Laws in Nutrition
I was listening to Tim Ferris interview Jerry Seinfeld. As part of the conversation Jerry said. “There are laws in life and if you don’t know what they are it’s going to hurt”
I thought to myself, that’s exactly how I view nutrition. There are laws to nutrition and if you don’t know what they are, you’re going to be overweight or sick.
One of the most important laws is, do not to eat foods that are an evolutionary mismatch. What’s an evolutionary mismatch? A mismatch between our genes and the modern environment we live in. And particularly in the case of the standard American diet.
Our genes are almost identical to our hunter gatherer ancestors from 200,000 years ago. This means that our bodies need the same nutrients that our ancestors consumed. But Standard American Diet that most people consume today is vastly different from the diet our ancestors consumed.
There are three foods that have only come along in the last 130 years that most people eat every day. They have become such a major part of the standard American diet that it’s impossible to avoid them.
Research has shown that these foods can contribute to:
Obesity,
Type-two diabetes,
Heart disease,
Alzheimer’s and mental health,
Cancer.
They are:
Industrial seed oils,
Refined grains,
Added sugars.
Due to advances in Technology in the late 19th century it became possible to turn seeds into oils and grain into flour. The high processing and added chemicals turn them into foods we’re not designed to metabolize them
And I’m not saying that if you eat a little, you’re going to get sick. Because these foods are so prevalent in today’s diet that it’s very difficult to completely avoid them.
But a lot of people are eating them in huge amounts with every meal - three meals a day 7 days a week. And they act like compound interest. The more you eat, the more they accumulate in your body the bigger the negative effect they’ll have on your health.
If you start tracking how much of these foods you are eating. You’ll be shocked.
Food companies sneak these foods onto their list of ingredients by using different names. - There are as many as 56 names for sugar. Read my article on sugar for a full list. Also, check out my articles on Industrial seed oils and Refined grains for a full list of what to avoid.
It doesn’t matter what diet you follow whether it’s low-carb, low-calorie, paleo, keto if you’re not removing these three foods, you’re not eating healthy. You’re eating modern processed junk food that make you sick.