Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

First of all, this is THE best book on nutrition out there. Get this book. I own three copies: one for my own reference, and two to lend out. It's that good. Deep Nutrition is an easy read, witty and engaging. It reads more like a novel than a nutritional text. You will find yourself turning the pages and wishing for more. It will change the way you look at food forever. It has for us. The main premise is that you can change your life and the lives of your children by following the principles of traditional eating. In a society riddled by adult and childhood health problems, this is good news indeed! For the couple looking to conceive, it means having tools to have a healthy and beautiful child. For both children and adults with current health problems, it means hope for recovery. By eating a traditional diet, we can change how our genes work and how our children's genes work. We can also change the way our children look. Using principles from Stephen Marquardt and from modern scientific research, Catherine Shanahan shows us how beauty is objective, transcending all cultures and races. There is a certain dynamic symmetry that the human brain looks for and recognizes as beautiful. I know this sounds abstract, but the book provides some very convincing pictures. Especially interesting are pictures of siblings showing that the later born siblings have less dynamic symmetry, presumably the result of less optimal maternal nutrition. The latest born siblings have features similar to fetal alcohol syndrome. Could second sibling syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome both be related to maternal malnutrition? See for yourself, but you will not be able to look at facial features the same way again. So what is Deep Nutrition? What is traditional food? It's the food our grandparents and great grandparents grew up eating. It's soups and sauces made from bone stocks and broths, pasture raised meats and organ meats, fish, fresh vegetables, fermented vegetables, raw milk, nature made fats and fruits. Compare this with the modern American diet of frozen dinners, Pop Tarts, Cap'n Crunch, Doritos, Oreos, Gatorade, soy milk, "vegetable" oil, and Coke Zero. Our ancestors would not have recognized these products because they didn't exist until recently. So, how do traditional foods help us? OK. I'm in my 30's and I grew up thinking that soup had to come out of a can or a little envelope full of powder. My husband's mother made homemade chicken soup out of a real chicken, bones and all, for her children as they grew up. My 92 year old father-in-law tells us over and over about how, as a child, his mother made them real homemade chicken soup every Sunday and how they would eat the leftovers all week. He still walks without a cane. People cannot believe that he is 92. My husband is in his 40's and is as strong as he's ever been. He looks to be following in his father's footsteps. I grew up being overweight and plagued by soft tissue injuries, including injuries to the tendons in my arms, a ligament in my knee, and problems with my lower back. I was given an honorary t-shirt at the local physical therapy practice and told I had been there so long that I was considered to be part of the family. After learning that the Deep Nutrition in broths and stocks made from bones contain substances that help the body heal tendons, ligaments and joints, you'd better believe I learned how to make these stocks and broths myself. It's easy, by the way. I now use homemade stock in everything I can. It makes an ordinary meal taste extraordinary, makes delectable sauces and gravies, yummy soups, and my soft tissue injuries are finally healing! Talk about a win, win scenario! Oh yes, that's the other thing. Deeply Nutritious food tastes GREAT! Those little envelopes full of flavored powder that promise to become tasty if you will only add water and heat them up taste nothing like the real food that is Deep Nutrition. Expect to be inspired to spend more time in the kitchen crafting the foods that will craft and heal you and will deeply satisfy you and your family. Deep Nutrition is not a cookbook. It's a unique guidebook to traditional foods - what they are and why we should eat them. Whether you are already experienced in cooking these foods, or like me believed that soup came out of a can or a little packet, Deep Nutrition has something for you. I have not seen such clear explanations in any other book. Much research went into this book, and while scholarly, it is amazingly accessible. Also included are lists of good foods to include in your diet which have the power to transform your health, foods to avoid and why, a list of baby steps to help you change your diet to healthier traditional foods, and even tips on using nutritional know-how to lose weight and stay young. You need this book! While you are at it, just order two. You're going to want to share this with all the important people in your life. Seriously. Happy reading!

Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food by Catherine and Luke Shanahan (she's an MD) is now in my own personal Top Ten books of all time. I could never say enough good things about this book; it's off the charts. I'm a health nut from way back, always telling my friends the latest about Omega-3's, the horrors of trans-fats, the crucial need for Vitamin D and more. I learned most of it first from my sister, I admit, but I found Barry Sears by myself. My sis actually has a 1938 publication by Weston Price, and first got going with Adele Davis. I've read countless books, magazine articles, newsletters, and manuals trying to understand what's what. I'd trade all I've ever read about diet, nutrition, and health food for the book produced by Catherine and Luke Shanahan. Regarding the massive amount of research these two have done, they have really sifted the chaff from the wheat. (Oh, but too bad about that metaphor, wheat is kind of on the outs now for me.) What we should be eating, and WHY, is what this book is all about. This narrative has unusual insights and connects things you would never expect to see in a book about nutrition. This book is so engaging and well written; you certainly come away with a bit of the personality of its authors (a couple of minor typos are not a problem for me, unlike the reviewer who gave it two stars). Your paradigms will shift! You know sugar is a problem. How bad? Pretty bad. You need to know why. Catherine and Luke explain it is so well you will wonder why candy is ever allowed in schools. But cheer-up, nutrient rich foods are nothing if not delicious! The more flavor, the more nutrition. Rich cream is good for you, and butter! Who knew? Olive oil is still OK, but I did not know how much damage the canola, soy, sunflower, and other veggie oils where doing. I had no idea. Vegans will have the biggest challenge in their path to health. Our bodies did not evolve eating soy and veggies alone. Soy has major issues, well explained here. I'm now eating liver and liking it (I am shocked, actually), making my own yogurt from raw milk and loving it (remembering trips to Greece), and learning to ferment veggies (delicious). French cooks, Julie and Julia fans, rejoice. Those French sauces, creamy or made of stock from slow cooked bones, are not only yummy, but super healthy! Young adults who are getting married and thinking about babies, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read this wonderful book before you conceive. There are way, way, too many unhealthy kids in the world. You want one that is as perfect as possible. Deep nutrition starts before conception. Boomers....do you want to be in the joint replacement brigade, dealing with cancer or heart disease, forgetting stuff all the time? Of course not. READ THIS BOOK!! Amazon readers are always told "If you liked this book, you will like _______" I didn't think it was possible to have another book out there as good as this one, but Nora Gedgaudas wrote one. Her book, Primal Body--Primal Mind: Empower Your Total Health The Way Evolution Intended, is one you probably should buy at the same time you order this one. These two books are joined at the hip. They fit together perfectly with minimal duplication. They both give jaw-dropping insights into who we are bio-chemically, and what we can do to survive in a world where profits drive food production and medical care. If you don't have heath care (I mean sick care), BUY these books. You'll be fine, unless you are hit by a truck.

This book fills in so much physiology information for those who are going low-carb and or paleo nutrition. Dr Cate explains how traditional foods, the Four Pillars, actually convey information to your genes and how the genes use this information to nourish, build and energize your body. I appreciate her work and do so wish I had had this information while younger. I could then have had a slimmer, healthier body, better luck with fertility and transmitted better health to my only child and perhaps have had better fertility ). Following Dr Cate's Four Pillars I immediately felt the difference. It sounds hokey, I know, but believe it, or try it yourself and you will know what I mean. My body simply became more comfortable and limber, I got to feel the feeling in that saying "comfortable in her skin" I believe that the whole idea of adding saturated fats back into your diet makes a tremendous amount of sense. The little physiology and biology I studied showed that cell membranes and other tissues as well as hormones are composed of these fats. You don't eat 'em your bod doesn't have them to build with. Seems pretty straightforward. It is, however, scary (as the goody two shoes follower that I am) to buck the conventional wisdom and medical recommendations and eat these forbidden fats as there is heart disease in my family. Not any less important than feeling great is the fact that my body fat is being metabolized - 15 lbs in 5 weeks. Oh, yeah! To Weston Price's amazing nutrition findings on traditional foods, Dr Cate adds information on the inter-generational effects of strong versus weak nutrition on the following generations. It is so very interesting. Only problem is that this information may raise your ire and therefore your blood pressure! To realize that the medical / research community and conventional wisdom in partnership with the government have, over the years, steered people away from traditional foods and been absolutely ruining the health and well being of Americans now and into the next generations with their Standard American Diet and drugs is actually sickening. (See the interaction Dr Cate has when she tries to suggest studies to obstetricians) That the Weston Price research findings have been out there for decades and ignored is heartbreaking, in fact it is in a way criminal. Bought a second copy as the one I lent out was not returned. (Weston Price nourished parents give birth to healthy babies: [...]) Read this book if: You want to feel wonderful You want to lose weight You want to feel more energetic You plan to ever have children (men, young men, this does apply to you too, the sooner you beef up your genetic health the better for your children) and You want to give your children the healthiest possible start in life. God bless Dr Cate.

I surely wouldn't consider a video review here - someone might notice that I am not a beauty! I did find the genetic theory in this book fascinating, but I am conflicted about having my daughters read the book - will it help them prepare for healthier babies, or will it depress them because of their own flaws? If I show it to my husband, will he grieve about his flaws and/or blame me for those of our children (wonderful kids but not genetic superstars according to Deep Nutrition)? While reading the book, I felt like a teenager again; those parts about feeling not pretty enough or good enough. I thought it was a nice touch that Dr. Cate freely admitted to her own flaws. That made me feel a little better. I have been a vegetarian for almost 40 years. It cleaned up my acne - I now live near an old friend who constantly expresses her amazement at my skin. I have jogged and hiked and moved furniture and done Yoga. Odd but true - I craved and ate meat during both my easy pregnancies and lost interest in it soon after. I realized in my 40s that stomach aches since toddlerhood indicated a problem with digesting dairy. In my 50s, I decided it was time to stop eating processed soy products. So I have been vegan with minimal soy (tofu once/week or less) for a few years, and I'm feeling that something is missing. Now in my 60s, I think hormone deprivation may be adding to my feeling a little lackluster. This book opens my mind to the possibility of a cumulative lack even though I enjoyed many years of good and comfortable health; but I can't be sure, and I can't bring back the years. The hormonal aspects of aging aren't addressed much in this book. I kind of hope Dr. Cate will delve into these issues sometime, but I wouldn't fault her for waiting until they affect her. Recently I added some fish to my diet. I still don't like the idea of eating a piece of a mammal's leg or body. This book makes me consider maybe trying some chicken stock. The reason I decided to read this book, even though I was not a likely candidate for agreeing with it, is that I wanted some help fighting a sugar habit. The book definitely gives good reasons to cut back on sugar! I couldn't put Deep Nutrition down, and read it quickly. I am inspired by this book to improve my already health-emphasized diet. Maybe not meat-on-the-bone, but more emphasis on the other 3 "pillars"...and less sugar. I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 because some of the arguments seem a little exaggerated, eg, a breakfast of 2 eggs and butter (or a cup of granola with milk) being 500 calories. This is just the easiest example I can remember and put into words. I think there is a lot of good basic and important science in Deep Nutrition!

This is a book destined to radically alter our view on nutrition. Along with Primal Body, Primal Mind, this book represents the best nutritional information one can currently get in a book. I highly recommend getting these two books together if you want to create the best health you can. One distinguishing characteristic of this book is the incorporation of the breakthrough science of epigenetics in nutrition and health. Combining the recent discoveries in epigenetics with the landmark work of Price and Pottenger, creates the most complete picture of our diet and nutrition available to date. The fact that recent research in many areas of health has vindicated Price's work is an important addition to our health knowledge. This author presents even more of that research in a very powerful synthesis. Taking the information about the dramatically superior health of previous generations and finding scientific grounds for understanding that will go a long way toward undoing the tremendous damage that last 150 years of commercial interference has wrought on our population. This book is a full-on broadside in that battle. As the author (an MD) describes her own struggle to understand her own experience and that of her patients, she also treats the reader to a clear view of the corruption of modern science, the lack of proper nutritional information in our medical schools, and the wisdom of our ancestors, which "modern society" prefers to ignore (at its peril.) She also exposes some of the corrupt junk science which has ruled nutrition for the last 60 years or so, especially taking time to thoroughly document the atrocity of Ancel Keys sloppy pseudo-science, which still rules dietary recommendations of backward and corrupt organizations today. It is high time we call to accountability people like Keys, who have caused more pain and death than Hitler and Stalin combined. She explains how epigenetics shows us that genes are not set in stone, but can be changed by environmental conditions, especially nutrition. All throughout the book, she cites research and gives ample end notes and references. She also goes into detail about proportion and symmetry in biological forms, and introduced me to Marquardt's Mask, a geometrical construct based on the Golden Mean, which formalizes the physical patterns of symmetry and "beauty" in the human face. It is in this research that we find the refutation of the Eugenics crowd, much as Price showed over 50 years ago - genetic expression depends more on environmental conditions than on "racial purity." The idea that malformed poor people are that way because they are racially inferior is now completely shown to be false - it is clear that their genes cannot express properly because of conditions such as poor diet, usually caused by poverty, not the other way around. Another topic she discusses is one of my favorites in which to rub the noses of the mainstream types - the fact that our quality of health has been decreasing over the last 100 years, not increasing. The percentage of the population living to 100 years has been declining over the last 180 years, drastically so in the last 20. This is in direct opposition to the idea that we are living longer, healthier lives today. The figures are usually skewed by the use of "average" life expectancy, which is open to numerous errors in addition to the usual problems with using the arithmetic mean. The median age of death is much more telling than average life expectancy, and those figures don't tell us as much about health as does the dramatic rise in chronic disease striking a greater proportion of the population at ever earlier ages. She cites similar information about height changes. She also discusses birth order and spacing along with nutrition, and its impact on long term health over many generations. All this is in addition to discussing what a really healthy diet looks like, and the science and history behind that. The science vindicates what Weston Price and others like him taught, based on research done around the world at a time when "the disruptive foods of commerce" had not yet had time to destroy many people's health, and there still existed large numbers of truly healthy people to study (no longer the case today). She concludes with great advice on how to adjust one's diet to the greatest advantage, including some meal plan ideas. As I said, along with Primal Mind, Primal Body, this will give you the best grounding in truly healthy nutrition possible today. I would strongly suggest reading both together for the best nutritional information. I also recommend books by Ron Schmid, Mary Enig, Sally Fallon, Bruce Fife, and Uffe Ravnskov. You are responsible for your health today. Doctors are mostly drug pushers, drug companies only want your money, organizations and governments are thoroughly corrupt, and insurance companies only want your money as well. They couldn't care less if you live or die. Learn the facts and take control of your health.

With so many theories about what is the best diet to follow, in addition to the misguidance set by the medical and industrial food industry, It is good to know that dissidence like Catherine Shanahan MD and Luke Shanahan are here to dismantle misleading information and simply enlighten readers with the truth that proper diet should come from traditional foods. "Deep Nutrition" reveals that by going back to what our grandparents, great-grandparents, and ultimately our ancestors have eaten for centuries, traditional foods are what we should be consuming on a daily basis for optimal health and longevity. The authors give outstanding explanations chapter by chapter as to why traditional foods should be the mainstay of our diet. Backed with loads of scientific evidence, I am convinced that traditional foods provide great health benefits. Ever wondered why the French are among the longest living people in the world, despite having a diet rich in saturated fats, like butter and lard? The French diet is what the Shanahans consider a part of the "Four Pillars of World Cuisine" that includes a healthy diet full of the naturally saturated dairy and animal fats, meat on the bone, fermented vegetables/dairy products, and chicken/beef bone broth. All of this, however, goes against the traditional western diet that has been sickening us with disease boosting pro-inflammatory polyunsaturated oils and sugar. The ailments plaguing Americans today are all linked to a common factor- rancid vegetables oils and tons of refining sugar. One would find it difficult to escape the ingredients in processed foods loaded with vegetable oils and sugar even when it claims to be "Organic." "Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food" provides details to all of this and more. The authors' reasonably and scientifically explained findings of the health benefits of traditional foods will transform someone who adheres to American conventional wisdom about what types of foods to eat into one who will no longer tolerate the false claims about what is sup​posedly healthy from industries, like the Food and Drug Administration.

I had a certain preconceived idea of what this book was about when recommended to me. I was heavily interested in nutrigenomics and believed that was the bulk of this book. It does cover it with an interesting approach, but that's just the first half of the book. Everything else I read beyond that was a pure bonus and was changed everything about how I view food, what's hazardous and how I educate my clients, as I am a nutritionist. Guess what? Saturated and cholesterol are your friends. That's right. So get back on that butter, bacon and red meat! Of course though, it needs to be the right kind - organic, pasture-raised that is. You will learn a multitude of invaluable facts about the truth on trans fats, saturates and really how damaging sugar is. The studies these days that vilify saturated fats are commonly flawed and contain manipulated, misinterpreted data where the scientists have a bias and still follow and promulgate the same diet-heart, cholesterol idea garbage that has been taught to viewers (including you) through the media for years. Learnt he truth right now. Seriously, purchase this book. Now. Dr. Cate is brilliant and knows what she's talking about. I have yet since supplemented my knowledge in this area about fats and cholesterol and have confirmed even further that this is legit info. in this book. This is simply the greatest find for me and will unlikely find another book that tops this. Do yourself a favor and buy this and then educate others about how they need to cut out vegetable oils (the wrong kind, which is mostly everything) and reduce sugar, or carbs for that matter, down drastically. These 2 components so commonly seen in our diet are responsible for cardiac events, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Not the oppose of what you think. Save your health and others now and read this!

This is truly a life changing book that has tremendous insight not found elsewhere. This is book is likely daunting for many readers looking for a quicker actionable summary. If you are looking for a quicker read, you should instead get the companion book to this which is Shanahan's book, " Food Rules: A Doctor's Guide to Healthy Eating." This book is essentially written backwards where the conclusions on genetics are in the front of the book and specifics on nutrition are at the back. If you want to get into the heart of the book start at chapter 7 onward and then go back to the beginning. The beginning on how nutrition effects epigenetics is interesting but makes more sense if you have some of the information in the later chapters. Although I might normally take a star off for something like that, the book is so important that it deserves more than 5 stars. I've purchased several copies to give to family and friends. Much of this information that has started to come out elsewhere but it is hard to find a book as complete as this on this subject. I can say that following the advice has radically transformed my life over the past year and half. My wife and I started with Whole 30 and paleo eating before we found this book and it reversed my metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea and weight issues. This book explains why those methods of eating work and how to introduce more food to those types of diets while keeping the still same beneficial results and adding even more benefits. I wish my parents had this book when I was younger.

Pretty specific and sometimes not an "easy-read", but excellent in explanations and very DEEP :-)

For people who are unfamiliar with this branch of nutritional theory, this book will be way out in left field. It goes against everything the mainstream western health industry preaches. And yet I think, for many, myself included, it will just seem like basic common sense. This is the way people have been eating for generations. This is the way our grandparents and great grandparents ate. It seems so simple and basic. Shanahan presents her research in accessible easy to understand terms. There are no complicated rules or 'superfoods' or the latest fad supplement. She just advocates for real, basic food, simply cooked. My only issue with the book is Shanahan's oddly emphasized focus on beauty. I am not disagreeing with her theory that eating this way will give your body and especially your children the best nutrients so that their genes will express to their best ability and therefore result in healthier more beautiful bodies. That also seems intuitive. And it's a topic I find valid and interesting. But she presents this part of her argument almost like she has a chip on her shoulder. Her constant harping about Hale Berry and all the 'beautiful' celebrities and their advantages came across as whiny as a teenager with self esteem issues. I found it very off-putting and it detracted from the otherwise mature, no nonsense, practical presentation of her ideas. But if you can get past the celebrity envy, I think you will find this book a fascinating read and a simple and achievable way to gain better health.

One of the best book on nutrition.

Este libro desmiente los mitos sobre la nutricion moderna. Contiene todo lo que necesitas saber para mejorar tu nutricion y a su vez la de tu familia y futuras generaciones. Gracias a esta lectura me doy cuenta de la gran importancia que tiene la nutricion, y como hemos ido perdiendo tradiciones y costumbres que eran tan beneficiosas para nuestra salud. En fin, toda persona interesada en cuidar su salud, la de su familia y futuras generaciones, deberia leerlo.

Nourishing, traditional foods are indeed your best medicine. Be kind to your grains and your grains will be kind to you.