None of this information should be construed as medical advice, these are merely recommendations and suggestions that you may wish to pursue and research further in your quest to be healthier, live longer, and be stronger. Please consult an open-minded physician if you have concerns about whether these suggestions are the best course of action for you.

Thanks for reading – Take care, stay fit and be healthy!

Diet – The Missing Link to Improved Overall Health 
Ian Carver - CrossFit Centurion

I am often asked by people what diet I would recommend for improved overall health, increased athleticism and weight loss, or why a particular workout plan is not giving them the weight loss and fitness results they had hoped for. This loaded question usually results in a conversation delving into areas so deep and vast, that I find myself trying to template a good, short answer so I don’t burn an hour trying to explain everything and then have to revive my poor inquisitive client from a catatonic state. I never seem to find the quick and dirty answer, and truthfully, I don’t think there really is one. The answer is complex on it’s face, yet deceivingly easy underneath the façade of confusion that goes on with our diet. With that in mind, I felt it would be easy and beneficial for everyone if I provided my clients and blog readers with some information regarding what works, and why, in the realm of diet. I imagine this won’t be quick and dirty either, but nonetheless, I hope you find the information helpful and a start to a new you.

I will tell you this up front, you must be open-minded and take a leap of faith insofar as the suggestions and ideas I will present to you. Everything I will tell you will fly in the face of what we have been taught since grade school, but everything is validated and confirmed through multitudes of laboratory and real world tests and studies by scientists and doctors worldwide who were willing to lay their reputations on the line in order to help our society become healthier. Many of these researchers have been bashed and maligned by the “professional medical community”, yet they have stuck to their guns and slowly we are seeing the paradigm shift as the former naysayers are starting to take notice and acknowledge these researchers and their work. I have been in your shoes, trust me, so I know that some of this may be odd and take some getting used to, especially when we think we are doing everything right.

Diet is the key. It is a key that can unlock many doors and unfortunately, as is too often the case, a key that can close many doors and even caskets. When people are involved in a consistent and strenuous physical activity program and they are failing to see results, or there is a diminishing return on their investment efforts, the first thing I look at is their diet. The vast majority of people engaged in physical activities want to look and feel better on top of bettering their score, time, weight, etc. I would venture to guess that a six-pack set of abs, some nice, shapely muscles, or slimmer thighs, back or butt is high on almost anyone’s wish list. Most people are doing what they can to get there, but it’s just not coming. They are lifting, running, swimming, you name it, and it’s not happening. They will tell me they are “eating clean, just like their doctor recommended” and that is where I see the first red-flag. I see it whenever I hear “DOCTOR” and “DIET” in the same sentence involving weight loss.

At the risk of pissing off the medical professionals who may stumble upon this, I will go so far as to say most, not all, doctors are close minded and entrenched in their ways and ideals without a desire to expand their knowledge base beyond what has been handed down for eons. We would still be wearing animal pelts, grunting, and living under rocks if we all had this fixated mentality. So, if your doctor tells you to eat a lot of grains, carbs, some veggies, no fat and some protein here and there, you should wonder if this guy still starts a fire by striking two rocks together. The docs will say that the traditional food pyramid we all grew up with and lived by for so long is the key to health and survival. WRONG!

There’s a major problem with that pyramid and it is what the “crazy” researchers like Dr. Loren Cordain, Dr. Atkins, Dr. Mike Eades, Gary Taubes, Dr. Barry Sears, and a host of others chose to tackle and unravel. The issue at hand comes down to the large lower levels of that pyramid, which is Carbohydrates. Carbs are not our friends. They are necessary to some degree, but not in the amounts we currently consume, which is often recommended to be 65%+ of our daily caloric intake! Carbs, in their many forms, cause some serious and even deadly issues in our health and well-being. Let me put it another way – carbs are dangerous.

When I look at society today and the “national epidemic of obesity”, I see a few issues right off the bat. One, we eat way too much at each sitting. More than the body needs to sustain itself. The rest of that excess, mainly in the form of carbs, gets stuck to us as fat and does all kinds of other wacky crap to us. We need to eat only enough to support lean body mass, not body fat.

Two, we eat too much of the wrong kinds of carbs and not enough of the right kind. Processed sugar, starchy white, enriched foods, boxed crap, high fructose corn syrup, sodas, rice cakes are all works of the devil. Fruits and vegetables, you can’t really go too wrong with, but not a lot of people are into eating raw cauliflower or other things because “it’s weird", "it’s gross", "I don’t have time", "I don’t like that stuff”. OK, fair enough, but I also don’t like dying so I think I’d rather eat some zucchini. Also, consider that the average American consumes about 150 Lbs of sugar per year! Think about that and relate your body weight or someone else’s to that amount. That’s a lot of a substance that does nothing for you but wreak havoc on your metabolic system. If you weren’t aware, sugar is a carb.

Lastly, we have been force fed the notion that fat is bad for us, and no-fat/low-fat is how we should eat. Funny, since that’s how 95% of the population is eating right now and they sure aren’t happy with the way their low-fat diet plan is working out for them at the moment. They’re working their butts off at the gym, “eating right” and still can’t get rid of stubborn body fat. That should make you go “hmmmmm”. Fat is essential – we need it to protect organs, regulate body temperature and body metabolism, provide a means for fuel, and the real twist, we need it in our diet to help the body burn stubborn body fat off. I swear, I am not making that part up. Fat is needed to burn fat. This bears some explaining, so let’s take a trip down the rabbit hole.

The In’s and Out’s of Digestion

In order to better understand this process and the in’s and out’s of diet, we need to establish a couple things first. First on the list of things to understand are the three macronutrient groups in our diet. They are Fats, Proteins, and Carbohydrates. We should be consuming these together at every meal. In generalized proper ratios, carbs should be about 40% of our daily caloric needs, protein about 30%, and fat about 30%. These numbers can fluctuate a bit due to certain special reasons or by using different dietary models tweaked to one's personal tastes or desired outcomes. A notable exception is in athletes who eat in this manner. In their case, the fat numbers would be much higher. We’ll talk more about why later on.

Also we need to understand the process of how food breaks down and what it does upon absorption into the body. This is hugely important and ties together many of the concepts. So bear with me.

Once we eat a carbohydrate and it hits the stomach, the breakdown process begins. Actaully it starts when food hits the tongue and digetive and hormonal reactions within the body start to kick in, but I'll we'll save that for now. The carb is broken down into it’s simplest form as a sugar, commonly referred to as blood sugar or Glucose. This is where carbs are important as they provide our body with replenishment for burnt fuel sources. The liver and muscles are reloaded with glycogen and this is where the benefit of carbs pretty much ends.

Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach. The body reacts to this rise in blood sugar by releasing Insulin from the pancreas into the system. Insulin is a hormone – a VERY powerful hormone. It is a necessity for survival and has incredible effects upon the body, all the way down to the cellular level. Insulin is good to a point, but unfortunately due to the vast majority of people’s bad eating habits, insulin becomes our worst enemy.

Insulin’s primary function in life is to take the energy in the form of glucose, attach to it, and transport it to the cells in the body that need replenishment. These hungry cells have receptors on them to accept the energy thereby storring it for later use and, if we are eating correctly, the job of insulin is done. But this is usually not the case since the typical diet is so carb reliant.

In the case of the highly carb reliant/carb heavy diet, the pancreas is constantly pumping out insulin since there is a constant flow of glucose into the bloodstream due to the large amounts of crappy carbs being eaten. Processed foods and starchy carbs and other simple carbs turn to glucose very quickly due to being highly Glycemic (this is a measurement of how quickly a carb turns to blood sugar – the higher the number, the quicker the conversion). The quicker it turns to blood sugar, the quicker the rise in blood sugar levels and therefore the larger the insulin dump into the system.

This large insulin dump does a host of things. One, it is constantly bombarding the receptor sites of the cells with insulin and energy. Unfortunately, the cells are full and fuel stores are topped off. So now the excess glucose, formerly carbohydrates, have nowhere to go and turn to body fat very easily. At some point in time, this constant bombardment of insulin causes a decrease in insulin sensitivity in the cells. The cells eventually grow tired of trying to take on energy stores in since it no longer is needed and the reaction of the receptor cells is blunted – think of the boy who cried wolf. So, the cells become insulin resistant and stop accepting insulin altogether. This leads to a disastrous situation known as Hyperinsulinemia. This situation is an over-inundation of insulin in the system leading to decreased insulin sensitivity and a host of major health problem. These problems are often referred to as "The Deadly Quartet"

Hyperinsulinemia leads to increased hypertension, increased triglycerides, Type II diabetes and upper body obesity - "The Deadly Quartet". These problems were once thought to be caused by just being obese, not insulin resistance. Hyperinsulinemia has also been found to contribute heavily to infertility, CVD, sexual dysfunction, depression and even cancer! This situation of Hyperinsulinemia is due to everyone’s favorite food eaten in excess – carbohydrates.

Also occurring in the body due to the large load of insulin in the bloodstream, is an inability for the brain to function properly. The brain needs a constant supply of glucose to run smoothly. Too much insulin floating around the system inhibits the brain from getting this glucose to stay clear and sharp. The brain reacts accordingly by making us feel groggy, bitchy, low energy, and out of tune. This is the brain’s way of telling us to eat something with a quick and dirty energy boost for a quick flood of blood sugar to supply it’s energy demands. We eat a Snickers, down a Coke, whatever, and we feel good for about 2 hours, then it’s all the same thing all over again. The body has dumped out a ton of insulin to transfer all that excess blood sugar around from the snack you just ate, but a couple hours later that excess insulin is once again playing with the brain and you get stuck in the cycle yet again. You become stuck on a roller coaster of bad carbs, too many calories, eating too often and excessive insulin levels. This eventually causes insulin resistance in the cells. Over time, here comes Hyperinsulinemia. Thank you, carbohydrates.

While all this is going on, you are working your butt off at the gym but not seeing any results. Why? The body cannot access fat as a fuel source due to the high levels of insulin. Insulin is a barrier here again. It forces the body to constantly use glycogen (glucose fuel) as the primary fuel source for most energy demands throughout the day. These stores get burnt down but are quickly replenished, and then the excess hangs around as body fat. So, instead of burning fat away, they are adding fat on or stuck in a neutral state. True, you may burn some body fat off due to the lower intensity aerobic based exercise you are used to doing, but once that ends the low intensity workout does nothing for your ability to continue to use fat for fuel post-workout because the body doesn't know how and excessive insulin levels inhibit the process. The body would much rather use fat as a fuel source. It burns longer and hotter and has much more bang for the buck than carbs or protein. We burn some fat during long workouts, but not to the same degree we could if the body were programmed differently. But we’ve been told to make 65% of our diet carbohydrates, so guess what, it ain’t gonna happen due to all that excess and unnecessary insulin. Lovin’ those carbs!

So, the moral of this story is about controlling insulin levels and becoming more insulin sensitive. If and when we control insulin, we allow the body to tap into fat as a fuel source and we keep the brain sharp and focused. We also eat less and the meals we eat last much longer. This reduces the number of calories we are taking in on a daily basis and reduces our portion sizes. A reduction of simple carbs is usually attributed to cutting out processed sugars and simple, starchy carb sources. Right there you have just killed a couple bad birds with one stone. So, where does fat come in to all this?

Time to Eat Some Fat!

Fat in the diet is a necessity. When it comes to controlling insulin levels, it cannot be done without dietary fat. Fat, when eaten with carbs and protein (hence the reason all three macronutrients should be eaten together at each meal) acts as a buffer in the absorption rate of glucose from the stomach into the bloodstream. Fat is a control rod as it slows the gastric emptying process. This means the pancreas releases insulin in a slow, controlled fashion over a longer period of time due to the trickle of glucose from the stomach into the bloodstream. The body gets just what it needs in energy replenishment and does not get over inundated with insulin. While insulin levels stay low, the body can now use body fat as a fuel source since it is accessible. Also, fat makes us feel full so we eat less often and eat less at each sitting.

Fat does not cause body fat accumulation, carbs do. Fat also does not cause cholesterol or arteriosclerotic problems or CVD, carbs do. This has been proven. Carbs cause body fat and contribute to the plaque build up of cholesterol on the arterial walls. Cholesterol simply acts as a band-aid to the circulatory system. Cholesterol wants to be useful by attaching to the walls of the veins and arteries when and where it senses an invader or injury so it can repair that area. Excess carbs cause a small, dense formation of LDL lipids to float around in the bloodstream. These dense little particles get stuck to the walls of veins and cholesterol just tries to do it’s job, but instead causes blockages. It gets the bad rap all for trying to be the good guy!

With fat in mind, what are the best kinds to eat, you might ask. Well, the preponderance of fat in the diet should come in the form of Monounsaturated fats. These are typically found in olive oil, olives, avocados, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, flax and some fish oils. Olive oil is top notch for all around use. Cook with it, use it in homemade salad dressings, do raw shooters of it with your meal (my favorite), add a shot to your smoothie, the possibilities are endless. Most monounsaturated fats fall into the very good Omega 3 category, that is the one we tend not to eat enough of.

Polyunsaturated fats are not bad to eat, but don’t need to be eaten in as large of quantities as they currently area in our modern diet. Polyunsaturated fats are higher in Omega-6’s and are prone to becoming rancid or breaking down over time or when exposed to high heat. For this reason, you should not cook with them. When they break down, their molecular structure becomes unstable and causes some issues for humans as we cannot assimilate the fats correctly.

Saturated fats tend to be thought of as the evil fat. Or at least that is what we have always been told. This is not necessarily true. We should not avoid Saturated fats in our diet as they were very common for Paleolithic humans to consume way back when and when you look at how much better the health of our ancestors was compared to us these days…well, enough said.

Saturated fats are a necessity to some degree. You don’t have to avoid it like the plague. If you like red meat or dairy, then fine, go ahead and have some. Don’t overdo it, as with any food source, but don’t shy away from these food sources because someone said the fat in them was bad! Saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature and as I tell clients, can be thought of in colors in terms of what foods have saturated fats in them – Red: Red meat, White: Dairy, Yellow/Orange: Dairy. Saturated fats are also very stable under heat and are good for cooking. Palm oil and coconut oil are excellent for this.

We have grown so accustomed to being told fat is bad, that we have gone to buying everything in “non fat” or “low fat” options in the notion we are doing something better for ourselves. Truth be told, we are actually working against ourselves. Typically when we lower fat in a food product, the carbohydrate content (sugars) goes up. This works negatively in two parts. We don’t get the fat we need to keep insulin levels low and we get more carbs than we need, yet again.

The only real bad fat out there are Trans Fats. These have no positive benefits to the human body and cannot be assimilated in any proper manner. They cause a myriad of issues for human beings. Trans Fats are now pretty much illegal in all states, but there’s still some out there from time to time. If it says “partially hydrogenated” on a label, don’t eat it! These fats were made from plant oils to extend shelf life and provide quick filler to foods – Crisco, Wesson, etc. Bad stuff!

We touched on it earlier, but I’ll mention it again. Dietary fat, in and of itself, has been shown to have no correlation to arteriosclerosis or CVD. There have been many studies done on societies who eat large amounts of dietary, saturated fats and have an incredibly low rate of hart disease and accompanying problems. Comparatively, studies done of folks who eat diets low in fat have been found to suffer more ailments of CVD and other diseases. The crux of these issues comes back to the over consumption of carbohydrates and LDL particle size created by carbs. Hi carb diets produce bad, small dense particles that get stuck in the vascular lumen and attract plaque to attach to it. The low carb diet produces large puffy LDL particles that don’t get stuck to the arterial walls and therefore don’t cause cholesterol to try and fix a “non problem”. Once again, this is proven stuff.

Dietary Tactics

So what’s a person to do? A few things need to happen. We need to control our insulin, we need to add fat to the diet, we need to reduce the bad carbs and amount of carbs in general that we eat, and we need to reduce the amount of food we eat. So, in terms of diet, the Zone Diet and Paleo Diet are what works best to meet all these needs and then some. Think of the Zone being a food “quantity” method and Paleo being a food “quality” issue.

The Zone is not a diet for just the sake of weight loss. Instead, it is a way of eating for weight loss and great overall health all the way down to the cellular level. There is so much good about the Zone and Paleo Diets, it would behoove anyone to go out and buy the books to learn about food and it’s effects. If you get the chance, buy “Enter the Zone” and “Mastering the Zone” by Dr. Barry Sears and/or "The Paleo Diet" and "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" by Dr. Loren Cordain. They are easy to read and are eye openers. They can be purchased used for dirt cheap prices. 

The Paleo diet is simply this: “Eat meat and vegetable, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starches and no sugars. Keep intake at levels that will support body mass, not body fat.” Tattoo that on your forearm. Paleo diets are natural diets of foods that are not processed. They are naturally occurring foods that our Paleolithic ancestors ate. They contained fats, protein, and carbs in each meal at varying ratios due to geographical and seasonal variances. The carbs were all good, natural carbs with low Glycemic loads and minor insulin responses. The proteins were rich in nutrients and vitamins from grass and naturally fed animals. The fats were saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, with the preponderance being monos – all good stuff. And guess what, our Paleo ancestors were healthier, stronger, taller, more structurally sound, had a lower infant mortality rate, lived longer and had less disease and health issues than Neolithic man of today. This can still be seen in some of the few native indigenous society populations left in the world. Since the coming of the agricultural revolution, man has suffered and withered at the hands of changing, faster and processed food sources. This is a proven fact!

It doesn’t particularly matter which method you chose, you would have great results with either strict Paleo or strict Zone. If you were super hardcore, you would have incredible health and weight loss with a combination of Paleo and Zone. The choice is yours. Let’s talk about the Zone and how it works, since quantity is a good place to start.

The Zone Diet

The Zone was developed by Dr. Sears as a diet for cardiovascular health. This research was fueled largely by the fact all men in Dr. Sears’ family tended to die by their 40’s of heart related illnesses. Being in his thirties, Dr. Sears wanted to stave off the Grim Reaper and went to work. What he came up with was a dietary plan that had huge benefits to the human body on all fronts. The diet worked very well for people who tried it, yet there are still detractors who will tell you that the diet does not work for everyone and it is “unproven”.

The Zone has been/is used by professional athletes of all realms of sport, medical patients, and the “average Joe” just wanting to be healthier and leaner. It is proven. These people are testament to the diet’s efficacy.

There are other diets out there that work. Some are easier to stick with than others and some may have better results than others. One problem I see with other diets is that although they are starting to focus on cutting out processed, high Glycemic carbs and putting some fat back in the diet, they still are what I call “blanket diets”. I call them this because they throw a blanket over everyone and make up a very generalized diet plan. In reality, you can’t do this. A diet has to be tailored to the individual with some parameters in place. What I eat is not what my wife eats, or someone much bigger than I would eat. That means a diet needs to be developed to the specific needs of each person and that is where the Zone is successful.

The Zone is based upon protein requirements needed to support the lean body mass (LBM) of a particular person. This LBM is the mass of human tissue, organs, etc., and no fat. This measurement is derived from finding a person’s bodyfat measurement and then subtracting fat weight from total body weight. Once a person has this figure, a protein allotment is figured out dependent upon a person’s activity level. Most people are “3 day a week” activity types and this puts them at a .7 on the activity scale. This number is multiplied with the LBM measurement and your protein total is figured out.

Example: A person weighing 185 Lbs with 10% bodyfat. This person has 18.5 Lbs of fat weight and would therefore have about 167 Lbs LBM. An activity level of .7 gives a protein requirement of 117 Grams/day. This amount is meant to support body mass and not add to body fat.

The Zone uses the term “blocks” to define a portion of food. One block of each macronutrient consists of the following: Protein=7gm/block ; Carbs=9gm/block; Fat=1.5 gm/block. So, taking the 7 gm/blk of protein, we divide the 117 from above by 7 and arrive at roughly 16 blocks. This means the above person would eat 16 Blocks of food per day. This 16 blocks is spread out amongst the meals – 3 four block meals and 2 two block snacks, for example.

If a person eats a 4 block meal, they will consume each of the macronutrients at that meal. This must be done every time you put a meal or snack in your mouth – fat, carbs, and protein are eaten together. A 4 block meal would mean 28 grams of protein, 36 grams of carbs, and 6 grams of fat. It’s just a matter of simple math. From there, you will have to do some label reading to figure out how much of what macronutrient you are eating and need to cut back or bring up to meet the numbers. There is an understanding that each lean protein source contains about 1.5 grams of fat in it already. You are simply adding another 1.5 grams for a total of about 3 grams per block.

If you crunch the numbers, which I don’t recommend you do on a regular basis, you will see that the hypothetical person above is only taking in about 1260 cal/day (carbs & protein=4 cal/gm ; fat=9cal/gm). Sure this is not much, but the introduction of fat into the diet has lowered insulin levels to the point where the body is able to tap into storage fat on the body as a fuel source. Using this fuel source, the body can make up any deficit in calories that it needs to get through the day. So, if Mr. Smith above needs 2200 cal/day to meet his energy demands, he gets 1200-1300 cal/day through his mouth and another 1000-900 from bodyfat! That is how this system works and why it works so well at flensing fat, especially when coupled with an intense workout regimen like CrossFit.

Regarding number crunching, I will tell you not to do it. You will make yourself crazy. The Zone books have pre-planned meals and Block charts in them for a variety of foods. I highly recommend using those numbers as your baseline rather than look at the package of cheese in your hands and try to figure out why the book says one thing about fat content versus what’s on the label. Go with what the book says, just make it easy on yourself. I will tell people to err on the side of more fat and lower carbs if they had to make a guess. Of course there is a limit to when eating too much fat is no bueno, but for the most part if you are eating dense carbs and protein, you won’t easily hit that point where all the dietary fat is now becoming body fat due to the excess calories. Don’t sweat it too much- don’t eat a stick of butter each day, but don’t fear fat either.

The Zone works well and even better with a high intensity exercise regimen like CrossFit or Hi Intensity/anaerobic based training protocols. Since the body has now converted to using fat as a fuel source, fat will supply the needs of the body throughout the majority of the day, especially if your metabolism is heightened due to CrossFit type workouts. This post-workout metabolic overdrive is called "EPOC" (Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption). EPOC is how the body meets it's fuel demands after highly intense activity. The body is in overdrive and it taps into fat as a fuel source to meet the energy demands for repair, recuperation and sustenance of the body.  

For many people, the body fights this conversion to fat burning. Many, but not all, folks find this hard spot about 2-3 weeks into the Zone. For most, it is a sense of constant hunger, fatigue, irritability, and decreased energy levels. This is due to the fact the body is used to burning carbs and now that you are trying to get it used to burning fat, it feels like it is starving and cannot meet it’s energy demands. The mind makes you feel like crap and it is trying get you back into carb eating mode and get an insulin response out of you again. It is worth everything you have in you to fight this urge and get through the few days of misery. Once you get past this point, your body gives in and understands that it can survive without carbs and will use fat as a fuel source. It is primordially hardwired in us to use fat as a fuel source, as it is how our Paleolithic ancestors survived in lean times.

A couple things that can help here are to eat very dense carbs, like sweet potatoes, and/or cruciferous carbs, like broccoli and cauliflower, at this time. This fills that hunger void very well and can get you through the rough spot. I also have seen people take in a few tablespoons worth of Almond or Cashew butter to quell the hunger.

Once you have been in the Zone for a bit and you have reached your target weight and/or body composition, you now have to re-tweak it to stay at that point. You can add 1 more block of food to your day, but remember that food, primarily carbs and protein, affect your hormonal levels and insulin. A little bit won’t hurt, but too much and you will start messing with the low levels of insulin you have grown used to. A better option is to up the fat by a few blocks per meal. For elite athletes, they tend to eat 4-5x the fat at each meal to maintain mass, body composition, and energy levels. There are a couple reasons this works.

First, fat is hormonally neutral. It will not cause an insulin response in the body. This is a better choice than carbs or protein.

Secondly, fat has twice the caloric content of carbs and protein so it fills up the additional need of calories very quickly. This also is safer than trying to add those calories through food to maintain homeostasis.

Lastly, fat causes a feeling of fullness due to triggering a release of a hormone called CCK. CCK tells the brain the stomach is full.

Paleo Diet

So now that you have an idea about the Zone, let’s talk Paleo. “Paleo Diet” comes from the concept of the Paleolithic dietary make up of our human ancestors. We are currently considered Neolithic and our diet mirrors this Neolithic time period we are in.

In Paleo times, man was hunter/gatherer and that was what his diet reflected. If you could grow it, hunt it, catch it, pick it you could eat it. Obviously, there were no processed foods back in caveman days. It was all about natural, nutrient dense foods – no dairy, no processed agriculture, and no unnatural sugar. These foods provided the essential nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants and minerals without having to resort to additional supplementation. The animals ate grass which made their meat much more healthy and high in essential nutrients without the negative chemicals and other toxins found in meat and eggs today. Same for fruits, veggies and other fish, game and fowl.

Fat content in Paleo times came from all natural sources, including saturated and monounsaturated. The ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 EFA’s (essential fatty acids) was closer to being even than they are today where Omega-6 far, far outweighs Omega-3’s in our diets. This is not a healthy state for us, causing cellular inflammation and other health issues. The current diet consists of a horrible ratio of Omega-6 to Oemga-3 of about 30:1 ! It should be more like 2:1, as it was in the natural paleo diet. Hence the reason we should be taking fish oil (Omega-3) as a supplement to help balance those numbers a bit more.

Omega-3 EFA's help fight cellular inflammation which we incur via exercise, environment and diet. Omega-3 EFA's have wide ranging health benefits that would do anyone good. Omega-6 EFA's are needed in the diet, but not in the quantities we currently get them. Too much Omega-6 will help promote cellular inflammation and sickeness. With as out of balance as our current diet makes this ratio, it is not a wonder we are being ravaged by myriads of diseases and health problems.

Indigenous societies ate slightly more of one macronutrient than the other, dependent upon where they lived. But regardless of whether they ate more carbs or protein than the Zone prescribes or Paleo Diet recommends, the truth remains that they lived longer, had better bone density, lower infant mortality, better overall health, less disease and auto-immune disorders, no increase of BMI as they got older, no decrease in insulin sensitivity and they were stronger and taller than we are today. When it was time to die, they just faded away naturally – not due to heart attacks, strokes and cancer. It was only with the advent of the agricultural revolution, the introduction of many grains into the diet, and the ability to process foods that we saw the aforementioned characteristics turn for the negative.

Paleolithic societies and indigenous populations, such as the plains Indians, Inuit Eskimo, South Pacific Islanders and rainforest tribes, were shown to have aerobic/anaerobic fitness levels on par with that of today’s elite athletes. They had a bone density and muscoskeletal density on par with that of today’s best athletes and to top it off, they had strength to weight ratios in excess of most of our current society today and on par with elite athletes. In a study done in the mid-1800’s, the strongest soldiers in the American Calvary were found to be able to Deadlift 2 – 2.5 times more than their body weight. In comparison, plains Indians were able to Deadlift 2.5 – 3 times their body weight as a norm across the board. Keep in mind, while some of these studies are 100 years old and others are more recent, none of these people had a CrossFit affiliate gym down the street or a 24 Hour Fitness to get strong and work out at. They were just better, fitter, faster, stronger humans all the way around.

The Paleo Diet principles can be summed up in the following sentence: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starches and no sugar”. If you can follow this mantra, you will be a much healthier and fitter person. Eat enough to support lean body mass, but not body fat. If you did nothing else but ate in a Paleo fashion, you would be well on your way to living a long, strong, healthy life.

What can you do to help bring some of your daily food into more Paleo like conditions? Well, for meats I would recommend getting “grass fed” or “free range” only. Most animals raised in farms are fed grains. Grains are bad for a number of reasons I’ll write about later. The bad stuff in processed grains and oats gets absorbed into the meat of the animal and we then get to eat it. If you like dairy like me, again “grass fed” dairy cows will produce better, healthier milk and dairy products. Dairy is not typically allowed in a Paleo Diet, but you can make some minor tweaks here and there, just don't get crazy with them.

Buy fresh caught fish, not farm raised. Again, a lot of what they eat creates a bolsters our intake of nutrients and vitamins. Farm raised salmon actually has a white flesh. The farmers make it red by feeding the fish food with red dye in it- that's nice! Wild salmon will have naturally occurring red flesh due to the natural food they eat.

With meats, we can bolster some of the nutrients they are lacking by supplementation on our end. Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) are two very good supplements to take to help the body stay in tune as it was eons ago. ALA is a powerful fat and water soluble antioxidant and is excellent for overall health as it enhances insulin sensitivity and the production of Glutathion in the liver, a natural antioxidant. CLA enhances lean body mass gain and is a powerful anti-tumor agent. Both these substances are found in grass fed animals, but are very, very sparse in grain fed animals.

Produce is always best if it’s grown organically or personally. Eggs and fowl are also best if they are “free range” and the eggs are Omega-3 enriched due to the foods the birds are eating. Fish, fowl and game which eat “naturally” tend to have strong amounts of meat derived carotenoids. Carotenoids are natural anti-oxidants and bolster the immune system. Carotenoids are what make animal flesh a certain color & egg yolks and shells a certain color.

Of course you are saying the same thing I am – “this is not cheap!” You’re right, it’s not, but it can be a worthwhile investment in your health and preventing a slow, wacky and miserable time in your old age or death. I don’t know about you, but I’ll pay the couple extra bucks here and there to save myself from the misery of a lousy care home in my latter years. It disgusts me that we live in an age where the FDA and USDA tout a high carb, low fat diet for health benefits, yet it's killing people and that fast, processed foods are cheap and will add to your early demise, while eating well to live long will break the bank. That's another rant altogether...

True, with strict Paleo you may lose out on some goodies you like, such as dairy. But as with any program, there is always some room for tweaking it. If you did a vast majority of your diet in Paleo or Zone terms, with an occasional ad-lib here and there, you would be better off than not doing anything because you think it’s too hard. I tend to eat fairly Paleo, in Zone proportions, however I do include dairy in my diet. I also eat a bit of bread every once in a while and have the occasional cheat meals to curb any cravings.

Cheater!

When it comes to cheat meals, you will find a couple things. One, if you have been pretty strict with a dietary plan for a while, a cheat meal may very well make you feel like hell. Your body has grown accustomed to a certain way of eating and knowing what it will get at each meal. When you overdo it or throw a major monkey wrench into the program, your body may not go along with it so well.

Secondly, you will find yourself wanting those cheat days less and less as your current diet progresses and you just become used to it. I do still want some pizza and cheesecake from time to time, just not as bad as I thought I would or even like I did in the beginning of my dietary change several years ago. It is not uncommon to find yourself still eating “Zone’ish” even when you are trying to be loose about it. It just ends up being a habit, and a good one at that.

Intermittent Fasting

One other dietary tactic that tends to have Paleo roots, is the concept of intermittent fasting. IF was derived from the CRAN (Calorically Restricted Adequate Nutrition) diet studies. In a CRAN diet, participants ate about 40% less calories than traditional diets. With a CRAN Diet, subjects were found to have lowered body weight, increased insulin sensitivity, an increase in Ketone bodies in the bloodstream (meaning body fat being used for fuel), a decrease in cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Additionally, due to less stress on the body and reduction of toxins and other wacky crap, test subjects lived much longer than those not on a CRAN diet. The only downside to CRAN was that the test subjects became crazy obsessive about food all the time. So you had strong, healthy, lean, really whacked out hungry people living for a long time. Maybe not ideal….

People tinkered around with a better way to implement CRAN without the latter issue and came up with Intermittent Fasting. One way to ease into IF, is to work at it slowly. Some people are able to do 24 hours at a time, every other day. When they eat, they eat “Ad Libitum”, Latin for “at ones pleasure”, with no real parameters other than Paleo foods, or they can Zone it again. It is easiest done by starting the IF right after dinner one night and then holding out for 12-14 hours. This should bring you back around to lunch time sometime the next day. If you can, work out during this time or at the tail end of the IF so you can get your recovery and replenishment in at the time the fast is over. You may feel a bit drained the first few times you do this, but it gets better as you go. Gradually increase your time frame of fasting as you progress.

People who use IF report all of the above good things with no “food craziness”, and reported an increase in lean body mass and a retention of power and strength with a improved work capacity and power output. I will caution you against too much caffeine on a very empty stomach though – you’ll feel crazier than a rat in a hot, tin shit-house. I have used IF on a regular basis and I like it and have not seen any negative impacts on my performance or health…other than the triple espresso issue…

Grains in the Diet

One of the big antagonists in our current diet has come in the form of grains. We found out we could harvest grains and make food sources with them after processing them. Most societies had some type of grains in their diets, however, they often did not make them such a massive staple of their diet as they are today. Look around your pantry or the grocery store and see how many things are made up of grains. The reality tends to surprise people.

Grains (wheat, corn, rice, millet, rye, even quinoa, etc.) have been linked back to almost any auto-immune disorder currently known to man. For many sufferers of Lupus, M.S., Celiac Disease, IBS, skin disorders, Parkinson’s, the list goes on, a removal of grains from the diet provided either massive relief or a complete dissolution of the problems. My wife suffered from bad bouts of IBS for several years. It was not until we removed 99% of grain from her diet, did her symptoms completely disappear. If she eats too much bread on a day off, trust me, she will know it in a matter of hours.

Grains are a seed – basically a reproductive organ. As such, it does not want to be eaten by any animal and so it has defensive mechanisms in place to prevent it’s destruction as best as possible. When certain grains are ingested, these reactions take place in the gut and create serious situations of cellular inflammation, which manifest itself all over the body and throughout the rest of our cellular structure. This is due to Lectins in the grains which play a role in this survival mechanism. Our body reacts to Lectins, just like nature intended. Another problem ingredient in grains are Phytates.

Phytates are found in grains and bind to metal ions in their environments. This means, upon absorption in large quantities, Phytates will leach out the calcium, iron and zinc we desperately need in our diets. Instead of gaining these minerals, we lose them and their holistic properties. As such, today’s Neolithic man have found themselves shorter, having lower bone density, having more crowded teeth (our wisdom teeth used to fit in our mouths), and a loss of approximately 6 inches in height amongst other things since the introduction of processed grains en masse in our diets.

Legumes tend to be very high in Phytates as well, so many beans, some nuts, and soy protein sources fall into this category. We can reduce the issue of Phytates in our foods by thoroughly processing the food source first. Cooking them thoroughly helps as does pre-soaking your grain and legume food sources. Overall, the best bet is to go easy on them or remove them entirely from the diet.

Something else to keep in mind about legumes like peanuts, is that many of them contain dangerous aflatoxins in them. Aflatoxins are basically a dangerous fungus that can be found on many legumes and is not exactly a good thing to be eating to their highly carcinogenic properties. If you like peanut butter, it may be time to switch it up to almond butter!

Notice I mentioned soy up there. Yes, for vegetarians they skirt a thin line here. We weren’t naturally made to be vegetarians, but some have chosen that path for moral or religious reasons. With that in mind, these diets can be done, just make sure the soy products being used are processed and broken down as much as possible to avoid Phytates and lectins. Or better yet, become a “Meatatarian” again.

Lastly, grains contain a plant protein called Gluten. Gluten can be nasty for many people, causing serious gastrointestinal disorders, and then correlating cellular and auto-immune disorders. Most people have some sensitivity to gluten, however, some people are very sensitive to it and must be on a gluten free diet. Gluten’s evil manifests itself as it is digested in human beings. Gluten is a sticky protein and when it is broken down, it begins to cover over and crush the intestinal villi. Villi are the tiny finger like projectiles in the intestines that reach out and take in nutrients, vitamins, and mineral for our bodies to thrive. Gluten comes along and creates a layer of gunk over the villi so they become covered up. This means the villi no longer work and a person will develop some form of Celiac’s disease, a disease of malabsorption and malnutrition. Although not everyone has a severe reaction to gluten, it does not hurt and is highly recommended to remove grains from the diet anyways.

In kids, a high grain based diet can manifest itself not only in their funky digestive habits, but also in a host of other behavioral and health related issues. Many kids who have been thought to be ADD kids and been given tons of meds to combat the problem by some jester who calls himself “doctor”, can reverse these symptoms and find relief by removing grains from the diet.

The End Solution

The quick fix to anything these days is some type of prescription or pill. Doctors don’t want to do the work to really find out the root cause or a person’s evil. They have been through all the schools and know all there is to know, right?! They also know they, and the pharmaceutical companies, would be out a ton of money if someone were to come to them and say, “hey, no more pills – we just need to make adjustments to our diet and many of these problems will take care of themselves!” I am thinking that with the billions of dollars pharmaceutical companies and doctors would be apt to lose, this is not the strategy they would want to employ. Also, keep in mind that doctors have a very entrenched mindset that was handed down from other old timers from years ago. The new research and ideals making their way to doctors “on the cutting edge” are often supported largely in part due to research by pharmaceutical companies who are looking to find temporary cures to ailments of some sort – it’s a money maker. Don’t get me wrong, some pharmaceutical companies have made incredible progress in helping man live a longer life and stave off some diseases, but a pill isn’t the cure for everything. It’s hard to find a doctor out there with an open mind. It is happening, but it is a slow process.

I am not here to tell you that diet will cure all that ails you and is the magic cure-all. There may be a genetic predisposition to certain issues within families, I am well aware of that. What I am saying is that we can mitigate and alleviate many of the health issues we currently face in our modern lifestyles due to changes in our diet. We can make dramatic inroads to better health and a longer and happier life without all the unnecessary pills being forced upon us.

If nothing else, try some of the suggestions for small periods of time and see what happens. Go Paleo or Zone for 30 days, try removing dairy or grains for a month. Keep tabs on what happens and how you feel and look. I can almost assure you that if you stayed true to any one of the aforementioned concepts, you will have results. I would be damned if you didn’t. Just like I was told, I can’t kill you in 30 days - so you’ll be safe.

There is no magic cure. All the Hydroxycut, Redbull, Leptotrim, Thigh Masters and Ab Loungers won’t do a damn thing for you. The crap sold on TV and in the “Dietary Aids” aisle of the local WalGreens is just that – crap. It is incumbent upon you to make the change of one of the most basic human needs, diet. Through this change, you will achieve all of the things you thought were out of reach and become a fitter, stronger, and healthier person along the way. It’s worth it, trust me.