Nell Stephenson's Blog, page 93

Race Day is Here

When this post goes live, I’ll just have started my swim of today’s Ironman Hawaii 70.3.

The bike course is pat of the very same road we race on in October (pictured above- me racing along the Queen K…)

Aside from World Championships in Kona, this course, this race, is always a very special one for me.    My husband and I met through our sport and to be able to be here together racing is just awesome.

Can’t really complain at the idea of a trip to Hawaii- the people so friendly and welcoming and the atmosphere so relaxing.  It’s a sheer gift to have the opportunity to be here where the sport really began and to race on what’s essentially triathlon’s hallowed ground.

From beginning athletes to some of the top pros, from younger to not so young athletes and, the athletes I always find to be the most inspiring- the physically challenged athletes- we all share the common theme of enjoyment of the training, racing and camaraderie. 

Send your good vibes and check in online at www.ironmanlive.com at the time the race begins- 7 AM Hawaii time.

See you at the finish!

The Prevalence of Pseudo Paleo

You decide.  Which is more Paleo?

Option 1: Tropical oil blend (coconut, palm , coconut), canola oil, salt, natural flavor, sunflower lecithin, lactic acid

or

Option 2: Fresh coconut

Not too tricky to pick, is it?  

This may be a simplistic example, but it speaks volumes for the inundation of products we’re seeing these days with foods that may or may not claim to be Paleo outright and may or may not actually be.

This product I’ve chosen as an example doesn’t use Paleo as a reference in any way, shape or form and yes, it’s a better option from a health perspective than margarine, but still not as good of a choice as just eating from a coconut!

We’ve got to stop fooling ourselves into thinking that neatly packaged items containing foods that may have once been a fresh, healthy option but have been highly processed and mixed with other items that we can hardly call food are still good parts of any healthy eating approach, regardless of whether or not one follow a Paleo lifestyle.

Not in a place where you can find fresh coconut?   Not a problem- use an organic coconut oil as one of your good fat sources, balanced with avocado, olive oil as well as the fats we naturally get in our proteins, such as the fantastic dollop of Omega 3s we find in Wild Salmon.

Rule of thumb- count the steps it took from the food item to go from being a fresh, actual, real food to the product you’re considering buying and eating.  The more steps, the less likely it is to have as much nutrition and the more likely it is to  be inflammatory…and therefore, not Paleo.

Great Food, Wrong Place

I just arrived in Hawaii and was reminded of something that’s rather odd, yet all too common:  foods that we demand being available to us in places they’d not typically be found.

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast yesterday, consisting of Waimea spinach and mixed lettuces, fresh fish, pineapple and mango, all from the buffet bar (nice to have such Paleo friendly options).   

Of course, there were also the typical buffet offerings of pastries, bagels and breads, which are easy enough to pass right by without even a second thought.

But there, among the beautiful display of fresh local fruit, were berries (which we found out had come from Oregon), apples (from Washington) and oranges (from Florida).

As far as healthy, fresh options, all of those fruit are great choices, and completely Paleo… but given the bounty of what grows right here on the island, why do we need to have all these other fruits flown in from thousands of miles away?

The same thing goes at dinner- where we can choose local Opah or Mahi Mahi…yet if we wanted, we could also select beef from California.

We really need to think twice about what we’re eating, even beyond whether or not something is a healthy choice for our bodies, but whether it’s a healthy choice for the planet!

Grocery Store Atrocities

Eating straight from the salad bar, munching on a bag of chips with the same hands that are pushing the shopping cart and snacking on unwashed berries from the produce section are just three of the behaviors I see all too regularly when I’m doing my twice weekly grocery shop.

And it’s not little kids doing this- if it were, it would be at least somewhat more appropriate for the age, but still hopefully something that their parent would reprimand.

I’m talking about adults.   Not sure if it’s a mere function of just not thinking about what they’re doing, but it’s sure an easy way to pick up and spread bacteria, virus and yes, I’ll say it…germs.

While I’m not a germaphobe (Ok, I do have a rather strong penchant for cleanliness), this type of thing is just gross.

I wish I hadn’t seen an elderly lady make her way around the salad bar with a fork at the local Whole Foods, for no other reason than I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to report it to one of the cooks who was standing by and happened to have seen it, too;  every single dish of food she’d tried was subsequently thrown away for risk of contamination.

It’s already pushing it to take bites of things from the fridge at home that others might want some of (or even if it’s just you- the bacteria we all have in our mouths does not do nice things to foods it touches), but to do that in public?  Yikes!

What about all the unwashed hands that have touched the shopping cart or sneezes that have landed on serving spoons at the salad bar which are going straight into one’s mouth?

What are people thinking?  Or not thinking?

Is washing one’s hands and food that tricky?

Ok, done ranting…for now.

Getting Rid of the Good Stuff…Intentionally

Sugar sells.  

We all know this.  

If it weren’t the case, we wouldn’t see so much of it in so many ‘food’ products ranging from those in which it’s screamingly obvious, like candy and cakes, to those where it may be a bit subtler – canned spaghetti sauces or soups.

While none of the four examples just mentioned are remotely natural, even foods that we’d like to think of as being ‘naturally sweet’ are not necessarily all that so.

Take corn.   Not a vegetable, but a grain, so not Paleo, but we’ll use it as a good example, as it was one of the focus foods in a recent article from the Sunday Times.  

“SUPERSWEET corn, which now outsells all other kinds of corn, was born in a cloud of radiation. Beginning in the 1920s, geneticists exposed corn seeds to radiation to learn more about the normal arrangement of plant genes. They mutated the seeds by exposing them to X-rays, toxic compounds, cobalt radiation and then, in the 1940s, to blasts of atomic radiation. All the kernels were stored in a seed bank and made available for research. In 1959, a geneticist named John Laughnan was studying a handful of mutant kernels and popped a few into his mouth. (The corn was no longer radioactive.) He was startled by their intense sweetness. Lab tests showed that they were up to 10 times sweeter than ordinary sweet corn. A blast of radiation had turned the corn into a sugar factory! Mr. Laughnan was not a plant breeder, but he realized at once that this mutant corn would revolutionize the sweet corn industry. He became an entrepreneur overnight and spent years developing commercial varieties of supersweet corn. His first hybrids began to be sold in 1961. This appears to be the first genetically modified food to enter the United States food supply, an event that has received scant attention.”

You’ve got to love the little disclaimer about how Mr. Laughnan ate the corn only because it was no longer radioactive…phew.

It goes on to outline some commonly found foods and how lacking in nutrients they are compared to their healthier alternatives:  iceberg lettuce compared to arugula, wild chokeberries compared to conventionally grown berries and purple Peruvian potatoes compared to white Russets.

Not surprising to note the references to the more bitter foods, like wild dandelion, which are significantly higher in nutrients than spinach, are not seen as often for the simple fact that most people’s palate has (unfortunately) become adapted to wanting sweet, sweet and sweeter.

The more bitter, the better!

Adding more veggies to one’s diet is definitely a step in the right direction, but it is just that- a step.  We still need to be diligent about researching where our food came from and making sure it’s not modified!   

Today’s NY Times referred to a staggering 90% of the four major staple crops of the US (none Paleo- corn, soy, sugar and canola) being modified.

Another reason to steer clear and stay Paleo!

Click here to read the whole article

Allergy Shots for the Dog?

I wish I were making this up but sadly, I’m not.

A friendly woman with whom I often chat at the gym, who I don’t know very well other than the fact that we both love dogs and I had a real convo this morning, and I left feeling really sorry for her canines.

She mentioned that one of her ‘kids’ is suffering from horrible allergies, manifesting in constant itching and scratching, to the point that her poor little paws are bleeding!   She’s taking her to the vet today to begin her treatment of allergy shots.

Allergy shots!?   For her dog!

Oh, dear… I just had to say something… so, I did.

I asked what she’s feeding her dog.  She said she eats a very top of the line lamb and rice food which she buys at the vet.

I subtly suggested she might want to try something without rice (um, pardon me but why the heck would a dog need rice?) because, even though the ‘premium food’ coming from the vet may be superior to the mega-saver bags of kibble at Costco, dogs can still be allergic to rice.

She didn’t want to hear me.

I completely recognize that you cannot change others, so I zipped my lips and just (sadly) listened to the rest of her diatribe about all the other things she was doing to try to help the dog including not letting the dog go anywhere grassy (as she felt that was a high-risk allergen area) and limiting the dog’s exposure to other dogs… just in case.

Do your own dog a favor and put him or her on a Paleo diet now… before some sort of sickness or ‘allergy’ manifests and you’ve then got to ‘fix’ rather than prevent.  

*Please note- don’t just ‘give your dog raw meat’; they do need more than that.   Check with your own vet, or refer to a great resource I learned about, Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.

 

(Incidentally, I wonder if it’s really an allergy if it’s in the context of eating something that we’re not meant to be eating in the first place?  For example, would it be fair to say I’m allergic to eating plastic?  Just sayin’…)

Using Up All Those Extras

If you’ve been doing a good job of making shopping for fresh, healthy Paleo food on a regular basis and preparing it, you’re ahead of the game.

As you grow more adventurous and creative in the kitchen, you may find that you’re enjoying following recipes to the letter isn’t as necessary as it used to be, since you know now roughly how much of  each ingredients you and your family enjoys in any given dish.

You’re accustomed to buying in bulk and making extra food to last for a few days and freezing the extras if need be.

But what to do with those foods that aren’t so easily saved, or may not seem worth trying to hang on to in the first place?

Enter the weekly refrigerator surprise.

Not only does creating a dish which literally uses up all the leftover bits encourage your own creativity, it also saves on cost.   

For example, you might open your fridge and see half a fennel bulb, a third of a bunch of cilantro, three carrots, some celery, half an onion and half a papaya, along with a raw, pastured chicken you were planning to truss, then roast.  

Not necessarily items you’d want to freeze, but perhaps you didn’t have a plan for them.   Rather than let them fall by the wayside, why not change the roast chicken plan and throw everything into the Dutch Oven and make a soup?

There are no rules, no recipes here.

Also, it’s really hard to make a mistake on a dish you’re creating as you go!

Since we typically don’t salt food on Paleo, you’re not at risk for over-doing it on the sodium, so aside from burning the whole thing, there’s really not much chance of anything going wrong.

This is also a great approach for when you’re about to go out of town unexpectedly and don’t want to leave the fridge full of food to go bad, nor discard it while it’s still fresh.

Talk about waste not, want not!

Up to the Eyeballs in Supplements?

“I take Vitamin D for bone density, along with Strontium and Vitamin K. Then, I use a topical yam cream to prevent menopausal side effects. Also, I take a food-base multi vitamin and Vitamin B for energy since I no longer eat bread. I use L Tryptophan to help me fall asleep and then I use a probiotic to support gut health. But, I checked all the labels and all my supplements state they are gluten-, soy-, dairy-, grain- , sugar- and yeast- free so they are Paleo, right?”

This was the opening conversation I had recently with a colleague I met who said she followed the Paleo diet.

Wow.

Where does it stop?

How many supplements are too many supplements?

To me, that list sounds rather lengthy. Not to mention rather costly.

However, not remotely uncommon. In fact, I came across a statistic recently on Whole Foods’ website that stated 44 %of their sales from supplements and only 25% from perishable foods.

What is it that’s making us buy these pills? I suppose it’s a step in the right direction compared to eating an appalling, inflammatory diet that makes us sick and combining it with prescription medications, but what are we trying to fix and what do we feel is so lacking in our diet that we need to spend so much on neatly packaged up capsules in which we don’t even really know what the contents are?

In addition, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that if it’s a ‘natural’ product you can buy at your local health food store that it’s safe. And please don’t go taking things that you’ve chosen to use as a self diagnosis for health issues you believe you have.

Using an iodine supplement to treat your own thyroid issue or yam cream to combat hot flash without being under the supervision of a trained ND or Functional Medicine doctor is not risk, or side-effect free.

If you’re a healthy person who takes a long, laundry list of supplements that you’ve chosen for yourself (as opposed to your ND having recommended something you medically need), here is a challenge for you: stop them and try going 100% Paleo for a month.

See if you feel any different, or perhaps even better.

(Incidentally, how many people who balk at the erroneous concept that Paleo has to be exorbitant are spending loads of cash on their vitamins?)

No matter how premium your vitamin is, it’s never going to be as good as what you’ll get in a balanced, fresh Paleo diet.

If you have a health concern, rather than just googling what some random forum online suggests, find a doctor who is trained in natural methods, who will listen to you and help create a plan with as little supplements and as much Paleo nutrition as you need to help you get to your optimal healthy most effectively… and without having to swallow twenty pills every day!

The Black & White vs Grey of Paleo

You walk into the restaurant, after having done the research online and making sure there were some Paleo options. You even went as far as to call ahead and make sure the items you’re interested in are confirmed soy-, gluten- and dairy- free.

But then…it happens. You see, in small letters, that the filet mignon comes from a ranch that despite being local, prides itself in feeding its stock corn. And the salmon you were considering for Plan B turns out to be farmed rather than wild.

What to do?

If you were alone, you could easily turn around and go elsewhere, but you’re at that particular restaurant to meet with your boss and some very important clients. Making a fuss and leaving in a huff is not exactly an option.

Is there a grey area in Paleo?

I believe there is.

Given the situation above, is it better to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater and go 180 degrees away from Paleo by ordering the Fettucini Alfredo instead of eating beef that’s not grass fed?

Sometimes, we find ourselves in a situation where we simply need to make the best choice out of some not-so-great options.

For me, as long as I knew there was nothing hidden in the dish, like gluten or soy in a marinade, I’d chose the beef that wasn’t grass fed.

To be clear, I am 100% in support of grass-fed meat, pastured poultry and wild fish, but if it were an extenuating circumstance, I’d choose the not 100% grass fed beef over the pasta dish, and the conventional broccoli as a side dish rather than the rice pilaf.

Do your best to stay as Paleo as you can, as often as you can, but if there is the one-off occasion where you’re in a pinch, being just a teeny bit flexible may be to your advantage.

Is IBS…BS?

For me, the diagnosis certainly was, years ago, before I found Paleo in 2005, and when I was suffering on a daily basis from excruciating abdominal pain and GI issues, despite eating what I thought was a healthy diet.

I was reminded of this today when, amongst all the other junk email I see in my inbox on a daily basis, I saw an ad for participants needed for a new IBS study.

Think they’re going to test the subject to see if they improve by going Paleo?  Ha! Not by a long shot.   Chances are better than not that it’s for yet another new medication to accompany the same, tired and ridiculous advice given to me such as ‘don’t eat any vegetables; they’re too hard to digest’ and ‘make sure to eat lots of plain toast and steamed rice to soothe your stomach’.

As if.

A client of mine, who happens to be an MD told me quite openly that the diagnosis of IBS is all too often used as a catch-all, when the doctor doesn’t exactly know what the cause of gastrointestinal issues including bloating, gassiness, cramping, diarrhea and constipation and various permutations thereof.

Lovely.

I speak from personal experience and don’t view the fact that I dealt with this for years as anything other than a gift; it brought me to Paleo, changed my life and now I have the amazing opportunity to share this knowledge with others.

Whatever it is you’re suffering from, IBS or nothing remotely related to it…do yourself a favor and tune into what you’re eating.  It may require thinking outside the box just a little and reconsidering foods that you were brought up to consider as healthy choices (hello, whole wheat) but it’s so incredibly worth it.