The Primal Parent

Discipline in Japan is learned young and exercised throughout life.

For many, the question isn’t whether we believe in eating junk food, but whether we can help it. Our society offers indulgence as a virtue and discipline as a punishment. But discipline is not a punishment; it is a virtue and the key to health and happiness. Without it we become lazy and unfulfilled, and our bad food choices lead to ill-health. With a little practice, though, we can improve our discipline, change our habits, and change our lives.

There are a couple of different types of Paleo people out there: ones that have major health problems to overcome and ones that don’t.

Those that don’t have big health problems might just like the idea of Paleo on an intellectual level, maybe eating Paleo soothes digestion, maybe it offers more energy, relieves PMS, lowers triglycerides, etc.

Others suffer of serious mental problems like depression or schitzophrenia, major hormonal imbalances like PCOS and endometriosis, debilitating arthritis or, worse yet, many of these combined. The more a body deteriorates the harder it is to hold it together – the more important maintaining a strict diet becomes. It is those with the major health problems that have the biggest job ahead and absolutely must learn to develop better discipline if optimal health is to be achieved.

Whoever you are, you could probably benefit by improving your discipline. Most people in this indulgent society of ours could. Following are some tips that have helped me to become very disciplined in my food choices.

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Just the bread? Nah. Just the butter? Nah. But the two combined? Irresistible!

While scientific research and theories of evolutionary nutrition are great, I tend to take observation and experimentation above all that. One thing I have carefully observed over the years is my own tendency toward food cravings. What do I crave, when, and why?

I like to visit Gnolls.org from time to time for some interesting perspectives on just this issue. While he offers plenty of facts and references, occasionally I don’t agree with his conclusions. I hate to tear into somebody’s well researched and carefully considered article but where I come from, that’s just what you do. The fact that you don’t agree with everything a person says doesn’t mean you don’t like them, and adore J.S. Stanton I do.

The article in mind is entitled, “Why We Crave Fat”. The hypothesis is that

“animal fat is the primary constituent of the evolutionary human diet.”

The conclusion is that we crave it because we evolved to need it. Additionally, he contends, it is the lack of animal fat in our diets (the lipid hypothesis disaster) that drives us to eat junk food.

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The low carb diet appears to be pretty useful for a lot of people recovering from chronic illness. It certainly was for me. Nevertheless, there is a lot of controversy in the Primal community these days about limiting carbohydrates. I’ve been pretty interested in these discussions because, as my regular readers know, I’ve been a long time low-carber. I’ve been reading a lot and asking myself whether it was really the elimination of carbs that eased my symptoms and whether another approach might be equally (or more) effective.

Low carb advocates believe that limiting carbohydrates controls insulin resistance, which is at the base of countless chronic illnesses. They say that insulin resistance is caused by carbohydrate gluttony and that it is cured by eliminating carbs. I agree with them to a point but my own experience (and that of many others) suggests that the equation is not quite so simple.

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I watched a video last night posted by the Ancestral Health Symposium about fructose, fat storage, and energy expenditure. Even if you’re not struggling with obesity, I think there is a lot to glean from Dr. Lustig’s research on fructose. He is an MD who did “six years at Rockerfeller – 3 in the laboratory of biochemical endocrinology and 3 in the laboratory of neurobiology and behavior.”

“The Trouble With Fructose: A Darwinian Perspective” by Robert Lustig, MD

Some of my notes follow. This really isn’t an article. It’s a collection of points I jotted down while listening.

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Sugar's true colors

Cravings weave a paralyzing web and it takes some strategy to climb out of their insidious grasp. By the end of this article you’ll be armed with the information you need to end the whimpering and whining for more starches, sugars, and all the junk you’ve been trying to cut out of your kid’s diet.

First, A Look at Calories and Glucose

When we’re hungry we crave food and that’s pretty normal. When we’re not hungry and we still crave food, we have a problem, and when we crave foods that our bodies aren’t designed to eat we have an even bigger problem. The types of foods we crave, the timing, and intensity of those cravings all depends on the types of foods we are used to eating.

It might seem at first to make sense to crave a little carbohydrate. After all, our brains need some glucose to function, right? A healthy adult needs around 150 grams of glucose to fuel the brain. Although, we can get on just fine without actually eating that glucose as our livers are equipped to convert at least that much protein into glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis.

“If that’s all the glucose we need, then why do my kids seem to crave so much more?”

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