Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Ok so some of you are probably a little young to remember that line from the movie "7", but in all seriousness do you know what is in what you are eating? Unless you have completely ran for the hills and adopted a truly hunter gatherer life style then you still need to have a look on the back to see what you are really eating. here are some good rules I try to live by:
Rule #1: Don't trust a corporation who's main goal is to sell you the the product!! Just because it says heart healthy, low trans fat, sugar free, etc. on the box doesn't tell the whole story. The FDA has been pretty lax overall in regards to food labeling and serving size manufacturers can legally promote, while they are trying to tighten up the reigns there is still a huge gap between fact and hype.
Rule #2: Educate yourself!!! I was absolutely the worst @ this and it took me finding out how much I didn't know to trigger my thirst for educating myself! You should know that hydrogenated soybean oil (or anything hydrogenated for that matter) is @ the least a yield sign when you see it in the ingredients; how about aspartame? It is a commonly used sweetener in drinks and foods that tout a "sugar free" alternative.....if you really knew the story behind aspartame you would probably elect to have the sugared drink. Some others you might want to do some research on, canola oil, corn syrup (especially high fructose corn syrup which they have begun to cleverly disguise as HFCS in labeling), sorbic acid, yeast, soy, gluten.... I could go on for two pages but as you start with these they will lead you to others.
Rule #3: If its a whole food and the ingredients list is longer than 1 line for no apparent reason..... put the the food down and step away from the shelf!! There is a reason its a called a "whole food".... there are very few exceptions to this rule....
Rule #4: If you are trying something new make sure to research it!! The first thing that comes to my mind on this one is Omega-3 Supplementation. I remember the first time we recommended this and the next week I heard someone talking about the super Omega 3-6-9 supplement they had picked up. The had no idea the reason they were taking Omega -3's was to offset an imbalance in omega 3 to omega 6 ratios (Rule #4.5 pay attention in class). The other thing to watch out for with Omega 3 supplementation is that you are getting your Omega 3 from fish oils. The easy way to check this is look on the back and it should say DHA/EPA from fish oil. There is some shady marketing going on out there that are pushing Omega 3 from soybean oil, chia seeds, and flaxseed .. THESE ARE SHORT CHAIN FATTY ACIDS... Spend the money buy from a reputable brand like Carlson or Nordic Naturals.
Rule#5: Just because it has the same name as the brand next to it doesn't mean its the same thing.
The best example I have found is butter, olive oil butter to be precise ( i think fleischmanns has changed the name to spread now )
Fleischmann's Olive oil butter:
INGREDIENTS: Liquid Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Olive Oil), Water, Reconstituted Sweet Cream Buttermilk (Water, Sweet Cream Buttermilk), Salt, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Vegetable Mono- and Diglycerides and Soy Lecithin (Emulsifiers)
Land o Lakes Olive oil butter:
INGREDIENTS: Cream, Olive Oil, Salt.
Contains Milk.
There's more to a book than its cover and there is definitely more to what you eating than the front of the box is telling you!!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
JAMZ- It's a little ways up the road if you live near Kadena, but Jamz located right on 58 in Onna village is absolutely on of my favorite spots to throw down on some paleo friendly food (if you can resist the Bread they bring as an appetizer). It's a little pricey with most meals for two being around $100 or more but you definitely get your money's worth in regards to food. The Hibiscus is my favorite; 150 grams of tenderloin, 200 grams of sirloin, 2 lobster tails, soup, salad and an assortment of veggies. Yen 10,200
Ghengis Khan- a perennial favorite for those who live near the Sunabe seawall. This is a really affordable Paleo friendly spot, just try not to pack on too much soy as its high in sodium. Yes you could probably end up eating a little too much here but better from here than Pizza In
Beach Tower Hotel- The holy grail of Mongolian BBQ... At around Yen 3000 a person, you get what you pay for!! A large assortment of meats and veggies you can cook right in front of you!!
Even better if its a night out with friends there is an open tap with not so paleo friendly Orion beer and slightly more friendly more Vodka tonic!! Call ahead because the place is usually packed on the weekends....
Four Seasons Steak house- While I am not a fan of the place for dinner (they serve grain fed beef) they serve up some grass fed beef during lunch hour (just ask). again you have to steer clear of the rice and bread but other than that its a solid Paleo meal.
I will add a few more later as I only know then by location and not name, but they are well work a try
Friday, February 12, 2010
This blog post comes from Dr. Mary Eades site..http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/. If you haven't heard about the site her and her husband Mike wrote one of the first paleoesque books I ever looked @ called protein power life plan... Some pretty powerful findings... I totally recommend it as a must read!! Unfortunately I don't have a copy here anymore but hey there is always Amazon!!
In the dining section of the NY Times last Wednesday, there was a somewhat alarming article by Kim Severson, titled: Showdown at the Coffee Shop (free but requires registration) detailing the entry of the new sweetener Truvia to the world of packet sweeteners.
We’d already heard about its arrival at the Natural Foods Expo West show last March in Anaheim and had even sampled some of it. While I’m glad to see a natural alternative in the low-and-no calorie sweetener department, I’m personally not crazy about this one. Truvia is a blend of rebiana, an extract of stevia, and erythritol, a sugar alcohol. Thought there may be many good things about erythritol, to my taste buds it has a cold, metallic edge that I don’t enjoy. Others who don’t catch that taste twinge would perhaps feel differently about it and will love Truvia’s green packets in the sweetener caddy beside the blue, pink, and yellow ones.
Of course, by convention, for many many years, consumers have associated artificial sweeteners with a particular packet color: blue for aspartame products, pink for saccharine products, yellow for sucralose products, and green for stevia products. And it is related to this topic that I found the real eye-popper in this piece…the big news in my humble opinion…buried in the continuation of the article on page D5:
Consumers are loyal to their favorite sweetener, and to the color of its packet. Now manufacturers like Mr. Petray [CEO of Nutrasweet, which makes aspartame] are mixing up the color code, putting new sweetener combinations in the familiar pink, blue, and yellow.
This is news! And, in my mind, underhanded and sneaky and ethically fuzzy. The article goes on…
His challenge to Splenda combines aspartame and a touch of sugar in a yellow packet called NutraSweet Cane…Mr. Petray’s entry in the stevia wars is called Natural NutraSweet, which comes in a green packet, of course. And the company created a new saccharin-free pink packet, too. [The article didn't say what was in that pink packet, however, but since it's coming from NutraSweet we can be sure that one of the ingredients will be aspartame.]
The yellow packet, especially, is worrisome to me, since most low-carbers avoid aspartame because of some reports that suggest it might be particularly detrimental to the brains of people on a low carb eating plan. And this yellow imposter will have not only aspartame but sugar…real honest to Pete sugar! In the very yellow, pink, and green packets that many of us have come to trust do NOT contain aspartame, there will now be aspartame.
(For a longer discussion on the various sweeteners, see a previous blog post of mine here.)
Once these imposter packets make their way into the commercial market, consumers or diners will no longer be able to rely on colors alone to select their sweetener. We’ll all have to be careful label-readers to keep from being duped.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
10 Real-Life Reasons Why the Primal Blueprint Works for Me
There’s been a lot more talk in the mainstream recently about “caveman” diets and barefoot training. Primal/Paleo/Evo seems to be gaining in popularity and may be nearing the critical mass needed to garner mainstream appreciation. John Durant appeared on Stephen Colbert last week, Art De Vany was featured in Der Spiegel, Born to Run is a NYT Bestseller and my book recently made the top ten Health and Fitness titles on Amazon. Even so, we Primal types still get those occasional looks of derision or incomprehension when we show up at the gym with our Fives on and a bag of homemade jerky hanging off our belt to do a quick 15 minute HIIT session. I think there’s a sense among outsiders that the Grok fairy tale trumps the science within the Primal crowd – that the notion of living like a caveman is a cute ideal but irrelevant in a 21st century high-tech context. Of course, it’s not true; science always leads the way here at MDA and on most Primal/Paleo/Evo sites. But even with the science completely supporting the idea that we ought to emulate our hunter-gatherer ancestors in many aspects of life, I still hear things like, “I trust my doctor too much to give up the statins and start eating fats.” Or “I’m lazy, undisciplined, and I love good food too much to be able to change this late in my life.” Hey, me too! So for those of you who are looking for more detailed rationale why living Primal is best for everyone (including your doubting spouse and your parents), here are my 10 Real-Life Reasons Why the Primal Blueprint Works for Me.
1. I’m lazy.
Ironically, I spent 25 years of my life pursuing high level fitness and peak health through hard work, discipline, sacrifice and misery. That didn’t work out for me. I’m over it. Now I just want the best results with the least amount of pain, suffering, and sacrifice. I jokingly tell my ex-triathlete buddies, “I’d rather look fit than be fit.” Of course, the irony is that when you actually do what it takes to look fit (eat right, cut the Chronic Cardio, sprint a bit now and then and lift intensely two or three times a week ) you become VERY fit. And healthy. And happy. And more productive. The best part of Primal Blueprint living is that you can get appreciably better results with significantly less time, less effort and less sacrifice. Instead of the old 20-30 hours a week I used to put in training, I now train less than three hours total a week. I try to play the rest of the time.
2. I love good food.
Some people mistakenly think the Primal Blueprint requires giving up eating good food. Nothing could be further from the truth. When I was a college endurance athlete, my buddies nicknamed me “Arnold,” after Arnold Ziffle, the pig on Green Acres. I could eat more than just about anyone in school (including the football linemen). I ate everything and enjoyed it all. But I became a slave to the carbs and to the hunger that they generated every three hours of my life. Later, when I retired and researched the damage I was doing eating grains, sugars, hydrogenated oils and all the other stuff I consumed to fuel my massive cardio efforts, I feared I might have to suffer a lifetime dearth of gustatory delights if I wanted to keep my boyish figure. Never happened. Primal eating reprograms the genes in a way that takes the edge off hunger, while assuring more-than-adequate energy and stable blood glucose levels. Now, I eat as much as I want, whenever I want from a list of fabulously tasty foods. I just avoid eating most things from that other list. Hunger doesn’t drive my life the way it used to. When I sit in a restaurant with a rare 20-ounce rib eye steak, a bowl of butter-sautéed mushrooms and a glass of fine Cabernet in front of me, I never feel sorry for myself that I didn’t order pasta or that I won’t be having the bread or potatoes or rice. And for dessert, if I’m still hungry, I’d really rather have another lamb chop or a bowl of berries than a slice of cardboard cake or mucous-inducing ice cream. Worst case, I can have a small taste of the latter and be satisfied.
3. I like to play.
I spent a fair amount of my life training for grueling endurance contests (marathons, Ironman triathlons, 24-hour relay running events). Only just recently did it occur to me that I NEVER really had fun while I was competing or while I was training. Admittedly, I could sometimes get into “the zone,” but that’s really only a temporary zone of less pain. I did appreciate the valiance of my efforts and certainly felt pride in my accomplishments, but from the time the gun went off until I crossed the finish line, I never once could truthfully say, “Isn’t this fun?” In contrast, today I plan most of my (minimal) training around being able to participate in fun activities later. And while I don’t necessarily see play as “workout time,” it is most assuredly contributing to my fitness. Primal Blueprint training gives me the functional strength and endurance to jump into an aggressive Ultimate Frisbee game, stand-up paddle and surf for two hours, take a 90-minute trail hike with sprints thrown in, play a round of golf, or snowboard for five days in a row. I stay fit so I can play at stuff I find FUN.
4. I like to sleep.
I used to feel guilty if I slept too much. As if I were missing out on something that might be taking place while the lights were still on somewhere. Now I get at least eight hours every night and embrace the idea that I am NOT wasting time, but am recharging the batteries and will probably live longer as a result. I think most people would prefer to get adequate sleep, but feel like it’s a sign of weakness that they “need” eight or nine hours. It’s not. Sleep is integral to health.
5. I don’t like being sick.
No one does. At the peak of my endurance career, I got colds and flus five to seven times a year. I also had severe seasonal grass pollen allergies. The nature of Chronic Cardio training (all that cortisol) and the obligate high carbohydrate diet (all that sugar) kept my immune system so trashed that anything that was going around was going to take me down with it. And stuff is always going around. The Primal Blueprint works because everything about it is contemplated to support or boost the immune system and not trash it. My allergies have long since disappeared. I rarely get any kind of cold or flu now and, if I do, it’s with no real down time and over quickly. Many people argue that this benefit alone is worth the switch to Primal.
6. I’m vain (I want to look good naked).
The Primal Blueprint exercise laws are designed to sculpt a lean, muscled and balanced look without being overly “huge” or disproportional the way bodybuilders can get. It works perfectly for both men and women. I often say here that 80% of your body composition is determined by how you eat. The remaining 20% is a combination of genetics and exercise. If you dial the eating in properly, it doesn’t take very much exercise to optimize muscle size and strength, and to cut the last few percentage points in body fat. Notice I said optimize and not maximize. Think Calvin Klein underwear and SI Swimsuit models as opposed to swollen Muscle&Fitness or WWF cover models.
7. I like to be tan (vain part 2).
Sorry, I never understood the porcelain skin thing. I notice the dramatic effect a lack of sun has on my disposition as much as I notice it on my skin if I skip a few weeks (winter sucks – except for snowboarding). Getting adequate sunlight daily is an integral part of the PB as it has been for humans for millions of years. Vitamin D is critical to maintaining good health. As I say in my book, I honestly believe we’ve seen an increase in overall cancer incidence as a result of (ironically) heeding the advice of doctors to stay out of the sun. I think everyone would rather be outside for a while every day if they knew it was not only NOT harmful, but beneficial. A slight tan just looks good, and it’s indicative of a healthy Vitamin D status. Getting sun also improves mood and productivity as numerous studies continue to show.
8. I’m not organized.
If you saw my desk you’d probably cringe. Stuff all over it everywhere. Same goes with my training style these days, and I love it. I almost never train with anyone, because I like being able to head out the door on a whim and go sprint or hike or bang off a few hundred pushups. I hate having a set training schedule or the idea of having to meet someone at such and such a time to work out together. Don’t get me wrong, I do train with friends once in a while, but the Primal Blueprint training outline fits my fractal, sporadic, random, intermittent, flakey and spontaneous nature. If I don’t feel like training today, the PB says “take the day off – you’ll be stronger and more focused tomorrow.” Not to be outdone, the Primal Blueprint eating style is also unorganized. Not set meal times, no regimentation, no calorie-counting or portion control. Eat when you want and as much – or not – as you want. Of course, none of this is to say you HAVE to be disorganized to benefit from the PB. If you’re organized, it works that much better. But for those who eschew schedules, the PB is perfect.
9. I want to stay uninjured.
Downtime from injury sucks. As I said earlier, I want to get more play time now as I get older. I recognize that my body doesn’t recover from workouts as easily as it used to. I also notice that I have to pay attention to potential soreness a bit more. PB fitness provides a set of guidelines and workout styles that foster balanced, functional strength. It actually focuses on injury prevention and avoidance, while building muscle and burning fat.
10. I like certainty.
I’m a skeptic at heart (OK, I’m actually a cynic). I hate investing my precious time, money, energy or emotion in anything I don’t feel confident will yield dividends. It has to be based in science, rational thought and real results. Conversely, I hate thinking that some of my choices in exercise, diet and health may have been wrong (as they were so egregiously when I followed Conventional Wisdom). I need to have confidence that my choices are good ones. The research backing the PB is the most solid there is. Evolutionary biology and modern genetic – and epigenetic – science are proving that we have remarkable influence over how our genes express themselves throughout our lives. Stuff we do and things we eat turn genes on or off. It’s that simple. Intervals and Tabata work have been proven over and over to be more effective at increasing speed and stamina than Chronic Cardio. The dietary science of low-carb is nearly irrefutable now, as more and more researchers and docs begin to understand the true nature of insulin and they rethink the cholesterol hypothesis. Look, there is no right or wrong here. You can eat Twinkies and smoke cigarettes for the rest of your life and you still might reach 90 or 100. But I have never in my life been more certain of anything than I am that the Primal Blueprint way of eating, exercising and living is the optimal way to have the most energy, the most fun, look the best and live the longest. And I know I can do this for the rest of my life.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Glutamine- Key supplement in restoring muscle glycogen; Glut-amine is converted in the liver to glucose, which is then shuttled to the cells and stored in the muscles as glycogen without replenishing liver glycogen. This a great alternative if you are multiday WODing and have trouble stomaching food immediately after a WOD. You can get it in stand alone capsule form or some post workout drinks like Cytomax (really high in sugar =/ ) have it in the ingredients.
L-Carnitine- L-Carnitine helps to transport fatty acids from the cytosol to the mitochondria, which promotes the breakdown of lipids to use fat as a fuel source promoting weight loss and use of fat as energy
Primrose- Can help to reverse insulin resistance, insulin resistance is a key factor that inhibits weight loss. It is best used in conjunction with Alpha lipoic acid. 200mg a day
Vitamin D- Okinawa is a great place to get your Vitamin D from the sun everyday!! Unless of course you work inside during daylight hours or its winter and the sun rarely shows itself. If thats the case then you may have some Vitamin D deficiency and the big D is crucial in the proper function of the thyroid and hormonal production. It has also been cited in many studies to induce the death of cancer cells and has a role in preventing and even reversing the onset of coronary heart disease.
Vitamin C- Ok we have mentioned this one before... Taking some Vitamin C before bed can help to reduce cortisol levels. High cortisol levels are an inhibitor to weight loss. Quality sleep and some Vitamin C will speed weight loss right along!!
Fish Oil- Its true that if you are eating a good clean macronutrient diet that there might not be a need for fish oil. but what exactly is the definition of a clean macronutrient diet? Lean meats; that are free range and naturally fed. (not just grass fed beef but all your sources of meat should be naturally raised.) Right here the majority of us can say we are not as clean as we can be, but why does it matter? It all comes down to the what happens to the meats when they are not naturally raises and fed. First off grain fed beef is much fattier, by about 15-20% than naturally raised, normally this would not be a bad thing except that the grain makes the fat in the meat extremely high in Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio (the average western diet is about a 15-20:1) .... Enter Fish oil, this will help you get back to the good, the EPA and DHA in Fish Oil is your best source outside of naturally raised meats. Quality Fish Oils (Carlson is a great brand) that actually use fish oil and not soybean oil (bad source of omega 3's mostly short chain) can help to get us back to that 2:1 omega 6 to omega 3 which is optimal for both weight loss and performance.
Alpha Lipoic Acid- Lipoic acid has been shown in cell culture experiments to increase cellular uptake of glucose by recruiting the glucose transporter GLUT4 to the cell membrane, suggesting its use in reversing type 2 diabetes. This is a good thing regardless .. better insulin sensitivity is a all around home run and this combined with the primrose can help to quickly reverse the damage we have done to ourselves with high grain diets over the majority of our lives. 200mg a day is the recommended dosage.
OK so that is the majority of the supplements which we have been reading about recently if you have questions about other supplements please feel free to post it to comments and we will try to do as much research as we can to give you the most informed answers possible. Please realize none of stuff works without getting your eating on track though so the hope of eating a happy meal and supplementing with some primrose and ALA will not help you. Hope this helps!!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
What do your food labels really mean? 'Free-range,' 'natural,' 'non-toxic,' and other myths
Filed under: Food, Health, Consumer Ally
Others, though, have almost no meaning -- they're simply a marketplace come-on, and empty claims like "Made with Natural Goodness," "Kid Approved" and "Doctor Recommended" have become as common as those with legal definitions. Today, even regulated terms like "Healthy" and "Contains Antioxidants" have become muddied.
Consumers are exposed to numerous misleading labels every day, says Bruce Silverglade, director of legal affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, whose recent report on labeling demonstrates the need for changes in U.S. food labeling policies. Some rules are quite odd, like the fact that two agencies regulate what's in soup or pizza, depending on whether they contain meat.
One labeling trend Silverglade hates is the claim that a product can strengthen your immune system. "All of these claims imply that eating the product will help ward off diseases -- and all of them are false," he says. "Eating vegetables and drinking cranberry juice are healthy, but they are no more likely to ward off disease than any other healthy food."
Another badly abused phrase: "made with whole grains." You see that more often, too, since the U.S. recommended consuming whole grains. "People have been encouraged to eat grains rich in whole wheat, and some companies have given lip service to that public health advice by adding small doses of whole grains to their product," Silverglade says. He cites Thomas's Hearty Grains English muffins, which contain just a token amount of whole wheat flour. Enriched wheat flour is the first ingredient. "That certainly sounds healthy," Silverglade says. "But that's actually just ordinary wheat flour." Midway down the ingredient list -- below water -- is whole wheat flour.
The CSPI is also concerned about fruit claims for products that contain virtually no fruit. Toddler snack Gerber Graduates Juice Treats Fruit Medley lists a collection of fruits on the package -- but actually has less than 2% raspberry juice, and none of the others. The main ingredients: corn syrup and sugar. Betty Crocker Strawberry Fruit Gushers -- "Made with real fruit" -- is not made with strawberries, and contains just a small amount of pear concentrate: the "real fruit" in question.
The Food and Drug Administration, which polices labeling, hasn't aggressively pursued such issues, which SIlverglade says lets corporate lawyers figure out misleading phrases guaranteed to keep their clients out of legal trouble.
The real standards come from the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the fake ones come from anywhere and everywhere. Few consumers could reasonably memorize and sort through the real and the meaningless. That's why we present a Consumer Ally primer on label claims true and false. (If you don't see a term below that you've noticed, please email it in.)
Organic. Any multi-ingredient product bearing the USDA Organic seal must contain at least 95% organic ingredients. But the federal certification process is voluntary -- and not every product that claims to be organic undergoes such scrutiny.
Made with organic ingredients. At least 70% of the ingredients must be organic. The product cannot carry the USDA Organic seal.
Non- or -free. Must have less than the following per serving: fat (0.5 gram), sugar (0.5 gram), cholesterol (2mg), or sodium (5mg).
Low-. Generally, the product must have less than the following per serving: fat (3 grams), cholesterol (20 mg), or sodium (140 mg).
Reduced. Generally, the product must have at least 25% less of the given component than is typically found in that type of food.
Light. If at least half of the product's calories come from fat, fat must be reduced by at least 50% per serving. If less than half of the calories are from fat, fat must be reduced at least 50%, or calories reduced at least 33%, per serving.
Reduced, Added, Extra, Plus, Fortified, Enriched. These claims can be made relative to a similar representative product.
High, Rich In, Excellent Source Of. All designate products with at least 20% of the recommended daily amount per serving.
Good Source, Contains, Provides. The product must have more than 10% but less than 20% of the recommended daily amount per serving.
More, Fortified, Enriched, Added, Extra, Plus. For vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber with at least 10% of the recommended amount per serving.
Lean. Generally, less than 10 grams of fat.
Extra lean. Less than 5 grams of fat.
Certified Humane. A label for products made by non-profit organizations dedicated to humane treatment of animals. To use the label, animals must have been given no growth hormones or antibiotics, or lived in cages, crates, or stalls; and must have had "access to sufficient, clean, and nutritious feed and water."
Naturally raised. A recent USDA standard for animals raised withhout growth hormones or anitbiotics.
Natural. A term regulated only for meats and poultry -- containing no artificial flavors, colors, or chemical preservatives -- and otherwise meaningless.
Some label terms, although truthful, have little or no real meaning, no standards for definition -- and a high potential to confuse consumers:
- Contains antioxidants
- Doctor-recommended
- Free-range (can mean anything from an animal that roams freely to one that is let out of its cage from time to time)
- Green
- Immunity formula
- Kid-approved
- Made with whole grains
- May lower cholesterol
- Natural (for non-meat or -poultry products)
- Natural goodness
- No trans fat
- Non-toxic
- Parent-tested
- Strengthens your immune system
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Paleo Soft Tacos!!!!
heres what they look like and yep they tasted just as good as they look!!

enough for two:
6 egg whites
1 pound of Lean ground beef (we used bison beef)
1/2 head of lettuce
1 tomato (diced)
1 avocado
cilantro
1/2 onion
Olive oil or coconut oil
heat about 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet
in a separate skillet cook and season your ground beef
cook one egg white @ a time in the heated oil (pour it in like you would a pancake)
dice the onions and mix half with the ground beef
mash the avocado and mix the rest of the onion and your desired amount of cilantro
to make some guacamole
when everything is cooked put the meat in the egg shell and garnish with tomatoes, lettuce and guacamole
Enjoy!!!