Category: Nutrition (Page 42 of 45)

The South Beach Diet. Thumbs Down

April 18, 2007 / Mike Furci

The South Beach Diet is nothing new.? It is another low carb diet wrapped up in a new package.? Some have called it a friendlier version of the very popular Atkins diet.? Dr. Agatston from the get go claims his South Beach Diet is not low carb, however, the usual carbohydrate foods like bread, fruit, fruit juice, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar and snacks are excluded.? No matter how it is marketed, it is most certainly low carb.

Low carb diets have been all the rage for quite a while now.? Bodybuilders and fitness athletes have been using this strategy to keep lean and build muscle for decades.? The main reason low carb diets are still so popular, is simple; they work!

For those not familiar with how low carb diets work, it has to do with how our bodies ability to process them.? When food is ingested our bodies secrete insulin.? Insulin is a storage hormone.? To be more specific, its a fat storage hormone.? The higher your insulin levels are the higher the percentage of food will be stored as fat.? Moreover, the higher your insulin is the lower the amount of fat burned as fuel.? Hence, the biggest key to burning fat is to keep your insulin levels low, which is accomplished by consuming a diet of whole unprocessed food that is low in carbohydrates.? The South Beach diet helps one accomplish this, but this is where the benefits of this book end.

Like many doctors and other so-called experts they are taught what to think not how to think.? Dr. Agatson advocates a higher protein diet that is LOW in fat.? One is supposed to consume skim milk, lean meat, and urges the reader never to use animal fats.

Dr Agatson completely disregards the benefits of animal fats for the dangerous side effects of polyunsaturated fats.? For instance, he prohibits the use of butter and urges readers to use processed spreads.

The good Dr. claims you be hungry on the South Beach diet.? Anyone who follows this diet will find the opposite is true.? With a diet that is so low in fat, especially saturated fat, and carbohydrates there is nothing to satisfy your hunger.

Cutting out junk foods like sugar, and processed food in general is always a step in the right direction.? However, his advocating polyunsaturated fats over saturated fats make the South Beach diet one of the most dangerous diets out there.
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Book Reviews, Diets, Food preparation, Nutrition

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Keep it simple with your diet

April 17, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Anyone who has taking the time to do the research on getting into shape undoubtedly has come across general rules to dieting. Mike will often post on how important your diet is to either losing weight or packing on muscle. Dieting is the key to everything. Having the best workout plan and following it perfectly will crumble under a poor diet.

What people tend to have trouble with as far as dieting goes is that they think of it as a diet. Diets don’t work. Think of the way you eat as a lifestyle change and you’ll be more apt not to binge and have poor habits. If staying in shape and looking your best is worth it to you, nobody should have a problem with a complete lifestyle change as opposed to trying gimmicky diets.

I found a solid article at MSN.com about how to control your cravings. One of the general rules in the article is to eat approximately every three hours. As it’s detailed in the article, it can’t be stressed how important it is to continuously eat throughout the day. Eat four to six meals every day so that you don’t have spikes in your blood sugar, which causes you to binge it and grab anything and everything in your site (i.e. junk or fast food). I know, people work. But don’t use that as an excuse. Fight through it and find a way to bring small snacks to continuously eat throughout the day. Your optimum health depends on it!

Click here to check out the MSN.com/Men’s Health article.

Diets, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

Muscletalk

April 10, 2007 / Mike Furci

In the April 2007 issue of Muscle & Body magazine, Dave Hawk’s response to a question concerning soy protein is, to say the least disturbing.? The reader asks, if soy is claimed to be an inferior protein by other authors, why is it used in different products?

Excerpt from Dave’s answer:

What I dislike to hear is the misconception, misinformation and misrepresentation of a great ingredient like soy protein isolate (SPI).? Not only does SPI have natural health benefits, it is 100% equal to whey protein isolate (WPI) in aiding muscle building in men.

Misinformation and misrepresentation, soy protein is garbage.? Obviously Mr. Hawk doesn’t keep up with what’s going on in the supplement or food industries because the FDA denied soy’s heart health claims because of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The only misrepresentation is by the soy industry and so called experts who spew their garbage in columns like Muscle Talk.? SPI is extremely low in quality.? The Protein Efficiency ratio, Biological Value, Net Protein Ratio and the Relative Net Protein Ratio, which are all ways scientists rate the quality of protein, consistently score soy protein toward the bottom.

Soy does score high with the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score.? The catch is, soy is set at a score of 100 and 100 is the highest score available.? Because the soy industry flexed their financial muscle, they can now claim their protein is as high a quality as other proteins.? The soy industry spends millions on funding false research and claims in an effort to sell product.?

Dave concludes, WPI is a great staple supplement for anyone’s muscle-building diet, but adding SPI to your daily protein regimen can be a great way to stack your nutritional protein arsenal.

SPI is one of the most highly processed foods one can consume.? Soy beans are regularly treated with heat, alkalis, acids, solvents and oxidizers, in order to make protein products.? Otherwise soy protein would taste like shit and be indigestible.

SPI contains trypsin inhibitors, which inhibits enzymes that help us digest protein.? Supplement wth a protein that inhibits the digestion of protein, smart.

SPI contains goitrogens, which block the synthesis of thyroid hormones.? As soy consumption goes up so does the incidence of thyroid disease.

SPI contains phytoestrogens, which lowers testosterone in men.?

The list goes on, but this is not the forum.?
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Magazine Hype, Men's Health and Wellness, Nutrition, Supplements

10 Foods Tough to Digest

April 3, 2007 / Anthony Stalter

Ever feel like your stomach is about to explode even after having a healthy meal? Ever have heartburn or a mild case of irritable bowl syndrome? Well it could be the specific foods that you’re eating on a daily or bi-daily basis.

MSN.com posted a recent article containing 10 foods that are tough for your body to digest.

The 10 (not in any specific order):

– Fried chicken nuggets
– Spicy food
– Chocolate
– Citrus juices
– Mashed potatoes
– Raw onion
– Ice cream
– Broccoli and raw cabbage
– Beans
– Sugar-free gum

I definitely agree with broccoli and beans being on this list. Frequently after workouts I’ll combine chicken with broccoli and beans over rice. Afterwards my stomach blows up like a bowling ball for several hours. It’s interesting to now get confirmation on why that happens.

Click here to read the entire article with brief descriptions of why these foods are tough to digest.

Diets, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Xternal Fitness

“Gain 10lbs of Muscle in 10 Weeks.” What the F**k!!

March 13, 2007 / Mike Furci

It is 2007 right? I just can’t believe that I still see articles like the one in the March 2007 issue of Muscle & Body, “Gain 10lbs of Muscle in 10 Weeks.” Just the title alone should be enough to let people know how ridiculous the following information is.

The article starts off with a bang. “To add mass, you have to take in more calories than you need for body weight maintenance. It’s that simple.” The recommendation is to eat 1000 extra calories per day. That’s right it’s not a misprint, 1000 calories per day.

The author Steve Stiefel’s rational for prescribing such a drastic increase in calories is just as ridiculous. He writes, “In fact, if you’re training hard with weights, and you’re not adding as much muscle as you think you should, the most likely reason you’re not attaining your goal is that you’re undereating.” The author Steven Stiefel has his head up his ass.

The article goes on to give recommendations on the proper way to add 1000 calories:

Eat More Protein. This is the only recommendation I agree with. Most people who are looking to gain muscle don’t eat enough protein. Protein maintains and repairs everything in our bodies, if you don’t consume enough you be spinning your wheels.

Eat More Carbs – Increase carb consumption by 150 grams per day. The way in which people process carbohydrates varies greatly from person to person. This will do nothing but make the average person fat.

Eat More Fat. Do most people need to eat more fat? Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. However it’s the type of fat that’s recommended that I emphatically disagree with. Avocados, canola oil, nuts and seeds. If you’ve read my article, “Fats, Cholesterol and the Lipid Hypothesis”, you know where I stand with polyunsaturated fats. Not only do they wreak havoc on our bodies, they promote fat deposition. If you’re looking to increase your fat consumption use virgin coconut oil and omega-3. Both are extremely healthy and both promote a lean body.

The rest of the article is not worth commenting on. Just more worthless info. There really isn’t anything else to say. The only thing, however, I can say for sure this prescription for gaining 10lbs will do, is get you bigger. And as long as you don’t mind 10 lbs of more fat, you’re set.

Diets, Magazine Hype