The Best Diet for Good Health
What does scientific research tell us about the best diet for excellent health?
If we look at all of the results of the nutritional studies from the past 40 years, and then look at traditional diet plans, we find the truth: most of the gold standard, unbiased research has validated what our ancestors knew and practiced instinctively.
The best diet for long term good health:
- is free of refined carbohydrates, low in whole grain carbohydrate consumption, and higher in protein and fat consumption. This way of eating keeps your blood lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL and HDL), blood sugar levels and insulin levels even and within a healthy range. A target amount of less than 80 carbohydrate grams or less per day has been shown in study after study to help healthy people and diabetics maintain normal levels of blood glucose and insulin levels in a healthy range.
In addition, research on obesity confirms that a diet lower in carbohydrates promotes the use of fatty acids as cellular fuel. This is important because when high levels of sugar are constantly circulating in the blood, the body responds by storing fat instead of releasing it to be burned as fuel. As time goes on, the body gets used to burning sugar, and "forgets" how to release and burn the stored fat. (This is also known as insulin resistance).
Since the body can't access the stored fat, and it can't store much sugar, it will break down the protein in your muscles to get the sugar it needs. And this constant sugar burning process releases high levels of free radicals which can damage cellular function. Keeping your blood sugar low will ensure your body "remembers" how to burn stored fat for fuel.
Ron Rosedale, a prominent expert on diabetes and longevity says it best: "Health and life span is determined by the proportion of fat versus sugar people burn throughout their lifetimes. The more fat you burn as fuel, the healthier you will be."
- The best diet is also nutrient rich and free of chemicals and additives. In a best diet scenario, every calorie consumed is as high in vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and amino acids as possible, and low in processed foods full of anti-nutrients, chemical pollutants, and genetically engineered organisms.
The best diet plan ensures your body has all of building blocks it needs to repair damage, grow new cells, and make energy for all the things you need to do on a daily basis in support of your life.
At this point, you may be asking the following questions. Click on each link to get more information:
Food as Fuel...It's amazing to me that most physicians aren't all that concerned with informing patients about the best diet plan for good health.
They only start the "best diet for you" discussion when they want the patient to change it for some specific purpose, like lowering cholesterol, or maintaining blood sugar. Most times, the doctor hands over a pamphlet listing the diet that the American Heart Association or the American Diabetes Association promotes as being right, and says "here, follow this..." Food is the only source of building material that your body uses. How can food not have a major impact on your body health? Think about animals and machines, for instance. - If you tried to feed a horse just meat, it wouldn't eat it. Horses are smart enough to know the best diet for them includes grass and other plant foods.
- If you put regular gasoline in a diesel engine, it would ruin the engine. That diesel engine is specifically made to run on diesel fuel.
It's the same with our bodies. Human populations have been eating clean, grass fed animal foods, wild seafood, raw dairy products, saturated tropical fats and clean, whole vegetables and fruits for a very long time. We evolved successfully as a species eating these foods, and the traditional diet is the best diet for restoring vibrant health. In contrast, refined foods like white sugar and white flour were introduced to the American diet only about 350 years ago. Genetically engineered foods are even more recent. Our bodies are not designed to run on these processed, non-nutritive franken-foods. When we eat them exclusively, our bodies fail, just like that diesel engine.
Resources for Further Reading
Done with Best Diet, back to Home
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by Randall Fitzgerald
by Anthony Colpo.
by Richard Morris
a cookbook by Sally Fallon
by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades.
by Christian Allan, PhD and Wolfgang Lutz M.D.
by Barry Groves