Today’s PrimalMed Prescription….”feed your genes!”
Our tagline at PrimalMed is “feed your genes.” So what does that really mean? And how did we get to Big Gulp Bob on the right side of the picture? Welcome to this mornings random musing about our metabolic health.
We’ve talked about our bodies being a supercomputer and our inputs are the software code, right? And we talked about that code.. our inputs.. nutrition, movement or exercise, stress, sleep, positive mindset and community etc.. big yadda yadda right?
So basically, we exist in this big genetic mismatch..Whaaaaa?..stay with me here. I like to think of feeding your genes in both a “MACRO big picture” and “MICRO little picture” matrix. Today we stick with the big picture… We are not going to talk about that specific gene that makes you super sensitive to coffee although that is certainly a great topic of interest.. NO… lets talk about how you and I are really quite similar to our ancestors from over 40,000 years ago. Our genetic makeup.. like 99.5% of it is pretty similar to those loveable fuzzy cavemen you used to see in the Geico commercials.. Look at the cave paintings.. yep, that’s us, sorta. They were lean muscular, metabolically healthy and tossed a mean spear..
21st Century Man?…not so much. As a population, those very same ancestral genes now express obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease..the diseases of modern times. Now how did THAT happen?
Think of it this way..here’s an analogy… our genes are akin to piano keys..88 keys, white and black, so many ways to make sweet sweet music. YOU get to choose how the music sounds..do you play a beautiful concerto or just bang on the keys creating a harsh and jarring cacophony?..YOUR chosen input will allow your ancestral genes to express themselves.. so now ask yourself…how ya doin?..are you brimming with vitality and energy, kicking butt and taking names…or hanging on day to day, a sick and tired poster child of metabolic mayhem?
You see, we are ancestrally programmed to live in a different world.. not todays world of 24/7/365. Our genes cannot and have not changed in the last 50 years. We are genetically programmed to thrive in quite a different environment than the one we live in today. Its a mismatch. Are we feeding our ancestral genes what it craves?..or are we getting in our own way and not permitting optimal gene expression?...
Here’s something to ponder…We were always told..”to get healthy and lean ya gotta MOVE more and EAT Less!” But is that what feeds our ancestral genes? Heeding that long hallowed advice makes us forever tired and forever cranky and hungry.
Our ancestors did the OPPOSITE. They lived in a time when food was scarce and they had to rest and conserve energy for the next hunt. They were genetically hardwired to MOVE less to conserve energy and EAT more… since the next meal was not a sure thing. After the hunt, they relaxed, gathered and they did indeed feast.. oh did they feast…because they never knew when the next meal would arrive..(as opposed to now… we graze on and off all day at our desk basically living on a constant insulin drip.. becoming a nation that is Overfat and Undernourished..see Big Gulp Bob above). As a follow up to last week, its what we eat and whats been done to what we eat and how often we eat that are throwing our genes a curveball.
In the name of pursuing health we often do the opposite of what our ancestral genes crave.. because our genes today are well over 40,000 years old! Now, this is not a hall pass allowing you to snack incessantly on Doritos and sit on your keister each and every day.. we just need to fuel ourselves efficiently with a species appropriate diet (animals, plants and whole fruit... your choice as long as its real food) and embrace ancestral exercise patterns that complement our genetic blueprints.
Current lifestyle choices championed by modern man in the last 50 years (and you know what I’m a talkin’ about) are chronically stressful and screw with what our hard wired genetic code needs… and that sets us up for a pattern of chronic disease. We therefore NEED to honour our true genetic make up. Lets see if we can nourish and feed our genes and mimic ancestral essential exercise patterns…or as I heard at a recent conference.. “Eat Dense and Move Intense.”..Eating less processed whole foods and focusing your exercise on brief and intense ancestral primal movements like we discussed is GOOD! You wanted to know why…
and now you know… it will allow your genes to thrive! It will allow for optimal gene expression and allow you to play that beautiful piano concerto. That is the first step to making us metabolically healthy and harder to kill!
Today’s Primalmed Prescription…look in the mirror and ask yourself…”What am I feeding my genes?”