Stop the madness, Break the cycle!

By Leslie Why Reap

I have had limited feedback on my blogs with the exception of the first one I posted entitled “Progression to Paleo.” I pretty much got taken apart piece, by out of context piece, by a hardcore Paleo-ite (yes I made that up).  Oh yes and then there was my mom consistently and persistently emailing me after every post to say, “It’s great!  What do you think about making them shorter?”  Well today this was corroborated by one of my closest friends so….“Mom, you have been validated.”  Well, at least I have three readers!

So I spent my work week perfecting the template for my updated Nutrition Plan offering.  It has a new moniker, “The Anti-inflammatory and Alkaline Approach to Excellent Health.”  I spent hours weaving together the critical elements of: immune system, gut microflora (bacteria), blood pH levels, chronic inflammation, and disease to create what I hope to be a cohesive and compelling fabric so to speak.  This high nutrient, healthy fat, low/no grain, low glycemic approach will meet the needs of even the staunchest of grain and sugar addicts.  I also learned a few things along the way . . .

Ah-ha!

You have 2-3 pounds of bacteria in your gut!  Wow, really?  70% of your immune system cells are housed in your gut.  Not a surprise.  But 2-3 pounds of good and bad bacteria, little guys (and girls I guess) tooling around down in there doing their thing…Wow, that’s quite a colony.   100 Trillion bacterial buggers to be approximate.  WHAT are they doing?  Ialready knew this but thought you might not.  They are training and developing your immune system.  They are actually digesting the food that YOU eat, extracting critical nutrients (or trying to anyway).  Perhaps one of their most important tasks...the good bacteria are the police.  They are keeping the undesirable buggers and their cousins, fungals and yeasts,  in check, kind of like permanent martial law.  You don’t want to see what happens when the fungals, yeasts and other bad guys start to out number the good guys…your immune system starts to breakdown and anarchy reigns.  Although I am guessing several of you may already be experiencing this immune dysfunction and not have a clue as to why.  Take a look at what and who you are feeding those 100 trillion.  Are you feeding the good guys or the bad guys?  

Bananas rot from the inside out.  Cheese rots from the outside in.  Which food is alive?  Yes, bananas are the “live” food here.  I guess this was not an “ah-ha” as much as it was just a really good analogy (that I borrowed).  So it turns out that we humans rot from the inside out as well.  What does that mean?  It means that just because you look okay on the outside, doesn’t mean your internal terrain (your microflora) and therefore, your immune system, is intact, healthy and thriving.  Here are some external warning signs that let you know the bacterial balance  inside might be heading toward anarchy (aka, that you are over feeding the bad guys):  repeated sinus, ear and eye infections, constipation, diarrhea, gas, IBS, stomach pain,  allergies, headaches, fatigue, skin eruptions (hives, acne, excema) athletes foot, nail bed infections, hormonal imbalances and strong carbohydrate cravings (sugar feeds yeast!)

Here is my pitch:

It is not a new one, but hopefully it is one that brings to light the simplicity of what is going on in the USA today.  It is a message that can be easily grasped by the public at large…ready to grasp?  Here we go: 

Poor Diet and Lifestyle Choices = Acidic Body (altered pH) = Inflammation = Pain = Stress = More Inflammation = More Pain = Damaged Tissue = Chronic Inflammation.

Chronic Inflammation + Poor Diet + Stressed Lifestyle = “Dis-ease,”

Disease and Early Death.

Stop the madness, break the cycle. 

You choose, health or dis-ease.  Any questions?

Progression to Paleo: Evolution Step II

Fitch's Corner lets you Pick Your Own. By Leslie Why Reap

Hello my tall, speedy, well rested readers!   How are we doing with Step 1 of the Nutritional Evolution?  21 days have elapsed.  Are you in charge?  Consuming your veggies, fruits, water and real?  Shunning the refined and packaged nastiness containing HFCS, Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFAS), and other unrecognizables?   Excellent!  I deem you ready to tackle Step 2.   You are going to focus on high quality foods with nutrient density (think yams not grains) and in some cases energy density (think good fats not baked goods) while steering clear of those center grocery aisles.

One newly acquired pearl of wisdom from the author (that’s me!)…remember that we all have varying abilities to handle higher protein/“good” fat diets.  Just because a 40 year old, 150 lb male can eat 6 ounces of protein and a nice dose of fat at every meal and successfully go Paleo overnight, does not mean that everyone can.  So please proceed with your head attached to your shoulders (I’ve earned the right to say that) and be smart about this transition.   Check in with yourself after each meal and throughout the day.  How is my energy?  Is my digestion the same, better or worse?  Going 100% Paleo overnight with a dramatic increase in animal protein and fat can affect your digestion (read : liver, gallbladder, gut).  The typical American lifestyle has taken a toll on your body.  If you start to feel any bloating or sluggishness, increase your water intake, ensure that 50% of your plate is fruits and vegetables and start with smaller amounts of protein and good fats and increase slowly as your body adjusts.  This approach will facilitate a healthy transition  and allow your liver and gallbladder to bounce back a bit.

Okay, here we go!

Click to read more ...

Paleolithic Nutrition: Refined Carbohydrates

By John Michael

It was our aesthetic sensibility, a preference for white flour, which aggravated our current predicament. We’re eating processed grains that have been refined to please our eyes, noses, and taste buds, but which are mostly devoid of nutritional value, because this value has been removed in the effort to make these foods more palatable, in a process that “gives foods a finer texture and prolongs shelf life, but also removes important nutrients, such as B vitamins, fiber, and iron.”

These refined grains are often no better than sugar. We digest them quickly, leading to a rapid increase in blood sugar that’s followed by an equally precipitous decrease, which we feel as a bump in energy and then a crash. Unsurprisingly, then, both white flour and white sugar are refined carbohydrates, which are “produced when whole plants which are high in carbohydrates are processed in a way to strip out everything but the highly digestible carbohydrate (starch or sugar).”

Why, if they’re so unhealthy, are refined carbs so prevalent? For one thing, we’ve become accustomed to eating them. The intense sweetness that sugar adds is something we’ve come to desire; ominously, one rat study showed it to be more addictive than cocaine. While we’ve also become accustomed to white flour, its power over us doesn’t have to do with any addictive qualities, so much as with its ability to take on the flavors of whatever ingredients are added to it, like sugar or salt, among others.

One of the biggest problems with these refined carbohydrates is that they’re nutrient deficient; they take up a large part of our diets, and so reduce our overall nutrient intake by replacing healthier foods. Another problem is that the energy we derive from them, if not quickly used, is stored as fat, which is why in America we often find the overweight are malnourished. According to some speculation, the short uptick in blood sugar caused by refined carbs leads to an excess of insulin, which, after removing the sugar from the bloodstream, causes a sudden lack of it that could possibly lead to severe problems, like the exacerbation, or even the cause of, cancer.

These refined carbohydrates are playing a role in the spread of several modern diseases, among them diabetes and hypertension. While it’s easy to make villains of the corporations that use refined carbohydrates in their products, we also have to accept some of the blame ourselves. By overindulging our tastes, we went too far down the wrong road, refining carbohydrates so much that we stripped them of their beneficial qualities. At the same time, we over-exerted our tongues, over-stimulating them with the crude tastes of refined carbs, and so allowed ourselves to forget the deliciously subtle flavors that natural foods like those found in the Paleo diet have to offer.

Paleolithic Nutrition: Diabetes and the Modern Diet

Copyright iStockphotoBy John Michael

Diabetes, especially its Type 2 variant, is spreading around the world. Globally, there are now “more than 350 million people” who suffer from this insidious disease, according to an article in the British newspaper The Guardian. This article goes on to state, “About three million deaths a year are attributed to diabetes and associated conditions.” Here at home, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) disclose, “25.8 million people in the United States (8.3% of the population) have diabetes,” and, “of these, 7.0 million have undiagnosed diabetes.” They conclude their list of statistics with this sobering appraisal: “If current trends continue, 1 of 3 U.S. adults will have diabetes by 2050.”

While only a small portion of people with diabetes worldwide suffer from Type 1, which is, according to the CDC, “an autoimmune disease that may be caused by genetic, environmental, or other factors,” the majority of suffers worldwide have Type 2 Diabetes, which is “usually associated with older age, obesity and physical inactivity, family history of type 2 diabetes, or a personal history of gestational diabetes.” Both disorders concern either “a shortage of insulin” in the body, “or a decreased ability to use insulin, or both.” Mark’s Daily Apple has a great blog that explains the complex dynamics of this disease here.

In an excellent article on the growing consensus that excess dietary carbohydrates are connected to the growth of modern diseases like heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes, The Los Angeles Times quotes several medical experts. 

"Fat is not the problem," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases."

"Dietary fat used to be public enemy No. 1," says Dr. Edward Saltzman, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. "Now a growing and convincing body of science is pointing the finger at carbs, especially those containing refined flour and sugar." 

"The country's big low-fat message backfired," says Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today."

While a consensus has not yet been achieved among medical professionals as to whether excess carbohydrates and sugar are indeed responsible for the uptick in modern diseases like type 2 diabetes, the message captured in the Los Angeles Times article is echoed by Mark Sisson, who, on his blog, excoriates a reputable diabetes organization’s suggestion that sufferers include in their diets large portions of “breads, grains, beans, pasta, and other starches.” “If you want to develop type 2 diabetes,” he writes regarding the organization’s nutritional advice, “I’m stumped for a more expeditious way to do it.”

By shifting from the typical American to a modern approximation of the Paleolithic diet, we come to eat foods that our bodies are adapted to digesting efficiently. Novel foods like the processed grains that comprise the typical diet's excess in carbohydrates, are quickly converted to blood sugar, which, if not used, as is often the case with calories in our sedentary society, is then stored as fat. As our waistlines burgeon, our risk for type 2 diabetes increases; a Paleo diet, which avoids industrial foods in favor of more ancestral fare, reduces our waistlines, and so, by restoring our natural state of health, protects us from the specter of modern disease.

Related Entries
Paleolithic Nutrition: Diet in the Neolithic  
Paleolithic Nutrition: Diet and Modern Disease 

Grass Fed Beef or By-Product Feedstuffs? You Decide!

By Leslie Why Reap

(If you are looking for Nutritional Evolution, Step II , it will be  posted in 2 weeks.  You need time to evolve!) 

Yes it is true. Cows like grass. They love it fresh but they will take it dried as well.   They have the digestive system to handle it too, four stomachs in all, pretty great stuff.  But wait, did you know that cows eat other things too?  I knew that they ate corn and soy to make them nice and fat and produce a lot of milk but what I did not know until recently was that it doesn't stop there.  They are also fed what are called "by-product feedstuffs."  Hmmmm sounded suspicious to me.  I needed to know more.  More importantly, I needed to validate just why I should seek out and pay more for this “new" grass fed beef.  Here is some of what I found….

The following are some of the "by-product feedstuffs" commonly used in dairy cattle diets in the Upper Midwest."*
1. Candy: Candy products are available through a number of distributors and sometimes directly from smaller plants…They are sometimes fed in their wrappers….Candies, such as cull gummy bears, lemon drops or gum drops are high in sugar content.

2. Bakery Wastes: Stale bread and other pastry products from stores or bakeries can be fed to dairy cattle in limited amounts. These products are sometimes fed as received without drying or even removal of the wrappers.

3. Potato Waste: Available in potato processing areas, and includes cull potatoes, French fries and potato chips. Cull fresh potatoes that are not frozen, rotten, or sprouted can be fed to cows either whole or chopped. Potato waste straight from a processing plant may contain varying amounts of inedible or rotten potatoes. French fries and chips contain fats or oils from frying operations.

4. Starch: Unheated starch is available from some candy manufacturers and sometimes may contain pieces of candy.

5. Pasta: Available from pasta plants and some ingredient distributors as straight pasta or in blends with other ingredients, such as candy.

Alright, well I learned something new…something new and unappetizing and hard to believe.  However, let's assume that it could be true since we know that stranger things have happened to our food sources, unfortunately.

Before modern agriculture was bestowed upon us; all the animals that humans ate were from "grass fed,” foraging, "free ranging" kinds of beasts and beings. These creatures were ideal for disease free, human health.  Guess what?  Man has not evolved that much, we still have only one stomach and these foods are still ideal.  Are our available, organic, grass fed meats as ideal as the ancient mastodon or woolly mammoth?   Perhaps not but they will have to be our best substitute in the face of extinction and “progress.” 

Why is grass fed better you may still wonder?  One reason is that these grass fed bovine do not eat soy or corn which they would not be able to properly digest.  Corn and soy would alter the PH in their guts, inviting an overgrowth of bad bacteria.  They are not given hormones, antibiotics or other drugs and carry a significantly lower  risk for e.coli bacteria.  Perhaps even more importantly, grass fed beef  is better because these animals eat fresh or dried clean grass that is not only high in Omega 3 fatty acids,  it is also a concentrated, natural source of CLA, Conjugated Linoleic Acid, a critical Omega 6 fatty acid.  This grass based diet then yields beef that has the ideal Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio of 3:1.  The fatter, grain-fed bovine brethren on the other side of fence, have a disease inviting ratio of up to 20:1.  Not surprisingly, this deadly imbalance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids is also reflected in the disease inviting, grain based, typical American diet.  Experts recommend that a healthy diet provide an Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio that is the same found in grass fed beef…3:1.  Despite being an Omega 6 fatty acid, naturally occurring CLA has only positive effects.  Finally, grass fed products are also richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C.  Grass-fed beef is lower in fat than regular beef and, more importantly, contains up to 5x more CLA.

What does CLA do for you?

• Helps fight cancer and diabetes 
• Helps you to lose weight 
• Increases your metabolic rate, a positive benefit for promoting normal thyroid function 
• Helps you maintain normal cholesterol and triglyceride levels 
• Enhances your immune system 
• Promotes lean muscle development and lower body fat (I like the sound of that last bullet!)

After lots of research, here is the bottom line….Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina**.

Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:

1. Lower in total fat
2. Higher in beta-carotene
3. Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
4. Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
5. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
6. Higher in total omega-3s
7. A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
8. Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
9. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
10. Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease

So now you can have your steak (grass fed) and eat it too! On a more serious note, grass fed lean cuts of red meat are an integral part to a Paleo/Primal lifestyle and will provide an ideal amount of Essential Fatty acids as well as the protein we need to stay strong. In addition, stop and look at the impact that grain based diets have had our nation's cattle, dairy cows, chickens and other animals. They get nice and fat, nice and fast and oh yes, much sicker overall.  What do you think a grain heavy diet might be doing to you?

References
*This list is excerpted from "By-Product Feedstuffs in Dairy Cattle Diets in the Upper Midwest," published in 2008 by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
**S.K. Duckett et al, Journal of Animal Science, (published online) June 2009, "Effects of winter stocker growth rate and finishing system on: III. Tissue proximate, fatty acid, vitamin and cholesterol content." 

Paleolithic Nutrition: Diet and Modern Disease

By John Michael & Dr. John

In the United States and most Western countries, diet-related chronic diseases represent the single largest cause of morbidity and mortality. These diseases are epidemic in contemporary Westernized populations and typically afflict 50–65% of the adult population, yet they are rare or nonexistent in hunter-gatherers and other less Westernized people. Although both scientists and lay people alike may frequently identify a single dietary element as the cause of chronic disease (e.g., saturated fat causes heart disease and salt causes high blood pressure), evidence gleaned over the past 3 decades now indicates that virtually all so-called diseases of civilization have multifactorial dietary elements that underlie their etiology, along with other environmental agents and genetic susceptibility.

Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century
Dr. Loren Cordain

From the Neolithic, through the age of discovery and the industrial revolution, up to the present day, human invention and innovation have introduced numerous foods into our daily diets, including vegetable oils, salts and refined sugars, and the multifarious forms that processed grains can take. Along with the introduction of these foods, people in Western Civilization have begun to suffer from many diseases that have a low prevalence among hunter-gatherer and even traditionally agrarian societies. According to Dr. Loren Cordain in his paper, Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet: Health Implications for the 21st Century, “The evolutionary collision of our ancient genome with the nutritional qualities of recently introduced foods may underlie many of the chronic diseases of Western civilization. 

Cordain bases this statement upon the idea of evolutionary discordance, which occurs when an environment changes in such a way that its inhabitants are no longer properly adapted for survival within it. Because the majority of human evolutionary history was spent within a hunter-gatherer context in which fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts and seeds, along with some tubers, were the dominant food sources, our bodies are adapted to consume this diet. The modern Western diet contains refined sugars, processed grains, and vegetable oils, among other novel foods, that were not available to our ancestors, and so our bodies perform sub-optimally when it comes to their digestion. And not only are our bodies poorly adapted for the consumption of these modern foods; in many cases, their consumption is causing us harm.

This damage takes the form of illnesses like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dementia, cancer, osteoporosis, and autoimmune disease, to name a but few. Scientists working in Burkina Faso, Africa, believe that overall health may be tied to the bacteria people have living in their gut, basing this belief on their observation that traditionally agrarian Africans have healthier gut bacteria due to their diets and lifestyle, which implies that our own guts, which are more susceptible to allergies, autoimmune disorders, and inflammatory bowel disease than those of the Africans in this study, are in such a sorry state because of what we eat and how we live. After stating that our Western diet is “killing us,” the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) presents this somber collection of statistics.

Because of thickened, narrowed and hardened arteries, 4,000 Americans succumb to heart disease and have heart attacks every day.  Every third adult has high blood pressure, and thousands are crippled from strokes. Because of disordered metabolisms from unbalanced lifestyles, obesity is epidemic, and a new diabetic is diagnosed every 50 seconds.

And, according to Cordain, “Cancer is the second leading cause of death (25% of all deaths) in the United States, and an estimated one-third of all cancer deaths are due to nutritional factors, including obesity.”

To understand the gravity of this situation, one need only look to the executive summary of the WHO’s Global Status Report on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) 2010, in which unhealthy diet was included among the four risk factors that contribute to the majority of NCD deaths worldwide. The UN report goes on to state, “People in developing countries are increasingly eating foods with higher levels of total energy and are being targeted by marketing for tobacco, alcohol and junk food, while availability of these products increases,” which is to say that this dietary problem is spreading globally. The epidemic of diet-based poor health has an economic impact as well, which the report addresses with this sobering statement, “Each year, an estimated 100 million people are pushed into poverty because they have to pay directly for health services.” The report concludes by suggesting that governments enact legislation and propaganda campaigns to inform and protect their citizens from the dangers of an unhealthy diet, and that they do so now. However, the slow swell of education by knowledgeable health care providers and online primal & Paleo educators should result in a more powerful and lasting dynamic for change.  

Progression to Paleo: Evolution Step I

By Leslie Why Reap

Changing the way you eat may be the most transformative action you can take.  

Terri Trespicio

The goal of evolving to “Paleo,” in my mind, is really the goal of evolving to a healthier, happier, and more energetic you.  It’s a better you, plain and simple.  Just think, you get to keep all of your good traits while throwing out some of the bad stuff - like mood swings, low energy and feelings of irritation.  With your renewed energy, you can acquire some fabulous, new "you" bits and bobs - like a more active/fun lifestyle, a leaner physique, relief from a chronic illness or a more positive outlook.  Our very fundamental goal here is to feel great - consistently.  We can start to do this by choosing to nourish ourselves with high quality, nutrient dense foods and eating at regular intervals.  This will allow us to begin to take control of our energy levels by better controlling our blood sugar, the subsequent insulin response, and the chronic inflammation it can produce.  Chronic inflammation is viewed as a deadly condition and it is the underlying, contributing factor for all chronic and degenerative diseases today, such as heart disease and cancer and more.

On a more positive note...today we are going to tackle Step I of our Evolution!  If this step is too rudimentary for you, then give yourself a hug and see if you can help your child, parent, sibling or friend evolve and look forward to Step II.  However, make sure you are doing Step 1consistently since it is the foundation upon which all else will be built.  It is also the most difficult Step, I believe, because you are overhauling your nutritional beliefs at the very core.  When things start going south for me, I return to Step I, the basics!  If you can accomplish Step I, you can do anything.

Nutritional Evolution, Step I:

A.  Add in 6 servings of vegetables and 3 servings of fruit everyday

Vegetables and fruits come center stage or center plate, if you will.  Vegetables and fruits should become the base of each meal/snack and fill about half of your plate.  A serving of vegetables equals a ½ cup of raw or cooked veggies or 1 cup of leafy greens.  A serving of fruit is 1 small banana, 6 strawberries, or 15 grapes.  Don’t go crazy on the fruit.  Yes, fruit has wonderful vitamins, minerals, fiber and free-radical fighting antioxidants, but it is also high in sugar.  We are trying to avoid large doses of sugar.  Even fruit, if eaten in excess will elevate blood sugar and trigger a rapid insulin (and inflammation) response. 

This produce should be organic and/or locally grown and in season whenever possible.  I know that organic/local/in season can be a stretch for many of us so do the best you can, especially with soft skinned vegetables and fruits where you eat the "skin." 

I am willing to bet you, my evolving self-educating friends, that by simply adding in 6 servings of fresh vegetables and 3 servings of fresh fruit, you will see your consumption of “fillers” diminish.  What are "fillers?"  Energy/granola bars, pretzels, crackers, and other packaged "whole grain" carbohydrate foods.  These are the same foods that spike your blood sugar and provide quick energy that converts to stored fat unless immediately utilized.  Heading out for a run?  Fine, grab a piece of granola bar if you must.  Sitting at your desk?  Don't do it!  You will end up with one more dose of unwanted body fat plus cravings for more within an hour or two.  Looking for a better choice?  Keep reading....

B.  Just drink water  http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercalculator.htm

I like this little calculator.  It’s handy and pretty accurate.  However, if you don’t have time for handy and accurate, then you can estimate your fluid needs at approximately half your body weight, converted to ounces.  For example, if you weigh 125 lbs, exercise 45 minutes a day and live in New England (among a few other parameters), then you need to drink about 67 ounces (2 liters).  If you eat a healthy diet consisting of the above servings of fruits and veggies, then you can reduce that amount by 20% and drink 53.6 ounces (1.6 liters).  Yes, a cup of organic coffee or herbal tea (preferably decaf as excessive caffeine will also trigger that insulin and inflammation response in your body); a smoothie made with unsweetened coconut milk, greens & fruit; and a glass of red wine with dinner, all contribute to your water goal for the day. 

Time for some forced elimination.  Soda, juice, sports drinks, flavored waters and any drinks with High Fructose Corn Syrup, artificial sweeteners, food colorings, and unrecognizable ingredients need to be eliminated.  They are addicting by design.  Someone is making a LOT of profit by your addiction and what do you get?  Weaker bones, a higher BMI and an empty wallet.  Drink your water, eat your calories and stay away from toxic, scary artificial stuff.  If it doesn’t bubble up from a spring somewhere, don’t drink it.

C.  Eat three meals and two snacks a day of REAL food

This step requires a little preparation.  So recognize that fact and give yourself over to it.  If you want to evolve, you need to put in a little effort.  

What is Real food:  Vegetables, fruits, nuts, minimally processed dairy (plain Greek yogurt, plain kefir), nut butters, unsweetened nut milks (coconuts, almond, skip the soy), eggs, chicken, fish, and meat (preferably organic, grass fed, free range) and fun items like homemade salsa, hummus, guacamole, and some limited amount of beans/legumes.  If you are going to continue with grains, transition to sprouted Ezekiel bread and muffins (do contain some gluten), wild or brown rice, quinoa, millet and more gluten free grains.  These low or gluten free grains are a SIGNIFICANT improvement over your wheat based products such as most pastas, crackers, pretzels and breads.  Just remember, the Latin root for the word "gluten," is "glue."   Hmmmm.....Finally, if you need a little sweetener for your yogurt try a tiny amount of liquid stevia or a drizzle of raw honey.

Where to find Real Food:  Start with the perimeter of your grocery store and you will find Real Food.  (As a guide, if the food comes in a package and has more than 5 ingredients, put it back.  These are usually found in the center aisles).  If you are a little more adventurous, head out to a local farm stand or farmers market.  No time or in the city?  Check out this link http://www.localharvest.org .  This can be an excellent tool to get you more familiar with the farms and offerings in your extended area as well  shop online for grass fed meats, free range poultry, dairy and much more! 

When to eat Real Food:  Always.  Oh right, the timing....If you can eat at 7am, 10am, 12.30pm, 3pm and 6pm that is great.  If not, adjust it to your schedule but the key is to eat about every 2.5 to 3.5 hours in order to prevent a big dip in your blood sugar.  Ever feel a dark mood coming on quickly?  Irritation, hunger pangs, headache, and foggy thinking?  First two things to ask yourself:  when did I last eat?  Am I hydrated?  Most likely, your blood sugar is low or less likely, you are dehydrated.  Snacks should consist of: 1 serving of fruit or 1-2 servings of vegetables and a small amount of protein with some fat, such as nuts, nut butter or a little plain yogurt (add in spices and make it a veggie dip!).  Meals should consist of: 2 servings of brightly colored and/or dark green vegetables (perhaps one starchy such as a sweet potato), a 3-5 ounce serving of protein (eggs, chicken, fish, meat) and 1-2 TBSP of healthy fat such as flaxseed oil dressing, avocado, or walnuts.  This combination of carbohydrate, protein and fat should keep your blood sugar stable and provide you with consistent, predictable energy throughout the day.

So, eat your fruits and veggies, drink your water and eat Real Food regularly.  Simple concepts that are challenging, but worthy evolutionary steps.  Give yourself as much time as you need to make each one of these your new lifestyle, your new eating habit.   Step up and own the change.  Aim for 100% but recognize that if you eat this way 80% of the time, you have evolved considerably.  You are moving significantly closer to your very early ancestor that stood straight and tall, ran like the wind and slept like a baby, congratulations!

Leslie Why Reap
“Evolving, one day at a time….”

Nutritionist Leslie Why Reap brings a fresh and dynamic approach to helping you build your Paleo/primal health. Learn about Leslie in the About page.

Paleolithic Nutrition: Diet in the Neolithic

By John Michael & Dr. John

Early farming archeological site, Picos de Europa, Spain. Copyright 2011, CyberMed, LLC..In the Upper Paleolithic period, which ranged from 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, our human ancestors roamed the Earth in hunter-gatherer bands that probably only rarely exceeded sizes of 150. During this time, our forbearers ate only food that could be hunted or gathered, and which required minimal, if any, processing. The industries required for the process and preparation of food did not exist then; it is only at the beginning of the Neolithic, when our ancestor’s roaming tribes began to form settled communities, that we find the appearance of agriculture and complex industry, which together led to the creation of processed foods.

While we probably settled down long before widespread farming began, it wasn’t until the agricultural revolution that large settlements started to appear. With farming, more food could be obtained from fewer acres; while a hunter-gatherer might have to roam over large spaces to find enough to eat, a farmer could remain on his plot of land, and was often able to feed more than just himself. The surplus of food created by agriculture then led to the emergence of civilization: because some people were able to dedicate themselves to pursuits other than finding something to eat, specialization occurred, and the various offices of modern society, among them the priesthood, the soldiery, the politicians, and the merchants, began to appear.

But, while the free time created by agriculture led to the invention of new technologies, like the wheel and written language, the Neolithic also saw the inception of food science, or, the fine art of turning the unpalatable palatable. Grains were the major crop of early agriculture, and evidence of their processing for human consumption, in the form of grinding stones, goes back as far as 15,000 years ago.

So, while the ratio of number of calories to the amount of effort expended to obtain those calories increased in the Neolithic, their nutrient quality diminished considerably, and this change in diet caused health problems for our ancestors. Among Neolithic Europeans, height, which is a reliable indicator of health, dropped as much as five inches for men, and three inches for women. Diseases like osteoporosis and rickets appeared. Animal husbandry further exacerbated the poor health of our ancestors, as diseases began to jump between animals and their caretakers. Among these originally animal-illnesses were tuberculosis, smallpox, and measles, scourges that have only recently been brought under control. 

We continue to move farther from our original diet. The consequences are only now beginning to be understood.

Progression to Paleo: Evolution versus Revolution

By Leslie Why Reap

Evolution, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is “(2a): a process of change in a certain direction: unfolding ….c (1): a process of continuous changes from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state: growth.  Wow!  Well who doesn’t want to EVOLVE?  To unfold? To grow?  That is pretty exciting stuff.  I want to evolve, unfold and grow, everyday!  Now, how about revolution?  Two things come to mind when I think of the word revolution: radical change and revolving doors.  Neither of which conjure up images of lasting, lifestyle change.  So let’s choose to evolve instead of revolve.

What are we talking about here anyway?  Why do we need to evolve?  Well, let’s take a look.  66% of our adult population is obese or overweight.  62% of Americans don’t eat even one fruit or vegetable a day.  Our children are the heaviest, the most sedentary and the sickest they have ever been in history.  Rates of cancer, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases are skyrocketing and with that, healthcare costs.  Pouring money into researching cures is one approach but whatever happened to “prevention is the best medicine?”  Bottom line, we need to become educated and take responsibility of our health and we can start by examining what we put in our mouths each day.  How far have we devolved nutritionally in the US?  I would say pretty darn close to rock bottom.  

Where do we need to evolve?  One suggestion is the Paleolithic approach.  Why Paleo you say?  Dr. John, John Michael and several other Paleo authors have gone into great depth as to why a progression or return to the diet of our ancestors is one of the healthiest paths.  I like this laymen’s summary of the top reasons to go Paleo:  http://neo-paleolithic-diet.com/index.php/364/the-best-way-to-lose-weight-paleo-diet/  and for a more in depth and balanced review of the Paleo Diet check out wiki:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet .

Why did I choose this path?  It works for me.  Grains and dairy make me feel lethargic, they slow my digestion and increase mucus.  I discovered this before I discovered the Paleo diet.  The Paleo approach simply put it into context for me.  What does the Paleo diet do for me?  It helps me maintain a lean body mass around the year, not just during race season.  It helps me maintain energy throughout the day, enables me to think clearly and to multi-task.  It helps me manage the balance of good/bad bacteria in my gut that on a more traditional diet with sugar and refined carbohydrates, I fail to do.  It allows me to train, recover and regenerate muscle tissue so I am able to get stronger and faster even though I am 41 years old.  It helps me be the best role model I can be for my two children.  Most importantly, it has allowed me to heal from brain surgery free of addictions and with a positive outlook, a strong mind and a healthy immune system. 

We all live in a world of stress and bodily inflammation.  We do not need regular doses of sugar, caffeine, alcohol, refined carbohydrates and grains to further aggravate it, and we need a dietary lifestyle to counterbalance it.

I feel blessed to be a contributor to Paleoterran.   Please check in regularly to learn more about my stepped approach to “going Paleo,” the 80/20 rule, and pulling off great recipes!  I will also dive into how to get more delicious sleep, energizing fitness, and delightful rejuvenation into our daily lives.  Are you excited?  Ready to evolve?  I am! 

Leslie Why Reap
“Evolving, one day at a time….”

PaleoTerran welcomes nutritionit Leslie Reap. She brings a fresh and dynamic approach to helping you build your Paleo/primal health. Learn about Leslie in the About page. 

Becoming Paleo, Part 7: Switching to the Paleo Diet

Meals like this simple mix of stir-fried broccoli, carrots, and beef became a regular feature of my life once I went Paleo. By John Michael

With the projections of anxiety deactivated, and with my connection to my health instinct firmly established, I could finally begin my switch to the Paleo diet. I’m not going to pretend that it was an overnight switch; all in all, it took me about a month and a half to become 100% Paleo. A large part of the reason for this delay was that I was still bothered by the ghosts of my anxious cravings. Even though they were nowhere nearly as strong as they had been before, I still didn’t struggle to resist them, because I feared their repression. Instead, I would indulge them, and carefully observe myself as I did so, hunting for clues as to the reason why I felt these minor cravings, and then I would alter my behavior according to whatever knowledge I gained from these observations.

Sporadic cravings aside, there were other challenges that going Paleo presented me with. Now that a large portion of the food that I used to eat was out of the picture, I had to learn how to cook new meals. Fortunately, though, my Paleo meals are generally very simple, often consisting of no more than a portion of meat, a mix of vegetables, and a piece of fruit. I also had to learn where the best places to buy my Paleo foods were, and whether there were dangers associated with the consumption of these new foods, like pesticide contamination in my fruits and vegetables, or mercury contamination in my fish. Yet these challenges were relatively simple and limited in scope when compared to the great challenge that I faced each time that I finished a Paleo meal.

Even though I would only eat as much as I needed, and would never overeat, after each Paleo meal I would feel an enormous surge of energy that prevented me from being sedentary; I was often so full of energy that I would find it necessary to use my body for at least a half an hour. Obviously this interfered with my work schedule, but it became a necessary component of my new Paleo lifestyle, because to ignore this energy would actually cause me physical discomfort.

I soon found that my switching to the Paleo diet was radically changing my life. I was transforming from an unhealthy and sedentary young man who spent a good part of his free time seeking out the industrial foods that calmed his anxious cravings, to a relatively healthy and fit young man who had begun to spend his free time exercising and engaged in other active endeavors. The change that I had made to my diet was echoing throughout my entire life, and leading to great and positive alterations in my personal culture.

Suddenly, upon becoming 100% Paleo, I was faced with a question. “What should I do with all of this energy?” I asked myself, and, surprisingly, my answer was, “I think I’ll take up dancing.”

Thanks for reading about the transformative journey that I undertook in order to switch to the Paleo Diet. If you have a similar story, or if you’d just like to talk about the challenges that you’ve faced in leaving behind industrial foods and switching to this diet, then please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Becoming Paleo, Part 6: Implementing the Transformation

By John Michael

Although a whiff of chocolate inhaled while passing the candy aisle in my local grocery store would still tempt me to buy a treat, I came to see that the desire excited in me by these industrial sweets was hollow, and a relic of the conditioning that the projections of anxiety had subjected me to.Understanding how the health instinct worked was a major step in the right direction, but it alone was not enough to alter my poor-eating habits. In order to become Paleo, and so leave behind the industrial foods of the Standard American Diet (SAD), I had to implement this transformation by actually changing the projections of anxiety back to the original health instinct. It was not enough just to understand the mechanics of this transformation; step-by-step, I had to alter my eating habits so that they reflected this understanding.

Perhaps the first, and, without a doubt in my mind, the most important step, was learning how to recognize the health instinct upon its first manifestation in my consciousness, before I repressed it and caused it to animate the projections of anxiety. Upon setting myself to do this, what I found was that the health instinct, in its first appearance, was cooperative, instead of coercive, like the projections of anxiety. For example, the brief and innocuous image of an orange would appear in my mind, and, because my health instinct lacked the compelling power of anxiety, it was easy for me to ignore this suggestion, especially if I found the pursuit and consumption of an orange inconvenient at that moment. But if I ignored the suggestion for too long, this was tantamount to repression, and the energy that had animated the image of the orange would come to animate the projections of anxiety.

Once I learned how to recognize this mechanism, I discovered that I could deactivate the projections of anxiety by remembering the earlier suggestions of the health instinct, and then working to follow those suggestions. For example, if the suggestion of consuming a banana came to my mind, but I decided to delay the eating of one, then the instinct would return, sometimes in a few minutes, and other times after seconds only, as a projection of anxiety, with a glass of water turning into a chocolate bar, and pears turning into doughnuts. But, by drinking the glass of water, or by eating a pear, I found myself set free from the compelling images of chocolate and doughnuts. It was only because I was committed to embracing the logic of my health instinct that reversing the projections of anxiety in this manner was so easy to accomplish.

Another step in this transformation was learning how to recognize food temptations that were the result of my being conditioned by the projections of anxiety. For instance, I would walk by a bakery, and, upon catching sight of the pastries on display through its windows, I would feel a momentary desire to purchase something, like a chocolate-covered croissant. But, as there was no projection associated with this desire, I was not compelled to stop and buy anything. I realized that because I associated relief and comfort with the foods that I had eaten under the influence of the projections of anxiety, I had become reflexively attracted to these sweet industrial treats. In order to overcome this conditioned temptation, I had to alter the knowledge that I associated with these sweets, by shifting my associations from those of relief and comfort, which had become attached to these foods in my mind, to associations that were reflective of the foods’ new reality – that they were unhealthy and unnecessary treats, which ended up disfiguring my physique, and doubtlessly jeopardizing my health in other less immediately noticeable ways.

With these two steps, I had begun to shift my perspective regarding industrial foods, and with this shift in perspective came a shift in reality with regards to my diet. When I would eat a cookie, I would pay close attention to the flavors that composed it. The first thing that I noticed when doing this was that these flavors were not as pleasurable as I had imagined them to be before, when I was under the influence of the projections of anxiety. With my newly refined attention, I found that this was the case with all of my treat foods. This change in personal taste might have been due to the absence of the projections’ compelling influence, or perhaps it was due to my new associations, which identified these foods as unhealthy on sight. I didn’t concern myself too much with discerning which was the case; it was enough for me that I had changed my old eating habits.

Slowly, I came to see that this shift in perspective regarding my diet was part of a larger mental transformation, of a movement from misery to joy. As long as I ignored my responsibility to listen to my instincts and to act on their suggestions, then I would be a victim to these instincts automatized in their negative aspects, and so I would live in misery. But once I accepted my responsibility to cooperate with these instincts, then I would have a say in my choices, and, free from the compelling power of these instincts’ negative aspects, I would experience joy. 

Stay tuned for Becoming Paleo, Part 7: Switching to the Paleo Diet.

Conflicting results on salt intake and mortality

France, Vendée (85), île de noirmoutier, pure Salt. Pinpin 20:24, 19 September 2006 (UTC)By Dr. John

So, which is it, limit the salt or not? Several reports have appeared this week on the health effects of dietary salt. The one that seems to have caught the most attention was the study recently published in the American Journal of Hypertension. As reported by Scientific American on July 8, "a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects … found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure." This was viewed by many as absolving salt of any significant health impact. Indeed, the declarative title of the Scientific American article seemed to leave no doubt: It’s Time to End the War on Salt. However, medicine and science are rarely that easy.

On July 12, writing in the Forbes blog CARDIOBRIEF, Larry Husten reports on a study published in July 11 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine which included twice as many subjects  - "12,267 adults participating in the 3rd National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey." This study found that the sodium-potassium ratio was the important factor and that “a high sodium intake, especially when combined with a low potassium intake, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.” Husten's post includes the AMA press release which concludes:

In summary, our findings indicate that higher sodium-potassium ratio is associated with significantly increased risk of CVD and all-cause mortality in the general US population,” write the authors. “Public health recommendations should emphasize simultaneous reduction in sodium intake and increase in potassium intake."

There is good news for modern Paleolithic nutrition which refrains from processed foods and includes plenty of fruits and vegetables:

The authors point out that salt is frequently added to processed foods, thereby increasing the sodium-potassium ratio, while fruits, vegetables and dairy products tend to have a lower ratio.

So, there you have it. Time for more studies or just eat your fruits and vegetables?!