At CP, and through my online consulting, I get a lot of questions from clients and parents about the use of creatine. Is it safe? Is it steroids? Does it just make you gain water weight?
There are a lot of misconceptions about this rather innocuous substance. Let’s start off by defining what creatine is, and what creatine isn’t.
What is creatine?
Creatine is an amino acid made by the body on a daily basis. It is made in the liver from 3 different amino acids (arginine, methionine, and glycine) taken in from our diet. Creatine is also taken in directly from meat as animals contain creatine in their skeletal muscle as well. The sources are split quite evenly, unless you are a vegetarian, in which that you case you may be creatine deficient. Creatine is an energy substrate used for high-intensity activities – such as sprinting, jumping, throwing and lifting weights. Basically supplementing with creatine has been shown to safely allow athletes to work harder, longer by maximizing their skeletal muscle stores.
Is creatine safe?
Creatine is the most studied supplement in the history of the world. If you go to pubmed and type in creatine into the search engine you will get over 42,000 responses. That is a lot. The definitive answer is if taken according to recommended dosages (ie – 3-5 grams per day) creatine is completely safe. No study, long or short term has shown adverse effects of creatine. The most widely accepted side-effect of creatine supplementation is the gain in lean body mass. For athlete’s and recreationally active people, a little extra muscle is usually a good thing.
The key things to keep in mind here are that there is no need to load (ie – 20 grams per day), regardless of what the label tells you. 3-5 grams per day is completely acceptable and has been shown in research and with thousands of athletes to be effective and safe. Also make sure you are purchasing a highly pure creatine monohydrate. It should say it is either micronized or Creapure brand. These are highly pure and held to the loftiest of standards.
According to the European Food Safety Authority, “Provided high purity creatine monohydrate is used in foods for particular nutritional uses, the Panel considers that the consumption of doses of up to 3g/day of supplemental creatine, similar to the daily turnover rate of creatine, is unlikely to pose any risk.”
As perhaps the greatest testament to its safety, it is completely legal in the NCAA, International Olympic Committee, FIFA (soccer), and ATP (tennis) -traditionally the four most stringent governing bodies in sports when it comes to supplement use. The NFL, NBA, and MLB all permit it as well.
Is creatine steroids?
Steroids are anabolic exogenous hormones injected or swallowed. These are not substances consumed in large amounts in our natural enviorment and they have drastic effects on the endocrine system. Creatine is none of those things. It is not a hormone in anyway and does not affect our endocrine system. We consume creatine on a normal daily basis, we do not consume large amounts of steroids on a daily basis.
Does creatine make you gain water weight?
In short, yes it does. Creatine does cause the body to hold more water due to increased water uptake by skeletal muscle. This is a good thing, as volumizing the muscle cells can help increase their size, and it is only a few initial pounds. In the long term though, the added weight from creatine is not just from water, as the supplementation helps athletes to gain lean muscle tissue. The key oint is the added weight is not just from water.
Do you need the newest, fanciest, and most expensive form of creatine?
Creatine ethyl-ester, Kre-alkalyn, conjugate creatine and who knows what else are completely unecessary and may contain harmful ingredients. They are also significantly more expensive with a complete lack of extra benefits. Speed of absorption of creatine is irrelevant. Once you take 3-5 grams per day for a month your muscles will be saturated, and from there it is just maintaining that saturation. These products may help you saturate sooner (or they may not) but overall they do not increase benefits whatsoever. You need pure, simple inexpensive micronized or Creapure creatine monohydrate.
Interesting benefits of creatine.
Besides the physical performance enhancing benefits of creatine, it has some other studied and documented benefits. Creatine has been shown to improve cognitive abilities. Studies have shown that it can increase performance on tests of cognitive abilities. In one example the researchers concluded that “supplementation with creatine significantly increased intelligence compared with placebo.”
There have also been several successful studies on animals in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as: Parkinson’s, Huntingson’s, ALS, and muscular dystrophy. Due to the success of many of these animal trials, human trials for many of these diseases are underway. Pretty impressive stuff.
Conclusion.
Creatine is safe when taken properly from a pure source. You do not need some crazy new version that they will try to push on you at many supplement stores. Take 3-5 grams per day everyday for greatest results.
As long time readers surely know, I am not exactly what you would call a fan of the MSN Health & Fitness page. It is usually full of junk advice that is a thinly veiled attempt to get consumers to purchace some unnecessary 100 calorie snack pack or other nutritionally worthless crap. I blogged a few times about their lack of actual good advice, check it out HERE and HERE.
Just the other day though I was checking out msn.com, and I came across a headline called The Healthiest Foods on Earth. I obviously couldn’t resist to see what bullshit they came up with now, maybe they were going to start hyping acai juice as the secret to curing cancer or creating world peace, or maybe they were going to actually surprise me and have some good content.
Surprise me they did. As I am scanning through the article I decided I had to scroll back up and see who the author was. Lo and behold it was none other than Jonny Bowden. Jonny is a great nutritionist who has been a huge influence on me, and this artcile was just simple brilliance. Here is an excerpt for those too lazy to click the above link:
Hold on to your shopping carts: There is no perfect diet for human beings. At least not one that’s based on how much protein, fat or carbohydrates you eat.
People have lived and thrived on high-protein, high-fat diets (the Inuit of Greenland); on low-protein, high-carb diets (the indigenous peoples of southern Africa); on diets high in raw milk and cream (the people of the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland); diets high in saturated fat (the Trobriand Islanders) and even on diets in which animal blood is considered a staple (the Massai of Kenya and Tanzania). And folks have thrived on these diets without the ravages of degenerative diseases that are so epidemic in modern American life—heart disease, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis and cancer.
The only thing these diets have in common is that they’re all based on whole foods with minimal processing. Nuts, berries, beans, raw milk, grass-fed meat. Whole, real, unprocessed food is almost always healthy, regardless of how many grams of carbs, protein or fat it contains.”
That brief bit was just awesome. People are always arguing about which dietary strategy is better. Low carb? Low fat? Ketogenic? The list goes on and on. I get asked daily if a particular food is good for you. My answer is always it depends. How was that food grown? Was it grown covered in pesticides and herbicides (which may not have much of an impact on me personally, but as a whole they destroy the environment). Was it injected with antibiotics and growth hormones? Was it allowed to consume it’s normal diet? Everything is context dependent.
For general health those are the most important questions to ask. When dieting the calories and macros are more important so in that context the questions might get a slightly different answer, but you still want to eat real food. Regardless of goal, real whole food should be what you are consuming, you can worry about the macronutrients and such after that has been mastered.
One important caveat is that not every food is good for everyone. Some people have allergies and intolerances to foods, so just because raw milk may be great for some people, it probably isn’t so good for someone lactose intolerant. Same goes for lots of foods, so always keep that in mind.
For more great stuff from Jonny Bowden definitely check out his book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. I know I pimp it a lot, but it really is that good. It is easy reading chock full of some absolutely incredible content. It is one of my favorite nutrition books ever.
Hey folks I am back! I was on vacation in Maine (it was beautiful), but I have returned to resurrect my blog. I feel like I haven’t written in forever!
I wanted to discuss something light today. I figured I would ease myself back into things. Lately I have been getting a lot of questions from clients about supplements. What to take, what not to take, what is safe, what is dangerous, what will make them swole and/or ripped. You know, stuff like that. The problem is that most people who ask questions about supplements eat like crap. Supplements are all well and good, and can provide some helpful benefits, but if you do not have your day-to-day nutrition lined up, they won’t do a damn thing. If you want to learn which supplements I do like, check out this article I wrote for The FitCast HERE.
Don't be this guy
There is absolutely no need to purchase every new product that comes out promising to make you jacked. Most supplements are completely worthless, and you are just pissing your money away. From the nutrition side of things, your consistent eating habits determine 90% of your results. I am talking about proper food choices and portion sizes. You master that, and you are 90% of the way there. Mastering the basics is the single greatest key to making health, training and body composition goals. That other 10% is just the fun stuff to play around with. All the supplements on earth won’t really increase that 10% threshold. The best nutrient timing on earth won’t either. You could have the best post workout shake, with the best ingredients at the most optimal time after the world’s greatest training session, but if at the end of the day you didn’t consume more calories than you expended, you aren’t going to grow. Period. End of story. Same goes for fat loss.
The most effective method of changing your physique is to master your nutrition basics, train hard and recover. This means eating real food, not something made in a lab, doing a program that is tailored for your needs and goals, and doing it balls to the wall, and getting your 8 hours. It isn’t sexy, and it isn’t revolutionary, it just plain works.
So before you head off to GNC to purchase some new, fancy, over-priced and completely worthless supplement, just remember that $80 could buy you a weeks worth of amazing, delicious, and physique changing food.
Today I got an email from my good friend Cassandra Forsythe. Cass is brilliant so anything she sends my way I take very seriously, and this email was no exception.
She forwarded to me a newsletter from the Metabolism Society (yes, we are geeks) about a new documentary being made called “In Search of the Perfect Human Diet.” It looks absolutely fascinating. Here is an excerpt from the newsletter:
“The film is an unprecedented global exploration for the solution to the epidemic of overweight and obesity, rapidly becoming the #1 killer in America. What I’d like to do is tell you a bit about why we’re making this film, how it began for me, and the “behind the scenes” moment that occurred over and over again taking us places we never expected. These unexpected developments have made the search for the “perfect human diet” an incredibly fascinating treasure hunt, one that will be a real eye opener for audiences everywhere.
CJ Hunt - The movie creator
At this moment in history we are losing the war with obesity, and losing badly.
Between 300- 400,000 American’s die every year from complications related to diet and obesity. Sadly, this crisis is not ours alone. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that by 2015, 700 million adults will be obese worldwide.
As independent journalist-filmmakers looking for buried treasure, we had to go where others in our profession had not. If we were to genuinely dig to find the answers, the place to explore was outside of the present dietetic groupthink. So in the summer of 2006, it began. Over the last several years we filmed interviews with many of the world’s top scientists, authors, clinicians and researchers in archaeological science and medicine, paleo and forensic anthropology, nutrition and metabolism, and the emerging field of “human dietary evolution.” And what we’ve found are not new scientific theories and speculation- but definitive, scientific, fact-based answers; answers that, if taken advantage of, could solve our weight epidemic.
The first interview we conducted was with Professor Loren Cordain of Colorado State University, author of “The Paleo Diet.” Professor Cordain is a leading U.S. expert in evolutionary human nutrition. At the conclusion of our time with him, he added, “You know who you should go talk to is Mike Richards at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany…” And this kind of mention at the end of each interview is what ended up directing the course of filming. What I had in mind originally only had a few subject matter experts and authors here in the U.S. But these unexpected moments and mentions took us from excavations containing remains of Neanderthals and early modern humans in Jonzac, France, to the biomolecular anthropology analyses labs at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and more. Every destination provided more groundbreaking evidence of a “perfect” human diet that can’t be ignored.
What we’ve uncovered during this journey to solve the obesity epidemic is remarkable. I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone, but what I can tell you is this – the solutions to our epidemic of overweight and obesity lie not in focusing on reworking the USDA Food Pyramid every 5-years, but in a vast area of overlooked understanding in nutrition – evolution.
If you would like to know more about the documentary or sign up on the DVD notification list you can do that at perfecthumandiet.com. If you wish to contribute – any amount helpful in assisting in the completion of the film. For business and strategic distribution alliances, please e-mail us at info@perfecthumandiet.com”
Here is a youtube video of CJ Hunt (the creator) talking about this amazing documentary.
If you watched the video you probably noticed that this documentary notes that problems started around 10,000 years ago (if you are a regular reader of my blog you might already know where this is going). What happened at this point that changed the game? My answer (without actually seeing the movie): The Agricultural Revolution. The ability to farm grains and have ready access to it changed us from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Now this had the result of creating human civilizations, science, art, culture, religion, organized warfare, basically life as we know it today, so it certainly had its benefits. The downfall is that this drastic change in dietary intake, this great increase in grain consumption, caused some severe negative metabolic effects that we are suffering from today. Granted there is more than grains that are the problem: increased sugar intake, increase refined vegetable oil intake, decrease activity levels, etc., but it all started with farming.
I highly encourage you to check out this movie and sign up for the info. It will be an awesome experience.
Weird right? Coffee healthy? Doesn’t seem possible or probable. Many people tell me when they begin changing their diet that they stop drinking coffee. I always ask why and they never really have an answer. It appears to be one of those foods that has gotten an undeserving bad rap. Granted, caffeine is a drug and can be addictive, people put all kinds of crap into their coffees, not all coffee is created equal (is anything?) and coffee is not for everybody, but for most people, it is their greatest source of dietary antioxidants! Seem impossible? Keep reading.
Unfortunately there is a ton of conflicting research on coffee. Studies can be absolutely positive with praise;
drinking more than 5 cups per day may decrease likelihood of diabetes
coffee consumption can increase exercise tolerance even in patients with heart failure
increases alertness and can increase short term mental and physical performance
may lower incidence of Parkinson’s and gallstones
may decrease risk of liver cirrhosis
These benefits are no joke. I would love to decrease my risk of diabetes and Parkinson’s while at the same time making me temporarily more awesome. Unfortunately these results are not unequivocal. Some negatives:
could possibly increase risk of miscarriage
interfere with normal sleeping patterns
can increase PMS symptoms
can raise blood pressure in people with hypertension
In my opinion the reason the results are so mixed is because of something called nutrigenomics. If you have never heard of nutrigenomics, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. It is a new science showing the interaction between the foods we consume and our genetics. This interaction is not the same for everyone, and can actually vary widely. To read more here is a good article on the topic. It is a fascinating new science that unfortunately goes well beyond the scope of this blog post.
Onto more good stuff about coffee. Much to the surprise of my clients, I don’t tell them that they have to stop drinking coffee (though I do encourage them to make it black!). Here is why: coffee increases antioxidant activity in the blood for hours, has more antioxidants than dark chocolate, green or black tea and is the single greatest contributor of antioxidants in the average American diet! Coffee may be the source for as much as 70% of the antioxidant intake of many Americans.
As with all things, as long as consumption is kept moderate, I don’t encourage more than 2-3 cups per day, most people should not only be fine, they should see some nice benefits in the process. For those of you who may feel negative effects from coffee, then don’t drink it, switch to something just as healthy with less kick, like a fine cup of green tea. For more info like this check out Dr. Jonny Bowden’s spectacular book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.
It has been an insanely busy week and I have tried my damndest to get in even 2 blogs. So at 10:30 on a Friday night I am cranking out blog #2 just for you guys, so I hope you enjoy it.
I often get questions on how to spice up food, add a little more pop, variety and spice to meals that can sometimes become monotonous. So today I wanted to discuss a few condiment options that can really diversify your meal planning. There are obviously many more, but these are a few of my favorites.
1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil Basil Pesto.
I LOVE pesto. It is calorie dense, so you do have to be mindful of portion size, but it is most certainly delicious! The fat comes from the incredibly heart healthy extra virgin olive oil, and the basil provides some pretty potent health benefits as well. Basil has been shown to protect cell structures as well as chromosomes from radiation and oxidation. It has also been shown to have some very powerful anti-bacterial components. It is also anti-inflammatory, and is a good source of vitamin K, and vitamin A.
2. Hummus.
Hummus. One of my absolute favorite snacks. I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t have hummus with some baby carrots. I absolutely love it. It is low in calories, only 50 in 2 tbsp. It is made from chickpeas so it has little to no impact on blood sugar. The chickpeas are a great source of molybdenum, manganese, folate, fiber, protein and more! Molybdenum is not exactly a famous nutrient, but it is quite interesting. It helps to detoxify sulfites, which some people have reactions to and can cause rapid heartbeat, headache or disorientation.
3. Guacamole.
Gauc. Awesome in combination with pesto, absolutely awesome. Being made mainly from avocados, it is incredibly healthy. It provides a nice serving of heart healthy monounsaturated fats (like pesto) and also helps fight cancer of the mouth, breast, and prostate, and improves skin tone. Avocados also contain lutein, a powerful antioxidant that is essential to eye health. They also contain more potassium than bananas for blood pressure, is the richest source of beta-sitosterol, may increase HDL and provides more than 25 essential nutrients.
There you have it, three condiments that not only add a whole bunch of kick ass flavor to your cooking repertoire, but also had some kick ass nutrients to your health. Enjoy!
Now as most of you know I am not a big fan of wheat. I prefer sprouted grain versions to decrease anti-nutrients and allow for much better vitamin and mineral absorption. Unfortunately, a great food seems to have been lumped into the wheat category, when in reality it stands far apart, especially since it is a seed and is related to rhubarb, not too wheat. Today I am taking about buckwheat, also sometimes known as kasha. Like quinoa, buckwheat is not a grain but a seed. Though it is treated like a grain for culinary purposes, it’s health benefits far exceed that of ordinary grains.
Buckwheat used to be widely grown in the Northeast as a popular and healthy crop in the 18th and 19th centuries. Due to the rise of nitrogen fertilizers, it was replaced by wheat and corn, which thrive in that nitrogen rich environment, and where buckwheat falters. Again showing how far our agriculture has fallen (for more info on why that is a terrible trade-off, check out The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I blogged about here).
Also like quinoa, buckwheat is high in fiber, has a very low impact on blood sugar, and is a complete protein. Most cereal grains like wheat, rice, millet and corn are lacking in a few essential amino acids. Buckwheat is also beneficial in the fact that again unlike wheat and other cereal grasses, it contains no gluten, making it safe to consume for people with gluten sensitivities.
Buckwheat has been studied quite extensively for it’s ability to lower cholesterol. Now I still don’t believe in the lipid hypothesis of cholesterol causing heart disease, but I do believe that oxidized cholesterol is a major problem, so anything that can help lower that is awesome. The proteins in buckwheat also help to stabilize blood sugars, very important for people with diabetes or metabolic syndrome. The benefits don’t stop there either. It’s proteins also reduce the activity of angiotensin converting enzyme, reducing blood pressure and hypertension. Pretty buckwheat is just full of kickassery.
Buckwheat is also high in zinc, copper, manganese, iron and selenium. It is also high in rutin, an antioxidant that supports the circulatory system by strengthening capillary walls, reduces recurrent bleeding in people with high blood pressure and weakened blood vessels and can increase microcirculation in people with chronic venous insufficiency.
An interesting aside, buckwheat is the common source of the malt in gluten free beer. Just thought I would throw that out there. Now go enjoy some buckwheat pancakes, filled with some delicious Maine blueberries.
For those of you who missed it, I began a 2 part series about Nutrition 101 HERE. Today is a continuation of my top 10 rules, guidelines, tips, what have you. Do remember that even with all these guidelines, there is no one perfect diet. Many people find many different ways of eating, that still fall under the realm of these guidelines yet are completely distinct, that are as healthy as can be. Now onto the fun stuff.
6. Eat Healthy Fat, and Lots of it.
Fat is necessary for proper hormone production.
The 80′s were wrong, do not fear fat.
Fat doesn’t make you fat.
The lipid hypothesis of heart disease is wrong.
Eat fat from foods that meet the criteria of Rules 1 & 2.
Do not fear saturated fat, as long as it comes from food following Rules 1 & 2.
Minimize consumption of industrial vegetable oils – corn, soybean, safflower, sunflower, etc.
Should usually be at least 1/3 of calorie intake.
7. Only drink single ingredient, zero calorie beverages.
Liquid calories go unnoticed by the body, so they add up.
Best choices – water, tea, some black coffee.
Some fresh juice ok in moderation.
8. Minimize Supplementation, though some is OK.
Use to enhance, not replace a balanced diet.
Lack nutrients inherent to REAL food.
Best choices – protein powder, vitamin D, fish oil, creatine, resveratrol, etc.
World's Best Protein Powder
9. Control Carbohydrate Intake
Carbs should be mainly from nutrient dense fruits and veggies.
Grains should only be from real whole grains – old fashioned oats, quinoa, sprouted grains, amaranth
Minimize regular wheat intake – high in anti-nutrients – choose sprouted grain versions
Best times for grain-based carbs – breakfast, pre and post training.
Individual variance to this, so do not fear carbs, just use appropriately.
10. Live a Little!
Break the rules once in a while.
Do not fear eating a piece of cake, or some french fries, just do not make a habit of it.
Understand what once in a while is, it is not a daily occurrence.
Don’t always be “that guy (or girl)” who never eats anything at parties or social gatherings, it is ok to not be perfect.
I hope that helps some people, whether you are just trying to maximize health, lose weight, gain mass or some combination thereof, put these tips to use and you will certainly see vast improvements in all cases. Again, questions and comments are most welcome.
Addendum to Rule 2.
Avoid artificial sweeteners, instead chose natural versions – Stevia, Lo Han, Molasses, Honey, Agave Nectar, etc – still only use sparingly.
I have had a few requests from readers to gather my thoughts and form a sort of nutrition 101 set of rules and guidelines to eat by. I will give my top 5 tips today and finish it next week. I do want to preface this list with the fact that my rules are constantly evolving, they are different now than they were just a year ago, and they will probably be different next year. I am always reading, learning and evolving my thoughts. So here goes.
1. Eat REAL whole, unprocessed food.
If you couldn’t hunt, fish, pluck, grow, or ferment/culture the food, you probably shouldn’t eat it.
If it wasn’t food 100 years ago, it probably isn’t food today.
If it comes in a box or a plastic wrapper, it probably isn’t food, it is a food product. These are not the same thing, so learn to recognize that.
If it contains lots of industrial vegetable oil (soybean, safflower, sunflower, etc) and/or sugar/high fructose corn syrup, don’t eat it.
2. Eat food as close to it’s natural state as possible.
Examples:
meat, eggs and dairy from pastured/grass-fed animals
eat full fat versions of these foods for the greatest profile and absorption of nutrients
produce from local, seasonal, and sustainably grown sources
This is for Danny
3. Eat every 3-4 hours.
This is not to “boost” your metabolism or any of that hocus pocus.
It is mainly to prevent overeating at meals, and consumption of foods that don’t follow rules 1 and 2.
4. Eat protein with every meal or snack.
Again, this isn’t to “boost” your metabolism, but regardless of goal, a higher protein diet has been shown to be more effective.
Builds more muscle and repairs damaged tissue when trying to gain mass.
Maintains muscle tissue when trying to lose mass.
Produces a higher Thermic Effect of Feeding, meaning it require more calories to digest protein than other foods.
5. Eat at least 1 full serving of vegetables and/or fruits every time you eat.
Just a simple way to reach that daily quota of 10+ servings of vegetables and fruits.
Increases amounts of powerful phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals to optimize health.
That wraps up today’s installment. Now some people might disagree and put rule 5 as rule 1, or vice versa, and in reality, it really doesn’t matter. As long as there are the tenets that you eat by most of the time, because you are allowed to eat brownies and white bread once in a while (you know that right?) then the order of the rules really doesn’t matter, it is simply semantics. Questions and comments welcome.
For those of you who read Eric Cressey and Tony Gentilcore‘s blogs have probably heard a ton about vitamin D. I am sure I have talked about it as well, though I am too lazy this morning to search where. Anyway, vitamin D is an incredibly important fat-soluble substance, really more similar to hormones than vitamins, because it is that awesome.
Unfortunately vitamin D is not present in large amounts in a lot of foods, our best source is some beautiful sunshine. Too bad people are so sun-phobic these days that they slather on some SPF 70 just to walk to their car. There has been some recent research showing that roughly 77% of the population may be deficient in vitamin D status. Even if people aren’t deficient, they likely are not in the optimal range, the RDA of 400 IU just does not cut it. That number is enough to prevent rickets or osteomalacia, not encourage optimal health. There is a vast difference between brimming health, and just being not sick.
Vitamin D plays many important roles in the body, including: the maintenance of organs, regulating calcium, bone growth and remodeling, anti-tumor and other immune boosting properties, etc. Now for you long time readers, you know that I highly dislike the MSN health and fitness page. I have ranted on that here and here before. On very rare occasions though, they really come through with some quality stuff. I recently came across an article about vitamin D and sunshine, and I loved it, it was one of their best health pieces, right HERE.
This article actually highlights some of the benefits of getting your vitamin D from just a daily dose of 10-15 minutes of sun exposure. I am of the mind that the sun is a wonderful healing tool. There is a reason that people recover better in hospitals when their shades are open. There is also a reason that we call it a “healthy” tan. It makes the skin look better, it gives the body a glow, hell it makes you feel better. Now people do take it far overboard, and I am certainly not suggesting that you rub baby oil on yourself and bask in the sun for hours on end, but I don’t think we need to slather sun block on ourselves every time we even think of heading outdoors.
One the best natural sources of vitamin D are pastured eggs, along with fatty fish like salmon, beef liver, and cod liver oils along with fortified foods. Unfortunately most people do not eat pastured eggs, they eat conventional eggs from hens fed a corn rich diet. Unfortunately, these eggs tend to be quite poor sources of this wonderful substance. Here is an awesome chart I stole from wholehealthsource a while back to prove my point. (I am paraphrasing)
In 2007, the magazine Mother Earth News decided to test the claim of the America Egg Board and Egg Nutrition Council that all eggs are created equal, regardless of source. They sent for pastured eggs from 14 farms around the U.S., tested them for a number of nutrients, and compared them to the figures listed in the USDA Nutrient Database for conventional eggs. Here are the results per 100 grams for conventional eggs and the average of all the pastured eggs:
Vitamin A:
Conventional: 487 IU
Pastured avg: 792 IU
Vitamin D:
Conventional: 34 IU
Pastured avg: 136 – 204 IU
Vitamin E:
Conventional: 0.97 mg
Pastured avg: 3.73 mg
Beta-carotene:
Conventional: 10 mcg
Pastured avg: 79 mcg
Omega-3 fatty acids:
Conventional: 0.22 g
Pastured avg: 0.66 g
As you can clearly see, pastured eggs blow conventional eggs out of the water in all measures of awesomeness. They have 4-6 times the vitamin D content, and if you are like me and have 4 whole eggs every morning, that adds up quite nicely. One little caveat though, all those nutrients listed are either fats, or fat soluble nutrients, so you need to eat the yolks to actually take advantage of all the benefits an egg has to offer, so man up and eat the whole thing.
In conclusion, get your vitamin D from more sun, better food choices, and maybe supplement with 1,000-2,000 IU every day (at least in the winter here in New England), it will only benefit you.
Also, do not forget to sign up for John Berardi’s Lean Eating Contest, for you males interested click HERE, for the ladies out there, click HERE.
Posted on July 28th, 2009 by Brian St. Pierre
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