What Is The Best Diet For Police, Firefighters, And EMS?

I think we can all acknowledge that, as emergency responders, it's critical that we maintain good health and stay relatively fit. Our jobs demand it, and our families depend on us. We can also acknowledge, however, that we face more obstacles than most: long hours, busy shifts, lack of healthy options, family obligations, no time to hit the gym, no time to prep food, pressure from our peers, and the list goes on.

We can acknowledge the barriers to good health all day, but what's the best way to address it? Everybody has an opinion about what works best, but the truth is that many diets and fitness routines work very well for some and not for others.

It's important to understand that we as humans are very dynamic creatures, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Fitness and nutrition should be highly individualized.

The goal: metabolic flexibility

Regardless of what specific type of diet you choose to eat, there is one factor that will almost certainly lead to success: metabolic flexibility.

Metabolic flexibility is your body's ability to readily utilize different fuel sources, depending on what's available. Someone who is metabolically flexible can easily switch between fat and carbohydrates, whether ingested or stored, as an energy source. Someone who is not metabolically flexible depends on frequent intake of energy, specifically carbohydrates, to provide energy.

If any of these sound familiar, you may be metabolically inflexible:

You have a mid-day slump

You can't go more than a few hours without a meal or snack

You get tired after eating carbs

You are dependent on multiple doses of caffeine to get through the day

You've tried intermittent fasting and either failed, or struggled to get through the fasting windows

What does this have to do with first responders, and how would it benefit us?

We struggle to maintain a healthy diet because the standard modern diet doesn't just make us carbohydrate dependent, but it encourages us to eat several meals a day. Naturally, we experience cravings, frequent hunger, and unsteady energy levels. This poses a bit of a problem when we didn't get a chance to pack a healthy lunch, or didn't have time during our shift to eat. Now we're ravenous, reaching for the first thing we can find, and oftentimes overeating.

This isn't the way humans are wired. We didn't evolve and thrive as a species by eating frequent meals containing excessive amounts of carbohydrates. We ate loads of protein and fat from mostly animal sources, and limited amounts of carbohydrates. This balanced our energy levels, optimized our metabolisms, and allowed us to function at the same level whether food was limited or available in abundance!

If we work towards becoming metabolically flexible, we will be more equipped to deal with the obstacles we face when it comes to staying on track.

Obviously, the most important things are the same as they've always been: make the best choices with your diet, have healthy snacks on hand, exercise effectively, avoid being overly sedentary at work, and so on.

But nobody ever talks about preparing yourself for when the obvious stuff isn't available. Just like early humans, we need to build the metabolic machinery to ensure we are good when things are good, and we're good when they're not.

It starts with fat-adaptation

If you want to enjoy the benefits of optimal body composition, steady energy levels, and seemingly limitless health, it starts with abandoning the flawed conventional wisdom around food and exercise, and eating and training in a way that's aligned with the way we were designed.

Fat-adaptation is the key here. Right now, you're probably running in sugar burning mode. Your body depends on frequent meals filled with carbohydrates for energy. It's understandable. We're always told that you need carbohydrates and should be avoiding fat. In reality, you should be eating much fewer carbs, and probably more fat.

No, I'm not villifying carbohydrates here. But overconsumption is a serious issue, and the misinformation out there is costing you your best health.

The FDA is currently recommending 300g of carbohydrates on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. That number should really be much closer to 150g or less!

The constant flow of glucose and insulin in your bloodstream is detrimental to your health if left unchecked. But that's an issue that warrants its own entire post.

In the absence of readily available glucose, your metabolism will start to pull stored body fat and use it as energy. Fat has 9 calories per gram, while carbohydrates have only 4. This means fat is a much more efficient fuel source!

However, at first, your body isn't too good at breaking down fat and using it for energy. Which is exactly why, in the absence of carbohydrates, you’re left feeling hungry and tired. This is merely an adaptation period, though, and as your metabolism adapts to not receiving such a large amount of sugar, it becomes more efficient at burning fat.

This is mostly caused by changes in hormone function. As a result, energy levels stabilize, cravings and hunger subside, and you become a literal fat burning machine. Sounds pretty good, right?

What does this look like in real life?

While I said earlier that nutrition is highly individualized, you should start with a template.

Eat 1g of protein per pound of ideal body weight.

Stay under 125g of carbohydrates.

Fill in the rest of your calories with fat.

Eliminate grains, processed sugars, and industrial seed oils completely. These oils include vegetable, peanut, canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, just to name a few.

Cook with saturated fat, such as animal fat, butter/ghee, or coconut oil. Use avocado, olive, or palm oil as dressings/marinades.

Get the overwhelming majority of your protein from animal sources.

Be patient, and give yourself 30 days before making a decision about whether it's working or not. It takes about 21 days for any changes to start having a real effect, and you're not doing yourself any good if you give up before then.

After the 30 days, be open-minded, and don't be afraid to experiment with yourself and see what works best for you.

If you have any problems, come back to this foundation and start over.

Lastly, don't fall into the trap of believing in the dogma that comes with many diets. If you don't already know, there's always folks out there who have appointed themselves as the paleo police or keto police, attacking everything that doesn't fit their belief of what should be eaten on a low carb diet. Stop asking “is this paleo?” or “am I allowed to eat this?” And start asking “is this the best thing for me?”

Don’t forget the other stuff

This post really only covers the nutrition aspect of resetting your metabolism. But the importance of smart training, good sleep hygiene, and effective stress management cannot be understated. These topics will be discussed more in the future, but when you find yourself struggling to make progress, these may be the first places you should look.