80: 5 Health Books That Changed My Life
I’ve read a LOT of health books over the years, and it’s hard to pick favorites, but in this week’s podcast I’m sharing the Top 5 that were most influential in changing my perspective and physical health. Interestingly, four of them are over ten years old but are as relevant today as when I read them. Listen in for my biggest takeaways from each book and the stories that go with them.
EPISODE 80: 5 Health Books That Changed My Life
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
Welcome back to the club!
On this episode I am sharing the 5 books that have been the most influential in changing my perspective and physical health.
(2:30) #1. Nourishing Traditions
It went against everything you’d heard about what to eat especially when it comes to fats. This was at a time when fats were still vilified and low fat recommended.
The book is actually a cookbook but the introduction is like a mini health and nutrition course.
It was the first time I’d heard that there is very little evidence that a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat actually reduces death from heart disease or increases life span.
This was the first time I’d heard of Stearic acid, the main component in beef fat, which actually lowers cholesterol and that margarine provokes high levels of cholesterol. I’ve been hearing more about stearic acid lately in some of the nerdy podcasts I listen to it can shrink your fat cells.
Nourishing Traditions was the first time I heard to eat real butter because it’s one of the best sources of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K.
This was the First time I’d heard of bone broth, fermented foods, nut butters other than peanut butter (which isn’t actually a nut by the way) eating raw beef, sprouted grains, soaked nuts, cod liver oil, kombucha. This is the book that inspired me to try raw milk, which my family and I were able to get for several years.
This book is literally a throwback to the more traditional ways our ancestors would have prepared foods.
The NTA is very much in favor of including properly prepared, nutrient dense foods as part of a healthy, stable diet
This includes things like grains and legumes which a lot of people avoid today, and honestly I don’t eat a ton of myself, BUT the other major concept I learned at NTA was bio-indiviuality and that means that there’s no exact right diet for everyone.
For me, it helped lift the stigma and is a big reason I include grains and legumes in Feast 2 Fast as an option. I talk about this in the podcast called The Insider Secrets to Eating Grains and Legumes.
(9:58) #2. Taking Charge of Your Fertility
Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) - as a means for both conception and contraception. It is a scientifically validated, natural, non-invasive method of effective birth control, pregnancy achievement and health awareness. It involves identifying the fertile time through observing a woman’s waking temperature and cervical fluid, as well as the optional sign of the cervical position.
Women are actually fertile only a few days per cycle, around ovulation when the egg is released.
During my journey of trying to conceive, I sought out a naturopath, Dr. Hines, and he recommended a book, (not this one, it’s the next one we’re going to talk about that has to do with diet) and gave me a bunch of supplements. I had also picked up THIS book Taking Charge of Your Fertility and I got home and went to town on all of it - doing things I never thought I’d do like - get all in my lady garden to determine the state of my cervical fluid. You are most fertile, by the way, when your cervical fluid is of an egg-white consistency.
I took my temperature, I charted, I changed my diet, I took essential fatty acid supplements and - 6 weeks later - I was pregnant. To this day it blows my mind and serves as the best reminder that when we take care of our body and honor the way it is designed, it knows what to do.
Nutritional Therapy and Fertility Awareness should be the first step for everyone who is ready to conceive. Even if there are no fertility problems, preparing the body for it’s optimal state of health and environment to grow a person should be top priority.
(18:44) #3. Breaking The Vicious Cycle
This was really about addressing my digestive health. This book is one of the OG’s of gut health. It came out in the mid-90’s and it talks about the microbiome and making the connection between gut health and overall health.
It’s got recipes for zucchini noodles and cauliflower potatoes and cookies made with nut flours and dates - stuff that is mainstream now but in the mid-90’s and even when I read it in 2005 was pretty fringey
Like Nourishing Traditions it’s part informative text, part cook book and It was targeted for those with crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, chronic diarrhea and autism.
The author, Elaine Gottschall, had a daughter with severe ulcerative colitis to the point where her health was deteriorating quickly— It’s such a cool and inspiring story.
So this method of nutritional therapy is The Specific Carbohydrate diet - which is still used today - and has people predominantly focus on eating carbs with single sugars (monosaccharides) as opposed to disachharides which are two sugars - like table sugar or polysaccarides which is many sugars such as in starches.
The premise is that the body can more easily break down the single sugar foods like fruit, honey, properly made yogurt and certain vegetables as opposed to foods with more sugar molecules. For people with compromised guts, these higher sugar carbohydrates are problematic.
This is more common knowledge now, that many people cannot tolerate certain carbs, that’s why there’s been this whole Paleo, Keto, Carnivore movement, but this is not new information. In fact. The author shows that this has been studied since the early 1900’s and yet today, still today, medical professionals and the general public are still not making these connections.
What is SO important for everyone to understand is: no matter the food (even if it’s real food) if you can’t digest it well, it is harmful to you. That’s why there’s no one right diet for every person because depending on the state of the gut - some foods will work for some people and for others it wont. In my training as a Nutritional Therapist we call this bioindividuality and it is the core of our work as Nutritional Therapists - supporting the client’s individual needs.
What the book explains which was so ahead of it’s time is that the inability to digest the complex sugar carbs well leads to bacterial imbalances in the gut which create a vicious cycle of poor health.
This book also shares success stories from parents of children with autism and how much their children benefitted from the SCD diet - in some instances becoming verbal, initiating affection - really wonderful life changing improvement.
Somethings to AVOID on the SCD:
All cereal grains including corn, wheat, oats, rice, rye and millet.
No potatoes or sweet potatoes.
All milk and milk products high in lactose, such as mild cheddar, store-bought yogurt, cream, sour cream, and ice cream.
Quite a few cheeses are allowed but some to avoid are feta, mozzarella and ricotta.
Most vegetables and fruits are allowed
Honey and dates are the preferred sources of sugar - no sucrose, molasses, maple syrup.
(30:26) #4. Wheat Belly
“Wheat naturally evolved to only a modest degree over the centuries, but it has changed dramatically in the past fifty years under the influence of agricultural scientists. Wheat strains have been hybridized, crossbred, and introgressed to make the wheat plant resistant to environmental conditions, such as drought, or pathogens, such as fungi. But most of all, genetic changes have been induced to increase yield per acre. The average yield on a modern North American farm is more than tenfold greater than farms of a century ago. Such enormous strides in yield have required drastic changes in genetic code, including reducing the proud “amber waves of grain” of yesteryear to the rigid, eighteen-inch-tall high-production “dwarf” wheat of today.”
“A loaf of bread, biscuit, or pancake of today is different than its counterpart of a thousand years ago, different even from what our grandmothers made. They might look the same, even taste much the same, but there are biochemical differences. Small changes in wheat protein structure can spell the difference between a devastating immune response to wheat protein versus no immune response at all.”
Dr. Davis goes into the idea of how wheat is a super carbohydrate - not super as in great - but super as in a carb on steroids that is just over the top carby. There’s a component of wheat called amylopectin A that makes it a form of highly digestible carbohydrate that is more efficiently converted to blood sugar than nearly all other carbohydrate foods, simple or complex. The complex carbohydrate amylopectin is rapidly converted to glucose and absorbed into the bloodstream and, because it is most efficiently digested, is mainly responsible for wheat’s blood-sugar-increasing effect.
Dr Davis says, “People are usually shocked when he tells them that whole wheat bread increases blood sugar to a higher level than sucrose. Aside from some extra fiber, eating two slices of whole wheat bread is really little different, and often worse, than drinking a can of sugar-sweetened soda or eating a sugary candy bar.” “Therefore, wheat products elevate blood sugar levels more than virtually any other carbohydrate, from beans to candy bars.”
“Because wheat carbohydrate, with the uniquely digestible amylopectin A, causes a greater spike in blood sugar than virtually any other food—it also triggers greater insulin release. More amylopectin A means higher blood sugar, higher insulin, more visceral fat deposition … bigger wheat belly.”
“The higher the blood glucose after consumption of food, the greater the insulin level, the more fat is deposited. This is why, say, eating a three-egg omelet that triggers no increase in glucose does not add to body fat, while two slices of whole wheat bread increases blood glucose to high levels, triggering insulin and growth of fat, particularly abdominal or deep visceral fat.”
“The bigger your wheat belly, the poorer your response to insulin, since the deep visceral fat of the wheat belly is associated with poor responsiveness, or “resistance,” to insulin, demanding higher and higher insulin levels, a situation that cultivates diabetes. And the bigger the wheat belly in males, the more estrogen is produced by fat tissue, and the larger the breasts. The bigger your wheat belly, the more inflammatory responses that are triggered: and results in diabetes, heart disease, cancer and also yields inflammation of joints.” - and, yes, man boobs.
Visceral fat is also a factory for estrogen production in both sexes, the very same estrogen that confers female characteristics on girls beginning at puberty, such as widening of the hips and growth of the breasts. Until menopause, adult females have high levels of estrogen. Surplus estrogen, however, produced by visceral fat adds considerably to breast cancer risk, since estrogen”
Wheat is an appetite stimulate and addictive compound.
(40:18) Gluten:
Notice we haven’t even gotten to the gluten part yet, but now we will. Dr Davis explains that:
“While wheat is, by weight, mostly carbohydrate as amylopectin A, gluten protein is what makes wheat “wheat.””
“The term “gluten” encompasses two primary families of proteins, the gliadins and the glutenins.”
The gliadin protein of wheat gluten, present in all forms of wheat from spongy Wonder Bread to the coarsest organic multigrain loaf, has the unique ability to make your intestine permeable.” - that means leaky gut y’all.
When you have a leaky gut that means these food compounds that shouldn’t be getting into your bloodstream do and one of the consequences of that can be autoimmune disease like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and rheumatoid arthritis. Because the body’s immune response is “tricked” into activation and attacks against normal organs such as the thyroid gland or joint tissue.
Celiac
IBS
Acid reflux
Esophageal Issues
Symptoms of autism, ADHD, and schizophrenia.
Joints, skin, and acne
Gut lining, leaky gut, and inflammation
(47:05) #5. The Complete Guide to Fasting
Written by Dr Jason Fung who is Canadian nephrologist. He's a leading expert on intermittent fasting and LCHF, especially for treating people with type 2 diabetes.
To burn fat two things must happen: you must burn through most of your stored glycogen, and insulin levels must drop low enough to release the fat stores.
When we’re talking about the body burning sugar or burning fat, Dr Fung uses The analogy of the fridge and the freezer.
Glycogen - which is stored sugar - is like the refrigerator. It’s designed for short term storage of food. Our bodies store food as glycogen first - the easy to access energy - and when that’s full, it stores it as fat.
The body always wants to use the “food from the fridge” - it’s want to burn the sugar first because it’s easier to get access. And as long as there is food in the fridge, (also known as sugar in the body) it won’t retrieve any from the freezer (fat storage). You need to mostly empty out the fridge before you go to the freezer.
So people who eat a lot of sugar and carbs are always keeping the fridge full and the body doesn’t need the freezer foods for energy. You have to deplete the fridge - let the body run through most of it’s sugar storage, before the body is ready to go to the freezer.
Now how accessible your freezer is depends on the lock. Insulin is like your lock. If there’s a lot of insulin present because of insulin resistance, it’s like having a lock on your freezer. Insulin blocks fat burning. If insulin is low, the your freezer is unlocked and accessible.
There is a chapter on Why Fasting Works for Type 2 Diabetes - I get that question a lot when people are asking about Feast 2 Fast®.
Type 2 Diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance. When insulin resistance develops, the normal level of insulin is not able to move glucose - sugar - into your cells. If it can’t get into the cells, then there’s a build up of circulating blood sugar.
Dr Fung explains that there are only 2 methods of getting toxic glucose overload out of the body.
First is to stop putting glucose IN the body. You can do this with a low carb diet. People have reversed their diabetes simply by changing diet.
The second thing is to burn off the excess glucose and fasting is a very efficient way to do that.
Just a warning that if you are on medication for Type 2 diabetes then you need to keep your doctor informed of what you’re doing because lowering your carbs and fasting can lower your blood sugar which the medicine is already artificially doing and you may get too low of blood sugar. If you’re feeling shaky, sweaty or nauseous, these are signs of low blood sugar.
Autophagy
(59:05) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!