Diabetes Drugs and Heart Attacks

Normally, I don't post about supplements or drugs. However, an email just appeared in my in-box that made me think an exception may be in order.

According to an email from the American Diabetes Association;

"The government's preliminary evaluation of the diabetes pill Avandia confirms the heart risks reported in an earlier study and suggests that as many as 60- 100,000 heart attacks might be linked to its use over the last eight years, a leading member of Congress said Thursday."

Now I know that word-bites such as this tend to blow the results of any study way out of proportion, so I will reserve an hard comments until I get all the facts, but the reason I chose to post about this topic is as follows:

I find it very frustrating that governments and health professionals are so quick to turn to drug treatment for diabetes, and are so opposed to any dramatic nutritional interventions.

Adam Campbell of Men's Health Magazine has been fighting this battle for a while now (See his blog HERE), and has stated time and time again that the "primary treatment for diabetes should be diet (and, of course, exercise)" and I agree.

This is more of a rant than anything else, but I will end with saying that diet and exercise are and always will be your best tools in the battle to stay healthy.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

More Trouble for Diet Pop and Sodium Benzoate

Looks like Benzene and Sodium Benzoate are back in the news again.

If you remember, I wrote about diet pops, sodium benzoate and health risks HERE.

According to a recent release on foodqualitynews.com, it appears that recent research has suggested that "benzoate contributes to faster ageing and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's".

Members of the soft drink industry have shot back saying that sodium benzoate is "approved for use by the Food Standards Agency and we follow the guidance of the regulatory authorities."

I don't know about you, but for me this recent development adds to the volume of questions that surround this ingredient.

My advice, treat pop the way it should be treated...like a dessert.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

The Difference Between a Diet Book and a Nutrition Book

In my quest to read as many diet and nutrition books as possible, I have stumbled across the difference between a "Diet Book" and a "Nutrition Book".

A Nutrition Book is roughly 300 pages of information on food, food politics and some biochemistry.

A Diet Book is roughly 300 pages of information of food, food politics, some biochemistry and recipes.

The difference is that in a nutrition book, all 300 pages are full of information. In a diet book, only the first 50 or so pages are information, the rest is filler in the form of recipes, food combining charts and calorie counters.

Most of today's diet books are one days-worth of reading, tops.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Can Fish Oils Make You Thin?

If you've read the news in the last couple of days then you've probably read all the headlines about a new study that shows that the combination fish oils and exercise can help you lose fat.

To quickly summarize the study, researchers randomly assigned 75 overweight men and women to one of four groups:

• Group One took 6 grams of fish oil per day,
• Group Two took 6 grams of fish oil per day and exercised 3 days per week;
• Group Three took 6 grams of sunflower oil (the placebo), and
• Group Four took 6 grams of sunflower oil and exercised 3 days per week.
  

After 12 weeks, the results showed the subjects in Group Two (The people taking fish oil and exercising) lost body fat.

The subjects in this group lost a little over 3 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. Definitely not extraordinary, but significant nonetheless.

So people who exercised lost some fat. In my opinion this was expected. What was not expected was that the sunflower plus exercise group did not lose any fat.

Now, these people also added exercise to their lifestyle, so you would expect them to also lose fat. So either the combination of fish oil and exercise somehow 'created' this extra fat loss, or, pardon the pun, something is fishy with this study.

On closer inspection of the data I noticed something that may account for these results.

While the fish oil plus exercise group reported that their daily calorie intake pretty much remained the same for the 12 weeks of the study, the sunflower plus exercise group saw their daily caloric intake increase by 327 Kcals per day by week 6 of the trial, and stay elevated by 230 Kcals at week 12.

While the researchers make no mention of this as being significant, it may help explain the lack of fat loss in the sunflower plus exercise group.

At the end of the day, caloric restriction and exercise are the only way to lose fat. The better your exercise program and the better your diet, the more fat you will lose. Plain and simple.

However, don't rule out fish oils. Most fish oil research finds that they can benefit blood lipids and your cholesterol profile.

Bottom line, Fish oils are good for you, just don't get your hopes up about them making you lose weight.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Nutritional Customs That Work

If you've had the chance to read the free report I wrote for grrlathlete.com titled "The Ten Day Diet Solution" then you know I am a fan of nutritional customs.

I think that setting rules that help us control what we eat by controlling how and when we eat is a great strategy for overall health and well being, and is a great (and easy) way to lose weight.

This is why I get angry when so called 'nutrition gurus' rip on nutritional customs.

Take the example of 'not eating after 7 pm' or 'not eating carbs after 7 pm.'

This is a ritual practiced by many of the fitness models I have had the pleasure of meeting over the years. Many of them follow this custom during the periods when they are preparing for a fitness competition.

No matter their reasoning, the simple fact is that this custom allows them to lower their caloric intake. There's no magic. It has nothing to do with increased fat burning, or decreased fat storage during nighttime, it is just a method of "intake" control. And it works because they like it, and its easy.

What bothered me was that a couple of years ago, while in a seminar session at the annual Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology conference, I heard a supposed nutrition guru explain why this custom was 'ineffective'.

With as much Show-man 'Bravado' as he could muster, he pointed out all the reasons why the "science did not support this fallacy" (While at the same time, pushing his own ridiculous weight loss diet plan).

The fact of the matter is, if people like to follow this nutritional custom, and it helps them eat less during the day, and stay in control of their nutrition plan, then it works. Plain and Simple.

Sometimes, so called gurus can blind themselves with science and lose site of the big picture. If it works for you and you are happy with it, then keep the custom.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Health Claims and Advertising

This morning I realized that yesterday's blog may have been a little confusing, so I made a trip to the grocery store so I could find some examples.

Luckily, I found two really good ones.

Firstly, on the side of a certain cereal box is the following statement, (it appears besides the Heart and Stroke Foundations "Health Check" symbol.)

"This cereal is low in fat and is a source of fibre. Emphasizing grain products such as cereals and increasing fibre intake are components of healthy eating. This cereal financially supports the Health Check education program of the Heart and Stroke Foundation. This is not an Endorsement"

Sounds pretty healthy to me. In fact, after reading this statement and noticing the 'Health Check' symbol I might buy this cereal for my kids.

However, at closer inspection we realize that "financially supports" means "gave money to" and "this is not an endorsement" means "This symbol does not mean our cereal was 'approved' by the Heart and Stroke Foundation".

My next example is on my bag of Oatmeal.

There is a little green check mark on the front of the bag, with a statement that the product is a "Smart Selection Made Easy". What they don't tell you is that the "Smart Selections" symbol is actually a trademark of the Oatmeal company.

The problem I have is that both of these products are descent food products. And, these advertisements are not misleading per se. However they do take advantage of the fact that not all of us may have the knowledge or the time to dig around and find the true meaning behind these claims.

This is why I think its best that when shopping for food, stick with the strong silent types that don't have to 'scream' about their health benefits.

No one ever questions whether or not eating an apple or a pear is good for you.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Snake-Oil Traders

I Just finished reading an article in the Skeptical Inquirer by Edzard Ernst called "Snake-Oil Traders," that describes the current practice and marketing of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the UK.

It was a well written article, with some very interesting points regarding how the British Medical Association and the General medical Council governs the ethics of advertising in medicine.

Specifically, The British Medical Association takes the stance that people who seek medical advice are vulnerable to exploitation. Then they go on to say that the information doctors publish "Must not make unjustifiable claims, offer guarantees of cures, or exploit patent's vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge."

It was the last line that really caught my attention and made me think of the functional food and supplement industry.

Have you noticed how technical and scientific many of the current health claims are becoming in functional food and supplement advertising?

As more and more people are spending time worrying about their health, perhaps its time we adopted a stance that punishes companies from using marketing that is not misleading, but may be exploiting the fact that we might not all have the medical knowledge needed to make educated decisions about the claims in food and supplement advertising.

When it comes to health claims and advertising, I believe many companies are trying to 'blind us with science', thinking that if they use big enough words, then we will have no choice but to believe their claims.

When it comes to advertising, I prefer my 'functional foods' to be the strong silent types. The ones who don't have to yell and scream about their "awesome health benefits". You know, foods like oranges and bananas.

As Michael Pollan says, the more health claims on a product, the less healthy it probably is.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

I got my A$$ Kicked By a 260 Pound Monster!

It's true!



It's finally getting nice outside up in Canada, so I decided to move my workouts outdoors.



I absolutely love this time of year, because in my opinion, training outside is about a thousand times more fun that training in a gym.



However, I forgot just how gruelling pulling sleds can be, and after only 3 trips of about 50 yards, my legs were burning and I was exhausted.



Lesson learned, nothing gets your conditioning up quite like pulling sleds.

BP

PS- I just finished writing a new nutrition report for grrlAthlete.com, this report will be FREE for anyone who signs up for the newsletter, so pop on over to www.grrlathlete.com and check it out.

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Nutrition from 1972

Just a quick post today to share an excerpt from a book I just read while waiting at my Doctor's office. (He was running a little behind, so I started leafing through some of his older text books).

Here's a piece from a Nutrition text book published in 1972 called "Human Nutrition and Dietetics" by Davidson, Passmore and Brock (fifth Edition)

"The diet of an athlete should not differ from an ordinary balanced diet, except for the need for an increase in calories."

I couldn't agree more.

I have often said that with the exception of the calorie content, the diet of an athlete should be no different from the diet of an average person.

Usually when I say this, the "sport nutritionists" out there tend to get their noses all out of joint, but when I re-word it as, "The diet of an average person should be the same diet as an elite athlete, just with different total calorie intake." they seem to be OK with it.

Go Figure.

The next excerpt was equally as interesting...

(Still talking about the diet of athletes)

"High energy diets should contain large amounts of fat unless they are to become very bulky. Physical activity prevents the disturbances in blood lipids which commonly arise in sedentary people on high fat diets, and large quantities of fat in the diet will do no harm to physically active people."

A couple interesting points from this statement.

Firstly - "Unless they are to become very bulky"

Since fat does not make the diet nearly as bulky as carbohydrates or proteins, I'm going to assume that the authors are referring to the athletes in question. This suggests that 35 years ago, we seemed to have not yet developed the "Fat makes you Fat" mentality we have today.

Secondly - "large quantities of fat in the diet will do no harm to physically active people."

This interesting quote is sure to raise many eyebrows, as it still has me thinking.

While I believe this statement is true, I will admit that my strengths are nutrition, metabolism and body composition, and not blood lipids and cardiovascular disease, so I will run this by some people who have a little more knowledge than I do in this area.

So the recommended diet for an athlete 35 years ago was to eat a healthy balanced diet, but add some more fat to keep your calories up.

Sounds perfect to me.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Why Starbucks is Like Godzilla

On Monday I had a chance to catch up with one of my good friends who has spent the last five years living in Japan. He was back in Canada for a wedding, and since I haven't seen him in years it was definitely time to catch up.

Of course, the conversation eventually turned to Nutrition, and I learnt an eye-opening fact about some disturbing trends in Japan.

According to my friend, Starbucks is making a push to get a foot-hold in the Japanese market. Kind of like Godzilla, only without the death and destruction.

While this shouldn't be shocking to any of us (after all, while visiting China I saw a Starbucks INSIDE the forbidden city!), what is shocking is the effect that Starbucks is having on some of the Japanese nutrition customs.

In Japan it is a centuries-old tradition that you don't drink while walking.

And this poses a huge dilemma for the Starbucks crowd.

Since space is very hard to come by in Japan, many of the Starbucks shops are walk-up "express" versions with little to no seating. Basically, if you want your Starbucks, you are going to have to walk with it.

And guess what - People are walking with their Starbucks. Starbucks is single-handedly destroying centuries of Japanese tradition.

This is a perfect example of a soon-to-be extinct custom that once prevented people from eating while they are distracted. And it fits perfectly with the stories I have been telling you from the book,"Mindless Eating".

In this incredible book there are examples of many other mindless eating methods that have replaced our own nutrition customs. (i.e. If you read it you'll find out what eating in front of the TeeVee has done to us, rather than eating around the dinner table).

So not only are these eating customs "sacred", but they also serve a purpose. In fact, I believe that the disappearance of traditional eating customs is one of the largest factors in our current obesity problem.

If you don't already have your own set of "nutrition customs" perhaps it's time you thought about adopting some.

Here is an easy one for all of you commuters out there. For the rest of this week, do not eat in your car. You can drink, just no food. This rule will help you keep your car clean AND save you from some mindless distracted eating.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

BP

PS- Summer is here so...

...strength coach John Barban is back running his summer conditioning camp. You can read about the first day of camp HERE.

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Is There a Conspiracy to Make Us Fat?

Thanks to some very frustrating airport delays yesterday, I managed to finish off "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansink.


This book did not disappoint me. Almost every page had great facts about the way food is marketed and the factors that make us decide to eat. This book is definitely in my list of top-ten must-read nutrition books.


I've been racking my brains trying to figure out the top lesson I learnt from this book so that I could share it with you, and I think I have it.


You know how everybody these days seems to be blaming the food companies for our obesity problem? - As if it's some giant conspiracy?


Well the number one thing I learnt from "Mindless Eating" is that there is no "fat conspiracy".
Food companies do not care if you EAT their foods. They only care if you BUY their foods and continue to BUY their foods.


The people at McDonalds don't care if you buy a happy meal, turn around and throw it in the garbage, just as long as you buy the happy meal.


Also, food isn't designed to be "fattening" (Whatever that means). Food is designed to be inexpensive for the companies to make and desirable enough for you to repeatedly purchase.


This is the great conspiracy. Yes food companies, restaurants and shopping centers go to great lengths to figure out how to make us BUY there food, but we are the ones making the decision to EAT the food.


And this is where some of the great ideas from "Mindless Eating" come into play.
Do you remember the picture of the four glasss I posted on my blog on Monday (look below)? Every glass in the picture contains 1 and a half cups of fluid, except for the small squat one, it has 2 cups.


This is reffered to as the "horizontal-vertical illusion". If you picture an upside-down capital "T" where both the horizontal line and the vertical line are the same length, we will always see the vertical line as being longer.






So if you were to fill the small cup to almost the top, like most of us do, it would contain a little over 2 and a half cups of fluid.


So a morning cup of orange juice could actually be a morning 2-and-a-half cups of orange juice. This could account for an extra 33 grams of sugar and 165 Calories!


This is just one great example of how our assumptions combined with some excellent marketing get us to buy more and consume more. If we can become more aware of these "overeating ques" that are around us every day, then we can be more aware of ways to avoid them.


BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Mindless Eating

I'm about half way through a great book called "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansink.



Normally, I don't post about books until I have finished them, but since I have already learnt so many things from this book that I want to share, I figured I'd make an exception.



Mindless eating explores all the reasons why we eat, and more importantly to me, all the reasons why we can't stop eating.



From our inability to estimate the calorie content of foods, to the lies our eyes tell us, I've found this book (so far) to be fascinating.



As an example, please check out the picture below, and try to figure out which glass has the most liquid and which has the least...

Check back later in the week and I will tell you which glass has the most and why our eyes and our stomachs play tricks on us.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

The 3 hidden gems I found at the Farmer's Market

Last week I attended my first Farmer's Market of the summer. Granted, it's not quite summer up here in Canada, but it's getting close.

If you have never been to a Farmer's Market, I can't stress enough how great these places are for people who are trying to eat healthy. When it comes to the benefits of a Farmer's Market, It can all be summed up in two words - Fresh Food.

Fresh produce, fresh dairy and fresh meat. And these days fresh anything is worth it's weight in gold.

You see, in the big money world of grocery super stores, one thing rules supreme and that's shelf life.

Companies go to great lengths to be innovative in their packaging and formulations in order to squeak another couple days of shelf life out of their products before they expire. Whether it's ultra-high heat pasteurization of dairy products, or the sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate found in almost all bottled drinks these days, the "shelf life wars" are changing the look and feel of our foods.

The longer they are on the shelf, the more likely you will buy them.

From milk to fruits and vegetables, the product with the longest shelf life wins.

However, my adopted Nutrition mantra of "The quicker it goes bad, the better it is for you" suggests that we should be buying and eating foods that have the shortest shelf life.

My reasoning for this is that we are still discovering the compounds in food that benefit our health, and I'm sure it will be sometime before we actually have an exhaustive list. The more we discover, the more we realize that many of these compounds degrade quickly, and what might be present in fresh foods may not be present in some of the ultra extended shelf life versions you find in grocery super stores.

And this is where summer Farmers Markets are a great tool.

Make it a priority this summer to do most, if not all of your shopping at farmers markets, paying special attention to pick the freshest in-season fruits and vegetables that you can find.

Finally, here are the three hidden treasures I found last weekend.

One- Goats Milk Yogurt

Why is this a hidden treasure? Well for one, it tastes AMAZING, but more importantly compare the ingredients to the leading off-the-shelf yogurt.

Goats Milk Yogurt: Pasteurized whole goats milk, bacterial cultures.

Leading Yogurt: Skim milk, cream, sugar, concentrated skim milk, fructose, milk and whey protein concentrate, corn starch, gelatin, modified corn starch, active bacterial cultures, natural and artificial flavors, locust bean gum, natural & artificial colors, malic acid.

Quite the difference!

Two- Grass Fed Meat

The rumors are true, this stuff tastes Great!

More importantly, these steaks come from cows which were allowed to graze on a pasture, as opposed to the beef from corn fed cows. The difference, (Other than no hormones and no antibiotics in their feed), is that the meat from grass fed cows is actually higher in polyunsaturated fatty acids than the meat from cornfed cows. Nutritious and Delicious

Three-Locally grown Produce

Almost all of the produce at Farmer's Markets are locally grown. Why does this matter? It matters because this means you strawberries didnt take a 1,000 mile drive to get to you.

And there you have it, the 3 hidden gems that will make me go back to my farmers market this Saturday.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

How to Win the Fat War

3,900 - This is the amount of food calories produced every day for each American citizen.

Think about this number for a minute. 3,900 calories is well over a thousand more calories than almost any of us will ever need in a day- but they are being produced so someone has to eat them.

This is what I like to call the North American paradox. Food companies and food producers need us to consume more and more calories to keep their profits coming, yet we want to consume less and less calories to maintain our health.

This is why it is not an exaggeration when I say it is a battle to try and eat less food and to make sure that the foods we do eat are healthy foods.

The best way to win this battle? Always remember that the foods you see in convenience stores and gas stations are there because someone wants you to buy them and has figured out what colors, names, and sizes will make you notice their products.

So the way to win this battle is by not being a "good little consumer".

Try your best to buy only planned foods - The foods you plan to buy during your grocery run.
Resist all unplanned purchases...gas stations, convenience stores, vending machines and checkout lines...these are all examples of places where we typically make unplanned impulse food buys.

Make this one adjustment to your typical daily routine and you are on your way to winning the fat war.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

3 "Magic" Fat Loss Ingredients

Every morning I go through the exact same routine.

I get up. I make some oatmeal. Clean the kitchen. Go up stairs. Brush my teeth. Turn on my computer. Check my email. Then I laugh (or sometimes cry) while reading all of the new stories about the latest and greatest "fat loss" ingredients.

It is an absolute mystery to me why, after over 20 years of failed promises, we still turn to magic ingredients and magic foods for fat loss.

What shocks me even more is that we are still hoping to find something we can eat that will cause us to lose fat. It is almost becoming an oxymoron.

We are looking for something to consume that will make us consume less!

Here are just some examples of magic foods and ingredients in the new today:

Recent research (performed in a test tube) suggests that extract from Chilli peppers may stop fat growth. According to this research Chilli extract may hold the key to preventing immature fat cells from developing into mature fat cells.

In a different study, it was suggested that spearmint tea can not only lower a man's sex drive but can also decrease the amount of hair on a women's body. (Admittedly, this isn't fat loss research but if you think the body builders in your gym smell bad now, wait till they read this research and stop brushing their teeth for fear that they may be lowering their T levels!)

Finally, more research shows that dairy calcium (but not calcium supplements) can cause a decrease in the amount of fat in your blood after a meal.

I can't really tell you too much about this study because I stopped reading after the first page that mentioned that the study was funded by the Danish Dairy Research Foundation and the Dutch Dairy Association!

A Dairy Foundation and a Dairy Association funded the study, and the study found that dairy calcium, but not calcium supplements had weight loss benefits? Please.

Now honestly, there is some merit to this research. Eating more spices on your food is definitely a good idea. Eating foods that contain calcium is also a good idea.

However, thinking that taking chilli extract pills or consuming 3 bowls of ice-cream per day will make you lose weight IS NOT what you should be taking away from this research. (Nor is skipping your morning tooth brushing!)

If you want to lose weight there are only three things you need to do, and you don't need to read any research to do them.

Firstly, find a nutrition plan that works for you.

Secondly, get active. And I don't mean walk on the elliptical for half an hour every other day, I mean get a real work-out program and challenge yourself.

The third and last thing you need to do is to stop (or don't start) falling for the media's version of the latest and greatest fat loss research. It will only lead to disappointment and is usually a very poor and hyped up version of what the research was really telling us.

These are the real 3 "magic" fat loss ingredients!

BP

Eat Stop Eat

The Newest Diet Study - What does it really tell us?

By now, you have probably heard about the latest study – You know the one that “proves” that the Atkins diet is superior for weight loss?

So let me just clear this up right now. The results of this study prove one thing and one thing only – diets work.

In fact, after reviewing this study, and all of the commentary, posturing, crying and bickering that it has caused, I have come to the conclusion that this study proves that the very best thing you can do for weight loss is:

Eat less, but enjoy the foods you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices. And maybe most importantly, spend less time stressing over the types of food you are eating

In other words - Cut your calories in a way that works for you. ( It might take a bit of trial and error, but it will be worth it.)

Now here are the facts from the study…

311 overweight, pre-menopausal women were divided into four groups and were asked to follow one of the following dietary programs: The Atkins diet, the Zone diet, the LEARN diet or the Ornish diet.

Each woman was put in one of these groups and received a copy of one of the popular weight loss books. Each woman then met with a registered dietitian once per week for 8 weeks learning “the ins and outs” of their assigned diet.

After these classes the subjects were “set free” to follow the diet for 12 months, with the exception of a couple of visits to the lab and some unannounced phone calls where the researchers asked the subjects to recall what they had eaten in the last 24 hours.

What happened?

As expected, all 4 groups ate fewer calories during the study than they were eating before the study – so all diets “worked” to help cut calories.

And each group lost weight with most weight loss happening in the first 2 months. (After this point for all diets, the weight loss tended to slow or even creep back up).

The Atkins style diet had the best weight loss during the first 2 months and over the 6-month study. That’s why you see Atkins being crowned the king of weight loss diets.

However, by end of the 12-month study, the results tended to “even out”. And by the end of the study, the Atkins diet was really only better than the Zone Diet (which isn’t a bad diet on it’s own).

And you know what? The total weight loss wasn’t that impressive – with the Atkins dieters losing 12.5 lbs in 6 months. That’s 0.5 lbs per week. Good, but not eye-popping results.

But here’s the kicker. It’s hard for me to understand how overweight woman (averaging 180 pounds and over 40% bodyfat) can eat less than 1400 calories per day for 6-months and lose only lose 12 and a half pounds. There is something very wrong here.

Looking at the data, I noticed that all of the diets saw a small slow increase in their calorie intake over the year. And honestly, this was probably due to huge errors in dietary recall. Most people can’t accurately describe what they had for lunch, so this measure isn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Dietary recall is a scientific method for measuring caloric intake that has been under a large amount of scrutiny in the past years.

Imagine having someone call you on the phone and ask you to describe all of the foods you had eaten over the day. Imagine the types of mistakes in sizes and types of food that could be made in this type of interpretation and then imagine the kind of effects that this could have in a scientific study.

Now also imagine that you SIGNED UP for a weight loss study, so you are already motivated to eat less and you are also insecure about the amounts and types of food you eat.

For true research, diet recalls are a horrible tool. Plain and simple.

I also noticed that none of the diets were true to their form.

Take a look at the “high protein Atkins style diet”. After 2 months the subjects reported a protein intake of 95 grams. But at 12 months it was down to 82 grams. How is this high protein? It’s not even 0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight!

And check out the “Ornish Low fat diet”. At 2 months fat made up 21% of their caloric intake, at 12 months it made up 29.8% of their calories. This is a far cry from the 10% that Dr. Ornish advocates.

Because the subjects had such a hard time sticking to the diet plans, I don’t think that this trial proved that any one diet was better than the other. It did prove that the diet with the lowest carbohydrates had the quickest weight loss. And it did show that diets high in fat can still have health benefits. Most likely, the health benefits are the result of the reduced calories and the associated weight loss as all the diets were associated with health improvements.

Of course, proponents of each diet are all crying foul. They’re complaining about the study design, the subjects, the poor compliance to the diet plans…but most importantly they’re complaining because they make money by selling you their programs!

Its funny…Dr. Ornish said that the study was flawed because most participants couldn’t follow the Ornish diet. That doesn’t make the study flawed - its makes the diet flawed.

And that’s exactly what this study proves…it is very difficult to follow these prescribed diets. These people don’t know you. They don’t know what you like to eat or what you do for a living. They simply design a diet that makes a lot of sense on paper, and prescribe it as a cure all.

The bottom line is…this study still not help end the debate over which diet works best because there IS NO DEBATE. Eating less works! End of story. The rest of it is just people making simple diet advice into confusing pseudo-science so they can sell you their programs.

Eat less, but enjoy the foods you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices. And maybe most importantly, spend less time stressing over the types of food you are eating.

BP

Why French women don't get fat

As part of my responsibilities as a nutrition critic, I read a lot of diet and nutrition books.

Admittedly, there are so many diet books out there it is almost impossible for me to read ALL of them, but every so often, when one hits the the best sellers list, it's time for me to visit my local book store and get my read on.

Last week was one of those times. After over hearing some very positive conversation at my local coffee shop I realized I needed to get my hands on a copy of "French women don't get fat" by Mireille Guiliano.

After a weekend of reading, I've finished the book, and have this review to offer.
I found this book to be unlike most of the other diet books I have reviewed lately. There is no hokey psuedo-science, no clearly-defined plan, and no lists of "magical foods" that you have to avoid or have to eat.

The premise behind the book is fairly simple. According to the author, French women are not fat - Therefore we should eat like the French.

Now, if you remove all of the stories about life in France, some useful recipes and some sporadic uses of the French language, then you are left with one easy message:

"Eat less, but enjoy the foods you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices. And maybe most importantly, spend less time stressing over the types of food you are eating."

Sound familiar? This is close to exactly the message that I have been promoting on this blog and in my articles for grrlAthlete.com

Now you may be thinking that this is this some coincidence, or that maybe I have met Mireille Guiliano, and I can tell you that neither of these are true.

I have never met Mireille (However, I would like too), but the similarity in these messages is not a coincidence.

The reason that our messages are almost identical is because they work.

Your absolute best tool for creating a great nutritional diet is eating less but enjoying the foods you eat. Follow this by eating lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices and you are well on your way to a diet that is near perfection. And once you stop stressing over the types of food you are eating, well at this point you are golden.

BP

Fasting for Weight Loss

Is it time to give up on Low-fat foods?

We are surrounded by low-fat foods.

Nearly 10 billion dollars a year are spent advertising low-fat foods - Trying to convince us that we should buy them because they are "good for our health".

It was in the early 1980's when our government suggested that we cut back on our fat intake. Since then food companies have been in "product-development overdrive" churning out low-fat foods.

From low-fat cookies and brownies, to low-fat cheese and yoghurt, you can find a low-fat version of every one of your favorite foods in your local grocery store.

However, before we accept the "low-fat equals good healt message", there are a couple of important things we should think about when it comes to the effectiveness of low-fat foods:

1) If you take the fat out of food, you have to replace it with something. Binders, emulsifiers, bulking agents, and yes sugars like high fructose corn syrup are all used to replace fat. What's more, the foods that traditionally have higher fat, like cheese and yogurt, are the ones that need the most additives once the fat is removed.

2) The low-fat food trend is only 25 years old. And in the last 25 years, as low-fat foods dominated our grocery stores, obesity, diabetes and cancer have all been on the rise. The idea that simply switching to low-fat foods will help us maintain a healthy weight has failed miserably.

3) A recent study examining the lifestyle habits of 18,555 women found that women who ate at least one serving of high fat dairy every day appeared to reduce their risk of ovulatory infertility. While this is only one study, it does have a very large subject group and does lead to the idea that fats may not be as bad for you as once thought. Indeed, even saturated fats may actually have some health benefits.

4) The scientific evidence behind the idea that low-fat eating is healthy is actually pretty weak. It was in the 1950's that a small group of people began to popularize the idea that low-fat eating was healthy eating. Since then hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on research trying to prove the idea was correct. The results of this research have been so surprisingly weak that it is starting to make many scientists skeptical of the supposed damaging health effects of fat.

5) The "fat is bad" message is very oversimplified. Take butter for instance. Yes it is a source of saturated fat, but it is also almost 25% monounsaturated fats, of which almost 80% is oleic acid, the same type of fat found in olive oil. There are many foods out there that have been wrongly accused of being simply saturated fat.

Bottom line - We need to stop trying blame obesity on the fat in our foods.

As a simple guideline- Eat less, but enjoy the foods you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices. And maybe most importantly, spend less time stressing over the types of food you are eating. These are probably the best thing you could do for your health.

BP

What's Interesting about this study?

27 obese patients were subjected to a ten day fast consisting of 250 Calories per day. The Subjects were divided into two groups, a group that exercised and a group that did not.

After ten days:

• Both groups had similar weight loss.

• The exercise was well tolerated without problems.

• The loss of muscle was significantly less in the exercise group.

The authors concluded "This may indicate that muscular activity is useful in aiding adaptation to fasting and may orient weight loss preferentially towards fat mass."

While certainly not earth shattering...the part that is very interesting to me is that this study was published in 1975!

So, we had a vague idea over 3o years ago that exercise was needed to maintain muscle mass while dieting. Yet, nowadays we still argue about protein ratios, carb cycling and meal frequency and supplementation. Seems like something was lost in the last 30 years!

Simple truth - Just like Schrub et al. hypothesised over 30 years ago, if you are dieting and you want to preserve muscle mass, lift weights.

BP

How to Shed Body Fat

This time last year I was almost half way through dieting for a bodybuilding contest.

That's right. As embarrassing as it is, I have been on stage, in a pair of glorified speedos, posing for a table full of judges.

You can call it a freak show, you can call it a bikini contest or you can call it pure vanity. I admit, I make fun of these competitions too.

I decided to compete last year to make sure that I could transform my body. After all, I'd be a hypocrite if I wrote in this blog about nutrition and weight loss if I've never actually taken my own body to the extremes of dieting.

And to be honest, it was one of the single best things I have ever done, because I recorded a journal of every single day of my diet.

And now whenever I feel like I need a little motivation and direction, I can simply look back at what worked for me.

I know I say this all the time, but it is worth repeating - A journal is your single best tool for getting in shape. It doesn't have to be super detailed, just a quick outline of how each day is going.

Here is an example of one of my pages...it's mostly chicken scratch that only I can understand..but it tells me exactly what I need to know.





Basically, the yellow highlighted stuff is my workout...and the rest is notes. From this one page I know that I didn't want to go any heavier on dead lifts, that my diet was going well, and that I tried step-ups, but preferred split squats for this particular workout.


It took me about two minutes every day to fill this out. I never did it in the gym..often I filled it in during a break at work, or when I got home that night. But it's proved to be extremely valuable for me.



A couple of months after the contest, I summarized some key notes about the whole experience.

• I had great results using intervals.
• I had great results using a whole body split.
• I had poor results using a bodybuilder type routine.
• I was able to maintain my strength during the whole diet.
• I was able to maintain my activity level during the whole diet.
• Cheat days are a waste. I found no benefit from them at all.
• 1,200 Calories was a little too low for me, but 1,500 to 1,800 worked perfectly.
• I lost almost no muscle during the entire diet.
• Avoiding simple sugars seemed to make a very big difference towards the end of my diet.

Great reminders for whenever I felt I needed to look back at what worked for me. This is why I view keeping a journal as your number one tool for weight loss.

Another great bonus was that during this time I had regular access to a BodPod..a great device for tracking body fat and lean mass changes that is very easy to use and very accurate.

Every Thursday I would take my measurements with the BodPod, and then chart my changes in a spread sheet.

This is the second most important tool for weight loss - measurements.

Now, you don't need a BodPod to track changes - a scale, measuring tape and a digital camera will do just fine. In fact, I used the pictures I took with my digital camera more than I used my Bodpod readings to track my changes.

If you photograph, weigh and measure yourself at the same time every week, this will give you a great way to look back and track any changes that were made.

Once you get in the habit of monitoring your progress by recording a journal and measuring your body, losing weight becomes much easier, because you are no longer guessing at what works and what doesn't work. You can simply look at your records.

BP

PS- for those of you who have been asking about the next installement of the Deconstructing Nutrition Series (Dr. F), it's still coming - I just have a few more articles to read through before it's completed.

Eat Stop Eat