7 Characteristics of The Perfect Diet

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7 Characteristics of the Perfect Diet

 

By Dr. Loren Cordain, Ph.D.

 

For 2.5 million years, our ancestors ate only what they could hunt

and gather themselves. Every food item was raw, fresh, packed with

vitamins and minerals, and had no refined sugar or salt. As we

evolved, natural selection showed preference for humans eating this

type of diet. Over the years, our health and survival as a species

became genetically dependent on it.

 

Our genetic makeup is 99.995 percent identical to that of our

Paleolithic ancestors, yet our diet has changed dramatically. In

fact, 70 percent of our diet consists of foods that were not even

available to our Paleolithic ancestors. The result is that two-thirds

of all Americans are now considered to be overweight or obese, one-

third have high blood pressure, 64 million have cardiovascular

disease, and 11 million have Type II diabetes.

 

Termed " the diseases of civilization, " these health conditions are

the direct result of the food we eat.

 

There are seven crucial nutritional characteristics of the diet our

hunter-gatherer ancestors ate that are missing from our modern diet:

(1) its glycemic load, (2) its fatty-acid composition, (3) its

macronutrient composition, (4) its micronutrient composition, (5) its

acid-base balance, (6) its sodium-potassium ratio, and (7) its fiber

content. These deviations are responsible for the overwhelming

majority of today's health problems. But by eating a diet that

optimizes each of these missing elements, you can greatly improve

your chances of living a longer, disease-free life.

 

Here's how to do it:

 

 

1. Glycemic Load

 

Our modern Western diet of high-glycemic refined grain and sugar

products has a much higher glycemic load (a measure of the blood

glucose raising ability of foods) than our ancestors' diet. Sugars

and refined grains now represent more than 39 percent of the calories

in the typical U.S. diet, a drastic change that has occurred only

within the last 200 years - hardly a blip on the evolutionary time

scale. Long-term consumption of high-glycemic foods causes insulin

resistance, which is the main factor underlying most degenerative

diseases. Removing high-glycemic foods from your diet and filling up

on low-glycemic foods is one of the most important things you can do

to maintain your ideal weight. It can also help you live a longer

life and (more important) enjoy greater health and more capacity for

activity in your later years.

 

 

2. Fatty-Acid Composition

 

Fight heart disease, reduce your risk of cancer, and lose weight by

consuming enough of the right fats. Eat more monounsaturated fats

like olive oil and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats from fish or fish oil

supplements, and cut back on vegetable oils and conventionally raised

meats.

 

Our ancestors got most of their dietary fat from wild game. Because

wild game meat is much leaner and is a richer source of

monounsaturated and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids than our

modern feedlot animal meat, our ancestors evolved with a different

ratio of these fats than we are consuming today. Experts estimate

that our ancestors consumed approximately two omega-6 fat molecules

for every one omega-3 molecule, a ratio of 2:1. Today, most people

consume an unnaturally distorted ratio of 10 to 20 omega-6 fats for

every one molecule of omega-3.

 

Trans-fats and saturated fats lead to elevated LDL cholesterol,

atherosclerosis, and chronic inflammation. A high omega-6:omega-3

ratio also promotes chronic inflammation, a characteristic of many

common degenerative diseases.

 

 

3. Macronutrient Composition

 

Add more protein to your diet. This can improve your blood-lipid

profiles and help you feel fuller and burn more calories. The best

sources of protein are fish, grass-fed beef and eggs.

 

The proportion of calories we receive from the three main

macronutrient groups - carbohydrate, protein, and fat - are also out

of sync with how our bodies evolved to function optimally. The

typical U.S. diet approximately mirrors USDA recommendations: Around

52 percent of daily energy comes from carbohydrates, 33 percent from

fat, and roughly 15 percent from protein. Hunter-gathers received a

significantly higher amount of calories from protein (estimated at

between 19 and 35 percent) at the expense of calories from

carbohydrates (22 to 40 percent).

 

 

4. Micronutrient Density

 

Ensure that your body is nourished and help your stomach feel full

and satisfied, without gaining weight, by increasing the nutrient-

density of your diet. To do this, try to eat one-third of your

calories in the form of fruits and vegetables.

 

One of the results of a glut of refined grain, sugar, and vegetable

oil in our modern diet is the displacement of nutrient-dense foods.

Vegetable oils and refined sugars have very few vitamins, minerals,

and phytochemicals in them, but now contribute more than 36 percent

of energy in the average American diet.

 

 

5. Acid-Base Balance

 

Getting 35 percent of your calories from fruit and vegetables can

also help restore your body's acid-base balance.

 

After digestion and metabolism, all the foods we eat release either

acidic or basic substances into the circulatory system. Vegetables,

fruit, tubers, roots, and nuts are all net-base-producing, whereas

diary products, fish, meat, eggs, cereal grains, and salt are net-

acid-producing. With a heavy reliance on fruits and vegetables, our

hunter-gatherer ancestors had a net-base-producing diet throughout

our evolution.

 

Today, we depend on dairy products and cereal grains for roughly 35

percent of our calories at the expense of fruit and vegetables,

resulting in a modern diet that is net-acid-producing. Switch back to

a more balanced diet and you may reduce your risk of kidney

malfunction, osteoporosis, age-related muscle wasting, kidney stones,

hypertension, and exercise-induced asthma.

 

 

6. Sodium-Potassium Ratio

 

Balance your sodium intake with potassium to reduce your risk of

developing disorders like hypertension, stroke, kidney stones,

osteoporosis, gastrointestinal-tract cancers, and asthma. By avoiding

packaged foods in favor of fresh ones, you'll cut a majority of the

excess sodium from your diet.

 

The ideal sodium to potassium ratio is less than 1 - and this

electrolyte balance is critical for normal cell function. The

exorbitant amount of sodium Americans consume in processed foods and

by voluntarily adding it to prepared foods (options not available to

our ancestors) far outweighs the potassium we ingest from fruit and

vegetable sources. Potassium concentrations in vegetables are four

times those in milk and 12 times those in grains. Fruit has,

respectively, approximately two and five times the potassium

concentrations in milk and grains.

 

 

7. Fiber

 

Add more fiber to your diet. This simple addition can help you avoid

disorders connected to low dietary fiber, like constipation,

appendicitis, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, diverticulitis, hernia,

and gastro-esophageal reflux. If you replace refined sugars and oils,

grains, dairy products, and processed foods with fruits and

vegetables, you will ingest around 42 grams of fiber a day.

 

It does not take an education in nutrition to know that the typical

American diet is low in fiber. We get about 15 grams per day when we

should be getting around 25 to 30 grams a day. Vegetables are by far

the best source of fiber, and they provide eight times the amount of

fiber in whole grains, on an energy basis. Soluble fibers

(fruit/vegetables) reduce total and LDL cholesterol and slow the

emptying of the stomach - which reduces the appetite and total

calories consumed.

 

 

Eat Good Food

 

Eating well can be the key to a long and healthy life. Diet-related

chronic diseases represent the single largest cause of morbidity and

mortality in most Western countries. Virtually all the so-called

diseases of civilization have multiple dietary causes, but the

solution is the same: Eat a diet based on fruit, vegetables, fish,

and naturally raised or wild meat, and avoid excess sugar, grains,

dairy, and processed vegetable oils.

 

This is the diet mankind evolved to eat … and it will keep you

healthy for years to come.

 

 

[Ed. Note: During the past two decades, Dr. Loren Cordain has

researched the effects of diet on human health, specifically

examining the links between modern diets and disease. In addition to

authoring numerous scientific articles and three popular books, he is

the author of the e-book The Dietary Cure for Acne and publisher of

The Paleo Diet Newsletter .]