The Paleo Diet for Athletes (27 page)

So you can see there is no need to go out and forage for wild plants and animals to stock your pantry for this lifetime nutritional plan. Nearly all of the performance rewards and health benefits of the Paleo Diet for Athletes can easily be achieved from modern-day foods and food groups that had a counterpart in Stone Age diets.

The fundamental dietary principle of the Paleo Diet for Athletes is simplicity itself: unrestricted consumption of fresh meats, poultry, seafood, fruits, and vegetables. Foods that are not part of modern-day Paleolithic fare include cereal grains, dairy products, high-glycemic fruits and vegetables, legumes, alcohol, salty foods, processed meats, refined sugars, and nearly all processed foods.

The exceptions to these basic rules are fully outlined in
Chapters 2
,
3
, and
4
. For instance, immediately before, during, and after a workout or competition, certain nonoptimal foods may be eaten to encourage a quick recovery. During all other times, meals that closely follow the 21st-century Paleolithic diet described here will promote comprehensive long-term recovery and allow you to come within reach of your maximum performance potential.

ANIMAL AND PLANT FOOD BALANCE

A crucial aspect of the 21st-century Paleolithic diet is the proper balance of plant and animal foods. How much plant food and how much animal food were normally consumed in the diets of Stone Age hunter-gatherers? There is little doubt that whenever and wherever it was ecologically possible, hunter-gatherers preferred animal food over plant food. In our study of 229 hunter-gatherer societies, published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
my research team showed that 73 percent of these cultures obtained between 56 and 65 percent of their daily subsistence from animal foods. In a follow-up study published in the
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
involving 13 additional hunter-gatherer groups whose diets were more closely analyzed, we found almost identical results. Our colleague, Mike Richards, PhD, of the University of British Columbia in Canada, has taken a slightly different approach in determining the plant-to-animal balance in Stone Age diets. He has measured chemicals called stable isotopes in skeletons of hunter-gatherers that lived during the Paleolithic era. His results dovetailed nicely with ours and confirmed that hunter-gatherers living 12,000 to 28,000 years ago consumed the majority of their daily calories from animal sources.

Based upon the best available evidence, you should try to eat a little more than half (50 to 55 percent) of your daily calories from fresh meats, fish, and seafood. Avoid fatty processed meats (bologna, hot dogs, salami, sausages, bacon, etc.), but fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and herring are perfectly acceptable because of their high concentrations of healthful omega-3 fatty acids.

Meats and Animal Foods for the Paleo Athlete

One of the crucial ideas woven throughout
The Paleo Diet for Athletes
is that you should eat animal foods at virtually every meal. But the important point here is one of quality and freshness. At all times try to eat your meat, seafood, and poultry as fresh as you can get them. Fresh is always best, followed by frozen—avoid processed, canned, tinned, or
salted animal foods. When it comes to beef, chicken, and pork, grass-fed, free-ranging, or pasture-produced meats are superior, although a bit expensive. Check out your local farmers’ market or visit my friend Jo Robinson’s Web site (
http://eatwild.com/
) to locate a farmer or rancher in your locale who can provide you with untainted, grass-fed meats.

Feedlot- and Grain-Fed Meats

Ninety-nine percent of the beef, pork, and chicken consumed in the United States is produced in colossal feedlots, frequently containing up to 100,000 animals. The motivating force behind feedlot-produced meat is purely financial. The singular goal of these enormous corporate agribusinesses is to produce the largest, heaviest animals possible with the smallest amount of feed. To accomplish this objective, the animals are restricted to tiny spaces where they get little or no exercise and are fed unlimited quantities of grain.

The final outcome is not pretty. Feedlot-produced cattle have a thick fat layer covering their entire body. These artificial creations of modern agriculture are obese and unhealthy and produce second-rate meat laced with hormones, antibiotics, and other toxic compounds. Their muscles are frequently interspersed with fat, which we call marbling, a trait that enhances flavor but makes cattle insulin-resistant and in poor health, just like us. Since feedlot-raised animals are fed solely grains (corn and sorghum), their meat is concentrated with omega-6 fatty acids at the sacrifice of healthful omega-3 fatty acids.

The take-home point is that the nutritional qualities of feedlot-produced meat are second-rate compared with those of meat from grass-fed or free-ranging animals. Nevertheless, I still believe that some, but not all, of these meats can be incorporated into the Paleo Diet for Athletes, especially if you try to eat leaner cuts and concurrently eat fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, herring, or sardines a few times a week. Fattier cuts of feedlot-produced meats are not ideal, because they contain not only more omega-6 fats, but also much less protein than leaner cuts contain. This characteristic in turn lowers your total intake of vitamins
and minerals because the lean (muscle) protein component of meats is a richer source of vitamins and minerals than is the fat component. In
Table 9.3
, you can see for yourself the differences in the total protein and fat content between lean and fatty cuts of meat.

TABLE 9.3

Protein and Fat Content (Percentage of Total Calories in Lean and Fatty Meats)

PROCESSED MEATS

In the first edition of
The Paleo Diet for Athletes,
I was adamant in my recommendation that you should avoid fatty processed meats like bologna, bacon, hot dogs, lunch meats, salami, and sausages. That
suggestion remains, and from
Table 9.3
you can see that processed meats are really more like fat disguised as meat. Processed meats are man-made concoctions of meat and fat synthetically blended at the meatpacker or butcher’s whim with no concern for the authentic fatty acid profile or protein content of the wild animals our Stone Age ancestors ate. In addition to their unnatural fatty acid compositions (high in omega-6 fatty acids, low in omega-3 fatty acids) and low protein content, processed fatty meats contain preservatives called nitrites and nitrates, which are converted into potent cancer-causing nitrosamines in our intestinal tracts. Further, these unnatural meats are characteristically laced with salt, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, grains, and other additives that have many objectionable health effects.

With the Paleo Diet for Athletes I encourage you to consume as much high-quality “real” meat as you can afford. Clearly, the nearer you can get to “wild,” the better off you’ll be when it comes to the fat, protein, and nutrient profile of your meats. Game meat is not required for the Paleo Diet for Athletes, but if you are looking for a culinary adventure, try some. It’s highly nutritious and adds a unique flavor to any Paleo meal. Game meat is pricey (unless you hunt or know hunters) and usually is found only at specialty markets or butcher stores.

WHAT ABOUT EGGS?

Despite being a comparatively high-fat food (62 percent fat, 34 percent protein) and one of the most concentrated sources of cholesterol (212 mg per egg), virtually all recent scientific studies conclude that ordinary egg consumption (seven per week) does not increase the risk for heart disease. You can now find eggs at your local supermarket that are enriched with the healthful long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Alternatively, seek out local growers whose chickens are cage-free, free-ranging
and eat insects, worms, bugs, and wild plants. So please, enjoy this extremely nutritious food.

HOW ABOUT FATTY MEATS?

In the original version of
The Paleo Diet for Athletes,
we suggested that you should avoid fatty cuts of meat such as T-bone steaks, spareribs, lamb chops, and pork ribs because these cuts of meat contain more saturated fat than leaner cuts do. Further, it is known beyond a shadow of a doubt that increases in dietary saturated fat raise total blood cholesterol levels. This information has been known for more than 50 years from human metabolic ward studies, in which diet is strictly controlled and subjects are allowed to eat only the foods provided in the experiment. However, the next supposition, that increases in total blood cholesterol levels elevate the risk for heart and blood vessel disease, has been hotly debated by scientists since the original edition of our book was published. The consensus that is emerging from meta-analyses in which the results of multiple studies are combined indicates that dietary saturated fats have little or no effect upon the risk for cardiovascular disease. I quote Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, MPH, DrPH, and Renata Micha of the Harvard School of Public Health, who published the results of their meta-analysis in 2010,
“These meta-analyses suggest no overall effect of saturated fatty acid consumption on coronary heart disease events”

There is absolutely no doubt that hunter-gatherers favored the fattiest parts of animals. There is incredible fossil evidence from Africa, dating back to 2.5 million years ago, showing this scenario to be true. Stone-tool cut marks on the inner jawbone of antelope reveal that our ancient ancestors removed the tongue and almost certainly ate it. Other fossils show that Stone Age hunter-gatherers smashed open long bones and skulls of their prey and ate the contents. Not surprisingly, these organs are all relatively high in fat. Analyses from our laboratories showed the
types of fat in the tongue, brain, and marrow are healthful. Brain is extremely high in polyunsaturated fats, including the health-promoting omega-3 fatty acids, whereas the dominant fats in tongue and marrow are the cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fats.

Most of us would not savor the thought of eating brains, marrow, tongue, liver, or any other organ meat on a regular basis; therefore, a few 21st-century modifications of the original Paleolithic diet are necessary to get the fatty acid balance right. First, we suggest you limit your choice of meats to fresh, nonprocessed types, preferably grass-fed, and try to eat fatty fish a few times a week—it’s good for you, just like the organ meats our ancestors preferred. Second, we recommend that you add healthful vegetable oils to your diet. If you follow these simple steps, together with the other nuts and bolts of this plan, the fatty acid balance in your diet will approximate what our Stone Age ancestors got.