Tag Archives: health

A Half Pig Order from Gelderman Farms

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

Nutrient Density Part 1 – A Look at Two Models

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

Good Fats and Bad Fats: Fatty Acids Revealed

When I meet other health/fitness/nutrition minded folk and mention that I follow a mostly Primal/Paleo lifestyle, a lot of the following discussion centres around defending my decision to limit grains in my diet, or how much meat I eat. What usually doesn’t come up, or isn’t focused on much, is the restriction or even elimination of industrial seed oils such as soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola oil in favour of healthy animal fats, coconut oil, olive oil, oily fish, and small amounts of nuts. This, however, is one big freaking deal! Industrial seed oils are cheap and highly prevalent, and unless you’re paying attention, you’re getting more of those fats than you think. Continue reading Good Fats and Bad Fats: Fatty Acids Revealed

Sleep Series – Part 7: 7 Nutritional Strategies for Better Sleep

Our focus on cortisol started with Sleep Series Part 4 which laid out the science of what cortisol is, its cycle, and how it affects sleep. In the following post, we looked at a few reasons why evening cortisol might be high. The last post presented methods for lowering evening cortisol levels such as finding ways to laugh, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, listening to or playing music, getting a massage, and easy exercise outdoors. With lower evening cortisol levels, high-quality sleep is easier to come by. So if your sleep is suffering and you feel as though stress might be to blame, you could try these practices and see if your situation improves.

Continue reading Sleep Series – Part 7: 7 Nutritional Strategies for Better Sleep

Bring the Intensity

Why We Exercise

Exercise is healthy. At this point, I don’t really need to defend that particular notion. It just feels good and right to move around and use these magnificent tools we’ve been given; our bodies. When we avoid movement for too long, our muscles, bones, and connective tissue atrophy, and we are not able to accomplish as much with our bodies as before. Even worse – bodies that are never challenged don’t get particularly fit and strong in the first place.

Continue reading Bring the Intensity

Sleep Series – Part 5: 6 Factors that Increase Evening Cortisol Levels

Time for another installment in the Sleep Series! We already learned about high-quality sleep and why days are supposed to be bright, while nights should be dark. The last post introduced the stress hormone cortisol, and its effect on sleep. In an ideal situation, cortisol is naturally high in the morning and tapers off throughout the day to low levels in the evening resulting in high-quality sleep.

In modernity, stressors don’t stop just because it’s night time (though I suppose we don’t worry about nocturnal predators anymore). Evening cortisol levels can be elevated for a number of reasons. I don’t want anyone stressing about stress, so let’s have a good look at some sources of stress to become aware of some common causes of elevated evening cortisol levels.

Continue reading Sleep Series – Part 5: 6 Factors that Increase Evening Cortisol Levels