Nutrition: The Perfect Gene Diet by Pamela McDonald

This week I want to talk about Nutrition. Now I am more or less an intuitive sort of guy who listens to his body: I eat what my body is telling me to eat. Now this kind of attitude can get me into trouble. I used to polish off a whole pack of double choc chic cookies in one sitting because I was craving sugar. And I caught myself only today with my hand in the biscuit tin devouring some chocolate covered digestives..

However despite my "sweet tooth" generally speaking my intuition is correct.

What I know is that I have to maintain sugar levels. I am not a diabetic but if I get low sugar then I get real morose and irrational. Grumpy even. If I eat a low fat diet I find myself feeling unwell. If I eat a low carb diet I find myself getting really really depressed. One day I proved this. I was feeling irrationally depressed after being on a high protein diet. I fixed myself a large plate of pasta and 30 mins after eating I was feeling on top of the world.  Now, old Granny Beeton always used to tell me that "You Are What You Eat", and this is very true.

Over the last few months I have had this constant urge to give up alcohol and for weeks now I haven't been able to get enough Olive Oil. I mean I now love the stuff! I put in on my bread, on my salad...on my rice. I would drink it if I could - I have practically given up on butter. And I have cut down on coffee...its been giving me headaches...

Now this brings me to the book The Perfect Gene Diet, an awesome book complete with a foreword by the late great Wayne Dyer...

The premise is simple you base your diet on your genetics (your APO E group) because what is good for some aint good for others. Now this sounds kinda crazy, but the author of this work, Pamela McDonald a Nurse practitioner specializing in Integrative Medicine has done all the hard work for you, over twenty five years, all you need to do is get a DNA test and read her book.

So I took a genetics test which came back mainly Northern European  with some Mediterranean and a little Asian (the latter two not obviously manifested in my phenotype). Interestingly the results also showed that I am a slow metabolizer of caffeine - hence the headaches with coffee.

My APO E group was 3/3. I looked up my specific dietary requirements and was pleased to see that it concurred with my intuition. What I need is a high carb diet with moderate (good) fats and moderate protein. More importantly I need to stay away from alcohol because this raises my bad cholesterol. (APO E 2/2 are  the lucky ones where alcohol lowers their bad cholesterol.) This was the shake up I needed. I have finally given up on the alcohol.

My change in nutrition is helping along my running. I am now running in excess of 10k at a time in my Vibram Five Fingers, through mainly forest trails and I have never felt better. So far so good...

Now the book The Perfect Gene Book is a big tome and I am not going to attempt to speak about it in detail or review it as such. I just wanted to briefly draw your attention to it and say that it is worth looking into, because prevention is better than cure. I am just beginning to change my eating habits and I am beginning to see the benefits....this book is really worth its weight in gold.