SuperFood Guru Dr. Steven Pratt Eats Like a Caveman (And Thinks We Should, Too)
In his groundbreaking book, SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life, Dr. Steven Pratt stated that he had uncovered the key nutrient-rich foods that play a significant role in disease prevention and achieving optimal health. Blueberries were one of them, and their notoriety as a cancer-fighting, brain food that was both a natural remedy and sweet indulgence soared. Since the book’s publication in 2004, Dr. Pratt has become an authority on the role of nutrition and lifestyle, and the blueberry continues to be one of his essential ingredients in living a longer, healthier life.
When Dr. Pratt began developing his list of SuperFoods, he started by researching longevity-enhancing nutrients. From there, he backtracked to find the foods that possessed them. “It became obvious to me that I needed a food with tremendous amounts of polyphenols,” he said. Polyphenols, a word normally uttered only among research scientists and absent in nutritional literature as recently as ten years ago, is becoming the new buzzword in the world of nutrition, along with flavonoids and anthocyanins, subclasses of polyphenols. Found most notably in the skin of fruits, flavonoids and anthocyanins are known to have antioxidant characteristics that combat free radicals, and they have been found to posess potential benefits in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and in preventing premature aging.
Blueberries are one of the major players in the world of flavonoids and anthocyanins. They also fit the SuperFood profile: they are readily available and have the support of peer-reviewed studies. They also taste good. “They’re sweet and delicious. It’s not like I’m asking people to do some torturous thing,” said Dr. Pratt, who recommends up to two cups a day, a benchmark that in his own life he achieves effortlessly. He eats mostly frozen, despite having his own 38-bush barren growing at his California home, and for even more nutritional bang, prefers Wild Blueberries (those grown indigenously in Maine and Canada) to cultivated. They have more nutrient-dense skin per unit volume of fruit, and because they grow in harsher environments, they are made to withstand harsh weather and bacteria — a heartiness, he said, which transfers to the nutrients of the plant, and in turn, to the human body.
Studies have indicated that the adverse effects of food occur during absorption, following a meal. One of the paradoxes of this absorption has been observed widely in France. This “French paradox” results in populations that eat a high saturated fat diet but do not have much cardiovascular disease. “They bathe their meals in wine,” said Dr. Pratt. His advice for taking advantage of this principle is the same for everyone: from his ophthalmology patients concerned about preserving their eyesight, to those concerned with cardiovascular health, and anyone regardless of their genetic makeup: “Bathe your meal in berries.” Red wine, he said, has the same nutritional profile as berries do. “If you have blueberry juice, or a cup of blueberries for dessert, that’s a great way to bathe the meal in berries.”
Besides a near-perfect nutritional punch, Dr. Pratt said that blueberries also have a remarkable “synergy” with almost every other food, making them perfect for combining in meals and with other foods. “If you have blueberries plus walnuts for brain health, that’s better than just walnuts alone,” he said. “It’s not one plus one is two. It’s one plus one is three.”
Eat Like a Caveman
Berries have always been readily available throughout human history, and our meals have evolved to include berries, cherries and grapes. Now, modern science confirms that it’s a diet that works. “I think like a caveman,” said Dr. Pratt. It’s a principle he uses to negotiate the needs of a human body that has the same makeup as a caveman but a lifestyle that is very different. “Our genes are basically in the Stone Age. We are living in modern life, but we had better be kind to our genes. And the best way to be kind to our genes is with berries.”
Blueberry’s Role in Gene Expression
Less simple, perhaps, is the role of foods like blueberries in nutrigenomics, the study of how foods affect gene expression. Dr. Pratt states in his latest book, SuperHealth: 6 Simple Steps, 6 Easy Weeks, 1 Longer, Healthier Life, that it will one day be possible to match the perfect diet to an individual based on his or her genome. “Berries are great regulators of gene expression,” said Pratt. “If you look at your body, you have all these genes that are ready to be ‘expressed’, that is, they start to create proteins and enzymes that make the body function. Blueberries promote the expression of good genes and suppress the expression of bad genes in our body.” Accordingly, individuals with genes for high blood pressure and high inflammatory markers would simply require an Rx of blueberries to decrease inflammation, decrease blood pressure and decrease the C-reactive protein, a protein in the blood that rises in response to inflammation.
“The produce section is the best and tastiest pharmacy in the world. Most of the stuff we need to be healthy is right in the produce section of the market — including frozen fruits and vegetables,” said Dr. Pratt, and he insists that large amounts are not necessary to see these extraordinary effects. Until gene-specific diets are possible, eating a diet high in polyphenols is a high-benefit, low-risk proposition for anyone. “When you lower inflammatory markers, you’re going to cut down your risk for most diseases of modern man, and blueberries help do that.”
Foods With Class
Today, the message of Dr. Pratt’s risk-cutting SuperFoods is being delivered throughout dozens of schools in Colorado, thanks to an innovative pilot program in the Denver School district that includes putting SuperFoods on the school lunch menus. “We’re totally changing the food program,” said Dr. Pratt of the project, which includes staffing a full-time registered dietician and preparing menus that consistently feature healthy but tasty foods and recipes. A grant from the Colorado Health Foundation has helped to continue the program for four more years, during which Dr. Pratt expects it will expand to include funding for urban gardens in the poorest areas of the district. Students who are part of the program will grow food and sell it back to the schools for use in the program, learning both nutritional and financial lessons.
“What you find out is that kids will eat food if you present it as tasty — and all these foods are tasty,” said Dr. Pratt. Kids do all the tasting, and for a recipe to be served at their school, over half of them must sign off on the food being “excellent.” Berries such as blueberries are an easy “in” according to Dr. Pratt (a popular recipe item was Blueberry Spinach Salad), and they appear on the menu along with items such as Black Bean Brownies, Tofu Pudding and Sweet Potato Fries.
“I look at this as my patriotic duty,” said the SuperFood guru, who is hopeful, if unsure that the growing knowledge of healthy food will change future lives. “There’s not enough money in the world to pay for the diseases coming down the pike in this country. So we’ve got to start thinking about fun, healthy habits.” That means passing the polyphenols, nurturing our inner caveman and bathing meals in blueberries — in Dr. Pratt’s book, at least, that’s a great start.
