Paleo Diet for Athletes

Just got through reading this book which I think would be of interest for most of us. The two guys who wrote it are from Fort Collins and one is in the health and exercise department at CSU, so there may be bears out there who know the authors (Cordain and Friel).

The basic supposition is that there is an optimized diet for human beings and athletes in particular. That diet is similar to what our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate. Apparently there is no such thing as a fat Bushman since these guys are walking 15-20 klicks a day, then sprinting to shoot an antelope or two, and not eating a lot of starch or sugar and no dairy, period. On the other hand, if you move the aboriginals onto a reservation where they start eating starch, sugar, fried foods and cheese on everything it seems cancer, obesity and heart disease rates sky rocket as they have with many Native Americans. In particular, for optimum performance, your diet should be based upon lean meat (preferably fish or free range), and minimally processed nuts, fruits and veggies. And absolutely no dairy, grains or cereals. This of course flies in the face of much of the conventional wisdom regarding diet and training which, for a very long time, has focussed on carbo loading both before, during and after exercise.

I went on the South Beach two years ago and lost forty pounds, so a lot of this made sense already. But these guys have taken things a step further. You definitely want to avoid foods with a high glycemic index, but even more you want to avoid foods with a high glycemic load. Also, they reject a lot of the Atkins hooey about unlimited fats. While they are not opposed to fats, these need to be the right kinds, ie. omega 3 vs. omega 6 so more fish and monounsaturated so more olive and not other vegetable oils. On top of at least 50 % fish they recommend more turkey, buffalo, venison, rabbit and lamb since these guys eat grass not grain and thus have a better fat/protein profile. A recommended day looks like 10-12 servings of fruits and vegetables with up to 40 % of the calories in the diet coming from 3-4 large servings of lean meat and fish. By contrast, the average American only gets 15 % of their calories from meat or fish and up to a whopping 50 % in starch, sugars and really bad fats from processed foods.

For optimum performance they say you should start out with a high pro breakfast with fruit and/or low fiber veggies, since fruit carbs (fructose) and vegetables are metabolized more slowly than danish and pancakes so you avoid an insulin spike. Caffeine taken before a work out also has beneficial effects, with coffee three times as effective as tea. During the day where you are engaging in events with four to twelve hours of continuous exercise you need to keep reloading carbs early on and continuously. Also dehydration becomes a serious issue, so lots of fluids. They recommend sports drinks, fruit juice, and small meals that are high in energy content during exercise. Immediately post exercise it looks like some type of a recovery drink with a little protein powder is extremely important, since your muscles are more receptive to reloading energy stores in the 30 minutes immediately following exercise. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like beer and nachos qualify, they like fruit juices, fruit and protein powder with lots of branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucin and valine) kind of like egg whites.

If I'm understanding this correctly a typical day for the skier seeking optimum performance would start with a hearty breakfast of fish, lean meat or egg white omelettes and fruit/veg with black coffee at least an hour before you start skiing and preferably up to two or three. Then lots of small meals with high energy content foods and sports drinks and juice during the day, things like nuts, tuna or jerkey, a banana for electolytes, other dried and fresh fruit, carrot sticks, etc. You would probably want to stop at 11 and 2 instead of eating a single big heavy lunch, and alcohol during exercise is absolutely prohibited. Then the recovery drink immediately apre ski and followed by an early dinner with lean meat or fish again and 2-3 minimally processed (fresh or fresh frozen) vegetables, a glass of wine or two if you so desire, and fruit for dessert.

All of this makes a lots of sense to me after South Beach, since a lot of that diet is about eliminating high glycemic index/load foods, ie starches and sugars from your diet and increasing training levels. And it's actually close to what I have been doing for a number of years while skiing, even though I have not been as rigorous about things when training at home. But it seems to me that this takes things scientfically up a notch or two. If you read the book there are additional insights about supplements, etc. which I am still working through. But on the whole their arguments make a lot of intuitive sense and seem to jibe well with things I have been reading elsewhere. I was wondering given their Fort Collins location whether anybody knows these guys and/or has been on this program for a while so they can comment on long term benefits. I am looking forward to other's thoughts/feedback here.

Just read this and talked it over with my wife. It does sound reasonable. Her mom is a diabetic, and follows a similar diet, where carbs and processed sugars are a no-no. I have been toying with a new diet routine, and this would not be very hard to do. The trick will be getting my wife to allw more fish at meals....

why no dairy? Non-fat milk and whey protein should be good.

Actually they do recommend whey protein supplements, other than that I think it has to do with the fat content (cheese & ice cream) and the types of sugars (lactose), which are not as easily metabolized and which were not part of our diet until herds were domesticated ca 8,000 years ago.

What do they think hunter gatherers GATHERED?

Australian aboriginals ate all sorts of seeds and grains.... : carbohydrate!!!

Fruit and vegies slower metabolised? have you looked at the GI of a potato? It is FAAAAAR worse than table sugar....

SORRY I'm sticking to teh bircher muesli for breakfast.... great energy source plenty of fibre and lots of antioxidants....

Most proponents of the paleo diet recommend that you do not eat high sugar containing foods such as potatoes and sweet potatoes

A few observations.

 

It's interesting how things are evolving in the fad diet arena.  I only use that term because once you put a name on it like Paleo or whatever to sell your book it becomes hot or a fad then kind of wanes once new information comes around in 6 or 18 months.

 

I think they are taking the best of what we are learning - it is an interesting take on it.  But again, the danger is it's too simplistic.  Not everyone has the same ancestors!  Mine were in Scandinavia, others from other areas of the world.  I'm not saying there's not a lot of truth in this there is.  They did eat a lot of fish up there and probably little in the way of  sugar and vegetables especially in winter.

 

Let's take another look at the premise - what was the lifespan of your average aboriginal paleo person - 30?  It was a hard life and a dangerous one.  Nature evolution or whatever you want to call it only had to get you to a few years of childbearing age.  After that you probably got killed in a violent death.  There's no cancer or heart disease for that matter because they didn't live long enough.  How was the dental health for example?  Just trying to show that this is much more complex than the seemingly simplistic argument that we eat like cavemen.

 

Today the average person lives a much more sedentary life at twice the age.  Amish and those types can eat lots of butter and whatever because they work it off.  Eating lower fat is probably more important as is avoiding sweetners.  Many of us sit behind a desk for 8 or 13 hours a day.  Commuting to work takes a major toll and is I think a driver of many food and weight issues today.  So the Paleo diet from that perspective is less relevant in a sense to modern realities.

 

Put that aside I think from what I've heard of it there may not be enough emphasis on anti-oxidants, organics, berries and the like for cancer prevention and disease prevention.  I could be wrong.  I want to read more about it though thanks for starting discussion (that's all I'm doing here as well).

 

Hmm sounds like what bodybuilders have been doing since the 80s.

Slightly different, since many body builders eliminate carbs almost entirely before competitions.  The emphasis there is on eliminating body fat without loosing muscle mass, and aerobic conditioning is usually not emphasized since it builds the wrong type of muscle fiber.
 

The paleo diet is designed for endurance athletes (marathoners, triathletes, bicycle racers) so that you can sustain aerobic performance over a longer period of time.

 

Key point, before competition, during maintenance and growth phase this is not the case, for most.  

 

Actually its not that aerobic conditioning builds the wrong type of muscle, all muscle is welcome, the problem is that it catabolizes a great deal of the right muscle.

 

But whatever the case its a good plan.

Edited by Richie-Rich - Fri, 06 Feb 09 16:31:56 GMT

Actually, I need to get back on the plan since I have a conditioning issue right now.  But the plan does work.  Taking small breaks, avoiding high sugar and processed starch foods, sticking to lean protein, fruits, veg and nuts really does increase your ability to go the distance during the ski day.  It also avoids the post lunch insulin dependant crash.