LIFESTYLE & DIET
True Health Involves Every Ascept Of Your Life
DIET
Though conventional wisdom will fight tooth and nail against this argument, there truly are health dangers to a plant-based diet. Plants unfortunately don't have human health as their top priority. Like all organisms, they are more concerned about their own survival than anyone else's. Since plants can't fight us off with fangs, claws, and speed, they've evolved other mechanisms to deter predators. Dr. Kevin Stock explains this in detail in The Health Dangers of a Plant-Based Diet, down to a cellular level exactly what parts of plants harm us and why.
Finding arguments that negate plant and grain-based diets are few and far between, as they have been studied and pushed since 1974 when the USDA released this food pyramid, telling us to eat mostly grains while limiting our fat and meat consumption. The basis of those recommendations was the fact that most people needed more nutrition, not less. Calories had to be maximized for both cost and density—and what is typically the best way to get the most caloric bang for your buck? Carbs.
Meat has been demonized in the eyes of the public for the supposed lack of sustainability, abuse of animals, increased risk of cancer, etc. When in reality, sugar and plant and grain companies wanted a larger piece of the profit pie. A harsh reality is that these companies could not care less about public health, and in fact, monopolize it.
The number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. This growth correlates directly with an increase in plant-based diet popularity in the 80s, as well as increased production of wheat, grain, and high fructose corn syrup, which was introduced to the food and beverage industry in the 1970s. Diabetes is a major public health problem that is approaching epidemic proportions globally. When you eat a high-carb diet, the pancreas releases insulin that transports glucose into the body's cells, where it can be used for energy.
The more carbs you eat, the more insulin your pancreas must make. Over time, the pancreas is so overworked that it cannot produce insulin anymore. This leads to high glucose levels in the blood. This condition is known as diabetes. 34.2 million US adults have diabetes, and 1 in 5 of them don't know they have it, and it is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
THE CARNIVORE DIET
The carnivore diet is an elimination diet that focuses on eating almost exclusively animal products such as meat, organs, fish, eggs, and certain kinds of dairy. The strictest kind excludes fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, grains, dairy, and honey, while the more relaxed "animal-based" form includes fruits such as berries and oranges as well as cheeses, raw honey, and raw milk.
Benefits of the carnivore diet include weight loss (both fat and water weight), energy as a result of proper and sufficient nutrient and amino acid intake, reduced inflammation because of lowered C reactive protein levels, increased satiety because of the protein-rich foods, and improved testosterone levels. Various side effects are known to occur during an adjustment period to the diet, just as there are to any diet. Side effects typically include headaches, fatigue, nausea, and similar effects. These typically last only a week to two weeks. Additionally, once you have adjusted your diet to either eat more or less of certain meats, fats, and organs, you will feel even better as well as keep side effects from ever occurring.
Major adaptations that the body needs to make may also lead to fluid imbalances as you will shed a significant amount of weight at the beginning of your diet. This is retained water weight. Hormone fluctuations, primarily in cortisol, since your body is used to a certain amount of carbs, may send you into starvation mode to elevate blood glucose levels, and you may experience cravings for sugar and carbs.
Unlike carbs, fats and proteins do not stimulate your pancreas to produce insulin. A high-fat, low-carb carnivore diet requires your pancreas to make far less insulin than a standard diet since there isn’t much glucose in the blood. This means your pancreas isn’t working overtime anymore, reducing the chances of getting diabetes to almost none, or allowing your body to maintain healthy glucose levels if you are already diabetic, as well as possibly even curing your diabetes as Dr. David Unwin, Dr. Jason Fung, and Dr. Ted Naiman have done for their patients for years.
I would like to point to Dr. Paul Saladino and his supplement company Heart and Soil as a fantastic resource to learn more about the carnivore diet. He has many blog posts and podcasts explaining the diet, problems, regenerative agriculture, the importance of nose-to-tail nourishment, and much more. Carnivore Aurelius is also another great resource to learn more about the carnivore diet, along with a different insight since he includes fruits and honey in his diet as well. He talks about how humans evolved as carnivores and shows evidence that a carnivore diet is necessary for humans in this article.
Lifestyle Changes
When it comes to your health and fitness there is no free Lunch. If all it took to achieve the peak level of health and fitness was to show up to the gym a few times a week, jump on the elliptical for a few minutes, do a few sets of weights and hit the sauna then everybody at the gym would be Greek shaped adonis' but thats simply not the case.
The reality is the world is working against you to keep you sick, fat and unhealthy because that makes you a better consumer.
A consumer of addictive processed foods; a lazy consumer of more tv, movies and media; a consumer of more prescription drugs with side effects as bad as what you're already dealing with and a consumer of more health care that doesn't cure anything but keeps you healthy enough to where you don't die and they can keep making money off of you.
In order to reduce pain, improve posture, increase energy, sleep soundly, extend your life and quality of life you have to be all in on living a healthy and functional lifestyle.
The term functional gets thrown around a lot these days but we define function as "living a lifestyle that is in line with our most natural state and eliminating destructive habits that cause the issues we are trying to heal from."
"You can't correct a problem if you are unwilling to change the habits that caused it in the first place."
BOOKS
These are some books we recommend to provide different insights into improving your lifestyle and understanding of your mind and body and how it all works together. True health isn't just physical fitness - fitness of the mind is just as, if not more, important.
"I am convinced that knowledge is power - to overcome the past, to change our own situations, to fight new obstacles, to make better decisions." - Benjamin Carson
Atomic Habits is the definitive guide to breaking bad behaviors and adopting good ones in four steps, showing you how small, incremental, everyday routines compound into massive, positive change over time. “Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.”
The Immunity Fix is a comprehensive guide to how the immune system works and how different viruses and infections affect our health and offers strategies that have been shown to enhance the immune system. Some practical tips and tools improve stress resilience, speed of recovery, metabolic health, cardiovascular function, and quality of life.
The Alchemist is a classic novel in which a boy named Santiago embarks on a journey seeking treasure in the Egyptian pyramids after having a recurring dream about it and on the way meets mentors, falls in love, and most importantly, learns the true importance of who he is and how to improve himself and focus on what really matters in life.
There are two distinct leadership styles in small businesses: the Visionary who sees the future and the Integrator who makes it happen. In Rocket Fuel the authors provide a how-to guide for understanding and managing the relationship between a Visionary and an Integrator to build a successful business.
12 Rules For Life is a stern, story-based, and entertaining self-help manual for young people that lays out a set of simple principles that can help us become more disciplined, behave better, act with integrity, and balance our lives while enjoying them as much as we can.
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom is a guide to discovering your authentic self by bestselling author Don Miguel Ruiz. The book offers a code of conduct claiming to be based on ancient Toltec wisdom that advocates freedom from self-limiting beliefs that may cause suffering and limitation in a person's life.
