CHAPTER 2:
OUR NUTRITIONAL FRAMEWORK
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“I’m 46 years old and have lost the same fifty pounds over and over again, only to gain it back—and more. At the beginning of the year, my cholesterol was so high I was sure I’d need to go on medication. But by the end of my Whole30, my overall cholesterol level dropped 83 points, triglycerides dropped 82 points, LDL dropped 63 points, and HDL rose 3 points. Plus I lost ten pounds and over seven inches. Thank you!”
—Patty M., Boise, Idaho
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The framework for our Whole30 program and general recommendations are built on what we’ve learned from some very smart people—one in particular. Robb Wolf, the New York Times bestselling author of The Paleo Solution and one of the world’s leading experts on the Paleo lifestyle, has been a friend and mentor for several years now. Robb has influenced our program and the way we work with our clients tremendously. In fact, his “thirty-day elimination” approach formed the foundation of our Whole30 program.
As a result, the basics of our food recommendations look a lot like the fundamental tenets of the Paleo diet. You’ve probably heard of it by now—you know, that “caveman diet” the media has been talking about? Its recommendations are based on the diet consumed by man during the Paleolithic era—a 2.6-million-year period of time that ended about 10,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture. The theory is that we are genetically adapted to the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors, and that genetic disposition hasn’t changed much in the last 10,000 years—which means we are not genetically suited to our modern, industrially-produced, agriculture-based diet. Paleo diet advocates believe that the healthiest diet for people today should resemble the diets of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
PALEO, DEMYSTIFIED
Before we go any further, let’s debunk some myths about the Paleo diet. First, it’s not about recreating the existence of cavemen. No one wants you to go without electricity, hot showers, or your beloved iPhone. And yes, cavemen didn’t always have a long life span, but that’s not because of their food choices—it was more likely the lack of antibiotics, the abundance of predators, and harsh living conditions. Second, it’s not a carnivorous diet—the moderate amount of high-quality meat is balanced with tons of plant matter (vegetables and fruit). Third, the fat you eat as part of a Paleo diet will not clog your arteries because fat all by itself is not the culprit in that scenario. (Really. More on that later.) Finally, the diet is not carb-phobic; it’s 100 percent sustainable from day one, and it’s really not that radical—unless you consider eating nutrient-dense, unprocessed food radical. Which, in today’s microwave-dinner-fast-food-low-fat era, might very well be the case.
Now, we agree that foods advocated by the Paleo diet are the healthiest choices in today’s modern age. The research and experience of folks like Dr. Loren Cordain and Robb Wolf heavily influenced our own experimentation, and the results we achieved after eating this way were hard to ignore. But please, hear us clearly on this one subject:
We are far more concerned with health than we are with history.
We aren’t recommending meat and vegetables because we think that’s what our ancestors ate; we don’t say cheesecake is a poor choice because cavemen didn’t eat cheesecake; and we’re certainly not about to debate whether any one food is “technically Paleo.” While the Paleo diet is backed by solid scientific research (refer to our references), we generally don’t get all hung up on what Paleolithic man may or may not have eaten.
We care about what is making us, here and now, more or less healthy.
And we suspect that’s what you care about too.
CREATIONISTS WELCOME
If our program’s evolutionary perspective resonates with you, fabulous. But if you’re not interested in the history or you don’t believe in evolution at all, that’s OK too. You don’t have to buy into Darwinian evolutionary theory to participate because we’ll just be concentrating on biology and natural patterns of behavior. There are some things for which we are simply hardwired, like being active during the day and sleeping at night, liking sweet tastes, and experiencing thirst when we are dehydrated. In the natural world, these primal urges are designed to keep us safe, fed, hydrated, and healthy. But in today’s modern world, these biological signals don’t always work the same way—and our ability to override them often gets us into trouble. Understanding the biological purpose of these signals and how to hear them over all the noise in today’s busy world is one of the keys to optimal health.
Now is a good time to address one of our most commonly heard questions: Do you have the science to back this stuff up? The answer, of course, is yes. We will reference a ton of technical information—what we call “science-y stuff”—and we promise to translate any complicated material into easy-to-understand concepts. We have references galore in our appendix: peer-reviewed, credible research that we’ve used to back up the program we present here. We don’t recommend anything that we don’t believe is true, based on the findings of the scientific research community.
But relying on science alone is tricky.
Many of these nutritional theories aren’t as rock-solid as, say, the theory of gravity. There is still a lot the scientific community doesn’t know about food, nutrition, and health. Which means that for every finding we present, you can consult the Source of All Knowledge (the Internet) and find studies that suggest the opposite.
Coffee is good for everyone!
Coffee may increase your risk of cancer!
Which one is right? Maybe neither, maybe both—it’s hard to know. But one thing is certain—in the case of nutrition and health, the science can be confusing, and can lead to “paralysis by analysis” (a state in which you take no action because you’re not sure what to do).
In the absence of enough conclusive science, what else can we rely on? Observation, experience, and clinically-based evidence. Our recommendations are based on the protocols that have been effective for our clients. Getting positive results from one client is good, but getting similar positive results from a thousand clients truly confirms the efficacy of the protocols and suggests that they will produce reliable results for other people with similar health conditions.
The trouble is, we can’t rely exclusively on observation, experience, or clinically-based evidence. Despite loads of experience and careful observation, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause and effect of any one behavior on a population. For example, consider the following statement:
When ice cream sales are high, the frequency of shark attacks increases. Therefore, sharks attack in response to rising ice cream sales.
Obviously, those two things are merely correlated and not cause and effect. (The two variables exhibit a common trait—the warm season—when people are more likely to both eat ice cream and swim in the ocean.) Yet it’s easy to confuse correlation with causation when you are relying solely on observational data.
So, how did we come up with our dietary recommendations?
We combined scientific research with clinical experience.
We have scientific studies to back up our recommendations. We have years of experience and documented Whole30 results to confirm that we’re on the right track. It’s the best of both worlds—the academic evidence and the boots-on-the-ground experience that comes from working with thousands of people and getting amazing results. Win-win.
But none of those published studies take into account your life, your history, your context. The most relevant form of experimentation for you is self-experimentation, so you can figure out for yourself, once and for all, how certain factors affect you.
And that is exactly what we are proposing here, with our Whole30 program.
Grounded in science, based on thousands of observations and proven results, and anchored with a thirty-day structured self-experiment.
Win-win-win.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH + CLINICAL EXPERIENCE + SELF-EXPERIMENTATION
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
We’re about to dive into some of the most technical information in the book—the “science-y stuff.” In Chapters 3 through 7, we’ll outline our four Good Food standards and talk about the ways that less-healthy foods mess with your brain, hormones, gut, and immune system. We’ll do our best to keep the science accessible and use lots of analogies to help you understand the way things work in the body. If you’re the kind of person who needs to know not just the how, but also the why, these chapters are a must-read. If you don’t care about the science and just want to know what to eat, how much to eat, and how to create lifelong healthy eating habits, feel free to skip straight to the food in Chapter 8.