The Rewarding Feeling of Safe Starches
READERS SUMMARY:
WHY SHOULD WE QUESTION EVERYTHING?
WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL CHOICE?
WHERE MIGHT THE REWARD IN SAFE STARCHES TRULY LIE?
HOW GOOD IS YOUR NEOLITHIC BRAIN AT SENSING YOUR PALEOLITHIC BRAIN?
DOES QUANTUM MECHANICS PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION FOR THE PARADOX OF CHOICE?
I took a stroll through some of my favorite sites last night because I could not sleep well (added back a safe starch ironically yesterday, too) because I have some big things on my mind, and it seems some of the doubters are beginning to see the magic in my Quilt document. I remember when I posted it and how I was ridiculed in some places. I just sat back and took it all in because I fully expected that response. In fact, I told one of my internet friends, Dexter Yard, that I did this by design for a reason. I went as far as emailing a copy of the document to him to look over before it ever was posted on the Internet. His reply was much more kind and subdued than what I faced publicly when I launched the document. He told me he felt that this was not going to help people that it may in fact, confuse them even more. He told me it was all too complex for most people. I remember reading his reply and just smiling. He was trying to help a friend out and not allow me make a fool of myself. I smiled because I anticipated his response and I knew Dex was the kind of person who I want on my team because of the compassion and sincerity in his reply for my feelings.
What Dexter and many others did not know was the method of my madness. What I have stumbled upon is incredibly important not only to me, but for my patients, and mainly for you, the readers of these words. It is also some really complex and deep stuff. Our neolithic modern world desires everything in sound bites and 140 character tweets these days. I cannot and do not believe that I can convey what I think I have found with modern neolithic methods of communications. I have been told by countless people like Dex, PH Patrik, and even Mark Sisson, recently that we have to tell the world what we know in a way they will best understand. In fact, many Paleohackers told and scolded me the same warnings. They took my responses as aloof and arrogant. Typical of a CW doc, they said. Never once did they think about the paradox of choice or of doubt. Maybe using your own doubt and paradox of choice is precisely what I had in mind. Maybe, just maybe, I decided to show some of us why we should remain consciously aware of how doubt can be the currency for the changes I seek in my world. It might seem like insanity, initially, until you understand why things happen. When it came to my Quilt.I made it tough by design to optimally teach all of you how to become the change we all seek.
There is a thread on PaleoHacks commenting about my cold thermogenesis protocol and a long time poster and doubter named Marie, who posted, “I’ve been reading his blog with great skepticism for some time…however, each “patch” of the Quilt he adds explains more, and more, why my 72 y/o mother has a 6 pack and I do not. Yes, Mom swims in cold water 3x a week for an hour and has done for the last 35 years. There is a fine line between genius and insanity and only time will tell upon which side Dr. K walks… – Marie 5 hours ago”
HOW CAN CW BE SO CONVENTIONAL AND STILL BE WRONG:
AND WHY WE QUESTION EVERYTHING?
Elizabeth Miller wrote this on my FB wall (https://www.facebook.com/drjackkruse), ” I’ve been wandering down the path of the role climate plays — I once saw a documentary of an expedition to the arctic where all the members had to do was deal with the cold — no work. And even though they ate thousands of calories more than usual — especially meat and fat — every single one of them lost gobs of weight. So I wonder if the diet one should eat should reflect not only one’s DNA (cold weather alleles) but also the climate one currently experiences. Maybe in a warm weather place like where I live (Los Angeles) where one does not need to generate as much heat as one would in a cold weather place, that too much fat in the diet might not be warranted. Here’s an interesting article: http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.0040032.”
Dave Mayo made the following observations after reading the PH comments I made in response and I quote, ” Interesting point. I think that the great deal of plasticity our DNA gives us is why we thrive, but what happens when the change in environment is greater than that which our epigenome allows or it occurs over a shorter period of time than it appears that epigenetic plasticity allows the programming to change (mother to child as opposed to grandmother to grandchild).”
I think Dave’s version of reality generally jives with what most think and what is published in our scientific literature. But I think my response to him opened a discussion on choice, the paradox of choice, and how the human brain actually works compared to how most think it works. Moreover, because of this misunderstanding of how our brains really work from an evolutionary functional standpoint, there can be a mismatch that is in our blind spot. It is at the core why our neolithic brains allow us to make decisions that subjugate out paleolithic genes all too often. I use the reward theory of obesity and the safe starches theories in the blogosphere as my analogies to visualize the points for you here in this blog.
He followed that one up this, “From the research I’m reading (I’m a strength coach), you have to provide the proper resistance training stimulus if you want any of the starches to be safe and you have an easy time putting on weight. If you look at the research, obese people/Type 2 Diabetics tend to carry more Type IIx muscle fibers. It makes perfect sense because they tend to be primarily glycolytic and are rarely used in our current environment. They atrophy which leaves less active sites for glucose metabolism. Even better, a nice way to hasten the process if you are this genotype is to perform high intensity aerobic training chronically.”
I told Dave and the other commenters that I was going to hit on this topic in my new Paleo Summit podcast that is due to air on February 27th with Sean Croxton. You can register for it right here on my site so you won’t miss it.
Someone else brought up food reward and safe starches and that is when I chimed in. (I added some blackberries to my diet yesterday and the immediate effect was no sleep last night so I wrote this blog. So I’m back to my old plan today)
I said, “Dave, you do react to these things if what those studies are based upon are using biochemistry that we use today…what if I told you biochemistry can rewire just like the leptin receptor? Might that shock you? Moreover what does it mean for all your studies that you currently believe to be true for your clients? Might there is a better way? A way evolution figured out how to use the laws of quantum mechanics more efficiently to make biochemistry appear to rewire? And show you an more Optimal way? FACTOR X….GET SOME! Question everything and always ask why…always embrace paradox.”
Karen Vaughn quickly jumped in and reported, “I’ve fallen off the low carb wagon and have been struggling to get back on. I’ve noticed that since eating more bad carbs I feel more cold than I did a few weeks ago. Is this a coincidence or some sort of bad carb side affect? HMMM.”
I told her that she could go to the PHD or the reward method of” feeling” her way toward optimal, or she can use the Primal Rx to optimal as I will lay out. I am going to show you precisely why the ketogenic paleo diet is the optimal diet.
Long time reader, Daniel Han jumped in and said, “I’m excited for the Paleo Summit and hearing you lecture Dr. Kruse! IMO the optimal diet for nutrition and a low reward diet are two totally separate things, each with their own importance. one can be thin but not healthy by eating a bland diet, or eating healthy ingredients but not thin. I think that if one is overweight while eating a full Paleo diet, they should reduce the food reward by cooking plainly.”
My response was pretty cutting, but I was after all rewarded by safe starches last night and replied, “Reward is a dead concept to me….” And I felt I owed him an explanation for why I said it.
IS REWARD/SS DEAD?
Now that quantum mechanics has crashed into modern biologic theory, we have finally figured out why we think the way we do with our brain. The neo-cortex of humans is the most amazing micro machine evolution has ever created. With its creation, comes the ability of being consciously aware of our unconscious self, and of new realities available to us. Quantum mechanics actually predicted this mathematically in the 1920′s, but no one thought until recently to apply it to how our brain functions. Having these abilities allows us to change our direction in any environment. The real human miracle of our minds is not that we can see the world as it is, but that we can see it as it is not, and then change it. We must however be mindful that the conscious, deliberative mind is not the author of our most important decisions, such as what diet to eat or what exercise should I do and who should I date.
Instead, our ancient paleolithic brain based in the basal ganglia (paleo-cortex), is part of our old neural networked circuits that consciousness cannot access at all! It can however, pull the strings of all of our behaviors, and more importantly, our thoughts! This part of the paleolithic brain runs on dopamine. This is the true reward part of the real story that you were not told. This part of our brain predicts how rewarding a choice will be. The word predicts means something is being left up to chance. This is where Heisenberg principle shows up in modern biology. For example, if I pick this vegan sandwich, how rewarded might I become? (Not very) Our neolithic brain, however, evaluates the current state of what has been experienced and coded for in our entire cortex over a life time and informs the paleolithic brain about the best course of action or options we have. Here, choice comes into our equation again. This means all thinking is based upon probabilities based upon what is in our current understanding of reality.
This implies if you do not have a good foundation of experiences; your decisions will be shoddy! This means that intelligence is a function of chance. It is not a function of genetics or anything else you have been told it was. This is why Alzheimer’s patients improve cognition with exercise and movement. The brain is experiencing new things to add to it new reality. This is in complete alignment with Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics from 1925 that stumped Einstein. Even the master mind could not fathom it, even though his magnificent organ was using it in his head as he thought it. That is the paradox of choice. Our neolithic brain leaves many things up to chance, but decides things based upon the best reality it can contemplate based on what is has wired into it. When we become consciously aware of our unconscious paleolithic brain’s existence it can then be used to transform our reality. This is how transformation occurs. This introduces another effect of quantum mechanics called a quantum leap or an alternative reality. Many do not appreciate how it applies to biology or thought, but this is the spark of insight that people get before transforming events. It occurs when the neolithic brain becomes aware of a new truth and it opens new rabbit holes in our imagination. It creates the possibility of a new reality. All these things are mathematically worked out now. Biochemistry, however, has not worked any of it out.
It is precisely how the human brain is designed to work. Here is the paradox of the design most remain blind too all their life. It is only later that people construct an explanation of their paleolithic brain’s snap choices using their neolithic brain ability to conceive of a new reality that may or may not be true…actually convincing themselves incorrectly that volition and logic were responsible for their beliefs or decisions when in reality, they were not. They were always subject to the basic biology of the snap decision of their paleolithic brain and the rewards it was wired for. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about this called Blink.
SO WHAT IS REWARD THEORY OF OBESITY?
The reward theory of obesity is the neolithic brain of a blogger trying to explain how the paleolithic chemistry of obesity operates. It is trying to make sense out of the multitudes of papers that are published. All of them are based upon reductive thinking too. The worse kind, mind you. The paleocortex includes the hypothalamus for those of you keeping score here. My concept of obesity is a bit simpler, it concerns itself with how we account for electrons from food at the leptin receptor. This is present in every eutherian mammal on this planet today. That means evolution had a blueprint design for it. End of report. Now what is it is another story….
In my clinical and personal experience, obesity is an inflammatory disease of the brain, the paleolithic brain called the hypothalamus that damages the leptin receptor. Once you become consciously aware that my reality might be true, all things change. WHY? Because this is how we account for electrons from food! The reward tracts are fed afferent signal from the leptin receptor. This is not a bidirectional neural circuit as some think it is. It is a one way street. This means that the reward tracts have zero influence on how we account for electrons from food. You should think of the implications of that when you ponder the food reward theory. Biology requires it, and it is mandated by quantum mechanics and built into organic chemistries equations. This also explains why people are getting better on my Leptin Rx reset and using cold thermogenesis. If you use food reward by itself it, solves no clinical problems. I know this because I have tried it several times. This is how reductive thinking might lead to a miscalculation. That is how I view it after deep reflection.
WHY SHOULD YOU QUESTION EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE?
Thoughts form all our decisions, but our experiences hardwired into our neocortex determine our current reality of beliefs. This can trip us up if those experiences turn out wrong. Think statins, cholesterol, government spending….you getting were I am headed now huh? This is why CW is so common, and yet so often wrong. What we experience in our life socializes us to a belief system that is the jumping off point for how we view reality. The coolest thing about how quantum physics impacts biology is it mathematically showed that alternate realities were mathematically possible but no one quite fathomed it. All one has to do is look at how the human brain works to see that evolution assimilated this into our brain by design. Anything present in an organ level must be true on a subatomic level too. So, quantum mechanics theory wins again. We are just beginning to see how the application of quantum biology impacts human physiology. The FACTOR X concept is tied to this phenomenon too.
SO HOW CAN THINKING CHANGE OUR DNA?
Why can thinking change your DNA? Consider the things I just wrote about, and then consider this mental juxtaposition. What if we’re all dead wrong and our biochemistry is best adapted for cold environment, yet we live presently in a relatively warm world? What if evolution to a cold thermogenic environment is our primordial condition? Cold-adapted, or psychrophilic organisms are able to thrive at low temperatures and in permanently cold environments. What if we adapted to the warm of the modern world the last 2.5 million years, but we are best adapted to live like the 90% of living things on this planet that live on it? Yes 90% of life on our planet is cold adapted. Let me be clear here. I am not saying humans did not evolve out of Africa from Miocene Ape lineage (Dryopithecus ). I believe they did. However, I think a case can be made that their best survival blueprint might be for a cold environment in spite of what the paleo hominid fossil records current report. Why? What if Mother Nature’s evolutionary blueprints plans differ from your thoughts as they exist today? To see a glimpse of why you might be off, consider that all scientists still believe modern day earth is in an ice age,all be it at the end in the warming cycle that began 11,000 years ago. We know of many that have occurred since we evolved. What if I told you that your proteins and enzymes react completely 180 degrees opposite their current actions when you change a few things? Might that change the picture of your understanding today?
Maybe modern day life is the ultimate biologic mismatch that we are currently unaware of? Yes, a thought could change your DNA if you ponder a reality that is not currently in your conscious awareness.
My profession usually does not try to eliminate the impossible, because we are trained to be logical and reductive thinkers. When I am stumped, I think about the impossible and the links to the knowns. Then I deduce and I use connective thoughts. In my view, when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains however improbable, must be the truth. I think your neolithic brain could allow all of us to be making the same error, a modern day Paleohacker error. I aim to show you why this might be case as I roll it out this year…
Hey sign up for the Paleo Summit where I talk about this very issue with Sean Croxton on February 27th! The registration box is on my site on the top right!