By now, we’ve probably sufficiently beat into your head the idea that Paleo is about eating unprocessed foods as close to their natural state as possible. In other words, the foods you choose to eat shouldn’t have an ingredient list, and if they do, it should all be words you can actually pronounce. One item I’ve heard people talk about as “healthy” is turkey bacon. This is really a holdover from the “fat is evil, carbs are your friend” mentality which exploded in the 80s. I can’t help but cringe when I hear about one of our athletes eating that or other fake foods like margarine, egg beaters, etc. I recall seeing an article that CrossFit Balboa linked to over a year ago that spoke about real foods vs. fake foods. The original article was on the site Fitness Spotlight and I encourage you to check it out. Here’s a brief teaser:

If you want to know the source of your pork bacon, it’s either the belly, sides, or back (or the cheeks if it’s jowl bacon) of the pig. Close your eyes and you can imagine slicing into a pig and finding some uncured bacon right there for the taking. Now imagine cutting into a turkey and finding anything resembling a strip of bacon. In fact, just try to imagine which part of the turkey your meat is coming from. Yeah, I’m still trying to imagine it too.

Those crafty food scientists in Japan have even tried to make something pseudo-Paleo, although it’s definitely not even close. Check out the caveman on the packaging! They do get an “A” for effort.

WOD 07.29.10

Make Up Day