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Embracing Discomfort: The Path to Growth and Resilience
Over time, the extreme temperatures, physical challenges, nutritional discipline and intermittent fasting forged robust, adaptable humans whose bodies and minds were finely tuned to the rhythms of nature.
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Hot and Cold Therapy: The Benefits of Sauna and Cold Plunging
Maintaining my health, now that I'm on the right track. Now that you are enjoying good robust health keep doing what you are doing. Thinking always about our ancestral principles to tune in and maintain this amazing healthy body that you have.
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Cholesterol and the Animal Based Diet
I often get asked if our supplements affect cholesterol. While it is tempting to simply say 'no', it's more complex than that. An animal-based diet will influence cholesterol levels, so the real question is whether cholesterol negatively impacts us? This is an age old argument that has been debunked by many scholars. Dr. Paul Mason, a researcher and advocate for low-carb animal-based diets, recently shared insights in his lecture titled 'Decoding Atherosclerosis: The Clotting Theory and Seed Oil Toxicity'. Watch it here. Oxidative stress in the blood can trigger clotting, a significant risk factor for heart attacks. This condition often involves blood clots forming in the presence of oxidised LDL, influenced by: Plant sterols (phytosterols) from seed oils, which oxidize quickly and become toxic in the blood Pollution particles Smoking Lead Animal fats help maintain healthy blood membranes and support red blood cells, contributing to overall bodily health. Additionally, nitric oxide production, boosted by exercise, promotes healthy arteries. A diet and lifestyle that minimise plant sterols and enhance nitric oxide levels in the blood lead to healthier blood and arteries. So, Do our supplements contribute to cholesterol? No. Does an animal-based diet contribute to cholesterol? Yes. Is this a bad thing? No. Poor diets and lack of exercise can cause blood clots. Like many experts, I advocate for reducing plant intake and maintaining an active lifestyle that will keep you healthy and full of life.
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Everything Wrong With the Modern Diet (And Why Ancestral Eating Matters)
How Modern Life Has Pulled Us Away from Natural Living We have come such a long way from the lazy days on the farm. It seems now that the hamster wheel that is our daily life is impossible to get off but we are all searching for a respite, and a rest. Finding the answer could be the key to enabling the ‘slowdown’ and ‘breathe’. The realisation that I can step off the fast pace life, and take a breath without my life falling apart is a massive mind shift. I believe it starts with food. The Human Animal and the Need for Real Food Deeply embedded in our psyche is the animal, who needs natural foods, warmth, and company. For many years we've been pushing this animal away and numbing it down by this fast paced life, grabbing fast food, staying up late working and not resting, all the while thinking that we've “got to keep” going. Daily releasing the fight hormones that keep us running away from the tiger!! Why Returning to an Ancestral Diet Matters Getting back to an ancestral diet, one that is uncluttered with additives, one that is full of whole foods, not packed and processed for longevity on the shelf, is the first key to stepping off the wheel. The Rise of Fast Food and Processed Culture Fast foods have been part of our culture since the 70’s. KFC opened in Auckland in 1971!! And since then the large chains have been providing nutrient deficient foods to NZers!!! That's 50 years to create more disease and more self loathing than we have ever experienced. To undermine the health of an entire species. Easy to buy, mostly affordable and playing into our narrative of ‘not enough time to cook’. Modern Diet-Related Disease in New Zealand We as a nation have been afflicted with more diabetes, heart disease, gut issues, and obesity than any other time in history. We now need CHANGE. The New Movement Toward Whole-Food Living There's a new wave of healthy people, some who are thriving due to experimenting with their own food, some whose health has been so bad that they have found their own way through elimination. The ancestral diet, or getting back to basics, shows that we don't need all the additives and the processing. That we can sustain and nurture ourselves naturally, with locally sourced food its not impossible to regain our health, our birthright to radical aliveness. Are Paleo, Keto and Low-Carb Diets Just Fads? We are all familiar with these abbreviations; paleo, keto, fodmap, and we all know that the atkins diet was all about protein. These diets encourage us to look beyond the food pyramid and beyond the fast food drive through. They have been birthed from a sick and unhealthy population who need answers and a change. But are they just fads? The Truth About the Food Pyramid The food pyramid wants you to think that fads don't last and that you need 5 servings of veg a day, 50% carbs, lean meat, and no saturated fats! FYI the food pyramid is sponsored by Kelloggs, Big Food and Big Pharma!! But they are not fads, they are birthed from people pushing against the standard food narrative. Eating Local and Seasonal for Radical Health Getting back to basics and eating simply and local is a new movement, driven by thinkers who want more than to just exist. I believe it is the way to radical health. I Don't want to eat food that has traveled some distance and I don't want to eat food that is out of season!! Our inner animal wants warm slow cooked in the winter, when fruits are scarce and light meals when fruit is in season. When we can make yogurt from fresh milk and eat freshly slaughtered lamb chops!! Its simple and its simply nourishing. How to Start an Ancestral or Animal-Based Diet Starting is easy, clean out all the packaged food from your pantry, and fridge. Be ruthless! Take all the seed oils and dump them! That's all the processed oils from plants. These are not doing you any good! Remove the sugar. Start reading labels. Don't buy anything that has more than 2 ingredients! Engaging with these guidelines the food choices get interesting!! Meat, eggs, cheese, (dairy if you can) Fish, seasonal fruit. We use salt on our food. We cook in butter or tallow. The Benefits of Nutrient-Dense Animal Foods Nutrient rich foods like these can sustain you, hunger pains go and life feels bigger and more alive. Nutrients from animal foods are 100% bioavailable, this means that the body, when digesting, can use all of the food, it wastes nothing!! Liver is nature's superfood, it is dense in essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids that keep you sated and thriving. Drinking bone broth everyday provides you with enough collagen to help you recover from exercise, keeps you hair growing lustrously and keeps your skin glowing. Why You Should Try an Animal-Based Ancestral Diet So if you're feeling slow, sluggish, not thriving. If your gut health could be better, if your skin and hair are dull, I suggest you try switching to the Animal based, Ancestral way of eating. Try it for a month and see if you can transform your life.
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Fuel Your Brain and Body: The Essential Nutrients We Need Daily
We need a certain amount of nutrients daily to keep our brain functioning. Ultra processed foods have barely any nutrients, and medications can deplete our bodies of some nutrients, so being aware of what to eat to keep our nutrition optimal is key.
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What are Healthy Fats?
The Perils of Vegetable and Seed Oils Reprinted with thanks from Ancestral Health: The Debate: Sugar vs Polyunsaturated Oils The debate continues as to which is worse for your health—sugar or polyunsaturated oils. Here is Alex Fergus’s takedown of vegetable and seed oils, and generally foods with higher levels of polyunsaturated fats. ”PUFA's: The Worst Thing For Your Health That You Eat Everyday” https://www.alexfergus.com/.../pufa-s-the-worst-thing-for... Ranking the Biological Safety of Fats What I found most useful is his chart ranking the biological safety of fats. This morning I’ve already had some cacao butter (100% chocolate), ghee (clarified grassfed butter) and beef tallow (grassfed). Among other benefits, each of these is predominant in the saturated fat stearic acid (C18:0), which signals mitochondrial fusion, which makes mitochondria larger and more efficient, producing less free radical damage than when burning carbohydrates. The effect peaks 3 hours after eating, so I have some when I get up to be in peak metabolic readiness for my morning aerobic activity, such as cycling, kayaking or running. The DHA Question: The Polyunsaturated Fat Conundrum Of course the eternal conundrum regarding polyunsaturated fats always is DHA, which has important benefits in terms of biophysics and biology. The best natural sources of DHA are cold-water marine animal fats and grass-fed ruminant fat. The problem with DHA or fish oil supplements is that DHA is highly oxidisable once outside the cell (or the source is overcooked). Why bother with DHA? There are numerous performative advantages to DHA, especially with regard to cognition, brain resilience and transport of the fat in blood triglycerides into cells for fat-burning (important for the heart muscle). DHA Biophysics and Quantum Properties DHA biophysics is highly conserved in evolution and the biochemistry has evolved to exploit quantum effects of DHA, with it’s highly symmetric structure with short-length bonds that enable quantum effects and even molecular memory. The fundamental principles of reality as a complex adaptive system result in a hierarchy of layers of complexity, generally the progression of layers from physics to chemistry, to biology, to ecology, to society. The unique quantum properties of DHA enable the biology layer to bypass chemistry to exploit the biophysics of DHA to derive quantum benefits from a layer below the chemistry layer on top of which biology generally operates. Quantum effects, in essence, enable optimization problems to be solved using features of physics that operate faster than the speed of light. Quantum Computing Comparison: Understanding Complexity For example, an ordinary computer effectively tops out at problems of polynomial time-and-space complexity, such as problems that require n to the power 3 computational power. A quantum computer can solve problems of NP-complete or perhaps even exponential complexity, such as problems of order 3 to the power n. DHA is the clutch that engages this higher gear of biophysics capacity in ways evolved to enhance our biology. - Murray Braithwaite
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The Nutrients You Get From Grass Fed Bone Marrow
Freeze-Dried Raw Bone Marrow – Nutritional Breakdown Our Bone + Marrow blend is freeze dried raw, keeping all the nutritional goodness 100% available to us. Below is the breakdown. Each capsule contains 500mg of natural beef bone matrix, marrow and cartilage blend. Bone and marrow have both been valued throughout history for their concentrated nutrient profile: Calcium: supports normal bone density and skeletal strength Phosphorus: supports structural integrity of bones and teeth Type I & II Collagen: supports joint health, connective tissue, and structural support Hyaluronic Acid & Chondroitin: support joint lubrication and cartilage integrity Fat-Soluble Vitamins A, D, E & K2: support normal immune function and cellular health Essential Fatty Acids: support connective tissue health and overall cellular function Stem Cell Cofactors & Specialised Lipids: support tissue regeneration and recovery Microcrystalline Hydroxyapatite: provides bioavailable mineral matrix for skeletal support Bone Marrow Compounds: deliver nutrients naturally found in whole bone for comprehensive support B Vitamins and Energy Production Bone marrow provides a small amount of the B vitamins pantothenic acid, thiamine, and biotin, which are needed for important bodily processes, including energy production. Collagen Content and Skin & Joint Health It’s also rich in collagen, the most abundant protein in your body. Supplementing your diet with collagen is thought to promote skin health and reduce joint pain Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) and Immune Support Bovine bone marrow contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103755/), a type of fat that could decrease inflammation and enhance immune function and increases bone and calcuim metabolism. Additional Compounds Found in Bone Marrow Though more research is needed, bone marrow is also thought to provide several other key compounds, including glycine, glucosamine, and chondroitin. Summary Bone marrow is high in calories and fat. It also contains protein, vitamin B12, riboflavin, collagen, and conjugated linoleic acid. If you'd like to find out more this is a great place to start: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6704137_The_Role_of_Nutrients_in_Bone_Health_from_A_to_Z
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Glandular Therapy: Benefits, Mechanism of Action, and Immune Support
Geeky Stuff; The theory behind eating nose to tail for health. Reprinted from Owen Millar, humbly with thanks.
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The Benefits of Eating Organ Meats
The standard diet, does not contain any organ meats. In fact, organ meats are demonized for having fat and cholesterol. This is truly a shame, because organ meats from grassfed animals are one of the most nutrient-dense foods available, being packed with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other nutrients. Our ancestors knew the value of organ meats. They gave great value to liver, heart, and kidney, and used these foods to support the health of their own organs. We can do the same.
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