How to shop for the healthiest eggs

Posted on 12 August, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Eggs. They’re small, roundish, and surprisingly mysterious. You might navigate your way swiftly and surely through all the isles of the supermarket, only to be stumped by the dilemma that these nutritional powerhouses present.

Eggs can be an amazing source of essential fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals and beneficial compounds when they come from quality sources. The problem is, it’s not always obvious what those sources are, and how to pick out the healthiest eggs from an extensive selection which, to all outward appearances, look almost identical. In this post, I’ll explore why you really need to prioritize “good” eggs over “bad” ones, and then how to go about digging out those good ones from amongst the masses.

Why you need to invest in high-quality eggs

In the paleo, primal, bulletproof, and wider health communities, eggs have developed into something of a cult following in recent years. There’s a good reason for this – they’re an inexpensive, readily available, easy-to-prepare source of healthy fats, protein, and nutrients. Few foods rival the humble egg’s nutritional capacity, but only when those eggs come from healthy, happy hens. And while this may seem a simple enough solution, the agricultural industry is slowly but surely turning egg production into the stuff of nightmares.

When it comes to buying eggs, most people make the mistake of prioritizing price over quality. I myself used to be one of those people, heading straight for the lowest-priced eggs and feeling like I just scored a financial victory as I strolled towards the checkout. After doing some research, however, I later discovered that those decisions made absolutely no sense, due to the fact that I was paying far more in health problems from eating things like inferior eggs than I could ever save by tightening my budget in the store.

While for some foods the difference in price is simply due to branding, eggs are an excellent example of how price can be an excellent indicator of quality. In general, cheaper eggs are cheaper for a reason:

  • cheaper eggs come from hens that are jammed wing-to-wing into tiny battery cages inside vast, reeking warehouses. These cages offer little to no movement, certainly not the movement required for a hen to be healthy, but this allows farmers to squeeze in far more chickens into a small space – effectively increasing their productivity per square foot of warehouse space.
  • cheaper eggs come from hens which are given the lowest-cost feed available, feed which is designed to fatten the chickens up as fast as possible (and therefore get them laying faster) but not to support the development of healthy bones and organs
  • cheaper eggs come from hens which have their wings and beaks clipped to prevent harm or cannibalism in such as tight space, are injected with growth hormones to ensure they reach their egg-laying age faster, and regularly fed antibiotics to ensure they don’t get sick or die due to the cramped conditions.

The result is warehouses which can literally pump out thousands of eggs, increasing productivity and lowering the cost of these eggs. Unfortunately, the benefits stop there. Many of the toxins and health problems of the hens are passed into their eggs, meaning they contain antibiotic and growth hormone residues, a very poor omega-3 to omega-6 ratio (making them pro-inflammatory), and high levels of environmental toxins.

Eggs which come from healthy chickens, on the other hand, are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, have bucketloads of nutrients, keep you feeling fuller for longer, and are much less likely to contain harmful environmental toxins. For this reason, a 3 or 4 dollar difference in price could mean the difference between something which can harm your health and increase your risk of disease, or something which can nurture your body and actually work to heal any ailments you might be suffering from. Anyone who is aware of this difference and still goes for the cheaper eggs clearly doesn’t value their health at all.

Finding the healthiest eggs

While price is a good starting point for sorting the quality eggs from the bad, it unfortunately isn’t a hard and fast rule. Many companies market their pricey eggs as a higher-quality product, with fancy packaging and fancier words, when really their eggs are just as bad as the cheap ones. Here’s how to know to look out for the best eggs:

  • Pasture-raised: these are the best eggs you’ll ever find. Chickens which produce these eggs live on farms that allow them to roam freely outside, eating foods of their choice (like tasty worms and bugs!) and getting plenty of sunlight. These hens are free from hormones, antibiotics, and the hardship of a life spent inside a tiny cage.
  • Free-range: not as good as pasture-raised, but still a healthy choice. Hens that produce these eggs are permitted limited access to the outdoors, and don’t get kept in cages. They can move around, but for most of their lives it’ll be inside a large open-plan warehouse rather than outside.
  • Free-run: a slightly lower quality version of free-range, and often synonymous with “cage-free”. These hens don’t have access to the outdoors, but can move around freely and are much healthier than caged hens.
  • Cage-free: pretty self explanatory really! Cage-free can include all three of the above egg-types, however if you can’t see any other labels then chances are these hens are confined to the indoors.
  • Organic: The organic label assures you that those eggs come from hens which were raised on feed without additives, animal by-products, growth hormones and antibiotics. In certain places, this also means that such hens must be given access to the outdoors, perches, dust-bathing areas and stipulated minimum space requirements. Don’t be sucked in by “organic vegetarian fed” labels – chickens need to eat worms and bugs in order to thrive, meaning “vegetarian” is not necessarily a good thing.

At the end of the day, all of the above types of eggs are better than caged eggs. Generally, the price of eggs will go up according to how the hens were raised (pasture-raised being most expensive, cage-free being least expensive). Where possible, try to find eggs which tick more than one box – i.e. free-range eggs which are also organic. Also keep in mind that “omega-3” eggs are a bit of a gimmick, and you’re far better off getting high levels of omega-3s from eggs lain by healthy chickens than by chickens who have had artificial sources of omega-3 slipped into their feed.

If you’d like to find out more, this article provides a really good analysis of the various eggs available on the market and how to determine whether they’re good or bad.

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Easy natural non-toxic laundry detergent recipe

Posted on 10 August, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Ok, so you’ve got your paleo/primal/Bulletproof eating down to a fine art, you’ve thrown out all your chemical-based household cleaners and replaced them with a simple spray bottle of white vinegar, you’ve thinned out the ranks of your cosmetics and personal care products, and you’re on the home stretch to becoming the healthiest human in a 10 mile radius. Nicely done.

But, and I hate to go picking holes in your otherwise impressive suit of health, do you have your laundry detergent sorted? Are you still using store-bought detergents? You know, the one’s filled with artificial fragrances, toxic cleaning agents, chemical stabilizers, ammonia, brighteners and phosphates? The one’s which are dousing your clothes (and therefore your skin) in a poisonous concoction of illness-inducing, disease-causing chemicals?

If the answer was “yes”, that’s a pretty big hole I just picked at, sorry to say. And don’t think that because you’re buying a purportedly “natural” or “plant-based” detergent from your local supermarket that you’ve somehow skipped the chemicals and found the real deal. Even the “healthy” store-bought detergents have their share of nasty ingredients, meaning you’re infinitely better off making your own.

This recipe is a slightly modified version of that provided by our friends over at mommypotamus.com. I know you’ve got places to go and people to see, so I’ve also fast-tracked it so you get that hole in your health suit patched up quick-smart and start living your life and being awesome again. You’re welcome.

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Easy natural non-toxic laundry detergent recipe

Easy natural non-toxic laundry detergent recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Cut the bars of coconut oil soap into rough chunks, then add to a kitchen food processor along with the washing soda.
  2. Blend on high until the mixture forms a fine powder. Consider placing a towel or cloth over your food processor during blending to prevent any powder from escaping.
  3. Allow the powder inside the processor to settle, around 2-3 minutes.
  4. Slowly pour the powder into a clean glass jar with lid.
  5. In a top load washing machine, add 2 tablespoons of the detergent for a medium load and 3 tablespoons for a large load. If running a cold wash, consider dissolving the powder in a cup of hot water before pouring into the washing machine.
  6. Add half a cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener receptacle, and 3-5 drops lemon essential oil in with the laundry detergent as a degreaser and natural fragrance.
https://www.thriveprimal.com/easy-natural-non-toxic-laundry-detergent/

Thoughts? Comments?

If you tried this recipe out, let us know how it went! Did you have to modify some of the ingredient amounts, or the ingredients themselves? If you’d like to mix things up a little, the folks over at morningchores.com have very conveniently gathered up 28 more DIY laundry recipes!

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How to avoid sickness on the plane

Posted on 10 August, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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An article I came across in the Huffington Post a while back brought to the forefront something which had been bothering me for a while: the health risks of flying. According to the post, passengers on a flight from Beijing to Vancouver may have been exposed to a case of the measles, when it was revealed that someone on the flight was carrying the highly infectious virus.

While the implications of coming down with something nasty like the measles is bad enough (inflammation of the brain, convulsions, deafness and even brain damage in worst case scenarios), the virus scare on that flight merely highlights the vast array of health risks involved with air travel. As someone who is flying long-distance on a regular basis, this is a big deal for me, and I seized the opportunity to look into what could be done to safeguard myself from a whole lot of potentially sick people bottled up inside a tiny tin can with wings for multiple hours.

Based on my research, here’s a few handy tips for protecting yourself while in transit and stepping off a plane no worse for wear than when you first got on.

1. Avoid contaminated surfaces

Before I did the research, I was under the impression that one of the most common ways people got sick from being in planes was via the recycled air that blasts out into your face throughout the flight. According to Dr. Mark Gendreau, a specialist in aviation medicine at Lahey Medical Centre in Massachusetts (who knew “avian medicine” was even a thing?!), this is far from the case. Yes, someone who sneezes can project infectious pathogens into the air which can then get sucked up by the air recycling system, but Gendreau points out that most planes have high-tech air filters that remove over 99 percent of airborne microbes. Those are some pretty slim odds of catching a cold from your air vent.

Now that I’ve alleviated your fears of airborne sickness, it’s time to turn your attention to physically touching contaminated surfaces. These present your greatest likelihood of getting ill – someone who has a cold or flu (and lets not forget about those measles!) touches the handle to the toilet, you then touch that handle as you exit the toilet later on, then transfer the virus into your body by rubbing your eyes, licking your hands or just eating that nasty airplane food.

While washing your hands will help to minimize this risk somewhat, you’re still at risk of touching contaminated surfaces – the classic case being when you have to exit the toilet, touching the little latch to release the door catch or pushing the door open with your hand. Plus, apparently tap water on aircrafts has its own contamination issues to work through. For this reason, probably the safest way to lower your risk is to carry a toxin-free, natural hand sanitizer and use it after touching any suspect surfaces or prior to eating.

Your other best option is to straight-out avoid touching contaminated surfaces – you can do this by wearing gloves, only using restrooms whose entryways don’t have doors (so you don’t have to touch a door to exit the restroom after washing your hands – works in airports, not so much in planes!), or use your elbow or back of the hand to operate handles and locks (takes some skill, but it can be done!).

2. Support your immune system before & after flying

You might be super careful with touching surfaces and still be at risk of infection if someone nearby sneezes and you’re unfortunate enough to be sitting within the “blast radius”. This means you are now at a higher risk of inhaling the infectious pathogen, but it’s also the point where your immune system steps in. How healthy you are before (and immediately after) the flight will determine whether your immune function is strong enough to fight the infection, or whether it will easily take over. Here’s a few simple things you can do to ensure your immune system is in tip top condition:

  • Minimize stress before your flight. If you find yourself getting anxious or frustrated with preparations for your trip, take some time to just chill and work on consciously eradicating that stress. Things like meditation, walking in natural settings (i.e. parks), watching your favorite comedy tv show, or doing some light stretches can help.
  • Get plenty of sleep in the nights leading up to your flight. No all-nighters packing your stuff for the trip! I’ve definitely been guilty of this on many occasions, and it’s never ended well.
  • Exercise regularly, and be sure to move about constantly. This means changing your position (be it sitting, standing, or lying down) as much as possible…with the exception of when you sleep, of course!
  • Get plenty of sun to keep your vitamin D levels high. Vitamin D is critical to a properly functioning immune system, plus sunlight during the day will help you sleep better at night.
  • Eat lots of healthy, whole foods. Plenty of veggies, a smattering of fresh fruit, lots of high quality meat, and avoid grains and sugars where possible.
  • Eat plenty of fermented foods (such as this delicious home-made sauerkraut!), or get your hands on a good probiotic supplement.

3. Bring your own food on the plane

I always find myself getting strangely excited by the prospect of getting served food on a plane, there’s just something infinitely satisfying about eating a meal at 40,000 feet. But virtually every time, I’m disappointed. Airplane food is almost universally atrocious – it’s sloppy, composed of ingredients you don’t even want think about, and generally lacking in nutrition. Even more importantly, there’s always the risk that you could get sick from it, as it is handled by who knows how many people before it gets to your “tray table”, and is reheated at least twice, amplifying the risk of contamination.

The best strategy is always to source your own healthy food before the flight and bring it on-board. Just make sure to bring enough so that you’re not still tempted by the airline food, bring utensils (just in case the snooty air hostess doesn’t want to give you theirs), and, for the sake of the other passengers and your own dignity, stay away from overly pungent food…it’ll stink the cabin out quicker than you can say “pee-yew!”.

4. Drink plenty of water

Water is essential to the healthy function of your body, including your immune system. The recycled air on planes really dries you out, and many people get tempted by the various sugary or alcoholic drinks on offer and therefore become even more dehydrated. If you’re going to give your body a fighting chance against infection, skip the soda or wine and opt for water instead. I always make sure I fill up my glass water bottle before getting on the plane, and when they come around offering cups of water I ask them to fill my drink bottle instead. Smart for my health, and smart for the environment!

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Your Paleo guide to grocery shopping: milk and dairy

Posted on 30 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Thrive-Primal---shopping-guide-to-milk-and-dairy

Mention the word “dairy” to your average paleo enthusiast, and they’ll shake their heads and mutter to themselves about potential toxicity issues, food allergies, and the untrustworthiness of these types of products. And they’d be right – this subject area is a very difficult one to navigate, as dairy products are typically shrouded in mystery and have the potential to throw your clean dieting right off the rails.

In Part 3 of our food shopping series (check out our guide to fruit and vegetables here, and our guide to shopping for meat, poultry and fish here), we’ll explore how to tell if milk and other dairy-based foods are good for you, how to find high quality ingredients in your supermarket or at the farm gate, and hidden dangers you need to look out for.

Read on, to continue your training towards becoming a supermarket superstar!

Is dairy and milk paleo?

From a strict Paleo standpoint, dairy was not consumed in the Paleolithic Era (aside from human milk, that is!), and for this reason many of those who follow a regimented Paleo diet stay away from it.

But just because something wasn’t available to our ancestors doesn’t make it inherently bad. Good quality dairy is an amazing source of nutrition, designed by the animal that produced it to be loaded with saturated fats, beneficial bacteria, essential fatty acids, proteins, vitamins and minerals. As it is the first thing a newborn calf, kid (in the goat sense) or lamb drinks, it provides a vital burst of nourishment that this animal needs to survive the first phase of it’s life.

Now, while this milk was not designed for human mouths, there’s no reason why we might not gain benefit or nourishment from it. In my opinion, it’s the same as eating good quality eggs – they clearly weren’t designed for human consumption, but they’ve attained an almost godlike status amongst the Paleo community, and are celebrated for the vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats they can provide us. Milk is the same – we can benefit from the same compounds that the calf, kid or lamb would thrive on.

Where dairy gets a bad rap is with regards to lactose, casein and the potential for introducing synthetic toxins into our bodies. It’s important to note, however, that this is usually only a problem when buying regular, grain-fed, store-based milk or dairy products. These products are made from cows (and to a lesser degree, sheep and goats) which have been raised on a diet consisting almost solely of GMO corn and soy, while being confined to tiny pens inside horrific dairy factories, away from the sun. These animals are also regularly injected with hormones, to make them grow faster and produce more milk, and antibiotics, to prevent them from developing diseases due to their unhealthy living conditions.

All this nasty stuff gets into the milk, while all the good stuff (the beneficial bacteria, digestive enzymes, saturated fats) gets removed during the processes of skimming, pasteurization and homogenization. The result is a dairy product devoid of nutrients and healthy fats, which is now missing the very bacterial cultures and enzymes which make it easier for our stomachs to digest in the first place (and which would otherwise prevent us from developing lactose or casein intolerance).

Why raw milk is NOT dangerous

Unfortunately, the agricultural industry has made it ridiculously difficult to get your hands on good quality dairy. Most of the US states continue to impose a complete ban on the sale and distribution of raw milk, citing antiquated cases of people becoming sick or even dying from consumption of raw milk that was somehow contaminated. These fears are based on a system of pasteurization which was introduced back before the invention of refrigerated transport and storage, when milk or dairy products could become eventually become contaminated by harmful pathogens after sitting in a warm place for too long.

Well, as it happens, we have fast, refrigerated transport now, and cold storage, and fridges at home – so those claims about the necessity of pasteurization are completely redundant! What’s more, those stories of people getting sick from raw milk were almost always due to that milk coming from cows which were raised in undesirable conditions – like the small pens, with antibiotic-injected, hormone-enriched, grain-fed cows I talked about earlier. If the cows themselves are raised in pasture and allowed to roam free under the sun, these health concerns are even more redundant.

In actual fact, you’re far more likely to get sick from drinking regular pasteurized milk than you are from raw milk! One expert even goes so far as to state that “you are about thirty-five thousand times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk”. So quit worrying! If, however, you still find yourself shaking in your boots at the very notion of drinking something which hasn’t been heated to smithereens, check out this article we wrote a while back.

How to buy good quality, healthy dairy products

Rather than going into too much more of a rant about the dairy industry and how it’s turning people against one of the most nutritious (not to mention delicious!) food sources available, lets get down to business. You came here to learn how to ferret through all those nasty dairy products and locate the actual good, healthy ones, and the below table should help you do just that. The table is laid out to present the most desirable sources of dairy first, then works down the list to products which you should probably just stay away from altogether. Remember – if you can’t find good quality dairy, it’s generally better to just cut your losses and eat or drink something else.

Thrive Primal how to choose the right dairy product

It turns out that making a table to show how best to prioritize your milk is a difficult task. Hopefully the above gets the point across: the highest quality milk and dairy is from humanely-treated, grass-fed cows (and sheep and goats) that have been raised on an organic farm (which implies that they’re free from hormones, antibiotics and probably GMOs). The best milk is also raw and full-fat! As you work down the table, the dairy becomes progressively less good for  you when it is no longer organic or full-fat. To provide a rough indication, I’d recommend regular (daily to 2 or 3 times a week) consumption of dairy products which are found in the green category, occasionally (no more than once a month) for those products in the orange section, and never buying those products in the red. ESPECIALLY dairy which is raw but comes from non-organic, grass-fed cows…although you’re fairly unlikely to ever come across that!

Finding good quality dairy is difficult, but not impossible

During our time living in Canada, Liivi and I became obsessed with the idea of getting our hands on a regular supply of grass-fed, raw dairy. It was very, very difficult, on account of strict Canadian laws which prohibit the sale of raw dairy products, and because 99.9% of the dairy farms there are grain-feeding. After much searching, we eventually came across this website, which got us in touch with a cooperative that provided real, organic, humane, grass-fed, RAW milk and dairy products. They products were expensive, but boy, were they good!

In the US, state governments are slowly starting to loosen up the laws, following increasing pressure from the public. Check out this interactive map to see whether your state allows the sale of raw milk in-store, or at least at the farm gate.

If you live in an area that is prohibitive to raw milk, however, don’t dismay – you can generally still get your hands on some high-quality, grass-fed dairy products, even if they’re not raw. As we travelled through the States and Canada, we would keep our eyes peeled for either the Kerrygold brand or the Anchor brand. Kerrygold comes from Ireland while Anchor comes from New Zealand, and both are produced from grass-fed cows, with no hormones and no antibiotics (I would know: I used to work for Anchor as an environmental officer!). You’ll often find Kerrygold butter or Anchor butter in your supermarket, and sometimes also Kerrygold cheese. Elsewhere in the world, you’re more than likely to stumble across a range of Anchor products, including Anchor butter and Mainland cheese. Failing that, order them on Amazon:

Another great way to get many of the benefits of grass-fed, organic cows, is from this whey protein powder which I came across after days of painstaking research. Find out more about it, here!

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Your paleo guide to grocery shopping: meat, fish and poultry

Posted on 29 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Confused about how to get the most out of your meat shopping, either at your local supermarket, butcher, or down at the weekly farmer’s market? You’ve come to the right place!

It might look a little overwhelming as you stand there and eye up the towering mounds of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, fish, and various other unidentifiable meats. But with a little bit of ground work and a knowledge of how to prioritize the best meats, you’ll do just fine. Here’s the quick and dirty on what you need to know.

On the importance of fat

If you’ve just recently made the shift to paleo, chances are you’re having trouble wrapping your head around the whole fat-is-good thing, especially with regards to saturated fats. This understanding of fat plays such a foundational role in the success of the paleo, primal, and Bulletproof diets that it needs to be revisited before we go delve any further.

So, without further ado: the saturated fat and monounsaturated fat that comes from meat, be it beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, fish, or otherwise, is one of the best, healthiest sources of fat available to humans. This is particularly the case with animals that have been raised in healthy living conditions, or are wild caught. Keep this in mind as you peruse the meat section of your supermarket or pretend you know what you’re talking about when you instruct your butcher what cuts you want.

Saturated and monounsaturated fats are your friends, so don’t shy away from meats which look fatty – these are the best, most nutritional cuts of the entire animal, aside from the organs (more on that later). Your traditional red meats (beef, lamb, bison, venison) have the highest saturated fat content, and incidentally have the best nutritional profiles (rivaled only, perhaps, by cold water fish like wild salmon or wild sardines). Chicken and pork, on the other hand, are generally lower in saturated fat content, have a higher monounsaturated fat content, and are packed with less vitamins and minerals.

Is it important to get grass-fed, pastured, or wild?

In a word: yes. Very important. If you’re going to put your dollar to work in the supermarket, put it to work buying the best quality meats you can find: the difference between a low quality meat and a high quality one is huge.

Grass-fed meat

“Grass-fed” is a term used to describe any ruminant (cow/beef, deer/venison, lamb, bison) which has been raised all its life on a diet of grass. This is what their digestive systems have evolved to process, and they can only truly be healthy when allowed to roam freely and eat grass to their heart’s content.

Grass-fed meat is much more nutritious and has a significantly better Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio, meaning it is less inflammatory than grain-fed meat and much better for your body. Grass-fed meat also has a significantly higher saturated fat content, which is a good thing.

Meats which display the label “grass finished” indicate that the animal has been primarily raised on grain throughout its life, then has been allowed to graze at pasture for a few weeks prior to slaughter. While this is better than a ruminant which hasn’t had any interaction with grass at all, it is nowhere near as good for you as grass-fed meat.

Pastured or free-range meat

The term “pastured” essentially has the same implications as “grass-fed” but it applies to non-ruminant land animals like pigs, chickens and ducks. If a meat displays the label “pastured” or “free-range”, it indicates that this animal has been raised in a healthy environment where it can roam freely, eat selectively and choose those foods which it gains the most benefit from. “Free-run” is slightly different to free-range, with free-run chicken or eggs coming from hens which can theoretically run free in an “open concept” barn, and are not housed in cages like conventional hens – not quite as good as free-run, but still better than your average cage-raised hen.

Even if the meat is not organic, if it is pastured or free-range it is generally fair to assume that this meat has less antibiotics, hormones, and other nasty surprises hidden in it’s depths. This is purely because such animals are healthier than their caged counterparts, and therefore need less synthetic treatments to keep them alive.

Wild-caught

“Wild-caught” can technically apply to any type of animal which occurs naturally in nature (such as venison or duck), however in most cases it refers to fish. As with the previous two categories, there’s a huge difference in quality between wild fish and farmed fish. Farmed fish are fattier, but it’s the wrong kind of fat, with a high ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s. This higher fat content in farmed fish also means that you’re getting less protein per serving than wild fish.

Possibly worse than this is the amount of toxins you’ll find in a typical fillet of farmed fish. In one of these babies, you’re likely to find high concentrations of body-harming compounds like dioxins, PCBs, fire retardants, pesticides, antibiotics, copper sulfate, and canthaxanthin (a dye associated with retinal damage used to make colorless farmed fish various shades of “wild” pink). Delicious.

Wild caught fish can contain these same toxins, but in far lower concentrations, and it’s only because of humans polluting the waters they swim in that they’re present at all. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of destruction and pollution that these fish farms are doing to the waters in which the real, wild fish make their home.

For more information on choosing the right fish, check out this article from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Should I try and buy organic meat?

Yes, you should certainly try. While organic meat is often hard to come buy, it’s worth seeking it out as it typically has an improved nutritional profile, but more importantly it doesn’t contain toxic residues from pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics or hormones which you’ll find in high concentrations in other, non-organic meats.

If a meat is organic, the feed it is given also needs to be organic, which means that this animal will be healthier and it’s meat is therefore of a better quality. Most of the time, organic also implies GMO-free, which is always a good thing. For more information on this, check out the section on GMOs in this article.

Which meats are best?

Originally, I had intended to put a list in this section which rated each type of commonly-stocked meat based on a range of variables and then recommended which were best. After giving it some thought, however, I came to conclusion that many others have reached – there’s no single best thing. Such a list should never exist, because there are so many different variables at play.

That being said, I do have some recommendations for what you write on your next grocery list with regards to buying meat:

Vary your meats throughout the week

While many paleo enthusiasts consider beef to be one of the best meats due to it’s high concentration of saturated fats, wide range of nutrients, and balanced fatty acid profile, you shouldn’t eat beef every single day. Doing so would put you at risk of iron toxicity, as red meats like beef and lamb have high concentrations of iron. Similar issues apply to other meats: too much chicken or pork could mean not enough saturated fats or an overload of polyunsaturated fats (the troublemaker of the fat trio), and a lack of the nutrients found in red meats. Too much fish, especially salmon or other cold water fish, could actually lower your omega 6 levels to the point where they’re unhealthy (yep, thats a thing).

The point is, vary your meats throughout the week and you’ll be getting all their benefits without getting an excess of their less desirable attributes. I have a very basic system whereby I always separate my meats by at least 2 to 3 other meats. For example, I might eat beef for dinner on Monday, then have eggs for breakfast on Tuesday, chicken for lunch, fish for dinner, a smoothie for breakfast on Wednesday, and lamb for lunch. This way, you’re enforcing a buffer period so that you don’t eat the same meat over and over, which can lead to health complications.

Eat organ meats on a regular basis

Yes, they taste pretty darn horrendous, but they’re probably one of the most nutrient-dense foods available to humans (if not THE most nutrient dense food!). This means they’re well stocked with many vitamins and minerals which you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. For this reason, they can really give your health a kickstart, by filling in any nutritional gaps you might have in your body.

Of all the organs, liver is by far the most nutritionally-dense, so you should make sure you have this at least once a week. Other organs which you’ll likely see in the supermarket include kidney, heart, and tongue (these last two technically being muscles, but lets not nit-pick) – experiment with different organs and different recipes (this article has lots of good tips), and you’re bound to find SOMETHING which you and your family can choke down without complaining too much.

Oh, and remember to go for high quality sources (grass-fed, pastured, free-range, organic, yarda yarda)

Experiment with different cuts of meat

You know when you get up to the butcher’s counter, and they ask you what cut of beef or lamb you’d like, and you start to panic because you know NOTHING about which cuts are best? Well, you don’t have to panic any more – there IS no best cut. Traditionally, people would slaughter a cow or lamb, for example, chop it up into manageable portions, and proceed to literally eat that animal from nose to tail. These people, as it happens, were a whole lot healthier than most modern day westerners.

Take a leaf from their book and embrace the “nose to tail” mantra. Try buying different cuts of meat each week, perhaps even asking the butcher if they would recommend any particular cut which is interesting or different from usual. Eating different parts of the animal means you’ll be gaining access to a range of different nutrients and fat ratios, and as I’ve said before – variation is good!

Questions? Comments?

Phew, that was a lot of writing! I seem to recall saying that this was going to be “quick and dirty” at the start of the post, but it turns out that it was more “long and arduous”. That said, if you’ve got any further questions, or have a beef (pun unintended, surprisingly!) with something I’ve said, then drop us a comment and let us know! Oh, and do check out post number 1 in this 3 part series, which explains how to shop for fruits and vegetables like a pro!

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Your paleo guide to grocery shopping: fruit and vegetables

Posted on 29 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Thrive-Primal---shopping-guide-to-fruit-and-veggies

Ok, so you’ve read up on your paleo basics, you’re excited about the positive steps you’re about to take, and you’re rearing to go. You take a bold step inside your local supermarket, and stop abruptly, looking around with a growing sense of unease at the vast shelves of processed goods, overflowing bins of fresh produce, and quivering piles of meat, fish and poultry.

I’ve been there, and I get it. The supermarket for the paleo-conscious is like a minefield, requiring the newly-inducted to step gingerly, lest they put they foot (or in this case, hand) on a food item which appears healthy and wholesome, but is in fact riddled with pesticides and beefed-up on GMOs. Kapow! The bad-food mine goes off in your stomach, you introduce new toxins into your system, and you’re back to square one.

6 years ago, when Liivi and I first jumped on the paleo/primal/Bulletproof bandwagon, we would spend long hours in the supermarket, walking slowly up and down the aisle, examining each potential morsel of food with a metaphorical magnifying glass, and eventually coming to a slow, painstaking decision. We’d get home tired and frustrated, only to find that many of the foods we’d chosen had a sneaky bit of hydrogenated oil or an artificial ingredient that we’d failed to notice in our quest to make it to the checkout with our minds intact.

Gradually, we honed the process, to the point where today we can fly through the supermarket, invariably ignoring 90% of the foods on display, and come out the other side with foods that align with our health mandates. And now I’d like to very generously share that information with you, and save you having to go through the same excruciating process that we did back at the beginning.

This post is the first of a 3-part series which examines how to find the best, cleanest, most paleo-friendly foods at your local supermarket, regardless of how paleo-friendly that supermarket really is. If you’d like to skip ahead, here’s the links to the other articles:

Ratio of fruit to vegetables

Before we delve into how to pick out the healthiest, cleanest fresh produce, it’s worthwhile revisiting one of the key guiding principles of paleo: keep your sugar levels to a minimum, wherever possible.

Now, I’m not talking about removing sugar altogether from your diet: going ketogenic isn’t really my cup of tea. For one thing, sweet things are just so damn delicious, and I’m utterly unwilling to cut them completely out of my life. For another, starving your body of sugar can cause all sorts of hormonal imbalances, the most notable of which is an increase in the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which can in turn contribute to development of auto-immune diseases and annoying conditions like candida.

But, because sugar is pro-inflammatory, and can contribute to weight gain and a host of other ailments and diseases when consumed in excess, you definitely need to keep an eye on it. Fruit, as it happens, is high in fructose, a type of sugar that can spike your blood sugar levels and increase your risk of insulin resistance, which in turn can lead to diabetes.

For this reason, you should always buy far more vegetables than fruit. Vegetables have all the nutritional benefits of fruit, but without the sugar (with the exception of high-starch vegetables like potatoes), so go nuts in the vegetable department. As for fruit, I find eating between 1 and 3 portions per day is just the ticket – make sure you vary what varieties you eat on a daily and weekly basis, though.

Going organic

In a perfect world, you’d always buy organic produce. Heck, you’d buy organic everything if you could. But, unless you shop solely at an amazing farmer’s market which permits only organic meat and produce (if you know of such a place, I want to hear about it!!), that’s not really an option. Organic produce is grown and harvested without the use of pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers, meaning that it is higher in nutrients and doesn’t introduce nasty toxins into your body.

But organic produce is expensive, and it’s generally only available for limited varieties in your supermarket (if at all). For this reason, you need to prioritize what you buy organic, and what you don’t. Luckily, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has already done this for us, producing two lists called the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen which indicate which foods are better to be bought organic, and which foods are low enough in toxins etc that they can be bought non-organic without too many health concerns. The lists are as follows.

Green Fifteen (generally less prone to toxic sprays and chemical fertilizers, so ok to eat non-organic):

  1. avocados
  2. sweet corn (I wouldn’t advise eating this AT ALL, if you can avoid it)
  3. pineapples
  4. cabbage
  5. frozen sweet peas
  6. onions
  7. asparagus
  8. mangos
  9. papayas
  10. kiwi
  11. eggplant
  12. honeydew melon
  13. grapefruit
  14. cantaloupe
  15. cauliflower

Dirty Dozen (generally more likely to be coated in chemicals, so better to buy organic):

  1. strawberries
  2. apples
  3. nectarines
  4. peaches
  5. celery
  6. grapes
  7. cherries
  8. spinach
  9. tomatoes
  10. sweet bell peppers
  11. cherry tomatoes
  12. cucumbers
  13. hot peppers
  14. kale and collard greens

If you look at the two lists, you can see a bit of a theme emerging – produce with a thick outer skin that you don’t traditionally eat, like grapefruit, onions, and avocados, is less prone to chemical treatment. Produce which is eaten whole, without anything being removed (like strawberries and apples), is more likely to be sprayed in order to keep its surface blemish-free. The same applies to leafy greens.

With this in mind, you can formulate a very rough guide to shopping for organic produce:

  1. DO buy organic: leafy greens and any fruit and veggies without a thick outer skin (includes tomatoes and peppers)
  2. NOT NECESSARY to buy organic: fruit and vegetables with thick, inedible skins, or skins which you remove anyway before cooking or eating. Things which grow underground, like potatoes and sweet potatoes, are generally ok to eat non-organic, but it’s often better to peel them before cooking to remove potential fungicides.

GMO produce

Generally, most foods which are organic are also GMO-free, however this isn’t always the case. According to GMO Awareness, with USDA Organic-labelled products, “at least 95 percent of content is organic by weight (excluding water and salt). The <5% remaining ingredients must consist of substances approved on the USDA’s National List. GMOs are NOT on this list, so USDA Organic products are also usually GMO-free.”

It sounds as weird to me as it does to you, but there it is. Despite that rather confusing revelation, USDA organic remains one of the best ways to buy GMO-free (or mostly GMO-free) produce. Luckily, however, we’re starting to see many products and produce with the “NON GMO Project VERIFIED” label, which tells you that your fruit or veggies are completely free of genetically modified organisms.

Which produce is best?

We all have different tastes, and I don’t want to be the one to dictate what you should and shouldn’t buy, but not all fruits and vegetables are created equal. Here’s a list of “paleo-approved” produce, adjusted slightly to allow some primal diet goodness into the mix. Things like avocados, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and pumpkin are technically fruit, but I’ve included them here as most people think of them as vegetables.

Approved paleo vegetables thrive primal

The bottom two rows are red because these vegetables are high in starches, which means that you need to moderate the amount you eat of these each day. As a rough guide, limit your consumption of starchy vegetables to a handful per day.

Within the “approved” fruit category, there are those varieties which are better than others, and these largely consist of berries. Because they have a preposterously high nutrient content and relatively low sugar content, they should always go to the top of your fruit shopping list. I have a love affair with raspberries and have often been heard to proclaim that they are the “king of fruit”. Turns out I was right! Well, more like the oligarch of fruit, but I’ll call that a win!

approved fruit thrive primal

That’s about it! The above should provide a solid basis for you to become a produce-shopping superstar, saving you some serious time and preventing some major paleo setbacks.

If you’re really serious about taking your diet to the next level, our ebook The Paleo Guide to Beating Candida Naturally has a comprehensive, detailed section on what you should and shouldn’t eat, and even more on shopping for the right stuff. Even if you don’t have Candida (chances are, you probably do), it’s an invaluable guide.

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All You Need to Know About Cooking Oils

Posted on 15 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

thrive primal guide to paleo cooking oils

I chose the topic for this post because I have a genuine interest in what ACTUALLY constitutes a good cooking oil. There’s a lot of hearsay around the topic, with many people swearing by this or that oil, but no actual idea why it’s better than the rest. Certain people will tell me that they’ve heard a particular oil is best for high heat cooking, but when I pose questions relating to smoke point and oxidation, the response is a sort of panicked confusion and a rapid change of topic.

And let’s face it, if you’ve gone paleo, primal, or just about any diet which realizes that saturated fat is a GOOD thing, oils are your best friend in the kitchen (and elsewhere, of course!). It’s time to know their strengths and weaknesses so you can enjoy all their benefits without denaturing their nutrients or pouring carcinogenic compounds into your body.

Let’s start with the basic questions that you need to ask when choosing the right cooking oil.

What type of fat is it?

There are two types of oil you can buy on supermarket shelves: saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fats are the simplest of these two groups, and the most stable. A good way to tell whether you’re dealing with a saturated fat is knowing that they turn solid at room temperature. Commonly used saturated fats include:

  • coconut oil
  • palm kernel oil
  • butter
  • ghee
  • lard
  • chicken fat
  • tallow

Unsaturated fats are a little more complicated, and come in the form of either monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans unsaturated. Commonly used unsaturated fats include:

  • canola oil
  • flaxseed oil
  • soybean oil
  • nut oils
  • avocado oil
  • hemp oil
  • sunflower oil
  • olive oil

You get the idea. While every oil contains varying ratios of each kind of fat (olive oil contains 73% monounsaturated, 14% saturated, and the rest polyunsaturated, for example), generally speaking the saturated fat group contains primarily animal-based oils, plus coconut and palm kernel. The rest is primarily unsaturated.

Another useful thing to know is that saturated fats and monounsaturated fats are more resistant to heating or cooking. This is due to the fact that they have less bonds, and are therefore less susceptible to chemical reactions which occur under high heat conditions. Polyunsaturated oils, like corn, walnut or sunflower oil, have multiple bonds and so are more likely to become denatured under heat. Trans unsaturated fats (look for the word “hydrogenated” in the ingredients of a product) should just hands-down be avoided.

What is the oil’s smoke point?

An oil or fat’s smoke point is the temperature at which it starts to produce smoke. Pretty straightforward so far, right? Treat this smoke as a warning sign (Tolkien fans might like to envisage the famed Beacons of Gondor, if reality is a little to dull for their taste) – it signifies the point at which your oil is beginning to break down due to heat.

When the oil or fat reaches this point, the free glycerol groups contained within it begin to get converted into acrolein. Acrolein is one of the chemicals found in cigarette smoke, and has been classified as a carcinogen. Thus breathing in the smoke from oil when it reaches it’s smoke point may be similar to breathing in the smoke from a cigarette. Nasty.

Here’s a list of oils and their corresponding smoke point, for some light bedtime reading:

Image source: http://blog.paleohacks.com/complete-guide-cooking-oils/#

Image source: http://blog.paleohacks.com/complete-guide-cooking-oils/

The U’s in brackets next to some oils indicates that they are unrefined, while the R indicates refined. You’ll notice that the refined oils have a much higher smoke point than unrefined oils. Many paleo people may also be somewhat dismayed to see the low smoke point of butter, unrefined coconut oil and lard.

What is the oxidative stability of the oil?

While considering the smoke point of a cooking oil or fat is important, the oxidative stability of that same oil or fat is even more so. The oxidative stability of an oil refers to its ability to resist oxidation. Oxidation occurs when a fat molecule loses a hydrogen atom, allowing it to turn into a free radical.

Free radicals are highly volatile, and due to the way they interact with and attack our cells, can be seriously detrimental to our health. An increase in free radicals in your body means an increased risk of developing a wide range of diseases, and speeding up the aging process.

When oxidation occurs, an oil or fat becomes rancid. People know when an oil has become rancid due to oxidation as it tastes “off”, has a bad smell, or looks a bit weird.

Choosing the right oil for the task at hand

After reading the above, it’s possible you’re even more confused than before. Sorry about that. The point is, there’s no standalone winner when it comes to oils and fats – each has it’s own quirks, and can even vary considerably depending on whether it’s refined, unrefined, expeller pressed, cold pressed or chemical-extracted. You have to weigh up the various attributes of each and only use a given oil when it doesn’t have a high risk of oxidizing or smoking.

To help you in your quest, here’s a few pointers to keep in mind to ensure you get the best (not the worst) from your oil:

  • Temperature: no matter what the oil, the lower the cooking temperature, the better. Know your oil’s smoke point, and stay well below it.
  • Light: the sun’s wavelengths can increase the rate of oxidation. Try to buy oils which come in dark bottles (not really possible for coconut oil, but then it is fairly resistant to oxidation anyway), and store your oils in a cool dark place to increase their shelf life.
  • Re-use: try to avoid re-using your cooking oil, as each time it is cooked with it’s smoke point lowers.
  • Antioxidants: considering things like heating, air and light exposure can accelerate your oil’s rate of oxidation (rancidity), choose oils with higher levels of antioxidants. These antioxidants, found in high numbers in oils like avocado, olive, coconut and butter, actively offset the destructive damage free radicals wreak on your body. They can therefore help to neutralize the creation of free radicals during the process of oxidation.

Our top paleo-friendly cooking oil picks

With the proviso that, based on the above, there’s no clear-cut winner in the cooking oil contest, we DO have a few top picks. Here’s our thoughts:

  • Avocado oil: a good all-rounder. Has a high smoke point, particularly in the case of it’s refined form (520ºF), and is loaded with antioxidants (particularly vitamin E) so it doesn’t oxidize easily. Use for things like pan frying, grilling, roasting and in salad dressings and marinades.
  • Butter: delicious and loaded with an amazing range of nutrients when it’s from grass-fed sources, butter is unfortunately not great for cooking. It has a low smoke point, so should only be used for low heat cooking such as baking or slow-cooking. Has a short shelf-life and can become rancid quickly, so consume ASAP and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
  • Coconut oil: Once again, high in antioxidants, and very resistant to oxidation. Has a long shelf life, but should still be stored in a dark place if possible. It does have a low smoke point, however, so stick to low-heat cooking. Switching to refined coconut oil means you can cook at medium heat without creating smoke, but you lose a lot of the antioxidants so it’s a bit of a trade-off. Good for baking and smoothies!
  • Ghee: if you were disappointed at butter’s low score in the cooking department, ghee is your savior. Ghee retains much of the delicious richness of butter, has a slightly sweeter taste, and most importantly has a very high smoke point. This means it’s great for high heat cooking like pan frying or grilling, and has a long shelf life. Go for grass-fed ghee, if possible.
  • Lard and tallow: not great in terms of nutritional profile, but otherwise a great option for medium-heat cooking, due to their smoke point of around 390ºF. They’re also fairly resistant to oxidation, particularly in the case of tallow (beef fat). Really only good for cooking (it’d be a little weird to drizzle some warm lard on your garden salad).
  • Olive oil: despite claims, olive oil is still a good option for cooking, however the smoke point differs considerably between olive oil types. Extra virgin olive oil is the healthiest choice in terms of lack of refinement and therefore level of nutrients, which incidentally means it is highly resistant to oxidation. It does, however, have a low smoke point at 320ºF, making it suitable only for slow cooking or sautéing (great for salads and marinades though!). Virgin olive oil is slightly more refined and so has less nutrients and is a little more prone to oxidation. With a smoke point of 420ºF, however, it’s great for medium-heat cooking such as pan frying and roasting. Only buy olive oil in dark bottles and store them in a dark place to avoid rapid rancidification!

That’s a lot of info to take in, but I hope it helped to clear things up a little. Next time someone asks you which oil you think is best, you can bedazzle them with your oil and fat know-how.

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No wonder diabetes is a nationwide pandemic

Posted on 15 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

diabetes walgreens

A few days ago, I was strolling down the sun-blasted streets of Echo Park, Los Angeles, and I saw something completely and utterly ridiculous. First, an oversized sign heralding the low-low prices of a particular establishment’s coca cola. And immediately following this message, a promise of savings on diabetes “supplies”. Any guesses which particular establishment this was? None other than Walgreens.

There’s SO much wrong with this scenario that it’s hard to know where to begin. Walgreens is a classic example of an American institution which claims to be looking out for the best interests of it’s customers, but instead is MAKING them sick then CASHING IN on their sickness. And no-one seems to have a problem with that!

If your mind is moving a little slower than usual, allow me to elaborate. Coke, and basically every other kind of soft drink available today, is a major contributor to development of diabetes. While doctors and the majority of conventional health practitioners would have you thinking that diabetes is primarily genetically-derived, arguably the biggest factor determining your likelihood of diabetes is food.

Foods high in sugar, in this case high-fructose corn syrup (amounting to 16 teaspoons of sugar in a single 16 ounce bottle of the fizzy black stuff), cause our insulin levels to spike. Chronically-elevated insulin levels pave the way for obesity, cancer and (you guessed it) diabetes. A study conducted last year found that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (i.e. Coke) at a rate of one 250 ml serving per day (approximately two thirds of your average bottle of coke) would increase your risk of developing diabetes by 18%. For artificially sweetened beverages (i.e. Diet Coke or Coke Zero), that risk increase was a whopping 25%.

And Walgreens, the purported “giver-of-health” is selling three 12-packs of coke for $10. So really, the sign should say “increase your risk of diabetes by 18-25% for the low low price of $10!”.

And as if that wasn’t enough, they then had the gall to immediately follow this offering with one claiming that “savings on diabetes supplies” were to be found inside. Firstly, there’s something seriously wrong with the words “diabetes supplies”. To me, the word “supplies” suggests buying something en mass – sweeping great hordes of consumables into a pharmacy trolley to hunker down for the coming natural disaster or next economic crisis. So does this suggest that people are “stocking up” on diabetes supplies? Instead of cans of beans and water for that natural disaster, they’re loading up on diabetes drugs for the oncoming surge of diabetes from all that Coke drinking?

Secondly, they’re contributing to diabetes in the first place, then shamelessly making money off people who develop diabetes from consuming THEIR PRODUCTS! The nerve of it is astounding. And the worst part? It’s happening everywhere. Walgreens is by no means the only business to be so shamelessly contributing to then cashing in on people’s lack of intelligence when it comes to health, but they could at least TRY to be a little more subtle about it, couldn’t they?

The point is, be vigilant, people! The only person you can trust with your health is yourself, so get researching and find out what is and isn’t good for you. It may seem daunting at first, but once you get a feel for what’s healthy and what isn’t, you’re away laughing. And if in doubt, steer clear of processed foods and drinks – they’re almost always going to do you damage.

 

 

 

 

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