Ever wonder why diets seem to do all the time and they tend to not work long term? Well, here we hope to go over the basics of that and why sticking to something long term and implementing changes over time will make a bigger difference. So enough of the word diet. Diet implies that it that if you're going to start something, it's going to end soon, right? So that's not something we're trying to do. This program is not meant to be a quick fix, or temporary, it's meant to build a foundation that you can grow upon for the rest of your life.

So while Yes, this is an eight week program, and you're going to learn a bunch of things and hope by goal is you take them long term beyond those eight weeks, and use them as the basis for a healthy lifestyle beyond those eight weeks for as long as you live. The reality is there are no life hacks to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. So you might go on a super restricted diet and you might lose some weight. But as soon as it ends, it's gonna come back and it starts this vicious cycle that I think is tough to get out of. And my goal is to eliminate that completely. We're going to set up the foundation of something that is sustainable long term, and something that you can just do for the rest of your life and not have to worry about it on a daily basis.

So many people have died before and we talked about this a little bit, but most of them fall into the same poor eating habits they had before they started the diet. And unfortunately, they never end up reaching their goals. The goal of this program is to end that once and for all. I want to lay the blueprint for a happy, healthy lifestyle that's sustainable, long term, not short term. That's why we're getting rid of the word diet completely. So before we even get into it, there is no such thing as a diet for everyone or anyone just just period.

All different people, biologically and chemically each person is different and with those chemical and biological differences come different needs. And those are based in genetics and epigenetics. We'll get into it a little bit. But the reality is the simple transition to real Whole Foods from synthetic synthetically derived sweeteners, foods, snacks and fillers will have a tremendous benefit on your overall health for many, and if you've been suffering from a chronic disease or has been struggling with weight loss, these are just simple changes that you can make and and they will just have profound impacts on your health. They'll improve your gut health and will increase your energy levels they'll improve your mental clarity though, reduce joint pain and systemic inflammation and lower your risk of many of the common diseases that are the major killers today and it will also help you lose weight. So, along with, again, neutral nutrition part of it, but exercise and physical activity is also important.

So along with transitioning to a whole foods based diet exercise is going to play a role that's going to help you reduce body fat and improve your physique. And that's how you got started in the first place, right? It's to improve your physique to feel better to get rid of these just chronic problems that have been bothering you for a long time. So we brought up chronic inflammation a few times, and let's get into it a little more. So it's generally pretty hard to detect. And that's why people have trouble pinpointing to a specific disease because usually, once it's getting it gets to the point where it's a full blown disease, it's already very late in the process.

However, there are a few things we can check to monitor it and one is this blood test known as C reactive protein, sometimes abbreviated CRP. It's a nonsense Specific biomarker, but it does indicate that there is some sort of systemic inflammation and it's useful along with other blood markers that are indicative or indicative of specific diseases. So if you are interested in worrying if you have high levels of inflammation, I would request adding a C reactive protein test to your next round of bloodwork. So chronic inflammation can be reduced in a number of ways. by consuming more plant based foods, more Whole Foods, consuming quality animal products in moderation and moderation is important, especially in America. animal products are consumed at a very high rate and unfortunately, the way they are raised is are usually a very poor quality.

So those are actually you're getting hit from both ends. Avoiding processed foods. These are generally made of simple sugars that wreak havoc with our blood sugar. We can get into Later it will help reduce stress and help address sleep issues. So again, when you're getting the minerals and vitamins you need, it's going to be helpful in regulating the neurotransmitters responsible for sleep and stress. Regular exercise will also help reduce chronic inflammation so when actually you work out yeah, it's it's a stress per se but the long term benefits lead to increased muscle mass and more lean body mass in general.

And actually lean body mass takes up a lot more energy to to maintain than fat cells. So that actually makes a difference and also healthy social relationships. So friends and family, these are all really important and limiting chronic inflammation. And as you can see in this on this graphic on the right, there are many different diseases that can that can be caused due to chronic inflammation. So certain foods are especially helpful when you're talking about reducing chronic inflammation. cruciferous vegetables are great so that's your broccoli or cauliflower, bok choy, brussel sprouts, kale, certain very common aromatic so garlic and onions and all types of onion so you've got scallions, leeks, shallots, red onions, white earnings, yellow onions, all these are have great anti inflammatory properties so they're great to cook with.

I'm using fresh herbs. herbs are usually packed with antioxidants and other substances that will help lower chronic inflammation, colorful fruits and vegetables, especially berries and beets. They're very high in antioxidants and do contain anti inflammatory compounds. Spicy vegetables, not for everyone but if you like them, it's very easy to remove the seeds and you'll it'll make them much more palette palatable but they're great For helping combat chronic inflammation and just as a general rule, so the bolder and more vibrant of food tastes, smells and looks, the more anti inflammatory properties they tend to have. And we talked about Whole Foods, but whole foods are paramount for establishing and sustaining healthy habits that can be maintained throughout your life. But the question comes up how many fads vegetables, meat, starches should we be eating?

So a good way to really hone in on this is to actually take a look at early humans and look at their health and how that's evolved over time. So if we look it just in the human mouth and the structure of our jaw and our teeth, so in our mouth, we can we contain 20 of our teeth or molars and these are used for crushing and grinding foods and that those are first softer things So generally, you know, nut seeds, vegetables, things like that. Eight front incisors. These are meant to tear through firmer things like fruits and vegetables and then only for canine teeth which are the sharper ones and those are designed to actually terrine to meet those are you see a lot more in carnivore carnivores. So, based on this, human evolution actually dictates that we are actually biologically designed to consume mostly plant foods.

Job development also suggests that humans should be consuming a majority of plant foods. Why is that? Well, the human jaw is able to swing both vertically and horizontally. Now herbivores are able to swing their jaws horizontally, which is how they're able to grind up things like grasses and plants and other things they eat. What's interesting though, is carnivores can only open their jaws first. So that's up and down.

And that's to chew through meat and tougher textures more efficiently. Now, because humans have the ability to use both both the vertical and horizontal aspect of moving their jaws, that actually dictates that we should probably be eating more plant foods. So not only do the mouth and the jaw give credence to the idea that humans are adapted to consume mostly plants and whole foods that are a vegetarian sources, but so does the length of the intestinal tract. Now, carnivores tend to have shorter vowels so that your stomach intestines, the entire digestive tract. herbivores, on the other hand, tend to have longer and longer bowels and they're more proportionate to the size of humans. So all of these when we look at the jaw, the mouth, the length of the intestinal tract, all of these are saying That we should be eating more plant foods.

And this just divides the fact that especially Americans tend to get more than half their calories from animal foods. So another study that actually looked more closely at this was done by Dr. Dennis Burkett and Hugh trowel. It was actually an extension of Dr. Weston Price who was a dentist in the early 1900s. Now Dr. Price actually traveled the world and he was provided dental care for many different countries and basically spent his entire career traveling to different countries and just providing dental care but while he was able to do it in his 40 plus year career, he recorded data and looked at how different people from different socio economical standings and what just compared their overall health and when it came to dental. So price was able to look at these groups, these groups of his patients and he categorized them by regions, their diets and socioeconomic status.

And then from there Berkut and Joelle after price passed away Birkin and trial, pick his information up, and then edit their own epidemiological data and tracked the rate of change of disease to compare what price found with what record and oil found it later in the future in the early 80s. So they declared there were four phases of the diet disease relationship, and how they relate to civilize culture in chronological order. So stage one would be the earliest. And the earliest groups consumed Whole Foods, they were unprocessed, and they ate what was available to them in in nature. And these people had the lowest rates of cancer, diabetes and chronic diseases. So stage two is considered the time when people bet began to incorporate Western and civil Foods.

So these are things like grains and other farming staples. And in this group there was a sharp increase in the number of people with obesity and diabetes. So now we're starting to see there is a growth in those chronic illnesses that were once not really common amongst earlier people. Stage three even closer to recent times, more of more and more people began abandoning those traditional hunter hunter gatherers that were studied in the stage one group. And with that the incidence of obesity and diabetes still continued to rise. And then diseases that were once rare started to become common and these include things like hemorrhoids, constipation, varicose veins and appendicitis.

So these are things that were all almost virtually non existent in the stage one group and now they slowly are creeping in. As we are becoming more westernized and more modernized. As a Civilization. And then stage four, which is what would now be something considered like today's America. It, which is the standard American diet and this group had the highest rates of obesity and diabetes. And along with those diseases in stage three, these other diseases started coming up and becoming more commonplace as well.

And these things include things like gout and heart disease, cancer, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Now, virtually none of these diseases were common prior to the turn of the 20th century, and the adoption of the Western diet. So abandoning the traditional whole foods diet not only led to an increase in obesity and diabetes, it also led to the explosion of chronic diseases that millions of Americans now deal with every day. So when we look at the diet of people in the early 1900s, and by the year 2000, they're rolling A lot of changes in the percents of fats, carbohydrates and proteins that we're eating. So the fat intake actually increased from 32 to 43%, between 1909 and 2000. And the carbohydrate intake actually decreased from 57 to 46% over that same time period, so 1909 to 2000, while protein intake was about the same.

Now the interesting thing is there was a significant rise in the consumption of red meat, hydrogenated fats and oils, and a decrease in consumption of non citrus fruits, vegetables and whole grains. So, while Yeah, the intake you might think that the intake of fat and carbohydrates may be more important, it's actually the types of meat of foods that were brought in, that are making just as big a difference if not more. And this goes along with what we were saying before, so the lack of whole foods in the diet actually had the greatest impact. And as we looked at those four groups as we, we develop as a nation and use more modern cooking practices, the quality of our food started to degrade. And that's what's really has led to the explosion of these chronic illnesses. So, but it's important to understand so natural undistorted whole fruits and vegetables, untouched unprocessed, contain the large amount of complex carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins.

Now, unfortunately, with many modern practices, many of these fruits and vegetables are if they're conventionally raised are stripped of these vitamins and complex carbohydrates and minerals with the introduction of pesticides and genetic modification into our food and I'm not on top of that, not only are we just eating Less fruits and vegetables. We're replacing them with simple refined sugars, and things like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, which can be found in almost anything you've seen in the supermarket. These are sweetening agents now used in many foods, and increased consumption of these refined sugars is linked to chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and certain types of cancer.