The Paleo Diet for Athletes (34 page)

In order for most people to make lifelong dietary changes, a number of behavioral techniques seem to be helpful. When giving up certain foods, most people do better psychologically when they know that they do not have to completely and forever ditch some of their favorites. The Paleo Diet for Athletes allows for what we call the 85:5 rule, which means that what you do infrequently will have little negative impact on the favorable effects of what you do most of the time.

Most people consume about 21 meals per week, plus snacks. It’s perfectly acceptable and pleasurable if two or three of those meals include any food you want, as long as fresh meats, seafood, fruits, vegetables, healthful oils, and nuts and seeds make up roughly 85 percent of the balance of your weekly calories. The Paleo Diet for Athletes allows moderate alcohol and coffee consumption or occasional chocolates, bagels, or whatever your favorite food may be. Cheating and digressions now and then are of great emotional benefit, and—so long as they make up 15 percent or less of the overall diet—will have little impact on athletic performance and health effects. This recommendation, of course, does not include the non-Paleo foods that may be eaten immediately before, during, and after some workouts, as described in
Chapters 2
,
3
, and
4
.

EATING OUT AND ON THE ROAD

Many restaurants cater to vegetarians and increasingly more are offering menus for low-carb dieters. But, to date, very few offer Paleo meals. However, by ordering carefully, you can usually approximate the Paleo Diet for Athletes. The best strategy for breakfast is to order either an egg
dish or some kind of fresh meat along with a bowl of fresh fruit. Poached eggs are a good bet because they will not be prepared with the wrong kinds of fat, which invariably accompany omelets and fried eggs. Also, poached or hard-boiled eggs are less likely to contain oxidized cholesterol, a by-product of fried eggs that especially promotes atherosclerosis in laboratory animals.

Lunch and dinner are usually no problem; most restaurants offer some kind of fish, seafood, or lean-meat entrée for these meals. Remember, the key is to get a big piece of animal protein as your main dish. Strive for simplicity: Forsake fancy entrées made with complicated sauces for simpler versions. To even out the acid load, order a salad (hold the croutons) and request steamed veggies instead of the compulsory bread or potatoes. For the salad dressing, vinegar and oil—particularly olive oil—are fine in a pinch. See if you can get fresh fruit for dessert.

For road trips, pack a cooler with fruits, veggies, salads, and leftover meats and seafood. A good strategy at dinnertime is to cook about two or three times as much meat or seafood as you will eat, and keep the rest for breakfast and lunch the next few days. For example, barbecue a big chunk of London broil for dinner one evening, refrigerate the leftovers, and the next day slice the beef into a mixed salad and toss with flaxseed oil and lemon juice. Voilà—an instant Paleo picnic lunch! If you don’t have a cooler, check out the deli or seafood section of a supermarket to get cooked meat or shrimp. Proceed to the produce section and grab some fresh fruit, avocados, and crisp veggies. Always keep a sharp knife and some utensils in your car so that you don’t have to deal with cutting up meat with a plastic knife.

CHAPTER 12

P
ALEO
R
ECIPES

The bottom line in creating Paleo Diet for Athletes recipes with modern foods is to keep it simple. Our Stone Age ancestors ate virtually all of their foods fresh and minimally processed. If you do likewise, your health and performance will soar. Whenever possible, choose your foods in this order: (1) fresh, (2) frozen, (3) canned. When you prepare Stone Age recipes with contemporary foods, bear in mind that you want to make sure the ingredients are free of grains, dairy products, salt, refined sugars, legumes (including peanuts), and yeast-containing foods such as baked goods, pickled foods, vinegar, and fermented foods and beverages. Be sure your food choices contain only permitted oils, and remember to select fresh meat, preferably grass fed. Keep in mind the foundation of the Paleo Diet for Athletes: fresh meats, seafood, and fruits and veggies!

PALEO FOOD REPLACEMENTS

Our modern palettes have become jaded with the never-ending onslaught of salt, starch, sugar, and fat laced everywhere into processed foods. After a few weeks of Paleo dieting, you will notice a wonderful change emerging in your taste buds.

Subtle flavors that you never knew existed will materialize. You won’t
need to add sugar to your fresh strawberries—they will taste delightfully sweet all by themselves. Avocados will have a luscious, creamy flavor that needs no added salt or anything else. Once you have given up sweet, sticky doughnuts, a fresh nectarine will never have tasted so good. Spices you never knew existed will enliven your steaks and roasts, and you will be able to discern these subtle yet incredible flavors because you will no longer be drowning your taste buds in salt and refined sugars.

Vinegar:
Vinegar contains acetic acid in a 5 percent solution and consequently contributes to the net metabolic acidosis that plagues the typical American diet. Additionally, unless the vinegar is distilled, it will contain small quantities of yeast—another non-Paleo food substance that should be avoided. We recommend you replace vinegar in your recipes with either lemon or lime juice.

Salt:
One of the toughest modern dietary routines to kick is the salt habit. Salt is added to almost everything. In fact, most of us take in an appalling 10 grams per day! These salt substitutes will not only help you get the salt out but will also enliven your recipes: lemon crystals, lemon pepper devoid of salt, powdered garlic, powdered onion, ground red pepper, chili powder, black pepper, cumin, turmeric, celery seeds, coriander seeds, and any commercially available salt-free spice mixtures.

Sugars:
There is absolutely no doubt that our Stone Age ancestors had a sweet tooth. Field studies of hunter-gatherers show that they would endure enormous numbers of bee stings to get hold of honey. During certain times of the year, they would gorge themselves with a pound or more of honey a day. However, they couldn’t eat it day in and day out, all year long, because it simply wasn’t available. Similarly, other naturally occurring sweets such as dates, figs, or maple sugar would have been available seasonally for only a few short weeks during the entire year. We should follow the hunter-gatherer example and get refined sugars out of our diets. That doesn’t mean you have to ban sweets entirely—you can eat all of the fresh fruit that you like (unless you are overweight or have one or more symptoms of metabolic syndrome (type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and gout)), and you can add certain spices such as vanilla, ginger, mint leaves, cinnamon, and
nutmeg to recipes. Also, it is entirely permissible to add fruit purees sweetened with lemon or lime juice to your recipes.

Fat:
Replace the “bad” fats (trans fats, margarine, and shortening) with these oils: olive, flaxseed, walnut, macadamia, coconut, and avocado. Remember that flaxseed and walnut oils are delicate and susceptible to breakdown by heat and therefore should be used after, not during, cooking.

Alcohol:
Perhaps the most important component of any dietary plan is getting people to stick with it. The best way to make you instantly give up on the Paleo Diet for Athletes—or any diet, for that matter—is to make “Thou Shalt Nots.” You will notice from Chapter 9 that there are no—repeat, no—absolute requirements in
The Paleo Diet for Athletes.
We have deliberately incorporated this strategy into our nutritional plan to help you with compliance. If you enjoy an occasional glass of wine with your dinner, have it! Realize that you have a certain number of open meals during the week (as fully outlined in
Chapter 11
), which allow you to enjoy any food you like. However, bear in mind that the further you deviate from the basic plan, the less likely you are to achieve your health and performance goals. Obviously, alcohol was not part of any hunter-gatherer diet, and we do not recommend regular consumption of alcohol for athletes, either. However, it’s perfectly acceptable to use certain alcoholic beverages such as wine to add flavor to marinades and sauces. Much of the alcohol is vaporized during cooking.

RECIPES

Meat Dishes

PORK

Barcelona Pork Loin

¹
⁄
₃
cup chili powder

1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme

1 teaspoon Mexican oregano

¹
⁄
₈
teaspoon cloves

¹
⁄
₈
teaspoon allspice

1-2 tablespoons chicken stock

2 pounds boneless pork loin

½ cup water

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, mix together the chili powder, thyme, oregano, cloves, allspice, and stock to form a paste. Thoroughly rub the paste over all sides of the pork loin. Put the pork loin in a small lidded roasting pan. Add the water to the pan. Cover the pan and place in the oven for 2 hours, until tender. Remove the pork from the oven and let stand, covered, for 30 minutes before slicing.

Serves 4

Barbecued Lemon-Pepper Pork Steaks

1 onion, minced

2 teaspoons thyme

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon ground red pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup olive oil

6 pork steaks, each 1″ thick

¹
⁄
₃
cup fresh lemon juice

1½ teaspoons grated lemon peel

Warm up your grill. Combine the onion, thyme, and ground peppers in a small bowl. Add the garlic and oil, and thoroughly blend the ingredients with a whisk. Mop the steaks with a paper towel, and then smother with the lemon juice. Brush both sides of the steaks with some of the sauce. Briefly flame the steaks over high heat and sprinkle with the lemon peel. Put the steaks on a cool side of the grill and baste liberally with the remaining sauce. Cook about 10 minutes per side under a closed grill.

Serves 6

Oven-Baked Pecan Pork Chops

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon dry sherry or water

Ground ginger and garlic powder

4 lean pork chops

¼ cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a shallow bowl, beat together the egg, oil, and sherry. Add ginger and garlic powder to taste. Dip the chops in the mixture, and then coat evenly with the pecans. Arrange the pork chops in a single layer in a glass baking dish coated with additional oil. Bake for 30 minutes, turn, and bake until tender, about 20 minutes longer.

Serves 4

Mexico City 1968 Pork Loin Appetizer

½ pound pork tenderloin

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small carrot, sliced

1 small onion, sliced

4 bay leaves

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

2 stems fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons lime juice

In a large skillet, brown the pork loin in the oil, and then brown the carrot and onion. Place in a 4- to 6-quart pot lightly coated with olive oil, and add the bay leaves, garlic, tomatoes, peppercorns, and rosemary. Add water to cover, and simmer for 1½ hours, adding the lime juice during the last few minutes. Remove the pork loin and thinly slice it. Place in a dish and cover with the vegetables and sauce. Discard the bay leaves before serving.

Serves 6

CHICKEN AND POULTRY

Ankara Chicken

4 whole skinless chicken breasts

1 large carrot, cut into 1″ pieces

1 large rib celery, cut into 1″ pieces

½ onion, sliced