Posts tagged as:

food

Choosing your poison

by carney on November 1, 2009

cffat

Seth’s gym is scheduled to be open late in December. We believe he’s trying to corner the market on all the failed New Year’s resolutioners.

WOD “Bertha”

Complete as many rounds as you can in 20 minutes of:
1 slice pizza
2 twinkies
6 oz pepsi

Choosing Your Poison

Since the Robb Wolf certification, I’ve been trying to get my mind around lectins. Thing is, lectins are everywhere, and they’re important. Unfortunately, some are toxic to humans when consumed. The tricky part is that some individuals can thrive eating a food that will kill someone else.

Nutrition is complicated. People get college degrees in nutrition. There are thousands of nutrition and diet books filled with ideas and references to other books, scientific journals and articles supporting the author’s opinions.

This leads me to believe that there is very little fact in the science of nutrition, except that you’ve got to eat. Unless, you’re a breatharian of course.

Though it’s important to read some of the books, verify some of the research, and talk to some of the gurus; in the end, you’ve got to decide what you’re going to put in the pie hole. And it’s possible that that decision is responsible for 80% of your quality of life, now and later.

The basis of your decision should not be based on theory or someone else’s idea of what constitutes healthy eating. Instead, it should be based on your experience. On how you look, feel, and perform while eating certain foods or following a specific program.

Elimination diets have been used by many to help identify food allergies. This is the emphasis of CrossFit Missoula’s 30 Day CMFD Challenge.

Which brings me back to these pesky lectins.

“The most common potentially ‘toxic’ lectin containing food groups are:

  • grains, especially wheat and wheat germ but also quinoa, rice, buckwheat, oats, rye, barley, millet and corn.
  • legumes (all dried beans, including soy and peanuts),
  • dairy (perhaps more so when cows are feed grains instead of grass, a speculation based on research showing transference of lectins into breast milk and dairy and potentially more harmful in pasteurized, processed milk because of the reduction of SIgA, an immunoglobulin that binds dangerous lectins , Biol Neonate 1991;59(3):121-5 Davin JC et al The high lectin-binding capacity of human secretory IgA protects nonspecifically mucosae against environmental antigens.), NOTE: Only breast milk is good for babies.
  • nightshade (includes potato, tomato, eggplant and pepper).”

-  Quote stolen from http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html

Though the above list is the most common. Any food could be an allergen.

I know a little boy who will die if he eats eggs! He’s so sensitive to eggs, that he goes into anaphylactic shock if an egg is broken within his vicinity!

Are lectins the cause of his condition? I don’t know. But what’s obvious, is people can respond very differently to different things.

For our challenge, we are eliminating the top three potentially toxic lectin containing food groups from our diets for 30 days (grains, legumes, and dairy) and then reintroducing those foods, one at a time, all the while closely monitoring the changes that are taking place.

We’re now one week into the Challenge. How are our Challengers doing?

Sound off in comments.

WOD 091102

“Elizabeth”

21-15-9 reps for time:
Cleans, 135 lb (60 kg)
Ring dips

{ 4 comments }

30 Day ??? Challenge

by carney on October 25, 2009

IMG_8876

Daniel catches the 71 kg snatch and manages to secure his personal record during Saturday’s meet at CrossFit 4800.

30 Day ??? Challenge

I was originally going to go with the flow and call this the 30 Day Paleo Challenge like other CrossFit Affiliates, but truth is, we’re not really going to be eating entirely Paleo. It’d be like me telling you “I’m a vegetarian, but I eat chicken”. Though, we do need a name for this thing.

The two I came up with are “Clean Up My F-cking Diet” and “Oh! My Leaky Gut” 30 Day Challenge. Neither of which are very . . . appetizing, I gotta admit. So, let’s put our heads together this week and create a list of possible titles, and we’ll vote at the end of the week to select one. In the meantime, the 30 Day ??? Challenge starts Monday. Let’s get on with it.

My big take-home message following the Robb Wolf’s nutrition seminar was that if you want to be healthy, you’ve got to cut grains and legumes from your diet. Grains and legumes contain these pesky proteins called lectins (gluten is one), which irritate everyone’s gastrointestinal tract (GIT) creating a condition called leaky gut.

“But I eat grains everyday, and have for my whole life, and they don’t bother me”, so you say. Well, me too. And to tell you the truth, I’m skeptical that I’ll feel any different. And, I’m hopeful that I do feel better, and I’m going to go through this thing with you to find out, once and for all.

So then, the number one priority for our Challenge is to eliminate all grain and legume lectins from our diet. To do this we’ll need to not only take out grains and legumes, but also dairy, because most cows are fed a diet of grains, not grass, and those irritating lectins get into the milk.

Unfortunately, beer, made from grains, also contain lectins. So, you gotta get rid of the beer. If you’re a beer drinker (like me), and you’re one week into this thing and you’re thinking “oh my god, I need a beer or I’m going to fucking kill something!” (like me), then your options are to throw away one week of hard-won progress and have a beer, or you could have a glass of wine, or eat something sweet, like chocolate covered almonds (not paleo). Though all of these options may just save a life, options two and three will not dump any grain lectins into your system, re-inflaming the gut and forcing me, to force you, to to start all over again, but they will jack your insulin.

Which brings us to priority number two. Regulating insulin. Eating foods with high glycemic loads can lead to hyperinsulinemia, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc. To better regulate our body’s insulin response to carbohydrate we need to cut out, or at least limit foods with high glycemic loads. Coincidentally, grains produce some of the highest loads when compared to vegetables.

Bullet points for our 30 Day Challenge:

DO eat:

  • lean meats and seafood
  • eggs
  • vegetables
  • fruits
  • nuts and seeds

DON’T eat:

  • grains (wheat, oat, rice, etc.)
  • legumes (beans, peanuts, lentils, etc.)
  • dairy (cheese, yogurt, milk, etc.)
  • beer (yeah. don’t eat your beer)
  • sugar (refined)

Guidelines for “when” and “how” to eat:

  1. At each meal, eat a hunk of meat, some vegetables and/or fruit, and some fat.
  2. Eat 3-6 times a day.
  3. Eat when hungry, stop when full.

For more information about eating Paleo, head over to http://www.thepaleodiet.com/

Robb Wolf’s blog (esp. the FAQ) is a also great resource http://robbwolf.com

As we get rolling with this thing, feel free to post questions here, or ask me via phone, email, or txt, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Also, if you find a good web resource, article, or have a good story to share, please post it here, so others may benefit.

Good luck!

WOD 091026

Weighted dip 1×7

{ 5 comments }