Sunday, August 14, 2016
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Offsetting Training Stress with Nutrition
 |
| Still smiling after a 20 mile run. |
Stress: An Inevitable Component of Achievement
There's a common joke amongst long-distance runners: You don't have to outrun the tiger, you just have to outrun your FRIEND!
Competition is healthy. It promotes mental and physical growth. It forces us to try harder than we had ever tried before, to persevere longer than we thought possible, and to push beyond ones comfort zone and pain threshold to perform at a level that the athlete did not know that they were capable of reaching, achieving, and surpassing.
To compete means to perform. Performance competitions like triathlons & ironman triathlons, half & full marathons, as well as expedition & adventure races require professional and amateur athletes alike to push their limits throughout the entire training process in order to improve both their mental and physical condition to emerge victorious.
The amount of training necessary to compete at a high-performance sport is cognitively and physically demanding. Demanding on ones time, balancing work & family life. There also exists a continuous tug-of-war and second-guessing game that goes on in the mind and body of a performance athlete as she or he attempts to weigh and assess training intensity with the risk of potential injury, trying to sustain motivation while experiencing physical and mental training fatigue, and struggling to stay hydrated and properly nourished but lean enough to stay competitive during the entire training process up to the day of the race.
Training is stressful. Stress that is both physical and mental. Performance stress can be physically manifested in swollen joints, sore muscles, lethargy, nutritional deficiency, and weight gain. Mental stress can also be physical in nature, showing up as anxiety, inability to concentrate and sleep at night, depression, and fatigue.
Initially appearing as weight gain and fatigue, stress, if ignored and unaddressed, can lead to systemic inflammation. Inflammation, now shown in clinical research to be one of the leading causes of acute and chronic illness as well as one of the leading causes of disease. Stress's ability to inflame the body and weaken the immune system is not to be taken lightly.
So how can an athlete offset the negative physical manifestations of high-level training and speed up recovery? Nutrition and adequate hydration are two effective ways to counteract and mitigate training enervation and fatigue.
A healthy athlete is a well-performing competitor. Health begins with consuming nutrient-dense foods as part of a well-balanced diet that is full of plant-based variety and color. Correct nutrition and adequate hydration are the legs on which sports conditioning and recovery stand.
Muscle recovery requires a full range of vitamins and minerals coming from nutritious living foods. High-level training offset with a proper nutrient-dense diet can continually regenerate the athlete's cells by providing both the physical energy as well as the chemical building blocks required to replace lost or injured tissues as well as to rejuvenate and revitalize joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles necessary to compete on race day.
Before you sign up for your next race, sit down and look at what you are feeding your body with. Eating sport-specific foods can help enhance the athlete's workout quality and fitness level by providing the correct balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein as determined by exercise intensity and performance requirement. Ultimately, your body is only as good as the food you feed it and an athlete is only as good as her or his body is on the day of the race.
Thank you for your readership. I definitely appreciate your support as I live out my passion in words.
- Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
BellGia.com
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Are Juice Cleanses Nonsense
Is the Juice Cleansing Movement All Hype or Are There Real Health Benefits
The impetus to juice is to enjoy the health benefits associated with the consumption of additional vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruit. Juicing, if done correctly, will allow "the juicer" to get many more plant-sourced vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals into their body than would otherwise not be possible if consumed by traditional mastication (chewing up and swallowing).
Juicing is NOT about getting an additional source of fiber into the diet. It's the exact opposite. Juicing extracts and disposes of the fiber from the produce being juiced, thereby, leaving the liquid portion devoid of time-consuming, need-to-be-digested fiber, in the juicer's catch-cup for speedier digestion upon swallowing. The liquid dispelled by the juice extraction machine contains all of the vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant compounds of those juiced vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruits. Vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds that would otherwise be missing from a diet that's based upon lean animal-sourced protein and under 50 grams of carbohydrates (the amount of carbs found in 1 cup of long-grain brown rice or ~1 cup of baked sweet potatoes) like the Paleo, Ketogenic, and Atkins-type diets.
Juicing experts and educated juice advocates recommend juicing primarily green vegetables, a few root vegetables for their dense mineral content, and very little low-sugar fruit. Most American diets are not lacking in fruit. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is reported in clinical research as being low in green vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, and Brussel sprouts. Dietary questionnaires and patient interviews show that the majority of Americans are able to eat an apple, an orange, a tomato, or a banana daily, but the average American has difficulty trying to find the time to make a pot of green beans, steam a pan of asparagus, or boil turnip greens for a nutritious side item at mealtime.
Dark green vegetables are high in protein (though many uninformed critics of juicing say otherwise), vitamins, and minerals and low in glucose unlike root vegetables and fruit which can contain as much sugar as a 1/2 can of Coke to the shock of many a store-bought juice lover (1 cup of green grapes contains 21grams of sugar minus the fiber versus 19.5grams of sugar in a 1/2 can of coke). A ketogenic dieter or a paleo adventure lover wanting to add a clean-burning plant-based protein to their diet could make a green juice that contains 1 bunch of broccoli with its 17.15grams of protein and 1 head of cauliflower with its 16.13grams of protein and wind up with a glass of vegetable juice that contains 33.28grams of total protein which is equivalent to ~4.5 ounces of cooked 93% lean ground beef without the added cholesterol and naturally derived animal hormones.
There is a science to juicing just as there is a science or method to cooking. Cooking requires some know how and so does juicing. To create a vegetable juice that is nutritious and well balanced, it is advisable to read a few good books on the subject written by dietary chefs who have been educated in juicing or by professional juice therapists. There is a plethora of misinformation on the internet and books published which have been written by overnight authors who do not know the subject matter which they are writing about. There is also an equal number of juice critics that for one reason or another want to put the kibosh on juicing by suggesting that those who juice will become protein deficient. As you can see for yourself from the above-referenced example, adequate protein can be easily had in one glass of vegetable juice if one juices protein-dense vegetables and not primarily sugary fruits that are low in protein.
Protein, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and carbohydrates can all be found in a big glass of green juice. Governmental research shows Americans just aren't getting enough vegetables in their daily diet so why not try to consume a single glass of vegetable juice each day. An easy way to do this is to make a glass of vegetable juice for breakfast. A morning glass of green juice will contain just as much protein without the added cholesterol as eating a breakfast egg, sausage, and cheese omelet with the exact same amount of fiber as the extracted vegetable juice -- ZERO. An egg and sausage or egg and bacon breakfast contains no fiber as does a glass of extracted vegetable juice. Therefore, why are pundits arguing against juicing not realizing that the standard American breakfast is oftentimes devoid of fiber as well is beyond me.
In conclusion, juicing can be incorporated into ones diet in order to get the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals. Juicing can also add a clean-burning source of plant-based protein to someone's diet whose percentage of dietary protein maybe too rich in animal meat. Juicing can be low in sugar if the amount of juiced fruit is kept to a minimum -- just enough fruit to make a juice palatable for consumption. And, lastly, a great rule of thumb I tell my clients who are about to embark on a juicing program is "juice your vegetables and eat your fruit."
Thank you for your continued literary support. It is heaven to be able to write and your readership provides the clouds on which I pen my prose.
Sincerest Thanks,
- Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Saturday, July 2, 2016
No Insulin Secretion Means No Stored Calories
What Foods Do Not Cause Insulin Secretion?
Much to the surprise of what many people believe, protein stimulates insulin's release from the pancreas just as sugar and starch do.
Insulin, if you remember, is the hormone whose main job is clearing excessive glucose from the bloodstream and packaging it in the form of fatty acids called triglycerides into your fat cells for later use. Insulin begins to be secreted by the body BEFORE we take our first bite of food. When we start daydreaming about, looking at, or smelling food, our brains release insulin during a process called Cephalic Phase Insulin Release. The body prepares itself to be fed and gets an early jump of what it thinks will be a sudden flood of glucose by releasing the stored insulin tucked away in your cell's vacuoles. The amount of insulin your body keeps stored in these storage organelles called vacuoles is determined by your previous meals' average macronutrient content. If you've made it a habit of eating sugar or complex carbs at mealtime, your body's got your number and it has stored an appropriate amount of insulin in anticipation. Once we start to eat, our bodies kick up its insulin secretion and produce even more of this hormone.
Insulin does more than control blood glucose levels. It also stimulates the body to absorb most amino acids. Amino acids, as you know, make up protein. Too much protein, just as too many carbs, will have your pancreas pumping out insulin like a gas station attendant on a rainy day. Therefore, if you consume more protein than your body needs, your pancreas is going to produce insulin, causing your body to store those protein calories as glycogen, a/k/a stored carbs, IF you have room in your liver and muscles for the stuff. If there's no room for anymore glycogen in your liver and muscles, then those protein calories ARE going into your fat cells and can increase your body's percentage of total body fat if you've made it a habit of consuming more protein than your body requires from you on a daily basis.
Dietary fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't cause insulin to be secreted. This means that when you eat foods that are entirely composed of fat, or predominantly made of the stuff, your pancreas is able to relax and kick up its proverbial feet and take a break so to speak.
The foods we eat are divided into three categories or macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The predominant or majority macronutrient contained in a food determines its food-category status. For example, beans contain protein, fiber, fat, and carbohydrates. If you turn over a can of kidney, black, chick peas, or white beans you will find out that beans are a carbohydrate and NOT a protein based upon the beans' predominant macronutrient content which is carbohydrates.
Steak, chicken breast, salmon, veal, bison, and ostrich are all examples of meat. Meat or animal flesh does NOT contain any carbs, only protein and fat. (Please notice that I did not include dairy. Dairy contains milk sugar which is a carbohydrate.) Avocados, butter, and plant oils (oil is another name for fat) like peanut, olive, coconut, sunflower, and sesame for example, do not cause insulin's release.
If you trying to keep your insulin release to a minimum, perhaps trying to stick to a ketogenic diet and are striving to get under 50 carbohydrates a day, this means you can put butter in your coffee or on top of your bison and still stay in ketogenesis.
In addition to avocados, butter, the appropriate amount of animal muscle (flesh), and the plant oils mentioned above, pre-diabetics, those striving to minimize insulin secretion, and ketogenic dieters can enjoy an ounce of macadamia nuts and still be okay when finger-stick time comes around because these Hawaiian nuts contain 21 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of carbohydrates. These same folks can also have an ounce of full-fat cream cheese melting on top of their broccoli or perfectly cooked ribeye steak with its 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and measly 1 gram of carbs and still have high levels of BHB or beta-hydroxybutrate, the key parameter to determine if ketones are being produced by the body in response to fasting or extremely low-carbohydrate consumption.
Controlling ones insulin secretion is starting to catch on. Large universities and private research companies are beginning to invest millions of dollars into the subject. Cancer research studies are going on presently with human-test subjects in hopes of fighting the dreaded disease. There has been some terrific research done on longevity and low insulin secretion.
I think it might be a great idea to keep ones mind open when it comes to low-carbohydrate diets. Sometimes what was once considered common knowledge has been proven wrong. Remember, people used to believe the world was flat and that the devil caused seizures.
Thank you for your continued support. I live to write.
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Saturday, June 25, 2016
DO NUTRIENTS DIE WHEN YOU MAKE JUICE AHEAD OF TIME?
VITAMIN LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH PRE-MADE VEGETABLE JUICE
Can you and I agree before you read my blogpost that we're probably going to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and perhaps one or two snacks on most days? This is not a fast day. We're going to consume calories for energy and normal cellular replacement, repair, and growth from some kind of food source, be that solid or liquid.
Now that we've agreed to this, let me ask you, "In what nutritional state is the food that you're planning on consuming in?" Specifically, are you having grilled chicken that was killed several days ago or killed a couple of weeks ago and was frozen until it was purchased by your local grocer served on top of a head of lettuce that was picked over a week ago and then transported over several days via truck or barge 1,200 - 3,600 miles along with a few slices of cucumber and tomato that were taken from their vines two weeks ago?
I'm asking these tough questions in order to get you to think and understand that the food that you are going to eat really is NOT fresh at all, therefore, why are you overly concerning yourself with the nutrient integrity of your pre-made, stored vegetable juice to the point where you are thinking that it just isn't worth juicing vegetables and fruit you bought from your local fresh market or green grocer if you're not going to juice it and drink it immediately when the alternative meal that you would eat in place of the juice is FAR FROM fresh or nutrient packed?
Life is sometimes a long way off from perfect. Sometimes we have to hope for the best and accept the best-case scenario alternative. Many times, however, we're not going to get anything close to the ultimate result we were looking for so you and I are going to have to accept the best of whatever we can get at a particular moment.
Juicing can be just like life. Real-time juicing followed by immediate consumption is of course the ultimate way to get the most nutrition out of your at-home juicing or made-to-order guzzled-down-on the-spot juice from your local juice bar. Many times, however, we just don't get that option so we have to SETTLE for the best we can get which isn't the best case scenario but it is far better than nothing.
Making a large amount of juice ahead of time and storing it in the refrigerator in order get your daily allowance of vitamin-packed vegetables and fruits if you work an 8-12 hour-a-day job, are a full-time mother of 1-4 little kids, are taking 12-15 credits at school, are a busy social butterfly with lots of stuff to do throughout the day, or maybe just lazy person who doesn't want to make juice and then clean up a juicer 3-4 times a day is a great idea. Some nutrients, however, naturally breakdown or decay over time due to lipid oxidation, lipid rancidity, light, heat, and from a variety of complex reactions that involve degradation, volatilization, and recombination of sugars, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, hydroperoxides, organic acids, and then there's phytochemical breakdown of flavonols, flavonoids, and color pigment that occur in vegetable, herb, and fruit juice.
Some of the huge words I just used above may have scared you into thinking pre-made juice is worthless but it isn't. The lifespan of most of the vitamins you are hoping to get from juicing are several days or longer so you're not going to lose much nutritional value in making and storing your vegetable juice ~12, 18, or 24 hours ahead of time. Drinking pre-made, stored vegetable juice is better than not drinking vegetable juice at all.
Vitamins A, K, C, and E last a long time before decaying. Most of your B vitamins, like B6 for example, stay in the juice for the most part during 24-hour cold refrigeration. B3, however, is one of the shorter-lived B vitamins which has a short half-life of ~20-45 minutes but your body makes B3 so you really shouldn't worry about your juice's B3 degradation.
In conclusion, the freshest juice is best BUT we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a 20-minute behind schedule, oh my gosh I lost my keys, I'm never going to make it on time, "Did I remember to brush my teeth" kind of a world so stop sweating the small stuff.
Drink the freshest juice you can. Remember that some juice is BETTER THAN no juice at all. A good rule of thumb if you have to pre-make your vegetable juice and store it in the refrigerator for later consumption is to minimize the juice's exposure to light and heat while slowing down cellular oxidation by using a resealable glass jar or jug that is filled as high to the top of the lid as possible to reduce the amount of oxygen in the container that can cause oxidation and refrigerate the vegetable/fruit juice in a really cold fridge but don't freeze it (no ice particles).
Here's to your health,
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Do Thermogenic Fat Burners Really Work?
Should I Buy a Fat Burner If I'm Dieting?
I know a lot about thermogenic agents because I'm in the weight-loss business. I have been dieting women and men down the scale for twenty-five years. Over one thousand women and six hundred men of varying ages, shapes, and sizes have come to me to help them shed their excess fat and bring out their svelte physiques.
Some of my clients were athletes that let themselves go in the off-season, others were moms or dads that became chubby and out of shape when the babies started coming, and others were couch potatoes who ate potato chips with one hand and controlled the remote with the other. So, yes, I can state with confidence and knowledge that I can tell you everything you want to know about over-the-counter thermogenics commonly sold as "fat burners".
Thermogenic agents like Hydroxycut, Ripped Fuel Extreme, and Xenadrine do not burn your body's fat stores no matter how many or for how long you take them. Thermogenic agents like those popular brands mentioned above, speed up the body's metabolism (the breaking down of the foods we eat in order to re-create the substances our bodies need for growth, repair, and energy) by stimulating the body's nervous system usually by using caffeine (a xanthine alkaloid which is a central nervous system stimulant) as the chemical stimulant of choice or something similar to it's C8H10N4O2 chemical structure.
In order to burn your body's stored fat, your body must release a peptide hormone called glucagon. Glucagon is released from the liver only when your body's concentration of blood glucose is too low. Then and only then does the liver convert stored glycogen into glucose to be used as energy for normal body processes, for thought, and for movement like exercise. Your body uses its glycogen stores before it will use its fat stores as its fuel.
The average human body stores 100 grams of glycogen in the liver and between 300-400 grams of glycogen in its muscles. Your body must use up those stored carbs before it will burn the body's stored fats through a process called lipolysis. I'm sorry to break that to you but it's true and the sooner you know how your body gets its energy, the sooner you will be able to lose your unwanted weight.
Your over-the-counter thermogenic agents or fat burners don't and can't make your body burn fat, but they can speed up your heart's contractions and cause it to beat faster and circulate your blood quicker which requires more calories be used as energy than would a resting heart. The caffeine in these fat burners will also stimulate gastrin release (a hormone made by the stomach) and gastric acid secretions which will aid in gastric motility or the movements of the digestive system and the transit of its contents more quickly. This means the food you eat may get out of your stomach quicker, go through the small and large intestine faster, and then cause you to run to the bathroom for a bowel movement.
Basically the caffeine or similar stimulant in your store-bought fat burners will get your body's nervous system stimulated where your organs will be working faster and requiring more calories as energy to keep up this quickened pace. The caffeine can also mask hunger, coverup fatigue, and improve athletic performance due to its ergogenic effect and the sparing of muscle glycogen.
So, to answer the question posed by this blog post: "Do Thermogenic Fat Burners Really Work?" my response is "Yes, Hydroxycut, Ripped Fuel, and Xenadrine can work for some people because thermogenic agents like these cause central nervous system stimulation which CAN burn additional calories for the person who is taking them IF that person's body hasn't adapted to high caffeine or stimulant consumption."
Please be aware that not everyone should take or can take a thermogenic agent. Those with nervous system disorders, heart conditions, digestive disorders, or anyone who has struggled with an eating disorder may want to talk to their general practitioner before even considering taking these types of drugs.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my blog. I appreciate your continued support.
References:
Scand J Gastroenterol Suppl. 1999;230:35-9.
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Friday, June 10, 2016
Should I Drink a Cup of Coffee Before I Exercise?
Will A Cup of Regular Coffee Help My Sluggish Metabolism?
If you are an avid gym goer you have no doubt seen somebody drinking a Starbucks' coffee before stepping onto the treadmill for a run. You're probably like many people who thought, "What's up with that?"
No, this person isn't so addicted to caffeine that she or he cannot give up their vice before exercising. Caffeine, once thought to be a denigrator of human health has been shown in recent clinical research to reduce the possible risk of Parkinson's disease, protect against type 2 diabetes, promote a healthy heart, and lessen the chances of contracting liver disease or liver cancer.
Consuming caffeinated coffee before physical activity is not the same as smoking a cigarette or slamming a shot of tequila even though many people think these three well-known recreational drugs, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, are similar.
Research sited in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that caffeine has a thermogenic effect upon the human body. The term thermogenic refers to the physical heat that results from increasing the body's metabolism. The caffeine in coffee, chocolate, tea, soda, over-the-counter medicines, and diet pills can cause thermogenesis as well as reduce appetite, and increase the excretion of urine from the body. So not only does caffeine consumption give your brain a buzz and open wide your tired eyes, but it can also kill your hunger and cause you to urinate maybe a pound or two of water weight from off the scale at the same time.
If one cup of Joe is good, is two cups even better? It appears that caffeine does indeed have a dose-response effect. The outcome of a study also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that gave healthy adults caffeine in 100, 200, and 400 mg amounts concluded that the more caffeine consumed, the higher the thermogenic effect upon the coffee consumer at the 200 and 400mg amounts.
The positive clinical results gained by this AJCN study, spawned other research involving the effects of caffeine and metabolism. The American Journal of Physiology printed a study comparing the thermogenic effects on lean and obese caffeine consumers.
If you thought that life was undeservedly kind to the thin, fit, and muscular before, you will be sure of it now after reading the result of this AJP review.
Clinicians gave ten obese women and ten lean women caffeine in sufficient amounts to induce caffeine-stimulated thermogenesis. The ten lean women experienced a greater thermogenic effect which raised their metabolic rate higher than the more portly females and the calorie-incinerating effect lasted longer in the leaner test subjects than it did in the obese women who consumed the exact same amount of caffeine. The American Journal of Physiology study showed, in their small sample size, that women with a lower body mass index and a higher percentage of lean-muscle mass received a greater stimuli when consuming caffeine than the women who had a BMI in the obese range and possessed a larger percentage of body fat. The conclusion, the leaner the individual, the better and lengthier the thermogenic effect.
Like the results in these two studies and maybe thinking about stopping at your local coffee house on the way to the gym? If you are, you can be pretty sure that you'll be okay doing so. Caffeine is considered safe for most people when consumed in moderation, which Mayoclinic.org has defined as less than four cups per day. Consuming in excess of four cups of coffee on a given day can result in restless night's sleep, may bring on a mind-splitting headache, or possibly cause a heart to beat irregularly. Caffeine can also interfere with some medications and antibiotics.
Hope to see you on the treadmill next to me downing your cup of Joe. And, yes, if you are running next to me WE ARE RACING!
Thank you for inspiring me to write about what I love.
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
References:
Am J Clin Nutr. May 1990 vol. 51 no 5 759-767
Am J Physiology Oct 1995 269(4 Pt 1):#671-8
Mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition June 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)