What’s best to eat for recovery after a hard workout? That’s what marathoners, body builders, and fitness exercisers alike repeatedly ask. They read ads for commercial recovery foods that demand a 3 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein, tout the benefits of a proprietary formula, or emphasize immediate consumption the minute you stop exercising. While these ads offer an element of truth, consumers beware: Engineered recovery foods are not more effective than standard foods. The purpose of this article is to educate you, a hungry athlete, about how to choose an optimal recovery diet.

Too many athletes are obsessed with rapidly refueling the minute they stop exercising. They are afraid they will miss the one-hour “window of opportunity” when glycogen replacement is fastest. They fail to understand refueling still occurs for several hours, just at a slowing rate.

Engineered Recovery Foods Are
Not More Effective Than Standard Foods

Given a steady influx of adequate carb-based meals and snacks, muscles can refuel within 24 hours. If you have a full day to recover before your next training session, or if you have done an easy (non-depleting) workout, you need not obsess about refueling immediately afterwards.

Refueling as soon as tolerable is most important for serious athletes doing a second bout of intense, depleting exercise within six hours of the first workout, including triathletes doing double workouts, soccer players in tournaments and people who ski hard in the morning and again in the afternoon.

The sooner you consume carbs to replace depleted muscle glycogen and protein to repair damaged muscle, the sooner you’ll be able to exercise hard again.

Over the course of the next 24 hours your muscles will have lots of time to replenish glycogen stores. Just be sure to repeatedly consume a foundation of carbohydrates with each meal/snack, along with some protein to build and repair the muscles. For example, chocolate milk or a fruit smoothie are excellent choices.

How many carbs do you need? According to the International Olympic Committee’s Nutrition Recommendations, adequate carbs means:

For moderate exercise:
About 1 hour/day = 2.5 to 3 grams carb/lb or 5 to 7 grams carb/kg
For endurance exercise:
1 to 3 hours/day = 2.5 to 4.5 grams carb/lb or 6 to 10 grams carb/kg
For extreme exercise:
Greater than 4 to 5 hours/day = 3.5 to 5.5 grams carb/lb or 8 to 12 grams carb/kg

Example: a 150-lb triathlete doing extreme exercise should target about 500 to 800 grams carb/day (2,000-3,200 carb-calories).

Your recovery meals and snacks should include a foundation of carbohydrate-rich breads, cereals, grains, fruits, and vegetables plus a smaller amount of protein (at least 10-20 grams per recovery snack or meal). You can enjoy fruit smoothies (Greek yogurt + banana + berries), cereal + milk, bagel + latté (decaf), pretzels + hummus, baked potato + cottage cheese, turkey sub, or pasta + meatballs.

Do NOT consume only protein, as in a protein shake or protein bar. Protein fills your stomach and helps build and repair muscles, but it does not refuel your muscles. Your muscles want three or four times more calories from carbs than from protein. If you like the convenience of protein shakes, at least add some carbs to them. That is, blend in some banana, frozen berries, and graham crackers.

Keep in mind that recovery calories count. I hear many frustrated dieters complain they are not losing weight despite hard workouts. Perhaps that’s because they gobble 300 or so “recovery calories” and then go home and enjoy a hefty dinner. By organizing your training to end at mealtime, you can avoid over-indulging in recovery-calories.

What about recovery electrolytes? After a hard workout, many athletes reach for a sports drink, thinking Gatorade or PowerAde is “loaded” with sodium (an electrically charged particle). Think again! Milk and other “real foods” are actually better sources of electrolytes than most commercial sports products. These electrolytes (also known as sodium and potassium) help enhance fluid retention and the restoration of normal fluid balance. Here’s how some common recovery fluids compare:

Beverage (8 oz):
Water = 0 Sodium (mg), 0 Potassium (mg), 0 Protein (g), 0 Carbs (g)
PowerAde = 55 Sodium (mg), 45 Potassium (mg), 0 Protein (g), 19 Carbs (g)
Gatorade = 110 Sodium (mg), 30 Potassium (mg), 0 Protein (g), 14 Carbs (g)
Low-fat milk = 100 Sodium (mg), 400 Potassium (mg), 8 Protein (g), 12 Carbs (g)
Chocolate milk = 150 Sodium (mg), 425 Potassium (mg), 8 Protein (g), 26 Carbs
Orange juice = 0 Sodium (mg), 450 Potassium (mg), 2 Protein (g), 26 Carbs (g)

After a hard workout, recovery fluids such as chocolate milk, orange juice, or a latte offer far more “good stuff” than you’d get in a sports drink. Sports drinks are dilute and designed for during extended exercise.

To assess how much sodium you lose in sweat, weigh yourself naked pre-post an hour of exercise, accounting for any fluid consumed. Loss of one pound equates to loss of about 700 to 1,000 mg sodium. If you sweat heavily and lose a significant amount of sodium, you can easily replace those losses with pretzels (300 mg sodium/10 twists), a bagel (500 mg) with peanut butter (200 mg/2 tbsp), Wheaties and milk (300 mg), or a spaghetti dinner with tomato sauce (1000 mg/cup Ragu sauce). Most athletes consume plenty of sodium!

Your recovery can start before you exercise. What you eat before you exercise impacts your recovery. According to research presented at the 2011 annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, consuming protein before lifting weights enhances recovery better than consuming a protein drink afterwards. That’s because your body digests pre-exercise protein into amino acids (yes, your body can digest food during exercise) and puts those amino acids right into action repairing damaged muscles.

What if you feel like you never really recover well? If you have to drag yourself through workouts, a number of questions arise: Are you overtraining? Rest is an essential part of a training program; muscles need time to refuel and repair. Take at least one if not two days off from exercise per week.

Are you anemic? Anemia is common, so have your MD monitor your serum ferritin (stored iron). If your iron stores are depleted, you’ll feel needlessly tired during exercise. An estimated half of female athletes are iron-deficient, as indicated by low serum ferritin stores. (About 14 percent of all women are iron deficient.) A survey with collegiate male runners suggested about 20 percent had low serum ferritin. Iron supplements can help resolve the problem, alongside a good recovery diet. Eat wisely, recover well, and feel great!

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) counsels both casual and competitive athletes at her office in Newton, MA (617-795-1875). Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for new runners, marathoners, and soccer players offer additional information. They are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

References:
Nutrition for Athletes: A practical guide to eating for health and performance. Prepared by the Nutrition Working Group of the International Olympic Committee, Feb. 2010; http://www.thecgf.com/media/games/2010/CGF_Nutrition.pdf

Campos, Manuel, S. Gervais, J. Walker, A. Olson. Iron deficiency in Division III male cross country and track runners. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010; 42(5 Supplement): Abstract 2821

Lee, Choi Hyun, J. Kim, K. Hoon Park, J. Lee. Effect of the timing of protein supplement on recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010; 42(5 Supplement): Abstract 2862.

Nicewonger, Christine, J. Flohr, M. Todd, C. Womack. The effect of iron supplementation on iron markers and performance in female athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010; 42(5 Supplement): Abstract 2822

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

Related articles:

1. Carbs, Protein & Performance
2. Exercise, Injury and Creatine
3. Winter Nutrition: Fueling for Cold Weather Exercise

As humans, we are designed to move. Look at yourself in the mirror. You have two strong legs, three layers of core muscles wrapping around your middle to stabilize your pelvis and the largest muscle in your body, your buttocks, designed specifically to move you forward. There is a reason why your buttocks cover your backside – and it’s not to provide you with a cushion to sit on.

There Are Countless Ways to Include
Exercise in Your Daily Routines

Many people, whether they sit for hours at work, during leisurely activities or relaxation, are bound to their chairs way too long. They sit and sit and sit. On average, people spend 56 hours a week sitting in one place, literally going nowhere. As these hours add up, so do the health dangers.

New studies show that sitting for long periods of time increases your risk of obesity, heart attack, diabetes, depression or even death. The enzymes that help to fight fat in your body actually decrease by 50 percent when you spend the day sitting at work or at play. This allows the fat to circulate and pile up in your blood vessels as you sit.

The average American watches five hours TV a day. Studies have shown that if you sit and watch TV four or more hours a day, your risk of dying from heart disease is 80 percent higher than if you limit it to two hours.

TV is not the culprit, the sitting time is. The more time you spend sitting the more likely you are to die of heart disease in the next 12 years.

Findings like these have given rise to a new field of study called “sedentary medicine.” Many scientists are working hard to define the effects of sedentary living on our bodies and set guidelines for how to limit the flatline-effect of sitting still all day. The truth is, for most of us, poor health or death will not come in the form of bad spinach, or even the swine flu. It comes disguised as your safe haven, your couch.

So how do we beat the effects of our sedentary work, leisure or pleasure? It’s difficult to overcome the negative health effects of an eight-hour-sitting day with a mere 30 minutes exercise session. Protecting your body is an all-day activity called non-exercise thermogenesis. This means burning as many calories as you can while doing normal activities of daily living. Our mothers might have called this “fidgeting!”

As a mother, Orthopaedic surgeon and gatekeeper of mobility, I give my family and patients the following five tips to become a “mover and shaker.”

1. Walk briskly everywhere
Each day, build in more walking distance to work, from work, from the car, at lunch time, walk around your office while you are on the phone, pay the bills standing up instead of sitting at the table. If you are getting off the couch or out of the chair for the first time in years, build slowly. For instance, if you work on the 10th floor, walk the first two flights the first week and ride the elevator for the other eight. Then walk an additional floor every week.

2. Waste steps
Taking an indirect path once in a while can save your life. Make multiple trips to the copier, the coffee machine, up and down the stairs at home, run after your kids. Wear a step counter and see how quickly wasting steps can add up to positive health effects of 10,000 steps.

3. Workplace workout
Work out wherever you are. Instead of sitting in comfortable chair at your desk, sit on an exercise ball for 30 minutes every hour to burn more calories, stabilize your core and stay awake. Your office has walls, so talk on the phone while doing wall squats and keeping your core, buttocks and legs strong. This way you increase your non-exercise thermogenesis.

4. Widen your vessels
Simple acts can make a difference. For every hour you sit, take two deep breaths. Draw in as much air as possible into your lungs, hold it for five seconds and breath out. This simple exercise can combat the fatty sludge that has build up in your blood vessels by sending out nitric oxide scavengers to eat up the harmful fat deposits.

5. Watch TV while moving around
There is no rule that you have to watch TV sitting down. Remember the negative effects of sitting more than two hours in front of the TV? Every time there is a commercial, get up and exercise in the living room, watch your favorite show from the seat of an exercise bike or belt of a treadmill, or simply have the TV on in the background to listen to your favorite show while you cook an amazing meal.

No matter what your day calls for, you have to power to become a mover and shaker!

Vonda Wright, MD is an Orthopaedic Surgeon who specializes in fitness and sports medicine. She is the creator and director of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA) and the author of two books on fitness and healthy aging.

Read more about taking control of your health in “Dr. Vonda Wright’s Guide to THRIVE: 4 steps to Body, Brains and Bliss” – available at amazon.com.

Follow Dr. Vonda Wright on Twitter @DrVondaWright and on her blog at
www.vondawright.com

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

Related articles:

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2. Vonda Wright, MD
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Gluten-free seems to be the latest nutrition buzzword. Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley that must be avoided by people with celiac disease, an inherited autoimmune disorder. Symptoms of celiac vary greatly and can range from digestive problems (diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas) to serious health problems such as anemia, stress fractures, infertility in both men and women, migraine headaches, canker sores, easy bruising of the skin, swelling of the hands and feet, and bone/joint pain.

Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity Are on the Rise

Some people don’t even realize they have celiac disease. They feel fine – until they experience iron-deficiency anemia or stress fractures due to poor absorption of iron, calcium, and vitamin D.

How common is celiac disease? More than we once thought! About one percent of the population has celiac and needs to avoid even traces of gluten. Up to six percent have non-celiac gluten-sensitivity. The symptoms are similar but without the autoimmune reactions that result in cancer and osteoporosis. No one is certain why celiac disease and gluten-sensitivity are on the rise. One theory relates to changes in the composition of our gut bacteria.

How to tell whether you are gluten-sensitive
If you and others in your genetic family are plagued with niggling health issues (including those mentioned above), you should learn more about celiac disease and gluten-sensitivity. Untreated celiac disease can lead to severe complications including cancer of the gut and osteoporosis. Two websites that offer abundant information include www.celiac.org and www.glutenfreediet.ca.

If you suspect you are gluten-sensitive, don’t self-impose a gluten-free diet without first talking with a doctor who specializes in celiac. You need to get your blood tested for specific antibodies and then, to confim the diagnosis, an intestinal biopsy. Do not eliminate gluten before you get the blood tests, because absence of gluten in your diet can interfere with making the correct diagnosis. If you don’t get properly tested, you might miss an accurate diagnosis or other health problems, like Crohn’s disease, an ulcer, or colon cancer. Plus, if undiagnosed, you might be less motivated to strictly follow a gluten-free diet for life.

If you are “simply” gluten-sensitive, your blood tests will report none of the elevated levels of antibodies that signal celiac disease, but you will feel unwell. Hence, if you have intestinal issues, you might want to try a gluten-free diet for a month or so regardless of the blood test results. One athlete plagued with muscle pain stopped eating wheat and her pains disappeared. She reported that she simply “felt better.” Others say they recover better and have less stiffness and joint pain with a gluten-free diet. This might be due to eliminating gluten, a placebo effect, or eating better overall (no cookies, pastries, junk food). Adhering to a gluten-free diet is challenging and expensive, so there’s no need to self-impose the limitations if you notice no benefits after a month of gluten-free eating.

Going gluten-free
So what’s a hungry person to eat if his or her favorite pasta, bagels, breads, and baked goods are all off-limits? While a diet without pasta may seem like a day without sunshine, rest assured that a plethora of gluten-free carbs can fuel your muscles just as well. You can enjoy carb-rich rice in all forms (brown, white, basmati), corn in all forms (on the cob, cornmeal, grits), potato, sweet potato, lentils, kidney beans, hummus, quinoa, millet, and tapioca. Oats, if processed in a wheat-free plant, can also be safe.

Many fresh foods are naturally gluten-free. They include all plain fruits, vegetables, milk, yogurt, hard cheese, eggs, meats, fish, poultry, nuts, sunflower seeds, edamame, juice, and wine (but not beer). Just be aware that sauces, gravies, and seasoning mixes might contain gluten, as do marinades and soy sauce. Some gluten-free baked goods, pastas, and frozen meals are quite good; others might leave you wishing for something tastier. Two popular brands of gluten-free breads (commonly available at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s) are “Udi’s” and “Rudi’s.” Hint: They taste better when toasted!

Restaurant and travel tips
At home, you can easily control your diet. When you’re on the road, you need to have a plan. When traveling, carry “emergency food” that doesn’t spoil, such as dried fruit, “Lara Bars,” and nuts.

When eating in a restaurant, you’ll have to quiz the staff and carefully order your food. Omelets tend to be safe, while salads with croutons are not. Make sure the steak tips are not marinated in a gluten-containing sauce, the turkey was not injected with flavor enhancers, the gluten-free toast is not made in the same toaster used for standard breads, the sandwich is prepared on a paper towel or surface not used for other breads (to prevent cross-contamination), the rice in not cooked in broth with unknown gluten-containing seasonings, the French fries are not cooked in the same oil as the breaded chicken, the hamburger is 100 percent beef (with no fillers) and not cooked on the same surface as the toasted buns. Some people travel with their own gluten-free pasta and request it be cooked in fresh water, in a clean pot, and drained into a clean colander. This all requires a patient waiter and an understanding chef.

Everyday gluten-free food suggestions
Even the hungriest “Ironman” triathlete does not need to go hungry on a gluten-free diet! The trick is to eat less processed foods and be a good label reader. Here are just a few suggestions of foods you’d find in standard grocery stores:

Breakfast: Fruit smoothie with Greek yogurt; rice cakes with banana and peanut butter; scrambled eggs, hash browns, and fruit salad; “Rice” or “Corn Chex,” milk and berries.

Lunch: Tuna salad with baked corn chips; 100 percent corn tortilla with melted cheese and pinto beans; “Crunchmaster Multigrain” crackers and hummus.

Dinner: Baked chicken, potato and beets; salmon, sweet potato and peas; omelet, corn and tomatoes; baked potato stuffed with cottage cheese and salsa; Mexican beans and rice; shish kabob, rice, salad with oil & vinegar; frittata (potato, onion and egg ‘pancake’); meals with rice, corn, and quinoa.

Snacks: Apple and cheese; fruit and yogurt; baked potato chips; corn chips; “Blue Diamond Nut Thins;” rice crackers; trail mix (nuts and dried fruit); peanut butter and banana; baby carrots and hummus; popcorn; corn nuts; raisins; grape juice and all fruit juices; smoothies.

Commercial sports foods: Ensure, Gatorade, Powerade; Bakery On Main Granola Bar, Bonk Breaker Bar, Bumble Bar, Enjoy Life Snack Bar, Elev8Me Bar, Extend Bar, Go Raw Bar, Hammer Products (Heed, Perpetuem, Bar, Solids), KIND Bar, Lara Bar, Nonuttin’ Granola Bar, Omega Smart Bar, PB&Whey Bar, Perfect 10 Bar, Pure Bar, PureFit Bar, thinkThin Bar, Quest Bar, Gu, Jelly Belly Sports Beans, Sharkies.
Wheat-free but may not be gluten-free: Odwalla, Clif Builder’s Bar, Clif Shot Bloks.

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) helps both casual and competitive athletes feel great from the inside out. Her practice is at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA (617-795-1875). Her Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for runners, cyclists and soccer players are popular resources. They are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. For upcoming workshops, please visit http://www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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Healthy, vital, active, joyful – these are not typically words associated with aging. And yet, an entire generation of healthy, vital, active and joyful people is changing the very paradigm of aging in this country.

This group is YOU and the amazing athletes over 40, from weekend warriors to elite competitors, who fill my office looking for ways to maximize their performance and stay injury free. You are not bound to age in the same way as your parents were. You are highly active and motivated to stay at the top of your game.

How Fast Do We Really Age?

It never occurred to me that aging meant slowing down. I get a thrill from competition and a rush of adrenaline when standing on the infield during a Masters track meet as powerful athletes surge by, the only indication of their age being their faces. Maybe I don’t believe that aging destines us to the sidelines because in my 40s I am training harder and am faster than I have ever been.

It is my goal to spread the word that aging is not an inevitable decline from vitality to frailty and that instead we are designed to be mobile. We just have to be smarter about it as we age.

Is aging a number, a feeling or an inevitable biologic process we can’t alter? Much of what we know about the “aging” process has come from studying the more than 70 percent of people in this country who choose to live sedentary lives. Sedentary living results in 35 chronic diseases that kill more than 250,000 people every year in the US. This is much more than any bacteria, spinach or bird flu outbreak. Our couches are not only aging us – they’re killing us!

I started studying the Senior Olympians to understand the true nature of musculoskeletal aging by eliminating the variable of sedentary lifestyle. This group of active agers consistently exhibits high levels of functional capacity and a high quality of life. I wanted to know why the 50-year-old male winner of the mile sprint was capable of finishing in 4:34 or why the 70 year old winner still can blow away many sedentary people half their age by running a mile in 7 minutes, both times much faster than the average 30 year old.

In 2008, I published a study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine where I looked at performance times of athletes aged 50 to 80 in the 2001 Senior Olympics. What I found amazed me: Master’s athletes’ performance declined less than 2 percent per year for both men and women from age 50 to 75. After 75 years of age, however, something happens. The slow 2 percent decline in performance suddenly becomes more than 8 percent decline per year. Why does performance plummet? Is it the cumulative factors of loss of muscle mass, flexibility, coordination or aerobic capacity that suddenly catch up with us?

Perhaps the most important finding for all of us is that while slowing down does happen with age, it does not do so significantly until our 70s! What good news! The next time someone tells you to slow down and act your age, tell them joyfully that being healthy, vital and active is what your age, no matter your actual age, is all about!

Vonda Wright, MD is an Orthopaedic Surgeon who specializes in fitness and sports medicine. She is the creator and director of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA) and the author of two books on fitness and healthy aging.

Read more about taking control of your health in “Dr. Vonda Wright’s Guide to THRIVE: 4 steps to Body, Brains and Bliss” – available at amazon.com. Follow Dr. Vonda Wright on Twitter @DrVondaWright and on her blog at www.vondawright.com

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

Related articles:

1. Vonda Wright, MD
2. Reasons to Be Cheerful!
3. Be a Mover and Shaker

Whether you are a professional athlete or just like to exercise outdoors all year round, you want to pay careful attention to your diet during the cold months. Otherwise, lack of food and fluids can take the fun out of your activities. These tips can help you fuel wisely for cold weather workouts.

Winter hydration
• Failing to drink enough fluids is a major mistake made by winter athletes. A study comparing hydration status of athletes who skied or played football or soccer, reported the skiers had the highest rate of chronic dehydration. Before a competition, 11 of the 12 alpine skiers showed up dehydrated. (1)

• Some winter athletes purposefully skimp on fluids to minimize the need to urinate. There’s no doubt that undoing layer after layer of clothing (ski suit, hockey gear, etc.) can be a hassle. Yet, dehydration hurts performance and is one cause of failed mountaineering adventures.

• Cold blunts the thirst mechanism; you’ll feel less thirsty despite significant sweat loss and may not “think to drink.”

• Winter athletes (especially those skiing at high altitude) need to consciously consume fluids to replace the water vapor that gets exhaled via breathing. When you breath in cold dry air, your body warms and humidifies that air. As you exhale, you lose significant amounts of water. You can see this vapor (“steam”) when you breathe.

• Unless you are hot, you do not want to drink icy water (i.e. from a water bottle kept on your bike or outside pocket of your backpack). Cold water can cool you off and give you the chills. The better bet is having an insulated water bottle or a bottle filled with hot sports drink then covered with a wool sock to help retain the heat.

• Dress in layers, so you sweat less. Sweaty clothing drains body heat. As the weather becomes “tropical” inside your exercise outfit, make the effort to strip down. You’ll stay drier and warmer. Simply taking off a hat is cooling. 30% to 40% of body heat gets lost through the head.

Winter fuel
You need adequate pre-exercise fuel to generate body heat. Hence, you want to fuel-up before you embark on winter exercise, particularly before you ski, run outside or embark on any outdoor activity in extreme cold.

• Food’s overall warming effect is known as thermogenesis (that is, “heat making”). Thirty to sixty minutes after you eat, your body generates about 10% more heat than when you have an empty stomach. Hence, eating not only provides fuel but also increases heat production (warmth).

• Aerobic workout can increase your metabolism by 7 to 10 times above the resting level. That means that if you were to exercise hard for an hour and dissipate no heat, you could cook yourself in the process! In the summer, your body sweats heavily to dissipate this heat. But in the winter, the warmth helps you survive in a cold environment. Exercise is an excellent way to warm up in the winter!

• If you become chilled during winter exercise (or even when swimming, for that matter), you’ll likely find yourself searching for food. A drop in body temperature stimulates the appetite and you experience hunger. Your body wants fuel to “stoke the furnace,” so it can generate heat.

• For safety, you should always carry some source of emergency food (such as an energy bar) with you in case you slip on the ice or experience some incident that leaves you static in a frigid environment. Winter campers, for example, commonly keep a supply of dried fruit, chocolate or cookies within reach, in case they wake up cold at 3:00 am.

Energy needs
Cold weather itself does not increase energy needs, but you will burn extra calories if your body temperature drops and you start to shiver. Shivering is involuntary muscle tensing that generates heat.

• When you first become slightly chilled (such as when watching a football game), you’ll find yourself doing an isometric type of muscle tensing that can increase your metabolic rate two to four times.

• As you get further chilled, you’ll find yourself hopping from foot to foot and jumping around. This is nature’s way to get you to generate heat and warm your body.

• If you become so cold that you start to shiver, these vigorous muscular contractions generate lots of heat – up to 400 calories per hour. Such intense shivering quickly depletes your muscle glycogen stores and drains your energy. This is when you’ll be glad you have emergency food with you.

• Your body uses a considerable amount of energy to warm and humidify the air you breathe when you exercise in the cold. For example, if you were to burn 600 calories while cross-country skiing for an hour in 0° F weather, you might use about 150 of those calories to warm the inspired air. In summer, you would have dissipated that heat via sweat.

• If you wear heavy clothes, you will burn a few more calories carrying the extra weight of skis, boots, heavy parka, snow shoes, etc. The Army allows 10% more calories for heavily clad troops who exercise in the cold. If you are a runner, however, the weight of your extra clothing is minimal. Think twice before chowing down!

Winter recovery foods
• To chase away chills, replenish depleted glycogen stores and rehydrate your body. Enjoy warm carbohydrates with a little protein, such as hot cocoa made with milk, oatmeal with nuts, lentil soup, chili and pasta with meatballs. The warm food, added to the thermogenic effect of eating, contributes to rapid recovery.

• By contrast, eating cold foods and frozen fluids can chill your body. That is, save the slushie (ice slurry) for summer workouts – it will cool you off. In winter, you want warm foods to fuel your workouts. Bring out the mulled cider or thermos of soup.

Winter weight gain
Many athletes bemoan winter weight gain. Some eat too much because they are bored and less active. Others experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and the change of seasons has a marked affect upon their mood. Changes in brain chemicals increase carbohydrate cravings and the desire to eat more. The temptations of winter holiday foods can also contribute to weight gain.

• To limit winter weight gain, stay active. Exercise helps manage health, weight, and the winter blues. The trick is to invest in proper clothing. Fuel well and prevent dehydration, so you can stay warm and enjoy winter’s outdoor wonderland.

Reference
1. Johnson C, A Davenport, M Hansen, D Bacharach. Pre-competition hydration status of high school athletes participating in different sports. Med Sci Sport Exerc 42(5): S128 (Abstract 1149).

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD offers nutrition consultations to casual exercisers and competitive athletes at her private practice located at Healthworks, the Premier Fitness Center in Chestnut Hill MA (617-795-1875). Her popular Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for runners, cyclists and soccer players are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

Related articles:

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3. Exercise, Injury and Creatine

If knowledge is power, then 78 percent of people over 50 say they are empowered with the knowledge that exercise is the key to healthy aging. Yet fewer than 30 percent of all Americans invest a minimum of 30 minutes a day in their physical health. Why this disconnect? We are surrounded by advertisements that sell us every imaginable potion, lotion, pill or surgery to augment the superficial veneer of youthfulness. But the only thing that comes close to preserving true youthfulness is free. It’s exercise.

The Many Surprising Benefits of Regular Exercise

Let’s stop waiting for a magic bullet to blast us into health and take control of the potential that exercise gives us. If feeling powerful and strong and healthy are not reasons enough to get you exercising, here are a few concrete ways exercise will improve your health.

Exercise is a whole-body remedy, from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes. Did you know that 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day significantly decreases your risk of dying from SEDS (sedentary death syndrome)? This group of 33 chronic diseases accounts for 250,000 deaths every year in this country, more than any bird flu epidemic. The dire effects of these diseases positively decrease by exercise, just 30 minutes a day.

Did you know that exercise also protects you against more than 12 kinds of cancer? Exercise decreases your risk of developing colon cancer by 40 percent and the risk for breast cancer by 25 percent to 30 percent. And exercise decreases the risk of dying from prostate cancer by 50 percent.

Exercise will not only help you live longer, it will help you live better. Exercise can make you a better lover. Running and lifting weights will, of course, tone your body, but there’s more to it than that. Exercise will build endurance and stamina and stimulate blood vessels to make a chemical called nitric oxide, which makes them more elastic. Couple endurance and elastic vessels with increased blood flow and you have a miraculous remedy for erectile dysfunction. It’s better than any blue pill.

Now, if that’s not reason enough to exercise, there are plenty more. Your brain loves exercise. In response to physical exertion, your brain makes a chemical called BDNF or “brain derived neurotrophic factor.” It’s “Miracle-Gro” for the brain. Your attention span will increase, and you can stay smarter longer. In addition to helping you mentally, exercise can help you emotionally. The “natural high” experienced by many people at the end of exercise is due to the release of brain stimulators such as norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. All three help ward off anxiety, stress and depression. Simply put, exercise makes you feel good.

Exercise is also great for your metabolism. In fact, by building muscle you can become a fat-burning machine. Lowering the amount of belly fat you carry can decrease your risk of developing Type II diabetes by 30 percent to 40 percent.

Despite what the commercials on your television are selling, you don’t need to buy youth in a bottle. Exercise stimulates the release of natural growth hormone, which stimulates all tissues in the body to regenerate youthfully!

Exercise helps reduce your risk for or the impact of many diseases associated with old age, like cardiovascular disease (CVD). It increases blood flow and decreases risk of CVD. A small reduction in “bad” cholesterol decreases risk of CVD by 30 percent. Regular exercise decreases risk of colon cancer by 40 percent, of breast cancer by 25 percent to 30 percent, and the risk of dying from prostate cancer by 50 percent.

Exercising releases BDNF (the “Miracle-Gro” for the brain) as well as serotonin and dopamine, which improves your mood.

Exercise decreases erectile dysfunction by stimulating blood flow and vessel elasticity, and increases endurance and stamina.

It builds bone density and prevents fracture caused by osteoporosis.

Vonda Wright, MD is an Orthopaedic Surgeon who specializes in fitness and sports medicine. She is the creator and director of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA) and the author of two books on fitness and healthy aging.

Read more about taking control of your health in “Dr. Vonda Wright’s Guide to THRIVE: 4 steps to Body, Brains and Bliss” – available at amazon.com.

Follow Dr. Vonda Wright on Twitter @DrVondaWright and on her blog at www.vondawright.com

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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Each year, more than 5000 health professionals gather at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). At this year’s meeting in Denver (June 1-4, 2011), exercise physiologists, sports medicine doctors, and sports nutritionists shared their research and offered updates. Here are three that might be of interest.

The power of exercise
“Exercise is Medicine” is the slogan for ACSM’s public health campaign to teach people the importance of living an active lifestyle. “Exercise Is Better Than Medicine” would also be a good slogan! According to Dr. Karim Khan of the University of British Columbia, lack of physical activity is the biggest public health problem in the 21st Century. I know, I am preaching to the choir because you are undoubtedly already active. But I’m sure you have friends and loved ones who spend too much time on the couch. Please pass along this message along to them.

We know that exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease, certain cancers, dementia, and other diseases of aging. But what most people don’t know is that 16% of Americans will die from their low fitness/sedentary lifestyle. That’s more than the 14% of people who will die from “smokerdiabesity” (smoking, diabetes, and obesity combined). (1)

If exercise is so good for us, why are so many people failing to exercise regularly? And how can we get them to exercise by choice? Incentives work in the short term. That is, employees who get a discount on their health insurance premium will initiate an exercise program. But in the long run, people maintain an exercise program if it gives them pleasure, makes them feel good about themselves, improves their mood and helps them to make friendships.

Wanna-be exercisers should take weight loss out of the equation. That is, if they are exercising just to lose weight. What happens when they reach their goal? They’ll still need to keep exercising to maintain their fat loss. So they better start a program they are interested in and can enjoy for the rest of their lives.

Just as physicians monitor blood pressure and weight, they should also monitor physical activity. Thanks to ACSM’s “Exercise is Medicine” campaign, doctors are now being encouraged to prescribe exercise to their overfat, underfit, (pre)diabetic clients, telling them how often, how hard, and how long to exercise. A written prescription has been shown to help improve exercise compliance.

Nutrition for injuries
Unfortunately, part of living an active lifestyle seems to entail getting injured, which is no fun. Athletes with injuries should pay attention to their diet. If they are petrified of gaining weight (yes, petrified is a strong word, but it seems fitting to many injured athletes who seek my counsel), they may severely restrict their food intake. One runner hobbled into my office saying, “I haven’t eaten in two days because I can’t run…”

While injured athletes do require fewer calories if they exercise less than usual, they still need to eat an appropriate amount of fuel. Injuries heal best with proper nourishment. For example, if you have had surgery (e.g. to repair a torn ligament), your metabolic rate might increase by up to 20%. Using crutches increases energy expenditure by 5% to 8%. If a wound happens to get infected, the metabolic rate can increase by 50%.

When injured, you want to eat mindfully, so that you eat enough but not too many calories. Before you put food into your mouth, ask yourself: “Does my body need this fuel? Will this food provide nutrients to help my injury heal?” Your mind may want excessive treats to comfort your sorrow, but the nutrient-poor cookies that help you feel happier for a moment can contribute to undesired fat gain that will increase your misery in the long run.

If you have ever had a broken bone, you have seen first-hand the muscle wasting that occurs when, let’s say, a leg has been in a cast for six to eight weeks. The good news is, according to Dr. Stuart Phillips of McMaster University, muscle strength and power returns quicker than muscle size. You can minimize excessive muscle loss by eating adequate protein. The typical (and adequate) protein intake is 0.5 g protein per pound of body weight per day (1.1g/kg/day). During recovery, a better target is about 0.7 g pro/lb (1.6 g/kg). For a 150-pound athlete, that’s 75 to 105 grams of protein per day, an amount easily obtained through your diet. Simply choose a protein-rich food with each meal and snack throughout the day to help maximize healing and minimize muscle loss.

Creatine and health
Creatine has been shown to enhance performance in sports that require short bursts of energy (including ice hockey, sprinting, soccer, weight lifting). The question arises: Is creatine harmful? According to Eric Rawson, PhD of Bloomsburg University, PA, creatine is safe. Although critics have tried to implicate creatine in athletic events that resulted in death, other factors were involved, such as excessive exercise in extreme heat. (2, 3, 4)

The NCAA and other sports organizations discourage the use of creatine in teenage athletes. Teens who take creatine while their bodies are growing will never know how well they could have performed, simply by having a good sports diet and hard work. The question arises: Will athletes who take creatine be enticed to try other ergogenic aids, such as harmful and illegal steroids? The answer is unknown.

On a daily basis, the brain uses creatine to help us think and process. Thinking requires quick energy, and creatine enhances that metabolic pathway. Taking creatine supplements can increase brain creatine by 4% to 9%.

When the brain is tired, as happens with sleep-deprivation, creatine may be able to enhance brain function. For example, sleep deprived rugby players who took creatine improved their accuracy when throwing a ball, compared to those who did not take creatine. The effect was similar to taking caffeine, another alertness-heightener. (5)

Creatine might be helpful for athletes who suffer a concussion. Research with animals suggests that taking creatine before suffering a concussion can enhance recovery. (6) Granted, few athletes know when they will get a concussion, but anecdotes tell us that hockey players who routinely take creatine (and have higher brain creatine status than athletes who do not take creatine) report enhanced recovery. In certain medical situations, such as muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, creatine can also have a health-protective role.

References
(1) Blair, S. Physical inactivity: the biggest public health problem of the 21st century. Br. J Sports Med. 2009; 43; 1-2.

(2) Persky AM, Rawson ES. Safety of creatine supplementation. Subcell Biochem. 2007; 46: 275-89.

(3) Dalbo VJ, Roberts MD, Stout JR, Kerksick CM. Putting to rest the myth of creatine supplementation leading to muscle cramps and dehydration. Br. J Sports Med. 2008 Jul; 42(7): 567-73.

(4) Lopez RM, Casa DJ, McDermott BP, Ganio MS, Armstrong LE, Maresh CM. Does creatine supplementation hinder exercise heat tolerance or hydration status? A systematic review with meta-analyses. J Athl. Train. 2009 Mar-Apr; 44(2): 215-23.

(5) Cook CJ, Crewther BT, Kilduff LP, Drawer S, Gaviglio CM. Skill execution and sleep deprivation: Effects of acute caffeine or creatine supplementation – a randomized placebo-controlled trial. J Int. Soc. Sports Nutr. 2011 Feb 16; 8:2.

(6) Sullivan PG, Geiger JD, Mattson MP, Scheff SW. Dietary supplement creatine protects against traumatic brain injury. Ann Neurol. 2000 Nov; 48 (5): 723-9.

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD, Sports Nutrition Services:

www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com (Seattle, SLC,SF, LA, PNX & online). www.nancyclarkrd.com (books, handouts, CEUs).

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 4th Edition Food guides for soccer, new runners, marathoners, cyclists.

Healthworks, 1300 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill MA 02467. Phone: 617.795.1875 Fax: 617.795.1876 Twitter.com/nclarkrd – “Helping active people win with good nutrition.”

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) helps both casual and competitive athletes find peace with food. Her practice is at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA (617-383-6100). Her “Sports Nutrition Guidebook” and food guides for new runners, marathoners and soccer players offer additional information. The books are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is the world’s largest organization of sports medicine and exercise science professionals. At ACSM’s annual meeting in Denver, May 31-June 4, 2011, over 6,000 exercise scientists, sports dietitians, physicians and other health professionals gathered to share their research. Here are a few of the nutrition highlights. More highlights are available at www.acsm.org (“news releases”).

Research on High Intensity Training
And Other Important News for Athletes

Looking for a way to get fit quickly? High intensity interval training (HIIT) is effective, though it’s hard work! Once you are fit, you can then reduce the exercise intensity to a more enjoyable and sustainable level. Dr. Martin Gibala of McMaster University in Ontario does not believe HIIT is a heart attack waiting to happen, but recommends that untrained people first get a proper medical check-up.

HIIT can be an effective part of a weight reduction program. Overweight men who did twenty minutes of HIIT (8 second sprints with 12 seconds recovery) 3 times a week for 12 weeks achieved a 7% drop in body fat. In another study with untrained, slightly overweight women ages 30-45, those who did high intensity exercise lost more weight and body fat than those who did lower intensity training. One benefit of high intensity exercise is it can suppress the appetite (temporarily) compared to lower intensity exercise.

HIIT can create a significant afterburn. Men who expended roughly 500 calories during 47 minutes of vigorous exercise continued to burn 225 extra calories in the next 18.5 hours.

When athletes lose weight, they lose muscle as well as fat. For example, soldiers during nine weeks of combat training lost 9 lbs (4.2 kg) body weight, one-third of which was muscle loss and two-thirds fat loss. They consumed about 15% fewer calories than required to maintain weight.

Even bodybuilders and figure competitors do not lose just body fat when they “lean out.” In the 12 weeks pre-competition, male bodybuilders lost about 4 lbs (1.8 kg) lean body mass and 11.5 lbs (5.2 kg) body fat. The female figure competitors lost about 5.5 lbs (2.6 kg) lean and about 6.4 lbs (2.9 kg) fat.

Did you know?
Why do women struggle harder than men to lose undesired body fat? Perhaps because they are women! In the animal kingdom, female animals generate less body heat after overfeeding compared to the males. Research with humans suggests similar energy conservation. When four men and four women were overfed ice cream for three days (150% of energy balance needs), the men burned off some of the extra calories while the women conserved energy.

A novel way to burn a few extra calories is to sit on a stability ball while you are at work. At a call center (where 90% of the time is spent sitting), the employees who sat on the stability ball for five hours during the workday burned about 260 more calories per eight-hour shift. Theoretically, that could lead to loss of 26 pounds in a year! They burned about half a calorie more per minute sitting on a stability ball than sitting in a chair. The biggest barrier to using the stability balls was aggravation of pre-existing back pain.

Trained cyclists who consumed equal calories of either a sports drink or banana chunks during a 75-kilometer cycling time trial performed similarly. The banana, however, offered a beneficial anti-inflammatory response. Natural foods generally offer more benefits than engineered sports foods.

Chocolate milk is a popular recovery food that contains carbohydrates to refuel muscles and high quality protein to build and repair muscles. Both full-fat and skimmed chocolate milk offer similar recovery benefits.

Beer is a plant-based beverage that offers anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Marathoners who drank 1 to 1.5 liters of non-alcoholic beer per day for three weeks prior to a marathon and two weeks after the marathon experienced less post-race inflammation and fewer colds. Non-alcoholic beer offers a wise way to enjoy the natural high of exercise along with positive health benefits.

Have you ever wondered how much elite endurance athletes consume during an event? A post-event survey of Ironman triathletes, marathoners, long-distance cyclists, and professional bike racers suggests the Ironmen consumed about 70 grams (280 calories) of carbohydrate per hour; the cyclists, 53 grams (212 calories) and the marathoners, 35 grams (140 calories). The endurance athletes who consumed the most energy had the best performances.

How common are intestinal problems during endurance events? About 31% of the Ironman competitors reported GI serious problems, compared to 14% of the half-Ironman competitors, 4% of the cyclists, and 4% of the marathoners. Those with a history of GI distress reported the most symptoms, as well as those who exercised in higher heat.

If you are going to be competing in the heat, you might want to pre-cool your body. One way to do that is to enjoy an ice slurry. Runners who consumed about 14-ounces of ice slurry before they exercised in the heat were able to run about 1% faster during a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) race.

Female athletes commonly restrict their food intake. Among 44 female high school cross-country runners (16 y.o.):

• 39% restricted food, thinking being lighter would help them perform better.

• 42% reported missed or absent menstrual periods in the past year – a sign of being under-fueled.

• They were eight times more likely to believe missing multiple periods was a sign they were in better shape.

These young women need to be educated about the medical problems associated with missed menstrual periods!

To resume menses, amenorrheic women need to correct the energy deficit. Those who drank a 360-calorie carbohydrate-protein supplement resumed menses, on average, in about 2.5 months (±2 months). The longer they had been amenorrheic, the longer they needed to resume menses.

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) helps both casual and competitive athletes find peace with food. Her practice is at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill MA (617-383-6100). Her “Sports Nutrition Guidebook” and food guides for new runners, marathoners and soccer players offer additional information. The books are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD Sports Nutrition Services

www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com (Seattle, Salt Lake City, online) www.nancyclarkrd.com (books, handouts, CEUs)

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 4th Edition, Food Guides for Soccer, New Runners, Marathoners, Cyclists

Healthworks, 1300 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill MA 02467 Phone: 617.795.1875
Fax: 617.795.1876 Twitter.com/nclarkrd

“Helping active people win with good nutrition.”

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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“If I crave a candy bar, should I eat a candy bar?” That’s the title of one of my most popular blog posts. Clearly, food cravings and sugar addictions are a source of concern and frustration for many athletes who believe that eating one chocolate bar (or whatever food they crave) will lead them to eating ten, expand their waistlines, and ruin their health. They avoid chocolate like the plague. Instead, they righteously snack on only “healthy foods” like apples and oranges. While the natural goodness of fruit is indeed the more nutritious and health-promoting choice, some nice chocolate, enjoyed in response to a hankering, can also fit into your sports diet.

Your Brain Remembers Your Cravings
Long After You Moved on to Other Things

By regularly enjoying chocolates, you can avoid the strong cravings that lead to eating a sickening amount – not because you are “addicted to sugar” but because you are doing “last chance eating” before you go back into your self-defined food jail (1).

Keep in mind, your brain remembers the food you crave. If you try to ignore your craving for, let’s say, chocolate, you’ll end up eating it sooner or later. This may happen after you’ve tried to curb your craving with an apple, crackers, pretzels, sugar-free fudgsicle – anything but the chocolate – and then, 500 calories later, you succumb to what you truly wanted. You could have more wisely enjoyed the chocolate in the first place, and you would have saved yourself a bunch
of calories!

Food cravings are a popular topic not only on my blog but also among LinkedIn’s “Intuitive Eating Professionals” group. A discussion, titled “If you crave a food, should you eat it?”, spurred a lot of responses. – The answer is YES! History tells us that denial and deprivation of a desired food does not work permanently but rather results in binge eating.

After all, if restrictive eating “worked,” then everyone who has ever been on a diet would be thin. The majority of dieters are overweight and obese, suggesting that “dieting fall-out” may be contributing to obesity. (2)

To our detriment, we live in a world where enjoying bagels, ice cream, candy, and chips gets “questioned.” Athletes talk about needing “willpower” to curb their intake of the foods they crave. But most of us really want to be able to enjoy these foods. We just want to be able to eat them sanely, not in what feels like an out of control “pig-out.” We need nutrition “skillpower” (not willpower) to learn how to manage today’s food supply. That’s where a sports dietitian can help you control hunger-based binges and find peace with food. (For a referral to a local sports dietitian, see www.SCANdpg.org.)

The question arises: What’s so bad about cravings in the first place? Is there really something wrong with eating what you truly want to eat? Cravings are not addictions. If you crave a bagel because it tastes good, why should you not enjoy the bagel? When you eat a food you crave, your brain experiences a biochemical change that signals happiness. Can eating an appropriate portion (as opposed to overeating “the whole thing”) be a bad thing to do?

The answer commonly depends on whether you are eating the food for fuel vs. mindlessly devouring it for its drug-like effect. If you find yourself on the verge of polishing off the whole bag of bagels, stop and ask yourself, “Does my body need this fuel?” If the answer is yes, you need to learn how to prevent the extreme hunger or deprivation that triggered the overeating. If the answer is no, then ask yourself, “What am I doing with my feelings?”

Over-eating a craved food can distract you from sadness, smother your emotions, and protect you from feeling alone and lonely. But then you are using food for the wrong reasons. No amount of bagels, chocolate, or chips will resolve the real problem: You are likely hungry for a hug.

Do certain foods over-excite the pleasure centers in the brain? If so, do those foods become “addictive”? The recent science (3) says there is no such thing as a “sugar (or food) addiction.” Yes, it may have addictive-like qualities, particularly following a restriction/binge pattern of eating (1). In my practice, most people who binge have an unbalanced relationship with food: It has become a too enticing primary focus for pleasure. The more they try to stay away from palatable foods, the more they want them.

While there is much we do not know about food and this controversial topic of food addictions, I encourage my clients to first rule out hunger as the cause for cravings for sugar and carbohydrates. The physiology of hunger explains why we crave sugar: It’s a survival signal for quick energy. When your blood sugar is low, your brain signals an urgent need for sugar. When your muscles are glycogen-depleted, you experience a niggling craving for carbs until the muscles are adequately replenished.

What can you do to overcome cravings and perceived “addictions”? First and foremost, experiment with eating heftier breakfasts and lunches to abate hunger. No, you will not “get fat” by eating more during the day. If you listen to your body, you will observe that you are less hungry at night and will simply be able to consume fewer calories.

Also try changing your attitude. The mind is very influential. If you believe you are addicted to a food, you will have a hard time convincing yourself otherwise despite of research that refutes the concept of food addiction and puts the focus on deprivation as a trigger to (over-) eat.

The next time you have a craving for a specific food, relax, enjoy eating it slowly, taste it, savor the flavor, and linger over the treat. Do this several times throughout the week. Learn to enjoy the treat slowly, in moderation, without feeling guilty. Enjoy the foods you crave at every meal. For example, have a few Hershey’s Kisses day after day, at breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. Eat them so often that you get sick of them. This may sound unhealthy in the short term, but a week or two of excess chocolate will not ruin your health (or your waistline) forever.

By learning your body’s responses to different foods, you can at least become educated: Food is not addictive and cravings are not bad. What’s bad is trying to live hungry as well as deprived of foods you enjoy. There is a possibility you can find peace with food.

References
1. Pelchat M. Food addiction in humans. J Nutr. 2009; 139(3) 620-622

2. Corwin RL, and P Grigson. Symposium Overview – Food Addiction: Fact or fiction? J Nutr. 2009; 139(3): 617-619.

3. Benton, D. The plausibility of sugar addiction and its role in obesity and eating disorders. Clinical Nutrition 29(3): 288-303, 2010.

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) helps both casual and competitive athletes find peace with food. Her practice is at Healthworks, the premier fitness center in Chestnut Hill, MA. Her “Sports Nutrition Guidebook” and food guides for new runners, marathoners, and soccer players offer additional information. They are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com. See also www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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The average American stays glued to the tube between four to six hours daily. Parents may complain about the almost addictive attitude their kids have towards video games, but, of course, adults surfing channels for hours on end are no different.

The Latest Generation of Video Games
Makes Players Get Off the Couch and Move

The fact that so many of us spend excessive amounts of time in front of the screen suggests that the experience is different from other activities that hold our attention to a far lesser degree.

Clinical studies have suggested that there are behavioral and neurological connections between the events we see on the screen and our ability to pay attention. “The kind of concentration that [especially] children bring to video games and television… is sustained with frequent intermittent rewards,” says Dr. Christopher Lucas, professor of child psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.

In other words, watching TV shows and playing video games may be so popular because they offer more frequent rewards than other activities. The neurological explanation is that the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter in charge of pleasure experience. Our attention span is prolonged by the constant gratification we receive from suspenseful movies, funny sitcoms or challenging contest games. Watching or interacting with any of these might serve as a kind of dopamine-enhancing self-medication.

Encouraging people to push the switch-off button and do something else may be the obvious answer but perhaps not the only one. Trying to deny ourselves what gives us pleasure rarely works over time. Sometimes, indulging in what comes naturally can be a smarter solution.

For me, a recent visit to a computer store was a real eye-opener in this regard. The place was packed with kids and teenagers who were not there to buy laptops and tablets but to play – not video games where you just use your thumbs but athletic games that require full body action. Of course, I am talking about the highly popular Kinect game series that runs on the Xbox 360 player from Microsoft.

For all those who are new at this, like myself, here is a brief description of how it works: Kinect uses motion sensors that track the movements of every part of a person’s body –arms, legs, knees, head, hips and so on. The collected data allow a computer to produce a kind of “digital skeleton,” which is then fed into a video game environment. Players can view their actions in real time on screen in form of an avatar, an electronic image that corresponds to the players’ performance.

Some of the scenarios are highly imaginative. As a health care professional and fitness buff, I was immediately drawn to a game titled “Your Shape,” which promises calorie burn-off while having nothing but fun. It comes with a “personal trainer” and a dynamic exercise program for every health- and fitness level.

For the specific purpose of weight loss, Kinect offers another workout program called “The Biggest Loser,” which features trainer-guided exercise- and nutrition tips based on the popular TV show on NBC.

If that doesn’t sound especially appealing, there is a large selection of athletic sports to choose from, and also less strenuous activities, like dancing, golf or bowling.

Do I think that this is the solution to ending America’s notoriously sedentary lifestyle? No, of course not. But it can be a helpful tool.

There are countless reasons why both adults and kids spend too many hours on the couch every day. In many families there is not enough time and energy left for much else after a grueling workday and long commutes. Playing outside the house or on a nearby playground may not always be safe for kids who are on their own.

As they become more affordable, these new technologies may indeed provide some alternative outlet. Isn’t it better to do something for our health in the virtual world if it helps us to avoid getting sick in the real one?

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