Friday, January 29th, 2010
By Joanna Sutter
After way too much thought I’ve decided the next event I’m going to train for is a distance bike race instead of a triathlon. I was belly-aching the other day about going for a run and a friend asked me, “Why do you run if you don’t like to?”
Good question.
The truth is, I long for the runners-high that everyone talks about but sadly I’ve never even experienced a runners-buzz. I’m not giving up, I’m just not going to make running a core part of my training program. Instead, I’m going to ride like the wind! I’m going to channel my inner model and my inner Lance Armstrong. Who knows, with the training support of MP4, maybe I’ll be wearing a yellow shirt and then maybe I’ll start a foundation. I like the sound of Joanna Legstrong!
Enough about me, let’s meet…
The MP4 Athlete of the Week is: Amanda Thebe
If we asked your coach or training partner to list three words that describe you they would be: Well I did ask them, because I had no idea what they would say:energetic, determined, inspiring
(ohh and HOT!! – ha ha)
What are you training 4? I don’t have an event to train for currently, but this year I will be 40 and I really want to be in the best shape of my life. And that alone is very motivating.
What is the best nutrition or training tip you’ve ever been given? I struggled with low-blood sugar after my 1st pregnancy 6 years ago and was advised then to start eating lean proteins with every meal, eating 5 – 6 x per day. It not only stopped me feel faint and dizzy all the time, but gave me loads of energy.
Tell us about your most memorable athletic achievement. I have had a few: Climbing the 3 highest peaks in the UK in under 21 hours, my first 1/2 marathon, the first time a won a fight in a karate competition. I feel I have had quite a few ‘firsts’.
Describe your perfect workout. Resistance training with supersets (I love lifting heavy weights) combined with a metabolic workout ie tabata dumbbell swings, popping out a few chin-ups, finishing with a few runs up and down the stairs at my gym.
How do you achieve workout/life balance? I don’t wake up a nice person, so exercising for me is part of my mental health plan too 
I try to do my workouts while the kids are at school/daycare, my husband and I have a date night every Thursday where we go to the gym together, and on a Saturday we all head over to the YMCA where the kids play and we workout again. So I try to integrate it into all our schedules – but the kids love the fact I am really fit and I think are inspired by it. I also try to do fun activities that involved all the family; this year we are all trying skiing.
What motivates you on days you don’t feel like working out? I never regret working out, but I do regret NOT working out.
If you could workout with anyone in the world who would it be and why? I would love to do a workout with Alwyn or Rachel Cosgrove – I find them very inspiring.
What is your favorite workout accessory? My workout schedule; I spend lots of time creating something interesting and challenging, so I love seeing how I have progressed throughout the training program. Or maybe its the Gymboss? I can’t decide!
What kitchen gadget can you not live without? Bodum
What was the last thing you’ve had to eat today? Omelette made with 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, turkey bacon, arugala and red onions.
What book or magazine is on your bed side table? My Kindle!! Got it for Christmas and I love it. I am currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
What beauty product is always in your purse or gym bag? I don’t have anything in my bag – I must be a low-maintenance chick!
What is the most played song on your iPod? Ever Fallen in Love by The Buzzcocks
The first place you go when you log on to your computer is….My inbox.
When you’re not working out where can we find you? I work from home doing graphic design, other than that I am normally running the kids from one activity to another, they do more sports than me.
What’s your motto? It’s not my motto, I found it in a Womens Health Journal and I really like it; ‘Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it!’ It fits my personality.
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Did you ever read something that made your blood boil? I mean made you so mad that you started talking *to* the publication you were reading?
“That’s nonsense!”
“How do these clowns get away with printing garbage like this?”
“Nice conclusion, buddy, too bad it lacked facts.”
What’s wrong with me, for Heaven’s sake? When did I become this fanatic about nutrition and training? Well since you asked, I’d say about 12 years ago. Regardless, nothing gets me more heated than the topic I am going to cover today: supplementation.
If you asked me 5 years ago how I felt about supplementation I would have most likely told you that ‘Americans have the most expensive urine than any other country.’ I would have gone on and on about how we do not need to supplement with vitamins and minerals if we just ate a balanced, nutritious diet. I might have even told you the top ten foods you can put in your diet to hit every nutrient need that your body has. I would run circles around you with stats and facts, pros and cons, websites, books, resources of all kinds and just plain exhausted you to the point of your surrender. Now, I just stand in line at my local Vitamin Shoppe with my frequent customer point’s card enjoying my savings. Boy has times changed.
So why the change of heart?
Top 3 Reasons to Add Supplements to Your Diet
1. Top Soil Erosion
Sometimes I wish I didn’t read as much as I do. I am at an astronomical rate at this point in my career. I am banging through about 3 books/week right now with no end in sight. For educational purposes this is fabulous. Who wouldn’t want to read that much? For sanity purposes this is insane. I am surprised I eat food any more with all that I know. If you want to sleep at night, avoid books like Skinny Bitch, Omnivores Dilemma, Eating Animals, Food Inc. and etc. Lock yourself in your room, hide under your bed and pray that no one hands you the crib notes either. This type of reading material makes Paranormal Activity look like a good skit for Nickelodeon. I personally am going to try and get therapy as soon as my new insurance kicks in. But while I’m waiting for it to kick in, let’s talk about something that occasionally is brought up but some do-gooder reporter but then promptly ignored by the loving-to-be-ignorant mainstream media: top soil erosion.
Yes, eat your fruits and vegetables to maintain a healthy diet. Add lots of color to your plate so you may eat a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. But what happens when the soil you’re growing your veggies in has less minerals than a Snicker’s bar? Now what?
Top soil is being stripped of its nutrients 10 times faster than it can regenerate. The earth is currently losing top soil at a rate of 1%/year. Farmers are being forced to toggle between fields at a much faster rate than say 10 years ago when they could let a field “rest” between plantings. We are growing dead food and it scares the hair off of my head. You can eat all the vegetables and fruit that you can fit on one plate and ‘look’ as if you are getting a good amount of vitamins, but if what you are eating is already devoid of any nutritional value then it doesn’t much matter now does it?
2. Can Only Eat But So Much
You are most likely not a full time athlete. Very few people have the luxury of being able to make a living off of the sport that they love. So normally they must work a 40 to 50 hour work week, come home and take care of their family obligations and somewhere in there get their training in. Not everyone is making 8 hours of sleep per day, environmental toxins and everyday stress is causing free radical damage and your food is already failing you before you start. There is no way you could physically eat all of the food that you need to eat to get in all of the vitamins and minerals you need to be effective in your week. It’s not going to happen unless you take up eating as your new sport.
3. You’re picky
Admit it. You are a picky eater. You seek help with your diet all the time as if it is the structure of your diet that is the problem. It isn’t the structure. It’s you. You “don’t like”, you “won’t eat”, you “don’t have enough time to cook”. Most foods that you avoid you can make up for in other foods without having to supplement (if #1 didn’t exist) but you cannot make up for Omega 3’s if you do not eat fish or flax. Are you a fish eater? Do you like flax oil? If you do not like either, you are missing out on the best nutrient for your body. Fat’s where it’s at and you need to hop on it asap. You need a serving of good fat every day *on top of* your capsule supplementation. One does not replace the other.
As I am reading the article about general nutrition that I was screaming at, the author finishes by saying that you do not need to supplement your diet with anything, that mother nature got it right and if you just… Best line of the article and it bears repeating, “if you just…” We do not “just”. I wish we did, but we don’t. And since we do not, learn how to add supplements to your diet responsibly. Do not just take anything that the latest advertisement totes as fabulous for face value. Stick to the basics. A good multivitamin along with a few other key suppies will do the trick for you.
I also detect from the article that he may also be referring to meal replacement shakes and bars. Now this I agree with completely. Whenever you have the chance, focus on getting real food into your body and do not rely on powders and bars to be your meals. Supplementation in this article refers to vitamins and minerals only, not MRP’s, pp’s, bars, ergogenic aids and etc. I want to make sure you do not misread what I am saying.
At this point I am sure you want to know what vitamins we do recommend and how do you know you are getting enough. Well, we have a free report coming your way based on the most important supplements you need to be taking right now, daily. If you are currently signed up on the blog, it is coming to you via email. If you are not, it will be part of the bonus for signing up. As a subscriber you will receive the download before it becomes available to the public so keep your eyes peeled for that. This means that I am not going to mention here what they are because I detail them fully in the report and I want you to be able to check it out in its entirety.
Instead, work on adding as much C.O.L.O.R. to your diet as you can. As of this moment, that is the best thing that you can do to bolster the nutrient value of your current diet. If this is not an easy task for you, we have a menu planning product coming your way that takes all of the thought out of your week of planning and just gives you a full week of balanced, nutritious eats at your fingertips. It does not get any easier than that. Woop woop!
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
I love being 41. Wisdom, deeper friendships, muscle maturity, great jewelry. Plus, there is dignity in passing on fashion trends because you were there, rocking it the first time around. (Shiny aerobics outfits, legwarmers, headbands, a la Olivia Newton John; acid wash, skinny, zippered ankle jeans tucked into turquoise Zodiac cowboy boots; checkerboard Vans, slouchy, shoulder bearing Flashdance sweatshirts, leggings, wide belts, big Jody Watley hoop earrings … anyone but me?)
Not a fan, however, of looking older than I am. Anyone but me? (haha, love this expression!) Call me vain, I don’t love the word, but I can take it.
By now you know too that I’m a believer in the protection that sunscreen provides from the damaging affects of the sun. Well, believer is putting it mildly. I’m obsessed. I sunscreen every inch of my body and practically white out my ankle tattoo when it’s exposed. Does anyone but me think a blurred, faded out tattoo that you can’t tell what it even is any more make us look old?
Slather on sunscreen, protect my face and body from the risk of skin cancer, burning, and – the real reason I was motivated to forgo the skin firming illusion of a tan and put on this glop that inevitably found a way to burn the crap out of my eye – premature aging, sun spots, darkening my melasma again, wrinkles, and crepey skin.
It was easy. But, turns out, sunscreen is more complicated than it used to be. Read on as I finish up my series on sunscreen with the ins and outs of UV protection.
Basically, the sun ages and damages the skin by weakening elastic collagen fibers, by preventing stem cells from rejuvenating the injured area, and by causing free radicals to damage DNA. All of which is not good. We need to see about putting a big fat stop on this kind of stuff.
There are two types of UV radiation, UVA and UVB (UVC wavelengths are filtered out by our atmosphere, at least for now). UVA rays penetrate into the deeper dermis, and these are the ones that cause the premature aging and bad things to happen to the skin. UVB rays penetrate the epidermis, the upper layer, and cause burning and contribute to skin cancer. So we need protection from both.
(Remember in last week’s post that SPF refers to protection from UVB rays only and that products indicating broad screen protection cover you for UVA and UVB rays.)
Physical blockers – Hats, longs sleeves, and the gorgeous pool umbrellas I got from my obsession w/ protecting myself from the sun, but also ingredients like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. These mineral sunblocks literally sit on the skin and both UVA and UVB rays reflect off them. And since they’re mineral rather than a chemical, are less irritating to sensitive skin. For the most part, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are the safest active sunscreen ingredients that you’ll find available in the local CVS. Except now, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are being micronized into tiny nanoparticles. This is great in that the mineral ingredients are transparent and no longer opaque, so it doesn’t go on so diaper baby white or take near as long to rub in. (Remember the beef jerky colored life guards with the white nose coat? Wonder what his face looks like now?) The thing is, the nanoparticles are extremely tiny, 1/10,000 the diameter of a strand of hair, and they may be able to penetrate the skin and enter the bloodstream. So instead of just sitting on top of your skin, it may be being absorbed into your body. Research has indicated that when absorbed, these ingredients can generate free radical damage. Most studies done on nanoparticles do not indicate penetration through human skin and those in which absorption has been shown, the related risk (creation of free radical damage to the cell DNA, the very same cell DNA we are trying to protect from the sun in the first place!) has not adequately been demonstrated.
Chemical sunscreens – Ok, here we go. These ingredients filter either UVB or UVA radiation. Instead of creating a physical barrier that deflects ultraviolet rays, it converts the damaging UV rays into heat that then dissipates from the surface of your skin, preventing the radiation from reaching the connective skin tissue and the DNA in your cells. This chemical reaction consumes the sunscreen ingredients. So rather than wearing off, it actually gets used up. The more sun you are getting, the faster it is being used up, which is why it needs to be reapplied often. How often? Well, who knows? There is data that says it degrades to useless w/ in 30 minutes of sun exposure and other that indicates it is effective for up to 7 hrs. So, reapply “often,” like when training outside, after swimming, sweating a lot, wiping off said sweat, etc. In the summer, under my awesome umbrellas, I reapply every hour-ish. It’s still hot and sweaty in the shade!
Not all chemical sunscreens protect from the full UVA spectrum; most protect the skin from just the shortwave UVA rays. Avobenzone and Mexoryl SX are the only chemical ingredient that shields the full spectrum UVA waves, but it isn’t photostable. Most sunscreen products that use avobenzone as an active ingredient have added a photostabilizer so that it won’t degrade quickly in sunlight, and give it a cool name like Helioplex.
To complicate things further, there is concern because some studies have indicated that chemical sunscreens can mimic estrogen and disrupt the endocrine system and generate free radical damage to the cell DNA, the very same cell DNA we are trying to protect from free radical damage caused by the sun. However, other research indicates that any penetration of commonly used sunscreen agents in human skin was too low to cause any significant toxicity. In other words, the potential for problems with chemical sunscreens causing problems happened under controlled lab conditions, not in actual usage.
So, like hydroquinone, after running through the potential risks and side effects, I’m feeling a bit silly and conflicted about using it. Research will surely be on going, but for now it seems the jury is still out. I’m listening with an open mind, but so far, my mind hasn’t been changed. Here’s why … The risk of damage and it’s affects to the appearance of my skin from leaving it unprotected is just not worth it – to me.
What I do, and what I wholeheartedly recommend you do to protect your skin from unwanted, premature aging caused by the sun is to use a broad sprectrum sunscreen every day, every minute that the sun is in the sky, from your collarbone up w/ an SPF 15 at the very least. If you’re going out into the sun to train, go for a higher SPF, cover all exposed skin (and tattoos) and reapply often. Choose a product with ingredients that you aren’t sensitive or allergic to. Check out the information, both sides, and make a choice that is best for you.
Let me know what you think. Anyone but me obsessed w/ sun protection? What does your sun protection regime look like?
Sources:
http://www.cosmeticscop.com/sunscreen-ingredients-zinc-oxide-titanium-dioxide.aspx?filter=itemtype%3acontent
(The Cosmetics Cop, Paula Begoun. I’m in love with this woman. She’s sensible, smart, and too grown up and entirely too cool for BS. The “studies” and “research” cited for this post are all listed in various articles on her website, beautypedia.com)
Simple Skin Beauty, Ellen Marmur, MD (book)
You Being Beautiful, Michael F Roizen, MD and Mehmet C Oz, MD (book)
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Do you workout or do you train with a purpose?
By Amy Kasden
Is there a distinction you ask? Is it just semantics? I say there is a difference. Someone taking spinning twice/week is not necessarily a cyclist while a cyclist might take spin twice/week. Running for cardio does not make you a runner while a runner does run for cardio. Playing basketball with your buddies does not mean your training is geared for a basketball player trying to get better. However, a dedicated basketball player might play with his buddies.
There is a huge difference between training for purpose and merely going to the gym and working out with no rhyme or reason. While almost everyone going to the gym has a “reason” to be there and a goal in mind, they have not necessarily thought through their training and organized it in a manner conducive to reaching their goal. If you ask the average Joe at the gym if he has a goal, I am sure he will tell you “Yes”. But if you inquire about his method and really prod deeper than the “I’m lifting to maintain my strength but eating at a caloric deficit so I can lose weight” and ask how he sets up his sets/reps, exercises choices, why cardio is done on an elliptical instead of the stair master, he will respond with a blank stare.
In last week’s athlete’s highlight, when asked what I was currently training for, I said I was in between sports. That answer got me thinking about how I have changed my workouts based on previous sports/athletic events/goals. My training has changed tremendously over the last 10 years. Training for a fitness competition and training for a half marathon are notably different. The only thing they have in common is that every workout I did was geared toward my goal. Yes, I still lifted, did cardio, had sport specific days and practiced yoga, but the specifics of those workouts were like night and day. That specific tweaking is what changes you from merely exercising to training for an event. That change is what makes you an athlete.
But how do you make that change? What does it entail? Training for my week long rock climbing trip in Mexico is a perfect example.
When I started climbing I was fortunate enough to have a good friend teaching me, we will call her J. On an average week J and I lifted 4-5 days/week, did cardio, went to yoga (I introduced her to yoga), and went to the rock gym. After I had been climbing indoors for about a year, J and I planned a week-long trip to Mexico and that is when our training really developed a purpose. (That and the fact that we had finished our half marathon and could now dedicate our training to something else). J tweaked our workouts to supplement and complement our climbing. She was meticulous in making sure we were dotting all our Is and crossing all our Ts to prepare for the trip while not slacking on the rest of our training.
Rock climbing involves endurance, balance, lower body dexterity, lower body strength, grip strength, and body awareness. J broke down our climbing workouts and gym workouts to take into consideration the specialized training we needed for climbing outdoors. We tweaked each workout to focus on the above skills.
Climbing Workouts
One of the major differences between climbing indoors and climbing outdoors is the duration of each climb. Indoor you are limited by the height of the gym while outdoors, the sky’s the limit. We needed to increase our climbing endurance, specifically, how long we could climb before fatiguing. Additionally, outdoors you climb with gear attached to your harness, which is not necessary in an indoor gym. Thus, we needed to learn to climb with added weight on our bodies. Finally, there is no approach to an indoor gym. Outdoor climbing typically includes hiking to the base of the rock, while carrying all your gear. (This list of differences is by no means all inclusive. There are a myriad of other differences from type of holds and the feel of the rock to weather and multi-pitches, etc. However, the above are the ones for which we could modify our training).
About 8 weeks prior to our trip we increased the number of days we climbed from two to three. One day we dedicated to endurance and chose an easier route to climb up and down repeatedly for a set amount of time. In addition, we wore a 20 lb weight belt to simulate the weight of our gear. The second day we used to work difficulty, climbing more challenging routes and perfecting our technique. The third day was a mixture between the first two and we added in some regular, semi-challenging but not too difficult climbs.
Cardio
I don’t remember how much cardio I was doing back then, but we modified it to prepare for our trip. At least once/week we walked on the treadmill at a high incline wearing a backpack stuffed with a 25-45 lb (plate wrapped in a bunch of towels to keep it from moving). This cardio session simulated the approach. During another session we used either the stairmaster or the revolving staircase. We added the weight belt to these sessions to get our bodies used to the weight the gear added to our harness. While it would have been better if we were able to get outdoors and hike, it was the middle of January and the ground was covered in snow. Thus we tweaked our cardio as best we could.
Lifting
We had been lifting 4-5 times/week. Changing our lifting split was less important than modifying our exercise choices. Back, legs and grip were our lifting focus. I say “focus” because we never neglected an area of the body, but merely highlighted some more than others. For example, when climbing, it does not matter how strong your back is if your fingers give out; you don’t have the luxury of gripping a barbell, you might only have the tip of a few fingers on a hold. Thus, when doing a lat pull down, instead of performing every set with an overhand grip, for half the sets we only placed our finger tips on the bar. Instead of doing straight sets of pull-ups we performed pull-ups to failure then hung on the bar as long as we could; until our grip failed.
When it came to our leg workout we focused on single leg exercises. I’ll never forget our step-up variation. Wearing the weight belt, we started at the bottom of a flight of stairs and began step-ups. We skipped every other step, or every third step, all the way up. We never used our entire foot, instead, we did everything on the balls of our feet. To make it harder we stepped up and out to the side instead of straight up. We also modified walking lunges. We never came up from the lunge but instead walked across the gym in a deep lunge position
Mobility and Balance
Mobility and balance work rounded out our week. We met with our trainer once/week in the aerobics room where she set up a mini obstacle courses, primarily with pods (small rubber half tennis ball shaped things) along the floor. We started with something physically and aerobically taxing, such as a round of burpees or a minute of jump rope and then made our way through the course. Each foot stepped on a pod and while there, we would squat down and pick something up. Sometimes each foot would be on a pod, necessitating a squat, other times we would only have one foot on a pod, necessitating a single leg squat, all while maintaining balance. The course challenged our mobility and balance in a winded fatigued state, just as we would find ourselves during a climb.
So that, in a nutshell, was our training for the 8 weeks up to our trip. Was it radically different than what we had been doing before? No. But everything we did had a purpose. I was prepared for that trip to Mexico and had an unbelievable time.
So, what about you? Do you workout or do you train for a sport? How do you tweak your training to focus on your sport? Are you a triathlete, competitive dancer, mma fighter or a basketball player? How does your training differentiate from that of the average Joe in the gym? What do you do that makes that average Joe look at you like you are crazy?
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Got milk? I’d pitch it, here’s why…
By Heather Morgan
I’ve avoided this topic for a while. In print at least. I talk about it passionately, but writing it down just seems like an invitation to the National Dairy Council (NDC) to have me locked up. If so, I’m putting it out there that Jodi and I have had several clandestine quiet-voiced conversations about dairy and what we don’t like about it. There, I said it. Now I have a cellmate. I call bottom bunk! Luckily, much more famous and easier-to-find folks have put their anti or notso-pro dairy opinions out there, so I think I’m probably okay. Too bad. Jodi and I could have used the break to do nothing but read, work out, make each other laugh, and then tell you about it. All the same, here are some thoughts to get you re-thinking the white stuff and whether or not it’s “nature’s perfect food”, as the dairy industry would have you believe.
24/24: A sketchy weight loss promo at best
Have any of you reading this actually met anyone who has had success with “milking their diet” (adding more dairy to their diets and losing weight)? “Sally Sue, I just have to tell you… I started banging down milk like there was no tomorrow and my belly pooch and thigh flubber just fell off in the middle of the street during my run! It was amazing.” If you’ve had this conversation with a Dairy Diva, then I can tell you this: she reduced her caloric intake while slugging down the cow’s milk. You see, that ad campaign was based largely (completely?) on a study by one scientist, Michael Zemel, PhD. He had high (RE: amount) dairy eaters and low dairy eaters in the study, and the results showed that the high dairy eaters lost an average of 5% more weight than the low dairy eaters over a period of time. What the geniuses behind the *“24/24” campaign fail to highlight—or even mention—is that all of the subjects who lost weight were on a reduced calorie diet. More studies by the same researcher followed showing similar results. Before you contemplate that, consider also that Zemel is funded by the dairy industry, and he holds the patent to this “method” of weight loss using dairy. A little bit of a financial gain to be made by demonstrating the wonders of milk for weight loss, n’est-ce pas?
I won’t list them here, but there is a whole body of scientific studies revealing that dairy intake has either no effect on body fat levels or weight or that it can actually cause weight gain. (see references) Any of us who’ve dated Ben and Jerry for any length of time can attest to that. Perhaps more relevant is that fact that NO ONE has been able to replicate Zemel’s results. Go look that up, I’ll wait. But we can logic that one out. Cow’s milk. From a cow. For a baby cow. A baby cow that will double its weight at four times the rate a baby human will. The take home message: Cow’s milk is designed for rapid growth. I don’t have one single female athlete acquaintance seeking rapid growth of any sort, particularly in fat mass. Just sayin’. Alright, so milk marketers are big jerks, yadda yadda, we could go on all day about that. Let’s not, let’s consider…
Commercial dairy: Would Louis Pasteur even drink it?
If the subtitle above means nothing to you, Louis Pasteur is the guy who developed pasteurization, a process that started being used with cow’s milk in the early 1900’s when diseases were spreading like wildfire through the milk supply. This method is still being used in commercially produced dairy today, allegedly to prevent disease. This seems a little nonsensical considering the fact that the bacteria naturally found in raw milk produce lactic acid which then protects it from wayward pathogens. This self-defense mechanism is destroyed completely by pasteurization. In fact, it’s the definition of it considering something is deemed “pasteurized” once all of these little defenders are DOA, along with enzymes (like the ones that help you digest milk… hello?!), and other beneficial components (vitamins, amino acids, so forth). This is why folks who are lactose intolerant or dairy sensitive can often well-tolerate raw milk and its products. Same deal with yogurt. While often touted for being chock full of friendly bacteria, even the stuff Jamie Lee Curtis is pimping for pooping is really too low in the good intestinal critters and too high in sugar. Your first clue that that product ain’t right is the fact that they name the “specially created” bacteria “bifidus regularis”. Come on! You are admitting to having to add something back in (because you killed it during processing) and call it something that refers to my morning constitutional? BWAHAHAHAHAHA…! (sorry, digressing…) The real point is that the Mother Nature-engineered bacteria in a food are uniquely qualified to increase the absorption and bioavailability of the nutrients in it. I say don’t fool with it. And certainly don’t add sugar or high fructose corn syrup to it (among other things). Whoo, that’s a whole other blogpost there. So staying on topic…
Want some rBGH with that shake?
A lot (not all, but a LARGE portion) of commercially produced milk comes from industrialized farms where the cows are injected with rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), a genetically modified growth hormone that keeps them producing milk well beyond that timeframe which is natural for them after giving birth to their offspring. Not only is this cruel because it is very physiologically stressful to the animal, but it makes them more susceptible to infection such as mastitis (aka. inflamed udders). Again, not only very unkind to the udder-owner, but that can mean some pus in your milk. Delish. The FDA has approved the use of rBGH in the US because short-term research on rats indicated that there was no difference between milk from rBGH treated cows and non-treated cows. It should interest you to know that this research was done by the company who created rGBH (heck, I’ll name names: Monsanto, the lovely folks that brought us aspartame and genetically modified crops). What’s shocking is the larger number of studies showing that rGBH animal research subjects develop cancer across the board. Likewise, rBGH is known to increase insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). This can make existing cancers grow and spread. What’s a nourishment-seeking athlete to do…
Panic, puke, or progress?
Personally I say do the latter. Do the best with the knowledge you have, the ability to access your own logic and intuition, and the budget with which you are operating. And for goodness sakes, don’t take my word for it! Be your own investigator. In fact, most of the information that I had banging around in my noggin, or that I referenced, is decidedly one-sided. These folks don’t like dairy and they want the world to know why. Or, they like it okay, but with conditions. Many of the references are by people who in-fight as well—some think soy is an acceptable alternative to dairy, while others think such advice is straight out of h-e-double-hockey-sticks, for example. The one thing I can say is that I don’t think any of them have anything to gain by you questioning your use and source of milk and milk products. No matter what, my intention is not to scare the ying-yang out of you, but, rather, to get you thinking and researching what you nourish yourself with, dairy or otherwise. In the meantime, to properly fuel your endeavors—athletic or otherwise—here are some tips:
Good luck and great health!
*If you were away from all forms of media in the mid-2000’s, this was the ad campaign where it was recommended that you drink 24 ounces of milk (3 x 8oz. servings/day) to lose weight. Remember the glass that got skinny in the middle like an hourglass? And women drinking a glass while shunning some decadent treat? Ironic, considering the whole “got milk” campaign hinged on making sure you had some milk handy in case a plate of cookies came a-knockin’.
References:
http://www.pcrm.org/news/Virginia%20complaint%20Law%20FINAL.pdf (this is actually a somewhat odd complaint filed against the dairy marketers of Virginia, but it has a lot of great study references in it if that’s your thing)
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030400pudairyproductsfalsepromises.htm (false promises about dairy consumption, John A. McDougall, MD)
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030500pudairyanddisease.htm (more from John A. McDougall, purely for those who want to have their hair stand on end with regard to marketing tactics, especially those aimed at children, or, rather, the parents who feed them)
“How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy” by Paul Chek (book)
Resources:
“Milk the Deadly Poison” by Robert Cohen (book)
“Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon (book)
www.price-pottenger.org
Where you can find raw dairy:
www.realmilk.com
www.localharvest.org (resource for local organic food)
http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/cheese/cheddar/raw-mild-8-oz/ (most of this company’s products are pasteurized, they are at least organic, this is the link to their raw mild cheddar, they have sharp too, can be found in some regular chain groceries)
