Search This Blog

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

(Almost) Bulletproof Coffee, Rationale for integration of the Paleo Diet

Bulletproof coffee. What is it? It is: low-toxin coffee mixed with grass-fed butter and coconut oil. Why? To infuse your body with energy from both the coffee's caffeine as well as the fats' multi chain triglycerides (MCTs).

There's a lot of great science out there, research conducted by folks that are both smarter and more qualified than I am, but as a personal trainer I am at the forefront of how all these nutritional developments effect sports performance, and it is things like MCTs, low-toxin coffee (low-toxin everything, for that matter), and with the things I am learning on this Bulletproof/Paleo path I am finally gaining sight of what the full picture of health and energy are.

Why am I so fascinated with the Paleo Diet? For me it starts with the romantic attraction that the mountain man's life has always held. Native Americans' ways of honoring nature, men who live in tune with the land, hunter-gatherers have all fascinated me since very early. After reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, I begain thinking of grains differently; my mindset shifted. I realized that grains were introduced because of cultural factors, not biological factors. No one back in 8000 BCE, or whenever agriculture became part of our culture as humans, decided wheat was the next super food because of health benefits--the benefit was that you could make bread and avoid starvation! And only with the food surplus could our society developmet the way it has, so I'm not hatin'. I'm just saying it is time things come full circle.

As my intellect matured, I always felt something was off with commercial farming, but in those early days of the internet the proliferation of information wasn't on the scale that it now is, and the science was only just getting there. Lately, however, there has been an explosion of information that has focused my nutritional approach to mine and my clients' lives, and that information lies in the fields of 1) The amount of toxic mold found in grains and our coffee, 2) the bio accumulation of hormones in meat from commercially farmed animals, and 3) The deficit of nutrients created by not being on a diet that is based on grass-fed proteins and a high vegetable intake.

Now, on the first point my research is yet incomplete, however the statistics I've seen and their interpretation is compelling. (And I'll try to get those up soon.) The short version is this: toxic mold is found on a high percentage (up to 91.7% in one year's crop) of rice, wheat, corn, coffee, and other grains that come into the U.S. In addition to all farmed animals eating that toxic grain, it ends up in our bread. masa, maize, cereal, and of course, coffee. This toxic mold causes inflammation that hinders body and brain performance, and can result in other dysfunction as well.

The bio accumulation of hormones in meat is a scary one. I'm paraphrasing Dave Asprey as interviewed on the Joe Rogan Experience, but what happens in commercial cattle farming is that the cows are given a hormone that increases "feed efficiency." A higher feed efficiency means more weight gained per unit of feed. These hormones acccumulate in the meat, we eat the meat, and then voila--we have greater feed efficiency. That means it is easier to be FAT!

Beyond those hormones, we have a great dietary deficit due to a surplus of long-chain triglycerides and a lack of medium-chain triglycerides. I will post a link within in the next week on some solid research that I've found summarizing the extreme difference in how your body uses these two types of fats.

In summary, gone are my days of counting calories. Now I count toxins. Besides, if you eat everything you need to to be healthy, there won't be any time or stomach space (or desire, for that matter) to eat garbage. Make the switch--grass-fed beef or bison, pastured chickens and pork, and an extremely high intake of vegetables (especially dark, leafy ones).

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Grass-fed EVERYTHING

It makes almost four weeks now that I have been transitioning to Dave Asprey's Bulletproof version of the Paleo diet, and my energy levels have not been this high since ephedra was legal!


I found out about Dave from the Joe Rogan Experience, and I've now been through the almost-three hour podcast twice as well read countless internet articles on the subjects of Medium Chain Triglycerides, mycotoxins, grass-fed sources of protein, and bio accumulation of hormones found in industry-farmed meats.

I woke up this morning at 2:00 am, one hour before my alarm went off, and I was full of energy. This now happens once to twice per week and has been allowing me greater efficiency in my daily routine. I attribute this directly to my diet.

Also, my workouts kick ass lately.
----------------------------------
Here is my daily diet (not totally Bulletproof or Paleo yet, but gettin' there):

NLT 6:00 am:

  • 1/2 cup all-natural, organic granola + 
  • 1/2 cup raspberries (organic when I can) + 
  • 1 Wallaby's yogurt (made from grass-fed cow's milk, from cows that are pastured here in Northern California
  • 1 blue Rockstar (my wolf's bane)
**A couple days per week I workout mid-morning, and a couple days per week I work out in the early evening. Either way, immediately post workout I drink a Naked Green Machine and/or a coconut water, preferably the brand C2O, and some sashimi or bison/grass-fed beef. I eat this with rice and ideally some broccoli or asparagus*.


From 9:00 am to 3:00 pm:

  • Guayaki tea beverage (a Sebastopol company!), 
  • Trader Joe's trail mix of some sort (I'm critical of the ingredient list--no added sugars!), 
  • Dark chocolate and a coffee in the afternoon when I need a kick in the pants
Later Afternoon/Evening:

**If I haven't gone to the gym yet, I'll eat a piece of toast or two with coconut oil and jam on it. After Thanksgiving, I'm starting on Ezekiel bread.

Dinner: A large salad, known as "The Meal". The key is here is the inclusion of healthy fats from avocado and olive oil, a large diversity of nutrients due to the variety of vegetables present, and the aggressive antioxidant profile of the kale and spinach.

>I rotate this will meals like grass-fed beef lettuce wraps, bison burgers and sweet potato, and spicy beef with wild rice, all of which I will post soon!


Quick Recipe
*If you're on the Paleo Diet, and you're only consuming proteins from grass-fed or pasture-based sources, you need to keep your intake of Medium Chain Triglycerides, or MCTs, up. One super yummy way to do this is take butter from grass-fed cow's milk (I use the Kerrygold), and after allowing it to soften add the zest of 1/3-1/2 of a lemon and a pinch of kosher salt. Mix well with a fork, refrigerate, and serve over broccoli or asparagus!