Nutrition
"Bodybuilding is at least 80% nutrition" - Vince Gironda
"Nutrition is 100%, training is 100%, recovery is 100%" - Dorian Yates
"If you're not growing, it's probably your diet and not your training that's holding you back" - Dr. John Berardi
I remember when I first got serious about Olympic weightlifting: after every good training session I would reward myself with five burgers. And this wasn't just something I did occasionally. I practically always ate like this. It was therefore not surprising that, although I was quite strong, I basically looked like a pile of shit or the Michelin Man's fatter brother.
I trained hard - sometimes twice a day
I used pretty much every supplement known to mankind and still looked like a fatso moving weights. Which, of course, is exactly what I was. Why on earth wasn't I a lean, muscular Adonis? Was it a genetic curse? No, it was just old-fashioned lousy eating habits. One of my former clients, a 180 cm tall, 75 kilo field hockey player had the opposite problem: he trained like a maniac (I checked) and could also make reasonable strength gains (he once surprised the NY Rangers strength coach by easily power lifting 275 pounds) but he couldn't build an ounce of muscle. I suspected inadequate nutrition. He told me he was eating a lot, so I had him keep a food diary in which he was to write down everything he ate for a week. His eating pattern was exactly as I expected: he ate like a bird throughout the day, followed by a big meal in the evening. After this big meal he felt so full that he really thought he was eating a lot, but his average calorie intake was only 1700 kcal per day. This was a young man with a very fast metabolism who trained four days a week, twice a day (one training session with weights and one training session on the pitch). 1700 kcal was barely enough to keep him alive, let alone build muscle! I changed his diet and he was able to increase his weight from 75 to 90 kilos in less than a year.
The moral of this story is that if you are training hard and not building muscle, your nutrition plan (assuming you have such a plan) is not adequate. If you have the opposite problem of training hard but not being able to lose fat, then the reason is probably the same: your diet sucks. If your nutritional approach is not optimal for your goals, then you won't get the results you want.
With this information in mind, this article will show you the basics of good nutrition for your body composition (muscle gain and/or fat loss). Of course, knowing the basics is not enough. Maintaining a muscle-friendly diet is hard, hard work. In some ways, it's even harder than training: you can usually motivate yourself to train hard for an hour a few times a week. Diet is different. You have to stay disciplined 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Controlling your cravings and urges can be painful. Believe me, I know. It's not fun. After a hard day, when you're tired and stressed, that big pot of chocolate ice cream will start to look damn tempting. Proper nutrition can be rewarding, but the psychological price is high.
Having said that, if you're still willing to go that extra step on the road to your dream body, then you should definitely read on.
What are we actually talking about?
Understanding how to plan an adequate diet to improve body composition or build muscle requires a basic understanding of some fundamental concepts. My goal is not to give you a comprehensive course on every single component of a good nutrition program. Instead, I hope to give you enough information so that you'll be able to read a nutrition article or plan a nutrition program without feeling like you're lost in a foreign country.
Protein
Each gram of protein provides four kcal. The word protein comes from the Greek and means "the first" or "of primary importance". For bodybuilders and strength athletes, this nutrient is of primary importance because proteins are, among other things, the building blocks of muscle tissue. Protein is broken down into amino acids in the body and these amino acids are converted into muscle tissue through a process called protein synthesis or muscle anabolism (which comes from another Greek word meaning "to build").
Proteins (amino acids) make up most of the solid part of a muscle. About 20 to 25% of muscle is protein, 70% is water and other fluids, and the remaining 5 to 10% is muscle glycogen, minerals, intramuscular fatty acids and other elements. You do not need to memorize these ratios in detail. Suffice it to say that protein is the most important nutrient for muscle growth. No protein - no muscles.
How much protein is needed for maximum muscle growth?
Good question. Studies have shown time and time again that a high protein intake is associated with a more positive nitrogen balance and a higher rate of protein synthesis. In other words, the more protein you eat, the more muscle you build.
However, it's not quite that simple. At some point, the law of diminishing returns comes into play. Once you reach the maximum amount of protein your body can use to build muscle, any additional protein intake will stop increasing the rate at which you build muscle.
That sucks, right? Wouldn't it be great if all we had to do to build muscle was eat tons of protein? We'd all be 115 kilo defined monsters in no time! Even the women! Sadly, we are limited by our natural biochemistry when it comes to being able to use protein (amino acids) to build muscle.
Protein synthesis (the use of protein to build muscle) is heavily dependent on our hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers that circulate in our body and are responsible for our body "doing things." One of these "things" is the synthesis of protein. The hormones that are primarily responsible for stimulating this process include testosterone (the male hormone), growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), insulin and cortisol.
Testosterone directly increases protein synthesis, allowing you to effectively utilize the protein you just ate. The more testosterone you have in your body, the more protein you can convert into muscle. This is the reason why bodybuilders and other athletes use injectable testosterone or synthetic hormones (steroids): by artificially increasing their hormone levels, they increase their body's capacity to use protein to build muscle.
Some people naturally have higher testosterone levels than others, which allows them to build muscle faster than others, especially if they consume more protein. But the fact is, if you're not using anabolic or androgenic steroids (and as a beginner you shouldn't be), then your body has a limited capacity to use protein to build muscle and testosterone is the primary limiting factor.
You may now be asking what about growth hormones. You might imagine that a substance called "human growth hormone" makes people grow. Well, this is also the case if you are a child, but growth hormones only have a mild anabolic effect in adults, meaning that growth hormones only slightly increase your capacity to build muscle. The hormone IGF-1, however, is highly anabolic. IGF-1 and growth hormones are produced in spurts (IGF-1 production follows a spurt of growth hormone production). As with other hormones, the amount of these hormones produced varies from person to person and this can be a limiting factor when it comes to building muscle.
Insulin is often referred to as the most anabolic hormone. This is because its main function is to tell the body's storage units to open up, suck stuff in and store it. The main storage units of the body are muscles, liver and fat cells and the "stuff" that is stored is the nutrients we eat (protein, carbohydrates, fat, etc.). Insulin opens these storage units, but each has its own level of sensitivity to insulin. The more sensitive a storage unit is, the easier it will open and store nutrients.
In an ideal world, our muscle cells would be super-sensitive to insulin, while our fat cells would be only slightly sensitive to insulin. This would certainly promote muscle gains and minimize fat gains. Basically, the more sensitive your muscle cells are to insulin, the greater your muscle building potential will be. The more sensitive your fat cells are to insulin, the greater your flab-building potential will be.
We'll come back to this concept later, but for now, it's enough to remember that the more sensitive your muscles are to insulin, the more amino acids you can store in your muscle cells and therefore the more new muscle tissue you can build.
Let's move on to cortisol
Cortisol is a hormone that inhibits muscle growth. But not only that - it can even reduce your muscle mass. Cortisol is what we call a catabolic hormone. Its role is to mobilize nutrients (release them from storage units) so that the body can produce more energy. This includes the muscles: Cortisol can break down muscle tissue into amino acids, which can then be converted by the liver into sugar (glucose), which serves as a readily available source of energy. This is what we call catabolism (sounds like cannibalism). Catabolism is the opposite of anabolism and for a bodybuilder this is a bad thing. So it seems like cortisol is a bad hormone.
Well, yes and no. Cortisol is actually necessary during exercise as it helps with energy production and increases the body's capacity to cope with physical stress. However, if cortisol levels remain chronically elevated after a training session, then the body remains in a catabolic state instead of entering an anabolic (muscle building) state. This often happens when people are under a lot of stress. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is released when stress levels rise. People who are exposed to a large amount of stress will therefore find it harder to use a lot of protein to build muscle, as their body is in a constant state of breaking down rather than building up.
As you can see, eating tons of protein will not necessarily mean that you will build more muscle. Excessive protein intake can also have another drawback: if protein is the dominant nutrient in your diet, then you run the risk of your body adapting to using protein as its primary energy source. If this happens, then your body will burn more protein for energy, resulting in less protein being available for muscle building purposes. The trick is to increase your protein intake to the point where you reach the maximum amount for optimal muscle growth.
How much is that exactly? As you probably understand by now, this is a very individual thing. However, most steroid-free exercisers will benefit from a protein intake in the range of 2.7 to 3.3 grams per kilogram of body weight. More than this is unlikely to lead to further gains. Protein is primarily found in animal products such as meat, fish, seafood, eggs, milk and cheese. And to make sure you get enough high-quality protein, you can also use a high-quality protein powder.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the first of the two energy nutrients. Each gram of carbohydrate provides 4 kcal. The main function of carbohydrates in the body is to provide a quick source of energy for physical and mental work. Carbohydrates can be stored in one of the body's three main storage units: in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen, but also in the form of body fat. Carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy under most circumstances. So if there are sufficient amounts of carbohydrates in the diet, then it becomes difficult to force the body to use fat as an energy source. In other words, your fat will stay where it is if you eat a lot of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates also cause the strongest insulin release of all three macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat). The increase in blood sugar levels (carbohydrates are sugar) is the primary stimulus for insulin release. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage: Insulin helps move protein and carbohydrates into the muscles (which is a good thing), but it can also stimulate fat storage (which is not so good). Furthermore, as long as insulin levels are elevated under normal circumstances, it is almost impossible to stimulate the release of fatty acids from fat cells. This means that fat loss is almost impossible as long as insulin levels are elevated. Remember that elevated insulin levels put your body into storage mode.
So elevated insulin levels are a good thing in certain circumstances (when you need to get nutrients into your muscles as quickly as possible), but most of the time elevated insulin levels are not desirable. The only two times you should eat a lot of carbohydrates (and thereby raise insulin levels) are at breakfast and immediately after a workout.
After waking up, the increase in insulin levels from breakfast will help you end the catabolic (muscle-depleting) state that comes from eight or more hours of fasting. After exercise, an increase in insulin levels will quickly transport nutrients to the muscles. This will initiate the recovery and muscle-building process while simultaneously ending the actions of cortisol. However, you should keep in mind that the amount of carbohydrates you should consume at these times will vary greatly depending on your goals and body fat percentage.
Any other time is not a good time to consume significant amounts of carbohydrates, as the resulting increase in insulin levels will have a negative impact on your body composition. Your insulin levels will remain elevated for up to 4 to 5 hours after a high carbohydrate meal, which can stall fat loss for this period of time. So not only will a high sugar meal add new fat to your fat stores, it will also effectively prevent you from using fat, turning you into a fat storing machine.
Even though carbohydrates are your body's preferred source of energy, carbohydrates are not essential in the same way that many amino acids and fatty acids are. This means that your body could function correctly even on a diet completely devoid of carbohydrates - the body would adapt to other energy sources and continue to function well.
There are many types of carbohydrates. Without going into too much detail, it should be mentioned that every carbohydrate from pure sugar to whole wheat is converted into glucose in the body. The main difference is the speed at which these carbohydrates are converted into glucose. The faster a carbohydrate is converted into glucose, the greater the insulin release will be (because more glucose enters the bloodstream at once). The rate at which a carbohydrate (or any other food) raises blood sugar is measured by the glycemic index (GI). Each food can be assigned a GI value and the higher this value is, the faster the food raises blood sugar levels. Even if this information is not perfectly accurate, it does give an indication of how much a given food will affect insulin production. However, you don't need to make a science out of this. If your goal is to improve your body composition, then the following rules apply:
- Carbohydrates that are a must: green vegetables (broccoli, cucumber, spinach, celery, asparagus, lettuce, etc.)
- Carbohydrates that can be eaten: other vegetables (except potatoes), berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, etc.)
- Carbohydrates for occasional consumption: other fruit
- Carbohydrates that should be eaten infrequently: brown rice, wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, semolina porridge, potatoes, yams
- Carbohydrates that should be avoided: White bread, pasta, oatmeal
- Carbohydrates that must be avoided: Cookies, cakes, sweets and other sugary foods
Fat
Each gram provides 9 kcal. Let me first mention that fat is not a bad thing. At least not all fats are bad. The "good" fats are the essential fatty acids - fatty acids that your body can't make itself but needs for optimal function. These fats must be supplied through food or in the form of supplements. These essential fatty acids fall into two broad categories: Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Most people consume plenty of omega-6 fatty acids in their diet, especially if they eat a lot of animal protein sources. However, a lack of omega-3 fatty acids is widespread in the USA and Europe, primarily due to the fact that fish consumption is generally quite low. Omega-3 fatty acids - especially the important fatty acids DHA and EPA - have numerous benefits for health and building a muscular body.
Omega-3 fatty acids
- Increase insulin sensitivity, which has positive effects on both muscle building (promoting the transport of nutrients to the muscles) and fat loss (reducing the amount of nutrients stored as fat).
- Increasing the use of body fat as an energy source - especially during training.
- Improving regeneration and function of the nervous system.
- Improve cardiovascular health by improving blood flow, reducing triglyceride levels and reducing the formation of plaques and blood clots.
- Reduce inflammation and promote healing.
In addition to the benefits associated with omega-3 fatty acids, fat consumption has other benefits. One of the main benefits is an increase in testosterone production. Cholesterol is the raw material for the production of our favorite hormone, testosterone. If you don't consume at least 20% of your total calories in the form of fat, then your testosterone production can drop. And as you should know by now, less testosterone means less muscle.
I'm not recommending that you stuff yourself with butter and lard with both hands or drink cups of cream - I'm just reminding you that reducing your fat intake too much can seriously sabotage your muscle building goals.
Fat is also required for the absorption of several vitamins (A, D, E and K) that are needed for optimal health. If your fat intake is too low, you may develop a deficiency in one or more of these vitamins.
The basal metabolic rate (BMR)
Your basal metabolic rate describes the amount of energy your body burns in 24 hours while doing absolutely nothing. If you were to sit on the couch and watch TV for 24 hours, you would burn this amount of calories. It is possible to estimate the basal metabolic rate using a formula. This is of course not 100% accurate, but this formula can give you a pretty good idea of what your body needs to function.
These formulas look like this:
- Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age)
- Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.7 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age)
As an example, let's take a 29-year-old man who is 175 cm tall and weighs 94 kilos:
- BMR = 66 + (13.7 x 94) + (1.7 x 175) - (6.8 x 29)
- BMR = 66 + 1287 + 297 - 197
- BMR = 1453 kcal
This man would burn 1453 kcal within 24 hours while doing absolutely nothing. Depending on your daily activities, your actual daily energy expenditure, i.e. the amount of calories you burn in the course of a day, will vary. You can estimate this amount by multiplying your basal metabolic rate by an activity factor.
- 0: inactive (you do nothing but watch TV and eat potato chips)
- 1.2: very light activity (desk job, no exercise, some walking)
- 1.4: light activity (no exercise, a job that involves some light physical work)
- 1.6: moderate activity (most of us: a job that is not physically demanding, but regular exercise)
- 1.8: high activity (daily exercise and a physically active job or lifestyle)
- 2.0: very high activity (training twice a day, sport + training or training and a very physically demanding job)
In our example, if our 1453 kcal man is moderately active, then his total daily calorie consumption would be around 2324 kcal (1453 * 1.6). This means that he needs to consume 2324 kcal per day to maintain the status quo (neither gaining nor losing weight).
You should remember that these are only approximate values. It's better than guessing, but it's only really accurate for "normal" people. For example, if you are a mesomorph (naturally very muscular and lean), then this formula tends to underestimate your calorie consumption by about 10%. It's still a useful formula, but it may need a few adjustments.
Another way to determine your total calorie consumption is to write down everything you eat for a week and then calculate your calorie intake. If you have neither gained nor lost weight during these 7 days, then you have basically consumed as many calories as you have burned. Even though this method is a little more precise, it can be a real pain, which is why most people stick to calculating via a formula and adjust their calorie intake depending on how their body reacts.
By Christian Thibaudeau | 11/05/07
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/nutrition-for-newbies-1
6 strategies for improving insulin sensitivity
In this article, I will describe six strategies - five nutrients and one elegantly simple dietary strategy - that will help you improve your insulin sensitivity.
I believe in explaining to people why it makes sense to do something, rather than just telling them to do something. That's why I want to talk briefly about what it means to have good insulin sensitivity. This will "arm" you with the knowledge to help you make sensible nutritional decisions.
What exactly is insulin sensitivity?
What do bouncers and insulin have in common?
Bouncers and insulin do pretty much the same thing. Allow me to explain this in more detail.
The cells that make up your body are a lot like nightclubs - some welcome everyone with open arms, while others are quite exclusive and you have to know someone to get in.
When I was working as a bouncer in my college days, I quickly realized that one of the perks was the attention I got from some girls who knew I could get them and their friends into the club for free and without a long wait in line.
Since I obviously couldn't let everyone in without them having to pay, I had to make the tough decision of who to grant this VIP status to and who to tell that unfortunately I couldn't help them.
Our muscle cells are quite picky when it comes to who they let in. Nutrients circulating in the bloodstream can't just say "Hey, I'm going to swim into that muscle cell and see what's going on." No, that's not how muscles work.
To get into a muscle cell, it can really help if you can pull insulin to your side. If you can do this, then you can be pretty sure of gaining entry, as insulin is like the top bouncer in a club. If you're on a first-name basis with Insulin, then you're practically already inside.
Even though bouncers are notoriously callous, they have human feelings too. If you bump into a bouncer after his stripper girlfriend has just cheated on him, he's more likely to be less receptive to your desire to get in, making it harder to get into the club.
On the other hand, if you bump into him after his favorite team has just won the Super Bowl, he'll probably be friendlier and more likely to let you and your friends into the club without admission.
If you understand this bouncer analogy, then you will also understand the issue of insulin sensitivity. Sensitive bouncers let more people into the club. Sensitive insulin receptors let more nutrients (e.g. glucose, amino acids, creatine) into your muscle cells to keep the anabolic party going.
With this fundamental understanding, let's take a look at five ways to maximize your insulin sensitivity.
1 - Chromium
If you've been weight training for a few years and know your way around this area, chromium may seem a little old school at first, but just because something isn't new doesn't mean it isn't effective.
Chromium supplementation has been repeatedly shown to improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. This effect goes so far that in many people even type 2 diabetes can be cured (1). This is due to the fact that a chromium deficiency can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Chromium is so linked to insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance that some nutritionists refer to chromium as the Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF).
Doses between 200 and 600 mcg per day appear to be both safe and effective.
As with any mineral or trace element, taking too much can lead to problems. For this reason, you should never fall into the "more is better" mentality when it comes to supplementing with chromium or other minerals.
I tend to use a common sense approach when supplementing with chromium (and any other mineral or trace element) - if you haven't used it for a while, then you're more likely to be deficient. It then makes sense to fill this nutritional gap by taking it as a supplement - temporarily perhaps even at a dosage that is at the higher end of the scale.
After a few weeks of supplementation, you should then reduce the dosage so that it is at the lower end of the scale, as you are now only concerned with maintaining healthy levels.
You should also consider taking a break from supplementing chromium from time to time. I find that it works well to take such a break while on vacation. This also makes traveling a little easier and you can give your body a supplement break.
As far as the different forms of chromium are concerned, experts agree that although the widely used chromium picolinate is a viable form, the amino acid chelates of chromium, where chromium is bound to an amino acid, are the best form, as this amino acid binding promotes the absorption of chromium in the body.
2 - Vanadium
Vanadium is another old school mineral that plays an important role in optimizing glucose tolerance (2).
I remember when I first started taking vanadium in the nineties. Back then, there was a lot of hype about vanadium and its ability to create a massive, skin-bursting pump. I was extremely skeptical at first, but I have to admit that I was impressed by the effects.
Without having changed anything else, after a few days of supplementing with vanadyl sulphate in the gym I noticed a much better pump and my training partner, who was also playing guinea pig, was no different. It was as if my muscles were storing more glycogen.
When I later learned more about the underlying science, I realized that I was probably storing more muscle glycogen due to an improvement in my insulin sensitivity as a result of taking vanadium.
However, I have to say that I never felt that almost immediate increase in my training pump again when I went back to supplementing with vanadium afterwards. Looking back, this makes sense and also explains why some people swore by vanadium while others didn't really feel anything.
If you have a vanadium deficiency - especially a severe deficiency - then you will most likely feel the positive effects of supplementation. If, on the other hand, you are not vanadium deficient - or at least not severely deficient - then you probably won't feel much - or anything at all.
I can say with a fair amount of certainty that when I first started taking vanadium, I suffered from a significant deficiency. When I compensated for this deficiency, I could literally feel the results of this.
Given the fact that I never took vanadium again for an extended period of time, it was unlikely that I would feel a significant effect - which is actually a good thing.
With many supplements, such as vitamin C or vitamin D, we know that they have benefits even if we can't formally feel them working. I believe this is also the case with vanadium.
Personally, I generally take 60 to 100 mcg of vanadium per day in the form of chelated vanadium. This dosage, combined with regular supplement breaks, seems to be conservative enough to prevent potential toxicity while still maintaining good insulin sensitivity.
3 - Cinnamon
If you're anything like me, the news that cinnamon has a fairly potent glucose-controlling effect (3) won't be particularly impressive. "Hmmm...that's quite nice" will be the kind of reaction to this that I'm talking about.
But imagine for a moment that you had just heard about a brand new supplement called CGM1029 that helps move nutrients preferentially into skeletal muscle and away from fat tissue.
That sounds more interesting!
Just because something is new and rare and sold by a pharmaceutical company doesn't mean we shouldn't find it exciting. But we also shouldn't let the "boring" nature of cinnamon prevent us from realizing its tremendous benefits.
While I wouldn't disagree with your logic if you decide to take cinnamon capsules, while I use good old cinnamon, I prefer the old-fashioned way - in my oatmeal and with other foods.
(Surprisingly, cinnamon tastes really good on a meatloaf. I know that sounds really weird, but don't dismiss this idea until you've tried it).
Since cinnamon is not a mineral, I don't think it's that important to cycle cinnamon. But I always lean towards moderation when in doubt.
4 - Alpha lipoic acid
Alpha lipoic acid, or ALA for short - not to be confused with the omega 3 fatty acid alpha linolenic acid - is a truly great nutrient.
ALA not only helps maintain (or improve) insulin sensitivity, but also acts as a potent antioxidant. It's no exaggeration to say that ALA is close to being a true supplement superhero.
However, if you look at studies on ALA (aka thioctic acid), you'll find that some of these studies point to a more neutral effect, while others seem to show amazing benefits. Well, as it turns out, there are two naturally occurring isomers (R-ALA and L-ALA), with the R isoimer appearing to be the more potent (4).
For this reason, if you want to supplement with ALA, make sure you use R-ALA
Note: As my scientific understanding of nutrition evolves, I am increasingly trying to harness nutrient synergies and use fewer single, isolated ingredients.
As with cinnamon, I don't worry too much about taking too much R-ALA or using it too frequently, but I still take breaks from it for caution's sake.
5 - Cyanidin 3-glucoside
If ALA is almost a supplement superhero, then cyanidin 3-glucoside is the real superstar.
And Cyanidin 3-glucoside (aka C3G) is as groundbreaking and innovative as a supplement ingredient can be - there's nothing old school about this ingredient!
Cyanidin 3-glucoside (cyanidin bound to glucose) is a specific anthocyanin that has powerful physiological effects. Anthocyanins give fruit and berries their strong dark color. Even if this property is anything but exciting for us, its physiological effects are all the more so.
First of all, C3G appears to have anti-carcinogenic properties (6). While avoiding cancer may not be one of your New Year's resolutions, I think you'll agree that anything that could help us stay healthy is a bonus.
And this is where things start to get really interesting - C3G has quite potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
That alone would be a great health benefit, but C3G has anti-inflammatory effects on fat cells. This is great because inflamed fat cells tend to send the wrong signals, which unfortunately is terrible for your body composition.
By reducing inflammation and repairing the faulty signals, overall glucose tolerance (and insulin sensitivity) is dramatically improved.
I've been aware of the increasing amount of research supporting the positive effects of C3G for some time, but it's the feedback from users that really impresses me.
One guy I know who took C3G had his blood tested and his fasting blood sugar had dropped from 117 - which is considered pre-diabetic - to a normal and healthy fasting blood sugar of 77 after 6 weeks of taking C3G. That is amazing!
Even though as strength athletes we are primarily interested in better insulin sensitivity for reasons of improving body composition, let's not forget that the same things that can help prevent or treat type II diabetes will typically help improve body composition as well. This is the reason that many of the nutritional strategies that help type 2 diabetics also work for bodybuilders and figure athletes.
6 - Carbohydrate management
An often overlooked strategy for improving insulin sensitivity is to manipulate your carbohydrate intake.
Bombarding your body with loads of carbohydrates - and especially high-glycemic carbohydrates - day in and day out can desensitize your body to carbohydrates. And this happens by reducing insulin sensitivity.
Going back to our bouncer analogy, if you want to improve your insulin sensitivity, eating large amounts of high-glycemic carbohydrates on a regular basis is about the same as sleeping with the bouncer's girlfriend and expecting him to let you into the club for free - it's not going to happen!
Therefore, even if your goal is to build muscle, you should consider incorporating phases of a low-carb diet. This is a strategy that I have used myself with great success and has proven to be so successful that it has become a regular part of my diet planning.
I am a big fan of cyclical eating strategies for many reasons - I refer to this as cyclical macronutrient intake. One of the reasons for this is that a low-carb diet can make your body more sensitive to carbohydrates again (5). If you then eat more carbohydrates again, your body is more likely to store these carbohydrates as muscle glycogen instead of putting them into your fat stores.
Even if you don't use cyclical macronutrient intake, you should at least aim to eat reasonable amounts of lower GI carbohydrates at all your meals, with the post-workout meal being a possible exception. This will reduce your average daily insulin spike and over time help to improve or at least maintain your insulin sensitivity.
Bonus training tip
The focus of this article is on dietary strategies to improve insulin sensitivity, but there is also a training tip worth sharing.
I don't know if this tip has been validated by scientific research, but I firmly believe that high-volume, glycogen depleting exercise can improve insulin sensitivity over time. Let me explain.
We know through scientific research that high volume training can increase glycogen storage capacity. So let's say you can normally store 350 grams of muscle glycogen (which is a realistic value).
After a few weeks of high volume training that depletes your glycogen reserves, your muscles will develop a better ability to store glycogen - perhaps 400 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen.
This adaptation makes sense as it better prepares your body to get through the next high-volume training stimulus. It also makes sense that our bodies will simultaneously develop a better ability to use glucose (carbohydrates) by improving insulin sensitivity.
And since scientific research has shown that resistance training improves insulin sensitivity, it's not far-fetched to think that higher-volume training might provide more of these benefits.
While I am definitely a fan of high-intensity, low-volume training programs, I doubt that they will improve your insulin sensitivity as much as they could.
For this reason, I recommend occasionally incorporating some high-volume training into your training program to a reasonable extent. For example, you can stick to sets of 10 to 20 reps and do four to five sets of four to five exercises per muscle group.
Yes, that's a lot of volume, but that's what's necessary to adequately deplete your muscle glycogen stores and prepare for the subsequent increase in glycogen storage. As long as you don't perform many of these sets to muscle failure, you should be able to avoid overtraining as long as you don't use this strategy for more than 8 weeks in a row.
I suspect that if you increase your training volume to around 20 sets per muscle group and make sure to consume adequate amounts of carbohydrates, you will find that after a few weeks your muscles will feel fuller and more pumped up without any increase in body fat.
And this effect will be even more pronounced if you have been training at a low volume.
Final words
Optimizing insulin sensitivity is definitely something worth looking into. Better insulin sensitivity will not only help you look better, but will also benefit your health.
Controlling the type and amount of carbohydrates you consume is just common sense health advice, but whether you choose to sprinkle in an insulin friendly supplement here and there is entirely up to you.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope the information in this article has helped you and you now have the knowledge you need to put some steps into action and start improving your insulin sensitivity.
References
- Diabetes & Metabolism. 2000, 26, 22-27
- J Clin Endo & Metabolism. 2001 Mar;86(3):1410-1717
- Diabetes, Obesity, & Metabolism. Dec 2009; Vol11, issue 12, 1100-1113
- AJP - Endo July 1, 1997 vol. 273 no. 1 E185-E191
- J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Apr;23(2):177-84
- J Biol Chem. 2006 Jun 23;281(25):17359-68. epub 2006 Apr 17.
From Clay Hyght
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/6-strategies-for-improved-insulin-sensitivity
Creatine was the most impressive supplement of the 20th century, but now there are a lot of experienced strength athletes who no longer use it. Why? Has it gone out of fashion just like those circus clown training pants? Or is it because new supplements are always better than old supplements? Or has creatine turned out to be just a mediocre supplement or even a scam?
It's time to take another look at this iconic supplement and see what we've learned about creatine since its launch and, more importantly, whether this old weapon is still worthy of being part of your supplement arsenal.
1 - What will creatine do for me strength-wise?
Creatine is stored in muscle cells in the form of phosphocreatine and provides a phosphate group to regenerate ATP during high-intensity contractions, increasing your capacity to perform high-intensity anaerobic repetitive work by around 15%. This means that for any given set you should be able to perform one or two extra reps with extra weight, which is anything but cold coffee.
2 - What will creatine do for me in terms of muscle mass?
About two-thirds of all users will gain about 0.8 to 2.9% body weight after the first few days of creatine supplementation. Of course, results vary enormously from person to person. In his research, Tarnopolsky found that some subjects gained about 2 pounds, while one subject - using the same creatine dosage and doing the same workout - reportedly gained 17 pounds.
In addition to increasing work capacity, creatine builds muscle mass by increasing levels of anabolic hormones (IGF-1), decreasing myostatin levels (increased levels inhibit muscle growth), improving cell signaling of satellite cells (this helps with repair and new muscle growth), and reducing protein breakdown.
3 - Isn't weight gain mainly water?
Most people gain weight so quickly after starting creatine that logic tells you that this weight gain is almost all water. This may be mostly true after you start taking creatine, but even then the weight gain seems to be proportional to the overall weight gain. Muscle is 73% water - if you gain ten pounds by taking creatine, about 7.3 pounds of that will be water.
Creatine does indeed cause cellular volumization and this is an important determining factor in protein breakdown and protein synthesis in skeletal muscle (and other cell types). Exercise activates protein synthesis while also breaking down protein, but creatine shifts the balance towards protein synthesis. Yes, creatine provides an additional phosphate group to help regenerate ATP during high-intensity contractions, but cell volumization is an even more important cause of creatine's muscle-building effects.
Long-term use presents a slightly different scenario, as in this scenario creatine increases lean mass without an accompanying increase in total body water. Muscle fiber diameter increases along with strength, and the long-term effects of creatine appear to be largely due to increased muscle mass.
4 - Does creatine also help with recovery?
It would appear so. A recent study found that strength athletes (in this case, men who performed curls to muscle failure) who used creatine suffered less muscle soreness than those in the control group. The scientists did not know exactly why this was the case, but they hypothesized that this effect was likely due to a combination of creatine's multiple functions.
5 - Does creatine also help with endurance training?
Not so much. It's best for intense, repetitive efforts that last less than 30 seconds, which is a pretty good description of training with weights.
6 - Why doesn't creatine work for everyone?
Some people - especially people who eat a lot of meat and fish - already have large amounts of creatine in their bodies and therefore may not respond as well to creatine because their cells are already saturated with creatine. Other people, such as vegetarians, who do not consume as much creatine in their diet, can achieve phenomenal results.
The muscle fiber ratio also plays a role. Those who have a fairly even distribution of fast- and slow-contracting muscle fibers will respond fairly well to creatine, while those who have about 70% fast-contracting muscle fibers will respond really well to creatine.
7 - What is the best type of creatine?
For a while it seemed like someone was launching a new form of creatine every month. There was creatine ethyl ester, dicreatine malate, effervescent creatine, micronized creatine, and even gummy bear-like creatine, among others. If ingenuity hadn't died down, we might even have beef jerky creatine or "I can't believe it's not creatine" creatine today.
These products were supposedly absorbed faster by the body or had higher uptake into the muscles or allowed the user to use less than other forms of creatine, but there was no scientific data that could convincingly show that any form of creatine worked better than creatine monohydrate. However, there was something that these forms of creatine could do faster than regular creatine: Empty your bank account.
8 - What is the best way to load creatine?
Despite the countless suggested variations of loading, and despite all the gnashing of teeth, the original loading method first suggested by Richard Kreider in the nineties still works best:
- 0.3 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight spread over four doses daily for 5 to 7 days (however, it's not necessary to be so precise with the dosage. Just round it down to 5 grams four times a day).
- After you have loaded your body with creatine, you only need to take 3 to 5 grams of creatine per day to maintain full capacity.
There is also a study that has shown that you can skip loading altogether and just take 3 grams of creatine per day for 28 days instead, but it's not entirely clear if this low dosage increases training capacity.
9 - Do I need to take creatine with carbohydrates to increase my insulin levels?
The standard creatine supplies suggest that you need to take creatine with a large load of glucose (80 to 100 grams) or a carbohydrate/protein mix consisting of 50 to 80 grams of carbohydrate and 30 to 50 grams of creatine. Certainly this technique will cause a strong insulin spike that will lead to increased glycogen storage in skeletal muscle, which could result in increased cell volume, but taking creatine in combination with carbohydrates will not necessarily result in your muscles storing more creatine. There is also a lot of research suggesting that sodium may be more important than insulin for creatine transport, but this can be a little tricky as sodium uptake is mediated by insulin.
In addition, this dependence on sodium levels in the body may invalidate the age-old recommendation to take creatine after exercise. During exercise, you naturally lose a lot of sodium through sweat, so post-workout sodium levels will not be optimal and could interfere with creatine transport. You could of course tackle the sodium problem. Some users combine creatine with sodium bicarbonate to increase transport. Recent views suggest that there is absolutely no reason to use creatine before or after training, which would negate the potential sodium problem. Creatine works via saturation and not timing. As long as your muscles are filled with creatine, creatine will be there to help you with your workouts - regardless of when you take it, be it in the morning, sprinkled over your cereal, in the afternoon with your tea or before bed. Similarly, there is probably no real reason to continue taking creatine with high doses of carbohydrates after the 5 to 7 day loading phase has ended.
10 - When is the best time to take creatine?
Just in case you skipped the previous question, it's worth mentioning again that it doesn't matter when you take it. As long as you have followed the loading protocol and your cells are saturated with creatine, you do not need to take the following doses before or after your workout. Creatine does not listen to the clock. The saturation of the muscle cells (and not the timing) is what counts.
11 - Do I have to take creatine cyclically?
No.
12 - Does caffeine or acid affect the absorption of creatine?
The vast majority of initial creatine studies were conducted with creatine dissolved in coffee or tea, so it should be clear that coffee does not affect absorption. As for acidity, this is lower with coffee, grape juice and orange juice than with stomach acid and creatine survives digestion intact.
13 - Is long-term use of creatine safe and harmless?
Creatine also appears to be safe for long-term use. It has been used on a small scale since the sixties and on a large scale since the nineties. Sure, during the early days some people worried about creatine contributing to dehydration or rhabdomyolye, but those myths were debunked a long time ago.
14 - Is there anything I can do to maximize the effects of creatine?
Considering that the main effect of creatine is cell volumization, you need something to increase the volume of the cells, namely water. A rule of thumb is to drink about 40 ml of water per kilogram of body weight per day.
15 - How soon will I know if creatine is working for me?
You should see or feel something within a few days, but give creatine a month before drawing any conclusions.
16 - Will I lose muscle if I stop taking creatine?
You will lose some fluid from your cells, which will of course reduce muscle volume, but you will not lose any muscle mass that you have built up.
17 - Will creatine worsen your definition?
A little bit. Creatine makes muscle bellies rounder, but it might also make your definition a little worse. Fans of visible veins might be well advised to use creatine only during the time of year when they are wrapped up in thick clothing and then avoid creatine during the belly-free summertime. Of course, you must already be pretty damn defined to see this minimal effect.
18 - Why have some strength athletes stopped using creatine if it's so effective?
This is pure speculation, but it probably has to do with the fact that for a while creatine was just another ingredient in dozens, if not hundreds, of bodybuilding supplements. After a while, creatine lost attention. Combine this with the fact that creatine in these products was often underdosed or of poor quality and therefore had little effect and you have the perfect recipe for forgetting about this supplement or paying little attention to it out of indifference. The truth is that creatine was and is a valuable, super effective supplement.
19 - What should I look for when buying a creatine product?
Make sure the product comes from a company with a good reputation. Buy a micronized product if possible. And good old creatine monohydrate is really all you need.
From TC Luoma
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/creatine-scam-or-staple
A brief summary:
1. those who are overweight and most inactive would benefit from a strict Paleo diet, which would help them with satiety and weight loss.
2. what is best for sedentary people is not necessarily what is best for strength athletes. Strict Paleo diets avoid foods that enable fit people to perform at their best and build muscle.
3. training nutrition supplements are not Paleo, but ignoring the modern science of supplements will limit your gains in strength and hypertrophy.
The origins of Paleo
It's not a diet - they say. It's the natural way of eating - the natural way of eating that humans have genetically adapted to. There is no end date - you never stop eating Paleo. You live this way of eating, you internalize it, and you eat bacon while watching your waistline shrink. The premise? Our genes have barely changed since the Paleolithic era. Therefore, for optimal health and body composition, we should follow a pre-agricultural diet - a diet free of grains, most dairy products, potatoes, sugar and, of course, the modern abominations that pass for food today. In short, you should eat like a caveman. There are dozens of variations of the Paleo diet today, most of which stem from the ideas of gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin in the 1970s. Some variations of the Paleo diet are very strict and do not even allow nuts, quinoa, starchy foods and non-organic meat.
Other variations are less strict and allow sweet potatoes and even grains like rice and quinoa, raw milk, some supplements and dark chocolate. If you consider yourself someone who eats a healthy diet, there's a good chance you're unintentionally following some variation of the Paleo diet. You avoid processed foods and fill up on meat, vegetables and the occasional fruit. Before Paleo, old school bodybuilders, wrestlers and martial artists who needed to lose weight referred to this as abstaining from starches.
Since 2009, I've done several variations of Paleo - rigid and loose versions - although I did this unofficially as a teen bodybuilder before it became a big thing. I've learned the pros and cons of a strict Paleo diet. And as a nutrition coach, I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Let's go into more detail here.
The good
There's no doubt about one thing - if North America followed even a loose form of Paleo, we wouldn't have an obesity problem. We would be a leaner and healthier society, less dependent on prescription drugs and Photoshop.
Paleo and its variations have taught us to challenge conventional wisdom coming from many doctors, nutritionists and official health experts. And even though conventional wisdom has told us to avoid dietary cholesterol and eat plenty of whole grain breads and heart-healthy grains, Paleo has taught overweight people that these behaviors are exactly what made them fat. From Paleo, we've learned that the best way to cure serious ailments like type 2 diabetes is to swap our pasta, bread and all our junk food for things that come straight from nature: Vegetables, meat, seeds, eggs, fruit and maybe some full-fat dairy.
The emphasis on whole foods has helped a large number of people give up the junk that has kept them trapped in the vicious cycle of self-sabotage. Paleo has raised the consciousness of the masses, given them a push towards their fitness goals and has given the government's dietary guidelines a much-needed kick in the pants. Paleo dietary protocols have also exposed a major flaw in low-fat and vegetarian diets: the need for saturated animal fats and dietary cholesterol. Paleo's emphasis on meat and animal products has taught many misinformed people that they will suffer in the absence of these foods.
Meat and animal fats help us produce the hormones that give us a robust sex drive, make us emotionally stable and happy, help us build muscle, and help fight disease and maintain an active metabolism. There are many testimonials on the internet from vegetarians who have turned to a Paleo diet. From their reports, we learn that a diet consisting of bread, fruit and soy will not only make you "skinny fat" (thin, but still flabby), but will also promote constipation, depression, impotence, lethargy and make it impossible to build significant amounts of muscle and strength.
No matter what form of Paleo the average overweight person adopts, it will almost certainly be an improvement over their previous diet. A nation of people following a Paleo diet would mean less disease, a longer lifespan and lower healthcare costs. I recommend a Paleo-like diet to my overweight clients. The goal of these clients, of course, is simply to no longer be overweight.
The bad
Eating a full Paleo diet is inadequate for one segment of the population: our segment - strength athletes and other athletes.
Here's why: our workouts and body development goals require more than what's allowed on Paleo - more carbohydrates, advanced training nutrition and fast-digesting protein. We don't just get away with eating processed foods - we thrive on them.
Paleo works so well for the average person because the average person's goal is to not be sick or fat. The average person doesn't go to the gym day after day to prepare to step on stage, compete in athletic events, set personal bests, or walk around with visible veins on their biceps. These are not the goals of the average person. These are our goals. We don't have average goals and we are not average people - so why would we follow a diet that is best suited for such people? If proven workout nutrition supplements are banned from your diet, then you either need to rethink your diet for the benefit of your sport or body development, or stick with that diet and realize you're going to lose. Your competition has a head start if they are using a targeted, non-Paleo training diet. They will recover faster, train harder, build more muscle and even lose fat faster than you. Can you train without a targeted training diet? Sure you can. But you won't achieve as much as you could with additional training nutrition. Going back in time is a handicap if you are an athlete. You will go back in time with your diet to stay within the boundaries of your ironclad dietary rules.
Saying that we should eat the same as our ancestors is the same as saying that we should deprive ourselves of thousands of years of scientific progress. Certainly not all dietary advances have been good for us. Nachos aren't going to help us earn a Pro Card, but other advances have been pretty darn good. If we were to forgo those, then we would be missing out. A training session with weights fueled by kale smoothies and coconut oil isn't going to help you train harder. Training in a fasted state, as recommended by many Paleo followers, will not give you an edge.
If you follow the Paleo guidelines, you will not recover as quickly as if you use a training diet specifically designed for the training period. Can unprocessed plant and animal foods meet all our needs as athletes? Not if we want to achieve optimal muscle gains, perform at our best and take our bodies from "not fat" to "absolutely phenomenal".
And training nutrition isn't the only thing that's off limits. If you're a strict Paleo follower, then legumes, potatoes and grains (even wheat-free grains) are also off limits. If you put beans and oatmeal in the same category as chocolate bars, then you should relax and take a deep breath. Where do many Paleo diets get their carbohydrates from? Primarily from fruit, honey and starchy vegetables such as parsnips and pumpkin. But since no one has the time to prepare a squash and take it with them for after a workout, fruit and honey become a commonly used carbohydrate component. But neither are optimal for post-workout recovery.
Fruit and honey are not inherently bad, but even staunch Paleo advocates recommend minimizing consumption of these foods because fructose is difficult for much of the population to digest.
Swapping all your starches for high-fructose foods can bring nasty side effects like bloating, a bloated feeling, cramping, constipation, diarrhea, weight gain and even a non-alcoholic fatty liver. These are the side effects of excessive fructose consumption and yet rice is strictly forbidden? And if your nutrition guru insists that bee vomit is food but protein powder is not, then maybe you need a new guide.
Do you think eating an apple on leg day will help you speed up your recovery and build muscle tissue? Do you think yam has any of the anabolic effects of di- and tripeptides and specialized carbohydrates? Do you think that all this will help you to complete your next training session at an even higher intensity?
Maybe you really think so, but maybe you're just not training as hard as you think. Unless you have amazing genetics, most of your transformation workouts will require more than meat, fruit and vegetables.
The ugly
We like boundaries and structure. We want to hear someone tell us "Don't eat that." Because then we have security. Clear guidelines give us a sense of control because then we know what to eat and what to avoid. But if a fit person feels guilty about giving in to bean temptation, then there's a problem here - and the problem isn't the beans. Rather, it's about becoming hyper-restrictive and taking a sometimes useful strategy too far. Paleo can get ugly with its limits - especially when those limits cause you to freak out about things that have never caused problems. If you eliminate something from your diet for an extended period of time and don't notice any benefits and then add it back into your diet and don't notice any problems, then you don't need to worry about that food. Especially if you are already fit.
I place legumes in this category because I remember once buying a bag of Lima beans and feeling guilty about it. I had suppressed my cravings for these beans because a voice in my head had told me "Will the lectins in these beans prevent you from burning fat?"
At the time, I was on an ironclad Paleo diet, consuming no processed foods, no exercise nutrition, no potatoes, no rice and no beans. In addition to this, I couldn't exercise at high intensity in the gym. Did Paleo help me look or feel better? No, but it has made me good at eating according to the Paleo rules. Can you see where this is going? Sacrificing athleticism to maintain a diet that only maintains your ego, but not your muscle mass.
Paleo has also popularized intermittent fasting, which in itself is not a bad thing for certain people - especially if it's not used consistently. But for those who follow Paleo rigidly, chronic fasting often becomes a way to fight cravings for foods that aren't allowed on Paleo. Being so obsessed with the purity of your food that you regret dietary sins borders on an eating disorder. This can be a tricky situation for those who already have issues with disordered eating. The ugly side of Paleo comes out when instinctive common sense is replaced by fanaticism. This fanaticism is where Paleo becomes a fad diet or quasi-religious dogma.
If you are fat, then Paleo will improve your health, but if your goals include building muscle mass, then Paleo is not the way to go. Since breaking away from Paleo, I've traded a fanaticism about whole foods for common sense, bigger biceps and, ironically, a leaner body. People who train hard several days a week need simple, easily digestible carbohydrates (and not just at training time) combined with scientifically designed supplements.
Potatoes, beans, rice and workout nutrition drinks didn't make America fat. These are not foods to eat in uncontrolled quantities. And if they improve your performance, give you more energy and satisfy you at mealtime, then they're not just permissible foods you can eat without harm, they're essential foods.
Kick a caveman's butt
Paleo undoubtedly works for junk food-addicted, overweight, sedentary people. But these people didn't get fat by eating oatmeal and beans either. A Paleo plan would help these people, but so would simply giving up all the tasty junk food and fast food. If these people need the initial strictness, then a Paleo diet can lay the foundation for never eating such nutritional junk again.
For those with bodybuilding or weight training goals, Paleo often throws out the cave baby with the cave bathwater. Too few carbohydrates from sources like rice, oatmeal, buckwheat, potatoes and legumes will hinder your hypertrophy and performance goals. Neglecting training nutrition and other beneficial supplements is tantamount to not making optimal gains because your great-great-great-grandfather didn't have access to these supplements.
Yes, eat your meat, veggies and whole eggs. Yes, avoid the junk carbohydrates and wannabe foods that you find on the supermarket shelves today. But don't ignore the foods and supplements that will help you build muscle and perform better than any caveman.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/paleo-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly
By Dani Shugart
Here's a quick summary...
- Some people don't see results from their fish oil supplementation. They are missing a few pieces of the puzzle.
- Our diets contain far too many omega-6 fatty acids. This causes inflammation, countless diseases, insulin resistance and obesity.
- Our diet contains far too few omega-3 fatty acids. Their role is to counteract the negative effects of omega-6 fatty acids.
- Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids compete with each other for space in the cell membrane. You can't just take omega-3 fatty acids and expect to change the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids without worrying about your excessive omega-6 intake.
Do it right and you are indestructible
When used properly, fish oil can make your cardiovascular system virtually indestructible, fight virtually any inflammation, improve your insulin sensitivity and turn you into a lean, fat-burning machine.
Unfortunately, many people don't do it right and therefore don't experience these great things. They take the capsules, but they usually don't feel any difference. The problem is that they lack a fundamental understanding of how fish oil, or more specifically omega-3 fatty acids, work. This lack of universal effects has led some doctors to question the benefits of fish oil. But they, along with many other people who take fish oil or omega-3 fatty acid supplements, have missed a lot of crucial points.
The "good deal" has messed up our body chemistry
To understand what's being messed up, we need to look at the fascinating story of how we got to the point where we need fish oil capsules in the first place. It all goes back to a seemingly unrelated fact: leaves rot quickly, but seeds don't.
If you're a food manufacturer, you want to make food from plant ingredients that have a long shelf life. Rotting vegetables mean less money in your pocket, so plant breeders look for plants or parts of plants that go bad more slowly and have the longest possible shelf life. That means seeds and grains. The reason leaves spoil so quickly is because they contain a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, while long-lasting seeds and grains contain a lot of omega-6 fatty acids, which serve as an energy supply for the developing seedlings. Pretty much every food sold in a box or other package is made from one of the three or four most commonly used grains. Salad dressings, oils for cooking, peanut butter, snacks of any kind, and anything packaged in plastic and decorated with a human-shaped bear is full of omega-6 fatty acids. Grains are cheap and available in large quantities, which is why we feed them to any animal we want to eat later. Cattle normally eat grass their whole lives, but we stuff them with grain to make them fatter. Not only does this make them sick and necessitate the use of antibiotics, but it also alters their fatty acid profile, turning them into four-legged, ruminant omega-6 bombs.
Even the fish we once prized for its omega-3 content is being raised on pellets made mostly of soy, turning even fish into something no better than any plastic-wrapped, cheesy Frankenfood you'll find in the frozen section of your supermarket. Even chickens are not safe from these fatty acid atrocities, as they too are fed pellets made from grains instead of a balanced diet of seeds and omega-3 rich grubs and insects. And of course this fat practice also affects our dairy products and eggs. These foods no longer contain usable amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, it's estimated that 9% of the calories in the average American diet come from a single omega-6 fatty acid - linoleic acid - most of which comes from soybean oil. It's a pellet-based Soylent Green world - but what the heck, it's good business.
It's probably what killed your grandfather
As a result of all this good business, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in these animals has gotten completely out of whack. It's somewhere in the range of 10, 20 or 25 to 1, where it should be in a range of about 3 to 1. And of course, we are what we eat, which is why our ratio is not that different from the animal foods we eat.
Similarly, we can't ignore the "fat equals heart attacks" theory that was put forward in the seventies. People began to avoid fat from animal sources and switched to using seed oils. The problem, however, was that, at least at that time, animal fat still contained respectable amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, whereas seed oils contain little or no omega-3 fatty acids.
Furthermore, people went from eating butter to eating margarine, which is a one-two punch of high concentrations of omega-6 fatty acids and high concentrations of trans fatty acids, the latter of which is a completely different kind of nutritional demon. If your father or grandfather died prematurely of a heart attack, it probably had something to do with it.
100 of the greatest plagues of mankind
Omega-6 fatty acids are the building blocks for a class of pro-inflammatory chemicals that cause red blood cells to form clots, but it's the pro-inflammatory modifiers that should worry you. Inflammation is insidiously and intimately linked to at least 100 of humanity's greatest plagues including heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's and every damn autoimmune disease known to science. But inflammation also plays a major role in obesity, as it can exacerbate existing insulin resistance.
Scientist Joseph Hibbens believes that the billions we spend on anti-inflammatory drugs (such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen) are a direct result of our diets containing too many omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids, on the other hand, slow down the blood clotting process and they keep the pro-inflammatory chemicals associated with omega-6 fatty acids in check. In addition, they increase the insulin sensitivity of cells by increasing the permeability of the cell membrane, which stimulates metabolism and protects against obesity.
It would certainly benefit the human race if we could keep the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the range of 3 to 1 - the ratio intended by nature. This is the reason that most people who mean well with their health take fish oil capsules (wild fish eat algae - a plant material that contains a lot of omega-3 fatty acids).
Omega-6 fatty acids displace omega-3 fatty acids
However, there is one simple piece of the puzzle that most people overlook: Omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids seem to compete with each other for space in the cell membrane and for the attention of different anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory enzymes.
You can't just take a few fish oil capsules and expect everything to sort itself out without reducing your omega-6 intake at the same time, as the omega-6 fatty acids present will push the omega-3 fatty acids away. Every time someone tries to attack the omega-6 fatty acid bulwark, it's like the 300 Spartans trying to take on the entire Persian army - and we all know how that turned out.
4 ways to solve the problem
1. you should definitely try to increase your omega-3 intake with a high quality fish oil, but you also need to reduce your omega-6 intake at the same time. You can do this by doing the following:
- Avoiding most foods that are sold in a box or polyethylene bags, as these are generally foods that are made from grains to have a long shelf life (i.e. high concentration of omega-6 fatty acids).
- Avoid oils such as sunflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil and cotton oil and instead use versions of safflower oil and sunflower oil that are rich in oleic acid/oleic acid.
- Avoid fried foods and foods from restaurants, as these are almost always fried in oil rich in omega-6. You can actually be pretty sure that most restaurant food contains too many omega-6 and too few omega-3 fatty acids.
- Choose beef from grass-fed cattle.
2. remember that the ratio of the two fatty acids is more important than the total amount. If you eat more omega-6 fatty acids, you should also eat more omega-3 fatty acids.
3. whenever possible, eat green plants instead of foods made from seeds.
4. tell your doctor that he can keep doing his little cholesterol tests if it makes him happy, but that you want a blood test to determine your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids to assess your true risk of cardiovascular disease ##.
By TC Luoma | 11/18/15
https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/fish-oil-youre-using-it-wrong
