It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways

The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy. Those are your options.

You cannot “out-exercise” poor food choices and the resulting hormonal disruption.

You cannot “out-exercise” poor food choices ad the resulting hormonal disruption.

Genetics loads the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.

There is no food neutral; there is no food Switzerland—every single thing you put in your mouth is either making you more healthy or less healthy.

The calcium in vegetable sources may prove more bioavailable (useful to the body) than the stuff you get from milk. One study compared the absorption of calcium from kale and from milk and found kale the clear winner. (Yeah, kale!) Recent studies have shown that plant-sourced calcium in particular increases bone-mineral density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis. This is probably not just due to the calcium content of the plant—the complement of other vitamins (such as vitamin K), minerals, and phytonutrients work synergistically to provide additional benefits to bones. Yet another reason to eat your greens.

We believe you should consume only foods (and drinks) that support normal, healthy digestive function; eating anything that impairs the integrity of your gut impairs the integrity of your health.

Stress affects the activation of reward pathways and impairs your attempts to control your eating habits. Did you catch that? Stress makes it even harder for us to resist our cravings.

If we were hunting and foraging our food in nature,

Despite what you may believe, habit research shows that dramatic changes are actually easier for us to manage, both physically and psychologically.

There is not a single health-promoting substance present in grains that you can’t also get from vegetables and fruit.

physical coordination are better. And you’ll probably notice

when the liver and muscle glycogen stores are full. In the case of full glycogen stores, the liver then turns the glucose into fat—specifically, a form of saturated fat called palmitic acid (!)—which could be used for energy but is more likely (because you’re a sugar-burner and not fat-adapted) to promote elevated triglycerides, leptin resistance, and insulin resistance and to be added to your fat stores.

Belly fat is especially active in this process, contributing to inflammation more than fat stores in other areas (like your buttocks or thighs).

Chronic systemic inflammation plays a key role in more than just age-related diseases. Inflammation contributes to a long list of conditions that you may be dealing with right now. Like asthma, allergies, acne, eczema and other skin conditions, depression, ADHD, and mood swings. Do

Sat-Fat Myth #4: Saturated fat promotes insulin resistance and inflammation. True. Some forms of saturated fat (particularly the “long chain” versions) do contribute to insulin resistance and, by extension, inflammation in the body, which does increase your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Palmitic acid (PA) in particular is the type of saturated fat most correlated with insulin resistance and inflammation. But the form of saturated fat that gets all kinds of ugly in your body doesn’t come from eating saturated fat. The harmful kind of saturated fat comes from eating too many refined carbohydrates.

But one thing is certain—in the case of nutrition and health, the science can be confusing and can lead to “paralysis by analysis” (a state in which you take no action because you’re not sure what to do).

Epigenetics is the study of gene expression—whether genes turn on or turn off and how loudly their information is expressed. While we are all born with a certain code, we are also born with switches that tell that code what to do. Our environmental input (diet, exercise, air quality, etc.) activates those switches. Think about it this way: Genetics loads the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.

body’s initial, short-term response to damage. Think of acute inflammation as the cleanup before the rebuilding. It decreases

Chronic Your body’s initial, short-term response to damage. Think of acute inflammation as the cleanup before the rebuilding. It decreases quickly as your body begins the healing process. Acute inflammation is a good thing, and you wouldn’t want to lose that function. Chronic

Being chronically underslept, overexercising, or experiencing chronic psychological stress—a hallmark of modern life—can all trigger unhealthy levels of cortisol in the body. But so can prolonged periods of not eating (extended fasting) or eating too little (excessive calorie restriction).

what is at the root of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions like heart disease and stroke? Take one guess. Systemic inflammation.

the National Institutes of Health estimates that soybeans, usually in the form of oil, now account for an astonishing 10 percent of total calories in the United States. Ten percent of total calories is a lot. These seed oils are ubiquitous because they’re cheap—but they are not healthy.

As a rule, we think the foods that are good for your body should also not mess with your mind.