The Energy of Food - Introducing the 8-week Broga® Provenance diet

The Provenance Diet is not about counting calories. I do not believe in prescribing how many grams of each foodstuff you are ‘allowed’ to eat. And I certainly do not believe that what works for my body is what is best for your body.

Instead, our focus is going to be on helping you find your way back a few generations, gaining an overall approach towards food, (acquiring, preparing, and eating), that is simpler and healthier. I want to offer you a pathway into better habits and thought processes, so that you can stride forward into a better you long after the 8-week plan is complete. So let’s do this!

Try my diet for 8 weeks and mark your progress on the hand chart of weight, measurements and just as importantly – by how you feel. I promise if you make a proper effort to follow my easy step-by-step plan, you will move better, feel happier and more energized, lose weight and become more toned.

The rules of the game are meant to give you an insight into the why and how come. But if you are the type of person that says, “Matt just tell me what to do and I will follow it,” then go ahead: scroll straight to my diet plan further below.

THE RULES:

Ditch Wheat

Common wheat or Triticum aestivum, (also known as bread wheat), is the variety of wheat that is most commonly eaten and produced; around 95% of the world’s wheat produced is common wheat. It is my number one NEVER EAT FOOD for many reasons. This is the single most important advice I have to give you. Developed in the 1950’s, it is a very recent man-made hybrid of grain (there are other ancient varieties which we will discuss later, that I love). Common wheat was developed exclusively for harvest yield, pest resistance, greater shelf life, and a softness in taste. Many people are flat-out allergic to it, for example, coeliacs. For others it mildly disagrees with them, causing symptoms of puffiness and/or lethargy that people often never dreamed would be related to its consumption.

Lose the high GI foods

Another negative side effect of wheat is that it ranks among the highest foods on the Glycemic Index (GI) scale. This is a big health buzzword so listen carefully. Foods that rank high on the GI scale digest and convert to glucose in the blood nearly as fast as, (or in some cases like corn and potatoes), even faster than eating sugar itself! Eating something like sugar or foods with a high GI causes too much glucose release in your body too quickly. This forces your body to have to produce and release insulin to force the excess glucose out of the blood and into cells. The bad part of this scenario is that if cells have no use for the surge of energy, it then goes to the liver and is converted to fat. Read this and let it soak in: eating high GI foods actually creates new fat cells even if there is no fat in that food. The good news is that ancient grains like rye, oats, spelt, quinoa and lastly hard durum semolina found in traditional pasta are not the wheat I have been describing and have a much lower GI. They have been around for and consumed by humans for centuries, so unsurprisingly they tend to work much better with the body.

Here is your high GI carb ‘never to eat’ food list in addition to banning wheat from your diet:

  • Starchy potatoes

  • Corn

  • White rice

That leaves these approved low GI carbs:

  • Pasta

  • Cous cous (both cous cous and pasta are okay because they are made from the hard durum wheat variety)

  • Sweet potatoes

  • Waxy potatoes (red/new potatoes are actually great and have a relatively low GI. They are easy to spot because they are a bit hard and not fluffy when cooked.)

  • Beans

  • Brown rice

Eat the right thing at the right time

Look at your daily diet in terms of food groups not food items… Try not to do it the other way around and just forage for what you can find, or what sounds randomly appealing at that moment. Food needs to be appealing, sure, but in the right group and at the right time as when your body needs it as well! Every meal has some protein. Carbs are low GI and should be eaten at the right time, meaning when they are needed in the morning and daytime but never at night…

Alcohol

Alcohol is no different than a high GI food such as those we talked about above (potatoes, corn etc). The fact is that you naively think it is a liquid and not the sugary substance that it actually is. Remember that alcohol is made from converting sugars in high-sugar foods such as wheat, potatoes and grapes into alcohol. So all the SAME negative qualities you read above about high GI foods apply here too. I know it seems weird that something that has no fat in it can create fat cells in your body, but trust me: alcohol creates fat cells. At night even more so. Considering this, I would recommend that you limit your alcohol consumption to one cheat day per week. If you can go without ANY for our 8-week program – even better. I know you are social, but this is the PERFECT time to do this and kick-start the new improved you.

Fruit is not a snack!

What? That cannot be? I need 5 a day! Well listen here, that 5-a-day plan did nothing but make our population become more obese in the last 50 years. Fruit is a high GI sugar food. And the worst kind of sugar – fructose, which your body cannot register fullness on. This means that you can desire and eat much more of it than your body actually wants. The only acceptable time to eat fruit is with breakfast, as a stand-alone snack or post workout. In all of these cases your blood sugar levels are naturally low and can benefit from the sugar surge to bring it back to normal levels.

Water

Drink a minimum of 2-3 litres of water a day.

If you don’t drink enough DAILY you body stores it like a camel to cover itself for emergency. And remember coffee and espresso are actually very dehydrating so budget extra for that! Add some lemon slices to your water to give some great flavour and make the water more alkaline as this is super beneficial for your body.

Milk

When we are babies we produce rennin, a very strong digestive enzyme that specifically digests milk. After infancy this enzyme stops being produced and our main digestive enzyme, pepsin, takes over the responsibility. Pepsin is not designed to digest the lactose milk sugar and does a horrible to passable job at best of this

There are three exceptions to this that seem contrary to this rule:

  • Pouring cream

  • Full-fat yogurt

  • Cheese

Cream is the fat in milk, not sweet and has negligible carbs, and therefore negligible lactose. Cream is essentially only the milk fat portion of milk and so brings with it no problems with digestion. Full fat yogurt is also made from this. Cheese is made using an enzyme called rennet, which is the commercially produced version of rennin, so it has actually been partially digested for you!So the rule is: NO milk, but pouring cream, cottage cheese, full fat yogurt and cheese are ok in moderation.

Seasonality

Try not to buy any produce that is not local. And the more local the better. Food shipped from halfway around the world may look perfectly fine to eat but it is better nutritionally to eat locally sourced food, and it supports and encourages those in food production around you that are also trying to make a difference. Eat with the seasons and enjoy them. You were not meant to have the luxury of summer berries all year round. That is exactly what it is – a summer treat.

Organic/Free Range/Grass fed

“You are what you eat” is a lie in the modern world of mass food production. Now the real saying is: “you are what you eat eats!”

Wherever you go and whatever you buy, the more you know about how the food you eat was raised, what it ate and how it spent its days, the better. This is more important than you can imagine. It won’t always work, be available, or easy to put into place in all circumstances, but just try and make a difference whenever you can. That is all I ask.

Trust and listen to your own body

The Internet is an amazing resource as well as a powerful educator about nutrition that you can use to inform yourself about topics of great interest.Search organic farming techniques; Fairtrade initiatives; local producers and markets; vegetarianism; veganism; the effects of gluten; the effects of lactose; how sugar is hidden in food; artificial fats in food production.You will see not only a kaleidoscope of information housed on the Internet but also grand debates surrounding each one. Never fear. What should always take precedence over anything you read or your friends say is YOUR body’s particularities and how YOU respond to the food you eat. If something you eat bloats you or makes you feel not great then make a serious note of that and avoid it. Your body is telling you something so listen.Right, the rules are laid down, let’s try it my way and see what we can achieve together. 

THE DIET

Breakfast

Buy a fresh cold pressed green juice or blend up a veggie smoothie.
One handful each of three different green or coloured vegetables.
One handful of a fruit.
One tbsp equivalent amount of flavour enhancer such as a citrus fruit or fresh ginger.
Add water post-blend to get the desired consistency for you.

Mid-morning snack

Either 1-2 piece spelt.
Or rye bread with nut butter.
Or 1 cup full fat Greek yogurt and honey.
Or a piece of fruit.

Lunch

One handful equivalent amount any protein (meat, fish, tofu, chicken.)
One handful equivalent amount any approved carb.
Unlimited coloured and green vegetables.
If desired, small amount of fats like nuts, cream dressings, butter and cheese.

Mid-afternoon snack

One handful equivalent amount any kind of nuts/seeds.

Dinner

Same as lunch but no carbs.

Late night snack if needed

Herbal tea
Two squares of organic dark 55%+ chocolate 

RECOMMENDED COMPANIES

Here are some companies that Broga® loves and will help you on your way to being the best. We recommend them because we love and trust them, not because they have paid us to say something nice:

Plenish Cleanse juices- Abel & Cole- Planet Organic- Whole Foods- Udo’s Choice (specifically Beyond Greens)- Loyola’s- Wheyey- Yeo Valley- Food Doctor- Neat Nutrition

About Matt “the Pillar” Miller

Yoga and fitness fanatic Matt is the founder of Broga®. Living in London, Matt is a perennially sunny Californian spreading fitness inspiration and well being to a wide audience.

He has been an American Football athlete, a UFBB super heavyweight Bodybuilder, a member of the US National Association of Sports Medicine, has Multiple yoga teaching certifications, was one of the first (and the youngest) to have a total titanium femur and pelvic joint, and is an internationally known Celebrity Personal trainer as seen on TV. 

Previous
Previous

Yoga comes to Cubex

Next
Next

Hearing loss treatment can help you to stay socially connected and live longer!