What’s Happening: To Hack, or Not to Hack?

Some people are perfectly happy with out-of-the-box Paleo. But others love tinkering with their diet to address a specific medical condition, to lose weight faster, or just to be in the best health they possibly can. They experiment with different foods, cooking methods, and supplements: any kind of little tweak or change that might help optimize health and performance. Hacking your diet like this turns food into an adventure, where every new experiment holds that exciting promise of better skin, easier weight loss, a heavier deadlift…

This week, the Paleo world has been hacking up a storm:

• Richard Nikoley posted the second installment in his series about experimenting with resistant starch, a form of starch that, in theory, spikes blood sugar less because it isn’t digested until it hits the large intestine. It also may be god for the gut flora, which also ferment it into beneficial short-chain fatty acids. The catch? It’s not terribly easy to include in a normal diet: resistant starch is found in unripe bananas and raw potatoes, in potatoes that have been cooked at less than 140 degrees, and in potatoes that have been cooked and allowed to cool. Check out Richard’s post for his attempts to make a meal full of resistant starch that you might actually want to eat.

• Resistant starch isn’t the only thing that’s good for you but tough to cook palatably. Another well-known offender in this regard is liver. It’s almost unbelievably healthy, now if only we could figure out a way to make it taste good! This week, Chris Masterjohn posted some tips for cooking liver that you’ll actually want to eat (hint: it starts in the store, not in the pan).

• For the brain hackers in the audience, Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness posted a list of 5 Jedi mind tricks to help you stick to a healthy diet (with studies to back them up).

• On the other hand, there is such a thing as hacking gone too far. The Whole 9 blog made a very convincing case for getting back to the basics this week, especially if feeling overwhelmed with tweaks and hacks is making you fed up with Paleo altogether. It doesn’t mean you can never try to optimize your diet again; it just gives you a chance to take a step back from everything and really evaluate what’s working and what isn’t.

There’s also plenty of non-hacking news this week:

• TMAO is still getting the mainstream media all riled up, and it’s still not a reason to stop eating anything: a new post from Chris Kresser takes on the theory that the choline in egg yolks causes heart disease by raising TMAO.

• For the science geeks, Julianne at Julianne’s Paleo & Zone Nutrition posted a clear but detailed explanation of exactly why gluten is so bad for your gut.

• Do you work at a standing desk? Check out Mark Sisson’s recent post on tips for standing desk users to get the most benefit from your refusal to vegetate in a chair all day long.

Have you been experimenting with ways to tweak or hack your diet this week? Or would you rather just stick with what works and focus on other areas of your life? Let us know on Facebook or Google+!