“Anne of Green Gables never change...we like you just this way... “
PEI has more chronic illness than any other province in Canada. We have the fattest kids. We have the highest rates of Type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
I think that we all want this to change.
For 50 years we have followed the advice of the experts. We have given up fat. We have eaten more grains. We have eaten more vegetable oil and margarine. The result is that we have got fatter and more ill. Type Two Diabetes used to be called “Adult Onset” Diabetes, but now many 3 years olds have it. The pounds go on and on year after year. And we get ill. Especially after the age of 45. It seems as if a switch goes off then. On PEI the average man is disabled by the age of 65 from chronic illness. The average woman by 70.
It looks as if the experts have been wrong.
A few Islanders have taken their health into their own hands. They have rejected the Official Expert Advice and are trying something new: that is ironically very old. They are eating a diet that our ancestors ate. A diet that suits us and that helps us stay well as a matter of course.
Some call this the Paleo Diet. Others call it Ancestral Eating. I call it just eating what we are designed to eat to keep us well.
So what is going on? What are the results? What are people doing? How is this spreading?
The important thing is that it works. Here are a few quotes from a recent survey.
“I've dropped about 80 lbs., and I haven't felt this good in 20 years. My blood sugar is now under control without medication.”
“Lost approximately 30 lbs, pain/discomfort in my shoulders is completely gone. The pain in my right elbow is tolerable. not as moody. virtually no burping or farting unless I overindulge in grains. More energy - I actually have the energy to cook the foods I need to eat!!! Oh, & I lost 1/2 a shoe size!!
“Increased energy, better sleeping patterns, less mood swings, general increased feeling of 'wellness', improved body fat % At 26 years old was suffering from out-of-nowhere major joint inflammation and pain. Doctor wanted to prescribe Celebrex, which I turned down. Deciding to begin eating 'Paleo', and shortly thereafter all symptoms cleared up.”
“Lost weight (now at stable weight), no acne now, HIGH ENERGY, stable moods, happy!”
These people have lost weight. But more. They are feeling better. Less depressed, less arthritis, less tummy and digestive problems.
Most people start to be better within 6 months of starting. Most come off most of their medication.
What these people are doing is the OPPOSITE of what we have all been told to do for the last 50 years.
They eat no grains. They eat no legumes. They eat no vegetable oil and no margarine. They eat saturated animal fat such as butter. They eat meat. They eat fish and veggies but less starchy ones. They eat much less or no dairy. When they eat dairy, they eat high fat milk and yoghurt. Many eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut.
It’s not easy to give up the foods that we like and the foods that the “Experts” tell us are the healthy foods. It is not easy to not take your doctor’s advice.
So why and how are these people doing this?
Because they see people that they know doing well. They do it because when they start, they feel better very quickly and they lose weight very quickly. It’s all about your friends and peers.
Why are the experts wrong? The history of medicine is all about the experts being wrong. Medicine did not embrace the idea of germs. They attacked people like Pasteur. Surgeons hated anesthesia. The experts have all their status tied up in what they have been telling us for decades. They dare not change now.
So how is this revolution taking place in spite of the experts? It is very much an Island thing.
I was in the parking lot of the market when friend who had not seen me came up to me with a worried look on her face. “Hi Rob. You are so thin, I hope you are well?” She thought I had cancer. It was the only way that she could imagine me losing all that weight so fast.
Each Islander who starts this, amazes herself and her circle of family and friends. Like a pebble dropped in the pond, the ripples flow out.
As the Experts tell us that we are wrong, our family see us get well. After a year, the evidence before their eyes raises the doubt to the point where they believe what they see. Then they try it too and they feel better. They not only lose weight, but their pain goes away. Their digestive problem goes away.
Then they start to get angry. They start to realize that the Experts are part of the problem. Then they are noticed by their circle and the ripples in the pond become waves.
This is how PEI will change this.
