SPECIAL “DIET”
Are you a paleo advocate? Maybe you are 100% Vegan? Or Vegetarian? Maybe you decided to be a little less stressed and choose to be a flexitatian or lacto-ovo vegetarian? Are you one of those who follows the Standard American Diet which means a diet loosely defined as one high in bad fats, factory red meats, ‘empty’ carbohydrates—junk food—low in fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, seafood, poultry? And I am not even mentioning all the trends that propose a supposedly miracle herb which will have the capacity of getting off all your unwanted pounds WITHOUT changing anything to your diet and lifestyle.
Really?
With all the false marketing and information out there, eating right became a real challenge!
A lot of People are lost, confused and this is exactly what the food industry wants! They send wrong messages to the population mainly because of the lack of restrictive law!
So much unhealthy foods are on the ‘market”!
So what to do, to be or to try?
STOP! Just take a moment and stay with me here…
Let’s go back in time…let’s say 150 years from now… basically at the moment where your great-grand parents and your young grand parents were living. At that time, they were probably eating wild game, fermented food, seasonal vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds. Sugar, coffee and alcohol were only for rare occasions. They were working outside all day long, no television and no computer! They were sitting on the porch and watching the sunset as a relaxation activity. They were in bed by nightfall and awake at sunrise, which was perfect for proper melatonin secretion.
But do we have to go back and live like our ancestors to regain our health? Nah…. The main thing we need to look after from that time is the way they were eating, if we want to get healthier we have to go back in our kitchen and cook like our grandmothers did.
Now let’s take a moment to talk about your genes…
When I start seeing a client, I always ask about their family history because their body has inherited some of its genomic imprinting.
Let me explain like Catherine Shanahan did in her book Deep Nutrition: Why your genes need Traditional Food:
The length of our limbs, the shape of our eyes, and the proper function of our organ are all gifts of our ancestor’s collective culinary wisdom.
This statement is really important because for thousands of years we were eating a more “traditional and natural way” with tons of fresh food. Every single one of these produce where organic because in those days, there were no need to label food as organic or not, everything was. What happened in the last 50 years or so is that our foods have really began to be so processed that our body has a hard time to recognize it!
Let me show you one of my best examples: GLUTEN
Why are there so many people intolerant to gluten? What happened to our wheat? Well…the answer lies in the number of chromosomes.
WHAT?
HUMAN = 23 PAIRS OF CHROMOSOMES
CHIMPANZEE = 24 PAIRS OF CHROMOSOMES
(Only 1 chromosome and that much of a difference between a human and a monkey?)
NOW OUR WHEAT:
WHEAT 50 YEARS AGO = 14 CHROMOSOMES
WHEAT NOW = 42 CHROMOSOMES
(28 Chromosomes differences! WOW! We really do not have the same produce we used to have! It’s so major that our body doesn’t even recognize it anymore!)
So can you imagine the rest of our food supplies, which now contains all the additives, artificial colors, and flavors and I am not talking about the food that have been genetically modified, loaded with growth hormones and antibiotics!
Our body just cannot handle all these unknown substances, PERIOD.
EAT FOOD, NOT TOO MUCH, MOSTLY PLANT
Michael Pollan
NOW WHAT TO DO?
First go and build a house in the forest, grow your food and raise some chickens and cows. Do not name them because you might get attached…. I have to admit that that thought is crossing my mind often lately because the more you know of what’s going on with our food industry, the more you want to run and hide! Now seriously, before making this extreme moved…
YOU HAVE IN REALITY TWO CHOICES IN FRONT OF YOU:
Option 1: You can stay on the “Western Diet” and wait until your body mutates (BTW this option will take a few decades, and that will probably be really painful, full of chronic disease and unwanted side effects)
Option 2: You begin to change the way you eat and go back eating like your ancestor did!
SOLUTIONS – SOLUTIONS
Here’s what you could start to do:
Find out what your ancestor, great grandparents and young grand parents were eating, dig into your history because what they were eating will be the easier food for you to digest and assimilate for your type of metabolism.
Find out if you have any food sensitivities or allergies which is primordial for an optimal health. The following is what, but not limited to, happens every time you eat a food that you are sensitive too. First, you don’t digest it. Second your immune system will work over time on that particular issue. It won’t have the time and the energy to deal with your daily maintenance and you could have more chances of getting sick often and for a longer periods of time!
Clean up your diet! Yes I know, it’s not an easy task but it’s up to you here. No one eats by accident. What you put in your body will heal you or create diseases.
Try many kinds of foods and/or many kinds of diets, EXPERIMENT! Only YOU know what is the best “diet” for you! Also, remember that your needs might and will change over the years and over the seasons!
PRACTICAL ADVISES
-
Don’t buy foods that are on TV commercials
Eat foods that eventually will rot
Go for QUALITY and not quantity
Don’t get your fuel at the same place as your car!
Eat your color
Eat wild food
Rotate your food
If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, don’t eat it.
Avoid foods that your ancestor would not recognize!
And the most important…
COOK, COOK, COOK and REPEAT! (Don’t let the food industry do it for you! I know it’s more convenient but they are really bad at it and they also use way too much sodium, bad sources of fat and all the unknown ingredients and additives that you can’t pronounce)
Bottom line:
Like James B. Lavalle wrote in his book Cracking the Metabolic Code:
The ideal diet provides adequate protein to maintain anabolic activity (repair and maintenance) without stressing the liver and kidneys or depleting water and mineral. It also contains complex, unrefined carbohydrates, including a rich supply of vegetables, in amounts appropriate for individual levels of activity, to maintain stable blood sugar without inducing excessive insulin response. And it provides enough quality fat to fuel energy and supply essential fatty acids vital to the brain, immune system and cellular membranes!
Are you a little bit lost? Don’t know where to start? I am there to help you.
Ask professionals you can trust! You will see that they will be the best investment you will make in your life!
Be well
RESSOURCES:
Deep Nutrition: Why your genes need Traditional Food by Catherine Shanahan
Micheal Pollan: http://michaelpollan.com
Cracking the Metabolic Code: James B. Lavalle
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment
Essential Living Matters 