1/27/13 It Starts With Food: Whole9 Nutrition Seminar

-Written by KC

The process of over-CARB-suming creates a body that doesn't know how to use fat as energy. Over-CARB-suming means you chronically overflow your glycogen storage tank...Fat gets stored in all other cells. That means you need sugar for energy so you go for sugar. This is the product of long term eating choices. -Dallas Hartwig founder of Whole9

I brought my Dad with me to the nutrition seminar. He has an auto immune disease called Gullien Bare' syndrome and his legs were paralyzed about 8 months ago. His recovery is mysterious, only about 1 in 100,000 people will get this disease. Food & stress are likely contributing factors to why his body would want to attack itself. And food with lower stress levels in his life, will likely help him recover. He is taking responsibility for his health and i'm very proud of him.

Food...is it making you more, or less healthy?

This is ultimately the big theme I took away with me from the Whole9 seminar last Saturday at KSAC. I have been eating 'paleo' for about 3 years now and noone needs to convince me of it's benefits. So why would I want to take a seminar? Well, so I can better understand the WHY, and the SCIENCE behind this food choice because the better educated we all are, the better food choices we can make. I am no longer satisfied telling our athletes 'grains are bad, empty carbohydrates' I want to give you the reason WHY. And boy did I learn a LOT. Here was a question posted to me on Facebook today:

Ginger asks: So are cashews paleo? KC Answer: Cashews are in a different biological family than other nuts, they are in fact a fruit, so would thus be 'paleo'. The point of the Whole9 seminar was to focus on real food, Cashews fall into that category. We need to 're-think' using the word 'paleo' to liberally. Some 'paleo' type foods like muffins, cookies etc. still might not be the best choice because of the refinement of the ingredients. Its best to break food down into it's simplest form and ultimately ask ourselves the question, "Is this food making me more, or less healthy?" and go through a process of self experimentation. According to the info I got from the seminar yesterday, cashews are a whole food found in nature, contain lots of good fat, protein, and micro nutrients. They also do not contribute to any emotional/psychological food addictions (unless you become addicted to cashew?), they create a healthy hormonal response in the body, do not inhibit healthy gut function, and do not stimulate an unhealthy immune response in the body. They also do not spike blood sugar levels, so insulin and glucose levels stay within a balanced range. For all these reasons, cashew are considered a good food choice according to the Whole9 seminar yesterday. Ultimately, self experimentation will be your own personal guide. I learned a ton yesterday!!!

The point here is, nutrition is not always black and white. So many more factors contribute to healthy food choices, and looking at all areas of your life will help you figure out if your behaviors support your nutritional and fitness goals.

Below: The white board yesterday got filled with information, graphs, acronyms, lists, and information. As confusing as it looks below, it actually all made perfect sense after it was explained in layman terms. Melissa & Dallas from Whole9 did an awesome job of presenting their case on food, and explained it in a very real way that I can actually understand and use in my everyday life!

The BIG PICTURE

You would think that they would talk mostly about food, nutrients, and consumption. Which, they did in part, but the entire first half of the day was devoted to the emotional/psychological relationship we have with food. The lack of connection to nature when we make food choices, which contributes to consuming 'Food with no breaks', highly processed foods which we cant' seem to stop ourselves from eating (bag of potato chips ring a bell?) These types of foods have no dense nutrition, no satiety factors, little fiber or water in them. These are the foods Americans crave, these foods send us a 'reward signal' in our brains making us feel good as if we've done something 'right'. It conflicts with what's actually happening in our bodies, or what we tell ourselves in our heads that eating that entire bag of skittles was 'wrong'. Then we have to deal with negative self talk, and the cycle continues. There is lot's more to it than that, but in short, eating lots of these highly processed 'Food with no breaks' (think crackers, bagels, cereals, sugary foods, cookies, chips and the like) ends up re-wireing the brain. The dopamine that is released from eating these foods tells you to keep pursuing them. And STRESS only makes the whole matter worse and inflated. STRESS, emotional, psycological, physical, without the proper recovery can lead to more poor diet choices, leading to systemic chronic inflammation, which ultimately leads to chronic disease like cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, auto immunity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. And this is only a small fraction of what I learned at the seminar.

You CAN find great whole food when you are traveling. This meal is from Grylt at the food court at Ala Moana Mall! Steroid free, hormone free meat, and local organic vegies. all for around $9.00

The Food groups that fail the Whole9 Food Standards

Let's start with something sweet...sugar

I'll start with sugar because I feel this is the big psychological challenge, and result of most of our poor food choices. This includes all sugars including 'natural' sugars, honey, maple syrup, agave (AND Stevia which I will talk about in the artificial sweeteners below). These are calorie dense with no nutrition and they trigger unhealthy psychological response, super abnormal dopamine levels in the brain, require little to no digestion before they enter the blood stream, and contribute to hyperinsulinemia. Sugar feeds bad bacteria in the gut, which promotes systemic inflammation.

Click here to purchase the book from our AllStar Recommended Reading page and our gym will receive a reward!

Artificial Sweeteners & Stevia

You would think swapping out 'real' sugar calories for artificial sweeteners would solve the problem but that is not so. Artificial sweeteners trigger the same habits. Stevia (an herb that tastes super sweet), Sweet 'n low, equal, aspartame, sucrolose, saccharin, and the like. All of it still provokes insulin response in the body even in the absence of real sugar calories, according to the research in "It Starts With Food". From a psychological perspective, sugar is sugar and that has a downstream effect. The less you eat the healthier you'll be. FRUIT is not sugar, it is a nutrient dense food source, but you should beware not be 'propping up' your sugar cravings with fruit.

Cravings?

Cravings generally last 3-5 minutes. Coping techniques include distraction or removing yourself from the situation. For example, if you are home alone and craving sugar, busy yourself with folding laundry, call a friend, or eat something you logically know in your head to promote your health and wellness like protein with will help you feel full. And I have know of some people turning to God to help them through their cravings, whatever works for you!

Other food groups include alcohol, grains, legumes, peanuts, soy, and dairy (Organic butter, full fat dairy, heavy cream, is listed as a healthy food source according to Whole9 because of the Vitamin K2 and omega3s)

Most of you might have heard at one time or another. The great news is there is reason and science behind this to support why these foods fail. If you would like to learn more about which foods to avoid and why visit Whole9, purchase Melissa & Dallas Hartwig's book "It starts with Food" or come to one of my up coming nutrition clinics! YES I WANT TO TEACH YOU ALL THIS GREAT INFO IN A CLINIC!

What DO I eat?

Fill your plate with a protein source (animal meat) and build the rest of your plate around it. Protein source should be about the size of the palm of your hand, and of the best quality organic, grass fed or finished, local is best. Fill the rest of your plate with vegetables (your new carbohydrate source). Put vegetables before fruit. FAT: eating to little is a stressor on the body. Use fat as the great equalizer. Suggestions are a half to whole avocado at a meal, couple teaspoons of healthy oil at a meal, or pad of organic butter. Following the guidlines in the Whole30, or eating more of a 'Paleo' diet and lifestyle for at least 30 days will help get the bodies natural rhythms back on track so you can actually start 'listening' to your bodies real cues for hungar, instead of just the 'false' cues for sugar because the body isn't metabolizing fat and only used to searching for carbs or glycogen stores.

This is just a start to life changing information I am so excited to share with you all!

Workout of the Day

Take a Yoga class.

*I actually got Shay to take a free community yoga class with me at Lululemon. Miracles happen! It was possibly the most distracting class I've ever taken because I couldn't stop looking at all the clothes! Josh was surprised I got a class for free and didn't buy a single thing. Again miracles happen!