How would you like to lose any excess fat you have and effortlessly revert back to your body’s default body composition to be lean, skinny, healthy, and attractive? What would you think if I told you I knew how you could avoid ever becoming a type II diabetic, obese, and didn’t have to exercise? A way to possibly improve your skin condition, irritable bowel syndrome, gastrointestinal problems, and to reduce your chances of cardiovascular disease or cancer? If you’re used to having constant health problems, working excessively by exercise just to fail at losing weight, have severe acne or other skin conditions, or getting sick all the time, then I’ve got some information that will be of huge interest to you.

Food has become a point of discussion for people much like religion, politics, or some other overly personal and potentially controversial subject. With the spread of the internet over the past 10+ years, we have also seen a lot of contradicting information pop up about a variety of different subjects. The internet never really became that golden beacon of light we all want to wish for in which all knowledge can be shared and everyone can become vastly more educated than we ever could have hoped before. Well, as it turns out, there are still a lot of reasons to attend lectures, talk to experts, and most importantly: to look at the peer-reviewed scientific studies that talk about topics A through Z when it comes to nutrition.

But the big problem with the science? People have gotten lost in the maze of expert authority or scientific credibility and have effectively stopped using common sense when it comes to food. I hate to bring up the idea that many people claim themselves experts (I have said throughout many conversations that I do not consider myself one) about what our ancestors did or how well they lived or how long they lived but when it comes to food the answer to eating good quality stuff really lies in looking at one humanity ate before civilization. I’ve talked a little bit about food before but I have realized that it’s probably a lot more important to CONTINUE talking about food since there seems to be so much resistance to a lot of the “advice” I often dish out.

Instead of looking at an evolutionary perspective to what foods we should be consuming, much of the time we rely on the family doctor, official health organizations such as the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, World Health Organization, the United States Department of Drugs and Agriculture (USDA), and so on. The problem with a lot of these organizations is that they like to cite off science in the form of soundbites and not only are they giving you soundbites, some of the soundbites they’re giving you are obviously, quite provably, flat out wrong. As a few quick examples, the American Diabetes Association tells people with diabetes that they “can still enjoy all their favorite desserts” when you really shouldn’t, the USDA wants you to ingest incredibly harmful grains as a primary basis in their awful food pyramid, which they’ve now done away with to a large extent but still include grains…

I plan to get more into diabetes itself and other separate health conditions that I’ve been trying to research thoroughly a little later. But first, I feel I should talk more about the important take-away-points that I’d like you to have before you stop reading. If you feel that I’ve gone too far in saying that the official views of the “official health organizations” are flat out wrong, then chances are you may be even further disappointed as I continue to spout off lots of other claims that are contrary to much of the existing status quo in nutrition and medicine. However, if you’re my kind of reader, then chances are you’re not offended but have instead had your interest piqued. :D

People who know me well know that I recommend a low carb, low sugar, high fat, high protein type of diet. I suppose I might do well to also more specifically define what I mean by “low carb” as well because many people jump to assumptions and think that when I say low carb I mean no carb. First of all, even if that is what I meant, there is actually nothing inherently wrong with healthy individuals being in ‘constant ketosis’ or constantly getting all of their energy from fat and protein, forcing their body to use ketones to keep their energy running. Of course, in order to realistically get all the nutrients that you would need you would then have to supplement with a multivitamin.

There are, of course, some exceptions to the low carb rule, which I’ve talked about with many people who know me personally as a part of the general populace in heart wrenching detail over Facebook and in-person with a variety of different people both inside and outside academia. I’ve had people come up to me with a variety of claims regarding my words about food: “Well, I have [insert health condition here] and when you have that you’ll end up in the hospital if you don’t consume high enough levels of glucose (sugar)!”

Let me get this out of the way very early then. If you have pre-existing health conditions that prevent you from eating what your ancestors did, chances are you developed those health conditions for one of two basic reasons. You either had a drastically high genetic predisposition to develop such a condition as type I diabetes or ulcerative colitis, or you had environmental factors that caused you to develop a condition that affects your body’s natural systems (be it the endocrine system, pancreatic function, or other processes) such as in type II diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Whatever the case, it would not be my fault that you have these conditions and that your body is potentially in a state that is less than ideal for beginning a low carb, high fat, high protein type of diet.

Nonetheless, if we want to be serious about understanding the science of this type of diet, we must know that the science says that low carb, high fat, high protein in the form of natural, organic sources of foods, grass-fed meats, naturally occurring diets in any animal product you consume, no use of artificial derivatives or chemical additives, plenty of vegetables, a little bit of fruit, nuts, seeds, a multivitamin, and some fish or fish oil supplementation every once in a while is the ideal way to go for functionality long into old age and in many cases will also lead to longevity overall. I follow what is known as the primal food pyramid, easily viewed and accessed from Mark Sisson’s blog here.

Mark’s diagrams also show the “carbohydrate” curve that I concur with. That is, usually when we’re talking about the average person, it is best to consider 150 grams of carbohydrate or less in any given day is an okay amount to consume if they do not want to see weight gain and other problems that may result from excessive insulin levels. Gary Taubes and Mark Sisson would both likely agree with each other, and I concur with the two of them, that “it’s all about insulin.”

I also got into big trouble with one of my friends for posting things like “Coca Cola and its products are poison” as a status update on Facebook. Well, breaking it down on sort of an intuitional level and examining the claim with some common sense, you know that if you’re a guy like me who believes that excessive levels of carbohydrates (and therefore sugar) are too high then that means you can see potentially deadly consequences from your body taking heavy abuse. Not to mention, even if you’re taking the “low calorie” versions of their drinks, you’re getting artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which increase the risk of cancer and can cause a whole slew of other problems.

Heck, even Coca Cola’s spring water, called Dasani, just flat out sucks: it’s just filtered tap water. Okay, so considering the 150 grams of carbohydrate per day type rule and then considering that a single 20 oz. bottle of Coca Cola has over 58 grams of sugar, we can then determine that even a single bottle of Coke, when combined with what most Western diet eaters are consuming, will easily give you heavy health problems. Aside from the long term effects, we know that high levels of glucose the body has to deal with all at once in high amounts is toxic and can more quickly lead to insulin resistance. But hey, if you do not want to think it’s poisonous, or impairing to health, then by all means… drink away.

Some books I recommend you read:
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
Food and Western Disease: Health and Nutrition From an Evolutionary Perspective by Staffan Lindeberg

Whether or not you choose to accept this information and use it to your benefit is, of course, entirely up to you. I would start at Mark’s blog, Mark’s Daily Apple, and take a look at his Primal Blueprint 101 index, in which he outlines with good science and evidence, why this way of eating will help you avoid disease, keep you away from diabetes, reduce your risks of cancer, and help you be functional and strong long into old age. In fact, this sounds a little bit like an endorsement for Mark Sisson. Well, yeah, it kind of is, and I’ve put my money where my mouth is with big personal results.

A very close friend of mine has managed to already lose 20 pounds by following this way of eating (and she has many more pounds on the way) with improvements in health markers. I have personally lost, at this point, not just an inch off my waist, but about two and a half inches and a total of around 30 pounds of fat. My energy levels have increased, my blood pressure is next to perfect each time it’s measured, and I’ve been back to the doctor less (only once in the past year and a half when I had an infection that needed to be treated with antibiotics).

The ball is in your court. Some final recommendations I would say might be use heavy caution when easing yourself into this diet if you’re a hypoglycemic, type I diabetic, or even a type II diabetic, as you will likely have some heavy limitations in trying to adopt this diet. For sure, hypoglycemics and type I diabetics will not be able to fully adopt this diet because of the insulin dependence and the body’s reaction to glucose levels. Also, even if you’re in good health and ready to begin your lower carb, paleolithic eating journey you may still have an adjusting period to this diet.

A big lesson to learn from discovering something new that shatters an old paradigm is really what a huge difference the truth can have on someone’s lifestyle and decision making. Though with any truth, there can always be a huge deal more to learn. I do not think that paleolithic eating necessarily proves to be an end-all cure for everyone’s health ailments. However, I am saying that there is a very strong certainty that my particular health condition has improved as a result of it and so have the various success stories that have been posted on websites that follow the paleolithic movement across the internet. I detailed a tiny bit in my post about Steve Pavlina why veganism and raw food eating can be a bad idea.

Perhaps I can post more in the future as to what makes this particular diet NOT a fad diet (but is instead a sustainable lifestyle) as well as what makes it so drastically different from the wide variety of different health diets that you can find around your local popular bookstore. If it helps, I can at least tell you that I’ve been eating this way for almost two years and not only continue to feel better than ever but I’m continuously pushing myself to achieve new things and travel in new directions with my health to this day. Perhaps we could all benefit from examining our paradigms on health (or everything in life for that matter) and develop true rational, critical thought processes to examine the evidence of what we put into our mouths on a daily basis.

I’ll go ahead and leave you with a picture of me below that was taken August 11th, 2011, very recently. I’m not completely without fat but this is my body now. I used to weigh 170 but now tend to hover around 140-142 pounds. Effortlessly.

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words...

August 11th, 2011. My body. No PhotoShop, no tricks, no editing.

And I’ll let you also compare to this picture of me from the summer of 2009.

Fatter but tanner.

Summer of 2009. A bigger belly, more inflammation, but hey - a darker tan.

Legal stuff: Always consult a physician before making drastic changes to your diet and exercise plan. This information has not been approved by the FDA or any other silly government regulatory organization and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Scott Lee is presenting this for educational and entertainment purposes only. There, now you know that something you get from the internet may be incorrect: investigate the evidence and the truth for yourself.

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