Miscellaneous Monday

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

I have been wrapping up my semester this past week and just cranking out school work, but yesterday I was able to catch my breath a bit and do some reading and work around the house.

It was relaxing and productive, and a nice reprieve from the stress of finalizing my school work.

Anyway, I came across some really awesome content that I think you guys should definitely check out. Enjoy!

1. Diet-Heart Controlled Trials: A New Literature Review – Stephan Guyenet. As most of you know I am not a fan of polyunsaturated vegetable oils. In this blog Stephan discusses a new review by some cardiovascular researchers who came to the same conclusion! It provides some new insights and does a great job in pointing out all the flaws in the argument for consuming more polyunsaturated fats.

2. Training to Failure: Part 1-4 – by Jason Ferrugia. Jason has been on a minimalist kick lately, and that 6 part series was equally as good as this one. His training to failure series really hit home for me because of all the guys I see at the gym trying to push themselves to their limit of every set. Training hard is good, training to constant failure is not. This series and the minimalist series are highly recommended reads.

3. Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 1-3 – by Eric Cressey. Much like Jason, Eric broke this up into several parts because there were so many angles to attack this from. Eric does an awesome job outlining the simple and effective measures to improve your posture, and therefore your movement patters and health. It is an easy-to-understand read with lots of applicable ideas.

Coffee May Decrease Risk of Alzheimer’s

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Today I had to give a presentation in class, and I chose my topic to be “Do Eggs Cause Heart Disease?” I think we all know the answer to that question, and my conclusion was a resounding no.

I like to think that I knocked that presentation out of the park, but one of the other presenters today showcased some truly fascinating information that I had not been fully aware.

She did her presentation of coffee and its association to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. As you long-time readers know, I am a fan of coffee and have written about its health benefits in the past.

I did recently announce that I was going to cut my coffee consumption down, and I probably still will just to include more tea in my life and its awesome health benefits, but this new data has inspired me to continue to give some love to my morning cup of joe.

She presented some very convincing evidence of coffee consumption and the marked retention of cognitive impairment compared to non-consumption. This has been shown repeatedly, and the effect seems to be most pronounced at about 3 cups per day. 2 cups per day also had a solid effect, but less than that, and for every cup over 3, the protection declined.

This protection was not seen with tea or with decaffeinated coffee, so it is due to some combination of the caffeine in coffee, as well as one or more of its bioactive compounds (caffeic acid maybe?).

Like I noted in my previous blog on coffee, it is not for everyone, and there are some people who have adverse effects from its consumption. If you are one of those people, it is probably best to stick with tea. For everyone else, a combination of tea and fully caffeinated coffee seems to give you a tremendous and varied amount of health benefits, so drink up and enjoy!

You Asked, I Answered.

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

Before we get started today I wanted to mention that Jim Smith has released another cool free video demonstrating some of his training methods for his awesome Accelerated Muscular Development 2.0. It actually walks you through an AMD2.0 workout, so check it out!

Q. What are your thoughts on the latest study I saw on the news about too much vitamin D (i.e. over 600 IU) could be risky because of developing calcium deposits (or something like that)?

A. Well I will first say that it was not a study, though the article made it seem that way. It was a report based on studies, conducted by a very conservative agency.

I also did not like how the tone of the article made it seem that taking more than 600IU of vitamin D would be dangerous, it is most definitely not. Now taking more than 10,000IU per day might be, but I stress might, because there is research showing even that amount to be safe, and it would require really long supplementation at that dose to be problematic. In fact the research seems to indicate that to actually achieve vitamin D toxicity and its associated negative effects (such as calcium deposits, nausea, etc), it would require supplementation of 40,000IU per day. I still wouldn’t recommend taking 10,000IU per day though as it seems unnecessarily high, unless that dose is what it takes to get you into the normal range (you should be able to drop to a much lower dose to maintain that level).

The recent research that has shown problems with vitamin D supplementation has been widely refuted by other researchers for design and methodology flaws, so it can be difficult to know what is what. It is in the minority, a tiny minority at that.

The fact of the matter is that most people today do get very little sunlight and should supplement with some vitamin D, the key is to know the amount needed to achieve optimal blood levels for you. That number may vary by person and I think more research is needed to find out if that value is dependent on genetic or other factors (race, smoking, bodyweight, diabetes, season, etc). As of right now the ranges most often given are 30-80 ng/mL. Above and below those numbers is not a good idea, and it is probably best to aim for a moderate level of about 50 ng/mL.

Now having said all of that, there may be some people with certain genetic variants or other conditions who should definitely not take large doses of vitamin D. People are also trying to link other complications to vitamin D supplementation, and it should be noted that this might be a possibility. All essential nutrients are part of a much larger whole, and work synergistically together, modifying each other’s effects. Taking huge doses without getting tested is probably not a good idea. Find out what your starting blood levels are, supplement appropriately (take 1,000IU for every 10 ng/mL you need to increase) and then get retested.

While I do think that people shouldn’t go crazy with their vitamin D supplementation, the vast majority of the research supports the notion that taking 4,000-5,000IU per day is safe. Personally, I required about 5,000 IU to achieve a blood level of 55 ng/mL. I am going to play around with cutting my dose down to about 2,000-3,000 IU per day and retest. If I can maintain at that dose then that is what I will do. Again, getting your levels tested is key.

Random Wednesday Thoughts

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

I am quite busy wrapping up most of my school work for the semester, but I do have a few random thoughts to throw at you guys today. I personally think they are quite stellar.

1. I love my new Jeep, but the gas mileage is killing me! I knew what I was getting into purchasing a Jeep. I know that they are not known for good gas mileage, but it is still a tough pill to swallow when you actually see it in person!

2. While eating lunch yesterday I happened to peruse through my wife’s SHAPE magazine, to see if they actually publish any good info or if it was the crap I was expecting. Yes I am aware that I probably shouldn’t admit this publicly.

Anyway, they had a little tidbit about good news for dairy lovers. Recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition a study suggested that women who consumed the most dairy had a 26% lower risk of heart attack compared to women who consumed the least.

The researchers believe that calcium, vitamin D and the type of fat in dairy (ie – saturated) may have played a role in protecting the heart, and they suggest aiming for three daily servings. Ok, that sounds great.

Then the stupidness ensues. The magazine goes on to recommend choosing skim milk over 2% to save 52 calories per cup. Um, hello McFly? The research pointed out that the fat in the milk may have been one of the protective elements and you are recommending nonfat milk? I just don’t get it. When are we going to get over this misplaced fear of total fat and saturated fat?

3. I had a new article published on T-nation this week. I think it is pretty sweet, check it out and let me know what you think.

4. Don’t forget that the $30 discount on Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel and Move Better ends tonight at midnight, so if you want to save some dough, act fast!

Christmas Trees and The Truth about Salt

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

First off today I wanted to mention that my wife and I went with my parents and sisters to pick up our very first Christmas tree together. Though my parents’ tree is about twice as tall and probably four times as heavy, we are still proud of our little 7 footer. We will do a little decorating around the house today and be good to go.

While at my parents’ house yesterday I picked up my dad’s old Men’s Health magazines because you can almost always find some interesting tidbits and articles in there. Sometimes they are excellent, sometimes not so much, but it is far and away the most consistently good fitness magazine out there.

While perusing through the November issue I came across two interesting things:

1. EC gave a nice little dynamic warmup sample for the magazine. It was his favorite combination of moves that apparently he now calls “the Microwave?” I chuckled a little at that, as it was news to me, but the warmup is top-notch. It is simply a walking high-knee hug to a walking spiderman with an overhead reach and hip lift. You can get these moves and many others in EC’s Assess & Correct.

2. There was also an interesting article entitled “The Truth about Salt” by Maria Masters.

When I attended “The Great Fat Debate” at the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Boston earlier this month there was certainly a lot of interesting information put forth by the speakers. Some of it, mainly the stuff by Dr. Lewis Kuller, was awful. He was stuck in 1975 and definitively stated that the only concern should be LDL and apoB and nothing else. He was an arrogant fool who did not provide any information that was newer than 1980.

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. For any of you who attended or streamed the “debate” (there was no debate, simply four 15-minute talks with a small q & a at the end) I just wanted to put that out there. The study of the causes of heart diseases finally seems to be making some leaps forward, so it is imperative that we don’t listen to people like Dr. Kuller who prefer to retain the status quo simply because discovering new information may discredit what they have been teaching, and that is just unacceptable. For people like him it is easier to just be in denial.

Anyway, in that debate the best speaker, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, gave the most clear-headed and accurate representation of the research and the facts. He declared the focus on total fat and saturated fat to be non-sense. The research just does not bear it out. Though he was a fan of increasing polyunsaturated fats to reduce risk of heart disease, which I disagree with to a point, he was also a fan of reducing sodium intake.

He felt the only information that should be on Nutrition Facts labels should be total calories and sodium content. That’s it. While maybe a little extreme, I understood his point. Which brings me to this Men’s Health article.

“More than 20 percent of American men between 35 and 44 have high blood pressure.” That is a scary statistic and because of it the American Heart Association, Institute of Medicine as well as New York City and 30 others are trying to decrease the salt intake of America. So should you stop adding salt and pepper to your eggs and other meals?

Maybe not. 77% of our sodium intake comes from pre-packaged processed foods and restaurant meals. 77%. Another 12% naturally occurs in food and only 5% comes from home cooking. Still think that little dash of salt in your stir-fry is really the problem? Me neither.

Salt is an essential mineral needed to maintain muscle function and hydration. The Institute of Medicine recommends a little bit over 1/2 tsp of salt per day to help maintain electrolyte balance. What people often do not realize is it is the balance between sodium and potassium that is the real key, not just sodium intake alone.

The body is constantly balancing the sodium to potassium ratio, and it has been shown that an increase in potassium intake can lower blood pressure just as well as a decrease in sodium intake. Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans fall well short of their potassium needs, as well as their needs for the best source of potassium – fruits and vegetables. 1 medium potato contains 25% of your daily potassium needs.

Know what else causes high blood pressure? Being overweight.

To me the real keys to lowering your blood pressure are this:

1. Maintain a healthy bodyweight
2. Eat mostly real, whole minimally processed home-cooked foods and meals
3. Consume lots of fruits and vegetables, ~5-10+ servings per day
4. Exercise regularly

That’s it. If you do all of these things and you still have high blood pressure, then you may have some other complications going on and you should talk to your doctor. I am also of the belief that the quality of your salt might have an impact as well, since highly processed conventional salts are sodium chloride and nothing else. More traditional salts like Redmond Real Salt still have a color (pink in this case), have a better flavor profile and contain a bunch of trace minerals, including iodine.

Fall Recipes to Spice Up Your Life

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Recipes

I hope everyone had an awesomely gluttonous Thanksgiving yesterday. If there is ever a day to indulge, that is it. I personally enjoyed some of my aunt’s delicious apple pie, filling myself far beyond capacity. It was awesome.

So today was the first real snow fall of the year up here in Maine. Even with some crappy sleet mixed in, the first snow fall is always a little exciting. Minus the fact that everyone seems to forget how to drive in the snow on the first fall.

I also wanted to mention that Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson are having a sale on all of their collaborative products for 20% off! No coupon needed, it is automatically applied. Check it out.

Anyway, with winter fast approaching and Thanksgiving yesterday, I thought today would be an appropriate occasion to give you some awesome winter recipes. I gathered what I considered to be my three best winter recipes and put them all in one place so they are easier for you guys to find. Enjoy!

Irish Beef Stew

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds of lean beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 cups of canned beef broth
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 table Worcestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• ¼ stick pastured butter
• 1-2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cups carrots, ½-inch pieces
• 2 cups baby portabella mushrooms cut into quarters

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat.  Add beef and sauté until brown on all sides (about 5 minutes).  Add garlic and sauté 1 minute.
2. Add beef broth, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves.  Stir to combine and bring mixture to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
4. In another large pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add potatoes, onion, carrots, and mushrooms.  Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes.
5. Add vegetables to beef stew.  Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are tender, about 40 minutes.  Discard bay leaves before serving.  Serves 6.

I made this one on Monday, and it was absolutely delicious. Two bowls of that fills you right up and keeps you satisfied for hours.

My Wife’s Chili

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds ground beef or turkey (1-2lbs really, personal preference)
• 1 large onion
• 1 large green pepper
• 2 cans stewed tomatoes (14.5 ounces each)
• 1 can tomato sauce (16 ounces)
• 1 can light red kidney beans (15-16 ounces)
• 1 can dark red kidney beans (15-16 ounces)
• 1 can chickpeas (15-16 ounces)
• 1 small can of corn (7 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons of chili powder
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Cook the beef, onion, and green pepper in large skillet, over medium heat with 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.
2. In a large pot combine the tomatoes, tomato sauce, kidney beans, chickpeas, corn and chili powder and cook over medium heat. Do not drain canned goods.
3. Once the beef, onion and green pepper mixture is cooked thoroughly, add to the large pot. Stir and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
4. Make 5 large or 10 small servings.

This is probably my most popular recipe. I have had lots of readers email me and thank me, though really they should be thanking my lovely wife, for this recipe. Beware though, it does contain a good amount of fiber!

Vanilla Pumpkin Pie

• 6-8oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 scoop vanilla whey protein
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tbsp chopped walnuts
• 1 tbsp milled flax
• cinnamon to taste
• nutmeg to taste
• ice cubes
• Blend & Enjoy!

My mother-in-law made a delicious pumpkin pie that I am going to enjoy tonight, and it reminded of this awesome smoothie. I haven’t had this one in a while, which is too bad because I absolutely love it. For you pumpkin fans out there, this is where it is at!

After all the leftovers are gone, I hope you guys put some of these recipes to use. Have a great weekend everybody!

A Smorgasbord of Awesomeness

Filed under: General Health, Movie Review, Nutrition

So I know there has been a serious lack of blogging on here of late. I assure you that I am not a slacker, I have simply had a ton of things on my plate, not allowing me the time to write any quality content. For example it recently took me the better part of two months to finish an article I had started for t-nation, I just did not have the block of time I needed to wrap it up!

I figured that I would give you all a smorgasbord of stuff today, encompassing recent thoughts, nutrition, what I have been up to and more.

1. So while I have not had much time to blog, which is true, a small reason as to why I have been lacking in that department lately is that I was a little burnt out. If you look back over my blogging history my writing over the past few months far exceeded my normal output. While I did enjoy it, it also became more of an obligation rather than a fun exchange of information. So a small part of this hiatus was to refocus and recharge my batteries!

2. I have also been cranking out school work like a champ lately. I had to wrap up two huge projects last week as well as take a test and make a trip to the Blaine House with my classmates. For those of you not from Maine, the Blaine House is where the governor lives, as the Maine Dietetic Association honored the outgoing First Lady of Maine, Karen Baldacci. Karen is a Registered Dietitian and she worked hard to increase the recognition and credibility of our profession in this wonderful state. Below is a picture of my classmates and I with the First Lady.

3. I recently read a “nutrition expert” stating that it is going to be difficult to get Americans off the “meat and potatoes diet” and eating more veggies. They were basically asserting that eating meat and potatoes was a big part of the obesity and diabetes epidemic. This is absolutely absurd!

If more people actually ate meat and potatoes for dinner, we would be much better off. Instead people are eating more meals out of the home, are getting take-out chinese, deep-dish pizza and other calorically-dense over-processed “food”.

To me many people view the nutrition problems of this country through the wrong lens. The problem isn’t the meat, or the potatoes, or the butter or any other currently “evil” food. No, the problem is people eating far too many “edible food-like substances” and not enough actual food. It is definitely difficult to overconsume calories when eating mostly real, whole foods. It can be done, but it takes some serious effort!

Overeating man-made processed crap on the other hand is rather easy. It is specifically engineered to get you to eat more of it. It is designed to excite your brain and encourage you to indulge in overconsumption. Not only that, it is generally incredibly calorically dense, so eating the same volume will greatly increase your calorie intake compared to real food. It also tends to be nutrient-deficient, lacking in fat-soluble vitamins, phytonutrients and more.

We need to change our focus away from specific nutrients and creating new “foods”, and instead focus on teaching people how to get back to basics.

4. One thing that I going to change in my diet is getting more green tea back into it. I used to consume 3-5 cups on a near-daily basis. These days I hardly manage one cup per day. I drink more coffee instead, which in and of itself isn’t a problem as coffee has plenty of antioxidant capacity and health benefits. However after one of my classmates gave a presentation on the health benefits of green tea, it reminded why I used to drink so much in the first place.

While I will still have my cup of coffee at breakfast because I simply enjoy it so much, and will still usually have some coffee before I train, I am going to make a concerted effort to increase my tea consumption during the course of the day. My goal will be to aim for 2-3 cups of a mixture of white, green and black tea per day.

5. While many people think of Tony Gentilcore as the resident Harry Potter and Star Wars expert in the fitness industry, Tony knows all too well that I would utterly destroy him in Star Wars knowledge, with Harry Potter probably being a toss up. For those of you who are not Harry Potter fans, you should be.

My wife and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie last night, and I absolutely loved it. I think David Yates has been the perfect director for these last few. To me he has really captured the essence of the books, and I honestly felt that this was his best effort yet. While it is only half of a movie really, I think it set the stage beautifully for what will be an utterly epic finale next summer.

Just like with the Order of the Phoenix, I think Yates has made a better movie than the actual book itself. If you are even a moderate fan and you haven’t seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for?!?

Could there be a more appropriate picture?

6. I also want to note that I am very excited and relieved to know that my best friend has returned safe and sound from his tour in Afghanistan. We are happy to have you home Nicholas!

Pure Food for Sages

Filed under: Nutrition

A former client and current blog reader of mine emailed me to let me know how happy she was to see me post a picture of my pets. They are rather cute.

She also wanted to hear my thoughts on a new food she had come across – watercress. So I turned to my trusty The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth to see what Jonny Bowden had to say about it. Lo and behold, it was one of his stars of the vegetable group, and he had lots to say about it!

Irish monks used to call watercress “pure food for the sages.”  This herb is as nutrient-dense a food as they come, with one full cup providing only 4 calories! That same one cup also provides a solid serving of vitamins A, C and K while also providing a whopping 1,900 mcg of the eye-healthy antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin.

Watercress is a member of the brassica family of vegetables, which also contains broccoli, spinach, cabbage and kale to name a few. This family of vegetables contains isothiocynates, which neutralize carcinogens. Watercress also has contains sulphoraphanes, just like broccoli.

Sulphoraphanes in combination with isothiocynates have been found to work synergistically in preventing and attacking cancer. The combination induces the death of cancer cells, preventing potential carcinogens from causing harm and helping cells to increase their defenses against carcinogens.

All in all, I would say that is one hell of a food, and it would be a great addition to salads, stir fry’s, and more!

For more information like this, check out Jonny Bowden’s The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.

Stuff You Should Read

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training, Weight Loss

I apologize for the lack of blogging this week, just been all over the place. My wife and I are currently looking for a used car as mine is on its last legs. We spent all day today shopping around to see what we could find.

With little time to write some content, and since it is currently 10:50pm and I need to be up at 5:00am, I figured I would toss out some recent blogs that I read that I thought were top-notch and deserved your attention.

1. How to Select a Weight to Use in a Resistance Training Program – Eric Cressey. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory!

2. Are Whole Eggs or Egg Whites Better for You? – Mike Geary. This is a simple and lay-person friendly breakdown on why ditching the yolks is a bad idea. Doesn’t get too technical and is an easy read.

3. The Twinkie Diet for Fat Loss – Stephan Guyenet. I recently got some emails about a nutrition professor losing weight eating a lot of junk food. Stephan breaks it all down, and some of the best info is actually in the comments section!

FNCE and Going Green

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

This past weekend, actually from Saturday until Tuesday, I was at the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference & Expo. It was at the enormous and beautiful Boston Convention and Expo Center. I am so glad I get the student discount, because it is crazy expensive otherwise!

This was certainly an interesting experience, and I got to hear some great talks on how to succeed in private practice, saturated fat, heart disease, public policy and more. To be brutally honest, I was hoping for more cutting edge information that was unfortunately lacking.

In all actuality the greatest source of information that I found at the entire conference and expo was a simple guidebook from Stonyfield Farms called The Going Greener Guidebook. This book has some absolutely fascinating, unique, and simple ways to be more eco-friendly. Admittedly I could be better about this, so that may be why I found it so interesting.

It discusses things like an Earth-Friendly Diet, how to Green Your Home on a room by room basis, America’s Farms, easy ways to Reduce and Reuse and more. I learned some really neat things from this little guidebook.

When Anna and I buy a home, one thing I really want to do is have a small organic garden. I currently know little to nothing about gardening at all, let alone organic. This guidebook recommends the book Grow Organic, which will show “everything you need, from composting to seed saving.” Other areas of the guidebook give some other simple tips about composting, like using your coffee grinds, eggshells, newspapers and veggie scraps. This will also decrease your trash.

In the Green Your Home section they discuss how turning on your dishwasher at night will avoid peak energy rates, and during the summer this will keep excess humidity out of the kitchen. In the living room they talk about lowering the thermostat, utilizing drapes (in the winter, open them during the day to maximize the sun’s warmth, and at night close them to keep in warmth), utilizing the ceiling fan and more. In the bathroom the tip I found most interesting was to use recycled toilet paper. If every family in the US replaced one roll of conventional paper with a roll of 100% recycled tp, then 423,900 trees would be saved!

This guidebook is just chock full of simple and easy ways to make your lifestyle healthier and more eco-friendly. You can actually download or read the entire guidebook for free right here.