In a previous blog entry, I talked about six pack abs, and how lots of Americans are obsessed with them.  So the usual thing that people do is to "go on a diet."  My only problem with this is that everyone is already on a diet, but might not realize it.  Your diet consists of the amounts and kinds of foods you consume in any given period of time.  So we need to get away from thinking about getting on or off of diets and rather just think of it as what foods we put into our meals, or our meal composition.  In addition to meal composition, one should also consider the proportion or size of the meal.  Bigger is not always better.

I've been on a real kick recently to learn more about nutrition lately.  So obviously, all this is on my mind.  I took a college course on nutrition (back in 1992), and data has really changed since then.  Back then all fats were lumped together, all carbs (carbohydrates) were lumped together, and all proteins were lumped together.  Using this simple three categories rule, we were told to reduce fats, moderate carbs, and fill in the rest with protein.  Unfortunately, this gives us a very bad picture of how things are really used in the body, and so it is time for an update.  And they have updated the data in research, and it is finally getting out to the public in a few books... the government is still far behind however.  (Shame on you government... you'd think you have a war to run or something.)

I've read two books recently on diet/meal composition and exercise; the Abs Diet (by David Zinczenko), and The New Glucose Revolution - purchase the Third Edition version (by a whole list of doctors and scientists).  Both are readily available at your local book store or online at Amazon.com.  The Abs Diet I picked up while browsing at my local Half Price Books bookstore, and its bright orange cover caught my eye.  I must say that after I read the title I thought, "give me a break."  Anyhow, I started flipping through, and everything in there made sense.  But instead of really being about showing your abs, it is about loosing total body fat.  And of course if you lose enough body fat (especially abdominal fat which is very bad in its own right), then your abs will show.  But that the book is really about reducing total body fat is a very good thing, and we can't blame them for good marketing.

So the Abs Diet is about reducing total body fat by increasing protein consumption and lowering bad fat (more on bad fat in a bit).  The idea here is that it takes more energy to digest protein then either fat or carbohydrates, and so your body has to supply that from somewhere.  So you end up increasing the amount of energy your body needs just to run (called your basal metabolism).  There is more to it, but much is in common with the Low GI (glycemic index) diet which I discuss next.

The New Glucose Revolution stresses a low GI diet for most people.  GI stands for glycemic index which has to do with how much glucose is released into your bloodstream over time from digested foods... specifically carbohydrates.  A food that takes longer to digest and meters out the glucose over a longer period of time is a low GI food.  A food that floods your system with glucose in a short period of time is a high GI food.  The low GI diet ends up causing less fluctuation of blood glucose levels as well as insulin response.  The net result of that is that the body wants to burn fat to get extra energy.

Both diets suggest eating multiple small meals throughout the day, as well as moderate exercise programs to increase lean muscle mass (which has a higher energy demand than other tissue and thus uses more energy).  Both also emphasize eating healthy fats and reducing/eliminating the unhealthy fats.  Both emphasize portion control so that your total calorie intake for a day is not ridiculous.  Both have some good things to say, and both miss out on a few points that the other brings up.

In general, I think a diet that stresses low GI carbs and protein, limiting bad fats but not limiting good fats, is the way to go (to lose extra body fat and) to maintain good general health.  Of course your situation may vary.

A quick word on fats... there are good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats) and there are bad fats (trans fats and saturated fats).  Saturated fats are typically fats from animals (in meat and dairy products).  Trans fats are partially hydrogenated oils, which is how it is listed on the ingredient label of your food item.  Keep an eye on both of these and try and limit them.  Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are usually from plant food sources and unaltered by chemistry... think of the fat in nuts and the fat in fruit such as avacado, or even in olive oil.  These fats are actually good for you and you need some of them in your diet... just don't go overboard with them.

More information about all of this can be found in both books (the Abs Diet and The New Glucose Revolution).  If I had to choose only one book to get of the two, I would suggest the New Glucose Revolution since it contains most of the food intake related information from the Abs Diet book, but certainly contains more information about carbohydrates (including GI values for lots of food).  And since that has a major influence on how your body composition is, it is the more valuable of the two books.  That being said, the New Glucose Revolution does not give you any kind of exercise program (which the Abs Diet book does), and so you might want to pick up both books.  If you already know how to exercise in a balanced fashion, then the GI book will suffice.

Anyhow, this stuff has been on my mind, and I just thought I would share.

Comments

Add New Search RSS

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."