Nutrition
The Paleo Diet is a way of eating in the modern age that best mimics diets of our hunter-gatherer ancestors – combinations of lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. By eating the foods that we are genetically adapted to eat, followers of the Paleo Diet are naturally lean, have acne-free skin, improved athletic performance, and are experiencing relief from numerous metabolic-related and autoimmune diseases. This truly is the world’s healthiest diet.
Returning to the diet that humans evolved to eat addresses many underlying pro-inflammatory modern dietary practices. The Paleo Diet corrects the pro-inflammatory effects of omega-6/ 3 fatty acid imbalance that can result from consumption of vegetable oils, grain-based products, and a lack of DHA and EPA from animal sources.
The diet also eliminates other modern food products that have been implicated in the inflammatory basis of disease, such as including dairy products, refined sugar, and lectins. Lectins are found in beans, grains, and legumes, which are not part of the Paleo Diet.
While the diet also excludes processed foods (such as refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils in margarines, potato chips and baked goods that can be pro-inflammatory), it does include olive oil. This highly mono-unsaturated oil can actually reduce inflammation. The high-fiber content of the diet also helps to reduce inflammation.
In addition, foods with high glycemic indices also have a pro-inflammatory effect. The low glycemic load foods of the Paleo Diet avoids such high-glycemic foods address this , which also helps to lower insulin levels, and help to maintain optimum weight.
Paleolithic Diet
The Paleolithic Diet (“Paleo” is a common abbreviation) is based on eating foods that our Paleolithic ancestors ate. The “Paleolithic” refers to the Paleolithic Age, which is a formal time period on Geologic Time Charts from about 2,500,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago. The premise is that during the Paleolithic, we evolved a specific genome that has only changed 0.01 per cent in these last 10,000 years. However, during this recent time span mass agriculture, grains/grain products, sugars/sugar products, dairy/dairy products, and a plethora of processed foods have all been introduced as a regular part of the human diet. We are not eating the foods we are genetically and physiologically adapted to eat (99.9% of our genetic profile is still Paleolithic); and the discordance is an underlying cause for much of the “diseases of civilization”, “syndrome X”, obesity, and “diseases of old age” that are so epidemic in our society today.
As Dr. Cordain and others’ scientific research reveal – the evolutionary, genetic, and clinical evidence point to a natural (i.e., unprocessed foods), omnivorous diet as the healthiest way to eat. Dr. Cordain’s research shows that 70% of the average caloric intake of Americans is from foods that did not even exist for our Paleolithic ancestors. This discordance is having tremendously negative health consequences for our society as a whole.
Our genes determine our optimum diet, and our genes evolved according to the environments in which our ancient ancestors lived, including the foods they ate. Our Paleolithic ancestors did not eat just one single diet, but rather they ate within a range of natural, unprocessed diets – depending on variables like geography, climate, competition, ecologic niche, season, and glaciations. All of these Paleolithic diets did share some universal characteristics. Nutrition is the foundation for all athletic development and essential for achieving elite fitness and health. The CrossFit nutrition prescription in it’s simplest terms is “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.” This ensures that you are eating “real food,” the food that our hunter-gatherer ancestors have eaten for millions of years, and avoiding the processed “edible food-like substances” that come in boxes, bags and packages.
Evolution has not kept pace with advances in agriculture and food processing resulting in a plague of health problems for modern man. Coronary heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and psychological dysfunction have all been scientifically linked to a diet too high in refined or processed carbohydrate. Many have observed that keeping your grocery cart to the perimeter of the grocery store while avoiding the aisles is a great way to improve health. Real food is perishable. The stuff with long shelf life is all suspect. An easy rule is “If you can hunt it or gather it, you can eat it.”
If you follow these simple guidelines you will benefit from nearly all that can be achieved through nutrition.
Reclaim your health by understanding the diet that is genetically coded in all humans, the Paleo Diet.
We have a modern snap shot into the effects of the Paleo Diet with the last 84 tribes of Hunter Gatherers on earth. These Hunter Gatherer tribes have survived relatively untouched since the dawn of time; we know these groups are muscular, strong and healthy. They have perfect eyesight and straight teeth and are free from diabetes, obesity, cancer and other problems plaguing the modern world. Since we are genetically identical to our ancestors of 2 million years ago and for the last 7 million years we have been genetically coded to eat a certain way, a diet that is based on animal based proteins, fruits and vegetables and healthy fats is the key to health. A modern diet based on grains, processed foods and sugars has taken us down a path of sickness, illness and obesity.
What Should I Eat?
Protein: Fish, Meat, Chicken, Eggs
Carbs: Fruits and Veggies
Fat: Nuts, Seeds, Avocados, Olives and Oils
What Foods Should I Avoid?
Anything that doesn’t exist in nature, or has been processed. Corn, rice, bread, candy, potato, sweets, sodas, and most processed carbohydrates. Processing can include bleaching, baking, grinding, and refining. Processing of carbohydrates greatly increases their glycemic index, a measure of their propensity to elevate blood sugar.
What is the Deal With Hormones?
Hormones regulate how the body stores and releases fat. The hormonal response your body has to food determines whether you store fat or burn it. As far as hormones are concerned, food is a drug–a very powerful drug. Consuming low-glycemic foods, that keep insulin levels steady, will allow stored body fat to burned up as a fuel. On the other hand, high-glycemic foods (especially processed carbohydrates) spike insulin levels, raise blood sugar, and send a double wammy message to your body telling it to (1) store calories as fat and (2)block body fat from being used as fuel. The CrossFit prescription is a low-glycemic diet and consequently severely blunts the insulin response.
Caloric Restriction and Longevity
Current research strongly supports the link between caloric restriction and an increased life expectancy. The incidence of cancers and heart disease sharply decline with a diet that is carefully limited in controlling caloric intake. The CrossFit prescription is consistent with this research. The CrossFit prescription allows a reduced caloric intake and yet still provides ample nutrition for rigorous activity.
Some interesting facts:
Type II Diabetes in America
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. Millions of Americans have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and many more are unaware they are at high risk. In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy. When you eat food, the body breaks down all of the sugars and starches into glucose, which is the basic fuel for the cells in the body. Insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can lead to diabetes complications. (www.diabetes.org)
Age 20 years or older: 23.5 million, or 10.7 percent, of all people in this age group have diabetes.
Age 60 years or older: 12.2 million, or 23.1 percent, of all people in this age group have diabetes.
Men: 12 million, or 11.2 percent, of all men ages 20 years or older have diabetes.
Women: 11.5 million, or 10.2 percent, of all women ages 20 years or older have diabetes. (diabetes.niddk.nih.gov)
Cancer in America
The National Cancer Institute estimates that approximately 11.1 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive in January 2005. About 1,479,350 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2009. Scientific evidence suggests that about one-third of the 562,340 cancer deaths expected to occur in 2009 will be related to overweight or obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition and thus could also be prevented.
Cancer is killing Americans
This year, about 562,340 Americans are expected to die of cancer, more than 1,500 people a day. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the US, exceeded only by heart disease. In the US, cancer accounts for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths.
Obesity in America
America is home to the most obese people in the world. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), obesity in adults has increased by 60% within the past twenty years and obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A staggering 33% of American adults are obese and obesity-related deaths have climbed to more than 300,000 a year, second only to tobacco-related deaths. During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.
- 3.8 million Americans carry over 300 pounds
- With the average adult woman weighing in at a staggering 163
- Perhaps the most shocking statistics underscoring obesity in the United States is that 400,000 Americans (mostly men) fall into a super-massive 400+ pound category
Source: www.cancer.org, www.cdc.gov, www.downtoearth.org, www.americansportsdata.com
