Dieting and dieters
So, a few weeks ago I made some comments on the new MyPlate replacement for the food pyramid. It's part of a movement to help make America a little more healthy, and I support it. Just to reiterate, yeah, there's no portions written on it, and nothing about fat, and the glass of milk looks pretty small to those of us who read a lot of Men's Health. But, overall, filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables is a good start, and if your plate at every meal looks like MyPlate (especially if you use a reasonable-sized plate instead of the 14" monsters in some peoples' cabinets), I can pretty much guarantee you will lose weight and feel healthier. The fact about fat is that it probably isn't something that necessarily needs to be individually addressed for mainstream Americans. A sedentary lifestyle does not require a lot of fat, definitely not enough that we have to look for it specifically in our diets, and the fats we should be eating occur naturally in dairy, meat, nuts, and fruits/veggies (like avocados). So there really shouldn't be a need to address it separately. And leaving sweets off the plate cuts one excuse to amp up the calorie count. Obviously, the people who are obsessing about the portions, proportions, and etc are health nuts.
Like me. There, I admit it. I'm missing an amazing career as a nutritionist/trainer right now. Anyway, I've heard a few mentions now of the Paleo Diet (the Caveman Diet) and I just wanted to jot some thoughts down on it.
As most of you know, all of my information and thoughts about people's nutrition are mirrored through my experiences with horses. (For the record, it takes a lot of knowledge and care to build and maintain show horses: training schedules and condition analysis and thought about protein content, not to mention injury prevention and care.) I realize that this means there is a limit inherent in my reasoning, because well, people aren't horses. But a lot of the time we seem to work the same way. For example, I know a higher protein diet makes horses more energetic, but also more confrontational. I suspect the same is true of people. The right weight, nutritional balance, and conditioning can make a horse a champion. The same is definitely true of people (there is a reason Kimura Kenta, who lives with his trainer, is the fastest high school runner in Japan; and there is a reason why the kendo boys live with their coach, and the judo boys live in the dorms -- they're stronger when the coaches control what and how much they eat, when they sleep, and how much extra training they do).
Anyway, on to the Paleo Diet. Horses are naturally foragers; they spend more than 2/3 of their day eating. A horse in it's natural habitat can reasonably be expected to eat 6 pounds of grass per day. Compare that to today's regimen: 2-3 feedings of highly concentrated, 10-18% protein processed grains.
There are those that would argue that horses are better off consuming what they would in the wild. And it's true, from a digestive perspective anyway. And everyone knows horses can't live on grain alone; they need grass or hay to supplement it. And everyone knows that to make up for the water the horses aren't getting from grass, they need to have their feed watered or be encouraged to drink more. All in all, feeding horses is a huge expenditure of time and effort, and it seems like they would be better off just eating grass like they were made to.
But. If you put two twin horses side by side, and fed one an all-natural grass diet and the other today's carefully crafted grain and hay feeding schedule, you would find that the grain/hay fed horse performed better than the "natural diet" horse. It's inevitable. The demands placed on today's horse are far greater than nature really intended, and as a result the dietary needs of horses have changed.
I would say the same is true for people. Our lives today are vastly different - and longer - than the lives of people living "in the wild" in the stone age. Of course the Paleo diet will work for some people, people who are on a mild-to-moderate exercise regime and don't mind eating fish bones. That's right, if you don't feel like milk is an appropriate thing to put in your body, you best get used to the idea of getting calcium from other places. The Japanese eat fish bones, and I suspect that's what our Paleolithic ancestors did as well. And for those of us busting ourselves at the gym five or six days a week, bodybuilders, professional athletes, people who run marathons...carbs are essential. Everyone knows that carbs rebuild muscle, while protein builds it. I think our ancestors worked in much the same way as wild horses do: daily low-to-moderate intensity activity with short bursts of intense activity, followed by periods of inactivity. Think about it: Daily activities would be things like gathering or fishing, which, while activity, isn't terribly demanding or athletic. More intense activities would be interspersed among these daily activities at some undetermined intervals. For example, yes, hunting a mammoth is hard, but then you would have meat for a month. There would probably be very rare occassion for repeated daily intense activity. My point is, the lifestyle of the average caveman differs pretty markedly from today's athlete, who needs to refuel as quickly as possible for the next workout, a scant 24 hours away.
I'm not saying the Paleo Diet isn't effective or wouldn't be good for some people. I just want everyone to realize that the first step to any good dietary decisions is to carefully and accurately analyze your particular lifestyle and dietary needs. Doing something just because "it's natural" isn't necessarily the best course. On a side not, cutting calories isn't always the right answer either; plenty of people are actually too thin and are undercutting their athletic and mental potential by severely limiting their diet or caloric intake, and plenty of people trying to lose weight end up throwing their moods, digestive tracts, or overall health out of whack by cutting the wrong types of calories or too much of a certain type of calories. If you're not sure what your needs are, trial and error isn't necessarily a bad thing, but be receptive to what your body is telling you so you can recognize an error in your diet or exercise regimen and fix it. Feeling moody? It's probably your diet. Eat more fruits and vegetables, and try jogging for 30 minutes outside. Breaking out? It's probably your diet. Try cutting down on your fat intake, especially fats that come from butter or red meat. Hair, skin, or fingernails not looking so good lately? You might have a fungus or it might be...your diet. Vitamin E, and probably not enough fats. It all comes down to what you put in your body, people. Be smart.
Rant over. Next time, the Master Cleanse...maybe.
Like me. There, I admit it. I'm missing an amazing career as a nutritionist/trainer right now. Anyway, I've heard a few mentions now of the Paleo Diet (the Caveman Diet) and I just wanted to jot some thoughts down on it.
As most of you know, all of my information and thoughts about people's nutrition are mirrored through my experiences with horses. (For the record, it takes a lot of knowledge and care to build and maintain show horses: training schedules and condition analysis and thought about protein content, not to mention injury prevention and care.) I realize that this means there is a limit inherent in my reasoning, because well, people aren't horses. But a lot of the time we seem to work the same way. For example, I know a higher protein diet makes horses more energetic, but also more confrontational. I suspect the same is true of people. The right weight, nutritional balance, and conditioning can make a horse a champion. The same is definitely true of people (there is a reason Kimura Kenta, who lives with his trainer, is the fastest high school runner in Japan; and there is a reason why the kendo boys live with their coach, and the judo boys live in the dorms -- they're stronger when the coaches control what and how much they eat, when they sleep, and how much extra training they do).
Anyway, on to the Paleo Diet. Horses are naturally foragers; they spend more than 2/3 of their day eating. A horse in it's natural habitat can reasonably be expected to eat 6 pounds of grass per day. Compare that to today's regimen: 2-3 feedings of highly concentrated, 10-18% protein processed grains.
There are those that would argue that horses are better off consuming what they would in the wild. And it's true, from a digestive perspective anyway. And everyone knows horses can't live on grain alone; they need grass or hay to supplement it. And everyone knows that to make up for the water the horses aren't getting from grass, they need to have their feed watered or be encouraged to drink more. All in all, feeding horses is a huge expenditure of time and effort, and it seems like they would be better off just eating grass like they were made to.
But. If you put two twin horses side by side, and fed one an all-natural grass diet and the other today's carefully crafted grain and hay feeding schedule, you would find that the grain/hay fed horse performed better than the "natural diet" horse. It's inevitable. The demands placed on today's horse are far greater than nature really intended, and as a result the dietary needs of horses have changed.
I would say the same is true for people. Our lives today are vastly different - and longer - than the lives of people living "in the wild" in the stone age. Of course the Paleo diet will work for some people, people who are on a mild-to-moderate exercise regime and don't mind eating fish bones. That's right, if you don't feel like milk is an appropriate thing to put in your body, you best get used to the idea of getting calcium from other places. The Japanese eat fish bones, and I suspect that's what our Paleolithic ancestors did as well. And for those of us busting ourselves at the gym five or six days a week, bodybuilders, professional athletes, people who run marathons...carbs are essential. Everyone knows that carbs rebuild muscle, while protein builds it. I think our ancestors worked in much the same way as wild horses do: daily low-to-moderate intensity activity with short bursts of intense activity, followed by periods of inactivity. Think about it: Daily activities would be things like gathering or fishing, which, while activity, isn't terribly demanding or athletic. More intense activities would be interspersed among these daily activities at some undetermined intervals. For example, yes, hunting a mammoth is hard, but then you would have meat for a month. There would probably be very rare occassion for repeated daily intense activity. My point is, the lifestyle of the average caveman differs pretty markedly from today's athlete, who needs to refuel as quickly as possible for the next workout, a scant 24 hours away.
I'm not saying the Paleo Diet isn't effective or wouldn't be good for some people. I just want everyone to realize that the first step to any good dietary decisions is to carefully and accurately analyze your particular lifestyle and dietary needs. Doing something just because "it's natural" isn't necessarily the best course. On a side not, cutting calories isn't always the right answer either; plenty of people are actually too thin and are undercutting their athletic and mental potential by severely limiting their diet or caloric intake, and plenty of people trying to lose weight end up throwing their moods, digestive tracts, or overall health out of whack by cutting the wrong types of calories or too much of a certain type of calories. If you're not sure what your needs are, trial and error isn't necessarily a bad thing, but be receptive to what your body is telling you so you can recognize an error in your diet or exercise regimen and fix it. Feeling moody? It's probably your diet. Eat more fruits and vegetables, and try jogging for 30 minutes outside. Breaking out? It's probably your diet. Try cutting down on your fat intake, especially fats that come from butter or red meat. Hair, skin, or fingernails not looking so good lately? You might have a fungus or it might be...your diet. Vitamin E, and probably not enough fats. It all comes down to what you put in your body, people. Be smart.
Rant over. Next time, the Master Cleanse...maybe.