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.
