Nutrition
Low Carb Isn't Enough
Following nutritional principles alone isn't enough to stay healthy. A low-carb diet can actually backfire if you ignore subtle factors like environmental toxins in your food.
Nutrition
Following nutritional principles alone isn't enough to stay healthy. A low-carb diet can actually backfire if you ignore subtle factors like environmental toxins in your food.
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Knowing nutritional principles alone isn't enough to stay healthy and remain that way.
Let me give you an example. «Don't eat any (‹empty›) carbohydrates anymore» — that's the kind of principle that sounds good and simple. In practice, however, it often looks like this: extremely overweight Peter or extremely overweight Petra, who have a lot of glucose circulating in their blood, can lose weight well on low carb. Over time, though, a problem emerges for many. We are no longer hunters and gatherers, who were genetically equipped to spare glucose better.
Within us are many modern adaptations to a carbohydrate-richer diet. One example could be a genetic variant of CLTCL1 that appears more frequently in farmers versus hunters and gatherers. This means that many people eventually develop significant problems if they try to function exclusively «in fat metabolism» (with low carb).
That we modern Swiss are now better adapted to «more carbohydrates in our diet» is also evident from the fact that people with «archaic genes» (e.g., Aborigines) have an extremely much higher diabetes rate when they move to modern cities. Their bodies spare glucose much more aggressively than the body of a modern Swiss person, and accordingly can barely cope with a somewhat higher glycemic load.
Be clear: we also advocate for «gluten-free» (because gliadin is highly immunogenic) – without bread, pasta, etc., you end up in lower, correct carb ranges anyway. The discussion about this topic is therefore pointless.
But that's not what we wanted to get at in this message.
Nowadays you have to use your brain a little. But that's not edubily's fault; it's due to the fact that our environment is practically always harmful to us these days. We have to take detours and extra measures to stay healthy. That's why our motto is: «Help toward self-help.» We want to give you information, for example:
Your farmed salmon is heavily contaminated. Even the best wild sockeye salmon you should eat rarely, and tuna not at all if possible.
This breaks our hearts too. Tuna was my (Chris) favorite food for a long time. Then we collaborated with one of the largest laboratories in Europe to offer hair mineral analysis. We tested it ourselves, of course. Then the lab director calls personally and shares — concernedly — that my hair mineral analysis is heavily contaminated with mercury. Back then, we barely grasped how serious the situation was. Today, I understand how severely this kind of thing impacts your own health.
Here's where the «nutritional principle knowledge» problem connects: If you thoughtlessly follow the principle «eliminate empty carbs!» and then simply eat whatever contains no carbohydrates, this includes — as is well known — protein-, omega-3-, and micronutrient-rich seafood, you may soon have far bigger problems on your plate than before.
Because environmental toxins, concentrated in fish, damage your glucose tolerance and thus your insulin sensitivity, suppress your immune system (= immunosuppression), or burden you with depression or severe lethargy. These are the people who «do everything right» and yet... don't become healthier. Yes, in a certain sense these are «complications»; it gets more complex — but you unfortunately have to grapple with these things these days.
Twenty years ago, professional journals were already reporting on the problem that the Inuit in particular — because they live almost exclusively on seafood — have to contend with:
The indigenous peoples who subsist mainly on sea animals (whales, polar bears, fish, and seals) are eating a toxic chemical cocktail. Most of the chemicals that the Inuit now struggle with are synthetic chlorine compounds, and some are incredibly toxic. For example, a millionth of a gram of dioxin can kill a guinea pig.
«When we put our babies to our breast, we feed them a harmful cocktail of poisons,» says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a grandmother who is also president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference ICC. «If women have to think twice about whether to breastfeed their babies, that must be a wake-up call for the world.»
Little has changed to this day. And this is in the far, remote north. What do you think it looks like in the North Sea?
This means: you have to attend to factors in your food that can't be recognized with a simple principle. Cutting out carbohydrates isn't enough. Wanting to eat «like a Stone Age human» isn't enough. Not eating animals at all definitely isn't enough. You have to account for the subtle, less obvious factors if you want to stay healthy.
How such better nutritional planning could look is something we laid out in our guide Understanding Metabolism. The printed guide currently comes free with every order in our shop. The product is already in your cart.
Alternatively, here it is free as an ebook or audiobook:
Important: Please understand this as a guideline, as food for thought.
