Gluten Gremlins

The grains - wheat, barley and rye - are increasingly on the DO NOT EAT list because they contain gluten. That's unwelcome news to a TOJ because grains taste good (like pancakes and beer), contain some important minerals, and have been a  carbohydrate relied upon by athletes for years as an energy source. But things change.

For 1% of the population, gluten is a problem because it's the cause of celiac disease, a serious auto-immune disorder. However, in the past couple of years, many of the other 99% have come to believe they might have problems with gluten as well.

The Paleo guru Robb Wolf in The Paleo Solution, for example, recommends total elimination of grains from every one's diet, and offers some good scientific reasons. It seems that many people who do not have actual celiac disease do have sub-symptomatic inflammatory response. Grains may cause their bodies to react with an immune response as if something truly harmful has been introduced. Also, grains may disrupt digestion and degrade the lining of the gut.

It would be ironic indeed if after eating grains for 10,000 years, evidence emerges that they are actually poisonous. So much for the Staff of Life. At present, there is not irrefutable evidence that this is true. That said, some valid questions have been raised that warrant more investigation.

Meantime, more and more athletes are not waiting for science to catch up with real-life evidence. Active.com had an article about a tiny handful of world class athletes that have stopped eating grains and have watched their performances improve. For instance, the road biking Garmin-Cervélo Team  won the team competition at The Tour de France while eating a diet with no grains. Word of their and others successes is spreading fast.

The reason these athletes are seeing positive results may be due to having more of the valuable nutrients in other foods make it through their digestive tracts and into their cells. The nutrients help them recover faster.

Going without grains still leaves plenty of tasty options, as shown below:

Sometimes to test the impact of foods on your health and fitness requires some really hard choices, like following the vegan regimen of someone like Brendan Brazier. This is much easier -- just stop eating grains and see if it makes a difference. 

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.

Going, Going, Gone

With the start of the New Year, there's s surge in gym memberships and cable TV infomercials on how to lose weight. For many, getting in shape is synonymous with losing weight, though the two are not the same things.

You can lose weight by eating fewer calories and still be out of shape. Likewise, you can be in pretty good shape, i.e., normal blood pressure, OK lipids, and also overweight. Some 300 pound NFL lineman are in tremendous physical condition, while many skinny people are not.


However, most of us do equate fitness with leanness, which is usually measured in percentage of body fat. Exercise physiologist Covert Bailey was one of the first to get that concept in front of the general public in his Fit or Fat books over twenty years ago. Healthy range of body fat is different from males to females. In general, a healthy male may measure between 10-20% body fat, and women 15 to 25%. This number goes up slightly with age. The number also varies even in elite athletes, depending on their sport. Marathoners can be in the 5-7 range, while swimmers are twice that.


So what's the advantage of a low percentage and what does it have to do with fitness and health? Leanness means less wear and tear on your skeleton, especially your joints. Your heart does not have to work so hard for the same amount of physical work, thus improving your endurance. Most importantly, leanness, when combined with exercise, reduces the amount of body inflammation suspected to cause many chronic diseases.


I've recently been reading two excellent books on body fat and exercise: 1) Robb Wolf's The Paleo Diet, and 2) Tim Ferris' The 4-Hour Body. Both are based on a similar premise: you will lose weight if you restrict simple carbohydrates in your diet. Wolf says to eat mainly high quality protein, vegetables, and fruit, but no wheat or legumes. Ferris says okay to legumes (because if you don't eat them you won't feel full and be hungry all the time), but no to fruit (fructose is a sugar, the digested final product of all carbs). Both these books are based on good science; the references are there if you want to find out for yourself.


I think these authors are in their late 30's, about the time most humans have just passed their athletic prime and when percentage of body fat tends to start to drift up, especially around the gut. As a result, they are a little body image-obsessed. Ferris even goes so far as to have pictures of his shirtless torso as proof his diet works. (I'm much more impressed when he does 180+ kettlebell snatches on YouTube.) Ferris gets excited when his body fat percentage gets so low he can see the veins popping out underneath his skin. Pretty funny.

This TOJ thinks both of them offer sound advice on eating and exercise, and there's no doubt that for most people, lowering percentage of body fat by reducing simple carb intake (especially anything with white flour or sugar) is good for you. In the past few years, the evidence has mounted that consumption of simple carbs elevates insulin and causes insulin resistance, which is linked to Type-II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers.

Percentage of body fat is a much more reliable indicator of health than the popular Body Mass Index (BMI). Many very fit athletes have high BMI's because muscle is much heavier that fat. Muscle is preferable to body fat because muscle raises your metabolic rate and lowers insulin levels, especially when the muscles have been exercised. Fat can't do that, it's just along for the ride.

If you follow the diet and exercise advice of either Wolf or Ferris, expect to lose fat, not necessarily weight. A pound of fat takes up four times as much space as a pound of muscle. When you combine a high protein diet with exercise, especially with lots of resistance exercise, you will lose body fat and increase muscle. The surest sign you are will be in looser clothing, especially around your waist, thighs, and butt.

Who knows if you'll see changes in the mirror, but you'll feel them. That's what really counts.