The truth about the incredible egg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-larrowe-bergersen/the-misunderstood-delicat_b_773243.html?ir=Health

Valuable nutritional information is beginning to leak into our society. Beginning with the infamous egg. Remember, eggs are not the enemy. They are not "high" in cholesterol and essentially have nothing to do with such nonsense. It is actually the diet filled with unprocessed and nutrient-less foods we put into our bodies.

Naturally occurring cholesterol in our body can be our friend if we take the right steps to monitor it. Cholesterol is nothing but protein lipids that transfer fat to and from the liver in order to maintain a healthy system. We really F this up by consuming crappy foods that promote inflammation and that is where the cholesterol builds up within our body.

Eggs are good. Eat them. Eat them as a WHOLE. The yolk "contains more of the nutrients and 50% of the protein". This aint no lie so don't be scurred no mo folks.

We should be more cautious in where we get our eggs as it states in the article and is quite evident in our nation today that most livestock and chickens are fed a grain/corn/crap based diet. If the animal is coming from a big factory farm, it is almost inevitable. This transfers into their eggs and thus upon ingestion, infects our body with inflammatory byproducts. This is no bueno. Buttttttt, like I preach day in and day out, fish oil (Omega-3) can help our systemic inflammation problems. It is not the answer, but can certainly aid in the inflammatory build up within our bodies. We should all be consuming at least 4 - 5 grams a day or .25g/10lbs of bodyweight (dependent on athletic level/goals/health issues/non-issues) to be more specific. Yes, depending on the potency of your fish oil this may be a shit-ton of pills. So what. Break up your dosages if needed, but get them down the hatch! No excuses!

In conclusion, read the article. I just wanted to hit on some main points and make sure you guys are taking your fish oil and eating your eggs. If you can get better quality eggs, do so. Be cautious of your labels though because some are misleading and downright LIESSSS. (See http://whole9life.com/2010/11/the-conscientious-omnivore-eggs/).

Train hard, live smart and EAT EGGS.

-Aja

"Healthier chickens = healthier eggs = healthier you!!"

A very interesting read about eggs from whole9.

http://whole9life.com/2010/11/the-conscientious-omnivore-eggs/

Pay attention to:

EGG CARTON LABELS: YOUR BEST CHOICES

These certifications actually mean something, either on their own or in conjunction with another (meaningful) label like “certified organic”. Look for these labels at your local health food store, Whole Foods or other independent food co-ops, as you’re not likely to find these at a normal grocery store.

Certified Humane: Certified Humane is a program of Humane Farm Animal Care. The birds are un-caged inside barns or warehouses, but may or may not spend time outside in their natural habitat. (Refer to the specific farm and product to determine whether their birds are outdoors – “pastured” – or not.) They must be able to perform natural behaviors such as nesting, perching, and dust bathing. There are requirements for stocking density and number of perches and nesting boxes. Forced molting through starvation is prohibited, however minor beak cutting is still allowed. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing.

Food Alliance Certified: Food Alliance Certified is a program of the Food Alliance. The birds are cage-free and access to outdoors or natural daylight is required. They must be able to perform natural behaviors such as nesting, perching and dust bathing. There are specific requirements for stocking density, perching, space and nesting boxes. Starvation-based molting is prohibited, but minor beak cutting is still allowed. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing.

The following labels hold no legal definition, but are used by farmers to indicate their eggs were produced in a manner healthy for the environment, their chickens and you. Don’t immediately dismiss them just because they aren’t regulated, but don’t take their claims at face value either. Do some research to find out whether the eggs in your cart meet your standards of healthy, humanely raised animal products.

Pastured: While there is no legal definition for the term “pastured”, it refers to chickens allowed to roam in open pastures. They don’t just have “access to the outdoors” – they actually are outdoors for a good portion of their lives. Advocates of pastured eggs believe that the chickens are happier and healthier, and nutritional analysis has shown that pastured eggs are also richer in useful nutritious elements like omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin C. Usually used in conjunction with “organic”, indicating that the hens are fed an organic diet, and aren’t given antibiotics or exposed to synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. These two elements combined (“pastured” + “organic”) are a “best choice”.

Happy Hens: We’ve seen this claim on more than one egg carton, and when it’s used in conjunction with other terms like “certified organic” and “pastured”, we’re more likely to believe the claims. We’ll also do our research, however, calling the farm or checking out their web site to learn more about the manner in which their hens are raised and fed. (Check out this description of the “dream life” of hens living at Soul Food Farms in Vacaville, CA. We’d buy their eggs, despite the fact that “dream life” isn’t a legally defined term.)

Ethically Raised: Again, not a legally defined term, but indicates that the producers are thinking about the health and happiness of their animals. Do your research, as above.

***Let me remind you these guys are coming to our box in January. If you haven't already signed up, do so now!! I was fortunate enough to catch them the first time they came through and let me tell you, I will be there again this January! Yes, they're that good! Melissa and Dallas have incredible information and valuable knowledge to share with us all and I strongly suggest we all make an effort to visit their site Whole9life.com to check out what they have to say on nutrition and if we can, try and make it out to their seminar this January 8th!***

Delicious Dish #2: Sweet Potato Pancakies

This morning I felt the need to break out of the monotony of my typical weekend breakfast and spice things up. I did just that with a little assistance from the internet and the help of everyone's favorite Aunt Jemima. For some reason the scent, the texture and the taste of pancakes were on my mind and who else better to think of than Miss Jemima and her famously thin, fluffy, delectably-delicious cakes of batter! Now, lord knows I'm not actually going to cook up a batch of her delightful yet deadly blend of enriched flour and anti-nutrient infested cake mix, but rather search for a healthy alternative that will leave my taste buds satisfied and my gut intact. Here is what I found, compliments of health-bent.com.

Ingredients:

*3 eggs
*1 large sweet potato
*2 healthy spoonfuls of almond butter (.5 C)
*.5 C coconut milk
*1 tsp baking soda
*1 tsp baking powder
*2 tsp cinnamon
*.5 tsp nutmeg
*.5 tsp salt
*spoonful of coconut oil


Directions:

Boil your sweet potato until it's fork tender (30-40 minutes). The best/easiest part is you can simply add all of your ingredients into a blender or a food processor and blend thoroughly.

The batter should be liquid-y. It should run off a spoon. If you follow the ingredient list, this should not be a problem.

Heat your griddle/large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Once the pan begins to heat up, melt a generous bit of coconut oil and begin to pour in the batter in whatever shape or size you'd like. When the pancake begins to have surface bubbles near the center, flip and cook the other side (each side 2-3 minutes). Add a little more coconut oil to the cooking surface as needed between batches. Since the batter already has coconut oil in it, you don't need to overdo it.

The tricky part here is getting your heat right. You don't want it to hot or the cakes will burn before being fully cooked through. If you oil is smoking at any point, most likely the pan is too hot. Adjust your heat accordingly during cooking and you'll be fine. This wasn't too difficult but for safe measures keep an eye on your cakes.

Once the cakes are finished, I skipped the maple syrup and just drizzled a bit of honey over them so I could really preserve the flavor of the pancake. The honey makes for a great addition but don't overdo it, a little bit will go a long way.

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks Auntie J!!

-AB

Health Matters

Last week, nutrients took a horrendous left hook that might have left it a bit stunned. There was a previous post in this blog regarding it, and I wanted to take some time before responding and giving comments to it.

A Kansas State Nutrition Professor announced results of a 2 month diet that the media coined the "Twinkie Diet". In the two month period, this professor ate what was mostly convienance foods snack cakes, doritos, twinkies as well as one protein shake a day and some vegetables thrown in for good measure. It was an effort to prove to his students that weight loss was all about calories in vs calories out.

Those of us that are in the trenches of diet, health and exercise constantly face an uphill battle. Over and over again conflicting information seeps its way to a trusting and sadly undereducated public, who does not have the tools and knowledge to look at such studies and news reports with a critical eye. And for those looking for the easy way out or magic pill how the message is delivered is critical to battling  the number one issues in the health care crisis.....obesity. Critical details get buried or ignored in the reporting of such things.

So looking at the KSU professor's main hypothesis, does calorie restriction lead to weight loss? Was he successful in demonstrating this? Yes and yes. This is typically not a debated point, calories in vs calories out typically results in weight loss. Was his point proven? Yes.

Here is where I see a major problem, when the information is desseminated to the public. It is much like the Far Side Comic "What do Dogs Hear?" Like the comic below, people will not read that he limited

1800 calories. They will only see what the media highlights in the lead paragraph, "you can lose weight AND eat junk food." So much like when fat free cookies and ice cream came out, people will continue to overindulge because a KSU professor lost weight eating this way.

While his conventional wisdom biomarkers improved(BMI index, bad cholesterol went down, good cholesterol went up), he himself did not reccomend people eat this way. Again people skim through the article and select what they find to support and justify eating crap. His message, "In an effort to prove weight loss is about calories in calories out, I will eat junk food and restrict calories therefore I will lose weight." What people will hear " Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah EAT JUNK FOOD blah blah blah blah bhal blah LOSE WEIGHT"

While he lost weight, he was sadly deficient in nutrients. Supplementing with multi vitamins, protein shakes and "some vegetables" could not have produced enough nutrients that the cells need. Food quality matters, nature is the best producer of nutrients.

In the battle against obesity, weight loss is absolutely important and vital. However, weight loss at any cost is down right dangerous. In this ongoing war against obesity, rising health care cost, and high preventable disease rates, sustained weight loss and disease prevention are the keys.

A junk food weight loss diet is junk science. For us at CFWH we will continue on in the fight preaching proper sleep, real nutrient dense foods with calorie restriction, and proper exercise. We will be examples of fit healthy individuals fighting the good fight! Think critically when idiocy is reported.





Chicken Soup for the Paleo CrossFitter

Maybe it is the cold weather. Or maybe it is the bout of allergy sinus issues, but soup has been on my mind. It is also to be a great way to make different meals from the whole chicken from Yonderway Farm.

Here are ingredients:

1 48 oz carton of Chicken Broth (preferably organic low sodium fat free)
1 lb of leftover chicken cut up and freem of bones
1 stalk celery chopped
2 cups of carrots chopped
1 half onion chopped
(other veggies can be added. This is what we had on hand)
1 TBSP Garlic
Coconut Oil size of thumb
Rosemary, Sea Salt, Pepper, Sage to taste

Saute chopped vegetables in sauce pan with coconut oil until onions are translucent
Meanwhile, heat broth with spices. Add cut up chicken and vegetables. Simmer on low for 15 minutes.
Serve hot.

Counting Calories vs. Nutritional Value: The Twinkie Diet

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

"His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food."

Does that statement sound right? Is this even possible? Apparently so. But, whats your take on a lifestyle filled with the majority of your meals consisting of processed products serving no nutritional value whatsoever, or do they?

Do you think cutting calories outweighs the nutritional value of our food when it comes to "losing weight"? Essentially eating a Hostess product every 3 hours of the day is destined to cut calories thus lead to weight loss in a days time, but is that really the best way to lose "fat" and continue towards our ultimate goal of optimum health and nutrition? What's your take?

Final thought: What's more important to you, losing weight or overall health? Is it possible to achieve both?

*Post your thoughts to comments*

Is That Meat.....Meat?

Maybe it is because I have read too much about food production. Maybe ignorance is bliss. These days I tend to shudder when I pass through the meat section of the grocery store. I give way more thought to where food comes from and what the food eats these days.

If you are concerned about the future of your health, I reccomend picking up a copy of Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It, a documentary about Industrial Agriculture and alternatives and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a book about the fast food, organic farming and foraging as means of eating. These resources will change your outlook on food.

Sadly, food production has been turned into a industrial process. Bigger, faster and cheaper are the rules of the day. This is not how nature intended, and our health is suffering because of it. The industrialized food chain is producing less nutrient meat. Buying meat from happy cows that eat grass their entire life and are given no hormones or antibotics will supply us with valuable nutrients like Omega-3 fatty acids which help to stave off heart disease and can lower blood pressure; CLA (conjugated linolec acid) which is linked to being a strong defense against cancer; and vitamin E which is linked to lowering risk for coronary heart disease, cancers, eye problems and cognitive decline.

Luckily at CrossFit West Houston we have a resource that we can use to get locally grown grass fed and grass finished beef. Yonderway Farm makes a once a month delivery to CrossFit West Houston. The next delivery date is Thursday November 18th between 12:30 and 1:30. You can oder the meet here.

They will deliver eggs, beef, pasturized pork and chicken. The eggs are limited right now due to chickens producing new feathers. Try out a small shipment and see how you like the meat. I love the meat and have been taking delivery's since the beginning. You and your families health may depend on it.

Delicious Dish #1: Cayenne Coconut Shrimpies

Bomb.com. Courtesy of our friends over at P3 Crossfit.

Shrimp Loves Coconut

1 lb large shrimp, tail on peeled and deveined

1/3 cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 egg whites

2 cups coconut flakes

Pre heat oven to 400. In a mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. In another bowl, pour the coconut flakes. Taking one shrimp at a time, dry well with a paper towel and dredge each shrimp in the coconut flour mixture, dip into the egg whites and then roll into the coconut flakes. Bake on a lightly greased (with coconut oil) baking sheet for 12- 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and the coconut flakes start to brown.

Enjoy!

The Importance of Breakfast

Before I dive into just how important it is to roll out of bed in the morning and head straight to the kitchen, let’s take a look at the meaning of the word. Breakfast simply means to break your fast. Think about it – let’s say you destroy the CFWH WOD at 5:30, immediately get your PWO protein and carbs, drive home, hop in the shower, and now it’s finally time for dinner. Depending on how far you are from the gym and how legit your skills are in the kitchen, I’m going to say you’re eating dinner somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30. Let’s say 8:00.

You coat the pan with coconut oil, throw some grass fed beef on the stove, maybe throw some veggies on the grill (or toss em in the microwave like me), slice up an avocado and you’re good to go. You drink plenty of water and down your fish oil just like a good CrossFitter should. You then proceed to get your SportsCenter fix, see what Snooki's up to and head for the bed. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you’re going to sleep at 10:00 and waking up at 7:00, getting a solid nine hours of sleep so all of those muscles you abused earlier in the day can rest and grow stronger.

So now what? You’ve gone eleven hours without food and you have a seriously important choice to make. Do you hit the snooze button or do you fight that urge and drag yourself to the kitchen? Here are my top three reasons (based purely on personal experience) why you should opt for the latter:

Not eating until lunch sucks. Using the example above, if we skipped our breakfast and ate an early lunch at 11:00, we will have gone 15 hours without food. Of course nine of those hours were spent sleeping so it was fairly easy to do but imagine being awake for 15 hours without eating? Not gonna happen.

You’ll be able to stay away from the SAD (Standard American Diet) crap. We constantly have people bringing in breakfast here at my work. What’s the problem with that? Well, it’s a lot easier to bring in a box of doughnuts and kolaches than it is to bring in the hundreds of scrambled eggs and insane amount of fruit, veggies, and healthy fat that it would take to properly fuel everyone in the office. I honestly think that people who bring in the crappy breakfast food know it’s crappy but just don’t know of another way to bring breakfast to the masses. So stay away from the bagel and take breakfast into your own hands long before you get in to work.

A healthy breakfast leads to a healthy lunch. And so on and so on. There’s no better incentive for eating a healthy lunch than knowing you already started your day off right with a healthy Paleo / Primal / (favorable) Zone breakfast. If you are striving for a perfect day of eating, the likelihood of your NEXT meal being perfect increases with each perfect meal you’re able to string together. This is what helped me get through the Whole 30 back in July. Okay, so Mel may have also helped just a little bit.

So these are just my top 3 reasons. What about you? Do you feel the difference on days where you skip vs. days you don’t? Does your performance suffer at work? At the gym? Have any awesome breakfast recipes you want to share? Feel free to chime in with anything and everything breakfast related.

-Ryan

Post-workout recovery pt.III: Recipes (continued)

THANKSGIVING COMES EARLY

In addition to the previous post, throw a good heaping scoop of the sweet potato casserole in between two lean pieces of turkey/chicken breast/ham and you have a great protein + carbohydrate post-WOD meal. Depending on the factors discussed in our first "post-workout recovery" blog (intensity/duration/load or weight of your workout) you can add more or less turkey and sweet potato. It's up to you. Play with things and see what works best for you. Usually if your body feels pretty good the next day, you're on the right track. Give me some feedback and let me know what you guys think if you try it out.

Post-workout recovery pt.III: Recipes

For all you strict paleo fiends out there, here is a recipe that will sure satisfy the caveman (or cave-woman) in you. Excellent for easy post-excercise consumption. I know I love my gatorade, but this dish may begin to work its way into my post-workout regimen. Yeah, it's that good! Compliments of my friend Cary.

Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients:
4 medium sweet potatoes
1 cup of coconut milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla (almond or coconut works well too)
1 cup of crushed pecans (or any of your favorite nuts)
2 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Boil sweet potatoes until you can easily slide a fork in and out or until they are pretty soft. You can also cook sweet potatoes in the microwave or oven, but I recommend boiling.
3. Combine the potatoes, coconut milk, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl. Mix until smooth
4. Place the mixture in a 9 x 9 casserole dish. Put pecans on top of the casserole and sprinkle the cinnamon on top (I also mix some cinnamon in with the other ingredients).
5. Bake in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes (35 is perfect in my oven).

Great Post by Whole 9

Whole 9 has a great post about the term Paleo. As paleo eating is getting more and more popular, there are a lot of folks trying to capitalize. So this post talks about that, how people will use the catch phrase "the perfect paleo" fill in blank yet it isn't paleo at all.


Check it out here.

Post-workout recovery pt. II: Progenex and the fittest man alive

Interesting read on recently popular Progenex products and its growing acceptance with crossfit athletes, specifically the top competitor at this years games, Graham Holmberg.

"Graham’s goal was to perform even better at the 2010 CrossFit Games than he had in the 2009 or 2010 regional competitions. Much like the Central East Regional and other national and international qualifiers, the buzz around PROGENEX at the 2010 CrossFit Games was deafening. People were seeing an improvement in recovery time and performance capacity. The Games athletes flocked to the PROGENEX table after nearly each event and every workout. The sentiments were generally the same, the athletes felt fresh and they wanted to know if it was really PROGENEX that made an impact on their ability to recover. “What’s in this stuff?”, you’d hear often.


Well, to answer your question: Promorphogen (Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate), Less than 5g of Fructose, Natural Flavoring, and a trace amount of Sucralose. We listened to what the CrossFit community wanted and delivered a highly effective, great tasting recovery powder. We avoided detrimental ingredients like Soy, Aspartame, and unproven substances like “gamma-oryzanol” that you would find in competing Post-Workout Recovery supplements. Of course, our improvements to Recovery and More Muscle improved the efficacy of both products.


After supplementing for performance with PROGENEX, Graham was able to train at the highest level. He lifted harder, moved faster, and flat out trained more often. What was the result? A nearly dominant performance at the 2010 CrossFit Games. In nine events, Graham finished outside of the top 6th all but twice. Even more, Graham was in the top-three in five of nine events. The World’s Fittest Man saw a vast improvement in recovery time and durability between the Central East Regional and the 2010 CrossFit Games."

Read the full article here:


http://bit.ly/9oJe4f

Easy made almond flour

So, if you're like me, the worst part of almond flour is buying it. Regardless of where I go, I can not find a decently priced bag of almond flour. Well, I should say, I can never find a "good-sized" bag of almond flour in comparison to it's price. Bottom line is the stuff is expensive and these days no one wants or needs to be spending $10 on a cup-sized bag of almond flour.


So what we can do is just make our own! I found a bag of sliced, blanched (skin-on) almonds at Costco the other day for about $5-$7. It was a decently sized bag. I know you can also get a 1 lb bag of sliced almonds on amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Natural-Sliced-Almonds-Pound/dp/B001F3J86I) for a very cheap price as well. Take your sliced almonds and throw them in a food processor or a blender and pulse until it becomes a flour/meal. Be careful to not blend too much as it will turn into almond butter, another make at home favorite.


I've found this to be a lot more convenient and soooo much cheaper. This will pay off in the long run, plus there's just "too much awesomeness" in doing it yourself at home. Almond flour is an excellent substitute for regular flour and there are several great paleo recipes online for paleo-style baked goods. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Bake away!


-Mrs. Fields

Post-Workout Nutrition

This is an issue that I've spoken much on with some of our fellow West Houstoners as well as our coaches and alot of superior athletes that I have had the pleasure to compete against. Post-Workout Nutrition. What exactly does that mean? Well it's different for everyone, but it should be utilized and fulfilled by anyone that looks to gain the most out of their workouts.


There is a small window when completing vigorous physical activity where your body is in an anabolic (building) state. Your muscles have been torn down and your glycogen (energy) stores have been depleted by your workout. Within this small period of time, your body is calling out for you to replenish and rebuild. 15-30 minutes after workouts is ideal and 1 hour is the deadline to consume a healthy blend of protein and carbohydrates. Regardless of what you choose to eat/drink, this is a must for anyone looking to maximize their gains and enhance the muscular recovery process.


There seems to be a non-insulin mediated glucose transport that takes place within this window, so feel free to break out the sweet potatoes and bananas!


Although fruit/vegetables and lean meat sound sooo appetizing after a heavy 5x3 back squat with a hint of AMRAP, I, personally, tend to prefer the liquid meal. It's believed to be faster absorbing and it is a bit easier to shoot down the hatch. This is just my preference, like I said everyone is different. To be precise, I have a 12 oz gatorade (40g carbs) with a heaping scoop of whey (40g protein). Keep in mind those numbers may change workout to workout with regard to the duration, intensity and/or load of the wod. It's delicious, convenient and most of all easy to take to the gym and slam shortly after peeling myself off the ground. Now you can really have fun with the flavors but I prefer to keep things simple. Orange gatorade + vanilla protein = heavenly orange creme. Try it out if you'd like and let me know what you guys think. Everyone seems to hate on the idea, but honestly its not about taste it's more about effect. I would drink sewage water if it would best recover and prep my body for Steph D's partner wod the following day.


All in all ladies and gentleman it comes down to reaping the benefits of your workouts. If you expect the most out of your bodies day in and day out, you have to treat it right. That feeling of fatigue/soreness and lethargy could sometimes be a lack of "post-workout" nutrition. I know I certainly feel the "wrath of the wod" when I don't fuel my body correctly post-exercise.


Just a quick food for thought on post-workout nutrition. I don't see many people doing it and I truly think we can all benefit from it. We wonder why we can't get out of bed the morning after walking lunges, well a small meal of protein + carbohydrates post-lunges could be of much assistance for future reference. Play around with it and find what works for you, but definitely get something in and get it in quick!


Thanks for letting me bore you, like I said earlier if you ever have any questions regarding any of my posts or anything in general, feel free to blog/comment/ask/e-mail (aja@crossfitwesthouston.com) anytime. We are here to help you guys on your path to excellence. Keep living life.


-AB

Attention

Hey guys,


Rob has given me the privilege to bore you all with some of my knowledge and ever-growing knowledge on a variety of topics within the realm of nutrition.


There has been alot going on at our box these days and it is extremely exciting! I was fortunate enough to gather the finals measurements on a few of our members for the Paleo challenge and I must say the results are incredible. You guys are truly understanding the power of choosing the right foods and fully taking advantage of it as well.


Feel free to use this blog as an opportunity to ask any questions that deal with nutrition. There are no dumb questions, any question is a good question. I will do my best to address the issues and I know each member of our staff is very knowledgeable, so they can be of assistance as well.


Keep working hard both in and out of the gym. Remember, exercise is important but nutrition is critical. Train hard and live smart. See you guys soon.


-Aja