I just finished reading the book Neanderthin by Ray Audette. It is available through Amazon Prime for free with a membership, and if there's one thing I enjoy it's something for free or a reduced price! I'd heard of this book in the past but didn't search it out or read it until now. I'm glad that I did read it. It was an interesting read. I have heard it called one of the original works on the "Paleo" style diet. I can't look up on Kindle Cloud Reader the copyright date so I cannot confirm the actual date.
I'll begin by stating that I do agree with nearly everything in this book. I believe that the major health issues in America today are due to our moving away from whole/naturally occurring foods to the highly processed and, packaged and shelf stable goods, that you see on our grocery store shelves in such abundance today. I truly believe that if each and every person were to focus solely on eating a whole foods diet we would all see lowered instance of disease and health issues (of course dependent on each person's own metabolic damage and their need for personalization in macro composition of their diet.)
The basic premise of this book is to stay away from all industrially processed foods and eat only what you could possibly find in nature. Something I believe wholeheartedly and have focused my time and energy on over the past few years.
A few subjects that Ray mentioned that I do not personally agree with include his stance on abstaining from coffee, butter, dairy, snacking on and consuming the higher carbohydrate fruits and vegetables. I have already eliminated so many things from my diet and daily consumption that I still would like to enjoy my coffee each morning. Now, I'm not drinking Folger's or your average cheap cup of coffee. I buy whole green coffee beans wholesale and I roast them myself in my garage on a weekly, or as needed, basis. When it comes to butter and dairy, I think this can be an extremely individual omission from one's diet. Depending on your own personal tolerance of dairy fat or casein you should have no problem with butter, especially good quality grassfed butter. It's very high in many essential amino acids. I tend to treat cheese as an occasional treat as I can very easily eat 1/2# of the stuff without blinking an eye. I, otherwise, suffer no ill effects from eating it. Higher carbohydrate dairy like milk should be avoided, cream can be partaken occasionally, but can be insulinogenic and quite calorically dense so be careful to not swig down a whole pint at a time! The advice to snack on nuts, fruits and higher carb vegetables can also be very individualistic depending on one's personal metabolic damage and insulin resistance. If you don't tolerate or metabolize carbohydrate well, you probably shouldn't be snacking on these items. Nuts can be a trigger food just as cheese can for many, it's easy to overindulge on nuts just like it is cheese. I believe that he lays a great framework for adherence, but I also believe that there should be some tweaking dependant on individual circumstance and finding one's own path to good nutrition and health.
Alcohol. Ray suggests to abstain from drinking alcohol aside from once or twice a year and keep it to special occasions only. While I can't disagree with this, I also can't say that I would give it up and/or only drink it so infrequently. I enjoy a glass of red wine a couple of times per week and VERY rarely will drink enough to even catch a buzz. Often times I won't make it through the afterwork glass of wine before I start to doze off! Many times I have poured out a 1/3 of a bottle because the air got to it and it turned unpleasant to drink.
Ray also outlines a great program for exercise. While I have developed my own bodybuilding routine I think that his outline would be a great start for someone looking to get into better shape. There is great evidence showing that bodyweight exercises can do great things for building bigger muscles. Just look at any prison inmate who is absolutely JACKED and all they can do each day for 23 hours is bodyweight exercise. Do a couple hundred pushup, situps, pullups, squats and dips each day and tell me there won't be some serious hypertrophy happening!
The last point I would like to touch on from the book is in regard to fat loss. During the FAQ towards the end of the book the questions asks: "How long will it take me to lose weight following Neanderthin?" The information he states mirrors my own experience. Weight loss is quick and dramatic in the beginning but the last 10-20 pounds can take 2-3 years depending on how heavy you are and for how long you were that heavy. I lost 80 pounds in the first ~10 months or so following a keto/LCHF way of eating and didn't exercise at all. About 2 years into this journey I decided to begin weight training. I haven't seen much change in the scale, maybe a loss of 5 pounds, but my body composition has changed quite drastically. According to guidelines I should be about 10 pounds lighter than I currently am. My focus has been on nutrition and weight training, the number on the scale has been just another marker to gauge progress, but not the sole form of measurement. The lowest number I've seen on the scale was 174 last November but I got sick and I believe much of this was lost water during my illness, perhaps some muscle lost because my lifts had been reduced once I got back in the gym a month later. I rebounded up about 10 pounds from there and have seen the scale drop another 5 pounds or so in the past few months.
In conclusion this is a great read. It outlines, in very easy to follow terms, the why and how of turning your health around for the better. Your body is made of saturated fat, don't be afraid to eat it. All of your cells in your body are made up of 80% cholesterol, it's the transport system for all of your hormones and it repairs all cells, don't be afraid to eat that either. Don't eat the garbage in the middle of the store, hunt your ingredients from the outer edge of the store. If it has a list of ingredients it's generally not good for you to consume. I do eat a couple of condiments (Frank's Redhot and specialty mustard, they are always free of processed ingredients, thickeners, seed oils and sugar) and I purchase organic chicken broth from Costco because my schedule is busy enough to not make my own broth. Get some exercise when you feel like it, lift some weights (women too) live life. Now go eat a steak!
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