A Public Service Announcement
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Having read and watched more books and films on nutrition and dietary strategy than I can count, and having experimented with all of them over the last decade-plus, I’m going to distill in down to the essential principles and guidelines for you. And it doesn’t take a book. The foundation?
MINIMIZE THE BAD, MAXIMIZE THE GOOD.
It sounds obvious, right? But it’s very easy to get confused with the overwhelming onslaught of conflicting information coming out of the nutritional realm, so it’s critical that, if you desire success in finding your most vibrantly-vital self and the life it lets you lead, that you keep it as simple as possible. And it’s all based upon these two foundational principles:
(1) Minimize the bad. This can also be thought of as ‘playing defense.’ There’s SO much false food out there that increases inflammation and encourages the onset of almost every disease afflicting humankind. So your first task MUST be to become aware of it and refuse to consume it as much as your willpower permits. What are you defending against?
- the hydrogenated and high-omega-6, pro inflammatory oils, typically ‘vegetable oils,’ and often adulterated and unnaturally-solidified-for-packaging-or-restaurant-reuse, frying purposes; soybean and corn oil among them
- the unnatural preservatives and flavor enhancers; this list is EXTENSIVE, but suffice it to say that, if it’s prepackaged, it’s likely in there, and it’s been poisoning Americans for decades; the food industry employs whole legions of chemists to manipulate the molecules they shove into false foods in order to turn you into an addict, and to make their food shelf-stable, all with ZERO regard for what it does to your body over time
- unnaturally-raised, CAFO-tortured, feedlot and ‘farmed’ animals; while meat, especially wild seafood, is very good for you when procured from nature, or from as natural an upbringing as possible, having fed upon its natural diet in its natural habitat, such meat constitutes a MINIMAL portion of the meat produced in this nation, and across the world, and it’s up to YOU to find it; when we eat the unnaturally-raised-and-fed, we eat a portion of what they eat, which usually entails a ton of grains, and we consume the stress hormones tied to their torture
- depending upon what ‘school of thought’ you belong to relative to the modern exclusionary diets, the ‘avoid inflammatory foods we didn’t evolve to naturally process’ list can be quite lengthy, and disheartening for some, even though it only takes time, practice and adjustment, and still leaves a TON of satisfying real food to consume; my school of thought tends towards a raw-fruit-vegetable-and-wild-seafood-centric, quasi-Paleo ideal, and so steers clear of: added sugars, grains (especially wheat), legumes (especially soy, with soybean oil being a food industry favorite), dairy, processed foods and excess alcohol, especially grain-based alcohol (with a nod towards red wine); MANY of the nutritionists whom I respect the most are ADAMANTLY against the consumption of sugar, and too many carbs in general, and often prescribe ketogenic diets for certain conditions, and for everyone for part of the year; personally, I agree with them to a large extent, as it’s been proven that we don’t necessarily NEED carbohydrates (the body can produce glucose from dietary fat and protein, and we can run on ketones), yet I wouldn’t go so far as to totally eschew fruits that are high in naturally-occurring fructose, as their micronutrients and fiber make them highly valuable so long as you’re not consuming too much of them
- too much cooked food; yes, cooking concentrates calories and thereby increases flavor, and yes, it kills unwanted bacteria and breaks down food so that it’s faster to digest, producing a better caloric return per bite, and yes, employing fire for said purposes was concurrent with human beings evolving to our current form, BUT most of us are beyond that stage in our evolution, the stage of scarcity-based-survival, and cooking produces two unhealthy effects that are worth keeping in mind, and avoiding as much as possible: (1) it drastically reduces the enzyme and micronutrient content of the food, two key coming offensive players, so to speak, and (2) it so denatures the food that our immune systems react to it much as an invader, producing an inflammatory effect called ‘digestive leukocytosis;’ to avoid this, shoot for having half your meals consist of raw fruits and vegetables
(2) Maximize the good. This can also be thought of as ‘playing offense.’ There’s SO much micronutrient-dense, medicinally-viable food out there that your body craves without you knowing it. So your second task MUST be to become ever more aware of it and consume as much of it as your willpower permits. Who are these offensive players?
- raw fruits and vegetables across the whole spectrum of color, especially the deep, richly-green color (kale, spinach, broccoli etc.); keep in mind that color is an outward indicator of internal nutritional profile, so variety is to your great advantage both in terms of taste (which is key to sustainment) AND health impact; there’s perhaps nothing more important to the quality of your existence than the quantity of fruits and veggies you consume, as these are by far the most micronutrient-dense foods you can find, ESPECIALLY when they’re: raw, organically-grown and as local and seasonal as possible, as these are the most nutrient-dense while also best supporting local agriculture; Dr. Fuhrman says simply: “Health = nutrients divided by calories;” raw fruit and vegetables ALSO constitute what’s called ‘prebiotics:’ the indigestible fibers they hold are food for the ‘probiotic’ beneficial microbes lining our digestive tracts, microbes whom science is ever more revealing to be drastically under-appreciated partners in our health, including our mental health (Hippocrates: “All health begins in the gut”)
- SMARTLY sourced, naturally occurring, unadulterated fats; only cook with high-heat-tolerant fats like coconut and avocado oil; use less-stable fats like cold-pressed olive oil raw only (mixed into dressings, for example), and don’t be afraid of the words ‘saturated’ and ‘cholesterol,’ as we’ve been conditioned, as saturated fats come in many varieties and must be oxidized in the body in order to become problematic (another reason for the first offensive player herein: they’re rich in antioxidants), and consuming cholesterol, as from eggs, doesn’t directly translate into increased blood levels of cholesterol, which itself can be misleading (see “Grain Brain” et all)
- SMARTLY selected meat and eggs, especially wild seafood and eggs from true pasture-raised hens; no other animal product touches wild seafood in terms of its Omega-3-rich fat profile (based on truly wild fish eating Omega-3-dense aquatic plants); keep in mind that the meat production industry lies with near impunity about their products, legally permitted to mislead consumers, and that the only way to truly know you’re eating natural fare is to develop a relationship with a local rancher, perhaps through a farmers market and/or CSA; a couple quick examples of FDA-sanctioned meat industry lies and deceptions: (1) ‘wild CAUGHT’ isn’t wild, but entails releasing farmed fish to catch elsewhere in a controlled environment (2) ‘grass fed’ is better than conventionally grain fed, as it tends to provide the animal with a healthier diet and some natural time spent as a grazing ruminant, and thereby increases grass-based Omega-3 content and reduces buildup of stress hormones and inflammatory byproducts of grain consumption, BUT only ‘grass FINISHED’ means fully natural, as the ‘grass fed’ cows and other ruminants are ‘finished’ with a grain-dense diet in order to fatten them up for slaughter
- fermented foods, like sauerkraut, kimchi and low-sugar-added kombucha, as these contain the ‘probiotics’ that produce myriad benefits for the body and brain, including the production of neurotransmitters sent to the brain
- offal and bone broth; we’ve done ourselves a serious disservice by being trained to consume only the ‘desirable’ portions, or cuts, of the animal; advocates like Dr. Wahls (see “The Wahls Protocol”) remind us that there are high concentrations of vitality-boosting nutrients in organ meats and the inside of bones which our ancestors consumed, but which the modern food industry discards, to our great, nutrient-depriving disadvantage
- a rotating sundry of herbs, spices and other medicinal foods (Hippocrates: “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food,” the bane of for-profit western ‘medicine’); there are SO many gravely underutilized and under-appreciated foods out there that fall into this category, from those like ginger, turmeric, rosemary and sage available in your grocery store to the literally thousands more that big agriculture has deemed unprofitable to grow; corn, soy and wheat constitute a full TWO-THIRDS of total agriculture in the U.S., entirely out of consideration for profit, and entirely inconsiderate of the impact upon human and planetary health
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Download an MS Word document version of the above here: