The Big Cheese

Okay, so I ate about a 2 ounce portion of grass-fed raw milk Colby cheese from nearby Pennsylvania yesterday. I have to admit, it tasted great, and I certainly have yet experienced no ill effects. In fact, it may be due to the fact that I was ending a long fast with the cheese-containing meal, but I felt the sense of my brain and body being populated with nutrients it had been starved for, much like I've read about in accounts from vegans and vegetarians when they "relapse" into eating proper foods. And raw milk cheese has that bitter/sharp taste that really makes you appreciate that you're eating something real, that prevents you from eating it by large mouthful like you might a block of Cracker Barrel Vermont Sharp White. It really was enjoyable with a small handful of raw almonds. One or two more days, and I'll run out of raw milk, grass-fed Colby.

I have been debating whether to add back raw milk non-grass-fed next or grass-fed pasteurized. Here are my thoughts:

Raw milk is probably better from a digestive/immunological standpoint. The heating of pasteurization kills some of the good micro-organisms along with the feared, deadly bad ones.

On the other hand, the nutrition value of grass-fed is likely superior. I think that with plenty of fermented products in the diet, I may be able to handle pasteurized dairy without any trouble. Ultimately, I think I will incorporate this into my diet more often than raw milk/non-grass-fed, but I'm thinking for the sake of the experiment, that it should probably come afterwards, just so that I'm adding things in ascending order of potential for digestive/immunological difficulty.

The next dairy category for inclusion will be full-fat, fermented dairy which is neither explicitly grass-fed nor made of raw milk. (e.g. Full-fat Greek Yogurt). The long term goal will be to minimize (or, at least to keep reasonably low) protein and sugar from dairy in general, due to the tendency of dairy to cause higher secretions of insulin than other sources of the same categories of macronutrient. I'll definitely be careful about sprinkling anything with additional sugar content on my fatty Greek Yogurt simply because I don't want to add sugar to already insulinogenic protein sources.

By that point, I'll probably be dying for some grass-fed butter, which I won't worry much about, because protein and sugar content are negligible. I do plan to add heavy cream to my coffee (although the fauxconut version I've been using is not bad at all), but in very small quantities, and with negligible protein contribution.

Day 30

Okay, Day 30 of the experiment is upon us. I have consumed 0 dairy or dairy-derived products for 29 days and change, and now the real fun begins.

That is, I get to start adding things back to see what, if anything, has an ill effect.

This is keeping in mind the idea that I want to make dairy less of a dietary staple than it's been in the past, due to several factors, mainly its tendency to cause high levels of insulin to be secreted.

I've always felt that I tolerated dairy well though, and I've been my leanest while including it in my diet pretty regularly.

But in the name of the scientific method, I've cleared my system, and now it's time to mess around. First up is grass-fed, raw, fermented (basically cheese from unpasteurized milk from grass-fed animals)

Why this first? It's the best of everything. (making it the hardest to find). Grass-fed cows produce less milk, the laws favor pasteurization, and fermentation takes time and effort. Of course, only grass-fed cows can ever be healthy (cows just aren't built to digest corn. See The Vegetarian Myth for the dirty details), fermentation makes dairy easier to digest, and pasteurization kills not only potentially bad bacteria and microbes (although feeding cows grass makes this less of a necessity), but also changes milk products to be less easily digested.

In any case, I'm all but certain I will feel every bit as vital and well on Thursday when I add this back to my diet (tomorrow's a fasting day, didn't mean for it to fall on day 31 of the experiment, but lacked the foresight to adjust). But only time will tell. Next post will address any ill effects of the first round of re-addition.

All for now.

Update

Further consideration and deeper reading of the Mark Sisson post about the insulinogenicity of dairy (due to its specific amino acid profile) has really only served to reinforce my original contention: That at the end of this whole project, I'll decide to eat dairy less as an easy go-to condiment for everything, snack for all hours, and dietarily ubiquitous calorie source, and choose only to eat it in its raw and fermented forms, or at least the very high fat versions in miniscule quantities (i.e. using a drop of heavy cream in coffee, as this serves to minimize sugar and protein content in favor of fat content).

Finished my first Michael Pollan book last night. The Omnivore's Dilemma. He has a lot of good points, but I find myself seeing more eye to eye with Lierre Keith on a lot of the subject matter. I will once again take this opportunity to recommend The Vegetarian Myth, the best thing I ever read as it relates to our relationship to the world via food, and the lies we've been led to believe about righteousness, justice, and sustainability as it relates.

That's it for this morning. Back to my coffee with a drop of almond milk. (Yuck!)

No time, no news, one relevant link

Gotta post quick, lunch break is coming to an end and I'm at work. Looking like a big snowstorm is coming our way, and I need to be ready for the unlikely event that they close work up for the day tomorrow.

No news on the no-dairy front. I'm not sleeping well, but I certainly can think of more likely culprits than the lack of dairy.

On the links and information front, Mark Sisson has a post up about the effects dairy has on insulin secretion (although this makes no inherent claims about the effect on insulin sensitivity, that I can see from a quick scanning).

Also, please note this would make an argument for disinclusion of dairy as a dietary staple, but not necessarily as a chronically excluded item. More along the lines of dried fruits, to be enjoyed on occasion, rather than glutenous grains, which are to be avoided at all costs.

That's it for now. I should expand on these thoughts, but time's up!

Day 5, no big deal, beef bacon

I broke down and brought some coconut 1/2 and 1/2 to work. I was tired of drinking black coffee all day.

So far, I don't really miss anything. But then again, I'm not eating prosciutto and a fig with a glass of wine and staring a gooey hunk of brie in the eye. The weekend may turn out to be a bigger challenge than the work week.

Been eating some beef bacon from US Wellenss Meats that came as part of a Christmas Gift. (8 pounds of the stuff!) It's very delicious, but reminds me far more of beef than it does of traditional bacon. I'm looking forward to enjoying some with some eggs over easy, rather than as part of the salads I bring to work.

I'm going to have to come up with a workout regimen I can preform at home soon, since I'm continually failing to find an adequate gym that fits into both my schedule and my budget. As a routine, I should be training Gracie Jiu Jitsu between 5 and 6 days a week, but I want to incorporate some true strength training, and my new apartment has some gorgeous wood beams running through the ceiling that beg to be used for pull-up type exercises.

I may spend a good part of my weekend building an adjustable sandbag apparatus. I have some ideas, but I'll post about my final results if/when I get around to actually doing it. The 117 pound bag didn't make the move with me.

That's all for now.

Dairy Free Day 3

No changes to report so far, as far as how I feel/perform/digest.

3 Days is a little soon to expect anything sufficiently drastic to be noticeable, however, so I'll plug on for another 27, as promised.

Not struggling at all so far to find things to eat, despite my pre-experiment concerns.

Lots of eggs, bacon, organic greens, wild-caught fish, supplemented with a handful of walnuts or almonds here and there have kept me satisfied. Drinking coffee black at work, faux-creamed with coconut 1/2 & 1/2 at home is keeping my caffeine levels sufficient.

I was hoping to fast today, but that's going to be postponed due to an obligatory breakfast sandwich party at work (Mine will be breadless and cheeseless, so more meats and eggs, basically).

That's it. So far, I don't really miss cheese, or cream. Full-fat Greek Yogurt is always an easy and tasty choice in the morning, but I don't miss it per se. I do miss its convenience.

Reading Michael Pollan for the first time. I'm most of the way through "The Omnivore's Dilemma." He seems not to understand how strong the body of research is suggesting that carbohydrates as a macronutrient staple is at the root of most of the diseases of civilization, but his exploration of the source of our foods has been extremely educational. Maybe he's just staying neutral in order to avoid alienating anyone, but I think he does so at the cost of the truth in some sense.

That's all for now. Come back often, bring your friends, and ask me some questions.

Day 1 Dairy Free

30 day dairy debacle begins today. That means that I will spend 30 days finding out if life is somehow better without cheese, heavy cream, Greek yogurt, and did I mention cheese?

I do foresee a bit of a challenge, because I admittedly eat a pretty dairy-heavy diet. Once you cut out grains and sugars and minimize fruits, you're not left with much of the supermarket to play in. Mainly, I hope to fill the gaps with wild-caught fish (sardines, salmon, and tuna are easy to bring to work for lunch), coconut milk/shredded unsweetened coconut, and lots of hard-boiled eggs (from the local farm if I can get them).

Should things go as I hope they do (meaning that I will decide to reintroduce at least some categories of dairy after the 30 days), I plan to reintroduce the following categories of dairy, in order, with a few days between each reintroduction to single out the causes of any ill effects:

1. Grass-fed, raw cheeses (Raw, grass-fed dairy)

2. Goat and sheep dairy products

3. Fermented live/active cultured dairy (Greek yogurt)

4. Aged cheeses made from conventional milk (brie, camembert)

5. Anything I missed in 1-4