Aftermath

This is a great post from Robb Wolf, CrossFit's resident nutrion guru. Check out his blog; the link is down on the left un the "Nutrition" section. Robb is currently working on a book and I expect it will become the nutrion bible for CrossFitters and anyone serious about their health and performance.

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We had an interesting consensus amongst most of our clients today: “I Feel Like Shit”. These folks have been eating a clean, paleo-esque diet for anywhere from one to several months and have been feeling and performing great. Then Thanksgiving happened.

These folks added in a a bunch of wheat in the form of bread and stuffing, mashed potatoes, deserts of every imaginable variety...a goodly bit of booze (makes dealing with family easier...so I’ve heard) and today was pretty damn rough. It’s an interesting lesson because these folks were not sick on their previous food of good protein, fats, fruits and veggies. They feel like hell from the good-ol grains and carbs the food pyramid is built on. Interesting, no? Here were the common complaints:

Poor sleep
High insulin levels from huge, carb laden meals cause a release in cortisol. This stress hormone disturbs sleep and begins a whole downward spiral of poor sleep, increased insulin resistance and typically more carb consumption. Here is a little more info on that topic. I do not agree with everything they have to say on the topic, but it’s pretty solid.

Pain/Inflammation
Our pain and inflammation are regulated, in large part, through a system of hormone controllers called the prostaglandins. You hear about these ever so often when a drug like Viox, which is used to regulate pain and inflammation, is found to do a silly thing like kill people. The problem is we can’t patent a low carb diet, sleep and fish oil. So drug companies and an ignorant populace continue to do a an exchange of goods and services that are...not so healthy. Folks coming in to train today reported a LOT of joint pain, lethargy and stiffness. Well, high insulin levels up-regulates the pathways which increases our pain and inflammation. Here is a look at this from the perspective of arterial degeneration and here is a look at the whole spectrum of the inflammatory process. Fascinating that our CSU Nutrition Department still recommends a high glycemic load diet, no?

So, now that we are in the midst of the Holiday season I’m going to provide some video links every few days on some recurring themes related to nutrition. This first one is from author Gary Taubes. Gary has received several Excellence in Science awards and recently wrote the ridiculously thorough exploration of nutrition in the book Good Calories, Bad Calories.