A typical school lunch -- what's wrong with this picture?
Paleo love is definitely in the air lately. The positive results are stacking up for the first wave of Challengers, and for plenty more who are figuring out that eating what we evolved to eat for millions of years feels good and will also help keep you healthy.
Normally each week I’ll discuss some diet-specific topic, but this week, I’m suggesting a potentially nutrition- and social-impact-yielding movie that relates to your nutrition-optimizing adventures. I hope you’ll embrace my paleo social responsibility education effort, and appreciate the bigger-picture of what your nutrition and food choices are a part of.
It’s hard to always see clearly being on the inside of a cultural issue. Documentaries like Food Inc. help to make it more acceptable to start discussing and openly linking the pieces together, though its successes (with many similar predecessors) may be millions of SAD-induced diagnoses late.
Food Inc. is one of the best food industry documentaries made to date. It presents a good picture of the reality of the food system in the US and its effects on the health, economy and workers’ rights. It’s up for some Oscars, and had some of the best experts in the fields of related food policy, science, and industries involved.
If you need a really condensed version about the public health aspect, or a plea for why you ought to see Food Inc. (in my opinion) here’s Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk on our Food System.
If you’ve got some more time, here’s how it relates to your paleo adventure:
In the course of paleo-fying your food habits, perhaps you’ve had some epiphanies about realities of paleo eating such as: it takes planning with a busy schedule and there are really no convenience foods that are paleo. Maybe you’ve reevaluated the ingredients of the remaining packaged foods in your cupboards wondering why there are so many oils and corn and soy derivatives in your old packaged foods, or why refined foods are fortified. Hopefully you’ve realized just how much refined sugar or salt is in a serving of something you used to eat a lot of, and now it makes sense why you had that sugar/salt hangover.
And, perhaps its occurred to you that there are some much bigger-picture issues surrounding the Paleo prescription. “Paleo” is just the term for eating the way we evolved to eat; it’s prescription of what to eat describes some of the parameters that those of us now alive didn’t get to choose in the course of our evolution. It’s a term that has been adapted from Loren Cordain’s Paleo Diet research and the diet book he published. The scope of “Paleo” for crossfitters is pretty much just that. Outside that scope are the issues around why we are even talking about nutrition, why ‘paleo’ seems so radical to many, and whether it’s a sustainable prescription for the whole world. I feel obligated to take a break in CrossFit nutrition optimizing to call attention to how lucky we are to have the abundance of information and the financial ability to make the choice to eat the way we do.
What’s sadly clear and ever-present in our every day lives is that outcomes of diverging greatly from this diet are not optimal or much worse. The ‘much worse’ part characterizes the bigger story of the nutrition crisis in our country and in part, the food crisis on the planet. The SAD’s (Standard American Diet) convenience-based-eating at face value implies a way of life and set of values. Popular foods in the SAD prioritize a variety of food qualities such as convenience, and foods flavored for high salt/sugar/fat content.
30% of the land in the U.S. is used for planting corn, much of which is used in creating corn syrup or derivatives for highly processed foods
Those who are dietary victims of SAD (the growing ranks of both adults and children type-2 diabetics, obese, and at-risk for heart disease) make choices apparently in bold contradiction to the parameters of optimal.
Choices should really be in quotation marks though. Many of you have the resources of information and the support of a health-oriented community to make changes (friends, crossfitters, the ability to pack lunches for yourself/your kids if their school doesn’t have healthy meals which most don’t). This is in stark contrast to the growing majority of the dietary victims of SAD who tend to be a part of a socioeconomic community that does not have these types of resources. One in three Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes; among minorities, the rate will be 1 in 2. This group does have access to the same media that most do — media that is heavily marketed toward children, which overwhelmingly emphasizes values of the SAD, and not inclusive of or generally not compatible with healthy lifestyle choices. And as I’m sure you’ve realized, it can be more expensive to eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar to meet your energy and micronutrient needs if you’re new to it. This, on top of the reduced availability of produce in poor geographic areas further exacerbates the grim statistics.
The story gets much, much harrier when you take into account the vertical integration, collusion and government-subsidization of the biggest food suppliers (think Standard Oil from your US history), and near-toothless regulatory agencies that are supposed to help keep our food supply safe and set nutrition guidelines, standards for labeling, and budgets for school lunches.
The modern supermarket now has, on average, 47,000 products, the majority of which is being produced by only a handful of food companies.
What’s kind of amazing though, is that one of the most expensive public finance crises — largely SAD-induced rising health care costs — that will affect our paychecks, health insurance costs, and society in the next couple-few generations has a relatively simple solution compared with other crises (e.g. nuclear proliferation, global warming, terrorism, flu pandemics, etc.): change what you put in your mouth. If it were only as simple to do as seems…
There’s not much hope coming from food or media regulators; the hope is mostly in the form of community education campaigns. Check out Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk on food. Jamie Oliver’s made strides in creating a movement to change how people eat within communities and schools. Also check out the Food Inc website‘s links. A couple of the primary research journalists on the food system have some great websites to start with to learn more: Marion Nestle (former DHHS head, Food Politics, Safe Food) and Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma, Food Rules). Post other suggestions to comments.
If Jamie Oliver didn’t lift your spirits a little, there’s always a little CrossFit humor I posted in comments yesterday for everyone to enjoy.
Here’s your weekly recipe, and some other links:
- Bacon Roasted Brussel Sprouts from CF Whole9
- Money saving advice eating Paleo or not from other sources: CF Unlimited, My Paleo Kitchen
WOD 2/17/2009
A. 5 Rounds
30 seconds total L-Sit Hold
30 seconds rest
10 strict toes to bar
* Scale L-Sit with Plank Hold. L-sit time stops when feet hit the ground. Scale toes to bar with knees to elbows or tucks. This is untimed but you have 15 minutes max to complete.
B. 10 Rounds
10 Unbroken Double Unders
5 Unbroken Push-Ups
5 Sit-ups
Rx = If you break the push-ups or the double unders you start back at one for that given round. Chest must touch ground every push-up for it to count.
Scale down by not requiring it to be unbroken.
C. Optional:
Bench Press 1-1-1-1-1
Split Jerk 3-3-3
Front Squat 2-2-2
Kayaks 3×10
Remy,
Here’s a pretty good website w/ a ton of recipes that are “paleo”. It’s from a friend who trains at Cfit 714 in Orange County. His wife is pretty resourceful and most of the recipes are things that we all have in our fridge at home. It’s funny how easy eating/living a paleo type lifestyle can be if you really just eat healthy and think before eating. Although I can’t seem to give up froyo yet… My one true weakness haha.
http://feedmepaleo.blogspot.com/
When reading Money Saving ideas for Paleo lifestyle there was a point about fasting for up to 24 hours-Remy or anyone else, do you have an opinion on this?
Nicole,
I’ve done it a couple of times, besides when my Jewish heritage calls for it. If you really want to do it, it’s a great way to shock your body for both weightloss and health reasons. Make sure to do it in a gradual process. Try skipping breakfast, then try skipping breakfast and lunch, and so on. I’d keep an eye on your energy levels and all before you try to do a workout while fasting.
Here’s a link to the CrossFit discussion boards. There’s some good (and crappy) posts about fasting on there. Read up and if you have more questions I can try to answer them for you, if not I’m sure Remy can haha. http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=46642
Jon’s spot on. Intermittent fasting is a really popular and impressive area of research in terms of clinical results for health benefits to longevity, restoring metabolism/insulin sensitivity, disease risk. There are many, many benefits to fasting *if* you do it right (gradually) and *if* you’re healthy otherwise (nutrition, sleep, stress). I intend to start experimenting with myself soon when I can get a better grip on my sleeping pattern.
Here’s a paper with a good overview of the clinical studies out there so far. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/86/1/7
In general IF resources are scant, but gist is — you go ~16 hrs without eating and then eat within a 6-8 hr window. There’s no calorie restriction, just time frame restriction. The positive effects seem to have to do with giving the body a long rest from the oxidative process of digestion and putting a positive stressor on your metabolism to condition cells over time to become more sensitive to insulin.
I don’t fast. I get hungry, i eat when I’m hungry. But that’s just me, some people think it will lead to longer health, I think it just leads to the body adapting to better utilize calories. However it’s almost a guarantee that ancestors and even still tribes in alaska and others around the world still do eat very little at certain parts of the year due to lack of accessible food (i.e. the fishing was bad last week)
well if tribes in ALASKA do it….
Although I know about fasting, I follow Slaughters’ rule of thumb. If I’m hungry I eat. Although I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t help being in the world we live in where every 2 mins. you see a billboard, commercial, magazine ad about the new Carls Jr. $6 burger. That can make a boy hungry, right?
Fasting makes me feel like crap, and thus I don’t do it. If you think about it, your body ‘fasts’ the entire time you’re asleep. So why intentionally deprive it of fuel when you’re awake? Just doesn’t make sense to me. Plus I’m a complete BIOTCH if I don’t eat. So in the interest of public safety, I eat when I’m hungry. And God help anyone that crosses me when I haven’t eaten….
Daddy likey food
Forrest you just sounded so creepy-HA. Didn’t mean to start this controversial topic, but let’s be honest I love to eat. Even if I tried, I don’t think I could fast
It is pretty funny how much similar the “I can’t”‘s sound and the mental barriers look around this topic as they did around trying paleo at first.
IF health benefits aren’t controversial – those are relatively clear, and positive first-hand accounts and implementation among athletes (and many crossfitters) are plenty. Check out Robb Wolf’s blog for IF stuff. Also, here’s a good post from Kelly Frankson on her experimentation (competitive oly lifter, CF Vancouver coach, and mom to-be) http://www.kellyfrankson.com/2008/01/intermittent-fasting/
It was a full house last night, like everyone knows, I am a big fan of great energy. It was awesome to workout with some new people, Suzie, its about time:)) Forrest I loved that WOD, aside from the toes to bar looking so much easier than they were. Keep up the great work everyone!