Thanks to hurricane Dennis, my “escape route” back to Ontario has been cut off. It’s giving me time to work (and stay up until 6AM playing video games).
Image of the Week: The Blitz on London.
Question of the week: were the terrorists aware of the Blitz when they tried to “terrorize” London?
Site of the Week: http://www.werenotafraid.com
Questions???
elars, honestly, the more I read about glutamine, the less impressed I am. Sadly, some people even equate it with creatine, even though the sports research on glutamine died years ago.
WRT buffering, I will preface the answer by saying that I’m not very concerned by acid base balance in a healthy adult. Maybe I’m missing something, but from what I’ve read, I can’t make its focus a priority.
Abundance in our body reflects versatility, meaning that it can be converted to other things. Supplement companies have done a great job convincing people that the intuitive notion of abundance= magical importance. We’ve all heard that glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in muscle, but of the 20 aa’s in muscle protein, glutamine is 4th lowest in concentration.
The buffering idea is also largely discredited by the Antonio study, where glutamine supplementation had no effect on lactic acid buffering during exercise.
As far as the gut using glutamine, its for protein synthesis. It is the studies on whole body protein synthesis that are often used by companies trying to show that glutamine will enhance muscle growth. Sad. Note that if glutamine is being used by the gut, it can’t be used by the rest of the body for buffering.
I don’t think that serious acidosis occurs in healthy people, even while on low carb. But again, glutamine would be used for processes other than buffering in this situation.
If you’re really into buffering, you could look into beta-alanine supplementation, but that’s another story altogether.
elars, thanks for your patience WRT this reply -I know I went on several tangents. I really like your thinking, but don’t believe that glutamine will help buffering.
END GLUTAMINE RANT
[quote]elars wrote: This seems to be a good reason for glutamine supplemementation. Perhaps also why it is the most abundant amino acid in our bodies:
In Influences of nutrition on acid- base balance Remer found “protein itself moderately improves the renal capacity to excrete net acid by increasing the endogenus supply of ammonia which is the major hydrogen ion accepetor.” Ammonia+ Hydrogen ion yields ammonium.
Here’s part of an encyclopedia definition of glutamine.
Its structure is identical to that of glutamic acid, except that the acidic side-chain carboxyl group of glutamine has been coupled with ammonia, yielding an amide. The glutamic acid-glutamine interconversion is of central importance to the regulation of the levels of toxic ammonia in the body. Glutamine can donate the ammonia on its side chain to the formation of urea (for eventual excretion by the kidneys) and to purines (necessary for the synthesis of genetic material). Once glutamine is incorporated into proteins, its relatively unreactive side-chain amide participates in very few reactions.
Just re-read, your glutamine articles. They’re great. Believe it or not they further my belief. You said up to 40% of glutamine can be used by the GI system. Would this have to do with the buffering of dietary protein?
You also said that it is beneficial on low carb diets. We know that it is one of the most glucogenic of amino acids, so there’s an obvious benefit. But low carb also means high protein, and for a lot of dieters hardly any fruit-and how many people do you know will actually eat their broccoli,spinach, etc. This would lead to a very high net acid load. Massive amounts of glutamine would be needed to buffer, and likely catabolized from muscle tissue or sever acidosis could ensue.[/quote]
Hi DB,
Questions:
More info for the above question: I consume 20g protein with 200ml of skim milk as morning tea, workout after work and consume 2 scoops of surge with 500ml of water post-workout.
Geekboy
Well it’s the Canadian LongHorn!!
Dave,
Quick: thoughts on VS, ALA, Vitamin E, Biotin and other assorted insulin mimickers and/or sensitizers? They had so much favor at one time and now seemt to be petering. Even here on T-Mag, ALA was construed as a partitioning agent that shuttles glucose to muscle at the expense of adipose tissue.
Tear it up, baby. What’s the final word…this week. 
DH
Thanks for the reply. It’s just that I have a kilo of the stuff. I’ve been mixing 2.5-5g of it in with my cottage cheese/protein powder at night. Honestly, I’ve been feeling better than average since, but this has also been accompanied with switching from stepping up fish oil and a much improved diet. So it’d be hard to attribute anything to glutamine.
What are you gonna tell me next I don’t need 20 grams of creatine a day or that arginine is worthless? LOL
GB, your timing is great because I was just having this conversation with my brother yesterday.
As much as we enjoy sticking to ideal situations and generalizations, sometimes it’s just not feasible to eat every 2.5-3 hours. This is where a slow acting protein like Low-Carb Grow! (with micellar casein) comes in. The steady trickle of amino acids will prevent a protein starvation state, even if we skip a full meal.
While hydrolysate is an ideal fast protein, it has every specific uses. I use this when I want a rapid influx of amino acids -like first thing in the morning.
Although concentrate is cheap to buy, it is also cheap quality. I occasionally use it if I’m living off of shakes, but it messes with my GI so I can’t use too much of it.
You really don’t need any other ingredients, as they will only increase cost.
Ingredients to look for: Micellar casein (slow) or whey hydrolysate (fast).
Oh, and the dumbbell was 115lbs (the highest UTMB has). While I could have lifted more weight that day, I don’t think I could have held it for the picture! LOL
Hope that helps!
[quote]geekboy wrote:
Hi DB,
Questions:
More info for the above question: I consume 20g protein with 200ml of skim milk as morning tea, workout after work and consume 2 scoops of surge with 500ml of water post-workout.
Geekboy[/quote]
More names for DB (as if he needs help!):
Prime Time BARRage
David the BARRbarian
Knowledge BARRicade
Maybe I should stick to my day job
Few things:
Your Thoughts on ‘super foods’ such as Blue-Green Algae, Maca, Spirulina (etc). Possible benefits or just a bunch of hype from nutritional hippies?
Is denaturing whey really a concern? People worry about special proteins in whey being destroyed by heat or processing. My question is wont our gut denature it anyways when it gets broken down by proteases for digestion? Seems to me that none of these proteins would survive digestion anyways.
Any opinions on Vinegar? Some studies I have seen seem to show that it acts as a partioning agent and helps shuttle carbs preferntially towards restoring muscle glycogen. Seems like it could be a good addition to a PWO meal for faster recovery.
DH, from what I’ve read, aside from exercise, supplements can’t partition nutrients. In other words, if it’s shuttling nutrients into muscle, they’re likely going into fat as well.
Although studies are preliminary at best, I find it best to err on the side of caution. I’m also a little biased because I added about 10lbs of body fat from using insulin over the course of a year (about 7 years ago).
On a more positive note, I believe that ALA would be great for people with poor insulin sensitivity. It’s also good for enhancing creatine uptake, but its antioxidant effects may not be helpful post workout.
Cheers
[quote]Disc Hoss wrote:
Well it the Canadian LongHorn!!
Dave,
Quick: thoughts on VS, ALA, Vitamin E, Biotin and other assorted insulin mimickers and/or sensitizers? They had so much favor at one time and now seemt to be petering. Even here on T-Mag, ALA was construed as a partitioning agent that shuttles glucose to muscle at the expense of adipose tissue.
Tear it up, baby. What’s the final word…this week.
DH
[/quote]
DB,
Forgive me if this issue has been addressed by you, but I’ve got a question.
Do you think creatine is beneficial to those on a cutting phase? To me, it seems that creatine might be even more efficacious to maintain muscle mass during dieting and low-carb phases than bulking phases.
Thoughts?
[quote]Mike Robertson wrote:
More names for DB (as if he needs help!):
Prime Time BARRage
David the BARRbarian
Knowledge BARRicade
Maybe I should stick to my day job
[/quote]
How about BARRbie Doll?
Or BARR None?
Barrrnicle Bob has a question:
I like cherries, barry barry sweet, I like cherries barry barry sweet.
What is cool about cherries. I switched some other fruit out for the cherries to mix things up and I was curious if there is anything nifty about them?
and, Barrrnicle bob wants to know what you can get from a blood test screen or whatever and glucose test that would be useful. I have never had one done before but I thought if I did for fun I would want to know something I could do with it or it would be pointless.
-Get Lifted
Dave, I drink a whey protein shake with frozen berries blended in and 1/3 cup oats with 3/4-1 cup blueberries, two hours before my morning workout.
I use Surge both before and twice after training. How long before my workout should I be consuming my 1/2 serving (1 scoop) of Surge–1/2 hour, 15 minutes, immediately before?
Thanks,
Crowbar
elars, can you elaborate on what you mean by “feeling better”?
[quote]elars21 wrote:
Thanks for the reply. It’s just that I have a kilo of the stuff. I’ve been mixing 2.5-5g of it in with my cottage cheese/protein powder at night. Honestly, I’ve been feeling better than average since…[/quote]
Hey, I don’t do creative stuff unless there’s free swag on the line. Okay, just kidding.
Time to Put Some Pressure on the BARRometer
BARRoom Brawl (I think you may have used this one; it seems like I’ve heard if before)
Time to Load Some Weight on the BARR
License to Practice Lifting: Become a Member of the BARR
ALA does seem to be the best of the breed. I even use it on the AD, despite minimal CHO intake. My blood glucose generally hovers around 90-95 on weekdays.
What dosage is optimal for CM utilization enhancement?
On the partitioning issue, would post exercise be a time to utilize ALA?
DH
Helix, I’ve always wondered about blue green algae. I mean, I’ve studied microorgansism that have the ability to survive our stomach acid, but where do these algae fit.
While part of me would like to reply with: “bunch of hype from nutritional hippies?” (well stated BTW), I’m a little more careful to dismiss things I don’t understand. In fact, you just gave me an idea for a future article…
On a quick search, it seems that these substances are often touted as being highly nutrient dense. While I will avoid a discussion of semantics about that term, most people on this site just don’t need another good source of vitamin B-12 (for example). Stated differently, just because something has naturally high levels of a few vitamins does not make it a wonderfood.
WRT whey: Denaturing whey would be a great thing because this would aid digestion and absorption. In fact, the first step of digestion is to denature ingested proteins! While I don’t think it happens, except under extreme circumstances, it would generally be a good thing if it did in fact occur.
Vinegar has a great theory behind it, but should be viewed differently from substances that affect insulin sensitivity/partitioning agents. It’s cheap and plentiful enough to experiment with (a rare combination), which is something I often recommend.
Great questions!
[quote]Helix wrote:
Few things:
Your Thoughts on ‘super foods’ such as Blue-Green Algae, Maca, Spirulina (etc). Possible benefits or just a bunch of hype from nutritional hippies?
Is denaturing whey really a concern? People worry about special proteins in whey being destroyed by heat or processing. My question is wont our gut denature it anyways when it gets broken down by proteases for digestion? Seems to me that none of these proteins would survive digestion anyways.
Any opinions on Vinegar? Some studies I have seen seem to show that it acts as a partioning agent and helps shuttle carbs preferntially towards restoring muscle glycogen. Seems like it could be a good addition to a PWO meal for faster recovery.
[/quote]
The BARR Exam
I would like to thank the following people for their name suggestions in this thread: Mike RoBarrtson, Chad WaterBarry, CrowBarr, MikeTheBarr, and… Get Lifted (damn).