The Low Information Eating Epidemic

Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with what is and is not healthy. Food packaging and industry makes everything from very subtle to in your face claims about health. This information is propagated by the media, between individuals, and over time becomes unquestioned perceptions of fact.

I was examining the menu at local lunch spot the other day and asked about a couple different items.  The young girl looked at me and said, "this option is healthy because it comes with wheat bread", I looked at her and wanted to ask why exactly was wheat bread healthy and what made it that way.  Was it whole grain, whole wheat, etc, and how had she come to her conclusions. Instead I selected something more my speed and reflected on the moment.  I eventually thought about the state of our culture and its seemingly infinite capacity to accept ideas as fact.  These perceptions are established as the result of aggressive marketing, social media, and rapid news cycles vice investigation, sound information, science, and experience. I began asking family, friends, and co-workers the same questions I had wanted to ask the cashier that day. Why do you believe something is healthy? What are the roots of that belief?  One perception I ran into was that a particular food was "fattening" or not. What is fattening? Is it high calorie, something that causes the storage of fat, something high in fat? When confronted with these questions the vast majority of individuals respond with a very loose and subjective defense of their belief followed by a quick end to the conversation. Some walk away with the thought that maybe their thinking is flawed or at a minimum not well understood, a few enjoy a discussion on current understanding, science, and nutrition, but unfortunately a large number of individuals get defensive, irritated, and sometimes respond with thin attacks rooted in something they perceive is one of my beliefs. 

After reflecting on all these experiences an idea emerged in my mind and the "Low Information Eater" was born. While I don't tend to get too deeply into politics and certainly won't on this blog, I had heard the term Low Information Voter (LIV) in some of my previous dives into the political spectrum. LIVs are people who may vote, but who are generally poorly informed about politics. This idea was coined out of Samuel L. Popkin's use of the phrase "low-information signaling" in his book The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns.  Studies have shown that this type of phenomenon results in voter decision making that is inconsistent with the stated political beliefs.  The Low Information Eater is much the same.  The individual is poorly informed on nutrition and healthful eating choices as a result of dated science, marketing, and other sources of unsubstantiated information.  These beliefs are built over time and often conflict with the individuals stated intent of eating healthy.

What we eat and why we eat it is deeply embedded in our cultural, part of our identity, and in many cases is hard for people to address potential flaws.  These topics can be as sensitive and as hotly debated as politics and religion.  I am still trying to develop a strategy for positively engaging those that are most firmly planted in their beliefs and not willing to open up and challenge current norms.  In the mean time we should be sure that we don’t slip into the state of the Low Information Eater.  When you pick up that next food package ask yourself the key questions.

·         Why is this healthy or not?

·         What are my reasons for eating this food?

·         What are the ingredients and do I understand what each of them is?

·         How does this food affect my body?

·         What are the macro and micro nutrient composition of this food?

·         Are there more nutritionally beneficial alternatives?

·         Are any of my current beliefs dated and need re-examination?

If we take the time to ask ourselves these questions and stay open to evolving nutritional understanding then we can avoid the trap of the Low Information Eater.

Paleo vs Vegan

It is easy to assume that as an individual following a Paleo lifestyle that I would have nothing but bad things to say about vegans.  You wouldn't be wrong to assume that, since many of the well known Paleo evangelists tend to quickly put down vegans or anything that isn't at least in the low carb realm.  In reality I think there are far more things that these two communities have in common.

I have a close friend that went all-in vegan about 6 months ago.  He has shared his before and after blood work, body fat, and I run with him regularly.  It is remarkable how close our results align to one another.  He has lost just about the same amount of weight. His body fat change is nearly identical.  He is running at about the same level.  And while our blood stats are somewhat different he has also had very significant improvements, especially in triglycerides.  So with all that it is a little hard for me to look at him and explain why he should eat steak instead of beans and grains.  

Who am I really comparing

Many vegans start out as vegetarians and ultimately make the choice due to ethical convictions. I am not going to address those differences. The remaining vegans are dietary vegans and have made the switch as an attempt at losing weight and/or get healthy basically the same reason I am Paleo.  

A breakdown of the similarities

• It's about getting healthy
• It's about whole foods
• It's about sustainable and ethical food production
• It's about eating and living naturally

And the differences

• Vegans don't eat meat
• Vegans don't eat eggs
• Paleo don't eat legumes 
• Paleo don't eat grains

Ok, I admit if you really dig there are lots of nuances to both vegan and Paleo lifestyles that could make these lists very long.  You can even find differences between vegans themselves or individual Paleo.  What I listed above are the fundamental similarities and differences I think most can agree on.

So what does this really mean 

Look around you, head out to any restaurant, grocery store, or any public place.  It is amazing how few lean people you will see.  It is amazing what you see in people's carts at the grocery store.  Look at your friends and family.  How many are overweight?  How many are 20, 30, 40 pounds overweight but believe they are healthy because so many people are 50, 60, 70 pounds overweight.  How many people do you know that eat something and assume it is healthy but you know better.  Here is the reality, our country and most of the developed world is in a total health crisis.  The solution to this crisis is actually pretty simple and straight forward.  Individuals are so inundated with false information partnered with a dependency on processed calorie rich, nutrient sparse foods that they lose the forest in the trees.  I eat meat and my friend eats beans and grain but ultimately we want the same thing.  We want to live a long happy healthy life.  We want to impact the lives of others around us and show them what we were able to accomplish and that it is not impossible.  We want to change the path our society is on.  Vegans and Paleo should be arm and arm and save the grain vs meat debate for a time when a majority of our bothers and sisters are eating healthy whole foods.

Thanks for stopping by,

Chuck

A St. Patty's Challenge Update

The past couple weeks have been a bit crazy so it has been a while since the last St. Patty's Challenge update.  The challenge has now been going for 14 days and I still have a lot of work to do.  I have developed the training plan for both myself and my wife.  We should actually start implementing it this week.  I have tracked all my food as accurately as possible using http://caloriecount.about.com  The site is really pretty good.  You can create custom entries, scan foods that have bar codes, and the website provides pretty good analysis of your eating even if it is based on generally accepted guidelines.  If you eat out it's a little more challenging but not impossible to get a good approximation of the food.

Nutrition:

Up until now I had been estimating my calories and macro-nutrient content based on nothing more than my general intuition.  It has been nice to see some numbers that approximate reality.  My carb intake was right on with my estimates at 125g per day on average.  Checkout the full breakdown below.  My goal for the challenge is to not worry about exactly what I eat but keep tracki of what it is so ultimately I can understand how things are working or not.

 Fat - 43.9%
 Pro - 25.7%
 Carb - 26.8%
 Alcohol - 0%
 Other - 3.6% 

	Cal (kcal) 1,900	Carb (g) 238	Pro (g) 95	Fat (g) 63	SFat (g) 21	Chol (mg) 300	Sod (mg) 2,400	Fib (g) 25
AVERAGE INTAKE	1,868 98%	125 53%	120 126%	91 144%	33 156%	574 191%	2,328 97%	17.3 69%

Exercise:

I ran the Charlotteville Fall Classic 10K on the 13th of October so much of my exercise was with that in mind.  I did a handful of pull-ups, push-ups, and dips during the time but nothing structured or regular.  

September 30th: Ran 1 minute on 2 minute off sprint intervals for 15 minutes and then a slow 2 mile jog.  Total time 30 min.

October 2nd: Did my VO2 Max test which was 26 minutes of running

October 3rd: Ran 5 miles at a real easy almost 12 minute pace.  Total time about an hour.

October 5th: Ran 3.5 miles at a comfortable 11 minute pace. Total time about 40 min.

October 7th: Ran 1 minute on 2 minute off sprint intervals for 15 minutes and then a slow 2 mile jog.  Total time 30 min.

October 8th: Ran a little less than 3 miles at about a 9 minute pace.  Total time about 30 min

October 13th: Ran the Charlottesville Fall Classic 10K.  Total time about 53 min.

Total for the first 2 weeks, 4.5 hours of mostly jogging, which averages to about 20 minutes or 2 miles per day.

Stats:

So far my weight has stayed steady between 172-175.  As I expected my weight loss has plateaued but while it is difficult to tell from day to day I believe my body composition is still improving.   

General Wellness:

I have felt very good overall but did have a few nights in week two where I did not sleep well.  This was likely due to various work and family stresses that had my brain running overtime.  I think this led to a very difficult set of sprint intervals on OCT 7th.  This just highlights to me how huge a factor sleep can be in both performance and general well being.  I guess I need to jump on some meditation and get to bed a little earlier. 

Summary:

The first two weeks have gone great.  I have not got everything organized to keep me on track for the challenge but have taken some significant baby steps.  I am in the habit of tracking my food daily and it has really shed to light some of my good and bad habits as well as given me a good understanding of my macro-nutrient breakdown.  This will be very valuable tool as I may need to make some adjustments if I plateau for too long. I have put together a good training plan based on my families time constraints and what I believe will give us the best results with the least time.  I will give a rundown on the training plan after we have had a few weeks to burn it in and fine tune were necessary.

More details to come, thanks,
Chuck

Oysters Oysters Everywhere!

As part of our paleo lifestyle we have been trying to keep our food simple, fresh, and try as many new things as we can.  I was down at my parents last weekend and picked up some fresh seafood at those shockingly low coastal prices.  A few days later I watched Mathieu Lalonde's presentation on nutrient density and noticed that oysters took a pretty prominent position.

Oysters are an amazing source for several vitamins and minerals.  They are extremely high in vitamin D and very high in iron, B12, zinc, manganese, magnesium, and phosphorus.  Excellent for getting lean and mean.

During the past week I kept running into those kind of foodie deals on oysters I just couldn't turn down.  First, 1/2 off fresh shucked oysters at the local market meant creating a paleo version of Angels on Horseback. They were far more delicious than I could have imagined and great for the family member that is still a little freaked out by the raw beauties.

Then yesterday, while wondering around in Whole Foods, I spotted a few fresh oysters that looked pretty good. I knew I didn't have a shucking knife so I asked the seafood guy if they had one for sale.  He poked around for a few minutes and couldn't come up with one,  pulled a really nice one out of his coveralls, and told me, "Here take this one no charge". These guys continuously surprise me and know how to keep me coming back.  After that I had to load up on some oysters.  They were as delicious as they look!

If your family is like mine we get in a bit of a routine, hit our standard meat sources, and often over look some of the very nutritious and delicious variety surrounding us.  Some of this variety means leaving the families comfort zone for a meal or two but more often than not the family is surprised by how good the food is.  Oysters and other shell fish were in this category but have now found a place in our rotation, even though I am still the only one that downs the raw guys.

Paleo Angels on Horseback

My Dad and his friends have been making conventional Angels on Horseback for years, so named by the legendary country cook Mrs. McGrady.  I was recently watching Mathieu Lalonde's presentation on nutrient density and oysters topped the charts. When I saw that oysters were on sale at the market I couldn't resist.  Now let me tell you, these things are absolutely ridiculously delicious and addictive.  If there are people in your family that don't think they'll like them, DO NOT talk them into trying one, agree with them, and thank yourself later that you have a few more for yourself.

I was a little concerned how the almond meal batter would work out but I think in the end these are even better than the conventional version.   I was a little rusty on keeping all the batter on during the fry.  Speaking of keeping the batter on during frying, the refrigeration step is absolutely critical, use a fork to ease each oyster up when ready to flip, don't rush to flip, and in the end if you lose the crispy coating don't worry because they will still be awesome.

• PREP20 mins
• CHILL15 mins
• FRY
  4-6 mins
• BAKE
  5 mins
• READY IN
  45 mins

Ingredients:

• 8oz Jar of oysters
• 1/4 pound of bacon
• 2-4 tbsp. of olive oil
• 1 cup of almond meal
• 1 egg
• Your favorite seafood seasoning (AKA Old Bay) to taste

Directions:

1. Place oysters on paper towels and pat dry
2. Cut bacon into 1/2-1 inch wide by 3 inch long strips
3. Wrap oysters with bacon and skewer with toothpicks
4. Mix your seafood seasoning and almond meal in a bowl to create the almond meal batter
5. Mix a small amount of water with an egg to create the egg wash
6. Dip each bacon wrapped oyster in the egg wash, let drip a little, then roll in the almond flour batter, and place on a cool plate.
7. Put the plate in the fridge for 15 mins. 
8. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan to medium heat
9. Place the oysters in the pan and cook on each side for 2-3 minutes.
10. Remove and place on a cookie sheet and put in a preheated 400 degree oven for 5 min.
11. Remove from the oven and place the little angels on a paper towel covered plate.  
12. Let cool, add a little more seasoning if you like, and serve warm or refrigerate for a cold snack later.
    
    
    NOTE: If you have a little extra egg wash and almond meal batter cook up some Paleo Hush Puppies to go with.