{"id":3328,"date":"2011-08-11T21:40:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T03:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2011-08-11T21:40:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T03:40:47","slug":"ancestral-health-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/11\/ancestral-health-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancestral Health Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m back to my (more or less) normal life after spending a few days in Los Angeles to attend the Ancestral Health Symposium<\/a>.\u00a0 I won\u2019t describe the symposium itself in detail because several other bloggers have already done so \u2013 check out any of the links below if you want to know what you missed:<\/p>\n

Richard Nikoley (Free the Animal)<\/a><\/p>\n

FitBomb<\/a><\/p>\n

An Omnivore’s Decision<\/a><\/p>\n

Emotions for Engineers<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of those posts have links to still more posts, so follow links to your heart’s content.\u00a0 You can also find pictures on some of the blog posts.<\/p>\n

I apologize for not posting any pictures of my own.\u00a0 I packed a still camera but flat-out forgot to use it.\u00a0 That\u2019s partly because I spent the entire weekend dealing with stage-four sleep deprivation, thanks largely to the heroic efforts of American Airlines.<\/p>\n

As I told the audience at the beginning of my speech, when I left Los Angeles two years ago, I promised myself I\u2019d never go back \u2013 and when I went to the airport on Thursday, American did their best to make me keep that promise.<\/p>\n

We boarded the plane on time, then just sat there, wondering why we weren\u2019t pulling back from the gate.\u00a0 Eventually someone from the crew announced that the plane was having mechanical difficulties that couldn\u2019t be resolved, so we\u2019d have to grab our bags and go back inside the terminal.\u00a0 I was, of course, hoping \u201cPlease go back inside the terminal\u201d would be followed with a more encouraging statement, such as \u201cand then we\u2019ll put you all on the spare plane we keep around for situations like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nope.\u00a0 After we all shuffled back inside, we found ourselves just standing around, taking turns asking each other if anyone knew what was supposed to happen next.\u00a0 Soon people began queuing up in front of the desk at the gate.\u00a0 Why, I don\u2019t know, but I got in line with everyone else in case it turned out we were being re-booked on other flights on a first-come, first-served basis.\u00a0 I spent much of that time talking to a recently-divorced father, which reminded me that I never, ever will get a divorce.<\/p>\n

When an hour or so of standing around for no apparent reason failed to convince me to just stay in Tennessee, American announced that there weren\u2019t any other flights available to Los Angeles until Friday.\u00a0 I called my wife and warned her not to put the girls to bed, since they may all have to hop in the van and pick me up.\u00a0 I also started mentally working on my apology to the organizers of the symposium in case I had to cancel.<\/p>\n

Realizing I still planned on flying to Los Angeles in spite of their best efforts, one of the American agents announced we\u2019d all be getting on a plane eventually (I never did determine if it was the same plane or a different one), but that flight would have to take us to Dallas. Then we’d get on another plane.\u00a0 When I still didn\u2019t leave, they gave up on convincing me to keep my promise and allowed me to board.<\/p>\n

By the time we landed in Los Angeles, it was after 1:00 a.m.\u00a0 Okay<\/em>, I said to myself, if I\u2019m in bed by 2:00, I can still sleep for five hours<\/em>.\u00a0 Ha \u2026 joke\u2019s on me.\u00a0 In my jet-lagged state, I\u2019d forgotten about little details such as waiting around for the rental-car shuttle, standing in a loooong line at the rental-car facility, and getting completely lost once I started driving because California figures if a sign for a freeway exit is as big as the name plate on your average mailbox, that\u2019s good enough for people driving by at 40 m.p.h. with the view obstructed by a truck.<\/p>\n

I was booked at the Hotel Polomar, right near UCLA on the west side of Los Angeles.\u00a0 By the time I made enough random turns to accidentally end up in an area of town I recognized, I was somewhere south and east of Hollywood.\u00a0 I headed north again \u2013 passing by various groups of gang-bangers who looked at me as if I must be kidding, driving around their turf at night \u2013 then turned onto a major street I knew would take me to the hotel.\u00a0 By the time I checked in and went to sleep, it was 4:00 a.m.\u00a0 The first talk of the symposium was due to start at 7:45.<\/p>\n

When my alarm assaulted me at 7:00 a.m., the soul was willing, but the flesh was \u2026 no, scratch that.\u00a0 The soul wasn\u2019t willing, either.\u00a0 The soul demanded coffee and refused to let the body so much as shower without at least three cups.\u00a0 So I pulled on clothes and wandered down to the lobby to find some.\u00a0 (Go to any Motel 6, and you\u2019ll probably find a coffee maker in the room.\u00a0 Stay at a fancy-pants hotel like the Polomar, and they expect you to either haul your lazy butt to the lobby or order a $10 pot of coffee from room service.)<\/p>\n

By the time I made it over to UCLA and found the building where the symposium was being held, I\u2019d missed the first two sessions.\u00a0 Wandering around the back of the auditorium and looking for an empty seat, I spotted one next to a stunning young woman who turned out to be Denise Minger.\u00a0 This surprised me \u2026 not because I doubted Denise Minger would be stunning in person, but because I wasn\u2019t sure it was even possible <\/em>to meet Denise Minger in person \u2013 after all, some highly reputable vegan bloggers have insisted for at least a year that \u201cDenise Minger\u201d is just a fictitious persona created by the meat industry to discredit T. Colin Campbell\u2019s impeccable work.\u00a0 But as Richard Nikoley put it, Denise Minger does exist, and she\u2019s made of meat.\u00a0 (Either that, or the meat industry hired a terrific actress to portray her at the symposium.)<\/p>\n

There were two speakers giving presentations in separate locations every hour, so we all had to pick and choose.\u00a0 I mostly chose people I haven\u2019t seen before, in some cases skipping speakers who are booked for next year\u2019s Low Carb Cruise.<\/p>\n

Between sessions, I got to meet some people whose works I\u2019ve admired:\u00a0 Richard Nikoley, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolfe, Nora Gedguadas, Stephan Guyenet, Dr. Richard Feinman, Gary Taubes and Dr. Robert Lustig.\u00a0 I also met a lot of Fat Head fans and some of the frequent commenters who make blogging so much fun for me.\u00a0 Now I have faces to go with the names.<\/p>\n

I missed out on the group dinners I later read about on other people\u2019s blogs.\u00a0 That\u2019s because I spent both evenings chasing down a few of my heroes for on-camera interviews.\u00a0 I did the same over lunch breaks.\u00a0 Someone who saw me interviewing Dr. Robert Lustig of \u201cSugar: the bitter truth\u201d fame speculated on Twitter that Fat Head II <\/em>might in the works.<\/p>\n

Nope.\u00a0 The interviews were for what I hope will be a DVD companion to go along with that book on how to feed kids \u2026 assuming my wife and I get around to writing it after we get settled on the mini-farm.\u00a0 Realizing I had a rare opportunity to record several interviews without flying all over creation, I took advantage.\u00a0 By the time I left the symposium, I\u2019d interviewed Dr. Richard Feinman, Dr. Robert Lustig, Dr. Andreas Eeenfeldt, Dr. Mike Eades (who stayed late just for the interview, bless his southern-gentleman heart) and Nora Gedgaudas (who was very late for dinner as a result, bless her Oregonian heart.)<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, almost forgot \u2026 I also gave the Science For Smart People <\/em>speech on Saturday.\u00a0 Pretty much the same speech you may have seen on YouTube, with a couple more slides and another paragraph or two of text.\u00a0 I\u2019d only managed to squeeze in six hours of sleep on Friday, which hardly made up for getting only three hours the night before, so I wasn\u2019t feeling my sharpest.\u00a0 I also never found time to rehearse, so I was nervous beforehand. But when I went to the podium, the old performing instincts kicked in and I felt fine, at least for the next 45 minutes. Here\u2019s my favorite review, courtesy of Richard Nikoley<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The morning of the first day and my first entry into the main auditorium, I came face-to-face with Tom Naughton on his way out. I extended my hand and Tom says, “give me a bear hug.” I’ll tell you what, Tom has taken the ability to be funny and serious at the same time to a form of art. His presentation was probably the most cogent and complete treatment of the scientific method applied to health studies that has ever been put together. And he pulled it off while getting dozens of laughs from the audience throughout. Tom has also continued his own body transformation since his movie and from other pictures I’ve seen since. He looks great.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you, Richard.\u00a0\u00a0 You and your bare feet looked good too.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t yet seen the Science For Smart People <\/em>speech, it\u2019s about how to tell good science from bad science.\u00a0 Later, another doctor who gave a presentation pooh-poohed a point I made about salt not causing hypertension — and then proved his point with bad science.\u00a0 I\u2019ll deal with that when the video of the speech is posted by the Ancestral Health people.<\/p>\n

Richard Nikoley\u2019s speech was excellent, too.\u00a0 He talked about n=1 experiments, the importance of finding out what works for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s an excellent point to remember.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if we\u2019re talking about low-fat, high-fat, low-carb, high-carb, paleo, raw vegan, various forms of exercise, or going shoeless (as many at the symposium did), the important thing is to listen to your own body, track your own results, and decide accordingly.<\/p>\n

Denise Minger\u2019s speech on How to Argue With a Vegetarian<\/em> was quite funny, informative, and very well-received by the standing-room only audience.\u00a0 She went through various diets promoted by vegetarian doctors as the cure for heart disease and diabetes and pointed out that those diets do indeed improve people\u2019s health \u2013 because they all cut sugar, white flour, most other refined carbohydrates, most white starches, and processed vegetable oils.\u00a0 Toss some meat in there, and you\u2019d have a paleo diet.\u00a0 You\u2019d also have a palatable diet.<\/p>\n

Robb Wolf later made the point that the best way to deal with vegetarian zealots is to say \u201c@#$% \u2018em\u201d<\/em> and walk away.\u00a0 Good advice, but of course they don\u2019t always let us walk away.\u00a0 Some of them show up on our blogs and write endless inane comments about smelly butts.\u00a0 And those are the relatively smart ones.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the two days, I couldn\u2019t help but notice something other bloggers have pointed out:\u00a0 this was one of the fittest-looking crowds I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 Some of the angry vegetrollians have posted pictures from last year\u2019s low-carb cruise (cherry-picking the heavy people, of course) as proof that low-carb diets don\u2019t work.\u00a0 What they fail to realize or simply don\u2019t want to know is that the cruise attracted a mostly older crowd, including many people who spent most of their adult lives trying and failing to lose weight until they went on a low-carb diet.\u00a0 Many of them have lost more than 100 pounds, but are still overweight and probably always will be.<\/p>\n

The crowd at the symposium, by contrast, was dominated by relative youngsters who discovered paleo eating before decades of bad diets could take their toll.\u00a0 These people weren\u2019t just thin; a striking proportion of them were lean and muscular, with a healthy glow.<\/p>\n

After the symposium, I drove to Burbank to stay for a couple of days so I could visit some friends I made during my 10 years living there.\u00a0 I wondered if returning to Burbank would give me warm, fuzzy feelings.\u00a0 After all, my daughters were born there.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 We liked Burbank, but in retrospect I think we liked it partly because it didn\u2019t suck as much as most of the L.A. area.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t hold a candle to our picturesque little town in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

I also drove down to Hollywood one night to hang out with two of my struggling-actor friends \u2013 still struggling \u2013 and then down near Culver City the final night to stay with Chareva\u2019s sister.\u00a0 Both experiences re-introduced me to the joys of L.A. traffic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad I broke my promise.\u00a0 Partly because returning to L.A. confirmed the wisdom of my decision to move far away from the place, but mostly because the symposium was worth it \u2026 despite American Airline\u2019s best efforts to convince me otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m back to my (more or less) normal life after spending a few days in Los Angeles to attend the Ancestral Health Symposium.\u00a0 I won\u2019t describe the symposium itself in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3333,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}