Apparently I’m the internet version of the crazy guy that hangs out at the bus stop. You should probably keep your children at a safe distance and definitely not let them read any of this.
In case you’ve missed my previous two posts let me get you up to speed. So far I’ve vilified the staple of the western diet, America’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd largest cash crops (I’ll save the conspiracy theories for later), the ubiquitous, omnipotent grain! (please, hold your applause). Not to mention, I’ve promoted a diet that will require prescription strength liquid plumber to cut all of the fat out of your arteries (according to the AHA). I’d say I’m off to a pretty good start (if being institutionalized were my goal. Too bad it’s not)!
Amid concerns of my mental well-being were questions about what the ancestral diet might look like today. Also a lot of concern in regards to “what all of that fat” might be doing to my plumbing (not THAT plumbing, I meant my veins. Get your mind out of the gutter). Both really good questions and worth digging into.
If you grew up on the standard american diet ( we’ll call it S.A.D. for short, oh the irony) like myself, the thought of ditching all bread, pasta, corn ( yep. grain.), rice and legumes may seem a little daunting if not darned near impossible.
<crickets chirping> …. …. …. ….
Still there? Good. It’s not as bad as it may seem.
“Is this guy crazy!?! That’s like EVERYTHING I eat! I’ll lose weight alright! Cause I’ll be freakin’ starving!”
No, it’s really not that bad. Pick your jaw up off the floor and I’ll walk you through a pretty typical day of eating the modern-american ancestral diet. Chances are, you’ve eaten a few paleolithic style meals and didn’t even realize it.
Sausage, bacon, eggs, fruit, and a glass of milk (technically neolithic but I handle it well and its darned tasty!). Sound like a breakfast you’ve had before? Maybe someone tossed in a lowly piece of toast or some incredibly lame bran muffin cause they thought they were doing you a favor but I’m confident that you could ditch that and still be very satisfied with this meal. How about a giaganticus 6-8 egg omelet loaded with meat, cheese, mushrooms, onions, and peppers(maybe some spinach if your into to that sort of thing, whatever)? Had a breakfast like that? Then congratulations! You’ve had a Paleo Breakfast. (applause)
The morning meal is a great time to really throw down. Its super easy to load up on delicious protein and fat sources and really get primed for the day. I can guarantee you that either of the above meals will not have your stomach growing like a polar bear treading water by 10:30am. Can’t say that about your high fiber Quaker Oat Meal (cardboard?), can you?
Don’t have time to cook every morning? That’s fine, me neither. On days that I’m in a rush I’ll make a super quick and easy milk shake with 1 cup of milk, 1/2 banana, maybe a little coconut, 1 or 2 eggs (make sure you trust the source if your eating raw eggs, I have my own flock), and a scoop of Gold Standard Natural Vanilla Whey protein. Breakfast done in 32 seconds.
For lunch, I’m thinking salad… No, not that pathetic crouton covered, carb-bomb-dressing soaked, pitiful excuse for a salad that you’ve had in the past. I’m talking about “dig through the cupboard and get out your largest piece of tuberware to hold it cause its gonna take 30 minutes to plow through it” awesomely huge and tasty Primal Salad! The Primal Salad is a great opportunity to get a lot of variety and really go wild with vegetables, just don’t forget the meat! I like to start with baby spinach or spring greens, topped with lots of chicken, tuna, or ground beef ( whatever, as long as it once drew breath I’m not picky), definitely some bacon. I’ll throw in some carrots, tomato, cucumber, mushrooms, onion, cucumber, avocado, maybe slice up some grapes or strawberries, toss on some walnuts or pecans, whatever! The options are nearly endless. As long as it falls into the fruit, veggie, nut or seed category, go for it!
Forgo the crap our society defines as salad dressing. With all of that flavor you wont need it. I like to spritz a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar or (my favorite) pour on the bacon drippings and add a little balsamic vinegar and ground mustard. (Please, do not shed a tear for my arteries) I call it bacon vinaigrette.
Everyone has enjoyed a salad at some time or another. Make one worthy of calling it a meal.
So far we’ve handled breakfast and lunch without eating anything to weird or funky. This is all pretty normal American fare, stuff that you may already eat a couple of few times a week. Dinner is even easier. Let’s have a little fun. I’ll make an ancestral diet supper-time-mad lib. Just fill in the blanks.
“When I want to get my caveman on, I like to grub on some _(large chunk of protein)__ and __(vegetable)__ with a huge, steaming pile of __(vegetable)__. That’s how I get my troglodyte on.”
Get my drift? This could look like Ribeye Steak, Broccoli, sweet potato or Salmon, asparagus, and steamed carrots. Dont hold back on butter, heavy cream, animal fat or any other flavor boosters. The FDA didn’t exist 1,990,000 years ago so their twisted logic doesn’t apply here. Hungry yet? I know I am.
The ancestral diet focuses on real food. Unprocessed, awesome, “share a picture on Facebook to make all my friends jealous”, delicious food. I ran all of this ( a typical day for me) through a nutrition analyzer and the results look like this:
- Calories: 2628
- Protein: 173g
- Fat: 172g
- Carb: 96g
- Fiber: 11g
- Sat Fat: 201%
- Chol: 562%
Vitamin content based on recommended daily intake:
- Calcium: 104% Iron: 188%
- Phos: 320% Vit. A: 1144%
- Vit C: 371% Thia: 120%
- Nia: 264%
looks like I took a multi-vitamin!
Fat phobics have probably slammed the laptop shut and flung it across the room in fear of heart disease through computer osmosis. But for anyone that is a little curious as to how huge amounts of dietary fat and cholesterol wont in fact drive you to an early grave, stick around and I’ll expose the Lipid Hypothesis for what it is. A load of horse dung. Heres a preview from accredited publisher Men’s Health. A great read for fat phobics. I guess crazy must be contagious.
Do you think the Ancestral Diet is unhealthy? Leave a comment, let me know why.
Until next time, be good.
The Free Range Human 
So, here’s my piece. Granted I am nowhere close to being a health nut, nor healthy at all, but this doesn’t seem to be conducive to weight loss. 2600 calories? That is extensive, especially since it takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose a pound. Now perhaps this is exceptable for a man that runs 8 miles a day with a 75 pound duffel on his back, but some of us don’t have the luxury of that level of fitness just yet. So if I am analyzing this correctly then this is one of those “be fit to get fit” systems. I will secede that this is a nutrient rich diet one that is much better for you that others out there, but it doesn’t seem to add up for me. Please, by all means, correct me if I am wrong.
Really great question Mike and I’ll do my best to answer here without writing a book.
We are taught that to lose weight we must burn more calories than we are eating. This simplistic view would be great if we were talking about a steam engine. The machinery inside of our body is far more complex than science can comprehend at the point in time. You’ve got hormones and receptors and all kinds of stuff going on that have some bearing on weight loss or gain, way beyond calories in and calories out. Science does not have this figured out yet. Macronutrients have a large role in all this, what your body does with fat, protein, carbs… Thats why the atkins diet works. This link says it more eloquently then I ever could.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-context-of-calories/#axzz1y6miOGqy
I am not a biochemist, nor do I play one on tv. I can only speak from my own experience. For 6 months or so last year, I ran 15+ miles a week and did interval type training with a kettle bell or dumbells 3 days a week. I limited myself to 1800 calories a day which I tracked religiously and ate what most would consider a healthy western diet. I didn’t lose a pound. I felt tired.
In hindsight I know I was overtrained and underfed. My frustrations from this experience led me to seek out a new perspective on diet and exercise. I found the Paleo diet.
Since then I train less, eat more and results have been great.
I’m not jogging anymore. I try to do a 10k once a month just to prove to myself that I can still do it. Every month, so far, I’ve improved my time.
I left heavy weights once a week sometimes twice if I’m feeling froggy. Just the basic lifts. Deadlift, bent over rows, overhead squat, a twisting move I invented. I’ll cover this in more detail in a later post but in 20 minutes I’m done and I never even got out of breath. I have a 300 rep workout that I time to track progress. I aim to do it once a week but it ends up being more like once every two weeks. Sometimes I’ll sub a weight lift routine for 10 minutes of sprints.
I’m really not working out that much from a time investment standpoint. BUT, when I do workout its max effort kind of stuff. I think thats where the money is. My 100% effort feels the same to my body as your 100% feels to your body no matter what your fitness level is. Its not about who can throw 75lbs on there back and run with it, its about finding your bodys limit and taking it there for a SHORT duration.
I hate to beat a dead horse but think about what a caveman would be doing. Most days he probably plodded along at a pretty even pace but there were days when he probably sprinted after prey, climbed trees or swung clubs to avoid becoming prey, or butchered an elk and had to throw it on his back and haul ass back to camp before a pack of wolves caught up to him ( hence the duffle bag). For me its a neat way to look at training.
This is turning into a novel. Great question. I hope my answer did it justice.
See, you are totally funny. 🙂
Very interesting, i’m starting to believe more and more in this type of eating and follow it very closely to a certain extent. I think the older you are the harder it is for change, we have been brought up that eating like this will kill you. Plus in my case my Father passed away at age 43 from heart disease and I can still remember him eating the fried chicken, bacon and eggs, sausage, red meat all the BAD things for you so it is a mind-set thing also. Looking forward to having more discussions about this in a few weeks.
Evidence is definitely stacking up against the lipid hypotheses and low fat, high carb. It’s slow getting around but if you do a little digging you can find it. It’s refreshing to see some of the big name publications taking a second look at this as well.