Nutritional Revelations – Part 1

What is it, exactly, that causes so many people to fail on their quest to lean? Even those who train hard, train often and eat their best have trouble dropping the pounds… Why?

Chances are you train like an idiot and eat like one too.

I don’t have time to even try to summarize your training/fitness mistakes in the gym so let’s focus on the most important factor in shedding fat: Diet.

Prepare to be confused.  A proper diet looks nothing like magazines, food companies or even the food pyramid would suggest. If you feel like something I say is preposterous, simply because you’ve always heard otherwise, do me a favor and look around you. Look at the 99% of people walking the stores, parking lots and restaurants; that should be enough to convince you to listen to the minority. The majority is overweight, on the verge of diabetes and on the WRONG track.

If you are going to hit me with “food pyramid” recommendations please recognize that since being released (the food pyramid), obesity rates and disease rates have skyrocketed. This is no coincidence, wit the “Fat Free” craze came a wave of diabetics and heart attacks.

Again, I don’t have the time or space to explain it all so I will hit the basics, read, educate yourself and get in GREAT shape:

Grains: Believe it or not there are people in this world that still believe whole wheat anything is GOOD for you! I will tell you right now that grains aren’t great for you by any means and Wheat is the worst of them. Of course, like most “groups” of foods there is a spectrum, grains (the worst) on one end and Rice (not so bad, afterall, especially white) on the other. I’ll get into that in a minute. Put your open-minded thinking cap on and follow me here:

Living things do not want to be digested, that would probably not bode well for their survival, right? So all living things have defense mechanisms to either run away – fight back – or if eaten, avoid digestion. Plants, are passive, they cannot run away or fight back so they have various defense mechanisms to aid survival and fend of predators. Grains have “anti-nutrients” which humans have not adapted to, and these anti nutrients can be bad news.

Three main anti-nutrients: Lectin, Gluten and Phytate

Lectins: Lectins bind to humans stomach lining and create a leptin resistance. Leptin resistance

Gluten: Gluten might be the worst of them: A small percent (about 1%) of people are extremely intolerant and if they consume gluten the effects can be disastrous. For everyone else, while not disastrous, gluten STILL wreaks havoc on your stomach lining. Anti-gliadin IgA is an antibody produced by the gut, and it remains there until it’s dispatched to ward off gliadin – a primary component of gluten. Basically, the only reason anti-gliadin IgA ends up in your stool is because your body sensed an impending threat – gluten. If gluten poses no threat, the anti-gliadin IgA stays in your gut. This means that our body CLEARLY sees Gluten as a threat!

Phytates: This is an important one to remember. Grains tend to have appealing nutrient profiles – low fat, high in vitamins and minerals but…and this is the most important thing I am going to say in this post…Phytates make minerals bio-unavailable  So even though the nutrient profile looks good on paper it is USELESS in the human body. Your body never really gets those nutrients. So grains are, essentially, useless.

*Grains became a large part of American diet because of the low cost and perceived nutrients to cost ratio. Unless extremely strapped for cash or lck of access to meats, veggies and fruits, there is no reason from a health standpoint to consume grains (strength, sports, athletics and other performance dependent goals are COMPLETELY different)

Part 2 and 3 will address Oatmeal, Rice, Potatos, Milk and Coffee!

Relentless