Primal Fat Burner: Live Longer, Slow Aging, Super-Power Your Brain, and Save Your Life with a High-Fat, Low-Carb Paleo Diet - Hardcover

Gedgaudas CNS NTP BCHN, Nora

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 150111641X ISBN 13: 9781501116414

Publisher: Atria Books, 2017

Synopsis

Author of the popular Primal Body, Primal Mind and widely recognized Paleo expert and nutritionist, Nora Gedgaudas presents a revolutionary, scientific, accessible high-fat diet for maintaining health, losing weight, and reversing some chronic diseases.

Popular nutritionist Nora Gedgaudas returns with advice that may sound counterintuitive: Eat fat to burn fat. In her new book, Primal Fat Burner, she explains the benefits and science behind a ketogenic (or fat-burning) diet, which switches your metabolism from a dependence on sugar to running on healthy fats. As Gedgaudas reveals, numerous studies in recent years refute the long-promoted anti-saturated fat and anti-cholesterol agenda. Now, Gedgaudas explains the science that fat isn't a “no-no” but rather a “yes-yes”—if you know the right kinds of fats to eat. In her accessible, enjoyable style, she also lays out a practical meal plan with recipes. When you follow a ketogenic diet, you consume fewer calories overall!

Author of the bestselling Grain Brain, Dr. David Perlmutter writes in his foreword that Primal Fat Burner is, “Wonderfully actionable, compassionately taking the reader from ‘why’ to ‘how.’” On this diet, you efficiently and effectively metabolize fat (ketones and free fatty acids) as your primary source of fuel, rather than glucose from carbs, starches, and sugars. Because fat is so satisfying, you naturally wind up eating less—without feelings of hunger or deprivation. And natural dietary fat is ultimately key to optimum health and longevity.

Gedgaudas communicates a real appreciation for and understanding of the central role that dietary fat plays in your body and brain, and explains how you can eat to feel better, look better, think clearer, and live longer.

About this title

About the Author

Nora Gedgaudas is a board-certified nutritional consultant and a board-certified clinical neurofeedback specialist with over twenty years of clinical experience. An internationally recognized authority on ketogenic, ancestrally based nutrition, she is a popular speaker and educator and the author of the bestselling book, Primal Body, Primal Mind, as well as Rethinking Fatigue. Her newest book, Primal Fat Burner: Live Longer, Slow Aging, Super-Power Your Brain, and Save Your Life With A High Fat, Low-Carb Paleo Diet has been lauded by bestselling author and journalist Nina Teicholz as “a unique and profound contribution to the field.” Her new weekly educational program Primal Power 52 is a unique and invaluable source of information benefitting those interested in true self-empowerment, furthering their nutritional knowledge and optimizing their health. Learn more at Facebook.com/PrimalNora and on Twitter: @NoraGedgaudas.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Primal Fat Burner INTRODUCTION

In my first book, Primal Body, Primal Mind, I described how the primal lifestyle can lead to optimal health and longevity. In the seven years since its first publication, that book has reached more people than I could have ever imagined, many of whom have applied its principles and who have written me to say that their health and well-being improved significantly after changing what they eat. Many people asked that I put together a more structured eating plan along with additional information, recipes, and resources for primal eating. Primal Fat Burner does just that. But the book you are about to read isn’t necessarily a weight loss book.

Fat—including saturated fat—is nowhere near the bad guy we used to think it was. Eating fat can make you thin. Primal Fat Burner helps you harness the best dietary practices of our ancestors with the most current scientific understanding of nutrition. With this knowledge you can use quality dietary fat and the rich abundance of critical nutrients contained within it to create total health and well-being.

I am not simply here to tell you that “fat isn’t as bad as you might have heard,” or “fats are okay, just as long as you keep them to a minimum,” or “fats are okay just as long as you stick to strictly unsaturated fats.” I am here to supply you with a mountain of compelling evidence that fats from animals that eat a natural diet not only are essential to your health but have served more than any other dietary adaptation to literally make us human.

In Primal Fat Burner, based on the latest science and research, I explain why eating foods rich in dietary fat (while avoiding the consumption of sugars and starch and moderating protein intake) is the best and most natural nutritional approach for your complete health and well-being. This book emphasizes (in part) a low-carbohydrate approach to eating. There is far more to the plan, but you will find that the fewer utilizable carbs you consume and the less insulin your body needs to produce, the better your long-term health will likely be.

Primal Fat Burner focuses on the single biggest factor in your health and longevity: the primal fat-burning diet, a modification of what is commonly known as a ketogenic diet. This approach to food is radically different from our current nutritional status quo—but in many ways it is the oldest form of nutrition in human history. A fat-based ketogenic diet has powered humans and our pre-human hominid ancestors through almost all of our three million years of evolution, and it is a critical tool that has the power to reduce weight, strengthen resilience, and reverse many of the chronic diseases of today.

As a clinical nutritionist and ancestral nutrition expert, I consult and lecture with health seekers around the globe. Countless times I’ve seen clients and audience members meet the word ketogenic with equal doses of fascination, trepidation, and misunderstanding: “Isn’t that Atkins? Starvation? A medical treatment? For hard-core health nuts?” Having devoted my life to understanding the evolution of our metabolic functioning, I can assure you that a well-balanced ketogenic approach to eating is none of those things. Nor is it especially controversial. Surprise: the fat-burning ketogenic diet is actually our norm, and it is fundamental to our human design as breathing. It simply means using the energy from fats found in real foods, in the form nature intended them, as your primary source of fuel. When this is explained, what was once mysterious starts to become commonsense.

Over the fifteen or so years that I have followed a primal fat-burning protocol myself, I’ve worked with and counseled a remarkably diverse client population. At one end of the spectrum are those battling significant weight issues or serious ailments, from type 2 diabetes to early onset dementia. Often, the pain of the solutions they’ve been offered by medicine and mainstream nutrition exceeds the pain of the problem, so they come to primal fat burning in order to take things into their own hands. In the middle of the spectrum are women and men approaching middle age, or sometimes advanced age, who look healthy but who have discovered that they have underlying, unhealthy, and elevated blood sugar levels and other troubling blood test markers. They have been following seemingly balanced, carb-friendly ways of eating that have been invisibly ravaging their physiology—even though they still fit into their jeans.

At the far other end of the spectrum is a different crowd: people who are consciously eating what they consider to be a “paleo” diet (yes, I said “consider to be”—more on that later) but who have not gotten the results they are seeking; primal eaters who have drifted slowly from their low-carbohydrate goals and need help (or a swift kick in the pants) to reboot their program and to focus and dial in on their efforts; and elite or endurance athletes who are harnessing the energy from dietary fats to powerfully boost their performance.

If you’ve picked up this book piqued by the idea of becoming a primal fat burner, chances are you fall somewhere on this arc. You might have long struggled with diets that don’t work, or despaired at ever achieving a lean physique. Like me, you might have a deeply personal experience with depression, anxiety, or low energy. Or maybe you are watching others in your family suffer from health issues you know to be genetic, and you want to do anything you can to avoid those diseases yourself. Women and men of all ages simply want to feel better, live longer, and look and feel younger, with a clearer mind and most certainly a leaner and more resilient body that they inhabit proudly. They want to enjoy every day of their lives—whether young, middle-aged, or older—and they resist what is sold to us as the “inevitable” modern-day aging scenario of prescription drugs in their bathroom cabinet. They refuse to sign up for one of the so-called diseases of civilization—diabesity, depression, dementia and brain degeneration, heart disease, cancer. If this is “civilized,” they are saying, they’d rather be primal!
For the Love of Fat

Fat has recently become the darling of the health world. In numerous peer-reviewed studies scientists are exonerating fat for health crimes it didn’t commit. For fifty years, fat was vilified by an aggressive anti-fat campaign, which shunted it out of its rightful place on our plate to make way for excesses of carbohydrates.

While I am glad that fat has finally won some redemption, its acceptance has been a little begrudging and timid. Most experts are all open arms when it comes to fat-rich, plant-based foods. And they’re pretty friendly with fish. They suggest modest little drizzles of this and splashes of this and that—and a quarter of an avocado, if you please.

As for me, please pass the lard. I wrote Primal Fat Burner to the beat of a much louder drum and with the intention of blazing a bolder path. This book is based on the fundamental scientific understanding that all fats, especially fats from healthy animal sources and unrefined tropical oils, are paramount to the functioning of our physiology and to our robust health. These formerly maligned fats must be wholeheartedly reclaimed as vital to our health. Animal-sourced fats provide sustaining energy and absolutely critical fat-soluble nutrients. Without them, we would not have become who we are as humans.

In Primal Fat Burner I will take you on a journey of discovery. I will show you how humans’ ability to “run on fat” defined how our remarkable body and brain functioning evolved—and why the modern shift to “running on sugars” has been one of the most egregious missteps in human history. I will share why the natural fats found in wholesome real foods, in particular the fats from animals that eat a diet of grasses and other natural forage, are a match for your genetic makeup and help you achieve a stable weight and robust health—and how the lack of these things can dangerously erode your well-being. And I’ll explain why naturally fat-rich foods, used correctly, are the foundation of an optimal way of eating that (with some minor tweaks in individual implementation) is relevant to everyone.

Then I take you further. I will give you tools that can help you become a lean and energized fat burner yourself.

In Parts One, Two, and Three, I share everything you need to know about how a fat-burning metabolic state functions and why it is your natural state. You’ll discover that the cells of your body, in particular the cells of your heart and brain, thrive on fat. And you’ll learn that not all calories are created equal. I explain how using ketones, the energy units of fat, instead of glucose, the energy from carbohydrates in the form of starches and sugars, gives you a life-changing (and potentially lifesaving) metabolic advantage. This advantage not only affects your entire quality of life but can be measured quantitatively on your blood work panels.

The real goal of Primal Fat Burner is to show you how to ignite your fat-burning metabolism—think of metabolism as the mechanism of converting food to fuel—by using a well-balanced and high-quality ketogenic diet. When you switch on your fat-burning metabolism and allow it to stay on continuously by maintaining this way of eating every day, the results can be tremendous. You create the conditions to achieve a healthy and stable weight, even if you are very overweight. That’s because, once your body adapts to relying primarily on ketones and free fatty acids for energy, it starts using your fat reserves for fuel, instead of storing them on your belly, love handles, hips, and thighs. Your brain runs sharper and better, too—an effect that can stay with you for life. Imbalances in blood sugar and insulin as well as inflammation can be resolved, with the effect of stabilizing, reducing, or even eliminating chronic pain and disease.

SWITCH ON A WELL-ADAPTED, FAT-BURNING STATE AND YOU LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR:

· Easier weight loss, without excessive hunger or cravings, and long-lasting energy

· Reduced blood sugar issues, lower hemoglobin A1C and other metabolic markers associated with metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes

· An anti-inflammatory effect and a dampening of excess free radical activity (which causes harmful tissue damage and is a driver of disease and aging)

· Anti-aging effects, with improved cellular regeneration and repair mechanisms and healthier, younger-looking skin

· Improved sleep

· Improved immune function

· Reduced blood pressure

· Stabilized neurological functioning in the brain, which makes you less susceptible to migraines, panic attacks, mood swings, and seizures, and reduces your risk of neurodegenerative diseases . . . and more

And all these benefits come from making a basic but consistent modification to your diet, eating moderate protein from clean, sustainable, and nutrient-enhancing sources, ample fibrous vegetables and greens, and as much fat as you need to satiate your hunger. By the end of Part One, you’ll come to an empowering understanding: you can decide whether to be a fat burner or sugar burner, simply by eating certain real, whole foods and avoiding others. This makes you the agent of your own well-being and longevity.

Then, in Part Four, I hand you the road map you need to make the metabolic switch yourself. To make it simple and achievable, I’ve outlined a 21-day plan that gives you step-by-step guidance. It includes sixty simple recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks; guidance on how to prepare, cook with, and store all kinds of healthy fats; and balanced weekly meal plans. It also lays out how to prepare yourself physically and how to avoid common pitfalls during the transition period.

Shifting to an effective and well-adapted fat-burning metabolism takes between three and six weeks for most people. Once initiated, this fat-burning metabolic state becomes a fairly effortless new norm. I’ll also walk you through exactly what to do if fatigue or discomfort arises during this transition time.

When you are successfully using the energy of fat for fuel, you are in what I call a state of effective ketogenic adaptation (EKA). In this book, we’ll be following a unique approach that combines a state of EKA with high-level nutrition derived from quality food sources and support against stress and toxicity. This is primal fat burning.

The effects of primal fat burning are:

Energizing. You benefit from enduring energy that takes you easily from one meal to the next without snacks or cravings.

Protective. Your mitochondria—the cellular powerhouses that supply energy and guard against aging, among other important functions—are protected. The health of your heart and brain is safeguarded, and those organs’ efficiency and function are greatly enhanced.1

Regulating. Your blood sugar and insulin levels are given the conditions to normalize and function more efficiently, as nature intended.2 Excess weight that has been resistant to diets can be regulated, as trapped fat stores get mobilized for energy.3

Stabilizing. Brain function and moods normalize and stabilize when the brain is fed with fat.4 Emotional struggles around food, such as cravings and even certain eating disorders, can subside or be eliminated.

Anti-aging. Human longevity markers improve (including thyroid efficiency), and overall disease risks related to inflammatory markers, cholesterol (which tends to elevate with inflammation), and more are naturally lowered.5

Completely safe. A fat-based ketogenic diet based on the Primal Fat Burner Plan is safe for almost everyone—with some possible exceptions, which I will explain in detail. With guidance from a physician, it can also be modified for specific needs, such as pregnancy or nursing, type 1 diabetics, the increased growth rates of children and teens, and the demands of high-intensity athletics.

The Primal Fat Burner Plan has a varied and satisfying menu. You’ll eat grass-fed, fat-rich meat and wild-caught seafood; greens and other fibrous vegetables and sprouts; nuts and a few seeds; probiotic-rich, fermented foods; and homemade bone broth. You’ll find that the plan described in this book is also:

Achievable. It’s refreshingly straightforward and simple to execute.

Enjoyable and efficient. The tasty, satiating food is easy to make for yourself and your family.

Familiar. It’s a return to wholesome, traditional foods you may already know and love.

Affordable. You’ll consume fewer packaged, pre-made foods and snacks. You’ll wisely use quality ingredients, including cheaper cuts of high-quality meat (and bones), and indulge in fewer pricey splurge foods and nutritionally empty treats.

Liberating. By shifting from primarily sugar as fuel (which is addicting and damaging) to mainly slow-burning fat, you are freed of urgent cravings and the sudden, intense need to eat (which come from a dependency on carbs). You’ll discover a new relationship with farmers and other sources of health-giving food. Most important, your relationship to food and eating will become clearer, healthier, and more resilient. It is a far saner, happier way to be.

Some of the information that follows might seem radical at first. Stay with me: you will se...

About this edition

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 150111641X
• ISBN 13: 9781501116414
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368