We need to grow a pair!

Hi Everyone!

Yes. I'm walking the line of crudeness because I'm fed up!  Honestly, if I hear one more client say that it's okay that they're having the bag of chips because they are made with whole grains, I'm going to lose it! Honestly, how do you expect to achieve your goals if you're not willing to take out the garbage?

I'm not even sure who to be mad at any more!  I think we all have some culpability in this mess. Let's take a look at how each group plays a role in the obesity epidemic (both creating it and not helping to solve it).

Consumers/Clients

I think that the current food system is the way it is, because we (the consumers/clients) are a bunch of pushovers (not my first choice of words) who are so terrified to give up our vices like junky foods that we know are killing us that we choose to believe the BS claims that are made by food companies about said food items. For instance, these chips are okay because they are made from whole grains, or these cookies are organic.  I mean, PLEASE!

Message: We vote with our dollars, so don't buy processed food anymore & eventually there will be no market for it and similarly, the cost of good quality, real foods will decrease.

Government

The governments who supposedly police the food industry are absolutely culpable & they are made of educated people, so they are not stupid, therefore, I can only conclude that they are driven by money and secondary gain.  There is no other logical reason why in the face of clear evidence that TRANS fats kill humans by well known cardiovascular mechanisms, that they would impose a law to require that the amount of trans fats within a food product be shown on the label rather than make it illegal for the food company to use that item in the foods they make!  WHAT THE HECK!?  Think about it, governments make money on allowing poor quality foods into the market place & people get sick & then there's money to be made on the treatment of those illnesses (preventable ones).  So tell me then, where is the motivation to stop the cycle.  Nowhere for the governments regulators.

Message: Nobody has your back, other than you.  You need to take responsibility for your own lifestyle choices.  Don't you put your health, life & vitality in the hands of people with more to gain if you are sick than if you are healthy.

Nutrition Professionals

Practioners

The nutrition profession including Dietitians, Nutritionists (practitioners), Researchers & Professors.  All of which work very hard (I know I am one) to tow the company line (i.e. the food groups or pyramids or whatever), and most of them (this is where I consider myself different) do NOT question those concepts, they just keep teaching them.  This is where things become ugly for me.  I have a real Masters degree (thesis-based) & am pursuing a PhD all in Human Nutrition, so I believe I can read, interpret & critically appraise the research.  Unfortunately, many of the practitioners in the profession can not, do not or are not willing to do this.  This has lead to the promotion of the low fat diet for instance for the last fifty years or so.  You can see my post on some of my issues with the low fat diet and why that's a huge problem.  And the thing is, the evidence is out there to lead practitioners away from this but most are either too busy or just don't bother to review it.

Researchers

This brings us to researchers and professors. Researchers & Professors are, for the most part positions that are research driven and depend upon production & publications for their institution.  Unfortunately, Western medical research practices are based on supposed gold standards (i.e. randomized clinical trials) that really only work for pharmaceutical drugs, no coincidence that the majority of medical research is funded by these companies and that most medical decision trees produced for physicians and psychiatrists either end at or have as a major part of their treatment a pharmaceutical drug (that's for another rant, though).  I have many research colleagues and friends who consider the current state of nutrition research a joke.  I unfortunately have to agree with them.  They are mostly in the physical sciences like chemistry and physics, both of which I have minors in.  The major difference in my opinion is that those physical sciences have a unifying theory, which guides all research in that discipline to be in line with those principles.  In medical & health research it's more of a crap shoot of random trials & outcome measures.  Many will argue that there is no medical unifying theory, but that is crap!  The unified theory of biology should be and is EVOLUTION!  I talk about that unifying theory in a prior post here.  If nutrition researchers would simply ask does this study/finding/research question that I am proposing make sense in light of evolutionary biology, then this would prevent millions of dollars from being wasted on stupid projects that provide zero insights into human health & disease.  And by the way, food companies are also spending billions of dollars to fund research projects.


Professors

Professorships are research-dependent and therefore all of the research criticisms discussed above apply.  Additionally, however, most of the time there is a regulating body (i.e. college or other guiding body) that dictates the competencies and content that are required to become a certified health professional.  Unfortunately, these practice recommendations are based on the assumption that the last fifty plus years of lifestyle based research has been sound and that the principles of many of the early low fat proponents was correct (which is now known to be false).  Yet, each new generation of nutrition, health and medical practitioner are taught the same strategies to prevent and manage/treat cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, etc... without any regard to human evolutionary biology.  This is absolutely a critical mistake and the most frustrating part of all is that this is a relatively easy one to fix.

Message: You can't always put your faith in credentials.  Just because someone has a certification or degree, doesn't mean they're good at what they do or even know about or truly understand the current research, it just means they were able to complete coursework & do well on a test. I am a certified health professional, I have many colleagues and only some of them truly understand the current research. Be sure to do your own research and then discuss it with your certified health professional.  If they are completely closed, fire them & find another who is more open and versed on the research.

So. What the heck can we do about it?

It's an easy fix, but not a quick one.  I learned everything I could (and still am by the way) about evolutionary biology and then use these principles to filter all of the latest research findings through and see which ones still make sense or try to figure how they might fit.  Also, I use these evolutionary principles to adjust my prevention and treatment protocols so that they are more in line with evolutionary biology.  There are many non-certified Western and Alternative medical practitioners that have been doing this for some time, I applaud the honest ones for doing this.  I think it's time that we in certified Western medicine caught up!

Message: It's through this practice of selecting professionals that are more open-minded & versed on the literature, that health professionals will ultimately expand their knowledge and be accountable to you, the client.  Also, we have to stop always citing old studies as the basis for our current treatment practice, research question or curriculum and seriously attempt to integrate the evolutionary biology approach.


Thanks for reading my rant!  I hope you found it useful as well as entertaining!  Honestly, I feel better for having wrote this, so thanks for giving me an audience.

Have a great week!

Take care,

Dan T

REDEFINING WHY!

Hi Everyone,

Bear with me on this one. This is my over-tired (due to new baby care) attempt at soul searching & sincere self-examination. There is a lot more to the story, but I’m trying to stay on point with main things that have either directly or indirectly affected my body composition over the years.

I was always a lean & athletic guy. Growing up in a farming area, we ate pretty well (farm fresh side of beef, pig & chickens in the deep freeze, free range chicken eggs, fresh dairy, etc...) and throughout high school I did competitive Rowing, Karate, Kick boxing, Volleyball and of course all the pick up games of roller hockey, ice hockey, street hockey, football and soccer that my cousin & I could arrange! I pretty much trained all year long for rowing (dryland training) including tons of running, ergometers & weights (light circuits & heavy weights also). Therefore, I was doing a huge volume of work at this point in my life. I was 145 lbs until my senior year in high school and when I left for University I was 155 lbs.

This trend continued to University where I found competitive coed cheerleading (awesome sport for those of you who don’t know about it) & I practiced Japanese Jiu Jitsu & Capoeira. Of course, I learned some weight training from more senior guys on the Cheerleading team & started banging on those. Hitting the heavier weights, I bulked up to 175 lbs and remained here for the next decade and a half.

By the time I went to Montreal for my professional degree, I was still around 170 lbs and with some dietary manipulation & body weight training courtesy of Matt Furey (combat conditioning), I leaned down to 8% body fat. Then I started hitting the weights again, and seeing as how I was studying Human Nutrition & Dietetics I started experimenting with different strategies to add mass, as I had always been a “hard gainer”. Unfortunately, the techniques mostly involved eating higher carbohydrate, lower fat diet as a backbone, and using protein & mass gain shakes and things after my heavy weight workouts, so all of that combined with being over 30 years old at that time all lead me to increase my weight up to about 185 lbs and of course my body fat went up as well (to around 17%).

When I got into my Masters degree in Montreal, I was able to workout with and join the Cheerleading squad there, however, the team was mostly women & there were only 2 of us dudes (actually as I write that I realize, it wasn’t all that bad ;-) . It was great fun & actually with my heavier frame (190 lbs at this point) I was able to do some more advanced stunting that had escaped me at 175 lbs. My tumbling suffered a lot though. At one point at 175 lbs, I was able to do a roundoff, back handspring, back tuck fairly routinely and the same sequence with a back layout in place of the tuck with a bit more effort. However, at 190 lbs, this was much more difficult to do. I essentially, had to relearn the moves at my new heavier weight. In the end, I was able to do standing back handspring, back tucks routinely, but it did take a fair amount of effort and I’m sure my technique was sucking quite profoundly.

Next, my funding ran out for my Masters and I returned home to find work as a Registered Dietitian. I was able to find a one year mat leave for the first year, and of course had to live at home. During this time, I was able to get down to 180 lbs by participating in the Body for life challenge. I also started working in Hamilton at an Obesity clinic one day per week.

At the conclusion of that one year contract, I obtained a permanent position as a Registered Dietitian in Hamilton at a Mental Health Facility, and am still there now. In addition to completing my Masters, I was able to propose and initiate a PhD through my same University supervisor located at this hospital, but unfortunately, due to changes in drug purchasing contracts (move to generics) the funding was pulled by the drug company that had originally committed, and so I am pursuing my PhD in a topic similar but more complex & advanced of my Masters.

I should mention that during all of the above times my free time got less and less as my responsibilities increased. Additionally, I realize now in retrospect that my WHY for pretty much the bulk of my physical activity/working out thing was actually extrinsic, all about the ladies (attracting my dream girl), so to speak. I was a young guy & I loved women & wanted to meet as many as possible so I could finally meet the one.

When I started my permanent position as an RD in Hamilton, I met my (to be) wife at my orientation. We connected at a deep level immediately & she was the sexiest, most intelligent, kindest women I had ever met in my life (still is actually)! I proposed a little over 1 year after we met & we were married one year later. Interestingly, we found our dream home in a beautiful location, the unfortunate part was that it was a 1 hour drive from work. I commuted 2 hours/ day x 5 days / week for 5 years and during this time my weight skyrocketed to 225 lbs with obviously a huge shift in my body comp to fat mass (around 25%) with a waist circumference of 39.5” :-(. We were blessed as well with our first daughter during this time, and since, we’ve been blessed again. The massive increase in my body weight (& fatness) was obviously due to my decreased physical activity. Interestingly, I was actually working out pretty hard regularly for 2.5 years of our 5 with the 1 hour commute including rediscovering Japanese Jiu Jitsu (until our first daughter was born, then sleep went bye bye) but my weight still remained at best around 210 lbs. Honestly, I knew that my commute was killing me. Thankfully, my health was fine, no issues of note, but I knew that I was on the roadway to Diaobesity! My wife and I decided to move closer to work (decreased commute=more family time) & her family (greater support for our kids & connectedness with their cousins). We were expecting our second child while we listed our home (with countless open houses) & while we were searching for our new home. It was challenging & time consuming since we lived about an hour from where we were searching & we were both working full time. Additionally, I had to prepare for my PhD oral comprehensive exam right after we were slated to move into our new home. Additionally, we planned for a significant renovation on our new home once we moved in & had to start purchasing items & reviewing options after work in the months leading up to the move. Bottom line, we were living fast & hard, with very little time to dedicate to exercise/fitness. The only saving grace was that we walked daily together each evening as a family. Of course, this became harder as the Canadian Winter set in. 

Now, all things considered, my experiences started to make me question all the strategies I had learned & had been taught in school. I started to hit the research & I mean individual blogs, books, etc… Then I verified what I was seeing by perusing various scientific studies using similar principles. Shockingly, at least to me, I started to discover that most of the info that I was finding on “unreliable” (at least we’d been told in school) sites were actually validated by clinical research, and that we had never been taught any of these principles. This was my discovery of the Paleo/Primal/low carb lifestyle. This fascinated me, and it definitely made logical sense. Unlike, fad diets though that can often make some logical sense on the surface, this seemed to have no downside. It baffled me why we never learned anything about this during my clinical nutrition classes & also why not one of my colleagues seemed to even know what I was talking about when I mentioned it to them. Anyway, I plowed through all the podcasts (Robb Wolf first, then Jimmy Moore, Abel James, Mark Sisson etc…) & blogs (Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, etc…) & then books including but not limited to The Paleo Solution, The Primal Blueprint, The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Answer, and The New Evolution Diet. Not to mention countless Paleo/Primal guides. 

Anyway, we are now living closer to work (20 min drive each way), the initial renovations are done, we had our second daughter & she is now about 6 weeks old and I have about 4 more months off from my PhD (paternity leave). This year, I even started attending 2 cross fit classes per week at a local box, but that was put on hold when our second daughter was born (less sleep & more to do around our new home). At this point, my wife & daughters’ happiness are far more important to me than my body composition. And then, suddenly, all at once, I realize why I’m not chomping at the bit to get back into the gym/workout/exercise whatever you want to call it. This had always been my way throughout my graduate degree, what the heck gives? 

All of this is basically a cliff/coles notes (depending on where you are from) version of my weight & body comp history as it pertains to significant life events. Interestingly, there’s a critical message hidden throughout the story. Did you figure it out? It’s painfully obvious, once you see it.

At every point in my life when I was working out super hard & absolutely committed I had a compelling WHY, to attract the woman of my dreams! So once I found her, married her & we started having children, that WHY was achieved and no longer drove me. I became more focused on surviving our new hectic schedule including a then 2 hour commute, helping care for my wife & our child, as well as maintaining my job, business, studies & our home. Now that the commute has been reduced, that’s one less thing, but with a newborn in the house & a 2 year old, my WHY shifts to include helping with the care of the entire expanded family & maintaining and doing some smaller renovations to our new home. I think about working out, my wife and I discuss how to fit everything in, and at long last my wife’s agreed to come aboard the S.S. Paleo/Primal and eventually we will convert our 2 year old as well. Our hope is that once we introduce solids to our second daughter she won’t even know what a grain product is. So, in that way I was able to integrate my primary WHY for caring for my family to include a healthy diet that will help me lean out. However, the exercise thing bothers me, because I know I’m not a lazy person. So why am I not leaping back to the gym to whip myself back in shape? The short answer is that in my current life with the new set of circumstances (married to the woman of my dreams, 2 beautiful children, working full time, pursuing PhD, Blogging & starting online business), I have not taken the time to update/re-define my WHY.

I mean, think about it. At this point, I haven’t returned to working out yet, because in my mind right now, I want to spend my time with my wife & daughters, building my online business & of course (feel I have to) work since we’re currently limited to only my income. So what I need to do is layout my new WHY given my new set of life circumstances. I think it’s key to remember that a WHY that drove us phenomenally for decades might be completely powerless once circumstances change (i.e. Pursuing the woman of my dreams & then me finding her & marrying her). But as Tony Robbins says in his audio programs, I have been caught up living day to day and forgot to design my life (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist).

Anyway, the take away message is that for any change, lifestyle or otherwise, we need to have a clearly defined WHY, or we are doomed to not achieve our goal!

I will redefine my WHY related to exercise in my life & post it next week to show the process that I used, in case anyone wants to do it also. If you are in a similar boat, I suggest you do this too!

Together, as a community, there’s nothing that we can’t overcome!

Have a great weekend!

Dan T

Hunger. The Primal Trigger!

I was listening to a podcast by Maximusmark and he was interviewing Art De Vany, who I like to call the Godfather of Paleo/Primal! Anyway, they were discussing some of the concepts in Art’s book The New Evolution Diet, and talked about hunger as a motivation for exercise. Art described studies on mice and how when they were well or over fed they were reluctant to move, but when they were hungry they would move much more. A recent study examined this in male rats and found that ghrelin increased food intake and decreased spontaneous physical activity, while agouti-related peptide (AgRP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) both increased food intake, AgRP decreased, while NPY transiently increased spontaneous physical activity. It seems that intake of about 15-20% below calorie needs improved physical fitness in mice. It seems that it would make evolutionary sense for humans to become motivated to action (often by hormones or neurotransmitters) in order to be able to fight or flight, or procure food, win a mate, etc… This is interesting, because it’s been shown in human children that excess body weight (overweight/obesity) is associated with decreased physical activity but not the other way around. Of course in today’s modern food system, it seems difficult to eat a diet that is not obesogenic (promoting obesity). 

This got me thinking. There is a massive amount of literature on diet and hunger, specifically the satiety (fullness) effect of many foods. One study examined macronutrient composition on satiety and eating behavior as well as weight loss concluded that there were no significant differences between a high carb and a high protein iso-energetic diet protocol, however, this study did not look at carbohydrate restriction, which have been shown to absolutely associate with greater fat loss and satiety in both controlled studies and self-reported populations. Furthermore, it’s been shown that low fat diets adversely affect energy availability in the weight maintenance phase & therefore shouldn’t be used (at all in my opinion) over the long term. Furthermore, a review of all the popular diets concluded that the low carbohydrate diet protocol was the most effective at producing fat loss and metabolic improvement, at least in non-diabetic, premenopausal overweight/obese women.  I know from my experience working with thousands of clients seeking fat loss that most start out being incredibly hungry all the time when they are "dieting".  Obviously, because they are doing it wrong!  In this case, hunger, a primal cue that was essential to our survival, becomes somethings that prevents us from obtaining our goals!  That means that our approach is wrong.

There has been much research into the physiological and biochemical pathways that regulate hunger and attempts by science to control or suppress hunger, more often than not this involves a marketable product. Probably the most interesting thing to me is that a significant chunk of hunger research was done & contributed to by BIG FOOD companies. Now from a business perspective this makes sense because they profit from consumption of food products and any information that helps a company drive users to consume more will make them more profitable. Unfortunately, these "good business practices" by the food industry translates into health concerns for us including but not limited to overweight, obesity, diabetes and heart disease. In essence, the current strategies used by food companies and allowed by governments are making us fat, sick and eventually dead! Therefore, we need to limit our exposure to as many of the “processed foods” as possible.

I have created a list of 4 groupings of foods that I consider processed. Obviously, if you are a Paleo purist, then you will not want to incorporate most of these, but if not, then I would suggest limiting your intake of these processed foods to not more than 3 servings per week and only if you are able to achieve your goal of optimal performance, health and longevity while doing so! There are literally hundreds of thousands of lists of processed foods out there, so rather than re-invent the wheel & add to the confusion, I’ve attempted to add general classifications of foods as well as rules that should tip you off that a particular food is “processed” significantly.

List of Processed Foods:

1) All breads, cereals & pastas - these “plant foods” are mostly GMO & are often milled (finely ground) and then pressed into shaped & cooked. In a nutshell, no pun intended, they are quite highly processed and far removed from their natural state. The only benefit that has been shown by this food group is that the fortification with folic acid has helped to decrease the incidence of neural tube defects and unfortunately, folic acid that is added in many countries has been shown to be associated with increases in colorectal cancer prevalence. This is NOT CAUSAL, but it should raise some flags. 
 

2) Sugar and sweeteners - these are highly refined products whether they have a “calorie value” or not. Both sugar and sweeteners have both been associated with weight gain. Furthermore, in my experience, clients who try to lose weight while using sweeteners are often unsuccessful or only successful for the short term. The way I would normally advise a client is that if they are currently using sugar, they need to wean down to nothing eventually. If they want to use a sweetener (artificial or natural) in the process of doing this over say a month or so, then that’s fine. But honestly, it only prolongs the inevitable, which is essentially a feeling of going cold turkey and cravings for carbs, that one must push through in order to reset the palate.

3) Liquid, pasteurized dairy - firstly, we are designed to drink human milk, and only when we are infants. Secondly, we are designed to drink raw milk, with enzyme and healthy bacterial activity, etc… Pasteurization destroys some pathogens but also destroys enzymes and kills off beneficial bacteria present as well as other micronutrients present in raw milk, including decreasing the solubility of the calcium present. This is not surprising due to the heat-lability of many proteins. Importantly, the diet of the milk producing cow needs to be considered. If that cow is consuming grass as it is designed to do, then the milk fats are healthy, whereas if the animal is consuming grains, which it is not designed to eat, then it is often sick and requires antibiotics, so the combination of pesticides, GMO grains and the pro inflammatory fats from the seed oils lead to dirty milk fats, which. If you can find a clean milk source raw or pasteurized, then use it if you like and don’t be afraid to go full fat dairy in that case. Of course, raw milk is currently illegal in North America, although, it’s the norm in other countries. I would never suggest that the current food system with mass produced dairy shift to raw production, as that would be crazy, however, if the food system shifts to more local producers (once again) and you are able to legally acquire it from a local farmer’s cow, then GO FOR IT! 

4) Fruits & Vegetable juices - specifically, I’m talking about store bought ones that are not labeled as raw. North American food safety protocols dictate that any fluid sold in stores that was once living has to be pasteurized including dairy and fruit & vegetable juices. The problem is that many of the protective benefits that are known about fruits and vegetables are believed to be eliminated be pastuerization due to the high heat. That would explain, why studies have shown that people who consume whole fruits and vegetables live longer & are healthier overall, but these benefits are not present in store bought juices because of the heating. 

I hope that you are able to use this list to help you achieve your goals!

In my opinion, it's not a conspiracy, it's just about making money & that includes the government.  Hopefully, one day, using research into human evolutionary physiology to elicit the response of incresaing consumption of foods, especially in light of the fact that they are destroying our health, will be illegal; but until then we have to stand on guard for ourselves and our families! Let’s not reward food companies for researching hunger triggers & using it against us!

Until next time! Remember to join the MERF movement (I MUST EAT REAL FOOD) & live and play life to the fullest!

Dan T

SMART Goal Setting Review

Tis the season for Setting Goals!

Do NOT sell yourself short! You can achieve what you set out to achieve, just be sure to create the right road map (i.e. behaviors to reach the goal).

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel coming in 2014!

www.dietitiandant.com -click on the Video tab.

Sincerely,

Dietitian Dan T

SMART GOAL SETTING

In the spirit of the Holidays, please enjoy my segment on how to set SMART goals.  Adopting this effective strategy should help to optimize your chances of successfully setting and reaching a goal rather than the business as usual New Year’s Resolutions, as you will see.  ENJOY!

Every New Years we do it...  Take a look at our lives and decided to change… something! January has the highest number of people starting lifestyle change plans, etc… However, it also has the highest percentage of these individuals who drop out, or quit!  Therefore, we examine how to set goals in a way that maximizes our chances of following through! 

SMART Acronym:

1)     Specific – Must answer the six “W” questions:

a.    Who – is involved?

b.    What – do I want to accomplish?

c.    Where – Identify a location.

d.    When – Establish a time frame.

e.    Which – Identify requirements and constraints.

f.    Why – Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

Example: SMART Goal regarding health = Do cardio training for 45 minutes 3 days / wk and resistance training for 45 minutes 3 days/wk at XYZ fitness club VS. Get in shape.

2)     Measurable – Concrete criteria for measuring progress towards the attainment of each goal you set & regularly scheduled progress checks.

3)     Attainable – You begin to figure out ways to achieve your goals.  Develop attitudes, abilities and the skills to reach them.  This “development” occurs only when you see goal achievement as possible for you.  Stair steps/Stage wise – over time what was once inconceivable to you becomes well within your achievement.

4)     Realistic – A goal must represent an objective toward which you are both WILLING and ABLE to work.  TEST of Realistic = DO you BELIEVE that the goal is attainable?

5)     Timely – A goal should be grounded with a time frame.  This increases your sense of urgency and can help you tap more of your resources to achieve the goal.

Other tips for Lifestyle Change Goals: 

A) Include adhering to your lifestyle habits as an outcome (i.e. I will consume 8 servings of fruits and vegetables per day; or 5 vegetables and 3 fruits per day; or I will do 3 cardio and 3 resistance training workouts this week (for 30 – 45 min each)).  This is critical, because change in measured parameters may take some time, but this way you know & are recognizing if you are on track behaviorally or not.

B) Research your desired outcomes and be sure to discuss them with a health professional who can help you set a realistic target and timeframe, as well as help you overcome obstacles and use effective, proven strategies.

C) Share your goals with peers who can support you and hold you accountable to your standards.

References:

1) Adapted from: Psycho-education.  2006.  Dr. I. Patelis-Siotis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

2) Wikipedia entry on SMART/ER - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria.

Overcoming Carbohydrate addiction

Hi everyone,

Here's a prior post that is timely again. It's on overcoming carbohydrate addiction & removing those tremendously tasty refined carbs from your diet!

Remember having a sound strategy requires you to know your triggers and have counters to them.

For more information go to...

https://www.youtube.com/chizlefuel = My nutrition channel.

Subscribe today and start learning the path to true health and wellness!

 

I am here to help you succeed!

Sincerely,

Dietitian Dan T

Overcoming Carbohydrate addiction

First some background on the topic.

Although there is dispute in the research as to whether or not carbohydrate addiction is "real" or not, there are some facts that are interesting on this topic.

1) Weight loss programs that target a moderate reduction in carbohydrate intake produce better results.

2) Around the world Native cultures who have been exposed to white sugar or white flour products show significant health challenges (the same ones the Western world face).

3) From a behavioral perspective, treating weight management as you would an addiction produces better outcomes than not accounting for the psychological addiction component.

4) People who reduce calories but are still exposed to processed food items, have a very difficult time sticking to a calorie controlled plan (due to activation of the appetite center in the brain).

5) Some research shows that some individuals who are using artificially sweetened products also intake more calories likely due to activation of the appetite center in the brain.  Based on my experience with clients this happens about 50% of the time and is an individual thing.  If you find yourself getting hungrier or having a craving as a result of eating the artificially sweetened item then you would do better to avoid sweet flavors all together.

You can see why there is much disagreement as to whether the addictive nature of carbohydrates is true or not, however, I believe we can honestly say that consuming processed carbohydrates makes us want to consume more processed carbohydrates.

Now, let's look at the why.    

Evidence strongly suggests that there is something called the serotonin effect that occurs with consumption of simple carbohydrates (processed flour & sugar, etc...).  When we consume these readily available carbohydrates they elicit an insulin response from our pancreas (in response to a variable blood sugar increase).  The result of this is the body tucks away sugar molecules into fat stores and into the liver.  One longer term consequence of this pattern is the potential for insulin resistance which could occur over time with the liver becoming full of fat and eventually preventing insulin from working correctly (often associated with increases in visceral (or omental) fat (i.e. waist circumference)) or leading to Metabolic syndrome.  In the shorter term, when insulin levels increase in the body, they not only tuck away the sugar molecules but also several amino acids, including some that would compete with the branched chain amino acid Tryptophan for spots in the transporter that leads into the brain.  The result of this increased non competitive flow of Tryptophan into the brain is an increase in the neurotransmitter Serotonin.  Serotonin is a monoamine neurotransmitter (see diagram) that has been implicated in contributing to feelings of well-being and happiness.  Obviously, in today's high stress world, anything that will produce a rapid increase in feelings of well-being would be something that we might want to do again and again.  Specifically, food items that elicit this result are often referred to as comfort foods.  This is not just a label, but actually refers to the fact that many of them cause these increased levels of well being in us.  The challenge is that because the the food item releases the bulk of it's carbohydrate load so quickly (due to the processed nature of the food), the resulting increase in Serotonin is quite short lived.  It produces a rather large spike in Serotonin and of course an inevitable crash that can occur later.  It's when we experience this crash that the pattern becomes that of addiction.  We feel the need/overwhelming desire to create that feeling again and it's easily accomplished if we eat more processed food.  This is obviously not a good strategy because of the possible long term consequences of weight gain, metabolic syndrome and diabetes that could result from continuing to eat this way to "feel better".  A much better strategy would be to get ALL of your carbohydrates from less processed sources. Focus on starchy vegetables & whole fresh fruits as your primary sources of carbs.  Therefore, eliminate all processed sources of carbohydrates (and all processed foods while your at it) out of your diet for at least 1 month.  See if that helps.  Remember if you are someone who is sensitive to artificial sweeteners, then avoid these as well. Go cold turkey.  Replace the simple, processed carbs with more complex, less processed ones in order to wean yourself out of the Serotonin highs and lows cycle. I work in a Psychiatric facility and I can tell you that I see this phenomenon especially in people who experience seasonal affective disorder, as well as other mood disorders.  Below are some recommendations that I've found help break the cycle.

1) Eliminate all processed foods (especially carbohydrates) out of your diet for 1 month.

2) Build meals around lean, high quality proteins.

3) Use starchy vegetables and fruits as your primary carb-rich sources.

4) Consume the bulk of your 10 fists of fruits & vegetables per day from non starchy (low carb) vegetables.

5) Hydrate well - drink 2 cups of water 15 minutes before each meal.

6) Consume Green Tea and/or Hot water with Lemon in order to limit sweet cravings (due to the astringent and sour flavor of these items).

7) Use herbs & spices liberally in order to expose your taste buds to other flavors and not rely so heavily on sweet.

8) Do this for a minimum of 1 month. Then please comment or email me to let me know how it went.

If you have any further questions about this protocol, email me with them.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

Dan

Citations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin

Nutrition and physical degeneration, Weston A. Price, 2000, La Mesa, California, USA.

Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism 3rd Edition, James L. Groff and Sareen S. Gropper, 1999, Brooks Coles.

It's not what you know, it's what you do with what you know that matters most!

I apologize for the delay since my last post, however, as I mentioned my wife and I just had our first child (beautiful daughter)!  This is a tremendous blessing and we are truly grateful, but combined with my work schedule, consultation business and ongoing deadlines surrounding my PhD time has been quite short with respect to being able to sit down and blog.  Thanks for tuning back in.  Anyway, here we go with this week's post.

Knowledge is great.  Heck, it's the new currency!  However, there is so much of it today (via the internet) that we often suffer from knowledge overload and specifically misinformation overload!!  Anyone, who has a product to sell, can put together an add that, to the untrained eye, will look like a respectable informational report or scientific publication, when in reality it's nothing more than an add for their product!

The other side of this, is that we can at any moment find answers to our questions by using our favorite search engine and asking the question.  Quite often, it's been asked before and often results in thousands or more of hits once entered.  The challenge is: 1) to find respectable, factual information and once we've found a correct and scientifically valid answer, then we need to 2) use the knowledge we gain to somehow make our health and lives better!

When dealing with health and lifestyle information, hopefully you will learn to trust my information that is all well researched and thought out.  Sometimes, it takes me longer to publish a new post, but I would honestly rather publish something that's valid and factual and well researched vs. just publishing a post fast to keep active (especially if it's garbage of BS).

Anyway, when attempting to change your health or lifestyle for the better, it is critical that we convert any knowledge or concepts we learn into practical daily and weekly behaviors.  In other words, it's not what we know, rather it's what we do with what we know that leads us to success or failure.  Here is an example of some of the positive lifestyle behaviors we've discussed in prior posts or will discuss in subsequent posts and how to create a behavior checklist from them.  I know it seems 3rd grade, but do it and you'll be able to track your progress daily and accurately assess/predict if you are heading towards your goal or not.  Much better than waiting for weekly weigh ins, waist measurements, etc...  You would simply check off the behaviors as you do complete them.

Example of Success Behavior Checklist

Success Behavior	Achieved
Eat 6 times/day (every 3-5 hours)
Consume adequate amount of PRO/day
Consume PRO at every snack/meal
Moderate calorie restriction (20-30% below)
Moderate Carb restriction (Adequate Fibre daily)
Eat 7-10 Fruits and Vegetables / day – 4 servings from Fruits + cooked starchy vegetables.
30-60 mins min daily exercise (3x/wk cardio + 2- 3x/wk Resistance)
Adequate Fluid intake (3.7 L/d men; 2.7 L/d women)
Did I do 80% the right stuff today?

So what behaviors are musts for you to achieve your goals.  Figure them out, then work backwards and map them out into a specific daily / weekly plan for yourself.  Only then, can you know how you are doing and make adjustments on the fly!!!

Anyway, please see my prior posts and stay tuned for future posts for more specifics as to the behaviors that you should be working into your daily life in order to truly transform your lifestyle into a healthy one!

Be sure to check back regularly for more information!!!  You can also follow me on Twitter.

Have a great weekend!  Plan and adopt a healthy lifestyle now!!

Dan