Registered Nurse taught her patients the Standard American Diet

BEFORE

I am a Registered Nurse and was taught the Standard American Diet (SAD), therefore, I taught my patients the same, “whole grains and brown rice are good for you!”

AFTER

After David was convinced of this Primal lifestyle, he tried to convince me. I remember saying, “but David, you NEED grains!” “Why?” he asked. “Well, I’m not sure, but it’s part of the food pyramid.” I look back at that silly conversation now and giggle!

Learn More at Marks's Daily Apple: I Am Healed from the Inside Out!

New hypothesis: Acellular carbohydrates promote obesity

Ian Spreadbury of the Gastrointestinal Diseases Research Unit, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada published “a novel hypothesis of obesity” in the May 2012 issue of Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy. (Abstract & PDF link)

He compares the cellular carbohydrates of the ancestral diet with the acellular carbohydrates of “flours, sugars, and processed foods.” The key issue is carbohydrate density:

Due to being made up of cells, virtually all "ancestral foods" have markedly lower carbohydrate densities than flour- and sugar-containing foods, a property quite independent of glycemic index.

Replacing refined grains with whole grains doesn’t seem to help much:

Whole grains are mooted to be healthier than refined grains, yet comparisons between grain consumption habits in industrialized societies indicate the effects of replacing refined grains with whole grains yield only modest improvements to health.

The dense acellular carbohydrates of modern foods may trigger obesity (known to be associated with low-level inflammation) by inflamming the GI track:

The present hypothesis suggests that in parallel with the bacterial effects of sugars on dental and periodontal health, acellular flours, sugars, and processed foods produce an inflammatory microbiota via the upper gastrointestinal tract …” (emphasis added)

A diet of grain-free whole foods with carbohydrate from cellular tubers, leaves, and fruits may produce a gastrointestinal microbiota consistent with our evolutionary condition, potentially explaining the exceptional macronutrient-independent metabolic health of non-Westernized populations, and the apparent efficacy of the modern "Paleolithic" diet on satiety and metabolism.” (emphasis added)

Paleo diet "the way of the future"?

I recommend this excellent summary of the Paleo diet written by George Dvorsky of iO9. Referring to the rising rates of obesity, diabetes and other modern diseases, Dvorsky declares an increasingly apparent observation: "When it comes to our eating habits, it's clear that we're doing it wrong."

Part of the problem is that virtually everything we thought we knew about eating is wrong; the current health crisis is in no small part caused by widespread and pervasive food confusion - and much of driven and reinforced by the modern food industry. As counterintuitive as it might seem, we now know that saturated fats are good and that salt has been unfairly vilified. It's becoming apparent that whole grains are extremely unhealthy, and that sugar is far, far worse than we previously thought, a conclusion that has led some experts to essentially describe it as poison.

Consequently, a new approach to eating has emerged called the Paleolithic Diet, or simply "Paleo" for short. Advocates of this diet focus on eating unprocessed foods like lean meat, seafood, roots, tubers, fruits, and vegetables. Not only are these foods comprehensible to the human digestive system, they pack much more nutrition per calorie than typical Neolithic and processed foods.

The increasing interest in Paleo nutrition is evidenced by the growing number forums including the Ancestral Health Symposiums where: 

.... a niche group of scientists, medical practitioners, and health experts are paving the way for what is likely to become a health and wellness paradigm for the future.