Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life

• Provides sustainable diet strategies to curb sugar cravings, promote fat burning and weight loss, reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep and moods, increase energy and immunity, and enhance memory and brain function

• Shows how our modern diet leads to weight gain and “diseases of civilization”--such as cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and ADD

• Explains how diet affects the brain, hormone balance, and the aging process and the crucial role of vitamin D in cancer and disease prevention

Examining the healthy lives of our pre-agricultural Paleolithic ancestors and the marked decline in stature, bone density, and dental health and the increase in birth defects, malnutrition, and disease following the implementation of the agricultural lifestyle, Nora Gedgaudas shows how our modern grain- and carbohydrate-heavy low-fat diets are a far cry from the high-fat, moderate-protein hunter-gatherer diets we are genetically programmed for, leading not only to lifelong weight gain but also to cravings, mood disorders, cognitive problems, and “diseases of civilization”--such as cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance), heart disease, and mental illness.

Applying modern discoveries to the basic hunter-gatherer diet, she culls from vast research in evolutionary physiology, biochemistry, metabolism, nutrition, and chronic and degenerative disease to unveil a holistic lifestyle for true mind-body health and longevity. Revealing the primal origins and physiological basis for a high-fat, moderate-protein, starch-free diet and the importance of adequate omega-3 intake--critical to our brain and nervous system but sorely lacking in most people’s diets--she explains the nutritional problems of grains, gluten, soy, dairy, and starchy vegetables; which natural fats promote health and which (such as canola oil) harm it; the crucial role of vitamin D in cancer and disease prevention; the importance of saturated fat and cholesterol; and how diet affects mental health, memory, cognitive function, hormonal balance, and cellular aging. With step-by-step guidelines, recipes, and meal recommendations, this book offers sustainable strategies for a primally based, yet modern approach to diet and exercise to reduce stress and anxiety, lose weight, improve sleep and mood, increase energy and immunity, enhance brain function, save money on groceries, and live longer and happier.

• Provides sustainable diet strategies to curb sugar cravings, promote fat burning and weight loss, reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep and moods, increase energy and immunity, and enhance memory and brain function

• Shows how our modern diet leads to weight gain and “diseases of civilization”--such as cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and ADD

• Explains how diet affects the brain, hormone balance, and the aging process and the crucial role of vitamin D in cancer and disease prevention

Examining the healthy lives of our pre-agricultural Paleolithic ancestors and the marked decline in stature, bone density, and dental health and the increase in birth defects, malnutrition, and disease following the implementation of the agricultural lifestyle, Nora Gedgaudas shows how our modern grain- and carbohydrate-heavy low-fat diets are a far cry from the high-fat, moderate-protein hunter-gatherer diets we are genetically programmed for, leading not only to lifelong weight gain but also to cravings, mood disorders, cognitive problems, and “diseases of civilization”--such as cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance), heart disease, and mental illness.

Applying modern discoveries to the basic hunter-gatherer diet, she culls from vast research in evolutionary physiology, biochemistry, metabolism, nutrition, and chronic and degenerative disease to unveil a holistic lifestyle for true mind-body health and longevity. Revealing the primal origins and physiological basis for a high-fat, moderate-protein, starch-free diet and the importance of adequate omega-3 intake--critical to our brain and nervous system but sorely lacking in most people’s diets--she explains the nutritional problems of grains, gluten, soy, dairy, and starchy vegetables; which natural fats promote health and which (such as canola oil) harm it; the crucial role of vitamin D in cancer and disease prevention; the importance of saturated fat and cholesterol; and how diet affects mental health, memory, cognitive function, hormonal balance, and cellular aging. With step-by-step guidelines, recipes, and meal recommendations, this book offers sustainable strategies for a primally based, yet modern approach to diet and exercise to reduce stress and anxiety, lose weight, improve sleep and mood, increase energy and immunity, enhance brain function, save money on groceries, and live longer and happier.

Primal Body

1    A Look at Where Our Dietary Requirements Originated

2    So, What’s for Dinner?

3    Grains: Are They Really a Health Food?

4    So What about Soy?

5    Digestion and Nutrient Assimilation: A North-to-South Journey

6    Your Gut and the Immune Connection

7    Dietary Fats: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

8    Dispelling the Cholesterol Myth

9    Vitamin D: What All da Buzz Is About

10    Making the Omega-3 Fatty Acids Connection

11    The Tyranny of Trans Fats

12    So, How Much Natural Fat Do I Need, Anyway?

13    Carbohydrate Metabolism

14    Leptin: The Lord and Master of Your Hormonal Kingdom

15    Weight Management 101 and the Path to Type 2 Diabetes

16    Taming the Carb-craving Monster

17    High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Sticky Wicket Best Avoided

18    What about Fiber as an Essential Carbohydrate?

19    Adrenal Exhaustion: A Uniquely Modern Epidemic

20    A Word about Water

21    Understanding the Role of Protein

22    Our Primordial Past: Understanding Mother Nature’s Plan and Where We Fit In

23    Using Insulin and Leptin to Our Advantage

Part Two

Primal Mind

24    Feeding Your Brain: Why It Matters

25    How Important Is Fat to the Brain?

26    Where Does ADD/ADHD Fit In to All of This?

27    Relief from Anxiety and Depression in Our Uncertain World

28    What about Food Allergies and Sensitivities?

29    The Impact of Modern Dietary and Environmental Stress on the Brain

Part Three

Paradise Lost

30    Surviving in a Modern World

31    What Generation of Pottenger’s Cat Are You?

Appendix A    Where to Start?

Appendix B    Sample Menus

Appendix C    Protein Content in Foods

Appendix D    An Abbreviated Guide to Supplementation

Appendix E    The Weston A. Price Foundation

Appendix F    Pyroluria

Appendix G    Paleo/Traditional Diet Resources and Related Websites

Appendix H    Recommended Reading

References

About the Author

Index