February 17, 2010

Is Our Diet a Yolk?

Read time: 90 seconds

The egg omelet represents everything that is good and bad about today’s diet.

The omelet is traditionally made with just an egg or two as the sole ingredient, and that’s it. The egg is whisked, cooked in butter, folded over, and placed on the plate — and the taste of fresh egg enjoyed slowly with a fork.

The original word for omelet is alemette, meaning “thin plate” in French. Here in the West, the thin-plate omelet is gone along with the thin, sleek bodies. It’s now overstuffed.

Today we cut, dice, and slice as many things as we can to throw into the egg, effectively burying the very element that gives the dish its name — the egg itself. It’s no longer about the egg, but everything else. It’s a deranged amalgamation of distraction, an ADD on the tongue, a Hail-Mary stimulus to our exceedingly lost sense of taste.

The egg omelet now suffers an onslaught of cooking rules and methods: Beat it with water… no, beat it with milk… actually, it should be heavy cream… about two tablespoons… actually, only one tablespoon, or you’ll make it too watery. Make sure it’s all eggwhite.

The omelet also suffers obesity: add sausage, bacon, ham, onion, potatoes, mushroom, 3 different cheeses, salt, pepper, and a dash of paprika. Maybe throw in hot sauce. And, maybe add in just one yolk.

How many ways can we complicate the egg omelet?

We treat our diet the same way we treat the omelet. We assign our diet unnecessary rules, then complicate it with novelty concepts, and then bury it in distractions. Just as we’ve lost the meaning of an egg omelet, we’ve lost the meaning of food. Which is to sustain life, and to enjoy.

Instead, we’ve turn a thin plate into mound of gluttony — unfocused and reckless.

I want you to try something:

For your next meal, make an omelet. You can use one, two, or even three eggs. Beat it in a bowl to a delicate froth, and then cook with a little butter in a frying pan. Cook it well, but don’t over-cook it. Then fold it over and place it on a plate. Then sit down and enjoy it. Just the omelet. And maybe a piece of fruit. That’s it.

If we can keep our diet this simple and minimalist, I think we’ll enjoy eating — and living — much more.

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February 15, 2010

Simplicity (In The Information Age)

Read time: 1 minute

I spent the past several years reviewing books, reading blogs and watching videos on the subjects of diet and exercise. Throughout this exploration I’ve learned some things — but it’s not what I had hoped to have learned.

One is that everyone has vastly different information on diet and exercise. Another is that everyone seems to be correct in varying degrees — that is, they’re either correct significantly, or they’re correct just a little. Which also means that they’re just a little incorrect, or they’re significantly incorrect.

I also noticed that I can become easily confused by all of this information… even though I have a formal education and have worked for nearly 2 decades in this area! It’s absolutely confusing out there. I can’t imagine the average person wanting to lose some fat and get a little healthier trying to wade through this informational mess. It isn’t easy for me, so it must be a nightmare for this person.

The most important thing I learned was that, throughout my exploration into the available information, I have done extremely well by keeping to the bone of becoming leaner and healthier. I am now calling this strategy: rational simplicity.

And here it is:

  • Eat more vegetables and fruits, but eat less overall by eating less frequently.
  • Lift some weight (heavier and frequent, for bigger muscles — lighter and infrequent, for less).
  • Periodically elevate the heart rate really high.
  • Finally, walk around. A lot.

I wish I could impress people with more technical information than this. But it’s really this simple.

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February 10, 2010

The Mythical “Sweet Tooth”

Read time: 1 minute

People casually throw around the term “sweet tooth” to explain their affinity to sugary food, as if to dismiss it as a whimsical condition they inherited at birth.

This term — used freely and haphazardly from generation to generation — marginalizes a condition that David Kessler calls a chemical addiction no different than that to drugs.

According to Kessler’s research, sugar and most processed, hyper-flavored foods stimulate the nucleus accumbens, the reward center of the brain, to release a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This neurotransmitter is a “happy chemical.” 

When released often enough, dopamine causes a conditioned stimulus, like Pavlov’s salivating dogs. The sight, the smell, and even the environmental context of food can powerfully regulate eating behavior.

This is a simplified explanation, but it gives us a good idea of the seriousness of food addiction, or the sugar addiction people tend to dismiss as a “sweet tooth.”

I’m not saying to not enjoy sweets every now and then, but I’m pointing out that we should put more thoughts into how we regard our eating behavior, and recognize its potential pitfalls.

No matter what kind of weight-loss or fat-loss diet you’re on, a continued and uninhibited intake of sugary food will not help the cause, and may completely stall our progress.

The good news: If we reduce the frequency and amount of sugary and processed food, we also decrease the stimulation to the brain’s reward center. This in time will also reduce the conditioned stimulus, lessening the association of sugary and processed food to “happiness.”

Happiness should be reserved for friends and family, and for knowing that we’re healthier because of it.

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February 5, 2010

The Law of Averages in Fat Loss

Read time: 30 seconds

The success of our weight loss effort is measured by an average across time, and not by day-to-day.

This means that we should look at weight-loss trend across several days, or even across weeks.

There are too many physiological dynamics occurring constantly in the body — hormonal fluctuation, variable salt intake, electrolyte imbalances, and water mobility. (Even stress can trigger excess cortisol, which causes water retention.)

Fat loss is just one of the many variables in a complex equation. What’s going on with the other variables — like water retention — can mask fat loss, making it appear that the diet you’re on is failing.

If you’re eating whole, real food while avoiding processed foods, and you’re eating less than before through intermittent fasting, then your body will eventually metabolize stored fat.

When the other variables “align” just right, the fat loss will then be very apparent.

In other words, keep pressing forward.

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February 4, 2010

Nourishment for Fat Loss

Read time: 2 minutes

Nourishment comes in many forms and for many purposes:

  • Food and activities for the body
  • Knowledge and enlightenment for the mind
  • Community and laughter for the spirit

When it comes to the body, however, pragmatism tells us that health, longevity, and body composition hinge on proper nourishment.

Let me explain:

Nourishment gives life to the cells of the muscles, organs, bones, and other vital structures. A lack of nourishment can cause disease to any of these cells.

But the reverse is also true: disease can also cause a lack of nourishment to these cells.

Take insulin resistance, for example, a disease that, according to the heavily researched book Good Calories, Bad Calories, has been shown to cause malnourishment.

Insulin Resistance and Body Fat (based on information presented in Good Calories, Bad Calories):

[What follows is detailed information; but I don't believe in complicating things, so if you want to skip down to the "What to Do" section of this post, go for it!]

The hormone insulin signals the cells of the body to take in the calories we just ate. With insulin-resistance, however, these cells cannot accept those calories. These cells are, therefore, said to be resistant to the signal of insulin — a condition called insulin-resistance.

What causes insulin resistance?

The frequent and large consumption of processed foods (breads, pasta, grains) and sugar stimulates the pancreas to overproduce insulin.

This overproduction of insulin bombards the receptors (doorways) on these cells, and they eventually attenuate (become “deaf”) to the signal of insulin — these doorways no longer “open” to let in the calories and nutrients.

As a result, excess calories remain in the blood, mostly in the form of blood glucose. This can be measured only with a blood glucose test (which might be one of the reasons insulin-resistance goes undiagnosed).

With an increase level of blood glucose, the pancreas produces even more insulin in an attempt to clear it, but the body’s cells still cannot effectively take in the excess blood glucose. (This creates a secondary condition called hyperinsulinemia, or too much insulin in the blood.)

So, ultimately, the increased insulin directs that glucose to — you guessed it — fat cells.

Under this condition, the food  that’s eaten are directed to fat cells, while muscle and organ cells become malnourished.

Through complex hormonal signaling, malnourished cells communicate with the brain that they’re “hungry.” So the person with (undiagnosed) insulin-resistance involuntarily eats more to satisfy cellular nourishment.

An overweight person, therefore, can be considered malnourished. Decreasing calories only deepens this malnourishment.

The condition of insulin-resistance must be reverse, in order for calorie intake to return to a “normal” level — which is far less than the current intake of the average Westerner.

What to Do

How do we reverse the condition of insulin resistance?

Pretty simple:

  1. Eat whole, real foods — avoiding anything processed.
  2. Eat less frequently.

Insulin in itself is not evil — but the frequent overproduction of insulin is the a strong contributing factor to insulin resistance, and thus overweight.

Thus, eat foods that are real, because they stimulate less insulin. And eat fewer times through the day, because this stimulates insulin to a lesser frequency. (Remember: lower in magnitude, and less in frequency.)

We can successfully eat less only when we ensure that the body can still be nourished.

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February 3, 2010

Exercise Not the Magic Pill

Read time: 1.5 minutes

This morning someone sent me this link and asked for my feedback.

As an advocate for a balanced life that’s devoid of food or exercise obsession, I rarely read these mainstream articles. But for some reason I read this one.

Maybe I was compelled to read this article because of its blatant claim that more exercise is better.

Although I think many people in this country need to exercise more, I believe that the emphasis on exercise also overshadows the importance of healthy eating. As has been said, you cannot out-exercise a crappy diet.

In fact, for health and leanness, I would say that diet is far more important than exercise. I’m willing to go out on the limb and say that exercise, the way it’s generally used in this country, is to medicate diseases that a poor diet causes.

Anyway, here’s my response to the person that sent me the link:

There are too many factors not cited in this mainstream article. As such, it may be misleading.

Health, longevity, and physical youthfulness are based on a multitude of factors that include not only exercise but also diet, lifestyle factors like abstinence from smoking, moderate drinking, and avoidance of environmental toxins. The phytonutrients in vegetables and fruits are also linked to health, longevity, and straight-up youthfulness.

Blatantly, here’s what was ignored in the article: Physically-fit people, or people who run or exercise, also tend to eat well, abstain from smoking, avoid environmental toxins, and consume more fruits and vegetables. Sedentary people tend to neglect themselves and their health, so they may also suffer accelerated aging and thus express more signs of aging.

Here’s a quote from a recent study on telomere length, a chromosomal metric that predicts aging (L. Mirabello, 2009):

The relationships between telomere length and inflammation-related factors, diet, exercise, body mass index, and other lifestyle variables [smoking, drinking, environmental] were explored since many of these have previously been associated with shorter telomeres. Healthy lifestyle factors (i.e., lower BMI, more exercise, tobacco abstinence, diets high in fruit and vegetables) tended to be associated with greater telomere length… correlations of telomere length with healthy lifestyles were noted, suggesting the role of these factors in telomere biology maintenance and potentially impacting overall health status.

Any mainstream article can easily take telomere data and suggest that running slows the aging process… leaving out the other critical factors. Oh, wait a minute, there’s already such an article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/phys-ed-how-exercising-keeps-your-cells-young/

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February 2, 2010

The 2 Essentials to Losing Fat and Keeping It Off

Read time: 1.5 minutes

As the Internet Big Bang keeps expanding, we’re learning that there are hundreds of ways to lose fat and get lean. Many of those ways may seem like they’re on the fringe (the Cookie Diet), but many also work very well.

For me — and for most of you — the fat-loss method that works best is the one you can keep the fat off for a long time, maybe for the rest of your life.

It is also a method that should not make you unreasonably hungry, suppress your metabolism, and make you obsessive about food. You should not always have to think about what (or, more specifically, what not) to eat.

In theory, fat loss metabolism is a complicated matter; but in application, it should be a simple process. To me, this is the most important element in a fat loss method. Simplicity is what makes a method sustainable.

There are complex hormonal interactions involved in fat loss and, once the fat is lost, in staying there long-term. But to keep this application simple, we need to think about only the two essentials:

  1. Eat fewer calories
  2. Eat mostly whole, real foods

The scientific literature has shown that the first essential — eat fewer calories — does not work long-term by itself (nor with exercise).

However, anecdotal evidence (as well as my experience and those of others I’ve worked with) show that the first essential can in fact work long-term if it is accompanied by the second essential — eat mostly whole, real foods.

People who switched from eating a lot of processed foods to eating whole, real food found that they involuntarily eat fewer calories, even after a long period — longer than a year. For me it has been more than 3 years.

Perhaps whole, real foods provide increased nutrients that help nourish the cells of the body more efficiently; as a result, the body requires fewer calories. There could be several other (though related) complex factors contributing to the decreased need for calorie intake.

Decreased calorie intake, therefore, is a fundamental qualification to losing excess fat. But eating whole, real food seems to be fundamental in sufficiently nourishing the tissues of the body, so that fewer calories are required. It is this exact combination that I’ve found works the best for long-term success in losing body fat.

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January 29, 2010

How to Eat for Leanness

Read time: 1 minute

Want to get lean?

You do this by finding a way to eat the least amount of calories with the most amount of nutrients and the most amount of joy.

Like learning a new dance, it is challenging at first, but it will become easier, you’ll be in the groove, and it will be extremely rewarding.

Least Amount of Calories

It’s not about starvation, but about eating fewer times — especially those times when eating is just not meaningful: in the car, at the desk, in front of the computer, in front of the TV, on the run, etc.

Wait until you can sit down and then look at and taste your food. Maybe wait until you can sit down with a good friend for that meal, large or small.

Maximum Nutrients

Eat a large variety of vegetables. Eat your favorite meats, and the fats attached to them. Dress up your foods in all kinds of herbs and spices, and some sea salt.

Maximum Joy

Order that expensive dish of high quality food delivered with an artful presentation. Chances are the portion is sensible, so you can savor every last bite.

Then treat yourself to some fresh fruits and berries… and make sure they’re in season, as they explode with flavor and sweetness.

If fresh fruits or berries are not seasonal, then maybe — just maybe — go for that dark, rich specialty chocolate. You have to enjoy all that life offers.

Eat the least amount of calories with the most amount of nutrients and the most amount of joy. You can’t go wrong.

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January 27, 2010

Life Has Improved, but Have Our Bodies?

Read time: 1 minute

Interesting information showing the human stature was taller (and slimmer) before the agricultural (grains) period.

… the introduction of agriculture was the nadir of physical size, and undernourished reality of the farming cultures of Eurasia was a fact of life until the past century. But, note that even today Europeans are not as domineering in stature as they were 20,000 years ago. Humans have a tendency to view evolution as a progressive force, toward more complexity, size and intelligence. But we aren’t sure that this is correct…

As is the theme of The Lean Saloon, this information implies the importance of eating a diet robust with nourishment — that is, higher nutritive values accompanied by fewer calories. Vegetables, fruits, and quality meats provide this, while grains give the opposite.

The reality is this: some people can get away with eating whole grains and not show frank signs and symptoms (allergies, bone mineral loss, inflammation, overfat), but if your immediate goal is to lose weight, then grains with their higher calorie-to-nutrient ratio should be out… and out as well if optimum health is also a priority.

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January 26, 2010

A Day in My Life

Read time: 1 minute (with update at bottom)

It is amazing how much we can get done without being preoccupied by the thought of eating every 3 hours. Like going out for a nice walk (yes, even on this cloudy morning).

I skipped breakfast this morning and went for a walk instead. Then I went to work. I had a hunger ping around 10:15 AM, but I ignored it and it went away 3 minutes later.

I came home at “lunch time” (weird how we call it a name based around food) and my wife and I shared a good espresso (with heavy cream!). Then I consulted with my stomach to see if it had hunger. It didn’t, so I decided not to eat and went back to work a little earlier to get some emailing done (instead of waiting until tonight).

I’m at work now and I feel great, liberated, and suddenly have so much more time.

AND, being in an unfed state, my body is enjoying more fat-burning hormones. A from a continuous flow of fuel from stored fat, I’m completely focused and clear-headed.

NIGHT UPDATE:

Tonight my wife and I had duck confit — it was marinaded over the weekend, cooked on Sunday, preserved in its fat until today, and heated skin-side down in a skillet tonight until crispy and heated through. (Incredible!) We had the duck confit with stir-fried leeks in butter and bacon (delicious). For dessert, we had fresh blueberries mixed in homemade whipped cream, along with an espresso (heaven!).

We truly enjoyed our dinner to complete gustatory satisfaction — and the best part was that we enjoyed it with each other while talking about our day.

The point of this post is that I don’t have to obsess over eating, yet still enjoy my food immensely… when it really counts.

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