By Daniel
In my eyes, nutrition and the recommendations surrounding are currently and will be ever evolving. This process is good for the health of the everyday person and the athlete as well. Things that I once believed as hard facts, that I was instructed in my college nutrition textbooks, I'm now beginning to challenge. In part I think this is due to further research and knowledge, but also because our food sources are becoming more industrialized to fit the lifestyle and population demands.
Recently I've been reading The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle and a concept struck me that I don't believe the author intended, but did because of my recent mindset to challenge the norms of nutrition recommendations. The concept was the nutritional role of fats (lipid) as they relate to endurance training, skill development, learning, and our immune system. This realization began forming from several points made by research and statements as they were played out over several chapters. Here over the course of a series, I will bring them together and explain.
First it's important to lay a foundation, which is Coyle's key principle contained in the book is myelin, which is a dense fat, composed of phospholipid membrane, that wraps around a nerve fiber insulating it like electrical tape. It is important to note that not all nerves or synapses are myelinated, but with learning our body triggers the insulation of specific pathways that you hone more frequently with repetition. So the nerves are running everywhere, getting signals from the brain, innervating muscles, and firing off the marching orders for each and every twitch and action you make, but it's the myelin that is keeping our wires from getting crossed. It's not a glamorous component as he explains, “If the brain is....a cityscape of dazzling neuronal structures, flashing lights, and whizzing impulses, then myelin plays the humble role of asphalt.”
But to me the concept of myelination is glamorous because this is where my hypothesis comes into play; even if you try really hard, practice perfect, struggle through learning and yet don't have the right type of nutrition to support the process of making myelin; then you'll always be thinking too hard to complete any new action. Given my recent experiences from several perspectives, I had an immediate connection where this concept could be applied; observing trends of persons with fat (lipid) limitations, metabolic efficiencies/inefficiencies in endurance training, athletes and coaches referencing muscle memory. I'll address the first concept here and then more on training and muscle memory in the next installment.
I had an “ah ha” moment when I read that most of early myelin research evolved from, “initial studies in relation to multiple sclerosis (MS) and other myelin-destroying autoimmune diseases.” page 37. I say this because the cause of a myelin deficiency; whether being destroyed or attacked or by insufficient nutrients to build or maintain makes no difference; the outcome is still the same. The skills don't stick or you aren't efficient at a certain process. For example, even a person with MS, no matter how hard they try to think clearly or not be off-balance, they lack the motor neuron control because signals aren't efficient due to compromised myelin.
This leads me to look back at the “low fat” fad, that I believe is now coming back around to bite the consumer in the tail. Fats were deemed as evil and bad for you (of which many forms, hydrogenated and commercially processed are) but the good fats got a bad rap too and the food industry began to strip this nutrient from foods. And in this process fat was replaced with sugar; cheap industrialized high fructose corn syrup (along with more preservatives) so foods were still desirable and palatable to the consumer. It is my belief that today you see the ripple-effect of this trend from decades ago with a higher prevalence of autoimmune disorders popping up along more and more neurological issues that involve mental clarity or focus. It is really a 1st world problem that our industrialized food chain has created. It's a monster; syndromes that can't be pinpointed, but lumped into the same group as MS-like. Really if you trace the steps back; limit fats, thus limit primary nutrient required for the myelination process, incomplete "wiring insulation", and then the nerves that fire each and every action and thought in milliseconds is just a sluggish process. So your thoughts aren't crisp and your muscle actions are lagging.
You may think critically on the food industry, which maybe it deserves, but it's the consumer demand that they were playing into; and frankly, we were buying! Or you may think, I was in that generation; I'm hosed now, but really you aren't. The myelination process continues to approximately age 50 where then it's more of a maintenance process, but that means if you give your body the correct nutrition now, YOU CAN support this process and get back to a healthier, faster-firing you!
So I urge you to step back and look at your daily nutrition and really your paradigm surrounding your choices. Are you still avoiding fat, because it will make you fat? Will you order a "skinny grande mocha with no whip" with fat free scone because it's fat free, but steer clear a whole milk cappuccino (without added syrups or sugar) with an egg sandwich because the whole milk and egg yolk are sources of fat. If so, maybe you should think again. It's not the fat making us fat, it's a myriad of things. Just look at the amount of carbohydrates you are eating in the 1st example and follow the metabolic process of what that does to blood sugar and insulin (that's another topic altogether). If you eat for health and longevity you won't have to worry with being upset with the food industry because you will be supporting whole food suppliers and their foods in the forms they were intended to be eaten.
Think about getting your fats from these sources; avocados, first cold pressed olive oil, free range eggs, grass fed & finished meat, cold water fish, ghee (clarified butter), seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower) and nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, macadamia) *including butters of these, coconut manna/butter/flakes/oil, flax, chia, lard/bacon, and if you don't have dairy sensitivity; yogurt, butter, and cheese as long as from grass fed sources. Give it a shot and try more fat; see how your body feels, how your energy levels respond, how you may not be as hungry thus not gain weight. Give it a go and see if your clarity improves while you supply the nutritional building blocks to wrap new circuits with myelin and see your performance, productivity, and creativity peak.