[FREE] Primer on Fusion Fuel – Clean Eating

If you’re new to Fusion, then you may be wondering if we have a special “diet” or “nutrition program” to follow.

We don’t.

What we suggest is based on how the body works, what it needs to repair injury, build muscle, sustain activity, and leave you with plenty of energy to enjoy life – what we call “clean eating”.

Now, having said that, some of what we suggest goes against the mainstream media, medicine, and probably much of what you’ve been told, taught, or practice.

Our suggestions though come from science; not from just a wild-assed guess.

Why Do You Call it “Fuel” instead of a “diet” or a “nutrition plan”?

A common and good question.

But first a disclaimer.

If you’re on a special diet from your doctor or registered dietician or nutritionist, talk to them before you make any changes to your food.

Ok, now for the answer.

I have a friend who owns a very high-end sports performance car. And the engine runs ONLY on premium gas. If you put anything else into this car, some bad things happen: lower mileage, loss of power, and it may damage the engine. The difference between premium gasoline and regular is that premium has a higher octane rating and permits higher compression in the cylinder without “knocking” or basically a small but sudden explosion. And higher compression means more power. It’s the octane mixture in the fuel that’s important.

The same is true for the body. If you fuel your body with lower grade stuff – sugar loaded, refined carbohydrates, or calorically dense yet nutritionally sparse fuel, your engine will not run very well and, unlike a car, your body will change and for the worse. You’re much more likely to gain fat eating the “Standard American Diet” – low fat, higher refined carbohydrate, low to moderate protein, high sugar than if you follow not only our suggestions but those of some fairly well respected people in the nutritional world.

We want to build our bodies to last and part of that process is thinking of food as fuel as opposed to fun, or a hobby, or entertainment, or stress relief. Sure, go out once a week to a favorite restaurant and enjoy your self but don’t think you can do that several times a week and have a body that is in shape and has a shape to match.

What You Will Find Here

Science based suggestions for a sustainable, high quality fuel plan.
How to build your own plan.
Why the “Standard American Diet” is a mistake.

What You Won’t Find Here

A food plan with a day by day menu. You don’t need it nor is it helpful when things like travel, holidays, or other bumps in life show up. It blunts your ability to make wise choices and to learn how to improvise.
Weird fad-oriented food plans. Things like “no carbs” or “no fruit” or “only meat” type approaches may appear to work but are not sustainable. What you have to do is to improve the quality of your fuel and the mixture of it first.
A detailed analysis of why grains are bad, or fruits are risky, or if gluten-free is really for you. We get into some of these topic in separate particles or posts but here we’re trying to stay simple, direct, and actionable.…

Eight Science Based Suggestions for a Sustainable, High Quality, Clean Eating, Fuel Plan

Reduce or eliminate refined carbohydrates. A refined carbohydrate has been stripped of most of its nutrients through a machined process that separates the bran and the germ from whole grain. The result is a much longer food shelf life. Think white rice, pastas, bagels, breads, cereals.Why does this matter? The refining process concentrates the carbohydrate so once it’s digested it rapidly converts into a truck load of sugar in your body. Your pancreas, in response to rapid rise in blood sugar, pumps out insulin so the sugar can be moved out of the blood into muscle cells where it’s stored as glycogen and if the muscle cells are full, which is most of the time, it gets stored as fat. The problem is that your body wasn’t built for a daily onslaught of carb conversion and eventually your cells become resistant to insulin. This is how you can develop diabetes. For more info on how carbs can mess up your fuel plan, read this.
Eliminate refined sugar. This is table sugar or the sugar you find in candy bars, soda drinks, and as a food additive. For an excellent review of the rationale behind this, read this piece in the NY Times by Gary Taubes. Bottom line, there is nothing redeeming about refined sugar. In fact, Robert Lustig, a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, considers sugar a “toxin”. Enough said.
Eat meat / protein. This is probably the most difficult thing to add to your fuel plan. Most of our clients, upon interview, discover that they are way under fueling themselves with protein. Read this article and this one to get the basics on protein. You don’t have to eat meat at every meal although it’s easier but you do need protein with every meal. And just trust me on this. It’s WAY more than you think and likely currently ingest but it makes a HUGE difference in the way your body heals, recovers, and grows.
Eat fat. Okay, so this one makes just about everyone nervous. Fat? You’re kidding right? No, I’m not. The low fat diet promoted by the U.S. government in the 90′s has failed. We’re a fatter, sicker nation than ever. In fact, Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health had this to say: “Fat is not the problem. If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.“ For years we’ve been taught, indoctrinated really, with the idea that saturated fat, the kind from animal meat sources, is bad for you and causes heart disease and a host of other problems. Well, that’s not really true. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2010 found no link between saturated-fat consumption and incidence of heart attacks.¹ The enemy in the lipid world is transfat - found primarily in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils – common components of processed, packaged foods. Science shows us that trans fats boost LDL cholesterol and the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses. Since margarine often contains processed oils and trans fats, butter made from organic cream is a healthier choice (I know, right? Butter! Wasn’t it Julia Childs who once said that butter makes everything taste better?). For the best sources of good fat, look to foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which studies show can help lower the risk of arthritis, heart disease, and some cancers. Complement your omega-3 intake with monounsaturated fats from extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, and avocados. Oh, and eat meat too. The fats in meat (granted the best source is grass fed but depending on where you live, this may either be impossible to find or ridiculously expensive) are actually good for you. And, one more thing, fat blunts your appetite. It makes you feel full.²
Eat vegetables and fruit. Well, this is probably not new to you but it’s worth repeating. You can’t eat too many vegetables really. And several servings per day is optimal of a mixture of brightly colored veggies. And to make them tastier, don’t forget, butter is your friend now. And, olive oil. As for fruit, we’re not suggesting a monster bowl of it three times a day. Some people get nervous about the sugar in fruit. But the quantity of fruit in a Fusion Fuel Plan is really fairly small plus you get the benefits of vitamins and fiber.
Limit starch carbohydrates (potatoes e. g.). What exactly is a starch carbohydrate? Well, practically anything made from flour (so think crackers, biscuits, cookies, cakes, pie crust, bread) and grains (wheat, rice, barley, oats – also made into bread, cereal and pasta), potatoes, corn, and beans. The reason is that starch carbohydrates (not all but most) are quickly digested and cause a sharp rise in blood sugar. This triggers your pancreas to release insulin to help move the sugar out of the blood. Now, if you’ve just exercised, hard, then you have some place to put that sugar – your muscles. But if not, then the sugar ends up being stored as fat. The best starches to eat are whole beans ands and lentils. For grains, try quinoa, farro, or amaranth. The amount you eat varies by your genes and your activity level. If you’re a tri-athlete and train a couple of hours per day, you can probably handle more starch than someone who trains two days per week for thirty minutes. And your genetic profile also influences it but this is not very well understood not can you predict it. It’s a bit of experimentation to find your balance. As an example, I can’t eat much starch at all so I limit myself to once per week.
Drink water. And lots of it. Generally aim for your lean body weight in ounces per day.
Limit alcohol. Alcohol and a lean, fit body are a difficult combination to manage. The science behind it is that alcohol, although it does carry a caloric load, isn’t easily turned into fat. Instead, it stalls your body’s fat burning ability. In a study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained under 90 calories. Lipid oxidation (or your fat burning ability) was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation, dropped by a whopping 73%.³ Rather than getting stored as fat, your body converts alcohol into acetate in the liver. In this study, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this spike in acetate shuts down your fat burning furnace. Some alcohol has been shown to have positive health effects but if your just starting on your journey to a healthier body and, for that matter mind, drop this from your fuel plan at least for several weeks and then you can consider adding it back in to see what changes in might produce in you.

How To Build Your Own Fuel Plan or Where to Start

Start small. Pick one or two things to change. Many people have great success by dropping refined carbohydrates first and adding some additional fat in the form of olive oil or butter. The combination will help control blood sugar and your appetite.
Add water. Try keeping a 12 ounce bottle of water with you and see if you can drink 4 or 5 a day to start. Then, increase it according to your lean body weight.
Increase your protein. This is the hardest thing to do for most people especially for breakfast. For a simple but protein packed option, check this out.

Other Tips

You’ll have an easier time and greater success if you keep your meal options limited. In other words, eat a lot of the same things. In our household, we have 8-10 main menus and most of those line up close to what is above. For lunch, I mostly eat salad with a lean meat, some cheese, a few nuts, and lots of olive oil.
Limit how often you eat out at a restaurant. I know that this can be difficult especially if you love food. But the portion sizes are usually huge and you don’t know what is in the food exactly.
Splurge one day per week. Eat what you want. Don’t worry about it. The longer you’re on a fuel plan like this, the less you’ll feel the urge to eat an entire pizza followed by a quart of double fudge ice cream and a six pack of Budweiser. For me, splurge day is usually Saturday and my wife loves pasta (and is seemingly unaffected by it too) so we might get a pizza or have some other dish she really likes or I just eat whatever I feel like eating.
Some other sources that I’ve found helpful (although I don’t agree with everything they promote or write) are Mark’s Daily Apple, Archevore, Robb Wolf, The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferris, and Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

For members of the Fusion Tribe, here’s a more in depth discusion of the Fusion Fuel Plan.

Siri-Tarino, P. W., Q. Sun, et al. “Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease.” Am J Clin Nutr 91(3): 535-46. [↩]
Beglinger, C. and L. Degen (2004). “Fat in the intestine as a regulator of appetite–role of CCK.” Physiol Behav 83(4): 617-21. [↩]
Siler, S. Q., R. A. Neese, et al. (1999). “De novo lipogenesis, lipid kinetics, and whole-body lipid balances in humans after acute alcohol consumption.” Am J Clin Nutr 70(5): 928-36. [↩]