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April 10 - April 18, 2018
Wheat, because of its unique blood glucose–increasing effect, makes you age faster. Via its blood sugar/AGE-increasing effects, wheat accelerates the rate at which you develop signs of skin aging, kidney dysfunction, dementia, atherosclerosis, and arthritis.
Diabetes is associated with a characteristic “lipid triad” of low HDL, high triglycerides, and small LDL, the very same pattern created by excessive carbohydrate consumption.
There is no nutritional deficiency that develops when you stop consuming wheat and other processed foods.
Some people, for instance, are concerned that they will not consume sufficient fiber if they eliminate wheat. Ironically, if you replace wheat calories with those from vegetables and raw nuts, fiber intake goes up.
The ability to fast comfortably is natural; the inability to go for more than a few hours before crazily seeking calories is unnatural.
If you wish to roll back the appetite-stimulating, insulin-distorting, and small LDL–triggering effects of foods beyond wheat, or if substantial weight loss is among your health goals, then you should consider reducing or eliminating the following foods in addition to eliminating wheat. • Cornstarch and cornmeal—cornmeal products such as tacos, tortillas, corn chips, and corn breads, breakfast cereals, and sauces and gravies thickened with cornstarch • Snack foods—potato chips, rice cakes, popcorn. These foods, like foods made of cornstarch, send blood sugar straight up to the stratosphere. •
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Eat vegetables. You already knew that. While I am no fan of conventional wisdom, on this point conventional wisdom is absolutely correct: Vegetables, in all their wondrous variety, are the best foods on planet earth. Rich in nutrients such as flavonoids and fiber, they should form the centerpiece of everyone’s diet. Prior to the agricultural revolution, humans hunted and gathered their food. The gathered part of the equation refers to plants such as wild onions, garlic mustard, mushrooms, dandelions, purslane, and countless others.
Eat some fruit. Notice that I did not say, “Eat fruits and vegetables.” That’s because the two don’t belong together, despite the phrase sliding out of the mouths of dietitians and others echoing conventional thinking. While vegetables should be consumed ad libitum, fruit should be consumed in limited quantities. Sure, fruit contains healthy components, such as flavonoids, vitamin C, and fiber. But fruit, especially herbicided, fertilized, cross-bred, gassed, and hybridized fruit, has become too rich in sugar. Year-round access to high-sugar fruits can overexpose you to sugars, sufficient to
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Eat raw nuts. Raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, and cashews are wonderful. And you can eat as much as you want. They’re filling and full of fiber, monounsaturated oils, and protein. They reduce blood pressure, reduce LDL cholesterol (including small LDL particles), and consuming them several times a week can add two years to your life.
Peanuts, of course, are not nuts, but legumes; they cannot be consumed raw. Peanuts should be boiled or dry roasted and the label should not include ingredients such as hydrogenated soybean oil, wheat flour, maltodextrin, cornstarch, sucrose—nothing but peanuts.
Use oils generously. Curtailing oil is entirely unnecessary, part of the nutritional dietary blunders of the past forty years. Use healthy oils liberally, such as extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and cocoa butter, and avoid polyunsaturated oils such as sunflower, safflower, corn, and vegetable oils (which trigger oxidation and inflammation). Try to minimize heating and cook at lower temperatures; never fry, since deep-frying is the extreme of oxidation that triggers, among other things, AGE formation.
Eat dairy products. Enjoy cheese, another wonderfully diverse food. Recall that fat is not the issue, so enjoy familiar full-fat cheeses such as Swiss or Cheddar, or exotic cheeses such as Stilton, Crotin du Chavignol, Edam, or Comté. Cheese serves as a wonderful snack or the centerpiece of a meal. Other dairy products such as cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and butter should be consumed in limited quantities of no more than one or two servings per day. I believe that adults should limit dairy products outside of cheese due to the insulinotropic effect of dairy proteins, the tendency that dairy
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Condiments are to food as clever personalities are to conversation: They can run you through the full range of emotions and twists in reason, and make you laugh. Keep a supply of horseradish, wasabi, and mustards (Dijon, brown, Chinese, Creole, chipotle, wasabi, horseradish, and the unique varieties of regional mustards), and vow to never use ketchup again (especially any made with high-fructose corn syrup).
In the world of grains, one grain stands apart, since it consists entirely of protein, fiber, and oils: flaxseed. Because it is essentially free of carbohydrates that increase blood sugar, ground flaxseed is the one grain that fits nicely into this approach (the unground grain is indigestible). Use ground flaxseed as a hot cereal (heated, for instance, with milk, unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk or coconut water, or soymilk, with added walnuts or blueberries) or add it to foods such as cottage cheese or chilis. You can also use it to make a breading for chicken and fish.
A similar cautionary note that applies to nonwheat grains also applies to legumes (outside of peanuts). Kidney beans, black beans, Spanish beans, lima beans, and other starchy beans have healthy components in them such as protein and fiber, but the carbohydrate load can be excessive if consumed in large quantities. A 1-cup serving of beans typically contains 30 to 50 grams of carbohydrates, a quantity sufficient to substantially impact blood sugar in many people. For this reason, as with nonwheat grains, small servings (½ cup) are preferable.
Beverages. It may seem austere, but water should be your first choice. One hundred percent fruit juices can be enjoyed in small quantities, but fruit drinks and soft drinks are very bad ideas. Teas and coffee, the extracts of plant products, are fine to enjoy, with or without milk, cream, coconut milk, or full-fat soymilk. If an argument can be made for alcoholic beverages, the one genu...
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Strict vegetarians need to rely more heavily on nuts, nut meals, seeds, nut and seed butters, and oils; avocados and olives; and may have a bit more leeway with carbohydrate-containing beans, lentils, chickpeas, wild rice, chia seed, sweet potatoes, and yams. If nongenetically modified soy products can be obtained, then tofu, tempeh, and natto can provide another rich source of protein.
Consume in unlimited quantities Vegetables (except potatoes and corn)—including mushrooms, herbs, squash Raw nuts and seeds—almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, cashews, macadamias; peanuts (boiled or dry roasted); sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds; nut meals Oils—extra-virgin olive, avocado, walnut, coconut, cocoa butter, flaxseed, macadamia, sesame Meats and eggs—preferably free-range and organic chicken, turkey, beef, pork; buffalo; ostrich; wild game; fish; shellfish; eggs (including yolks) Cheese Non-sugary condiments—mustards, horseradish, tapenades,
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With the newly reawakened taste sense, reduced impulse eating, and reduced calorie intake that accompanies the wheat-free experience, many people also describe a heightened appreciation for food. As a result, the majority of people who choose this path actually enjoy food more than during their wheat-consuming days.
Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at UCLA and author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, believes that “the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered.”