Cane - there is much written about how proteins should not be combined, like cheese and meat in a meal, or eggs and fish in a meal, since the body deals with the different proteins differently.

Personally, I think this is rubbish!

Why? Once we start to abstract food, we lose sight of the reason we eat - we're hungry, we need sustenance and in modern times, we want something flavoursome.

Real food works.

Eat real food in any combination and you will be fulfilled. Our bodies are highly adaptive.

I have written before on this forum how I am in favour of remembering old wisdom and applying it. In recent times, we have old wisdom as very new knowledge of what and what not to do when it comes to food. Religious texts tell us some useful things, something which one of my favourite "real food" authors wrote about here: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2012/02/pork-did-leviticus-117-have-it-right/ ... by way of example.

I guess in a roundabout way I'm coming to something J wrote recently: http://www.gnolls.org/2982/anti-nutritionism-l-canavanine-and-the-limitations-of-n1-self-experimentation/ - biochemical science will tell us everything, but just as in one breath J talks about the limits of abstracting this into nutritionalism yet on the other hand says collective experimentation might well lead us down the wrong path. I err on the side of old wisdom myself. I see biochemistry as an abstraction of understanding the whole; just as nutritionalism is an abstraction of understand the whole.

Eat real food.

That's the bottom line. Quite simply, the principles that guide us are - eat like a predator, eat foods which are capable of being eaten raw and eat food which is not made up of other foods (so, no processed foods ... use real ingredients to make food).

Summary?

While biochemistry might show contra-indications, take that with a pinch of salt. Real food is real food and our ancestors did not have biochemistry. Our ancestors did have collective wisdom passed down generation to generation to generation. That does not mean religious texts should be blindly followed without consideration of their founding - ironically, biochemistry proves or disproves them (see Jaminet, above).

Tools are tools, and we are blessed to have biochemistry to back up old wisdom. I would still be skeptical of some findings, since they are abstracted. We are complex organisms in a complex environment - we are also highly adaptive. Finding the fine line between having to adapt and continuing in our evolutionary footsteps is the key.

Did I say, "just eat real food" yet?

I'm a cook, Sami - from an ingredient perspective, I don't see anything wrong with your meal plan, nor do I think there is too much protein as this is very much how I eat (without the snacks, though ... and perhaps less activity?).

You can be a bit more imaginative with your salads - drop some olives in, perhaps an avocado? Keeping carbier food to mornings is good, so your banana early on and earlier snack of sweet potato. I do a lot of my activity in the evenings and actually have no issue with some carbs afterwards even towards an hour or two of going to bed! I tend to prefer sweet potato or root vegetables like carrots, swede or turnip, but heavier activity, like after my fencing class, and I like some white potato fried in dripping. It hits the spot after intense mind/nerve/twitch/muscle activity.

Protein prior to activity, carbs afterwards.

Other observations ... why not the yolk from eggs? That the really good bit! Perhaps less sweet fruit? From an omega-3/6 ratio thing, perhaps less nuts? Maybe an avocado instead? Also, let's see some more imagination with veggies and less abstracting into pockets of nutritionalism - eat real food: meat and veg, varying in roots for carb energy at the right time. You might be happy to adjust to a little less protein and more fat as you switch over. Lunch, for example, one breast and an avocado, then an apple? Some nuts are better than others, too. Hazel and macadamia seem really good.

For what you're eating, don't worry about the protein - you're active. Drink lots of mineral water (not filtered), keep hydrated. You might well find, like I have, that protein shakes become unnecessary - it's trendy to do it, but try dropping it out. You've plenty of protein from real food in your diet. Boosting for two heavy nights on the trot, yes, otherwise, just a few BCAAs prior to your workout, water throughout and some carbs afterwards will do just nicely.

Try without the powder and see how you go ...

I'm a cook. Hopefully, someone more scientifically minded will be along to advise on the specifics from a biochemical point of view.

Good call, J. I might just have fallen foul of giving conventional wisdom - one of my colleagues is a gym based body builder and has some very strong opinions on the matter. I've seen a gym, even driven past one, but never been in one ... my comment about keeping carbs to earlier in the day is that conventional wisdom from my gym-going colleague.

I, that is me, tend to be more active in the evenings and as I said, can happily cope with carbs as late as I like and even up to an hour before bed without feeling pogged the next day - after activity is best. We certainly agree on that. Sami can find his own plan.

Getting fatty fruits like avocado and olives into the mix works well for me - if my lunch doesn't have an avocado, a boiled egg and a handful of olives, along with some protein (usually fish) I don't feel right.

I certainly agree that more food is advisable - more quality, too.

Glad you jumped in, pal - I'm a cook. I know about food. Timings, macronutrient ratio and biochemistry is something I happily leave to others to lay down the roadmap.

Paul N – you've demonstrated exactly what the problem is with dairy. I really have struggled to understand how a people descended from northern Europeans who exhibit little issue with dairy have such an issue with it only a couple of hundred years later. Perfect!

How are northern Americans with bison, buffalo and so on?

Actually, this is a perfect presentation of a principle that I hold very dear – localism. Or, "what grows together goes together", and that means us! We are as much a part of our environment as the things that we see within it.

We are evolved to eat a certain way, yet adapted (and adapt very quickly) to our environment. Across Europe, we've had certain breeds of cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminants for thousands of years. We've become accustomed. In a very short period (the last couple of hundred years), some of us have moved half way across the world and found new breeds. Do native Americans (is that the right term?) have issue with "local" dairy?

This is one of the issues, if you like, that I have had with Paleo – that's capitalised. I have often looked at paleo books and wondered just how tuned it is to modern US habits. That was the key motivator for my own food blog – paleo, but how we over here eat. 

I will buy the book you mentioned – it looks "right up my street". Again, being a northern European, we have a strong tradition of thrifty nose to tail eating and everything in between, and a strong tradition of bottling and preserving by means of an air-tight seal or by fermenting. I am very taken with Scandinavian methods, something that is exhibited strongly in northern British culture – fermentation really is nature's little miracle, and now we've come through the Ice Age (:D) it's something we can embrace.

Funnily enough, I have an excellent book from Victorian times (turn of the 19th/20th century) which has all manner of recipes in, including curry, but most interestingly, a strong section on "food as medicine".

Neolithic eating might well have stabbed us in the side, but processed food is most definitely kicking us now we're down!

Fun chatting, pal – hope to see you around.