Paleo-Jitsu: Black Belt Nutrition

I’ve found getting this blog up and going to be a little challenging. Given my occupation the last thing I want to do is perpetuate subjective opinion, bad science, and the alternative agendas of people trying to sell useless alternative health products. Perhaps that’s why I feel the need to launch into a long drawn out explanation of my independent investigation into the science behind Paleo and my conclusions. Recommending a specific diet is not something I take lightly, particularly when the diet flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Despite my impulses to turn this blog into a position paper on why I think Paleo is a nutritional paradigm shifter, I think it’s more important to provide practical advice on how to get started. I’ll address the various psychological hurdles many may face (like why fat is not bad) in future posts.

Paleo

Eating Paleo consists of eating meats, vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, roots (sweet potatoes), and tubers (yams). These foods are nutritional powerhouses, natural, and should serve as the cornerstone of a Paleo diet. Noticeably absent from the list of Paleo recommended foods are sugar, sugar’s drunk Uncle Bob high fructose corn syrup, cereal grains (wheat, rice, corn, oats, barley, etc), dairy, and legumes (beans). There are several reasons why these foods are on the no-fly list. The general argument, in the most primitive sense, is these foods were not around until ~10,000 years ago following the agricultural revolution and our bodies are not well adapted to them so they are not considered Paleo. I think there are more compelling arguments as to why these foods should be avoided I will discuss below.

Palo-Jitsu

Recently there has been some discussion of what it actually means to be Paleo. The salient theme of the discussion centers around the notion Paleo should be used as a template or starting point for making dietary choices. I tend to agree with this concept of Paleo. I’ve started thinking of Paleo more of a continuum of food choices with flexibility to slide to the left or right depending on individual needs and tolerances (with some caveats). To help illustrate this concept, I’ve formulated my own Paleo continuum of food choices to help my family and friends get started.

I’ve presented my Paleo continuum in the context of another paradigm shifter, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Similar to Paleo, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu also turned conventional wisdom upside down and ushered in a new paradigm for martial arts. This is my way of combining my two passions (outside of my wife and beautiful girls) into one. As a point of reference I have been training Jiu-jitsu for 10 years so I’m well aware there two more belts (brown and blue) not included in my continuum. However, for simplicity sake, I kept the Paleo-Jitsu food continuum to the three levels illustrated below.

Black Belt Foods	Purple Belt Foods	White Belt Foods
Meats(preferably grass fed)	White Potatoes	Sugar
Fish, chicken, beef, pork, turkey	Fermented Dairy	High Fructose Corn Syrup
Vegetables	Butter, yogurt, cheese	Cereal Grains (gluten)
Fruits	Pseudo grains (quinoa)	Wheat, oats, barley, soy
Eggs	Beans/legumes	Industrial seed oils
Fats	Cereal Grains (non-gluten)	Canola, soy, corn, etc
Avocados, nuts, coconut/olive oil	Rice (white)/corn
Sweet Potatoes/yams	Alcohol (gluten free)
Fatty meats (bacon, sausage)	Red wine/hard ciders
Sweeteners
Honey/maple syrup/cocoa (>70%)

Paleo-Jitsu Explained

If you want to eat Paleo you really need to roll with black belt foods. These should represent the overwhelming majority of your food choices. The Paleo black belt foods I have listed are in a hierarchy of importance. Meat, vegetables, fruits, good fats, and smart carbohydrates (sweet potatoes) should form the bulk of your diet. The additional foods in italics are those that are technically Paleo, but I suggest consuming in relative moderation. They are fine but you probably don’t want to be eating these on a daily basis. I tend to think of these more as black belt treats.

One of my favorite aspects of Paleo is the fact you don’t have to weigh, measure, count, or do any other annoying administrative activities associated with dieting. Just eat Paleo black belt foods; eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. I’m trying really hard to resist the temptation to go into detail on what changes are going on in your body. The most important things you need to know are:

·        Paleo black belt foods control insulin levels/swings

·        Paleo black belt foods remove gut irritants from the diet, reducing systemic inflammation

·        Paleo black belt foods allow you to switch your primary source of energy from carbohydrates to fat (very important concept)

Let me pause briefly and address bullet number three as I think it’s pretty important and interesting. One thing you will notice after a few days/weeks on Paleo is your energy levels will be much better. Although I also noticed an increase in my energy levels, I wanted to verify the science behind this statement. I checked out an exercise physiology sports nutrition and energy metabolism book published in 2008 from the University Library. This is not a Paleo book; it’s an academic text book. In a chapter on protein metabolism, the book actually goes into detail on how your body adapts to conserve protein in a lower carbohydrate environment. Basically, your body down regulates enzymes that promote carbohydrate metabolism and up regulates enzymes that control the level of fatty acids and amino acids in energy metabolism. It also discusses the fact that fat is a more efficient fuel source and yields more ATP (body’s usable energy) per capita when metabolized than carbohydrates. Your body has an endless supply of fat but a limited supply of carbohydrates that can be used for fuel, so the premise makes sense. Fat is a more efficient fuel source and your body can switch from carbohydrate to fat metabolism. The carbohydrates you do need for vital organs that only run on glucose (such as the brain) can come from fruits/vegetables and your body can actually make them through a process called gluconeogenesis.

Back to the main show…..Purple belt foods are a little more difficult to articulate, mostly because these tend to be gray areas. They are not Paleo by fundamentalist standards and in their natural state, contain certain anti-nutrient properties that can cause some problems if ingested. However, recent studies/commentary suggests fermented, soaking, heating, or cooking can neutralize many of the anti-nutrient properties to some degree. This is where the sliding left and right based on individual needs and tolerances comes into play. The bottom line is if you consume Paleo purple belt foods from time to time it’s not going to be particularly problematic provided you tolerate them well; but here’s my argument against these foods. In raw form they have natural defense mechanisms that are designed to make predators sick if consumed. If you have to take heroic measures to neutralize recognized anti-nutrient properties so they are OK to eat, do you really want to when there are perfectly nutritious alternatives available? From my perspective consistently substituting purple belt foods for vegetables/fruits reduces the nutrient density of your meals and undermines your progress towards optimal health and well being. These foods simply do not pack the nutritional punch of Paleo black belt foods. Perhaps I should put it another way, Paleo black belt foods tap out purple belt foods every time, do you want to be a black belt or a purple belt?

White belt foods are only good for beating up on, just like Jiu-Jitsu white belts (just kidding). These foods serve no purpose and should be avoided. There’s no gray area on white belt foods, they are not good for you even in moderation. The worst offenders are sugar, high fructose corn syrup, gluten containing cereal grains (wheat, oats, barley), and industrial seed oils (soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, etc). With that said do I have white belt foods from time to time? Absolutely, and I don’t feel bad about it either. These are exceptions, not part of my primary diet. I usually save these for special occasions that require social interaction, things like birthday/holiday parties.

Tying It Together 

There are different recommendations on how to get started. Rob Wolf (The Paleo Solution) recommends 30 days of strict Paleo to get started, Loren Cordain (The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Answers) recommends an 85/15 split (eating Paleo 85% of your meals), and others recommend 80/20. Honestly, I’m less concerned with which one you follow as long as you start eating Paleo. When I first started I stayed around at 85/15 and it worked fine for me. I felt so good after a few weeks I really didn’t want to eat non-Paleo so now I’m probably 95/5.

The difficult part is the initial start up, so I suggest you formulate a plan of attack for the first week or two. The first book I read (The Paleo Solution) has a 30 day meal plan. I also ordered a couple other Paleo cookbooks (Everyday Paleo by Sara Fragoso and a kid’s book “Eat Like a Dinosaur” by the Paleo Parents). Both of these are great and there are cool recipes in the books, but I found them to be a little intimidating. Many of the dishes were pretty involved for a novice cook and included foods, spices, cooking methods I was not familiar with. The thought of buying all the ingredients and trying to cook such a variety of meals was a bit overwhelming.

What helped me tremendously was to take foods/meals I already ate and make them Paleo. I don’t need a lot of variety so I came up with a 2-3 go-to breakfast options and 3-5 for dinner and rotated. I wanted to see if the diet was legit so I was less concerned with developing my inner Bobby Flay and more concerned about observing the results. I found simple things like substituting sweet potatoes for white potatoes or skipping the rice for a double serving of vegetables worked well. Meat and vegetable stir-fry’s are a good, simple option when you first get started. A couple times a week I picked a new recipe form one of the books and gave it a shot. Some were keepers others were not. Eventually you build more variety (although I still have my 2-3 go-to breakfasts). Also, there’s an endless supply of Paleo recipes online if you are feeling froggy.

Sometimes it can be helpful to see a real example, so here is what I have eaten the past 5 days (including July 4^th):

Day 1- Breakfast: spinach omelet w/sliced avocado (spinach sautéed in coconut oil); Lunch: apples w/ almond butter; Dinner: baked chicken leg quarter, broccoli, sweet baked sweet potatoes fries (olive oil and cinnamon)

Day 2- Breakfast: Paleo cakes (2 mashed up bananas, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of almond butter cooked in coconut oil on the griddle), strawberries; Lunch: left over chick leg quarter, salad (spinach, red bell pepper, cucumber, green onion, tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar), handful of walnuts; Dinner: spaghetti (my wife’s spaghetti sauce with beef), spaghetti squash as noodles; Treat: Paleo cookies (almond butter, apple, pumpkin, banana, coconut milk, coconut flour, walnuts, and cinnamon)  

Day 3- Breakfast: leftover Paleo cookies (yes, cookies for breakfast); Lunch: left over spaghetti, cashews Dinner: sweet potato cakes, eggs, avocado, and bacon

Day 4- Breakfast: Paleo cakes; Lunch: left over sweet potato cakes, pistachios; Dinner: tilapia, assortment of steamed veggies, green beans (technically a legume, but has vegetable properties)

Day 5- Breakfast: spinach omelet; Lunch: Chick-Fil-A grilled chicken salad w/ 2 fruit cup sides; Afternoon Snack: carrot juice, left over tilapia (needed to replenish glycogen stores after an ill advised workout in 100 degree heat) Dinner: grilled burgers (no bun) topped with guacamole, baked sweet potato fries, Paleo cookies and a Woodchuck Cider (c’mon, it’s the 4^th of July)

For any other nutrition nerds reading, I did a quick macronutrient breakdown of the past 5 days in general 45-50% of my calories are coming from fat (13-15% saturated), 25-30% from carbohydrates and 20-25% from protein. This is probably a little carbohydrate heavy if you goal is weight loss, but I’m pretty active so it works well for me. I normally wouldn’t make two batches of Paleo cookies is such a short period of time, but it was the 4^th of July. That probably bumped my carbohydrate intake up. 

I’m generally good to go with breakfast and dinner. Lunch tends to give me the most trouble. Often I eat a pretty big breakfast that carries me through the day so I only need a snack for lunch which generally consists of fruit and nuts. Of course I can make a salad but that get’s a little old. What I’ve started doing lately that seems to be working well is making extra meat/protein for dinner and eating that for lunch with some additional fruit/veggies/nuts. That’s helped me get some additional calories in to offset my energy expenditures. The fact that I’m to the point of trying to add calories even though I’m not really hungry should give you an indication of how well Paleo works.

Summing Up

All that’s left to do is give it a shot. I promise you will not be disappointed. If you don’t have more energy, trim up, and feel better than you have in a long time I’ll refund your money for the free advice (sit on that one for a minute). So…..

·        Eat mostly Paleo black belt foods

·        Be vary cautious when contemplating purple belt foods

·        Stay away from white belt foods except to beat them up

Some of my go-to sources of information:

Rob Wolf ( http://robbwolf.com/ )

Mark Sisson ( www.marksdailyapple.com )

Chris Kresser ( http://chriskresser.com/beyondpaleo )

A special thanks to my beautiful wife for proofreading this post. Despite having a terminal degree, I still seem to have trouble with spelling and punctuation. I would love to hear how you are doing. My email address is nathan.l.hale@gmail.com

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