I can't help but think about this song when consider the stuff I don't eat any more, even foods I considered my favorites. It was a lot easier than I thought to go "cold turkey" (Turkey?, Yum!). Going primal is so worth it! I just broke the 150 barrier this morning (weighed in at 149). I may be going back to 29 inch trousers in the near future.
And here is a great article that is a sort-of small catechism or FAQ about what it means to go primal: Top 8 Most Common Reactions to Your Grain-Free Diet by Mark Sisson. HT: Lew Rockwell.
7 comments:
From the linked article:
the necessity to eat grains ordained by some higher power.
Well, actually ...
... did our Lord Jesus Christ not teach us to pray for "our daily bread"? I cannot believe that he would have us ask the Father for something that is not fundamentally good.
Dear Chris:
True, but here is how we (fat) Americans (with our sinful gluttonous flesh) read your words "fundamentally good"...
Since bread is good, I should eat so much bread, grain, pizza, starch, pop-tarts, Captain Cruch, Little Debbies, etc. - combined with a sedentary lifestyle - to the point where I get diabetes, high blood pressure, and beat my joints to a pulp because I'm too fat."
It's not that bread is evil - it's that it is cheap and far too big a part of the modern American diet. Furthermore, today it is filled with all kinds of genetically modified and corporatized ugliness, and grains are used as filler in just about everything we buy that is mass produced.
When our Lord taught us the Our Father, Monsanto wasn't turning our daily bread into frankenfoods, nor were we eating pre-packed Twinkies, Krispy Kreme, pretzels, chips, and other industrial "goodies."
I eat bread for the Holy Sacrament, and an occasional bit of bread when it would be socially unacceptable to decline. Other than that, I pretty much avoid the grains. It has proven itself in the results.
Besides, the Small Catechism confesses that all the things we need in this life - including beef jerky and bacon, broccoli and fruits - are included in "daily bread."
I'm glad it is working for you. I was actually taking more of a shot at Mr Sisson's seemingly flippant reference to a "higher power" than at the substance of the Primal diet.
I agree with you that "daily bread" encompasses all our material needs; but I don't think it encompasses Twinkies and Fritos.
Dear Chris:
Mark Sisson is an atheist, and he explains the success of his discovery using the mythology of evolution and the foil of a mythological caveman. Of course, that's just a hypothesis (or a convenient hook) upon which to base the program.
We Christians can equally retort that the reason grains and carbs are not healthy for us while meat is (more) beneficial is because of the fallen state of the world and of our bodies. Of course, in paradise, we will all be naked vegetarian anarchists. But for the time being, I'll keep my clothes on (for the most part), eat meat (and enjoy it!), and pay my taxes and obey the state's laws (for the most part) - even though the state is simply running multiple criminal enterprises with a dishonest currency system, ponzi schemes, and the power to put people in prison camps without a trial.
Plus, we should remember that bread is actually part of the curse for sin (Gen 3:19). Before the fall, we ate perfectly natural foods that didn't even require labor to prepare it.
Just as Jesus took on the flesh that we made corrupt by sin, so does He come to us through the very bread that we eat because of the curse of sin.
And I do miss the rolls and Texas Roadhouse - but I don't miss the "rolls" I used to have around my stomach! :-)
I (with a notorious low carb past) am with Chris on this. Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life" so I just can't possibly believe that bread is bad. Besides, I am told Adam and Eve would have been vegetarians or vegans. (And I do that enough each year to know I don't want that diet 100% of the time!)
I look at the French. They make the best bread in the world and until recent years (I have seen the change myself in the past 10 years) they have as a population generally remained thin. But now they are chunking up. What's changed? I don't think it is the consumption of more grain - they have been eating grains all along. My money is on processed foods as the culprit.
It is a very complicated algorithm, this weight thing. Finally the scientists discovered what fat people have been trying to tell them for years from experience - it's not just calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure. The math isn't that simple. The only thing the scientists know for certain is that prevention is easier and more successful than the cure. It is easier to prevent fat than to lose it. And statistics indicate the probability of losing weight and the keeping it off is very small. Oh sure...we can lose it but in general we don't keep it off. There are exceptions, of course. I think Pastor Weedon is a good example of this and hopefully you will be, too.
Unfortunately for most, the problem with a diet low in carbs is that eventually one loses his weight and attempts to introduce carbs again with disastrous effects. I never knew how poor my food choices were until I reintroduced carbs, gained a boat load of weight and joined weight watchers to lose it. If one is used to a higher fat, low carb diet and then adds carbs it triggers a metabolic perfect storm...like the body loads up for the next famine.
But...I know the attraction of low carbing. I know how it satisfies the appetite. I know the results. I just wasn't able to successfully manage it long term. And besides..."I am the Bread of life..." that nagged me as well.
This is one of those "taste and see" arguments. If you won't try it, you'll not believe the results. Dixie, you know I was a HUGE low-carber/Atkins eater. He was MOSTLY right. But he missed some key things. Sisson's approach works. The reason it works isn't the one (I don't believe) that he imagines, but who cares why? It just does. And the man has devoted his life to helping other people be transformed. So, my plea is rather than argue about it, just do it for a month and then evaluate.
P.S. And as Fr. Larry mentions somewhere - it's a lot more than just eating, though that's a key part of it. Speaking of which, time to put away the puter for the night and shut down the electronic stimulation!!!
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