“Fat is our Best Friend”

The title of today’s post is a quote I liked from one of the rising stars, if not already a star, in the nutritional field. The quote is from Nutrition Therapist and, more famously known, Neurofeedback practitioner Nora Gedgaudas.

You may recognize the name if you have been a resident of the paleo world for the past few years as Nora Gedgaudas has authored a highly-reviewed book called Primal Body-Primal Mind, which deals with many of the things Mary Enig and Sally Fallon tackle in their respected books I’ve mentioned ad nauseam in previous posts.  Her book deals with the issues of diet and how off course the typical American diet has come.  She also brings in a lot of good science in her book that backs up what she is preaching nutritionally.

Anyways, I was listening to a podcast of Nora’s radio show, Primal Body–Primal Mind Radio, this afternoon about human longevity and “The Keys To A Longer Life and An Ageless Mind”.  The title may sound like the sort of book you would find at the Dollar Tree, but the show was absolutely fascinating.  She spends the first half-hour talking about the nutritional benefits of adopting a low-carbohydrate, moderate fat and protein diet, as well as the benefits Neurofeedback has on an aging brain.

Gee-wizz, I tell ya, she sure did a great job explaining the overall health benefits of kicking the carbs out of your diet and giving fat and protein a little more love.  The main point of that first half-hour of her radio show is the importance of reducing how much insulin your body uses to regulate blood sugar.  How do we do that, you might ask?  Well, by reducing the consumption of all those starchy carbs, i.e. potato chips, potatoes, breads, pastas, beans, rices, etc…, and sugars, i.e. white sugar, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup and so on…

Americans consume about 140 pounds of sugar a year!  (Which may be a generous estimation.)  Sadly, that just accounts for sugar.  All those sweeteners, like the deadly High Fructose Corn Syrup, don’t get added into the equation because they are termed “sweeteners”, not sugars.  Add a high starchy carbohydrate diet, which basically acts like sugars when they are being digested, and we are putting our Blood Sugar on some pretty gnarly roller coasters rides throughout your day.

*SLAP*

Wow, went on quite a tangent there, but it was probably worth it.  Anytime I get on the topic of Blood Sugar, a rant is probably closely following.

But lets not forget about Nora’s great podcast.  She advocates eating less sugary and starchy foods because insulin’s function in the human body is not solely based on regulating blood sugar, as every may seem to think.  As Nora says in her podcast, insulin’s actual biological purpose is “the coordination of energy stores with reproduction and lifespan”.  Flap-jacks Batman, that’s great but what the heck does that all mean? Basically, insulin triggers the body to start forming new cells, “out with the old, in with the new”.  So by reducing insulin secretions in our body, we aren’t causing our body to put it’s energies into making new cells (which is what insulin causes).  Instead, our bodies focus on “maintaining and repairing” your body.

There is another factor towards increasing your lifespan that goes hand-in-hand with the reduction of insulin.  This other factor is reducing your total caloric intake.  Now, what Nora talks about on her show when it comes to reducing how many calories you are eating, ironically, has nothing to do with counting calories.  “Well that makes absolutely no sense!” you might say.  But when you factor in a paleo-esque diet, it does make sense.  As Nora puts so brilliantly, “our appetites are not satisfied by bulk…”, even eating large amounts of healthy vegetables isn’t going to satisfy you in an acceptable way that natural fats will.  (Unless, of course, you over eat.) It’s the natural fats in our diet that tell our  brain everything is going goooood.  Eating fat causes satiety. Not eating three of four bags of french fries.

(Quality over quantity ring a bell?)

So by reducing sugars and starchy carbohydrates, by eating adequate amounts of fat-but not overeating because the goal is to try to not overindulge causing too many calories-, and consuming a proper amount of protein to provide adequate amounts of amino acids as building material for your body is the type of diet we all should be striving to develop for optimal health and longevity.

If you are interested in hearing the actual podcast, here’s the link:

http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=42999

Nora probably does a much better, and more accurate, job describing the keys to optimal health and longevity and her podcast.  I highly encourage all of you to devote at least a half-hour to what she says during the first half of her show.  Listen to it while you are doing the dishes or eating a meal because it is well worth your time.

Thanks for reading, have a great Saturday night!

E.M.R