Whole Natural Foods

Besides exercise, the other important aspect in obtaining optimal health is nutrition. This is what we eat. It is important to eat whole natural food, the food our bodies were meant to eat.

The food we eat today is essentially dead. It is void of the nutrients that are needed to sustain life. Our food has changed a great deal since the introduction of farming and grains some 10,000 years ago. However, there have been no major changes in our DNA in more than that time. This means that our bodies have not yet adapted to eat this kind of diet. There are basically eight changes to our diet that detrimentally affect our health: (Colgan, Nutrition For Champions, 2007)

1. Introduction of cereal grains and processed carbohydrates;
2. Introduction of animal husbandry;
3. Introduction of refined sugar;
4. Introduction of salt;
5. Introduction of processed vegetable oils;
6. loss of fiber;
7. loss of micronutrients;
8. Increased Acidity

Early 20th century studies by Price and Pottinger has shown that the hunter gatherer diet to be the most beneficial in maintaining life and health. (Schmid, 1997) The food we eat needs to be whole and natural as nature intended it. We should avoid foods that come in packages. Instead we should make our own foods using natural organic and macrobiotic ingredients. These are grown locally when the season allows, and are free of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and other unnatural food additives. It makes no sense to buy organic apples in the USA that were grown in New Zealand. These may be free of pesticides, but nearly all the nutritional value has been lost during the time of cold storage required to ship it, and they were most likely picked to soon to achieve the maximum nutritional value. When possible eat food directly from the source.

Colgan, D. M. (2007). Nutrition For Champions. Vancouver BC: Science Books.

Schmid, R. N. (1997). Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine. Rochester: Healing Arts Press.

The Protein Myth

Recently, I was looking through a fitness magazine at my local news stand. I was amazed about the advertisements in the magazine. I actually saw an ad that stated "Gain 25lbs of muscle in 12 weeks." I was appalled, to say the lease. Not only is this misleading, it is an outright lie. This type of muscle gain is physiologically impossible.

Despite the claims in the ads, it is not protein intake that controls muscle growth. It is only the demand for growth caused by the trauma of intense exercise that will result in growth. The protein we eat is processed by the liver. The liver controls the amount of nitrogen used to build muscle in the body based on the demand. the excess protein we eat is broken down into carbohydrates and urea waste. Nobody has ever gained muscle by overeating protein. If you are not putting in the effort, your body will only use the amount of protein it needs.

Most athletes hitting heavy weights and using the best nutrition possible gain only about 10 lbs of solid muscle a year. If you remember a few blog entries back, I discussed that the every cell in the body renews itself every 6 months. This is the limiting factor in your muscle growth.

Lets give you an example of a 180lb man with 11% body fat. This gives him 160 lbs of lean mass of which about 80lbs is muscle. With the help of some serious weight training, this individual could gain a true 10% of muscle (about 8lbs). He will also gain another third in other tissue such as blood vessels, lean connective tissue, bone mass, nerves, and organ growth, This brings the total gain in 6 months to be about 10.7 lbs. That is a gain of 171 ounces in 180 days. A far cry from the 25 lbs in 12 weeks that the ad claimed.

OK, so just revisit the amount protein needed. Remember that only 21% of that mass you gained is actually protein. Doing some simple math reveals that 0.2 ounces (5.7g or 1 tsp) of protein is incorporated into lean mass every day. in order to get that amount of protein to become lean tissue, you need 8 times that amount. That works out to be 1.6 ounces (45g). OK, this does not seem like much, but when take into consideration that this individual would need about 108g of protein just to maintain his current existing lean mass, you come out with a daily protein requirement of 153 grams of first class protein required each day to gain optimal muscle growth. Now that is a lot of munchies.

What can we conclude from this. Gaining 25lbs of muscle in 12 weeks as advertised is an impossibility. On the other hand, in order to get the protein required to gain the optimal amount of muscle, supplementation is needed. The question is what type of supplement. This will be the topic of my next entry. I will discuss the types of supplement, discuss my favorite, and I may even touch on the subject of Branch Chain Amino Acids.

Until next time, remember that daily movement and exercise is essential to good health.

The Dark Side of Protein

In the past weeks, I have discussed the benefits of protein, and explained why it is of the utmost importance to get your daily intake of protein. But there is a dark side. Proteins can be harmful if over consumed or by consuming denatured proteins.

Protein is damaged by heat. If it is heated too long or exposed to very high heat, it becomes carcinogenic (so does creatine). Most people eat damaged, denatured protein, such as hamburger. Frying or cooking animal protein in an open container or oven tends to dry it out and ruin the protein.

It is easy to know if you are not getting enough protein. Your performance will decline, your recovery rate will decline, and you will loose muscle mass. What many people do not realize is that it can be dangerous to get too much protein. It is definitely not a case of "if a little is good, a lot must be better." There is a fine line between too much and not enough. Especially when you are consuming too much of the denatured protein.

Excess amino acids in the body not used in the structure are converted to non-toxic carbon-dioxide and water. It is also, however, converted into ammonia which is highly toxic to the body. The body will protect itself from the ammonia by converting it into urea. Urea is normally excreted by the kidneys. However, if you eat too much, the kidneys will not be able to keep up, and the toxins will poison the blood.

Chronic elevated urea will cause inflamed kidneys. This can cause low back pain and general feeling of malaise. Unfortunately, unless the levels are really high your doctor will not be able to detect this with normal tests. The best way to detect it is with a BUN (blood urea nitrogen) test. According to Dr. Richard Passwater, a BUN score of 10-14 mg/dl is a measure of good health. a BUN of over 21 may indicate poor health. High BUN may also be caused by dehydration. However, if your hydration is good, you are feeling off, and your BUN is over 21 mg/dl, try reducing your protein intake.

Remember, that if we over cook and denature our protein, we also dehydrate the protein. This dehydration of the meat is cause of almost all the dangers of ammonia production from the nitrogen in the amino acids. Sashimi (raw fish), is one of the safest and biologically efficient ways to consume protein "naturally" because it preserves the water content. Water is the medium used to excrete urea, which ammonia is converted into, but without sufficient water in the body, it is retained and causes damage.

Eating dry overcooked animal flesh, or for that matter, dry bread or any food robbed of its natural inherent water, will cause problems, especially if you are dehydrated to begin with, which most of us are. Smoking, alcohol, coffee and many prescription & OTC medications only add insult to injury, because they encourage dehydration. This is why I focus on hydration principles even before getting into food, especially for athletes.

Next week, I will cover protein supplementation and the use of whey protein isolates.

So, how should I get my protein?

We have been discussing protein, and learned that it is the most important macronutrient that we should get everyday. We learned that proteins play an important role in even our most basic bodily functions. We even discussed that athletes need to anywhere from 1.5 to 3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

Since protein is so important, we can not just eat garbage proteins. We need quality sources from whole natural foods. The usability of the proteins we eat is best measured by Biological Value (BV). BV is the measurement on how much protein is retained in the body. Whole eggs are the benchmark standard and are given a score of 100. Here are some standard scores of common foods:



Do not fall for the myth that vegetable proteins are not complete. This is just ludicrous. The problem with vegetable proteins is their low BV score. As you can see these proteins have a score that is half those of eggs and meat. this means that you would have to eat a mountain of beans to get the same benefit has some higer protein sources. Although vegetable proteins have a lot of other health benefits, they should not be an athletes main source.

I would not recomend a vegetarian diet to an athlete. I prefere a more hunter gatherer (Paleo Diet). I will speak more about this in the future. Nonetheless, vegetarian with the best diet for an athlete are the so called "ovo-lacto" vegetarians. They have realized the importance of eggs and Whey peptides as a protien source.

Remember to get your proteins from the higher sources if possible. In the upcoming entries we will discuss Protein supplementation, The negative sides of protein, and the dangers of soy. In the meantime, I would like to share this protein quality chart from My studies with Cory Holly.

But how much should I take?

Last week I began my discussion on protein. We discussed that protein was the basic building block of our bodies. This week, I want to discuss how much protein to eat per day.

Following the daily recommended allowance (RDA) for protein is not sufficient for athletes. The information about the needs for protein have been accumulating since 1974. Dr. I. Gontzea from the Institute of Medicine Bucharest. He showed that exercise causes the body to use protein at a much faster rate. He did studies with athletes by regulating their exercise and protein intake then measuring the nitrogen balance in the blood.

Remember that one of the features of protein that separates it from a carbohydrate or fat is the presence of nitrogen. A positive Nitrogen balance would indicate that the protein intake was adequate. I negative balance indicates that the protein intake is insufficient.

These studies have shown that athletes with the daily intake of protein at 1.5g/Kg/day kept the athletes in positive nitrogen balance when resting, but once the did their 2 hour exercise session, they went into negative nitrogen balance. This is nearly twice the RDA.

Since then, several other studies have been performed with similar results. Now for athletes, it is important to consume protein based on your fitness needs and your current body weight.

Class 1 or Sedentary = 1 g/kg/day
Class 2 or Endurance = 1.5 g/kg/day
Class 3 or Speed = 2 g/kg/day
Class 4 or Strength = 2.5 to 3 g/kg/day

We will continue this discussion next week with sources of protein and protein supplements.

Protein

 A while back, I planned on doing a segment on the three macronutrients: Protein, Fats, and Carbohydrates. This segment will be the focus of the next six or so installments.

First, we will discuss protein. This is the most appropriate to start with, because its name it self means to "come first" or "of the first rank." this is why its presence and position at each meal should be the first consideration, not the last. Did you know that next to water, protein is the most prevalent substance in the body? Remove all the water from the body, and over 50% of the dry weight is protein. In order to emphasize this, check out what is made of protein.

• Hemoglobin that carries oxygen in your blood is made of protein;
• The structure of your genes;
• Your brain cells;
• All enzymes are protein. These control every bodily function from a blink of an eye to the creation of new muscle.

Enzymes are very important in how your body works. All enzymes are protein, so it is very important to get your protein nutrition right. As I mentioned, your genes are mode of proteins. Your nutrition directly affect how the genes work in your body. Researches have shown that nearly 98% of the molecules in your body is replaced every six months. Bits and pieces of your body are constantly being replaced by new proteins. In six months your biceps, your blood, your enzymes, and even the structures of your genes will be made entirely from what you have eaten in the last six months.

The bottom line is that if you eat poor quality proteins then all the structures of your body; muscles, bones, teeth, blood, ect.. will be poor quality. To quote one of my mentors Dr. Michael Colgan:

"The human system is super ingenious at making do with inadequate building materials, patching, and pinch-hitting, but it can't build premium tissue from garbage. A Twinkies and coffee diet produces a Twinkies and coffee body. For optimum performance you have to eat optimum protein to build optimum structure--period."

In my next installment, I will discuss how much protein we should eat.

Why Sports Nutrition?

It seems that more and more, people are beginning to ask questions. The one I get the most is " You are a Naturopath. Why do you focus on sports nutrition? Shouldn't you be helping the sick?" It does not surprise me that many potential clients ask this. What surprises me is that a lot of my colleagues in the industry ask me the same thing. It appears that many people, including many natural health professionals, do not truly understand the benefits of exercise.

The knowledge of the benefits of exercise has been known for a long time. I would like to open here with a few quotes from some very well known individuals.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save and preserve it.
Plato - 350 BC

Positive health requires a knowledge of man's primary constitution and of the powers of various foods, both those natural and those resulting from human skill. But eating alone is not enough for health. There must be exercise of which the effects must likewise be known. If there is any deficiency in food or exercise, the body will fall sick.
Hippocrates - 5th Century BC

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas Edison

The benefits of exercise are numerous. Below is a list of some highlights.

1. Resistance training has the potential to improve muscle strength and endurance, enhance flexibility and body composition, decrease risk factors for cardiovascular disease and improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity;
2. There is a strong inverse relationship between physical fitness and mortality due to all causes;
   
3. Incidence of all forms of cancer is closely related to the lack of fitness. Unfit men and women are nearly 300% more likely to develop cancer;
4. A moving body maintains and improves insulin function;
5. Exercise increases overall white cell counts in the blood. This includes lymphocytes, interleukin, and neutriphils;
6. Exercise strengthens immunity and improves resistance to all kinds of damage including bacteria, viruses, toxins, and radiation.
7. Exercise prevents fat build up in the coronary arteries of the heart;
8. Weight training does not only increase the metabolism, but it builds muscle and preserves bone mass. A 21-year study from the University of Helsinki, Finland, involving more than 3,200 men, showed that those who exercised vigorously in their 40s and 50s were much less likely to sustain hip fractures than men who were sedentary. Even moderate exercise offered some protection.
9. Exercise helps relieve the symptoms of depression.
   

The list goes on. Study after study confirms this. The right exercise should be the cornerstone of any health building program. As I have shown, it helps regulate hormones, increase metabolism, increase bone mass, lower cholesterol levels, increase the immune system. Even the most moderate of exercise programs can achieve this.

To me the answer is clear. Exercise and physical training is not an option. It is a must. It is time to build a healthy body.