husbands of the same need be vilified?
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-08-22/an-open-letter-to-george-monbiot
There's no substitute for science and people stuck behind food religions or religions in general can be handicapped because they can't open their minds to clear science.
I'm an engineer by profession and gym-going certified personal trainer as a hobby and it has taken me 20 years to figure out (the hard way) what is now fast becoming widely accepted; paleolithic dietary principles work - you really can't argue with 2 million years of primate evolution (unless you are a bible thumper of course).
I'd therefore strongly recommend books that follow the paleolithic model (like Mark Sission's - though I've not read it cover to cover yet) to everyone and offer the following two tips from my own experience which helped me and others enormously and thus could help you. There are no overnight cures but the point is you don't have to starve yourself or upend your whole life to make a few simple changes to eat well - you will NOT be hungry if you eat correctly.
Tip 1:
Dump bread, crackers, rice and pasta. If you have a sweet tooth (and can't just go cold-turkey) then you can at least "get off" the addiction of raw, refined or processed sugar (and starches) fairly easily by using sweeteners (avoid aspartame, research the safest). So that also means avoiding milk (however raw unsweetened and unthickened yogurt and cheese is ok because the sugar has been consumed by the "good" bacteria). Avoid fruit juice which is very high in available sugars. Honey is not a substitute unless you are a bee.
Iced tea for example wtih sucralose sweetener (which I think is one of the least toxic) was my cure from glasses of milk and fruit juice. There will always be arguments about the safety of sweeteners and if you're the purist you wouldn't use them at all but I think its better to control the sugar addiction first. Be aware that some sweeteners can irritate your gut (it'll be written on the packet) but everyone reacts differently so avoid them or use sparingly once you've controlled your sugar lust.
Tip 2:
Your biggest meal should be eaten at lunch time. Essentially swap lunch for dinner. This makes a huge difference to satiety and general feeling of well being. This isn't always easy but it can be done if you plan well.
Avoid hunger by eating MORE. You do this by filling your stomach with low-carb vegetables. Ratatouille for example is an excellent nutrient rich and sugar low side dish, think heaped plate however. Green-beans, green-peas, salad (the whole lettuce not just a few leaves, preferably without dressing but using flavours like olives, sundried tomatoes and blue-cheese), cauliflower, broccoli etc… So think vegetarian but without the calories from oils, starchy grains and potatoes.
NOW you must eat a portion of meat (for protein), make sure it is NOT too lean, fat is really important. The quality of meat is always a concern (organic is always best if you can afford it but free range is the next best). You can make hamburgers (without flour) and Bolognese (without the pasta) from mince/ground-beef; try roasted chicken pieces (skin on is OK, fats are GOOD) etc… Organic vegetables are generally better for you, I'd argue they are more nutrient rich but its still fast grown food which means it may never be as good as (properly) home grown. Fish is ok but with increased plastic toxicity and heavy metal contamination its becoming a food to avoid - thanks heavy industry and over-population.
There's a million other tips which is probably why you'd buy Mark Sissions book or do his course and then research. A lot of of those tips are are common sense but the above tricks are the two I found most profound because while I always knew sugar is bad I could never really kick it completely nor drop that last few kilos of unwanted body fat and easily maintain it. Ultimately the paleolithic dietary model balances the complex digestive, satiety and blood-sugar regulatory hormones, allowing your body to naturally regulate your fat, hunger and energy levels optimally. The human body does work but you have to let it do its thang.
[quote=pgp]There's no substitute for science and people stuck behind food religions or religions in general can be handicapped because they can't open their minds to clear science.
I'm an engineer by profession and gym-going certified personal trainer as a hobby and it has taken me 20 years to figure out (the hard way) what is now fast becoming widely accepted; paleolithic dietary principles work - you really can't argue with 2 million years of primate evolution (unless you are a bible thumper of course).
I'd therefore strongly recommend books that follow the paleolithic model (like Mark Sission's - though I've not read it cover to cover yet) to everyone and offer the following two tips from my own experience which helped me and others enormously and thus could help you. There are no overnight cures but the point is you don't have to starve yourself or upend your whole life to make a few simple changes to eat well - you will NOT be hungry if you eat correctly.
Tip 1:
Dump bread, crackers, rice and pasta. If you have a sweet tooth (and can't just go cold-turkey) then you can at least "get off" the addiction of raw, refined or processed sugar (and starches) fairly easily by using sweeteners (avoid aspartame, research the safest). So that also means avoiding milk (however raw unsweetened and unthickened yogurt and cheese is ok because the sugar has been consumed by the "good" bacteria). Avoid fruit juice which is very high in available sugars. Honey is not a substitute unless you are a bee.
Iced tea for example wtih sucralose sweetener (which I think is one of the least toxic) was my cure from glasses of milk and fruit juice. There will always be arguments about the safety of sweeteners and if you're the purist you wouldn't use them at all but I think its better to control the sugar addiction first. Be aware that some sweeteners can irritate your gut (it'll be written on the packet) but everyone reacts differently so avoid them or use sparingly once you've controlled your sugar lust.
Tip 2:
Your biggest meal should be eaten at lunch time. Essentially swap lunch for dinner. This makes a huge difference to satiety and general feeling of well being. This isn't always easy but it can be done if you plan well.
Avoid hunger by eating MORE. You do this by filling your stomach with low-carb vegetables. Ratatouille for example is an excellent nutrient rich and sugar low side dish, think heaped plate however. Green-beans, green-peas, salad (the whole lettuce not just a few leaves, preferably without dressing but using flavours like olives, sundried tomatoes and blue-cheese), cauliflower, broccoli etc… So think vegetarian but without the calories from oils, starchy grains and potatoes.
NOW you must eat a portion of meat (for protein), make sure it is NOT too lean, fat is really important. The quality of meat is always a concern (organic is always best if you can afford it but free range is the next best). You can make hamburgers (without flour) and Bolognese (without the pasta) from mince/ground-beef; try roasted chicken pieces (skin on is OK, fats are GOOD) etc… Organic vegetables are generally better for you, I'd argue they are more nutrient rich but its still fast grown food which means it may never be as good as (properly) home grown. Fish is ok but with increased plastic toxicity and heavy metal contamination its becoming a food to avoid - thanks heavy industry and over-population.
There's a million other tips which is probably why you'd buy Mark Sissions book or do his course and then research. A lot of of those tips are are common sense but the above tricks are the two I found most profound because while I always knew sugar is bad I could never really kick it completely nor drop that last few kilos of unwanted body fat and easily maintain it. Ultimately the paleolithic dietary model balances the complex digestive, satiety and blood-sugar regulatory hormones, allowing your body to naturally regulate your fat, hunger and energy levels optimally. The human body does work but you have to let it do its thang.
[/quote]
By and large I agree with most of what you say but the paleo diet is a bit of a religion too. Here's my two tips:
Never forget about biochemical individuality
Never forget about metabolic types
Hint: not all paleolithic people ate alike nor had the same genetics.
I don't think the world can support 9 billion no matter what food we eat. By all accounts the world may not really be "designed" to support the waste and profligacy of even 1 billion.Humans have polluted the oceans and contaminated the fish supply, vegetables contain traces of insecticides and herbicides, feeder lots give us antibiotic resistant ecolli, even free range beef is full of hormones and antibiotics to improve productivity. None of it is free from pretro-chemical pollutants. What food is it that we should consider avoiding ?
Controlling the growth of population and setting up an economic model that would support contraction of population and preservation of resources would be the first step toward sanity but seems less likely than finding a leprechaun at the next rainbow. In the mean time poisoning ourselves by pretending we have multiple stomachs for digesting grass, grains and starches doesn't seem like much of a solution either.
Science should focus on a paleolithic dietary solutions for the masses (vertical farming, test-tube/3D meat etc…) and not on better ways to turn the human race into a giant herd of two legged horses.
Ommm is right, genetics matter and not everyone is the same. I would argue that Paleo is just a word used not to prefix a food-religion per se, but to wrap up a very broad dietary concept: eat what you are evolved to eat, just as we expect for animals in a zoo.Some people are going to need to go paleolithic and some people seem to be able to tolerate more grains and starch. Some people just eat too much (are always hungry) have sweet "tooths" and put on weight easily, some are skinny but have hypercholestrolemia other suffer from hyperinsulinemia (diabetes II) Genetic predisposition to disease from a toxin or irritant is everything, not all of us get cancer by 70.
So I think the point here is that if you are having trouble with disease (diabetes II) from weight gain or auto-immune dysfunction then you may find it very beneficial to remove grains and sugar from your diet. If you are already trying to do that but struggling then my advice may be helpful to you.
If however you have an indestructible digestive constitution and feel great well into your fifties then you are one lucky SOB and you can skip right to the next article.
Most disease is RNA based. RNA can be modified by environment and passed down; negative behaviors basd in RNA changes accrue over generations. Example: Irish Drunk, American Obesity. Negative RNA changes can be undone at least partly by doing therapeutic fasting, eating properly, exercising, stress reduction. GI can be reprogrammed with probiotics and fecal transplant.
That's interesting, Kugs. Can you link to any additional material you'd recommend? I'm particularly interested in material showing how negative RNA changes can be reduced with fasting, exercise, diet, stress reduction.
Right so behavior affects RNA - the passing down of the smoking addiction is a well documented example. You're not guaranteed to become a smoker however just predisposed and you can unlearn it for your offspring.
Yes you can get enough protein, but isn't the problem that when you eat all those oats, nuts and seeds you are also eating a bunch of starch that you may not want but can't avoid. In other words isn't a vegetarian diet high in carbohydrates ?If you're attempting to avoid sugars (complex carbs or otherwise) because of all the reported ill-affects can you actually do that on a vegetarian diet, without eating eggs and dairy ? Eating purified and heavily processed soy protein powders would be cheating.
I agree with the epigenetic aspect and how negative changes can be undone. Do you have references for disease being RNA based? Thanks.
I don't believe that nuts and seeds contain starch, though there is a small amt. of carbohydrate. Basically, nuts & seeds are predominantly (70-90%) fat, and secondarily have protein, with carbohydrate a minuscule proportion of calories (< 5%).
My whole concept is to avoid purism in food. That's why I don't agree with strict veganism and it's also why I don't agree with carbohydrate free diets. What are you so scared of? People are obese mainly because they eat too much sugar, HFCS, and secondarily refined grains–though Asians, who eat refined rice as their staple, are still much thinner than Europeans and N. Americans, who probably eat more meat and dairy than anything (grains are only about 10% of our total calories). Japanese in their 60's have an average BMI of about 24, while Americans are pushing 30 (obese territory). Japanese live about 5 years longer, while they smoke more and only spend about 5% of GDP on healthcare. Americans smoke much less and spend 18% of GDP and still have pretty poor results (about 38th in world health). So all the meat-eating and fad diets don't translate into high average well being. Of course there are many other variables to consider.
I remain convinced that unrefined grains pose fewer risks to health than meat, which is high in saturated fat–which leads to higher cholesterol, unless people really watch their intake (i.e., keep total consumption well below 2,000 calories). This is not to say that Paleo and similar diets won't work in the short term to get weight down. They may. But I think they're a lot harder to maintain than broadly based vegan diets, and anyway, why go totally vegan? There's probably nothing wrong with having 250 calories or less of animal food.
Sorry, I was wrong about the amount of carbs in nuts and seeds. While they do contain 70%+ of calories from fat, they also contain 10-15% of calories from carbs, and a similar amt. in protein. And if you deem all carbs which are not sugars, starches, then they do indeed contain starch. But at least this is low glycemic starch, not likely to lead to obesity and diabetes unless greatly over-consumed. The recommendations are usually for 1 oz/day, but I often allow myself 3 oz, as they are wonderful sources of Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, calcium, and selenium. But that's because I seldom eat dairy. You have to watch your fat calories, which probably should be no greater than 1/3 of total calories.
There are arguments that high protein diet predisposes people to cancer and this is strong vegetarian argument. However for every study that shows meats are bad there appear to be other or more studies in recent times that indicate that sugar (carbs) and poly-fats (omega 6) are bad and that the only way to avoid them is by eating more meat and animal fat food sources.Food is like religion and nationalism, you get those that want to believe in something herding information in a particular direction.
Having said that there is a simple common sense answer: We should eat what we evolved to eat during the Paleolithic era when the first humans appeared. It turns out they ate a lot of meat from sea and land (not corn which is just-yesterday by comparison) and that humans were cooking even before the neanderthals and cro magnon man appeared - yes it turns out fire was not invented with the wheel and that the frying pan has been man's second stomach for hundreds of thousands of years. http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-fire
We feed the animals in the zoo according to their evolved diets, why should humans be the exception ?
The latest I've seen is it's not the grains so much as the methods, fertilizers, sprays, and other 'additives' to the soil that make grains, refined or not, dangerous to humans and animals over the long run. There's one site from the man who read, "Wheat Belly", that names a flour maker in the Northwest whose wheat is grown without any contaminants, and the preferred flour to eat in moderation from his farm is plain old white flour especially for those who must eat a 'gluten' free diet. Which makes the gluten free diet suspect: the real culprit looks to be in the contaminants in the wheat grown commercially, not gluten, per se.
Whole grain is apparently superfluous, other than its fiber, for the rest of us who do not have a gluten problem, as long as the wheat (or any other grain) is grown under stricter conditions than 99% of what we now consume.
Lost the source for this, but am posting in the event others may have read about it in the past. Will post when I discover it again.
It’s good to see more people starting to understand that we are what we eat, and trying to spread the word. I first learned about epigenetics from Dr Catherine Shanahan’s book, Deep Nutrition, though Dr Natasha Campbell McBride’s work and that of the Weston A Price foundation before that, started to get me on the right track. There is variation among them, of course, but there seems to be a common core (no refined foods, fermented foods, saturated fat, all good).
I’m pretty convinced that an omnivorous diet, of some kind, is essential to health, if one wants to avoid supplements (and who wouldn’t?). But I’m not too sure about the grains being inflammatory. I tried the Body Ecology Diet for several months, to ensure that the candida was under control, so didn’t eat grains for a few months, though did eat some “grain like seeds”, such as buckwheat. I didn’t notice much of a change in my slight arthritis. So I wonder what it is about the grains Mark Sisson ate that encouraged arthritis. Is he talking about specific grains, or all seeds or how they are prepared? I now eat more grains again but they are always soaked or sprouted before baking or cooking (e.g. sourdough bread). I noticed, when grinding some sprouted wheat that the wheatgerm had disappeared (not surprising, I suppose).
I might remove grains again for a month just to see the effect, whilst keeping everything else the same, but I’m not sure yet, or whether this means all seeds and nuts. However, I’d like to know why they could affect, or effect, arthritis.
Diet and Religion seem similar; everybody's got their own, and many don't practice anyhow. In theory, I been impressed by Prof. Campbell's " China Study" Diet. His book's got all the studies and he claims everybody he knows who doesn't believe him, is dying off, which is pretty impressive. It seems essentially vegan. Enthusiastically I bought his cookbook before remembering I don't cook if it can't be microwavedAlso, I've had to exterminate some gut bugs that were trying to exterminate me with pain and stress. I used the drug Zispin, and Boy, was I glad it worked! A war crime I know, but what can you do? It now occurs to me, that it may have been the gut, not the actual bugs, but hell, arn't they supposed to work together? And yes, I do know that Zispin is a psychiatric drug
Chacun a son Gout !
I was inspired by this webinar, so I bought the Primal Blueprint and the 21 Days books by Sisson, and I tried the primal diet for 3 weeks+. Then I read The Low-Carb Fraud by T. Colin Campbell and the primal diet completely lost credibility for me.
My recommendation? Simple. If you want to follow a low carb diet like the Primal Blueprint, do yourself a favor and also read these books by T. Colin Campbell:
- The Low-Carb Fraud. It's a short book that points out the major flaws will all the hype about low carb diets, including the paleo diets
- The China Study. This one goes in depth into the research that proves that plant-based, whole foods diets clearly provide the best LONG TERM health outcomes, including disease prevention, disease reversal and weight loss.
Then, decide who you're going to believe, a guy with no training in nutrition (Sisson), no scientific research experience, who owns company that sells supplements he endorses, or a nutrition researcher with 50 years of research experience (and something like 300 published peer-reviewed papers), and no financial interest in nutritional products. Your call.