Chris Kresser Quotes

“Breast-fed babies of macrobiotic mothers may be getting lower levels of vitamin B12, calcium, and magnesium, according to some research, which may result in these babies having delayed physical and cognitive growth.”

“Minimizing toxins: Your personal Paleo code.

- Avoid gluten completely during the Step 1 Reset and for at least two months afterward (for a total of ninety days). Then reintroduce and see how your body reacts.

- If you feel better without gluten and worse when you reintroduce it, you are gluten-intolerant and should strictly avoid it.

If you don’t react adversely, I still recommend avoiding or minimizing gluten, but you may choose to have it occasionally as part of your 80/20 rule (a slice of birthday cake, Mom’s lasagna, or a piece of bread when you’re dining out).

- Avoid industrial seed oils and refined sugar. They are high in calories, low in nutrients, and may contribute to inflammation and other health problems.

As with gluten (assuming you’re not gluten-intolerant), you may choose to have small amounts of them infrequently as part of your 80/20 rule.”

“Nuts and seeds were third on the nutrient-density scale, with about one-third the score of organ meats. However, most nuts and seeds contain phytates, antinutrients that reduce the bioavailability of some of the minerals nuts and seeds contain.

Fortunately, soaking nuts overnight and either dehydrating them (with a food dehydrator) or roasting them at low temperatures (150 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit) in an oven for four to eight hours breaks down much of this phytic acid and improves bioavailability.

These methods also make nuts easier to digest, which is of particular benefit for those with sensitive digestive systems.”

“Studies that have compared the amount of nutrients absorbed from each type of rice have shown that humans absorb more nutrients from white rice.

Why? Because the antinutrients in brown rice, like phytic acid, interfere with the absorption of the nutrients it contains. Brown rice also reduces dietary protein and fat digestibility.”

“The absorption of most nutrients is dependent on or influenced by the presence of other nutrients. Nutrient enhancers can keep a nutrient soluble or protect it from nutrient inhibitors.

For example, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene are fat soluble, which means they require fat for optimal assimilation, so adding an avocado to a green salad (increasing its fat content by 47 percent) can help you absorb seven times more lutein and eighteen times more beta-carotene.”

“The grass on your front lawn is a perfect example. Grass contains several vitamins and minerals, but they are largely inaccessible to humans because of grass’s cellulose content.

Cellulose is a fiber that forms the walls of cells in most green plants. Ruminants, such as cows and sheep, have a specialized compartment in the stomach called a rumen; it produces an enzyme that breaks down cellulose, allowing the nutrients in the grass to be absorbed.

Ruminants also have other chambers in their stomachs to help them assimilate the nutrients from grass. Humans don’t have rumens, multiple stomach chambers, or the enzymes to break down cellulose, so we can’t extract any nutrients from grass if we eat it.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem: rather than eating the grass, humans can let animals do the hard work of assimilating the nutrients from grass, and then we can eat the animals.”

“There’s a lot more to the Paleo diet than removing food toxins from your diet.

That said, if everyone on a standard American diet stopped eating cereal grains, industrial seed oils, and excess sugar tomorrow, I’m willing to bet that the rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and just about every chronic inflammatory disease would plummet over the next decade.”

“Vegetables are one of the few foods that every diet philosophy agrees are healthy. That said, vegetables (particularly nonstarchy vegetables) tend to be high in insoluble fiber, which can irritate an inflamed gut.

If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), or other digestive disorders, you may benefit from reducing your intake of vegetables that are high in insoluble fiber.

These include:
- Greens (spinach, lettuce, kale, mesclun, collards, arugula, watercress, and so on)
- Whole peas, snow peas, snap peas, pea pods
- Green beans
- Kernel corn
- Bell peppers
- Eggplant
- Celery
- Onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, garlic
- Cabbage, bok choy, Brussels sprouts
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower

However, vegetables that are higher in soluble fiber and lower in insoluble fiber tend to have a soothing effect on the gut. These include:
- Carrots
- Winter squash
- Summer squash (especially peeled)
- Starchy tubers (yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes)
- Turnips
- Rutabagas
- Parsnips
- Beets
- Plantains
- Taro
- Yuca”

“While some mainstream medical professionals continue to insist that NCGS doesn’t exist, scientists have validated it as a distinct clinical condition.

In one major study, researchers reviewed the charts of 276 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who had been diagnosed with NCGS using a double-blind, placebo-controlled wheat challenge (patients were put on a gluten-free diet and then given capsules containing either wheat or an inert substance).

As a whole, the NCGS group had a higher frequency of anemia, weight loss, self-reported wheat intolerance, and a history of childhood food allergies than those in the IBS without NCGS group.

The authors concluded that their data 'confirm the existence of non-celiac wheat sensitivity as a distinct clinical condition'.”

“Your grandparents may have eaten these foods, but chances are you don’t. This has happened in large part because of the misguided campaigns against saturated fat, cholesterol, and red meat. But it’s also a consequence of our love for all things modern and our tendency to discount the knowledge of the past.

The problem is that these now-unpopular foods provide nutrients that work synergistically with those found in more commonly eaten foods and are difficult to obtain elsewhere in the diet. In other words, we may be well fed, but we’re undernourished.

The solution is to return to the practice of our ancestors and 'eat from nose to tail'. This means eating not only the lean muscle meat (like steak or chicken breast) of animals but also the organs, skin, cartilage, bones, and fattier cuts.”

“Centuries ago, coffee was viewed with suspicion.

However, according to the latest studies, coffee may have some health benefits, and it could even contribute to longevity.”

“Contrary to what we’ve been told, industrial seed oils are not 'heart healthy'.”

“Did you know that one in eight women will develop a thyroid disorder in her lifetime, but those with undiagnosed and untreated thyroid disease are especially at risk for a number of serious conditions, including infertility?”

“Humans are social creatures. When we feel connected, we thrive, and when we feel alone, we don’t.”

“Is it lack of sleep that increases the risk of obesity, or is it excess weight that messes with a good night's sleep?”

“Light pollution is a major problem in the developed world.”

“Replacing long periods of sitting with sleep or light activity may be associated with lower stress, better mood, and lower body mass index.

And, these new findings may be a key to helping people to make small sustainable changes.”

“Stress management may be the most crucial factor in maintaining overall health and well-being.

And, while we may not be able to avoid stress, we can influence how it affects us.”

“The reactive nature of conventional medicine, which often doesn't intervene until a patient's disease has already progressed, results in massive costs.”

“To get the benefits of exercise, you need to move often — every single day — and sit much less.”

“Whether you're working from home or back at the office, taking frequent breaks to move and stretch provides relief restores muscle function and improves posture.”

“A recent study documented a 52 percent decline in sp*rm concentration and a 59 percent decline in total sp*rm count in men over a nearly forty-year period ending in 2011.

A decline in sp*rm count and concentration leads to a decreased probability of conception. The authors of the study speculated that increased exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment may be partly to blame for this trend.”

“Another reason that conventional medicine hasn’t been successful is that it focuses on suppressing symptoms rather than addressing the underlying cause of disease.”

“Broken payment models. Because we rely on insurance companies to pay for care, the treatments offered are not necessarily the most effective or those supported by the most current evidence — they’re simply the treatments that insurance companies have agreed to reimburse.

This is not evidence-based medicine, it’s reimbursement-based medicine.”

“In a hundred years, medical practitioners will probably shake their heads over the methods used today.

After all, nobody would treat a headache by drilling a hole in a patient's head, but that was the practice in the Dark Ages.”

“In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that the history of science has been the history of most people being wrong about most things most of the time.

The willingness to challenge even our most deeply-held assumptions and the humility to admit when we've been wrong are essential to good science.”