The Come Alive Project

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  • Energy Bite 357 – What Next? The Carnivore Diet

    Just when you thought you had heard everything about dieting, along comes the newest form of diet, The Carnivore Diet. Let’s see, we’ve had the KETO, Paleo, Atkins, Whole 30, Pritikin, Ornish, South Beach, etc, each with it’s own characteristics, dietary principles, nutrient focus, products and supplements.

    This article is not an endorsement of the Carnivore Diet. I happen to enjoy many fruits and vegetables, and for those I don’t, I add enough herbs and spices to make them tolerable. I also like seeds, and love nuts. The concept of a mostly meat diet is interesting enough to look at, and sometimes even the most controversial thinking has it’s positive attributes.

    In it’s simplest form, you eat only animals, no plants. No nuts, and no seeds. A main thrust is organ meat, particularly liver. It seems there are a ton of nutrients in liver. In a slightly lighter version, you can eat some plants (disguised as vegetables) such as avocados, olives and squashes, plus a few with strange sounding names. No broccoli, no lettuce, no spinach. Honey is part of the diet and some dairy seems to be OK.

    According to it’s proponents, eating a primarily meat diet fulfills all “real” dietary requirements, including enough Vitamin C to prevent scurvy.

    Eat the animal “nose to tail” to get all the benefits. Most people aren’t really interested in eating animal cartilage, so the main proponent of the diet, Dr. Paul Saladino, MD has his own supplement company (of course) and sells ground up and otherwise rendered, inedible animal parts. Dr. Saladino is also the author of The Carnivore Code, which you can find on Amazon.

    It’s hard to say who are the major beneficiaries of this form of diet other than “everybody”. Apparently, Dr. Saladino believes that metabolic efficiency and immune system improvement are the keys to good health and that anyone who wants good health will benefit from the Carnivore Diet. That’s pretty much all of us.

    What does the research/science say? I am not a scientist and have my own problems interpreting research studies. But Mark Sisson, one of the people whom I trust in the Fitness and Nutrition business, does well at interpreting these studies.He published an article on his own blog, Mark’s Daily Apple, where he discusses the the research involved in The Carnivore Diet in detail. It makes interesting reading, so here is the link: https://www.marksdailyapple.com/carnivore-diet-research-science/

    Sisson’s article is very interesting but fairly lengthy. I recommend following the link and reading it. I must point out that Sisson wrote the forward to Dr. Saladino’s book.

    Dr. Saladino has also been on many of he major health and fitness podcasts, including the Joe Rogan Experience and is gaining a following in the field.

    So is an all meat and some fruit diet with no veggies good for us? Will it provide the dietary needs of all of us, particularly seniors? Or is it just another Fad Diet promoted by another supplement salesman? Will it play out after a few short years like most FAD Diets, or will it be around long term. As always, an open mind is needed when absorbing something like this, and as I said above, sometimes the most controversial thinking can provide the most positive results.

    Will it work for you? Should you try it? I must admit that I loved beef liver and onions when I was growing up and asked for it for my birthday dinners when I was in my teens. I still love fried chicken livers to this day. But I did like some sort of veggie to go with them. I still consider vegetables of all sorts to be necessary for good health.

    So, what’s the takeaway here. There is another diet on the scene that is gaining a following. My goal in writing this is simply to make you aware of it and to provide some useful information about it. I get my “ground up animal parts” from gelatin and a Collagen supplement which I wrote about last week. I’m not prepared to give up veggies quite yet.

    So I encourage you investigate further if you want to be primarily a meat eater. If you are vegan or vegetarian, I hope you got a chance to see another “new” choice on the diet spectrum.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 356 – Gelatin, a Secret Ingredient for Seniors

    One of the big dietary “things” over the last two years has been supplementing your diet with gelatin (or sometimes collagen).

    Gelatin is a processed version of the protein collagen, found in humans and animals. Collagen is the most common protein in the human body, making up nearly a third of our total protein. Collagen strengthens connective tissues in the body and helps your joints stay mobile. It’s been called “the glue that holds our tissues together”.

    I became interested in the potential healing effects of gelatin after watching an interview with someone I respect in the nutrition and fitness field and who said that he totally healed an Achilles tendon injury after a couple of months of taking supplemental gelatin.

    Since I had injured my shoulder and a bicep tendon doing something stupid at the gym, I started looking into it as a possible healing aid.

    I am not a great believer in supplements. It’s hard to believe some of the claims of many “experts” because the claims must be “adapted” to support the sales pitch. I take a Senior multi-vitamin but that’s it.

    But gelatin is different.

    Apparently as we get older, our bodies don’t produce all the collagen we need. Unlike our ancestors, we eat only the choice cuts of meat. Our ancestors ate the animal “nose to tail” and the collagen is found in the cartilage, the skin and other parts of the animals which we civilized folks don’t normally eat. So most of us don’t get enough. Note that gelatin is not for vegetarians or vegans. There are some religious restrictions on gelatin consumption as well.

    There are many benefits claimed for gelatin. I’ve listed a few below. Some are anecdotal with years of anecdotal evidence. Others have a strong basis in science.

    • Gelatin may be beneficial for overall joint and health, and may reduce joint pain of arthritis.

    • It has been demonstrated to improve skin and nail health.

    • It can help with hair growth and with long term use, has been shown to make hair shiny and healthy.

    • It can help you sleep.

    • It can help digestion.

    • And more.

    Where do you get gelatin? Most grocery stores carry unflavored gelatin. The most well known brands are Great Lakes and Knox in powder form. Great Lakes makes two kinds of gelatin, regular powder and hydrolyzed. The difference? Regular gelatin must be dissolved in hot liquid. Hydrolyzed gelatin will dissolve in both hot and cold liquid so it can be easily included in smoothies.

    Good old Knox gelatin can be dissolved in your coffee or can be used to make your own “jello” or even “gummy bears”. I’ve used it in coffee and I’ve made “jello”. The “jello” was great — every bit as good as real store bought Jello.

    You can also get high quality gelatin from bone broth, either from the store, or by making your own. That’s a topic for another day.

    I would be curious as to whether any of you have given gelatin (or collagen) a try, and what the results have been. How about letting me know know at bob@thecomealiveproject.com.

    Is gelatin a great “secret ingredient” that seniors particularly can benefit from? It reportedly works as advertised based on the information I have seen. Let’s see if it works for me. Perhaps for you too.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 355 – A Warning, Don’t Overdo It

    If your gut feels good, you feel good. I’ve said that for years and probably written it here occasionally. It’s true. If the core area of your body is toned and fit, you will feel generally healthy and fit overall.

    Unless . . .

    Unless, what?

    Unless you decide to do ten years worth of core exercises in one day. I should know. That’s what I did this past Saturday.

    I had seen something on TV or maybe in a magazine, that had a picture of an old guy with great abs. I said to myself, “I can do that”.

    So, I got out my “Ab Roller”. Remember that? To this day, the Ab Roller is the only “As Seen on TV” piece of exercise equipment that was worth the money. So, I did a bunch of exercises with the Ab Roller.

    Then came the Ab Sliders. These great tools are nothing more than furniture sliders that you buy at Home Depot for just a few dollars. They are even more effective than the Ab Rollers to give your entire core a brutal workout. So I did a bunch of them, too.

    And, of course, there are the perennial sit ups, leg raises, crunches, planks, side planks and on and on. I did a bunch of them too, in my quest for a magazine quality six-pack.

    It’s great to do a few of these each workout to strengthen your core, particularly your “six-pack”. But doing all of them, for multiple sets, in one day, is . . . do I have to use this phrase about myself . . . Dumber than Dumb.

    So the takeaway here is NEVER work one muscle or one muscle group at full blast for an entire workout. It will hurt . . . far more than it helps. It can turn you off to exercise — not just the part you overworked, but possibly to all exercise in general.

    The lesson is that it is VERY important to start slowly. In this case, less is better than more. Ideally, when you get older, everything should be done in moderation.

    Plus, the ligaments and tendons that form the connective tissues, don’t take kindly to massive overwork. That’s another story I can tell on myself — tendons will tear or rupture when overstressed and the pain can be brutal and long lasting. My bicep muscle is nearly non-functional because of a wrong move when I not so brilliantly was doing “tire flips” at the gym, once again in an attempt to “prove myself”. I made a wrong move — actually, the tire slipped. The tendon is torn and although I still have use of it, I have significant and ongoing pain in my shoulder where the bicep tendon ties into the bone. Fortunately the bicep is a “double muscle” as in “2 . . . ceps”. Not funny.

    Again, the takeaway is to start slowly and enjoy the process Don’t brutalize your body in your sudden quest for immediate results of one part of even all of your body. It hurts. It can result in a long lasting injury. It can turn you away from exercise.

    So, keep up with your physical movement. If you see something that inspires you to work extra hard on one part of your body, BE WARNED! No matter how badly you want to achieve it, take your time. You’ll get where you want to be if you persist, but slowly.

    Thank you for reading.