5 Pillars: Nutrition Now

by Philip Kassebaum

​Nutrition is an extremely vital aspect to living a healthy optimal life. Most people know choosing a grass feed steak with organic potatoes and green beans is a better choice for ideal health than fast food and ice cream. But nutrition goes so much deeper than that. Food is real time alchemy working on the body. The vitamins and minerals you consume when eating a grass-fed steak or organic asparagus is actually sending genetic coding, much like a code in a computer program, to our DNA which then facilitates how our particular genetic sequencing reacts to that information. This response turns on and off our systems in the body such as our immune system, cardiovascular system, and circulatory system. Whether that genetic sequencing fires in the proper way to the proper nutrients we provide it, correlative to our DNA, is definitive as to how healthy we will be.

Our body is quite literally made up of the food we consume. The food we put in our bodies provides the building materials that construct everything about our physiological and physical state. Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, phytonutrients, and fiber are the substances that feed the processes that have developed who we are, and provide the necessary fuel for the critical bodily procedures that keep us alive. Without these vital resources, properly sourced and provided in the adequate amounts, our bodies will be thrown out of homeostasis and metabolic issues and chronic diseases will follow. In fact, the eight subcellular pathologies that underlay all non-communicable diseases (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.) are all nutrient sensing. Meaning they respond positively or negatively to certain components of the foods we consume.

Unfortunately, many Americans and people around the world have lost sight in the importance of proper nutrition and consuming healthy food. Alarmingly, there are 1.9 billion overweight and 650 million obese people worldwide, equating to 52 percent of adults globally being overweight or obese. Since 1975 it is estimated that the worldwide prevalence of obesity has tripled and in 1997 the World Health Organization recognized obesity as a global health epidemic. The U.S. takes the cake (no pun intended) for having an adult population in which 42 percent are obese and 34 percent have metabolic syndrome. A severely obese person can expect to live between 5 to 20 years less than that of a healthy weighing individual. Today, it is actually more common in the United States to be overweight than in shape. That is pure insanity and has led to the U.S. having a population in which 88 percent are metabolically compromised and 42 percent have two or more non-communicable diseases.

So how has this come to pass? The culprit for the rise in obesity is increased caloric consumption. In particular, the increased caloric consumption of highly palatable processed foods and beverages such as cookies, pizza, potato chips, sodas, ice cream etc. Ultra-processed foods are typically refined, cheaper to produce, high in calories, with added sugars, fats and engineered to be hyperpalatable, which encourages overeating. In fact, between 1977 and 1995 fast food consumption has tripled and calories obtained from those meals has quadrupled. A major reason for this was a shift from consuming meals at-home to away-from-home, with large increases in total calories from snacks, soft drinks and pizza, and a large decrease in calories from milk, beef, and pork.

Globally and nationally, we have also strayed away from adequate physical activity. Over the last fifty years there has been a large shift away from manual labor to desk work. This has resulted in only 30 percent of the global population getting in the adequate amount of exercise. In 2000 the Center for Disease Control estimated that less than 30 percent of the U.S. meet the sufficient level of physical activity recommended, with 30 percent being active but not enough, and 40 percent being completely sedentary. Combine this with the increase of processed food, void of proper vitamins and minerals and full of refined sugar, refined carbohydrates, and refined seed oils and the recipe for a metabolic disaster is taking place before our very eyes.

In the U.S. 1 out of 10 adults consumes at least 25 percent of their daily caloric intake per day from added sugars. Shockingly, from 1950 to 2000, sugar intake increased nearly 4-fold going from an average of 33 pounds of sugar per person per year to 121 to 154 pounds per person per year, with a prevalence for obesity in older men also increasing 4-fold, going from 10 percent to 40 percent. Much of this increase in sugar intake can be attributed to liquid sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages. In fact, in the U.S., from 1955 to 1995, the intake of soft drinks increased nearly 5-fold, soaring from 10 gallons to 47 gallons per person per year.

A systematic review found that 83.3 percent of studies showed a positive association with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and weight gain. Oddly enough, when looking at studies with connections in the food industry, it was reported that 83.3 percent of those studies showed insufficient evidence for sugar-sweetened beverages increasing weight gain. This indicates a clear bias in studies with ties to the food industry. It’s almost like they don’t want you to know something.

An increase in refined carbohydrates such as white flour, refined wheat, corn, and other grains also plays its part in the cause of our weight gain. In the U.S., the intake of refined carbohydrates from flour and cereal increased from 135.1 pounds per person per year in 1974 to 200 pounds per person in the year 2000. At the same time the prevalence for obesity doubled, going from 14 percent to 28 percent. But perhaps the most startling change in our diets and cause of many of the metabolic challenges we face stems from the increase in refined Omega-6 seed oils.

Evolutionarily, for optimum health humans consumed a ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fats in excess of around an average of 1–4: 1. Today however, we consume an Omega-6:3 ration of 20–50:1. This intake of Omega-6 primarily results from an increase in Omega-6 seed oils such as cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, corn, and canola oil. Omega-6 seed oils were introduced to the U.S. in the 1900s and in 1910 cottonseed oil, the main ingredient in Crisco, was invented. These Omega-6 seed oils were created as a cheaper alternative to butter and tallow and sold by manufacturers that promoted these toxic substitutes. Disturbingly, the intake of soybean oil in the U.S. increased astronomically by 1,000-fold from 1909 to 1999.

In animal studies, a high intake of Omega-6 was found to decrease insulin sensitivity in muscle and promote fat accumulation in adipose tissue. In contrast, dietary Omega-3 does the exact opposite, increasing insulin sensitivity and decreases fat accumulation in adipose tissue. High amounts of linoleic acid, the fat found in seed oils, in adipose tissue paralleled the rise in diabetes, obesity, allergies, and asthma. Worryingly, up to 20 percent of the total calories consumed by Americans comes from high linoleic acid soybean oil, which contributes to greater than 7 percent of the daily calories coming from Omega-6 fats alone. These seed oils are in most everything that comes in a package. Read the ingredient list of some of your favorite go to packed food and there’s a high probability that you’ll find some type of seed oil listed. Beware!

But we can course correct with proper education on the power of food. It is critical to understand that food is far more than fuel: it is a language that programs every function of your cells. As stated previously food is like a code being programmed into a computer: a stream of uninterrupted information being downloaded into the body signaling your DNA and firing off your genetic sequences. The quality of that food is vitally important to get the response one needs to maintain a healthy weight, preserve optimal metabolic function, and fend off chronic disease. Straying away from that paradigm of thought has resulted in eating processed food bereft of nutrients and full of refined sugars, carbs, and seed oils, bringing upon us the metabolic crisis much of the developed world is facing.

To combat this, Dr. Catherine Shanahan in her book Deep Nutrition advocates a diet she calls The Four Pillars: The Foundation of the Human Diet. This diet returns to a more ancestral way of eating by focusing on four core pillars of food that throughout history Homo Sapiens have always included in their diets. These are: meat on the bone, fermented and sprouted foods, organ meats, and fresh, unadulterated plants and animal products. Each of these pillars supplies the body and mind the proper nutrients it needs to excel in all phases of optimal living.

Meat on the bone brings enough of the glycosaminoglycan (acid found in collagen that lubricates the muscles and joints) growth factor and bone-building materials to make your joints tough and your bones strong, enabling you to grow to your body’s full expression. These acids provide the right balance of bioavailable growth factors that keep your joints well lubricated andprevent aging bones from deteriorating. Organ meats bring the vitamins and brain-building fats that can ensure you will have the mental stability and aptitude for learning. Consuming organ meats is the best way to ensure your brain cells and nerves stay healthy for the rest of your life.

Fermented foods are full of healthy gut promoting probiotics which protect the intestinal tract from invading pathogens. Probiotics allow for a healthier intestine which is more able to take in nutrients, thus preventing infections and allergic disorders from developing elsewhere in the body and reducing the need for repeated doses of antibiotics. Probiotics living in our intestine also produce all sorts of vitamins which help to support a diet that is otherwise deficient.Sprouted foods allow for the enjoyment of breads and breakfast porridges without the empty calories of our modern wheat, grains, and white flour. And importantly, fresh foods are naturally loaded with more antioxidants that have been taken away from food that has been dried, overcooked, or stuffed into a capsule or bottle.

Eating a diet such as the Four Pillars allows for one to return to a more ancestral way of eating, one that our genes have survived and thrived off of for thousands of years. Free of processed junk and refined toxic ingredients, this food is full of the vitamins and minerals needed to allow our DNA to express themselves to the highest degree. Who doesn’t want to live a life full of energy and vitality well into old age? Eating these foods allows you to do just that. Keep things simple and allow yourself to explore, without judgment, just how powerful this kind of food can be. An example of meals could be:

Breakfast, 6 Renditions:

1. Sunny side up eggs with kimchee and blueberries.

2. Pan-fried grass-fed breakfast sausage or beef with sauteed mushrooms, sauerkraut, and avocado.

3. Greek or Icelandic yogurt with walnuts and bananas.

4. Mashed cauliflower with grass-fed beef liver and pickles.

5. Ham and cheese omelet with grilled onions, peppers, and an avocado.

6. Sprouted steel-cut oats with nuts, flaxseed, and grass-fed butter.

Lunch, 6 Renditions:

1. Grass-fed brisket with sweet potatoes, peppers, and onions.

2. Free range chicken thighs with steamed baby carrots and bell peppers.

3. Pastured pork chops with roasted potatoes and sauteed cabbage.

4. Caesar salad with free range chicken breast, romaine lettuce, olives, pickled ginger, and olive oil.

5. Free range ground turkey burgers with wild rice, mushrooms, and avocado.

6. Sardines with sauerkraut and pickles.

Dinner, 6 Renditions:

1. Wild caught smoked salmon with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and avocado.

2. Grass-fed steak with roasted Japanese sweet potato and green beans.

3. Grass-fed burger with sautéed onions, squash, and pickled ginger.

4. Free range turkey drumsticks with Brussel sprouts and zucchini.

5. Wild caught oysters with grass-fed beef liver, cauliflower, steamed cabbage,and avocado.

6. Stir fried skin-on free range chicken breast with onions, carrots, celery, green peppers, and wild rice.

Snacks, 6 options:

1. Cantaloupe slices.

2. Grass-fed Beef jerky.

3. A handful of nuts. (Almonds, cashews, walnuts)

4. Cottage cheese with berries. (Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)

5. Hardboiled egg.

6. Apple slices.

There is hope and a light at the end of the tunnel, as there always is. If we want to achieve a beautiful body with robust health and the ability to take on the challenges life will throw our way, we must make the choice to supply it with properly sourced whole foods full of vitamins and minerals. Choose the wild caught salmon, organically grown acorn squash and asparagus over the pizza and cookies. See the change in your physical and mental state that it brings. Hell, give grass-fed liver a shot: there is no more nutrional sound super food on the planet than liver. Proper education and an understanding of just how powerful food can be is key to fixing the metabolic woes brought on the by the flood of processed food in our society. Let food by thy medicine, provide yourself with the vitamins and minerals you were ancestrally meant to have and nourish your body as it was designed to be. The key to optimal health is and always will be in your hands.

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Bibliography

DiNicolantonio, James, and Siim Land. The Obesity Fix: How to Beat Food Cravings, Lose Weight and Gain Energy. Independently published, 2022.

Hyman, Mark. The Doctors Farmacy. Episode 551: What to Eat for Health and Longevity. June 8, 2022.

Lustig, Robert H. Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine. New York, NY: HarperWave, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2021.

Shanahan, Catherine. Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food. New York, NY: Flatiron Books, 2016