Hubby K and I got up before the crack of the dawn to get ready to the Ancestral Health Symposium in UCLA, since we both know that LA traffic could be such a bitch and we live 30+ miles away from UCLA.

We got a little bit lost on UCLA campus to look for parking so we  missed the opening remarks and part of presentation by Boyd Eaton.

Each presentation ran about 40-45 minutes and there was at least 5-10 minute break in between presentations and one 15 minute break before lunch time. With the exception of the first 2 presentations, there were 2 presentations went at the same time in different places. AHS coordinators mentioned that they would record all of the presentations so people could watch the ones that they missed. Can’t wait for that! Also it’ll be good thing to re-watch some of the presentations!

Loren Cordain was the second presenter but I didn’t really take too much notes on his presentations. But I did tweet a lot during his presentation which now I found it helpful when I tried to dig up my memory on what are some of his interesting tid bits.

Some tid bits that I got from Cordain:

• New USDA plate is not much better than old one.

• No need to b an MD to know what food to avoid
• The idea of paleo causes constipation is a bogus because paleo consume lots of non starchy vegetables, which have more fibers than grains
• No need to worry of over consumption of salt when you eat real food. By cutting out all processed food, our salt intake already reduced dramatically
• Vegetable oils are cheap oils. No need to consume them, just toss it out
• HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is just plain BAD

After Cordain’s presentation, we had about 20 minute break for people to stretch out and moved around. I on the other hand broke into my late breakfast of Egg and Avocado Dip with some chopped grilled chicken breasts. I prepared this dish earlier this morning prior coming to the AHS and was glad the avocado hasn’t turned into icky brownish color thanks to the amount of lemon juice that I put. 😀

Some people gathered around Cordain for additional Q&A

While munching on my breakfast, I enjoyed listening to other paleo peeps conversations around me. The familiar words were buzzing around my ears.Plus the sight of Vibrams were not considered to be ambiguous at all. Some people even went bare feet!

Melissa and Dallas from Whole9 were doing their poster presentations during the break. I wish I got a chance to talk to them in person and at the same time thank them for being so resourceful on their blog and Facebook. I’d say, standing next to them made me feel like a midget! Both of them are TALL!

Some other poster presentations:

Staffan Linderberg was next and his presentation was focusing on Food and Western Disease. His presentation was focusing on the Kitavan studies who don’t suffer any Western Diseases because they simply are not consuming any Western Foods! He also emphasized that our food choices are far MORE IMPORTANT THAN calorie counting. I simply love this one!

The next was the famous Robb Wolf and I’d say his presentation went by SO FAST that he even went a bit over time so there was no time for Q&A. I’m not sure if he actually finished the whole presentation but he went uber fast towards the end..haha. Basically, if you read his book: The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, you’d know what he was talking about. It was nice to actually hear him talking it out loud personally in front of you. He was pretty fun and goofy but at the same time he also presented some of the science as well.

Finally lunch time!
Long line at the salad bar

Hubby K and I decided to go with Rubio’s Mexican Grill. We both ordered Balsamic and Roasted Veggie with no corn, no cheese and salad dressing on the side.

For the next presentation, we both went to a presentation by Richard Jacobson regarding Vitamin D and disease of aging. Basically, he recommended to soak up under the sunlight for at least 30 minutes everyday so our body can get enough Vitamin D. He even gave out a hand out which has some kind of formula on how to calculate optimum Vitamin D dosage. Unfortunately, this formula only works for people over 50. And his disclaimer was he’s not a medical professional and whatever he presented was basically from his own research. Here’s the self testing link if your doctor refuses to test your Vitamin D: http://www.zrtlab.com/vitamindcouncil and http://wwwgrassrootshealth.net/d-action.

Emily Deans @ Evolutionary Psychiatry and Jamie Scott @ That Paleo Guy were presenting on how to get the optimal health from psychiatry point of view.

After the presentation, we had to walk back to the main auditorium to catch on Gary Taubes presentation. We were kinda back and forward between 2 buildings for the first day, which was about 5 minute walking with lots of stairs, a bit of elevation and sunshine. Talking about soaking some Vitamin D and exercise, huh?




His presentation was mainly about sugar (glucose, fructose etc) and what does it do to our body and how our body processed it.

Next we hopped back to the other building to catch on Craig Stanford presentation regarding great apes and the evolution of human diet.

Stanford was comparing our modern diet to our ancestors by using chimpanzee and gorilla as an example. I apologized if I didn’t get this correctly. As the day went by, my brain just couldn’t soak up more info after being info-jammed for almost entire day. Anyway, Stanford gave us an example on how fruits and vegetables now are much sweeter compared to our ancestors’ time. He emphasized this by trying out some kind of fruits that chimpanzee ate in wild and he mentioned the taste was so unexpected he couldn’t even eat them. One interesting I found out from this presentation, Stanford mentioned chimpanzee actually eat meat but only in a very small amount and very active,  while gorilla are herbivores and more sedentary. However, not all of chimpanzee eat meat and there’s not evidence regarding the nutrition impact between meat eaters vs fruit eaters.

Richard Feinman was next presenting Nutrition and metabolism. His presentation reminds me a lot of the stuff that Gary Taubes has in his book, regarding excess carbs that causes obesity and diabetes, not fat. Also fat is the most energy dense source among of any food group.

We planned to stay in the same building for the next presentation, but I figured I rather hopped back to the main ballroom to listen to Pedro Bastos presentation about dairy and human health. I don’t really eat much dairy anyway but it was interesting to see how he pointed out cow’s milk has a lot more casein than human milk. He also showed that modern milking industry is completely different from nomadic milking because the procedure is just not natural. I wish I could elaborate more but by this time, my brain just couldn’t cooperate more.

You might notice that my recaps are getting less informative as it goes to the latter. 😛

Anyway, finally AHS Day 1 was over and people got a chance to meet book authors and producers.
Sarah Fragoso from Everyday Paleo, who recently published her cookbook. If you read Robb Wolf’s book, you might recognize her as one of his trainee who lost lots of weight after her third pregnancy. She also blogs about how she feeds her entire family paleo food and proves to those who have kids that paleo IS possible.

I’d say if I didn’t know her story, I wouldn’t believe that she already has 3 kids! I mean she looks SO GREAT!

Afterward, Hubby K and I went to check-in at UCLA guest house before deciding where to have our dinner. After experiencing our parking nightmare this morning, we decided to just find any restaurant within walking distance from our hotel. So we walked all the way to Westwood Village and dined at Gypsy Cafe.

The cafe serves Italian and Mediterranean cuisines. Little we knew, this cafe is also a place where people smoke hookah. I’ve seen the device before but never actually seen in person when people smoking it. Plus the music was SUPER LOUD that we couldn’t even hear ourselves.

We both ordered Meat Mezza (Combination of Shish, Chicken and Kafta Kabob with 2 Kibbes), substituted rice & hummus with batch of salad.

The meat was OVERLY SALTY to both of us. Even the salad dressing was SUPER SALTY that in the end we both couldn’t finish it. I should’ve asked them to put the dressing on side but as you know, my brain wasn’t functioning properly anymore so I wasn’t even thinking about it. And I reluctantly had to take a little bite of pita bread to ease up the saltiness in my mouth.

And I only ate the kibbes (croquette looking balls) filling instead devouring the entire thing.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel, which was more inclined than the time we came. Good workout huh, especially after a lot of sitting during the seminars. Without much thinking, we quickly took a shower and crashed!

Stay tuned for my AHS Day 2 post!

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