Eat Ancestral: Recent Episodes
Benjamin Dewar
Koalas don't need dieticians, so why do we?
///
Contact
eatancestral.com
View our services
Sign up to the newsletter
Vitamin K deficiency is an emerging problem.
The main reason?
Differences between Vitamin K1 (made by plants, found in plant foods) and Vitamin K2 (made by bacteria, found in animal fats & fermented foods), and their respective roles in human physiology, have been overlooked by our nutrition 'experts'.
This is another lesson in the importance of bioavailability.
If you want a healthy heart / brain, strong bones & robust immunity, you should pay attention your Vitamin K status.
"There is increasing interest in the potential health benefits of vitamin K beyond its role in coagulation. Several studies have reported functions for vitamin K beyond its classic role, including the improvement of bone health, and the reduction of vascular calcification and cardiovascular risk."
— The Role of Menaquinones (Vitamin K2 ) in Human Health – Beulens et al. (2013)
"Accumulating data from both basic science and clinical studies demonstrate that the beneficial effects of VK2 are not covered by current RDI guidelines. The consequence of looking past these data has resulted in insufficient intakes."
— Vitamin K2 Needs an RDI Separate from Vitamin K1 – Akbulut et al. (2020)
Resources
Transcript
Vitamin K | nutrients we're deficient in (blog)
Iron | nutrients we're deficient in (blog)
Bioavailability of nutrients from animal vs plant foods (blog)
Healing the gut through diet–deep dive (blog)
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
References
Akbulut, AC, Pavlic, A, Petsophonsakul, P, Halder, M, Maresz, K, Kramann, R & Schurgers, L 2020, ‘Vitamin K2 Needs an RDI Separate from Vitamin K1’, Nutrients, vol. 12, no. 6, p. 1852.
Araki, S & Shirahata, A 2020, ‘Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding in Infancy’, Nutrients, vol. 12, no. 3, p. 780.
Beulens, JWJ, Booth, SL, van den Heuvel, EGHM, Stoecklin, E, Baka, A & Vermeer, C 2013, ‘The role of menaquinones (vitamin K2 ) in human health’, British Journal of Nutrition, vol. 110, no. 8, pp. 1357–1368.
Halder, M, Petsophonsakul, P, Akbulut, A, Pavlic, A, Bohan, F, Anderson, E, … Schurgers, L 2019, ‘Vitamin K: Double Bonds beyond Coagulation Insights into Differences between Vitamin K1 and K2 in Health and Disease’, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 20, no. 4, p. 896.
Mandatori, D, Pelusi, L, Schiavone, V, Pipino, C, Di Pietro, N & Pandolfi, A 2021, ‘The Dual Role of Vitamin K2 in “Bone-Vascular Crosstalk”: Opposite Effects on Bone Loss and Vascular Calcification’, Nutrients, vol. 13, no. 4, p. 1222.
Iron deficiency affects billions of people worldwide.
Are you one of them?
“Iron is a mineral that is an essential component of hemoglobin, myoglobin, enzymes, and cytochromes and is necessary for oxygen transport and cellular respiration. Iron also is critical for optimal growth and cognitive function.”
— The Epidemiology of Global Micronutrient Deficiencies – Bailey et al. (2015)
Resources
Transcript
Plant Foods: Friend or Foe (podcast)
Animal-Plant Warfare (blog)
Just a little Vitamin D: the importance of micronutrients (blog)
Healing the gut through diet–deep dive (blog)
Bioavailability of nutrients from animal vs plant foods (blog)
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
References
Bailey, RL, West Jr., KP & Black, RE 2015, ‘The Epidemiology of Global Micronutrient Deficiencies’, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 66, no. Suppl. 2, pp. 22–33.
Ning, S & Zeller, MP 2019, ‘Management of iron deficiency’, Hematology, vol. 2019, no. 1, pp. 315–322.
Pawlak, R & Bell, K 2017, ‘Iron Status of Vegetarian Children: A Review of Literature’, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 88–99.
Sunlight triggers many beneficial changes in humans.
It can help us relax, improve our mood and help us sleep better.
Other benefits include; gut health, sexual health, bone health...
If that interests you, listen in to hear what else sunlight can do for humans.
"We are of the opinion that moderate sun exposure (less than the time required to burn) to the arms, shoulders, trunk, and legs should be sought rather than avoided. Once that limited time has been achieved, we agree that covering the skin or seeking shade may be appropriate."
"The current policy of sun avoidance is creating probable harm for the general population."
– Baggerly et al. (2015) ‘Sunlight and Vitamin D: Necessary for Public Health’, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 359–365.
Resources
Benefits of sunlight (visual)
Sunlight & Vitamin D (blog)
D-minder (app)
Transcript
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
"Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better."
– Albert Einstein
Plant foods are considered de facto healthy in the modern world.
But is it true?
In this episode, we explore some nutritional (and ethical) considerations that fly under the radar.
Resources
Food Pyramid (visual)
Animal-Plant Warfare (blog)
Bioavailability of nutrients from animal vs plant foods (blog)
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
References
Ames, BN, Profet, M & Gold, LS 1990, ‘Dietary pesticides (99.99% all natural).’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 87, no. 19, pp. 7777–7781.
Wöll, S, Kim, SH, Greten, HJ & Efferth, T 2013, ‘Animal plant warfare and secondary metabolite evolution’, Natural Products and Bioprospecting, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1–7.
“Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as it endeavours to make us believe. Indeed, the number of deaths from infectious diseases has greatly diminished. But we still must die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases… In spite of the triumphs of medical science, the problem of disease is far from solved… Modern man is delicate… The organism seems to have become more susceptible to degenerative diseases.”
How?
Why?
This is the second instalment of our series on Weston A Price's book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects.
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
Is it 'expensive' to eat healthy?
All things considered, we don't see it that way.
Resources
True Cost, Value & Fair Price of Food (blog)
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
Out of all the foods that humans have consumed throughout our history, some have been particularly sought-after.
Here's a shortlist of them, discovered by your ancestors and confirmed by modern scientific analysis.
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
The way our food is prepared is not some trivial matter.
It has many implications: quality, safety, digestibility, nutrient availability, gut health and long-term health status, to name but a few.
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
Food ≠ calories and macros.
It's more complicated than that.
Here's how to figure out what qualifies as 'food' (vs the stuff you find in most supermarkets).
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
Modern humans have forgotten what to eat!
Our dietary guidelines are confusing and over-complicated.
Here are some principles that will simplify your understanding of what humans are meant to eat, and why.
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
How much did our ancestors know about health and nutrition?
Some clues are given to us here, in an excerpt from Weston A Price's book; Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects.
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up
Buy Me A Coffee
Welcome to the Eat Ancestral Podcast.
My name is Ben.
For the past 10 years or so, I have been on a quest to fully understand nutrition, human physiology, and more recently, the transfer of health between generations, and how all of this fits into the larger ecosystem of health and wellbeing.
In this Podcast, we’ll be going deep into a range of related topics;
— A primary focus will be understanding the nutritional inputs needed to build healthy, robust humans.
— To help us do that, we’ll be talking a lot about the differences between ancestral diets (meaning what humans ate throughout most of their evolution) and contrasting that with recent changes--the modern nutritional guidelines you find stamped on cereal boxes today.
We’ll unpack the profound impact of these food choices on our ancient biological systems, how this regulates our genetic expression, influences body composition and cognitive function, to name but a few, and how all of that, in large part, will come to dictates our immunity—or susceptibility—to sickness and chronic disease.
To make things more practical, we’ll also be touching on food sourcing and traditional food preparation methods, including a focus on sustainability and ethical considerations, and how these are intimately connected to our nutritional ideals.
Effectively, I want to offer you a better strategy for how to think about food, and how to go about feeding ourselves, while still enjoying life, and not destroying our own health, that of future generations, or that of the planet in the process.
The goal here is to offer knowledge, tools and methods that have stood the test of time, and this will hopefully reduce suffering in the world, and empower fellow humans to lead better lives, and to eat better food.
Contact
Services
Newsletter sign-up