Brad's Predictions - An Update

It was back in January when I made my predictions for 2008. It's been five months now, so I think it's time we took a look and evaluate my Nostradamus-like abilities.


1. Eat Stop Eat will become very popular - Well, we're not there yet, but it does seem like every day more and more people are talking about the benefits of flexible intermittent fasting. Just yesterday I read a multi-page article in Men's Health on the health benefits of fasting, so it looks like people are starting to take notice of how short periods of fasting can help you lose weight and improve your health. Good news for all of us.


2. More people become pro-supplement. I don't have any direct proof, but I think I may have missed the boat with this prediction. It may just be me, but I get the impression that many of us are now completely immune to supplement advertising, and have become tired of the "Rage against the supplement industry" stance taken by many on-line health and fitness personalities. To be perfectly honest, I find the whole topic of supplements boring these days.

3. More and more people will become aware of Obsessive Compulsive Eating. I think this one is definitely happening. I have noticed many similarities between my own personal beliefs about the way we eat, and the beliefs put forth in Michael Pollen's book "In defense of food" so the message is hitting the mainstream, albeit slowly. Hopefully this means more and more people are eating food because of the love of food, and not for fear of eating 'wrong'.

4. More people will photo-blog their food. Definitely happening. And, does nothing for me except point out that I need to improve my culinary skills.

I'm 2.5 out of 4 so far ;)

BP

PS- You can see my original predictions here ==> Brad's predictions for 2008

Steroids in your Supplements?

According to a report on nutraingredients.com Greece's Olympic weightlifting team is blaming contaminated Chinese-made food supplements for some of its members being charged with doping violations.

Random testing resulted in 11 members showing positive results for steroids and other banned substances, according to media reports.

The Chinese manufacturer of the supplement has accepted fault for the contamination believed to consist of an anabolic steroid, an opiate designed to alleviate athletes' dependence on the steroid, and an estrogen suppressor.

I have spent a fair number of years not only designing sports supplements but also auditing manufacturing sites and I can tell you that from my experience, getting an anabolic steroid, an opiate and an estrogen suppressor into a batch of products without anyone knowing would have been down right impossible.

Maybe I just worked with really good companies, but that kind of think would have been spotted quicker than you can say "quality control".

Nevertheless, this type of report is scary. Whether you are looking for weight loss, fat burning or new ways to build muscle, be very suspicious of anything that promises you a quick fix.

BP

How much glutamine do I have to take to gain weight?

A couple of week ago I told you about how my basement flooded due to a freak thaw we had in Ontario. Well, I'm still dealing with the repercussions of that little flood.

Mostly, it has forced me to clean out my basement (which is no small task). I'm almost done now, but on Friday I was still going through some of my old boxes.

After throwing out a couple kilograms of Leucine and BCAA's, and about 3 years worth of Muscle and Fitness Magazines, I stumbled across some of my old training journals.

Now, normally, reviewing my old workouts isn't something I would consider 'blog worthy', but these particular journals were from back when I was working in the supplement industry, and outlined some of the crazier experiments I have performed on myself over the years.

Of course, If I could send a message back in time and tell my 8 year younger self that I would be advocating flexible and brief periods of intermittent fasting for weight loss, I'd probably think future me was crazy...However now that I am looking at some of the things I did 'back in the day', all I can say is "wow".

For instance, have you ever taken glutamine? I have. But I didn't just "take" glutamine, I mega-dosed with it.

Back in 2003, when most people were dosing their creatine with upwards of 75 grams of sugar I was thinking about a different approach. At the time I was experimenting with a low carb, super high protein diet, so I really did not want to be taking an extra 150 grams of pure sugar if I could some how avoid it. Somehow, I cam up with the idea of:

'What if I dosed 10 grams of creatine twice a day, but instead of using a mega dose of dextrose, I took a mega dose of glutamine?'

A simple enough question, and an even simpler experiment to conduct (especially when you have an unlimited supply of glutamine).

For 14 days I took 10 grams of creatine with 80 grams of glutamine once in the morning, then again after my workout in the evening.

From my notes I can see that I didn't have any weird GI problems, or any other unwanted effects. However my weight only increased marginally (3 pounds) which was typically of a creatine load for me, so the experiment ended with the notes

"160 grams of glutamine per day not any better than 20 grams of creatine."

Keep in mind that this was an experiment that only had one subject (me) and was definitely not blinded, so really it is just a review of my own personal experiences, but fun nonetheless.

This was probably one of the tamer experiments I tried. I've also uncovered the notes for a couple of different over-feeding experiments, as well as some crazy fat burning experiments that I will share later in the week.

BP

PS- Sara over at the Sanaworld Blog wrote a very interesting review of Eat Stop Eat that touches on the psychological effects of fasting and some of her own experiences with fasting and obsessive compulsive eating. You can check out part 1 of Sara's post HERE.


No more counting calories to lose weight

Brad's Predictions for 2008

Alright, I know I'm a little late on this one, but here it goes...these are my predictions for the health and fitness industry in 2008.

1)Eat Stop Eat will be the next Atkins Diet

This prediction may sound a little conceited, but the idea of using short periods of fasting for weight loss is definitely catching on. And it shares a number of similarities with the Atkins Diet - it is incredibly effective and it is controversial because it flies in the face of some of our current nutrition fads, just as the Atkins Diet did. The only difference is, Eat Stop Eat is flexible and easy, so for this reason it may become quite as popular as Atkins (for some reason, people love complexity).

(The next big thing?)

2)People you trust are going to start pushing supplements on you

eTrainers and other on-line fitness experts who used to "rage against the supplement industry" will soon start pushing you on supplements as they begin to realize what the supplement industry has known for a longtime - the reoccurring income these products can generate is a quick and easy way to make a lot of money.

(These guys are Different...this stuff is great)

3) We will start to realize that our obsessive compulsive relationship with food is slowly ruining our lives.

Eat six times a day. Only eat protein with fat. Eat low glycemic. Eat to "fuel the machine". I think this year people will finally start to realize that the obsession with trying to figure out what and how to eat to lose weight has left us as a group of neurotic eaters who are more confused and frightened of food than we ever were before.

(I don't care how much it weighs, I'm eating the whole apple!)

4) Everyone will be taking pictures of their food and blogging it.

I think it may have been either Art Devany or Dr. Eades who started this trend, and they both did it with good intentions. It started off as a way of showing people that eating lower carb foods can still involve very appealing looking foods. In 2008 this idea will be bastardized and turned into a competition of "look how healthy I eat" between health and fitness bloggers.

(I'd post a pic of what I ate today, but I was fasting)

BP

Why should I eat more herbs and spices?

You may have noticed that part of my "mantra" for healthy nutrition includes eating lots of nuts, herbs and spices.

There is a very good reason why you should include as much variety of thse foods into your diet as possible...

Back when I worked in the supplement industry I was always amused when ever I looked through the list of potential new ingredients that had strong supporting research behind their effects.

The list typically looked something like this: Green tea extract, cinnamon extract, raspberry extract, pine nut extract, curcumin, cayenne pepper extract, mint, basil, rosemary...

Notice anything about this list?

These are all ingredients that you could be adding to your diet, especially if you are following the principle of nutrition by addition. Many of these ingredients are currently being studied for their potential to have positive effects on some very important markers of health, such as helping to manage healthy insulin levels, cholesterol levels and some of the more complex areas of body weight regulation.

The funny thing is, I often wonder if these ingredients would still be considered potential "functional foods" if we ate them more often. I believe that nuts, herbs and spices are one of the missing links in North American Health. If we ate them more often, then we would be regularly reaping their health benefits, and wouldn't need some fancy label like "functional foods" to describe them!

Take pinolenic acid for example. This compound is currently being studied for its potential beneficial effects on several ofthe 'hunger hormones' that regulate our feelings of hunger.
This ingredient has some big potential and, most likely will be available in a pill sometime in the very near future.

Of course, instead of buying the pill, you could always get it in its natural form by adding a handful of pine nuts to your salad.

A perfect example of Nutrition by Addition and the importance of eating a variety of nuts, herbs and spices.

BP

PS - Here is what Craig Ballantyne had to say after he read Eat Stop Eat:

"This book will question everything you've ever been told about eating for fat loss. Bodybuilder mags have hyped up their eating & created inhuman workout programs for one reason - to sell supplements. That's right. Most nutrition programs are "designed" just to sell you stuff like protein powder and expensive post-workout sugar drinks. Brad's book turns the industry upside down and shows you how to eat normally, while making one slight, easy change that could bethe missing link in your fat loss nutrition program."


You can learn more about fasting for weight loss by going here

Weight Loss Supplement SPAM!

Alright, enough is enough!

While trying to answer the reader emails we get over at www.grrlAthlete.com, I realized my inbox was flooded with no less than 11 emails in the past two days for a certain weight loss supplement.

11 different advertisements (from 11 different email addresses) for another supplement containing Hoodia!

Hoodia is a herb that has gained amazing popularity despite not having any research behind it. What's even more disappointing is that real Hoodia comes from Africa and I know from my previous dealings with this ingredient that there is a very limited supply coming out of Africa.

Most of the stuff on the market right now is coming from India or China. The actual use of Hoodia is patented, and the patent is exclusively licensed to Unilever (a gigantic corporation). So the chances of you getting real Hoodia in your product are slim, and lets not forget that the effectiveness of even the real Hoodia has never ever been proven in published research.

Supplement companies would be wise to remember the lawsuits that resulted from the scam ingredient coral calcium, and avoid adding Hoodia to their products until more research becomes available proving its effectiveness and please, please....stop with the email spam.


BP