And before I share how to tailor a weekly MACRO Plan that works for your goals & desires…and how to get started quickly with the most important meal of the day…

I think it’s important to delve into this last-but-not least concept of "Perfect" Macro- & Micro-nutrients a bit. You may be wondering with the plethora of nutrition & diet info "out there"…many of it seeming to conflict...you may probably be wondering...

Is there really a "perfect amount" of nutrients to eat?

And Drs. Paul & Shou Ching Jaminet will reply (and I will add to the chorus) that YES, they felt like there MUST be a way to determine what our body really needs in order to functional optimally...

They originally did this research because they were each having some really horrible health conditions (including scurvy, ohmygosh) from eating too low carb…and they were able to heal themselves.

And hence they wrote the first (and now second) edition of their book, The Perfect Health Diet...And I have to share too that they are currently focusing on cancer research (in space!)

A bit more about the Perfect Health Diet:

They share this compelling research & recommendations freely on their blog, and they appreciate fitness and (sports) nutrition coaches like me sharing with others—so that we all can contribute to this body of work. I do highly recommend reading their book, where they go into ways to adapt the Perfect Health Diet (PHD for short) to different health conditions…and it’s just a generally fabulous read. 🙂

Ok, with that being said…before we get into what to eat exactly…I want to share HOW they came to these conclusions…and indeed I found this fascinating!! 🙂

Interestingly:

The main philosophy of The Perfect Health Diet book is that in order to get the optimal intake of nutrients from whole foods…you want to focus on 3 things:

1. Eat what the Paleolithic peeps ate

2. Eat an adult version of breast milk (a perfect health food, designed to grow a baby)

3. And finally…Eat what you ARE

So with that intriguing summary, here are a few highlights from their book that share HOW they came to these *perfect* nutrient recommendation of not too much (a toxic dose) or too little (a depleting dose)…but the most research-proven dose to give your body what it needs to thrive.

THIS is a fabulous, foundational starting place.

To see the biggest base of info about these "perfect" levels of macro- & micro-nutrients, the Drs. Jaminets recommend looking at our ancestral diet...and actually, the diet from a certain time period called the Paleo period--because our genetics have not evolved much past this time period! :0

And believe me, I resisted looking at the Paleo diet for a long time, because it sounded so cheesy & like a marketing term...turns out, the biology behind it is SO INTERESTING!!

First up as an item of interest: the Paleolithic era was very long—about 2.6 million years...

And Paleo people became highly optimized for the Stone Age (the age of tools and modern man). Dr. Paul Jaminet writes:

“The Paleolithic period began 2.76 million years ago with the invention of stone tools and ended 10,000 years ago with the invention of agriculture.”

The Paleo period lasted 100’s of thousands of generations and in contrast, in the past 10,000 years there have only been 500 generations. 

The Jaminets go on to share the math…that mutations/adaptations that provide ways to better survive and procreate would require 200,000 years to become established.

SO…our current adaptation to modern life is INCOMPLETE (as in, it would take 190,000 more years to mutate/adapt to agricultural/non-Paleo life)…

And so, doing the math...the Jaminet’s assert that the best way to find out what is great for everyone to eat is to look to and understand what the Paleo people ate:

"This is the nutrition that our bodies NEED to thrive."

Dr. Shanahanah puts it eloquently that this food is:

“the nutrition our genes have been programmed to expect.”

So understanding the Paleo diet is the best jumping off point to understand the foods that you want to eat to have optimal health...and be able to create a healthy baby, raise a healthy child, and age with vitality. Dr. Paul Jaminet writes (with just a hint of snarkiness :)):

“Because mutations that would remove our adaptation to Paleolithic diets have had little time to spread through the population, it is likely that nearly everyone is extremely well adapted to Paleolithic diets. The same can not be said for modern diets.”

Dr. Jaminet summarizes the contents of the Paleolithic whole foods diet:

—Eat real food: recently living plants and animals

—Eat mostly plants

—Among plant foods, favor in-ground starches

—Don’t be afraid to eat Good Fats! Hunter-gatherers flourished on a fat-rich diet.

Ooooh…in-ground Starches(!!)…for me, this was a very delicious & exciting discovery.

In the Perfect Health Diet book, Dr. Jaminet shares that Hominids ate In-Ground Starches:

—Tubers and corms similar to the modern potato and taro

—With an Emphasis on starchy roots, tubers, corms and rhizomes

And interestingly, humans have 7 copies of the gene that digests starches.

Plus we know that hominoids hunted meat and were not getting protein from plants (no beans for them).

Most likely stone tools & cooperative hunting allowed our Paleo ancestors to obtain fatty animal foods. However, it’s not known the meat-to-plants ratio that Paleo (wo)man ate because the isotope for protein doesn’t last that long in skeletal remains.

We are able to know what modern hunter-gatherers ate, Dr. Jaminet asserts because it likely resembles what Upper Paleo people ate…and hence, what a modern diet for humans should look like:

Meat, fish & eggs

Roots & other in-ground plants were the most important plant food

Seeds & nuts were a small part

Fruits were more often fatty nuts than the sugary foods we know

Dr. Jaminet writes:

“As our Paleolithic ancestors who dominated the globe were characterized by tall stature and healthy teeth and bones and their health deteriorated as soon as their diet was altered, we think it’s safe to say that such a...high-plant, starch-meat-and-fat-based diet is a healthful human diet.”

Paleo peeps were well adapted to Extended periods of Fasting...As they would have had to hunt, gather, fight and survive during periods of not having enough food. And basically, your body "feeds itself" during periods of extended fasting, by cannabilizing itself (using what's already there inside).

So, the takeway here is that you can tell what's a good ratio of macro- & micro-nutrients by looking at what the body cannabilizes (lean tissue) as Paleo people were able to thrive--keep hunting & doing stuff--during these periods.

Cool Side note: Dr. Jaminet shares that people who adopt a Paleo diet find that Intermittent Fasting becomes easy and comfortable—not exactly pleasurable, but far from intolerable.

The key though is to get into a flow with this Paleo way of eating first, so that you’ll be well prepared for a fast. Then, Intermittent Fasting will be easy.

In the Perfect Health Diet, Dr. Jaminet details how Intermittent Fasting is GREAT for supporting your immune system to knock out mutated cells (a cellular cleaning process called autophagy (a very valuable process))…as well as strengthening your digestion, supporting brain health, and Burning Fat.

And the bigger picture is that they get into the topic of Fasting to show that we want to eat food that matches the composition of our Lean Body Tissue for best results!

They prove this recommendation by examining how if we eat what our body tissues are, that makes it easy for our body to build muscle, use energy and burn fat…and:

that these recommendations match the ratios of elemental forms of nutrients found in our bodies:

“Eating food in proportions of lean tissue allows all cells to take up an energy excess…If you eat in the wrong proportions, lean tissue will reject some of the excess energy and it will have to be stored as fat in adipose tissue.”

So they did the math and share how these macro- & micro- nutrient recommendations match the composition of lean body tissue (way, way more details in their book, of course)...AND these *perfect nutrient* recommendations ALSO match the composition of human breast milk, a perfect food for growing a healthy, intelligent baby!

#1: You want to pay careful attention to your Omega 6 & Omega 3 intake each week. These fats are called PUFAs--poly-unsaturated fatty acids (and interchangeably, essential fatty acids). 

PUFA’s (Omega-6 & 3 fats) are also called “essential fatty acids”...they're “essential” because unlike Fats #2 and #3 below, your body can’t make them and you have to get them from food.

#2 & #3: SaFA & MUFA Fats (Optimize these as well)...while making sure you get IN your weekly Omega-3's, while lowering Omega-6 fats as much as you can = feeling GOOD (and setting the stage to lose weight, too!)

With Fats #2 & 3...these Saturated & MonoUnsaturated fats are safe to consume...they’re the most flexible macronutrient of the PHD diet & can be adjusted up or down, to aid in Weightloss and/or to satisfy appetite…if you’re going for a calorie-restricted approach to losing weight, then these are the “delicious decoration” calories you can cut…

And I surmise that they’re the calories that Vegetarians who eat beans, need to make sure they get enough of, too.

These fats are SAFE to consume because they’re our core structural fats…making up to 75 - 80% of the fatty acids in most cells.

More about optimizing your Good Fats in just a bit!

And the Drs. Jaminets were able to determine the optimal amount of each of these Good Fats for humans…through an analysis of Breast Milk (so smart!) which is the best food for growing a healthy baby.

So last but not least…the composition of Breast Milk, tells us more about the Good Fats we should be eating:

72% of breast milk fats are long-chain SaFA and MUFA.

Eating a diet that has such a high ratio of Good Fats, allows a baby’s body to grow, and specifically allows her brain to develop.

However, it’s important to adjust these Good Fat ratios to an Adult body’s needs, as adults aren’t growing our brains anymore. The Jaminets have some fabulous math for this:

“Breast milk probably gives an upper limit to the optimal adult PUFA intake. Infants obtain about 9.6 percent of their energy as PUFA, but they have a greater need for PUFA to support the rapid growth of the infant brain. Adults, who have a stable brain size, need substantially less dietary PUFA.

Breast milk confirms that saturated and monounsaturated fats should be the largest source of calories at all ages. There’s no good reason to be afraid of fats!”

(Plus, side note: Coconut oil is a good flexible fat to have in your diet because it’s 92% SaFA & MUFA medium-chain fats!)

Ok, so let’s break and down…and see the exact ratios of food that feed your body in a way that mimics:

So the answer is yes—they found that you can define a foundational starting place to determine a Perfect Dose = not too much (a toxic dose) or too little (a depleting dose)…but the most research-proven dose to give your body what it needs to thrive.

So YES to a “perfect amount” of Micro- & Macro-nutrients that match the composition of our lean body tissue, squash hunger between meals & give your body what it needs to thrive.

And while we’re on the topic of the nutrition our genes have been programmed to expect…

I’ll also share about why Inflammation’s functional place in our history is now causing big challenges in our modern day.

Just as our genes have been programmed to expect certain macro- and micro-nutrients in order to function properly…

The process of cellular Inflammation also served a purpose in Paleo people that’s just not needed today—and instead causes many problems.

Harvard magazine’s feature of long-term studies about Inflammation & it’s potential history explains:

Why inflammation sometimes doesn’t resolve, and becomes chronic instead, is in some sense easily explained in evolutionary terms. “If I’m living 70,000 years ago at a time of food shortage,” says Ridker, “and there’s a drought, the 5 to 10 percent of people who will survive that drought are likely to have insulin resistance”—a tendency to store more calories as fat. “They’re going to live a little longer,” he continues. “When it finally rains, food comes, and that’s the survivor group. In a modern world of too much food, [insulin resistance] leads to diabetes. But in prehistory, it’s terribly important for survival.” While stored fat is beneficial during times of famine, it also harbors potentially damaging pro-inflammatory signaling molecules (see “Eating to Excess: Metabolic Inflammation,” below).

A second evolved factor is that prior to the development of antibiotics, disease “wiped out half the population before age five. So, people were under evolutionary pressure to have a hyperactive immune system.” Now, “most everybody survives childhood infections”….“But this hyperactive immune system remains, and adversely affects aging.”

“The third piece—beyond starvation and infection—is trauma,” Ridker says. “The saber-toothed tiger—or for women, bleeding to death during childbirth—selects on a genetic basis for hypercoagulable blood. So here we are, by definition all of us lucky enough to be alive today, with a consistent ancestry all the way back to the beginning. And we have all inherited a pro-inflammatory, insulin resistant, pro-coagulable state. Under the circumstances,” he continues, the fact that “we have an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease makes complete sense.” Evolutionary pressures have shaped a physiological system which is phenomenally well suited for surviving childhood infection, starvation, and predation. “But it contributes to many disorders of chronic aging…”

Critics might suggest that inflammation is just a symptom in these diseases, rather than a cause. But Hotamisligil says, unequivocally, “Chronic inflammation is uniformly damaging and is absolutely causal to the process, because if you interfere with it, you can reverse the pathology.” And this ability to control such diseases simply by reversing inflammation is a biological response, dating far back to the time of a common ancestor, that has been retained across diverse species of animals to the present day, he says, pointing to experimental evidence: “If you can make Drosophila [fruit fly] diabetic, and then block the inflammatory response systems, you can cure diabetes in Drosophila, the same way you can reverse it in the mouse, in primates, and in humans, provided that you do it with the right tools. Of course, the higher the organism, the more complex these pathways are, so it takes more effort to define the precise mechanisms to manipulate.”

So that’s why taking the care to cut out foods that our bodies treat as Toxins—that cause oxidative stress (seed oils) or damage the lining of our Intestines (like gluten)…or that we eat too many of or even the act of snacking in-between meals…

And instead eat full, satisfying meals that allow us to skip snacks…and help build up our gut lining instead of tear it down…and fuel our energy with Good Fats instead of fats that cause oxidative stress…and getting they macro- and micro-nutrients our cells have evolved to expect…

All of this careful yummy food planning can really pay you back in spades, in terms of having good energy and helping to resolve problems in your body—and allowing you to burn fat and feel GOOD.

And I’m excited to share an energizing & delicious strategy with you.