From: "Robert Wolf"
Thursday, December 19, 2002 8:10 AM
Subject: Net alkalinizing diet

>I put this question to the list a few days ago amidst
>another message and received no responses so I am
>going to try again!  On the topic of acid/base
>balance and eating a net alkalinizing diet as Loren
>Cordain recommends, what are your thoughts?
>For me fruit seems to be a more dense and easily
>accessible source for an alkaline load but I digestively
>do not tolerate fruit well and immediately experience
>what I would describe as "carb head".
>I am curious if others have any opinions/experiences
>on this topic one way or another.
>Robb

I held off from replying, Robb, as I don’t have anything fresh to add.
But as I do have a few experiences, I’ll respond to your second invitation.

In my diet I look at the nutritional and physiological science and
implement what I can where I feel it could have been implemented in the
Pleistocene world.

I have taken seriously Loren’s presentation of the acid/alkaline issue and
have it at the back of my mind when I shop and when I eat.

I have supplemented the info in the list on page 213 of Loren Cordain’s
book with that in a list in The 90-day Fitness Plan by Matt Roberts.  In
two pages of foods, Roberts lists only four that reach into his ‘very
alkaline’ category.  These are asparagus, watercress, mango and melon.

On this basis, and also because of its availability at my excellent
greengrocer, I eat cress whenever it is available (and my son hasn’t
scoffed the lot).

I have absolutely no way of knowing whether my diet is net alkaline or
acid.  I put my body under a fair bit of stress with deadlifts of 2 1/3 my
body weight (I’m 53 yo), kettlebell swings and plyometrics which put a
fair bit of stress on my bones and joints.  My skeleton appears to be
strong – that is, not suffering leaching of calcium from the bones enough
to cause fractures or even pain.

For details of a week of my food consumption, see

http://www.evfit.com/intake.htm

Watercress would have been available in the Pleistocene for months on end,
but the others would have been more seasonal, so I don’t focus on them as
closely.  Mango is a relatively high carb fruit – another reason for not
permitting them a regular place in my diet.

My doctor has noticed a marked yellowing of my facial skin and fingernails
and I assumed this came from the cress, which is a far richer, deeper
green than lettuce or other greens.  I had some bloodwork done and it has
cleared me of a carotene overload.

Loren’s advice have caused me to modify my inclinations and so I go for
smaller serves of meat than I would like to eat .  Why have big meat
meals?  Because I enjoy them: 500-700g raw weight of meat seems to me to
provide a very satisfying meal indeed!  But I consciously try to keep the
raw weight somewhere in the range of 200-400g in a meal – and even that is
highish according to Loren’s position.

Giving up fruit except for two or three meals a week has given me a new
understanding of the sense of hunger.  If I have a nibble of meat in the
morning, and nothing other than a black coffee and water for through till
lunchtime, I find that I do not experience any hunger AT ALL.  The has
amazed me.  Rob Faigin, in his Natural Hormonal Enhancement,
differentiates between what he calls ‘hormonal hunger’ (which I now
understand I used to have and mistook for real hunger) and ‘real hunger’.
You will see from my web page that I go for reasonably long periods
without food, certainly longer than I would have before I switched back in
January to Paleo eating.  I have not once been hungry while on the NHE
diet which I have modified to eliminate all non-Paleo foods.  I also
consciously increase the fats in my diet with avocados as a staple and
olive oil (I’d eat more olive oil at work if I hadn’t splashed oil from a
salad onto a couple of my favorite silk ties – ties with fabulous African
savannah motifs!)

Sadly, I’m not well-tuned to my body and so don’t notice any difference in
my moods or sensations whether I pig out on carbs ( I approach 300g of
carbs in a single meal twice a week) or virtually eliminate them (every
other meal).

So, that’s where I am.  Happy to take comments and answer any questions I
can.

Keith

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