Exercise makes your fat healthier

Terrific article in today’s Sydney Morning herald newspaper on another recent;y discovered benefit of exercise.  Who would have thought your fat could get healthier.  It seems the it turns your white fat (very bad dude) into brown fat (much nicer dude).

“In a separate study in mice, brown fat was linked with better glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, suggesting the substance may play a role in preventing diabetes.”

So get moving!

Read the full article here 

Why We Get Fat – why is the evidence so hard for doctors to accept?

Gary Taubes, in his books Why We Get Fat and the earlier Good Calories, Bad Calories, plus his seminal article “What if it’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” in the New York Times of 97 July 2002, presents compelling evidence that the high carb low fat solution embraced by the majority of the medical world does not work to reduce weight, body fat, heart disease or diabetes risks, we are still being preached this incorrect mantra and we are, as nations, getting fatter and unhealthier and dying before our times.

In Why We Get Fat, he outlines hiow the Cochrab=ne Commission, set up to do unbiased revierws of scientific studies in the literature, set out in 2001 to assess the benefits of eating less fat or less saturated fat by reviewing literature from the 1950s to 20001.  They could only find 27 clinical trials which had been well enough conducted for reliable judgement ont hem to be made.

As Taubes states, the evidence was anything but compelling (direct quote below):

“Despite decades of effort and many thousands of people randomized,” the Cochrane Collaboration authors concluded, “there is still only limited and inconclusive evidence of the effects of modification of total, saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fats on cardiovascular morbidity [i.e., sickness] and mortality [death].”

In plain speak, there is no support for the low fat diets!  None!

So why is it still being prescribed, when a low carb (ie removing all processed carbs), hig fat, moderate protein diet lowers LDL and triglycerides, raises HDL and has other positive effects on blood chemistry and other health indictaors like blood pressure.

In the words of the great Australian Julius Sumner MIller “WHY IS IT SO?”!

Jennifer McLagan – chef & author

I was reading my Sydney Morning Herald Good Living supplement this morning and it had an article on this chef & author’s new book on Offal (which, sorry, I find awful!).  But it also mentioned she had written books called “Fat” and “Bones”.

It said: “Jennifer McLagan, a former Melburnian who now lives in Canada and has made a career out of writing food books that challenge. Her first was Bones. Then Fat (which she loves and celebrates as highly healthy)”.

A chef who doesn’t think fat is evil?  That’s my kind of chef!  So I went and found her web page and here is a link to the books page – you can rest assured these two titles will be in my cooking library very, very soon.  If you are in Australia an would like to purchas them, Fishpond (follow the link in my right hand sidebar – over there) have them and the price is less than Amazon’s plus postage.  Just search on ‘McLagan’.

I’ll report back when I have the books and have absorbed some good fat lore.

Are YOU Addicted?

I was reading Mark’s Daily Apple today and two of his points on why we make bad (food) decisions really struck a chord.  They were about addictions to wheat & sugar.

To Wheat.

Wheat actually contains opioid peptides which may activate opioid receptors in our bodies – just like opium, morphine, and heroin. (And there is no one more devoted than a drug addict!) While research into this is still very preliminary – you won’t find any ironclad evidence stating wheat is addictive – the thinking is that  wheat addiction may manifest as a stubborn lingering thing – we’ve all heard someone say “Oh, I could never give up my bread!” – well, maybe they can’t!

Mark reports on some research papers that show evidence  of multiple opioid peptides in wheat gluten, suggests that they are capable of binding to brain opioid receptors via a “plausible biomechanical mechanism,” and deems them of “physiological significance” – startling stuff indeed.  He also mentions “Dr. Emily Deans, of Evolutionary Psychiatry, has actually used naltrexone – a drug that blocks opiate receptors – to curb wheat cravings in celiac patients who are trying to kick the “habit.” “

Wheat plays a huge role in the “Conventional Wisdom’ diets of western nations. If you were addicted to drugs you could get government help to give them up – but this is one addiction only you can deal with.

Or sugar.

(Straight from Mark’s blog)

Similarly to wheat, sugar has addictive properties. A review of the rat studies shows that rodents will become quite addicted to sugar rather quickly, at times even choosing it over pharmaceutical-grade cocaine. There’s evidence that the addictive properties affect humans, too. As with wheat, naltrexone has been shown to reduce the rewarding properties of sugar in people. When you block the opiate receptors in the brain, sugar simply isn’t as rewarding and you’re not driven to consume as much of it. 

Sugar appears to be addictive in both rats and humans. You, being a human, could very well be drawn to make bad decisions about sweets because you are addicted to them.

 

News Articles on ‘diet’ & swimming

I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald online this morning – always my first point of call when I fire up the Net, and found two articles very relevant to my redoubled efforts to get fitter and healthier and hopefully shed a fair bit of weight along the way..

The first article, Chew over a Few Diet Truths, by Nick Galvin, reiterates what we all know, that diets as a separate entity from long term lifestyle simply do not work.  And the second, When joints jar, it’s time for a crawl in the surf, by Jessica Black, is about the wonderful benefits of swimming and how older athletes from other disciplines, especially running, are turning to swimming when their joints give out from the hard pounding of high impact activity.

It was interesting to find two pieces of writing so relevant to my efforts.  I am definitely not on a diet – the change for me is permanent and while I will always have to be careful not to allow too many high carb and fatty foods to creep back into my everyday eating, that is something we should all do anyway.

And as I have said in my earlier posts, but believe bears reiterating, discovering swimming has been a real ‘exercise epiphany’ for me.  Walking has always been my exercise of choice, I loved walking in the early morning, usually starting out before sunup, and letting my mind wander as I motored along enjoying the day.  But, as time constraints crept in, my walking time diminished and, foolishly, I let it go, so the weight piled back on and when I tried to resume, I found my old injuries were preventing me.  But swimming has allowed me to exercise well on a daily basis with no pain.  When I lose some more weight I will work some weight bearing exercise back into the mix, but swimming will always be my main exercise.

OMG! A reversal on fat!

in the Los Angeles Times!  They actually admit that saturated fats might (gasp!, shock!, horror!) be GOOD for us!  And about bloody time.

Read the full article here.