The China Study Fallacy

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

The China Study seems to be referenced just about everyday lately by a fitness or nutrition professional. Usually these people are telling you to avoid animal products all together, that being vegetarian is the healthiest way to eat to avoid degenerative diseases and that animal protein will straight up kill you.

First off, let me explain The China Study to those who have not read it, and for full disclosure neither have I, though it is on my short list. According to wikipedia:

The China Study is a 2005 book by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II. Dr. Campbell is a professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and one of the directors of the China Project.

The book examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illnesses such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration. “The China Study,” referred to in the title is the China Project, a “survey of death rates for twelve different kinds of cancer for more than 2,400 counties and 880 million (96%) of their citizens” conducted jointly by Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine over the course of twenty years.

The authors introduce and explain the conclusions of scientific studies, which have correlated animal-based diets with disease. The authors conclude that diets high in animal protein (including casein in cow’s milk) are strongly linked to diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes.

The authors recommend that people eat a whole food, plant-based diet and avoid consuming beef, poultry, and milk as a means to minimize and/or reverse the development of chronic disease. The authors also recommend that people take in adequate amounts of sunshine in order to maintain sufficient levels of Vitamin D and consider taking dietary supplements of vitamin B12. The authors criticize “low carb” diets (such as the Atkins diet), which include restrictions on the percentage of calories derived from complex carbohydrates.

You might notice some key words in that paragraph, like correlated. Correlation does not equal causation. This is an incredibly important quote to understand. As has been pointed out before by others, there has been correlational research that shows that people who shave the least are the most likely to get heart disease. So does this mean that lack of shaving causes heart disease? No it merely means that people who do not shave maybe care less about their appearance, and maybe about their health or a whole host of their variables, the actual lack of shaving is not the cause of heart disease.

In this China Study there was some work done on rats in which they fed them 20% of their calories from casein (the major protein in dairy). This caused an increased mortality rate, and an increase in degenerative diseases. This is concerning, no question, and one reason why I only recommend whey protein powder to clients, I cover more of this particular topic HERE.

But who actually takes in 20% of their calories from casein, do you know how much dairy that is? Lets say you take in 2,000 calories per day, 20% of that is 400 calories, or 100 grams of casein! Since milk protein is about 80% casein, and their is 1 gram of protein per ounce of milk, so about .8 grams of casein per ounce of milk. That would require 125 ounces of milk to get 100 grams of casein! That is almost 16 cups! Sure some of that casein can come from cheese, yogurt and protein powder, regardless that would take an inordinate amount of milk.

The point I am making is that maybe too much casein can be problematic, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. No one I know is recommending or consuming 16 glasses of milk per day! That same study showed that when rats were fed 5% of their calories from casein, they were free of disease and had longer life expectancies. That gives us 25 grams of casein per day, which is like 4 cups of milk per day. That seems reasonable. For more info on milk consumption and recommendations, read THIS.

To continue some of the misconstrued data:

The authors state that “several studies have now shown, in both experimental animals and in humans, that consuming animal-based protein increases blood cholesterol levels. Saturated fat and dietary cholesterol also raise blood cholesterol, although these nutrients are not as effective at doing this as is animal protein. In contrast, plant-based foods contain no cholesterol and, in various other ways, help to decrease the amount of cholesterol made by the body.”

The authors also state that “these disease associations with blood cholesterol were remarkable, because blood cholesterol and animal-based food consumption both were so low by American standards. In rural China, animal protein intake (for the same individual) averages only 7.1 grams per day whereas Americans average 70 grams per day.”

The authors conclude that “the findings from the China Study indicate that the lower the percentage of animal-based foods that are consumed, the greater the health benefits-even when that percentage declines from 10% to 0% of calories. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that the optimum percentage of animal-based products is zero, at least for anyone with a predisposition for a degenerative disease.”

This is complete and utter crap. Just stop and think critically about those statements for a minute. Think of everything you have seen me blog recently about cholesterol and its minimal role in health problems. That saturated fat and cholesterol raise blood cholesterol significantly? I think not. Maybe in rabbits, but they are vegetarians! Claiming that animal protein is the single greatest cause of increased cholesterol is just plain false. Find me some peer-reviewed double-blind placebo controlled studies repeatedly showing that, then you maybe have something to hang your hat on, otherwise that is ridiculous.

Using the word association again means very little. Correlation does not equal causation. There could be a million other variables in play here. These rural Chinese also most likely eat less sugar, less refined flour, less trans-fats, less McDonald’s, are more active, get more sleep, get more sunshine, have stronger community relationships, want me to keep going? Just looking at simple associations tells us little to nothing! It is not indicative of cause!

The human species has been consuming animal protein throughout its existence. The Inuit have been living on a mainly meat-based diet for thousands of years and yet they are free of modern degenerative diseases, consuming little to no vegetable foods. The Masai of Kenya live mainly on their cattle, the meat, blood and milk. That is the great bulk of their food intake, and yet they too are free of modern degenerative diseases. In his masterpiece, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston Price travels the world looking at isolated populations eating their indigenous diets. In every case when people were eating real food, including plenty of animal protein, these people were incredibly healthy, only when they replaced these foods with refined flour and sugar did the signs of degenerative diseases manifest.

He saw dairy-based diets where people were long-lived and sturdy (maybe because their cows ate grass, got sunshine and exercise, were only milked at certain times of the year, and the milk was not skimmed nor pasteurized, just a thought), meat-based diets, vegetable based diets, real food, and all these people were healthy. They were all in good physical condition, free of dental caries, resistant to tuberculosis, and free of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases of civilization. That is until they were exposed to unrefined flour and sugar, and then the story changed.

The China Study may have some relevance, and it might make some good points, but telling people that dropping animal foods altogether is the healthiest course of action is a fallacy. Animal foods are high in fat soluble vitamins, are the only available food source of vitamin D, and are a great source of vitamin B12 that the plant-based foods lack. It has been shown throughout history and evolution that humans have eaten plenty of animal products without harm.The difference is these animals were from an unpolluted world, free from synthetic hormones, antibiotics, corn-based diets, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, etc. Maybe that is the problem, and not animal protein itself, since we have been consuming it in fair amounts for hundreds of thousands of years.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Don’t take one thing and make it another, extrapolating it to apply generally across the board. That is crappy science that does nothing to advance the field of nutrition, and in fact only holds us back from discovering real information. While I am certainly not suggesting that anyone eat a meat-only diet, dropping animal products down to 0% is not warranted either. Eat real food. Eat a nice blend of grass-fed or pastured animals, lots of veggies, some fruits, a few high quality grains and plenty of healthy fats and you will be incredibly healthy.

Stuff You Should Read

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Upon my return from vacation I have been trying like hell to catch up on all of the reading I missed, and it has not been easy! Here are a few pieces I have come across this week that I thought were really solid, and thought you guys might enjoy them as well.

1. Busting Belly Bugs with Bacteria – by Precision Nutrition. This article is all about one of the few supplements that I recommend, probiotics. Helen Kollias goes over some relevant research showing the effectiveness and benefits of these little bacteria, and what they can do for you, so check it out.

2. Vitamin D May Prevent Flu & Asthma – by Stephan Guyenet. Another gem from Stephan on wholehealthsource.blogpspot.com. In this one Stephan reviews a newly published trial, analyzing the data, methods, strengths and weaknesses, and discusses the importance of the research. As I mentioned yesterday I am a huge believer in the need for healthy vitamin D status, and this paper shows some of the reasons why, check it out.

3. CassandraForstythe.com. This is my good friend and brilliant dietitian (yeah, she has the fancy letters after her name) Cass, and this is her new site. She is the author of Women’s Health Perfect Body Diet and The New Rules of Lifting for Women, so take a quick peek and check it out!

4. Quinoa 2.0 – by Me. This is one of my favorite posts, as I wrote about my favorite flour, buckwheat. Buckwheat is not actually wheat at all, is gluten free, is a complete protein, has cholesterol lowering properties, has minimal impact on blood sugar and tastes awesome. Give it a read.

Have a good weekend everybody, and find yourself some pastured eggs!

The Incredible Edible Pastured Egg

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

As many of you know, I am a big proponent of pastured eggs. Pastured eggs are eggs (obviously) from hens that are allowed to eat their natural diet. They are allowed to graze in open pasture (hence the name) and eat insects, maggots, grass, etc and get lots of sunshine and exercise. These eggs blow the socks off of anything you can get commercially, even omega-3 eggs, which are a solid grocery store option.

To illustrate the difference between the very solid omega-3 eggs, in which the hens are fed a diet usually rich in flax, providing more healthy omega-3 fats and the even greater eggs from pastured hens, I have taken a few pictures. Fortunately for me the First Lady of CP, Anna Sleeper, brought me some pastured eggs from a farm near her parents home in Brewer, Maine. In the picture below the omega-3 eggs are on the left, and the pastured eggs are on the right.

As you can see, the pastured eggs have much richer looking yolks, they are near orange in color, are larger, and stand up higher than the omega-3 eggs.

Omega-3 vs. Pasture Omelet

I made a 3-egg omelet with each, to show the difference in color and see how much more substantial the pastured eggs omelet is. The omega-3 omelet is on the left, and the pastured egg omelet is on the right. As you can clearly see the pastured egg omelet is much brighter and fuller in color, and blew the socks of the omega-3 eggs in flavor. It was as if they aren’t even the same food.

Below is an illustration of the difference in nutrition in 100 grams of your average pastured egg, and 100 grams of your average conventionally raised egg. It is striking to see the significantly greater nutrient density on paper, it is also just as striking to see and taste the difference in your morning omelet, and truly appreciate real food!

Vitamin A:

• Conventional: 487 IU
• Pastured avg: 792 IU

Vitamin D:

• Conventional: 34 IU
  
• Pastured avg: 136 – 204 IU

Vitamin E:

• Conventional: 0.97 mg
• Pastured avg: 3.73 mg

Beta-carotene:

• Conventional: 10 mcg
• Pastured avg: 79 mcg

Omega-3 fatty acids:

• Conventional: 0.22 g
• Pastured avg: 0.66 g

As you can clearly see, pastured eggs blow conventional eggs out of the water in all measures of awesomeness. They have 4-6 times the vitamin D content, and if you are like me and have 5 whole eggs every morning, that adds up quite nicely. One little caveat though, all those nutrients listed are either fats, or fat soluble nutrients, so you need to eat the yolks to actually take advantage of all the benefits an egg has to offer, so man up and eat the whole thing.

BSP Domination and Buffalo Burgers

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Recipes

First off I want to say that I am happy to be back. My wife and I returned late Saturday night from a relaxing week long vacation in Florida. Although the weather was not as warm as we would have liked, it was still sunny and, most importantly, stress-free.

Anywho, I wanted to bring a little attention to something that Tony Gentilcore briefly touched upon a few days ago. As he mentioned we usually have a “Poll of the Day” on the door exiting the facility for people to vote on before they leave. Invariably these poll questions have gotten more ridiculous as time as gone on, mainly due to our pro baseball guys. Below was a recent question put up before I left for Florida.

I just want to point out, mainly because it will drive Eric crazy, that I demolished the field, and I am pretty sure I ended up with a few more votes after Tony took this picture. Sorry EC. To be fair Tony actually had a couple of votes before the CP Olympic champion decided that Tony is a giant teddy bear and would end up broken. I mean he did play football…for a day. Sorry Tony.

Ok, on to some actual nutrition content. For quite a while last year I would enjoy the awesomeness that is buffalo (or bison, whatever you prefer) just about every week. For some reason I fell off that habit, even though I had enjoyed it immensely. Well upon my return, I promptly decided to resurrect that delicious habit. So on Sunday I made the greatest Buffalo Burger the world has ever known. It was a breathtaking taste explosion.

I really should have taken a picture of my burger

BSP’s Buffalo Burgers

• 8oz ground buffalo
• 1 Ezekiel English muffin
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil mayo
• ketchup or salsa to taste
• spicy mustard to taste
• 2 tbsp guacamole (the magic maker)
• large handful of spinach
• Redmond Real Salt, Montreal Steak Seasoning, Montreal Chicken Seasoning, Garlic Powder to taste

Directions: Sprinkle on as much of the seasonings as desired, I use quite a bit, and roll them into the patty. Place patty on George Foreman or any grill of choice. I highly recommend only cooking buffalo burgers to about medium, going beyond that can really dry out the meat and destroy the flavor.

While the burger is cooking toast the English muffin (like all sprouted-grain products) and then spread some of the home-made mayo on both sides. Next add the ketchup or salsa, the mustard and the guacamole as evenly as possible. Last, add the spinach. Toss the cooked burger in and savor the awesomeness.

I recommend enjoying the burger with a side of baby carrots and hummus. This meal provides some very high quality protein, some high quality carbs and fiber, some saturated and monounsaturated fats, and some vegetables all in a delicious package. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Stuff You Should Read

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

1. Bad cholesterol: It’s not what you think – It’s time to rethink the halo-and-pitchfork view of our blood fat levels. MSN Health actually came out with a great article on heart disease and cholesterol! To be honest it was actually written by Men’s Health, but it is a step. This article was absolutely excellent, and really continues yesterday’s theme about dietary cholesterol and how 40 years of advice may not have been helping you at all. The book on heart disease is being rewritten, and it is about damn time. Below are some of my favorite quotes from the article:

“Just because you have less of the symptom (statin users take note) doesn’t mean you’ll have less of the disease.”

“After looking for relationships correlating with the 8 percent of people who went on to develop cardiovascular disease, they found three scenarios that predicted it, from the most powerful predictor to the least:

1. High levels of smaller and medium LDL combined with low HDL (a dreaded diabetes-linked syndrome Dr. Krauss had previously called atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype, or pattern B)
2. Low HDL Levels
3. High total LDL Levels

According to Dr. Krauss, the three risk factors appear to represent three separate processes that put your cardiovascular health at risk. For men, the first two scenarios are more predictive of heart disease, but the third — high total LDL — was only marginally predictive of heart disease in men. Nowhere to be seen, of course, is the “total cholesterol” number doctors have been bashing us over the head with for decades. Turns out that number is not as useful a predictor for individuals.”

Since heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, do yourself a favor, read this article!

2. Magnesium and Insulin Sensitivity – by Stephan Guyenet. Stephan always has absolutely awesome information on his blog. In this post he discusses the connection between magnesium deficiency, as more and more Americans are deficient, and its link to proper insulin sensitivity and glucose control.

He also goes into detail on further implications it might have, such as impact on blood cholesterol levels (improving blood magnesium levels can decrease LDL and triglycerides, and increase HDL). This is a quick and very interesting read, which he wraps up with ways to get more magnesium into your diet. Check it out.

3. Apples vs. Ho Ho’s – by Tony Gentilcore. I think the title says it all. For everyone who lives on 100 calorie snack packs and the like, do yourself a favor and check out Tony humorously teaching you a thing or two.

4. The Case Against Conventional Dairy – by Me. I personally think this is the greatest blog post I have ever written, and it is certainly the longest and most thoroughly detailed. If you want to learn more about dairy, its health benefits and potential health consequences, do not miss my self-proclaimed magnum opus.

I also want to give a quick shout out to CP Bobsled Olympian Bree Schaff. Bree kicked some ass and came in 5th, and she has only been in bobsled for 2 years!

I will be on vacation in sunny Florida all next week, but I will make it my mission to still post a blog or two. Have a great weekend everybody!

The Low Down on Cholesterol

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Just a quick reminder before we get started today, do not forget that Eric Cressey is having is Spring Training Sale through the end of today. Just type in FEB2010 at checkout to get 30% off many of his products. Find out more HERE.

As many of you probably read Tony Gentilcore’s scathing blog post the other day on eggs, cholesterol and why the cashier’s at Trader Joe’s suck, I am going to continue in the “cholesterol from your diet raises your blood cholesterol and causes heart disease theme.”

I just finished reading Dr. Jonny Bowden’s revised new edition of Living Low Carb. It is an excellent book that covers a lot of reasons why reducing carb intake, and improving carb sources, will go a long way to maximizing your health. He also busts some myths, gives supplement advice, and analyzes popular low-carb diets (he gave Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, a friend and colleague of mine, the top recommendation for her wonderful book Women’s Health Perfect Body Diet).

In Living Low Carb Dr. Bowden throws out some awesome information that really helps to show why the intense focus on saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease is misguided. Today we are going to focus more on the dietary cholesterol side of things.

He references the enormous and long-term Framingham Heart Study, one of the largest studies ever undertaken to prove the point.

This data clearly shows, from hundreds of thousands of people, that on average, dietary cholesterol intake had no impact on blood levels of cholesterol. People who ate below the average amount of cholesterol or above it had equal blood cholesterol levels. The body has a negative feedback system. When we consume more cholesterol, we produce less (granted there are people who’s system is broken, but they are the exception, not the rule).

We also have some similar info from another large-scale long-term study, the Tecumseh study.

Oddly enough, or probably not so odd, people in the upper 33% of blood cholesterol levels had the lowest cholesterol intake from their diet, showing yet again that dietary cholesterol intake has little to no impact on blood cholesterol levels.

Even Ancel Keys, the misguided creator of all this saturated fat/cholesterol causes heart disease nonsense, stated, in 1991 no less, “There’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood and we’ve known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter unless you happen to be a chicken or a rabbit.”

Well that statement was only 40 years late and after we had become a nation obsessed with the wrong data, but we seem to finally to heading in the right direction.

The Wonders of Cherries

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Since I posted my Chocolate Cherry Bliss Smoothie recipe, I have gotten questions from readers and clients about why I love that smoothie so much.

Everyone seems to get that I love it because it is absolutely delicious (I am currently obsessed with it, drink it nearly every day and always before training). I also love it because cherries are one of the world’s most underrated fruits.

Cherries are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer compounds. They contain powerful compounds, like the flavonoid quercetin (also high in apples and onions), ellagic acid (also in raspberries) and perillyl alcohol. I did my senior year capstone project on the health benefits of berries, and while cherries are not exactly berries (some sources say they are, some say no), we included them anyway because they kick so much ass.

Quercetin has anti-cancer properties, and is strongly anti-inflammatory as it influences cellular mechanisms. There are a lot of in vitro studies showing the powerful anti-inflammatory  and anti-cancer properties, and some anti-tumor properties as well. While in vitro studies certainly do not make quercetin out to be a magic bullet, it is another piece of ammo in the fight against cancer.

Ellagic acid also has anti-cancer properties and can prevent unwanted changes to our DNA (anti-mutagenic). It has been shown to inhibit tumor growth, and may also have anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. The studies on ellagic acid were in vitro, and in animal studies, and even a few human studies showing its health benefits as well. This is good stuff.

Perillyl alcohol has also been shown to inhibit tumor growth. In studies done on animals it has inhibited tumors in pancreatic, stomach, colon, skin and liver cancer. It causes apoptosis of the cancer cells, where the cancer cells commit cell suicide. Pretty sweet.

Another awesome benefit of cherries is its enormous amounts of anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are pigments that give cherries (and other berries) their bright red color. Cherries and raspberries have the highest amounts of anthocyanins. These anthocyanins are natural COX-2 inhibitors, and in one study were found to be comparable to ibuprofen and naproxen in their ability to suppress COX-2 activity. Some interesting stuff for those of you with arthritis or joint pain.

Cherries are also high in vitamin C, potassium and fiber, along with tasting like they were sent from heaven. It also always important to remember that real food, like cherries, are always more than the sum of their parts. Their nutrients work in synergistic ways to make us healthier, that go beyond what we measure on single-nutrient studies.

For more info like this, please check out Dr. Bowden’s amazing book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. It just might change the way you eat.

You Asked, I Answered

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

Before we get started today I have a few announcements.

Eric Cressey is having a phenomenal sale for the next week. From today through midnight on Thursday, February 25, you can get 30% off on The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training, and The Art of the Deload by entering the coupon code FEB2010 at checkout from his Products Page.

This is actually the first time that The Truth About Unstable Surface Training has ever gone on sale since its release, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to pick up some first-of-its-kind research and the practical applications associated with it. Check it out HERE.

I also want to mention that I added a whole bunch of new and exciting stuff to my Resources page, and it is about time! I get asked by clients all the time what chia seeds I get, or what cacao nibs or protein powder I like, as well home gym equipment and books, it is all there, so check it out HERE.

If liked by you guys, I would like to make You Asked, I Answered a weekly post. I get a lot of questions, comments on new posts, and comments on old posts. This gives me a great outlet to answer these questions and comments, and actually gets the answers seen by the most amount of people, which I think is vitally important as it allows for even more discussion. I won’t include names of the people asking the questions, so just let me know what you think.

Q. Brian,

For those not taking in any casein from any source, would combining something like Whey Cool with either a fiber supplement from DFH (or other brand) or fibrous vegetables along with some quality fat essentially make up for choosing straight whey over a whey/casein blend?

Obviously casein gets touted before bedtime and you have noted that a whey/casein blend PW is likely superior to either one as a standalone, but would the above options also potentially provide a happy medium in those contexts?

A. Casein does get touted as a pre-bed protein source, which I think is kind of ridiculous, but it certainly is not going to hurt. Whether it is actually any more effective is certainly up for debate. It might be, but it might also be a little obsessive-compulsive. Just eat.

As for post-training, a whey/casein blend has been shown to be superior to either one alone. Now there still is not an answer as to whether a whey/casein shake is actually any more beneficial than solid food, especially if proper pre-training nutrition needs are met. The data on it is just lacking. Having said that, if you choose not to have any source of casein, then I think a blend of whey with some fiber and healthy fat (like my smoothie recipes) is not a bad idea, but I still might add a slower digesting protein to the mix if you are really concerned about it.

Personally I usually just recommend a whey-based smoothie before training and some real food post, as that seems to work best for most of my clients schedules. I really think in the long run the difference between a shake, a whole-food meal, or even a whey/casein shake in the context of a solid overall diet is minimal to negligible. It might make a difference, it really might, but it might not. If every little pound counts for you, then by all means do what you have to do, but if you train to be healthy and fit and are not worried about getting as absolutely massive as possible, then a whey/casein shake immediately post-training is not completely necessary.

Q. Brian do you find the hemp seed butter tasty or just “passable” but willingly included given its stellar nutrient profile?

On the topic of borage oil, I have read that this tends to be quickly converted to nervonic acid (which is supposedly good for myelin production), but that evening primrose oil, while a less concentrated source of GLA than borage oil, is potentially a better source. As far as you know, is there any truth to this?

A. I personally find the hemp seed butter to be “passable” by itself, but when put on a warm Ezekiel English muffin with a dollop of some organic fruit spread on top, then I think it is actually quite delicious. It does have an absolutely stellar nutritional profile and that certainly does not hurt. (I wrote more about the awesomeness of hemp, HERE)

I have read quite a bit about borage and evening primrose oil. The research I have seem has shown minimal side effects with either one, and they both have some research showing their benefits for decreasing blood pressure, atopic dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis and more. As far as I know they are both fine options, the choice is simply up to you.

More reading on benefits and side effects of borage oil.

More reading on benefits and side effects of evening primrose oil.

Have a great weekend everybody, and let me know what you think about the weekly post!

Make A Healthy Eating Routine

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

For many people who try to change their eating habits and can never make it stick (and for all of you who maybe have fallen off the wagon for your New Year’s resolution), this is often due to a lack of a routine. Humans are creatures of habit. Every morning we do the same thing; get up, eat breakfast (probably the same), take a shower, go to work, etc. The trick is to utilize this, and make it work for you, not against you.

Often times when people want to begin eating better they buy all this healthy food, but have no game plan for what their meals will look like. They try lots of different combinations, and all kinds of cool “healthy” recipes, but somehow they still can’t seem to stick to it. As weird as it may sound, including too much variety in the beginning can make things much more challenging, and less likely to work. In fact that was one of the only complaints with the original Warp Speed Fat Loss, so when when Warp Speed Fat Loss 2.0 came out, Mike offered a diet plan with a lot more continuity and a lot less variety, to great success.

Sometimes, actually most of the time, removing the thinking from the equation makes life, and eating, a hell of a lot easier. One of the best things that I have found with my clients is to keep things are routine as possible, especially for the first few months. This means less variety, but more consistency.

Find meals that you like and stick with them. I usually suggest finding 3 options for each meal or snack, and either rotating them as needed, or just alternate days. These options do not even have to be very different to make it feel like you are having some variety, but still being consistent. For example having an omelet with 2 slices of sprouted grain toast could be changed to some scrambled eggs with some oatmeal and blueberries the next day. Usually the less drastic the difference, the better.

This may sound boring, as variety is the spice of life, but until you have your eating habits locked in place and you are able to kind of put it on cruise control, then this can make that transition from poor eater to good eater go much more smoothly. Make a routine and stick with it for a while. Slowly add in substitutions, or maybe just have a different dinner every night to keep things more exciting. Find what works best for you, and stick to it, as that is the fastest way to success.

Another good thing about making a routine is that you can see how you respond to different foods and/or meals. If you are consistently eating the same things, or basically the same things day in and day out, it allows you to monitor your response for a few hours after each meal and see how you feel. Are you sluggish? Are you sleepy? Are you full or hungry? Are you energized? Things of that nature.

To wrap it up, in the beginning take the guesswork out and keep it as basic and consistent as possible. Monitor your responses to foods, slowly add in more variety as you feel comfortable and can stay consistent to your eating habits (see my suggestions here and here), and learn to enjoy the taste of real food!

Once you have mastered that, then you can really take advantage of some awesome cookbooks like Gourmet Nutrition, Body By Eats, and The Healthiest Meals on Earth and enjoy everything they have to offer.

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Recipes

I hope everyone had an excellent Valentine’s Day. My wife and I relaxed all day, watched movies and made a deliciously huge breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, and some awesome buckwheat pancakes. We also took our puppy (her name is Lucy by the way) to her first puppy kindergarten, she rocked it. Anyway, back to delicious blueberry buckwheat pancakes.

Many, many blogs ago I wrote about the awesomeness that is buckwheat. Buckwheat rocks, as it tastes delicious, is a complete protein, is gluten-free and has minimal impact on blood sugar. In that blog I also mentioned how much I love buckwheat pancakes, especially loaded with Maine blueberries. A reader asked for a recipe, and today I am coming through, as I finally decided to come up with one!

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Redmond Real Salt
• 2 packets Truvia (or 2 tbsp sugar)
• 1 large omega-3 egg, beaten
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 2 tbsp melted Organic Valley pasture butter
• 1 cup Wyman’s Maine wild frozen blueberries

Mix all the dry ingredients together until well blended. Then add one wet ingredient at a time, mixing well after each addition. The batter make look a little thin, but this is how it is supposed to look. Makes 2 large or 4 small pancakes.

Nutrition Facts (per 1 small pancake)

• Calories – 235 calories
• Protein   – 5 grams
• Carbs     – 29 grams
• Fiber      – 5.5 grams
• Fat         – 11 grams

Enjoy with a delicious veggie omelet and you have a breakfast of champions!

New CP Website

On another note CresseyPerformance.com has had a face-lift. The new site, created by Dynamic Diagrams, is phenomenal. A completely interactive site; chock full of videos, a sweet blog that you should definitely subscribe to, and a weekly-updated news feed, you will be sure to find some cool stuff. Check it out now!