Gluten Sucks

I was sent this article by our athlete Sara O. (who also happens to be a biologist) which is a pretty good introductory article on why gluten should be avoided.

Dr. Ansel started to lose me around page 2, and really at the beginning of page 3, with the the successive claims that cutting gluten from your diet wouldn't necessarily lead to weight loss, and then citing a cautionary example of a replacement food which had more calories and more fat.

You can immediately see my issues... firstly, consuming fat is not bad, providing you're getting the right kinds. Secondly, the food cited (gluten free pretzels) is problematic because it's not a food I'd recommend anyone eating on the basis that it's going to be all carbohydrate. This, really, is why gluten-free eating will probably lead to weight loss (presuming you're overweight to begin with)... avoiding gluten (and eating whole foods) leads one away from grains and grain products, and processed foods. Even if you're not making any specific effort to do so, you will very likely reduce your carbohydrate intake just by trying to cut gluten.

Then, she makes the important point that the key to this, and this is really the point of everything I'll ever tell you about nutrition, is that you have to eat real food. 

Yes, if you just go and grab packaged and processed crap off the shelves at the market which bears the label "gluten-free" it is as much of a dietary Lotto play as grabbing the crap without that label in terms of your overall health (and has about the same odds as winning the lottery of bringing you to your best ever health, probably).

But, if in the process of cutting gluten out of your diet, you plan your meals and eat lean meats, a variety of veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds... well, then you're well on your way to health and wellness.

OK, so after my $0.02 worth, here's the article (originally published in Woman's Day magazine):
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/is-gluten-bad-for-you.html

This Week in Eating Paleo (1/20/11)

The meat cake Loretta made for our wedding... Paleo goodness!

So, this past weekend was a weekend of dietary cheats, as Darren and I got married on Sunday. Hooray for us! :) It did mean lots of desserts, though... cookies, muffins, and cakes (Loretta made the most amazing wedding cake... seriously, sinfully delicious).

She also made the meat "cake" pictured above... a tasty meatloaf, iced with roasted garlic and covered in bacon sprinkles. Also delicious, and not at all sinful. Definitely going to be making this again (if Loretta doesn't make it first!).

Here's a video which explains how to roast garlic... the process is pretty straightforward. Of course, I couldn't find a video or set of instructions which didn't suggest spreading it on bread or mixing it into mashed potatoes, both Paleo no-nos. However, you could easily mix it into masked cauliflower, use it with the jicama hash browns, ice a meat cake with it, or just eat it straight out of the oven with a spoon, because it's that tasty!

Otherwise, our week has been pretty standard; eggs, beef, veggies, nuts, seeds, a few clementines and apples here and there. Our food co-op has been out of beef for a bit, so we got some ground turkey instead, and that's been pretty tasty.

Also, we're investing in a deep freeze and going in with some other folks on 1/2 of a cow from Mundt Farms, a local grass-fed and finished farm run by some good friends of ours. This will bring the cost of the beef down to around $4lbs, which is about the average cost per pound of the crap beef you buy retail at mainstream grocers... the grain-fed stuff raised by industrial farming methods. And, again... that brings it to match the average price. But, all our beef will work out to that cost per pound, but a lot of what we'll have are steaks and roasts.  The retail prices for those cuts are a lot higher. I plan on doing the math once we get everything to see if investing in a cow actually makes buying properly raised beef cheaper than buying all the same lower-quality cuts at the store. I'm confident the answer is "yes," but look forward to that report.

This Week in Eating Paleo

So, I'm going to be doing these little updates on a weekly basis... I don't think anyone's really interested in the minute details (if you are, let me know and I'll send you copies of my diet log), but I'll keep posting any brilliant recipes we come up with here.

Speaking of... grated jicama, fried in some olive oil with onions and a little bell pepper. Doesn't quite taste like hash browns, but it totally satisfied my desire for them, and I'm a lad of Irish descent for whom the fried potato was a breakfast (and lunch, and dinner) staple for... well, ever.  Yes, jicama is a tuberous root... however, it's largely water, and what carbs are there are about 50% fiber (as opposed to a potato, which is mostly readily accessible starch).  If you like hash browns, give this a try. Again, it's not quite the same... but it's darn tasty.

Otherwise, pretty standard week: we roasted two chickens and munched on those for protein throughout the week, also had plenty of eggs. Veggies were mostly green... collard greens and broccoli, also some carrots and cabbage. Fats were plenty of nuts and nut butter, and coconut and olive oils.

Speaking of oils...  I've told my clients, get at least 3g of a combined total of the important omega-3s (EPA and DHA) per day. Depending on which fish oil you buy, this can mean taking 12-16 capsules a day (sometimes more). But, there's hope! We found this brand at Costco, and it's also available on Amazon for $22.99 a bottle.

Notice, you'd only have to take 4 capsules a day to get your 3 grams in (plus a little extra).

So, no excuses... make sure you're getting your fish oil in!

Eating Paleo for 1/5 and 1/6/11

Sorry, got behind on my blogging!

The past two days have been pretty simple; snacking on the eggs we boiled Sunday, almonds, walnuts, and cashews, and some clementines.

Meals have been mainly those chickens we cooked on Sunday for protein, and various greens (mostly kale). The last of our pre-cooked parsnips, onions, and spaghetti squash went into a big, tasty fry-up which we had for dinner yesterday and finished off for lunch today.  That meatzza was seriously tasty!

Total calories: 2,301 for the 5th, 1,936 for the 6th.

Eating Paleo and Post-Workout Nutrition

Conventional training wisdom can make eating Paleo and having effective post-workout (PWO) nutrition seem incompatible. Everyone knows that you need a big carb load along with your protein; the insulin spike will take advantage of the optimum protein synthesis window and simultaneously replenish glycogen stores.  The fastest and easiest way to do this is with protein powders, or dairy (which are Paleo no-nos). What is an athlete to do?

This is the approach that I've taken until very recently myself; it definitely works, there's no arguing that. My solution was to eat pretty much Paleo but keep dairy in and drink milk PWO. However, I've now gotten most of the QuantumFit athletes involved in a big contest with a Paleo component, and I need to provide them with alternatives... so, is there a better way to tackle PWO nutrition?

Well, to start with... what approach you should take to your PWO nutrition depends upon your goals. This is an excellent post by Robb Wolf on the subject. He is way more educated than I am on the subject, so be sure to give that a read! However, to boil it down; for the primary goals of health and longevity, and if your short term goal is leanness, PWO carbs are NOT the way to go. In fact, only in the really big metcons (or if you're competing in a multiple-workout-per-day event) would you need to take in the carbs and replenish your glycogen stores.

Mark Sission (who is also more versed and experienced than I am in these matters) also has some excellent posts on the subject here and here. You'll notice the link in that first post to the results of a study which indicates that a big carb intake PWO does not, in fact, impact protein synthesis at all... the window of optimum synthesis is there, but it will be just as effective to take that protein in along with some fats (to aid in recovery; omega-3s are good here!) and keep your body in ketosis.

So, there can be a no-carb approach to PWO nutrition, and more than that... if you're really trying to lean out and your overall nutrition is on target, fasting for a couple of hours PWO can be very effective, too! This is the approach I'd recommend to just about everyone in our contest; remember, there's that body composition component!

But, if you're going to eat Paleo PWO, what should you actually eat? I'm going to simplify a little here; as Robb points out, there's a spectrum here, and exactly what you do (and how precise you want to be about it) will take you closer to truly optimum performance. For most folks in most cases, these guidelines will be effective...

Low/No-Carb PWO Nutrition


This is the approach to take for any instance where you haven't done a big burner of a metcon... if your body hasn't been working at high intensity for more than 40 minutes or so, you don't really need to worry about rapidly replenishing depleted glycogen (unless, as mentioned in the posts linked above, you're going to go do ANOTHER workout in a couple of hours).

This one is easy to do Paleo-style. Any protein source you find tasty and easy to pack/prepare/consume can go in here; eggs, fish, beef, doesn't matter. Make sure you're getting a decent amount, at least as much as you'd eat with a typical meal.

Along with this, take in some fats; again, whatever you find tasty and easy to pack/prepare/consume. This is a great time to take your daily fish oil!

I've been eating a few eggs along with a couple handfuls of nuts for my PWO nutrition the last few days, and that's been a success so far. Many people also use coconut milk here (which is something I'll be trying soon... love coconut milk!).

High-Carb PWO Nutrition


This is harder to do Paleo style, simply because Paleo inherently eliminates most starchy foods. One compromise many athletes make are using sweet potatoes or yams; these aren't considered truly Paleo by most as they're a starchy tuber, but they're well above white potatoes nutritionally yet still pack a little carby punch.

You could also use fruits such as bananas, stone fruits (peaches, etc.), berries, or cooked carrots.

Eating Paleo for 1/4/11

Breakfast was a tasty stir-fry of 5 oz. of chicken, a cup of broccoli,  a cup of bok choy, and about 1/2 cup of onions. Again, I used the stems from the bok choy as nut butter delivery system.

Lunch was more of a quick snack; 3 eggs (we had a busy day).

Dinner was this tasty meat "pizza" from what is fast becoming one of our favorite blogs for Paleo recipes. For dessert, about 4 oz. of raw cashews and a clementine.

Total calories: 2,111

Eating Paleo for 1/3/11

Breakfast was 4 of the eggs we boiled yesterday.

For lunch, 6 oz. of that chicken we pre-cooked, along with a cup of the spaghetti squash sautéed with some bok choy and 3 tablespoons of coconut oil. I spread about 5 tablespoons of cashew butter on the bok choy stalks.

Dinner was another 6 oz. of chicken, with 1/2 cup of broccoli, some of those parsnips and onions, more spaghetti squash, some olive oil, and hemp seeds. Oh, and a spoonful of nut butter and a tangerine for dessert.

Total calories for the day: 2146.