Boosting Energy: the Dangers of the Quick Fix

Breakfast for Elliot is a bowl of frosted corn flakes with skim milk and a cup of black coffee. Zinging he hits the highway for work. By 10am he’s been to the break room twice for coffee and nibbles from the birthday cake left in the staff fridge. 12:30 lunch meeting where he eats a store-bought roast beef sandwich that is more bread than beef. Now it’s 3pm. Thinking is getting hard. Elliot is dragging and looking at the clock every 5 minutes wishing he could speed up time... He reaches for a cola/latte/mocha/chocolate bar to accelerate himself through to quitting time... Blood sugar surges, heart rate increases, insulin jets through the bloodstream trying to manage glucose...

Ok, let’s rewind all the way back to breakfast and see if we can’t help Elliot set himself up for a productive and energetic day...

Breakfast really is one of the most important meals of the day. It sets the stage for the rest of his day. Will he have enough fuel to keep his brain functioning on high when he needs it? If he breaks the fast he endured between 7am and dinner the night before with a balance of nutrients from each major food category he will stand a good chance. Good breakfast choices include low-glycemic carbohydrates like old fashioned oatmeal or 9-grain cereal, or low-sugar granola without dried fruit. Add to that a source of protein to give the body base materials for cell signally, nutrient transport and tissue repair such as eggs, nuts, or plain whole milk yogurt. Don’t leave out the healthy fats! Dietary fats act as the oak log on the bonfire that burns in the hours after the carbohydrate fuel has burnt off. Healthy fats include butter and whole milk fat from organic grass-fed cows, the oils found in nuts that can be put on oatmeal or in granola, and the fat found in whole coconut milk.

Coffee or tea can be beneficial, but it is advisable to be careful about adding sugar and avoid using sugar substitutes if you want to keep your brain healthy and your body trim. Caffeine and sugar together can help the brain be efficient and may be a good combination in small quantities prior to a strenuous thinking task such as taking and exam. But, in slightly larger quantities and frequencies, the sugar that comes in with the caffeine is more prone to become body fat than be used as fuel for speedy thought processes. Remember to keep drinking water though because caffeine will dehydrate the body and brain. Water is essential to efficient conduction of the electrical impulses that make up thoughts and nerve function.

Having access to healthy snacks at work or school is essential to keeping the brain happy and functioning without getting fuzzy. It is important to keep fuel coming in and not go more than about 3-4 hours without eating anything for brain performance and metabolism to stay high. Good choices to take along include trail mix (without candy), fresh fruit and a small pack of nuts or nut butter, hard boiled egg and crackers, or humus and sliced veggies.

Lunch should consist primarily of vegetables and protein with a sauce or dressing that includes a healthy fat. Examples might be a big salad with grilled salmon and hollandaise sauce, vegetable stir fry with chicken (skip the rice), or black bean and veggie soup or chili. By taking out the “white” food group of highly processed grains (bread, white rice, potatoes, pasta) you remove the culprit for the 3pm slump and the 5pm need to eat the couch before dinner.

Dinners for most of us need to be rearranged. This should not be our largest meal of the day after which we then slump mentally exhausted onto the couch and channel surf for 3 hours before bed. Dinners should be more like the “suppers” of old -- a lighter meal than lunch with more veggies than starches and a keen attention to lean healthy proteins for the body to use throughout the night as it moves into rest and repair mode. Loading up on high glycemic carbohydrates and grains is the wrong move for most people. These are the faster burning fuels that are better used during the day when we are vertical and exerting ourselves (hopefully!) physically. It is the proteins and vitamins and minerals and enzymes that are most useful to our bodies at night.

These are very general suggestions! For more details on how your own particular body utilizes foods and which sort of eating plan would work best for you, please consult with a nutritionist who understands that you are your own personal Universe. If there was a single “diet book” that worked for everyone, we wouldn’t have shelves full of different options. A qualified professional can help create meal plans and menus that will work for your whole family and not turn you into a short-order cook for each member of the household. It doesn’t have to be hard.

Get curious. Get informed. Get REAL.

Man Parts

Why is it that the topic of “men’s health” always seems to be a synonym for prostate health or erectile dysfunction? Yes, the prostate gland is important, but there is a whole MAN attached to it and his overall health is vital to the health of all his parts. Let’s look at a few things that are important to consider in whole-body health trajectories that don’t get much attention.

Building blocks: We all played with them as kids. You learned about how a wobbly foundation meant that your castle would fall over more easily than a well built one. You learned about how certain blocks fit together better than others. And you learned that using the bigger blocks on the bottom gave your castle more stability.

Translation: There are a few big pieces to focus on for overall health at the foundation level that will make all the difference in the stability and maintainability of health in the long run. The really cool thing is that all of these are under personal control, not the purview of the pharmaceutical companies or the medical community. In most cases, the biggest contributor to health or dis-ease is what we do (or don’t do) every day.

What to Eat? Start with less... Over-consumption of food and the development of obesity is one of the leading causes of all chronic dis-eases in the US and is directly implicated in the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction (ED), heart dis-ease, diabetes and more.

One of the greatest disservices perpetuated on the American public has been the idea that a low- or no-fat diet is somehow healthy. The key is the type of fat and where it comes from. You actually need some saturated fats along with essential fatty acids, but fake, damaged or contaminated fats are deadly. Low/non-fat conventional dairy products have been linked to prostate cancer, and high intakes of unprotected omega 3 fatty acids (i.e. not enough antioxidants) are linked to the development of BPH.

The same holds true for proteins, especially animal derived proteins. There are vast differences in health consequences between consuming organic, grass-fed, “happy” beef/dairy and commercial, feed-lot, grain (and “other”) fed beef/dairy. Our biggest problem, however, is likely to be highly processed carbohydrates including products made with refined sugars and flours, refined white rice, and starchy veggies that have been subjected to high heat. High-glycemic index carbohydrates (highly processed carbs and sugars) have been linked to prostate cancer and BPH. If I could make a one sentence recommendation for your overall health it would be this: Eat foods that were grown the way they were meant to live (organically) with the least amount of processing possible and prepared with care. If we all did this I would be willing to bet that 80% of our chronic health issues would magically disappear.

What to Drink: Simple, water. Those studies claiming that red wine is beneficial for heart dis-ease? Yeah, those have been found to be mostly false. Sorry. And beer is one of the worst things to indulge in daily, even more so than sodas which are looking worse and worse as the studies roll in. Coffee? Good news! One coffee drink per day is good for the liver and helps to prevent diabetes. The trick is to eliminate the sugar and only use organic grass-fed hormone-free whole milk or half and half. Soy milk? Let’s just say “don’t go there” and leave that for another discussion. Water. Clean, pure, non-distilled water.

What to Do: Another simple answer, move. If there were a medication that could provide all the benefits of exercise, MDs would be sued for malpractice if they didn’t prescribe it for everyone! Basically there are only benefits, even the side effects are beneficial! It’s no wonder because moving is what we were built to do. This modern age has seen a new ill health syndrome develop called SED or sedentary death syndrome. The less you move the greater your chances of early death or a long, drawn out, dis-ease riddled old age. And is it related to BPH, prostate cancer and ED? You bet. No surprise there. The research all shows that the better shape you’re in, the better ALL your man parts work! (And yes, the sex is better too...)

Get the gunk out. Get moving. Get serious about your health. Get REAL.

Sugar: the rational approach (Part 2 on the sugar topic)

Some of you may have seen the recent article I was interviewed for here in Marin County, CA. It was quite timely as it was about the Halloween sugar issue that got me going to write the first part of this missive. As promised, I've got some more info for you on our sweet friend/foe.

Keep in mind one of the things I say over and over: you can take any item we ingest and make it into a poison if you take in enough of it. Even excessive consumption of water can cause huge issues such as hyponatremia which is an electrolyte imbalance that produces symptoms that look like drunkenness. When it comes to sugar, the body doesn't actually need the refined stuff. It needs the unrefined versions that come with a complete package of nutrients. As I mentioned last time, there is a big difference between the amount of fructose in an apple and the amount in a 12 ounce soda. Add in the fact that the apple also brings with it fiber, vitamins A, C, K, folate, choline, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and even a few omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. That soda? Nothing but sugar, artificial flavors and colors, and probably caffeine.

When you look at sugar itself as we think of it, the white granulated kind, there is a good website that has translated sugar content equivalents into stacked sugar cubes so you get a clear visual on the amount of sugar in various foods. Check out Sugar Stacks with your kids sometime. It's an eye opener for sure. They also use the visual of the equivalent amount of carrots which is a fun alternative when you consider that a 20 ounce bottle of Coke has the same amount of sugar as about 3 pounds of carrots...

I'll say it again: Sugar that comes in the form of food isn't bad in and of itself. It's the amounts of the refined stuff that we have become accustomed to consuming that are the problem. One of the things that often confuses my clients is that the whole food group called carbohydrate is partially defined by the fact that these foods all end up being at least partially converted into blood sugar. Carbohydrates include table sugar and bread, but also spinach and peaches, broccoli and strawberries. It is all the veggies, fruits and grains and everything made from them. This is a HUGE food group. The key is that each unrefined carbohydrate also contains other vital nutrients, as in the example of the apple above. To eliminate this entire food group is a big mistake in the long run. The Atkins people learned this the hard way and have now modified their approach to include the foods that turn into blood sugar more slowly.

This brings me to the Glycemic Index. This is a way to look at the speed at which sugar enters the system. Each carbohydrate you can eat "clocks in" on a speedometer that goes from 0-100. A simple rule of thumb is that your speed limit should be 55 or lower. You can look up any carbohydrate to find it's Glycemic Index here. An easy way of thinking about the speed is by thinking about how refined or processed a food is. The more it's been broken down outside the body (by mechanical processing, heat, pressure, etc.) the less time it takes your body to absorb it and so the higher it is on the Glycemic Index. That said, it is important to also consider the serving size and what other foods you are eating at the same time. For example, watermelon clocks in at about 75 on the Glycemic Index, but when you take into consideration that the amount water and fiber in watermelon is pretty high, the actual load of a 120g serving is only about 5. This is an extreme individual food example, but you will see some of the same sorts of interesting numbers when you combine foods. If you look at a plain corn tortilla, it's Glycemic Index is about 52. If you add refried beans and salsa, then that tortilla clocks in at about 39 on the same scale. However, if you fry that tortilla (corn chips) you end up at around 74! Same base material, but processing and food combining have dramatically different effects on the blood glucose outcome.

So the trick here becomes HOW to eat carbohydrates, yes, including sweets. It is important to make a mess for your body to sort through to find the sugars. As I sometimes say in sessions with clients, think of your stomach as a teenager's bedroom. You want it to be really messy. You want to have to search hard to find a clean pair of socks (the sugar). So if you want that dessert? The best way to do it is to have it immediately following your meal, not 2 hours later. And, as you learn more about real foods, make lower glycemic choices more often.

Get smart. Get healthy. Get REAL.