An introduction to the paleo diet and its health benefits. A short summary of research is presented as well as a description of blood sugar managment. Best Nutritionist in Sarastoa, Cynthia Clark, http://www.cranehealth.net

1. Dr. Cynthia Clark, AP

2. Agenda
 Why Paleo? - Starting with Blood Sugar
 The Purpose of Eating
 Modern Paleo History
 Paleo Players
 Paleo Basics
 Studies
 Vegetarianism?
 Grains?
 If we can really affect our health in this way, why isn’t
my doctor screaming this from the rooftops?

3. Starting with Blood Sugar
 Adults over 20: 35% are pre-diabetic
 Adults over 65: 77% are pre-diabetic or diabetic. (US
centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Diabetes/High blood sugar is the #1 cause of:
 Blindness in adults
 Kidney failure
 Amputations
 One of the top reasons for Erectile Dysfunction

4. Starting with Blood Sugar
Every 24 hours:
 230 diabetics have a limb amputated
 55 diabetics go blind
 120 diabetics develop kidney failure

5. Starting with Blood Sugar:
Normal Insulin release

6. Starting with Blood Sugar:
Symptoms of Blood Sugar Problems
 Symptoms include:
 Shaky/irritable without food  Abdominal weight gain
 Sugar/carb cravings  Difficulty Losing Weight
 Fatigue  Gas and bloating
 Feel better after eating  Tired in afternoon
 Difficulty concentrating,  Reflux/Sour
poor focus Stomach/nausea
 Sleepy after meals  Blurry Vision
 Crave a small “sweet” after meals

7. Starting with Blood Sugar:
What’s a Carbohydrate?
 Bread  Fruit Juices
 Cereal  Smoothies
 Crackers  Sodas**
 Bran  Energy Drinks
 Snack/Breakfast Bars  High Fructose Corn
Syrup
 Oatmeal
 Agave Nectar
 Baked Goods
 Beer
 Pastries
 Rice
 Cookies/Cakes
 Potatoes, Yams, Corn
 Pasta
 Beans
 Fruit
 Corn/Popcorn

8. Starting with Blood Sugar:
Carbohydrates and Insulin
What does Insulin and Glucose Damage look like?
 Diabetes1  Hypochlorhydria
 Obesity  Leaky Gut
 Infertility  Food Intolerances
 Heart Disease2  Dysbiosis
 Stroke3  Insomnia
 Hypertension4  Sleep Apnea5
1 Moore MA, et al. Implications of the hyperinsulinemia – diabetes – cancer link for preventive efforts. Eur J Cancer Prev 1998; 7:89-107
2 Depres JP, et al. Hyperinsulinemia as an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease. N Eng J Med 1996; 334: 952-957
3 Potter can Loon, et al. The cardiovascular risk factor plasminogen activator inhinitor Type I is related to insulin resistnace. Metabolism 1993; 42: 945-949.
4 Tedde R, Sechi LA, Marigliao A, Palo A, Scano L. Anti-hypertensive effect of insulin production in diabetic hypertensive patients. Am J Hypertens 1989;2:163-170
AND Zavaroni I, Massa S., Dall’aglio E., et al. Prevalence of hyperinsulinemia in patients with high blood pressure. J Int Med 1992; 231:235-240.
5 Tiihonen M., Partinen M, Narvanen S. The severity of obstructive sleep apnea associated with insulin resistance. J Sleep Res 1992; 2:56-61

9. Starting with Blood Sugar:
Carbohydrates and Insulin
 What does Insulin and Glucose Damage look like?
 Fatigue/Adrenal Exhaustion  Neuropathy
 Alzheimer’s  Depression
 Dementia  Anxiety
 Blindness  Joint Pain
 Renal Failure  Cancer1
 Amputations  PCOS2
1 Stoll B. Essential Fatty Acids, insulin resistance, and breast cancer risk. Nutri Cancer 1998;31:72-77
AND Weiderpass E, et al. Diabetes mellitus and risk of large bowel cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 1997;89:600-661
2 Arthur lS, Selvakumar MS. Hyperinsulinemia in polycystic ovary disease. J Reprod Med 1999;44, 783-787

10. What’s the purpose of eating?
 We eat to gain energy. Therefore it makes sense that
we benefit the most from eating the foods from which
we gain the most energy. We therefore look for the
most nutrient-dense foods, designed specifically for
humans. Animals do this by instinct, and once upon a
time, humans did, too.
 Today, due to the wide availability of food and a
hormonal dis-evolution brought on by nutritional
deficiency, our food choices are often determined
more by our stress level, our comfort zone, and our
willingness to feed ourselves, than how nutrient-dense
our meal is.

11. Modern Paleo History
 Boyd Eaton published the now-classic scientific paper
“Paleolithic Nutrition: A Consideration of Its Nature
and Current Implications” in the New England Journal
of Medicine in 1985. One of the surprising points that
he made in a subsequent paper was that cereal grains
were rarely or never consumed by pre-agricultural
hunter-gatherers.

12. Modern Paleo History
 The idea of disease prevention by nutrition has been
around for several decades; the first known book of this
type is Weston A. Price’s “Nutrition and Physical
Degeneration, A Comparison of Primitive and modern
Diets and Their Effects” published in 1939. Dr. Price
traveled the world, recording his observations of diet and
health about various tribal populations including Amazon
Indians, Alaskan Eskimos, Australian Aborigines, Canadian
Indians, Polynesians, and African tribal populations. He
noted that whenever modern diets were adopted, their
health declined. He also noted at that time the Europeans
were using sunbathing to treat tuberculosis.

13. Paleo Players

14. Paleo Basics
 The Paleolithic era began 2.6 million years ago, and they
hunted, and gathered for their food.
 Although 10,000 years ago seems far away historically, only
about 333 generations have passed since the advent of
agriculture.
 Genetically, we have barely changed from the Paleolithic
era.
 If you follow the 85/15 rule – if you are 85% compliant
with your diet most of the time, significant
improvements in your health can occur.

15. Study 1
 In 2007, Dr. Lindeberg and associates placed 29 patients
with Type II Diabetes and heart disease on either a Paleo
diet or a Mediterranean diet based on whole grains, low-fat
dairy products, vegetables, fruits, fish oils, and margarines.
Note: Paleo encourages a greater consumption of meat and
fish, while discouraging grains, dairy, and margarine. After
12 weeks blood glucose tolerance, a risk factor for heart
disease, improved in both groups but was better in the
Paleo dieters. The Paleo diet was shown to be more
satiating on a calorie-by-calorie basis because it caused
greater changes in leptin, a hormone that regulates
appetite and body weight.

16. Study 2
 In 2008, Dr. Osterdahl and coworkers put 14 healthy
subjects on a Paleo diet. After only 3 weeks, the
subjects lost weight, reduced their waist size, and
experienced significant reductions in blood pressure
and plasminogen activator inhibitor, a substance in
blood that promotes clotting and accelerates artery
clogging.

17. Study 3
 In 2009, Dr. Frasetto and coworkers put 9 inactive
subjects on a Paleo diet for just 10 days. Their diet was
exactly matched in calories with the subjects’ usual
diet. While on the Paleo diet, participants
experienced improvements in blood pressure, arterial
function, insulin, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol,
and triglycerides. This occurred in every single
subject, in only 9 days.

18. Study 4
 In 2009, Dr. Lindeberg and colleagues compared the effects
of a Paleo diet to a Type II diabetes diet. The Diabetes diet
was intended to reduce total fat by increasing whole-grain
bread and cereals, low-fat dairy products, fruits, and
vegetables, while restricting animal foods. By contrast, the
Paleo diet was lower in cereals, dairy, potatoes, beans, and
baked goods but higher in fruits, vegetables, meat, and
eggs. All 13 diabetes patients first followed one diet for 3
months, then crossed over and followed the other diet for 3
months. Compared to the diabetes diet, the Paleo diet
resulted in improved weight loss, waist size, blood
pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose,
and HgA1c.

19. How did the low-fat revolution start?
In 1953, scientist Ancel Keys proposed the correlation on the left, choosing 7
countries to demonstrate that saturated fat affects cholesterol. The true graph is
on the right, showing no such correlation at all.
The graph that launched it all…

20. Saturated Fats
 Study: Dr. Any Sinclair at the Deakin Univeristy in Australia in
1990 fed 10 adults a low-fat lean beef-based diet for 5 weeks, with
constant caloric intake. Total blood cholesterol fell significantly
within one week, but rose as fat drippings were added back in
during weeks 4 and 5. Conclusion: it is the beef fat, not the beef
itself, that is associated with elevations in cholesterol
concentrations. BUT the fat drippings actually improved the
total cholesterol/HDL (good cholesterol) ratio.
 Four types of Saturated Fats:
 Lauric Acid
 Myristic Acid
 Palmitic Acid
 Stearic Acid
The second two raise saturated fat levels, the first does so slightly, and
stearic acid doesn’t at all.

21. Saturated fat and CAD
 2010 Meta-Analysis showed that when carbs were used to
replace saturated fats, carbs increased the risk for heart
disease by increasing blood triglycerides and lowering HDL
cholesterol levels. When compared to carbs, saturated fats
were shown to be neutral and neither increased nor
decreased the risk for heart disease. And when individual
saturated fatty acids were compared to carbs, it was
demonstrated that lauric acid, myristic acid, and stearic
acid actually lowered the total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol
ratio.
 Conclusion: No overall effect of saturated fatty acid
consumption on coronary heart disease events.

22. So can I eat bacon & hot dogs?
 Processed meats are synthetic mixtures of meat and fat
combined artificially at the meatpacker’s or the buther’s
whim with no regard for the true fatty acid profile of the
wild animal carcasses our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.
They’re also full of preservatives and nitrates, which are
converted into cancer-causing nitrosamines. Then they
add HFCS, salt, wheat, grains, and other additives with
adverse effects.
 While red meat consumption is not associated with either
heart disease or type 2 diabetes, processed meats
resulted in a 42 percent greater risk for heart disease,
and a 19 percent greater risk for diabetes.

23. Sources of Sat. Fat % of Sources of Sat. Fat % of Total
Total Sat. Fat
NON-PALEO FOODS Sat. Fat PALEO FOODS
Milk, cheese, butter, and dairy 20 Beef 13.2
Processed foods w/ grains & beef 9.8 Pork 8.8
(burritos, tacos, spaghetti) Poultry 6.0
Bread, cereals, rice, pasta, tortilla 9.5 Eggs 3.2
cihps, potato chips
Seafood 1.8
Desserts (ice cream, cakes) 8.6
Total 33.0
Processed foods with grains & 6.9
cheese (pizza, macaroni &
cheese) If you stick to the basic
Beverages, misc. 3.7 principles of the Paleo diet,
French fries, hash browns 3.3 consumption of saturated fats
within the range 10-15% of your
Salad Dressings 3
daily calories will not increase
Margarine 1.2 your risk for heart disease.
Total 66.0

24. Vegetarianism – B12?
What Does Vitamin B12 Do in Your Body?
 Helps to form myelin, which is a fatty cover that insulates your nerves.
 Helps to produce energy from metabolism of fat and protein.
 Helps to produce hemoglobin, which is the component of your red blood cells
that carrys oxygen to your cells. This is why a vitamin B12 deficiency can cause
fatigue.
 Reduces your homocysteine level, which lowers your risk of stroke, heart
disease, cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, and many degenerative
diseases.
 Regulates growth, maintenance, and reproduction of all of your cells
Vitamin B-12 gives you:
* Increased energy
* Restored mental clarity, and help with memory loss
* Reduced daily stress and irritability
* And many other great health benefits
You can’t get B12 from plants.

25. Vegetarianism?
 The 2003 study by Dr. Hermann and colleagues of 95
vegetarians revealed 77% of lacto/ovo vegetarians were
deficient in B12, and 92% of vegans were. This has
potentially disastrous effects for pregnant women, who
may experience spontaneous abortions, weak labor,
premature and low birth weight deliveries, birth
defects, and preeclampsia (maternal high BP and
damage to the liver, kidneys, and blood vessels).
 When we are B12 deficient, homocysteine levels rise.
It is a toxin for almost every cell in our bodies, AND---

26. Vegetarianism?
 Meta-analyses in the last 10 years have confirmed that
homocysteine is an independent risk factor for
cardiovascular disease and heart attacks. A 2008 study
by Dr. Humphrey and associates shows that for each 5
micromol/L rise in blood homocysteine level, the risk
for cardiovascular disease events increased by
approximately 20%.
 Examine India, where 31% of the 1.17 billion population
are strict vegetarians. The incidence of heart disease is
much higher than anywhere else in the world, and it is
developed at a much earlier age.

27. Vegetarianism and Heart Disease

28. Vegetarianism & Fertility?
 Dr. Pirke at the University of Trier in Germany randomly divided
18 young women into either vegetarian or non-vegetarian groups.
After 6 weeks, 7 of the 9 vegetarians stopped ovulating, whereas
only 1 meat-eater did.
 Another common nutritional deficiency in vegetarians is zinc.
This is because the phytates in grains, beans, and soy bind to it
and prevent it from being absorbed. Zinc deficiencies are tied to
sperm function.
 Calcium, iron, and Vitamin D are affected similarly by phytates.
 Vegetarian diets are low in iodine and taurine. Vegetarian
sources of B6 aren’t sufficiently bioavailable. Plant foods contain
the portion of omega 3’s that are ALA, but are lacking in DHA
and EPA, which are the long-chain omega 3 fatty acids.

29. Grains
 We’re going to compare the nutrients most lacking in
the US diet with these seven food groups:
 Whole Grains
 Milk
 Fruits
 Vegetables
 Seafood
 Lean Meat
 Nuts/Seeds

30. Vit B12 Vit B3
Food Rank Nutrient (ug) Food Rank Nutrient (mg)
Seafood 7 7.42 Lean Meet 7 4.73
Lean meat 6 0.63 Seafood 6 3.19
Whole milk 5 0.58 Veggies 5 2.73
Veggies 4 0 Whole Grains 4 1.12
Fruits 4 0 Fruits 3 0.89
Whole Grains 4 0 Nuts/Seeds 2 0.35
Nuts/Seeds 4 0 Whole Milk 1 0.14
Phosphorous Vit B2
Food Rank Nutrient (mg) Food Rank Nutrient (mg)
Seafood 7 219 Veggies 7 0.33
Veggies 6 157 Whole Milk 6 0.26
Whole Milk 5 152 Lean Meats 5 0.14
Lean meat 4 151 Seafoods 4 0.09
Whole grain 3 190 Fruits 3 0.09
Nuts/seeds 2 80 Whole Grains 2 0.05
Fruits 1 33 Nuts/seeds 1 0.04

31. Vit B1 Folate
Food Rank Nutrient Food Rank Nutrient
Veggies 7 0.26 Veggies 7 208.3
Lean meats 6 0.18 Fruits 6 25
Whole Grains 5 0.12 Nuts/Seeds 5 11
Nuts/Seeds 4 0.12 Seafoods 4 10.8
Fruits 3 0.11 Whole Grains 3 10.3
Seafoods 2 0.08 Whole Milk 2 8.1
Whole Milk 1 0.06 Lean Meats 1 3.8
Vit C Vit B6
Food Rank Nutrient Food Rank Nutrient
Fruits 7 221.3 Veggies 7 0.42
Veggies 6 93.6 Lean meats 6 0.32
Whole Milk 5 74.2 Fruits 5 0.2
Seafood 4 1.9 Seafoods 4 0.19
Whole Grains 3 1.53 Whole Grains 3 0.09
Nuts/Seeds 2 0.4 Nuts/seeds 2 0.08
Lean Meats 1 0.1 Whole Milk 1 0.07

32. Vit A Magnesium
Food Rank Nutrient Food Rank Nutrient
Veggies 7 687 Vegetables 7 54.5
Fruits 6 94 Seafoods 6 36.1
Whole Milk 5 50 Nuts/seeds 5 35.8
Seafoods 4 32 Whole grains 4 32.6
Nuts/seeds 3 2 Fruits 3 24.6
Whole Grains 2 2 Whole milk 2 21.9
Lean meats 1 1 Lean meats 1 18
Calcium Zinc
Food Rank Nutrient Food Rank Nutrient
Whole milk 7 194.3 Seafoods 7 7.6
Vegetables 6 116.8 Lean meats 6 1.9
Seafoods 5 43.1 Vegetables 5 1.04
Fruits 4 43 Whole grains 4 0.67
Nuts/seeds 3 17.5 Whole milk 3 0.62
Whole grains 2 7.6 nuts/seeds 2 0.6
Lean meats 1 6.1 Fruits 1 0.25

33. What about fiber?
Nonstarchy vegetables
Fruits
Whole-grain cereals
Refined cereals
0 50 100 150 200

34. Grains – the Whole story
 It may look like whole grains are good sources of
Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, and Zinc. Not true. All
whole grains contain phytate which binds these
materials and makes them unavailable. The more
whole grains you eat, the more deficient you will
become in these grains.
 Increases Vit D elimination from the body.
 Bottom line: don’t eat grains such as
wehat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, sorghum, and
millet.

35. What about pseudo-grains?
 Amaranth, quinoa (grain seeds), chia seeds?
 These have only moderately toxic antinutrients that
probably have minimal adverse health effects if we eat
them occassionally, in limited quantites, or for short
periods. In the wild, plans produce seeds for only a few
months of the year.

36. Foods
 Foods, in the order of preference of our paleolithic
ancestors:
 Large animals
 Medium-size animals
 Small animals, birds, and fish
 Roots and tubers
 Fruit
 Honey
 Nuts and seeds
 Grass seeds (cereals)

37. What to eat?
 Lean meats and fish
 Vegetables, including:
 Roots except potatoes and casava. Sweet
potatoes, yams, beets, carrots, turnips.
 Avoid beans, soy, and peanuts
 If you have an autoimmune disorder or allergies, limit
the nightshades: eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes.

38. Sample Day
 Breakfast: Organic eggs with olive oil &
parsley, grapefruit, and herbal tea.
 Snack: Sliced lean beef, fresh seasonal fruit
 Lunch: Caesar Salad with chicken (olive oil &
lemon), herbal tea
 Snack: apple slices, raw walnuts
 Dinner: Tomato & avocado slices; Grilled skinless
turkey breast; steamed broccoli, carrots, and
artichoke; bowl of fresh blueberries and almonds. 1
glass mineral water or white wine (remember the 85/15
rule!)

39. Remember
 Your body has an amazing capacity to heal itself. This
capacity is augmented through your nutrition, which
is an powerful game-changer in your future health.