PALEO JAY Smoothie Cafe

Today, my friends, is my 62nd birthday!!And so, as an advance birthday present to myself, I bought myself two wonderful things: A new Stihl chainsaw!  The ranch boss with an 18 inch bar, which I have been using, and will use for many years to come… AND, a pair of Xero shoes- truly these are barefoot shoes, that are nothing but a thin piece of rubber and a couple of elastic cords to hold them to your feet!  Huaraches, is what they are called by the Tarahumara Indians- they weigh a few ounces at best, and are total freedom for your feet- better than barefoot!I have been using them for my basement workouts, each Sunday, for a few months now- I gave myself my birthday gifts for Christmas!  Walking, running, or just plain knocking about with bare feet is so liberating- it gets your feet out of the little COFFINS they have been confined in since you were a little tyke, and gets them to stabilizing and working with all the tendons and ligaments and tiny muscles working in syncronicity like they were always meant to… the problem with shoes is that our feet become so weak, that we start to compensate for our feet being so incompetent in balancing and helping us to walk and move that we start to strain and injure our backs, knees, hips, and our soft little out-of-shape feet as well!!All they really need to do is to start working!  And to work, all they need to do is to get outside of shoes!  Then, they will naturally do the work they are created to do!  I don’t really like the 5 fingers types of shoes, or all the other trendy, expensive, over-built supposedly NON-shoe shoes… they are still SHOES!!  These huaraches are… barefoot- but with protection on the bottom!  And that is all you really need, a little protection from modern interference with the surface we walk on- things like glass, sharp rocks and sticks, whatever- nowadays, we need to protect the bottoms of our feet- but we still need to walk as natural, paleo humans walked- in a barefoot gait, and unsupported by the “casts” of arch supports, hot boxes of foot-encasing leather, canvas and plastic!So, get back to basics- get these huaraches!  The link is here, and at www.paleojay.com - get the Cloud, if you want to be like me, which is a really inexpensive, ready to wear pair that is guaranteed for 5000 miles: BUT NO ONE HAS WORN ONE OUT YET!!And so, get a pair!  Join the Cafe tribe in being barefoot… but NOT!  When you are working out (I have a concrete and dirt floored basement- these things are great for  swinging my kettlebell and pulling myself around on my gymnastic rings down there!)  I always work out barefoot in the living room, each morning, but that’s on carpet…  This Spring and Summer and Fall, I plan to wear them constantly; around the yard, hiking, sprinting, biking, driving the tractor, driving into town to the store, to the hardware store… you get the idea- everywhere!  Think how strong the complex interconnections of all the tendons and ligaments in the suspension bridge that makes up my feet will be, just from doing that!  They’re already pretty strong just from basement workouts once per week…So, strong feet are wonderful!  But to be strong ALL OVER- eat a                                              Homo Sapien Diet!!What a concept!  Every other animal has a specific diet, that is known and studied, categorized and understood.  A cat needs a carnivorous diet of animal carcasses… no discussion needed- anything else, and the cat will sicken, and become diseased and unhealthy.A cow needs GRASS!  (The USDA may argue, but they are WRONG!)  Grains are  poison to cows, just as they are to us- cows are ruminants, meaning that they eat grass… but, no one likes to say just what HUMANS should eat!  We may be the highest animal (sometimes I wonder), but we still, are God’s ANIMAL!  And, like any other animal, a specific diet is ideal for us, and it’s quite simple and specific, just like any o

Did you know that, if you get and maintain a healthy GUT, you will get and maintain a healthy weight, that is a healthy body composition of low fat to more muscle?  This is the fascinating stuff that is emerging from new research, and the studying of past research from the 1950’s…It seems that of the many beneficial strains of intestinal bacteria, or “gut bugs” that live within each and every one of us, there are some bacteria “gut buddies” that help us to maintain a healthy weight of less fat!  When these bacteria are killed off, via antibiotics, we are unable to regulate this healthy ratio of fat to lean tissue- thus, WE GET FAT!  The other way we inadvertently kill these beneficial “fat regulator gut buddies” is by eating a processed food diet, with none of the resistant starches to feed them- if we eat a corn/soy/corn syrup diet, we feed exactly the wrong, bad microbes that we do NOT want in our guts- the ones that make us fat, and SICK.  You know, the diabesity foods that lead us down the now all-too-typical path of fat gain, disinclination to movement and exercise, depression, more fat gain, pre-diabetes, diabetes, and ultimately heart disease and/or cancer…Back in the early 1950’s, there were experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies that determined that the new antibiotic drugs were effective for weight gain- first it was tried on chickens, and then cattle…  this is the reason antibiotics were originally introduced in cattle feed!    It was not to prevent disease- back then most cattle did not get sick, since they were raised on grass, in typical farms of open air grazing and humane treatment, which kept them healthy.  But, too skinny and lean from the farmer’s point of view- after all, the fatter he could get those cattle, the more money they brought at the sale barn.  So, the new antibiotic feed was in great demand- it made the cattle FAT!They really didn’t know how the drug made the animals fat- they were just glad it did… it was later that they realized that, since the antibiotics also had the effect of preventing disease under unsanitary conditions, that the CAFO model of animal farming reared its ugly head- NOW ANIMALS COULD BE CLOSELY CONFINED, FATTENED QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY VIA GRAIN FEEDING, AND THEY COULD BE KEPT ALIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SLAUGHTER!  All thanks to these miracle drugs put in their feed…Then, there were also experiments done on humans- and the results were the same!  Humans also got much bigger and fatter!!  (Remember: this was in the 1950’s, when bigger was better!  They all wanted to be BIG!)  Nowadays, when almost everybody is big and fat, right down to the kids, we all want the opposite, and rightfully so.And now, we know just why  the drugs work for fattening animals (and humans), or at least are starting to figure it out- certain strains of gut bacteria are being killed, and other bad strains are being cultured, the first by the drugs, and the second by a bad, grain and sugar based diet.  A tip of the hat to Angel Coppola at www.latestinpaleo.com for going into depth on all of this on his latest podcast, Latest in Paleo, which I highly recommend.  Check it out for more in depth on this topic…  But as a takeaway, remember this- a healthy gut biome means a healthy you!And so, consume fermented foods, like sauerkraut, naturally fermented pickles, and kimchee… put potato starch in you daily green paleo smoothie- that is key-it feeds your healthy gut bugs better than anything- eat some resistant starch like Uncle Ben’s parboiled (converted) rice- cook it, and then freeze and reheat for a more effective prebiotic, meaning it feeds the beneficial gut microbes so they can multiply, and thereby stop YOU from multiplying your fat cells!I have an interesting side note to offer on this topic, my own N=1 experiment on myself:  since adding in potato starch to my smoothie, with no other changes in my otherwise quite healthy lifestyle, my waist

The bottom line is this: the food we take into our bodies is a complex array of nutrients, phyto-nutrients, calories (i.e: Energy), and a complex array of things we have yet to discover that nurture our bodies and minds in a very complex and intricate symbiosis…    Processed foods, foods from Big Food manufacturers  and fast food sellers are largely devoid of nutrients- what they do have is mainly added in after the fact in the form of supplemental (read: chemical!) vitamins.  This is akin to what Big Agriculture has become- pumping chemical nitrogen into a depleted soil in order to produce grain crops of corn, (mainly for high fructose corn syrup and feeding cattle), and soybeans, (mainly for oils, which are highly damaging for humans).  So- the grain is damaging to us in the form of the HFCS, and is also damaging in the form of cattle feed, since cattle, like us, really cannot be healthy and thriving on grains.  They are ruminants, and need grass! Let’s repeat that again: cows are ruminants, and are meant to EAT GRASS!It shows just how out of touch we are in modern America that we don’t even know that anymore!  I guarantee our grandparents knew it, and all of our ancestors preceding them.  In fact, the only informed people that don’t know about it are the ignorant, and those who want to keep the rest of us ignorant for their own financial gain.The reason cows are fed corn is because grains make them FAT!   More fat in the meat, more weight on the hoof and more money for the seller….  Unfortunately, this grain also makes the cattle sick, and necessitates them being dosed liberally with antibiotics and other rather toxic medicines to keep them alive the few short months they need to suffer to gain sufficient size to slaughter.  This gives us meat, but meat that is from sick animals, with a vastly decreased nutritional profile.Grass fed cattle are much, much more healthy for us to consume- this grass fed meat is loaded with all of the nutrients that our bodies need to be healthy and happy, and not corn-fed toxic fat beef marbling, loaded with antibiotics and other medicine residues!The interplay between Nature and God made foods and our own physiology is very complex.  We pretend we know just what nutrients we need to survive, but the sad truth is that our knowledge is surface only- we know how to prevent scurvy, for instance, but to provide real vitality and health we have no knowledge really at all, except to say:“Eat the minimum daily requirements of vitamins and minerals, as determined by the FDA”.  This is a prescription that will keep you from scurvy, and some other diseases, but ignores (because they have no idea!) of what you need for HEALTH and WELLNESS.  And isn’t that what we want??So, you DO have to eat real, healthy, whole, God made foods, as close to their natural state as you can get them, to really be healthy and vital!  Processed and Fast Foods just won’t cut it- drop them our of your diet!And, while you are at it, turn off your TV and computer and get some quality SLEEP! (Not just rest…)  We all actually get…. TOO MUCH REST!  What??Yes, really- we sit all day long, most of us, in front of computers, televisions, iPads, and all manner of screens.  We rest constantly, and our bodies crave, and require MOVEMENT.  So, please, start walking as much as possible instead of driving, and riding your bike, and hiking, and doing your Perfectly Paleo Exercises daily… your body will thank you, as will your mind…But, in addition, we all need good quality sleep!Sleep does far more than just “rest” us- it is crucial for our bodies in terms of immune function, weight regulation, memory, learning, mood, and many other vital needs.  Like our Real Foods that we don’t know all of the benefits of yet, Real SLEEP has benefits that are as of yet uncharted, but all the more real irregardless.  Sleep avoidance has long been regarded as kind of a “badge of honor”, since that mea

PJSC #71 Perfectly Paleo Exercise EquipmentOne of the great parts about exercising naturally, ala Perfectly Paleo Exercise, is that equipment is totally and completely optional! In fact, the idea of traveling to a gym is the exact opposite of what I would want you to do. Not that gyms are “bad”, per se, but I want you to put it into perspective:1.Do you want to be a professional athlete?2.Do you really want substantial muscle bulk?Do you want to travel to a gym, change, exercise, and then travel back home- several times per week?? And pay for the privilege?For 90% plus of us, the answer is NO to all of the above- we want to be fit, lean, and healthy! And, ironically, exercise is only about 5-10% of the equation:A good, solid paleo type of DIET, coupled with good sleep, is the other 90%!So, the marketing illusions are out of the closet- no gym membership or fancy set of weights and weight machines, well tooled Olympic bars, and expensive coaching will do much at all for you, if you don’t first change your lifestyle.The good news is, it’s easy! Get a Vitamix, and make a green Paleo Smoothie each day; or if it’s only you, one every two or three days. Space it out, and you’ve covered about 1/2 of your diet right there! I have a link on my site, www.paleojay.com where you can link to Vitamix, and get one with no shipping cost! The recipe for the smoothie is on that site as well...Then, add in a giant salad for lunch, and have grass fed beef or wild caught fish for supper, along with some rice or potato and veggies- you are done!“But Jay” you ask, “Isn’t this whole podcast/blog supposed to be about exercise equipment??”Yes, my friend, it is. I just want to first explain what is most important, and then to proceed with the topic of exercise. Exercise is crucial, if you want to look, feel, and perform really good for the rest of your life! But I want you to understand that if you ignore proper diet, your efforts are pretty much wasted...So, to get back to basics here: In my ebook, Perfectly Paleo Exercise, I talk about visualized resistance exercise, where you self-resist in each exercise, using the muscle itself to supply resistance.This is the benchmark; I believe the very best, safest, most convenient and natural way to exercise- no equipment, no travel- nothing! Do this first!!BUT, after you’ve gone through this basic routine, like I do daily, for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour at home, in front of the television in the early morning...Add in some bodyweight exercises a couple of times per week and you will put the icing on the cake- YOU WILL GET REALLY STRONG, LEAN, AND POWERFUL!Here is the equipment I recommend:A set of gymnastic ringsPerfect Pushup deviceParallette barsAb wheelKettle bellThe gymnastic rings are fantastic! If there is one piece of equipment I wish I’d always had, it would be these- you can use them for pushups, flies, tricep extensions, rows, pullups and chinups, assisted chins, dips, assisted one-legged squats- I mean a set of rings, hung up in your basement or elsewhere, are quite cheap, and are so easy on your joints (and yet so demanding on your muscles!) that it makes for a really fast, efficient workout! I honestly think that, if folks just set up set of rings in their house or garage, they could forego the expense of gyms, elaborate weight machines, and do much better for their bodies in the process! Plus, you can get started into gymnastic moves, which are a lot of fun, and build balance, strength, and co-ordinated power all at once. When I see someone squatting (which is fantastic- don’t get me wrong!), but squatting with a barbell on their back- I cringe! Why? The compression on the spine is awful, and the stress on the knees and lower back as well... and the results are awful as well-A fat butt and hips, and wide thighs that rub to

PJSC #70Put Yourself Back in Contact with Mother Earth!Earthing, or grounding- connecting the body directly to the earth- is this a vital part of healthy living, or a strange scam? I have been researching this idea, and testing it out on my own body, for quite some time. I noticed when I began barefoot sprinting years ago that I really enjoyed it! I would do my usual Sunday in-the-basement workout, with my chin ups, and dips, various sorts of self-resisted squats and leg raises and assorted ab exercises, various kinds of pushups, and several sets of kettlebell swings… then, as “dessert”, I would go outside and sprint for 50-100 yards or so, for maybe 5-10 sets of sprints. It has gotten to where I really look forward to the feeling I get doing these- it’s like I’m little 8 year old Jay again, running with my friends and brothers around the yard, barefoot, just for the fun of it! Remember how great it felt to tear around like this barefoot when you were a kid? Well I’m here to tell you that it feels just as good at 60 as it did at 6- and the older you are the MORE you need it!At first I chalked this feeling up to just the barefoot benefits: my feet were strengthened by running and walking as they were meant to- not confined in little “coffins” of stiff shoes…and that is definitely a big part of it! The benefits of using your feet as Nature intended are legion- the long atrophy caused by constant wearing of shoes results, eventually, in not only foot pain, but it travels up the chain of the body, and causes knee, ankle, hip, and back pain as well! You really do need to start going around barefoot, at least inside your house! Socks are fine- they don’t “confine” and degrade your foot like shoes do. But, is there even MORE benefit to actually being barefoot- outside- ON THE GROUND?I believe that there is, and it has to do with the electrical charge of the earth, with which we are meant to be in contact with! We are electrical beings; we need to be grounded! Like everything in the ancestral, or paleo lifestyle, the more we examine the many ways in which our civilization has gradually and relentlessly set us further and further apart from nature, giving us many comforts and conveniences, sure- but also made us lose contact with those things that made us what we are- things like real, God-made food! Ample, restful sleep! A tribal community and family that we interacted with on a daily basis! Pure water and air, an unpolluted environment! Daily stimulation to our muscles, and nearly constant movement! And now, it appears: Contact with the electrical charge of the Earth itself! That contact, which our forebears had in abundance, has been largely lost through the constant wearing of shoes, and the separation of most of us totally from the land and the soil!There is a book, and plenty of information about this topic at www.earthing.com You can certainly go there and check it out, and make your own decision. They sell grounding “products”, like mats that you can sleep on, and when you are selling a product like that, somehow your research seems a little, well, shady…But I really think they are onto something, and you can try it out on yourself, for free! When the weather warms up, SOON I hope, go outside and walk around in your yard, or the park, or wherever- barefoot! Sit outside with your bare feet on the ground- even on cement you will be grounded! Get some natural sun each day as well- skip the sunscreen, and let your body make vitamin D the way God and nature intended… I’m sure there are other benefits to this we just have not even discovered yet!See if, like me and many others, you don’t start feeling, and sleeping better!The theory is that grounding, or earthing your body, at least some of the time, is another piece in the paleo puzzle of impr

PJSC podcast #69 I know, you want to eat a paleo type of diet because it will make you leaner, stronger, and fitter; meaning you are more defined, can lift heavier things, and have more endurance to do just about anything... but have you thought about the ancillary things about living within the Paleolithic template, or ancestral diet that are just as important, but you haven’t heard about One of the most fast and remarkable changes brought about by adopting the Paleo diet is greatly improved skin health! By eliminating the phytates, the anti-nutrients that are within grains, particularly wheat, inflammation is drastically reduced! Inflammation is the root cause of most modern disease, but it is also the cause of skin problems- acne, rosacea, psoriasis; even simple things like dry skin, or oily skin… Your body starts to just work like it should,because it has the nutrients (or the building blocks) from which to work properly! And, it has not been “gummed up” with all of the worthless crap from industrial seed oils, loads and loads of sugars and artificial sweeteners, margarines- you get the picture- it’s just as if you put all of this stuff into your car’s gas tank- do you think it would run well? Or even at all after a short time! The same thing is true of your dental health- in my opinion, it would be well worth embracing the paleo diet just for the benefits to your teeth and gums alone! The results are that dramatic. After the first few months of adopting the paleo diet, years ago,my wife and I both had checkups at our long-time dentist. We had good checkups, as always, but the hygienist was amazed- what had we been doing? There was virtually NO plaque or tartar buildup, and our gums were just pristine! She seemed genuinely flabbergasted. All we had done was eliminate wheat, at that point, and begun our daily Paleo Smoothie- (an early version with a used Vitamix). Hair health is similar- I guarantee your hair will feel thicker, and will definitely be much shinier after starting to include plenty of healthy fats, like pastured butter and coconut oil! And without the grains in the way, and displacing the eating of other really nutrient dense foods like grass fed meat, seafood, and those good fats, the body can really go to town putting nutrients to work in “non-essential” areas- like the skin, teeth, hair, and even the eyes! If you eat a nutrient poor diet, like most modern Americans do today, the body is forced to “triage” the nutrients it has, using them to perform vital functions of survival, like keeping the organs working, the heart beating, and the brain functioning, at least at a low level… If the nutrients are all present and accounted for, and ABUNDANT, the body has the luxury of working on those “non-essential” parts of us that we care so much about- it can give us glowing, healthy skin! It can give us shiny, abundant hair! It can put the High lutein and zeaxanthin pigments that are found in eggs, and green leafy veggies to good work, repairing our vision! The teeth can, and WILL REMINERALIZE themselves, if only we give them the raw materials, and the minerals they need through our diet! Even cavities can remineralize and heal- Whole Grains INHIBIT the ability to digest minerals!Isn’t this the type of results that you are interested in? Isn’t EVERYONE? Save your vision, your teeth… have healthy skin and hair… and incidentally be disease free, full of energy, and have a healthy, well functioning mind and body- eat a Paleo type of diet! Get a big jar of organic, virgin coconut oil- in fact, get TWO- one for the bathroom, one for the kitchen! The bathroom coconut oil is perfect to rub on your skin after your shower- it is not only the BEST moisturizer you can find, it is also a great anti-bacterial AND a mild sunscreen.Mild is what you want, since

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe Podcast #68 Don’t Just Eliminate Foods on the Paleo Diet- Add In Nutrient Dense Foods! Let’s say you’ve been on the ancestral, paleo, or barbarian diet template for awhile, perhaps a year or longer! You’ve probably improved your health and wellness quite a bit- lost fat, gained muscle, have improved digestion and health, and a new clarity in thinking. But, perhaps not.... If this is the case, perhaps you have concentrated only on eliminating bad foods loaded with anti-nutrients; things like grains, sugar, vegetable or industrial seed oils made from grains and processed, margarine- those are all wonderful things to get rid of, and doing so enables your body to begin to heal all the damage they have caused to your body and brain over the years as they were damaging your intestinal villi, and otherwise tearing down your health. But this is just Job #1! The other half of the nutritional equation, which is every bit as important, it to add in those nutrient dense superfoods to give your body the raw materials it needs to actually BUILD excellent health! So, just eating lots of gluten free goodies, while not as damaging as their grain-based counterparts, are still not giving your body what it needs to thrive and rebuild. You need to add in those foods that are the most nutrient dense on the planet. If you make a green, Paleo Smoothie and drink it pretty much every day, you are pretty much most of the way there, nutrient density-wise! I go out of my way to have it include just about everything your body needs. Think of the Smoothie as the Anti-S.A.D. diet- that diet of pizza, coke, fries, sick and abused and confined animal hamburger and chicken, noodles, fake fat, processed breakfast sugar cereals- you get the picture! Those foods, while they are hyperpalatable, and are engineered to be that way just to sell- and they displace the foods that your body actually needs, and just give you loads of body fat and inflammation. So, go with the Paleo Smoothie- great start! You can include the vegetable sulphur rich foods with their organosulpher compounds, and do it in a raw form very efficiently and easily, but just blending them in! Things like: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts... These sulphurous category of vegetables have been pointed out by http://www.terrywahls.com/The-Wahls-Protocol as a very important category of nutrient dense foods, with which idea I completely agree with her! Terry Wahls is and important figure in the ancestral, or nutrient dense style of eating, and is coming out with a new book which I think will be a must read. Go ahead and sign up for the pre-order at the link above, watch her viral TED talk, and absorb the information she has to offer. Back to sulphur-rich foods: there are some other great organosulpher foods that are not really appropriate for the Paleo Smoothie, like: Onions and Garlic, Shallots and Leeks Garlic, in particular, is probably the most potent organosulpher foods you can take in! What to do? Simple- in addition to your smoothie, most days also have a giant salad- lettuce, spinach, meat or seafood, lots of real olive oil and apple cider vinegar, and lots of garlic and onions! Get yourself a good garlic press, like the ROSLE I have, and add in the anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, anti-microbial, and glutothione stimulation that this wonder food will provide- not to mention garlic tastes great! Glutothione is particularly important, as it is the “the master anti-oxidant” that will enable your body to fight inflammation, raise energy levels, and slow down the aging process, among other wonderful properties. Getting all of this through real foods in incredibly important. I you use glutothione supplements, this could shut down the production of it by your own body over time... so,

PJSC Podcast #67The importance of Gut Health for Mental Health!This whole subject of gut health, or of a healthy, diverse flora of colonies of diverse microbes within the human intestine is becoming a subject of huge interest- almost a Paleo Microbe Diet in and of itself! Sure, WE need to eat healthy, real, nutritious foods...But so do our gut buddies! And they need food that we can’t even digest, so that they can continue to help us in our mutual symbiotic relationship- they do so much for human health and wellness, both physical AND mental, that this is a huge new realm of largely uncharted potential! Everything is not, and probably will never be known about these bacteria that live within us, but very much already IS, and what they do for us is irreplaceable! Some bacteria produce butyrate, which is a crucial ant-inflammatory agent. Others produce vitamins, and digest short chain fatty acids, prevent the growth of harmful, infectious bacteria, and actually can determine whether or not we are lean and fit or fat!And all of this is just some of what we already know- there is very much that we as of yet do not. But suffice it to say that, the importance of a healthy gut is every bit as much important as, say, any other healthy organ in the body! In fact, the gut and its biome are every bit as much important as our liver, or kidneys, or... you name it! The gut can be thought of as a forgotten organ.There have been experiments where fecal transplants are performed- a bit of healthy bacteria from the gut of a healthy subject is put into that of a fat one...And the fat person becomes slim and healthy!This has been done repeatedly with mice, and now also with humans! And this transplantation of bacteria is also very effective against disease as well- ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and my main point of this post is- autism and other forms of mental irregularities. In case you’re thinking “Oh well, this is just nut-case PaleoJay speaking...” here is a link from the Mayo Clinic backing me up-http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/digestive-diseases/quick-inexpensive-90-percent-cure-rateChildren with autism is a new epidemic, with 1 in every 50 children afflicted. Just 10 years ago it was 1 in 1000, and 15 years ago, 1 in 10,000! We are talking huge, growing epidemic here- think Black Plague or something along those lines.It appears that the guts of children, exposed to a bad, modern Western diet of processed foods and sugars, lots of gluten that destroys their gut lining, allowing undigested food particles to migrate right into the bloodstream and triggering autoimmune diseases along with mental problems, are largely to blame. The guts of Autistic children have been shown to have just a few strains of gut bacteria- naturally, they would be the less beneficial strains that thrive on sugar- and autistic children also have lots of gastrointestinal distress.What to do? A Paleo diet consisting of real foods, as made by God, not man will feed the child the best. But the GUT needs special consideration- harken we back now to http://www.paleojay.com/2014/01/paleojays-smoothie-cafe-66-more-on.html, the subject of resistant starch that has consumed me, and other folk like Richard Nicholey and Tim Steele at www.freetheanimal.comAdding in some resistant starch, which is easily done with Bob’s Potato Starch in your daily green Paleo smoothie, will feed the good bacteria in you and your child’s guts in the form of a prebiotic, meaning that it encourages those good gut microbes to thrive and multiply, rather than simply a probiotic, which is those microbes themselves. The problem with probiotics, besides that they are sometimes expensive in pill form, is that they often don’t survive the stomach to get to the gut alive! Doubly beneficially for potato starch is that if you tak

The more I look into this resistant starch thing, the more I think it is a really big discovery! It could be the one, single, most important ignored component of human health, both in conventional Big Medicine (no surprise there), but also in the Paleo, or ancestral health movement. It makes sense it you think of it... we have been concentrating on the most nutrient dense, the most pure of toxins types of foods we could find- trying to replicate a diet as it would have been eaten in our primeval past, pre-agriculture- when we were taller, stronger, far fitter, and had a 10% larger brain capacity! And all the children were above average... In other words, we have been on a quest to find those foods that best nourish us- the human part of us. But we have paid scant attention to the microbes in our gut that help to nourish us and keep us healthy and happy- and they are a larger part of our own bodies, by far, than WE ARE! To quote from the upcoming title of a book by Richard Nicholey of www.freetheanimal.com and Tim Steele of North Pole, Alaska...You’re Only 10% of Who You Think You AreOr- 90% of each is non-human! Yikes! I guess we shouldn’t have been ignoring that other 90%, and be sure to give all of them, our little buddies, some nutrient dense, paleo/microbial food as well... And so, we come to Resistant Starch.Our paleolithic ancestors ate LOTS of indigestible plant matter, pretty much all day long, to get to the parts of the plant they could digest- stems, raw tubers, leaves, unknown little plants, and of course dirt all wound up in his mouth, and eventually, his gut! The microbes that already resided in his gut in symbiosis used all of this plant material for food and drink, and more beneficial microbes were often introduced through the soil and other incidental dietary “additions”. Fast forward to today, and we, uh, are not exactly partial anymore to stems, leaves, bits of nutshells, etc.... and so, we have- potato starch!! Ta da! Bob’s potato starch is... a resistant starch! Resistant to our own stomach digesting it, that is. And so, it can pass right on through our stomach, unmolested, and not raising our blood sugar at all, making us feel really full and satisfied, however. Into our intestine or gut it ends up, and our little bacterial gut buddies say “Hurrah”, and start eating it like crazy, and then...Multiplying! More good gut buddies! Add more potato starch, and repeat cycle.So, what good does resistant starch, easily added in the form of Bob’s Potato Starch available in bags almost everywhere, including at Amazon- see PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe recommended products!- do me, if I add the recommended 4 Tablespoons per day to my daily smoothie, whipped up in my Vitamix blender? Well, it will help you lose weight! I mean FAT; weight is somewhat irrelevant... Anyway, this stuff is really filling, and takes away hunger. But at the same time it’s not digested, and won’t add to your dietary calories. And, it seems to assist your body in burning fat stores, and resist fat storage! There are so many studies that have gone on, and so many currently happening, that it seems over the top, but resistant starch is being implicated in:Lower glycemic index (blood sugar)Increases insulin sensitivityLessens need for insulin in diabeticsProtects entire digestive system, helps regularityCuts colo-rectal cancer rates by 50%Helps in eye health, particularly macular degenerationPromotes brain health in aging individualsCuts risk of breast cancer dramaticallyVery helpful in ulcerative colitisSo, why wouldn’t you buy a $4 bag of potato starch and start adding it into your daily, green, Paleo smoothie? I mean, you could go out and eat raw, wild potatoes, bark, raw grains, green bananas (another good source that I will add to some smoothies!), and stems... but, spooning out a l

PJSC podcast #65Shorten your eating window, andHave a Green, Paleo smoothie- EVERY DAY! AND, listen to simple, basic, calming folk style music to get back in touch with your inner you...I did an experiment the other day, actually- yesterday! Although I prepared a MORE than adequate lunch to bring to work, including not just ONE, but THREE quarts of the incredibly nutritious Paleo Smoothie (including resistant starch, gelatin, and TONS of green veggies, kefir, and everything else that Ponce De Leon used to dream about to rejuvenate his life via the “fountain of youth”... I decided to eat, instead- nothing!Well, I did have a big cup of what I call Paleo Coffee- organic coffee made in my Aerobie coffee press, which you can find on my list of recommended Amazon products at www.paleojay.com. It is similar to Bulletproof coffee, as touted by Dave Asprey of www.Bulletproofexecutive.com, but it only contains coconut oil, and whipped cream...I prefer to put my pastured Kerrygold or Organic Valley butter in my Paleo Smoothie! But anyway, that is all that I had in the morning, after my Perfectly Paleo workout in front of the TV. I wanted to see how long it would be until I got hungry, since I normally have a BIG breakfast, including a big green Paleo smoothie, several eggs, and of course, my coconut and whipped cream laden coffee! And, as per usual, I usually don’t have supper, confining my meals to breakfast and lunch. Then, I fast until the next day, unlike most paleo folk, who skip breakfast. That can also be a good strategy, to shorten your “window of eating”, but I believe skipping SUPPER is usually the better idea.But, regardless, I did NOT get hungry!As Gomer Pyle, one of my favorite character from old television would have said:“Surprise, surprise, surprise!!” I just never got hungry! It was 9, 10, 11, 12... finally, although I still didn’t feel hungry at all, at around 2 PM, I decided I should eat. This means I hadn’t eaten at all since about 1:00 the previous day... I had a tin of sardines... some herring and onions in a cream sauce- delicious!...and I was very full! So, I left, and had an 8 ounce jar of Paleo smoothie later, not because I was hungry, but because I wanted to MAX OUT MY NUTRITION, just like I maxed out my workout that morning in front of the television!I think the moral of the story is this:We live in a world of depleted soil- it is recognized now that foods grown in our present day soil have much less in the way of nutrients than they did even 50 years ago, much less 100. When our ancestors came to America, the soil was built up to unbelievable levels of fertility- buffalo had roamed and fertilized that plains for eons! The topsoil was dozens of feet thick with a rich, fertile loam; teeming with life and minerals- earthworms were in their glory, leaving rich castings of nutrients for plants to assimilate...Fast forward to today, 60 some years after World War 2-Our soil, especially in the AG BELT of Central Illinois, and Iowa (the corn and soybean belt: Aka “AG LAND”) has been decimated.That topsoil I spoke of earlier? It has been reduced to a mere growing medium...An inert medium (like sand or peat moss) that can support agricultural life, if nutrients are ADDED IN- like nitrogen and potassium, via fossil fuel fertilizers...But, without those added DRUGS... this soil is just about cooked!We have largely, and continue to, destroy our birthright- the fertility of our very land.Wait- and then- what is the MORAL of this story, again?If you want to MAX out your nutrition, you will have to eat MORE vegetables than people did in the past! Our crops don’t have the nutrients anymore that Fonzies did; much less Gomer, or Matt Dillon! And SO, we have to... Use LOTS of veggies in a Big Green, Paleo Smoothie to MAX our nutrition to the levels that were easily achieved in the t

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe podcast #64-How to get Really Fat!You really can’t resist- Resistant Starch!OK, here is the answer you’ve been searching for- just HOW can you reliably get really, really big, sloppy, jiggly FAT? Everyone wants to know how to do this, right? Well, let me tell you right now- your old friend PaleoJay has the answer! I can tell you exactly how to get real fat in record time, easily and quickly!First off- count your calories! They are all that matter, after all, right? So, count your calories closely, so you can start to consciously limit them. Because, if you limit your calories to less than your body wants, you’ll lose weight, correct? Some of that weight, perhaps even most of it will be muscle and bone, but hey- the weight is all that matters- the scale. Next, limit your fat intake! Fat has more calories per ounce than any other nutrient source, so you must try to eliminate fat from your diet! Eat lots of healthy, whole grain products- processed cereals, low fat processed foods of all types, and lots of industrial seed vegetable oils. Don’t even think about butter or bacon or, God forbid, coconut oil! High fat all! Exercise for long, long periods of time, extremely slowly and preferably on a metered cardio machine that counts exactly how many calories you burn each session. ! hour per day is good; 2,3, or 4 hours daily is even better! Move more and eat less, right?Ignore food quality! A calorie is a calorie is a calorie! And so, you are better off eating a 100 calorie snack pack of cookies, rather than that avocado with over 300 calories! Wash those yummy cookies down with a big Coca Cola, (100 calories), and you have saved 100 calories by not eating that evil avocado- pat yourself on the back.Don’t train intensely, for strength! Muscle weighs much more than fat, and your scale weight will look really bad- so stop doing resistance training! NOW!Also- don’t drink your calories- things like smoothies are LOADED with calories, and useless things like nutrients, that will NO help you get really fat. Instead, concentrate on probably the most important tool in your “Get Fat” toolbox:Eat LOTS of grains and sugars! These two items will pack on the FAT better than anything else.They are low fat, even NO fat for the most part, and so they will spike your insulin after your blood sugar is driven way up high. You will then have your blood sugar drop from the insulin, triggering new appetite for... more carbs and sugar! This will repeat the cycle, over and over... and you will never feel full, because your blood sugar keeps rising and falling!So, there you have it! How to get really fat, and sick, and diabetic, and disease proneWhat? You’d rather get lean, fit, and super healthy? Well, there’s no accounting for taste, but that’s easy- just do exactly the opposite of all of that conventional wisdom!Eliminate grains and sugars from your diet as much as possible.Drink a large, green Paleo Smoothie, loaded with every nutrient you can pack into it, every single day.Train intensely, for strength and strength-endurance- do you Perfectly Paleo Exercises daily- visualized resistance, self resisted, pushups, straight legged situps, hindu squats and pushups; bridging. Buy a set of gymnastic rings, and make or buy a kettlebell! Sprint.Pay close attention to food quality, and nutrient density. You are what you eat, and in the case of animals, you are what you eat ate! Eat wild caught seafood, and grass fed animals whenever possible. Pastured dairy products are also immeasurable better for you.Exercise in brief, intense working sets! FEEL your muscles working, and learn to relish the feeling- your body craves such work.Eat LOTS of fat, to get lean! This is key- fat will satisfy your appetite like no

“This will be MY year!” Matt thought.“The year I go back to the Paleolithic- the year I get fit and healthy!!”Of course, he had said that many times in the past... but this time, this time he KNEW he would make it- he had ordered his Vitamix blender, he had cleaned out his kitchen of ALL junk, processed, and neolithic, man-made foods-He was going back to... GOD MADE foods;AND HE WAS BRINGING HIS WHOLE FAMILY WITH HIM!!His wife had begun taking multiple prescriptions, for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and now depression- all this despite the fact that she ate like a bird most of the time, watched her fat intake like a hawk, and exercised for at least a couple of hours, mostly daily, except when she was injured, which seemed to be more and more often lately- and Samantha was only 35!Mikey, their son was only 10 years old, and lean as a bean pole. Sam thought this was great- the only thing that seemed to matter to her was “leanness”. But Matt noticed the huge mood swings in his son, and how he had trouble concentrating at school. And their daughter, Taylor, was 14, and had just entered high school this past Fall. She had always seemed so healthy and happy, but since starting school, she had been dieting like crazy, and he had begun to fear for her health as well.There had been arguing, and some tears from both the children AND his wife when he had announced his plan. Matt had pointed out that, since he had been pronounced both pre-diabetic AND hypertensive, as had his wife Sam, that they had no choice but to try this Paleo thing- it was either that, or slowly get sicker and sicker and fatter and fatter...Matt had always been an athletic kid, and even played lots of sports right up through college. After that, getting a job and married, he was sporadic with the physical training and playing, and started eating more and more at restaurants, and ordering pizza for him and Sam. (Sam usually gave him her cheesy topping, and only ate the crust, which was low fat)! But they both put on maybe 10 or 15 pounds of fat over the next 10 years.After first Taylor, and then Matt were born, it seemed they were always so busy and frazzled that there was never the time or the desire to exercise, or even to go for a walk. Matt started dropping off the kids and their mom at the store, so they wouldn’t have to walk... he often thought of the irony later, Sam drove off to the health club to workout on her cardio machines.This had all changed the day he had been visited by the ghostly visitor-THE GHOST OF NEW YEAR’S PAST!It had been a couple of days after Christmas, and the kids were both in bed, sated with the many electric gadgets they had received for presents. Sam was upstairs, taking a bath before bed. Matt had walked in the living room to look once more at the beautiful Christmas tree, and smell its balsam fragrance once more, when-A strange, bronzed figure leaped through the window!He looked down at Matt with blazing, blue eyes, this spectral figure that was almost a giant in stature, and said “You will follow me to the past”! Upon which he grasped the startled man’s wrist in an iron-like clasp, and pulled...Matt felt a huge WRENCH on his arm, and then he was surrounded by waves of changing lights, and buffets of strong winds as he and his unearthly captor were flown through yawning chasms of space and time. When it finally stopped, he looked about him dazedly at a fire, some group of men, women and children sitting and standing about it, with a group of dogs roaming in the background- then he passed out!I AM YOUR ANCESTORWhen he awoke, he was lying on a fur, and had more atop him to keep him warm; it was a chill morning. He sat up, and all about him were people- tawny haired, blue eyed, very well developed and clean limbed folk. They looked at him with interest- one ran off with alacrity.This one returned quickly with the Gho

Podcast #62 - Add some Resistant Starch to your Paleo Smoothie, andIt’s almost Christmas- Make Yourself a Paleo Tom and Jerry hot drink!Welcome to PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe, by your own... Paleo Santa!OK, finally my weekly podcast has surpassed my own rather lofty age- we are now on PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #62- and your own PJ is only 61 & 1/2! This podcast is keeping my young... well, I guess it helps to connect with you weekly, but it is really ny ancestral diet and exercise regimen that keeps me... well, REALLY healthy! I am at an age when most of my peers are really slowing down. Many have nagging disorders and diseases; heck, many of their children have disorders and diseases that are completely preventable, and even REVERSIBLE (Like type 2 Diabetes!), but either through ignorance or unwillingness to change continue on their unhealthy, downward course. Don’t you be one of them! Make yourself a daily Paleo smoothie, son! Fire up your Vitamix, add in your green or white tea, coconut milk, iodine drops, Vitamin D drops, kelp powder, spirulina, ginger, turmeric, kefir, raw pastured eggs, pastured butter like Kerrygold or Organic Valley, avocado,fresh and/or frozen berries and veggies... and you are golden, my friend!THERE IS NOTHING ANY HEALTHIER FOR YOU THAN THIS NECTAR!NOTHING!!I am always looking to improve on the best thing going, in this case nutritionally. Recently, I began adding an avocado to most of my smoothies, since it is such a great source of good, satiating fat... then, I started adding a tsp. or so of Great Lakes brand gelatin, since it is such a good source of collagen- the same thing in bone broth, but sometimes you just don’t HAVE bone broth readily available, especially in Summer.And now I beginning to add in a Tablespoon or so of Potato Starch, since it is a resistant starch, or RS. Chris Kresser originally brought this to my attention, mentioning the work of Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal blog.Here is an excellent Primer for Resistant Starches link:http://freetheanimal.com/2013/12/resistant-primer-newbies.htmlAnyhow; to sum up: Resistant Starch, the best, most convenient, and a really inexpensive source of which is Bob’s Potato Starch, readily available in many stores nationwide, and also online. Get a bag, and start adding some to your smoothies! Start with 1 Tablespoon; work up to four per smoothie...the thing is, although it is a starch, it does NOT raise your blood glucose level! What it DOES do is FEED all the microorganisms in your gut- it is a wonderful prebiotic, or a “fertilizer” of sorts for your gut microbes, which we are discovering more and more a crucial for both physical and mental health! And so, HAVE SOME RS, FOR CHRISTMAS!!I do hope that you all have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas holiday with your “tribe” of family and friends! I already received my cool present of a cigar box amplifier, which I will demonstrate here:Paleo Santa, indeed!Also, I want to give YOU a present or two- a couple of recent recipes that are perfect for the holidays:Paleo Tom and Jerry mix for a wonderful, hot, healthy, yuletide adult beverage! AND,A recipe for a very paleoesque Hollandaise sauce!!First, Tom and Jerry, a traditional Wisconsin tipple-Use one egg per serving, so you can adjust accordingly. Separate the eggs. Beat egg whites until firm peaks begin to form. Beat the yolks until they are very thin. Fold whites into the yolks. Add one teaspoon to one tablespoon of sugar (according to taste and consistency) for each egg. Add a touch of cinnamon, allspice, and ground cloves. This is now your batter.Preheat your mugs with hot water. Put one tablespoon of the batter, 1 oz. Brandy, 1 oz. Rum into the mug. Fill to top with very hot milk or boiling water, stirring gently. Sprinkle with nutmeg.After trying this recipe, which was great as it is, I tried more of the egg batter this morning in

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #61Carbs and Sugar promotes Cancer!Don’t be a Grazer!Standard American Diet = high bad fat and high bad carbohydrates and sugars- the Worst of all possible worlds!I know, you have probably never heard of sugar encouraging cancer, but this is real, up-to-date science now, nut just conjecture. Here is a link to a brief explanation of how it works, in case you are scientifically driven-http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2013/2013.9/specific-sugar-molecule-causes-growth-of-cancer-cells/This breakthrough was released just this past September, so if you go onto many web sites and old research they insist there is not a real connection... they are just out of date! There IS a connection between sugar and cancer, and to deprive your body of sugars is one surefire way to hamper the growth of cancer cells.Cutting edge cancer treatment and research now uses this as part of cancer therapy- to starve the cancer.How can this help healthy little old you or me?Well, I always think that, if you don’t want to get a disease, say Cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, eat as if you have it already- low sugar, high real, good fats, and plenty of God made foods. Don’t eat man made, processed crap food, and then you will never get those diseases! Even if you have a genetic predisposition to one or another disease or condition, it’s like having a gun pointed at your head... BUT IF YOU NEVER LOAD IT, OR PULL THE TRIGGER, YOU ARE STILL SAFE!!And remember: bread, pasta, all kinds of cereal and more immediately turns to sugar, RIGHT IN YOUR MOUTH!! So they count as sugar too... get your carbs from the veggies and fruits you eat, and that you put in your daily green Paleo Smoothie. Perhaps a sweet potato, some white rice in small amounts... that’s all you need!Did you know that your body can make carbs out of protein? It can, and will if it really needs more. So don’t worry about not eating enough carbs- there is no requirement in your daily diet for any carbs at all! They are optional.And, the best way to maintain a good, God made foods diet is to avoid grazing. This is the way most people eat nowadays: not just 3 meals, but LOTS of little meals and snacks, all day long. It’s so much healthier, and more satisfying to eat a really BIG meal, with plenty of good FATS in it, like, say: pastured bacon and a 4 egg omelette, along with coffee with coconut oil melted in it, and topped with real whipped cream! That way, you will be replete with nutrition, and able to go about your day without even thinking about food, much less craving it, for HOURS on end! Usually, on most days, I have a big glass of Paleo Smoothie along WITH my breakfast, and then a big, late lunch around 1:30 or so, and sip another glass of smoothie around 2:30 or so... and that’s it! I don’t usually eat until the next morning, and this is my daily IF, or intermittent fast, which leaves me feeling energized and ready for my next mornings perfectly Paleo workout, before breakfast! There are pronounced benefits to training in a fasted state, like accelerated fat burning, and it leaves you with a real appetite after you have showered and dressed.The other point I want to make is this: if you think that“Oh, this Paleo thing is strange- I just want to eat what I always have; I’m sure it’s fine to eat butter and margarine, but I don’t think toast and pancakes are any problem either”.Really, lots of folks think like this! I’ll tell you what, though- this type of thinking and rationalization puts you in the worst of all possible worlds, health wise.If you’re going to eat bad, fake fats (like margarine); insist on keeping grains in your diet (but also love a big steak), and eat sugar whenever you want to...Well, you’d better just plan on going to the Doctor on a regular basis, expect major (and minor) diseases on a regular basis as you get

This seems to be such a blatantly obvious statement, but just think about it-USUALLY it is ignored!Most of the population of the Western world at least, and increasingly the whole world, subsists more and more on.... fake, processed, and fast foods!  Large quantities of refined grains and sugars; both made from genetically modified - MAN MADE- sources- GMO wheat and GMO sugar beets, primarily.  Throw in a lot of high fructose corn syrup and processed industrial seed oils, both of which are also MAN MADE, sprinkle on some chemical sweeteners and flavorings and colorings for good measure...And you have a man made nightmare of NON-NUTRITION!!It is really, really, really necessary, not just optional, to get back to eating real, GOD MADE foods if we want to regain or enhance our health, and that of our families.The only viable way to do this, really, is to start cooking and eating at HOME, most of the time, for most people!  If you have an unlimited budget, and LOTS of free time, AND you live in an area where the Paleo diet has caught on in a big way, and meals are offered in restaurants that are made of real, Paleo, God made foods, well then this is an option for you- congratulations!  You have just freed up more time and energy for optimizing your God made exercise, and getting more sleep and meditation built into your life.  But for most us- we don’t live where nearly ANYONE even has heard of the Paleo diet, much less supports it!  And, most of us do NOT have an unlimited budget, and unlimited time!  Surprise surprise surprise!!So, we eat and cook at home- and, if you are like me, that is what you prefer, anyway!  I love to grill at home; that’s what I plan to do after I work out this frigid Sunday afternoon- grass fed steak and sweet potato fries in coconut and olive oil on the grill!  Wowzer!!The crock pot is great as well- I just made a BIG pot of turkey soup last week, with the broth from my last grilled chicken carcass as the stock, and plenty of veggies, garlic, and turkey meat.  Cook in quantity, and you are set for the week- you can easily freeze smaller portions- heck, around here we can just set the containers outside on the porch and store them frozen there!  Make a plate of eggs in the AM, and get some pastured bacon for your frying pan, and cook the eggs in the good fat from that!  Or, get a soft boiled egg maker- I have one, it was about $20 years ago- a little electric machine that makes 6 perfect hard or soft boiled eggs at a time, in just a few minutes- I really have become addicted to soft boiled eggs!  I also recommend a Rosle soft boiled egg cutter to easily remove the top of the egg mess free, and some little egg cups and tiny spoons... sounds elaborate, but for a very small investment, you can begin incorporating some top-notch God made nutrition into your family’s life- it’s like a little, fun ritual, opening those little gold-centered nuggets of nutrition and scooping them out!A big salad with pastured meat or fish at lunch, and grilled meat at supper with veggies slathered in grass fed butter- it really is that easy!  Have some wine with that!!Of course, you know that I also use as a foundation of God made food my Paleo Smoothie, detailed here at length on my site at www.paleojay.com, and in my eBooks.All you need is a Vitamix blender, and you can be like me, and whip up the healthiest beverage on the planet each and every day!  Although now I find, since I have added in the avocado, I can usually only get through a canister of my smoothie every two, or even three days- it is that filling and nutritious.So, let’s say you have the nutrition all figured out, and God is providing... you are MORE than half way to ideal health!  NOW, you just need to add in GOD MADE EXERCISE!Here is where I really veer off from the standard Paleolithic crowd!  The standard recommendations would be to join a good Crossfit gym, do power lifting, like squats, bench presses and deadlifts, and also inc