Who's Who

This is an intro to the link list I have on the right. Some of these website I hit any time I am on the computer and have time to read. Some of them (Like Richard's Free The Animal,) can be quite caustic... gotta have thick skin to hang out there now and then. He does NOT edit posts, and he does not hold back exactly what he is thinking... Makes for an interesting ride now and then.

Anyways, as far as health goes, these are my "go to" guys (and gals.) Some of them have a great science background, some of them are people who merely have taken the job of 'citizen scientist' back to where it belongs.

Most of these are taken liberally from their own "about" pages...

Fathead

Tom Naughton is a comedian and former health writer who produced, wrote, and starred in his film that is partly an answer to Super Size Me and equally part a science film on what happens when we eat carbohydrates, especially sugar.

This is the movie that started it all off for me. After all, as he writes and says, "What if we've all been fed a load of bologna?"

Underground Wellness


Sean Croxton started out with a degree in Kinesiology from San Diego State and became a personal trainer.

After years of watching client after client sweat for hours, torture themselves, break down, and generally NOT jump into excellent health, Sean could not just accept defeat. He took his failure as an opportunity to learn and spent thousands of hours educating himself on what had been missing in his training regimens.

Sean has a voracious appetite for information, and is a sponge. He has occasionally connected with concepts that are quite 'out there,' but he is searching for all the answers, and he is willing to let no stone be unturned, even if it may not make sense at the time. Lots of great info, great exercises (his bodyweight workouts are a staple of my overnights,) and good fun.

Plus, he is a really engaging guy to listen to.

Hunt Gather Love


Melissa McEwen started her blog to write down her thoughts/research on 'the intersection of anthropology, economics, and culture.' She originally switched to a "pale" type diet and it helped her heal herself from IBS, GERD, asthma problems, and fatigue. Studied Ag Econ at U of I, and then forestry in Sweden (yeah, I would make that connection, too!) Completed a BS in Evolutionary Biology in NY.

Great fun to read, and really active in trying to promote REAL food.

RawFood SOS


Denise Minger stared her blog when she was consistently banned from vegan websites because she was questioning the orthodoxy that veganism is the only answer to real health. I love this quote from her about page

Who do I think I am, running a health blog without a nutrition PhD? Shouldn’t I be flipping burgers at McDonalds like all those other English majors?

I get this question a lot. It speaks volumes about how we view learning, and why we’ve abandoned personal responsibility for using our own brains when it comes to health.“We can’t possibly understand nutrition if we haven’t paid for a degree! Let’s just trust someone with formal credentials instead of thinking for ourselves.”

Her take on 'higher' education is worthy of a book in and of itself.

But I also believe that—for people who are self-motivated, have the time and resources for independent study, and aren’t learning something like dentistry or surgery that requires hands-on training—that a college education can be wildly inefficient and sometimes a barrier to objective thinking. Teachers, after all, come equipped with their own set of biases—ones students must cater to or even adopt if they want a good grade. (My college Women’s History prof comes to mind. Don’t agree that men are the root of all things evil, fattening, and smelly? Then no “A” for you!) At least in my experience, college fostered an atmosphere where the rewards (high marks, scholarships, making the parents proud) were more pertinent than what was actually learned. [emphasis mine]

She writes very well, and is inspiring if you have a science bent. Loads of good fun here...

That is all I have time for right now.... Headed for a barefoot run, and then a bike ride (exercise bike, though... :( . )

More to come!!

Scott

Barefoot running

So a friend of mine recommended reading "Born to Run" by Christopher Mcdougall. I'm always looking for something a little different, so I checked it out.

The book centers around a 'tribe' in Mexico called the Tarahumara. Basically, a tribe that runs for fun in some of the most forbidding terrain in the world. Miles and miles of running. They start at marathons, and they run for fun, dozens of miles at a time.

A great deal of the book covers information on barefoot running. Particularly how it is a more natural style, because, after all, we already have our feet. Parts are about how Nike created the running shoe market when there was previously no real need for it; people ran in more flat footed-type shoes.

A bunch of stats on how if running shoes are so good for us, why is the injury rate the same or quite a bit worse than before we had specialized running shoes.

Of course, running barefoot presents its own problems.. such as running over sharp objects (especially street running, like most of my Chicago-area running would be.)

There is a great deal of info on Lee Saxby's videos, etc. There really is a great case for it from what I can see and read... so far.

I guess the essence is to start slow. After all, we have encased our feet in shoes most of our lives (except a number of us in the sailing community,) and those stabilizer muscles and the like have not had a proper workout in quite a while.

I had problems last year with plantar fasciitis, and have recurring long term training problems with tendonitis in my right knee. So far, I have worked up slowly, and am only to about a half mile+ for running/walking, but not a single complaint from my feeds or my knees, and they would show up pretty fast.

I am going to continue taking this slowly, but if anyone else has tried it, had success, had failure, let me know how it goes.

From what I can gather, starting off barefoot is the best way to go; it forces you to walk/run carefully, since naturally you will start running correctly because heel striking on bare feet can be a wildly unpleasant experience as your body weight loads up at jog/run speeds. you will naturally gain proper form, but go slow to prevent injury.

Yet another step on moving forward by starting out looking backwards... ;)

Early April Update, what I've been reading, etc...

Hi All!

Well, I'm well into my dietary changes, and they are great.

Easy two to eliminate, too (100 bonus points for using all 3 forms of 'to' in a 5 word sentence!.)

Sugars (especially HFCS)

-So no Coke, Pepsi, Candy, ice cream, etc... etc...

Cereal Grains (and their products)

-Bye-bye bread, pasta, cereal (literally,) etc...

I've been eating this way mostly for the past 16 months or so. Quite often I would stray, especially during sailing season when it just seems like I need a coke when we sail. Or a beer after. Or Demon Rhum, etc... Let me tell ya... I can TELL when I have had bread now... ugh. We had pizza for my birthday dinner (my favorite since I was just a tyke, so I knew what I was getting in to with it. It's already a big lump in my tummy, and I know that lump will bother me till it goes away in the normal course of life...)

What is interesting, is that even though beer (maltose) etc are out, out of all the alcohols, champagne is the least 'sugary,' probably because the fermentation process is different. Score one for the home team there!

But I will still not be drinking a lot of anything (although I did have 2 glasses of bubble AND a Coke at Splash and Sara's wedding reception. Plus a slice of cake. I will have a slice of cake at my birthday on Friday, too. This is a way of eating to control your body, not a religion.

Also, I have read quite a bit that if you are going to be burning calories by the bunches (I am contemplating doing the Chicago Tri again,) some carbs can be good for you at the START of a training session. I can roll with that.

Reading now....

So I am a good way through "Why Women Need Fat..." (WWNF) and I have to say it is quite interesting. There are a couple things in there that I will blog about, but one of the most interesting was comparisons of when (in life) and how women get their first periods.

There is some supposed evidence that rBGH is playing havoc with girls and the start of when they develop sexual characteristics like breasts, and that they are developing them earlier and earlier. The problems with this is overall (according to surveys of OB/GYN,) they are still starting their first menstruation at the same ages, relatively.

Except for 1 subset of girls. Overweight girls.

In "WWNF," The authors give a clue to this-- Girls will not generally begin to have their periods until their bodies have amassed a certain amount of fat. Those fat deposits that develop at the thigh, legs, butt, hips... that is all breastfeeding fat. The hypothalamus gets the leptin signals from the fat stores, and until you have about (average, not written in stone) 28 lbs or more of fat, it will not trigger your periods. Teen girls in sports experience this, too. Delayed onset of menstruation.

Interestingly, if you go below a certain level of fat stores, your hypothalamus will (usually) stop your periods, because it is not biologically prudent for you to get pregnant. This is what happens to female athletes all the time. Not every athlete, but nearly all female athletes go through this. Nearly complete loss of their periods.

There is some interesting studies on African women and charting their periods during famines, etc... but the arrow points in the same direction.

Interesting book so far!

Also, listening to a podcast from Dr Chris Kresser, and there is a claim that there is more sodium swallowed in your saliva than in 400+ hot dogs. We are worried about sodium in our foods, but we can never come close to the amount we are already making and ingesting during the normal course of a day. I am still trying to track this study down, particularly because it sounds strange, since your saliva can't make anything with what you DO NOT have in your body already. So it is not like it is ADDING sodium to your food intake... but I'll know more when I read it.

Also an interesting post from Dr. Eenfeldt (aka The Diet Doctor) on Vitamin D and Hay Fever sufferers. He talks about a study showing a medical load (4,000IU) of Vitamin D mitigating a lot of the effects of Hay Fever in relation to a placebo as to be statistically significant. I'm a big fan of Vitamin D, and I think we would ALL be quite a bit healthier if we got a bit more sunshine, so I will agree that I am biased in favor of this study, but I'll read it when it is published (it has only been presented so far, so no peer review yet.)

Here are two other interesting things----

There was a 'study' touted in the mainstream media recently purporting to show a link (again!) between eating meat and early death. There are a number of really good 'take-downs' on this available online already, but I will throw my own $0.02 in in a few days. I've been working on a rant regarding just what the heck is a 'scientific' study and how do journalists get the wool pulled over their eyes over... and over... and over... and publish headlines full of nonsense?

Most likely because they forget basic math, and can't distinguish between correlation and causation.

So, more to come. I have a bunch of mental posts written out, but my fingers have not been willing to dance on the 88 keys... oh wait... on the keyboard. You really don't want my fingers dancing on the 88 keys... Especially since I was a bass player.

Cheers!