Eat the Yolks: A Book Review

I don’t know about you, but I have heard so many contradicting statements regarding healthy eating over the past few months, that at this point, I am just going to do what I want and eat ice cream and chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Okay, maybe I will not go that crazy, but seriously, with so much contradictory information being thrown at us about what is and is not healthy, who really knows the truth?  Is there one truth?  If so, what is it and how am I supposed to figure it out?

If you have all those same questions, I highly recommend you read the book “Eat the Yolks” by Liz Wolfe.  Although Liz does support a paleo lifestyle, she makes sure to emphasize that each and every one of us are different and we need to listen to our bodies to decide the most optimal way to eat.  In addition to what we should and should not eat, she discusses other aspects of our lifestyles (i.e sun exposure, taking vitamins, supplements, etc.).  If I had to summarize the book in a few sentences, it would be these:  Be a responsible consumer and know where your food comes from.  Listen to your body and use that to gauge what your body wants and needs.  She has a section of the book – “Nutrition in 100 words” that I recommend you print out and put it on your fridge – refer to it frequently and stop stressing over everything you eat. “Seek real, nutrient-filled food, as close to its natural state as possible: whole, unprocessed, unmodified and unrefined.  Pretend the modern supermarket doesn’t exist.  Choose foods that could be hunted or gathered – food that has always been food.  Support local, responsible producers.  Eat vegetables and fruit.  Eat meat and fat from properly raised animals, eggs, and seafood.  Enjoy cold-pressed oils and plants rich in healthy fats, like coconut, avocado, and olives.  Drink water.  Incorporate superfoods: fermented vegetables and beverages, homemade bone broth, and organ meats (if you dare).  Above all, ditch obsessive behavior and “diets.”  Question conventional wisdom.  Eat real food.” - It is 100 words exactly!!

Throughout the book, Liz gives a lot of little bits of advice and words of wisdom.  Here are my top five favorite ones:

1. "Real, unprocessed foods – including animal products – are the fuel that makes us awesome, and there’s no substitute in a box, bag, or capsule.  We don’t have to fear real food."
2. "Opposition to hunting, is, at the core, a symptom of our extreme privilege and disconnection from the skills needed for survival, the skills that many traditional cultures – some living in remote corners of the world – still employ with a “waste not, want not” ethos."
3. "If we truly believe that no living thing should have to die for our dinner, we shouldn’t eat at all."
4. "We are what our animals eat.  We are also what our plants absorb from the soil.  When there’s nothing in the soil, we aren’t consuming nutrients, whether we eat the plant itself or the animal that ate the plant."
5. "There is nothing good in grains – including fiber – that we can’t get from vegetables and fruits with more nutrition and less baggage."

Read the book and let me know your top favorites.

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal