The Paleo Solution Part 1

The Paleo Solution:.

The Original Human Diet ROBB WOLF.

Acknowledgements.

I know I will forget someone, as I have so many people to thank for not only aiding in the completion of this project, but also the gym, seminars, etc. Well, here goes:

Out of the gate I need to thank Andy Deas-a great co-conspirator on the Paleolithic Solution Podcast, as well as the person who lit a fire under me to stop talking about this book and do it.

A huge acknowledgement goes to Dr. Mat Lalonde, PhD. Mat helped significantly with the technical editing of the book and made the final product so much better (scientifically accurate, readable...you name it) than it would have been. Thanks Mat.

In the science and technical theme, the following folks helped enormously by tracking down scientific journals and references: Pedro Bastos, Amy Kubal, and Brad Hirakawa.

Thanks to Yael Grauer (my "starry-eyed hippy on the street") who also helped with edits and flow.

Thanks to all of the following people who contributed work on the cover: John Welbourn, Joey Jimenez, Diane Sanfilipo, and Lou Mars. We made dozens of iterations on the cover and went some really interesting directions. John and Joey did a ton of work early on, and Diane was in the trenches tweaking the design at the 11th hour. Thanks also to the folks from Tuttle Publishing, Barnes & n.o.ble, and Borders who offered input that I often did not want to hear, but needed to hear. I really appreciate the help all of these people gave to the project.

Thanks to Mike St. John. Brother, you are one of my best students and an inspiration. Someday I'll be "St. John Lean."

Thank you to my mentor Prof. Loren Cordain. I'm doing what I'm doing because you did what you did. I cannot thank you enough for your guidance and friendship.

Thanks to my editor, Erich Krauss, for not only taking on this project, but also for making it as important to him as it was to me. I would have never completed this project without your help.

Thanks to Glen Cordoza for your friendship and for encouraging me to take this to Victory Belt and a larger market.

To Dave Werner, Nancy Meenen, Michael Rutherford, Greg & Aimee Everett, and Chris Sommer: You have all stood by me during the toughest times in my life and have been unwavering in your friendship. This book would not be done and my life would not be what it is without you guys.

Thank you to Prof. Arthur Devany for your early guidance in my study of ancestral life-ways.

Thanks to our staff at NorCal Strength & Conditioning. I've been on the road a lot the past two years and you guys have grown and developed both the gym and yourselves.

Thank you to the many thousands of people I've met via my seminars, the blog, and podcast. This book literally is "Your" story. I would just be a chemist with a stop-watch without your support and interaction.

Thank you to Scotty Hagnas for your friendship, brainstorming, and the great meals you prepared for this book.

A garganto-thank-you to Craig "Chops" Zielinski. Without Craig's Jedi-like computer involvement I would not have a blog, the podcast, or the book. In Craig's honor, please read the entire book with a heavy Scottish accent.

And thanks finally to my wife, Nicki Violetti. I still have no idea how I roped you into marrying me, but I say a silent prayer of thanks every day we are together. Without you this book would have never taken form, and my life would lack love, fun, and adventure. You are My Girl.

Foreword.

By

Prof. Loren Cordain, Colorado State University.

Author of Paleo Diet and Paleo Diet for Athletes.

I never thought I would laugh out loud while reading a book on Paleolithic nutrition, autoimmunity, and lipid metabolism, but I did just that while reviewing this book. With Robb being a former student of mine, it has been particularly gratifying to see the progress he has made, not only in understanding the Paleo diet for his own health needs, but also in how he turned his adversity into a pa.s.sion, which has driven him to reach so many people with this life-altering message.

Who might benefit from reading The Paleo Solution? In a word, everyone. The book is peppy, upbeat, and engaging, while conveying the science and serious intent of the Paleo message. Robb has done an outstanding job of integrating vastly different disciplines in this accessible; entertaining; and, above all, practical work. It is a real tour de force, and you will love it!

You will learn about the remarkable good health of our Paleolithic ancestors, and how that health changed with the transition to agriculture and a diet dominated by humanity's "double-edged sword"-cereal grains. You will then discover how the complex interaction of our food and our hormonal system can produce either vibrant health or the many problems related to insulin dysregulation, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, and various forms of cancer. If this wasn't enough, Robb covers not only how cereal grains underlie a host of autoimmune-related diseases, but also how they can erode your wellness by increasing inflammation in your body. You will learn a great deal about dietary fats, how the amounts and ratios of various fats have changed since our hunter-gatherer genome was established, and what this means for your health.

Possibly one of the most informative and eye-opening sections of the book deals with the stress hormone cortisol. If you are like me, you will seriously reevaluate your sleep, work, and other lifestyle variables after you read this chapter. Even if you have never exercised before, you will find the Ancestral Fitness chapter informative, instructional, and motivational. You will understand the role of exercise in maintaining your health and quality of life. Robb concludes the book with chapters addressing the practical elements of the Paleo diet: How to shop, feed the kids, a thirty-day meal plan, and a slick system for tracking your progress, which includes recommended blood work and what that blood work means.

I am fortunate to have had a significant degree of success, which has stemmed largely from my investigations in and around Paleolithic nutrition. The Paleo Solution is the beneficiary of this success, and via its humor and information, I suspect you will find it to be as revolutionary as it is helpful.

Prologue.

I want you to try a little observation game. Go to a public location with lots of people and look around. Not in a creepy "Chester-the-Molester" way-just observe the folks around you and keep a mental tally of the following: How many people look healthy? You know, vibrant, energetic, slim, athletic. All? Some? None?

I live in Chico, California, which is famous for two things-our brewery, Sierra Nevada, and the fact that Playboy rated our university the "top party school in the nation" in 1987. Although our population tends to be on the younger side, we still have a decent age mix. When I play the above observation game, "How many people look healthy?" I see few examples of health. Little kids are chubby. Teenagers are m.u.f.fin topped and hollow eyed. And instead of enjoying active golden years, elderly folks are consigned to walkers and wheel chairs. You may be shrugging and thinking, Yeah, so what? That's all normal. Well, normal can be mistaken for "common," because the above conditions are neither right nor normal.

There's an a.n.a.logy about environmental change that goes like this: A frog is living in room temperature water, going about its normal froggy life. One day the temperature of the water starts to rise, but it happens so incrementally, the frog does not even notice. While he is frogging around, he literally boils alive. I'm not sure that this scenario would actually happen this way-I'd surely hope that our friend Kermit would notice things were going from balmy to bisque, but the a.n.a.logy is powerful, and it eerily describes our modern world. As a society, we have become so sick, weak, and broken, we accept the abnormal as normal. We accept that our kids are too fat to play and blame it on "genetics." What people do not realize is that it's not a frog in the soup, it's us, and the temperature is most a.s.suredly rising.

ONE.

My Story, Your Story, Our Story...

(Cheezy, but true.).

This book could save your life. No, not as a flotation device-I mean the information in it. You might have noticed from the cover that it's a "health and diet book," but it is much more than that. It is also a story as old as humanity. I know, that's a remarkably grandiose claim. At this point you have no reason to believe a word I say. I have yet to buy you a drink, and we have known each other for less than a paragraph. So, perhaps I should tell you a little bit about myself.

I grew up in Redding, California, a medium-sized town on Interstate 5, about three hours south of the Oregon border. Considering I'm a kid from rural NorCal, you might think this is a story of cow-tipping, NASCAR, and keg stands. This would reflect my heritage, and I can certainly spin a yarn about redneck shenanigans worthy of the best Jerry Springer Show highlight reels. But this book is not that story. This is the story of being the son of well-meaning, but unfortunately perpetually sick parents. Mom and Dad smoked, had heart disease, and a host of other health problems. From an early age, I was steeped in "fun" things like gall bladder surgeries, high triglycerides, pacemakers, asthma, emphysema, and arthritis. My earliest memories of my parents include a dizzying combination of medical worries, doctor visits, and medications. Not that this stuff dominated every minute of our lives, of course, but looking back now, I realize these health concerns became like background Muzak for our family.

In addition to (or perhaps because of) being sick, my parents tended to have defeatist att.i.tudes. I remember one uplifting exchange with my mom: Me: "What do you think it will be like when you are 100 years old?"

Mom: "Oh goodness! I hope I don't live that long!"

Me: "Why?" (A word that has defined my career path as well as landed me in hot water frequently enough to get me officially categorized as "soup stock.") Mom's reply: "If you were that old, you would just HURT so much and you would not be able to get around. It would just be miserable."

My mom tended to be a shiny ray of sunshine. Most days.

Even at an early age, and despite the decidedly unhealthy environs of my upbringing, I had always had a notion that what we ate and how we lived could influence our health, wellness, and longevity. This innate sense, combined with my parents' poor health, spurred my interest in nutrition and fitness. I suspected that with smart food choices one need not suffer from heart disease and decrepitude. Armed with this idea, I was determined to avoid the fate of my parents.

Complementary to my interest in health and nutrition was an almost fanatical partic.i.p.ation in the athletic activities common to most kids: football, wrestling, and karate. But as the people who know me will tell you, I tend to be obsessive about my interests. I read everything I could find on nutrition and athletic training, whether it was a book, magazine, or an old bodybuilding manual. This focus and pa.s.sion for training and nutrition eventually resulted in a teenage state championship in power lifting and an amateur kick boxing record of 6-0.

I should be embarra.s.sed to admit this, but no matter how strong my love was for athletics, it always played second fiddle to my nerdy side. In high school I competed at the state level in the Science Olympiad (Really, I did it for the girls. Really.). After high school I bounced around a number of science-related undergraduate tracks ranging from engineering to physics to molecular biology, but I eventually wrapped up a BS in biochemistry and had my sights set on medical school.

Now, this would all be fairly unremarkable were it not for the fact I also had a strong sense of rebellion and countercultural leanings. Ironically, this "dark side" led to a long deviation away from health and was nearly my undoing. You see, I developed an interest in unwashed hippy girls and vegetarianism.

Second Floor: Housewares, Vegetarianism, and Clueless Rebels.

I think my story is not that different from many kids-Rebel against the basic values or norms of your parents' society. Make everything you grew up with "wrong." I thought everything American sucked, all business was evil. You know, typical youthful idiocy. It was about this time that a perfect storm of misinformation and self-delusion took my better judgment and my health from me.

The misinformation centered on the notion that vegetarianism was not only healthier than the dirty practices of eating "toxic meat," but it was morally superior as well. This certainly played to my interest in nutrition. It also sang to my youthful desire to not only be different but also live on a moral high-ground.

You may be asking yourself, "How could he let this happen?" And also "How the h.e.l.l will this story save my life?"

I'll get to the life saving stuff in a minute. For now, you must understand my move toward vegetarianism also carried the "prize" of hippy girls. Hippy girls who tended to be both vegetarian and pretty hot. Well, "hot" in a depressed, misanthropic, high-likelihood-of-hip-fracture-due-to-a-fall sort of way. I traded in my BBQ grill for a rice steamer and pressure cooker. As a bonus, I scored a host of medical problems.

My foray into vegetarianism started innocently enough: Giant pots of steamed rice, pressure-cooked black beans, home-made hummus, and plenty of tofu-veggie stir-fry's. I'm a d.a.m.n good cook, so making all this vegetarian grub taste good was never a problem. The problem was that my government-recommended "complex carb" meals left me ravenously hungry about forty-five minutes to an hour after eating. I also developed a monstrous sweet tooth, which I had to battle constantly. I was ga.s.sy, bloated, and started having really weird digestive problems. Looking back, I always had some problems with blood sugar swings and wacky digestion. I just a.s.sumed it was normal, especially when growing up in a house where sickness was the norm.

Interestingly, with the adoption of my vegetarian diet, these seemingly random health problems became worse. I studied everything I could find about vegetarian nutrition and alternative medicine. I studied at the top macrobiotic inst.i.tutes, and I consulted with "experts" in vegetarian eating. After much a.n.a.lysis, I decided I was just detoxifying (a quasi-mythical state in which the body releases stored toxins).

So, I was vegetarian, and I "detoxed." For a few years.

When I went to the macrobiotic inst.i.tute, they a.s.sured me I was on the "right track" and I just needed to "try harder." I attended yoga seminars in which vegetarian food was the topic. My problems were attributed to "moral inept.i.tude" and an inability to evolve! At the ripe old age of twenty-six, I had high blood pressure (140-95), high triglycerides (over 300), and bad levels of cholesterol.

The doctors at the University Health Center told me I'd need to go on blood pressure medication some day. My gambit to avoid the fate of my parents was not going well. Sick and desperate, I applied and was accepted to a school of alternative medicine. Finally, I thought, I'll get my health squared away with the knowledge I will gain at this "enlightened" inst.i.tution. I'll not only be in a position to avoid the fate of my parents, but also help people find the "righteous road to health" via vegetarian living.

Academia: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Study Here.

My time at the naturopathy school was a disaster. Not because of anything inherently wrong with the program, but rather because I was getting really sick. My high blood pressure and wacky digestion seemed inconsequential compared to a nearly crippling bout of depression that left me fixated on death every waking moment. Gross anatomy cla.s.s was an intense experience with this mind-set! My stomach problems were getting worse and really scary. I went to several doctors, including naturopaths, MDs, and acupuncturists. All of them kicked things off with an abdominal exam that involved some pretty deep poking and prodding of my belly. By this stage, even mild pressure on my stomach brought about such sharp pains I would nearly leap off the table.

The MD thought I had irritable bowel syndrome and colitis. He thought I might need a bowel resection. The naturopath thought I was still detoxing. The acupuncturist was by far the most helpful and proclaimed me "a mess." I, and my health care providers, thought the diet I was eating was nearly perfect: whole grains, beans galore, tofu for protein, loads of fresh veggies. Whatever my problem, it most a.s.suredly was not my diet! Given my dire condition: debilitating depression, colitis, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, insomnia, and a nearly constant pain throughout my body, it was the opinion of my doctors that if I were not eating as "well" as I was, I'd be dead.

I was twenty-eight years old.

I was down from a muscular and athletic 180 lbs to an emaciated 140 lbs. I literally wanted to die, but I was too big a chicken to do the deed. I was pancreas deep in the best of modern and alternative medicine plus the evolved moral thinking of the Superior Vegetarian Elite. I was screwed and I had no idea what to do. In an ironic twist, my mom's deteriorating health likely saved my life.

Go with Gut.

My parents had been in and out of the hospital for surgeries, both major and minor. They had startled the family multiple times with problems so severe that we thought, "This is it." In the summer of 1999, my mom went in the hospital with heart and lung problems that the doctors could not get a handle on. It looked very much like these problems might kill her. The doctors said she was inflamed "everywhere." The lining of her heart and lungs seemed to be nearly on fire. She could not breathe, she was in excruciating pain. It's nothing you want to see anyone go through, especially your mom.

The only thing that seemed to help was high doses of anti-inflammatory drugs, but these had powerful side effects nearly as bad as her original problem. This went on for days, until finally a diagnosis was made: Autoimmune disease. My mom's immune system, designed to protect her from microbial invaders like bacteria and viruses, had turned on her and appeared h.e.l.l-bent on killing her. When the medical reports came back, we were stunned, as she had a laundry list of interconnected diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren's syndrome. I'd heard of some of these, others were completely new to me.

With the diagnosis came a treatment plan involving immune-suppressing drugs and anti-inflammatories. These drugs were dangerous and p.r.o.ne to complications, but the c.o.c.ktail would at least quiet the warfare in her body to a point that she would live and be reasonably comfortable. Amid this fear, confusion, and drama, a quiet discovery was made by some routine lab work ordered by the rheumatologist: In addition to the autoimmune diseases, my mom also had an intolerance to a protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, oats, rye, barley, and a few other grains. The disease is called celiac, and, as I mentioned, this diagnosis likely saved my life.

A phone call with my mom revealed that her celiac disease was a type of autoimmune response in the small intestine. She told me many people suffered from the problem with varying degrees of severity. Her rheumatologist suspected that the celiac might be at play in all of her autoimmune conditions. The solution was simple in theory, nearly impossible in practice: remove all foods that contain gluten from the diet: bread, pasta, most cereal, and all sorts of baked goods. Sauces, marinades, and similar prepared items are suspect too, as everything seems to contain gluten in one form or another. Not only do you need to read labels, you have to be exceptionally careful while eating out. A grilled chicken breast could be contaminated with gluten by simply being cooked on a grill that had shared French bread from an earlier meal.

For my mom, the removal of gluten brought an immediate improvement in her stomach issues and autoimmune condition. She had suffered from gall stones years before, and this lead eventually to the removal of her gall bladder. She had also suffered from the same problems as I had: colitis, acid reflux, and the catch-all term "irritable bowel syndrome" (IBS). Interestingly, my mom's rheumatologist also recommended she avoid most legumes, such as beans and bean sprouts, as they were known to irritate conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

This was happy news for me because my mom was feeling better (although still far from healthy), but it was also a world-altering moment. My mom's illness and presumably my illness was caused by the holiest of holies: the vegetarian diet. The base of the food pyramid! Grains and legumes, the most wholesome and righteous of foods, appeared to be out to kill us.

I was stunned. How could this be? If whole grains and legumes were making us sick, what should I eat? I was literally sitting on my doorstep on an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day in Seattle when an idea struck me: How did we evolve? What did we eat in our remote past? Hunter-gatherers, evolutionary biology: the Paleo diet. I remembered hearing about a way of eating that emulated the diets of our hunter-gatherer forebears.

I jumped up and went in the house, turned on the computer (waited forever for the dial-up to engage), and used a nifty new search engine called Google to research the term "Paleo diet." What I found stunned me. Our human and prehuman ancestors had lived for 3 million years with a remarkably high level of health, eating only lean meats, seafood, nuts, seeds, and seasonal fruits and vegetables. The agricultural "revolution" saw our ancestors become small, weak, and sick. Infant mortality exploded.

The most important site I found initially was Professor Arthur Devany's Evolutionary Fitness. Professor Devany is a retired economist who has emulated the exercise and eating of a hunter-gatherer for over thirty years. He is seventy years old, six feet two inches tall, and 205 lbs with less than 10 percent body fat. This was the normal state for our hunter gatherer forebears. I began corresponding with Prof. Devany and, at his suggestion, I contacted Prof. Loren Cordain of Colorado State University, who would ultimately become my mentor in the study of Paleolithic nutrition.

Professor Cordain was the world's leading expert on the topic of ancestral diet as it relates to our health and wellness. His research was published in journals ranging from immunology to rheumatology to ophthalmology to nutrition. This is unheard of in the modern world of scientific specialization. His secret? If you know the answer (evolutionary biology) it is easy to reverse engineer the question. Prof. Cordain knew that evolution via natural selection was the answer to modern health questions.

Other key resources in my early learning included the books Pro.

tein Power and Protein Power: LifePlan by Michael and Mary Eades. The Eades had worked as bariatric physicians for over twenty years. Their amazing success with overweight patients was the result of understanding our ancestral diet. They reversed diabetes, depression, GI problems, and autoimmunity while helping clients lose enormous amounts of weight.