Paleo Challenge

[peterbound]

Well, i just sent my wife off for deployment, and am bored as hell at work, so what better to do with my time than to make myself suffer through a strict paleo diet 30 day challenge.

I invite any and all to join me, summer is here and I think everyone would like to be in the best shape possible, and as discussed in the HE threads nutrition is a HUGE component of body comp. Not only will a strict elimination/paleo diet help with body comp, but should straighten out any other types of metabolic derangement people are suffering from (known or unknown). I will be posting recipes, food intakes, and WODs for all to see (even if you don't care) so feel free to jump in!

The premise:

Man has been wandering around this planet in one form or another for a couple million years (Cro-Magnon, Homo-erectus, Homo Sapiens) living a hunter gatherer lifestyle. Agriculture, as we know it, is at most about 12,000 years old. We've built a food industry based on grains that our ancestors wouldn't have been able to access in the abundance they are now available. Nor would we have eaten them as they were difficult to digest since they are essentially grasses - best left to the consumption of our food sources in order to turn them into more useful proteins. Genetically we are almost identical to our ancestors. However, our foods no longer resemble what they ate. The intent of a paleo way of eating is to nourish our bodies as they evolved to be nourished - not the way that grain producers and General Mills, Kraft Foods and Nabisco tell us we should.

The goals:

Give yourself 30 days to repair the damage processed foods have inflicted.

Improve how you look, feel and perform.

Regain insulin sensitivity.

"Reset" your taste buds to enjoy the flavor of real foods.

The approach:

The only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days. Anything less and you are selling yourself, and your results, short. You may start to see and feel improvements within just a few days, but according to Robb Wolf and Mat Lalonde, the healing process takes significantly longer. And… no cheating. Just ONE cheat could irritate your digestive tract, promote an inflammatory response, upend your insulin sensitivity and send you running for the nearest Dunkin Donuts. It will ruin the effect of the “reset button” you are trying to push. This isn’t me being a hard-ass, or insisting that you tough it out to prove to yourself you can do it. This is a fact – the only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days, no cheating.

The "rules" (as taken from Melissa Urban's Whole30 blog):

Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, some fruit, and good fat from nuts, seeds, coconut, olives/olive oil and avocado. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re fresh and natural.

1. Do not eat dairy. This includes butter, cheese (hard and soft), yogurt (even Greek) and milk (including cream in your coffee or tea).

2. Do not eat grains. This includes bread, rice, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, corn and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa and sprouted grains.

3. Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (soy, black, kidney, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts. (No peanut butter, kids.)

4. Do not eat or add sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc.

5. Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, processed bars (like Zone bars), dairy-free creamers, etc.

6. Do not drink alcohol, in any form.

7. Do not eat white potatoes. It’s kind of arbitrary, but one, they’re a nightshade <http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62> , and two, sweet potatoes and yams are a more nutrient-dense option, so go for those instead. (On that note, if you have serious inflammation issues like arthritis, you may want to consider avoiding all nightshades for 30 days.)

8. Most importantly… do not try to shove your old, crappy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold. This means no “Paleo-fying” existing less-than-healthy recipes – no “Paleo” pancakes, pizza or ice cream.

9. I will be limiting my carb intake to around 50 - 100gs a day. This is only my thing and is an attempt to help myself lean out.

A few concessions. These are less than optimal foods that we are okay with you including in moderation.

1. Processed Meat. On occasion, we are okay with organic <http://www.applegatefarms.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?id=2942> chicken sausage and these types of things (provided they are nitrate, dairy, gluten and casein-free), and high quality bacon, deli meat, and jerky.

2. Nuts. We do not want you cracking out on nuts and nut butters, people. Almond butter is acceptable – buy the organic (no sugar added) if possible.

3. Dried Fruit. In general, careful with the fruit. Use dried fruit and Larabars in serious moderation, and only if it doesn’t send you running for the nearest candy dish.

4. Non-”Paleo” Vegetables. We’re fine with green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas. While they’re technically a legume, they’re far more “pod” than “bean”, and we want you to eat your veggies.

5. Coffee and black tea. We’re okay with coffee (black, or with a little coconut milk) in moderation, and only if it doesn’t interfere with sleep. Usually, that means none after noon. If you really want to go hardcore and reset your body’s sensitivity to caffeine, skip the coffee/tee for the 30 day period as well.

6. Vinegar. While it’s technically not “Paleo”, we’re fine with using it in small quantities as a salad dressing. But use lemon or lime juice when you can.

7. Salt. While some “approved” foods like olives or bacon will have some salt in them, go easy when adding salt to your food. And if you must, go for sea salt.

Pick your pony:

Decide what your personal goal is. And stay focused.

If this is about leaning out for you go easy on the nuts and added fat.

If you want to gain some size, do some research and find Robb Wolfs 3000 calorie curry recipes - you've got some eating and heavy lifting to do.

If this is performance/ metcon based... you've got more than 30 days. Typically you will feel a crash during your 3rd week. Its temporary. Don't quit. Push through. If it's lingering, look at upping your fats (depending on goals) and reassess in a week.

Include these supplements:

Fish oil - go here and calculate: http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/ - do what it says

Vitamin D: Robb Wolf recommends 5,000+ IU

Resources:

www.thepaleodiet.com <http://www.thepaleodiet.com>

www.robbwolf.com <http://www.robbwolf.com>

www.whole9life.com <http://www.whole9life.com>

www.everydaypaleo.com <http://www.everydaypaleo.com> (great recipes)

www.marksdailyapple.com <http://www.marksdailyapple.com> (not a favorite of the Whole30 crew as he tends to water things down and make it easy for people to stray by "allowing" Neolithic foods)

[jaeherys]

I have a friend who is doing this and he swears by it.

[Zoë Sumra]

Can you explain why beans are off limits? Like black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans and the like?

I'd be interested to hear why dairy's off the menu for everyone, given that the human pattern of lactose intolerance quite clearly indicates that humans have indeed evolved to consume dairy in the areas of the world where cows are common. I get most of the paleo theorising, but not that part. (Or the honey, actually.)

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

6. Do not drink alcohol, in any form.

HAHAHAHA

GTFO

[peterbound]

Can you explain why beans are off limits? Like black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans and the like?

Beans contain Lectins, lectins are not paleo.

Lectins are essentially carb-binding proteins universally present in plants (and animals). Just as they protect plant species from Grok-sized predators, lectins also support other immunological functions within plants and animals (against pathogense, parasites, etc.) They also assist in other functions like protein synthesis and delivery in animals. They’re relatively sticky molecules, which makes them effective in binding with their sought after sugars but undesirable for our digestion, in which their binding powers can lead them to attach to the intestinal lining and wreak havoc.

Let’s go back to the intestine again. (Some field trip, eh?) Lectins’ stickiness allows them to bind with the lining, particularly the villi, of the small intestine. The result? Intestinal damage (with impaired cellular repair potential), cellular death as well as compromised intestinal villi, which means reduced absorption of other nutrients, including minerals and protein. Add to this altered gut flora, which can allow certain harmful bacterial strains like E. coli to run rampant. Furthermore, because the body is now responding full-time to the needs of the injured gut lining, proteins and other resources are redirected from other basic growth and repair processes. Furthermore, lectins have been associated with leptin resistance (PDF), a pre-diabetic condition linked to obesity.

Perhaps the most insidious impacts lectins can leave in their wake is this: leaky gut. Leaky gut is a term for the breach in the intestinal lining created by lectins hand in hand with other antinutrients. Once the intestinal breach exists, lectins and other particles (like partially digested food, toxins, etc) can “leak” into the bloodstream.

Once lectins open the door, so to speak, out of the small intestine, they and other fugitive particles are now free to move about the body and bind to any tissue they come across (anything from the thyroid to the pancreas to the kidneys). Of course, the body reacts to these invaders by directing an attack on these particles and the otherwise perfectly healthy tissue they’re attached to. Enter autoimmune mayhem. That’s why lectins are linked with autoimmune disorders like IBS, Crohn’s, colitis, thyroiditis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and arthritis. Specific lectins have been associated with particular ailments (like wheat with rheumatoid arthritis), but more research is needed to trace and confirm these connections. What is clear, however, is the potent autoimmune destruction that can result when the intestinal lining experiences this level of damage.

[peterbound]

I'd be interested to hear why dairy's off the menu for everyone, given that the human pattern of lactose intolerance quite clearly indicates that humans have indeed evolved to consume dairy in the areas of the world where cows are common. I get most of the paleo theorising, but not that part. (Or the honey, actually.)

Personally, if you can tolerate it, roll with it. I think milk is great. It has some great benefits when putting on weight, building muscle, and calcium loading. Lactose, however, is a sugar, and the attempt to minimize the carb loading during the 30 challenge is part of the 'challenge'. Many, many people also cannot tolerate dairy very well (me included). Dairy fucks, fucks, fucks me up. The link between dairy and acne is well documented as well. This elimination period (the 30 days) is an attempt to truly find out if your body is better off without dairy. After the 30 days many people reintroduce certain foods (especially dairy, most noticeably, cheese).

Again, if you can tolerate it, roll with it.. just attempt to limit the intake.

I would also argue against the idea that there we have evolved truly to fully tolerate lactose.

[TrueMetis]

Am I allowed to poke holes in your premise?

[TrueMetis]

Heh, I figure it's inevitable that this thread diverges from the challenge.

I'd be curious:

If you took one group that went totally paleo and another group (assuming these groups are well-controlled) that just avoided bad processed carbs, how much better the paleo group would do.

Depends which paleo diet you used. The Inuit diet would be hugely different an indigenous Australian diet, which in of itself would vary hugely depending on what parts of Australia they are from.

So problem 1) with the paleo diet, defining just what one means when they say it. I'll bring up the others later.

[jurble]

My people have been farming since the Neolithic. I am also lactose-tolerant. My body produces amylase. I'm shorter and stockier than representatives of paleolithic hunter-gatherers fossils. Pretty sure I'm better adapted to a sedentary agricultural diet than raw veggies and venison.

[Aemon Stark]

Beans contain Lectins, lectins are not paleo.

Lectins are essentially carb-binding proteins universally present in plants (and animals). Just as they protect plant species from Grok-sized predators, lectins also support other immunological functions within plants and animals (against pathogense, parasites, etc.) They also assist in other functions like protein synthesis and delivery in animals. They’re relatively sticky molecules, which makes them effective in binding with their sought after sugars but undesirable for our digestion, in which their binding powers can lead them to attach to the intestinal lining and wreak havoc.

"Sticky" molecules? The advent of agriculture did not involve some sudden and novel incorporation of grains (among other things) into the human diet, but rather the cultivation on a mass scale of a few productive staple crops.

Let’s go back to the intestine again. (Some field trip, eh?) Lectins’ stickiness allows them to bind with the lining, particularly the villi, of the small intestine. The result? Intestinal damage (with impaired cellular repair potential), cellular death as well as compromised intestinal villi, which means reduced absorption of other nutrients, including minerals and protein. Add to this altered gut flora, which can allow certain harmful bacterial strains like E. coli to run rampant. Furthermore, because the body is now responding full-time to the needs of the injured gut lining, proteins and other resources are redirected from other basic growth and repair processes. Furthermore, lectins have been associated with leptin resistance (PDF), a pre-diabetic condition linked to obesity.

E. coli, like so many a gram-negative anaerobe, is abundant in the normal gut. The associated of leptin and obesity is not actually all that clear and "leptin resistance" is most certainly not a "pre-diabetic" condition. You seem to be describing the pathophysiology of Celiac disease as it pertains to immune-mediated inflammation of the small bowel due to gluten. I would be interested to see some of the research underlying these claims, particularly since certain cultures that traditionally include diets with many beans should also display chronic malabsorption symptoms at the population level.

Perhaps the most insidious impacts lectins can leave in their wake is this: leaky gut. Leaky gut is a term for the breach in the intestinal lining created by lectins hand in hand with other antinutrients. Once the intestinal breach exists, lectins and other particles (like partially digested food, toxins, etc) can “leak” into the bloodstream.

Wait... the entire function of the small bowel is to absorb nutrients into the bloodstream. Are you saying that these "antinutrients" are able to cross into vessels through some kind of "leak"? Or are you describing a bowel perforation (a surgical emergency!)? I am confused.

Once lectins open the door, so to speak, out of the small intestine, they and other fugitive particles are now free to move about the body and bind to any tissue they come across (anything from the thyroid to the pancreas to the kidneys). Of course, the body reacts to these invaders by directing an attack on these particles and the otherwise perfectly healthy tissue they’re attached to. Enter autoimmune mayhem. That’s why lectins are linked with autoimmune disorders like IBS, Crohn’s, colitis, thyroiditis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and arthritis. Specific lectins have been associated with particular ailments (like wheat with rheumatoid arthritis), but more research is needed to trace and confirm these connections. What is clear, however, is the potent autoimmune destruction that can result when the intestinal lining experiences this level of damage.

Irritable bowel syndrome is by definition not an autoimmune disorder (like Crohn's/colitis) and it's debatable whether fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome are meaningful disease entities of any kind. Arthritis can be immune-mediated, but the most common form of osteoarthritis is degenerative and mechanical in etiology, not autoimmune. I'm not aware that lectins have ever been implicated in any form of antigenic mimicry resulting in autoimmune tissue destruction. It's worth pointing out further that many autoimmune diseases have been shown to be associated with particular HLA types.

I would also argue against the idea that there we have evolved truly to fully tolerate lactose.

Um... on what basis?

[peterbound]

Am I allowed to poke holes in your premise?

Feel free. The thread was an invite to participate in the challenge, not so much an invite to an argument. But be my guest. We've discussed this many times over on various other threads, so i don't think we'd be covering new ground here. If you don't want to participate, don't.

[madking]

You had me till I read #6 fuck that!

[peterbound]

"Sticky" molecules? The advent of agriculture did not involve some sudden and novel incorporation of grains (among other things) into the human diet, but rather the cultivation on a mass scale of a few productive staple crops.

E. coli, like so many a gram-negative anaerobe, is abundant in the normal gut. The associated of leptin and obesity is not actually all that clear and "leptin resistance" is most certainly not a "pre-diabetic" condition. You seem to be describing the pathophysiology of Celiac disease as it pertains to immune-mediated inflammation of the small bowel due to gluten. I would be interested to see some of the research underlying these claims, particularly since certain cultures that traditionally include diets with many beans should also display chronic malabsorption symptoms at the population level.

Wait... the entire function of the small bowel is to absorb nutrients into the bloodstream. Are you saying that these "antinutrients" are able to cross into vessels through some kind of "leak"? Or are you describing a bowel perforation (a surgical emergency!)? I am confused.

Irritable bowel syndrome is by definition not an autoimmune disorder (like Crohn's/colitis) and it's debatable whether fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome are meaningful disease entities of any kind. Arthritis can be immune-mediated, but the most common form of osteoarthritis is degenerative and mechanical in etiology, not autoimmune. I'm not aware that lectins have ever been implicated in any form of antigenic mimicry resulting in autoimmune tissue destruction. It's worth pointing out further that many autoimmune diseases have been shown to be associated with particular HLA types.

Um... on what basis?

Aemon, i'm going to email your questions to a leading authority on the matter, i hope you don't mind. The are good questions and i want to try to get the best answers for you.

ETA: i would also encourage you to research other diet/nutrition models than the one currently pushed by your profession. Much of what we have wrong in terms of health is a direct result of that nutrition model.

[Aemon Stark]

Oh, I'm not pushing any kind of "nutrition model", but rather taking issue with the notion that our Neolithic diets - allowing for the literal dawn of civilization - are problematic or have anything to do with General Mills.

[Solmyr]

Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, some fruit, and good fat from nuts, seeds, coconut, olives/olive oil and avocado. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re fresh and natural.

1. Do not eat dairy. This includes butter, cheese (hard and soft), yogurt (even Greek) and milk (including cream in your coffee or tea).

2. Do not eat grains. This includes bread, rice, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, corn and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa and sprouted grains.

3. Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (soy, black, kidney, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts. (No peanut butter, kids.)

4. Do not eat or add sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc.

In my book all the bold food groups are real food. As real as it gets. And most of them are much more healthier than most kinds of meat and eggs. As for honey - wtf is wrong with you? When they took my appendicitis out I was only allowed to eat honey for 3 days.

[Kat]

I'm disappointed that this thread is not about eating dinosaurs, or at the very least, Ediacaran fauna. :(

[RWHamel]

I'm disappointed that this thread is not about eating dinosaurs, or at the very least, Ediacaran fauna. :(

Actually, I had hoped that I had missed where they had cloned Mammoths, and had turn it into a commercial enterprise. :crying:

[TrueMetis]

Feel free. The thread was an invite to participate in the challenge, not so much an invite to an argument. But be my guest. We've discussed this many times over on various other threads, so i don't think we'd be covering new ground here. If you don't want to participate, don't.

Well we will see.

First to expand upon the point I've already made in this thread, there is no single paleolithic diet. The Paleolithic era spans from the beginning of the use of stone tools to about 10000 years ago, and humans have lived in a wide variety of places during that time. So you have to pick a time and a place in order to get an actual diet. ex. Haida diet, Inuit diet, Iroquois diet.

Next is the idea that we somehow haven't evolved to eat grains, or aren't equipped to deal with them. Humans are an omnivores species and as such are able to eat a very wide variety of with the harnessing of fire and invention of stone tools we have expanded that variety even more. That shear variety is what allowed us to be so successful. Humans can and will eat just about anything. There are some limits to this like not everyone can deal with milk, and it can take some adjustment time if you aren't used to a specific diet. IE someone from a group that eats only a few percent meat would have some trouble adjusting to a 90% meat or more Inuit diet because it would take their body time to kick up production of the needed enzymes. But we know from studies that the Inuit diet is quite healthy with a near zero rate of heart disease.

The idea that we are equipped for grains is also not supported via evolution since if we hadn't evolved the capability to eat grains no one would be able to eat grains. No matter how much we processed them.

ETA: You know you were right I'm not covering anything new here.

[Kat]

Actually, I had hoped that I had missed where they had cloned Mammoths, and had turn it into a commercial enterprise. :crying:

All-natural mammoth kebabs? High in protein, low in...bad bean stuff. (I do sometimes wonder if anyone who has found one of those mammoths frozen in ice has been tempted. I would be.)

[lokisnow]

that would be some serious freezer burn.