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What's So Great About Eating PALEO?
As many of you know I am a strong advocate of the Paleo Style of eating. Notice I don't call it a "Diet". I think the word diet has a negative connotation, in that it evokes the idea that some day you will go off it, and return to your old eating habits as with most other diets. The big difference with eating Paleo as opposed to other eating plans is that it should be a permanent transformation.
As a species, humans have not genetically changed significantly in over a million years.
Industrial agriculture and animal husbandry began approximately 10,000 years ago. This is much too recent on the evolutionary timescale for there to be any adaptation in our genome.
The result of this discordance between our ancient genes and our modern western dietary habits is DISEASE.
Our ancestors ate approximately 50% of their calories in wild animal protein, and the other 50% was plant material, fruits, nuts and tubers. Some ancient populations even ate more protein than that as they began to populate more temperate climates where plant material was not available all year long.
The greatest change in our evolutionary diet has been consuming more protein and being less reliant on plant material.
Researchers believe this enabled our brains to develop and our guts to shorten so our bellies didn't protrude like primates, making it easier to walk upright. This distinguished us from primates and launched us off on our current genetic human platform.
The most significant difference between the post-Agricultural age diet and the Paleo era has been the introduction of dairy products,cereals and grains,refined sugars,refined vegetable oils, and alcohol which now makes up 72% of calories of modern western diets.These materials contributed virtually zero energy calories to the pre-agricultural era diet. As modern foods replaced the calories from plant material and animal protein of the ancient hunter gatherers, dramatic shifts took place in our glycemic loads. Fatty acid composition,macro and micro nutrient densities, acid - base balance,
sodium/potassium ratio and fiber content also drastically changed.
Research has demonstrated that these shifts in our metabolism have resulted in chronic hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia with the resultant hormonal and physiologic changes that produce insulin resistance, obesity, heart disease,hypertension,diabetes,high cholesterol,acne,gout,polycystic ovary and kidney disease as well as cancer of the breast,prostate and colon. Furthermore dairy products although low glycemic are highly hyperinsulinemic. Insulin is an extremely inflammatory hormone.So too much of it especially under these chronic conditions can be disastrous to health of the body.
Adding insult to injury is the dramatic reduction of dietary fiber in modern diets as refined foods replaced fresh vegetables and fruits. This shift results in stomach ulcers,reflux esophagitis,hemorrhoids,
appendicitis,diverticulitis,deep vein thrombosis,varicose veins,hiatal hernia and colon cancer.
Fresh fruits contain twice the fiber of whole grains. Non-starchy vegetables contain up to eight times the fiber of whole grains.
Our diets are severely depleted of fiber and overloaded with insulin raising carbs.
Diseases resulting from high insulin and insulin resistance are referred to as "diseases of civilization".
TO BE CONTINUED
In the mean time Suggested reading
 | | Paleo Diet Book |
 | | Paleo Cookbook |
Call the office if you would like more information.
And of course, if you like, just go ahead and schedule your appointment.
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