"Life Without Bread"

[Laura]

I'm reading this Kindle book right now.  VERY, VERY interesting and right up our alley of research.  He mentions his abysmal diet in there, so obviously, we might have better results than even he did if any of us undertake the experiment.  (I upped my D3 and K levels today).

[Laura]

An excerpt from page 11-12:

Okay I have digressed too long on this point because from what I know now, Vitamin D3 deficiency is more related to our lifestyles rather than aging. But to some extent it is also caused by aging since aged skin cannot generate Vitamin D3 in the sun as well as young skin, but let’s leave that point alone for now, and let’s pretend that Vitamin D3 deficiency is caused by lack of sun, or lack of taking Vitamin D3 supplements regardless of our age. So how did I recently discover the amazing benefits of Vitamin D3? Let me tell you-Wait, before I tell you, let me tell you a quick summary of all the diseases that seem to be related to low levels of Vitamin D3 based on my reading or browsing of 52,000 abstracts or titles of science journal articles regarding Vitamin D…All of them! ..usually from 1967 to 2011 but the Vitamin D titles go all the way back to 1922!

Low levels of Vitamin D3 are associated with or are becoming known to cause the following diseases…

1. Obesity-almost all obese people are deficient in Vitamin D3 and doctors' advice that we started getting in the 1980’s to stay out of the sun or use sun screen is what has caused the obesity epidemic we see today! It’s not diet or lack of exercise, although these may play a part…Obesity is caused by lack of sun/lack of D3 not by junk food or lack of exercise! Or as I now call it the Human Hibernation Syndrome.

2. Depression- seasonal affective disorder (SAD) occurs in winter when our sun exposure is at its lowest. 100,000 IU of D3 has been shown to be more effective than light therapy for treating SAD. 3. Arthritis-at least 80% of people with bone and joint problems are deficient in Vitamin D3-I bet 100% once they change the definition of deficient!

4. Autism- it now seems the huge increase in autism since the 1980’s has also been caused by doctors’ advice to us to stay out of the sun, and autistic births have high peak months of March and November when sun exposure is at the minimum, it is also higher in the winter months than summer months, but not as high as the March or November peaks, and this might be explained by the role of snow reflecting sun onto the skin in December through February. This also explains why autism occurrence is higher in northern latitudes than southern attitudes, and in dark-skinned people who need about 6X more sun to create Vitamin D3 in their skin than whites need to create a similar amount. Oh by the way there is an e-book called “Emily’s story” that is short, but describes how autistic kids had a great reaction to high dose Vitamin D3 therapy.

5. MS {multiple sclerosis} seems to be caused by Vitamin D3 deficiency and is more prevalent at northern latitudes and almost unknown near the equator.

6. ALS {Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis} (low D3 levels in ALS patients: cause of ALS or effect?)

7. Schizophrenic babies have low Vitamin D3.

8. Asthma- the incidence of Asthma has been skyrocketing since 1980-low D3 in asthmatics ( I had asthma as a child) ( I have recently learned that there are several trials going on in the world where asthma sufferers are being given “high” doses of Vitamin D3 to treat asthma.)

9. Scleroderma- a collagen disease-patients have low D3 (I had a benign form of scleroderma as a child)

10. Allergies

11. Probably dangerous peanut allergies! ( I never heard of these as a kid (1970’s) -but now they seem quite common!)

12. All minor autoimmune disorders like dandruff, psoriasis, etc.

13. Many types of cancer, prostate, breast, colon, leukemia, pancreatic etc., etc.

14. Tuberculosis

15. The common cold which is much more prevalent in winter months than summer months

16. Toenail (and fingernail) fungus, which a number of people taking high doses of Vitamin D3 have claimed cured their symptoms ( including me)

17. Type 1 diabetes which occurs in children when their insulin producing cells are destroyed by the immune system (they all have low D3) (I will add a very exciting additional idea in the latter part of this book that occurred to me after the initial publication of this ebook- that explains the evolutionary purpose of diabetes and metabolic syndrome as a FASCINATING sub-theory of the Human Hibernation Syndrome!-Stay Tuned!)

18. Type 2 diabetes which usually occurs in older and obese adults. ( all low in d3) ) (I will add a very exciting additional idea in the latter part of this book that occurred to me after the initial publications of this e-book-that explains the evolutionary purpose of diabetes and metabolic syndrome as a FASCINATING sub-theory of the Hum an Hibernation Syndrome! -Stay Tuned! )

19. Metabolic syndrome related to type 2 diabetes-/ insulin resistance). )

20. Hypertension

21. Rheumatoid arthritis

22. Crohn’s disease, Irritable bowel syndrome , and Ulcerative colitis

23. Alcoholism ( thought to be a reaction to depression) and occurs at higher levels in northern latitudes

24. Ganglion cysts (me)

25. Subcutaneous cysts (me)

26. Acne [Interestingly the Vitamin D3 receptor not only competes with the thyroid-3 hormone receptor, but also the retinoic acid receptor, and retinoic acid is used as an acne treatment ( and to treat wrinkles) . Getting a tan also is a good treatment for acne which of course increases the Vitamin D3 in the skin in the affected area.]

27. Heart disease and heart failure/hypertrophy

28. COPD {Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease}and it’s subset diseases of bronchitis and emphysema

29. Lung problems (other)

30. Lupus

31. Macular Degeneration (one high dose D3 taker claims D3 cured his-see the abstracts)

32. Growing pains in children

33. Kidney disease ALL have low D3

34. Pre-term Births (Preemies) which have gone up 36% in last 25 years. (due to sunscreen? Reduced by ½ in expectant mothers taking 4000 IU of D3 a day (too low I say) (nursing mothers are recommended to take 6400 IU a day. I say too low also!)

35. Small babies, babies with colds or eczema, mothers with infections

36. Pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes (reduced by high D3 dosing)

37. Miscarriage due to autoimmune attack of fetus

38. Ulcers and helicobacter-pylori related gastritis

39. Death during childbirth

40. Learning disabilities and brain deformities in children

41. Anorexia Nervosa (much higher in March births)

42. Manic Depression-(This one was easy since lack of sleep induces mania, and too much sleep induces depression-this sounds like Vitamin D3 cycling via sun exposure no?)

43. Strokes during and after pregnancy-up 54% since 1994!

44. Strokes in general-a recent study showed a 56% increased risk in stroke in areas with less and weaker sunlight.

45. Non specific bone pain

46. Excessive daytime sleepiness

47. I am going to add ADD and ADHD here because as a child I had asthma as well as ADHD, and recently I learned that kids with ADD or ADHD also are highly susceptible to asthma. While I have found no studies yet suggesting the link between maternal Vitamin D3 deficiency and offspring with ADD or ADHD, I believe it is just a matter of time until this link is found. Additional weight given to this connection can be found in the fact that some of the genes involved in triggering autism are also involved in triggering ADD/ADHD. And since we know that autism is linked to low maternal Vitamin D3 levels we can pretty much take a wild guess that low maternal D3 also causes ADD/ADHD in offspring.

48. Glaucoma-Dr. Kaufman of the Glaucoma Institute has discovered that Vitamin D3 drops put into the eyes of monkeys reduces their intra ocular pressure by 20 to 30%!,(Wait until they feed them 30,000 IU day!!)

49. Migraine headaches-see abstracts at end of book.

50. Parkinson’s disease -see abstracts at end of book. (Outdoor workers have lower incidence of PD)

51. Urinary Tract Infections

52. PMS

53. Menstrual cramps-see last abstract

54. Gout-it turns out high uric acid levels eat up your Vitamin D3 or low D3 causes Gout-see abstract at end of book.

55. It just dawned on me that since various psychological/psychiatric conditions have been found to be associated with low D3 levels, two more conditions seem quite likely to be caused by low D3 also. Hoarding Behavior/ and it’s associated/somewhat similar condition- OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Why? If evolution is preparing you for winter famine when your D3 levels are low, it seems quite logical that you might start hoarding all sorts of things including food!

56. Cavities in teeth and especially baby teeth! Just saw a report on the news that cavities in children’s teeth are way up. So decided to look it up and many sources, including Dr Cannell-Head of the Vit D institute, described how giving kids just 1,000 IU a day of D3 stopped the formation of cavities-See abstract at end of book.

[forge]

There is still a big caveat with this paleo diet needing serious research:

For those who cannot and would not and wish not smoke:

• Paleo humans didn't need to accomplish super-challenging mental tasks in an internet heavy environment.
• Paleo humans didn't need to understand white papers and solve highly demanding technical processes, see through complicated technical descriptions in many fields of today, understand machine programming processes,  solve computer-electronics related logic puzzles
  

How many scientists and technology specialists needing high concentration task performance on creative achievements every day or week would be able to exist on paleo and manage high quality output compared to carbs-centered diet?

If a non-smoker has to and tries to rack the brain suddenly enormous resource requirements for the brain arise. In order to understand even advanced or extremely high tech processes the brain needs large amounts of fuel super fast. A smoker can do it maybe flooding the bloodstream with nicotine. But how the heck should a non-smoker accomplish in these super demanding cases??

forge, I think you're way off track here and - no - there is not "still a big caveat". I'm a non-smoker and once I went on the high fat, moderate protein diet my brain became super-charged. I think much faster and much clearer on this diet than I ever did with carbs and people have noted this across the board, whether they smoke or not.  I don't smoke, but the brain benefits are more pronounced than the other physiological benefits, so I'm not sure where you get the idea that the paleo diet doesn't vastly improve cognition.  The brain doesn't need "large amounts of fuel super-fast" on the paleo-diet - it runs constantly at a very high level due to the fat fuel it's using, as opposed to sugar that is a vastly inferior fuel.

Disagree, i also could have used better English. You have a female body with a muscle mass of 60-80% less than of a male body. Your hormonal system is different. Exercise was said best for Paleo. Exercise increases muscle mass more in males. Muscles scream for glucose. Reading your answer i got an idea actually male muscles devour much of produced glucose that was intended for the brain. Exercise - heavy as advised on paleo - also greatly depletes the body of most necessary (also pytho)nutrients required for perfect brain function.

Paleo gets actually very costly, i think, because in addition to the relatively cheap paleo-foods (non-organic!! in my country) it requires added special nutrition in form of expensive supplements (mostly possible as order only from abroad) to balance the nowadays accessible inadequate food and our carb-rich bringing up.

Farmers in Hungary cannot feed acorn to pigs, because the health department FORBADE FEEDING ACORN TO PIGS. Acorn feeding was prevalent and widely accepted in 1240 AD. Died after 1900 A.D. as "demand for meat-rich pig meat increased." Guess they killed much of the oak-groves to have space for wheat fields. Acorn-fed pig meat would have been so good, people would have dropped the cheap grain-fed pig meat in a second. So they killed what was good. No wonder that along with ban of smoking and ban of "supplemental facts" description on homeopathic supplements (Gov.decree in Hungary) and barring most types of organic eating is a rule nowadays.

Good obyvatels also have the great idea in Hungary (where i live) to feed only
maize corn to chicken:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Maize_Corn.jpg
grain of wheat to chicken :
http://serultekegyesulete.hu/image/buzaszem.jpg
as a bonus the chicken gets sunflower seeds not shelled i guess because that's cheaper.

The Hungarian super-pig of old, the Mangalitsa was fat-rich:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalitsa
now cannot get acorn because the oak forests were deliberately killed-off in favor of cheaper grain production. Everybody wants now meat-rich pigs which are grain-fed.

Paleo edge:
I experience most of the benefits of the paleo diet even on non-organic meat and fat and roots. The easiest will be to buy organic live chicken (still existent on remote farms) and slaughter it [somehow hunger overcoming the the aversion to kill living beings] then cook. Organic pigs i have to hunt down in Hungary or order organic meat from abroad.

I wrote all this, because the paleo diet gives the edge of enhanced thinking, at the same time the realization, how much better brain functions could be with a better refined diet.

Laura mentioned D-Ribose which i want to try out and experiment with. Maybe as a constituent in a non-toxic, sugar-free chocolate. Plan to try expensive eritritol, since xylitol isn't tolerated adequately.

Also i'm thinking of building a Smoking-Man machine, which doesn't require paper "to roll a cig". Tobacco would be burnt in a metal tube with help of a simple suction mechanism. Nicotine from leaves transmuted by fire into smoke form. It should be possible to mix the smoke (this is inhaled by smokers) with water then either cooled or heated, nicotine-rich water should be possible to produce. Using a dropping-bottle to measure out non-toxic amounts into drinking water or into bath water to be soaked in through the skin. Also making sour-cookies then using nicotine-solution drops on them or try to create a sour drink emulating coffee. Then test for perceivable effects, increase or decrease amount of nicotine.
Should be more tolerable than snus. If this turns out unaccomplishable i'm eyeing http://www.snuss.org/

[anart]

Disagree, i also could have used better English. You have a female body with a muscle mass of 60-80% less than of a male body. Your hormonal system is different. Exercise was said best for Paleo. Exercise increases muscle mass more in males. Muscles scream for glucose. Reading your answer i got an idea actually male muscles devour much of produced glucose that was intended for the brain. Exercise - heavy as advised on paleo - also greatly depletes the body of most necessary (also pytho)nutrients required for perfect brain function.

That's not true, forge.  Have you read Primal Body, Primal Mind yet?  Are you actually in ketosis?  Heavy exercise is definitely not advised on the paleo diet - short bursts of exercise, yes, but not heavy.  I think that you really need to get up to speed on the facts since you seem to be misunderstanding a lot.

Paleo gets actually very costly, i think, because in addition to the relatively cheap paleo-foods (non-organic!! in my country) it requires added special nutrition in form of expensive supplements (mostly possible as order only from abroad) to balance the nowadays accessible inadequate food and our carb-rich bringing up.

No, that's not true either.  Paleo is much cheaper than a carb rich diet - much.  You eat far less and go much longer (and much stronger) on the food you do eat.  Again, I'm wondering if you've read the material and if you've actually tried getting into ketosis before deciding what it does not do?

[dugdeep]

Disagree, i also could have used better English. You have a female body with a muscle mass of 60-80% less than of a male body. Your hormonal system is different. Exercise was said best for Paleo. Exercise increases muscle mass more in males. Muscles scream for glucose. Reading your answer i got an idea actually male muscles devour much of produced glucose that was intended for the brain. Exercise - heavy as advised on paleo - also greatly depletes the body of most necessary (also pytho)nutrients required for perfect brain function.

That's not true, forge.  Have you read Primal Body, Primal Mind yet?  Are you actually in ketosis?  Heavy exercise is definitely not advised on the paleo diet - short bursts of exercise, yes, but not heavy.  I think that you really need to get up to speed on the facts since you seem to be misunderstanding a lot.

None of this is true. Once the body is fat adapted, muscles do not "scream for glucose". In fact, fat adaptation leads muscle to take on mild insulin resistance so that none of the available glucose is taken up by the muscles, which have switched to burning fat, and all is left for what is needed by the brain, red blood cells and parts of the nervous system. Those are the only parts that actually NEED glucose, and they get it through gluconeogenesis. Once fully adapted, nothing should "scream for glucose", because everything that is needed is provided.

[Psyche]

...and rice has gluten-like proteins that has proved problematical for a lot of people.

Speaking of which, this article about it was just published recently:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244756-Rice-Potato-Tomato-May-Be-As-Inflammatory-As-Wheat

[...] Lectins: Invisible Thorns

In a previous article this author discussed the "invisible thorn" found within all wheat products, including sprouted wheat bread and wheat grass, known as wheat lectin (technical name: Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA)). This intrinsically inflammatory and endocrine disruptive substance was thoroughly reviewed (via MEDLINE) and identified to have a broad range of potentially health disruptive effects:

1) WGA may be Pro-inflammatory

2) WGA may be Immunotoxic

3) WGA may be Neurotoxic

4) WGA may be Cytotoxic

5) WGA may interfere with Gene Expression

6) WGA may disrupt Endocrine Function

7) WGA may be Cardiotoxic

8) WGA may adversely effect Gastrointestinal Function

9) WGA exhibits similarities with certain Viruses

[View a more elaborate analysis of WGA's modes of toxicity, including citations]

Lectin Toxicity May Evade Antibody-Based Blood Tests

While it is clear that wheat lectin has potential to do harm, it must be emphasized that the type of harm it does is harder to diagnose than in classically defined wheat/gluten allergies and celiac disease. In other words, confirmation of intolerance will not be found in antibody, allergy or intestinal biopsy testing because the damage it does is direct, and not necessarily immune-mediated, or only secondarily so.

This diagnostic "invisibility" is why lectin consumption is rarely linked to the ailments that afflict those who consume them. While lectins are not the sole or primary cause of a wide range of disorders, they are a major factor in sustaining or reinforcing injuries or diseases once they are initiated and/or established in the body. In the case of wheat lectin (WGA) this is due to the fact that it binds to, interacts and disrupts a basic component found within all neural, connective and epithelial tissue, namely, n-acetyl-glucosamine. Once WGA makes it through a compromised mucosa and/or digestive lining, for instance, it can exert systemic effects which easily become overlooked as being caused by consuming wheat.

[...]

The Omnipresence of Chitin-Binding Lectin in the Western Diet

While eliminating wheat from the diet is an excellent and necessary step for improving health, it may not be alone sufficient, especially in those with serious health challenges. There are other lectins in the Western diet that have properties similar to wheat lectin (WGA), namely, "chitin-binding lectins." Remember, "chitins" are long polymers of n-acetyl-glucosamine, the primary binding target of wheat lectin. Wheat lectin and "chitin-binding lectin" therefore share functional similarities. These chitin-binding lectin containing foods are:

1) Potato [view abstract]

2) Tomato [view abstract]

3) Barley [view abstract]

4) Rye [view abstract]

5) Rice [view abstract]

Yes, you are seeing correctly: potato and rice, which are two of the most commonly used ingredients in "gluten and wheat free" products, are on the list of foods which contain a lectin structurally and functionally similar to wheat lectin.

[Chrissy]

I'm reading this Kindle book right now.  VERY, VERY interesting and right up our alley of research.  He mentions his abysmal diet in there, so obviously, we might have better results than even he did if any of us undertake the experiment.  (I upped my D3 and K levels today).

I was able to download this for free through the Kindle lending library. I had a few hits on that list of diseases and am interested in the authors findings. Thank you for the link Laura.

[forge]

Disagree, i also could have used better English. You have a female body with a muscle mass of 60-80% less than of a male body. Your hormonal system is different. Exercise was said best for Paleo. Exercise increases muscle mass more in males. Muscles scream for glucose. Reading your answer i got an idea actually male muscles devour much of produced glucose that was intended for the brain. Exercise - heavy as advised on paleo - also greatly depletes the body of most necessary (also pytho)nutrients required for perfect brain function.

That's not true, forge.  Have you read Primal Body, Primal Mind yet?  Are you actually in ketosis?  Heavy exercise is definitely not advised on the paleo diet - short bursts of exercise, yes, but not heavy.  I think that you really need to get up to speed on the facts since you seem to be misunderstanding a lot.

Paleo gets actually very costly, i think, because in addition to the relatively cheap paleo-foods (non-organic!! in my country) it requires added special nutrition in form of expensive supplements (mostly possible as order only from abroad) to balance the nowadays accessible inadequate food and our carb-rich bringing up.

No, that's not true either.  Paleo is much cheaper than a carb rich diet - much.  You eat far less and go much longer (and much stronger) on the food you do eat.  Again, I'm wondering if you've read the material and if you've actually tried getting into ketosis before deciding what it does not do?

First let me correct "You have a female body with a muscle mass of 60-80% less than of a male body." I should have put it: You have a female body with a muscle mass of 60-80% of a male body.

It just occurred to me you speak from the perspective of eating organic food! I made a grievance of cravings, missing nutrients from the perspective of eating non-organic components of the paleo diet: bacon, eggs, meat, fat, carrots, parsnip all from grain fed and chemically fertilized sources.

Organic food must contain the exact amount of added nutrients that i'm lacking now, all that must be missing from non-organic food precisely. So i want to place myself in the financial position of being able to procure organic food. Will be pricey, because of shipping costs and search, travel, making personal agreements with farmers. Eat it for weeks, observe the effects then hopefully i will feel as good as you and Phinney, Volek and the others describe.

[RedFox]

Carrots and parsnips contain way to much starch - go for green leafy vegetables if you must have something, they are more nutritionally dense.

Organic food must contain the exact amount of added nutrients that i'm lacking now, all that must be missing from non-organic food precisely. So i want to place myself in the financial position of being able to procure organic food. Will be pricey, because of shipping costs and search, travel, making personal agreements with farmers. Eat it for weeks, observe the effects then hopefully i will feel as good as you and Phinney, Volek and the others describe.

Order organic (or outdoor bread/freerange) organ meat (heart, liver, kidneys) and fat (organic butter and/or fat from the organic meat supplier). You will spend a lot less than bacon or normal cuts of meat, as most people do not want to eat these - they are packed full of all the nutrients you need at a fraction of the cost. Most farmers/butchers will give away fat too - as they would normally just throw it out.

[SeekinTruth]

Yeah, organ meats are the best nutrition at the best price. Even pastured / grass/natural fed animal organs are affordable when in ketosis and not eating and snacking so much. Plus, as RedFox also mentioned fat is very cheap -- especially lard. Render it and you also get cracklings to eat as a side dish.

[Gawan]

Meanwhile, check this out peeps:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FCKN2S/ref=s9_newr_gw_d66_g351_ir03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=196C8V4GT1CZY0KMSFD3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938451&pf_rd_i=507846

Thanks for letting us know. The formatting of the text is pretty bad, so it is kind of really written in 4 days , but for a dollar and the listings of many studies it is worth paying and reading.

[ytain]

Meanwhile, check this out peeps:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FCKN2S/ref=s9_newr_gw_d66_g351_ir03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=196C8V4GT1CZY0KMSFD3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938451&pf_rd_i=507846

There's another book called "The Vitamin D Cure" by James Dowd, a M.D.
www.amazon.com/The-Vitamin-Cure-James-Dowd/dp/0470131551

On a related topic to the sunshine, in the book "Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity" by Sharon Moalem, it says that the sunglasses are bad for us because it blocks the optical nerve's ability to transmit the correct information to the body to turn on the melanin production in the presence of sunlight.

As everybody knows, skin color changes, to some extent, in response to sun exposure. The trigger for that response is the pituitary gland. Under natural circumstances, almost as soon as you are exposed to the sun, your pituitary gland produces hormones that act as boosters for your melanocytes, and your melanocytes start producing melanin on overdrive. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to disrupt that process. The pituitary gland gets its information from the optic nerve—when the optic nerve senses sunlight, it signals the pituitary gland to kick-start the melanocytes. Guess what happens when you’re wearing sunglasses? Much less sunlight reaches the optic nerve, much less warning is sent to the pituitary gland, much less melanocyte-stimulating hormone is released, much less melanin is produced—and much more sunburn results. If you’re reading this on the beach with your RayBans on, do your skin a favor—take them off.

Ytain

[Oxajil]

Yea vit. D sure is important, thanks for sharing Laura. It was partly due to my mothers deficiency in vitamin D that caused my bones in my legs to grow differently than normal. That was the first thing the internist noticed when I had myself checked about a year ago. He then let me do a blood test and he said that my levels of vit. D are extremely low. Since then I have been supplementing with vit. D, but haven't gone checking yet whether levels are normal now. It would be interesting to check that though.
In the past, when I would walk a lot, I would feel great pain in my knees, especially my right knee, sometimes it would be so bad that I would literally limp when I would walk. When I went to the doctor for it, she just said that I need to rest it out. Surely after a week or so, the pain would go away, but that didn't fix my problem. However, after doing the diet and taking additional supplements, I haven't experienced that pain anymore. I do think my bones have become stronger.

[hesperides]

Because I´m leaving in a hot climat, vit. D never counted amongst my supplements collection. Now I´ve downloaded the vit. D kindle book already (thanks Laura for this easy readable link) because it  relates to my bones and joints issue, amongst other ones of interest too. Coincidentally, I also received last week the grass fed butter/fermented cod liver oil for vit. K and D repletion from "Green Pasture", very expensive - 49 USD for 250 gr. -, but thought it was time to at least compensate for the lack of any kind of grass fed meats/butter/eggs where I leave (no up road transport available either for Canary Islands as it is 2000 km far from the European coast).

Citer
As everybody knows, skin color changes, to some extent, in response to sun exposure. The trigger for that response is the pituitary gland. Under natural circumstances, almost as soon as you are exposed to the sun, your pituitary gland produces hormones that act as boosters for your melanocytes, and your melanocytes start producing melanin on overdrive. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to disrupt that process. The pituitary gland gets its information from the optic nerve—when the optic nerve senses sunlight, it signals the pituitary gland to kick-start the melanocytes. Guess what happens when you’re wearing sunglasses? Much less sunlight reaches the optic nerve, much less warning is sent to the pituitary gland, much less melanocyte-stimulating hormone is released, much less melanin is produced—and much more sunburn results. If you’re reading this on the beach with your RayBans on, do your skin a favor—take them off.

This coincides with what I´m experiencing when wearing sunglasses just for five minutes, as I feel a lot less sensitive to my surrounding, less alive like I don´t process and digest sensations as usual, sort of being cut off of the world. The above explains a lot why this isn´t just subjective, as I sometimes wondered myself, because I´m amazed at how many people do wear sunglasses, even with bad weather or at night and I´ve never heard anybody complaining about it. It makes me think as one of the involution signs of humankind: avoiding sunlight and feeling safer when hiding their eyes to avoid any kind of instrospection.

I was wondering if info regarding changes with menstrual cycles, menopause and even pregnancy (if it applies) might be helpful. That may be a good incentive for more women to want to improve their diet.

Yeah, we can add an extra question for the women for that.

Yeah, this would be a good idea and will participate too although I wonder if other forum members have had issues with menopause when being already for a while in ketosis. After I made an easy transition to high fat diet, I got menopause 5-6 months later, which is normal at 56, but from that day, my joints hurt a lot without external inflammation besides places like behind the knees that never hurt before now do and I can hardly bear too much fat anymore (most probably because I eat grain fed meats), and was desperate to get any potato, coffee, fruits and an occasional glass of red wine, feeling blocked all over my body like I would explode at any time. As I don´t want to visit any doctor (from the Social Security), I thought it was safer stepping back from ketosis for a while until I find a way to feel better with some buckwheat and less fat and other supplements as well related to my issue. From what I have been reading about menopause, women with bone/joints issues will see their health situation much compromised when starting menopause because of the body´s inability to retain calcium and as there has been some controversy in this thread about taking it or not, I ceased to take it anymore. Will stay in tune with any comments and reading on that subject.

[Gertrudes]

...and rice has gluten-like proteins that has proved problematical for a lot of people.

Speaking of which, this article about it was just published recently:

I've been meaning to post the following for a while but never got round to do it. Below is an excerpt of an interview with Mat Lalonde entitled "Invalid Inferences".  It was part of the Paleo Summit mentioned earlier in this thread, and although Mat doesn't seem to have a good grasp on the effects of ketosis and the real reasons for a low carb diet (but that isn't the point of his interview either) he gives a couple of pointers as to what appear to be some common misconceptions. What I'm posting below refers to lectins, versus proteins in legumes and grains. Sorry that it's a bit long, but if I try to cut out more portions I'm afraid we'll probably lose the full context.

Sean: Letʼs get into anti-nutrients because they come up a lot in Paleo talk. In your AHS
presentation, you talked about phytates, saponins, oxalates, lectins, wheat germ
agglutinin (WGA), and some enzyme inhibitors. By now, I hope that our audience is
pretty familiar with most of those.
But before I ask you about them individually, I want to go over a series of questions
regarding these anti-nutrients that people should be asking before making claims about
them. So, go ahead and comment on these questions that you listed. The first one is,
“Does processing, such as hulling, soaking, germination, fermentation, and cooking
eliminate, degrade, or denature the compound or modify the anti-nutrientʼs activity?”

Mat: Actually, if you go online and you just google my name and the AHS talk, itʼll come
up and you can watch it for free. And on there, thereʼs a slide where I think thereʼs about
ten questions that I ask myself when Iʼm trying to determine whether or not an antinutrient
is going to be problematic. And those four questions that you have here are
highlighting stuff like that.
So why is it important to do that? Well, you know, Iʼm going to have to name names
here, and I donʼt like to do that. But, Loren Cordain has a talk on YouTube where heʼs
giving it in Calgary. And I think itʼs for multiple sclerosis, but Iʼm not one hundred percent
sure. And heʼs talking about the Paleo diet and he is going on and on about lectins and
how theyʼre bad. And it turns out that lectins are, in fact, really bad. They are very
difficult to digest. They will get to the gut. They can get into the bloodstream. The peanut
lectin is probably one of the reasons why peanuts are so allergenic.

But it turns out that most of the really problematic lectins - maybe for the exception of a
few lectins in nuts and legumes, like the peanut lectin - most of them are completely decomposed with heat and cooking. And we do not eat raw grains. There might be one
exception there, and thatʼs wheat germ agglutinin. Some people will actually get that
with wheat germ. Theyʼll consume wheat germ because they think itʼs healthy for them,
and then theyʼll get exposed to wheat germ agglutinin because the wheat germ is not
cooked.
But there are experiments and papers out there that I showed in my talk where people
are taking even lectin-enriched pastas, and they cook them just like normal pasta and
itʼs undetectable at the end. And that is true of the lectins of wheat germ agglutinin,
which is really problematic. Many of the lectins that are in legumes like PHA,
phytohemagglutinin, is another one.
So, I think that the risk of that has been overblown. And the risk there is that if you say
that to a plant biologist who is familiar with that stuff, you have just lost all credibility.
That plant biologist would think, “Okay, this person is an extremist.” Theyʼll turn around
and not listen to you, and theyʼll tell anyone that they can that youʼre full of it. And thatʼs
pretty dangerous.

There are some lectins, like I said, that are not decomposed by heating. Some in nuts
as well as the one in peanuts, specifically. So thatʼs not too surprising to me that those
are some of the most allergenic foods. But when you are trying to determine whether or
not this anti-nutrient is problematic, like I said, you have to go through this list of
questions. You have to ask, “What kind of processing did this go through? Was it
hulled? Was it soaked, germinated, fermented, cooked? And what kind of affect does
that have on the anti-nutrient? Does it get degraded in the digestion process? Has it
been studied as part of food or was it just given to a critter in isolation? (Because that
really does not mimic what would happen in real life.) Are we talking about just in vitro
studies or in vivo studies?” All these things are very important to ask.

A couple of other anti-nutrients I should talk about are saponins and some phytates. So
saponins and glycoalkaloids are very similar compounds, but theyʼre not identical. So
donʼt mix the two because a scientist who knows this stuff is probably going to call you
out on it. But those things are defense chemicals that are made by plants. They have a
variety of biological activity and chemists love to study this stuff - very small variations in
molecules that are going to change the biological activity and give you either a
beneficial effect, no effect, or maybe some kind of detrimental effect. We donʼt know.
So I looked at all of that literature and some of these compounds are actually good.
Some of them are known to be anti-carcinogenic. Now, the problem with that is that if
itʼs been tested in a test tube, then you donʼt know what side effects it could have. So
thatʼs a caveat. The only one that I can say thereʼs enough evidence to say that it is bad
is quillaja saponin. This is something that is isolated from the soapbark tree. It is an oral
adjuvant, which means itʼs going to prime your immune system to attack foreign
substances. This is something thatʼs great for putting in a vaccine, not so great for
putting into food. And it turns out that itʼs used as an emulsifying agent in food. Youʼll
find it in a lot of junk food like soda and stuff like that. So, that one I can tell you is very
problematic.

But thereʼs another family thatʼs found in ginseng thatʼs thought to be anti-carcinogenic.
They fed it to people, and they noticed that they have to feed super large quantities to
even detect some of the metabolites in the blood. So for example, it was where one of
the sugars has been cleaved or something like that, so itʼs not the intact compound. And
again, thatʼs one mistake I would say that Loren Cordain makes. He doesnʼt differentiate
any of them. And like I said if the structure is a little bit different, itʼs going to have
different properties. He thinks that all of them are bad and he says, “Look, this food has
a lot of it, and this food has a lot of it.” But really when I look at it, thereʼs just really little
thatʼs known about whether they resist heat. They donʼt appear to resist digestive
enzymes because when theyʼre absorbed, they show up in the blood in a slightly
different form.
(...)

Sean: From a practical point of view, Iʼm sure our audience out there is really confused.
Theyʼre thinking, “Hey, I stopped eating grains and this food and the other food because
of the saponins or because of the lectins. Now youʼre saying that theyʼre not all bad.
So do we choose foods on an individual basis? How do we make this practical for
people?”

Mat: When I have looked at the totality of the evidence, and when it comes to grains
and legumes, I am pretty sure that it is the proteins that are problematic. And thatʼs
going to be the subject of my next HS talk probably. So, gluten is very problematic.
Gluten is part of the family of proteins called prolamines. Prolamins
are prolein-rich proteins that are very difficult to digest because human beings donʼt
have really good prolyl oligopeptidase enzymes to cleve the peptide bonds. And these
peptides can mess with various receptors in the gut. Some of them are excitotoxins.
They have various activities. And with gluten alone there are like 50 different variations
of peptides, depending on where you cut the protein, that can be problematic. This was
a recent paper by Fasano that has stated as much.
So if you look at the other prolamins that are in grains or their equivalent in legumes and
such like that, that are called globulins that are also problematic, theyʼre very allergenic,
actually. I think that this explains what weʼre seeing as opposed to the other antinutrients.