Dr. Steven Gundry Talks About His ‘Diet Evolution’: Part 2 (Episode 180)
18 09 2008
Hello and welcome to the premier source for all things low-carb, condensed into tasty and easily digestible podcasts otherwise known as The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore!
In today’s episode, we listen to the conclusion of Jimmy’s fantastic interview with doctor and author Steven L. Gundry. The topics covered in this interview are especially important for anyone on a diet or lifestyle change of any kind, particularly Dr. Gundry’s rather unique perspective on weight loss plateaus. Listen in and don’t miss a single minute!
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LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 180
- Fresh Express Tender Ruby Reds and Sweet Tender Greens
- Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution: Turn Off the Genes That Are Killing You–And Your Waistline–And Drop the Weight for Good
- Dr. Gundry’s contact info on Low-Carb Doctors blog
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From over 400 pounds to 230, Jimmy Moore is 
BRAVO!!
What a great listening and learning experience! I lost 125 lbs in 7 months by utilizing the low carb guidance on your site Jimmy. I hit a self induced plateau after that. I still want to lose 15 or 20 lbs.
Listening to Dr. Gundry helped me identify where I changed my behavior which has probably kept me from losing that last bit of weight. His explanations of why you lose fat or don’t lose fat mesh perfectly with my experiences. I particularly liked his explanation of why you have to watch your calorie intake because the “customers” are no longer there.
Thanks for the info Dr. Gundry – I’ll buy your book as soon as possible
THANKS Steve! I learned more from Dr. Gundry than I have in a very long time.
I had such a laugh where dr. Gundry says “So when you eat something sweet your body says “Ahhh Im standing next to a Fruit Tree!” – hehe thats so brilliant and it makes so much sense.
As far as the calorie thing goes… I still dont think a calorie means any thing – but if people want to use that word in lack of another I suppose its ok.
Although I am quite against the idea that Humans ‘evolved’ from some ape or something I couldnt help to think that what Dr. Gundy said is so true – think about Adam and Eve – God said they can eat as much fruit as they wanted from the trees except the one and it was propably because they had to learn to save ‘energy’ or ‘fats’ for the winter times… interresting !
I think there may be a simpler explanation of our sweet craving. I agree with Dr. Gundry that it is tied to fruit. However, I think you can make a good argument that it has little to do with “storing fat for the winter”. A good chunk of human and pre-human evolution occurred in geographies/climates where there was no significant winter. Many plants fruit at one or a few points in the year. Fruit is a rich source of micronutrients as well as energy, primarily as sugar, and there’s a lot of competition between species when it is available. Anyone who has cherry trees know it’s always a battle to get your cherries before the birds.
So it certainly makes sense that we have an evolutionary mechanism to crave sweet (fruit), and when we get some, to eat as much as possible, because whatever you leave behind is unlikely to be there when you get hungry again. But I don’t think the fat storage has anything to do with “surviving the winter”. The body has a limited ability to store sugars by converting it to glycogen. The limit is probably because glycogen storage requires a fair amount of water, so in terms of calories per pound, glycogen is pretty inefficient compared to fat. But our paleolithic ancestors (and any fruit-eating animals) certainly wouldn’t want to waste excess sugar. So our bodies evolved to turn it into fat for efficient storage.
In a healthy organism, body has many mechanisms for regulating food intake, e.g. fat cells expand, produce leptin, which suppresses appetite. You don’t need a winter to starve through in order to lose the fat you put on from eating fruit.
Dr. Gandry made some good points, however it doesn’t make sense to use the diets of cows, horses, and gorillas as examples of healthy eating. Those are all herbivores who can digest leaves and grass. We can’t. Herbivores must spend all their time eating to get enough to survive and they have huge guts to process all that food; it was the meat-eating humans, with an energy-dense diet, who grew the big brains.
Plant oils weren’t available to most of our ancestors. The traditional diet of people who lived in Southern Italy included lots of olive oil (and fish), but Northern Italians ate pork and pork fat. Most other Europeans, Asians, Africans, and Americans depended on animal fat. In India and parts of Ireland, the staple was butter. If animal fats are now unhealthy for us, it must be because of modern farming practices; i.e. using grain to feed livestock and giving them hormones, antibiotics etc.
The part about the skin tags, and cancer, and the growth effect of insulin brings to mind something I’ve thought about some. Where he said about older people, there not being much opportunity for growth elsewhere, so the cancer sucks it all up. Older people can improve their bone density through exercise, and also improve their muscle mass through exercise. Is there a cancer-preventing aspect to resistance exercise?
I don’t think Dr. Gundry was trying to get us to live off leaves and grass. The part where he explains that it’s very hard to eat a hundred calories of romaine lettuce makes that pretty clear. Maybe in human beings the hunger shut-off that he describes from eating leaves isn’t so much “oh boy, I’ve eaten a lot of calories, I’d better stop or I’ll get fat” so much as it is “okay, this is getting me nowhere, I’d better stop now.” I always thought Dr Ornish with his “Eat more, weigh less” by eating less dense vegetarian foods was kind of silly because 1) lean meat isn’t particularly calorie dense, and 2) there’s no limit to the amount of spinach or lettuce a person could add to butter or bacon fat.
Really cool interview.
I would like to know what dr. Gundry thinks about MILK !
Jimmy, you said you would try taking magnesium in the evening instead of the morning. Did you try it, did you notice any change in sleep quality?
In his book pgs 87-88 he says to not drink milk because “it acts just like insulin in your liver and turns on the “Store Fat for Winter” program.”
Jaycee – In Gundry’s book, he recommends to avoid milk period. He recommends this b/c (1) he says 2/3 of the world is lactose-intolerant (I was one of those and didn’t realize it) and (2) that the growth hormone naturally released in the milk does bad things to prostates, tumors, etc. I also found it was easier to give up cereal (a beige food) when I knew milk was out of the picture.
Hi!
My husband and I have read the “Diet Evolution” book. My husband needs to lose weight and I don’t. So, therefore there is not a lot of food in our house that I can eat.
Is there any kind of menu that I can use that will incorporate Dr. Gundry’s ideas?
His book is awesome and makes so much sense.
Thanks!
I started his diet on Wednesday and I am insulin diabetic, and it is a great diet I already can tell a difference in 3 days. Julie