Race report oh my god, what did you eat

I'm not the type to type-up a race report.  I figure 'oh my god, who the hell cares?'  What steps I took / where won't change anybody's life.   But serious thanks to Peter Maksimow for coaching me (on short notice) to get me through a 50+miler as it has been a while since I've ran that distance!  

But my race nutrition plan might be of interest to a few.  During my racing am I Practicing what I preach? 

Important definition: 'hitting the wall' = the inability to switch from carb-fueling to fat-fueling while in motion.  By fat-fueling, I mean the fat stored in your body.  No matter how thin you seem, you have days of fuel right there.  Being able to access it is a use it / lose it skill.  A carb dependent athlete has a poorly developed ability to mobilize and metabolize their own body fat and use it as a fuel. 

My goal over the past couple of years is to become 'fat-adapted'.  This does not mean always living in ketosis or fueling my runs with fats.  What is does mean: I'm not dependent on a solely carbohydrate-based fuel while running.  I can switch fuel sources on the fly.

In Dr Jeff Volek's yet unreleased FASTER Study (FASTER=Fat-Adapted-Substrate oxidation in-Trained-Elite-Runners) to look at the physiological differences between elite male ultra-marathon runners with one cohort following a conventional high carbohydrate diet and the other following a low carb/fat-adapted strategy.  One qualitative finding for high performance is all participants got much faster (surge of energy) when they took in a simple sugar source of calories.  Everyone responded to Gels like rocket fuel.  Difference being, carb-adapted athlete needs these gels in an IV bag.

Most every dietitian I have met will tell me that the body needs sugar (carbs) for energy. Well let's see if the basic arithmetic supports this.

My race this weekend, 52 miles, 7860 kcalories burned.

I store between 1200 and 2000 calories in my muscles and liver if those stores are tapped off.  I ingested 500kcals during the race.  I had a breakfast out of a styrofoam left over box, some mushrooms (no, not THAT kind), cheese sticks, little slab of chicken: 300 kcals.  

7860 - 2000 - 500 - 300 = 5060 kcals

Hmmm, where's the energy balance?  Ans: Those 5000 missing cals came from my own fat. The source of my exogenous 500 kcals:

• ~2.5 scoops of Ucan superstarch sipped somewhat regularly diluted in 2 Liters of water
• 1 Justin's Almond Butter (I had 4 with me, but hard to eat.  wasn't feeling it.  better in cold weather
• misc: several little slices of watermelon, little bunch of grapes, two jolly ranchers, a few dixie cups of pepsi - mmm pepsi

How to get fat adapted? Ans: Eat a lower carb diet normally, practice intermittent fasting, narrow your eating window most days, run without fueling, run fasted on occasion.  You'll soon realize, many of the pangs of hunger you feel are habit, food addiction, small alien fetus growing inside you.  

Any times this doesn't work? Ans: High intensity efforts, you will need a high share of carbs to fuel an effort.  No matter how fat adapted you are, you will bump up against your limit of fat mobilization.  According to the study, fat mobilization varies from 0.67 grams/min for a carb-adapted athlete to 1.54 grams/min for a fat adapted athlete.  

Anyway(s), I had a fun low-intensity race, and here's some random pics blah blah race report....

Amazing aid stations with people serving and servicing you!

Scenery sent from the gods

So.... so much mud!

'Selfie'-type picture,... of myself

The Winter of Scarcity that Never Comes

This is my hypothesis:

Our distant ancestors had access only to berries in the late summer.  We consumed them and they were sweet which gave us a reward in our pleasure centers of our brains.  We ate them specifically to gain weight for the upcoming winter.  A food intended to fatten us up should NOT have a satiating trigger, that would defeat the purpose.   

Fast forward to today, sweet is available all the time.  Still no satiety trigger.  We are constantly fattening for a 'winter' of scarcity that never comes.  

If only there was a controlled way to test this... for example:

• In the upcoming That Sugar Film, Damon Gameau, a filmmaker and TV actor, vows to follow a strict diet of “healthy,” low-fat food with high sugar content, News.com.au reported....

• Gameau reportedly consumed 40 teaspoons of sugar per day, or slightly more than the average teenager worldwide, according to News.com.au. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the average American consumes 20 teaspoons of sugar daily

<40 teaspoons of sugar?? "to match averages." What did he do, just shoveled sugar in his mouth? Not exactly.>

• “All the sugars that I was eating were found in perceived healthy foods, so low-fat yogurts, and muesli bars, and cereals, and fruit juices, sports drinks ... these kind of things that often parents would give their kids thinking they’re doing the right thing.”

• Within three weeks, the formerly healthy Gameau became moody and sluggish. A doctor gave him the shocking diagnosis: He was beginning to develop fatty liver disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, the most severe outcome for fatty liver disease is liver failure.

• Gameau said his sugar-laden diet left him feeling hungry, no matter how much he ate.

These are highlights taken from this news Article: "Man eats sugar-heavy diet for 60 days, receives shocking diagnosis"  (stupid click bait title, must be the new norm')

Qualitative thoughts about running form

Built to Run: If you have been convinced by the science that upright-walking humans are formed over time to be the ultimate long distance running machines in dry hot weather.  If you have not heard this hypothesis and its supporting evidence, please click here.



Running Form: With a rudimentary understanding of human anatomy we can make some assumptions about the running form most conducive to our structure.  Some of the action verbs required to run:

• Twist - the trunk 
• Swing - legs/arms
• Reach - reach in front and bhind
• Absorb - landing, absorbing the momentum down loads the springs of the body 
• Propel/Push-Off - propel over the landed foot, and extend legs, toe off.

Big to Small: Always tackle a problem big-to-small.  Working on the assumption that the biggest muscles need to bear the biggest loads.

1. The glutes:

"The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the human body. It is large and powerful because it has the job of keeping the trunk of the body in an erect posture. It is the chief antigravity muscle that aids in walking up stairs."

The glutes do two things: keeps you from folding in half like a pocket knife and pushes your thigh from a raised position to a lowered position (sitting to standing).  If you have good upright, "hips-open" posture when running, you can dedicate this muscle group to absorbing and propelling the leg down and back.  If your posture is bad, you engage the glute to keep you from folding in half.  The glutes need to share their capacity to maintain your bad posture AND run.  The strongest movement of the glutes is pushing back - this is what propels you forward.  Try to fire this muscle when it contributes most.  The glutes are ~25% of your running muscles, make them do 25% of the work.  (25% pulled from the sky.)

   2.  The quads:

The next biggest cluster of muscles and cetrtainly the longest.  The Quads is an eccentric powerhouse, it absorbs your landing, turning all that downward momentum into stored energy.  The quads stops you from collapsing and in contraction straightens your leg.  It is the heel-cushioned running shoes that incorrectly allows you to straighten your leg WAY too soon.  Landing with knees slightly bent stored the most energy, straightening the leg should happen at push-off, firing simultaneously with the glutes.  It's the one-two punch of propulsion.  The quads are ~20% of your running muscles, make them do 20% of the work.  (20% pulled from the sky.)

  3. The trunk:

Twisting the trunk is often over looked.  We coach pitchers, batters, boxers, golfers, etc to originate motions in the hugely muscled trunk.  A perfect punch begins at the foot, twists the hips, twists the trunk extends the arm.  The arm is a messenger of the forces generated from the 'big boys' of the muscle groups.  Running is the inverse of that.  A trunk twist turns into a foot motion.  Twisting the trunk allows the reach portion of the running stride and extends the push off out the back.  The more the twist, the longer the stride (at the same cadence).  I think of the 'X' created by the shoulders and hips when I'm driving my knee forward and pushing out the back.  Arm swing exists only to engage this twisty spring mechanism.  The trunk is ~15% of your running muscles, make them do 15% of the work.  (15% pulled from the sky.)

4. The hamstrings

Next on the size-matters comparison is the hammies (I told you, conversational tone, this is no kinesiology class).  Hamstrings do the opposite of the quads, and fold the leg to make the knee drive easier.  The torque on the hip flexors during the swing phase is a function of leg weight AND leg length.  You can't lighten your leg, so make it shorter by folding it.  Engage hammies to bend the leg before (or syncopated) to leg swing forward.  This is why leg-swing-forward is referred to as knee-drive, not foot drive.  Hip flexors getting sore?  Try engaging hamstrings sooner! The hamstrings are ~12.5% of your running muscles, make them do 12.5% of the work.  (12.5% pulled from the sky.)

       5.  The gastroc chain

Shorten to 'the calf'.  Absorbs energy eccentrically allowing the heel to drop to the ground in a controlled manner.  Energy return happens at push off.  If you raise your heel with heel cushioning in your shoes then you're reducing the effectiveness of this energy return mechanism.  This is why people that transition to minimal shoes or barefoot in one day complain about calf soreness.  these > 1 inch heel raises in shoes limits the calf range of motion from 5-10%.  (reminder, if you see a '%' then the number is pulled from my rear, i meant he sky.)  The calf is not a muscle used to push the body in the air at push-off, it's relatively too small. Absorb, hold, return - it's due to fire at the end of the glute/quad firing and just before the hamstring folds your leg.  This phase in the running sequence is sometimes referred to as toe-off. Calves sore? Try lifting the foot with heel and forefoot at the same time - lift your foot flatfooted. The calves are ~7.5% of your running muscles, make them do 7.5% of the work.  (7.5% pulled from the sky.)

 6. The foot

Almost a copy paste from above, the foot muscle contribute a small but necessary component in the absorb/release phases.  Most important is that the foot is thought to contribute ZERO, so strap them to an unmoving slab of wood (eg 'supportive' shoe).  We ignorantly turn off any foot contributions by selecting the wrong shoes.  Let the arch load eccentrically and return it's share to the push off, that's what it's for!  The feets are ~5% of your running muscles, make them do 5% of the work.  (5% pulled from the sky.)

        7.  Others - supporting muscles that help (sometimes hinder) the balance and movements of these larger groups.  The shoulders, traps, glute medius, muscles for balancing, muscles for left-right (frontal plane) movements comprise the rest.

Summary: Asking too much from a smaller muscle group will limit your performance or distance quick!  Having an awareness of what's getting tired, sore or hurt will give you clues of what groups aren't pulling their weight.  Practice mindfullness with your runningfullness!  Remember, endurance isn't how hard a muscle can work - it's as much turning off the muscle groups when not in use.

Why Are Fat People Hungry

Weight loss is a terrible goal when simply living, eating and playing in a healthy-ancestral way has the side benefit of a 'nice' body.  A body that suits your pheno-type.  But some people are into solving symptoms like 'losing weight' instead of 'identifying why they need to lose weight.'

I always ask the question 'why are fat people (those who store excess adipose tissue) hungry'?  

I weigh 157 pounds with ~6% body fat.  Let's round up to 10lbs of fat, that's 35,000 dietary calories of energy.  That is enough stored energy to run every second i'm awake for 10days, and I am a pretty small dude.  Yet people with 5, 10, 50, 100lbs of fat on their body need to eat 3 times a day (plus snacks) to maintain their sedentary lives to keep from being hungry?  That's hard to swallow.  

If you're curious,... it's metabolic derangement, that is why fat people get hungry.  with all that stored potential energy on board, one can not burn the stored fat in your adipose tissue if you're producing insulin.  One produces insulin in response to simple carbohydrate intake.  

Consuming simple, refined carbohydrates is like spraying ether in your old lawn mower.  In stead of priming the carburetor to get the REAL fuel from the tank into the engine, you spray something that is burned easily, quickly and then gone. You can keep an engine running by constantly spraying a bit off this fluid into the carburetor, leaving your full tank untouched.  the revs go high and then conk out - like you at 3pm at work looking for a snack, or a carbohydrate-dependent marathoner at mile 20.  


Weight loss clients should be asking, how can I access the fuel in my tank rather than storing more and more. I highly recommend Dr Davis's Wheat Belly which explains how the stored visceral (belly) fat becomes it's own organ secreting hormones contributing to the derangement of needing constant short term fueling.  

Shouldn't I just exercise to get rid of fat?  Exercise has been proven to increase appetite. Making yourself hungrier makes weight loss difficult. The only way exercise causes you to lose stored fat is because high intensity exercise squashes the insulin response from the carbs you've eaten allowing access to some fat.  You have to over come the simple sugars, then suppress the insulin, THEN burn stored fat in that order.  Again, you are squashing a symptom.  

Shouldn't I eat less to get rid of fat?  This is a tough question, you may trick your body into tapping into stored fat after you've beaten the strong urges to eat.  Once this happens you will be surprisingly sated.  This is temporary as soon the stored fat soluble vitamins will be depleted and you will achieve a new hunger, that of micro-nutrient depletion.  This is why calorie restrictive diets typically fail and the dieter regains the weight in spades.  Calorie restriction typically accompanies micro-nutrient restriction, which is bad and beyond the scope of this post.  

1. Lower carb consumption - plot your macro-nutrients in a web based food log like livestrong.com\myplate and tinker with what foods to cut to reduce high "glycemic load" foods.
2. Change the timing of your carb consumption - never eat carbs for breakfast, try to continue your sleep-fast into mid day.  Eat energy dense foods early bacon, eggs, sausage, avocado, nuts and raise carb intake as the day goes on.  Workout on an empty stomach, dive right into your fat reserves.  
3. Both - lifestyle changes give you lifestyle benefits. I kick off my athlete's fat burning metabolism with a weekend fast, no food for 24-36 hours.  It's easier than you think.  Check out Perfect Health Diet, or Warrior Diet for why.

It's not just for you and 'how you look', a carb-dependent, heavy person is starving inside.  Your kids will be born wired to think the world is short on food and posses a thrifty gene epigenetic expression. 

For a crash course in molecular biology to see what's happening inside the cells, Dr McGuff says it all (the entire video is good, but I've ffwd it to the relevant portion):

The Problem of Paleo Diet Arguements

Excepts taken from Chris Kresser's Interview of Mat Lalonde (from here)

Mat Lalonde PHd Chemical and Chemical Biology:

Invalid Inference 1: Our Paleolithic ancestors ate Paleo this way and they were free of disease

I’ll also say that the goal of my talk at the Ancestral Health Symposium was to help people better justify why they’re using this dietary approach or lifestyle.  You know, I do realize that I ruffled some feathers because there are some folks who are coming out of field, and I’m coming out of field, but not that far, you know, chemistry and medicine aren’t that far off.  But there are some folks who are coming from different fields, and really all they’re grasping on is this evolutionary thing, and they don’t realize that all it is really at the end of the day is a great way to formulate hypotheses, and I was seeing a lot of mistakes made in the blogosphere, and I was afraid that it was going to prevent a lot of professionals from taking our movement seriously.  So that was the goal ultimately, and you know, it’s just so simple to ridicule the whole caveman argument that I wanted to go beyond that, I wanted to give people a little bit more to think about, so if you are on a paleo diet, or what I prefer to say actually, because there’s really no such thing as a paleo diet.  The foods aren’t available anymore.  You can try to mimic it.  That’s the best you can do.  But a diet that’s meat, vegetables, tubers, and fruits.  That’s what I call it.  Typical arguments for this will go like this:  Our ancestors and modern hunter-gatherers consumed a diet that was mostly devoid of grains, legumes, and dairy, and they were virtually free of diseases of civilization.  People then make the invalid inference that consuming a diet mostly devoid of grains, legumes, and dairy will thus allow us to be free of diseases of civilization.  

Invalid Inference 2: We haven’t evolved enough to thrive on modern agriculture

Mat Lalonde:  We evolved over millions of years without consuming the foods that became readily available only after the advent of agriculture.  Hence, we’re not adapted to these foods.  But this assumes that a species isn’t adapted to a food because it’s never consumed it.  And if you look at the evolutionary record, that’s incorrect.  There are plenty of examples throughout evolution where species discover novel sources of food and thrive on them.

…You know, when you cooked plant matter or meat, it became more easily digestible so your gut could get a little bit smaller and you got better nutrition as a result.  If you look throughout history, you’ll see that food itself is a huge driver of evolution.  You know, the availability of food has driven some major adaptations.  And that’s another part where I didn’t ruffle some feathers, but I think I was misinterpreted during my seminar talk at AHS, where some people seemed to think that I was implying that adaptation was very quick.  And I didn’t say that.  I said that adaptation depended on time and pressure.  And if the pressure is very high, then it can be very quick.  So European herders becoming adapted to lactose, for example, would be a great example. 

Invalid Inference 3: We should live like our ancestors because we’re still genetically the same

Mat Lalonde:  We’ll lump this into genetics and epigenetics because the third thing I hear a lot is our genes are virtually identical to those of our Paleolithic ancestors so we should live like they did.  And this has to be the most ridiculous statement of them all because here is a group of people that claims to take an evolutionary approach to life, yet shows it does not understand evolution.  Human beings and chimps have virtually identical genomes to the tune of 99.5%.  The difference between a human being and a chimp is in gene expression in the epigenome.  Just because two species have similar genes does not mean that they will both thrive in similar environments or with similar food sources.  You know, one of the mechanisms through which adaptations arise is a change in gene expression.  It would be absurd to suggest the epigenome of modern humans is identical to that of our Paleolithic ancestors, given the substantial changes in environment and food that have occurred since that era.

What is the best scientifically backed argument for Paleo?

Mat Lalonde:  There has been insufficient time and evolutionally pressure for complete adaptation to seed consumption arise in homosapiens.  And I think about that today, and I’m like, well, you know, people might think that there could be complete adaptation.  Let’s say you were to take a population and give them only wheat to eat, but unfortunately I don’t think that’s the case, because all evolution cares about is getting to the next generation. And eating these foods will allow you to reach reproductive age.  There are certain types of insects that live only long enough to reproduce, and then they die off, and then the next generation takes over. That’s right, so the challenge right now is that we are trying to live for a very long time and very well and healthy, so we’re pushing the boundaries.

<<So that we’ve evolved some what might be called “shallow” adaptations or mutations, and some examples of this kind of rapid genetic change are the evolution of light skin in response to humans moving into northern climates or the changes in some genes or gene expression that regulate insulin metabolism in response to a higher carbohydrate diet.  But those are relatively simple mutations.  They’re not complex adaptations, which are characteristics that involve coordinated actions of many different genes together. >>

When you think about these two statements, what I like about it is that it’s pinpointing what think is a fact in that people who are adapted to grains and legumes or who not necessarily thrive, but survive on these foods are probably the minority.  Now, that’s very different than saying, well, nobody should eat this because we’ve never eaten these foods in the past.  And it is a very different statement, and it forces people to think about themselves, which is what you do all the time.  It’s like, OK, where do I sit on this spectrum?  What do I tolerate and what do I not tolerate?

 ________________________________________________________

It all goes back to a personal responsibility argument.  Robb Wolf always says, make changes and see how you look, feel, perform and rank in important disease markers.  In other words, keep an eye on the science, but I put a disproportionate weight into personal experience.

A Surprising Personal Best

Been running for almost 5years now, in the early development of my running performance I am used to getting a new 'PR' (personal records) every race.  I noticed a trend of 10% improvement every 6months.

Note: when calculating % of time, use minutes not fractional hours.  For example, 10% of of 1.5 hours (90minues) is 9mins.

This is not sustainable indefinitely obviously.   The 10% figure will degrade and reverse over time.  But understanding the race specific work needed to improve a specific race distance takes specific training. No one gets faster without targeted effort.

Brings me to my situation, early 2013 we moved to Boulder.  I knew that in the mountains less pressure = less oxygen, any run out the door was hundreds or thousands feet of elevation change.  I was reacquainted with double digit-minute / mile times!  The only 6-min/mile times I'd seen were occasional asphalt downhill efforts.  May days of holding 6min pace for mile repeats seemed gone.

Now we are in Boulder and it seems the town gets very excited for the nation's ~2nd largest 10km race called the Bolder Boulder.  All of my runs this year are slogs uphill and careful descents, with occasional 7min pace downhills.  The day before the race, we came home early from a rained out camping trip and I said "if the Bolder Boulder isn't sold out, I will run it."

I jogged the 4miles from home to Pearl Street Mall and waited in line to see the registration was open.  I saw they were asking for seeding times.  Feverishly I search ath-links.com in line, I found a 10km race in Richmond in 2012.  That race has 16 feet of elevation change and it's at sea level!  I wondered if I could even repeat that performance at 5,500'!  The registration person put me in corral 'AB' (3rd fastest), the cut off time for 'AA' was 41:00 - missed by three seconds, ugh.  I knew I'd need people faster than me surrounding me to suck me in.

Split toe action

In the morning, I was trying to decide which shoes to wear.  I remembered all my speed work I used to do in my Born2Run Road shoes.  Fond memories of moving fast in these shoes that offer some medium-firm cushioning, but allowing toes to splay for longitudinal arch suspension in my stride.

I toe (split toe that is) the line and take off and was able to hang with all my fellow corral runners I picked runners to catch and pass my pass-to-was passed ratio was 50:1.  I was happy to fly by a group of 'A'-corral'ers dressed like superheroes.

Done already??

I was moving my legs at a pace I really hadn't tried since 2012.  I refused to look at my watch, not wanting to know my pace.  It buzzed every mile but did not look.

The entire race besides staying in a groove of breathing, I focussed on relaxing any muscle I didn't need.  Were my shoulders tight?  Yes? Why? relave them! and move on to the next muscle group.  Hands relaxed? No?.... etc.

At the mean 10% grade hill to enter the stadium I danced around another runner's puke and thought "their gut biome cannot process beans, they need to cut out legumes..." I crossed the finish line and was handed a "Sub-40minute badge along with my medal."  My heart soared (and sored a little too, haha).  I passed two more people puking with the thought: "I wish I'd worked hard enough to puke".  As a long distance runner I am SURE I had plenty of gas in the tank, it took 2-3 deep breaths to get heart rate down.  No soreness, tightness or other signs of fatigue as I drank my post race beer(s).

I cannot remember the last time I was pleasantly surprised by a race.  7th in my age group.

Inspired:  Now I'm interested in leaving my ultra-marathon shuffle and actually specifically training for a 10km.  Also I want to fly to Richmond to re-try that 2012 race!  I will bring these good luck charms.

Splits:
1    6:22

2    6:32

3    6:32

4    6:39

5    6:14

6    6:32

0.2 7:06

Note: this is a subject for another post, but less than 1% of the runners in those first few corral took any water or sports drinks.  

Drop the Focus on Dietary Fat intake

Good news, the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) is realizing the early conclusions of the Fat/Heart hypothesis is based on questionable 'science'.  When you enter a field based on early conclusions that were untested yet you try to build on this faulty foundation, you find more paradoxes then supporting conclusions.  This is what has happpened in our dietary guidelines. 

It looks like our best and brightest are finally working the problem. 

We goofy-ancestral-health-based advocates will no longer be in the monority.

 

Time to stop talking about low-fat, say HSPH nutrition experts

Related Links

• nutrition
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• Fats: Controversy and Consensus
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• More on this topic

• Fats: Controversy and Consensus
• Low-Fat Diet Not a Cure-All
• Full-fat dairy may reduce obesity risk
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It is time to end the low-fat myth, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) nutrition experts told food industry leaders at the seventh annual World of Healthy Flavors Conference held in Napa, CA, from January 19 to 21, 2011. The conference, co-hosted by the Culinary Institute of America and HSPH, brings together nutrition researchers with representatives from schools, supermarkets, and food industry goliaths such as Burger King, The Olive Garden, and Panera Bread to share strategies for offering Americans healthier menu options.
HSPH nutrition department chair Walter Willett and associate professor of epidemiology Dariush Mozaffarian, along with Ron Krauss of Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, presented on the “Focus on Fat” panel. They encouraged audience members to avoid “low-fat” terminology and thinking, since diets low in fat are often high in sodium and carbohydrates from sources such as white flour and rice, refined snacks, and sugary drinks. Instead, the panelists said, chefs should focus on cutting trans fats from their menus and educating consumers about seeking out healthy fats.
Willett chairs the World of Healthy Flavors Scientific Advisory Committee, which also includes HSPH colleagues Frank Hu, Frank Sacks, and Eric Rimm. Hu, Rimm, David Ludwig and Nutrition Source editorial director Lilian Cheung also presented at the 2011 conference.
Read coverage of the conference (ZesterDaily)
Learn more
Principles of Healthy Menu R&D: A Focus on Fat (presentation from World of Healthy Flavors conference)
World of Healthy Flavors 2011 conference website
The Nutrition Source

High Protein as bad as Cigarettes?

Seen this headline? "Meat, dairy may be as detrimental to your health as smoking cigarettes, study says"

This latest news story on diet and health is the confirmation bias people that are against what our ancestors ate.  One issue I have is the definition of high protein.  I don't know a paleo eater that is in it for the protein.  It's the energy density of the fats that sets ancestral diets from the current un-time-tested dietary fads of today.

The news story from Here reads:

<<

Eating a diet heavy on meat and cheese may be as harmful to you as smoking a cigarette, researchers claim.

A new study, published in Cell Metabolism on March 4, shows that middle-aged people who eat a diet high in animal proteins from milk, meat and cheese are more likely to die of cancer than someone who eats a low-protein diet. The research also showed the people who ate lots of meat and dairy were more likely to die at an earlier age.

Play VIDEO

Lots of meat, dairy as bad as smoking: Study

"There's a misconception that because we all eat, understanding nutrition is simple. But the question is not whether a certain diet allows you to do well for three days, but can it help you survive to be 100?" study co-author Valter Longo, Edna M. Jones professor of biogerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute in Los Angeles, said in a press release.

Longo had previously done research on a protein that controls a growth hormone called IGF-I, which aids in body growth. Very high levels of IGF-I have been associated with an increased cancer risk. ...

>>> and so on.  The study they cite clearly uses relative percentages, that is to say if a group has one mortality in one group and two mortalities in another group, it's a 100% increase??!!  Makes for great headlines.   Better explained here: 

<For instance, this study found that among the NHANES III participants who were diabetes-free at the study’s onset, those eating the most protein were 73 times more likely to die of diabetes (yikes!). But if we look at the absolute numbers, which are tucked away in a little PDF supplement accompanying the study, we’d see that 0.2 percent of the low-protein group died of diabetes (one person) versus 2.0 percent of the high-protein group. That’s an absolute difference of 1.8 percent, which no longer sounds quite as horrifying.>  

A review of the story by Denise Minger, (author of Death by Food Pyramid) write the following from Here.  Check her stuff out!

Prevent Injury and Recover Quicker

do you have sore spots?  give yourself a self massage around your running and posture muscles.  then...

....

MAF Test and Training Summary

On the Facebook group, and people I am coaching we have a few participants doing an aerobic test called a MAF test.  Some are logging their performance here LINK.

The 180 Formula (To find the maximum aerobic heart rate):

1. Subtract your age from 180 (180 – age).

2. Modify this number by selecting a category below that best matches your health profile:

a. If you have, or are recovering from, a major illness (heart disease, high blood pressure, any operation or hospital stay, etc.) or you are taking medication, subtract an additional 10.
b. If you have not exercised before or have been training inconsistently or injured, have not recently progressed in training or competition, or if you get more than two colds or bouts of flu per year, or have allergies, subtract an additional 5.
c. If you’ve been exercising regularly (at least four times weekly) for up to two years without any of the problems listed in a or b, keep the number (180 – age) the same.
d. If you have been competing for more than two years duration without any of the problems listed above, and have improved in competition without injury, add 5. 

 For example, if you are 30 years old and fit into category b: 

180 – 30 = 150, then 150 – 5 = 145.

During training, create a range of 10 beats below the maximum aerobic heart rate; in the example above, train between 135 and 145 staying as close to 145 as possible.  Track you MAF tests weekly or biweekly for 3 months.  When you see a plateau you can switch to speed days, hill climbs, real anaerobic stuff. *

Perform the MAF Test on a track, (or repeatable surface) running at the maximum aerobic heart rate. A one- to five-mile test, with each one-mile interval recorded, provides good data. The test should be done following an easy 12–15 minute warm up, and be performed about every month throughout the year. Below is a 5-mile MAF Test of a runner training at a heart rate of 150:

 Distance Time (min:sec)
 Mile 1     8:21
 Mile 2     8:27
 Mile 3     8:38
 Mile 4     8:44
 Mile 5     8:49

During an MAF Test, it is normal for the running times to slow each mile – the first mile should be the fastest and the last the slowest. If this is not the case, it may indicate the lack of an effective warm up. In addition, the test should show faster times as the weeks and months pass. For example, over a four month period, we can see the endurance progress in the same runner from the above MAF Test. Note the aerobic speed improvement between April and July:

             April   May    June   July
 Mile 1   8:21   8:11    7:57   7:44
 Mile 2   8:27   8:18    8:05   7:52
 Mile 3   8:38   8:26    8:10   7:59
 Mile 4   8:44   8:33    8:17   8:09
 Mile 5   8:49   8:39    8:24   8:15

This improvement is typical during the aerobic base period. Some improve at a faster rate, others slower.  Most importantly, if you’re not improving within a three- or six-month period, it means something is wrong.  It may be a dietary or nutritional factor, excess stress, overtraining (such as too many miles), etc. In some cases, it may be the maximum aerobic heart rate is too high (often from choosing the wrong category in the 180 Formula).  Moreover, a reversal of aerobic function, i.e., slowing of aerobic pace during base training, may indicate an impending injury – enough of a reason to perform the MAF Test regularly.

Progress should continue in some form for three to six months or more before aerobic benefits may reach a normal plateau. Adding anaerobic work to the schedule before this plateau may impair (and ultimately even reverse) further aerobic progress.

The greatest benefit of the MAF Test is that it objectively demonstrates aerobic improvement in the form of aerobic speed. These changes also reflect competitive improvement.

© 2007 Philip Maffetone www.philmaffetone.com

*If you see NO improvements over 2 or 3 MAF tests, there's something in your training, diet or other stressors that is affecting your aeorbic performance.  email me and we'll figure it out! 

Quick snapshot of diet with rationale

I occasionally do a Livestrong.com/myplate daily food log as a sanity check to see where my macronutirents (protein, carbs, fats) are.

The pie chart is my ratios for what I've been consuming lately.





Typical day:

• Morning: MCT Oil in coffee (1-2Tsp)
• Late morning: 3 Soft boiled eggs (preserve the yolks!), 3 strips bacon
• Before noon: lunch leftover bison, potatoes, carrots in its broth
• Evening 2 handfuls of nuts
• Dinner: Ground Lamb, sweet potato, brussel sprouts scoops of coconut oil

It's very simple diet, so easy to maintain.  

Carbs: You'll laugh but the carbs are almost exclusively through beer. Other carbs include a few cups of sweet 'taters, brussel sprouts, broccoli, spinach

Protein: is a necessary evil that comes with my search for fats. 

Fats: I seek meats, lamb and bison preferred. Secondary sources are steak/chicken. handfuls of nuts, and scoops of MCT oil, coconut oil (in coffee, on veggies), and guac. eggs every morning, sometimes bacon.  Lamb and bison are 'always' grass- fed. Corn fed steak is 'ok'. Grass fed steak is either expensive as balls or hard to find... as balls. Chicken has little to offer, it is a filler food that is benign. I seek seafood once a week. Fatty fish of course (=cold water) like salmon. Problem is most salmon is raised in shitty water and fed soy.  

Night time running

For those of us on Northern Hemisphere daylight is becoming a more scarce resource.  Besides a reduction of Vitamin D* we are also now visually impaired and not easily seen by others. Gotta stay safe: Need to see and be seen.  Buying a lighting system is the type of purchase you want to get right the first time.  Nothing is more expensive than buying something that you never use.  Two reasons for lighting:

• Light your way
• Night Trail Running: There are typically no street lights on trails.  Looking for a lighting system with more than 100 Lumens is a safe rule.  



Black Diamond 80-100 Lumens

Headlamps are a good solution. They leave your hands free and only cast light where you're looking.  They can be inconvenient if you're used to wearing a hat, and the pressure on the forehead can take some getting used to.  It would be nice if they were lined with a Richard Simmons terrycloth head band - alas, there always seems to be some plastic digging in to your forehead. 


• Night Road Running: In the presence of some street lighting and possible traffic, it's more important to be seen by others.  For this you'll need a handheld flashlight that you can point low, looking for road hazards and curbs and not blinding drivers or other pedestrians. A handheld is also appropriate for encountering other nighttime runners in populated areas.  The major benefit of handheld is that they allow you to avert your lighting without having to avert your gaze.  Another secret...keep one eye closed when around a car's headlights (and don't look directly into the headlights - no brainer?), this keeps the pupil in the closed eye big for better night vision later ;)

• Be seen by others

In the presence of nighttime traffic (even dusk), wearing reflective clothing and carrying battery powered glowsticks and blinking red lights all help you be more visible to the half-blind drivers out there.  Quote from Evaluation of Reflective Vest Options 

"Research on human perception (in motor vehicles) finds that drivers must first notice, and then identify, an object (in or near the roadway) in order to react to it (Beck2  2005, and Ashton 2007). Police uniforms are typically dark colored and even more difficult to see at night. The white shirt common among higher ranked officers does not add to their visibility in low light or nighttime conditions. Beck, citing research conducted in 1984, notes a driver at 30 miles per hour (mph) detects a subject in dark clothing at approximately 70 feet (giving the subject approximately 1.5 seconds to react). If the speed is 55 mph, the reaction time was under one second. Similar research by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (as cited by Ashton 2007) concluded that in a simulated work zone, a driver detected a person in non-reflective clothing at 125 feet while they detected an individual in reflective clothing at 891 feet."

7 times further reaction distance is the difference between reflective and non-reflective clothing.  That's pretty good odds for a low cost inVESTment.  One ebay search shows as low as $5 could protect you.  Search here.

Flashlight with a pivot-able head

Selecting a headlamp or flashlight (or as I do it, one each): Think about battery replacement (rechargeable or not), comfort, lighting-power, and ergonomics. When using a flashlight, the angle of your hand is important. Over time, pointing a flashlight can be an uncomfortable if you need to maintain an unnatural wrist angle. Knuckle lights, or an aim-able flashlight head can make things more comfortable.

Knuckle lights

My solution, I wear a headlamp that has a blinking red light in the back and carry a stronger handheld. Because I'm a nerd I chose a 'programmable' flashlight.  I can get it to blink fast to remind me to do pickups at time intervals, or blink slow to remind me to turn around and run home.  If you're the type to think a programmable flashlight may be fun, here's an example of one:

www.hexbright.com

Be safe.  Buy quality stuff!  Torches would be more paleo (and more fun for the pyros among us), but it just makes your neighbors a little suspicious.  I'd love to hear what your lighting solutions are, what worked, and what did NOT work.

**The way to NOT be vitamin D* deficient (or A,E,K,etc) is high cholesterol diet rich in fats. Lead a fat burning lifestyle to get the most bang for your food buck.

Article below from the latest Trail Running Mag.  We (humans) get used to what we're exposed to.  For example, in one generation, low nutritionally dense foods that are falsely flavored to make them palatable has become the norm.  Two diets that make an attempt to diverge from this norm are vegetarian and paleo.  Since we do not have an extra ruminant stomach to ferment veggies and grains, paleorunners tend to lean towards paleo.  Besides having one stomach, there also is the issue of carb-dependent or fat-dependent for fueling during a run.  One convenient thing about being fat-dependent - we already carry fat with us.

another compelling point about deciding whether to eat high fat of low fat, simply look at micronutrients.  There are two kinds water-soluable and fat-soluable, wait... no carb-soluable?  How do carbs help me absorbs vitamins and minerals?  They don't. 

Good quote form the article below:

"As you become more aerobically fit, your body becomes more efficient at using its existing fat stores as fuel. The ability to burn fat stores efficiently not only improves endurance capacity by sparing glycogen, but also reduces the need to rely on eating carbohydrates or fat during a run, which decreases the risk of intestinal distress and a consequent decrease in performance."

Paleo vs. Vegetarian Diets; Fats vs. Carbs

Ask the Dietitian: Finding the best fuel

Vegetarian and Paleo diets seem to be equally popular and totally at odds.Is there any nutrition science to support one over the other, or does it simply come down to personal experimentation and experience?

—Martin Miller, Helena, Montana

A vegetarian diet is devoid of red meat, poultry and often fish, but includes animal byproducts such as cheese, milk and eggs. Studies have shown that vegetarians live longer than their carnivorous counterparts because the diet is generally high in dietary fiber and low in saturated fat. There is a widespread concern that a vegetarian diet is deficient in protein, vitamin B12 and iron—all key nutrients for a trail runner’s well-being. However, by eating a varied diet with adequate calories, most people will find that they can easily consume enough of these nutrients, in the form of of leafy greens, fruits and vegetables, fortified cereals, whole grains, lentils, seeds and nuts.

In contrast, the Paleo diet consists of meat, fish, shellfish, poultry, eggs, vegetables, tree nuts, fruits and berries. The theory behind the Paleo diet is that the addition of grains, legumes and dairy to the human diet precedes and contributes to chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The Paleo diet is low on carbohydrates, the MVP in a long-distance runner’s diet. In a previous Trail Runner article, the benefits of the Paleo diet for trail runners are highly praised by Joe Friel and Dr. Loren Cordain. In their book, The Paleo Diet for Athletes, these Paleo advocates have modified the diet in order to meet the needs of the modern-day distance runner. They say our ancestors “put in about 10 miles, which included walking, slow running and short bursts of speed.” There were also times when they went for days with no exercise. The modifications they suggest essentially throw out the Paleo rules prior to, during and after a race, hard workout or run longer than 10 miles. Friel and Cordain recommend that a Paleo athlete follow the same rules as other Non-Paleo athletes at these times by consuming foods rich in carbohydrates and fueling with traditional sports drinks, gels and energy bars.

Both a vegetarian and Paleo diet may inherently enhance runners’ health and performance by increasing consumption of nutrient-packed foods like fruits and vegetables over the typical American diet of processed foods, refined carbohydrates and sugars, but each diet carries its own risk for nutrient deficiencies, given there are major food groups excluded in each. Experiment with what you enjoy eating most and what foods help your body thrive in athletic performance. The goal is to have a well-rounded diet that is void of nutrient gaps and sufficient in calories to ensure that your body is getting everything it needs to train, race and recover efficiently. A nutritionist or dietitian can help you monitor for signs of potential nutrient deficiencies.

What is better for fueling a long run—fats or carbohydrates?

—Question paraphrased from similar questions submitted by several readers.

Carbohydrates and fats are a major source of energy for endurance athletes. Unfortunately, we only have about 2000 calories worth of glycogen, or stored carbohydrates, reserved in our muscles, liver and blood glucose. To prevent low blood sugar and its debilitating effects, consuming carbohydrates is necessary for runs or races that last longer than 90 minutes. The benefits of ingesting carbohydrates like maintaining proper blood glucose levels, delaying the onset of fatigue and preventing muscle glycogen depletion are well supported by decades of research with endurance athletes.

Because we have a nearly unlimited supply of calories from fat stores, it is unnecessary to replenish that fat during a run. In addition, most studies show that consuming fat while running does not increase fat burning or spare the use of glycogen. It takes more energy to process fat than it does to process carbohydrates. Any gain in calories would be lost and, because fat is slow to digest, there is a chance that it will lead to an upset stomach.

Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are fats that are absorbed rapidly by the body and, like carbohydrates, are a quick source of energy. MCTs such as coconut oil are becoming more popular as an alternative to carbohydrates during ultra events to help satiate hunger and avoid flavor fatigue from an excessive intake of sweet gels and drinks.

As you become more aerobically fit, your body becomes more efficient at using its existing fat stores as fuel. The ability to burn fat stores efficiently not only improves endurance capacity by sparing glycogen, but also reduces the need to rely on eating carbohydrates or fat during a run, which decreases the risk of intestinal distress and a consequent decrease in performance.

Editor's Note: This is an installment in our online Ask the Dietitian column with Maria Dalzot, MS, RD, CDN and an avid trail runner. You can visit her blog at www.mariadalzotrd.com and submit your nutrition questions tonutrition@trailrunnermag.com.

Low Calorie High Energy, and Other Oxymorons

As an paleorunner and amateur biohacker I notice things.  Recent example, energy is defined by Websters as:

Definition of ENERGY

1

a : dynamic quality <narrative energy>

b : the capacity of acting or being active <intellectualenergy>

c : a usually positive spiritual force <the energy flowing through all people>

2

: vigorous exertion of power : effort <investing time andenergy>

3

: a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in the production of physical change within the system and usually regarded as the capacity for doing work

4

: usable power (as heat or electricity); also : the resources for producing such power

Most importantly, energy is quantitative, it's measurable.  When it is measured the units are Joules, calories, BTUs, etc depending on the application (like distance is measured in inches, miles, mm, parsecs, depending on the application).  

So the question is how can something be low calorie (the unit of measure of energy) and high energy at the same time?  It is an easy answer, it can't.  Food energy is heat given off through the digestion/respiration of food.  Food is referred to as food energy.  We eat for energy, flavor and fun ;).  

Fats and ethanol have the greatest amount of food energy per mass, 9 and 7 calories/gram, respectively. Proteins and most carbohydrates have about 4 calories/gram (I am using dietary calories here, which are a kilocal). Carbohydrates that are not easily absorbed, such as fiber or lactose in lactose-intolerant individuals, contribute less food energy. Polyols (including sugar alcohols) and organic acids have less than 4 calories/gram.

So you have to eat 2 grams of sugar to get the same amount of energy as 1 gram of fats.  In (overly) simple terms, you need to eat 2 lbs of sugary foods just to make it through the day, but you'd only need to eat 1 lb of fats for the same energy output.  High fat diet means less food.  

Life advice: You need to solve the macronutrient (aka, carbs, proteins, fats) needs before you ever consider micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

For more on the differences in calories, read:

• Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
• a condensed version by the same author, Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
• and of course, Perfect Health Diet: Regain Health and Lose Weight by Eating the Way You Were Meant to Eat