Eating Traditionally

For tens of thousands of years, our ancestors ate a variety of traditional foods - lean grass fed meats, eggs, shellfish, fish, fruits, nuts, greens, tubers - and things like bugs, too. Then, 500 generations ago, agriculture added grains and beans. Dairy foods were added a little later. Oils came from the foods and later from cold pressing olives and other seeds.

Then, in the last 5 generations, we've introduced refined vegetable oils, high in Omega 6 polyunsaturates, large amounts of sugar and refined grains, and recently high fructose corn syrup. Hydrogenation is now common - introducing transfats. In the last several years, food manufacturers have started adding milk and soy derivatives to many processed foods.

It's well known that people from cultures with traditional cuisines - ones that have been handed down for many, many generations - are generally healthier than Americans. And when these people adopt an American diet, they start to get our chronic diseases. Our genes are not programmed to thrive on these new foods. We are not adapted to them. They are making us sick.

I personally think its unwise to eat a diet largely composed of these new foods - as most Americans now do. When I see what people buy at the grocery store - it's these new foods that they are buying. I think they are buying poor health.

When I shop, I fill my cart with grass fed meats, free range chicken, wild caught fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables. I consume few grains and limited dairy. I avoid sugar, corn syrup, and vegetable oils other than extra virgin olive oil.

I think it's smart to observe the eating patterns of cultures that have long culinary traditions and borrow from them. I make one adaptation. I assume that traditional diets are too high calorie for our sedentary society and cut out a lot of their starchy staples - the rice in Asian cultures and bread and potatoes in European ones; the tortillas of the Americas, and flatbreads of the Middle East. But I keep the meats, the oils, the vegetables and fruits.

Most Americans are now overweight - too many calories for a sedentary lifestyle. It's important to return to traditional foods - though with a lower level of nutrient-poor carbohydrates than is typically eaten by hard-working farmers or hunters-gatherers. If you want the best health possible, this is the path to achieving it. I've had remarkable success with this strategy. I lost 40 pounds in 8 months - going from 156 to 116, my weight at 18 - and have kept it off without once regaining it for 4 years. I haven't had a cold or the flu since. I have double the energy I had before. My skin looks the best it has in ten years. Aches and pains are gone. I feel really great for a 51 year old - more like a 31 year old. Better than a lot of 31 year olds.

I have found it easy to eat this way. It quickly become a habit, even though I previously ate a very typical American diet. You feel so good that you can't imagine going back to Krispy Kreme hell. Food tastes better and you enjoy it so much more when it's nourishing you. I can eat 1200 calories a day, every day, without hunger or feeling deprived.

Diets don't work. Just cutting calories or carbs or fat is not enough. You need to give your body everything it needs to work well. Or you will get sick or tired or stressed. The purpose of this blog is to help you to eat well for the rest of your life - your long and healthy life. I've been eating this way for 5 years, and I want to share what I've found with you.