Primal vs. Industrial Foods Cost Comparison

Richard Nikoley's post on Budget Paleo reminded me that about a year ago I created a table comparing the cost per calorie of common paleo or primal foods to that of some conventional processed foods.  Many people make the mistake of evaluating the cost of a food based on the cost per unit (e.g. per pound) rather than the cost per calorie or nutritional density.   Since we eat to satisfy our energy requirements, I find it more useful to evaluate based on the cost per calorie and nutrients, since I need a certain number of calories and a set of nutrients every day. 

To create these tables I used the lowest cost per unit I could find for the foods in question by shopping at local supermarkets in my area. 

• Trader Joe's: olive oil
• Food City:  Butter, conventional; pork roast or chops (on sale); beef top sirloin (on sale); eggs, conventional; sweet potatoes; white rice; Cheerios; tortilla chips; soda (generic); non-fat milk
• Sprouts: Butter, organic; walnuts; beef chuck roast; carrots; eggs, omega-3; beef with fat; oranges (in season); broccoli (in season, on sale); whole milk

Here's what I came up with for paleo or primal foods, purchased at common markets:

You can see that the fats have the lowest cost per calorie, followed by meats I found on sale, nuts, and conventional eggs.  Lard provides 1000 calories for 73 cents and olive oil for 75 cents.  Pork purchased on sale at Food City for $1.00 per pound (I've seen similar prices at Safeway, Fry's, and other markets) provides 1000 calories for 80 cents.  Thus, I could consume 3000 calories of pork, olive oil, and lard for a total cost of about $2.40 per day, or $72 per month (30 days).  If you needed only 2000 calories, you could eat for about $1.60 per day, or $48 per month.   For complete nutritional adequacy I would use some liver and cook some bones or inexpensive greens for minerals.

For some non-paleo foods, I came up with the following:

White rice is very low cost at 3 cent per calorie and 30 cents per 1000 calories, making it less than half the cost of olive oil, butter, or pork.  However, white rice fails to supply adequate quality or quantity of many essential micronutrients.  Further, eating white rice may increase the risk for developing type 2 diabetes (NIDDM).  Yes, it has a very low cost but I would rather see people invest in no-glycemic calories like olive oil, lard, or butter, or inexpensive meats like pork.

Perhaps to some surprise, Cheerios(TM) has a price tag as high as conventional butter when compared on a calorie for calorie basis, and so-called "cheap" junk foods like tortilla chips and soda actually cost more per calorie than olive oil, butter, and pork on sale.  These two junk foods also cost more per calorie than whole milk.

Whole milk is not paleo, but it is a matter of fact that humans can live in good health on a diet consisting almost exclusively of an adequate supply of whole milk, as shown by the Maasai, Fulani, and other pastoral societies.  In contrast, you can't live in good health on a diet consisting solely of Cheerios (TM).

A gallon of conventional whole milk supplies about 2400 calories and a wealth of protein, quality fat, vitamins, and minerals for only about $2.50.  A gallon of milk daily would cost $75 per month for one person.  Soda costs 30% more than milk on a calorie basis, and has NO essential nutrients.  While not paleo, a GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) diet would be nutrient dense on a mere $2.50 per day. 

Notice also that whole milk costs less than trendy whole wheat bread and non-fat milk. 

Any thoughts?

Herbal Gifts for the Holidays

Are you wanting to make herbal gifts for your friends and family this holiday season? 


This blog post will look at a variety of ways you can spread herbal cheer this holiday season. Don't miss the Herbal Winter Tea Coasters at the end!

Herbal Gifts ebook, Second Edition

This fall I did a major overhaul on my Herbal Gifts ebook. The result is almost fifty pages full of new recipes combined with old favorites and beautiful photography. It contains many simple herbal gift ideas from spice mixtures to facial scrubs that your friends and family will love. It's available at HerbMentor.com or as part of the Wildcraft! sale...

WildCraft! An Herbal Adventure Game

John at LearningHerbs.com is also getting into the holidays by offering his amazing cooperative board game, Wildcraft! for 50% OFF. This board game was create for ages 4 and up and is a perfect game to teach kids about using plants. 


In addition to this incredible sale he is also offering a slew of bonuses including: 

• My Herbal Gifts ebook
• 7 hour teleseminar with Herbalist Angie Goodloe on Kids and Herbs
• A children's herb book you can customize for your own child 
• and lots more

You can read more about this innovative game that teaches kids (and adults!) about herbs here. Hurry sale ends on December 2nd at midnight. 

Free Herbal Gift Newsletters

Every year around the holidays I do a series of free newsletters for LearningHerbs.com. So far this year we've made Bay Rum Aftershave and Vanilla Extract. There are four more newsletters in the series. You can sign up for this for free by signing up for the HerbMentor newsletter at LearningHerbs.com

Here's a excerpt from my Herbal Gifts ebook

Winter Tea Coasters

These coasters are a wonderful gift for the holiday season. When warm cups are placed on the coasters, they release their wonderful scent.

Here’s what you’ll need to make one winter coaster. Multiply by four to make a full set. 

• 5 teaspoons each of ground nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and cardamon. 
• two pieces of fabric measuring 4 inches by 4 inches
• Thread
• Sewing machine or needle and thread
• Funnel

Begin by placing your fabric together, ugly side facing out. 

Sew 3/4 of the way around the coaster. 

Turn right side out. I use a pencil to get all the corners fully switched.

Mix together your spice powders. 

Using a funnel (or a lot of patience, if you don’t have a funnel leave a bigger opening) fill the coaster with the powdered herbs. 

Once filled, sew the remaining hole shut. 

Now you have a wonderful smelling coaster for all your warm winter teas. 


Here's a look at the table of contents for the the ebook on Herbal Gifts. Happy Holidays!

• Sections on spices and herbal mixtures
• Herbal tea blends
• Vinegars
• Herbal oils
• Syrups (elderberry and rose hip)
• Infused honeys (rose hip, lavender, garlic)
• Cordials and Elixirs (elderberry, rose petal, pomegranate cordial)
• Vanilla Extract
• Bee pollen candy
• Seaweed cookies
• Herbal butter
• Tea coasters
• Bath salts
• Salt scrub
• Bath herbs
• Body powder
• Bay rum aftershave
• Eye pillow
• Herb sachets
• Sugar facial scrub
• Packaging ideas
• Lots more!

You can get your own copy of my Herbal Gifts ebook by subscribing to HerbMentor.com or as a bonus as part of the WildCraft! Herbal Adventure Game Sale. 

My Meals 11/25/10 - Practically Paleo Thanksgiving

Half a turkey breast roasted in a slow cooker with with a sausage dressing.  I seasoned the turkey with garlic powder, rosemary, black pepper, and a couple tablespoons full of grass-finished beef tallow.  The sausage dressing consisted of pork sausage, diced green apple,  celery,  onions, ground sage, and a very small amount of maple syrup*.  
Cranberries and apples cooked in apple cider with cinnamon and a very small amount of maple syrup*.
Sweet potatoes mashed with a small amount of orange juice and some coconut oil.
Brussells sprouts prepared by first steaming, then carmelized in a mix of butter*, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
Green salad dressed with olive oil and bacon bits.

We chose to eat our "practically paleo" squash pie on Friday.  We used the dairy-free recipe in The Garden of Eating, page 384, using only honey* as a sweetener.  Tracy created the crust by mixing almond flour with some melted butter* from grass-fed cows.  You could use coconut oil instead of butter for a dairy-free "paleo" crust. 

We ate the pie with whipped cream; Tracy put cinnamon-flavored stevia* and some vanilla extract in the cream. 

* Asterisks mark ingredients that are NOT "paleo" by strict definition.  Hence, this meal was practically paleo, NOT paleo! 

Ted Slanker Says John Robbins Is a Nut Case

For those of you unfamiliar with the world of vegetarians, John Robbins was heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune.  He turned down the inheritance to pursue a life promoting veganism as the dietary solution to poor health and ecological disruption.  His book Diet For A New America, and film by the same name, has inspired many to adopt vegetarian or vegan diets, ostensibly to save themselves from chronic disease and "save the earth" from catastrophes that Robbins claims will occur as a result of our consuming land animal foods.   He created an organization called "EarthSave" which has the mission of promoting vegan dieting for health and supposed environmental benefits. 

Robbins wrote a blog post entitled "What About Grass-Fed Beef?"  in which he outlines why he won't eat or recommend grass-fed beef.    The post starts with these paragraphs:

Feeding grain to cattle has got to be one of the dumbest ideas in the history of western civilization.

Cows, sheep, and other grazing animals are endowed with the ability to convert grasses, which those of us who possess only one stomach cannot digest, into food that we can digest. They can do this because they are ruminants, which is to say that they possess a rumen, a 45 or so gallon (in the case of cows) fermentation tank in which resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.

Traditionally, all beef was grassfed beef, but in the United States today what is commercially available is almost all feedlot beef. The reason? It’s faster, and so more profitable.

Seventy-five years ago, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Today, they are 14 or 16 months. You can’t take a beef calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds in a little more than a year on grass. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones.

Ted Slanker, a rancher who raises grass-finished cattle, got wind of Robbins's post and published a response entitled "John Robbins is a Nut Case."   Slanker's post starts like this:
  

Recently a first-page Google search for “grass fed beef” provided a listing for a John Robbins blog.  Obviously, a lot of folks are reading his blog and for sure it directly impacts us.  One might assume his comments would be a good thing for grass-fed beef, ranchers and farmers, and the American consumer.  But, hold on there partner, that is not the case.  John’s commentary slides around between facts, myths, religious beliefs, and outright distortions.  So, unless one really knows something about nutrition, ranching, grass-fed meat, the conventional food industry, and such, they would be inclined to think John Robbins’ blog is good information.  Since that is not the case, I have responded. 

Some weeks ago I tried to leave a response on the John Robbins blog, but I cannot find its posting.  So, since I have my own forum (one of the good things about the Internet) I am going to post one of my typical straight-talk essays right here where he can’t edit me out of the picture (assuming he did). 

My response may offend many who want to believe the worst about American agriculture and the American food industry.  But those folks are beyond being idiotic because all they do is sit around and complain through their mouthful of food.  And they are so lazy they want to blame American agriculture and the American food industry for their chronic diseases instead of taking measures into their own hands by educating themselves and changing the foods they eat.  Anyone wanting to do just that, can do it.  Therefore I’ll address both parties: the nut case John Robbins and the misguided members of the American mob.

 

Slanker is a grass-rancher but he nevertheless defends grain-feeding of cattle against what he sees as sentimental misconceptions promoted by Robbins and other veg*ns.  I of course agree with Slanker.  For example, I liked these passages in Slanker's post:

John complains that ranchers "make them eat grain, primarily corn, in order to make them as fat as possible."  Then on the other hand he recommends that people eat whole grains for health?!?!  He is so out of touch that he doesn't understand that the feeding of grain to people causes obesity in people just like it does cattle. 

 Robbins wrote:  "The cruelties of modern factory farming are so severe that you don't have to be a vegetarian or an animal rights activist to find the conditions to be intolerable, and a violation of the human-animal bond."  Slanker responds:

Statements like this are designed to inflame the ignorant masses.  I would rather keep animals in their natural environment.  But in actual fact, animals in confinement are like people on welfare.  Everything is provided, they love the feed, they are protected from the cruel world, and they get to visit with their buddies.  Compare feedlots to cities where people live in high densities such as New York City with it's 26,403 people per square mile (41.25 people per acre and an acre is only 208 feet by 208 feet).

Furthermore, the idea that people who depend on the animals they raise for their livelihood routinely mistreat their charges is idiotic nonsense.  Yes, you will always be able to find stupid people doing stupid things (like John promoting a vegetarian existence) but that doesn't mean the idiots are the norm.

 In response to Robbins' claim that we don't have enough grass-land to raise the number of cattle we currently raise on corn, Ted says:

Unbeknownst to John it is estimated that the original buffalo herd numbered up to as high as 70 million head.  They ranged from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River and from West Texas into Canada.  In that same area today there are about 60.35 million head of cattle.  In total area the buffalo range was comparable to about one-third of the continental United States.  If most of the land used for grain (the seed of a grass plant) production here in the United States was instead grazed for its forage, the nation's cattle herd could probably be doubled or tripled or more.

You get the gist. I like Ted's cut-to-the-chase writing style and he links to sources for his facts, unlike Robbins.  Let me know what you think.

My Meals: 11/21/10

I don't have photos of my breakfast this day.  It consisted of some leftover beef roast; Trader Joe's turkey keilbasa; collards cooked with onions and red pepper; and some leftover green beans, bok choy, and onions.

Supper

We got frozen ahi tuna from Trader Joe's.  It came cut in two steaks each a little more than an inch thick and about 1/2 pound.  I cut them into thinner steaks about 1/2 inch thick, and seasoned each of the 4 steaks with black pepper and a very small amount of salt.  Meanwhile I cooked 2 strips of Pederson's brand uncured smoked jalapeno-flavored bacon to just crisp, removed it to drain, and added about a tablespoon of grass-finished beef tallow to the pan.  As soon as the tallow melted, I cooked the tuna steaks for about 1 minute on each side in the mixture of bacon fat and tallow.  We topped each tuna steak with 1/4 of a sliced avocado, a little salsa, and 1/2 slice of the bacon.  I think this was the best ahi tuna I have ever had, very moist and flavored by the bacon fat and tallow.

Along side the tuna we had a mixed green salad consisting primarily of romaine lettuce, with red radish, onion, and zucchini, dressed with olive oil, and sweet potatoes topped with grass-fed butter.  For dessert we had a couple of the primal chocolate chip cookies we made earlier in the day.

Our Primal Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment

This weekend Tracy and I decided to try the primal chocolate chip cookie recipe that Mark Sisson posted on Mark's Daily Apple.

Mark's ingredient list:

• 4 dates, pits removed
• 1 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

We ended up modifying it a bit.  Instead of using four dates, we started by using 4 coconut date rolls.  Each of these The instructions were to put the dates in a food processor and grind them to a paste.  The date rolls were too dry to form a paste so we added two more dates along with some water in which we had soaked the dates.  We substituted 1/2 cup of Ghirardelli 100% chocolate bar chopped into 'chips.'

From left to right clockwise starting at top: Dates soaked in water, Ghirardelli 100% chocolate bar, and coconut date rolls.  Sorry for the blurry quality.

We followed the original instructions to grind the dates to a paste then add the pecans and walnuts to the processor and allow it to chop the nuts finely.  The original instructions suggested only 35 seconds in the processor would adequately chop the nuts, but we found it took longer, possibly because we used a very small processor.  We would change the procedure.  We think it would work better to make the date paste, then remove the date paste from the processor and use it to chop the nuts separately, then add the date paste back into the nuts and allow the processor to mix the dates and nuts.

Otherwise, the recipe went smoothly and after we had all the ingredients mixed the batter looked like this (photo taken after 2/3 of batter already put in oven):

Of course we tried the raw batter and it tasted good.  We got a total of 12 cookies out of the batter. When they came out of the oven they looked like this:

The unsweetened chocolate was the perfect complement to the dates.  We tried a couple of them as soon as they were cool enough to eat, and we liked them warm, but we found that they tasted even better after sitting for 4 hours, during which the flavors had better married.

I did a nutrtion analysis on the recipe.  These cookies supply 73% of calories as fat, 20% as carbohydrate, and 6% as protein.  When the whole batch is split into 12 cookies, each cookie supplies 224 calories, 20 g fat, 12 g carbohydrate (3 g of which is fiber), and 4 g protein.  For comparison, according to NutritionData.com, Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookies supply 135 calories, 7 g fat, 17 g carbohydrate, and 1 g protein.

The 'primal' cookie has nearly twice as many calories as a conventional cookie, and only slightly fewer grams of carbohydrate.  This to me illustrates one of the problems with making 'primal' versions of conventional foods, namely that the caloric concentration of foods made with nuts instead of grain flours is much higher...  If you use these foods often and don't move around a lot, expect some weight gain.

My Meals 11/19/10

Breakfast 11/19/10

Grilled A-Bar-H Farm grass-finished round steak (marinated overnight in lemon juice, cumin, rosemary, garlic, and black pepper)
1 1/2 soft boiled eggs
2 strips of bacon
Onions, tomato, turnip greens, and bok choy sauteed in bacon drippings, seasoned with chili pepper flakes
Some leftover onions and kabocha squash baked in coconut oil and seasoned with powdered cinnamon
One orange (not in photo)

Supper 11/19/10

Turkey thighs roasted in crock pot with onions, seasoned with Wright's liquid hickory smoke , chili flakes, garlic, black pepper, touch of salt, and pastured butter
Sweet potato mashed with a small amount of orange juice (juice of 1/4 orange for 2 sweet potatoes) and pastured butter 
Red onions and bok choy stir-fried in coconut oil and seasoned with Thai Kitchen Fish Sauce and Red Chili Paste.

The photo doesn't do the turkey justice...those thighs were larger than they appear in the photo.

Products we used:

Doing S.P.E.E.D.: A Paleo-Friendly Weight Loss Manual

If you are looking for a well-researched and comprehensive approach to weight management that gives paleo-friendly diet guidance, but more importantly addresses the main reasons people fail to achieve body composition goals, which lie in the mind, not the body, I highly recommend picking up a copy of S.P.E.E.D. by Jeff Thiboutot M.S., C.N. and Matt Schoeneberger M.S., C.E.S.

Jeff and Matt have squarely addressed the reality that although no one can achieve fat loss without an appropriate diet, the real challenge lies in sticking with that diet for long enough (essentially a life time) to achieve and maintain the desired body composition. They present a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to weight management based on what they call the bio-psycho-social model.  

This model maintains that “The regulation of fat tissue and the resulting amounts that people have are influenced, directly or indirectly, by biological, psychological, and sociological factors” (p. 16).  Simply, this means that not only biological, but also cognitive, social, and environmental factors all influence hunger, appetite, and eating, so that a comprehensive approach to long-term weight management must address physiological, psychological, social, and environmental influences.

In their first chapter on What Is a Healthy Weight?, they discuss what exactly constitutes a healthy body composition.   After a review of the evidence they conclude that very low body fat may not actually confer improved health; as they put it, “having ‘six pack abs’ has NOT been shown to confer any health benefits” (p.17).   However, a high level of visceral fat does appear to negatively affect health, so “it’s in your best interest to maintain your weight (BMI, waist circumference, and body fat%) within a healthy range.”

S.P.E.E.D. stands for Sleep, Psychology, Exercise, Environment, and Diet.  Chapter 2 reviews the substantial evidence that sleep deprivation affects appetite, blood leptin and glucose levels, insulin resistance, and energy expenditure, and gives guidance to achieve a better night’s sleep.

Chapter 3 covers psychology, which as Jeff and Matt say on the cover of the book, “your mindset matters the most.”  Like other chapters, it begins with a list of things to do:

Have a compelling vision.  Set S.M.A.R.T. goals.  Increase your level of self-efficacy.  Journal. Get timely feedback.  Cultivate a more rational and flexible thinking pattern.  Get help from others.  Define your obstacles and find ways to overcome them.  Keep stress levels down.

The rest of the chapter explains why and how to do these things as a part of a program to improve or maintain a healthy body composition.  It includes such things as how to effectively set goals, how to use reason to counter negative, self-defeating thought patters, and why journaling can help you stay on course.  I particularly liked their bringing to light the evidence for the efficacy of hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis (induction of altered states of consciousness) as a part of a goal-oriented program.  All native tribes knew of the power of hypnotic trance and used it as part of their  shamanic practices directed toward health enhancement.  I believe it works because it engages powers that lie deep within the human psychophysiological complex that connect with what I have called primal wisdom, an intelligence built in to the system through millenia of evolution.

Chapter 4 covers exercise.  Jeff and Matt review the evidence for efficacy of resistance, aerobic, and high intensity interval training (HIIT).   They correctly report the evidence which is that "exercise" is way over-rated as a method for weight loss (largely because you can easily consume in a few minutes all the energy you burn in 30+ minutes of "exercise").  They conclude that “resistance training is the foundation of your program, and everything else is additional,” since the evidence supports resistance training as the best way to maintain lean mass as you lose body fat by appropriate diet.

Chapter 5 discusses the effects of the eating environment on food intake.   Research has shown that social and environmental factors (such as plate size and shape, room temperature, lighting, food variety, presence of others, and so on) can play a considerable role in affecting the quantity and quality of food consumed.  The goal of this chapter  is to show the reader how “to purposefully arrange your environment so that it will be easier to stick to your eating plan” (p. 75).

Chapter 6 gets to diet.  Jeff and Matt advocate a low carbohydrate, medium protein, high fat diet such as I follow, and one thing I really like about their approach is that they firmly maintain, correctly, that to achieve weight loss you must incorporate a 20-40% reduction of calorie intake by either reducing daily food intake or intermittent fasting.  They deftly debunk several myths about low carbohydrate dieting, ketosis, meal frequency, meal size, and meal timing, and provide valuable guidance regarding use of supplements, few of which have any value.  They emphasize getting about 30g of quality protein at each meal for optimum appetite control.  I don’t agree with every detail of this chapter, but the points on which I disagree are so minor as to be unworthy to discuss. They back this chapter with 107 references!

Chapter seven debunks common weight loss myths, and alone may be worth the cost of the book for many uninformed people.  Chapter eight shows people how to “do S.P.E.E.D.” including how to calculate caloric requirements, distribute macronutrients, choose foods, and put together menus.  It has a seven day sample plan of diet and exercise; I would add more non-starchy vegetables to the menus, but otherwise it faithfully gives a good low carbohydrate, medium protein, high fat meal plan.  They also include some sample, simple resistance training plans.

This book also has some valuable appendices on quality evidence; determining a healthy body weight; resources for information on nutrition, sleep, and hypnotherapy consistent with “doing S.P.E.E.D.”; and macronutrient composition of common foods. 

This book is short enough to read in an afternoon, but packed with valuable information and guidance for those who struggle to follow a healthy low-carbohydrate diet for weight management. 

The immune system

Seen within the context of ecology, both human and environmental, immunity is about HARMONY and not resistance, a dynamic dance with the environment and not simply a series of barriers to it. 

- David Hoffman

In the last Anatomy and Physiology section we looked at the lymph system. The lymphatic system is part of the greater immune system function, so please review that section before heading into this article on the immune system. 

The western medical system has divided the body into different mechanical systems. We can learn the specifics of the digestive system or the specifics of the cardiovascular system using this model. 

However, in real life, it is impossible to truly separate the body into different mechanical parts because it is innately connected. One aspect of the body influences the other through an intricate web that results in our total body. 

The immune system is no exception and it is actually a rebel within the western model of understanding because it does not have a specific set of organs and, instead, is a variety of biological structures. 

Our immune system is the way we protect ourselves against pathogens and tumor cells.   It is a set of biological structures and processes that can detect a wide variety of invading microorganisms from viruses to bacteria to parasites. 

In order to do this, the organism must recognize the difference between self and non-self. This is a complex system that must continually evolve as pathogens are continually evolving as well. 

Disease can occur when the immune system is under-active or over-active. Immunodeficiency, or an under-active immune system, can result in frequent infections like seasonal colds or the flu. We are constantly in contact with a wide variety of bacteria and viruses that can cause infection. The strength of our immune system makes the difference in those people who are sick all the time and those who seldom become ill. 

A hyperactive immune system can also lead to ill-health. Auto-immune diseases such as  lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are the results of an immune system that no longer recognizes the difference between self and non-self. Sometimes this is seen as an overactive immune system. 

Types of immunity

One form of immunity is called nonspecific resistance. It protects the body from all pathogens and other foreign substances by using the following four methods:

Mechanical barriers

This includes the skin and the mucous membranes. 

The skin prevents pathogens from entering the body both because the pH of the skin can kill some bacteria and also because the epidermis of the skin has closely packed cells preventing entry. 

The mucous membranes do not have the advantage of the closely packed cells like the skin, but it does produce mucous that can engulf microorganisms. Most mucous produced in the upper respiratory system is swallowed and, upon entering the stomach, the acids present destroy the pathogens. 

Other mechanical barriers in the non-specific immunity response include fluids that flush the system. This involves saliva, tears, and urine. 

Chemical actions

Chemical actions in the body are another type of immunity that can disrupt pathogens from reproducing. 

Some examples of these include the enzyme lysozyme, which destroys bacteria. It is found in tears, saliva, mucous, and perspiration. Pepsin is a chemical found in the stomach that stops foreign microorganisms from replicating. The chemical interferon stimulates healthy cells to inhibit viral replication within cells. 

Phagocytosis

Phagocytosis is an immune response that includes the engulfing and destruction of micro organisms as well as damaged or old cells and other cellular debris. Phagocytosis is a process carried out by macrophage cells. 

Macrophage literally means “big eaters.” Besides phagocytosis, macrophage cells can also alert the immune system that pathogens have entered the body. 

Some herbs like Echinacea spp. and Boneset (Euporium perfoliatum) can stimulate phagocytosis. 

Inflammation

Inflammation is a localized immune response that inhibits infections and promotes healing. 

It is easy for us to think that inflammation is “bad” since it is characterized by pain, redness, heat, and swelling. However, inflammation is an important part of the immune system. 

At the beginning of the inflammatory process chemicals are released to dilate blood vessels, thus creating more blood flow to an area. Increased blood flow causes redness and heat. The inflammatory process also increases the permeability of the capillaries and this increase in fluid movement creates swelling. 

Pain can result if there is an infection present from the swelling or from irritation of nerve endings. 

Through the process of inflammation white blood cells become attracted to the area to inhibit infection. Macrophages come in to phagocytize bacteria. All of this extra cell activity - white blood cells, macrophages, and dead bacterial cells - may form a thick white to yellow liquid called pus. 

The inflammatory process inhibits infection and then promotes healing by stimulating cell division to repair any damage. 

Fever

A fever is another important immune system response that often gets a bad rap. Pathogens are killed at certain temperatures. A fever then raises the body’s temperature in order to make the environment less hospitable to the invading microorganism. Not only does this inhibit the growth of pathogens, it also increases immune system function. 

Mechanical barriers, chemical barriers, phagocytosis, inflammation, and fevers are all methods of the non-specific immune system response. Next we will discuss specific resistance. 

Specific resistance 

The immune system can also have a specific resistance to an organism. This is the production of specific cells to attack a specific invader. These cells create a memory of the specific pathogen and if it is encountered again the response is quicker and stronger. This is why people often only get chicken pox one time. After the initial infection the immune system is able to take care of the chicken pox virus before it can cause another systemic infection. 

Lymphocytes are an important part of specific immunity response. Lymphocytes are white blood cells. Larger lymphocytes are called Natural Killer cells while smaller ones are T Cells and B cells. They are created in the bone marrow but must mature and become specialized before they are a part of the immune system function. T cells go to the thymus gland to become specialized. It is currently unknown where B cells become specialized. 

All cells have antigens that are surface recognition molecules. After a lymphocyte goes through the specialization process it is able to recognize “self” cells from foreign cells. So it knows to attack cancer cells or viral cells and to not attack self cells. 

Organ transplants have to inhibit lymphocyte activity; otherwise the body will attack the new organ. This is why people with organ transplants will take pills to inhibit their immune system for the rest of their life. 

There are two types of specific resistance: cell-mediated immunity and antibody mediated immunity. 

Cell-mediated immunity

T lymphocytes target specific foreign cells to attack. They remember the antigens of these cells in case they should appear again. When specific T cells (Th cells) bind to antigens they release cytokine chemicals. These chemicals attract immune system cells to the site and increase phagocytosis. Further, they stimulate cell division and the immune response from activated B and T cells.

As T cells increase and the pathogen in the body decreases the immune system slows down. 

A cytokine storm is an exaggerated immune system response that can be fatal. 

Antibody-mediated immunity

In antibody mediated immunity B and helper T cells bind to pathogen cells in order to tag them for other cells to destroy. This process inhibits extracellular pathogens. 

This works because cells in the body recognize foreign antigens. Once recognized B cells bind to the antigen, starting the antibody mediated immunity. Plasma cells in the body produce specific antibodies to the antigens. They then circulate throughout the body looking for these antigens. Once they find them they bind to the non-self antigens, which are then destroyed by phagocytosis. If the same antigen re-enters the body at some time in the future then B memory cells act more quickly and more strongly to stop the antigen. 

For an unknown reason people can generate antibodies to foods such as gluten, dairy, soy, seafood, corn, and more. When someone has these antibodies they can no longer eat these foods without creating an immune system response. Overtime, these responses can lead to excessive inflammation and are suspected as a key culprit in many autoimmune disorders. 

Immune responses

The first time an antigen is encountered the immune system launches its primary immune response. B and T cells are stimulated to produce clones that attack and destroy the non-self antigens. This particular antigen is filed away in memory B cells. 

If that same antigen should enter the body again a secondary immune response is activated. This time the attack on the antigen is fiercer to more quickly eliminate it. The concentration of antibody in the secondary immune system response is much higher than in the primary immune response. A secondary immune response is stimulated every time that antigen enters the body. 

Again, this is why people tend to only get chicken pox once. When the body comes into contact with it again, it launches a secondary immune system response that quickly inhibits the virus before it becomes a full blown illness. 

Immunity Types

Here is an overview and explanation of different immunity types. 

Immunity Type	Mechanism	How it works
Naturally acquired active immunity	Infection like the chicken pox	A person becomes ill as a result of the pathogens. The immune system is activated into a primary system response and the memory of the infection is stored away. If the pathogen ever enters the body again, the immune system launches a secondary response that is stronger than the first and prevents infection.
Artificially  acquired active immunity	Vaccinations	An injection of a weakened pathogen or some variation of their pathogens are given to a person and an immune response happens without the person becoming overtly ill.
Artificially acquired passive immunity	An injection of antibodies or antitoxins against an antigen	Immunity is acquired in the short term. Booster shots are needed. Tetanus is a common example.
Naturally acquired passive immunity	Antibodies the child receives from the mother either through breast milk or in utero	Short term immunity is passed onto the baby without creating an overt illness.

Ways to Support Your Immune System

Maintain healthy digestion

Research is now showing that the majority of our immune system lies within our gut! Having chronic digestive problems such as constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, and dyspepsia could all lead to immune system dysfunction. 

One manifestation of this is what is called Leaky Gut Syndrome. The intestinal walls not only absorb nutrients from food but also act as a barrier to keep food particles out of the blood stream. If the intestinal villi become damaged (through food intolerance, excessive alcohol, NSAIDs, antibiotics, etc) then food particles can move into the blood stream. This can set off an immune response and is thought by many to be the cause of  some auto-immune diseases. 

Gastrointestinal: Leaky gut, molecular mimicry, microchimerism, and autoimmunity, by Paul Bergner

Gut Health a Question of Balance a short article relating why gut health is an important part of immune system function

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is being heralded as the nutritional breakthrough of the 21st century. We now know that the majority of modern people are very deficient in vitamin D. We also know that vitamin D plays an extremely important role in many of our systemic functions and notably in our immune system. Vitamin D is made when our skin comes in contact with direct sunlight. For those of us in the norther latitudes this is only possible during late spring to early fall. Unless we are able to add extraordinary amounts of liver to our diets, supplementation is often necessary. 

I encourage all of my clients to get their vitamin D levels checked. Once you know your particular levels you can supplement accordingly. 

I also encourage people to get appropriate sun exposure. This is 15-20 minutes of noontime sun with a lot of skin showing. If you have fair skin you might need to work up to this amount. Burning from sun exposure is harmful, but regular short term sun exposure is not. 

The Vitamin D Council is a good source of information. 

Dr. Mercola has a great vitamin D resource list.  

Avoid Sugar

Even small amounts of sugar have detrimental effects on your immune system. Researchers say that as little as 8 teaspoons can decrease immune system function by 50% for five hours. 

Eat Well

It can’t be said enough that eating good food leads to good health. But what is good food? It is my belief that one person’s healthy food is another person’s poison. I really like the book Metabolic Typing by William Wolcott. Instead of giving a diet dogma about what is the right food to eat, it teaches people how to recognize when foods are working for them and when they aren’t. Do you feel hungry all the time? Do you often get bloated? Do you have chronic constipation or diarrhea? Then it’s quite possible that you aren’t eating the right foods for you. 

Get appropriate amounts of sleep

If you are consistently not getting enough sleep I would encourage you to examine your life to figure out how this can be changed. Sleep is crucial to our healing process. Long term sleep debt can lead to a host of serious diseases and even general unwellness. If you sleep many hours but wake up feeling unrested then seek help to get this issue figured out. If you have insomnia, then seek help to get this figured out. In my mind there is no excuse for chronic sleep depravations as this is one of the core needs of your body to function in a healthy manner. 

Maintain a healthy relationship to stress

We all have stress and it is a part of life. Stress doesn’t even have to be a bad part of life when it is experienced normally. If you have excessive stress in your life then you know it. Again, I encourage you to reexamine ways to reduce stress. If small things stress you out you may consider looking into a herbal regimen of adaptogens to help you create a better resiliency to stress. 

Be Joyful

Western medicine is proving over and over again that our happiness directly affects our immune system. But we didn’t need to be told that, did we? 

Immune System

 A Brief Overview Of The Biological Immune System by David Hoffman

The Immune System And Its Specific Problems by David Hoffman

Christopher Hobbs gives an Immune System Overview

A General Approach to Infection by David Hoffman

A Phyto-Therapeutic Approach To The Immune System by David Hoffman

Immunity, Holism And Phyto-Therapy by David Hoffman

Immuno-Stimulation, Immuno-Modulation Or What? by David Hoffman

Epigenetics: How We Influence Cell Signaling and Cell Health by Suzanne Sky

Immune Health, H1N1, and Cold and Flu Prevention by Suzanne Sky

Allergies

In-depth overview by Chanchal Cabrera

Angie Goodloe discusses Immediate food allergy reactions and food sensitivities

Quick overview of allergies by Henriette Kress

Allergic Reactions a pdf by 7song

An Herbalist’s View of Immunity and Lymph by 7song

Paul Bergner has an excerpt from his fabulous book, The Healing Power of Echinacea and Goldenseal, that discusses several lymphatic herbs. Besides reading this short excerpt I also highly recommend this book. Besides giving an incredible in-depth view on two very important western herbs, it is also has a really thorough description of the immune system and how it functions. 

Infections and Illnesses

There is also a long listing of articles specific to infection and illnesses that can be found on jim mcdonald’s fabulous website, Herbcraft.org 

Works Consulted

The anatomy and physiology in this article was extracted mainly from The Principles of Anatomy & Physiology, Tortora, Grabowski. I also used Anatomy and Physiology by Stanley E. Gunstream 4^th ed. 

The second half of this article giving us an herbal perspective on the nervous system would not have been possible without jim mcdonald’s Article Index. Thanks a thousand times to jim for putting this together. 

Garden of Eating Paleo Diet / Primal Diet on Livestrong.com!

Livestrong.com has put up a positive "review" of what they have called the "Garden of Eating Diet." I was surprised to find a positive review of my book on such a mainstream site.  Whoever wrote it went to the trouble of providing a section called "Clinical Data,"  which briefly reports the positive health outcomes found in the 10-day clinical trial run by Frassetto et al (Metabolic and physiologic improvements from consuming a paleolithic, hunter-gatherer type diet) using a plant-food dominated paleo-style diet.

One clear mistake in the review, however, lies in the author's assertion that I/we said that you must eat grass fed animal products to follow our recommendations.  We did not.  We gave many reasons we prefer grass fed animal products and highly recommended them, but we did not state that you must only eat grass fed animal products.  We didn't even do that ourselves, and still don't.  

The author also included this:

Warning

Speak with your doctor about the benefits and risks of the Garden of Eating Diet before you start it. You might have specific dietary needs that the program does not address, or your doctor may prescribe another dietary approach based upon your specific health needs.

I am always both irritated and amused by these warnings, since most doctors haven't a clue about the benefits or supposed "risks" of eating a practically paleo diet.   It also perpetuates the largely bogus idea that "specific health needs" require specific diets.   Like, you eat this way if you have diabetes, a different way if you have heart disease, and another way yet if you have M.S. or cancer, or whatever.   I agree only that once a person has been damaged by conventional "treatments," e.g. gall bladder removal, some modifications or adjustments or supplments may be required to work around the damage.  Otherwise the same set of foods applies to all humans and all conditions, although optimum food group proportions (more or less of meat or plants, for example) might vary from individual to individual or even within one individual from time to time.

Otherwise, humans are a single species, and like all other species we are most completely adapted to that set of foods upon which our evolutionary ancestors depended for the vast majority of human evolutionary time, namely those that form the foundation of a practically paleo diet, meat and meat products, vegetables, fruits and fruit products, and nuts and nut products.  As Robb Wolf has said, it is amazingly odd that we generally have no problem understanding the principle of dietary adaptation when discussing other species -- no one seriously believes that some cats are adapted to meat diets, and others to vegan diets -- but for some reason (I think it has to do originally with certain religious ideologies of Middle Eastern desert tribe origin) we treat the human as an odd snowflake not subject to the same biological forces as other species.

The Twinkie Diet: A Paleo Dieter Perspective

So far two people have emailed me about the “Twinkie diet” self-experiment followed by Mark Haub, Ph.D., a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, and reported by CNN.com.  Stephan made an excellent post on it here, which I recommend that you read.  Raj at Harder.Better.Faster.Stronger also made a useful contribution. 

My own views overlap those of Stephan and Raj. 

First, Dr. Haub limited himself to less than 1800 calories per day, while his caloric expenditure at his pre diet weight would be at least 2600 calories (see calculation below).  He described his experiment as "I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away.”    The question is, how was he determining “the point of need”?  Answer:  By calculating calories.  

Everyone agrees that anyone can lose weight by deliberately restricting caloric or food intake for a  period of time.  But who wants to meticulously count calories day after day after day?  This is not a spontaneous and therefore for most people not a sustainable way to maintain an appropriate food intake. 

As Stephan notes, the body has its own intelligence which regulates food intake without the interference of the conscious mind.  If you choose the Twinkie diet, you can lose weight as long as you consciously monitor your caloric intake and deliberately override your hunger drive.  However, if you want your body to regulate itself, you will want to eat in a way that allows you to feel satisfied and frees you of having to consciously monitor your food intake.  That would mean eating the foods to which your body is naturally adapted, and avoiding those to which it is not adapted. 

According to Dr. Haub’s Facebook page on his experiment, he lost 26.6 pounds over 10 weeks, going from 200.8 pounds and  33.4% body fat to 174.2 pounds and 24.9% body fat.  So, at the beginning he had  67 lbs fat mass and 134 lbs lean mass, and after ten weeks he had 43 lbs fat mass and 131 lbs lean mass.  Thus, he lost 24 pounds of fat, which requires the metabolism of 84000 calories over 70 days.  This means he had a caloric deficit of about 1200 calories per day.  Haub's sample diet record shows a food energy intake of about 1600 calories per day (more on this below). 

When Ancel Keys conducted the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, he “only” restricted the participants to 1800 calories daily, so 1400 calories daily for a person who requires more than 2600 is definitely starvation rations. 

As I discussed in a previous post, the Minnesota Study established that this level of caloric restriction has numerous adverse effects over time.  As reported in the Journal of Nutrition, one of the participants in this experiment, Harold Blickenstaff, "recalled the frustration of constantly thinking about food:

    I don’t know many other things in my life that I looked forward to being over with any more than this experiment. And it wasn’t so much ... because of the physical discomfort, but because it made food the most important thing in one’s life ... food became the one central and only thing really in one’s life. And life is pretty dull if that’s the only thing. I mean, if you went to a movie, you weren’t particularly interested in the love scenes, but you noticed every time they ate and what they ate. found men depression, and other effects making for many a long life not worth living.

Severe energy restriction had numerous adverse effects in the Minnesota Study:

    "They experienced dizziness, extreme tiredness, muscle soreness, hair loss, reduced coordination, and ringing in their ears. Several were forced to withdraw from their university classes because they simply didn’t have the energy or motivation to attend and concentrate."

Most people will feel something like this eating a 1400 calorie Twinkie diet.

Another interesting perspective will be gained by analyzing his sample diet. There he states an intake of 1589 calories, 222g carbohydrate, 59g fat, and 44g protein.  Since he had a 1200 calorie daily deficit calculated above, his total caloric expenditure (food intake plus fat burned from body) was about 2789 and he was severely restricting calories by 45% (i.e. consuming only 55% of required calories).  Very few people can sustain this level of caloric restriction long enough to achieve desired body composition or health outcomes.

Of that 2789 total calories burned each day, 1200 calories came from body fat and 59x9=531 calories came from food fat, so he metabolized a total of 1731 calories from fat every day, which means on that day 1731÷2789=0.62 or 62% of his calories came from fat, while only 32% of his calories came from carbohydrate and a mere 6% from protein.  In other words, metabolically he is actually on a high-fat, carbohydrate-restricted, low-protein diet.  

Some people seem surprised that he had decreases in total lipoproteins (so-called “cholesterol”) , LDL, triglycerides, and glucose, and an increase in HDL, while on this diet.  But if you maintain this level of caloric restriction, your blood fat (triglyceride) and sugar levels will be low because your starving cells are sucking every gram of usable fat and sugar from the blood.  Try eating the Twinkie diet at maintenance calories and I think you will see a very different result on blood lipids and blood sugar.

 Moreover, reductions of total “cholesterol,” LDL, triglycerides, and glucose are a well-documented effect of carbohydrate restriction or diets in which most of the calories come from fat (which is the case for most calorie-restricted diets, as Richard Nikoley has discussed in his post All Diets are High Fat Diets).

But as Raj pointed out, the changes in blood lipids reported by Haub are not particularly impressive. His LDL dropped from 153 to 123, mediocre considering he lost 27 lbs.  His HDL rose from 37 to 46, and his triglycerides dropped from 120 to 75.  His HDL still does not exceed the level of 60 considered to provide protection against heart disease.  He still has a triglyceride to HDL ratio of 1.6, slightly above the 1.5 that marks resistance to heart disease  (Triglyceride-to-HDL ratio effectively predicts mortality and CV events).

In comparison, my last blood profile showed my total lipoproteins at 231 mg/dL, my HDL at 85, and my triglycerides at 47.  Using the Friedewald equation they calculated the LDL at 138, but since I have very low triglycerides, using the Iranian formula calculator  I calculate my LDL equals 104, compared to Haub's 123, but mine was measured on a calorie-adequate diet, while his was on a deficit diet.  Haub has a trig:HDL ratio of 1.6, whereas mine is 0.55, again, mine measured while I maintained adequate caloric intake and his while he was losing body fat.  I venture that my primal diet results are much better than Haub's obtained with his Twinkie diet.

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