Eating Healthier

Posted by Steven M. Cohen May 23, 2008

Since my “Diet vs. Exercise” post of April 19, I’ve been doing some reading on nutrition. A colleague of mine recommended a book by Dr. Steven Gundry titled, Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution. Never one to take diet books seriously, I started reading the book with a healthy dose of skepticism. By time I finished the book, I was a convert to the “Gundry way”.

The material in this book isn’t particularly ground breaking. However, the nutrition information is presented in an easy to remember manner, with plausible, if unprovable reasons for his diet recommendations. The book focuses on how the human diet has changed and evolved over millennia, and how these changes are to our detriment. The book generally recommends a diet closer to our ancestors’ with many anecdotal cases and evidence from the medical/nutrition literature presented.

Well, even though I’m in good shape, I decided to give this way of eating a try. It’s not easy, though. “White” foods, such as pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, etc are out. In their place, are vegetables, with an emphasis on green leafy produce. I started my little experiment at 6 feet, 0 inches and 176 pounds. Two weeks in, I’m at 172 pounds, and falling. I’m excited to visit the doctor, and see what my key “numbers” (cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, blood pressure) are. Although my last physical showed all blood work to be normal, I’m curious to see if the numbers improve. I’m betting they will.

For those of you serious about using your diet to get healthier, I highly recommend this book.