Category Archives: Health

General Health, Health, Nutrition

A Quarter Steer Order from Hooke Farms

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Introduction

Before I get into the specifics of my quarter steer story, here’s some background.

I love beef. The heartiness. The meatiness. The warmth.  The fat. The feeling of satisfaction after eating it. The high nutrient concentrations. I love it. There is a reason it’s so freaking popular. Problem is, when beef is raised unnaturally (think feedlots, antibiotics, tearing down rainforests for pasture, etc), it can be a devastating force on the natural world around us. I don’t debate that can be the case. That’s not always, true, however.

I have read articles written by intelligent people (like Diana Rodgers, RD, of sustainabledish.com) how some of the numbers you hear about when it comes to beef production are often out of context Continue reading A Quarter Steer Order from Hooke Farms →

General Health, Health, Nutrition

A Half Pig Order from Gelderman Farms

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My Half Pig Order

I eat animals. To some extent, I eat animals and animal products pretty much every day. I’ve already discussed the ethics around eating animals in “Should Humans Eat Animals“, and a later link to two articles in “Feeling Guilty About Eating Meat?”, so I won’t bother this time around. What I’d like to do in this post is explain in detail the manner in which I sourced a half pig from a local farm called Gelderman Farms (I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada) that I believe is raising the animals responsibly. Continue reading A Half Pig Order from Gelderman Farms →

Health, Sleep

Sleep Series – Part 8: The Power Nap

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Introduction to the Power Nap

As I write this, I am brimming with mental energy. I don’t have this sort of mental energy all day long, so I have to take advantage of it when I do. As long as I got a good sleep and am healthy, I have this kind of energy about an hour after I wake up (and after a coffee…). Then, there’s another time of day where I have this kind of energy again. It’s right after my power nap. I’ve been power napping for over ten years. Not every day, but whenever I can make it happen or really need it. It’s almost always in the early to mid afternoon, and takes at most twenty minutes, and usually more like fifteen. I simply let go, nod off, and I’m back, refreshed.

It’s a skill I’m quite proud of. Continue reading Sleep Series – Part 8: The Power Nap →

Energy & Environment, Gardening, General Health, Health

The Importance of Your Environment

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I’d heard before that being in a natural environment was healthy. Forest bathing and those types of things were always talked up in the Primal/Paleo communities, and hey, I definitely enjoyed hiking, camping, and cottaging and all that. It just feels good. That said – I’ve also always been mostly a city boy. Growing plants and creating a soothing environment were not really something I thought about until recently. This post focuses on some improvements I’ve made in my life this year. I hope to encourage others who could potentially make some similar changes to do so as it has definitely helped me.  Continue reading The Importance of Your Environment →

General Health, Health, Nutrition

Nutrient Density Part 2 – My Take on Nutrient Density

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Introduction

Nutrient density – just what exactly does it mean? In the first part of this two-part series, I took at look at Dr. Fuhrmann’s and Mat Lalonde’s work on nutrient density. In short – Dr. Fuhrmann based his calculation on “Nutrients per Calorie”, and his nutrient-selection for this analysis was suspect at best. Mat Lalonde stuck to known essential nutrients, and his formula included a rigorous statistical analysis, but basically worked out to “Essential Nutrients per Unit Mass”. Overall, I agreed with Lalonde’s approach for the most part, while Fuhrmann’s work seemed biased towards vegetables on purpose, and ignored the valuable contributions from animal foods.

That said, I think Fuhrmann’s analysis does illustrate that there are indeed foods that provide a lot of nutrients while providing little to no calories, Continue reading Nutrient Density Part 2 – My Take on Nutrient Density →

General Health, Health, Nutrition

Nutrient Density Part 1 – A Look at Two Models

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Introduction

Nutrient density – that’s a term I used fairly frequently, but took for granted for a long time. I hadn’t really thought about exactly what it meant until the past few months. First – a story:

A few months back I was out with some friends that I met with regularly (ulti fris team!), and the topic of food and nutrition had been coming up. Within the group was a vegan, who was notably very respectful and not too vocal about being vegan, but after ordering food it was obvious, and some questions were asked. It was all well and good, until the subject of protein was broached, and someone mentioned that you can eat broccoli for protein as a vegan/vegetarian, and that the amount of protein you get is similar to beef. As a nutrition junkie, that sounded like pure garbage to me, so I simply disagreed that broccoli was a good source of protein, while she insisted it was. I let it go because I wanted things to be friendly and I knew I was right, but I did leave that situation wondering where in heavens that otherwise smart person got that idea, so I Googled it up.

Turns out, as some of you may already know, there’s a man named Dr. Fuhrman who published that precious little broccoli-beats-beef tidbit. Continue reading Nutrient Density Part 1 – A Look at Two Models →