Topic: Eating Right: How To Get Started

[Chris Salvato]

Hey guys, quick question:

My only meat sources are fish and eggs, so what kind of adjustments should I make to the program you've laid out here?

And no, I will not begin eating terrestrials. Not unless the economy tanks completely and the woods become my supermarket.

Why no terrestrials?  I don't care, just asking.

Diversify the fish you eat to keep it interesting.  Fish, if you can afford it consistently, is one of the best sources of meat/protein on the planet for several reasons.

Same rules apply.  Fish/Eggs with every meal, many veggies.

And what to drink? Just water and green tea?

Water, Green Tea and Milk -- if your stomach/ideologies/dieting style allows for milk, that is.  Fruit juice is good in MODERATION...small small quantities...best to avoid it when just getting started.

Any sort of tea is good, too -- but green tea is the best.

Coffee is ok too, i just get weary of telling people its ok to drink coffee because then they drink it every day and it results in a drug addiction, stressed liver and stressed GI tract.

Avoid soft drinks or alcohol.

[nasty]

thanks for this. i am in the process of getting clean and sober and the diet and my training are 2 of my biggest areas that need to be worked on. this is a big help. again, thanks.

[tombb]

Diversify the fish you eat to keep it interesting.  Fish, if you can afford it consistently, is one of the best sources of meat/protein on the planet for several reasons.

Same rules apply.  Fish/Eggs with every meal, many veggies.

Just a quick side note, if you make fish your main source of protein, you might want to be careful about how often you eat it and which fish you eat, due to methyl-mercury that naturally accumulated in fish, especially large fish, and especially fish that eat fish who just ate even smaller fish, because each time the accumulated levels get magnified.
Methyl Mercury is toxic, not as toxic as Di-Methyl Mercury of course, that's like insanely toxic, as in one thousands of a ml will kill you (but it doesn't appear in fish so I digress), but still fairly toxic and can easily keep accumulating in your body (half-life in your blood is like 2 months, and probably more in tissues like your brain).

So basically if you plan to eat a lot of fish, try to avoid large, long-lived, top-of-the-foodchain fish as much as possible and still try to mix in other great toxin-free protein sources like dairy, eggs, and protein powders.

[Chris Salvato]

Diversify the fish you eat to keep it interesting.  Fish, if you can afford it consistently, is one of the best sources of meat/protein on the planet for several reasons.

Same rules apply.  Fish/Eggs with every meal, many veggies.

Just a quick side note, if you make fish your main source of protein, you might want to be careful about how often you eat it and which fish you eat, due to methyl-mercury that naturally accumulated in fish, especially large fish, and especially fish that eat fish who just ate even smaller fish, because each time the accumulated levels get magnified.
Methyl Mercury is toxic, not as toxic as Di-Methyl Mercury of course, that's like insanely toxic, as in one thousands of a ml will kill you (but it doesn't appear in fish so I digress), but still fairly toxic and can easily keep accumulating in your body (half-life in your blood is like 2 months, and probably more in tissues like your brain).

So basically if you plan to eat a lot of fish, try to avoid large, long-lived, top-of-the-foodchain fish as much as possible and still try to mix in other great toxin-free protein sources like dairy, eggs, and protein powders.

+1 Good advice

[geeko55]

What about vegetarians? I've been vegetarian for around 2.5 years now, and I'm waiting to get back to training, what are some good vegetarian meals to get my body in good shape while I wait out the winter months?

[Chris Salvato]

If you want vegetarian meals, you should PM Muse_of_Fire as she has a ton of recipes/cookbook recommendations on preparations of food.

If you want to just increase the quality of food...that is, you are just getting started, all the menu items and rules applies...just your meat/fish category would be blank.

If you want to train seriously you WILL need a protein source...something like Tofu, Soy Isolate, Whey Isolate (if you don't mind the protein being from milk), etc.

Most soy products contain a decent amount of carbs too unless the protein is isolated.  Currently, I am in the middle of a more in-depth analysis of soy, its isolated protein and it's dangers if it is the ONLY protein source...all the gurus i have spoken with have alluded to the many dangers of soy but I need to look this up in more detail....

As a side note, most people who I have seen get into training as vegetarians either give up training or vegetarianism given due time...but that's just my experience.

[niv]

This advice is great! Simple and effective.

[tombb]

As a side note, most people who I have seen get into training as vegetarians either give up training or vegetarianism given due time...but that's just my experience.

I know this was just a small side point, and I agree with the other points you were making, but I wanted to comment on this because it depends a lot on what type of vegetarian diet you use and why you do it.

If you eat eggs and dairy and just don't want to kill stuff (meat/fish), it's not too difficult to compensate nutritionally for that choice.
As far as I know, the only thing you are really missing out on is the Creatine in meat, and you get that even more easily from supplementation. Everything else is stuff you can get from even better sources (better and cheaper proteins from dairy and eggs and protein powders in general, better essential fat sources etc).

On the other hand, there is nothing about training that would make people just suddenly become morally inconsistent (choosing to apply their principles only when it's convenient), you are not suddenly going to kill puppy dogs and trip old ladies in the street just because you train, and similarly you wouldn't start killing/eating/hunting stuff if you didn't want to do it before.

If however you are a vegetarian -not- for ethical reasons and don't even eat eggs or dairy, it's harder to compensate for (still possible, just a lot more work), and I suppose it would be much more likely that you could change your mind (maybe if you thought being vegetarian was somehow healthier and later realized that while training it would be healthier and easier to eat meat, fish, dairy and eggs too).

So anyways, you might want to specify more details than just saying vegetarian, so people can give you more specific advice.
The word vegetarian can mean different things, if I just say I am vegetarian people might assume I like sophisticated vegetable dishes that involve mushrooms (which I hate), when I would be more all about chocolate, watermelon and frozen yogurt
That's another thing you might want to be careful about, generally it's easier to gain weight as vegetarian if you are careless, because the most delicious calorie-rich foods are technically vegetarian, so it's not in any way a guarantee to be healthier at all (think of potato chips, every possible candy, fried battered food, etc).

[parkeet]

Awesome thx for the advice!

[Bret [Soundcrafter]]

Two questions for Chris:

-You recommend eating oatmeal daily, but don't give a reason why. Isn't oatmeal a cereal, which would put it in the same category as the 'not-so-good' grains and rices?

-Most of Quinoa's carbs, if not all, come from starch. Isn't starch just a big, long, chain o'sugars?

[Chris Salvato]

I am considering removing both of those actually since their caloric density is very high.  The reason they are on there is because they are low GI and have a good amount of fiber and/or protein to buffer the absorption of low GI carbs while providing a good whole food.

Lets also keep in mind that these foods are not evil -- but to get the most of your diet you need to remove them at first and learn more about your diet and your body before it is safe to comfortably add them back into your diet.

[Bret [Soundcrafter]]

Ha, interesting enough. Shocking to see that both of these have a low GI.

[KC Parsons]

Ha, interesting enough. Shocking to see that both of these have a low GI.

Yeah, they're not like most other grains (bread and all that).

[Chris Salvato]

Ha, interesting enough. Shocking to see that both of these have a low GI.

Yeh but the content of carb is still very high overall -- means its very easy to overeat...thus I am thinking of removing both of them...then writing another article to discuss how to reintroduce these back into the diet carefully.

Many very starchy foods have a low GI...the danger is always the caloric density.  One-half of a potato, for example, can satisfy more than a whole meals carb target -- but who eats half a potato?  We eat our potatoes at least one at a time.  Same goes for 1/4 cup of pasta -- but who eats that little of an amount of pasta?  We always eat at least 1 cup dry if it is the main course in a meal -- thus should just be avoided overall for someone just starting out.

The key is to eliminate them then reintroduce them GRADUALLY as you learn the caloric content of each (and also how they react with your body).

[Bret [Soundcrafter]]

Yeh but the content of carb is still very high overall -- means its very easy to overeat...thus I am thinking of removing both of them...then writing another article to discuss how to reintroduce these back into the diet carefully.

Many very starchy foods have a low GI...the danger is always the caloric density.  One-half of a potato, for example, can satisfy more than a whole meals carb target -- but who eats half a potato?  We eat our potatoes at least one at a time.  Same goes for 1/4 cup of pasta -- but who eats that little of an amount of pasta?  We always eat at least 1 cup dry if it is the main course in a meal -- thus should just be avoided overall for someone just starting out.

The key is to eliminate them then reintroduce them GRADUALLY as you learn the caloric content of each (and also how they react with your body).

And now I'm enlightened.  This is why I avoid those kinds of foods in general, particularly potatoes. Thanks for clearing this up, Chris.

[J.Silva]

Ok, If Im trying to lose weight would this plan help me, plus with the workouts and such

[Chris Salvato]

This is not a "dieting plan".

This is how to improve the quality of your food.  Just improving the quality of your food will make you see dramatic weight loss if you are untrained and eat like crap.

In short, if you follow this advice, you WILL lose weight - especially if you couple it with exercise.

[KC Parsons]

Ha, interesting enough. Shocking to see that both of these have a low GI.

Yeh but the content of carb is still very high overall -- means its very easy to overeat...thus I am thinking of removing both of them...then writing another article to discuss how to reintroduce these back into the diet carefully.

Many very starchy foods have a low GI...the danger is always the caloric density.  One-half of a potato, for example, can satisfy more than a whole meals carb target -- but who eats half a potato?  We eat our potatoes at least one at a time.  Same goes for 1/4 cup of pasta -- but who eats that little of an amount of pasta?  We always eat at least 1 cup dry if it is the main course in a meal -- thus should just be avoided overall for someone just starting out.

The key is to eliminate them then reintroduce them GRADUALLY as you learn the caloric content of each (and also how they react with your body).

Hmm, this helped open my eyes a little. I always ruled out starch because I thought it just had a high GI, but apparently overeating is actually more of an issue (along with GI sometimes).


Also, not only does that half potato or 1/4 cup of pasta contribute mass amounts of carbohydrates in and of themself (and noone usually eats those small of portions),  but then you have to also take into account a whole meal. You might have a plateful of pasta, some corn on the side, juice with it, and an apple afterwards.

So I can see how quickly all of this will add up and lead to overeating.
Could you say this is partially due to starchy foods tending to have less fiber (therefore less filling and prone to overeating)?

[Sat Santokh]

Chris what about people like me who are ridiculously hardgainers and have metabolisms like i've been doing HIIT for 8 years straight,  I don't feel tired after consuming large amounts of carbs, and i need all the calories i can fit in

[Chris Salvato]

So I can see how quickly all of this will add up and lead to overeating.
Could you say this is partially due to starchy foods tending to have less fiber (therefore less filling and prone to overeating)?

Yes, that is a safe way to think of it.

These high starch foods typically have a lot less fiber and very little water.  Also, we tend to mix these high carb starchy foods with fats which is a bad combination.  An example of these combinations is french fries, onion rings, bloomin' onions, potato salad, macaroni salad, etc. 

A rise in insulin with a lot of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) in the blood stream will certainly cause these FFAs to be stored immediately to adipose (fat) tissues...so it is best to avoid the starchy foods especially with foods that are high in fat.

Chris what about people like me who are ridiculously hardgainers and have metabolisms like i've been doing HIIT for 8 years straight,  I don't feel tired after consuming large amounts of carbs, and i need all the calories i can fit in

The main thing to do, even with hard gainers, is to improve quality of food.  Changing carb/protein/fat ratios without eating quality foods is just going to lead to frustration.  It leads to being hungry way too much and feeling like crap because you are eating twinkies and donuts to get your calories up.  Not to mention the other things that come along with poor diet choices like poor complexion, a "soft" (not-ripped) look, headaches, drowsiness/dragging, etc.

While increasing quality of food I would first try to up the fat intake of these "hard gainers".  Fat is very calorically dense (and delicious) so a hard gainer would benefit more often than not by increasing fat first.  As I said in the past, reintroduction of higher carb foods is a good thing to keep sanity and get your calories up a bit higher, as well.

I would first bump the fat up before the carbs.  Its just a whole lot better tasting and you can get a ton more calories a lot easier without risking a loss of insulin sensitivity.  As an athlete (and just human being in general) you want to be as insulin sensitive as possible...that way when you do consume carbs the insulin response will help deliver the nutrients to tissues more effectively.  Also, it is really easy to identify good, high quality fats as opposed to good high quality starchy carbs.

Start smearing butter, olive oil, coconut butter, turkey/duck/goose fat, almond oil, avocado/avocado oil, almond oil and red palm oil all over your steaks and veggies and you will get all the calories you could ever need.  Don't forget your fish oil, too...this counts as fat, as well.  For a good list of fats to put all over everything, check out the table at the bottom of this page:
http://www.gofrolic.org/gofrolic/food_blog/Entries/2008/12/28_Cooking_Oil_101.html

Hope i answered your question.