Paleo Enough?

I'm catching up on the past month or so of Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution podcasts, and was struck by a couple points he made in Episode 52 in response to a single question: Is taking BCAA supplements a violation of the Paleo diet's rules?

The question was from a listener who -- like me -- is following the "early morning fasted training" version of Martin Berkhan's LeanGains intermittent fasting protocol. Generally, when on the LeanGains program, one starts fasting after dinner and abstains from eating until lunchtime the next day. According to Berkhan, the fast is ideally broken "at noon or shortly thereafter," immediately after a workout.

Unfortunately, "[t]his poses a dilemma for those who can only train in the early morning hours." As Berkhan points out:

If you're training first thing in the morning and finish at 7 AM it would call for a feeding phase of 7 AM to 3 PM. That's just a bit too early for my liking. Could you still do it and start the fast in the middle of the day? Sure. But generally speaking, this would compromise diet adherence for most people.

Berkhan's proposed solution:

Most clients maintain their 8-hour feeding-window between 12-2 pm and 8-10 pm on all days. For those doing early morning fasted training, I have maintained that feeding window and added small feedings of BCAA pre- and post-workout.

Similar to fasted training, 10g BCAA is ingested pre-workout. However, instead of initiating the feeding phase immediately post-workout, which is the standard protocol for regular fasted training, another 10 g BCAA is ingested two hours after the first. A third dose may then be ingested depending on when the client prefers his feeding-window.

That's exactly what I've been doing on the days I exercise. Take this morning, for example. I woke up in a fasted state (having not eaten since 7 p.m. last night), changed into workout clothes, and gulped down 10 grams of BCAAs mixed with water before heading out to my 5 a.m. CrossFit class. An hour post-workout, I guzzled another 10 grams of BCAAs. And then another 10 grams two hours after that.

For a while, I used Vitamin Shoppe's generic brand of plain-jane BCAA powder, but it tasted like hell. So on Berkhan's recommendation, I bought a couple containers of Scivation's XTEND brand of BCAAs -- but the ingredients, which include "Red #1," "artificial flavors" and sucralose, are decidedly un-Paleo.

So what's the verdict, Mr. Wolf? Should I drink the stuff?

Robb's point of view: Chill the fuck out, people. (I'm paraphrasing slightly.) No, BCAA powder wasn't available to cavemen, and the chemicals in the stuff are in no way consistent with Paleo eating. But so what? According to Robb, the drawbacks of the small amount of BCCA supplementation recommended on the LeanGains plan are overshadowed by the need to maintain appropriate protein intake for muscle recovery and growth while on an intermittent fasting program. In other words: Go for it.

To drive home his point, Robb quoted an online commenter, John Ryan, who sagely wrote that "Paleo is a logical framework applied to modern humans -- not a historical reenactment."

Makes sense to me!

Paleo eating is supposed to make you healthier and stronger. The point isn't to slavishly replicate a caveman's actual diet just for the sake of being super-Paleo. Ancestral diets point us in the direction of better nutrition. It explains why we're not evolutionarily equipped to thrive on grains, legumes and dairy. It gives us clues as to why the Standard American Diet's emphasis on carbohydrate consumption is a very bad thing. But it shouldn't dictate every last morsel we stick into our mouths. Many of the foods I eat today weren't available to my prehistoric ancestors (unless they were regularly chowing on avocados, bacon, mac nuts and coconut flakes), but as long as they're not detracting from my health -- and I continue to look, feel and perform great -- who cares?

Of course, this means I probably ought to revisit my criticism of Mark Sisson's Primal Fuel for not being sufficiently "Paleo"...

(Photo: Stefan Kloo)

Nothing for Breakfast

I haven't had breakfast -- any food before 11:30 a.m. -- for months.

Since August, I've been playing around with intermittent fasting (IF). This might sound bizarre to some of you, but as the Drs. Eades have pointed out, IF has been shown to have a number of benefits, including:

• Improving longevity;
• Reducing the risk of cancer and other diseases (ranging from heart disease to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's); and
• Improving insulin sensitivity and blood glucose regulation.

As reported last year in the L.A. Times:

During fasting, almost every system in the body is "turned down," [U.C. Berkeley endocrinology professor Mark] Hellerstein says. The body changes how it uses fuel. Certain hormone levels fall. Growth stops. Reproduction becomes impossible. "By the end of three weeks of fasting you are a completely different metabolic creature," he says. "It affects many, many processes -- but in a somewhat predictable way that takes you toward disease prevention."

Oddly enough, scientists don't yet know why IF produces these health benefits.

One theory is that the process produces just enough stress in cells to be good. "What our evidence suggests is that nerve cells in animals that are on dietary energy restriction are under mild stress," [Mark] Mattson [of the National Institute on Aging] says. "It's a mild stress that stimulates the production of proteins that protect the neurons against more severe stress."

But whatever the reasons, IF seems to work. And it has other practical benefits, too, like:

• Increasing growth hormone during fasting (which helps build and maintain muscle mass);
• Weight and body composition maintenance; and
• Not having to make breakfast.

I know: You think this is utter bullshit. After all, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day," right? We hear this a lot -- but has anyone come up with any science to back this up? Or do we get an earful about how you need to "eat lots of small meals a day -- starting with breakfast -- to fuel your metabolism"? Because that's a load of hooey. Studies have shown that eating small, frequent meals doesn't do anything. But can you work out in the morning in a fasted state? I do, and I'm doing just fine. IF doesn't impair exercise. If anything, it boosts fat loss.

Let's review: A consistent line of research (going all the way back to the 1940s) demonstrates that IF confer lots of health benefits. And science has also disproven the theory that constantly grazing on tiny portions of food throughout the day somehow improves health.

You know me: Based on what I'd learned, I had to give IF a try.

More after the jump...