Mat forwarded this great post from Dr. Eades. I usually try to generate new content for the blog and not just re-cook what other folks have done but I’m making an exception in this case. For starters, Dr. Eades just kicks ass and this is a great piece when people start tongue waging about the diet wars. Whenever these approaches are compared head-to-head low carb ALWAYS wins out, both in results and perhaps most importantly compliance. In the case of a paleo diet we see a unique feature that this approach does not only reduce the signs and symptoms of diseases related to metabolic derangement and autoimmunity, it CURES them.
It has within it’s framework a theoretical framework that not only describes the mechanisms behind most degenerative diseases with which we are plagued, it offers predictive value that allows for additional scientific testing. None of the other approaches offer any of this.
Some will make the cry that the paleo diet is inadequate to the needs of producing elite performance. I think that’s been put to bed with examples like Laura Demarco and some other folks highlighted here. And, well, it’s easy as: try it, report your results. Occasionally I hear something to the effect “the paleo diet cannot provide enough carbs for large athletes…” I guess fruit, yams and sweet potatoes don’t count? I’m going to really put that notion to bed in a future post.
Hanging out in Denver on my way to Bozeman, MT for the CrossFit Nutrition cert. Keep thinking, keep tinkering. Trust your own experience.
Robb,
I’ve been a relatively ‘long term’ follower. Are yams/sweet potatoes used b/c they have less of an insulin spike? They are still carbs after all. And is this why they are favored over white potatoes? I’m on the triathlon side of things, but was curious.
-Brandon
Brandon-
More nutrients (by a mile) and none of the gut irritation of grains and white potatoes. Damn yummy too!
Another good post by Dr. Eades. Thanks for posting it Robb. But, chances are you are already part of the choir. My question is how can I get my mom to change the way she eats. Her diet is literally killing her — auto-immune disease and all. That’s the post I want to read.
Keep up the good work and have fun in Montana, be careful you may want to stay.
Had this conversation last night after the Nutrition gig in Bozeman, MT. Family is the toughest to reach. I’m not sure hat you should do.
Crap! I meant: … “chances are, if you are reading this you are already part of the choir.”
Losing proof-reading skills strike again.
I used paleo to prepare for my so far two half marathons in Iraq. They had a two week window between them. I went from a third place finish with 90:18 to a first place finish of 1:23:25. Oh yeah I also used CF&CFE to prepare.
Michael!
Legit! keep it up and be safe.
Great post; great blog. At my gym we just did a Paleo/Lean-out Challenge. Eat Paleo-friendly for 7 weeks and lets see the results. For me, it worked and it didn’t work. I ate 8 total items that were not paleo-friendly. I hit PR’s in metcons, slow lifts, fast lifts, etc. (eg. 540# DL, 2 minute PR on CrossFit’s Nancy) I also gained ten pounds. At 250#, I was looking to go down; I have some joint pain from carrying extra weight and I would like to have more gas in the tank. All the mass I gained was muscle; my waist was the same, etc. I think I just have too good of an appetite. No one else in the gym was eating a whole chicken for lunch or a whole jar of almond butter in a day, etc.
For people like me, and it looks like I might be in the minority, we need portion control. Soooo – I, and the gym, have embarked on another Lean-out challenge, this time giving the option of doing Paleo/Zone or just paleo. We are looking to incorporate clean eating with portion control. So far I am 4 days in and doing well.
I also want to say that I consider myself proof positive that you CAN eat clean and gain pure muscle and get massively strong, unlike what many of the people in the powerlifting community frequently say. Eating straight Paleo, all my slow lift numbers continued to climb (S- 425, P – 210, DL – 540). People who say you have to eat McDonald’s to get big just dont care to eat clean. Also my body fat continued to drop (around 20% right now); I just am not comfortable being this big right now.
Thanks for all the help Robb; this site is great.
Dominic!!
Good stuff! Keep us posted!
Robb,
Being an undergraduate Dietetics major I experience this nonsense ALL the time. I question my professors about their warnings of the “dangers” of low-carb diets and the proposed benefits of whole grains and they always say something to the effect of “Research shows that this is valid” I then ask them to provide the research and they direct me to the ADA website. I then say “no, I mean peer-reviewed, published scientific research that can be obtained from a medical journal” and they just reference poorly interpreted epidemiological studies like the 7 Countries Study. Then when I provide the better designed studies that clearly show the superiority of a paleoish, low-carb diet they ALWAYS say “Well, the research on low-carb diets is still in it’s infancy, so for now we have to stick to what we know works” (I have a feeling that they’ll continue to say this for years, even as the evidence for low-carb becomes overwhelming) which brings us back to them thinking that somehow the high-carb, low-fat diet is supported by scientific evidence (which it’s not) and that it actually works (it doesn’t). In essence, the real translation of what they’re saying is “There is some evidence for the superiority of low-carb diets, however, we’re going to keep saying that high-carb is better just because that’s the mainstream BELIEF, even though there is absolutely no good evidence that high carb is in anyway superior to low-carb, in fact, the opposite is evident”. Ripping my hair out follows shortly after.
Greg-
I do not envy your position brother!
Robb, did you ever see the nutrition panel on Charlie Rose? There was one argument Dean Ornish made that Eades never rebutted. He claimed that low-carbohydrate diets have been shown only to reduce risk factors, such as triglycerides, but that the disease state itself got worse as measured by blood flow to the heart. You know I’m in your camp on diet, but I was curious if you’d ever seen the video or heard this argument and what your thoughts were.
It’s here, by the way: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3078688594861957257&ei=dK7aSsfbA9PglQfw_9H-DA&q=dean+ornish+charlie+rose&hl=en&client=firefox-a#
Ornish is so full of shit. In his “reversing heart disease” book/study he claims a (going from memory here) 2-3% reversal of atherosclerotic plaque, yet the imaging technique he uses had like a 5% error built into the instrumentation! His paper, although pushed heavily, was heavily criticized (even within the vegan-loving medical community) for dramatically raising triglycerides and other CVD risk factors.
I’d like to see Dr. Davis Kick Ornish’s chubby fanny:http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/
Correction: Taubes, not Eades.
Robb-I wanted to say thank you for the impact you have had on me, my husband and our family. I believe whole-heartedly in the nutrition you taught us at Montrose Cert. Feb 2009. I am leading our 2nd challenge at our gym currently and feel so fulfilled if I can get one person to start thinking about it, the sense it makes and how good they feel, look, perform, measure up (ie blood test). I’m sure it is the same for you so you can mark this family of 4 down in your feel-good column.
Cybil Cooper
Neill,
Taubes does address that question at 48:48 into the video. It appears that Ornish is citing a study of 26 patients on low carb diets. Once the study was done, the authors realized that 10 of the patients were on a higher fat diet compared to the others. The authors scanned their hearts and published the data as proof that a high fat diet is bad. Sooooo….these people were told to eat a low fat high carbohydrate diet, ended up eating more fat than the average, and somehow the fat is to blame?
I just finished listening to that video and wanted to punch Ornish the whole way through. He has this “I’ve got a Ph.D. and Taubes doesn’t so I’m going to pretend I’m more mature, neutral, and wise so I can make him look bad and he will lose all credibility” kinda thing going on. That stuff really grates on me.