Red Meat: Friend or Foe?

No matter your involvement in the health and fitness field, I'm willing to bet that at some point in your life you've heard that red meat does nasty things to your body.  It has been claimed to increase mortality rate in all sorts of ways, including increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.  Those are some pretty hefty claims, all due to the good ol' moo cow.  But let's look at this a little more closely, and try to shed a light on red meat.  You may be surprised to discover that it's not the killer it's been made out to be.

Firstly, I know there have been many studies done on the correlation between red meat and increased mortality.  But every study I come across doesn't quite hold up to the claim that red meat is the actual reason the test subjects died an early death.  In fact, it's virtually impossible to prove that red meat is the reason for premature mortality.  Sure, it's associated.  But hey, if most of those test subjects were on the average American diet of fatty meat and high carb-loaded, chemical packed, sugary junk, then don't you think the latter might have had a bit to do with it?  And what about genetics?  There are just too many factors to blame it all on red meat.  Don't get me wrong, there's some bad red meat out there, but is all red meat inherently dangerous?  Heck no.  Let's look at what makes up the difference between healthy red meat, and the nasty crap.

First thing you should know.  When you eat an animal, you eat parts of what that animal has ingested.  You're getting a little taste of its diet history, and that may be good, or bad.  If you're eating venison, I wouldn't worry too much, as deer tend to have about the cleanest diets going.  If you're eating a cheap cut of beef though, I'd be a little wary, as most of the cheap stuff was fed feed corn and antibiotics on a daily basis in order to make the cows as big, meaty, and profitable as possible.  When fed corn, the cow puts on a lot of excess fat, which marbles (or interlaces) with the actual muscle, making the cuts absolutely delicious, but packed with saturated fat.  The antibiotics most cattle are given have two distinct purposes: First, they prevent the herd from contracting common diseases, and destroying profit.  Second, smaller doses actually cause the animal to gain weight, which INCREASES profit the farmer obtains at slaughter.  Cows are also given growth hormones which...well...cause growth.  All this equates to more meat and more money.

Unfortunately for us, these chemicals remain in the cuts of meat when we consume them, and they don't do our bodies any favor.  And THAT, my friend, is why red meat is bad for you.  There isn't any curse in the meat itself which causes health problems.  In fact, apart from the chemicals, red meat is actually very, very nutritious.

Protein:  Red meat is packed with protein, and has always been a favorite of the muscle building crowd.  In fact, lean ground beef is one of the most useful muscle building tools going.  A little less than a quarter pound of lean beef has about 25 grams of protein, which is pretty darn awesome.  Not to mention it's delicious, cheap, and readily available at almost any grocery store.  And to top it all off, the protein in red meat is very bioavailable, meaning your body can readily use that protein to rebuild muscle fibers with a high degree of efficiency.  Neat!

Vitamins and Minerals:  Surprisingly, red meat has a ton of vitamins and minerals that your body will love you for consuming.  It's extremely rich in B vitamins, and provides about 70% of the required value of B-12 in 100 grams.  It's also very rich in vitamin B-6, vitamin A, riboflavin, and niacin.  Red meat is also one of the best sources out there for both zinc and iron, and will provide about a quarter of the daily recommended value per serving.  Red meat is also extremely rich in selenium, providing about a fifth of the daily recommended value in one 100 gram helping.

Antioxidants:  That's right, red meat has antioxidants!  Actually, it's got a whole bunch, including generous amounts of glutathione, lipoic acid, carsonine, and anserine.  These substances have been proven to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels, act as "anti-aging" compounds, and help maintain healthy metabolic rate.

Fat:  Now you may think you know what's coming here, but prepare to be surprised.  Red meat doesn't just have saturated fat, in fact the majority of the fat in red meat is monounsaturated, and is of the same chemical construction as the healthy fats in olive oil.  It will lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise (HDL) cholesterol. The majority of the saturated fat in red meat is stearic acid, which will increase good cholesterol, but have no effect on bad cholesterol, resulting in only a small deficit in the "bad" direction.  The rest of the fat in red meat is polyunsaturated, and will lower bad cholesterol, and have no effect on good cholesterol.  All in all, about 70% of the fat in red meat is beneficial toward your desired cholesterol ratio.  Doesn't sound so bad, right?  Definitely not as bad as it's been made out to be.

So the real question is, how do you get all these health benefits without all the nasty hormones and fat associated with cheap cuts of beef?  What you need to look for in the grocery store is GRASS FED BEEF. Ground, grass fed lean beef is very low in unhealthy fats, packed with protein, and basically eliminates most of the marbled fat that exists within the meat itself.  Grass is a much healthier alternative for the cows, and by eating it the cows retain much less fat overall and build higher quality muscle.  The same can be said for pork, and you should look for grass fed, or pasture raised varities.  This will virtually ensure that the animal was healthier, and carrying less fat at the time of slaughter.

But wait, even if you choose a nice cut of grass fed meat, you're not out of the woods yet.  You should also make sure you look on the label for something like "no hormones" or "no antibiotics," to ensure you're getting meat WITHOUT all the nasty chemicals.  This will provide you with a healthy and fantastically delicious dinner which will definitely help you build some muscle and trim the fat.  Just be smart about your purchase, read the labels, know your red meat.

Here's a link to the FDA's list of labels that can be placed on food, and what you should look for depending on your goals:http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Factsheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labeling_Terms/index.asp

Still scared of the myths you've heard about huge caloric content?  Let me brush that nonsense aside right now:

This is for lean, ground, grass fed beef.  Not bad at all.  I could fit that into so many diets I couldn't even come close to counting them all.  Don't be scared of red meat.

Hmmm...maybe I shouldn't have put this picture in...a little too cute...

Bottom line:  Red meat isn't inherently bad for you, and is in fact quite healthy in its natural state.  Don't be scared to eat it, and pay no attention to all the haters of red meat and all its glory.

Enjoy your food, love red meat, and as always, GOOD LUCK!


References:
http://www.eatthefatoftheland.com/red-meat.html
http://animalrights.about.com/od/animalsusedforfood/f/AntibioticsrGBH.htm
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-red-meat

Cinnamon: A Spice For Life!

It's not just the whole foods we consume that can have a positive (or negative) effect or our bodies, the spices we add can really introduce an entirely new spectrum of health to the foods we enjoy.  Today I'd like to discuss what may be one of my favorite spices of all time, cinnamon.  I love cinnamon!  I love it on oatmeal, with apples, in soup, and of course on some sugary sweets.  Cinnamon compliments all sorts of tastes so well, and in my neck of the woods it shows up in all sorts of year round recipes.  Boy do I love it with apple cider, or in healthy pumpkin pie my mom has gotten so good at making.  It's a flavor I never want to live without, and I'm sure most of you can agree with my affinity for the stuff.  The great news is: this spice is also quite healthy!  It's got all sorts of little nutritional nuances that in the end can really do you and your body some long term good.  But first, as always, let's look at where this stuff comes from in the first place.

Cinnamon is actually collected from the inner bark of a tree, specifically trees of the Cinnamomum genus.  It's originally native to southeast asia, but has obviously become one of the most widely used spices in the world.  That's why you'll be able to find cinnamon in basically any grocery store you happen across.  All the better for us, right?  Cinnamon is actually harvested through coppacing, which basically means chopping down many young trees that are all growing from one stump.  These trees rapidly replace themselves, and therefore the cinnamon yield is very consistent.  As with most things, there are all types of cinnamon, but we won't concern ourselves with the details at this point.  Let's just get down to the fun little nutritional facts that make cinnamon such a uniquely healthy spice!

Stabilizes Blood Sugar:  Cinnamon is actually quite effective at mimicking insulin in our body, and therefore has been shown to decrease/stabilize blood sugar levels.  This is not only great news for diabetics, but also those looking to lose weight more quickly, as your body will be less likely to store fat when blood sugar levels are stable.  So sprinkle some cinnamon on your morning cereal, oatmeal, toast, waffle, etc. and you'll be more likely to keep your weight loss on track (as long as that cereal/toast/waffle is full of whole wheat, fiber, and low sugar of course!)

Lowers Bad Cholesterol:  There was a study done a while ago that showed cinnamon may have an effect on lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol.  Unfortunately more recent studies have shown that cinnamon may have no real effect on cholesterol levels, but hey, adding a little here and there to the healthy foods you love definitely won't hurt you!  I always say that if there's at least a chance something's healthy for you, you might as well give it a shot, right?  Many Americans would love to have a lower level of bad cholesterol, and a sprinkle of cinnamon is just one more little step you can take!

Anti-Clotting:  Your blood works much more effectively if it's flowing smoothly.  In your blood, there are little cells called platelets, which are meant to clump together under "emergency" circumstances like a cut or gash in which a vein/artery is punctured.  The platelets clot up and stop the leak, and in turn keep you alive.  That's all fine and dandy, but unless you really need the clotting action, platelets can inhibit smooth bloodflow if they clot together when they're not supposed to.  Cinnamon actually helps reduce unnecessary clotting (without affecting clotting when it's needed, don't worry), and therefore can help your blood flow more smoothly, taking a load off your heart and circulatory system.

Brain Booster:  Surprisingly, cinnamon has been shown to have a positive effect on cognitive function!  Even smelling the spice increases brain activity, and several studies have shown that cinnamon flavored gum or even just the scent of cinnamon can help students score marginally better on tests.  Cool stuff, right?

Other Nutrients:  Cinnamon can also give you a little bit more of the stuff your body really needs right along with your whole foods, like critical vitamins and minerals.  Courtesy of WHfoods.com, here's a nutritional profile for cinnamon:

Cinnamon 2.00 tsp 5.20 grams 12.84 calories
Nutrient	Amount	DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World's Healthiest Foods Rating
manganese	0.91 mg	45.5	63.8	excellent
fiber	2.76 g	11.0	15.5	excellent
calcium	52.10 mg	5.2	7.3	very good

I for one love cinnamon over almost any other spice.  It's easy to fit into my diet, adds so much flavor and character to food, and is just plain healthy!  You really can't go wrong.  I hope some of you learn to enjoy it as much as I do, and try it with a few of your favorite foods.  Seriously, oatmeal and cinnamon go together like bread and butter.  Apples too =].  What are you waiting for, start sprinkling!

Good Luck!


References:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=68#nutritionalprofile
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-cinnamon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon

Think About It, Will You?

Your brain is a powerful, powerful thing.  It thinks, reacts, considers, remembers, judges, determines, solves, computes, as well as a host of other things.  It's the reason you're breathing, walking, lifting that heavy weight, and of course eating that healthy meal.  But did you know that as you age, your brain tends to shrink?  It actually decreases in volume and cognitive ability!  Yikes!  It's an inevitability, but the good news is that you can easily give yourself a fighting chance in your golden years if you just consider your health a little more thoroughly.  

Did you know that being obese is actually dangerous to your brain?  That's right!  Not only are you straining your heart, muscles, liver, kidneys, bones, and ligaments, but also that organ which keeps you thinking clearly.  Research has proven that obese people have smaller brains than people of "normal" weight.  YEAH!  THEY'RE ACTUALLY SMALLER!  Crazy, eh?  Believe me, a smaller volume of brain cells in critical areas is not something you want.  It will affect your ability to problem solve, remember, and in general think clearly.  This problem only gets worse as you get older, and in your golden years, size does matter.  You want as BIG a brain as possible, with the most possible ability to think and remember clearly.  The bigger the effective volume of your brain, the lesser chance of getting cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer's.  Lose that spare tire, and gain some of that witty spark back!

And this preservation of your brain comes with another little fun twist.  It's been shown that people with greater muscle mass, in general, retain greater cognitive function as they age!  WOW!  Those gym trips aren't just giving you the guns after all!  It turns out that a healthy amount of muscle mass will preserve a greater flow of blood through your cerebral passages, leading to...you guessed it...more thinking power!  Less muscle= poor cerebral blood flow = brain damage/deterioration throughout your life. 

Lifting those weights also helps to build NEW blood passages throughout your brain, which will allow nutrients to penetrate deeper into critical brain tissue, actually encouraging "neurogenesis" or the creation of new brain cells!  Remember way back when, when you heard all those people tell you that brain cells can't regenerate, and what you have is what you've got, no matter what?  Well that's a bunch of hooey!  Your brain is constantly remodeling and adapting to your current life situation.  Once it stops, you're in trouble.  Support neurogenesis through exercise and healthy diet, and you'll keep better brain function as you age.  

So what's the final word?  Lose that spare tire, and hit the gym a few more times each week.  You'll not only get that beach body, but you'll be quite the sharp thinker for a long time to come.  

Good Luck!

References:  Braverman, Eric R., and Dale Kiefer. "Combating Age-Related Brain Deterioration."Life Extension Oct. 2011. Print.

Brain Training For Muscle Gains

So, all you gym rats, all you muscle heads, you heavy hitters, big time lifters, and meat-heads, what do you think happens when you get stronger? What has actually changed in your body that has allowed you to lift more weight than previously?  Well, the obvious answer is that you've gained muscle mass, greater muscle density, or in other words, you've increased the amount of usable muscle fiber in your body.  But what if I told you that you, without ever lifting a single weight, have more muscle fiber in your body than you really know what to do with?

Well, maybe that's not exactly true, there is a limit to the "stock" amount of muscle fiber you have.  But without any sort of training, much of your muscle fiber will be wasted and doomed to inactivity.  You'll be unable to lift to your potential.  In fact, you may remember in my recent article regarding gorillas (yes, gorillas, quite fascinating actually, read it here: ), I mentioned that the human body with no training whatsoever is only able to use about 20% of the muscle fiber it has.  That's not much now, is it?  Four out of every five muscle fibers are unusable without any sort of training.    That means you have a lot more potential than you could believe.  The good news is, when you lift weights, you not only break down muscle fiber (and inevitably build it back up again), you create stronger connections between your brain and muscles, and can more actively engage greater numbers of muscle fibers to work for you and lift that incredibly heavy barbell.  

Let's explore this brain-muscle connection a little further, and maybe optimize the gains you can obtain through "brain training."  The actual name of this brain system is called the Central Nervous System, or CNS.  Ever heard of it?  In actuality your CNS determines how your body reacts to stimulus, how quickly it reacts, with how much power and intensity, and with the greatest efficiency possible.  As you increase training intensity, weight, reps, etc., you build a stronger connection between your CNS and you muscle fibers. 

 In general, heavier loads are more taxing on your CNS, and require a more powerful contribution from your brain. In fact, the greatest way to stimulate your brain to build stronger muscle connections is through high weight, low rep applications.  Big surprise, I'm going to bring up weightlifting again!  Olympic weightlifters are masters at using every muscle fiber they've got with the greatest possible efficiency.  They can optimize the contribution of their CNS, and while the truth of this statement hasn't been confirmed, very often you'll hear members of the infamous Chinese weightlifting team claiming they can use more than 90% of their muscle fiber.  That's 70% more than the average human being!  Here's a good explanation of CNS training that might optimize brain-muscle connection development:

"Bompa's philosophy (Bompa 2005) with regards to weight training to improve explosive power is that repetitions are the key training variable. He recommends a low number of repetitions (1 to 3), with loadings in excess of 90% of 1RM (1 rep max), in order to develop strength that will boost speed and power and optimise the contribution of the CNS, with a recovery of 6 minutes between sets. These loadings create a higher level of excitation and receptor/effector communication, more motor unit recruitment and greater neural stimulation. These loadings and recoveries are also recommended on the basis of their contribution to maximum power and strength expression, and also because they do not produce a large increase in muscle mass, which could be detrimental to an athlete's power to weight ratio."

But why stop at weightlifters?  It's obvious that any high level athlete has a highly developed CNS in regards to their sport.  They know exactly how to use the muscles they need in order to get the job done to the highest possible efficiency.  They are strong, fast, lean, and powerful.  Most likely they've also been training for quite a long time in order to develop such remarkable connections.  There's obviously something to be said about practice.  The more often an activity is performed, especially with intensity and good form, the greater development will occur in your brain.  

Hopefully it's quite obvious by now that your brain plays a big roll in your training.  And just like your muscles, you can overtrain your CNS to the point where it becomes impossible to work out.  It's not quite the same feeling as an extremely sore muscle, or stiff joints.  From personal experience, I believe it's a much worse feeling, and far more frustrating.  An overtrained CNS will leave you completely drained, blurry eyed, and unable to lift even a fraction of what you normally could.  It'll be like energy just won't come your way no matter what you do.  If you don't want to overtrain your CNS, avoid:

-Extremely heavy loads each and every day

-Working to failure on a constant basis

-Extremely high intensity workouts too often throughout the week

Nobody's saying you can't push yourself.  But do it smartly, and if you're not used to heavy loads, work up to them.  Not everybody is able to squat 90% of their max day in and day out, you need to work up to that level.  Just like your muscles, your CNS will gain endurance and strength, and you'll be able to lift heavier and work harder more and more often.

If you do overtax yourself, even accidentally, don't despair, it usually happens to most everyone at one point or another.  You have to know your limits, and sometimes the only way to find them is to surpass them.  Just take a day off from the gym (A REAL DAY OFF, NOT A LIGHT WORKOUT DAY), get plenty of sleep, eat well (eat to refuel, complex carbs and lean proteins), and really let all those nutrients soak up into your body as you give it a much needed break.

Realize that when you get stronger, you're not just packing on meat.  You're getting smarter with the iron, and more able to use every muscle fiber you've got.  Crazy stuff right?

Use that brain, push yourself, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

References:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/cns.htm

Water: The Critical Liquid

Ok, buckle up, here comes an article that I guarantee will be one of the most important in this entire blog.

It's time to talk about water, and it's importance.  Yeah you've all heard the fun facts, that humans are 72.8% water, and that while you can live for weeks without food, you can only live at most around 10 days without water.  Here's a nifty little chart from survivaltopic.com that shows the predicted survival rates for dehydrated people at various temperatures:

How Long Can You Live Without Water?

Max Daily Temperature	Number of Days in the Shade
	No Water	1 Quart .95 Liter	2 Quarts 1.90 Liters	4 Quarts 3.79 Liters	10 Quarts 9.46 Liters	20 Quarts 18.93 Liters
120 F / 48.9 C	2 days	2	2	2.5	3	4.5
110 F / 43.3 C	3	3	3.5	4	5	7
100 F / 37.8 C	5	5.5	6	7	9.5	13.5
90 F / 32.2 C	7	8	9	10.5	15	23
80 F / 26.7 C	9	10	11	13	19	29
70 F / 21.1 C	10	11	12	14	20.5	32
60 F / 15.6 C	10	11	12	14	21	32
50 F / 10.0 C	10	11	12	14.5	21	32

Kinda scary eh?  What you don't realize is how incredibly, amazingly, fantastically, undeniably CRUCIAL water is to all bodily functions.  There's no if's, ands, or buts about it, your body runs off the stuff.  Without water, your body can't function, your blood can't flow, your muscles can't move, and your brain can't do a darn thing.

But if you're not in the middle of the Sahara, I'm willing to bet you're getting sufficient water to carry on throughout your day.  If you're thirsty, you have a drink, and go on your merry way.  It's simple, right?  Eh...not so much.  Most people nowadays are not drinking the recommended amount of water.  For men, it's recommended to consume around 12-13cups (3.3L) of fluids a day.  For women, that figure is about 9 cups.  That's a lot of water!  Mind you, most people do get water intake from sources outside liquid in a glass, however if it requires chewing, the amount of water you're taking in won't end up being too significant.

That leaves the majority of that fluid intake up to the actual liquids you drink.  When's the last time you can remember drinking 3.3L of fluid of water in one day?  Keep in mind that eight glasses of water is around 2L.  And that's a LOT of water.  Also, this is just a baseline number.  If you do any sort of exercise, you should be drinking a decent amount more than this.  10-15 glasses of water a day for an active, average sized male.  Wow.

So we've come to the conclusion that if you're like most people, on an average day you drink less than the recommended serving of water.  That may not seem like too big a deal, you always get through your day, right?  It's never posed too much of an issue.  Now comes my job, trying to convince you to drink more by explaining how a few more sips of that refreshing clear liquid could do you more good than you could realize.

Here's just a few of the hundreds of benefits of drinking more water:

Increased energy:  Many studies have shown that increasing your water intake throughout the day will cut down fatigue.  I can personally vouch for this, after increasing my intake by about 5 glasses I've noticed much more energy, and a feel a LOT better in the afternoon.

Brain Function:  Your brain is just like the rest of your body, made up of various tissues.  These tissues are 85% water.  If you become even slightly dehydrated, be prepared to notice a decrease in thinking ability/clear-headedness.  Can't remember the name of that dude you met at the grocery store?  Should've had a glass of water that morning...

Gym Performance:  This one seems like a given.  Your muscles need LOTS of water to function.  Losing 2% of your bodily water will decrease your gym performance by 15-20%.  Blood becomes thicker, oxygen doesn't flow as easily, and everything becomes slow, tired, and stiff.  Drink more water and you may hit that new PR sooner than you think!

Muscle Mass:  Muscles need nutrients to grow.  Guess how they get those nutrients?  You got it, water.  Water keeps nutrients flowing into your muscles, so they can recover after a workout and grow larger and denser than they were before.

Fat Burning:  According to an article on webmd.com, water can help increase your metabolic rate.  One study showed that after 17 ounces of water (around 2 glasses) of water increased metabolic rate by about 30% for two hours.  That's pretty significant, and could definitely help in any weight loss goals.

Feel full, eat less:  My last article dealt with this.  If you drink a full glass of water before and during every meal, your risk of over eating is drastically reduced.  That much water takes up a good bit of space in your stomach, so you'll feel full faster.  This is a must try if you're cutting back on calories and miss that full feeling after every meal.

Healthy kidneys:  Water keeps those kidneys in tip-top condition and will help flush toxins out of the body.

Insulin levels:  Water does not spike your blood insulin, so if you drink a glass and feel full for a while your rate of fat oxidation will remain higher than it would for flavored drinks.

I could go on for hours, but I'd like to discuss one final point.  Some people just don't really like water, and how bland it is.  I'm one of those people, and I find it hard to drink a lot of it.  One glass is fine.  15?  No thanks.  But there's good news.  Any sort of liquid will count toward your daily water intake.  Sure it has to be filtered by your body first to remove the other stuff dissolved in it, but it'll still keep you hydrated.  That means you can have that cup of coffee, or that mountain dew, and still enjoy the benefits of an increased daily water intake.  No, it's not quite as good as the plain stuff, and I would suggest still getting a glass of water down with every meal.  But hey, it's a start.

Does 15 glasses a day sound a little daunting?  It did to me.  But just like eating healthy, start SLOWLY.  Add a glass in the morning when you get up.  Just one.  Then when you've gotten used to that extra bit of liquid, add another.  Your body will soon become accustomed to the increased liquid intake, and you'll start to feel those oh-so-amazing benefits.  I highly suggest you try this method.

Keep on chugging, stay hydrated, and good luck!