Klara and dad
We try to give seven-month-old Klara a nice Paleo-inspired start in life. Good quality real food, relatively low in carbs, no grains, spending most of her time with bare feet and so on. But I do think she enjoys her new sunglasses.
Are Sunglasses Paleo?
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My son is now 21 and makes his own choices: which on a day to day basis are mostly real whole foods that are naturally LCHF -- but he is at University and lives with friends, so on occasion that may include beer and pizza. He also likes to cook gourmet food and I keep him well stocked with supplies from my local grass-fed farmer/butcher.
When he was younger we agreed that it was OK to have a can of soda as an occasional treat BUT that if he were thirsty the first thing he drank was water. Since then I always keep a glass carafe of cold water in the fridge.
My attitude with him is that it is what he eats every day (rather than on occasion) which has the most effect. I am keen that he does not follow my genes down the same path to metabolic damage.
The usual advice is, 'yes....we need sunglasses for eye health?", but how good is the science behind this?
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/life_and_style/wellbeing/...
Possible?
It seems to me that traditional hunger-gatherer human communities -- paleo if you like -- did better than us in other regards as well: namely eye and dental health; despite not having access to opticians or dentists... or even tooth brushes and floss for that matter. From a species point of view: lack of healthy teeth, or poor-eyesight does not bode well for long-term survival.
Dr Weston A Price was a Dentist and in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration - A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects... he describes how: in as little as a single generation after changing from a traditional diet, a broad white smile can be disfigured into a stunted jaw that is too small for all the teeth.
I suspect that many of the ills we see today are also due to the change in our diet.
Also to mention that my paleo ancestors would probably have spent a great deal of time in the relative shade of a forest-covered Europe -- unlike the wide open, clear-cut landscape we see today.
Combinations of bright light, scheduled dark, sunglasses, and melatonin to facilitate circadian entrainment to night shift work.
Personally I like having as much BRIGHT LIGHT exposure during the day, so I'm better able to sleep at night.
Human DNA is set to produce the antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antinociceptive Vitamin D3 from dawn to dusk given UVB availability and from dusk to dawn we should be producing the antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antinociceptive Melatonin.
Dr Briffa has a recent blog on The dark side of sunscreens. Those wishing to consider NATURAL ways of improving natural sunscreen protection my like
Healthy Fellow Natural Sunscreen Options and Wellness Mama, Eat your sunscreen?
The Inuit wear protection against the glare of the sun off the snow by making goggles with slits in them out of animal hides, or they would suffer from snow blindness. In many cultures around the world, hats, umbrellas or parasols or sorts have been used for who knows how long, likely in part to mitigate the effects of the sun. Has a very practical tool simply gone out of fashion in the west? Culturally unacceptable? Many cultures with high UV exposure potential also take a midday siesta when UV is at it's peak.
I wear sunglasses a lot and have no problems sleeping.
One comment on cataract formation: I have been led to believe that cataract is NOT caused by sun damage but by glycosilation of the lens of the eye that become opaque. This is because this tissue much prefers glucose as a fuel to other potential nutrients but as we know glucose damages proteins and the crystalline lens of the eye is mostly that so prone to glycosilation damage...cataract is not very common in hunter gatherer society but has become the norm with ageing in modern societies even in domestic pets who are often fed industrial pet foods that have cereal based ingredients in them.....those nasty carbs again!
Also I spend a lot more time in the sun and don't get burnt, I'm just far more light and heat tolerant than I ever was.
Nowadays, sunnies are just to make me look cooler.
Thanks
There are some intense people on this site for sure.
The CF doctors told us we should expect that he will sometimes need to be admitted to the hospital to deal with infections that are simply a part of CF life. In January we had our first turn at this with him. He was in the hospital for three weeks to clear up a lung infection and partial collapse. While there he was also treated for failure to thrive. Obviously we didn't know about this. He appeared fine and was not unhappy so the malnourished part was a shock. For those reading please understand that CF also inhibits food absorption so it can be a real challenge to get kids to gain. We learned his weight was low but within the percentage still. While there the nutritionists offered us many suggestions to help him gain weight. Most of them were really terrible. They wanted us to feed him formula, rice cereal and things like this. We told them we had no interest in doing that and we wanted to feed him real food that we made ourselves. We had already started him on a few solids but we ramped that up a lot. We added coconut oil to his food, kept him on breast milk and added things like avocado. We kept his foods low carb but nutritionally dense. We also started him on pro-biotic to combat the heavy antibiotics he was given via picc line in the hospital.
When we told the nutritionists of our healthy low carb lifestyle and how it has been a boon of health for us personally they often didn't say much. When they came up with high carb processed food suggestions for our son we asked if there were alternate ways to do the same thing they basically ignored what we suggested and repeated their thoughts. We decided to ignore their suggestions and do what we knew was right. The results are that our boy put on a lot of weight and is now at a normal weight for his age. In fact he is going to break 20lbs before 9 months which some feel is actually heavy. I am also glad to be giving him coconut oil as I know how important good fats are for brain development.
On our most recent visit for his monthly checkup they told us that we are doing a great job and to keep it up. Vindication feels great. I hate talking to nutritionists but we seem forced to do that as part of his care on his clinic days. Calories and a calculator is the center of how they do business. I don't even agree with their calories in calories out view. We will just keep doing what we are doing and in the process keeping him safe from CF related diabetes which their diet will not do. Thank you for doing what you do Doctor!
From the genetic point of view the prevalence of CF carriers like yourself and your wife amongst caucasians (are you caucasians?) remains a mystery even though people argue that it may have had adaptive advantage (like the thalassaemia mutation that in carriers is believed to protect against malaria for example) CF mutation in healthy carriers might have been protective against Tubercolosis or other respiratory infection.
As CF is a defect of hydration of the mucus & other secretions produced on teh endothelial side of the airways and in various ducts around the body e.g. pancreatic/hepatic ducts (hence the threat of diabetes that in the case of CF will be more like Type 1) bile duct etc due to their increased viscosity then a diet that decreases overall mucus production and requires little insulin should help.
Your son may benefit once older from a cocktail of digestive enzyme but as he is thriving now why tinckering?
Well done for doing a live experiment...I think your case would be of great interest to someone like Dr Briffa here in teh UK.
GOod luck and well done
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111024084639.htm
@SL, No science behiind that, here's science showing the opposite. http://goo.gl/nNGSy
@Meghan & @moreporkplease Wrong, the leading causes of vision loss from glaucoma, cataracts & macular degeneration is not UV exposure from lack of sunglasses, it's still diet, primarily high carb-low fat & high trans fat vegetable oil processed 'food" diets. http://goo.gl/71aPu
Trans fats corrupt cell membranes & block flow of nutrients into & waste products out of the cell & completely shut down your hormone system & block uptake & utilization of essential fats & fat soluable vitamins A, D & K, & also causes oxidation & corruption of the natural cholesterols in your skin preventing skin production of vitamin D which causes loss of protection from cancer & melanoma.
@Laura, Correct, glycation of proteins in the whole body, not just eyes, and microvascular damage from sorbitol the body makes from excess glucose which is the cause of high carb diet & diabetic related retinopathy, neprhopathy & peripheral neuropathy. http://goo.gl/qby8A
From Wikipedia re Daibetic Neuropathy:
"While most body cells require the action of insulin for glucose to gain entry into the cell, the cells of the retina, kidney and nervous tissues are insulin IN-dependent. The cells will use glucose for energy as normal, but ANY glucose not used for energy will enter the polyol pathway and be converted into sorbitol.
Under normal blood glucose levels, this interchange will cause no problems... However, in a hyperglycemic state, (caused by high carb intake & diets) the affinity of aldose reductase for glucose rises, meaning much higher levels of sorbitol and much lower levels of NADPH, a compound used up when this pathway is activated. The sorbitol can not cross cell membranes, and when it accumulates, it produces osmotic stresses on cells by drawing water into the cell. Fructose does essentially the same thing, and it is created even further on in the chemical pathway." http://goo.gl/UJKik
"Too much sorbitol trapped in retinal cells, the cells of the lens, and the Schwann cells that myelinate peripheral nerves can damage these cells, leading to retinopathy, cataracts and peripheral neuropathy, respectively.
Aldose reductase inhibitors, which are substances that prevent or slow the action of aldose reductase, are currently being investigated as a way to prevent or delay these complications, which frequently occur in the setting of long-term hyperglycemia (from high carb diets!!) that accompanies poorly-controlled diabetes (and ANYBODY that eats too much carbs!!). It is thought that these agents may help to prevent the accumulation of intracellular sorbitol that leads to cellular damage in diabetics.[13]"
Just what the world needs, several more pharmaceutical drugs. NO!!! Just stop eating so many damn carbs & eat more steak & bacon & butter!!! Or not & go blind, get your legs & arms amputated & then die from kidney & heart failure from sugar & insulin corroding all your veins & arteries. Your choice, take your pick.
Try this book, it is written by paleo parents raising paleo kids: Eat Like A Dinosaur
http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Like-Dinosaur-Guidebook-Gluten-free/dp/1936...
Anyway, this is harshing my mellow. Peace out!
Thanks again.
But neither are flush toilets, cars, jet airplanes, chlorinated water, toothpaste, eyeglasses/contact lenses, air conditioning, central heating, antibiotics, aspirin, TVs, computers, cell phones, pen and paper.....
Well, I think you get my drift.
Nice piture!
)
As Denmark is still left in a "national ignorant bliss" about the real damages of carbs/sugar and apparently clueless about real healthy food, we are also striving to feed our son, now age 16 months, a more balanced diet with low carbs...
We are also interested in hearing about your thoughts on feeding infants a low carb diet??
People have also commented on the diet as being not healthy, concerned with micronutrients. As though they are only found in potatoes, rice and pasta..!!!???!!!
Our son still eats rye bread and he gets a lot of different veggies, like tomatoes, spinach, peas, nuts and so on combined with full fat cream and differents kinds of meat.
He is normal weight and hight and is a thriving young boy.
The benefits of his diet is: feels more content after a meal, sleeps better, no problems with gassy stomach and no constipation.
The same goes for my husband and I, who are loosing weight by the minute.
Thanks for a good blog!
Very cute baby in sunglasses. My experience is kids don't like them and they were probably off a minute later anyway.
Also, check out Hyperlipid's video, Peter's baby has always been on lchf, see how she rejects banana for dark chocolate--very telling and cute: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-many-bananas-day.html
Best wishes for your little one.
Laura, he has been on enzymes since he was 2 weeks old.
I had a colleague from India who was a CF sufferer (a rare occurrence in itself). she had the MILDEST phenotype I ahve ever seen and she was in fact of great medical interest. I only realsied something was strange when once she coughed and she sounded like a heavy smoker but I knew she was not so then she told me and unsuprising perhaps she did noot need pancreatic enzyme supplements but she had been confirmed genetically as carrying the classic D104 mutation.
Anyhoo sorry I digress this was all about a very cute little paleo girl wearing sunglasses on a sunny day......in Sweden?
Wikipedia is an astoundingly deep resource, since it's user based it's dynamic & constantly changing & updating, there's just a tremendous wealth of knowledge there. I'm constantly amazed at the stuff I learn there, for instance that fact about micro vessel damage from sorbitol being formed by the body from all glucose that's not used & burned off through exercise, who the hell else in the world knows & is teaching that to people?? NOBODY!! It usually even says somewhere in the Wiki articles that researchers don't know what causes many conditions, but then just a few lines later or in a related article the answers are right there!
I've learned that if I use my own brain & take the time to look stuff up, then read slowly & carefully & take the time to think clearly about it & click on all the links & read the related articles, some really astounding truths pop up that cuts like a hot laser through all the conventional wisdom & bullshit we're being fed from the government and the medical & pharmaceutical industries.
I do often forget that most people don't have or want to spend as much time as I do reading & trying to figure things out for themselves, so I pass on the things I know & have learned & try to include links to the sources I get info from.
Cancerclasses is the name I use for my Twitter channel where I post information about & relating to cancer & diet, nutrition & health. I started that after reading the absolute single best & most important book I've ever read in my entire life called THE HIDDEN STORY OF CANCER by Brian Peskin. His wife is a Type 1 diabetic & every time they followed the nutritional advice from their doctors, nutritionists & dietitians her health would get worse. So after he realized the "experts" didn't know what the hell they were doing he quit his electrical engineering job & took 3 years to start researching things for himself. Along the way made some astounding discoveries that have been covered up & that no one ever learns or talks about. The book is mostly about a German MD. PhD biochemist named Otto Warburg who was awarded the 1931 Nobel Prize for medicine for his discovery of the prime cause of cancer. They have known since 1930 what causes cancer but this knowledge is not taught and most doctors have never even heard of Otto Warburg, but it's all right there on Wikipedia!
Here's my Twitter bio:
"@cancerclasses
You're stressed out, confused, overwhelmed & don't know where to go for the REAL cancer facts. You said to yourself, Self! I need some Cancer Classes!"
You don't need to have a Twitter account, just go there & put @cancerclasses in the search box and you'll see the timeline & all the info I've posted.
“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” ― Nikola Tesla
The book you suggest will be my next read..I also have a young colleague who has been diagnosed with colon cancer (luckily he is in remission now but it is only two years into what will be a 5-10 year wait for the all clear!). He also thinks there is enough eveidence to say that most such growth aberrations like cancer come from what we eat so he is extremely careful of what he eats and I ahve given him many paleo tips as he had never heard of the paleo or ancestral diet/life style and I am sure he will also buy the book! Let me pass on this tip!
It is like the story of Lorenzo's oil...it was the parents NOT the so called experts who found the cure!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.google.se/search?tbm=isch&hl=sv&source=hp&...
Diseases appear to be genetic & "run" in families because we learn our eating habits and patterns from our families, including preferences for specific brands & types of foods and even the stores we shop at. The problem with cancer is that the latency period in it's development is measured in decades, so long that by the time it's discovered people don't associate the cancer with what they've been eating all their lives. Unfortunately, that means the best time to stop eating industrially processed "foods" & substances known to cause cancer is 20 to 30 years ago. Cancer & disease is orders of magnitude easier to prevent than to cure, but there is hope & there are thing we can do, and it starts with knowledge.
Have your colleague do a Google & Wikipedia search and read EVERYTHING about butyric acid & butyrate and butter, it's the primary food for colon cells, very important for colon health. I wonder if he has been avoiding all the good fats, eating low fat "food" products all his life or maybe eating too much fiber? Speaking of which also go to gutsense.org & read all about how fiber causes colon cancer.
Here's a page about butter to get him started: http://goo.gl/4abJ7
And for comparison here's one about margarine: http://goo.gl/xJpaK
The 6th edition of the 'Hidden Story' book has just been released but it's not on Amazon yet, go to brianpeskin.com & click on the blue banner about the book.
Finally, here's a good story about Lorenzo Odone by lipid researcher Patricia Kane PhD, I really like her work, note that she wrote that 15 years ago, Lorenzo died in 2008 but the info is still relevant. http://goo.glY5Z5h
From drbriffa.com article 'How Did This Man Get To Live With Type 1 Diabetes For More Than 80 Years?'
"I have found that many of the most creative-thinkers in the area of health and nutrition have a background in engineering. What is it about engineering that might make these people great nutrition and health commentators? Here is the opening description of engineering to be found on Wikipedia:
"Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of people."
Engineers don’t get very far designing bridges that don’t stay up or computer circuits that don’t work. Yet, in healthcare, it seems money can be made from approaches that not only don’t work, but actually jeorpardise health. I think we doctors and other health professionals often have a lot to learn from engineers, to be honest." http://goo.gl/vLybc
"UV light reaching the blood is also antiviral … it can kill viruses in blood cells. One place it may reach vessels is in the retina."
(http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=5103)