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

Ancel Keys- where it all began and where it all went wrong!

Found a follow-up article to my previous post on Total Cholesterol not being a good indicator of Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD).

For years, we have been led to believe that dietary fat is evil.  Walk down any grocery store aisle and observe shelves stocked with low-fat products or count the numerous health related books that recommend a low-fat diet.  You’ll even witness physicians, nutritionists and even personal trainers advising their clients to reduce dietary fat to improve over-all health.  Little did we know that these low-fat recommendations were actually making us sick!

Slowly, but surely, mainstream America is beginning to recognizing the role refined carbs, not dietary fat, plays in increasing your risk of many diseases – Type II Diabetes, CVD and obesity.

Follow the link below to read the Scientific American recent report on:

Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart

“…Now a spate of new research, including a meta-analysis of nearly two dozen studies, suggests a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culprit. Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more than fat does—a finding that has serious implications for new dietary guidelines expected this year…”

I guess it’s the word “diet” in the “Paleo Diet” that concerns most parents.  Diets are often associated with deprivation and unhealthy eating habits.  But this is NOT the case when eating “paleo”.  It’s a diet that’s been around for years – millions of years to be more exact.  It’s a diet that mimics the way our ancestors evolved to eat over time.   It wasn’t until the onset of the agricultural revolution and the introduction of grains some 15 – 20,000 years ago that we began to see evidence of the new “diseases of civilization“.

So, what about your kids on the Paleo Diet? Robb Wolf takes a look at the nutritional breakdown of the Paleo Diet in a recent blog post.  If you don’t have time to read it,  I can sum up it up with a quick quote :

“Kreiki! Look at that. If you consume a Paleo Diet it LOOKS like you are taking a nutritional supplement.”

Kids, Paleo and Nutrient Density

Especially of late I’ve been getting a lot of questions on “how to go paleo”.  I will often respond with the standard CrossFit nutrition statement :  eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starches and no sugar. This statement is usually followed by a lengthy, possibly overwhelming, detailed-oriented conversation on paleo nutrition specifics:

• no grains
• no breads (whole grain products, pastries, tortillas, English muffins, etc.)
• no pasta
• no rice
• no corn products
• no dairy (butter, yogurt, cheese, etc)
• no legumes (beans, including soy beans)
• no peanuts (legume)
• no white potatoes
• no sugar (table sugar, fruit drinks, sports drinks, syrup, agave, etc)
• no high-fructose corn syrup
• no artificial sweeteners, etc.
• no refined vegetable oils
• no grain-fed animal products (beef, fish, etc)
• no preservatives
• no processed foods

There is a moment of silence as they realize I’ve just described what most folks eat on a regular basis.  Slowly a look of shock and disbelief spreads across their faces as they realize they should not be eating whole wheat toast at breakfast, chicken pasta with veggies for lunch, and even the sacred brown rice for dinner.   Before they can justify their dietary habits with the usual response of  “everything in moderation”, I begin to explain the science behind foods not permitted on The Paleo Diet:  hyperinsulinism, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, skewed omega 3 to omega 6 ratios, lipid profiles, ph acid – base balance, phytates, lectins, gluten, leaky gut, metabolic syndrome, silent inflammation, CVD, auto-immune issues, diseases of modern civilization, etc.

I summarize by explaining that  The Paleo diet is the oldest diet around.  For millions of years we were hunter- gatherers eating what nature provided.  Our bodies evolved to process these natural foods, unlike the foods that were first introduced 15,000 to 20,000 years ago during the agricultural revolution.  So, how do you go paleo?  What can you eat?  Paleo friendly foods include:

• grass-fed meats
• wild caught fish and seafood
• organic fowl
• eggs high in omega 3’s
• a variety of veggies
• a variety of  fruits
• a variety of nuts and seeds
• a variety of good fats (olive, coconut, almond, walnut, etc)
• avocados
• coconut milk
• and coffee is allowed (yep, I drink mine black)

At each meal (and snack) I’m combining a protein, some veggies (sometimes a little fruit) and a healthy fat.  It’s that easy.  Yet, it’s important to understand that there is a “method to the madness” – there is science and research (and my own personal experiences) that  link this diet to a healthier body.   To help you jump start your journey into paleo nutrition, I’ve added a new “Paleo Tools” resource tab.   Click on the ‘Paleo Tools” tab at the top of this page to find:

Videos on Paleo Nutrition

Paleo Shopping List and Guides

The BEST Paleo Cookbook

Leading  Paleo Nutrition Experts

Paleo Reading Recommendations

Free Paleo Recipes

Additional Paleo Resources and Blogs I Follow

One last thing. Don’t believe everything I write or say.   I’m not a dietitian providing nutrition counseling or nutrition management programs.   Doubt me.  I’m a skeptic by heart myself.  I never accept what others say, especially those practicing and preaching conventional wisdom with little results.   I’m interested in not only how fit you appear to be on the outside, but also how fit you are on the inside with excellent bio-markers of health.  I search for the latest, cutting-edge information and research.   I spend a great deal of time reading and reviewing abstracts, books, and other websites.  I suggest you begin this journey by doing the same.     Do your own research, find your own answers, become your own expert.  In addition to the resources listed in the “Paleo Tools” tab, I also use the following unbiased internet resources on a daily basis:

• PubMed is a free database accessing online medical literature (citations, abstracts and some full text articles)

• Google scholar allows you to search scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles

• Google Books is a collection of digitized books which allows you to view limited previews portions of most books as well as do “text searches” within the book to locate specific information.

Consult with a physician before beginning in new exercise or fitness program