Older Bolder Life

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Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 10 August 2019

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Fitness At Any Age: Thoughts From the Week

Much has been written of late covering quarterback Tom Brady’s 19th NFL season which officially started last week; while I’m not necessarily a fan of his TB12 methodology and program being a fit for most mere mortals over 40, Men’s Health recently published a nicely done interview piece on his pre-season training program.

4 laws of muscle; great reminder about the importance of protein (and protein signaling).

Nice piece from Sisson on microworkouts.

91-year old woman breaks age world record in 400 meters.

89-year old deadlifts 405 – twice!

An Eclectic Collection of Other Older Bolder Topics of Interest

5 ways to conquer an impossible task.

Elevated fasting glucose levels raise pancreatic cancer risk. (I lost a good friend years ago to pancreatic cancer – improvements in diagnosis and care have transpired since then, but dammit, what a bad actor that disease can be…)

People with T2DM lowered hepatic fat and improved glucose tolerance on a LCHP food plan in only 6 weeks.

Speaking of protein above, higher protein in seniors may help combat osteoporosis too.

Food, Glorious Food

From vegetarian to butcher.

Should you be thinking about sesame seeds as an allergen? The study…

Countries eating more butter are happier? (Beware the correlation v. causation issue)

Scapegoating red meat? (A chef friend who sent this over had some interesting commentary, more to come in a post…)

Our Recipes from the Week
Sweet Potato Hashbrown Cheeseburger Pie
Libby’s Verde Cashew Wonder Sauce
Easy Romesco Sauce

the Older Bolder Bookshelf: License to Grill

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There are a bevy of great grilling cookbooks on the market these days, and no doubt more to come, with I’m guessing a great one or two to come forth focusing in particular on ancestral foods.

That said, the critical point of where you source proteins for the grill duly recognized, great grilling cookbooks don’t have to be ancestrally focused to be useful for us all. Many a great grilling chef (and cook) have trod the fascinating path of meat and heat before us, and left us a treasure trove of great recipes, tips, and tricks along the way.

I’m something of a cookbook collector from way back, one of the most used cookbooks in our family collection is in fact this one: License to Grill, written by acclaimed chef Chris Schlesinger and editorial genius John “Doc” Willoughby (1997). This is one that you’ll want to track down and read through if it’s not on your self today.That’s a pic of my own well-worn copy from the back porch last night, digging back through for a recipe component I couldn’t quite remember…

Chris Schlesinger is a renowned chef and restauranteur; he currently owns Back Eddy in Westport, MA, and formerly founded and managed the East Coast Grill and Jake and Earl’s Dixie BBQ, both in Cambridge. He’s written numerous cookbooks and has long been recognized as one of the true geniuses around the grill.

John Willoughby is the executive editor of Gourmet magazine, formerly of Cook’s Illustrated, prolific cookbook author, and graduate-level writing instructor at Harvard’s Radcliffe Seminars.

This is not the fanciest, prettiest cookbook you’ll find; there are just a few pages of images interspersed among the detailed and thoughtfully written recipes, each presented with a short story personalizing some aspect of the recipe or the food itself.

The cookbook itself is fairly classically organized, offering succinct but useful thoughts on fire and preparing food, along with set of recipes for appetizers, cooking on skewers, beef and pork, fish and other seafood, fowl, hobo pack cooking, extra-spicy offerings, low and slow genuine ‘Q, sides, condiments and sauces, and a few (non-ancestral!) desserts.

I’ll bet if you dig around you can find a well-preserved used copy of this one, as well as some of Schlesinger’s other nifty cookbook offerings.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 3 August 2019

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Food, Glorious Food: Nutrition News This Week

From the “How Can This Be News?” file: Packaged food is ultra-processed.
The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the “fasting fad” (really, you’re going to call it a fad?)

Foraging foodie and chef: Sarah Glover. (Our photojournalist daughter has been invited to Australia for a series of stories and hopefully will have time scheduled with Ms. Glover…)

The Southern Foodways Alliance fall symposium.
Tart cherry juice for improved cognition? The lay report and the study it’s based on.

Turning the tables on the fake meat game, here’s a radical process for turning vegetable matter into meat protein.

Food, Glorious Food: Our Recipes from the Week

Spicy Thai-Inspired Shrimp Stir-Fry
Chile Peanut Cauliflower Rice
Garam Masala and Cucumber Dip

Older Bolder Health News Roundup That Caught My Eye This Week

Resistance training improves neural plasticity in a rat dementia model.

Speaking of resistance training, here’s an interesting interview with Charles Polquin – Aerobic Exercise May Be Destroying Your Body, But Weightlifting Can Save It.

Should the Alzheimer’s amyloid theory be put to rest? (Free MedScape account required).

Walking makes us happier, healthier, and brainier. You have to appreciate their tagging walking as a superpower.

How to think about your own mortality – at least one view on the issue. The author’s bio is fascinating…

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 27 July 2019

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An Eclectic Collection of Fitness Reads for the Week

Resistance training without weights works just as well?
Training to failure: load and rep count really don’t matter.
Exercise (8,900 steps per day?) offers some form of protection against Alzheimer’s.

Geoffrey Miller on Sexual Fitness and the Paleo Movement. You likely won’t agree with everything he says, but interesting…
6-year old nails push-up records.
Does foam rolling help sports soft tissue injuries? (Free MedScape account required)
Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?

From the Halls of Conventional Medicine…

Should you stop taking aspirin for heart health? A lay article recently published and the American College of Cardiology’s 2019 Guidelines.

Laminotomy beats laminectomy for lumbar spinal stenosis. (Free MedScape account required).

No added benefit for half of drugs introduced in Germany? A lay article recently published, based on a study published in the BMJ (see this and this).

Food, Glorious Food

The health writers at Vox have been busy taking on an overview of fiber here and the Keto diet here.
A saturated fat tax? Bollux.
Global meat consumption over the past 50 years.

Spicy Hanger Steak Lettuce Wraps
Grilled Leeks and Zucchini with Pecans
Simple Salsa Criola

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 20 July 2019

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This week I’ve ended up doing a fair amount of research and reading about aging, including things to do to mitigate or modify risks that accumulate as we roll down life’s highway. Some of the interesting links included….

Increased activity in middle age lessens mortality risk. (Duh!)
Extending US life expectancy – another no-brainer type report for many adherents to ancestral health principles, though a stunning reminder of how poorly US health markers have evolved over the past few decades.
Lifestyle and dementia risk.

Anti-aging gurus are still talking about this NAD+ study; and big Pharma is chasing the holy grail (read as the magic pill) to impact the aging process without lifting your metaphorical finger.

Ben Greenfield posted a fascinating, and related podcast, on the 6th.

In the battle against aging, remember the “young blood clinics” from last year?

Looking at the link between TRT (testosterone replacement therapy), often offered the “aging” male, and increased risk for CVA and MI.

And what about the link between chronic inflammation and Alzheimer’s?; chronic inflammation is a bad actor, and critically impacted by easily addressed lifestyle factors.

Hearing loss is tied to other impactful ailments as we age.

An Interesting Poke at the Gym and Muscle Culture

Gym, Eat, Repeat: The Shocking Rise of Muscle Dysmorphia. A lay article, but interesting…

The Older Bolder Bookshelf

This week I’ve added a feature to the blog we’ll call The Older Bolder Bookshelf; I’ve shared many times before that we’re huge fans of reading, both for pure recreation, as well as continually learning new things.

There’s such a rich, and interesting, body of work that’s been produced (in terms of readable and worthy books) in the ancestral health world, I’m going to add a more or less weekly post about books you should at minimum read and consider for adding to your home library. Some reviews will be short and sweet, some will be a bit longer.

Oh, and we’ll be sharing a pile of our favorite cookbooks as well…

Food, Glorious Food

What did medieval peasants eat?

Crispy Ancho Coffee Chicken
Zucchini Ribbon Salad with Cashews and Ricotta Salata
Quick Turmeric Zucchini Dills

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 13 July 2019

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Should Lipoprotein(a) – aka Lp(a) – Be on Your Radar?

I’ve been chatting back and forth with a physician friend, who has recently awoken to the myriad health benefits of eating ancestrally and taking a much more intentional, purposeful approach to his fitness , about the flurry of activity that has taken place in the past few quarters regarding lipoprotein(a). Here are a few of the articles we’ve chatted about…

Do I Need to Care about Lp(a)? [Free MedScape account required.]
Screening for High Lipoprotein(a): The Time is Now. [Free MedScape account required.]
Lp(a) levels and MI risk shows ethic variability.
Trials of meds (of course) to reduce Lp(a) are in process, for example…
Lp(a) associations with aortic stenosis deserve further study…

A Few Other Interesting Odds and Ends from the Week

Triclosan (common antibacterial agent) and osteoporosis.
Is there a tie between “sugary drinks” (including fruit juice) and cancer? A lay media report and the BMJ article it’s based on.

Another team argues that supplements don’t help brain health – the lay media report and an interesting study from the Global Council on Brain Health.
Yet another reason to dump TV.

And from the Strange But Probably True Science File

Interesting look at unlocking the mystery of superhuman strength.
Will perusal of ocular vasculature predict your dementia risk?

Food, Glorious Food

Butterbean Hummus
Grilled Summer Squash, Feta, and Pepper Salad
Sambal Ginger Sriracha Grilled Chicken

What I’m Reading This Week

Last week I shared a little about our family penchant for reading and my goal to read through 80 books this year; I bit off more than I could chew last week, and haven’t finished several titles…

New to the List

Franklin Steak, Arron Franklin and Jordan Mackay. Franklin runs one of the most sought after BBQ emporiums in Texas (Austin) and is a master of cooking proteins over fire. The book looks amazing with mouthwatering photography; full review at some point soon.

A Cast in the Woods, Stephen Sautner. A fly fisherman’s take on preserving a little slice of the Catskills.

Still reading from last week…

The Paleo Diet, Loren Cordain, PhD (catching up on an unread classic).

The Longevity Paradox, Dr. Steven Gundry (detailed review to follow)

Some Stories: Lessons from the Edge of Business and Sport, Yvon Chouinard

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 6 July 2019

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The Hot Topic of Late: 150,000 T2DM-LC/Keto Trial Patient Days and Counting

Fascinating data has recently been reported out of the Virta-IUH Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Clinical Trial (which is ongoing by the way). If you read nothing else this week, this story is worth exploring on a deeper level…

Written for the lay person and press, here’s one of the team members’ recent post on the study – The Top 12 Keto Myths Debunked After 150,000 Days of Patient Care.

Here’s the research team’s 2-year status report in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.

One of the brightest non-medical-professional minds discussing American medical care economics is Karl Denninger; he weighs in on the study, its cost implications, and shares a personal anecdote here.

Speaking of Diet and Nutrition…

The Defense Department is thinking about pushing soldiers to nutritional ketosis, but they’re a bit off base in their approach…

The Standard American or Western diet is impairing male fertility by age 18?

Sweet, fatty (the wrong fats) foods could remodel the brain to drive overeating.

The Gut Biome is Another Hot Topic These Days

I’ve finally gotten around to starting Dr. Gundry’s The Longevity Paradox in my reading cycle this week, and so far in the introduction he’s laid out an impressive foundation detailing the critical functions of the gut biome in human health and longevity; full review and comments to follow.

Tangentially related, a somewhat unusual look at the human microbiome.

What I’m Reading This Week

I’m increasingly convinced that those who are genuinely serious about improving their heath, fitness, and maximizing their functional longevity need to invest some time reading good science and the musings of the thought leaders in the game.

There’s a whirlwind of activity in the nutrition arena these days; I hear you when you say there’s a lot of noise out there – there is – and it does take a bit of effort to separate (gluten warning) the wheat from the chaff. Keep working at it; the more you read, the better you’ll get at sorting out the useful nuggets from the bullsh*t.

My wife and I (and our adult offspring as well) have always been voracious readers; personally I’ve recommitted to a goal to read 80 books this year, and will be sharing what I’m reading weekly just for the hell of it. This week’s reads include…

The Paleo Diet, Loren Cordain, PhD (I realized this past week I’d never read his original works, and ran across a copy of the revised edition [2011] in a used book store.) He’s obviously one of the respected leaders in the Paleo world.

The Longevity Paradox, Dr. Steven Gundry (see comment above)

Some Stories: Lessons from the Edge of Business and Sport, Yvon Chouinard

Sunset Beach, Mary Kay Andrews (good fiction for the win)

Food, Glorious Food

Grilled Jalapeno, Onion, and Pepita Salsa

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 29 June 2019

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Longevity and Aging News From the Week

Heart disease making a comeback in the United States – how’s that Standard American Diet working out for the masses these days?
Anticholinergic drugs and dementia risk.
Missing link in Alzheimer’s identified?

Still working at 99 – tips on aging well.
A brutal takedown on the Wash Post’s elderly “rational suicide”.
Divorce rates increasing for those over 45.

Supplement and Medication News From the Week

Vitamin D supplements and heart disease: no decrease in risk with use?
New drug to boost women’s sex drive approved.
Newer generation antidepressants and suicide risk. The data doesn’t bode well…

New Twist on the Gut Biome: Can Gut Bugs You a Better Runner?

The article from the lay literature suggesting a tie between gut bugs and running success.
The study the above article is based on.

Food, Glorious Food

Might want to rethink that salmon order at your favorite restaurant.

Ancho Lemongrass Chile Oil
Smokey Coffee Chipotle Rub