by Karen Kellock Ph.D. KAREN IMAGES
Update 2012: Paleo-fasting is IT for me. I never have acid burn anymore, never hunger, bloat or the characteristic SADNESS I began to deplore. That was all from depriving myself of what I needed, due to my heritage, blood type or whatever. I feel no shame whatsoever, which is what the vegans want you to feel--and the way they ensnare you can be so clever. Make sure meat is cruelty free and certified organic or you won't feel this all-together. The perfect way for me is FAUNA for breakfast and fruit snack later [pineapple is my favorite to make my skin soft, not like leather]. Meat-eaters have STRUCTURE in their faces, showing their fine character.
Modern science shows that man is like a CAT--he needs FAT and protein. Fat deprivation suppresses the immune system and brings other deficiency symptoms seen in people on raw, vegan or especially fruitarian diets. I learned this after twenty years of fruitarianism and the extreme craving for fat and protein which resulted in a failure to thrive (FTT) along with breathing and skin problems. When I added fat my whole life changed and I was able to stay basically fruitarian with fasting each day: frugi-fat-fastarian.
The gut-dense fatty food gave me a real feeling of lasting satisfaction that made day-fasting a breeze. Fasting as a fruitarian made it very dull indeed--I was so malnourished I was fasting all the time anyway though eating constantly of the low-density, high-water and insulin-elevating sweet fruits. I was bloated, water-logged yet hungry thinking I was “spiritual” when actually I was “spacy” in a brain fog. Now I feel “bright” and paleoscientists have found that the gut-dense fatty foods release energy to the encephalization of the brain i.e. a bigger brain. The paleo foods like nuts or animal fat require much less for satiety and this releases digestive energy to the brain which enlarges thusly. Man’s brain size decreased suddenly--de-encephalized--10000 years ago at the inception of agriculture which brought bigger starchier meals of grains and produce foods. With agriculture people grew fat and dumb!
The big paleo brain is linked to a small gut fed with small but potent foods which sustain him for long periods. Less food (i.e. bulk) increases brain size. Man has always been a hunter-gatherer eating fat and then fasting until the next kill: eating potent meals then not eating. Down with continuous fruit-eating and up with higher paleo-fasting bliss! There are some raw vegan “athlete guides” who insist their clients eat thousands of calories of fruit and vegetables and only ten percent fat. These poor athletes complain of constant hunger, craving, weakness, and being waterlogged from all the fruitless fruit and salad eating. It is ridiculous to fear fat for it would suffice and create energy for long periods without craving.
I feel so good on the higher paleo diet combined with daily fasting. I arise early before dawn and eat Greek Red Salad or doughless pizza with pineapple then fast to the next day. When I have avocados I make guacamole. There’s no need for a juicer—just a blender and lemon-squeezer for light lemonaid. I like sweet juices but will avoid when I sense insulin-spike--to that puffy constricted feeling I say “take a hike”. I’d keep nuts to chew and occasionally some raisins or a fig too. These foods are easy to store in organic bulk mail-order so no more running to the store. Get out of that old habit and reduce your foods to six—no more variety which only excites addiction and food-preoccupation. You want a new station and a millionaire occupation so go very light so God can strengthen your fight. He promises to increase as you decrease: jettison weight to float up like a kite.
The trail mix method is perfect for travelers or hermits. After I fat-fasted and stabilized I decided to lose my dependence completely on stores and fresh produce. I was just going to live on figs, raisins, nuts and cheese in one or at the most two mouse meals per day. I was never hungry and soared to the heights. Figs are powerhouses and the fastest cleansers of all the fruits. Raisons are the grapecure for cancer and easily stored while nuts are filled with vitaminerals, fiber and the paleo fat. For lacto-fruitarians cheese is much higher in protein and fat than meat and could be stored for six weeks in sealed packages. I found these six foods totally delicious and a wonderful balance to each other—sweet, sour, fatty fiber: lemonaid, black fruit, nuts and cheese. When I did shop I would buy lettuce, tomatoes, red bells and avocados have fresh lunches for two weeks until they ran out then the rest of the month trail mix. No need or urge to ever cook—why cook when you can have foods such as these whenever hungry, requiring so little due to their divine potency? Released from my lifelong food obsession I became continuously creative.
At last the inner journey and true independence could begin as the endless time-waste of daily meal planning and shopping was finally over. The trail mix of black fruit and nuts made me feel very strong and happy for a long time and so trail mix is the greatest staple for the wilderness recluse and hermitage. Juicy fruit has a short life so if one decides to fast it spoils. Solitude forbids running to the store to get juicy fruit and very few of us live on fruit farms. What is the answer? Nuts and dried fruit through the internet and storable for months. Dried fruit has all the vitarian (high vibrational) qualities without the insulin spike of juicy sweet fruit pervading the bloodstream.
It gave me a real feeling of peace and security to live like this, perfectly set-up for months with a free-mind to daily fast and enjoy life without intrusion. From these divine years I can truly say that there is no place like home! I have no desire to go to restaurants and eat around strangers or wonder about the cleanliness of the kitchen or cooks (are they kooks?). That’s part of the paleo lesson—filling your home with staples of perfect foods lasting for months so you’re truly free and never have to leave if you don’t want to! I love my home, and losing one’s home is one of the worst results of war. Home is ALL. Home is our reality—it’s where we don’t have to adapt to other people. More than anything else you must guard your home and let nothing in which is not good, perfect, divine and totally respectful of your authority. In this regard, be a caveman!
Raisins and figs, nuts, cheese and olive oil: the perfect higher paleo diet for reclusion and home life of the spiritual man. Nuts, figs and raisins were the biblical desert and if you think about it they are basic. The triad of dried fruit, fat and fasting is a perfect set-up for long periods—even years--in nature independent of civilization. Not being dependent on stores and being able to live solitude--even in Alaska or Siberia—while not being hurt by bad weather destroying the yield of fruit tress gives a tremendous sense of satisfaction, freedom and security. Having three months of food stored knowing it’s the best makes you self-sufficient and in control of your own destiny. Man is a fat-frugivore, not a folivorous plant or leaf-eater so huge raw vegetable salads though tasty are not basic. Leave these things to the other animals with big guts to deal with all the bacterial putrefaction digestion these foods entail. Just stick to the gut-dense foods and then fast to your delight without worry. Not until one has totally detached civilization and embarked on his inner journey in nature can he appreciate the non-dependence on “white man’s” stores. I didn’t even require transportation anymore as my food was mailed to my door.
When you need a cleanser what works better than raisins and figs? They eliminate (bind mucus) four times as fast as a juicy fruit like grapes and are also filled with iron and magnesium. Then when you need a crunch or “bit” of protein and fat take a nut or two. They are so potent just a couple will suffice for long periods while keeping the gut flat—I like that. My favorite are the nuts highest in fat like macadamia (spread throughout the day they’re a great fat-fast) but cashews are also delicious with raisins. The cheese is much higher in fat and protein than meat and easily stored in sealed packages for four weeks. The cheese is a real “fauna-fat punch” that revivifies, for man needs fat and fauna-fat is pure paleo. What a life—and what a way to restart the fast. In higher paleo-fasting each “meal” just starts the new fast so if you start a fast only to eat—so what? Just start it again. This is the highest guilt-free fail-free blend.
Before the trail mix phase I had to heal my insulin resistance from twenty years of sweet-fruitarianism. After my overindulgence just a little sugar released a flood of insulin and all the maladies it creates (dry skin, craving, water retention, fatigue, constriction, irritability). But with fat and only frugal fruit I have no hunger or craving for I am balanced in the way man was designed from the beginning. As you proceed on this balanced diet you will find your mind ascending to higher creative levels and actually forget all about food. The Atkins dieter is into eating many meals and it gets crude. To me that misses the point because with fat you can forget eating and just create every moment—you transcend the physical altogether as new life ensues.
With high-fat and low-carb glucagons signals the kidney to release salt and fluid, to the fat cells to burn stored fat for energy, to the liver to stop making cholesterol and triglycerides, and to the arteries to relax (dilate) and drop blood pressure. High insulin overwhelms glucagons so that we fatten and bloat up with water. In a miraculous way the fat-fast heals, regains balance and streamlines the body. The usual low-fat high-carb diet makes one chunky: as a fruitarian I was amazed to have a high cholesterol count though I never ate fat or protein. Fructose raised insulin which cues the liver to produce cholesterol. What a paradox!
Hyperinsulinism is genetic. All my aunts and uncles were extremely obese and the “thrifty gene”--that which makes us pack on fat with very little bits of carbohydrate--was very evident. What that means is that all the nagging ailments from insulin--head-aches, irritability, hunger and craving, mood swings, depression and constriction--can occur with just one apple. I was so relieved to learn the perfect cure: fat for appetite-suppression, even moods and high energy. How very efficient: one fat meal allowing all other waking moments spent in fasting and creative action. My one year of fat-fasting amazed me in the way I suddenly felt and looked—from my mother’s warning that’ I’d end up like ancestors I was no longer spooked.
When fat/protein-needs were finally met the body-cravings instantly switched to include fruit and I had no adverse reactions from that point on. What this shows is that body heals through instinct, not by following “rules.” The rules may apply at one time but are made inoperative at another. As immunity is boosted through fat and protein it’s also suppressed through starch and sugar. As our food history has varied so has our immunity which is endlessly mutable. And thus the rules change for each phase of our life. Because of the present food fallacy of fat-phobia we have a generation of people with no or little immunity: the present epidemic of environmental illness (E.I.). I live in the desert which is filled with E.I’s escaping city chemicals. These are mostly post-hippies living on salads, pasta and other starches which only make them more sensitive. Every time the golf courses use pesticides they escape to another part of the desert, whereas due to my fat diet my immunity is improving daily and I hardly notice sprays.
For twenty years fruitarianism seemed so self-evident looking at food in a superficial light rather than the sophisticated understanding of how metabolism works. It’s not that we are what we eat--but rather the metabolic processes that follow what we eat—whether insulin or glucagons is elevated determines our immunity and everything else. It takes great mental strength to go against the fat-phobic masses who think produce and grains are best and fatty proteins are the worst--but you must. Just stick firmly to this regime and you’ll see miraculous things happen to your body: extreme diminishment of size coupled with perfectly-formed muscles with minimal exercise. The higher the fat-to-carbohydrate (ketotic) ratio the more ketosis--i.e. the more fat is burned and the less hunger. Lack of hunger combined with constant energy is a sign of ketosis. The brain and heart love to live off ketones, not glucose. During my day-fasting regime I felt best at zero carb but when completely healed I could eat as many carbs as I wanted and feel great all through the daily 23-hour fast.
New paleoscience casts a whole new light on fruitarianism, rawfoodism and all vegan diets. The comparative ape studies which justified fruitarianism “because man is like an ape” are now in dispute for there are no fruitarian or vegan primates found in nature and captive primates on meatless diets had B-12 deficiency (beyondveg.com). Fruitarian tribes have never been found! The truth is hunter tribes are healthier than farmers (storers of starch in silos) and fat-frugivores or -fasters are healthier than the fruitarian fantasy. What is the answer for someone who fears possible deficiency but is against eating meat? Eat cheese, omelets and once in awhile a piece of fish. What a delicious dish as you proceed to perfect thinness (and anything else you wish).
I was seeking “purity” through fruitarianism. Having transcended this isolating ideology I opened up to the whole world through the original real diet for man which makes the body very happy. As world trends go more towards the raw/fruitarian fear of mucus, protein, cholesterol, fat and cooking--all dissolves in the face of this new evidence. For the sake of your own health I hope you will transcend these idiotic ideologies based on philosophy rather than the fat needs of man. If like most Americans you are stuck on produce and grains, a switch to fat and fasting will change your entire metabolism, bloodstream, appearance and personality. You will be and feel entirely different in a new revolution springing from complete hormonal change. I can bet that all of your problems including the emotional have their basis in the high-carb diet including fruitarianism.
The benefits of fasting magnify after fat--suppressing all craving while releasing incredible energy for the day. This means no more highs and lows from hypoglycemia and carb-addiction, just a lovely even keel. I’ve known fruitarians who eat all day as much as they try not to. They’re eating for satisfaction but after eating crates of such low-density foods any satisfaction is fleeting. For those two years I found tiny potent HQ meals so much more efficient than all that water logging effect from produce. Original man ate like a cat--fatty protein was 95% of his diet. He was just doing what came naturally in contrast to modern man who allows food fads to override his natural inclinations to eat luxurious deliciously satisfying fat. You must now refuse to doggedly determine daily foods through diet dogma which disregards the facts of evolution. To assist you here’s the scoop on animal fat and protein: “fauna”. To not give you the whole picture is to let you remain a blind beggar—you must open up to the whole reality from the beginning of time.
LARGE BRAIN SMALL GUT
Brain-Size Decrease with Grains
The paleodiet is around 55% protein, 30% fat and only 15% carb. The daily fast would be used in combination with paleo meals of fauna (cheese or raw eggs are fine), vegetables or fruit. Skeletal data shows that homo sapiens have eaten meat for 2.5 million years but grains only 10,000. The human brain size decreased 11% in 35000 years and eight per-cent of this was in the last 10,000 years when farming began. The introduction of grains prevented the brain from reaching complete genetic potential. In this time animal food dropped from 50% of the diet to 10% as grain came to substitute. This is the ratio of the modern diet and an explanation for the dumbed-down (though computer-literate) public.
The transition from hunting to farming had devastating health consequences across the world. As the fossils show, the hunters had perfect health. They were tall, lean, well-developed, strong with dense bones and sound teeth without decay. Less animal foods also means a consequent shortfall of preformed long-chain fatty acids: DHA, DTA, and AA are required for brain development and are much more plentiful in animal than plant foods. High animal: brain expansion, gut decrease. Agricultural: small brain, big gut. The bulk of brain decrease and gut-increase has occurred in these agricultural years. The early increase in brain development is positively correlated with the level of animal food, a key component in Dietary Quality (DQ) that can never be filled by eating things like grains in its absence. Folivorous (leaves) diets correlate with small brains whereas fruit and animal foods with large brains. And thus man is and does best as a fat-frugivore.
Large brains may be the evolutionary result of selection favoring meat and high protein diet. Humans are distinct in the proportion of metabolic needs for the brain. Gut size is always associated with dietary quality so it must shrink to support encephalization (increased brain)-- suggesting high quality diet is associated with the large brain. Only small bits of gut-dense fatty protein are required to satisfy hunger, burn fat and give the brain and heart the ketones needed for energy. This remarkable efficiency from small bits releases energy to the brain which then expands. The higher quality diet is more easily digested, liberating more energy and nutrients allowing encephalization.
There is a limited energy budget and the brain and the gut compete for it. So much energy is required for brain growth that there is the potential brain size and an actual one. The large brain is always compensated for by decreased gut size--this doesn’t come from huge vegetarian meals but tiny fat meals. The first increase of the brain was from the increase in animal foods. The second increase was from cooking since it reduced required digestive energy. Cooking neutralizes toxins and increases digestibility, freeing energy for the brain. All those raw vegetables are too “expensive” in energy terms. Raw is not law! Cooking is a high-tech way of “externalizing” the digestive process (reducing toxins, increasing digestibility) making digestion a metabolically less expensive activity for modern humans then for primates (beyondveg.com)
Here is Arello and Wheeler’s finding as it was written in Current Anthropology in 1995: The higher quality diet brings increased energy which shoots to the brain as it enlarges it. Because it is reduced bulk it creates a smaller gut due to more rapid assimilation and this also releases more energy to the head. You increase dietary quality by increasing fatty (and also cooked) foods which enlarges the brain and decreases the gut. The modern (sweet/pasty) diet is more like half carb and fat and only 10% protein while the big brain diet is 55% protein and 30% fat and only 15% carbohydrate. Since fasting also encephalizes, fat-fasting is a “brainy” solution--a “longhead” marks the monarch. This is so efficient for the champion life as opposed to continuous fruit-eating creating unstable blood sugar, fatigue, mood swings (often anger), acute sensitivity and the other characteristics of the fruitarian seeking “purity.”
The fat-fasting method can be described in two ways: (1) eating once daily followed by 24-hour fasting or (2) continuous fasting only punctuated with small bits of protein and fat—a piece of cheese, an egg, a nut (cheddar and macademia being the fattiest). I myself prefer the first method of eating only once in the day and blissfully flying off to a wonderful no-hunger fast for it is so much more spiritual to forget food altogether for 20+ hours a day. The daily “minifast” shows miracles abounding. It is so easily accomplished after a fatty meal and was nearly impossible existing only on fruit. Automatically your body begins to change: the gut used once a day shrivels to walnut-size. The sinuses open up as the brain awakes and expands. The lungs breath better than ever as glucagons dilates all airways. Suddenly you’re a totally new human being and on every level the change is dramatic. Fat does not constrict and clog—on the contrary it dilates and releases.
WE NEED NOT LESS BUT MORE FAT, LIKE CAT
Human physiology shows we need more fat in our diets not less, and plant-based diets are lacking in sufficient fat and other cofactors such as B-12. Energy is stored much more efficiently as fat than as glycogen from carbs. Animals who get enough fat from veggies are less-active herbivores who need less efficient energy, but man is an omnivore who like the carnivore is far more active and needs a more efficient way of storing energy. Humans need fat for the skin to stay moist throughout life (vs. dryness and wrinkles), to stay warm (since we don’t have fur) and for increased brain function due to higher intelligence. The synaptic connections in the brain are mostly fat and cannot function well in low fat diets. The studies of David Horrobin shows the improvement of emotional balance and brain function with high-fat diets. I myself can certainly attest to this—I was so up and down and at times so angry trying to live without fat. The slightest irritation would send me over a cliff. Coupled with this were constant cravings for meat—it was the fat I craved not the flesh. So important is fat to the human that the gut even tries to absorb preferentially what it needs through heme iron receptor sites (beyondveg.com).
The high-fat matrix forces us to see the world and diet in a whole new light. Things like eating a dozen raw egg yolks and then when cholesterol is checked it is normal! It is carbohydrate that evokes the liver and cells to create cholesterol, not fat--and glucagon which burns off all cholesterol. And as for things like asthma where physicians have always said to avoid fat, it is actually the case that fat dilates airways so that one can breathe. Fat releases constriction of the arteries, so while the fat-phobic masses see high-fat as death-threatening the more sophisticated understand this deeper metabolic science and scorn the superficial “you are what you eat” argument. Energy is far more efficiently stored as fat and almost all cells can use fatty acids interchangeably with glucose for energy. The ability of cells to store carbs (in glycogen) is slight but 200 times more energy can be stored in fat than in carb which is used up in 48 hours (after which all turns to fat-storage). This immediate storage potential in fat means less or no fat-storage!
The aborigines in Australia are a very interesting group in that they develop a high incidence of hyperinsulinemia and type II diabetes when exposed to an urbanized western diet. Like many Americans they are genetically predisposed to disorders like heart disease and diabetes and they develop them quickly when eating wrong, making them great candidates for the study of diet and hyperinsulinism. The urbanized aborigine subjects were consuming a Western diet: grains and beans, alcohol, dairy, sugar and cheap fatty meat. This diet was high in refined carb (40-50%) and fat (45%-50%) and relatively low in protein (l0%).
Then they ate their original native diet of 70-75% protein, 25%-40% fat and carb only 5%. Insulin levels dropped by almost half and their health vastly improved--though they were getting much less exercise than in the city. This is exactly what anthropologists learned from mummy and skeletal data: the carb-restricted high-protein/fat diet brings optimal health, strong bones and teeth while the low-fat high carb diet shows the opposite along with all the degenerative diseases of civilization: cancer, heart disease, diabetes high blood-pressure and obesity.
GOOD AND BAD EICOSANOIDS
Controlled through Diet
Let’s understand the effect of the good eiconsanoids coming from fat vs. the bad eiconsanoids from sugar and starch. As Sears says in The Zone: “you can view eicosanoids as the biological glue that holds the human body together--the most powerful agents known to man yet totally controlled by the diet.” The good eiconsanoids are the very definition of optimal health. When they’re balanced the skin glows and the system hums in perfect health. When the wrong ones are evoked the result is aging dry skin, arthritic aches and pains, blood clots, arterial constriction, asthma and heart disease.
Good Eicosanoids: From fat, glucagons is elevated and the result is: dilated airways, increased oxygen, vasodilation, immune enhancement, decreased inflammation, decreased pain, increased endurance, the prevention of platelet aggregation and decreased cell proliferation. Bad Eicosanoids: From starch and sugar insulin is elevated and the result is: constricted airways, decreased oxygen flow, vasoconstriction, immune suppression, increased inflammation, increased pain, decreased endurance, platelet aggregation and increased cell proliferation.
What an incredible revelation to the fat-phobic masses: the fat actually dilates (opens) the veins and airways so that the asthmatic can breathe. It decreases the platelet aggregation that constricts arteries and the cell proliferation which is cancer. What an amazing way to recover: a wonderful fat-fasting vacation where things like rashes, asthmas and other nagging ailments completely disappear. Try the fat-fast for four days: just eat high-fat and protein foods keeping carbs beneath 30. If there is no weight loss keep them under 15. If still fat go zero-carb for awhile and keep to the fast:
Carbs: Asparagus (6) 3, Broccoli (cup) 8, Cabbage (cup) 8, Cauliflower (cup) 5, Celery (3 pc) 4, Cucumber (6 slices) 2, Green beans (cup) 6, Lettuce ((1/2 head) 6, Mushrooms (cup) 4, Onions (1/2 cup) 6, Pepper 6, Radishes (4) 1, Spinach (cup) 8, Tomato (1) 4, Zucchini (cup) 5, Avocado 9, Lemon 6, Olive (10) 1, Peach 10, Plum 9, Raspberries (cup) 9, Strawberries (cup) 7, Apple 18, Pear 18.
Everything from sagging wrinkled skin to paranoid mood swings will disappear after adding fat to the fruit diet. After years of vegan vulnerability you must drastically boost immunity or die. The daily meal and then daily fasting will create such a sudden transformation and rejuvenation you’ll want to shout and tell the world. I could not believe it as I finally had the “look”, the feel, the experience I was seeking (to no avail) through fruitarianism.
ONE MEAL is sufficient for many people and they can immediately enjoy the benefits of the mini-fast of 22 hours daily. This meal can be as large or small as you please—but I guarantee it will make the fast happy, satisfied and free. The daily evacuation of the one meal (esp. if followed by a few nuts) is an amazing benefit of the higher paleo diet. If you’re coming out of a deranged food history you’ll feel good on cooked vegetables and even spuds for the transition. Once properly detoxed you may eat all raw fruit, fat and then fast contentedly