So I talk a good deal about the evolutionary diet and how it’s the proper diet for optimal health and longevity, but I’ve never really discussed how to adopt such a diet. It’s absurd to think that one following the typical Western diet of grains, sugar, grains, sugar, grains, no fat, grains, and processed meats (and did I mention grains and sugar?) can flip the script and become a meat and vegetables person overnight. While going full-scale Paleo by ditching grains, dairy, nearly all sugars, and legume is an excellent goal, a good bit of the benefit can be had just from ditching a few unsavory characters from your diet, namely processed grains, sugars, and trans fats. Ditching just these three items from your normal diet will do wonders for your health. I’d say that if you can get away from eating these three, you’re at least 80% of the way there.

I like something Alwyn Cosgrove mentioned awhile back about doing a Goal Snowball. Concentrate on doing one new thing, and only one new thing, for two weeks. It’s how I advise people to adopt new food habits. You can even stretch it to three weeks or a month if that helps you break old habits and ingrain new ones. So you can stick to each step for a few weeks to get it. Don’t lolligag too long or you’ll end up two years from now still trying to get step two, but don’t hurry up too much such that you’re still struggling with the previous three steps either. It won’t be easy. It will be worth it.

The first thing you’re going to have to start doing is reading labels. Before you put any packaged food in your cart, check the ingredients list. I’m not even telling you to put anything back just yet. Just get familiar with the ingredients that are in your favorite packaged foods. Look at the nutrition information and the ingredients list. Read the words in that list and make a mental note of how often certain words appear: soy, soybean, hydrogenated, corn syrup, sugar, etc. You’ll notice trends as you do this more.

The two most insidious components of the Western diet are sugar and trans fats. You were probably thinking I’d say red meat and saturated fat, but I’m not that PC. So of sugar and trans fats, which is worse? This is an arguable point, but I’m going to say trans fats. The body has at least evolved a mechanism for dealing with sugar, even if it can’t handle the prodigious quantities most people feed it. Trans fats are man-made and are too new for the body to understand how to deal with them.

Now for the perplexing part: the next step is ditching the added sugars from your diet. Sugar is plain garbage. It supplies very little in the way of vitamins and minerals forcing the body to scavenge its reserves to process the junk. It drives up your blood sugar, causing an insulin surge that burns out insulin receptors, puts the body in fat storage mode, and sets one up for Type II Diabetes. If you started at step one, you should be aware of which products are loaded up with sugar. That means soft drinks, cookies, pies, cakes, nearly all store-bought yogurt, sweetened breakfast cereals, brown sugar, and even natural stuff like honey and agave nectar. If you see High Fructose Corn Syrup, run like the dickens. Why didn’t I pick trans fats first? You’ll see in a few paragraphs.

Ok, so now you’re a month in and you’ve been doing pretty well with reading labels and ditching sugar. You probably had some serious cravings for sugar and wanted to throw in the towel. A couple weeks without sugar is a pretty good start on breaking the addiction. Hopefully you stuck with it. Next up is processed grains. White flour and all of the products on the shelf that contain it, along with anything containing processed corn, rice, oats, etc, are detrimental to your health. There is nothing left in these processed frankenfoods except a lot of carbs. Fiber, gone; vitamins, gone. I’m not a fan of whole grains either, but if you can just get rid of the processed stuff, you’re doing better than nearly everyone around you. Replace it with either vegetables or whole grains (preferably vegetables, but baby steps are alright). Don’t be duped by the marketing geniuses either; very few of the whole grain breads available on the shelf are truly whole grain and really aren’t much better than white bread. If you’re going to eat bread, at least aim for something along the consistency of particle board…it should be heavy and thick.

So now back to trans fats. Why did I leave them until the 4th step if they’re the worst thing we can eat? Now that you’ve cut the sugar and the processed grains, look at the ingredient labels that you’re hopefully still reading. There shouldn’t be much in the way of partially hydrogenated anything because sugar, processed grains, and trans fats are usually a package deal. I didn’t start with this step because you can find plenty of cookies and cakes that are “trans fat-free” yet are still ridiculously high in sugar. We just ran an end-around on those dangerous fats and you shouldn’t have to work too hard with this step.

Your diet is now cleaner than most of the people you pass in the street. Your lack of sugar, trans fats, and processed carbs has probably made it pretty difficult for you to eat a good deal of the foods you used to eat. Pizza, most pasta, and virtually all packaged foods don’t really fit anymore, do they?

So in summary, here are your steps, in number order:

  1. Read nutrition information and ingredient labels
  2. Cut the sugar
  3. Ditch the processed grains (corn, wheat, oats, rice, etc)
  4. Down with trans fat

That’s it. Obviously it’s much more difficult than that, but the concept is simple. Get rid of the three biggies - sugar, processed grains, and trans fats - and your health should take off. Just the mere act of replacing processed grains with vegetables will do wonders for you. Vitamin intake will skyrocket and you’ll feel better. In fact, how good you’ll feel will serve as a positive feedback loop, keeping you at it until you become a certifiable health freak that gets those sidelong glances from eating companions. Trust me, it’s much more fun than it sounds.


If you enjoyed this post, share it on StumbleUpon or Health Ranker (or both!)


Print This Post Print This Post

Tags: , , , , ,