Fast-5 Diet and Lifestyle: [fast5] Re: Thyroid, iodine, and weight loss

Sunday, March 14, 2010

[fast5] Re: Thyroid, iodine, and weight loss

Heather-

I don't eat any processed foods other than nori sheets. I can't find cookies or flour growing outside, so I don't eat them. I don't eat grains and I don't eat sugar. I've also started eating a lot more organ meats and sardines. Anything a hunter gatherer could get outside is on my list of things I can eat. It's sort of a litmus test: "Can I find this or kill it outside?" Most mammalian predators and human hunter gatherers tend to cherish and savor the internal organs and intestines. I have been reading some older accounts of Native Americans which seem to indicate over and over that they would eat nearly all parts of the animal including the lungs, brain, tongue, genitals, etc. While I'm not prepared to be THAT adventurous, I think there's something missing from our modern tendency to just eat the muscle and throw the rest away. I know some would think that eating like this is limiting, but really it gets you away from the Nixon-esque paradigm that was created to subsidize the most profitable crops. It gets you to look at many different fruits and vegetables that otherwise would just go unnoticed. I've taken a keen new interest in the produce and meat departments. There's so much there that I never noticed before.

I've read your blog and I like the ideas you've come across regarding iron. Over and over I've come across literature that links improper mineral levels or intakes to poor thyroid/endocrine function. I've read some reports on aquatic algae being among the first life on this planet and whenever the first animals started coming out of the water 500 million years ago, they had to remain close to the water in order to maintain the nutrients that they required to live. Humans have lived near the water's edge for most of their evolutionary time on earth until the last 50,000 years or so. I just really think there's something to eating a diet that's sustainable in a coastal area. We're based on salt water, just like the stuff our predecessors crawled out of. Here's a good link that discusses algae: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae . Asians do eat a lot of fish, but they eat a significant amount of algae. The aforementioned Wiki article mentions that the Chinese eat over 70 different types of algae!!

I think the key the good health is definitely somewhere in our relationship between our mineral intake, pH balance, and the sun. I have a vague sense at this point of a bigger picture. When I figure out exactly what I'm talking about and my random thoughts begin to congeal into a cohesive whole, I'll definitely share. :)

-Rick Stewart

--- In fast5@yahoogroups.com, Heather Twist <HeatherTwist@...> wrote:
>
> I've been playing with "Japanese foods" for the last couple of months
> and have noticed something similar. I'm not sure it's the iodine though:
> I've had iodine-rich foods for some time (mainly seaweed),
> but this time I added more fish, and stopped eating beef (still eat
> chicken and pork though). Also I added tea.
>
> There is decidedly something going on here, but it's hard to pinpoint
> what it is. The current theory I'm testing is that it might have to do with
> iron, esp. the heme sort. So in the spirit of scientific inquiry:
> when you added the fish etc, did you cut back on beef/liver/ etc?
> Also did you eat less pop and fruit juice? And I'm taking it that you
> eat fewer processed foods? (packaged cookies, cereals, etc)?
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 5:19 AM, RickS <rstewart@...> wrote:
> > So, I let my weight creep back up to 204 over the last year, I think by snacking too much during my window. I've been reading about thyroid function and metabolism lately and I decided to add extra iodine containing foods to my diet like algae, seaweed, nori, fish, etc. Son of a gun, if I didn't lose 18 pounds in the last month and a half! It took me four months to lose that much last year! All I'm doing is sticking to one big healthy meal during my window and only eating things I could get if I were walking around outside.
> >
> > This morning I was 186lbs. I feel like if I keep this up I can easily get into the 170's. Last year I was following fast five pretty strictly and only losing a pound a week. I can't say the only difference has been iodine, but I feel like it has made a HUGE difference.
> >
> > Rick Stewart
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
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> >
> >
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>
> --
> Heather Twist
>
> www.dunkers.us
> Kraut: the easy way!
>