If any of you saw the movie Castaway, you couldn’t miss Tom Hank’s character, Chuck Noland transform from a pudgy overweight male to a striking, lean-cut figure – all from consuming only the available foods around his island – obviously, with no gym available. While you may protest, ‘Come on… that’s only fiction,’ and while true, the story is fiction, his eating habits were not, as there is ample anthropological evidence from native cultures who’ve lived virtually the same as Chuck Noland looking just as lean-cut – and not dying from not eating carbs, especially grains and sugar.
This brings to mind two more of my some of favorite doctors who also happen to be cardiologists: Dr. William Davis and Dr. Christian Assad. Both physicians can attest to and have plenty of evidence from not only their patients, but from choosing to live the very lifestyle that has transformed their patients. And what pray tell, is that? It’s combining a low carbohydrate, nutrient dense way of eating with some intermittent fasting (the latter of which I will cover in another blog).
Briefly, both doctors advocate that the first step in healing a broken body is to cut off all grains and sugar. Grains?! But we’ve been told that grains are “heart healthy!!” Well… that’s another unsubstantiated claim promoted by Big Ag food industry, and our dietary standards which are not evidence based (also covered in a previous blog). In 2013, Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis was the original book that shocked the nutritional world and exposed “healthy whole grains” as the “genetically altered Frankenwheat imposed on the public by agricultural geneticists and agribusiness.” In fact, when I read this book years ago, I was agape with its revelations; chief among them the fact that today’s wheat has been genetically modified for rapid yield, including biochemical changes to induce addiction and unintended downstream autoimmune complications.
Let’s take a look at several key problematic components of today’s wheat, found in all processed carbohydrates, and some protein products where wheat is listed as an ingredient (pp. 8-12):
Gliadin: the most destructive protein in the gluten family of proteins; capable of increasing intestinal (gut) ‘leakiness’ triggering inflammatory and autoimmune responses.
Gluten: among the most destructive proteins in the human diet (via gliadin), gluten is a diverse collection of proteins & varies from wheat strain to wheat strain, which have been significantly manipulated by geneticists (bred and crossbred wheat strains repeatedly to achieve desired baking characteristics); binding to the lining of the intestinal tract (your guts), leading to intestinal permeability (leaky gut).
Lectins: a class of protective molecules found in plants that are defenses against critters trying to eat them – including you. The most toxic form of lectins called wheat germ agglutinin found in wheat (ironically regarded as especially healthy), unfortunately (and again) binds to the lining of the intestinal tract (your guts), leading to intestinal permeability (leaky gut), and is resistant to digestion in the human gastrointestinal tract (including if you cook, bake or ferment it prior to eating it). This is the bad guy (wheat germ agglutinin) that is believed to worsen those prone to celiac disease.
You may say, ok, I’m gonna not eat bread anymore, and while that’s a great start, we need to consider all the foods where these three culprits are hidden. Unfortunately, they include flours made from all grains including wheat, corn, rye, barley, rice, etc. – and – they are not found naturally in nature. So where do I begin? Here are some suggestions from Dr. Christian Assad:
1. Cut-Out Refined Sugars/Grains
To start this off we want to explain that refined sugars and refined grains ARE considered Refined Carbohydrates, and their common denominator is that they don’t occur naturally. This doesn’t mean they don’t exist, it just means nature does not produce or process them as such.
This leads us to the term refined which means processed or developed. And once again we ask, “What does that mean exactly?” Well, it means that the sugars/starches and grains found in nature are transformed, essentially pulverized into smaller particles, its components separated and even becoming their very own byproducts. The importance of this is that, particle size matters. The smaller the particles, the easier they are to absorb (but cause digestive issues). The easier they are to ingest, the faster your blood sugar will rise after you eat them, using the processed Glucose within them as ‘fuel’.
2. Reduce UNrefined Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates that are found in nature are named UNrefined Carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, etc. The important aspect of understanding UNrefined Carbs is to be able to visualize how many grams of carbohydrates each food has and monitoring our intake.
In our case, before we researched this we would eat grapes like popcorn, nuts by the handfuls, and maybe even start our day with a two-banana double trouble shake! Not that there isn’t anything wrong with these foods, what was wrong was our naive indulgence, our UNrefined Carb overload. The idea is not to avoid or cut these foods off completely, it merely is to acquire the knowledge and ability to quantify them and consume them strategically with moderation. We call this Carb-Awareness.
What might this look like in the real world? To help, here’s a helpful guide with the healthy, nutrient dense foods (found naturally in nature) & recipes you can enjoy from DietDoctor.com. Meanwhile, here is a birds-eye list:
Meat: Any type: Beef, pork, lamb, game, poultry, etc., including the fat on meat as well as the skin on chicken. Although more expensive, organic or grass-fed meat (which is somewhat higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids) is another option.
Fish and seafood: All kinds: Fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, sardines or herring (all have high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids).
Eggs: All kinds: Boiled, fried, scrambled, omelets, etc.
Natural (cooking) fats and high-fat sauces: Butter, ghee, tallow, avocado, olive, coconut oils. These are all healthy fats. Avoid all processed seed/veg oils (cottonseed, soy, canola/rapeseed, safflower, sunflower, corn, Crisco, etc.)
Vegetables that grow above ground: For example, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, to name a few.
Dairy products: Choose full-fat options like real butter, cream (40% fat), sour cream, Greek/Turkish yogurt and high-fat cheeses.
Nuts/seeds: Great for a treat (in moderation).
Berries: Okay in moderation.
