The Paleolithic Solution – Episode 4

Robb,

Thanks for another great podcast. I am learning so much. A few questions:

Phosphatidylserine: how much is too much?

Tablet form mag citrate vs. Natural Calm: big huge price difference. Big difference in the effect on sleep?

Antinutrients in raw coconut??? Can it be true? Or have I made myself allergic to coconut? It gives me a headache as soon as I eat it. I can’t do nuts or eggs, so this is really disappointing. Coconut oil doesn’t seem to pose a problem. I’m starting to notice some of the cortisol problems (messed up sleep) I had back when I was eating a lot of nuts. Now that I have dropped grains (and added in coconut just to have convenience and variety in my diet). Like you I am busy and can’t risk getting glutened.

I confess this last 3 weeks I have been doing too much on top of the WOD. I am going to scale back from about 4 to 5 days per week of that to 3 and see how I do. Too much activity seems to really do strange things to my appetite and is counterproductive.

I agree it would be good to hear more about sleep and cortisol in future shows. Thanks!

First off…as always great stuff Robb. Always a learning experience when I hear you talk or read a blog. In the past few months from moving back home I have been having tendencies of wheezing…but only at night and when its closer to my going to bed. Sometimes its get so bad I need to use an inhaler. I dont have asthma but my wife, being a nurse, was able to get me some albuterol to help me through these bouts. As a kid living in South America I had TB and chronic Bronchial problems growing up. After my parents putting me in both swimming and soccer I guess I kicked it and never had these issues again. I definitely eat Paleo and I eat mainly very low carb asides from my PWO meal. My meal at night is usually a small piece of fruit some meat and nuts. The past two nights, as a test, I switched my fruit out for some cucumbers instead. No wheezing. No shortness of breath. What gives? (Sorry for the long post)

Robb,

Yes, I’ve read Scott’s piece on speed training, it’s good stuff. I think you’re right, that kind of training may turn out to be more manageable than typical WOD’s. Partly it’s the predictability thing – you not only know what’s coming up, you can easily extrapolate from one sprint workout to the next and predict the effects, whereas it’s hard to compare a WOD of pullups / pushups / squats to one with 400m runs, KB swings and box jumps (for example). I also *think* that sprinting doesn’t lead to as much of a hepatic release compared to metcons that use weights (based on my quite limited experience so I could be wrong on that!)

I’m up for an experiment for sure, let me know what you had in mind. I mentioned above that I’m still making good progress on SS so I’d ideally like to continue with the strength work, but I’d be happy to try adding in some sprint work or something around that (e.g. the 9-day cycle that Scott proposed might work well, possibly with another weights session on day 5 where he has the metcon). But like I say, let me know what you’re thinking and what you’d want me to track.

Also, forgot to say earlier – all 4 podcasts have been great so far, thanks a bunch (and to Andy too!) An hour or so is spot on, longer would be fine too, whatever gives you enough time to get thoroughly into the questions. It’s an excellent format, the amount of knowledge packed in there is amazing.

Chris,

No problem, just hope it’s helpful. For what it’s worth, I personally think the key to dropping the BF as a type 1 is a low-carb paleo diet and *excellent* control.

One major benefit of good control is that it tends to mean you need to inject less insulin. You’ll already be injecting less on a low-carb paleo deal, which is a great start, but even then you can lower your insulin requirements with better control. I don’t know how to properly explain this, but if your blood glucose is high it takes relatively more injected insulin to deal with food. So for example if my blood is 90 and stable, I might need 1 unit of insulin to account for 8g carbs and keep my blood glucose stable. But if my blood was say 160 to start with (and still stable, not rising or dropping), and I take 1 unit and 8g carbs, my blood would rise to about 170. Essentailly, high blood glucose seems to make you temporarily insulin resistant; I don’t know if this is what’s actaully happening, but that’s the effect that I notice. By keeping good control and not letting your blood rise that high, you maintain insulin sensitivity; this means you need less insulin; this helps you lean out. Sorry if this is obvious, but it’s something that didn’t occur to me at first and just hit me one day.

I definitely think you’re on the right track with less (or NO) metcon work and more heavy lifting. Robb’s on the money as always – get your bloods in range as often as possible, get to a stable healthy baseline, then experiment from there. Hopefully if Robb puts this trial together it might lead to a great way to include some metcon work while keeping good control.

One other thing I’ve tried is low-intensity “cardio” (easy jogging or cycling, or even walking) on a daily basis to try to improve insulin sensitivity and further lower the amount of insulin you need. I’ve been lax with this since the weather turned to shit here and we’re down to 7 hours of daylight, but it seemed to help and I should really make more effort to include this daily.

Crap, just realised I’m rambling more than Barry Cooper! Hopefully it’s a bit more useful though

Robb, a few questions:

1. Creatine – Yea or Nay?

2. I have heard about professional bodybuilders injecting themselves with insulin. Since we are all about minimizing our insulin levels to maintain sensitivity to it how does it make sense to inject extra insulin into your body. I don’t see how it would help them, but these guys are ripped.

3. I have a whey protein (~40g) and cocoa powder shake and a piece of fruit immediately after my workouts (before I even drive home). I know that fructose is preferentially stored in the liver and so Yams etc may be better but I have also heard that muscle glycogen can be replenished at a much faster rate right after exercise so will the fructose be broken down and shuttled there instead during that time? My typical source is a banana or a granny smith apple which I find are just so much more convenient to bring to the gym than cooking up sweet potatoes which don’t really seem very appetizing after a hard workout.

Robb-Thanks for your advice. I decided to cut fruit for 30 days. I know I will feel better after the first few days. I think I am hypersensitive to fruit in general. I am upping my dark greens and learning how to eat protein in the morning. I am tweaking the paleo diet (no fruit) so it works for me.

Come on down to the Bay Area. Alot of support for you here!!!!!

Thanks for the podcast Robb and Andy!

Robb do you think you could talk about Biosignature?

Melissa,
You should NOT take codliver oil when pregnant – it has vitamin A in it. Vitamin A is teratogenic if you take too much – that is, it causes birth defects. I don’t mean to alarm you but you should only take fish oil which comes from the flesh of the fish – not cod liver which comes from the liver.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_vitamin-a-why-you-shouldnt-get-too-much_675.bc
Vitamin D however is important – there has been recent research on how important this is in pregnancy, and many women are deficient. So do take both omega 3 (EPA and DHA) and vitamin D but not vitamin A.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/pregnancy-and-gestational-vitamin-d-deficiency.shtml

Hi Robb,
Excellent site and podcast, I’m still working my way through it all trying to absorb it.

I have a couple of questions about supplementation: the 3 things you recommend are Fish oil, Vit D and Magnesium.

Fish oil dosage is 0.5g – 1g per 10lb of body weight, is that lean body weight, should that be taken in one lot or spread out over the day? Is there any difference? Should it be taken with food or by itself?

Vit D the dosage is 2000iu for a small person and 5000iu for a large person, does that change for the environment? I’m just south of the Gold Coast in Australia so I’m going to be getting more sun then someone in Alaska or somewhere like that. I also read that it is better to have one large dose 15 – 20 000iu every couple of days instead of 2 -5 000iu each day, do you see any benefit to that?

What amount of Magnesium should I be taking? I’m 6′ 2″ 240lb looking to improve body composition?

Thanks.

Robb, lovin the podcast. You seen the Crossfit Journal video entiltled “Paleo v. Zone, discusion with Dr. Sears.”? HQ is hilarious. Turns out eating hoho’s and kfc will give be better results than Paleo, as long as it is WAMed. Any chance of you giving us meal ideas like the earlier days of this blog? Some of the stuff you provided us are staples. A bacon, beef, egg, chocolate concoction comes to mind!

Robb and Andy,

I really enjoyed the podcasts (I made sure to give proper ratings over at iTunes). I know you have been treading lightly on the IF lately, but I just read an article I thought you would find interesting:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50275/title/Amino_acid_recipe_could_be_right_for_long_life

The article discusses a recent study of the how and why caloric reduction results in longer life span. It’s a fruit fly job, but still very interesting.

Thank you for what you do for the community.

robb, thoughts on the most recent crossfit journal entry with sears?

Hi Kirk and Robb,

Kirk said, “Love the show. I don’t know if you have answered this before but I have a client that is a Vegetarian….any vegetarian protein sources.”

Be gentle with her and maybe she will come around on her own, like me. She may find Sear’s The Soy Zone useful – it addresses the need to get sufficient protein and also how many carbs are in a half piece of bread versus 3 cups of broccoli. She won’t be able to go totally Paleo (without eating eggs at every meal), but she can at least start to get enough protein and cut down on processed carbs. Robb has avoided insulting vegetarians, which I appreciate, since I was a vegetarian for about twenty years (until just recently) and my kids have been raised vegetarian – we are taking things very slowly. The evidence is overwhelming for the paleo diet, though.

Good protein sources, mostly not paleo:
eggs: Robb said in a podcast that eating eggs is not bad for you. Thank goodness! I love eggs!
low-fat cheese
whey protein powder, especially the plain kind without stevia, sugars, or other carbs. Vitamin Cottage has a good one in bulk.
egg protein powder
rice protein powder: It is very sharp and hard to get down, but good for vegans.
Quorn brand meat substitutes: Decent protein ratios for most products, about 2-1.
processed soy things: Better protein/carb ratio than tofu or soy milk, but you have to check out the grams of protein and carbs, aim for 2-1.

Check the labels on garden burgers, beans, tofu, soy milk, etc. They are mostly carbs. Nuts are mostly fat.

Forgot to add.
On a cheat meal, piri-piri chicken burger and some chips, I ended up with a major headache. Not having had any starchy or mega carbs (bar those in my protein shake) can this have caused the headache?

Robb,
Been following the blog for a while now and just finished listening to the podcast and noticed that you mention magnesium supplementation. I had not noticed you advocating this before. Is it a new development? Is it something you recommend for everyone? Lastly is there a recommended daily dose?

Robb- thanks again for all the good info. Your podcast cover such a wide range of topics, there’s always something applicable in them. Thanks!