Fasted training: should you eat before exercise?

Traditional research states that runners need carbohydrate to train effectively, but new studies show the benefits of fasted training. A nutritionist explains the 'train low, compete high' concept

ou need energy to fuel you on a run, right? Not always. Fasted training, in certain circumstances, can help boost your performance. It has been a highly researched topic by many top sports science institutions around the world over the past few years, with my colleague, fellow nutritionist Dr James Morton, leading the way at Liverpool John Moores University.

For many, fasted training has proven to be an effective technique. It is not a fad diet or a method to reduce calorie intake by skipping meals – it is simply a strategic training method where carbohydrate fuelling is completed after training rather than before, to enhance adaptation and performance.

This new strategy is in contrast to traditional research that states carbohydrate availability and muscle glycogen stores should be high for every single training session and race. The importance of carbohydrate for performance is well documented, so this new training technique has been described as the "train low, compete high" model. This means choosing a number of running sessions to complete in a fasted state to optimise training adaptations, while actually racing with high carbohydrate stores and availability to maximise performance.

The most practical way to complete fasted training is to train in the morning, before having breakfast. Hydration is still important, so water or a low-calorie electrolyte drink should be consumed. Fasted training is best completed at an intensity and duration that does not require a great input from metabolism: typically training for around 60 minutes at a moderate intensity is recommended.

The reasoning behind fasted training is that it further enhances the mitochondrial adaptations that occur as a result of aerobic training. This improves the body's ability to use fat as a fuel source during exercise, sparing muscle glycogen for when it is most needed – during the tough parts of a race. However, on race day the body must also be able to use carbohydrate as a fuel source. This is why it is best to select certain shorter training sessions to complete fasted, while others should be completed in a carbohydrate-loaded state. This will ensure the body is well adapted to using both fat and carbohydrate for fuel during exercise.

Although this train low, compete high approach produces great adaptations to training, there are limitations. The main drawback is that during these sessions, exercise intensity may be compromised. When training in a fasted state in the morning, liver glycogen is low after a period of sleep. This can lead to reduced blood glucose, making exercise seem more difficult. Muscle glycogen may also be low depending on your activities and nutrition the evening before, so this can make high-intensity sessions particularly hard to complete. Training with low muscle glycogen levels can also lead to a hormonal and metabolic environment that increases muscle protein breakdown and can impair immune function.

So repetitive fasted training can actually have negative effects, if performed over a long-term period. This again emphasises the importance of splitting your training programme, so certain sessions are completed fasted to promote adaptations, while others are completed with carbohydrate intake.

Often people struggle with the concept of training fasted just because of their habit of consuming breakfast beforehand. So another option is to consume a protein-only breakfast (no carbohydrate) and moderate doses of caffeine (about 100-150mg), as this helps prevent protein breakdown and reduces the risk of fasted training affecting exercise intensity. For example, this could be three scrambled eggs and a cup of strong coffee. As previously mentioned, hydration is also important, so a low-calorie electrolyte drink consumed before and during fasted training can optimise hydration without compromising adaptation.

• Jill Leckey is Science in Sport's senior nutritionist. For more information on nutrition for running, visit Science in Sport.

More PE, activity programs needed in schools

Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

Students should be doing at least 60 minutes of vigorous or moderate-intensity physical activity at school, with more than half of the activity occurring during regular educational hours.

Kids need to break a sweat at school.

Students should be doing at least 60 minutes of vigorous or moderate-intensity physical activity at school, with more than half of the activity occurring during regular educational hours and the remaining amount before and after school, says a report released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine.

Estimates suggest that only about half of U.S. kids meet the government's physical-activity guideline of doing at least 60 minutes of vigorous or moderate-intensity physical activity every day, the report says. School is the best place for kids to be physically active because they spend so much time there, it says.

Among the recommendations from the expert committee convened by the institute:

• Elementary school children should spend at least 30 minutes a day in PE class; middle school and high school students should get an average of 45 minutes a day in PE. That's 150 minutes a week for elementary kids and 225 minutes for middle and high school students.

• At least half of the PE class time should be spent doing vigorous to moderate-intensity physical activity.

• Students should do additional vigorous or moderate-intensity activity throughout the day, including during recess, during classroom breaks that are physically active or in other active-learning opportunities.

• There should be other options to be physically active before and after school, including intramural and extramural sports, active before- and after-school programs and walking/biking/skateboarding to and from school.

"This is a whole-of-school approach. It's not just physical education. It's everything that occurs during school as well as around the school day," says Harold Kohl III, professor of epidemiology and kinesiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health and chair of the committee that did the report.

In many schools, physical-education classes and recess have been squeezed out because of increasing educational demands and tough financial times. Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, 44% of school administrators report cutting significant time from PE and recess so there's more time for subjects such as reading and math, the report says.

Mark Terry, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals and a principal at Eubanks Intermediate School in Southlake, Texas, says, "We all want healthy kids. It's a great goal, but a difficult one.

"You have to look at the unintended consequences of things like this. They are well-meaning, and they are good for kids, but you have to alter the amount of time you have for other subjects," he says.

"The problem is, what are you going to do less of? Are you going to do away with art or cut back on music or cut back on the minutes you have in the classroom?"

Having programs before and after school sounds like a good idea, but the question is who is going to run them and who is going to pay for them, Terry says.

Kohl responds: "We tried to be realistic in these recommendations, and there are creative ways to work these things without sacrificing other subject matter."

Currently, a third of children in the USA are overweight or obese, putting them at greater risk of developing a host of debilitating and costly diseases, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Physical activity improves kids' fitness, lowers their risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes and helps build strong bones and muscles. Children who are more active have greater attention spans and better academic performance, the report says.

The report recommends that the Department of Education designate physical education as a core subject like math and reading. "It is as important because it affects kids' health, cognitive function and overall development," Kohl says.

The report urges state legislatures and departments of education to adopt and/or strengthen physical education and recess policies, as well as before- and after-school policies, to meet the goals the report outlines.

Carb Back-Loading: Training Without Carbs

By John Kiefer

I didn’t get into the nutrition field under the most pleasant of circumstances. Like a lot of people in the fitness industry, I started researching nutrition and training out of necessity. Being a scientist by trade—I’m trained as a physicist—allowed me to cut through scads of BS to find studies and information that actually applied to what I, and many others, needed. In terms of what motivated me to start searching in the first place, however, there’s a very simple and unpleasant explanation: I was an overgrown fat kid.

A few years back, after a software job had me tethered to my desk all day and night, my body was almost completely debilitated as a result of a lack of proper training and a terrible diet. I hadn’t yet discovered the magic of Carb Back-Loading™, so I tried to work myself back into shape by doing what I knew: a combination of Carb Nite® (my super-low-carb diet program) and a six-day-per-week training split.

Gaining strength wasn’t a factor for me at this point. I only cared about how I looked, which explains my virtually zero-carb mindset at the time. As a result of this system I’d cobbled together, I managed to lean down from a flabby 240 pounds to a fairly ripped 204, and I did it quickly. Since I was carrying extra fat—and since I’ve always been strong and wasn’t starting from scratch in terms of muscle memory—I managed to regain some mass, while losing fat at the same time.

WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE?

Something else happened, though—something that came as a big surprise to me. My gym strength started increasing at a rapid clip. I’m differentiating between “gym strength” and “real-world strength” here, because outside the gym, the lack of carbs had me feeling depleted and weak. In the gym, however, once I was lying on a bench under a barbell, something miraculous took place. I’d do the first few reps of my warm-up sets, and then, when I stood back up afterward, I’d be shaking as though I’d just mainlined a vial of straight caffeine. After that, I’d be extremely strong for the remainder of the workout.

This wasn’t just an energy level thing. My numbers kept rising in every lift—especially my bench press. When I first got back in the gym, I was having trouble with 225 pounds, but after a very short period of time, I nailed 405 at a bodyweight of 202. I still felt awful outside the gym, but I was astonished at what I call this Hulk Effect going on every time I wrapped my hands around a barbell.

In the last installment of this serious, I explained the scientific process of observation, explanation and experimentation. Scientists see things, try to explain them, then attempt to validate their explanations through experimentation. Well, I was making one heck of an observation here. I was inexplicably feeling a lot stronger in the gym for no apparent reason I could think of. As a scientist, I needed to know what was causing this.

THE SCIENCE

First off, let’s define low-carb for the purposes of this discussion. When I talk about a low-carb diet, I’m specifically referring to days where you’re taking in 30 grams or less of usable carbohydrates. By usable, I’m not including fiber, since fiber can only provide energy once it ferments into short-chain fatty acids in the colon[1,2]. Fiber is a carbohydrate, but it provides energy as a fat. Research has shown that the effects attributed to ketogenic diets occur at this 30 gram or less level for nearly everyone. Over 30 grams, however, and it turns into something of a crapshoot[3-18].

Now, when you’re going on 30 grams of carbs or less each day, you’re going to exhaust your glucose reserves in a day or two. Once this happens, you’ll be training with depleted glycogen stores. Fat can pick up the slack at this point, at least for the energy requirements necessary for strength—although you’ll likely have trouble maintaining a high training volume. Empty glycogen stores seem to have no bearing on the stimulation of muscle growth through resistance training[23], and may actually accelerate fat loss[24,25]. What this condition can change, however, are the mechanics of your lifts and your rate of recovery—so bear in mind that your gym performance may not actually correlate to your maximum lifting numbers.  

WHY DID I TURN GREEN?

Where does this whole Hulk Effect thing come from, then? Well, it’s produced by a combination of enhancements to your central nervous system and sympathetic nervous system—enhancements that may, in fact, result from the absence of carbs.

Stripping carbs from your diet appears to make the central nervous system function with greater efficiency—as motor signals increase in amplitude[26]. This allows for an increase in single-rep power production and fine-motor control[27] (referred to in scientific literature as psychomotor performance). In other words, your ability to coordinate movement is augmented by the absence of carbs.

I instinctively knew this to be the case, so I wasn’t surprised. When you load up on carbs throughout the day, you’re maintaining your blood sugar levels by external means—and your body has to deal with it in order to maintain homeostasis. Because neurons contain droves of GLUT3 transporters that vacuum up glucose at will[28], your cell function and efficiency is sensitive to swings in your blood sugar level.

Letting your body control its own production and management of blood sugar, in contrast, allows your nervous system to remain fine-tuned and prepared to perform. Your blood sugar content at any given time is only four grams[29], so this isn’t as difficult to maintain without carbs as you might think. It’s also an amount your body can supplement with ketones—a high-efficiency fuel for nerve tissue[30].

Still, this doesn’t fully explain the Hulk-like transformation I experienced at the beginning of each workout after performing my first warm-up set or two. That’s where the sympathetic nervous system enters the equation. Your sympathetic nervous system controls catecholamine response, and the best-known catecholamine is adrenaline. When you train, your body releases catecholamines. This, in turn, increases fatty acid release, energy production, and strength. Your muscle system’s response depends on how much adrenaline is present, its rate of release, and how sensitive your cells are to it. Stripping carbs from your diet does something to intensify each of these[31-36].

When you go low-carb, your adrenal glands release catecholamines with less stimulus or stress. This explains why I was so jacked up with adrenaline after my light-to-moderate warm-up sets. All it took was a few reps, and this mechanism would begin to fire like nobody’s business. With a low-carb diet, this flow of adrenaline starts sooner, and your body dumps larger quantities—kind of like ramming a six-inch needle into your chest and injecting it at the start of your workouts.

Your cells are very sensitive to this adrenaline that’s entering your system. Sending your body into ketogenesis increases your cellular response to catecholamines, and the whole package gives you a serious fight-or-flight response. As a result, you’ll get power, strength, irritability, and enough rage to fuel some majorly ass-kicking workouts. By living this low-carb lifestyle, you’ll be able to summon this Hulk Effect anytime you want—and not just when you’re angry.

Following Carb Back-Loading entails eating fat to burn fat, and training each day without having eaten carbs prior to your workouts. Limiting carbs in the first half of the day forces your metabolism to rely on fat for its energy needs. When you limit your intake of food during this time, your body releases body fat for energy. That’s how Carb Back-Loading works.

What matters when you train are your glycogen stores, and not the carbs you ingest. I’ll cover all-things-glycogen related in the next installment of this series. For now, however, I’ll let you off with a warning. Eating carbs immediately before you train can cause poor performance and potentially rebound hypoglycemia, which happens when muscles, the liver, and other tissues clear glucose from your bloodstream too fast. This manifests itself in the form of shakiness, sweating, light-headedness, and an inability to think clearly. You don’t want to get under a heavy barbell in this condition, believe me.

THE VERDICT

Now, if you’re a serious strength athlete—a powerlifter or strongman, for example—you likely don’t want to switch over to a completely low-carb life. It’s not the most enjoyable way to live, and you’ll have to modify your training because you’ll lack the endurance to handle the type of volume you need. What I’ve found, however, is that when you transition from a low-carb diet back to a normal one, this Hulk Effect can linger for up to a month—although I have no research to back this up yet. This also holds true for Carb Back-Loading. When used correctly, Carb Back-Loading can help you summon The Hulk Effect for months.

Give it a shot. At least on a temporary basis, you’ll enjoy the hell out of channeling your inner weight-smashing, PR-destroying self.

References:

1.       Behall KM, Howe JC.  Contribution of fiber and resistant starch to metabolizable energy.  Am J Clin Nutr. 1995 Nov;62(5 Suppl):1158S-1160S. Review.

2.       Topping DL, Clifton PM.  Short-chain fatty acids and human colonic function: roles of resistant starch and nonstarch polysaccharides.  Physiol Rev. 2001 Jul;81(3):1031-64. Review.

3.        Foster GD, Wyatt HR, Hill JO, McGuckin BG, Brill C, Mohammed BS, Szapary PO, Rader DJ, Edman JS, Klein S.  A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity.  N Engl J Med. 2003 May 22;348(21):2082-90.

4.       Elliot B, Roeser HP, Warrell A, Linton I, Owens P, Gaffney T.  Effect of a high energy, low carbohydrate diet on serum levels of lipids and lipoproteins.  Med J Aust. 1981 Mar 7;1(5):237-40.

5.       Smith SR, de Jonge L, Zachwieja JJ, Roy H, Nguyen T, Rood JC, Windhauser MM, Bray GA.  Fat and carbohydrate balances during adaptation to a high-fat.  Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Feb;71(2):450-7.

6.        Golay A, Eigenheer C, Morel Y, Kujawski P, Lehmann T, de Tonnac N.  Weight-loss with low or high carbohydrate diet?  Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1996 Dec;20(12):1067-72.

7.        Meckling KA, Gauthier M, Grubb R, Sanford J.  Effects of a hypocaloric, low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss, blood lipids, blood pressure, glucose tolerance, and body composition in free-living overweight women.  Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 2002 Nov;80(11):1095-105.

8.       Roy HJ, Lovejoy JC, Keenan MJ, Bray GA, Windhauser MM, Wilson JK.  Substrate oxidation and energy expenditure in athletes and nonathletes consuming isoenergetic high- and low-fat diets.  Am J Clin Nutr. 1998 Mar;67(3):405-11.

9.       Schutz Y, Flatt JP, Jequier E.  Failure of dietary fat intake to promote fat oxidation: a factor favoring the development of obesity.  Am J Clin Nutr. 1989 Aug;50(2):307-14.

10.   Astrup A, Buemann B, Christensen NJ, Toubro S.  Failure to increase lipid oxidation in response to increasing dietary fat content in formerly obese women.  Am J Physiol. 1994 Apr;266(4 Pt 1):E592-9.

11.   Yerboeket-van de Venne WP, Westerterp KR.  Effects of dietary fat and carbohydrate exchange on human energy metabolism.  Appetite. 1996 Jun;26(3):287-300.

12.   Buemann B, Toubro S, Astrup A.  Substrate oxidation and thyroid hormone response to the introduction of a high fat diet in formerly obese women.  Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1998 Sep;22(9):869-77.

13.   Golay A, Allaz AF, Morel Y, de Tonnac N, Tankova S, Reaven G. Similar weight loss with low- or high-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr 1996, 63:174-8.

14.   Layman DK, Boileau RA, Erickson DJ, Painter JE, Shiue H, Sather C, Christou DD. A reduced ratio of dietary carbohydrate to protein improves body composition and blood lipid profiles during weight loss in adult women. J Nutr 2003, 133:411-7.

15.   Baba NH, Sawaya S, Torbay N, Habbal Z, Azar S, Hashim SA. High protein vs high carbohydrate hypoenergetic diet for the treatment of obese hyperinsulinemic subjects. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1999, 23:1202-6.

16.   Young CM, Scanlan SS, Im HS, Lutwak L. Effect of body composition and other parameters in obese young men of carbohydrate level of reduction diet. Am J Clin Nutr 1971, 24:290-6.

17.   Greene P, Willett W, Devecis J, Skaf A. Pilot 12-Week Feeding Weight-Loss Comparison: Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate (Ketogenic) Diets. Obesity Research 2003, 11:A23.

18.   Riggs AJ, White BD, Gropper SS. Changes in energy expenditure associated with ingestion of high protein, high fat versus high protein, low fat meals among underweight, normal weight, and overweight females. Nutr J. 2007 Nov 12;6:40.

19.   Langfort J, Pilis W, Zarzeczny R, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uściłko H. Effect of low-carbohydrate-ketogenic diet on metabolic and hormonal responses to graded exercise in men. J Physiol Pharmacol. 1996 Jun;47(2):361-71.

20.   Weltan SM, Bosch AN, Dennis SC, Noakes TD.  Influence of muscle glycogen content on metabolic regulation.  Am J Physiol. 1998 Jan;274(1 Pt 1):E72-82.

21.   Zderic TW, Schenk S, Davidson CJ, Byerley LO, Coyle EF. Manipulation of dietary carbohydrate and muscle glycogen affects glucose uptake during exercise when fat oxidation is impaired by beta-adrenergic blockade. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Dec;287(6):E1195-201.

22.   Symons JD, Jacobs I. High-intensity exercise performance is not impaired by low intramuscular glycogen. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1989 Oct;21(5):550-7.

23.   Churchley EG, Coffey VG, Pedersen DJ, Shield A, Carey KA, Cameron-Smith D, Hawley JA. Influence of preexercise muscle glycogen content on transcriptional activity of metabolic and myogenic genes in well-trained humans. J Appl Physiol. 2007 Apr;102(4):1604-11.

24.   Yeo WK, Carey AL, Burke L, Spriet LL, Hawley JA. Fat adaptation in well-trained athletes: effects on cell metabolism. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2011 Feb;36(1):12-22. Review.

25.   25.  Pilegaard H, Keller C, Steensberg A, Helge JW, Pedersen BK, Saltin B, Neufer PD. Influence of pre-exercise muscle glycogen content on exercise-induced transcriptional regulation of metabolic genes. J Physiol. 2002 May 15;541(Pt 1):261-71.

26.   Grisdale RK, Jacobs I, Cafarelli E. Relative effects of glycogen depletion and previous exercise on muscle force and endurance capacity. J Appl Physiol. 1990 Oct;69(4):1276-82.

27.   Chmura J, Krysztofiak H, Ziemba AW, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uścilko H. Psychomotor performance during prolonged exercise above and below the blood lactate threshold. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1998;77(1-2):77-80.

28.   Uldry M, Thorens B. The SLC2 family of facilitated hexose and polyol transporters. Pflugers Arch. 2004 Feb;447(5):480-9. Review.

29.   Wasserman DH. Four grams of glucose. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2009 Jan;296(1):E11-21. Review.

30.   Mitchell GA, Kassovska-Bratinova S, Boukaftane Y, Robert MF, Wang SP, Ashmarina L, Lambert M, Lapierre P, Potier E.  Medical aspects of ketone body metabolism.  Clin Invest Med. 1995 Jun;18(3):193-216. Review.

31.   Langfort J, Zarzeczny R, Pilis W, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uścitko H. The effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on performance, hormonal and metabolic responses to a 30-s bout of supramaximal exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1997;76(2):128-33.

32.   Jansson E, Hjemdahl P, Kaijser L. Diet induced changes in sympatho-adrenal activity during submaximal exercise in relation to substrate utilization in man. Acta Physiol Scand. 1982 Feb;114(2):171-8.

33.   Langfort JL, Zarzeczny R, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uscilko H. The effect of low-carbohydrate diet on the pattern of hormonal changes during incremental, graded exercise in young men. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2001 Jun;11(2):248-57.

34.   Langfort J, Czarnowski D, Zendzian-Piotrowska M, Zarzeczny R, Górski J. Short-term low-carbohydrate diet dissociates lactate and ammonia thresholds in men. J Strength Cond Res. 2004 May;18(2):260-5.

35.   Langfort J, Pilis W, Zarzeczny R, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uściłko H. Effect of low-carbohydrate-ketogenic diet on metabolic and hormonal responses to graded exercise in men. J Physiol Pharmacol. 1996 Jun;47(2):361-71.

36.   Sasaki H, Hotta N, Ishiko T.  Comparison of sympatho-adrenal activity during endurance exercise performed under high- and low-carbohydrate diet conditions.  J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1991 Sep;31(3):407-12.

37.   Paoli A, Grimaldi K, D’Agostino D, Cenci L, Moro T, Bianco A, Palma A.  Ketogenic diet does not affect strength performance in elite artistic gymnasts. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012 Jul 26;9(1):34. (Epub ahead  of print)

Is Algae DHA As Healthy as Fish Oil DHA?

By Mark Anthony, Ph.D

By now, many of the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have been well established, particularly their actions as anti-inflammatory agents and their tendency to reduce the potential for blood clots by decreasing platelet aggregation (otherwise known as the tendency of platelets in the blood to clump).

Omega-3s comprise a class of fatty acids deemed essential, as critical compounds the body can't make. The other class of essential fatty acids is omega-6, abundant in nut and seed oils and the germ of grains.

Omega-6s, though essential, tend to work opposite to omega-3s in some ways, promoting inflammation and platelet stickiness. And since the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in the modern diet has drastically changed over the last century —favoring omega-6s, which are cheap and abundant in our food supply — nutritionists favor increasing dietary omega-3s by eating more foods such as flax, walnuts and especially fish oils. The goal is to get closer to a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1 of omega-6 to omega-3 from the current 10:1 to 20:1.

Fish oil contains omega-3s that are distinct from the flax-type omega-3s. The fatty acid molecules are longer and more bent. They are predominantly eicosepentenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid(DHA). These are the fatty acids abundant in organisms adapted to the cold, such as cold-water fish and cold-adapted mammals, because they keep the membranes of cells from becoming too stiff when exposed to frigid conditions. Fish obtain EPA and DHA by eating algae that have the flax-type omega-3s typical of plants.

DHA comprises about half of the fatty acids in the brain and is associated with the additional set of health benefits established for omega-3s, notably the protection of the retina, the development of the brain and the prevention of cognitive decline.

The human body can make DHA from the flax-type omega-3s — but not very efficiently. This prompted researchers to recommend obtaining DHA directly, from fish or fish oil. Cardiologists began recommending their patients take 1g per day of combined EPA/DHA. But within only a few years of a megatrend in fish oil, there arose a number of dilemmas. What about sustainability? And where do vegetarians get their omega-3s?

Microalgae, Fungus Pressed Into Service

Processors can expect increased availability of omega-3-rich oils derived from algae (and possibly other microorganisms) able to be used in a variety of applications. Martek Biosciences Corp, Columbia, Md., makers of LifesDHA, is now a part of DSM. Martek developed and patented two fermentable strains of microalgae that produce DHA-rich oils. The company also developed a patented process for a fungus that produces an oil rich in arachidonic acid (ARA). Both DHA and ARA are important nutrients for optimal infant development.

Last year, Whole Foods was pressured to pull from its shelves DHA derived from krill — tiny relatives of shrimp living in the Antarctic, the largest animal biomass on the planet and a potent source of DHA. The company cited sustainability concerns over the harvesting of krill.

Ironically, krill was supposed to solve the threat of overfishing resulting from the demand for DHA. But the decline of animal populations that rely on krill raised concerns over management of this natural resource, prompting the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources to issue a report changing quotas and restricting fishing areas.

The answer was to go to the source, to algae. But not the algae that make the flax-type omega-3s; rather, the microscopic algae that make DHA itself. Cut out the middleman — or middle fish and middle krill, as it were. Raised-on-the-farm algae yield DHA that is sustainable and can carry the vegetarian label, as well as being eligible for certification as kosher and organic. Algae-derived DHA is approved for infant formulas and already is found in many applications, including fruit juices, milk, soy milk, cooking oil, sauces and tortillas.

But is algae DHA as effective at conveying the heart-healthy properties as the DHA we derive from fish oil? Many studies suggest the answer is yes, but a comprehensive review of the literature was needed.

The research teams examined the relation between algal DHA supplementation and cardiovascular disease risk factors, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol. They found that supplementation with algal DHA reduced triglycerides and raised HDL-cholesterol. This was similar to what had been reported. However, algal DHA also raised concentrations of LDL-cholesterol, although the increase was accompanied by a change in the type of LDL cholesterol to the larger, less-atherogenic form. Further research is recommended because many of the studies reviewed were funded by industries.Such was published on the first of this year in The Journal of Nutrition. Researchers from the Wellness Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, the Dept. of Nutrition and Dept. of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Medical School conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials published between 1996 and 2011.

For now, DHA from algae seems to be a sustainable, alternative source of DHA that can satisfy both the demands of consumers and the needs of vegetarians, as well as fulfilling most, if not all, the health benefits currently established with omega 3s.

Eat your way to a facelift: Watercress is the latest wonder food in battle against ageing

• Study showed 10 out of 11 females experienced visible improvements to their skin
• 7 out of 11 saw an improvement in their wrinkles
• Watercress contains more vitamin C than oranges, four times more beta-carotene and vitamin A than apples, tomatoes and broccoli
• 
  

By BIANCA LONDON

If you want to roll back the years, forget expensive lotions and potions and instead reach for something more natural (and cheap): a bag of watercress. 

The old adage of beauty coming from within has been borne out by a new study in which 10 out of 11 female volunteers experienced visible improvements to their skin after just four weeks of adding one bag of watercress a day to their diet.

One woman even managed to reduce her facial wrinkles by an incredible 39 per cent.

The women, who ranged in age from 23 to 58, began the trial by having their faces photographed using a VISIA complexion analysis system which gives a subsurface reading of an individual’s skin and focuses on wrinkles, texture (the balance between oily and dry areas) pores, UV spots, brown spots, red areas (any underlying redness, inflammation, sensitivity or thinner skin) and porphyrins (levels of bacteria on the skin).

THE RESULTS

•    10 out of 11 volunteers saw a positive improvement in their skin

•    7 out of 11 saw an improvement in their wrinkles

•    8 out of 11 saw an improvement in the texture* of their skin

•    9 out of 11 saw an improvement in their pores

•    5 out of 11 saw an improvement in their red areas

•    8 out of 11 saw an improvement in the levels of porphyrins

•    5 out of 11 saw an improvement in their brown spots

•    3 out of 11 saw an improvement in their UV spots

After four weeks of eating 80g of watercress a day the volunteers had their skin reassessed by the VISIA camera, and the results were extremely positive.

The majority of women also reported increased energy levels.

During the trial the volunteers made no other changes to their usual health and beauty regime.  

They were allowed to eat their daily quota of watercress in any way they chose – in salads, sandwiches, whizzed into smoothies or wilted into pasta, however it was not allowed to be cooked.

One of the success stories of the study was Ruth McKechnie, 54, a theatre training teacher from Cambridge who saw a 39 per cent improvement in her wrinkles, 13 per cent improvement in her skin texture, 5 per cent per cent reduction in brown spots and 18 per cent improvement in her levels of bacteria.

  

She said: 'I’m absolutely thrilled with the results of the trial and astounded at how my skin has improved in almost every aspect. 

'It feels smoother to touch, looks plumper and best of all my wrinkles have reduced! I had a particularly stressful few weeks at work and thought it would have a negative effect on my skin so to see such an improvement really is impressive.

'I have also felt more energised and generally healthier which has helped me deal with the stress. Watercress will certainly be top of my shopping list from now onwards.'

Throughout history, eminent philosophers and doctors have revered the health boosting properties of watercress from the pharaohs in Egypt and the ancient Greeks, to the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.

Now, sophisticated science techniques have confirmed folklore beliefs.

Dr Sarah Schenker, a leading nutritionist and dietician who oversaw the study, said: 'Watercress is a rich source of beta carotene needed to quench free radicals, which can cause damage to skin cells. 

'However, in order to work properly a high concentration of Vitamin C is also needed to complete this process and watercress again has this in abundance. 

'In addition watercress contains Vitamin E which is also important for skin health.  It is this powerhouse of nutrients and the chain reaction in which they work together which is so important for maintaining good skin.'

Sarah added: 'This study confirms that diet is an important aspect of beauty. Eating plenty of plant foods including watercress cannot only help to slow down the ageing of our skin, but may actually reverse some of the effects of damage.'

Watercress Alliance member Dr. Steve Rothwell, who holds a PhD in watercress explained: 'There have been a whole host of scientific studies that have shown that B Carotene can help reduce the ageing of skin, so we were encouraged to carry out our own small pilot study using fresh watercress.  

'We were delighted with the results of the new pilot study which may now be used to secure funding for a larger scale university research programme, as the findings have proved so conclusive.'

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF WATERCRESS

Gram for gram, watercress contains more vitamin C than oranges, four times more beta-carotene and vitamin A than apples, tomatoes and broccoli, more vitamin E than broccoli, more calcium than whole milk and more iron than spinach. 

It also contains lutein and zeaxanthin (45 times that of tomatoes and more than triple the amount in broccoli).  

It is also the richest dietary source of PEITC (phenylethyl isothiocyanate) which research suggests can fight cancer.

How Vegetable Oils Replaced Animal Fats in the American Diet

DREW RAMSEY AND TYLER GRAHAM

In this excerpt from The Happiness Diet, discover how Procter & Gamble convinced people to forgo butter and lard for cheap, factory-made oils loaded with trans fat.



Before highways and before railroads, America conducted her commerce via steamship over water through a system of rivers, canals, and lakes. In the 1800s, Cincinnati was the heart of the developed United States. At the time it was known to the world as Porkopolis. That's because not so long ago, the most widely consumed meat in this nation was swine.

This was before refrigeration. The biggest enemy of 19th-century butchers was spoilage. Eating cows didn't make a whole lot of sense: Distributing the meat of a freshly killed 1,500-pound animal before it went bad was difficult without roads and temperature-controlled trains. But pigs are fatty, which makes them excellent for salt curing because they don't lose flavor.

Cincinnati is on the Ohio River, which flows to the Mississippi River, which leads to the ever-important port of New Orleans. From the mouth of the mighty Mississippi, Porkopolis distributed meat throughout the coastal southern United States. The by-products of pork production meant that the burgeoning metropolis was also home to many tanneries, boot makers, and upholsters. Animal fats were hot commodities, as they were rendered and molded into soap and candles. Breaking down pigs was a highly efficient process known as the disassembly line -- an idea that would later be reverse-engineered by Henry Ford to produce automobiles.

A major economic depression in the 1870s caused two important citizens of Porkopolis to join forces in order to cut costs and survive the bear market. They formed a company that would eventually be responsible for the greatest dietary shift in our country's history. William Procter brought his candle-making business to the states after a fire destroyed his business in England. James Gamble fled Ireland during the Great Potato Famine and became a soap manufacturer. In a twist of fate, the two men happened to marry sisters in Cincinnati. Together, the brothers-in-law formed Procter & Gamble, a soap- and candle-manufacturing operation.

"What was garbage in 1860 was fertilizer in 1870, cattle feed in 1880, and table food and many things else in 1890." -- Popular Science, on cottonseed

At the time, soap was sold in huge wheels that were sliced into custom-sized portions at general stores. Procter and Gamble decided to take a chance by mass-producing individually wrapped bars of soap. To pull this off, the brother-in-laws needed to drastically reduce the price of their raw ingredients, which meant finding a replacement for expensive animal fats. They settled on a mix of palm and coconut oils and created the first soap that floated in water -- a handy invention when clothes and dishes alike were washed in a sudsy basin. Hard pressed to come up with a name for this new product, Procter looked to the bible for inspiration and found it in Psalm 45:8: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." The word Ivory was trademarked, and in short order Americans all over the country would know the purity of this soap.

Oddly enough, the company to thank for the fact that America now eats so much vegetable oil has never produced much in the way of food. Thanks to Procter & Gamble the United States boosted the production of a waste product of cotton farming, cottonseed oil. To ensure a steady, cheap supply for soap production the company formed a subsidiary in 1902 called Buckeye Cotton Oil Co. Before processing, cottonseed oil is cloudy red and bitter to the taste because of a natural phytochemical called gossypol (it's used today in China as male birth control) and is toxic to most animals, causing dangerous spikes in the body's potassium levels, organ damage, and paralysis.

An issue of Popular Science from the era sums up the evolution of cottonseed nicely: "What was garbage in 1860 was fertilizer in 1870, cattle feed in 1880, and table food and many things else in 1890." But it entered our food supply slowly. It wasn't until a new food-processing invention of hydrogenation that cottonseed oil found its way into the kitchens of America's restaurants and homes.

Edwin Kayser, a German chemist, wrote to Procter & Gamble on October 18, 1907, about a new chemical process that could create a solid fat from a liquid. The company's researchers had been interested in producing a solid form of cottonseed oil for years, and Kayser described his new process as "of the greatest possible importance to soap manufacturers." The company purchased US rights to the patents and created a lab on the Procter & Gamble campus, known as Ivorydale, to experiment with the new technology. Soon the company's scientists produced a new creamy, pearly white substance out of cottonseed oil. It looked a lot like the most popular cooking fat of the day: lard. Before long, Procter & Gamble sold this new substance (known today as hydrogenated vegetable oil) to home cooks as a replacement for animal fats.

Procter & Gamble filed a patent application for the new creation in 1910, describing it as "a food product consisting of a vegetable oil, preferably cottonseed oil, partially hydrogenated, and hardened to a homogeneous white or yellowish semi-solid closely resembling lard. The special object of the invention is to provide a new food product for a shortening in cooking." They came up with the name Crisco, which they thought conjured up crispness, freshness, and cleanliness.

Convincing homemakers to swap butter and lard for a new fat created in a factory would be quite a task, so the new form of food needed a new marketing strategy. Never before had Procter & Gamble -- or any company for that matter -- put so much marketing support or advertising dollars behind a product. They hired the J. Walter Thompson Agency, America's first fullservice advertising agency staffed by real artists and professional writers. Samples of Crisco were mailed to grocers, restaurants, nutritionists, and home economists. Eight alternative marketing strategies were tested in different cities and their impacts calculated and compared. Doughnuts were fried in Crisco and handed out in the streets. Women who purchased the new industrial fat got a free cookbook of Crisco recipes. It opened with the line, "The culinary world is revising its entire cookbook on account of the advent of Crisco, a new and altogether different cooking fat." Recipes for asparagus soup, baked salmon with Colbert sauce, stuffed beets, curried cauliflower, and tomato sandwiches all called for three to four tablespoons of Crisco.

Health claims on food packaging were then unregulated, and the copywriters claimed that cottonseed oil was healthier than animal fats for digestion. Advertisements in the Ladies' Home Journal encouraged homemakers to try the new fat and "realize why its discovery will affect every family in America." The unprecedented product rollout resulted in the sales of 2.6 million pounds of Crisco in 1912 and 60 million pounds just four years later. This new food bolstered the bottom line of a company whose other products were Ivory Soap, Lenox Soap, White Naphtha Laundry Soap, and Star Soap. It also helped usher in the age of margarine as well as low-fat foods.

Procter & Gamble's claims about Crisco touching the lives of every American proved eerily prescient. The substance (like many of its imitators) was 50 percent trans fat, and it wasn't until the 1990s that its health risks were understood. It is estimated that for every two percent increase in consumption of trans fat (still found in many processed and fast foods) the risk of heart disease increases by 23 percent. As surprising as it might be to hear, the fact that animal fats pose this same risk is not supported by science.

Reprinted from The Happiness Diet (c) 2011 by Drew Ramsey, MD and Tyler Graham. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc. Available wherever books are sold.

Want to build muscle? It’s not what you eat, but when

by ALEX HUTCHINSON

Studying the human body isn’t rocket science – in some cases, it’s much harder.

“I tell my grad students that we can put a man on the moon, but we still can’t come to a consensus on how much protein to give him here on earth,” says Dr. Rajavel Elango, a researcher at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health.

Elango and his colleagues are using a new measurement technique to rewrite assumptions about how much protein you need at different stages of life. But just getting the right amount isn’t enough: There’s a limit to how much protein your body can use at once, so to maximize muscle-building you need to spread your intake throughout the day – and for most Canadians, that means ramping up the protein content at breakfast and lunch.

Your muscles are constantly being broken down and rebuilt at a rate of about 1 to 2 per cent per day, which means that you get a completely new set of muscles every two or three months. The protein you eat provides the basic building blocks – amino acids – needed to keep up with this constant rebuilding.

To figure out how much you need, scientists have traditionally tracked protein’s nitrogen content as it’s ingested and excreted by volunteers – a cumbersome process prone to errors, Elango says.

Instead, he and colleagues in Toronto, Edmonton and elsewhere have developed an alternate method that involves tagging amino acids with a special carbon isotope tracer whose progress through the body can be precisely monitored. Their results suggest that current protein guidelines for healthy adults are underestimated by about 30 per cent.

Since the new test is faster and less invasive than the old one, it can also be used to check requirements in vulnerable populations like children, pregnant women and older adults. In each of these examples, the new results suggest that current guidelines are too low, by as much as 70 per cent in the case of children between the ages of 6 and 10.

In Canada, the vast majority of people easily consume enough protein during the day – the problem is how it’s distributed. Whenever you eat protein, your body responds by firing up its anabolic (muscle-building) processes. The more protein you eat, the more muscle protein you synthesize – up to a point. Research by McMaster University’s Dr. Stuart Phillips and others has found that if you eat more than 20 to 30 grams of protein at a time, you don’t get any further anabolic boost. Any extra protein is simply burned for energy; unlike carbohydrate or fat, you can’t save it for later.

Unfortunately, typical Canadian dietary patterns involve food choices and meal sizes that provide relatively small doses of 10 to 15 grams of protein at breakfast and lunch, and then a mammoth 65-gram wallop of protein at dinner. The daily total of 90 grams is great, but since more than half of the dinner protein goes to waste, the usable amount of protein is actually below the optimal amount for muscle maintenance.

“You can overconsume protein to your heart’s content, but unless you distribute it appropriately, you can still fall well below the body’s needs,” says Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones, a professor of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Texas. Instead, Paddon-Jones recommends distributing protein more equally throughout the day, aiming for three meals each with 30 grams of protein – by including eggs and high-protein dairy options like Greek yogurt at breakfast, for example.

Athletes who are trying to build muscle (or simply help their muscles recover from arduous workouts) can push that approach even further. Phillips and his colleagues recently tested three different ways of taking in 80 grams of protein in one day: eight equally spaced doses of 10 grams; four doses of 20 grams; or two doses of 40 grams. The intermediate option produced the greatest overall muscle protein boost, so Phillips suggests that athletes should aim for four daily meals each with at least 20 grams of protein. And there’s one final option to boost protein synthesis at the end of the day.

“When you couldn’t sleep, what did your grandmother tell you?” Phillips asks. “Drink a warm glass of milk.”

Indeed, a study published last year by researchers in the Netherlands showed that a dose of protein immediately before bed kept the body in an anabolic state overnight, boosting overall protein synthesis rates by 22 per cent.

Of course, you don’t build muscle just by eating. The anabolic effects of eating protein are doubled if combined with exercise, which is one of the reasons athletes are encouraged to refuel immediately after working out. But if you follow the advice to spread out your protein intake, then you don’t need to worry about the precise timing, according to Paddon-Jones.

“You don’t want to be the tea-and-toast breakfast eater who exercises and then doesn’t get any protein until the afternoon,” he says. “But if you distribute protein throughout the day, it doesn’t really matter when you exercise.”