Paleo Diet for Athletes
9/24/2011 | | Share

We get a lot of questions about various diets, and it seems there’s a new one everyday. But one that seems to have faced (and passed) the test of time, is the Paleo Diet. The first major aspect about this is it really isn’t a “diet” in the classic sense of being something you do temporarily to lose weight (which rarely, if ever, works long term, as you well know). Rather, it’s a strategy for living and pursuing enhanced health. In a nutshell, the Paleo Diet (sometimes called the Caveman Diet) eliminates dairy, refined sugar, processed food and cereal grains from your fueling plan. Instead, you focus on (almost) unlimited amounts of low glycemic fruits and veggies, along with lean protein sources of fish, chicken, turkey and some forms of beef (as well as high omega 3 eggs). This is a great strategy for the general population, but endurance athletes are unable to store enough glycogen for longer workouts to follow this strategy consistently. And that’s where Cordain and Friel’s book “Paleo Diet for Athletes” (http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Diet-Athletes-Nutritional-Performance/dp/1594860890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316903471&sr=1-1) provides critical answers. Essentially, they encourage athletes to include standard fueling strategies (gels, drinks like Perpeteum and Recoverite) before, during and immediately after a longer workout and then follow the Paleo plan the remainder of the day.

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