The Paleo Diet for Athletes (31 page)

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You won’t need to buy any exotic foods to properly follow the Paleo Diet for Athletes. No matter if you live in a big city or in the country, the diet’s mainstays (fresh meats, fish, and fruits and vegetables) are almost always on hand at your local grocery store or supermarket. In
Chapter 9
we laid out a comprehensive list of the foods you should limit or exclude from your diet. In this chapter, we’ll show you all the delicious, health-giving choices you have the luxury to eat. We’ll also give you some practical pointers on how to pull off a Stone Age diet in the 21st century.

YOUR PRIORITY: FRESH FOODS

When you’re hungry in the United States, getting something to eat is as easy as the nearest vending machine, fast-food restaurant, or convenience store. But you know what? You have to look long and hard to find “real” food—food that is not adulterated with sugar, salt, refined grains, and trans fats—at any of these places. The incredible overabundance and easy access to processed foods in this country make it easy to derail your plans to improve your diet—particularly when you’re famished and need food now.

One of the keys to the Paleo Diet for Athletes is fresh foods. I repeat—fresh foods! They really are so much better for you than their canned, processed, frozen, and prepackaged counterparts that there is no comparison. Canned, sugar-laced peaches don’t hold a candle to fresh peaches, either in taste or nutrition. A fatty hot dog with its added salt, sugar, and preservatives, whether it’s ground from leftover pork or beef, bears little nutritional resemblance to fresh pork loin or beef flank steak.

As an athlete, you know that small but perceptible extra efforts during training, day in and day out, season in and season out, will pay off over the long haul. Pushing that last interval to the max hurts, but by doing so regularly, you will become fitter and stronger and your performance will improve—maybe by only 1 to 2 percent, but, as we pointed out in
Chapter 8
, that seemingly minuscule difference can be huge when it comes to racing. This same principle holds true with the foods you eat. By methodically eating fresh, wholesome foods whenever and wherever you can, the overall trace nutrient (vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals) density of your diet will ultimately improve. And, as we have previously pointed out, there is a mountain of scientific evidence to show that your immune system functions better when properly nourished. A healthy immune system can more effectively ward off illness and help you to recover more rapidly from injuries, thereby allowing you to train at higher levels. Do yourself a favor—get fresh fruits, veggies, lean meats, and seafood into your diet whenever you can.

If you’re like most Americans, fresh fruits and veggies occupy a small drawer in your fridge, where they get wilted, soft, and brown, and they end up thrown out more often than eaten. This will change with your new diet, and here are some practical pointers to help you get more fresh produce into your meal plans.

1. Thoroughly wash your fresh veggies and put them in storage bags or containers before you put them in your refrigerator. These simple steps will prevent wilting, increase storage life, and reduce contaminants.
   
2. Buy enough produce to last for no more than 5 to 7 days. It’s better to get fresh supplies at least once a week.
   
3. If food preparation time is an issue, you can purchase a lot of produce that’s packaged and ready to go with little or no prep. Examples include shredded lettuce and salad mixes; precut broccoli florets; baby spinach leaves; washed and peeled baby carrots; precut chunks of melon, pineapple, and other fruit; and shelled nuts. But remember, you’ll pay a bit more for the convenience.
   
4. Make a very large mixed salad at the beginning of the week and put it in a large, sealed container; dish out portions as needed throughout the week.
   

Organic Produce

How about organic produce—any advantages to it? Should you pay the higher price?
Table 11.1
is adapted from the results of a study that compiled numerous publications comparing the nutrient content of organic versus conventionally produced plant foods. Data from this study as well as other comprehensive reviews of the literature generally conclude that,
except for a slightly higher vitamin C content and possibly protein in organically produced vegetables (but not fruits), no differences exist for any other vitamins or minerals. So, if you’re contemplating buying organic produce for its greater nutritional value, it’s simply not worth it.

However, do note that the levels of nitrate in organically produced fruits and veggies are consistently lower than in conventional produce. Both the World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States have set limits for daily nitrate intake (1.6 milligrams/nitrate/kilogram body weight). Generally, both conventional and organic fruits and vegetables fall below acceptable limits. Similarly, some studies have demonstrated reduced amounts of pesticides in organic produce. Elevated environmental and dietary exposure to both nitrates and pesticides is associated with an elevated risk for developing certain cancers. If either of these issues is of concern to you, then go with organic produce.

TABLE 11.1

Comparison of Organic versus Conventionally Grown Plant Foods. Percentage of Studies in Which Organic Crops Have Increased, Remained the Same, or Decreased Compared with Conventionally Grown Crops.

Acceptable Fresh Vegetables

Potatoes maintain high glycemic loads and should be eaten only during the postexercise window, as explained in
Chapter 4
. If you have an autoimmune disease, you should proceed cautiously with potatoes, as they contain antinutrients that increase intestinal permeability, a significant step toward autoimmunity. Corn on the cob is a cereal grain and should therefore be excluded. Most of us have never tasted cassava roots, but they also should be avoided because of their high glycemic loads. Otherwise, virtually all fresh vegetables are perfectly acceptable: asparagus, parsnip, radish, broccoli, lettuce, mushrooms, dandelion greens, mustard greens, watercress, purslane, onions, green onions, carrots, parsley, squash of all varieties, all peppers, artichokes, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, celery, cucumbers, tomatillos, collards, Swiss chard, endive, beets, beet greens, rutabaga, kohlrabi, kale, eggplant, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, turnips, turnip greens, spinach, seaweed, yams.

Acceptable Fresh Fruits

As with vegetables, any fresh fruits you can get your hands on are fair game, except for people who are overweight or have one or more symptoms of metabolic syndrome (type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease). In this case, you should follow the recommendations we have made for fruit in
Chapter 9
. For athletes, the only exceptions are dried fruits (such as raisins, dates, and figs), which, like potatoes, have high glycemic loads and should be limited to the postexercise window. Reach for these and other fruits anytime: apples, oranges, pears, peaches, plums, kiwifruit, pomegranates, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, cassava melon, pineapple, guava, nectarines, apricots, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, avocado, carambola, cherimoya, cherries, grapefruit, lemon, lime, lychee, mango, papaya, passion fruit, persimmon, tangerine, star fruit, gooseberries, boysenberries, cranberries, rhubarb.

GETTING THE FATTY ACID BALANCE RIGHT

As you know by now, getting the fatty acid balance right is essential in replicating hunter-gatherer diets with modern foods. For our Stone Age ancestors, this problem was a no-brainer. Because their only food choices were wild plants and animals, the fatty acid balance always fell within healthful limits. By following our simple advice of eating fresh meats, seafood, and fatty fish along with healthful oils, you won’t have to give a second thought to the correct balance, either.

Acceptable Domestic Animal Products

Always choose fresh meat, preferably free range or grass-fed. Almost all cuts of beef, pork, and poultry are good choices, and as we have outlined
in
Chapter 9
, fattier cuts of meat can be included in your diet without increasing your risk for heart disease. Nevertheless, know that fatty meat contains less protein than leaner cuts do and hence is not as nutritionally dense as lean meat. A good financial strategy is to look for sales and buy your meat in bulk and then freeze it.

Eggs are high in protein, vitamins, and minerals and should be regularly included in your diet. Look for eggs produced by free-ranging chickens or for omega-3-enriched eggs. Virtually all recent human studies confirm that egg consumption will not increase your risk for cardiovascular disease.

Organ meats, except for marrow and brains, of commercially produced animals are quite lean. However, the liver and kidneys, which cleanse and detoxify the animal’s body, frequently contain high concentrations of environmental contaminants. We recommend eating only calves’ liver because virtually all calves slaughtered in the United States haven’t found their way to the toxic feedlot environment; all are pasture fed. Brains contain high concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids and were relished by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. However, because of the small risk of developing prion disease (mad cow disease), we do not advise eating the brains of any animal, domestic or wild. Cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fatty acids are the dominant (about 65 percent) fatty acids in marrow and tongue, both of which are quite healthful and tasty. Beef, lamb, and pork sweetbreads are infrequently eaten, but contain healthful fatty acids.

Grass-Fed or Free-Ranging Meats

If you can find it, grass-fed (or free-ranging) meat will always be a better choice than domestic beef, pork, or poultry because it is richer in healthful omega-3 fatty acids, higher in protein (like wild game), and less likely to be tainted with hormones and pesticides.
Figure 11.1
contrasts the total fat percentage among wild game, grass-fed beef, and feedlot-produced beef, while
Table 11.2
compares the differences in fatty acid content.

FIGURE 11.1

Jo Robinson’s Web site,
http://eatwild.com/
, is the best and most comprehensive resource for locating farmers and ranchers in your locale that produce grass-fed meats.

You can often find organically produced beef and other meat items in health food stores or at farmers’ markets. However, organic meat and
grass-fed meat are not always one and the same. Frequently, organic beef or buffalo is fattened with “organically produced” grains, yielding the same poor ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 found in feedlot animals.