IMO, the current demonization of gluten is way overblown. Food faddists, combined with corporate food marketing efforts, have transformed it into the new deadly toxin that the general public must avoid at all costs, just as fat and carbs have been in their turn. In other words, “gluten free” is the latest food scare/fad.
If you actually have celiac disease or some other milder form of gluten intolerance, then sure,you should be avoiding gluten. But for the vast majority of people gluten is a perfectly safe, perfectly nutritious plant protein.
<p>Bread is such a ubiquitous staple in so many diets from around the globe that I have a hard time believing that wheat, in and of itself, is unhealthy for everyone. It just doesn’t seem logical.</p>
<p>Wheat as grown in US has changed to be much higher protein, much more resistance to bugs ( fungus & pesticides) than what was grown 50 years ago.
It has evolved faster than our gut has.</p>
<p>I’m adding the running page to my homepage. I don’t think that I’m serious or trained enough to look for a trainer but may consider one in the future if I ever get up to running 10 miles. At my current rate of progress, that would probably be take a while.</p>
<p>That is my operating assumption as well. I try to avoid wheat simply because I get a ton of carbs from veggies, fruits, legumes, peas, fresh corn, and so forth. It just doesn’t fit in my diet, although I will have the occasional serving of pasta or the occasional flour tortilla.</p>
<p>The only food I think belongs in the “pure poison, don’t touch it” is processed sugar and, especially, sugar sweetened beverages. That food appears to be all downside, no upside.</p>
<p>10 star-rated post! I completely agree with coureur. We already demonized carbs, fat, and now going after proteins (gluten is a protein). Hmmmm… I think the “statistics” touted by the media that 1 in 10 in the US has a celiac disease are groundless. Has a big group of people representative of the US population been tested to prove this? I doubt it, because the only way to know for sure if one has celiac disease is to undergo a pretty serious test that involves endoscopy and several biopsies. A positive blood test pretty much means that a followup endoscopic exam is needed.</p>
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<p>Agree. I include 40% aqueous ethanol in the same category.</p>
<p>OMG, here it comes, the dreaded 4 letter word - snow. Me the thinks I need to make my Costco run before it really “hits the fan”. I’m afraid my treadmill will be busy tomorrow. :(</p>
<p>We are digging out the snow tires- have to go get the child from B-ham for her wisdom tooth check on Monday.
She was going to take the bus- but her bed from Ikea isn’t right & she wants her dad to fix it. </p>
<p>I didn’t make it to the gym yesterday cause I was cooking- but I will go after I have another cup of coffee.</p>
<p>journey- I think it is really hard to change running style. It IS better to use the glutes, since that protects the hamstrings and knees, but it’s a hard thing to learn. I think minimalist shoes are best for efficient, lighter runners, and I haven’t seen you run, so it’s hard to say. A toe strike would tell me that you should not be in a big, built up shoe, though, so don’t get talked into that. Nothing bulkier than a Brooks Ghost, Nike Vomero. If you want to do some walking or shorter runs, try Brooks Pure Flow or Pure Connect for an entry into less shoe. Or the awesome Brooks Launch. I love Nike Free for walking or gym, but it offers NO support for running.</p>
<p>The Olympic Trials Marathon today was awesome (I was following it on Twitter). 4 Americans under 2:10 for the first time EVER. My hero, Meb, won in a PR (at age 36) of 2:09:08. 2:09:55 was 4th and did not make the team. Amazing. Women were just as fantastic.</p>
<p>I went out for the dreaded 8 miler in 22 degrees (but no wind and started out with clear skies). D was planning 9 later on the dreadmill (she’s on call (hospital chaplain) so couldn’t run outside) so I lengthened the 8 to 9 for myself, by some miracle. My pace was faster than I really wanted- I think I get in a hurry to get it done! The course from the new house misses the biggest hill coming and going, but it’s still plenty hilly. It WAS nice to know I didn’t have that big climb with a mile to go, though. Didn’t take my gloves off until within the last mile and never took the hat off. It was cold, but I dressed warmly, so I was OK. Had to move and unpack boxes after that.</p>
<p>I agree that sugar is bad, but I don’t think it’s going to kill me to put half a tsp in my tea (and I don’t think substituting honey makes a whit of difference in those quantities.) Now the cup that goes into apple pie is more problematic, but we don’t eat it that often either.</p>
<p>Yeah… sugar is like booze. A little bit is fine, too much is a problem. Half a teaspoon in tea isn’t going to kill you!</p>
<p>It is kind of amazing who much sugar you get without really trying. I use virtually no added sugar in my diet and I still get at least 50 grams a day of sugar just from fruit, veggies, and so forth.</p>
<p>Here’s a great website that has nothing but photos of popular food and drink items with stacks of standard sugar cubes representing the amount of sugar in each one.</p>
<p>For example, my favorite “healthy” drink, 16 ounce bottle of Snapple ice tea, has the equivalent of 14.5 cubes of sugar in it. I could polish off two or three of those in day, easy.</p>
<p>A 16 ounce bottle of orange juice has 12 cubes of sugar.</p>
Snapple is too sweet.
When I was growing up- we didn’t have pop- we would sometimes have kool-aid.
But usually water- I think that affected my taste buds cause I don’t like most of the myriad numbers of prepared drinks on the shelves.
I do like- c*ck & bull ginger beer, but it still is so strong that I cut it with water ( good flavor though)
It has 35gm of sugar.
Im thinking of getting one of those things to make soda from syrup- my H drinks it regularly & I really hate the aluminum cans.
<p>I agree on Snapple - too sweet. Last time I bought one was probably sometime in 2010 or 2011 - for the glass bottle to store cold water in. We have about four of those in the refrigerator that we’ve used for a long time. Of course we mostly use Nalgene bottles when I’m not using them for tennis.</p>
<p>I’m drinking a moderate amount of Nuun these days. I fill a tall glass with water and drop in a tablet once or twice a day. Maybe more on heavy workout days. I think that it helps somewhat with recovery.</p>
<p>Only drink recommended is herbal tea and water. Nutritionist’s take on it was not to go cold turkey. She recommended cutting back on caffeine before we started the program–there were detailed directions on how to start.</p>
<p>I used to drink coffee all day long. Usually, I wouldn’t even enjoy it–it was simply a habit I got into. This fall when I was going to the clinic for my wound infection, the med tech would take my blood pressure each time I was there. I noticed that on the days when I drank multiple cups of coffee my blood pressure would be elevated. I had borderline high pressure (135/85) and losing weight helped lower it. However–coffee drinking really seemed to affect it. Days when I simply had herbal tea–pressure was down. As a result of that I decided that I was going to limit my coffee intake and make drinking coffee a treat and something special. Which is basically what I do now. I go to a local coffee shop on my way home from the gym and sit down and have my coffee. It’s a ritual that I enjoy and I almost never have coffee at another time.</p>
<p>I do like things that have us examine our acquired habits.
Like Bromfield’s take on not really enjoying every cup, that was how I began to quite smoking aeons ago. </p>
<p>I noticed that I didn’t really enjoy every cigarette I was smoking. So before I even began to contemplate officially quitting, I cut down on the cigarettes that I wasn’t really enjoying. Then I noticed I wasn’t enjoying ALL of the cigarette I was smoking. Because I was young and broke, I felt like I had to smoke them all the way down to the filter, or I rolled them myself. Turns out when you are essentially smoking a butt, they do not taste good. Gave myself permission to not to have to do that. Pretty soon, I noticed I only REALLY enjoyed the first couple of drags. Now those were harder to give up, but I had started on the path.</p>
<p>Similarly, I was an occasional coffee drinker and actually eschewed the weak, coffee flavored milk that is so popular around here. Then after a certain tedious errand, I would “reward” myself with the occasion Sbux drive thru after that errand. Over time and without thinking about it, that became a daily habit with me actually detouring to go through the drive-thru. I noticed how ridiculous (and expensive!) that habit was, and now am back to the occasional cup.</p>
<p>No workout yesterday. Worked all afternoon and then went out last night. Some good food and maybe even a little bit healthy But idad probably wouldn’t approve… my baked potato was MASSIVE and even though I probably only ate about half of it, there was a LOT. Had breaded chicken breast AND prime rib along with Asian green beans, salad, etc. Ended up staying out for about 5 hours last night. Best part was I didn’t spend a dime Our company had our holiday party last night and it was at the finest restaurant in town…</p>
<p>Today I did some TRX work and some kettlebell swings. May go out and do some Pilates this evening…</p>
I finally did my stretch video (6 minutes) and it felt really good on the muscles. Then 1.3 mile run (felt good too), and core weight machines. I could probably run at least a mile everyday but I’d need more clothes and more planning.
I think I solved my toe problem. I have three black toes right now (under the nail). Basically the toenail hits the front of the shoe and puts so much stress on the toenail that I guess there’s bleeding under it. I wore two pairs of socks and that gets rid of the stress. I used to always wear two pairs of socks for running or tennis but stopped it many years ago when I wasn’t as active. I guess it’s back to two as that is a weak link right now. I will have to pick up a package of socks tonight.
While at the YMCA, I saw a fair number of fit-looking geezers. Some did cardio + weights, some played street hockey (amazing how popular any form of hockey is around here), and some just did weights (from what I could tell).
But idad probably wouldn’t approve… my baked potato was MASSIVE and even though I probably only ate about half of it, there was a LOT. Had breaded chicken breast AND prime rib along with Asian green beans, salad, etc. Ended up staying out for about 5 hours last night. Best part was I didn’t spend a dime 
Our company had our holiday party last night and it was at the finest restaurant in town…</p>