So what IS a healthy diet, really that prevents disease (and cures it?)

...or what one of my readers asked yesterday, "So what DO you eat when you don't eat grains?"

The question is illustrative of how prevalent is grass seed in our diet--yes, all grains and cereals are grass seeds.  Most Americans eat so much grain--cereal, bread, rice, pasta, corn, etc--that they cannot imagine eliminating it.  It forms the backbone of the American diet.  And it shows!

So let's talk about how we got here--from hunter/gatherer ancestors of which there are only a few scattered tribes left...They had no grocery stores.  They had nature.  They hunted and fished and gathered eggs and frogs and insects and shellfish if they were near the sea.  They found leaves and twigs and roots that were tasty.  They picked berries and other fruit and nuts when they found them.  Grass seeds were too labor intensive to eat.  The roots they found were full of fiber and often very colorful (not like a potato that is just chains of glucose with almost no nutrients.)  The leaves and greens our ancestors ate were organic (of course) and fruit was seasonal. 

The animals they ate roamed free eating natural stuff too.  No cramming them into feed lots, no cramming corn and oats down their gullets and then shooting them full of antibiotics when they got sick.  Those animals didn't have marbled meat.  They were lean.  But the humans from whom we decended ate the whole animal--fat, brain, heart, tongue, liver, kidneys, bones and meat--so they got the fattest parts of the animals besides the lean meat.  That's our heritage.  The BS we've been told (saturated fat causes heart disease, cholesterol is dangerous, whole grains are healthy) comes out of the agricultural complex, not our biology.  Read my booklet (50 pages) "Inflammation Run Amok" for more details of why that BS is so wrong, or read
"Good Calorie Bad Calorie" by Gary Taubes, or read "The Great Cholesterol Con".

There was a big hoopla about "The China Study" a book written by a vegetarian named Campbell that looked at diseases in China.  He concluded that animal products were the cause of disease in China.  The data was revisited by a reseacher (also a vegan at the time) but she demonstrated how Campbell fudged to get his conclusions and that more correctly, wheat was highly correlated with heart disease, and those that ate more animal fat actually had lower disease. Read her blog here for a lot more detail.  http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/09/02/the-china-study-wheat-and-heart-disease-oh-my/#more-532

So what do I eat now that I'm off grains?  Well, it was touch and go for a while while I figured this out, but now I eat eggs and bacon, salads, vegetables and fruit, meat at most every meal, and full fat dairy and dairy products to my heart's content.  I make a lot of soup.  It's an easy way to get meat and veggies in one bowl and I can make a big pot of soup and eat it several days in a row.  No sandwiches though.  Taking a lunch is a little different now.  I make beef jerky for travel sometimes.  I have been known to take a carton of cottage cheese and fruit when I am away from home.  I hope it goes without saying that I drink no sodas, juice or alcohol and about one pound of sugar a year--only incidentally, as in my homemade mango chutney.

I drink milk--but I'm not sensitive or allergic to milk.  If you are, avoid it.  Don't know?  Try ten days with none and see if anything changes.  I avoid vegetable fats.  I use macadamia nut oil in salad dressing I make (oil and vinegar) butter and coconut oil for cooking now and then. 

Meat and good animal fat and vegetables is very filling.  Yes, it puts you out of step with America.  But frankly, since all America is pretty sick and aging badly, being out of step is a good thing.

Read the book "The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sisson.  I think it is the best of the books about eating like our ancestors did and like we're designed for.  The Primal/Paleo/Ancestral movement is huge and growing--and healthy!!

One more suggestion.  Watch this 17 minute youtube video.  If this doesn't convince you, I'll be very surprised.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KLjgBLwH3Wc  It's a TED talk by a doctor who cured herself of Multiple Sclerosis (an incurable disease) and gives good info about mitochondria and nutrients.

One more comment, then I'm finished for now.  If you have health issues now, all this information is far more important than if you do not.  A primal/ancestral diet can cure what ails you--including the biggies (see video) and keep you healthy.  What I'm pretty sure tho, is that the sicker you are, the more important it is to stick to it 100%.  Every time you cheat (and I no longer even want to) you invite in damaging processes again.   You can't heal damage while inflicting it!!!

Best wishes!  And have a healthy and happy holiday season!

http://mindingthemiddleagedmiddle.com/ for e-books about this stuff!