image credit to http://www.leakygutcure.com/

In a follow-up to my “Got Leaky Gut?” article,  I found an interesting link posted on Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solutions blog this morning. Via video Robb and his wife Nikki are in Italy enjoying a gluten free pizza.  They’re surprised that they are able to encounter so many gluten free products in a “wheat dominated” culture.   Robb links an article found in Scientific American Magazine on the relationship between gut permeability (leaky gut) and autoimmune disease.  The article is based on the research of Alessio Fasano, an Italian researcher in the US who was one of the first to note the connection between gut permeability and the development of autoimmune disease.    The full article can be found here – it’s a must read!

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Laurie Ann, the Very Busy Woman!

If ya haven’t noticed – I can be a little long winded!  So in honor of my very dear friend Laurie Ann who has decided to “go paleo”,  I’m going to keep this short.  Laurie Ann is always very busy, likes to do things on her own (like me, she is a  “CrossFit Loner”), and usually tells me to “just tell her what to do”.   So without providing an overwhelming amount of information, I’m going to provide the following links and shopping guides to kick start her own private paleo adventure!

• “How to Go Paleo”

• “Quick Start Guide and Shopping List” provided by  Robb Wolf author of The Paleo Solution

• “Food Matrix” really cool pdf on how to “cook paleo” in your kitchen provided yet again by Robb Wolf

• Paleo Tools by Dr. Cordain author of the Paleo Diet

• Nikki Young has the very BEST Paleo Cookbooks out there!  Here is a link to her Paleo Shopping Guide

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image credit to www.womentowomen from www.balancedbites.com

“I’m not giving up bread!”

This is often the first response you’ll hear when explaining that grains are not eaten when following The Paleo Diet.  For a few seconds I’m usually speechless – my mind awhirl with so many reasons one should avoid grains altogether.  For one – eating more than a couple of tablespoons of bread, including whole wheat bread, will not only cause your blood glucose levels to spike but it will also keep your blood glucose levels elevated for an extended period of time .  It’s a vicious chain of events – high blood sugar levels stimulate your pancreas to produce more insulin.  Constant high blood glucose and insulin levels (also known as hyperinsulinemia) can be detrimental to your health.  Hyperinsulinemia leads to a plethora of problems: inflammation, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes Type II, Syndrome X or Metabolic Syndrome, weight gain, infertility, cancer, etc.  Google the term ‘Hyperinsulinemia’ along with any one of these health issues and you’ll be surprised by what you’ll learn!  To be fit, healthy and happy for the long haul, you’ll need to consistently maintain normal blood glucose levels.  That’s one good reason to avoid bread altogether, whether white or whole wheat.

Yet when it comes to eating bread, or grains in general, there’s a little more to the story.     How would you feel knowing that grains can not only lead to hyperinsulinism, but they can also make your gut leak.  Yep, you too may have already acquired “Leaky Gut Syndrome”.  Leaky gut comes in varying degrees from tolerant, to gluten sensitive, to full blown Celiac disease.

Not going to give an anatomy lesson here, but think about your mouth, stomach, intestines, etc.  from beginning to end.  It’s one very long tube. When your intestinal barrier is working correctly, it breaks down nutrients your body needs while keeping out harmful substances.  But what happens if this barrier begins to breaks down?  You’ll leak – basically leaking the contents of your intestines into your bloodstream. When the microvilli lining of the intestinal wall is destroyed, gate “tight-junctions” loosen and it becomes “open sesame” to bacteria, yeast, viruses and larger food molecules that don’t belong inside your body. Continue reading

The long awaited, much anticipated, highly coveted book promised by (or coerced out of) Robb Wolf is finally available!  Robb Wolf’s new book  The Paleo Solution “...unearths the story of the original human diet by uniting the anthropological knowledge of our hunter-gatherer past with the latest, cutting edge discoveries from genetics, biochemistry, immunology, and life extension research.”

Not only does he have a new book, but he has also recently updated his website with easy to find links to his blog (very informative), podcast (I’m behind again), live events (hope I get to go again soon), tools (paleo man can never can have too many), etc.  Everything is there to help you better understand and implement The Paleo Solution.

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Just when I think I’m up to date,  Robb Wolf and Andy Deas post yet another episode of the The Paleolithic Solution.     I’m currently listening to Episode 38, but already behind as they have recorded and posted Episode 39.  For me, the “last podcast” is ever elusive, but in all honesty that’s actually a good thing.  Besides presenting an incredible amount of applicable paleo “pseudo science” each week, these two guys are also very funny.   I look forward to walking my dogs and laughing out loud in the middle of the street.  Although the bio-chemistry of nutrition and fitness can be tedious and boring, Robb and Andy actually make the learning process fun. To quote one of their classic podcast comments -  “It should be more like a birthday party than physics class” .

In Episode 26 of The Paleolithic Solution Robb and Andy were joined by Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig of the Whole9.    Melissa and Dallas are on top of their game when it comes to nutrition, health and fitness (check out their Whole9 blog).  During this interview Melissa shared her “fresh, natural foods your great grandmother would recognize” elevator “Paleo Pitch”.  She responds with this “Paleo Pitch” when asked “what do you eat”?  Robb comments that Melissa’s  elevator pitch would need to be  in a very tall building, like a [skyscraper] in Dubai.  It may be a little long because she does do a very good job of explaining what one would eat when following The Paleo Diet.

The Whole9 Nutrition Paleo Pitch

Melissa and Dallas also have also developed the “Whole30″ and “Whole30 Version 2.0″, a program that will “change your life in 30 days” (links provided below).    Melissa and Dallas give you all of the information and tools you’ll need to get started eating “paleo”.    The testimonials have been incredible with many Continue reading

I awoke this morning surprised to find an article on The Paleo Diet in my small hometown Sunday newspaper.  It would be nice to see The Paleo diet go a little more mainstream. Imagine the number of folks that stand to benefit significant improvements in overall health from following a diet of grass-fed meat, veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starches, no grains, and no sugar.  Improvements in over all bio-markers of health that I know occur from my own personal experiences (see my blog post “Robb Wolf:  Paleo Nutrition Guru” and “Large, Fluffy and Buoyant Can Be A Good Thing!” )!

More “Paleo Diet” articles showing up in common places:

• Article From the Sacramento Bee featured in today’s Ocala Health and Fitness Section:  “With the Paleo Diet, prehistoric food no longer thing of the past“

• 2010 May/June issue of Psychology Today feature story on The Paleo Diet:  “The Way We Were - Our bodies are best adapted to what our Paleolithic ancestors ate and that’s food for our brains as well.”

• From the Washington Post in January 2010:  “Paleolithic diet is so easy, cavemen actually did it”

• The New York Times January 2010 article:  The New Age Cavemen and the City

• The Huffington Post February 2010 article: Is It Healthier To Eat Like A Caveman?

• 2010 April issue of Woman’s World Magazine features The Paleo Diet success story of Eva La Rue from CSI Miami

FIGURE 1 (chart from Eatwild.org)

The Paleo Diet recommends that all protein sources should come from “grass-fed” animals.   “Grass-Fed” vs. “Grain-Fed”,  what’s the big deal?  You may be surprised to learn that grain-fed beef can be detrimental to your health.

I recently read an article in James Fitzgerald’s OPT on-line newsletter by Jeremy Gordon of CrossFit Hampton Roads.  Jeremy does an excellent job of not only sharing the ill-effect grain has on protein quality, but also on his own personal, self-enlightening journey into health and wellness.  Jeremy has kindly given fitfemaleforty permission to re-post his article below. written by

Grown-Up Thinking

Jeremy Gordon

One year ago, after viewing the movie, “Food, Inc.,” my family started a journey. This is a journey towards independence from an industrial food system. It is a journey vectored by critical thinking, fueled by a passion for wellness (self and earth) and the road is paved with “grown-up thinking.” (i) While we are still taking our first steps in this journey, the end-state (in my mind) is clear: we consume foods grown using sustainable, humane, local, organic methods; preferably raised by my family on our own property. Continue reading

Government Food Pyramid making us sicker?  Today’s modern diet is mostly made up of processed foods – whole wheat bread, brown rice, cereals, granola bars,  etc.   Little do folks realize that these type of foods, especially the ones listed as “low fat” can increase your risk of heart disease (see recent blog post titled “Processed Carbs – Not Dietary Fat – Increase Your Risk of Type II Diabetes, Heart Disease and Obesity”).

Do your research -  fat is not the problem!  Refined carbs, not dietary fat contribute to overall greater metabolic damage (elevated blood pressure, Obesity, Type II Diabetes, blood fat disorders, etc).  An Editorial published in the April issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition titled “Are Refined Carbohydrates Worse Than Saturated Fat?“discusses the importance of reducing refined carbs in your diet instead of fat.

50 grams of fructose may be too  much.

That’s what researchers from the University of Florida recommend in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article “How safe is fructose for persons with or without diabetes?”  After analyzing the results of several studies involving the consumption of fructose and its metabolic effects, these researchers concluded “…obesity and diabetes rates were low when total fructose intake was in the range of 25–40 g/d.”

Fruit juice is even more efficient at making us fat as reported recently  in the Science Daily in Fructose-Sweetened Drinks Increase Nonfasting Triglycerides In Obese Adults.  Similar findings were also reported in  The Journal of Clinical Investigation in “Consuming Fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans”.

All of these studies confirm what we’ve already known instinctively – don’t “over-do”  fruit.   Bottom line (no pun-intended): if you’re trying to lose weight or stubborn fat around your middle, it’s a good idea to keep your fructose consumption low.   There are some who would even recommend your total fructose intake be as low as 25 to 15 grams a day! Continue reading

Lately, I’m amazed at the number of questions I’ve been getting in regards to “CrossFit”.  Two years ago, I knew very few people who understood “constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity”.  In fact, I spent most of my time defending my unorthodox workouts to baffled onlookers in my local globo-gym.  But these days, it’s quite different.  CrossFit (CF) is everywhere and growing:  two local affiliates, numerous new CF certified trainers in town, weekly stories shared at local events of individuals doing these “crazy workouts” and getting great results.  I guess it’s for these reasons I’m now frequently asked “How do I get started?”

Guess you could say there are 3 typical ways one becomes a “CrossFitter”; the individual who prefers to workout one-on-one with a certified CF trainer: the individual who would rather exercise with others, meeting at a local CF affiliate to do the WOD (workout-of-the-day) together as a class; and last, there are folks much like me, who really want to do CF on their own in a local or home gym.  As George Thorogood says “I prefer to be by myself”.   This blog post is mainly for the CF “loners” who want to get started in CF but have no idea where to begin.

My first disclaimer before this conversation goes any further involves the responsibility inherent in choosing to “do CrossFit on your own”.  You are responsible for studying copious amounts of information in order to clearly understand the CF philosophy, concepts, and exercises.  You are equally responsible for actively searching for guidance and hands-on instruction by either training with a certified CF trainer or by participating in CF certificate courses and/or speciality seminars. You must have a clear understanding of how to execute the CF method and exercises correctly.  Why?  Because you can get hurt.  Dr. Ray of CrossFit Flagstaff, spoke at the CF Science of Exercise Certification in Texas and described the similarities between CF and prescription drugs.  You need to know what you’re ‘prescribing’: the right dose can be very beneficial; the incorrect dose can be dangerous, if not deadly (see The Truth about Rabdo).   That said…

CrossFit in 5 Easy Steps

Step One

The Crossfit Journal publishes articles and videos daily on all matters pertaining to CrossFit.  Of the thousands of articles included in this journal, I usually recommend the following two articles to newcomers interested in CF:

• The CrossFit Startup Guide:  Part 1
• The CrossFit Startup Guide:  Part 2 Continue reading