Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

by Catherine Shanahan

Folic acid, B12, and a number of essential amino acids are used for a type of epigenetic bookmarking called methylation;

Aside from cutting vegetable oil, eating plenty of antioxidant-rich fresh vegetables will slow the reaction between iron and PUFA fats, rendering them less explosive and preventing the process of lipid deposition inside a person’s arteries.269, 270

(including antioxidants that ameliorate the dangerous effects of vegetable oils in your bloodstream)

Meat on the bone Fermented and sprouted foods Organs and other “nasty bits” Fresh, unadulterated plant and animal products

And it’s ridiculously easy: shred a whole, large cabbage in the food processor or thin-slice by hand. Mix with a full tablespoon of salt and a little liquid from a jar of pickles (or other fermented vegetable product) and pack into a lightproof container with something heavy, like a jar full of water, sitting on top to keep the cabbage under the liquid. Cover with a towel to keep the bugs off. Wait a week or so, and eat. Not simple enough? Okay, here’s something even easier. With sprouting, you just let nature take its course.

You can sprout any kind of seed you want, from kidney beans to wheat berries and more. Simply put some into a jar, cover with water, then cover with a bug-proof cloth and, in anywhere from one to four days, the seeds will start to germinate. On

Omega-3 brain builder: 15 percent of the (dry) weight of the brain is composed of docosahexanoic acid (DHA), and roughly 4 milligrams a day meets the brain’s needs. Sources: cream and butter (better if raw) from grass-fed cows, oysters, oily fish like sardines, mackerel, salmon (also better raw, gently cooked, smoked, or if canned, packed in water or olive oil), and fish roe. Plant sources include raw flax, chia seeds, and walnuts. Keep in mind, if you expose omega-3s to high heat, as in baking walnuts

Omega-6 brain builder: 15 percent of the (dry) weight of the brain is arachidonic acid, and roughly 4 milligrams a day meets the brain’s needs. Sources: egg yolk (poached or sunny side up), cheese, butter (whether grass-fed or not), raw or sprouted sunflower seeds, walnuts, edamame. Keep in mind, though omega-6 is less reactive than omega-3, it’s still highly reactive and, when exposed to high heat, often transforms into MegaTrans. 3. Antioxidant rainbow: to protect the PUFAs from oxidation during digestion. Sources: colorful fresh vegetables eaten raw, fermented, or gently steamed, baby greens, celery, bell peppers, carrots, red and green cabbage, onions, garlic, cilantro, parsley and other fresh herbs, vegetable condiments like kimchee, pickles, sauerkraut, and pickled vegetables.

cell membranes and in your lipoproteins as they travel to your brain. Sources: raw or sprouted sunflower seeds, wheat germ, spinach, almonds, pistachios, avocado, soybeans, broccoli, shrimp, and herring. 5. The amino acid cysteine: the limiting ingredient for building the antioxidant glutathione, which plays a role in repairing vitamin E after it is oxidized. Sources: beef, lamb, chicken, pork, clams, tuna, mussels, cheese, eggs, soybeans, kamut, split peas. 6. Vitamin C: to repair glutathione. Sources: bell peppers, guava, kale, kiwi, broccoli, oranges, strawberries, peas, papaya, tomatoes.

HUMAN DIET AT A GLANCE Pillar 1: Meat on the Bone Some of my favorite meats on the bone: Roast turkey with stuffing and gravy Chicken soup with dumplings Chile con carne Barbequed spare ribs Mexican menudo soup Pico de gallo soup Thai thom kha gai soup Vietnamese pho Braised lamb shanks

Grilled New York strip steak with demi-glace reduction sauce Burger (no bun) with mushroom in demi-glace reduction sauce. The original hamburger from Hamburg, Germany, was thin-sliced meat fried in a pan, and it did not have a bun. Only when ground beef in patty form was served in St. Louis, Missouri, at the 1904 World’s Fair, where the vendor ran out of plates and convinced a neighboring bread vendor to sell him slices, did it acquire the bun. Wild rice cooked in chicken stock Greens braised in chicken stock Roasted butternut squash soup with chicken stock base Broccoli soup with chicken stock base French onion soup Beef Bourguignon

Pillar 2: Organ Meat Some of my favorite organ meats: Sandy’s miracle liver recipe (see recipes) Pakistani fried chicken liver Duck liver pate Chicken liver pate (i.e., Trader Joe’s brand) Liverwurst (i.e., US Wellness Meats brand) Grilled beef heart strips Beef heart chili Beef sticks and organ meat (i.e., Pure Traditions brand) Filipino salmon head soup Roasted bone marrow Wild flying fish roe on buttered sprouted grain toast Mexican menudo with tripe Vietnamese pho with tripe Blood sausage

Pillar 3: Fermented and Sprouted Foods Some of my favorite fermented and sprouted foods: (Note: Those marked

Pillar 4: Fresh, Raw Food Some of my favorite raw foods: Garlic

Natural: If something couldn’t have existed 200 years ago, skip it. 2. Variable: If all units (chickens, eggs, tomatoes, etc.) are identical in size and shape, that’s a bad sign. 3. Flavorful: Intense flavor indicates nutrient density, but not when it comes from ingredients like sugar, MSG, or hydrolyzed protein. 4. Seasonal: Avoid foods that are frozen or canned. 5. Buy local: Packages should identify the source of the item.

Vitamin D 2-4000 IU. I recommend 4,000 international units daily unless you get a lot of sun, in which case 2,000 IU is enough. Magnesium oxide, 250 milligrams. Zinc gluconate, 15 milligrams. By the way, zinc deficiencies have been shown to negatively impact appetite, so if you’re dealing with picky eaters, supplementing may help. A standard multivitamin with 100 percent of the RDA of vitamins (Mason One-A-Day is the only brand currently nationally available that meets this criteria).

Vitamin K2, 1.5 milligrams per day. If you can’t find one that small, then do the math and figure out how often to take it for an equivalent daily dose. (It’s fat soluble, and your body can store fat-soluble vitamins more efficiently than water soluble vitamins.)

I don’t recommend supplementing with encapsulated fish or liver oils unless they’re of exceptional freshness and quality. What I recommend for vegetarians:

Chicken and beef stock (i.e., Kirkland

Organic, Pacific Organic) Sardines (in olive oil; bone-in is best; avoid those containing vegetable oils) Oysters (in olive

Lead by example. When introducing new foods, offer small pieces and ask kids to just try a taste. Don’t make them finish anything if they don’t want to. Be gently consistent. It can take several dozen tries for a kid to start liking a new food. Don’t use food or drink as a reward for good behavior, especially not sweets.

Persian cucumbers, grated and strained through cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel to remove excess liquid 12 red beefsteak tomatoes 4 large ripe heirloom tomatoes 4 cloves garlic 1 cup pepper vinegar 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded 1 red onion, sliced 1 can organic tomatoes 1 cup basil leaves 1 cup chopped mint leaves 1 cup chopped parsley leaves 1 cup chopped cilantro 2 tablespoons freshly ground horseradish Juice of one lemon Juice of one lime Salt to taste Extra virgin olive oil, as needed Garnish of choice Place all ingredients in a bowl and let flavors marry overnight. After twenty-four hours, blend to a chunky puree and serve with more organic olive oil and garnish.

The kind of animal doesn’t matter. Get organic if you can. Free-range or grass-fed is the very best. The stuff that helps your joints the most comes from the cartilage-rich joint material. Marrow bones, used in a minority of beef stock recipes, don’t contain joint material and do contain a lot of fat that typically will just get skimmed off the top, so we prefer not to use them.

Just keep in mind that the more concentrated the broth, the less you need to eat in order to enjoy its benefits. Store-bought broths tend to be fairly weak and don’t even gelatinize in the fridge, so it’s perfectly okay to have a couple of cups of this every day. A reduced demi-glace sauce is intense both in taste and in nutrition, so just a couple tablespoons makes for a healthy dose.

So it’s slightly more convenient but slightly less tasty and probably also slightly less nutritious. For these reasons, we generally use a seven-gallon stock pot for making stock, and the pressure cooker for other dishes (primarily bean-based).

Why isn’t gelatin as good as bone stock? Gelatin is made from bones and not from cartilage, so while it does contain one of the components of broth, called collagen hydrolysate, it provides none of the hyaluronans, glycosaminoglycans, or other complex components of broth.

What do you recommend for intestinal upset, like indigestion and bloating? The solution to intestinal upset depends on the cause! But one thing that may help is to eat something acidic before the meals that bother you—like a (fermented) pickle or half a teaspoon of vinegar. If that doesn’t help, see your doctor.

Fermented soy sauces are fine! We look for Kikkoman, Yamase, and any bottle that says “fermented” or “traditionally produced” and does not say “hydrolyzed” anywhere.

Are walnut and macadamia nut oils good for you? If it tastes like walnut or macadamia nuts, then yes. The presence of a pleasant, identifiable flavor is one of the best indications of a good oil. Walnut is great for salads but not for cooking because it’s very high in omega-3, while macadamia nut oil is high in saturated fats and great for both.

I eat Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread as toast in the morning. What is your take on this bread? That’s what we buy!

cold-pressed better than expeller-pressed? It’s the same thing, j...