Last week, I wrote about my 16 favorite fats. You had questions. For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’ll answer some of them. First, I explain why my keto salad recipe didn’t include any dense protein. Second, I explain a few options for steaming heavy cream. Third, I tell where I get my mac nuts. Fourth, I discuss whether you should worry about dioxins in pastured eggs. And fifth, I address the question of dietary fat and fatty liver.
Let’s go:
JUST CURIOUS – LOVELY SALAD – BUT NO OTHER PROTEIN SOURCE IS INCLUDED???
—Frances
Yep. I intentionally left it out of the recipe. About half the time I’ll throw in some hardboiled eggs, a can of sardines or tuna, or some leftover meat, fish, or fowl from the night before, but not always. As I mentioned in the Definitive Guide, dietary protein, along with glucose, is a source of oxaloacetate. It’s the absence of oxaloacetate that inhibits ATP generation via Krebs’ cycle and necessitates ketone production. Too much protein can inhibit ketone production.
But people seeking deep ketosis, whether for health reasons or simple curiosity, will often need to eat less protein. That’s what I’m interested in, at least for the time being. Hence the somewhat lower protein intake.
I just learned about Steamed Heavy Cream. Any tips from anyone on the proper way to do that?
—Nikko
If you have an espresso machine, that’s the best way to steam it. Few have one at home.
Heat the cream on the stove, then whisk it furiously. Incorporate as much air as you desire and pour into coffee.
Heat the cream on the stove, then blend. Stick blenders and stand-up blenders both work.
Hawaii Costcos carry an incredible 2-pound (or so) bag of mac nuts. The brand escapes me, but it’s definitely not Mauna Loa or Kirkland. They’re the sweetest ones I’ve ever had. Not sure if they’re roasted or not. Whenever I’m on Maui or Kauai, I make sure to grab at least 5 bags to take home.
I don’t worry much about organic. Mac nuts are a low pesticide nut. Their shells are quite hardy, and most producers are able to grow them without using additional chemicals.
I do stick to raw or dry-roasted mac nuts. Just plain “roasted” usually means “fried in substandard vegetable oil” (that goes for any nut).
I am wondering, I eat quite a lot of eggs every day for my weight (woman, 55 kilograms). I eat about 4 eggs a day (local, pastured), but many sources say that mainly those eggs contain a lot of dioxin because chickens pick the polluted ground. What about the potential negative effects of higher dioxin in your pasture raised (also meats) food? Or is this effect negligible?
—Laura
They used to think that grass-fed beef had more dioxins due to the cows ingesting more polluted soil. It turns out that the cows they tested were eating out of dioxin-contaminated troughs and had industrial waste mixed in with their feed. The same has been shown to happen with pastured-raised chickens and their eggs—living in contaminated hen houses spikes dioxin levels. Soil dioxin levels matter, but they’re not the only source of dioxins in eggs.
Besides: eggs and other animal foods that may be higher in dioxins possess more of the nutrients that reduce dioxin toxicity.
I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I’m also not one to worry too much about things you can’t really control. What’s the alternative—eating battery-farmed eggs and missing out on higher levels of vitamin E, omega-3s, vitamin A?
No thanks.
Mark, what is your take on what Art De Vany said on the Tim Ferriss in that interview you linked to a couple weeks back? He said paleo folks are eating too much fat, leading directly to fatty liver. He also wondered why they need all that energy. I was surprised to hear that after all the good things I’ve heard about fat from you and others.
—Fittsdawg
Excess fat—fat that exceeds caloric requirements—does increase the chance of fatty liver. But it’s not the fat, specifically. It’s the excess. A recent study out of China found that the best predictors of non-alcoholic fatty liver were diets “higher in energy, protein, fat, saturated fatty acid (SFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA).” After adjusting for BMI and age, the best predictor was high “total energy intake.” In other words, people who ate a ton of just about everything were more likely to have fatty livers.
And most significantly, the studies are quite clear that the best way to lose liver fat is to go low-carb, high-fat. You don’t have to do it that way. It’s just the way that the most people seem to find the most tolerable and sustainable.
A pilot study using the ketogenic diet helped non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients lose weight and drastically improve liver health markers.
A Spanish ketogenic diet (keto with wine, basically) cured people of the metabolic syndrome and improved health markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, with over 92% of subjects improving their liver health and 21% resolving it entirely.
Note that just because these were “high-fat” diets doesn’t mean they were eating “loads” of fat. Seeing as how they lost weight, they were most likely reducing calories overall. That’s just how low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diets pan out. You inadvertently eat less. It’s how they work.
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.