Hunter-Gatherer - Health and human nature from an evolutionary perspective

Google Trends: Vegans are taking over vegetarianism

John — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:43:34 +0000

Google Trends is a fun little tool. It shows you the popularity of Google searches over the past few years. Plug in "vegetarian" and "vegan", and you get the graph below. Vegetarian (red) looks like it is in slow decline since 2004. Vegan (green) has been climbing.

I exported the data, and added together "vegan" and "vegetarian" to see how vegetarianism, writ large, is faring. (There is some double-counting of people who searched for both terms in the same query, which will now be counted twice in the total. But that's fine for our purposes.) As you can see vegetarianism (blue) seems fairly flat over the past six years. Perhaps a few years of decline from 2004 to 2007, then a slight up-tick since.

It gets really interesting when you plot when you plot the share of vegan versus the share of vegetarian. Vegans are taking over vegetarianism. The vegan share has increased from the low 30s to nearly 50. Vegetarian has declined from high 60s to just over 50. That's a big swing. And keep in mind that for this period, the sum of these two groups is fairly flat.

So I ask any vegans or vegetarians out there -- is this true? Does this match your experience of trends in the vegetarian world? Are vegans taking over? And if so, why? What's going on here?

veg_search.gif

vegetarian_vegan1.gif

Rooftop release party for Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution

John — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:51:02 +0000

This is going to be one you don't want to miss. On Saturday, September 18, come join us for a rooftop release party for Robb Wolf's new book, The Paleo Solution. If you don't know Robb, see his bio below. In short, he knows the science (studied under Cordain) and he knows the application (world-class trainer). So he wrote a book.

This is going to be the biggest party we've thrown at my apartment...and we've thrown some big ones. We have to limit it to 150 people due to the space limitations, so sign up quickly.

What, alcohol isn't paleo? Zing, you got me! How about St. Peter's sorghum beer? St. Peter's has stepped up to sponsor the event, so we'll have a bunch of gluten-free beer on hand. I'm sure we'll have some NorCal Margaratas too.

This is going to be sick. Details below.

Details

Start: 8:30pm

Book talk: 9:30pm

Party until ???

Cost: $30 per person (includes signed copy of the book + alcohol)

ROBB WOLF, a former research biochemist is one of the world’s leading experts in Paleolithic nutrition. A student of Prof. Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet, Wolf has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world via his top ranked iTunes podcast and wildly popular seminar series. Wolf has functioned as a review editor for the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, is cofounder of the nutrition and athletic training journal, The Performance Menu, co-owner of NorCal Strength & Conditioning, one of the Men’s Health “top 30 gyms in America” and co-owner of Paleo Brands Inc. a paleo food company selling meals and snacks featuring grass fed meat, wild caught fish and all organic ingredients.

Wolf is a former California State Powerlifting Champion (565Lb Squat, 345lb Bench, 565lb Dead Lift) and a 6-0 amateur kickboxer. He coaches athletes at the highest levels of competition and consults with Olympians and world champions in MMA, motocross, rowing and triathlon. Wolf has provided seminars in nutrition and strength & conditioning to various military entities including the Canadian Light Infantry and the United States Marine Corps.

paleo_solution.png

partytime.png

Dawn breaks over bacon

John — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:16:13 +0000

Sun's rays, then skillet's heat

DSC00444.png

In praise of hipster farmers

John — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:19:24 +0000

New York City is crawling with hipsters. Particularly Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. You can spot a hipster by his plaid shirts, ironic Civil War-era mustachio, ironic Pabst Blue Ribbon, ironic skinny jeans, ironic one-speed bikes, vintage anything, v-neck anything, ironic glasses, ironic everything. For a fuller treatment, see Hipsters: The Dead End of Western Civilization. Or for visual examples, check out Look at This F*&@ing Hipster (language and frightening images).

Over the past few years, there has been a growing trend for hipsters to work on farms. This past weekend I picked up half a steer from Glynwood -- and I've never seen such fashion forward farmhands before. (Fashion forward means everything is old and ironic, i.e., chosen precisely because it is not fashionable. You can imagine Christmas dinner on the farm, when everyone would be wearing their ugliest Christmas sweaters.) It was like I walked into the back room of an obscure Williamsburg bar. As the NYT put it a couple years ago: "Their Carhartts are no longer ironic. Now they have real dirt on them." Yes, but their Carhartts are still a size too tight, and are rolled up at the ankle to reveal that mainstay of farming footwear: the Converse All-Star. No one is there to admire your fashion, hipster farmhand. Except your biggest fan and critic: your own ironic conscience.

Over the past 5 years, spots working on a small or sustainable farms have become very hard to get. It's the trendy thing to do. And you know what? Great. I like to make fun of hipsters and ironically club them over the head with blunt objects (since I'm a modern caveman) -- but I'm glad to see them finding a sense of purpose. Purpose is the antidote to irony and debilitating self-awareness. And being entrepreneurial and building the alternative is a better way to create the future than standing on the sidelines and writing ironic poems lamenting commercialism and modernity.

So here's to you hipster farmhand. And here's to the day when you show up for work not caring what you look like.

(If you have any pictures of hipster farmers, please send them in.)

hipster_tractor.jpg

hipster_plaid.jpg

Poll results: Most and least friendly ethnic cuisines

John — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:02:31 +0000

Results are in for least and most paleo-friendly ethnic cuisines. Lots of votes -- thank you.

No surprise for the clear winner of least paleo: Italian. With all that pasta, bread, bread sticks, pizza, and breaded meats, it's hard to avoid grain, gluten, and a big insulin spike. Maybe I shouldn't have chosen Olive Garden for our next paleo meetup. Chinese and Mexican aren't far behind. Favorite write-in: Tasmanian.

There are really two winners for most paleo ethnic cuisine: Barbeque and Brazilian. More proof that the ideal paleo meal is meat on a stick. Greek and Japanese are runners up. Have a look at the results, and then I'll give you my observations below.

Observe that Italian and Greek are heavily divergent on the rankings, which is odd considering they are two nearby Mediterranean countries who share so much classical culture. Italian food is very grain heavy, Greek not so much. I'll speculate that part of it is because Greece is more mountainous, so it's much harder to grow grain there than in Italy. Grain-products can't be a staple of your cuisine if it's hard to get hold of. This allows us to make some hypotheses: ethnic cuisines that are paleo-friendly will be found in countries where it is harder to grow grain relative to other sources of food -- mountainous locations or regions near the sea. Flat, land-locked regions and countries will have developed the least paleo-friendly cuisine.
Clearly, as commenter Alicia points out, there is a difference between Americanized ethnic food, the type of ethnic food available in NYC/LA or anywhere with sizable immigrant populations, and traditional/indigenous ethnic cuisine as it is made in the home country. For example, Italian gets slammed, but real southern Italian food has lots of seafood and is less grain-heavy than northern Italian, as you can see from Richard Nikoley's recent trip.
Barbeque got the most votes for most paleo, but I don't think it merits the highest honor. First, while the grilled meat is very paleo (and the act of grilling it), most of the typical sides are not: tons of sweet barbeque sauce, ketchup, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and baked beans. But the act of barbequing is about as paleo as it gets.
Brazilian is a great choice if you've ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse (churrascaria). However, the standard Brazilian diet is very heavy in rice and beans -- so when we say Brazilian, it's actually the churrascaria format that is most paleo. That said, having been to Rio de Janeiro in the last couple years, standard lunch places have awesome paleo choices (minus the rice and beans).
Korean is more paleo than it gets credit for in this tally. I've been to Korean BBQs that didn't even serve rice...the only breaded item were a few dumplings.
One commenter pointed out Filipino food as particularly friendly to paleo. Forget the rice. There's Sisig (spicy pork cheeks and brain), Dinuguan (innards and blood stew), Kinilaw (like ceviche), and Inasal baboy or lechon (whole pig roast). Lots of coconut milk, and no vegetarian dishes. What's not to like? A true blue Filipina is taking me to a Filipino restaurant this week, so I'll report back.

Keep your eyes posted for future posts where I'll give tips and tricks for how to eat paleo at Italian/Mexican/Chinese/Indian/ethnic restaurants.

Least paleo.png

Most paleo.png