A Salty Situation

Every now and then you consume a little more of something than you had intended.  Maybe you saw it coming, maybe you didn't, but it happened (or was going to happen) regardless.  This kind of situation is a very common one in the diet world, and honestly, I think it usually falls into one of two categories.  You either eat too much sugar, or too much salt.  The first one I'll discuss in a later article, however I wanted to cover the necessary steps to take if you find yourself overdosing on sodium, as I happened to do this weekend (though somewhat intentionally.)

Now I knew that this weekend I would be training with my coach down in Eliot, Maine for two days, and would be spending the night in the gym.  Not wanting to break the bank on eating out, I decided to pack some food.  I only had one small suitcase, and no cooler or anything like that, so my options were limited.  Not only that, but I'd be training quite hard, therefore I knew I needed quality protein and carbs and PLENTY of each.  Can you guess the most convenient food packing option here?  That's right...CANNED FOOD.  Into my suitcase I threw two giant cans of tuna (10 oz), two giant cans of chicken (also 10 oz), a four pack of 5 oz tuna cans, and a 4 serving can of black beans (I also packed some oatmeal for breakfast, and had a wholelotta whey protein).  Every single one of these foods is AWESOMELY clean and has an epic nutritional profile, except for one little blip, which of course, would be the sodium.  Holy moley, that was a boatload of salt.  Somewhere around 2000 mg per meal if I calculated it correctly.  That's about 85% of my daily recommended intake.  What was I to do in order to battle such a crippling dosage of salt?

Well, the first thing to remember is that you cannot destroy your body (or your diet) in one or two days, no matter what you do.  It just doesn't work like that.  You won't wake up twenty pounds lighter just because you had an awesome workout the day before, and you won't wake up a fat lard the next day if you had one extra slice of cake.  Diets are about long term results, and the same goes for sodium.  Sure, if you consume a lot of it one day by accident, you'll probably retain a lot of water and feel (and look) pretty bloated.  But your heart won't stop, your blood pressure won't skyrocket, and you won't die.  Phew!  Now that we got that out of the way, let's see what I did to minimize the huge salt intake on my body.  

Firstly, if you're going to consume huge portions of salt, you need to consume even larger portions of WATER!  That's right, I probably drank two gallons each of those days.  Drinking more water will actually cause you to retain less, and will also do wonders in helping your kidneys filter out all those extra minerals.  Chug that stuff like there's no tomorrow.  I had at least two bottles of it with every meal (6 meals), as well as two bottles worth in my pre and post workout shakes.  DO NOT STOP DRINKING WATER.  I saw very minimal water retention, and I think drowning myself in the stuff did the trick.  Obviously don't drink past a semi-comfortable level, but don't be afraid to stick your head under the sink and go to town.  

Second thing to do?  Consume more POTASSIUM.  The sodium/potassium ratio in your body is a very important one, and must be respected.  In an ideal situation the ratio should be 1:1, meaning for every milligram of sodium you take in, you should have one milligram of potassium to match it.  The reasoning for this goes down to the cellular level, however without getting too complicated I'll just say that sodium and potassium are both EQUALLY responsible for ensuring proper hydration of your body, and without the correct balance you're in for trouble.  Potassium actually helps regulate the amount of sodium your body retains, so consuming more may ensure that you don't hold on to that crazy salt dosage.  It'll also help combat the hypertension inducing effects of sodium, lowering blood pressure considerably.  No matter your sodium intake, it's usually a good idea to make sure to eat potassium rich foods on a regular basis.  This goes even more-so if you're regularly physically active.  While I suggest whole foods such as bananas for this purpose, another easy way to get more potassium quickly is to consume a sports drink like Powerade or Gatorade (my solution for this weekend.)  

Despite a pile of salty food this weekend, I kept my diet clean and my body happy by counteracting the effects of excess sodium intake.  A little too much salt every now and then is no reason to fret, as long as you don't make it a habit.  Keep conscience of your sodium intake, and take the simple steps listed above in order to ensure it doesn't get out of hand.  

Eat big, train hard, drink LOTS OF WATER!  Good luck!

Biggest Bloat Foods

You work hard to look good, we all know that.  You're in the gym 5 days a week, you try to watch what you eat, and so far you've been having a lot of success on your fitness journey.  And like everyone else, you're human, and every now and then you decide to skip on the diet and consume a food you love.  Why is it that every time you do so, you wake up the next morning, look in the mirror, and look like you've gained a solid 5 pounds of fat?  I'll let you in on a little secret.  You probably haven't gained an ounce of actual fat, it's just that particular food you ate playing tricks on you.  So don't despair, just know the facts.

It's called bloating, and it's not a fun sight.  No, it's not dangerous, but it can really cause someone to become very falsely upset about their weight or appearance.  It happens when your body suddenly decides to retain water, or produce internal gas based on a food you may have consumed.  Certain foods (and their respective ingredients) can produce some pretty impressive bloats, so it's always good to know what caused this rapid degradation of appearance.  Let's go over the list of some of the types of food that will cause you to blow up like a balloon, guaranteed:

Food High In Sodium:  This one's the most common of all bloating situations; you decided to splurge, had a bit of a really salty piece of steak, or a few too many potato chips, or decided to go all out on salting that corn cob last night.  Excess sodium will cause your body to retain water in all sorts of places, because water is attracted to sodium.  It's not uncommon to put on a pound or two of water weight after an extremely salty meal, even if it did happen to be low calorie.  If you don't want to blow up like a beluga whale, try to skip the salt, and watch the sodium content on nutrition labels.  If you do accidentally go a little salt crazy, don't fret, just drink a lot of water and your system will eventually cycle all that excess water weight right back out.

High Carbohydrate Foods:  Your body uses carbohydrates as a very efficient energy source by storing carbs as an accessible fuel called glycogen in your liver and muscles.  When 1 gram of glycogen is stored as energy, about 3 grams of water is stored with it.  This means that if you've been quite glycogen depleted (working very hard in the gym, or have been on a low carb diet), and you replenish your glycogen stores by consuming a good amount of carbohydrates, you can put on a lot of water weight quite quickly, and tend to look pretty bloated, or at least "bigger" for a while.  Usually this isn't as bad as sodium bloating, and most muscle heads actually want this "inflated" look as it promotes a healthier, fuller, stronger looking physique.  Don't be surprised though if the scale bumps more than it should after that big plate of pasta.

Raw Vegetables:  Now don't start worrying, vegetables are still probably the healthiest food you can consume throughout your day.  The thing is though, raw veggies have huge amounts of fiber, and can absorb quite a bit of water in your stomach.  That means they take up a lot of space, and can cause you to look like a Macy's day parade float.  Don't worry, this will pass.  Also something to be a little wary of, most fiberous veggies produce a lot of intestinal gas, which, as well as being uncomfortable and...er...embarrassing, can inflate your lower stomach to the point where those tight jeans may not fit anymore.  Seriously though, it's a small price to pay for the health benefits in those veggies.

Artificial Sweeteners:  I love artificial sweeteners, and I use them on a daily basis.  They allow people to stay on a stricter diet more efficiently because they allow someone to have a bit of a sweet tooth without any of the huge sugar consumption.  They can, however, cause bloating, because your body can't absorb and digest them.  They act like fiber and cause intestinal gas, which, you guessed it, pumps you up to snowman-like sizes.  Again though, don't worry too much about it, just know what caused it.

Desserts:  There's a whole host of reason that those big, sweet, sugary desserts can cause bloating.  They're loaded with all sorts of carbs and sweeteners that both force your body to retain water and cause gas.  Also, desserts that contain dairy can be incredibly bloating to those that are lactose intolerant (as will any dairy product.)  Let me just say this: you're guaranteed to look like a beach ball after that heaping bowl of ice cream and apple crisp.

Carbonated Drinks:  This one's a no brainer.  Carbonated drinks contain little bubbles of carbon dioxide, which when consumed escape into your stomach and blow it up like a balloon.  This can cause a lot of discomfort.  Not to mention, most carbonated drinks are loaded with sugars and other artificial sweeteners, two other super bloat-promoting substances.

Bloating is annoying, that's for sure.  Is it dangerous though?  Not usually.  It also shouldn't be a reason to get depressed about your appearance, because bloating is a temporary state.  If you bloat up, just hop back on your diet as soon as possible, keep hitting the gym, drink lots of water, and your body will clear itself out eventually (usually sooner rather than later).  And now that you know the top culprits that cause the biggest bloats, you'll be able to figure out what happened next time you look like the Michelin Man in the mirror.

Eat clean, don't stress, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

Multivitamins: Are They Really Necessary?

I used to be that guy who popped a multivitamin every morning with breakfast, believing that the  little chalky orange capsule was truly making a difference in my health and fitness, and that without it I'd feel like crap, perform like dirt and look like garbage.  I swore by the thing, and when it came time to buy new multivitamins I always looked for the brand that was "performance oriented", and gave you along the lines of a few thousand percent of the daily recommended value of each vitamin and mineral.  Heck, they even threw other things in those pills, like amino acids, folate, selenium, all sorts of stuff.  It was the classic "more is better" mindset, and I was stuck in it.

Then, upon visiting my grandparents, my grandfather, a PhD biochemist and a long and very prosperous career at Pfizer to boot, watched me take my multivitamin with a sort of disappointment.  He said to me "You don't need that giant pill, especially one with those kind of vitamin amounts.  People go way overboard on multivitamins. You only really need 100% of everything, and it's possible to overdose on certain vitamins.  I don't understand super strong multivitamins these days.  People don't need them, especially you at your age with your diet."

At first, I argued with him, saying excess water soluble vitamins were just expelled along with excess water in your body.  And while that's true, I realized he did have a point about certain vitamins that are fat soluble, because it's quite possible to overdose on those, especially if your diet's healthy and your pill is HUGE.  So what did I do?  I took a little vacation from multivitamins.  And guess what?  About three months later, I'm still on that vacation, and I'm feeling just fine.  I've had no noticeable side effects from going cold turkey.  No fatigue, no power loss, and no loss of strength at the gym.  In fact, if anything, I feel better.  So what gives?  Are multivitamins really pointless?  Should you just save that money you shell out on those pills?  Let's explore a little bit.

First of all, let me start by saying this.  I am a firm believer in nature, and long before multivitamins ever existed there were people living long and happy lives off natural foods alone.  Nature has a way of putting pretty much everything you need right there in the palm of your hand, if you know how to look for it.  No, I'm not some hippy telling you to go hug a tree, but if you eat healthy, have a little confidence that you'll be getting nearly 100% of all necessary vitamins and minerals from your diet each and every day.  To prove this point, let's look at a few foods that contain large quantities of the vitamins and minerals you'd normally supplement with a vitamin.

Vitamin C- Strawberries-  You can get 140% of your daily vitamin C from one cup of strawberries!

Vitamin A- Sweet potatoes-  In one 100g sweet potato, you'll get almost 380% of your recommended vitamin A!

Vitamin B6-Tuna, Salmon, and Chicken- Tuna contains about 60% of your daily recommended value of vitamin B6, while chicken and salmon both contain a little over 30%.

Vitamin B12-Salmon/calf liver- Salmon contains about 95% of your DV of B12, and if you can stomach it, a serving of calf liver has about 1500% of your DV.  Wow!  The good news is that if you can't find the oh so common calf liver, shrimp, beef, and yogurt are also very high in B12.

Calcium-Cheese and Almonds- Cheese has about 40% of your daily calcium per ounce, and almonds are around 30% per ounce.

Selenium- Tuna, Cod, Halibut, and Mushrooms- The first 3 fish mentioned have about 75% of your daily selenium per serving, and crimini mushrooms have about 50% per serving.  Not bad!

Folate- Spinach and Chickpeas- Both of these have about 65% of your daily recommended serving of folate per serving, and it's easy to put both into one salad!

I could keep going, but hopefully I've made my point relatively clear that you can get the vast majority of everything you need from your diet.  And the best part is, that while even though the foods I mentioned happen to be rich in one particular nutrient, every single one contains a vast spectrum of other nutrients.  You're getting a virtual rainbow of nutrition with every serving of healthy food, not to mention that the way the nutrients are distributed in natural whole foods is something a man-made multivitamin could never really replicate.

How about what I said before, could multivitamins be dangerous?  Well, for someone like me who eats loads and loads of veggies on a daily basis, I really don't need a giant pill on top of all that.  In fact, I'd be slightly worried that I would overdose on fat soluble vitamins EVENTUALLY.  What are the 4 fat soluble vitamins?  Vitamins A, E, D, and K.  How easy would it be to overdose?  Well, a 25,000 IU dose of vitamin A can cause liver cirrhosis.


Let's compare the vitamin A dosage in three different multivitamins: Opti-Men, Animal Pak (a very famous bodybuilding oriented vitamin), and mega mens sport (my roommates current MV)

Mega Men's-5000 IU
Opti-men's-10000 IU
Animal Pak- 9900 IU

Those are some pretty impressive doses, and it's recommended not to exceed over 10,000 IU a day for vitamin A.  Take two of any one of these vitamins and you're on track for an overdose.  Heck, one a day almost seems like too much, especially if you're eating healthy otherwise.

What I find quite funny is that all these vitamins contain several hundred percent of your daily recommended value for vitamin D.  Vitamin D can be obtained naturally by just standing in the sun for a bit, as the UVB rays create vitamin D in your skin.  This is why with the big pills, you're pretty much paying for stuff you REALLY don't need.


So am I telling you to toss your vitamins?  No, not quite.  I believe a multivitamin can be beneficial for certain reasons.  Firstly, for those who don't eat as much as me (which would be the majority of you), you probably won't get as many vitamins and minerals from your diet alone.  Second, those who don't eat as healthy as they could might also be lacking in at least a few nutritional areas.  Third, as our bodies age they become less able to efficiently absorb vitamins and minerals.  I believe a multivitamin has one particular purpose that it does quite well:  to fill in the gaps.  No matter how fantastic your diet, there will most likely be just one or two little nutrients you're lacking.  A multivitamin can bump these areas up to snuff, and you'll be set to go.  Guess what that means though?  YOU DON'T NEED A GIANT PILL.  If you're really set on taking a multivitamin, read the ingredients, and get the cheapest one that covers all the bases sufficiently.  You don't need a million percent of anything.  100% is fine.  Save yourself some money, please.

But if you don't want to take a multivitamin, by all means, toss them.  Eat healthy, and you'll be fine.  Don't be afraid to load up on veggies at dinner time, and heap some good lean meat onto your plate.  Most likely they'll contain more than enough of everything your body needs to keep on trucking through your workouts, your school-work, and life in general.  And it'd be nice to forget about one more pill in the morning, right?

Trust your diet, eat the good stuff, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

References:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32

Energy Shots: Are they healthy?

I'm guessing that by now you've been in enough gas stations and grocery stores to notice the little cardboard boxes of capsules near the register, with every bottle proclaiming something along the lines of "5 Hour Energy" or "worX Energy."  You've also probably seen the commercials stating how great these little capsules are and exactly what they can do for you in terms of energy and alertness.  But what are these things?  And what exactly is in an energy shot?  Let's explore them a little more closely, and see if we can determine whether or not these things are healthy/beneficial for your body.

5 Hour Energy's biggest slogan is "hours of energy now, no crash later."  Is that really possible?  How can you suddenly get a huge energy high, but avoid the inevitable spiraling down later in the day?  Well, this is partially accomplished in energy shots because they're so darn light.  By light, I mean they're sugar and carbohydrate free.  Sugar is the main culprit for energy crashes due to glucose fluctuations affecting the body.  Take away the sugar, you take away a large portion of the problem.

But then, where does the energy come from?  Well, it's not hard to guess, and I believe you could get it right first try.  Caffeine!  That's right, those little energy shots, despite sounding so darn fancy and new-age, have caffeine as their main energy source.  Now keep in mind, it isn't some ridiculous amount of the stuff.  They claim it's comparable to a cup of premium coffee, and from all that I can gather they're just about right.  Coffee generally has about 100-200 mg of caffeine per cup, and 5 hour energy has about 140 mg of caffeine.  So you're not getting any insane dosage from those little shots, you just have to be careful because they're so easy to drink quickly due the tiny amount of liquid.  Don't go overboard.

Another small assist to the caffeine dose in 5 Hour Energy and other energy shots (6 hour power, worX, etc.), is an added blend of amino acids like taurine, citicoline, and tyrosine.  These amino acids have varying effects on certain body parts that tend to help the caffeine to do its job more effectively.

And of note, while I'm not sure if other energy shots do this, 5 Hour Energy completely loads their energy shot with massive amounts of B vitamins.  In fact, with one shot of 5 Hour Energy you'll be getting 2000% of your daily value of vitamin B6, and 8333% of your daily value of vitamin B12.  That's a LOT of B vitamins.  Now it should be mentioned that these vitamins are water soluble, so if you keep your water intake high for the day you should be able to flush out any extra unused amounts of these dosages.  YOU SHOULD MAKE A POINT OF DRINKING MORE WATER on a day you take 5 hour energy though, because this amount of B vitamins really isn't necessary for your body, and it's going to need to get rid of some to prevent an eventual overdose.  It's not something to freak out about, but have at least two more glasses of water than you normally would on any other day.

Can you get addicted to these energy shots?  Sure can, but that goes for any caffeinated drink.  Caffeine IS addicting, and it's one of the most common addictions out there right now.  It's not a horrible thing if managed, but don't start drinking 3-4 energy shots per day, because they'll start reeking havoc on your body.  Keep these things as an "every now and then" kind of thing, because they are very concentrated.

But do they work?  Of course they do!  I've taken energy shots on multiple occasions and been quite pleased with the resulting focus, alertness, and energy.  If anyone ever asks about them, I tell them what I'm telling you.  They're not dangerous if they're managed, and believe me I actually think they're quite a bit healthier than your average cup of coffee.  Why's that?  Because they have no added sugar, a ton of added vitamins and amino acids, and between 0-4 calories.  Not bad in my book.

In case you're interested, here are the caffeine dosages in a bunch of different leading energy shots:

Drink	Fluid ounces	Caffeine (mg)	mg/floz

5 Hour Energy	2	138	69.0
50 Cal Energy Shot	2	120	60.0
5150 Juice	32	16000	500.0
6 Hour Power	2.03	125	61.6
925 Energy Shot	2	120	60.0
Adrenalyn Shot	8.5	200	23.5
ALRI Hypershot	2	500	250.0
Ammo Energy Shot	1	171	171.0
AriZona Extreme Energy Shot	8.3	100	12.0
CHARGE! Super Shot	2	200	100.0
Clif Shot Turbo Energy Gel	1.2	100	83.3
Cocaine Energy Shot	2	280	140.0
Cojones Energy Shot	2	125	62.5
Cougar Energy Double Shot	2.5	150	60.0
Crakshot	2	140	70.0
Dragon Pearl	2	100	50.0
DynaPep	0.14	100	714.3
Extreme Energy 6-Hour Shot	2	220	110.0
Facedrink Energy Shot	2.5	140	56.0
FeelGood7 Energy Shot	2	159	79.6
FeelGood7 Hangover Shot	2	159	79.6
FeelGood7 Sleep Shot	2	0	0.0
Fixx Extreme Ultra Shot	0.17	400	2352.9
Fuel Cell	2	180	90.0
Guayaki Energy Shots	2	140	70.0
Headshot Mega Energy Shot	4	80	20.0
Health Energy Potion	2	160	80.0
Jolt Endurance Shot	2	200	100.0
Kombucha Extreme Energy Shot	2	150	75.0
Kymera Energy Shot	2	325	162.5
Mana Energy Potion	1.35	160	118.5
Mini Thin Rush 6 hr. Energy	2	200	100.0
MonaVie	2	0	0.0
Monster Hitman Sniper	3	240	80.0
Muscle Milk Refuel	3	100	33.3
No Fear Bloodshot	16	174	10.9
NOS Powershot	2	125	62.5
OnGo Energy Shot	2	177	88.5
Player Aid Energy Shot	2	120	60.0
Red Bull Energy Shot	2.03	80	39.4
Red Fin Energy Shot	2	200	100.0
Rip It Energy Shot	2	100	50.0
Rockstar Energy Shot	2.5	200	80.0
Stok Black Coffee Shots	0.44	40	90.9
Street King Energy Shot	2.5	100	40.0
Zipfizz Liquid Shot	4	120	30.0

So there's the scoop on those little bottles.  At the end of the day, they're nothing that'll kill you, and they can actually be quite helpful.  Are they healthy?  Well, I'll just say they're not unhealthy.  However they won't do anything for your diet that another food couldn't do a LOT better.  They're just a quick boost when you really need it.  And they do work, believe me.

Respect the shots, keep alert, and as always, GOOD LUCK!


References:
http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database
http://www.pain4glory.com/5-hour-energy-drink/
http://www.5hourenergy.com/ingredients.asp