If I was willing to make just one change to my diet, what should it be?
Well, this should be the easiest article to write, but somehow it isn’t. There are so many different philosophies out there of what constitutes a healthy diet and what doesn’t. A strong trend at the moment, particularly in the young, is towards vegetarianism and even veganism. Leaving aside the other arguments, is that a healthy strategy? For meat eaters, is red meat bad for you? Is high-fat, low-carb better for you than low-fat, high carb? What is the truth on saturated fats – are they good or bad, and do they put your cholesterol up? Grains and Legumes – such complex and controversial subjects with strong arguments on both sides. What about Gluten – is it really the monster that it’s made out to be? And is ‘Organic’ food really worth it? And on and on and on…
I am going to be looking at all of these subjects over the coming months, each in a separate article, as they deserve. This article aims to respond to a question I am so often asked: “If I had the energy or willpower to make ONE change to my eating habits, what should it be?”
Before I come out with THE one, I thought that I would give you some insight into my shortlist. In drawing it up, I considered what the characteristics were of a healing diet. A healing diet is one that:
stabilizes blood sugar
lowers inflammation
reduces exposure to environmental toxins
floods the body with nutrients
This led me to 3 outstanding contenders:
Get rid of white sugar and white flour
Switch out bad fats and load up on good
Change the meat you eat: buy pasture-raised and eat nose-to-tail
Get rid of white sugar and white flour
Sugars and refined carbohydrates (white flour being the worst) consumed throughout the day create wild fluctuations in blood sugar. Those fluctuations do you no good, and those foods are almost completely devoid of beneficial nutrients.
Let’s just be clear - all carbohydrates turn to sugar (veg, fruit, grains, legumes, and all sugars). They are converted to glucose via the interaction with various enzymes in our digestive system.
When whole plants such as wheat or sugarcane are refined, the fibre is removed. This is the difference between a refined (or simple) carb and a complex carb. Fibre is basically plant material that can’t be digested. The more fibre, the less sugar and the better it is for you. The more refined, the quicker the glucose enters your blood stream, and the more your pancreas has to react and produce insulin to get that glucose out of your blood and into your cells. A piece of white bread contains 15g of carb and less than 1g of fibre. It converts to sugar very fast. However a cup of broccoli has 6 grams of carbs and almost 2.5g of fibre (not to mention all the phytonutrients).
When there is too much glucose, the cells get full and the remainder is converted into fat by the liver and stored away in the tissues. (This is why people gain weight. It’s not through eating fat; it’s because of all the extra sugar that gets converted into fat). In this scenario of too much glucose, insulin stays high in a constant attempt to shuttle it into the cells. After a while the body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin – this is a state called Insulin Resistance, and you don’t want it. It gives rise to a plethora of health problems.
The genetically aligned diet of our ancestors was closer to 35% of calories from carbs, and these were primarily from fibre-rich vegetables (1). Today the UK government recommends that total carb intake should be around 50% of total dietary energy (2), and many have a diet with a much higher percentage. It is very important that wherever you pitch your intake level, you fill it with complex rather than refined carbs.
Alas, it isn’t easy to stop eating sugar, even when we know it is bad. Sugar stimulates the same pleasure centres of the brain that respond to heroin and cocaine. It is a powerful drug and is really just as dangerous as the illegal drugs that we have been trained to avoid since childhood.
Get rid of bad fats and add in more good fats
Chuck out all your vegetable oils (corn, canola, sunflower seed, rapeseed etc). These oils contain high amounts of linoleic acid, an omega-6 fat which is inflammatory. They are also inflammatory because of how they are processed. Traditionally oil was produced at home using mallets and manually operated wedge presses - and no heat. Now to become an oil, a bean or seed is exposed to toxic bleaching agents, deodorisers, solvents, high heat, and other “refining” processes. Processed oils are the liquid equivalent of white flour or white sugar: they are devoid of nutrients, noxious and completely pro-inflammatory. What’s more, these oils are highly unstable and so when heated to high temperatures (as with frying or baking), they cause major oxidative stress in the body.
Then there are ‘Trans Fats’. A trans fat is created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil (a process called hydrogenation) to make it more solid. Partially hydrogenated oils are used by food manufacturers to improve the texture, shelf life and flavour stability of food. It’s the reason that modern bread products can sit on the shelf for months without rotting like they should. Trans fats have been banned in the US and various countries in Europe but in the UK they are still allowed. These fats and the highly processed vegetable oils described above, exist in the majority of processed foods. Just start reading labels - you will be hard pressed to find any packaged food that doesn’t contain one of them. Look out for it in mayonnaise, bottled sauces and salad-dressings, crisps, biscuits, cakes, ready-made soups etc. Even organic brands of processed food rely heavily on these modern synthetic oils (as do restaurants and fast food outlets).
As you decrease these bad fats, you should simultaneously replace them with healthy fats - which include grass-fed butter, ghee, coconut oil, avocado oil, MCT oil, goose or duck fat, tallow or lard (from a grass-fed source) for cooking, and cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, hemp oil, MCT oil or nut oils for cold use. Also eat plenty of healthy-fat foods such as avocados, nuts and seeds (including their fresh milks, butters, oils and flours), fatty fish and egg yolks.
Anthropological research shows that the ratio between omega-6 fats and omega-3 fats in traditional ancestral diets was between 1:1 and 2:1. To be inflammation-neutral, the ratio should be between 1:1 and 3:1 - so this is where you need to be aiming for optimal health. Today our intake of omega-6 is far higher, largely due to increased consumption of processed vegetable/seed oils. Last time I tested my lipids I was at 2.8 :1 but that was after a couple of years’ of effort. I gather that the UK average is 20:1.
Change the meat you eat: buy pasture-raised and eat nose-to-tail
I believe that eating meat is important for your health. The truth is that meat is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. That is not to say that there aren’t problems with the modern day meat industry - there are. But there are also choices within our power about how we shop for and consume meat, choices that are humane and that help the environment, while also deeply benefitting our health.
The difference is in HOW the meat is produced. The nutritional value of any animal-derived product is a direct reflection of the environment it was raised in. When you compare conventional, grain fed and factory farmed meat to pasture-raised, the differences are clear:
100% grass-fed beef is superior to conventional beef in nearly every way: it is richer in important nutrients such as vitamin E and A, has a better Omega-3:6 ratio (up to 5x more anti-inflammatory Omega-3), has more CLA (a beneficial fatty acid), more glutathione (key antioxidant), is lower in toxins (especially pesticides), and most importantly does not contain growth-promoting hormones or antibiotic residues. In commercially-raised animals, fed a non-natural diet of grain and soy instead of grass, the content of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats is far higher. (See March 2010 review published in The Nutrition Journal.)
But it’s not just beef that benefits from being pasture-raised; pasture-raised pork can have a similar Omega-3:6 ratio as grass fed beef. In comparison, conventional pork has 35 times more inflammatory Omega 6 than anti-inflammatory Omega-3. Lowering inflammation within the body should be a top priority for everyone as inflammation is one of the top 3 drivers of all chronic disease.
For those of you who are concerned about our beautiful planet, you should know that pasture-based farming is actually restorative to the environment. This is known as regenerative farming. The natural rhythms of animals eating, walking, and pooping on grasslands promotes plant growth. Increased grasslands allow more grass to perform their “magic” trick: sucking up carbon released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and safely storing it back underground. And manure resumes its role as nature’s perfect fertiliser.
In contrast, there are so many environmental consequences to the factory farming: topsoil depletion (the UK has lost much of its topsoil in the past 100 years increasing our reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides); fertiliser pollution (which is linked to increased rates of cancer in areas where fertiliser runoff pools); pollution from feedlots and factory farms in the form of liquefied manure, noxious fumes, and antibiotic residues.
Then of course there is the humanitarian aspect. Animals in factory farms and on CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) spend their lives trapped in cages too small for them to move, never allowed outside, forced to stand in their own waste, only to be killed in ways that are stressful and often cruel. Pasture-raised meat comes from farms where animals are allowed to live as nature intended: outside, and with space to roam. The animals are slaughtered in ways that minimise both mental and physical discomfort.
Focus on eating nose-to-tail to get a balance of nutrients that promote health and protect against disease. This means eating not only the lean muscle meat (like steak or chicken breast) but also the organs, skin, cartilage, bones and fattier cuts. These parts of the animal are superfoods, as they contain high levels of essential nutrients such as glycine, vitamin A, choline, B vitamins and vitamin K2. These nutrients have all but disappeared from the modern diet. Prime cuts of meat are high in an amino acid called methionine, and diets high in this, have been shown to increase the risk of cancer. Glycine, found in the more gelatinous cuts of meat, balances out the potentially harmful effects of excess methionine.
Take the opportunity to eat wild meat whenever you can. And if you can cope with organ meats, nothing equals them in terms of nutrient density. We have had to work at it, but in my family we now have chicken or beef liver at least once a week, usually in the form of paté. Kidneys are up next!
I am only too aware that this is a costly strategy to implement, but as Richard Smith, Daylesford’s senior farm manager, said: “I would implore people to eat less meat and buy better. Yes, there’s a price difference, but everybody wins - the animal, the farmer, the customer and the environment”.
So, which do I choose?
Well, I gave you a good shortlist, and all three are important and at the top of the 50 new habits that I have implemented for my own health over the last three years. But I have to say there is no contest. Cutting out sugar and refined carbs wins hands down as the most important single thing you should do to improve your chances of living a long and healthy life. It sounds hard, and it is hard – but it isn’t impossible and there are things you can do to make it a lot more bearable – I shall be writing about these shortly. The rewards will come in hugely increased energy and clarity of thought, as well as the knowledge that your body is a hell of a lot happier! Just do it.