UPDATE:

in the Helsinki Sanomat newspaper yesterday (a 5 x 5 cm small column somewhere on page gazillion - hey but its better than nothing): a socialwork official was outraged by what is going on and says that it is against the law to take away children on basis of nutritional preference unless there are serious health conditions involved.

the first thought that popped into my mind: so they dont think that morbidly obese toddlers are sick as theres been no cases for taking them away from their families yet (in this country`s media atleast).... i know i know... im just still mad.

just to counter the bullshit thats been going on around here.

we know that calorierestriction is a surefire way to lifeextention, but who wants to starve themselves when theres a better way - just cutting your carbs. ofcourse Dr. Rosedale has been saying that for what.... 20 years now....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1323758/Can-cutting-Carbohydrates-diet-make-live-longer.html

Lowcarb families are threatened by the government in finland: kids whos familes eat lowcarb are now at risk of being removed from their parents.

yes, you read that right. i have been in total rage for a few days after this news came out, so i looked into the backgrounds of this story:

who are these gods that make such decisions or suggestions?

2 names came up - a professor M. Uusitupa and a nutritionist U. Schwab who works directly under the said professor (pun intended? noooo way). i thought id look up their sponsors and heres the list :

Fazer Bakeries Oy, VAASAN bakeries Oy, Raisio Oyj (vegetable oil industry), Raisio Benecol Ltd (vegetable oil industry), Danisco Ltd (sugar industry), International Council of Olive Oil, Arla Foods (lowfat dairy products), Carlshamn Mejeri AB, Svenska Nestlé AB, Van den Bergh Foods AB, Eridania Beghin-Say, Meadow Lea Foods, F Hoffman-La Roche Ltd, Novo Nordisk Foundation.

the proffessor owns stock in the following: 

Orion (pharmacology) and Foodfiles Ltd


What is this Foodfiles???


the company produces customised "research" articles for food- and pharmacology companies. the company openly says that the client can make the decision about publication. they have made a bit over 5 million in the past 4 years. the said professor owns 13% of stock. their clients include:



Arla Foods Ab, AstraZeneca Oy (pharmacology), Atria Oyj (processed tvdinners) , Camelina Oy (rapeseed oil), Danisco Sugar Oy, Oy Karl Fazer Ab (chocolate, desserts), Oy Marli Ltd (juices), Novartis Finland Oy, Oriola Oy, Pouttu Oy (processed meatproducts) ja Valio Oy (lowfat milkproducts).


Uusitupa in the chairman of the local AHA and has taken financial support from:

Boehringer Ingelheim Finland ky, HK Ruokatalo Oy, Medtronic Finland Oy, MSD Finland Oy, Normomedical Oy/Omron Healthcare, Oriola, Orion Corporation Orion Pharma, Oy Eli Lilly Finland Ab, Pfizer, Saarioinen Oy, Sanofi-aventis Oy, Unilever Finland Oy, Vaasan Oy, Valio Oy.
source






he has also sat on the boards of the Danisco researchorganization and the foundation of diabetesresearch at the same time as the foundation has designated him substantial researchallowances. he has also received lecturingfees from Unilever Oy ,a vegetablefat giant.


so you get the idea right?

the good professor spews such nonsense as the CWBS satfat cloggs arteries and cholesterol causes heartattacks that he seems stuck in the 60s. and thats exactly what he is doing - he has on several occasions quoted studies that were made in the 60s and one in particular that was already claimed a false study also in the 60s. - the Finnish Mental Hospital Study. he has also quoted the rabbit studie to prove that a diet of fat and protein causes labanimals cholesterol. i mean really???? feed a lion salad for a year and you have a dead lion - i will not go around and accuse the salad. i will accuse the dimwit "scientist".
he has also professed that wholegrains are slow carbs... i guesse he missed the part in the GItable (pointless on its own i know) where you  have wholemeal bread at 69 and a snickers bar at 40....


at the same time the studies that he falls back on in his lectures and interviews dont back his views at all: some extracts from references used in his article defending the lowfat religion in Suomen Lääkärilehti 37/2011, vsk 66, 2659-2664>>>>


"Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets may be effective alternatives to low-fat diets. The more favorable effects on lipids (with the low-carbohydrate diet) and on glycemic control (with the Mediterranean diet) suggest that personal preferences and metabolic considerations might inform individualized tailoring of dietary interventions." source 1

"Successful weight loss can be achieved with either a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet when coupled with behavioral treatment. A low-carbohydrate diet is associated with favorable changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors at 2 years." source 2

"Compared with the LF group, the LC group had greater decreases in triglycerides, increases in HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol" (LDL:n partikkelijakauma on siis parantunut) source 3

"During active weight loss, serum triglyceride levels decreased more and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level increased more with the low-carbohydrate diet than with the low-fat diet." source 4

"For persons on the low-carbohydrate diet, triglyceride levels decreased more and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels decreased less. As seen in the small group of persons with diabetes and after adjustment for covariates, hemoglobin A1c levels improved more for persons on the low-carbohydrate diet. These more favorable metabolic responses to a low-carbohydrate diet remained significant after adjustment for weight loss differences." source5

"In this study, premenopausal overweight and obese women assigned to follow the Atkins diet, which had the lowest carbohydrate intake, lost more weight at 12 months than women assigned to follow the Zone diet, and had experienced comparable or more favorable metabolic effects than those assigned to the Zone, Ornish, or LEARN diets" source6

"Despite favourable effects of both diets on weight loss, the carbohydrate-reduced diet was more beneficial with respect to cardiovascular risk factors compared to the fat-reduced diet." source7

"The low-carbohydrate diet was associated with a greater improvement in some risk factors for coronary heart disease." source 8

"the low-carbohydrate diet produced a greater increase in HDL cholesterol" source 9

"There were significant differences between the groups for weight, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triacylglycerols and systolic blood pressure, favouring the low-carbohydrate diet." source10

"Severely obese subjects with a high prevalence of diabetes or the metabolic syndrome lost more weight during six months on a carbohydrate-restricted diet than on a calorie- and fat-restricted diet, with a relative improvement in insulin sensitivity and triglyceride levels, even after adjustment for the amount of weight lost." source11

(the extracted info here and some info about the professors interviews is quoted from http://vahahiilihydraattinen-ruokavalio-vhh.blogspot.com/2011/10/matti-uusitupa-ja-karppauksen.html)

so the professor is either simply dumb or he is so lazy that he cant be bothered to read the research that he uses. or he is simply so arrogant that he thinks his readers will not read the studies he links to??? Id say all the above.

the butt issue to be continued; nutrition and your ass

im shure most of the readers of this blog, or dare i say all, are down with primal/paleo eating. so im not going to waste space by getting into the no grains/lowfat dairy/legumes/too much fructose mantra and endorsment of MEAT OF ALL KIND :)

lets just say that even though we might work out to the max and eat clean paleo there might still be some wonderment among us women about why oh why is there still junk on our derrieres. a girl might display a fullon sixpack coupled with a jiggly (i mean overly jiggly - some jiggle is hot and needs to stay) lower section. so what gives? there are a few points to discuss here so lets start with the overly obvious:

estrogen:

estrogen is fine and good and necessary for us girls (and even to you guys) but in its normal amounts. this industrialised world and SAD are giving us an overload, though.
i already gave soy the oneover just a couple of days back, so let me just say that soy in everything and anything nowadays is contributing highly to the excess estrogen problem. we also have chemicals (certain herbicides) on our veggies, hormones in our CAFO meat, plastic that we use to store our food in (yes even the BPA-free ones) that all contribute to give us a significant overload of estrogen. so what do you do?
- go organic and avoid ALL processed food
- avoid estrogen-triggering plants like those that are high in diosgenin and B-sitosterol (soy, yams, some traceamounts are found in most roots); estrone or estriol (liquorice, hops, apples, green beans, grains); isoflavones with estrogenic activity (most legumes belong here).
- avoid CAFO meat 
- avoid plastic containers for your food or drink
- consume testosterone boosting foods: YAY FOR FAT AND GRASSFED/FREERANGE MEAT AND EGGS, also some veg have such properties - for example garlic, tumeric, oregano, thyme, rosmary, sage, onion, celery, radish, almonds, pine nuts, stinging nettle and ginseng can be potent androgens. there has been some research indicating some plants to have estrogen-balancing properties: broccoli and all vruciferous plants (although needs to be avoided if there is any doubt about thyroid function), cabbage, omega 3 oil, citrus fruits, CLA, coffee and tea for example.
- some plant extracts block the aromatase enzyme that is used in estrogen formation in our bodies: chrysin from passion flower, apigenine from chamomile, indoles from cabbage, resveratrol, quercetine (onions, garlic), cycads, cactus flower extract, epilobium plants, oenothein A and even vitamin C. so consider taking some of these as supplements. research has proven chrysine, cactus flowers, cycades, yohimbine bark and oenothein A to be most potent aromatase inhibitors.
- also it would be good to give your liver some downtime and aid with milkthiste, dandelion root and ginger and by cutting the alc for a while. excessive alcohol consumption blocks the liver enzyme that breaks down estrogen.




OK, lets say that you are doing everything you can do to cut extra estrogen out of your life but you would like to go from a normal feminine butt to a tight fitnesschick derriere (which means goin lets say from 15% bf to 12% ors mth). when fatloss goals get to that stage, there are a couple of things to consider: in the end, when hormones are in tune, fat cells are fat cells and they just do their jobs. what is essentially different in the fatcells us girls have in our buttocks and thighs, is their adrenoreceptor distribution and bloodflow. adrenoceptors control fat cell metabolism and blood flow into and out of the fat cell. adrenaline and noradrenalin bind to these receptors and give out a signal to either expend free fatty acids or hold on to them. there are two kinds of adrenoreceptors on our fat cells. beta - and alpha receptors (these do have subclasses: alpha 1 and 2 ; beta 1, 2 and 3 but only alpha-2 and beta-2 interest us). beta-receptors release fat for energy use - increase lipolysis - and also increase blood flow in and out of adipose tissue and alpha-receptors inhibit those processes. we women have about 10 times more alpha- that betareceptors in our ass and thigh fat cells. plus, the lower body adipocytes are profoundly insulinsensitive, so any insulinproblems you have will show up on your hips. so here is some advice:

- aerobic exercise stimulates beta fat cells to release fat for use as energy. the best policy would be to either do your cardio fasted to maximise insulinesensitivity or to end an HIIT session with a steadystate one, in order to avoid the possibility of freed fatty acids in your blood being redeposited back on your butt.

- lean muscle mass increases insulin sensitivity, so keep up the good work

- increase your testosterone and growth hormone with supplements, weightlifting, HIIT and IFing

- carb-restriction and high fat diets inhibit the alpha-receptors and ofcourse increase insulin sensitivity

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11889199
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10516247

an interlude - sunday dinner with friends

so i cooked up one of my favourite fingerfoods for a sunday dinner with friends - babyribs for us carnivores and hotwings for the lady :)

the marinade:
ecqual amounts of white wine and sweet chili sauce, add worchester sauce, squeeze the juice from 1 orange, season with some salt and the spice with fresh chopped chilies and garlic.

put the ribs and/or wings in a plastic bag and pour the marinade in. shake-shake and into the fridge they go at least overnight. 1 hour and 15 min in the oven at 200 degrees C for the first 30-40 min and then drop the heat to 150. cut up and enjoy

the primal butt

so this pic came up in a discussion in a truly fab facebook group i belong to. nothing wrong with that whatsoever - everything right actually. what got me thinking were a couple of responses: one claimed that such a derriere would be impossible to attain at a certain age and the other claimed that no amount of squatting heavy has given her such results. id like to pick these two things appart.


wrong.
lets start with weighttraining: your muscles will respond to training no matter your age or genetics. the usual problem with glute training is that there are a few very typical mistakes made which result in such problems as mentioned above.
if you want to train your glutes you need to:
use your glutes :
this is what happens typically - a woman comes to the gym, she is wellinformed in a way and gos heavy on her squats, deads and lunges. she feels like she is giving her all, but for some reason, she cant get her bum to respond. her quads grow and she might see a curve to her hams but the glutes just will not grow. whats up with that? the problem is that our glutes have evolved to perform a certain job:

your bum is made for walking, sprinting, jumping and climbing. in our sedentary lives we rarely sprint or climb any more or even walk really, so our glutes have been dormant for a long time probably. when you hit the gym with these dormant glutes and hit them with the traditional deadlifts and squatvariations you can go as heavy and deep as you can and still get mediocre results at best. you get discouraged. you think its your age, genetics, whatever. before you give up on your glutes try to activate them. yes im talking about getting started with all the odd-looking sissymovements. like starting with practicing flexing your glutes when you sit at your desk to doing the hamraises and hipraises at the gym before even touching the barbell. most individual's glutes contract harder during bodyweight glute activation exercises than from one-rep max squats and deadlifts. you must possess adequate hip flexor flexibility in order to open up the hips and maximally activate the glutes. furthermore, you must be able to control your own bodyweight and learn how to contract the glutes properly before you begin adding weight because if you dont sensitize your glutes, your quades will do the squats and your hams and lower back will do the deads - and a dead butt is still there. in addition to getting your butt to wake up from years or decades of slumber, what always helps is to understand the way it actually works: as the picture above illustrates, we have 3 musclegroups in out bums- maximus, medius and minimus. they all have a function and they are all important in giving you the look you want to achieve.

your glutes are involved in the following motions: hip extension, hip abduction and hip external rotation.

the best way to work on these is to include sprinting, leaping and also sidewise leaps in your routines. hip hyperextension occurs naturally during walking, running, sprinting, throwing, lunging, and hip flexor stretching. an additional problem occurs because maximum glute activation can be achieved ONLY when your muscle is at resting length. that means that tight hip flexors prevent hip extension and therefore that also prevents maximum glute activation.

our glutes have evolved to give maximum explosive strenght in two planes of motion - the vertical (jump) and the horizontal (sprint/leap).

in the gym you can see two types of hip extension exercises - those that mimic  jumping  (squats, deadlifts, and static lunges) and those that mimic sprinting (reverse hypers, back extensions, hip thrusts).

as you already see, the jumping movements use mostly glutes and the sprinting motions are based on ham/glute activation. in order to maximise glute activation you need to: 1) use maximum range of motion (ROM) (asstothegrass), heelpush-technique and glutesqueeze in vertical (jumping) exercises 2) perform the hip hyperextension exercises with bent knees in order to lessen the hamstring domination and recruit maximum gluteal effort.

the hip extension exercises with the highest glute activation are the kneeling squat (67%), deadlift (55%), sumo deadlift (52%) and Zercher squat (45%). 

the hip hyperextension exercises with the highest glute activation are the single leg bent leg reverse hyper (122%), hip thrust (119%), pendulum quadruped hip extension (112%), bent leg reverse hyper (111%). 

even such sissymovements as hip abduction, external rotation and hip adduction (yes the girlygirl machines) recruit the upper gluteus maximus muscles to a greater degree than your traditional squats and lunges.

i by no means mean to say that you should quit on these basic heavy movements - no way. they are a basis of a good LEGroutine - and that is how they should be viewed. what i am saying is google a few glute/hip/adductor movements : (glute bridge, single-leg glute bridge, weighted glute bridge, hip extension, bird dog, weighted bird dog,  hip thrust, lying abduction, band abduction, external rotations with bodyweight or band etc etc) and build from bodyweight glutesensitizing to weighted work. choose 3-4 movements and use a basic periodization with them going from bodyweight sets of  3x15 (with a hold in the top position) going to weighted sets of 5 x 5 over a period of 6 - 8 weeks. do that twice a week in addition to or included in your normal workouts. it will not take much time. but it will give results. i promise. and before working your legs with heavy squats and deads, warm up your glutes with a couple of glute-sensitizing movements and pre-exhaust them with a couple of weighted ones. it will be worth your wile.

in my next post id like to cover some issues about nutrition that could help with getting rid of the stubborn fat that covers up even the most fab glutes.

manboobs, soy and blindness

my SO had to get to grips with my weirdness from the getgo - on our first date i was IFing and on my first visit to his place i dumped his soyproteinpowder to the trash... now he is as paleo as it gets - notices every soymanboob around at the gym :)

so my question for today is male gynecomastia in bodybuilders that consume copious amounts of soy - whats up with that? i mean do they think its normal?

i just got to thinking about that some time ago, when i saw a picture of a local chippendale flexing his manboobs in a tabloid. and he mentioned the soyprotein he is using (productplacement im shure, but he must be using copious amounts of the stuff if he gets it for free). he seemed to be proud of his body - yes he should be - just skip the moobs please. so i thought maybe guys dont actually realise that female sexhormones might not be optimal for a man..... so lets dig up all dirt on soy, shall we.

myth 1 - asians are healthy and they eat a lot of soy

well, no they dont. they do consume some FERMENTED soy products as CONDIMENTS. they also usually combine it with fishbroth and seaweed that contains iodine (that offsets soys negative effects on the thyroid). soy popped up around 2000 years ago and was first used in convents to help with abstinence - now we know that the phytoestrogens in soy lower testosterone levels. you want that? i mean im a girl, but id like to build and keep my muscle so i stay away from soy.
in addition to all of the hearthealthy soymilk, soyicecream, soysaossages etc etc we eat, we get a shitload of the stuff in ALL PROCESSED FOOD. and it definately isn`t fermented.

Following are some of the major problems caused by soy, as described by the Weston Price Foundation on their website:

• High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
• Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
• Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
• Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.
• Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
• Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
• Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
• Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
• Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys

In addition to all this science talk, go and read what real people have to say - soy can really mess up your endocrine system - and that is not a good thing - you can find these stories in the book The Whole Soy Story .

And do you know what worries me more than moobs on male bodybuilders ( i am an esthetic so it is important to me )? its the fact that we feed our babies this shit and believe its good for them. In addition to robbing our kids of the chance to develop a normal infantile gutbacteria and thus a healthy immune system, soy has some very longlasting effects, in addition to the colics that results from the lack of normal gut bacteria and digestive problems (leaky gut) that results from feeding soy to an infant, there is the issue of soy isoflavones messing up the hormonal system.

soy isoflavones are phytoestrogens, which are plant-based estrogens that act like female sexhormones do. and when you mess up an infants endocrine system, the effect are reeeeally longlasting and sometimes they dont pop up untill later in life. early puberty anyone - sound familiar?
natural estrogen levels approximately double during the first month of life, then decline and remain at low levels until puberty. with increased estrogens from soy formula, an alarming number of girls are entering puberty much earlier than normal.(C. H. G. Irvine et al., "The Potential Adverse Effects of Soybean Phytoestrogens in Infant Feeding," NZ Med J 24 (1995): 318; D. R. Mann et al., "Blockade of Neonatal Activation of the Pituitary Testicular Axis: Effect on Peripubertal Lutenizing Hormone and Testosterone Secretion and on Testicular Development in Male Monkeys," J Clin Endocrinol Metab 68 (1989): 600-607). J. S. D. Winter et al., "Pituitary-Gonadal Relations in Infancy: Patterns of Serum Gonadal Steroid Concentrations in Man from Birth to Two Years of Age," J Clin Endocrinol Metab 42 (1976): 679-686.) 1% of girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before the age of three. by the age of eight, 14.7 percent of white girls and 48.3 percent of african american girls had one or both of these characteristics. (Herman Giddens et al., "Secondary Sexual Characteristics and Menses in Young Girls Seen in Office Practice," Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network 99, no. 4 (1997): 505-512) the fact that blacks experience earlier puberties than whites is not a racial difference but a recent phenomenon.(Peter Montague, "The Obscenity of Accelerated Child Development," Ecologist 28, no. 3 (1993): 140-142. ; L. Zacharias, R. J. Wurtman, "Age at Menarche," NEJM 280, no. 16 (1969): 868-875; N. Michaelson, "Studies in Physical Development of Negroes: IV. Onset of Puberty," Am J Phys Anthropol 2 (1944): 151-166.) 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soybean-fertility-hormone-isoflavones-genistein
infants fed on soyformula have more that 20 000 times the amount of free estrogen circulating in their blood than would be normal - how can that be good?



what about us adults?

my mom had breastcancer and when she became menopausal, her doctor warned her about taking soysupplements that are usually ment to alleviate menopausal problems. because it can promote breastcancer:

Breast cancer:  some researchers accredit soy for the lower rate breast cancer among Asian women, but these kinds of studies that dont take into account any other lifestile issues only make me itch so ill let those pass without getting too agitated or this blogpost will be a novel. but even researchers have finally found genistein - the main soy isoflavone and a plant estrogen. high estrogen levels are associated with the development and spread breast cancer, and therefore a key element of modern breast cancer treatment is to reduce or stop a woman's natural estrogen production. so it makes no sense whatsoever to increase consumption of a product which adds estrogen to your system at a time when your medical treatment aims to cut down your estrogen levels... right? (Fallon, S, Daniel KT, Sanda W. Responses to Docket 2004Q-0151 Solae Company Health Claim on Cancer. Documents submitted to the FDA, June 14, 2004, January 20, 2005 and April 11, 2005. Posted at www.westonaprice.org under "Soy Alert."Daniel, Kaayla T. The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food (New Trends, 2004).379-394.) 

fertility in males: i have previously tried to explain how plants use chemical defence as animals use teeth and claws - wheat has WGA, apples have fructode, soy has phytoestrogens that are especially bountiful in the plants during dry season when extinction is a bigger fear - these phytoestrogens cause male animals who eat it to become less fertile. more phytoestrogen -> less testosterone -> less babies -> less plants eaten -> yeah for the plants... not so much for the animals....

the phytoestrogens interfere with how natural estrogens are received in the brain - and compromises brain efficiency. The brain.com full report on soy

boy babies fed soy formula may go into puberty late or not at all. some of these boys are so feminized that their breasts grow but their penises don't. some mature into adults with penises not much bigger than the ones they were born with. others might look normal and go through puberty on time, but can't father children because their sperm are too few in number (Daniel, Kaayla. op cit. 332-339, 365-374). Sperm counts dropped 50 percent between 1939 and 1990 and are continuing to go down at the rate of 2 percent per year (Sharpe R, Shakkeback N. Are oestrogens involved in falling sperm counts and disorders of the male reproductive tract? Lancet, 1993, 341, 1292-1345.)  

so please, please, all you vegan moms, please for the next generation of women - quit with the soy formula - we want men with big or at least normal penises.... and it would be nice to procreate also. 

Alzheimer disease has been skyrocketing lately - could this be to do with soy (at least partly). researchers at the Universities of Loughborough and Oxford found that among 719 older Indonesians living in Java, high consumption of tofu was associated with memory decline.

Dr. Lon White of Hawaii was interested in how tofu eating affected the men in his area. He traced a group of men from 1965 to 1993. Dr. White found "a significant link between tofu consumption during midlife and loss of mental ability and even loss of brain weight."
Hawaii Research 

healthy brain cells are measured by a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A low BDNF causes brain atrophy and is linked with Alzheimer's. in a study published in "Neuroscience Letters", they found that soy intake lowered the BDNF in rats.
More about the BDNF Study
soy contains "phytates" which block zinc absorption. zinc is critical for brain and nervous system functioning.

Research on Zinc Deficiency and Brain Impairment 

White et al. analysed the effects of tofu on 502 couples (husbands and wives) and concluded :

"These data,suggest that regular consumption of tofu over many years in middle life may have an adverse influence on brain aging manifest as accelerated atrophy, cognitive decline, and a lowering of the threshold for the clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease."

in addition to all this, soy might be the WORST mistake if you are trying to lose weight, especially if you happen to be a woman:

soy and thyroidism: in order to have a healthy metabolism, we need a healthy thyroid. that is especially critical for menopausal women. the thyroid works by making T4 hormone, which is converted to T3. these thyroid hormones control our metabolism, affect protein synthesis, bone growth etc etc. they are also essential to the proper development and differentiation of all cells of the human body. soy inhibits conversion of T4 to T3. phytoestrogens can bind the conversion in the bloodstream. soy (unfermented) actually binds about 2/3 of the conversion in the bloodstream. IF you have any TPO antibodies, (two out of every TEN women have Hashimoto's disease antibodies) soy consumption can 'trigger' Hashimoto's disease - autoimmune hypothyroidism.

About.com: http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/soydangers.htm 

lets get back to the beginning - manboobs and bodybuilding: soy protein powders contain the highest concentrations of soy isoflavones of all possible sources. they have the following negative effects on muscle building 

- slowing down of protein synthesis

- slowing down the amount of protein accumulation and accretion (muscle growth) .

- inhibiting myoblast production, maturation and activity

- negative impact on the production of enxymes beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and 5-alphareductase, responsible for efficient testosterone production and metabolism

- cutting down testosterone production   (Dillingham et al., 2005; Gardner-Thorpe et al., 2003; Habito et al., 2000; Nagata et al., 2000, Ziesel et al)

- reducing the numbers of androgen receptors in muscle cells

- inhibiting immune function and the production of T-lymphocyte production by up tp 80%

- also the already discussed effect of lowering or stopping the production of T4 and conversion of T3 significantly slows down metabolist

lets come to the manboobs already : soy protein isolates are associated with testicular cell death and infertility only in infancy(thats soys defencemechanism against us - remember?) but also with (drumroll) yes, you guessed it, adult male breast enlargement Men's Health Nutrition Awards - Foods + Features - Is This the Most Dangerous Food for Men?

even though the effects of soy on grown men are less compared with male infants,  soy can cause gynecomastia (manboobs) within months. a study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that men eating whopping amounts of soy experienced breast enlargement and even some nipple discharge (Squires, Sally. Nutrition not for women only. Boys and men can benefit from soy too. Washington Post, June 8, 2004.)  

ok, im done. with soy. how about you?

oh ok, where does the blindness come in? this is my own scientific conclusion, but i cant believe that the most narcissistic creatures on this planet -bodybuilding chippendal proffessional male dancers - actually like to have moobs... so there must be some sort of blindness associated with soyproteinisolates. definately.

women in fitness and the dumb blond effect

ok, im a feminist and im proud to be one. im also naturally blond and blue-eyed. in addition to that im a weightlifter, personal trainer, nutritionist and a scientist. hmmm, grounds for multiple controversies. theres a forum that i frequent once in a while to keep tabs on whats going on in the fitnessindustry of this country. in the past few years my visits to that site have dwindled as ive grown more impatient in general and more interested in my own peace of mind and harmony. but anyhoo...i stumbled upon the place again today and found myself witnessing an interesting phenomenon i have noticed basically everywhere recently - women get stupid when there is fitness/nutrition involved. period. (ok, ill gladly exclude the paleosphere and crossfitland out of this generalisation).

let me illustrate. all the questions asked and answered are by women. questions usually by beginners and answers usually by personal trainers/experienced fitnesschicks.

typical thread 1:
q - i have been working running and doing zumba for a year, and i use proteinshakes after each workout and carb up on wholewheat pasta prior to. i havent lost any weight at all, and i seeme to have gained an inch around my middle, whats going on?

a1 - recent studies have shown you need to drink your shake not only after but also DURING your workout to ensure protein synthesis - try scivation xtend for best results


a2 - dont worry about weightloss, you must be gaining muscle.

riiiiiight.........

typical thread 2:

q - my thighs are getting soooo big, ive been squatting heavy now for 2 weeks, heeeelp!!!!

a1 - stop any weighttraining for legs NOW!

a2 - take up jogging and pilates

fine.......

at the gym the other day: a nicely fit and muscular womanPT is training a client (woman in her 40s - very out of shape) and the conversation gos smth like this:

PT: so your goal is to come in once a week

woman: yes, i dont have more time, i jog twice a week

PT: ok then you should do long sets with high reps and small weights to tone up

ok.........

and i have seen the same PT training a guy who was thinner than Michael Jackson and having him do bosuball single leg squats - yes, with dumbell biceps curls. she called it functional training. functional for what? i dont know any daily situation i might need to bicepcurl on a bosuball standing on one leg... oh ok, its functional because you use your CORE (she tried to educate me). i just told her i like my deads, heavy squats and overhead presses for that and kettlebellwork is nice for that too.

in the lockerroom of the same gym another day: 2 overweight girls are getting ready for spinning class and are downing 2 bananas each and washing them down with gatorade discussing their PT at the same time. he had explained the importance of nutrition so well - they previously had no idea how important pre-wo and post -wo nutrition really was. they were certain to get results now.

women are smart. we do well in school, continue to the university and make enough money to pay insane amounts to gyms and PTs. and then we dump common sense and our brains somewhere before entering that gym. these women do the same thing for years and years and expect different results just because they eat a banana before a workout instead of a bowl of cereal this time. and because now they do their onelegsquats with biceps curls on a bosu instead of a stabilisingboard.

i dont see many men doing that for some reason. why is that?

Oh my fucking god, meat will make me die!!!!!!!!!!

so it begins, another day, another piece of wisdom from a coworker. it is now proved by science (wow) that meat causes cancer. yes, inrrefutably, definately, no doubt about it. And all our ancestors for millions of years died at 30 because of that. yes, i do work at a university, in a natural science department. and so do my coworkers.

lucky i IF through breakfast and luch so i dont actually have to hear it every day - just when a tabloid prints a big picture of meat=death on the front page. yes, a tabloid. and the groundbraking article said that studies all around the world have proved a link between eating meat and cancer. the bonus is, that no studies were actually linked to or even mentioned by name. i mean i have heard that shit from all kinds of people for about 10 years - starting from the day i decided i don`t want to end up in a wheelchair with my MS and gave up grains (+ all other shit) and took on the task to eat as much meat as i can fit in myselt every single day.

one of the most frustrating things is that i have actually studied biochem and evolutionary molecular biology for a couple of degrees worth in addition to my geology background. my colleagues come from a purely physical sciences world. fine, i'll stop tripping over this and get to the point that really pisses me off. there is a person in my family that is ridden with autoimmune disorders. i wrote a fucking manuscript about biochem, diseases and nutrition detailing my own story - i mean, i dont mean to brag (too often) but i do have MS and i do live a far better than average life even compared to perfectly healthy specimens. and you know what? the persons spouse said that she doesn't believe in such theories - so he will continue with the meds and fibresupplements that have him in pain and on disability-leave for years and years... with no change. the spouses competence to give such advice? an overweight and very sick officeworker. ok, i realise this is nothing new, but i just have to get this out of my system, before starting to post about things that actually have any real importance again (like food and workouts). people are stupid. period. i mean ignorance due to lack of information and a flood of misinformation i understand. but plain stupidity i do not - because that can kill you. whatever. i`m done.

stupid is as stupid does. i should rename this place to thisisstupid.com so id have something to write about every day.

a personal note why it has been a while + some workout info

this has been one intense year but especially an intense couple of months in my personal universe. stuff has happened that i never imagined could happen to me, but i have survived and grown stronger. so i decided this is the time to make a comeback and get this blog rolling (once again).

during the past year i have experimented a lot in the gym - 5x5, negatives, kettelebells, pyramids, rest-pause etc etc + supplements, GH boosters, jack3d...
the latest inbody measurements showed a change in the desired direction - less bf% and more muscle. but what this litany just showed me is that i have been bored. no more. ive found a new drive. plus a new backbone literally. been to the kiropractor for a few times and my next appointment is actually in about 1 hour. so see you all soon as i promise, wont leave the blog hanging for another year. l

its been a while- wow + a rant on thermodynamics

We all know the laws of thermodynamics dont we? Im the first to admit that the more i learn about thermodynamics the less I understand – its the same with quantum physics, i know i should understand the collapse effect upon measurement... but i dont.

But saying that we get fat because we eat more calories than we use is just as helpful and informative as saying that there is a traffic jam because there are more cars on the highway than are leaving it. Yeah.... but why? How can we fix this so that traffic (metabolism) would flow smooth? I think we would need to understand the basics of trafficplanning. It aint actually such rocketscience.

All of this stating of the first law gets me reeling, I mean, any highschoolstudent knows that the 1st Law is only useful in a closed system. And a human organism is what then??

I will take a loan from Robert McLeod:

A human organism is:

1. Not in thermal equilibrium with their environment. Last time I checked I have a body temperature around 38 °C and spend most of my time in 21 °C rooms.
2. Capable of significant mass flows (e.g. respiration).
3. Capable of sequestering entropy (e.g. protein synthesis).
   

In order to understand the extreme complexity of calculating energyequilibrium in open systems (accounting in enthropy) i have to take a loan from enthropyproduction blog:

In a recent thread i asked if anybody knew the difference between the physical measurement for energy used to heat water (calorie) and a bioenergetic calorie. In bioenergetics, for example, one usually looks at the Gibbs Free Energy, G rather than the internal energy, E. G includes the effect of entropy from the second law, it is a potential, a possibility for something not a must.  When you throw something off a tower in true Galileo style then its potentian energy (G) is converted into movement energy and reaches 0 on groundlevel. What happens to that energy? Is it adsorbed by the ground? But the ground doesnt heat from the impact of a pebble???

Being a biochemist and a natural scientist overall, I find the misinterpretation of the first law irksome and destructive. Lets figure in the second law of enthropy for open systems. (we all know there are 3 second laws right – closed, semiclosed and open)

In a closed system, the total quantity of energy does not change. Energy may change forms, but the total amount remains unchanged. The issue isn't the violation of this law (as in calories in doesnt equal calories out) it's whether all energy inputs and outputs are accounted for. Its weather the second law is taken into account.

Lets get to the open system – the human body.

In human metabolism we can talk about a “metabolic advantage” of lowcarb diets. Yes i can hear Colpo, Bray et al screaming in my mind. But just pick up a biochem textbook and there it is. Gluconeogenesis. Im shure we all know by now that we can make our own carbs. Why dont we then realise that that uses energy? If you have glucose ready in lood/liver then you take it into use at no energycost. If you dont it will cost you 6ATP to convert protein into glucose by GNG. So there goes a cal is a cal once again.

Ok, ok you say, but this is such a small amount of energy and is not statistically significant and

the body will still store excess energy in fatcells and you will get fat you say. Just as simply as if you excercise and diet you will lose weight. Riiight.

This is what a metabolically healthy body will do when it recieves excess energy: it ncreases futile cycling. Futile cycles are what give us our body temperature of 98.6 degrees. Futile cycles are just what the name implies: a cycle that requires energy yet accomplishes nothing. One example of such cycling is this: the body doesn’t use fat or glucose directly as fuel. We convert those into ATP. How? This is so F****ng complicated i will not even try to translate this from my brain which doesnt work in english... All i can muster is a quote from a textbook:

“ATP is made from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) in an enzymatic structure called ATP synthase, which is a sort of turbine-like structure that is driven by the electromotive force created by the osmotic and electrical difference between the two sides of the inner mitochondrial membrane.” The turbine converts ADP to ATP by protons rushing from high-proton side to the lowproton side. The energy to accomplish that comes from the food we eat. That energy is broken down into elecrtons which give off energy and pump the protons along... at the end of this process the electrons attach to oxygen and form free radicals. This process is for some reason called uncoupling. We need something to control this or otherwise we could be making too much ATP from overeating and basically boil to death from the inside. In order that this wouldnt happen we have pores through the inner mitochondrial membrane where protons can drift through as the concentration builds too high and by proteins called uncoupling proteins that actually pump the protons back across. So we expend food energy to pump protons one way, then more energy to pump them back.

One of the things that happens on a high fat diet is that the body makes more uncoupling proteins. So, with carbs low and fat high, the body compensates, not by ditching fat in the stool, but by increasing futile cycling and by increasing the numbers of uncoupling proteins and even increasing the porosity of the inner mitochondrial membrane so that more protons qould be pumped and more energy “wasted”.

There are different uncoupling proteins and all of them have a different job. The one we are interested in here is UCP3. I know people here are fairly familiar with Krause`s leptin rx, and thus know that a healthy leptin signalling pathway is necessary in order for this UCP3 to do its job. If it doesnt excist – these futile cycles WILL NOT WORK. And you will just keep producing energy and storing it also. Untill you die of obesity. It will not matter if you will eat only 1000kcal per day and excercise every day – all you eat is stored from the secont that insulin hits the bloodstream. And it is kept in storage because of the scarsity of the gatekeeper, hormone-sensitive lipase, and the deafness of the receptors. Period. If you dont fix the pathways the cal in will always = cal stored. And if your metabolism is healthy then cal in = energy production + excess cal out as heat from futile cycles.

Oh fuck – i hope i have explained something and not made too many enemies. And i hope you get past my spelling mistakes. Ive got some work to do today also so Im in a hurry :)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC506782/