Thank you for the article, Variana. I will have questions for you about milk and saturated fat as well as about hormone balance once I am able to access the q and a component of your work. I am a long time proponent of raw milk and I wish it was easier to get goat milk where I live.
Wondering why Aspirin is listed in protocol since regular use leads to ulcers. I also wonder how traditional Eskimos slept on an almost all blubber diet. When humans were Hunter/Gatherers sweet things like honey were a rarity. Dr William Davis’s Wheat Belly protocol limits carbs to 15g per meal and mostly from complex whole food carbs. I am assuming 15 grams for dinner is enough for no early sleep wake. Otherwise, a wonderful article!
Hi Dan, thank you! 1. Re aspirin: at 81–325 mg, the ulcer risk is very much overblown if you take it with food and do not have serious stomach issues. Of course, be careful, and if it does not feel like a good fit or causes stomach discomfort, discontinue it.
2. there are so many myths about traditional tribes, especially the Inuit. They ate glycogen-rich organ meats, berries in summer, seaweed, fermented foods, and more,not just blubber. They also carry a specific fat-oxidation variant associated with hypoglycemia, higher infant mortality, and reduced height. It looks more like a costly adaptation than proof that everyone thrives on an almost zero-carb diet. And there is no sleep data from that era, so the idea that they “slept great on blubber” is mostly projection.
3.On honey: some tribes, including the Hadza in Tanzania, get a substantial share of their calories from honey. Fruit, roots, and tubers were also staples across many of the environments where humans evolved. The claim that carbs were universally rare is simply not proven.
4. And on 15 grams at dinner: that is exactly the kind of intake that can contribute to a 3 a.m. wake-up, especially on an otherwise low-carb diet. The brain uses roughly 4–5 grams of glucose per hour, so eight hours of sleep requires around 30–40 grams just for the brain. Liver glycogen holds around 80–100 grams when full, but 15 grams at dinner does not guarantee that those stores are well stocked.
And ultimately, all of my articles and protocols are written for modern people living with modern exposures, modern diets, and modern levels of chronic stress 🌸
Thank you for the article, Variana. I will have questions for you about milk and saturated fat as well as about hormone balance once I am able to access the q and a component of your work. I am a long time proponent of raw milk and I wish it was easier to get goat milk where I live.
Wondering why Aspirin is listed in protocol since regular use leads to ulcers. I also wonder how traditional Eskimos slept on an almost all blubber diet. When humans were Hunter/Gatherers sweet things like honey were a rarity. Dr William Davis’s Wheat Belly protocol limits carbs to 15g per meal and mostly from complex whole food carbs. I am assuming 15 grams for dinner is enough for no early sleep wake. Otherwise, a wonderful article!
Hi Dan, thank you! 1. Re aspirin: at 81–325 mg, the ulcer risk is very much overblown if you take it with food and do not have serious stomach issues. Of course, be careful, and if it does not feel like a good fit or causes stomach discomfort, discontinue it.
2. there are so many myths about traditional tribes, especially the Inuit. They ate glycogen-rich organ meats, berries in summer, seaweed, fermented foods, and more,not just blubber. They also carry a specific fat-oxidation variant associated with hypoglycemia, higher infant mortality, and reduced height. It looks more like a costly adaptation than proof that everyone thrives on an almost zero-carb diet. And there is no sleep data from that era, so the idea that they “slept great on blubber” is mostly projection.
3.On honey: some tribes, including the Hadza in Tanzania, get a substantial share of their calories from honey. Fruit, roots, and tubers were also staples across many of the environments where humans evolved. The claim that carbs were universally rare is simply not proven.
4. And on 15 grams at dinner: that is exactly the kind of intake that can contribute to a 3 a.m. wake-up, especially on an otherwise low-carb diet. The brain uses roughly 4–5 grams of glucose per hour, so eight hours of sleep requires around 30–40 grams just for the brain. Liver glycogen holds around 80–100 grams when full, but 15 grams at dinner does not guarantee that those stores are well stocked.
And ultimately, all of my articles and protocols are written for modern people living with modern exposures, modern diets, and modern levels of chronic stress 🌸
I’m guessing you meant Fight Club for the movie reference? 😆
omg of course !! Writing about insomnia at midnight will do that to you 😆
Haha
What if I cannot access progesterone?