Cornerstone #1: Eating a whole food diet

While doing some research for another post I came across an interesting article by Spreadbury about how the type of carbohydrate differs in an ancestral diet compared to a western diet.  The article, “Comparison with ancestral diets suggests dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity.” was just published the other month, and is available for free online.

The article is really great and is well worth the read.  He starts off by explaining the discord between much of the data for macronutrient ratios and obesity.  While both high fat and high carbohydrate diets have been implicated in the development of obesity in western society, these diets result in very healthy people when consumed in a “traditional” culture.  Since these diets only promote obesity in a western culture, there must be some other factor that makes these diets cause obesity, rather than the carb/fat ratios themselves.

What could then be causing the detrimental effects seen in the western diet?  A good place to start is the GI tract and our microbiota.  The microbiota is the term for all of the bacteria that inhabit our gut, and have been shown to play a huge role in health disease.  While the macronutrient ratios of western diets to traditional may be somewhat similar at times, the type of carbohydrate consumed is not.  In western cultures the main forms of carbohydrate are processed foods, like flours and sugars.  These may represent a much denser form of carbohydrate than our guts are used to, since they have had most of the water and other cellular material removed from them.  However, whole food carbohydrate sources, such as starchy roots and tubers like potatoes, still have all that water and cellular material in them (it remains intact even after cooking) and because of this they end being much less carbohydrate dense.  Spreadbury proposes that it is this difference in processed vs. unprocessed carbohydrate consumption that is responsible for the formation of an inflammatory microbiota, which then leads to development of obesity and other conditions associated with the metabolic syndrome.

Another interesting point the author makes is that once this inflammatory environment is produced in the gut, the effects of a high fat diet may make things worse.  This means that foods that contain a large amount of processed flours, sugars, and industrial fats are an express highway to inflammatory gut environments and obesity!  Makes that those little Debbie snack cake all the more appetizing, right?

As with many topics in the ancestral health movement, the cause of the detrimental effects of grains has recently been called into question.  When I first started my journey into this movement it was the gluten that was thought to be the problem, through it causing leaky gut and other problems with absorbing nutrients.  However, I think this article provides a better explanation for the harmful effects of these foods, as we now that proper preparation of these grain based foods may make them okay for non-gluten sensitive people to eat (which might be a smaller portion of the population than we once thought). The macronutrient ratios of a couple slices of bread may not be all that different from a baked potato with some butter on it, but the difference in processed vs. unprocessed carbohydrates is very obvious.

This article helps to reinforce one of the cornerstones of my own diet, and the recommendations I would offer for someone looking to maintain proper health.  Eating a WHOLE FOOD DIET is one of the most important things you can do for your health.  This article helps to show that it doesn’t really matter what our macronutrient ratios are, as long as we avoid processed foods.  I think this effect can be seen very easily in people with celiac disease.  One of the mainstays of ancestral diets is the removal of processed grains.  Well, celiacs must do the same thing; so one might assume that they would then lose some weight and improve some of their health markers like leptin resistance.  However, if these people just switch gluten containing flours for non-gluten containing flours they are still consuming these processed flours that will create the inflammatory microbiota environment known to cause many of these conditions. 

As I just mentioned eating a whole food diet is one of the cornerstones of my own diet and dietary recommendations I would give to someone else.  Regardless of whether those foods consist mainly of starchy foods high in carbohydrates or fatty animals is fairly irrelevant to me, simply eat whatever whole foods you like!  The other cornerstones of my diet will be discussed in upcoming posts, so stay tuned!