Just a suggestion, but I think you should have the next seminar in TX.

I do agree that Dr. Sears recommends food quality in his book. However, it bothers me that his product ingredients are not the same quality ingredients he recommends. His energy bars fit the 40/30/30 nutrient breakdown but they consist of soy protein and corn syrup! I don’t think we can label him as “paleo” because of this. If you do it’s the same as saying that Atkins is “paleo”. The Atkins plan also recommends food quality first while keeping carbs low but if you look at their product ingredients they are the same as Sear’s products. The only difference is that the Atkins products are low carb instead of 40/30/30.

Sample weeks meal plan for “Paleo Plus”.
Monday – Friday: Breakfast = Lactose Free Muscle Milk protein shake (6 ice cubes, vanilla almond milk or coconut milk, two scoops of protein powder, maybe a banana, then blend on the “magic bullet” and 4 strips of bacon. Lunch = Ribeye steak or other meat and maybe some broccoli with melted butter. Dinner (within 1 hour after CrossFit workout) = Another steak or some kind of meat (hamburger, turkey, chicken), maybe a vegetable, Another muscle milk shake, lots of fruit (banana, strawberries, cherries, tangerine, other berries)

That is basically how me and my family eat every day. Weekends are usually the same unless we go out of town, then i order whatever i want and do not eat the bread. I might have a cheat day once a month or so. Cheat day might consist of movie popcorn or a bun on a triple in and out burger.

as always, thanks for all the great info
Jay

I’m sorry Robb, I haven’t been keeping up with your site as I should. In the interests of disclosure, I only caught up because I was going through Google reader to get to the latest Weta Workshop post about District 9 and Comiccon and noticed a heap of posts on your blog that I hadn’t read.
This one in particular is a far more eloquent and well researched version of a mini-rant I’m making increasingly when newbies dismiss the Zone as non-paleo and therefore somehow of lesser value.

I do a lot of work answering questions from beginners on the CrossFit Brand X forum for Jeff and Mikki and we have been pointing people over here when they ask for more detailed information about nutrition than we can deal with. I’m going to do that much more. In particular I’ll be linking this and the post on the Zone and athletic performance often.
Saves me typing and spares my blood pressure.

Thanks for your good work.

Craig
aka Metric on the BX forum

I used to majorly push WAM until I finally clued in that none of clients were successful with it for more than about 4 weeks. Einstein says the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. 4 weeks seems to be the point at which their patience for counting their almonds runs out and they fall totally off the wagon. But people can stick to ordering a steak and vegetables in a restaurant when they’re allowed to freely eat paleo food (and not have an anxiety attack of whether it’s 4oz or 5oz).

My own experience with WAM was equally as depressing. I felt AWFUL (what’s with the lack of cals on the zone anyway? 10-14 blocks for a female, are you kidding?? I eat that for lunch…). At the end of 4 weeks of diligent adherence to the plan, my performance across all domains had fallen, I was crabby, hungry, and ready to kick my kitchen scale out the window. Now I eat paleo food, ad libitum. If i’m hungry, I eat, if I’m not, I don’t. Easy. And everything has improved since then – body comp, performance, strength, mood.

I run a paleo recipe blog http://www.cavegirlinthekitchen.blogspot.com on the side to keep the inspiration going for delicious caveman (or cavegirl!) food. No boring grilled chicken and steamed broccoli for me!

mayonnaise for tuna! this is not about perfection, just finding good options.

First I want to say this Blog is a great service to people like me. So I would like to say thank you.

I just started Crossfit workouts and need to lose about 60#s. I understand what I put in my mouth matters most so I am going to start Paleo this Sunday.

Do you think I will still get good results if I add Green Beans, Ezekiel Bread and humus to my Paleo Diet?

Also what can I add to tuna fish to make tuna fish salad?

Again thank you.

Aside from that – I own up to my ignorance of the Zone. But for some time I’ve been making the following argument, and perhaps it’s obvious, or perhaps there’s some novelty to the insight. I hope you’ll just say “Yeah that’s completely obvious and we’ve been saying it for years,” which is probably the case. Just this little point –

I think much of the explanation for the Zone’s success is that whenever carbs are consumed, they are always combined with fats, which indisputably buffer the body’s insulin response. You can dampen the stimulus of carbs by carefully combining them with a significant portion of fats, and it’s likely the proteins help as well (I cannot differentiate well using my Type 1 diabetic methods, but I can demonstrate clear as day how fats buffer blood sugar increases.) This does NOT decrease overall insulin load, but it does slow it down, which has implications for brain glucose metabolism, type 2 diabetes, and certainly energy levels; you can elaborate the further effects much better than I can.

When following the Zone faithfully, you’re consistently achieving much of the effect of a paleo diet by dampening the insulin response to the carbs. This point seems relevant to me. (Why is the zone effective even when it fails to differentiate bad calories from good calories? Because of its modest steps toward mimicking the Paleo diet.)

Anyway Robb, just wanted to let you know that I’m a thoughtless, clueless kool-aid drinker so if CFHQ gives you the boot I must immediately retract every instance of recognizing your sound work. Just a pack animal, I am. I leave integrity and intellectual honesty (and what seems to me to be a 3rd-grade level reading comprehension) to the leaders. Naturally I’ll wait for the status hierarchy to beat its chest before I even know what I think.

More seriously — That this conflict could persist is unimaginable. Coach Glassman is way too smart, and there are too many other independent thinkers within the crossfit community. You will triumph, just doing what you’ve been doing all along. Easy as breathing. You do not need to belittle your position or pretend your claims are modest; stand tall and keep smiling. And thank you so much for all your excellent work.

Remember that very distinctly, 18 months later.

You are spot on however, equating paleo with pseudo science is indeed a foot wound.

Yes the “100 words” describes paleo. For CFHQ to call this pseudoscience is to shoot itself in the foot!

People who live in black boxes shouldn’t throw stones! ; )
Mixed metaphor for effect for all the concrete thinkers who will misinterpret that.

I’ve followed your blog for some time and enjoyed and benefited from your expertise and devotion to nutrition and sports performance. I’m looking forward to attending a nutrition cert with you and to reading your book.

Keep up the good work,
Steven

Just a little FYI
Lisa Ray taught the nutrition portion of my L1 cert back in Feb and she lined out very clearly- get quility food FIRST, this is enough for some people, if you don’t get the results you are looking for THEN weigh and measure that quality to fine tune.
Sounds like there may be inconsistancy from one cert to the next but my experience seemed to fall in line with your teachings.

Thanks again!

Cody

Lloyd Chilton – Reducing O6/O3 ratio decreases expression of inflammatory pathway genes (pubmed) http://bit.ly/XgRhA

Apparently he’s written a couple of diet books also, advocating decreasing systemic inflammation through manipulation of dietary fats:
http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Smart-Diet-Revolutionary-Destiny/dp/1594868409/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250097657&sr=8-1

I read your stuff every day and am just beginning in the past few weeks to go paleo and follow other advice you’ve given. I’ve always been an athlete but for the first time in my life, nutrition is making sense thanks to the way you present it. I am looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

One of the comments above mentioned a nutrition seminar in NC in December? Where can I get more info?

Thanks for all you are doing

“The underlying cause of every chronic disease known to man is silent inflammation. Sears emphatically believes that the leading cause of inflammation is “Toxic Fat” (arachidonic acid) which is caused by diet.”

I’m suspicious of anything that claims to be a panacea, but aside from that I had to dig around to find out exactly what Sears means by “Toxic Fat”. Checking Wikipedia (not the most reliable source, I know) told me that arachidonic acid is a) an “essential” fatty acid, b) is implicated in inflammation mechanisms, and c) is abundant in peanuts. I know you recommend the Crossfit “eat nuts, seeds etc.” does not include peanuts. Is this the reason? i.e. because other seeds have much better omega 3/6 ratios?

Question 2: the “inflammation bad” message is consistent with increased fish oil consumption (correcting omega 3/6 ratios), but Wikipedia describes a study where encouraging inflammation by supplementing with arachidonic acid aids muscle growth. Presumably, if true, the long term complications outweigh the short term benefits?

Also the “diet to reduce inflammation” concept (specifically use of fish oil) seems at odds with both the Wikipedia article, and the Kelly Starrett CFJ video where he advises against NSAIDs to reduce inflammation, since this inflammation appears to be necessary for muscle repair and performance development?

Okay, so not so much specific questions as a list of a few things this post threw up in my head. Basically what are your thoughts on the inflammation bad/good topic? (I’m guessing it’s a bit more complicated than that and inflammation of functional muscles is beneficial, while overloading the immune system with extraneous inflammation proves too taxing for the body, particularly over long time scales.)

The offer is still there to destroy your law career in Chico. Short of that you need to at least come hang with us for a week sometime. The unwashed hippy girls await.

I have an occational cheat with wine or a sweet, but I haven’t had gluten since March. The results have been amazing! I have definately seen a difference in my appearance with the weight I have lost, but more importantly, I feel amazing! I sleep great, I feel great and I don’t suffer from the allergies or little “bugs” that everyone around me battles constantly!I have been putting the most emphasis on my food quality and not the quanity. After changing to Paleo, I just wanted to get used to the types of food that my diet would consist of before I started WAM. A couple of people on here have said how difficult Paleo is, but I have to disagree! I eat great food that taste great and I feel good about eating it! I am someone who has tried every “diet” out there, and I find Paleo super easy. I never feel like I am missing out on anything when it comes to the types of food I eat! I recently convinced my roommate (who is a huge lover of food, and not very good food) to go paleo for a month. She is someone who lives to eat and enjoys food tremendously!! She is a tiny girl with a big appetite, not much will power and definately does not care that the food she is eating is going to have so many negative effects on her health. She is of the opinion that she is fine now…so the food she eats must be okay. I am telling this about her to show how easy Paleo really is. She really had no “reason” to do it…she didnt’ need to lose weight, doesn’t think her style of eating is unhealthy and wasn’t looking for performance gains (she doesn’t CF and swears she never will!) She agreed to do it for a month, and it was actually easy for her (without the motivations that most of us have when we make changes). She kept commenting on how easy it was. She occationally would crave her choc milk and fried mash potatoes, but she didn’t give in. 2 huge things I noticed with her were, 1. She started craving stuff like asparagus and zuchini…she would come home and ask me to cook it for dinner because she was craving it and 2. the first time she ate milk choc after being Paleo, she got an instant migrain and had to stay home from work (she swears that the choc had nothing to do with it though:)) When I started CF’ing in Dec., I tried WAM Zone style, and it drove me a bit insane. I found it much harder and restrictive. However, I would like to start Paleo-Zone now to see how it will affect my performance. Eating Paleo without WAM has definately helped me in my performance, but I am up for a new experiement to see what Paleo-Zone will do!

I have to say that if you did start a Paleo Cult, I would be the first to sign up and buy the T-shirt! Everything that you taught at your seminar and that I’ve read on your post are spot on!! I am currently on a mission to convert everyone I know (I might lose a few friends along the way, but it’s only out of love that I am doing it!). My dad recently agreed to cut dairy (gotta start somewhere) out of his diet and within a week noticed that the extreme shoulder pain he has battled for over 7 years disappeared. I am so grateful that you do what you do and that you share it with all of us!! You have definately changed my life with what I have learned from you!! Thanks so much and please keep doing it!!!

Tristy
CF Austin

Best, James

I remember a few months ago a t-nation article about cf came out, and I treated it the same way I treat most t-nation articles, with a big BS sieve trying to find that lump of gold. What concerned me in that article was the quote that at the level 1 certs eating McDonalds was condoned. Now I did my level 1 about 3 weeks ago, Pat was the presenter, the burger came up again but I realised how out of context it was. Pat was giving examples to try and re-jig our way of thinking when it came to food. Make us realise how the common healthy breakfast of cereal and fruit illicits an insulin response greater than a Mcdonalds burger, he then stated that didn’t give us the green light to eat Mcdonalds, but to think about macronutrient content.

From my own experience, I started Crossfit early last year. At the time I had chronic urticaria over my entire body only managed through steroids and some anti-histamines, migraines, was constantly stressed and very overweight. I went on paleo from the recommendations of my coach. In 6 months urticaria was non-existent to the point I didn’t have to worry about the environmental factors that used to trigger it, migraines gone, stress was gone, and I dropped about 6 kilos, body composition changed. Weight loss total is now around 15 kilos.

It has taken me 18 months of reading, including Sear’s books, your blog, MDA and others to get in my head what good nutrition should be. I now tell anyone who will listen; go paleo then think about quantities. I’ve tried WAM, currently 2 weeks in, but I can’t ever maintain it. Paleo I find very easy to maintain, even if it does annoy my friends sometimes.

A bit of a long post, but I guess it help lends evidence to your arguments, and thats what scientific folks like I guess…i’m an engineer myself, if it works, i’m happy.

Thanks again, it constantly astounds me how complicated people make nutrition to be. When can you get that shirt ready?

I support you, Robb.

I was at the lecture last weekend with Dr. Sears. Enlightening 4 hours! He didn’t seem very interested in talking about zone blocks or eating junk in the “Zone” amounts. He did however, say that you could eyeball portions quite easily and that he was a HUGE believer in L. Cordain’s work.

Here are my notes from the lecture:

Zone seminar part 1

Arachiodonic acid is the toxic fat that causes inflamm. And diet is the only way to cure this.
Silent inflammation is cause for 99% of all disease
Anti inflamm. Drugs are a bigger killer than AIDS.
Food as a drug used to prevent inflammation thru hormonal manipulation.
Eicosanoid- master hormone, manipulated by fat ingested
Insulin and glucagon- storage/mobilization
Each meal manipulates these 3 hormones
Nutritional storm: increased refined carb and veg oil and less N3 fat
Adipose can turn out inflammatory hormones
Dr Sears is a huge proponent of fish oil! Ridiculous amounts of clinical data for benefits of it.

Zone seminar part 2: PERFORMANCE

Metabolism- dietary en to chemical en.
ATP efficiency thru diet is what athletes desire
Suggested you ‘prime the hormones’ before exercise with about 100 calories of pro and carbs
Recovery 2 hour window is actually 30 min
Too much insulin release shuts down gh release
Regeneration phase is next 20-22 hours
‘it doesn’t matter where you get the protein, as long as it’s low in saturated fat’
Use low glycemic load foods
Type of fish oil: he recommends ‘toothpick test’ to avoid sewer of the sea fish oil.
***kids eating zone: pick food proteins they’ll eat, and make low GI desserts. Feed them cut up fruits.
Sugar is addictive as cocaine

Zone notes part 3

Ifosprogram.com – international fish oil stds program
Migraine can be treated with 5-7 grams fish oil per day
Prenatal fish oil is healthy for baby brain development, also during breastfeeding
5-10 g per day fish oil will not increase bleeding significantly
Arachiodonic acids are poisonous!
He suggests paleo zone. Called Cordain his friend.
Artificial sweeteners send signal to release insulin. More calories are consumed the next meal!
Grains plus high level of n6 fatty acids increase inflammation!

thank you for writing exactly what I have felt for a long time and tried to debate/convince other CF friends who follow Zone without much, if any emphasis on paleo foods. I have always found that paleo is super easy to follow and if followed relatively strictly will give you amazing results, zone on top of this may give you something extra , but I am simply not convinced that Zone without paleo is anywhere near as good. This is my 4th year following paleo (37 yr old) and have tried zone on several occasions both super strict WAM and eyeballing.

On a side note I just heard Pat give the nutrition lecture at CF Lvl 1 Cert in Perth and he presented Zone, Paleo and food quality in exactly the way you would want him to. It was an excellent lecture. I know you know that , but just confirmation from a third party.

Cheers Aaron

You are absolutely right that this stuff starts looking like religion. All I can say is I encourage people to tinker and experiment. I recommend food quality first, WAM second. With this approach we see people improve performance above the levels of weighing and measuring lower quality foods. We also see people REVERSING autoimmune disease (see the type 1 diabetes threads). this DOES NOT happen by weighing and measuring sub-par foods. So, what I’m saying is the food quality approach trumps WAM at every corner and instead of being supported in this I;ve received massive static and have been equated to a charlatan. Not surprisingly, I have some issue with that, not the least of which it slows the spread of information that is more effective and helps people. That is certainly NOT open source.

Love the site. My mom has MS and has been doing Paleo for about three months now – the results have been amazing. Balance and fatigue were her biggest issues and they have dramatically improved. Thanks to you and others such as Cordain for putting the info out there. Seriously.

I just attended the Level 1 Cert at USD over the weekend. Great time, great info. Thought I’d chime in real quick. I heard the exact nutrition lecture you described in your post – Pringles, beer, nuts, and meat I think were the chosen “food groups”. Anyways, the lecturer did a good job of explaining that while he initially Zoned on Pringles, beer, nuts and meat, that it wasn’t IDEAL to do this. I’m sure a lot of people new to this whole topic only heard “Pringles, beer, nuts, and meat” and ignored the part where he said it wasn’t ideal, he was always hungry eating this way, and felt like crap most of the time. He did state, however, that his performance increased pretty dramatically following this protocol. He then gave an example of his CURRENT diet for comparison purposes, which contained much more high quality foods (i.e. – breakfast: 2 eggs, 3 strips bacon, 1 apple, 1/2c blueberries, and 9 almonds I believe). He also covered that performance will improve on a “primal” (meats, veggies, nuts, seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar) diet, but ultimately you want to end up on a “primal zone” diet. Was the lecture 100% flawless? No. But I can say for certain that a diet of “Pringles, beer, nuts and meats” was not recommended for anyone in the room. If people walked away from that lecture with that impression then I question if they should have been sitting there in the first place (not meant to be offensive, rather genuine concern!). I just wanted to take a couple minutes to offer another viewpoint of the lecture, hopefully this helps put a little bit better perspective on what’s being taught.

Thanks again Robb!

Thanks for the best info out there!
Love you bro.

Dutch

- Sears does suggest the use of blocks! Sounds like a suggestive quantity to me. One would have to weigh and measure for a certain period of time in order to obtain the ability to EYEBALL food for the portion control you had mentioned earlier. I think that would be why crossfit would suggest two weeks of weighing and measuring.

- Sears stated numerous times at the seminar that Paleo is too difficult to do strictly. You’re taking jabs at the recommendations of Crossfit’s two weeks of weighing and measuring arguing its unhealthy YET you rant on and on about the condemnation that will befall all who eat dairy, legumes, nightshades, blah blah. Your suggestions remind of the typical American female diet… “Im cutting out bread from my diet…” Your throwing out any nutritional science regarding macronutrient ratios, etc.

- Sears has stated that he has not seen many athletes succeed with just Paleo.

- I do recall one comment you made to someone who had tweaked the zone slightly and had asked you why it wasn’t working. Rightly so, you told him that if he changes anything about it then he cant truly say he is zoning. Using the same principle of yours to Sears would indicate he too is not Paleo. He sells pasta on his site, he suggests beans in his recipes, and a host of other things would indicate, by your own measure, that he isn’t Paleo.

Im sure your a great guy as I have seen from your kind comments to others but everyone needs a cyber smack once in a while. While this is a sort of silly topic when you look at in with the Big Picture in mind, I hope this helps you look at things more objectively. Good luck in your pursuit of truth and health.

Awesome post! I love your blog and the way you teach. I am sad to say that this is a long overdue thank you. Please bear with me as I explain why this post inspired me to finally get er done.

I attended the level 1 cert in March with my boyfriend who is a chiropractor who specializes in corrective care. Myself, I have worked in the seminar industry for the past 10 years. I went to the cert excited. I was immediately impressed with the layout of the content and even more impressed with the speakers delivery of the information ( something by trade I always pay attention too). My boyfriend and I were excited to see the parallels of the science of movement and paid particular attention to movement in relationship to the stabilization of the spine. We did not need to be sold that we are encouraging all our patients to become crossfitters. In fact, we have referred a large majority of the members of our local affiliate because the congruency we share with the crossfit philosophy.

What would really make or break the cert for us would be the nutrition portion. We were really interested to see the information and in what sequence it was presented. We wanted to see what was emphasized with the plans to take it back to the office so we could do a presentation for our patients.

I have to be honest the presentation was awesome, but our balloons were quickly deflated when it came to the emphasis on food quality. The lay out of the overall content was good, but I must be completely honest that one of the examples of how to do a zone balanced meal was this: I would rather you eat a mcdonalds hamburger than not balance a meal. They then went on to show you how a mcdonalds cheesebuger was perfectly zoned block meal. While I would attend the cert again, my first recommendation would to increase the information on nutrition. WHile all the other info was great, this example stood out in my mind over everything else beucae i was just so surprised. WE would never teach our patients to sacrifice food quality ( or eat at mcdonalds) to stay within a block perscription. While i completely understand using WAM to reach a specific result, we look for accuracy in info that we can easily teach others how to implement into their daily lives. We have found that by focusing on teaching paleo while teaching them the fundamentals of the hormonal response described effectively in the zone we have got the best results.

Bottom lines is that Both my boyfriend and I agreed with you, The cert falls flat on the 45 minutes that is donated to nutrition that is known to crossfitters everywhere is such a critical component of not only our performance in the gym, but the underlying cause we see in the sick people that walk into the office everyday with no idea that what they are putting into their mouth might have everything to do with how they feel.

Out of frustration for the nutrition in the cert, We found out you would be doing a cert in boston. We both attended and were thrilled with not only the information you taught, but being from the seminar world I also pay attention to how concepts are taught and then built on and your delivery of the content was fantastic.

Since then we have insituted a 60 day weight loss challenge using the information you provided for our patients. The teeter totter has worked wonders and we cannot wait to see the results at the end of September.

Personally, I have seen my performance shoot through the roof. Before I was introduced to your teachings. My boyfriend had convinced me to give up gluten to see if a slew of digestive disorders would clear up and that they have. We both eat completely paleo and if we cheat we never break the rule of including gluten in the cheats which has become a saving grace.

We were so impressed with your cert I am sending two of my business partners who are both doctors to your cert in Honolulu at the end of the month with special instructions, beyond the info . I want them to see how they can take “psuedo science” and make it easy to understand so that people everywhere can gain access to this info that can change not only their health, their wod times but their lives. I would tell anyone wanting more to attend your cert.

Thank you for closing the gap and filling in the blanks when it comes to nutrition. Stick with the psuedo science, its your strike zone and we eat it up.

Kendra

I am picking up what you’re laying down and liking it.

We saw great results with few people, good results with some people, and okay results with most people when we prescribed the Zone. The problem kept coming back to adherence and food selection.

We’re just finishing up our Paleo challenge and had 50-members participate. We left the choice up to them, weigh & measure, or just eat from the list of paleo foods. The adherence and results have been pretty dramatic, which of course warms my heart, but (to quote Coach B) what fires my ass up even more, is that the members are excited about how easy it was to implement and are now firing each other up to stay on it and encouraging those that didn’t participate to try it out.

Stoked for Paleo Brands & your books to come out.

I’ve been involved in Crossfit since 2005 and I was at the recent L-1 cert where that comment was made about the Zone. Unfortunately, it sounds like it was severely taken out of context by many in attendance… which is sad because Pat was probably the most approachable person at the Cert and would’ve cleared up any confusion immediately if asked. He never said that he suggested or advocated the “Pringle and beef-jerky-Zone” — only that he AS AN EXPERIMENT had tried it before and experienced better athletic performance doing that than opposed to not paying attention to his macronutrient break down at all. His point was that even if you don’t want to put any effort into the quality of the food, you could still reap some benefits from the Zone just by eyeballing or weighing/measuring your food FOR TWO WEEKS as opposed to eating willy-nilly. Pat was convinced (and anyone who has tried the Zone) that two weeks of paying attention to macronutrient intake would persuade any Zone-doubters to start Zoning regularly (obviously with better food) and hence enjoy the many benefits.

I was also at Dr Sear’s seminar this last weekend too (I know – I get around). He did lecture for some time on weighing and measuring, and as an alternate taught about the “eyeball method”… to say he didn’t worry about weighing and measuring (even if it is just eyeballing) is simply false. He did say that a “paleo-zone” was ideal (assuming you wanted to exert the time and energy to follow it) as it got use closer to our genetic roots and that Loren Cordain was a good friend of his, and I don’t think many (if any) in the Crossfit community would disagree with Dr Sear’s statements. However, Dr Sears did not (nor would he) classify himself himself as “paleo” nor would he suggest following a unmeasured paleo-diet instead of the Zone. In fact he appeared visibly-annoyed at the number of paleo-related questions he fielded (several). He said that paleo is too difficult for many and to strive for high-quality food as possible, but that in reality the magic was in the macronutrient breakdown and fish oil supplementation. The paleo movement says that quality of food is king but Sears made it clear the entire day that quality and quantity go hand-in-hand (with quantity perhaps having more of an impact). He even discusses this topic his Zone books saying “The total intake of carbohydrates is most important. However, you will get even greater results on the Zone Diet by making sure most of your carbohydrates come from low-glycemic carbohydrates.” In his books he outlines several examples of following the Zone diet, which include pastas, bread, and other things blatantly non-paleo… he even goes as far as selling pasta on his website.

I have heard Coach say in person several times that his chief problem with the strict paleo-movement is their failure to produce top athletes and I think the production of such would sway many at CFHQ. However, I attended another Level 1 certification where he suggested following the “meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar” methodology of eating as closely as reasonable… then if you wanted elite performance to simply weigh and measure those foods.

My opinion:
Much of this “debate” is rather silly and seems to be more about titles and semantics than anything else. There is very-little disagreement from either side that measuring and weighing “meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar” will produce athletes at the pinnacle of elite fitness. The only difference is that the paleo-people would eliminate the starch and (many) the dairy and refer to this as a “Paleo-Zone” whereas everyone else (i.e. CFHQ, Dr Sears, etc) would refer to this simply as Zoning. I highly doubt any paleo person would say that paying attention to quantity is irrelevant and I doubt any Zone person would say paying attention to quality is irrelevant. Based on personal experimentation and experience, I would tend to say quantity first appears to have more of an impact than quality first – but I would never say quality is completely irrelevant. I think what many dislike about the paleo-movement is their rigidity in their elimination of many food groups (honestly it does start to get really ridiculous after a while – gluten -which I do understand the elimination of-, dairy -which is true for most-, nightshades… and the list goes on) , the resulting difficulty of following it as a lifetime habit, and the level of obsession many paleo people take this to. I kinda think that’s why CFJ has released those recent videos of depicting various individual’s nutritional habits and that if you are making good nutrition a lifetime habit then it’s ok to eat a burger, have some Ben & Jerry’s once in a while, or even eat one of those “super-mondo” protein bars from the store. Ultimately what seems to be happening is that titles have made both the paleo and the Zone people so closed to anything the other says that this weird division/debate is occurring. This is starting to remind me more of religion and church than a fitness community!

Hope everything makes sense… sorry for the length – I like to write

I put it to you Sir that you are an arse amongst men.. and make of that vis innuendo what you will.

BTW i have it from a close personal pal whose source is unimpeachable that Dirty Dean Ornish is a ttoal mini bar fiend i.e. he doesnee practise what ee preaches but also in the same (Blue?!?!?!) vein he canny be all that bad !

Write your book sunbeam…my buttocks are quivering at the thought of reading yr gibberish, nonsense and pseudo-science.

Dr Sears said the ultimate anti-inflammatory diet would be a Paleo/Zone.

People that try to Zone a snickers based on the simple 40-30-30 philosophy drive me insane. I’ve been a Zoner for 2-1/2 years. I started 1-1/2 years before I had heard of CrossFit or Paleo. I was 90% Paleo for most of that time and didn’t know it. If you follow the favorable food choices instead of justifying the junk you are most of the way there.

My first cert was Robbs, and since then I try to attend some kind of CF function every month. I have heard no one saying anything about pseudo science on the west coast.

I used WAM for over a year religiously to lose 70#. I sometimes still use measuring cups but my scale hasn’t been used in some time.

I forgot to bring my topshelf tequila to the games. Next time I’ll remember. I already have your cert but maybe I’ll drop in at Monrovia to say hi.

Keep up the good work.

Matt

I greatly enjoy your blog; please keep up the good work.

I have seen nothing but phenomenal results since switching to a Paleo diet a little more than a year ago, and this is measured by every conceivable metric. Your blog has been a great resource in helping me meet my goals.

best,
jason

From the title “Barry Sears IS Paleo” I was hoping that you would be reporting that Barry Sears had decided to dump Neolithic foods from his recipes and go purely Paleo. Sadly this is not so. Dr. Sears may acknowledge that a Paleo diet is our heritage but then he doesn’t put his books/recipes where his mouth is.

From the book Zone-Perfect Meals in Minutes:

The very first recipe, Texas-Style Omelette contains these non-paleo foods: egg substitute, kidney beans, bean sprouts, cornstarch.

Scrambled Egg Pocket: Egg substitute, cheddar cheese, pita pocket.

Herbed Omelette: Egg substitute.

Yogurt-Topped: Say no more.

Cottage Cheese Fruit Salad: Say no more.

Poached fruit with cheese: Again, title says it all.

From various recipes:
Egg substitute, chick peas, bean sprouts, soy sauce, cider vinegar, basalmic vinegar, low-fat cottage cheese, cornstarch, low-fat cheddar cheese, low-fat yogurt, BOILED POTATO,…need I go on?

From the book A Week In The Zone. Appendix B “Favorable Carbohydrates” Green Beans, Wax Beans, Black Beans, Chick Peas, Kidney Beans, Barley, Oatmeal…

From The Anti-Inflammation Zone:
Just glancing through recipes I see black beans, low-fat monterray jack cheese, skim “soft” cheese, soy sauce, nonfat yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, kidney beans, cornstarch, …

I’ve not purchased his latest books so maybe Dr. Sears has gone strict Paleo since then. Though if I recall correctly at one point he was advocating soy as the ultimate Zone food.

I love his science but I dislike his follow through on recipes and some food recommendations for diet.

Thanks,
JT

Keep up all of your inspiring work, you’re doing a great job!

Trish

Hi! I have never been to your nutrition cert before, nor have I gotten my Level1 yet. But, I follow your blog, and most of my friends HAVE been to your cert. I love your stuff…I try almost everything you throw out there.

I do organic (mostly) paleo zone. I weigh and measure EVERYTHING. I am totally OCD about it…hahaha. I also do the post-workout meal and intermittent fasting. It works for me. When I am being strict, my performance shoots through the roof. When I did only paleo, no weighing and measuring, I gained weight really fast…(obviously I was probably eating too much)…and my performance and energy declined.

My roommate, best friend, and owner of CF La Verne, Sarah, has performance declines when he weighs and measures, and has better performance when she does only paleo.

So, different things work for different people….like you have said all along!! Thank you for being our nutrition mentor in the CrossFit community for us!!

Katie

I have been following your blog for some time (thanks!!!) as well as reading all of the CF journal articles I can on nutrition, etc.

Is it just me or have the nutrition topics in the journal gotten a bit ‘distracted’.

Anyway – eat clean people.

I made a point of highlighting what an excellent presenter YOU in particular are. I’ve said that elsewhere and no matter what happens I’ll continue to say that. If the person giving the Level 1 nutrition lecture covers the material as you describe above all is good. That however is NOT always how it plays out. that is unacceptable. There is also a ton of crap and subterfuge that goes on below the surface that I am seriously not happy with. I too would like to simply help people and do my own training. For some reason that is made difficult for me.

I’m sorry agin Pat, I know how much the call to duty sucks.

To my knowledge there have been no controlled studies of paleo on athletic performance. The work of Joe Friel is very compelling in that he ran with the standard high carb, low fat, grain based program for his athletes with good success, but found BETTER success with a paleo diet. I detail this in the write-up but it is not a study obviously, but there are plenty of interesting studies to draw information from. One involves athletes who are adapted to a ketogenic diet having the same time to exhaustion under aerobic (but no anaerobic) conditions. This is pretty compelling for me, and it points the way for a generally fat-adapted athlete experiencing a glycogen sparing effect and thus better overall performance. Keep in mind, it is hard as hell to get a study like you are suggesting “right”. it is much easier for a coach to simply tweak parameters till an athlete moves forward.

I’ll post that CFJ piece tomorrow…I’m over trying to make it show ready and I’m likely not going to be very popular for quite some time.