KNIFE, FORK, MUSCLE_ Book I_ DI - Brooks D. Kubik (1)

Q. Can you go into more detail about the importance of high quality
protein?
A. Food quality is one of the most important factors in a healthy diet, and it’s
also one of the most important factors when it comes to building strength and
muscle. This applies to protein foods and to all other foods. High quality food
is chemical-free, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free. This is the kind of food
they called “natural and organic” when I was a kid – before the FDA yielded
to the demands of Big Agriculture and came out with a special certification
program for organic labeling that cost so much money that many small
farmers and growers couldn’t meet the certification standard even though
their foods were 100% chemical-free, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free.
It’s also the kind of food that all of the old-time strongmen, weightlifting
champions and bodybuilding champions used to eat – because all unprocessed
foods were “natural and organic” back then. If you lived in the 1930’s or
1940’s and you primarily ate meat, eggs, fresh fruits and fresh vegetables,
most of your food was locally grown, much of the fruits and vegetables were
seasonal, your meat was mostly or entirely from grass-fed cattle and freepastured
pigs, and your eggs were from chickens that walked around outside
and grubbed for worms and insects. Your food was almost completely
chemical-free.
I’m not aware of any research studies on the effect of an old-fashioned diet on
strength and muscle building, but I do know that I feel better, stronger and
healthier on this kind of diet, and that’s enough for me. I also know that it
worked pretty well for the old-timers, and if it worked for John Grimek, Steve
Stanko and John Davis, it’s probably worth giving it a try. In this regard, note
the Bob Hoffman believed so strongly in the strength, health and muscle
building benefits of high quality food that he actually opened a “health food”
store in York, Pennsylvania way back in the late 1930’s. He wanted nothing
less than the best for his lifters, friends, neighbors and fellow citizens. And
this wasn’t a store that sold vitamins, protein powder and similar products – it
was a store that sold the best, freshest and most nutritious vegetables, fruit,
meat, fish, seafood, milk, cheese, butter and eggs that Hoffman could find.
Nowadays, of course, you may have to do some work to find high quality,
chemical-free meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables. Trudi and I are lucky in this
respect, because we have a house with a big backyard that gets plenty of sun,
and we can grow many of our own herbs and vegetables. We also have a
thriving local food community, with many “farm to table” restaurants, and