Let’s face it, even though we may enjoy it and it tastes good, it may not be good for us! We hate to give up something like an apple & peanut butter. Both should be healthy choices right? What if you learned that the apple should be eaten alone and not combined with anything for optimal nutritional value? We know that bodybuilders tend to eat the same foods routinely and prize themselves on having figured out the science of nutrition. What most don’t realize is much of what they are eating to win their show may be causing them to lose good health. In the moment, they may not care, but long term side effects can be grueling and life altering. Using more supplementation versus whole foods, creates the risk of nutritional nose dives & toxicity in the body.
Over stressing the liver & kidneys with high protein diets and the use of supplementation is a lethal combination for the well being of your health and metabolism. You run this risk especially when your manage your body this way over long periods of time. Your system will burn out and it can begin to fail you.
There are natural food combinations that will increase the metabolism and have a thermogenic effect on the body. One example is cayenne pepper & lemon. Rather than do things that raise your PH levels and have an acidic effect on your body that will inflame you, it’s great to gain an understanding of how eating an anti-inflammatory diet can help bring your body back to balance. My intention of writing this is to enlighten you about the why’s? I want to give you some educated alternatives so you too can have some aha moments. I certainly have learned a lot through my own efforts about what is working and not working with my body.
If you are working with nutritionists or seasoned professionals you are in good hands. However, these secrets to success, many dietitians or competition coaches, don’t even consider or know about. Natural and organic professionals are in the know. This is all about returning to the nature of things and using nature for it’s highest benefits when it comes to balancing and building your body. If you are trusting your diet to a trainer or someone inexperienced with food timing or combining you may be putting your health at risk. You may find out the hard way, as I once did, about metabolic burn out or you may end your time as a bodybuilder with a more serious health issue due.
As for fat loss, your body will naturally burn more fat when it can work efficiently on it’s own. The issue is we want a quick fix versus doing what we can overtime to do it the right way. This leads to long term health and beauty benefits. It’s all about bringing your body to balance through what it genetically needs and that’s whole foods combined the right way so your body can digest it. It’s all about good digestion. Digestion is the path to a great immune system. It’s also the center of most diseases. We give it way too many mixed messages. We are busy and rely on foods that have additives, preservatives, artificial colors and are mass produced. We live on crazy food combinations and many are not consciously eating nor conscious of much in their lives for that matter. Keeping it stupid simple is the key to success when it comes to eating clean & for optimal health.
If you don’t vary what you eat you may be prone to more vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Unfortunately, eating the same foods over and over is not wise if you want to be healthy. High protein diets are the root cause of what some call “metabolic syndrome” or “adrenal fatigue”. It’s important for your health to ensure you are eating more whole, raw and a variety of foods to create the most ideal balance and prevent issue related to deficiencies. An easy way to know if you are deficient is to notice what you are craving. There is usual a mineral you are lacking or possibly you are not getting enough calories. Most times, the cravings are set off by the lack of a specific vitamin or imbalance that is going on by your eating patterns. (I will write about the topic of cravings and what causes them in a future blog)
Never disregard consistent cravings for something like salt or sugar as just a lack of willpower. Give merit to these moments and do a little investigating. I always suggest you begin with a vitamin and basic blood work up. Check your iron, creatine and vitamin levels. If something is not low or deficient why are you taking it? Also, be sure you look to see where you may not be in the red zone, but are on the higher or lower end of the spectrum. If your sodium is already low, why are you removing sodium from your diet? I was on a low sodium diet for years because I though you should take all sodium out of your diet. I had an aha moment when I did my investigation of why I was holding so much water. I learned that I was low in sodium and actually needed it.
When your body is low in sodium, your kidney will release the hormone aldosterone as a safety measure. This hormone promotes sodium retention and lowers potassium. When I was hospitalized years ago while working with a coach, I learned I was also low in potassium. Low potassium and sodium = heart attack! This is why I am so protective of my clients and their diets. Traditional bodybuilding coaches & diets can put your health in danger if they are not in tune with your blood work and your overall health. If you are low in salt, aside from it causing the loss of potassium, it can also cause you to retain water. Potassium and sodium regulate your water levels. Be sure you do combine potassium, magnesium and sodium for a powerful electrolyte balancer when you are done working out. Sweating can cause the loss of those minerals and they must be replenished. Ideally, your diet should include things that stabilize those levels. Look for vitamin sports drinks that are healthy and not full of artificial ingredients that have this combination.
The first thing I always ask my clients to do is log when they feel the craving or hunger. Foods that are not nutrient dense can be a big problem. If you are eating white carbs for instance, you will not get the benefit of carbs that have what your body needs to feel satisfied. The more nutrient-enriched foods you incorporate in your diet, including super foods, you will see the unbeatable advantages. The disadvantage is you must stagger or cycle your foods for optimal benefits or you risk getting too many nutrients and calories.
When on a fat or weight loss program this can be an issue. You don’t want to eat a ton of fruit if you need to cut down on sugars. Sugars convert to fat whether they are sucrose (white/starchy sugars) , lactose (milk sugars) or fructose (fruit sugar). This is when timing of sugars is a great strategy so that you at least eat them at the right time, such as, post workout, when your blood sugars drop and you need to pick them back up to balance your metabolism. A fiber supplement may seem like an easy way to sub out some of your whole grain carbs, but with a fiber supplement, you can’t get the same anti-inflammatory and phytonutrients you can with whole foods. You also will feel more satisfied eating the whole food version.
Our bodies are not able to live a lifetime well on processed foods. Our genes are turned off and on by nutrients. Whole foods involved the nutrients needed to activate them. You can’t rely on supplementation because it doesn’t register the same way in our body as whole foods do. Fiber is taken out of most refined carbs. Whole foods can bring your body back to balance and ensure you get the fiber you need or weight management. The way to get the most bang for your nutritional buck is to eat a variety of powerful combinations that trigger metabolic responses within your body an create optimum nutritional balance.
Here are some Rules To Live By:
1) Eat Simply
2) Eat fruit alone for best nutritional absorption
3) Green Leafy Vegetables go well with fats/oils
4) Anything cooked should be eaten with a raw vegetable or a salad.
5) Eat in a an ebb and flow pattern or a rotation to get a different spectrum of vitamins, antioxidants & minerals
6) Avoid combining:
PROTEIN & CARBS
DAIRY & CARBS
PROTEIN & FATS
ACID FRUIT WITH PROTEINS
7) Chew slowly to ensure your enzymes have time to react to break your food down.
8) Never Add Anything to your dairy products, they are best consumed alone.
9) Protein should never be combined with a starchy carb and will aid in preventing digestive issues.
10) Never eat carbohydrate foods with acidic foods at the same time – this means not eating bread, potatoes, peas, beans, bananas, dates or other carbs with lemon, lime, orange, pineapple, tomatoes (take them out of your salad if you have anything high in carbs in it like beans or peas.
11) Do not eat the following proteins together:
NUTS & MEAT
CHEESE & EGGS
EGGS & MEAT
MEAT & MILK
NUTS & MILK
***** LIKE FRUIT SHOULD BE EATEN ALONE, MILK SHOULD BE DRANK ALONE
12) NEVER PUT STARCHES & SUGARS together – such has hot cakes with blueberries or yogurt or oatmeal with fruit.
Here are some powerful synergies to start incorporating now into your diet:
GREEN TEA & LEMON – ascorbic acid in citrus fruits helps you better absorb catechin in green tea, which is an antioxidant
AVOCADO & MIXED GREENS – healthy fat helps your body absorb the phytochemicals better in the leafy greens
OATMEAL/ORANGE JUICE & ALMONDS – almonds help regulate your insulin levels and when eaten with a carb can help slow down the release of the sugars in this type of carb. Go for old fashioned rolled oats. Orange Juice and oatmeal combined have been proven to prevent heart attacks and clean arteries.
STEAK & A VEGGIE OR FRUIT WITH HIGH VITAMIN C BROCCOLI – meat is a great source of iron. Combined with Vitamin C it help with the iron absorption.
TOFU & SPINACH – Tofu is high in calcium, the Vitamin K in the spinach help your body aborb the calcium better
RAISINS & DARK CHOCOLATE – There is boron in raisins which aids the body in digesting the magnesium in chocolate
KALE/SPINACH & BEETS – Dark leafy vegetables are best eaten with a fruit or veggie high in vitamin C, this will improve iron absorption in your body overall. Spinach/Kale are also great natural diuretics that help pull water out of the body and are great to use to balance water levels.
TOMATOES & OLIVE OIL – Lycopene is a central nutrient in tomatoes. Absorption is boosted by healthy oils.
BEEF & CARROT – Vitamin K is available in abundance in Carrots. When you combine them with Beef, you will boost your immune function. Vitamin K does best when bound to a protein. Beef also has zinc, which further aids your immune system.
FISH & GARLIC – this is a great anti-inflammatory combination due to the fact that fish can lower cholesterol, while garlic is great for the heart.
DIURETIC VEGETABLE with SEAFOOD OR MEAT HIGH IN SODIUM – will help pull water out of the body. My favorite combination is asparagus and red meat!
HEALTY FAT & CARBS WILL MAKE YOUR SKIN TIGHTER WHEN COMBINED by filling out your muscle bellies more if you are already lean – My favorite combo in small doses is almond butter & a yam/sweet potato or slice of Ezekeal Toast or a dollop of it in my oats.
THE LIST OF DO NOT DO’S:
Here are some combinations that can be retroactive and can cause you actual health issues:
COFFEE & EGGS – the polyphenols that are in coffee blocks iron that you get in the eggs or in any lean meat. It can also decrease calcium in your bones.
MILK & ANYTHING – Drink Milk with honey, nothing combines well with it because it’s best drank by itself. With honey it has a microbial property to it.
MEAT & POTATOES – Starches & Proteins digested together, create digestive issues.
SANDWICHES – can be too heavy on the system especially because most include meat and cheese, this combination can clog the system. Whole grain bread and protein can be okay since the fiber in the bread can help aid digestion, but vegetable sandwiches are a more ideal way to eat a sandwich. Avoid combining cheese and bread together or protein and cheese together.
Many who diet are unsure why during a diet they are experiencing gas and bloating. In the bodybuilding industry, some of these food combinations create specific effects for the body in order for it to achieve a specific result. However, if gas and bloating occurs and you are unsure why, the list here may be helpful to you for understanding why your stomach may not be feeling to well. If you are creating inflammation in your body than that is usually the opposite of what most desire. Eat more consciously to achieve whole health!