Going Paleo: Paleo Nutrition by CrossFit Bristol

Evoloution of Obesity

So, you want to try the Paleo diet…

Why? To lose weight maybe, feel fitter, healthier, improve physical performance. Maybe you want to try and avoid the majority of health problems caused by a typical western diet. It’s not important which, what is important to know is that is the first step to a fitter, leaner healthier you… Paleo works!

There is no background science here. No lengthy explanations. Just quick and easy pointers to start you off.  You decide to what extent you want to follow those pointers, but if you follow them 100% you will see dramatic changes to your health and lean body mass over the next few months.

If you are a crossfitter or sportsman or woman, diet is the single biggest factor effecting your performance. It has been argued, (not unreasonably)  that the single biggest thing you can do to change your health and fitness, is not exercise but simply to change to a healthy or Paleo type diet. This concept is unpopular with the fitness industry and who have a vested interest in encouraging you to view exercise, gym membership or equipment as vital to healthy living. This is not justified or accurate from a research based perspective.

Paleo: It worked for our ancestors

• Your Paleo diet should be high in fat, moderate in animal protein and low to moderate in carbohydrates.

• Eat lots of saturated fats like coconut oil and butter or clarified butter. Beef tallow, lard and duck fat are also good, but only if they come from healthy and well-treated animals. Beef or lamb tallow is a better choice than lamb or duck fat. Olive, avocado and macadamia oil are also good fats to use in salads and to drizzle over food, but not for cooking. And yes – these take a little more effort to get hold of than the more typical fats and oils in your local supermarket.

• Eat lots of animal protein. Yep – meat and lots of it. This includes red meat, poultry, pork, eggs, organs (liver, kidney, heart…), wild caught fish and shellfish. Don’t be scared to eat the fatty cuts and all meals with proteins should contain fat as well.

• Eat good amounts of fresh or frozen  vegetables either cooked or raw and served with fat. Starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and yams are also great as a source of non-toxic carbohydrates. But avoid the normal potatoes.

• Eat low to moderate amounts of fruits and nuts. Eat mostly fruits low in sugar and high in antioxidants like berries as well as nuts high in omega-3, low in omega-6 and low in total polyunsaturated fat like macadamia nuts. Consider cutting off fruits and nuts altogether if you have an autoimmune disease, digestive problem or are trying to lose weight faster.

• Look for organic and grass-fed meat coming from a local, environmentally conscious farms. This rules out the cheap meats from the supermarket often but Organic meat is usually stocked. If you cant find organic meats, choose lean cuts of meat and supplement your fat with coconut oil, or butter..Look for organic, local and/or seasonal fruits and vegetables to go with your lovely fresh meat.

• Cut out all cereal grains and legumesfrom your diet. This includes, but is not limited to, wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, brown rice, soy, peanuts, kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans and black eyed peas. This means NO breakfast cereals etc. Cereals have been closely linked to cancers and inflammatory degenerative diseases for years now.
  

  Paleo nutrition: Simple healthy and delicious

• Cut out all vegetable, hydrogenated and partly-hydrogenated oils including, but not limited to, margarines, soybean oil, corn oil, crisco, peanut oil, canola oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil.  Olive oil and avocado oil are fine, but don’t cook with them, use them in salad dressings and to drizzle over prepared food.

• Eliminate sugar, soft drinks, all packaged products and juices (yes that includes fruit juices).  As a rule of thumb, if it’s in a box, pre packaged or a microwave meal don’t eat it. When you visit the supermarket buy from the meat and grocery isles avoid the pre packaged goods, they contain chemicals, additives and have been shown to be less satisfying for the same amount of calories as real food. visit only the meat, fish and produce sections.

• Eliminate dairy products other than butter and maybe heavy cream. You don’t need milk, but if you can’t live without it consider raw, full-fat and/or fermented dairy. The main issue with milk are its effects on insulin production (which we wont go into here) needless to say insulin control is a significant part of the paleo approach.

• Dont starve… Graze. Eat small amounts frequently. We were not designed to eat 3 large meals a day, this is a fairly recent social phenomena (last 300 years or so). Our bodies are simply not designed to do this.

I can’t help but wonder if there is a health consequence to this method of consumption. Our digestive tract is designed to deal with frequent intake of small volumes of food. Not constantly having large amounts of undigested food stored. Could this be a variable in the increasing frequency of digestive tract and bowel disorders and cancers ? If you are not hungry – don’t eat – if you are hungry – remember small and often.

• Consider supplementing with vitamin D or mult vitamin. Dont buy expensive supplements, most western Europeans over consume and don’t have any need of supplements – but multi vits are fairly inexpensive and the added assurance of a multi vit can be worth such a small outlay.

I hope this gives you a simple starting point for a paleo approach to nutrition, more articles to follow so please book mark us and come back soon.

Filed under: CrossFit Articles | Tagged: crossfit nutrition, crossfit training in bristol, introducing the paleo diet, paleo diet | 2 Comments »