The Dairygod Father: The Good, The Bad, and The Delicious- Part 2- Cheese

Why hello again to all my filtered blood (that's what milk is) craving Paleo Pals. In Part 2 of this series we are going to talk about Steve Urkel's favorite treat, Cheese. Let's start by making a very important distinction; I am talking about real cheese. Not the stuff that comes shredded in bags or the stuff individually wrapped in plastic, which is basically only one molecule away from being what it's wrapped in. Those are fake cheeses, and are usually more man made than cow made. For one they are usually made with non-fat or skim milk. As we discussed in the last installment on dairy; skim/low fat/non-fat dairy is a waste of your time and nutritionally inferior. When I say cheese, I mean real cheese, aged cheese, the stuff made with full fat milk that comes in blocks or wheels that you have to cut into slices with a machete, axe or other cutting implement. Let's face it aged, full fat cheese is WAY tastier and it's damn sure better for you.

Before we go any further, I just want to put my standard disclaimer out there; the consumption of diary should be assessed on a case by case basis. There is no such thing as a "one size fits all" way of eating. If eating cheese/yogurt/milk/etc. makes you void your bowels quicker than a striped ass ape (how fast is that? Well have you ever seen a striped ass ape?), DON'T EAT IT!! With that out of the way, let’s look at some of the science behind cheese and some reasons to keep it in your diet and some reasons to get it out of your go-to foods list.

Here's a pretty good site about how Cheese is Made. I wanted to throw that out there so you don't have to take my word on my next point. When cheese is made, lactic acid is used to curdle the milk so it can be separated into curds and whey. Lactic acid virtually eliminates the presence of lactose in the cheese, acting almost like a form of lactase, which is the enzyme that down regulates (significant decrease in production of) in humans causing lactose intolerance. Generally the longer the cheese has been aged the less lactose it has in it, and sometimes even a small dose for those who are lactose intolerant can cause problems, so if you are part of the 2/3 of the world population that is lactose intolerant and want to try cheese make sure you get the stuff that's been aged the longest (and make sure it's grass-fed which we'll discuss in a bit)

So the lactose is out of the way, which means less of an insulin response (YAY!). So no more lactose, no more problem right? Not completely, for those who have developed an allergic reaction to casein, one of the dairy proteins, there is still a huge problem. When cheese is made it is separated into curds and whey, the whey is then drained off to produce the desired moisture in the cheese. This leaves very little whey and quite a bit of casein. Now for some of us this isn't a problem, we can handle casein just fine. For those of us who are gluten sensitive (and most of you know my opinion on that) it can cause problems if you haven't taken the time to heal your gut lining. Casein can bind to the same sites as gluten in your gut causing the same problem that gluten does: tearing of the gut lining and destruction of the tight junctions.

This is one of those things you are going to have to play with yourself (ha that's what she said). I can't tell you for sure who will have a problem with this and who won't. I can guess but not with 100% accuracy. My best advice is if you really like cheese, heal your gut first. This means at least 30 days absolutely no grains, legumes, or dairy and drinking a little of the canned coconut milk that is gluten free. Then, add cheese back in for a week or two and see how it makes you feel and perform. Again there is no "one size fits all" model of eating here, but a good ol' fashion elimination diet (as prescribed by Mr. Robb Wolf) can really help you to find out what foods are problematic for you personally and what foods are ok to throw back in once the gut lining is no longer torn up.

One last problem to talk about that should lead us into the part on quality of cheese. Betacellulin, a dangerous epidermal growth factor that has been linked to cancer, is in a lot of the cheeses, but this is only a problem in most grain-fed pasteurized cheeses. Grass-fed cheese (especially if its also made from raw milk) has a much higher content of CLA, which has been shown to knock out the effects of Betacellulin by cleaving its chemical bonds before it can wreak havoc on your body. This makes a strong case for choosing grass-fed cheese, especially raw grass-fed cheese if you can find it, over cheese made with conventional milk.

Another upside to choosing grass-fed cheese is the Vitamin K2 content of grass-fed dairy. Vitamin K2 is being looked at more and more these days and has been shown to be important for bone and dental health. In this study, it has also been shown to be very helpful in preventing Cardiovascular disease. It is now being studied as something that could be preventative for a whole slew of other modern neolithic maladies. Here's a sweet article written by the Health skeptic Chris Kresser about Vitamin K2. In it, he posts a list of food high in Vitamin K2, three of which are hard cheese, soft cheese, and butter, all of which are animal products. Sorry vegans, your bones, teeth, and cardiovascular systems are doomed... again.

For those of you who love to eat blocks of cheese like Tom Damian eats cookies, even though you start running for the bathroom before you finish chewing, you can always try goat's or sheep's cheese. Goat and sheep cheese are basically lactose free, and usually have a form of beta casein that is more easily tolerated by us bipeds. Again this is one of those things where you are going to have to try it out yourself and (1) see if you like the taste (I think it's delicious), and (2) see how it effects your sensitive tum-tum.

Cheese, in my opinion, shouldn't be an everyday food, and you should play with how much you can tolerate. For myself I have played with it enough to know that any more than 2-3 servings a week I start to get some deleterious effect in my ginger tummy. Also if you are going to eat it, try to make sure it's grass-fed at the very least, and try to go for the cheese that's been aged the longest. Kerrygold cheese is delicious and grass-fed and can be found at almost any local grocery store. Bigger blocks can also be found cheaper at Costco. And if you are eating it, make damn sure you are enjoying it.

Post Questions and Disagreements to comments.

The Dairygod Father: The Good, The Bad, & the Delicious- Part 1- Milk

Back again my Crock Pot Cooking Cave People, and it's time for a long awaited post on my thoughts on the delicious and potential duodenally disastrous topic of dairy.  I've decided to attack this in a three part series to keep your brain from shutting down, your eyes glossing over, and to keep drool from getting all over your keyboard.  In Part 1 of this series we are going to talk about something that we have been told "does a body good" for the past couple decades: Milk.

Through out the Paleo-sphere this topic gets debated quite a bit.  Some of the more hardcore "Cavemen", claim that it's a no go based on it's effect on insulin levels, it's potential for gut irritation (lactose and casein), and it's acidic nature.  However I'm not so sure all milk is created equal, and therefore I'm not so sure all milk is a problem for all people.  This is another one of those things that again is going to differ depending on the person, the source of the milk, and whether or not you deem it worth the money or hassle.

Milk- It does a body good right? 

This particular topic was a difficult one to research, simply because of the studies out there about milk, either condemning or praising it, are on what I consider not be real milk at all.  Most of the studies out there are looking for the benefits or potential dangers of pasteurized, conventionally grain-fed, low-fat/skim milk.  This kind of milk is no more, in my opinion, than murky water.  Let me explain why.  The first problem is the elimination of fats from milk.  As we all know (or you should by now for those of you who listen to me ramble everyday) fats are our friends, and so eliminating them from any food source is never a good thing.  However when the fats are taken out of the milk it's even more disastrous because it destroys the nutritional value of milk in a couple ways:

1. It turns delicious milk into no more than murky water, and makes it taste about the same.
2. By eliminating the fats, you have just made it damn near impossible to get any of the fat-soluble vitamins out of the milk (mainly vitamin A, but also the Vitamin D this pseudo-dairy is said to be fortified with), making it even more nutritional sparse, again like drinking murky water, since you aren't getting the vitamins you thought you were.
3. You remove the little remaining CLA from this milk which does a bunch of good stuff in the body but the most important thing in my opinion is that it has ability to nullify the effects of betacellulin, which has been shown to bind to receptors and enhance cancer cell growth-1.   

The next problem is the pasteurization of Milk.  Yeah it's great for prolonging the shelf life of diary and it is said to kill all the bacteria in raw dairy, however there are few problems with all the bacteria and enzymes in Raw Milk.

1. It doesn't make any sense to prolong the shelf life of what is basically murky water
2. When the milk is heated in the pasteurization process, important things like the milks natural Lactase, Lipase, and Phosphatase, which helps with the breakdown of milk sugars (lactose), proteins, and the absorption of calcium, are destroyed eliminating the natural digestive support given by Mother Nature, herself.  All the enzymes naturally found in milk are extremely heat sensitive making them some of the first things to go when milk is pasteurized.
3. This process not only destroys the bad bacteria but also a lot of the good ones our bodies could use.

Finally most of the milk in these studies and sold in Super Markets around the world is from conventionally grain-fed cattle.  These cows are forced to walk around in there own feces and the fecal matter of other cows, which is why they all usually get sick and need to be fed antibiotics.  As you can probably imagine cows that walks around in poop all day and are force fed food they were never meant to eat are going to produce milk that is filled with nasty bacterias, antibiotics, and viruses. These are things you definitely don't want in your body, so of course I would NEVER suggest someone drink Raw Milk from cows raised in such a manner.  That means that yes, the best thing to do to this kind of milk is Pasteurize it, and if pasteurizing it kills all the good stuff, why would you want to drink it? 

The other side of this proverbial coin is Raw Grass-fed milk.  There is quite a bit of literature out there (most of it anecdotal) that people who are lactose intolerant can drink this kind of milk and not feel like Kane from the movie "Alien".  The theory behind this is that without the pasteurization process the Raw Milk still contains the lactase, lipase, and phosphatase, that is killed in the heating process, so the raw milk is more easily digested by our bodies with the help of good Ol' Mother Nature.  The other benefit that I see with this kind of milk is that it is Grass-fed.  Allowing cows to graze and eat what they are suppose to negates the need for antibiotics and hormones, and allows the rumen of the cows to do it God given job.  It's amazing that when cows are fed what they were intended to eat, the benefits that come along with it.  The milk from these cows has been shown to have significantly higher levels of CLA, around 5x that of conventional grain-fed cattle, higher and more bio-available levels of Vitamin A, contains higher levels of Vitamin K2 in its fats, and has a Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 1.  These are HUGE benefits boys and girls.  Now does the milk have to be raw to contain the benefits of being grass-fed, no, but just remember any milk that's pasteurized loses the natural enzymes needed to help us humans down the milk of another animal.

We've talked about the benefits of Raw, Grass-fed milk, now lets take a look at the down side.  One of the biggest hazards is that even raw, grass-fed milk still has a high insulin response.  This means that all of you still dealing with insulin resistance, this is still a no-no, and even for those who aren't insulin resistance I would suggest only drinking it post-workout if at all.  Secondly, it's fraking (yes another BSG reference) expensive and really hard to find.  In a lot of states you can't even get it due to the problems associated with grain-fed raw milk being pressed upon grass-fed raw milk.  The final flaw, the shelf life.  The shelf life of raw milk is like 7-10 days if you refrigerate it, so you have to find it from a local source and drink it fast, and personally spiking insulin that frequently is a problem for the majority of people.  Bought in small quantities and used as a special treat, I think raw, grass-fed dairy is a decent infrequent dietary splurge, but shouldn't be ingested daily.  Where can you get it? Check out this link to a website ran by the Weston A. Price Foundation.

The final topic for discussing milk is what kind of cattle it comes from.  Most people assume that all dairy cows are created equal, however this isn't at all the case.   The two main types are A1 and A2 cattle, labeled as such based on the beta-casein present in the dairy cows milk.  A1 Beta-Casein is the nasty stuff associated with the release of beta-casomorphin-7, which is an opioid-like chemical released upon digestion.  This protein fragment is what normally causes the joint pain, digestive issues, and leaky gut generally related to all casein.  This is normally because the kind of dairy cow that produces A1 Beta-Caseins (Holsteins and Friesians, these are your typical black and white cows), also produce more milk per cow, so they are the favored dairy cows of the conventional factory farmed dairy industry.  The A2 Beta-Casein produced by cow breeds like Jerseys and Gurnseys cows (brown and white cows), hasn't been shown to cause the same problems with gut irritation, joint pain, or leaky gut problems.  So if you insist on drinking milk, or doing a GOMAD protocol try and stick to the brown cows, the Masai did and did pretty well on it.  A2 dairy is also associated with Goats milk which also seems to be less of a problem for even lactose/casein intolerant people.

No matter what I say here in defense of milk or damning it, give it a try and see how it effects you (unless you have an autoimmune issue then stay the FRAK away from it), but it grants you the Super Power to clear a large room in a single blow, DON'T EAT IT ANYMORE.  Some of us were not blessed with the ability to devour dairy without losing friends.  My suggestion is as always eliminate it for a while (30 days usually works well) and then slowly add small amounts of it back in and see how it treats you.

Coming Soon- Dairy: The Good, The Bad, the Delicious- Part 2- Cheese

Articles used and quoted in this blog post:

1. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dairy-intolerance/

2. Eat Wild

3. http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/conjugated-linoleic-acid-cla-and-breast-milk

4. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/dairy-fat-and-diabetes.html

Nitrates, Nitrites, and Nitrosamines- OH MY!

Back once again my fellow Bacon Enthusiasts, this week’s blog post is brought to you by the letters “N” and “O” and by the number “3” (that’s right a Sesame Street reference this week made geekier by making it into a chemical compound).   In this post we are going to go after a question that I know is near and dear to all our hearts: Nitrates, Nitrites, and Nitrosamines.  Why are these three things close to all our hearts?  Well two of these substances, Nitrates and Nitrites, are in fact the substances in cured meats (Bacon) that we are told to stay away from and that they cause... DUN DUN DUH.... Cancer, but hey what doesn't cause Cancer these days, oh that's right, Nitrates and Nitrites.  Or I should say that there is no good evidence to support the theory that Nitrates and Nitrites are correlated let alone causative of any type of cancer.

 

The study that was used to start this scare was done in the 1970's, where it was said to be found that 13 rats had developed lymphatic cancer due to Nitrates.  This was the only part of the story that came out in the media. Shocker I know the media trying to scare people.  Here's the other side of the story that most people never hear, the preliminary research out of MIT behind the original Nitrate scare was never peer reviewed before the FDA and USDA decided that they should slap a warning label on everything that contained Nitrates and started putting regulations on the amounts of them used for curing meats.  Later this study was discredited as having "Fatal Flaws" in the data by the interagency working group of scientists from the FDA, USDA, and NIH.¹  Here is the risk assessment from the National Research Council.  They deemed that normal FDA procedures hadn’t been followed in inciting this scare of Nitrates.  So basically the science used in this study is a lot like the science used in the China Study (you know if you feed mice dairy and grains and they get cancer, it means meat causes cancer.) I know by now with all these posts saying that what the government is telling us is wrong that I sound like a conspiracy nut job, and honestly I'm OK with that.  Being normal is boring.  So let’s get into why I personally don’t believe that Nitrates and Nitrites are problematic.

If someone tells you that they are completely eliminating Nitrates from their diet, you have my permission to first call them a liar then kick them in the shin.  It’s absolutely impossible to completely eliminate nitrates from your diet unless you stop eating all vegetables, fruits, or animals that eat things that grow in soil.  Why? Because Nitrogen in essential in the growth of all plants, and nitrogen as you may have guessed is a component of Nitrates (NO₃).  That’s right folks you get WAY more nitrates from vegetables, especially the green leafy ones, than you do from eating cured meats.  This is even more so since all the regulations put on the amounts of the sodium nitrates that can be used to cure meats.  Let’s take a look at some actual numbers (expressed as Parts Per Million-ppm) These are the average levels for some basic plant foods- Arugula: 4,677ppm; Basil 2,292ppm; Butterhead Lettuce 2,036ppm; Beets 1,279ppm; celery 1,103ppm; spinach 1,066ppm, pumpkin 874ppm.¹  Now compare those numbers to your average hot dog with their average levels being 10ppm.  What I am trying to show you here is that cured meats a VERY small portion of our ingested Nitrate, in fact the vast majority, which is estimated by some to be anywhere from 70-95%,  of our Nitrate intake is from plants.  The funny thing is no one ever makes then claim that we should stop eating veggies or fruits because their nitrate levels cause cancer.  And what’s even funnier is that no one ever makes the claim that we shouldn’t swallow our own saliva even though 97%¹ of our Nitrite exposure comes from swallowing our own spit.  So like I said if someone tells you that they are completely eliminated Nitrates and Nitrites from their diet ask them how they will survive without ever swallowing again.

Now let’s look at the other side of this topic, Nitrates are good for you.  According to a study done by Lundberg JO, Feelisch M, Björne H, Jansson EA, Weitzberg E., Inorganic Nitrates in plants is converted into Nitrite and Nitric Oxide which has vasodilating and tissue-protective properties through symbiotic bacteria in our mouths.  We have for as long as one can think back always been told to eat our vegetables by our mothers and grandmother (or as my grandmother put it, “Eat it or wear it”, and she wasn’t kidding), but who would of thought that the same heart saving substances in veggies were the same ones that we are told to stay away from in meats. 

The final “N” of our blog is Nitrosamines.  These little buggers can be pretty nasty and have shown to have a link to cancer, and are formed by combining Nitrates and Nitrites with Amines from proteins. “But Kevin you just said Nitrates and Nitrites don’t cause cancer, have you been dropping weights on your thick polish skull again?”  Yes I have been, but that has nothing to do with this.  Nitrates and Nitrites are perfectly safe as long as they don’t form Nitrosamines, and our bodies have evolved to prevent this from happening.  In the presence of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), it is damn near impossible for Nitrosamines to form.  Our stomach acid just so happens to contain, you guessed it, ascorbic acid in large enough amounts to prevent to union of Nitrates, Nitrites, and Amines.  The only time that our stomach is in the mood for some hot-nasty Nitrate/Amine lovin’, is if you happen to be in a state of hypochloridia (low stomach acid).  And I hate to pick on Vegans and Vegetarians (what no I don’t I love it), but not eating meat will actually cause your stomach acid level to plummet.  If you think you have low stomach acid or you are a recover vegetarian/vegan, just throw down some digestive support and you should be good to go.

There’s one last thing to discuss here when talking about Nitrates, Nitrites, and Nitrosamines, how to cook your food.  In a study presented by the University of Minnesota, the biggest cause of Nitrosamine formation in bacon was not the level of Nitrates consumed but how well the food was cooked.  They showed that when bacon was cooked up to medium well that no conclusive evidence of nitrosopyrrolidine (an N-nitroso Compound- NOCs) could be found.  However when burned to a crisp, which if you eat bacon this way I feel sorry for you, NOCs were found at levels of about 19ppm, which in my opinion is still not enough to really worry about.  The take away from this study for me is done burn the shit out of your food.  I have always suggested cooking all your foods are low temperatures, i.e. crock pots are your best friends.  Even though I don’t think the amounts of NCOs produced by burning bacon are a problem, it’s still probably a good idea for safety’s sake the next time you throw some bacon in the pan cook it on a lower heat and leave it a little fatty.  I promise it’s delicious this way, because as we all know there’s no real way to ruin bacon.

Lastly here a little fun fact for you in order to ingest a lethal dose of sodium nitrate you would have to eat somewhere between 2,222 to 4,444 hot dogs in a single sitting.  Give that a try and let me know how it goes.

As always don’t take my word for it, here are some links below that I found useful- check’em out.  And if you have any article, study, evidence that I’m completely wrong I would love to read it, so send it my way:

1. http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-banning-hotdogs-and-bacon-make.html

2. http://www.wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/06/nitrate-protective-factor-in-leafy.html

3. http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ0974.html

4. http://www.paleonu.com/panu-forum/post/1377741

5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19439460

6. http://www.paleonu.com/panu-forum/post/1046503#post1046531

Saturated Fats: The Red Headed Step Child Everyone Loves to Beat Up On

Well Hello again my Caffeinated Cavemen (or Cavewomen), let's jump straight into a rather juicy and might I say delicious topic, that most people have been bamboozled by the "Experts" about since early on in the 1900's: Saturated Fat.  We are not just going to look at the supposedly evil yet complete delicious Saturated Fat but also its effects (or lack thereof) on Cholesterol and it's link (or once again lack thereof) to CVD and CHD.  And towards the end (and maybe throughout the middle who knows my brain's thought process is wired differently) we will discuss what I have found in my research on the topic to be the real culprit of all things Cardiovascularly condemning. 

Let's begin at the beginning, when did Saturated Fat, which was a great source of energy and nutrients for our ancestors, turn against us and start trying to destroy Human-kind like they were delicious morsels of Cylons (yes that's a Battlestar Gallactica Reference).  Where did this unwarranted fear come from?  I mean if our ancestors ate it for the vast majority of human existence, and through anthropological studies show almost non-existent level of CVD and CHD (of which SAFA is suppose to be a main cause), why all of the sudden in the early to mid 1900's did this Fatty acid start to kill us?  The answer- Poor Science, Ego, and Greed.  A guy by the name Dr. Ancel Keys performed a study and did what those in the Nerd Dimension (ha) call Cherry Picking Data.  He had 22 observable countries in which most of them showed no connection to fat consumption and CHD or CVD but Cherry Picked the six countries that supported his hypothesis.  Here is a clip from a movie called, "Big Fat Lies" that kind of explains the error of Dr. Keys ways.  But enough of why we are scared of SAFA lets starts talking about why we shouldn't be afraid of them and even why we should think about eating them more often.

It has been shown that yes SAFA do tend to raise LDL (Low Density Lipoproteins) particles in our blood. LDL particles have long been dubbed the Bad Boy (or Girl) of cholesterol, and that it causes all kinds of nasty plaque to build up in our arterial lining and take us down like Brian Urlacher hitting a 3rd grader.  Well that's a partial truth, but also so far from the whole truth that that partial truth has to pay outrages long distance rates to get a hold of the whole truth.  What has been discovered is that there isn't just one type of LDL particle, there is actually a couple different forms of it: Small and Dense- Large and Fluffy.  Now the nasty kind of LDL that that partial truth is taking about is Small and Dense particles of LDL, which are really easy to oxidize and wreck havoc on our systems.  The Large and Fluffy versions of LDL are almost impossible to oxidize and pose no threat to our heart health and in fact probably help improve it.  So if the vast majority of your LDL count is of the large and fluffy variety even with slightly elevated LDL levels your risk for CVD or CHD is greatly diminished.  Here's the crazy thing, SAFA have been shown to have a greater effect of the production of HDL (High Density Lipoprotein- the "good" cholesterol), which in turn decreases your risk for CHD or CVD.  Why? Well think of it think way, imagine LDL particles (or at least the Small Dense ones) as messy children leaving behind messes where ever they go.  Now think of HDL as a house keeper, following behind those messy children and cleaning up whatever they put down.  Now if you have a balanced ratio of Housekeepers to messy children your arteries stay clean and health.  On the flip side, if all you have are Clean well behaved children (Large Fluffy LDL) there's virtually no mess for the housekeepers to pick.  And no I wasn't large and fluffy as a kid I was the small dense LDL particle that gave my parents heart attacks at every chance I got, Sorry Mom and Dad!  So now you may be asking what this has to do with SAFA, well I'll tell you- Nothing.

Here's what I mean, where dietary SAFA have an effect of production rates of LDL particle they have very little influence on the kind produced, if you follow me.  In fact most of your blood serum cholesterol is produced in house by the liver.  Now lets look at what does effect the quality of LDL particles in your blood. Can anyone guess what it is?  That's right Vegans, wait no that's not right, what I meant to say was elevated blood glucose levels, but both cause a lot of problems so you can see where I got mixed up.  Elevated glucose levels cause our body to have to produce excess insulin to deal with the large amounts of glucose in our blood, which then sends it to our liver, which converts it to triglycerides to be stored.  This in turn raises the level of triglycerides in our blood.  Now this is where elevated levels of glucose cause the problem.  Think of triglycerides as the bad influence that all the after school specials warned you about, that are trying to get you to smoke, and make you small and dense.  That is the effect it has on our LDL quality and its very persuasive, it's like the Sean Connery of Fats.  So remember those studies that showed SAFA caused an increase in CVD or CHDSAFA increase overall production of LDL (and HDL don't forget that), and increased carbohydrate intake is making these particles small and dense causing an increase in the percentage of the LDL particle produced to be small-dense and easily oxidizable, and then silly single minded government controlled "scientist" are misinterpreting the data and pointing there finger at the wrong culprit.  With out the over-consumption of carbs, SAFA cause increased production of the good kind of LDL's which cause no real threat to your heart health and are actually a great source of energy for our bodies. 

With all that being said in favor of SAFAs, should they be the only fat you eat, No.  Can the be the majority of the fat that you eat, they are for me.  However, I have always been a great proponent of variety.  Getting Monounsaturated Fats in higher amount is a good thing too, mighty yummy, and have benefits that eating SAFA don't.  The only kind of fats that I would try to get as little as possible are polyunsaturated fats from vegetable sources, especially if you are cooking with them because these are the ones that can cause huge problems in our body, but that topic is for a different time.  And yes these are the ones that the government says we should eat more of, and they are once again wrong.

The final thing I will touch on in this post is SAFA's effect on insulin sensitivity.  I have scoured the interweb, looking at studies on this topic, and none that I found showed any statistically significant data that would make me believe that SAFA have any effect on insulin sensitivity.  Now I'm not saying there are not any well performed studies out there that support this theory, what I am saying is that I couldn't find them, so in my personal opinion, until proven wrong, I am on SAFA's side on this one.  I don't think it has any effect on insulin sensitivity.  But if you find a study proving me wrong on this topic please shoot it my way because I would love to read it.

Here are some of the articles I read in preparation for writing this post, check them out and enjoy learning.  And as always follow the advice of Levar Burton: "Don't take my word for it." Check it out yourself

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/12/dirty-little-secret-of-diet-heart.html

http://www.menshealth.com/health/saturated-fat

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/02/saturated-fat-and-insulin-sensitivity.html

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/07/animal-models-of-atherosclerosis-ldl.html

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/07/diet-heart-hypothesis-stuck-at-starting.html

Pre-Workout Nutrition: Such a Tricky Lil' SOB

Alright my animal masticating ninjas, I am going to try and tackle a topic today that is even more complicated than the last topic, and yet in my opinion much easier to figure out. 
What you eat (or don't eat) before tackling an athletic endeavor, can sometimes be the difference between crushing your workout or your workout crushing you.  This becomes a pretty big problem in the Crossfit world because our WODs are so varied that our pre-workout nutrition usually needs to be too, and people don't like having to figure out what works best for them and what makes them run to pooper half way through "Helen".  Pre-workout nutrition is complicated because it is different for everyone and for almost every workout.  Yet it is fairly easy to figure out once I have divulged to you my little secret.  Are you ready? Here it is- Trial and Error. 
You have got to see what works for you.  For myself heading into a workout with a full stomach of food, no matter what the workout is, crushes my performance.  However I've seen people eat full meals before "Fran"-like WODs and crush PR's.  On the other side I'm also not a huge fan of consistently going into a workout in a fasted stated, I've just never read anything that shows me the hormonal benefits of this outweigh the hormonal damage it can cause.  Now every once in a while fasted training might not be a bad idea, but doing it consistently, in my opinion, can crush someone.  I personally feel my best when I go into a Metcon with having eaten something about 1-2 hours previous.  This leaves my GI feeling comfortable and at low risk for gastric emptying mid WOD, which I don't have to tell you is fairly important if I'm doing something for time. 
With all that being said about the complexity of this subject, I'm not going to let you tackle this like a blind linebacker.  Let's throw out a few starting points for you guys, and then we can discuss (in the comments) if someone has tried these how they think they worked and what they do differently.
Suggestion #1: Eating for lifting Heavy stuff
This pre-workout eating seems to be one of the only suggestions that I think comes pretty close to working for most people.  Eating a large portion of delicious dead animal and a little bit of caffeine (a little bit does not = 10 shots of espresso) seems to charge people up pretty good for heavy lifting efforts.
Suggestion #2: Short Intense Metcons (those being sub 15mins)
This is where the guess work on your part begins.  Generally smaller meals with a little bit of protein, a small whack of carbohydrate, and a decent dose of fats will do the trick nicely in these instances.  Now the type of carb will not only depend on which ones you feel best with but also how long before you workout do you like to eat your meals.  If its a few hours before I see no problem with downing a some delectable veggies, but if you like to fuel up a little closer to game time, I would suggest maybe some yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, or even a little fruit to help light a fire underneath your performances ass.  Now the amount of these foods is also going to depend on you and what time you eat them and if you feel best performing with you tummy feeling full, slightly hungry, or empty.
Suggestion #3: Mid-Range Metcons (those being in the 15-35min time frame)
These wods are a little longer and might tap into your glycogen stores a little more aggressively, but generally from past experiences fuelling for these tends to still be along the same lines as the shorter Metcons.  Here again I feel a meal of protein, carbs, fats does just fine.  Again my personal favorites are yams, sweet potatoes, and carrots.  The only difference with these types of metcons, in my opinion, is that I generally like to hit this feeling slightly hungry or light in the stomach, but again you WILL need to play with it and see how you feel.
Suggestion #4: Long Range Efforts (35min+ these should be done rarely as punishment for people who kick puppies)
These efforts are a little outside my wheel house, but here is my suggestion for them.  Fuel what you're doing.  You are going to need a little more carbohydrate in these instances but that doesn't mean you need those super gels, or that you can't do long efforts while eating a Paleo diet.  Yams/Sweet potatoes are solid for this kind of need for carbohydrate.  I'm not a huge fan of veggies for these efforts seeing as on some of these, such as marathons, you'll need to fuel mid efforts and get the glucose in your system quickly.  Carrots I find work alright and so do bananas but eating an ass ton (which is an exact measurement) of fruit, I personally feel, isn't good either.  This is an instance where throwing back some kind of carb dense shake might not be the worst idea but be smart about it and don't just chug down some crap in the name of needing more carbs.
I will remind you here that these are only suggestions and that you will need to play with what works best for you for each different WOD.  Also be smart about fueling.  If you know a food sends you running to the crapper like Usain Bolt on laxatives, don't eat it before a workout.  Watching what other people eat pre-WOD is a good place to start but in no universe imaginable is it the end all be all of what the best thing is to eat before working out, even if the person have a sub 2 Fran and a 325# Clean and Jerk.  Tinker with your pre-workout nutrition, ask yourself what seems to work best for you, and as always grains will never be the answer.

Protein Shakes and Post Work-out Nutrition

A lot of you guys have asked me about protein shakes.  Are they ok?  When should I drink them?  Are they ok to drink in place of a meal?  Well this topic gets super complex and slightly confusing, but I’m going to try my best to break this down caveman style.

Protein shakes can be a great tool for improving performance and recovery, but they are just that a tool.  One to be used in the right situation and at the right time.  Protein shakes, in my opinion, should only be used after a workout, and should never be used as a meal replacement.  Why? Protein shakes, while they do supply protein supply something else: Insulin.  Just like any other dairy derivative, protein shakes have a fairly high insulin response.  Here’s where that causes a problem, insulin can shut off glucagon production, which is one of the body’s natural responses to the ingestion of delicious little critters (big critters too). The large insulin spike and low glucagon production is exactly what we don’t want from most meals and is why we try not to eat nutrient light carb dense foods.  Using protein shakes as meal replacements can lend itself to the same kind of insulin resistance that high carb neolithic diets can.  Now post workout an increased insulin response can aid recovery and increase performance, BUT only in those who are already insulin sensitive.  Those of you out there who are still struggling with insulin resistance can throw a huge monkey wrench into your progress by consistently continuing to spike your insulin with dairy derivative.

Let’s look at it this way. What is cheaper per pound, a delicious hunk of steak and some yams or a shaker bottle of liquid protein?  For that matter, what’s tastier?  Any of you out there that said the protein shakes are tastier need to a) learn to cook b) get kicked in the shin.

Now here’s where it gets to be kind of a pain in the ass.  If you think you are still struggling with insulin resistance, and are taking some shakes (post work-out only) but are still seeing good progress in performance and leaning out, I would continue on the path you are on and ride it till the wheels fall off.  When you stop progressing we can reassess and see if removing these shakes could do some good.  I say this because all too often people get greedy for progress, and in my opinion if you are consistently progressing towards your goals at a good rate you shouldn’t mess with what you are doing till that method stops working.  Now if you are still struggling with insulin resistance, and you are considering using protein shakes, STOP, and eat something that at one point (to paraphrase Robb Wolf) had eyes, a face, and a mother.

Don’t get me wrong, protein shakes have their place, and can be a damned valuable resource for training if you use them properly.  So here’s a short little guide to starting protein shake use:

1.       Are you as lean as you want to be? Or Are you Insulin sensitive?

2.       Only use them post workout

3.       NEVER USE THEM AS MEAL REPLACEMENTS!!!

4.       Try and mix them with coconut milk (cartons) or water

5.       Try not to add a whole bunch of fruit to it

The large insulin spike and low glucagon production is exactly what we don’t want from most meals and is why we try not to eat nutrient light carb dense foods

Since we are talking about something that is supposed to be used only post-workout we might as well touch on other aspects of post workout nutrition.  Now this will change from workout to workout and from person to person, so you’re going to have to use a little bit of brain power (derived from the consumption of delicious animals) to figure out what works best for you.  These are just a few guidelines that I have found in my studies and work well for most people.

I have found that the tougher the metcon (WODs) the more one will need to refuel from that activity to prepare for your next physical effort.  For Crossfit activities, a great post workout meal is a fairly large hunk of meaty goodness and a nice whack of carbs.  Any ol’ hunk of meat will do, but for the carbs I find that a delicious yam or sweet potato works really well for refueling after particularly taxing efforts.  Also getting in a little caffeine post workout has been shown to help recovery as well, now I don’t think this is necessary but its something you can tinker with to see if it works for you.

Now for post lifting heavy things, I find that refueling with a large whack of protein in the form of dead animal works really well, a little less carbohydrate is needed here, so throwing down some spinach or any other veggie works well.  If you are feeling particularly hungry throw down some fats to quench your ravenous hunger.

The last aspect I will touch on for post workout nutrition is for those of you who are using protein shakes, I recommend eating REAL food (meat and yams) about an hour or so after downing your liquid fuel.  I find that it helps with recovery and is 100% delicious and satiating.

Post questions or arguments to comments.

Diet Soda's Dirty Little Secret: O Calories- Infinite Problems.

A question was posed to me that on first sight seemed like it was going to be a really simple one to answer, but as I got into it it grew to be more and more complicated.  The question was about diet soda.  Are they OK to drink occasionally?  What harm can they really do since they are 0 calorie and have no actual sugar in them?  The answer is A LOT!  Now that being said will drinking a diet Coke kill you? Maybe-maybe not.  It depends on who you are and what you are trying to achieve.  In the last post we discussed how soda and diet sodas can prevent calcium absorption, so we'll leave that one alone and strictly talk about the effect artificial sweeteners and diet soda have on the rest of you.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence out there showing that people who are eating severely low calorie diets still don't lose weight or even gain weight when they consume large quantities of artificial sweeteners in diet sodas.  This is strange because a severe enough caloric deficit should, regardless of food quality, eventually causes weight-loss.  So whats the problem here?  What are artificial sweeteners?
Well without getting to nerdy (I mean if you want me to all you have to do is ask nicely and compliment my eyes and I will), most artificial sweeteners are a smart people tricky way of getting us to taste sweetness without the glucose/fructose that should go along with it.  In some that means taking molecules of sugar and changing them ever so slightly so that our bodies won't recognize them.   Others are modifications of amino acids made to trigger a sweet taste in your mouth.   One of them is a molecule of sucrose with a chlorine attached to it (yes you are consuming chlorine  Either way this causes problems down the yellow brick road that is your hormonal signaling for your digestive system.
These artificial sweeteners make your tongue the boy who cries wolf.  Your tongue tastes sweet so it yells down, "Help! We got some glucose coming in!".  Your body responds by producing insulin to take care of the excess blood sugar it thinks is coming in.  Here is where the shit can hit the fan because there isn't going to be any more raise in blood sugar.  So whats all that rowdy insulin suppose to do?  It does it's job and yanks sugar out of the blood, that your body actual needs to stay there.  This causes your body to start signaling for more sugar/food to replace the stuff it mistakenly took out. This causes you get hungry again or start craving another diet soda.  It really is a great market these diet soda people have, drinking one makes your crave another which makes you crave another.  Sounds like a drug addiction doesn't it? (PSSSTTT That's cause it is).  This is the reason why most people find these things so hard to stop drinking.  They are in fact addictive.  Here's a nice little quote from a super smart guy named Kurt Harris MD of PaNu blog :

"There is some evidence there may be a physiologically significant insulin response with artificial sweeteners just due to the sweet taste- even if small, the corresponding drop in blood glucose may be exaggerated by the fact no glucose is consumed - when blood glucose drops, other hormones rise in response, stimulating your appetite. Of course insulin itself drives fat storage and decreases insulin sensitivity, so there may be direct unhealthy effects as well."

http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/6/17/what-about-diet-soda.html

And this leads to another problem with these sneaky sweeteners.  Your body can't use all the insulin produced so now you have a bunch of free floating insulin.  This is bad. This is one of the hypotheses as to the cause of insulin resistance.  This is one of the main and most prevalent causes of metabolic syndrome.  This explains why those people on severely low calorie diets still can't lose weight and can continue to gain weight.
Here's a nice little study to read if you want to get down and nerdy with me:  Whats interesting is that in the subjects with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disorder, 80% of them consumed excessive amounts of soft drinks- 40% of those soft drinks being Diet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2661299/
Back to the original question:  Can I drink diet soda every once in a while?  I would say try not to, especially if you are overtly insulin resistant and are in the process of trying to lean out to improve performance.  If you are as lean as you want to be, fat adapted, not eating any grains, legumes, or dairy, and its only once in a very long while (that doesn't mean weekly) when you want to get down with your bad self and have a rum and diet (or just have a NorCal Margarita), go for it.  Enjoy life but understand the problems that come along with drinking artificial sweeteners.
I tried to keep it as painlessly nerdy as I possibly could guys, even though I'm pretty sure most of you guys will now start reading this as a sleep aid every night, but I hope this helps.  And as always if you cannot pronounce whats in it don't eat it.