Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf.

Personalized Nutrition is Your Ideal Diet.

I finished reading Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf this week. Robb Wolf, if you don’t know, might be called the founder of Paleo movement along with Dr. Loren Cordain. First by insight and curiosity ignited by his personal health problems and his mom’s health problems, then by education and research he figured out, that the way we eat today, after the agrarian revolution and drastic changes in our diet — addition of considerable amounts of grains and grain products, dairy, beans, processed sugar foods and other kinds of processed foods, after that our health started to decline at first slowly, and now it’s an epidemic, not only of obesity and diabetes, but a whole range of degenerative diseases.

It’s still a huge surprise for many people to hear and realize, that not everything we can chew, digest and poop out is a good food choice, especially for long term daily consumption.

No! Calories are not everything and the amount of “food” we consume does not guarantee us health, fitness and well-being.

No! We can not eat only processed foods and man-made supplements and expect to have good health. (A power salad a day is still your best life and health insurance)

No! Not everything that grows, runs and swims, even if it’s unprocessed, even if it’s of the best quality is a food good choice for human beings, no matter how skillful a cook preparing it is. There are still poisonous plants and animals, that might not kill you right away, but can add quite a lot of suffering to your life, especially when consumed on a regular basis. (A simple example — there are poisonous berries and mushrooms, fish, that can kill you.) Just because some other plants and animal foods don’t kill you right away — doesn’t mean it’s a safe food choice and a part of human diet. Humans are still mammals, that are well suited for a very particular diet. We can survive eating many things for quite a long time. Nobody said we can thrive eating the same way though.

That’s what Paleo movement is all about — figuring out to the best of our ability the best human diet, the diet we as species were “designed” to thrive on. And surprise, surprise! It’s not a diet of bread, pastries, pasta, Oreos, ice-cream and supplements. And to your surprise it’s not even ONLY about whole foods diet. Some natural whole foods, like grains, beans, dairy just don’t work with our body well, no matter how many fancy and good-meaning labels they have — organic, whole grain, grass-fed, pasture-raised.

More about toxic plant foods you can read in the blog below, my review of the book “The Plant Paradox” by Steven R. Gundry, MD.

Here I want to give you a list of truly-good-for-you foods, that you can safely build your diet around to experience maximum health, fitness, energy in your youthful body for many years ahead, according to Robb Wolf and “Wired to Eat”. (I practiced all major diets for many months and sometimes years, and I believe in Paleo principles for life in combination with “The Plant Paradox” and “The Whole Foods Diet”. That’s what I do now, keeping it low carb and high fat for maximum leanness and satiety.)

Proteins (27)

Chicken breast

Chicken thigh

Flounder

Snapper

Trout

Halibut

Mackerel

Bass

Salmon steak

Salmon fillet

Shrimp

New York steak

Rib eye steak

Round steak

Ground beef

Beef ribs

Rump roast

Beef stew meat

Pork loin

Pork chop

Pork ribs

Baby back ribs

Bacon

Pork roast

Lamb chops

Lamb rack

Venison steaks

Vegetables (24)

Asparagus

Avocado

Artichoke hearts

Brussels sprouts

Beets*

Carrots

Celery

Daikon

Zucchini

Fennel Root

Kale

Chard

Dandelion greens

Spinach

Acorn Squash*

Butternut Squash*

Ya m*

Sweet Potato*

Red pepper

Yellow pepper

Green pepper

Red cabbage

Green cabbage

Napa cabbage

*dense carbohydrate –

eat in moderation until

leanness goals are

reached

Fats (5)

Coconut oil

Olive oil

Macadamia oil

Avocado oil

Lard

Herbs & Spices (25)

Allspice

Basil

Cardamom

Cinnamon

Celery seed

Dill

Fenugreek

Garlic

Ginger

Curry-Red

Curry-Green

Curry-Yellow

Oregano

Cillantro

Nutmeg

Rosemary

Thyme

Garam Masala

Bay Leaf

Salt

Herbs de Provance

Chili powder

Paprika

Cumin

Black pepper

To build perfect for human consumption and health meals just take a protein of your choice, vegetables and spices and get creative or google recipes with these ingredients. And you are done! (Here is my version of the healthiest lunch on the planet, that requires no cooking and very little time.)

Perfect-For-Humans Meal Formula

1 Fat + 1 Protein + 1 Veggie + 1 Spice

That all being said, Robb Wolf does not demonize all the foods that are not on the list. He does believe that all of us have unique physiology, genetics, environment we live in, our health history, needs that change with age. Robb believes, that our ideal diet must reflect that individuality, Robb believes in Personalized Nutrition, nutrition tailored for our individual needs and circumstances. And with modern technology and all the research available now you can figure out what foods work for you and what foods don’t.

After the initial 30-day restart program Robb suggests you run a 7-Day carbohydrate test to figure out what questionable foods are ok for you and what foods are absolutely evil. All you’ll need is a blood glucose monitor to measure how your blood sugar changes after eating certain foods.

To test the food, eat the amount of that food that only gives you 50 g of carbs (minus fiber, or net carbs). Eat only that food and wait for 2 hours. Then measure your blood glucose. Ideally your blood glucose should be between 90 and 115 mg/dl. If it’s higher, try eating 25 g of carbs next time. If your blood sugar is still too high — that’s not a good food for you.

Foods, that cause our blood sugar to spike are not good for us. And spikes in our blood sugar are caused not only by carbohydrates or sugars, or any other substances, that are labeled “bad”, spikes in our blood sugar can be also caused by any allergic, inflammatory or auto-immune reactions to a particular food, even organic whole and all natural!

When it comes to non-carbohydrate foods (High protein meal can cause your blood sugar to spike easily too, by the way), the best way to measure how suitable that food for you is the following method, introduced by Dave Asprey in his new book Head Strong (I also reviewed that book. You’ll find, that Head Strong or Bulletproof diet are surprisingly similar to some mixture of Paleo, The Plant Paradox and The Whole Foods diet. When leaders in the industry come to similar conclusions with slight variations — there must be some truth to it, don’t you think?)

Main takeaways?

You have more control over your health through your nutrition than you think.

Some whole organic foods are not healthy and not safe for human consumption, even though negative effects might not show themselves for many years, except for unknown origin of allergies, auto-immune conditions, fatigue, weight gain and screwed up metabolism.

Try Wired to Eat or Plant Paradox approach to eating for 30 days and I’ll pay YOU, if you don’t see your health, weight, energy improved dramatically. That’s how sure I am in this knowledge.

Healthy living trivia

1. I’m telling you this Perfect-For-Humans and Personalized diet works best! Try it — and I’ll pay YOU if it doesn’t!