Hi all,

The enthusiasm around here is amazing!!! New years resolutions, I imagine but what ever the stimulus, it is fun and inspiring to read.

Had a little of the tummy pain this am, so it will probably be a fast day to give the old bod a rest. Have been eating primally but a little too much fruit. Bought some grapes and my dh is out of town, so I don't want them to go to waste right? That is my biggest downfall, not wanting to waste food or ingredients. Sometimes I just crave "clean" tasting food like a crisp green grape. Ok for maintenance but not for losing weight or keeping my FBG down.

I had a fleeting "I could order a pizza and no one would know" moment last night. Did not succumb. I am probably having my tummy pain this morning just from thinking about gluten LOL.

Is anyone using less salt these days? Some of my tried and true recipes are tasting too salty to me. I am one of those people who has always measured things even salt. Do not rely on " salt and pepper to taste".

I hope MikkiJoe is going to come back soon....

So I made the Brasco Broth (see recipe below). Had a problem with the chicken.......after 10 hours it all fell apart......bones floating to the top, pieces of skin.....forgot to take the giblets out and hope that they weren't in a bag because there was no bag later. (Could it have melted?????? YIKES)

My question, have any of you made soup similar to this? Would you put the chicken in some cheesecloth or something or a muslin bag?

I would really like to make this again as it tastes great and it's supposedly really good for your digestive system but the chicken stuff falling apart grossed me out a bit. Any ideas???

Brasco BrothBy Kirsten Archer

This soup is what Nathan lived on for the first several weeks of Rubin’s program which helped to cure his severe Ulcerative Colitis (read Nathan’s story of his recovery). Kirsten’s mother was also suffering from a painful but undiagnosed digestive disorder and lived on this soup alone for months managing to maintain her energy levels and busy life! Kirsten says that her family still uses this soup when anyone has a tummy bug.

3 1/2 litres filtered water
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
4 - 6 tbs coconut oil
1 medium organic chicken
2-4 chicken feet
8 organic carrots
6 stalks celery
2 - 4 sliced zuccinis
3 medium white or yellow onions, peeled and diced
4 inches grated ginger
5 cloves garlic (omit if you have upper GI problems or severe heartburn)
2 tbs celtic sea salt
1 large bunch parsley

Place chicken and feet, water, apple cider vinegar, oil, veges, ginger, garlic and sea salt into a large stock pot and bring to the boil. Let boil for a minute, lower heat and simmer for 12 to 24 hrs. About 30min before removing from the heat add the parsley.

Remove pot from the heat. Remove and discard chicken feet. (I dont use feet anymore, but apparantely they are really high in gelatine). Remove the meat from the chicken bones and put back in pot, throw away bones.

Been a good, whole kinda day. Salad with tuna, almonds, and my homemade greek dressing. Boiled egg. Lara bar (I know, iffy for some, but I don't eat many). Ground beef with cabbage (OMG). and a little hot apple juice (pure juice). I have weighted and have lost 5lbs so far - in 5 days. It seems a lot of differing rules on this whole30 thing. My lips still have not touched a nightshade since Sunday. No sugar - that's really hard - not because I have a sweet tooth, but because THEY (and we all know they are the very definition of evil) put it in EVERYTHING. I've been very diligent. My only give so far was one little ear corn on cob this week. Trust me, this is a major change in habits for us.

What I have noticed is that other people's food all smells alike. I can't say mine is the greatest tasting - like that plain broccoli in the cafeteria, but it doesn't all smell alike. Other people's food all smells like hot grease and flour semlls. Is that weird to notice?

Sparky -- way to go on not secretly ordering the pizza

Kel -- I do find that my nose is finer this week too, also my taste buds, I had one chocolate covered cashew DD bought this week and wow it was sweet!

Violet -- I've never see a recipe like that and I sure can see why the chicken would fall apart after 12-24 HOURS ... I don't think that your bag melted though usually they are made of paper, but maybe the paper fell apart and disintegrated after 12+ hours though ... Were the veges mush after simmering for so long?

Damn, I just had popcorn ... DD and her friends are here and made some and here I am gabbing away with them OYE ...

Eeww... chicken feet! Sounds really interesting, but I don't have any advice -- sorry!

Hi girls - I ate at Ruby Tuesday's last night with a friend and had steak and a double order of brocoli. Woke up starving this morning and just cooked bacon and eggs. Yum. Grassfed ground beef lettuce wraps for dinner.

Kel- How exciting that you've lost 5 lbs! WOOT!!!

As far as weighing....Since I've been eating primally, I've weighed myself much less often. Partly because I've found that my weight and size have a very different correlation than they used to. When I ate lots of grains (brown rice, couscous, oatmeal, etc.) and less meat, I was always pretty puffed out feeling. I lost 10 lbs this summer (the first 2-3 months after cutting grains) and got down to the 145-148-ish range. My weight has stayed there, but I AM smaller - stomach is flatter, I'm wearing smaller pants and clothes, my face looks thinner. So when I feel good and get on the scale and still see 147 (even though I'm able to wear clothes wore when I was eating SAD and weighing high 130s)... I guess it just doesn't bother me not to weigh.

So, I am following the Whole30 advice not to weigh for the full 30 days. I do believe I will lose a few pounds, and I really think it's from cutting out dairy because that's the major change I've made.

Sandy - yay for you not ordering pizza!

And Ilene- we had a jeans day at work yesterday, and I wore my smallest jeans, and they were LOOSE. Unreal. What a great feeling! I wouldn't worry about a little popcorn -- it's not like you feel headfirst into a gooey dessert.

Kel - about desserts and smells -- I am having the same experience. One of the most amazing sensations to me is how SWEET fruit tastes to me now. A sliver of orange or a half a cup of frozen raspberries -- so yummy and satisfying and sweet!

Ok, I'm rambling on and on, so I'm going to sign off and try to get some cleaning done.

Have a healthy day, ladies! Oh, and what can you add to this thread?

Woke up today HUNGRY - not hypoglycemic - just hungry - nice change. Had cheap steaks with pan sauce, orange wedges, marinated veg over romaine lettuce, glass of unsweet tea and cup of hot tea. Gosh, it was good. Happily sipping my hot tea and surfing the web for primal info now. Gotta get more productive in a few tho.

walking2lose - ya, I get it. The fruit is so delish now - and quite sweet. The mere hint of real sugar is shocking to me taste wise. People must develop some sort of sugar numbness eating frosted snacky bits and such.

wildviolets - I made broth by throwing a whole chicken in the crockpot and cooking about 10-12 hrs (I don't time stuff). Then fished out all chicken and cooled it. Picked chicken into meat, skin, bones. Skin, bones and misc stuff went back to broth another number of hrs - 8, 10 or 12 - dunno. Then I just strained the soft mess out the broth. It was a perfect broth. I might start throwing in an onion, carrot etc for the 2nd round next time. Made 2 qts nice broth, and easily 3 meals of chicken meat (plus the bones were so soft like can salmon bones) I let the pups have the strained out stuff. They also the day before had the organ bits from the chicken - I don't eat them - never have liked organ stuff. And the whole chicken was CHEAPO.

Grok on primal friends!

Ark Kel, Thank you!! THat is what I"m going to do next time......the broth was so unbelievably tasty that I have to make it again but didn't know how to handle the chicken part.

Made some Kale chips tonight I burned them, added a bit too much salt, but they were good so I have another bunch I'm looking forward to try in the next couple of days....

Last night's popcorn, I may have had maybe a cup, made me feel hung over this morning ... Popcorn is bad ... How come I didn't feel like that before? It's so weird...

No exercise today though, but tomorrow I will run ...

Ilene - share the how to on kale chips! I've heard of that but never gave it a go!

Supper was an experiment tonight - tumeric sauce - turned out good. Chicken, shrimp, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onion, olive oil, tumeric, s/p, garlic powder stew. Anybody know if that has a name? Was rockin' good. DH said it's a do again - except I'm not sure what I did this time. I was trained in the style of "throw some stuff in the pot" cooking.

Then nibbled nuts, a few raw veg slices for the munchies and numerous cups and glasses of tea. THen we watched a movie - the end of which had some funny "covers" of classic songs - so we got up and DANCED around. Mark, we're tryin' to make you proud! Grokin' the fun way today!

Goodnight cavemates.

Where is the best place to ask science-type questions regarding the rationale for eliminating entire food groups (esp., dairy, grains and legumes) from an omnivore's diet? Is there data to back this program up (I don't mean data to back up the weight loss claims- eating 1000 daily calories of cheetos and pepsi will result in weight loss too)? Long-term (5+ years) consequences of removing so much of the normal omnivore food sources and eating far more of certain fats than any of our ancestors ever got (e.g. coconut oil?). I'm a physician, and to me, this diet seems really "lunatic fringe," but I'd genuinely like to understand what the appeal is, besides the novelty factor.

Hi Neurodoc,
Claire gives a list of resources in this thread ... http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weig...what-isnt.html

As for me ... I've just read so much over the years ... some filters in and some washes over ... I can never remember references.

Some sites/blogs that will have references to studies of interest to you:

• The Heart Scan Blog William Davis (MD, Cardiologist) writes about his work with hyperlipidemia patients and one of his recommendations is the elimination of grain products.
• Perfect Health Diet Paul Jaminet, Ph.D. and Shou-Ching Shih Jaminet, Ph.D. (both in fields of science) have reviewed literature and cite the studies on which they base their recommendations
• Whole Health Source Blog written by Stephane Guyanet, Ph.D., who's current professional research interest is the "neurobiology of fat regulation"

We can make suppositions about what people ate before the agricultural revolution. But they are best guesses based on anthropological/paleontological findings. As far as I know, no one of that era left food journals. So, I relate to the anthropological aspect of primal/paleo as a myth, legend or bedtime story.

It sounds like everyone is having a great weekend!

Kel - your posts are truly fun to read -- great image of you dancing around. I'm so glad you've joined us!

Ilene - how funny... I had some kale in fridge and am making kale chips right now (in my dehydrator - haven't made them since maybe Sept).

Sandy - you mentioned Mikki - is she out of town or just MIA -- I'm guessing she's just super busy, but I, too, hope she comes back soon!

I'm headed out to Trader Joe's, then plan to stop by for a quick visit with my folks, get a walk in, and then there are the lovely papers I have to grade ... great day, except for the papers!

But I will attempt to reply to this question first:

The appeal for me has nothing to do with novelty factor -- I've never been one to fall for gimmicks, quick fixes, or other novelty diets. I've always eaten "healthy" - my whole life. However, my weight was creeping up, year after year, I had a variety of health problems the last few years that I felt were unacceptable for a woman in my late 30's early 40's, and again, did I mention the creeping weight (this is eating low calorie, low fat, etc.).

In less than a year eating primal/paleo, the changes to my health have been astounding. I have lost weight, am smaller and more muscular, feel wonderful, have cleared up my skin, my cholesterol is great (and I eat lots of FAT), etc. etc. What is a "natural" omnivore diet? Meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit. BINGO - there you have the primal/paleo "diet." Yes, grains have become a huge part of a modern omnivore's diet, but look at the obesity/diabetes epidemics we are currently dealing with!

Personally, I do not eat grains and eat very few legumes (I used to eat tons of oatmeal, rice, beans, etc.), and again as I said, I feel GREAT.

Granted, how I feel eating this way is certainly anecdotal, so here is my #1 recommendation to you: Read what the EXPERTS (not a bunch of excited 3FC'ers) have to say on the matter.

I would highly, highly recommend that you read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, Gary Taube's Good Calories, Bad Calories (I have a feeling this will become required reading in med schools some day very soon), and Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint. Taube's book is chock full of the research and science behind many of the concepts of eating lower carb/higher fat (one of the main concepts of primal/paleo -- in fact a huge one for me after years of striving to keep my diet LOW fat).

If you can do some reading and then come back and talk with us, that would be fantastic. By the way, my general practitioner and my gyno both recommended low carb to me, and we've talked about how I am eating, and they are both quite supportive.

Also, my best friend (she lives on West Coast so is not my doc) has been an MD (general practitioner) for 16 years. She has always been a hardcore athlete and very healthy until she went through a nightmare of a divorce 5 years ago. She went through a couple of years of INTENSE stress, and low and behold she was shockingly diagnosed with Type 1 (yes, type 1) diabetes about 18 months ago at the age of 41!!! How bizarre is that? At any rate, she and I talk health all the time (naturally), and we both eat paleo/primal! When she was home this summer, she was literally cringing watching some of our friends feed their kids nothing but mac and cheese, bread (pbjs, grilled cheese), etc.

I realize I'm getting a little tangential sharing my doc friend's experience, but I only share it to assure you that there are many doctors who are realizing the health benefits (not gimmicks) to a paleo/primal approach to nutrition. I am convinced we will see these ideas become more and more mainstream in the next few years, particularly as we try to grapple with some of the effects of the SAD in this country. I guess we shall see.

That's all I have time for now, but I do hope you'll take a look at the books and maybe give it a try yourself to see what all the fuss is about.

Have a great day all!

I just had a weird thought today. My friend once tried to throw away a bunch of tiles. The garbage man said he couldn't take tile. She said ok, and then only to herself, I bet you'll take it all. And so she began putting a piece or two into every trash can every week from then on until the tiles were gone. I thought about this and thought about how sugar seems to be at least a lower listed ingredient in everything we eat - I can't even find store bought beef broth without dextrose added. Are they just getting rid of the garbage (even better while convincing us it's tasty) by tucking a little in here and there everywhere?