Paleo in US News Report

Ok I'm a little late to the table on this, but I still wanted to share some of my thoughts.  US News released a report ranking the Best Overall Diets and the good news is that the Paleo diet is included on the list.  The bad news is that it's last...my blink reaction to the list is that I want to see the ranking criteria.  Any study or report that includes the Slim Fast Diet and Medi Fast Diet (which feature consuming fortified supplements instead of eating actual food) on the list of the best diets automatically raises a flag for me. 

The Top 20 Best Diets....according to US News:
1. DASH Diet
2. Mediterranean Diet
2. TLC Diet
2. Weight Watchers Diet
5. Mayo Clinic Diet
5. Volumetric Diet
7. Jenny Craig Diet
8. Ornish Diet
9. Vegetarian Diet
10. Slim Fast Diet
11. Nutrisystem Diet
12. Vegan Diet
13. South Beach Diet
14. Eco Atkins Diet
14. Zone Diet
16. Glycemic-Index Diet
16. Medifast Diet
18. Raw Foods Diet
19. Atkins Diet
20. Paleo Diet

Pre and Post Workout Foods

What am I supposed to eat after I work out, what about before I work out? I've gotten a few questions about recommendations on what to eat after you work out.  Figuring out what to eat after a workout is not as easy as "have a protein shake." It's actually a bit of a tricky question to answer, but inevitably it boils down to the "It depends on who you are, what your goals are, and what kind of workout you just did."  Frustrating I know.  The who you are part plays into what you're currently doing with your food. If you are a Paleo follower or eat a Standard American Diet (SAD), what you look to eat after working out may be a little different because you have a different selection of foods to choose from. You also need to work with something that you like and will actually consume after working out.  The recommendations that I have below are primarily Paleo, because I think that you should focus on eating real food as much as you can.  Feel free to read within the guidelines and make substitutes based on what you currently eat within your diet.

So before you can figure out what you eat before or after working out, you first need to figure out what your goals are, for this  post I'm going to cover the following 3 goals:

Goals

1. "Lean out" - Primary Goal is fat loss

2. "Get 70s Big" - Primary Goal is to gain a lot of muscle quickly

3. "Just to Recover" - Primary Goal is to heal your body you can workout again tomorrow

In addition to identifying what your goal is, you also need to consider what your workout will be.  How long is the workout?  Are you doing a Brick training session of bike and run for +2 hour as part of your triathlon training program? Completing a 2m leisurely jog?  6 sets of 400mrepeats with 3mins rest in between?  A relaxing yoga class? The type of workout you do also plays into what and how much pre and post workout food you need in order to fuel your body throughout that workout and then what you need to eat after you're finished.  Another factor to consider during longer workouts is if are planning to consume any fuel - dried fruit, salt, gu, etc. while completing the workout - you want to account for that in your fueling and refueling plan. 

Paleo Resources Support

Crossfit King of Prussia is using the natural motivation of starting a New Year to kick off a primal challenge, to see details of the challenge click here. To help support you on this journey we’ve gathered some of the best resources to help you better understand what you are doing and why you’re doing it. For those who selected to try to Paleo Perfectionist level the material below will be especially helpful. 



Some of my favorite and easy to understand resources on the web are: Whole 9 and Mark’s Daily Apple. I am also super geeked-out on Robb Wolf’s podcasts – although these are a bit science-y so they aren’t for everyone. Personally, I get excited every Tuesday when the new one is released.


Good luck, happy reading, and post to comments if there is something that you’re looking for that you don’t see any references to.


Help from Whole 9, how to explain what the heck you’re doing with this nutritional challenge:

The Paleo Pitch. Whole9 helps you explain how you eat to friends, family and co-workers.


Whole 9’s Perspective on Paleo via the Whole 30: Why to avoid gains, legumes, and dairy - found on the Whole 9 Resources Page:

The Grain Manifesto. Whole9′s simplified explanation of the trouble with grains.


Cereal Grains: Humanity’s Double-Edged Sword. Published by Dr. Loren Cordain


The Dairy Manifesto. Whole9′s simplified take on dairy products.


The Adverse Effects of Milk. An analysis from Dr. Loren Cordain and Pedro Bastos


The Peanut Manifesto. Whole9′s simplified take on peanuts.



Robb Wolf’s Perspective on Paleo and Getting Started:

Paleo Overview -What is the Paleo diet?


Basics of the Paleo diet - Answers about diabetes, cardio vascular disease, autoimmunity, calcium, acid/base balance, and more


Get Started - I want to give Paleo a shot. How do I do it?


Mark’s Daily Apple Resources:
The Definitive Guide to Grains – Why are grains not part of a primal lifestyle and Why Grains are Unhealthy


The Definitive Guide to Dairy – Why dairy is problematic and how to incorporate it (or not) into your primal lifestyle


The Definitive Guide to Sleep - Why sleep is important, and why you need to get more of it!


The Definitive Guide to Fats – a primal lifestyle goes against conventional wisdom of eating a low fat diet, if increasing your fat intake is concerning you, check out this post and see why fat is good for you!

Summary

Need a quick visual of what your food should look like, use the Balanced Bites food pyramid as your Paleo Food Guide.

Milk, Does the Body Good?

There are conflicting opinions when it comes to dairy; I mean, Milk does the body good right?  We live in a country that eats more calcium than any other population yet also as the highest occurrence of osteoporosis.  Something doesn't seem to add up in this scenario.  So let's break it down, do you need to have diary in your diet?  And if you remove it how do you get enough calcium and other vitamins - like Vitamin D that most milk is fortified with?

Milk and dairy products are made up of carbohydrates, fat, and protein like most other foods.  The carbohydrate in milk is Lactose, the protein is Casein, and the fat is Saturated fat.  Now that you know that eating fat doesn't make you fat, I hope you're reconsidering all the skim milk you've been consuming.  Even though I don't include dairy in my diet, I think that dairy is something that can be included in a paleo/primal lifestyle in moderation and from the right sources if it works for you - that's the most important point.  Ideally a Paleo diet that still included dairy would be raw milk straight off a farm.  A general rule of thumb is that the closer the dairy products are to their original state and the aninimals were to eating and living in their natural state the better quality of the product you're eating.

Did you know...

Eating grains, legumes, and dairy cause inflammation in your body because your body actually identifies portions of them as foreign? You can reduce inflammation by removing these things from your food; however, it takes about 30 days to allow your gut to heal from the damage that grains, legumes, and dairy cause. Are you ready to try it for 30 days? Try the Whole 30 program from the Whole 9 as a challenge.