NerdFitness is a nice site that covers a lot of stuff.
A Nerd's Introduction to Mental Health
Also a lot of other pages with good info.
Here is a sampling:
Everything You Need to Know About Body Fat Percentage
The Beginner’s Guide to the Paleo Diet
Meet Staci: Your New Powerlifting Super Hero - Why you should build muscle rather than try to "tone"
The also have a free app for iOS called Paleo Central.
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
01 August 2016
08 August 2011
Ancestral Health Symposium Notes
I have just attended an amazing event--the Ancestral Health Symposium. It was an incredible few days. I want to tell you all about it, but have no idea where to start, so I'll just wade in.
What Is It?
A two day conference held on the UCLA Campus on August 5 and 6. The conference featured many presentations about the "Paleo" diet and exercise (all the talks will be put online over the next few months). In some of my posts on diet, I have mentioned this philosophy, so I'll start with some of the basics.
Ancestral Framework
There is not at present a standards committee that declares what is and isn't paleo. I think of it more as a framework for thinking about what is healthy for us. The idea is that, fundamentally, humans are the product of millions and millions of years of evolution. We have both very primitive and very sophisticated chemical signaling systems in our body. Our bodies evolved through many different environments and circumstances.
In the last few hundred years, and especially in the last 30 or so years, we seem to be falling apart as a species. Worldwide, obesity and diabetes are skyrocketing. A key hypothesis behind this ancestral health movement is that the foods introduced into our collective diet, since the dawn of agriculture, and especially in the past few hundred years is literally killing us. It is becoming increasingly evident that although we are living longer, we are doing so with lower health than ever before.
Much of the press and publicity for this approach to health have focused on caveman re-enactment and Fred Flintstone slabs of beef. That is simply not the point of the Ancestral Health movement. In any event
Ancestral Diet
Defining the paleo diet is easiest to do by exclusion:
1. Eliminate refined sugar, limit highly concentrated natural natural sugars
2. Eliminate grains in general
3. Eliminate oils from seeds, e.g. canola, cottonseed, and corn oil
Within the paleo community, some say you should go further and
4. Eliminate legumes i.e. beans
5. Eliminate dairy and dairy products
What remains then is animal products (muscle, organs, and fat from animals including fish, fowl, beef, pork), vegetables (both starchy and green leafy), fruit (whole fruit, not juice), nuts.
Because so many foods have changed so much in the last 10,000 years, (the advent of agriculture), we can really only guess at the specific nutrients in paleo-man's diet. There is a general consensus in the community that it is best if the animals that you eat, eat their natural diets, e.g. grass fed beef, wild-caught fish. The community also seems to believe that omega-6 oils are more prone to oxidation than other oils, so fish oil supplementation or reduction of the omega-6 oils in the diet are important. Let's not forget the importance of sunshine.
The community tends towards some degree of variability to mimic ancient patterns e.g. there were not strawberries year round in our distant past, so eating seasonally may have value; periodic fasts without food whether for 16 hours or a few days are probably something we can handle without undue problems and that might even have benefits.
In its current incarnation the paleo community has rallied around a self-experimentation paradigm. It's not "anything goes", but rather within the above guidelines, try different approaches and see what works for you.
I will put out some more details on diet and some revisions to the E4E recommendations in the near future.
Ancestral Exercise
There is much less consensus around and focus on what constitutes true paleo exercise and how to gain benefits related to that. I would say that in general, there is less emphasis on "chronic cardio" and more emphasis on periodic intensity in exercise, as well as natural movement (running, jumping, climbing).
Interesting Talks
The conference was announced about a year ago and when tickets went on sale, I started to try to arrange my schedule, etc. I waited a little too long, so by the time I tried to buy a ticket, the conference was sold out. However, they needed volunteers, so I was able to participate as a volunteer. I was present but working for many of the talks and had down time as well to focus on them.
Here is a list of the talks that I really liked and that people seemed to be buzzing about:
Denise Minger - How to Argue with a Vegetarian
Nora Gedgaudis - lots of amazing stuff on mind-body integration
Tom Naughton - entertaining talk on bad science
Erwan LeCorre - moving naturally
Melissa McEwen - clues from the colon (humans are unique)
Emily Deans and Jamie Scott - the rainforest in your gut
Dr. BG and Tim Gerstmar - curing autism through diet
Pedro Bastos - Dairy
Robert Lustig - Fructose and Leptin
Mat Lalonde - heavy chemistry talk, but the real message was that paleo needs to go beyond caveman and have really good science
Andreas Eenfeldt - Sweden's experience with lower carb as their national paradigm
Richard Nikoley - representing the blogosphere, how he has used self-experimentation to lose 70 pounds and become a better animal
All the talks will go on the internet. They will first be uploaded in raw form, but later with some editing and polish. I have little information beyond these talks. I was either not in on the buzz, they were rehashing old material, or possibly were not well received.
In the meantime, here are some other bloggers' takes on the event.
http://ethicaleats.blogspot.com/2011/08/woodstock-of-evolutionary-medicine-part.html
http://naturallyengineered.com/blog/?p=4725
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/must-hear-podcast-interviews-after-attending-the-2011-ancestral-health-symposium/11446
http://jackkruse.com/my-very-fresh-initial-thoughts-of-ahs-2011/
http://www.mattmetzgar.com/matt_metzgar/2011/08/back-from-ahs.html
http://whole9life.com/2011/08/whole9-goes-to-the-ahs/
http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2011/08/reflections-on-ancestral-health.html
http://www.wildnessandwonder.com/2011/08/initial-thoughts-from-the-ancestral-health-symposium/
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=4244
http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com/2011/08/ahs-people-post.html?spref=tw
E4E Experience
I met and spoke with a lot of people while there. I was extremely gratified and thrilled at how many were familiar with this blog. I have no illusions about its place in the blogosphere, but there were a few conversations of note.
J. Stanton of gnolls.org, author of The Gnoll Credo
, saw my name tag and told me that he had sent someone to my gout post and that a month later the man was free of gout. The person had made a number of changes, but my gout post was a reference for him.
Another person I met was Krista Scott-Dixon, whose work I have perused for years. She has long been a proponent of women lifting actual weights (not the pink ones). Her dork to diva series is really good and she has put out lots of good information through the years. She is also editor-in-chief of Spezzatino. I introduced myself to her, she told me that she knew about E4E and in fact had used one of my posts (I think this one) with one of her clients. I was totally thrilled that someone who I have followed through he years was familiar with my stuff.
Finally, I shared a house for the three nights with a really cool group of people from the Bay Area including a few fellow bloggers, so check out An Omnivore's Decision and Primal Girl in a Modern World. Thanks to Tess for doing all the work to get the house lined up.
I will also thank US Wellness Meats for saving my (figurative) bacon from the fast food in the student union at UCLA. The beef sticks and jerky made me tingle in the best possible way.
I feel really energized after hearing the E4E feedback from people, listening to the amazing talks, and all the geeky discussions. Over the coming months, as the edited lectures become available, I plan to highlight some of the key ones.
Stay tuned.
What Is It?
A two day conference held on the UCLA Campus on August 5 and 6. The conference featured many presentations about the "Paleo" diet and exercise (all the talks will be put online over the next few months). In some of my posts on diet, I have mentioned this philosophy, so I'll start with some of the basics.
Ancestral Framework
There is not at present a standards committee that declares what is and isn't paleo. I think of it more as a framework for thinking about what is healthy for us. The idea is that, fundamentally, humans are the product of millions and millions of years of evolution. We have both very primitive and very sophisticated chemical signaling systems in our body. Our bodies evolved through many different environments and circumstances.
In the last few hundred years, and especially in the last 30 or so years, we seem to be falling apart as a species. Worldwide, obesity and diabetes are skyrocketing. A key hypothesis behind this ancestral health movement is that the foods introduced into our collective diet, since the dawn of agriculture, and especially in the past few hundred years is literally killing us. It is becoming increasingly evident that although we are living longer, we are doing so with lower health than ever before.
Much of the press and publicity for this approach to health have focused on caveman re-enactment and Fred Flintstone slabs of beef. That is simply not the point of the Ancestral Health movement. In any event
Ancestral Diet
Defining the paleo diet is easiest to do by exclusion:
1. Eliminate refined sugar, limit highly concentrated natural natural sugars
2. Eliminate grains in general
3. Eliminate oils from seeds, e.g. canola, cottonseed, and corn oil
Within the paleo community, some say you should go further and
4. Eliminate legumes i.e. beans
5. Eliminate dairy and dairy products
What remains then is animal products (muscle, organs, and fat from animals including fish, fowl, beef, pork), vegetables (both starchy and green leafy), fruit (whole fruit, not juice), nuts.
Because so many foods have changed so much in the last 10,000 years, (the advent of agriculture), we can really only guess at the specific nutrients in paleo-man's diet. There is a general consensus in the community that it is best if the animals that you eat, eat their natural diets, e.g. grass fed beef, wild-caught fish. The community also seems to believe that omega-6 oils are more prone to oxidation than other oils, so fish oil supplementation or reduction of the omega-6 oils in the diet are important. Let's not forget the importance of sunshine.
The community tends towards some degree of variability to mimic ancient patterns e.g. there were not strawberries year round in our distant past, so eating seasonally may have value; periodic fasts without food whether for 16 hours or a few days are probably something we can handle without undue problems and that might even have benefits.
In its current incarnation the paleo community has rallied around a self-experimentation paradigm. It's not "anything goes", but rather within the above guidelines, try different approaches and see what works for you.
I will put out some more details on diet and some revisions to the E4E recommendations in the near future.
Ancestral Exercise
There is much less consensus around and focus on what constitutes true paleo exercise and how to gain benefits related to that. I would say that in general, there is less emphasis on "chronic cardio" and more emphasis on periodic intensity in exercise, as well as natural movement (running, jumping, climbing).
Interesting Talks
The conference was announced about a year ago and when tickets went on sale, I started to try to arrange my schedule, etc. I waited a little too long, so by the time I tried to buy a ticket, the conference was sold out. However, they needed volunteers, so I was able to participate as a volunteer. I was present but working for many of the talks and had down time as well to focus on them.
Here is a list of the talks that I really liked and that people seemed to be buzzing about:
Denise Minger - How to Argue with a Vegetarian
Nora Gedgaudis - lots of amazing stuff on mind-body integration
Tom Naughton - entertaining talk on bad science
Erwan LeCorre - moving naturally
Melissa McEwen - clues from the colon (humans are unique)
Emily Deans and Jamie Scott - the rainforest in your gut
Dr. BG and Tim Gerstmar - curing autism through diet
Pedro Bastos - Dairy
Robert Lustig - Fructose and Leptin
Mat Lalonde - heavy chemistry talk, but the real message was that paleo needs to go beyond caveman and have really good science
Andreas Eenfeldt - Sweden's experience with lower carb as their national paradigm
Richard Nikoley - representing the blogosphere, how he has used self-experimentation to lose 70 pounds and become a better animal
All the talks will go on the internet. They will first be uploaded in raw form, but later with some editing and polish. I have little information beyond these talks. I was either not in on the buzz, they were rehashing old material, or possibly were not well received.
In the meantime, here are some other bloggers' takes on the event.
http://ethicaleats.blogspot.com/2011/08/woodstock-of-evolutionary-medicine-part.html
http://naturallyengineered.com/blog/?p=4725
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/must-hear-podcast-interviews-after-attending-the-2011-ancestral-health-symposium/11446
http://jackkruse.com/my-very-fresh-initial-thoughts-of-ahs-2011/
http://www.mattmetzgar.com/matt_metzgar/2011/08/back-from-ahs.html
http://whole9life.com/2011/08/whole9-goes-to-the-ahs/
http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2011/08/reflections-on-ancestral-health.html
http://www.wildnessandwonder.com/2011/08/initial-thoughts-from-the-ancestral-health-symposium/
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=4244
http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com/2011/08/ahs-people-post.html?spref=tw
E4E Experience
I met and spoke with a lot of people while there. I was extremely gratified and thrilled at how many were familiar with this blog. I have no illusions about its place in the blogosphere, but there were a few conversations of note.
J. Stanton of gnolls.org, author of The Gnoll Credo
, saw my name tag and told me that he had sent someone to my gout post and that a month later the man was free of gout. The person had made a number of changes, but my gout post was a reference for him.Another person I met was Krista Scott-Dixon, whose work I have perused for years. She has long been a proponent of women lifting actual weights (not the pink ones). Her dork to diva series is really good and she has put out lots of good information through the years. She is also editor-in-chief of Spezzatino. I introduced myself to her, she told me that she knew about E4E and in fact had used one of my posts (I think this one) with one of her clients. I was totally thrilled that someone who I have followed through he years was familiar with my stuff.
Finally, I shared a house for the three nights with a really cool group of people from the Bay Area including a few fellow bloggers, so check out An Omnivore's Decision and Primal Girl in a Modern World. Thanks to Tess for doing all the work to get the house lined up.
I will also thank US Wellness Meats for saving my (figurative) bacon from the fast food in the student union at UCLA. The beef sticks and jerky made me tingle in the best possible way.
I feel really energized after hearing the E4E feedback from people, listening to the amazing talks, and all the geeky discussions. Over the coming months, as the edited lectures become available, I plan to highlight some of the key ones.
Stay tuned.
02 September 2009
The Causes of Gout
In a previous post, I mentioned that a bout of gout had been my wakeup call for getting my diet right. That wakeup call led to a much deeper understanding of metabolism and the biochemistry of the body.
I recently had a minor recurrence of gout and it followed a similar pattern to what happened in 2007, so I did more research on it.
The Pattern
I noticed in mid-2007, that the day after a really hard workout, usually a leg workout, my feet hurt--not badly though. It almost felt as if I had a bone a little out of joint or something. I attributed it to something about the way I was doing my calf raises. When I had bad gout in November of 2007, it was after a leg workout, and as it got worse, I thought it was related to an infection on my foot. Finally, it just went away on its own and my podiatrist told me it was probably gout.
I have had a few very minor cases since then, each time it went away after a day or two, So last week, after a leg workout, my foot hurt. It was just a little bit, and I thought that it was related to a splinter or something I had in the ball of my foot (my feet are a mess). But then it got worse, and I realized that it was the onset of gout. Again, it was following exercise.
Findings
First, it is generally accepted that gout is caused by the formation of crystals of uric acid in the joints. It usually expresses itself in the foot. The crystals form often when the blood concentration of uric acid reaches a high level.
For a long time, the standard cure was to lay off organ meats and red wine, because those contain purines (of which uric acid is a by-product). The problem is that I was not eating organ meat, and I wasn't drinking that much red wine. So the standard advice was useless for me.
I have found a number of interesting things about the accumulation of uric acid in the blood.
Under normal conditions, uric acid is pulled out of the blood and excreted in urine. However, there are some situations that can cause an imbalance and lead to higher levels of uric acid. According to Cordain, the problem in 90% of gout cases is that people underexcrete uric acid, not overgenerate it.
Production
1. +Uric acid production - fructose and alcohol both increase uric acid production in the liver.
Excretion
1. - Lactic acid, as can be generated by strenuous exercise, fructose (e.g. from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)), or alcohol consumption, reduces the excretion of uric acid.
2. - Insulin in the bloodstream, as from high glycemic foods
3. - Dehydration/lack of proper hydration can inhibit excretion of uric acid
4. - Fasting or a starvation diet inhibits uric acid excretion
5. - The initial stages of ketosis can inhibit excretion of uric acid from competition in the kidneys with the ketones. Once the body is adapted to using ketones for fuel (6-12 weeks), this is no longer a problem for most.
Neutral Effect
1. +/-High purine foods (organ meat, seafood, protein) increase uric acid production and stimulate excretion. The net effect is very low. (references below)
Conclusions:
1. The standard medical recommendations--stop eating purine-containing foods and drinking red wine--are not well supported by research. Purine foods have only a minor impact on uric acid and red wine is part of the larger alcohol problem.
2. Sucrose and HFCS have a triple whammy effect on uric acid levels. They increase production and inhibit excretion through both lactic acid and insulin pathways.
3. Alcohol is a double whammy (increase production and lactic acid).
4. Strenuous exercise can inhibit excretion of uric acid via the lactic acid pathway.
5. Lack of sufficient water and nutrients can inhibit excretion of uric acid.
E4E Recommendations
If you find yourself with excruciating pain in your feet, see a doctor. He can make the gout diagnosis. He will likely give you a list of foods to avoid and a prescription for painkillers and/or allopurinol for treatment of chronic gout. Gout is really painful and this will help get you through any acute crisis.
Once allopurinol was instituted as a cure for gout, little research was done on prevention through other means. Allopurinol works well for many people. However, in my view, behavioral interventions are always better than chemical (if they work of course).
So longer term, reduce consumption of fructose, especially in the forms of sucrose (table sugar) and HFCS, and reduce alcohol consumption. If you feel gout symptoms coming on, reduce exercise intensity, make sure you are well-hydrated, and eat at maintenance calories.
Some References
Loren Cordain Paleo Diet Newsletter (The Insider) Vol 2 No 4 I have a pdf of the full article
Chris Kresser on Gout
Petro Dobromylskyj from Hyperlipid had two posts on gout here (1) and here (2). He puts the blame on excess fructose.
Very interesting article by Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science) on the evolutionary aspect of gout and the enzyme that breaks down uric acid in many animals.
Exercise and Gout from Journal of Biological Chemistry JBC
Taubes on Gout
Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple totally agrees with me
Dr. Lustig from UCSF video about fructose
BBC article on Gout and sweet drinks
Gout website with some folk or popular remedies
Nice Google Answers site on gout.
Ketosis and Gout post from August 2018 by Amy Berger "... 10% of cases of hyperuricemia are caused by overproduction of uric acid; the other 90% result from impaired excretion."
Addendum: March 2, 2010
A paper with the purine content of many foods. Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
I recently had a minor recurrence of gout and it followed a similar pattern to what happened in 2007, so I did more research on it.
The Pattern
I noticed in mid-2007, that the day after a really hard workout, usually a leg workout, my feet hurt--not badly though. It almost felt as if I had a bone a little out of joint or something. I attributed it to something about the way I was doing my calf raises. When I had bad gout in November of 2007, it was after a leg workout, and as it got worse, I thought it was related to an infection on my foot. Finally, it just went away on its own and my podiatrist told me it was probably gout.
I have had a few very minor cases since then, each time it went away after a day or two, So last week, after a leg workout, my foot hurt. It was just a little bit, and I thought that it was related to a splinter or something I had in the ball of my foot (my feet are a mess). But then it got worse, and I realized that it was the onset of gout. Again, it was following exercise.
Findings
First, it is generally accepted that gout is caused by the formation of crystals of uric acid in the joints. It usually expresses itself in the foot. The crystals form often when the blood concentration of uric acid reaches a high level.
For a long time, the standard cure was to lay off organ meats and red wine, because those contain purines (of which uric acid is a by-product). The problem is that I was not eating organ meat, and I wasn't drinking that much red wine. So the standard advice was useless for me.
I have found a number of interesting things about the accumulation of uric acid in the blood.
Under normal conditions, uric acid is pulled out of the blood and excreted in urine. However, there are some situations that can cause an imbalance and lead to higher levels of uric acid. According to Cordain, the problem in 90% of gout cases is that people underexcrete uric acid, not overgenerate it.
Production
1. +Uric acid production - fructose and alcohol both increase uric acid production in the liver.
Excretion
1. - Lactic acid, as can be generated by strenuous exercise, fructose (e.g. from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)), or alcohol consumption, reduces the excretion of uric acid.
2. - Insulin in the bloodstream, as from high glycemic foods
3. - Dehydration/lack of proper hydration can inhibit excretion of uric acid
4. - Fasting or a starvation diet inhibits uric acid excretion
5. - The initial stages of ketosis can inhibit excretion of uric acid from competition in the kidneys with the ketones. Once the body is adapted to using ketones for fuel (6-12 weeks), this is no longer a problem for most.
Neutral Effect
1. +/-High purine foods (organ meat, seafood, protein) increase uric acid production and stimulate excretion. The net effect is very low. (references below)
Conclusions:
1. The standard medical recommendations--stop eating purine-containing foods and drinking red wine--are not well supported by research. Purine foods have only a minor impact on uric acid and red wine is part of the larger alcohol problem.
2. Sucrose and HFCS have a triple whammy effect on uric acid levels. They increase production and inhibit excretion through both lactic acid and insulin pathways.
3. Alcohol is a double whammy (increase production and lactic acid).
4. Strenuous exercise can inhibit excretion of uric acid via the lactic acid pathway.
5. Lack of sufficient water and nutrients can inhibit excretion of uric acid.
E4E Recommendations
If you find yourself with excruciating pain in your feet, see a doctor. He can make the gout diagnosis. He will likely give you a list of foods to avoid and a prescription for painkillers and/or allopurinol for treatment of chronic gout. Gout is really painful and this will help get you through any acute crisis.
Once allopurinol was instituted as a cure for gout, little research was done on prevention through other means. Allopurinol works well for many people. However, in my view, behavioral interventions are always better than chemical (if they work of course).
So longer term, reduce consumption of fructose, especially in the forms of sucrose (table sugar) and HFCS, and reduce alcohol consumption. If you feel gout symptoms coming on, reduce exercise intensity, make sure you are well-hydrated, and eat at maintenance calories.
Some References
Loren Cordain Paleo Diet Newsletter (The Insider) Vol 2 No 4 I have a pdf of the full article
Chris Kresser on Gout
Petro Dobromylskyj from Hyperlipid had two posts on gout here (1) and here (2). He puts the blame on excess fructose.
Very interesting article by Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science) on the evolutionary aspect of gout and the enzyme that breaks down uric acid in many animals.
Exercise and Gout from Journal of Biological Chemistry JBC
Taubes on Gout
Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple totally agrees with me
Dr. Lustig from UCSF video about fructose
BBC article on Gout and sweet drinks
Gout website with some folk or popular remedies
Nice Google Answers site on gout.
Ketosis and Gout post from August 2018 by Amy Berger "... 10% of cases of hyperuricemia are caused by overproduction of uric acid; the other 90% result from impaired excretion."
Addendum: March 2, 2010
A paper with the purine content of many foods. Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
A paper came out called Lack of association between dietary fructose and hyperuricemia risk in adults.
It used a large database called NHANES to search for an association between dietary fructose and hyperuricemia. It found that there is no statistical association between even high "normal" fructose intake and hyperuricemia. Alcohol was positively correlated; fiber was negatively correlated with hyperuricemia. This does not mean you get a free ride on fructose--large amounts do cause hyperuricemia--just that you should not overdo it. Alcohol and fructose are metabolized similarly, but there was no mention in the article about whether the effects may compound.
References regarding Neutral Effect of Dietary Purines and Protein from
Cordain Paleo Newsletter, Vol 2, No. 4
"Further, the recommendation to reduce high purine foods such as fish, shellfish, meats, poultry and organ meats may be of dubious therapeutic value (11) because clinical trials of low purine diets only marginally reduce (1-2 mg/ dl) blood uric acid concentrations (15-17). Although high protein, meat based diets contain high amounts of purines and would be expected to promote gout symptoms, protein ingestion actually decreases blood uric acid levels by increasing uric acid excretion (18). This seemingly paradoxical effect occurs because the kidney increases its excretion of uric acid when faced with elevated dietary purines (19).
"So, let’s put 2 and 2 together. If high protein, meat-based diets actually increase uric acid excretion, and 90 % of all gout patients have the disease because they are underexcretors, it makes little sense to implicate meat and high protein diets as a fundamental cause of gout. What we really need to look for are dietary factors which can simultaneously increase uric acid synthesis in the liver and suppress its secretion by the kidneys – Bingo!"
18. Matzkies F, Berg G, Madl H. The uricosuric action of protein in man. Adv Exp Med Biol 1980;122A:227-31.
19. Loffler W. Grobner W, Medina R, Zollner N. Influence of dietary purines on pool size, turnover, and excretion of uric acid during balance conditions. Isotope studies using 15N-uric acid. Res Exp Med (Berl). 1982(2):113-123.
It used a large database called NHANES to search for an association between dietary fructose and hyperuricemia. It found that there is no statistical association between even high "normal" fructose intake and hyperuricemia. Alcohol was positively correlated; fiber was negatively correlated with hyperuricemia. This does not mean you get a free ride on fructose--large amounts do cause hyperuricemia--just that you should not overdo it. Alcohol and fructose are metabolized similarly, but there was no mention in the article about whether the effects may compound.
References regarding Neutral Effect of Dietary Purines and Protein from
Cordain Paleo Newsletter, Vol 2, No. 4
"Further, the recommendation to reduce high purine foods such as fish, shellfish, meats, poultry and organ meats may be of dubious therapeutic value (11) because clinical trials of low purine diets only marginally reduce (1-2 mg/ dl) blood uric acid concentrations (15-17). Although high protein, meat based diets contain high amounts of purines and would be expected to promote gout symptoms, protein ingestion actually decreases blood uric acid levels by increasing uric acid excretion (18). This seemingly paradoxical effect occurs because the kidney increases its excretion of uric acid when faced with elevated dietary purines (19).
"So, let’s put 2 and 2 together. If high protein, meat-based diets actually increase uric acid excretion, and 90 % of all gout patients have the disease because they are underexcretors, it makes little sense to implicate meat and high protein diets as a fundamental cause of gout. What we really need to look for are dietary factors which can simultaneously increase uric acid synthesis in the liver and suppress its secretion by the kidneys – Bingo!"
18. Matzkies F, Berg G, Madl H. The uricosuric action of protein in man. Adv Exp Med Biol 1980;122A:227-31.
19. Loffler W. Grobner W, Medina R, Zollner N. Influence of dietary purines on pool size, turnover, and excretion of uric acid during balance conditions. Isotope studies using 15N-uric acid. Res Exp Med (Berl). 1982(2):113-123.
10 May 2009
Diet and Health Some Media Links
There have been a number of good movies, books, and youtube clips lately that support some of the ideas around a more healthy way of eating and living.
I put some links below.
By the way, I'm not counting this post as one of my monthly posts. It's just too easy.
Paleo Eating
Paleo Exercise
Fathead: The Movie
Excellent introduction, with some humor, on many of the subjects that Taubes writes about in Good Calories, Bad Calories (link below).
Good Calories, Bad Calories
I am rereading sections of this book and after a year and a half of studying and reading about health, diet, and exercise, I find myself more impressed than ever at the quality of this book. It's not an easy read, but if it ever can break free from the being labeled in the category of diet books, could actually make a difference in the world.
Paperback
Hardcover
My Big Fat Diet
Described as "Supersize Me meets Northern Exposure in My Big, Fat Diet when the Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay gives up sugar and junk food, returning to a traditional style of eating for a year to fight obesity and diabetes."
I haven't seen it, but I have heard good things about it.
I put some links below.
By the way, I'm not counting this post as one of my monthly posts. It's just too easy.
Paleo Eating
Paleo Exercise
Fathead: The Movie
Excellent introduction, with some humor, on many of the subjects that Taubes writes about in Good Calories, Bad Calories (link below).
Good Calories, Bad Calories
I am rereading sections of this book and after a year and a half of studying and reading about health, diet, and exercise, I find myself more impressed than ever at the quality of this book. It's not an easy read, but if it ever can break free from the being labeled in the category of diet books, could actually make a difference in the world.
Paperback
Hardcover
My Big Fat Diet
Described as "Supersize Me meets Northern Exposure in My Big, Fat Diet when the Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay gives up sugar and junk food, returning to a traditional style of eating for a year to fight obesity and diabetes."
I haven't seen it, but I have heard good things about it.
08 August 2008
Take Care of The Black Box - Exercise for Health, Not Weight Loss
I have written enough for now about how eating affects your physical well-being. Next up, exercise.
Many people believe that exercise is a great way to lose weight and keep trim. This fits in with our societal beliefs that obesity is caused by eating to much and not exercising enough, or as Taubes calls it, "gluttony and sloth." That is generally not true, and research backs it up. This recent study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh shows little difference between the exercise groups on a low fat diet ('Weight loss did not differ among the randomized groups at 6 months' (8%-10% of initial body weight) or 24 months' (5% of initial body weight) follow-up.") and the initial weight loss comes back on the same trajectory regardless of amount of exercise. Their conclusion was that 275 mins per week of vigorous exercise in addition to calorie reduction is "important in allowing overweight women to sustain a weight loss of more than 10%." They didn't mention that the women who actually ended up 10% lower weight were also restricting their Calories more than the others. This is a typical case of cognitive dissonance, seen in research all the time.
Here is a pretty good analysis of the study. She has access to the paper and data that I don't. Be careful though. She also says that long term weight loss doesn't happen at all, because of the "setpoint." She's wrong about that. Here's an analysis of another study that shows that physical activity correlates with higher weight. It doesn't address the composition of the weight however (fat vs. muscle).
This is a discussion of another study that shows that society has increased its level of activity, even while obesity rates have been increasing. It puts another nail in the coffin of sloth.
So why doesn't exercise work for fat or weight loss? There are a few ways to look at it. First, and most simply, burning significant calories through exercise takes lots of time and work. An hour of heavy aerobic work by a medium sized person might burn 600 Calories or so above your basal metabolic rate. One hamburger undoes all that.
The other more basic issue is that when you burn those calories through exercise, you are using the fuel in your body. Your cells still need fuel and to the extent you exceed the fat burning capacity of your system, you will feel hunger. Fundamentally, exercise does not blunt hunger like a proper diet can, so it becomes much less automatic and prone to failure. Some people ramp up the exercise and "willpower" their way into additional weight loss, but if you exceed the capacity of your body to burn its own fat, the weight loss will come from muscle instead of fat, and your metabolism will slow down because it senses starvation.
A Thought Experiment - Some Weight Loss Scenarios
You have a guy. He's in ok cardiovascular shape, carrying a little extra fat. Let's say he's are 6' tall, 200 lbs and 20% body fat. His daily energy need is 2,500 Calories. He decides to lose weight. What will be the outcome of the different approaches?
Note: In physics class you learned that a calorie is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of 1 ml of water by 1 degree centigrade. In nutrition, a Calorie is actually a kilo-calorie (kcal). I have generally tried to follow the convention that capital-C Calorie is a kcal.
Scenarios
Diet-only Approach
Cut carbs, get plenty of protein, restrict calories to 1500 calories per day.
Exercise-only Approach
Eat normal, standard American diet (65% carbs, 20% protein, 15% fat), exercise 600 calories beyond BMR per day.
Intense Exercise and Diet Approach
Cut back on calories as in the diet-only approach. Do lots of aerobics and resistance training (600 calories per day) to enhance the calorie deficit.
Outcomes
Diet-Only Approach
The subject will have a caloric deficit of about 1,000 Calories per day. This will result in a weight loss equivalent of 7,000 Calories or 2 lbs of fat per week. He is carrying about 40 pounds of fat initially, so he will be able to burn a maximum of 1,240 Calories of fat from his body per day. Assuming his low-carbohydrate approach minimizes insulin response, the majority of the calories should be from fat. As he loses weight his ability to burn fat reduces, so he will have to run less of a deficit. Once his body adapts to fat burning, he will likely not feel terribly hungry most of the time.
Exercise-Only Approach
The subject will have a caloric deficit of about 600 Calories per day. This will result in a weight loss equivalent of 4,200 Calories or 1.2 lbs of fat per week. He is carrying about 40 pounds of fat initially, so he can support up to 1,240 Calories of fat from his body per day. One troubling aspect of this approach is that the realtively high carbohydrate content of his diet will likely induce an insulin response and thus inhibit fat-burning. Even though the net calorie restriction is less than the diet-only approach, the subject will feel hungry more and will have to "willpower" his way through to losing weight. With this type of approach, weight gain is highly likely if his routine is interrupted.
Exercise and Diet Approach
The subject will have a caloric deficit of about 1,600 Calories per day. This will result in a weight loss of 10,200 calories per week, or almost 3 lbs of fat. There is a potential pitfall here though. He will be exceeding his body's ability to use its own fat stores by about 360 Calories per day. His low-carb approach will allow for use of his fat as fuel, but once that reaches its limit, he will cannibalize muscle for fuel. This will cause hunger, and likely big drops in his metabolic rate. He will have a lack of energy and his physical capacity will decline.
What Does This Tell Us?
The bottom line is that fat-loss is limited by the body's ability to use internal fat as fuel. Fat loss can occur through either exercise or diet. Just don't push it too hard. Resistance exercise will help maintain muscle strength and also signal your body to send protein to the muscles that have been worked. If the combination of what you eat, plus what you burn from your fat stores is equal to or greater than your caloric needs your muscle loss (or catabolism) will be minimized.
On a low carbohydrate diet, your ability to replenish fuel for your muscles will likely be inhibited in the case of high-intensity or longer medium intensity exercise, so you may wish to increase carbs somewhat for those purposes. I think of it as "buying carbs" with high-intensity exercise. If you don't get sufficient carbs before high-intensity exercise you may bonk (run out of muscle fuel). Here's another interesting perspective on the bonk. With low intensity exercise (walking or light aerobics), you should be able to use fat for the majority of your energy needs.
This link will allow you to look at your own numbers. you will need to export the spreadsheet to your own computer.
But Lots of People Use Aerobics to Keep Trim
We all know people who eat whatever they want, then maintain a super-active lifestyle and so never put on any weight. So those people can argue that exercise is what keeps them thin. But the method contains the seeds of failure. Eventually, most people will get injured or sick. When that happen, people with poor diets and lots of activity will tend to put weight on rapidly. They are swimming upstream with their approach to weight loss and maintenance. You can make progress, but if they stop paddling for a second, they lose everything and then some.
Net calories matter, but it's only part of the story for weight loss. Spark of Reason blog has a great write-up on conservation of energy.
Many people believe that exercise is a great way to lose weight and keep trim. This fits in with our societal beliefs that obesity is caused by eating to much and not exercising enough, or as Taubes calls it, "gluttony and sloth." That is generally not true, and research backs it up. This recent study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh shows little difference between the exercise groups on a low fat diet ('Weight loss did not differ among the randomized groups at 6 months' (8%-10% of initial body weight) or 24 months' (5% of initial body weight) follow-up.") and the initial weight loss comes back on the same trajectory regardless of amount of exercise. Their conclusion was that 275 mins per week of vigorous exercise in addition to calorie reduction is "important in allowing overweight women to sustain a weight loss of more than 10%." They didn't mention that the women who actually ended up 10% lower weight were also restricting their Calories more than the others. This is a typical case of cognitive dissonance, seen in research all the time.
Here is a pretty good analysis of the study. She has access to the paper and data that I don't. Be careful though. She also says that long term weight loss doesn't happen at all, because of the "setpoint." She's wrong about that. Here's an analysis of another study that shows that physical activity correlates with higher weight. It doesn't address the composition of the weight however (fat vs. muscle).
This is a discussion of another study that shows that society has increased its level of activity, even while obesity rates have been increasing. It puts another nail in the coffin of sloth.
So why doesn't exercise work for fat or weight loss? There are a few ways to look at it. First, and most simply, burning significant calories through exercise takes lots of time and work. An hour of heavy aerobic work by a medium sized person might burn 600 Calories or so above your basal metabolic rate. One hamburger undoes all that.
The other more basic issue is that when you burn those calories through exercise, you are using the fuel in your body. Your cells still need fuel and to the extent you exceed the fat burning capacity of your system, you will feel hunger. Fundamentally, exercise does not blunt hunger like a proper diet can, so it becomes much less automatic and prone to failure. Some people ramp up the exercise and "willpower" their way into additional weight loss, but if you exceed the capacity of your body to burn its own fat, the weight loss will come from muscle instead of fat, and your metabolism will slow down because it senses starvation.
A Thought Experiment - Some Weight Loss Scenarios
You have a guy. He's in ok cardiovascular shape, carrying a little extra fat. Let's say he's are 6' tall, 200 lbs and 20% body fat. His daily energy need is 2,500 Calories. He decides to lose weight. What will be the outcome of the different approaches?
Note: In physics class you learned that a calorie is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of 1 ml of water by 1 degree centigrade. In nutrition, a Calorie is actually a kilo-calorie (kcal). I have generally tried to follow the convention that capital-C Calorie is a kcal.
Scenarios
Diet-only Approach
Cut carbs, get plenty of protein, restrict calories to 1500 calories per day.
Exercise-only Approach
Eat normal, standard American diet (65% carbs, 20% protein, 15% fat), exercise 600 calories beyond BMR per day.
Intense Exercise and Diet Approach
Cut back on calories as in the diet-only approach. Do lots of aerobics and resistance training (600 calories per day) to enhance the calorie deficit.
Outcomes
Diet-Only Approach
The subject will have a caloric deficit of about 1,000 Calories per day. This will result in a weight loss equivalent of 7,000 Calories or 2 lbs of fat per week. He is carrying about 40 pounds of fat initially, so he will be able to burn a maximum of 1,240 Calories of fat from his body per day. Assuming his low-carbohydrate approach minimizes insulin response, the majority of the calories should be from fat. As he loses weight his ability to burn fat reduces, so he will have to run less of a deficit. Once his body adapts to fat burning, he will likely not feel terribly hungry most of the time.
Exercise-Only Approach
The subject will have a caloric deficit of about 600 Calories per day. This will result in a weight loss equivalent of 4,200 Calories or 1.2 lbs of fat per week. He is carrying about 40 pounds of fat initially, so he can support up to 1,240 Calories of fat from his body per day. One troubling aspect of this approach is that the realtively high carbohydrate content of his diet will likely induce an insulin response and thus inhibit fat-burning. Even though the net calorie restriction is less than the diet-only approach, the subject will feel hungry more and will have to "willpower" his way through to losing weight. With this type of approach, weight gain is highly likely if his routine is interrupted.
Exercise and Diet Approach
The subject will have a caloric deficit of about 1,600 Calories per day. This will result in a weight loss of 10,200 calories per week, or almost 3 lbs of fat. There is a potential pitfall here though. He will be exceeding his body's ability to use its own fat stores by about 360 Calories per day. His low-carb approach will allow for use of his fat as fuel, but once that reaches its limit, he will cannibalize muscle for fuel. This will cause hunger, and likely big drops in his metabolic rate. He will have a lack of energy and his physical capacity will decline.
What Does This Tell Us?
The bottom line is that fat-loss is limited by the body's ability to use internal fat as fuel. Fat loss can occur through either exercise or diet. Just don't push it too hard. Resistance exercise will help maintain muscle strength and also signal your body to send protein to the muscles that have been worked. If the combination of what you eat, plus what you burn from your fat stores is equal to or greater than your caloric needs your muscle loss (or catabolism) will be minimized.
On a low carbohydrate diet, your ability to replenish fuel for your muscles will likely be inhibited in the case of high-intensity or longer medium intensity exercise, so you may wish to increase carbs somewhat for those purposes. I think of it as "buying carbs" with high-intensity exercise. If you don't get sufficient carbs before high-intensity exercise you may bonk (run out of muscle fuel). Here's another interesting perspective on the bonk. With low intensity exercise (walking or light aerobics), you should be able to use fat for the majority of your energy needs.
This link will allow you to look at your own numbers. you will need to export the spreadsheet to your own computer.
But Lots of People Use Aerobics to Keep Trim
We all know people who eat whatever they want, then maintain a super-active lifestyle and so never put on any weight. So those people can argue that exercise is what keeps them thin. But the method contains the seeds of failure. Eventually, most people will get injured or sick. When that happen, people with poor diets and lots of activity will tend to put weight on rapidly. They are swimming upstream with their approach to weight loss and maintenance. You can make progress, but if they stop paddling for a second, they lose everything and then some.
Net calories matter, but it's only part of the story for weight loss. Spark of Reason blog has a great write-up on conservation of energy.
To lose or maintain weight, get your diet right first as spelled out in my previous posts here, here, and here. Do exercise to build and maintain muscle and fitness. If you are going to make one change in your life to affect your weight and fitness, fix your diet first.
Why Exercise Then?
Exercise carries many benefits not related to weight loss. Regardless of the weight issue, exercise has a number of benefits including: physical appearance, maintenance of muscle, confidence/self esteem, ability to be active, improved blood pressure, plus chemical advantages, such as increased High Density Lipoproteins (HDLs). I will cover that in future posts.
Addendum 8/15/08: Exercise, especially resistance exercise, might cause weight to increase (by increasing muscle mass). It's good weight though. Even though your BMI may go up, you will also be decreasing your percent body fat.
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