<p>Ninety degrees here today and lots of sun, but I still did my run - day 2, week 3 of C25K. It was hot. 2.71 miles in the 28 minutes, which I think is okay. I’m just going to keep plugging along. </p>
<p>Today is the day for potato chip discussions, I think. Sabadog had his physical today. He has lost five pounds! The vet and I were discussing treats and I mentioned that (don’t laugh) I make homemade treats for him or just give him plain cooked chicken, string cheese or steak when training. The vet approved and basically said, commercial treats are like potato chips for humans! Sugar and salt, very addicting. </p>
<p>I’m plugging along reading Salt, Sugar Fat…one of the most interesting segments so far discusses how food manufacturers determine the “bliss point” of sugar content…targeted at children. A lot of work and money goes into appealing to our taste buds.</p>
<p>Ha, at this point I’m just glad I didn’t have heat stroke. Part of me wishes I had started the program sooner; I have a feeling that at some point it’s going to feel hard and I guess I wish it felt hard in the early weeks so I could feel like I was improving.</p>
<p>PG, the variety of workouts you’re doing sounds like fun. I notice you had C25K on there, but I know you’ve already gone through the program. Did you lay off running for a while and restart again recently?</p>
<p>Sabaray, look at your pace. You’re doing great!!!</p>
<p>It was sort of a required performance and not really a regular race since it was just for company employees as part of our fitness week. When we came up with the plan it was still winter and we thought we might get 30 people. We had over 100 and it was summer. People were clearly told to turn back or stop if it got too hard. Walking was welcomed and encouraged. I work for the best company in the world, by the way.</p>
<p>Geez, I sure am surprised that the NPR talk show host, the gluten-free vegan NIH man, the morbidly-obese nutrition researcher from Cleveland Clinic and the approximately 548 media outlets proclaiming that red meat causes heart disease this week failed to mention this little tidbit from the study…</p>
<p>So, it turns out that their “carnitine challenge” test involved feeding their subjects an 8-ounce steak containing approximately 180 mg of natural l-carnitine (which the study refers to as “endogenous” or “unlabeled” carnitine). At the same time as they ate the steak, the subjects were also fed a capsule containing 250 mg of a synthetic l-carnitine with a heavy isotope label, which the study calls “d3 carnitine” and “d3-TMAO” to differentiate it from the natural stuff.</p>
<p>So here’s the interesting part:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In English, they were able to detect significant increases in the synthetic carnitine and synthetic TMAO byproducts from the capsules, but the increase in the natural carnitine and byproducts from the 8-ounce steak were just “modestly” detectable and a drop in the bucket compared to the large amount of natural carnitine and natural TMAO byproducts in the human body.</p>
<p>In other words, when it comes to red meat, this study is a whole bunch of nothing.</p>
<p>But, I’m glad to have read the study. Now I know not to take capsules of synthetic heavy-isotope labled l-carnitine!</p>
<p>Oh, the other thing they forgot to mention. There was a 1999 study that looked at TMAO levels in humans after eating dozens of different foods, including red meat. The only food that spiked TMAO significantly was fish (they tested cod and halibut). That study was surprised that foods like red meat with significant levels of carnitine didn’t really spike TMAO levels. Which is what this current study also found, if you take away the heavy-isotope synthetic l-carnitine capsules. </p>
<p>But, that’s not really the story that is ricocheting around the media this week. I guess “eating fish is linked to coronary disease” doesn’t exactly fit the narrative… :)</p>
If you think about it, this study was really just a study of what happens when you feed people capsules of synthetic heavy-isotope l-carnitine. That’s what they measured. Giving them food along with the capsules was just a side-show. Party decorations.
Since they measured very little increase in carnitine or TMAO from the meat, it would have been exactly the same study with exactly the same results if the sideshow food had been fish sticks or chocolate cake.
Really, the only thing interesting from the study is that vegans and meat eaters have different gut bacteria. That’s hardly a shocker…
At first, this sort of deception makes me mad. But, then, I figure – what the heck – convince everyone in the world to stop eating steak. I’ve already lost my weight and figured out how to keep it off and get great blood work results. So, it’s no skin off my teeth. And, I love a good steak and prices will be better if I’m the only one buying rib eyes and pork roasts. I do feel bad for people in trouble with their diets and struggling to make any progress with their heads spinning from the nutrition advice in the media…
<p>My tummy told me, “Who cares!”, and I ate my steak dinner. Just a tiny piece.</p>
<p>Yay, MOfWC!! Kudos on another perfectly executed race! A sub-10 pace 5K after 2 grueling races on the weekend AND in such unbearable heat AND after work - WOW.</p>
<p>It is troubling, although, unsurprising that, as you said, it always about fitting the narrative. Despite my low carb diet, I actually don’t eat red meat on a daily basis and don’t feel particularly emotionally invested in it as being greatly healthy or not. </p>
<p>In fact, if it hadn’t made me overweight, I would be happily eating my ovolactopescatarian low fat, whole grain, lots of fruit and vegetable diet right now. </p>
<p>I just hate the way the media elects to report this stuff and can’t cop to the fact that there is an inherent bias there. It is so obvious that vegetarian/some sort of vegan is viewed as morally superior (and it may be) and therefore it just HAS to be healthier, too. (unfortunately, the science and anecdotal evidence just doesn’t seem to be providing a definitive answer there)</p>
<p>It’s not so much that they continue with the nonsense that saturated fat causes heart disease, it’s that the same “experts” then turn around and tell people to eat french toast with tub margarine, fake pancake syrup, and low-fat chocolate milk for breakfast. That is comprehensively horrible nutrition advice. But, eating steak and broccoli is bad for you? </p>
<p>Oh, and don’t eat more than 4 ounces of fish… Huh? Why would you want to limit portion size of fish? Oh, I know… because after that sugar-fest breakfast, you have to keep your dinner calories at starvation levels to stay under 2000 for the day…</p>
<p>^lol. It’s a lot like the conversations I used to have with the food people at our school district. I kept arguing that as a taxpayer, it ticked me off they were giving free and reduced lunches to poorly-nourished kids that were nutritionally crap. And they would argue that the kids wouldn’t eat healthy stuff. And I would argue that perhaps if that was all that was offered, perhaps they would come to enjoy the free, healthy stuff. What a missed opportunity!</p>
<p>My own son ended up bringing his own lunch instead of buying it all through high school because even as a teenager he had the good sense to avoid wonder bread. But had he not been taught that at home, he sure wouldn’t have learned it at school!</p>
<p>“I hope nobody’s got a study that shows Parmegianno Regianno and extra virgin olive oil clog the arteries!”
-ARteries are clogged at the point of injury caused by smoke, infectious desease.,etc. They are clogged by the substance in our body that is produced to fight toxines. Olive oil does not go straight into the blood stream, so how it could clog the arteries or how they could be clogged by any food even the one that contains cholesterol. Cholesterol from food does not go into blood stream. Cholesterol produced in our body in response to the certain amount of toxines clogs the arteries.
Drink your Olive Oil and be merry!!</p>
<p>I haven’t had any red meat to eat for over 30 years. Not because I have anything against it…just because I was always sick after I ate it. Can’t even have soup with beef broth! My mom remembered how Sunday roast beef dinners left me bent over with terrible stomach and intestinal pain but no one linked it to beef until I was hospitalized in my 20’s. Bring on the fish and chicken for me! ;)</p>
<p>My problem is that I don’t really like beef and never have. The exception is hamburgers and a really tender filet. I can also eat tender beef in Korean food (Korean tacos or Bi Bim Bop). I am currently having trouble eating chicken because of visiting the baby chicks for sale in the farm stores this spring. Seriously- when I see a cute chickie, I can’t eat chicken for awhile. I don’t have that problem with fish. I don’t think fish are cute.</p>
<p>Felt tired on Wednesday and walked an uninspired 2 miles; did a great workout today. Many TRX moves and KB swings plus modified burpees–finished with stair climbing 2 flights (up and down) 8X. Followed this by a 3.5 mile walk. </p>
<p>Thanks for the synopsis and further explanation of the L-Carnitine study–Idad. I’m always amazed at how media reports of various studies often don’t get the main points of the study and leave out important information.</p>