Richard Nikoley writes about paleo and ancestral diet and lifestyle, including self-experiments with weight gain and going soap-free.
HN commenters recommend it as a blog for anyone curious about paleo eating, and the diet threads include personal weight-loss success stories.
Research? Sort of. Experience? Yes.
Owsley "The Bear" Stanley, the famous LSD manufacturer and Grateful Dead sound engineer, lived very healthily on an all-meat diet for over 50 years. (Note: he did have cancer, though likely due to HPV and years of secondhand cigarette smoke and firsthand marijuana smoke, and his diet probably helped him survive it, and he had a heart attack, but that was likely due to complications from his youth that became noticeable after putting on 30 pounds of muscle weightlifting in his 50s.) He posted all about it on a forum years ago. It's a very interesting read: http://activenocarber.myfreeforum.org/ftopic22-0-0-asc-.php
Traditional Inuit also eat an all-meat diet with lots of fat. See Weston Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#ch5), as well as the writings of Vilhjalmur Stefansson (http://highsteaks.com/carnivores-creed/vilhjalmur-stefansson/ ).
The Plains Indians, as well. See "Guts and Grease: The Diet of the Native Americans" (http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/guts-and-grease-the-diet-of-native-americans/) and this talk by Stephen Phinney, "The Aboriginal Argument" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayf4R-y_RYo). Phinney himself has been on a very low carb, ketogenic diet for, I believe, two decades.
Some argue the Inuit were not ketogenic (http://freetheanimal.com/2014/03/reiterate-elevated-ketone.html), but they tend to overestimate how long glycogen remains in muscles after…
When I was single, I went on a modified (included small portions of lean meats) Eat To Live diet as an experiment.For breakfast, I jammed myself full of fruits and some dairy. For lunch I had a Subway salad with all the veggies and a lean meat. For dinner, I had a large punchbowl-sized salad with a variety of vegetables and a lean meat. Broccoli and vast amounts of spinach seemed a common theme. I also drank A LOT of water. I did not modify my sedentary fitness scheme.
The results were that I dropped 10 lbs a week for that month, didn't seem to lose any muscle, and didn't feel hungry. I felt more energetic. The downside was that I had to make 3 trips a week to the store for fresh veggies.
Some of my other "body hacks" experiments were:
- Vegan for 2 years
- Vegetarian for 10 years. Going back to meat (especially tuna) had amazing effects on my brain functioning. Tuna was initially the only meat I could eat without throwing it back up. I noticed great mind improvements within a couple days.
- Eliminating all sodas (of which I only drank diet pepsi) for a month. I very rapidly lost (probably water) weight. If I recall, it was about 20 lbs. I have no clue whats in Diet Pepsi that causes weight/water retention.
- Polyphasic sleep: A total scam in my experience. Maybe I need too much sleep.
- 5BX: Really works
- Body For Life: Really works as advertised, but consumes your life.
- Couch (couldn't jog 400 meters to start) to ultramarathon in 8 months, with several…
I started the paleo diet about 6 months ago. In that time I lost about 18kg of fat easier than any other diet I have ever been on. My blood lipids (I was about to start statins for cholesterol) have all improved dramatically in this time, to the point where my doctor is now incredibly interested in the topic. My psoriasis and eczema have all cleaned up dramatically. The crossfit gym I go to has seen massive improvements in lifting etc once people went paleo. And I am finally off the Prozac for anxiety. Needless to say, for the population of n=1, this experiment worked wonders. I know a lot of people won’t take this anecdotal evidence, but if you jump into any of the many paleo forums, you will hear stories like this all the time. If you want a serious easy to follow, health improvement, I highly suggest this diet.
For more resources on the topic I suggest a few books.
http://www.primalbody-primalmind.com/ - Primal Body Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas – Lots of science.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ - Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson – Lot more accessible. Give it to your parents etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes/dp/1400040787 - Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes – Very long, but explains where the American Dietary guidelines came from and why they are wrong. (Cliffs notes: http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-bad-calories/ )
Some excellent…
I've been shampoo free for three years, now. It's like the parent says. My transition period lasted 4 weeks and I wore a hat the entire time. After that, my hair was the softest it's been in its life. No fuss, no muss. I wash it daily with water, when I shower. I use neither shampoo nor conditioner, just water.
Here's an article[1] by a guy who did it as well. He was linked on boingboing in 2009 and 2011. His site also has several updates, as much as a year later[2]. I think one of the boingboing guys did it too. There are links to the boingboing articles in the first link[1].
On the soap issue, I remember reading a study conducted a while back about the difference in bacteria counts after going to the bathroom. They compared not washing to washing with water to washing with soap and water. There was one particular bacteria that was only effectively eliminated when soap was used. Apparently, it was small enough to hide deep enough in the folds of your skin that water alone couldn't touch it. So, I do wash with soap after going to the bathroom, but I don't use soap on my body when I shower.
[1] http://freetheanimal.com/2009/12/paleo-i-dont-care-i-like-no-soap-no-shampoo.html
[2] http://freetheanimal.com/2010/02/no-soap-or-poo-update.html
If there are any brands of whole wheat (unenriched), air fried ramen noodles available in Canada or North America, please post here. Been wanting them for 3 years now. Enriched flour has been linked to diabetes and obesity by some pretty dramatic studies. These links below are not the studies themselves, but summaries of current knowledge and research, put in context.
HOW FOOD ENRICHMENT MADE US FAT, DIABETIC, AND CHRONICALLY DISEASED
http://freetheanimal.com/2015/05/enrichment-diabetic-chronically.html
IRON, FOOD ENRICHMENT AND THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
http://freetheanimal.com/2015/06/enrichment-theory-everything.html
HOW FOOD ENRICHMENT PROMOTES OBESITY (“THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING” WIDER AND DEEPER)
http://freetheanimal.com/2016/05/enrichment-promotes-everything.html
actually, there is a related phenomenon called "Beyond Shampoo" or "nopoo" (the website seems to be down). There is a huge movement around giving up soap and shampoo permanently to avoid and cure stuff like dandruff, acne, etc.
I personally had HUGE successes with it in improving my overall hygiene - but be warned that it takes upto six months for your body to "reboot". during that time, your hygiene grows worse - before getting extremely better. I suspect it is the same case with the brushing thing : it will take quite some time before the flora and fauna of your mouth reboots.
[1] http://freetheanimal.com/2010/12/a-most-successful-self-experiement-over-18-months-soap-and-shampoo-free.html
[2] http://paleohacks.com/questions/17060/no-poo-and-dandruff.html#axzz2mCPzOIdR