Two very different celebrity diets are in the news this week.
On the one hand is the story of Ashton Kutcher who ended up in the hospital with pancreas issues and severe pain following a fruitarian diet which was part of his efforts to “get into character” for his role as Steve Jobs in the soon to be released movie Jobs. Steve Jobs, the visionary founder of Apple and a known fruitarian, died in October 2011 from complications of pancreatic cancer.
On the other hand is the amazing story of LA Lakers guard Kobe Bryant who is turning back the clock following a Traditional Diet all the while looking, feeling and playing better than ever at an age that most would consider to be way past his prime.
Just last month, Kobe became the first player in NBA history to score 30 or more points in six consecutive contests, this after turning 34 years of age which is rather ancient in NBA years.
Of his age defying performance, Kobe said:
“My wind feels even better. I feel like I can run all day long. A lot of that has to do with diet and being committed to it, and watching what I eat.”
Contrast this statement with what Ashton Kutcher said at the Sundance Film Festival last week about his pancreatic attack which caused him to be rushed to the hospital:
“The fruitarian diet can lead to, like, severe issues. I went to the hospital, like, two days before we started shooting the movie. I was, like, doubled over in pain. My pancreas levels were completely out of whack. It was really terrifying, considering everything.”
The fruitarian diet is a subset of veganism. It includes fruits, nuts and seeds, without animal products, vegetables and grains. While this diet might make another species of primate extremely happy (one with lots of fur), it is in no way a Traditional Diet for a human and is a pertinent example of dietary modernism gone off the deep end.
According to Dr. Kaayla Daniel, evidence suggests that excess fructose consumption as would happen with anyone following fruitarianism puts stress on the pancreas and could lead to islet cell carcinoma, the type of pancreatic cancer suffered by Jobs.
While Ashton Kutcher was discovering the dangers of an extreme modern diet, Kobe Bryant is enjoying the fruits of a Traditional one.
LA Lakers trainer Gary Vitti says that the staples of Kobe’s diet include pasture based foods like grassfed beef and eggs from free-range chickens. Kobe makes every effort to avoid anything with corn syrup and his carbohydrate consumption has been scaled down to a very moderate level.
Focusing on getting traditional fats into his diet and the wrong fats out is of prime importance to Kobe. Vitti described the dangers of following a lowfat diet and why Kobe is not following the USDA Food Pyramid – in fact, he’s following the inverse:
“When they strip the fat, they strip all the nutrients with it. We don’t necessarily want to stay away from fats, but it has to be the right kind of fat.
The current science reverses the pyramid. The base of the pyramid is on the top. We’re not telling them to just eat fat – it has to be the right kind of fat. Pasture-grazed beef and products from that; you can eat butter, but it has to be pasture-fed. Not pasteurized, pasture-fed. There’s a big difference. Milk from a pasture-fed cow, cheese from a pasture-fed cow.”
No margarine or vegetable oil tub spreads for this NBA star. Kobe Bryant who is playing better than he did in his twenties and shattering NBA records in his mid-thirties eats butter!
But not just any butter, unpasteurized (raw) butter from pastured cows just like the healthy, robust traditional Swiss culture that revered it’s deep yellow/orange butter from cows grazing on the first spring grass.
Fruitarianism v. Traditional Diet: No Contest
The extreme physical results of two healthy young men about the same age consuming two very different diets is astonishing: elite athletic performance versus a doubled over in pain trip to the hospital ER.
A modern diet like fruitarianism in no way competes with the physical vitality imparted by Traditional Diet.
Pass the raw pastured butter please!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Kobe Bryant’s Diet Helps Maintain an Elite Level of Play
Ashton Kutcher Experiences Pancreatic Pain Playing the Role of Steve Jobs
I cannot believe you’re using Kobe Bryant as an example for good. Do you pay any attention at all to the news? I have been thinking of you and your blog as my premier source for good nutritional info and activities until now. You are posting something in support of KOBE BRYANT????
I want to cancel my subscription to your blog and block everything you post from now on. I am so horrified.
Typical Celtics fan lol
Whaaaat is this all about? You want to stop learning about traditional diet and a nourishing, simple, and holistic lifestyle because Sarah supports an athlete who eats a healthy diet?
Amen!!
That is great news to hear that Kobe Bryant is endorsing this kind of food! Imagine what that is going to do to the eating habits of teenage boys who are fans. Now we just need a female actress/singer/personality to endorse it so that young girls will jump on the band wagon.
I am curious, why would a diet high in fruit cause these problems? Surely people who consume high fructose corn syrup consume more fructose than someone eating loads of fruit? Or is it just lack of protein/fat AND lots of fructose (people are usually eating a big greasy burger with all that soda)?
People who stuff themselves with high fructose corn syrup suffer from all sorts of detrimental long term health problems from heart disease and kidney failure to pancreatic problems and clogged arteries.. everything and anything. The reason a diet made primarily of fructose would mess up the pancreas is just a matter of quantity… overdosing. I feel like high fructose corn syrup would do the same… but I’m no expert.
I suspect he is not eating raw butter but that instead Vitti was clarifying that “pasture-fed” although it sounds like “pasteurized” is NOT pasteurized. I clued into this because when I bought pasture-fed eggs from Whole Foods and the clerk said “Pasteurized eggs” as she rang them up. I’m not sure about this but just wanted to mention it. I can’t wait to forward this article on to my friends and family! Thank you!
So Ashton, did this diet cause you severe isssues or “like severe issues?” Was it two days, or “like two days?” Were you doubled over, or “like doubled over”? Clear and distinct differences indeed. I am certain I will not get a response from you or your representatives, however, you are certainly on your way to getting what you deserve. I recomend you follow the government food pyramid-plate, get a good conventional Dr. and drink plenty of fluoridated water for your health. Cuz it’s “like” good for you!
He didn’t eat the diet for two days… he became ill two days before filming began. He’d been following the diet for months.
Sarah,
I very much support a traditional diet.
But, I was just curious what your sources are about Kobe Bryant’s diet. When I went to research Kobe Bryant all I found was articles that he focuses on balance and that’s it. I couldn’t find any documentation that he eats traditionally or uses raw butter.
I’m not trying to be rude, I love your blog and videos. I just want to know that if I tell other people this that it is backed up by facts and not made up.
Jenny – At the very bottom of the post, under Sarah’s name, the links to the sources are listed. The one you’re looking for is “Kobe Bryant’s Diet Helps Maintain an Elite Level of Play”. Click on that link, then scroll down the page to find the article. All the quotes from Sarah’s post are there.
Jen – thank you! I don’t know how I missed that!
Sounds like Kobe is following a Paleo/Primal ‘diet’. You take out all grains, legumes, sugars, processed food, and most dairy from your diet. You only eat meats (preferred grass-fed/free-range), seafood, fruits, veggies, and nuts. A good resource for this type of lifestyle would be Whole9 or Marks Daily Apple. I’ve been eating this way for over a year now and the benefits are awesome.
Agreed. He’s eating a Primal/Paleo diet. It’s a little funny seeing it being promoted here by someone who doesn’t believe grain-free diets are healthy.
What books or articles on your site, etc would you recommend for someone to start a traditional diet?
I would search the site for posts about “healthy fats”, “traditional fats”, and “bone broth” to start. These are the most critical (and simple) changes, in my opinion. Sarah has some great videos about making bone broth. Try the “video classes” tab at the top of the site. She also did a good series of videos for the Weston A. Price Foundation about getting started on a traditional diet.
Nourishing Traditions is THE book to read when switching to a traditional diet. Good luck!
Hey Dana – “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon is a good book to start with. Sarah writes a bit about it on this post: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/top-ten-health-books-that-changed-my-life/
Always thought Kutcher was kind of an idiot and when I heard about that ‘diet’, well. No wonder Jobs also looked emaciated before he got sick.
And the sentence structure, language and grammar of the quote. Sheesh.
I’m with you there! He sounds like a teenage girl putting “like” in front of every sentence!
I follow a WAPD but I still eat a decent amount of fruit- perhaps 1-3 servings a day? All the fruit I eat is either organic or considered a low pesticide fruit (such as mangoes, bananas, or pineapple) I don’t really crave other sweets much anymore, though. I always take care to eat carbs with protein and healthy fats to avoid sugar spikes. Should I work to reduce fruit intake? Or would these levels be considered ok?
Some people just need more carbs than others. If you feel fine, I’d say stick with it!
That’s not a high amount of fruit at all. Just eat what makes you feel good. 🙂
Excellent article, I’ve just plugged into a local “Real Food” group, here in San Antonio, and I’m still trying to figure out what we can afford. I grew up on a Hamburger Helper diet as a kid, but as for my lil’ ones, we’re shunning anything premade and I’ve noticed that my kids are more even keeled and responsive. There’s a Weston A. Price group here in SA but I haven’t been to a meeting yet; I just recently purchased “Nourishing Traditions” and am boning up on my food knowledge. Our next food adventure will be making fermented veggies but I think I’ll try it the Sandoor Katz way, w/o adding whey–just sea salt, and see how that goes. We greatly enjoy your videos and articles!
I’m with you on the fermenting methods, Thomas A. I prefer to use salt and no whey. Whenever I use whey, everything I make tastes like soured milk. I don’t mind, but it doesn’t do the foods any justice if it’s all gonna taste the same anyhow, right? I tried to make the fermented ketchup using the recipe from Jenny at Nourished Kitchen or whatever her blog is, but it was horrid and I had to start all over with a different recipe I found online, without the whey.
As for butter, I would love to have real raw butter, but that is out of the question where I live. No one makes it, and even though I’m able (finally) to get raw milk again, they use holstein cows and there is little cream to skim. I’d have to buy 10 gallons at a time in order to get 1 cup of cream and that just isn’t gonna happen. So I’ve been buying from our local co-op and getting either kerrygold or “organic valley pastured butter” which says it’s only available from May to September, but here we are in February and I can get it. (?) I suppose it was frozen for later sale. Still, it’s the best I can do where I live. It’s gotten almost impossible to find pastured chickens or their eggs. I used to buy broiler/fryers and stewing hens from the Hutterite Colony, but they have started to use corn/soy commercial feed instead of the flax based seed they were using, because of cost I imagine. My DH cannot have soy (he breaks out in red dots all over, just like he does with seafoods/iodine) and he only has to take one bite of something before we know.
Buying local is a great phrase to use if you actually have access to local foods.
Really sad to read indoctrination instead of honest and true research on this, Sarah. There is a German proverb: “Among the blind, the one-eyed guy will be the king”. Not because he can see particular well, but because the others are blind.
I wonder how you ignore or explain away all the top (high-carbohydrate)-vegan athletes, that perform much better than their “traditional diet”-competitors?
When I want to see such kind of propaganda and indoctrination that you did in this article, I could also watch television. If your diet is the best diet out there, then do you really need to make these kinds of comparisons?
There is plenty of scientific, peer reviewed research backing traditional diets. It’s not that hard to do the research. Most people reading here have already done it.
It sounds to me like you’re on the wrong website. Did you think you were on a vegan site?
Matthias
Do you watch a little too much Glenn Beck? You attack with name calling and source improper quotes.
“in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” is credited to Desiderius Erasmus’s Adagia (1500). Erasmus is an extremely famous “Dutch” philosopher, teacher, writer, etc . Being from the Netherlands is much different than Germany. This quote is used among people in business and especially in the investment community. Wall street is full of people who quote this all the time.
In your second paragraph you make a statement without any names, facts or comparisons. This fails to do any justice to your argument.
Again in your third paragraph you call names and diatribe that is typical of Glenn Beck and his arguing with idiots philosophy. You know how I can tell you follow this philisophy, because everyone who does sounds like an idiot. Example “If your diet is the best diet out there, then do you really need to make these kinds of comparisons?”
I hope you keep reading this blog, maybe some day you can learn something. Sarah keep up the good work and great articles.
Amen!!! Right on Brother!