I know Mondays are normally about a particular food that is awesome and I tell you all about why you should incorporate it more into your diet. Today though, I wanted to talk about a book about food that everyone on planet Earth should read. You might have heard of it, it is kind of a big deal, and it was a best-seller. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This may be not just the best book about food/nutrition I have ever read, but maybe, just maybe, the single greatest book I have ever read. Period. It is that good, and that important. If you do not have a copy get yourself one immediately and enjoy the utter brilliance of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Michael Pollan gives a complete and utterly fascinating review of our dependance on corn, and the negative consequences we suffer from it. Here is one of my favorite excerpts from the book:
Grain is the closest thing in nature to an industrial commodity: storable, portable, fungible, ever the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. Since it can be accumulated and traded, grain is a form of wealth. It is a weapon, too, as Earl Butz once had the bad taste to mention in public; the nations with the biggest surpluses of grain have always exerted power over the ones in short supply. Throughout history governments have encouraged their farmers to grow more than enough grain, to protect against famine, to free up labor for other purposes, to improve the trade balance, and generally to augment their own power. George Naylor is not far off when he says the real beneficiary of his crop is not America’s eaters but its military-industrial complex. In an industrial economy, the growing of grain supports the larger economy: the chemical and biotech industries, the oil industry, Detroit, pharmaceuticals (without which they couldn’t keep the animals healthy in CAFOs), agribusiness, and the balance of trade. Growing corn helps drive the very industrial complex that drives it. No wonder the government subsidizes it so lavishly.
You cannot say any of these things about grass. The government writes no subsidy checks to grass farmers. Grass farmers, who buy little in the way of pesticides and fertilizers (none, in the case of Joel Salatin), do little to support agribusiness or the pharmaceutical industry or big oil. A surplus of grass does nothing for a nation’s power or its balance of payments. Grass is not a commodity. What grass farmers grow can’t be easily accumulated, traded, transported, or stored, at least for very long. Its quality is highly variable, different from region to region, season to season, even farm to farm; there is no number 2 hay. Unlike grain, grass can’t be broken down into its constituent molecules and reassembled as value-added processed foods; meat, milk, and fiber is about all you can make out of grass, and the only way to do that is with a living organism, not a machine. Grass farming with skill involves so many variables, and so much local knowledge, that it is difficult to systematize. As faithful to the logic of biology as a carefully grazed pasture is, it meshes poorly with the logic of industry, which has no use for anything it cannot bend to its wheels and bottom line. And, at least for the time being, it is the logic of industry that rules.
I will admit this is a dense read, not for the faint of heart, but not dense in that when will this book end sort of way. Dense in that holy shit, this is amazing, and I have learned more about my food supply in one book than in 4 years of undergrad kind of way. It will mesmerize you and make you really think about what are seemingly simple food choices, and realize that they aren’t so simple after all. Utter brilliance. Honestly, reading this book will make you ten times more informed as a consumer than you ever dreamed possible, and will completely change the way you look at food.
Yesterday at CP I was speaking to one of our high school athletes who had recently returned to lifting after some extended time off due to illness. This particular client has an auto-immune disease that tends to make his illnesses take a slightly larger toll on him. He mentioned to me that he had been on antibiotics for over 3 weeks now, and his sinus infection still persisted, so his doctor was prescribing him some new antibiotics for another month! By the end of that he will have taken antibiotics for 2 straight months without a break. Over prescription of medications is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I’m not saying he doesn’t need it, but…
He also mentioned how his digestive health has not been tip top as of late (you know what I mean) and I asked if his doctor had mentioned he should increase his yogurt consumption while taking his medication. He said that not only had the yogurt not been mentioned, nutrition and dietary intake wasn’t discussed at all! This boggles my mind. How can a physician prescribe antibiotics, for 2 straight months no less, which utterly destroy all intestinal flora, good or bad, and not mention nutrition!
Intestinal flora is of utmost importance to health as we know it contributes to digestion and absorption of nutrients, prevention of harmful pathogens like E. coli and salmonella taking root, and keeping the immune system in optimal condition. Having that be completely destroyed and not mentioning anything to the patient about what they can do to prevent that really lights a fire under me. Especially a patient who already has an immune deficiency! You don’t need to be a nutrition genius to tell patients to consume more yogurt (at least one per day, preferably two) when on antibiotics. It’s not a cure all, but it will certainly help to try and keep the pathogens from taking root in your intestinal tract.
I have encouraged him to up his yogurt intake, actual yogurt like Greek, not fake Americanized versions, that contain a lot of live and active cultures for that intestinal flora. I also pushed him towards the Friendship Digestive Health cottage cheese for more cultures and for the inulin to give those cultures some food to attempt to solidify their hold on the area. It’s not a perfect solution, but it at least gives him a fighting chance to have normal digestive health while on his antibiotics and I wish more docs would at least attempt to do the same.
At Cressey Peformance we are probably most known for training a lot of baseball players. And I mean a lot of baseball players. That’s fine, that is our niche, but we train a lot more people than just that sole population. We train football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, rugby, triathlon and more along with plenty of regular joes who work 9-5. We even train the rarest of all strength and conditioning creatures, the adult female. For those of you who follow Tony’s blog, this may not seem like anything new, but even around the area people always seem surprised to see several women training in our facility.
The recent craze has been the sled relay that I have showed us doing here. The women of CP (or at least some of them) have joined in on the fun.
(That’s me on the floor in the blue pants teaching a new client how to roll with a batting practice ball.)
Anyway, the whole point of this blog is to bring your attention to one particular CP female client who can use your help. Steph Holland-Brodney, who was not in the sled relay but busts her butt every session, is running her 3rd Boston Marathon this year. Steph ran her first Marathon in dedication to her mom, who passed during 9/11. This year she is sponsored by Team Boston Medical Center to help carry on her mom’s dedicated service to others.
This blog isn’t about trying to pull heart strings, and neither is Steph. She wants to make fundraising fun, so in her own words here is how she describes her fundraising efforts. “I’m holding a little contest this year. Not for how much you donate but for the funniest dedication. See, if you clink on the link below it will take you to my donation page and when you donate you can write a message on my wall. Last year I had some real winners but the best one was “In honor of Keanu Reeves.” The winner of this “Write the funniest message on Steph’s wall” contest will win customized Steph Service. Maybe babysitting, cleaning your car, vacuuming your office, making you a meal. You name it. If you live far away, I will make you a customized gift package. So go ahead and donate now! Over the past two years, I have raised over $10,000. Let’s make my marathon career end at $13,000.”
So if you would like to make a donation to Steph’s cause, no matter how small, click HERE.
And if you would like to learn more about Steph and her crazy life, check out her blog.
A while back I wrote a blog about why I feel that fruit juice as a whole sucks, which you can check out here. I still do believe that fruit juice is garbage for the most part, but there is an exception. One fruit juice with tons of proven benefits and a great scientific track record is the fantastic pomegranate juice.
A ton of research has been done in Israel on the health properties of this interesting juice. Many people are jumping on fruit juice bandwagons, especially it seems acai juice, but pomegranate is one of the few with actual proven evidence. In a recent study of several beverages high in antioxidants, Seeram et al used ORAC values (a measure of antioxidant capacity) along with several other measures of antioxidant content, ability to prevent the oxidation of LDL (which we know from my blog on eggs, oxidized LDL is not a good thing) and total polyphenol content. Numero Uno was Pomegranate Juice, followed by red wine, concord grape juice and blueberry juice (acai juice finished 6th).
Other research has shown that pomegrante juice contains more flavonoids than grape juice, has 2-3x the antioxidant capacity of red wine or green tea, and that pomegranates may actually also have antimicrobial properties. Some more recent research has shown the daily consumption of pomegranate juice can actually significantly slow the progression of prostate cancer in men who already have it, pretty important since prostate cancer is the second most common cancer, to skin cancer, among men.
Daily consumption of pomegranate juice has also been shown to increase blood flow to the heart, reduce arterial plaque, increase blood flow to the genitals (a natural Viagra?) and possibly reduce total cholesterol. Most of these studies actually use POM wonderful as the source of pomegranate juice, a nice little tid bit to know that the most common pomegranate juice in the country is a good one. Another interesting side note, pomegranate wonderful is actually a specific type of pomegranate that grows very well in California and is, obviously enough, the source of POM wonderful juice.
Some of the research mentioned had patients consuming 2oz per day, some up to 8oz per day. Now I am of the mind that it is still a lot of fiber free sugar in any 8oz glass of juice. In my opinion, if you are healthy and already consume a lot of fruits and vegetables, 2oz per day is probably sufficient. If you are older and just joining in on the healthy eating bandwagon and have arterial plaque problems or large concerns over prostate health, 8oz per day is probably a better option. Hope you all enjoyed today’s food installment.
First off, my apologies for being a major blog slacker this week. I promise to return with a vengeance. I wanted to wrap up this week with some random thoughts on training, nutrition, and anything else on my mind.
1. Chris Shugart wrote a really interesting article on t-nation this week, a consumer reports of new fitness equipment that I thought was really interesting. He saves his best piece for last, declaring Dr. Bowden’s The Healthiest Meals on Earth one of his favorite products of the year. I definitely agree, it is an absolutely fantastic cook book.
2. As some of you may know, Dr. Berardi just completed his month on a plant based diet. He brought up some interesting points in the end of his discussion on it about some of the anti-nutrients in grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. The big one he discussed are lectins. Dr. Berardi had this to say “lectins are sugar-binding proteins found in high concentrations in plant seeds, legumes, grains, and nuts. Interestingly, current research has shown that if eaten in high amounts, lectins can be lead to nutritional deficiencies, immune reactions, and more.” Fortunately there are ways to go about reducing the lectins in food. Fortunately Precision Nutrition V3 discusses a lot of them, including how to properly soak your beans to diminish lectin concentrations. Another method to drastically reduce lectin content is sprouting, another reason why I love the sprouted grain products from Food for Life, specifically the Ezekiel line.
3. Along the same lines as number 2, a very interesting blog I discovered called Whole Health Source, has some really fascinating nutrition information. He is a huge believer in returning to our ancestral roots for food consumption, and I can’t say I can argue his points all that much. Regardless, this Stephan guy (I have no idea what his last name is) is very bright, and he puts out a lot of good info that I hope you can take the time to read. He just recently discussed lectins and other anti-nutrients in foods and how to counter act them if you feel so inclined.
4. I am in the middle of reading World Without End, by Ken Follett. It is the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, and they are both absolutely fantastic. They are not for the faint of heart, each clocking in around 1000 pages, but they are these absorbing, sprawling epics that suck you in. Excellent books and I can’t recommend them enough.
5. I am a HUGE movie fan, often discussing them at work with Tony Gentilcore, but I have unfortunately been slacking in my movie watching department. This weekend, I plan on seeing a few movies, so stay tuned for a full blown review of at least one next week. Have a great weekend.
Quinoa. It is just a beautiful name for such an incredible food. Pronounced keenwa, the Incas called it chisiya mama, or the mother of grains, though we know now it is technically a seed. There are lengends of Incan armies marching for days eating nothing but “war balls”, quinoa packed with fat.
My favorite aspect of quinoa is the fact that it is actually a complete protein. If you know me, you know that I love my protein, and quinoa is that rarest of all creatures, a grain or seed that has all essential amino acids. The main reason it is considered complete is because it is high in lysine, an amino acid traditionally limited in the plant world.
Another benefit is that it cooks in about the same time as pasta, so it is much faster to prepare than rice, and providing better nutrition than either. It is high in fiber, roughly 5g per serving, and very low on the glycemic index causing it to have a minimal impact on blood sugar. Compared to other grains like wheat and corn it is higher in many minerals including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and particularly iron, of which it contains a respectable 8mg.
More great benefits are that it is gluten free, so it can be enjoyed by anyone that has Celiac’s disease, or gluten-sensitive enteropathy, whatever you want to call it. It is also a leafy seed, not a grassy grain, so it does not contain any of the allergens common to wheat, rye, barley, oats or corn.
In summary quinoa is an amazing little food that has very high nutrition properties, is a complete protein, is hypo-allergenic, has a low glycemic index and is high in fiber. What more do you want? Well, I just might post an absolutely delicious quinoa recipe later this week, so stay tuned!
Those of you who remember my post a while back about the launch of the brand new Precision Nutrition V3 will be excited to discover that not only is this an upgrade on what already was the most comprehensive nutrition product available, along with its launch came the launch of some sweet complementary e-book add-ons.
The first one, and probably going to be everyone’s favorite, is the Gourmet Nutrition Desserts.
Healthy Deliciousness
Gourmet Nutrition Desserts, is a 44 page dessert cookbook complete with delicious “Precision Nutrition approved” dessert recipes, beautiful photography, and hints on how to eat the foods you love without the gaining the fat you hate. To download your FREE copy, click HERE.
The second complementary e-book is one that everyone who struggles with their weight should pick up.
How to Guide
The Precision Nutrition Strategies for Success provides a nice and simple overview of some critical PN strategies including: the rules of good nutrition, protein intake, balancing dietary acids, altering your eating schedule to make it more PN friendly, preparing foods, eating on the road, reving your metabolism, and more. To download your FREE copy, click HERE.
Lastly, I do want to point out that the newly improved Precision Nutrition is awesome. Especially for those of you who wonder how you can make the PN program work for you if you are a vegetarian, it is completely covered and laid out. It is also a great resource if you want to know how to do Warp Speed Fat Loss as a vegetarian (since I have gotten a lot of questions about that). All in all, it is a spectacular product and is perfect for anyone interested in utilizing nutrition to be as fit and healthy as they can. To learn more about PN V3, click HERE.
Ride the Wave. Just watch this bullshit video and then keep reading.
This is almost as bad as the Bender Ball, which was a disc herniation waiting to happen. This is just a joke.
“We recommend you not exceed 3, 5, and 8lb weights for this workout. You’ll get better results if you concentrate on the moves with lighter weights.”
Can someone please explain that to me. How does using lighter weights, causing less muscular stimulation improve results? I really want to know how this shit continues to be perpetuated. Why can we not rid the industry of this crap? Why don’t people realize if that statement were true, then they would have gotten all the results they ever wanted from Tae-Bo. There is a reason why workout products don’t survive, and new products like this continue to come out almost daily, each one replacing the previous and sucking just as badly.
They don’t work.
So people just keep coming back for the newest gimmick, which is the same useless shit, sold in a new shiny box. That’s it. It’s sad to see people get continually suckered into purchasing and trying these “new” methods and not getting the results they want. Then make all these excuses about how they can’t lose weight, its all genetics, they do everything right, blah blah blah. Don’t delude yourself, your results are in your own hands. I realize that it is not “all” their fault, since they at least continue to attempt to lose weight, just with the wrong tools and mindset. The problem is that people need to educate themselves more. Stop getting your fitness info from the same sources that have always failed you. Branch out. Try new things that are a total departure from what you may have always done, because if what we have always done has gotten us where we always are (obesity and diabetes epidemics), then obviously we need to do something different.
In conclusion, if I hear of anyone purchasing anymore garbage like this, I am going to send Billy Blanks over to pop you in the mouth. Sincerely, Brian St. Pierre.
This week’s food of choice is one that nearly everyone is familiar with and “knows” is good for them, but do they really know why? Lets find out.
Today we talk about Almonds. Almonds are fantastic little nuts that provide us with tons of nutrients that you can see just from reading the nutrition label. They are high in the heart healthy monounsaturated fat that has made the Mediterranean diet famous. They are also low in carbohydrates and sugar, high in fiber and a decent source of protein. These things are evident, but what else makes this little food so great?
Almonds are also known to be a great souce of vitamin E. Vitamin comes in a few forms, called tocopherols, the most commonly known being alpha tocopherol. Unfortunately most common does not mean most beneficial (though alpha is not bad, its has tons of benefits, it is just over prescribed). This is where almonds come in. The vitamin E contained in almonds is not just from alpha tocopherol, but from the little known gamma tocopherol. Gamma tocopherol has been shown to neutralize many dangerous free radicals that alpha tochopherol simply has no effect on. These specific free radicals are known to damage cellular membranes and oxidize LDL. It is also a COX inhibitor, which is what NSAIDS do, making it an even more powerful anti-inflammatory. There is also evidence showing an inverse relationship with blood levels of gamma tocopherol and cardiovascular disease and cancer risk, the more gamma you have the lower your risk. Too much alpha tocopherol will actually decrease the amount of gamma tocopherol in the blood and tissues, so maintaining a balance is incredibly important. This is some pretty powerful and interesting stuff.
Moving into a totally different direction, there is evidence to show that almonds can aid in weight loss. Replacing calories in the diet with an equal number of calories from almonds has been shown to help people lose weight. It is thought to be, and this is pretty solid, that it is because we do not actually absorb all of the calories from tree nuts like almonds, and even to a degree, though less, their butters. It is estimated that we only absorb about 80% of the calories listed for almonds and the like.Though this doesn’t mean you should eat extra!
To top it all off almonds are a decent source of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. They are also wonderful at controlling blood sugar. In the end, this is a great snack food that can easily be incorporated into everyone’s diet (unless you have a tree nut allergy, which sucks, sorry). Enjoy.
OK, so I get a lot of questions from friends/family/random people on the internet about proper exercise execution. It can be tricky. You walk into any commercial gym setting and you will see just loads of atrocious form, rounded spines, and just general tomfoolery. Well fortunately for all of you brilliant enough to read my website, we have a solution. Kevin Larrabee, Tony Gentilcore and I have put together a rather large database of most of the main movements that people have trouble with. These videos were shot in HD at 60 frames per second (this was apparently really important to Kevin, he mentioned that damn camera of his being 60 frames per second every day we filmed). We think they came out pretty awesome. If you are interested in checking out more, look HERE.
For a quick example, here is me doing a beautiful barbell deadlift. This is one I commonly see done poorly (if being done at all!).
Subscribe to us on YouTube. We will periodically add more as we find the time to film them. Enjoy.
Posted on March 16th, 2009 by Brian St. Pierre
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