Make Coffee Work For You

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

While reading my dad’s Men’s Health I came across a rather off-hand comment in there that really struck home with me. While I rarely read the articles in Men’s Health, I do like their recap of nutrition studies and the small blurbs of information in the beginning of the magazine.

These blurbs often inspire blog post ideas and research to look into, so I find it very helpful. In the case of this off-hand comment, it was about coffee consumption. While I don’t recall who made the comment, it was simple but brilliant and made a lot of sense.

It said something to the effect of only using coffee in small bursts to help you get through your day. 8-12oz at a pop will provide you with plenty of caffeine to power through for hours. When you need another pick-me-up, another 8-12oz is all you need.

While seemingly simple, how many people actually only have 8-12oz in one sitting? How many people only get a small coffee at the drive though, in the cafeteria or at home? Most of us do the traditional American thing, if some is good more must be better!

The fact is that having 20oz of coffee will certainly provide you with more caffeine, but there comes a point of diminishing returns. Once you get past the 8-12oz mark, you are simply just making yourself more jittery and jacked up rather than alert and focused. And if you do this 2-3 times per day, the problems are just compounding!

The more coffee you drink, the more you will feel you need. Plus drinking a ton of coffee and caffeine can disrupt sleep patterns, decreasing sleep quality and increasing your need for coffee! It can be a vicious cycle.

Research shows you get the majority of coffee’s health benefits with the least amount of potential side affects with roughly 24oz per day. So three 8oz, or two 12oz servings would be perfect. Any more than that and you start to trend into the territory where excess coffee consumption tends to cause some issues.

Have small bursts of coffee to get you going and enjoy its health benefits without going overboard. Plus you will save money. This will also allow you to get in more tea during the day. It’s a win win win.

In my mind this set up will allow a nice 12oz of coffee at breakfast, say 5:30am. Then another 12oz in the mid-morning, say 9:30am. Well now you are carried through into the afternoon, unfortunately this is where some people can get a little sleepy. Unless you absolutely are crushed, I recommend against coffee in the afternoon, as that much caffeine then can interrupt sleep patterns.

Instead you can have a delicious cup of green tea after lunch at 1:00pm, which has the added bonus of keeping you satisfied for an increased amount of time (another tidbit picked up from MH), preventing snacking before dinner. Then another green tea at 3:30 or 4:00pm to finish out the day strong.

While green tea does have some caffeine to help perk you up, it also contains calming elements like L-theanine which will help you focus, and won’t disrupt your sleep patterns like coffee will. Not too mention its plethora of other health benefits.

Now you get the best of both worlds with a smart and efficient method for increased energy and focus. Let me know what you think!

Posted on August 24th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

6 Comments »

What I’ve Learned So Far

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

I just wrapped up my first clinical rotation on Friday, and it felt good to clear another hurdle. I am looking forward to the day when I can just get back to working with people 1 on 1 in a private setting. I am enjoying the hospital experience, but I would choose doing what I do over that any day of the week.

Having said that, I have learned quite a bit. To be honest clinical dietetics was not a strong suit of mine. It was not something I was terribly interested in nor made an effort to learn a lot about, so this has been good for me.

While many nutrition experts bash RD’s (I am guilty in the past), it is important to keep their jobs in context. A clinical dietitian is not working with a healthy individual 99% of the time. People don’t get admitted to the hospital because they want to learn about a diet for CHF.

People get admitted to the hospital because they are sick or injured, and most of the time this makes it difficult for them to consume adequate calories and protein. Due to this fact, RD’s monitor patient’s oral intake and will encourage eating adequate protein and calories. However this is not always easy for the patient, and this is when RD’s recommend foods like Ensure or Carnation Instant Breakfast, because getting in calories and protein is essential for helping that patient to heal and recover.

Now this isn’t something I would recommend to a healthy individual, but it is all about the context. The only issue is many RD’s take their hospital mindset and apply it to the population as a whole, which I think is a mistake and where the criticism arises. But it is important to remember how much good they do and the integral role they play in patient recovery.

With that little diatribe out of the way, here is what I have learned in my first go-round. I have learned A TON about medications and medical terminology. While I have studied medical terminology in school, it is nothing like seeing it first hand. Reading doctor’s notes can be a monster of a challenge unless you are able to quickly learn acronyms and terminology.

I have also learned A TON about medications. The sheer number of meds given to patients in the hospital is staggering. Trying to learn them all, their purpose and their potential side effects and nutritional implications is no easy feat! I am still working on this one.

Lastly, I have also learned a lot about nutritional implications for people with specific diseases. For example COPD. Simple recommendations like eating small frequent meals rather than large meals, because large meals will really fill the stomach, potentially putting pressure on the diaphragm and making it even more difficult to breathe for people who already have trouble as it is. Simple, logical and something I had never thought of.

So that’s what I have learned so far! Don’t forget today is the day of Alwyn Cosgrove’s FREE webinar The Death of Personal Training. If you anyway involved in the fitness industry, whether you own your own facility or not, this webinar will provide you with the tools to drastically increase your success and profitability. It starts at 8pm EST, so don’t be late.

Posted on August 22nd, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

6 Comments »

The Duality of Phytic Acid

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

I have written before about phytic acid and its work as an anti-nutrient. Phytic acid is present mostly in grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and binds with important minerals like iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium as well vitamins like niacin and prevents their absorption. Phytic acid will also decrease the digestibility of the protein and carbohydrate content of the food.

Now some question whether this is anything to worry about, however history has shown us that phytates can have serious consequences. A perfect example would be the classical dwarf syndrome in Egypt. People there have often consumed large amounts of unleavened, which has led to zinc deficiencies and growth impairment in children. This clearly is not something to just brush aside.

This is why the vast majority of early cultures who consumed these foods sprouted, fermented and/or cooked these foods, drastically decreasing anti-nutrient content, increasing mineral, protein and carbohydrate digestion and absorption.

However, many people have taken this too far, and believe that since a diet too high in phytic acid and other anti-nutrients is harmful, that any intake of anti-nutrients is harmful and this does not appear to be the case. Its like believing that since you can die from too large of a water intake that you shouldn’t consume any water.

These ideas are similar to the change in the thought process on fiber many years ago. It used to be believed that fiber was a rather inert food component, and was only known to limit the absorption of some nutrients, and was once considered an anti-nutrient as well. Today we certainly know that fiber plays  a positive role in helping to prevent many ills of human health.

Research continues to show that intake of whole grains, legumes and nuts are linked with a plethora of health benefits. Since these foods all contain anti-nutrients it would make sense that there might be some benefit to their consumption. New research is showing this to be the case. A perfect example would be phytic acid preventing the absorption of iron, as excess iron can lead oxidative damage.

Phytic acid and other anti-nutrients (saponins, trypsin inhibitors, and lectins for example) may play a role in preventing chronic diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more. It seems that these anti-nutrients have a U-shaped curve of benefits (like most nutrients). Little to no consumption might be inconsequential, a moderate amount may be beneficial, and an excessive amount is harmful. The problem with this is knowing where our consumption lies on that curve.

I still believe it would be in the best interest of human health to keep intake of these nutrients in check. Consuming foods like sprouted grains (which reduce but do not totally remove phytic acid), rubbed or washed quinoa (reduces but does not totally remove phytic acid and saponins), and soaking legumes (reducing but not eliminating lectins) will still provide you with an intake of these anti-nutrients that will still provide health benefits, but it will also increase their digestibility and decrease the potential negative consequences of these foods.

Fortunately this also means that we do not have to strictly avoid all foods that contain anti-nutrients (like many in the Paleo community would have you believe). If small amounts of phytic acid, lectins and enzyme inhibitors are beneficial, then that means we can actually eat moderate amounts of grains, legumes and other Paleo-unapproved foods without worry, especially if they are properly prepared. Enjoy!

Posted on August 19th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

5 Comments »

Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt and the Death of Personal Training

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

I recently came across a new dessert that I found rather interesting. A reader sent me a link asking my opinion on the item (to be honest I get a lot of my content from you guys – thanks!), so I had to check them out.

Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt are like giant popsicles of frozen yogurt, but better. They contain far less sugar than the usual large bar like this, only 13g, have 6g of quality protein per bar, contain only 70 calories and also have the benefit of live and active probiotic cultures. Not too shabby for a sweet dessert huh?

Now they may not be the world’s healthiest food, but to satisfy that sweet tooth on a hot summer day, you could make a lot of far worse choices!

In another vein Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove will be hosting a free webinar next Monday the 22nd at 8pm EST. These guys know a ton about increasing the effectiveness of your business, and in fact the National Fitness Business Alliance (NFBA) states the they run the most profitable gym per square foot in the country.

So not only are Alwyn and Rachel top-notch trainers and business owners, they are good people and who want to share their blueprint for success with those willing to listen. They are putting on a free webinar called The Death of Personal Training. This webinar will cover:

  • why it’s the scariest and greatest time in the fitness industry to open and run a gym
  • how the fitness business model has drastically changed throughout the years and if you are not changing with it, you will be out of it soon
  • 5 steps to not only survive but dominate your marketplace
  • the turning point in his career that will help you take your business to the next level

I know I will be watching it, will you? Sign up now.

Posted on August 17th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

1 Comment »

Quinoa with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Recipes, Training

Before we get started today I just wanted to remind you guys that today is the last day to get $100 OFF the Fitness Business Blueprint. If you own your own fitness business, or are thinking about one day owning one, then this is a must-have resource for you. It is by far the most comprehensive resource on the market, written by guys you have built incredibly successful facilities from the ground up.

Get a copy of the Fitness Business Blueprint today before the sale ends!

The wife of my best friend sent me a new recipe that they tried and loved. It is incredibly simple and looks so good that I wanted to share it with you guys. It combines delicious and nutritious foods into an explosion of awesomeness.

Quinoa with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced very thin
  • 1 cup fresh spinach
  • 1oz feta cheese

Directions:

Rinse the quinoa in a strainer. (Use a sifter if you don’t have a strainer that’s small enough.) In a small saucepan, add the quinoa and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat to simmer until water is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and garlic. Cook the garlic in the oil until the edges of the garlic turns very light brown, being careful not to burn the garlic (reduce heat to low if necessary). When the quinoa is done cooking, add it to the skillet along with the spinach. Stir it together until the spinach wilts. Add the crumbled feta cheese and stir to combine. Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition Facts:

  • Calories – 233
  • Fat – 8.5g
  • Carbs – 32g
  • Fiber – 3.5g
  • Protein – 8g

Now this can either be a side dish, or you can incorporate your protein source of choice with it. She added local grass-fed steak, cilantro and tomatoes and actually put it all into a wrap. Sounds extra delicious to me!

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Posted on August 12th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

1 Comment »

The Fitness Business Blueprint

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

How many small business owners get any business training? Unless you went to school for business, most likely not much. How many dentists, electricians, doctors, painters, chefs, nutritionists and trainers/strength coaches get any direction or quality information on how to run their business? Not many.

While being good at what you do is imperative, and without that it doesn’t matter how good your business skills are, it still will not maximize your success. I’m not just talking about making money, I’m talking about the amount of people you can work with and provide a quality service too. If you do not have a good business plan you will fail or at least fail to thrive, regardless of your skill set.

Fortunately for all of us in the fitness industry there is hope. Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson and Pat Rigsby have worked together to create an incredible product, the Fitness Business Blueprint.

It covers things on the actual training side – intake/assessment, program design, coaching, etc as well as thoroughly providing you with a blueprint for business success. Pat is one of the most successful business coaches in the fitness industry, and has helped thousands of strength coaches and trainers create thriving personal facilities.

EC and MR both own their own incredibly successful facilities and have learned tons of valuable lessons along the way. I was personally on the ground floor of Cressey Performance as it grew from a small facility with 37 clients to a 7,600 sq ft comprehensive training center with several hundred clients. I was able to witness the implementation of new and improved business models as the EC and the CP team grew and got better. This isn’t advice from some internet expert, this is advice and strategies from guys who have successfully done what so many of us want to do. This product will allow you to stand on the shoulders of giants.

The Fitness Business Blueprint is a comprehensive product to help any trainer or strength coach finally break out of the big box gym and start running their own place, work their desired schedule, and make their desired income, and it is for sale right now!

Good luck!

Posted on August 9th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

No Comments »

Nutrition Label Getting a Design Overhaul?

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

A reader sent me a link to a NY Times blog post about a project being done by the University of California at Berkeley of designing a better food label. While this project is not officially a part of the redesign effort, it has brought in a ton of new ideas that the FDA will likely consider.

The panel of judges included Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma; the consumer health activist Michael Jacobson; Dr. Robert Lustig, a San Francisco pediatrician and fructose extremist; Laura Brunow Miner, a San Francisco graphic designer; and Andrew Vande Moere, a Belgian design professor.

Here is the winning label design from this competition:

I do think that Food Labels need an overhaul, but it is going to be difficult to make one that pleases everybody. Just because a snack is high in fat does not mean it is unhealthy or needs a red flag. Other label designs assigned letter grades or used the Glycemic Index, which I don’t necessarily think will work either. The GI is rather irrelevant, and letter grades are too arbitrary. Who is going to determine the criteria for grading?

On top of that, the label is currently in black and white, and very cheap to print. Creating these beautiful brightly colored labels might be more attractive, but they will most certainly be more expensive, and in reality, will they be any more helpful?

Check out that blog and the other entries and let me know what you think!

Posted on August 4th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

1 Comment »

Rigged Economics Add to Healthy-Food Prices

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

This is an article by syndicated columnist David Sirota that I thought was absolutely fantastic and worth sharing with you guys.

The easiest way to explain Gallup’s discovery that millions of Americans are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than they ate last year is to simply crack a snarky joke about Whole Foods really being “Whole Paycheck.” Rooted in the old limousine liberal iconography, the quip conjures the notion that only Birkenstock-wearing trust-funders can afford to eat right in tough times.

It seems a tidy explanation for a disturbing trend, implying that healthy food is inherently more expensive, and thus can only be for the wealthy Endive Elitists when the economy falters. But if the talking point’s carefully crafted mix of faux populism and oversimplification seems a bit facile – if the glib explanation seems almost too perfectly sculpted for your local right-wing radio blow-hard – that’s because it dishonestly omits the most important part of the story. The part about how healthy food could easily be more affordable for everyone right now, if not for those ultimate elitists: agribusiness CEOs, their lobbyists and the politicians they own.

As with most issues in this new Gilded Age, the tale of the American diet is a story of the worst form of corporatism – the kind whereby the government uses public monies to protect private profit.

In this chapter of that larger tragicomedy, lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses have used billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize those agribusinesses’ specific commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc) that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food. Not surprisingly, the subsidies have manufactured a price inequality that helps junk food undersell nutritious-but-unsubsidized foodstuffs such as fruits and vegetables. The end result is that recession-battered consumers are increasingly forced by economic circumstance to “choose” the lower-priced junk food that their taxes support.

Corn – which is processed into the junk-food staple corn syrup and which feeds the livestock that produce meat – exemplifies the scheme.

“Over the past decade, the federal government has poured more than $50 billion into the corn industry, keeping prices for the crop…artificially low,” reports Time magazine. “That’s why McDonald’s can sell you a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for around $5 – a bargain.”

Yes it is a bargain, but one created by deliberate government policy that serves the corn industry titans, not by any genetic advantage that makes corn derivatives automatically more affordable for the budget-strapped commoner.

The aggregate effect of such market manipulation across the agriculture industry, notes Time, is “that a dollar (can) buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit.”

So while it may be amusing to use American’s worsening recession-era diet as another excuse to promote cultural stereotypes, the nutrition crisis costing us billions in unnecessary health care costs is more about public policy and powerful special interests than it is about epicurean snobs and affluent tastes. Indeed, this is a problem not of agricultural biology that supposedly makes nutrition naturally unaffordable – it is a problem of rigged economics and corrupt polymaking.

Solving the crisis, then, requires everything from recalibrating our subsidies to halting the low-income school lunch program’s support for the pizza and french fry lobby (yes, they have a powerful lobby). It requires, in other words, a new level of maturity, a better appreciation for the nuanced politics of food and a commitment to changing those politics for the future.

Impossible? Hardly. A country that can engineer the seemingly unattainable economics of a $5 McDonald’s feast certainly has the capacity to produce a healthy meal for the same price. Its just a matter of will – or won’t.

Posted on August 1st, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

6 Comments »

Is Saturated Fat Really the Dietary Bogeyman?

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

A classmate of mine recently sent me an interesting article from a presentation given at the IFT conference back in June. The article was asking “Is saturated fat really the dietary bogeyman?

Some high profile cardiovascular health researchers weighed in on the topic, and here is what they had to say:

“Dr Rozenn Lemaitre from the cardiovascular health research unit at the University of Washington, said reducing saturated fat intakes had been the “cornerstone of dietary guidelines” for years.

However, the evidence linking saturated fat and risk of cardiovascular disease was “not conclusive”, she said, and must be evaluated in the context of its replacement by other macronutrients.

The ”real enemy” said Lemaitre, is trans fat.”

“Dr Pramod Khosla, associate professor at the department of nutrition and food science at Wayne State University in Detroit, added: “Saturated fat per se is not really doing anything when it comes to cardiovascular disease risk. What’s more crucial is to look at what people are replacing it with.”

The discussion also turned to the fact that we don’t eat saturated fat, we eat food, and food is highly complex and greater than the sum of its parts. Often times foods high in saturated fat are themselves associated with decreased cardiovascular disease risk!

“Similarly, it was also clear that major food sources of saturated fat such as milk also contained other constituents that could reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, they said. As for replacing sat fats with monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), there was “insufficient evidence to judge the effect on coronary heart disease risk of replacing saturated fatty acids with MUFAs”.”

The conversation also discussed polyunsaturated fats and the confusion surrounding them. You have some researchers in one corner declaring their greatness, and you have others (as well as people like me) telling you to be wary of too many omega-6 fatty acids. Here is what was discussed.

“It would have been “more helpful” if the guidelines had been specific about which PUFAs to use, given that high intakes of the omega-6 PUFA linoleic acid at the expense of the more beneficial omega-3 PUFAs EPA and DHA could do more harm than good, argued Captain Joseph Hibbeln, acting chief, section on nutritional neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health.

He added: “A clear distinction should be made between omega-6 and omega-3 PUFAs in future advice.”

Frustratingly, claims about the benefits of omega-6 fatty acids made by some scientists were based on clinical studies in which participants had been supplemented with omega-3 and omega-6, which meant their results were unreliable, he added.

“If you pool results of trials just looking at omega-6 PUFAs you see no heart benefit; they actually signal harm.”

I can’t agree with that conclusion any more! I would highly encourage you to read the entire article, though I did quote a large portion of, there were some other great pieces that I didn’t even mention that would be worth reading.

In the end the conclusion seems to be that saturated fat from high quality, minimally processed real food is not a bad thing at all. Many of the foods rich in saturated fats also contain things like CLA, vitamin K2, MCT’s and more that have tremendous health benefits.

In addition, replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils is a mistake, and could do more harm than good. Instead simply ensure that your food sources of saturates are from pasture-raised animals or unrefined oils. It would also be wise to include more fatty fish or fish oil in your diet, to get in the right type of polyunsaturates – omega-3′s.

Posted on July 22nd, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

10 Comments »

Decoding Meat + Dairy Product Labels

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

I subscribe to the Environmental Working Group’s Newsletter, as they provide interesting information and are always fighting to bring about change for a healthier planet.

Recently they sent out a report on how your food choices affect the environment. Now I didn’t agree with some of the information in the report, but there was a lot of top-notch info in there.

In particular they had a report titled Decoding Meat + Dairy Product Labels.

This report provided definitions for all of those label claims you see and don’t eactly understand. Here are a few of the usual suspects:

Cage-free: The term refers to hens that are not raised in cages, but it does not necessarily mean they have access to the outdoors. There is no standard definition of “cage-free,” but it generally implies that the birds are free to perform natural behaviors. Many cage-free claims are not certified, though some cage-free eggs are certified by American Humane Certified label.

Free-range: In the United States, this term applies only to poultry and is regulated by the US Department of Agriculture. It indicates simply that the animals have been “allowed access to the outside.” The USDA does not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside.

Natural: The USDA defines a natural product as one that contains “no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed.” Processing must not fundamentally alter the product. The label must include a specific explanation such as “no artificial ingredients; minimally processed.” All fresh meat qualifies as natural. This term does not include any requirements that animals be raised in sufficient open space or that it has no added hormones or antibiotic; it is not the same as organic. The term can mislead consumers to think that the product is healthier and more humane than it is.

There are many more definitions like this, and from this report you can look at a lot of other interesting data, so check it out!

Posted on July 19th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

2 Comments »

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