The Paleo Diet - Loren Cordain [20]
Even though there is very little meat in the typical American diet of this woman, the saturated fat content (29 grams) is 38 percent higher than that of the Paleo Diet. Worse still is the mix of fats. Healthful, cholesterol-lowering polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats total a meager 29 grams. (In contrast, they add up to 75 grams on the Paleo Diet.) There is only 1 gram of heart-healthy omega 3 fats for the whole day in the typical American diet compared to a bountiful 6.7 grams in the sample Paleo Diet meal. Is it any wonder that the cereal-based, processed food-laden American diet promotes heart disease?
Now take a look at vitamin B6 (20 percent of the RDA), vitamin B12 (88 percent of the RDA), and folate (82 percent of the RDA). This woman’s diet is deficient in all three of the vitamins that prevent toxic buildup of homocysteine, the substance that damages the arteries and further predisposes you to heart disease. Inadequate amounts of folate also increase the risk of colon cancer and the birth defect spina bifida.
It’s also worth noting that this sample American diet has three times more sodium—but four times less potassium—than the Paleo Diet. This mineral imbalance promotes or aggravates conditions and diseases due to acid-base imbalance, including high blood pressure, osteoporosis, kidney stones, asthma, stroke, and certain forms of cancer. The daily intake of magnesium is also quite low here (46 percent of the RDA). Numerous scientific studies have shown that having a low magnesium level puts you at risk for heart disease by elevating your blood pressure, increasing your cholesterol level, and predisposing your heart to irregular beats. A low intake of magnesium also promotes the formation of kidney stones.
A high intake of antioxidant vitamins and phytochemicals from fresh fruits and vegetables is one of the best dietary strategies you can adopt to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Unfortunately, when cereals, dairy products, processed foods, and fatty meats displace fruits and vegetables, they automatically lower your intake of health-giving antioxidants and phytochemicals from fruits and veggies. There is no comparison between the RDA percentages of vitamin A (53 percent), vitamin C (51 percent), vitamin E (34 percent), and selenium (73 percent) in the example above and those in the Paleo Diet: vitamin A (858 percent), vitamin C (932 percent), vitamin E (331 percent), and selenium (267 percent). The Paleo Diet contains forty-one times more beta-carotene (a natural plant antioxidant) than the average American diet.
The average American diet is also deficient in zinc (33 percent of the RDA) and iron (68 percent of the RDA)—which, along with a low intake of vitamins A and C, can impair your immune system and open the door to colds and infections.
Because the average American diet is loaded with refined cereal grains (six servings in our example) and sugars (123 grams or about a quarter-pound in our example), it increases the blood sugar and insulin levels in many people. If insulin remains constantly elevated, it causes a condition known as hyperinsulinemia, which increases the risk of a collection of diseases called metabolic syndrome—type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and harmful changes in blood chemistry. But refined cereals and sugars are not part of the Paleo Diet—which means that your dietary insulin level will be naturally low and you will automatically reduce your risk of metabolic syndrome diseases. Last but