The Human Diet

     As a doctor who specializes in wellness, I frequently have patients asking me what “diet” they should go on or follow in order to lose weight, be healthy, and move toward wellness. So, this is my answer to the recurring question I’m asked in my practice, and one that I’m sure you have wondered yourself at some point.

    There are more than 500 different “diets” that attempt to answer all of the questions about nutrition. There are diets for just about every condition known to man - everything from cancer to toenail fungus. One diet I came across was called the “lazy zone diet” which is a “perfect diet for lazy people.” Are you kidding me? 

    The purpose of eating is to convert food into healthy functioning cells, tissues, and organs. The food you consume determines the quality of your cells, tissues, and organs. Your genetics are either deficient in a nutrient, sufficient in a nutrient, or toxic in a nutrient. An astonishing 99% of diseases the human body can exhibit are the result of cells failing to adapt due to a toxicity or deficiency. Our genetic code was programmed to express health; proof of this can be found by looking at individual cells under a microscope. Cells always seek healthy, nutrient rich environments, rather than toxic, nutrient deficient ones. This is why you CANNOT move toward health and wellness with drugs and surgery. If you were to place a human cell into a nutrient deficient, chemically toxic petri dish, over a period of time it would begin to express sickness. Now, do you think that adding some drugs or performing surgery on that cell would increase the health of the cell? Absolutely not. That would only injure the cell further, because you have either added a toxic chemical or cut away an important anatomical structure. The reason why we can apply the same principles of the effects on a single cell to the organismal level (human being) is because humans are made up of 75 trillion cells working together trying to express health. Every single human cell requires the same things in order to express health, because we are all within the same species.

    To put this very simply, every single member of the same species requires the same exact nutrients in order to express health and wellness. The quantity of the nutrients needed differs from person to person depending on things like size, shape, physical activity etc., but the actual nutrients required do not change. For example, if you were to travel to Africa and observe giraffes for a few days, you would quickly realize that every single giraffe eats exactly the same things; you wouldn’t see some giraffes eating lion meat and others eating something completely different. This is because the giraffe’s genetic code requires them to eat a certain way, and therefore they all have the same exact diet that feeds and meets their genetic requirements. Giraffes eat the giraffe diet. Nutritional genetic requirements change from one species to another, but NEVER change within the same species. This is why my dietary recommendations are virtually the same for every single person I talk to – because they are all members of the human species.

     For whatever reason, most people don't think of humans as a species of animal, but we most certainly are. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are when it comes to who or what made humans; we are still an animal species. Since all people belong to the same species, we all require the same nutrients in order to express health. This means there is only one way to eat to feed our genes. There should only be one “diet” and that is the HUMAN DIET. Forget about all the different “fad diets” and forget about trying to eat a certain way in order to get a certain symptom to go away. This type of thinking will never move your body toward expressing health, because it focuses on treating the symptom rather than the cause.  It does not matter whether you have cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, lupus, acid reflux, diabetes, MS, Parkinson’s, etc. Your genetic requirements DO NOT CHANGE. I can’t stress the importance of this enough. Our earliest ancestors ate the way the human species was intended to eat, and were among the healthiest people to ever roam the earth, which is the foundation for the Paleo lifestyle. Remember, whether you believe in intelligent design or macroevolution, this fact does not change. For argument's sake, we could even look at modern day hunter-gatherers who are still an example of the healthiest humans. These populations of people have virtually no cancer, diabetes, hypertension, ADHD, cardiovascular disease, depression, etc.   

  “Paleo” eating consists of consuming mainly fish, grass-fed pasture-raised meats, eggs, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and excludes consuming grains, legumes, dairy products, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, and processed oils. Most people think that grains are good for you, and are a great way to get the nutrients you need as long as they are whole grains. This popular misconception contributes to pathological physiology and causes the cells of your body to adapt faster and more frequently in order to cope with the inflammatory nature of grains. Grains were ok in moderation a couple hundred years ago, but the grains made today are toxic. Anything that causes adaptive physiology (higher than normal cell division) is a stressor to your body, therefore moving you toward sickness and disease. Please don’t mistake this recommendation as suggesting that you cut out all carbohydrates – your body requires carbs in order to express health, but the source of your carbohydrates should be fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, rather than grains.

   The current recommendation (according to the CDC) for the daily number of servings of fruits and vegetables people need are around 2-3 cups of each, per day. This recommendation doesn’t even come close to what your genome actually requires in order to express health.  Your intake of fruits and vegetables should be at least 4 times that amount (8-12 servings). Since we don’t have time to sit around and eat fruits and vegetables all day long, I highly recommend investing in a Vitamix or a Ninja blender. These blenders are amazing for pulverizing just about any fruit or vegetable, and retain the fiber that juicing takes out, which decreases sugar spikes.

   The only way to eliminate disease or to make sick people well is to restore health by restoring proper cell function. The only way to restore cell function and health is to create sufficiency in place of deficiency, and to create purity in place of toxicity, along with optimizing nervous system function.

   

   So, where does chiropractic come in to play? Chiropractors are wellness physicians who correct vertebral subluxations (joints in the spine that are not moving properly) that are causing neurological interference. Subluxations cause adaptive physiology just like nutritional deficiencies and toxicities do. They also interfere with the brain’s ability to communicate with the cells of your body, which can have devastating effects on your health without showing signs or symptoms. Along with adjusting the spine and extremities, Chiropractors also adjust the diet, exercise, and lifestyles of their patients in order to help move them toward the wellness paradigm. Chiropractors DO NOT TREAT SYMPTOMS; we look for and correct the causes of cellular dysfunction and adaptive physiology. Symptoms are just the body’s way of telling you something is wrong. Getting a symptom to go away is like taking the batteries out of a smoke detector - it would only be a matter of time before the house burns down.  This quote sums up our philosophy perfectly:

  “Drugs never cure disease. They merely hush the voices of nature’s protest and pull down the danger signals she erects along the pathway of transgression. Any poison taken into the system has to be reckoned with later on even though it palliates present symptoms. Symptoms may disappear, but the patient is left in a worse condition, though unconscious of it at the time.”

                                                                                           Daniel Kress M.D

   If you want to learn more about paleo, www.ThePaleoDiet.com is a great place to start. This site has tons of great information regarding the paleo lifestyle and way of eating. If you're interested in a little bit heavier reading, I have referenced some peer-reviewed literature below.

  We have to stop treating symptoms with drugs, surgery, lotions, potions, supplements, herbs, and diets. This model is failing us, and does not make anyone healthier - because cellular dysfunction is not caused by a lack of drugs or surgery, so adding these things, scientifically speaking, is invalid. There is a reason why America is the most medicated nation in the world (we consume 70-80% of the world's pharmaceutical supply), and yet we are still the sickest. It's time that we start being proactive about our health.

References

1. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O’Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J. Origins and evolution of the western diet: Health implications for the 21st century. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:341-54

2. Cordain L, Brand Miller J, Eaton SB, Mann N, Holt SHA, Speth JD. Plant to animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000, 71:682-92.

3. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Brand Miller J, Mann N, Hill K. The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: Meat based, yet non-atherogenic. Eur J Clin Nutr 2002;56 (suppl 1):S42-S52.

4.  Cordain L, (1999). Cereal grains: humanity’s double edged sword. World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, 84: 19-73.

5. Cordain L, Toohey L, Smith MJ, Hickey MS. Modulation of immune function by dietary lectins in rheumatoid arthritis. British Journal of Nutrition, 2000, 83:207-217.

6. Cordain L, Watkins BA, Mann NJ. Fatty acid composition and energy density of foods available to African hominids: evolutionary implications for human brain development. World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2001, 90:144-161.

7. Cordain L, Watkins BA, Florant GL, Kehler M, Rogers L, Li Y. Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: Evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease. Eur J Clin Nutr, 2002;56:181-191.

8. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Brand Miller J, Lindeberg S, Jensen C. An evolutionary analysis of the etiology and pathogenesis of juvenile-onset myopia. Acta Opthalmolgica, 2002,80:125-135.

9. Cordain L, Lindeberg S, Hurtado M, Hill K, Eaton SB, Brand-Miller J. Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization. Arch Dermatol. 2002 Dec;138(12):1584-90.

10. Cordain L, Eades MR, Eades MD. (2003). Hyperinsulinemic diseases of civilization: more than just syndrome X. Comp Biochem Physiol Part A:136:95-112.

11. Chesnut, J MPH, DC. The Innate Diet & Natural Hygeine.

Email response to the article "What's with Rich People Hating Vaccines"

Alex,

I recently read your article "What's With Rich People Hating Vaccines" and was taken back. I have spent countless hours researching vaccine effectiveness in order to give the best information to the public so they can make informed decisions for themselves and their families. There are numerous articles that have been published in the peer-reviewed bio-medical literature that question the effectiveness of many of the politically enforced vaccinations, yet you failed to mention any of them. You essentially faulted the parents who took the time to research vaccines, and decided that the minute risk of their children contracting the diseases medical doctors tell us to inoculate against, did not actually outweigh the risk of injecting their children with the toxins and chemicals contained in the vaccines. Instead of writing a well-referenced, scientific article on the pros and cons of vaccination, you chose to write an opinionated article based upon pseudo-scientific misinformation. 

The flu vaccine, for instance, is reported to reduce your risk of getting the flu by 60%, according to the literature the CDC uses for public policy. If you actually read the literature, the authors used relative risk assessment instead of absolute risk assessment, which increased the values astronomically. After a thorough review of the peer-reviewed literature, and compiling the data using absolute risk assessment (which applies to the general population), the flu vaccine only reduces your risk of getting the flu by 2%. Vitamin D has been proven to reduce your risk of getting the flu by 18%, which is not perfect but its much more effective. And far less dangerous. This is just one example of how vaccine effectiveness has been blown way out of proportion. If you look at the data, and peer-reviewed literature, the fact that many of the diseases we are told to vaccinate for in order to prevent were actually on the decline long before the vaccines were ever introduced is undisputed. Rich people don't "hate" vaccines, as you say in your article. Perhaps the population in these affluent communities are "rich" because they are more intelligent and highly educated. And perhaps the more educated people are, the greater their tendency may be to read and research and make informed decisions for themselves and their families rather than following every instruction given to them by their medical doctors like robots. Just a thought, since you are speculating about so much already, it can't hurt to suggest another possibility - one that might actually be supported by census data and other demographic information.

Furthermore, if vaccination is so effective, then what are all of these parents and children who choose to receive vaccinations so worried about? Only the kids who are not vaccinated should be getting the diseases, right? When there is a small outbreak of any disease, the CDC fails to report the number of children who got the disease that received the vaccine, they always talk about the unvaccinated one - which again, is misinformation. 

I strongly encourage you to look into this further and educate yourself on topics that you choose to write about. I urge you to focus your energy on writing an informative article rather than an opinionated one. Something else to think about is that only 15% of medical interventions (drugs and surgery) are considered to be based on scientific evidence from the bio-medical journals. Policy will always trump scientific evidence when it comes to healthcare, and that is because of one thing: money. 

Thanks,

Dr. Andrew Brady