What in the Heck is a Fat-Adapted Athlete?

My carbohydrate intake has been low, on average, for the past 13 weeks.  I've had occasions where my carb intake has been greater than 100 grams, but I can count them on two hands.  In general, I've been eating about 60 grams of carbs or less per day.   This site is an awesome resource for the nutritional information of foods, in this case sweet potatoes.

When I first started this journey, I didn't really do anything to change my intake of fats, I simply began working on no longer being afraid of them. That is a paradigm shift that I still find I'm working on.  I found that I my desire for cheese and yogurt nearly disappeared, with the exception of parmesan cheese, which I tend to crave.  It's possible that for the first several weeks, my fat intake decreased.  I have experimented with coconut oil a bit, mostly adding it to some baked goods, and using it to cook certain vegetables, like roasted broccoli and asparagus.  The kids are not too fond of the flavor, so I'm having to be creative in using it in a manner that is not overwhelming.

But the information on coconut oil and other medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) show that MCFAs assist the body in burning excess calories, promote fat oxidation and apoptosis, induce ketogenesis, and assist in protein metabolism.  Pretty awesome, right?  Kinda makes you wonder why the food industry recommended that saturated fat products like palm oil and coconut oil be removed from foods during the mid to late 1980s. Of course the combination with grains was not a match made in heaven. But I sure do remember one particularly tasty cereal Kellogs made in the '80s that was comprised of a significant amount of coconut and palm oil.  I used to love that stuff!

Physicians and nutritionists familiar with the fat-burning benefits of coconut oil, often prescribe tablespoon doses of coconut oil per day for obese people.  It is recommended to be stirred into their coffee in the morning, added to salads in the afternoon and evening, or just eaten by the spoonful.  I've tried it a few times, and it's remarkably delicious.  The flavor is mild and slightly coconutty, but the oil is soothing and cooling on the tongue.  Coconut butter is another delicious option.

As I research more information regarding grain-free cooking and lifestyle, I've realized that I need to up my own intake of quality fats, as well as seafood.  Seafood will be the topic of another post, but for some brain-bending information on how seafood affects the brain, you can read what Dr. Jack Kruse is writing about on his blog. (Note:  he is a neurosurgeon and writes from that medical perspective.  The typos can sometimes drive me bananas, but I realized that as a busy medical practitioner, I can't expect his typing to be perfect.  I know mine isn't!)

While doing some research on athletic performance while on ketogenic diets, I discovered this whole new topic of being a fat-adapted athlete.  Mark Sisson has this great post on the topic, but I think this is the gist of it, at least for me:

"A fat-burning beast can rely more on fat for energy during exercise, sparing glycogen for when he or she really needs it. As I’ve discussed before, being able to mobilize and oxidize stored fat during exercise can reduce an athlete’s reliance on glycogen. This is the classic “train low, race high” phenomenon, and it can improve performance, save the glycogen for the truly intense segments of a session, and burn more body fat. If you can handle exercising without having to carb-load, you’re probably fat-adapted. If you can workout effectively in a fasted state, you’re definitely fat-adapted."

 He even answers the question I had burning in the back of my mind the entire time I read his post, can one be both a fat-adapted athlete and a keto-adapted athlete?  Is one preferable over the other?  It sounds like fat-adapted is the way to go:

"A quick note about ketosis:
Fat-adaption does not necessarily mean ketosis. Ketosis is ketosis. Fat-adaption describes the ability to burn both fat directly via beta-oxidation and glucose via glycolysis, while ketosis describes the use of fat-derived ketone bodies by tissues (like parts of the brain) that normally use glucose. A ketogenic diet “tells” your body that no or very little glucose is available in the environment. The result? “Impaired” glucose tolerance and “physiological” insulin resistance, which sound like negatives but are actually necessary to spare what little glucose exists for use in the brain. On the other hand, a well-constructed, lower-carb (but not full-blown ketogenic) Primal way of eating that leads to weight loss generally improves insulin sensitivity."

So, with that, I'm going to go eat my breakfast of fresh green beans with pastured butter, scallops, shrimp, calamari, and garlic.  Yum!




A couple more links in case you were interested: 

A short-term, high-fat diet up-regulates lipid metabolism and gene expression in human skeletal muscle

Fasting for 72 h increases intramyocellular lipid content in nondiabetic, physically fit men.

A Metabolic Paradigm Shift, or Why Fat is the Preferred Fuel for Human Metabolism

Really, NO grains?

I've had this question a lot the past several weeks.  I've begun sharing, very casually and in a very non-pushy manner, that I've eliminated grains from my diet.  I usually stop there, because on the couple of occasions I've mentioned that I no longer eat legumes, potatoes, or processed sugars, the looks of complete shock I've received have been mind numbing.  And hey, I'm not a dogma junkie.  I've had some beers on occasion (grains), and I did finish my daughter's ice cream from Haagen Daaz, too.  I'm not gonna let good money go to waste!  I'm very conscientious about not pushing the paleo idea onto others.  I know how I came to my decision, and it required some pretty serious soul-searching.  Ultimately, it is a choice I made out of both a need to turn my life in the opposite direction, as well as considering it an experiment to see what happens.

But considering the reactions I've received, the questions I've been asked, and some downright crazy things smart people have said, I decided I needed to explore this a bit further.  I mean seriously, a very super-smart person I work with told me that I was at risk of losing all my hair, because grains contain an amino acid not found anywhere else, and I was likely going to shrivel up, go bald, and start losing my teeth.  I think she had paleo confused with fruitarian vegan...but that's another story.

I've done my research enough to know that eliminating grains from my diet is a good thing.  But it's harder to explain why it's a good thing.  The first response is usually, "but what about rice?"  Because, everyone knows that Asians have been subsisting on rice for thousands of years, and they don't seem too worse for the wear.  And that is true.

But back to regular grains, for the time being.  Things like wheat, and barley, and rye...you know all the makings of a good beer!  First of all, all grains contain lectin, and lectins can damage the gut lining, increasing inflammation in the intestines and colon; and they are now known to contribute to autoimmune (AI) diseases like MS and lupus. Lectins are also thought to be a significant factor in insulin resistance and liver pathology. Dr. William Davis gives a nice little summary of lectins on his Wheat Belly Blog.

Additionally, grains contain immunoreactive proteins.  Gluten, one of these beastly proteins, is becoming a pretty well-known factor in celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and other AI diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and eczema.  All grains contain similar proteins.  Oats have avenin, Corn has zein, and rice has orzenin. All these proteins have a high content of the amino acid proline. Proline makes these proteins difficult to break down via normal digestion.

Robb Wolf's book, the Paleo Diet Solution, goes into deeper nitty gritty about grains, their lectins and their proteins, but I found this little sidebar note to hit below the belt (courtesy of Tim Ferriss's site):

Sidebar: Oats, Quinoa, and False Friends
Hey Robb, I appreciate your concern, but my dietician told me Oats are gluten-free, so no need to worry about my morning bowl of oatmeal? Yep, I love oatmeal too, but it contains similar proteins to gluten. Cereal grains tend to have proteins that are high in the amino acid proline. These prolamines (proline rich proteins) are tough to digest, and thus remain intact despite the best efforts of the digestive process to break them down. The result is gut irritation, increased systemic inflammation, and the potential for autoimmune disease.

Corn has a similar prolamine called zein. Now you can heed or disregard this information as you please, but grains are a significant problem for most people. Upon removal of these grains, you will notice that you feel better. With reintroduction of grains…well, you feel worse. Keep in mind this inflammation is also a factor in losing weight and looking good, so don’t dismiss this if your primary goal is a tight tush. What I’m asking you to do is take 30 days and eat more fruits and veggies instead of the grains. See how you do. Not so hard, right? And just to head you off at the pass, let’s tackle two other grain related topics: “Whole grains” and Quinoa.
When we factor in their anti-nutrient properties, and potential to wreck havoc on our GI tract, grains are not a sound decision for health or longevity. For the purposes of our discussion, consider dairy and legumes in the same category.

Quinoa pops up frequently and the refrain goes like this, “Robb! Have you tried this stuff Quinoa (the pronunciation varies depending on how big a hippy you are). It’s NOT a grain! It’s fine, right?”

Well, you’ve likely heard the expression, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…” Quinoa is botanically not a grain, but because it has evolved in a similar biological niche, Quinoa has similar properties to grains, including chemical defense systems that irritate the gut. In the case of Quinoa, it contains soap-like molecules called saponins. Unlike gluten, which attaches to a carrier molecule in the intestines, saponins simply punch holes in the membranes of the microvilli cells. Yes, that’s bad. Saponins are so irritating to the immune system that they are used in vaccine research to help the body mount a powerful immune response. The bottom line is if you think grains or grain-like items like Quinoa are healthy or benign, you are not considering the full picture.

 Finally, grains contain phytates.  Phytates are amino acids that essentially make minerals biologically unavailable to our bodies.  They are in a class of substances called antinutrients.  According to Amy Berger, "Phytic acid binds to minerals and makes them unavailable to the body. Specifically, it binds to things like calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron. There are ways to neutralize some of the phytic acid in foods, like soaking, sprouting, or fermenting (hence the “sprouted grain” breads or natural sourdoughs you see in artisan bakeries), but it should be no surprise that the vast majority of commercially available grains do not undergo this kind of meticulous preparation."  So, your sprouted bread may contain less phytates, but still contains lectins, and immunoreactive proteins. 

Finally, there is the whole issue of microRNA.  Nature just published this interesting article:
http://www.nature.com/news/phylogeny-rewriting-evolution-1.10885

These microRNAs are present in all foods.  But the ones in grains have a particular ability to turn on and turn off different functioning aspects of our own RNA.  I'll save that for another post.

When I was about 19 or 20, I was diagnosed as being "allergic" to wheat.  I tried being wheat free for a few months, but it sucked.  In the interim, I moved back to WA where we started eating a lot of local vegetables, salmon, coffee, and beer.  Because we lived right down the road from the best organic bakery that side of the Mississippi, I began eating wheat again, and didn't seem to be suffering any problems.  I continued to eat wheat without "problems" until April of this year.  However, one of the most profoundly noticeable things that has occurred to me has been that the severely increasing allergic reactions I had been having right up until April have disappeared.  Last summer, eating raw vegetables became a nightmare.  It started years ago with Avocados, Kiwi, and Cantaloupe.  But over the years I started having rapid, immediate, and very uncomfortable reactions to radishes, turnips, tomatoes, carrots, jicama, cucumbers, and pretty much anything other than greens and onions.

Robb Wolf's book discusses food allergies, and how inflammation in the stomach, intestines, and colon (aka leaky gut syndrome) causes food allergies.  He also describes that on a paleo diet these allergic reactions might disappear.  Well, they have definitely disappeared for me.  With the exception of avocados, which still cause me to feel like I have a hangover within 12 hours of eating them.  I'm hoping that allergy will disappear too, but that may take some more effort.

To sum up, I'm learning so much about the brain, hormones, metabolic reactions, circadian rhythms, and blood work.  I can't possibly sum it all up in this one post.  I will try to continue with a better regularity, but I'm going camping, so it's going to have to wait!

Cheers!!

ps.  leave a comment if you like what I'm writing here, I'd like to hear what you have to say!