KISS And Paleo History Part I

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14TH, 2011

Open Class 4:30pm

"KISS" - Keep It Simple Stupid!

This "KISS" concept is something that my Dad used to always provide me as sage advice and now I'm passing it on to you. When it comes to the Paleo Diet don't overcomplicate things!


The parameters of the diet boil down to this: Eat ONLY meats and eggs, vegetables, limited nuts and seeds, some fruits, and healthy oils.


You know what meats are, you know what vegetables are, you should know for the most part what nuts and seeds are, as well as what healthy fruits are. The healthy oils I may have to explain, but you can make due without that for now. It's simple if it is a meat, egg, vegetable, fruit, nut, or seed EAT IT! If it's none of those things DON'T EVEN FRACKING THINK ABOUT IT!


As a general rule of thumb, you MUST eat proteins, fats, and carbohydrates with EVERY meal.


Still confused? Here ye' be...


Proteins: eggs, chicken, steak/beef, hamburger, turkey, pork, fish (any), seafood (any), game meat (any)


Carbohydrates: broccoli, bell pepper, mushrooms, onions, garlic, ginger, asparagus, cucumber, celery, cauliflower, lettuce, zucchini, squash, basil, cilantro, spinach, chard, okra, kale, leeks, apples, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches, oranges, grapes, tangerines, pears, plums, nectarines, sweet potatoes


Fats: avocado, coconut oil (raw or to cook with), olive oil (raw only - do not cook with it), olives, almonds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, macadamia nuts, pecans...do not eat peanuts (they are a legume/bean not a nut)


Seasonings: oregano, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, basil, mustard, cilantro, cinnamon, coriander, chili powder, Allspice, nutmeg, celery root, chives, cloves, cumin, rosemary, fennel seed, ginger, lemon pepper, sage, terragon, turmeric, etc.


This is as easy as it gets...throw a tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan and let it melt, add meat of your choice with seasoning of your choice and brown it, add vegetables to the pan with the possibility of more and or different seasoning here and stir occassionally until meat is cooked through. Let it cool and eat it. Be creative and change things up. It is crucial that you have plenty of herbs, spices and seasonings in your cabinet to draw from. This is part of what make the diet taste so good.

Ok, now that you have this extremely limited list that will at least get you started, I want to give you a brief understanding of why I eat this way. In order to do so I will draw on a great amount of research done on many different people (and their fossils) at many different time periods) Here goes...PALEO HISTORY

There are races of people who are all slim, who are stronger and faster than us. They all have straight teeth and perfect eyesight. Arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, schizophrenia and cancer are absolute rarities for them. These people are the last 84 tribes of hunter-gatherers in the world. They share a secret that is over 2 million years old. Their secret is their diet - a diet that has changed little from that of the first humans 2 million years ago, and their predecessors up to 7 million years ago. Theirs is the diet that man evolved on, the diet that is coded for in our genes. It has some major differences to the diet of "civilization".


In fact, when anthropologists are asked the question, "What is the single most important event in all of human history? What changed things, for good or ill, more than any other event or occurrence?", thier answer is resoundingly unanimous..."The agricultural revolution." But why? Why is the agricultural revolution so important?"


To better understand this answer let's look at this question in a way that paints human history in a relaive scale. If we stood on an American football field (100 yards from end-zone to end-zone) we could represent a timeline of human history in the following way: If we started walking from one end-zone toward the other, we could walk 99.5 yards, and this would represent all of human history except the last 5,000 years or so...99.5 of the 100 yards.

"This is when our genetics were selected for survival in a hunting-gathering lieway and we wer damn good at it. We evolved and adapted to this way of living and the interaction of our genetics and our environment made us who we were, and who we are. Our genetics are vitrually identical to those of our early human ancestors from more than 120,000 yars ago. The last 10,000 years, the time in which we transitioned from the hunting and gathering lifeway to agriculture, is the last half yar of our timeline. The last few inches represent television, the Internet, refined vegetable oils, and most of what we take to be "normal" modern living.


So, what happened with this change healthwise? What were we like as hunter-gatherers, and what happened when we changed to agriculture?


When we look through the VOLUMES of books and journals giving accounts of early peoples - hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, and agriculturalists, whom have been extensively studied since the mid-1800's we find that our hunter-gatherer ancestors were remarkably healthy. They were as tall or taller than modern Americans and Europeans, which is a sign they ate a very nutritious diet. They were virtually free of cavities and bone malformations that are common with malnutrition. Despite a lack of medical care, they had remarkably low infant mortality rates, yet had better than 10 percent of their population live into their sixties.


Furthermore, these people were shown to be virtually free of degenerative disease such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. They also showed no near-sightedness or acne. They were powerfully built, with strength and endurance on a par with modern athletes.

• The hunter-gaherers show almost no cavities, whereas the farmers showed almost 7 cavities on average per person.


• The hunter-gatherers show significantly less bone malformations consistent with malnutrition. That is--the hunter-gatherer's were much better fed.


• The hunter-gatherers showed a remarkably lower rae of infant mortality relative to the farmers. The most significant difference was between the ages of two and four when malnutrition is particularly damaging to children.


• The hunter-gatherers were, on average, healthier, as evidenced by decreased rates of bone malformations typical of infectious disease.


• The hunter-gatherers on average lived longer than the farmers.


• The hunter-gatherers showed little to no sign of iron, calcium, and protein dificiencies, whereas this was common in the farmers.

The real scary part about all this...our genetics are virtually identical to those of our early homosapien ancestors from 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

Keep reading tomorrow. You may be in for a few more big surprises.

CLOSING COMMENT OF THE DAY: If your gut health is good or improving, immune system funcation improves, which then WILL increase performance, how much you lift, as well as muscle size and recovery. If gut irritation is occurring, the body IS focusing its efforts on healing gut irritation instead of on producing lean muscle tissue.

Coach Justin

PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com