It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways (3 page)

“I’m 46 years old and have lost the same fifty pounds over and over again, only to gain it back—and more. At the beginning of the year, my cholesterol was so high I was sure I’d need to go on medication. But by the end of my Whole30, my overall cholesterol level dropped 83 points, triglycerides dropped 82 points, LDL dropped 63 points, and HDL rose 3 points. Plus I lost ten pounds and over seven inches. Thank you!”

—Patty M., Boise, Idaho

The framework for our Whole30 program and general recommendations are built on what we’ve learned from some very smart people—one in particular. Robb Wolf, the
New
York Times
bestselling author of
The Paleo Solution
and one of the world’s leading experts on the Paleo lifestyle, has been a friend and mentor for several years now. Robb has influenced our program and the way we work with our clients tremendously. In fact, his “thirty-day elimination” approach formed the foundation of our Whole30 program.

As a result, the basics of our food recommendations look a lot like the fundamental tenets of the Paleo diet. You’ve probably heard of it by now—you know, that “caveman diet” the media has been talking about? Its recommendations are based on the diet consumed by man during the Paleolithic era—a 2.6-million-year period of time that ended about 10,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture. The theory is that we are genetically adapted to the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors, and that genetic disposition hasn’t changed much in the last 10,000 years—which means we are not genetically suited to our modern, industrially-produced, agriculture-based diet. Paleo diet advocates believe that the healthiest diet for people today should resemble the diets of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Now, we agree that foods advocated by the Paleo diet are the healthiest choices in today’s modern age. The research and experience of folks like Dr. Loren Cordain and Robb Wolf heavily influenced our own experimentation, and the results we achieved after eating this way were hard to ignore. But please, hear us clearly on this one subject:

We aren’t recommending meat and vegetables because we think that’s what our ancestors ate; we don’t say cheesecake is a poor choice because cavemen didn’t eat cheesecake; and we’re
certainly
not about to debate whether any one food is “technically Paleo.” While the Paleo diet is backed by solid scientific research (refer to our references), we generally don’t get all hung up on what Paleolithic man may or may not have eaten.

We care about what is making us, here and now, more or less healthy.

And we suspect that’s what you care about too.

Now is a good time to address one of our most commonly heard questions: Do you have the science to back this stuff up? The answer, of course, is yes. We will reference a ton of technical information—what we call “science-y stuff”—and we promise to translate any complicated material into easy-to-understand concepts. We have references galore in our appendix: peer-reviewed, credible research that we’ve used to back up the program we present here. We don’t recommend anything that we don’t believe is true, based on the findings of the scientific research community.

But relying on science
alone
is tricky.

Many of these nutritional theories aren’t as rock-solid as, say, the theory of gravity. There is still a lot the scientific community doesn’t know about food, nutrition, and health. Which means that for every finding we present, you can consult the Source of All Knowledge (the Internet) and find studies that suggest the opposite.

Coffee is good for everyone!

Coffee may increase your risk of cancer!

Which one is right? Maybe neither, maybe both—it’s hard to know. But one thing is certain—in the case of nutrition and health, the science can be confusing, and can lead to “paralysis by analysis” (a state in which you take
no
action because you’re not sure
what
to do).

In the absence of enough conclusive science, what else can we rely on? Observation, experience, and clinically-based evidence. Our recommendations are based on the protocols that have been effective for our clients. Getting positive results from one client is good, but getting similar positive results from a thousand clients truly confirms the efficacy of the protocols and suggests that they will produce reliable results for other people with similar health conditions.

The trouble is, we can’t rely exclusively on observation, experience, or clinically-based evidence. Despite loads of experience and careful observation, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause and effect of any one behavior on a population. For example, consider the following statement:

Obviously, those two things are merely
correlated
and not cause and effect. (The two variables exhibit a common trait—the warm season—when people are more likely to both eat ice cream and swim in the ocean.) Yet it’s easy to confuse
correlation
with
causation
when you are relying solely on observational data.

So, how did we come up with our dietary recommendations?

We combined scientific research with clinical experience.

We have scientific studies to back up our recommendations. We have years of experience and documented Whole30 results to confirm that we’re on the right track. It’s the best of both worlds—the academic evidence and the boots-on-the-ground experience that comes from working with thousands of people and getting amazing results. Win-win.

But none of those published studies take into account
your
life,
your
history,
your
context. The most relevant form of experimentation for you is
self-experimentation,
so you can figure out for yourself, once and for all, how certain factors affect
you
.

And that is exactly what we are proposing here, with our Whole30 program.

Grounded in science, based on thousands of observations and proven results, and anchored with a thirty-day structured self-experiment.

Win-win-win.

“My wife and I have had terrible seasonal allergies for several years. Now our allergies have all disappeared. We are off all allergy meds, which we used to take like candy.
As for our four-year-old daughter, we are two weeks into her Whole30, and I am amazed to report that her allergy symptoms are virtually gone. No sneezing. No runny nose. After taking both pills and nose spray for much of her life, her allergy symptoms are better now than they have ever been.” 

—Brian C., Burnsville, Minnesota

We choose our foods by following four Good Food standards. We’re pretty picky about this: all the foods we recommend have to satisfy all four criteria. Not three, not most … all. We’ll explain them in more detail in the coming chapters, but here are the basics.

Before we get into each of the Good Food standards, however, we need some general background on food.

Food is composed of a multitude of complex molecules. Some provide energy, some provide structural components, some interact with various receptors and transmit signals to our bodies, and some are relatively inert. People sometimes oversimplify food, and say things like, “I eat whole grains for
fiber
” or “I drink milk for
calcium
,” but the reality is that all whole, unprocessed food is a rich, complex blend of nutrients. We broadly organize these components into two major classifications: micronutrients and macronutrients
.

A
micronutrient
is defined as an essential compound needed only in relatively small amounts. A micronutrient’s purpose is not to generate energy but to serve a wide variety of important biological functions, including: protection against free radicals, enhancing immune response, and repairing DNA. There are hundreds of different micronutrients, but some you’ve probably heard of include vitamins (like vitamin C), minerals (like calcium), and phytonutrients (like beta-carotene). Selecting foods with the right amounts and a wide variety of micronutrients is critical for our long-term health.

A
macronutrient
is defined as a group of chemical compounds consumed in large amounts and necessary for normal growth, metabolism, and other bodily functions. Macronutrients are used to supply energy and, in some cases, are used as structural components. In humans, the three macronutrients are carbohydrate, protein, and fat.

Carbohydrates include several types of sugars, multiple types of starches, and dietary fiber. All carbohydrates, whether they come from a carrot, brown rice, or a Pop-Tart, break down into simple sugars in the body. Complex carbohydrates are simply a bunch of sugars linked together, and those chains of sugars are broken into their individual “links” upon digestion. Simple carbohydrates, specifically glucose, are a universal energy source that is easily used by most cells in the body. Glucose is fuel for intense activity and fuel for your brain cells.