we believe that a large part of prepping is not just how much gear, beans, bullets or bandaids you can acquire but which skills you have and how you set yourself up for your everyday life. A huge problem that we are fighting every day in America is that our society and government are doing everything in their power to set us up for failure - this includes dumbing our children down with the current education system ( have you seen the common core math crap they are trying to pass off as education??) and basically poisoning us from the inside and out. This poison is everywhere in our homes.. in dyes, fragrances and preservatives to the poisons and medications used to grow our foods or raise our meats. If you look at the alarming increase in auto-immune diseases and the alarming rate of children born with birth defects or those that are suffering the consequences from receiving so-called FDA approved and "safe" treatments and preventative measures like vaccines within the 3 decades, the link to low-fat, low-carb, low-everything chemical diets is pretty obvious and has been proven in several studies.
Basically- if the FDA considers something safe - you might want to avoid it ;)
DISCLAIMER: While I am a health care professional, I do not claim to be a nutritionist or dietician. All opinions mentioned here are based purely on my own research and experience! If you are a strong believer of the Vegan or Vegetarian community, or if you do not believe in evolution, then I ask you to please not be offended, I respect your opinion just like I ask you to respect mine!
This post is meant for those, that have an open mind and would like to be educated on what the human body was meant to live on, purely based on science and evolution!
What is the "perfect" human diet??
First, let's talk some facts.
I am trying to keep this post as little scientific as possible, but
there are just some things we need to cover for you to understand where I
am coming from with this post!I think we are all aware that obesity is the #1 killer in the U.S. and is spreading worldwide. And in all honesty, it is not surprising! There is so much contradicting and ever-changing advice on which diet you should follow ( high carb veganism, low fat, low varb, vegetarianism, paleo, primal etc). How is one supposed to know which way is the right way? Well, the answer is quite honestly.. you know which way is the right way when you get your head out of your butt , open your eyes and think about what's going on!! I am guilty of the same thing, for the longest time I would follow whatever diet hype was created, and didn't realize that I was damaging my body more and more.
Over 147 billion $ were spent in 2010 for obesity related issues. The population that was most affected? African-Americans and Latinos. By the end of this post, you should be able to answer, why that is. Quality nutrition costs money. Unfair, but true.
One of my favorite quotes from the documentary is the following:
" Health is not just the absence of disease"
This sentence is incredibly powerful! All too often do we see ourselves as healthy, if we have no pressing medical conditions or aren't taking any medications! I see this all the time in my patients, and I used to be the same way!Anybody that also works in health care, can probably relate to this.. more often than not, even people WITH disease ( like diabetes) consider themselves "healthy" and when asked if they have any illnesses the answer "NO" .. frustating? You betcha!!
"The Perfect Human Diet" is a straight forward documentary, they do not sugarcode anything, and I think that is the way to go! So again, if you are easily offended, then please do not continue reading, I am just repeating the facts mentioned in the movie and adding in my own research!
The example used in the documentary is of a pretty harsh nature, but incredibly accurate.
Think back to 9/11. Do you remember the devastation? The number of people that died that day? The number of people that are dying every day from obesity related illnesses, equals a scenario in which we would have a 9/11 every 3 days!
I had to pause the movie at that time, because I could not grasp the monstrosity of that number!
Evolution
So let's travel back in time, because in order to understand what we humans are like today, we have to take a look at our origins!Whenever you conduct a science experiment, you need a few things. A large group of people that are willing to participate, you need to be able to watch them over a lengthy period of time , you need to know which factor you want to research and you need to make sure that the group is not influenced by any other factors!
So where do we find that in our modern world? Scientist went to several old tribes, that still lived like it was tradition 100 or more years ago, and that were not influenced by the modern world. If you simply look at them, you could immediately notice that they were all incredibly strong and healthy, despite the lack of modern medicine. They had a much different jaw structure in common, with a much wider jaw that fit all of their teeth - so what we refer to now as " wisdom teeth" never occured in this population, because the jaw was wide enough to accomodate all teeth!
What we look like today as modern humans, as far as body build and bone structure go, are hugely due to improper feeding!
To prove this theory, scientists approached a group of Australian aboriginees, that had grown up in the wild as hunters and gatherers. As the modern world reached their grounds, they moved into cities, and lived a modern lifestyle, which lead to weight gain and various obesity associated diseases.
This group was then asked to move back to their traditional grounds and live by their traditional ways for 7 weeks.
The results of this were mindblowing. Within just 7 weeks, the participants lowered their body weight even though they were LESS active than they had been in the city! They also lowered their blood pressure, their cholesterol and their insulin resistance.
How? By reverting back to a diet that was 74% based on animal foods, just as it had been tradition!
The documentary, in research for the "perfect human diet" explores all other popular diet "myths" and so they also researched Veganism/Vegetarianism.
I have had this conversation with many Vegans myself, and even in official text books you will read these opinions.
What I am talking about is the wide-spread opinion in those groups, that humans were built to be herbivores ( aka eat a plant-food based diet) and NOT carnivores. Along with this goes the common misconception, that saturated fats are bad for us.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but those ideas are just straight up WRONG!
Think about this... what is the first animal that comes to mind when you think of a herbivore? A cow, right? What do we all know about cows.. they are constantly eating and chewing and they have several stomachs. Why is that? Well as an herbivore, they need to chew, regurgitate and rechew their food, sometimes even to the point of eating their own feces, in order to extract every bit of nutrients from their food source, and they need to constantly be eating in order to satisfy their caloric needs.
Does this sound like a typical human to you? NOPE.
So let's look at the other end of the spectrum! A typical carnivor ( aka meat eater) in the animal world. How about a lion? Lions have one stomach. They can eat once a day or they can eat only once every few days. Sounds a lot more like us humans, now doesn't it? We are much more dependent on water, than we are on food!
If this doesn't convince you yet, let's take it one step further. You have probably heard that we need Vitamins in our diet. We can create some vitamins in our own body ( like Vitamin D for example), other we can't. Those are the essential vitamins, that we need to take in with our food. One of the biggest ones in this group is Vitamin B12. If you have been pregnant, then you know that it is essential for a pregnant woman to take large enough amounts of Vitamin B12 to ensure normal neurological development of your child!
So, where is Vitamin B12 found? ONLY IN ANIMAL BASED FOODS!
First appearence in medical textbooks
In
1862, a London Undertaker , William Banting, went to his doctor because
he was severely obese, couldn't bend down to tie his shows or walk down
the stairs forward, due to imbalance. He had tried all of the current
medical advice, like more exercise, low fat, low meat - without success.His doctor then prescribed to him a diet, that was solely based on meat, poultry, fish, vegetables other than potatoes and fruit! This doctor, was Dr. William Osler, one of the biggest names in the history of nutrition, and after the success of that lifestyle in William Banting, this new "diet" was published in all medical textbooks!
So to make this clear one more time.. from about 1865 to 1965, whenever you would go to your doctor about weight issues, you would be told to cut out all starches and sugars from your diet, and to eat meats and vegetables predominantly!
So.. what happened?
In the 1950s, the idea emerged that fats would cause heart disease and in turn a new diet was recommended, that banned fats and praised carbohydrates.Now of course change can always happen, especially in science, but this change in recommendation was based on NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER!
It was mostly driven by politics and the industrial revolution, not by founded research!
Actually, a study was conducted in 1948 to identify the risk factors of heart disease, known as the Framingham Heart Study. This study came to the conclusion that those that ate a diet high in fats and meats and low in carbohydrates were actually HEALTHIER and LESS at risk for heart disease than those that ate a diet LOW in fats!!
Despite this study, the new recommendations were published. I find this unbelievable!
If you think that this only happened in the past, think again!
Let's pull up a picture of the USDA Food pyramid, or of the revised version from 2010.
Who creates these guidelines?
Scientists? Nutritionist? Dieticians? Doctors? WRONG. Politicians.These guidelines are based on a report that is published every 5 years by a panel. From the very first one of these guidelines, they have all been based on a false belief that fats are bad for us, a fact that has NEVER been proven, in the contrary this fact has been DISPROVED!
Here's another fun fact for you and a little exercise if you are up to it. Go to your local farmer's market or local farm and ask them what they are feeding their animals. The documentary showed, how farmers are using the exact USDA Food pyramid recommendations in order to FATTEN THEIR ANIMALS... I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a fattened pig!
Finally, let's talk Evolution!
I had already mentioned the ever-changing diet recommendations that are constantly being thrown at us by the media.. how were these created?
Remember the basic needs for a good fundamental study? Well, what scientists have been doing to evaluate diets in the population is look at a small sample group in a study for a fairly short period of time. Does this sound like it would make a good fundamental research study? NO.
We have millions of years of human evolution and human diet to look at, so let's take THAT as our sample group!
About 2 million years ago, "Homo erectus" first appeared on earth. They lived on the african continent and then moved up north and east into Europe and later Asia.
What does this tell us? Of course in an african climate, they would have been able to grow many things throughout the entire year. They didn't though. They moved up north where for a good portion of the year they were definitely NOT able to grow their own foods and instead had to rely on animals as their primary food source!
Further evidence of this can be found about 400.000 years ago in Schöningen, Germany as well as many other places were spears and hunting weapons were found next to over 10.000 animal bones.
Do you still think that we were meant to eat a plant-based diet??
Over this time period, the brain size of these early humans increased dramatically, which also lead to the development or art, speech and better hunting skills!
This tells us that the increase in animal foods in their diets, let to the increased brain size due to the bigger intake of omega-3 fatty acids!
So to make this short, if our ancestors hadn't eaten animal foods, we would not be as highly developed as we are today!
About 190.000 years ago, the first anatomically modern humans appeared, and also headed from Africa to the North and East. If you are ever in France, go check out the amazing cave paintings! These show humans hunting animals. Would they paint those if it wasn't an accurate representation of their lifestyle? Probably not.
Now let's jump to what in comparison seems like just yesterday... 10.000 years ago, dairy and what were introduced to the human diet, and later-on during the industrial revolution more and more processed foods came along..
Nowadays, studies show that about 70% of the calories in our diet come from processed foods!
So let me ask you this... WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE A DIET THAT HAS PROVEN SO SUCCESSFULL OVER MILLIONS OS YEARS???
We are basically feeding ourselves, but we aren't getting the proper nutrition that we were meant to get.
Did you know that the human digestive tract wasn't designed to consume dairy after the age of 2?
If you look back at these millions of years of human history, all of the AutoImmune Diseases like Rheumathoid Arthritis, DID NOT EXIST before grains were introduced.
I'm sorry, I have to get a little scientific again..
The process
What happens in our liver when we eat protein? It gets turned into a steady release of glucose ( aka sugar, aka energy).What happens when we eat carbs? It triggers an Insulin spike, which then inhibits the liver from turning protein into glucose, so even if you had protein with your carb meal, your body cannot use the energy that it would normally get from protein.
This leaves us feeling hungry, sluggish and tired. We've all been there right? What do we do? We reach for more carbs for a quick energy fix, and the cycle begins again.
Why are carbs killing your body?
First, when you see “grains,” that means wheat, rice, corn, barley, rye, oats, millet, or sorghum.Grains consist of a component called "Lectin". Lectins are proteins that we can’t digest. We normally digest proteins into amino acids where they are absorbed by our intestines (our gut). Since we can’t digest lectins, they pass through the wall of our gut undigested as complete proteins. This damages the gut, inflames our bodies, and makes them unable to absorb many of the good proteins that we get from other foods. But that’s not all. The worst part is that our body’s immune system is at a high state of readiness around our gut.
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Some lectins look a lot like an important protein in the pancreas, so now the immune system attacks that protein in your pancreas, rendering your pancreas unable of producing insulin. This is basically what happens in Type 1 Diabetes. What if the lectin looks like myelin basic protein (MBP) in your brain? Multiple Sclerosis. An important kidney protein? Nephropathy. The list goes on. Grains turn your body’s immune system against you. This phenomenon is called Auto-Immune Disease.
But you've been eating grains all your life and you are fine, right?
So you’ve been eating grains all your life and you’re not dead yet, right? Why haven’t you been stricken with something described above? The human body is an incredibly resilient biological machine. That’s the only way we’ve been able to survive, not thrive, with grains for the last 10,000 years. After grains were introduced to humans, we lost an average of six inches in height. Do you think that’s coincidence, or that we’re trying to feed our bodies with material that we’re not genetically equipped to handle? But yes, you could go all your life eating grains and never get one of the many auto-immune diseases. In the end, you may be lucky. I suppose it depends on whether you’re a gambler.So what's there left to eat?
A LOT. You just have to re-introduce the variety of foods into your diet, that was meant to be there all along!
- large cuts of meat ( pork tenderloin, soirloin steak, chicken, turkey - preferably all grass-fed)
- Veggies ( fresh or frozen, if possible stay away from canned as these tend to have a lot more salt added to them! We opt for frozen a lot because they can almost be fresher than what you are buying in the produce section, just make sure nothing was added!)
- Lettuce ( the darker, the better!)
- Fruit ( If you are a diabetic, be careful with the Fructose, otherwise enjoy! Anything that keeps your blood sugar level constant and doesn't allow those Insulin spikes to happen is good!)
The story about whole-grains...
Last but not least I wanted to point out a whole other set of problems that I wasn't aware of either.Besides the already known issues that grains cause, whole-grains add yet another layer to this. Not only do these not get broken down, but they inhibit mineral absorption, that is so important for us! Do you know what this triggers? Hunger.
So if your take-away message from today's UBER long post is nothing else.. at least take your multi-vitamin ( that you will NEED if you keep eating grains and processed foods) separate from your grains, otherwise you will create nothing but really expensive pee!
So free yourself from the government-dictated doctrines and think about where the food that you SHOULD be eating is coming from - the only valid answers to this problem is that you either need to know a local farmer that you can trust, or simply grow and raise your own food.
Don't expect that once TEOTWAWKI ( The End Of The World As We Know It) has happened that you will then automatically lose the extra weight and change your diet and that overnight you will turn into an expert farmer, gardener and homesteader! You do NOT want to be going through a massive sugar withdrawal when SHTF, trust me....
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