The Key to Athletic Success

Hi everyone welcome back! This week I decided to do a text review on a book I found relevant to my blog topic and interests; I chose to research a book titled The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel. After reading this book I have a better understanding of the Paleo Diet and specifically how I can use the diet to enhance my abilities as an athlete.

The authors of The Paleo Diet for Athletes are very qualified, and their expertise is evident in the text. According to Loren Cordain’s website, thepaleodiet.com, he has a Ph.D. from University of Utah in Exercise Physiology and is considered to be the world’s leading expert on the Paleolithic Diet and the founder of the Paleo Movement. He’s published a multitude of books and articles including The Paleo Answer, The Paleo Diet Cookbook, “Tomatoes, Vaccines, and Autoimmune Disease,” and “Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet: Health Implications of the 21^st Century.” The co-author, Joe Friel, is an endurance coach who specializes in triathlons and cycling. Friel became involved in the Paleo project when Dr. Cordain personally challenged him to experiment with the Paleo Diet. His personal knowledge and experience with the diet makes him a great additional voice in the book, as he can offer stories and advice about how you should expect your body to react to the changes.

The book itself is a paperback sold in all popular stores and online. My mother, who had stumbled upon it while doing research for her business, sent my copy to me. Published in 2010, the manual-like text was released around the same time the Paleo Diet became popular as well as when Dr. Cordain introduced his website, thepaleodiet.com. I felt like the book was really aimed at me as well as people with similar lifestyles. The text’s intended audience is comprised of athletes, coaches, and parents of athletes. The writing is not very formal but tries to identify with the reader on an athletic level, mentioning things like “eating before exercise.” It reads a lot like a manual or how-to guide.

The authors’ main claim is that by becoming a Paleolithic eater, an athlete can enhance his or her ability to recover and perform better overall while being healthier. Also in some cases people experience fat loss, though that is not the main focus. One of the points argued by Cordain and Friel is, “The Paleo Diet also prevents muscle protein breakdown by keeping your blood from getting too acidic” (Cordain and Friel 4), thus leading to faster recovery and more endurance. This is especially relevant to me because, besides strength, endurance is what I’m constantly trying to build up as a competitive athlete. By increasing endurance, I can exert my full strength for a longer period of time, and that is one of the biggest factors in defeating other teams and people. It’s not your strength that matters, but rather what you can do with it and how long you can maintain pressure.

The purpose of the text is to clearly outline the basics of becoming a Paleo eater as an athlete and the resulting positive effects. The text also defends its arguments by covering “Common Counterarguments.” The first argument is that, “They (hunter-gatherers) died at an early age” (Cordain and Friel 11). The authors do not dispute this statement because, in fact, it was true. The average life span for hunter-gatherers was low, but that was not because of complications in their diet. Their defense states that the main cause of death was from living in a perilous environment where trauma and accidents were common. So when people try to argue that if we follow the Paleo Diet, our life span will decrease just like the cavemen’s, they are incorrect. The caveman was found to be universally fit and free of chronic degenerative disease. Their life span is not what we are trying to mimic rather, we want to obtain their health standard.

The second popular counterargument plays right off of the first. Cordain and Friel address the statement that cavemen were only healthy because, “they didn’t live long enough to develop heart disease, cancer, and other chronic illnesses” (Cordain and Friel 11). According to the experts, this is completely false. Modern day society has even begun to see the falsehood of this statement as the diagnosis rate for health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure has been increasing for children and young adults. According to the National Cancer Institute, the median age for the diagnosis of cancer has begun to drop. Some types of cancer, such as bone cancer, have even dropped in median age range into the late thirties. Rather, what were keeping these early Paleolithic citizens from getting harmful diseases were their diets and their inability to consume such ingredients as high fructose corn syrup and vast amounts of salt.

The main goal for the two authors is to convince athletes (and coaches) to try the Paleo Diet out and to see the predicted results for themselves. And the authors use a lot of facts and ethos to convince the readers that what they say has merit. It is very convincing. Since the book reads more like a manual, the evidence is not overwhelming though it is present.

The text is very related to the topic of my blog. Since I have gone Paleo for my project, the text helps me understand more of what I’m allowed to eat. The athlete aspect also helps outline when I should eat, as well as what types of things for before and after workouts to maximize potential. The authors have written a persuasive book that addresses many topics. It is also admirable that they do not skip over the counterarguments. The treatments of the opposition are very satisfying because they face the problems directly and argue in a complete and persuasive way. I walked away from reading this text feeling like I was thoroughly informed in a variety of aspects regarding the Paleo Diet, especially in concern to athletes. Overall it’s a very helpful article that I believe I will benefit from greatly.

Works Cited

Cordain, Loren. The Paleo Diet. The Paleo Diet, 2010. Web. 28 April 2013.

Cordain, Loren and Joe Friel. The Paleo Diet for Athletes. New York: Rodale Books, 2010. Print.

Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results. National Cancer Institute, 2010. Web. 29 April 2013.