The Paleo Solution - Episode 65

In today's episode we talk about why Robb looks so small next to Art Devany, John Welbourn stops by to give his insights on the recent incident at Iowa, and we answer your questions.  I am going to start including the questions from each episode in the blog post as well as in the show notes to make searching easier.

Oh and Happy Birthday to Robb!

In The News:

13 Iowa Football players hospitalized after a workout:

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/13-iowa-football-players-hospitalized-after-workout/

1. Question from Brandie:

Hi Robb,

We are a CrossFit Family, I do it and my 3 sons do CrossFit Kids.  My oldest son, who is 10 years old, has alapecia and I am trying find out if there is anything dietary that we can do to curb the onset.  I know it is a autoImmune disease similar to Crones, but that's about all the information we can get from the doctors since it is not a serious illness.  But it does affect his energy level and behavior when it comes on.  This is his second major outbreak he's had, but has had more frequent lighter episodes.

Any direction you could give us would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Brandi

2. Question from Joel:

This isn't a Paleo question, but I've noticed that you have mentioned spending time in Nicaragua on several occasions in the podcast. I am an experienced world traveler, fluent in Spanish, and I have an opportunity to travel to Nicaragua this summer but I would be taking my six year old son with me. I've spent quite a bit of time in high-crime areas such as Rio De Janeiro and though I never had any problems, I probably wouldn't risk bringing my son there at this time. My wife is very worried about the level of crime and infection in Nicaragua.  Is her fear of the unknown justified? What attracts you to Nicaragua? Is it kid-friendly?

3. Question from Gittit:

Robb, happy belated birthday and thanks for all the information you so generously put out there!

In your "My Training at 39" post you mentioned something about melatonin worsening sleep issues when they are GABA related. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that a bit. Here's my story in a nutshell and why this comment of yours struck a chord:

I'm a born night owl and have always had trouble keeping in sync with day and night. I've tried taking melatonin to help fix my sleep, 3-5 mg, but about half the times I take it the result is horribly fragmented sleep. I wake every 2 hours, or wake up after 5 hours and can't fall asleep again. Without melatonin my problem is falling asleep, but once I'm out I sleep deeply for 9 hours. I do keep basic sleep hygiene, sleep in a dark room and drink my last coffee no later than 4 PM.

Interestingly my 19-year old brother independently has the same reaction to melatonin and our doctor has never heard of this phenomenon in anyone else.

Thank you for any input you may have, and again thanks for all the information peppered with good old tough love. Always looking forward to more.

Take care,

Gittit from Israel (old student of Ido's, really looking forward to your new project together! Feel free not to broadcast the parentheses =))

4. Question from Courtnay:

Hello Robb and Andy,

I know your paths have diverged with our old friend Barry and all his weigh and measure nonsense, however, I still like to loosely structure my  paleo meals around the "blocks" system in order to have an understanding of how much of everything I'm eating.  I like the idea of knowing what to tweak based on how I look, perform and feel.  My question is about measuring protein.  My husband and I have been debating for years whether meat should be weighed before or after cooking.  I think that if you measure it before cooking you are measuring water weight because when you cook it, it weighs a lot less.  My husband thinks that that is wishful thinking.  As much as I realize the relative insignificance of this issue, I would love to settle this debate once and for all.  What do you think...measure before cooking, measure after cooking, or throw the scale out the window?

5. Question from Jaison:

Robb and Andy,
I am super confused by trying to program my strength training and workouts. There are just so many different programs to chose from. I would like to rotate in a new program in once a month; so one month I will focus on mass gain, then strength gain, fat loss, and athletic performance. It's not that i can't find a thousand different programs, but I know that you will be able to point me in the right direction to the most useful and well researched programming that fits in with eating paleo.

Some background: I am 5'9" male, 160lbs, have been 100% paleo for 1 year and have dropped from 224lbs (64lbs lost this year), from 36% bodyfat to 13% with embarrassingly little exercise, although I have been doing p90x for about 3 months now. Been doing Leangains IF for about 2 months now with good results. But it's time to step things up and be specific. my main goal right now is to gain muscle mass, and then get under 8% bodyfat.  I'm just confused as to, well pretty much everything to do with programming for these goals.

Love the podcast I have read the book TWICE, you have really changed my life.

6. Question from Kyle:

Hi guys, I am a new follower to the podcast, never knew it existed until a resent Hawaii visit.
The title is what was said to me by a Natropath recently. It was my 1st bout of Gout (NEVER want to experience again!)
'you eat way too much high purine foods, with the red meat- I suggest a vegetarian diet or eating meat at least 1 or 2 days per week to make it a moderate consumption'

I went to the Natropath in order to get some herbal anti-inflammatory medication as opposed to taking your usual NSAID's. After looking up what causes Gout I was fearful that my Paleo diet was a contributing factor.
I do eat Lamb, Beef, Kangaroo , not in massive quantities & mixed up throughout the week with wild Salmon & deep sea fish. But I definitely eat it more than 1 or 2 days per week when you consider the amount of meals one has throughout a day.
This has all happened within 2weeks.
In the week before going to Hawaii, I was eating food which according to 'the blood group diet' Are avoid foods for me eg prawns & chicken. Plus I had some sweetbread in Hawaii. So in a 2 week period I had eaten food that cause it & managed to get it. Also in that week @ Hawaii, if you don't mind the oversharing , my Kidney,s were acting strange... The amount of times I had to urgently pee was ridiculous & way too frequent.

So please tell me I can continue eating Paleo, that I don,t have to go vegetarian. Also is it true that I should listen to what the blood group diet suggests... Because with the elimination of chicken, pork, trout, seeds eg sesame, pumpkin I,m kind of left with only 'the meats that I should only have 1or 2 days / week.
Oh i am sending this before I have my blood tests as I want to know I can still eat as normal... Paleo style!
Thanks guys, looking forward to hearing the response

7. Question from Joshua:

Hey Robb and Andy
I love the podcast. I currently attend Palmer College of Chiropractic where time to do anything but study is a luxury as we take an average of 30 credit hours a trimester.  Crossfit is becoming an extremely popular thing here at school, which is in no way a bad thing.  I however hate being in the gym and am a big proponent of MovNat, and being out in nature.  I know Robb and Erwan have done lectures and such together which is how I found the website, podcast, ect.  Alot of my friends who are crossfitters are very hesitant to leave the gym and just go outside to play every once in a while.  I was wondering if you had any advice so I can convince these "crossfit cult-ers" as I call them outside and back to nature.  I have nothing against crossfit, I think its great. I just think getting outside has some definite benefits as well.  Oh, and Robb I just listened to the podcast where you talked about feeling more "Randy" and well to each there own but did you at least ask his permission first?  Thanks a ton!

8. Question from Emma:

Hi Robb and Andy,

I guess everyone begins these things with a spiel about how they've been listening to you from the very beginning, so I might as well follow suit: I've been listening to you from the very beginning.

My mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in October, and is currently undergoing chemo. I understand you believe this type of cancer to be in the family of auto-immune diseases that can really benefit from  a diligent no-gluten, low-carb policy. Where I'm not clear about is how she should handle the issue of  red meat. Many sources say to avoid the stuff as much as possible, but those are the same people that are also recommending vegetarianism and "healthy" whole grains. My family tries to eat mainly locally raised, grass-fed meat, and my gut feeling is that this should not be problematic to her recovery. However, I'd like something a little more solid than my intuition to make such a judgement in this case.

How do you feel about people eating grass-fed red meat, or for that matter any sort of red meat during cancer treatment? Should they limit their intake, or is it not much of a concern? If you could also please cite some sources I would appreciate it. I've tried searching pubmed and google, but to no avail. I mostly come across studies linking red meat consumption to increased risk of cancer, which I already know to be a shady manipulation of variables that doesn't properly represent the entire picture.

Thank you so much for your help and insight!

9. Question from Colby:

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/8-reasons-carbs-help-you-lose-weight-2442968/

Robb, saw this story on Yahoo front page this morning. I'm sure you've heard about it or will soon, but I just had to comment. Is this article a joke? It seems to make all kinds of wonderful claims, but then does nothing to back them up. How is it that studies and/or articles keep coming out that contradict Paleo, but they cite little to no research?

I fear that the ease in which someone can post groundbreaking new diet research, all for a buck, is the biggest opponent that Paleo faces. Especially b/c once these diets/fads are disproved, people then lump every other diet/lifestyle (i.e. Paleo) together and label them a fraud, fad, scam, etc.

Just my 2 cents

Show Notes - The_Paleo_Solution_Episode_65

Download episode here.