Smart Shopping: Vegetarian vs. Grain vs. Grass vs. Uhhh...Other?

By Leah Hosburgh

Oh, those must be soy bugs since chickens are vegetarians...right?

We talked about where your meat comes from. That is closely related to what your meat eats. And what your meat eats you eat. (Mmmm, manure.) So here is a breakdown of terms you'll see at the supermarket.


Vegetarian Fed-This is something you'll see on egg and chicken products. Chickens are not vegetarian. They like bugs. Normally. These days, there are fed some mixture of something. If a chicken is vegetarian fed it basically means it's not fed animal protein. What is meant by animal protein? Leftovers. These leftovers could be just about anything under the sun:

• Ground up downer cattle (cattle too sick to stand - the FDA says you can't feed downer cattle to people, but the USDA says it's legal to put them in animal feed).
• Feathers, bones, bodies, feet, and offal from battery hens. These are hens which are raised in cages the size of a shoebox. When they die, they are likely sick, malnourished, and pumped full of antibiotics. Antibiotics and other medications are definitely passed into the feed, and illnesses can be.
• Plastic. Many rendering plants receive spoiled styrofoam and plastic wrapped cuts of meat from grocery stores. Since unwrapping the meat would be time-consuming, typically they just dump the whole thing into the grinder, plastic wrap and all.
• Soiled bedding (chicken poop and sawdust) from chicken feed lots.
• Cattle and pig manure.
• Cats and dogs euthanized at animal shelters, including the chemicals used to euthanize them, and any medication the animals were on prior to their death.
  Source: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/vegetarian-fed
  
  I'll take the corn feed over the random body parts feed, but still not the most ideal diet for chickens, and therefore, not the most ideal diet for you.

Uhhh...Non-Descript Fed-Then there's the meat that doesn't say anything. The default diet is something like our good old friend, "vegetarian fed," and unmistakably corn based. Well, what's wrong with corn? First and foremost, for our Paleo challengers-it is a grain. Grain, at the end of the day, is sugar. The biochemical effect on you body when you eat corn is the same as sugar, and our goal is to choose more nutrient dense food that will sustain you, not give you an insulin spike. Secondly, corn is systemically a problem. It's the go-to solution to dealing with fillers, feed, farmers, subsidies, and corporate appeasement. Sorry, Kellog's, but we know it's no coincidence almost all of your product is mostly corn. And that farmers get paid to make corn. And that the corporations who sell corn lobby the government to keep paying farmers for their corn. See the cycle? Unless you swim your way out of that cycle, you are full blown in it.

Grass Fed Grain Finished-Here's a tricky little practice in the meat industry. Unless you ask your grocer to make sure, grass fed is often grain finished. This means the last few months of life, the animal is fed corn to fatten them up before being slaughtered. Yes, this does compromise the Omega 3 fatty acids and nutrition profile of the animal. Yes, it costs more for you to buy this meat. The good news is this meat is often still pasture raised, and hormone/antibiotic free, but if you are going to go grass, go 100%.

Grass Fed-Well, this is the natural feed for cattle, meaning what their bodies have evolved to eat and live off of in the wild. Naturally, it makes sense that this diet would be the healthiest for the cattle, and therefore, healthier for you. Grass fed meat has higher amounts of Omega 3 fats, vitamin E, antioxidants, and is generally much more nutrient dense (http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm). Furthermore, grass fed meat is often pasture raised, and as discussed in our previous article, a much better situation.

Hormones/antibiotics next time...

Smart Shopping: Find the Source

Smart Shopping: Find the Source

If you are now or are planning on upgrading your lifestyle to a more “Paleo” friendly, or at least a more whole food friendly version, shopping for meat is quite the challenge. You can pick up some chicken breast or burgers from anywhere, but now you want to know where did that meat come from? What’s in it? And what do I look out for? We’ll be giving you some tips on what to look out for in the coming weeks.

Feedlot in California. Yep, California, USA. Ya'll know that doesn't look right. Most animals in these lots hardly move, end up being caked in manure and likely consume a lot of manure before heading to the slaughterhouse. Courtesy of: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Tip #1: Find the Source

Knowing where your meat comes from is very important. In a typical grocery store, a lot of meat is shipped from other parts of the country. Food comes packaged very nicely, and it’s hard to really picture what that meat has been through prior to arriving on the shelf. So, yes, I don’t like seeing farms where animals are caged, standing on top of each other, often lame, sick, and basically dying their whole lives. I don’t mean to offend animal lovers out there, but my concern for the life of the meat prior to its end is not for the sake of a happy cow, chicken, shrimp, etc, but my concern for the system as a whole, and what the long term effects are for humans to be a part of it. The food industry tries desperately to keep up with the demand of our growing population, and farming has turned our livestock into FrankenMeat. Generally, we are mindlessly eating it.  So this installment will focus on environment/source. The next article will be on what is consumed by the animal, ie hormones, antibiotics, and feed.

Cage Free/Free Range chickens. "Any of you seen that door they told us about?"

Cage Free:  Applies just to chicken, and means chickens are required to be in a large enclosed area where they can potentially nest and hen, like normal. Access to outdoors is not required, and no other regulations apply in regard to antibiotics, hormones, or feed.

Free Range: USDA likes to leave things open ended, and in the case of livestock, there is no definition of what is actually required, other than poultry.  Just means a farmer basically has to provide an open door for the chickens to get their daily intake of a natural existence, but in reality, they are in the exact same environment that could be defined as “cage free” because the chickens don't even know about that door. What does that mean? “Free range” is often a marketing tool rather than an actual regulation so be careful.

Pasture Raised:  This is the real deal! “Manufacturers who use this label must meet certain requirements, such as providing year-round access to the outdoors for all ruminant animals, providing them with pasture throughout the grazing season in their area and ensuring that the animals get at least 30 percent of their dry-feed intake from pasture grazing over the course of grazing season” (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/free-range/MY01559). Most legit regulation.

The best thing to do is your own research. Labels will provide the farm/source on packaged meat. If you’re like me, Google the source until you feel like you've gotten enough information to feel comfortable. Delis should be able to tell you where their stuff is coming from, as well. Some farms may actually do a good job of raising meat well, and some may just do a good job of sounding like it. You’re your job to figure out which. Even better, buy from a rancher who doesn't sell to stores, like U.S. Wellness Meats, Teton Waters Ranch, or local butchers. Share if you know of some good ones!

If it’s being shipped from somewhere far and away, it was cheaper to buy, and therefore, probably not as high quality as something freshly delivered from a local farm. This is especially important when it comes to SEAFOOD! Most fish is now farmed and shipped from places as far as China. Chinese sourced tilapia, shrimp, or salmon is going to have harmful amounts of toxins. Chemicals used in international fish farming are often less regulated than they are in the United States, and let’s be honest, there isn't a whole lot really regulated by the FDA, EPA, and USDA so you can be assured whatever is being added to your fish isn't great for you. Farmed fish are like the scary chicken coops you've heard about: animals on top of each other, eating their own or each other’s feces, developing diseases that are harmful to the environment and to the consumer. Just add water. Eew. Bottom line: buy wild caught seafood.
More shopping help here.
And interesting stuff below:

Glycemic Index and Why it Matters

By Dan Finck

Breakdown on the GI:
Sugar, never good.
Sweet potatoes, bananas, mango, pineapple, apricots, good post workout.

Berries, most veggies, good all the time!

The most important piece of your diet puzzle is to pick the right carbohydrates. In order to know what carbs to pick, we’re going to use the glycemic index. The glycemic index measures how fast glucose (sugar) raises a person’s blood sugar. Straight glucose is rated 100 on the index and foods with carbohydrates in them are ranked based on how fast sugar is released into your blood. The lower the glycemic index number, the better the food is for you. Follow this link to find the glycemic index number for hundreds of common foodshttp://www.glycemicindex.ca/glycemicindexfoods.pdf.

If you can’t find a particular food, find the glycemic index value for it here. Foods that we are looking to eat a lot of will have a glycemic value of 55 or less. The above list of foods has most green veggies missing; if its green and a vegetable, you should eat it! Foods that have a glycemic value of 56 to 59 are medium, and should be used at a minimum. Foods higher than 60 on the glycemic index is suicide!

“The problem with high-glycemic carbohydrates is that they give an inordinate insulin response. Insulin is an essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been positively linked to obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure, mood dysfunction and a Pandora’s box of disease and disability”(crossfit.com).

Low glycemic carbohydrates not only control insulin levels, but low glycemic carbs are loaded with the nutrients that keep you healthy and functioning properly. Low glycemic foods are equivalent to rocket fuel for your body!

You’ll be amazed at how well you’ll look, feel, think, and perform. You’re immune system will be invincible and you’ll feel a new found mental focus!

BTW=Beyond the Whiteboard=Do It!

By Dan Finck

Constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity is one of the ways we  define CrossFit workouts and one of the main reasons our program is so effective. At NoCoast we use this definition as our guideline to program each day.

As we enter our 6th week of training at the gym, you may have noticed that a large portion of our strength work has been working up to a heavy single on various lifts. This is important for two reasons; first, knowing your 1 rep max for a variety of lifts is a great way to show your strength progress as we repeat these lifts. Second, as you get a better understanding for how much weight you can handle, you can use this information to properly adjust the weight for our own workout. You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been prescribing a percentage of your heavy single, a.k.a your 1 rep max on a few workouts during the past few weeks. The more we’re able to do this, the more we’ll be able to program workouts that are specifically tailored to each individual.

This is why we’ve invested in Beyond the Whiteboard, and why we think this program is so valuable. The more workouts you log into Beyond the Whiteboard, the more information it will provide to you. This information will track and show your progress, it will allow you to use percentages during your workouts, and it will give you a 3 month snapshot of all the work you’ve done.

We’ve always encouraged our athletes to log their workouts and how they feel. Normally this was done in a notebook and the only one who had access to it was the athlete. Now that we have a way to track all of this online, we (coaches) have another tool to help coach you better, you can find benchmark WODs and benchmark lifts at a click of a button, and we can all hold each other accountable as we record and post our results each day.

The only thing you have to do is show up, work hard, and log your results to Beyond the Whiteboard each day and you’ll be on your way to a more personal and effective program!

Get Your Fuzzies Checked Out!

PT Room 

Many of you start CrossFit, and after falling in love with the feeling of getting your butt kicked, go full board in pushing your body in workouts. As you have learned, intensity is key to making CrossFit a successful fitness program for you. We'd like to encourage you, however, to maintain a level of technique that is sound enough to keep you injury free. The pattern we have seen is that even a slight lack of ROM (range of motion) in a joint or muscle group will, over time, lead to pain and injury. Before you go crazy on PRs, go crazy on the PT! Take care of your body's recovery, healing, ROM, and injuries NOW. If you are feeling a little fuzzy, sticky, or twingy anywhere, we've got some resources. We've made it easy for you...

At NoCoast we encourage daily mobility which is in cooperated into our WODs, as well as a mobility area designed to guide you through recommended stretches based on specific movements. In addition, there is an information area to educate you on the following topics: Soft Tissue Mobilization, Injury Response, Importance of Warm up & Cool Down, and more! (Located upstairs in the lounge). If you have suffered from an injury in the past, or continue to notice that you have continual range of motion deficits, NoCoast offers Physical Therapy services on site!

The approach at NoCoast Mobility Services is to evaluate the individual and identify an injury diagnosis and movement dysfunctions. Individuals will be assessed using a variety of different physical therapy & orthopedic screening tools, as well as biomechanical analysis to identify weaknesses which can affect overall CrossFit movements. Clients will be educated on the anatomy, physical therapy diagnosis, and the tools to empower themselves to use the treatment recommendations for recovery. Findings are collaborated with coaching staff, so that workouts are modified appropriately based on current injury, biomechanical faults, or movement dysfunction.

Mobility Area

SERVICES
Formal Movement Assessment –FREE TO MEMBERS!! (This is a no brainer. EVERY one of you should take advantage of this. You don't need to be injured. You may simply have trouble in an overhead lockout, or getting below parallel in your squat. Get yourself checked out!)

Initial Evaluation & Treatment Protocol: $30

Treatment Session $10 per 15 min​

Dry Needling offered by Certified Specialist Heather Shaughnessy, PT, DPT – Coming Soon!!

Schedule can be done through MindBody, or by contacting Mary for further availability!
​Phone: 505.400.3234
Email: mary@nocoastcrossfit.com