Not Your Typical "Diet"

"Diet" is such a loaded word in my world. It's heavy with expectation, riddled with disappointment. It implies restriction and sacrifice, meticulously tracking every crumb that enters the mouth. "Diet" means the search for rapid weight loss, regardless of the means: cabbage soup diet, juice diet, cleanses. The word certainly doesn't connote preparation of foods to love and savour for their taste. Diet also implies a transitory state, an "I'll try this for now" mindset. I resist using it, and when others ask "What diet are you on?" etc. I kind of wince inwardly. I've never been one for "diets" and think most of them are today's version of snake-oil, advertising a cure-all for all your ills if you follow their plan. I've been pretty convinced the only thing it will cure is the burn you feel from the money in your pocket, and that following their advice would be in the long run benign at best, detrimental at worst.

So how did I come to fall hook, line and sinker for the Primal or Paleo diets?
As I mentioned in a previous post, I have long been interested in making healthy food choices.  In 2007 I read Michael Pollan's seminal book, The Omnivore's Dilemma that explored how and why we choose to eat the foods we do. That put me on the path of wanting to choose local ingredients where possible, eat food when it is in season and seek out meat from farms that were raising their animals in a more natural and humane way, for cows that is grazing, for chickens it's roaming and pecking. I wanted to make these choices because it is easier on the planet and on the animals. From that point on I couldn't get enough of the literature that was being published on food - it took my cookbook obsession to a whole new level.

Coupled with my growing awareness was my yikes!! increasing age and age-related states. After two babies, my middle wasn't like it used to be and the arthritis I suffer from in my hands and feet was growing increasingly worse. I'd had my babies in my mid-late thirties and as the arthritis began to threaten my ability to keep up with them, I became determined to not be an old mother. I wanted to lead by example, and that included physical activity. If they would let me kick a soccer ball around with them when they are teenagers, I wanted to be able to do it (and embarrass them in front of all their friends, of course - isn't that also my role?).

In the spring of 2011 a friend told me she was "off-wheat" as per her naturopath's instructions to help alleviate the arthritis in her hands. I thought, wow, that’s interesting, I’d never be able to do that though. And we all eat wheat, can it really be that bad? Shortly after, a dear friend of mine who had suffered with stomach and digestive woes for the entire time I’d known her was diagnosed with celiac. Curiosity and the desire to support her led me to reading about the disease – its causes, symptoms (a book full) and prescribed remedies. I researched the world of gluten free baking and that held no appeal for me whatsoever – xanthan gum? That’s not on my grocery shelf. And rice flour? Really, I haven’t eaten Minute Rice since I was about fifteen and figured out there would be more nutritional value (and taste) in eating the box it came from. I’d stick with my whole wheat and healthy whole grains baking, thanks (by this time, I had been playing around with spelt, quinoa, red fife, millet and teff in my baking anyway – all healthy, whole and ancient, right?).

Then I heard an interview with Gary Taubes on my favourite CBC Radio program, The Sunday Edition. Taubes (now one of Leanne's favourites, remember?) is an award winning science journalist and he was discussing his book Why We Get Fat. His talk of carbohydrates and how the prevalence of them in the standard American diet is leading to obesity, diabetes, blood pressure and other epidemics rang true for me. I need to learn more about this, I thought. The next morning, also while listening to CBC, I heard a cardiovascular doctor being interviewed on The Current. Dr. William Davis, the author of Wheat Belly, was explaining how he noticed near miraculous improvement in heart patients once they cut wheat out of their diet. Cholesterol levels normalized, pre-diabetes indicators disappeared, arthritis symptoms vanished, the need for pharmaceuticals diminished. Then he said, “Two slices of whole wheat bread make insulin levels rise higher than eating a Snickers bar.” Later, when challenged by the interviewer about healthy whole grains, he likened it to the difference between filtered and non-filtered cigarettes. At that moment, something finally clicked for me. That’s it, I thought. The universe is trying to tell me something. I’m going to give up wheat for a bit and see what comes of it.

It’s almost a year later and I haven’t looked back. I have read copious numbers of articles and books on nutrition, begun following blogs of others responding to the zeitgeist and really believe this is a permanent shift for my family. We eat better now than we did before and are not deprived of anything. My own arthritis symptoms have dramatically diminished, my sinus issues disappeared, my skin is smoother, I lost weight, I no longer have tartar buildup,  and I just feel better. All that without sacrifice – why would I not continue? My food choices now are mostly reflective of the Paleolithic approach, though not 100% compliant. Mostly, I focus on real, whole foods. That’s what this is all about. And really, who can argue with increasing the intake of nutrient dense food in place of food that could likely be making you sick?