Two Unsynchronized Souls Radio Interview

On Thursday night, February 9th, I had the honor of joining Monica Brinkman and Oana Niculae on their BlogTalkRadio show, Two Unsynchronized Souls.  The show typically covers a variety of topics, including social issues, current events, and fiction writing.  I was brought on the show to discuss exercise and nutrition, but we became so wrapped up in nutrition chatter that we barely discussed exercise.  It was a fun experience. We laughed quite a bit, and Monica and Oana covered a lot of ground with their nutrition questions. 

You can find the link to the episode here.

Thoughts on the Show

There are a few things I want to add to the interview:

1. I mentioned a few links during the show.  They are: www.fitday.com, which is the online food journal that I use periodically.  Also, www.grasslandbeef.com is the site for U.S. Wellness Meats, a great source for finding organic, grass-fed beef.  
2. One thing I said accidentally was that short, intense training can improve blood pressure to its maximal degree.  While short, high intensity exercise can improve most health measures as much, if not more than, long duration/moderate intensity exercise, blood pressure is actually not one of them.  Blood pressure seems to respond best to long duration exercise, regardless of intensity (i.e. a half hour walk is more effective in lowering blood pressure than a 15 minute session of running sprints).
3. If you would like to see any of the studies that I refer to, feel free to ask.

Your thoughts and feedback are welcome.  Enjoy!

What I Eat: The January Edition, and the Danger of Small, Frequent Meals

This is the fifth installment of the What I Eat series (last May, July, August, and September).  As you'll notice, my meals haven't changed that much since last September.

Wednesday

5:30 AM: Can of sardines with a sliced tomato in balsamic vinegar, and a banana
10 AM: Three over-easy eggs with an apple
1 PM: Three hard-boiled eggs and sliced fruit (pineapple, apples, and grapes)
6 PM: A large bowl of romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, an avocado, bacon, and chicken with red wine vinegar and olive oil

Thursday

5:30 AM: Can of sardines with a sliced tomato and carrots in balsamic vinegar
9:40 AM: A chicken breast (pan fried with butter) and an orange
2 PM: Four hard-boiled eggs with a chopped red bell pepper
9 PM: A large bowl of arugula, romaine lettuce, sliced carrots, ground meat, an avocado, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar

Friday

5:30 AM: Can of skipjack tuna with a sliced tomato in balsamic vinegar, and an apple
10 AM: Three over-easy eggs with a banana
4:30 PM: A large bowl of arugula, spinach, sliced carrots, raisins, and chicken with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Also, a few handfuls of sunflower seeds and almonds. 

You may look at my recent days above and think, "what's up with your breakfast???"  It certainly doesn't sound appetizing for many people, but it's a nutritious and quick meal (I start training clients at 6:30 AM, so I'll take all the sleep that I can get).  In regards to nutrition, that meal provides large amounts of vitamin A, D, B complex, calcium, phosphorous, selenium, omega-3 fatty acids, fat, and protein.  The acetic acid in vinegar also helps control blood glucose, as discussed previously.  The breakfast is a great fuel for the start of my day, especially considering that I don't consume caffeine and need to be focused so early in the morning.

US Obesity: Are We Eating Too Often? 

I mentioned recently that NHANES population data is showing that obesity is no longer increasing in the United States [1].  From 1999 to 2008, the obesity rate has not significantly increased.  The average has increased and decreased by a few percent in that time.  While this is a positive sign, our obesity rate is still way too high - the 2007-2008 NHANES data states that 33.8% of the adult population is obese.  While it is not significantly higher than 10 years ago, the obesity rate has skyrocketed in the decades leading up to '99.  The million dollar question is: WHY???

Looking at diet, one study examined the changes since 1977 in three logical areas: energy density of food, portion sizes, and eating occasions [2].  Energy density basically means that we are consuming more calories per gram, which is accomplished by replacing protein or carbohydrates with fat.  Eating occasions were considered any meal, snack, or beverage (excluding water) that did not fall within 15 minutes of a previous meal, snack, or non-water beverage.  The researchers looked at data from four sets of years: 1977-78, '89-91, '94-98, and 2003-2006.  

Energy density did not significantly change in any of the three follow-ups.  However, portion sizes increased in two of three subsequent studies, and eating occasions increased in all three.  

 

The study does not prove that portion sizes and eating occasions are the cause of our high obesity rate in the US; it only shows that there is a connection and they are possible causes.  The meal frequency especially caught my attention as it is something that I have spent a lot of time studying. 

Eating six small meals per day is commonly recommended for weight loss.  The theory is that eating your daily calories in the same amount but spread over six meals will boost your metabolism.  While this may seem logical, research shows that if anything is superior for fat loss and health, it is eating less frequently (read my previous posts, here and here, to see the research and my experiments with meal frequency).  In addition, I think this idea is very flawed in the real world.  Eating small, frequent meals is based on a simple concept: that people will eat with discipline, consuming no more than they would in three larger meals.  Do you believe that the majority of people can do that?  I don't, and I'm not trying to insult others - I may be one of them!  

In conclusion, for weight loss or maintenance, I think most people would benefit from eating less frequently.  Even if there is no physiological benefit to eating only two, three, or four meals per day, eating fewer meals will likely decrease a person's daily intake. 

200th Post! ...What Have I Been Doing?

19 days into 2012...hopefully you are still on your path to achieving New Year's resolutions (if you made any).  If you aren't, you could always make some changes and restart the path (whose life doesn't feature adjustments on the fly?).

The last 19 days (and the weeks prior to that) have been eventful for me.  I spent the last few days of 2011 and the start of 2012 on vacation in New York and Punta Cana with family (see the pictures below).  After that, I moved (within Phoenix...my new apartment's balcony view is the picture at the top of the post) and have started spring classes for my masters program.

Now, to put the "health" back in Health-Actualization, here are the blog-relevant projects that I am working on:

• I'm putting together a study at ASU that will look at a specific the effects of a specific strength training protocol on flow-mediated dilation (if that last term sounds foreign, check out my flow-mediated dilation posts from this past month).  The study will occur over the summer or fall, and I will report the results here when finished.
• We may not be getting fatter as a country!  I have been looking at epidemiological studies (the NHANES data) from 1999-2008 and it has shown that there is no significant upward trend in obesity [1].  The average percentage of obesity has risen and fallen a few percent in recent years, but there is no consistent direction.  Obesity in this research is based on body mass index measurements (weight in kilograms divided by height, in meters, squared), so it's certainly not perfect - very muscular people could fall into the obese category.  However, the advantage of this research is that the height and weight were measured by the researchers, which makes it more reliable than height and weight data self-reported by the study subjects (people tend to report themselves as lighter and taller than they truly are...what a surprise...).  
• Future posts will include new information on healthy eating practices and how strength training benefits various health markers that I have not discussed before, such as inflammation. 

Post 200!

As the title says, this is the 200th post of Health-Actualization.  I am truly grateful to all of you who have followed my work over the past three and a half years.  I enjoy sharing my thoughts and findings with you.  More importantly, I have enjoyed the emails, comments, and personal connections that have come as a result of this blog.  I stated in the 150th post that my best work is yet to come, and I still believe that is the case.  I look forward to providing you with more information and getting to know you better over the next 200 posts.  Thank you.

Artery Function and Diet: Part 2

Before getting into the last post of this series about artery function, lets do a quick review:

• Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) is the ability of the artery to dilate beyond it's normal size when blood flow increases.  Dilation of 7% above the normal size is considered healthy, with higher being better and lower being worse.
• A low FMD is a significant predictor of atherosclerosis and decreases in FMD over time indicate the progression of heart disease. 
• Dilation is important because it reduces the stress experienced by arterial walls when blood flow increases.  

Diet, Part 2 

 

In the previous post on FMD and diet, we looked at a study that showed a high fat meal suppresses FMD, whereas a high carb/fat-free meal had no effect [1].  However, after a deeper look, the results weren't so black and white.  While saturated fat is a target of mainstream health today, the majority of the fat calories were unsaturated.  Specifically, they came from various vegetable oils.  These oils contain large amounts of omega-6 fatty acids (FA).  Omega-6 FA, when taken in much higher quantities than omega-3 FA, lead to cardiovascular inflammation and increased risk for heart disease.  Not only did the group eating a high fat meal consume a lot of omega-6-dense vegetable oils, but many of those oils were hydrogenated.  Hydrogenated oils are known to increase many of the risk factors for heart disease (lowering HDLs, increasing triglycerides, etc.). 

I also mentioned vitamin C is known to improve FMD [2], yet it did nothing for the high carb/no fat group in that study.  I believe this happened because vitamin C was only able to attenuate for the damage caused by the high carb meal, which brings us to today's question: does a high carb meal affect artery function?

A group of Japanese researchers may have found the answer to this question.  They put three groups of people through an oral glucose tolerance test, basically giving each subject 75 grams of glucose [3].  The three groups were split into individuals who had healthy blood sugar levels and insulin responses (NGT - normal glucose tolerance), people with slightly abnormal insulin responses and blood sugar (IGT - impaired glucose tolerance - these people will likely develop diabetes), and those who currently have diabetes (DM).  Each subject fasted for 12 to 14 hours before the test, and measurements were taken one and two hours after receiving the glucose.

The Results

Blood glucose levels skyrocketed after the glucose meal.  The NGT group went from a baseline of 91 to 154 and 114 mg/dl in one and two hours following.  IGT started at 105 and jumped to 220 and 173.  DM started at 128 and jumped to 240 and 242.  The healthy blood glucose range is 70 to 99 mg/dl.

The FMD results are charted below:

All three groups significantly digressed one and two hours after taking the glucose.  The NGT group started at a desirable 7.53% but plummeted to 4.24% and 6.35% during the following two hours (recall that 7% is the lowest "healthy" FMD).  The IGT group started at 6.5%, then fell to 1.4 and 4.0% in the two hours after.  The DM's baseline FMD was 4.77% (ouch!) and fell to 1.35 and 1.29 in hours one and two after the test.   

As you see, a large dose of glucose can drop a healthy individual's FMD into an unhealthy range.  In addition, the groups with high baseline blood sugar were slower to recover from the meal.  Both the IGT and DM groups fell to FMDs of less than 2% following the meal.  This means their arteries could dilate only about one-forth of the minimal healthy amount and could hardly dilate overall!!!  The authors of the study speculated that the hyperglycemia increases the concentration of free radicals, which inactivates nitric oxide.  Nitric oxide is the catalyst for arterial dilation.

In getting back to the question about high carb meals, it's clear that a high sugar meal raises blood sugar and is detrimental to arterial function.  Fat and fiber both slow the metabolism of sugar, and in turn, blunt the spike of blood glucose.  Therefore, this study indicates that having a meal dense in carbohydrates without any accompanying fat or fiber is very damaging to arterial health.  This also supports my previous suggestion: the high carb, fat-free meal presented in the high fat meal study [1] was likely damaging but that damage was controlled by vitamin C or other nutrients in the meal.  

Concluding the Discussion on FMD

 
For those of you who may have day-dreamed your way through my last few posts, I'm going to make this simple for you: here are my concluding points on how diet and exercise affect flow-mediated dilation, and therefore, how they affect your cardiovascular health:

1. Cardio in the traditional steady-state format (one speed for long periods of time) improves FMD, but high intensity interval training (alternating short bouts of 90-100% effort with longer bouts of light effort) can provide the same benefits in a fraction of the time.  
2. Strength training is beneficial for arterial health in just about any unhealthy population.  However, for healthy populations, the key may be how much time is spent between sets.  Hustling between exercises could be the key for strength training to improve FMD.
3. A meal high in vegetable oils, including hydrogenated vegetable oils, can cause hours of arterial dysfunction.  Vegetable oils are commonly found in fast food and processed foods.
4. A high amount of sugar causes a state of high blood glucose which also leads to hours of arterial dysfunction.  Based on the study discussed in this post, I recommend avoiding meals rich in carbohydrates, especially in the absence of fat and fiber. 
5. Vitamin C improves arterial function, but I don't recommend relying on it to save you from meals featuring high amounts of vegetable oils or sugar. 

Happy Holidays!

I hope all of you have enjoyed the holiday season so far.  I have been on vacation over the past 10 days and will return shortly after the new year.  The next few blogs will present some new material that I'm excited to show you.

Happy New Year!  See you in 2012.