Please explain the Gracie Diet

[robbins2001us]

I was wondering if someone can give me some detailed information on the Gracie Diet?
Can it help you to lose weight?

What exactly can you eat on the Gracie Diet and how much etc?

Thanks in advance!

[Crash Stitches]

www.gracie.com


therein lies your info.

[Mr. Miyagi]

The Gracie diet is rather silly, and was put together by someone who was not nutritionally qualified. This "correct combinations" of foods is total hogwash and was designed by the original Gracie's own digestive preferences. Of course all the foods he recommends are good foods, it's just that what you have with whatever else doesn't really matter.

Eating good food and doing lots of cardio will help you lose weight. Try that instead. It would be such a headache to go through great pains to make sure that your fruit salad doesn't contain two fruits that don't "go together".

[AKF]

I gotta tell ya... I disagree.

While I don't know anything about the Gracie diet, the science of nutrition has gone FAR beyond the conventional North American approach of 'just eat healthy, and don't forget to exercise'.

Nutrition is incredibly complex and has become a significant factor in elite athletics. The old standby's of 'you will lose weight if you take in fewer calories then you expend' has been proven conclusively hogwash; as has various other myths such as 'carb loading' for maximal energy.

Nutrition and it's effects on ones body is an individualized process and limited by biochemical concerns specific to each of us. Not combining certain foods together (including various fruits) is a very accepted practice in several cultures outside of North America, and has been shown to have scientific merit.

To Mr. Miyagi -- Sorry for sounding like one of those know-it-all assholes who tend to frequent this board! It's just that I have been working with elite athletes for years on nutritional concerns and jump at the chance to challenge myths whenever I can!!

[Mr. Miyagi]

I guess I've never been overweight so I don't know much about losing weight....

But I have to be skeptical about someone like Carlos Gracie coming up with this "special diet" based on the way foods are combined. Someone told me that your stomach produces most of it's enzymes regardless of what is taken in. And what would qualify Carlos Gracie to come up with a diet for athletes? I defer to your knowledge if you know better about nutrition than me, but you didn't exactly comment on the Gracie diet in your post.

[thirtytwohits]

look, diet is diet, you dont need "Gracie diet". what you do is eat healthy, not burgers all the time. thatll keep you healthy, but to loose wieght fast, train in Muay Thai. you sweat like a mthafkcer there. first 5 min, i garuntee

[AKF]

Hey there Mr. Miyagi --

You're right... I didn't comment on the Gracie diet simply because I don't know anything about. Kinda the way you seem upset that Carlos Gracie isn't qualified to produce dietary information, I don't feel qualified to answer questions about the Gracie diet, because I've never read anything about it.

My only point was that nutritional science is highly complex and not a series of 'common sense' opinions.

[MadMax]

For a couple years I was able to practice BJJ 6 times a week. The workout at the classes was intense, and within a couple of months I started to get an idea of what was good (and not good)to eat before the intense workouts. I do not know about the health and weight considerations of the diet, but believe if you are looking to increase your energy, stamina, and ability not to puke when doing martial arts type workouts this diet may have something to offer. If I could see a pattern in a few months I trust that the Gracies could have learned alot over so many years of eating and training. In addition my instructor who is from Brazil (not a Gracie) swears he would not be able to workout in the morning and night effectively if it was not for the Gracie diet.

Max

[Mr. Miyagi]

BJJ schools are great but they can turn kind of cult like at times. You have to agree with everything that the instructors say (stuff outside of grappling) otherwise you are not accepted by your peers. It's as if anyone with a higher belt rank than you knows more about everything, not just bjj, than you; or so it goes. Most dedicated martial artists get so wrapped up in their training and devotion to their school and instructor, that they are willing to believe anything passed down from above.
This could be another thread.

[MadMax]

I have trained at many of the BJJ in the U.S., including the Gracie Academy, Rigan and Rodger Machado's school, a Relson Gracie, Pedro Sauer satellite school, and now with Eduardo De Lima in Tampa, FL and have never seen a cult like atmosphere or agreed with anything anybody has said unless I personally agreed with it. Most of the talk is about BJJ, NHB, and Martial Arts ect. In this situation the higher belts have valuable information. In regards to "peers" people are always disagreeing on who is the best fighter, is weightlifting good, are Brazillian chicks hotter than American chicks ect. It is not a matter of believing anyone.....it is a matter of gaining information, which may be valuable from someone who has personal experience in an area which someone may not. Specifically, my instructor has been practicing the Gracie diet for 10 years since he was about 20 years old. So who better to get info on the diet, than him. He is the only person I know who is practicing it. He makes no money if I try it, but he may get a better student who trains and competes more efficiently and maybe he will not. Whether this info came from my instructor, a professor, a Doctor, my grandmother, or a close friend it is worth looking into if it is something that may have merit and meet my particular needs. From what I understand the Gracies would eat differnet foods in different combinations before they trained. They would then keep track (over many years) of the effects it had on training. This is like a free study!

[Arclight]

talk to a Registered Dietician or pick up a textbook on nutrition (NOT a fad diet book, an honest to goodness educational textbook).

The Gracie Diet is completely without scientific merit. Harsh but true. There are worse diets for the training athlete, such as Atkins, but as far as some of the claims go, there is nothing at all to substantiate some of the Gracie Diet claims. Purely anecdotal. If you want to try it for kicks it's a free country, but honestly you'd be better off consulting a nutritionist with an actual educational background in nutrition (a RD for example) to get an idea of what type of high performance training diet would be appropriate.

[GRACIEAUSTIN]

I use a modified Gracie Diet and it works for me. I call it 3rd world medicine. I use what I have learned and what Relson has taught me to do what works for me. I find that the way Relson has taught me to eat before comp. & hard training has never steered me wrong.. You have to make any diet you use work. I would not say that every fighter must drop their current diet & do the Gracie diet, I would talk to a Dietician they are the professionals. I think that it is smart to eat whole wheat pasta, brown rice, & whole wheat & whole oat bread. I also don't combine my carbs, like the Gracie Diet. I like these things any way & any dietician will tell you to eat them as well. Some of the things (mixing different fruits & such) does cause digestion to slow a little, but I process things so fast I feel that it really doesn't matter. I think that the Gracie Diet does have some good points, just like any diet. But you have to make it work for you.

[AKF]

Quick little FYI (and unfortunately I know this is going to start an argument)...

RD's are educated ONLY in the 'art' and ideals of North American dietary information and are therefore limited in their knowledge - case in point is the 'Atkins' diet. Any RD in North America will tell you that the high protein/fat and low carb approach to nutrition is ridiculous and dangerous... Problem - what RD's here tell us are 'fad' diets are considered normal styles of eating in other parts of the world. Asia, Eastern Europe, remote parts of Africa, Inuit tribes etc - all have there own style of eating which counters the North American style of 60% carbs, 30% protein etc.

RD's are educated in western medicine as it pertains to nutrition and nothing more - western medicine is for all intense and purposes only about 100 - 200 years old at best. That is nothing to medicine and nutritional practices in other parts of the world which are centuries old.

By the way, regarding the Atkins diet -- July 7, 2002 New York Times -- extensive research has been concluded by members of the 'anti-Atkins' movement in-so-far as the health and human performance potential of the Atkins principals. There verdict? THEY WERE WRONG! The last line of the three page article is a quote from a doctor who has been against Atkins for over twenty years -- 'I guess the low fat, high carb people need to apologize'.

My point is not to take ANYONE'S opinion as golden truth. MMA fighters, RD's and physicians all have opinions -- talk to people, research some and try different things. You'll come to a plan that works best for you.

[Roy Gaflaer]

Originally posted by AKF
Quick little FYI (and unfortunately I know this is going to start an argument)...

RD's are educated ONLY in the 'art' and ideals of North American dietary information and are therefore limited in their knowledge - case in point is the 'Atkins' diet. Any RD in North America will tell you that the high protein/fat and low carb approach to nutrition is ridiculous and dangerous... Problem - what RD's here tell us are 'fad' diets are considered normal styles of eating in other parts of the world. Asia, Eastern Europe, remote parts of Africa, Inuit tribes etc - all have there own style of eating which counters the North American style of 60% carbs, 30% protein etc.

RD's are educated in western medicine as it pertains to nutrition and nothing more - western medicine is for all intense and purposes only about 100 - 200 years old at best. That is nothing to medicine and nutritional practices in other parts of the world which are centuries old.

By the way, regarding the Atkins diet -- July 7, 2002 New York Times -- extensive research has been concluded by members of the 'anti-Atkins' movement in-so-far as the health and human performance potential of the Atkins principals. There verdict? THEY WERE WRONG! The last line of the three page article is a quote from a doctor who has been against Atkins for over twenty years -- 'I guess the low fat, high carb people need to apologize'.

My point is not to take ANYONE'S opinion as golden truth. MMA fighters, RD's and physicians all have opinions -- talk to people, research some and try different things. You'll come to a plan that works best for you.

sounds like another fatguy who lost weight on the atkins diet, and will do anything to defend it . Just kidding. Seriously if your gonna really try to tell me the atkins diet is healthy, I will tell you right now you are full of shit.

[AKF]

Fat guy... Hey!!!

No seriously, I just reread my post and you make a very good point, Roy. I did make it sound like I was making a case for the Atkins Diet didn't I. That was not my intention - my only point was that science goals well beyond basic common sense, and also goes well beyond North American perspective.