Hi All,
I’m around until at least 9:00 PM tonight.
EDIT… Whew! Okay it’s THURSDAY and I’ve managed to get to a coffee house hot spot for a couple hours.
Got questions?
Hey LL, any thoughts on Bromelian (I’m sure I’m mispelling it) for anti-inflammatory purposes?
Thanks!
[quote]Lonnie Lowery wrote:
Hi All,
I’m around until at least 9:00 PM tonight.
Got questions?[/quote]
hey LL, I have football camp coming up. (Coach not player) This means that my 8 meals a day will not be as easy to come by. I will be there for at least 4 days. I was wondering if you could give me any advice on how i can go to this thing with out losing my meals. Im thinkin meal replacements but I figure 3 or 4 days of just eatin meal replacements might be rough. Although they do cook meals at the camp they are all well about what you would eat in jail. So if you could help I would truly appreciate it.
thanks, TQ
Dr. L,
There has been great interest on this site, as of late, regarding Dr. DiPasquale’s Anabolic Diet. What are your thoughts, if any, about this approach (e.g. health, sustainability, effectiveness, etc.)
Dr. L!
GLAD TO SEE YOU ON TONIGHT!
You have REALLY had me thinking about this whole concept of “over-doing” anti-oxidants, vitamins and the like. This has caused me to take a carefull look at my own overall vitamin/anti-oxidant strategies.
But I wanted your comments/thoughts and “basic” strategies on a few things.
-
What do you consider a “basic” supplementation regimen for the average Gym Rat?
-
Do we all need to re-think the idea of taking “mega-doses” of Vitamins E and C pre/post workout?
-
Related to number two…your thoughts that at some level, anti-oxidants actually become PRO oxidants? (especially C and E). I first heard this from Dr. Colgan a few years ago, and it appears to be showing up in the literature.
4)Any benefits to additional “NAC” as an anti-oxidant?
- I currently use LEF’s “Life Extension” as a “multi”. What are your general feelings on the “Multi-Nutrient” supplements? (besides cost differences?)
WHEW!
Thanks Dr. L!
Mufasa
Hey Charles,
I’ve written on this before - well at least related to the small amount of actual data out there. I’m digging around for an abstract I had on reduced creatine kinase (muscle “damage”) but there’s other stuff out there.
A 2004 paper using a preparation of bromelain, papain and other proteolytic enzymes did report: “The experimental group demonstrated superior recovery of contractile function and diminished effects of delayed-onset muscle soreness after downhill running when compared with the placebo group.” (Miller, J Sports Sci)
But at least one 2002 study revealed a no effects on elbow flexor pain, loss of ROM, or loss of concentric peak torque. But then these latter authors showed no effects from ibuprofen either. (Stone, et al. Clin J Sport Med)
I remain interested. How about you? Any experiences?
Interesting. I have no experience with it at all, seems too speculative thus far. But as you might imagine I’m always on the lookout for potential anti-inflammatory agents
[quote]Lonnie Lowery wrote:
Hey Charles,
I’ve written on this before - well at least related to the small amount of actual data out there. I’m digging around for an abstract I had on reduced creatine kinase (muscle “damage”) but there’s other stuff out there.
A 2004 paper using a preparation of bromelain, papain and other proteolytic enzymes did report: “The experimental group demonstrated superior recovery of contractile function and diminished effects of delayed-onset muscle soreness after downhill running when compared with the placebo group.” (Miller, J Sports Sci)
But at least one 2002 study revealed a no effects on elbow flexor pain, loss of ROM, or loss of concentric peak torque. But then these latter authors showed no effects from ibuprofen either. (Stone, et al. Clin J Sport Med)
I remain interested. How about you? Any experiences?[/quote]
ironaholic,
Here are a few tips for tight schedules, I don’t know your specifics like microwave access, but here’s something to chew on (ahem):
oat bran hot (microwave) or high fiber cold cereal in boxes,
dried fruit to spike your cereal,
non-refrigerated milk in vacuum sealed “boxes” (my wife gets soy milk this way and it’s not a bad temporary alternative considering great need)
portable fruit as a snack (apples, pears, packaged dates or prunes, dried fruit and/ or trail mix),
Triscuit crackers + canned tuna/ canned chicken
potatoes (nuke for lunch)
100% whole wheat or rye bread loaves (can use with canned meats)
Jar of peanut butter
Don’t leave this stuff in the heat and inspect for mold (e.g. bread) and there should be minimal spoilage risk.
Any other ideas?
Lon, thought this might spur some discussion: There’s an interesting gentleman out there by the name of Art Devany…he’s 68, 205, like 6% fat and can slam dunk a basketball, aside from being an economics professor and God knows what else. Anyway, this is from his most recent blog entry, would enjoy your comments on it:
July 05, 2005
Four Meals a Day
A lot of people eat four or more meals a day. My trainer does and my former golf teacher does (he had been a competitive body builder). People who snack all the time eat at least four times a day.
Such eating is claimed to maintain a moderate level of insulin, to prevent insulin spikes, and to mimic what hunter-gathers did. It is also supposed to keep you in positive nitrogen balance if you are trying to gain muscle.
I think it is a pretty bad idea for several reasons.
-
It is a hassle. It is hard enough to eat three meals that you prepare well with fresh ingredients. Four is just too hard to do.
-
It is so time-consuming that you are always rushing meals. This gives you no leisure at your meal time to enjoy the meal or your company. Usually, you have no company when you eat like this.
-
You will eat poor foods. It is too demanding to do otherwise. You will end up eating protein drinks and bars and all manner of other poor food. Too little fiber, too few plant-based phytochemicals, and your meals will have a rather high glycemic index.
-
While it is important to avoid insulin spikes (they are by far the most damaging) it is not so good to have a continuous infusion of insulin in your system. They can produce atherosclerosis in lab animals by infusing insulin continuously. Not a good thing for your blood vessels I suspect.
-
Your basal insulin level will rise as a consequence of maintaining a constant level in your blood stream This is not good at all.
-
You constantly have food in your stomach. How can you do anything demanding in this condition? You can’t. And your stomach suffers from not having a break from continuous work; the mucosal lining breaks down and this is sometimes called diabetic stomach since some diabetics have to eat often to maintain their blood glucose levels.
-
You never experience hunger, a powerful trigger of gene expression that turns on DNA repair and heat shock proteins. So, your maintenance program is seldom activated.
-
You will, in general, have more fat mass than if you ate every other day and maintained the same body weight.
-
There isn’t any evidence that this form of eating promotes health or the growth of lean muscle mass.
-
You weaken the growth hormone response you get from exercise and when you fall into REM sleep.
[quote]Lonnie Lowery wrote:
Hi All,
I’m around until at least 9:00 PM tonight.
Got questions?[/quote]
Thanks for the information. we do not have a microwave there or none that i can remember. i havent been to this camp since i was a player over 3 years ago. storage wise footlockers is all we got, Id say it would be wise to invest in a cooler.
thanks again, TQ
Hey Mufasa,
Although I don’t want to over-state it, more data on this comes out all the time. Here’s a quote for older persons that I recently read:
“In conclusion, the considerable enthusiasm for the use of micronutrient, especially antioxidant, supplements as anti-aging treatments or as treatments for specific diseases of later life is not supported by the currently available scientific literature.” (Dangour, A., et al. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 59:B659-B673 (2004)
I wouldn’t panic though, see comments below…
[quote]Mufasa wrote:
Dr. L!
GLAD TO SEE YOU ON TONIGHT!
You have REALLY had me thinking about this whole concept of “over-doing” anti-oxidants, vitamins and the like. This has caused me to take a carefull look at my own overall vitamin/anti-oxidant strategies.
But I wanted your comments/thoughts and “basic” strategies on a few things.
- What do you consider a “basic” supplementation regimen for the average Gym Rat?
[/quote]
A multi vite/ min with about 1-2x the RDA (or AI) most weekdays should suffice. I also take a low dose anti-oxidant supplement from WalMart (250mg C, 200 IU E and low dose antiox mins) during hard training.
Most legit health authorities never said to go nuts on them, so any rethinking is more like a return to legitimacy in a way.
Yep, you can see this on the reference list in my antiox articles here on the site. DNA damage and so on.
I don’t think the literature is developed well enough to make a call among athletes. But I’ve not done an exhuastive review.
See above.
My pleasure!
Follow-up, Dr. L…
-
Can “over-anti-oxidation” affect hypertrophy? (My intitial thought was “no”…since oxidants appear to affect our DNA and cell membranes more than the cellular processes involved in inflammation, remodeling and hypertrophy…)…but I was wondering what the literature says…
-
Your thoughts on daily aspirin use?
Thanks!
Mufasa
Charles,
That’s interesting stuff. Of course, the guy’s genetics could be the reason for his physique rather than his every-other-day eating. I’m reminded of the late George Burns, who smoked for all his 99 years or so. I still don’t think I’ll take up heavy daily cigar smoking.
As far as physical evidence I think the study of paleonutrition would suggest that grazing (similar to frequent smaller meals) is best. But then pre-civilization nomads probably went through times of hunger, too, eh? Perhaps it comes down to whether or not a person handles hunger well or has “Lucky Charm freakouts” every time he goes more than three hours without a snack!
I think the trick is “muscularity” rather than just gross body fat reduction. Physique athletes need to consider sparing hard-won muscle and performance athletes can’t afford to be glycogen depleted during training or competition. The purposeful hunger thing just doesn’t seem to fit well here, IMO. And low amounts of insulin are in fact protein-protective whereas the spikes are what seems to really affect fat cells, as he points out.
Great points about hunger: I do occasionally hear various people extoll the evolutionary/hormonal benefits of short term fasting, one has to consider the potential downside, namely, bingeing
[quote]Lonnie Lowery wrote:
Charles,
That’s interesting stuff. Of course, the guy’s genetics could be the reason for his physique rather than his every-other-day eating. I’m reminded of the late George Burns, who smoked for all his 99 years or so. I still don’t think I’ll take up heavy daily cigar smoking.
As far as physical evidence I think the study of paleonutrition would suggest that grazing (similar to frequent smaller meals) is best. But then pre-civilization nomads probably went through times of hunger, too, eh? Perhaps it comes down to whether or not a person handles hunger well or has “Lucky Charm freakouts” every time he goes more than three hours without a snack!
I think the trick is “muscularity” rather than just gross body fat reduction. Physique athletes need to consider sparing hard-won muscle and performance athletes can’t afford to be glycogen depleted during training or competition. The purposeful hunger thing just doesn’t seem to fit well here, IMO. And low amounts of insulin are in fact protein-protective whereas the spikes are what seems to really affect fat cells, as he points out.
[/quote]
PCH,
I believe I commented on this back in late May to bmf_inc…
If I’m remembering this properly (so many diets and systems and plans, oh my!)… some aspects of it have merit, especially for those with a family history of diabetes or glucose intolereance - or some other valid reason to indicate they’re insulin resistant to some extent.
Downsides include: jonesing for carbs by mid-week and smacking one’s grandma whilst in a carb-deprived rage (mostly joking here).
If I’m off-base, fill me in on highlights that interest you and I can address them in turn, okay?
[quote]PCH wrote:
Dr. L,
There has been great interest on this site, as of late, regarding Dr. DiPasquale’s Anabolic Diet. What are your thoughts, if any, about this approach (e.g. health, sustainability, effectiveness, etc.)
[/quote]
Mufasa,
I’m not aware of any data on excess antioxidants and hypertrophy supression, per say. Have you seen anything?
As far as daily aspirin, although many atletes do it (I think Dorian Yates may have been a big time user) and cardiac patients do it, I personally think that it’s too much to ask of your gastric mucosa on a daily basis -at least without a physician’s oversight. The ulcer risk is real.
And besides, it interacts with a host of supplements and other meds.
Here is a brief interview with Art Devany…
http://www.powerathletesmag.com/archives/six/interviewdevany.htm
Interesting…but, but, but…
Mufasa
I havn’t seen anything, Dr.L. (related to “over-anti-oxidation” and its effects on hypertrophy).
Since a lot of the reponses of the body to muscular micro-damage and subsequent remodeling seem to be related to cellular responses, it would seem to not have a big effect…but I was wondering if you had seen anything…
Mufasa
Charles,
You know, it’s good to talk about this because it’s an example of (applied) dietetics vs. metabolic nutrition and biochem., per se. Gurus without formal training in nutrition counseling can mess up a client pretty bad despite a wealth of knowledge about metabolism and physiology. Behavior modification is a good start but there are unhealthy behaviors that could be exacerbated without the proper training.
[quote]
Great points about hunger: I do occasionally hear various people extoll the evolutionary/hormonal benefits of short term fasting, one has to consider the potential downside, namely, bingeing [/quote]
Dr. L,
The Anabolic Diet, in a nutshell, is a 5-6 day Low Carb (30-50g/day), with 1-2 glycogen reload days (low protein & fat). The diet advocates eating healthy fats, but also a relatively large amount of saturated fats as well.
I don’t necessarily have any specific questions. I am more interested in whether you had any thoughts on this type of diet (pros, cons, benefits, pitfalls, effectiveness).
There are several members of this site that advocate the AD. I believe Coach Poliquin is an advocate. Personally, I did not have much success with keeping my bodycomp in check while using this diet to gain LBM/hypertrophy, but perhaps that was due to user error (I doubt it, though, as I’m quite strict with my “dieting”).
However, I have great success using a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet when leaning-out. Do you think this is a realistic or advisable way to eat year round?