Fat and Carbohydrate: Clarifications and Details

The last two posts on fat and carbohydrate were written to answer a few important, but relatively narrow, questions that I feel are particularly pertinent at the moment:

• Was the US obesity epidemic caused by an increase in calorie intake?
• Could it have been caused by an increase in carbohydrate intake, independent of the increase in calorie intake?
• Does an unrestricted high-carbohydrate diet lead to a higher calorie intake and body fatness than an unrestricted high-fat diet, or vice versa?
• Could the US government's advice to eat a low-fat diet have caused the obesity epidemic by causing a dietary shift toward carbohydrate?

However, those posts left a few loose ends that I'd like to tie up in this post.  Here, I'll lay out my opinions on the relationship between macronutrient intake and obesity in more detail.  I'll give my opinions on the following questions:

• What dietary macronutrient composition is the least likely to cause obesity over a lifetime?
• What dietary macronutrient composition is best for a person who is already overweight or obese?
• Is fat inherently fattening and/or unhealthy?

From the beginning

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Statin users have a 13% increased incidence of common infections

This study was published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences 2014 Mar;347(3):211-6

Study title and authors:
The effect of statin therapy on the incidence of infections: a retrospective cohort analysis.

Magulick JP, Frei CR, Ali SK, Mortensen EM, Pugh MJ, Oramasionwu CU, Daniels KR, Mansi IA.
Department of Internal Medicine (JPM, SKA), San Antonio Military Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23426088

The objective of the study was to compare the incidence of infections in statin users to that in nonusers. The six year study included 45,247 subjects.

The study found that statin users had a 13% increased incidence of common infections compared to nonusers.

Join Healthy World Cafe for lunch Wednesday, June 25

We had a great Sunday afternoon this month at the Kiwanis Lake Be-In, selling out of nearly every item! Check out an article on the event from the York Daily Record.

If you missed our offerings earlier in June, you have another chance to enjoy our locally sourced eats: Healthy World Cafe will be open for lunch Wednesday, June 25!

Join us from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 at First Moravian Church, 41 N. Duke St., York, where we'll be serving up delicious options straight from our local farmers. 

Check out our menu!

Lemon Chicken Soup -- A creamy chicken soup with seasonal snow peas and just a hint of lemon

Pea Soup -- A smooth and refreshing puree with tarragon and fresh summer peas

Farmer's Harvest Frittata -- Celebrating York County's June harvest and bursting with the flavors of creamy garlic boursin

Radish and Fava Bean Salad -- Mouth watering Fava Beans and peppery radishes tossed with olive oil and seasonal herbs, topped with a parsley and tahini sauce. Served over fresh garden greens.

Russian Salad -- A vegan version of this classic pink salad. Beets, new potatoes, carrots and peas spiced with a creamy lemon, pickle and horseradish dressing. Served over fresh garden greens.

Chapati -- Served around the world, chapati is most commonly known as Indian flatbread. With its round shape, chewy texture and nutty flavor, it is a staple in South Asia, the Middle East, South Africa and China. Our volunteers are excited to share this nutritious, unleavened whole wheat bread with you.

Pea Hummus -- Smooth hummus from peas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice

Beet Hummus -- Chickpeas, almonds, beets and a little balsamic vinegar for a tart twist

Strawberry Soup -- Strawberries fresh from the orchard. We invite you to enjoy this delicate strawberry, yogurt and cardamom puree. 

Of course, our menu is always based on what's available from our farmer friends, so check back for updates. At Healthy World Cafe, we always feature our "eat what you want, pay how you can" philosophy. The ability to pay should never be a barrier to accessing delicious, unprocessed, healthy food.

Housekeeping items worth noting:

-- PARKING: When coming to the cafe for our Wednesday lunches, pleaseDO NOT park in the private lots surrounding First Moravian Church. You may park on the street (metered), or you may park at First Presbyterian Church at E. Market and N. Queen streets in the un-numbered, yellow-lined parking spots, and please include a sign on your dashboard to indicate you are a Healthy World Cafe volunteer. Then, walk one block west down Clarke Avenue to First Moravian (and enter on north side)!

-- TAKE OUT: Take out orders for lunch are available by e-mailing your selections (by 10 a.m. June 25) to healthyworldcafe(at)gmail(dot)com.

-- VOLUNTEERING: In order to better respect our volunteers' time, we split the Wednesday lunch into two volunteer shifts: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and noon to 3 p.m. Feel free, of course, to sign up for both shifts, if you wish.

Here's a breakdown of our volunteer needs for this month's lunch:

-- 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, June 23 -- Food prep at First Moravian Church (FMC), 39 N. Duke St., York.
-- 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 24 -- Food prep at First Moravian Church (FMC), 39 N. Duke St., York.
-- 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 -- Food prep and serving at FMC. We're now splitting our lunch days into two volunteer shifts to better respect our volunteers' time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and noon to 3 p.m. Feel free to sign up for both, if you wish. If you can't work a full shift (say, you can be there 10 to 2, but not as early as 9), please email sarah.e.chain(at)gmail(dot)com and let us know when to expect you!

Find other upcoming dates and sign up to volunteer through our calendar on VolunteerSpot.

TIME magazine article says butter and saturated fat is good for you!

This is the headline in the latest TIME magazine by Bryan Walsh. The medical reporter on the Today show said butter, chicken skin or any type of saturated fat is good. She explained that saturated fats raise levels of benign large fluffy LDL cholesterol, and that refined carbohydrates raise levels of the dangerous small dense LDL cholesterol.

Bryan may have read the scientific evidence in my book: "Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Prevent Heart Disease"

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... kettle corn!

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Statin use increases the risk of osteoarthritis and joint pain by 26%

This study was published in the American Journal of Medical Sciences 2013 May;345(5):343-8

 

Study title and authors:

Incidence of musculoskeletal and neoplastic diseases in patients on statin therapy: results of a retrospective cohort analysis.

Mansi IA, Mortensen EM, Pugh MJ, Wegner M, Frei CR.

Brooke Army Medical Center, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78234-6200, USA. Iishak.mansi@us.army.mil

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22975580

This study was conducted to investigate the incidence of various musculoskeletal diseases in statin users and nonusers. The study included 12,980 statin users and 45,997 nonusers who were followed for four years.

The study found:
(a) Statin users had a 26% increased risk of osteoarthritis and arthropathy (joint pain) compared to non-users.
(b) Statin users had a 20% increased risk of dorsopathies (back or spinal pain), rheumatism (joint and connective tissue problems) and chondropathies (cartilage disease) compared to non-users.

Has Obesity Research Failed?

I frequently encounter the argument that obesity research has failed because it hasn't stopped the global increase in obesity rates.  According to this argument, we need to re-think our approach to obesity research because the current approach just isn't working.

Grant funding for obesity research keeps increasing in the US, and the prevalence of obesity also keeps increasing*.  What gives?  Maybe if we just scrapped the whole endeavor we'd be better off.

Let's take a closer look at this argument and see how it holds up.

Why Do Research?

There are two fundamental reasons why we do research:

1. To gather accurate information about the natural world.  This information is intrinsically valuable because we like knowing how the world works, and it may eventually have practical value that's not immediately obvious.
2. Practical applications.  We want to solve problems and improve our lives.

If we want to determine whether or not obesity research has failed, we should evaluate it using those two metrics.

Has Obesity Research Gathered Accurate Information?

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Men with low cholesterol, 140 mg/dL (3.6 mmol/L), have a higher risk of death compared to men with higher cholesterol of 250mg/dL (6.5 mmol/L)

This study was published in the Lancet 1986 Oct 25;2(8513):933-6

Study title and authors:
Serum cholesterol, blood pressure, and mortality: implications from a cohort of 361,662 men.

Martin MJ, Hulley SB, Browner WS, Kuller LH, Wentworth D.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2877128

The study determined the effects of cholesterol levels in middle-aged men. The study lasted six years and included 361,662 men aged 35-57.

The study found that men with cholesterol levels of ~140 mg/dL (3.6 mmol/L) had a ~14% increased risk of death compared to men with cholesterol levels of ~250 mg/dL (6.5 mmol/L).

Despite the fact the study revealed men with lower cholesterol levels had higher death rates, this study was used as evidence in the first report of The National Cholesterol Education Program in 1988 to lower the upper limit of normal cholesterol levels from 250mg/dL (6.5 mmol/L) to 200mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L).

What makes you a martial artist?

What's the difference between the training of someone who exercises regularly and the training of a martial artist? Body builders may look strong but be inflexible. Yoga practioners may be flexible but ask him or her to perform a martial art’s kick and they have no power or speed. This is one of the reasons why there are a variety of Shaolin exercises and forms. We train our whole body in a very focused way so every exercise we do increases power, speed, flexibility, endurance, and reaction time.

At the Shaolin Temple we build up our fitness level from our inside out, not from the outside in. Fitness is much more than good stamina. Strength is much more than being able to lift heavy weights.

Suggested Training Plan

The training plan below covers all of your Shaolin Training in one workout. This is not for beginners, you need a level of fitness to be able to do this.

1) Run, skip or cycle for twenty minutes to make your body hot.

2) Raise each knee a hundred times to loosen your muscles.

3) Stretch your legs and hips.

4) Practise the five fundamental Shaolin kicks from Shaolin Workout 1.

5) Do some push ups to train your upper body and / or some exercises from Qigong For Upper Body.

6) Do some traditional punches to stretch out the muscles from Shaolin Workout 1Repeat 2) – 6) three times.

Once you have finished this training do some traditional forms, shadow box or do a workout from one of my workout of bootcamp DVDs.   

Qigong

After you have gone through this training plan, finish your training with the most important exercise of all; Qigong. The power of your martial art's comes from the power of your Qi. Qigong enhances the power of all the external training you have done, awakening the energy matrix of your body.

The Power Of Qi

Many athletes especially long distance runners and cyclists know that it is their mind as much as their body that gets them through the race. Once their mind has given up then they too will give up and they won’t be able to continue and complete or win the race. Even though they understand the power of their mind, they don’t understand the power of Qi. This is why they end up retiring when they're in their thirties. They don’t look after their internal organs. Shaolin Monks train as hard as Olympic athletes but their training deepens as they get older.  Why? Because they do Qigong.    

      

Bone Marrow Cleansing Massage

Once you've finished your Qigong then do the Instant Health massage with the bamboo brush. If you've been using the bamboo brush for a few years and you're not feeling as much benefit then it may be time for you to progress to doing the Instant Health Massage with the Metal Massage Brush. The metal massage brush is about the price of six massages but it will give you a lifetime of massages. Many people mistakenly believe that the metal brush is only used for body conditioning but at the Shaolin Temple we use it for bone marrow cleansing.

As we age, not only do our bones and muscles shrink unless we exercise to prevent them but also the blood cells produced by our bone marrow slow down. This is because the marrow becomes dirty. Through using the metal brush we cleanse the marrow and stop this reversal.

Start off by warming up with the bamboo brush  then move on to the metal brush. This heavier brush creates vibrations in the bones and helps to cleanse them so even though you are still doing the Instant Health massage it is having a much more powerful effect. This is where the name "Bone Marrow Cleansing" comes from.  

Whether you use the bamboo brush or the metal brush, you'll find that you will suffer from less injuries and muscle aches after your training.

This combination of training which is unique to martial arts is what makes you a martial artist and only by training in this very specific way can you become a martial artist and realize your body’s true, natural potential.

 Click here for more info on The Instant Health Massage

Click here for more info on The Metal Brush

www.shifuyanlei.com

Calorie Intake and Body Fatness on Unrestricted High-fat vs. High-carbohydrate Diets

In recent posts, we've explored the association between calorie intake and the US obesity epidemic, and the reasons why this association almost certainly represents a cause-and-effect relationship.  I also reviewed the evidence suggesting that carbohydrate and fat are equally fattening in humans, calorie for calorie.

One valid objection that came up in the comments is that calorie-controlled diets in a research setting may not reflect what happens in real life.  For example, in a context where calorie intake isn't tightly controlled, diet composition can impact calorie intake, in turn affecting body fatness.  This, of course, is true, and it forms one of the central pillars of our fat loss program the Ideal Weight Program.

Some low-carbohydrate diet advocates argue that the obesity epidemic was caused by US dietary guidelines that emphasize a carbohydrate-rich diet*.  The idea here is that the increase in calorie intake was due to the diet shifting in a more carbohydrate-heavy direction.  In other words, they're hypothesizing that a carbohydrate-rich eating style increases food intake, which increases body fatness**.  According to this hypothesis, if we had received advice to eat a fat-rich diet instead, we wouldn't be in the midst of an obesity epidemic.

Fortunately for us, this hypothesis has been tested-- many times!  Which eating style leads to higher calorie intake and body fatness when calories aren't controlled: a carbohydrate-rich diet, or a fat-rich diet?

Short-term Studies

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Join HWC at Sunday's "Be-In" at Kiwanis Lake

Do you remember the "Be-Ins" of the 1970s?  The Avenues Neighborhood Association is bringing them back to York City.  Join Healthy World Cafe at the Be-In on Sunday, June 8, 11 am - 7:30 pm, at Kiwanis Lake.  The weather, the music, and the people will be amazing!

Healthy World Cafe will provide the food, and we've got some great things cooked up for the hungry crowd:

• Chilled Spring Vegetable Soup
• Grain Salad with fresh veggies and an herbed balsamic vinegar
• Hummus with Toasted Flatbread
• Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
• HWC Dried Fruit Oatmeal Cookies
• and something with fresh strawberries!

• 

One third of all statin users report side effects

This study was published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology 2012 May-Jun;6(3):208-15

 

Study title and authors:

Understanding Statin Use in America and Gaps in Patient Education (USAGE): an internet-based survey of 10,138 current and former statin users.

Cohen JD, Brinton EA, Ito MK, Jacobson TA.

St. Louis University School of Medicine, 8138 Westmoreland Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63105, USA. cohenjd@swbell.net

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22658145

This study assessed the effects of statins on current and former users. The study included 10,138 participants, average age 61 years.

The study found:
(a) 28% of current statin users reported side effects.
(b) 33% of all statin users reported side effects.
(c) 65% of former statin users reported side effects.
(d) 62% of former statin users stopped taking statins because of the side effects.