As you have probably noticed, I'm taking a small sabbatical from blogging. Why you ask? To be honest, I don't have anything to say at the moment. Between The PaNu Weblog, The Paleolithic Solution Podcast, Animal Pharm, Nephropal, and Whole Health Source, my nutrition needs are covered.

As for me, my health has maintained for the last year or so and I have nothing earth shattering to report. In July I plan on writing another annual update, as it will be my second year on the all carnivorous diet. I will expand on my heavy experimentation with dietary supplements (mostly all bad), as well as playing around with the fat percentage of my daily food. 

I will also dive into the nuances between eating an all meat diet compared to an all pemmican diet. The first year of this experiment was centered around lightly cooked store-bought ground beef compared to the second being grass-fed pemmican. I'll attempt to leave my romanticism at the door, and to give a clear and honest look at what life has been like eating "The Bread of The Wilderness" for every meal.

In other news...

Joanne of Joanne Unleashed got a chance to sit down with the legend himself, Lex Rooker, and ask him a few questions. I haven't had a chance to check out much of the blog, but the interview is good stuff.

http://joanneunleashed.com/2010/04/lex-rooker-talks-about-his-rawall-meat-diet-and-relief-from-migraines/

Over at the ZIOH forum a member by the name of Ken, whom I'm lucky enough to have comment here, brought up the idea of dry aging meat for a more robust taste.

From Ken and the other forum members, I learned that when dry aging beef we want to accomplish two things; evaporate the moisture from the muscle (creating a greater concentration of flavor) and instigate enzyme break down, leading to more tender beef.

Things get very interesting several pages in the thread when Delfuego chimes in. Before I start putting words in their mouths, lets read the exchange.

Delfuego To Ken - "Thanks so much for all the info on dry-aging! Tried it with pemmican and have been very impressed with the results! Right after your first few posts on the process I thawed out 3 large primal rounds and set them on racks in our frig. I watched as the outsides of the roasts dried out - so far so good, after all I was going to eventually dry the meat for pemmican!

My main interest was toward the inside of the round - was it breaking down enough? I was hoping for lots of enzyme action and a noticeable effect on the muscle tissue. I wasn't disappointed! After the roasts had sat for three weeks, I sliced up 2 of the rounds and to my utter delight the meat was absolutely breaking down - so much so, that the thinner slices weren't able to hang from the wooden skewers I use in my pemmican light box dehydrator! This once tough, heavily muscled, thickly fibered roast had deteriorated to next to nothing!

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I must apologize for the lack of commenting & posting recently. Besides my rambling about all things nutrition, I participate in the musical supergroup Beta Wolf. What does it take to involve yourself in such a project? Do you like driving to LA? Do you want to sleep less at night? Would you like to have the equivalent of four girlfriends, which are actually dudes? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to start a band.

All joking aside, we've been working extremely hard creating new content in preparation for the free release of our six song EP. I've spent sometime putting together a new website and I would love to share it with you guys. We have some really cool HD videos up, as well as a free live version of the song 'Undertow' available for download.

If you're a fan of melodic rock, you're going to like it.

Check it out and tell me what you think!

I'm not sure there's a day that goes by that I don't tackle the question of how to improve upon my pemmican production. Considering most viewers of this site are interested in the same topic (here and here), I thought it would be beneficial to share some more tips that I've gathered over time.

Dehydrating The Meat

I believe the dehydration process to be the biggest factor affecting the outcome of the taste of pemmican. I've found that higher temperatures (115F-120F) cause pemmican to have a "jerky-like bite". Daredevil friends of mine that have taste tested this type of pemmican find it to be a lot more agreeable than pemmican dehydrated at lower temperatures. I would guess that the "jerky-like bite" adds a salty taste that is missing from meat dehydrated at lower temperatures.

Meat dehydrated at lower temperatures (95-110F) has what I would describe to be a mellow, more subtle taste. After much experimentation, I've found that I favor lower temperatures for producing pemmican. It takes a few more days to finish the drying process, but I find the mellow taste to be easier to eat; bypassing the sometimes harsh taste of pemmican dehydrated at higher temperatures.

Keep in mind this is purely a taste issue! Try both and see what you prefer. Above all else, make sure the meat is dry enough to snap in half and contains no moisture.

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Believe me when I say that I am truly grateful for Lex Rooker's friendship. Besides being a totally wicked dude, Lex always has great insight on whatever struggle I may be going through at the time.

When Lex saw pictures of my leg he graciously offered to supply me with meat as well as an invitation back into the wonderful world of raw paleo. Never being one to turn down free meat, I obliged and a few days later Lex dropped off a weeks worth of his patented mix of Slanker's high fat ground beef and pet food.

The ground beef is standard fair, but the pet food is where things get interesting. Slanker's website states that the mixture consists of trimmings from various beef cuts, heart muscle, jaw muscle, a little organ meat, tongue, plus a relatively small quantity of liver, kidney, and spleen. I'm excited to evaluate how I respond, given that I've only had rendered fat and powdered lean meat for almost a year.

Having had Lex's daily food before, I can say that I really dig the taste of raw meat. Having said that, the added pet food takes some getting used to, but I'm always up for experimentation. Does this mean I'm now RAW ONLY, NO PEMM ALOWED? Of course it doesn't, whether it be an all beef tongue diet or an all pemmican diet, I will always err on the side of how I respond and feel.  

Thanks again Lex!

More pictures after the jump. 

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The only other pemmican I've ever had the luxury of trying was Lex Rooker's. Lex's pemmican is unbelievably good. I would describe the taste and consistency as bold and hearty. Unlike most other pemmican enthusiasts, Lex doesn't grind the meat too fine, there are often large chunks of dried jerky in the finished product. Lex also prefers to use straight suet, which holds up well under different temperatures, and pleases me since I dig the candle wax texture.

Just recently Delfuego, a gentleman that has been eating an all pemmican diet for the last 7 years, announced that he would be selling off a stockpile that he had laying around. When I read this on the ZIOH forum I immediately rushed over to a computer so I could take advantage of Delfuego's offer.

Delfuego shipped out the pemmican almost immediately and it came a few days later. Delfuego's pemmican is excellent. I won't lie, It took a little getting used to, but at about the third day I was consuming ~18 ounces per day. His pemmican differs from Lex's and mine by the dry meat being pulverized into dust. This gives the pemmican an almost candy bar like chew, it's quite good.

In keeping with my commitment to being a good weblogger, I took pictures when Delfuego's shipment arrived. Enjoy, thanks again Delfuego!

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Who hasn't heard of Ori Hofmeikler and his famous Warrior Diet? In the popular book Ori explains that under eating during the day stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which promotes alertness, competitiveness and energy expenditure. During this time: insulin falls to baseline, human growth hormone is elevated, and glucagon starts mobilizing fat. All of these hormonal traits are desirable as well as have anti-aging effects.

On the flip side, Ori makes the argument that over-consuming during the evening triggers the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which promotes relaxation, digestion and recuperation. This controlled overeating is said to promote the body into an anabolic state, switching on one of man's most prized hormones, testosterone.

How legit is the science of Ori's Warrior diet? I'm not qualified in anyway to draw a conclusion, but based on my research and anecdotal experience, I would suggest that this way of eating is highly beneficial.

I've flirted with the one meal a day protocol for quite some time. I'm not quite sure why, but I have this romanticized view of it. Originally in my paleo days, I attempted to incorporate a warrior style meal plan. I would get off work at 6pm and rush home as fast as possible to gorge on my regimented 2000 calorie meal (planned on Fitday of course). My blood sugar and insulin still must have been out-of-control during this time, because waiting until 6pm in the evening to eat was pure agony. Only after more than a year and half on a zero-carb diet have things changed enough to where this pattern seems very appropriate and even natural.

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Updated on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 3:10PM by Danny Roddy

Let's talk about my past, my present and my quest for relentless improvement. I won't dip into my vegan experience, which you can read about, but I should start at the beginning with my dietary habits as a youngster.

My grade school menu consisted of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, and Cocoa Puffs. These nutritional power-houses were washed down with lactose infused fat-free milk followed by a tall glass of Tropicana orange juice, just like the kid on the commercial. I was the American dream. Sides that accompanied my main course were often of a cardboard box origin as well: Cinnamon Pop-Tarts, crumb mini doughnuts, coffee cake, or a peanut butter Eggo waffle all fit the bill as suitable choices to go along side my cereal super food. 

Hot on the heels of my cocaine like cereal addiction, was my penchant for Taco Bell. The recent purchase of a mountain bike had me riding to the local T-Bell nearly every day. Beaming with the feeling of independence, I indulged in taco supremes, nacho bell-grandes, chicken quesadillas a plenty. This particular T-Bell was one of the first I remember with an open soda fountain; thus enabling me to fuel my growing body with whatever ridiculous flavor the Mountain Dew corporation had thought of that week. 

Notable store bought items during junior high were: Gushers fruits snacks, Dunk-A-Roos, Lay's potato chips, root beer, Cactus Cooler orange soda, instant oatmeal, Pillsbury strudels, and not-for-the-weak Flaming Hot Cheetos. Looking back on it, I rarely ate meat unless it was honey glazed and came from the deli. I did eat a lot of ground beef from Taco Bell, but I'm not sure that counts.

High school and college was an onslaught of titanic-sized burritos and irish car bombs. It was at this point that the culmination of every poor nutritional decision collectively punched me in the face. I found myself in rough shape at the young age of 21. I had a very low libido, terrible anxiety, severe cold intolerance, digestive issues, sleep apnea, chronic halitosis, and a very itchy dandruff-ridden scalp. To top this off, all of my body hair started to fall out.

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