Wolfe - Eat the Yolks: Discover Paleo, fight food lies, and reclaim your health

First Published in 2013 by Victory Belt Publishing, Inc.

Copyright Liz Wolfe

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-628600-27-8

The author is not a licensed practitioner, physician, or medical professional and offers no medical treatments, diagnoses, suggestions, or counseling. The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes.

The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

RRD 0113

Cover photo credit: Claire Ryser, Visionaire Studios

For Spence.

Heres to a lifetime of adventures.

contents

foreword

At some point in our nutrition-and-health improvement journeys, which I presume you are on simply by the fact that youve picked up this book, weve likely figured out that we were misled or misguided somewhere along the way. Make no mistake about it, I too fell victim to the hype. You know what Im talking about here, right? Im talking about the eating fat will make you fat / you need eleven servings of heart-healthy whole grains daily / anything made from soy is a health food hype. If you didnt know that was hype before, you will now.

I was right there with you for many years, chowing down cereal made of seven whole grains on a mission (to kill you) with soy milk (it must be healthy, right?!), fat-free yogurt (sweetened with aspartame), nonstick cooking sprays (but theyre low-fat!), and calorie-free sweeteners (that were naturally sweet). That is, until I saw the light.

For each of us, that light comes in a different form. If that light hasnt already been turned on for you, then youre in for a real treat. This bookand Lizs take on nutrition in generalwill be that for you. And if thats the case, I am stoked for you. You are going to get your world flipped upside down and sideways while you learn exactly what is true about the food you eat every day. And youll probably be smacking yourself upside the head when you realize that youve been fighting your instincts on whats right and wrong about nutrition, but you will definitely be ready to stop the diet-food-and-calorie-cutting madness.

This book will set you free from the 100-calorie-pack-filled world of edible foodlike substances that cry healthy on the package but are slowly making you sicker and sicker as you eat them. Yes, its that dramatic. The impact that food has on your health is that serious. Its a good thing Liz, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTPTM) certified by the Nutritional Therapy Association, has a seriously hilarious way of explaining it all.

Allow me to back up for just a moment, because I havent known Liz my entire life, contrary to what our podcasting banter may imply. I was introduced to Liz Wolfe when listening to a podcast that was part of a (short-lived) series created by Hayley and Bill Staley (of The Food Lovers Kitchen and Make It Paleo fame) called The Food Lovers Dish It. Liz was the featured guest on one of the episodes they recordedand right away, I loved her voice.

Now, when I say that I loved Lizs voice, I mean both her audible voice and her way of thinking and presenting her opinions. I should tell you that I was feverishly on the hunt for a podcasting partner at this exact moment, so much so that I pulled my car over while driving on a busy highway to shoot Hayley a text and ask for Lizs contact information. That was the beginning of the end, some might sayand I mean that in the absolute best way possible.

That was several years ago now, and Ive since not only convinced Liz to record a weekly podcast with me (the Balanced Bites podcast, which ranks in the top Health shows in iTunes), but also (literally) dragged her on the road with me to meet folks across the country and teach them why everything you know about good nutrition is wrongand, of course, exactly how to get it right.

Through the development of the podcast and our seminar curriculum, I have seen deeper into Lizs passion and vigor for the Truth About Food (which could easily have been the title for this book, but that doesnt pack the same vitamin Drich punch as Eat the Yolks ). She wants to know more than just the biochemistry of nutrition; she wants to know the social and historical implications of the changes in our food supplyand what those changes have done to our long-term health.

Liz has a real knack for connecting with her readers (and our listeners and workshop attendees) in a way that is unlike anyone Ive ever met. She isnt just hilarious; she is also darned smart about nutrition. Her passion for all things myth-and-truth-related when it comes to, oh, lets say the history of how the heck we started eating margarine, for example, has driven her to tirelessly research the foundations of it all. And shes able to turn around and tell you the story and actually make it interestinginjecting it with her signature wit and sense of humorso that you leave the room never wanting to eat margarine again (and likely slapping it out of your spouses or siblings hand, too!).

In Eat the Yolks, Liz takes us step by step through nearly every dogmatic, scientifically unsound, and antireal food notion that so many of us have been hung up on for years. She sheds light on the errors of those well-intentioned ways with compassion (shes been there too, folks) and wit. Liz explains why we need to eat fat (including saturated fat!), cholesterol, and even salt. (Bacon, yes! Steak, yes! Egg yolks, oh heck yes!)

Perhaps youve been bored to tears in the past by long, epic tomes that aim to educate you on the political and nutritional mess of what weve been told to eat for the last several decades. Or maybe youve read some real-food-centered books, but they were filled with overly science-y jargon or a rigid approach or way of eating that didnt leave you feeling empoweredor you quit reading partway through because you were flat-out bored. Well this, my friends, is the book for you.

Pour yourself a tall glass of home-brewed kombucha, whip up a nice frittata, and get ready to be edu-tained from cover to cover. And, for the sake of all that is decent in this world, you had better eat those yolks!

Diane Sanfilippo, BS, NC
Certified Nutrition Consultant and New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo and The 21-Day Sugar Detox

introduction

Happiness lies, first of all, in health.

G EORGE W ILLIAM C URTIS

I wrote this book with the hope that we will soon see the last of the egg white omelet.

Truth time: We dont throw away egg yolks because we appreciate the culinary delight that is a rubbery, floppy, watery egg white breakfast. We do it because tossing that buttery, yellow-orange orb represents most of the ground rules of modern-day, so-called healthy eating: The cholesterol in egg yolks is bad for the heart. The calories in egg yolks can cause weight gain. The fat in egg yolkswell, a moment on the lips means a lifetime on the hips. Right?