Nell Stephenson's Blog, page 55

Silly Paleo

Every morning, when I check my email, I scan through my Google alerts.

Whereas as recently as just a few years ago, the alerts would draw attention to a new study that had been done or a book that had been released, the notifications today are now bordering on, or beyond, laughable.

Scrolling down the entire email, you’ll see a laundry list of Faux Paleo recipes, one after the other, such as Double Chocolate Bacon Paleo Brownies, Banana Paleo Pancakes with Coconut Whipped Cream and perhaps some Cauliflower Paleo ‘Porridge’ with raisins, cinnamon and honey.

What began as a means to creating an occasional treat within the realm of keeping consistent to a True Paleo regime has spawned a veritable Paleo monster, that’s no longer even Paleo.

My wish would be that this growing number of pretend, silly Paleo food-like items is a flash in the pan part rather than something that could get so big as to overtake the real approach, which is all too often, and incorrectly, referred to as a trend.

If only these recipes, websites, cookbook and informational sources could be presented with the proverbial grain of salt, to let those new to Paleo understand that any of the examples listed above can certainly be enjoyed from time to time.

However, to base the entire regime on daily consumption of them is not the point, does not mimic what our ancestors ate with foods readily available to us in our grocery stores and farmer’s markets and does not allow the body to reduce inflammation.

And as there is no trademark on the word, Paleo, it’s used more and more loosely.  Just the other day I saw a box of energy bars at the local bike shop marked ‘Paleo friendly’ that contained soy, cane syrup, rice syrup and oats.

What’s next?  Paleo Pizza Hut?

Wish I were kidding, but it really has gotten that bad.

What can we do?  Well, for one thing, a quick email to any company manufacturing items being sold as Paleo that are not won’t hurt.

It all really just comes back to education.   Teach yourself, teach others and lead by example.  And maybe don’t buy the Paleo protein made from pea powder with added aspartame.  

Ugh.

Pain Management

Think about what that term really means and how we take for granted what the underlying message is, such as some of the following false, but common beliefs:

Pain is something to have, then manage, usually with some type of pills.  
Further, pain is just part of getting older, right?  If you have pain in your knees when you walk and your forty, you should just assume it’s because you’re no longer a spring chicken, then just suck it up and take some Advil.
Pain will not be affected by anything you eat.  
Exercise might make your pain worse, so if you’re feeling tight or stiff, you should probably lie still in bed, for fear of worsening things.

Please!

How about pain prevention, instead?

Pain is not a normal part of getting older (and keep in mind that the mention of the forty year old being old is a joke: I’m nearly forty and hardly feel it’s old!), pain is largely affected by what you eat, in particular if you eat a highly inflammatory type of diet and moving can actually facilitate healing.

But the bigger and most important issue is to get to the source and find out why you are having pain in the first place.  

This may entail the help of professionals, such as physical therapists, chiropractors, biomechanical specialists or whomever you like to include in your arsenal of those who can help.

Wouldn’t you rather sort out the culprit, set it straight and not have the pain in the first place?

Even if you’ve sustained a terrible accident or horrible illness, there’s never a reason to settle with being in pain each day.  Seek out any and all alternative practitioners, functional medicine docs and whomever you can find that will help free you from feeling afraid to move and trapped in your own body.

Don’t just down the ibuprofen and think it’s normal and ok.

It’s not.

Don’t manage your pain- prevent it form occurring in the first place!

Yoga-A Very Paleoista Thing to Do

The classical techniques of Yoga date back more than 5,000 years.  Paleo dates back…just a tad bit longer (2,495,000 years more, but who’s counting).

Suffice it to say that cavemen and their female counterparts didn’t likely partake.

However, when I read about an event like Wanderlust,  festivals which, according to their site, are “ all-out, ecstatic celebrations, bringing together the world’s leading yoga teachers, top musical acts, renowned speakers, exquisite chefs, and thrilling performers, weaving together an experience that surprises and delights”, I find something very tribal about the concept.

If we were to take away all the stress and frills of modern day living, remove all the possessions we have and congregate together in a space on unified ground, what would we have?   A group of people, plain and simple.

If all these people had opted to participate in an event such as this (for the record, I’ve never attended this festival, but for purposes of having an example of people uniting to engage in a common activity from which all will benefit, it seems a good example), one could assume they might have some common goals such as reducing stress, relaxing and taking time to just be.

It’s sounds quite simple.

Equally simple: a True Paleo regime.  Take away the media telling us it’s a good idea to eat pretend sugar in little pink packets.  Remove the top dogs of the fake-food industry who suggest we need to eat lots of grain and dairy and to go ahead and enjoy a cookie.   Omit the concept of packaging, preserving and drug-pushing (oops- meant to write refined carb pushing) and then what are we left with?   Real food groups, plain and simple.

The common thread is taking away all the modern junk and implementing a back-to-basics regime.

With yoga, we don’t need anything, sure a mat is nice, but all the strengthening, stretching and toning one might want to do can be done with one’s own body.

With Paleo, we also don’t need any extras- just what grows nearby and what feeds on what grows.

Simple.  Healthy. Real.

That should clear things up a little!

Trendy Paleo Could Make Pets Sick. Pardon?

An article on NPR’s website, asks whether a ‘trendy diet could be making dogs sick’.

Guess what ‘trend’ they were referring to?

Yes, the brand- new, never been tried before, Paleo regime.

Right.   Because it hasn’t been around for 2.5 million years?

After the initial visceral, skeptical  response I experienced by the title, I carried on to read what the premise might be.

One vet stated in the article, ”There are two issues with raw pet food diets…many are not nutritionally balanced for pets … and there’s also the public health issue.“

Fair enough on the first point.   I am certainly not an animal nutrition expert, but it’s not too hard to figure out that dogs and cats in the wild, or rather, their ancestors, would not eat just meat.  They’d kill something and eat the whole thing, including the contents of the guts.

I actually saw this with my own eyes; our family dog was a hunter in her own right and when I was little, my dad and I observed on one occasion her hunt, capture and consumption of an entire woodchuck…even the grass within the stomach of the creature.

Ever notice how your dog might exhibit ‘odd’ behavior sometimes, of eating grass?  Well, guess why they might be doing that?  Chances are, they got into (or were given) something they shouldn’t have consumed, gotten a bit stopped up and then are following their intuition to get some fiber to get things moving again.

Bottom line- just giving your pet plain raw meat isn’t going to cut it.  But then, that’s not the Paleo diet.

Moving along to another point in the article which piqued my interest, “…raw food diets are not necessarily more natural, …domestic dogs have evolved to eat more carbs because they have evolved along with humans.“

OK, maybe so; again, I am not going to claim to be an expert on canine evolution, however I will comment that why must these carbs come from the grains that infiltrate so many pet foods, even the most premium (read – expensive) brands that you might find at your vet’s office?

I’m an athlete, and and I’m Paleo and guess what I eat when preparing for long endurance activity!  Yam.

And guess what we feed our fifteen year old Weimaraner as part of her balanced, raw diet? A concoction made of ground beef, offal and….sweet potatoes along with fish oil, antioxidants and some assorted natural enzymes provided by her vet.

I hardly think it’s a coincidence that Daisy is about to turn fifteen, given the fact that she’s a retired endurance athlete who is Paleo.

“In 2012, the American Veterinary Medical Association adopted a policy discouraging raw food diets for pets.”

Hmm… this sounds familiar.   What other organization can you think of that discourages what is essentially a natural, real food based approach to eating (read:  Paleo), in this case for humans, that could potentially serve to gain by not providing all the information in the interest of achieving higher sales?

“Still, advocates say raw food is closer to the way animals would eat in the wild. Dogs are carnivores; they’re not meant to eat grains that are found in most commercial pet food products.”

Couldn’t agree more.  Dogs don’t need to eat zero-nutrition quality, inflammatory fillers that make them sick, fat and develop ‘allergies’ any more than we do.

Finally, the article concludes with, “ feeding raw and feeding dogs people food are unlikely to make much of a dent in the commercial dog food market anytime soon. Sales of dry dog food have been increasing for the past 13 years, from a $5 billion market in 2000 to a $9 billion market in 2013, according to the Pet Food Institute.”

Great.  Just like the sugar industry.  Sales keep growing, people keep getting addicted and being told that ‘it’s ok’ and false information continues to be presented.

Do yourself, and your pets a favor.  Learn about giving them a balanced food plan, whether you make it yourself or purchase it from a good, local source, and give them the gift of health and a lifetime of  well being… rather than waiting for them to develop a dull coat, allergies and worse… cancer, and then trying to fix it.

Why make them suffer from what could be prevented all along?

Just like for dogs- serve them real food and get them moving.

True Paleo is not dangerous for pets.  ”Raw meat only” is not True Paleo.  Period.

Proud to Be A Part: Managing Your Health Portfolio June 17th, Los Angeles

I’m proud to announce my participation on a panel of experts at the upcoming

MANAGING YOUR HEALTH PORTFOLIO

presented by The Women’s Business Council of the Century City Chamber of Commerce 

Invest in your total wellness!

The esteemed panel of experts and specialists help you take stock of all of the facets of your health including physical, environmental, spiritual and emotional:

 Dr. Kristi Funk, Board Certified Surgical Breast Specialist at Pink Lotus Breast Cancer Center and Angelina Jolie’s surgeon

 Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, Director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute

 Dr. Judith Reichman, attending Physician in Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai and medical contributor on women’s health for NBC’s Today Show

 Dr. Ava Shamban, Board Certified Dermatologist and skin expert on CBS’ The Doctors (invited)

and…me!

 Nell Stephenson, Paleo lifestyle consultant, private fitness trainer and seen on Dr. Oz

TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2014 – 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM

Ray Kurtzman Theater at CAA 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, CA 90067

FOR REGISTRATION: WWW.CENTURYCITYCC.COM OR 310.553.2222

No admittance at door 

Hope to see you there!

What Is True Paleo?

I saw this comic on a friend’s Facebook page and I just had to turn it into the topic of a blog post.

While I’m not one to represent the caveman approach to True Paleo, I must say that this sketch really hits the nail on the head.

The purpose of a True Paleo regime, per Dr. Loren Cordain is “based upon the fundamental concept that the optimal diet is the one to which we are genetically adapted.”

The idea is to mimic what our ancestors ate (what they could hunt, gather and forage) with foods easily available to us in our grocery stores, farmer’s markets and our own back yards.

Plants and animals.

That’s it.

Take a step back and look at how silly this is getting!  Taking once-healthy, natural foods, refining them, taking them out of balance and sticking on a Paleo sticker is not the idea.

Eat food. Don’t it things that are not food. And move.

And please refer to Dr Cordain’s work if you have a question about what’s real and what’s not.  Sure, peruse the work of all the other people in the Paleo sphere, and decide for yourself how Paleo you want to be, but at least educate yourself first so you can make informed decisions before trying something that’s more faux Paleo and stating to the world that Paleo doesn’t work.

 

Thin Mints- Girl Scout Cookies, E-Cigarettes… or Both?

Ah… there’s nothing like biting into a Girl Scout Cookie!   It fits perfectly into the ‘everything in moderation’ approach and, even better, you’re helping to support an empowering organization, right?

Not so much.

Empowering organization, yes, but I’ve long had a problem with the fact that what they sell each year is something that goes beyond being bad for you… it contains a very addictive substance:  white sugar.  

We’ll save this issue for another blog post, but for the purposes of this one, this is precisely why I found the arguments put forth by the Girl Scouts  regarding their name being shared by an e-cigaratte company almost humorous.

According to an article in the Huffington Post, 

“…the owners of those trademarks are fighting back to make sure their brands aren’t being used to sell an addictive drug or make it appealing to to children”

Wait…. is sugar not an addictive drug and are Girl Scout Cookies not made appealing to children?

Don’t get me wrong- I am not in favor of promoting e-cigarettes to people who do not smoke for purposes of adopting a new habit, however, I must think there is at least some creditability to the idea that, as per the article “E-cigarette users say the devices address both the addictive and behavioral aspects of smoking without the thousands of chemicals found in regular cigarettes.”

So if one uses e-cigarettes in a good faith attempt to wean themselves off the real deal, is that not a good thing?

And are the tables not actually turned a little in terms of who is promoting an addictive substance and who might be offering a way to stop using a different addictive substance?

Of course, using the name of an existing product without permission to do so is another issue in itself, but back to the point, and I repeat the question I asked above:

Is sugar not an addictive drug and are Girl Scout Cookies not made appealing to children?  

Care to comment, General Mills Inc., the Girl Scouts of the USA and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. (three of the several companies that have sent cease-and-desist letters to makers of the liquid nicotine demanding they stop using the brands and may take further legal action if necessary)?

Airline Dining- Making Steps Toward Real Food

Let’s face it.  When we think about airline cuisine, we don’t exactly conjure up images of fine dining.   However, I was happy to see that things may be a-changing.

I’ve got to say that the meals I’ve had over the past couple of years on American have actually been quite nice.  

For one thing, by simply calling ahead and asking for gluten-free, you can at least assure yourself you won’t get poisoned by that one culprit.   I’ve had meals such as filet mignon with veggies (yes, they still had polenta or rice, which was easy enough just to avoid),  a salad with simply grilled chicken breast and a veggie omelet.

I’ve also noticed American offering fresh fruit as an alternative to those horrible packets of pretzel and peanut mixes.

Air France seems to be paving the way with their announcement to partner  Joël Robuchon, the chef with the most Michelin guide stars in the world.

A few other airlines making progress, according to CandianBusiness.com include:

Air Canada -  recognized as offering the healthiest in-flight meals of any North American airline. This might include grilled sea bass, roasted fingerling potatoes and grilled vegetables.


Cathay Pacific -flights offer Chinese (sauteed prawns with kung po sauce, for example) and western dishes (grilled beef) as well as Shui gaw (pork and shrimp dumplings) in soup.


Air New Zealand - Working with celebrity chefs and award-winning sommeliers, the airline might offer such modern, fashionable fare as New Zealand snapper on yuzu braised fennel with potatoes, green beans and red pepper, caper and macadamia salsa.
Qantas- The Australian carrier has a 15-year partnership with renowned Chef Neil Perry. His menu might include toasted focaccia with grilled eggplant, goat cheese, semi-dried tomatoes and pesto. Quantas also collaborates with Gourmet Traveller to produce an entire magazine dedicated to Australian wine and food.

What airlines have you flown on and what was your experience like?   What #PaleoistaApproved Meals have you had the opportunity to experience?

If we can call in and order vegan, gluten-free, Hindu or Kosher, just to name a few permutations honored by many airlines, could a Paleo friendly option be in the works?

Why not?

Paleo for Athletes- Nutrition Talk with the LA Tri Club on June 16th

If you happen to be in LA in June, and are interested in learning a bit more about how a True Paleo regime can result in huge training and performance gains in triathlon, running and cycling, this event is a must-do.

Join me and my colleague, Samantha F. Grant, clinical nutritionist specializing in hormone correction, for: 

Winning Insights for Endurance Athlete Nutrition
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (PDT)
Santa Monica, CA

Presented by LA Tri Club, the original training group formed way back in the day, when triathlon was still small enough that you actually knew the other people who raced the circuit!  I joined in 2000 and am proud to be card-carrying  member # 19!

Click here to sign up!  

My book, Paleoista, will also be available for purchase along with a signing.  See you there!

Healthy Fat Does Not Equal Unlimited Fat

“Eat all the fat you want on the Paleo Diet, as long as there’s no trans fat.”  Pardon me?

“Use as much butter and cream as you like; just make sure it’s from grass fed cows.”   Come again?

“Bacon is fair game, every day, or multiple times per day.”  Sorry?

This is not the right idea.

Sure, the True Paleo Regime has a nice amount of good fat, but to think one can ‘consume unlimited amounts of fat’ and not risk gaining, or being able to lose weight is naive.  

While I’d certainly never recommend that one confine themselves to a lifetime of weighing and measuring, if you’re honestly following the real deal of a Paleo approach and not losing weight, one thing to consider would be to take a step back and analyze how much fat you’re really eating.

Even if it’s only for a day, just to get a sense of how much you’re really eating.

For example, perhaps you give your breakfast a long, steady pour of olive oil to top off your greens, eat a large handful (or two, or three) of raw nuts during the day at the office, help yourself to the entire bowl of homemade guacamole at a work luncheon and finish off an entire grass fed ribeye on top of a bed of arugula, and then heavy-handedly douse the skillet with coconut oil before sauteing some garlic and chopped broccoli.

Nothing wrong with a single one of those things, but if you were to measure it all, you could very well find the source of the hidden calories and subsequent reason for being unable to shed pounds.

To be clear, I am not for one second suggesting a low-fat approach.  This is simply intended to be an experiment to see how much you’re really eating.

One client did this and was shocked to find her caloric intake throughout one day was well over 3,500 calories.  She’s 5’4″, does yoga three times per week and was trying to reach her goal weight of 130 from a starting weight of 145.   She realized she was consuming 1/4 cup of olive oil in her sauteed veggies, nearly an entire cup of nuts and and another 1/4 cup of coconut oil in her dinner preparation, when she measured the typical amount she’d been using.

There are several reasons why one might  not be shedding pounds when they follow the True Paleo regime, and this could very well be one of them.

So, don’t go low fat, or fat free, just take one single day and see what you’re really eating.  There’s nothing better than some hard data to provide accurate answers, rather than getting frustrated, thinking you’re doing everything right, and it’s ‘just not working’ and then giving up.

The bottom line is simple- if you’re eating thousands of extra calories per day and only expending a fraction of that, you’re not going to lose weight.  Yes, you’re far less likely to experience blood sugar peaks and valleys if you’re eating too much fat compared to (any) white sugar, but it still needs to be looked at for data collection if you’re getting irritated and are about to call it quits.

Check yourself!