Art Green, 26, Clean Paleo business owner/part time professional bachelor.
“I generally start my day the night before when I make my green smoothie and protein shake for the following day. I wake up at 5.30am and go to the gym or to Ludus Magnus (more of a fitness playground than a gym). I start work about 8.30am and finish about 4pm. Snacks throughout the day include almonds, canned tuna or salmon, Clean Paleo Biltong or Original Crunch — It’s handy having all our products around so I can snack on them when needed. I usually do something physical in the evening, either touch,netball or tennis.” Would he describe his diet as typical to others in his profession? “Yes, Most people who are involved in the health food industry tend to practise what they preach.”
7am
In the car en route to work after Ludus. Protein Super Smoothie – almond milk or normal milk, an egg, ice, banana, vanilla protein powder, raw cacao, cacao super-food powder, maca powder, 1 medjool date.
11am
Half a green smoothie – water, banana, kiwifruit (skin on), bunch of kale, green superfood powder and barley grass powder. Bowl of Clean Paleo Original Crunch with almond milk.
1pm
Chicken, avocado, capsicum salad.
3pm
Remaining half of the morning’s green smoothie, handful of almonds
8pm
Chicken, chorizo and zucchini fettuccine
Mikki Williden’s nutrition quick fix
Minimally processed, your diet is what we would advocate for anyone following the paleo approach. Paleo is just another label to describe a diet abundant in vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, fruit and fats such as coconut oil, avocado, olive oil and other nut oils.
For people who can tolerate dairy and legumes, these are also included. It is unfortunate that paleo gets a bad name based on the zealots who promote it. These people often have the loudest voices and people (including health professionals) can come away believing that it is all bacon, fat, meat and little in terms of nutrients.
Interestingly the US News did a review on the best and worst diets of 2015 and rated paleo at the bottom, despite the fact that it came out better in terms of nutrient profile compared to almost every diet on the list! I wrote a blog post on this.
Many of the nutrients that are of concern in today’s modern diet (such as vitamin D, magnesium, iron and iodine) are more available when following a paleo diet and the sodium content is far far lower. Concerns about not meeting the calcium intake recommended (1000mg per day for adults) fail to take into account that vitamins A, D and K2 (a little acknowledged but crucial vitamin) and magnesium are just as important for bone health — along with weight bearing activity of which you are clearly not lacking.
One thing I can recommend is that you check out the Sweet potato pancake recipe as a perfect refuel after your morning exercise.
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Mikki Williden is a registered nutritionist and lecturer at AUT University, where she lectures in public health nutrition and sports nutrition at the School of Sport and Recreation. Read Bite articles from Mikki or visit mikkiwilliden.com for more.