STEVE'S BLOG

What Does it Mean to Be “Original?”

Posted on Oct 15 2011 by Liz Wolfe

Three years ago today, we announced the product that would change our lives forever. The "Paleo Kit" was born out of compassion and dedication to Steve's Club, the cause Steve Liberati was - and still is - passionate about: providing athletic training, mentorship, and the tools for living healthy to kids who might not otherwise have the opportunity. The Paleo Kit has evolved over the years, but the mission has stayed the same.

From left: The original Paleo Kit; our product as it evolved; and the current Sampler Pack of Steve's Original products. We've come a long way!

The Paleo Kit is now part of a family of products under "Steve's Original." Steve's Original has grown over the last three years thanks to the support of the amazing folks who love the product and the cause. One without the other would be nothing; but together Steve's Original and Steve's Club have built something that brings joy, challenges, and satisfaction into every single day - all in the spirit of service. That's a rare thing.

Because of Steve's Original and all those who support us, we were able to send several Steve's Club athletes to the youth competition at the Reebok-CrossFit Games. They were able to compete in the presence of the Fittest On Earth and see yet another example of what hard work and perseverance can do. No model of mental toughness is more powerful than that which is exemplified on the battlefield of Sport. The gratitude we feel for that opportunity is overwhelming. 

But it's not just about the big trips. It's about the everyday - the kids we train at the flagship Steve's Club outside of Camden, New Jersey.

Steve's Club has been committed to teaching its athletes about healthy living, dedication, and high achievement since day one. That spirit of leadership has taught the Steve's Original family more about ourselves than we could possibly have imagined. Every day brings a new opportunity to express innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm; to dream up new products that will help others fulfill their desire to enjoy life, sports, and healthy food; and to represent the dreams of the youth we train through Steve's Club and Steve's Club National Program.

There's more to our journey than just making Jerky for the burgeoning "Paleo," "Primal," and "Eat-Like-A-Caveman" movements. There's more to it than money and the "bottom line." Our success, and our ability to continue providing training and mentorship to the kids of Steve's Club, depends totally on how fully we embrace the challenge to be Original.

Originality means Leadership. We're proud to have been the first to provide high-quality jerky snacks and Paleo-friendly products; and we're proud to continue leading the way in quality - whether that means producing jerky with the highest protein content, or helping our Steve's Club kids fulfill every ounce of their potential.

Originality means Perseverance. When there's no path to follow, we forge ahead and make our own - no matter how uncharted the terrain.

Originality means Faith. Faith in your cause, faith in your ideas, and faith in your ability to make it happen.

It's all tied together. It's one mission, comprised of many parts. Each part is nourished by the spirit of service, health and originality.

And there are many more great things to come.

Filed Under: Integrity, Jerky/Paleo Knowledge

Paleo Plus: All About Dairy, Part 2.

Posted on Jun 20 2011 by Liz Wolfe

Alternative title: Cave Girl, LLC (Liz Loves Cheese.)

Before you read the rest of this post, you may want to review All About Dairy, Part 1. I discuss the health benefits and historical context of the usefulness of full-fat, pastured dairy from ghee, butter and cream (preferably from unpasteurized – “raw” – milk from exclusively pastured animals). Produced appropriately, it can provide some truly healthful nutrients – like vitamins A and K2 and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) – not to mention the Happy Factor. Because – I don’t know about you – but heavy whipping cream in my (gasp!) coffee makes me very happy.

Weston A. Price, who literally wrote the book on the diets of healthy, thriving indigenous cultures, noted a high intake of the fat-soluble vitamins contained in appropriately produced (always pastured, local, and raw) milk and cheese products, as well as high-fat dairy products like ghee, butter and cream.

When I was introduced to “Paleo,” I heard a blanket demonization of all dairy. Even some of my favorite Paleo “gurus” who are now open butter-lovers were once quick to dismiss any and all dairy products, and I certainly swung that way. Now, many Paleo folks seem to have loosened their stance on dairy, specifically when it comes to full-fat dairy from pastured ghee, butter and cream. The line is blurry when it comes to milk and cheese. While I understand it’s a tough line to walk due to modern dairy production practices – and blanket statements make it easier to counsel large groups of people on optimal dietary practices – I think the wide world of dairy (and dairy lovers) deserves some extra explanation.

It ticks me off to hear folks say “cow’s milk is for baby cows” as a reason why we shouldn’t drink it. If that’s our logic, then we shouldn’t eat eggs – because the egg yolk is meant to feed developing baby fowl. Don’t fall victim to fallacious logic like this. What you eat should be evaluated on nutritive value alone. And the reason milk and eggs are historically valued as extraordinarily nourishing is precisely because they’re meant to nourish. As a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation, I’ve heard deeply personal stories from people who feel raw milk – the kind from pasture-raised cows - saved their lives. This is too powerful to ignore.

This post – All About Dairy, Part 2 – is intended to shed a little more light on the components of the staples of my childhood diet – milk and cheese. These are the dairy products with the highest concentration of milk proteins.

Look, my bottom line when it comes to standard commercial milk and cheese is this: it usually sucks. It’s usually a product of grain-fed, factory-line cattle. It’s pasteurized and homogenized into oblivion. It’s the Frankenstein of profit-driven products. Unless you’re drinking pastured, raw, unhomogenized milk (make it fermented if you’re set on dairy for post-workout recovery) it’s probably capable of doing more harm than good. America has been coddled into eating it as a tangent of mass agriculture, and according to Nora Gedgaudas, author of the newly re-released Primal Body, Primal Mind (4), the popular low-fat sludge is rife with oxidized cholesterol and damaged proteins. That’s disgusting and unhealthy, and this conclusion is supported in the scientific literature.

But the standard literature doesn’t study raw, pastured, unpasteurized milk. Because in many places, it’s illegal. The federal government has used your tax dollars to execute massive, five-year investigations and raids against - not drug traffickers, not Monsanto - but  the Amish people producing raw milk on their family farm.

The main use for milk in America, admittedly, is poured over that other bastardized Franken-food: Breakfast cereal. Check out Gnolls.org for a fun and enlightening ride through the origins of breakfast cereals – suppression of masturbation sounds like great impetus for fostering sugar addiction while marching to the beat of a religious fundamentalist drummer!

10 things to know about milk and cheese (and if you don’t care, skip to the conclusion):

1) Milk is composed of three parts: the fat, the whey, and the “milk solids.” The milk solids are made up of lactose, sugars, and proteins, including casein. (1) Casein makes up 80% of milk proteins; Whey 20% (3).

2) Most cheeses are made from casein. A few are made from whey, like Ricotta. Whey is a source of leucine, among other muscle-building amino acids - part of what draws athletes to whey protein.

3) The “Gluten-Free, Casein-Free” diet is often prescribed for individuals on the autism spectrum, because casein can cross-react with celiac disease and gluten intolerance as well as cause extreme sensitivities. Milk from grass-fed animals may not fall into the same food sensitivity categories.

4) There are different forms of casein, but the one discussed most as a concern is beta-casein. (1)

5) Beta-casein is the point of controversy when it comes to what type of cow your milk is from. The oldest breeds of cows, like Jerseys, (called “A2”) are thought to have the best-tolerated milk. “A1” cows – most newer breeds like Holsteins – are thought to have experienced a mutation to part of the beta-casein chain of amino acids where proline mutated to histidine. This mutation increased the availability of a potent opiate that can cause problems, especially for people with already-compromised guts. (1) You can ask your dairy farmer if their herd is A1 or A2. A well-informed farmer will know.

6) The problematic opioid is not found in goat’s or sheep’s milk, which is why they may be better tolerated. (1)

7) Protein – whether from meat or from milk – stimulates insulin release. However, milk is unique in its ability to stimulate IGF-1 (see #10)

8) Gluteomorphins and Casomorphins are partially digested proteins of gluten and casein. If your digestion is compromised and the peptide chains are not broken down properly in gluten or casein, you may experience reward-center stimulation that may do a few things: According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, this fosters food addiction. (In other words, you don’t really like that milk & cereal. You’re just addicted to them.) (2) According to Staffan Lindeberg, this stimulation may result in impaired communication between opioid and insulin receptors, leading to insulin resistance. (3)

9) Casein sensitivity is exacerbated by gluten intake by the gluten-sensitive and intolerant. My personal belief is that individuals who have eliminated gluten entirely may not have the same problems with casein as those who are still consuming gluten. As in, you may be able to enjoy some quality raw milk cheese without flipping your bean. (As in: relax. Enjoy some cheese.)

10) Much of the Paleo-community issues with frequent consumption of milk products are their insulinotropic properties and their ability to stimulate IGF-1 (Insulin-like growth factor). In stimulating the secretion of insulin and IGF-1, they represent the chronic conditions that underlie diseases of civilization – specifically, Type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, syndrome X, and cancers of the breast and prostate, among others. (3) HOWEVER, it is the growth hormone pumped into dairy cattle to stimulate milk production called rBGH or recombinant bovine growth hormone (a product once owned by Monsanto, or as I call them, the Evil Disease Cartel) that has been found to further elevate IGF-1 to a dangerous extent in conventional dairy.

CONCLUSION/BOTTOM LINE:

Okay, so the point of all this is that it’s not as simple as “Dairy is bad” or “cow’s milk is for baby cows.” Understanding the important points of the milk controversy is important, but it boils down to this:

I think it's critical to know that raw, pastured milk and cheese are completely different products than conventional (grain-fed), pasteurized milk and cheese. I would never recommend pasteurized milk to anyone. Especially children. So:

-If you love raw, pastured/grass fed milk and cheese from a trusted source, work it into your Real Food/Paleo Plan and don't worry about it. However, if you see detrimental affects, remove it. Duh.

-Use pastured/grass-fed pasteurized milk and cheese (such as Natural By Nature products or Kerry Gold cheeses) less; be aware of their affect on your body.

-I do not recommend the inclusion of conventional (grain fed) milk or cheeses to anyone.

If you just can’t imagine your life without a tall drink of milk, go to RealMilk.com and evaluate the available information to decide where you stand on raw milk. Then locate a local, pasture-based raw dairy and support their mission by buying their product. If you’re looking to use milk as a recovery drink, find or make raw milk kefir. (See the Garage Strength blog for more). If you want to use whey protein, find grass-fed (like what’s sold by US Wellness Meats) or unpasteurized whey.

If you feel your gut is healthy, high-quality milk and milk products of the pastured, raw variety can be enjoyed in whatever proportion enriches your life and maintains your health. Fermented raw milk products, like kefir and yogurt, are excellent probiotics. I enjoy quality cheeses made from raw milk often. I know of CrossFit games athletes who love their Greek yogurt.

The point is, quality is key. A little extra legwork is the price you pay for good health in this country. 

Sufficiently confused? Let us know your questions!

Image from FoodSafetyNews.com

 

Sources:

(1) Woodford, Keith. Devil in the Milk Illness, Health, and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk 

(2) Campbell-McBride, Natasha, MD. Gut and Psychology Syndrome (The GAPS Diet)

(3) Lindeberg, Staffan. Food and Western Disease.

(4) Gedgaudas, Nora. Primal Body, Primal Mind.
 

Filed Under: Jerky/Paleo Knowledge

Paleo Plus: Broth

Posted on May 23 2011 by Liz Wolfe

Paleo Plus: Bone Broth

The Weston A. Price Foundation was the first to introduce me to the concept of nourishing, ancestral foods. While slightly different from the “Paleo” paradigm, the WAPF dietary recommendations focus on the foods that hunter-gatherer societies surviving in modern times ate to maintain perfect teeth, bones and health.

The so-called “primitive” cultures that Weston A. Price studied were from all over the globe – from indigenous Swiss to the Masai of Africa. All ate different diets, but all got many times the minerals and fat-soluble vitamins than modern commercial cultures. Consequently, they enjoyed perfect health.

What does this mean for a Paleo/Real Foods devotee? It means greater nutrient stores and optimizing health and performance a degree farther than what “lean meats, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar” provides.

Just decades ago, when Mega-Grocery stores weren’t on every corner, folks bought bone-in meats from the butcher. When the meat was eaten, they turned the bones into stocks and broths (NOTE: terms used interchangeably here) and spread softened marrow on a slice of homemade bread. (While I personally wouldn’t eat that bread, there are plenty of great reasons to enjoy the marrow!)

Read more from the foundation’s many articles on broth, stocks and marrow:
Why Broth is Beautiful: Essential Roles for Proline, Glycine and Gelatin
Stocks
Bone Marrow
Broth Is Beautiful

You can use any bones to make stock, but it’s a great idea to always include some marrow and knuckle bones, and even calf or pig feet as I did in this post. These are rich in collagen and gelatin, which can be deficient in even a perfectly clean Paleo plan! Below, clockwise from top left: meaty bone, knuckle bone, marrow bones.

Sally Fallon Morell, president and treasurer of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of Nourishing Traditions (the consummate “Traditional Foods” cookbook) says this about meat broths and stocks:

“Properly prepared, meat stocks are extremely nutritious, containing the minerals of bone, cartilage, marrow and vegetables as electrolytes, a form that is easy to assimilate. Acidic wine or vinegar added during cooking helps to draw minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth...Other important ingredients that go into broth are the components of cartilage, which recently have been used with remarkable results in the treatment of cancer and bone disorders, and of collagen, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments.” (NT 116-117)

If that wasn’t convincing enough, I’ve found that both nutrient-rich and gelatin-rich broths (I’ll discuss the difference momentarily), when I enjoy a cup each day, add a glow to my skin, improves the appearance of cellulite, and makes digestion an incredibly smooth process. Now and then I’ll replace my morning coffee with a cup of broth.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of The GAPS Diet, uses gelatin-rich broths in a gut-healing protocol to aid in resolving symptoms of psychological and physiological disorders.

To be perfectly clear: Bouillon cubes and store-bought broths are simply flavored water. They rarely contain the nutrients you’ll find in homemade broths.

So let’s make some stock!

Note: At the end of the process, once your broth/stock has cooled in the refrigerator, observe whether it congeals to a Jello-like substance. If it does, you’ve got a gelatin-rich broth. If not, your broth is still nutrient-dense; but the gelatin has broken down during the simmering process. While the process for broth-making is the same, it’s an extended simmer that will break down the gelatin. This IS NOT necessarily a bad thing; as long-simmering extracts more of the extraordinary mineral content of the bones!

I will simmer bones and feet for about three hours in one pot, then take that stock and strain it, then cool it. This makes a gelatin-rich broth (see below). I’ll take the bones from this broth and add them to another pot to allow them to continue adding their minerals to the mix. I’ll simmer this pot for 24 hours for a mineral-rich broth. Here's what a gelatin-rich broth should look like after a night in the fridge:

Procedure

Ingredients:
A variety of bones (knuckle, meaty, marrow, feet)
Stock veggies: onion, carrot and celery (you can freeze remnants over time to contribute to the stock)
Fresh herbs (for adding during the last hour of simmering)
¼ to 1 cup of apple cider vinegar (depending on size of pot)

Take any meaty bones and roast them at 375 until browned slightly. These will add flavor to the broth.

Take the other bones and cover them in a stockpot with cold water and vinegar while the meaty bones roast.

Once the meaty bones are roasted, add them to the pot. Add vegetables and bring the pot to a simmer. You can long-simmer or slow-simmer (or both, as I do).

After a while, some scum may rise to the top. Skim it off. This is labor-intensive, but worth it.

Remember to keep the pot at a low simmer. One hour before you’re done, add a few herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley) to impart more flavor.

When you’re ready to remove from heat, allow the pot to cool, then pick out the large chunks of veggies and bones. Strain the remaining liquid through a colander or cheesecloth to catch smaller bits.

Cool the broth in the refrigerator. You’ll be able to assess the gelatin content in a day or two, once it’s completely cooled and has the opportunity to congeal! Some fat may rise to the top; you can remove this or keep it to enrich the fat content of your stock. 

Add this broth to soups and stews or drink it alone. Freeze whatever won’t be used within a week. Freeze into ice cube trays and pull out the cubes as needed! My freezer: broth cubes, raw dog food and, of course, beef.

 

Sources:
The Weston A. Price Foundation
Kaayla T. Daniel, Ph. D
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

Filed Under: Diet stuff, Jerky/Paleo Knowledge