Copper Deficiency

• Copper is definitely not one of those elements we think about very often in medicine. We know about rare diseases that lead to copper overload. But what if “much of the population is at risk of inadequate but especially suboptimal intake?” The authors of this paper cover the concept that avoiding a clinical deficiency of a nutrient is not the same as having the optimal amount of it. Staying just above Scurvy level of Vitamin C does not mean you have enough to make new collagen after exercise. 
• The authors make many points about copper’s effects on lipids/lipoproteins, oxidation, mitochondria, blood vessel health, heart tissue health, inflammation, etc. Adequate copper protects against Zinc toxicity, something covered very well in the Perfect Health Diet book. Many of these interdependent relationships exist: Iodine and Selenium, Vitamin D and K2, Vitamin D and A, etc.
• Apparently if you want to check copper, you should order a leukocyte copper because serum copper is inaccurate. Copper is found in organ meat (especially liver) and barely at all in muscle meat. Other foods rich in copper are nuts, seeds, legumes, and cocoa. Look for how much copper is in your multivitamin, and don’t be afraid to eat liver (or a big bar of dark chocolate). 

Snacks

• Protein bars: Check out Barebells (at Trader Joes and GNC) and Fit Crunch (Costco, gas stations, etc.). Both have Maltitol (a sugar alcohol with no calories) which can cause some GI upset, but tastes very good and helps create chocolate that melts like real milk chocolate. Start out with half a bar to see if you can tolerate them. 
• Wild Planet Tuna Chorizo: tastes more like spicy tuna than chorizo. If you are looking for an alternative to chorizo, go to Trader Joes for their soy chorizo. 
• Siete Grain Free Mexican Wedding Cookies: insanely good, halfway healthy. 
• Garden of Life protein bars: very healthy, taste great too. 

Don’t be a Stoic?

• I had to share this article that argues for the “pernicious” harm of practicing Stoicism. It is important to seek out arguments that go against your own worldview, to strengthen your ideals. In an argument for free speech, John Stuart Mill said: ..the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error. ** So, read and talk to people that think differently than you do!
• In the case of this Anti-Stoic, I think he is making an error in thinking that one value supersedes all others. I am guessing this writer might say Justice is the #1 value. The Stoics said that living “the good (virtuous) life” is most important, but allowed for more complexity: the good life involves not ONE value but a handful: wisdom, justice, courage, moderation. So the Stoic has more flavors, a more diverse appreciation of what is important in life. Below is a quote from Tyler Cowen (included in the book Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom): “What’s good about an individual human life can’t be boiled down to any single value. It’s not all about beauty or all about justice or all about happiness. Pluralist theories are more plausible. Postulating a variety of relevant values, including human well-being, justice, fairness, beauty, the artistic peaks of human achievement, the quality of mercy and the many different, and indeed, sometimes contrasting kinds of happiness. Life is complicated.”
 • There is certainly some truth in the essay. Don’t get complacent. Stoicism is kind of “Buddhism for guys in togas.” There is a lot of overlap in Stoicism and Buddhism. One big overlap is the goal to be free of craving. But how do you contribute meaningfully to the the world if you are laid back, just going with the flow all of the time? It’s a paradox, indeed. Many Stoics did change the world, by directing their efforts on the parts of their lives that they could change, and not wasting time fretting about the things they cannot change. 
 • In the title and at the end of the essay, the author seems to confuse Stoicism with acting stoically, evading your emotions, which of course Stoicism does not recommend. The goal is to feel emotions while bringing a rational reflection / metacognition to them, detaching or zooming out when necessary to not let them overwhelm you. 
• Ok that’s a lot, but feel free to check out the essay and let me know what you think. 

Intermittent Fasting

• A New England Journal paper published a few months ago seemed to introduce doubt on the beneficial effects of intermittent fasting. The study was very well done, but I had several criticisms of the design. They compared two groups, both of whom were calorie-restricting to a high degree. One group ate only from 8am to 4pm (a great window of eating because we should frontload calories and carbs in most cases), the other did not have restrictions on time of eating. So this study was not simulating a real life scenario where you eat what you want but during a certain window – all subjects restricted calories. Even though they found few to no significant differences between groups, most of the trends benefitted the fasting group. 
• I wanted to share this editorial from Satchin Panda, a big fasting proponent, who provides an organized criticism of the above paper and how future protocols could study fasting in a more meaningful way. 

Examine.com

• If you haven’t browsed the Examine.com website, you should. They summarize evidence on nutrition, exercise, and overall health. A couple of recent brief summaries are of interest:
1. Acknowledging some debate on healthfulness of artificial sweeteners, this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that “Low calorie sweetened beverages” are indeed healthier than “Sugar sweetened beverages.” To oversimplify: Switching from Coca Cola to Diet Coke makes you healthier. 
2. If you have diabetes or prediabetes (ask your doctor about fasting insulin [and glucose] levels and hemoglobin A1c), you might benefit from taking a few supplements for better sugar control. Of the 9 nutrients in this analysis of 119 studies, the most convincing evidence was for Chromium, but Vitamin C, CoQ10, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids all showed some benefit.   

Quotes
“A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.” 
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
“It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more.” 
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca