I thought it was important to have Jess put her experiences from this weekend into a blog post. Much of the weekend was over my head but it fell right into her wheelhouse. She is incredibly educated when it comes to all things nutrition and Jess is just scratching the surface of her potential to help people within this field. Check out below to see what she thought about the weekend.
As I leave Austin and the largest Paleo conference in the world, I’m saddened but hopeful. Saddened because the statistics of our country’s health crisis and its clear cause are running rampant in my head.
- 2 out of 3 American adults are overweight or obese
- 1 out of 3 American children is overweight or obese
- 40% of Americans will develop type two diabetes in their lifetime
- US health care costs were 3.8 trillion dollars last year but our nation is only getting sicker
Despite these statistics, I am hopeful because I strongly believe that each voice can make a difference. Through their knowledge and advice, the conference speakers (including Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, Chris Kresser, Sarah Ballantyne, and David Perlmutter) have given me a new motivation to go out and educate people to make the important lifestyle changes that will most greatly affect their health. I am grateful for the platform I have as a CrossFit gym owner and nutrition coach and I want to use it to change as many lives as possible.
One of the major take-home messages I got from the conference is that we all must take ownership of our health. We cannot count on a government that subsidizes corn (mass producing high fructose corn syrup) and soybeans, and publishes nutrition guidelines based on flawed, outdated science. And we can’t count on our health care system which is focused entirely on sick care and puts no emphasis on disease prevention. Traditional doctors have strong ties with the pharmaceutical industry and will most often prescribe a drug as a band-aid for an issue when the underlying cause of the problem is what really needs to be addressed. I believe that functional medicine is an answer to this part of the problem, but unfortunately is not often covered by insurance and therefore can be cost prohibitive. Dr. Chris Kresser is doing his part by creating the Kresser Institute for Functional and Evolutionary Medicine where he offers a twelve-month program teaching practitioners how to better prevent and reverse chronic illness through functional medicine and ancestral nutrition. Be on the lookout for Kresser certified doctors.
We all need to become educated so that we can make a change and that process starts by looking at the science. Since the 80s, Americans have been on a low fat, high carbohydrate diet. We have cut most of the healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, grass fed butter) out of our diets and replaced them with processed sugar and refined vegetable oils. With this switch came a dramatic increase in obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, and ADHD. Studies clearly show that sugar increases a hormone called insulin in our bodies. Insulin is a storage hormone. Its job is to store excess sugar in our fat cells. If insulin is chronically elevated (as it is in the Standard American Diet- also ironically known as the SAD diet), our fat cells will continue to grow and stored fat will not be tapped into for an energy source.
It is not just the sugar in junk foods like candy, donuts, and sodas that are causing the problem. It is also the sugar in pasta, bread (yes, even the “healthy” whole grains), cereal, and juice that is causing chronic insulin elevation. One of the reasons the Paleo diet has been so successful for the people who follow it, is that processed, refined sugars and grains are eliminated, so insulin levels are kept in check and fat burning (instead of fat storing) can take place. The other great thing that happens when you stop eating sugar and start eating more healthy fat is that you stop craving sugar and start appreciating the natural sweetness in fruits and vegetables. This makes Paleo a lot more “sustainable” than the naysayers would lead you to believe.
Another common topic at the conference was the microbiome- the hundreds of thousands of bacteria that population our gut. There are actually 10 times more bacteria cells in our bodies than there are human cells (we are truly more bug than we are human). And elements of our modern diet and lifestyle have negative effects on our microbiome. Research is showing that artificial sweeteners, refined sugar, GMO crops, and the overuse of antibiotics are all killing off our good bacteria and causing inflammation, chronic disease, and metabolic derangement. Studies show that individuals who drink diet sodas (artificial sweeteners) have a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes than individuals who drink the same amount of regular soda, and there is a direct correlation between diet soda consumption and weight gain. This is a result of the negative effects that the artificial chemicals have on our gut bacteria.
So what can we do to create a healthy microbiome, prevent systemic inflammation, obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and repair our broken metabolisms?
Foremost, we should follow a Paleo or ancestral diet based on nutrient dense whole foods while avoiding processed and refined foods. Next we should stay away from genetically modified or GMO products because they are allowed to be sprayed with the “probable human carcinogen” Round Up. These residues remain on our food and also kill off our good gut bugs. We also need to avoid antibiotics unless they are extremely necessary. Doctors are so quick to prescribe antibiotics for every cough and runny nose, but unless it is a lingering bacterial infection, the antibiotic will do more overall harm to the body than good. And finally, we need to add probiotic foods to our diet each and every day. These are things like sauerkraut, kombucha, and kimchi, which will help to reestablish the good gut bacteria and help them to thrive.
Another message at the conference was a change in endurance training and fueling. Mark Sisson lectured that the standard endurance event training of running/cycling/swimming hundreds of miles and loading up on carbohydrates only leads to injury, advanced aging, high cortisol (stress hormone), and burnout. The more efficient way is outlined in his book, “Primal Endurance”, but involves training less volume, training at a lower heart rate to develop the metabolic machinery to burn fat, and the addition of heavy weight training and occasional sprint intervals. He says for these athletes, tapping into body fat stores for energy during events is most efficient (we have about 40,000 calories of stored fat on our body and only about 2,000 calories of stored sugar -hence the need for gels, gummies, goos, etc. during an event if we are not fat adapted). The way to become fat adapted is to follow a ketogenic diet where about 70% of calories come from fats, 20% from proteins, and only about 10% from carbohydrates. This low carb diet means insulin levels will be low and constant and therefore the metabolism is switched from burning carbs for fuel to burning stored fat. Many of the best endurance athletes follow this protocol and Sisson thinks that over the next few years it will be hard to find anyone in the top tier who does not.
In conclusion, if we continue on the path we are going, 95% of Americans will be overweight in less than 20 years. And this will be the first generation of children to have a shorter life span than their parents.
These are OUR children and as parents, WE have a responsibility to prevent that! This may not make us as popular in our children’s eyes while they are young, and we may get funny stares from other moms when our kids open their lunch boxes or bring “treats” to share with the class. But it will be worth it in the end if we have set our children up for a healthy future. BE the example for your kids by eating whole, real foods and not even having the processed junk foods around. They are watching and these are the critical years of behavior development. In a world where we are bombarded with commercials for sugary cereals, checkout isles lined with candy bars, and school lunches consisting of pizza, fries, and chocolate milk, our kids need US to make the right decision FOR them. And to do that we must first make the right decision for ourselves. I really believe with the right education, a lot of willpower, and some planning and preparation when it comes to meals, we can start to reverse our current health crisis- but it starts at home, and it starts with YOU!
I’m here to help you and your family get on the right path!
-Jess