Returned to Crossfit today after an extended absence to fix a back problem. Honestly I was kind of scared but day one came out ok. One thing that I want to change this go around is my diet. While I had targeted the basic concept of meat, nuts, seeds little starch etc, I’m one of those people that would probably do better with a plan as pointed to in TP’s “Freedome or rule” post. I avoided the Zone in the past because the thought of weighing my food seemed like a hassle (ie lazy).

Today’s meals were rushed as I had a busy day, and not enough good stuff in the house, (Good lord we have a lot of grains in the house!) but I managed a decent 19 block day with a quick trip to buy some fruit, jerky, vegies etc. I was plesantly surprised when cutting off what I thought would be 1oz of cheese and behold the scale verified it. I think that after the first couple of weeks the scale will not be needed.

Looking for simple options for a rushed breakfast and snacks I saw TP’s morning shake and thought about the benefits of juicing but Got really confused when looking at the CF journal 21 list of foods. 1/2 an apple = 1 block and is ok under the “Carb Raw” heading, but apple juice is an “unfavorable carb” I kind of get that because you get much more sugar in that glass of juice than in that 1/2 an apple. Same with grapes. 1/2 cup ok…juice bad. (pretty much any fruit including tomatoes)

So my question is two part (or more): I assume that just taking that 1/2-1 apple and juicing it would be ok to sweeten up some veggies(?) I know your losing the fiber but again this is just for a quick snack or part of a breakfast type thing… and part II, is juicing even beneficial in a Zone diet. Are you getting the benefits of vegetables when you throw them in a juicer?  Lastly, I see that cooked carrots are in the undesireable carb catagory (due to high sugar content I suppose) but why is it labled as “cooked” and not just carrots.

Thanks for any input.

coda vex - 01 September 2010 06:29 PM

Returned to Crossfit today after an extended absence to fix a back problem. Honestly I was kind of scared but day one came out ok. One thing that I want to change this go around is my diet. While I had targeted the basic concept of meat, nuts, seeds little starch etc, I’m one of those people that would probably do better with a plan as pointed to in TP’s “Freedome or rule” post. I avoided the Zone in the past because the thought of weighing my food seemed like a hassle (ie lazy).

Today’s meals were rushed as I had a busy day, and not enough good stuff in the house, (Good lord we have a lot of grains in the house!) but I managed a decent 19 block day with a quick trip to buy some fruit, jerky, vegies etc. I was plesantly surprised when cutting off what I thought would be 1oz of cheese and behold the scale verified it. I think that after the first couple of weeks the scale will not be needed.

Looking for simple options for a rushed breakfast and snacks I saw TP’s morning shake and thought about the benefits of juicing but Got really confused when looking at the CF journal 21 list of foods. 1/2 an apple = 1 block and is ok under the “Carb Raw” heading, but apple juice is an “unfavorable carb” I kind of get that because you get much more sugar in that glass of juice than in that 1/2 an apple. Same with grapes. 1/2 cup ok…juice bad. (pretty much any fruit including tomatoes)

So my question is two part (or more): I assume that just taking that 1/2-1 apple and juicing it would be ok to sweeten up some veggies(?) I know your losing the fiber but again this is just for a quick snack or part of a breakfast type thing… and part II, is juicing even beneficial in a Zone diet. Are you getting the benefits of vegetables when you throw them in a juicer?  Lastly, I see that cooked carrots are in the undesireable carb catagory (due to high sugar content I suppose) but why is it labled as “cooked” and not just carrots.

Thanks for any input.

Lauren Glassman said somewhere that when you juice a fruit you throw away the only part of it you actually want to eat.
That’s a slight exaggeration, but it’s not far from being accurate. The juice contains most of the simple carbohydrates and the bit you throw away contains most of the fibre. It’s the fibre that helps moderate the insulin spiking effect of the simple carbohydrates

So juicing isn’t a good idea really.

And yes, carrots and corn both have a high glycemic index (GI), so that’s why they’re “bad”.
Why carrots are specified as cooked I don’t know. I’m afraid that the GI doesn’t change with cooking, so eating them raw doesn’t help if that’s the angle you were hoping for.

Oh and yes, people scared of the Zone really don’t get that very quickly you get a feel for eyeballing the block size of the foods you eat often.

Cooking breaks down a vegetable’s cell wall structure making the sugars more readily available and thus they enter the blood stream faster. While the sugar *content* does not change, the rate of entry into the blood stream does.

Do your own test: cook a few carrots by steaming them down to near much. Then do a taste test. Put a small bit of raw carrot onto the end of the tongue: no taste of sweet. Put the same amount of mush cooked carrot onto the end of your tongue: it’s like pure sugar. The insulin response jumps in there.  So for most veggies, raw is always best, because cellular structures remain intact and delay digestion long enough for a balanced (i.e. controlled) entry into the blood stream. There are some veggies, however, that are nearly indigestible if left uncooked. For those, cook moderately rather than turning them into mush.

If you have to cook veggies, the best way is to boil and shock them. This is true of broccoli, green beans, really any green thing. Here’s how and why: dropping fresh green veggies into a HUGE pot of rolling boiling water allows plenty of water to dilute acid that is released during the cooking process. Acid = bad taste, texture, color. Let the veggies go just to crisp tender (they’re still bright bright green at this point because of the oxygen released allowing the chlorophyll to peak out of the cell walls). Then immediately drain them and put them into an ice water bath. This preserves the most nutrients, color, texture, and flavor in your veggies while still making them edible and digestible.

Happy vegging!

Well, Zoning since Wed. and pleasantly surprised that I’m not hungry. Couple cravings but pushed them down. So far so good.