Nutrition

Some describe it as a basic supplement that no bodybuilding supplement plan should be without, whereas others say that it does not live up to its hype. This article will therefore take a closer look at the benefits glutamine can actually have for the user.

In the diet, glutamine is found in virtually all animal products and makes up on average over 5% of the amino acids found in animal protein sources such as meat, dairy products and eggs.

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body, found not only in muscle tissue but virtually everywhere in the body, and plays a myriad of important roles in all sorts of processes in the body. Glutamine is something like the "Jack of all trades" among amino acids.

Intuitively, you would probably think that an amino acid that is so important must be an essential amino acid. However, this is not the case, as the term essential amino acid only refers to amino acids that the body cannot produce itself. However, the body can synthesize glutamine when needed, which is why glutamine is technically only a conditionally essential amino acid. Conditionally essential means that under normal circumstances the body can produce enough glutamine to meet its needs. However, there are situations in which the glutamine requirement is so high that the body's own glutamine production is not sufficient to cover this requirement. In such situations, additional glutamine must be supplied through food.

Glutamine has many supporters as a supplement. However, there are also many skeptics who say that glutamine supplementation is useless unless you are a burn victim recovering from your burns. Below we will look at some of the properties of glutamine and scientific research to help the reader decide whether or not they should supplement with glutamine.

What functions does glutamine have in the body?

Glutamine is formed in the body when the non-essential amino acid glutamic acid is broken down and combines with nitrogenous ammonia molecules. Glutamine can be thought of as a kind of nitrogen sponge that absorbs ammonia and transports nitrogen back and forth between different types of tissue, where it can be used for cell growth, tissue repair and many other functions. It has been calculated that between 30 and 50% of all nitrogen produced by the breakdown of protein is transported in the form of glutamine. In addition to this, glutamine can also be broken down back into glutamic acid, making glutamine a crucial source of ammonia and nitrogen in the body.

About 70% of the glutamine present in the body is produced in skeletal muscle, from where it is transported to the small intestine, kidneys and white blood cells. These are the dominant locations where glutamine is used.

The internal levels of this amino acid vary depending on different factors. Pregnancy and lactation deplete glutamine stores, as do exhaustive exercise, illness, starvation or fasting, rapid growth and development, and states of extreme physiological stress. These are some circumstances where an increase in glutamine intake or the use of a glutamine supplement would be appropriate.

Glutamine is also involved in the regulation of protein synthesis and degradation like no other amino acid. But there is more. Glutamine significantly influences BCAA metabolism, maintenance of the intestinal wall barrier, normal immune function, glucose formation, water transport, nerve impulse transmission and much more.

The kidneys are the primary consumers of glutamine. In the kidneys, ammonia is split off from glutamine to maintain the acid-base balance. Wherever you find ammonia in the body, you will also find glutamine. When metabolic acidosis (acidosis) increases, for example in response to intensive training or a high-protein diet, the uptake of glutamine by the kidneys increases sharply. For example, one study showed that just four days of a high protein and high fat diet was enough to cause a 25% reduction in plasma and muscle glutamine levels.

When consumption from all these competing glutamine uses begins to exceed the body's ability to produce glutamine, symptoms of glutamine deficiency can become apparent, including muscle breakdown, lack of energy and increased susceptibility to infection.

What are the uses of glutamine in sports?

Despite the many different functions of glutamine, there is little evidence that the use of glutamine in normal, healthy people directly results in an increase in muscle mass, a reduction in body fat or gains in strength. However, considering the stress that intense training places on the human body, athletes may derive certain benefits from supplementing with significant amounts of glutamine or combining glutamine with other supplements.

One study found that supplemented glutamine improved exercise performance and increased fluid and electrolyte intake in athletes suffering from mild dehydration when combined with glucose and an electrolyte drink. It has also been shown that glutamine supplementation can increase growth hormone levels in response to cycling training performed to exhaustion.

Extracellular glutamine concentrations have been shown to activate the mTOR signaling pathway, which is responsible for muscle growth by stimulating protein synthesis. In this context, however, it was necessary - as is so often the case - for other factors to be fulfilled in addition to glutamine supplementation. The mTOR signaling pathway appears to additionally require the presence of BCAAs - and leucine in particular - as well as a minimum level of cellular hydration.

In another study, track and field athletes who consumed 4 grams of glutamine per day in conjunction with a creatine loading phase and maintenance dose over an 8-week period showed greater gains in lean body mass than athletes who used creatine alone. This sounds significant, but it is difficult to draw definite conclusions after only eight weeks and such a low dosage. It would be interesting to know whether a higher glutamine dosage and/or a longer study duration would have resulted in significantly better results.

What different forms of glutamine are there and what should you combine glutamine with?

One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a glutamine product is the delivery system. If you are buying a powder, capsules or tablets, then free L-glutamine is the best choice. As creatine is unstable when dissolved in liquid, you should avoid drinks and bars that are supposed to contain glutamine.

If you prefer ready-made drinks or bars, then you should look for products that contain peptide-bound glutamine such as L-alanyl-L-glutamine, glycyl-L-glutamine hydrate or another glutamine peptide, which are significantly more stable than free glutamine. When dosing these products, however, it should be borne in mind that the amount of pure glutamine in such peptide forms is typically only 65 to 70%. In other words, 10 grams of glutamine peptides contain only 6.5 to 7 grams of glutamine.

Products containing n-acetyl-L-glutamine or alpha-ketoisocaproyl glutamine (aka aKIC glutamine) are best avoided. Even though these two forms of glutamine appear to be stable, there is evidence that they are poor glutamine suppliers.

Regardless of the glutamine form, up to 90% of orally supplied glutamine is eliminated during the so-called first pass by the liver, by the cells of the digestive tract or by the immune cells in the digestive system. This means that only a fraction of the glutamine consumed will ultimately reach the bloodstream.

After choosing a form of glutamine, it's time to think about what you can combine glutamine with to enhance its effects and/or take advantage of synergies. Most important is the intake of adequate amounts of sodium and electrolytes, as glutamine transport occurs using a sodium-dependent mechanism. Glutamine has been shown to significantly increase cell volume, electrolyte uptake and hydration. This can be beneficial for both endurance athletes and strength athletes. An increase in cell volume is particularly interesting for strength athletes, as a larger cell volume is one of the aspects that promotes muscle hypertrophy. In addition, a reduction in cell volume can inhibit the mTOR signaling pathway, which is essential for stimulating protein synthesis and muscle building.

Other active ingredients or supplements that can be combined with glutamine include the following:

• BCAAs: There are two reasons why combining glutamine with branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) can promote greater gains in muscle mass and a greater increase in performance. The first is the ammonia concentration that can be influenced by glutamine, which means that glutamine has a direct effect on BCAA metabolism. The second reason is that the activation of the mTOR signaling pathway by extracellular glutamine first requires the intake of BCAAs and primarily leucine.

• Citrulline: Glutamine acts as a precursor for arginine and nitric oxide synthesis by transporting citrulline back and forth between tissue types. The use of glutamine in combination with citrulline may increase the ability of citrulline to stimulate nitric oxide production, which may lead to better oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscles. A better supply of nutrients and oxygen to the muscles may mean better recovery and faster muscle growth.

• Alpha Ketoglutarate: Like glutamine, alpha ketoglutarate (AKG) serves as a precursor for glutamic acid and AKG has been shown to reduce glutamine degradation in a dose-dependent manner while increasing mTOR pathway activity and glutathione activity. This means that the combination of glutamine and AKG can increase the potential for muscle growth and the production of the body's most powerful antioxidant - glutathione.

• Glucose: When the body lacks glucose, it reduces glutamine uptake and impairs cell growth.

• N-acetylglucosamine: When following a low-carbohydrate diet, the glycoprotein N-acetylglucosamine appears to be able to restore glutamine uptake and glutamine metabolism impaired by glucose deficiency, potentially improving regeneration and cell function.

How should I take glutamine and does glutamine have any side effects?

In order to achieve a significant increase in glutamine plasma concentrations, the daily glutamine intake must be relatively high and should be at least 20 to 30 grams of glutamine per day.

As a comparison, it should be mentioned that critically ill patients usually receive a constant intravenous infusion of 20 to 30 grams of glutamine per day, whereby the bioavailability of glutamine in the form of an infusion is 100%. In comparison, the bioavailability of orally administered glutamine is only 30%. In order to obtain the amount of glutamine that seriously ill patients receive, one would therefore have to take around 70 to 100 grams of glutamine orally per day.

The recommended amount of 20 to 30 grams of glutamine per day should be divided into several evenly spaced doses throughout the day, preferably consumed with meals or snacks containing carbohydrates to support glutamine uptake and utilization.

On training days, glutamine should be consumed before or during training and after training to support hydration, electrolyte transport, BCAA metabolism and recovery. You can either take 10 grams of glutamine before, during and after training or reduce these doses to 5 grams of glutamine each and take the remaining 15 grams of glutamine throughout the day in the hours before and after training.

On non-training days, you should take 5 grams of glutamine every 2 to 3 hours at regular intervals to maintain an increased glutamine plasma concentration.

A cyclical intake with intake-free phases is not necessary with glutamine. Rather, there is evidence to support the need for continuous glutamine use during periods of heavy exercise.

As far as potential side effects of glutamine are concerned, there are numerous studies that have shown no undesirable side effects with glutamine doses of up to 30 grams per day. A recent toxicity study over a period of 13 weeks concluded that no side effects were observed in male and female rats, even with the highest amount of glutamine used. Converted to humans, the glutamine dosages used in this study correspond to 0.6776 grams per kilogram of body weight, which would correspond to 54 grams of glutamine per day for an 80-kilogram athlete.

Summary

Glutamine plays a key role in a variety of processes and bodily functions that have a dramatic impact on the ability to maintain overall good health and achieve individual fitness goals. However, if you rely solely on glutamine or don't use enough glutamine, you may well be disappointed.

As with all supplements, you have to use your head with glutamine to maximize its effects. If you don't train hard, then your body will probably be able to meet its glutamine requirements without the support of supplements. However, if you are one of those exercisers who regularly push themselves to their limits, then the right use of glutamine can help to get your performance to a high level and keep it there.

Source: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/all-about-glutamine-your-expert-guide.html

The time-restricted Diet Plus

From TC Luoma | 01/01/16

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/time-restricted-plus-diet

Here's what you need to know...

1. Exercisers often bounce back and forth between bulking and dieting. As a result, they spend most of their lives somewhere between defined and bulky.
2. The answer lies in adopting an extremely simple nutritional strategy that allows you to become more defined and build muscle at the same time.
3. Scientists have recently published an illuminating study highlighting the benefits of restricting food intake to periods of 9 to 12 hours per day.
4. Although this strategy has worked well in mice and is likely to work well in normal humans, it needs one or two modifications before it can be adopted by strength athletes.
5. Strength athletes are well advised to use a modified approach where they limit their food intake to a 9 to 12 hour phase, but spice up the "no food intake" phases with specific proteins to ensure sustained muscle protein synthesis.

Should I bulk up or diet?

Pretty much everyone who cares about their body development is constantly struggling with a dilemma:

"Should I eat more so that I can build muscle, possibly putting on some fat in the process? Or do I eat less so that I can become more defined, risking losing some muscle mass?"

One week we see a massive powerlifter putting on an amazing strength performance and we toy with the idea of eating and training like a powerlifter. The next week, we'll see a picture of a guy who is so exceptionally defined and muscular that he looks like he stepped out of the pages of a Marvel comic to fight evil.

Almost immediately we'll stop doing the powerlifting stuff and start working out and eating to get defined so we too can save the world.

By bouncing back and forth between these two positions, and by never really deciding on a body style or lifestyle, we live in a perpetual hell of looking good but not looking great.

However, there is a way to combine both of your desires and that way is through a relatively simple dietary adjustment. This strategy will allow you to get and stay defined without losing muscle mass. You will probably even gain muscle mass at a satisfying rate.

The intermittent fasting leprechaun

First, let's throw a nutritional gremlin out of this article before it becomes an annoying distraction.

I don't like Intermittent Fasting (IF) - at least when it comes to conventional Intermittent Fasting. While this is probably a good idea for people who suffer from type II diabetes, this strategy is not so great for people who are interested in giving their body the shape of a Greek statue.

IF may make you defined and it will probably also improve your insulin sensitivity, but there is evidence that it also limits your muscle gains.

A new study and a new way to lose fat

Having said that, I would like to look at an interesting study that is doing the rounds. It's an in-depth follow-up study to a similar study published in 2012 that produced similar results. This study involved a type of intermittent fasting that gave me an indication of how superheroes should eat when training.

Okay, this study was done with little mice, but in many cases mammalian physiology equals mammalian physiology regardless of the species involved.

Scientists at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California fed mice four different isocaloric diet programs over a 38-week period:

• High-fat
• High fructose
• High-fat and high-fructose
• Regular mouse food

Some mice were allowed to eat whenever they wanted, while others were only allowed to eat during 9, 12 or 15 hour phases, but there was another interesting feature.

Some mice in the groups with a time-limited food intake were allowed to "cheat" at the weekend and eat whenever they wanted. Furthermore, some mice in the group that were allowed to eat whenever they wanted were switched to a time-restricted diet in the middle of the study.

Some of the results were predictable, while others were completely surprising:

• The mice that could eat whenever they wanted got sick and overweight, and their pants had to be made wider.
• Mice that ate in a 9 to 12 hour window stayed slim and healthy - even when they were allowed to cheat on weekends.
• The mice that could eat when they wanted and were switched to a time-restricted diet in the middle of the study lost the weight they had gained (the time-restricted diet not only prevented obesity, but actually reversed the weight gain).
• When mice that could eat whenever they wanted switched to a time-restricted diet, they lost 5% of their body weight within a few days.
• The time-restricted mice also had more lean muscle mass than their laxer-fed friends.

Most of this is pretty interesting, but it's probably the last result that gets our muscle-building spiderman sense ringing. Yes, the mice on time-restricted diets had more muscle, but truth be told, scientists don't yet know if these mice actually built muscle or simply maintained the muscle mass they might have lost on a free-range diet.

From fat storage to fat burning

The scientists believe it was an epigenetic response, where they believe food affects the body's internal clock and this internal clock affects the function of genes involved in metabolism.

But it probably also has something to do with insulin sensitivity. The mice with time-restricted food intake improved their insulin sensitivity to a large extent, while the mice that could eat whenever they wanted remained in the land of insulin resistance.

Finally, it has been repeatedly observed in humans that even a few hours of fasting increases insulin sensitivity and switches the body from a fat-storage mode to a fat-burning mode.

Muscle protein synthesis must continue!

Believe it or not, insulin sensitivity is one of the reasons why conventional intermittent fasting is so popular with strength athletes and non-athletes alike.

This type of fasting leads to higher insulin sensitivity and increased fat burning, but the downside has always been that it is much harder, if not impossible, to build muscle during intermittent fasting because you are not only depriving your body of calories, but also protein.

Due to this protein shortage, there are large parts of the day or night during which muscle protein synthesis comes to a complete standstill.

The solution to combining time-restricted dieting, fat burning and muscle building is to limit conventional food intake to a predetermined period of time and then somehow ensure that enough protein circulates in the body to keep muscle protein synthesis going during the rest of the day and night.

Unfortunately, eating large amounts of protein - the amounts that would trigger adequate protein synthesis - would also provide enough calories and insulin-raising amino acids to spike insulin levels and defeat the reasons for a time-restricted diet.

That being said, you couldn't call your diet intermittent fasting or a time-restricted diet if you were eating protein meals outside the confines of the time-restricted phases of food intake - this would simply be considered the normal life of a strength athlete.

There is a way around these problems and it involves the combination of time-restricted eating and spurts of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides.

This approach is perhaps the simplest of all and my human guinea pigs have had excellent results with it.

How does this nutritional approach work?

First, we determine our level of "fatness".

• If you are carrying a significant amount of body fat, then limit your food intake to a 9 hour window.
• If you just need some fine tuning because you can see at least a shadow of your abs or a few veins by your muscles, then limit your food intake to a 12 hour window.
• The groups consume one to two servings (20 grams) of highly hydrolyzed protein, consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides, during the periods without regular food intake.

The 9 hour group

Let's say you belong to the 9 hour group and eat your first meal at 7am. This means that you need to have eaten all your conventional meals by 4pm.

To maintain your protein synthesis, you consume a portion of highly hydrolyzed protein, consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides, at 19:00 and before going to bed.

The 12 hour group

Eat your first meal at 7am. This means that you need to have eaten all your conventional meals by 7pm.

To maintain your protein synthesis, consume a portion of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides before going to bed.

Options

Either group can also consume an additional serving of highly hydrolyzed protein, consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides, in the middle of the night if you're one of the few dedicated strength athletes who don't mind waking up in the middle of the night to get some nutrients.

In addition, both groups can take things a little easier on the weekend without significantly compromising your diet.

Questions and answers

I know, I know, you have questions. Like how such a comparably small amount of protein (20 grams of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides) can keep your muscle protein synthesis alive.

Won't this protein also cause an insulin spike? Why can't I use just any protein to accomplish the same thing?

Straight into the bloodstream, boom!

One serving of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides - 20 grams of protein - stimulates protein synthesis many times more than a similar amount of conventional protein.

Because of its powerful effect, you don't need to consume a lot of protein, which would not only provide a lot of calories, but also greatly increase your insulin levels - both of which would defeat the purpose of a time-restricted diet.

The reason that highly hydrolyzed protein is so effective is that it consists primarily of di- and tripeptides, which do not need to be broken down or digested further. As such, they are transported directly into the bloodstream, boom!

And these peptide structures have biological activities that go far beyond regular amino acids, which is what makes them so effective at stimulating muscle protein synthesis.

If you want to make it even more effective, you should use a highly hydrolyzed protein that is enriched with leucine. Leucine is the key factor in stimulating muscle protein synthesis after a meal. No other essential amino acid or branched-chain amino acid stimulates muscle protein synthesis as strongly as leucine.

In fact, scientists have found that a small amount of leucine (6.25 grams, to be exact) stimulated muscle protein synthesis in exercising young men as much as four times as much whey protein (25 grams).

Taking a large dose of leucine on its own is potentially problematic, as it could result in lower circulating concentrations of the other two branched-chain amino acids, isoleucine and valine.

This is why scientific research has shown that consuming all BCAAs is a better idea when it comes to maximizing muscle protein synthesis.

Keep it simple

Let's not mess up this simple nutrition plan too much.

You limit your sensible and healthy eating to either a 9 or 12 hour window depending on your amount of body fat. During the periods without regular food intake, you consume one, two or even 3 servings of leucine-enriched highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides.

On the weekends, you can take it a little easier and eat outside of your time constraints.

That's all. Needless to say, you can't eat everything you want in unlimited quantities. No nutrition or diet plan can withstand such idiocy.

Furthermore, you should know how your macronutrients should be composed and what constitutes a healthy diet. You don't need me to tell you that you need to eat some fruits and vegetables.

Studies

1. Chaix, et al, "Time-Restricted Feeding is a Preventative and Therapeutic Intervention against Diverse Nutritional Challenges," Cell Metabolism, Volume 20, Issue 6, p991-1005, December 2, 2014.
2. Churchward-Venne, et al, "Leucine supplementation of a low-protein mixed macronutrient beverage enhance myofibrillar protein synthesis in young men: a double-blind, randomized trial," Am J Clin Nutr, 2014;99:1-12.

Related blog posts:

>> Protein won't make you fat

>> Fat loss & high protein breakfast

What you need to know...

1. Soy protein is practically useless for stimulating muscle protein synthesis.
2. Detoxing the liver or "cleansing" the gut with coffee enemas is beyond stupid.
3. Stop worrying about growth hormones in milk.
4. You can't starve cancer by eliminating sugar from your diet.
5. You don't have to consume all your micronutrients in one day. Instead, you can look at your diet in blocks of two or three days, or even by the week.
6. The "hormone-free" label on poultry is unnecessary and misleading.
7. People who drink skim milk build up more fat than people who drink whole milk.
8. Stop being neurotic about fructose.
9. Eating turkey will not make you sleepy.

1 - Hey, soy may make your eggs shrivel, but at least it's good protein!

About 15 years ago, I broke the news to the physique world that some studies had shown that soy resulted in testicular shrinkage and lower testosterone levels. Despite this, some people are still adamant that soy protein is at least a good muscle building protein.

They had at least one argument for this, even if it wasn't particularly valid. Their reasoning was that soy protein differs from soy in that the isoflavones, which are blamed for lowering testosterone levels and testicular shrinkage, are removed during the soy protein manufacturing process and are therefore no longer present in the final product.

This may or may not be true, as some reports indicate that isoflavones are indeed present in some soy protein products. Regardless of which position you support, recent research gives us an entirely different reason to avoid soy.

A McMaster University study found that soy protein is no better than water when it comes to muscle protein synthesis. The scientists gave 30 men 0 grams of protein, 20 grams of soy or 40 grams of soy at rest and after resistance training. They then compared the results with a group of men who had used 20 or 40 grams of whey protein instead.

While 40 grams of soy slightly increased muscle protein synthesis, 20 grams of soy worked just as well as 0 grams of soy. However, muscle protein synthesis was significantly increased in the groups that consumed 20 or 40 grams of whey protein. The scientists theorized that whey protein worked so well (and soy not so well) because whey protein contains a much higher percentage of leucine - the primary amino acid for muscle building - than soy protein.

In addition, a higher percentage of the amino acids in soy protein - including leucine - are oxidized, making them unavailable for protein synthesis.

If you want to build muscle, then it's certainly best to avoid soy protein until the unlikely event that a miracle study convinces us that all soy-related problems have been solved.

2 - Your liver is a dumping ground! Detoxify it!

At some point, some well-meaning naturopath, herbalist or anal fetishist has come up with the idea that our bodies need periodic cleanses.

Advocates of this idea argue that the air, water and food we breathe and eat are overloaded with toxic chemicals. The naturopath and the herbalist recommend that we occasionally abstain from eating solid food and instead sip a nasty mixture of cabbage, celery and beets to cleanse ourselves of these toxins.

The anal fetishist argues that we should instead use the back entrance and flush our bowels with water, coffee or kitty litter (bentonite) to flush out the toxins.

Well, they're all half right.

The air, water and food we breathe or eat are indeed loaded with toxic chemicals, but the body has a fairly efficient detoxification system that includes our liver, kidneys and spleen. Furthermore, there is no generally accepted evidence that juice helps these organs do their job more efficiently.

However, these systems need nutritional support. Paradoxically, fasting deprives the liver of amino acids (cysteine, glutamine, glycine) that are needed for this natural detoxification process. Furthermore, amino acids make toxins more water-soluble, making it possible to remove them via bile acid.

And colon cleansing? That's just too ridiculous and stupid to even go into.

3 - The growth hormones in milk will make you grow a second head!

Stop this growth hormone phobia already. Yes, some sectors of the dairy industry use growth hormones to increase milk production and yes, some of this does seem to make its way into the milk we consume. Big deal.

Growth hormones are huge protein molecules that, once consumed, are broken down into their amino acid components in the digestive tract - just like milk and other proteins that have to go through the wild ride through your digestive system.

That said, these are growth hormones for cows and unless one of your parents was a ruminant with four stomachs wearing a bell around its neck, these growth hormones won't have any effect on you anyway.

4 - Cancer feeds on gummy bears!

In 2007, some bastard spread an internet hoax titled "Cancer Update from John Hopkins." Among other things, this article stated that cancer feeds on certain foods like sugar.

This scared the hell out of cancer patients all over the world and made many of them avoid sugar. Things got even worse when the honorable show 60 Minutes aired a program in 2012 about a doctor who made pretty much the same claim.

Fear-driven cancer patients began purging their cupboards of anything that might contain sugar. The problem here is that many things contain sugar, and if you know anything about cancer patients, you know that one of the biggest problems they face is getting enough calories and nutrients, which is primarily related to the fact that they often lose their appetite due to chemotherapy.

There are several obvious problems associated with inadequate nutritional intake, but one of these is particularly serious. Studies from the 1980s that looked at malnutrition in AIDS patients tell us that, regardless of anything else going on in our bodies, once our body weight falls below 66% of our ideal weight, we die. Therefore, cancer patients need to eat everything possible to keep their calorie intake high enough.

That being said, cancer does not feed on sugar per se. Sure, it will use sugar, but since Adolf Krebs, who discovered the famous Krebs cycle, started chopping up pigeon breasts in his lab, we know that the common metabolic intermediate for any energy requirement is 6-carbon sugar molecules, which includes all carbohydrates, not just sugar.

Can you starve cancer cells to death by eliminating all carbohydrates? Maybe, but everything else will suffer before the cancer is starved. So this cancer/sugar myth is a myth that should be dispelled as soon as possible.

Oh yes, people might want to remember that simply appearing on TV does not automatically confer real expert status on the person in question. Producers book people based on controversy and fads, not caring about the consequences.

5 - Oh no! Giant chickens with gyno are coming to get us!

I suppose it's commendable that moms who mean well dig around in the freezer section of the supermarket looking for chicken labeled "hormone free" or "natural," but this is wasted motherly love.

The "hormone-free" label is redundant and manipulative, since the use of hormones is banned in poultry anyway. As for the "natural" label, this simply means that there are no artificial additives or preservatives in the chicken, but this applies to almost any poultry in any supermarket.

And while we're on the subject of labels: The "free-range" label suggests that the chickens live an idyllic life, foraging on the prairie for grasshoppers and the meaning of life.

Unfortunately, this label really just means that you have access to the outside, which may just mean that there's a hole in the wall that they could theoretically squeeze through to get outside, or that they may have access to a small fenced-in concrete area that's right next to a highway.

6 - Oh no! I didn't get my daily requirement of riboflavin!

I've written about how people who only eat foods with a high nutrient density can theoretically eat as much as they want without gaining weight. The 'trick', of course, is that foods with a high nutrient density are usually not particularly calorific and so you automatically fill up on low calorie foods so you don't gain weight.

However, I have found that there is a subset of people who manage to get fat despite eating a 'healthy' diet. They have obviously found a loophole in my argument and are shamelessly exploiting it.

Here's what happens: They'll eat breakfast. They'll order eggs and wholemeal toast with organic butter. And some yogurt. And granola. Oh yes, some orange juice and a bowl of fruit. And bacon. I almost forgot the bacon.

They've internalized the idea of whole foods and nutrient dense foods, but they've taken it to an absurd extreme by trying to get all their nutrients at every meal. As a result, their calorie intake is off the charts. Despite their sensible food choices, they are getting fatter and fatter.

They have neglected the fact that they don't need to get all their nutrients at every meal. It's like the old beans and rice thing practiced by vegetarians. Rice lacks the amino acids lysine and threonine, so you need to combine rice with beans to get a complete protein, since beans contain the lysine and threonine that rice lacks.

Well, that's true so far, but you don't have to eat these foods as part of the same meal. You can eat your rice and have some lysine-rich food later in the day.

You don't even have to get all your micronutrients in one day. Instead, you can look at your diet in blocks of two or three days, or even weekly blocks. Although there are daily requirements for many vitamins, many others are stored for later use.

An extreme example is the daily requirement for vitamin B12, which is about the size of the dot at the end of this sentence. However, the body recycles some vitamin B12 and stores can last from 5 months to 30 years before any deficiency becomes apparent.

Eat foods with a high nutrient density, but there is no need to consume every macronutrient, vitamin, mineral, phytochemical or antioxidant with every meal, you fat bastard in waiting.

7 - Whole milk is what they used to kill Rasputin!

For years, America treated whole milk as if it was a liquid medium used to carry the Ebola virus. People thought that whole milk made them fat, raised their cholesterol and hardened their arteries, so they chose low-fat or fat-free milk, which is kind of like the Claustaler of milk - i.e. colored water.

Surprisingly, plenty of evidence has emerged showing that those who drank whole milk (and ate high-fat dairy products in general) were less likely to get fat than those who consumed the low-fat versions.

The studies appear to be consistent and significant - no three-person pool of subjects and no studies funded by a company that had a financial interest in a particular study outcome. One of the studies monitored men who ate high-fat dairy products over a 12-year period and the other study was a meta-analysis that included 16 studies. Both showed that a high-fat diet was associated with a lower risk of obesity.

The theory that remains to be proven is that high-fat milk contains some bioactive substance that alters the metabolism in a way that helps to use and burn fat for the purpose of energizing the body. Of course, this "bioactive substance" could just be conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) - a fatty acid that has long been known as a fat burner.

As for the health concerns, few people realize that in addition to saturated fat - whose role in heart disease is now considered minimal to non-existent - whole milk also contains oleic acid, or oleic acid - the fatty acid that nutrition experts believe makes olive oil so valuable.

Of additional importance is the vitamin paradox represented by low-fat or fat-free milk. Milk contains fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K. However, when you remove the fat from a dairy product, you also remove most of the fat-soluble vitamins, which then need to be added back.

However, as long as you don't consume fat with your fat-free milk or haven't recently eaten some fat or plan to eat some fat soon after your glass of milk, many of the vitamins will be floating around in your digestive tract waiting in vain to be picked up and distributed throughout your body instead of experiencing the shame of being excreted and ending up in the toilet.

If you are a calorie counter, then you will probably continue to choose low-fat or fat-free milk. Others may want to give whole milk a chance.

8 - Of course you're fat, have an unpleasant body odor and suffer from acne! You've eaten some fructose!

The human body prefers glucose as its energy source. However, it will also readily accept fructose.

After consumption, fructose is transported to the liver (if you are not suffering from a real energy deficiency) and then to the liver mitochondria, which store the fructose either as glycogen for short-term use or as fat.

Although this process is reversible, it is not good for the health and function of the liver if it continues. Some scientists have even gone so far as to refer to fructose as "alcohol without the high".

Unfortunately, the fact that fructose can be stored as fat and potentially damage the liver has created a disproportionate fear of fructose - a condition I call "fructose delusion syndrome".

The science does not support these fears. John Sievenpiper, a nutritionist at St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto, Canada, looked at 41 human studies and noted that people who ate the same amount of calories, regardless of whether those calories were in the form of fructose or another carbohydrate source, gained the same amount of weight.

And you can also easily do an empirical observation and see that despite the mass avoidance of all things fructose, the rate of obesity has continued to increase.

But let's apply some logic to the situation. The most "effective" fructose blend - the high fructose corn syrup that many dread - has a fructose content of 55%, while the remaining 45% is glucose. Compare this to sucrose aka table sugar, which is a mixture of 50% fructose and 50% glucose.

This means that if you were to consume 100 grams of high fructose corn syrup per day, which is slightly more than the amount contained in three cans of cola, you would consume 5 grams more fructose than if you were to consume the same amount of sucrose.

This difference is not really worth mentioning...

9 - Don't eat turkey if you still have to drive!

Some people believe that turkey will make you sleepy because it contains the amino acid tryptophan, which is a precursor to the relaxation and feel-good hormone serotonin.

Yes, turkey contains tryptophan, but so do all other complete protein sources. That being said, tryptophan is a large, cumbersome amino acid that has a hard time squeezing its molecular framework through the narrow doors of the blood-brain barrier.

When tryptophan is consumed as part of a complete protein, some of the other smaller and more nimble amino acids reach the blood-brain barrier first, blocking tryptophan's ponderous attempts to cross it.

However, if you consume tryptophan on its own, it's a completely different story. Without competitors, tryptophan could manage to squeeze through the blood-brain barrier in larger quantities and do its serotonin thing. But the claim that turkey makes you sleepy is utter nonsense.

What makes you fall asleep at Thanksgiving or Christmas in the puddle of gravy on your plate is more likely the enormous 3000 kcal meal overloaded with fat and carbs you just ate.

10 - Normal salt will make your head explode!

I'm not going to talk about why the link between sodium consumption and high blood pressure is tenuous at best. Instead, I'm going to talk about something far more insidious that has something to do with what the "salt is bad" myth has done to most of us nutritionally speaking.

You are aware of the fact that the body needs iodine, right? The body uses iodine to make the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. If your diet doesn't contain enough iodine, you can develop nodules in your thyroid glands or even a monstrous goiter on your neck.

A milder deficiency can make it hard for you to stay slim or plague you with mysterious fatigue, depression, unexplained autoimmune disorders, a psychiatric disorder, fibrocystic breast disease or even cancer. Other less serious symptoms may include dry skin or constipation.

If you live by the sea, you probably get plenty of iodine (provided you eat locally grown food). However, the further away from the sea you live, the harder it will be for you to get enough iodine.

Fortunately, the clever people at the Morton Salt Company started adding iodine to their salt in 1924. This solved the problem of iodine deficiency in the US, as people in Kansas were now getting as much iodine from their diet as people in Massachusetts.

But then came the doctors. They started telling people to limit their salt intake or they would develop high blood pressure and promote heart failure. People listened to the doctors. As a result, they began to develop iodine deficiency.

But there are other factors that make it statistically likely that you are iodine deficient. Chemicals in drinking water such as chlorine and fluorine compete with iodine for the same receptors in the body. Then there are people who exercise a lot and lose a lot of valuable iodine through sweat.

What's left is a society where, according to some estimates, up to 74% of adults are iodine deficient.

What many need to start doing again is using iodized salt. Don't think you're off the hook just because you eat a lot of salt if you eat at restaurants or eat a lot of food from canned goods or Doritos. Restaurants or processed food manufacturers do not use iodized salt.

Likewise, sea salt and the gourmet pink salt from the Gobi Desert that your cosmetic and deodorant-avoiding naturalist friend uses contain meager amounts of iodine.

Get some old-fashioned iodized salt, leave the salt shaker on the dinner table and use it liberally (always assuming, of course, that you don't suffer from sodium-related hypertension).

From TC Luoma | 12/08/14

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/10-dumbest-diet-myths

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