Nutrition Data

I love that emails to my clients are becoming good options as blog posts. I received an email from a client of mine that suggest I check out this site.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

I have seen this site before and I think it COULD be useful if you are unsure about how many carbs are in a particular food, or if you want to find out if moose liver has Vitamin A in it (answer: yes, a crapload). But unfortunately, what could have been a really decent research site turns out to be laced in a crapload of moose, well, not liver.

Some of the tools seem interesting. The nutrient search tool is kind of cool (it's how I found the moose liver), but honestly really only for nerds like myself who care how much Vitamin A is in a food. My fear is that MOST people will use this site for help or guidance on which foods are healthy. For each food listed, they have an ND rating that values the healthiness of a food, a fullness factor and quick pros and cons of that food.

Here is an example of why their suggestions suck.

Example:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beef-products/10525/2

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/10334/2

Look at the NUTRITIONAL TARGET MAP. Sounds professional, right??? Now look at the "ND rating". Tofu has an ND rating of 4.6. Beef? 2.5. Tofu more nutritious than grass fed beef? Riiiiiiiiight. Even worse is the fullness factor. Tofu more FILLING than beef? I think everyone can agree that is total BS. But let's go back to that whole ND rating...

Obviously the folks at ND didn't look at their own information on Vitamins and Minerals. According to them, tofu contains 8 Vitamins and Minerals. Beef? 18. So I am assuming their ND rating is based off of their summation of beef:

The good: This food is low in Sodium. It is also a good source of Protein, Vitamin B12 and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Niacin, Vitamin B6, Zinc and Selenium.

The bad: This food is high in Cholesterol. This food also contains Trans Fat.

And here is the summary of tofu:

The good: This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Protein and Iron, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin B12, Calcium and Phosphorus.

Nothing bad for tofu. So it all comes down to cholesterol and trans fat. The evidence that animal cholesterol leads to high human cholesterol which in turn leads to heart disease is thinner than my hair in the last post. There are plenty of wonderful blog posts and journal articles backing the idea that dietary cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease. For a ridiculously in depth look get GOOD CALORIES BAD CALORIES by Gary Taubes or his smaller, beach friendly, WHY WE GET FAT.

But what about the TRANS FAT, Rob!!!!! Trans fat! Dear God! Hide the children! It's in our food! It's poisoning society! Beef DOES contain trans fat. But the wonderful folks at ND forgot one thing. There are two kinds of trans fat, natural and artificial. The primary natural trans fat, CLA, found in beef is, ummm, harmless and it might even have anti-cancer properties. It's not the same trans fat that's in Oreos!!
So if you're a nerd like me and you want to find out how much Selenium is in sea lion liver (answer: a crapload), then use ND for those purposes. Otherwise, avoid ND's low fat agenda.

Crossfit WOD 5

As you may know, I am involved in Crossfit and am competing in the open. It has been a very humbling experience as I have thoroughly has my ass handed to me workout after workout, but this past one was a particular ego check....is that me, or am I going BALD! Ouch. Oh well. Maybe time to shave it all off! Cool picture though minus my lack of hair.

Front Rack

Many of you struggle with maintaining front rack position. Not everyone is built to have a "perfect" looking front rack. Some of you may have to externally rotate on the bar more. Look at the arms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1WbjI_uFyM

In order to improve that rotation:
http://www.exrx.net/Stretches/Subscapularis/Broomstick.html

Good luck

PS...I grabbed this idea from Lincoln Brigham on the Crossfit boards....don't know him, but thanks!

Food "list"

I was writing this to a client and it took me so long I decided to post it!

I will make a detailed food list if you need, but here is the gist of it. NO FLOUR. NO SUGAR. NO VEGETABLE OILS.

Make dinners out of this:

MEAT

VEGETABLE ONE

VEGETABLE TWO

1. You can have any meat, fish, etc. Try to buy free range chicken and eggs, grass fed beef, pastured pork.

2. The vegetables can and SHOULD be cooked with FAT! Steamed veggies taste like dirt. Butter, Coconut Oil (for high heat), Olive Oil (buy two kinds, cheap for cooking and extra virgin for salads), Use small amounts of pancetta, bacon or other cured meats to make things like Brussel Sprouts taste awesome. Peas and Corn are high glycemic vegetables and not good for people trying to lose weight. Try to MINIMIZE them as much as possible.

3. Beans (black, kidney, chickpeas, etc) are TOO carby. They are not allowed! Green beans are OK once and awhile.

4. Spice with anything. Sauces CAN contain cream and creme fraiche. Sour cream is legal too. So is Coconut Milk

5. If having salad, any veggies are good. Cheese is fine. NO fruit. NO store bought dressings. Nuts are OK in small amounts. Here is a link to some dressings http://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-delicious-diy-salad-dressings/. You can make any of them except the raspberry one ( It has honey and you are not allowed to have sugar!)

6, No flour or bread crumbs in your cooking.

7. No packaged junk. Look at the ingredients...most packaged food items have sugar, corn syrup, or crappy oils.

8. NO dessert!

9. Try to drink a glass of water 30 minutes before the meal, then either sip water or a glass of wine with your meal. Even a glass of scotch or bourbon is fine. Alcohol is not as horrible as people say, but you have to MODERATE it. If you can't drink alcohol without binging, drink water.

10. ABSOLUTELY NO VEGETABLE OILS....Canola, Sunflower, Safflower, Peanut, etc.....Cook only with butter and olive oil at low temps and coconut oil if you are going high temp. Most meats can be safely prepared in olive oil or butter.

11. No pasta. That includes that whole wheat CRAP they say is good for you and tastes like cardboard.

  

This really is EASY. I had a chicken/artichoke/spinach/feta cheese dish last night and Duck breast with Brussel Sprouts (cooked with pancetta!) the night before. They were both ten times better than whole wheat pasta. Meat and fat are awesome. Carbs are over rated. And if you have any questions about "health", I have truckloads of books that support this as a healthy diet in addition to a weight loss one. The low fat, carb crazy society we live in now is nothing more than a con.

This guy eats high carb/low fat

This guy eats high fat/low carb

 Thanks to 203 for taking this picture!!!! And I had to cut out Michelle....sorry!

Vitamin C supplementation

So I try not to be too much of a journal junkie because I personally feel like there are scientists out there wasting time and effort on biased trials just so they can make a claim that Honey Nut Cheerios reduces cholesterol, but I did find this journal article interesting, especially considering  many people I know use Vitamin C supplements to HELP with training. Maybe you should think twice. In fact, and I am still digging, but Vitamin D in the winter when there is no access to sun is about the only supplement that I am 100 percent behind. Yes, I like fish oil, but there are some interesting counter-arguments there (I'll get into that later).

In the meantime, check out the article about Vitamin C and if you're not a complete nerd like me, just read the conclusion!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18175748