Here is the article in the Sunday Star Times (a New Zealand National Sunday Newspaper) featuring me as cover girl, and the article about my Paleo eating.
For an extended article on my dietary journey
Here is a link to the complete article PDF: sunday magazine food story
For my comments on the article click here
Yesterday TV3 had a 60 minutes piece on Maori living in Flaxmere, who have taken part in a 10 week trial eating the way their ancestors did 150 years ago (pre-European) Meat, seafood, fat and vegetables. The result, diabetes reversing, blood sugar dropping and an 8 kg average weight loss in 10 weeks. Ex All Black captain Taine Randell went back to his home town and teamed up with nutritionist Ben Warren to support this trial, as well as coaching the local rugby team to success. Article on Ben Warren and the trial here.
Or here http://bepure.co.nz/bepure-info/bepure-media.html
This is a seeming paradox, when we consider eating like this goes against the advice in the current food pyramid. However if we look at the health problems this group of Maori were suffering from, this way of eating makes biochemical sense.
New Zealand Maori like many indigenous peoples are particularly prone to diseases linked with insulin resistance. Here is a good explanation of insulin resistance.
Many indigenous groups have changed to a diet high in processed carbohydrates / grains and vegetable oils relatively recently. Indeed Maori have been introduced to grains only with the influx of Europeans, in the last two hundred years. Captain Cook speaking of the New Zealand Maori in 1772
“ … strange that these people enjoy perfect and uninterrupted health…we never saw a single person who appeared to have any bodily complaint…the great number of old men that we saw. . . . appeared to be very ancient , yet none of them were decrepit; and though not equal to the young in muscular strength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity…” (from thepaleodiet.com)
When Maori changed from a hunter gatherer diet, primarily birds, seafood, wild plants, and kumara (sweet potato), to a diet high in processed grains, sugar, vegetable oils and other modern foods, their levels of obesity, gout and type 2 diabetes has risen enormously.
By removing processed grains, vegetable oils high in omega 6, junk foods (bad fats, processed carbs, sugar and chemicals) and returning to the diet that best suits their genetic heritage, this group were able to dramatically improve their health.
By replacing processed and grain carbohydrates and with mainly vegetables (kumara, pumpkin, and non starch vegetables) they removed a food group responsible for a large glycemic load (blood sugar load), and one which also contains anti-nutrients and gut irritants. When you decrease blood sugar load, less insulin is required to be sent out to remove the blood sugar. With less insulin and lower blood sugar, insulin receptors will increase sensitivity and health problems triggered by high insulin levels start to reverse.
The only way to maintain hunger control when you decrease carbohydrate load is to have protein at each meal and increase fat. As we see in this documentary this is exactly what they did, eggs, bacon, mushrooms cooked in butter, and greens for breakfast. The man who ate this meal said it kept him going until 3.00pm then he ate lunch – usually boil-up (basically a stew with high anti-oxidant puha and meat). Using butter, although high in saturated fat, is low in omega 6, and does not contain synthetic trans fats or interesterified fat, which aggravate insulin resistance and increase inflammation. Omega 6 high oils have have replaced traditional saturated fats in many countries for the worse – leading to an explosion of health issues related to inflammation, like heart disease.
So by returning to the traditional diet, glycemic load is dramatically reduced, inflammatory fats reduced and hunger managed, leading to decreased blood sugar levels, and decreased calorie consumption. Diabetic and heart disease markers decreased and body fat was lost from all those participating.
Emulating the traditional Maori Food Model.
What to eat:
Seafood – all types,
Poultry and birds, free range is best,
Meat – all types, grass fed or wild animals
Eggs, free range
Vegetables – all root and starchy, but use kumara, Maori potato and pumpkin instead of European potatoes.
Colourful and non starch vegetables, eat a lot, especially traditional greens like watercress and puha.
Fruit – in moderation, berries are best, Maori did not have access to large amounts of sweet fruit.
Fats – use olive oil (not traditional I know – but healthy) Avocado, and macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, lard, butter and cream in moderation.
What not to eat:
Do not eat European introduced food – wheat and grains (includes bread, bakery, cakes, pasta, rice etc), legumes, sugar
Do not drink any sugary drinks or artificially sweetened drinks – water should be your drink of choice, tea and coffee are fine without sugar.
Do not eat deep fried food.
Do not use vegetable oils other than olive oil, avocado or macadamia.
Dairy and cheese were not part of the traditional Maori diet, yet Maori had strong bones.
Limit or don’t eat salty processed meats with nitrites, like bacon
And what about all the saturated fat added to this diet? A recent study that looked at the association between heart disease and saturated fat found that “Intake of saturated fat wasnot associated with an increased risk of CHD (Coronary Heart Disease), stroke, or CVD (cardio vascular disease).” Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/3/535
More interesting ‘paradoxes’ in this article:
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.org.uk/dietary-paradoxes.html
An excellent post on Maori pre European diets: http://hopefulgeranium.blogspot.co.nz/2013/12/what-is-maori-ancestral-diet.html
This type of study has been carried out on other indigenous peoples, in every case when groups eat pre-European diets, their health improves and they lose weight.
STANDING TALL: PLAINS INDIANS ENJOYED HEIGHT, HEALTH ADVANTAGE
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/
More reading on how our current diet no longer suits our genes read:
10 Ways our diet today differs radically from the diet that best suits our genes
Not so new but interesting article of a study from Daily Mail UK
“Eating like a caveman could reduce the risk of heart disease, according to new research.
Just three weeks on a stone-age diet rich in lean meat, vegetables, berries and nuts was enough to lower the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who tested the diet on a group of volunteers found they lost weight, lowered blood pressure and slashed levels of a blood-thickening agent known to cause deadly clots.
The results, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, support earlier findings that the so-called paleolithic diet could protect against diabetes.
For centuries, our ancestors lived only on foods that could be speared or picked from trees and plants.
Some scientists argue that the modern human body is still genetically programmed for this type of diet.
That means no cereals, bread, milk, butter, cheese or sugar but plenty of lean meat, fish, fruits, vegetables and nuts.
To test its effect, the Swedish researchers recruited 20 healthy volunteers and put them on caveman rations for three weeks.
Each patient was assessed for weight, body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol at the beginning of the experiment.
They were then given a list of stone-age foods they could eat, including fresh or frozen fruit, berries or vegetables, lean meat, unsalted fish, canned tomatoes, lemon or lime juice, spices and coffee or tea without milk or sugar.
Banned foods included beans, salt, peanuts, dairy products, pasta or rice, sausages, alcohol, sugar and fruit juice.
However, they were also allowed up to two potatoes a day and a weekly treat of dried fruit, cured meats and a portion of fatty meat.
After three weeks, the volunteers were tested again. Among the 14 who successfully completed the diet, the average weight loss was around five pounds.
Body mass index – a measurement of someone’s weight compared to their height – dropped by an average of 0.8. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25.
Systolic blood pressure, the higher of the two readings during a check, fell by an average of three mmHg as a result of the diet and levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, a clotting agent in the blood, dropped by 72 per cent.
Dr Per Wandell, who led the study, said: “A short-term intervention with a paleolithic diet had some favourable effects on cardiovascular risk factors.
“But one negative effect was the decreased intake of calcium (from dairy goods), which could be a risk factor for osteoporosis later in life.” ”
Drastic diets and their devotees.
Not quite the heading I expected – but I guess you have to have a hook!
Funny – because I don’t see my diet as drastic! It has become a habit, and easy to do. What is a challenging is to eat this diet in today’s grain and dairy sodden world. It is tricky for me eating the original human diet when eating out.
Back to the article – 3 different diets were included. Raw vegan, Paleo and Blood Type Diet. Each person once they changed their diet experienced profound health changes. Renata Holicova’s muscle pain, back pain, joint pain disappeared on the raw vegan diet. My knee swelling, ganglion cyst and menstrual issues disappeared on the Paleo diet. (See – My Nutrition Journey) Vannessa Joyce’s asthma disappeared and she lost 15 kilos on the Blood Type O diet. The O part is significant, in the blood type diet “O’s”cut out grains, legumes and dairy. http://www.drlam.com/blood_type_diet/blood_o_chart.asp
A raw vegan diet does not contain animal products – including dairy. It does not contain grains or legumes in their dry state and probably minimal sprouted. This is also significant. Soaking and fermenting sprouted grains and legumes may reduce some of the anti-nutrients. Potatoes can not be eaten raw. This raw vegan diet most importantly does not contain gluten grains.
http://www.fromgreytogreen.co.nz
So there is a remarkable similarity in all three diets – no gluten grains, no or only soaked and sprouted legumes, no potatoes (another food with gut irritating properties) and no dairy!
Wow – sounds like once you cut out neolithic gut-irritating and auto-immune triggering foods (especially gluten) health improves – what-ever dietary route people take to find this out.
Interestingly – I am an A blood type. Supposedly able to well tolerate grains. The blood type diet simple does not work for me – yes this is another diet I have tried! The only thing I would agree with for me is that the protein choices of chicken and fish I find more enjoyable than red meat. I don’t much like eating a lot of red meat. Loren Cordain makes an interesting observation of blood type diet – that it works best for O blood types. A Critical Examination of Blood Type Diets
Grains and diary have become two of the foods that we consume as a major part of our diets.No hunter or gatherer would eat these foods. To me it seems crazy that our diets have veered so far from those that we as human’s thrive on. We as a race are disease ridden and overweight. Most of the diseases we have are called “diseases of civilisation”. Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, arthritis, osteoporosis, I believe are not diseases of hunter gatherers.
Loren Cordain has written a number of scientific papers on the problems of grains, legumes, dairy and potatoes – some of which can be found on his blog:
http://thepaleodiet.blogspot.com/
