CrossFit South Bay | Hermosa Beach, CA

Before I start this post I want to say that the point of this (and all future nutrition posts) is to give you an overview of diet recommendations based on research and experience (with respect to inflammation control in this case) has progressed as well as how doctors and fitness practitioners have implemented measures in diet for a variety of outcomes.

I know this stuff is searchable and will float out into the Interweb and land in all kinds of hands. I hope the comments will stay constructive. Bear in mind the caveats of prior posts. I do my best to take a scientific and dispassionate approach to summarizing nutrition findings and recommendations. There’s obvious bias in that this is a CrossFit blog and CrossFitters tend to share the goal of maximizing all areas of fitness (not just surviving or staving off obesity/diabetes/heart disease). For fitness practitioners’ outcomes in diet implementations, I’ll be looking most at CrossFit outcomes. This is what I want everyone to keep in mind: Most likely no matter what, more understanding and involvement (even just reading these posts and links) will result in positive changes in thinking and habits about your health and crossfitting. Why else would I be so jazzed about nutrition?

At this point some of you might be like, “WTF is going on? Is this really that big a deal? Can you just tell me what to eat please to improve my [WOD times / body comp. / disease risk] !?” Caveats and assumptions are important, plus you need to understand that this inflammation business is very serious stuff. It’s arguably the most important nutrition topic and is the motivation behind many of the most important nutrition recommendations you could implement.

I know this is a long post, so if you suffer from ADHD (potentially linked to inflammation!) and you read nothing else read this:

• Systemic inflammation is the cause of a host of very common diseases
• It’s effects can be cumulatively helpful when minimized or harmful when unmanaged
• Diet is the most effective way to manage it through minimizing or eliminating certain types of nutrients, maximizing others, and by controlling overall quantity
• Use three main rules and this tool to estimate quantity as a start: 1) Get off the crack by replacing/phasing out processed carbohydrate (bread, pasta, grains) and replacing those kcals (~40% of total) with a variety and abundance of fresh dark green and colorful vegetables (primarily) and fruits; 2) Maintain your intake ratio omega-3 to omega-6 fats in favor of the 3′s by eating fish (wild-caught, and/or small), by eating grass-fed animals/eggs, and omega-3-rich nuts/seeds/oils (esp. flax, walnut); 3) Manage your protein source and quantity

For the rest of you wanting some more, buckle your seat belts and put on your thinking caps, it’s time to nerd out with your _______ out (if someone can find a good CrossFit/nutrition-related rhyme for this that I like, I will make you one tasty-ass paleo treat).

What is inflammation?
The two main types of interest are classic and systemic (or chronic or silent). Classic you’re definitely familiar with as they accompany physical injuries with swelling and pain as part of the protection and repair process and are considered relatively benign. The effects of silent or systemic inflammation while not usually visible are measurable and are thought to be cumulative and extremely important to your risk for a host of diseases formerly thought to be unrelated to lifestyle or diet.

Both classic and systemic inflammation are the result of an immune response and represent that your immune system is working and anti-inflammatory processes work to match inflammatory response. But in the case of regularly eaten foods that cause a consistent inflammatory response, the result is chronic low-level inflammation affecting different physiological systems in different negative ways.

Systemic inflammation has been identified as a cause of many chronic diseases including allergies, cancer, joint pain, heart disease, Alzheimers, IBS, and more recently there is research pointing to systemic inflammation of systems or tissues at the root of the fastest-growing preventable diseases: type-2 diabetes (adult-onset insulin resistance) and obesity. These are generally considered lifestyle diseases because of their linked risk factors and the habits that have been proven to help prevent and reverse them (diet and exercise).

Systemic or silent inflammation you can’t directly see, but it’s measurable and testable. Research clearly supports that less inflammation is better for your health outlook. What has become increasingly clear through research is that the epidemic-level of inflammation-related diseases in people in Western countries are largely a result of lifestyle and nutrition. Rather than a symptom (though it’s also symptom of several of these diseases), inflammation is becoming more clearly demonstrated as a cause of many of these diseases. The control of inflammation with diet (and with drugs) is the focus great deal of past, ongoing and surely future research since the ability to manage inflammation through diet has been consistently shown.

The role of inflammation-combating drugs are important for people who are in life and death situations (such as with advanced atherosclerosis, heart attack, and many more advanced disease stages) as they reduce your risk somewhat if you already have the disease (for example ~30% for the routine treatment of those with advanced atherosclerosis). However, anti-inflammatory drugs are not a viable option for anyone over a long period of time to combat systemic inflammation due to side effects. Nutrition is the most effective way to prevent systemic inflammation but also in helping reverse systemic inflammation-related disease. What’s become of recent interest to me as a result of a loved one being recently diagnosed with advanced cardiovascular disease in the form of atherosclerosis (at least one 50% blocked pulmonary artery) is the role of diet in *reversing* overall systemic inflammation and reducing mortality from disease caused and exacerbated by inflammation. There’s a great deal of research supporting the role of diet in reversing this damage.

Some examples of systemic reactions to inflammatory foods…
The digestive system is often the first to react to inflammatory foods not only because it first encounters your inflammatory food choices (common allergens for many people are gluten, dairy and soy, among others), but also because it houses the most active part of the immune system (the GI tract). Systemic inflammation of the GI tract is seen in the form of bloating, pain, gas, irregular bowel movements, but there are cascading effects in the immune system that increase inflammation further and can enflame other systems.

Another example of a system’s response which is perhaps the most far-reaching in terms of health effects is the chronic inflammation promoted by a variety of hormone responses to multiple events of insulin surges (overall high levels of insulin present) as a result of eating high glycemic-load foods (most non-Paleo foods; i.e. refined sugars, starches, grain cereals, some legumes — foods comprising the majority of kcals in the average American diet).

Another example of inflammation in a system that’s been more thoroughly researched is high levels of LDL (“bad” cholesterol — more on cholesterol in another post) fueling inflammation in the arteries leading to cardiovascular disease (the number one killer of men and women over 30 in the US).

Controlling and reversing inflammation is effective only through diet…
It’s possible to help control inflammation in a variety of ways and prevent disease, and much research supports that the most effective way can be through consistent dietary choices. In concert with the control of insulin, systemic inflammation control is the basis of several diets including Dr. Sears’ Zone diet that CrossFit promotes most vehemently. The positive outcomes of inflammation control also provides support for why other similar nutrition prescriptions and related research achieve similar outcomes for reducing diseases and symptoms associated with inflammation (such as Dr. Cordain’s Paleo diet, Dr. Weil’s, Dr. Adkins, and others). Dr. Sears’ Zone distinguishes itself in its effort to control inflammation by controlling insulin response by maintaining the quantity of carbohydrate, protein and fat at every meal. “Strict” Zone requires eating foods which have been characterized by Dr. Sears himself as “paleo” from Dr. Cordain’s Paleo Diet.

Bringing it back to y.o.u.
It’s important to see this inflammation situation preventatively: you have plenty of choices to reduce your risk for a whole host of inflammation-caused or exacerbated diseases (as well as other diseases), the risk associated with which are being increasingly linked to your food and lifestyle choices.

Here’s where I’m going to take a leap from the general causes/effects of inflammation all the way to the big categories of nutrients that help reduce and maintain low inflammation. What I will skip over for now is was which properties of nutrients and(and habits, e.g. drinking, smoking — I’ll save those for another post) make them anti/inflammatory. I decided that you will better savor and remember major groups of inflammation friends and culprits if we cover them individually, and start with a summary of how you should begin to think of your food.

1) Get off the crack ASAP

“Getting off the crack” is the term CrossFit nutrition nerds use to describe the process of weaning yourself off of refined carbohydrates and starches (comes from CrossFit Journal 38-05). The link between insulin-spiking from refined carbs over time and inflammation is scary stuff. Research is supporting a stronger and stronger link between carb-rich diets and insulin-insensitivity leading to overweight, type-2 diabetes and heart disease (Dr. Sears I believe suggests they happen usually in that order, but other nutritional biochemists have also identified the relationships). The performance results are overwhelming and a skim through the Nutrition articles in the CrossFit Journal will easily convince you.

If your carbohydrate was balanced as a % of total kcals (~40%), then you’d do a swap of sources (where you get your carbohydrate). Ideally you do this by replacing all the calories eliminated by eliminating your nutrient-poor packaged food addictions (bread, crackers, cookies, white potatoes, most dairy, beans, pastas, even rice) with primarily nutrient-dense vegetables (dark greens and colorful vegetables) and secondarily fruits (variety is key). That list of foods encompassed by ‘crack’ is pretty big, but most of those foods (the Paleo diet theory goes) your body isn’t well-adapted to handle, especially in the quantities and combinations most Westerners down on a daily basis.

Eliminating the ‘crack’ is not easy for most people and usually sounds downright crazy (hence its nickname). But you do CrossFit, so you know that a lot of what you thought was ‘crazy’ is now ‘awesome’, and that you will only be increasingly impressed with what you’re capable of.

Also, a couple other notes: you must be realistic and cautious about your changes. Learn to plan so you don’t set yourself up for failure (sickness, injury, malnourishment). If you aren’t yet equipped to get the majority of your essential nutrients from meats, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruits (check out the resources and services in FitRat), then make a plan to do it in phases so you become equipped with the skills and practice. Also, make sure you understand your incentives, goals, and get people to support you. Remain resolute that it must be done and remind yourself why.

Oh, and did I mention (aside from improving your immediate and long-term health outlook) that if done properly, your CrossFit performance will (guaranteed) take a leap, you’ll probably shed some body fat, feel 100x better, and be more alert?

2) Balance your fats

The powers of omega-3 fatty acids in research seem to me as close to a wonder-food or holy grail as we should ever hope to get. This fat is an ‘essential’ fat meaning the body can’t make it or construct and it’s essential to certain processes. It’s anti-inflammatory properties in all kinds of trials with a variety of inflammation-related disease (from heart disease to arthritis, to obesity and diabetes, to maintaining bone health) are (in my words) awesome. Many nutritionists, doctors, most crossfitters, and definitely Dr. Sears and Dr. Cordain recommend an omega-3 supplement. Please read this page on omega-3′s and supplements (it’s a women’s health page but it’s the most clear and concise resource I’ve ever found on it, plus its inflammation info is a good place to start).

Understand, all foods with fat have a variety of types of fat in them  and few fat sources are perfect. Within your goal kcal intake from fat for the day, think of your dietary fat as a daily running tally where you want to maximize the amount of ‘good’ fat sources to create a favorable ratio for them against ‘bad’ fats before you come to the end of your daily fat intake. Understand that these fats aren’t inherently good or bad, in fact the good and (some of) the ‘bad’ play important necessary roles in your body.

The key is balancing that ratio strongly in favor of the good fat. There are actually a variety of types of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (and some in between), but what you need to stay on top of is tipping the ratio in favor of the good. Simply put: Maximize your intake of omega-3′s, minimize your intake of omega-6′s and saturated fat (some is fine, just keep it lower than your omega-3 intake). Eliminate your intake of trans-fats. Trans-fats (hydrogenated oils) need to be eliminated (which are also found in fried food which should be reduced also due to resultant tissue-damaging free radicals produced at high frying temperatures). Average American omega-6 to omega-3 ratios (elucidated from blood tests)are abysmal (stats show anywhere between 10:1 and 25:1).

Since all countable sources of fat (animal protein, oils, nuts, some vegetables) contain varying profiles (%’s) different fats, it’s useful to know what fat sources to maximize:

• Meats/fish/egg: “grass fed” animals produce products with fats that have a positive profile for omega-3′s (steer clear of Atlantic varieties unless ‘organically farm raised’ but that’s hard to find), eat wild Pacific or Alaskan salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies (smaller fish generally = less stored mercury, PBC’s, other toxins). Women especially (due to mammary fat storage and child-bearing) should never eat certain fish (swordfish and tilefish among many) as they are contaminated (yes, sadly, entire fish stocks). This and this guide are excellent.
• Vegetables/Fruits: avocado, coconut
• Nuts, Seeds, Oil: Coconut oil, grapeseed oil for cooking; olive oil, mac nuts, cashews are lowest in omega-6 (peanuts are not nuts — they’re legumes and quite inflammatory; minimize safflower oil, sunflower seeds/butter
• Supplements: EFA omega-3 supplement (one that’s legit and free of mercury and other heavy metals — Spectrum’s a good brand, for ex) + flax oil for use in salads or shakes (don’t heat it up); use a calcium (citrate) + D/K complex if you aren’t getting enough from vegetables or want the extra insurance (females, esp. menopausal)

3) Learn your protein

Figure out how much protein you need (use this calculator as a start — it’s a pretty good estimate of how much protein you should need given your activity level in Zone proportions), where you get it from now, and how you could improve on it (see #2). The highest ‘quality’ protein (in terms for our uses) comes from grass-fed animals. Many people (esp. women) don’t get enough, while some get too much or too much from a narrow range of sources (i.e. protein powder or Foster Farm’s grain-fed chicken breasts). Much more on protein next time.

This is only the beginning…

Using this post, the nutrition and resources pages, and Google, you should be thinking and planning changes from three angles: 1) what nutrients should I be getting/avoiding; 2) where can I get these nutrients most effectively to function optimally (incl. keeping inflammation low), and 3) how much of these foods should I eat to function optimally for my goals.

Hopefully you enjoyed the raw kale recipe from last week. You should be making friends with kale and friends soon, as they are some seriously awesome nutrient-dense carbohydrates. Here’s a paleofied favorite that tastes better than its traditionally non-paleo counterpart. This one’s got all the machismo of chili, but without the irritation/inflammation from beans.

Paleo Chili

My chili isn’t really standardized since I make it with whatever greens/veggies are leftover, but no matter what this first list is standard per 2 lbs meat:

2 lbs meat (ground turkey, beef, buffalo, etc)
3T canola oil
3T cumin
2-3T chili powder
1T oregano (or more to your taste; add 1/2-1t ground sage if you use turkey)
1/2t cayenne or 1/2 a jalepeno (de-seeded)
3-4T tomato paste
6-8T honey (or stevia equiv)
1.5-2 lg yellow onion (mince)
6-12 cloves garlic (I like 12)
1/2 c fresh parsley (makes ~1/4c minced)
1/2 c fresh cilantro (makes ~1/4c minced)
8 roma fresh, diced or 2 cans whole peeled or diced organic tomatoes
Use 1/2 free range chicken stock and 1/2 water solution to dilute as you cook/taste
Vegetables: 3-5 Carrots, 2-3 stalks celery, 1 small head broccoli, 1 sm bunch kale 1-2 bell peppers (these are my favorites, but whatever you’ve got will do). I add any greens I don’t like eating in other stuff but are good for you (like dandelion greens). Also, use up any broccoli/brussel sprout water from steaming that you saved from a prior evening (this is actual vitamin/mineral water and is tasty in chili).

You can put this all in a crock pot for ~6hrs or you can do it this way for a more complex and (imho) better chili: Saute the mirepoix in the oil ’til onions are soft. Then stir in the stock which should be about 2-3 c water + 1-1.5 c stock for this amount. Then reduce the heat to med-low add everything else except the half the garlic + beef + 1 chopped onion + 1T oil. In a separate large pan cook onions + garlic on low-medium, add ground meat until cooked through, chopping up w/spatula. Add the meat to the other pot and cook on low for 1-2 hrs. It will taste good at this point, but phenomenal after it sits in the fridge for 6+ hours (spice magic). Enjoy!

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WOD 12.9.2009

2 Rounds – Max Double Unders in 2 Mins

“Cindy”
AMRAP in 20 mins
5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Squats