrition researchers understand the value of studying what lab animals choose to eat. In 1915, the first research paper about “dietary self-selection” was published, followed by hundreds more. The general finding is that in laboratory or research settings, animals choose a relatively healthy diet. There are two variations:

[1.] Cafeteria experiments with chemically defined [= synthesized] diets showed that some of these animals, when offered the separate, purified nutrient components of their usual diet, eat the nutrients in a balance that more or less resynthesizes the original diet and that is often superior to it. [2.] Other animals eat two or more natural foods in proportions that yield a more favorable balance of nutrients than will any one of these foods alone.

Both findings imply that housing an animal in a lab does not destroy the mechanism that tells it what to eat.

Which is why I was fascinated to recently learn what Mr. T (pictured above), the pet rat of Alexandra Harney, the author of The China Price, and her husband, liked to eat. It wasn’t obvious. “We tried so many foods with him and always thought it made a powerful statement that even a wild rat turned his nose up at potato chips,” says Alexandra. “He hated most processed food. He also hated carrots, though.” Here are his top three foods:

  1. pate
  2. salmon sashimi
  3. scrambled eggs

Pate = protein, animal fat, complex flavors (which in nature would have been supplied by microbe-rich, i.e., fermented, food). Salmon sashimi = protein, omega=3. Scrambled eggs = ??

He liked beer in moderation, but not yogurt. “Owners of domestic rats say they love yogurt,” says Alexandra, “but Mr T only liked it briefly and then hated it, even lunging to bite a friend who brought him some. [Curious.] He loved cheese, stored bread for future consumption (but almost never ate it). Loved pesto sauce and coconut.” Note the absence of fruits and vegetables. Alexandra and her husband have no nutritional theories that I am aware of. They did not shape this list to make some point.

For me the message is: Why scrambled eggs? I too like eggs and eat them regularly and cannot explain why.

More Alex Tabarrok’s Thanksgiving post shows the connection between libertarian ideas (economies work better when more choice is allowed) and dietary self-selection.

Posted on - 15 Comments on Flaxseed Oil Heals Bleeding Gums, Again

Flaxseed Oil Heals Bleeding Gums, Again

In response to this post, which went up three months ago, a reader named Tara has just written:

I started taking 2 TB of flax oil daily about four days ago and now my gums are barely bleeding at all after I brush and floss. My gums were red, swollen and would bleed after I brushed and flossed and are now pink and healthy looking.

I’ve had this problem for years and I could not understand why it would keep happening even though I was consistent with my dental routine. I take the berry flavored Barlean’s flax oil mainly because it tastes good and so I look forward to taking it- if it was gross I would not be consistent with taking it.

Anyhow, thanks for the information! I wish dentists would look into this but they probably won’t so I’m glad that you do.

I agree about the Barlean’s, by the way. Their Omega Swirl flaxseed oil does taste good. The Omega Swirl webpage does not list healthy gums as one of its benefits. Instead it lists a bunch of benefits, such as “Heart Health” that are nearly impossible to verify.

Someone recently told me something fascinating about flaxseed oil: It made it much easier to kneel on the floor.  Before he started taking it, his knees would hurt after a few seconds. Now they don’t. I don’t remember my knees hurting quickly but I consume 66 g/day of ground flaxseed (= about 2 T flaxseed oil) and can kneel without pain for minutes.

The tiny fact reflected in Tara’s comment — an easily-available supplement (flaxseed oil) quickly cures a common problem (bleeding gums) but hardly anyone knows this — is  a devastating comment on our health care system.

1. Dentists haven’t managed to figure this out. Flaxseed oil is not an obscure supplement. Dentists are not making money giving people much worse advice (“floss regularly”).

2. Nutrition professors haven’t managed to figure this out. Omega-3 is not an obscure nutrient. Nevertheless, the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines says omega-3 fats are “essential” but says nothing about how much you need. Inflammation is believed to be the cause of many diseases, including heart disease. By getting this one thing  (minimum omega-3 intake you need to be healthy) right, the USDA could do a world of good. Instead they tell people to eat less animal fat (“consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids”).

To be fair, professional researchers are starting to figure this out.  A 2010 study of 9000 people found that “participants in the middle and upper third for omega-3 fatty acid consumption were between 23 percent and 30 percent less likely to have gum disease than those who consumed the least amount of omega-3 fatty acids.” With the right dose, I believe gum disease becomes 100% less likely. But at least they noticed a connection.

 

Posted on - 10 Comments on Brain Surprise! Why Did I Do So Well?

Brain Surprise! Why Did I Do So Well?

For the last four years or so I have daily measured how well my brain is working by means of balance measurements and mental tests. For three years  I have used a test of simple arithmetic (e.g, 7 * 8, 2 + 5). I try to answer as fast as possible. I take faster answers to indicate a better-functioning brain.

Yesterday my score was much better than usual. This shows what happened.

My usual average is about 550 msec or more; my score yesterday was 525 msec. An unexplained improvement of 25 msec.

What caused the improvement? I came up with a list of ways that yesterday was much different than usual, that is, was an outlier in other ways. These are possible causes. From more to less plausible:

1. I had 33 g extra flaxseed last night. (By mistake. I’m not sure about this.)

2. The test came at the perfect time after I had my afternoon yogurt with 33 g flaxseed. When I took flaxseed oil (now I eat ground flaxseed), it was clear that there was a short-term improvement for a few hours.

3. Many afternoons I eat 33 g ground flaxseed with yogurt. Yesterday I ground the afternoon flaxseed an unusually long time, making made the omega-3 more digestible.

4. I did kettlebells swings and a kettlebell walk about 2 hours before the test. These exercises are not new but usually I do them on different days. Yesterday was the first time I’ve done them on the same day. I’m sure ordinary walking improves performance for perhaps 30 minutes after I stop walking.

5. I had duck and miso soup a half-hour before the test. Almost never eat this.

6. I had a fermented egg (“thousand-year-old egg”) at noon. I rarely eat them.

7. I had peanuts with my yogurt and ground flaxseed. Peanuts alone seem to have no effect. Perhaps something in the peanuts improves digestion of the omega-3 in the flaxseed.

8. I started watching faces at 7 am that morning instead of 6:30 am or earlier.

Here are eight ideas to test. Perhaps one or two will turn out to be important. Perhaps none will.

After I made this list, I read student papers. The assignment was to comment on a research article. One of the articles was about the effect of holding a warm versus cold coffee cup. Holding a warm coffee cup makes you act “warmer,” said the article. Commenting on this, a student said she thought it was ridiculous until she remembered going to the barber. She sees the person who washes her hair (in warm water) as friendly, the barber as cold. Maybe this is due to the warm water used to wash her hair, she noted. This made me realize another unusual feature of yesterday: I had washed my hair in warm water longer than usual. I think I did it at least 30 minutes before the arithmetic test but I’m not sure. In any case, here is another idea to test. I found earlier that cold showers slowed down my arithmetic speed.

This illustrates a big advantage of personal science (science done for personal gain) over professional science (science done because it’s your job): The random variation in my life may suggest plausible new ideas. As far as I can tell, professional scientists have learned almost nothing about practical ways to make your brain work better. You can find many lists of “brain food” on the internet. Inevitably the evidence is weak. I’d be surprised if any of them helped more than a tiny amount (in my test, a few msec). The real brain foods, in my experience, are butter and omega-3. Perhaps my tests will merely confirm the value of omega-3 (Explanations 1-3). But perhaps not (Explanations 4-8 and head heating).

Posted on - 18 Comments on New Source of Omega-3?

New Source of Omega-3?

I used to get my omega-3 from flaxseed oil. Then I encountered problems with the flaxseed oil going bad, in the sense of losing potency. (It did not smell bad.) I switched to flax seeds, which I grind and eat with yogurt. This is more difficult than drinking flaxseed oil.

From Peter Spero I have learned of a possible new source of omega-3: camelina oil. Camelina oil, unlike flaxseed oil, contains high levels of anti-oxidants, which protect it from going bad. Camelina is cheap to grow and can be grown where other crops cannot.

Posted on - 10 Comments on Flaxseed in Various Units.

Flaxseed in Various Units.

I eat 66 grams of flaxseed per day. (I eat it with yogurt in two batches. For each batch, I weigh out 33 g of whole flaxseeds then grind them.) Not everyone has a scale, so I found that 100 ml of whole flaxseed weighs about 64 grams. Assuming 1 tablespoon = 15 ml, that’s 6.9 tablespoons/day whole flaxseed. If you are interested in weight/volume conversion, that’s 9.5 g of whole flaxseed = 1 tablespoon. I checked this using two different volume spoons and a scale that matches another scale.

This website says there are 15.02 g of whole flaxseed in a tablespoon. I am measuring brown flaxseeds. Perhaps their golden flaxseeds are smaller and therefore more dense. The overprecision suggests this shouldn’t be trusted.

This website says there 14.17 g of “dry” flaxseed in a tablespoon. Again with the overprecision.

According to this website, there are 7.5 g of whole flaxseed in a tablespoon.

 

Posted on - 3 Comments on Arthritis Relief From Flaxseed Oil

Arthritis Relief From Flaxseed Oil

From the Shangri-La Diet forums:

I have just been doing the flaxseed oil for a few days and I am experiencing a dramatic decrease of my arthritis pain! It is a wonderful benefit. . . . My doctor friend who told me about the SLD told me that the flaxseed oil would help my arthritis as well, but I never expected anything this dramatic or quick!

A friend of mine noticed something similar: his sore back stopped hurting shortly after he started taking flaxseed oil. If he skipped a day or so, the pain returned. Update: Reminded of this, he said, “I had forgotten all about that. When people ask me how my back is I tell them it never bothers me anymore since I stopped going to the gym.”

Update 2: At first the arthritis sufferer took 4 1200-mg capsules 3 times/day — that is, 12 capsules per day. Then she increased her dosage to 6 capsules 3 times/day (= 18 capsules/day).

Update 3. ” Yesterday, I was off to work and could not find my oil capsules.  I didn’t have time to look for them, so I resigned myself to doing sugar water during the day.  . . .  I did notice a small but significant worsening of the pain in my knees.  When I got home, I found the capsules, and began taking them again.  By the time I woke up this morning, I noted that my knees are again feeling better.”

 

Posted on - 12 Comments on Flaxseed Oil Reduces Healing Time

Flaxseed Oil Reduces Healing Time

A few days ago, Dominic Andriacchi, a 25-year-old law student living near Detroit, told me that he mentioned some of my self-experimentation (my discovery that postponing breakfast reduced insomnia) in an Amazon ebook (Law School Livin’) he’d just published. He added that something he read in this blog really helped him:

Thank you for introducing me to flaxseed oil.  Recently, I re-injured my back (a injury that occurred during college football).  While I’ve never seen a doctor for the injury, I did a little internet searching and figured that I had herniated a disk in my lower back.  I also had pain in my leg due to, I presume, pressure on the sciatic nerve from the herniated disk.

He re-injured his back pulling a small tree uphill.

Usually, it takes at least a week for the pain to go away.  I have trouble sitting, walking, and so forth.  That day, because I [had] read the post of Tucker Max’s ankle injury and flaxseed oil, I immediately upped my flaxseed oil to a total of 15 1000mg capsules.  The next day, there was nearly no pain at all.  I could bend over and touch my toes with only the slightest pain.  The day after that, I was back to normal.

Later he added some details:

I took 15 capsules of flaxseed oil [the day of the injury] to see what would happen. There was no immediate benefit that I felt that day, but the next day it was great. Even sitting or the slightest bending can cause a lot of pain, but I was able to bend over and nearly touch my toes. I took another 10 capsules that day as well. The day after that, I was completely pain free. I took more flaxseed oil capsules even though I was experiencing no pain at all. I expected the pain to come back, but it didn’t. From then on, I would just take my normal two flaxseed oil capsules [per day]. I was spacing them out, 5 at a time in between meals.

Posted on - 8 Comments on Many Supplements Taken Together Reduce Depression/Dysthymia

Many Supplements Taken Together Reduce Depression/Dysthymia

At the recent Quantified Self Meetup in Mountain View, Fenn Lipkowitz told me that he had started taking a long list of supplements and now felt much better. At last week’s QS Silicon Valley Meetup, he gave a talk about it. The graph above shows “wellness” ratings before and after the change. Continue reading “Many Supplements Taken Together Reduce Depression/Dysthymia”

Posted on - 11 Comments on My Daily Dose of Flax Seed

My Daily Dose of Flax Seed

Currently I eat 33 grams (= 45 ml = 3 tablespoons) of flax seed in yogurt twice a day. That’s 66 g/day (which contains about 2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil). I grind it for 30 seconds before adding it to the yogurt. I like yogurt with ground flax seed better than yogurt without it, leaving aside the health benefits.

Unlike flaxseed oil, which must be kept cool, flax seed can be stored at room temperature, which makes a huge difference. I discovered that Chinese flaxseed oil was worthless, presumably because it hadn’t been kept cool. To bring American flaxseed oil to China was a nightmare — lugging it, trying to keep it cool. Chinese flax seed is fine, and not hard to get in Beijing.

Posted on - 17 Comments on Flaxseed Oil Cures Bleeding Gums in Three Days

Flaxseed Oil Cures Bleeding Gums in Three Days

I am pleased by these results:

After a possibly overzealous dentist told me I need a gum graft [which may cost $3000], my husband encouraged me to start taking flaxseed oil. A few people online have reported that flaxseed oil dramatically improved their gum health, and we figured it was worth a shot.

My initial dose of flaxseed oil was two tablespoons a day, and my gums stopped bleeding and hurting within three days. This is pretty huge for me, because my gums have been bleeding since I was in junior high. [Emphasis added.] At the same time, I added using a Sonicare toothbrush and flossing a little more vigorously. Considering that I had tried these things in the past without the flaxseed oil and they only made me bleed more, I feel like the flaxseed oil is the difference maker.

I have subsequently reduced my flaxseed oil dose to one tablespoon, which I feel is more appropriate for a woman my size. I haven’t gained any weight from the flaxseed oil, which was a bit of a surprise. Taking it in the morning seems to help curb my appetite by at least the 130 calories it consumes.

The online reports she mentions are from this blog. A recap: Because of the Shangri-La Diet, one evening I took four or five flaxseed oil capsules. The next morning, I was surprised to notice that putting on my shoes standing up, which I’d done hundreds of times, was much easier than usual. This suggested that the flaxseed oil had improved my balance. I started to carefully measure my balance and varied my flaxseed oil intake. My measurements showed that variations in amount of flaxseed oil really did affect my balance. They also suggested the best dose. My balance improved up to a dose of 3 tablespoons/day of flaxseed oil. So the best dose was about 3 tablespoons per day. I blogged about this.

Tyler Cowen, inspired by my results, started taking 2 tablespoons/day. A month later, he no longer needed gum surgery. Knowing nothing about my flaxseed oil intake or Tyler Cowen’s results, my dentist told me my gums were in excellent shape, better than ever. My sister’s gums showed similar improvement. Tucker Max noticed his gums stopped bleeding after he started taking flaxseed oil. He’d had bleeding gums most of his adult life. Nothing else had helped. He also found training injuries healed faster. When he stopped drinking flaxseed oil, his gums soon got worse. Carl Willat noticed dramatic gum improvement. Joyce Cohen had excellent results (her gums were “in great shape — better than ever”). Tim Beneke and Jack Rusher had similar results. Gary Wolf, on the other hand, didn’t like the mental effects. A recent epidemiological study found a weak correlation between inflamed gums and omega-3 intake.

What have I learned? Above all, that such a pattern of results is possible. These results suggest there was/is a big hole in the usual nutritional ideas. Tyler Cowen, me, my sister, etc., were eating a conventionally “good diet” yet there was a lot of room for improvement, both in brain function and overall inflammation level. (I’m sure flaxseed oil heals gums because it reduces inflammation.) And improvement wasn’t hard — there was a simple fix. In other words, omega-3 deficiency is very common. The conventional deficiency diseases, such as scurvy and pellagra, were/are rare. They appeared only under extreme conditions with very limited diets (e.g., prison, long sea voyage). Yet just as scurvy and pellagra are easily cured, there is a simple cure for omega-3 deficiency: about 2 tablespoons/day of flaxseed oil. (Perhaps ground flaxseed is an even better source.)

Other facts support the idea of widespread omega-3 deficiency. When gums are very red, and bleed very easily, it’s called gingivitis. According to this article, ” estimates of the general prevalence of adult gingivitis vary from approximately 50 to 100%”. Heart disease is common. There’s plenty of evidence that heart disease is caused by inflammation (gated). For example, it’s well-known that inflamed gums correlate with heart disease. Statins may reduce heart disease — to the mild extent they do — because they reduce inflammation.

I also learned that psychology can help improve general health (too much inflammation causes all sorts of problems, as Tucker Max’s experience suggests). My background in experimental psychology made it easy for me to measure balance.  I also found other mental tests were sensitive to flaxseed oil. These mental tests were like an animal model in the sense that they made helpful experiments (e.g., different doses) much easier. My friend Kenneth Carpenter, in his book about the discovery of Vitamin C (gated), stressed the importance of an animal model of scurvy. Once the best dose of flaxseed oil (for me) was known, it turned out to be easy to take a dose that produced dramatic improvement (in others).

The idea that psychology and self-experimentation can improve overall health is new. I presented my flaxseed oil results at a meeting of the Psychonomic Society a few years ago. After my talk, one member of the audience, a professor of psychology at Illinois State University, angrily complained that my talk was “pop culture” — not even pop psychology — and said I shouldn’t have been allowed to speak. He thought I had made elementary mistakes.

Flaxseed oil better than fish oil. Bad results of flaxseed oil.

Posted on - 15 Comments on Tucker Max on Omega-3 and Writing Ability

Tucker Max on Omega-3 and Writing Ability

Re-reading an old post recently, I found this comment by Tucker Max:

I took four tablespoons [of flaxseed oil] a few hours ago, instead of the regular two, thinking that maybe I could load up and it might help me get back to normal quickly. The pain is pretty much the same, and I just brushed and my gums bled, so obviously the flaxseed oil takes more than a few hours to affect those problems. But–and I haven’t measured this with reaction tests like you do–I feel considerably more mentally alert right now. I don’t know if I felt like this before, and maybe I didn’t notice it because it came on slowly, or maybe I need four tablespoons at once to see a difference, but I really do feel the difference.

By coincidence I had noticed the same thing the day before: I was distinctly sharper than usual a few hours after drinking flaxseed oil (two tablespoons), as measured by my arithmetic test. I had noticed the same thing twice before — years earlier — but had decided not to study it in detail because it was much easier to study the long-term effects of flaxseed oil.

I wrote Tucker to say he had been right. He replied:

Yeah, there’s zero doubt in my mind now that fish oil/omega 3 is crucial to brain function. If I don’t take it, I can’t write effectively.

That’s very interesting. Sure, drugs have short-term effects. If you ingest caffeine, for example, it will make you more awake for a few hours. But drugs are dangerous. The notion that a necessary nutrient has benefits that last only a few hours is new. (The notion that a necessary nutrient can make us distinctly sharper will also be new to most people, but not to readers of this blog.) Perhaps we should eat omega-3 every few hours. You’ve heard of RDAs (Recommended Daily Allowances). Perhaps the future will contain RHAs (Recommended Hourly Allowances).

If you haven’t been reading this blog for several years, see these posts for background. Flaxseed oil also will make you smarter long-term, e.g., the next day. The short-term effect is in addition to the long-term effect.

 

Posted on - 4 Comments on Assorted Links

Assorted Links

Thanks to Dave Lull and Alex Chernavsky.

Posted on - 2 Comments on Tucker Max on Paleo: “I Started Feeling So Much Better”

Tucker Max on Paleo: “I Started Feeling So Much Better”

In this interview, Tucker Max talks about eating paleo.

Once I started doing this, I started feeling so much better. My brain felt like it worked better. Everything about me improved. So I kinda went down the rabbit hole, and I started reading up on diet and nutrition from alternate sources. Art De Vany, Robb Wolf, and Loren Cordain, they didn’t invent it but they kinda popularized the concept of paleo eating. I realized that if you’re just a normal person, and you have the normal ideas about diet and nutrition, everything you know is wrong.

If you ask me, Tucker’s enthusiasm/support for paleo is huge. Max Planck said progress happens funeral by funeral.  I say it happens keg party by keg party — college students, more than anyone else, have open minds. A friend told me that when she was a freshman in college, her sociology professor criticized the textbook. Whoa! she thought. Textbooks can be criticized!? She had thought they were beyond criticism. As far as I can tell, American college students respect Tucker more than they respect anyone else. (My Tsinghua students may favor Nassim Taleb.) For example, this recent tweet: “TuckerMax is my idol. and he’s on this paleodiet…so i think im going to do it too.”  I found no tweets about the dietary influence of Michelle Obama (“coolest First Lady ever“).

In spite of what the interview was shortened to say, Tucker got the idea of eating flaxseed oil from this blog, especially Tyler Cowen’s experience. He wrote to me about it at the time. I posted his comments about dental health (here and here) and sports injuries (here, here and here) under the name Anonymous.

I am pleased to announce that Tucker will be talking at the upcoming Ancestral Health Symposium at UCLA. The title of his talk is::

From Cave to Cage: Mixed Martial Arts in Ancestral Health

Sorry Tucker Max fans, symposium tickets are sold out. But after the conference you will be able to see the talk on the website.

Tucker’s latest book is Assholes Finish First.


Posted on - 16 Comments on Root Planing Cancelled

Root Planing Cancelled

My friend Carl Willat writes:

Last June I went to the dentist for a checkup and cleaning, fully expecting my gums to be in great shape since I had been diligently using my Braun Oral B electric toothbrush.  To my surprise and disappointment the hygienist told me the pockets had actually become deeper and that she was seeing bleeding in many places, to the point where she was recommending I have my roots planed, a painful and expensive procedure I had undergone once before many years ago. So of course I went home and started taking the flax seed oil and ground flax seed [“a couple of tablespoons a day of oil, plus random amounts of ground flax seed”] as you had recommended.  I also started using a Sonicare toothbrush at that point so it’s hard to figure out the degree to which either variable might be responsible, but today she said my gums were much better, and had hardly bled at all during the measurement of the pockets. All talk of root planing was forgotten.

According to this, root planing costs $400-$1600. After Tyler Cowen started drinking flaxseed oil (2 T/day), he no longer needed gum surgery.

It is hard to get well-preserved flaxseed oil in Beijing (it goes bad at room temperature) so I now take 66 g/day ground flaxseed instead of 2 T/day flaxseed oil. I add it to yogurt twice/day. I don’t know if ground flaxseed is healthier or less healthy than flaxseed oil but it is much less trouble. Preservation is no problem (flaxseeds can be stored at room temperature) and ground flaxseed requires zero willpower to eat with yogurt. I had to push myself a little to drink the oil.

Posted on - 2 Comments on Preposterous Health Claims of 2010

Preposterous Health Claims of 2010

Katy Steinmetz, a writer for Time, made a list called “Nutty Health Claims of 2010” and “2010: The Year in Preposterous Health Claims.” The list of 12 includes:

Preposterous!

Marion Nestle, the New York University nutrition expert, has often said she thinks the health claims made for yogurt are bogus — at least when big companies make them. She recently called Dannon’s claims “a case study of successful marketing”.

Posted on - 5 Comments on Different Effects of Omega-3 and Omega-6 on Heart Disease

Different Effects of Omega-3 and Omega-6 on Heart Disease

You have probably read hundreds of recommendations to eat more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which in practice means omega-6 and omega-3. If you shop at Whole Foods, you may see Udo’s Blend, a blend of PUFAs which includes both omega-3 and omega-6, as if someone isn’t getting enough omega-6. It is unquestionable that omega-3 is beneficial but there is plenty of evidence that omega-6 is harmful, starting with the Israeli Paradox. Why are they lumped together?

A just-published paper in the British Journal of Nutrition makes several new points about the relation of PUFAs and heart disease. Its main point is a new look at experiments in which one group was given more PUFAs than another group.  Those experiments — there are only about eight — can be divided into two groups: (a) experiments in which the treated group was given both omega-3 and omega-6 and (b) experiments in which the treated group was given only omega-6. The two groups of experiments seem to have different results. In the “both” experiments the treated group seems to benefit; in the “only omega-6” experiments, the treated group seems to be worse off. Suggesting that omega-3 and omega-6 have different effects on heart disease. They have been lumped together because experiments have lumped them together (varied both at the same time).
Experiments that try to measure the effect of PUFAs usually say they are replacing saturated fats. More PUFAs, less butter. The paper points out that studies of the effect of PUFAs have at least sometimes confounded reduction in saturated fats with reduction in trans fats. Benefits of the change may be due to the reduction in trans fats, not the reduction in saturate fats.

The paper also makes several good points about the Finnish study, a classic in the fat/heart disease literature. Supposedly the Finnish study showed that PUFAs (replacing saturated fats) reduce heart disease. It had hundreds of subjects but they were not randomized separately. The subjects were divided by hospital. Everyone in one hospital got one diet, everyone in a second hospital got a different diet. This meant it was easy for there to be confoundings (i.e., the treatment wasn’t the only difference between the groups). Indeed, there were big differences in consumption of a certain dangerous medication and margarine between hospitals. (Margarine is high in trans fats.)

Perhaps the first author, Christopher Ramsden, who works at NIH, is responsible for the high quality of this paper.
Thanks to Susan Allport.