Since sharing the interview I did with Yuri Elkaim, who’s the current Head Strength, Conditioning, and Nutrition Coach for the University of Toronto Men’s Soccer program there’s been a ton of feedback in regards to what we spoke about. Yuri’s the author of Eating For Energy, which is the program I’m going to be discussing below.
First off, if you’ve not yet watched the video of Yuri and myself, make sure to watch that HERE. That will bring you up to speed with how Yuri views things from a nutritional standpoint.
With me, when it comes to nutrition, I will forever be evolving. I’ve come a long way in just the last few years and I know as I continue to learn more, I’ll continue to evolve even more. (You can see a blog post I did a while back all about My Evolution of Eating HERE)
Just like with my training, I will forever be on a relentless mission to learn more and become better via any means necessary. All the information I research and review I take with a grain of salt as I do this with anything new I learn. The reason for this is because I want to be able to prove it works within the real world first before I run off and say it truly works.
Another important point to make before I get into my review is that when I read through a nutritional manual or even a training program, very rarely if at all do I ever fully agree with everything that is supplied. No one’s going to.
I’ve got my own views and beliefs on certain things, especially with nutrition and typically what I’ll do is take a few things that I learn and truly believe in and then apply those to what I know already works.
That’s the true power behind anything you learn in life…
Doing what works BEST for you.
It’s like Bruce Lee once said…
Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.
Now, lets get into my review of Eating For Energy
First off, the premise of EFE is that you should focus your diet mostly on raw, whole foods.
Of course, it you want to perform at a higher level, get leaner, stronger, and be able to recover quicker from training 110% H.A.M., you’ve got to eat right and fuel your body correctly.
EFE shows you the way on how to implement more raw foods into your diet which can in the end increase your energy, boost your immune system, and increase your vitality.
EFE’s main focus is eating foods in their raw form. Yuri states that when you eat your foods raw and in their natural state, they’re healthier, better for your body, easier to digest, and ultimately will supply you with more amounts of vitamins and nutrients. I totally agree.
What I like that Yuri has included to help people change up their poor eating habits is his 15 Transitional Guidelines. For someone that’s eating a pretty unhealthy and needs a ton of improvement, this is a good set of steps that can be followed easily to start seeing results fast.
In addition to this, one of the key points Yuri made within the book was in regards to Occam’s razor, which is an old science principle. Basically what it states is when it comes to different theories that are out there, the simplest theory is most likely to be true.
So, eating foods that are whole, natural, and living is the simplest idea you can have in regards to food. It’s the way nature was designed.
With this in mind, Yuri hits on how when you cook or heat up your foods, you’ll destroy the “life” within the foods as well as the enzymes which make digesting and absorbing your foods harder. This is a great point to take in and remember.
While neither Yuri or I eat a 100% raw food diet, it should be noted to not eat all of your foods cooked at all times.
Yuri goes into this in further detail within Eating For Energy and some of the points are very interesting.
For me, I don’t personally believe that you have to switch to eating ALL of your foods raw.
What I would promote is to start adding in more raw foods into your diet so that you can create some sort of balance between cooked foods and raw foods. I would also highly recommend you take digestive enzymes. I’ve started taking digestive enzymes about 3 months ago and since then I’ve felt more energy and have had better digestion. Taking them truly makes a difference.
As far as cooking my food, I’ll continue to heat my foods via steaming, broiling, grilling, or baking. I’ll never be able to let that go 😉
Another key point I really resonated with within EFE is with Rotating Your Food Sources. This not only keeps eating more interesting and fun, but it helps balance out your food intake as well.
I agree that when you eat too much of one thing, allergies can form. Yuri talks about how your body will run it’s own “enzyme bank” dry if you continue to eat the same exact foods day in and day out.
For instance, he notes how if you eat eggs every single day, your body overtime will become intolerant to digesting them and you’ll develop allergies. Ive felt it first hand and can agree with it 100%…
Along with this, eating the same foods all the time can lead to poor digestion because if you lack the enzymes needed to digest food properly, you’re food will just sit there.
It goes into much more detail within Yuri’s book, but the bottom line is to have a large variety of food you intake. Ive done my own research on this and have already implemented in a “rotation” of foods. I never eat the same meat two meals in a row or have same meal twice in a row. Since doing this, I’ve felt a difference.
Something Yuri said in the beginning of the book was that you can appear to be “healthy” on the outside, but in the inside, it’s a different story. I believe this to be true.
Everything that you put into your body will either give you energy or it will suck it out of us. It’s either going to be good or bad. Ultimately, what we eat will determine how our overall health is. It no secret.
Another great concept Yuri hits on with great detail is with the “Alkalinity / Acidity” of the body. Basically what Yuri talks about is by eating a diet more based around Non-acidic, plant based foods, we’ll keep our bodies pH at a much better level.
Meats and other “dead” foods will only increase our bodies Acidity which will in turn increase our chances of getting sick.
I do believe that acidicty of the body is REAL and is the culprit for many of our health problems. I agree and believe in this because I’ve seen first hand the difference between people that eat sh*tty diets vs. people that eat healthy diets. It’s no secret that people who eat like crap get sick more often and are ultimately not as healthy then people that eat healthy.
Perfect example of the effect acidic foods can have on your body is with alcohol consumption. One of the most acidic things you can consume is alcohol. It’s no wonder I feel Like S*IT after I drink a bunch. I’m sure you can agree with me on this one…
Bottom Line, taking many of the principles that are laid throughout Eating For Energy and applying them will help definitely help you have more energy and if you think you’re diet right now is pretty healthy, it’ll be good to read over the areas where you may be lacking.
Like me, Yuri isn’t 100% raw or totally against all animal protein consumption. What’s important is to have BALANCE. I feel that you can add a great amount of balance to your diet by implementing in a lot of what EFE has to offer.
I’m always going to continue to learn and evolve my nutritional ways and this book for sure brought up some new ideas as well as opened up my eyes to new perspectives.
Is it the end all be all to all nutritional guides? No, I don’t think so, but the amount of info that I learned that’s contained within EFE is definitely worth the investment.
For the next few days, Yuri has his book, Eating for Energy on sale specially for all of my readers.
You can find out more info HERE.
Live and Train Aggressive!