The Devil's in the Details

I often hear people saying they want to get in shape or start a new diet, but can't figure out how to get started. Most often they end up not doing anything because they are overwhelmed by all the information and different programs available. With the internet it's amazing how much stuff is out there! A case of paralysis by analysis often takes place, and self loathing sets in. The idea that there is a perfect program or diet out there is a fallacy created by so called "gurus" who are merely looking to sell you on themselves, and usually take your money in doing so. I'm here to tell you it's all a bunch of bologna. 

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Living Outside The Box

I've got a problem. Well, more specifically, I've got a callous. It's on the ball of my foot and the skin is trying to grow back as best it can. This has caused me to walk quite gingerly for the past couple of days, and as one might imagine has garnered questions about my impingement. What happened to my foot? The simple answer is just a missing piece of skin on my foot. How? I ran a 5k. What kind of shoes was I wearing that would lead to such a terrible end result to my foot? None! Yes, I ran a 5k barefoot. Some on grassy ground, but a majority was on a concrete path. After this explanation some people are dumbfounded that I would do such a thing, others are intrigued, and others are downright appalled. What does any of this have to do with you? I'm so glad you asked.

Food vs. Nutrients

Do we need food, or just nutrients? According to some, my human nutrition professor included, we just need the nutrients. But where has this thinking really led us? We no longer consider what it is that we are putting in our bodies, just the chemical make up and daily values that will get us closer to our "perfect" diet. Where did we go so wrong? It has gotten to the point where people would actually consider eating balanced meals at McDonald's everyday would get them the nutrients necessary for life. Technically this food will give you certain amounts of nutrients, but at what cost? Protein, fat, and carbohydrates are all accounted for and packaged into a meal that would still look the same if left to sit out for two weeks! Shelf life is important here. Buying and consuming food that will spoil sooner than later and doesn't come in a box or some type of plastic packaging should be the name of the game, with an emphasis on should. Modern convenience and laziness has led to people making everything out of a box or microwavable bag of some type. Why shouldn't we focus on the actual food we eat? If you eat the proper foods, would it not follow that the nutrients will also be there?

A new Rx

It's been a while, but I'm back for a quick update. Class, studying, and training has kept me quite busy, but I wanted to get in a quick note while it was fresh in my mind. The idea today is pretty basic, but well outside of modern group think. What I'm proposing is the idea that less is more. No, that's not a misprint I said LESS is more. In today's modern society people look at more of everything as being better. More exercise is always better. Taking more vitamins must be better. More over the counter and prescription drugs to help lose weight or fight off sickness will get me back on track. All sounds familiar, right? What you may not realize is that all this extra crap is hampering your efforts. Exercise is important, but almost more important is rest. If you are breaking down that muscle during an intense workout, there has to be time for it to rebuild if you want to make gains. There's an old saying that rings true here. There's no such thing as over-training, just under-recovery. Take that to heart people. Yes vitamins are important in overall health, but why not get them from your food? Keep in mind that vitamins in a bottle are synthesized in a lab to try and imitate the ones you get from REAL food. Also realize that your body isn't really sure how to handle and process a lot of these vitamins which is putting even more stress on your system, and managing stress is the name of the game here folks. If prescriptions or over the counter meds are also in the mix, that stress level goes up exponentially. Once again, the body doesn't know how to deal with most of these laboratory inventions that are meant to help, but often hinder your health. If it can't be processed it merely gets stored away to wreak havoc gradually over time. Then you have those who are taking meds to combat side effects from their other prescriptions. Is that not just downright wacky? Here is the general concept I'm trying to put forth, if you are working 60 hours a week, then going to the gym and hammering yourself for another 2 hours, Sleep less than 7 hours a night, pop pills because you don't have time to eat real food or are fighting off sickness or pain, and can't understand why your life quality is not improving, then it's time for a change. Here is my prescription. Try to cut down on work hours by staying focused and being more efficient at your job. Don't overwork yourself in the gym. Shorter more intense workouts may be just the trick to get you in and out quickly, while still getting the exercise you desire. Stop taking vitamins and getting off any other meds. Instead, supplement yourself with real quality food that is local or organic to get the nutrients and vitamins you need. Get quality rest! Turn off the TV and computer and get in that bed. Try this for at least two weeks, and if you don't feel and improvement go back to your old ways. Although I have a feeling if you truly commit to these ideas you won't ever look back.

Take the Plunge!

That's right folks, it's time to get wet and wild. Well, not too wild, but definitely wet. I'm talking about swimming. Not just swimming in the recreational sense, but for your health. Going for a nice cold water plunge can be invigorating and refreshing, and for good reason. Most people don't realize that the lymphatic system, which helps move waste out of the body, needs our help to function properly. It doesn't have a nice pump like the heart to make it go, but uses gravity and movement to help it along the way. This is the reason why most people feel more energetic and refreshed after a good workout. What you may not know is that temperature changes in the body also are helpful in putting those lymph nodes into overdrive. This can be accomplished in a couple different ways. One being contrast showers or baths, and the other a nice cold plunge. The contrast shower is simply bathing in cold as you can stand water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, followed immediately by warm water for 1 to 2 minutes. This can be repeated a few times or simply once remembering to always end with cold water. Another option, my favorite, is the cold plunge, and it couldn't be easier. After finding a nice cold body of water, you simply dive in, get back out, and let your body warm itself. You can also repeat this one a few times if you like. Just this morning I went over to a nearby lake, and after doing some mobility work and sprints on the beach, took solace in the cool refreshing waters of lake Michigan. Not only did it feel amazing and help me cool down, but I felt extremely clean and fresh also. Besides giving a boost to your immune system it will help keep your skin taught, smooth, and radiant. There is something about the natural water and all the added minerals that help rejuvenate the body and skin in a way that showers and baths from a well just can't match. Plunges are a great way to help regeneration and recovery in between training, or just a great idea for overall health.

Organic Vs. Conventional

Recently a friend of mine made me aware of a story from CNN’s Jack Cafferty stating that organic food is no healthier or nutritious than regular conventionally raised food. Immediately I was up in arms, as I have been living the organic life for the some time now. After some good natured ribbing and a look at Mr. Cafferty’s blog post I decided to take a deeper look. The basis of the Mr. Cafferty’s declaration is a study commisioned (i.e. funded) by the U.K. government and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. I found it strange that an american publication would be running this, but after following the money trail I can now see why. Thanks to the good people at opensecrets.org I found that big agriculture and food processing was responsible for almost 150 million dollars of donations to the U.S. government in 2008 alone. Industrialized Ag is highly tied to government, and when they smaller organic farms start to take market share they get mad, but I digress. The research team “looked” at 50,000 studies conducted over 50 years and found that there was no significant difference between organic and conventional foods. I immediately found the free abstract for the paper online, but was left wanting more. Being a curious fellow I shelled out the $8 to get a copy and get a more in depth look at the so called research.

What did I get for my 8 hard earned bucks? Six pages of what I consider to be less than thorough work on such an important and topical subject. For starters the conclusion that was arrived at was not based on 50,000 studies as you may have been led to believe, but only 55 that were consider satisfactory. Secondly, these studies were found through normal means that you or I might use when researching for a college term paper. The team stuck a few different keywords into scholarly article search engines, like pubmed.com, and hit search! I know you’re probably thinking that this is nuts, but try to keep in mind that all searching and subsequent data extraction was performed by 2 research assistants! After extraction the data had to be synthesized into hard numbers. This was tricky as the studies varied on representation of the data, controls, sample size, etc...

“Most of the studies contained no information of the sample size or variablity around central estimates. The analysis presented is therefore a pragmatic choice that permitted the available data to be used to its fullest extent. We calculated the standardized percentage difference in the reported mean nutrient content, as follows:

[(Content of nutrient in organically produced foodstuff-content of nutrient in conventionally produced foodstuff)/content of nutrient in conventionally produced foodstuff]X100.”

This leads me to believe that the research team simply pressed on to get a satisfactory result for themselves and funder, the U.K. government, to push political agendas forward. Surprising that this study is so lacking even after being subject to an independent expert review panel consisting of two people! And shocking as it may seem they were both connected to the U.K. government. What really struck me as sad was how the bulk of the discussion portion of this paper brought notice to the poor quality of the research they had found, and how limited the team was in finding better data. The actual details of nutrient content was condensed to a paragraph and a couple of tables, which were inconclusive at best. The Nutritional categories used, which again were fairly random and based on what was available, were: Nitrogen, Vitamin C, Phenolic compounds, Magnesium, Calcium, Phosphorous, Potassium, Zinc, Total Soluble Solids, Copper, and Titratable Acidity. Organic foods showed an higher value in phosphorous and titratable acidity, but lost out on nitrogen content to conventional food. On the rest they were even. Again, they were only using the standards and methodology given in this particular study. The data for livestock was an even bigger joke. Breaking down the nutrient content for meat was relegated to only two categories; Fats and Ash! Who out there is worried about Ash content in their meat? And the fats were unspecified, so we have no way of breaking down the omega-3’s versus omega-6’s. Not to mention CLA content which is proposed to be a quality source of antioxidants and anti-cancer agents. We couldn’t get anything on protein content and amino acids here either. A complete disregard of for livestock is evident. We simply need more information before such a bold claim can be made.

Moving on to what I feel is most important is the complete lack of attention given to other potentially harmful compounds found in our food. Quoting once again from the study, “We did not address difference in contaminant contents (e.g. herbicides, pesticides, or fungicide residues) or the possible environmental consequences of organic and conventional agricultural practices because this was beyond the scope of our review.” Aside from the fact that I do agree that delving into agricultural practices would be outside the realm in this case, I have to disagree with not including contaminant content. If they believe that people buy organic strictly because they feel its more nutritious then they are truly out of touch. It doesn’t matter if the Vitamin C content is the same if you ingest millions of particles of pesticides that offset any benefit you may have seen from said Vitamin C, it’s about overall health! Do a quick google search using pesticides+cancer and see what comes back. It’s staggering how much information is out there on the link between the two. I recently read an article about people in foreign countries using pesticides for suicide! Are they specifically dodging these issues? Possibly. Is it due to the government funding? Possibly. Shame on them for being so obtuse and casual about such an important subject. When large news outlets publicize things of this nature it’s downright negligent to not put in the due diligence and get to the root of the issue.

I could spend all day spouting off the benefits gained from eating organic foods, but the best way to really find out is to try it for yourself. Go to your local grocer or co-op and get one weeks worth of organic food and spend the next week eating only that food. Nothing processed or from a restaurant, just real-whole food. If you don’t feel better and more invigorated then maybe I’m just crazy, but I think you will feel a change. You have to remember that pesticides are foreign to the body, meaning that it is ill prepared to process them effectively. Nine times out of ten those harmful chemicals are being stored away in fat deposits and keep polluting the body over time. Also keep in mind that the same goes for any animal foods that you might eat. If you have a nice fatty steak from an over-drugged poorly fed animal, all the crap that was in them will now make its way into you! It’s real simple when you break it down and try to forget about all the hype surrounding these topics. Just remember to keep digging after you read some random news blurb, there is always more to the story!