My body

So a lot of people have been asking me how its affecting my body. I started on the first day recording my weight weekly to try to see how the food would affect my weight (a REALLY general measure of how healthy i am eating) Here's what's been going on:

Starting weight: 150.5

After Week 1: 151.5 (+1 lbs)

Week 2: 150 (-1.5 lbs)

Week 3: 149.5 (-.5 lbs)

Week 4: 149.5 (0 lbs)

Week 5: 150.5 (+1 lbs)

Week 6 : 149.5 (-1 lbs)

Total Weigh loss: 1lbs

Ok so on initial thought, losing 1 pound isn't very impressive from not eating any processed foods. But lets look at the bigger picture right now. Its the middle of winter. Not a lot of fresh veggies are in season. The winter months are typically a time to eat ones winter stores and conserve energy. The whole meat and potatoes thing, pretty true if you through in some chicken and breads and diary too. So considering I'm eating a diet with pretty high fat, a lot of meat, few greens, and to be honest copious amounts of chocolate, I think I'm doing pretty good. I can't speak for everyone but in the winter we typically pack on the pounds. So if i lose a few pounds or even break even in the winter that sounds pretty good to me considering I eat a lot of chocolate and ice cream, whole milk yogurt, whole milk, a lot of bread, meat. I imagine in the spring and summer months when there are veggies galore will be a time to see more of an impact, but non the less I have dropped a pants size.

But interestingly enough I've been learning more about the nutrition of pastured meat and diary. It makes sense, but never occurred to me that what the animals eat highly determines their own nutrition and thus our nutrition. Cows and chickens naturally eat grass. Grass fed meat has high levels of beta carotene, vitamin e, and folic acid. In general, it has less fat than cows raised on corn feed

and living in a confined area because pastured cows get exercise and don't eat only carbohydrates.

In terms of the fat that grass fed beef does have they have more of the good for us polyunstaturated

fats than the unhealthy saturated fats found in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's)

Less Saturated fat, and less total fat than grain fed animals.

Grass fed beef and chicken also have higher levels of omega-3's an essential fatty acid found in the

cells of green plants and indispensable to human healthy particularly in the development of

neurons (brain cells).

Another important fatty acid omega-6 found in the seeds of green plants while omega-3 in the

leaves. Studies have shown that it is the balance of these two fatty acids, rather than the actual

amounts that play a critical role. A ratio above 4:1 tends to be problematic in health. An imbalance

in ratio may account for many diseases of civilization such as cardiac, diabetes, obesity,

learning behavior in children, and depression in adults.

Factory and thus corn fed meat has a ratio 10:1 whereas grass fed beef has the

recommended ratio of 3:1

Its a similar story with chickens and eggs. Eggs from chickens that were allowed a rich diet of

grass and insects, fruits and veggies, and little corn have much more omega-3's and thus a healthy

ratio of 1.5 to 1 of fatty acids while a "supermarket egg" has a ratio of over 20:1.

Fish has traditionally been seen as the Mecca of omega 3's but since over half of the US burns coal to generate electricty and 80,000 pounds of mercury is dumped into the oceans every year as a result. Nearly all fish are contaminated with mercury. If you get farm raised fish, they are usually fed corn and then you have the same problems of low omega-3.

Grass-fed beef is loaded with other natural minerals and vitamins, plus it's a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a number of immune disorders.