Key Messages
How To Return To Healthier Eating Habits: Understanding The Benefits Of Natural, Whole Foods Over Processed Ones
Deep Nutrition’s Book Summary discusses how you can boost your health by simply returning to traditional and simple foods.
Surprisingly, many of the “low-calorie, low-fat, pre-packaged ‘health’ foods” that are so popular today were nowhere to be found when our grandparents were young.
These highly processed foods contain a huge amount of sugar and lack many of the nourishing nutrients that come from whole, natural foods.
In this book you will learn why an increase in lifespan does not necessarily mean improved health; why vegetable oils are not as healthy as eating vegetables; and finally the science behind fresh foods being more nourishing than processed alternatives.
Let Deep Nutrition’s Book Summary help you make healthier choices by choosing simple and traditional food!
The Decline Of Health: How Modern Industrialized Food Is Damaging Our Health And What We Can Do About It
The Deep Nutrition book summary provides a powerful reminder that despite all of the incredible developments in modern medicine, our health is actually declining.
This can be seen by looking at the generations before us, who on average lived longer and had fewer age-related medical issues.
For instance, Catherine – one of the authors and a practitioner – has been seeing increasing numbers of patients as young as 40 who are dealing with chronic joint and cardiovascular problems.
At the same time, people today have more access to processed food than ever before, which contains a higher amount of sugar and other unhealthy components than natural options.
To make matters worse, this shift isn’t being countered by education about good nutrition in medical schools where future doctors don’t learn a single useful thing about nutrition.
Fortunately would-be physicians don’t always have to rely on artificially produced vitamins or supplements for optimal wellness; it is possible to improve overall wellbeing from eating nutritive foods like those eaten in days past and avoiding industrial food products.
In other words, the key to better health might just lie in our dietary choices!
Traditional Cultures Know How To Keep Their People Healthy – Through Proper Nutrition And Prenatal Care
Traditional cultures have known for thousands of years that eating habits developed with health and longevity in mind are key to leading long and healthy lives.
This was certainly the case for the Hunza, a near-nomadic tribe from Afghanistan, who had very few cases of illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.
The Cleveland dentist, Weston A.
Price, who researched the topic found that these tribal members consumed diets full of ten times more vitamins and 1.5 to 50 times more minerals than their American counterparts.
It was also apparent that traditional cultures placed great importance on nutrition during pregnancy.
They believed that a mother’s well-being would have an effect on her unborn child, and made sure to feed expectant mothers options full of nourishing foods prior to conception.
An example can be seen through the Maasai tribe of Eastern Africa who shared milk produced during the rainy season when grass is lusher; this milk is highly nutritious and serves as part of the couple’s premarital ritual before conceiving a child.
How Vegetable Oil Impacts Your Brain: The Unhealthy Nature Of This Common Food Product
Your brain is naturally equipped with two types of antioxidants to protect it from free radicals and oxidation damage – Enzymatic Antioxidants, which are produced by your body, and Diet-Derived Antioxidants, which you get from your food.
Unfortunately, vegetable oils disrupt this natural antioxidant delivery system.
Vegetable oils like canola oil contain large amounts of PUFAs (which are highly unstable lipids), and when these PUFAs are heated up they produce trans fats.
These trans fats wreak havoc on your brain’s defense system because the antioxidants that should be used to neutralize them don’t reach the brain quickly enough.
As a result, the brain doesn’t recognize these unhealthy substances as foreign and allows them to damage cells and cause inflammation and disease.
In essence, while vegetables may be good for your health overall, processed vegetable oils can have disastrous effects on your brain due to their high trans fat content.
The Hidden Danger Of Sugar: It’S More Addictive Than Cocaine And Causes Brain Damage
Sugar is arguably the most dangerous drug in the world today.
Its addictive properties surpass even that of cocaine – it has been found to be more attractive to rats than even this powerful narcotic!
And, if that weren’t enough, its excessive consumption actually rewires your brain and damages cells responsible for healthy neural connections.
That’s why a lack of these healthy branches can lead to dementia.
And, unfortunately, sugar is everywhere.
The modern food industry relies on processed sugars for its products – Pediasure, a seemingly ‘healthy’ drink for children sold by pediatricians contains a staggering 108 grams of sugar per liter of fluid; many times more than that found in whole milk!
Food companies have also been known to rename sugar with various labels such as maltodextrin or sucralose in order to keep consumers from knowing how much they are consuming of this highly addictive substance.
So therefore, the conclusion is clear: Sugar is abundant, dangerously addictive and does severe damage to your brain cells.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can manage it carefully – once you become addicted, it will take over your life before you know it.
It’s up to all of us to ensure we don’t fall under its sweet spell and either avoid or limit our exposure as much as possible.
Eating For Optimal Nutrition: The Pillars Of The Human Diet
If you want to get the most bang for your buck with your diet, you should consider incorporating meat cooked on the bone and organ meats into your meal plan.
Cooking meat on the bone will provide you with nourishment from glycosaminoglycans and minerals that are essential for optimal health.
Furthermore, organ meats like liver are an excellent source of nutrients because they contain multiple times more essential vitamins than broccoli does!
Even for those who may not be ready to start eating eyeballs just yet, there are other ways to incorporate beneficial nutrition into your diet.
Fermented foods are a great way to add probiotics as well as beneficial substances like lutein which can help support eye health.
At the end of the day, by adding meat cooked on the bone and organs while also including fermented foods in your diet, you can be sure that you’re getting all of the important nutrients you need to stay healthy.
The Benefits Of Eating Sprouted And Fermented Foods For Better Health
The third pillar of the Human Diet emphasizes the importance of making sure your ingredients are as nutritious as possible.
The best way to do that is by either sprouting or fermenting them.
Sprouting foods, such as seeds and legumes, can release valuable nutrients which would have otherwise been kept locked within the seed, and fermentation can break down sugars into more easily digested nutrients.
This can make a huge difference in terms of nutrition!
Not only that, but sprouting has been shown to eliminate certain compounds like phytates found in grains which bind with minerals and make it difficult for our bodies to absorb them.
It’s even been linked to cases where mothers and their children were afflicted with dwarfism due to not eating fermented bread!
So if you want to ensure you’re getting the most out of your food, then start looking into either sprouting or fermenting your ingredients; it makes all the difference in terms of nutrition.
Reaping The Benefits Of Antioxidant-Rich Foods And Herbs: Enjoy More From Eating Fresh And Raw
The final pillar of the Human Diet is eating antioxidant-rich fresh plant foods.
This is where you get antioxidants from food, as opposed to those that your body makes.
But don’t worry—you don’t need to buy expensive supplements or rare berries in order to benefit.
There are plenty of vegetables, herbs and spices that are packed with antioxidants like flavonoids, phenolics and coumarins.
Think peppers, broccoli, garlic and celery!
Plus, these natural sources of antioxidants provide a perfectly balanced mix that is much more potent than any supplement.
Additionally, you get the most out of these foods when they’re eaten at the peak of freshness and raw.
This will ensure all the antioxidants neutralize free radicals, instead of being lost during storage or cooking/processing.
However there are exceptions—carrots for instance require heat or fermentation to release all their stored vitamins and minerals.
So if you want to boost your antioxidant intake simply start thinking about growing a little herb garden on your balcony—or stocking up on freshly picked produce from local markets!
Wrap Up
The key message of Deep Nutrition: Food Is Medicine is that modern industrial food production is making us sick and we can combat this by returning to an older way of eating.
This means avoiding detrimental processed foods and increasing the amount eat natural foods such as organ meat, fresh vegetables, and fermented products.
The book also offers some concrete advice on how to make this switch easier, such as detoxing your kitchen.
After all is said and done, this book provides a very thorough explanation on the effects our diet can have on our overall well-being.
The author emphasizes that our shift towards eating industrial foods has had far reaching consequences that range from smaller illnesses all the way up to chronic diseases.
It’s clear that if we want to maintain our health into old age, then we must return to an older way of eating that focuses on natural produce.
