A Good Running Computer

Bobby G
Bob Galle
Bobby G’s Biz
EverLast INNERgy VP Marketing
Phoenix Arizona
cell (best reach) 602 703 1983
office 602 507 7513
skype 928 257 3514

Fears about salmonella poisoning, listeria, swine and avian flu from animal foods are boosting the market for soy and other vegan foodstuffs and supplements.

The demand is being fed by vegans, of course, but also from increasing numbers of omnivores who’ve been convinced that plant foods are the best way to avoid food poisoning. The safest and most sanitary foods of all, according to this line of thinking are processed and packaged goods.

Market analyst Kathie Brownlie reveals in the online newsletter NutraIngredients “the market is driven by crises – and it did not exist a decade ago.” Another factor in this new and booming market is the widely perceived “healthy” image of vegan ingredients. According to Chris Olivant of the UK’s Vegetarian Society, the numbers of vegetarians have steadily increased over the past decade, but “tend to peak in the immediate aftermath of a animal health scare, then drop back down to prior levels afterwards.”

“If you have a complete portfolio of vegetarian ingredients, you will be prepared for any animal health-scare that breaks,” says Lukas Christian, global product manager for beta-carotene at DSM Nutritional Products. NutraIngredients reports that DSM is launching a new synthetic beta carotene to compete against animal-derived beta carotenes. Other companies too, including BASF and Biodar have come out with vegetarian beta-carotenes. If you naively thought beta carotene supplements would come from carrots and other vegetables, welcome to the brave new world of supplements . Why grow carrots, after all, when you can produce beta carotene with microorganisms? And why bother with the care and feeding of wee beasties when you can manufacture a synthetic beta carotene that can be billed as vegetarian?

Given all the vegan scare stories and the filthy reality of factory-farming operations,

it’s hardly news that people in record numbers are avoiding meat, milk and eggs, but is it wise to go vegan for safety reasons? Not if we patronize local farmers who raise healthy, happy, free-range and pastured animals and make it a priority to run clean operations. And also not if it’s diseases from listeria, e coli and salmonella that we are trying to avoid. Most cases come from contaminated commercial vegetables, strawberries, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, peppers etc, and not animal foods at all. As for soy, there are surprising risks of contamination. Packaged soy products seem aseptic, safe and sanitary, but recalls have been legion over the years, suggesting that the squeaky clean packaging might only seal in the disease.

LARGEST RECALL IN FDA HISTORY

Consider what may prove to be the largest recall in FDA history. It occurred in March 2010 and involved salmonella-contaminated hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) produced by Basic Food Flavors Inc of Las Vegas, Nevada. Salmonella was found on the company’s processing equipment. HVP is used to enhance flavors of thousands of food products, extend shelf life, and otherwise increase the food industry’s bottom line. HVP is an ingredient in just about every processed food available in stores. As a paste or powder, it is added to soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, gravies, snack foods, dips and dressings. The name hydrolyzed vegetable protein most often refers to “hydrolyzed corn protein” or “hydrolyzed soy protein” and may sometimes be labeled as such. If mixed with spices, it is routinely identified only as “natural smoke flavor” or “natural flavors.” This labeling practice protects proprietary recipes of manufacturers, but has long been a nightmare for people who are allergic to soy or corn, or who react to MSG, which is an inevitable and unavoidable byproduct of the hydrolyzing process. Products containing this additive may even state “No MSG” on the label, though this is clearly an untruth.

This particular recall has proved embarrassing to the FDA. Congressional investigators chided the agency for failing to oversee the production of HVP and other additives and food ingredients that are widely perceived as safe. In addition to HVP, these include partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, salt, spices, artificial flavors, emulsifiers, binders, vitamins, minerals, preservatives and other ingredients, most of which are intended to enhance taste, texture, nutritional content or shelf life. In a prepared statement, FDA spokeswoman Rita Chappelle conceded that the FDA “agrees broadly” that its oversight of such ingredients “could be strengthened.” Given the misplaced time and effort FDA has put into harassing small farmers, it’s not surprising that it has been asleep on its real job.

Health-conscious consumers might think that this is not their issue because the companies in the news are the big names like McCormick, Pringles, National Pretzel, Herbox (boullion), Quaker, Safeway and CVS snack products. Best Food Flavors alone has recalled nearly 800 products. This would suggest the problem lies with the processed, packaged, fast and junk foods on the Standard American Diet (SAD). Sadly, the truth is that many of the brands billed as “healthy” and sold in health food stores and upscale markets use the very same additives. Follow Your Heart brand vegetarian products, for example, recalled its barbecue, kung pao, savory, peanut and curry-flavored tofus as well as its “heart smart” veggie burgers, burritos and “chicken” pasta because of possible salmonella contamination “from one of our suppliers.”

The possibility of salmonella poisoning also drove recalls of those old hippie staples soy grits and flour. The recalled items came from Thumb Oilseed Producers’ Cooperative of Ubly, Michigan, sold under the brand names Soy Beginnings and Nexsoy.

NOT HVP ALONE

Other contamination problems have also beset soy-food manufacturers. Lifesoy Inc., a San Diego-based manufacturer of ready-to-eat soy products, was forced to stop manufacturing and distributing its sweetened and unsweetened soy milk, fried tofu, fresh tofu, soybean pudding, and other products because it did not hold and store foods under refrigerated conditions cold enough to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Interesting enough when the FDA first discovered Lifesoy’s unsanitary practices in 2007 it did not harass the company (as it does small farmers and cottage industries) but actively tried to help it comply with Good Manufacturing Practices and stay in business. The company’s failure to do so led to its shut down.

The LifeSoy case indicates why most tofu products coming out of large manufacturing facilities are pasteurized today. In the good old days, there were also cases of contamination, of course, with most occurring at Asian groceries or old-fashioned small health food stores where fresh blocks of tofu were displayed in water in produce sections. The tofu was non refrigerated and open to airborne contamination as well as bugs from customers reaching into the water with tongs.

Think soy milk is safe? Bonsoy soy drink was whisked out of markets in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong this last spring because of dangerously high iodine levels derived from kombu, a seaweed ingredient. That manufacturing error sank at least 38 people’s thyroids. Ironically, the kombu was put in there to begin with because of soy’s adverse effects on the thyroid, a risk highest among consumers who are iodine deficient. Recently a reformulated version was approved for sale by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Meanwhile other products containing seaweed are being investigated.

FORMULA FOR DISASTER

One of the most frequently recalled products is infant formula. Between 1982 and 1994 there were 22 significant recalls of infant formula in the United States due to health and safety problems. Seven of these recalls were classified by the FDA as “Class I” or potentially life threatening. And things haven’t improved much since then. Recent recalls were made by Nestle (Carnation), Abbott, Mead Johnson, Wyeth, and Nutricia, among other companies, and for for widely sold products under the brand names of Alsoy, GoodStart, Isomil, Nutramigen, Nursoy, and Soylac. Both dairy and soy formulas have been recalled for everything from contamination by Salmonella or Klebsiella Pneumoniae to bits of glass. Yes, glass, as in the shards found in more than 102,000 Mead-Johnson jars.

Manufacturing errors are an especially big problem with soy formula. Failure to add supplemental B1, B12 Vitamin K, chloride and other needed supplements has led to deaths and hospitalizations of babies. When such omissions happen with dairy formula, the deficiency is less likely to be a life-threatening matter. Cow’s milk, after all, contains what a mammal needs to grow. Although obviously not at the ideal levels for a human baby as opposed to a calf, vital components don’t go missing. In 2003 three babies in Israeli on soy formula died from an extreme deficiency of vitamin B1, and another eight babies were hospitalized, of which four suffered permanent brain damage. The formula manufacturers had left out B1 on the false assumption that soybeans contain plenty of B1.

Hard to believe? Want to check out future recalls? Get industry news from a free online subscription to NutraIngredients and by visiting the FDA’s own website. Then put your energy into buying both animal and plant foods directly from small, local farmers you know, visit and trust.

It has been said that there is no pain worse than a toothache.  Images of what people will do to deal with this are branded into our consciousness through movies like Cast Away with Tom Hanks, Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman, and many others. I’m sure that you can think of a few others without trying too hard.

The pain, the throbbing, the agonizing feeling that your head is about to explode are a reality for many at this very moment. I have had women tell me they would rather experience childbirth than the pain associated with a toothache. As a man, I wouldn’t know, but at least with childbirth you have something to show for the experience at the end.

It is also a reality that much of this is entirely avoidable.  Here are a few ways to get a handle on this starting right now:

1. Understand that you can have a cavity without experiencing tooth pain. This is probably, the main reason that people get into trouble. They assume that if a tooth isn’t hurting, there must not be anything wrong with it. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can even have multiple cavities — on the same tooth — without pain in the early and moderate stages of decay. How is this possible? It’s simple. The outer layer of your tooth, called enamel, is mineral. It has no nerves and therefore will not send you a pain signal to say it is breaking down.

2. Watch your diet. Avoid sugary foods, drinks, and snacks. Cut sodas out of your diet. The average 12 oz. can of soda contains about as many teaspoons of sugar. Many foods also contain hidden sugars. Foods with bleached flour (think bread, pizza, bagels, cereals, chips, pasta, etc.) are among the stickiest and most acid-forming foods out there. I would venture to guess that the residue following a sandwich or pretzel will probably stick to your tooth longer than a caramel. Bad news if you don’t brush after meals.

3. Develop disciplined oral hygiene habits. Make brushing your teeth after meals and snacks, as well as daily flossing, a part of your daily routine. Many people start out well (especially after a trip to the dentist), but become less disciplined after a few weeks. Very often they will stop flossing altogether, for example. You need to make your hygiene routine as regular a part of your daily habit as eating.

4. Get out of the “emergency” mentality. Some people will only see a dentist for emergencies. You know who you are. So does the dentist. As my receptionist puts it when one of these people calls: “His (or her) head must be on fire.” Emergencies end up costing you far more than preventive care.  If you don’t believe it, ask your dentist about the cost of replacing a missing tooth.  It can cost ten to twenty times more than a filling!

5. See your dentist regularly. Believe it or not, this actually saves you money in the long-run. Patients that see their dentist at least twice a year are much less likely to experience the high costs associated with neglect than those who see their dentist only when they perceive a problem. There is also the matter of lost income associated with time out of work. Perhaps not least importantly, you will avoid much of the pain and discomfort that comes with abscesses, bleeding gums, broken teeth, and swollen faces.

Take care of yourself.  Apart from the health risks involved with infection and the inability to digest your food well when you lose your teeth, tooth pain can put a serious dent in your disposition. It’s hard to be happy when you are losing sleep because of constant throbbing or when you can’t concentrate at work or at home. You can find more tips on how to prevent dental problems and save money while doing so in the article section of my website.

Known as the Doctor of Dental Wellness, Dr. Richard Walicki is a graduate of the Temple University School of Dentistry. Dr. Walicki is a general dentist with a focus on wellness and has maintained an active private practice in Philadelphia for over twenty years. His mission is to help people attain practical solutions for their dental health problems through education, prevention and nutrition. Dr. Walicki is a contributor to the LiberationWellnessBlog and a supporter of real food. Additional articles of related interest can be located on his website. A free newsletter and bonus report are also available.

I believe this directive to be one of the biggest reasons for the obesity crisis in our modern culture, it has a devastating negative effect on health, and promotes only the enormous profits of the Fake-Food Industry and Big Pharma!

But that is another story,

I would like to talk about small meals and fast food, but what I mean is some the smallest and the fastest of the animal foods – BUGS!

Entomophagy (from [Greek ἔντομος éntomos, “insect(ed)”, and φᾰγεῖν phăgein, “to eat”, which together means “insect eating”) is the practice of eating insects as food.

“every creeping thing that is alive, to you it is for food”; Genesis 9:3 Young’s Translation

The Bible points out that all animal food is authorized by God to be eaten for food. In fact, God particularly mentions the bugs, lizards and snakes (called creeping things) as to let us know that they are allowed and would be appropriate for human consumption.

Dr. Weston Price, known as the Father of clinical nutrition, reported that the some of the healthiest people groups in the world, were eating bugs and the eggs of bugs at certain times of the year for the nutritional value. In fact millions of people for thousands of years have been and continue to eat insects as part of a very healthy diet.

Insects often contain the fat soluble activators A,D and K2 and some have B12 as well as other important nutrients.

Here is the nutritional profile of 100 grams of crickets:

121 calories,
12.9 grams of protein,
5.5 g. of fat,
5.1 g. of carbohydrates,
75.8 mg. calcium,
185.3 mg. of phosphorous,
9.5 mg. of iron,
0.36 mg. of thiamin,
1.09 mg. of riboflavin,
3.10 mg. of niacin

This little bugger is nutrient dense!

Tastes Like Crab! According to this Epicurean

Bizarre Foods

Recently there has been a very interesting TV show airing nationally hosted by food explorer Andrew Zimmern. The show is called Bizarre Foods.

Andrew travels the world and has a meal with local people who’s culinary practices are very different from modern America, but I have noticed they are not so different from each other.

I enjoy the show very much and secretly wish I could taste at least some of the these exotic recipes from around the world.

I do think that the chemical compounds and artificial fake foods that make up much of our modern American so-called food choices, it is we who are eating the Bizarre Foods, and it is they that are eating more like a human being!

Fast Food

Although I am not a proponent of snacking or fast food, it seems if there was every a healthy, convenient, inexpensive snack food, insects are it. An entire industry of McDonald’s, Burger King, etc as well as the convenience stores like 7-11 would be in a very different environment if Americans were eating bugs.

You know, seeing how clever and entrepreneurial they are, I could foresee French Fries being replaced with French Fried Bugs!

Now that I think about it, we could call them McBugs or McFrogs!

The Importance of Vitamins A, D, K2

The foundation of human health is FAT. and many cultures get the all-important nutrients found exclusively in saturated animal fat from livestock and fish.

If however a people group do not have access to fish or cannot afford livestock, God’s exquisite design is that bugs are very readily available almost anywhere and loaded with the nutrition people need the most!

So How Do They TASTE?

That is a good question. I have a saying concerning food taste, which is, follow the law of the jungle. The law of the jungle says “eat what’s best for you, not what tastes the best!.”

If you have a plate of liver and onions, and a plate of ice cream, and you have a taste test, the ice cream will win almost every time. BUT- the liver is much better for you. We should not always make taste the decider in our food choices, as this leads to sweeter and more flavor enhanced foods getting eaten more often.

I must admit however, I have never eaten bugs! According to many, they taste great, but I cannot speak from experience.

Here is a recipe for insects

Ant Brood Tacos

2 tablespoons butter or lard
1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
3 Serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
Pepper and Cumin, to taste
Oregano, to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped
Taco shells, to serve(you can pass on the shells)

Heat the butter or lard in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro. (Not living in an area exceptionally prolific with ants, I have never been able to try this recipe. But it sounds perfectly delicious! I found it in ‘Creepy Crawly Cuisine’, an excellent recipe book.)

Kevin Brown is President of Liberation Wellness and co-author of the Liberation Diet. He serves as a Fellow on the National Board of Fitness Examiners, and is president of Visionary Trainers. Kevin and his wife Tracy are Chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping restore real food to its rightful place in the American diet.

Kevin Brown is President of Liberation Wellness and co-author of the Liberation Diet. He serves as a Fellow on the National Board of Fitness Examiners, and is president of Visionary Trainers. Kevin and his wife Tracy are Chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping restore real food to its rightful place in the American diet.

On the Morning Edition July 19, 2010,  NPR covered the increasing popularity of fresh milk.

It was an honor to sit down with April Fulton and discuss with her all my reasons for choosing fresh milk.

I think she did a fantastic job piecing together all the information she collected to give a balanced explanation on why some consumers choose fresh milk.  I was thrilled to hear that a former FDA person actually admitted that pasteurization does destroy some nutrients.  At the end of the program, the narrator says “The food safety expert says not getting sick is what’s important.

He would never drink raw milk. But he thinks banning it only encourages Liz Reitzig and others to skirt the law, and that could put them at greater risk.

If you’re one of the one to 3 percent of the population that drinks raw milk, Acheson says make sure that the cows are clean, your hands are clean, and the bottle are sterilized and stored properly.”

This is the most flexibility I have ever heard from a government person on raw milk.  Kudos to NPR for covering this important topic and doing such a great job on it!

About Liz Reitzig
Liz Reitzig is a certified Liberation Wellness Nutritionist and a regular contributor to Liberation Wellness (www.LiberationWellnessBlog.com) She serves as President of the Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and Secretary of the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.  As a champion for real foods and farm freedom, Liz is the co-founder and partner in a farm fresh buying club and raises her own family on real foods from local farms. She is also a Chapter Leader for the Weston A Price Foundation.

Joel Salatin and Joel Thevoz teamed up to bring us a perfectly roasted Polyface Farm pig for Farm Food Voices 2010

The planning is underway for the national food freedom lobby day!  Check out the new site dedicated to documenting as farmers, producers and chefs

prepare for the big day on Capitol Hill.  If you know any farmers or chefs who want to participate, please pass along the invitation to them!  And…food activists from around the country are invited to attend so if you or anyone you know is interested, please follow the blog to get regular updates on how we can work together to have the greatest effect lobbying.  For those who participated this past March, please plan on being there again!

Farmers and chefs supportive of local foods are invited to participate in Farm Food Voices DC 2011 – the annual local foods feast on Capitol Hill for legislators, staff and grassroots lobbyists organized by the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)

Led by Chef Bryan Voltaggio of VOLT restaurant in Frederick, MD,

and Emceed by Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, Swoope, VA

Read more here…

About Liz Reitzig
Liz Reitzig is a certified Liberation Wellness Nutritionist and a regular contributor to Liberation Wellness (www.LiberationWellnessBlog.com) She serves as President of the Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and Secretary of the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.  As a champion for real foods and farm freedom, Liz is the co-founder and partner in a farm fresh buying club and raises her own family on real foods from local farms. She is also a Chapter Leader for the Weston A Price Foundation.

You might be thinking to yourself that this seems like a wild dream to even fathom low-carb acceptance as a plausible outcome with the current negative atmosphere about dietary fat (that it is “clogging your arteries” and going to give you a heart attack) and almost universal embracement of carbohydrates (that they are “essential” to the human diet) that livin’ la vida low-carb could ever be taken seriously as the natural therapeutic treatment option for healing many of life’s health woes. But there’s good news on that front–we’re getting closer now than we’ve ever been before thanks to the newfound embracement of high-fat, low-carb living by one of the world’s most recognized names in health, Dr. Andrew Weil.

As the father of the “integrative medicine” approach used by so many naturopaths and leaders in healthy living today, Dr. Weil has written several bestselling books over the past few decades on a variety of subjects related to anti-aging, alternative medicine, and using food as medicine. His prominence as a top voice in the healthy industry was affirmed when he appeared on the front cover of Time magazine twice after being named one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997 and then again as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005. Heck, he’s even had a mushroom named after him!

Dr. Weil runs the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine where he has started a nationwide trend towards teaching integrative medicine to eager medical school students looking to help patients more holistically than pharmaceutically. In other words, this guy is the real deal when it comes to being a highly influential member of the health establishment. But despite his many years as a high-profile teacher and leader in the health industry, Dr. Weil once again returned to being a student of nutrition and the powerful effect certain kinds of food can have on metabolic health after reading a book in 2007 by a science journalist named Gary Taubes called Good Calories Bad Calories.

A transformation of sorts began happening within the mind of Dr. Weil after he carefully examined the quality science that Taubes offered up in his bestselling book detailing the indelible connection between carbohydrates and obesity/disease due to the rise in insulin levels. His change in thinking culminated right before our eyes on national television when Dr. Weil appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on October 19, 2007 to share what he thought about the concepts he had read in Good Calories Bad Calories with Taubes, special guest host Joy Behar and Dr. Mehmet Oz.

After his appearance on “Larry King Live” aired, the buzz almost immediately began within the low-carb community about how Dr. Andrew Weil might be emerging as the next great champion for this cause we all believe so strongly in for helping a large segment of the population effectively get a handle on their obesity and disease.

It certainly seemed that way when he admitted in an interview published on his web site that “cutting carbs” helped him lose weight while simultaneously promoting the importance of consuming saturated fat in your diet. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if some doctor nobody had ever heard of was espousing this–but Dr. Weil is well-respected and almost universally lauded as a living legend in the world of health.

This shift in beliefs is also especially surprising given his association as a member of the Board of Directors for the pro-vegan lifestyle group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) alongside the likes of people like T. Colin Campbell, John MacDougall and PCRM President Neal Barnard (who just happened to be seated right next to me at the recent public testimony meeting regarding the USDA’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines).

Check out Dr. Weil’s name listed at the very bottom of PCRM’s Board of Directors:

CLICK on the image to enlarge

Given PCRM’s stated problems with a high-fat, low-carb diet and even dedicating an entire web site to discrediting the Atkins diet, it was intriguing to read Dr. Weil’s column on The Huffington Post earlier this month entitled “Fat Or Carbs: Which Is Worse? This brilliant column which should be recommended reading for anyone who cares about the nutritional relationship to health highlights all of the lessons Dr. Weil has accumulated over the past three years since reading Good Calories Bad Calories including key points like the fact that saturated fat in meat isn’t harmful (he describes it as “the safest element” in a burger meal) as evidenced by this January 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the infamous “Seven Countries” study conducted by Ancel Keys forty years ago was severely flawed from the start, the parallel rise in dyslipidemia associated with the astronomical increased consumption of sugar, and the nutritional superiority of choosing grass-fed forms of beef and butter to consume over grain-fed.

While he’s still hung up somewhat on the idea that meat consumption is inherently a bad thing (citing “humanitarian and ecological reasons to avoid a meat-centric diet”), Dr. Weil notes that “we would be much healthier as a nation if we stopped worrying so much about fats, and instead made a concerted effort to avoid processed, quick-digesting carbohydrates — especially added sugars.” I wonder what his colleagues at PCRM have to say about this.

This certainly begs the question: Is Dr. Andrew Weil breaking ranks from the vegetarian/vegan movement to actively promote the healthy high-fat, low-carb lifestyle? Only time will tell, but with his noted appearance several years ago on “Larry King Live,” his personal weight loss success eating low-carb, and now this 2010 column praising saturated fat and reduced carbohydrate consumption, it certainly seems that way. And before you ask it, yes, I’m trying to get Dr. Weil on my podcast show to talk about this change in his thinking regarding diet. The last time contact was made with his assistant in February this year I was told his schedule would be very busy for most of the rest of the year and to try again in September. It took me a long time to finally land my recent interview with Dr. Robert Lustig, so you know I won’t be giving up anytime soon to get Dr. Weil.

What do you think about somebody like Dr. Andrew Weil espousing the concepts of livin’ la vida low-carb as boldly in the mainstream press as he has done since 2007?

Do you think he has the kind of influence that could convince an entirely new segment of the population to give low-carb living a closer look or will he be characterized by his vegetarian/vegan friends as being out of touch with sound dietary principles? Share your thoughts about this developing story that is sure to be ruffling the feathers of those who promote a low-fat, high-carb, plant-based diet.

Jimmy Moore is the popular blogger, podcaster and author of Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb who lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and quickly established himself as a highly influential layperson in the field of health and nutrition. His wildly successful Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Blog has been educating, encouraging and inspiring readers since 2005 and his accompanying iTunes podcast The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore is one of the most listened to health broadcasts online today featuring hundreds of enchanting interviews with the leading voices in the world of diet and healthy living! Jimmy’s latest book compiling all the knowledge he has learned along his journey is called 21 Life Lessons From Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: How The Health Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew. He lives in Spartanburg, SC with his beautiful wife Christine and their four crazy cats!

In Episode 384 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we hear from registered dietitian Annette Presley who is the co-author of the book The Liberation Diet: Setting America Free from the Bondage of Health Misinformation! with Kevin Brown.

She taught nutrition from the perspective of conventional wisdom for 14 years before she came across the great revolutionary work of Dr. Mary Enig on the healthfulness of consuming saturated fat. Ever since, she has become an activist sharing the truth about nutrition and its impact on health.

Listen to Annette share about why it confused her to learn that nutrition is more about disease management rather than prevention, her exposure to the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins at a dietitian’s conference, her asthma diagnosis in 2002 which led her to find alternative nutritional therapies to taking steroids, how Dr. Enig’s book Know Your Fats radically changed her thinking on diet, the anger she felt that almost made her quit nutrition for good, why it’s so difficult for dietitians to break free from the conventional wisdom they’ve been taught, how she got hooked up with Kevin Brown and wrote The Liberation Diet with him, how her frequent letters to the editor about consuming saturated fat raised the ire of some local dietitians to the point they reported her to have her credentials revoked (she won by presenting the science), the quirky disclaimer she uses about the work she is doing now, why you have to eat processed foods to eat a low-fat diet, whether lawsuits about diet are forthcoming, how to get people to break free from their fear of fat, her high saturated fat remedy for heart disease, why fat is so delicious and nutritious in your diet, why she shared the history behind the failed low-fat diet in her book, what role exercise plays in her program, her personal negative experience eating a high-carb diet, how the Internet is leading the revolution for spreading the truth, and her quick thoughts on agave nectar, exercise for weight loss, butter vs. margarine, the so-called “healthy” foods that are anything but, and the profit motive that dominates much of the promotion of food in America.

Click here to access this fascinating conversation with a registered dietitian who truly understands the importance of saturated fat in a healthy diet.

Kevin Brown is President of Liberation Wellness and co-author of the Liberation Diet. He serves as a Fellow on the National Board of Fitness Examiners, and is president of Visionary Trainers. Kevin and his wife Tracy are Chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping restore real food to its rightful place in the American diet.

We came across this new study below regarding probiotic use in athletes.

While we include a probiotic in our foundational programs for athletes and clients with compromised digestion and depressed IgAs (tested via saliva testing), we also encourage fermented foods (i.e. sauerkraut) and feature cultured vegetables on the Eat Like the Pros menu. The connection between digestion and immunity is a strong one. It is important that our clients aren’t dealing with colds during the season, or anytime for that matter!

Below is the abstract and summary of key findings (provided by Emerson Ecologics).

Author: Steve Austin, N.D.
Reference: Cox AJ, Pyne DB, Saunders PU, Fricker PA. Oral administration of the probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum VRI-003 and mucosal immunity in endurance athletes. Br J Sports Med 2010;44:222-6.
Design: Randomized double blind cross-over intervention trial
Participants: 20 healthy male long-distance runners, mean age 27 years
Study Medication and Dosage: 12 billion spore-forming units per day of Lactobacillus fermentum in freeze-dried powder placed in capsules or identical-appearing placebo administered in two divided doses per day for one month
Primary Outcome Measures: Incidence, duration, and severity of respiratory infections

Key Findings: Mean episode severity on a scale of 1-to-3 (where “1″ was mild and “3″ was severe) was 1.0 in the probiotics group versus 1.7 in the placebo group P=0.06 for the difference). The number of symptomatic days in the probiotics group totaled 30 versus 72 with placebo (P<0.001 for the difference). The trial was underpowered to detect a significant reduction in the actual number of respiratory infections, though the number of episodes in the probiotics group (4) was less than half the corresponding number in the placebo group (9).
Treadmill performance was also tracked and was not affected significantly by probiotics or placebo interventions. A statistically-nonsignificant doubling of interferon gamma levels was noted in the probiotics group.

Practice Implications: Strenuous exercise has been reported to increase susceptibility to common colds. Previous research suggests that secretory IgA may decrease as a result of strenuous training. Some researchers have suggested that these decreases could be responsible for the higher incidence of colds reported in training athletes. IgA levels did climb in the current trial (21-29%) but these increases did not achieve statistical significance. That said, however, a variety of immune parameters have previously been reported to respond to probiotics therapy (e.g., the phagocytic action of white blood cells).

Previous double blind research has shown a reduction in severity and duration of colds in both children (Pediatrics 2009;124:e172-9) and adults (Clin Nutr 2005;24:481-91). This trial confirms previous evidence that probiotics have similar effects in athletes in training (e.g., Int J Sport Nutr Exer Metab 2007;17:352-63).

We still do not know optimal doses for probiotics or which strains are most effective. However, relatively common strains of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria appear to provide a significant prophylactic and therapeutic effect. Adult doses in positive trials often range between 10 and 20 billion spore forming units per day.

Healthcare practitioners may now advise athletes in training that taking probiotics prophylactically could reduce the risk of acquiring a cold.

Unlike with some other supplements in the news these days, ingesting probiotics will not disqualify anyone from an athletic event.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.