Food for Thought - Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I discussed what the Ancestral Diet is and how I came to incorporate it into my life.  In Part 2, I will provide additional insight into what the diet means to me in practice, how I modify my food intake during and after my athletic endeavors, and what things I am experimenting with in terms of health and nutrition.

First, a brief recap from Part 1.  The ancestral diet means eating in a manner that is congruent with the way our pre-industrial revolution, pre-agricultural revolution forbearers ate. In very simple terms this means no processed foods, including grains and legumes, as well as no dairy, no high fructose corn syrup, and meat protein from sources that are either wild or at least eat foods natural to them.

I know what you’re thinking, it sounds pretty restrictive.  In modern society we have come to accept that grain foods should be a staple, that they always have been, but the reality is that only for a relatively short portion of human history have we had breads and bagels, oatmeal, rice, noodles, and corn, as well all the other wonderful baked goods available to us.  I can’t say how much I miss having a chocolate croissant with my morning espresso following a good workout.  Nevertheless, despite the idea of the food pyramid that’s been the prevalent guide to nutrition for our generation, and despite the emphasis on low-fat, high-carb diets for athletes in the 1980s and 90s, for the vast amount of human history, the diet was simpler, had a different macro-nutrient balance than we eat today, and did not include many of the items in our modern diet, and most especially, did not include grains.

Is eating like our ancestors difficult? Imagine that it’s Saturday in the summertime and you’re grilling on the back deck.  You’re fixing barbecued chicken, or London broil, or maybe salmon.  You’re going to accompany it with grilled sweet potatoes, and a green salad.  That’s a paleo meal!  Or, suppose it’s January in Vermont and you want a hearty meal to warm your frozen body and soul.  So you make beef stew with carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, asparagus, grass fed top round, beef broth, and some spices.  This could have been in our ancestor’s dinner bowl. 



Grilled Albacore Tuna and spaghetti squash with marinara sauce, plus a salad with mesclun greens, avocado, dried cranberries, walnuts, and rasberry vingarette dressing

The reality is that if you roast, grill, saute, bake, stew, or boil meats as the protein part of any meal, then you are eating in a manner similar to our pre-agricultural predecessors.  Add vegetables, fruits, or nuts to the meal and you’re all the way there.  Leave the biscuits off the stew meal, skip the corn with the grilled dinner, eat stir fry or curry without the rice, and it’s easy to adapt what you already eat so that it’s paleo.

In Western society we typically eat a diet consisting calorically of about 15% protein, 35% fat, and 50% carbohydrates.  Our ancestors ate calorically more on the order of 25-30% protein, 30-35% fat, and about 40% carbohydrates. The first obvious observation is that our ancestors’ protein intake was roughly twice what modern averages are, and that we make up the difference by eating more carbohydrates.  A more subtle finding is that proteins and fats cause higher satiety responses in our bodies than carbohydrates.  

While those findings in and of themselves may be significant, the coup de grace not evident from the numbers alone is the fundamental difference in the composition of the carbohydrates.  In the era before the agricultural revolution, the majority of carbohydrates were derived from fresh fruits and vegetables together with roots and tubers, and very little were derived from cereal grains or refined carbohydrates high on the glycemic index (in other words, highly processed grains, sucrose and fructose). There is increasing evidence that carbohydrates, especially the refined carbohydrates that dominate the modern diet, play important roles in the onset and progression of metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Practically speaking, this means that meals should be built around the protein and fat components, with less emphasis and content on the carbohydrates.  In all cases you’re looking for foods that are not processed or have only minimal processing.  I believe that my protein sources optimally should be wild, but as this is difficult to find except for sea food, I focus on finding pastured, grass fed, free range proteins and I place a huge premium on locally raised products so I know the source and I am assured that the butchering and packaging is effectively a small batch process.  I do my best to avoid proteins that come from unknown sources, that have been given growth hormones, raised in a confined setting, or given food that is not natural for that species. 

Today is Tuesday, which is taco night in my household.  Let me use today as a typical day in my life and tell you what I will be eating through my day, including the nutrition taken in during exercise.  I start my day at 4:45 AM and am on my bike by 5 to ride for 1.5 hours.  During this time I take in an energy and electrolyte drink to partially replace what I lose during the session.  Of late I have been favoring coconut water with a little drink mix additive. I follow the bike workout with a 20 minute run and immediately upon finishing I take in a recovery drink consisting of 1 part protein to 4 parts carbohydrate, 16 to 20 ounces.  My preference is a shake containing apple juice, sour cherry juice, frozen berries and peaches, and a scoop of whey protein.  I then pack my food to take to work, which consists of breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

Breakfast today is a hardboiled egg, a banana, a serving of mixed fruit as pineapple, honeydew melon, and strawberries, and a coconut milk yogurt.  For a mid-morning snack I have celery and carrot sticks, which I dip in almond butter.  A little later I eat an apple. 

For lunch I have brought something from the buffet at the grocery store where I shop, Healthy Living in South Burlington.  It consists of herb rubbed chicken wings, a few roasted fingerling potatoes, and sautéed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.  I wash this down by drinking green tea sweetened slightly with unprocessed crystallized bee honey.  I have another banana for dessert. Often I bring leftovers from previous dinners for lunch, or homemade tuna salad using olive oil rather than mayonnaise.

My afternoon snacks are an orange, a fruit and nut bar, a pear, a kiwi, and a small handful of raw walnuts and almonds, maybe another apple.  I drink tea and honey, as well as water, whenever I feel like it.

Dinner is tacos, which are easy, fun, and delicious.  I grew up eating them with corn or flour tortillas, but now I use lettuce instead of a tortilla and I enjoy them just as much.  I indulge in a margarita with my tacos, which remains one of the non-paleo highlights of my week.  I am also fond of espresso and red wine (not usually together) and chocolate, none of which our ancestors ate…..but, I am a modern man and I do not fret about having these treats occasionally and in small quantities.

The tacos consist of grass fed ground beef cooked with onions and spices.  I chop tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, and habanero peppers to put on top, along with other veggies that vary according to season and taste.  I almost always also include avocado or guacamole.  

Paleo Taco
Grass fed ground beef on romaine lettuce, topped by a slice of avocado and fresh tomato, cilantro, green onion and habanero pepper salsa fresca

Dessert is a square or two of good chocolate, or some sorbet.  In either case these do not include high fructose corn syrup and moderation is the key.

I don’t take any supplements, however, I occasionally use a probiotic and I have at times taken fish oil.  More recently I have simply been trying to eat fish more regularly.

Do I cheat? Yes, I do.  My theory is that I can eat almost anything once in a while and it will not make a difference in the long run.  Every so often I have a burger with a bun, or lasagna at a friend’s house, or a cupcake for dessert.  I don’t consider grains, or dairy, or fermented foods to be bad, I just don’t think they should be staples in our diets.

Do I measure, record, and balance my caloric intake? No.  I don’t have the time and I don’t think there are any magic numbers.  I train in excess of 14 hours per week for triathlon, meaning at least 2 hours a day on average.  If I am losing weight or my fatigue is rising when I don’t think it should, then I consider nutrition and whether something in that equation needs to be changed.  Obviously I could be much more exact about it, but I don’t find it necessary.

I have been re-evaluating fats and fat intake this year.  I became an adult at a time when we were encouraged to eat a very low fat diet, especially if we were athletes.  It is still hard for me to escape from what was pounded into me for so many years, that fat is bad.  For a long time as a 30 and 40 something, I eschewed avocados, coconut, nuts and seeds, and fattier meats because I thought they would make me fat, raise my cholesterol, slow me down. 

Over the last 12 months I have steadily increased my fat intake, focusing on natural fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, walnuts, almonds, fish, and small amounts of dark poultry, pork, and beef.  Not only have I not gained weight, I have actually lost weight, feel better during and after workouts, and my cholesterol panel at my annual physical was the best it has been in years.  This is anecdotal, not scientific, but I believe that even though I have been eating the ancestral way for several years, nevertheless, I was still a product of the low fat brainwashing.  By increasing natural, healthy fats in my daily food intake, I believe I have achieved a better nutritional balance.

And at the end of the day, I think that should be our long term goal, more informed, better balanced nutrition that recognizes and leverages our genetic evolution.

Resources:

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/

The Paleo Diet for Athletes, Louis Cordain and Joe Friel

The Paleo Solution, Robb Wolf