Category: Nutrition

Not the P90X nutrition guide, but information relating to Paleo, bad grains, obesity studies etc. Believe me, Paleo is the way to go.

What Sits In Your Colon And Rots? (Hint: it’s not meat!)

I hear this a lot from ill informed vegetarian wannabes. Meat rots in your colon for days, some even claim months and some, the really whacky ones who won’t even eat dairy and claim tofu will cure cancer tell us it sits there FOREVER!! Well, I just wanted to share this fact with you. What rots in your body is beans, grains and vegetables, not meat. In fact, the meat is long gone before any issues with undigested matter pass into your intestines and start to decompose.

It’s a good read, maybe not lunchtime fodder though.

(Also take a look at this: Paleo in 6 easy steps)

R7D17 – Insulin: Don’t Kill The Messenger

Yesterday’s post was a bit of a dog’s breakfast but it got me thinking as I re-read it this morning. I really needed to find out what exactly insulin does and why it has been outed as a bad guy in the whole weight control thing. You see, most people I talk to don’t know about this at all, in fact I would say that 90% of people you talk to couldn’t tell you what insulin is or does. All people “know” is that diabetics have to take insulin to “control” their blood sugar and if someone falls down you give them a cookie. Unless you are in University and then if someone falls down you give them another beer. But what are the mechanisms, simply stated, that insulin is responsible for?

I think it’s important to state what Wikipedia says in the very first sentence of the definition:
“Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body”

Notice the lack of reference to protein, that’s because protein has no effect on insulin and the central reason that high protein, low carb diets are effective in treatment of metabolic disorders. The other critical piece to understanding what a benefit insulin is to us is the fact that it is a major player in the anabolic uptake of nutrients. This makes it the bodybuilder and athlete’s best friend since it is responsible to repairing tissues and building muscle through the uptake of amino acids. Understanding the method is not as critical as understanding the basic responsibility of insulin. It is not an enemy whose only job is to store body fat, in fact, it is a critical hormone in the protection, maintenance and building of muscles and health cells in the body.

This helps to explain a little what I was trying to explain yesterday. Insulin increases when you eat and when you exercise. The reason for this is so that it can transport food you eat to the body systems that need the nutrition but also to help your body absorb nutrients it needs after depleting it’s stores during exercise. After meals and after workouts is exactly when you need the most help in moving food calories into the body’s system.

I’ll stop there since I am about to get lost on another tangent.

The workout last night was short and brutal, I managed to squeeze in Pure Cardio for the first time in a long time and remembered why I loved that workout so much. You know exactly how much time is left in the workout and can push yourself hard enough to be completely exhausted when you finish. Kudos to ShaunT, this was one of his best workouts.

R5D62 – Grass Fed Beef and Chest Day

Mark’s Daily Apple had a good article yesterday about the benefits and differences with grass fed beef. We all know, to some degree, that the massive feed lots don’t produce the healthiest meat and that grass fed is the way to go but what does it really mean? Some of the things we tell ourselves and each other are ingrained but can use some inspection, and MDA does a great job of that on the beef front. The whole article can be found here and the link to Mark’s blog is here. I like his site because he often takes time to answer questions that most of us find relevant and in a simple way. The guy could be taken to task about his past with the Beachbody supplements thing but then again, read his site for a while and you will quickly realize he knows his stuff! I also found a cool article on making sausages…

I also find it amusing that when I speak with people about not eating grains and tell them that their diet is the same diet they feed cattle to make them gain 800lbs in a few months the little light goes on over their heads. Doesn’t mean they will stop eating donuts, but at least it gives them food for thought.

Yesterday was chest day and I found myself thinking that my workouts are a bit one dimensional at the moment. I am really enjoying the KB challenge but it does leave a bit to be desired on the variety front especially if you don’t take the time to do something interesting during your variety days. Maybe it is because I was so excited about yesterday’s news regarding the Asylum or just that since I was sick I have been only doing the RKC and not adding extra work. Maybe I am getting excited at the prospect of spring and the fact that I am going to be able to work out outside and do my sprints around the 600m track that is my neighbourhood I am not sure. What I do know is that I need to get my creative side going again and maybe get back to picking the WOD as my variety day so I don’t lose my Crossfit touch. For my chest day it was pretty sad actually, I did a few chest presses with the KBs (45 and 70) plus some pullovers and then did 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 on the bench with 205lbs. It wasn’t a lot of work, but since I was coaching and was short on time, it worked out fine. I should have done dips and some tricep work too, I will have to address that at a later date.

Paleo, It’s Pretty Good. In Other News, Cats Go “Meow”.

Today FitDay decided to publish an article on the Paleo diet. Now I am a big FitDay fan and obviously enjoying the benefits of the Paleo diet so I found this particularly interesting. The article, however can be summed up as follows:

The Paleo Diet, it’s pretty good.

I was hoping for a little more, but they seemed to get the spirit of the thing correct while not pissing anybody off or risking having someone mail them an envelope of veal or even worse, a mean face carved into the side of a summer squash.

More into the spirit of sensational news stories about our health, the Brits are again leading the way by claiming that we can now get human milk from cows. Apparently they have been putting human DNA into cows (any volunteers for that job?!) and getting breast milk. I can only envision a herd of 3000lb breasts wandering around a field but that’s because I am really a 12 year old boy.

Next in my inbox was something I swear I have seen before, lots of pictures of what compromises a “fit” body. I am sure this came up some time ago, only because I remember the graphics involved. It did spawn an interesting conversation about what we as fairly sedentary office workers would consider to be “Fit”. We came up with the decision that it is how you are able to move your body around your space. Not how much over your bodyweight you can bench or shoulder press but rather how able you are to get around and do what you need or want to do. I am very happy that the notion of fitness seems to be graduating towards being “less vulnerable and more durable” as Tony likes to say out in the real world. I know there are people out there who want to hang on to the past glory of muscle heads and steroid freaks but as the population ages we are only going to see more of the movement towards less “dangerous” and more functional fitness.

As for personal news, this past weekend at one point I weighed in at 239lbs. I know I was very light, I hadn’t eaten and so it was not a clear reflection of where I am but HOLY CRAP! It was back in September of 1999 the last time I was in the 230’s without sickness being the cause.

It has been the kind of week that drains you of all your faculties, no emotional, physical or mental energy left. I still haven’t got rid of the 3lbs I gained last weekend during my “Hey I am under 240″ celebration. That buffet at Golden Griddle sure did a number on me. I was 241 this morning and am looking forward far too much to going to Marché tonight to expect to be any less tomorrow. I also am under the impression that the spate of weight loss was indeed a freaky cycle and that it has been exorcised by the mountainous breakfast of last weekend. Still, I can expect to at least remain where I am for a while, and then when the planets align again, down it will go. I just hope that I can keep my eye on the target of being 225 by New Year.

Needless to say, that 225 never transpired, but then again what did I expect not really knowing what my body was doing with the food I was giving it? Even I am not arrogant enough to proclaim that I will reach that milestone, since 225 would take me back to before my weight records began in earnest sometime around 1997. From what I can recall, I left University around the 195lb mark. I know the following year I ballooned as my life took awkward turns and twists leaving me in a place I would rather forget. I was up around 300 within a couple of years and even after I got that under control I still never made it back under 245. So we are in fairly uncharted territory, and yes, I am aware that I am painfully obsessed with my weight, not only that, I have discovered an alarming personality flaw… I can’t stand really fat people.

R5D52/3 – Heavy Day and Coffee… And Other Rambling Tangents…

Sunday I did heavy day, including more with the 70lb KB. I took Monday off since it was the Mock Meet for my gymnasts and I was short on time. This week I have to try to stick to the schedule, adding an extra day off is messing me up. I am a little torn however since I seem to be sore and tired alll the time at the moment and I am wondering if I have been slightly overtraining. It’s hard to say if I have or if I am being lazy, there seems to be a fine line there!

What about coffee? There is some chatter on the Paleo landscape about if caffeine is permitted or not. I don’t really care if it is or not, to be honest, I enjoy a cup of tea or coffee but I don’t have it after about 1 in the afternoon. The reason is not because of the caffeine, but rather the stress it creates in your body. It’s fine in the morning, although I don’t think I need it since I have sworn off caffeine for a year on 2 separate occasions, but towards the end of the day you are bound to interrupt your sleeping patterns and that is a cardinal sin. You see there are right and wrong ways to think about health and what is important. For example when I used to spend 2 hours in the gym in the morning and then scarf down 2 bagels with cream cheese and load up on pasta each day I would have prioritized the major factors like this:

Exercise
Diet
Rest Days
Sleep

Since then, I have come to realize that exercise is a small component of health and fitness and my outlook appears more like this:

Sleep
Stress
Diet
Exercise

So why stress? Well, studies show that our performance is directly related to stressors, both physical and mental. So the more stress you place on your systems, the less healthy you will be. The folks over at Catalyst Valley have created just the graph to illustrate the new world order:

So try and reduce your stress, and I know there are a thousand sites and methods but the ones I find are simple but effective go like this:

– De-stress in the car on the way home. Most people, myself included, hate to commute but my 30 minutes in the car have become a time to unwind, laugh at a podcast or two, sing along to some 80’s pop or simply plan my next workout. Whatever you choose, don’t let your drive home add to your stress, it is the perfect time to relax and decompress.

– Use one workout a week to do some relaxation, stretching or yoga. Don’t add it to your schedule, replace an existing workout with it. You would be amazed what a couple of weeks of quiet yoga will do for your workout ethic.

– Be early. Most people are rushing because they are disorganized. If you are early, you will always have a few minutes to yourself to relax before you start whatever you are doing. A few minutes or quiet reflection in a day while basking in your organizational nirvana is pretty amazing. Do you remember the last time you were early somewhere?

..and what about dairy? I have my own take, I am phasing it out just because I don’t seem to miss it, but as usual, Fitbomb has done a stellar job of working through the issue here.

And don’t think that these Paleo people are only south of the border, the Canadian Physicians are starting to notice that we are resembling Tim Horton’s Donuts not just eating them… Diseases of Affluence he calls it…

Refined Carbs. Why Bother?

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

  • When you eat carbs, your blood sugar goes up. Eat gobs of carb-rich foods (bread, sugar, pasta, rice, etc. — all of which are nutrient poor, relative to meat and veggies), and your blood sugar goes up a lot.
  • In response, your body secretes insulin, a storage hormone, which takes the blood sugar out of your bloodstream and stores it for future use (in the form of glycogen in your liver and muscles), and returning you blood sugar levels to normal.
  • But your glycogen stores fill up quickly. What happens if you keep eating carbs after your tank is full? Your body senses the dangerous excess blood sugar, and pumps out a ton of extra insulin to deal with it. Your glycogen stores are still maxed out, so the extra insulin converts the carb-orific energy into body fat.
  • But now, so much insulin’s kicking around your system that it ends up driving your blood sugar too low — to the point where you experience a “blood sugar crash” (you know, like in the afternoon, after you’ve downed a big turkey sandwich and a sugary coffee drink). Your blood sugar’s low, so your body craves…(drum roll, please)…MORE CARBS. And the cycle starts again.
  • Over time, these cycles of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia wreak havoc on your metabolism, and can escalate into full-blown insulin resistance — a precursor to a parade of health horribles like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc. (We’ve previously discussed this problem — and how it escalates into full-blown insulin resistance and metabolic derangement – here.)

 

After Workout Meal / If You NEED Carbs (2 birds, one stone)

One of the most common questions when talking nutrition and workouts is the post workout meal. One of the most common questions about the Paleo diet as it relates to athletes or recreational workout junkies is how does your body recover without carbs. Well, these questions can be answered simply with the  same answer. Put some starch in your body after you work out.

Simply put, some sweet potato, beets or parsnips, chestnuts or winter squash into your meal plan within an hour after working out to take advantage of the post workout uptake that your body craves. Be wary of fruit however, in general we are talking maybe 2 or 3 pieces a day but in particular after your workout your body will replenish your liver glycogen with fructose rather than your muscle glycogen.  Robb Wolff puts it into perspective like this:

PWO Meal

The idea of a PWO meal containing carbs (and protein) is to take advantage of a period of time in which the muscles are particularly insulin sensitive. We can fly nutrients into the muscle “under the radar” via a mechanism called “non insulin mediated glucose transport”. Amino acids are also taken in during this time and may play a synergistic role in both glycogen repletion but also decreasing inflammation that accompanies hard training. Said another way, you recover from exertion faster. So, what should ya eat? We actually want a starchy carb as our primary carb. Yams and sweet potatoes are great options as they are also highly nutritious. Fruit should be used sparingly in this meal if one is focused on optimized glycogen repletion as fructose refills liver glycogen first, and once liver glycogen is full we up-regulate the lipogenic activity of the liver and start down the road towards fat gain and insulin resistance.

I know James Fitzgerald (OPT) has used a mixture of mashed sweet potato and apple sauce for PWO meal…getting just a bit of hepatic (liver) glycogen repletion with the lions share going to the muscles. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top to enhance insulin sensitivity and you are set. Why do the mixture? Perhaps James will chime in on this but for me a simple answer would be palatability and taste. If you just received an ass-kicking, stuffing food down your pie-hole may not be that appealing. Something yummy could certainly make that easier.

Why not shakes? I’ve not found them to be superior to solid food, I have noticed they make people fat. A new paper just came out comparing milk & cereal (shitty food) to a PWO shake (also shitty food) and the milk+cereal beat the shake with regards to glycogen repletion. Go figure. I’d wager salmon and sweet potatoes would be even better…not likely to see that study!

The PWO window is most potent immediately after a WO and drops off to about 50% efficacy by 30 min, and pretty much back to baseline by an hour. If you train at night, just try to get that meal in immediately after training and keep an eye out for fat gain around the mid-section. If this happens, dial back your carbs.

 

Vancouver Sun Gets It Right (buried at the back in the Health Section)

The articles in theVancouver Sun this week about the problems with the way we eat sugar are giving me the warm and fuzzies.

“Canada’s Food Guide does not include sugar in any of the recognized food groups, although it does advise Canadians to limit sugar intake.

While the government sets an upper limit for the amount of salt and fat a person should consume each day, there are no such limits on added sugar, as distinct from naturally occurring sugars such as those in fruit.

Yet sugar has replaced fat as our society’s food pariah.

Implied in all the dietary hand-wringing is that sugar consumption is high and rising. The truth may surprise you.

Sugar consumption in Canada has been dropping since the 1960s, from about 33 kilos a year per person to about 24 kilos. But that toplevel data obscures two important trends.

First, we have changed the way we eat sugar. Nearly 90 per cent of the sugar we eat comes to us in packaged, processed foods rather than in home cooking, as was the norm 40 or 50 years ago, according to Sandra Marsden, president of the Canadian Sugar Institute and a registered dietitian. Sugar is the most common food additive, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Second, Statistics Canada’s sugar data does not includes high fructose corn syrup, which we consume in vast quantities in soft drinks.”

Sounds like they are really on to something here… Way to keep up, slowpoke. The problem I run into when talking to people is that they don’t realize that most things they eat are sweetened, and not only that, the things that are refined carbs may as well be sugar due to the way they are processed in the body. Add it all up and the average person is getting up to 50% or more of their calories from sugars or refined carbs and that spells one thing and one thing only: Obesity.

By the way, obscuring data like the falling sugar consumption referenced above is exactly how we got into this mess in the first place thanks to people like Ancel Keys and the China Study cronies.

 

Paleo – What Is My Reason?

What is my reason for eating Paleo? Well, in hindsight it has been the easiest way I have ever found to control my body weight and composition without really thinking about it. I also believe that for me, simpler is better, the less I have to think about something the better off I am and the better I will do. That is why I think of myself as an extremist in most things, I tend to go black or white since it is easier.

In September 2010 my parents came to visit from their home in Switzerland and during their stay we went to visit my Dad’s brother in Huntsville. The conversation, as it so often does, went to health and we had a long discussion, the three of us, about our family history and the heart problems that are apparently rife throughout our family tree. Not only that, the health problems that my Dad and Uncle have had are at least in part due to poor diet choices and being (even if not grossly) overweight. Since it was 3 months since the birth of my daughter I was at a very emotionally sensitive place and the conversation said something very simple to me: Lose weight and get healthy or die and leave your baby daughter without a father and your young wife without a husband.

So, since October 2010 I have been eating Paleo which for me means basically eating most things that don’t even have labels. Fresh meat, veg and fruit, some nuts and seeds and lots of water. It’s been pretty easy, I have lost around 40lbs (50lbs from my heaviest) and I have to say that it has absolutely changed my life. I know lots of people say that, from movies to seminars to sporting events but there have only been a few things in my lifetime that have affected me as much as this. For example, emigrating to Canada from England changed my life. Getting married to the girl of my dreams changed my life. Having a beautiful baby and becoming her father has changed my life and along with those momentous things, changing to Paleo has changed my life.

It’s not a joke. I have written about it a couple of times and still I can’t explain it completely. So I will keep this page and add to it while I can. It probably won’t turn out as good as my standard reference page from Fitbomb, but I can try… right?

So consider this a work in progress…

The Paleo Pitch– From Whole9

Bad Grains 1 – From Whole9

Bad Grains 2 – From Fitness Spotlight

Bad Grains 3 – From Mark’s Daily Apple

Sugar, and Fructose (Fruit Sugar) are to blame, so eat fruit, but sparingly.

What if I don’t enjoy eating meat? – From Whole9

In fact, the Whole9 MANIFESTO page is a great read for any Paleo related questions….

Refined carbs, the problem in a nutshell – From Details magazine via Fitbomb