It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways (25 page)

Coconut contains a large proportion (about 66 percent) of a very healthy form of saturated fat called “medium-chain triglycerides” (MCTs).
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These MCTs have some very unique properties and are very beneficial to the body.

First, remember how we said fat is an excellent energy source? Well, these MCTs are shorter-chain fats, meaning that they are
more rapidly absorbed
and metabolized than their longer-chain counterparts. This means that the MCTs found in coconut products are more likely to be burned as fuel by your muscles and organs, instead of being stored as fat.

Sweet.

Studies also suggest that MCTs may help prevent atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, in part by reducing cholesterol levels and by imparting a slight blood-glucose-lowering effect.

Finally, MCTs are unique in that they do not require bile (which is made in the liver and stored in the gallbladder) for digestion. This makes them a fantastic fat source if you have impaired liver function,
digestive malabsorption conditions
, or have had your gallbladder removed.

Good Sources of MCTs

Unrefined coconut oil is ideal for cooking, and most varieties don’t transmit a strong coconut flavor to your food. Coconut milk (the concentrated form in a can, not the sweetened stuff in a milk-like carton) is a great substitute for milk or cream in recipes, and can be used in everything from soups and curries to “creamed” versions of your favorite vegetables. Coconut butter is a delicious snack straight from the jar, and coconut flakes or shreds can be used to coat meat or seafood for a delicious oven-baked crunch (or eaten straight from the bag as a portable source of fat).

The last category of fats we’ll discuss are the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). There are many different types of PUFAs, but we’re going to focus on omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. We’ve already talked about these guys in reference to seed oils, but let’s review:

• The omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA are anti-inflammatory in nature.
  
• More omega-6 than omega-3 promotes inflammation.
  
• Too much PUFA (omega-3 and omega-6) in the diet makes your cells more vulnerable to oxidation—which predisposes you to inflammation.
  

So you want some omega-3 in your diet to help reduce inflammation, but you don’t want too much of
either
omega-3 or omega-6, lest that lead to more inflammation. It’s tricky, we’ll give you that—but we’ve got it all worked out for you in just two steps.

1. Significantly decrease the amount of omega-6 and total PUFA in your diet.
   
2. Eat some naturally occurring omega-3—not too much, but enough to provide some anti-inflammatory benefits.
   

We’ve already made huge inroads on that first step by eliminating all seed oils. Now, let’s talk about another whole-food source of PUFAs that, if consumed in excess, could provide too much omega-6 and total PUFA in the diet: nuts and seeds.

Nuts and seeds contain a varying amount of polyunsaturated fats—anywhere from 2 percent (macadamia nuts) all the way up to 72 percent (walnuts). But please note, there is a significant difference between eating raw, minimally processed nuts and seeds and highly refined seed
oils
. Raw nuts and seeds contain a wide range of micronutrients, many of which act as antioxidants. So as long as the nuts and seeds have not been extensively heated or refined, these antioxidants should help to
prevent oxidation
before consumption. In addition, unlike refined seed oils, nuts and seeds contain a wide variety of health-promoting micronutrients, which studies show may work together to
improve your cholesterol
profile and
reduce inflammation.

Of course,
some
nuts and seeds in the diet may be good, but
more
is not better. We still want to be careful not to incorporate too many of these fragile PUFAs into our cell walls, whether from whole-food sources or not.

Nuts and Seeds (and Their Corresponding Nut Butters)

Let’s start with your best choices—cashews, hazelnuts, and macadamias. These nuts are rich in MUFA and contain very small amounts of PUFA per serving. Nuts and seeds in the middle column have enough PUFA to be of concern, and we’d suggest eating these in moderation (no more than a few times a week).

Finally, you’ve got your lowest-tier nuts and seeds—the ones we’d recommend you limit in your healthy-fat rotation. More than half the fat in them comes from PUFAs, and therefore they should be eaten only occasionally, or treated like a condiment, sprinkled on salads, vegetables, or main dishes.

One last thought on nuts, seeds, and especially their corresponding nut butters. Much like the natural sweetness of fruit may promote an unhealthy psychological response (and
potentially
violate our first Good Food standard), the natural fats, added salt, and perhaps added sugar found in nuts and nut butters can have the same effect.

In plain speech, people find them all too easy to overconsume.

Now, if you were to sit in front of the television and mindlessly eat a whole bag of carrots—no harm, no foul. We certainly don’t encourage that kind of “auto-pilot consumption,” but even an entire bag of carrots isn’t going to send your metabolism spiraling out of control.

Swap those carrots for half a jar of sunflower seed butter (or almonds, or macadamia nuts), however, and we’ve got a serious problem. Nuts and seeds pack a far greater caloric punch than carrots, and you may just find yourself consuming almost an entire day’s worth of calories before you know it. Really. Half a jar of sunflower seed butter has 1,400 calories—and a whole lot of PUFA and omega-6 to boot.

So there are a few reasons that nuts and seeds should be near the bottom of your list of healthy fat sources. They are certainly not
un
healthy—but for the several reasons we’ve outlined, they’re not the
most
healthy of your healthy choices. Reach for these occasionally when adding fat to meals, but choose other fats (like avocado, olives, and coconut) more often.

Before we wrap up this section, we want to make three very important points about food quality.

If you can focus on the sourcing of only
one
item on your plate, we think you’re better off improving the quality of your animal protein sources first—even before thinking about organic vegetables, fruits, and fats. We believe that the health of the animal has a significant effect on your health. And while we’re certainly not encouraging you to ingest pesticides, in our opinion the potential downsides of industrially-raised meat, seafood, and eggs are far more harmful than the residues left on produce.

The potential downsides of pesticide residues don’t outweigh the major health benefits from consuming vegetables and fruits. We’ll reiterate: Making Good Food
choices
is the most important factor in your healthy-eating transformation. Focusing on food
sourcing
comes second, so think about it when you’re able. If you can’t wrap your head around organic, can’t afford organic, or can’t find organic in your community, that’s OK. Just eat your greens!

Thinking about how to improve the quality of your food can send you down the rabbit hole pretty darn fast. The more you learn about where your food comes from and the wide variety of health effects related to farming practices, the easier it is to become confused or disheartened. The last thing we want is for you to become so overwhelmed by all of these new concepts that you become paralyzed in your food decisions.

So, please—
don’t stress about your food!
You can’t ask for the full biography of every animal or plant you eat, so if the waiter says it’s wild-caught or the label says “pesticide free,” you have to trust that information and make the best decision you can. It’s that simple—we promise.

Congratulations! Not only have you survived the science-y stuff and our “less-healthy” information, but you’ve learned everything you’ll need to know about choosing foods that make you healthier. So what’s left? The best part—eating! Now that you’ve got all your foods in line, it’s time to figure out how to put them all together into actual honest-to-goodness meals.

Hungry? So are we!

“I had almost every diet-related disease—breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. I was also about seventy pounds overweight and almost completely sedentary. Since I started the Whole30 I have lost twenty-four pounds. I am completely off my diabetes medication and my high blood pressure medication. I had a checkup with my oncologist today, and he asked me what I was doing to look so much better. I told him about the Whole30, and he said it was wonderful that I was eating real food and doing it for health, not just to lose weight. He told me to keep it up!”

—Beth T., Richmond, Texas

It’s time to put all your Good Food smarts to work building healthy meals. But before we get to the details, we’re going to address one question right off the bat.

No, we are not going to tell you exactly how much to eat.

We won’t give you calories, grams, ounces, blocks, or points, because you don’t need us to tell you how much to eat.

Know why?

Because you’ve got built-in hormonal regulatory mechanisms designed to do just that. Put simply:

The trouble is, your body’s signals may have historically been
very
unreliable. Because of the foods you’ve been eating, and the resulting overconsumption and hormonal dysregulation, you’ve been getting mixed messages. Your body has been telling you to eat when you’re full, that you’re hungry when you’re not, and sending you unsolicited cravings for foods you know don’t make you healthier. And because of your metabolic status, you’ve never been able to trust the signals your body has been sending you.

Until now.

Because when you make consistently good food choices, you can
rely
on your body to tell you what you need. Leptin’s message (eat more, eat less) actually
registers
in the brain. Insulin’s message (store energy) is nicely balanced by glucagon’s message (release some energy). Your blood sugar levels stay within a nice, normal range, neither spiraling you into hyperactivity, nor plummeting you into crashes and cravings. And your brain is finally at peace, so you can drive right on past the bakery without blinking an eye.