First things first, I have to say, the Paleo diet wasn't really my idea. Not. At. All.
I probably would have continued pounding pavement and pushing weights, going through the cycles of weightloss success, injury, regression, retraining until well, forever. We didn't eat "unhealthy", and I could maintain myself at a fairly reasonable bodyweight by training (both weights, and running at this point), but when training stopped, so did the weight maintenance.
It was my wife that brought up the idea of going paleo - she had been working out, running, doing yoga and her weight was actually going up. She'd given up sweets (cut way back since not working at the coffee shop), exercised more than she ever had, and also weighed more than she ever had. The weight wasn't coming off, it was going on. I think that was why she decided, "What's supposed to be working, isn't working for me, I've got to try something else." Oh yea, she started to develop wicked shin splints, so couldn't keep going. Not. At. All.
Enter Karl (Chandra's coworker who organizes the sports performance program at the school)- directed her to some Paleo living stuff.
So we looked, and the biggest change is not eating grains. I outright objected. Not that I have an attachment to grains or anything, but it just seemed not right. Grains are part of the Canadian food guide. Your body needs them, right? So I started looking into it (Chandra, afterall, did follow me through a long bout of vegetarianism, and it wasn't easy for her).
I started with simple questions (I spent 2 days at work looking this up, as opposed to actually working... ):
What is in grains nutritionally(as a generality, assuming WHOLE grains from a variety of sources):
-protein, carbohydrate, fibre, thiamin, riboflavin, ,niacin, folacin, iron, zinc, magnesium
Then more specific - what is in grains, nutritionally, that you can't get anywhere else?
Nothing that I was able to find in a definative sense. All the macronutrients listed above can be obtained by eating other sources of food, namely vegetables, fruits, and meats.
Okay, why ignore them in the paleo standpoint?
Gluten, phytates, insulin resistance.
Okay, lets start with phytates - a component of some high-fiber foods, including many cereal grains that may, in excessive amounts, cause constipation or interfere with the body's ability to absorb minerals. Actually, when I dug into this, vegetables and fruit seemed to also carry more minerals in general, so if you eat lots of vegetables, then you'd probably not be missing out on much anyways.
Alright, Gluten - apparently 1-2% of people are ceilacs. That seems pretty staggering at first. Really, that many people? Well, apparently. Plus, according to a couple celiac webpages (they have lots of information about feeding the body w/o grains regardless of what you call the diet, they're only ill when eating grains) the body activates the immune system in response to gliadin - a fragment of gluten. Celiacs have greater response response to this but some non-celiacs show an immune response when exposed to the fragments from gluten as well.
I didn't touch insulin resistance yet, I found it in other stuff.
Then my studies took me into "low-carbing". Item one - ketosis, what is it, how does it happen, is it dangerous/side effects. Ketosis is what happens when your body starts burning fats and proteins for energy. You can see it start to happen as a loose guideline, when your carbohydrate intake drops below 50g a day (fasting, light eating day...etc). Its not generally dangerous for short periods of time, say one day here or there, but can be for long periods of time (because you're obviously not eating enough...) if not under the care of a doctor. The exception is if your insulin dependant (juvenile type) diabetic - then what happens is the keytones + sugar can caus the PH of your blood to drop, leading to keytone acidosis. Forcing your body, apparently, into ketosis is good for weightloss, your body starts to produce HGH (so that muscle is spared), reduces insulin resistance and oddly enough ketogenic diets can sometimes be used to help treat epilepsy according to an article I stumbled across on wikipedia.
While looking into paleo diets I saw a startling number of comments from diabetics, and details for diabetics. When I dug into low carb diets, it turns out that alot diabetics find success regulating their blood sugar levels by eating a paleo diet, or other low carb diet, particularly, if they have the "adult onset type". Their blood sugar levels remain more even, they can maintain medication (whereas alot of diabetics are on a steady uphill climb with their meds) and in some case reduce the types/quantity of medication they are on. This might have something to do, I'm guessing, with the fact that one of the hormones your body uses to start gluconeogenesis (making energy from protein) is sometimes used to help medicate diabetics (I wish I could recall where I came across that information too, I'll have to start using a log book when looking for some of this stuff in the future).
What about my cholesterol - well, it turns out I can expect my HDL (Healthy) and LDL(typically regarded as not healthy) to both rise. Not a terrible thing, since emerging research seems to indicate that doctors should also be looking to ratios rather than just hard limits for cholesterol when it comes to cardiovascular disease risk. (Increased HDL can offset increased LDL, while increasing both increases Total, if the total:HDL ratio stays the same then I'm likely in the same boat at the end of the day as far as risk is concerned.) I can also expect my blood triglycerides, circulating fat, to drop. This is important because I will have to request a specific type of cholesterol test because your LDL number is calculated by subracting HDL and triglycerides from the Total cholesterol number. The specific test will actually provide a count for the LDL. At the end of the day, if a doctor tells me I need to be medicated, I'm still going to tell them to "Go to Hell." . Its happened already when one told me I needed meds for high blood pressure, but the meds would give me headaches and there may be some side effects in bed...
What about fibre? Well it turns out that soluble fibre is also highly available in vegetables and insoluble in nuts/seeds. You can get what you need elsewhere, is what it boils down to. As far as staying full - lean protein trumps fat and fibre in terms of staying full.
It took ALL that for me to even consider giving up grains and trying the paleo diet. 30 days probably isn't going to kill me, so I figured what the hell?
What Primal is for me:
Replacing most of the removed grains with vegetables. The amount of vegetables is staggering at times. We're having to try new ones just to see whats out there and because they'll most definately get eaten. Staples include onions, mushrooms, spinach, kale, carrots, yams, avacados, sprouts.
I've cut back on dairy to 1 or 2 servings a day. Usually 2, but Chandra and I were on the upper at 3 servings a day. Usually some plain yogurt, and maybe some cheese, occaisonally cream in my coffee. We try to avoid sweetened stuff. Every once in a while, I'll tap into some cottage cheese. YUM!
Regulated oil intake - it's olive oil, coconut(flesh/milk/cream), fish oils and butter/ghee. No canola or vegetable oils.
About 5-6 servings of "Meat" a day - nuts, meat, fish(increased), eggs. At more than 40% of your daily calories from protein your body starts to waste it (expell it in urine & feces) so this seems like a pretty good compromise and just a guideline. (2 eggs, handful of nuts, a large piece of meat for example)
Results
I started into training again at my 'worst' condition in January 195 lb, 18% Body Fat. (cold december = not as much training, but it's not really my worst, I weight 200 in Lamont and pr- university I clocked in at around 240)
Chandra and I started into Primal blueprint with me at 190 lbs, and about 16% BF (no lean mass change) in the middle of February. With my normal training I can maintain about 187-188 lbs in the summer, so around 14% BF. At my lowest (when I could run 1/2 marathon and was clocking 40-50 km a week, yoga, swimming and weights) I weighed 185 lb 11% BF.
At my last body fat check I was 185 lbs and 13.5% BF (Mar 1) - pretty much an analog to the weight loss - but nothing that running hasn't been able to accomplish to date.
Where I am now (this week averaged): 182 lbs, Not sure on BF, assuming no lean mass change 12%, I think my BF is realistically less less because there has been a noticible change in muscle mass in my legs & arms (as in more of it). I'm also starting to see my little ablets (the ones at the top) starting to pop again which I havn't seen since the extensive training noted above. But here's the caveat - I'm only "training" 3-4 days a week, at 30-45 min each. I've "run" 3 times since switching (every other week approx, and I can still pop off a 10k although they're boring near home). I work sprinting into my workouts once a week.
So that's 8 lbs and at least 4% BFin a little over a month. Pretty solid I'd say.
Chandra is at 11 lbs of loss in that same time frame. Her workout schedule is DRASTICALLY reduced and much lower than mine.
I thought it was water loss at first, but Chandra drinks more water now and I still consume the same amount of fluids over the course of my day with no signs of dehydration.
Suprises
We cheated on one day for the diet - it was awful. I got SUPER bloated, and gassy. It wasn't pleasant, so I'll be hard pressed to do it again, except for waffles. I'll always cheat for my waffles.
Food tastes better. It sounds weird, but really it does. A banana, for example, tastes SO Much sweeter. Green leafy's that were too tart before are much more palletable, and onions... OMG onions. So good.
Cooking is easy, suprisingly. If I'm in a hurry, some veggies and a piece of meat, or a salad. If I want something fancy, its still pretty easy. I'd bet Chandra and I spend less time in the kitchen now than before. Some dishes are wicked fast, like cauliflower rice, which can take 3 min to prepare. A big breakfast can be made in about 15 min (omelette), to a quick yogurt dish (2 min w/ nuts, coconut, fruit and yogurt).
I can skip a meal if I get busy at work and not be a hateful, angry beast when I get home. Seriously, this is a great thing. Even at my worst moments now, its nothing compared to before. More importantly - so can Chandra. If she skipped a meal she'd get dizzy (if we were shopping, or anything like that we'd have to stop and go get food immediately)
I can sleep through a night without needing to wake up and eat at 2 am. It sounds weird, but it was not uncommon for my blood sugar to crash in the middle of the night so bad that I needed to eat, or I'd start getting violently ill. Actually, by "not uncommon", I mean it happened pretty much every night. I havn't been needing to eat in the middle of the night the same way and I've noticed many more nights that I sleep all the way through to the morning.
I am a bit more regular now than when I was eating all that needed fibre as a general rule. This is more me, Chandra probably hasn't noticed a change. She's still in the bathroom at 7:10 like clockwork.
I don't have to count calories or worry as much about portion control. 2500 calories in a day of vegetables + meat is a LOT of food. Seriously. Plus the increased meat actually is keeping me more full than our previous fare.
It's actually been suprisingly easy, all things considered.
So I'll keep you up to date with what my body does - Maybe I'll go get another BF check or something in a month just to share. I won't be posting anything until Friday I think. I may get ambitous and put up my recipe for cheesecake, but thats optimistic.
Cheers,
Pat
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Interesdting Pat..... I am intriqued to see what a registered dietician has to say about this diet... its not that i am skeptical i just like to hear all sides of things ha-ha. Like if one was a runner or did do a lot of physical activity in a day (an athlete) would grains be a necessity? ... thanks for the pondering blog.
ReplyDeleteS
I am happy to see the positive changes. You can pretty much sub my name in there for yours because we have experienced the same thing. Back in my chronic cardio/triathlon days I was married to the fridge and my blood sugar spikes (caused by eating copious grains/vegetarian foods) led to extreme mood changes. I would also require tons of activity to burn off the amount of food I required to balance my blood sugar/energy levels. Now, I only need 30 minutes a day (5 x a week) and I can easily miss meals if necessary with a more positive result on the body comp. I have more muscle mass and less body fat than I did in my triathlon days where I did 15-20 hours of training a week (cardio/intervals/weights/dynamic movement). all in all, life is so much better eating this way. I am happy to have been the one to show Chandra the "way". Keep posting, I enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that's one spot where I hadn't gone through but I did look at, I have found athletes who do follow this kind of diet.
ReplyDeleteThere was a recent post on marksdailyapple from a ironman triathelete who follows a more paleo diet and I've found an ultrathoner that blogs his diet + exercises - he follows a pretty strict paleo diet (http://primalrunner.blogspot.com/ much more strict than I currently follow).
As an athelete you probably do have to modify the diet to accomodate the constantly depleted glycogen stores (particularly if you're clocking a lot of km and high intensity training). I am not an athlete - I don't want to train all the time like that, and I certainly won't have time for it in the fall when I start my Masters - My current time committment is about what I can afford.
http://www.thepaleodiet.com/store.shtml#thepaleodiet They have a book called the paleo diet for atheletes that addresses the specific concerns for athletes - but I believe they're general comment is grains arent necessary. You can apparently replenish your glycogen stores by eating extra yams, some potatos, and extra fruit, rice if you feel so inclined, is also probably an option as it doesn't generally have gluten (some enriched rice may and you have to make sure you rinse the rice).
That being said, I don't think it'd be realistic to switch from a conventional athlete's diet to this one while actually training to meat a goal - you'd probably want to time it with your lowest training periods because there are some changes, and probably more things to iron out with high levels of activity. I'll be outright honest - I would not be able to eat like this at this very instant and be clocking 40-50K in a week. Not happening. 6 months to a year down the road once I've settled into the diet a bit more, maybe. There is some balancing to be figured out at the start and I think I'd have a hard time figuring it all out with that kind of energy expenditure. www.fitday.com has been extremely useful for me. It is pretty easy when eating like this to only eat 2200 cal/day and not be hungry which means its also pretty easy to lose weight. I expect weight loss to stop at 180 lbs for me (which will probably even out to about 9-10% BF)
Karl might be able to comment on this a bit more as an athlete switching to paleo. If you go to his blog http://karlmacphee.com and look at his training log, he still does some solid training.
As for a dieticians perspective, since you work(ed? I know CLG left, but she may have been replaced) with two, you can probably approach them and see what they say. If you're specifically interested in getting a whole picture I think its probably best to approach dieticians who work with diabetics and celiacs to see if they actually miss out on anything nutritionally by eliminating grains from their diet (celiacs sometimes keep rice in the mix, but not always).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.diabetes.ca/files/CJDSep06Low-carb%20diets.pdf this is a canaidan diabetes association resource/study on low carbs, weight loss, and effects on blood lipid levels and weight managment in diabetics. It does show improvements in overall cholesterol/lipid levels, but I think there are other studies showing that those positive effects decrease once you reach an isocaloric state - as stated before I expect my HDL and LDL to both rise, which is contrary to the research in the link - according to the research paper there, I should actually expect a much nicer profile than I currently do with higher HDL and lower LDL. I kind of wish I'd had a baseline on cholesterol prior, but I don't.
For comparison, they're defining "low carb diet" as less than 45% of your caloric intake from carbo hydrates - I'm aiming for about 25-30% which works out to about to the 100-150 g of carbohydrates a day. Some of the diets in the study restrict to less than 20g of carbohydrates in a day - thats unrealistic for a prolonged success in my opinion because you can't even enjoy fruit at that level, but they also have information for diets that strongly resemble a paleo profile (around 120-170g)
I look at it this way - nobody questions a vegetarian who eliminates a significant source of protein (which is a building block for the body) but the elimination of grains seems to be particularly controversial. I'm not eliminating carbohydrates - I'm getting them from other sources - vegetables and fruits, which conveniently are more nutrient dense, so I'm getting more nutrition from "the same" caloric intake.
(sorry about the two parts, apparently I was long winded O.o)
Well I'll give you credit for at least doing some research yourself. I do agree that if you aren't clocking a lot of hours in the gym or on the pavement a large source of carbohydrates probably isn't necessary and that is why people tend to gain weight. I am not against you on vegetable intake by any stretch. I eat a ton of veggies myself but i am not a huge protein fan. I probably eat more eggs than actual meat. I don't particularly like the way meat tastes and I like my meat way overcooked because I am a freak (but that is a blog in itself!!!)
ReplyDeleteAlso I do question a vegetarian who eliminates a significant amount of protein i think all foods belong except for HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! The number one fact and cause for Obesity
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/index.xml?section=topstories
I am not against this paelo diet I am just not sure it fits for me. I can't seem to be bothered to measure how much carbohydrates are in a yam or a carrot or a raspberry for that matter. I just like the taste of fruits and veggies, and peanut butter. I also eat mostly all local foods and I am a huge fan of slow food.
http://www.slowfood.com/
I think there is room for healthy fat, but I don't agree that higher levels of LDL is good. I have had a cholesterol test done. Guess what it came out as HIGH cholesterol. I then had to get a very serious test done because i was 22 at the time and they found out that the reason i had high cholesterol was because I had a significant amount of HDL (olive oil and avacado!!!) which in has lowered my LDL significantly. I don't agree with basking everything in butter and ghee and i think olive oil is still healthier than butter
http://journals.lww.com/ejcpr/Abstract/1994/06000/Traditional_Greek_diet_and_coronary_heart_disease.3.aspx (wish i could get the full article).
Anyways I think that which ever way you want to put it any diet can work if you want to make it work. For me I just want balance. I want good food, organic, local if i can food. I don't want meat that is hyped on antibiotics or treated unfairly, I don't want pre-packed meals, I don't want high fructose corn syrup, i don't want aunt jamamia syrup for my waffles (I want maple syrup after all i just read an article that is contains anti-oxidants).. most importantly i don;t want something my great grandma wouldn't recognize as food!
I am glad you are finding it successful but my god I couldn't live without pizza (I eat 2-3 times a week, homemade mostly). Its a comfort food, a run a way food, a food that is safe to eat in all countries for the most part!
Well, i guess I am done my rant and raving for now... I say if people moved more in general doing general chores like, walking, and doing the dishes, and vaccuming, they would have a better metabolism, and if they ate natural food and not high fructose corn syrup (which is in everything, virtually everything in a box) then we would be a better society.. oh and maybe get rid of "we are in a hurry we need mcdonald's mode" maybe we would communicate better as a society too..
Ugh.. aaaaand I am done...
Sara
Haha,
ReplyDeleteYou commented on not counting - I really don't now that I've figured out the serving sizes. I never could be bothered to count calories and that really hasn't changed. I did need to use fit day for the first week to make sure I ate enough - it was easy to eat the same portion of food, but eat way fewer calories.
Eggs=protein too. A large, cooked egg probably floats at around 13g of protein and 13g of fat in it. We also are trying to avoid the antibiotics/hormone treated foods - so we've been shopping organic for a while and moving more into wild/free range meats (Free range meats are also generally leaner). Meats are trimmed of visible fat before eating. And they are still cooked - I'm not eating raw meat.
Not all of our foods are 'basked' in butter & Ghee, we do also use olive oil. Butter and ghee is easier/safer to cook with though because it is much less likely to burn (ghee has the highest smoking point of any food oil, except I think for coconut, and olive oil the lowest - once its smoking it's burnt. In an engine, once the oils been burnt, its no good.) Chandra seems to have miscommunicated that. What we don't use is canola, sunflower, and soy oil (which are also in just about everything). And we don't eat foods that have been stripped of their fat artificially (IE non fat dairy) because there is significant nutrient loss that has to be replaced. There are lots of steamed greens, lots of salads, and tons of raw veggies. Nearly all our dressings are home made.
I also don't particularly belived an increase in LDL is good, but I don't necessarly agree that if I were to see it increase by a small amount it would be bad if it's offset by an increase in my HDL - its pretty much a non-change. That being said, the diabetes papers do show that I should expect to see it drop favorably. And I also will see my blood triglycerides drop - this is circulating fat in my blood.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8543372.stm
You're right, I think you can make any diet work for you, in terms of heart health. You're also very right on the HFCS part and the increased incidental movement part.
"For me I just want balance. I want good food, organic, local if i can food." - Me too. If you're not eating HFCS, shopping organically, cooking your own food, eating wreckless amounts of veggies, you're probably eating closer to this than you actually realize. The only difference, is I'm not eating bread, pasta or rice. (The rice probably isn't too local anyways...)
For frying, I use grape seed oil (it actually has a high smoking point) you can't buy it everywhere though i have only seen it at the Italian Market.
ReplyDeleteI think we have some things in common for sure. I also enjoy picking people's brains apart and playing devils advocate for sheer fun and learning.
I know you don't eat raw meat (although my dog sure loves it!) but to be honest my dog probably has a better diet than all of us! His food is insane, all local made in Alberta, and costs me a fortune but after all he is my child and part of my family so if i don't eat crap he doesn't either!
What I meant about meat was that I have a fear.. yes fear like i should go seek some therapy about undercooked meats (poor Tyson!!) I have had food poisoning (be it in another country..) but I don't want to ever feel like that again lol! So i literally cook my meat till its like dryer(sp??) than peice of firewood. ha-ha.
Anyways... we are going to be teammates soon and you are going to have to find a recipe for cookies that don't have grain in them because we are team cookie monster and everyperson should feel like they belong by eating a cookie :).
Also, yes rice is not local... but it is local when you are in china or Laos haha. Also I think its hard for me to get past grains because i do a lot of things where i have to pack food with out a fridge for days such as mountaineering, travelling, etc. what would i eat?? Grains is a safe food when you are in Tibet and the funny thing is.. all i ate was bread seriously for 4 months and i lost 12 lbs (now that said it was probably a large combination of things such as not eating enough, walking 182823232232 steps a day, and literally sweating my fat off!)
Anyways, kudos to keeping up with the blog. Also I know eggs have protien lol (give me some more credit than that haha).
S
its probably more like a scone - but it looks like a cookie.
ReplyDeletehttp://thisprimallife.com/2009/10/grain-free-primal-apple-cardamom-breakfast-popover-recipe/
I just typed for about 30 minutes and then crash! I will take some time to post something on my blog this weekend which will hopefully answer some of Sara's concerns.
ReplyDeleteKarl