And that’s really unfortunate, because our national healthcare crisis demands such a recognized position. Over the last sixty years, our society has trended toward handing over control of personal health to doctors and Big Pharma. And because our culture’s tendency is to reduce health, fitness, and wellness into isolated, non-overlapping compartments, the general public get the idea that excelling in one area can compensate for a lackluster showing in another. Quite simply, life and living organisms don’t work that way. Though popular culture would have us believe otherwise, you can no more out-train a crappy diet than you can out-diet a lackluster lifestyle. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two that simply cannot be untethered.

But how to go about teaching this holistic concept (what I have come to term, “Ancestral Wellness”) poses a huge, informational overload, analysis-paralysis problem. Very few people have the time, much less the inclination, to delve headlong into the multiple and never-ending rabbit holes of nutritional biochemistry, anthropology, physiology, and exercise science – much less attempt to integrate these (seemingly) diverse disciplines into already hectic lives. My clients are not “athletes” per se, but rather the seventy-plus hour-per-week doctor, attorney, or entrepreneur who simply wants to look, feel, and perform optimally. They pay and expect our Efficient Exercise staff to be the expert in these matters (and rightly so). Our clients expect us to distill this information down to practical takeaways – accessible knowledge that can be used in their often-chaotic daily lives.

Enter the idea, then, of teaching via story, myth, and “directionally accurate” analogy.

The Worlds of Grok and Newton Collide

Those who disparage the Paleo diet as “simpleton,” “faddish,” or gimmicky” will often cite the mythical caveman “Grok” as evidence exhibit A. We all know the drill by now. One can’t really live like a caveman anymore because, well, let’s face it, wooly mammoth, mastodon, and the Paleolithic precursor to the modern yam or apple just don’t exist anymore. So no one can really be Paleo these days.

But historical re-enactment has never been the point of the Paleo or ancestral lifestyle. Paleo is about making the best, most nutrient-dense, and least problematic food choices in the here-and-now. It’s also about incorporating daily movement into our lives, wherever and whenever possible. And our good friend Grok simply serves as a mythical character to help drive that point home.

People best learn foundational, overarching information via myth, analogy, and storytelling. In this phase, “directional accuracy” is key. There’s much more to the science-laden Paleo story, of course, but myth, analogy, and storytelling set a solid foundation from which to delve into those various biochemical, anthropological, and exercise physiology rabbit holes. Can you imagine grasping General Relativity without first mastering Newtonian physics? How about diving into Newtonian physics without the supportive myth of Newton and the falling apple?

So in teaching ancestral wellness to our clients, Grok simply serves as the lifestyle equivalent of physics’ Newton and the Apple. Using this directionally accurate story of Grok, then, I can more fully flesh-out some of the more broad-stroke Paleo ideas, such as:

• We evolved first and foremost as obligate physical beings. That means we require a proper amount and type of daily physical exertion to be healthy. In other words, we cannot simply diet away a crappy, non-physical lifestyle.
• We evolved, too, as opportunistic, omnivorous eaters. That we as a species could survive by eating just about anything under the sun is a huge contributor to our success story. Surviving to childbearing age is a far cry, however, from thriving up to and well beyond childbearing age. And dietary staples are a far cry from what might be consumed during periods of starvation.

It’s at these intersections where Grok’s story really becomes interesting. So now before ever having to delve into the labyrinth of proper macronutrient ratios, systemic inflammation, the problems with gluten, chronically elevated insulin, and individual responses to certain “gray area” foods, we can give our Efficient Exercise clients a solid template of safe foods from which to construct their own meals, both at home and on the road.

Now I suppose that What Would Grok Do is as easy to lampoon by exercise and nutritional insiders as Newton and the Apple is to those steeped in advanced physics. But the fact of the matter is that the Grok analogy helps us stress the importance of choosing whole, grain-free, sugar-free, non-processed foods and coupling those nutritional choices with a lifestyle that includes plenty of walking, play, and a couple of bouts of serious, high-intensity lifting and sprinting sessions throughout the week. And just like that, we’ve managed those clients into the magical 80% compliance zone, where results are sure to follow. Results beget wins, and a string of wins begets a positive psychological shift toward long-term compliance and wholesale, positive lifestyle change.

So do we tweak things even further for those who are willing? You bet. And in some instances this calls for us to embark upon a piece-by-piece dismantling of the same beloved Grok story that moved them to 80% to begin with. In the same way that we have to ease our clutch on the relative comfort and easily understood world of Newtonian physics in order to advance into General Relativity, so too do we have to give up the easily identifiable notions of Grok to tackle such things as lactose tolerance, intermittent fasting, sprouted grains, ketosis, and the benefit of cooking foods.

Our Efficient Exercise approach to working with real-world clients has always been to meet them where they are and, to the best of our ability, guide them toward reaching their health and fitness goals. To the extent that the Grok myth can help us help them better conceptualize an oftentimes confusing transition to the Paleo/ancestral lifestyle, we’ll use it – and unabashedly so. 80% compliance with directional accuracy? Hey, we’ll take it. There’s plenty of time for plundering rabbit holes once the solid health and fitness foundation is established.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Grok Didn’t Eat Oatmeal and Other “Directionally Accurate” Paleo Myths appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Of course, it needn’t turn out this way.

As the proprietor (along with my wife, Michelle) of the yearly Paleo f(x) Symposium, I find myself in the enviable position of being able to routinely pick the brains of the movers, shakers and intelligentsia within the paleo movement. Recently, Michelle and I had a rather lengthy Skype conversation with Dallas Hartwig (of Whole9 fame, with wife Melissa) related to the inter-workings of the 2013 edition of our symposium. During our talk, Dallas mentioned how he thought of health, ethics, and foodie-ism as being a three-way intersecting Venn diagram, and how he thought of his and Melissa’s version of paleo as occupying that intersecting, common ground. What an awesome visual. And after thinking about it for a couple of days, I thought to add one more Venn sphere to the mix: that of performance.

The resulting visual depicts precisely how I tackle diet considerations on a personal level. It’s also how I coach my Efficient Exercise clients to approach their diet. Considered in this way, paleo becomes less a totalitarian, eat-this, don’t-eat-that regime, and more as it should be: a manageable, malleable and individual expression of healthy living.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these intersecting spheres:

Health

Easy enough to define in the broad sense of the word. How do the foods you consume affect both internal and external, measurable parameters of basic health? For instance, we know the foods we eat have a powerful effect on enzyme and hormone levels within the body and upon the body’s overall state of inflammation. We know resultant body fat and lean mass levels are primarily driven by enzymatic, hormonal, and inflammatory feedback and feed-forward loops. If all of this talk of enzymes, hormones, inflammation, feedback, and feed-forward loops sounds like a bewildering array of variables to have to juggle in order to maintain perfect health, well – it is! Lucky for us, though, the body is perfectly equipped to do just that, so long as we provide the basic, wholesome building blocks to carry out that process. And your body will certainly send subtle (and, in some cases, not so subtle) hints if you’re slacking on your end of the bargain. How do you feel on a daily basis? Are you on a continual emotional rollercoaster? Constantly struggling with lethargy? What is the appearance of your skin, hair, and nails? And what of your dental health? Joint health? Strength levels and blood panels? Simple observation here can tell quite a bit about your general health. Habitual faulty food choices will eventually leave their mark.

Ethics

Food supply sustainability is a big issue for me here. As is humane animal husbandry and hunting practices, and sensible land management. I think the ethics of the American Plains Indians hold the ideal for me in this realm: reverence for the land that sustains, and for the animal that has given it’s life so that you may live happy, healthy, and well. And the realization that our relationship with the environment is not depicted by a pyramid with humans at the apex, but as a circle, with all of us as part of the unbroken chain. Frequenting your local farmers market is a great way to begin this journey.

Foodie-ism

I truly appreciate a well-crafted meal. For me, this is also a reverence issue, as it is an expression of art and, well, a celebration of life itself. Taste, texture, seasonality, nutrient density – these are all hallmarks of well-prepared meals using the highest quality ingredients. Processed and nutrient sparse foods simply don’t make the cut here.

Performance

Superior food is high-octane fuel for that stupefyingly complex piece of bioengineering that is your body. Nutrient-dense food is the bedrock support for superior performance. No one would ever think to expect a Ferrari to run well on watered-down gas. And the inter-workings of your body put the nuts-and-bolts engineering of a Ferrari to shame. Learn to treat it as such. And know this: supplementing yourself out of a crappy, nutrient-sparse diet is no more than an act of simple delusion. There is a magic inherent in high quality, natural food that is lost when that same food is broken down to its constituent nutrients and ingested piecemeal. Physical Culturalists of the past knew this to be true. Hippocrates’ said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” This has never been more apt in this culture of nutrient-deficient diets and high-end supplementation.

The intersection of these four spheres? A whole food, nutrient-dense, grain-legume-and-sugar-free, paleo diet. Personally, that works out to a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate version of paleo. But that’s just what works for me. I do have clients whose diets are almost indistinguishable from that of a sugar, grain, and legume-free vegetarian. We’ve tweaked the same four spheres to accommodate their personal goals, desires and ethical stance. Remember: just as with fitness, diet is an on-going journey, not a destination. Throughout your life, each of these four spheres will wax and wane in importance and influence. The resultant intersection may drift, widen or constrict, but the end result will always be some version of nutrient-dense, paleo diet.

The moral of the story? Instead of attempting to shoehorn an impractical, unreasonable, and unsustainable “diet” into your current lifestyle, make eating nutrient-dense, whole foods simply a part of who you are. Your health, well being – and not to mention your body composition – will be all the better for it!

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Toward a More Holistic Approach to Diet appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

We know that Biggest Loser-style weight loss efforts seldom stick. The combination of extreme, calorie restricted (and nutrient-sparse) diets together with long-duration, cardio-intense workouts decimate muscle mass. Less muscle mass, of course, equates to a smaller metabolic engine, and once that diet willpower inevitably breaks, it’s game-on for an incredibly fast, fat gain rebound.

Which is exactly what happened to Oprah. By 1989, she’d ballooned beyond her previous year’s heaviest weight. How many times have we witnessed this scenario played-out in the media? How many times with our close friends and family? The guy at work, six cubicles down?

Unfortunately, Oprah ended up like so many following this same misguided weight loss prescription – simply a metabolically broken, skinny-fat version of her prior self. What she desperately needed in this process was a more intelligently designed diet regimen coupled with a smartly programmed, resistance-exercise-based training protocol.

And to counter her obsession with the scale, she needed access to an intelligent body composition assessment method. And if you’re trying to lose weight – or gain weight, as well – you need the same. Because the scale lies to you, and you need to know that the only thing it can reveal to you is your association with gravity, which ultimately means nothing if you’re trying to gain muscle, or lose fat.

Enter the DEXA Scan

The DEXA (duel-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan provides one of the most highly accurate measurements of body composition available, registering fat and lean mass distribution throughout the entire body. In simple terms, it is capable of detailing overall, as well as regional, fat mass, lean mass, and bone mass – all for the relatively inexpensive price of around one hundred dollars.

Sounds great. So where can I get a DEXA evaluation? And what’s involved?

Most major universities with solid exercise physiology research programs have these units, and will gladly provide evaluations to the public. Otherwise, some healthcare facilities have these units as they are used (and were originally developed) to measure bone mineral density.

And the scan itself is no more invasive than an X-ray. Which, in fact, it is – imparting about as much radiation per scan as a TSA body imaging device. The scan involves little more than lying face-up on a table while dressed in snug fitting clothing – cycling shorts and, for the ladies, a sports bra work well – while the scanning device makes a single pass over the body. The results are immediate and, at least at the University of Texas in Austin, where I’m located, come with a personal, detailed results debrief from a knowledgeable staff member.

What about other, cheaper options?

Essentially, you get the accuracy you pay for. Other popular methods like hydrostatic weighing, the Bod Pod, and calipers rely on calculated measurements of body fat that are influenced by uncontrollable environmental variables and accidental – or intentional – human error. Do you think after training with a guy for six months that he’s not apt to fudge those caliper readings just a bit?

For example, underwater weighing, the pre-DEXA body composition gold standard, assumes that densities of fat mass and fat-free mass are constant. The densities of bone and muscles are greater than water, with fat being less dense than water. Therefore, if you’re a person with a greater amount of bone and muscle, you’ll weigh more in water than someone with less bone and muscle, ergo a higher ‘body density’ and lower percentage of body fat.

This is sound in theory, but in practice, it’s limited by the density assumption, which doesn’t take into account a few important and potentially conflicting variables that strongly influence the equations used to calculate body density. For example:

• Athletes typically have denser bones and muscles than non-athletes. Thus, their measurements often underestimate body fat percentage.
• Conversely, the body fat of elderly patients – especially those with osteoporosis – may be overestimated due to these body density assumptions.
• To date, specific equations that accommodate these different population groups have not been developed.

Another important variable to consider with the underwater weighing is residual lung volume. Few people can completely exhale prior to full submersion; it’s a hardwired, mammalian reflex not to do so. This residual air floats, of course, adding yet another source of calculation error.

Other popular calculated measurements have similar limitations. When my clients question why there’s such a wide variance between their DEXA results (which are generally much higher) and past measurements from, for instance, underwater weighing, calipers, or impedance measurement, I have to explain how the subjective variables mentioned previously are inherent to any calculated measurement of body fat. Therefore, any discrepancy between DEXA and another method is not due to an overestimate of the DEXA, but rather inconsistencies inherent in other measurement methods. Of these, measurements by caliper (skin fold) and impedance testing have proven to be the most wildly inaccurate. In fact, measurement by caliper significantly underestimated body fat percentage by 3.2–5.6% in women when compared to the DEXA.¹

Which brings up to another dilemma sustained by inaccurate body composition measurement – the grossly underestimated body fat percentage.

Phil Stanforth, Executive Director of the Fitness Institute of Texas at the University of Texas, presented at 2012’s Paleo f(x) symposium. Part of Phil’s talk addressed the lay public’s misconception of what constitutes a good or athletic body composition. Though I’m not at liberty to disclose Phil’s findings here (they’re awaiting publication), I can provide you with similar, published results out of Texas A&M.

In the Texas A&M study, the body composition and bone mineral density of elite female college athletes was observed and tracked over competitive seasons. Although not the intent of the study, an interesting juxtaposition emerges between popularly reported body fat percentages, and those measured in elite athletes. For example, the DEXA-measured body fat percentage of female swimmers (22.2%) and track sprint athletes (15%) seem pretty darn high when compared to popular (urban myth?) notions of single-digit leanness.

What You Now Know About Body Composition

Don’t take it as gospel the next time you read that Suzie Fitness Model maintains a 6% body fat level, in the off-season, no less. Yeah, and every bodybuilding forum keyboard jockey benches north of 405 pounds, too. I’ll believe single-digit leanness when it’s backed with a DEXA report.

So do yourself a huge favor and whether you’re looking to gain muscle or lose fat, don’t be beholden to the scale. Over the long haul, weight means nothing unless you can accurately assess whether that weight you’re trying valiantly to lose (or gain) actually consists of fat or muscle. Think your diet and training regimen is really working? The DEXA is simple and sure-fire way of letting you know.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Scale Lies: Why The DEXA Scan Is Best appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You see, modern-day hunter-gatherer societies serve as a particularly unique lens through which to view our distant physiological past. We can see quite clearly how the human body responds to the natural environmental niche our species evolved to occupy over hundreds of thousands of years. And as you might guess, the contrast between these modern hunter-gatherer societies and our own is quite striking indeed.

Hunter-gatherer societies suffer none of the disease-related ills that plague modern society. No obesity and no diabetes. No cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, or acne. Psychological problems are nil. Quite simply, the members of these societies live vibrantly – without, by the way, any of the advantages of a modern healthcare system – then pass quickly and peacefully at advanced ages, free of the long-term degeneration and misery suffered by the elderly of “advanced” societies.

And as far as we can tell, our distant ancestors of fifty thousand years ago were also pictures of health. Save, of course, for the all too frequent accident, animal attack, or infection. Those who were lucky enough to survive into old age, though, also did so free of our modern-day scourges.

“Sure,” you’re thinking. “But what of athletic performance? Those guys couldn’t hold a candle to our modern athletes, right?” Well, it turns out that numerous, credible accounts have been documented on the strength and sprinting prowess demonstrated widely among members of these societies, both ancient and modern. For instance, “sprint prints” have been uncovered in Australia that indicate a man with an anatomically modern foot once dashed across a muddy, Paleolithic era plain at speeds rivaling those of a modern-day Olympic medal winner. Yeah, just some barefooted guy, covering distance over muddy, uneven ground, at current world-class speed. Hell, it’s likely he was even toting something at the time. Imagine if these guys and gals had access to even rudimentary strength and conditioning equipment and programming know-how.

In fact, the simple question of how primitive societies (both ancient and current) could be across-the-board healthier and athletically superior to “advanced” societies is the very question that sparked the entire paleo and ancestral wellness movements. And it turns out the answers to this question are indeed very simple:

These folks eat a nutrient-dense, grain and sugar-free diet and they perform a high degree of daily physical activity with occasional bursts of extremely intense work output. They spend plenty of time in the sun and their nightly slumber is long and blissful. They also have a strong sense of community that provides security and emotional comfort that, in turn, translates into greatly decreased chronic stress levels when compared to “modern lifestyle” contemporaries. That’s it. That’s the big “secret”.

So the question now facing those of us currently reveling in the high-life of an advanced society is this: can we, in fact, live in and partake of the awesomeness (and it is awesome) of modern society without falling victim to the inherent health-related shortcomings? In other words, can we match the vitality and athletic prowess of the primitive society, without sacrificing the modern lifestyle?

And there is, as you might expect, no simple yes or no answer here. All of us whose ancestry can be traced through a long line of modern societies have a good deal of genetic and epigenetic “karma” to overcome. But the short answer is that yes, we can all most certainly live a healthier, more vibrant, more athletically (and aesthetically) accomplished life than we are currently living. And all that it requires for us do so is some simple tweaking around the edges of our otherwise rockin’, gadgety, twenty-first century lives.

The study of hunter-gatherer societies, both modern and ancient, provide us with an abundance of clues and a direction toward which we can then apply the techniques of advanced science. And the questions and hypotheses that can be generated from a comparison of “advanced” and modern hunter-gatherer societies are many. For instance, what is it about grains in particular that is so detrimental to human health, and what is it about daily physical activity that is so beneficial? And this then begs the bigger question: how can we leverage modern science and modern technology to not only achieve a level of health and fitness that rivals that of our hunter-gather friends, but that far and away exceeds it?

And as it turns out, a return to the cave and spear is not only a silly notion, but also one that is completely unnecessary. It is a natural tendency of people who do not understand the broad reach (and limitations, too) of science to fall back on simplistic mimicry of an approach that has, in the past, proven to be effective. And while it may, in fact, be somewhat effective to follow this approach, it is by no means optimal, nor does it ensure effectiveness in the here-and-now. Self-help gurus tell us that if we want to succeed in a certain endeavor we ought to model the uber-successful who’ve come before us. The problem with this tact is that today is a new day, with a totally new set of pressures, advantages and “givens.” Yesterday’s solutions might not fair as well under this new set of circumstances. Better to use the past as a solid platform from which to test today’s theories against today’s new circumstances.

So how do I go about leveraging modern technology to achieve ancestral wellness, both for myself and for my clients? First and foremost, I prescribe a diet that is nutrient-dense, and grain, sugar, and legume-free. A diet that provides all the nutrition (and then some) that our super-active lifestyles require, without the food-related, chronic inflammation and fat-inducing fallout. I maximize gym-time ROI (return on investment) by utilizing smart programming and by being very non-dogmatic in exercise modality selection. In other words I mix-and-match state-of-the-art machines, free weights, and bodyweight exercises for maximum effect. Diet and exercise together comprise the bedrock foundation of my ancestral wellness prescription, and this translates into a highly successful and enthusiastic client base. The only way to survive in the hyper-competitive personal training business is to provide consistent, outstanding results, and at Efficient Exercise, business is booming.

But there’s more – and here’s where the “leveraging modern technology” really kicks in. I also utilize DEXA scans and blood work panels to ensure I’m still on the right path and to provide me with clues as to where I might want to tweak around the fringes to optimize my clients’ (and my own) health and fitness. I encourage vitamin D supplementation because even while I’m based in Austin, Texas, and we’re exposed to a decent amount of sun here, it’s still not enough to maintain serum vitamin D levels in the optimum range.

So no proven, technological, body-hack advantage is off the table just because it’s considered “modern.” Neuro-feedback, hormone optimization intervention, heart rate variability (HRV) training and recovery markers, and the holistic healing arts are all proven and available modern tools – tools made much more effective, in fact, once the “ancestral” exercise and nutritional bedrock has been established and solidified.

The bottom line is this: if you’re looking for that primal, beastly health and athletic advantage, don’t neglect the smartly selected, modern tools that will help you achieve that goal. Loin-clothed cave dwelling may be a fanciful lifestyle for some, but it is certainly not required in order to live the ancestral wellness good life.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Leveraging Modern Technology to Achieve Ancestral Wellness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As a trainer, you have to make choices. Choices about what you believe, and how you will offer what you believe to the clients who pay for your help. Your choices directly impact the people who come through your doors every single day.

And I, Keith Norris, training people down here in the melting sun of Austin, Texas, believe that wellness concepts taken from our ancestors are the key to guiding what we do to stay strong, healthy, and happy in a modern world.

Or, put it this way: the last thing anyone wants from their training – be it high-level athletes or professionals running super-busy lives – is to waste time following ineffective training protocols or eating inadequate food.

From what I’ve seen, the most effective, efficient, powerful tools to come on the fitness scene since, well, maybe since ever, are paleo nutrition paired up with modern scientific understanding of how the body works, recovers, and grows.

Paleo nutrition + smartly programmed workouts.

The most effective fitness pair ever.

By far.

So, what does that mean? Give me a minute and I’ll dive in with you to take a look around at what I like to call the “Paleo Mystique.”

Paleo Diet

By now, many breakingmuscle.com readers have at least heard of the paleo diet.

And I’d venture to guess just as many of those same readers are utterly confused as to what it actually means. I hear those confusions all the time. “Paleo, it’s basically Atkins, right?” Or, “It’s all meat and fruit.” Or, my favorite, “I’ve heard about that diet. You just eat roots and tree bark, like cavemen.”

Uh, no. The fact of the matter is that paleo may be the simplest diet you’ve ever encountered, even if it is caught in its own “mystique” and a lingering lack of broad exposure.

The basic premise is this: like all species, we evolved to thrive within a very specific ecological niche. Our bodies were built to withstand rigorous daily physical demands, fueled by the consumption of animal proteins and fat, vegetables and tubers, and scant amounts of nuts, seeds, and fruit.

These were not choices driven by any sense of morality, but simply choices of availability and survival.

Okay, so what’s so “mystique-building” about that diet? We ate animals and whatever plant food we could scrounge – makes sense, right? Well, it turns out it’s not what we did eat that makes the paleo approach unique, it’s what we DIDN’T EAT.

Many of the common foods we now consume, and which make up a massive percentage of the general human diet, have only been eaten for the past 10,000 years or so, and were rarely if ever eaten during the preceding 200,000 to seven million years we’ve roamed the planet.

The big dietary bomb that paleo delivers is that our species evolved on a diet free of grains, legumes, and dairy.

So, if we are at all concerned with re-establishing our original guidelines of health, we begin with a diet that highlights good fats, animal proteins, vegetables and roots, and eliminates grains, legumes and dairy.

Big change, right? Bombshell, you might say. Grains? Legumes? Aren’t these the very foundation of the USDA food pyramid? Well, yes, indeed they are.

Which then begs the question, “Are the dietary recommendations prescribed by the food pyramid in any way legitimate?” Those of us who adhere to the paleo diet would answer in an unrepentant and resounding, “No.”

Not for enhanced athletic performance or body composition, and absolutely not for optimized health. And we have a plethora of empirical findings and evidence-based science to back this contention.

All of which is sure to bring on arguments. Which, believe me, I hear all the time. “But my grandmother ate grains, and she lived to be ninety!” Sure she did, but did she live disease and pain free?

Was she able to completely avoid “diseases of modernity” including obesity, diabetes, dementia, arthritis, sarcopenia (muscle wasting), high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease? Remember, there is a profound difference between mere survival and thriving.

Zoo-kept animals merely survive, whereas animals left to their own devices, un-tampered with in their natural habitats, live optimal, vibrant lives. We, too, are endowed with that same possibility – if we only choose to move and eat appropriately.

Paleo Is A Baseline Template For Health And Nutrition

And let’s be clear, paleo is not Atkins, and it’s not a “woo-woo” diet, and it’s not a dogma.

It’s a strong set of theories and a baseline template for health and nutrition. How you play around with that template is your own concern, as long as you don’t get away from the foundational principles. You can tweak endlessly according to your goals.

For instance, a person concerned with control of blood glucose levels due to the complications of diabetes would be best served to follow a very low carbohydrate version of the paleo diet – a diet proportioned more in favor of good fats and animal proteins – whereas a high-performing endurance athlete would do well to take the opposite approach, downing a higher carbohydrate content version of the diet.

Note, though, that both “versions” of paleo still avoid the intake of grains, legumes, and (in some instances) dairy.

And while the health conscious individual will look to minimize insulin spikes resulting from the ingestion of higher glycemic foods (honey, for instance; bananas, too), those looking to maximize overall performance and quicker recovery might want to actually encourage an insulin spike at specific times, especially immediately following a strenuous workout.

All easily accomplished, of course, while still avoiding the health problems associated with the ingestion of grains, legumes, and dairy.

Looking beyond health, for a performance edge? Yeah, paleo is for you, too.

Endurance capabilities are greatly enhanced by maintaining the body as a fat-burning V-8 engine rather than a sugar-burning sewing machine. Once this enzymatic shift is made, “bonking” – the low-blood-sugar-event scourge of all endurance athletics – is a thing of the past.

Performance nutrition is all about maximizing nutrient density per calorie ingested, and no diet exceeds in providing that all-important ratio like paleo.

As an added bonus, once the body has become super-sensitized to the hormones insulin and leptin, these hormones can then be purposely manipulated for desired performance outcomes.

For example, producing a high insulin spike in an otherwise low insulin environment has a dramatic effect on the shuttling of nutrients into hungry muscle cells (as opposed to fat cells) – exactly what’s called for in post-workout recovery and for muscle gain.

This requires no other “magic” than simply ingesting higher-glycemic-value foods as part of one’s post-workout recovery plan. Simple and cheap, yet a highly effective performance enhancement strategy.

So where does this leave someone who would like to further explore the health and performance benefits of a paleo way of eating?

Must one return to a life of the cave and spear to reap paleo’s benefits? Hardly. Simply begin by eating a diet laden with animal proteins and seafood, good fats (including olive and coconut oils, avocados, butter, and cream), vegetables, leaves, and tubers (sweet potatoes and parsnips, for example).

If one is not concerned with dropping body fat, feel free to toss in some nuts – almonds and walnuts are great choices – and a smattering of fruit. The tip of the sciencey-geeky iceberg is this: we’re looking to control the hormones insulin and leptin, and put the brakes on systemic inflammation – the root of all “diseases of modernity,” and a huge detriment to athletic performance and optimum body composition.

So whether you’re looking to simply be fit, trim and healthy, or seeking that all-important performance edge, paleo is for you. Begin with the basic grain, legume, and dairy-free template, then tweak and tinker from there as your goals and desires dictate.

Refuse to be a zoo animal, destined to a life of mere survival. Claim your birthright of optimal living, and begin that process by nourishing yourself with the foods you were designed to eat.

The post The Paleo Mystique: Deciphering “Paleo” Eating appeared first on Breaking Muscle.