Pillar 1: Nourish Well

                Feast and Famine. This is the way our ancestors used to eat. They would go through periods of famine and then when they would hunt/kill an animal or find/grow food they would feast. Our bodies have adapted to this way of life by enabling us to use two different types of fuel for metabolism. On one hand we utilize glucose through glycolysis where our bodies take glucose (typically in the form of carbohydrates) and turns that into a source our cells can then utilize to create ATP (energy). This glucose feeding is fast and is what is utilized for cellular growth. The other source we can use is fat through ketogenesis. This was our body’s way of creating energy during times of famine. This is also the time when cellular repair happens. Ketosis causes our cells to look at how well they are functioning and for the cells that have optimal typically self-destruct through apoptosis. This is called autophagy.

                There have been multiple studies about which way of eating is best but, in the end, I believe that we should be looking at how our ancestors would have eaten and how nature provides for us. Our cellular makeup is created to be able to switch from carbs to fat and back and it provides us a lot of great benefits to switch back and forth. There are also a lot of consequences when we don’t. For instance, when we are constantly in this cellular growth phase (feast) and never switching to the destruct and repair (fasting) we fall into the trap where we are not only growing healthy cells, we are growing our cancerous cells also. On the other hand, there are things that happen when people participate in long term ketogenic diets. The carnivore diet is very popular but what happens when you are in ketosis for an extended period of time is you are lacking the feedback loop to your kidneys to retain some key electrolytes. Insulin is a key factor in that feedback loop and if you never get to the point where your body is releasing it, your kidneys will get rid of all those key electrolytes your body needs to function and you see people getting heart palpitations and other side effects from losing those. Now, to each their own, and there are ways to avoid this. I am not a doctor I am simply providing some fascinating information at a high level for people to consider. It is important to note here that not all fasting is created equal, especially for women! I will write another post on the book Fast Like a Girl (https://amzn.to/3LpASzI) by Mindy Pelz to discuss the topic further.

                For me, I am trying to focus on- can I hunt or gather this? This means that there is a lot of meat- most of ours is meat that we have hunted/fished/butchered- and mixed in are some plant products (with a key focus on BEANS- a food you will see repetitively in all the Blue Zones!). Plants have had a lot of contradictory information on them but it is agreed that plants have a natural “anti-nutrient” that they use to prevent animals from eating them. Some plants have more than others… If you look at the fruit a plant produces, as the fruit ripens, the amount of antinutrients it has significantly decreases. Nature wants you to eat the fruit of plants, it helps spread seeds and is a survival mechanism for that plant. This just goes to show you that not all plant-based food is terrible and there is a happy middle for this aspect of diet as well. In addition, by eating seasonally you take this a step further by essentially cycling through the different anti-nutrients and giving your body a chance to take a break and detox from one to another.

              Here is a link to a guide I have created for my household (below is a sneak peak) to help navigate this hunter-gatherer mentality (https://www.etsy.com/listing/1763455893/seasonal-eating) and as I mentioned before, I will create another post specifically related to intermittent fasting which is also something I practice and have seen success with.