Seeing Red

As every sentient omnivore must know by now, red meat got butchered by the media last week. Unfortunately, it only further confuses a public in desperate need of information on what they should eat to improve their health as more Americans become obese and rates of chronic disease skyrocket.

The first story was a bona fide expose that 70% of the ground beef for sale in the local grocery store has been adulterated by "pink slime," a filler made from fat and other debris left on the killing floor in the meat processing plant. The concoction is put through an industrial process to remove some of the fat then gassed with ammonia to sterilize it.  In a comic display of corporate doublespeak, a meat industry spokesperson made the rounds on national television to say with a straight face (with no hint of humor or deception) that pink slime is beef. Nobody was fooled.

Then a second  meat blockbuster blared from every major TV station and newspaper because of the severity of the claim: The Harvard School of Public Health announced that people who eat red meat are shortening their lives by years!  What this study really proves is that Harvard's stature as a credible source of information for national policy debates on health and nutrition should itself be studied. Harvard's study is to legitimate scientific inquiry what pink slime is to beef. Read these excellent critiques of the Harvard study by Gary Taubes (warning: it's long but worth it) or Denise Minger at Mark Sisson's website.

What I find most intriguing and absent in the Harvard study is that it ignores multiple questions about all red meats that so many of us consume, which are tainted with growth hormones, antibiotics, and other additives. And what about corn? The industrial ag feed lots force cattle to fatten up fast with corn so they can be turned into $. Unfortunately, corn is a grain that a cow's their ruminant GI system is not designed by nature to digest. As a result, vital nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids are diminished while excessive saturated fats are increased. The USDA says not to worry, but more and more people do not believe them any more than Harvard University.

A TOJ always tries to keep an open mind. Right now there's a paradigm fight underway between the meat eaters in one corner, represented by the Paleo and Primal crowd, and the vegetarians, represented by Dr. Dean Ornish and former president Bill Clinton, in the other. It's possible that there's something in meat, especially if it's eaten in excess, that is harmful to our health. Dr. Gabe Mirkin provides an interesting bit of scientific speculation about a molecule called New5Gc that was discovered by Ajit Varki of the University of California and included in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003. Spooky.

However, this TOJ will continue to eat red meat, mostly organically grown and grass fed, and not-charred. Red meat is rich in amino acids and B-vitamins. Your muscles need to be fed with high quality protein, despite what Harvard or the USDA have to say about it. Living long is great, but first and foremost you want to live well.

How Sweet It Isn't

It's not often that a TOJ sees a video (Thanks, Lou!) that he thinks everyone he knows -- of all ages -- should watch, but the one below is that good and important. The speaker is Robert Lustig, MD, a pediatrician and endocrinologist (homones like insulin), who teaches in the med school at the University of California in San Francisco. The topic is childhood obesity, but what he discusses holds true for all of us. As Wordsworth said, the child is father of the man.

There's a little biochemistry but it's all well presented and understandable, and I guarantee you will gain tremendous insight into a critical issue related both to your health and everyone you know. A warning: Dr. Lustig presents evidence that will make you want to limit (maybe eliminate) sugar from your diet, in all its forms, including (have mercy) beer.

At the end of the presentation, he offers a simple prescription that has had dramatic success lowering the BMIs of obese children. It would work for you and those around you as well. If you have weight issues, try it. Actually, all of us would be healthier following this intervention.

He has an fascinating discussion of exercise, and how it's not about burning calories, but elevating your overall metabolism. Exercise doesn't just burn fat, it prevents fat from forming in the first place. 

This video has had over 1.5 millions views, and deservedly so. It is the centerpiece in a NY Times article by Gary Taubes, ominously entitled "Is Sugar Toxic?," which is also worth reading.

So what's wrong with a cookie or beer every now and then? Nothing, except that it's not every now and then. For many of us, it's a daily habit. Sometimes a multi-times per day habit because sugar is hidden in almost every processed food that you eat, even if it's not labeled as a sweet. Examine labels on the packaging for sugar, fructose, corn syrup, and words ending in "-ose."

Mounting evidence indicates that many serious illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers are linked to our modern diet, especially sugar. Sugar, in all its forms, causes by a nightmarish hormonal disruption that slowly and quietly harms the arteries and organs of children and adults. Dr. Lustig tells you exactly how it all happens and how easy it is to stop it.

Knowledge is power, but only if you're smart enough to use it.

To Grain or Not to Grain

With all the advanced science available to us you wouldn't think that what we should eat to stay healthy should come down to an act of faith, like believing in angels. Yet it does because there is so much conflicting evidence and studies about what is good or bad for us.

Take the humble food class called whole grains. In January the USDA released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, and a new food pyramid, which looks much like the old one, which calls for eating lots of whole grains, in addition to more fruits and vegetables, and lean meats. To the USDA's credit, the food pyramid no longer takes a one size fits all approach to what we should eat. They have tools to personalize what might work best for you.

A CNN article reported that a new Harvard study shows significant benefits from eating whole grains:

(Health.com) -- Eating a diet rich in fiber - especially the kind of fiber found in whole grains - reduces the risk of dying at an early age from a range of causes, a new government study suggests.

Fiber's beneficial effects on heart health have been known for decades, so it wasn't surprising that eating a lot of fiber was associated with a lower risk of death due to heart attack and heart disease. But fiber intake also appears to lower the risk of dying from respiratory diseases (such as pneumonia and chronic bronchitis) and infectious diseases, the study found.

Yet, there are others who are also well armed with studies that completely disagree with this take on grains. In fact, they claim  grains can be harmful, in ways beyond the well-established connection between gluten and celiac disease.

Robb Wolf, who's become popular advocating the Paleo diet from which grains are excluded, in fact, considers them poisonous because they can cause serious problems like Irritable Bowel Syndrome. His views are nicely summed up here by one of his Paleo practitioners.

Gary Taubes, author of the bestsellers Good Calories, Bad Calories and  Why We're Fat and What to Do About It, also bans grains from healthy diets because when fully digested they turn into glucose (sugar) and spike your insulin, which leads to inflammation, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

So what's a TOJ to do? I think there's plenty of evidence that American eat way too many carbs, and grains are very potent carbs. I found what both Wolf and Taubes have to say about grains worth studying. When it comes to controlling weight, which is associated both with health and the ability to be physically active, an excess of grains can definitely work against us. However, I still eat some whole grain foods because they do contain vital nutrients, as listed on the USDA website:

•Grains are important sources of many nutrients, including dietary fiber, several B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate), and minerals (iron, magnesium, and selenium).

•B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate) play a key role in metabolism – they help the body release energy from protein, fat, and carbohydrates. B vitamins are also essential for a healthy nervous system. 

•Whole grains are sources of magnesium and selenium. Magnesium is a mineral used in building bones and releasing energy from muscles. Selenium protects cells from oxidation. It is also important for a healthy immune system.

And whole grains taste good, like all carbs. But I only eat a food with whole grains at most once a day, maybe a piece of whole wheat flatbtread. Mostly it's veggies, some fruit, and lots of protein.
 
When it comes to diet and exercise, be open minded, and do what works for you.

The Size of the Fight in the Dog

A couple weeks ago, I had to wince when the chubby young anchor mispronounced Jack Lalanne's name while announcing his death at 96, although it was hard to blame her because by the time she was born, he was already a TOJ and could only be seen pitching his electric juicing machine on non-prime time informercials.

The anchor wouldn't have known that in his prime he accomplished some amazing feats of strength and endurance, like doing 1,000 push ups in 23 minutes and towing a half-ton boat behind him as he swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco. More, importantly, he single-handedly championed the benefits of exercise to the masses on his daily TV show. He was also one of the first to encourage women to lift weights. He was ridiculed by many "authorities" that if people exercised as hard as he recommended, all kinds of problems might befall them. Of course, all these fears were bogus - Jack LaLanne was a pioneer.

I rarely watched his show when I was a kid because I was outside playing sports. Besides, who needed to stand in front of a TV screen to be lead by an over-enthusiastic guy through a series of calisthenics and weight routines? And he looked sort of funny in his one piece jumpsuits with padding in the shoulders. He didn't need any padding because he had good muscle definition and was very strong.

It wasn't later that I realized his outfit was just part of his show. His appearance became his brand. From early in his career, he understood the importance of diet and exercise. The famous English physicist Sir Isaac Newton once credited his achievements to those scientists who came before him; in his words, he "stood on the shoulders of giants." Likewise, the legions of personal trainers and exercise celebrities from Richard Simmons to Tony Horton all stood on Jack Lalanne's shoulders, those of a man only 5"6" tall.

While reading some of the online tributes, I ran across an article that implied Jack LaLanne had failed because despite his life long crusade,  the percentage of obese people in the U.S.  rose from 13% to the present 34%. The author said, "But there are questions about how effective the exercises offered by LaLanne and his peers can ever be for people whose main goal is losing weight."

I don't remember LaLanne promising exercise was the primary means to lose weight. He wasn't selling a fast-acting, six weeks to a new you diet. He didn't have a reality show called The Biggest Loser. He admitted exercise is tough, but the results are worth it. He just made the case that it could help you stay healthy and feel good. He placed a heavy emphasis on good nutrition, i.e., nutrition and exercise control weight.

Exercise has many, many benefits (I rant about them all the time), but weight loss is not one of the main ones. What you eat has much more impact on your weight than exercise. Skinny marathoners are skinny not because they were once fat and now train 100 miles a week, but because they are predisposed to be skinny. In fact, if you exercise a lot, you will get hungrier and have to be vigilant to eat foods rich with the right vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Read the third chapter, "The Elusive Benefits of Exercise," in Gary Taubes' excellent book entitled Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It.

Jack LaLanne was true inspiration for TOJs everywhere, and a shining example of the truth of the old coach's adage: It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's  the size of the fight in the dog.