Authors: Chris Kresser
Tags: #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Diets, #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Weight Loss
Your Personal Paleo Code: The 3-Step Plan to Lose Weight, Reverse Disease, and Stay Fit and Healthy for Life (5 page)
This rapid increase in genetic change has been driven by two factors, say anthropologists Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending in their book
The 10,000 Year Explosion:
•
A significant change in environment, which increased the selective pressure to adapt to it
•
A dramatic increase in population, which increased the likelihood that adaptive mutations would arise by chance
If there’s a new source of slightly indigestible food available to a population that lacks abundant food sources, there will be a lot of selective pressure for the species to adapt so they are able to consume that food. That’s exactly what happened with milk. For most of our species’ history, humans produced lactase, the enzyme that helps digest the milk sugar, only during infancy and early childhood. Since mother’s milk was the only lactose-containing food in the human diet at that time, there was simply no need for children to continue making lactase after they stopped breast-feeding, which was at about age four for most hunter-gatherers.
However, this all changed with the dawn of the agricultural revolution and the domestication of cattle, which made cow’s milk a readily available food source. Early farmers who relied heavily on grains were prone to mineral, especially calcium, deficiencies. Their skeletons, shorter than their hunter-gatherer predecessors’, indicated they also probably lacked vitamin D, which plays a role in skeletal development. Milk is rich in calcium, contains some vitamin D, is a complete protein, and may promote growth during childhood. It also provided hydration and sustenance during periods of drought. Individuals who carried a genetic mutation allowing them to digest milk beyond their breast-feeding years would have been favored by natural selection, and their genes would have spread rapidly through farming populations.
In fact, archaeological evidence and gene-mapping studies suggest that a genetic mutation that allowed the continued production of lactase into adulthood originated about eight thousand years ago somewhere in Europe and spread rapidly thereafter. Today, approximately one-third of the global population produces lactase into adulthood. In cattle-herding tribes in East Africa, like the Tutsi, the rate is up to 90 percent. In some Northern European countries, like Denmark and Sweden, the genes are present in up to 95 percent of people.
There are several other relatively recent changes—genetic and otherwise—that have influenced our response to modern foods. For example:
•
Populations with historically high starch intake produce more amylase in their saliva than populations with lower starch intake. Amylase is an enzyme that helps digest starch and glucose, both of which are forms of carbohydrates.
•
New versions of genes that affect insulin and blood-sugar regulation have also arisen in the relatively recent past. These mutations appear to increase carbohydrate tolerance and reduce the likelihood that a higher-carbohydrate diet will lead to problems like diabetes.
•
Changes in the
expression
of certain genes (which can happen much faster than changes to the underlying genes themselves) may help some populations that rely on grains as staples to process them more effectively.
•
Finally, changes in the gut microbiota—the beneficial microorganisms that live in our digestive tracts—can directly affect one’s ability to assimilate certain nutrients. Researchers have identified a type of bacteria in the colon of Japanese people that produces an enzyme that helps them digest seaweed (nori in particular). And some studies suggest that lactose intolerance can be eliminated simply by eating increasing amounts of yogurt containing live bacteria, which can naturally metabolize lactose.
So, our bodies have adapted in some ways to the challenges of an agricultural diet. Human innovation has also helped. As I mentioned in the previous section, cereal grains and legumes contain phytates, which bond with zinc, iron, calcium, and other minerals. The human gut is unable to break these bonds, which means that it’s difficult for us to absorb the minerals from grains. But traditional cultures soaked grains and grain flours in an acid medium (such as whey or lemon juice), fermented them, germinated (sprouted) them, or leavened them (for example, baking bread with natural sourdough starter), which significantly reduced their phytate content and thus made the minerals they contained more bioavailable (that is, easier to absorb).
Humans, it would seem, are well adapted to Paleolithic foods like meat, vegetables, fruits, and tubers because our species has been eating them for millennia, and the evidence shows human health declined with the introduction of agricultural foods. However, the fact that a food wasn’t available during the Paleolithic era doesn’t
necessarily
mean we should avoid it entirely today. The genetic and cultural changes I’ve described above occurred (at least in part) to help humans adapt to an agricultural diet, and they
do
influence how individuals tolerate Neolithic foods. This explains why some people are able to include moderate amounts of dairy, grains, and/or legumes in their diets—especially when these foods are predigested by fermenting, soaking, sprouting, or leavening—without ill effect. (I’ll have more to say on this topic later in the book.)
But these genetic changes
don’t
mean we can eat a diet high in cereal grains and low in animal protein without adverse health consequences. These adaptations are often simple mutations of single genes and can be relatively crude. For example, the mutation that enables people to digest milk beyond childhood simply breaks the genetic switch that is supposed to turn off lactase production after infancy. This rather haphazard fix reflects the short time frame in which it took place; it’s much easier for the body to break something that already exists than to create something new.
Eventually, it’s at least
possible
that humans could evolve a more complex adaptation (involving the coordinated action of several different genes) to a grain-heavy diet. This might include changes in the gastrointestinal tract that would allow better absorption of the nutrients in grains. But even if such an adaptation occurred, it wouldn’t change the fact that grains are far less nutrient dense than meats, fish, and vegetables—the staple foods of our Paleolithic ancestors. This is especially true when you take into account the bioavailability of nutrients, which is high in animal products and low in grains.
For these reasons, the best approach is to make the Paleolithic foods
our species evolved to eat the foundation of your diet and then personalize it from there depending on your own unique combination of genetics, health status, activity level, life circumstances, and goals. That’s exactly what I’m going to show you how to do, starting in the very next chapter.
Obviously, a lot has changed since our Paleo ancestors roamed the earth, and most of us aren’t living like the contemporary hunter-gatherer populations I’ve mentioned in this section. How do we know their lifestyle is our best option today? Beyond the considerable anthropological record, there are several lines of modern, clinical evidence supporting the health benefits of a Paleo-template diet and lifestyle. These include:
•
The high nutrient density of Paleo foods
•
The minimal presence of toxins and antinutrients in Paleo foods
•
The superior balance of fats in a Paleo diet
•
The beneficial effects of the Paleo diet on gut bacteria
•
The benefits of integrating physical activity throughout the day and minimizing sedentary time, the way our Paleo ancestors did
•
The benefits of sleeping at least seven to eight hours a night and minimizing exposure to artificial light (although the latter was something our Paleo ancestors never had to contend with)
•
The benefits of sun exposure (which go beyond vitamin D) and spending time outdoors
•
The importance of pleasure, play, and social connection
I’ll cover each of these—and much more—in Steps 1 and 2. Again, the good news is that we don’t have to live in caves or roam the earth for food to enjoy the benefits of a Paleo-style diet. And there’s no need to run to a geneticist to see if you have the right alleles to digest milk or wheat. Your Personal Paleo Code will lead you to the perfect diet. For now, I hope I’ve convinced you that a Paleo template is the right place to begin.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Notes for this chapter may be found at ChrisKresser.com/ppcnotes/#ch1.
Reset to Feel Better Fast
When your computer starts running slowly, applications are crashing left and right, and you can’t even move the cursor anymore, what do you do?
You press the reset button. You hit Control-Alt-Delete.
Sometimes we need to do the same thing with our bodies. They’re under constant assault in the modern world. Refined, processed food, environmental toxins, stress, sleep deprivation, and chronic infections can all wreak havoc on our health.
We’re simply not designed to live this way. With a few exceptions (which I’ll cover later), we’re still hardwired to eat the foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate. When we follow that two-million-year-old genetic template, as humans did for thousands of generations, we’re naturally healthy and vital. But when we stray from it, as we have in the recent past, we suffer. If you want to feel better fast, the best thing to do is get back to basics.
So: How do you hit the reset button?
With Step 1’s
Thirty-Day Reset Diet.
You commit to a thirty-day period where you eliminate the modern foods that contribute to disease as well as the foods people are most often allergic to or intolerant of and focus on the safe, nourishing foods our ancestors thrived on for more than sixty-six-thousand generations.
After you’ve hit the reset button and returned to that basic template,
you can customize it to find the approach that works best for you over the long term (as you’ll see later in Steps 2 and 3).
The Reset Diet is designed to reduce inflammation, improve digestion, burn fat, identify food sensitivities, reduce allergic reactions, boost energy, regulate blood sugar, and stabilize your mood.
It seems almost too good to be true. But I’ve done this myself, and I’ve guided thousands of people through it. And I can tell you this: it works! No other therapy—natural or otherwise—can come even remotely close to accomplishing all of these goals in such a short period.
Why thirty days? Because that’s how long, on average, it takes my patients to experience the full benefits of the reset. It’s absolutely essential that you commit to making these changes for at least thirty days—without cheating. Later on in the program, you’ll have more leeway, and you’ll be able to go off the rails every now and then. After all, there’s more to life than food! But the Reset phase is not one of those times. This is where you gather your strength and buckle down. I know you can do it, because thousands of other people just like you already have.
In Step 2 of the program, you’ll reintroduce some of the foods you eliminated during the Thirty-Day Reset Diet to see if you tolerate them. In Step 3, you’ll learn how to make them part of a flexible lifestyle. But for now, the only way to find out if these foods are causing problems is to avoid them entirely.
As with any new diet or exercise program, check with your health-care professional before you begin.
I’ve broken it down into three categories to make it as easy as possible: Eat Liberally, Eat in Moderation, and Avoid Completely.
•
Eat Liberally:
You can enjoy as much of these foods as you like. No counting calories or calculating ratios of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. This isn’t a cleanse or a fast. If a food is on this list, you’re free to eat it.
•
Eat in Moderation:
You can eat these foods, but don’t go wild. I’ve indicated how often or how much of them I think is safe, but in general you want to limit consumption of these foods compared with those in the Eat Liberally category.
•
Avoid Completely:
Yes, completely. The success (or failure) of the program hinges on your ability to steer clear of these foods during the Thirty-Day Reset.
As you’ll see in later chapters, there are convincing reasons for choosing or avoiding specific foods in each of these categories. For now, however, let’s look at what’s on—or off—the list during the Reset.
•
Meat and poultry.
Emphasize beef, lamb, and mutton, as well as pork, chicken, turkey, duck, goat, and wild game (like venison and ostrich). Organic and free-range meat is always preferable, but it is especially important during this part of the program, when you’re trying to minimize all toxins in your diet. However, if those options are not available, don’t let that get in the way of your Reset.
•
Organ meats (especially liver).
Liver is the most nutrient-dense food on the planet, rich in vitamin A, iron, and all the essential amino acids. If you don’t like its taste, chop fresh liver into half-inch cubes, freeze them in an ice-cube tray, then pop out the liver cubes and store them in a freezer bag. When you’re making any meat dish, defrost a cube, chop it finely, and mix it in. You won’t notice the taste but you’ll get all the nutrients. If you’re adventurous, try heart, kidneys, spleen, tongue, and brains. (Note: If you have iron overload, a condition of excess iron storage in the body, you should not eat organ meats. See pages
here
for more information.)
•
Bone-broth soups.
It’s essential to balance your intake of muscle meats and organ meats with homemade bone broths. Bone broths differ from stocks in that they’re simmered for a long time—up to forty-eight hours—to get the maximum nutrition from the bones. The broths are not only delicious but rich in glycine, an amino acid found in collagen, which is a protein important in maintaining a healthy gut lining.
•
Fish.
Especially fatty fish, like salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, and herring. Wild is preferable. Eat three six-ounce servings of fatty fish per week to get enough of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA, which I’ll discuss in
chapter 5
.
•
Eggs.
Preferably free-range and organic. And, yes, yolks are allowed—I even encourage them, because they’re an excellent source of vitamin D, selenium, and other important nutrients.
•
Starchy plants.
Yams, sweet potatoes, tapioca, yuca (also sold as cassava or manioc), taro, lotus root, plantains (ripe and unripe), and breadfruit. (Boil the yuca first for thirty minutes, then roast or mash it before eating to remove toxic goitrogens, compounds that can impair thyroid function in susceptible individuals.) No white potatoes allowed during Reset, but don’t worry, you can see whether they belong back on your plate during Step 2.
•
Nonstarchy vegetables.
Cooked or raw. These include artichoke, asparagus, beets, broccoli, broccoli rabe, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chilies, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, green onions, greens (beet, collard, dandelion, kale, mustard, turnip), jicama, leeks, lettuce (endive, escarole, iceberg, leafy varieties, radicchio, romaine), mushrooms, okra, onions, parsley, parsnips, peppers, pumpkin, radishes, rutabaga, scallions, spinach, summer squash, Swiss chard, tomato, turnips, and zucchini.
•
Fermented vegetables and fruits.
Sauerkraut, kimchi, curtido, beet kvass, coconut kefir, and so on. Loaded with good bacteria, fermented foods are excellent for gut health.
•
Traditional fats.
Coconut oil, ghee, red palm oil, palm kernel oil, macadamia oil, lard (rendered from free-range pigs if possible), duck fat, beef tallow (from free-range cows if possible), and olive oil (preferably extra virgin).
•
Olives, avocados, and coconuts
(including coconut milk).
•
Sea salt and spices.
Avoid sugar and artificial flavorings.
•
Processed meat.
Sausage, bacon (both cured and uncured), salami, pepperoni, and jerky. Make sure they’re gluten-, sugar-, and soy-free, and organic and/or free-range meat is preferable. Two to four servings a week is fine.
•
Whole fruit.
Up to four servings per day, depending on your blood-sugar balance (see below) and the type of fruit. Choose a wide variety of colors: green, red, orange, and yellow. All fruit is permitted, but favor low-sugar fruits, like berries, grapefruit, oranges, and peaches, over tropical fruits, apples, grapes, and pears. Watch out for dried fruit; it’s easy to consume a lot of sugar with a single handful. (See NutritionData.com to find the amount of sugar in fruits, along with nutrient values for other foods.)
•
Nuts and seeds.
Allowed nuts include almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts (filberts), macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts. (Note: peanuts are actually legumes, not nuts, and they’re not allowed during the Thirty-Day Reset Diet.) Favor nuts lower in omega-6, like hazelnuts and macadamias, and minimize nuts high in omega-6, like Brazil nuts and almonds. Allowed seeds include chia, flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower. It is easy to overeat nuts and seeds, but limit yourself to a handful per day. (See
chapter 3
for important information on how to prepare nuts to make them easier to digest and more nutritious.) Sesame oil should be used only sparingly, since it contains relatively high levels of omega-6 linoleic acid, which is not good. I’ll explain more in
chapter 5
.
•
Green beans, sugar peas, and snap peas.
Though technically legumes, they are usually well tolerated. You may eat four to six servings of these per week.
•
Coffee and black tea.
All teas and coffee are permitted; you can drink them black or with coconut milk. Limit these caffeinated beverages to one eight-ounce cup a day (not one triple espresso—one cup of brewed coffee or tea), and only before noon. However, if you experience fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, hypoglycemia, mood swings, or depression, you should eliminate
all
caffeine entirely. (Check labels; you’ll find caffeine lurking in many headache and cold preparations.) Caffeine stimulates the adrenals and can worsen all of these conditions. Once your adrenal issues have been addressed—see
chapter 20
—you may be able to add caffeine back, in moderation.
•
Vinegar.
Apple cider, balsamic, red wine, and other varieties. Apple cider vinegar is especially well tolerated. Vinegar may be used in small amounts every day as part of a salad dressing or sauce.
•
Restaurant food.
Restaurants cook with industrial seed and vegetable oils (on the Avoid Completely list, below), which can wreak havoc on your health. Also, it’s hard to escape grains (hidden in various dishes) and some of the other foods on the Avoid Completely list. For these reasons, limit restaurant food as much as possible during the Thirty-Day Reset. I’d suggest eating out no more than twice a week (lunch included). In
chapter 19
, I’ll offer tips on how to order in restaurants.
•
Dairy.
Including butter, cheese, yogurt, milk, cream, and any dairy product that comes from a cow, goat, sheep, or other mammal. Ghee (aka “butter oil”) is permitted because it contains only trace amounts of dairy proteins (e.g., casein) and lactose, and is well tolerated by all but the most sensitive individuals.
•
Grains.
Including wheat, rice, cereal, oats, pseudograins, and nongluten grains like sorghum, teff, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, spelt, rye, barley, couscous, malt, graham flour, and so on. No bread, pasta, cereal, or pizza. And for now, don’t go shopping for gluten-free substitutes.
•
Legumes.
Including beans of all kinds (soy, black, kidney, pinto), peas, lentils, and peanuts. (Read labels: soy lurks in miso, tofu, bean curd, natto, tamari, tempeh, texturized vegetable protein, edamame, and elsewhere.)
•
Sweeteners, real and artificial.
Including sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, coconut sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey, agave, brown-rice syrup, Splenda, Equal, NutraSweet, xylitol, mannitol, and stevia.
•
Chocolate.
Milk chocolate contains both dairy and sugar and therefore should be avoided. There’s nothing wrong with dark chocolate (with greater than 75 percent cacao content); in fact, it’s one of the most nutrient-dense foods available, as you’ll learn in
chapter 3
. However, many people who are intolerant of gluten are (unfortunately!) also intolerant of proteins in chocolate, so it should be avoided during the Step 1 Reset. You can reintroduce it during Step 2.
•
Processed or refined foods.
As a rule, if it comes in a bag or a box, don’t eat it. This also includes highly processed “health foods” like protein powder, energy bars, dairy-free creamers, and so on.
•
Industrial seed and vegetable oils.
Soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower, rapeseed, peanut, cottonseed, canola, and so forth. Read labels—seed oils are in almost all processed, packaged, and refined foods (which you should be mostly avoiding during this phase anyway).
•
Sodas, including diet sodas, and fruit juice.
All forms, including “natural” varieties. Avoid fruit juice during the Reset because it’s high in sugar and easy to overconsume. Coconut water is fine, but limit yourself to half a cup a day; it’s quite sweet. Plain soda water or mineral water is fine.
•
Alcohol.
In any form. (Don’t freak out. You’ll be adding this back in in Step 2.)
•
Processed sauces and seasonings.
Soy sauce, tamari, and other processed sauces and seasonings (which often have sugar, soy, gluten, or all of the above).