Paleo style diets - not for everyone

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I'd like to get into the flip side of last weeks post.. in my opinion, the answer to whether paleo style diets are for everyone is no. It works wonders for the many people out there who suffer from celiac disease, any sort of gluten intolerance, and anyone who is metabolically deranged. Since SO many people are metabolically unhealthy, then a lifestyle of eating whole foods, meats, vegetables and overall lower carb/glycemic index foods is a no brainer for them. However, what about people like myself who who can eat grains without resulting in any overt symptoms or out of whack blood-work? What about people who are naturally slim and desperately search for healthy ways to up calories? Who find that low glycemic AND high glycemic carbs have helped reach fitness goals? And most importantly, people whose metabolic system is healthy and freakishly efficient? If it does not cause any inflammation or adverse effects, it's really only going to benefit you.

How about in the long term?? Who really knows.. apparently everything causes cancer so until its actually proven that gluten and wheat can play a role in causing these diseases in any genetic design, then I would really only ask the question of "is wheat and gluten contributing to poor metabolic health, and potential systemic inflammation?". For many the answer is yes, but for others the answer is no. Props to those mentioned in the last post because the information there is changing many lifestyles. I do see though that the majority of the success stories are from those who are already suffering from one health ailment or another.. I believe Robb Wolf would agree.

So where does that leave guys who are looking to continue eating healthy but would like optimize their diet for the goal of adding muscle and gaining strength? Well we luck out diet-wise because utilizing extra carbohydrates helps create an anabolic environment for new muscle growth. I don't believe it's been proven whether fasted states or ketogenic (no carb) diets trigger a level of hormones significant enough to increase skeletal muscle size. So for those whose body handles it really well, higher carb diets will make it much easier to set an anabolic environment and to reach macro nutrient goals. Also, it's easier to get more fiber with grains in the diet so you wont be shitting rocks.

Dr. Layne Norton summed it up really well at about 33:30 in this video:


Layne has a B.S. in biochemistry and an Ph.D. in nutritional sciences. For guys like me trying to put on muscle, he has extremely valuable researched information. He went from being an average/skinny built teen to NATURAL pro bodybuilder/power lifer. I'm sure he'll come up in the following posts about workout routines and nutrition for gaining size and strength.
-TK