Secrets of your Meat

Five months ago, I knew shockingly little about where the food I ate (and fed to my children) came from.  This was back when I thought that the USDA and FDA looked out for us and foods on supermarket shelves were safe, mind you.  I had no idea that such a dark, dangerous world surrounded the meat industry.  And what I have read in researching for this post, requires a strong stomach.  But I feel that it is important for our readers to know, especially if you have children, because it involves our health and the risks we are taking without our knowledge or consent. This post will paint a very unflattering picture of the world we live in, but I believe we need to be educated to make informed decisions.

In short, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's) are basically large-scale animal concentration camps.  Thousands of animals are confined to small spaces, fed an unnatural diet to make them grow faster and quicker to maximize profit and minimize labor costs, until they are ready for slaughter and processed into the plastic wrapped packages we recognize.

The first small scale CAFO was created by accident.  Before 1920, chicken meat was not an industry, but a by-product of raising egg laying hens. Their meat was often tough and only after a hen stopped laying eggs was it butchered and thrown in a stew or soup.  In 1923, a woman named Cecile Steele, of Ocean View Delaware, received a shipment of 500 chicks instead of the requested 50.  She and her husband had a small farm and only intended on raising them for eggs for their family and to sell at local markets.  She decided to capitalize on this error by building a small shed and raising them indoors for meat, and unknowingly launched the broiler industry. Eighteen weeks later, 387 had survived and were sold for $.62/lb.  The next year, she ordered 1000 chicks and her husband quit his job to help raise them.  By 1927, their hen house was home to 25,000 birds.   Other area farmers took notice of her success and followed suit, and by 1928, there were 500 farmers raising their own flocks in surrounding communities.  But it's modern developments like, cross breeding, medications and processing advancements that helped turn it into a billion dollar AgriBusiness.

If you are like me, you probably don't put much thought into the meat you're selecting at the supermarket.  You don't think about where it came from, how it was treated, where it lived, etc.  And if you do, the picture in your head is probably vastly different than the truth.  More than likely, you picture a big beautiful farm with rolling hills and the sounds of livestock happily singing their tune.  When, in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth.  Sadly, animals raised in CAFO's are constantly abused, treated with massive amounts of antibiotics from living in their own filth, and most never see the light of day before they are taken for processing and packaged for your supermarket.  If you've seen the documentary, Food, Inc., you know exactly what I am talking about.  If you haven't, a preview can be found here.  If you want to stay in the dark or have a queasy stomach, stop reading now!  Let's get into the specifics, shall we?

The Animals

There are more than 15,000 CAFO's in the United States, and they dominate livestock and poultry production.  They are each home to tens of thousands of cattle or pigs, or several hundred thousand chickens.  Buildings are referred to as "production facilities" and instead of animals or livestock, they are known as "production units".  The chickens are force fed antibiotics in their feed to speed up their growth rate.  It states in the preview that it typically takes 90 days to raise a chicken the natural way.  CAFO's do it in 49.  This allows them to increase their production numbers and add to their bottom line.  But at what cost?  The short lives of these animals aren't even good ones.  They are confined to vast buildings under florescent lights and are lucky if they have one square foot to move around.  A lot of them grow so quickly that their bones can't support their own weight and they just sit there in their own waste.  And that's if their heart can tolerate the conditions in order to even make it to processing.  Operators (I can't even call them farmers) go through on a daily basis and dispose of the ones that don't survive.  They aren't free to forage for bugs, but are fed mass produced, genetically modified grains.  

CAFO Laying Hens

Pigs in CAFO's live their lives on cement with as many as 20 crammed into a pen the size of a big closet.  They don't get straw to sleep on or mud to roll around in.  CAFO animals do NOT have lives that resemble those of their wild counterparts.

CAFO Hogs

I think cattle and dairy cows may have it the worst.  Dairy cows (along with pigs) are artificially inseminated, just one of the many ways humans are controlling the lives of these animals.  They lead a life of confinement and their only exercise is moving to be milked.  They are at an increased risk for lameness, abrasions, bone deficiencies and udder infections.  Yet instead of caring for these sick animals, they are often 'culled'.  I will admit that I was not familiar with this term, so I looked it up.  By definition, to cull an animal is to take out from a herd; get rid of.  Other phrases include, picked out and put aside as inferior, and to reduce the size of by killing a proportion of its members.  The cull rate for dairy cows in the U.S. is over 20% annually and they are usually culled for hamburger meat.

Now instead of trying to prevent this abuse from happening, the CAFO industry is working to prevent people from finding out about it, by introducing Ag-Gag Bills.  These bills prevent a person from documenting the happenings in these animal facilities from exposing abuse.  So you can be now sued for taking pictures or video of unsanitary conditions or abusive treatment of these animals without permission. In 2012, Iowa, Utah, and Missouri passed ag-gag bills and North Dakota, Montana, and Kansas have had these bills in place since 1991.  However, ag-gag bills have been defeated in 11 states this year, including Indiana.  Watch this short, 5 minute clip on Whistle-Blowers of the CAFO industry.

The Environment

With such a large number of animals crowded into such a small area, the concentration of manure is very high, leading to serious pollution risks and public health concerns.  The waste from all these animals has to go somewhere, so they create what's known as Manure Lagoons.  These giant lagoons pose real threats to surrounding soil, air and water quality and create wildlife dead zones.  In 1995, a CAFO was responsible for a massive environmental spill, one of the largest in U.S. history.  It happened in North Carolina, when a lagoon dike burst, releasing 25 million gallons of hog feces and urine into the surrounding fields and river.  The spill killed 10 million fish in local waters and caused an outbreak of human Pfiesteria Piscicida in the area.

Typical Manure Lagoon

Animal waste is the primary source of E.Coli and Salmonella. It has the potential to pollute our drinking water and our crops and make us extremely sick.  The CDC estimates that 3 million people get sick every year, and 1,000 die, from contaminated meat, thus introducing the need for meat recalls.  In 2012 alone, there were a total of 82 meat recalls, stemming from things like E.Coli, Salmonella, Listeria and "Undeclared Substance".
These lagoons also emit dangerous gases like ammonia, methane, and hydrogen sulfide.  These gases pose real health risks in humans like, asthma, headaches, eye irritation, nausea, weakness, and other respiratory problems.  Confined dairy cows have been shown to create five to ten times more ammonia than pasture raised animals. In 2008, Minnesota Attorney General, Lori Swanson, filed a suit against Excel Dairy (a CAFO home to 1500 diary cows) for air emission violations.  Nearby residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to very high hydrogen sulfide readings.  Their symptoms were flu-like and included headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and shortness of breath.  Since the 1980's, U.S. farms have been required to report their levels of emission of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide to the EPA, which admits that high levels of the gases pose a health threat to humans, however, the EPA doesn't set a limit on the release, just requires reporting the levels above a certain threshold. CAFO's have, for years, repeatedly tried to get exemptions from odor emissions and waste discharges.  Even going so far as to being constructed in states/counties that are more lenient or where regulations can be manipulated.
As you can imagine, all this does a number on local property values as well.  Right?!  (Click Here to find out if you live by one - Indiana residents only)  Would you want to get in a bidding war and pay top dollar for a home anywhere in the vicinity of one of these CAFO's?!  That's the American dream right?  Send your kids out back to play in a cow manure swamp and inhale the fresh ammonia air on a sunny summer day?!

SuperBugs

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, now we get to address the over-use of antibiotics!  Confining animals in small areas necessitates the use of antibiotics to minimize the spread of disease.  To maximize production, CAFO's must use an increasing amount of these antibiotics, which leads to increased resistance in the bacteria, creating these SuperBugs.  So these animals are eating it in the feed to grow faster and bigger, then by living in their own filth they get sick and are injected with more antibiotics and when that doesn't do the trick they get MORE antibiotics.  I am sure it wouldn't surprise you to know that in other areas of the world, the use of antibiotics in animal feed has been banned.  Places like Denmark, who stopped using antibiotics in pork 14 years ago, has since confirmed a much lower rate of antibiotic resistant bacteria in their livestock, and it didn't even hurt their bottom line.  In fact, their pork industry grew in the first 12 years without antibiotics.  Here in the good 'ol U.S.A., our FDA only asks producers to limit their use, not even setting a recommended level.  They've even gone back on their 1977 promise to reduce antibiotic use in feed, as this was announced in the Federal Register in December of 2011.  Anyone remember hearing about that?  Yeah, me either.

MRSA

SuperBugs like MRSA are resistant to many common antibiotics and cause life threatening infections in humans and livestock.  Drug manufacturers supply four times the amount of antibiotics to animals as it does to humans.  It is this constant use of antibiotics by CAFO's that allow pathogens to survive, adapt to their environment and thus, thrive.  The FDA has reported that as much as 10% of all chicken breast sold in retail are contaminated with a form of salmonella and resistant to at least 1 antibiotic.  Plus, nearly half of all chicken sold is contaminated with antibiotic resistant Campylobacter, a food-borne bacteria.  You can read about the addition to arsenic in meat here.  Hungry yet?

How it should be

Our country needs to get back to true family farming, not the big industrial 'factory' farming of today.  We shouldn't be focused on highest production at the lowest cost.  And our tax dollars should not be subsidizing this form of animal agriculture.  There needs to be a switch to sustainable livestock operations, even if there is a greater cost to us.  There will be less health risks, farms will produce less waste, we can then forgo the hormones and antibiotics and there will be less environmental impact.  Our best chance for a better, more safe food system is one in which food production is humane for the animals and safe for the workers and the environment.  We should all know where our meat comes from and how it lived it's life and how it was treated for the duration of it.  I definitely want my dollars to support the ethical, humane treatment of the animals that do provide us food.  They are serving a purpose, so give them what they deserve while they are on this earth.  Grass-fed, not grain fed, pastured pork and poultry, not confined to cages and crates and fresh air, not fumes!  Let them live and be animals not 'units'.

Our grass fed beef

Mass produced, CAFO, grain fed beef 

What you can DO

By now you may be asking yourself how you can avoid this meat.  It is important to know that there are other options.  You get three votes per day.  You vote with your dollars.  By buying CAFO meat from supermarkets and the fast-food industry (a big purchaser of CAFO meat), you are supporting the lifestyle forced upon these animals.  I highly recommend the internet!  Use this resource to learn more about your meat.  We have used www.eatwild.com, and www.localharvest.org/ to find things in our area.  We now go through a humane farmer that raises their animals on pasture and no GMO grains!  We know what we're eating and it feels amazing.  On top of that, it tastes great and is healthier for you, too.  Many farmers have CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) options or you can make individual orders.  There are plenty of humane farmers out there, you just have to know how/where to look.
There are also places to order grass fed beef online, like US Wellness Meats and Tendergrass Farms, and American Grassfed, just do a little research and know what you're buying.  You don't want it to say 'grain finished', that just means they took the cheap route to fatten it up for processing.  But if you must buy from a supermarket, look for organic meat that is antibiotic free, not from a CAFO.
Lastly, spread the word.  Tell your family, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors.  More than likely, they don't know either and are supporting it without their knowledge.  Tell them what you've learned and how they can make changes to make their family healthier.

***some photographs borrowed from: CAFO; the book

The Story of My Transformation

For years, I seriously wondered if I was anaemic or had a testosterone deficiency because of the way I felt most days.  It was a very rare occurrence for me to wake up energetic and be able to sustain that feeling much past 10:00 am.  It got progressively worse throughout the day.  By 4:30, when I was ready to head home to my family, I was physically and mentally spent.  I would also be ravenously hungry, even after having a "healthy" snack around 2:30 pm.

I contemplated going to the doctor a few times, but I convinced myself that I was just out of shape.  I needed to workout more...do more cardio...maybe take up yoga?!?!  I didn't know for sure, but I was certain that it was due to my physical activity, or lack there of.

July 2012, 190 lbs.

In late July 2012, I had just started my 35th year on this planet and was so out of shape, I could barely muster up the energy to play with my boys for more than 15 minutes.  I had spent an awesome 10-day vacation in Colorado in some of the worst shape I've ever been in and after seeing the MANY pictures from that vacation and the mushy, man-boob wielding dude that was looking back at me; I finally realized that I had to do something!  I spent the first week back stewing about it under the influence of a vacation hangover.  The next weekend, I made the permanent choice to change.  I asked Shannon to take an unflattering picture of me shirtless, bearing full moobage!

After that, I decided to dust off my gym membership card and start using it starting on Monday.  On top of that, we as a family decided to go one year without fast food.  We left a caveat in that rule by allowing Jimmy John's and Chipotle because they qualified as "healthy" fast food.  After two months of some regular exercise and a cleaner diet, I was at a more respectable weight, but I still felt like I needed something more to take the next step.  I was still a good 15 pounds from my goal weight of 165.

As many of my friends and family know, I decided to start P90X in October 2012.  I was laser focused on the end goal when I committed to "Bring It" for three months.  I was fully prepared to be sore as hell, but stronger than ever with stamina through the roof!  I spent three months forcing myself to wake up every morning around 4:45 - 5:00.  In three months, I missed a total of three workouts.  For those of you who have tried P90X, you know there are six workouts a week!  In 13 weeks, I worked out 75 times to the tune of a 96% success rate.  I even worked out during Christmas break!  I bet you're thinking that I was a buff stallion after that!  See for yourself...

January 2013, 175 lbs.

After the New Year, I continued to push myself harder, but decided to ease up on the schedule.  I had a ton of stuff going on at work and didn't have the time or energy to devote an hour a day, six days a week.  I continued to eat a "healthy" balanced diet filled with whole grains, dairy, lean meats, and some fruits/vegetables.  I was getting stronger!  I went from being able to do three unassisted pull-ups in October to 10 in April, 24 push-ups to 36, and a vertical leap of 11 inches to 18 inches.

March 2013, 170 lbs.

So, now I was 6 months into this extreme fitness stage, but didn't hold much regard for the nutrition plan set forth in the program.  I thought it was all about "calories in, calories out" and I was going to get my beachbody by working out intensely on a daily basis.  As you can see, it was hardly beach worthy. There is a faint glimpse of abs and my moobs were pretty much gone, but I wasn't fully satisfied with the results.  I was still five pounds from my healthy weight, my love handles still prominent, and my physique was still a little...meh.  At this point, my wife and I were finally ready to do what it took to get healthy.  We just didn't know how to do it!  So, we did what we had done before and started Atkins to start the ball rolling on the weight loss and to lose the cravings for carbs.

Upon starting Atkins on April 7th, 2012, I remembered a book that my boss recommended to me in February.  I started reading Why We Get Fat during this extreme low carb phase.  The Pandora's Box that I opened up at that point was, in hindsight, the most liberating experience of my life.  It finally started to click!  I now know why my belly still jiggles and my energy level was still awful.  It's all in the nutritional plate I was sitting in front of on a daily basis!  I was living proof of how calories in, calories out is flawed logic.  As it turns out, that theory was just that...a theory based on basic physics and not physiology or actual scientific fact!  What????  We have been fed this basic tenet of health for decades based on nothing but assumptions?  That is when I started to question EVERYTHING!

One book led to an article, which led to another book, which snowballed into all of the information you see on our blog and on Facebook.  It is shocking how we have been misled with half truths and bold-faced lies!  We have been told to eat a certain way that is just not natural.  We have been assured that we would avoid disease if we had under a certain number of calories a day with a huge percentage of that being foods we weren't even capable of digesting effectively and that have anti-nutrients!  Yes, that means what you think it means.  Grains have components that actually have a negative net health effect on your body!  On top of that, we have been told to avoid things that are actually some of the best foods for us to consume (eggs, saturated fat, red meat, etc.).  Mind completely blown!

My weight tracked over the past year

Based on a previous post, you know how the transition to Paleo happened for our family, so I won't get into those details, but the transition in my body and my energy level was the most notable part of this whole process.  Simply stated:  I feel AMAZING!  I have energy through the roof, even after a grueling workout.  I don't crash physically or mentally at 2:30 in the afternoon.  I'm not a freaking Tasmanian devil raiding the fridge when I get home from work.  Many days, I don't have snacks and some days I even fast for about 18 hours (more on intermittent fasting in another post) without feeling very hungry, all while functioning at a high level at work and home.

July 2013, 154 lbs.

Here we are one year after that embarrassing picture.  My family still hasn't had fast food.  We cut out Jimmy John's and Chipotle in April.  I'm 30+ pounds lighter.  I can do 17 unassisted pull-ups. I'm lifting more weight than ever.  My gut has now turned into abs.  And my moobs can now officially be called pecs!  It wasn't from working out to exhaustion daily.  It wasn't from taking supplements or questionable muscle enhancers.  It wasn't even from lifting really heavy weights like the meatheads you see in the gym.  It was from working hard, getting plenty of rest and cleaning up my nutritional plate Paleo style.  That's it!  It's not complicated, but it's also not easy.  Your mind will tell you that you NEED grains.  You NEED dairy.  You CAN'T live without pasta, pizza and beer.  There can be nothing further from the truth.  They are all designed to draw you in and keep you coming back for more through actual brain manipulation.

All I ask is that you learn from me.  Don't wait until your blood work tells you that you need a change, or worse yet, when you already have health problems.  Stop overworking your heart, kidneys and liver.  Clean up your kitchen and you will feel a rush like nothing you have ever felt.  If you have any questions or would like our help with anything, contact us on here or via our Facebook page.  The whole goal behind this is to help change the tide in the battle against nutritional misinformation and put an end to our country's obesity and inflammatory disease pandemic.  Don't allow yourself to be a guinea pig for Big Food/Pharma anymore!  We need you to help us put a stop to it!

Fueling Your Workout Naturally

If you are anything like me, you are probably interested in how this lifestyle may affect your workout routine.  I mean, how could I possibly get up at 5 am to workout and not take a pre-workout supplement?  I used to take a concoction that you can buy at a warehouse bulk store.  After reading it's label, I found that it had a lot of artificial ingredients, including sucralose, red dyes, and the ambiguous statement "artificial flavors" thrown in there for good measure.  To top it all off, there is a warning on the label saying that it is not regulated by the FDA.  Now, I know that doesn't necessarily mean if it was that it would be safe.  We have already learned that lesson the hard way!

I have recently started researching different things on the internet to figure out how to replace this stuff that I was dependent upon.  Examples of searches I have done are: "natural preworkout", "preworkout no artificial sweeteners", "organic preworkout" and so on...

After hours of searching, I realized there is hardly anything commercially made that isn't loaded with artificial ingredients.  In fact, it's even difficult to find a homemade preworkout supplement that has everything in it that I was hoping to get.  I had heard of black coffee, but I am a lifelong coffee hater, so that option was out.  I was quite discouraged about my chances of being able to drag myself out of bed in the morning to get an effective workout without my caffeine and creatine source.

Then, as I started to read more Paleo websites and books, something clicked:  Why am I so damn tired when I get up to workout in the first place?  The answer was simple.  I wasn't getting enough sleep!  Going to bed at 10:30 hoping to fall asleep before 11:00 was a regular occurence.  When my alarm was going off at 5:00 am, I was averaging 6.5 hours of sleep.  Guess what, that's not enough.  Most experts say you need to average 7-8 hours of sleep a day.  If you aren't, then your problem isn't what you drink before you work out.  I know it's difficult, because we all have to figure out how to balance family, work, nutrition, fitness and downtime.  Unfortunately, we need a good balance of all of them to reach optimal health.

After getting my sleep schedule a little more under control, then I could think about what to use to fuel my workout inside my body.  (Side note: Of course I don't always get a great night's sleep, but I'm also not afraid to skip a workout when I know my body needs more rest.  More on the importance of rest as related to fitness in a later post.)

I started reading the book The Paleo Diet for Athletes, by Loren Cordain.  That's when I realized that I didn't need a bunch of unregulated supplements to get a good "pump" from my workouts.  It turns out that you can have everything you need for a workout by eating a few simple foods before, during and after your workout.  You don't need a preworkout supplement, creatine, and recovery supplement.  What I discovered is that I have been able to get stronger at the same, if not, faster pace than before using these simple nutritional strategies:

Pre-Workout

Depending on when you plan to eat prior to your workout, you will need to adjust your strategy.  According to Cordain, you will need to increase your calorie count for how long you are going to go between your meal and your workout (approximately 200 calories for each hour prior to workout).  Also, the closer you get to your workout time, the more liquid-based it should be. For me, it needs to be pretty much water since I get up so early.  You also need to lower the glycemic index as your meal gets further from your workout time.  That means, higher fiber content in the fruits you eat.  Do NOT eat pasta, bread, or other grains!  They will sit in your stomach like a brick!

Here is the smoothie I make:

Pre-Workout Smoothie

Paleo Pre-Workout Smoothie

5-7 Organic Coffee Ice Cubes

1 T. Cacao powder

1 Banana, sliced, frozen

10 Grams of an organic protein source (powdered)

1 T. Stevia in the raw (optional), can also use organic cane sugar

1 c. Water (coconut water can be used)

I put it all in the blender and blend until smooth.  If the blender creates an air pocket, at a little more water and continue to blend until large chunks are gone.  The coffee ice cubes are simply made in an ice cube tray in advance and saved in a zipper freezer bag.

This has proven to give me the jolt I need to allow me to get the most out of my workouts.  However, this would be pointless if you aren't sleeping well enough.  Also, the coffee flavor is not very strong and is much better than getting the caffiene from an unnatural source.  The minimal amount of sugar/dextrose in the smoothie above is not a problem either because you are about to use it up quickly.  A strenuous workout will use a tablespoon of sugar long before the workout ends.  Sugar is not advisable if it is not going to be at least 45 minutes of strenuous exercise.  I usually wait 15-20 minutes to let my smoothie "settle" before starting my warm-up.

Other proteine options: eggs, egg protein powder, meat, almonds (can lower GI of the meal)

Other carb options: watermelon (high GI), berries (low GI), apple (med GI)

Post-Workout

Breakfast Example

My recovery drink was also filled with artificial ingredients.  There are a few things your body needs badly after a strenuous workout.  If it was aerobic/anaerobic, you probably need to replenish your glycogen stores and have a small protein source that doesn't necessarily have to be reabsorbed too quickly.  In that case, I sometimes will have a smoothie with a half a scoop of organic whey powder, some fruit and spinach.  Other times, I will just have a couple of pastured eggs (overeasy is best!) and some cooked spinach.  It just depends.  (Warning: Don't eat undercooked CAFO eggs!  They could be loaded with E-coli or other nasty bugs!)

If you lift weights, do a P90X workout, or something like it, you need a much more regimented approach.  When you "pump iron" to the point of exhaustion, you use up pretty much every immediately available fuel source in your body.  You also do microscopic damage to your muscles that needs to repair itself.  That is where your post workout recovery drink comes in.  You need a quickly absorbed protein source with a high source of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA's).  Whey is the best and easiest to find.  I use organic whey protein with no artificial flavoring/coloring.  Flavor your food with food, not chemicals!

Here is the smoothie I make:

Paleo Post-Workout Smoothie

1 Banana, sliced, frozen OR 1 c. watermelon, cubed, frozen

1/2 c. Frozen berry of choice (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.)

1 Handful frozen spinach

1 T. Cacao powder

1-2 scoops of organic whey protein powder (20-30 grams of protein)

3/4 - 1 c. Unsweetened almond milk

I blend this the same way as the above pre-workout smoothie.  This will replenish your glycogen stores without the sugar you consume in the fruit being stored as fat.  It will also give your body what it needs to start repairing your muscles immediately.

Other good BCAA Sources: eggs, egg white protein powder, meats, seafood

Conclusion

As you can see, fueling your workout naturally is a lot more complex than "carb loading" and drinking energy drinks.  In fact, eating a bunch of carbs from terrible sources (pasta, bread, etc.) is quite contrary to what you should be doing.  Continue to consume a good Paleo nutritional plate.  Ensure you take in enough protein throughout the day (about .75 grams per pound of body weight).  If you workout more than 10 hours a week, you need to up the protein content.  I suggest you look it up and/or talk to your doctor.  Get enough sleep.  And, don't forget to balance the rest of your life so you can ensure you will be a pleasent person "in the now" and a healthy person in the long run.

Please don't forget to consult your doctor before starting a new workout/nutrition program to make sure you can handle any sudden changes.  I know as well as anyone that you can go too far when you get pumped up for your first workout in a long time.  Not only that, if you push it too far, you will be much less likely to come back the next day due to the extreme soreness!

Got Milk? I sure hope not...

I grew up drinking 2% milk every single day.  It was a staple in the fridge and how could I eat my Lucky Charms any other way, right?  As it turns out, both were bad for my health in more ways than one, but this post is about cow's milk and Recumbent Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) and Recumbent Bovine Somatotropin (rBST), genetically engineered synthetic versions of the natural hormone Somatotropin.  It goes by the drug name, Posilac, and Monsanto was the first company to gain FDA approval in 1993, but not without controversy and under the table deals.

Let's first look at what it does.  rBGH is used by dairy farmers to increase milk production.  Thus, make more, sell more, higher profits, right?  Not so simple.  The use of the drug really only raises production 10-15%, and contributes to numerous health detriments to the cow alone.  Dairy farmers using rBGH have seen a 50% rise in lameness, significant affects on reproduction, including deformed calves, shortened lifespan of dairy cows, and a 25% increase in mastitis, a painful bacterial infection of the udder resulting in swelling, and pus and blood secretions in their milk, increasing the need for further antibiotics, and contributing to antibiotic resistant bacteria.

How did something so dangerous gain approval for use in cows, you ask?  It will not only shock you, but disappoint you to know how our government is truly failing us.  Before it's approval in 1993, several things took place.  Dr. Richard Burroughs, a senior FDA scientist, was selected to oversee the safety studies and worked on the project from 1985-1988.  He studied the findings from the Monsanto financed 90 day study on the effects of rBGH on rats.  He was later fired when he began to express concern over the drug and its side effects, which slowed down the approval process.  Burroughs sued for "unfair dismissal" and was reinstated by the FDA and then forced to work with pigs, an area he lacked the necessary qualifications, ultimately leading to his resignation, for fear of committing errors.  After his resignation, he was visited by Monsanto lawyers warning him that if he shared confidential information on rBGH that he would be sued by the giant.

So in 1989, after the exit of Burroughs, Monsanto needed an inside person.  By this time, Monsanto was aware that cows in test herds treated with rBST developed sores and udder lesions and that their milk contained increased levels of pus, blood, and bacteria.  So to deal with this, Monsanto's top dairy scientist, Margaret Miller, was moved to the FDA (We will address this 'revolving door' between Monsanto, the FDA, the USDA, and other government roles in a later post).  Once there, she was responsible for raising the antibiotic standard to allow more than 100 times the amount of the previous antibiotic level, resulting in new strains of bacteria in cows that were immune to farmer's existing antibiotics!

Monsanto's tactics don't stop there.  Monsanto has also been accused of bribing a Health Canada official to hide reports about health risks by offering $1-2 million to gain approval in Canada.

In 1990, Burroughs was quoted saying, "It used to be that we had a review process at the Food and Drug Administration.  Now we have an approval process.  I don't think the FDA is doing good, honest reviews.  They've become an extension of the drug industry."

In 2001, two investigative journalists were fired over controversy from their report on rBGH use in Florida dairies.  And according to the journalists, the station delayed their story and demanded they include inaccurate information about rBGH after Monsanto threatened the station with a lawsuit.

These artificial growth hormones are currently allowed, despite concerns from farmers, scientists, and consumers.  In 1994, the FDA even tried to prohibit dairies from claiming any difference in non rBGH treated milk from that of rBGH milk.  Monsanto has even sued dairies over the use of rBGH free labels!!  One such example is Oakhurst Dairy.  The Maine dairy was sued by Monsanto in 2003 for refusing to stop the use of their "rBGH Free" label, but eventually succumbed to the chemical giant in litigation and changed its label to add, "FDA states: No significant difference in milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormone."  Yeah, right.  Just how stupid does the FDA think we are?

Consumers are wising up, however, despite efforts by Monsanto and the FDA to keep the side effects hidden.  

Take a look at this timeline:

2007 - Chain grocers Kroger and Safeway prohibit the use of rBGH in their store brand products.

2008 (Jan) - Starbucks stops the use of their rBGH products in their stores.

2008 (Mar) - Walmart prohibits the use of rBGH in its store brand milk products

2008 (Oct) - Monsanto sells rBGH division to Eli Lilly for $300 million.

Looks to me like a 'get out while you can' deal, as those are some big markets!

Currently, rBGH/rBST is banned in over 30 countries, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Israel, Canada, and all 27 countries of the European Union, because of the dangers to animal and human health.  So just what are these risks?  The dangers to human health from ingesting rBGH are similar to those seen in dairy cows.  Milk from cows treated with these hormones have higher levels of the insulin growth factor -1 (IGF-1).  This is naturally occurring in humans, but elevated levels are linked to colon and breast cancers, and prostate cancer in men.  It can also contribute to fertility problems in humans. 

So as you can see, there are many reasons to avoid the consumption of cows milk.  Humans are the only mammal to drink milk (let alone from another species) after weaning.  Think about that for a minute.  When you do, it seems kind of unnatural, doesn't it?  Milk is only nature's perfect food if you are a calf, and if you're reading this, I am guessing you aren't a calf.  If after reading this, you still insist on drinking milk, at least look for organic milk that isn't from cows treated with these dangerous hormones.  You can also find organic or rBGH free cheese and butter out there, and now that you know what to look for, you can shop smarter!!  You don't need cow's milk in your diet.  There are plenty of other calcium sources, like almonds and kale.  Did you know that almond milk has 50% more calcium in a serving than cow's milk?  So the next time you go to pour that 2% milk on your Lucky Charms, think about the other things lurking inside, like udder pus, bacteria and hormones.  Spoons up!

How To Successfully Start the Paleo Lifestyle

Typical Paleo Plate

I have had people tell me that it is hard to start a paleolithic lifestyle.  It is too much change, too fast.  I actually agree with them!  Very few people can throw EVERYTHING in their pantry and refrigerators away in one fell swoop and go buy everything they need to sustain themselves without breaking the bank.  I would never tell anyone to do that.  We didn't do it that way.  So, here are the steps that I think will set you up for a sustainable lifestyle adjustment.

Step 1:  Call It What It Is

Don't you dare say the "D" word!  Don't do it!  The second you say it is a diet, you are probably doomed.  Diets are for weak people who want a quick fix.  We have all been that person.  This is the time where you make the conscious decision to change your life for the better.  In essence, you are admitting  yourself into rehab to rid yourself of the addiction to crap!  Repeat after me: This is NOT a diet!

Step 2:  Build Your Support Group

This may prove to be the most difficult part of the transition.  As long as you are convinced, it's time for you to convince others.  Put on your sales hat, my friend, cause you have some work to do.  It may be a spouse, adult son/daughter, friend, neighbor...whatever; but you need someone to embark on this with you.  Going this far against the grain can be a lonely feeling.  If you have someone else to keep you on track and to talk about it with, you will be much more likely to stick with it.

You also need to tell as many people about it as you can.  No, I don't want you to become a Paleo evangelist.  The more people you tell that you are making this decision, the more accountability you have and the more likely you will be to stick to it.  It could be as simple as telling people that you are sick of being unhealthy and you are stopping it now.  They will be more likely to support you if they know about it.  Lunches out with friends and co-workers won't be so awkward.  Of course, you will hear people say stupid crap like: "One won't kill you" or "Hasn't killed me yet!".  That kind of ignorance has no place in a healthy lifestyle.

Between your partner(s) in the endeavor and your support group of friends/coworkers, you will be well on your way to making a successful transition.

Step 3:  Start Low Carb

I know!  I know!  Paleo is not low carb.  Low carb, however is a precursor to Paleo.  When you start a low carb program, you are to cut out some key ingredients from your nutritional plate: wheat, milk, legumes, fruit.  See where I am going with this?  You are already 90% on your way to Paleo from eliminating those four things.  The other thing the first low carb phase does (as long as you do it right) is help you detox.  Whether you believe it or not, you are addicted to carbs.  Your body craves them.  As long as you are eating wheat and sugar, you will continue to have the 2:30 pm feeling you know and hate.

The process of detoxing is horrible for many.  My withdrawal lasted about four days.  It was awful.  I'm not going to sugar coat it (no pun intended!).  I was irritable, hungry all the time, foggy...did I mention irritable?!?  But, when the fog lifted, I felt free!  The 10 pounds of water weight that came off didn't hurt either.  I felt less bloated.  I felt less fatigued.  I felt motivated to keep going.

Just remember, don't eat a bunch of processed meats and cheese constantly on low-carb.  You must eat leafy greens, good meats, and eggs.  Throw in a bunch of low-glycemic vegetables and you will not need much vitamin supplementation.

Step 4:  Start Preparing For The Next Step

During your two week low carb intro, you should also do two things:  1. Stop strenuously working out, 2. Start reading!

Ease Up A Bit

Putting your body through strenuous exercise during this detox phase is only going to make it more miserable.  You will likely not be able to function in a high stress state like that during this time.  I also suggest you start this over a weekend, where you have more control over what you eat and less temptation (i.e. donuts, pizza, and other garbage you often see at work).  Not to mention, you will be virtually useless mentally and physically, so don't start right before a big presentation/project!

Trust me, you will get stronger and have much more stamina in the long-run!

Morph Into A Sponge

Now is the time to heavily educate yourself.  You will be highly motivated by the rapid weight loss, but that will eventually fade.  What you need to sustain this is to read and read some more.  Use our blog.  Our few blog entries can get you started, then you can start clicking on the other links to keep you going.  I highly suggest starting with Why We Get Fat, And What To Do About It, by Gary Taubes.  That book is what I credit for getting the ball rolling for me.

Look into your library for both hard copy books and e-books.  I was able to do both with my library membership.  Free is always better!

So, soak up the info!  Once you start learning what all of the crap is doing to your body, it will be tough to justify going back to it.  The more you know, the easier it will be to ignore the nay-sayers and keep moving forward.

Step 5:  Transition Slowly (Phase It In)

Now that you have eliminated most of the problem and have become a fat-burning machine, you can start phasing in the rest of the aspects of the Paleo lifestyle.  This is discretionary based on your current funding means and motivation to make it to full Paleo.  I know that being able to afford pastured/grass fed/organic foods is not easy.  We have found that out the hard way.  However, if you count up all of the money you were spending on junk food, real food won't cost that much more if you get creative and savvy.  Go at your own pace, and don't quit.  The longer you stick with it, the less likely you will be to go back.  Keep researching recipes and remember why you are doing it.  It's not a fad.  It's not a temporary thing.  It is real living in it's purest form.

Soy Lecithin

As my wife and I have been making the transition to healthier foods, we have encountered a number of additives and preservatives that keep us from purchasing a product.  For one reason or another, it contains corn, soy, milk or wheat (or one of it's countless by-products).  There is one particular by-product that we can't seem to escape!  That is Soy Lecithin!

If you have recently started reading labels closer and tried to eliminate the four above GMO sources, you have likely run into the same issue.  After doing a little research, I found out why it seems nearly impossible to avoid:  It is a cheap additive that prevents the product from looking bad and/or spoiling too quickly.

Now, spoiled food is a bad thing no matter how you look at it!  Nobody wants to buy spoiled food.  However, you have to weigh your options when it comes to this prevalent ingredient.  First, we need to look a little closer at what it is.

Soy lecithin is a by-product of the process of producing soybean oil.  It is typically extracted from the plant by processing it with some mechanical or chemical processes which I will refrain from boring you with!  If you are so scientifically inclined to learn about how the beans undergo distillation, centrifugication, and precipitation, feel free to read this or put it into a search engine.  Basically, it is processed right out of the oil and used as a cheap alternative to keep your food from separating into those unsightly layers and turning funky.

Now, no soy (or corn, wheat, dairy; for that matter) product would be out there without an argument in favor of it's use.  They claim that there are some "advantages" to consuming this substance.  Lecithins have the esteemed distinction of being an excellent source of choline.  Choline is, again without getting into the nitty gritty details, a chemical that our bodies need to promote healthy cell function.  Without it, we may develop cognitive, heart, and reproductive issues.  In addition, it may decrease your athletic ability.  Yikes!  Where can I get me a gallon of this soy lecithin before I die?

In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend!"

There are a ton of great sources of choline that do not involve such a controversial crop as soy and is likely in every kitchen in america.  Here they are:

1. Shrimp
2. Eggs
3. Chicken
4. Turkey
5. Fish (namely, cod, tuna and salmon)
6. Beef
7. Collard greens

Those are in order of which one contains more choline.  So, as you can see, we won't die without this lecithin stuff.

Summary

As with any food/lifestyle choice, it's a matter of personal preference or physiology.  If you are concerned about eating zero soy due to allergy, morals, general hatred for Monsanto, or whatever; It's probably a good idea to skip all products that have "Contains: Soy" on the label.  If you don't think that the tiny amount that is in these products is going to kill you as long as it is organic or non-GMO, keep buying the products as long as it is certified organic or part of the Non-GMO project.  If you just don't care about soy at all, well...you probably wouldn't be reading this!  My take: Try to avoid it all together, but if it is a product that you really like and use frequently and it seems impossible to find it without this substance, just go with it as long as it's organic.  We have spent about a month trying to get rid of it, and we still have a handful of organic products in our kitchen with it on the label.

Questions

Three months ago, I lived in a world of ignorance.  A world where I could trust the government to look out for us, a world where food on grocery store shelves was safe, and a world full of cupcakes and licorice, pizza and pasta.  Unbeknownst to me was really a world of lies, deception, and hidden truth.  I had no idea three months ago what I would soon discover and where it would lead.  On April 6th, my husband Ryan, and co-author of upHill battle, decided to try low carb again.  We tried this approach several years back and living on bacon, eggs, sausage and tuna isn't all its cracked up to be.  While I lost some weight, I didn't really feel healthy eating all that processed meat.  So we decided that this time, we would be smarter about it and eat more vegetables.  That night was like our 'last supper".   We binged on bad carbs knowing we would be giving them up the next day.  Crackers, bread, candy...  whatever was in the house.  We drank diet soda and sweet wine, we even ordered pizza at 11pm.  Not the smartest thing to do, but we sure had fun with it.

The next day we began keeping track of our carbs with an app, and took on the daunting process of cleaning out our pantry.  So many things were now "off limits"!  It was extremely restrictive, but almost necessary to purge our systems.  Somewhere between two and three weeks into our low carb diet, we discovered the Paleo lifestyle and our world was forever changed.  We each began reading.  One book led to another and another and the things we discovered will literally shock you to your core.  We will try to post about each topic individually, as there is so much to cover.  However, what I began finding myself asking a lot was, why?  I felt like a two year old asking, why, why, why?  I had to know the answers to these questions. 

Why do people choose organics, or why did they exist in the first place?  Are they really that different than conventional produce?

Why do people avoid artificial sweeteners or artificial colorings?  Are they really unsafe?

Why had I always thought I couldn't survive without bread? 

When I began digging for answers to these questions, I was stunned.  The reason that I couldn't imagine my world without bread in it was because it's addictive.  It doesn't keep you full and it actually makes you crave more of it.  When I find out the WHY behind something, things suddenly make sense and when that light bulb goes off, it's much more likely to stick with me.  I have learned more about the food industry and the government’s role in all of this, than I ever thought possible.  Long story short, the FDA hides information, Big Food profits from selling it to us, and then Big Pharma profits from us when it inevitably makes us sick.  Does that sound wrong to anyone else?  Most doctors DO NOT talk about diet.  Why?  Because they don't learn about it in medical school.  They don't learn about altering diet as a form of medicine, it's all about what pills can we prescribe?  Because that's how they get paid!

I used to think only rich, snobby people bought organics and that it was a waste of money!  When I learned WHY they really buy them, I understand it, and now I do, too!  I want to support local farmers and organic growers.  We have it so backwards in this country!  Did you know (I didn't) that organics cost more, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the hoops they have to jump through and the amount of paperwork and costs of certification it takes to be labeled organic and prove their produce was grown without chemicals!  Back in the day, there was nothing called organic, it was just food.  And that is how it still in is in over 65 countries world wide.  Organics are just food and GMO's and artificial ingredients must be labeled.  Think about it a moment...  Who benefits financially from healthy people?  Processed food industry?  Doctors?  Pharmaceutical companies?

So many diseases and ailments are DIET related.  But people don't want to hear that.  That's not an easy fix.  They would rather not change anything in their diet and just take a pill for it and suffer the side effects, whatever that may be.  They want to keep enjoying their donuts and pizza and pasta...

It really is overwhelming when you think about it.  But, trust me when I say, it is completely worth it.  Making a lifestyle change this dramatic is not easy.  There can be withdrawal symptoms.  That's how you know you were addicted!  They were literally controlling you and your weight.  The first two weeks are the hardest.  And if you can make it 30 days, you are home free.  The key really is in how you view it.  Paleo is not a quick fix to lose weight and go off.  It's about getting, being, and staying healthy for your entire life and the benefits are nothing short of miraculous.  

I know you are all dying to know more, so be patient with us and we try to organize all the information and pass it along.  But if you are really thirsty for knowledge and can't wait, check our suggested reading material and links to some of our favorite websites. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Coming Soon!

We are currently planning and preparing to bring you information we have learned through research, successes and MANY failures in fitness, nutrition and overall health.  Please check back!