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You can check your inflammation levels via a blood test called hs-CRP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-reactive_protein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-reactive_p

by Harj 13y ago

You can check your inflammation levels via a blood test called hs-CRP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-reactive_protein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-reactive_protein). I took it and was surprised to learn I was in the high risk range. I tried a vegetarian diet for just under a month, re-tested and I'd dropped into the low risk range (this was the only lifestyle change I made that month). I found that a full vegetarian diet isn't sustainable for me so now I'm trying out only having meat once a day (usually for dinner) and will re-test to see what result that has. I suspect that the absence of meat may have been less important than the increase in vegetables. The caveat is that hs-CRP isn't a perfect test because your result can be spiked temporarily if e.g. your body is recovering from intense exercise or a cold. That's why I think it's a good test to do more regularly and have longitudinal data for. I've been spending a bunch of time getting more comprehensive blood tests recently. If you've any questions feel free to ping me (harjeet [dot] taggar [at] gmail).

mattgreenrocks 13y ago
Very interesting; where do you get your blood tested? AFAIK, you have to be willing to pay the lab expense, which is tailored for insurance.
- Harj 13y ago
  Yes unfortunately most insurance won't cover any tests beyond the basic ones in your yearly medical. There are a few options: - WellnessFX (http://wellnessfx.com http://wellnessfx.com) offers the nicest experience and display of your results, but it's pricey and the tests all come bundled together so you can't pick just one or two you're interested in. - http://health-tests-direct.com http://health-tests-direct.com and http://directlabs.com http://directlabs.com are other options that have more a la carte options. - If you're in the Bay Area, the cheapest (by some distance) option is to use a new blood testing lab called Theranos, which has a location in the back of the Walgreens on University Ave in Palo Alto. If you download their lab order form (http://theranos.com/Content/pdf/theranos_lab_form.pdf http://theranos.com/Content/pdf/theranos_lab_form.pdf), tick the tests you'd like and have an MD sign it (doesn't have to be your doctor, could be a friend). You can take it into the Walgreens and they'll draw your blood there and email you the results a few days later.
  - jc8910 13y ago
    Here is a nice fluff piece on the founder of Theranos http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/elizabeth-holmes-theranos/ http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/elizabeth-holmes-t...
    - gcb0 13y ago
      Url being wired.com already make it very clear it's a fluff piece
cwal37 13y ago
I'm very curious that eating meat only once a day is a compromise for you. How much did you eat before you started thinking about this?
- Harj 13y ago
  At a minimum twice a day, which I don't think is that unusual for most people e.g a chicken sandwich for lunch and chicken with some kind of side for dinner. Cutting down to once a day i.e. having a vegetarian lunch, might not sound like much but it's harder than you'd expect. Most restaurant versions of a vegetarian option is a meat dish minus the meat e.g. a sandwich with just lettuce and perhaps one tomato slice. Finding a vegetarian option that's tasty and filling can be challenging (though comes with a good consequence of forcing you to discover new places to eat). I'm sure this is much easier if you work someplace with a good catered lunch option.
  - cwal37 13y ago
    Hmmm, I guess I'm something of an anomaly then. I can easily skip meat for a few days, or weeks, depending on what I'm cooking. I essentially never eat meat for breakfast, and my lunches normally don't involve meat either (typically a peanut butter and banana sandwich on wheat, some carrots with hummus, and a yogurt). If I eat at work, I prefer to make a salad. Dinner's the most likely culprit, although there are a lot of curries I enjoy vegetarian. Now that I think about it, I guess the last time I ate meat was Saturday, and someone else made the meal. I guess it depends on how much you cook too, you're right about it being harder to find good vegetarian options, but I eat out one meal a week at most normally, and prefer none because I love cooking. I live in a small-midsize town in the south, so there's plenty of meat about.
awolf 13y ago
For a counter-point, I eat an extremely meat heavy diet and have a superb CRP number (.23). It's more likely about avoiding low quality meats, which unfortunately is what 95% of the meat produced in the US is.
- Harj 13y ago
  That's a very good point. Quality of meat isn't something that seems to be accounted for in studies linking meat consumption to various diseases/health issues. Out of curiousity, do you eat a lot of vegetables?
  - awolf 13y ago
    Estimating here but I'd put my breakdown by calorie as: -45% high quality meat (grassfed, pastured, cage-free depending on species) -10% low quality meat (traditional supermarket stuff) -30% green leafy vegetables (read: very low non-dietary-fiber carbs) -10% fruit or carby veggies (e.g. tubers) -5% grains (never gluten containing) So I definitely have other confounding factors that might influence my CRP number: low carbs, very low grains. That said, I arrived at my current diet via 3.5 years of A/B testing what works for me, optimizing for specifically what causes my digestion the least inflammation. I'm very happy with the results.
- Alex3917 13y ago
  By low quality meat, do you just mean corn fed?
  - awolf 13y ago
    For ruminants, yes. But I think "just" might be understating it. Corn-fed cattle do not have the proper stomach ph to naturally protect against bacteria overgrowth in their stomachs (whereas if they consumed solely grass, this is naturally not a problem). As a workaround to the bacteria problem they are force fed antibiotics for their entire lives. Additionally: corn fed cattle yield 30-50% more meat because they are insanely obese. Beef producers have a perverse incentive to keep these animals in confined conditions (read: knee deep in their own shit) so that they don't get too much exercise. When you eat conventionally raised cattle, you're consuming the meat of a crippling infirm animal that lived its life in appalling conditions. It's a bad scene.
650REDHAIR 13y ago
For anyone else that was wondering how much this test will run you- "Cost is just $40 – $70 and it’s covered by most insurers, including Medicare..."[0] [0]http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2011/06/17/3-lifesaving-new-medical-tests-you-have-to-ask-for/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2011/06/17/3-lifes...

by Harj 13y ago

mattgreenrocks 13y ago

Very interesting; where do you get your blood tested? AFAIK, you have to be willing to pay the lab expense, which is tailored for insurance.

Harj 13y ago
Yes unfortunately most insurance won't cover any tests beyond the basic ones in your yearly medical. There are a few options: - WellnessFX (http://wellnessfx.com http://wellnessfx.com) offers the nicest experience and display of your results, but it's pricey and the tests all come bundled together so you can't pick just one or two you're interested in. - http://health-tests-direct.com http://health-tests-direct.com and http://directlabs.com http://directlabs.com are other options that have more a la carte options. - If you're in the Bay Area, the cheapest (by some distance) option is to use a new blood testing lab called Theranos, which has a location in the back of the Walgreens on University Ave in Palo Alto. If you download their lab order form (http://theranos.com/Content/pdf/theranos_lab_form.pdf http://theranos.com/Content/pdf/theranos_lab_form.pdf), tick the tests you'd like and have an MD sign it (doesn't have to be your doctor, could be a friend). You can take it into the Walgreens and they'll draw your blood there and email you the results a few days later.
- jc8910 13y ago
  Here is a nice fluff piece on the founder of Theranos http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/elizabeth-holmes-theranos/ http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/elizabeth-holmes-t...
  - gcb0 13y ago
    Url being wired.com already make it very clear it's a fluff piece

cwal37 13y ago

I'm very curious that eating meat only once a day is a compromise for you. How much did you eat before you started thinking about this?

Harj 13y ago
At a minimum twice a day, which I don't think is that unusual for most people e.g a chicken sandwich for lunch and chicken with some kind of side for dinner. Cutting down to once a day i.e. having a vegetarian lunch, might not sound like much but it's harder than you'd expect. Most restaurant versions of a vegetarian option is a meat dish minus the meat e.g. a sandwich with just lettuce and perhaps one tomato slice. Finding a vegetarian option that's tasty and filling can be challenging (though comes with a good consequence of forcing you to discover new places to eat). I'm sure this is much easier if you work someplace with a good catered lunch option.
- cwal37 13y ago
  Hmmm, I guess I'm something of an anomaly then. I can easily skip meat for a few days, or weeks, depending on what I'm cooking. I essentially never eat meat for breakfast, and my lunches normally don't involve meat either (typically a peanut butter and banana sandwich on wheat, some carrots with hummus, and a yogurt). If I eat at work, I prefer to make a salad. Dinner's the most likely culprit, although there are a lot of curries I enjoy vegetarian. Now that I think about it, I guess the last time I ate meat was Saturday, and someone else made the meal. I guess it depends on how much you cook too, you're right about it being harder to find good vegetarian options, but I eat out one meal a week at most normally, and prefer none because I love cooking. I live in a small-midsize town in the south, so there's plenty of meat about.

awolf 13y ago

For a counter-point, I eat an extremely meat heavy diet and have a superb CRP number (.23). It's more likely about avoiding low quality meats, which unfortunately is what 95% of the meat produced in the US is.

Harj 13y ago
That's a very good point. Quality of meat isn't something that seems to be accounted for in studies linking meat consumption to various diseases/health issues. Out of curiousity, do you eat a lot of vegetables?
- awolf 13y ago
  Estimating here but I'd put my breakdown by calorie as: -45% high quality meat (grassfed, pastured, cage-free depending on species) -10% low quality meat (traditional supermarket stuff) -30% green leafy vegetables (read: very low non-dietary-fiber carbs) -10% fruit or carby veggies (e.g. tubers) -5% grains (never gluten containing) So I definitely have other confounding factors that might influence my CRP number: low carbs, very low grains. That said, I arrived at my current diet via 3.5 years of A/B testing what works for me, optimizing for specifically what causes my digestion the least inflammation. I'm very happy with the results.
Alex3917 13y ago
By low quality meat, do you just mean corn fed?
- awolf 13y ago
  For ruminants, yes. But I think "just" might be understating it. Corn-fed cattle do not have the proper stomach ph to naturally protect against bacteria overgrowth in their stomachs (whereas if they consumed solely grass, this is naturally not a problem). As a workaround to the bacteria problem they are force fed antibiotics for their entire lives. Additionally: corn fed cattle yield 30-50% more meat because they are insanely obese. Beef producers have a perverse incentive to keep these animals in confined conditions (read: knee deep in their own shit) so that they don't get too much exercise. When you eat conventionally raised cattle, you're consuming the meat of a crippling infirm animal that lived its life in appalling conditions. It's a bad scene.

650REDHAIR 13y ago

For anyone else that was wondering how much this test will run you- "Cost is just $40 – $70 and it’s covered by most insurers, including Medicare..."[0] [0]http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2011/06/17/3-lifesaving-new-medical-tests-you-have-to-ask-for/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2011/06/17/3-lifes...