‘Nutrition’ Articles
Written by Bob Guere on 14 February 2010
Professor Loren Cordain (www.thepaleodiet.com) is no stranger to the CrossFit community. His contributions to societal education on the Paleo Diet are invaluable. He has written a book titled “The Dietary Cure for Acne“, which is now available in paperback. The following Q & A was recently published in his email newsletter, and is a great teaser. I wanted to share it with all of you, as if we needed another reason to eat what our bodies are designed to eat.
 To our faithful Paleo Diet Newsletter subscribers,
We are proud to announce the publication of the paperback version of The Dietary Cure for Acne. While our readers have known about the relationship between diet and acne for quite some time, this topic has gained more attention recently with the publication of a clinical trial which showed significant results in a group of teenagers following a diet similar to that which we recommend. Though acne affects mainly teenagers, millions of adults worldwide also suffer from this condition. Understanding the impact that diet has on this very visible disease can help us better understand the effect of diet on a wide variety of health conditions.
Editors note: This month we asked Dr. Cordain to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer some questions about The Dietary Cure for Acne.
Q: Dr. Cordain, for years doctors have told the patients that diet has nothing to do with acne and it appears that some of the science may be proving them wrong. What took so long?
Dr. Cordain: Boy, that’s a good question. You never know what’s responsible for this but what I do know is that the information that the notion that diet didn’t cause acne was based on two flawed studies that were published over 30 years ago. The problems with those studies have been pointed out in the scientific literature, but unfortunately, the dermatology community hasn’t yet taken it to heart. They haven’t changed the dogma in their textbooks. We now have three good epidemiologic studies as well as one dietary intervention that say otherwise, so there is good credible evidence to suggest that diet indeed does underlie acne….Continue reading the rest of the article HERE (http://thepaleodiet.com/newsletter/newsletters/v3_5.htm) |
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Written by Bob Guere on 25 January 2010
This blog post by Robb Wolf (via Matt Lalonde) is very specific, and maybe too sciency for most of us, but a great read nonetheless.
I share because it highlights a good point. Without knowing ALL the facts behind studies, the conclusions or results can be misleading at the least, even false. We all rely on subject-matter-experts to scour the studies and provide us with advice and summaries based on their expertise. Occasionally, like in this example, further reading is required.
Do High-fat Diets inhibit Load-Induced Muscle Hypertrophy in Humans?
To the uninitiated, making sense of the vast and ever-expanding nutrition literature may appear to be an incredibly daunting, if not impossible, task. Where does one start and what is the best way to identify legitimate research? Having a scientific background certainly helps but I’d argue that, with sufficient determination, any individual could sift through papers in the field of nutrition and make sense of the mayhem. I thought I would offer a few tips by answering George’s question.
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Written by Bob Guere on 20 January 2010
If you don’t read Mark Sisson’s Blog semi-regularly, you’re missing out. “Marks Daily Apple” is a great primal eating/living blog. His post from January 15th is just rich. Check it out:
Dear Taco Bell,
It has come to my attention that you have recently created a Drive-Thru Diet. You are clearly taking bold new steps to change the way Americans view healthy eating, so I am writing this letter to express my gratitude and enthusiasm and to offer insight for further improvement.
I first noticed your “Drive-Thru Diet” ad on a billboard outside of a childrens’ extra-curricular learning studio in west Los Angeles. Ever the inquiring mind, I visited Tacobell.com for some heavy research. I read Christine Dougherty’s 80 word story about losing 50 lbs over 2 years with Taco Bell. Very convincing. Then I watched TV personality Chris Rose interview four paid actors, and every single actor praised Taco Bell’s seven healthy Fresco menu items. Next I learned from registered dietitian Ruth Carey that some food choices are nutritionally better than others. These people clearly weren’t lying. The Drive-Thru Diet looked legitimate, so I decided to make a Frescolution. I hit a road block when attempting to fill out my pledge. The form required me to fill out “what I know.” I attempted to write, “I live a healthy lifestyle based on the 10 immutable Primal laws validated by two million years of human evolution…,” but Taco Bell overrode that with, “My idea of exercise involves the all-you-can-eat buffet marathon.” Oh well, I suppose what I know isn’t nearly as important as eating Taco Bell Fresco menu items….
Continue Reading pen Letter to Taco Bell…
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Written by Bob Guere on 14 January 2010
Since most of the crew missed “Lynne” yesterday, that WOD will stay on tap for everyone. If you got to do Lynne yesterday, there will be some metcon fun for you tonight.
How’s everyone feeling on the nutrition challenge? Another checkup on Monday, don’t forget to post. This week coming up will be the week we’ll do some tweaks to your diet. Everyone is already showing signs that they need a tweak or two, so we’ll do it after this checkup. Remember how you feel now, how you felt last week, and how that changes after the tweak. This is where posting in the Discussion Group is so helpful. If you tweak and have great results, it’ll be easily quantifiable (so to speak) by looking at your own data.
Posted in Nutrition, Workout of the Day | No Comments »
Written by Bob Guere on 04 January 2010
Now the work begins.
Buy In:
5-10-15 of each
Pushup
Situp
Squat
WOD:
5 rounds
Deadlift, 5 Reps, 225#, 150#
Run 400m
Cash Out:
10 Pullups, 10:00 Turkish Getup work
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Written by Bob Guere on 12 November 2009
From Melissa Byers Blog, Urban Get’s Diesel.
http://www.urbangetsdiesel.com/2009/11/cortisol-management-for-crossfitters.html
Great scienc-y read.
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Written by Bob Guere on 05 November 2009
Regular readers of mine will know the following:
1) I don’t mince words.
2) I don’t claim to be a doctor or nutritionist.
Take that to heart when you read this. In addition to being a CrossFit and CrossFit Kids trainer, I’m also a father. I have a 13 year old daughter, who is also a CrossFitter. A common conversation I have with friends and co-workers usually contains the “what should I eat?” question and the “it’s hard to get the kids to eat [blank]” statement. Give me a break.
Parents, let me speak to you directly. I know we live in the day and age when we let kids do whatever they want and worry about their freedoms, all that crap. It is your job, for 18 years or so, to nurture your children, raise them responsibly, prepare them for adulthood, and impose on them values you believe to be worthwhile. When you let them go into the world, hopefully you have provided them with a set of decision-making skills that will allow them to make smart, educated choices as adults.
If that is your job, (and it is), then why in the world would you let them continue to eat like they do simply because they are kids? I know why, because you’re too lazy and spineless to make the change. I told you I don’t mince words. If you’re willing to go Paleo, or Paleo/Zone, or Primal…any “clean” version of eating, and you find that to be an important part of your life, why WOULDN’T you impress the same on your children? If they think it’s bunk, fine. When they get a job and start providing for themselves, they can eat whatever they want. For now, you’re the boss.
So, let’s cut to the chase. How do you do it? This is terribly simple, and it only requires you to stick to your guns a little. Barring any medical needs, allergies, or other unforeseen circumstances, this will work for anyone with the will power to do it. Here are the three steps to clean up your kids diet, in order of importance.
1) Stop buying crap! Eliminate the crap from your house and your shopping list. Period. Your child physically CANNOT eat a pop-tart that does not exist. For proof of this, sit them down without a pop-tart and try to get them to eat a pop-tart. When you are able to do it, let me know, because you’ve got a kid on your hands that scientists will want to take a look at. Get the picture? They cannot eat what you don’t buy. Sure, you’ll have to deal with a couple weeks of a cranky kid, but they’re going to be mad at you for something else anyway, so you might as well make the most of it. When they get hungry, they’ll eat. I promise you that. If they don’t want hot salmon and broccoli…then they’ll get cold salmon and broccoli. It’s up to them.
2) Talk to your kids about why you buy and eat what you buy and eat. Share with them why a protein source at every meal is important and why grains and sugars should be avoided. Tell them why fat is perceived to be bad, but in reality, it’s good. Children are smart, and will understand you as long as you keep it to their education level. This is also a great time to find out what they really like. You’d be surprised what healthy foods they like, but don’t eat them because you don’t buy them. I did this with my boot camp kids last summer. I gave them the CF Journal 21 Zone lists of favorable and unfavorable foods and a highlighter. Show me what you like! Try it, you might be surprised.
3) Allow them to enjoy social situations with friends, in moderation. We all know what being a pre-teen/teen can be like without the excess stress of not being able to eat burgers and fries on Friday night after the game with everyone else. One trip to “In-and-Out” or Pizza Hut every other week is not going to push them over the edge. It is far better to provide them with unquestionably “good” choices at home and for lunch at school, and allow the freedom to cheat with friends. Guess what? After a while, they won’t want the junk. They’ll learn how bad it makes them feel, and not only will they seek out “better” choices when they’re out, but they’ll start to influence their friends.
That’s it. If you stick to your guns, these three steps will yield a child that is roughly 80% Paleo/Primal, or whatever. More importantly, you’ll give your child a large selection of healthy choices at their disposal as they progress into adulthood.
Many of us did not find the holy grail of proper nutrition until our adult years. Just like CrossFit, don’t you wish you had “Paleo” when you were younger? Be strong and give your kids the tools they need. They will use them.
For the record, this is the exactly how we were able to get our daughter to eat what we eat. The worst thing she gets at the grocery store is ice cream. But, we eat that too now and again, so no hypocrisy on either side. Everything else in the “cheat” realm is all special occasion; visits to friend’s houses, parties, etc. More and more we hear about how she didn’t eat this and that, or how bad she feels after eating certain things. I’ve got a 13 year old that does not eat cereal for breakfast. Bacon and Eggs. Is her diet perfectly clean? Nope. Is mine? Heck no. Is yours? Doubt it. But 80% clean for a 13 year-old is a success story to me. When I find myself worrying about too much fruit, I know it’s time to count my blessings. She’s a great kid, and she’s off to a great start.
Who’s next?
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Written by Bob Guere on 13 October 2009
The holidays are right around the corner! Again! Usually, folks head into this season with a clean diet so they can gorge themselves “guilt-free” at the dozens of family and work gatherings between November and December. Or worse, they wait until January then clean up their act. At what cost? I won’t get into what this yo-yo way of dieting does to your body hormonally. That’s not what this post is about.
I want to do something different this year. I don’t want to gorge. I don’t want to “cheat”. I want a holiday season filled with good food, and good choices. Why eat canned yams when you can cut them fresh, cook them yourself, eliminate sugar and HFCS, add pecans and enjoy! Get a farm-raised turkey instead of a $.99/lb. salt-water-injected plumper. How about fresh market veggies? Tough to find this time of year, but your favorite warehouse store will have plenty, and that’s certainly better than canned anything. There are plenty of Paleo-friendly treats recipes out there that will more than fit the bill for a delicious desert. Spring these on your family this year.
So, from CrossFit California City, to all CrossFitters worldwide, I submit this challenge. For the next 10 weeks or so, let’s clean up our acts so we WON’T cheat! Let’s start now, get back on the wagon, (or get on it for the first time) and head into this joyous season with the confidence that good choices are possible ALL THE TIME! Do what you want; Paleo, Zone, Paleo/zone, whatever. Just eliminate the crap, and get your body ready for the onslaught of temptation. Then when January roles around, you don’t have to worry about your post-holiday “back on the wagon” because you’ll already have a seat.
I’m going to leave this as a “sticky” post on this site. Comment if you’re in! Let’s use our powers of community to change the face of holiday eating!
Are you in?
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Written by Bob Guere on 28 July 2009
***UPDATE***
We have recently started a Q2 (quality and quantity) program. Paleo foods, Zone quantities. For more, click on the Nutrition link at the top of the page.
Paleo. Paleo Diet. Short for Paleo-lithic, meaning the era from millions of years ago to maybe 10,000 B.C. (depending on your philosophical timeline, I won’t argue that today). We’re talking about folks living before any existence of modern agriculture. The Paleolithic diet is considered by many to be a diet consisting of foods our bodies were designed to eat. When our bodies are fueled by the foods that our DNA expects to consume, we find ourselves in a place of health and efficiency few have known during our generations.
Kerry and I recently dove full-on, head-first into the Paleo (www.thepaleodiet.com) way of eating. We’ve known the merits of this way of eating from early on in our CrossFit days, but like many, baby steps were important. We started our CrossFit journey by simply Zoning. (www.zonediet.com) We got rid of a lot of crap from our diet, but still kept a lot of it in our diet. But we saw fat-loss and muscle growth as we were eating more protein, more fats, better carbs and certainly less food altogether. Slowly we deleted most sugars, then most grains. Ultimately, we hung on too tight to our “cheat weekends” so the cycle never really broke completely.
Like many CrossFitters, there comes a time where just zoning doesn’t cut it anymore. We find ourselves in a place of knowledge about performance and nutrition and it starts to become silly that we eat any bread whatsoever. Never mind whole grain, or sprouted wheat, or some other substitute for the white crack. Why eat it at all? The same goes for artificial sweeteners. They’re just substitutes for the real thing, so why eat them at all? Dairy? Do I need it? No. Is it bad for me? There is information about dairy proteins and the digestive system in humans that some folks debate, but I won’t. I don’t need it, so it’s gone now too.
So what are we eating now? Coach Glassman said it best in his now-famous “World Class Fitness in 100 words” when he said; “Eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.” It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
I talk to folks about how I eat, give them that sentence, and it usually met with a question like, “What about BLANK, is that considered a BLANK?” I have come into the habit of responding by saying, “Don’t think of this as a list of foods that you try to fit everything into to make it OK, but rather as a list of foods to eat. If it’s not on the list, don’t eat it.” This invariably will preclude any question about fruit that isn’t whole fruit, grains that act like vegetables, carbonated beverages laced with chemicals and more chemicals, or non-breads that are really just bread. This enlightenment makes eating (and deciding what to eat) a remarkably simple process. Variety becomes a challenge, but it’s a fun challenge. Finding new ways to cook the same foods can be hard sometimes, but it encourages us to explore our options and find new things to eat that we might not have tried before.
Ultimately, the goal isn’t about food, the goal is better health, longer life, and increased performance during our CrossFit workouts. A lot has been written, by folks a lot smarter than me, about the health benefits of the Paleo diet. There just isn’t anything bad to say. I’ve yet to come across anyone who’s tried it and felt worse. Almost exclusively, folks feel so good they can’t believe they waited this long. “I could’ve been eating like this all along!” Yep. However, as twenty-first century humans, we’re conditioned into eating packaged, processed, convenient sources of energy that counteract everything our bodies were meant to do.
Our bodies want to regulate body fat stores. Yet we continually stuff our faces with sugar and flour, driving up insulin, which literally mandates fat storage. Our bodies store the energy but we counteract the next step. Instead of using the fat for energy, we’re forced to store more because our insulin gets spiked again by our next high-carbohydrate meal. This cycle happens again, and again. This continues all summer, all winter… year after year. We do not live off the land like our distant relatives so many years ago. Our bodies are in a continued state of storage for an eventual day that isn’t coming. No famine, no fasting, no drought to dry our lands, or winter that depletes our food stores. We eat, and eat and eat and eat 365 days a year. And we get fat!
This regular intake of processed carbohydrate and sugars, and the subsequent spike in insulin does many other things to our bodies besides the excess storage of fat. It causes inflammation, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood lipids, diabetes and many other diseases only associated with modern, western civilization. I am well under-qualified to talk about these topics, but a quick google search or visit to your favorite medical reference site to find the connections between carbohydrate, insulin, and these conditions, will provide you with more information that you probably want to find. There are a few good books that even the layman can read. Checkout the library or your local bookstore in the health section. The effects of carbohydrate and insulin on our health are serious and widespread, and this information is really beginning to flow to the masses.
In closing, I want to introduce you to my brother, Rich. He’s not a CrossFitter….yet. 
He’s 3 years younger than I, almost 36 years old now. Like me, he had some pretty bad eating habits. He recently was given a wake-up call from his doctor. I asked him to write a paragraph about why he’s now almost a month into the Paleo diet, and how he feels.
Just about 1 month ago today, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. My blood sugar level was 155 fasting and 255 after meal. At the age of 35 I was a bit surprised by this diagnosis, but not totally. I ate what I wanted. I ate too much sugar, too much bread, too much pasta, too much processed crap. I am 6 foot 1 and I weighed 270 on my day of diagnosis. I also have been on medication for high blood pressure for 2 years. This diagnosis was unacceptable to me at this age with 2 young boys at home. Literally seconds after my doctor told me, I decided it was time to change for real. I’ve tried switching to diet soda before, and lowfat this and that. Turkey instead of red meat or bacon… whatever. None of that did squat for me. My brother had been telling me for some time now about how to get healthier… and I just ignored it. But now was the time to try something real. I immediately cut my sugar and carbohydrates to as little as possible. I follow a simple plan that my brother taught to me that he calls “Paleo”. It basically consists of eating meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. I cheat with some cheese here and there, and the occasional sugar free snack. But for the most part I stick to the rules 99%. Well to make this long story short, in one month I have lost as of today (28 July) 23 pounds, gotten my blood sugar COMPLETELY under control, usually in the 90 range fasting and 110 range after a meal. And I’ve gotten my blood pressure down to where I’m certain my doctor will take me off the meds next time I see her. And most impressive to me about this diet is that I feel great. I really thought that cutting carbs would make me feel tired, but it doesn’t. And I’ve learned to eat so many more foods that I never liked before. I missed sweets for maybe 3 or 4 days. But now I don’t miss them at all. I don’t think about cookies. When I’m hungry I think about a nice piece of fish pan fried in olive oil with some pepper and lemon juice on it. That’s my new candy. This is how we were meant to eat. I just feel it. ~Rich
That’s from the mouth of a Paleo-newb. Only one month in and he already “gets it”. While he did this for health reasons, the quality-of-life effects are already apparent to him. His wife is on the train with him, as are his two boys. One decision has changed four lives. Why not you? Why not today?
Posted in Articles, CrossFit Cal City, Nutrition | 1 Comment »
Written by Bob Guere on 22 June 2009
From my Blog “Bob’s CrossFit Blog” (original, I know).
Time to do more walkin-the-walk instead of just talkin-the-talk.
I give moderately detailed nutrition advice to any one who asks. I preach the “eat more fat, eat more protein, lose the sugar” mantra to everyone willing to listen. I have pretty sound anecdotal and empirical evidence to go along with the “new science” that is finally making it’s way into the public realm. I know how to calculate zone blocks for folks, how to critique their current diets and recommend changes.
Then I go home and order pizza once a week and my cheat “day” turns into cheat “weekends”. Time to buck up and put my money where my mouth is, and many other cliche’s.
Starting today, I’m as close to 100% Paleo as I can get. I’m not ditching the zone completely, I still will have fat, protein and carbohydrate with every meal, it’s the quality of what I’m going to eat, and maybe more importantly, what I’m not going to eat, that is key. I’m ditching dairy… I know, I know. Milk is good. I love it and there’s nothing wrong with it. However, I can’t tell someone to drink it for “A” when many people do not because of “B” without experiencing “B”. So I’m off dairy. I’m also finally getting rid of artificial sweeteners for all the reasons I already knew. Just bad stuff. Milk might be back, artificial sweeteners will not.
So, what am I eating? It’s simple, and Coach Glassman outlined it in the now famous “World Class Fitness in 100 words…”. “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and sees, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.” That’s all folks. But, that leaves me with all the meat I already love and eat, veggies, fruit, nuts, eggs… all the yummerific stuff about clean eating. It get’s rid of the grains, breads, sugars and processed crap that I was letting back in too often.
I pose this challenge, or better yet, this question, to fellow CrossFit trainers. What example are you setting for your clients? Shouldn’t we be the example of what we preach? I will go out on limb and say many of us already do pretty well. But could we do better? Nutrition is such an important pole in the tent, wouldn’t it behoove us to show our clients how important it is? How often do you hold nutrition classes or workshops? I’ve yet to hold one, but I do cover nutrition in my foundations course.
So, another new leaf to turn over today. Black coffee. No ranch dressing on my veggies. But plenty of the good stuff to satisy and fuel me for life.
Posted in Articles, CrossFit Cal City, Nutrition | 1 Comment »
