A couple of months ago, a cool study came out that showed vegetarians are more likely to have a brain shrinkage as they age. The reason is due to vitamin B12, which is mainly found in animal foods.
Furthermore, no one in the study actually had vitamin B12 deficiency, which means that merely getting the recommended amount is not good enough. A couple of posts down I talked a brain deterioration, so I guess an addendum to that post would be: EAT YOUR MEAT!
Also see here.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Long-time no see
Whew, it's been a while since I have updated the blog. Shame on me! Anyways, I hope to start updating more frequently from now on.
For now, I have a site that I would like to add to the mix: Lyle McDonald's, Body Recomposition.
This site is filled with such good content. In particular, I would point to his discussion on insulin and fat loss. While Gary Taubes and Mark from "Mark's Daily Apple" have a lot of good things to say, this is an article that they should read as they both go too far with the whole "insulin is solely to blame for fat gain" hypothesis.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Food diary increases weight loss
Here's an important story that has hit the news today, the results of a recent study showing that people who keep a food diary double their weight loss.
It's pretty obvious as to why, because people who don't keep a log are less accountable to what they eat. Now, it's better to lose weight and not keep a log because that's much simpler, but if you aren't losing weight then keeping a log may be just the thing you need because it's very easy to overestimate how much you are taking in. It's also very easy to convince yourself that you aren't eating much when deep down in your subconscious you know you are. A food log brings this to the light.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Brain deterioration doesn't have to happen
Interesting story today about a women who lived to be 115 but had perfectly good cognitive functioning. According to the article:
A series of neurological and psychological examinations were performed when the patient was 112 and 113 years old. The results were essentially normal, with no signs of dementia or problems with memory or attention. In general, her mental performance was above average for adults aged 60 to 75.
Further,
As planned, her body was donated to science when she died at age 115. At the time, she was the world's oldest woman. Examination after death found almost no evidence of atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) anywhere in her body. The brain also showed very few abnormalities--the number of brain cells was similar to that expected in healthy people between 60 and 80 years old.
Of course, I'm sure genetics has some role in her resilience to cognitive and cardiac dysfunction.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Vitamin D helps prevent type 1 diabetes?
Interesting story today on sciencedaily.com, about a new study that found a correlation between sunlight exposure and incidence of type 1 diabetes in children.
Yesterday I posted about auto-immune disorders, of which type 1 diabetes is one having to do with dietary lectins. I wonder how these two hypothesis would relate if they're on the right track?
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Dietary lectins cause auto-immune disorders?
I watched this video about a week ago, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.
Basically, in the video below, Dr. Loren Cordain is discussing a model of auto-immune disorders in which he believes that they are all caused by dietary lectins in genetically susceptible individuals. So, what's a lectin?
From the current issue of the Paleodiet Newsletter:
The word “lectin” is derived from the Latin verb legere, meaning to “select,” and because of their high affinity to bind just about everything in biological systems, lectins indeed “select.” Lectins were originally defined by their ability to agglutinate (clump) erythrocytes (red blood cells) in tissue cultures, but more recently have been described by their ability to reversibly bind specific monosaccharide (simple) or oligosaccharide (complex) sugars. Lectins are omnipresent proteins found in the plant kingdom and likely evolved as toxic defensive mechanisms to ward off predators. Most dietary lectins are benign and non-toxic to humans, however the primary exceptions are those lectins capable of binding to gut tissue.
Read the rest here, although this particular article is about how lectins may contribute to heart disease, not auto-immune disorders.
If you, or anyone you know is suffering from an auto-immune disorder, you may want to check this video out.
Brief and intense exercise good for the heart
I pick this up on science daily today, an article about a new study showing that brief, but intense exercise is equally good for heart health as low/moderate intensity exercise of 45+ minutes.
From the article
The research compared individuals who completed interval training using 30-second "all-out" sprints three days a week to a group who completed between 40 and 60 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling five days a week.
It found that six weeks of intense sprint interval exercise training improves the structure and function of arteries as much as traditional and longer endurance exercise with larger time commitment.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Bogus news article on "Caveman diet"
I seen this story on "Caveman diet's" today, from May 12th.
The story says that nothing can really be gleaned from the results because the study was not controlled. That is absolutely true, but what they fail to mention is that a controlled study of a paleolithic diet WAS performed AFTER the study that they mention in the story. I linked to this study on this very blog
Another criticism of the study was the low calcium intake. However, this only looks at the input side of the equation. Whenever you eat a food, it reports to the kidney's as either a acid or alkaline load. If you have a high acid load diet then body needs to buffer this acidity. How does it do that? One way is by leeching calcium from your bones because it is one of the bodies biggest stores of base/alkaline. So, while a paleolithic diet may not have much by way of the input side of the bone density equation, it makes up for it by not losing any. Furthermore, studies of the fossils of our ancestors show that they had very dense and strong bones BEFORE humanity started consuming milk. After humanity started consuming milk our bones became WEAKER. This was due to the fact that we had started consuming grains as well. Grains, along with dairy, meat, and legumes, are acid producing foods. Vegetables and fruits are the only base producing.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Does fat make you fat?
Who's this guy?
That would be Mark Sisson from Mark's Daily Apple.
According to Mark's post today, he eats 58% of his calories from fat. You heard that right, 58%! How does he get by with it? Simple, fat doesn't make you fat. So long as the fats you are eating are healthy, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, eating more fat may curb hunger because fat, along with protein, is more satiating. Carbohydrates on the other hand are more likely to induce hunger through blood sugar swings, and thus potentially lead to more weight gain.
Anyways, at 54 years of age, Mark is proof that (1) you can be over 40, let alone 50, and still look great! And (2) eating fat does not necessarily make you fat.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Longer read on going barefoot
Here's a longer article on the rational behind going barefoot or wearing barefoot shoes from New York Magazine.
I want really want a pair of the vivobarefoot shoes mentioned in this article.
Here are some interesting quotes from the article:Consider a paper titled “Athletic Footwear: Unsafe Due to Perceptual Illusions,” published in a 1991 issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. “Wearers of expensive running shoes that are promoted as having additional features that protect (e.g., more cushioning, ‘pronation correction’) are injured significantly more frequently than runners wearing inexpensive shoes (costing less than $40).” According to another study, people in expensive cushioned running shoes were twice as likely to suffer an injury—31.9 injuries per 1,000 kilometers, as compared with 14.3—than were people who went running in hard-soled shoes.
Yep, you can't fool mother nature. She made our feet the way they are for a reason.For years, rheumatologists have advised patients with osteoarthritis of the knees to wear padded walking shoes, to reduce stress on their joints. As for the knee-adduction moment, they’ve attempted to address it with braces and orthotics that immobilize the knee, but with inconsistent results. So the researchers at Rush tried something different: They had people walk in their walking shoes, then barefoot, and each time measured the stress on their knees. They found, to their surprise, that the impact on the knees was 12 percent less when people walked barefoot than it was when people wore the padded shoes.
Need I keep going? Ok, maybe one more...n a 1997 study, researchers Steven Robbins and Edward Waked at McGill University in Montreal found that the more padding a running shoe has, the more force the runner hits the ground with: In effect, we instinctively plant our feet harder to cancel out the shock absorption of the padding.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
63 year old
Watch this video of a 63 year old women doing 6 pullups, 15 dips, and 11 feet elevated puhsups (they're harder that way)! Amazing!
Hat tip to Conditioning Research for the link.
The best recipes
As Dr. John Berardi says, "Most people view food very simply: it either tastes good, or it's good for you - never shall the two meet."
If that's what you believe, THEN YOU ARE WRONG.
How do I know?
Because I just received my copy of Dr. Berardi's book Gourmet Nutrition, and let me tell you that there are a lot of mmMMMmmmMMMm good foods in there. Check out a sample of the book here.
After shipping the book will cost $50, but how much is the body of your dreams worth to you? $50 is pittance compared the recipes this book provides, and will no doubt inspire you to create on your own.
Another good book I purchased recently was Dr. Jonny Bowden's "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth." They are perfect compliments to one another because Dr. Bowden's book serves as the grocery list, and Dr. Berardi's Gourmet Nutrition tells you what to do with it.
But if you only get one, opt for Gourmet Nutrition.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Feet hurt? Kick your shoes off...
I've been an advocate of barefoot living for a while now. The foot is really made to operate barefoot, but today we stuff our tootsies in cinder blocks which cause our body to compensate in various ways leading to malfunction.
I go barefoot whenever I can, and since I have the luxury of training at home I do all my workouts with no shoes. Furthermore, whenever I'm out and about I wear my Nike Free 3.0's. Nike Free's a shoe that simulate barefoot walking.
Anyways, today I caught this article on yahoo news about going barefoot.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Gary Taubes Lecture
If you've got some free time, listen to this lecture from Gary Taubes on his new book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories." I've read the book and listened to the lecture off and on. I'm still digesting it all, but it's all very fascinating.
The gist of the lecture is that we have misinterpreted the energy balance=energy intake-energy expenditure formula of weight loss. He also talks about the concept of "internal starvation" where your energy is pushed into fat cells and away from other cells, among other topics.
Check it out.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Natural trans fat good for you?
Now scientists are saying that naturally created trans fat are good for you, as opposed to the trans fats created by hydrogenation. Interesting.
Check out the story here.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
More on celebrity training
Here's another celebrity trainer that's got the right idea. His name is Joe Dowdell. Who's Joe Dowdell trained? Many of New York's top fashion model's, including Gisele Bundchen. What's his advice for getting towards a Victoria's Secrets like body? * Always build your exercise choices around exercises that utilize multiple joints, such as Squats,Deadlifts, Split Squats, Lunges, Step Ups, etc.
* Intensity is the key.
* Focus on strengthening the posterior chain, Hamstrings, Glutes and Lower Back, which is important for both aesthetics as well as function.
* Forget reading a magazine and spending 45-60 minutes on the Stairmaster doing cardio, perform at least 2 high intensity interval training sessions of cardio each week in conjunction with your weight training routine.
* ... I prefer using total body resistance training routines at least 3 times per week on non-consecutive days along with interval training sessions on the days in between resistance sessions. I find this to be the most effective manner to get people lean.
As Joe says in the quote, he has his Victoria's Secret clients perform squats and deadlifts. In case you're unfamiliar with deadlifts, here's a video:
When it comes to squats, Joe has said elsewhere that one of his Brazilian models can do back squats with 135 pounds, and she has amazingly slender legs.
Here's a video of a back squat. The demonstrator is using 95 pounds:
Here's a few more quotes from Joe:For instance with models... [they] will come in 3 times per week and we will do a total body workout and the off days will be energy system work (cardio). The strength program may consist of back squats with short rest before a pull up.
What type of cardio?Most women overdue cardio training, some do an hour a day, which is too much. I will tell them right away that changes will be made in the way they do their cardio and that the sessions will last 30 minutes at the most. Most of the time women look at me like I am crazy and say that they do not think it will be enough. I tell them not to worry about it and that the bottom line is caloric expenditure. You can burn more calories doing interval training, which is done at a higher intensity. You will get a better return on your time as well. The heart rate fat burning zones is a big myth.
I find that women tend to want to do more cardiovascular training then men. It is very difficult to convince some women that they are being counter-productive to their body compositional goals by doing 45-60 minutes of aerobic training a day. When it comes to body compositional goals, I like to utilize Interval Training with my clients.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Exercise and nutrition for female celebrities?
Most women don't want to look like this:
However, some women do, and that's ok. But most women prefer something more along the lines of...
So, the question is inevitably, how do they get that look?
First, I would be remiss if I didn't throw out the gene card. Some women just have different body proportions than others (longer/shorter legs and torso's ect.), and different propensities to store fat. But, that hardly means there isn't anything to learn or gain (or should I say ungain?) from how female celebrities get these bodies.
That's why I want to call into attention two recent interviews from some of Hollywood's top trainers.
Warning: The following links do not contain nudity but may not be work safe.
The first interview comes from trainer Valerie Waters, who has been responsible for the bodies of the likes of Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Kerry Washington, Lauren Holly, Elizabeth Berkeley, Jennifer Lopez, Cindy Crawford, and many others.
Valerie likes to say that she gets her clients "Red Carpet Ready," meaning that her clients often need to look good for a special event like the red carpet, or a movie or photoshoot. How does she do it? In reference to getting Jennifer Garner ready for a shoot, she states:The workouts prior to shooting were high intensity circuits, often mixed with running intervals.
The exact protocol that is recommended by the evolutionary fitness philosophy! What does she say about nutrition?The majority of carbs should come from vegetables and fruits and if you do eat starchy foods, make sure they are whole grain.... Have some protein every time you eat... Eliminate white flour, sugar, and foods made with them. Get the majority of your carbs from fibrous vegetables like broccoli and asparagus.
Can you say paleo diet? Notice how Valerie says "if you do" eat starch, as in, "you don't need to but if you do, at least make it whole grain." Again, we see a parallel between Valerie's philosophy and the evolutionary fitness concept which sates, "meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, little starch, and no sugar."
Jason Walsh, the next trainer to be interviewed also has a philosophy very akin to evolutionary fitness. Jason has worked with the likes of Jessica Biel, Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Jennifer Garner.
When asked what he does with Jessica Biel, Jason replies:We do a lot of single leg squats, stair hopping, planks, med ball throws, and sprints.
Hopping, throwing, and sprinting are all inherently high-intensity-burst like activities. As we can see, a common theme between these two trainers is a lack of endless hours of cardio, and a concentration on more high-intensity/interval like activity. Jason goes on in detail about more of Biel's training where he uses exercises such as front squats, bounding, shuttle runs, and chin ups in addition to the exercises described above. One of the days he says they do boxing, which again is an inherently high-intensity/interval like activity.
So, two interesting interviews that give some more validation to the evolutionary fitness concept.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
How to lose 10 pounds of fat with without cardio!
I'm going to admit something. From about August 2007 to mid February of 2008 I was being really bad about eating and exercising. I got caught up in the this years presidential primaries and pretty much concentrated on nothing but that, forgoing fitness for those entire 5 1/2 months.
Needless to say, I put on a little fat - about 10 pounds. Well, it's all gone now and I can see my six pack again. How did I do it? Easy, I just ate a low-carb paleo diet concentrating on meats, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. For a month and a half I lifted weights and ate right, and I did "cardio" maybe once or twice. But the one or two times I did it, it wasn't traditional cardio where you run, bike, or elliptical for 45 minutes. It was deadlifts followed immediately by sprints, or verticals jumps, or pullups and pushups.
Just goes to show you that diet is a powerful determinant of body composition, so if you aren't seeing the fat loss that you hoped for, then look first at what you're doing with your diet.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
What is Fitness?
If fitness is to be the goal of any exercise program, one must first have a idea of what fitness is.
Improving fitness is commonly believed to be nothing more than improving strength, endurance, and body fat. While this sounds like common sense, my philosophy is that we should achieve fitness that is both broader and more specific.
Fitness is the ability to overcome life’s demands. Sometimes these demands include things like lifting, carrying, pulling, pushing, and throwing objects or our own bodyweight. The common definition of fitness does not take into account the balance, coordination, accuracy, and agility to required to overcome such demands and neither do common exercise prescriptions.
Enter functional fitness. Functional fitness takes into account that many of life’s demands require exercises that are specific to the movements that we perform in real life. For example, the strength to correctly lift a bag of groceries or a child is best developed by practicing lifting objects from the ground. But when was the last time lifting weights off the ground was part of your fitness routine?
Not only do functional exercises that mimic real life activities build useful strength, but they are also the most potent fat burners when done with lighter weights, higher repetitions, and lots of intensity. No more 45-60 minutes of cardio in the "fat burning" zone. 20 or less minutes is all you need.
Elite Fitness.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Roasted cauliflower
This was incredibly delicious. I poured olive oil in the pan then rubbed the cauliflower in it so the spices would stick to it better. The spices were thyme, rosemary, pepper, and garlic. I placed it in the oven for 30min. on 375. I think I might turn the temp down next time or leave it in for 5 less minutes because some of the garlic got burnt but not all of it. I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen. Regardless, it tasted wonderful.
Interval Training for fat loss
The benefits of interval training over low-intensity (e.g. walking) and moderate-intensity (e.g. jogging) exercise are many. Not only do individuals who perform interval training get more fat loss, but they also see greater improvements in endurance and heart function. But since this discussion is about the effect of interval training on fat loss, I'll leave the discussion of the latter two for a later date.
In this first study three groups of women were assigned to do either interval training, steady-state training, or nothing for 15 weeks. After the 15 weeks, only the interval training group seen reductions in total body mass, fat mass, truck fat, and fasting insulin levels. The latter result, an improvement in fasting insulin levels, is why I believe interval training and carbohydrate reduction work for the same reason, both improve insulin sensitivity. Insulin is a fat storage hormone, and the less sensitive you are, the more insulin your body secretes.
From the conclusion:HIIE (high intensity intermittent exercise) three times per week for 15 weeks compared to the same frequency of SSE (steady-state exercise) exercise was associated with significant reductions in total body fat, subcutaneous leg and trunk fat, and insulin resistance in young women.
If you delve further into the PhD thesis this study is based on you get some startling results. For example, the SSE group actually had an smallincrease in fat mass from 31.69% to 32.28%. One individual actually gained 7% body while participating in the SSE. This is a pretty typical result with SSE. Compare this to the HIIE group who lost about a little over 3% body fat. If you look at the differences in regional fat distribution, for example in the trunk, the HIIE lost 10% of their trunk (midsection) fat mass but the SSE gained 11%! The author theorized that this was the result of the HIIE protocol releasing catecholamines which stimulate fat burning, particularly in the abdomen in which the fat is especially sensitive to the effects of the catecholamines.
Another interesting factor to note is that the researchers found the individuals that didn't respond well to the HIIE protocol were insulin resistant, and since insulin inhibits the mobilization of fat this could account for their lack of results. This suggests that if your exercise is competing against your diet for improving insulin sensitivity that your diet will win out and you'll be unable to reap the benefits of interval training.
So, this is but one example of the studies that show interval training to be superior to traditional cardio routines. It's a very good one because of it long duration and the fact that the researchers gathered much data. Next time I talk about intervals, I'll get into some of the other health benefits that have greater improvement from them.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Get your eat on
Unsure of how to cook for yourself when paleo dieting? No problem, the following recipes should keep you busy for a while...
Art De Vany and his wife probably make the simplest meals. Just hit "previous entries" to keep looking at examples.
Mark's Daily Apple has a million good ones.
My Paleo Kitchen keeps the recipe difficulty down as well.
On the blog roll, I have a link to Dr. Michael Eades, but his wife, Dr. Mary Eades also keeps a blog where she has many good recipes.
Feed the Fitness's Nikki Young has some interesting recipes.
The aptly titled Paleo Recipes has a few more to try.
Lorain Cordain has a ton of recipes from his book, The Paleo Diet.
This last link has a pretty huge archive. Paleo Food.
I personally like to visit Mark's Daily Apple because it has a good number of recipes along with appetizing pictures. The above recipes should provide enough variety to appease just about anyone. Remember to tinker with the recipes and see what works for you.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Swedish study finds Paleo diet better than Mediterranean
Last year the first controlled trial of a paleolithic diet was performed, comparing it to the highly regarded and doctor approved Mediterranean diet.
Take a look at this Science Daily article.
According to the study, the paleolithic group lost 2in. around the waist over 12 weeks, compared to 1in. for the Mediterranean group. The paleolithic group also had a much more drastic decrease in blood sugar. I can't glean from the abstract how much weight or body fat each group lost, but a different study from a few months earlier found a paleolithic diet resulted in a 5lbs. weight loss over 3 weeks. No exercise intervention is mentioned in the abstracts of either study.
So, what we see in this study is that both weight loss and a marker of heart disease show greater results from a paleolithic diet than the traditionally doctor/nutritionist approved Mediterranean diet.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Supplementing Your Diet
Mark Sisson has some good advice today on selecting a vitamin supplement.
I would suggest that everyone who isn't eating a paleo diet supplement with a good multi-vitamin that has the qualities Mark describes. Even if you are a eating a standard AHA, government approved, low fat, food pyramid diet you need to supplement with a multi-vitamin because these diets are deficient in nutrients. The paleo diet comes closest to offering the full compliment of nutrients that your body needs.
I would add to Mark's advice to make sure your supplement has 100 micrograms of selenium. Also, pre-menopausal women may need a supplement with iron, but men and menopausal women probably do not. In fact, those latter two groups should have their blood iron levels checked with a serrum ferritin test. If you don't feel like taking the test then you should donate blood to lower your levels just in case (you most likely have too much iron anyway). I would suggest that menopausal women have the test first though. Pre-menopausal women are already "donating" blood every month, so this isn't for them.
Lastly, if you find a supplement with 400mg of magnesium citrate, malate, or aspartate, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, most people need extra supplementation of magnesium. You're probably magnesium deficient if you don't regularly eat foods like spinach, pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, artichokes, and halibut.
One supplement that you need for sure is omega-3 fish oil. The reason being that much of the meat we eat today is fed a grain based diet which leaves the fat of the animals with a high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Even salmon can have a high 6:3 ratio if it's farmed raised instead of wild caught.
Try the Carlson brand.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
POSE Method
Events like marathons, triathlons, 5K's, 10K's, ect. are very popular today, but few people that compete in these events actually have proper running technique.
The problem is most people strike the ground with their heels and then roll to the ball of foot and push off. This seems natural, but in fact it is not! The human foot evolved to strike the ground on the ball of the foot because this acts like a spring or shock absorber. Try this out: jump up and down on your heels. All you get is a thud. Now, jump up and down on the balls of your feet like your jumping rope. You've got some bounce there, right? Like I just said, landing on the balls of your feet acts as a shock absorber and a spring. The springiness comes from the stretch reflex, that is, when your muscles and tendons undergo a quick stretch and rebound requiring you to do less work. So, wouldn't it make sense to use this to your advantage while running? Landing on the heel, after all, does nothing but send a bigger shock up through your ankles, knees, hip, and back, making it more likely that you'll become injured.
So, who's fault is this poor running form? Well, some comes from an unlikely source: shoe manufacturers. Because many running shoes are made with a substantially cushioned heel, the heel does the job of absorbing impact instead of your body in the way that it's designed. This allows people to run on the heels when they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
Ok, let's go back to the little experiment from before. Start bouncing up and down on the balls of your feet like you were before. Now, while keeping up your bouncing lean your body slightly forward. What happened? You should of started to move forward. This is another element of the POSE method. Allowing gravity to do the work of forward propulsion. Why do the work when you don't have to?
These two concepts are what makes POSE running the safest and most efficient method of running. But what does POSE running actually look like? From here on out, I'll let the man behind the POSE method, Dr. Romanov, do the talking. In these next three videos, he's going to explain the three phases: Pose, Fall, and Pull.
This short video puts everything together.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Is Paleo dieting boring?
Many people claim that eating healthy is boring, but if you were look at the types of food they eat you would probably see they eat the same junk food over and over. The problem, perhaps, is that their taste buds have gotten so used to eating nothing but sugary foods that anything less becomes unpalatable. Regardless, Modern Forager has a good write up on ways to make healthy eating more flavorful.
The low-down: Don't use similar colored foods. For example, if you're cooking a meal with spinach and peppers, use yellow, red, or orange peppers instead of green. The more colors you use in the ingredients the more presentable the appearance, which in turn can actually make your food taste better to you.
Keep in mind textures. Mix and match textures like mushy, crisp, creamy, slimy, crunchy, ect. just like you do colors.
Spices are the spice of life. I've said many times that if you want to make healthy food taste good, you must learn to use spices.
Finally, if you actually calculate the number of possible combinations of foods using only meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, the result is quite a large number. For example, let's say your diet consisted of beef, turkey, chicken, pork, salmon, shrimp, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, carrots, romaine lettuce, asparagus, avocado, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, celery, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, summer squash, apples, oranges, pears, plums, pineapple, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, grapes, watermelon, almonds, cashews, and walnuts. If this were your grocery list, you could technically create 1,190 unique meals, and that's not even accounting for different cooking methods and spices!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Essential Reading
The following pages are essential reading for getting to understand the EF perspective.
First, we'll start with the venerable Art De Vany:
The First Evolutionary Fitness Essay.
The first chapter of Art's long forthcoming book...
Next, Mark Sisson is a man that gets it. He has a very good blog. Here are a few good ones...
The Case Against Cardio.
What Mark eats in a day.
Mark talks about escaping from veganism.
Loren Cordain is the most prolific writer when it comes to peer-reviewed research. You can see a ton of his articles here.
Of course on the side of this page are a bunch of links to sites with great content. For example, Robb Wolf is a former research assistant of Loren Cordain's, and friend of Dr. De Vany.
If you read over the above materials, you'll have a pretty good idea what this stuff is all about.
Monday, March 10, 2008
EvoFitness
What is evolutionary fitness?
Evolutionary fitness is the insight that humans, like any animal, function best when exposed to the conditions for which they are best adapted. Those conditions are the diet, activity patterns, and other environmental stimuli that humans became genetically adapted to over the course of human evolution. Genetically speaking, humans have remained virtually unchanged for the last 40,000 years, but with the onset of the agricultural revolution (circa. 10,000 B.C.), and especially the industrial revolution, we have become exposed to a milieu far removed from our original circumstances. This includes a diet that consists heavily on consumption of grains, dairy, and the myriad of processed foods like donuts, cakes, and soft drinks. Furthermore, our ancestors had to hunt and gather their food, meaning they were very active. It's no coincidence then that as society becomes more mechanized and reliant on processed food stuffs, people are becoming more overweight, obese, and suffering from the so-called "diseases of civilization" (e.g. heart disease and cancer).
The prescription for what ails us then is to return to the diet and activity patterns for which we are adapted. Note that I say "patterns", not the actual lifestyle of our ancestors. These patterns consist of lots of low-intensity activity like walking, interspersed with bouts of high-intensity activity like sprinting and jumping. Very few advocates of evolutionary fitness are recommending that we actually return to the jungle! On the diet side of things, the food consumed during the paleolithic period by our ancestors basically included meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, little starch, and no sugar. The paleolithic diet is lower in carbohydrates, and higher in fat and protein than contemporary recommendations. Many studies have shown the efficacy of such diets in terms of weight loss and the markers for chronic disease.
In closing this introduction, this blog will serve to bring news and information about evolutionary fitness from around the web, and offer analysis of these concepts from my own research and personal experiences.
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