Your Personal Paleo Code: The 3-Step Plan to Lose Weight, Reverse Disease, and Stay Fit and Healthy for Life (7 page)

Relax—no calculators. (The only exceptions here are for people with specific health conditions; see below.) In Step 3, I’ll discuss how to determine the optimal amount of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins to eat based on your individual circumstances. In the Step 1 Reset, we’re focusing more on the
quality
of macronutrient than the quantity. That said, you can use the following ranges as a starting point during the Reset:

Don’t overanalyze what you’re eating. Enjoy your food. Make cooking fun and leave time to savor your creations. You’ll find recipes and meal plans in
chapter 21
. There are also more recipes on the website. You’ve got real, delicious, nutrient-dense foods to choose from.

If you juice with whole fruits or veggies with water, unsweetened nut milk, or half a cup of coconut water with no sugar added, you should be fine, although some of my patients say that they tend to feel hungrier when they drink their meals. Focus on the veggies and the lower-sugar fruits, like berries. And avoid prepared juices or smoothies, which often contain large amounts of natural sugar or processed sugars like high-fructose corn syrup, which you should avoid completely on the Reset.

No man (or woman) is an island. Change is hard, and the more support you have in doing this, the easier it will go. Try enlisting your spouse, your significant other, or a good friend to do this with you. (People may not be eager, but they’ll thank you later.) Have a Personal Paleo Code potluck. Invite friends over to cook with you. Connect online with
others who are following this approach. Be sure to check out my website’s online forum, where you can discuss your dietary changes with fellow adventurers. Ask questions. Get help.

Instead of thinking about what you can’t have on the Thirty-Day Reset Diet, focus on what you’re getting: That looser waistband. Not feeling exhausted in the middle of the afternoon. Seeing a clearer complexion in the mirror. Your knees not being so achy anymore. Feeling sharper, less moody. Your digestion running more smoothly. Knowing that you’re on your way to feeling better than you have in years—or maybe ever!

If you’re an athlete or very physically active, you will generally need more calories and a higher carbohydrate intake, especially after working out. As a rough idea, if you’re seeking to maintain your current weight or gain muscle, you should aim to get about 25 to 60 percent of your calories from carbohydrates; if you’re trying to lose fat, aim to get between 7 and 20 percent of calories from carbohydrates. For protein, most athletes should aim for 0.8 to 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day if they’re trying to lose fat or maintain weight, and 1.0 to 1.25 grams per pound of body weight per day if they’re trying to gain muscle or increase performance. See
chapter 18
for detailed recommendations for those with high activity levels.

If you’re dining out, choose a place that can accommodate your needs. Call ahead and ask if there are gluten-free items on the menu. Pick a restaurant that offers meat and vegetable dishes, and order a side salad. (Skip the dressing, since it may have sugar, and ask for vinegar and olive oil on the side instead.) If you don’t plan in advance, you could find yourself in a situation where you’re starving, and then you might end up eating a big plate of pasta because that’s all that’s available. The same rules apply when you’re traveling, and make sure you stock up on Personal Paleo Code–friendly snacks, such as nuts and veggies. See
chapter 19
for
more tips and tricks for sticking to your Thirty-Day Reset Diet when you’re eating out or on the road. Advance planning makes it possible!

This one’s a little harder to answer. Always check with your health-care provider before starting or stopping any prescription medication or supplement. If you know the supplement helps you or you’re taking it for a specific purpose (for example, iodine for thyroid function), by all means, continue. If you can’t remember why you’re taking a certain supplement or if you’re uncertain about whether it’s helping you, I suggest stopping it during Step 1. Not all supplements are beneficial, and some may even cause harm. (I’ll discuss which supplements are mostly likely to help and which cause harm in more detail in
chapter 18
.)

Go to ChrisKresser.com/PPC to register for the free Personal Paleo Code resources I mention throughout the book, including additional meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists; a Paleo troubleshooting guide; and other resources to take all of the guesswork out of it for you. Take a look around the website and familiarize yourself with what’s available. Print out charts or whatever you need, put them up on your refrigerator, and take them with you to the store if you get stuck. Don’t forget to get involved with the forum, where you can get support from other Personal Paleo Code users who may be dealing with similar issues and who may have helpful recommendations to get you through each phase of the program.

If you’re having some difficulty beyond the usual adjustment period, don’t be alarmed. It doesn’t mean the Personal Paleo Code won’t work or isn’t a good choice for you. Not all damage done to the body is quickly reversible; sometimes the Thirty-Day Reset Diet isn’t enough to heal that damage without additional help. You may need to tweak things a bit, and add a few things to your program.

The Thirty-Day Reset Diet can be a big adjustment, but it offers big rewards! I hope you’ll be inspired by these reports from people who took the plunge:

Follow the Step 1 Reset Diet for a minimum of thirty days—even if you’re feeling significantly better or most of your symptoms improve sooner. As mentioned, I’ve found that thirty days is the minimum amount of time it takes to establish a new pattern in the body. If you move on too quickly, you risk sabotaging your hard-won improvement.

After thirty days, if you feel you’re still making progress and want to give yourself more time to reap the benefits of the Reset, then continue for as long as you’d like. The Reset Diet is completely safe to follow for a lifetime. (As a reminder, check with your health-care professional before you start the program.) When you feel ready to reintroduce some foods or if you begin to feel like your improvements are leveling off, that’s an indication that you’re ready for Step 2.

If you stay on the Reset Diet for more than thirty days and your progress plateaus for more than two weeks, it’s unlikely you will see further improvement by continuing with Step 1, so I recommend moving on to Step 2. In many cases, adding foods back in during Step 2 can kick-start the improvement again.

Feeling better fast is a powerful motivation to move on to Step 2. In the following chapters, I’m going to explain the core principles behind the Personal Paleo Code, which will give you even more motivation while you are doing the Reset.

Notes for this chapter may be found at ChrisKresser.com/ppcnotes/#ch2.

Aurora, age sixty-five, came to see me complaining of numbness, tingling, and weakness in her legs, reduced mobility, and decreased balance and coordination. She also had what I call brain fog—difficulty focusing, solving problems, even spelling common words—and her memory sometimes failed her. “I have suffered for years from these symptoms,” she said, “but I always thought they were just a normal part of getting older.” When her symptoms worsened, she sought help. Two doctors she visited both suspected multiple sclerosis, but Aurora was skeptical of this diagnosis and came to see me for another opinion.

In discussing her medical history with her and asking about her diet, I learned that Aurora had been a vegetarian for the past twenty-five years but had never had her B
₁₂
levels tested. Vitamin B
₁₂
deficiency can mimic many of the symptoms of MS—peripheral neuropathy (numbness and tingling in the arms and legs), cognitive decline, and poor coordination and balance—and it is extremely common among long-term vegetarians. Sure enough, after I ran a full blood panel for her, I found that her B
₁₂
levels were dangerously low. I immediately started her on intensive B
₁₂
supplementation, and within a matter of weeks, her symptoms had vastly
improved. Unfortunately, her recovery was not complete because some damage caused by B
₁₂
deficiency is irreversible. This highlights the importance of this essential vitamin.

“I can’t believe something so simple to diagnose and treat could cause so many problems,” she told me upon learning of her B
₁₂
deficiency. “I only wish I would have known this sooner.” Though she’d been a vegetarian for more than two decades, Aurora decided to start incorporating meat and fish back into her diet to give her body the B
₁₂
it so desperately needed.

There are many reasons why people choose to eat a vegetarian diet, and I respect individual choice. However, Aurora’s story is a good example of what happens when we don’t choose a
nutrient-dense
diet, and it highlights one of the greatest benefits of the Personal Paleo Code approach: it contains the full spectrum of nutrients that humans require for optimal health.

There are two types of nutrients in food:
macronutrients,
which include protein, carbohydrates, and fat, and
micronutrients,
which are vitamins, minerals, and other compounds required in small amounts for normal metabolic function.

The nutrient density of foods refers primarily to micronutrients and amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Carbohydrates and fats are important to health, but, with the exception of two fatty acids—which we’ll discuss in
chapter 5
—they can be provided by the human body for a short amount of time if dietary intake is insufficient. The same cannot be said for micronutrients and the essential amino acids found in protein, which must be obtained from the diet.

Your body needs about forty different micronutrients for proper physiological function; suboptimal intake of any of them will contribute to disease and shorten life span. Unfortunately, nutrient deficiency is widespread in people following an industrialized diet that is energy but not nutrient dense.
Energy density
is the number of calories in a given amount
of food;
nutrient density
is the concentration of nutrients in a given amount of food. With that in mind, you can understand why a large sugary soda has high energy density (lots of calories) but virtually no nutritional density.

Vegetable oils and sugar contribute about 36 percent of the calories in a typical American’s diet, yet they are essentially devoid of micronutrients. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that the more energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods someone consumes, the more likely he or she is to have nutrient deficiencies. More than half of Americans are deficient in zinc, calcium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin B
₆
, and vitamin E, according to a 1997 survey. Approximately one-third are also deficient in riboflavin, thiamine, folate, vitamin C, and iron. In many cases, these aren’t mild nutrient deficiencies; up to 50 percent of Americans consume less than half of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for several micronutrients.

This is especially alarming when you consider the fact that the RDA is based on the amount of a nutrient required to avoid acute deficiency symptoms. It does not reflect the amount required to avoid deficiency symptoms over an extended period. This amount is not known for most micronutrients, but it is almost certainly higher than the RDA, which means that an even larger percentage of Americans than the number given above are not getting enough of these vitamins and minerals. Aurora, my patient with the B
₁₂
deficiency, is hardly alone!

You’ve already read about the precipitous decline in health among hunter-gatherers when they adopted agriculture; those effects were in large part due to nutrient deficiencies caused by their new grain-based diet. Unfortunately, 366 generations later, many people are still taking in an inadequate amount of micronutrients and suffering the multiple problems that causes.

It starts at a subcellular level in the body, where nutrient deficiency
can mimic the effects of radiation and chemicals on DNA, causing single-and double-strand breaks, oxidative lesions, or both. Simply put, nutrient deficiency threatens your body’s ability to function normally and can shorten your life span. Here are just some of the conditions triggered by nutrient deficiency.

Immune function
is adversely affected by poor intake of nearly every essential vitamin and mineral, which compromises our ability to fight infections. And antioxidant vitamins, carotenoids, and minerals are required to prevent
premature aging
and protect against
cellular damage.

Cardiovascular disease
affects more than sixty-five million Americans and is the leading cause of death in this country each year (responsible for almost four out of ten deaths). In the United States, 65 percent of adults are
overweight,
and 34 percent meet the criteria for
metabolic syndrome,
a constellation of disorders including low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, high fasting blood sugar, high blood pressure, and abdominal obesity.
Diabesity
—a term coined by Dr. Mark Hyman that refers to the continuum of metabolic disorders from mild blood-sugar imbalance to full-blown type 2 diabetes—affects one in two Americans.

Micronutrient deficiency may contribute in part to all of these conditions. For example, magnesium deficiency is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Vitamin K
₂
deficiency is associated with heart disease and coronary calcification. Deficiency of folate leads to increased levels of a compound that damages the fragile lining of blood vessels and is thought to contribute to heart disease. Folate deficiency also impairs a process called methylation, which in turn can lead to altered expression and suppression of genes and increase the risk of cancer.

You might be thinking a multivitamin can prevent nutrient deficiency, but supplemental nutrients do not have the same effect on the body as nutrients gotten from food. Humans have evolved to get their nutrients
from whole foods—not supplements. Most nutrients require specific enzymes and other substances to be properly absorbed. While these are naturally present in foods, they are often not included in synthetic vitamins with isolated nutrients. This may explain why several trials have shown that adding antioxidant supplements to a typical American diet not only doesn’t prevent people from getting heart disease and cancer but may actually increase their risk. While supplements can (and should) be used for therapeutic effect in specific health conditions or to replace certain nutrients that are difficult to obtain from food, they should never be used to replace nutrients that can be found in a nutrient-dense diet.

Now you understand the importance of eating nutrient-dense food. But even the most nutrient-dense food on the planet is worthless unless the nutrients it contains are bioavailable. Bioavailability refers to the portion
of a nutrient that is absorbed by the body. The amount of bioavailable nutrients in a food is almost always lower than the absolute amount of nutrients the food contains.

The grass on your front lawn is a perfect example. Grass contains several vitamins and minerals, but they are largely inaccessible to humans because of grass’s cellulose content. Cellulose is a fiber that forms the walls of cells in most green plants. Ruminants, such as cows and sheep, have a specialized compartment in the stomach called a rumen; it produces an enzyme that breaks down cellulose, allowing the nutrients in the grass to be absorbed. Ruminants also have other chambers in their stomachs to help them assimilate the nutrients from grass.

Humans don’t have rumens, multiple stomach chambers, or the enzymes to break down cellulose, so we can’t extract any nutrients from grass if we eat it. Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem: rather than eating the grass, humans can let animals do the hard work of assimilating the nutrients from grass, and then we can eat the animals.

There are three primary factors that affect the bioavailability of a food.

The first is the form that the minerals and other nutrients take. The classic example is iron, which appears in food in two forms: heme and nonheme. Heme iron comes from the iron in red blood cells and is found only in animal products, like meat, fish, poultry, and egg yolks; nonheme iron is found in both plant and animal foods. Only about 2 to 20 percent of nonheme iron is absorbed by the human body, compared to 15 to 35 percent of heme iron. In addition, the absorption of nonheme iron is reduced by several different compounds, such as phytates (found in whole grains and other foods), tannins (found in tea and coffee), and oxalates (found in spinach, sweet potatoes, and Swiss chard).

Second, the absorption of most nutrients is dependent on or influenced by the presence of other nutrients. Nutrient enhancers can keep a nutrient soluble or protect it from nutrient inhibitors. For example, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene are fat soluble, which means they require fat for optimal assimilation, so adding an avocado to a green salad (increasing its fat content by 47 percent) can help you absorb seven times
more lutein and eighteen times more beta-carotene. Another example is heme iron. Heme iron is better absorbed than nonheme iron, and, in addition, it actually improves nonheme-iron absorption. Vitamin C also has been shown to increase iron absorption by as much as three times.

Third, nutrient inhibitors and antinutrients can decrease nutrient bioavailability. They can do this in several different ways: by binding the nutrient into a form not recognized by the digestive tract’s uptake systems; by rendering the nutrient insoluble and so unavailable for absorption; and by competing for the same uptake system used by that nutrient. Phytate is an example of an antinutrient; it binds to minerals such as calcium, iron, and zinc and makes new compounds that the body can’t absorb. Most cereal grains and legumes contain significant amounts of phytates, which is one of the reasons early humans developed nutritional deficiencies after adopting agriculture.

Even beneficial nutrients can inhibit the absorption of other nutrients. For example, both calcium and nonheme iron bind to a transporter in the intestines, but whereas nonheme iron is absorbed this way, calcium basically stays in that doorway and blocks the entry of iron into the bloodstream. This is why calcium supplements are sometimes used to impair iron absorption in patients with hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes dangerously high iron levels.

Focusing on the nutrient density of foods alone is not enough. We need to maximize the intake of foods that are high in
bioavailable
nutrients and substances that improve nutrient absorption, and minimize the intake of foods that are poor in nutrients and have substances that impair nutrient absorption. The Personal Paleo Code allows you to do just that.

There are several issues involved in measuring the nutrient density of foods, including: