Actress Alicia Silverstone, in  her book “The Kind Diet” makes a great case for eating a plant based diet with little or no meat and a good dose of grains.

A few months ago I wrote this  regarding Silverstone’s diet.

“The book clearly describes how a person can eat a plant based diet that’s not only super nutritional and delicious, but it eliminates harmful foods “like meat, dairy, refined sugar, and over-processed products.”

On meat.  “There is absolutely no reason you need meat in order to survive or thrive.  In fact, it’s just the opposite:  Your old friend flesh is keeping your body tired, weak, and toxic.”

OK, sounds good to me.  Then my wife gives me a book titled “The Paleo Diet” with the subtitle “Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat,” written by Loren Cordain Phd.  According to the book’s cover, Dr. Cordain is “one of the world’s most renowed scientists doing groundbreaking research into the original human diet.”

So what does Dr. Cordain recommend?  Get rid of the grains and eat meat, fruit and vegetables instead.

The famous USDA pyramid is built on grains first.  They are the foundation of the pyramid.  And Silverstone’s diet is also built on grains.  She allows the occasional fish but beyond that meat is taboo.

Dr. Cordain pretty much gets rid of the USDA pyramid.  “Cereal Grains,” writes Cordain “Are Literally Best Left For The Birds.”

It’s called the Paleo Diet because humans evolved as hunter gatherers and Cordain believes that diet is what best suits our bodies–even today. 

“What do Paleolithic people have to do with us?  Actually quite a lot: DNA evidence shows that genetically, humans have hardly changed at all…in 40,000 years.  This means that the genetic makeup of Paleolithic people is virtually identical to our own.  Literally, we are Stone Agers living in the Space Age; our dietary needs are the same as theirs.  Our genes are well adapted to a world in which all the food eaten daily had to be hunted, fished or gathered from the natural environment–a world that no longer exists.  Nature determined what our bodies needed thousands of years before civilization developed, before people started farming and raising domesticated livestock.”

Nowadays our diets have changed dramatically from our Paleolithic ancestors.  And not for the better, contends Cordain.  ”The staples of today’s diet–cereals, dairy products, refined sugars, fatty meats, and salted processed foods are like diesel fuel to our body’s metabolic machinery.  These foods clog our engines, make us fat, and cause disease and ill health,” he writes.

Cordain asserts our bodies are designed to eat lean meats for protein while fruits and vegetables provided healthy carbohydrates.  As for the grains we all consider a staple today, our Paleolithic ancestors hardly ever ate them.  “This sounds shocking to us today, but for most ancient people, grains were considered starvation food at best,” Cordain points out.

Once you get beyond the difference of opinion on meats and grains between Cordain and Silverstone, they make very similar arguments when it comes to refined sugar, salt, processed foods and dairy products.  And they both point out that modern agriculture has decreased the supply of Omega 3 fatty acids which are critical for our good health. 

And even Cordain’s endorsement of meat based protein is strongly qualified with the word “lean.”  He’s not recommending you go out and eat a fat and salt laced (throw in a few growth hormones too) hamburger.  In fact he recommends pasture fed beef, free range chicken with the fatty skin removed and fresh, wild caught fish.

Today’s modern grain based diets are nutritionally inefficient compared to the Paleo regimen, Cordain claims.  “Eat fewer carbohydrates than most modern diets recommend, but eat lots of good carbohydrates–from fruits and vegetables, not from grains, starchy tubers, and refined sugars.  Eat a large amount of fiber from nonstarchy fruits and vegetables.”

And later in the book Cordain writes “Cereal grains are low in fat.  But the little fat they do have is unbalanced–tilted heavily toward omega 6.  For example, in game and organ meat, the average ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 is 2 or 3 to one.  In eight of the world’s most commonly consumed cereals, this ratio is a staggering 22 to 1.

“Cereal grains also have contributed to generations of blubbery cows that bear little resemblance to the lean wild animals our ancestors ate.  Grain-fed cows have become loaded down with saturated fat; worse, the fats in their meat have taken on the same high omega 6 to omega 3 ratio that’s in their grain.”

My take on all this is that I do like meat, and if I stick to eating lean organic meat per Cordain’s recommendation I will get a better nutritional deal with these meats than I would without them.   I also love fruits and vegetables, which Silverstone recommends highly as well.  Throw in the healthy nuts and you’ve got a nutritious combination from Cordain that avoids starchy grains like white rice or equally starchy potatoes, as one example.

But I still like brown rice, which isn’t as processed as white rice, so I’ll eat it when I want (Cordain allows for three meals a week which diverge from his diet).  And the occasional mashed potatoe isn’t going to kill me either.  So there is some flexibility.

And of course our Paleo ancestors were pretty active, what with hunting, fishing and gathering fruits and vegetables.  So some excercise would help as well.

Now pass me that free range chicken.  And let’s belly up for some shrimp and salad.  Throw in a meal of organic, lean beef and you’ve made my day!

The industrialization of our food industry is churning out great volumes of lousy food.  It looks OK, and tastes OK, but it’s shadow food.  It really isn’t the same food your grandparents ate.  It’s a shadow of that food.

Even if you don’t consciously understand, your body does.  It knows you’re eating shadow food.  The bulk is there, but the nutrients aren’t.  So your body says “Eat More.”  And you do.  Couple that with a sedentary lifestyle and Bingo!  You’re fat.  Keep it up and you’re really fat.  And really develop diabetes and a host of other debilitating, expensive, illnesses.

Which is just fine for Industrial Ag because they’re making a fortune on shadow food.   And of course our federal government is pleased too because they’ve instituted policies and subsidies that feed Industrial Ag.  No shadow food for Industrial Ag.  They get the real dough.

Plus, Industrial Ag has figured out that they can get us to eat this shadow food in quantity by simply adding more sugar, salt and fat.  They cram more of this stuff into their shadow food to make it tasty, tasty.  For it’s part, the government steps up to the plate by subsidizing corn so the sugar part (via High Fructose Corn Syrup) can be ladled in without limit.  Walk down your supermarket store and look at the list of ingredients in almost any can of food.  There it is, high fructose corn syrup.  It is literally in every can.

Unless, of course, if it’s organic.

Take, for one example, comparisons between organic foods versus the conventional “shadow” food.

From “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone:

“Organic foods outperform their conventional cousins like this: 

• 63% more calcium
• 78% more chromium
• 73% more iodine
• 59% more iron
• 138% more magnesium
• 125% more potassium
• 390% more selenium
• 60% more zinc

And remember, nonorganic food is not only sprayed with nasty chemicals, it comes from soil filled with them, so they actually get into the vegetables as they grow.  There’s no escaping the chemical cocktail.”

And here’s a nice, brief summary article about this overeating from the blog “opposing views.”

As the waistlines of Americans continue to grow, Dr. David Kessler provides answers to some of my lingering questions about the causation of this epidemic. What is it about food that does not let us stop with one piece of cake or a single slice of pizza? Why do we override our innate fullness sensor and continuously overeat? How can this be stopped? Dr. Kessler tackles all these questions in his recent book, The End of Overeating.

Question 1: What is it about food that does not let us stop with one piece of cake or a single slice of pizza?

Food today has three major additives that have been added to our food in major quantities compared with days of past: sugar, fat, and salt. These three components make manufactured food addicting, as proved by recent studies. A University of Washington researcher added sugar to skim milk, whole milk, half and half, and a heavy cream safflower oil mixture. Participants in the study preferred the cream and oil mixture (containing the most fat and sugar) to all others. Food companies have picked up on the fact that sugar, salt, and fat sell and are using it to their benefit.

Question 2: Why do we override our innate fullness sensor and continuously overeat?

Simply put, sugar, salt, and fat are rewarding. Think about a time when you have a plate of cookies in front of you. You eat one, it is delicious, you eat another and it is still delicious. Before you know it, the plate is half gone. Your control in this situation is damped by the sugar and fat. Continued exposure to overwhelming rewards from foods leads to conditioned overeating, a term used by Dr. Kessler. “Chronic exposure to highly palatable foods changes our brains, conditioning us to seek continued stimulation. Over time, a powerful drive for a combination of sugar, fat, and salt competes with our conscious capacity to say no.”

Question 3: How can this be stopped?

Sadly, we are incapable of changing the manufacturing procedures of food. Therefore, we must learn to control ourselves. First, understand conditioned overeating. No progress can be made in our battle with food if we do not acknowledge that hyper palatable foods are to blame. Next, you must learn to say no. Dr. Kessler reminds us that we have a choice when it comes to what goes into our bodies, and the urges we have for that next cookie can be ignored. We are warned that this is difficult, and there will be times when we slip. After practice, food will lose its captivating power over us… freedom at last!

I encourage you to read The End of Overeating in its entirety. It offers a new perspective on food and our addiction to it.

By Mitzi Dulan with research assistance from Kaylee O’Connell

Beezer here.  I disagree with the kind Dr. Kessler when he says we can’t do anything about it but to limit our eating.  We can change the subsidies flowing into conventional Industrial Ag and, instead, redirect this money to balanced, organic farming.

Instead of subsidizing corn to feed cows (it makes them sick and us too because the corn fed cows need antibiotics) and make cheap suger substitutes, why can’t we subsidize organic farming?  It’s healthier by far for everyone, and modern organic techniques have produced some of the most efficient farms in America.

I’m an optimist.  And stubborn to boot.  Particularly when I spot something that is so inefficient and unhealthy for us all like our modern, warped food system.  Or Wall Street.  Oligopolies both dominated by huge corporations which have purchased our government into their fold and point of view.

Time for change.

After my recent post based upon the book “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” written by journalist Michael Pollan, the question inevitably comes up:  “If we can’t eat meat being produced by Industrial Ag, what do we eat?”

One possible answer comes from a surprising place.  Hollywood.  Alicia Silverstone, star of numerous movies, including “Clueless,” has authored a New York Times bestseller entitled “the kind diet,” with a subtitle of “A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet.”

In short, Ms. Silverstone’s answer is don’t eat meat or dairy.  To her the American consumer is the one who’s being kept “clueless.”

The book clearly describes how a person can eat a plant based diet that’s not only super nutritional and delicious, but it eliminates harmful foods “like meat, dairy, refined sugar, and over-processed products.”

On meat.  “There is absolutely no reason you need meat in order to survive or thrive.  In fact, it’s just the opposite:  Your old friend flesh is keeping your body tired, weak, and toxic.”

Milk really gets the hammer from Silverstone.  ”The medical world acknowledges that some of the biggest factors in breast cancer are fat, animal protein, and excess estrogen.  Well, since milking cows are pumped full of extra estrogen to make them lactate, dairy is your best and cheapest source of all three.  Moreover, cows injected with bovine growth hormone have higher levels of a naturally occurring hormone called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), which is also connected to tumor growth.”

Milk also contains casein, the protein in dairy foods, which is not only addictive but has been fingered as something that can cause tumors to grow.  In one study, writes Silverstone, “The conclusions were consistent and stunning:  Even when huge doses of cancer-causing toxins were given to study subjects, tumors grew only  when they were fed casein, the protein of dairy foods.  Conversely, wheat and soy protein–combined with the same doses of cancer-causing toxins–triggered no tumors.”

And she blames dairy for making allergies and asthma worse.  After having asthma for the first 20 years of her life, where she needed an inhaler and took allergy shots, Silverstone became a vegan.  After that “I stopped experiencing allergies or any asthma-type symptoms.  They just disappeared…

“You see, the human immune system recognizes milk from another species as an attacker–or allergen–that causes the body to go on red alert.  This is why many people walk around with chronic runny, stuffy noses–even asthma and allergies–and think it’s normal!  But actually it’s the body’s own defense system trying to ward off a foreign invader.  Dr. John Oski, chief of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, believes that up to 50% of all children are allergic to milk, although they remain largely undiagnosed…..Get rid of dairy, and you should breathe easier within a week.  You’ll be amazed.”

And as for milk helping to prevent osteoporosis there’s this.   “We’ve come to believe there is a straight line   between milk and strong bones despite the fact that dairy-free countries have the lowest rates of osteoporisis on Earth.  In fact, the more milk a population consumes, the weaker its bones get.  That’s the real straight line.  So why does this fallacy that milk is inextricably linked to strong, healthy bones persist so stubbornly?  It’s true that cow’s milk does contain calcium, which is necessary for strong bones, but that’s not the whole picture.  Although milk offers calcium, it causes the body to release even more of it.  It’s like someone giving you $1,000 but driving away in your car!….Meat and dairy are the chief causes of osteoporosis, not the cures.  There are tons of sources of calcium on a meat-and dairy-free diet, and the calcium they contain is actually more readily absorbed by the body.”

While Pollan might eat meat if it came from a pasture fed cow or chicken, he stays away from what Industrial Ag produces by using growth hormones and antibiotics to churn out meat quickly and in great volume.

Silverstone also has a website thekindlife.com.  Read her book and check out the site.