This morning, I took a trip to the local coffee shop to finish up reading Christopher McDougall's Born To Run. It was a good read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It has definitely motivated me to have a kick ass run which will be my first run in 6 weeks.
Long story short is that this book is about ultra runners, runners who regularly run 30-100+ mile foot races. It goes into some of the philosophies behind running these distances and what intrigued me even more was some of the evolutionary biology as to why humans evolved to run and evidence that points to these conclusions. It also focus on the Tarahumara people of Mexico who are known as the greatest distance runners on this planet. It also explains their training and diet techniques that they use for running these great distances.
And that's kind of where I want to pick up with on this post. I've recently adopting a paleo-ish diet recently and the purpose of this post is to kind of share my thoughts of comparing and contrasting the BTR methods and the paleo methods.
For paleo, there are several great sources of information out there that can provide a much more clear picture of what it entails, but in short, the diet consists mostly of meats, veggies, fruits, beans, legumes, and other foods that were available to human ancestors for the last 2 million years. The lifestyle promotes the avoidance of any dietary elements that have been developed in the last few thousand years and the main ones are dairy, grains, oats, and starchy foods. Lots of protein and fats are essential with few carbs. What these means is no milk or milk products (cheese, ice cream, etc), wheat, corn, rice, potato, etc. For the typical Western diet, that is a lot of foods that are now staples. Expanding upon the diet, a lot of the paleo concepts include little cardio work and more focus on sprint/speed work as well as weights. Intermittent fasting is also another concept that is promoted within the paleo community.
As for Born To Run, it seems to be a vastly different philosophy. In it, it says that humans have evolved to be creatures of chronic cardio where early human ancestors needed to run 20+ miles a day to run down their prey. And meat was a rare treat, but a necessary one. Most of the early humans ate carbs, grains, and basically any plant source that was edible. So, most of the people in BTR eat a high carb diet with some meat. In addition to that, BTR promotes barefoot or minimalist running. Most of the people in that book have no shoes or thin leather coverings on their feet mainly to provide protection from rough, sharp surfaces. The theory is that with barefoot running, you'll develop a more natural running form that humans have evolved over the years. You'll also strengthen the bones and soft tissues of your lower body that will actually help you run further. You'll be less injury prone because modern shoes pamper the human body, gets it weak, and therefore it isn't able to take the punishment of even running 10 miles per week a lot of times.
To compare, BTR is about chronic cardio whereas paleo is about short bursts of speed and strength. BTR is about high carbs with some meat while paleo is about high protein and fat with minimal carbs. The thing that they have in common is to go back to lifestyles that humans have developed over thousands of years instead of the modern lifestyle which is frankly very lazy for ancestral humans. I guess that one advantage that has set us apart from the Neanderthals is that modern humans have developed the ability to become more efficient and adapt to changing conditions. Unfortunately, it seems that our genes haven't caught up and a lot of the modern comforts are actually killing us.
During this post, it seems that the paleo diet should be considered more of a Neanderthal diet. While it worked for our cousins, they are now extinct.
There are good points that both viewpoints make. I'm not saying that one is better than the other because both are very one sided and once you have made your mind up about a particular issue, it is a bit difficult to pull yourself back and see it from the other side as well. I'm glad that I've learned about both recently and can compare and contrast them against each other as well as modern medical knowledge. If anything, it made me think about a lot of things and thinking is always good.
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2 comments:
I heard someone make a good point about the current diet advice on going back to eat what our ancestors ate. At what point do we stop? The human diet has evolved over millions of years. Also, different locations had different diets. So, which do you choose? A sub saharan diet? An Inuit diet? They are very different.
My philosophy has evolved into something very simple. If it is processed and has a lot of weird ingredients, I stay away from it 80% of the time. I'm not 100% yet but I'm getting there. Sugar is my downfall.
Whole foods my friend. Find the right balance of carbs/fat/protein that makes YOU feel the best and perform your best and stick to it.
I'm coming down off my soapbox now to get get a cookie. I mean, an apple.
You make some good points. I know that the Intuits (Eskimos) eat a high fat and protein diet and they seem to be fine. Look at the Mediterranean diets that are full of fat but those cultures have lower health risks than most of America. Also, there is evidence that points to the fact that our ancestors made the leap to modern humans once they started eating fish that was high in fat and especially omega-3 fatty acids. That fat source allowed our brains to grow to a new level. Another possible link is think of the effect that omega-3 fatty acids have on mental disorders such as depression.
My conclusion is that fat, the good fats, are essential and a diet full of them is not that bad. Also, a high carb diet could also be a healthy diet for many people. I believe the problem is when you start mixing bad fats with bad carbs that they synergize (oh, I hate that word) the bad effects of each other which yields fat Americans that get diabetes at 30 and die of heart attacks at 55. But you are right that a diet of fresh foods that avoids processed and/or refined foods is the best way to go and I don't think it matters whether it is high protein, high fat, or high carb. Just eat clean.
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