Over the past month or so, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about diet, exercise, lifestyle etc. One of the overarching themes in many alternative diet circles (by alternative I mean, those that do not follow the government and other large health organizations guidelines) is that we need more fats in our diet. Fat, come to find out, probably isn’t what makes us get fat.
Here’s a sample of some of my readings:
Principals of Healthy Diets from the Weston A. Price Foundation
How Conflating the Lipid Hypothesis With the Diet-Heart Hypothesis Led to the Public Condemnation of Bacon, Butter, and Eggs from the Daily Lipid
Fast Food, Weight Gain and Insulin Resistance from The Whole Health Source
I also read, Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It, by Gary Taubes.
There is so much information out there but a couple of things really resonated with me.
1. Our bodies need fat in order to function at their best. Our brains are made up of fats. So why are we obsessed with eating low fat? It’s possible we are starving our brains of vital nutrients.
2. Modern foods, processed foods, many convenience foods are designed to be highly palatable (causing us to over consume) and are full of things that are new to our diets or were previously prepared in ways that helped reduce the “bad stuff” they contain. ie many grains and sweeteners.
3. Even the good foods in our diets have become less nutrient rich. Our vegetables and fruits have less nutrients than ever before.
So what am I doing with this information?
We’ve started cooking with more animal fats (bacon grease etc), eating full fat diary (whole milk), finding more pasture raised animals to increase our meat consumption, and are using coconut oil. Our vegetable intake as doubled and we are consciously eating more whole fruits. We have reduced our grain consumption including bread and crackers, limited our intake of beans and legumes, and cut back on using oils like canola in cooking.
So far I’m feeling good. The joint pain I would experience periodically seems to have dissipated. I’m sleeping better, have not gained ANY weight, and do not feel nearly as tired.
As with most things, making dietary changes is about trial and error. Everyone is different and their bodies need different things.
If you’re interested in this type of diet change I strongly encourage you to head over the Weston A. Price Foundation website and try searching for Paleo in your favorite search engine. Read some of the articles and start to make up your own mind.
