By
Dr. Catherine Shanahan
It's time to meet your third parent.
We've all seen how important it is for
moms and dads to watch over their growing children and to stay connected as
they mature and what a vital role that can play in the child's development.
Caring parents even continue to advise their children after they leave the
nest, offering wisdom that can help shape career choices, child-rearing
decisions, and more. In my 20-plus years of clinical experience I've witnessed
how powerfully maintaining an ongoing relationship with our elders can help to
ensure the mental and physical well-being of the younger generation.
And it's every bit as important to stay
in touch with your third parent—not for financial or social counsel—but for
epigenetic advice. This is the information your genes have come to expect and
now require in order for you to grow up strong, give birth to the healthiest
possible children, and enjoy a long, active life. In writing Deep Nutrition, I
analyzed the strategies that all traditional cultures shared in common that
enabled them to provide their genes with the epigenetic wisdom that our genes
need to function at their very best.
Here are seven nutritional strategies
you can use to boost the signal between your genes and Mother Nature.
1. Equate REAL flavor with nutrition.
Doritos and other snack foods have lots
of flavor, which, in part, is why they're so addictive. But artificial flavors
and empty calories are like prank calls to your body's cells. The intense taste
of junk food—which human beings naturally seek out—is accompanied by almost
zero nutrition. The intense flavors of a perfectly grilled steak, in contrast,
come from the fact that it's a good source of all 11 essential amino acids that
your body needs to build muscle; minerals like iron, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium;
multiple B vitamins and (when from a pasture raised animal); bone-building
vitamin K2; and brain-building essential omega-3 fats. The more real flavor you
can get with each bite, the better every cell in your body will function.
2. Reduce your sugar intake by half.
A lot of athletes balk at the idea of
skipping the candy bar or the high-sugar soda because they grew up thinking of
food as fuel. And what better fuel than what your cells run on—sugar! The
problem is, our cells are not, in reality, engineered to use sugar as a
preferential fuel source. They're meant to run primarily on fat. When you eat
too much sugar—refined sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, certainly, but also
sugar from natural fruit juices—you're essentially telling your cells to
double-down on specializing in the creation of sugar-burning enzymes that make
your cells addicted to sugar. And this added to the fact that high blood sugar
levels disrupt hormonal balance, means that sugar creates nothing but static in
the conversation between your genes and the planet.
3. Dump the vegetable oil.
The single ingredient that makes junk
food junk food has to be vegetable oil—the most commonly used forms include
soy, canola, and palm oil. These seed oils (called RBD, or refined, bleached, and
deodorized oils) are loaded with toxic breakdown products of the once-healthy
essential omega-3 and omega-6 fats and deliver compounds like reactive
carbonyls and even alkylating agents to your cells. The biochemical messages
delivered are kind of like mumbled words your body can't quite understand.
Mangled molecules confuse the body much in the same way that trans fats do,
misdirecting cellular enzymes and directly damaging DNA. And you should know
that, if you haven't already made the conscious choice to avoid these highly
processed, toxic fats and replace them with traditional fats (like avocado,
olive, and coconut), you're likely taking in a full third of your daily caloric
intake in the form of these nasty seed oils.
4. Eat homemade bone stock.
Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers was one of
the first athletes I've worked with to get fully on board with the manifold
benefits of bone stock. Since then, stock's stock has gone way up, with stock
restaurants popping up everywhere from LA to Chicago to Manhattan. So what
makes this traditional food preparation so essential for athletes? It's simple,
really. In the same way that real food protein sources help to build and
maintain healthy muscle, bone stock helps build the tissues that connect your
muscle to your bone—called connective tissues. Sure, you can take a glucosamine
or chondroitin pill, but it doesn't convey all the biochemical information in
stock. Plus, homemade chicken stock—using the bones you save from cooked
chicken—takes only two hours to make and tastes amazing!
5. Eat lots of fresh, raw foods.
Vegans have long argued that we don't
eat nearly enough raw vegetables, and they're right. Part of this has to do
with the fact that most of the vegetables people have access to are, frankly,
uninspiring. Bred for their ability to survive shipping and storage rather than
for flavor, grown in sterile soil and picked unripe, the tomatoes in the store
taste nothing like the tomatoes grandma used to grow in her garden. So if
you're lucky enough to enjoy access to fresh, flavorful veggies, take full
advantage and make a big salad a daily event.
6. Eat fermented and sprouted foods.
Fermented foods include yogurt and
traditionally brined dill pickles and are special because of the good bacteria
they provide our gut, which supports a healthy microbiome. Sprouted foods are
partially germinated, not full-on sprouts, and are good for us because they
provide prebiotics, which act like food for the healthy bacteria in our gut.
You can make your own fermented foods or you can buy them in health food
stores. You'll find them in the refrigerated section, and real fermented
veggies like cucumber pickles, sauerkraut, and kimchee won't list vinegar as an
ingredient. Sprouting allows beans and seeds to convert the empty starch stored
inside them into vitamins, fiber, and other nutrients. It also means that they
take less time to cook!
7. Get nasty!
I'm talking about organ meats, which
celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain calls "The Nasty Bits." If you've
heard the phrase "eat a rainbow of vegetables" it's because each
different color vegetable packs a different blend of nutrients. The same goes
for organ meats, which each have their own special blend of essential vitamins
and minerals that you won't get if you only eat the muscle meat. The fact is,
every traditional diet around the globe embraces these superfoods as part of
daily fare—whether in the form of head cheese or pate or good old-fashioned
liver and onions. The fanciest restaurants in the United States often
specialize in making these nasty bits taste divine. If that's not in your
budget, then simply visit an old-school deli or buy yourself some liverwurst
from the local supermarket and give it a try. If the first thought you have
about organ meats is "yuck," you're not alone. But a schmear of pate
or liverwurst with a little fermented horseradish sauce can, surprisingly, grow
on you. The point is to expand your culinary experience so that you, and your
genes, can take full advantage of everything Mother Nature has to offer.
Adopting these strategies helps you to
reconnect with your third parent. And don't worry, even if it's been a long
time since you last communicated, she'll offer you her epigenetic wisdom with
no guilt trip attached!
