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!