The news can be very overwhelming and nowadays it’s hard to even know how much of the news is real facts and how much of it is opinion.  Depending on which source you read the news from each will put their own spin on it whether it be liberal or conservative.  For these reasons I personally choose to read news from independent sources that aren’t affiliated with any large political groups or organizations.  One such source is the Natural News.  It’s a great source of independent health news.  The creator and editor Mike Adams is an award winning journalist, who seems to really be concerned with the health and well being consumers rather than following the mighty green.  It’s a great source of news that keeps you informed of political events that can impact your health as well as providing interesting nutritional information that goes beyond your typical health article you’ll read in popular national publications. 

Here’s a recent video that was posted on their site.  It seems too absurd to believe, but I’ll let you be the judge.  Take a look at it and see what you think.  You’ll need to click on the picture and it’ll send you to the site with the video.

Keep in mind that I haven’t read the actual publication on the American Journal of Cardiology, and I don’t know anything about Dr. Darrel Francis other than that he’s a researcher that specializes in using some type of quantitative analysis to try and solve medical problems specifically related to heart disease.

The premise of the video is definitely scary to say the least.  And it’s disturbing to see that these researchers are just pawns in a big pharmaceutical game.  It’s not too difficult to follow the money and eventually it ends up at the same place…Big Pharma.

Statin is a cholesterol lowering drug and is prescribed to any one that has high cholesterol, whether you have any indication of heart disease or not.  Not too long ago I wrote an article about cholesterol and it’s link to heart disease called “The Truth About Cholesterol and Heart Disease”.  If you read the article it clearly states the disconnect between cholesterol and heart disease, so why are statin drugs continually being prescribed to patients with high cholesterol? 

Well unfortunately, as with many things, it comes down to economics.  The ugly truth about statin is that it’s a multi-billion dollar drug, backed by giant pharmaceutical industries with one common goal…profit. 

In 2003 an online article on Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer’s sales of Lipitor alone was 8 billion dollars.  And that was 7 years ago.  And there are many other statin drugs like Crestor, Lescol, Mevacor, Pravachol, Zocor and just last year a new statin drug Livalo, was approved by the FDA.  And that’s just in the US alone.  Different countries have different names for their statin drugs and now statin drugs are also being combined with other drugs and given different names like Vytorin, Caduet and Advicor.

Unfortunately, many doctors are not much better than some of these researchers.  Most doctors, even with the best intentions, are inundated with work and too busy and to properly read through all of the studies provided to them about each drug.  Majority of them assume that if the rest of the medical community is fine with it, than it must be safe for them to prescribe it as well.  And even if they took time out of their hectic schedule to read the studies, they probably wouldn’t realize that majority of the studies are performed by the drug companies themselves, and not by a unbiased third party.  Here’s some evidence that came out a few years back, which shed light on the ugly truth about doctors and drug companies:

The British Journal of Medicine in their May 31, 2003 issue on the theme “Time to untangle doctors from drug companies”, ran no less than 6 articles saying that too many of the published drug studies are no more than industry-sponsored infomercials, and cited the selective reporting bias whereby only pro-industry studies are published.  These articles were entitled: “Research sponsored by drug companies is biased” “Drug representatives may increase unnecessary GP prescribing” “Reporting of clinical trials of drugs shows bias” “Characteristics of General Physicians who Frequently see Drug Industry Representatives: National Cross-Sectional Study ” “No more free lunches; Patients will benefit from doctors and drug companies disentangling” “Information from drug companies and opinion leaders; Double standards in information for medical journals and practitioners should go.”

The Canadian CBC News ran a series of consumer articles on March 25, 2003, on the prevalent problem of medical ghostwriting. In this scheme, drug companies write a study favorable to their product and then “reward” a doctor who prescribes the drug by listing his name as the “author” in the publication.

Now, I’m definitely not suggesting that all doctors are bad.  In fact, I believe majority of the doctors are good with really good intentions to help their patients.  However, the fact remains that most of them believe in prescribing drugs first.  I believe that drugs should be the last resort after all avenues have been exhausted….but unfortunately that’s not the best business model.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to find out the truth about health and now more than ever we have to do our own due diligence before taking any medications that’s prescribed to us.  Your best bet is to lead a health conscious lifestyle.  Eat well, exercise, rest, manage stress and enjoy life daily.  As the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away…prevention is the best form of medicine. 

What are your thoughts on the video?

Do you think drug companies are negatively impacting your health?

What do you think about the video/article?  Share your thoughts below.

You may have watched the popular documentary “Food Inc”, which highlights the scary facts about GMO corn and the power of Monsanto and other major food companies.  It’s both scary and criminal, considering that their deep pockets reach far beyond any private corporations and right into the hands and pockets of our governing bodies that are supposedly watching for our best interest.  So it came as no surprise when I heard the news that FDA may pass the approval of a genetically modified animal.

A biotech company Aqua Bounty Technologies from Massachusetts has bioengineered the “AquAdvantage salmon”.  Aqua Bounty successfully combined the DNA of an Atlantic salmon, the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout and the growth hormone genes from a Pacific salmon to create an engineered salmon that grows to full size in half the time as a natural salmon.  Apparently, the enormous growth rate is due to the never ending growth hormone production, which is only produced a few month out of the year in normal salmon. 

Is bigger, faster…better?

Aqua Bounty claims that the fish is completely safe for human consumption and if approved it will dramatically help the environment by reducing the ever growing problem of over-fishing.  Even though that may sound like a fair claim, there’s much to be weighed out.

First and foremost, what’s the long term health effects to humans.  Unfortunately, we probably won’t know until it’s too late.  The FDA has unofficially been using us (the consumers) as part of a long term trial experiment for every other GMO products…so why would it change now?  But the stakes seem to be getting higher as these food companies are now developing genetically modified animals for consumption.  As consumer options start to dwindle further, it’s going to be even tougher for us to choose natural foods that we know are safe to consume.

Secondly, there is a big potential risk that some of these GMO salmon will escape into the ocean.  A study by Muir and Howard at Purdue University found that only 60 genetically modified salmon would be needed to potentially drive the entire wild salmon population to extinction.  Once the genetically engineered salmon escapes into the ocean it would quickly win the battle over food against the wild salmon and once it starts to interbreed with the wild salmon, it would wipe out the entire population of wild salmons.

That being said, Mr. Stotish the chief executive of Aqua Bounty claims that the fish will only be raised in inland tanks and other contained facilities thereby eliminating any concerns that the engineered salmon could escape into the ocean.  Mr. Stotish also stated that the fish would all be female and sterile, which would make interbreeding impossible. 

Another concern is the labeling of genetically modified foods.  In the past, the government has opposed mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods.  They claim that it’s not necessary as long the nutritional properties and other characteristics stay the same.  And the rules may apply to GM fish as well.  Although he’s not opposed to labeling, according to Mr. Stotish the AquAdvantage salmon is identical in every way to the wild salmon relative, which may negate any reasons for labeling.  The FDA has yet to make any decision on the matter.

And here’s another big concern…the approval process of FDA for genetically modified animals.  In 2008 a policy was passed that basically allows FDA to determine whether the GM animals are approved or denied using the same rules they use to approve or deny veterinary drugs.  So according to the FDA, veterinary drugs are the same as genetically modified foods…which is completely absurd.  But it gets worse.  The approval process of new drugs has to be kept confidential, which means that we the public, who are the consumers of the food, is not privy to the data of the study.  Another ding on our consumer rights.

Lastly, an approval of the AquAdvantage salmon would surely open Pandora’s box for more genetically modified animal foods to come on the market.  Apparently Aqua Bounty already has genetically modified trout and tilapia as well, and it would only be matter of time before we see those on the market if the GM salmon is approved.  There’s also report that genetically modified cows, known as “enviro-pigs”  are already in the works as we speak.

Now, I don’t know about you, but this concerns me quite a bit.  Knowing how food intricately affects our body, I’m afraid that genetically modified foods will further put negative strain on it.  It’s difficult as is to get natural foods that’s not treated with herbicides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics…and now we have to deal with trying to find foods that aren’t genetically engineered.  I feel that nothing good ever has come from ingesting foods manufactured, process and refined and I can’t see how genetically modified foods will be any different.  As consumers it’s important that we stand up against these companies and let them know that we still have the power to choose and we won’t stand for anything that compromises our health and well being. 

What are your thoughts on GM foods?

Do you think GM foods will have a negative impact on your health?

What do you think about the article?  I’d love to know what you think, so please share your thoughts below.

References:

• BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3565041.stm
• LA times: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/14/business/la-fi-super-salmon-20100814
• SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/29/MN155761.DTL
• NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/business/26salmon.html?_r=1
• Natural News: http://www.naturalnews.com/029741_genetically_modified_salmon.html

When you hear the words acid and base, what’s the first image that comes into your head?  Well…for me it’s my dreaded high school chemistry class!  The whole notion of ph balance, positive and negative ions conjure up images of chemistry equations and calculations.  But learning the basics did pay off when I started getting interested in the health and fitness field years ago.  I learned early on that chemistry plays a huge role in health, diet, fitness, performance and pretty much anything related to our body.  So it came as no surprise when I read about the concept of balancing acid and base levels in our body to optimize health. 

Apparently the concept of balancing acid and base in our body has been around since the 1930’s when Dr. William Howard Hay published a book called “A New Health Ear”, where he proclaimed that all disease was caused by an accumulation of acid in the body. 

“Now we depart from health in just the proportion to which we have allowed our alkalies to be dissipated by introduction of acid-forming food in too great amount… It may seem strange to say that all disease is the same thing, no matter what its myriad modes of expression, but it is verily so.”—William Howard Hay, M.D.

So what does it really mean to be acidic or basic?  According to experts it’s the pH measurement of the water content in your body, since about 70% of your body is composed of fluids.  This doesn’t take into account your stomach pH which has a completely different pH level.

So what determines the pH of your body?

Well many things can effect the pH of your body, but one of the major determining factor is food.  Each food has an acidic or basic (alkaline) value based on methods developed by researchers, who were able to figure out what foods cause an acidic or basic effect to your body.  Therefore, the more your diet consists of acidic foods the more likely your body will have an acidic environment… and vice versa. 

According to nutritional experts however, most of us have an acidic body due to our poor choice of foods.  Foods that are high in acidic value include red meat, cheese, dairy, refined carbohydrate foods (ie. bread, rice, pasta), nuts, sugar, and pretty much all processed foods.  Basic (alkaline) foods include pretty much all fruits and vegetables. 

Here’s a list of common foods that have been analyzed and given an acidic or basic value.  PRAL stands for Potential Renal Acid Load and without getting into any scientific details…basically a negative PRAL score means the food is basic (alkaline), a positive PRAL score means the food is acidic and a PRAL score of zero means the food is neutral. 

Foods - PRAL (- Acidic / + Basic)

MEAT
Chicken (8.7)
Lean Beef (7.8)
Turkey (9.9)
Lean Pork (7.9)
Lunch Meat (10.2)
Hot Dog (6.7)
Salami (11.6)

FISH
Cod (7.1)
Herring (7.0)
Haddock (6.8)
Trout (10.8)

MILK, DAIRY & EGGS
Whole Egg (8.2)
Egg White (1.1)
Egg Yolk (23.4)
Hard Cheese (19.2)
Gouda Cheese (18.6)
Cheddar Cheese (26.4)
Cottage Cheese (8.7)
Sour Cream (1.2)
Whole Milk (0.7)
Plain Yogurt (Whole Milk) (1.5)

SWEETS
White Sugar (-0.1)
Honey (-0.3)
Milk Chocolate (2.4)

VEGETABLES
Asparagus (-0.4)
Broccoli (-1.2)
Spinach (-14.0)
Cauliflower (-4.0)
Carrots (-4.9)
Tomatoes (-3.1)
Zucchini (-2.6)
Lettuce (-2.5)
Peppers (-1.4)
Onions (-1.5)

FRUITS
Apples (-2.2)
Apricots (-4.8)
Bananas (-5.5)
Cherries (-3.6)
Kiwi Fruit (-4.1)
Oranges (-2.7)
Peaches (-2.4)
Pears (-2.9)
Pineapple (-2.7)
Strawberries (-2.2)
Watermelon (-1.9)
**Raisins (-21.0)

NUTS
Hazelnuts (-2.8)
Peanuts (8.3)
Walnuts (6.8)

GRAINS
White Bread (3.7)
Rye Bread (4.1)
Wheat Bread (1.8)
Oats (10.7)
Wheat Flour (8.2)
Rye Flour (5.9)
Brown Rice (10.8)
White Rice (1.7)
Spaghetti (6.5)
Whole Grain Spaghetti (7.3)

*This table is adapted from the Remer and Manz study and each PRAL score is based on a 100g portion of food.

The pH of your body is always around 7 and we have built in mechanisms to keep the pH within a very small variance.  This is a good thing, since having a steady neutral pH is absolutely vital for our survival. 

One way your body maintains a steady pH level when consuming copious amounts of highly acidic foods is to borrow, beg and steal important minerals like calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium from your bones and vital organs to neutralize the acid. 

Now, it’s wonderful that our body is adapt and do what it needs to do, in order to keep the pH neutral, but this process of leaching minerals from our own bones and vital organs doesn’t seems like the healthiest course of action.  And so it’s no surprise that a continued course of eating highly acidic foods without adequate intake of basic foods (ie. fruits and veggies) to counter balance it, can cause enough strain on your body to lead to serious health problems like osteoporosis, joint pain, muscle pain, immune deficiency, kidney and bladder problems, premature aging and cardiovascular problems, just to name a few. 

Here’s one major study that provided solid evidence of health problems acid-base imbalance can cause to your body.

A recent seven-year study conducted on 9000 women at the University of California, San Francisco showed that those who had chronic acidosis were at greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. The scientists who carried out this experiment believe that many of the hip fractures prevalent among middle-aged women are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables. This is because the body borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

So it makes sense to eat a balance of acidic and basic foods.  Now initially, looking at the list of foods with various PRAL values…it may seem like a complicated and daunting process, but as it turns out balancing acidic and basic foods isn’t hard at all.

In fact, if you already eat a well balanced diet composed of real foods, you probably don’t need to worry about balancing your pH levels or looking at PRAL values.

Protein is acidic and fruits and vegetables are basic (alkaline), so if you consume the proper amounts of both macronutrients, you should have no trouble balancing out your pH levels.  And you don’t need to worry about (healthy) fats, since they’re all pretty much neutral.  The problem arises from eating grain products like breads, rice and pasta, as well as processed foods that are made from wheat flour and trans fats.  This seems to be a recurring theme doesn’t it? 

Here’s a quick summary of how you can easily achieve an acid base balance:

• Eliminating grains and processed foods is probably the simplest way to make the biggest difference in your diet in order to reduce unnecessary acidic food intake.
• Consume as much vegetables as you want to and eat moderate amount of fruits to make sure that you’re getting enough basic (alkaline) foods
• Eating protein is important and necessary, even though it’s acidic in nature.  Make sure to consume adequate amounts of protein that properly matches your lean body mass and activity levels.
• Fats are neutral, so you don’t need to worry about it in terms of effecting the acid base balance.  Stick to eating moderate amounts of healthy fats.
 

Do you eat lots highly acidic foods and not enough basic/alkaline foods?

Have you noticed any health issues with your acidic diet?

What are your thoughts on the article?  I’d love to know, please post your comments below!

One common phenomenon that you’ve probably experienced when performing short, high intense activity is the swift onset of muscle fatigue.  Once that feeling of muscle tightness and fatigue kicks in it’s just a matter of time before your muscles simply stops working no matter what your brain says.  If you have any experience competing in a short race (between 1 - 10 minutes) or even working out at your maximum effort, you know what I’m talking about.  These symptoms generally come on when you push your body past it’s lactic acid threshold and in most cases your muscles fail before your lungs do.

The reason your muscles start to lose it’s function is because of high acidity levels in your muscle.  When the blood and other surrounding fluids become too acidic, your muscle starts to quickly loses it’s ability to function optimally. In order to combat the negative effects of high acidity, athletes have been experimenting with many different types of ergogenic supplements that buffer and lower acidity levels, thereby enhancing their performances. 

One such common and well studied substance is sodium bicarbonate or better known as baking soda.  Yep, that’s right, good ole’ baking soda.  Sodium bicarbonate is an alkalizing agent and acts as a buffering agent in your blood to lower the acidity levels in your muscles.  Lowering acidity levels have been shown to help reduce the onset of muscle fatigue and in turn increase muscular performance.  Athletes have been dabbling and experimenting with it since the 1940’s.  In fact, here’s a link to a review of some of the more significant studies done on the effectiveness of sodium bicarbonate. 

Although it has shown to have beneficial effects, there some negatives that need to be weighed out before trying it out.  For one, even though the International Olympic Committee doesn’t explicitly ban the use of sodium bicarbonate and other buffering agents, their use may be considered a violation of the IOC Doping Rule, which states that athletes shall not use any physiological substances in an attempt to artificially enhance performance.  Also, there are side effects to taking sodium bicarbonate as well - most common being gastrointestinal discomfort such as upset stomach, cramping, bloating, diarrhea and vomiting.  And frequent use may lead to cardiac arrhythmia, irritability and muscle spasms.

If you’re a serious athlete and performance is of the upmost importance and you’re curious about the affects of this buffering agent, I would suggest that you try it out during your training sessions to see how effective it is and how well your body tolerates it.  However, for the rest of us that do participate in higher intense workouts like the MAX Workouts program for other non-competitive health and fitness reasons, there are other ergogenic alternatives that acts as buffers to help lower acidity levels.

One particular substance of interest is carnosine.  Carnosine is a dipeptide composed of two amino acids, Histidine and Beta-Alanine and naturally occurs in many areas of your body including your brain, heart, kidney, stomach and most prominently in your skeletal muscles. 

Carnosine has many beneficial effects including anti-oxidative properties that help slow down the aging process, but it’s also shown to act as a potentially effective buffering agent, much like what sodium bicarbonate does for your muscle.  Studies have shown that people with more carosine have a greater ability to keep their acidity levels in their muscles lower during high intense activities such as interval training and hence help boost their performance.

Although, it may not be as potent or as dramatic an ergogenic substance, the one great thing about carnosine is that is can be naturally enhanced without taking any supplements.  Studies have indicated that by performing highly intense activities such as sprints, intervals and weight lifting (ie. MAX Workouts) your body adapts to higher stress by producing more carnosine.  Increased amounts of carnosine in your muscle, enables you to perform better for longer periods of time at a higher intensity and it’s also been shown to enhance muscle recovery as well. 

You can also increase carnosine levels by consuming protein from animal meat.  Protein is a must when you’re performing highly intense activities, since you’re breaking down muscle fibers as a consequence.  By getting enough protein in your diet, you’ll be able to repair the damaged muscle fibers and help avoid losing any hard earned muscles.  The amount of protein required varies with each individual and their activity levels, but as a general rule of thumb, you should be consuming about 0.7 - 1.0 g of protein per pound of lean body mass per day.

Lastly, there are carnosine supplements available on the market as well, along with beta-alanine and histidine supplements, which are the two amino acids that make up carnosine.  The effectiveness of taking these supplements are not well known, and there aren’t enough studies to prove or disprove otherwise. 

As for now, your best bet to keep your muscles working at it’s optimal level is by including high intensity training as part of your fitness regimen to help keep your acidity levels low and make sure to eat a healthy well balanced diet.  Your diet should include plenty of proteins (preferably from animal sources) to help repair and build lean muscle, unrefined carbs from fresh fruits and vegetables to provide quick energy, as well as essential nutrients and antioxidants and lastly a healthy dose of good fats to provide long term energy for essential metabolic processes, and to help fight off inflammation. 

Have you ever experience the quick onset of muscle fatigue when performing a highly intense activity?

If you have an effective way to avoid or prevent getting muscle fatigue, please let us know.

What did you think about the article?  I’d love to know thoughts.  Please post you comments below.

Just the other day, I was answering questions on my MAX Workouts forum when one of the members asked a question that got me wondering.  The member on the forum is in training for an endurance event that lasts 2 - 3 hours and he asked what modification was needed on the diet, now that he was significantly increasing his training volume.

Now, if you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that I recommend a high protein, low carb and a moderately high fat diet, loosely based on what is popularly know as the Paleo diet.  I don’t go as far as eliminating all of the foods that’s suggested by the Paleo diet, for sake of moderation, although I tend to be more stringent than what I recommend.  I do think it’s more realistic and doable for people to go on a diet that isn’t too extreme.  Extreme…that is, relative to the modern American diet that consists of fast foods laden with trans fats, big gulp soft drinks that contain about a bucket of sugar and a population that’s been brain washed into thinking that cereal bars with sugar listed first on the ingredient as healthy because it claims to be low in fat.  Anyway I digress, and I’ll get off my soap box for now and get to the point. 

In a diet that consists of low carbohydrates, it’s always a challenge when training your body for longer durations, since more energy is required.  Although, your body has the ability to produce up to 200 g of glycogen, both internally and from dietary sources of protein and fat, it’s quickly depleted when you start training for longer periods of time such as 3 - 4 hours (or longer) a day. 

Personally it’s been a long time since I trained for an endurance event, but in the past (in another life it seems) I did train for what now seems like a ludicrously long time…about 3 - 4 hour a day.  And during those long training periods, it seemed that I could pretty much eat what ever I wanted without any fear of gaining weight or other health issues.  The one factor that really stands out is how much carbs I ate.  In fact, carbs was the main focus of all of my meals…breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between.  And these were not the healthy carbs that I usually recommend such as fruits and veggies, but rather the calorie dense white flour power carbohydrate foods like bread, rice and pasta.  All the bad grains that I stay away from now, was what constituted 90 % of my diet, but when your training 3 - 4 hours a day, quick available source of energy is what my body needed…or at least that’s what it seemed like that the time.  And so eating 5000 - 6000 or more calorie a day and mostly from carbs didn’t seem like such a big deal.  Although looking back at it now, I wish my coaches knew better about nutrition, since I know how much it effects our body and I do wonder what I may have been able to do if my nutrition was optimized. 

So this is where the dilemma arises…knowing what I know now about nutrition, is there a way to keep eating fairly low carbs, sourced mainly from fresh fruits and veggies and not have to eat calorie dense grains…and still train high volumes and long durations without bonking out due to lack of energy.  Well to my surprise, after doing some research I found an interesting article from Nutrition and Metabolism.  It was a review of several studies by Stephen Kinney called “Ketogenic diets and physical performance”.  Here’s the abstract and conclusion from the review:

Abstract:
Impaired physical performance is a common but not obligate result of a low carbohydrate diet. Lessons from traditional Inuit culture indicate that time for adaptation, optimized sodium and potassium nutriture, and constraint of protein to 15–25 % of daily energy expenditure allow unimpaired endurance performance despite nutritional ketosis.

Conclusion:
Both observational and prospectively designed studies support the conclusion that submaximal endurance performance can be sustained despite the virtual exclusion of carbohydrate from the human diet. Clearly this result does not automatically follow the casual implementation of dietary carbohydrate restriction, however, as careful attention to time for keto-adaptation, mineral nutriture, and constraint of the daily protein dose is required. Contradictory results in the scientific literature can be explained by the lack of attention to these lessons learned (and for the most part now forgotten) by the cultures that traditionally lived by hunting. Therapeutic use of ketogenic diets should not require constraint of most forms of physical labor or recreational activity, with the one caveat that anaerobic (ie, weight lifting or sprint) performance is limited by the low muscle glycogen levels induced by a ketogenic diet, and this would strongly discourage its use under most conditions of competitive athletics.

I found the review definitely interesting and something I’d like to look into in more detail. 

According to the review there were 3 vital factors that needed to be met in order for an individual to be able to train long durations without any performance compromises. 

• Adaptation - It requires anywhere between 2 - 4 weeks for you body to be able to adapt to a ketosis state and be able to optimally provide the necessary energy.  So if you’re thinking about training for endurance event, give yourself plenty of time to adapt to the diet.  In keep in mind that you’ll probably go through quite a bit of ups and downs in your energy, recovery and training performances during this period.
 
• Sodium and Potassium balance - Your body requires proper balance of sodium and potassium levels in order to maintain proper and optimal bodily functions.  According to the studies reviewed most methods of cooking depleted the meat of their natural sodium and potassium contents and hence their diet had to be supplemented with additional sodium and potassium.  But keep in mind the subjects they studied were on a no carb diet to induce a ketosis state.  Normally, if ample amounts of fruits and veggies are included in your daily diet, you would be getting plenty of sodium and potassium and hence this wouldn’t be something you would have to worry about.
• Sufficient intake of protein - According to the cases reviewed it was evident that sufficient amounts of protein was needed on a daily basis in order to maintain the muscle mass without loss of lean muscles.  The figures that they came up with were somewhere between 90 - 120 grams of protein a day OR about 15 - 25% of the total daily calories.  Anything less than that the body started to lose necessary lean muscle mass and would hinder their physical performance.

Again, it should be noted that the studies they reviewed were extreme case where the individuals were in a state of ketosis, where the intake of carbs was extreme low.  In cases where people were able to eat some carbs from healthy sources such as fruits and veggies, the outcome may be different.  However, that being said, it does bring to light that the possibility of participating in endurance events while keeping a fairly low carb intake from healthy sources of fruits and veggies is possible.  It’s definitely worthy of further investigation and research.  If the diet of Inuit hunters were any indication of what our body’s were meant to do, the prospect of this diet is exciting and it may eventually redefine our traditional mode of carb loading as ineffective and inefficient.

Just as side note, there is a book out there, by the creator of Paleo Diet, Dr, Loren Cordain called “Paleo Diet for Athletes”.  And it looks into how an endurance athlete can train and participate in long endurance events while following the principles of the Paleo Diet.  If you’re an endurance athlete, it’s definitely worth a read. 

If you’re currently training for an endurance event, how much carbs are you taking in?

Would you be willing to try going on a low carb diet and see if your body adapts training at higher volumes?

What did you think about the article?  I’d love to know what you think.  Please post you comments below.

The last 3 weeks has been pretty hectic, and I apologize for not having been able to post any new article as of late.  As I write this article on the floor of our unfurnished apartment, waiting for our belonging to arrive on a truck being transported across the country…I realized that I’ve been living off of take outs and restaurant foods for the last month.  And I have to say that it’s gotten pretty old.  Although, we do the best we can to eat healthy when eating out…it’s tough to find good reliable food sources.  However, during this time of adjustment, I’ve been fortunate enough to find a couple of really great products that have kept me from falling too far off the health wagon.

Luckily, we’re only a few blocks from Whole Foods, so we’ve been able to eat fresh fruits and veggies, but we’ve been lacking in the protein department.  Although we eat fish and chicken when we’re out and about, I’m always weary of the source, since I know that most animal proteins are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics.  And we haven’t found an organic restaurant close by…as of yet, so I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a new organic whey protein product called “Tera’s Organic Whey” at Whole Foods. 

As you know, whey protein products are dime a dozen, but getting organic whey protein is very difficult.  In the past I’ve had to order all of the organic whey products online, since no major markets carried them, so I was quite pleased to see that Whole Foods was carrying this new organic whey protein line.  I didn’t know much about the product but I bought it to see what it tasted like and find out more about the product.  I went to their site and I was quite impressed with what I found.  Here’s what the company site says:

Our Naturally Healthy Products:
 
I created tera’s whey to be the most naturally healthy product possible. 

Every serving has: 
20g of protein 
5 g of carbs
low glycemic index stevia 

We start with raw whey from artisan cheesemakers and family farmers, carefully concentrate it in our own green plant, sweeten it with low-glycemic stevia and add the highest quality, most flavorful natural ingredients; things like Fair Trade Dark Chocolate and Bourbon Vanilla.  All of our fruits are real fruit extracts not flavor derivatives.  When we say “natural ingredients” on our label, it means things like real vanilla.  No fillers. No additives. Just completely natural, healthy whey protein. 

Traceability

One of the most unique things about teraswhey is where the whey comes from.  The norm in the whey protein business is to buy whey from a blender who sources it from huge plants wherever it is cheapest at the time.  One month it may be from a big plant in the US, another from New Zealand, and in another month it could come from Europe. 
We make tera’s whey from raw whey from small local cheese plants in Wisconsin that get their milk from small family farms.  Some of our owners are farmers, some of our cheese plants are small cooperatives owned by farmers.  This means we always know where our raw whey is coming from and so do you.

How We Manufacture 

We built the only plant in the US that batch processes, which is what makes it possible for us to be the ONLY plant in the country that makes organic cow, r-bgh free cow, and goat whey proteins for use in nutritional supplements.  In fact, as far as I know, we’re the only plant in the world that does what we do.   We take in different types of whey, keep them segregated, use a cool temperature ultra filtration process to separate the whey protein from the other components in raw whey, then concentrate and dry the protein.

Certifications 

Doing it ourselves means we have complete control over our production process.  We don’t just say we use a cool process to preserve the quality of the protein, we actually do it, each and every day.  While other supplement companies are resisting new industry regulations that will require them to be FDA inspected, we are routinely inspected by the FDA, USDA, DATCP, MOSA (our Organic Certifier), and Rabbinical certifiers.  We are a certified supplier to an infant formula company, a private certification process that requires the most rigorous quality control standards of any certifier by far.  
 
All of this means that you can feel completely confident that the protein in teraswhey has not been denatured and is always the highest quality possible. 

After learning more about the company I was excited to taste it.  Unfortunately, I know first hand that many healthy foods lack in the taste department, so I wasn’t expecting much…but, once again I was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted quite good!  There’s was no chalkiness and the powder was just sweet enough that you can mix it with just water.  I personally like a creamier texture, so I mixed it with almond milk and it tasted great.  All in all, a great find and I think I’ve found myself a new organic whey protein!

In addition, to finding a great organic whey protein product, I also stumbled upon a new portable shaker called blender bottles.  I usually stay away from portable protein shakers, since they all do such a poor job of mixing - but with my blender packed away on a truck, being transported across the country with the rest of my belongings - I decided to give this nifty looking portable shaker a try.  Well, to my surprise this shaker actually does what it says, it mixed the whey protein with the liquid without any clumps or residues.  It was super easy to mix and you don’t even need to shake it that hard…hands down the best portable shaker around.  A great piece of product, especially when you’re on the go and don’t have access to a blender. 

Here’s a super easy post workout snack that I’ve been having using the organic whey protein and the bottle shaker:

I mix 2 scoops of Tera’s vanilla organic protein powder with ice cold water.  This equated to about 20 grams of protein and 5 grams of carbs.  Along with the shake I have a medium size banana and a cup of blueberries which equates to about 40 grams of carbs for a well balanced post workout snack.  This comes out to be a 1:2 protein to carb ratio, post workout snack.  If you want a higher carb ratio such a 1:3 to 1:4, you can simply add more fruit to get the desired protein to carb ratio.

Keep in mind that it’s important to consume enough protein on a daily basis, especially if you’re trying to lose weight and maintain lean muscle mass.  If you’re having a hard time consuming protein from foods, you can always use protein supplementations to meet your daily protein requirements as long as they’re quality protein products like Tera’s organic whey protein.

I know it sounds like I’m pitching these products, but I have absolutely no relation to any of these products.  I literally stumbled upon it a week ago, and have been quite happy with it, so I thought I’d pass it on.  If you want more information you can check out each of their products at their respective websites:  http://www.teraswhey.com/ and http://www.blenderbottle.com/. 

If you try these products out, let me know what you think?

P.S. For those of you doing the transformation contest I hope things are going smoothly.  If you need any advice or have any questions, please feel free to ask.  I’ll be sending you more helpful tips your way soon!  And for those of you that haven’t joined up, it’s not too late!  Join now and get a chance to win $1000!

(Note: If you’re having trouble viewing this video, please try watching it directly on my YouTube channel and see if that helps)

Another real benefit of having strong glutes, is that it protects your low back.  In fact, many of the people that suffer from low back pain have a diminished use of their glutes.  They have what I call, “butt amnesia”.  Their butts don’t know how to work.  It’s been dormant for such as long time that when it’s called upon to do work, it doesn’t know how to and ends up passing the work along to other muscles…mainly your low back muscles.  Eventually your low back can’t take the excess work and it ends up getting strained. 

One reason for “butt amnesia” is a simple case of too much sitting.  Sitting for long periods of time tightens and shortens your hip flexor muscles.  Your hip flexor muscles are large powerful muscles that originate from your low back vertebrae and attaches to your upper thigh region.  Since your hip flexors are much larger and stronger than your low back muscles, when it plays tug a war, your low back muscles lose every time.  Ironically, the muscles that’s strong enough to counter act your hip flexors…your glutes…get shut down when it’s needed the most.  When your hip flexors are tight and over activate, it inhibits your glutes from being activated…go figure?  So what can you to do?

Before trying to wake your butt up (no pun intended), you need to deactivate your hip flexors.  And the best way to do so is to stretch them out.  Stretching your hip flexors for 30 to 60 seconds prior to exercising your glutes will help enhance your ability to activate and “wake up” your glutes from it’s dormancy.

Now that you know how to deactivate your hip flexors, you can take advantage of it and really work your butt!

Take a look at the video above for a simple, but very effective glute exercise that you can do to start strengthening your butt to help you alleviate low back pain, increase athletic performance and of course get you that tight and toned backside. 

Try this exercise and let me know how your butt feels.

Do you notice that your glutes get activated more after you stretch out your hip flexors?

P.S.  Just another reminder…I’m doing my first MAX Workouts Transformation Contest!  I’m giving away $1000 for the top prize winner, $500 for the second prize winner and $250 for the third prize winner.  And all of the winners get a 1 year free membership to my online fitness club.  I’m super excited about the contest and I can’t wait to see the results in a few months from now.  So if you haven’t had the chance to sign up yet, go to MAX Workouts and sign up today.

Let me know what you think?  Please post your questions/comments below

So what’s the best way to lose weight?

Intermittent fasting? Counting calories? High protein diet? High fiber diet? 

The answer depends on who you ask, and the truthfully, if it’s a legitimate diet - and when I mean legitimate, I mean none of these ridiculous diets, like the banana diet which apparently was huge in Japan for a while (go figure!) - most diets work…to a certain degree. 

The difficult thing about diets is that everyone is different and we all respond differently to foods…so there really is no one size fits all.  However, one thing is certain, you are what you eat and eating the right foods can make your weight loss efforts much easier.  Here are a few tips that can make your diet a success.

It’s hard to see past the billion dollar marketing lies that our food industries throw our way, but the best way to bypass all the false hype and gimmick is to stick to real foods that don’t have labels on the them.  If you can stick to eating real foods, you’re going to be significantly better off than 95% of the people out there.  Because here’s the thing, no matter what diet your on, all successful diets have two things in common - reduce calorie intake and provide ample nutrients to your body.  And the best way to do that is by eating real foods and avoid processed foods that have hidden calories and poor nutritious values. 

Now even though I mention calories, don’t get me wrong…I HATE counting calories!  And for the most part, it’s unnecessary if you’re eating the right foods.  But, I do think that initially, if you’re coming off of a poor diet, knowing what foods have how many calories is a good thing.  What is important is knowing how much of each macronutrient you need to consume on a daily basis.  Macronutrients are the protein, carbohydrates and fat contents in you food.  Much like counting calories, it first it’s a bit of work, but once you figure out how much protein, carbs and fats you need…it becomes a piece of cake to maintain.  More importantly it allows you to know what you’re putting into your body, so you can take full control of your diet.

So how much of each macronutrient do you need to eat in a day?

I discussed the benefits of protein and how much protein you need to consume in a day, along with how to calculate your lean body weight, in a previous article, but here’s a another quick look at the general guidelines:

• Sedentary - 0.35 - 5 grams per lean body mass
• Moderately - Active 0.6 - 0.8 grams per lean body mass
• Active - 0.8 - 1.0 grams per lean body mass
• Very Active - 1.0 and higher per lean body mass

Now in caloric terms, protein has 4 calories per gram.  So, as an example let’s say you weight 170 lb and have 20% body fat.  That calculates to 136 lb of lean body weight.  And let’s assume that your very active, perhaps doing the MAX Workouts program…hint hint…that would mean that you should be eating about 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean body weight, which would be around 136 g of protein a day.  This equates to 136 g x 4 cal/g = 544 calories in a day.  (Not much considering one Big Mac has roughly 580 calories…just to puts things into perspective.)

Personally, I feel that the biggest culprit of weight gain is due to excessive carbs.  Now, before I get brushed off as another low carb guy…let me explain.  First of all not all carbs are bad.  In fact, unrefined carbohydrates such as vegetables and fruits are great for you, since it provides tons of nutrients and fiber.  It just so happens that majority of the vegetables and some fruits happen to be low in sugar content and low in calories as well.  So by default, if you eat mostly vegetables and some fruits for your carbohydrates, you end up eating a low carb diet.  It’s grains and grain products that really ramp up your carb intake. 

Whole grains have many health benefits, but unfortunately most grains on the market are not whole grains….they’re processed grains.  Processed grains are in pretty much every product imaginable, from breads, pasta, rice to baked goods, packaged snacks and even healthy snacks.  Grains are dense in calories and packed with sugar, and so when ingested it really increases your insulin activity.  Insulin hormone is like the gate keeper to your fat storage, and since it acts as a storage hormone, it loves to store excess sugar as fat.  So the less you get your insulin involved the better, both for you and your fat.  And the best way to do so is by eliminating refined “grains” carb intake and make sure that your carbohydrate content mainly comes from unrefined carbs like vegetables and fruits. 

So how many carbs should you eat?

Much like protein, it varies with each individual and their activity levels, but here are some ranges you can use as a general guide: 

• At 200 - 300 grams per day you’re likely to steadily gain weight, especially if you’re sedentary or only moderately active.
• At 150-200 grams per day, you’re at the cusp of gaining weight and maintaining your weight is going to depend on your activity levels.  You’ll more than likely need to participate in longer duration “cardio” based activities in order to maintain your current weight.
• At 100-150 grams per day, you should be able to maintain your weight, by being moderately active.  However, if you participate in short duration but higher intensity activities (aka. MAX Workouts), you should be able to lose weight, while building lean muscle.
• At 50-100 grams per day, you should be able to lose weight steadily if you’re moderately active.  And if you participate in short duration high intensity activities, as mentioned above, you should be able to accelerate your weight loss process.
 
• At 0-50 grams per day, your body starts to metabolize fat for fuel, so you’ll burn fat and lose weight more quickly.  However, it’s not recommended for long term.  It’s an effective initial start up phase, utilized by many low carb diets.  The phase is usually 5 days to 2 weeks in length.

Again, these are just general ranges and it will vary according to each individual.  And if you’ve been eating high amounts of carbs, you shouldn’t cut out carbs immediately.  Instead, you’ll need to slowly ween yourself off of carbs until you get to the appropriate ranges.

Eating low carbs isn’t difficult if you’re eating the right kinds of foods.  If you stick to eating unrefined carbs (ie. vegetables and some fruits), you shouldn’t have any trouble keeping your carb intake within ranges of 50 - 150 grams per day.  It’s only when you start to include grains into your diet that you get into trouble.  As mentioned earlier, grains are too high in sugar content and readily activates your insulin, making it harder to lose weight and easier to gain weight. 

It’s also important to note that your body has the ability to make up to 200 grams of glycogen (stored glucose) a day from proteins and fat.  Much of that glycogen is stored in your muscle (and some in you liver) to be used for physical activities.  So, even with low to zero carb intake, your body can make enough glucose to keep your glycogen levels in your muscles full for fuel. 

Now in caloric terms, carbohydrates has 4 calories per gram.  Using the same example as I did in the protein section…let’s say your goal is to lose 25 pounds by the end of the program, which would be 145 lb.  That’s about 2 lb a week, since the program is 12 weeks long.  And let’s say that you decide to cut down your carb intake to a range of about 100 grams per day.  This equals to 100 g x 4 cal/g = 400 calories a day. 

So far, your total calorie intake is 544 calories from protein and 400 calories from carbs for a total of 944 calories

There are a few ways to calculate how many calories you need per day in order for you to achieve your goal weight.  Some calculations require you to plug in your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), and some also require you to plug in your lean body weight, and you can use any of these calculations, but a quick, easy and reliable method, is to multiply your goal weight by 10.  So for this example, it would be 145 lb x 10 = 1450 calories a day.  And since the total calorie from protein and carbs is 944 calories, the amount of calories left is 1450 - 944 = 506 calories.  And this last amount of calories should come from fat.  Fat has 9 calories per gram, so that equals 506 cal / 9 cal/g = 84.3 g of fat.  So that means you can consume up to 84 grams of fat and still be within your weight loss caloric intake.

Now…fat is the most misunderstood macronutrient out of them all.  I think it’s because of the name.  Who wants to eat fat when they’re trying to lose fat…right?  But here’s the key to eating fats and still lose weight.  As long as you’re eating the right amounts of macronutrients - protein and carbs - eating fat actually increases you body’s ability to burn stored fat more effectively! 

Fats can be divided up into these following categories:

• Saturated Fats - Stable fats found in foods like animal fats and coconuts.
 
• Monounsaturated Fats - Moderately stable fats found in foods like avocado and in many healthy oils such as olive oil, flaxseed oil, sesame seed oil, sunflower oil, corn oil and peanut oil.
• Polyunsaturated Fats - Least stable of the three main fats, making polyunsaturated fats very susceptible to going rancid quickly when heated.  It’s found in grain products, soybeans, peanuts and fish oils.

You can include any or a combination of all of the fats mentioned above in your daily diet.  The only type of fat that needs to be avoided at all costs is trans fats.  It shouldn’t even be considered fat, since it’s not natural.  It’s chemically manufactured and is added to food to extend shelf life.  However, when ingested, it causes serious damage to your body.  Long term exposure to trans fats have been associated with obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and chronic inflammatory diseases, just to name a few. 

It’s important to note, that when you’re deciding to go on a diet, the total amount of calories you choose to eat in a day depends on your goal and how quickly you want to get to your goal.  But here are some key points to keep in mind before you decide:

• Be realistic about your goals and approach it like a marathon slow and steady is the best and healthiest solution
• Cutting out too many calories is a sure way to cause you to rebound by over consuming afterwards, getting you on the infamous yo - yo dieting roller coaster
• Look at your diet as a long term goal and not something you want to achieve today.
• Calories are important, but it’s just as important (if not more so) to watch what you eat.  Not all calories are created equal.  Each food you ingest triggers hormonal responses that can either be helpful and healthy or negative and unhealthy.
• Weight loss should come as a result of a combination of both healthy eating and an effective exercise plan.

In order to figure out how many calories you need a day, you need to find our how much of each macronutrient you should be eating.  And to help you do that, you can go to www.caloriecount.about.com to find out the nutrition content of each food.

So here’s a summary of the tips you can implement to help you succeed in your diet and weight loss efforts.

• Eat real foods and avoid all processed foods, so you can avoid hidden calories and poor nutrition
• Knowing your total caloric intake initially is a good way to have an idea of how much food you should be eating
• Know how much of each macronutrient (protein, carbs and fats) you need to eat
• Cut out refined carbs, especially grains and instead eat unrefined carbs such as vegetables and fruits
• Eating fat helps you lose weight as long as you’re eating the proper amounts of protein and low carbs
• Avoid trans fats at all costs
• Combine healthy eating with an effective exercise program to maximize weight loss

 
P.S.  If you haven’t heard already, I’m doing my first MAX Workouts Transformation Contest! 

I’m super excited about the contest and I can’t wait to see the results in a few months from now.  So if you haven’t had the chance to sign up yet, go to MAX Workouts and sign up today.

Please excuse the poor sound quality of this video…the A/C kicked in while filming the video and I wasn’t aware how loud it was!

(Note: If you’re having trouble viewing this video, please try watching it directly on my youtube channel)

This is a great finisher after a high intensity circuit training workout!

Try it out and let me know how your abs feel. 

Were you able to progress into the more difficult levels of the exercise?

I’d love to know what you think.  Please post your comments below.

Now doing this ab exercise alone won’t do the trick, but when you combine it with a clean diet (no refined carbs, no processed foods, no refined sweets) and an effective fat burning workout program, you’ll finally be saying “so long” to your lower belly pooch.

(Note: If you’re having trouble viewing this video, please try watching it directly on my YouTube channel and see if that helps)

Try this lower ab exercise out let me know how your abs feel. 

Do you think this anti-movement works your lower abs better than regular ab exercises?

I’d love to know what you think.  Please post your comments below.