Catalyst Athletic and Crossfit

Metabolic Medicine - Guest Essay by Terri Lutes, ND

Metabolic Medicine

Congratulations to all of you who have taken on the January No Grains challenge. I would imagine by now, almost at the half-way point, that a lot of you are already noticing improvements in your overall heath. Some of you may notice an improvement in your digestion, less headaches, decreased joint pain, or increased energy. However, other changes are occurring inside your body that you might not realize are happening. Some of this is due to removing gluten from your diet. Many people are gluten intolerant and don’t even know it. Other changes are happening because you are better controlling your insulin levels.   Insulin resistance is the basis of many chronic diseases and of aging. What is the purpose of insulin? Most would answer that it is to lower blood sugar (glucose) by facilitating the transport of glucose from the bloodstream into the cell. They would be right, but insulin has other actions in the body.   Insulin stores excess glucose as fat. The body has a limited capacity to store glucose as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Once that capacity had been surpassed, the body converts the rest of it to fat.  There is more bad news about insulin. Not only does it store excess glucose as fat, but it prevents the use of stored fat as an energy source. Since fat can’t be burned, the body burns glucose from muscles instead. So with high insulin, any time a person ingests extra sugar it gets stored as fat, and any time there is a deficit of sugar the body burns up glucose from muscle instead of fat. Not good.  
That’s bad enough, but insulin will also make you eat too much. Insulin stimulates appetite by affecting the brain in two ways. First, it interferes with the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin. Second, insulin causes a spike in dopamine, signaling our brain to seek rewards. This can turn us into cookie monsters, since these rewards often come in the form of a brownie or a bowl of ice cream.     This is why eliminating or limiting sugar and high carbohydrate foods like grains (which will be digested into glucose) is beneficial for managing body composition. Limiting the amount of sugar ingested limits the release of insulin, and therefore the amount sugar that gets stored on the body as fat. Keeping insulin levels under control also allows the body to burn fat instead of valuable muscle. It also helps to keep us from being ravenous all the time, and having constant sugar cravings.   What else does high insulin do?   It increases blood clotting and atherosclerosis.   It increases cancer risk by increasing IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) signaling, which stimulates cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis (programmed cell death).   It decreases intracellular Vitamin C. Vitamin C and glucose are very similar in structure. Since the absorption mechanism for vitamin C and glucose are identical, when glucose levels rise less vitamin C is absorbed by the cells. This results in a weakening of the immune system.   It decreases intracellular magnesium. Magnesium relaxes muscles, so with decreased magnesium the muscles around blood vessels constrict, increasing blood pressure. Magnesium is also important for the action and manufacturing of insulin.    It increases sodium retention, contributing to fluid retention and high blood pressure.   It is linked with an increased serum TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), which indicates poor thyroid function. It also decreases the conversion of the thyroid hormone T4 to the more active T3 in the liver.   The nutrition plan you have been following for the past 2 weeks is metabolic medicine. It is helping to prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, poor thyroid function, and depressed immune function. All that plus improving body composition. While it may not always be easy to follow a grain-free diet, your efforts will reward you with better health and vitality.
  Terri Lutes, ND Synergy Naturopathic Clinic 705.949.2300

 

January No-Grains-All-Brains Challenge!

I know, I know. The Canada Food Pyramid says to eat your whole grains, and you'll be fine. It also has no problem with this: Froot Loops (Now with Fibre! Raise the Insulin-Resistant Roof!)

Though they make up 75% of the North American diet, you do NOT need grains to survive. You're NOT wired to digest grains properly - we simply haven't been exposed to them long enough, as a species.

While we're not great at digesting most carbohydrates, we're REALLY not smooth at handling processed carbohydrates (sugars.) As we digest them, the spike in our blood sugar creates metabolic mayhem and we board the insulin roller-coaster for hours afterward.

Gluten, too, is a big concern. Most of us aren't diagnosed as "gluten-intolerant," but can still feel a difference in joint inflammation and recovery time after a grains-heavy weekend. After November's Paleo challenge, several participants celebrated with a big meal of wings and beer, or something similar. Their response, the next day? Increased fatigue, joint pain that they would previously have associated with injury, depression, and a lack of drive to exercise.

While true Paleo-style eating is a big bolus to swallow all at once, we believe that we can achieve a terrific start - and up to 80% of the benefit - by eliminating grains for a month.

Yes, there's mounting scientific evidence to back this up. But mostly, we're doing this because we've had enough. Diabetes is skyrocketing, and what's the response of Government, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the education system, the Health Care system, and most 'experts'? Eat more whole grains. Instead of demanding drastic change - which, frankly, we require - we hear it's fine to just add 2g of "whole grain" to a pile of sugar. Fibre doesn't cancel out sugar, folks; it barely numbs the glycemic response to the rest of the sugar in most foods; and the type of fibres that most food companies choose to add to foods (psyllium husk) is hard on the digestive system.

Our system of health 'care' is a reactive one. Constantly playing defense, it's struggling to stay afloat as more and more people unintentionally add to the burden. It's time to stop settling for the bare minimum. Sometimes, it's necessary to experience the extreme to pull ourselves back toward centre. In this case, we're going to shut out all grains (listed below) for January, and just eat like Grandma used to tell us: eat your vegetables. Finish your meat. Dessert is not an everyday occurrance. And drink your cod liver oil!

Call us reactionary; call us extreme. Just don't call us late for dinner. And don't serve white rice.

A useful list of what is a grain, and what is NOT a grain (from grainfreeliving.com):

Foods that are grains, or are made from grains are:

• Wheat
• Rye
• Barley, including barley malt
• Bran
• Bulgur
• Couscous
• Farina
• Kamut
• Orzo
• Semolina
• Spelt
• Corn - INCLUDES CORN SYRUP (as in pop)
• Cornflour
• Cornmeal
• Rice
• Oats
• Millet
• Beer (yes, beer!)
• Glucose made from wheat
• (this list may be incomplete)

So any thing made from these products would also have grains - like cakes, biscuits, pizzas, bread, pasta, breadcrumbs, spaghetti etc

Foods that are grain free, even though they are often used as a flour or look a bit like a grain are:

• Almond
• Amaranth
• Arrowroot
• Buckwheat also called Kasha
• Cassava
• Chickpeas (made into flour)
• Coconut (used in flours)
• Cottonseed
• Dal
• Fava bean
• Flaxseed
• Gram flour
• Lentils
• Manioc
• Potato Starch/Flour
• Quinoa
• Sago
• Sesame
• Taro flour
• Soy
• Tapioca
• Glucose made from tapioca

REQUIRED READING (Hey, it's January. You have the time.)

The definitive guide to grains

What happens when you Carb Binge?

The Graham Cracker: A Cure For Lustful Urges

The Paleo Food Journal

Grain Free Living

Grain Free Gourmet

Grains and Legumes Cause Discordance in the Human Diet

CONTEST RULES

To participate: Your goal is to eat foods that are 100% GRAIN-FREE (see above.) That includes anything used in the preparation of your meal.

To win: Well, you'll win just by doing the challenge. Just in case you need a prize, though, we'll provide one. A hint: it will taste GOOD.

Getting points: We'll award points based on the following criteria. Points are to be entered daily on our Tracking Site (don't have a password? Email or call!)

5 Points - Entire day, including beverages and all ingredients involved in preparation and cooking, are 100% grain free (see above list.)

3 Points - One or two meals is 100% grain-free, but not the whole day.

1 Point - you eat the meat and vegetables and throw away the bun. Some small change to your norm.

Change happens bit by bit - not all at once. Don't worry about being perfect; worst case, you're only 3 hours away from a grain-free meal, and you can make it up then.

Easy Eating - The Zone Diet

It's 2001. I'm in a hockey dressing room, talking to sweaty, tired 10-year-olds at John Becanic's summer hockey camp at the Pee Wee Arena. A few parents lean through the doorway. I'm talking about protein intake for hockey players. They're asking questions, good ones, about things to eat between games in a tournament. I'd been training athletes for five years already; my advice didn't include much about healthy fats, but DID recommend a high-GI carb right after a game (which I still push, for the insulin spike and improved recovery time.)

One boy asks about protein bars. I tell him to emphasize good eating and not rely on supplements. "What kind?" I ask, more to fill the silent void. "Zone Bars. My mom is ZonePerfect." he says. I scoff, pigeonholing Mama into the legions of fad-following Sears Disciples who wear the ZonePerfect badge like a medal. To me, it's the Scarlet Letter.

When Dr. Barry Sears first published "The Zone" in 1995, he couldn't have foreseen the road the book would take. Over the next few years, as The Zone grew in popularity among the fad-diet crowd, Sears enjoyed a hero's renown. But the original book, "Enter The Zone," was too technical. Food had to be counted. Meal preparation required equipment and math. Diligence turned to obsession for a few, and caused a whole new type of eating disorder: the overly-strict. Faced with a lifetime of weighing and measuring and dissecting their plates, the Zone fanatics slowly turned toward the next rising star (Atkins.)

Sears countered with several books designed to simplify Zone eating, and cash in on the dwindling numbers who still followed his brand. In short order, he published Mastering the Zone, Zone Perfect Meals In Minutes, Zone Food Blocks, and The Anti-Aging Zone within 3 years. Between 2000 and 2002, his work took a noticably different slant: making The Zone simpler, and easier to follow. A Week In The Zone, The Soy Zone, 100 Great Zone Foods, and The Omega Rx Zone were all published within 20 months. His brand was dwindling among the simpler (though less effective) low-carb diets like South Beach and Atkins, and since those diets touched on some of the same rationale, The Zone was largely grouped with its contemporaries and went out of fashion with them. But all that was before CrossFit, of course. Now Sears is enjoying a new resurgence of popularity among both athletes and more elite exercisers whose energy requirements go above and beyond a multi-grain bagel at breakfast time.

 

In 2006, Sears did a Live Lecture series, and it was recorded and published for sale (you can buy a copy here.) In my estimation, this is the best piece of work he's ever done: it's simple. It gives the listener a solid piece of equipment (the palm of their hand!) to use for any meal, anytime, anywhere. This, we've dubbed the Hand Model.

At every meal, eat:

Protein: the size and thickness of your palm

Carbs: same. If all crunch vegetables, eat the size of your whole hand.

Fat: size of your thumb.

Now THAT's a food plan! Since everyone will respond slightly differently depending on insulin sensitivity and output, a little experimentation is necessary. This, too, is addressed in the Live Lecture; you just need to do a little test.

1. Eat your meal.

2. Do your thing.

3. 3 hours later, ask yourself: am I hungry, but alert; or am I hungry, but tired or dopey?

If you're hungry but alert, you're in the right Zone for fat metabolism. You're doing it right. If you're hungry and tired, you're suffering the slope of lowering blood sugar. You may crave a carbohydrate snack. Either reduce your carb intake, or increase everything else to provide blood sugar stability.

This, folks, is as easy as food intake is ever going to get. Personally, I dropped too much weight at first, and had to ramp up total Zone Blocks and especially fat intake to survive the punishing CrossFit schedule. Modify as necessary, but this will get you 90% of the way there.

The 100-Mile Challenge

 To participate: Your goal is to eat foods that are produced - from the ground up - within a 100-mile radius of Sault Ste. Marie.  That includes all meat, vegetables, grains, drinks, oils, and anything used in the preparation of your meal.  Since we have a late growing season this year, we'll award points based on meals that are close to 100% local, instead of insisting on some ridiculous and nearly-impossible challenge. 

One of the more rigid (but terrific) eating styles we advocate is the Paleo style - nothing processed, focusing mainly on meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.  Another is the Zone - 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% healthy fats - to control insulin.  While the Zone is a template for timing food intake, the Paleo Diet is more specific about good food choices.  You don't have to do either for this challenge, but both help, and both fit.

 To win:  Well, you'll win just by doing the challenge.  Just in case you need a prize, though, we'll provide one.  A hint: it will taste GOOD.

Getting points: We'll award points based on the following criteria.  Points are to be entered daily on our Tracking Site(don't have a password?  Email or call!)

5 Points - Entire meal, including beverage and all ingredients involved in preparation and cooking, are grown and processed within 100 miles of Sault Ste. Marie (any direction.)

3 Points - Food is local, ingredients (like salt or olive oil) used in cooking or seasoning aren't local.  Beverage is local.

1 Point - a food item that forms a major part of the meal (meat like beef or bison, vegetables, wild rice, or fish) is local.  Beverages don't count in this category.

Questions?  Post below (just click 'respond') and we'll all help one another! Points will be tallied at the end of the month!

The Zone - Food Shopping

Okay, so you're almost ready for 30 Days of the Zone as Rx'd!  Just gotta go shopping...right?

Here's the best advice I've heard so far: only buy food from around the perimeter of the grocery store.  Don't go down the aisles.  Think about the stuff at the perimeter: fresh fruit.  Fresh vegetables.  Then some grains (if you're so inclined,) fresh meat, then dairy.  Eggs and juice (watch out with the juice.)  Stop at the 'bulk' area on your way out for some almonds, and/or get some good flax oil and olive oil or Udo's Choice oils from the refrigeration section...and you're out!

The Zone Diet Primer

What started as a challenge has taken a life of its own.  Over 30 Catalyst members and clients are now going to try the Zone 'as Rx'd' in June!  30 days of blood-sugar control, enhanced performance, and fat loss.

When the Zone Diet was originally published in the 1980s, it gained a huge following right away, but tapered off.  All 'diets' have some degree of followership, followed by a decline when folks realize it's not a magic bullet, but requires fundamental lifestyle change.  This is not easy stuff; imagine building your house, and then realizing that part of the foundation was flawed!  Major work required.

In his more recent 'Live Lectures,' though, Barry Sears highlights the most relevant points of the diet; he shows how to 'ballpark' the Zone; he gives tips you can use to test your own insulin level based on your level of fatigue.  It's great stuff, and it's no wonder most elite CrossFitters use the Zone.

First off, the Zone isn't a diet in the traditional sense.  There are no 'banned' foods.  It's a template.  It's a system for regulating insulin based on macronutrient pairing.  Where those macronutrients come from is another story for another time.

Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Healthy Fats are broken up into 'blocks.'  Forget grams, calories, cups and ounces; just focus on Zone Blocks.  How much is One Block?  Below, you can download the Zone Block Guide.  

Download Food Block Guide

How many blocks of each do you need?  Well, depends on your goals.  If your goal is weight loss, you can figure out your recommended daily Block intake at:

www.zoneliving.com

There's more to fitness than weight loss, though.  As we discuss in our book, Defy Mediocrity, and our CAT Testing Guide, weight is a correlate - not a determinant - of fitness.  Those doing the Zone for CrossFit may find that they lose weight too quickly due to the high demands of the WODs.  Some CrossFit nutritionists recommend as much as double the daily Zone Blocks calculated by the Zone method; Robb Wolf regularly consumes as much as 5x the recommended daily Fat Blocks!