The USDA Food Pyramid featured above is a poor model for eating healthy and it keeps you addicted to carbs. What it shows we should eat most of is starchy carbohydrates – grains, breads, pasta, cereals. These foods raise blood sugar more quickly and higher then any other food. They then drop your blood sugar just as quickly. The result? You’re left feeling tired, hungry and craving more carbohydrates. You become addicted to these foods, literally, as sugar and starches light up the pleasure region of the brain – 8 times more than cocaine!

Plus, every time your blood sugar spikes, you either have to inject more insulin or your body has to produce more. This gradually poops out your pancreas (our insulin organ) so that it has to work harder pumping out insulin. When you eat a lot of these starchy, high glycemic index foods, you end up with a lot of insulin floating in your blood stream. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. Guess what happens to those carbs you just ate and didn’t burn? Insulin stored them as fat on your body. For the government to recommend making these foods the bulk of your diet, turning you into a carb addict, you’ve got to wonder who’s sleeping with who in the food industry?

This Food Pyramid represents the Paleo diet. It says eat mostly lean meats, fish, eggs and healthy fats. It’s a far better model to follow for general and diabetes health. Paleo, however, can be hard for many people to stick to. It usually doesn’t include dairy and is pretty strict about meats being cage-free and grass fed and vegetables and fruits being organic, making it a more expensive way of eating.

My personal pyramid looks like this. Okay, I took a little liberty with the wine 😉

This is how I eat: mostly vegetables, healthy fats, avocado should be in that picture too, with some fruit, fruit protein shakes, lean protein, nuts, seeds, some soy products, red or white wine and dark chocolate. Also, I make a delicious flax muffin every morning and munch on my own home baked nut/seed bread and chocolate biscottii. Here are the recipes. Each is delicious, nutritious and low carb. Occasionally I’ll have a sweet potato or quinoa, lentils or beans. Occasionally I’ll have whatever I want that’s not on this eating plan like ice cream or fried calamari.

Eating this way most of the time WILL break your food cravings and your brain’s addiction to sugar, flour and bad fats. It will stop taxing your body to over produce insulin and it will stop the fat accumulation on your body. Yes, you’ll lose weight. And as Dr. Mark Hyman below says, cutting the sugar and flour out of your diet, will reduce inflammation and disease and restore health. It’s not hard, you just have to decide you’re ready.