Modern Forager

Is that four servings…or just one?

There have been a few suggestions submitted to the Skribit thing on the left toolbar. As of today, the following question is leading the pack with 45 votes, so I figured I’d tackle it:

portion size when eating strict paleo and the best way to ensure the proper portions are being eaten

The way I see it, there are two schools of thought regarding portion sizes:

• Use the Zone or some other method of measuring
• Wing it

But it’s actually a bit more involved than that in determining what is the proper amount to eat each time you eat. Here are the key factors driving the decision:

• Your need to maintain a certain macronutrient intake daily
• Your desired eating schedule
• Your goals

First and foremost in determining your portion sizes is knowing how much protein, fat, and carbs you want to eat. There are any number of ways to skin this cat, from The Zone to Atkins to Weight Watchers to not worrying about hitting specific numbers and just eating high quality Paleo foods. So which one do I choose? The last one.

A long time ago, before I ventured into Paleo eating, I started with The Zone Diet. Basically everything is broken down into “blocks” and you figure out how many blocks you need each day based on your lean weight and activity level. Then you further break those blocks down into meals, so you eat a certain amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat at each meal, specifically in a 30/40/30 fashion. It’s not a bad starting point for figuring out how much you need to fuel yourself, but most people are going to need to start tinkering with it from there - more fat, more protein, more carbs, less carbs, something.

As I said, I prefer the “wing it” method. I place quality of food at a higher level than quantity. I don’t aim for a certain amount of carbs each day or a certain number of grams of protein, though most days seem to shake out about the same. I started tracking my intake in FitDay to see how my ratios came out. I’ve only tracked four days thus far, so far from being totally reliable (haven’t even had a weekend in there yet), but my fat intake is level at between 69% and 71% everyday so far, while my carbs and protein percentages fluctuate a touch. Once I get more data in there, I’ll do a post on how my ratios breakdown over the course of a week or two.

Next, let’s look at your eating schedule. It should go without saying that the portions of someone eating as I do will be far different from someone following a Zone protocol. So if you only have a four- or six-hour eating window like me, your slab of steak is bigger than the 4 oz. that someone eating five times a day is eating. It’s not unusual for me to have a plate with a pound of meat and a truckload of vegetables, but then that’s the only meal of the day for me. Because I am eating pretty much until full, I can rely on my stomach to tell me when I’ve had enough to eat.

I find that the bulk from the vegetables, along with the satiation from the protein and fat in the meat keeps me from over-indulging. My main meal last night, the one that comes an hour or so after a big salad, was about a pound of beef roast, a head of cauliflower, 4 stalks of broccoli, and a can of coconut milk. Obviously if I were eating 4 or 5 times a day, I’d have to portion that out over the entire day or I’d be the size of a small house.

Portion sizes seem to be more of an issue if not eating until full because then you have to have the self-control to stop at however many grams of everything. So if you have a certain macronutrient intake that you want to hit everyday, then you have to break that out over all of your meals for the day. If you eat 5 times, you can set it up like the Zone, eating 3 meals and 2 snacks. Or you can eat 5 meals of the same size. Or 4 meals or whatever works for you. For me it’s easy. I have one salad and one meal over which I get every bit of my caloric intake, save perhaps an apple before a workout.

And finally, there are your goals to help determine how much to eat. Are you trying to gain muscle? Eat more (along with lifting heavy things). Trying to lose fat? You probably need to ditch the “wing it” method and adopt something where you are a bit more meticulous about your intake. Trying to improve athletic performance? What sport? Performing at what level? As you can see, there are lots of variables here.

To be an elite-level athlete may require more emphasis on quantity along with quality than I’m willing to invest, but for the level I desire to achieve, focusing on quality is enough. Since I’m training for a track meet, my marker is athletic performance. The way I know if I’m eating enough of the right things is by how well I perform in my workouts. For example, in my workout this past Tuesday, I felt very flat after my first three sprints. I could tell that I was depleted, probably because I only got about 11% of my calories from carbs on Monday. So that was enough to tell me I needed to bump up the carbs with a sweet potato that night to prep for my next day’s workout. After Wednesday’s workout, I went ahead with another sweet potato to top things up. Of course, my daily carbohydrate intake for those two days was still below 20%, but my workouts have felt much better.

The problem with my method is that it’s reactionary. I can’t know if I’m not getting in enough carbs or protein until workouts falter. The benefit of my method is that it’s relying almost solely on what my body is telling me. You’ll have to choose your own measurement system to determine if you’re eating the right amounts. It may be athletic performance. It may be appearance. It may be some marker of health. The key is that you’re going to have to find something measurable and keep tabs on how it is affected by changes in your diet. I’ve chosen athletic performance as my marker, so I note how I feel when trying to hit my times or add weight to my lifts.

Which brings us full-circle back to the beginning. By analyzing my progress towards a goal with the current intake, I found that I was too low on carbs and make sure to include some more fruit and sweet potatoes throughout the week. Even with a large salad and a truckload of vegetables at dinner, the carbohydrate intake is low without some starches and fruit.

In the end, my answer is “It Depends.” Intake is always a work in progress and the proper portion size is that which allows you to move towards your goals while fitting into your eating schedule. Of course, your goals may dictate your eating schedule. Every time your goals change, your diet will need to change to reflect that.

I tend to end up eating a bit over a pound of meat and other proteins a day (eggs and sardines mainly). I’ve found over the past few years that is a) what I feel and perform best at and b) tends to be what I’ll naturally eat when just free-feeding. For vegetables, I usually cook up the entire bunch/head/bag of whatever it is and then eat away at it. If I get full, I save it and add it to my meal the next day. I don’t even measure my fat intake. I tend to just pour about the same amount on my salad or meat and veggies each day, add what looks to be a good amount of nuts and olives to my salad, and eat the whole avocado when I cut into one. Someone that can moderate fat intake with an avocado is an amazingly restrained person.

The only thing that I do try to keep a watch on is my starch intake. When I get sweet potatoes, I try not to get the ones that are the size of my head, opting instead for the small- to medium-sized ones. If I cook a sweet potato, it is pretty well guaranteed that I am going to eat the whole thing. Once I douse it in coconut cream and oil, it doesn’t stand a chance.

How’s that for a rambling, winding half-answer? As you can see, I’m not exceptionally meticulous in my overall intake, focusing instead on quality and letting quantity regulate itself. How do you determine your portion sizes?

Tags: Intermittent Fasting, Paleo, portion control, The Zone

Today, we’re going to discuss some of the commonly known allergenic compounds in dairy products, along with some other ways the Moo Juice may not do a body good.

Allergenic Components

Several components in milk give it allergenic properties. The obvious is lactose, which some 25% of the (U.S.) population as a whole cannot digest, resulting in lactose intolerance. Amongst populations of African, Chinese, Thai, Native American, Inuits, and many others, incidence of lactose intolerance tops 75%.(1) On the other hand, those of us in the U.S. of European descent, incidence is only 12%. Some European groups, such as Swedes and the Dutch, have lactose intolerance incidence below 5%. Basically, after weaning, the body stops producing the lactase enzyme to break down the lactose in dairy products (into a molecule of galactose and a molecule of glucose if you care), resulting in bloating, cramps, gas, and diarrhea. Those of us that can drink milk however, are mutants. We have a mutation on a chromosome that allows us to continue producing lactase throughout life.

Having touched on the rather benign lactose, let’s move on to the protein components of milk, specifically the casein fraction. Casein, accounting for nearly 80% of the proteins in milk and cheese, the other 20% being whey, is very high in the amino acid glutamine and is known to inhibit protein breakdown. It’s slow-release nature, combined with these two elements, makes it a favorite in the bodybuilding world where catabolism is viewed as worse than the devil reincarnate.

But this wonder protein has a more insidious side: casein allergy. While it affects only a small portion of the population, much like lactose intolerance, an allergy to casein is akin to an allergy to gluten. It can destroy the gut lining like in celiac disease and produce breathing difficulties, hives, rashes, and even anaphylaxis.(3) Asthma has also been implicated as a result of an undiagnosed milk allergy.(4) Granted, most of us don’t have to worry about milk allergy, nor is it typically as extreme as causing anaphylactic shock, and other healthful foods like nuts and eggs can also be allergenic and can cause anaphylactic episodes. Whey protein can also cause an allergy, though its prevalence is lower than that of casein.

Other Possibly Detrimental Components

Let’s first go back to the casein protein that we discussed above. What else do we know about this wonder protein? For starters, it’s one of the few natural glues still used today. It is also a prolific mucus-producer, forcing the body to produce histamines, often a sign of an allergic reaction. Beyond glue and mucus, it is also implicated in Crohn’s Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and autism. One of the dietary treatments for all three of these illnesses is a gluten- and casein-free diet.

In the December 2006 issue of “The Paleo Diet Newsletter,”(6) Dr. Loren Cordain discussed a substance known as betacellulin. To try to summarize it simply, this little hormone is able to survive the human digestive tract and bind to epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptors in the intestinal lining. Milk contains much more betacellulin, on the order of 50- to 60-fold, than the EGF produced in your saliva daily. When betacellulin binds to EGF receptors, it displaces EGF from binding. High levels of EGF-binding substances in the gut may stimulate the production of more EGF receptors, allowing for further overstimulation of the receptors by betacellulin and increased EGF pathway signaling. Increased signaling in this pathway appears to be a factor in cancers such as “breast, colon, prostate, ovarian, lung, pancreatic, bladder, stomach, and head and neck”. Additionally, more EGF receptors result in increased cancer recurrence, reduced survival rates, and increased tumor progression.

Dr. Cordain has further identified milk and dairy products as potentially causative factors in acne due to dairy’s effect on the five factors responsible for acne proliferation: “1. increased proliferation of basal keratinocytes within the pilosebaceous duct, 2. incomplete separation of ductal corneocytes from one another via impairment of apoptosis and subsequent obstruction of the pilosebaceous duct, 3. androgen-mediated increases in sebum production, 4. colonization of the comedo by Propionibacterium acnes, and 5. inflammation both within and adjacent to the comedo.”(11) And from there you’re better off to read the paper in the reference than for me to try to explain what he has to say.

What is milk really? It’s a hormone-delivery system, intended as the first food of an infant. The caveat is that it’s for the infant of the species from which it comes. Human milk is for human babies, cow milk is for calves, pig milk for piglets, and dog milk for pups. Each species produces a milk with the proper ratios of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, along with growth factors and immunoglobulins. It is intended to raise body weight at a certain rate and to instill the infant with a properly functioning immune system. Of course, there’s some debate about whether or not these immune factors survive the pasteurization process and whether or not they are a good thing to ingest.

And are you ready for something kinda gross? Every sip of milk you take contains pus, or at least white blood cells. Now, that’s not so gross when you consider that the heifer uses dead white blood cells to produce the milk. But if you’re drinking regular milk from the grocery, it’s rather gross. The growth hormones given to conventional dairy cows cause milk production to go way up and many of the cows end up with an udder infection known as mastitis (some data show up to an 80% rate of hormone-treated cattle(7)). This condition causes much more pus and bacteria to make it into the milk. But the law is set to allow 750,000 Somatic Cell Counts (SCC) at the bulk tank before milk must be discarded.(8) Considering that an SCC of 300,000 indicates a herd infection rate of approximately 25%, one has to wonder what a level of 750,000 indicates.(9) No telling if it’s detrimental, but it’s sure not very appetizing.

It appears that quite a few of the possible detriments of milk derive from the casein protein, but there are enough other things in the milk to make one question its usefulness. I doubt that makes too many bodybuilders rethink their use of the stuff to keep catabolism at bay, but it does cast a new light on milk and its effects on the body. Having broken down and examined the components of milk and the effects they can have in the body, we’ll move along next time to the arguments over raw milk versus pasteurized and homogenized milk and how the argument affects today’s discussion. After that piece of the equation, I’m going to give my analysis and a bit of advice regarding what you should do.

Sources:
(1) Lactose Intolerance
(2) Casein
(3) Eating Without Casein
(4) Milk Allergies
(5) Asthma explained by common allergy to milk and dairy products
(6) The Paleo Diet Newsletter - Volume 2, Issue 5
(7) Milk: America’s Health Problem
(8) Pus limit in milk
(9) Pus expose
(10) Crohn’s disease and milk
(11) Implications for the Role of Diet in Acne

Tags: acne, autoimmune, cancer, casein, dairy, immunity, lactose intolerance, whey

I don’t think there’s any question to my readers that I am a big fan of herbs and spices in cooking. From my article on The Health Benefits of Herbs and Spices to the second bullet on my previous post of Four Ways To Add Some Excitement To Your Diet, I’ve made it well-known that these versatile plants are very important to making your cooking fun. When I wrote my previous post on Ten Staples of A Well-Stocked Kitchen, I didn’t want to put a category for “Herbs and Spices,” feeling that such a broad category was a cop-out. This post is intended to give an in-depth breakdown of the herbs and spices that I use most in my kitchen and a few uses of them. My hope is that you’ll find a new way to use something here.

1. Garlic
Yes, it was included on my Ten Staples list and here it is again. It’s that important to my cooking. Garlic is highly versatile, featuring in most cuisines around the world for its pungency. I use garlic in nearly everything I cook, from eggs to big skillets of meat and vegetables, often half a bulb or more at a time. Yes, I like garlic a lot and usually add more to any recipe I’m following that calls for garlic. Luckily, it’s very healthful (see my article above).

2. Cumin
Cumin is another of my go-to spices, getting only slightly less use than garlic. I go through jars of the ground stuff fairly quickly, about every 2-3 weeks. I usually add cumin to my eggs, anything with ground beef, and sauteed vegetables. Pretty much anything is fair game as cumin lends a bit of a Mexican flavor to everything. It’s used in other cuisines, from the Mediterranean to India, but the smell always makes me think of a Mexican restaurant.

3. Basil
I don’t do a good deal of Italian cooking. But I still go through basil about as quickly as I go through cumin. My large daily salads are the culprit, getting quite a large dash most everyday. I probably go through 1/2 tbsp to 1 tbsp on each salad. Other uses are in making spaghetti sauce, which goes over top of spaghetti squash, not pasta, and in switching things up with the ground beef that I eat a good deal of.

4. Cinnamon
Cinnamon goes mainly on sweet potatoes and butternut or acorn squashes. I also occasionally add a bit to coffee or tea on the rare occasions I have either at home (my coffee and tea consumption typically happens at work). Cinnamon also adds an interesting dimension to chili or ground beef, as does cocoa (that’s a bonus tip!).

5. Ginger
Then there’s ginger, lending a bit of Chinese flair to my meals. One way that I use ginger, though I don’t make this very often anymore, was in a sesame salad dressing that I picked up from Robb Wolf. It is equal parts tahini and olive oil with a dash of ginger and some curry powder, plus a bit of pepper. The tahini gives it a nice stickiness that coats everything and the ginger combines nicely with the curry powder. A dash of tamari with a tablespoon of ginger added to most any meat works wonders. And I have to ask, is there anyone else that goes to a sushi restaurant and enjoys the pickled ginger as much as the sushi?

6. Cilantro
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a big fan of Mexican cooking. I love the flavors, probably a good reason why cumin and garlic are my main two spices. Cilantro is the third part of the Mexican triumvarite in my kitchen. I’ve been known to make a pesto out of cilantro instead of basil and serve it over top of chicken or steak. I also just cut up the fresh herb and throw it into a salad in place of the basil for something different. Of course, homemade salsas and guacamole are also recipients of a healthy dose of this herb.

7. Horseradish
Now, if you recall, I don’t eat a great deal of nightshades due to their propensity to promote inflammation. Unfortunately, I love spicy flavors. Enter horseradish. I don’t go through this very quickly because it doesn’t take much to give quite a punch to anything you add it to. The spiciness of horseradish is quite different than that of a jalapeno pepper, too much hitting more in the nose than in the mouth, but when you need a spicy fix, a little bit grated over the top of your food is a decent fill-in. Then again, sometimes you just need some hot peppers.

8. Pepper
This last one was easy. I add freshly grated pepper to nearly everything. Salads, steaks, chicken, pork, soups, stews, eggs, the list goes on. A good dose of pepper gives a nice spicy to everything.

Of course, I have more spices than that in my cabinet, but these are the ones that get the most use. Soups and stews get a bay leaf or two, but I don’t make soups and stews that often. If I decide to make a little dessert of grilled apples with honey, they get a dash of nutmeg to go with the cinnamon to give them a bit of crust-less apple pie flavor. Oregano, cloves, and turmeric are also found in my cabinet, but they don’t get used often enough to count. I should probably branch out a bit and use them more often before they go out of date and need to be discarded.

So what are your favorite spices?

Tags: basil, cilantro, cinnamon, cooking, cumin, garlic, ginger, Herbs, horseradish, pepper, spices

Last night, I finally finished The Fattening of America by Eric Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman. It was basically about how the economy is geared to making people fat, the detriments of obesity on the nation, and the benefits to the economy of obesity. Finkelstein uses his Uncle Al and Cousin Carl as exemplars of a typical obesity-promoting lifestyle. Uncle Al is a lawyer, climbing the ladder at his firm, making money hand-over-fist, but working long hours, eating restaurant foods constantly, and getting little exercise other than a weekly round or two of golf. Cousin Carl is living paycheck to paycheck, eats poorly due to lack of money, and also gains too much weight.

Throughout the book, he uses economics to show how both Uncle Al and Cousin Carl are maximizing utility as they have determined utility to fit their lives. For Uncle Al, having a high-powered career is more important than being healthy and therefore, it is expensive for him to maintain a healthful diet and exercise regimen. To engage in exercise and fix his own meals would take too much time away from the law firm. Cousin Carl has similar problems with needing to work to be able to support himself and having little money to spend on high quality foods.

There was only one tidbit that jumped out at me in the book of major interest. Did you know that the lower income brackets are not the most overweight? According to the data from studies he used, it’s actually the middle class that has the highest rate of obesity across all races and genders, with the rich and the poor having about equal probability of being obese. There are quite large differences between the races and genders though, as black women are more likely to be obese than white women at pretty much any income level and all women are more likely to be obese than men.

It all basically boils down to technological advances making it more expensive to be thin than to be fat. Unhealthful foods made of cheap are cheaper than produce, grass-fed meats and poultry. Our jobs are rarely physical, so we have to pay both time and money to go to a gym. It’s easier to hit McDonald’s for a quick meal after an exhausting, stressful day of work than it is to go home and cook up a proper meal of meat and vegetables. And then there are all of the businesses that benefit from our ever-expanding waistlines: diet plans, gyms, over-sized casket and wheelchair makers, pharmaceuticals, and the list continues. The weight loss industry is nearly $50 billion per year and showing no signs of slowing.

Finkelstein devotes a chapter or two to discussing the benefits to employers of a more fit workforce and some of the programs that companies are instituting to help their employees stay in shape. From weight rooms to cash incentives to maintain a certain weight or hit certain exercise targets, employers have put many different kinds of programs in place to try to make it less costly in economic terms for their employees. Unfortunately, there’s no solid proof showing that they work.

Finally, he ended with some practical advice on how to lose weight. I was dreading that chapter, figuring it was going to be the same politically correct garbage of “eat less fat, watch your calories, etc.” But he didn’t go there. It was more high-level stuff like “Avoid food in pretty packages,” “avoid added sugar,” that kind of thing. Pretty decent information, but it’s the same information we’ve been hearing for years that is obviously not getting through to people. Perhaps a different way of putting the message together is in order.

I thought he placed too much emphasis on genetics, which most of us understand are not a road map to your life, but become expressed only when the proper environment for their expression exists. Remember that phenotype is what your body does with your genotype and is truly what you are. He also didn’t really separate the differences between weight and health, irritating the heck out of me when he said he waits for the day that he can drink sweet tea and eat cookies without worries about gaining weight. Of course, one can be at a “normal” weight and still be quite unhealthy.

My final rating of this book is a 6 out of 10. It’s well-written and well-researched, but it doesn’t bring much to the party that most of us here don’t already understand. It took me several weeks longer to get through the book than it should have just because it wasn’t all that enthralling and most of the stuff, I already understood.

Tags: book review, Eric Finkelstein, obesity

Last year, I planned to run in the 100m, 200m, and 400m events at the Bluegrass State Games. Unfortunately, in May, I dislocated my shoulder another couple times and had to go in for surgery in June. That pretty much kept me from being able to do anything very hard through about September. Well, this year I’m going to a) keep my shoulder right where it’s supposed to be (seriously, if you’ve never dislocated a joint, I highly advise against it…doesn’t tickle) and b) run those three events.

So on April 7th, I started training. I laid out a 15-week schedule of three 4-week sessions with a one-week deloading period between sessions and a one-week taper at the end before the races, which means I’m now at the end of my first deload week and kick into cycle 2 next week. Lots and lots of speed, speed-endurance, and tempo work, along with some weight training and plyometrics. All told, my activity level has gone WAY up and the fast majority of it is in the high-intensity, phosphagenic and glycolytic pathways, which means I’m burning through lots of glycogen. So I thought I’d look at how I’ve reconstructed my eating to compensate for my additional need for glycogen to fuel all of this training, along with how I’m managing the most important of variables in an intense training schedule, inflammation.

First, why is inflammation such a big deal? At age 28, I’m far from old, but I’m also far from being a spry teenager that can fall out of a 15-story window, sleep it off, and set personal records the following day. So my disadvantage is that I’m a decade older than the last time I ran track. What advantages do I have? Most importantly, I have much more knowledge in taking care of myself. I understand nutrition, I understand recovery, my sleep habits are better. All in all, I take better care of myself and am hoping that offsets the “age” thing. Two other advantages: strength and power. I am far stronger and more powerful than I was a decade ago. Now I just have to harness that into sprint speed.

As for the diet, I’m sticking to clean, Paleo foods, which means lots and lots of sweet potatoes to get the dense carb source. I’m eating tons of meat, loads of olive oil, avocados, and plenty of coconut oil and cream, along with a good bit of fruit. Yes, this means I’m eating out-of-season a bit. See the Training Log below for a sample of my eating. Yes, there are a couple weekends of too much beer and some sub-par foods, but I was in San Diego one weekend and then the next weekend was Kentucky Derby weekend…what’s a guy to do? All in all, you can see that even my cheats aren’t complete blowouts.

Further, I’m keeping my omega-3 intake high to serve as an anti-inflammatory, while keeping the inflammatory omega-6s low. Avoiding the omega-6s is pretty easy as I don’t eat many, if any, grains, nor do I use vegetable oils. For omega-3s, I toss a can of sardines into a huge salad each day (or a can of salmon with skin and bones), along with taking 1-2 tbsp of fish oil (1380 EPA, 1500 DHA per tbsp). I also eat some form of fish, like tilapia or salmon, about once a week.

A second form of recovery that I’m using is the contrast shower. By alternating between about 2 minutes of very hot and a minute of very cold, I’m able to keep my inflammation down. I’m not 100% sure of the mechanisms behind why it works, all I know is that it works. It seems that the hot water stimulates blood flow and I’m not sure what the cold does - constriction perhaps? I go three to six cycles, depending on how sore or tired I am. It would be great to have an ice bath and a hot tub, but ya have to work with what’s available.

Finally, I stretch post-workout. After a session, I sit at the track and stretch for about 10 minutes, working heavily on the hamstrings, hip flexors, and ilotibial bands. I’ll also throw in a bit of additional stretching at home sometime before bed occasionally, though not as often as I should. Then there are the two methods of massage that I use to get the deep kinks out: the massage stick and tennis balls. I try to give the legs and lower back some attention every few days as needed. For the spinal erectors, I put two tennis balls in a sock and lay on them. The curve of the balls goes right around the spine, while hitting the muscles on either side of the spine. A single tennis ball can be used for deep tissue work on the thighs, calves, and upper and lower back as well.

As always, sleep is of vital importance, but perhaps even more so right now. With all of the breakdown and rebuilding that’s going on, I am aiming to get about 8.5-9 hours per night. I’m doing good at getting somewhere in the 8-9 hour range and coupled with tight control on my diet and recovery techniques, it’s enough to keep me humming along.

And for those wondering, here’s my first five weeks of training with results and notes.

I’ve never setup a training schedule before, at least not for a fixed endpoint like this, so I have no clue if this is optimal. I’m listening to my body and doing more or less volume as I see fit. With only 10 weeks remaining, I absolutely cannot get into an overtrained state. If I fry myself with training, my performance will suffer as I don’t have time to back off and still achieve the necessary improvements. So with that, if I’m not clicking one day and my intensity is falling, I cut off the training as you can see in my notes. It’s more important to keep the intensity high to train the central nervous system to fire quickly and powerfully than it is to do lots of volume at sub-sprint intensity. In the coming cycles, I’ll be changing the schedule slightly if I feel that I am lacking in a particular area, for instance top speed or acceleration, to focus on drills that’ll improve that area.

After my first four weeks of training, there is a major difference in how I feel coming off the line. Between improved launch technique and increased explosiveness, I feel much more powerful at the start. It’s amazing how quickly the body can adapt/re-adapt to the demands that training throws at it. I feel that my first four weeks was just enough intensity to get my legs back in shape, pushing the envelope without ripping it in half.

One of the things I picked up from reading Charlie Francis’ book “Train for Speed” was to keep notes each day of how the session went, how I felt, etc. This has helped because I can see if I’ve been in a period of low energy or not feeling amped to get to the track, which indicates I need to back off a touch, perhaps add in an extra day or two of rest. I can also keep note of any nagging sore points. For instance, after my first day, I had some soreness in my right Achilles tendon that I made sure to keep an eye on. Luckily, it went away that day and never came back; just cobwebs apparently. However, I can feel the work in my connective tissues, but not to a painful degree. I’ve been able to get just to the edge of the cliff and then step back. This week of backing off has helped things to fully recover and be ready for an even harder next four weeks.

I’m hoping that putting it all together will result in the following results:

• 100m - low- to mid-11 seconds
• 200m - mid-23 seconds
• 400m - 50-54 seconds

Sunday is a time trial day, so I’ll put my results in the comments if anyone is interested.

Tags: contrast showers, omega 3, omega 6, Paleo, recovery, sleep, sprinting

We’ve all seen the advertisements, from the It Does A Body Good commercials to the Got Milk? campaign. It’s been drilled into our heads, over and over again, that milk is absolutely essential to the body. If you’re young, you need the protein, vitamins, and minerals for growth. If you’re not young, you need the calcium to protect your bones against osteoporosis. In this series, I want to examine the good and the bad of dairy consumption. I’m going to break the dairy debate down into five posts:

• Calcium, Bone Health, and Osteoporosis
• Allergenic Components
• Other Possibly Detrimental Components
• Raw vs. Pasteurized/Homogenized
• My Take On The Whole Ordeal

Calcium, Bone Health, and Osteoporosis

Tell someone that you don’t consume dairy products and the immediate question is “Where do you get your calcium,” the implication being that your bones are going to crumble under their own weight without the calcium that the dairy industry tells you is so important. So what’s the big deal about this “calcium” anyway?

Calcium (chemical symbol CA) is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the crust of the Earth. It’s also the most abundant metal by mass in animal bodies, accounting for 1-2% of body weight, most of this in the teeth and bones.(1) Along with potassium, calcium plays a role in proper metabolic function, cellular permeability, and electrical conductance in your nerves. Muscle contractions, nerve impulses, and properly functioning glands and blood vessels, along with blood clotting, are all functions of calcium-potassium channels. Needless to say, calcium is an important element in the body.

Calcium is also one of the three main building blocks of your bones, a point that the marketing firms behind the dairy campaigns are sure to drive home. The other two dietary building blocks are vitamin D and magnesium. And of course, given the “Use It or Lose It” attitude your body brings to the party, weight-bearing activity is necessary to maintaining bone strength. Your bones aren’t just sticks on which to hang skin and hair. They are living pieces of the body, constantly being torn down and rebuilt, luckily in very small sections rather than wholesale.

So there’s no question that calcium is essential to the body. But how much calcium do we need? World’s Healthiest Foods suggests:(3)

Most men should aim for 1000-1200 mg daily, young women for 1000-1300 mg daily, and postmenopausal women for 1200-1500 mg of calcium daily.

Another answer to that question, and one I am more inclined to believe, comes from the work of Dr. Loren Cordain. While I can’t find an exact range, I recall that daily intake for hunter-gatherer tribes was in the 300-600mg/day range. Perhaps someone with The Paleo Diet book can give me an answer from the book. Obviously, our ancestors must have had weak bones since they had such a low calcium intake.

But wait…something doesn’t add up. The United States has a very high consumption of dairy products and calcium, yet it also has one of the highest rates of osteoporosis, while hunter-gatherers were known to have quite robust bones. What gives? The problem is that, contrary to what the dairy industry tells us, there is far more to the equation of bone health than just calcium. Those other pieces of the equation, vitamin D and magnesium, are as important, if not more important to bone health. For instance, hunter-gatherers typically had a 1:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium. Today, it’s more like 4-to-1.(5)

Could too high an intake of calcium actually exacerbate the issue? Would I have asked the question if the answer wasn’t “Yes”? Calcium and magnesium compete for the same absorption channels, so too much of one will preclude the other from being properly absorbed.(5)

High dietary calcium can cause magnesium deficiencies, even when normal levels of magnesium are ingested

And of course, most people are also not eating enough of the right foods for sufficient magnesium intake: nuts, seeds, green leaves, certain fishes. So we take in too much calcium and not enough magnesium.

Now we know that too much calcium is a problem. What about the vitamin D variable in this equation? Well, when it comes down to it, vitamin D is necessary for proper absorption and retention of calcium. And where do we get vitamin D? The most prevalent source is our skin, but that requires UVB rays to help the body synthesize the vitamin from cholesterol. We all know that we shouldn’t get any sun though because that’ll cause skin cancer (please note the biting sarcasm here). Other sources of vitamin D are foods that few people eat enough of: eggs, liver, fish, oysters. Eggs are too high in cholesterol, liver is scary, fish tastes “too fishy,” and oysters are like snot. Of course, I only agree with the last one there, but that seems to be the general consensus. Dairy products are fortified with synthetic vitamin D, but you all know how I feel about foods that have to be fortified to have enough of something. If it requires fortification, it’s not a good source for that vitamin.

Vitamin D may actually be more important than calcium. Studies have shown that vitamin D protected women against hip fractures even when milk and high intakes of calcium didn’t.(6) Vitamin K also plays a role in bone health, helping to produce bone-building proteins and inhibiting production of substances that break down bone. But both vitamin D and vitamin K are fat-soluble vitamins and we know that fat should be avoided. Of course, this is a cursory overview of the vitamins and minerals involved in bone health, but it’s illustrative. Others such as potassium also play a role, but are unimportant to our discussion of dairy. Contrary to popular opinion, higher protein intake also appears to be beneficial to saving your bones.

So when you couple too much calcium and not enough magnesium with deficient levels of vitamins D and K and a mostly sedentary lifestyle, what do you get? “Weak bones” is the proper reply. But for some reason the dairy industry isn’t telling us that part. There are two other interrelated components to this debate as well: acid-base balance and calcium balance. Acid-base balance is a measure of the net renal load of the foods you eat.(8) Some foods break down as acid-forming compounds, namely animal products and grains. Other foods break down as base-forming compounds, such as fruits and vegetables. Fats are mostly neutral. Since few of us question the benefits of meat, fruits, or vegetables, that leaves grains and dairy as the dietary components in question.

Moving along, the body works to maintain a very tight balance on the pH of the body. If there are too many acid-forming foods in the diet, the body must use a base to neutralize the acid. Your bones are the largest deposits of alkaline material in the body. I’m talking specifically about the calcium in your bones. So if you eat a diet high in meat, grains, and dairy and low in fruit and vegetables (anyone seeing a Western dietary pattern here?), you have a net acid-forming diet, which will cause the body to scavenge calcium from the bones. This leads directly into the discussion of the calcium balance.

Which is better, a calcium intake of 300mg/day or 1500mg/day? The correct answer is “C) There is not enough information to answer this question.” To answer the question, we need to know what the calcium outflow is. If the body in question for the first choice only has a daily requirement of 250mg of calcium while the second body is in need of 1700mg due to the dietary factors we’ve discussed, who is better off? It’s all about balancing the see-saw, not just getting as much calcium as possible. Other factors increasing the need for calcium are smoking, too much alcohol, and too much salt.

Looking at the big picture, it appears that a moderate calcium intake is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition in building strong bones. However, dairy is not a necessary component in the equation because calcium is available from so many other sources: kale, almonds, sardines and canned salmon with bones, oranges, broccoli, sweet potatoes. In fact, one study showed that the calcium in kale is better absorbed than that in milk.(9) Note that the mean absorption for dairy was only 32% (that for kale was 40%). Of course, the total calcium content of the milk is far higher, but the point is that the acidic nature of milk may not lend itself to proper calcium assimilation.

When all of this is put together, does anyone think that more milk is the answer to keeping your bones strong? It sounds to me like the proper answer is to eat a more alkalizing diet, meaning that at the very least grains have to go, in favor of fruits and vegetables, along with getting plenty of vitamins D and K and magnesium. Moving about here and there wouldn’t hurt anything either.

Next time we’ll discuss milk allergies.

Sources:
(1) Calcium
(2) Calcium - Deficiency and Toxicity
(3) How Much Calcium Do I Need?
(4) Calcium
(5) Imbalance in the calcium/magnesium ratio
(6) Preventing Osteoporosis
(7) Nutrition Fact Sheet: Vitamin D
(8) The Importance of Acid-Base Balance
(9) Calcium absorption from kale

Tags: calcium, dairy, magnesium, potassium, vitamin D, vitamin K

I’ve received a couple comments lately referring to how the content on the website doesn’t reflect actually going out and foraging for food. That much is true. So I thought I’d give a brief story of how I arrived at the name Modern Forager and what that name reflects.

When my site was originally hosted on Blogspot, I went through several names trying to come up with one that resonated with me. I eventually came across the current name, thinking about the meaning of the term “forager”: one who hunts and gathers food and provisions. When it comes down to it, a hunter-gatherer, or Paleo, diet is what I seek to mimic. However, I see that you don’t have to return to the wild to actually live a lifestyle in tune with your evolutionary roots. You can enjoy all of the accoutrements of the modern world (internet, cell phones, and cars, oh my!) while still mimicking the lifestyle of your ancestors as much as possible through your eating patterns and choices of activities. Though I didn’t really love the name, I decided to stick with it until something better came to me. But in that time, the site started getting links and subscribers and it wasn’t worth it to change it.

So no, this website is not about foraging for food. It’s about eating and living in a way that respects your foraging roots while thriving in a modern world that’s often diametrically opposed to such a lifestyle. It’s basically about nutrition and fitness, as anyone that subscribes to the site has figured out by now. If I could, I’d move the blog to my own domain, scottkustes.com, which when I started the blog was running my own personal website (no longer there). But doing so would mean that all of the links that other people have to the blog would be lost. And all of the Google/Yahoo rankings that I have would be lost. When it comes down to it, a name is just a name. The word “amazon” has nothing to do with shopping, yet everyone knows what Amazon.com is. Frankly, it’s just not worth it to switch the URL. So if one of the people complaining that my site isn’t about foraging for food wants to purchase the URL, contact me and then you can turn it into the type of site you think it should be. Until then, enjoy the health and fitness discussions.

Tags: Fitness, health, nutrition

Photo courtesy of Obi’s Sister

Okay so there might not be much room on your fridge, especially for readers with kids at home. But I’m proposing that finding some kitchen real estate to post up some useful kitchen tips is an easy way to boost your culinary skills and take advantage of all the great information out there. You can read all you want but when the oil hits the pan you need to be ready to rock with useful tidbits such as the right spice combinations.

So here are some links to printable resources. Printing them off and posting them in your kitchen makes you much more likely to actually use them!

Spices & Herbs

• University of Nebraska’s Add A Little Spice to Your Life Handout
• Scott’s “The Spice of Life” article
• Lontano’s Free Spice Chart

Fruits & Vegetables

• Clemson Home & Garden’s “Selecting and Storing Fruits and Vegetables”
• “Storing Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for Better Taste”
• Iowa State University’s “Freezing fruits and vegetables”
• Better Homes and Garden’s Vegetable Preparation Table

Other

• Robb Wolf’s Shopping List (he has some other resources such as example meal plans in this blog post)
• Jericho Settlers’ Farm Cooking Tips for Grassfed Beef
• Retail Beef Cuts and Recommended Cooking Methods

And of course if anyone out there has some of their own that they’ve found or created, it would be great to share with the community through via the comments. I have yet to come across a good (free) summary of knife skills tips and I suspect there are still some other hidden gems out there for basic culinary technique.

Or you could always compile your own printout of favorite kitchen tips using info you come across on sites like Modern Forager.

Tags: kitchen reference, kitchen tips, printable kitchen tips, reference, spices

Just a couple minor things going on around here. First, I have shut down user account registration. I am getting far too many spam accounts created to leave it open to public registration. An account isn’t required to read or comment, so it’s really not a big deal. Those of you that already have accounts, they are still there. If you’d like to create an account, just drop me an email through the contact form with your desired username and email (both required), first name and last name and a website to link to (these three are optional) and I’ll create it. Otherwise, as you were.

On the note of spam, I get quite a bit of it. Luckily, I have a spam filter. Occasionally a real comment drops into there that I need to fish out. If you post a comment and it doesn’t appear on the site within a day, repost it. I probably missed it and deleted it as spam. Well, unless you post something absolutely off-topic, incendiary, or immature, then I likely deleted it on my own. In the meantime, if anyone needs to know where to find Viagra, Somas, Phentermine, or any number of other prescription drugs, I can toss a few hundred links your way. I’m sure all of these in my spambox are legit.

And finally, there was a request for a print button on the posts by Jay. You can now find that below the posts, above the comments. Annoy your coworkers by giving them nutrition print-outs. Print a copy for your family, friends, and local softball team. Give a copy to the kids on your son’s soccer team. The possibilities are endless!

Oh, and there are also links to Digg and Stumble at the bottom of posts too, so if you read something that you think is beneficial, send it to one of the social bookmarking sites so others can reap the rewards as well.

More confusion for the cup o’ joe issue. Coffee May Protect Against Breast Cancer, Study Shows - “Depending on which variant of a certain gene a woman has, a coffee consumption rate of at least two-three cups a day can either reduce the total risk of developing breast cancer or delay the onset of cancer.”

Getting your head screwed on straight is beneficial. Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure - “Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can’t feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in.”

A good reason to get out in the sunshine. High Blood Levels Of Vitamin D Protect Women From Breast Cancer, Study Suggests - “Women with a very low blood level of 25(OH)D have a considerably increased breast cancer risk. The effect was found to be strongest in women who were not taking hormones for relief of menopausal symptoms. …Foods that are particularly rich in vitamin D include seafish (cod liver oil), eggs and dairy products. However, the largest portion of vitamin D is produced by our own body with the aid of sunlight.”

Tags: breast, caffeine, cancer, chiropractor, coffee, sun, vitamin D