A Response to a Post

Hey all, I’m just posting my response to a very interesting post I read on Tom Noughton’s blog.  Go over and read the article first, than come back and see some of my thoughts.

http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2010/02/04/guest-post-matt-stone-of-180degreehealth/comment-page-1/#comment-15503

Thanks!

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“One of my favorite examples is that continent that eats a primarily low-fat, starch-based diet, but has health that is irrefutably better than the status quo in the United States and many European countries.  It’s called Asia. “

-To quote Nora Gedgaudas: “Most people think the Japanese eat a low-fat diet, but this is a myth.  The truth is, they get plenty of fat from eggs, chicken, beef , pork, shell fish and organ meats. “ (87)

“I’m talking about is the Mountain Pima of Northern Mexico.  They don’t live on the American reservation and they continue to follow their traditional farming practices.”
-Key phrase here: THEY CONTINUE TO FOLLOW TRADITIONAL FARMING PRACTICES.

“Their diet does not consist of mostly meat, white flour fried in vegetable oil …, Pepsi products, alcohol, and packaged ‘food’ products- like the diet of the American Pima.  They are the genetic twins of the American Pima, but they, as Andrew Weil describes, ‘remain lean, active, and free of the diseases of Western civilization, while their relatives from the same gene pool have ballooned into the fat, hypertensive diabetic Indians who are now so numerous in southern Arizona and northern Mexico.’”

- Dr. Francis Pottenger’s famous study where he monitored the lives of multiple generations of cats will help explain the phenomena at work within these Mountain Pima people.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the study, but Francis Pottenger raised four groups of cats.  Each group of cats were fed different foods: A Raw Milk-Raw Meat diet, A Pasteurized Milk-Raw Meat diet, A Evaporated Milk-Raw Meat diet, and a Sweetened Condensed Milk-Raw Meat diet.

Pottenger monitored the progress of the successive three generations of cats from each group, and the second and third generations (note: not the first generation of cats bred, but second and third generations) of cats bred from the diets consisting of Pasteurized Milk, Evaporated Milk, and Sweetened Condensed Milk where all in a significantly worst state of health than the previous generation.  Of course, the group of cats that stuck to the diet most inline with that of their ancestral heritage (Raw Milk-Raw Meat) had no de-generative developments.  The complete opposite of the other three groups of cats.

So what does this have to do with the healthy, lean Mountain Pimas and the fat diabetic American Pimas?  It has everything to do with them!

Before the industrialization of food and the overproduction of sugary treats and low-fat fads, both the American Pimas and the Mountain Pimas were following a diet that was completely in-line with that of the ancestral heritage (they ate the same types of foods that their ancestors always ate; foods that their bodies had been designed/adapted to consume).

At some point, the American Pimas strived away from their traditional, nutrient-dense diets for more modern diets of refined grains/sugary snacks/poor nutrient diets.  The product of this movement away from their traditional diets has lead to the de-generative condition the current American Pimas are in.  Just like Pottenger’s cats, the American Pimas’ diet of “white flour fried and vegetable oil…, Pepsi products, alcohol, and packaged ‘food’ products” destroyed their health.

Meanwhile, the Mountain Pimas, like you said, continued following their traditional diets that they had been designed/adapted to follow that provided them with everything they needed for perfect health.  If they were a group of Pottenger’s cats, they would be the ones who followed a Raw Milk-Raw Meat diet.

Unfortunately, this only part one of the equation.

“What their diet does consist of, in contrast to the American Pima, is EVEN MORE high-glycemic carbohydrates.  Their staples are corn…, potatoes…, beans…, and other grains and tubers, along with primarily game meats. “
-Quality over quantity, my friend.  I guarantee you those potatoes, beans, corn, grains and other tubers are on a completely different level of nutrient than the ones you find at Winco/WalMart/what-have-you.

What I mean is, I can guarantee you that if the Mountain Pimas are truly following their traditional diets, they are soaking/sprouting/fermenting all of these high-glycemic foods.  And guess what this does for the human body: makes these foods more digestible for human consumption!  Grains are full of anti-nutrients and phytic acid, things that steal vitamins and minerals from your body.  To quote Nora Gedgaudas again:

“ Grains and legumes typically contain very high levels of a substance known as phytic acid.  Phytic acid actively binds minerals and eliminates them from the body and results, with increased consumption, in widespread mineral deficiencies, including calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc.  Legumes typically containing 60% starch and only relatively small amounts of incomplete protein, also contain potent protease inhibitors, which can damage one’s ability to properly digest and utilize dietary protein, as well as damage the pancreas over time, when over-depended upon as a source of calories.

By soaking/fermenting/sprouting their grains, which I guarantee the Mountain Pimas primarily do, they are eliminating a good deal of these phytic acids and other anti-nutrients that damage their body, as well as reducing some of the starches of the grains which will not have such an impact on their blood sugar.  Not all of these damaging agents, but a large percentage of them.

To summarize, these Mountain Pimas are eating potatoes and grains that are nutritionally superior (for grains that is) then the baked potato the American Pimas are getting at their local Wendy’s.   To be frank, the Mountain Pimas’ food is probably all-around superior than the American Pimas’.  Their game meat is most likely naturally grass-fed, and they probably consume the organ meats of the animal as well.  On top of that, they might use the bones for nutritious broths, too.  You see, there is a lot more to factor in when it comes to the diets of these two peoples than to make the generalization that the Mountain Pimas eat a high-carb diet, so it must be okay for us to be too!  In actuality, their carb-protein-fat ratio is probably very rounded (we’re probably talking 40-45%-25-30%-25-30% range here).

Plus we have to factor in Pottenger’s cats premise.  These Mountain Pimas probably have an overall superior state of health and well-being than the American Pimas that allows them to consume grains better than the American Pima.  It’s like comparing the third generation of the cats raised on Raw Meat-Sweetened Condensed Milk and the third generation of the Raw Meat-Raw Milk group of cats.  The Raw Meat-Sweetened Condensed Milk group of cats are going to have severe deficiencies that will never allow them to be able to eat grains to the extent that the Mountain Pimas can.  The Mountain Pimas are playing with a full deck of cards, meanwhile, the American Pimas are missing some.

Unfortunately, not just the American Pimas, but all Americans are in this boat.  We have been eating so poorly for so long that today’s generation cannot be handle putting the same amount of crap into their systems as their grandparents were capable of.   Trying to justify drinking a case of diet soda every day because grandma and grandpa did it till they were 80 just does not work out.  We’ve simply been dealt with a lesser hand to play with, and we have to play with these consequences the best we can.

So even if we could eat grains that are fermented/soaked/sprouted, it still may not be the best thing for our bodies because we’re not on the same health level as our ancestors, or as the Mountain Pimas.  This is why I generally always avoid eating starches.  They weren’t in our diets for the first 2.5+ million years,  we were able to handle them while they were properly prepared for the 10,000 years they have been in our diets, but those of us who have been living on a modern diet all our lives, we have just wreaked too much havoc on our bodies to be able to handle large portions of grains again.

Unfortunately, as of the moment, I do not agree with the idea that glucose does not cause insulin resistance.  I believe the consumption of starchy carbs does do a number on your insulin/blood sugar.  But is that because I consumed large amounts of fructose as a child that messed up my insulin response in the first place or because excessive amounts of glucose from eating too much starchy foods does it on it’s own.  I haven’t read Johnson’s book, only read articles about it, but that’s what I believe Johnson is arguing; that fructose messes up your insulin, which causes the reactions to glucose that would not be normal if a person had never had fructose (or possibly large amounts of fructose) in their lives.

“And that is one hell of a big iceberg involving leptin, the hormone with the greatest influence over metabolic rate, appetite, and levels of lipolysis… and lipogenesis… of any other biochemical.  In fact, if you had to narrow down insulin resistance to one primary biochemical reason, it would be the state of “leptin resistance,” also thought to be caused primarily by fructose — whereas other dietary carbohydrates have the opposite effect. That’s why starch-based cultures in Asia and elsewhere don’t overeat, have healthy metabolisms, and are generally better off than people in places that put ‘sugar on top.’”
-To quote Nora Gedgaudas yet again (you should really read her book Primal Body- Primal Mind):
“The only thing that can possibly restore healthy leptin functioning is a diet that is very low is guar and starch (which includes eliminating grains, breads, pasta, rice, and potatoes, as well as sweets) and is sufficient in healthy, natural fats.”

I think that says enough right there.  As for the Asia-eats-starch-and-are-skinny theory, as I stated earlier, this is a myth.  They traditionally have a well-rounded diet that is not overly starch, and the ones who do eat mostly starch are the ones who are extremely poor and, consequentially, in terrible health.

Thanks for the post, Matt.  I’m very interested now in getting to the bottom of this fructose-glucose thing.  My opinions haven’t really changed about glucose, but I’m willing to investigate.

(Apologies for errors, I’m tired of writing.  This took a while.)