In my recent post A Year Later, I shared some of the new habits I've adopted since I got sick. The most vague, but clearly the most useful, was my adoption of The Metabolic Typing Diet (MTD). This is an approach to abundant health that relies solely on the manipulation of the macronutrients in our diet (protein, fat, and carbs). An important clarification here, is the diet assumes we're not eating crap - and don't make me define crap here - you know what I mean.
The book and the concepts have intrigued me like no other diet formula. It explains why both the Atkins Diet and the Mediterranean Diet can both have positive clinical results. The MTD also supports my strongly held belief that God put in our world everything we need to live a healthy, disease free life - that we don't have to invent new foods to eat - we just need to eat the things He made.
While modern medicine delves deeper and deeper into microbiology and genetic engineering to discover ways to avoid disease, I'm running in the opposite direction. I'll proudly accept the label of a "simpleton" (or birdbrain, blockhead, lamebrain, bonehead, numskull, buffon, nitwit, fool, dope - you pick your favorite label for me) for three reasons.
First, by seeking ways to eat and live from what already exists in our world, I'm expressing my confidence that the big guy upstairs has already provided for me. If I believe in an intelligent designer who created the most incredible machine of all time (the human body), shouldn't I also give credit to that designer for providing the right fuel for that machine? Of course I should! By doing so, my believing friends would tell me I'm glorifying God.
Second, and this is a plea for the intellectuals in my group who just selected a label for me, science offers a vindication. From the MTD book Wolcott points out that researchers have discovered that people who live in primitive cultures consistently display an astonishing range of physical attributes rarely seen in modern cultures:
Virtually no birth defects or physical deformities
No weight problems
Exceptionally well-shaped bones and skeletal frames
Wide and symmetrical faces with expansive, highly functional nasal and respiratory passages
Strong jaws with perfect dental alignment
Flawless teeth and gums that rarely if ever succumb to decay and disease
But when these same people are exposed to foods and dietary customs of modern civilization, their health rapidly deteriorates and they fall victim to the very same diseases that have long permeated industrial societies.
Third, the book offers an explanation (OK, a sound hypothesis) of why health nuts can die young - or wellness cooks can get cancer. That explanation comes in a discussion of the myth of the universal diet. Over thousands of years of evolutionary history, people in different parts of the world developed very distinct nutritional needs in response to a whole range of variables, including climate and geography and whatever plant and animal life their environments had to offer.
As a result, people today have widely varying nutrient requirements, especially with regard to macronutrients - the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that are the fundamental dietary building blocks, that is, the compounds most essential to sustaining life.
For example, many people who currently inhabit tropical or equatorial regions have a strong heredity need for diets high in carbohydrates such as vegetables and fruits and grains and legumes. These foods provide the kind of body fuel that is most compatible with the unique body chemistry of people who are genetically programmed to lead active lifestyles in warm and humid regions of the world. Their systems are simply not designed to process or utilize large quantities of animal protein and fat. The hot brunette in Florida provides a case in point. She's quite content on a menu devoid of any red meat or chicken, and limited quantities of dairy and fish.
Conversely, people from cold, harsh northern climates are not genetically equipped to survive on light vegetarian food. They tend to burn body fuel quickly, so they need heavier foods to sustain themselves. Eskimos, for example, can easily digest and assimilate large quantities of heavy protein and fat - the very types of food that would overwhelm the digestive tracts of people from, say, the Mediterranean basin. While I'm no Eskimo, my body definitely craves more protein an fat than the hot brunette's.
The bottom line is that a diet considered healthful in one part of the world is frequently disastrous for people elsewhere in the world.
That's why there's no such thing as a healthy, universal diet. If you're a protein type, then Atkins will work for you. If you're a carbo type, then the Mediterranean Diet will work for you. I just got ahead of myself with those metabolic types, but that's a glimpse of the logic behind this revolutionary approach to maintaining our earth vehicles. And that's why if an Eskimo eats like a Greek, he'll get chronic diseases (high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis, obesity, etc.)
Because the MTD process involves a lot more than just following a cookie-cutter menu (like a universal diet), and because we actually have to exert some effort to determine our metabolic type, I don't think the book ever made it to The New York Times best seller list. Because the concept is so profoundly simple (though cumbersome) and effective, I'm going to devote a chapter to it in my NY Times best selling book due out some time before 2020.
I highly encourage the 10:10 community to get the book (it's $10.87 on Amazon) and begin the process of determining your unique metabolic type. The book won't answer all your questions, nor will it determine all of the components of your body type - that's determined by an on-line test that I'll spout about later. It will get you on course to the most powerful method for fueling your rocket ship.
Are you in?
