Paleo Diet For Athletes

Is the Paleo Diet a healthy alternative solution for athletes? Many doctors and trainers seem to think so. But be forewarned.....the paleo diet is about to turn everything you think you know about nutrition for elite athletes on its head....

The paleo or caveman diet in and of itself is pretty radical when you compare it to the more traditional diets.  Most diets will limit you in what you can eat.  For instance, some may restrict carbs in general, focus on protein or use a gimick such as the banana diet or soup diet.

Where the paleo diet differs is that its premise relies on you believing the fact that we, as a species, aren't evolved enough to handle an agricultural diet;  in effect, our bodies are meant to consume the same things that we consumed as hunters and gatherers.

What this does is take pretty much all modern day food, both processed and dairy as well as grains and processed foods with chemical additives, completely off the table and replace it with raw vegetables and fruits, meats and honey.  This is a huge departure from typical modern societal beliefs in common nutritional advice.

Additionally, you don't have to restrict calories on this diet.

But would it work for the endurance athlete that is used to carb loading before a marathon or a competitive body builder who actually limits certain fruits and vegetables to suppress water weight?

And can the paleo diet give you enough energy if you were to subscribe to the diet?

Loren Cordain, author of the very popular Paleo Diet for Athletes book, would tell you that not only would you have more energy from implementing this diet, you would feel better and become faster and stronger....

The reason for this is because athletes on the paleo diet experience a natural lower omega 6/omega 3 ration which results in less inflammation in the body, the diet is high in very important trace minerals which is an essential component for an athlete's recovery, and it actually stimulates protein synthesis in the body.

While most long distance runners would probably shudder at the idea of dropping all grains, breads and pastas from their diet and would think that such a stark departure from conventional wisdom would mean less energy to run, consider this:

Prehistoric man, the hunter, often ran 10 miles a day hunting his food.....

And while many will laugh at the idea that someone would be advocating a diet in which the average lifespan of the people were 20-25, you have to remember that these people didn't die of heart disease, diabetes or any of the other very popular conditions in this day and age;  They dies from trauma, disease and other things that our society has remedied since.

There are modified versions of the Paleo diet for athletes as well.  For instance, many endurance runners have strict paleo diets when they are training but will add sugar and starches only right before and right after race day.