Authors: Chris Kresser
Tags: #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Diets, #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Weight Loss
You might be surprised that red meat is included in the Eat Liberally category. After all, haven’t we been told for years that red meat contributes to heart disease? It’s true that some studies show an association between red-meat consumption and heart disease. Yet others—especially those that separate fresh-red-meat consumption from processed-meat consumption—have found none. A large review of studies covering more than 1.2 million participants found that consumption of fresh, unprocessed red meat was not associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or diabetes. In addition, it’s hard to draw conclusions from observational studies on red meat and disease owing to something known as the healthy-user bias; that is, because red meat has been viewed as unhealthy for so long, those who consume more of it are also more likely to engage in other behaviors perceived (correctly, in these cases) as unhealthy, like smoking, eating processed and refined food, and not getting enough exercise.
If eating red meat causes heart disease, then we’d expect to see lower rates of heart disease in vegetarians and vegans. Again, early studies suggested this was true. But they suffered from the same healthy-user bias as the red-meat studies (meaning that since vegetarians tend to be more health conscious than the general population, their lower incidence of heart disease could be explained by other factors, such as their exercising more and smoking less). Newer, higher-quality studies that have controlled for these confounding factors haven’t found any difference in rates of heart disease between omnivores and vegetarians. For example, one study compared the risk of death from heart disease of people who shopped in health-
food stores (both vegetarians and omnivores) to the risk of death from heart disease in people in the general population. They found that vegetarians and omnivores in the health-food-store group had a lower risk of death from heart disease than people in the general population, but there was no difference in risk between the health-food-store omnivores and the vegetarians.
So there’s no reason to feel guilty or frightened about digging into that juicy steak or beef stew!
Before you begin your Thirty-Day Reset, police your pantry and get rid of foods that are off-limits. Dairy, sugar, and fat lurk in many products, so read the ingredient labels; you won’t believe where culprits are hiding!
Where Dairy Hides:
Anything containing casein, whey, malt, or an ingredient with the prefix
lacto-
is off-limits during the Reset, as are foods with the word
curd, pudding,
or
custard
on the packaging. Many artificial flavors and colorings also have dairy.
Where Sugar Hides:
You expect to find sugar in cereal and drinks, but did you know it’s frequently in salad dressing, canned soup, peanut butter, beef jerky, and tomato sauce? In “healthy” granola bars and yogurt? Dried fruit may also contain added sugar.
Fat-free
is often code for “We snuck a lot of sugar into this so you won’t miss the fat.” You’ll also find sugar hidden inside other words commonly found on food labels: Watch out for fruit-juice concentrate, corn sweetener, malt syrup, maltodextrin, evaporated cane juice or syrup, and any words ending in
-ose,
such as
sucrose, dextrose, galactose,
and
maltose.
Sugar is sugar, no matter where it comes from or what form it takes.
Where Industrial Seed Oils Hide:
Read the labels to make sure that your healthy nuts aren’t roasted in unhealthy fats. Also, if a product has been processed to be shelf stable, it probably has industrial seed oils and artificial trans fats (watch for the words
partially hydrogenated
)—another reason for you to avoid boxes and bags, especially during the Reset phase.
If you’ve been diagnosed with certain health conditions, you’ll need to modify the Thirty-Day Reset Diet. If you’re not sure if you have a particular condition, take the Reset Diet symptom quiz below. Add up the total number of points in each section for the symptoms you experience, then proceed to the answer key to determine which diet you should follow.
| BLOOD SUGAR AND WEIGHT REGULATION | POINTS |
| Diagnosed with diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, or hypoglycemia | 50 |
| Feel fatigued directly after meals | 5 |
| Crave sweets during the day | 5 |
| Eating sweets doesn’t relieve cravings for sugar | 5 |
| Must have sweets after meals | 5 |
| Feel agitated if you don’t eat frequently | 5 |
| Irritable or light-headed between meals | 5 |
| Eating relieves fatigue | 5 |
| Feel shaky or jittery, especially between meals | 5 |
| Need caffeine to get yourself started in the morning | 5 |
| Easily upset or nervous | 5 |
| Poor memory or forgetful | 5 |
| Waist circumference equal to or larger than hip circumference | 5 |
| Difficulty losing weight | 5 |
| Increased thirst or appetite | 5 |
| Frequent urination | 5 |
| Blurred vision | 5 |
| TOTAL |
| SCORE | BLOOD SUGAR AND WEIGHT REGULATION |
| 0–40 | Follow the normal Thirty-Day Reset. |
| >40 | Follow the Thirty-Day Reset with blood sugar and weight regulation modifications (listed below). |
| AUTOIMMUNE PROBLEMS | POINTS |
| Diagnosed with autoimmune disease | 50 |
| High C-reactive protein and other inflammatory markers on lab tests | 5 |
| Muscle or joint aches and pains | 5 |
| Persistent fever | 5 |
| Extreme fatigue | 5 |
| Swollen glands | 5 |
| Abdominal pain, digestive problems, constipation, or diarrhea | 5 |
| Itchy skin or skin rashes | 5 |
| Tingling in hands and/or feet | 5 |
| Sudden, unexplained weight loss or weight gain | 5 |
| Changes in skin color | 5 |
| Food allergies or multiple food sensitivities | 5 |
| TOTAL |
| SCORE | AUTOIMMUNE PROBLEMS |
| 0–40 | Follow the normal Thirty-Day Reset. |
| >40 | Follow the Thirty-Day Reset with autoimmune modifications (listed below). |
If you scored over 40 on each of the quizzes, you should follow the modifications for both blood-sugar and autoimmune problems during the Thirty-Day Reset and consult with your health-care provider.
If you scored 50 points or more in this category and/or you’re trying to lose weight, you should limit fruit and starchy vegetables during your Thirty-Day Reset. Eat all the nonstarchy vegetables you want, but restrict your fruit and starchy vegetables to roughly 10 to 15 percent of calories from carbohydrates. This amounts to roughly 65 to 100 grams daily for a moderately active male and 50 to 75 grams daily for a moderately active female. To give you a general idea of what this looks like in terms of food, 50 grams of carbohydrates is equal to one large sweet potato and 1/2 cup of blueberries; 100 grams of carbohydrates is equal to 1/2 cup of blueberries, 1/2 cup of strawberries, and two large sweet potatoes. You can search online databases like the ones from the USDA to determine the carbohydrate content of foods.
If you scored 40 points or higher in this category, please follow the Thirty-Day Reset, but also avoid the following:
•
Eggs (both whites and yolks). Eggs contain proteins that are common allergens, particularly in susceptible people.
•
Nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, pepinos, pimentos, paprika, and cayenne pepper). Nightshades have compounds called alkaloids that can cause inflammation and worsen joint pain in susceptible people.
Not everyone with an autoimmune condition needs to be on the protocol forever—you’ll experiment with adding these foods back in Step 2.
If you’re completely new to this way of eating, you might be feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. “I thought saturated fats were bad,” you say. “Aren’t whole grains healthy?” I’ll take up these questions and others in the chapters that follow. For now, let’s tackle some of the more immediate concerns you might have.
I recognize this will be a dramatic change for many of you. The best way to do it is to just dive right in. Begin right now. If you procrastinate or delay, it only gets harder.
Use the meal plans and recipes in
chapter 21
to work out what you’re going to eat for the first week. (You can find additional meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists on the website.) Then head out to the grocery store, farmers’ market, butcher, or wherever you shop and stock up for the next week. All you have to think about is what to eat and what not to eat. There are no calories to count. Just eat the foods that are allowed, and don’t eat the ones that aren’t.
The first few days can be hard. Your body will be going through withdrawal from everyday substances like sugar and wheat; you may notice symptoms like mood swings, strong cravings, irritability, and fatigue as your body adjusts to life without them. If you’ve been drinking four cups of coffee every day for twenty years, cutting back to one cup will be tough. Does that mean you shouldn’t do it? That it won’t benefit your health in
the long run? No. It just means you’re probably going to need some support along the way.
If you’ve been eating a poor diet with a lot of processed food as well as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and leading a sedentary life filled with chronic stress, I truly understand that the transition to a healthy diet will be a big challenge.
But at some point, you will recover and start feeling better than you did before you began the program. Most of my patients say that the first four to seven days are the hardest. After that, you’ll start having a lot more energy; those familiar dips in energy in the afternoon may well disappear completely, and without the hit of that afternoon coffee and candy bar. In fact, your cravings may disappear altogether; you’ll find yourself eyeing that pizza or pasta and saying, “No, thanks.” Your skin will clear up, the breakouts and redness disappearing. Your digestion will be smoother. You’ll sleep more deeply and wake feeling more rested. Those up-and-down mood swings will stabilize. You’ll start shedding some pounds (only if you need to, usually). Even if the scale doesn’t budge, you may find that muffin top melting. Aches, pains, and mysterious symptoms you’ve had for ages will—seemingly miraculously—begin to improve.
This program has the potential to change your life. I realize that it’s difficult; I know how much work it is, and I remember what it was like to cut out all of these foods. I’ve been there myself, although I can hardly remember why I used to love some of that junky food so much (cold cereal was a particular weakness). But I also know from my own experience and from supervising many people through this transition that the results are worth the effort.
The biggest mistake people make on this program is not eating enough fat. You’re eliminating a lot of foods from your diet (bread, grains, beans, etc.), and you have to replace those lost calories with something. Healthy fat is that something. If you’re concerned about your weight, take comfort
in the knowledge that the vast majority of my patients and readers shed pounds on the Thirty-Day Reset. Fat is the preferred fuel source of the body and should constitute about 40 to 70 percent of the calories in your diet, depending on individual needs. (My only caveat is chicken fat. Although it’s delicious, it often comes from chickens that are fed grains, so the ratio of healthy omega-3 fat to not-so-healthy omega-6 fat isn’t great; in a later chapter, you’ll see why that ratio matters. If you can find chicken fat from pastured chickens, go for it.) You can exchange that dry, boneless, skinless chicken breast for a luscious pork chop or a nice juicy steak.
Once you’ve figured out your ideal diet, I’d agree with that. But as I said above, this isn’t the time to cheat. Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.
By removing the foods that most commonly cause problems, you allow your body to rest and recover from whatever symptoms those foods have been provoking. Just one cheat could trigger a whole new cascade of reactions. A single piece of bread or one glass of milk could restart the inflammatory process and throw your body back into the chaos that led you to the Personal Paleo Code program in the first place. Some of the greatest benefits of the Reset Diet don’t kick in until the third week—right when the finish line is in sight. At some point, you won’t even miss those foods you think you can’t live without now. So don’t cheat. It could set you way back. If you go thirty days, it will get easier. I promise.