"If you want to really know about how your brain and
body work, read this book!” ~ Thom Hartmann
Combining your body’s Paleolithic needs with modern nutritional and medical research for complete mind-body wellness
- Provides sustainable diet strategies to curb sugar cravings, promote fat burning and weight loss, reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep and moods, increase energy and immunity, and enhance memory and brain function
- Shows how our modern diet leads to weight gain and “diseases of civilization”--such as cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and ADD
- Explains how diet affects the brain, hormone balance, and the aging process and the crucial role of vitamin D in cancer and disease prevention
Examining the healthy lives of our pre-agricultural Paleolithic ancestors and the marked decline in stature, bone density, and dental health and the increase in birth defects, malnutrition, and disease following the implementation of the agricultural lifestyle, Nora Gedgaudas shows how our modern grain- and carbohydrate-heavy low-fat diets are a far cry from the high-fat, moderate-protein hunter-gatherer diets we are genetically programmed for, leading not only to lifelong weight gain but also to cravings, mood disorders, cognitive problems, and “diseases of civilization”--such as cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance), heart disease, and mental illness.
Applying modern discoveries to the basic hunter-gatherer diet, she culls from vast research in evolutionary physiology, biochemistry, metabolism, nutrition, and chronic and degenerative disease to unveil a holistic lifestyle for true mind-body health and longevity. Revealing the primal origins and physiological basis for a high-fat, moderate-protein, starch-free diet and the importance of adequate omega-3 intake--critical to our brain and nervous system but sorely lacking in most people’s diets--she explains the nutritional problems of grains, gluten, soy, dairy, and starchy vegetables; which natural fats promote health and which (such as canola oil) harm it; the crucial role of vitamin D in cancer and disease prevention; the importance of saturated fat and cholesterol; and how diet affects mental health, memory, cognitive function, hormonal balance, and cellular aging. With step-by-step guidelines, recipes, and meal recommendations, this book offers sustainable strategies for a primally based, yet modern approach to diet and exercise to reduce stress and anxiety, lose weight, improve sleep and mood, increase energy and immunity, enhance brain function, save money on groceries, and live longer and happier.
"Primal mind: nutrition & mental health—improving the way you feel & function & cultivating an ageless mind" by Nora Gedgaudas from Ancestral Health Society on Vimeo. ABSTRACT: Learn about the myth of “the mind-body connection” and how diet can powerfully impact mental health and cognitive performance, including a discussion of strategies for improving memory and cognitive function at any age using "Primal principles" and how to slow (maybe even reverse) the process of brain aging. We’ll also address common issues like chronic anxiety, depression and ADD/ADHD, what modern day mechanisms might be at play and how a Primal diet and certain added nutrients can better address mental, emotional and cognitive issues. Few individuals seem to make the connection between physical and mental health. As long as one is able to find one's self above ground in the morning, get up out of bed and power through a work day it is commonly assumed that one is healthy. Being thin and active in most people’s minds is tantamount to good health (or just not being “sick”), even while the same person may also suffer anxiety related issues, depression or have trouble mentally focusing at work or at school. We all see the world through the lens that is our blood sugar (the extent to which one might be dependent on this), our hormones and neurotransmitters and yet forget that it is our diets that must entirely supply the raw nutrients needed for these critically influential physiological catalysts. Mental health issues and cognitive challenges are nearly ubiquitous today. According to the work of respected nutritional pioneers such as Weston Price these same mental and brain health issues were nearly unheard of in many primitive and traditional societies consuming a diet consistent with that of our more distant evolutionary ancestors. Modern research findings offer added understanding and a new layer to ancestral dietary principles that can lead us toward the promise of optimal brain functioning, emotional liberation and the cultivation of a potentially ageless mind. By applying many of these “Paleo” principles today and modifying them to our more modern circumstances we can re-cultivate and improve upon the healthy Primal Mind that is our birthright and the key to our future as a species.
Visit the Primal Body - Primal Mind website!
