What's Up Doc by Dr. Al Sears - U.S.

Wellness Meats

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The Lion Diet vs. The Rhino Diet

By Al Sears, MD

You many not realize it, but you're genetically programmed to eat certain foods. To stay healthy and
avoid being overweight, you need to eat the foods you were designed to eat. To find the answer,
look to the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Your diet solution is literally millions of years old.
Contrary to what you hear on TV - and from your government - grains and refined carbs are not on
your "genetic menu." But this is a hard idea to get across. Some folks are so attached to the
misleading advice they get from industry-funded media reports, they send me e-mails like this one:
Dr. Sears, Your comparison and analysis of the "Hunter-Gatherer" and the "Grain Farmer" makes
about as much sense as saying that the grass and leaf eating ELEPHANT and RHINO are somehow
"WEAKER, THINNER and MORE SICKLY" than the meat-eating lion. Believe me; the lion NEVER
messes with the Elephant or Rhino, old Tarzan movies notwithstanding.
Your analysis is laughable and disappointing to me, being a subscriber to your newsletter. What you
said also is largely not true... Your "history" is again shallow and not well researched or documented.
Please do better research in future newsletters. [Name Withheld]
This happens a lot. After reading my books and articles, some people get hot under the collar. But
the scientific and clinical evidence backing up my point of view is vast and well documented. Today,
I'm going to share some of it with you...
Avoid Chronic Disease by Following in the Footsteps of Our Ancestors
Our modern, agricultural diet is about 10,000 years old. (In Europe, about 3,000 years old.) But
compared to our caveman ancestors who thrived on fresh meat, our high-carb grain diet appeared
almost overnight. Chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease are also new on the scene.
If you think of human evolution in terms of one day, our hunter-gatherer diet was in place for 23
hours and 58 and a half minutes. Our grain-based diet arrived only a minute and a half ago.
So far, the effect of 10,000 years of eating and cultivating grains has had no effect on our genes. So
we're still genetically equipped - and genetically programmed - to eat the foods our hunter-gatherer
ancestors ate: The pre-agricultural revolution diet.
The "caveman" diet consisted of lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables. No grains, no starches. And
no heart attacks or signs of heart disease either...
So how did the medical establishment get the idea that fat was causing heart disease? Back in the
1950s, a number of studies looked at the diets of several Asian countries and found that Western
diets were high in fat by comparison.
Unfortunately, most of these third-world Asian countries lived on a simple diet of rice and grains. But
not because they wanted to... Carbohydrates are cheap and that's all that was available to them.
Back here in the US, a slew of new "low fat" products hit the market. And the money started pouring
in... Highly refined carbs - in thousands of new variations - became the most profitable "food"
products in history.
You can't trademark basic foods like apples or eggs. But because of the processing involved, foods
like Cheerios, Twinkies and Diet Coke can be thought of as "proprietary." And that means money. Big
money...

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What's Up Doc by Dr. Al Sears - U.S. Wellness Meats

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So when the USDA food pyramid was being put together in the early 1990s, nutritionists like Luise
Light, M.S., Ed.D. got caught in the fray. Hired by the USDA to help create the infamous food
pyramid, she quickly realized that real nutrition had little to do with the final results.
"I was disappointed and depressed that good nutrition and healthy eating - subjects fundamental to
'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' - were obscured by lobbyists and their allies in government.
A seemingly impenetrable wall of distortion had been erected to block new thinking that could
interfere with the way food was made, promoted and sold."1
Grains Put You on the Fast Track to Heart Disease
Back in 1943, Paul Dudley White - personal physician to President Dwight D. Eisenhower - wrote in
his text book Heart Disease: "When I graduated from medical school in 1911, I had never heard of
coronary thrombosis, which is one of the chief threats to life in the United States and Canada today...
It is now responsible for more than 50 percent of all deaths."2
More than 60 years later, heart disease is the number one killer in the US. Why? Because we've
strayed from the diet we were born to eat.
Throughout history, whenever hunter-gatherer cultures have made the switch to grains and farming,
the results have been disastrous. In Europe, big-game hunters were an average of 6 inches taller
than their farmer descendants.1 The native Americans of the Illinois and Ohio River valley also
suffered from the transition to a grain-based diet:
"Archaeologists have excavated some 800 skeletons that paint a picture of the health changes that
occurred when a hunter-gatherer culture gave way to the intensive maize farming around A. D.
1150... these early farmers paid a price for their new-found livelihood. Compared to the huntergatherers who proceeded them, the farmers had a nearly 50% increase in malnutrition, a fourfold
increase in iron-deficiency anemia ... [and] a threefold rise in infectious disease."3
Even the medical establishment has acknowledged a link between modern diseases and our carbheavy diet. In 1985, Boyd Eaton, MD and Melvin Konner, PhD published an article "Paleolithic
Nutrition," in the January 31 issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.4
In it, they report that medical authorities found no evidence of heart disease, high blood pressure,
diabetes, chronic intestinal disease and most types of cancer in the hunter-gatherer cultures that still
survive today. Some of these include the Hadza of Tanzania, the !Kung and Kade San (Bushmen) of
the Kalahari and the Australian Aborigines, among others.
This article was a bombshell that created a firestorm of controversy. Suddenly, the medical
establishment had turned against its narrowly drawn conclusions. Maybe fat doesn't cause heart
disease after all...
Don't Be Fooled... Meat is NOT Bad for You
By turning away from natural animal fats, we've lost many of the nutrients essential to good health.
Those who follow low-fat diets - like the "Pritikin" diet - often develop a variety of problems including
low energy, poor concentration, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies.5
This is not surprising. After millions of years of evolution, red meat is the one food humans have
relied on for power, nutrition and sustenance. And for good reason. Of all the native cultures known
to man - past or present - not one of them was vegetarian. They weren't big on carbs either. But in
our modern world, the myth that fat and cholesterol cause heart disease persists.
Over the last 5 decades, the results of the Framingham Heart Study back this up. Untouched by drug
company interference, this ongoing study gives us the most reliable source of data for heart health.

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What's Up Doc by Dr. Al Sears - U.S. Wellness Meats

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After a 40-year study, the director admitted, "the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol
one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol..."6
In spite of this clear evidence, drug makers and food processors still insist that fat is killing us.
Establishment stalwarts like the American Cancer Society claim that animal fat leads to heart disease
and cancer. Yet the opposite is true.
When the University of Maryland analyzed the data used to support the American Cancer Society's
claim, it turned out that vegetable fat consumption led to cancer. Nothing in the data suggested
animal fat caused disease of any kind.7
Distorting the facts is nothing new... In our profit-driven society, it's been raised to the level of sport.
Imagine all the people who eat rice cakes thinking they're doing themselves a favor. Processed foods
like puffed wheat, oats and rice destroy nutrients and make them hard to digest. One study showed
that whole grains processed by high heat - like rice cakes - are actually toxic and cause rapid death
in test animals.8
Even unprocessed whole grains have problems. Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is bound to
phytic acid. This acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in your digestive
tract and blocks their absorption.9 Whole grains also contain enzyme inhibitors that interfere with
digestion.10
Now You Have Choices...
The gentleman who wrote the e-mail quoted above, felt I implied that elephants and rhinos are
somehow weaker because they don't eat meat. That's not exactly true. Elephants and rhinos are
strong and robust because they are following their natural diet. The same is true for a meat-eating
lion. But if a lion tried to switch to a diet of leaves and grass it would soon die.
Our caveman ancestors clearly showed us what our natural diet is. And they continued eating that
same diet without interruption for millions of years.
Thankfully, you don't have to spend the better portion of your day hunting for your evening meal.
Point your browser to www.uswellnessmeats.com and receive next day delivery of grass-fed meats to
your door. By eating the foods you are genetically programmed to eat, you can lose weight, boost
your energy and live a long and rewarding life.
These are the observations I've made in my own practice over the course of 20 years. I've helped
thousands of people reverse heart disease, lose weight and regain their strength and interest in life.
Now you can do the same.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
P.S. - Interested in more details about the "caveman" diet? Find it all in The Doctor's Heart Cure.
Get your own copy by clicking HERE.

Reference:
1. Light L. What to Eat. 2006. McGraw-Hill.
2. Shcmid R. Traditional Foods are Your Best Medicine. 1997. Healing Arts Press. Rochester, VT.
3. Diamond J The Worst Mistake in the Human Race. Discover Magazine May 1987 p. 65
4. Eaton B., Konner M. Paleolithic Nutrition. New England Journal of Medicine. Jan 31, 1985.
5. Gittleman A. Beyond Pritikin. 1980. Bantam Books. New York, NY.
6. Castelli W. Archives of Internal Medicine. Jul 1992. 152:7:1371-1372.
7. Enig M. et al. Federation Proceedings. Jul 1978.37:9:2215-2220.
8. Sitt P. Fighting the Food Giants. 1981. Natural Press. Manitowoc, WI.

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What's Up Doc by Dr. Al Sears - U.S. Wellness Meats

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9. Reinhold J. Ecology of Food and Nutrition. 1972. I:187-192

10. Reddy N. et al. Phytates in Cereals and Legumes. 1989. CRC Press. Boca Raton, FL.

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