Page 53 - Fall2012

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Deep Nutrition: and other tissues. Shanahan provides interesting
Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food information on this process without giving us the
Catherine Shanahan, MD and Luke Shanahan key—vitamin A found in organ meats, fish liver
Big Box Books oils, and egg yolks and butterfat from grass-fed
animals—almost like publishing a recipe but
A favorite book among the paleodiet crowd, leaving out the main ingredient. Vitamin K ,
2
Deep Nutrition, takes the WAPF principles and again mentioned only in passing, plays a critical
presents them in new and interesting ways. Sha- role in the development of the middle third of the
nahan argues passionately for traditional food, face, ensuring the beautiful high cheekbones that
embodied in her Four Pillars of traditional cui- are the hallmark of traditional peoples.
sine. She is equally passionate about the dangers Shanahan writes eloquently about how the
of vegetable oils and sugar, presenting enough symmetry of the face equates with beauty, but
evidence to keep her readers off them forever. with no mention of the fact that it is vitamin A,
The book’s main asset is its graceful writ- available in utero, that ensures this symmetry.
ing style, rare in books on nutrition and health. She does not advise pregnant women to take
Like Michael Pollan’s books, Deep Nutrition is cod liver oil, only folic acid. She recommends
highly readable. Consider this beautiful sentence: cod liver oil as a good source of “long chain es-
“Every year, growing battalions of familiar sential fatty acids”—they are not essential in the
diseases are cutting a wider and wider swath of strict sense of the word—and does mention in an
destruction through the normal experiences of appendix that cod liver oil is a good source of vi-
childhood.” Or this passage: “Natural fat con- tamins A and D. She then warns about impurities
sumption: down. Processed fat consumption: up. and toxins in cod liver oil, advising consumers
Heart disease up—way up. Forget for a moment to purchase only the cleanest fish liver oils, but
what the experts are saying and ask yourself what without providing any information on finding a
these trends suggest to your inner statistician.” high quality product (this information is available
In a sense Shanahan’s writing skills con- at westonaprice.org).
tribute to the book’s many problems. Words flow Shanahan makes fantastic claims about what
easily off her pen, often too easily, resulting in food can do to your genes. “. . . Every bite you eat
writing that is rushed and scattered, often lacking changes your genes a little bit,” she writes. “Your
in thorough explanation, often inaccurate and at genes are always changing,” is the main theme
times completely wrong. of Deep Nutrition. But in fact, the genes are not
Shanahan begins with the work of Weston always changing. Our genotype is very stable.
Price, but doesn’t slow down enough to explain What changes is the expression of the genetic
his great emphasis on the fat-soluble activators. blueprint, which indeed is very much tied in
Yes, they are mentioned—she says that the with nutrition. Sometimes Shanahan gets it right:
fat-soluble activators are “Price’s term for vita- “. . . diet changes how your genes work.” But In a sense
mins”―but only in passing, and not as the focus right from the start, Shanahan implies that you Shanahan’s
of his work. This omission is puzzling because can change your genes to be like Tiger Woods writing skills
the fat-soluble activators are key to building the or Halle Berry.
beautiful facial structure she extols. In particular, If one or more genes do change or mutate, contribute to
vitamin A acts as the concertmaster for fetal the effects occur in the womb and are completed the book’s
development, providing the instructions that tell during the period of growth. Once that period many
undifferentiated stem cells how to become dif- is over, eating a healthier diet may improve our
ferentiated cells for the heart, liver, bones, brain health, may help us lose weight, may help us problems.
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