Bad Ass Enough to Handle It!

I saw a post by The Primal Parent today on facebook that I genuinely loved:

"The hardest part about being Primal isn't the diet, but making your way in a non-Primal world. People don't understand. They don't agree. They won't listen. And they don't respect your choices. 

But that's alright. Another part of being Primal is being a bad ass that can handle it."

Can I say a million times how much I love Peggy? Love, love, love her! Beside my utter respect for that strong, smart, non ass-kissing woman she has a great point. They don't get it. You can spew facts and numbers at them. Explain that carbs and grain are actually killing them. Or go the more delicate route of explaining why you decided to make this change for yourself. The fact of the matter is most people won't understand. They don't agree because their knowledge of food and health is based on incredibly flawed conventional wisdom.

Primal is based of what our ancestors ate and what our bodies evolved to eat, but let's put all of the talk about evolution aside and get to the real issue. What people don't realized is that 80% of their body composition is made up by what they eat. First and foremost why on earth would someone want their body to be made up of pizza, hotdogs, pasta, french fries, candy, fast food, soda, and breakfast cereal? These types of food are a large part of the standard american diet (SAD). This standard diet wrecks havoc on your body! It's as simple as the following. When you eat this stuff it causes your pancreas to produce insulin and if you're eating this kind of stuff all day you likely have elevated levels of insulin running around in your blood at all times. This is called chronic hyperinsulinemia. Chronic hyperinsulinemia causes conditions such as general inflammation, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. 

Most people will say they don't eat "that bad". Let's say for the sake of being short winded you only eat 3 meals a day while consuming the standard american diet (SAD). What do you have for breakfast while eating the SAD? Breakfast cereal? There's a shock to your insulin levels right there. Did you stop at Starbucks and get a latte this morning? There's more insulin from your sugary coffee. What's for lunch a turkey sandwich? There is a nice amount of carbohydrates in that bread to cause another insulin spike (even if it's wholegrain!). Don't tell me you had chips too. Then there is dinner, which for most Americans is the largest meal of the day. You decide to go with lasagna and garlic bread and for the sake of having a vegetable serving you throw some green beans on your plate. Your entire day has consisted of food that has kept your insulin levels high resulting in chronic hyperinsulinemia. Mark Sisson put it very well in The Primal Blueprint: "High insulin levels promote fat storage and disease. Moderate insulin levels (typical with Primal Blueprint eating) stimulate fat burning and good health."

It's as simple as that people. We do it to be healthier and happier. It's not about depriving ourselves, it's about caring what we do to our bodies. We want to feel good and live longer healthier lives. Why is that so hard to understand? And furthermore why do we get criticized for our choices? I guess all we can do is live like Grok and be bad ass enough to handle the naysayers. 

Grok on!