Click here for a Runner's World review of The Paleo Diet for Athletes.

Praise for The Paleo Diet for Athletes

I wrote you a while back about your paleo sport nutrition book.  It is out and I have all of my friends and family reading it!  Phenomenal work!!!  I am currently being registered as a dietitian and working towards my masters degree in Nutrition and Physical Performance.  I have read nearly everything out there and NOTHING has spoken the truth as well as your work with the Paleo diet.  I plan to continue on towards my doctorate in either nutrition or exercise physiology.  I would love to do research in the area that you are working in.  Does Colorado State offer doctoral programs in your department?  As I would love to come and work with you or at least perform similar research here in St. Louis to expand the paleo nutrition research.

Justin
 

Amazon.com Reader Reviews of The Paleo Diet for Athletes

Straight forward, November 15, 2005 Reviewer: Tito It is a straight forward, easy to understand book that does a good job of showing that the Paleo diet is not a fad diet, but a well balanced diet with the focus on proper nutrition. If you're new to the Paleo Diet concept, I suggest getting this book.

A quick guide to The Paleo Diet for Athletes

© 2005 by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. and joe Friel, M.S. 

The Paleo Diet for Athletes, Rodale Press. Written by Loren Cordain, Ph.D., author of The Paleo Diet, and Joe Friel, M.S., author of numerous best-selling books on training for endurance athletes, the book applies the concept of eating as our Stone Age ancestors ate to the extraordinary demands of training for serious endurance sports. Although it is now the 21^st century athletes still have Old Stone Age (“Paleolithic”) bodies. There has been no significant change in the human genome in the past 10,000 years. Physiologically speaking, we are still Paleolithic athletes. 

The Paleo Diet

The basic premise of Dr. Cordain’s book, The Paleo Diet, is that certain foods are optimal for us to eat and others are non-optimal. The optimal foods are those that we as homo sapiens have been eating for most of our time on Earth. Only in the last 10,000 years, a mere blink of the eye relative to our species’ existence, have we been eating non-optimal foods. Unfortunately, these foods comprise the bulk of what western society eats today and include such foods as grains, dairy and legumes. Given that our bodies have not changed, we are simply not well-adapted to these non-optimal foods and they moderate health and peak performance. 

On the other hand, we have been eating optimal foods – vegetables, fruits, and lean animal protein – for hundreds of thousands of years and we are fully adapted to them. Science tells us that these foods also best meet our nutritional needs. Eat these and you will thrive. Avoid or strictly limit them and your health will suffer. 

The Paleo Diet for Athletes

For serious athletes, however, when it comes to immediately before, during, and directly after workouts we need to bend the rules of the Paleo Diet a bit since we're placing demands on the body that were not normal for our Stone Age ancestors. Quick recovery is one of those demands. This requires some latitude to use non-optimal foods on a limited basis. The exceptions, as described in the book, are included in the athlete’s 5 stages of daily eating relative to exercise:

Stage I: Eating Before Exercise

Stage II: Eating During Exercise

Stage III: Eating Immediately After
Stage IV: Eating for Extended Recovery
Stage V: Eating for Long-Term Recovery

For the remainder of your day, or until your next Stage I, return to eating a Paleo Diet by focusing on the optimal foods. For more information on the Paleo Diet go to http://www.thepaleodiet.com.

WHY IS THE PALEO DIET ERGOGENIC?

1.      Increased intake of branched chain amino acids (BCAA). Benefits muscle development and anabolic function. Also counteracts immunosuppression common in endurance athletes following extensive exercise.

2.      Decreased omega-6:omega-3 ratio. Reduces tissue inflammation common to athletes while promoting healing.

3.      Alkaline enhancing. Reduces catabolic (breakdown) effect of acidosis on bone and muscle while stimulating muscle protein synthesis.

4.      High in trace nutrients. Trace nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are necessary for long-term recovery from exercise and for health. The most nutrient-dense foods are vegetables and seafood. On average, vegetables have nearly twice the nutrient density of grains. 

Excerpt from the paleo diet for athletes

 “Training for endurance sports such as running, cycling, triathlon, rowing, swimming, and cross-country skiing places great demands on the body, and the athlete is in some stage of recovery almost continuously during periods of heavy training. The keys to optimum recovery are sleep and diet. Even though we recommend that everyone eat a diet similar to what our Stone Age ancestors ate, we realize that nutritional concessions must be made for the athlete who is training at a high volume in the range of 10 to 35 or more hours per week of rigorous exercise. Rapid recovery is the biggest issue facing such an athlete. While it’s not impossible to recover from such training loads on a strict Paleo Diet, it is somewhat more difficult to recover quickly. By modifying the diet before, during, and immediately following challenging workouts, the Paleo Diet provides two benefits sought by all athletes: quick recovery for the next workout, and superior health for the rest of your life.”