A New Book Coming Out: Primal Body, Primal Mind--Beyond the Paleo Diet

Amazon pre-order. A sample chapter excerpt from Barnes & Noble:

"Chapter 25
Our Primordial Past--Understanding Mother Nature’s Plan and Where We Fit In

What Do All the Longest-living Individuals Have in Common?

“If there is a known single marker for long life, as found in the centenarian and animal studies, it is low insulin levels.”
--Ron Rosedale, M.D., 1998

Research across the board has shown that long-lived individuals (animals and humans) share the following characteristics:

Low fasting insulin levels
Low fasting glucose
Optimally low leptin
Low triglycerides
Low percentage of visceral body fat
Lower body temperature

One single longevity marker stands out among all long-lived animals and persons above the rest, however, and that’s low insulin levels.

In July of 2009 the eagerly awaited results of a twenty-year study on the effects of caloric restriction on primates were finally published in the journal Science. Two groups of Rhesus monkeys (selected for their strong similarity to us) were studied: one group of monkeys was allowed to eat as much as they wanted, and the other group was given a sufficiently nutrient-dense diet with 30 percent fewer calories than they would normally consume. Twenty years later only 63 percent of the monkeys that ate as much as they wanted were still alive. Thirty-seven percent of them had died due to age-related causes. And the caloric restriction group? Eighty-seven percent were still alive and only 13 percent had died of age-related causes. Throughout their lives the calorically restricted group maintained superior health and aging-related biomarkers in every area: brain health, metabolic health and rate, insulin sensitivity, and cardiovascular vitality. The caloric restriction group enjoyed a threefold reduction in age-related disease! Also, they lost fat weight but maintained healthy levels of lean tissue mass. They also retained greater brain volume, which normally shrinks with age and glycation, but more than that they retained superior cognitive function. The cardiovascular disease rate of the caloric-restricted group was fully half the rate of the control group. Forty percent of the control group developed diabetes (or pre-diabetes). Not ONE single monkey in the calorically restricted group developed either. Remarkable. The available photos from the study showing examples of age-matched individuals from the two groups, which I was not able to include here, are visually striking. Stunning, even. The caloric-restricted monkeys looked almost literally half the age of the controls.

Among the most common misconceptions about monkeys and apes, incidentally, is that they are vegan animals. Though they are better adapted to making use of plant foods in some ways than we are, they also readily eat the same things we eat. ALL monkeys and apes are known to eat meat, and many even hunt for meat. The one notable exception is the mountain gorilla, and even they get some insects in their diet. Monkeys and apes are omnivores and, like us, will eat whatever might be available to them in their environment. Some even catch and eat fish! One of the reasons Rhesus monkeys were selected for this particular study, in fact, is because of their pronounced similarity to us, even in terms of diet.

There are actually several more recent studies showing significant health benefit where caloric restriction in humans is concerned. A newly released study in the Journal of Applied Research, “Clinical Experience of a Diet Designed to Reduce Aging” demonstrated that, in the context of an outpatient medical clinic, a diet high in fat (unlimited quantity), adequate in protein (50-80 grams per day), and very low in carbohydrate, with some added multivitamin and mineral supplementation, led to significant improvement in recognized serum factors related to the aging process. Patients were told to eat when they were hungry. The results also included a significant loss of body weight, a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and a reduction in levels of leptin, insulin, fasting glucose, and free T3. Despite the predominance of fat in the diet, serum triglycerides were also greatly reduced.

Of course, it’s easy to restrict overall calories with lab animals, as they have no choice in the matter. It is quite another matter to try and restrict overall caloric intake when you’re driving past fifteen fast food joints on your way home, are surrounded by constant advertisement, and have a refrigerator and cupboards full of food at your ravenous fingertips. Unless, of course, you apply the caloric restriction model in a way that does not leave you hungry--which is exactly what this book tells you how to do. Just follow the simple, most basic dietary guidelines outlined here to eat optimally well while feeling fully satisfied and living healthier, longer--and even save some real money along the way! Even while buying the best-quality grass-fed meats, produce, and wild-caught fish you can find yourself saving considerable money on groceries. The basic guideline to remember is this: greatly restrict or eliminate sugar and starch (preferably eliminating gluten completely), keep your protein intake adequate amounting to approximately 6-7 ounces of organic grass-fed and/or wild-caught meat or seafood total per day, eat as many fibrous “above ground,” non-starchy vegetables and greens as you like, and eat as much fat (from fattier cuts of meat or fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut, butter/ghee, olives, olive oil, and the like) as you need to satisfy your appetite. The bottom line here is that natural dietary fat is not at all our enemy and that, in the absence of dietary carbohydrate and with adequate protein, it can result in a far more satisfying, longer, and healthier life overall. Simple, delicious, and satisfying. No hunger or feelings of deprivation needed, and all the benefits of supporting a longer and healthier life while saving you money. It’s better for the planet, too."

As I've been reading over the years, diet is just part of the longevity picture--total lifestyle, including exercise, community locale, access to modern conveniences, and knowing how to fight disease through diet, exercise, and supplementation where required are parts of the non-scientific intervening ways to gain longevity. People like Ray Kursweil think that putting nanobots into our bloodstreams to do the job of antioxidants, along with joint replacement, can get us to live forever, while proper-diet-and-exercise-alone proponents think their methods can get us to 100 or even 125 without much intervention beyond the occasional joint replacement.

So how does community locale and access to modern convenience fit in? Well, the Blue Zones articles and books tell us that the higher up and more remote an area you live in, the longer you'll live (probably through more movement = exercise). The more access to convenience you have, the more likely you are to use it (think fast foods and push-button lifestyles = less movement and exercise and bad food choices to boot).

Calorie restriction also plays a role in longevity, but not by cutting meals, but rather by changing the way you obtain those calories. Vegetation--fruits and vegetables--has very few calories, and therefore, you can almost eat an entire pickup truck bed full of them, and rack up very few calories. This is how vegetarian and vegans lose weight, and the fiber content of these foods cause everyone else to feel full faster, and maybe lose weight too. Devotees of the longevity through calorie restriction movement (not necessarily vegans) are CRON followers (Calorie Restriction for Optimized Nutrition).

Bits and pieces of the longevity puzzle lie just about everywhere, but true Paleo diet and exercise pretty much brings them all together. By TRUE Paleo, I mean no dairy of any kind (sorry ghee), no beans/legumes of any kind, and no grain of any kind (including seeds from grains and seeds that can grow into grains, possibly like chia and flax), and small (I mean SMALL) quantities of nuts. I'd think honey was out,too, because I don't think cavemen possessed the ability to wrangle bees...but I may be wrong.

I'm planning on ordering this book, but not right away--I'm going to wait and watch the reviews first. Maybe in about 6 months, I'll order it. If you've read any or all of the stuff from the books, authors, and websites I mentioned, and are fairly adept at assembling puzzles (or synthesizing information), you don't really need this book--you already know that pretty much all roads lead to Paleo "Rome."

You might also want to look into the book Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (link on left margin) to create your own "remoteness" and distance yourself from so-called labor-saving (convenience-creating) devices.