Sunday, June 29, 2014

Gardening Provides Many Health Benefits, Including Moderate to High Intensity Exercise

Vegetable, herb, and seed sales are booming, courtesy of a new wave of consumers who are not only concerned about the quality of their food, but who also recognize the physical, mental, and even spiritual benefits of connecting with nature.
Modern living has driven a concrete wedge between us and the natural world, and many are starting to connect the dots, recognizing that a connection with the land is important for health, fitness, happiness, and overall wellbeing.
A previous CNN Health1 article lists a number of the health benefits associated with gardening, spanning from stress relief to improved brain health, better nutrition and, of course, exercise.

The Fitness Benefits of Gardening

As you’ll see, there are numerous reasons why gardening is good for you. One is related to the fact that your body needs perpetual motion to function optimally, and gardening is one way to stay active at times when you might otherwise be sitting still.  
Research published in 20122, 3 also found that those who engage in community gardening projects have considerably lower body mass index (BMI) than non-gardeners, suggesting an active lifestyle indeed translates into improved weight management.
Male and female community gardeners were 62 percent and 46 percent less likely to be overweight or obese respectively than their non-gardening neighbors.
Fitness researchers have also found that when you exercise outdoors, you exercise harder but perceive it as being easier than when exercising indoors, which can have significant health benefits as it will encourage you to work out harder than you might otherwise.

Gardening Can Provide Moderate to High Intensity Exercise

Korean researchers have confirmed that gardening counts as moderate-to-high-intensity exercise for children,4 but it can certainly be intense exercise for adults as well—especially if you get into adding soil amendments, which I’ll discuss below. As noted by the Poughkeepsie Journal5
“... [I]n the Centers for Disease Control's 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, gardening is classified as a moderate-to-vigorous activity.
Lifting and carrying 40-pound bags of mulch, stretching into hard-to-reach places to do weeding or pushing a lawnmower around demonstrates that gardening can be a physically demanding workout.”
The featured article6 also notes that a person weighing 150 pounds can burn about 300 calories per hour by gardening at moderate intensity. Higher-intensity activities such as stirring compost, raking leaves, spreading soil amendments, or digging holes can burn up about 400 calories an hour.
According to the Korean HortTechnology study,7 the following gardening tasks constitute moderate intensity exercise, based on energy expenditure evaluations in children:
WeedingMulchingSowing seedsHarvesting
PlantingMixing growing mediumHoeingWatering

Raking and digging counted as vigorous exercise, the latter being the most intense of all gardening activities. Another task that can certainly turn gardening into a high intensity exercise is adding soil amendments such as wood chips, which can miraculously transform your soil by serving as food for earthworms.
You’ll need to do this about two to four times a year, and may spend a week or so getting it all done, depending on the size of your garden. The only investment required for this kind of exercise is a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork or shovel. Do keep proper body mechanics in mind when gardening—just as you would during any other exercise—as the bending, twisting, and reaching could cause injury if you’re careless. Key considerations include:
  • Maintain proper spinal alignment while you work. This will help absorb shock, and allow for proper weight distribution and optimal range of motion
  • Avoid over-reaching by keeping objects and work surfaces close to your body
  • Whenever possible, work at waist height with elbows bent and arms comfortably at your sides
  • When planting or weeding at ground level, make sure to bend your knees and squat or kneel, rather than stooping forward with your legs straight. Alternatively, use a gardening stool

Back to Eden...

The documentary Back to Eden (see below) reveals how you can transform your garden by adding a thick layer of wood chips (mulch) around your trees and plants. (As noted earlier, this task ranks high in terms of intensity; it’s definitely a workout.) If you haven’t seen it yet, I would strongly encourage you to watch the entire video. It has transformed my understanding of how to garden. The film offers excellent advice for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture, regardless of scale.  
It’s important to recognize that your health ultimately depends on the health of the soil—this is what allows your food, the vegetables and fruits, to grow nutrient-dense. As discussed in the film, nature is self-sustaining, and when left alone the ground will get covered with leaves and organic materials that then turn into lush compost, adding nutrients back to the soil. This top layer of organic material also shields the soil and helps retain moisture.
Imitating nature by covering your garden with wood chips will result in less watering, and improved yield. The most cost-effective solution is to contact your local tree service, where you can get large amounts of wood chips (tree branches that have gone through a wood chipper) for free, rather than purchasing mulch from a garden center. It is important to distribute all the chips within 1-2 days though, otherwise they tend to decompose and you will breathe in some nasty dust as you move them. 

Once you commit to this program you will eliminate the need for any fertilizers and radically reduce the watering. The chips also serve as phenomenal food for earthworms, which will digest them and create incredible topsoil of worm castings for free. You can easily get them to create a few tons of this valuable soil amendment every year if you continue to feed them. It is one of the absolute best soil amendments you can possibly use and it is just absolutely amazing that they are free. I have put down three truckloads so far and plan on putting down another ten around my home and thirty around my office. If you plan larger scale projects like I am you might be interested in this four wheel wheelbarrow that will carry half a ton. The only other tool you will need is a pitchfork to put them in the wheelbarrow and help you spread them.

Adding Soil Amendments—A Great Workout That Delivers Remarkable Payouts in Your Garden

Besides wood chips, I strongly encourage you to consider adding biochar to your garden, to optimize the health of your soil. This soil amendment can truly transform your garden, in terms of dramatically boosting yields. One of the keys to a truly successful garden is to improve the microbiology of the soil. It is this diverse collection of bacteria, fungi, and parasites that actually transfer the nutrients from the soil into the plant. While synthetic fertilizers like Miracle Grow will supply some nutrients, these salts actually kill the soil microbes! As a result, your garden will not become “self-sustaining.”
To thrive and multiply, these soil microbes need a home to hang out in, or else they simply die shortly after application. Biochar serves this function perfectly. I’ve applied about eight tons of biochar on my property—and believe me, that was an intense workout!—and I’m now noticing major improvements.
Once you’ve applied the biochar, you need to activate it either by combining it with compost, rock dust powder, or my favorite, human urine. The urine is a phenomenal source of nitrogen potassium and phosphorus and will bind strongly to the carbon in the biochar. Wetting the biochar is also important in order to promote beneficial earthworms.8 You can certainly add biochar to existing plants, shrubs, and trees, but ideally it’s best if it’s in the soil prior to planting, so the plants have an ideal form of nutrition early on. If you have a small garden, you might only need a few hundred pounds. Larger landscapes will require more.

The Mental Health Benefits of Gardening

That said, let’s get back to the health benefits of gardening. There are many notable benefits besides exercise. For example, gardening can also help relieve depression. Many times depression is rooted in the feeling of being disconnected from nature, and hence disconnected from yourself... Researchers have also found that digging in the soil may affect your mental health via the microorganisms in the soil—again confirming the link between your personal health and the health of your soil!  As reported by CNN Health:9
“In a study conducted in Norway, people who had been diagnosed with depression, persistent low mood, or ‘bipolar II disorder’ spent six hours a week growing flowers and vegetables. After three months, half of the participants had experienced a measurable improvement in their depression symptoms. What's more, their mood continued to be better three months after the gardening program ended...
Christopher Lowry, Ph.D... has been injecting mice with Mycobacterium vaccae, a harmless bacteria commonly found in soil, and has found that they increase the release and metabolism of serotonin in parts of the brain that control cognitive function and mood -- much like serotonin-boosting antidepressant drugs do.”
According to a survey by Gardeners’ World magazine,10 80 percent of gardeners reported being “happy” and satisfied with their lives, compared to 67 percent of non-gardeners. This feeling of wellbeing can have other more far-reaching implications for your physical health as well. According to recent research from Johns Hopkins,11 having a cheerful temperament can significantly reduce your odds of suffering a heart attack or sudden cardiac death,12 for example.
Monty Don,13 a TV presenter and garden writer, attributes the wellbeing of gardeners to the “recharging” you get from sticking your hands in the soil and spending time outdoors in nature. This seems more than reasonable when you consider the health benefits associated with grounding, also known as Earthing.  As detailed in the documentary film Grounded, the surface of the earth holds subtle health-boosting energy, and all you have to do is touch it.
Walking barefoot on the earth transfers free electrons from the earth’s surface into your body that spread throughout your tissues. Grounding has been shown to relieve pain, reduce inflammation, improve sleep, and enhance your well-being. Many a gardener will attest to the sense of wellbeing obtained from sticking your hands in the dirt as well, and this is separate from the pleasure of accomplishment that comes from eating your own home-grown food.

Gardening Also Offers Stress Relief and Boosts Brain Health

Researchers in the Netherlands have found that gardening is one of the most potent stress relieving activities there are.14 In their trial, two groups of people were asked to complete a stressful task; one group was then instructed to garden for half an hour while the other group was asked to read indoors for the same length of time. Afterward, the gardening group reported a greater improvement in mood. Tests also revealed they had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, compared to those who tried to relax by quiet reading. CNN’s report15 also refers to research showing that gardening may even help reduce your risk of dementia:
“Two separate studies that followed people in their 60s and 70s for up to 16 years found, respectively, that those who gardened regularly had a 36 percent and 47 percent lower risk of dementia than non-gardeners, even when a range of other health factors were taken into account. These findings are hardly definitive, but they suggest that the combination of physical and mental activity involved in gardening may have a positive influence on the mind.”

Gardening Is an Excellent Way to Improve Your Nutrition

Last but certainly not least, keeping a garden can also improve your health by providing you with fresher, uncontaminated, nutrient-dense food that you can’t buy in your local grocery store. It will also help you reduce your grocery bill.  Urban gardening is an important step toward building a more sustainable food system. In fact, I’ve been encouraging everyone to plant a “Victory Garden” as a proactive step toward fixing our broken food system and to improve your health. They’re named Victory Gardens because during World Wars I and II, 40 percent of the produce grown in the US came from people’s backyards. I believe it’s possible to catalyze a similar movement today, but for a different purpose. The new reality is that for most people it’s very difficult to obtain high quality nutrient-dense foods unless you grow them yourself.
Just start small, and before you know it, large portions of your meals could come straight from your own edible garden. I recommend getting your feet wet by growing sprouts, as they are among the most nutritious foods you could possibly grow. Seeds, when sprouted, can contain up to 30 times the nutrients of organic vegetables! Sprouts also allow your body to extract more of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fats from the other foods you eat. Add to that the boon of requiring very little space, and the ability to grow them indoors, year-round.
You can use them in salad, either in addition to or in lieu of salad greens, or add them to vegetable juice or smoothies. I started out growing sprouts in Ball jars about 15 years ago, but I’ve found that growing them in potting soil is a far better option. You can harvest them in about a week, and in a 10x10 tray, you can harvest between one and two pounds of sunflower sprouts. That will last you about three days. You can store them in the fridge for about a week. Sunflower spouts will give you the most volume for your work and, in my opinion, have the best taste.

Gardening May Be a Key Facet of a Healthy Lifestyle

Food grown in your own garden is overall fresher, more nutritious, and tastes better than store bought food—and you can’t beat the price! Urban gardens are also key to saving energy, protecting water quality and topsoil, and promoting biodiversity and beautifying densely populated communities. Gardening may also hold the key to improved mental health, stress relief, and much-needed exercise in a world where most of us spend our days sitting in front of computers in artificially lit rooms.
I personally obtain the majority of my food from my own landscape now, which includes multiple varieties of kale, red peppers, hot peppers, onions, garlic, parsley, rosemary, cilantro, oregano, one olive and three avocado trees, and plenty of fruit, including 130 strawberry plants, mulberries, blueberries, service berries, cherries, lime, oranges, tangerines and mangos. It really is one of life’s great pleasures to be able to walk out the door of your home and pick fresh high-quality food.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

3 letters on food labels that you MUST avoid

Did you know that there are 3 letters on food labels that you MUST avoid, especially if they're at the beginning of the list of ingredients?

Those letters are OSE.  Let me explain.

You see, spotting sugar on food labels isn't quite as easy as it once was.  Yep, now that food manufacturers are aware that consumers of the current day are much more discerning than those of yesteryear, they're doing everything they can to disguise sugar on their lists of ingredients.

These days, it's not likely that you'll see "sugar" at the forefront of an ingredients list, but instead you'll see these code names:

fructose
maltose
glucose
sucrose

And the worst of the worst, high fructose corn syrup.

If you see any of the above -ose words in the first 3 or 4 ingredients on a food label, rest assured that product is LOADED with sugar and you should be avoiding it.

Beyond that, I'll go as far to say that if a product contains high fructose corn syrup (the worst of the worst man-made sugars) in ANY amount, you should avoid it like the plague.  Simply put, the invention of high fructose corn syrup is one of the leading causes of obesity in this great country of ours.

Beyond that, there's another non-sugar -ose word not listed above that's become extremely popular in the last few years.  While it doesn't carry the sugar content that the above ingredients do, it's been clinically shown to destroy essential, healthy bacteria in your gut.  If you regularly consume products with this "other" -ose ingredient, you can really do a number of your immune system and digestive health.

Even worse, this non-sugar -ose ingredient is being added to "health foods" left and right, but it's actually slowly destroying your health every time you consume it.

Two years ago, I made a choice to completely eliminate this ingredient from ever entering my body again.  I recommend you do the same.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Paleo Diet—Is It Right for You?


The Paleo Diet is one of the hottest diet trends around. With celebrity followers and even high-end restaurants taking notice of Paleo principles, some might even say Paleo has gone mainstream.
Here, I interview celebrity chef Pete Evans about his views and experience with thePaleo diet. He currently hosts a leading TV show in Australia called My Kitchen Rules — an amateur cooking competition. Evans also has an American food show that will air this Fall on PBS called Moveable Feast.
“I follow a Paleo diet,” he says. “But do I like it, that word?”
“It fits, but I prefer to call it Eating Real Food; simple as that—food that doesn’t inflame anything in me or cause any distress in my body. I love organic fruits and vegetables (not so many fruits), and I love to know where my meat or protein source comes from.”

From Vegan to Paleo

Evans claims a lifelong interest in health and nutrition, and he’s been a chef for over 25 years. Twenty years ago, he followed a strict vegan regimen. However, it didn’t work out so well.
After losing a lot of weight and becoming anemic—which is a common problem when following a strict vegan diet in which you abstain from all animal foods—he decided to listen to his body more, and to try other alternatives: 
“I started eliminating grain because I never eliminated grain while I was a vegan. That was the first major shift for me, then dairy, and refined sugars. You’re left with still a plethora of ingredients to cook with, coming from a chef’s point of view. That’s what I get excited about,” he says.

The Paleo Diet: What Is It?

While we may consider ourselves to be at the pinnacle of human development, our modern food manufacturing processes have not created a race of super-humans in possession of greater health and longevity.
Quite the contrary... Humans today suffer more chronic and debilitating diseases than ever before. And there can be little doubt that our food choices play a major role in this development.
During the Paleolithic period, many thousands of years ago, people ate primarily vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots, and meat, which varied depending on season and availability.
Based upon scientific research examining the types and quantities of foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, the foundation of "The Paleo Diet" is lean meat, including ostrich and bison as well as organ meats, seafood, fresh fruit, and non-starchy vegetables -- a far cry from the standard American diet.
Today, these staples have been largely replaced with refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, cereal, bread, potatoes, and pasteurized milk products. Most Americans eat a far narrower selection of fruits, vegetables, roots, and nuts, and in lesser quantities than our “cavemen” ancestors.
"Normalizing" your system is the true strength of the so-called caveman diet. By eating foods that are concordant with your genetic ancestry, you can avoid many of the diseases associated with our modern diet. As Dr. Loren Cordain, author ofThe Paleo Diet and one of the world's leading experts on Paleolithic nutrition, has stated:
"The nutritional qualities of modern processed foods and foods introduced during the Neolithic period are discordant with our ancient and conservative genome. This genetic discordance ultimately manifests itself as various chronic illnesses, which have been dubbed ‘diseases of civilization.’
By severely reducing or eliminating these foods and replacing them with a more healthful cuisine, possessing nutrient qualities more in line with the foods our ancestors consumed, it is possible to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease."

Why the Typical Paleo Diet Might Be Problematic for Some People

Today, at the age of 40, Evans feels like he’s in the best shape of his life. And he credits his “Paleo style” diet for optimizing his health. However, while the “standard” Paleo Diet can be a healthful way of eating, especially compared to the Standard American Diet, I also believe it has certain weaknesses or flaws that could be improved upon.
The primary one is that I believe it calls for too much protein for most people. Protein is freely substituted for carbs as being a healthy choice.
Like my mentor Dr. Ron Rosedale, Evans also recommends being mindful about the amount of protein you eat. Your body only needs so much; when consumed in excess, you may run into problems again.
The reason Dr. Rosedale recommends limiting yourself to one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body weight is because of the stimulatory effect protein (branch-chained amino acids specifically) has on mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)—a pathway that seems to be largely responsible for the pathology seen in cancer growth. When you limit protein to just what your body needs, mTOR remains inhibited, which helps lessen your chances of cancer growth.
I believe it is the rare person who really needs more than one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Those that are aggressively exercising and competing or pregnant women should have about 25 percent more, but most people rarely need more than 40-70 grams of protein a day.
To determine your lean body mass, find out your percent body fat and subtract from 100. So if you are 20 percent body fat you would have 80 percent lean body mass. Just multiply that by your current weight to get lean body mass. For most people, this means restricting protein intake from 35 to 75 grams a day. As mentioned, pregnant women and those working out extensively need about 25 percent more.

Is It Possible to Eat Too Little Carbs?

Another common objection to the Paleo Diet is that it’s too low in carbs for some people. Generally speaking, if you're on a high-carb diet and suddenly reduce your carb intake, your blood cholesterol profile will improve. Typically, your triglyceride levels will be sharply reduced. However, if your carb intake is below 25 percent (the Paleo Diet is about 23 percent carbs), your body will have to adapt to a scarcity of glucose, which can cause hormonal changes that may negatively impact your blood lipids.
According to Dr. Paul Jaminet, a trained astrophysicist and author of the book Perfect Health Diet, you may be able to tolerate an extremely low-carb diet if your health is really good, because your body can manufacture some glucose from protein. Others may not fare as well. According to Dr. Jaminet:
"The biggest problem is it's not a robust diet. If you get infections (which will raise your body's glucose needs), then you can really get into trouble on a zero carb diet. In general, it's a stressful thing for your body."
While some experts, such as Dr. Ron Rosedale, believe you can't have too little glucose because it's always going to cause some adverse metabolic consequence, Dr. Jaminet, on the other hand, believes that once you get below a certain threshold of glucose in your diet, you can start experiencing certain health challenges.
I believe that the low-carb, low-to-moderate protein, high healthy fat diet is appropriate for most who are insulin or leptin resistant. Once that resistance resolves, then it may become counterproductive to maintain a low-carb approach. Once your weight, blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol normalize, you can then increase your carbs again. If your weight goes up or other symptoms return, then it would be wise to use that approach again. 

Does the Paleo Diet Contain Enough Fat?

When you are treating insulin/leptin resistance, I believe most would benefit by decreasing carb consumption, and replacing them with healthy fats. Replacing carbs with too much protein can actually cause health challenges similar to eating too many grain carbs and sugars. The Paleo Diet calls for about 38 percent protein and 39 percent fat, which may actually be too much protein and not enough fat for optimal health.
Again, when you consume protein in levels higher than you require and recommended above (one-half gram per pound of lean body weight), you tend to activate the mTOR pathway, which can help you get large muscles but may also increase your risk of cancer. This pathway is ancient but relatively recently appreciated and has only been known for less than 20 years. Odds are very high your doctor was never taught this in medical school and isn't even aware of it.
Many new cancer drugs are actually being targeted to use the mTOR pathway. Drugs using this pathway have also been given to animals to radically extend their lifespan. But you don't have to use drugs to get this pathway to work for you.
The key thing to remember is that when you reduce carbs and protein, you need to replace the lost calories with high-quality fatssuch as avocados, butter, coconut oil, nuts, and eggs. Your healthiest option is to ensure your carbs come primarily from fresh, organic non-starchy vegetables like greens; eat limited amounts of high-quality protein; and eat primarily a high-fat diet. Depending on the type of carbs (high fiber or not), most people need anywhere between 50-85 percent fat in their diet and sometimes even higher for optimal health.
This applies to athletes and those who exercise vigorously as well. As noted in a recent Malta Today article,1 a high-fat diet can actually be more beneficial for athletes than traditional carb-loading:
“A gym-goer or athlete consuming a low-carbohydrate diet will in turn teach their working muscles to utilize the fat stores and this is actually more efficient and can level out blood sugar fluctuations... Grain-based carbohydrates also can lead to bloating, creating a certain sluggishness which in turn affects performance in training, and not in a good way...
What about the actual training? Allow your body a chance to adapt to the low carbohydrate intake without overdoing it at the gym, gradually increasing the repetitions or time spent doing cardiovascular exercise. You will soon benefit from the leaner and sharper feel, and you can up the tempo as your body begins to tap into fat stores for energy.”

Key Differences Between My Nutrition Plan and the Paleo Diet

My nutrition plan has many similarities with the Paleo Diet, namely the restriction of sugars and grains, increases in fresh vegetables and a focus on finding high-quality, toxin-free food sources. However, there are some key differences that I want to highlight, as I believe these factors can make a significant difference in your health. My nutrition plan contains the following dietary advice, which the Paleo Diet is lacking:
  • Less protein, higher healthy fat: In general, it would be unusual for most adults to need more than 100 grams of protein and most likely need close to half that amount. Again, when you reduce protein, you need to replace it with other calories, specifically high-quality fats such as avocados, butter, coconut oil, olives, olive oil, nuts, and eggs.
  • Dairy is allowed: Dairy, particularly full-fat raw dairy, is allowed in my nutrition plan. I personally do not drink much milk nor think it is necessary to drink milk, but raw dairy from organically-raised grass-fed cows, especially fermented like yogurt or kefir, does have worthwhile nutritional components, as do other whole raw dairy products, like raw-milk cheese.
  • Seafood should be eaten with caution: The Paleo Diet includes lots of fish and other seafood on a regular basis. However, it is difficult to find seafood that is free from toxin buildup as a result of pollution. For this reason, I only recommend seafood that is high in healthy fats while being minimally exposed to toxic contaminants. Safer options include wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, and anchovies, as well as a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat supplement (krill oil) to make up for lacking seafood in your diet.
  • Fermented vegetables: One of the best ways to protect your health is by keeping your gut flora healthy by eating naturally fermented foods. Fermented vegetables are a key component of this and are highly recommended in my nutrition plan. One-quarter to one-half cup of fermented veggies with each meal is ideal, but you may need to work up to this amount gradually.
  • Intermittent fasting: The Paleo Diet is supportive of intermittent fasting, although it does not specifically highlight it.Intermittent fasting is one of the most powerful interventions I know of to shed excess weight and reduce your risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. There are many different variations of intermittent fasting, but if you are like 80 percent of the population and have insulin resistance, my personal recommendation is to fast every day by simply scheduling your eating into a narrower window of time.

Evans’ Favorites: Organ Meats and Fermented Veggies

While Evans does eat a moderate amount of red meat these days, he favors organ meats and other animal parts.
“You go all around the world, and the chefs love to cook with the bits that you usually can’t find in the markets. [Not only] because it is cheap but because it’s got so much flavor. Whether it’s the brains, kidneys, livers, tongue, tail, or the foot, we get excited about that sort of thing. That’s what I guess my mission is: not to encourage people just to eat the offal, but to eat nose to tail if they’re going to eat the animal.”
Evans is also a staunch proponent of fermented vegetables, having read Dr. Natasha McBride’s book on The GAPS Diet. She was the catalyst for me as well; I had dinner with her one night at a Weston Price event where we were both speaking, and I started fermenting vegetables as soon as I got back home. Besides a number of cooking and other food-related TV shows, Evans has also authored two books: Healthy Every Day and The Paleo Chef, which focuses on gluten-and grain-free whole food recipes that are easy to prepare.
“What I consider real food is fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and good-quality protein. [It’s] simple, but the most important thing apart from the health benefits is: it’s delicious, because ‘health food’ has always had that sort of stigma that it’s like eating cardboard, whereas that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he says.
As for the actual process of cooking, Evan recommends keeping it simple. He prefers economy when it comes to cooking, which means making big batches of stock, broth, soup, curry, and stew.
“It’s not just for one meal; I’ll make enough for six meals or even 10 meals. Do it in bulk. That way, you can freeze it down in portions, so you’re not spending all your time in the kitchen, because there are better things to do with your time like spend it with your family. Per meal, I average between 10 to 45 minutes. If I have to spend any longer than that, I probably won’t do it. That’s the type of recipes I like to put into my books.”

In Doubt About What to Eat? Read My Nutrition Plan



Dietary advice can be a bit of a moving target, as everyone has unique nutritional needs. That said, there are some dietary basics that are foundational, and which I believe will likely never really change—at least in our lifetimes—and that apply to the vast majority, if not everyone. This includes avoiding processed foods and limiting sugar as much as possible.
Aside from making sure your diet is low in sugar and consisting primarily of fresh, whole foods, many of the finer details need to be regularly revised based on new research and increases in wisdom from personal explorations of applying this research. More often than not, some trial and error is required in order to determine what works best for you. For example, while some people achieve great health on a vegan diet, it’s certainly not for everyone. As in Evans’ case, sometimes a vegan diet can do more harm than good, even though it may sound like a very healthy way to live, in theory. As Evans says:
“I fully respect anyone who takes on a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, if it makes you healthy and strong. That’s all I would say: Listen to your body. Do what feels right for yourself. Be your own guinea pig. As soon as something doesn’t feel right or doesn’t make sense to you, maybe you can tweak it a little bit. But don’t be harsh on yourself or feel too much guilt if you got off track either.”
The challenge is to keep up-to-date with it all and have a process that allows you to integrate this information using an easily digestible format. That is one of the primary reasons behind the compilation of my nutrition plan. In the ‘90s, I rejected the idea of writing a book, as by the time it was printed it would be out of date. Instead I chose to focus my efforts on the Internet. I strongly recommend reviewing my nutrition plan whenever your schedule allows. It is a very detailed and comprehensive program – it's basically an entire book in multimedia format. The plan is divided into three stages: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. If you realize you're already doing all the things included in the beginner's phase, then it may be time to move on to the next phase.
If you're new to the site, I encourage you to go through it from the beginning, as it is one of the most powerful tools to truly allow you and your family to take control of your health. If you’re a Paleo Diet fan, you may be able to jump in at the intermediate or advanced level, taking your health to an even higher level than you had before.