Why humans can't thrive on plants alone.

Latest post by Dr. Ede:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...8feddb-97647217

As usual, very thorough and informative piece.

I LOVE her stuff and follow her on Twitter. It was her articles that convinced me to go so Carnivore, and I am getting fine results.

UPDATE:

Good to see this article-- I went down the rabbit hole a couple years ago pursuing the ALA, AL, DHA issue and after 12 hours of digging came up with the same conclusions. Animal sources of fats.

Humans cannot covert vegetable precursors well into DHA. However, other animals can! In reality, they just concentrate it for us.

Milk and dairy was not included in the above; here is one source with a great explanation and research testing of grass fed v. conventional dairy production feeding. With grass fed rated at the top.

https://www.vitalchoice.com/article...nal-counterpart

This source is a nay-sayer for using milk as a good source, but note the 8.3% is far higher than many of the items in Dr Edes list. And this was organic milk-- orgainic milk is NOT the same as grass fed milk.

http://www.mariespano.com/organicmilk/



I do spend my money on grass fed cream and butter. I dont buy milk anymore unless it is grass fed whole milk. ( Our milk consumption decreased a long time ago.) VERY difficult to find grass-fed cheeses.

Eggs. As for increasing DHA in eggs-- clearly increasing flax oil in the hen's diet is not useful, as the nutrient increased is ALA and us humans cannot convert more than 10%. Perhaps better to put money into a DHA supplement directly than pay more for eggs. (Unless you can get truly grass fed eggs. See next paragraph)
( source; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28108729 )

This article is a bit more comprehensive, https://www.healthline.com/nutritio...l-eggs#section4 , Take note of the difference in overall nutrients in a FREE RANGE chicken, and this is the on grass all day type , not the " allowed to go out" type. While the Omega 3's are increased by 3 times the conventionally fed birds, remember this also includes the portion of ALA. BUt it is still 3x in this study.

Dr Mercola on his site (https://foodfacts.mercola.com/organ...ed-chicken.html )reports :




My personal observations: Chicken egg quality is an area of interest as I do have a small flock that forage all year long, and get supplemental feed, yet their yolks are much darker, actually an orange, most of the year. A bit lighter thru the winter, but still darker than commercial eggs. this coloring is actually Vit A content-- and I can only wonder if the Omega 3 is any higher.


All I can say is that my birds travel long distances around the farm, looking for greens and bugs..... and their gift is gold.

The "better" eggs at the store all say vegetarian fed. I noticed that after DH picked some up. We all know that means Soy. I don't want soy. Eggland's best which is a national brand I think which shows it's lower in fat, I don't want that either and those are both especially $$ in price.

I so miss my old girls (pets) with their bright orange yolks. If I knew then what I know now LOL I would have valued them more.

corn/soy is the golden combination for animal feed. And yes, "vegetarian" is a great sales pitch---if only people could see how fast a chick can grab a fly!!! Just watch a dog to get the idea!!

Did you think having chickens for eggs was a lot of work? Or pretty easy??

Rob, thanks for posting this excellent piece on Brain health. Detailed, but not too long, when trying to convince old folk like me to add more animal fat, not reduce it for "heart health" or cancer fears.


Arielle, I was under the assumption that imported cheeses are primarily grass-fed except for the days kept indoors on forage by weather. Know this is a point of contention for Irish and Scandinavian that claim "grass fed butter", but I never looked beyond that. You know all about animal husbandry...do European countries keep dairy cows indoors? Imported cheese is common at Costco, TJ, Aldi, etc, but not everyone has these stores.

Grass fed is a tricky label.

Cows kept indoors but fed "grass" in the form of hay and silage is still grass-fed. The addition of grains starts the change in the profile--one study said when beef cattle are moved to finishing lots the benefits of grass fed is gone in 3 months. The equivalent of a winter. Europe is changing and starting to cave to the fast food movement; the traditional sausage makers of Germany are disappearing fast according to Chef Ming, such that other traditional methods of food making are likely under threat too.

We have a local source for grassfed cheese from a nearby farm. Also, goat cheese are more likely to be grass fed.

Two sources for finding 100% grass-fed meat and dairy, which I have found useful, are the websites: eatwild, and localharvest.

The lists are not always kept up to date, and the foods that each farm or ranch has listed are not always up to date.

It has taken many phone calls, but I've been able to find what I needed.

Well this has sent me down a rabbit-hole. One of my favorite cheeses is a much aged, rugged cheddar from the UK, called Coastal from Ford Farms:



For a milder cheddar, TJ's has a NZ Raw and grass-fed cheddar labeled as that.

And authentic Parma with the origin seal:



And an Ohio farm that sells only 100% grass-fed, dries their pasture hay for winter feeding, as you mentioned. And Finlandia which also claims 100% grass-fed states that they feed their cows are only fed hay in the winter (how many months is that? ) while KerryGold supplements with cereals. At any point a French cheese manufacturer could buy milk from a farmer claiming 100% grass-fed, but who would know? Oh well, I trust they are all treated well.

Back in the day, cows ate dried silage/grain in the winter, anyway. I do think it's a good thing to concentrate on if you can opt for quality over quantity.

The dairy and cheese makers I found here in Texas did a documentary on PBS one day, that's how I found them. He and his father moved from Wisconsin after he told his father that cows could graze year around in TX.
That's partially true. We don't have the snow but the grass does stop growing when the days get shorter. We have to feed or the cows would starve. They're still grazing but not enough nourishment from that alone.

The only region I know that can graze all year is closer to the equator!!

Kerry GOld has one butter that is labeled differently-- it is summer butter, and more grass fed than winter, for obvious reasons.

One hog farmer in VT grazes his hogs. OVer the generations he has selected for less rooting, and more grazing. A local farmer supplies him with winter hay; and a local brewery supplies spent grains. Piglets get eggs from the flock of free ranging hens kept just to supply extra protein to the piglets.

I dream of the day I can try their pork!!

The last time I visited their website, no new blog entries for some time. Has me worried as farmer was a daily blogger. And Im too afraid to call and find out what happened.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/...hominin-brains/

Thanks, Demi.

Here is the original article:

https://www.sapiens.org/evolution/brain-evolution-fat/

This link is at the bottom of the article in Scientific American.

The Sapiens article is easier to read, for me. And has fewer ads.