Paleo Cookbook For Dummies (11 page)

Taking a technology timeout

Computers, smartphones, and other handheld devices are super convenient (I for one love my computer and cellphone), but shutting down once in a while is important — your cells benefit from the break. Here's why: Electricity goes hand in hand with electromagnetic fields (EMFs). When something is plugged in but not used, it generates electrical fields, or low frequency electromagnetic waves. The EMFs create an invisible pollution called
electrosmog.

Technology has gained a lot of traction over the last 50 years, spawning a multitude of new inventions that all require electricity. Everywhere you go you find electrical poles, wires, substations, transformers, and the hidden wires in the walls of every building. All this electricity creates a dangerous electrical environment and places new stresses on your cells similar to the ones produced by heavy metals or toxic chemicals.

You can't live in a bubble, but you can take some steps to reduce your exposure:

Remove yourself from the source as much as possible.
Make sure you aren't sleeping near a lot of wiring or electronic devices.

Eat foods that naturally shield your body.
Protect yourself against cellular damage by eating Paleo foods such as grass-fed beef, blueberries, asparagus, cinnamon, artichokes, garlic, olive oil, wild salmon, sea vegetables (nori), and walnuts. These choices are all superfoods for your cells.

Schedule a shut-down day.
Take one day per week and completely remove yourself from all electronics. Completely unplug.

If you want to test your house for EMF exposure, use a
gauss meter.
It's a small device (it fits in your pocket) that measures the strength of a magnetic field. You can pick one up for about $150 to $200. Use it to take measurements at home or work and see whether some areas are more exposed than others. You can see how far you need to be away from the TV or any electrical devices you choose.

Coming Together: Stress Management and the Paleo Lifestyle

If I had to pick one lifestyle factor that has had the biggest impact on my patients over the years, it'd definitely be their stress levels and ability to manage this stress.

What many people don't know is that stress not only makes you sick but also makes you fat. Society tends to equate weight problems with gorging on food, but the roots often go much deeper than that. Some people eat because they're hungry for something more in their life — like balance. Being under stress causes them to crave unhealthy foods without even realizing it.

This balance is one of the reasons that I love Paleo and that I believe it has so many raving fans. When you find food clarity and begin to dig into some of the recipes in Parts II through IV, your body starts normalizing. You create nutrient sufficiency and begin to regulate your hormones. You begin to gain the energy and the strength to deal with your stressors and create a better life.

This section digs a little deeper into how stress affects your body and your food choices, and I share some proven solutions for dealing with stress.

Examining your body under stress

Almost everything you do rises and falls on how much stress that activity places on your body. Some stress is short-term and can be positive (called
eustress
) if it gives you that short burst of adrenaline to move you closer to your purpose. For example, the stress of meeting deadlines to finish a book and share my nutritional message creates excitement and catalyzes me to move forward.

Your body isn't designed for constant, ongoing stress. Your stress hormones are in place to deal with short-term stress (such as being chased by a tiger). My body can handle the short-term stress of looming deadlines; however, if I kept pushing forward with an overwhelming schedule, the long-term stress would be adverse to my physiology and dangerous to my health. Balance really is the key.

Your body really does change under constant stress. Stress makes you heavy, makes your hair thin, ages your skin, and deteriorates all the structures and functions of your body. No wonder stress is a major contributor to illness, disease, and an unhappy life. So many diseases (such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and irritable bowel syndrome) stem from your body's having to deal with chronic stress.

Understanding how stress affects food choices

Here's information that can change your life: Sugar and fat are the main ingredients of stress hormones, so when you're under stress, you crave more sugar and fat than you do under normal conditions. That's when many people start stress eating to bring themselves down to a relaxed pace. In that way,
stress eating
is really a form of self-medication.

You're actually hard-wired to eat sugar and fat. Ideally, however, you'd follow your nutritional blueprint and get your fat and sugar from wild game, nuts, fruits, and vegetables like your ancestors did, not from all the refined sugary carbohydrates around today.

Ever notice when you crave sugar and fat the most? Dollars to donuts, it's when you're stressed. That's because of
serotonin
(or, rather, a lack of it). This hormone is a stress buffer; when your body is in balance, serotonin is released and offsets the activity in your body that leads to anxiety and depression. If you're constantly under stress, though, your body can't keep up with demand.

That's when you start feeling a mess. You eventually have increased stress hormones (such as
cortisol
) and decreased serotonin — a terrible combination. You become anxious, irritable, tired, and unhappy. You get changes in your appetite for — you guessed it — sugar and fat. It ends up being a vicious cycle that leads to even more stress.

Eating Paleo is a great way to step off the roller coaster. The fats that are part of the Paleo diet are all healthy fats, and the lower-sugar nature of the diet is really helpful in breaking negative eating patterns. For more tips on easing stress, check out the following section.

Finding stress solutions

When you bring your stress level down, you quell your cravings for sugar and fat. What I've found in listening to so many patients is that the answer to reducing stress is to have balance between work/stress and play/relaxation. So often, the people that come into my office seeking weight-loss management are heavy because their lives have gotten out of balance. They have too much stress and not enough tools to relax their bodies and bring them back to an even keel.

As I note throughout the chapter, living Paleo is about your choices. Ask yourself these questions before you make any decision: “Is this decision going to add a lot of stress in my life? Is it going to simplify my life or bring complexity to it?” Stress follows complexity. Learning to say “no” is one of the best stress-management tools you can develop!