htone

Hey, hey. Seems like you missed a whole lot actually, where you been ???

Indeed, and because I don't eat during the day I can focus all my energy on preparing really scrumptious meals at night Nah, seriously, my evening meals are actually usually quick and simple, this pork roast is a little OTT, but hey, ya gotta live a little !

I know this is easy for someone else to say, but I feel that I am somewhat qualified as I went through the same thing in May: Don't question your decision, rather look at what the quality of life of your best friend would have devolved to, had you not made that decision. My dog Zoe deteriorated in front of my eyes as she had a spinal condition that eventually left her with almost paralyzed rear legs. I battled for a long time with the thought of knowing that the day would arrive when I would have to make that call. Before Zoe I have had to put five other of my best friends to sleep over the years, yet I always chose not to be present when they did that, and somehow I never got closure. With Zoe I decided to be there and I had my hands on her until her last breath. Much as I am sobbing about this right now, I know that I did the right thing by her and that she is in a better place now. Seeing her at peace and no longer in pain was what I needed to see to give me closure. Sure, I will always be sad in a way when I think about her and my other dogs, but if you spend so many years with them by your side, how can you not be ? Grieving is part of the process, but make peace with the fact that you did the only thing you could still do for Titan so that his dignity was still in tact. These are my thoughts on the subject and perhaps saying this is part of the healing process.

Sorry, I missed this post when I replied - but they key seems to be the high fat part and I am really going to try and do as much research as I can around this. The problem with modern dog food of course is that its almost all carbs and protein with very low fat, as fat is supposed to be bad (but that's why we have the LCHF forum on here ) - the trick would be to bring that carb content right down whilst upping the fat for energy. But as you rightly say, it could be a genetic defect in which case this is a moot point, however judging from the condition that Max was in when we got him I'd say that he suffered a fair amount of abuse as a pup or young dog and I think that is where this comes from - i.e. nerve damage rather than genes. But I am speculating...

Thanks for sharing this Wil6, I am holding on to the fact that the seizure was very short in duration and that there were no other symptoms of cluster seizures, but I am not letting the little guy out of my sight and he has literally been at my feet the entire day (a slow and steady supply of biltong treats may have something to with that). The Vet also seemed really pleased with his bloodwork and there were literally no markers outside of the norm. I am also looking into dietary treatments for epilepsy now, as I am a Low Carb High Fat diet proponent and I have seen the huge difference that this diet has made to the frequency of seizures in my father-in-law, who was at his wits end due to meds not really helping. Cursory reading on this seems to indicate a high success rate with raw, high fat diets for epilepsy in dogs. Interestingly enough the Vet shared with us that the most common cases of epilepsy occur in Huskies, Labradors and BC's - in her experience.

The secret to success with house training a pup is getting up at regular intervals at night and taking them out for the first week or three. I also initially kept the pups in the bathroom, but soon realised that all I am teaching them is to poop in the bathroom We were really blessed with our pups, by the second week they were going out via the trap door by themselves and we only had a handful of mishaps after that, but I think all the interrupted sleep and freezing our butts off outside with them was well worth it !

Dinner for tonight (and the next few nights) going into the oven now... Roast leg of pork, rubbed in with Shiraz salt and Nomu One for All spice, dribbled with some apple cider vinegar and parked on a bed of onions. Various other veggies to be added later. Slow cooked at 140 deg for the next 3- 4 hours. Nom Nom...

Scary stuff, hey ? Chatting last night to a doctor friend of mine and I was again astounded by how deep Big Pharma's pockets are and how they reward healthcare practitioners for the number of prescriptions of certain meds that they fill. They really have the whole thing sown up from end to end - they get sponsorship from Coke to make you sick and then they sponsor the doctors to use their meds to treat you (note I did not say make you healthy !)...

In this talk Cardiologist Dr William Davis explains the biochemistry of modern Wheat and what those different compounds are doing to our bodies. Modern Wheat is not the same as the Wheat from the Bible folks, it’s not even the same Wheat that your grandparents ate!! The vast majority of today’s crop is a hybridised and modified variety that grows only 1 foot tall and have up to 10 times the yield of the pre sixties Wheat. So that part sounds benign, and in fact good. Unfortunately its compounds include a laundry list of compounds which can cause appetite stimulation and food cravings, auto-immune reactions and a whole lot of other side effects, plus it’s almost guaranteed to increase your subcutaneous fat around your belly. And that fat is just the tip of the iceberg, since the likelihood is that by the time your tummy starts rolling ever outwards, you’ve probably accumulated some internal (visceral) fat around your organs too....

I remember the lady at the BC rescue telling us the same thing, she's lost dogs because of that. I could see how the other dogs all wanted to sniff at Max after the attack, he obviously secreted massive amounts of stress hormones which I am sure the others could smell. Just FYI - yesterday was garbage collection day here and so the dogs usually get very agitated as we have "bergies" that scratch through the garbage bins in the street. It was during such a situation that this happened - but I actually brought the dogs into the house just prior to that and I could see how Max was trying to get away from them just before he collapsed, so I think he has developed a mechanism to get himself as far away from them as possible when he feels this coming on. He is a bit of a "loner" in that regard, he doesn't usually rush out to the same gate as the other dogs, he will pick another gate or bark from a distance. Perhaps this is just me "hoping" that this is what he has been doing, but I have learned to never stop being amazed at what we can learn from dogs.

"...while money doesn't talk it swears..." ~ Bob Dylan http://www.weightymatters.ca/2013/08/the-american-college-of-cardiologys.html#.UgtPyFbZtqI.facebook

Lots of cookie recipes on there... I cannot go there....

Hectic afternoon yesterday, my BC Max had a full-on epileptic seizure - the first time I have witnessed this in a dog so I was mortified, but recognized it for what it was and put the other dogs away and kept Max calm. The attack was over in about 30 seconds and there was no foaming at mouth or anything else that apparently manifest in serious seizures. We have suspected for some time that he had sustained some type of nerve damage as a pup as he frequently does "air licking" and seems to get visual disturbances (which is actually the aura of the oncoming epilepsy attack) from time to time. He may have had this for a while, but we may not have noticed since the dogs are home alone during the day. I spent the past two months at home so I have really had them in my space every day and I fortunately was here to witness it. His blood tests came back 100% normal this morning and he is now on a mild tranquilizer which seems to have eased things out a bit. Do any of you on here have experience with epilepsy in dogs ? (This is Max below)

AM ketones today ?

Enjoy - I love the stuff. I have started adding cabbage to some of my dishes, couldn't stand the stuff before, but in a nice mix with enough butter I found it to be surprisingly nice. I buy those little baby cabbages, cut them in half and then layer garlic, cheese and bacon on top of the open side, put that in the oven for about an hour on low heat and you have something that beats a filled mushroom!

Well done, Little One. The Force is strong in you !

A fascinating talk by Dr Ron Rosedale - well worth spending the 22 minutes to watch - especially the Q&A part at the end (would I lie to you ?) Ron Rosedale, M.D. presenting at the 2nd Annual Ancestral Health Symposium (AHS12) on Saturday, 11 August, 2012.

Just to add to that (from Wikipedia) - and you can draw conclusions from the nutrient profile that this is quite high carb but a complete source of plant protein: Quinoa was important to the diet of pre-Columbian Andean civilizations.[15] Today, people appreciate quinoa for its nutritional value. Quinoa has been called a superfood.[14] Protein content is very high for a cereal/pseudo-cereal (14% by mass), yet not as high as most beans and legumes. Quinoa's protein content per 100 calories is higher than brown rice, potatoes, barley and millet, but is less than wild rice and oats.[29] Nutritional evaluations of quinoa indicate that it is a source of complete protein.[30][31][32] Furthermore, it is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is also a source of calcium, and thus is useful for vegans and those who are lactose intolerant.[33] Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration human occupied spaceflights.[34] Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) Energy 1,539 kJ (368 kcal) Carbohydrates 64 g - Starch 52 g - Dietary fibre 7 g Fat 6 g Protein 14 g

Roux1, not sure, I bought a whole USB thingy for the Accucheck meter, but have never looked at the Bayer options. (http://www.bayerdiabetes.co.za/sections/ourproducts/software) I suggest you talk to one of the stockists, like Dischem and ask them, alternatively contact Bayer Helathcare (Diabetes Care) directly and ask them - often one of the reps will be able to point you in the right direction.

Flowta, here's my boykie Romeo - he is now growing at quite a pace and has lost some of his stockiness, but still very much the Terrier of the Town. Just over 6 months old now (best guess).

Thanks Wet Ears, I have been following this debate for some time ! But the real issue is, how do you stop this multi-billion dollar industry from pumping out more of the most prescribed drug in the history of mankind ? This is a near impossible task, I fear. And then they come up with things like "Oh well, if it doesn't directly reduce mortality, at least there is some evidence to show that it lowers inflammation..." ... whatever. I am now on a low dose statin to dissolve some plaque build-up in my arteries (thanks to my lifestyle in my "previous life") and I cannot wait for my next sonar in 2 months' time to see if that has been resolved so that I can stop the meds again, so trust me, I am keeping a very beady eye on this !

P.A.K. - you are 100% right, the real trick is to be in a fully adapted metabolic state so that you can very quickly switch between fat and carb burning. There is a really interesting passage in that Peter Attia presentation that HMT posted, where in the isolation chamber the scientists were surprised to see how quickly his RQ fell, i.e. he went back to fat burning really quickly (at 51min 40 sec). When this happens you will sometimes show zero ketones on the ketostix, but if you look at those rather impressive graphs that Attia puts up around the 43min mark, you will see that he basically remained in ketosis, even though his blood ketones varied quite a lot. I prefer to stay in ketosis for two reasons. Firstly I can manage my blood glucose (and by implication ketone levels) better and secondly, I can control my weight better. On top of that (as Attia also states), you just feel so damn energized and good all the time and you just don't get that afternoon energy slump anymore ! But I have said this before, this is not for everyone. I dabbled with increasing my carbs for a while, I kind of slacked off and did not check whether I was in ketosis for more than a month and in that time I added back 6kg. About 3 weeks ago I started eating more strictly, keeping my carbs below 80g / day and lost about 200g, but 2 weeks ago I pulled my carb intake right back to below 30g a day and voila, dropped 2.5kg in the last 2 weeks. I am telling you this to illustrate what dietary ketosis means for ME - it may not do the same for you. edit : typo

Hey, but nothing beats the taste of a nicely roasted nut ! Just FYI, here's the carb content of a few of the popular nuts, Macnuts are about 9g per 1/2 cup: Carb Content of Nuts Please Note: all carbohydrate values are approximate Nuts (serving size 1/2 cup) Carbs (g) Almonds, dried 9g Brazil nuts 9g Cashew nuts, dry roasted 22g Hazelnuts (3oz) 5g Peanuts, roasted (3oz) 10g Pecans, dry roasted (1oz) 6g Pistachio nuts, dry roasted 16g Walnuts 8g

DV should arrive late Saturday, so will be there on Sunday. Perhaps a coffee somewhere (but you have to be quite specific as I use satellites to navigate ) on Sunday morning ? edit : PM me, this thread has gone off topic enough as it is

Hey I have been balling my eyes out all morning....