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Eggs and Cholesterol – How Many Eggs Can You Safely Eat?

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Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet.

Just imagine… a whole egg contains all the nutrients needed to turn a single cell into an entire baby chicken.

However, eggs have gotten a bad reputation because the yolks are high in cholesterol.

In fact, a single medium sized egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol, which is 62% of the recommended daily intake.

People believed that if you ate cholesterol, that it would raise cholesterol in the blood and contribute to heart disease.

But it turns out that it isn’t that simple. The more you eat of cholesterol, the less your body produces instead.

Let me explain how that works…

How Your Body Regulates Cholesterol Levels

Cholesterol is often seen as a negative word.

When we hear it, we automatically start thinking of medication, heart attacks and early death.

But the truth is that cholesterol is a very important part of the body. It is a structural molecule that is an essential part of every single cell membrane.

It is also used to make steroid hormones like testosterone, estrogen and cortisol.

Without cholesterol, we wouldn’t even exist.

Given how incredibly important cholesterol is, the body has evolved elaborate ways to ensure that we always have enough of it available.

Because getting cholesterol from the diet isn’t always an option, the liver actually produces cholesterol.

But when we eat a lot of cholesterol rich foods, the liver starts producing less (1, 2).

So the total amount of cholesterol in the body changes only very little (if at all), it is just coming from the diet instead of from the liver (3, 4).

Bottom Line: The liver produces large amounts of cholesterol. When we eat a lot of eggs (high in cholesterol), the liver produces less instead.

What Happens When People Eat Several Whole Eggs Per Day?

For many decades, people have been advised to limit their consumption of eggs, or at least of egg yolks (the white is mostly protein and is low in cholesterol).

Common recommendations include a maximum of 2-6 yolks per week. However, there really isn’t much scientific support for these limitations (5).

Luckily, we do have a number of excellent studies that can put our minds at ease.

In these studies, people are split into two groups… one group eats several (1-3) whole eggs per day, the other group eats something else (like egg substitutes) instead. Then the researchers follow the people for a number of weeks/months.

These studies show that:

    • In almost all cases, HDL (the “good”) cholesterol goes up (6, 7, 8).
    • Total and LDL cholesterol levels usually don’t change, but sometimes they increase slightly (9, 10, 11, 12).
    • Eating Omega-3 enriched eggs can lower blood triglycerides, another important risk factor (13, 14).
    • Blood levels of carotenoid antioxidants like Lutein and Zeaxanthine increase significantly (15, 16, 17).

It appears that the response to whole egg consumption depends on the individual.

In 70% of people, it has no effect on Total or LDL cholesterol. However, in 30% of people (termed “hyper responders”), these numbers do go up slightly (18).

That being said, I don’t think this is a problem. The studies show that eggs change the LDL particles from small, dense LDL to Large LDL (19, 20).

People who have predominantly large LDL particles have a lower risk of heart disease. So even if eggs cause mild increases in Total and LDL cholesterol levels, this is not a cause for concern (21, 22, 23).

The science is clear that up to 3 whole eggs per day are perfectly safe for healthy people who are trying to stay healthy.

Bottom Line: Eggs consistently raise HDL (the “good”) cholesterol. For 70% of people, there is no increase in Total or LDL cholesterol. There may be a mild increase in a benign subtype of LDL in some people.

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Eggs and Heart Disease

Many studies have looked at egg consumption and the risk of heart disease.

All of these studies are so-called observational studies. In studies like these, large groups of people are followed for many years.

Then the researchers use statistical methods to figure out whether certain habits (like diet, smoking or exercise) are linked to either a decreased or increased risk of some disease.

These studies, some of which include hundreds of thousands of people, consistently show that people who eat whole eggs are no more likely to develop heart disease. Some of the studies even show a reduced risk of stroke (24, 25, 26).

However… one thing that is worth noting, is that these studies show that diabetics who eat eggs are at an increased risk of heart disease (27).

Whether the eggs are causing the increased risk in diabetics is not known. These types of studies can only show a correlation and it is possible that the diabetics who eat eggs are, on average, less health conscious than those who don’t.

This may also depend on the rest of the diet. On a low-carb diet (by far the best diet for diabetics), eggs lead to improvements in heart disease risk factors (28, 29).

Bottom Line: Many observational studies show that people who eat eggs don’t have an increased risk of heart disease, but some of the studies do show an increased risk in diabetics.

Eggs Have Plenty of Other Health Benefits Too

Let’s not forget that eggs are about more than just cholesterol… they’re also loaded with nutrients and have various other impressive benefits:

    • They’re high in Lutein and Zeaxanthine, antioxidants that reduce your risk of eye diseases like Macular Degeneration and Cataracts (30, 31).
    • They’re very high in Choline, a brain nutrient that over 90% of people are lacking in (32).
    • They’re high in quality animal protein, which has many benefits – including increased muscle mass and better bone health (33, 34).
    • Studies show that eggs increase satiety and help you lose fat (35, 36).

Eggs also taste amazing and are incredibly easy to prepare.

So even IF eggs were to have mild adverse effects on blood cholesterol (which they don’t), the benefits of consuming them would still far outweigh the negatives.

Bottom Line: Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. They contain important brain nutrients and powerful antioxidants that can protect the eyes.

How Much is Too Much?

Chicken and Egg, Smaller

Unfortunately, we don’t have studies where people are fed more than 3 eggs per day.

It is possible (although unlikely) that eating even more than that could have a detrimental effect on health. Eating more than 3 is uncharted territory, so to speak.

However… I did find an interesting case study (a study with only one individual). It was an 88 year old man who consumed 25 eggs per day.

He had normal cholesterol levels and was in very good health (37).

Of course, a study of one doesn’t prove anything, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

It’s also important to keep in mind that not all eggs are the same. Most eggs at the supermarket are from chickens that are raised in factories and fed grain-based feeds.

The healthiest eggs are Omega-3 enriched eggs, or eggs from hens that are raised on pasture. These eggs are much higher in Omega-3s and important fat-soluble vitamins (38, 39).

Overall, eating eggs is perfectly safe, even if you’re eating up to 3 whole eggs per day.

I personally eat 3-6 whole eggs per day (about 30-40 per week) and my health has never been better.

Given the incredible range of nutrients and powerful health benefits, quality eggs may just be the healthiest food on the planet.

 

*Eggs and Cholesterol originally posted by Kris Gunnar and is republished with permission.*

How to Combine Foods for Optimal Health

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Dr. Wayne Pickering is a naturopathic physician on the East Coast of Florida. At the age of 67, he swims several miles a week in addition to extensive biking and a wide variety of calisthenics, pushups and pull ups.

He has quite an impressive exercise regimen and is a personal inspiration to me as I hope to be in as good a shape as he as that age. He also has one of the most positive attitudes of anyone I know.

He eats plenty of fruit and caused me to seriously reevaluate my position on consuming fruits and I have gradually been increasing my intake of them, especially mangoes, which is his pseudonym (Mango Man). He even has a variety of mangoes named after him. I actually have two of the Pickering mangoes growing in my yard.

But one of the things he’s known for in the nutrition world is food combining—and he is truly like a walking billboard for his program. The man looks about 20-30 years younger than his calendar age.

“Age is not a matter of years; it’s a matter of condition. You can keep your health up until you die because you have 75 to 90 trillion cells in your body that work symbiotically on your behalf striving towards health. You cut yourself? It’s going to heal without a thought. It just does,” he says.

Improper food combining is one of the primary factors that cause gas, flatulence, heartburn, and upset stomach. What’s worse, poor digestion can also contribute to malnutrition, even if you think you’re eating a decent diet.

In his youth, Dr. Pickering was no different from most Americans today—severely overweight, out of shape, and eating the wrong foods. He recalls the key moment that turned his life around:

“I was in Illinois when I came back from Vietnam. I stayed up there for a year in Rockford. A little lady found me one day in a distraught situation. She owned a health food store. I went in there, and I bought a bottle of vitamins and a little book, How to Be Healthy with Natural Foods, by Edward E. Marsh.”

He also found a postcard-sized food combining chart. He’d had frequent stomach pains for years, and was absolutely shocked when 24-hours after putting the information into practice, he didn’t suffer with indigestion anymore.

Since then, Dr. Pickering has become an avid teacher of natural health, in which health and longevity is the naturaloutgrowth of proper nutrition—which also encompasses proper food combining, to optimize digestion.

Three Principles of Health

Many are under the mistaken belief that the human body is a frail instrument, prone to disease and pre-programmed to decay. Dr. Pickering wholeheartedly disagrees, and I second that motion. The truth is, your body is infinitely wise, with a natural inborn “instinct” toward health, and by following certain natural principles, you allow your body to do what it does best, which is to maintain an equilibrium of health. Dr. Pickering’s three basic principles of health are:

  1. You are automatically healthy, by design, and sick only by default
  2. You don’t catch disease; you “earn” it, as it stems from “crud in the blood from being drunk with junk,” as he says
  3. You get well by what comes out of you, not by what goes into you

In essence, health is as much based on getting rid of toxins and other harmful substances as it is based on optimizing your nutrition. Part and parcel of this philosophy is that food is your number one ally. And while certain nutritional supplements can be beneficial, they will not allow you to circumvent a poor diet. They can only complement your diet; they cannot take the place of a meal.

“Nutrition doesn’t heal. It doesn’t cure. It doesn’t do anything,” Dr. Pickering says. “It’s a science though and it never changes... Here’s what nutrition is: it’s a series of four processes that your body employs to make food materials for the body to use.”

Those four processes are the following:

  1. Digestion
  2. Absorption
  3. Assimilation
  4. Elimination

Four Principles of Wholesome Nutrition

According to Dr. Pickering, one of the most important factors when it comes to healthful eating is to make sure you’re eating foods that are in season. Your constitution changes with the seasons of your local climate, and eating local foods when they’re in season is a natural way to harness that intrinsic relationship your body has with the Earth.

Seasonal foods will typically be at their cheapest when they’re in season, and will be readily available in most stores and farmers markets. Dr. Pickering’s food combining guide1 can also help you determine which foods are in season, in addition to how to combine them for optimal health.

Next, Dr. Pickering advises eating foods that are indigenous to your area. Eskimos, for example, are not going to reap the same nutritional rewards from watermelon as someone living in the American South where watermelons grow naturally. The climate itself makes nutritional demands on your body.

Third, you also want to select foods according to the type and amount of physical activity you’re involved in (an office worker, for example, will not benefit from the diet of a triathlete), and lastly, you want to choose foods according to your body’s digestive chemistry. As a side note, albeit an important one, Dr. Pickering also points out the importance of your thoughts.

“Your thoughts, you see, help to govern chemistry,” he explains. “When you sit down to eat, it’s crucial to not talk about problems at the dinner table; talk about joyous things just because it gives you a chance to get together [with each other].”

Recent research has even confirmed that if you want to make your food taste better, and more thoroughly enjoy the experience of a meal, perform a ritual first. One of the most rewarding rituals you can do before a meal is to stop andgive thanks for your food.

Not only might this make your food taste better, but also people who are thankful for what they have are better able to cope with stress, have more positive emotions, and are better able to reach their goals. People who give thanks before they eat also tend to eat more slowly and savor the meal more so than those who do not, lending a natural transition to mindful eating, which has a direct and beneficial impact on digestion.

Why Food Combining Matters

Wayne is probably best known for promoting the importance of food combining. If the food you eat is not digesting properly, not only can painful gas, heart burn, acid reflux and other stomach problems arise, but your body will also be deprived of critical nutrients.

The short definition of digestion is: you put food or liquid into your mouth, swallow it, and then your body breaks these molecules down into a size it can absorb. What your body doesn’t use is excreted as waste. These are the four processes listed above—digestion, absorption, assimilation and elimination. But food is actually broken down in a number of different areas, including in your mouth, stomach, and the first and middle sections of your small intestine, called the duodenum and jejunum respectively. Furthermore, you have two kinds of digestion:

  1. Mechanical (chewing and churning) digestion
  2. Chemical digestion

Food combination takes into account the area and complexity of digestion of each food, to ensure it goes through your entire digestive system with ease. Dr. Pickering explains:

“There’s only one food that chemically breaks down in the stomach and that’s protein. Proteins require pepsin, a very highly acidic [enzyme] in conjunction with hydrochloric acid. But the hydrochloric acid doesn’t have the ability to break the food down. It just sets the medium for the concentration of the amount of pepsin that’s poured into the stomach to digest whatever food that’s in there. The intelligence of this human body is phenomenal.”

There are three primary categories of food: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteins, again, begin their digestion chemically in your stomach. Carbohydrates are divided into two categories: fruits and starches. While fruits pass through your digestive system with relative ease, starches require three levels of breakdown; the very first stage is in your mouth. That’s why it’s crucial to carefully chew starchy foods.

According to the rules of food combination, you do not want to mix proteins and starches in the same meal. This means, no bun with your hamburger, no meatballs if you have pasta, no potatoes with your meat… Why is that? Dr. Pickering explains:

“Starches require an alkaline digestive medium to digest. If you put your fist in your stomach while it’s digesting steaks and all that, chances are, you wouldn’t have a hand anymore. The acid is intense… When you mix them both together – an acid-type of food and an alkaline – basic chemistry shows that they don’t digest. They neutralize. Then what happens? If the food is not digesting… it’s going through your body [undigested], throwing it into all kinds of turmoil.”

The Three Commandments of Food Combination

Dr. Pickering lays out three basic commandments of eating that he recommends you not deviate from:

    1. No proteins and starches at the same meal, as they neutralize each other and prevent proper digestion of either food. To ensure proper digestion of each food, wait two hours after eating a starch before eating protein. And wait three hours after eating protein before eating a starch.
    2. No fruits and vegetables at the same meal. Fruits are either a single or double sugar, whereas the starches are a triple sugar. Fruits mechanically break down in your stomach, but chemically, they don’t break down until they reach the third and fourth stage of your digestive system, which are in your small intestine. Starches, again, are broken down in three different stages, starting in your mouth.According to Dr. Pickering, this is also why it’s crucial to not eat dessert after a meal. When you do, it gets trapped in your stomach with all that other food, where it starts to rot as it’s not being chemically digested there. Therefore, eat fruit 30-60 minutes before dinner. The same applies if you want to eat another piece of fruit. Acidic fruits, such as lemons for example, also do not combine well with starches. Lemon and banana is but one example of a combination that is sure to lead to gastrointestinal upset…Many people consider tomatoes a fruit, yet it’s commonly added to salad. Dr. Pickering classifies tomatoes as a “fruit-vegetable,” because even though they don’t have the sugar like most fruits, they’re still an acidic fruit-vegetable. As such they’re okay to combine with other vegetables. He suggests the following recipe for an excellent salad:“Any kind of vegetable that has seed in it; for example summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, bell peppers, and okra—those are all fruit-vegetables. Your tomatoes go well with those. And since lettuce and celery have a neutral effect, as far as the breakdown of food, the celery and the lettuce combine very well with all of that. You can also add avocados.”
    3. “Eat melon alone, or leave it alone, or your stomach will moan.” In short, melons do not digest well with other foods and will frequently cause problems unless consumed by itself.

The When and What of Eating

According to Dr. Pickering, the amount and sequencing of the foods you eat can also make a difference. He recommends the following eating schedule:

  • Morning meal: The least concentrated foods, in the greatest amount. Ideal food choice: fruits
  • Middle of the day: More complex foods, but in a smaller amount than your first meal. Ideal food choice: starchy carbs
  • Evening: The most concentrated foods, but in the least abundant amount. Ideal food choice: protein

More Information

Your body is, by design, programmed for health, and disease is just as much a matter of eliminating toxins as it is about eating proper foods. Elimination, however, is dependent on a healthy digestive system, and by combining foods in a certain way, you can help your body digest all the foods you eat with ease.

You can further promote healthy digestion by paying attention to the amount and distribution of protein and carbohydrates in each meal. Again, the greatest amounts of the least dense foods, i.e. fruits, are best eaten early in the day. Then, for lunch, eat a smaller amount of denser, more complex carbs, followed by a small amount of protein—the densest meal—in the evening. For more information about the digestive process and food combination, check out the following two web sites:

  • CombineWhenYouDine.com has a 20″ x 24″ custom-laminated full-color guide for Healthy Eating that classifies fruits, vegetables and proteins to show the most compatible combinations for proper digestion.
  • MangoManDiet.com offers a 27-day long course on food combining, as well as 400 recipes, nearly 140 articles, and several hours-worth of audio programs on nutrition.

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Eating This Can “Tear Holes” in Your Gut

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Leaky gut is a condition that occurs due to the development of gaps between the cells (enterocytes) that make up the membrane lining your intestinal wall.

These tiny gaps allow substances such as undigested food, bacteria and metabolic wastes, that should be confined to your digestive tract, to escape into your bloodstream — hence the term leaky gut syndrome.

Once the integrity of your intestinal lining is compromised, and there is a flow of toxic substances “leaking out” into your bloodstream, your body experiences significant increases in inflammation.

Also, your immune system may become confused and begin to attack your own body as if it were an enemy (autoimmunity).

Most often, leaky gut syndrome is associated with inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, or celiac disease, but even healthy people can have varying degrees of intestinal permeability leading to a wide variety of health symptoms — and this can be influenced heavily by the foods you choose to eat.

Grains Contain Anti-Nutrients

In the United States, we’re told that grains (especially whole grains) are an important part of a balanced diet, necessary for obtaining our daily requirement of healthy nutrients and fiber.

However, according to a growing number of experts, including Dr. Loren Cordain, a professor at Colorado State University and an expert on Paleolithic lifestyles, humans are NOT designed to eat grains, and doing so may actually be damaging to your gut.

Dr. Cordain explains:

“There’s no human requirement for grains. That’s the problem with the USDA recommendations. They think we’re hardwired as a species to eat grains. You can get by just fine and meet every single nutrient requirement that humans have without eating grains. And grains are absolutely poor sources of vitamins and minerals compared to fruits and vegetables and meat and fish.”

Ironically, since we’re often told that whole grains are the best for our health, the high-fiber bran portion of grain – a key part that makes it a whole grain — actually contains many of the anti-nutrients. But the problem isn’t only that there are superior sources of nutrients; grains actually contain anti-nutrients that may damage your health. Dr. Cordain states:

“Grains are the seeds of a plant. They’re its reproductive material, and plants don’t make their reproductive material to give away for free to other animals. If they did they’d become extinct, and so the evolutionary strategy that many plants, particularly cereal grains have taken to prevent predation is to evolve toxic compounds so that the predator of the seeds can’t eat them, so that they can put their seeds in the soil where they’re meant to be to grow a new plant and not in the gut of an animal to feed it.”

Grains — Especially Whole Grains — Increase Intestinal Permeability

There is a growing body of scientific evidence showing that grains, as well as legumes, contain anti-nutrients and other problem substances that may increase intestinal permeability. This includes:

Gliadin

Gliadin is the primary immunotoxic protein found in wheat gluten and is among the most damaging to your health. Gliadin gives wheat bread its doughy texture and is capable of increasing the production of the intestinal protein zonulin, which in turn opens up gaps in the normally tight junctures between intestinal cells (enterocytes).

In celiac disease the body will make antibodies to gliadin after it is digested by the intestinal enzyme tissue transglutaminase, resulting in severe autoimmune damage to the delicate, absorptive surfaces of the intestines. It does not, however, require full blown celiac disease to suffer from the adverse effects of this protein. In fact, it is likely that our intolerance to gliadin and related wheat proteins is a species-specific intolerance, applicable to all humans, with the difference being a matter of the degree to which it causes harm.

This helps to explain why new research clearly shows gliadin increases intestinal permeability in both those with, and those without, celiac disease.

Lectins

Lectins are a key mechanism through which plants protect themselves against being eaten, and are found in highest concentrations in their seed form — which makes sense, considering that seeds are the plants’ “babies” and whose survival ensures the continuation of their species.

When animals consume foods containing lectins, they may experience digestive irritation, along with a wide range of other health complaints. The degree to which the adverse effects are expressed depends largely on how long that species has had to co-evolve with that particular form of plant food it is eating. Since humans have only been consuming unsprouted grains and beans in large amounts for approximately 500 generations, we still suffer far more than certain rodents and birds, who have had thousands of generations longer to adapt to this way of eating.

We are mostly exposed to lectins from grains, beans, dairy products and nightshade plants, such as potato, tomato, and chili peppers. However, bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has a prominent role to play in lectin-induced adverse effects, due to the fact that it is a relatively new form of wheat, and contains wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) – a particularly resilient and problematic lectin, considering it is not eliminated through sprouting and is actually found in higher concentrations in whole wheat.

Studies indicate that it has the potential to contribute to a wide range of adverse health effects, including gut inflammation and damage to your gastrointestinal tract:

Pro-inflammatory–WGA stimulates the synthesis of pro-inflammatory chemical messengers (cytokines) in intestinal and immune cells, and has been shown to play a causative role in chronic thin gut inflammation. Immunotoxicity–WGA induces thymus atrophy in rats, and anti-WGA antibodies in human blood have been shown to cross-react with other proteins, indicating that they may contribute to autoimmunity . In fact, WGA appears to play a role in celiac disease (CD) that is entirely distinct from that of gluten, due to significantly higher levels of IgG and IgAantibodies against WGA found in patients with CD, when compared with patients with other intestinal disorders.
Neurotoxicity—WGA can cross your blood-brain barrierthrough a process called “adsorptive endocytosis,” pulling other substances with it. WGA may attach to your myelin sheath and is capable of inhibiting nerve growth factor, which is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons. Excitotoxicity–Wheat, dairy, and soy contain exceptionally high levels of glutamic and aspartic acid, which makes them all potentially excitotoxic. Excitotoxicity is a pathological process where glutamic and aspartic acid cause an over-activation of your nerve cell receptors, which can lead to calcium-induced nerve and brain injury. These two amino acids may contribute to neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s disease, and other nervous system disorders such as epilepsy, ADD/ADHD and migraines.
Cytotoxicity—WGA has been demonstrated to be cytotoxicto both normal and cancerous cell lines, capable of inducing either cell cycle arrest or programmed cell death (apoptosis). Disrupts Endocrine Function—WGA may contribute to weight gain, insulin resistance, and leptin resistance by blocking the leptin receptor in your hypothalamus. It alsobinds to both benign and malignant thyroid nodules, and interferes with the production of secretin from your pancreas, which can lead to digestive problems and pancreatic hypertrophy.
Cardiotoxicity—WGA has a potent, disruptive effect on platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1, which plays a key role in tissue regeneration and safely removing neutrophils from your blood vessels. Adversely Affects Gastrointestinal Function by causing increased shedding of the intestinal brush border membrane, reducing the surface area, and accelerating cell loss and shortening of villi. It also causes cytoskeleton degradation in intestinal cells, contributing to cell death and increased turnover, and decreases levels of heat shock proteins in gut epithelial cells, leaving them more vulnerable to damage.

 

As we noted earlier, the highest amounts of WGA is found in whole wheat, including its sprouted form, which is touted as being the most healthful form of all … The traditional ways of addressing many of these anti-nutrients is, in fact, by sprouting, fermenting and cooking. However, lectins are designed to withstand degradation through a wide range of pH and temperatures. WGA lectin is particularly tough because it’s actually formed by the same disulfide bonds that give strength and resilience to vulcanized rubber and human hair.

New Report Warns of the Sugar in Cereals Marketed to Kids

One of the most common ways we consume grains is in the form of cereal, many of which are marketed to kids and adults alike as “health foods.” But cereal is anything but healthy, not only because of the grain it contains but also because many (particularly those for kids) contain excessive amounts of sugar.

A new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) revealed that many popular children’s cereal brands contain more sugar than snack cakes and cookies. For instance, one cup of Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, which is nearly 56 percent sugar by weight, has more sugar than a Twinkie, while a one-cup serving of 44 other children’s cereals analyzed contain more sugar than three Chips Ahoy! cookies.

If you need a recap of why sugar is a health disaster, you can find one here. However, as it pertains to leaky gut, you should know that sugar, like grains, can upset the balance of bacteria in your digestive tract, encouraging damage to your intestinal lining that can lead to leaky gut. So, sugary children’s cereals are a double-edged sword, assaulting your fragile gastrointestinal tract with both damaging sugar and grains. Please do your kids a great favor and offer them a healthier breakfast instead.

Are Grains Causing Your Leaky Gut Symptoms? This Food is the “Antidote”

As you might suspect, leaky gut can cause digestive symptoms such as bloating, gas and abdominal cramps, but it can also cause or contribute to many others you may not, such as fatigue, skin rashes, joint pain, allergies, psychological symptoms,autism and more.

It’s a vicious cycle because once your digestive tract has been damaged, it allows various gut contents to flood into your bloodstream where they wreak havoc on your health. The key to preventing this lies in altering your diet to eliminate the offending foods — including sugars and grains — as well as introduce healthier ones that will support a proper balance of bacteria in your gut. To restore gut health, and prevent leaky gut from occurring, eating traditionally fermented foods is essential.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride explains:

“Fermented foods are essential to introduce, as they provide probiotic microbes in the best possible form … fermented foods will carry probiotic microbes all away down to the end of the digestive system. Fermentation predigests the food, making it easy for our digestive systems to handle, that is why fermented foods are easily digested by people with damaged gut. Fermentation releases nutrients from the food, making them more bio-available for the body: for example sauerkraut contains 20 times more bio-available vitamin C than fresh cabbage.”

On Dr. Campbell-McBride’s web site you can find recipes for many traditionally fermented foods, including sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, kvass and more.

If you regularly eat fermented foods such as these that have not been pasteurized (pasteurization kills the naturally occurring probiotics), your healthy gut bacteria will thrive. If these foods do not make a regular appearance in your diet, or you’ve recently taken antibiotics, a high-quality probiotic supplement will help give your gut bacteria the healthy boost it needs. Once your gut flora is optimized, your leaky gut should improve naturally. As Dr. Cordain explains:

” … when we have a healthy flora of bacteria in our gut, it tends to prevent leaky gut.”

Is a Return to the Paleo Diet Right for You?

During the Paleolithic period, many thousands of years ago, people ate primarily vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots and meat—and a wide variety of it. Today, these staples have been largely replaced with refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, cereal, bread, potatoes and pasteurized milk products… and a much narrower selection of fruits, vegetables, roots and nuts.

This is precisely the recipe for a leaky gut, and all of its associated health problems, which is why simply returning to a Paelo diet by eating foods that are concordant with your genetic ancestry may help you become healthier. This includes focusing on whole, unprocessed foods including vegetables (except corn and potatoes) and free-range organic meats, while avoiding sugars and grains.

As Dr. Cordain states:

“The nutritional qualities of modern processed foods and foods introduced during the Neolithic period are discordant with our ancient and conservative genome. This genetic discordance ultimately manifests itself as various chronic illnesses, which have been dubbed “diseases of civilization.” By severely reducing or eliminating these foods and replacing them with a more healthful cuisine, possessing nutrient qualities more in line with the foods our ancestors consumed, it is possible to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease.”

 

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Organic, Cage-Free, Free-Range or Pastured… Sorting Through the Confusion on Egg Labels

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Proteins are nutrients that are essential to the building, maintenance and repair of your body tissues such as your skin, internal organs and muscles. They are also the major components of your immune system and hormones.

Proteins are found in all types of food, but only foods from animal sources, such as meat and eggs contain complete proteins, meaning they provide the eight essential amino acids.

Eggs, as well as the chickens they come from, are both healthful sources of protein but ONLY if raised the way nature intended… Unfortunately, as illustrated in the video above, today’s agricultural model of factory farming has complicated what used to be a simple affair.

Organic, Cage-Free, Free-Range, or Pasture-Raised?

Health conscious consumers know to look for designations like “organic,” “free-range,”  “pastured” and “cage-free,” but while you may think these are interchangeable, they’re actually not. In many ways these labels are little more than creative advertising.

The definitions of “free-range” are such that the commercial egg industry can run industrial farm egg laying facilities and still call them “free-range” eggs, despite the fact that the birds’ foraging conditions are far from what you’d call natural.

For example, regulations on the use of the term “free-range” do not specify the amount of time the hens must spend outdoors or the amount of outdoor space each hen must have access to. Nor do they indicate that the hen must have access to a pasture diet.

True free-range eggs, now increasingly referred to as “pasture-raised,” are from hens that roam freely outdoors on a pasture where they can forage for their natural diet, which includes seeds, green plants, insects, and worms.

Large commercial egg facilities typically house tens of thousands of hens and can even go up to hundreds of thousands of hens. Obviously they cannot allow all of them to forage freely. They can still be called “cage-free” or “free-range” though, if they’re not confined to an individual cage. But these labels say nothing about the conditions they ARE raised in, which are still deplorable.

So, while flimsy definitions of “free range” and “cage-free” allow such facilities to sell their products as free range, please beware that a hen that is let outside into a barren lot for mere minutes a day, and is fed a diet of corn, soy, cottonseed meals and synthetic additives is NOT a free-range hen, and simply will not produce the same quality eggs as its foraging counterpart.  There’s also the issue of veterinary drug contamination. As reported in the featured article1:

“Formally certified organic accreditation – which is a membership-based process and comes with it a logo on packaging – signifies whether the chicken is free from unnatural additives or processes. Most brands don’t actually hold this accreditation.

 [C]ertified organic poultry is the only poultry product that is 100 per cent guaranteed to be antibiotic-free. “Antibiotics can be fed to conventional chickens to accelerate weight gain and treat or prevent disease. “Free-ranging chickens can be treated with therapeutic antibiotics under veterinary direction and sold with the use of coccidiostats [a chemical agent added to animal feed]”, says Sally, author of Eat Yourself Healthy in 28 Days…”

So to summarize, what you’re really looking for is chicken and eggs that are both certified organic and true pasture-raised. Barring organic certification, which is cost-prohibitive for many small farmers, you could just make sure the farmer raises his chickens according to organic, free-range standards, allowing his flock to forage freely for their natural diet, and aren’t fed antibiotics, corn and soy.

Organic Pastured Eggs Contain Superior Nutrients

Testing2 has confirmed that true free-range eggs are far more nutritious than commercially raised eggs. The dramatically superior nutrient levels are most likely the result of the differences in diet between free ranging, pastured hens and commercially farmed hens. In a 2007 egg-testing project, Mother Earth News compared the official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs with eggs from hens raised on pasture and found that the latter typically contains the following:

2/3 more vitamin A 3 times more vitamin E
2 times more omega-3 fatty acids 7 times more beta carotene

Where and How to Find High Quality Pasture-Raised Eggs

Your best source for fresh eggs is a local farmer that allows his hens to forage freely outdoors. If you live in an urban area, visiting a local health food store is typically the quickest route to finding high-quality local egg sources. Your local farmers market is another source for fresh “pasture-raised” eggs, and is a great way to meet the people who produce your food. With face-to-face contact, you can get your questions answered and know exactly what you’re buying. Better yet, visit the farm and ask for a tour.

Most will be eager to show off their operation, as long as they’ve got nothing to hide. Your egg farmer should be paying attention to proper nutrition, clean water, adequate housing space, and good ventilation to reduce stress on the hens and support their immunity.

You can tell the eggs are free range or pastured by the color of the egg yolk. Foraged hens produce eggs with bright orange yolks. Dull, pale yellow yolks are a sure sign you’re getting eggs form caged hens that are not allowed to forage for their natural diet. Cornucopia.org offers a helpful organic egg scorecard that rates egg manufacturers based on 22 criteria that are important for organic consumers. According to Cornucopia, their report “showcases ethical family farms, and their brands, and exposes factory farm producers and brands in grocery store coolers that threaten to take over organic livestock agriculture.” Last year, I visited Joel Salatin at his Polyface farm in Virginia. He’s truly one of the pioneers in sustainable agriculture, and you can take a virtual tour through his chicken farm operation in the following video.

Ignore Outdated Warnings about Eggs Causing Heart Disease

The idea that eggs, as a source of saturated fats, are unhealthy and promote heart disease is simply not true. While it’s true that fats from animal sources contain cholesterol, this is not necessarily something that will harm you. On the contrary, the evidence clearly shows that eggs are one of the most healthful foods you can eat, and can actually help prevent disease,including heart disease.

For example, one 2009 study3 discovered that the proteins in cooked eggs are converted by gastrointestinal enzymes, producing peptides that act as ACE inhibitors (common prescription medications for lowering blood pressure). Also, although egg yolks are relatively high in cholesterol, numerous studies have confirmed that eggs have virtually nothing to do with raising your cholesterol. For instance, research published in the International Journal of Cardiology showed that, in healthy adults, eating eggs every day did not produce a negative effect on endothelial function (an aggregate measure of cardiac risk); nor did it increase cholesterol levels. Fortunately, the mainstream media are finally starting to report the truth on this issue. CNN, for example, recently reported on how the health benefits of eggs clearly outweigh any potential risks.

This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

How You Cook Your Eggs Does Matter

One caveat though: I do not agree with CNN’s statement that eggs are healthful regardless of how you prepare them…. Ideally, you’ll want to eat your eggs raw, or as close to raw as possible. Keep in mind that the closer to raw you eat them, the more important it is to make sure the eggs are truly organic and pasture-raised, as CAFO-raised eggs are far more prone to be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria like salmonella. As long as you’re getting fresh pastured eggs, your risk of getting ill from a raw egg is quite slim.

If you choose not to eat your egg yolks raw, poached or soft-boiled would be the next best option. Scrambled or fried eggs are the worst, as this oxidizes the cholesterol in the egg yolk. If you have high cholesterol this could pose a problem as oxidized cholesterol may cause some damage in your body. Egg yolks also contain valuable antioxidants4, which are reduced by as much as 50 percent when the egg is fried or boiled. Microwaving your eggs will result in an even greater reduction in antioxidant content. Heat will also alter the chemical composition of the egg protein, which can easily lead to allergic reactions. When consumed in their raw state, the incidence of egg allergy is very rare.

Also, contrary to popular belief, fresh pastured eggs that have an intact cuticle do not require refrigeration, as long as you are going to consume them within a relatively short period of time. This is well known in many other countries, including parts of Europe, and many organic farmers will not refrigerate their eggs. The shelf life for an unrefrigerated egg is around 7 to 10 days, compared to 30-45 days when refrigerated. Keep this in mind when purchasing eggs from your grocery store, as by the time they hit the shelf, they may already be three weeks old, or older.

Are You Ready to Try Your Hand at Raising Your Own Chickens?

As you saw in the Polyfarm video above, raising chickens is easier than you might think, and many people across the US have taken to putting in a chicken coop in their backyard. If you are interested in the possibility of raising a few chickens yourself, a good place to begin is by asking yourself a few questions. You can also visit Joel’s Polyface Farm Web site for more details on raising chickens.

  1. Can I dedicate some time each day? You can expect to devote about 10 minutes a day, an hour per month, and a few hours twice a year to the care and maintenance of your brood.
  2. Do I have enough space? They will need a minimum of 10 square feet per bird to roam, preferably more. The more foraging they can do, the healthier and happier they’ll be and the better their eggs will be.
  3. What are the chicken regulations in my town? You will want to research this before jumping in because some places have zoning restrictions and even noise regulations (which especially applies if you have a rooster).
  4. Are my neighbors on board with the idea? It’s a good idea to see if they have any concerns early on. When they learn they might be the recipients of occasional farm-fresh eggs, they might be more agreeable.
  5. Can I afford a flock? There are plenty of benefits to growing your own eggs, but saving money isn’t one of them. There are significant upfront costs to getting a coop set up, plus ongoing expenses for supplies.

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Help The Paleo Mama Out!!!

by Leave a Comment

HELP

Hey everyone! I have a HUGE request and need your help. 2013 is quickly drawing to a close and I plan on creating plenty of great content for you in the coming year – including ebooks, an online class, and lots of great posts.

I’ve got lots to share about Paleo, natural living, raising Paleo kids, and health/wellness. But, I need your help. I want to make sure to create content that you want and need. So, I’m taking a really quick survey on Survey Monkey.com to see what my readers are more interested in.

Please fill out this quick survey to help me decide which classes and books to offer next year. Thank you SO MUCH!

>>>Click here to fill it out!  <<<

 

Thank you again! This is such a big help!

 

Jackie @ The Paleo Mama

Why My Paleo Family Drinks Raw Milk

by 48 Comments

rawmilk

Milk. Dairy. Cheese. Those words alone elicit some of the most heinous comments from people who eat Paleo. I have been called some of the most vicious names, cursed at in emails, told to change my name to The PRIMAL Mama, and despised on Facebook comments because my Paleo family drinks raw milk. Wait…did I just say Paleo and milk in the same sentence? Shouldn’t I say “Primal”? Whatever.

I hate the two words: Paleo versus Primal. It’s like you are forced to choose one-or-the-other. What if I don’t want to choose? Can I still be Paleo and drink raw milk? I think so, but many don’t.

I believe the biggest argument for people opposed to raw milk is they believe that early man did not drink milk or consume any dairy. According to this study, dairy consumption entered the human race 9,000 years ago when they discovered old pottery fragments with trace amounts of milk fat.

Also, this study states:

“Researchers have also been surprised by another new discovery based on Neolithic bones from Turkey. Despite the long-time establishment of dairy herding, the recovered bones of this Mesopotamian farm population didn’t indicate lactose tolerance. (Yes, do the double take.) Apparently, they didn’t like the milk itself but used it to make fermented, no-lactose products like yogurt, kefir and cheese. Their consumption pattern differs dramatically from that of Europeans after dairy herding spread throughout Northern regions (source).”

Wanna know what early man DEFINITELY did not eat? 

  • Almond Flour Bread
  • Coconut Milk
  • Coconut Flour Cupcakes
  • Nut Butter
  • Store-Bought Chicken Breasts
  • Canned Salmon and Tuna
  • Homemade Chocolates
  • Smoothies
  • Homemade Paleo Cookies

*Raising hand in the air* –  I am guilty of eating every, single one of those foods on the list. Am I advocating eating dairy? I wouldn’t say that. I am just trying to give another perspective. Obviously, if dairy gives you explosive diarrhea, acne, worsens your allergies, causes your baby to have colic, gives you eczema (although raw dairy usually clears this up), or makes you feel lousy – then don’t eat it!

notpaleo

Why We Drink RAW Milk (Much Different Than Pasteurized Milk): 

1. I Know The Source and the Quality of Our Milk– We have our own milk goats and I hand milk then in the morning. I know exactly what they are eating. I control their environment. They have an enormous amount of lush, green pasture to graze on. They are healthy, clean, and happy goats. However, even before I had goats, we drank raw milk but we were very selective about where we got the milk from and visited the farms frequently.

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jersey

Pasteurized Organic milk bought in the store still has questionable dairy practices. In some organic dairies, the cows or goats are often confined, and deprived of their natural diet of grasses. Instead, they are fed grains and other inexpensive fodder, including waste grains from distilleries. Unless labeled otherwise, you can betcha that store-bought milk is completely grain fed, even organic milk.

2. It Improves Our Oral Health – Hereford, Texas became known as the “Town without a Toothache” in 1942 due to the pioneering work of dentist George Heard and author of Man Versus Toothache. Dr. Heard explains the town’s secret:

After a newcomer has lived in Hereford a few years, provided he had drunk lots of raw whole milk, he develops resistance to tooth decay. Even the tooth cavities which he brings with him when he comes to Hereford will be glazed over, if he has drunk raw milk. For years I made inquiry of my patients as to their milk habits. Almost invariably I found that the possessor of a mouth full of sound teeth had been a consistent milk drinker from early childhood. A surprisingly large number liked either buttermilk, clabber, or both. The significant fact is that the milk those patients drank came from cows that had grazed on native grass…” – (source). 

Several Ayurvedic texts, more than 2,000 years old, describe milk, yes, raw grass-fed milk, as a cure for literally hundred of ailments. Milk was either drunk immediately after milking, known as sweet milk, or it naturally began to sour and was transformed into cheese or yogurt.

Why is it so good for oral health though? Raw milk is very rich in fat-soluble vitamins, like Vitamin A, K, and E. It is, also, rich in water soluble vitamins like C and B-complex. A quart of raw milk from grassed cows contain 50% more vitamin E and 7% more folate than pasteurized milk.  Moreover, fresh raw milk naturally contains vitamin C which is completely absent from pasteurized milk (source). All these vitamins are extremely necessary for good oral health.

Raw milk is extremely necessary if you are interested in remineralizing your teeth and healing present cavities. There was a 6 month period that I could not find a decent source for raw milk for my family. In those 6 months (and all the while eating Paleo) my daughter came down with 2 cavities in her teeth and so did I. Coincidence? I, immediately, got out my trusted resource, Cure Tooth Decay, and started the remineralizing process on both our teeth. We are, currently, in the process of curing the few cavities that we obtained from lacking vitamins in our diet. If you are interested in this protocol, then I, HIGHLY, recommend you get this book.

3. Fermented Raw Milk is Loaded with Beneficial Probiotics – Having probiotics in your diet is an essential aspect of nutrient absorption. Soured milk, yogurt, kefir, whey, and buttermilk have highly absorbable forms of calcium. Soured or fermented raw milk is, also, low in sugar, known as lactose.

Pasteurization Kills Milk – pasteurization came into being to try to clean up dirty milk from factory feed lots.* It was never meant for clean milk from healthy animals grazing on a healthy green pasture.

In order to absorb calcium from milk, we need the enzyme phosphatase which is naturally present in raw milk. Pasteurization at 165 degrees or milk, destroys phosphatase. Pasteurization also cooks and destroys the other signifiant vitamins found in raw milk, including Vitamin C and the probiotic organisms.

4. Raw Milk is Very High in Calcium – most people have been told that milk makes them sick, or they can’t digest dairy, or even have experienced negative side effects from drinking pasteurized milk. However, for the majority of these people, these negative effects do not occur when they drink raw milk. However, eliminating raw milk in your diet brings up the question of where to get proper calcium. On average, an adult needs somewhere between 1-1.5 grams of calcium per day. On a dairy-free diet, you will need to consume lots of vegetables, 1-2 cups of bone broth, and a moderate amount of sea food to get the adequate calcium in your diet.

According to Nutrition Data, here are some of the top foods with calcium:

           Food                           Calcium in Milligrams 

Hard/Soft Cheese – 2 ounces        404

Canned Sardines with bones        351

Yogurt, Whole Milk- 1 cup            296

Canned Salmon with bones          277

Whole Milk – 1 cup                           276

Cooked Collard Greens-1 cup         204

Cooked Taro Root-1 cup                  171

Cooked Kale-1 cup                            147

Cooked Broccoli – 2 cups                 120

Cooked Scallops – 3.5 ounces        115

So What? Are You Saying I Need to Include Raw Milk in My Paleo Diet? Absolutely not. And I even recommend you eliminate for a one month period if you have never done that. During this elimination process you can evaluate how you feel and if any issues that you may have clear up or lessen with the removal of dairy. I think that the addition of raw milk is a matter of preference and taste and being able to source it.

I just think that we need to take a more holistic look at raw milk and not discredit it nor compare it to it’s evil counterpart – pasteurized milk. They are not the same thing and if you cannot find raw milk near you, then I recommend you don’t drink milk. It’s not necessary to your Paleo diet, however it can be very beneficial to your WHOLE health.

arimilk
My 4 year old milking our goat

Conclusion: 

This is where I believe Paleo is lacking. I believe that Paleo should be a guideline of health. We know modern grains are bad for you. We know that beans and legumes hold nowhere near the nutrition that a steamy pile of vegetables holds. We know it’s best to choose healthy meats from trusted farms. We know that processed foods are loaded with crap. But how can the Paleo world be so two-faced that it can recommend you eat a Chocolate Cake made with store-bought almond flour, processed coconut sugar, and chocolate and then go and throw sand at you for drinking a glass of fresh, raw milk? I don’t know…I don’t get it and I wanted to express my point of view. So, there ya go! Take it for what it is!

 

               Sources: 

  • *McAfee, Mark. “The Fifteen Things that Pasteurization Kills.”
  • https://nourishedkitchen.com/10-reasons-drink-raw-milk/
  • https://www.nutritiondata.com
  • https://www.marksdailyapple.com/milk-dairy-human-diet/#axzz2iwySZ6L4

 

Shared on: The Prairie Homestead