Our first guest blog post! Dr. Joe is a doctor based in Australia that we've been keeping in touch with for a while via Twitter. His philosophy is very similar to ours, and he has a great website called Do It Yourself Health. It's an honor to have you here Joe!
Let's Make Nutrition Simple – By Dr. Joe Kosterich
It is quite remarkable that something so basic as what we should eat has become so incredibly complicated. To say that there are contradictory messages out there is an understatement. If one looks at nature, the proverbial lion "in the jungle" doesn't need anyone to tell it what sort of foods to chase and eat. Likewise, the average sheep doesn't need fifty books to know it should eat grass.
Jokes aside, nutrition is actually quite an intuitive thing. Our ancestors functioned quite effectively as hunter-gatherers. They ate what they could gather or catch. As you can imagine they gathered more than they caught and ate accordingly. Whilst they may have not lived for as long as we do today, this was not because they were eating the wrong foods or eating too much of it.
In the 21st century, in the developed world, the health issues we face are more related to consumption of both too much food and in particular, too many calories. New scientific research is looking at the connections between our genetics, the foods that we eat and our metabolism. Our Genome has hardly changed in the last ten thousand years, yet our diets have changed considerably. The hunter-gatherer diet consisted of fruits, vegetables and animal products such as meat, fish and eggs. Grains consisted as a very small part of this diet. Today, grains and wheat based products in particular form a significant part. This is not actually a good thing.
For many people, confusion arises when the follow a "healthy" diet which is often felt to be one which is low in fat and high in grains and find that they don't lose weight or feel slightly sluggish. The concept of a diet high in grains being healthy is a very recent one which has predominantly sprung out of the fat phobia (not all fat is actually bad) which started in the late 1970's. In my view there is a strong timing correlation with the push to a high carbohydrate diet and an increase in the rates of obesity.
Australia is the second heaviest nation on earth, due to people eating too much processed food and not enough "real" food. In turn this leads to increasing rates diabetes, heart disease strokes and even some forms of cancer. Yet in my experience, simple dietary changes have led to significant improvements in blood sugar levels (diabetes) lower cholesterol levels, improvements in blood pressure and of course reductions in weight.
So, how can we simplify eating and get back on track? Eat foods that till recently were moving around or growing somewhere. Eat food that if not eaten this week will need to be thrown out. Eat foods that your ancestors from the 1920s would recognize as food. Eat till you are 80% full and then stop. Make water your beverage of choice.
Eating the foods that your body needs is not difficult if you follow these basic principles. You will in turn feel better and have more energy.
Our predecessors of ten thousand years ago did not have it as good as we have it today. However, in some ways they probably knew a lot more than us because they trusted their intuition, rather than words of wisdom from the Government's researchers and a gaggle of health experts. You too can tap into this innate wisdom of the ages by "Going with your gut" when it comes to what you eat!
You can link up with Dr. Joe at:
www.twitter.com/drjoesdiyhealth www.drjoesdiyhealth.blogspot.com
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