Embracing Health #61 – Gluten, Paleolithic Nutrition and Gut/Anxiety Connection

Hi there everyone — hope you are relaxing into Memorial Day weekend. I’m certainly looking forward to an extra day of sun and relaxation, mindful of the meaning of this day in the heritage of our beautiful nation. I am on my way back from a busy week in Texas, and I thought I’d post my previous radio show recording where I introduce for the first time the concept of paleolithic nutrition. This is a movement that is gaining steam as there is a lot of scientific research that points towards a lifestyle and dietary approach that attempts to emulate the characteristics of our nutritional landscape before the advent of agriculture, which has been estimated to be about 10,000 years ago more or less. I am personally a big fan of this approach just from a health perspective, as this diet is the one that helps most people recover from the most debilitating illnesses, including autoimmune disease in all its various forms. It is a very nutrient dense diet, where animal protein/foods, vegetables and fruits are all allowed in abudance, and grains, legumes and dairy are excluded. Many people opt for a version of this diet, and modify to their personal needs. Many practitioners who work with autism are using this diet very well with their patients. Anyhow, tune in to hear more about how this diet was recently compared to the regular diabetic diet promoted by the American Diabetic Association, and how well it performed.
Also, I discuss how one man’s rising performance in the tennis world is coinciding with his recent change in diet to eliminate gluten. Furthermore, I discuss how mood is affected by our digestion, particularly by the composition of the bacteria that live there.
Hope you enjoy it, and I’ll include the show notes below. Have a safe weekend!
Ricardo

(click here =>) Gut Bacteria Linked to Behavior: That Anxiety May Be in Your Gut, Not in Your Head; The Diet That Shook Up Tennis? Gluten Making the Headlines; Paleolithic Diet Much Better for Diabetics than Conventional Diabetes Diet

The study, published in 2009 in the journal Cardiovascular Diabetology [1]. In this study, 13 men and women with type 2 diabetes ate, on separate occasions, two different diets, each for three months. One diet was a typical ‘diabetes diet’, rich in carbobydrate. The other was a ‘primal’ or “Paleolithic’ diet based on foodstuff resembling those that humans ate prior to the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry some 10,000 years ago. Here are the details of these diets:

Diabetes Diet

The information on the Diabetes diet stated that it should aim at evenly distributed meals with increased intake of vegetables, root vegetables, dietary fiber, whole-grain bread and other whole-grain cereal products, fruits and berries, and decreased intake of total fat with more unsaturated fat. The majority of dietary energy should come from carbohydrates from foods naturally rich in carbohydrate and dietary fiber. The concepts of glycemic index and varied meals through meal planning by the Plate Model were explained. Salt intake was recommended to be kept below 6 g per day.

Paleolithic Diet

The information on the Paleolithic diet stated that it should be based on lean meat, fish, fruit, leafy and cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables, eggs and nuts, while excluding dairy products, cereal grains, beans, refined fats, sugar, candy, soft drinks, beer and extra addition of salt. The following items were recommended in limited amounts for the Paleolithic diet: eggs (?2 per day), nuts (preferentially walnuts), dried fruit, potatoes (?1 medium-sized per day), rapeseed or olive oil (?1 tablespoon per day), wine (?1 glass per day). The intake of other foods was not restricted and no advice was given with regard to proportions of food categories (e.g. animal versus plant foods). The evolutionary rationale for a Paleolithic diet and potential benefits were explained.

Compared to the diabetes diet, the Paleolithic diet led to individuals eating an average of about 300 calories less each day. This likely reflects the ability of primal, lower-carb diets to satisfy the appetite more effectively than ‘healthy’ diets richer in carbohydrate.

Overall, the Paleolithic diet brought improvements in a range of health measures and markers compared to the diabetes diet. Specifically:

• An additional 3 kg reduction in weight
• A reduction in triglyceride levels (high levels of triglyceride are linked with increased risk of cardiovascular disease)
• Reduced diastolic blood pressure (the lower of the two blood pressure readings)
• 4 cm reduction in waist circumference
• Lower levels of HbA1c (measure of blood sugar control over the preceding 3 months or so)
• Increased levels of HDL cholesterol (the form of cholesterol associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease)

In other words, the Paleolithic diet, compared to standard diatetic advice for diabetes, led to significant improvements in markers for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Some of these benefits might be related to the fact that, on the ‘Paleo’ diet, individuals ate less. But ate less of what? Daily consumption (in grams) of protein, carbohydrate and fat in the paleo diet and carbohydrate diet were:

Protein: 94 and 90
Carbohydrate: 125 and 196
Fat: 68 and 72

In other words, the Paleo diet contained a little more protein and a little less fat, but the major difference was a lot less carbohydrate.

There is a common notion that when individuals go ‘low-carb’, they end up eating a tonne of protein and fat. This study actually reflects what tends to happen in reality: individuals don’t end up doing that at all, they just eat less carbohydrate. And the typical results of this are, in this study, here for all to see.

References:

1. Jönsson T, et al. Beneficial effects of a Paleolithic diet on cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes: a randomized cross-over pilot study. Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2009;8:35.

Exercise paints the Landscape of your life!

Most people see exercise as an option, some love the idea and others break out in a cold sweat just thinking of exercise. The one thing I know everyone agrees upon is they want to be healthy and they hope for a good quality of life, for as long as they live.  The problem that I see facing our society today is, though we wish for a bright future relative to our quality of life, we aren’t often making choices in the moment that will allow for this to be true. Future consequences are not enough of a threat to stop our behavior. We go on and on until it’s too late, the breakdown has occurred.

The decisions we make every day paint the picture of our future, each small decision is a stroke of the brush on the canvas. The question is, what type of picture do we want to paint? One of beauty or one that causes us despair? Every day that we choose not to focus on the health of our body, we are adding darker colors to what should be a vibrant future.  How often do you stop to take a look at your week to realize that you have not taken any time out of your hectic schedule to exercise or eat a balanced meal? Exercise along with proper nutrition is the first line of defense relative to disease, obesity and slowing the aging process, yet it seems to be the last thing on the priority list. Do you realize that it only takes 30 minutes of focused activity three days a week to decrease your chances for heart disease, diabetes and several forms of cancer? This is very little time invested to create a better quality of life, now and in the future.

Exercise combined with smart food choices is the best life insurance policy out there and it doesn’t have to cost you a dime.  Do you want to live a long optimal life? If your answer is yes, then start TODAY to make a change in your daily activities and diet! It is not an option. Don’t like to exercise? Then find a way to be active or else you will pay later in ways that would be far worse than just getting up and getting physical, and it WILL cost you. As a fitness professional, it is my passion to help others paint beautiful landscapes, age gracefully and live long optimal lives! If you are on the right track then you are a part of the fitness revolution and will hopefully set the example in the world around you. Tell your stories and let us know where you are relative to exercise in your life. We would love to hear your comments.

 Teryl Worster