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IntheZone
even though Olympic gold medalist swimmers and two of the best
triathletes in the world adopted the diet he recommends in the early
1990s, Dr arry ears was cast in the mainstream as a radical and a
charlatan in the nutrition world ut has he been right all along
By T.J. Murphy
phoTographs By scoTT Draper
insidetriathlon 51
urning metaolism. I recall vividly did my inury prolems, and I was losing my
the outcry of the sports nutrition identity as a triathlete and runner.
world—his ook a heresy, swiftly In a parallel way, I was following a path
laeled as eing a high-fat, high- once laed y triathlon legend ike igg.
protein, low-car diet that would
harm rather than help. ased on the
reaction of the dietitians and scien-
tists to the one topic I witnessed “I was eating like an 1-year-old, ust a com-
at a sports science conference in plete garage hound,” ike igg told me over
. Barry Sears ancouver, ritish olumia, in the phone recently. I’d asked him aout the
dr une of 1—I was there as a late 10s, years when the alifornian known
reporter—I never cracked open for eing the hardest working triathlete in
the spine of a one ook and the world struggled to nail a reakthrough at
“He did not live on nuts and berries; if uickly dismissed ears as another want-to-e the awaii Ironman. “In 1 everything was
the furnace was hot enough, anything diet guru. esides, I was still operating on the going downhill.” igg was plagued y diarrhea
would burn, even Big Macs.” — “Once A “if the furnace is hot enough” nutrition plan. and a weak stomach, and he eperienced a
unner” by ohn . arer, r. ut three years ago my ody staged a strike moment of enlightenment when he noticed
to a dramatic effect In addition to limping how he felt after eating his customary stack
his line from my favorite work of along with 15-watt-ul levels of energy, and of si pancakes efore getting ready for a ike
running fiction pretty much increasingly aware that I was eing gripped ride. “I felt oth sleepy and hungry,” he said,
summed up my nutritional y depression and perhaps it was already so, the eact opposite of his intent. “his turned
philosophy for 15 years. I a seuence of physiological reakdowns oc- out to e one of the most important lessons I
trained for everything from the curred, including my ack going out for weeks have learned in life. sk yourself how you feel
T1500 meters on the track to at a time and a failing right knee. Intuitively, after you eat a meal. oes a meal make you
the Ironman triathlon, and as a disciple of the without a doctor’s recommendation or advice feel stronger or weaker” hen igg egan
high-mileage creed I pounded out 20-mile from a friend, I knew my garage diet was to listen to his ody, he altered his diet so
long runs even when training for the shorter- the prolem. I then egan trying a variety of that it had more protein and healthy fats. e
than-1-mile foot race. t peak mileage I did things, from uice fasts to a completely vegan ditched processed sugar and reached for more
what triathlon legend cott olina used to diet. eing vegan definitely helped me shed fruits and vegetales. “I realied that cars and
do two long runs per week. he payoffs weight, ut the low energy levels persisted, as protein were the ticket. nd I’m happy to eat
were two y my reckoning ne, I got fit as
hell and two, I felt I could eat anything and
everything I wanted. ooking ack though,
and having learned what I’ve learned the hard
way in the past two years, I have to wonder
If I hadn’t treated my diet as such a nonissue
would I have een faster
“ou cannot dissociate training from the
diet,” said author arry ears, h.., one of
the world’s leading authorities—if not the
leading authority—on hormonal response
to food intake. “he two are coupled at the
genetic and molecular level.”
y introduction to ears was ack in 15
when his first of many ooks on the one
diet hit the shelves and ecame a estseller.
In “he one,” ears claimed that y adhering
to a diet consisting of 0 percent carohy-
drates, 0 percent protein and 0 percent
fat, a practitioner would reap the following
enefits permanent weight loss, prevention
of disease, enhanced mental productivity
and peak athletic performance. ithin the The impact of foo o the hma
ook ears argued that a 0-0-0 diet, high homoa tem mae it a
m Hunger
in omega-s, would stailie the hormonal icei potet . A
response to food and shift into gear a fat- Top: Ad
52 insidetriathlon
the good fats—avocados, utter and olive oil.” ody together. hink of them as the iological of insulin, you’ll drive the anti-inflammatory
favorite dish of his ecame steak, potatoes Internet.” ¥icosanoids were discovered in 1, eicosanoids into ecoming inflammatory. o
and avocado. and the la technology of the 1¦0s enaled an unless I controlled the diet I would not e ale
“I made the changes to my diet and was ale understanding of the effects of eicosanoids on to control inflammation.” ears said that it was
to etend my career as a pro for another 10 oth cellular inflammation and immunity. in the following year that he developed the
years,” he said. igg remains a formidale athlete ears says that a asic understanding of specific 0-0-0 diet necessary to comple-
to this day, recently having earned, through a how manipulating eicosanoids can change cel- ment the power of omega- fatty acids. It was
su-eight-hour ride, the coveted elt uckle at lular inflammation levels can e seen with as- a diet that sparked an ideal hormonal response
the eadville 100 mountain ike race. pirin. he pain that makes you want to pop an to food—one that released a comination of
he diet that igg says helped salvage his aspirin is rooted in a traumatic engagement insulin, a hormone stimulated y carohy-
life as an athlete was in sync with the essential at the cellular level. ¨or eample, if you wake drates, and glucagon, a hormone stimulated y
parameters of the one diet that ears, a up from a nap with a headache ecause you protein—to a neutral conclusion.
former staff scientist at the assachusetts slept wrong, the trauma releases prostaglan- ears conducted his initial tests on a range
Institute of echnology, was still developing dins, a type of eicosanoids, resulting in pain. of athletes, from the tanford swimmers to the
in 1. ears was working to answer the spirin puts a stop to the pain y inhiiting ittsurgh teelers under ears’ nutritional
uestion hat’s the impact of food on the cyclooygenase, the enyme that generates supervision, tanford swimmers won eight
hormonal system and how does this affect a prostaglandins. ith that the cellular inflam- gold medals in the 12 arcelona lympics.
person’s health mation decreases and the headache goes away. hroughout the past 20 years, ears has since
nlike igg, ears wasn’t pressured to he cycle of acute inflammation and the campaigned hard on the dangers of a high-car-
salvage a career as a pro athlete—he was con- ody’s anti-inflammatory response is how an ohydrate diet, making the case that scarfing
sideraly more motivated y personal reasons. inury gets healed and how we, as athletes, too much sugar, particularly from processed
is father died at the age of 5 from a heart stimulate a response through hard training foods and grains, leads to chronically high
attack, as did three uncles, also in their early and ultimately get stronger and improve per- levels of lood sugar and weight gain—precur-
50s. iochemist with epertise in genetic formance through recovery. hronic inflam- sors to adult-onset diaetes and oesity.
epression, cancer delivery systems and the mation, however, is considered a root cause hen ears’ ooks started coming out in
molecular mechanics of hormones, ears knew for diseases as serious as diaetes and cancer. 15, he was crucified ecause high-carohy-
that this was more than a coincidence. “I’m a ¨or ears, the role eicosanoids play in drate diets generally recommending 10 per-
walking genetic time om,” he once wrote. increasing or decreasing cellular inflammation cent of calories coming from fats, 15 percent
ears egan thinking aout food at a iochemi- was the target. nd since certain fatty acids from protein and ¦5 percent from cars still
cal level and developed the elief that when it were the uilding locks of eicosanoids, ears had a hold on the sports nutrition community
comes to the epression, or non-epression, sought to encourage production of good eico- and, as a matter of fact, the medical com-
of our genes, the impact of food on the human sanoids anti-inflammatory, uilt with ome- munity, from the merican eart ssociation
hormonal system made food an incredily ga- fatty acids against the ad eicosanoids to the .. urgeon ªeneral to the makers
potent drug. pro-inflammatory, uilt with omega- fatty of the ¨ood ªuide yramid. hey collectively
“If you write one thing from this inter- acids. ears envisioned that fish oil, loaded trumpeted that to fight oesity you had to
view,” igg said, “ell the readers this isten with omega-s, could help produce a positive minimie or eradicate fat from the diet.
to what your ody tells you after you eat outcome in this euation. y eating fish or ut ears argued that a high-car«low-fat
a meal.” In ears’ ooks, he says the same supplementing with fish oil, he reasoned, a diet left you feeling unsatiated and lethargic.
thing, indicating that messages, like the ones person can increase the amount of good fatty igg’s anecdote aout eating a stack of pancakes
igg descried, are hormonally driven at the acid intake and increase the amount of pro- and finding himself oth tired and hungry is
molecular level, for powerful reasons, and he duction of good eicosanoids, and thus fortify an eample of what ears said was the ody’s
gives readers instructions on how to adapt the ody’s anti-inflammatory responses. Initial hormonal system working against you.
meals to what is sensed—“o you feel tired results showed ears he was on the right track ut ears wasn’t given much of a chance to
o you feel hungry o you feel full” in his uest to control inflammation, ut ulti- present his case. ince the medical estalish-
mately ears’ research pointed to diet. ment was so firmly entrenched in the idea of
ears recounted the story for me. “In 1,” a high-car«low-fat«low-protein diet, main-
he said, “while I was working with the tanford stream ournalists were armed with uotes
The path to developing the one diet egan when swim team coaches £ichard ©uick and kip and documentation to paint ears as a greedy
ears reviewed iochemistry research per- ¡enney, we were getting good results with snake oil salesman, as essica eigel did in a
formed y une ¡. ergström, engt I. amu- the fatty acid intake eperiments in apan, 1¦ story for Los Angeles Magazine. “ears
elsson and ohn £. ane—research that earned ut when they returned to the nited tates claims that his diet, which calls for roughly
the ¤oel rie for edicine in 12. he their performance was crap. he thing that had twice the fat and protein recommended y
suect was eicosanoids, molecules that control changed was their diet In the .. they were the , regulates the ody’s supply of
hormones and are produced in every living eating dorm food. I went into the owels of insulin,” she wrote. “ccording to ears,
cell in the ody, and, as ears descries them, the I lirary and found the data that showed reducing levels of this crucial hormone makes
are “the molecular glue that holds the human us what was going on If you have high levels the ody urn fat faster and eliminates
54 insidetriathlon
The Zoe iet ecomme etti
mot of o caoh ate fom low-fat diet—my si months eating a vegan
fit a eetae. diet in which I paid little attention to the
amount of protein and fat I was taking in—
produced unwanted results. espite running
50 miles a week at the time, a lood workup
showed signs that I was ecoming danger-
ously insulin-resistant. r, in other words,
pre-diaetic. ecause my diet was constantly
prompting a spike in insulin levels—insulin e-
ing a hormone that prompts the ody to either
use glucose for energy or store ecess glucose
in the liver and muscles—I was ehausting the
system and a acklog of glucose was piling up
in my lood, further taing my hormonal sys-
tem and creating a state known as hyperinsu-
linemia. ince it’s when insulin levels go down
that the ody starts tapping into stored ody
fat as energy, I had also enaled a fat-trapping
mechanism within and I was recording a
weight much higher than I should have een.
Mike Pigg was not the only triathlete in the
10s who was on record as following the
0-0-0 protocol. o was ark llen. t a
port and pirit camp I attended in the late
10s, in a series of lectures llen detailed all
of his training methods, including his approach
to nutrition. erhaps the most fascinating
aspect of it all was how llen came to rely on
the methods that delivered him across the
awaii Ironman finish line first in si con-
destructive food cravings. edical research, ing epidemic of oesity in merica.” In the secutive attempts, etween 1 and 15.
though, has not linked insulin levels to weight story, aues reported how a “sutle shift” had uring a lecture on strength training, one of
gain in healthy people, and increasingly con- een taking place and estalished research- the other campers, a personal trainer, raised
firms that eating fat makes people fatter.” ers ased in places like the arvard chool of her hand to add an eercise to the mi that
hat was then. ulic ealth were having to acknowledge that llen was presenting. llen politely stopped
In the past decade a growing numer of despite lower cholesterol levels and a decline her and said, “his is how I did it.” he point
voices in the medical community have egun in smoking, heart disease had not declined eing that the arsenal of techniues and
to support what ears has een saying all with them. “hat is very disconcerting,” alter methods that he counted on—and that he
along. ne, that weight gain or loss is not illett, the chairman of the department of eplained were all necessary to defeat homas
simply a matter of calories in versus calories nutrition at the arvard chool of ulic ellriegel in 15—were the ones that he
out, and that how food affects our hormones ealth, told aues. “It suggests something ad collected through a long process of trial and
can have huge conseuences on health and, is happening.” aues detailed how a hypothesis error. In other words, llen conducted his own
ultimately, the economy of our nation. was growing that a high-car, fat-free diet was eperiments, and his diet—which I witnessed
his may have started on uly ¦, 2002, when “counter-productive,” making people “hungrier personally—was composed of real foods, from
the NewY ork Times pulished an article, “hat and then heavier.” he epidemic rages on spinach to fish to hard-oiled eggs to utter.
if It’s ll een a ig ¨at ie” y nutrition study conducted at ohns opkins and pu- his oservation was in line with what noted
ournalist ªary aues. “If the memers of the lished this summer suggested that if current sports scientist £andy ¥ichner once told me
merican medical estalishment were to have trends continue, percent of the merican when we were discussing the awaii Ironman. I
a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in- population will register as oese in the year had asked ¥ichner, a hematologist who had spent
imes-uare-type nightmare, this might e 200. nd they will all e more prone to ype- time studying the prolem of hyponatremia
it. … hey find that their very own dietary 2 diaetes, a situation that ears has predicted faced y triathletes in long, hot-weather events,
recommendations—eat less fat and more will ravage the .. economy. what he thought aout the practice of elites using
carohydrates—are the cause of the rampag- y personal eperience with a high-car, salt talets during the race. he conventional
56 insidetriathlon
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