Nutrition - 23 Feb 2011 - Class Review, Tips, and a Workout!

Team; a brilliant Wednesday to you all!

And how brilliant it is! A solid cold front scrubbed all of the clouds out of our area and this morning brought us a truly crisp sunrise. For those of you who missed it at 6 this morning…feel free to join me for more early morning tests as we anxiously complete our cold weather testing! The clean gradient of blues from light sky to deep midnight kissed by a touch of burnt amber along the fray served to lift the spirits of anyone who caught it. Have you made it out to greet the dawn lately? It is but a simple, yet wonderful gesture to the powers that bring every day to bear.

Yesterday's meeting brought a very pleasant surprise – 4 new attendees, 2 fully new members! Welcome Jesika, Nick, Stanley, and Mark! We had a very good discussion along with 4 of our other members on the very scratch surface of every class over the last four weeks. Topics ranged from the basic food prescription to leptin and insulin resistance. Grains to modern diets. Talk of the food pyramids and Zone proportioning. Success stories from hard trails and easy times. It was a great review for many and hopefully a tasty introduction for all. Which reminds me – Michelle graciously provided the group with a collection of Hobnobs and Fudge from the Primal-Blueprint Reader-Created Coconut Recipe Cookbook sent out early last week. They were amazing.

Very quickly it was noted that there is a lot of information retained within our group members – new and old. It is exciting to hear you all able to answer questions about lectins and glycerols, proteins and metabolic. I am proud to know that you are taking such an active interest in your health as you read and review these emails and class notes in your spare time. So today, I am assigning your first homework assignment: Using the links provided in an earlier email, or at a new site all of your own finding, or even a book if you have picked one up – pick one single topic that is the most interesting to you, one that you feel strongly about, or one really tasty recipe. Write me a reader's digest condensed report on it and send the link my way! I'm anxious to know what interesting tidbits you have all been digging up over the last month. Due to me between 2 March and 6 March. Yes – it's optional, but just think how cool it would be to see your information sent out to everyone! We have 23 active list members (!) so that will be a tremendous amount of information that we can share with the group! I'll take what you send me and put it into a form that can be easily digested – pun intended. J

Nutrition Tip of the Day: It's okay to go against conventional wisdom. Eating FAT will not make you FAT! A super quick email yesterday after the meeting brought up the topic of Saturated Fats. The basis started in my very brief explanation of the Seven Countries Study by Ancel Keys in which he condemned Saturated Fat as the reason behind our country's increasing Heart Disease rate in the 1940's. Below is a link to Mark Sisson's Definitive Guide to Saturated Fats in which he does a very good job of addressing the study as well as other points of this debate. Personally I like the line where he states – "Saturated fat is also a fantastic source of energy, at least if you trust your body to make the right decision – otherwise, why else would we store excess carbohydrates as saturated body fat?" There are three things you can do with fat once it is in your body – burn it (through ketosis), excrete it (no explanation needed), or store it (through the direction of any extra insulin you have floating around due to excess carb intake). Keep your insulin levels down and there goes the storage factor! Also check out the Wikipedia article for a viewpoint from the supporters of Keys' study.

Reminder: There is no official class meeting on Friday the 25^th, Tuesday the 1^st, Friday the 4^th, or Tuesday the 8^th. During this time I encourage you to continue your journey with your fellow Nutrition Group members with lunchtime fellowship, continuing to meet on those dates (Neseth has a really great video to watch on the dietary fat topic), and even going out to the NH restaurant or Palmero's (walking there, of course!) to practice how to order out. I will continue to send out emails and provide you with email and phone support. Feel free to give me a call anytime! (717-413-9040) I will be traveling for CNH business so you won't be interrupting any personal time. J

Workout of the Day: Warm-up: 2 rounds of 15 reps – Jumping Jacks, Shoulder Stretch (10 secs each hold), Push-ups (only 5 reps), Samson Stretch (10 secs each leg), Squat (hold bottom on last for 10 secs). Workout: 2 rounds for time – 25 push-ups, 250 jumping jacks or 350 single jump-rope-jumps, 150 flutter kicks.

Grab a few minutes in the sun today. Feel great tomorrow!

Mike.

The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat

It's probably the one thing that prevents people from fully buying into the Primal Blueprint. Almost anyone can agree with the basic tenets – eating more vegetables, choosing only clean, organic meats, and getting plenty of sleepand exercise is fairly acceptable to the mainstream notion of good nutrition. The concept of Grok and a lifestyle based on evolutionary biology can be a harder sell, but anyone who's familiar with (and accepts) the basics of human evolution tends to agree (whether they follow through and adopt the lifestyle is another question), at least intellectually. But saturated fat? People have this weird conditioned response to the very phrase.