health-promoting traditional diets:
Contained a rich source of fat-soluble vitamins (particularly vitamins K2, A, and D)—whether from organ meats, high quality dairy, fish eggs, other seafood, or insects.
Were free from vegetable oils, white sugar, white flour, and canned foods.
Placed muscle meats pretty low on the totem pole—valuing instead an animal’s organs, skin, bones, and cartilage.
Contained a mix of both plant and animal foods, with no diet being entirely carnivorous or entirely vegan.
In Search of a Good Poop (or Sh*t Happens) 

Everyone does it. Before you run in fright from your computer screen, ask yourself if you really know sh*t about, well, sh*t. All we are saying is, give poop a chance. Friends, today, we explore the ins and outs of poo matters. Because poo matters. We are in search of a good poop, and we hope you are, too. Otherwise, some serious sh*t happens. Pull up a stool and learn.
The Scoop on Poop
What goes in must come out! Sans nutrients, of course. The Poop Report says:
The human digestive system operates like a factory. The plan of operation for this facility is pretty simple.
Obtain raw materials
Prepare raw materials for processing
Construct the product
Export the finished product
Profit from the endeavor
Your food is fuel and medicine for your body and your colon is a beautiful but delicate system for making sure your food benefit is maximized.
Good Poop
Proper poo should be somewhat large and well-formed, but not hard and dense. It should plop gently; this is not the time for a cacaphony of splashes. Ideal excrement is solid, smooth and comes out comfortably. If it comes out in tiny bumps or pieces, your colon may be irritated and you may not be eating healthy foods. Your stool should float or at least appear reasonably light; you do not want to be anchoring your toilet to the ground with the weight of your internal offerings. Heavy poop is not a healthy thing; it means your body is not absorbing and using nutrients from your food optimally. Your bowels are sensitive and contain important nerve endings and beneficial bacteria. If these becomes stressed or out of balance, you’ll know just by looking at your feces (and you’ll likely feel this, as well, with bloating, cramping, or discomfort). Are you a poo achiever?
Bad Poop
Improper poo: lumpy, painful, urge-a-riffic, constant, inconstant, contains undigested food (corn: avoid it), is odd in texture (is runny, resembles deer droppings, is rock solid). That’s right: there’s normal, well-adjusted crap and then there’s crappy crap. The good news is that therapy is effective for getting your sh*t together. We’ll tell you what to do to make sure your toilet time is productive and enjoyable.
That Stinks: Frequent Party Poopers 
Runny, Unspeakably Horrible Stuff
Feces should not be runny, and diarrhea is just plain dangerous if prolonged. If your feces is runny, you either have some sort of infection or illness, or may have consumed something that your body doesn’t like. Visit the doctor if it goes on for more than a couple of days (especially important with the seedlings). Women, if you experience diarrhea or gas with your cycle, don’t fret; this is fairly common. If it is too much to bear, see a doctor about treatment. It can help to increase your water intake during your period. And cut back on caffeine and alcohol! Bottom line: don’t run from poo problems.
It Takes Forever
This isn’t necessarily bad. Some folks just have slow pipes. Ideally, you’ll have a bowel movement daily around the same time(s). But there are some people who simply don’t, yet they’re healthy and all signs point to pleasant. However, if…
It Hurts
Barring a legitimate health condition, you may simply not be getting enough fiber and water in your diet. Make sure you are eating multiple servings of vegetables at every single meal, and drink pure water instead of soda or fruit drinks. If you frequently feel bloated and you’re just not an ace plunker, it’s time to look at your diet and exercise habits. Poop shouldn’t tease you; it should come out with ease and grace. If it’s painful, peeking, or ‘uge, something isn’t right.
Really Weird Colors 
Tie-dye in the toilet? Not a good sign. Poop will occasionally pop out in bright permutations (some spices and exotic cuisines can certainly startle your insides), but in general, you should expect a very boring, muted, muddly color range. In other words, designer crap is a load of b.s. White or yellow stools, or pink or orange coloring, can be signs of a major illness, so visit your doctor immediately if your feces starts to look like a living room from 1974.
Constipation
This is a very common complaint. The two major factors that come into play with your clingers are stress and diet. Stress causes all kinds of digestive trouble. Think about times you’ve been anxious or nervous – you feel it in your gut right along with your sweating palms and racing heart. Prolonged or chronic stress can create stubborn stools. Diet is also important to consider. If you are eating sugar, carbs, processed meats, and missing out on copious veggies, fresh fruit, nuts, and healthy fats, you are at risk for constipation. Dairy and wheat are often causes of internal cement, so lighten up the load by sticking to a diet like Mark’s.
When It Comes to Butts, Fat is King 
Aim for 6-12 servings of veggies and 1-2 servings of fruit. There is no good reason to overdo fiber. Excessive fiber intake can increase appetite and interfere with healthy digestion, mineral absorption, and elimination. Interestingly, what many folks don’t realize is that increasing fat intake can help with constipation and regular bowels. Try eating more olive oil, fish, avocados, nuts, and flax seeds. Buy DHA-enhanced eggs. And take two or three fish oil pills daily. We promise, it’ll help. And cut out that blasted soda!
Things to Do While Pooping & Useful Tips
– Hum “Eye of the Tiger”
– Think Up Crass Terms for Poop and Email Us Your Suggestions (it’s cheaper than therapy)
– Read MDA
– Sing “What’s New Pussycat?”
– Annoy your roommate/spouse by taking forever
– Appreciate your toilet time: it’s nature’s way of giving you peace and (sorta) quiet
– Prepare match, you little stinker, you
– Read a magazine or a book
– Carry on a conversation with your cat about your scat
– Always wipe from front to back when you’re done!
– It’s nice to keep moist towelettes available nearby to ensure extra cleanliness.

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/poop-health/#ixzz4Fk8p5pAA

Does Your Liver Look Like an Eskimo’s Dinner? Fatty Liver is a Silent Epidemic

Does your liver look like this?

All those white bubbles are fat droplets.
I’m busier than a bumblebee right now, so unfortunately the high-fructose corn syrup post is going to have to wait till Tuesday. Today I’ll make a quick post about fatty liver disease.

Someone on the Facebook version of this blog posed the question, “How common is non-alcoholic fatty liver??”
The exact prevalence in the United States is not known, but surveys suggest that far too many Americans’ livers look like an Eskimo’s yummy dinner plate, stuffed with as much fat as the livers of Campbell’s protein-deficient, cancer-free rats.
Fatty liver is generally asymptomatic, but can prime a person to develop inflammation, cirrhosis, and in rare cases death. Most people who have it probably have no idea. One author used the prevalence of diabetes and obesity to estimate that about 40 million Americans have fatty liver. A survey of men and women in the multiracial urban population of Dallas County measured fatty liver directly and concluded that fully one third of the population had fatty liver.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was first described in adults in 1980 and was first described in children three years later. The rise of the NAFLD epidemic has paralleled the rise in obesity, but you do not have to be obese to have fatty liver. It’s more closely related to insulin resistance and leptin resistance, and some people can even be extra-skinny and have fatty liver. Over 40 percent of Americans have some form of pre-diabetes suggestive of insulin resistance. So the true incidence may be closer to 100 million Americans rather than 40 million.
What causes fatty liver? Dr. Robert Lustig makes an excellent case that fructose is the culprit in Sugar: The Bitter Truth. However, even as high-fructose corn syrup began replacing sucrose and total sweetener consumption increased, another change happened: the Great Doubling of PUFA consumption during the Oiling of America. Here’s a graph from Stephan Guyenet’s Whole Health Source Blog in his article “Have Seed Oils Caused a Multi-Generational Obesity Epidemic?”

I have written several blog posts on fatty liver in the past. If you missed them, you can check them out by following these two links:
Maternal Intake of “Saturated Fat” Causes Liver Disease — You Know, the Unsaturated Kind of Saturated Fat
Coconut Oil Not Only Protects Your Liver From Alcohol — But From a Diet Deficient in Meat and Eggs Too!
In brief, corn oil, but not coconut oil or butter, induces fatty liver in animal experiments. In the alcoholic model, which according to Lustig’s hypothesis is the equivalent of a fructose- or sucrose-feeding model, palm oil is protective compared to fish oil; beef tallow or medium-chain fats from coconut oil are protective compared to corn oil; and cocoa butter is protective compared to corn oil. In fact, if animals consume 40% of their diet as cocoa butter, they can consume 30% of their calories as ethanol, and they might get mighty drunk but they don’t get fatty liver.
Why are PUFA’s so damaging? For a lengthy answer, check out my new article “Precious Yet Perilous — Understanding the Essential Fatty Acids.” If you’re not in the mood for a lengthy read, I describe the relationship between PUFA oxidation and atherosclerosis in my interview with Jimmy Moore. No reading required.
These deal mostly with heart disease, but the relationship to fatty liver is similar. Luckily, my obligate bumblebee busy-ness is mostly occupying me with 1) fructose and 2) fatty liver right now, so look forward to a number of blog posts on fatty liver in the next week or two. Suitable for a bumblebee, my next post will be about honey.