The Evolution Diet begins with the basic hunter/gatherer diet and infuses all-natural modern healthy foods and exercise to produce the most well-rounded, sophisticated dietetic plan yet. Optimal well being can be obtained by combining the intrinsic wisdom of our genes with the wealth and expertise of today.

Read more in The Evolution Diet and in The Evolution Diet: All-Natural and Allergy Free!

That may seem like a bold claim, but I’m working on a natural technique that will ensure that you will never be sick again—at least sick enough to prevent you from living your normal life.

What is this magical cure you ask? Well, it involves the most abundant nutrient on earth: water.

The hypothesis is that dehydration, which leads to hypovolemia (reduced volume of blood plasma) and has been linked to serious conditions such as cardiovascular, neurological, and inflammation. Chronic dehydration has also been linked to lesser conditions that affect a greater percentage of the population (allergies, asthma, hypertension).

The cure to dehydration is, of course, drinking more water, as we mentioned in The Evolution Diet. I promoted the typical eight 8-ounce glasses a day for the average person, which is plenty of water to keep hydrated. I even went as far as to say that you should drink as much water as you can handle—that there never is such a thing as too much water.

Alas, that is clearly not the case. Someone can easily consume too much water and end up with conditions like water intoxication and hyponatremia, which results from the dilution of sodium in the body. We are also hypothesizing that too much water can lead to inflammation, which can further lead to asthma, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, and other aging diseases.

With such a frightening array of conditions on the excess side of water consumption, it becomes clear that only a happy medium will due. Too much water is as bad as too little. Where that happy medium is depends on the person of course, but lies between dehydration and hyponatremia. We recommend drinking water only when you experience symptoms of thirst and when you are exercising. This will keep you sufficiently hydrated and prevent any symptoms from hyponatremia.

However, when you notice the first symptoms from getting sick (sore throat, dry nasal passage, fever, cough), we recommend that you hyper-hydrate. That is, we recommend that you drink enough water to keep your filtering system working (increased urination). I have used this method to ward off any major sickness for 12 months. I have felt the initial flu-like symptoms five times, each time I responded with hyper-hydration and did not succumb to the illness.

There will be more to come on this study, but if you have information regarding this technique, please contact us at info@evolution-diet.com.

With summer in full bloom, a regular and regularly unwanted guest is back in many homes around the Norther Hemisphere: the fruit fly. Since we promote fresh fruit and veggies in the Evolution Diet (often requiring one to leave food out in the open air for extended periods), it’s quite possible that a natural diet like this leads to a higher population of the annoying little buggers.

Luckily there is a solution! Besides the typical cleanliness practices that are helpful in reducing fruit fly populations (keep trash closed off with an automatic lid, clean kitchen surfaces, etc.), there is one method that can be used to clear out any number of gnats.

Instructions:

Place two parts of apple cider vinegar in a dish with steep vertical sides. Add one part dish detergent and viola, you have yourself an inexpensive, somewhat natural trap for the fruit flies. They are attracted to the smells of the cider vinegar, so they come to rest on the ledge of the dish containing it. But the gnats must not be able to contain their excitement because they often jump around and sometimes find themselves on the inner slope of the dish. Often times they slip into the pool of vinegar and cannot get out. Accompanied with the aforementioned tips on cleanliness, this technique should get rid of any population of fruit fly within a few days.

As is the case with most mainstream media product, The Evolution Diet has become the target of quite a few amateur critics in the form of Amazon User Reviews. Most of the criticism is irrational and childish and it doesn’t even provide a little humor. Critics, if you’re going to be irrelevant, you might as well be funny! Alas, that’s not the case with The Evolution Diet critics.

Most of the criticism (ad hominem or non sequitor logical fallacies) can be ignored. The one that I’d like to address is the scientific validity of the eating plan.

The main point I’d like to focus on here is the second principle of The Evolution Diet: Appropriate Your Diet in the Method of Our Ancestors. That means snack on low-sugar high fiber foods throughout the day and eat a large protein meal after exercise. You can read more about the benefits of doing this in the books (The Evolution Diet and in The Evolution Diet: All-Natural and Allergy Free) but I’d like to present some of the sources for this principle. Enjoy!

Stomach acidity: http://www.smartskincare.com/skinbiology/sebum.html.
Chivers quote: Chivers (1992: 64).
Digestive system: http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/yrdd/index.htm.
Animals’ digestive tract: http://www.hillstrath.on.ca/moffatt/bio3a/digestive/vartheme.htm
Protein: Harris (1989:306-7).
Protein Metabolism: http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/nutrition/stress/BodyStress.htm, http://insulin-pumpers.org/howto/pfandbs-2.html
More energy with high-carb diet: Truth About Food: Find Out If a High-Carb Diet Really Gives People More Energy (Video: 2007).
Protein digestion: Strader, et al. (2005:175-191), http://www.womentowomen.com/digestionandgihealth/phbalance.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestion#Stomach
Digestion diseases: Adams (1999).
Tryptophan: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question519.htm
Penn State Study: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-23-apple-diet_N.htm
Toxicity: http://www.anyvitamins.com/vitamin-c-ascorbicacid-info.htm
Thermic effect: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_thermic.php

And don’t forget our resource links page!

In “Fat Cat“, a young protagonist finds out what it’s like to live like a cavegirl. An overweight teen to picks the Stone Age lifestyle for seven months for a school project and voila, she is transformed into the stunning, likable person she always knew she could be.Plus, she gets the school heartthrob that everyone wants.

Well, I can’t say it’s that easy, but there benefits to The Evolution Diet (basically the diet presented in Fat Cat) are innumerable and immediate.

Here’s the description of the book:

You are what you eat. . . .

Cat smart, sassy, and funny—but thin, she’s not. Until her class science project. That’s when she winds up doing an experiment—on herself. Before she knows it, Cat is living—and eating—like the hominids, our earliest human ancestors. True, no chips or TV is a bummer and no car is a pain, but healthful eating and walking everywhere do have their benefits.

As the pounds drop off, the guys pile on. All this newfound male attention is enough to drive a girl crazy! If only she weren’t too busy hating Matt McKinney to notice. . . .

This funny and thoughtful novel explores how girls feel about their bodies, and the ways they can best take care of their most precious resource: themselves.

Enjoy!

As the recession continues, some writers are going back to the basics. Way, way back. A Sunday NY Times article reported on “new cavemen” living in New York–an urban tribe that believe in imitating the diet and exercise habits of our “Paleolithic ancestors.”

The article cites University of California economics professor Arthur De Vany (pictured, via). De Vany will publish “The New Evolution Diet: The Smart Way to Lose Weight, Feel Great and Live Longer” in the UK next year. The article described his work: “Mr. De Vany’s blog promotes what he calls Evolutionary Fitness. Like his disciples in New York, he believes that ancient humans could perform physical feats that would awe the gym rats of today.”

De Vany isn’t the only writer focusing on this diet and exercise movement. Loren Cordain, Ph.D., published “The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat” and “The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance.”

Finally, last year Nora Teresa Gedgaudas published another book, “Primal Body-Primal Mind: Empower Your Total Health The Way Evolution Intended (…And Didn’t). The Amazon description actually referred to the caveman trend in publishing: “Never again be confused-or fooled-by misleading or conflicting dietary information! This is NOT just another book about ‘caveman diets’ or ‘low carb eating.’ Although these topics are covered, there is a unique ‘twist’ to the material that will have you seeing your health and your diet in a way you never have before.”

It’s well known that “getting fit” and “taming the bulge” are common New Year’s Resolutions and it’s quite possible that you share that resolution with the millions of others who are looking for 2010 to be the year of health.

Why not make it easy on yourself and ensure that this year’s resolution comes true? The Evolution Diet can help with easy ways to (a) figure out where you are in your health life, and (b) get you to where you want to be by simple moves toward the way we were designed to eat.

To help you figure out where you are in your health life, we’ve provided a free online health assessment that shows your BMR, BMI, and HealthScore based on a quick health survey. You can also track your daily health.

Next, take steps to get where you want to be in your diet and exercise plans. There are four easy principles to get to the diet that we were designed to consume. 1. Listen to your body, not your culture, 2. Appropriate your diet in the method of our ancestors, 3. Eat from nature and avoid intake of Artificially Extreme Foods (AEFs) like fried Twinkies, 4. Exercise and sleep when your body tells you to.

If you’d like more information, please see The Evolution Diet and  The Evolution Diet: All-Natural and Allergy Free.

“Green” is often used as a catch-phrase to garner attention and push sales to people who want to do the right thing. It’s also often used by companies that don’t do the right thing and want to act like they are.

Code Publishing (and our imprints Amelior Books, New Classic Books, and LoBraü Books) don’t do much self-promotion about how they’re saving the world by doing the green thing, we just do it. We recycle more than twice as much as we throw away. We don’t use air conditioning or central heat at our offices (we are in San Diego after all). We encourage our employees to walk or bike to work as well as the grocery store and mall.

As a publishing company, we also look to be environmentally responsible. We promote electronic versions of our books and make strides to reduce the number of pages in our paperbacks. Whereas some publishers will release 400-page books that could easily fit in a compact 200-page size (usually they go with the “more-pages-higher-price-tag” philosophy). We try to condense as much good stuff into tiny packages.

It’s good to talk conservation, but it’s also good to mean it. Code Publishing means it.

You may have heard of the dangers of the chemicals in antiperspirants (Zirconium sensitivity, aluminum accumulation and even links to Alzheimer’s). So, it may be prudent to ease up on the roll-ons or clear sticks. Or better yet, you may want to give up the antiperspirant altogether and go with simple deodorant. But many deodorants, while they might not have harmful chemicals in them, they might not work in preventing odors from getting out of hand.

Some people suggest apple cider vinegar as a solution, but if you want to fight odor, doesn’t it make sense to use something that doesn’t smell in the first place?

We at The Evolution Diet recommend a healthier option that works: hand sanitizer. While topical hand sanitizer doesn’t clog the pores and prevent sweating, the active ingredient, ethyl alcohol, does neutralize the bacteria that forms in odoriferous areas.

In addition to being effective, it’s also less expensive than traditional deodorants. A month’s supply may only cost you $5.

For odor-neutralizing reasons, we recommend the scent-free variations of the Purell brand or any generic alternative and we recommend that you apply the sanitizer immediately after washing the targeted area to prevent any bacteria build-up.

In times of economic strife, we shouldn’t have to sacrifice our health. That’s why we at The Evolution Diet have sponsored your purchase of “The Evolution Diet: All-Natural and Allergy Free” by 25 percent! You can by a brand-spanking-new copy at Amazon or Barnes and Nobel for just $7.79. Visit the Amazon page for more information. Don’t let the economy affect your health—take charge now!