The Primal Blueprint (27 page)

Most all fruits offer a host of nutritional benefits, but some (detailed on the chart) are relatively low in antioxidant values while having a high glycemic effect. You may have heard of the glycemic index (G.I.; how the food impacts blood glucose levels in comparison to the benchmark of pure glucose) and glycemic load (basically, the total sugar content of the food), and perhaps you have seen popular foods with a point score attached to them. While a high glycemic response is undesirable (because it triggers a big insulin response), I’m wary of placing a numerical judgment on foods without further context. For example, carrots have a high glycemic index score in a calorie-for-calorie comparison with other foods on the chart. However, one is more likely to drink a 20-ounce bottle of Coke than eat four and a half cups of carrots to get an equivalent 240 calories. When comparing fruits to fruits, however, it’s obviously best to emphasize high-antioxidant, low-glycemic fruits over lower-antioxidant, higher-glycemic fruits.

In light of the popularity of juicing, it’s important to note that whole fruits are vastly superior to juice – even the most nutritious, freshly squeezed glass. Juice is generally higher in sugar and lower in many other micronutrients than its produce sources, because juicing eliminates the nutrient-rich skin and fiber (which help moderate the glycemic impact of the food). Recall that Kelly Korg’s 24-ounce Strawberry Surf Rider smoothie contained 71 grams of sugar! I strongly suggest drinking only moderate amounts of juice and sticking with freshly squeezed when you do. Bottled juices are
heated for safety and stability, which reduces their nutrient content and compromises their great natural taste. Making your own juice is preferable to getting it from a juice bar, where your beverage can be quite pricey and comes with uncertain quality standards for produce selection.

All that said, a moderate serving of fresh juice (or even bottled juice) can hardly be described in critical terms, and it’s a good choice for nutrients on days when you can’t obtain adequate whole foods (such as when traveling). Furthermore, I’m not keen to get painted with the same brush as Atkins and other across-the-board “carbophobes.” If your eyes are bouncing up and down the page sorting out which fruits are good and bad, relax! If you’ve junked grains and moved on to prioritizing your fruit choices, you’re far ahead in the battle to eat whole, nutritious foods and avoid processed foods. I’m certainly not advocating sitting forlornly off to the side at the Fourth of July picnic, watching others eat the hot dogs, corn on the cob, and watermelon. By all means enjoy the watermelon guilt-free (just forget the former two and smuggle in your own smoked wild salmon for a main course!). Simply use a bit of restraint for fruits on the moderation list, particularly if you are pursuing ambitious fat-reduction goals.

In Grok’s time, the bulk of calories in the human diet (estimates range from 45 to 85 percent, depending on geography) came from eating a variety of animal life, including insects, grubs, amphibians, birds, their eggs, fish and shellfish, small mammals, and some larger mammals. In general, those living closer to the equator consumed more plants and less animal food, while those at colder latitudes with fewer plant options consumed more meat. These meat sources provided significant amounts of protein and all types of essential fatty acids and vitamins. Grok often ate as much as 300 or 400 grams of protein and up to 200 or more grams of fat in a day during times of plenty—and yet maintained a svelte physique. Of course, he also ate very limited amounts of carbohydrates, produced moderate levels of insulin, and excelled at using stored fat as fuel. These macronutrient breakdowns allowed him to build or preserve muscle and provided ample fuel for both long treks and short bursts of speed.

“
My favorite animal is steak. —
Fran Lebowitz
American author and humorist
”

Animal foods are healthy and nutritious and will help you reduce excess body fat, build lean muscle, and generally promote peak performance. While I highly respect those who have philosophical objections to consuming animal flesh, I want to dispel Conventional Wisdom that eating a diet high in animal foods leads to obesity and heart disease or that vegetarianism is somehow healthier. Like it or not, our bodies have evolved for two million years on animal foods, ever since meat eating became a survival factor and a trigger to population expansion on earth (our ability to migrate to the higher latitudes depended on us developing “meat-adaptive” genes).

The fact remains that no culture or society has ever survived for an extended period of time on a meatless diet. While it would seem to be much easier to live and evolve without having to run around and kill animals, the truth is that we need concentrated, nutrient-rich energy sources like meat to support accelerated brain development—our distinguishing feature that brought us to the top of the food chain. Remarkably, about 500 calories a day are required just to fuel the human brain (both primitive and modern). Anthropological evidence strongly suggests that it was protein and omega-3 fatty acids from animal foods that provided both the raw materials and energy necessary for the human brain to grow larger over the course of evolution. Our ability to hunt and catch animals and cook their meat (cooking makes meat easier to chew, swallow, and digest) was critical in our branching up and away from our mostly vegetarian ape cousins.

At this point in our discussion, it’s important to acknowledge that over the past decade, some studies about red meat consumption have prompted alarming headlines
that “excessive” consumption of red meat may be associated with a slightly increased risk for cancer and heart disease. In all such studies to date, however, there has been no distinction or separation between groups who consumed organic, hormone-free, 100% grass-fed or otherwise “clean” red meat versus the vast majority of participants who ate the standard hormone-laden, grain-fed, antibiotic-laced meats that I decry here. Nor has there been any necessary correlation with carbohydrate intake (remember that carbs
and
fats consumed together increase triglyceride production from both sources). Most of these studies (in which participants self-report their dietary intake) include in the general red meat category all manner of processed meats (hot dogs, breakfast sausage, chemically-treated jerkys, bacon, bologna, salami). These foods may contain preservatives that act as potential carcinogens. Furthermore, their nutrient value is diminished from the mechanical processing and addition of preservatives, artificial colors and often a significant level of simple sugars or artificial sweeteners. Of course, the
Primal Blueprint
suggests that you generally avoid these meats.

Authors of these studies also offer another possible explanation for the minimally increased risks: overcooking of meat. You may have heard that some forms of seared, burned, or overcooked meat may contain heat-altered chemical by-products called heterocyclic amines (or HCAs) which may be carcinogenic if consumed frequently over long periods of time. Since mankind has been cooking with fire for hundreds of thousands of years, it’s apparent that we have developed a host of natural genetic adaptations to allow us to eat most properly cooked foods without problems. Furthermore, some studies indicate that consuming antioxidant-rich foods (such as fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and even red wine) along with cooked meats can essentially neutralize any HCAs during digestion. Of course, using appropriate cooking techniques, avoiding deep-fried or high-heat barbequed meats, and eating certain forms of meat raw (sushi, tartar, etc.), can help you eliminate your risk altogether.

While it’s indisputable that our bodies thrive on the rich and unique nutrients provided by animal foods, it is possible—albeit pretty darn difficult—to be healthy and enjoy a nutritious diet without consuming meat. However, it will be a real challenge to obtain sufficient protein and fat—or simply enough calories—to fuel an active lifestyle while also avoiding grains and other processed carbohydrates. By choice or default, these foods constitute a high percentage of calories for vegetarians and vegans. If you consume moderate to high amounts of grains in an effort to make up for the absence of meat, you are probably going to encounter a host of possible health challenges, as I will detail in the next chapter.

Animal fats used in cooking (e.g., lard, tallow, chicken fat, and butter) have long been maligned by Conventional Wisdom in the movement toward polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that has spanned the last few generations. However, saturated fats
(solid at room temperature, unlike PUFAs) are the most beneficial fats with which to cook. They are not teeming with micronutrients, so you may wish to limit them somewhat in favor of more densely nutritious calorie sources (such as the meat or vegetables you might be cooking!). However, they are not at all bad for you, as we’ve been conditioned to believe. In contrast, PUFAs contain too much omega-6 and can contribute significantly to the oxidation and inflammation conditions detailed in
Chapter 3
. The sidebar “Mark’s Primer on Fats and Oils” later in this chapter details my favorite fats and oils, as well as which ones to avoid.

Many of the Conventional Wisdom health objections to eating animal foods can easily be countered by eating organic sources of meat, a suggestion that is, in my estimation, highly recommended due to the extremely poor quality of much of today’s conventionally processed animal foods. Mass-produced ranch animals can contain hormones (to grow them bigger quickly and therefore increase profits), pesticides (ingested from their own inferior food sources; vegetarian advocates claim that 80 to 90 percent of your total dietary pesticide exposure comes from eating meat, although that’s disputed by the EPA), and antibiotics (to prevent widespread illness resulting from consuming immune-suppressing feed and living in filthy, cramped, artificial conditions). These three stooges can really mess up your efforts to eat healthfully.

Furthermore, today’s mass-harvested cattle, chickens, and other animals are fed a diet of fortified grains, which have a similar effect on their bodies as on humans! Purchase your meats at a chain grocer or big-box store, and there’s a good chance you’ll end up eating a malnourished, insulin-resistant, and quite possibly diseased animal whose meat is high in omega-6 fats—a far cry nutritionally from Grok’s fresh, lean, wild kills. Finally, humane reasons compel many to avoid meat. The animals we typically dine on consume half of our crop harvest; their waste pollutes air, rivers, and streams; and many claim they are subjected to horrifying treatment at unsanitary production facilities (as detailed in such books as
Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Diet for a New America
, and even
Skinny Bitch
).

For these reasons, I strongly urge you to look for USDA-certified organic meat whenever possible. Clearly, there is a continuum here where you can find options that are various degrees away from ideal. While the ultimate meat would be a wild animal with lots of lean mass, little fat, and a nutritious, high omega-3 natural diet, there aren’t many of them running around the continent these days. If organically raised meats are not available, suitable alternatives would be hormone-free, antibiotic-free meat or meat from animals that were “100% grass-fed” or “100% grass-finished” (as denoted on the label). While there is minimal regulation in this industry, you can educate yourself, obtain
trusted sources of healthier meats, and alleviate nearly all of the objections mentioned previously. Fortunately, the popularity of organic eating is skyrocketing, so you should have good luck finding healthier animal products in your area. If not, you can utilize some of the excellent resources on the Internet, such as
americangrassfedbeef.com
and
eatwild.com
.