CrossFit South Bay | Hermosa Beach, CA

Cavemen ate pretty well. Now if they could just stop getting eaten...

The post below is written by our resident nutrition specialist, Remy Olson.

That you are reading about nutrition probably means you care about your fitness want to better understand how you can influence fitness to achieve any number of possible goals.

The point of these posts is to aggregate and summarize the best and most conclusive findings and direction concerning what you should put inside your body and how it makes you, the CrossFitter, fitter. My tips will be directed in the same purpose and spirit of CrossFit’s fitness and nutrition recommendations. Forrest and the coaches will work with each person to set nutrition goals which will include what you eat (paleo) and how much of each major macronutrient you eat at each meal (zone).

While I would by no means title myself an expert, I am (probably) CFSB’s most avid student of nutrition science. That means that while my education and interpretations to date support CrossFit’s nutrition prescription, I am by nature a scientist. As such, I do my damnedest to avoid bias and remain as clear as possible about where my information comes from. But at the same time I think it’s also important to relate nutrition advice to the realities of daily life, address topics and foods that aren’t necessarily optimal and how and why to transition away from them. I am still tinkering with what works best for my optimal performance and just like many of you, I face my own unique health and personal challenges that affect daily choices. I encourage everyone to validate any prescriptions with their own research. If you haven’t yet, you should familiarize yourself with what exactly CrossFit’s definitions and prescriptions are for fitness (check out CrossFit “Foundations” here and “What is fitness?” here). Also check out the resources at the bottom of this post.

• Nutrition as a science, a part of culture and as a source of profit

Nutrition as a science is relatively young and the roles of nutrients in the body span the gamut of scientific understanding. Enough is known about basic nutrition that it is safe to say that if human fitness were a mathematical function, then nutrition would be arguably one of the most influential and important variables that you have direct control over (others being exercise, safety, genetics).

Nutrition plays very important roles in our society and cultures. What information we’ve gathered either from our own enculturation or our own research, helps determine how much effort we put into how we maintain our bodies and often defines or is defined by our philosophies, our politics, or our purpose. Perhaps as a result of its pervasiveness in our lives, of any science, food and nutrition science are arguably the most effectively exploited for profit and influence. This is arguably why the food industry and nutrition have become of the most controversial topics. Nutrition science, and images and perceptions of health and fitness have been manipulated to sell (and very successfully so) a variety of products and services that directly (‘health’ foods, fast/convenience foods, cultural/experiential foods/services, exercise regimens) or indirectly (prescription drugs, supplements, remedies) relate to your health.

• Implications of the importance of nutrition

So, nutrition is extremely important to your fitness and enjoyment of your brief moment in time (life). But, nutrition and is highly exploited for profit by others whose purpose in their brief moment in time is not the maximization of your fitness or enjoyment (by their definition) of life. One of the major implications of this is that it’s critical that you take control of your nutrition where so many parties are seeking to manage and profit by it for you.

As you should when reading any prescriptive writing pertaining to your health, you should be questioning the incentives and qualifications of the prescriber. As you become more aware of the overwhelming amount of food, nutrition and related lifestyle choices you make or are influenced to make on a daily basis, you should practice that questioning. I guarantee you will become a very shrewd skeptic and will be improving for you, those you feed, eat with, or influence, the quality of a fitter, happier, and longer life.

I found CrossFit nutrition prescriptions to be clearly motivated. Its advocates work at taking sound nutrition science and optimizing it for athletic performance where its proponents tend to be relatively fair, educated, and unbiased sources of information. It’s important to understand if you’re not familiar with the field of nutrition that many respected nutritionists in the health and science community (and also many CrossFit nutritionists) work diligently to educate on and employ slightly or significantly different prescriptions from the USDA’s based on research findings not yet “legitimized” by the relatively reactionary, entrenched, and well-lobbied professional and governmental institutions through their national nutrition prescriptions. When reading about nutrition research findings, always consider its source, who benefits from its recommendation, and the significance of cited research in the larger body of research on a topic.

• Full disclosure

Given that, I’ll start by disclosing my qualifications and intentions. I’m a graduate student in dietetics. I studied biology as an undergrad, did IT/business consulting for 3 years and have spent the last year reconstructing my lifestyle to align better with my preferences and philosophies in life. I’m studying to attain my RD (registered dietitian) certification. This is a certification that many CrossFit nutritionists have devalued given the line that the ADA tows (American Dietetic Association is the legal licensing and professional body in the US) in support of the USDA’s nutrition guidelines, with some of which many fitness and health professionals take major issue. Since I concern myself with public health issues related especially to childhood nutrition education and would like to be able to practice in the US (and importantly, be able to make a living), I decided to pursue the curriculum required for this accreditation. This however, does not prevent me from going beyond the basic nutrition prescriptions of the USDA and ADA as many advocates and health professionals of important lifestyle changes out of necessity choose to do.

Here are some resources to hold you over until my next post.

• CrossFit Journal Foundations
• CrossFit Journal 21: Zone Meal Plans
• Paleo In A Nutshell: Part I (video from King CrossFit nutrition)
• Paleo In a Nutshell: Part II (video from King CrossFit nutrition)
• Robb Wolf’s FAQ

WOD – 11.20.09

Sumo Deadlift High Pull 5-5-5

100 Snatches for time
3 burpees on the minute

Josh Everett doing 30 snatches at 135# in just over a minute.