TED published a video today by Alain de Botton, suggesting a “religion for atheists”. Basically, atheism that “incorporates religious forms and traditions to satisfy our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence”.

I must thank Alain for thinking of us atheists, but his views are myopic. Bollocks, even.

He goes on to say that education does not provide true guidance and that humans need (spiritual?) “help” all the time. Weird, because I don’t really need any of that kind of help — not any more than my normal relationship with my partner, family, or friends provide. I’m glad that I live in one of the most progressive places in the world, so people here are smart & intelligent to provide me with tangible, objective, no-bullshit advice should I need one.

I practice love, generosity, and forgiveness on any chance I get. I’m not trying to boast, but now that my major health adventure is over, I do try to help out my community (I teach free filmmaking classes for kids, and I have other plans too). But I need no God, or church, or priest, or doctrine of any kind to tell me to do these things. I know them in my head to be right because they make perfect sense, not because a deity said so. When I left Christianity back (I used to be religious in the ’90s), my opinions about love and forgiveness didn’t change. Becoming an atheist did not make me unethical. It made me more objective, and more analytical instead. But the compassion remains, I did not become empty. In fact, I see more inhumanity within religious groups today than I see between atheists.

Alain de Botton makes the mistake of thinking that atheists need extra guidance, that their education is dry and sterile, but this is not the case. While there are certainly atheists that are assholes, at least the kinds of atheists that I know are extremely smart, humane, understanding, and true freedom/liberty fighters. Societal progress is one of our major objectives of course, be it via fighting for universal healthcare, anti-corruption, environmental etc. If our society becomes more free, humane and open-minded, the citizens will be happier, that’s the idea behind our “movement” (personally I don’t see us as a movement at all, but some do). We must endlessly continue moving towards a society that’s for each-other rather than against each-other. In other words, true love. Not love instigated by a deity, or fear, but true human love.

Regarding “transcendence”: You want to transcend? Listen to music, take LSD. Or wait for future technologies. But I don’t see how trying to reach a mythical being transcend us anywhere other than the abyss. It’s just a state of mind, and in our current situation, I find it not helpful. Maybe in the future we find a technological way to save our conscious forever, or able to communicate with a higher being (e.g. a Type III civilization alien) or something like it, but today we don’t have this technology, so it’s counter-productive trying to get “high” (basically that’s what it is), instead of actively helping one-another.

Regarding “ritual”: Not only I don’t need rituals, I in fact hate rituals. It is stupid play-acting bullshit. From all his arguments, this was the dumbest one.

Regarding “connection”, it’s the only legitimate point Alain has. But I don’t need to have calendar days (as he suggests) where I join others to do specific useless things (“staring at the moon”, really?). True connection comes when people come together to solve problems, or to help one-another. Not at certain dates, but all the time. When the one becomes many, but is still singular and free. But again, I need no God to do all that. What I need is a goal (== problem that needs fixing), and a few other people who would join in the effort.

Almost exactly a year ago The Guardian wrote an article about “rock’n'roll” being dead. Today, they had a new article where they say that “indie rock” is dead, citing disappointing sale figures for the genre, and the fact that no new major stars are coming out of it. I will argue against this new article on two of its points, but first we need to understand what “indie rock” means. For the author of the article it encompasses anything that has guitars in it, and happens to be coming from an independent label.

The fact that no big arena stars are coming out from the indie scene is not a bad thing. The sales speak for themselves, the numbers are down for guitar-based music. And that’s for a multitude of reasons: Britpop-style or alternative-rock-style music had its time in the ’90s, and these days are now over. Another reason is that there are over 100,000 albums coming out every year, so sales are divided more now, rather than having a handful of embraced artists selling millions of records and then having the rest selling almost nothing. Being a musician is just a job now, only the best ones will be able to make a buck and go by. Don’t expect Hollywood villas, and Rolls Royce anymore. I’m personally content with that reality. It’s for the best, as we’re maturing as a society. More people are doing art, resulting in more radical art, and that art becomes less commercialized since it usually comes from musicians that don’t even have a label contract. My prediction is that as artists lose their “star” status, and as art becomes more democratized, more radical art emerges. The winners will be artistry itself, and our society as a whole.

Secondly, I don’t get what the big deal is about guitar music. Like all the other kinds of music or instruments, it had its time as a center-stage sound. It’s being in the fore-front for 50 years now. Whatever kind of melody/harmony a guitar can produce, it has already been done. There’s very little to explore, musically-speaking, via a guitar anymore. It’s time to move to naturally-impossible, more interesting sounds, sounds that can only be done via computers/synthesizers. This is not to say that guitar sounds don’t have to be used anymore. I mean, we still use pianos, or violins, or other older instruments to enrich our modern sound. But the difference is that these sounds are not at the center stage anymore, they’re there as part of the whole, they don’t overtake the whole arrangement.

I know that I will take shit for saying that stuff about guitars, but it’s only natural musical evolution. Times change, people change, music changes. It’s inevitable, and I have no recourse but to embrace that change. I personally find modern electronic music (e.g. Nightlands, Washed Out) way more engaging, unpredictable, and atmospheric than acts like Wilco, or The Black Keys. And even if you’re more into rock than electronic, the truly modern rock bands, like Phoenix or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, use the guitar as a secondary or equal element to synthesizers. That’s the way forward: No guitar, or a guitar that blends with modern instruments and doesn’t overpower.

Writing love songs is pretty easy. Everyone and their dog has done that. But writing erotic songs is hard (no pun intended), because they require a level of impressionism that few artists can reach. I’m not talking about songs with cheap sexual lyrics (that’s no art), but about songs with an erotic atmosphere, or a vocal performance, that send you to frenzy just by listening to a few notes. These are the ones that do the trick for me (it doesn’t mean that I’m into all that shit mentioned below though – I’m not).

Romantic sex:
* Gayngs – “The Gaudy Side of Town”
* Four Tet – “Angel Echoes”

Casual sex:
* Feist – “One Evening”

Paid sex in rural America (don’t forget the tip, you redneck!):
* Kings of Leon – “Closer”

The first time. So intense and beautiful, mixed with the fear of failure and pain.
* Washed Out – “Echoes”
* Teen Daze – “Saviour” (free)

There should be an app for that! You enter a math expression, and it visualizes the position for you!

Virtual Reality sex. Just hook up on your iPhone 14s, and Siri will walk you through!
* Memory Tapes – “Green Knight (Visions of Trees Remix)” (free)

Shouting match over the premise of “Dialectic of Enlightenment“? Nothing that a line of coke and some creepy sex can’t fix:
* John Maus – “Just Wait Til Next Year”
* John Maus – “No Title (Molly)” (free)

Crazy-in-love, passionate, breathless sex:
* Madonna – “Erotica (The Confessions Tour – Live)”
* Washed Out – “You and I (feat. Caroline Polachek)” (free)

And that’s why folks, do keep sex in the equation, or it would be endless bickering over ontology!

Drunk sex (what? who? where? bleeeeeh…):
* Emily Reo – “Above Ground And A Golden Cloud” (free)

Sex in space! Each star is a pair of eyes…
* Neon Indian – “Era Extraña”

Lacan’s “Diagram of Sexual Difference”. The math is incomprehensible, but the lines are very telling!

You don’t say! Your first time with BDSM? Trust me, you wanna be high for this.
* The Weeknd – “High for This”

Oh, so you have a headache tonight? How about a blowjob? No? FINE. But you take the kids to soccer tomorrow. No, I don’t want to sleep. I’m going to the next room to check my email…
* Neon Trees – “In the Next Room”

Anal probes? That’s just hearsay! The Greys are gentle lovers!

In our hippie commune we share everything! Join us! We have cookies!
* Washed Out – “Feel It All Around”
* Washed Out – “Before”

Sex for the last time before your loved one leaves for army duty in a far away land & you don’t know if you will ever see him/her again:
* Washed Out – “A Dedication“

After several years, I re-took the political compass test. Back then I was classified as a centrist, but now, I’m almost off the chart. I thought that I was just a socialist-democrat nowadays, but this chart claims that I’m closer to left-anarchism instead (anarcho-socialism) — even if I don’t believe that pure anarchism can work. Thank George Bush for all this. Without him, I’d never be interested in politics. He’s a real motivator.

Canon announced today a few new P&S digicams and camcorders. What do these new models mean for video? Apparently, absolutely nothing.

The flagship of the new announcements is the G1 X, a large sensor G-series camera. The only new video-related feature it’s got is its upgraded bitrate: it now uses the same bitrate as in the Canon dSLRs, at around 45 mbps. But there’s still no manual control, or 1080 @ 25/30p and 720 @ 50/60p (in addition to its 1080/24p and 720/30p). Video-wise there’s absolutely no reason to buy this camera compared to the Canon S100 I’m afraid. Sure, it’s got a bit more bitrate, but that extra 20% more bitrate isn’t worth an additional $400 IMHO. Yup, there’s a big sensor in there now, but if you can’t manually control the aperture, and instead we have the camera go automatically to high shutter speeds outdoors (and closing down the aperture), what’s the point of it?

Update: According to this article, the G1 X does not even have exposure compensation for video. It’s one, big, fat, expensive, JOKE. Update 2: DPreview updated their article saying that exposure compensation does work, but only when the camera is in movie mode, and not when you simply click the record button in any of the other modes. This is how it’s supposed to work, but the way they wrote the original article showed that the dpreview guys are in need of a video-specific reviewer…

Regarding the cheaper 520 HS, 310 HS and 110 HS, there are highly disturbing news I must report. Not only exposure compensation + lock is STILL MISSING from these models (remember, up to 2010, Canon P&S digicams did have this feature for video, but then it was removed from most of their new models), but bitrate was also botched down! Where in the past all Canon P&S HD digicams would feature 21 to 24mbps bitrate for 720p, and 35 to 38 mbps for 1080p, now we have TWO of the NEW models (520 HS & 110 HS) offering just 18 mbps for 1080p, and about 12 mbps for 720p. In other words, Canon made their consumer digicams WORSE than they were last year (again, video-wise).

I made quite a few frienemies by evangelizing the Canon P&S digicams over the last 2-3 years, but starting last year and continuing with this year’s models, I can’t suggest these cameras anymore with a straight face. Canon is trying to save their camcorder department by butchering what it was the best P&S video digicams in the market. They had the basics right, but now they aren’t better than other manufacturers. We were going so well in terms of adding video features on digicams in the last few years, and then, not only there’s a stop, but there’s regression too. Sad…

As for their new camcorders, none of these new models offer anything really new, that’s just recycling we see there. The HF G10 from last year at $1500 still remains their best semi-consumer camcorder ever released, but they didn’t update it this year (it would have benefited from a bigger sensor and a full-size hot shoe).

Conclusion: Buy older Canon digicams if you must have a digicam for video, the ones that still have the basics in place. These basics are, I list them again:
- Exposure compensation + lock
- Focus lock
- Custom colors for “flat” look (at least for saturation, contrast, sharpness)
- 720p at over 20 mbps, 1080p at over 35 mbps
- 24p and 30p options

I mean, really, is that too much to ask? I never even mentioned manual control for A/V, or built-in ND filters, or mic-inputs, or any other “crazy” feature. Just the damn basics needed to make a video that doesn’t look like total amateur hour! Even the iPhone can do most of that now via third party apps!

So, which P&S digicam to buy? If you only shoot random family videos, anything will do, but if you want to do art, go for last year’s SX220/SX230 HS which sells at $200 now (1080/24p, 720/30p), or last year’s A1200 which sells for $90 (720/24p). If you have the extra money, you can consider the S100 too at $430 (same video features as SX230, plus ND filter). For camcorders go for the one I mentioned above, the HF G10, the rest are laughable for anything serious (at least from what you would expect from a camcorder compared to a digicam).

But the best advice would be to wait and see what the new T4i dSLR will be able to do in February. From leaks we know for sure it’s going to have the new Digic imaging processor, but if an updated sensor/body comes with it to complement it (which would translate to less rolling shutter, no line-skipping, continuous autofocus), then there’s no reason to get a P&S digicam. Save your money, work extra hours if you have to, and go for the T4i in that case.

I wish I was able to suggest P&S digicams instead, for young people who just start with video (I will be teaching a videography class soon to kid-artists), but these new models don’t allow me to do so. They’ve taken a step back.

When I’m at my local farmer’s market I behave like a kid in the candy store. I want a bit of every thing and every variety of it too! Right now my fridge is super-full, and I’m afraid that some of all this food will go to waste. So I decided to make a weekly diet plan that maximizes in nutrients, and also offers a plan for vitamin supplementation that makes some sense based on what’s to be eaten any given day. I’m no doctor or a nutritionist, but I’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge in the last 4 months while trying to fix my health issues through the Paleo diet. Some notes to self:

- This is a rough guide for the main courses, there can always be fruits, soups, salads, raw honey, lactose-free goat yoghurt/cheese, nuts, fermented foods etc.
- There’s only one pork main dish because sausage/links/bacon/ham would be consumed during breakfast almost daily.
- Beef marrow bone broth would be used extensively. It would almost be a daily companion to most recipes.
- Coconut oil for cooking, extra virgin olive oil for salads.
- Chamomile (morning), Kombucha decaf (tea time), and Greek Mountain Tea (after dinner). Enough water.
- Must prepare my own wakame salad with sea-vegetables (commercial one has wheat-based soy sauce in it — makes me sick).

I’m also thinking of going ketogenic if my weight continues to refuse going down (although weight loss is not my primary goal, gut health is). In this case, some additional steps are required for a Paleo-ketogenic diet:
- Supplementation with L-carninite 2-3 times a week.
- Supplementation with Psyllium fiber 2 times a week.
- Supplementation with Potassium 2 times a week, and never miss the sauted Swiss chard & beet greens twice a week.
- Supplementation with Iodide 2 times a week, always use iodized salt, and never miss the sea vegetables.
- Pancakes, honey, and most fruits (except berries) are a no-go in keto… Coconut oil is a must. Fermented foods, more water too.

I have also signed up with Cron-o-meter (free account), where I can approximately find out which vitamins/minerals I might be missing, after I input in the system what I eat daily. Then, I can supplement accordingly.

Today was my JBQ‘s birthday, so I made him a Paleo birthday cake (recipe, I substituted maple syrup with honey). It was the first such cake I had since I went Paleo, and the first one I ever made. I usually cook food pretty well, but I’m not great with desserts. This one turned out good, although we think the cake dough needed more honey.

Happy Birthday sweetie!

Last night I also made some almond-flax crackers. My JBQ, as a real French-man, he loves his cheese, so as we’re gluten-free in this house now, I’m making Paleo cheese crackers once a week. I added sesame seeds, finely chopped thyme & sage, oregano, and 1 TBspoon of olive oil to the base recipe. These came out great!

As much as I’d like to sell my sci-fi script to Hollywood, at the same time I hate all the lawyering and politics behind it. I now read that Warner Bros will make its DVDs arrive even later on Netflix than usual, and that Apple, like Google, is unable to secure deals for TV/movie content in any manner that makes financial sense. Big Content is trying to keep back progress as much as it can, by only licensing its property to traditional outlets.

There is only one solution for this chicken-and-egg TV problem: make your own content. And when you start winning, Hollywood will come and beg you to carry their content! Netflix is the first company to go this route by re-creating content: by shooting its own TV series. Google has already pledged $100mil via YouTube for original web TV series too. Apple hasn’t initiated anything of sorts so far, neither it’s in its style to do so.

There are three possibilities here:
1. These original series will only make a blip, and nothing really changes.
2. Big Content gets a clue and embraces the new mediums for lower licensing costs.
3. Studios abroad start creating Hollywood-worthy content, for cheaper, and initiate a cultural revolution that brings American media to its knees.

Of course, option #1 is the most likely one to happen unfortunately. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I believe that if all three (Netflix, Apple, Google) come together to share costs, they can put $1 billion aside per year for the creation of TV series and movies. Content that would be shot and post-produced abroad, using mostly non-Union unknown American actors & writers/directors. Unlike media companies that are on the brink of financial disaster, these tech companies HAVE money to spend.

As I’ve written before, I truly believe that great quality television can be produced for $500,000 to $800,000 per episode, or even cheaper, when shooting abroad on a place like the Balkans, South America, or China. As for a full-length movie, with enough talent you can do miracles from anywhere $1mil to $3mil per movie. $1 billion dollars per year gives enough room for 50 twelve-episode-per-season TV series, and 250 movies (or 100 movies with higher budget). Such work would be free from MPAA and FCC regulations too, allowing for free expression and radical ideas in the work, something that’s missing from networked TV series and movies today in the US. Not to mention that duration of an one-hour TV show can go back at 55 mins, instead of the laughable 42 minutes we get today (a few location/user-specific ads can run at the beginning of the show, but not during). And there won’t be any reason for streaming IP restriction for any country! As long as a show is released, everyone with a smart TV everywhere in the world gets it!

Such a large amount of on-demand products is enough to bring people to these new “smart” TV devices, they are enough to make the viewers “cut the cord“. In the beginning, they will be few doing so, but as the numbers will grow, the cable TV industry will start to crumble, because their sourcing media companies still operate with huge budgets that are unsustainable, while at the same time their customers would wither away. Those who will still remain subscribed would mainly be sports viewers, but if in year 2012 you’re still avid fan of professional sports, in my mind, you’re entertainment-retarded (hate away).

Bottom line is that content is king. And I believe that Apple/Google can go for such a pact together. Hollywood would have no alternative but to join away eventually. There would be 3-5 years of adjustment for everyone, and a few flying lawsuits of course, but eventually, content must be freed one way or another. If common sense doesn’t work with Big Content, if enough money on the table doesn’t work either, then competition WILL work. Have the motherfucking sharks in Hollywood die off of a streaming starvation.

A lot of the Greek mobilization last year against the state was spearheaded by anarchists who hold the “The Coming Insurrection” text as their Bible. For those who don’t know about this text, it’s written by a bunch of intellectual French a few years ago, but its positions have been adopted by many in Greece, Spain, the revolutions in the Arab world, and of course, the Anonymous.

The text basically goes something like this: “our capitalistic/social-norms world sucks, it will only get worse, let’s all revolt now!“. The text is reminiscent of French Continental philosopher and Marxist politician Alain Badiou in many ways.

Personally, I am not a supporter of this text (or Badiou for that matter). While I agree with many of the points that are made in the text, and I wholeheartedly agree that our situation today sucks a$$, and that there’s major need for Change, I don’t believe in a Revolution or Civil War as the bearer of such Change.

A Revolution usually entails violence and loss of life, because even if it’s a Revolution of the Mind, not everyone gets the bug at the same time — leading to confrontation and social unrest. When that happens, it entails the destruction of anything that was “good” in the previous status quo, not just what was “bad”. It’s that close relationship between Destruction and Revolution/War that I have a problem with the whole concept. It’s such an uncomfortable thought, not because I don’t embrace change (I do), but because such extreme measures are so unpredictable.

Today, as I’ve written in the past, I see myself as a middle-of-the-pack politically- and economically-speaking. Not a capitalo-Libertarian, and not a Communist, not a full-on Anarchist and not a Conservative Capitalist, but more of a progressive Socialist with Technocratic and Anarcho-Socialist leanings. I have this faith that Science and Technology can provide solutions for some things that have tormented philosophers and politicians for thousands of years striving to find a good solution for. For the rest of the elements that Science doesn’t help us with, it’s up to the society to mature through the ages and “perfect” every aspect of its being. It might take 10,000 years to do so, I don’t claim that this can happen by next year, but this Utopia that is dreamed by all of us (including the Anarchists), can only happen via universal maturity.

Every major event in our history that tried to change the status quo overnight has been cataclysmically negative, or at least traumatic. From the rise of the Nazis, to Trotsky and Stalin, all the way to the recent Egyptian revolution which a year later still has the Egyptians protesting in the streets, apparently unhappy for their new rulers! The French Revolution was the only major Revolution that bore some good fruits in the long-term, but it didn’t happen without massive blood loss, and without having the country on its knees for over 30 years after it happened.

Oh, I’m a dreamer too. I would be a liar if I didn’t admit that I haven’t been dreaming of Utopia myself. And when I’m saying that I’ve been dreaming of it, I’m not saying that in a form of trying to think of all its technical details of how such a Utopia can become and sustain its stature, but how it actually feels like to live in it. For me, it’s an island in the Pacific, with the perfect climate. A beacon of civilization and art compared to the rest of the world. I close my eyes and I think of how the houses look like, how the streets look like, the parks, the trains and electric cars, the art. How relaxed the few laws are. How clean and beautiful everything looks like everywhere. How good the diet of the citizens is (pastured and wild animals, sustainable green agriculture), prompting to minimal healthcare needs, while everyone lives above 100 years old. How it’s a culture who strive for progress, and not towards owning more “stuff”. How simple and comfortable their attire is. How thousands of citizens get together in the shore during sunset to practice Zen. How there’s no crime, because the people are mature enough to know right from wrong. How special their educational tools are, driving everyone’s IQ off the roof. How citizens volunteer for public works for some of their free time. How the citizens self-censor and self-limit themselves in ways that protect the environment and wild animals. And everyone is just in bliss…

Basically, the whole thing in my mind doesn’t feel much different than the mythical island of Atlantis.

As much as this dream will remain a dream for centuries, if not thousands of years, I’m positive that one day such a Utopia will arrive (should we manage to not annihilate ourselves in the process). But such a Utopia can not arrive via a Revolution. These two concepts are diametrically antithetic. A Utopia, or should I say a “large-scale societal nirvana” (or some could even call it “Applied Marxism”), can only happen via a slow maturation in both the individual, the society, and the political landscape — and goes hand-in-hand with advancements in science, because science could potentially help us overcome some of the problems arising from human nature. As for our Capitalistic world today, it’s just a phase. It’ll come to pass, naturally. But it’s important to go through it and learn from it.

I don’t disagree that in some extreme cases measures must be taken against an abusive State, and I certainly believe that citizens must be active politically and fight for what’s fair, but unfortunately, this type of Marxism that the Leftists dream of doesn’t work today because its principles go against the human psyche. We have to either twist its principles (which is what the Eastern Block did), or we have to use science to change the human nature and remove the specific limitations that holds us back from our Utopia. Some times this might just be a way of producing more food or cheap labor via robots, and some times it might be a vaccine which changes people’s behavior towards a specific goal (as inhuman this might sound, transhumanism/posthumanism is an open possibility).

No matter what, see you again in 100 years or so.

The general consensus among Paleo dieters is that dairy is a Neolithic food, and so milk, yoghurt and cheese are not allowed (although butter, ghee and sour cream is still consumed by most Paleo dieters). Even the Primal faction of Paleo, which is more relaxed, suggests caution when it comes to dairy. The main disapproval for dairy on Paleo is its lactose and casein, both known allergens and inflammation agents.

The idea is that when you go Paleo, you’re supposed to eat brassica vegetables & spinach daily, eat the heads & bones of sardines, and that your gut will take care of absorbing calcium better now that you got Paleo. Even with all that, a Paleo dieter gets about 60% of the RDA for Calcium daily, but then they come and tell you that the US RDA number is unnaturally high and was measured against modern dieters, not Paleo ones. Funny how the die-hards don’t use the same argument for all the other vitamins!

Honestly, these suggestions are kind of laughable. Who eats broccoli daily, and who eats sardine heads daily? And what about all of us who came from the Standard American Diet (SAD) and have leaky and damaged guts after years of eating grains, and we can’t absorb nutrients as well yet? My teeth were transparent like glass when I first found Paleo!

My home-made lactose-free goat yoghurt rocks with raw honey, berries, nuts!

To get adequate calcium and phosphorus on the Paleo diet one must drink slow-cooked bone marrow broths from grass-fed cows or wild game. It’s the main way to get any serious amounts of minerals and vitamins, and I suspect that this was the main way our dairy-free Paleolithic ancestors were getting by too (and by eating eggshells too).

But the problem is that the vast majority of Paleo dieters don’t take the time to cook bone broths (or eat offal). A lot of people come to Paleo for weight loss and not for its amazing health benefits, and so they omit such basic requirements. They simply remove foods from their diet (e.g. grains, beans, sugar etc), but they don’t add other foods that are needed (e.g. fermented foods, offal, broths etc). That’s not Paleo that they’re doing! It’s SAD-lite!

Now, in all fairness, the Paleo arguments about lactose and casein are valid. Lactose is a complex poly-saccharides sugar (gut bacteria love these, as lots of it goes undigested in our bowels), and bovine casein is even more difficult to break apart, since the right enzymes are usually not present in our stomach (because the milk was pasteurized, and its enzymes were nuked).

But there’s a workaround, and it’s what I’ve been using myself with great success (for my gut, bones, and teeth). Remember, Paleo is a template, not a hard-line religious dogma. This has been more evident lately, as more and more Paleo dieters have been adding more kinds of foods in their diet, as long as their bodies seem to tolerate them. Dairy seems to be popular in the Paleo world as of late too, but this is my regime on how to get the most out of dairy, without accumulating any of its negative effects too.

Step 1: Don’t eat bovine dairy, but go for goat/sheep dairy. Goat/sheep’s casein chemical structure is closer to that of humans’, so we are able to digest it way easier than cow casein. Some people who are allergic to cow casein are able to have goat/sheep dairy without a problem! There are some cows that produce the “right” casein, but these cows are not bred much anymore. We are the victims of 10,000 years of cow un-natural selection! Buffalo have the right casein, but who can milk a buffalo?

Step 2: Limit lactose. Go only for harder goat/sheep cheeses (which contain only traces of lactose), and make your own, home-made, lactose-free, multi-probiotic goat/sheep yoghurt (fermented for 20-24 hours so the bacteria have time to consume most of the lactose & galactose sugars).

Step 3: From cows, only have grass-fed butter or ghee, and sour cream (if you can tolerate cow casein). Sour cream usually has very little lactose left in it (this is the lactose-free one I personally buy). If I could find butter/sour-cream from goats or sheep (or buffalo/bison), I’d switch in a second!

Step 4: Never drink pasteurized animal milk, unless it’s raw goat/sheep milk, *and* you can trust the farm you bought that milk from! Raw milk can indeed be dangerous, so you must be sure that what you’re drinking is safe. Preferably, go for coconut milk instead, and use it mostly for cooking.

Step 5: Don’t forget the bone broths! A lot of other bone-related minerals are found in bones/marrow that can’t be found in dairy!

Alternatively, you can buy a vitamin that includes Ca+D3+Mk4+Mg (all elements are needed to absorb calcium), but such a pill is not ideal either. For example, phosphorus is as important as calcium for bone health, but it’s very rare to find it in most vitamin pills. Eating real food is still the preferred way to get mineralized.