AMRAP 7 minutes:
30 double unders
15 KB thusters
10 toes-to-bar
Eliminate Gluten and Soy
Last week we kicked off a series of posts to breakdown CrossFit’s dietary prescription to, “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake levels to that which will support exercise and not body fat.”
We touched on “and no sugar” last week. You can read the post here.
Today we look at two items that are not specifically listed in the prescription but are part of a Paleo approach to CrossFit’s dietary prescription – gluten and soy.
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, kamut, oats and many other grains. It is also used in processed foods as a thickening agent. So what is wrong with gluten?
Gluten is a protein, or a long strain of amino acids that are bound together. When it enters our digestive system enzymes break down these proteins, however, because gluten is relatively new to our bodies (10,000 years vs. 3,000,000) many of us lack the amount and proper enzymes to break down these proteins successfully. The unbroken protein then damages the cells that line our gut (villi) leaving gaping holes between the cells that allow partially broken down food to pass directly into our blood-stream (leaky-gut syndrome). These partially broken down proteins can be toxic to our cells and can cause auto-immune reactions where the body begins attacking itself.
Auto-immune diseases related to gluten include but are not limited to: alzheimers, parkinsons, arthritis, cancer, lupus, and MS. We’ve become so used to associating these problems with old age when in fact it’s directly related to what we’ve been putting into our bodies.
Eliminating gluten from our diets is no easy chore. In addition to being a staple of our diet for so long gluten also has an addictive trait similar to morphine known as gluteomorphin. The more you ingest the more your body craves and wants more. Gluteomorphin has also been linked back to autism in young children.
Food companies, magazines, and natural grocery stores have also made gluten into the next health food fad tying it to weight loss rather than longevity and overall health. You can buy everything gluten-free – pretzels, brownies, cake, cookies, crackers, and chocolate covered almonds, for example. Consumers see gluten-free and somehow believe those double chocolate chip cookies with organic cane sugar are somehow now made healthy (and will make them loose weight!?). Gluten-free junk food! What people don’t realize is that they don’t need gluten-free sugary options, they simply need to replace the gluten containing junk with fruits and vegetables.
As stated earlier, gluten is used in many processed meats and foods as well as imitation meats, so be careful and read your food labels. Know what you are putting into your body! Gluten is EVERYWHERE.
There are so many things we could say about soy. We’ll leave you with two words and a few resources. Estrogen latte.
I don’t think oats naturally contain gluten, only if they are cross-contaminated at a facility that processes glutinous grains? Still a grain, though, obviously.