499 The Starch Diet [26 Nov 2018]

Years ago I learned that to get a balanced view we need to read widely, especially in the field of natural health. Writers focus on one nutrient or diet and make it sound like the most important or only logical choice. Only by reading many different authors can we begin to see the whole picture. That’s what I have tried to bring to you over the past 10 years writing these articles.

A case in point is Dr. John McDougall’s 2013 book The Starch Solution (read the first chapter here). McDougall advocates a diet rich in starchy foods like grains, legumes, potatoes and sweet potatoes, along with plenty of vegetables and fruit, while eliminating meat, dairy, processed foods and most oils. This is in sharp contrast to the currently popular low-carb high-fat paleo and keto diets.

McDougall observed that when people from other countries with a traditional starch based diet who were trim and healthy moved to the USA and adopted an American diet, they became obese and developed western diseases. The immigrant grandparents remained slim and healthy; their children were overweight and unhealthy; and the grandchildren obese and sick – the opposite of what we would expect. He believed the difference was the increased meat and dairy in their diets.

Over four decades Dr. McDougall developed his diet and helped thousands of patients regain their health. McDougall claims that a diet rich in starch:
• Allowed humans to move beyond the tropics and to develop our large brains;
• fuelled the rise of civilization and fed the Greek and Roman armies;
• Healthy populations around the world get most of their calories from starch;
• will let you lose excess weight almost effortlessly;
• will improve your blood pressure and cholesterol;
• will prevent diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis;
• will make you feel, function, and live better;
• will help save the planet (beef produces 14X more greenhouse gases than potatoes per calorie); and
• will significantly reduce your grocery budget.

I believe that minimally processed starchy foods are part of a healthy diet but I’m not sure I’d take it to the extreme that McDougall does eliminating all animal products. His diet does provide a welcome balance to the high-fat keto diets but I’d like to see some good research supporting his health claims.

Next week – The Last Post. I’m retiring this column after #500.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

338 Learning from the Paleo Diet [28 Sept 2015]

My topic last week was “Debunking the paleo diet” based on a Ted Talks lecture by archaeologist Christina Warinner. She concluded her lecture with three things we can learn from what we do know of our ancestors’ diets. Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

1. There is no one correct diet for humans; diversity is the key ingredient. Never before has such a variety of foods from around the world been available year-round as in North American supermarkets. Yet most of our processed foods contain three species – wheat, corn & soy. Take advantage of the available diversity and try different fruits, vegetables and grains.

2. Ideally food should be eaten fresh, ripe, and in season. This is when foods have the highest nutrient content. Preservation methods extend the usefulness of foods but come with a price – salting adds excess sodium; drying, freezing, and canning deplete some nutrients; smoking and chemical preservatives have poorly understood effects on our health. They all work by inhibiting bacterial growth which can have undesirable effects on our beneficial gut bacteria.

3. Whole foods, with all the fiber and other nutrients intact, are best. Warinner illustrated this concept by showing that in a 34 oz. soda we can gulp down the sugar equivalent to 8 feet of sugar cane. We have not yet adapted to this sudden change in diet, resulting in the modern epidemics of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Processed foods in which real food is broken into constituent parts and recombined to look and taste good, rarely improves its nutritional value. One nutrient that is usually lost is fiber which is important for regulating bowel function, feeding our good gut flora, and slowing absorption of sugar.

I don’t think the Paleo Diet proponents are all Luddites as Warinner implies, eschewing modern food technology for a misplaced ideology. We can take the best of both worlds – enjoy a variety of modern cultivars and embrace technology that maximizes nutrient content. Eat more protein, including red meat. Avoid most processed foods. Reduce carbs, especially modern grains and sugars. Eat plenty of fresh raw vegetables and fruit. Include healthy fats from fish, nuts, seeds and fruit (olives and avocados). Limit dairy and alcohol. In moderation the Paleo Diet is just plain healthy eating.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

337 Debunking the Paleo Diet [21 Sept 2015]

Back in May 2014 I first wrote about the Paleo Diet fad and what we can learn from it. A recent Ted Talks video expands on that theme. Archaeologist Christina Warinner titled her 22 minute talk “Debunking the paleo diet”. Warinner looked at the modern paleo fad diets from the perspective of her study of the health and diet of ancient peoples using bone biochemistry and DNA.

To review, the modern Paleo Diets attempt to emulate what people ate before the development of agriculture. The diet is high in meat and vegetables with some fruits, nuts and oils, but no grains, legumes or dairy. But is this really what our Paleolithic ancestors ate? Not quite, Warinner argues. She first busts three myths about the Paleo Diet, then lists three things that we can learn from our ancestors’ diets.

1. Meat was not as large a part of the Paleolithic diet as believed. We have few adaptations to eating meat and many to plants (molars for grinding, longer intestinal tract, lack of vitamin C synthesis). And the one adaptation to animal husbandry many people have, especially in Africa and northern Europe, is tolerance to dairy.

2. Grains and legumes were a bigger part of the Paleolithic diet than believed. Mortar and pestles for grinding seeds date back 30,000 years; fossilized plaque from ancient human teeth show evidence of grains, legumes and tubers.

3. Modern foods – meat and vegetables – are much different than what our Paleolithic ancestors ate. Wild game was mostly small, lean and tough; and all the organs and marrow were consumed. Eggs were small, hard to find, and seasonal. Wild fruits and especially vegetables were unrecognizable from modern cultivars – tiny, tough, bitter tasting, many with toxic chemicals. And modern foods come from all over the world year-round; our ancestors were limited to locally and seasonally available food resources.

So, what can we learn from what we do know of our ancestors’ diets?

1. There is no one correct diet for humans; diversity is the key ingredient.
2. Ideally food should be eaten fresh, ripe, and in season.
3. Whole foods, with all the fiber and other nutrients intact, are best.

I may expand on these points in a future column.

In conclusion Warinner stated “We still have a lot to learn from our Paleolithic – and Neolithic – ancestors”.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.

268 What is the Paleo Diet? [19 May 2014]

You have probably been hearing a lot about a so-called paleo diet. What is it and what can we learn from it?

Paleo is a Latin prefix meaning “old” or “ancient”. In this case it is short for Paleolithic, or “Old Stone Age”, a period in human history prior to agriculture. The paleo diet is a modern attempt to recreate the diet of our pre-agricultural ancestors.

The paleo diet movement started in the 1970s with a book called “The Stone Age Diet” by Walter L. Voegtlin, who argued that humans are primarily carnivorous with an ideal diet of mostly protein and fats and little carbohydrates. The diet has been adapted and promoted by many since, and is now more popular than ever. Advantages touted by the promoters include having more energy, getting & staying slim, and living longer. The diet is said to reduce the risk of degenerative diseases including obesity, depression, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer, and often reverse the symptoms in people already suffering from these conditions.

So what foods are allowed in the paleo diet?
• lean proteins like grass-fed beef, bison, free range chicken
• fish & seafood
• nearly all fruits and vegetables
• nuts and seeds in moderation
• healthy fats like avocados, fish oil, olive oil

Foods to be avoided:
• grains, legumes, starchy vegetables
• dairy & alcohol
• processed foods & sugar

If you think you would like to try the paleo diet, there are several books and many websites for more information.

Many people who do a 30 day trial decide to stay with it because of how great they are feeling. There are many different versions and you can choose how strictly you wish to follow it. Let me know how you do.

For more information on this or other natural health topics, stop in and talk to Stan; for medical advice consult your licensed health practitioner.