4 Devils and 4 Angels of our food intake: Why eating Paleo is the healthiest approach to eating

The 4 white devils: They are "white" because they are void of color through processing the nutrition out of each item.  Dairy, salt, sugar, and wheat have a yellow hue in their natural state.

1. Processed Dairy: The very common 4 white devils are processed wheat, dairy, sugar, and salt.  It is in the "processing" of the food that causes most of the imbalance to the human body.  What was once a food the body can recognize, now is no longer a food since it is missing key nutrients, enzymes and heat damange through the processing.  Contrary to the belief that pastuerization was created for our health benefit, it is the exact opposite. Pastuerization was implemented to ensure longer shelf life as well as being able to transport the non-food over long distances to reach super markets accross the country.  Real dairy only has a 7-10 day shelf life, where as processed dairy has  4-5 weeks.  Because the processed milk is void of necessary enzymes, it does not break down as fast.

2. Processed wheat is another culprit of the devil's categories because most people (if not all) are intollerant to all wheat on some level (Some worse than others).  I have yet to find someone who is not intollerant to wheat in all my years in the holistic wellness field. Most people just don't realize they are intolerant to wheat because they have it everyday in their diet.  When you consume an intollerant food everyday, your immune system will weaken to the substance to the point that you don't get a "response" to the food when you have it after one or two consecutive days.  What we recommend is to remove from the diet for 3-4 weeks to allow the immune system to rest and re-introduce the wheat/dairy/sugar/salt back into the diet and then you have an accurate measure of how your body really feels about the non-food.  Most people get diarhea, discomfort, headaches, or bloating when you are intollerant. 

3. Processed sugar is just an easier way for health to diminish due to your immune system response to sugar.  It causes a decreased immune system for hours after consumption, causes bacteria in the teeth to enter the blood stream due to a reversing of the flow in your teeth (hense the cavities and bacterial infections that reside beneath teeth), and many many other negative responses.  Is sugar all together bad? No.  It is if it is the only energy that you place into your body (which happens to be the case for most Americans.  When combined with healthy fats/proteins, sugar is almost benign.  I always recommend having any dessert after a fully ballanced meal containing fats/proteins and quality carbohydrates primarily from vegitables. Your insulin response will be minimized on a full stomach vs having sugar on its own.

4. Processed salt is simply sodium chloride.  I can go on and on about these groups, but my good friend at workoutmaster.com created a great video blog on the topic of salt:

4 Angels:

Some of our early clients tend to say that eating a paleo diet is limiting. I just remind them of the vast amount of food they are unaware of that exist and can be purchased for home delivery.  Most people are accustomed to believe that the super market is the only place that you can buy food. we recommend a reputable online site that delivers the highest quality food available in the United States.  You can visit them here.

There are hundreds of thousands types of animal proteins and plant based vegetables. If you wanted, you could never eat the same thing twice in a decade if you had the means and the know how. 

Organic Vegetables: Most all vegatables are considered great to have in the diet.  Some are not recommended in large or "often" doses.  The reason being sugar handling or insulin insensitivity.  Root vegetables tend to be more sugary then those grown above ground.  So as a rule of thumb, eat mostly above ground vegetables to avoid this issue. 

Pastured Meats (things with eyes): We use the word pastured in order to understand that the animal in question was able to roam free and eat its natural diet of "grass".  Cows, sheep, lamb, goat, pigs, chicken, turkey, and most land animals eat grass. period. When fed a diet of wheat, soy, sewage, other ground up animals, drugs (antibiotics) and many other very disgusting things, the animal gains lots of weight in a very short period of time.  A healthy chicken for example on a grass and natural free range diet takes one year to grow to its normal full adult weight.  In a convention farmed chicken, they are brought to slaughter in about 30 days after they hatch due to their size and weight gain.  Beyond 30 days, the chickens usually can't stand on their own due to their weakend condition from gaining weight faster than their muscles and nervous system can handle.  Imagine that in 3 weeks you gained 100 lbs.  How difficult would it be to just walk like you normally did? The chickens just end up collapsing under this extreme weight and sickly imune system.

Wild Caught Fish: The reason the word wild is used is due to the tremendous farming of genetically modified fish that surrounds us.  Talapia and salmon are the most common fish that are farmed. You'll notice those are the two main fish on most every restaurant menu.  You can have a much larger profit margin on fake fish.

Organic Fruit: I tend to limit fruit consumption early in our personal training due to establishing better insulin sensitivity.  So as a recommendation, I use the following fruits as "allowable": Avocado's, olives, lemons, limes, green apples, and berries.  These particular fruits are best for managing sugar handling and insulin insensitivity. 

You can also read more and find great Paleo eating recipes in this book.

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