Evolution - what is a proper human diet ?
PROPER HUMAN NUTRITION
Low Carb Diets have been a part of our history for thousands of years.
Over the last forty years there has been an explosion in chronic disease across the world.
We believe that a significant element of that development has been the switch to much higher carbohydrate diets, particularly of processed foods with poor nutritional content including too many grains and other carbohydrates.
Many of us have been unable to cope with a diet full of refined processed foods and our health has suffered with rising chronic health conditions including T2 diabetes and obesity.
Many of us have discovered for ourselves with the assistance of a relatively small network of medical professionals and social media, that the key to recovering our health has been to adopt a Low carbohydrate or even ketogenic diet.
This is not a fad diet. In 320 Ge Hong writing about grain avoidance in "Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity" said "there was not a fat one among them". He goes onto describe many of the key features of nutritional ketosis including the lack of hunger !
In 1796 John Rollo MD the Surgeon General at the Royal Artillery Hospital Woolwich London, wrote up a case study of the reversal of a man with T2 diabetes, largely through a carbohydrate restricted animal protein diet.
Ever since then there has been a steady stream of efforts to bring the news to the population that a diet high in nutrient dense natural proteins & fats which largely excludes grains cereals and starchy carbohydrates is one which can lead to enormous health gains specially for anyone prone putting on weight.
We are fortunate that over the last few years, a resurgence of interest in low carbohydrate eating has resulted in a large body of scientific research confirming that adopting a lower carbohydrate or even ketogenic diet is both safe and efficacious.
We are proud that scientific and medical leaders in the space have joined together to create a simple consensus statement which we believe all who have adopted a low carb. higher fat way of eating can get behind, regardless of whether their personal approach includes animal proteins, dairy or not.
It is the nature of science that it is never "settled" once and for all. Further breakthroughs in our understanding of the workings of the human body may well lead to further changes to what we consider an " optimal diet".
Our goal is only to optimise our health, for now we are convinced that following the principles outlined represents the best way to control, and improve health in the early 21st century.
Today, social media enables us to reach a larger audience. We want to help bring the message to people, governments and health authorities that adopting a fresh food, lower carbohydrate way of eating can help improve the health of vast swathes of the world's population and assist in overcoming the tidal wave of obesity, diabetes and other chronic conditions of modern civilisation.
Climate change
Are we blaming the meat for what the wheat did?
Building Soil
Perennial grasses can live 500 years and they pump carbon into the soil to feed soil microbes. They co-evolved with large herds of grazing animals which help cycle their biomass (with the help of dung beetles) and with proper planning, cows can do that same work.
Most of the proposed responses to climate change don't fundamentally address one of the largest sources and solutions to the situation: restoring soil through regenerative agriculture and grazing. Current agriculture is rapidly causing soil to lose carbon - and this is fixable.
The Plow that Broke the Plains
The film presents the social and economic history of the Great Plains - from the time of the settlement of the prairies, through the World War I boom, to the years of depression and drought. The first part of the film shows cattle as they grazed on grasslands, and homesteaders who hurried onto the plains and grew large wheat crops. The second part depicts the postwar decline of the wheat market, which resulted in overproduction. Footage shows farm equipment used, then abandoned.
The third part shows a dust storm as it rendered a farm useless. Subsequent scenes show farmers as they left their homes and headed west.
Department of Agriculture. Farm Security Administration. Information Division. (ca. 1937 - ca. 1942).
Surviving the Dust Bowl
In 1931 the rains stopped and the “black blizzards” began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains — the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the “Dust Bowl.”
Surviving the Dust Bowl is the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease — even death — for nearly a decade. Less well-known than those who sought refuge in California, typified by the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the Dust Bowlers who stayed overcame an almost unbelievable series of calamities and disasters.
Soil 4 climate
Soil4Climate Inc. is a nonprofit, charitable organization registered in the United States. The group is for exploration of soil restoration as an ally in the quest to mitigate and reverse global warming. We want to elevate soil to its rightful place in the climate movement. It is also meant to help support soil-carbon activists around the world - to expand the narrative, strengthen the science, and influence policy. Your contribution is essential. Together, with nature, we can, and will, reverse global warming.
We support all forms of agriculture that build soil carbon and all diets that source from regeneratively produced foods - meat and vegetables. We recognized that all types of foods can be produced in ways that can be harmful or beneficial to the environment. We recognize that concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are unethical and polluting, just as we also recognize that industrial, monocultural operations which produce "plant-based" food are also unethical and polluting. We stand with regenerative, ethically managed and pasture-raised meat producers, just as we stand with organic and regenerative vegetable and grain producers. We trust the soil to be the arbitrator of ethical and responsible food production.
When you join this group, please feel free to introduce yourselves. Let us know what you're interested in and how the group can better serve you.
ANIMALS - AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT
Currently misinformation abounds about the impact of animals as food for humans.
These misconceptions cover :
- The impact on human health of consuming animal protein and fats;
- The need to ensure and develop farming practices that meet the highest animal welfare standards;
- The proper understanding or the role of farm animals (particularly ruminants) in the health of the planet and its soils.
All three of these subjects will form part of our investigations, research focus and advocacy.
This is an area with a clear differentiation between "plant based" lifestyle medicine and ourselves. We explicitly state that animal proteins in the form of meat, fish, eggs and dairy are important parts of the human diet. That does not mean we specifically decry the benefits or taste of vegetables and fruits.
We believe that man is an omnivore and that man 's health is best served by consuming a diet which includes meat, fish & dairy which have a wide range of nutrients which are much more biologically available than their plant equivalents. We believe that using a whole foods-based approach, everyone can find foods that best help them maximise their own health.
We do not agree that the associations between red meat and for example cancer provide anything like the level of rigorous science necessary to cause man to divert from food that has been a natural choice for millennia.
Whilst we believe that including animal fats and proteins is optimal, everyone is different and everyone has the right to find health in their own way. Those who do not wish to consume animal proteins and fats, are welcome to join our site. Ultimately eating natural whole foods is key, choose for yourself whether that involves more or less animal, fish, dairy, vegetables or fruit. Listen to testimonials, follow up information for yourself and make your own mind up.
RUMINANTS
Agricultural Productivity & Sustainability
Professor Mitloehner is a faculty member in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis. He specializes in measurements and mitigation of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, and particulate matter and the study of their effects on human and animal health and welfare. In short, his lab investigates agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability.
The scientist who debunked "Live stocks Long Shadow."
Dr Sarah Pace
On this episode of the Sustainable Dish Podcast I speak with Sara Place from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. We break down the components of life cycle assessments for cattle, and the impact on water, land use, and methane emissions.
Ruminants green house gas emissions
“Taking this into acct when looking at the global warming potential of different meats, Professor Lee explained that, in terms of CO2 eq/nutrient available, then beef outperformed chicken and pork by a considerable margin, due to its higher nutrient density.”
Dr Dean Fish
Santa Fe Ranch, Nogales Arizona – Dean Fish explains how his cow-calf operation can convert inedible cellulose to human food through a holistic approach to the management of water, rangeland, and the wildlife who share the land.
Cows Problem or Solution
Over the past decade, we have seen the media place blame for our changing climate on cattle. Scientific evidence does not support this claim though for cattle in the United States.
Rewilding Knepp Castle
Isabella Tree is an award-winning author and travel writer, and lives with her husband, the environmentalist Charlie Burrell, in the middle of a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex.