there is no finish line...enjoy the ride...

Drinking: How Alcohol Affects Athletic Performance?

I’ve often commented within this blog about the negative affects associated with the consumption of alcohol, in addition to the social stigma associated with people that abstain from drinking.  It seems drinking has become an accepted and integral part of our social fabric.  That said, as long as it’s restricted to 1-2 drinks a day (1 for women, 2 for men), alcohol can actually have positive heart health benefits.  The problem I see, is that most individuals drink far more than what is considered healthy.

But, how much alcohol can you drink before it negatively impacts athletic performance?  The answer is ZERO. Any alcohol in your system is detrimental to any kind of fitness activity, (well maybe except for recreational dancing).  Here are just four examples how booze wreaks havoc on the athletic body.

Slower Recovery

Hard workouts drain the glycogen stores (carbohydrates stored in the liver and muscles) and leave your muscle tissue in need of repair. "Pouring alcohol into your system as soon as you finish stalls the recovery process," says Tavis Piattoly, R.D. High levels of alcohol displace the carbohydrates, leaving your stores still 50 percent lower than normal even eight hours later. Sip or snack on a combo of muscle-repairing protein and carbohydrates before thinking that a cold beer as a good recovery drink.

Packed-On Fat

When booze is on board, your body, besides having to deal with the surplus of calories, prioritizes metabolizing the alcohol over burning fat and carbohydrates. Alcohol also breaks down amino acids and stores them as fat. "For some reason this process is most pronounced in the thighs and glutes," says Piattoly. "Excessive alcohol consumption really chews up muscle in those areas." It also increases levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), which further encourages fat storage, particularly in your midsection.

Disrupted Sleep

Boozing also blows your muscle recovery and performance by sapping your sleep. In a study of 93 men and women, researchers found that alcohol decreased sleep duration and increased wakefulness (particularly in the second half of the night), especially in women, whose sleep time was decreased by more than 30 minutes over the night. "Disrupting the sleep cycle can reduce your human growth hormone output—which builds muscle—by as much as 70 percent," says Piattoly.

Depleted Water and Nutrients

Alcohol irritates the stomach lining, which can reduce your capacity to absorb nutrients (the reason you have an upset stomach after a few too many), says Brian R. Christie, Ph.D.—not to mention that alcohol makes you pee. For every gram of ethanol you suck down, you pump out 10 milliliters of urine (that's about 9.5 ounces for two beers). As little as 2% dehydration will significantly hurt your athletic performance. And by the way, you can't rehydrate with a dehydrating drink (e.g., beer).

So regardless if you're training for the Tour de France, or the next local 5km fun ran, the next time you reach for something to drink after your workout, make it something that both you and your body will appreciate.  Cheers.

Enjoy the Ride ....Rob

HEALTH & DIET MISCONCEPTIONS

It’s now the beginning of March and I'll bet a few of you declared a New Year’s resolution to achieve better health this year.  If studies are correct, 78% of you have given up on that crazy notion and reverted back to your old ways and are using inaccurate misconceptions to justify your change of heart.

I wrote a blog a while back about all the excuses I hear why people don’t exercise.  Well here are some popular misconceptions I hear when it comes to starting or sticking with healthy habits.  The following ideas might seem like reasonable assumptions, but the research suggests otherwise. Here are eight misconceptions that might be getting in the way of your healthy resolution.

1.      My doctor will tell me if I have a weight problem

If you think your doctor will alert you that your weight is putting your health at risk, think again.  You’re better off looking at yourself in the mirror for an accurate assessment. And be honest with what you see.  A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that less than half of those who were overweight and only two-thirds of those who were obese were told during the past year by their doctor that they were too heavy.  Doctors are trained to treat illness, not prevent it, so don’t expect them to tell you to lose the weight until you have a weight related crisis to deal with.  And by then it could be too late.

Furthermore, according to Dr. Christine Gerbstabt MD, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and author of “Doctor’s Detox Diet”, “weight is a touchy subject, especially for women, which might partially explain why female physicians are less likely to bring up weight with their patients. Plus, doctors sometimes figure that their patients have the resources to address weight issues on their own because there's so much diet and fitness information available to the public domain."  Which we also know is untrue.

2.      I'll eat less calories if I skip breakfast

Please drill this into your head: Skipping breakfast won't save you calories. "People have this notion that if they don't eat breakfast they'll save calories, or can cheat-eat later in the day, but it really doesn't work that way," says Gerbstadt. "Your body needs food in small increments throughout the day to stay powered, and research shows that people who eat 400 to 600 calories at breakfast are less likely to be overweight." Starting your day with a morning meal can help jump-start your metabolism by 10 percent and prevents you from overindulging on snacks and large meals later in the day because you're ravenous.

If you typically don't feel hungry in the morning, I suggest you skip dinner - just once or twice - to reset your appetite clock.  Many people say they're just not hungry when they wake up, but this is because they ate too much at dinner, or ate unhealthy snacks all through the evening up until bedtime. Another suggestion is to stop eating after 7:30pm in the evening, this way, you'll be sure to wake up hungry.

3.      Taking the stairs takes too long

Sorry, but taking the elevator at work isn't just lazy, it's inefficient, too.  Nothing frustrates me more than seeing a person take the elevator for one to five floors.  Worse still, if they're overweight and holding a can of Coke or a bag of chips.  I work with a guy that almost never takes an elevator, (only if he has to climb greater than 20 flights of stairs!).  And it should be no surprise that he’s in amazing shape.  A Canadian study calculated that when you factor in the time you spend waiting for an elevator to arrive; taking the stairs will actually save you about 15 minutes each workday. Researchers timed hospital workers making trips between one and six floors, and found that it took 2.8 times longer per floor to travel by elevator than by stairwell. So the next time you catch yourself complaining about being too busy to work out, taking the stairs is a healthy way to gain a few minutes to your day.

4.      I lost 10lbs, that’s good enough

Don’t settle with mediocrity.  Losing 10 pounds may feel good, but if you're overweight or obese, a small dip in weight is only the beginning and not the finish line.  Your goal weight should be very close to your graduating high school weight, (assuming you weren’t overweight when you graduated). 

I’m training a 50+ year old fellow right now who had a starting weight of around 240lbs and when asked what his goal weight should be, he was somewhat surprised when I suggested his high school weight, which was around 170lbs.  Six months after starting, his weight is a very healthy 179lb, with only 9lbs to go!  When we started, I said we would focus on healthy lifestyle choices (Diet, Exercise, Rest, Reduced Stress) and the weight will take care of itself.  The results below speak for themself:

While short-term studies have concluded that obese people can see significant improvements in their heart health after a 5 percent weight loss, a new 10-year Swedish study found that you most likely need to lose twice this much to yield meaningful results. Obese people who lost 4 percent of their body weight showed no significant improvements in terms of major health risk factors, like blood pressure, diabetes, or any of a number of weight related degenerative diseases. 

5.      I’ll just work off that extra Big Mac

You probably know a thing or two about calories; like you need to eat less of them and burn more of them if you want to see the number on the scale go down, but chances are you may underestimate the effort associated with "burning" those extra calories off your body.

According to the Mayo Clinic, one MacDonalds Big Mac (540 calories) requires over an hour of stationary rowing to burn it off.  A study in the American Journal of Public Health found that when teens read a sign that said it takes 50 minutes of jogging to burn off a bottle of Coca Cola, sales fell 50% compared with those teens who just read the number of calories, suggesting that people have a false sense about how many calories they consume versus the exercise required to burn off those extra unhealthy calories.  People I speak with have a false understanding how easy it is to consume calories and how hard it is to burn them off.  So, my advice is to always be mindful of what you eat, because unless you’re training for an Ironman, exercise alone won’t address your weight gain associated with the consumption of unhealthy high calorie foods. choices

6.      I'm in control of what I'm eating

Sure you're in control and you have no one to blame for eating that extra cookie, or slice of apple pie but yourself, but no matter how strong your willpower, you may be consuming more food without even knowing it. A number of studies show that there are sneaky, subliminal factors that affect how much we serve ourselves. Not only do people dish out and eat larger portions when using bigger spoons, plates and bowls, as I spoke about in my Portion Control blog post a few months ago, but they also tend to eat more when their food is a similar color to their plate, say researchers from Cornell University.  Mindless-eating expert Brian Wansink found that people were more likely to dish out a big helping of pasta Alfredo on a white plate than a red one. No wonder when I vacation in Tuscany the Itialians serve their pasta in those brightly colored bowls in reduced quantities. 

7.       It's too expensive to eat healthy

I often get the excuse from all income brackets that it’s too expensive to eat healthy.  Times may be lean, but eating healthy doesn't have to be a luxury.  A 2011 study in Health Affairs calculated that following the USDA's MyPlate guidelines would only cost an extra $380 a year in groceries, or $1.04 a day. Also, findings from George Washington University researchers show that obese women earned $5,826 less per year than their thinner counterparts - so maybe eating right is worth the investment, both physically and financially.

Eating healthy doesn't have to be exotic or gourmet.  To see just how much it would cost to shape up your eating habits, try tallying a week's worth of food and meal receipts – count everything and don’t cheat.  Include your $15 lunch to your $4 Starbucks cappuccino - and then compare it with 7-day's worth of well planned healthy groceries.  Studies say it’s usually less expensive compared with how much you're spending dining out and eating on the run.

8.       A little snack won't hurt

Well, that depends on your perception of what qualifies as a snack and how often you're noshing between meals.  Remember point #5 above, and it’s not just what you eat that counts, but when you eat it.  Investigating the snacking habits over the course of a year, researchers found that healthy midmorning snackers lost 7 percent of their body weight compared with those who ate their healthy snack later in the day, who lost 11 percent of their body weight. Why? Midmorning snackers usually didn't stop at just one snack and tended to eat another later in the day too, as opposed to afternoon snackers.

The problem with snacking is that people don't know what a snack is.  A snack is nutritious and filling; it bridges meals and is no more than 200 calories.  Snack packs, cookies and candies aren't snacks - they're treats. You need to know the difference and know that there is a limit.

Summary

Hopefully, those of you that started down the path of healthy choices back in January are still committed to those resolutions as the day you started.  If not, hopefully this little post will re-focus your commitment and get you back on track. 

Enjoy the Ride….Rob

Happy Valentine’s Day - Top tips for a Healthy Heart

It’s Valentine’s Day and I felt it was only appropriate to share my top 10 tips to for maintaining a healthy heart. There are many steps you can take to prevent heart disease and concentrating on key lifestyle areas such as eating, exercise, smoking and drinking, and considering other factors like diabetes and stress are all great places to start. Here are my 10 top tips for a Happy Valentine heart

1. Stop smoking. Quitting smoking is the single most important thing you can do to live longer. If you are a smoker, you are twice as likely to have a heart attack than a non-smoker. But from the moment you stop smoking, the risk of heart attack starts to reduce. With public smoking bans introduced just about everywhere, there has never been a better time to give up.
2. Cut down on salt. Too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Avoid foods like chips, salted nuts, canned and packet soups and sauces, baked beans and canned vegetables, pork pies, pizzas and processed meals from a package. Many breakfast cereals and breads that appear healthy also contain high levels of salt, so keep your eye on these too.
3. Watch your diet. A healthy diet can help to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, and can also help increase the chances of survival after a heart attack. You should try to have a balanced diet, containing plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, oily fish and limit you consumption of starchy foods. Avoid foods like cookies, cakes, pastries and dairy products that are high in saturated fats and most importantly, all forms of sugar.
4. Monitor your alcohol. Too much alcohol can damage the heart muscle, increase blood pressure and also lead to weight gain. Binge drinking will increase your risk of having a heart attack, so you should aim to limit your intake to one (for women) and two units a day for men.
5. Get active. The heart is a muscle and it needs exercise to keep fit so that it can pump blood efficiently round your body with each heart beat. You should aim for a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day. If this seems too daunting, start off gently and build up gradually. Keeping fit not only benefits your physical health - it improves your mental health and wellbeing too.
6. Manage your weight. The number of people who are overweight in Canada and the United States is rising fast - already more than half of the adult population is overweight or obese. Carrying a lot of extra weight as fat can greatly affect your health and increases the risk of life-threatening conditions such as coronary heart disease and diabetes. If you are overweight or obese, start by making healthy changes to what you eat, and try to become more active.
7. Get your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked by your Doctor. The higher your blood pressure, the shorter your life expectancy. People with high blood pressure run a higher risk of having a stroke or a heart attack. High levels of cholesterol in the blood - produced by the liver from saturated fats - can lead to fatty deposits in your coronary arteries that increase your risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and diseases that affect the circulation. You can help lower your cholesterol level by exercising and eating high-fiber foods such as porridge, beans, lentils, nuts, fruits and vegetables.
8. Learn to manage your stress levels. If you find things are getting you down, you may fail to eat properly, smoke and drink too much and this will increase your risk of a heart attack.
9. Make sure you can recognize the early signs of coronary heart disease. Tightness or discomfort in the chest, neck, arm or stomach which comes on when you exert yourself but goes away with rest may be the first sign of angina, which can lead to a heart attack if left untreated.
10. Know your Numbers. Monitor the top ten health indicators and take the necessary action if they trend negatively. Knowledge is Power, but it takes Action to flick the Switch.

Happy Valentines and Enjoy the Ride.....Rob

Paula Deen – Deceit and the Quick Fix

I’ve commented frequently about the unhealthy state of the average North American’s diet and how it’s accepted, and in some cases sensationalized through programs like Man vs. Food.  This past week, Paula Deen came out of the closest, so to speak. One look at her and it really shouldn’t be a big surprise what came walking out of the closet.  The cookbook author and television personality, known for her high-fat and fried foods, has been a closet Type 2 Diabetic for three years.  Keeping an illness like Diabetes private (especially Type 2 Diabetes, which is generally self inflected) is obliviously a personal choice that should be respected, but to continue to promote her unhealthy recipes to her loyal fans for three years when these very recipes are the source of her disease is unconscionable.

This kind of deceit is already low enough, but let's be clear, Ms. Deen is not coming out to inform her fans that all those years of eating her unhealthy recipes will increase their chances of becoming a Type 2 Diabetic like her.  No, she's come out of her closet for finaincial gains, as she is to become the official spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures her Type 2 Diabetes medication, Victoza.  So now in addition to promoting her unhealthy eating habits, it's Deen's new role to help us see "Diabetes in a new light," according to the company's website. Their sales slogan is: "Live a life that's delicious."  With a slogan like that, it almost makes you wish that you had Type 2 Diabetes like her.

As their new spokesperson with a loyal following of viewers; no doubt many of them will also have Diabetes.   I can already see them lining up to ask their doctors if the $500-a-month Victoza drug that Ms. Deen is promoting to manage her Diabetes is right for them.  Besides, isn't this why companies employ celebrities.

So let’s look at the “Delicious” hard facts of what Deen and her new employer are spinning.  Instead of promoting a healthy diet and regular exercise, which will prevent this disease, they’re suggesting that you continue with your reckless lifestyle, which consists of life-threatening complications like, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, blindness, kidney disease, nervous system disorder, amputations, dental problems, pregnancy complications, and the catchall other complications categories include coma, greater risk of death from pneumonia, trouble with physical activity, and no surprise depression, because Novo Nordisk has a drug fix that will mask the symptoms.

More than 28 million North Americans, have diabetes today, and at the current growth rate, 1 in 3 of us will have it by 2050, and 90 percent of these cases are Type 2 diabetes, which obesity is the # 1 risk factor.  Although recent obesity numbers may have flattened for the first time in 30 years, the poorer and minority groups are getting larger and are also the demographic that have less access to healthcare to manage their illness and won't be able to afford Deen's $6,000 a year drug fix.

I’m thinking many people that read this blog will like Ms. Deen’s spin of, I’ll eat whatever I want and take a pill to manage the negative consequences of my reckless behavior, over my message of healthy diet and regular exercise.   I know a number of people that suffer from Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes and while a diabetic's life is manageable, it's anything but “delicious” .

The life of a diabetic is something less than what is being marketed by Deen and Novo Nordisk.  That said, they’re no different to other drug companies that promise to medicate away the symptoms associated with depression, gas, incontinence, clogged arteries, fibromyalgia and dozens of other preventable health conditions that result from our North American lifestyle. 

Paula Deen is actually an insignificant player in the bigger promotion and marketing of drug products made by multi-national pharmaceutical companies that believe in treatment over prevention (there’s no money in prevention).  Unfortunately, what Deen does represent is North America’s continued and growing love and acceptance with behaving recklessly just because there‘s a potential pharmaceutical fix that's just around the corner.  The only thing that’s healthy about this story is Paula Deen and Novo Nordisks’ income statements.

Enjoy the Ride …. Rob

Keep the Streak Alive - New Year's Resolution

The NEW YEAR is almost upon us and every year people make all kinds of resolutions.  Can you guess what is the number one resolution is for 2012?  If you guessed something to do with getting fit, losing weight, eating a healthier diet, you’re right.  I made such a resolution in 1979 when L was out of shape and overweight.  I made that resolution and have kept it alive by making my health a priority evry day since then.  And as a token measure of this commitment, I have worked out every Christmas and New Years day for the past 32 years.  This symbol of commitment to my health is as important as putting up the Christmas tree.

If I told you a new pill that could be found on the drugstore shelf that promises to strengthen your heart, manage your weight and boost your spirits and self confidence, you would probably dismiss my suggestion as "snake oil".   But exercise (even a brisk walk) does all this and more!  Walking is simple, and doesn't cost a cent and if you haven't been active for a while, it's a gentle low-impact exercise to ease you into a higher level of fitness and health.

 

With every passing year of your life, you have more to gain from being physically active and paying close attention to what goes in your mouth.  As age-related risks of chronic degenerative disease increase, regular exercise and a healthy diet will either slow or reverse that trend.  In fact, you're even more likely to notice the benefits of regular exercise and healthy food choices if you already have chronic health conditions.

Will you ever be fit again, and stay that was as long as you live? The answer is NO, unless you make a resolution to get fit and turn it into a habit .  So the issue isn’t whether you need one more article describing all the benefits of exercise and diet, no, the post is how does one make heathy life choices automatic HABITS. 

How long does it take a HABIT to become AUTOMATIC?

Say you want to create a new lifestyle habit, like regular exercise, how often does it need to be performed before it no longer requires Herculean self control to become a habit?

Clearly it’s going to depend on the type of habit you’re trying to form and how determined you are in pursuing your goal.  Ask Mr. Google and you’ll get a figure of somewhere between 21 and 28 days. In fact there’s no solid evidence for this number.  The 21 day habit myth came from a book published in 1960 by plastic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz when he noticed that amputees took, on average, 21 days to adjust to the loss of a limb and he argued that people take 21 days to adjust to any major life changes.

According to Clinical Psychologist Dr. Peter H Brown, two significant factors influence the time it takes a behavior to become an automatic habit, 1) how bad do you want it, and 2) how life changing is the behavior.  Given these two variables the average time to form a habit is 66 days and can swing from as low as 18 days to as high as 254 days.  

Back in 1979 when I made my resolution and started running again, I hated every step at the beginning, but it only took a couple months to make running an automatic daily habit and although I switched to triathlons and cycling since then, exercise has always been a life priority that’s as automatic as breathing.  

Make your HABIT HAPPEN

I think I’ve heard just about every excuse why people don’t exercise and make their personal health a high priority over the years. Here are the top 10:

1. I’m too old to exercise, besides health is for the young, not the old
2. I’m too fat and embarrassed the way I look to exercise
3. I’ve tried to exercise in the past and it’s just something I’m not good at
4. I can’t afford to exercise as gym memberships are far too expensive for my budget
5. I hate exercising, it’s so boring
6. I have the genetics that prevent me from losing weight, so why bother exercising
7. I can’t exercise because there’s no gym near my house
8. I can’t exercise because I don’t know how to start
9. I can’t exercise because I don’t own any fitness
10. I can't exercise because I'm too tired

 
“If you don’t have time to exercise today, you'll have lots of time to be sick in the future”  Dr. Kenneth Cooper

By far, the number one excuse I hear more than all the other excuses combined is, “I’m too busy and don’t have time to exercise.”  Well, if this excuse were true, why are the gym’s, roads and pathway’s full of people that CAN make time in there schedules.  People that exercise have schedules that are just as busy as people that don’t.  So the real reason why people can’t find time to exercise is that their personal health and the health of their families isn't a priority.

How do you form a good Habit

So let’s take a look at how you can make exercise or other positive life choices automatic habits that are hard to break.

1. You need to pick a habit or goal that’s realistic.  Deciding to run for 2 hours a day, for 3 months straight is a goal that will likely fail and lead to injury.  Set yourself up for success and pick a habit or goal that you can accomplish.   A goal like walking or going to the gym 5 days a week for the next 8 weeks is a good start.   
2. Pick an activity you enjoy.  I personally love cycling and my habit is so entrenched in my life that I’ve become a master of fitting a workout into my day regardless of how busy I am.  Daily exercise for me is my normal state and an unscheduled day off is an uncomfortable anomaly. 
3. Once you’ve selected an activity you love to do every day and have set your goal, ask yourself WHY this goal is so important.  If you can’t come up with a solid reason or reasons to support your goal, success will be harder to achieve.  I coached my wife for a entire year in preparation to participate in a bike ride from Calgary Alberta to Austin Texas in support of Cancer Survivors.  Having big PURPOSE will provide the BIG motivation you need to succeed.

So here are some steps to set yourself up for success:

• Write down your habit with specifics, like your goal, days per week you will exercise, time of the day, etc.  The more specific you are the better chance of meeting your objective
• Tell everyone you know that you’re making a commitment to your health by doing (fill in your goal).  This will help you be more accountable for a positive outcome. And is the world of Social Networks, leverage Facebook or Twiter and tell the world.  It will be more difficult to quit your resolution after announcing to so many people.
• If you know you’ll require help sticking to your plan, hire a personal trainer for 3 to 4 months, or sign up for a registered fitness class so you have a schedule and routine that becomes habit forming.  And don’t give the cost a second thought, we’re talking about your health and there is nothing more important.  Just ask someone that has a degenerative disease like cancer what they would pay for the health you currently take for granted.
• Have your spouse join you, or at least encourage you in your new commitment to health. 

Remember that as with any new adventure in life, there will be ups and downs.  You really need to complete at least 66+ consecutive days of scheduled exercise of varying work loads of hard and easy days.  And if you should miss a day here and there, don’t worry, research shows that missing the odd day has little affect on the goal becoming an automatic habit.  

If there are other healthy lifestyle goals that require addressing, like your diet, don’t try to change everything at once.  Focus on tackling one goal at a time.  After you’re in your healthy exercise routine, than tackle your diet and other lifestyle goals.

You health should be your highest life priority.  As my mother told me when she was dying of Leukemia, "If you don't have your health, you have nothing."  As Christmas and New Year celebrations are right around the corner, why not make tomorrow the first day of the rest of your life, a healthy life.  No more excuses, start making it happen. 

Happy Holidays and Enjoy the Ride .... Rob

 

Is Something You're Eating Making you Sick?

If you eat cheeseburgers and french fries all the time, or drink six Coca Colas a day, you likely know you are shortening your life. But eating a nice slice of whole wheat bread--how could that be bad for you? 

What most people don't know is a dietary staple that humans have been eating for thousands of years may be causing serious health complications for many.  That staple is wheat; well not so much wheat, but the Gluten within wheat.  A very good friend of mine is fighting her second battle with cancer and only now, in her 50’s has she discovered that she is Gluten intolerant and her cancer events and her gluten intolerance may be linked.  In addition to this kind of more serious condition, do you wake each morning with thick mucus congestion, blow mucus for an hour after waking, or do you have asthma, or get the bi annual flu or head-cold, sore throat, fever thing, or suffer from frequent ear, nose and throat infections.

Well, new research shows that people with wheat allergies and gluten intolerance in particular have these symptoms, in addition to serious conditions like heart disease, cancer and even death.   After nearly a year of researching this topic, in today's blog I want to reveal the truth about gluten, explain the dangers and provide you with a simple system that will help you determine whether or not gluten is a problem for you.

Background:

Gluten is a protein contained in many grains, including wheat, barley, rye, and oats. It is even found in more unusual grains, such as spelt, kamut and even in beer. Wheat or gluten intolerance plague many people and cause gastric disturbances, but research now shows chronic health conditions are triggered by gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity, and the extreme form of wheat allergy called celiac disease.

Gluten sensitivity creates inflammation in the entire body, beginning in the gut. It is a form of autoimmune disease. Celiac disease, the chronic and most severe type of gluten intolerance, affects 1 in a 100 people. This represents over 3.5 million in North America alone. Less severe symptoms of gluten allergy or gluten sensitivity may affect as much as 1/3 of the entire North American population.

An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a study with over 30,000 patients. The data was collected from 1969 until 2008. Divided into three groups, the patients either had celiac, had intestinal inflammation but not full-blown celiac disease or had gluten sensitivity. Those individuals with full blown celiac disease had a 39% higher risk of death. The risk was 72% for those with intestinal inflammation, and 35% for those with gluten sensitivity.

Another study looked at the blood tests of ten thousand people from 50 years ago and compared them to tests on 10,000 people today. The study discovered a 400% increase in full-blown celiac disease. The results were measured by elevated antibodies in the blood, called TTG antibodies, which increase when there is a reaction to gluten.

Many people suffer from gluten intolerance and are not aware that this is the cause of their symptoms. Symptoms can include irritable bowel disease, canker sores, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoporosis, anemia, cancer, autoimmune disease, MS, and neurological problems such as depression, anxiety, dementia, schizophrenia, nerve damage, migraines, epilepsy, and autism.

The Real Cost of Gluten

Undiagnosed gluten problems cost the North American healthcare system billions of dollars.  Dr. Peter Green, Professor of Clinical Medicine for the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University studied all 10 million subscribers to CIGNA and found those who were correctly diagnosed with celiac disease used fewer medical services and reduced their healthcare costs by more than 30%. Unfortunately only 1 % of those with the problem were actually diagnosed. That means 99% are walking around suffering without knowing it, costing the healthcare system billions of dollars.

Why haven't you heard much about this?

Well, actually you have, but you just don't realize it. Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity masquerade as dozens and dozens of other diseases with different names.

Gluten Sensitivity: One Cause, Many Diseases

A review paper in The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 "diseases" that can be caused by eating gluten. A few more common ones include, osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and almost all other autoimmune diseases. Gluten is also linked to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, migraines, epilepsy, autism and neuropathy (nerve damage).

We used to think that gluten problems or celiac disease were confined to children who had diarrhea, weight loss, and failure to thrive. Now we know you can be old, fat, and constipated and still have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Of course, that doesn't mean that ALL cases of depression or autoimmune disease or any of these other problems are caused by gluten in everyone--but it is important to look for it if you have any chronic illness.  By failing to identify gluten sensitivity and celiac disease, we create needless suffering and death for millions. Health problems caused by gluten sensitivity cannot be treated with medication.  They can only be resolved by eliminating 100 percent of the gluten from your diet.

The question that remains is: Why are we so sensitive to this "staff of life," within our diet?

There are many reasons...

There is fairly strong Paleolithic evidence that 10,000 years ago humans did not consume many grains. We were hunter-gatherers who subsisted mostly on vegetables and meats.  10,000 years is a mere blip on the evolutionary scale with over 99% of our genetic make-up already in place, before we ever started consuming grains.  Wheat was introduced into Europe during the Middle-Ages, and 30 percent of people of European descent carry the gene for celiac disease (HLA DQ2 or HLA DQ8), which increases susceptibility to health problems from eating gluten.

American strains of wheat have a much higher gluten content (which is needed to make light, fluffy Wonder Bread and giant bagels) than those traditionally found in Europe. This super-gluten was recently introduced into our agricultural food supply and now has "infected" nearly all wheat strains in America.

To find out if you are one of the millions of people suffering from unidentified gluten sensitivity, just follow this simple procedure.

The Elimination/Reintegration Diet

While testing can help identify gluten sensitivity, the only way you will know if this is really a problem for you is to eliminate all gluten for a short period of time (2 to 4 weeks) and see how you feel. Get rid of the following foods:

• Gluten (barley, rye, oats, spelt, kamut, wheat, triticale--see http://www.celiac.com/ for a complete list of foods that contain gluten, as well as often surprising and hidden sources of gluten.)

• Hidden sources (soup mixes, salad dressings, sauces, as well as lipstick, certain vitamins, medications, stamps and envelopes you have to lick, and even Play-Doh.)

For this test to work you MUST eliminate 100% of the gluten from your diet--no exceptions, no hidden gluten, and not a single crumb of bread.  Then eat it again and see what happens. If you feel bad at all, you need to stay off gluten permanently. This will teach you better than any test about the impact gluten has on your body.

But if you are still interested in testing, below are some things to keep in mind.

 

Testing for Gluten Sensitivity or Celiac Disease

There are gluten allergy/celiac disease tests that are available through medical Labs. Ask your doctor.  All these tests help identify various forms of allergy or sensitivity to gluten or wheat. They will look for:

• IgA anti-gliadin antibodies
• IgG anti-gliadin antibodies
• IgA anti-endomysial antibodies
• Tissue transglutaminase antibody (IgA and IgG in questionable cases)
• Total IgA antibodies
• HLA DQ2 and DQ8 genotyping for celiac disease (used occasionally to detect genetic suspectibility).
• Intestinal biopsy (rarely needed if gluten antibodies are positive--based on my interpretation of the recent study)

When you get these tests, there are a few things I found to keep in mind.

In light of the new research on the dangers of gluten sensitivity without full blown celiac disease, consider any elevation of antibodies significant and worthy of a trial of gluten elimination.  Many doctors consider elevated anti-gliadin antibodies in the absence of a positive intestinal biopsy showing damage to be "false positives." That means the test looks positive but really isn't significant. Given the new research we can no longer say that. Positive is positive and, as with all illness, there is a continuum of disease, from mild gluten sensitivity to full-blown celiac disease. If your antibodies are elevated, you should go off gluten and test to see if it is leading to your health problems.

So now you see--that piece of bread may not be so wholesome after all! Follow the advice I've shared and find out if gluten may be the hidden cause of your health problems. Simply eliminating this insidious substance from your diet may help you achieve lifelong vibrant health.

Now I'd like to hear from you...

Are you one of the millions that have been lead to believe gluten is perfectly safe?

How do foods that contain gluten affect you?

What tips can you share with others about gluten and your diet?

Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment below.

Enjoy the Ride .... Rob

 

Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine

My step brother Gerry Patterson forwarded me this TED video and it reminded me of this famous quote: “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” -- Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)

Hippocrates made this statement over 24 centuries ago and if there was ever a case that supports this philosophy, this is it.

Dr. Terry Wahls, was diagnosed with Progressive Multiple Sclerosis in 2003 and after all the leading scientific efforts failed her, she took matters into her own hands.   After understanding the foods that are necessary for optimal brain health, she developed a diet based on these findings, and went from being restricted to a motorized wheel chair to the freedom of a self propelled bicycle, and is here to tell her story of this amazing recovery through proper nutrition.  Furthermore, she is here to tell us all her story, so we can take preventative action and avoid her personal struggle.

While modern medicine spends billions of our dollars researching and developing drugs and pushing them onto the public through our health providers, or performing unnecessary and ineffective medical procedures as we accept lifestyles that do nothing more than reduce the quality or destroy our lives.  I think we deserve more for the money we pay into a healthcare system that basically focuses on illness treatment and does little to prevent these very illnesses from ever occurring through healthy diets and regular exercise.

What we find through Dr. Wahls' story is everything she discovers has been preached for years.  We know that eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, leafy greens and lean protein is good for us.  What she's done by saving her own life, is back this understanding up with clinical trials and the rigor of scientific method.  For many, her recovery will seem like a miracle, but actually, it's the science behind "Mother Nature" that's the real story.

 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

 

Too Much Holiday "Cheer"

It’s that time of year again and it's easy for the holidays to become; well in a phrase, "too much." We’re exposed to too much commercialism, too much shopping, too much spending, too much partying, too much eating, too much family pressure and of course, too much alcohol. Holiday parties will be serving eggnog with alcohol, New Year's Eve parties with plenty of alcohol. Football Bowl Game parties replete with, yes you guessed it‚ too much alcohol.

It's scary to think how many holiday traditions have become intertwined with alcohol and its excess; how seasonal "cheer" has become synonymous with over-doing it and the measure of how good last evening's party was, is linked to how little of it you can remember.  Alcohol has also become synonymous with that perfect, easy gift choice. (if left up to the major distillers and wineries, everyone would get a bottle of something for the holidays).  The very line, “let’s get together over the holidays for a drink”, has replaced the older version, “let’s get together for a chat”.  It seems friends are unable to hold conversations without a drink in their hand.

This year, it doesn't have to be that way for yourself, or your loved ones. And I have a few ideas for you to consider. But before I get into that, let’s have a quick look at what Alcohol really is and what it does to you. 

So, grab a drink and read on ….. (just joking)

First, it should be understood and made perfectly clear, alcohol is a poison. And don’t let anyone say otherwise, because they’re wrong.  It is true that science has found a very small amount of alcohol increases your HDL (good cholesterol), but the real story is that alcohol has destroyed more lives, broken apart more families, caused more diseases and contributed to more auto fatalities than any other drug known to mankind.  And it’s now become the major contributing factor in the growing epidemic of domestic violence around the globe.

So how much alcohol is “safe” to drink on a daily basis?

As I write this I know that many people will only take away whatever supports their belief system and only remember that I said “a small amount of alcohol increases their HDL” and ignore all the damaging aspects of alcohol consumption.  It’s my hope that this post will alter the drinking practices of a few people, and hopefully starts with this Holiday Season and become a lifelong habit.

If an individual has an underlying liver condition such as hepatitis B or C, or prior damage from alcohol or other diseases, the liver is very sensitive to any amount of alcohol. In those conditions, the only safe dose of alcohol is zero.

Men metabolize and clear alcohol more efficiently than women due to body size, body fat and certain enzymes. Because of this the maximum "safe" daily intake of alcohol for women is only ONE drink and for men TWO drinks over a 24-hour period. It is also important to recognize that the body and in particular the liver, do not distinguish between different forms of alcohol. Beer and wine are not any "safer" than whiskey or spirits.  Also, alcohol is highly addictive so as tolerance level increases, control decreases.  

The amounts shown below represent how much alcohol a healthy person can metabolize safely and amounts greater than this will place unhealthy stress on your liver in addition to the other pathways that remove toxins from your body.  People are always surprised to learn what counts as a drink. A "standard" drink is any drink that contains about 0.6 fluid ounces or 14 grams of "pure" alcohol. Although the drinks below are different sizes, each contains approximately the same amount of alcohol and counts as a single standard drink. 

12 fl oz of regular beer

=

8 fl oz of malt liquor (shown in a 12-oz glass)

=

4 fl oz of table wine

=

3 oz of fortified wine (such as sherry or port

=

2 oz of cordial, liqueur, or aperitif

=

1.5 oz of brandy (a single jigger or shot)

=

1.5 fl oz shot of 80-proof spirits ("hard liquor")

about 5% alcohol

about 7% alcohol

about 12% alcohol

about 17% alcohol

about 24% alcohol

about 40% alcohol

about 40% alcohol

Alcohol and Heart Disease

Numerous studies have suggested that minimal alcohol consumption helps protect against heart disease by raising HDL (good) cholesterol and reducing plaque accumulations in your arteries. Alcohol also has a mild anti-coagulating effect, keeping platelets from clumping together to form clots. Both actions can reduce risk of heart attack.  That said, I hope this isn’t the only message you remember, and it justifies unhealthy drinking habits.

On the other hand, drinking more than a couple drinks a day has a direct toxic effect on the heart, and over time can possibly damage the heart, lead to high blood pressure, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, (enlarged and weakened heart), congestive heart failure, and stroke. Drinking puts more fat onto the mid-section of your body, raising your triglyceride level, hence the male beer belly and the female wine tummy that never goes away.  It's why "Spanx" have become such a huge hit with North American women everywhere. There are other, healthier ways to reduce your risk of heart disease, while flattening your belly; like eating right, getting regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.  “If you don't drink, don't start”.

Alcohol, Cancer and other Related Diseases

A recent European study reported in the Globe and Mail, indicated an alarming increase of various forms of cancer, including lung, liver, digestive track, colorectal and breast cancer.  In fact, alcohol intake by women in the eight countries studied caused about 21,500 cases, of which more than 80 percent, or 17,400, were due to their having more than one standard drink a day.  In addition, long-term exposure to alcohol destroys the cerebellum of the brain, causing irreversible brain damage, resulting in slowed thinking, an unsteady walk and slurred speech.  And if that wasn't enough, alcohol is also a contributing factor to hepatitis, cirrhosis, malnutrition, pancreatitis, stomach ulcer, fetal alcohol syndrome and if you’re on prescriptions or non-prescription drugs, mixing alcohol with your medicine can lead to serious untoward effects.

Holiday Suggestions

So how do you get through the Holiday Season, while remaining committed to your health and the health of your friends and family?  Consider the following suggestions.

1. Take alcohol off your gift list. Some say 10 to 20 percent of all adults use alcohol problematically; this in turn can affect many friends and loved ones. The holidays can be an especially difficult time for abusers and their children and partners. Many families have closet abusers and giving the gift of alcohol may be the worst gift you can give a friend.
2. Eliminate or reduce the amount of alcohol on your menu: For work and home parties ensure you offer non-alcoholic egg nog and other seasonal drinks. If you do serve alcohol during holiday celebrations, consider displaying non-alcoholic alternatives in plain view and in an equally of even more attractive fashion. Make extra efforts to support the use of designated drivers, taxi services and other means of keeping intoxicated people off the roads.
3. Consider your children, especially your teenagers. Talking with teens about the heightened risks from alcohol during the holiday season can be helpful. School breaks typically mean lots of free time and lots of socializing with friends, not to mention increased access to alcohol that comes with the parties. The risk of auto accidents caused by intoxicated drivers imperils everyone, including teens as drivers and passengers. Consider, too, that modeling is worth a thousand words. It's hard to get the message of moderation across if your own choices around alcohol verge on excess.
4. Recovering from alcohol abuse, consider seeking extra support: Recovering people understand intellectually that the holidays are filled with powerful temptations and potential pitfalls, especially when the people around us are drinking. On a more emotional level, there is often pain and heartache associated with holidays past, and loneliness and isolation during the holidays present. If you are recovering, consider attending that extra meeting or developing extra support to take care of yourself throughout the season.
5. At restaurants or bar parties:  Drink water right away so that you are not drinking alcohol just to quench a thirst. And having food to eat will slow the absorption rate of the alcohol and keep your hands busy, or order a non-alcoholic drink. If you just ask for a glass of white grape juice in a wine glass, or you get a non-alcoholic beer in a beer mug, no one is the wiser but you.
6. Peer Pressure. NO MEANS NO!  If a person turns down your offer for a drink, never ask them twice or pressure them to "let lose because it’s the Holiday Season".  Don't cave into peer pressure.  You never really know a person’s individual situation and you may be forcing them into a destructive behavioral pattern.  And if you feel uncomfortable peer pressure to drink at a function when you don’t want to, LEAVE!

I used to believe, just because I ate a healthy diet and trained hard enough to compete in the Ironman Triathlon, I could indulge in a little more wine than all the scientific research recommended.  I figured they weren’t talking about a high performance athlete like myself.  I could drink 3-4 glasses of wine in an evening with friends, but in the morning I was always prone to headaches.  It wasn’t until I began measuring my daily pH levels that I realized the true toxic affect alcohol has on the body's internal system.  A single evening could increase my internal acidity by over 1000 times!  Now I’ve become the master of “nursing a single glass of wine” as long as possible. 

So as we approach this festive time of year, it’s my hope that you drink responsibly, while being mindful of the positive health benefits of restraint.

Enjoy the Ride …. Rob

Pizza is now a Vegetable....no really!

If you've been following my blog long enough, you know by now that I'm a huge advocate for fresh (organic if possible) fruit and vegetables in every person's diet.  Well, thanks to the US Congress, I have to be a little more specific about the word “vegetable”.  On Tuesday of this week in Washington DC, the United Sates Congress declared that PIZZA is in fact, a VEGETABLE!  No really, I can't make this stuff up.  That's what I call Genetically Modified vegetables! 

This ruling was declared so pizza would remain part of the school lunch program across America.  You see, pizza has a certain amount of tomato paste on it, so the powerful lobbyists arguing on behalf of the frozen processed food manufacturers were able to convince the US Congress that pizza met the standard of a vegatable.  I know that kids right across America are rejoicing the infinite wisdom of their political leaders, because now they can say, "Dude, like Pizza is totally a Vegetable and I can totally eat as much as I want".  

I've never seen a field of pizzas growing in the hot summer sun, but then again, there are still a few states I haven't traveled to.  I’m not even sure what kind of vine they grow on, or how they are harvested.  But if the US Congress says it's so, it must be true.  I would be interested if any of you have seen this exotic vegetable growing anywhere near you?

Evidently, these pizza/vegetables only grow in the United States because it’s the only place on earth where their government officials have completely lost their minds.  It's not like America doesn’t have enough health issues to contend with.  But yet again, we see the special interests of Big Food outweigh the health of American children.

Below is the full story from the Huffington Post.  

Let me know your thoughts? 

Enjoy the Ride ….. Rob

How Pizza Became A Vegetable Through The Magic Of Influence-Peddling

On Tuesday, Congress decided that pizza is a vegetable. I have to imagine that this news instilled confusion in many Americans, as many Americans are (a) familiar with pizza, (b) familiar with vegetables and (c) sane.

But, to provide specifics that will in no way dispel your lingering thoughts that we are governed by morons but at least allow you some anthropological insight into how a group of morons who have been given permission to sit in a fancy room in Washington, D.C., and grunt at each other actually think, here is their thinking: Pizza is a vegetable for the purposes of determining what goes into public school lunches by virtue of the fact that pizza traditionally includes a schmear of tomato paste. (Botanically speaking, tomatoes are actually fruit, but we're going to have to just let that slide.)

At any rate, you may still be wondering how it came to pass that Congress arrived at the conclusion that pizza could count as a serving of vegetables. Wonder no more! Congress was guided along this path by lobbyists. And lobbyists can do all sorts of things, by magic! (Except provide nutritious lunches for children.)

NOTE FROM ROB:  Read this: From the Associated Press:

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

"School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables," the AP reports, "and USDA's proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business." It would have pushed vegetable growers into the business, but their lobbyists aren't as powerful, it seems.

In addition to this, the move to classify pizza as a vegetable gained traction because of popular, reality-transforming political philosophies on the role of government.

Piling on to the companies' opposition, some conservatives argue that the federal government shouldn't tell children what to eat. In a summary of the bill, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would "prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and ... provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals."

This sort of makes it sound like local school districts would be serving heirloom tomatoes and quinoa if the federal government just got out of the way. At any rate, I'd recommend that you remember this the next time you hear someone say that the government should get out of the business of "picking winners and losers." (Winner: salt! Loser: fighting obesity!)

Here's a fun fact! If a child incorrectly identifies "pizza" as a "vegetable" on a standardized test, there's an entirely different group of lobbyists who will argue that public school teachers have failed America's children.

It’s Only a Number

I was reading an article in today’s Globe and Mail that stated 81% of Canadians over the age of 65 suffer at least one Chronic Health condition.  I also read another recent article in a health publication stating that “Age is the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s.” The author was referring to the fact that the prevalence of Alzheimer’s doubles every five years in people over 65.

Equating an age to certain health conditions is a big mistake in my opinion, especially when so many “Baby Boomers” are approaching retirement age.  And we see it all the time.  Have you’ve ever been in a room dominated by senior citizens?  The conversation enviably ends up in a discussion about their chronic illness(s) and all the medication they have to take.  And almost all equate the fact that they have a degenerative disease to their age and not a life time of self abuse.  And it’s not just the average senior citizen that thinks this way.  Many doctors and medical clinicians also equate age with various degenerative diseases. “Age” is widely claimed to be the “biggest risk factor” for osteoporosis, macular degeneration, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and many forms of cancer.  

The problem with equating the risk of these diseases with a meaningless number – your age – is that it allows you to abdicate responsibility and takes your focus off the true root causes of disease and puts it on something that you can do nothing about.  Having said that, I'm not naive to think that you can live forever just because you eat well and exercise.  Even the healthiest people eventually die of something.  That's why I want to do everything possible to increase the quality of my life, for as long as possible by making good lifestyle choices when I'm young. 

I was actually told a couple months ago that I should be careful racing my bike in a 170km road race this past summer, because “men of my age” have a greater risk of suffering heart attacks.  Even telling him after the race that I tied for second place overall with guys 2/3's my age and made health and fitness a lifelong priority, he still stressed that I was at risk of a heart disease because I’m 55 years old.  He was convinced that heart disease is something that happens to people of a certain age, regardless of their lifestyle, and only those with the great genetics will dodge the degenerative disease bullet.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The degenerative diseases that decrease the quality of one's life, or shorten it, have little to do with our chronological “age.” as a cause.  Rather, they are the long-term ramifications of unhealthy choices that turned into lifelong habits! These diseases do not magically appear at a certain age. They are generally the end-result of poor nutrition, stress, lack of exercise and free radical exposure to toxic overload over a long period of time,

The longer you expose yourself to these risk factors, the greater chance they will manifest into a serious degenerative disease, or diseases.  Given most North Americans haven't made health a priority in their life, it's only logical that they would draw the conclusion that age is directly related to certain degenerative diseases, because the statistics show it to be true.  Unfortunately, the statistics only provide the observation, not the root cause.  

Your focus should not be on your age, but removing the causes of these illnesses and diseases within your lifestyle – no matter what magic number you turned on our last birthday.

Enjoy the Ride …. Rob