It’s all a matter of perspective

October 5, 2010 5 Comments

 

Addiction has different faces but it all comes down to the same thing : it's unhealthy.

 

The modern society has facilities for about any type of addicted person. Indeed, specific rehab centres can treat alcoholics, sex addicts, drug addicts, gamblers, and even Internet addicts. Some of these centres are funded by the government and some are paid by the individual. Still, it is all the same thing : people can follow different programs that focus on getting rid of unhealthy – and dangerous – habits. What we seem to forget is that these people are a very small problematic population. Another type of population (who happens to be the majority nowadays) – those who are addicted to foods or eating processed foods – are often left alone. When it comes to it, improvement of the quality of life of the majority should be serious business.

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Filed under Diet, Lifestyle

In defense of exercise : why exercise will make you thin

October 2, 2010 18 Comments

Lately, I have been so busy that I have had a hard time posting new posts. Between studying physiology of exercise and neurology, I still managed to keep up to date with the paleo – or not- fitness community. I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of fitness myths that are spreading in the online world. Usually, I don’t care much about debunking these myths because I find them entertaining. Plus, most of the time, they get debunked by other bloggers before I get to do it. However, when I read that people are pushing the idea that exercise won’t make you thin, I had to do something about it.

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Filed under Fitness

Is our community becoming a religious movement à la veganism?

September 29, 2010 23 Comments

Jesus was not paleo... He is the bread of life. Processed food?

I have always wanted to write about food-religion, but I was not sure if I should do it. I hinted at it in a guest blog post before, though [link here]. Lately, more and more bloggers are starting to write about it, so I figured that the timing was right. This is certainly the case of Free the animal, who has been writing about quasi-religious vegans [Link here]. I will say it right away: I am an atheist. I am a man of simple tastes : I like facts, interpretations, and intellectual stimulation. I also believe in evolution. Wait, that’s actually not a good way to say it. I said I want facts, not beliefs. Here is a better way to put it : evolution rules everything that is happening on earth. This should include nutrition too. While this should be very simple in theory, it is very complicated in reality. More and more, people are hiding their beliefs under what seems to be an evolutionary approach. But it has nothing to do with evolution. This is a religion that, as an atheist, I don’t want part of the debate. Religions stop debates and progress.

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Big and healthy are not necessarily oxymorons

September 21, 2010 8 Comments

Do you really have to be like this to be healthy?

Say what? These days are some of the hardest for people that are big. Seen by about everyone as unhealthy and lazy, big people are said to have no will or power on themselves. It’s all about being muscular, lean and ripped. This is why the publicities we see at night when we watch TV are based on Calvin Klein Ken-looking models and on anorexic fashion models. Being fat is just not fashionable anymore (unless you are Oprah and use weight loss as a way to promote your show, that is). What if being fat does not necessarily mean that you are unhealthy? What if this was just a new societal vision? Read more of this post

Filed under Lifestyle

New design!

September 15, 2010 8 Comments

So, this is it! I have been wanting to change the design of the website to reflect what it is about for a while. My good friend Dr. Dan helped me  customize the website a bit. We went for a newspaper-like look. We also tried to make it look as professional as possible. I’m still building the blog roll section and I still have to tweak a few things, but I’m quite happy with the new look.

I am still in the process of completing the primal journal. So far, it’s a 15 page long read that includes two articles, a recommended foods list, some graphics, an editorial and probably more! I have also included a bonus section where I included a few related articles I have written in the past. Hopefully, this journal should be available for download pretty soon. Sorry to keep you all waiting!

So, how do you like the new look?

Filed under Lifestyle

Greediness, extremism, wars, and nutritional communities

September 15, 2010 8 Comments

Extremists are also present in nutritional communities.

One of the few things that differentiate us from other animals is definitely our tool-making capacity. While monkeys, chimps and other animals can create tools that are adapted to their needs, humans create tools fancier and more complicated than necessary. One example of this is money. We could all barter like we have been doing for thousands of years, but instead, we created a money system. And to make it easy to deal with other countries, some little guy decides how much the money of a given society is worth on the international scene. While every society has their own set of highly valuable tools (such as arts, books, etc.), money is almost universally valued in every society. I should say in every modern and industrialized society.

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Filed under Diet

Why low carbs diets work

September 14, 2010 2 Comments

If you are an average joe (sedentary, family man, etc.) and you tried to follow a low carb diet (hopefully based on the evolutionary eating guidelines), you’ve probably had success. As with many other people who have had success on such a diet, you probably started to believe that most – if not all – carbs are bad for you. Because you are busy, the nutritional research you have done has been limited. You still quickly found out about words like insulin, insulin resistance and blood sugar. The information you read stated that carbohydrates disrupt insulin and blood sugar and lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the reason you gained weight. Here is a new perspective on the subject. Read more of this post

Filed under Diet

Carbs, Carbs, the evil carbs…

September 13, 2010 16 Comments

 

Go for it!

 

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about the role of carbohydrates in the paleolithic diet [link here]. The take home point was that the amount of carbohydrates you should eat depends on who you are. Since then, I have been asked about my opinion on carbs. In today’s post, I will address my reader’s question in details. [As a side note, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me by using the contact button at the top right of the website]. Until now, I haven’t really taken a stance on the subject. This is due to the fact that I think that personalization of the diet is what matters. Obviously, people read blogs to know the opinion of the author, so here is mine.

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Let’s clarify something about exercise

August 23, 2010 17 Comments

Nothing is all black or white.

The paleo community has been extremely good at pushing forward new ideas. The evolutionary sauce has been added to about every part of our lifestyle and for the most part, the recipe has turned out pretty good. There is however a problem when this ”sauce” become an ”everything or nothing” type of scenario. Let’s be honest here, evolutionary eating is just plain awesome. But it does require us to take into account the lifestyle (including past and current health problems) of the person we are helping. It’s also important to understand that you can’t give the same recipe to everyone and expect it to come out well every time. You really need to personalize the diet, so that the person can stick to it all his life. This was covered here and here. The same can be said of exercise.

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Filed under Fitness

Animal activists or why they try to prevent us from raising animals

August 18, 2010 6 Comments

Propaganda is always a good way to prevent a sensible debate.

Let’s face it : there is not a single nation that does not have a tradition centred around meat. If you have ever seen the Godfather movie, you know how Italian weddings are. Usually, there is a lot of meat being served. South American cultures tend to feast on a whole animal from time to time too. There is also the popular pig roast that seems to be part of about any national tradition. When I was in France (I spent a whole year there as a kid), I remember eating a few birds that were slowly roasted on the fire. The birds had been hunted by a friend of ours, and he decided to throw a party so that everyone would enjoy the birds (I think I have not eaten better birds since then). No matter how you look at it, animal eating has always been a bonding experience for humans.

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Filed under Diet, Lifestyle, Motivational

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