Nutrition is the foundation for all athletic development and essential for achieving elite fitness and health. The CrossFit nutrition prescription in its simplest terms is “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.”
This ensures that you are eating “real food,” the food that our hunter-gatherer ancestors have eaten for millions of years, and avoiding the processed “edible food-like substances” that come in boxes, bags and packages.
Our bodies have not kept pace with advances in agriculture and food processing resulting in a plague of health problems for modern man. Coronary heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and psychological dysfunction have all been scientifically linked to a diet too high in refined or processed carbohydrate. Many have observed that keeping your grocery cart to the perimeter of the grocery store while avoiding the aisles is a great way to improve health. Real food is perishable.The stuff with long shelf life is all suspect. An easy rule is “If you can hunt it or gather it, you can eat it.”
If you follow these simple guidelines you will benefit from nearly all that can be achieved through nutrition.
What Should I Eat?
Protein: Fish, Lean Meat, Chicken, Eggs
Carbs: Veggies and Fruits
Fat: Nuts, Seeds, Avocados, Olives and Oils
What Foods Should I Avoid?
Anything that doesn’t exist in nature, or has been processed. Corn, rice, bread, candy, potato, sweets, sodas, and most processed carbohydrates. Processing can include bleaching, baking, grinding, and refining. Processing of carbohydrates greatly increases their glycemic index, a measure of their propensity to elevate blood sugar.
For further information on the Paleo method please visit:
The Paleo Diet
What About Supplements?
We highly recommend incorporating Fish Oil into your diet. There are many ways this supplement can benefit a CrossFitter so go check it out!