Find Your Sweet Spot™: no grains or sugars, no processed foods

Finding Your Sweet Spot

If you’re like me, you have read a great deal of conflicting information regarding nutrition over the years. People are finally beginning to realize that low-fat and calorie counting aren’t the answer, as many scientific studies now show. These new studies removed much of the conflict.

But even looking the dietary approaches that get it right, there still may be some confusion. We now know that sugar and carbs cause many of today’s most serious diseases. Is it okay to eat gluten and grains? What about honey or agave syrup? What is a “good fat,” when we’ve been told for decades all fat is bad?

After years of reading, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that there is a Sweet Spot of truth, where the science in different aspects of nutrition intersects. And it happens to intersect in a delicious way!

The three approaches to nutrition that have the most science behind them–I almost said “the most weight behind them”–are Traditional Nutrition, low-carb, and endocrinology. Repeatedly, the science affirms all three.

Traditional Nutrition is based on the work of Dr. Weston A. Price. He and his research team looked at societies in transition from their traditional lifeways to modern culture and analyzed them to see what made the difference between robust health and chronic, modern illnesses. The Weston A. Price Foundation continues his work today. Traditional nutrition includes such dietary plans as Paleo and Primal eating.

Low-carb methods actually began in ancient Rome and continued with Dr. William Banting’s book, Letter on Corpulence 150 years ago. It regained attention with the work of cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins, and has since been furthered by scores of other doctors and researchers, including but not limited to the Duke University Obesity Clinic. Dr. Atkins’ method is probably the most well known, and involves finding your personal level of carbohydrate tolerance.

Endocrinology is the relatively new field of science that deals with he various glands and hormones in the body and how they affect one another. How they effect metabolism is just beginning to be understood. The Rosedale Diet is an example of a diet that follows these principles.

What do these three methods have in common?

• Certain fats are good and even necessary
• Nutrient density counts
• Nutrient-dense foods tend to be lower in carbs
• Processed foods tend not to be nutrient-dense
• Grains and sugars are not nutrient-dense
• Grains, particularly processed grains, can wreck havoc with the endocrine system
• The endocrine system is the key to good health

Primal, paleo, ketogenic, low carb, low allergen, low glycemic and gluten-free diets all have one or more of these principles as a vital part of their philosophies.

The Sweet Spot

That’s what I mean by the Sweet Spot. People who eat low-carb have noticed that they tend to be able to identify and eliminate allergens, particularly if they do it the Atkins’ way. People who practice an allergen protocol might notice that they’re eating more naturally and lower carb than the usual Western diet. Primal folk know they’re eating more traditional, less processed, and lower carb. Those who go gluten-free can do so in a simple, grain-free manner and omit a lot of the processed substitutes.

In fact, the place they all come together is pretty simple: no grains, no sugars, no processed foods, all real foods. And then you adjust for your personal needs, be they nutritional, what you can reasonably get where you live (so no raw camel milk here), or what you can afford.

Nuts would be something that would overlap most of these plans, except of course in many cases, the allergen protocol folk. I’m highly allergic to quite a few things, but fortunately, not to nuts. So if you’re allergic, obviously don’t eat them.

For those of us who need to keep our blood sugar and insulin production down, potatoes are out. That would cover the low carb, ketogenic, and low glycemic folk and those allergic to nightshades.

That’s the Sweet Spot. It’s individual, but it’s based on hundreds of scientific studies, and the experiences of hundreds of thousands of people who have followed one or another of these ways of eating.

What does the Sweet Spot mean in terms of what you put in your grocery cart, and ultimately in your mouth?

You’re going to shop the perimeter of most groceries: real foods, like milk, vegetables, meats, eggs, cheese, high fiber fruits. You will no longer need a bakery section and you won’t need to make too many trips into the canned goods section, with the exception of olives, mushrooms, and possibly tomato paste.

You may even be making some connections with local farmers. Or maybe it will be a local farmers’ market. Local is far better than shipped-in, even if the shipped-in is organic, in terms of nutrient density.

You’ll get to know your own body. How much of a sugar load can you handle? Remember, grains start turning to sugars right in your mouth! If you are having health problems, try cutting the grains and sugars first. The science is behind it.

As far as fats are concerned, if your great-grandma could produce it in her farm kitchen, eat it. This might mean your great-grandmother lived among the olive groves in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, or Tunisia. Maybe it means your great-grandmother made ghee during the right stage of the moon in India. Or your grandma in Minnesota or Norway, churning butter. It could even mean your great-uncles chopping up coconuts in the Philippines or Thailand to leave in a bucket of cold water overnight for coconut oil.

It does not mean your grandma making canola oil at the factory in Winnipeg. Nope.

Eating and health is not one size fits all. Every one of us has a unique Sweet Spot where food is health. By choosing the right foods and listening to your body, you will find your own personal Sweet Spot.

For more on this subject, co-author Misty Humphrey and I have written a detailed account in our cookbook, Low-Carb & Gluten Free Fall and Winter Entertaining. There is a section on making the right food choices called Good, Better, Best and Fresh and Seasonal lists by region. The book also offers menus for the fall and winter seasons as well as tips and ideas.