Glycemic Index.
Using the Glycemic Index for athletic competition. Not all carbohydrates(carbs) are created equal. The Glycemic Index (GI) is a System that ranks "carbs" from one to one hundred in accordance to how slowly or quickly they break down and turn in simple sugar for the body to use. Foods with a one on the GI are slow to absorb and foods with ratings of one hundred are absorbed very quickly. In the book "The Glucose Revolution" carbohydrates are described as superior when it comes to giving the body energy. Other energy sources such as proteins and fats are necessary to health, albeit not as readily absorbed in the body as the carbohydrate. As far as the nutrient protein is concerned it's necessary to build muscles and stabilize blood sugar but, it burns much hotter in the body; making hydration more challenging with regards to athletic competition. Fats are a very dense nutrient and have twice the amount of calories per gram as carbs and proteins; this makes fats much harder for your body to derive energy. Commonly known as the"Complex" carb this nutrient is relatively low on the GI and is generally said to be a better choice verses that of the "Simple" carbs to be eaten daily. Complex carbohydrates give a slow burning fuel that will sustain your energy levels for activity while the simple carbohydrate's energy burns fast and needs to be replenished more often. Both ends of the GI spectrum have a purpose and practical application in athletic training and competition. The scenero of running a Marathon shows the ideal role of both the simple and complex carb on race day. You've been coached for the last five months and feel that you'll be able to run a marathon with a personal best time. As the days, weeks and months went by you logged your miles, followed the nutritional guidance of your coach and now it's a week before the race. Staying focused and disciplined you take your coach's advice to "carbo load" for the next week. Making sure to balance your diet with good proteins and fats to heal your body from the months of hard training. Most of your meals contain double portions of complex carbohydrates that you enjoy to eat like rice, oats, Ezekiel Bread, and pastas. It's the morning of the race and you wake up early to eat three pieces of toast, a bowl of oatmeal and two bananas. The starting gun goes off in just 90 minutes and you shift your energy sources from very complex to less "complex" with a few slices of watermelon and some green tea with honey. The race begins in 45 minutes and you slowly sip your sports drink in between stretching and running strides. The sound of the gun is heard and and the marathon is on its way. With the knowledge that your stored energy will deplete as the race continues; your plan is to eat the simple sugar packs that you have in you racing shorts every 60 minutes and drink the sport drinks provided along the way until the end of the race. You're plan has prepared you for using both stored energy(complex carbs) and on demand energy(simple carbs) to complete the race. As you walk to see your family and get some clean cloths on you notice the extent of the soreness and fatigue in your body. The adrenaline, excitement and effort of running a marathon has pushed you past your body's ability to keep up with the demands of energy you needed. You continue to eat simple sugars by sipping on sports drinks, eating powerbars and other high GI foods to quickly replenish your reserves of energy. It's late afternoon now and you've taken a shower and are adjusting to the full breadth of soreness and begin feeling less fatigued. Not getting your appetite back, you opt for more complex carbs, some fats and protein to begin the healing process. The Glycemic Index for carbohydrates: High=60-100+, Medium=45-59, and Low= 1-44 Low G.I. Foods Ezekiel Bread Rice, including Basmati, Brown, or my Favorite "Uncle Ben's Converted Rice" Rye bread Beans like..White Northern or Black Bean Fruits including Plums, Bananas Cherries Organic Agave Nectar(Very low GI of 12) *Read labels to make sure it's Organic and Raw and doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup. Intermediate G.I. Foods Wheat Pastas Apples/Oranges Sweet Potatoes Cantaloupe and pears Mangoes Pineapples High G.I. Foods White Potatoes Bagels Stone-ground whole wheat Rice Pastas White Bread Gatorade Endurance Dates The Book "The Glucose Revolution" by ~Jennie Brand-Miller & Kaye Foster-Powell serves to be a good reference guide with regards to athletic training and competition. http://www.mendosa.com/glists.htm has almost 2,500 individual food items http://www.glycemicindex.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index Experiment, tweak, revisit long-held beliefs. Make changes.
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Coffee/caffeine for runners?
I believe the jury has reached a verdict... Coffee beans are good for you. The coffee debate is not unlike the argument of whether to eat eggs or not. "Experts" have claimed that coffee is bad for you. Then... No, no it's good for you! Here's the good and bad: The Good: •Caffeine releases fatty acids into the blood stream, thus saving the all important glycogen to be used by muscles while running. •It's a known stimulant giving athletes a psychological bulster because caffeine helps workouts and races "feel" easier. •Coffee has antioxidants that may fight free radicals caused by heavy exertion and exercising. The bad: •Dosing can be tricky do to body weight and unique physiological interactions. •Caffeine has been known to be very acidic and can cause gastrointestinal disruptions. •Some people get a gittery or "on edge"which can feel disconcerting. With the current information about coffee/caffeine, we can say with some certainty that coffee isn't bad for you when enjoyed in moderation, and maybe... it's even GOOD for you. Bottoms up! Headaches(Highlights of a massage article)
Is massage therapy a nonpharmacological approach to treating chronic headaches and Migraines? A study was conducted with patients receiving massage for 4 weeks. The participants received 30-minute massage therapy sessions twice a week for the duration of the study. The article states that the activation of myofascial trigger points has been implicated as a cause of headaches therefore, providing massage in which myofascial release techniques are employed headaches could possibly be reduced or alleviated. The findings state that when a participant began the massage session with a headache, the headache was alleviated a significant amount of the time by the end of the 30-minute treatment. What's more, chronic headaches are often the precursor to what's known as the more severe headache the "Migraine". It can be deduced that with routine massage maintenance the chances of this kind of headache is lessened. Practitioners now have data to support the recommendation of massage therapy for the treatment of clients with chronic headache pain. http://www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/article.php?id=15078 Eating fat and cholesterol does not equate to having poor health
Eating fat and cholesterol does not equate to having poor health. Studies upon studies have been conducted dispelling the myth that when you consume fat and cholesterol you become unhealthy.(see research below) So, what truly adds to a healthy lifestyle while reducing your risk of disease? Take a look at these 12 tips to gain optimum heart heath. 1. Limit or eliminate all processed foods 2. Eliminate all gluten and highly allergenic foods from your diet 3. Eat organic foods whenever possible to avoid exposure to harmful agricultural chemicals, such as glyphosate 4. Avoid genetically modified ingredients (GMO), which wreak biological chaos on a cellular level and are linked to abundant health problems, including chronic inflammation and heart disease 5. Eat at least one-third of your fooduncooked (raw), or as much as you can manage; avoid cooking foods at high temperatures 6. Increase the amount of fresh vegetables in your diet, locally grown and organic if possible 7. Eat naturally fermented foods, which help optimize your gut bacteria and prevent inflammation-causing superantigens from pathogenic bacteria, as well as providing valuable vitamin K2, B vitamins, and other nutrients 8. Avoid all artificial sweeteners. 9. Limit fructose to less than 25 grams per day from all sources, including whole fruits. If you have insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease, you'd be well advised to keep your fructose consumption below 15 grams per day until your insulin resistance has normalized 10. Swap all trans fats (vegetable oils, margarine etc.) for healthy fats like avocado, raw butter, cheese, and coconut oil; avoid consuming oxidized cholesterol (cholesterol that has gone rancid, such as that from overcooked scrambled eggs) 11. To rebalance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, take a high-quality animal-based omega-3 supplement, such as krill oil, and reduce your consumption of processed omega-6 fats from vegetable oils 12. Drink plenty of pure water every day. By practicing these heart healthy tips your be leading a lifestyle that's healthy and vibrant. Research: In 2012, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology examined the health and lifestyle habits of more than 52,000 adults ages 20 to 74, concluding that women with "high cholesterol" (greater than 270 mg/dl) had a 28 percent lower mortality risk than women with "low cholesterol" (less than 183 mg/dl). Researchers also found that, if you're a woman, your risk for heart disease, cardiac arrest, and stroke are higher with lower cholesterol levels. In 2013, a prominent London cardiologist by the name of Aseem Malhotra argued in the British Medical Journal that you should ignore advice to reduce your saturated fat intake, because it's actually increasing your risk for obesity and heart disease. Then in March 2014, a new meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, using data from nearly 80 studies and more than a half million people, found that those who consume higher amounts of saturated fat have no more heart disease than those who consume less. They also did not find less heart disease among those eating higher amounts of unsaturated fat, including both olive oil and corn oil Credits: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/07/27/saturated-fat-cholesterol.aspx "Eat Right 4 Your Type"
The book Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type has proven to be an important source of nutritional guidance for most of my adult life. From around the age of nine-years old I started having negative reactions from eating the standard American diet. When I consumed foods that contained processed wheat and sugars I felt “off” balance, experienced brain fog and felt a general sense of lethargy for hours, and sometimes even days. I’d often express to my parents that I felt tired or sometimes, had too much energy, which made it hard to focus. Other than feeling tired and increasingly melancholic, I was a very active child. Physical activity seem to balance my energy which led me to competitive sports where I could be fully engaged. Still, sports alone was not enough and I continued to complain to my parents about my tiredness and lack of energy. My parents sought the council of western medicine. After my doctor ruled out diabetes he diagnosed me with hypoglycemia - or low blood sugar. Although I had a name for what was negatively affecting my energy, the doctor was not helpful in giving me a solution to combat the feelings of fatigue. Frustrated, I was then taken to a Nutritionist. The nutritionist explained that hypoglycemia was my body’s reaction to eating simple foods, or foods which rank high on the glycemic index - like processed grains and sugars. Ingesting simple foods caused my blood glucose levels to spike followed quickly by a sharp let down in blood sugar, resulting in the “off” balance feeling. To him, the solution was to eat a diet high in protein in order to stabilize my blood sugar. He claimed that this diet would reduce the amount of ups and downs I experience throughout day. With the limited knowledge available in the early 80’s, I practiced what the Nutritionist suggested until my early 20’s, tweaking my diet continuously and paying close attention to what I ate and how I felt after I ate it. Eventually I realized I was so sensitive to simple sugars that are so common in most families that I started eliminating nearly all grains and carbohydrates - including fruits - eating mostly protein. Looking back, I made some uniformed conclusions in regards to carbohydrates. Then I happened upon the book which changed my life, Eat Right 4 your Blood Type Dr. D'Adamo. What struck me was how we as a species developed four distinct blood types that changed over the relatively short time span of time of 10,000 years. First the O type(hunter/gatherer) developed and then the A type(the cultivator) next the B-type(the nomad) and lastly the AB type.(the Enigma) These changes co-inside with humans starting off being primarily hunting and gathers(O) to growing crops (A) to living a wondering tribesmen lifestyle (B) to the combining of A and B-type into another unique future blood type. What was most compelling to me personally, was that all the foods for my O "type" were foods I was naturally drawn to eat to feel good over the years. I found that eating lean/clean meats and mostly vegetables made me feel best. It also became more apparent to me why processed grains, fats and inorganic foods had always given me low blood sugar in the past. My body was evidently reacting to the parts of food that weren't healthy for me; it was not because I "ate carbohydrates," which was a relief know because I was then able to eat a more well-rounded diet. The food categories in the book made it easy to experiment and incorporate more and more clean/non-grain carbohydrates into my diet. The list was also helpful in narrowing down what fruits and vegetables that I'm best suited to eat. Using the principles in this book has without a doubt changed my life for the better. I notice that I have steady and consistent energy and I feel like I'm able to live a more "balanced" life. |
AuthorEngaged in a number of physical activities, Mr. Iler enjoys running, cycling, swimming, weight training, trail running, and kayaking. ArchivesCategories |