It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways (21 page)

Remember that old adage “You are what you eat”? We like to take that one step further, borrowing a clever turn of phrase from author Michael Pollan.

The conditions under which factory-farmed animals are kept and the food they are fed make the meat of these animals less micronutrient-rich and more contaminated than that of their naturally raised, naturally fed counterparts. However, there are steps you can take to mitigate the negative health effects of eating industrially-produced meat.

First, buy the leanest cut possible, and trim or drain all the visible fat.
Residues in factory-farmed meat
(such as those from pesticides, insecticides, feed additives, hormones, and antibiotics) are often fat-soluble, which means they are stored in the animal’s fatty tissues. When we consume the fat from these animals, we are also ingesting these toxins. These residues can be hazardous to humans and are dose-dependent (the more you consume, the greater the potential risk). By purchasing lean cuts of conventionally-raised meat and removing all visible fat, you can reduce your exposure to these potentially injurious substances. But allow us to make one critical point.

As you’ll see in a later chapter, we’re not fat-phobic, and we aren’t suggesting you should eat
nothing
but lean meat. We just don’t like the
toxins
that come along for the ride in factory-farmed meat. However, if you’re eating 100 percent grass-fed, organic meat, it’s perfectly fine to eat a fatty rib-eye! The type of fat found in naturally raised and fed animals contains many healthful properties,
with none of the contaminants that result from factory farming
—and we believe that kind of fat really does make you healthier.

To quell some of your meat concerns, we’ll also assure you that we want you to vary your animal protein sources. We don’t think you should eat rib-eyes at every meal, seven days a week, even if they
are
grass-fed and organic. Different meats contain different vitamins and minerals, so the more you rotate the foods you eat, the better chance you’ll have of getting the full complement of micronutrients that make you healthier. If you don’t like certain types of meats, that’s OK—there are still plenty of options for you.

Two of the most common questions we hear are, “Can I eat eggs every day?” and “How many eggs can I eat?”

The answers are
yes
and
a reasonable amount
.

Allow us to explain.

The concern with eggs is usually in reference to the egg yolk, and comes from health-conscious folks who worry about their cholesterol intake. Generally, they’ve been told that eggs are cholesterol bombs, that cholesterol in their body comes primarily from their diet, and that cholesterol is inherently “bad.”

Let’s clear up some cholesterol misconceptions, shall we?

First, don’t take a reductionist view here—eggs are more than
just
cholesterol. They’re packed with protein (half in the white, half in the yolk), and pastured eggs provide more than a dozen essential nutrients, including vitamins A, B
12
, D, and E, brain-healthy choline, omega-3 fatty acids, and eye-healthy lutein … all of which are found in the yolk
.

That being said, one large egg yolk does have almost 200 mg of cholesterol, and conventional wisdom says that since eggs are high in cholesterol, eating eggs every day will increase your blood cholesterol, leading to heart disease and stroke.

Blood-cholesterol and lipoprotein levels are controlled by far more powerful factors than the cholesterol in your diet. In fact, the vast majority of your blood cholesterol is produced by your own body: depending on your health and diet, your liver makes
three to ten times more cholesterol
than the amount that comes from your food. So what would make your body produce abnormally high amounts of cholesterol?

Overcarbsumption and systemic inflammation, that’s what.

When, as a result of dietary and lifestyle factors, we create systemic inflammation in the body, the liver is forced to pump out more and more lipoprotein and cholesterol in an attempt to manage our inflammatory status, fend off infection, and repair damaged tissues. In addition, when we are under physical or psychological stress, cholesterol increases significantly—because cholesterol is an important precursor of cortisol. (Remember cortisol, that “stress hormone?”) More stress equals more cortisol production equals more lipoprotein and cholesterol production.

So knowing that the vast majority of your total blood cholesterol comes from your own body, if your doctor says you have high cholesterol, what will have the biggest impact—eliminating three eggs a day or making changes to reduce systemic inflammation and avoid overcarbsumption, thus dramatically reducing your body’s own production of cholesterol?

That’s what is known as a rhetorical question.

In addition, cholesterol is not evil—it’s a necessary part of our hormonal production and cellular structure. You need cholesterol for the production of hormones like cortisol, estrogen, and testosterone, to make vitamin D, to build and repair cell walls, and to produce bile acids and salts to help you digest food. It’s also critical for normal function of neurons (nerve cells), including those in the brain.

Which means our goal is not to get to zero cholesterol—in fact, cholesterol levels that are too low are quite harmful and increase your risk for a variety of disorders, including cancer, depression, stroke, and anxiety. No, the goal is to arrive at a place of appropriate cholesterol levels, with numbers that reflect a low risk for lifestyle-related diseases and conditions.

The thing is, that might still look a lot like “high cholesterol” on paper.

A diagnosis of “high cholesterol” is based on measuring the amount of total cholesterol circulating in the blood. However, measuring cholesterol and lipoprotein levels, interpreting these measurements, and drawing conclusions about their cause and effect is complicated. Some biomarkers, such as elevated total cholesterol or high LDL-C,
are
associated with increased rates of cardiovascular disease. But that doesn’t mean that the cholesterol in the blood causes cardiovascular disease! In addition, while
elevated total cholesterol
may be an indicator of disease, it might not indicate elevated risk at all.

Say your total cholesterol is 230 mg/dL (230 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood). If you have no systemic inflammation, high HDL-C, and low triglycerides, you can consider yourself generally healthy and at low risk for heart disease, even though your total cholesterol is “borderline high.” In this instance, some of your “high” cholesterol might come from your diet, but that is not a problem!

However, a cholesterol level of 230 accompanied by systemic inflammation, low HDL-C, and high triglycerides is a totally different story—this can happen even if you consume
no
cholesterol in your diet. In this case, high total cholesterol puts you at increased risk for heart disease and stroke
.

Context matters.

Measuring just total cholesterol is kind of like watching a movie trailer—it gives you a rough idea of what’s going on, but you need far more information to evaluate the whole story. A better big-picture strategy is to use cholesterol measurements in conjunction with other lab values (such as LDL particle size, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein) to paint a multifaceted picture of your overall health.

In summary, eating cholesterol-rich foods as part of a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet like this one is not problematic. If you’re following our Good Food recommendations, your body won’t need to overproduce cholesterol, which means it’s totally safe for you to consume some in your food. We’re OK with regular consumption of whole eggs—even if you’re eating five or six at a time—as part of the varied, high-quality diet we’re outlining here.

In fact,
one 2008 study
summarized: “There is no convincing evidence to link an increased intake of dietary cholesterol or eggs with coronary heart disease through raised blood cholesterol. Indeed, eggs make a nutritional contribution to a healthy diet.”

Maybe we could have just said that.

One last word on processed meats like bacon, sausage, deli meat, or beef jerky. While these foods are certainly convenient, they are not always the healthiest choice. Bacon and sausage often contain just as much fat as protein, and if that meat is coming from the factory-farming system, that fat contains a whole lot of potentially toxic byproducts. As with all protein, the quality of the meat and the manner in which it was processed determine how healthy the end product will be.

Some observational research suggests that processed meats are associated with
higher rates
of some cancers—but the how is still unknown and probably has to do with the way the animals were raised and fed (in our factory-farming system).
If you are going to eat processed meats, our same quality guidelines apply. Select foods from naturally raised and fed sources (grass-fed, pastured, wild-caught, and organic), and find brands that are minimally processed with ingredients you can pronounce. And as always, make sure to vary your protein sources from day to day.