I received the following photo and email from John Welbourn of CrossFit Football and CrossFit Balboa:
From John who tracked down a churascaria or Brasialin Steak House. If you ever get a chance to eat at one of these place do it!!
I had beef, chicken, veggies and guacamole (strange food choice in sweden but it was there) and a local beer. Pretty awesome food.
Mark Riebel says
Robb,
This is a bit of an unrelated issue, but I wanted to get your opinion on a study I stumbled upon on PubMed
( http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/31/7/1131.pdf ). If you’re not familiar with the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, they’re a mountain dwelling people that are known for their extreme endurance (running hundreds of miles at a time). Being a big proponent of Paleo eating myself, I was surprised to see that this group of people eat a diet in which 90% of their calories come from beans and corn, and the rest being mostly from vegetable sources and some eggs. This population showed none of the traditional maladies seen in Western society, and the only blood marker I could see that seemed a bit high were their triglyceride levels. Seeing as how this diet goes completely against Paleo principles, I’d like to hear you’re interpretation.
Thanks for your time, and keep up the great work on the blog.
Mark, CrossFit Invictus
robbwolf says
Mark-
There is obviously a wide variety of foods the folks can eat and remain relatively healthy. An interesting point is that these folks are essentially gluten free. I do remember these folks having some remarkably high rates of dental problems…up till folks figured out how to process corn with alkalai products there was massive b-vitamin deficiencies. It’s interesting stuff!
Bill says
What a life that guy has! And he’ll probably bring back cool Viking WODs, weapons and wenches! Dominate!!
Justin De Quim says
Prof Hola..Do you have owt to say about excess protein and its effects on insulin please and its maybe forestalling effects on weight loss if one was uber sensitive ?
Re-reading Good Cals Bad C’s and reminded me of Sears le Zone and how he was rather specific about the amount cos of, if i recall correctly,its effects on insulin.
What say you please ?
BC dates yet pleasum ?
robbwolf says
Fellows-
Unless the protein is coming from a powder form it’s not a problem.
BC-Sometime in early ’10!
Chad G. says
Hey ya rob! I found this: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/ recommended to me by a friend and said that it really has honed in his diet for his own performance. Think its hog wash? I did some reading on the site and it really doesn’t give much without purchasing the plan. (I only ask because it seems to have came out this year)
btw: that meal John had looks fan-freakin-tastic!
Chad
robbwolf says
Chad-
John Berardi’s stuff is legit…heavily supplement based but solid. Take a Zone diet, partition most of the carbs PWO and you have Precision Nutrition! My only beef with his work was on old anti-paleo piece that was just horrible. Outside of that however his work is very good and he is pretty unique in being a coach and researcher.
jeremy says
Robb u say the zone is too many carbs i agree, what if the post wod meal is sweet potato or brown rice 8 blocks, and your a 17 blocker can u get the remaining carbs from low gi veges without insulin spikes and or is it still too many carbs .
thank you
j
robbwolf says
Jeremy-
That should be fine, but you just need to tinker! You always have the option of deleting some carbs, keep in mind 1C=3F.
jeremy says
Robb what is a block of cooked sweet potato any idea on how much it weighs ??? i am putting 1/2 the days carbs in PWO meal, the zone says 1/3 cup that would equate out to around 16oz of sweet potato, that seems very high
robbwolf says
Jeremy! Check out a Different Way to Weigh:
http://robbwolf.com/?p=100
The short answer however is about 35g cooked=1 block.
Júlíus Magnússon says
Robb, speaking of tweaking carbs, I’ve seen you recommend replacing one carb block with three fat blocks before. Where does that ratio come from? It’s not accurate calorie-wise so I don’t see the connection. Why do you recommend replacing the carb calories with more than twice the amount of fat calories?
One block of carbs is 9g x 4Cal/g = 36 Calories
One block of fat is 3g x 9Cal/g = 27 Calories
Three blocks of fat are 3 x 27Cal = 81 Calories
robbwolf says
Julius!!! You need to attend my cert! A fat block is 1.5g, NOT 3g. You are confusing the block of fat in most protein sources. This comes out to about 40 cals and is fracking close enough!!! People get all spun up about this minutiae but if I take you and 100 other people into a chemistry lab and see how hard it is for you to weigh and measure with less than a 2% error rate you would be stunned.
Chris says
Hey Coach Wolf,
I saw a post on crossfitcoronado and they were talking about “vinegar based condiments, ie; pickles, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar” being able to “act as an inhibitor, limiting the spike in insulin levels and lowering your blood glucose levels over the measurable period.”
I know a lot of people on the Braggs bandwagon and the “googling” I did came up with some interesting stuff. Do you recommend? I bought some (i.e. tinkered), and it seems to work on an aesthetic level, but what’s like a good amount to use and can constantly repressing/inhibiting the insulin cause any kind of damage short/long?
Also sense we are slapping diets around, I wanted your professional opinion on this lovely idea. What are the health concerns of doing something like this from your POV because I actually know some trainers (non-CFers) who do this- esque:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_program/sports_body_training_diet_velocity/velocity_diet_30
Also one of my friends just came back from you “super amazing, best $ I ever spent” Santa Cruz cert and was talking about how you were implying a little more cheating, or at least more than I remember you talking about at my cert. So I thought maybe you were spending time on this guy’s site:
http://www.cheatyourwaythin.com/special/
I know your point was to not turn paleo/zone into an eating disorder and don’t start condemning people in public for choices they make.
My suggestion to you is to tell everyone who will be attending your cert, that 1 hr before they eat a nice big stack of French toast w/ a lot of extra syrup. I did this same thing before going to your cert because I never thought I would eat it again and then in some, witch doctor crazy know-it-all way, you went over the EXACT things taking place during digestion of that EXACT meal. I thought maybe you saw me at dennys in the AM. You started going through the symptoms right as I started feeling them. It made me believe you undoubtedly after that. Nice 🙂
robbwolf says
Chris-
The closest experience experience I have with the Velocity Diet is when Dan John did it and “liked” it. Shakes all day…well, seems kinda short term at best.
The cheat thing just sends people into rapture…I try to paint it like this: If you are going to go off the rails go for dark chocolate, nachos and corn tortilla tacos with tequila vs cookies, pizza and beer. If folks will generally steer clear of gluten they do pretty damn well. The point is that you can seriously kick your heels up (try 3 NorCal Margaritas in an evening -2 shots of Gold tequila, juice of 1 lime, splash of soda water) without being as fucked up from the experience.
Kurt says
It’s good to see Welbourn enjoys a nice beer with dinner as well.
robbwolf says
Kurt-
John is the true Renaissance Man!
John says
Robbie – The food here is pretty good. The seafood we had last night was unbelievable. Today had wild hare (rabbit) and for tonight, headed to a Lebanese spot that with all you can eat meat. Funny thing the diet of the Swede is based upon potatoes…potatoes with everything…french fries are a crowd favorite. And whole grain breads…breads and potatoes…what is modern forager to do? eat meat.
jeremy says
Robb how do u come up with 35 grams is 1 block the database says 35 grams is 6.20 carbs a block is 9
robbwolf says
Jeremy-
I’m running all this from memory, if you need to up that scale weight to 40g to make the fracking math work, go for it brother!
Miss Spinach says
Robb,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while, shortly after discovering CF about a year ago. I’ve been gluten-free since before CF due to intolerance. I have read Paleo Diet for Athletes, The Zone, Metabolic Typing Diet, and Born to Run (about the Tarahumara and ultrarunning). I recently became aware of Lierre Keith, but haven’t read The Vegetarian Myth yet. Although these sources contradict each other on the whole grains issue–to eat, or not to eat–they are all compelling and convincing.
I like oatmeal. I like buckwheat. I like quinoa. According to Lierre–and I love what she has to say–well, I’m contributing to petroleum dependence and all that evil stuff. I’m eating…pastoral foods!
I do better on three blocks of oatmeal than I do on three blocks of big juicy steak, even the grassfed kind. I get through the WOD better. I run the same hilly route around my neighborhood faster. I feel more awake, happy, and all else being equal (meaning, the rest of my diet is poultry and vegetables, some fruits, nuts, and no sugar) I’m going to see my abs after a month of oatmeal breakfasts vs. a month of beef dinners. I experimented on myself earlier this year; gave the pure paleo experiment about 6 weeks. Felt like total crap, gained 8-10 pounds of fat, got wicked PMS, took three steps back with my training. I finally got everything re-dialed in over the summer.
You said above, “There is obviously a wide variety of foods the folks can eat and remain relatively healthy. An interesting point is that these folks are essentially gluten free. I do remember these folks having some remarkably high rates of dental problems…up till folks figured out how to process corn with alkalai products there was massive b-vitamin deficiencies. It’s interesting stuff!”
I probably shouldn’t geek out too much–but this fascinates me. I’m trying to reconcile Cordain’s ideas with my own experience. I wonder what Lierre Keith would say to the Tarahumara; I wonder how much their performance will suffer if, theoretically, in a post-peak-oil world suddenly their staple of corn is no longer available.
I also read your comments on Performance Menu about slow vs. fast oxidizers being essentially the same; this is probably where the science gets way over my head. That said, the “slow oxidizer” recommendations in Metabolic Typing Diet have worked best for me in terms of body composition, running times, and mood. (I even had the clinical test several years ago in a doctor’s office, the one with the glucose fasting test, blood ph and other stuff I can’t remember–and it came out “slow oxidizer,” whatever that really means.)
Anyway, I will keep reading…love the blog.
robbwolf says
Sara-
I’m a little confused here…are you dropping your oatmeal and just eating protein? swap the oatmeal for yams and sweet potatoes. Read the post on Zone and Athletic Performance. GEt back to me!
Miss Spinach says
Robb,
I’m trying to get my picture off my above comment….was unsuccessful through wordpress for some reason. If you could kindly edit that out, I would appreciate it…was unintended.
Thanks so much for your quick response. Wasn’t dropping anything out of the diet, just cutting back on the grains to see how it goes. I do well with carbs as described above; will try sweet potatoes as you suggested above and in your 42 ways article.
Thanks….
robbwolf says
Sarah-
I think it;s gone, let me know.
Miss Spinach says
All good Robb, thanks!
Miss Spinach says
Reading more and more…funny how you find additional information when you’re ready for it, information that was oddly invisible to me in my earlier investigations.
I’ve been reading about the opioid peptides in grains–and now believe that the reason why I struggled so much was not lowering carbs per se, but pulling the opiate effect of grains out of my diet. I’d had trouble getting all my carb blocks in pretty regularly, but as long as I had a little oatmeal or whatever I felt fine on low carb, higher carb, whatever.
Looking back on my metabolic typing test, the test upon which I based my rationalization of continuing to eat grains, a lot of the questions were subjective, i.e. “ok, now how do you feel?” “How do you feel after eating this for dinner vs. that for dinner?” Well, hell. Grains have “feel good” effects other than just the carbs, of course someone might report that they like their oatmeal. A normal glucose fasting test and a slightly alkaline ph, combined with a whole bunch of data from the patient, led to the determination “you need whole grains.” And then on my merry rationalizing way I went.
I now question the test, because basically if you pull out all the subjective experience of the patient (the questionnaire stuff) then what you have is basically a glucose fasting test. So without what the patient says, is this going to tell us that everyone who has a normal test, who is not insulin resistant, is then directed toward a “carb type” diet? And only those whose glucose fasting tests show some degree of insulin resistance will be the ones directed to a paleolithic diet? So, basically, people whose negative effects from grains aren’t necessarily visible on the surface–who don’t get fat from them–are doing some other kind of silent damage to themselves. Another reason to choose sweet potatoes and yams.
So yeah…**I am starting to get it** there might still be something to the differences in macronutrient ratios with MT, but as I said above, I’m not the science type. I’m just now reaching the next layer of complexity in this information and seeing how if you’re not the “always hungry carb crashed zombie” you might still be a grain-lovin’ zombie.
robbwolf says
Sarah-
I really dug around in the MT stuff and it just seems more like astrology than anything scientific. Just the grain recommendation alone puts it on the junk heap for me. But again, folks should just experiment and see.
The opioid issue is no fracking joke!! Keep tinkering.