Having read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto Friday, today I began Mark Hyman, M.D.’s Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss
Hyman says pretty much the same things Pollan does, though Hyman is more technical and prescriptive, fitting a physician (Pollan is a journalist).
“There is no evidence that fat is bad for you.”
There are however, good fats, bad fats and ugly fats. Good fats (like the best, omega-3) come from wild and natural foods. Bad fats come from processed vegetable oils and industrial meats. Ugly fats (the trans fats) are man-made and deadly.
“When you want to eat a certain food, ask yourself if it is a food your ancestors might have eaten. If so, take a bite; if not, put it back!”
“If it has a label, don’t eat it.”
Hyman tells about the Pima Indians (of southern Arizona) who 100 years ago were thin and fit, with a metabolism totally suited to their desert environment. Seventy to eighty percent of their diet was carbohydrates. Yet once the Western diet was introduced with its high glycemic carbs (like the ones we eat), the Pima became in one generation the least healthy and most obese people on earth (second only to Samoans). 80% of the Pima people have adult onset, or type-2 diabetes, by age 30. Their life expectancy is 46.