Deep Front Squats or Cleans are both excellent exercises for any fitness goal
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Monday, 4 March 2013
Want to Make Your Kids Smarter? Give ‘Em Fish Oil!
Source: http://www.multivitaminguide.org/blog/make-kids-smarter-fish-oil/
Want to Make Your Kids Smarter? Give ‘Em Fish Oil!
The omega-3 fatty acids are also known as essential fatty acids (EFAs). This means that they are essential for metabolic processes but, because they are not able to be synthesized in the body, they must be ingested as part of the diet or come from supplements. The richest dietary sources of EFAs come from oily fish that live in cold waters. These include salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring and anchovies. Oils from these fish have around seven times as much omega-3 fatty acids as they do omega-6 fatty acids. Modern diets include a lot of omega-6 and little omega-3. This imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 intake can increase your risk of heart disease.
The results of this meta-analysis are supported by recommendations from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the specific omega-3 EFAs found in seafood, is essential for proper brain development of the fetus and in early childhood. The UNFAO recommends that pregnant women, nursing mothers and children through the age of two should consume a minimum of 200 mg of DHA per day.
According to a Harvard Medical School Special Health Report, we should all try to obtain our omega-3s from our diet2. For those who do not like fish and seafood or those who have very high levels of triglycerides (a type of fat that increases the risk of heart disease), there is no risk in taking a fish oil supplement. Typical supplements contain between 200 and 400 mg of two omega-3s, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and DHA.
Every parent wants to give their children the best start in life. Improving your child’s IQ by giving fish oil is one way of doing this. To torture a phrase, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; give your baby fish oil, make him smart for life.”
References
1Protzko J, Aronson J and Blair C. How to Make a Young Child Smarter – Evidence from the Database of Raising Intelligence. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2013.
2Mozaffarian D. The Truth About Vitamins and Minerals – Choosing the Nutrients You Need To Stay Healthy. Harvard Medical School Special Health Report 2012. Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/special_health_reports/vitamins-and-minerals-choosing-the-nutrients-you-need-to-stay-healthy.
15-Year-Old Invents New Test for Early, Reliable Detection of Pancreatic Cancer
By Dr. Mercola
Pancreatic cancer is a devastatingly fatal form of cancer, and is typically regarded as the most deadly and universally rapid-killing form of cancer. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute,1 an estimated 45,220 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, of which 38,460 are expected to die.
Part of the problem is that this cancer is usually diagnosed quite late, contributing to the abysmal five-year survival rate. It also shows you just how ineffective conventional detection methods and treatments are.
All of that may soon change however — all due to the persistence and dedication of a high school kid who decided there must be a better way to detect this lethal cancer sooner...
Yes, a 15-year-old boy named Jack Andraka has done what scientists with millions of dollars-worth of research grants at their disposal have failed to do. He invented a dipstick-type sensor to detect pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer that is:
And he did it using Google and Wikipedia as his primary research tools — online resources that are available to virtually anyone on the planet with an internet connection. What’s more, the test costs three cents, takes five minutes, and has a 90 percent accuracy rate. Compare that to the current standard, which employs 60-year-old technology, costs about $800, and misses 30 percent of all pancreatic cancers.
- 168 times faster
- 26,000 times less expensive, and
- 400 times more sensitive than the current standard of detection
How Could a High School Kid Make Such an Amazing Discovery?
You are in for a real treat. Please find the time to watch this awesomely inspiring video of a high school freshman who accomplished a major feat that most of us will never surpass in our lifetime. It is clearly one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen. You are left with the impression if this high school freshman can do this, why can’t I achieve my goals?
Last year, Jack was awarded first place in the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair for his invention.2 To me the most impressive part of his story are the thousands of failures he went through that did not deter him in the pursuit of his goal. Absolutely magnificent story.
When Jack first began his research, he didn’t even know he had a pancreas, but when pancreatic cancer suddenly claimed the life of a close family friend who was like “an uncle” to him he got to thinking... and researching, using readily available online tools and freely available studies, he determined that the reason we haven’t done a better job at detecting pancreatic cancer is because we’re looking for a particular protein present in the blood, called mesothelin.
This protein is always present, but in ovarian, pancreatic, or lung cancer patients, this protein is elevated. The problem is, detecting elevated levels is like “finding a needle in a stack of identical needles.”
After determining the parameters for an ideal detection sensor — noninvasive, rapid, inexpensive, simple, sensitive, and selective — he set to work trying to figure out how to detect elevated levels of mesothelin. The idea for his dipstick sensor came during a high school biology class on the subject of antibodies, during which he was secretly reviewing a paper on analytical methods using the 21st century technology of carbon nanotubes. (His approach would be absolutely impossible when I was in high school as carbon nanotubes would not be discovered for many decades.)
Antibodies fit like a lock and key into an antigen binding site. In this case, that would be the mesothelin protein. His idea involved lacing the nanotubes with the antibody, which would subsequently only attract the mesothelin protein. The nanotube strip would then generate an electrical response large enough to detect with a simple ohm meter.
Once he had locked down his theory, he needed a lab space. He applied to 200 laboratories working with pancreatic cancer and promptly received 199 rejections. But there was one “maybe.” He “hunted down” the professor and eventually landed a meeting. And a place to work. Seven months later, after countless trials and errors, he had created his first paper sensor. The sensor has now been tested in blind studies on humans, and has been found to have a 90 percent accuracy rate. Another key is that this protein becomes elevated during the earliest stages of cancer, allowing for a greatly increased survival rate.
I couldn’t agree more. Not only is this story amazing because of his youth, it’s also an incredible testament to the power of the internet. Anyone can now, quite literally, change the world by putting the available information to good use! That is really the primary reason why I am able to provide all these news stories for you in the newsletter. Virtually all of them are carefully researched on the internet. We supplement these stories with my 20-plus years of clinical experience treating 25,000 patients and interviews with some of the leading health experts in the world.“Through the internet anything is possible,” Jack says.
What Causes Pancreatic Cancer?
Three lifestyle issues keep popping up on the radar when you look at what’s contributing to pancreatic cancer:
Obesity and physical inactivity makes your body less sensitive to the glucose-lowering effects of insulin. Diminished sensitivity to insulin leads to higher blood levels of insulin, which in turn can increase your risk of pancreatic cancer. One previous study found that men and women with high Body Mass Index (BMI) faced a pancreatic cancer risk 1.5 to 2 times higher than those with low BMI. And for women who are both overweight and sedentary, your risk is 2.5 times higher. When they reduced their weight and exercised, they lowered their risk. In fact, the men who exercised strenuously at least 8 hours a month were found to have only 59% of the pancreatic cancer risk of men who exercised less. Insulin seems to be one of the main drivers for cancer in general, and for pancreatic cancer in particular.
- Sugar/fructose consumption
- Lack of physical exercise
- Vitamin D deficiency
Why?
Because insulin production is one of your pancreas' main functions, used by your body to process blood sugar, and, in the laboratory, insulin actually promotes the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. Researchers suspect that if your body maintains high levels of insulin, you increase the pancreatic cancer's ability to survive and grow. In fact, researchers now believe that up to a third of all cancers may be caused by diet and lifestyle. So if you want to prevent cancer, or want to treat cancer, it is imperative that you keep your insulin levels as low as possible. Furthermore, pancreatic tumor cells have been found to use fructose, specifically, to divide and proliferate — again attesting to the fact that there are significant metabolic differences between fructose and other sugars.
According to the authors:3
The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructose for cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer. If this difference isn't of major consequence, then I don't know what is, especially when you consider how quickly pancreatic cancer can kill you. As Jack stated in his talk, his friend was asymptomatic, and went from “healthy” to “a walking skeleton” in just three months."Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different... These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."
It may surprise you, but the theory that sugar feeds cancer was born nearly 80 years ago. In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. Yet most conventional cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars.
Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decreases the capacity of neutrophils to do their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that help cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as cancer. In a nutshell, ALL forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer, but in slightly different ways, and to a different extent. Fructose, however, clearly seems to be one of the overall most harmful.
Fructose — Uric Acid — Cancer
The study above also mentions that fructose metabolism leads to increased uric acid production along with cancer cell proliferation. This is another gigantic clue that fructose is directly associated with cancer.
In my first interview with Dr. Johnson back in 2010 (the same year that study was published), he explained the detrimental impact fructose has on your uric acid level. Interestingly, ONLY fructose, NOT glucose, drives up uric acid as part of its normal metabolic pathways. The connection between fructose, uric acid, hypertension, insulin resistance/diabetes and kidney disease is so clear that your uric acid level can actually be used as a marker for toxicity from fructose -- meaning that if your levels are high, you're at increased risk of all the health hazards associated with fructose consumption and you really need to reduce your fructose intake.
Dr. Richard Johnson has authored two of the best books on the market on the health dangers of fructose. The first one, The Sugar Fix, explains how fructose causes high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and kidney disease. The second, The Fat Switch, explains how fructose triggers a specific 'switch' located in the powerhouse of each of your cells — the mitochondria — causing your body to activate enzymes that tell your cells to accumulate fat. This is an ancient adaptive mechanism found in a variety of animals that need to gain fat in anticipation of food scarcity or hibernation.
Now it's safe to say that cancer, at least pancreatic cancer, is also definitely on the list of diseases that are directly linked to excessive fructose consumption.
Reducing (or preferably eliminating) fructose and other added sugars, as well as limiting grain carbohydrates from your diet should be part of any comprehensive cancer treatment plan. By doing so, you’ll help stave off any potential cancer growth, and "starve" any tumors you currently have. It also bolsters your overall immune function, because sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately.
Unfortunately, few cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer care in the US are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told to "just eat healthy foods." I believe many cancer patients would see major improvement in their outcome if they controlled the supply of cancer's preferred fuel, glucose, and stayed clear of fructose to significantly reduce tumor proliferation.
Top 13 Tips to Prevent Cancer
There’s a lot you can do to lower your chances of getting cancer -- you and your family CAN take control of your health. Don’t wait for diagnosis, take the reins and be a proactive participant in your own health care, before you end up in need for disease management. I believe you can virtually eliminate your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple risk reduction strategies.
The trick about exercise, though, is understanding how to use it as a precise tool. This ensures you are getting enough to achieve the benefit, not too much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physical structure and maintain strength and flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels.
- Reduce or eliminate your processed food, sugar/fructose and grain carbohydrate intake. This applies to whole unprocessed organic grains as well, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive your insulin and leptin levels up, which is the last thing you need to have happening if you are seeking to resolve or prevent cancer.
- Consider seriously reducing your protein levels. I believe most people consume twice as much protein as they need, and most of this protein is of the worst kind - CAFO beef and chicken loaded with hormones and antibiotics. Look for Alaskan fish varieties, but avoid tuna as the bigger the fish the more toxins they accumulate. It is hard to find, but do your best to locate natural grass fed beef and organic chickens.
- Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels. This is the end result you’ll get when you remove sugars and grains from your diet and start to exercise regularly. Your levels can be easily monitored with the use of simple and relatively inexpensive blood tests.
- Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.
- Get regular exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.
Normalize your vitamin D levels by getting appropriate sun exposure, and consider careful supplementation when this is not possible. However, if you’re taking oral vitamin D, you also need to make sure you’re taking vitamin K2 as well, as K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. To learn more, please see my previous article: What You Need to Know About Vitamin K2, D and Calcium. If you take oral vitamin D and have a cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly.
- Get regular, high quality sleep. Using a Zeo will help you objectively determine if your current sleeping strategy is providing you with the amount of deep and REM sleep that you need to heal and repair properly.
- Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
- Limit your exposure and provide protection for yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and WiFi stations.
- Avoid frying or charbroiling your food. Boil, poach or steam your foods instead.
- Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
- Eat at least one-third of your food raw.
- Consider adding cancer-fighting whole foods, herbs, spices and supplements to your diet, such as broccoli, curcumin and resveratrol. To learn more about how these anti-angiogenetic foods, and many others, work to fight cancer, please see my previous article: Dramatically Effective New Natural Way to Starve Cancer and Obesity.
Knowledge is Power
While most of us may lack the genius to invent a paradigm-breaking medical device while browsing the internet, all of us have the power to research matters relating to our own health, and more. Like Jack, I urge you to take full advantage of the internet, and even if your findings won’t change the world, rest assured it can change yours.
Jack’s story is an absolutely incredible testament to the power of applying yourself using common tools that are available to each and every one of us. He also reminds us of the importance of not letting failure and rejection deter you from your passion and purpose.
When it comes to your health, conventional medicine has precious little to offer. But that does not mean you have no options! On the contrary, there are many alternatives available, no matter what your health condition might be. Unfortunately, with pharmaceutical companies ruling the roost over medicine, you won’t get that information from your doctor. You have to find it on your own. My website can help you get started. I have literally tens of thousands of free articles available, covering countless health issues. Just use the search engine at the top of every page and enter a topic you would like to learn more about. You will typically find dozens if not hundreds of articles on any given subject.
Remember, good health rests on just a few basic principles, and if you get those right, the rest will be much easier. Your diet accounts for about 80 percent of all the health benefits you’ll reap from a healthy lifestyle, so start there. My free optimized nutrition plan can get you off on the right foot.
Avoid Most Energy Drinks For Best Performance & Body Composition
Charles Poliquin posted this article today....
A great solution is Solstic Energy by Nature's Sunshine. It’s a fantastic alternative to Coffee, Tea, Fizzy drinks and other ‘energy’ drinks that provide a quick, sugar-fueled rush followed by an abrupt, vitality-sapping crash. Helps energy release from carbohydrates, the main source of fuel for the body. Your body needs to constantly replenish water-soluble B vitamins to support energy levels and fight the draining effects of the day.
BENEFITS OF SOLSTIC ENERGY
Monday, March 04, 2013 6:01 AM
Avoid energy drinks in favor of strategic workout supplementation for best performance and body composition results. The problem with the typical energy drink is you don’t have enough control over the ingredients.
For example, caffeine can significantly enhance performance, but most energy drinks have other stuff added that you simply don’t want pre-workout or when your goal is to boost energy. This tip will tell you why you should avoid energy drinks in favor of smart peri-workout nutrition.
The most obvious problem with energy drink is that they often contain competing ingredients. For example, taurine is a calming amino acid that is found in Red Bull and it should be taken post-workout, because it enhances activity of the inhibitory brain transmitters. You don’t want to take it when your goal is to elevate energy for training.
Two studies show that when subjects drank Red Bull, which contains sugar and vitamins along with caffeine and taurine, they had significant increases in blood pressure and heart rate variability, both of which indicate poor homeostasis. In the long-term changes in blood pressure and heart rate indicate altered circadian rhythms, put you at greater risk of inflammation, and may cause adrenal fatigue. All around, combining taurine and caffeine is a bad choice!
Of course, studies also show that the caffeine in energy drinks can be used to improve endurance and anaerobic performance. For example, a review of studies showed that energy drinks significantly increased run time to exhaustion and increased pain tolerance. However, researchers suggest that instead of using energy drinks, a straight caffeine supplement will provide more control over the ergogenic effect, without increasing cardiovascular health risk.
A second problem with energy drinks is that many contain sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, both of which have been shown to significantly increase blood glucose levels. Energy drinks containing carbs (sugar) should be avoided because it can decrease insulin sensitivity over the long run and raise your diabetes risk. Plus, you want to completely avoid carbs pre-workout, saving them for after training if you are very lean. If your goal is fat loss, avoid carbs completely in favor of protein post-workout. Increasing insulin during workouts is also known to boost serotonin, which you do not want because it will make you feel tired and will sap your strength.
The third problem with energy drinks is they often have artificial ingredients that will only increase your toxic load and should be eliminated. Finally, you simply don’t have enough control over the quality of the nutrients in energy drinks for them to be reliable.
Instead of using energy drinks, keep your workout nutrition simple with the following strategies:
Boost pre-workout energy levels by taking anhydrous caffeine in supplement form because it is the most effective fat burner, freeing up fat to be used for energy. Pair it with the amino acid tyrosine, which will help you feel alert and ready to train because it raises levels of dopamine.
Take 2 to 10 grams of vitamin C post-workout to help clear the caffeine and lower cortisol.
Avoid carbohydrates (and sugar) pre-workout. If you are very lean and your goal is building muscle, use a high-quality blend of carbs after training to enhance protein synthesis.
Take whey protein, or amino acids if you are allergic to whey, after training to enhance protein synthesis. Use BCAAs during training to prevent muscle breakdown.
Take magnesium threonate post-workout. This provides magnesium and threonine, and the pair will calm the nervous system and raise the neurotransmitter GABA. This will enhance recovery and sleep.
References
Franks, A., Schmidt, J., et al. Comparison of the Effects of Energy Drink Versus Caffeine Supplementation on Indices of 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 2012. 46, 192-199.
Steinke, L., Lanfear, D., et al. Effect of “Energy Drink” Consumption on Hemodynamic and Electrocardiographic Parameters in Healthy Young Adults. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 2009. 43, 596-602.
Wolk, B., Ganetsky, M., et al. Toxicity of Energy Drinks. Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2012. 24(2), 243-251.
A great solution is Solstic Energy by Nature's Sunshine. It’s a fantastic alternative to Coffee, Tea, Fizzy drinks and other ‘energy’ drinks that provide a quick, sugar-fueled rush followed by an abrupt, vitality-sapping crash. Helps energy release from carbohydrates, the main source of fuel for the body. Your body needs to constantly replenish water-soluble B vitamins to support energy levels and fight the draining effects of the day.
BENEFITS OF SOLSTIC ENERGY
- Yerba Maté, a powerful herb that has been used for thousands of years in the jungles of South America to increase endurance
- Green tea extracts, rich in properties that help increase energy and vitality
- Guarana seed contains a naturally occurring caffeine that promotes a gradual, sustained increase in alertness
- B Vitamins, the most important vitamins for helping release the energy you need to work all day
- Solstic Energy also includes sucralose, a sweetener created from natural sugar that has been proven safe through over twenty years of in depth scientific analysis
- Contains only 12 calories, no fat and only 3g of Carbohydrates.
- Low Glycaemic Index, and contains no pharmaceutical grade caffeine.
8 Health Benefits of Blackberries
Blackberries are a delicious little "aggregate fruit" that grow wild on thorny bushes and are cultivated on every temperate continent, including Africa and Asia. Composed of many individual drupelets, each like a small berry with one seed, each drupelet contributes extra skin, seeds and pectin with dietary fiber value to the nutritional content of blackberries, making them among the highest fiber content plants in the world.Blackberries can be eaten fresh, frozen and canned and are popularly made into jams, juices, desserts and even wine. Rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber, blackberries are highly nutritious and rich in antioxidants. They are also low in calories, carbohydrates, and fat, making them one of the best fruits out there for a balanced diet.
Cancer Prevention
Anthocyanins, which give blackberries their dark color, are an antioxidant shown to reduce inflammation. As an antioxidant, they destroy free radicals in the body that harm cells and lead to cancer. Research has also shown that the ellagic acid in blackberries may have anti-cancer properties. One cup of blackberries contains half of the daily recommendation of the antioxidant vitamin C, which protects the immune system and may lower the risk of developing certain types of cancer.
Researchers have found that blackberries may reduce esophageal cancer by relieving the oxidative stress caused by Barrett's esophagus, a precancerous condition usually brought about by gastroesophageal reflux disease. Perhaps the greatest benefit from eating blackberries is their high level of phenolic acids which, besides having many other potential health benefits, are antioxidant compounds known as powerful anti-carcinogenic agents. Because of these compounds, blackberries have been given an ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of about 5350 per 100 grams, placing them near the top of ORAC fruits.
Cardiovascular Benefits
The anthocyanins that give blackberries their dark color are antioxidants shown to reduce inflammation by helping combat free radicals in the body that destroy cells and lead to heart disease. Vitamin C in blackberries acts as an antioxidant, and one cup of this delicious berry contains half of the daily recommendation of vitamin C. The immune system uses vitamin C to fight illness adequate vitamin C intake may lower the risk of developing heart disease. One cup of blackberries contains over thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber, promoting healthy digestion and reducing the risk of heart disease.
Skin Health
As are all berries, blackberries are a great source of ellagic acid, an antioxidant shown to protect the skin from damage from ultraviolet light. Studies have also shown that ellagic acid may also repair skin damaged by the sun. Vitamin C helps heal wounds, and studies also show vitamin C may even lessen the appearance of wrinkles. Studies of cyanidin-3-glucoside, a compound found in blackberries showed it prevents skin cancer by inhibiting tumors from growing and spreading.
Eye Health
Vitamin C functions as an antioxidant in blackberries and one cup contains half of the daily recommendation of vitamin C. The body uses vitamin C for protection from immune system deficiencies, and may reduce the chances of macular degeneration, a condition in which fine vision deteriorates, resulting in central vision loss and is the leading cause of blindness in people over 50.
Women's Health
Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring plant estrogens found in blackberries that may help relieve the common symptoms of PMS like bloating, food cravings, and even menopausal symptoms including hot flashes.
Digestive Tract Health
Just one cup of blackberries contains over thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber, which promotes healthy digestion and aids in maintaining bowel regularity by bulking up the feces and reducing the time it takes matter to pass all the way through the intestines. Bowel regularity is commonly associated with a decreased risk for colon cancer.
Diabetes
Thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber is to be found in just one cup of blackberries. The steady movement of fiber through the digestive system allows for a measured breakdown of food into its component parts. This even breakdown of food helps to curtail extremes regarding simple sugar uptake from the digestive tract. An excess of simple sugar uptake all at once can produce an unwanted blood sugar spike. A lack of simple sugar uptake may produce a rapid blood sugar drop. Either extreme can upset blood sugar balance. The quantity of fiber in blackberries helps avoid both extremes.
Bone Health
Blackberries are a good source of vitamin K, offering 36% of the daily recommended amount of this nutrient used by the body for the clotting of blood and to aid the absorption of calcium.
Zambroza is a unique and powerful blend of juices that are naturally rich in vitamin C - a powerful antioxidant. Not only will you feel revitalised but these antioxidants have a powerful effect on the health of the skin helping you to look great too. This is Nature’s Sunshine’s top selling product worldwide – a great tasting, synergistic blend that helps to increase vital energy and replenish the body.
BENEFITS OF ZAMBROZA
Cancer Prevention
Anthocyanins, which give blackberries their dark color, are an antioxidant shown to reduce inflammation. As an antioxidant, they destroy free radicals in the body that harm cells and lead to cancer. Research has also shown that the ellagic acid in blackberries may have anti-cancer properties. One cup of blackberries contains half of the daily recommendation of the antioxidant vitamin C, which protects the immune system and may lower the risk of developing certain types of cancer.
Researchers have found that blackberries may reduce esophageal cancer by relieving the oxidative stress caused by Barrett's esophagus, a precancerous condition usually brought about by gastroesophageal reflux disease. Perhaps the greatest benefit from eating blackberries is their high level of phenolic acids which, besides having many other potential health benefits, are antioxidant compounds known as powerful anti-carcinogenic agents. Because of these compounds, blackberries have been given an ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of about 5350 per 100 grams, placing them near the top of ORAC fruits.
Cardiovascular Benefits
The anthocyanins that give blackberries their dark color are antioxidants shown to reduce inflammation by helping combat free radicals in the body that destroy cells and lead to heart disease. Vitamin C in blackberries acts as an antioxidant, and one cup of this delicious berry contains half of the daily recommendation of vitamin C. The immune system uses vitamin C to fight illness adequate vitamin C intake may lower the risk of developing heart disease. One cup of blackberries contains over thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber, promoting healthy digestion and reducing the risk of heart disease.
Skin Health
As are all berries, blackberries are a great source of ellagic acid, an antioxidant shown to protect the skin from damage from ultraviolet light. Studies have also shown that ellagic acid may also repair skin damaged by the sun. Vitamin C helps heal wounds, and studies also show vitamin C may even lessen the appearance of wrinkles. Studies of cyanidin-3-glucoside, a compound found in blackberries showed it prevents skin cancer by inhibiting tumors from growing and spreading.
Eye Health
Vitamin C functions as an antioxidant in blackberries and one cup contains half of the daily recommendation of vitamin C. The body uses vitamin C for protection from immune system deficiencies, and may reduce the chances of macular degeneration, a condition in which fine vision deteriorates, resulting in central vision loss and is the leading cause of blindness in people over 50.
Women's Health
Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring plant estrogens found in blackberries that may help relieve the common symptoms of PMS like bloating, food cravings, and even menopausal symptoms including hot flashes.
Digestive Tract Health
Just one cup of blackberries contains over thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber, which promotes healthy digestion and aids in maintaining bowel regularity by bulking up the feces and reducing the time it takes matter to pass all the way through the intestines. Bowel regularity is commonly associated with a decreased risk for colon cancer.
Diabetes
Thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber is to be found in just one cup of blackberries. The steady movement of fiber through the digestive system allows for a measured breakdown of food into its component parts. This even breakdown of food helps to curtail extremes regarding simple sugar uptake from the digestive tract. An excess of simple sugar uptake all at once can produce an unwanted blood sugar spike. A lack of simple sugar uptake may produce a rapid blood sugar drop. Either extreme can upset blood sugar balance. The quantity of fiber in blackberries helps avoid both extremes.
Bone Health
Blackberries are a good source of vitamin K, offering 36% of the daily recommended amount of this nutrient used by the body for the clotting of blood and to aid the absorption of calcium.
Zambroza is a unique and powerful blend of juices that are naturally rich in vitamin C - a powerful antioxidant. Not only will you feel revitalised but these antioxidants have a powerful effect on the health of the skin helping you to look great too. This is Nature’s Sunshine’s top selling product worldwide – a great tasting, synergistic blend that helps to increase vital energy and replenish the body. BENEFITS OF ZAMBROZA
- Supply powerful nutrients that give the body energy and vitality
- Maintain a healthy immune system
- Neutralise free radicals throughout the body
COMBATING FREE RADICALS- Antioxidants are natural substances that stabilise highly reactive molecules known as ‘free radicals’.
- Free radicals occur naturally in the body. Pollution, chemical additives, stress, exercise, sunlight and other factors can increase free radical production.
- Excess free radicals can have a damaging effect on the body’s cells. A great deal of attention has been directed at the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E because of their function in protecting the cells from damage caused by natural body processes, lifestyles, and environmental and chemical pollutants.
- These vitamins, along with the trace mineral selenium, help to prevent important molecules and structures within the cell from reacting with oxygen, which often injures the cell structure. This process is called oxidation.
RICH IN POLYPHENOLS AND FLAVONOIDS - Nature’s Sunshine has harvested the most healthful fruits and natural extracts from around the world and combined them into this unique delicious, nutritious juice that has been specially formulated to neutralise excess free radicals.
- This unique juice blend not only tastes great but gives your body what it needs to enjoy maximum health and long lasting vitality - not only will you feel revitalised but these antioxidants have a powerful effect on the health of the skin helping you to look great too.
- Potency of antioxidants is measured by their ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity), which indicates their ability to neutralise and scavenge free radicals. When tested by Brunswick Laboratories the results were astounding with Zambroza’s scoring more than twice that of the nearest competitor, demonstrating its superior protective properties.
- Rich in Polyphenols and Flavonoids Zambroza is proven to give unparalleled antioxidant protection.
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Health Benefits May Be Related to Its Sulfur Content
By Dr. Mercola
The clinical use of sulfur as an adjunct in our diet is becoming progressively more recognized as an important tool for optimizing health.
Certainly, diet is the primary tool for reducing your risk for chronic degenerative diseases. But the practical question becomes, how do you obtain the needed sulfur from food grown in depleted soils?
The nutrient MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), is a naturally occurring sulfur compound found in all vertebrates, including humans. MSM is already well-known for its joint health benefits, but it may be important for a whole host of other reasons as well.
Rod Benjamin is the director of technical development for Bergstrom Nutrition, the largest producer of the highest quality MSM that is produced by distillation purification.
MSM is a metabolite of DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, an organosulfur compound), but DMSO is approved for use in veterinary medicine only, not in humans.
Are the Health Benefits of MSM Related to Sulfur?
I first became aware of DMSO decades ago, when I saw a 60-Minutes episode in which they revealed its therapeutic impact on race horses. It supported their soft tissues, helped with muscle soreness and soft-tissue injury. It also benefitted the horses’ lung function.
Dr. Stanley W. Jacob pioneered the use of DMSO and later MSM. Originally, he began looking at DMSO because it freezes at about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and Dr. Jacob had been deeply involved in looking at cryogenic preservation of tissues and organs for transplantation. As a result of being investigated for its cryogenic uses, DMSO ended up being one of the most researched drugs on the market today.
“DMSO is classified as a drug within the United States. You can buy it at a lot of veterinary supply stores and things like that, but it’s not to be used for humans,” Mr. Benjamin says.MSM, which is a metabolite of DMSO, and approved for use in humans, primarily impacts your health by reducing inflammation. It’s widely used as a supplement for arthritic conditions. Like DMSO, MSM also appears to improve cell wall permeability, so it can be used to help deliver other active ingredients. Perhaps most important, MSM helps protect against oxidative damage.
Within the last two years, at least four human clinical trials have been conducted on MSM and its ability to help with exercise recovery, and muscle injuries like delayed onset muscle stiffness or soreness (DOMS) and large muscle injuries like that from a heart attack—all of which is related to oxidative stress and subsequent cellular damage.
“In one of the studies, they were looking at the VAS pain scores. That’s muscle soreness due to exercise. There was a significant reduction in the MSM-treated group versus placebo. That’s directly tied to the muscle soreness,” Mr. Benjamin says.
The Importance of Sulfur
Furthermore, according to Mr. Benjamin:
“Dr. Stanley Jacob said DMSO – and MSM together with that – in his opinion is much more of a therapeutic principle. It’s similar to exercise or proper nutrition. Instead of that singular focus that is so prevalent within the drug or pharmas per se, it’s much more of a therapeutic principle, which is overall body wellness [opposed to treating a specific symptom or ailment].”This suggests that MSM may be providing some kind of missing link, and that link appears to be related to sulfur. MSM is 34 percent sulfur by weight, but as Mr. Benjamin discusses below, it is more than just a simple sulfur donor. It affects sulfur metabolism in the human body, although it’s still not entirely clear how.
Sulfur is just now becoming more widely appreciated as a really critical nutrient, without which many other things don’t work properly, and most people are probably not getting enough sulfur from their diet anymore. For example, sulfur plays a critical role in detoxification, and also in inflammatory conditions. For detoxification, sulfur is part of one of the most important antioxidants that your body produces: glutathione. Without sulfur, glutathione cannot work.
The plethora of research that was done on DMSO and its therapeutic properties begs the question: How many of those therapeutic properties are due to the DMSO? Or are they due to its metabolite, MSM, once it’s been converted in vivo or within the body? (Approximately 15 percent of any DMSO dosage, on average, converts to MSM in the human body.) The answer to that question is still unknown. Sulfur is found in over 150 different compounds within the human body. There are sulfur components in virtually every type of cell, so it’s extremely important.
“Now, as far as MSM’s role within the body, it’s very complicated. And I will say that it’s not a hundred percent understood,” Mr. Benjamin says. “I’ve been working with this compound for 16 years to try and answer that question. We understand a part of the mechanism of action, but not all of it....In 1986, Richmond did a study, and it showed that it was taken up into serum proteins. That sulfur was actually incorporated in the serum proteins.We also have done [something] like the pharmacokinetic study, which showed that radiolabeled sulfur was taken up into hair, skin, and nails. Keratin is a very high sulfur-containing compound, which is a building block for your nails and your hair. But it also showed up in almost all tissues, spleen, and liver. It went all over.It’s complicated. We did a study where we said, 'Okay, let’s give it to healthy human volunteers.' We did actually three different dosages – one gram, two grams, and three grams. We measured urinary sulfur output by measuring sulfate, thinking that sulfate will be a waste sulfur product that would show up excreted in the urine. We did the different doses to see if it was in a dose-dependent manner that we’d be able to correlate back and, say, 'Yes, MSM is giving output of sulfur.We found that they were indeed dose-related, but the interesting thing was it was inversely related. The more MSM you took, the less sulfate was excreted in your urine. What that says is it’s much more complicated than just a strict sulfur donor. It is a compartmentalization of sulfur and sulfur metabolism within the body. That suggests that MSM is actually allowing better metabolism, better incorporation of the sulfur throughout the body. It’s not just a simple sulfur donor...'”
MSM Improves Your Body’s Ability to Make its Own Antioxidants
As I mentioned earlier, sulfur plays an important role in the production of glutathione—one of the most important antioxidants that your body produces. Glutathione also serves important functions for detoxification. Without sulfur, glutathione cannot work. So, while not an antioxidant by itself, part of MSM’s action is to improve your body’s ability to make its own antioxidants.
It also provides support for all sorts of structural proteins, where sulfur is an important component. According to Dr. Benjamin:
“[G]lutathione has two different states within your body. There’s reduced glutathione and oxidized glutathione. The ratio of those two signifies the overall oxidative status or the ability of your blood plasma to address oxidative stress. MSM improves that overall ratio. In other words, you have much more reduced glutathione that’s able to deal with these free radicals. That’s, I think, kind of the key of how MSM really – and DMSO also does the same thing – by controlling that oxidative stress or protecting from the oxidative damage can have these therapeutic [benefits].”
Sulfur-Rich Foods
Ideally, you’d be best off getting your sulfur needs filled from the foods you eat. However, this can be a bit of a challenge these days. There’s been a transition away from many traditional foods that have been the big sources of sulfur, like collagen or keratin, which we just don’t eat much nowadays.
You can perhaps get enough if you cook down bones from organically raised animals into bone broth and drink the broth regularly (or use for soups and stews). The connective tissues are sulfur-rich, and when you slow-cook the bones, you dissolve these nutrients out of the bone and into the water. According to Mr. Benjamin:
“MSM is in almost all raw foods. It’s in leafy green vegetables. Interestingly enough, there’s MSM in beer and coffee. Actually, it’s been identified as one of the main flavoring constituent in port wines... raw milk has the highest naturally occurring content of MSM.”One caveat is cooking and pasteurization. While MSM is stable to extremes of pH and temperature, it volatilizes and turns to gas very easily. It’s also very water soluble. So when cooked at high temperatures, it simply wafts off in the steam. That’s why it’s easily removed during cooking and processing. Pasteurization cuts the MSM content by approximately 50 percent. So, in order to ensure you’re getting the most MSM from any food, it must be either raw or as minimally processed as possible.
Toxicity and Dosage Recommendations
Toxicity studies have shown that MSM is extremely safe and can be taken at very, very high doses. Even if you have a very rich diet full of raw vegetables and MSM-rich foods, you can still supplement and not hit that toxicity level. Clinical research studies have found that the effective amounts range from about 1.5 grams to 6 grams, although at higher doses, potential side effects include:
These are likely detoxifying effects that can typically be mitigated or minimized by cutting back on the initial dosage, and slowly working your way up. In that case, you might want to start out with half a gram (500 milligrams) for a couple of weeks and then slowly increase until you get up to the desired dose.
- Intestinal discomfort
- Swelling of the ankles
- Mild skin rashes
MSM is approved for use in fortified food and beverage and gram quantities may be consumed when consuming raw diet and approved MSM fortified foods. The amount from the fortified foods that have been approved would be between 1.9 to 3.8 grams per day. For comparison, intake of MSM from natural sources such as fruits and vegetables would be in the milligram per day range of about 2.3 to 5.6 mg/day.
How to Select a High –Quality MSM Supplement
As with most other supplements and food, quality is a major issue when it comes to selecting an MSM supplement. Fortunately, with MSM it’s fairly easy to determine. There are two methods of purification of MSM:
For MSM, distillation is by far superior. But crystallization is less expensive, and a lot less energy-intensive. According to Mr. Benjamin, only two companies that produce MSM use distillation. Mr. Benjamin explains why you should consider a product that has been purified using distillation.
- Distillation
- Crystallization
“A lot of the problems with [crystallization] is you’re essentially crystallizing it out of a parent solvent or liquid. If there are any impurities, which could be salts of heavy metals, you could have aromatic hydrocarbons in that… It’s actually the parent solvent. It’s usually water. It is dependent upon water quality. ”
Is MSM for You?
As you know, I am very cautious about recommending supplements, as I believe you’re best off getting your nutrients from healthful, whole organic foods. But, I’m also realistic, and I understand a perfect diet is hard to come by these days, so some supplements I believe can be quite beneficial. MSM would fall into this category. It would make sense that, if you’re suffering from a decrease in normal dietary sulfur, supplementing with something that’s relatively safe and inexpensive would make a lot of sense.
As I’ve said, sulfur is an emerging stealth player in nutrition and for a variety of mechanisms, including the detox and anti-inflammatory pathways. Remember, if you don’t have enough sulfur in your diet, you’re not going to be able to naturally produce glutathione, which is absolutely essential for removing heavy metals and many of the toxins you’re exposed to. People who might want to consider using some supplemental sulfur sources such as MSM include those who have:
- Chronic inflammatory conditions
- Aches and pains / sore muscles and achy joints
- Premature aging symptoms
- Toxicity
Friday, 1 March 2013
Muscle Isn’t Everything: Other Protein Benefits
I lifted the below from an article by John Berardi, PhD CSCS, on how much protein you should eat at every meal....
"Beyond this very narrow view of protein intake (muscle protein synthesis vs. breakdown), there’s a much more important question at stake: why else do we eat protein?
You see, there are other benefits to eating protein beyond muscle building. There’s satiety, the thermogenic effects, the impact on the immune system, and more (see below). Plus, there are probably a few benefits science can’t measure yet. I say the last part because there’s so much experiential evidence suggesting that when you’re training hard and you up your protein intake, you do better. So maybe we just haven’t looked in the right places to notice the real benefits.
Other Protein Benefits
We shouldn’t look at the world through a straw (i.e. see one protein study on one isolated topic and make broad generalizations). So, to help us remember that, let’s review a list of benefits we get from eating extra protein.
Increased thermic effect of feeding – While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is roughly double that of carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding/muscle building.
Increased glucagon – Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.
Metabolic pathway adjustment –When a higher protein (20-50% of intake) is followed, a host of metabolic adjustments occur. These include: a down-regulation of glycolysis, a reduction in fatty acid synthesis enzymes, and an increase in gluconeogenesis - a carbohydrate “draining” effect where carbons necessary for ridding the body of amino nitrogen is drawn from glucose.
Increased IGF-1 – Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that’s related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.
Reduction in cardiovascular risk – Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.
Improved weight loss profile – Research by Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 – 1 to 1.4 – 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management
Increased protein turnover — All tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.
Increased nitrogen status — A positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body’s anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.
Increased provision of auxiliary nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it’s important to recognize that we don’t just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered. And don’t forget the vitamins and minerals we get from protein rich foods.
(And lest anyone think I’m a shill for the protein powder industry, this last point clearly illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements.)
Looking over this list of benefits, it’s hard to ignore the fact that we don’t just eat protein for its muscle synthetic effect. We eat protein for a bunch of other reasons too. Since a higher protein diet can lead to a better health profile, an increased metabolism, improved body composition, and an improved training response, why would anyone ever try to limit their protein intake to the bare minimum?
Take-home Message
It seems to me that whether someone’s on a hypoenergetic diet (low calorie) or a hyperenergetic diet (high calorie), the one macronutrient they would want to be sure to “overeat” (relatively speaking) would be protein.
But that’s not what people do, is it?
Instead, they look for the bare minimum of protein (whether it’s 20-30g/meal or 0.8g/kg/day), and then overeat carbohydrates and fats instead. That could prove to be a performance – and body composition – mistake.
So here’s my recommendation for men and women interested in losing fat, gaining lean muscle, and improving their health and performance:
Women – Eat 1 palm-sized portion of lean, complete protein (about 20-30g) with each meal, every few hours. If you eat less frequently, eat a bit more protein with each meal. If you eat more frequently, eat a bit less protein with each meal.
Men – Eat 2 palm-sized portions of lean, complete protein (about 40-60g) with each meal, every few hours. If you eat less frequently, eat a bit more protein with each meal. If you eat more frequently, eat a bit less protein with each meal.
This pattern of intake will make sure you’re getting enough protein to reap all the benefits that this amazing macronutrient has to offer.
Dr. John Berardi is the co-founder of Precision Nutrition and the co-creator of the Precision Nutrition Certification program."
"Beyond this very narrow view of protein intake (muscle protein synthesis vs. breakdown), there’s a much more important question at stake: why else do we eat protein?
You see, there are other benefits to eating protein beyond muscle building. There’s satiety, the thermogenic effects, the impact on the immune system, and more (see below). Plus, there are probably a few benefits science can’t measure yet. I say the last part because there’s so much experiential evidence suggesting that when you’re training hard and you up your protein intake, you do better. So maybe we just haven’t looked in the right places to notice the real benefits.
Other Protein Benefits
We shouldn’t look at the world through a straw (i.e. see one protein study on one isolated topic and make broad generalizations). So, to help us remember that, let’s review a list of benefits we get from eating extra protein.
Increased thermic effect of feeding – While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is roughly double that of carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding/muscle building.
Increased glucagon – Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.
Metabolic pathway adjustment –When a higher protein (20-50% of intake) is followed, a host of metabolic adjustments occur. These include: a down-regulation of glycolysis, a reduction in fatty acid synthesis enzymes, and an increase in gluconeogenesis - a carbohydrate “draining” effect where carbons necessary for ridding the body of amino nitrogen is drawn from glucose.
Increased IGF-1 – Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that’s related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.
Reduction in cardiovascular risk – Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.
Improved weight loss profile – Research by Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 – 1 to 1.4 – 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management
Increased protein turnover — All tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.
Increased nitrogen status — A positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body’s anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.
Increased provision of auxiliary nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it’s important to recognize that we don’t just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered. And don’t forget the vitamins and minerals we get from protein rich foods.
(And lest anyone think I’m a shill for the protein powder industry, this last point clearly illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements.)
Looking over this list of benefits, it’s hard to ignore the fact that we don’t just eat protein for its muscle synthetic effect. We eat protein for a bunch of other reasons too. Since a higher protein diet can lead to a better health profile, an increased metabolism, improved body composition, and an improved training response, why would anyone ever try to limit their protein intake to the bare minimum?
Take-home Message
It seems to me that whether someone’s on a hypoenergetic diet (low calorie) or a hyperenergetic diet (high calorie), the one macronutrient they would want to be sure to “overeat” (relatively speaking) would be protein.
But that’s not what people do, is it?
Instead, they look for the bare minimum of protein (whether it’s 20-30g/meal or 0.8g/kg/day), and then overeat carbohydrates and fats instead. That could prove to be a performance – and body composition – mistake.
So here’s my recommendation for men and women interested in losing fat, gaining lean muscle, and improving their health and performance:
Women – Eat 1 palm-sized portion of lean, complete protein (about 20-30g) with each meal, every few hours. If you eat less frequently, eat a bit more protein with each meal. If you eat more frequently, eat a bit less protein with each meal.
Men – Eat 2 palm-sized portions of lean, complete protein (about 40-60g) with each meal, every few hours. If you eat less frequently, eat a bit more protein with each meal. If you eat more frequently, eat a bit less protein with each meal.
This pattern of intake will make sure you’re getting enough protein to reap all the benefits that this amazing macronutrient has to offer.
Dr. John Berardi is the co-founder of Precision Nutrition and the co-creator of the Precision Nutrition Certification program."
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