I've been promising this post for a while, and I've been deliberately procrastinating. Some of that has to do with the fact that my level of agreement (or disagreement) with the various principles is constantly changing. But it's more that I have a huge gob of notes scribbled in Evernote and I was not looking forward to making it cohesive...and I was frankly dreading having to cite all my references. But then I realized this isn't a research paper and I'm not in college anymore.
So, just know that in addition to all the time I've spent looking at blogs and internet info, I've read two books on the subject. Three if you count The Four Hour Body, which is an interesting and educational tome of info by Tim Ferriss. This makes me more of an expert than a lot of bloggers in cyberspace and the bro-science virtuosos at your gym. You're in good hands. Most of the information I discuss below comes from either The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf or The Paleo Answer by Loren Cordain, both of which I strongly recommend.
FYI #1. This is a long one. A manifesto, if you will. You may need to read it in two sittings.
If you're a regular reader, you know by now that my posts aren't geared
to the twitter tweeter.
FYI #2. I talk about some unpalatable gastrointestinal stuff in this one. I preface these sections with a TMI ALERT (too much information).
Let's get going.
1. Cut out all sugary, processed and refined foods.
The Claims: This isn't a particularly paleo point; the research is well-established that these junk foods are making us fat, sick and ugly.
How much I agree: Completely. Feel free to cheat once in a
while, but removing these foods is the surest step you can take towards
better health and well-being.
2. Avoid dairy.
The Claims: Dairy is meant for baby cows. It contains lots of enzymes and hormones, including the Bovine Growth Hormone, that are not meant to be digested by humans. Although dairy products have decent glycemic indices on the surface, milk actually wreaks havoc on your insulin levels. Dairy can cause acne, cateracts, Parkinson's Disease, heart disease, ulcers, and cancer. It messes with your mucus levels, and hurts mineral and nutrient absorption. Compared to lean meat and veggies, milk actually has very low nutritional value per calorie. Many people have dairy allergies (lactose intolerance).
What about the calcium? Well, there's lots of evidence that I don't really understand, which shows that overall calcium intake is not as important as the amount of calcium that actually gets into your bones. (I know this explanation sucks, I'm sorry). Also, bone health is actually not about calcium, but calcium-to-magnesium ratio. If anything, we need more magnesium.
How much I agree: I have completely cut out dairy, to great effect. I used to have to take Mucinex often to deal with the large amount of mucus in my throat, and that problem has disappeared. TMI ALERT: My bowel movements are much more regular and I have fewer instances of diarrhea. While this might be attributed to the increase in fiber from vegetables, I definitely experience stomach pains and / or diarrhea when I consume dairy.
That said, some people have adapted to digest dairy. This is especially true for people of white, Northern European descent. If you can handle dairy, and especially if you're looking to increase your strength and size, milk provides an inexpensive source of carbs, fat and protein in a favorable ratio. Fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir have also been shown to be beneficial and easier on one's stomach than milk.
3. Avoid grains.
The Claims: Grains, like dairy, contain a lot of anti-nutrients that actually bind to vitamins and minerals, preventing uptake by your body. Ironically, whole grains are worse for you than refined grains in this regard because they contain more phytate or phytic acid, which prevents calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc absorption. Grains also counteract calcium and vitamin D metabolism. Calorie for calorie, grains are nutritional lightweights, comparing poorly to vegetables, fruits, and lean meats. Then, there is the whole gluten thing. While the gluten in wheat, rye and barley is the worst, all grains have similar dietary lectins that can lead to leaky gut syndrome and a host of diseases including autoimmune disorders. Lastly, grains are a very dense source of carbohydrates, which in large amounts can make us fat and screw up our metabolisms. "Pseudo-grains" like quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat have similar characteristics to grains, so they're only advised in small amounts.
How much I agree: I'm very mixed on this. On one hand, I don't want to screw up my gut and get all sorts of diseases when I'm older. On the other hand, grains support my athletic performance in the here and now. In other words, my fitness is potentially coming into conflict with my health and longevity.
I respond differently to different grains. For me, rice actually seems to cause the most bloating. Corn seems to be ok. Oats are also tolerable in moderate servings. I used to think a protruding belly was just the genetic hand I
was dealt -- it stuck out no matter how defined my abs were. That's not
the case at all. My bloating disappears with an elimination of some
grains and a reduction in others.
I'm fortunate that I can tolerate gluten, and I think the gluten-free frenzy is yet another marketing moneymaker for the specialty food and nutrition industry. I believe it's an allergy, no different than other allergies, and I think it's currently being over-diagnosed and blown of proportion.
At the same time, what I'm realizing in my intermittent fasting, post-workout carbo-loading experimentation, is that I feel crappy when I eat more than a small amount of any grain. So, if you need some starchy carbs in order to have enough gas in the tank, and you don't want to eat sweet potatoes every day for the rest of your life, you should mess around with different types and amounts of grains. I think there's a Goldilocks zone -- a "just right" amount of grains that allows me to go hard in the gym and on the bike, all while minimizing the belly bloat and feeling good.
4. Avoid Legumes.
The Claims: Just like the above, legumes have a ton of antinutrients. Although beans' dietary lectins (which are poisonous toxins) and protease inhibitors (which hurt our ability to break down amino acids) can be reduced with proper soaking and cooking, phytates in legumes still bind to nutrients and prevent absorption no matter what. Legumes also have other scary-sounding anti-nutrients, like saponins, tannins and isoflavones. Saponins are soap-like molecules that "punch holes in the membranes lining the exterior of every cell." (I'm not making this up. This is coming directly from Cordain.) All this is why vegans, whose diets are heavy in grains and legumes, are often deficient in vital nutrients -- even with supplements.
How much I agree: Not much. There is plenty of dispute in the field of nutrition on legumes. Tim Ferriss, for instance, makes beans an integral part of his slow-carb diet. Dr. John Berardi, the CEO of Precision Nutrition and author of an e-book on intermittent fasting, also touts the nutritional benefit of beans over the drawbacks. Mark Sisson's perspective is mixed.
There is a wide range between the best and the worst. Lentils and peas seem to have the lowest antinutrient content, while you should try to stay away from estrogen-loaded soy, and undercooked kidney beans can kill you.
I've never really made legumes a dietary staple (except peanut butter, which has been replaced by almond and cashew butter). However, for vegetarians looking at a paleo-style diet, legumes are essential. What's more, legumes are an abundant source of protein and carbs, both of which are especially hard to get enough of on strict paleo diets. I take a protein and carb shake before and after workouts, and would probably need to rely on legumes otherwise. TMI ALERT: I messed around with lentils to replace oatmeal as a daily carb source, and it made me extremely gassy.
5. Get enough sleep.
The Claims: The benefits from adequate sleep are very significant, both for long term health as well as your physique. You should sleep in complete darkness (with blackout curtains and no lights from electronics). Sleep until you wake up; you should not need an alarm clock.
How much I agree: I don't think I feel much better when I sleep more
than 7 or 8 hours. After 8 hours, the marginal cost starts to
exceed the marginal benefit, i.e. my overall ability to get things done
decreases because I have fewer waking hours. I'm not commensurately more productive from the extra sleep, and in fact I'm more anxious because I
have less time. Plus, at my age, I'd prefer to have more time being awake
and alive, rather than to live an extra couple years later on. So again, there's a
Goldilocks zone.
I have found in general that I sleep incredibly well on a paleo-style diet. I also have more focus when I'm awake. So the nutrition side of the diet certainly helps the sleep side.
6. Other loose ends:
The Claims: There are some otherwise caveman foods that are discouraged under the paleo diet. These include nightshades -- especially potatoes -- due to their antinutrients. Vegetable oils should be avoided due to high Omega-6 fatty acid content, but fats from olive oil, avocado oil, and canola oil are encouraged. (Saturated fats are generally regarded as ok, too, as long as they're from paleo sources and not dairy). Nuts and seeds are allowed with caution, due to some antinutrients and high Omega-6 content. Foods like bananas, agave and honey are discouraged simply because of the high sugar content, while all fruits are discouraged for overweight people.
How much I agree: I know what you're thinking. How hypocritical! What a double standard! I hear ya. The biggest contradiction I see is that other root vegetables besides potato, like sweet potatoes and carrots, are fine. So what's the difference? Well, one of the coaches at my gym explains the potato thing by saying that regular russet or yukon potatoes have been bred over time to be very starchy and low in nutrients, so they spike your insulin levels just like grains. This makes sense. My coach does, however, eat non-conventional varieties such as blue potatoes.
As for the nightshade thing, some people -- myself included -- have issues with the high level of saponins. The nightshade classification, which includes potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, should be eaten with caution. TMI ALERT: In my experimentation, I've been surprised to find that nightshades make me SUPER gassy. Especially cherry tomatoes and bell peppers. I couldn't believe the difference it made when I cut these two ingredients out of my lunch salad.
The nuts and seeds deal makes sense when you consider optimal foraging theory, which indicates the preferences of cavemen based on the calories you get for the effort. According to Cordain, cavemen favored food in this order: 1. Large animals, 2. Medium-size animals, 3. Small animals, birds, and fish, 4. Roots and tubers, 5. Fruit, 6. Honey, 7. Nuts and seeds, 8. Grass seeds (cereals). As you can see, nuts and seeds are low on the list, and weren't a big part of our ancestors' diets. Yet, anyone who has eaten a handful of almonds, then another, then another, knows it's easy to consume 1,000 calories without even stopping to think. I love my almonds, pistachios and cashew butter, but I do my best to limit these foods to a few handfuls per day because they do have some problems. For this reason, Robb Wolf recommends they be used more as a condiment. I like this analogy.
To sum it up.
There are a few important conclusions I'm swishing around in my brain right now. All will probably change as I continue to experiment.
First, I find there is a fundamental logical flaw in the Paleo diet, exemplified in this must-read debate between Cordain and T. Colin Campbell, the China Study guy. Although Cordain rips Campbell apart by referencing a huge amount of valid sources and experimental evidence, and Campbell's lackluster rebuttal lacks documentation, Campbell does make one compelling point: Humans may have evolved by eating certain foods that maximized their chances of reproduction, not longevity. A vegetarian diet, while perhaps not optimal if you want to spread your seed, might still be best for overall health. To put it even more simply: Just because some foods haven't been part of our diets for very long, doesn't mean these foods are inherently bad for us. Campbell bases his point on insights from his anthropologist colleagues. I'm not an anthropologist, so I'm not sure how correct this point is. All I can do is listen to my own body and stay aware of how various foods make me feel.
Second, in general, it seems to me a lot of the studies referenced by the paleo experts involve subjects that are in pretty bad shape. Diabetics, cardiovascular disease patients, and autoimmune disease patients are often the test group. The positive benefits of the paleo diet on these populations are astonishing. However, I haven't seen many (or any?) scientific studies on how average, healthy gym-goers do when they switch to paleo. I've only seen anecdotes.
Third, on a related note, the whole "give paleo a try for 30 days" thing can be misleading. I don't disagree that unhealthy and / or obese people feel great when they switch to paleo; with the emphasis on natural, whole, unprocessed foods, rapid positive shifts in well-being can be expected. But reasonably healthy people, especially athletes, are likely to feel like mud...and that feeling may not go away within 30 days, or ever. I'm still open-minded to my metabolism switching over to efficient fat burning. But for now, I need starchy carbs. Maybe, if I were around in the stone age, I would have quickly died off, and my carb-loving temperament would be removed from the gene pool forever. I guess I'm lucky I live in the 21st century.
Finally, I think paleo is more about what you put into your diet than what you take out. Yes, I do better when avoiding dairy. And yes, everyone will benefit from cutting out the refined, processed, sugary stuff. But my body seems to tolerate gluten just fine. Legumes also, to an extent. On the other hand, I've added in huge amounts of spinach, kale, lettuce, carrots, beets, and other veggies, as well as more eggs, salmon and other lean meats, all with noticeable benefits. Even if the antinutrients in grains and legumes are capturing some of the vitamins and minerals my body would otherwise absorb, I'm still getting plenty from the sheer amount of nutrient-dense foods I now eat. So it's a net positive.
As I've said before, it comes down to doing what works for you. Just experiment!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Update after a long hiatus
It's been a while since I've had a chance to post. I was out of town several weekends, then I moved. But I've learned some important nutritional lessons in the past few weeks that I'd like to share.
Paleo and the BRAT Diet: The day I had to pack up all my stuff and move, I woke up with a nasty 24-hour stomach flu. I barely was able to pack up all my stuff into boxes, then I slept for 12 hours and luckily woke up the next day feeling fine.
With stomach viruses in the past, I have been told by doctors to stick to the BRAT diet: Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. These foods are easy for the stomach to digest, but unfortunately some aren't paleo. Paleo Hacks has a good post on this topic. Rice and potatoes are the lesser evils in paleo, so would be good choices. Sugarfree applesauce and bananas are also fine. Avoid toast, especially if your body responds well to being gluten-free.
Packaged Beets at Trader Joe's: My new apartment is down the street from a Trader Joe's, so I've been going more often. Although their organic section is measly, and too many things are prepackaged (like lettuce, kale, and most other veggies), I've found a couple gems. The most significant is their package of pre-cooked beets. I can keep them in the fridge and slice up one per day for my salad at lunch. This is so much better than spending an hour on Sunday cutting, boiling, simmering, cooling and peeling beets for the week -- an activity I had sadly given up due to the time commitment.
Another important find is their balsamic vinaigrette, which is made with canola oil. All other balsamics I've found use soybean oil or vegetable oil. Olive oil can get boring, and the huge amount of greens I eat these days requires a huge amount of dressing. The Omega 3 advantage of TJ's canola-based vinaigrette matters. Lastly, I've found some inexpensive wild-caught seafood in their frozen food section.
As I look for ways to cut my time in the kitchen while keeping my diet clean and largely unprocessed, I'm excited for what other brilliant items I'll find at Trader Joe's.
Growers' Co-Ops: Something I've had on my list for a while, but never got around to, was signing up to be part of a growers' co-op. I always figured it would be too much of a commitment and too much food for just one person. Well, shame on me for not exploring it sooner. I got a LivingSocial coupon to Skarsgard Farms here in Albuquerque, and it was amazing. You basically can sign up in advance to receive a "share of the bounty," and get a box of local produce delivered to your door, once per week or bi-weekly. You get to choose the size of the box (small, medium and large). With my high-veg diet, I consumed the medium box within a week, easily. If you don't want to deal with scheduling deliveries, you can come to their storefront and pick your produce yourself. The cost is on par with or cheaper than the equivalent organic produce at the supermarket. I'm excited to be a new member of the Co-Op.
Adventures in Intermittent Fasting: So far so good. To get back up to my old weight but stay as lean as I have become on paleo, I've been trying to eat, eat, eat for the past couple weeks, and have gained about a pound while keeping my body fat constant. I'm experimenting with different non-paleo starch sources for post-workout recovery, because they're cheap, easy and calorie dense. Some of the lesser evils in paleo are rice, lentils, quinoa and potato. (I'll explain why in my next post). Well, lo and behold, rice makes me feel bloated and lentils make me gassy. (Beans, beans, the magical fruit...) Maybe there's something to this whole paleo thing after all. I have not experimented with quinoa yet, but have actually done well with corn. A couple vegetarian corn tamales with chicken or salmon after a workout are easy on my stomach, and relatively healthy (maybe not as neutral as rice, but also not as catastrophic as wheat). I will continue to experiment and post about this.
I have fasted from 9 pm-ish until around 11 am every other day this past week. It is surprisingly easy. As John Berardi discusses in his ebook, the hunger gets intense in a wave and peaks, but then dissipates. I was surprised by how non-painful the peak was, and how quickly it dissipated. I eat two meals in the five or so hours before working out, and try to get the majority of my calories (60%+) post workout in a huge carb- and protein-heavy dinner meal. When breaking the fast around mid-day, I actually have to remind myself to eat, because I'm not particularly hungry. For me, who usually gets hungry and needs to eat every three hours, the ease of the transition has been astounding. Any reader who has dealt with me on Yom Kippur would never have guessed it would go so smoothly.
I worked out semi-fasted (just a small whey protein and maltodextrin shake) this past Saturday and Sunday, and again was surprised by how well I did. And the post-workout meals were outrageously huge and awesome.
Between my cycling commute and mountain biking routine, and CrossFit's emphasis on both strength and metabolic conditioning (all of which I refuse to compromise on), I'm not fooling myself. It's likely I won't gain much mass regardless of how much I eat or my adherence to any wacky fasting routine. Still, though, intermittent fasting allows me to get up and go right to work. I have better focus because I'm not distracted by thoughts on when to eat and how much. It's actually...dare I say...nice.
I plan on doing my first full-day fast in the next week or two. This isn't part of the leangains protocol, and probably won't help me gain mass, but it has potentially positive effects on health and longevity -- a rest for the GI tract, and a care-and-maintenance regimen for cells. I'll make up the deficit in calories with a bulking day.
That's all I got, for now. I'm going to do another post on intermittent fasting soon, answering the typical questions and concerns to appease my friends and family, such as: your metabolism will be screwed up! Fat people are the ones who skip breakfast! Your body will go into starvation mode! And, in the end, I'll listen to what the data tells me.
Paleo and the BRAT Diet: The day I had to pack up all my stuff and move, I woke up with a nasty 24-hour stomach flu. I barely was able to pack up all my stuff into boxes, then I slept for 12 hours and luckily woke up the next day feeling fine.
With stomach viruses in the past, I have been told by doctors to stick to the BRAT diet: Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. These foods are easy for the stomach to digest, but unfortunately some aren't paleo. Paleo Hacks has a good post on this topic. Rice and potatoes are the lesser evils in paleo, so would be good choices. Sugarfree applesauce and bananas are also fine. Avoid toast, especially if your body responds well to being gluten-free.
Packaged Beets at Trader Joe's: My new apartment is down the street from a Trader Joe's, so I've been going more often. Although their organic section is measly, and too many things are prepackaged (like lettuce, kale, and most other veggies), I've found a couple gems. The most significant is their package of pre-cooked beets. I can keep them in the fridge and slice up one per day for my salad at lunch. This is so much better than spending an hour on Sunday cutting, boiling, simmering, cooling and peeling beets for the week -- an activity I had sadly given up due to the time commitment.
Another important find is their balsamic vinaigrette, which is made with canola oil. All other balsamics I've found use soybean oil or vegetable oil. Olive oil can get boring, and the huge amount of greens I eat these days requires a huge amount of dressing. The Omega 3 advantage of TJ's canola-based vinaigrette matters. Lastly, I've found some inexpensive wild-caught seafood in their frozen food section.
As I look for ways to cut my time in the kitchen while keeping my diet clean and largely unprocessed, I'm excited for what other brilliant items I'll find at Trader Joe's.
Growers' Co-Ops: Something I've had on my list for a while, but never got around to, was signing up to be part of a growers' co-op. I always figured it would be too much of a commitment and too much food for just one person. Well, shame on me for not exploring it sooner. I got a LivingSocial coupon to Skarsgard Farms here in Albuquerque, and it was amazing. You basically can sign up in advance to receive a "share of the bounty," and get a box of local produce delivered to your door, once per week or bi-weekly. You get to choose the size of the box (small, medium and large). With my high-veg diet, I consumed the medium box within a week, easily. If you don't want to deal with scheduling deliveries, you can come to their storefront and pick your produce yourself. The cost is on par with or cheaper than the equivalent organic produce at the supermarket. I'm excited to be a new member of the Co-Op.
Adventures in Intermittent Fasting: So far so good. To get back up to my old weight but stay as lean as I have become on paleo, I've been trying to eat, eat, eat for the past couple weeks, and have gained about a pound while keeping my body fat constant. I'm experimenting with different non-paleo starch sources for post-workout recovery, because they're cheap, easy and calorie dense. Some of the lesser evils in paleo are rice, lentils, quinoa and potato. (I'll explain why in my next post). Well, lo and behold, rice makes me feel bloated and lentils make me gassy. (Beans, beans, the magical fruit...) Maybe there's something to this whole paleo thing after all. I have not experimented with quinoa yet, but have actually done well with corn. A couple vegetarian corn tamales with chicken or salmon after a workout are easy on my stomach, and relatively healthy (maybe not as neutral as rice, but also not as catastrophic as wheat). I will continue to experiment and post about this.
I have fasted from 9 pm-ish until around 11 am every other day this past week. It is surprisingly easy. As John Berardi discusses in his ebook, the hunger gets intense in a wave and peaks, but then dissipates. I was surprised by how non-painful the peak was, and how quickly it dissipated. I eat two meals in the five or so hours before working out, and try to get the majority of my calories (60%+) post workout in a huge carb- and protein-heavy dinner meal. When breaking the fast around mid-day, I actually have to remind myself to eat, because I'm not particularly hungry. For me, who usually gets hungry and needs to eat every three hours, the ease of the transition has been astounding. Any reader who has dealt with me on Yom Kippur would never have guessed it would go so smoothly.
I worked out semi-fasted (just a small whey protein and maltodextrin shake) this past Saturday and Sunday, and again was surprised by how well I did. And the post-workout meals were outrageously huge and awesome.
Between my cycling commute and mountain biking routine, and CrossFit's emphasis on both strength and metabolic conditioning (all of which I refuse to compromise on), I'm not fooling myself. It's likely I won't gain much mass regardless of how much I eat or my adherence to any wacky fasting routine. Still, though, intermittent fasting allows me to get up and go right to work. I have better focus because I'm not distracted by thoughts on when to eat and how much. It's actually...dare I say...nice.
I plan on doing my first full-day fast in the next week or two. This isn't part of the leangains protocol, and probably won't help me gain mass, but it has potentially positive effects on health and longevity -- a rest for the GI tract, and a care-and-maintenance regimen for cells. I'll make up the deficit in calories with a bulking day.
That's all I got, for now. I'm going to do another post on intermittent fasting soon, answering the typical questions and concerns to appease my friends and family, such as: your metabolism will be screwed up! Fat people are the ones who skip breakfast! Your body will go into starvation mode! And, in the end, I'll listen to what the data tells me.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Eating Clean (and Drinking Clean) on a Budget, prefaced by an angry rant
Your food has to be affordable. Of course, "affordable" means different things to different people. According to Michael Pollen, we as a society spend the lowest proportion of our income on food than any in history. I laugh when people complain about how expensive "Whole Paycheck" is, when they just bought a new flat screen or car, or bought six mixed drinks for $10 each last Friday night. Yet, who am I to judge? I'm not willing to spend an outlandish sum on food. There's plenty I could sacrifice to boost my food budget, but choose not to.
Instead, I see it as a fun challenge to get creative. I've already touched on a few of these tips in earlier posts, but here's a more comprehensive list.
Onequick (updated: long) rant before I begin: There are several blogs about this subject already, some of which have decent guides, but many of them lead off by telling you to "forget organic." This is baloney, unless you have a complete disregard for your planet and your body. (I will note that Sebastion Noel, whose blog I've linked to many times and really respect, does not take this misguided approach in his post on budgeting.)
Humor me for a moment, and then we'll get to the budget tips. You might even learn something.
Grain fed beef comes from cows that were fed a mix of ingredients they were unable to digest. Ruminants (cows) evolved to digest grass. When cows eat grain (like corn), it makes them sick with a host of problems, including bacterial infections such as E. Coli. Due to an abundance of cheap corn made possible by ill-informed government subsidies, it is far more economical to raise cows in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations, or feedlots). These cows are fed a mix of grains, growth hormones and other cheap ingredients, (sometimes even parts of cows themselves), which causes the animals to gain weight much faster and produce meat that is more "marbled," i.e. fatty. This also causes grain-fed meat to be much lower in Omega 3 fatty acids. Due to the living conditions and this toxic diet, the cows become sick; they are pumped with antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to be slaughtered. That's how it works. The process is similar for pigs and chickens as well.
Not to mention the unspeakable cruelty that occurs in factory farms. (I'm not going to provide a link here. Google it if you have the stomach for it).
So let's get this straight, because I've encountered a lot of idiots on the paleo diet who think they're doing it right buying beef from Sam's Club. The paleo diet's fundamental premise is humans should consume the foods they have evolved to eat over millions of years. Yet the aforementioned bloggers are recommending you eat animals that have been raised on feed for which they are completely unadapted? It's laughable. (The paleo authorities like Cordain and Wolf, however, understand the difference and really encourage free-range meat.
The same logic applies to vegetables. Cavemen certainly didn't eat food grown on chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides. And the evidence, while still inconclusive, shows that chemically-treated, non-organic foods have lower nutritional value.
And that's just the health aspects. CAFOs and conventional agriculture are devastating to the environment. The main culprit of CAFOs is urine and feces pollution (on the other hand, the poop of free range animals actually helps fertilize the plant life on the ground naturally). Nitrogen runoff from synthetic produce fertilizers is also disruptive; the most known instance of this is in the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. I know that organic agricultural methods have their own problems, but they at least spare huge amounts of land from being bombarded with nitrogen. I could continue, but I promised myself I wouldn't use this blog as a soap box for Michael Pollen proselytizing. (Just read The Omnivore's Dilemma, it is a life-changer). Also, I'm going to do a whole post soon about reconciling the paleo diet with a sustainable lifestyle, and why I ultimately may have to refrain from paleo for environmental reasons. Stay tuned.
Isn't this post supposed to be about budget? Focus, Zack. Back to the topic.
Tips to Eat Clean on a Budget
1) Don't eat paleo. Yes, you heard me. Or...read me. Notice how my title is "eating clean," not "eating paleo," on a budget. As I stressed above, I think it's more important to eat organic, environmentally-friendly vegetables and humanely raised animals than it is to keep your food groups strictly paleo.
Do I break my own rules? Sometimes. For some essential but expensive foods, like blueberries, I'll bite the bullet when organic is too pricey.
In my next post, I will detail which tenets of paleo really ought to be followed and which can be blurred a bit, but for now, just know whole, unprocessed foods are the foundation of agreement from experts across the nutrition spectrum. Milk isn't great for my particular gastrointesinal tract, and it's really meant only for baby cows, but it can be an adequate nutrition source for people who have financial constraints. Grains too. If you can tolerate them, grains from non-gluten whole food sources (think rice, quinoa and steel cut oats) provide carbs much more cheaply than vegetables. Keep diverse fruits and veggies in the mix for their nutrient value, but you can supplement with grains. Lastly, I firmly believe that complementing your meat intake with legumes, provided they are prepared properly, is fine if you can't afford enough quality meat to meet your protein requirements. Stay away from soy, though, which is very high in estrogen and other problem-causing antinutrients.
2) Seize the opportunities at sales. After about a month on my new diet, I settled into a routine of knowing what, and how much, I needed for each week. So when almonds, fish (canned and frozen), or other go on sale, I capitalize. Then I have almonds for the next month. Sunflower's fish is generally previously frozen. If they're having a sale, I ask the guy to grab fillets from their back freezer, so I don't give the fish a chance to defrost. Frozen grass-fed beef at Keller's is good too. Right now, I have 4 lbs of salmon, 2 lbs of shrimp, 2 lbs of cod, and 3 lbs of ground beef in my freezer, all bought for more than 50% off.
For perishable items like fruits and veggies, sale cycles generally encourage you to buy seasonally and also create a nice diversity to what you buy. Compare fresh fruits and veggies to their frozen counterparts; one might be cheaper than the other based on the season.
3) Figure out which grocery store has what cheapest. Sunflower is my go-to for most produce and seafood. But Sunflower's selection of organic fruits and veggies is more limited than Whole Foods, so I get some specific items at the latter. Also, Whole Foods' berries are often cheaper than Sunflower, and anything of the 365 brand is usually cheaper too. I'm blessed to have these two grocery stores very close to me. If it's possible, do a two-grocery run once per week. It's a bit more work but it saves a lot of money.
4) Learn to love affordable animal protein. As I discussed previously, canned fish is amazing. You can get nearly a pound of wild caught salmon for $3 at Trader Joe's. TJ also has no-salt-added varieties. You can't beat that.
Organ meats fall into this category too, as I've stated in a previous post. Organs used to be considered a delicacy, and many hunter gatherer societies traditionally prefer organs over muscle meat. These days, it's a matter of supply and demand. You can capitalize on modern American society's taste for steak, and grab organ meats at bottom dollar prices. It's definitely an acquired taste, but I've been refining a fantastic chopped liver recipe and I'm starting to really enjoy it.
When you do choose muscle meat, consider the cheaper cuts. They're usually less tender, but they come out great in stews. For this reason, I'm getting ready to purchase a pressure cooker. This way, I'll be able to make delicious stews and soups in less time. Crock pots are good as well, but I've read that pressure cookers do a better job containing nutrients during cooking. And even at higher temperatures than boiling, pressure cookers don't have the potential to produce carcinogens the way high-heat methods like grilling do.
Lastly, eggs are some of the best protein bang for your buck. Even the roam-free variety is only $4 per dozen. Now, there are some claims that eggs in large amounts could endanger your health, while there are other claims that eggs are perfectly fine. I've spoken to a couple doctors who say eggs are ok, as long as you're eating plenty of vegetables. I tend to hedge my bet, eating two eggs per day rather than the five or six or even 10 that some paleo dieters consume.
5) Get rotisserie chickens at Whole Foods. This warrants its own category, because they're so convenient and are such a good value. I go through about two chickens per week, and have completely replaced cold cuts. I try to buy on Wednesdays, when they're on sale for $2 off.
6) Cut your alcohol budget in half. In focusing so much effort on healthier eating, it made sense for me to reduce my alcohol consumption. I did it for health reasons, but it's also a financial expense that I can "sacrifice" in the name of my food budget. I cut my alcohol budget from about $100 to $50 per month and have barely noticed. I still go out just as much, I just don't give into the pressure to have a drink in my hand at all times when I'm at a bar or club. By the way, the general recommendations I've seen for paleo-friendly alcohol is tequila (from agave, unlike other liquors that are derived from grains and other starches), and red wine. Avoiding beer has worked well for me. The most common paleo drink popularized by Robb Wolf is the NorCal Margarita.
Having settled into a grocery store routine for my new diet style, I'm spending about the same amount as before I started. Maybe 10% or 20% more. It's a small price to pay for the huge increase in clean fuel that I'm now providing for myself.
A great way to track your spending, on alcohol, food, and everything else is Mint.com. It links to your credit cards, so automatically categorizes your spending with only minimal oversight needed. It's a great tool and it's free. They aggregate your data and sell it to companies, which some people might find creepy, but your anonymity is protected.
Thanks for reading! I'm moving next weekend so it may be a bit of time before my next post, but I promise it will be worth the wait!
UPDATE ON THE INTERMITTENT FASTING: I recently finished a free and extremely informative ebook by Dr. John Berardi on intermittent fasting, and I continue to research paleo mass gain methods. I'm going to do this experiment right. I ordered a body fat caliper, I've been getting on the scale every day to get a baseline for my weight, measuring my biceps, before and after photos...all the Jersey Shore stuff I wish I had done before starting the strict 30 days of paleo. I have lost approximately ten pounds on paleo (while trying desperately not to lose weight...a note for my readers looking to slim down!). I want to gain it back and then some, to the tune of 15 pounds, while maintaining a low body fat percentage. I plan on beginning the experiment with increasing my caloric intake through carbs from rice, lentils and quinoa (the lesser of evils in the Paleo world), then fasting one day per week, and finally easing into a leangains protocol. It's gonna be a rocking good time!
Instead, I see it as a fun challenge to get creative. I've already touched on a few of these tips in earlier posts, but here's a more comprehensive list.
One
Humor me for a moment, and then we'll get to the budget tips. You might even learn something.
Grain fed beef comes from cows that were fed a mix of ingredients they were unable to digest. Ruminants (cows) evolved to digest grass. When cows eat grain (like corn), it makes them sick with a host of problems, including bacterial infections such as E. Coli. Due to an abundance of cheap corn made possible by ill-informed government subsidies, it is far more economical to raise cows in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations, or feedlots). These cows are fed a mix of grains, growth hormones and other cheap ingredients, (sometimes even parts of cows themselves), which causes the animals to gain weight much faster and produce meat that is more "marbled," i.e. fatty. This also causes grain-fed meat to be much lower in Omega 3 fatty acids. Due to the living conditions and this toxic diet, the cows become sick; they are pumped with antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to be slaughtered. That's how it works. The process is similar for pigs and chickens as well.
Not to mention the unspeakable cruelty that occurs in factory farms. (I'm not going to provide a link here. Google it if you have the stomach for it).
So let's get this straight, because I've encountered a lot of idiots on the paleo diet who think they're doing it right buying beef from Sam's Club. The paleo diet's fundamental premise is humans should consume the foods they have evolved to eat over millions of years. Yet the aforementioned bloggers are recommending you eat animals that have been raised on feed for which they are completely unadapted? It's laughable. (The paleo authorities like Cordain and Wolf, however, understand the difference and really encourage free-range meat.
 |
| Sam's Club markets grain fed beef as if it's premium: "Exceptional flavor, superior marbling." Give me a break. |
The same logic applies to vegetables. Cavemen certainly didn't eat food grown on chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides. And the evidence, while still inconclusive, shows that chemically-treated, non-organic foods have lower nutritional value.
And that's just the health aspects. CAFOs and conventional agriculture are devastating to the environment. The main culprit of CAFOs is urine and feces pollution (on the other hand, the poop of free range animals actually helps fertilize the plant life on the ground naturally). Nitrogen runoff from synthetic produce fertilizers is also disruptive; the most known instance of this is in the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. I know that organic agricultural methods have their own problems, but they at least spare huge amounts of land from being bombarded with nitrogen. I could continue, but I promised myself I wouldn't use this blog as a soap box for Michael Pollen proselytizing. (Just read The Omnivore's Dilemma, it is a life-changer). Also, I'm going to do a whole post soon about reconciling the paleo diet with a sustainable lifestyle, and why I ultimately may have to refrain from paleo for environmental reasons. Stay tuned.
Isn't this post supposed to be about budget? Focus, Zack. Back to the topic.
Tips to Eat Clean on a Budget
1) Don't eat paleo. Yes, you heard me. Or...read me. Notice how my title is "eating clean," not "eating paleo," on a budget. As I stressed above, I think it's more important to eat organic, environmentally-friendly vegetables and humanely raised animals than it is to keep your food groups strictly paleo.
Do I break my own rules? Sometimes. For some essential but expensive foods, like blueberries, I'll bite the bullet when organic is too pricey.
In my next post, I will detail which tenets of paleo really ought to be followed and which can be blurred a bit, but for now, just know whole, unprocessed foods are the foundation of agreement from experts across the nutrition spectrum. Milk isn't great for my particular gastrointesinal tract, and it's really meant only for baby cows, but it can be an adequate nutrition source for people who have financial constraints. Grains too. If you can tolerate them, grains from non-gluten whole food sources (think rice, quinoa and steel cut oats) provide carbs much more cheaply than vegetables. Keep diverse fruits and veggies in the mix for their nutrient value, but you can supplement with grains. Lastly, I firmly believe that complementing your meat intake with legumes, provided they are prepared properly, is fine if you can't afford enough quality meat to meet your protein requirements. Stay away from soy, though, which is very high in estrogen and other problem-causing antinutrients.
2) Seize the opportunities at sales. After about a month on my new diet, I settled into a routine of knowing what, and how much, I needed for each week. So when almonds, fish (canned and frozen), or other go on sale, I capitalize. Then I have almonds for the next month. Sunflower's fish is generally previously frozen. If they're having a sale, I ask the guy to grab fillets from their back freezer, so I don't give the fish a chance to defrost. Frozen grass-fed beef at Keller's is good too. Right now, I have 4 lbs of salmon, 2 lbs of shrimp, 2 lbs of cod, and 3 lbs of ground beef in my freezer, all bought for more than 50% off.
For perishable items like fruits and veggies, sale cycles generally encourage you to buy seasonally and also create a nice diversity to what you buy. Compare fresh fruits and veggies to their frozen counterparts; one might be cheaper than the other based on the season.
3) Figure out which grocery store has what cheapest. Sunflower is my go-to for most produce and seafood. But Sunflower's selection of organic fruits and veggies is more limited than Whole Foods, so I get some specific items at the latter. Also, Whole Foods' berries are often cheaper than Sunflower, and anything of the 365 brand is usually cheaper too. I'm blessed to have these two grocery stores very close to me. If it's possible, do a two-grocery run once per week. It's a bit more work but it saves a lot of money.
4) Learn to love affordable animal protein. As I discussed previously, canned fish is amazing. You can get nearly a pound of wild caught salmon for $3 at Trader Joe's. TJ also has no-salt-added varieties. You can't beat that.
Organ meats fall into this category too, as I've stated in a previous post. Organs used to be considered a delicacy, and many hunter gatherer societies traditionally prefer organs over muscle meat. These days, it's a matter of supply and demand. You can capitalize on modern American society's taste for steak, and grab organ meats at bottom dollar prices. It's definitely an acquired taste, but I've been refining a fantastic chopped liver recipe and I'm starting to really enjoy it.
When you do choose muscle meat, consider the cheaper cuts. They're usually less tender, but they come out great in stews. For this reason, I'm getting ready to purchase a pressure cooker. This way, I'll be able to make delicious stews and soups in less time. Crock pots are good as well, but I've read that pressure cookers do a better job containing nutrients during cooking. And even at higher temperatures than boiling, pressure cookers don't have the potential to produce carcinogens the way high-heat methods like grilling do.
Lastly, eggs are some of the best protein bang for your buck. Even the roam-free variety is only $4 per dozen. Now, there are some claims that eggs in large amounts could endanger your health, while there are other claims that eggs are perfectly fine. I've spoken to a couple doctors who say eggs are ok, as long as you're eating plenty of vegetables. I tend to hedge my bet, eating two eggs per day rather than the five or six or even 10 that some paleo dieters consume.
5) Get rotisserie chickens at Whole Foods. This warrants its own category, because they're so convenient and are such a good value. I go through about two chickens per week, and have completely replaced cold cuts. I try to buy on Wednesdays, when they're on sale for $2 off.
6) Cut your alcohol budget in half. In focusing so much effort on healthier eating, it made sense for me to reduce my alcohol consumption. I did it for health reasons, but it's also a financial expense that I can "sacrifice" in the name of my food budget. I cut my alcohol budget from about $100 to $50 per month and have barely noticed. I still go out just as much, I just don't give into the pressure to have a drink in my hand at all times when I'm at a bar or club. By the way, the general recommendations I've seen for paleo-friendly alcohol is tequila (from agave, unlike other liquors that are derived from grains and other starches), and red wine. Avoiding beer has worked well for me. The most common paleo drink popularized by Robb Wolf is the NorCal Margarita.
Having settled into a grocery store routine for my new diet style, I'm spending about the same amount as before I started. Maybe 10% or 20% more. It's a small price to pay for the huge increase in clean fuel that I'm now providing for myself.
A great way to track your spending, on alcohol, food, and everything else is Mint.com. It links to your credit cards, so automatically categorizes your spending with only minimal oversight needed. It's a great tool and it's free. They aggregate your data and sell it to companies, which some people might find creepy, but your anonymity is protected.
Thanks for reading! I'm moving next weekend so it may be a bit of time before my next post, but I promise it will be worth the wait!
UPDATE ON THE INTERMITTENT FASTING: I recently finished a free and extremely informative ebook by Dr. John Berardi on intermittent fasting, and I continue to research paleo mass gain methods. I'm going to do this experiment right. I ordered a body fat caliper, I've been getting on the scale every day to get a baseline for my weight, measuring my biceps, before and after photos...all the Jersey Shore stuff I wish I had done before starting the strict 30 days of paleo. I have lost approximately ten pounds on paleo (while trying desperately not to lose weight...a note for my readers looking to slim down!). I want to gain it back and then some, to the tune of 15 pounds, while maintaining a low body fat percentage. I plan on beginning the experiment with increasing my caloric intake through carbs from rice, lentils and quinoa (the lesser of evils in the Paleo world), then fasting one day per week, and finally easing into a leangains protocol. It's gonna be a rocking good time!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Survival of the Fittest: The Evolution of Breakfast
Breakfast was, hands down, the hardest meal to clean up. In fact, when I was first starting to experiment with the Paleo diet, my Kashi Autumn Wheat with milk and a big glass of orange juice was the last holdout. I refused to even try a 30-day strict paleo diet until I saw a blog post on paleo breakfast cereal. I was excited -- I could have this with almond milk in the morning! That was the moment I committed to try Paleo for real.
Well, that little honeymoon was short-lived. Not only was this paleo cereal nasty, it gave me a stomach ache (probably all the monounsaturated fat from the huge amount of seeds). It was expensive. And it was extremely time consuming. I spent hours in the kitchen on Sundays, creating this wanna-be granola, baking sweet potatoes, boiling beets, and cooking a huge dinner meal, all for the week ahead. It was not a feasible routine for the long run.
Plus, as I was continuing to learn more about the do's and don'ts of Paleo, I learned that seeds should be used more as just a condiment due to their high Omega-6 fat content. Instead, I needed to focus on protein and carbs from fruits and vegetable sources in the morning.
I moved on to breakfast scrambles, with 3 or 4 eggs, spinach, mushrooms, and bell peppers, all sauteed in coconut oil. This worked well for me. I felt better than I did with the seed cereal, but I continued to have grain withdrawal, feeling light-headed on my bike commute to work. A further problem was this breakfast took some time to make. I am not a fan of waking up any earlier than I need to. As I was trying to sleep longer per the recommendations by the Paleo gurus, this issue had even more weight.
I advanced to hard-boiled eggs, over greens (usually raw spinach), with bell peppers and some nuts (pecans or walnuts) tossed with olive oil. This really worked for me in terms of time. I had discovered a nutrient-dense breakfast that could be put together in about 5 minutes. One way I reduced the prep time even further was in the way I boiled the eggs. My grandmother always told me to leave the eggs in the pot with the hot water after boiling, because it eliminates the brown "skin" around the yolk. However, these eggs were often difficult to peel using this method -- frustrating in the morning when you're running late. I did some research and found that if you run cold water over the eggs immediately after boiling, the shells are much less likely to stick. It works great.
While this breakfast worked well, I still felt a bit sapped of energy, even when I had fruit on the side. I also felt hungry only a couple hours after eating, even with three or four hard boiled eggs and several handfuls of spinach. So when my strict paleo month ended, I brought back some carbs from forbidden sources. I've referenced this blog post, and the comment section, as a real guide for me and I continue to benefit from it.
I didn't want to go back to wheat-based cereals, if for no other reason than Tony Horton doesn't recommend gluten. I was a big p90x follower before starting CrossFit, and I still consider Tony my guru. Really, CrossFit is the next logical step in muscle confusion for p90x'ers looking for more intensity and more community / camaraderie. I have a guilty conscience trying this whole Paleo thing, since Tony is a "flexitarian." (Mostly vegetarian, with occasional free-range chicken and fish). Between abandoning his workout for Crossfit and his diet for Paleo, a p90x prodigal son has really gone astray from Tony's teachings. However, when his diet advice and Paleo overlap, you can bet I follow it.
This is the case with gluten. I don't have a gluten intolerance, but I think my body runs better when I avoid it. So instead of wheat cereal, I started doing oatmeal. Now, oats have plenty of dietary lectins that are similar to gluten; they seem to fall somewhere on the "bad" end of the grain spectrum, where wheat is the worst and rice is the best. But I keep oatmeal to just one serving, along with my eggs and greens. And I usually do steel cut oats, which are less processed and have a better glycemic load compared to quick oats or rolled oats. To change things up, I have rolled oats every so often.
The oats, combined with the eggs and greens, keep me full for several hours; longer than if I were to eat the same amount of calories from just oats or just eggs. Oatmeal also gives me a stable energy source for my bike commute to work. Importantly, oatmeal helps boost my carb intake, which is hard to keep up from just fruits and veggies.
Recently, I cut out oats for a week, increasing the eggs and amount of spinach to make up the difference. I was interested in seeing if my body had now adapted enough to use fat as an energy source instead of carbs. Well, the first day I tried this, the light-headed feeling returned immediately, I had a rough headache, and I felt hungry soon after eating. A few hours later, I raided the girl scout cookies in my office cabinet. Half a sleeve of Samoas is a good indicator that my body is going to get its carbs, try as I might. The headache / light-headed feeling continued for the rest of the week, except on days when my girlfriend juiced fresh carrots, cucumbers, and oranges for me. Fresh juice is full of nutrients and enzymes and is infinitely healthier than packaged, pasteurized crap juice -- yes, even the Naked brand. I would love to have fresh juice every day, but that damn Jack LaLanne is hard to clean.
As I've said in other posts, I'm happy to cheat routinely if my body responds well.
I will note that oats cause my weight to fluctuate a surprising amount for only being 150 calories. I'm fairly sure this is water weight, since starchy carbs / grains cause more water retention. Without oats, I have more muscle tone but also look skinnier. I'm going to try and figure out how to increase my mass while still maintaining a lean, "cut up" look.
So now, I have a bowl of oatmeal and a bowl of hard boiled eggs in the morning. I can make this delicious, nutrient-dense breakfast in the time it takes for one "snooze" (just ten minutes). Here's how:
-Take advantage of an incredible shortcut with your steel cut oats! It's a secret shortcut, found only on the McCann's tin. The night before, boil one cup of water, add a quarter cup of oats and boil for one minute. Stir and place the pot in fridge over night. (This takes literally 2 minutes. Don't count this towards the ten minutes the next morning, thanks). This will shave 30 minutes off the cook time.
-Roll out of bed, stretch, and put the pot of oatmeal over medium high heat.
-Shell two hard boiled eggs.
-By now, the oatmeal should be simmering. Stir and reduce heat to medium low.
-Quarter each egg, and place over a bowl full of spinach and chopped bell peppers. (I like to chop a couple whole bell peppers on Sundays so I have them for the rest of the week). Stir the oatmeal again.
-Toss the eggs and greens with olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkle some walnuts or pecans on top.
-The oatmeal should be pretty much done. You'll know because it will have absorbed most of the water and will be bubbling. Add in a teaspoon or two of Earth Balance coconut butter, one teaspoon of vanilla and / or hazelnut extract, a generous dash of cinnamon, and a tablespoon of flaxseeds. Put in a bowl and add a splash of almond milk. Optional: sprinkle some shredded coconut, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and / or strawberries on top.
-Eat up! Wasn't that worth exercising some will power with the snooze button?
I truly enjoy this delicious morning ritual now. I'm going to miss it when I start my experiment with Intermittent Fasting. I'm turning my body into a lab rat to give you the insights you deserve. Readers: get ready for an enlightening post all about my experience. People who I interact with on a daily basis: prepare for a testy, moody, desperate little man.
Well, that little honeymoon was short-lived. Not only was this paleo cereal nasty, it gave me a stomach ache (probably all the monounsaturated fat from the huge amount of seeds). It was expensive. And it was extremely time consuming. I spent hours in the kitchen on Sundays, creating this wanna-be granola, baking sweet potatoes, boiling beets, and cooking a huge dinner meal, all for the week ahead. It was not a feasible routine for the long run.
Plus, as I was continuing to learn more about the do's and don'ts of Paleo, I learned that seeds should be used more as just a condiment due to their high Omega-6 fat content. Instead, I needed to focus on protein and carbs from fruits and vegetable sources in the morning.
I moved on to breakfast scrambles, with 3 or 4 eggs, spinach, mushrooms, and bell peppers, all sauteed in coconut oil. This worked well for me. I felt better than I did with the seed cereal, but I continued to have grain withdrawal, feeling light-headed on my bike commute to work. A further problem was this breakfast took some time to make. I am not a fan of waking up any earlier than I need to. As I was trying to sleep longer per the recommendations by the Paleo gurus, this issue had even more weight.
I advanced to hard-boiled eggs, over greens (usually raw spinach), with bell peppers and some nuts (pecans or walnuts) tossed with olive oil. This really worked for me in terms of time. I had discovered a nutrient-dense breakfast that could be put together in about 5 minutes. One way I reduced the prep time even further was in the way I boiled the eggs. My grandmother always told me to leave the eggs in the pot with the hot water after boiling, because it eliminates the brown "skin" around the yolk. However, these eggs were often difficult to peel using this method -- frustrating in the morning when you're running late. I did some research and found that if you run cold water over the eggs immediately after boiling, the shells are much less likely to stick. It works great.
While this breakfast worked well, I still felt a bit sapped of energy, even when I had fruit on the side. I also felt hungry only a couple hours after eating, even with three or four hard boiled eggs and several handfuls of spinach. So when my strict paleo month ended, I brought back some carbs from forbidden sources. I've referenced this blog post, and the comment section, as a real guide for me and I continue to benefit from it.
I didn't want to go back to wheat-based cereals, if for no other reason than Tony Horton doesn't recommend gluten. I was a big p90x follower before starting CrossFit, and I still consider Tony my guru. Really, CrossFit is the next logical step in muscle confusion for p90x'ers looking for more intensity and more community / camaraderie. I have a guilty conscience trying this whole Paleo thing, since Tony is a "flexitarian." (Mostly vegetarian, with occasional free-range chicken and fish). Between abandoning his workout for Crossfit and his diet for Paleo, a p90x prodigal son has really gone astray from Tony's teachings. However, when his diet advice and Paleo overlap, you can bet I follow it.
This is the case with gluten. I don't have a gluten intolerance, but I think my body runs better when I avoid it. So instead of wheat cereal, I started doing oatmeal. Now, oats have plenty of dietary lectins that are similar to gluten; they seem to fall somewhere on the "bad" end of the grain spectrum, where wheat is the worst and rice is the best. But I keep oatmeal to just one serving, along with my eggs and greens. And I usually do steel cut oats, which are less processed and have a better glycemic load compared to quick oats or rolled oats. To change things up, I have rolled oats every so often.
The oats, combined with the eggs and greens, keep me full for several hours; longer than if I were to eat the same amount of calories from just oats or just eggs. Oatmeal also gives me a stable energy source for my bike commute to work. Importantly, oatmeal helps boost my carb intake, which is hard to keep up from just fruits and veggies.
 |
| So yummy |
Recently, I cut out oats for a week, increasing the eggs and amount of spinach to make up the difference. I was interested in seeing if my body had now adapted enough to use fat as an energy source instead of carbs. Well, the first day I tried this, the light-headed feeling returned immediately, I had a rough headache, and I felt hungry soon after eating. A few hours later, I raided the girl scout cookies in my office cabinet. Half a sleeve of Samoas is a good indicator that my body is going to get its carbs, try as I might. The headache / light-headed feeling continued for the rest of the week, except on days when my girlfriend juiced fresh carrots, cucumbers, and oranges for me. Fresh juice is full of nutrients and enzymes and is infinitely healthier than packaged, pasteurized crap juice -- yes, even the Naked brand. I would love to have fresh juice every day, but that damn Jack LaLanne is hard to clean.
As I've said in other posts, I'm happy to cheat routinely if my body responds well.
I will note that oats cause my weight to fluctuate a surprising amount for only being 150 calories. I'm fairly sure this is water weight, since starchy carbs / grains cause more water retention. Without oats, I have more muscle tone but also look skinnier. I'm going to try and figure out how to increase my mass while still maintaining a lean, "cut up" look.
So now, I have a bowl of oatmeal and a bowl of hard boiled eggs in the morning. I can make this delicious, nutrient-dense breakfast in the time it takes for one "snooze" (just ten minutes). Here's how:
-Take advantage of an incredible shortcut with your steel cut oats! It's a secret shortcut, found only on the McCann's tin. The night before, boil one cup of water, add a quarter cup of oats and boil for one minute. Stir and place the pot in fridge over night. (This takes literally 2 minutes. Don't count this towards the ten minutes the next morning, thanks). This will shave 30 minutes off the cook time.
-Roll out of bed, stretch, and put the pot of oatmeal over medium high heat.
-Shell two hard boiled eggs.
-By now, the oatmeal should be simmering. Stir and reduce heat to medium low.
-Quarter each egg, and place over a bowl full of spinach and chopped bell peppers. (I like to chop a couple whole bell peppers on Sundays so I have them for the rest of the week). Stir the oatmeal again.
-Toss the eggs and greens with olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkle some walnuts or pecans on top.
-The oatmeal should be pretty much done. You'll know because it will have absorbed most of the water and will be bubbling. Add in a teaspoon or two of Earth Balance coconut butter, one teaspoon of vanilla and / or hazelnut extract, a generous dash of cinnamon, and a tablespoon of flaxseeds. Put in a bowl and add a splash of almond milk. Optional: sprinkle some shredded coconut, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and / or strawberries on top.
-Eat up! Wasn't that worth exercising some will power with the snooze button?
I truly enjoy this delicious morning ritual now. I'm going to miss it when I start my experiment with Intermittent Fasting. I'm turning my body into a lab rat to give you the insights you deserve. Readers: get ready for an enlightening post all about my experience. People who I interact with on a daily basis: prepare for a testy, moody, desperate little man.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Paleo Pesach
I know I said I would be coming out with a breakfast post, and I'm going to make that happen soon, but it was beautiful yesterday and the mountain bike called my name. In the meantime, here's a more time-sensitive topic for my Jewish audience. It will hopefully be relevant to the 90+% of my readership that comprises my mom and her friends. And I know for a fact that some of her friends are paleo, so I'm performing a real mitzvah here.
A side note: I had the idea for this post because I've recently ventured into the world of organ meats, which are an excellent and inexpensive source of protein and nutrients. Some of these nutrients, like copper, aren't the easiest to attain without grains. I've never eaten offal besides pate and chopped liver, so it was a pretty big leap. I read a great post by Mark Sisson on the subject, and decided to give it a try.
I was surprised at how few grocery stores carry organ meats, and how few butchers there are in Albuquerque. But I finally discovered that Alpine Sausage, on Girard and Indian School, sold beef liver. I highly recommend Alpine -- it's a family-owned German artisan deli, and their stuff is cheaper than grocery stores. Awesome andouille for when I'm in a gumbo mood. Using this recipe, I made some smothered liver and onions. I can't say I loved it, but after the first night of leftovers I'm starting to acquire a taste. It's definitely an adjustment, so I'm wading in slowly. Maybe I'll do kidney next time. Or heart...
Anyway. I wanted to continue my liver foray for passover and started looking at recipes for chopped liver online. This one, in particular, can be done paleo easily by swapping the Manischewitz for red wine, and the vegetable oil for canola oil if you're not using schmaltz.
My go-to Jewish recipe is for my "famous" coconut almond macaroons, which I stole from Martha Stewart. (It's easy to impress when you're a 25 year old male dating a shiksah). Swap out the sugar for honey and you're in business.
What about kugel? I might give this one a shot if I'm feeling ambitious. (Scroll down a bit in the link). Gefilte fish? Matzo ball soup? The Elana's Pantry blog is a great resource.
Now I'm not planning on making this Passover completely paleo. Heck, I don't usually get through a single day paleo. But making Passover a bit healthier, and being able to make paleo Jewish soul food whenever I want, is dayenu for me. (just in case all the earlier puns didn't make you roll your eyes).
A side note: I had the idea for this post because I've recently ventured into the world of organ meats, which are an excellent and inexpensive source of protein and nutrients. Some of these nutrients, like copper, aren't the easiest to attain without grains. I've never eaten offal besides pate and chopped liver, so it was a pretty big leap. I read a great post by Mark Sisson on the subject, and decided to give it a try.
I was surprised at how few grocery stores carry organ meats, and how few butchers there are in Albuquerque. But I finally discovered that Alpine Sausage, on Girard and Indian School, sold beef liver. I highly recommend Alpine -- it's a family-owned German artisan deli, and their stuff is cheaper than grocery stores. Awesome andouille for when I'm in a gumbo mood. Using this recipe, I made some smothered liver and onions. I can't say I loved it, but after the first night of leftovers I'm starting to acquire a taste. It's definitely an adjustment, so I'm wading in slowly. Maybe I'll do kidney next time. Or heart...
 |
| It tastes better than it looks. Not really. |
My go-to Jewish recipe is for my "famous" coconut almond macaroons, which I stole from Martha Stewart. (It's easy to impress when you're a 25 year old male dating a shiksah). Swap out the sugar for honey and you're in business.
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| Gluten: The 11th plague |
Now I'm not planning on making this Passover completely paleo. Heck, I don't usually get through a single day paleo. But making Passover a bit healthier, and being able to make paleo Jewish soul food whenever I want, is dayenu for me. (just in case all the earlier puns didn't make you roll your eyes).
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