clouds on nail of ring finger

After eating partially-cooked egg whites every day for four and half years, I am reversing course (at least temporarily).  My fingernails (especially the one on my right-hand ring finger) have not been as healthy as  I’d wish.  My fingernails have had periodic problems for almost 20 years which I have attributed to periodic bouts with poison ivy; since I have not had any poison ivy rash at all this summer, I had reason to look at other possible causes.

nail curvature of ring finger

So maybe my 4 micro-waved, partially-cooked egg whites that I’ve been eating daily had too much avidin remaining in them and bound up biotin.  For the last week, I have been throwing the egg whites away while still eating raw egg yolks in my smoothies.  And I will be supplementing with Biotin pills for as long as one bottle lasts.  It will take a while before seeing the results on my nails.

Partially cooked egg whites might have too much avidin

Mark's 24-ounce smoothie

Here’s what I think today about raw egg smoothies; I may change my mind tomorrow.

I have eaten raw eggs in smoothies for 4 years. In the last year I switched to having 4 eggs in the smoothie instead of 2. I overcame my fear of too much cholesterol and fat a long time ago. Of course, there is still plenty of controversy such as:
• Should we eat pastured eggs, Omega 3 eggs, or standard eggs? (I eat Omega 3 eggs but I would eat pastured eggs if I had an easy, reliable source.)
• Should we eat the yolk and throw away the egg white or vice versa? (I eat both yolk and egg white, but think the yolk is most nutritious.)
• Is it safe to eat a raw egg due to possible salmonella poisoning? (I have eaten raw eggs for 4 years and have not had any problems.)
• How long should the egg white be cooked to neutralize avidin which can bind up biotin? (Before I add 4 egg whites to my smoothie, I cook them in my microwave for 2 minutes 11 seconds at power level 3; the egg whites appear runny in the middle and cooked along the outside as shown below.)

Over the last 4 years, I have changed my smoothie’s dairy ingredients as follows:
• For the first 3 years I usually used 1/2 cup of non-fat plain yogurt
• Then for about 6 months, I used 1/2 cup of crème fraiche (whipping cream fermented by a yogurt culture).
• Then I went back to 1/2 cup of non-fat yogurt for a month. (I stopped the crème fraiche as a personal science experiment when I had gained about 5 pounds and after I noticed a new-found pain in my knees. The knee pain has disappeared and I have slowly lost most of the 5 pounds. Crème fraiche is too delicious.)
• And now in the last couple of months, I haven’t used any dairy in my smoothies. (Another feature of the personal science experiment was to eliminate all dairy to see what I might notice; it seems that there is slightly less puffiness under my eyes in the morning as compared to when I was eating dairy.)

Here are the ingredients for my smoothie today:
• 6 ounces water
• 4 “Omega 3” raw egg yolks (for the vitamins)
• 4 “Omega 3” egg whites slightly cooked (for the protein)
• 1 medium banana (for sweetness and for thickening)
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut (for texture, taste, healthy carbs, and healthy fat)
• ¼ teaspoon ConcenTrace Trace Mineral Drops (personal science to overcome calf and toe cramping)
• 2 raw Brazil nuts (for the selenium content and hormetic effect)
• 1/8 cup cacao nibs (for texture, antioxidants, and hormetic effect)
• 1/8 cup cacao powder (for taste, antioxidants, and hormetic effect)
• ¼ cup frozen blueberries (for antioxidants and hormetic effect)
• 6 medium frozen strawberries (for antioxidants and hormetic effect)

Here are the directions:
1. Put 6 ounces of water in blender.
2. Crack open 4 eggs putting the 4 yolks in the blender and the egg whites in a microwaveable container.
3. Partially cook the egg whites in a microwave (which on my microwave is about 2 minutes 11 seconds on power level 3).
4. Add these other ingredients to the blender: a banana, mineral drops, 2 brazil nuts, cacao nibs, cacao powder, and shredded coconut.
5. Run the blender on high for about a minute to mix and to partially pulverize the cacao nibs.
6. Add the blueberries, strawberries, and partially-cooked egg whites to the blender.
7. Run the blender for about 10-15 seconds.

Eggland Best eggs were used today

Cacao nibs alongside partially cooked egg whites

Coconut, strawberries, and blueberries

According to FitDay, today’s smoothie was 948 calories which broke down into about 60% fat with 64 fat grams, 21% carb with 65 carb grams (and 18 grams fiber), and 16% protein of 37 grams.

Other notes:

I haven’t added whey isolate to my smoothies for about a month in an attempt to lose another pound or two; whey is anabolic.

Today’s smoothie tastes good, but it doesn’t taste as delicious as it could if it had some yogurt or other dairy; maybe food (generally) is more healthy if it tastes good rather than terrible or great.

1.  Complete rest pose. 

Theory:  After stressing your muscles/whole body, a relaxful rest allows the body to optimally respond to the exercise stimulus without the distraction of doing unnecessary physical or mental functioning.  Thus growth hormone and other adaptive responses are maximized.

Practice:  Between sets or after an exercise session, sit or lay down with eyes closed.  This may provide an unusual experience of being relaxed while your heart is beating rapidly and while you are “sucking air”.   When I do a complete rest pose, I notice that I gradually drift into a deeper and deeper pleasantness.  When I have time after exercise, I will rest for 10-20 minutes in this way.

2.  Music

Theory:   Music sounds better during an exercise high due to the release of growth hormone and other adaptive responses. 

• Corollary A:  You can judge the quality of an exercise session by how good music sounds during and after the session.  
• Corollary B:  Listening to music during and after exercise is a further stimulus to healthful body responses.

Practice:  During and after an exercise session, listen to music that you enjoy.  After exercising, it is very pleasant to listen to music while doing a complete rest pose.

(To get the biggest rewards from exercise, I believe it is also useful to avoid over-training, avoid eating carbohydrates during a 1-2 hour post-exercise window, and avoid emotionally/mentally stressful situations at least during the 1-2 hour post-exercise window.)

I notice an exercise high after each and every exercise session.  And I would really miss the exercise high if I didn’t have it every day.  My guess is an exercise high is related to a large natural spurt of growth hormone.

Maximizing the benefit from anaerobic exercise involves sufficiently stressing the body without overly stressing the body.  When I exercise every day (and even multiple times per day), the exercise has to be brief to avoid over-training.   A longer exercise session can release more growth hormone, but you can’t do a long exercise session every day without experiencing delayed onset muscle soreness and many other kinds of misery. 

I am not arguing that doing brief, intense exercise every day is the best way to maximize strength, endurance, or athletic performance.  I am arguing that it seems to help me to feel good, to look and feel strong, and to age gracefully.

In an upcoming post, I will discuss 2 things I do right after exercise that help me to get the “biggest bang” from the exercise that I have completed.

Liver.  Here is the way I eat liver.  I bake liver at about 250 degrees for about 90 minutes.  I cut it into small pieces and freeze.  Then I can eat 1 or 2 ounce portions along with other food a few times times per week; the purpose of small portions is to not overload the body with too much of a good thing.  I like to eat liver with scrambled eggs or with ground beef.  Here’s a photo of how I cut the liver. 

Cream.   From February 2010 to November 2010 I consumed a lot of cream in the form of home-made “creme fraiche”.  It was delicious, but I couldn’t stop myself with just eating half a cup a day; I loved it too much in smoothies and in home-made ice cream.  When my weight crept up to 166-168 pounds, I decided to not bring cream home at least for awhile (and maybe forever). 

Bacon.   My experience with bacon is similar to cream.  Bacon is just too delicious.  I eat too much bacon and I also think it stimulates my appetite to eat more of everything.  So I am staying away from bacon too.

I am fortunate in that my cramps can be stopped quickly by readjusting the position of my toes and/or legs.  I have cramps sometimes in the middle of the night.  I can cause cramps within seconds if I sit on my heels with my toes bent towards the bottom of my feet; I am most comfortable if my toes are bent back.

Obviously I don’t know how to solve my cramping, but I have 2 more things that I plan on trying:

1. Purchasing a multi-mineral supplement .  About a month ago, I tried a liquid mineral supplement that turned out to be too sweet for me (as it was flavored Pina Colada); it didn’t seem to help but I only took it a few times.
2. I will continue to try avoiding poison ivy and also try some alternative health practices to decrease my sensitivity to poison ivy.   I have had a couple of small outbreaks of poison ivy rash in the last 6 weeks; I have had small episodes of poison ivy rash several times per year since my first major exposure in 1993.  When I have a poison ivy rash, my energy and mood are affected;  I also suspect that poison ivy affects my assimilation of minerals because my poison ivy rash often corresponds to times when one or more of my fingernails have been mis-shapened with a horizontal crevass or the ends of my fingernails (after growing for a couple months) have a non-symmetrical curve.

• taking a magnesium supplement (I am in my second bottle of  a “magnesium citrate” supplement from Amazon.com. 
• occasional epsom salt baths (I put 2 cups of Epsom salt in a hot bath once or twice per week).
• I eat salmon and sardines that have fish bones about 2 or 3 times per week. (I have been mixing canned Alaskan pink salmon in a food processor with onions, pickles, and other ingredients.  After using the food processor, I can’t tell that there were bones in the salmon.)
• I have 5 ounces of beef bone broth about twice per week.  (I purchased 5 pounds of grass-fed bones for $5 and cooked them in a crock pot for about 20 hours.  I added about a cup of vinegar to the crock pot to help dissolving the minerals.  After the broth cooled, I placed it in 5 ounce paper cups and froze them so they are conveniently available.)

I am cautiously optimistic because I haven’t had any food get stuck in my throat (even briefly) for about a month.  In the last few weeks, I only had a very brief calf cramp once (while I was having a small poison ivy outbreak).

• muscle cramps, muscle tightness, and/or twitches (I occasionally get calf and toe cramps in bed or when swimming.  My toes usually cramp if sit  on my heels while my toes are curled towards my soles.)
• difficulty swallowing  (My father, brother, and I have occasionally had food get caught in the sphincter muscle that resides at the bottom of the esophagus; dysphagia is the general name for swallowing problems and my problem is probably called an esophageal spasm; perhaps I have a genetic predisposition to magnesium deficiency.)
• constipation  (Occasionally I have mild constipation.)

A good source of magnesium is bone broth as described by the website at the Weston A. Price Foundation.   I have made a couple batches of bone broth in the last month and I expect to do a post about making bone broth soon.  I froze the bone broth and then either drink the broth straight or add vegetables to make soup.

Hard water has magnesium, but if my father’s swallowing difficulty was caused by a deficiency his well water didn’t help him.

Fish bones are another source of magnesium.  This week I put a 14-ounce can of pink salmon (that includes bones and spinal vertebrae) into a food processor with pickles, olives and onions to make a salmon salad; the bones disintegrated “pretty much”.

I have also tried soaking in epsom salt baths for 30-40 minutes having read that magnesium can be absorbed through the skin.  Here’s a pdf research document on epsom salt baths.  A 6 pound bag of epsom salt cost me about $5.50 at Walgreen; I added 2 cups of epsom salt to my baths.

Almonds and some other foods supposedly have a high level of magnesium; I used to eat over 1/4 cup of almonds per day so if it is true that I have a magnesium deficiency, almonds didn’t help me.  I am wondering if bones and bone broth are just about the only highly absorbable food source for magnesium.

I also purchased and received a “magnesium citrate” supplement from Amazon.com.  Apparently magnesium citrate is more absorbable than magnesium oxalate (which was the only kind of supplement I could find around my town.)  I have been taking 600 mg of magnesium citrate each day which seems to be my limit; (if you take too much magnesium, you will have diarrhea.)  I just suck on the tablets which are a little bit gritty but aren’t distasteful.  Each tablet is 200 mg.

Since most of the magnesium in the body resides in bones and inside cells, a blood test can’t determine a deficiency; and if a magnesium deficiency exists, it may take weeks or months to reach an optimal level in the bones and inside cells.   I have taken the magnesium citrate supplement for about a week and have taken epsom salt baths about 7 times in the last 2 weeks.  I haven’t noticed a significant improvement in my tendency to have muscle cramps yet, but I will post again in about a month to give my results. 

To increase my magnesium level, I will rely mainly on the magnesium citrate supplement.

 To read more about magnesium, go to http://www.mbschachter.com/importance_of_magnesium_to_human.htm.

I am comfortable with having a total cholesterol of 262 because I have been reading the blogs at http://www.paleonu.com/ and http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/.  I believe (at this time)  that the “conventional wisdom” that accuses fat as being the cause of diseases of modern civilization is wrong.

I trust the results of the test at the drug store because (years ago) its measurements were the same as a life insurance blood test.  I like that the results come back in 15 minutes and that it only costs $30.

Here’s a chart showing cholesterol results over recent years.  I started reducing carbs after I saw the high tryglicerides in the 2-13-07 results.