Going Against The Grain Part 1: Insulin

Eliminating grains is THE most essential element of the Primal diet. It is also the most controversial, challenging and misunderstood aspect. So, I'm going to break this down into a series of posts. The first one being Insulin.........

Insulin is a hormone. Hormones tell our body how to react to our environment and can fluctuate with exercise, sunshine, sex, sleep, pregnancy and food. Insulin levels are determined by the amount of glucose (sugar) in our diet. Now, the sneaky thing about grains is that they eventually end up as glucose in the bloodstream, identical to how pure sugar would look. This means the body doesn't know if you have eaten a handful of lollies or a slice of bread, it's the same thing!

Now, that glucose (sugar) is also toxic when it enters the bloodstream. This isn't a bad thing it just means that it needs to get out of there ASAP. Firstly, it will see if the muscles need it, if not (because the muscle cells haven't been depleted of glucose via exercising) it gets stored as fat. Therefore, the more glucose in the bloodstream (from grains or just pure sugar) the more insulin rises, and the higher the level of insulin the louder and more urgent his message of "Store Fat!" gets.

Insulin levels can be kept low by eating vegetables and a little fruit for carbohydrate. This allows the body to maintain enough glucose in the muscles yet keeps Insulin's message of "Store Fat!" to a whisper.

From an evolutionary perspective, a big insulin rush had it's purpose. Imagine a Apple tree full of ripe fruit, a scarce and valuable find for the primal people. They would most likely devour as much as possible, embrace the insulin rush, store a little fat and then use it during a tough day of hunting and gathering.

Things are drastically different these days. A day without food is unheard of unless your doing the '40 hr famine' or are unwell. We eat vast amounts of sugar, including cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner...... and our body drowns in insulin screaming "Store Fat!, Store Fat!, Store Fat!"

Fat. The Innocent and Undervalued Nutrient

......and they look pretty healthy.

We live in the era of the Low-Fat diet. Simultaneously, we live in the era of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Suspiciously, our Great-Grandparents who enjoyed cooking with Lard and ate Bacon and Eggs for breakfast were a generation relatively free from the effects of these diseases. As our generation munches low fat cereal and sips at Trim Lattes, the rates of these diseases are escalating. Therefore the question must be asked.... If low body fat is achieved from a low fat diet, why are we not seeing the evidence in our community?

I've tried the low-fat diet. At the time I wouldn't have classified myself as being overweight though, I was competing as a lightweight single sculler in the sport of Rowing, this meant I needed to keep my weight down, regardless of my body composition in order to meet the weight limit of my races. During my efforts to eat low-fat I was plagued by a number of maladies that I now realize were caused by a combination of my low-fat diet and long endurance training sessions these included: constant hunger, frequent colds and flu, depression, chronic headaches, lethargy, amenorrhoea, high levels of cortisol in my blood (caused by stress) and deficiency in Vitamin D. Was I successful? well that depends what you call success, I got the number I needed on the scale and a few medals, but I wasn't lean and I definitely wasn't healthy.

One of the first things I did when I decided to go Primal, was to add fat to my diet and lots of it! While the typical dieter would fear butter, cream, full fat milk, avocado, nuts, chicken skin and pork crackling I was devouring the lot! waking up my poor neglected taste buds, replenishing my nutrient starved body AND mind and looking at the clock in astonishment as I went for 4+ hours without a hunger pang.  Now, I will forgive you if  you think this behaviour left me chubby and feeling breathless because it was the complete opposite of what a "healthy" individual would strive towards, I had my hesitations too. But I did some reading on the subject and felt confident that is was worth at least a try. This is why….

1. Fat does not induce an insulin response. Since excess insulin is what promotes fat storage,I would not risk gaining body fat.

2. Fat makes you feel full, meaning I wouldn't overeat or feel the need to snack on sweet foods in between meals. This would help the constant hunger that I was experiencing.

3. Fat aids the digestion of the Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. This would improve my Vitamin D deficiency naturally, which in turn would help my depression and immunity since I was experiencing frequent colds and flu.

4. Fat is needed for digestion. In Nina Planck's book 'Real Food: What to Eat and Why' she states that "Without Fat, digestion literally fails and you starve, even if you are eating plenty of food". Again, dietary fat would help the constant hunger that I was experiencing.

5. The human brain and nerves are made of 60% fat. Which would mean improvements in my chronic headaches and depression.

After a month of eating like a primal cave woman, fat and all! EVERY one of my previous complaints vanished and I was setting new PR's at the gym. As for my body composition, well, I was a few kilos heavier than in my rowing days, a direct result of muscle gain from lifting weights but I was leaner and stronger than ever.

Here's some of the small ways that I now get fat into my diet everyday:

 - Coconut oil added to smoothies, or just straight off the spoon!

 - Lots of Avocado and Olive Oil in Salads

- Snacking on nuts 

 - Cooking with butter, lard, dripping, goose fat  or duck fat- YUM!

 - Eating chicken with the skin on

 - Leaving the excess fat on meat

 - Using cream and full-fat dairy products