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savor — guide to food & dining on the azalea coast 79 By Victoria Carlborg Photography by Joshua Curry LIVE WELL PROPROTEIN Can a Protein-Heavy Diet Like Paleo Restore Your Health For the New Year? Many Americans are beginning the new year with resolutions to lose accumulated weight and get fit and healthy. Buzzwords and catchphrases echo scores of diet trends and fads, but how does one really sort it out to become a “new you?” A lot of experts think the modern diet simply has too many sugars, including corn-based sweeteners, and carbohydrates. For many, the answer is to beef up the protein factor to trim these empty non-nutrient calories. While nutritionists express differing opinions about the amount of protein humans require, they do all seem to agree that Americans should be eating better. Three years ago, the United States Department of Agriculture created the MyPlate nutrition guide to replace the 1960s Food Pyramid in response to rising incidences of heart disease. Whereas grains made up the base of the Food Pyramid, suggesting six to eleven servings per day, MyPlate now sug-gests that grains should make up only approximately 30 percent of the diet. Grains have been controversial for the past 40 years, and many now argue that they are not necessary at all if one is consuming a diet that is filled with plenty of fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. The argument against grains comes from the idea that primitive humans simply did not eat them. It was during the agricultural age, when we transitioned to farming, that we began to consume grains such as corn and wheat. Even though it was approximately 10,000 years ago that we existed as hunter-gatherers, the argument is that our genes haven’t changed much since then, meaning that our bodies simply may not be designed to process grains. www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM


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