As Jamie admits on his website, his team started looking into sugar consumption and decided they had enough to film a TV documentary. Now don't get me wrong, he may be well meaning, but the fact that he sees these devastating effects of sugar and decides to make a TV show just makes me think one thing, money, fame and attention. However lets play the game and imagine it was all for our benefit to scare us into becoming sugar-phobic like Davina McCall. 

Jamie is pushing for a tax on sugary drinks, not the tax you already pay on many foods and beverages but another one just on drinks that contain added sugar (I'm fairly sure he's not including alcohol). He's not asking that you be taxed for indulging in his delicious sugary desserts, just drinks as far as I'm aware. I'm sure he'll still sell pavlova in his restaurants so don't panic just yet.

You can read this 'courageous, forward-thinking' document here Public Health England - Sugar Reduction, The Evidence for Action. Sadly this great document doesn't really contain anything new and just refers to The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) report, Carbohydrate and Health which we'll cover in more detail later.

My belief is that the SACN report is based upon the World Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines: Sugar Intake for Adults and Children which I covered in my previous blog post.

As you can see above, the WHO recommendations are based upon low quality and moderate quality evidence in relation to body weight, and very low and moderate quality evidence for dental caries. Basically it's not evidence that any self respecting scientist would dare use to make such bold statements.

However, as we know Jamie is using the SACN guidance for his campaign. So I thought I'd have a look through it and see what the evidence looks like.

The Science Behind SACN’s review contains the 'evidence' on page 15-18 and it makes  for an interesting read. For the full review click the link above.

SACN’s claim the review was comprehensive and includes systematic reviews of the literature in order to identify 'relevant' studies.

Their 'objective was to identify the best quality evidence' so they restricted it to 'evidence from randomised controlled trials (which have the potential to demonstrate a causal relationship, e.g.  between an aspect of diet and a risk factor for disease) and prospective cohort studies (which reveal associations, e.g.  between an aspect of diet and a disease risk factor or endpoint) as these are considered the most robust study designs for diet and health research.' 

Here are a few gems taken from this comprehensive review about the dangers of sugar. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about the quality of evidence upon which Mr Oliver has based his latest campaign.

'Very few studies on the effects of individual sugars, such as glucose, fructose or sucrose, met the inclusion criteria. There was also insufficient evidence of appropriate quality to draw conclusions on the impact of sugars intake on the majority of cardio- metabolic outcomes in adults, including body weight. 
Few trials on fructose met the inclusion criteria for the SACN report because many were either not randomised or they were of insufficient duration. No studies specifically investigating the effects of high fructose corn syrup were identified that met the inclusion criteria. However, as concern has been expressed around fructose consumption and its implications for cardio-metabolic health, evidence from trials that did not meet the inclusion criteria for SACN’s report were considered. It was concluded that, on balance, there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that fructose intake, at levels consumed in the normal UK diet, leads to adverse health outcomes independently of any effects related to fructose’s presence as a component of total and free sugars.'

'There was a lack of evidence to assess the impact of sugars intake on oral health in adults; evidence for a relationship comes from studies in children and adolescents. Most of the evidence on sugars and on sugars-sweetened foods and beverages considered in SACN’s report is derived from prospective cohort studies.'
 
'Prospective cohort studies are observational in nature rather than involving an intervention and so cannot demonstrate a causal relationship, only an association. Generally, evidence from three or more such studies was used to judge whether an association existed, where possible supported by a meta-analysis of the combined data.' 

'Expert judgement was also applied and where an association appeared to exist, the evidence was graded as adequate, moderate or limited (details of the evidence grading system used by SACN can be found in Annex 2 of the SACN report).' 

The evidence for a relationship between sugars intake and tooth decay comes from mainly prospective cohort studies and some trials, conducted in children and adolescents. Studies that adjusted results for tooth brushing frequency were given more weight during the assessment because oral hygiene practices may have affected results. SACN concluded that decreased consumption of free sugars would help to lower the risk of dental decay, which continues to be a problem in the UK. 
In children and adolescents: 

Cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and type 2 diabetes 
The findings from prospective studies were: 

•   there is insufficient evidence to enable conclusions to be drawn in relation to cardiovascular disease risk factors or endpoints (events) (see paragraphs 6.6-6.17 of the SACN report) 
•   sugars or sugars-sweetened beverage intake are not associated with the incidence of colorectal cancer (see paragraphs 6.38-6.39 of the SACN report) 
•   there is no association between the incidence of type 2 diabetes and total or individual sugars intake (see paragraphs 6.23-6.34 of the SACN report) 

 but a greater risk of type 2 diabetes is associated with a higher intake of sugars- sweetened beverages. This finding was not supported by the limited evidence from randomised trials, which showed no effect of diets differing in sugars content on blood sugar and insulin levels or on insulin resistance (see paragraphs 6.25-6.28 of the SACN report)
 
SACN comments that the reason for this discrepancy with type 2 diabetes, between the results of prospective studies and randomised controlled trials, is not clear. Presumably the increased risk might reflect higher energy intakes among those with higher intakes of sugars-sweetened drinks. In a meta-analysis of prospective (observational) cohort studies, incidence of type 2 diabetes increased by 23% for each additional 330ml/day of sugars- sweetened drinks consumed (see paragraphs 6.35-6.37 of the SACN report). 

Randomised controlled trials 
Although most of the evidence available that met SACN’s inclusion criteria came from prospective, observational cohort studies, some randomised controlled trials also met the inclusion criteria. Randomised controlled trials can provide evidence of causal relationships rather than associations. Generally, there needed to be three or more randomised controlled trials to determine whether or not there was evidence of an effect. Where an effect appeared to be present, the evidence was graded by SACN as adequate, moderate or limited. 

Cardio-metabolic outcomes 
Randomised controlled trials examining cardiovascular risk factors, body weight, inflammatory markers and risk factors for type 2 diabetes demonstrate no effects of increasing sugars intake. 
There is also insufficient evidence to assess the link between individual sugars and sugars-sweetened foods and drinks and cardio-metabolic outcomes. ​

​I'm not totally against Jamie's desire to shift people towards a more wholesome diet, but his demonisation of sugar in drinks whilst continuing to sell sweet desserts ironically leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. As I've stated before, sugar is neither toxic (unless consumed in massive doses, which applies to most substances) or addictive. It is essential, (especially for brain function it would appear) and pretty disgusting if consumed alone (take the sugar challenge and see how many spoonfuls of table sugar you want to consume). I admit that when food processors get their hands on sugar and fat they are able to induce sometimes uncontrollable cravings, but as a chef surely that is Jamie's role? To create dishes that entice our tastebuds and leave us desiring more? 

So is it a 'courageous, forward-thinking' document with evidence for action.....or a cowardly, backward-thinking attack with action without evidence that Jamie doesn't fully understand? 

According to the mainstream media, and that includes social media. Sugar is toxic, addictive and destroying the western world. An obesity crisis once blamed upon fat is now the fault of sugar.

So many people on Facebook and in the real world keep mentioning sugar addiction, it's drug like properties and the relief they feel when they kick the habit makes it seem like sugar is the new meth or tobacco. Yet unlike both those substances we actually need sugar to perform bodily functions and to survive.

Here's a little sugar addiction test for you. Find some sugar, this admittedly may be a little hard if you've already erradicated it from your life. Rule number one of addiction therapy must surely be, avoid the triggers. Anyway, get yourself some sugar from somewhere, not donuts, not cake, just pure table sugar. Or to give it its proper name, sucrose. A disaccharide combination of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose. 

Eat a spoonful, then see how much you feel like having another. You may eat a couple but you won't be consumed by an all encompassing desire to keep shovelling it down your throat. Whilst it isn't unpleasant, you wouldn't want much and you wouldn't want to do it often. Does that sound like an addictive substance? Does it sound like a drug in which you could become dependent upon, like heroin or cocaine? The addictive aspect that people consider so problamatic is what we should probably refer to as cravings.

Why would we be craving sweetness? Hunger and if someone wants to crowdfund me through a PhD I'd love to finally try and get some proof about our insatiable hunger. In the meantime here are a few of my theories;

• We are hungry, and it seems we're eating less than we have been previously recorded as eating. As sugar is our primary source of energy it would seem logical that we crave sweetness when we are under eating.
• Foods made with combinations of sugar, fat, and salt can be hard to resist and in turn make us crave more. The food industry knows this and employ people that understand the psychological and biological mechanisms that make us crave more of their foods. If you want more on this fascinating topic please have a look in my Amazon store (Diet Research Section) for a great book about  food industry strategy. 
  

Davina's "scary science bit" mentioned the World Health Organisation's (WHO) guidelines on sugar from 2002. A quick venture online and you can find the latest edition of this highly scientific document.

Within that document (page 12 if I remember correctly) we can see the quality of evidence that was used to determine such strong recommendations.

As you can see, Davina's book has a lot of sugar contained within the recipes. This caused a bit of an online backlash from both the pro-sugar camp, mocking the fact that sugar was openly used, and the anti-sugar camp who were disgusted that it wasn't extreme enough. Davina fought back via Twitter and pointed out that it was a plan that ended up sugar free, and not sugar free from the outset.

So, do we really need sugar? It appears we do, let's look at our most vital bodily part the brain. Your brain almost exclusively relies upon glucose, except during prolonged starvation (as encouraged by most media sources). It consumes around 120g daily which is about 420 calories so it would seem daft to avoid it when our survival is dependent upon it.

All forms of digestible carbohydrate must be broken down into monosacharide (simple sugar) in order to be used by your body. From your local expensive honey right the way through to your slice of wholewheat bread. It has to breakdown into monosacharide in order to be utilised.

So all the carbohydrate based foods in Davina's book end up broken down into simple sugar anyway, so why the big fuss about eradicating it from our diets? More likely than not it's just another excuse to make money for an industry focused on profit rather than scientific evidence.

Note: your body can catabolise tissue and fat (although it prefers to hold onto fat) in order to produce its own supply but I thought I'd avoid making it too much of a "scary science bit" and leave that for a later blog post.

• To conclude, sugar isn't addictive, it is as essential as the air you breath. Food processed by industry to contain the right combination of sugars and fats makes you crave them, as does being on a diet, even an unintentional one. If you're going to claim a food is addictive, have some evidence and clarify exactly what the food is, not just generic terms.

How to get fat and deteriorate your metabolism is a weird topic for someone so used to helping people do the opposite, but frequently people either don't want to believe or simply don't think it possible to restore their metabolism.

So, stage one of project slow is to mess around with what you eat, and how much you eat. Drop those calories, avoid carbohydrates, eat like a caveman. Whatever it is make sure you really mess that diet up and develop some severe issues with food. Find a good diet cult and follow it like its your new religion. As a kid you probably ate whatever you liked with little effect other than you always had energy, were most likely constantly warm and you didn't worry about food like you do now. All well and good if you were born in the 1920's, however, for those of us looking to lay down some fat stores we're lucky that our government (via lots of lobbyists) decided that natural saturated fats (butter, coconut oil etc) were bad for us, and that we needed new "healthy" manmade poly-unsaturated fats (PUFA) which would improve upon what mother nature had intended us to eat.

Did genuine science pave the way for the "health" advice that we should consume PUFA rather than profit? I'll leave that for another post, but the science behind PUFA is a little slippery to say the least. For those of us wishing to get chunky its another stroke of luck that when groups of animals were fed unsaturated vegetable oil, pure saturated coconut oil, and various mixtures of the two. The animals’ obesity increased in proportion to the ratio of unsaturated fat in their diet, independent of the total amount of fat or calories they consumed. Animals that ate even small amounts of unsaturated oil were fat, and those that ate large amounts of coconut oil were thin. So, check your food packets and ensure that you pick foods laden with veg oil (sunflower oil, rapeseed/canola oil etc) if you want to bulk up ready for your next beach holiday. [REF]

The more unsaturated a vegetable oil is, the more it suppresses our tissues response to thyroid hormones which equals lower metabolism and increased ability to store fat. Unsaturated fats come from the seeds of plants (a plant's babies for all the vegans out there). Seed's contain toxins and enzyme suppressors which block protein digestive enzymes in the stomach to protect seed's from predators and prevent germination until conditions are optimal for sprouting. In effect a natural pesticide, so the more you eat the more thyroid suppression you get. Great for those of us looking to get fat, not so great for those that are conned into thinking that nuts, seeds and oils are essential for a healthy life.

The next stage is to encourage a touch of HYPOGLYCEMIA and to do this we're going to start eating erratically. Skipping meals, bingeing and then guiltily fasting. All help to confuse the body and lower that metabolism even further. Keep this up and you'll look soon bulk right up. You can guarantee that your cortisol, estrogen and adrenaline levels will be all over the place...your doing great.

As we've discussed above, malnutrition is the best way to begin slowing your metabolism in your quest for fatness. How else can we continue the good work you've begun....exercise!!

Exercise can be an aid to health and even weight-loss if its correctly prescribed, but we're going to push ourselves and guilt trip ourselves into working out far beyond our caloric intake. You're probably now frequently cold and have a decreased pulse, (unless your adrenaline is keeping it falsely high). You may struggle to bulk up and really slow that metabolism down, but once biology kicks in and your hormones down regulate, the fatigue kicks in and you're appetite becomes unavoidable, you're well on your way to the higher fat body you've always dreamed of.

Some more tips to gain body fat and lower your metabolism;

Increase Lactic Acid  (Exercise)

Create an Oxygen Deficiency (Cardio, Classes or lack of Glucose Metabolism) – 

Increase Stress, including over exercising, missing meals, caloric deficit, macro avoidance, poor food choice (pufa etc).

Avoid the following as they may improve metabolism and thyroid;

Thyroid (T3)

Carbon Dioxide

Glucose

Fructose

Sodium

Magnesium

Potassium

Calcium

Animal Proteins (other than just pure muscle meat)

Gelatin

Saturated Fats

Aspirin

Cholesterol (oh yeah, the stuff they tell you is bad for you)

Progesterone

Testosterone

Caffeine (Always made with sugar and cream or drunk with a meal)

B Vitamins

Oh, if by any chance you don't want to ruin your metabolism then just do the opposite. If you've already ruined your metabolism also do the opposite but realise that it will take time you undo years and years of damage.

Headlines such as 'swapping the butter for margarine may be bad for your health' (Daily Mail), 'Heart attack risk in healthy spreads' (Daily Express), ‘Start spreading the news – margarine might not be the healthier option after all’ (The Independent) and  ‘Saturated fat not that bad for you’ (The i) hit the news on the 6th February 2013. Is this correct? Should we be reconsidering our dietary fatty acid recommendations?

What research is this based on? These headlines are based on a recent article, published in the BMJ on 5th February 2013, in which researchers have reanalysed the data from a study conducted in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Sydney Diet Heart Study. The original data was reanalysed to investigate the effects of omega-6 linoleic acid on all-cause mortality (death from all causes) and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) or coronary heart disease (CHD). This dietary intervention study recruited 458 males, aged 30-59 years, who had recently suffered a heart attack or coronary event.

 

The intervention study group were given dietary advice to reduce their saturated fat intake to below 10% of energy intake and increase their n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake to 15% of energy intake by using safflower oil and safflower margarine. The control group were given no dietary advice. The original researchers followed the participants for an average of 39 months. The recent analysis found significantly higher rates of all-cause mortality and mortality from both CVD and CHD in the intervention group. Including the data in a linoleic acid intervention meta-analysis did not show a significant increase in mortality from CVD and CHD, although a trend towards significance was reported.   

 

Can polyunsaturated fatty acids increase the risk of mortality?  

This is an interesting study and it highlights that the science behind the effects of different fatty acids on heath is complex. The data in this study are from the late 1960s and 1970s when total fat and saturated fat intakes were much higher than they are currently. Total fat, saturated fat and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake of the study group at the start of the study was around 40, 16 and 6% of energy intake, whilst current average intakes for an adult aged 19-65 are 35, 13 and 6% of energy intake, respectively.

 

The intervention study group was instructed to reduce their saturated fat intake to less than 10% of energy whilst increasing their n-6 PUFA intake to 15%. This is well beyond the current average n-6 PUFA intakes and it is worth noting that current UK public health recommendations are to maintain an intake below 6.5% of energy for total PUFAS as a population average and 10% of energy as an individual maximum, meaning that the intervention group in this study had intakes of n-6 PUFA that were significantly higher than the current maximum recommended in the UK. Recommendations for total fat and saturated fat are to consume no more than 35% and 11% of energy intake, respectively.

 

Cholesterol is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and the intervention group did show a decrease in blood cholesterol which is consistent with previous studies. In addition, more recent prospective cohort studies have shown a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk with a higher n-6 PUFA or n-6 and n-3 PUFA diet. It is currently unknown what the relative contributions of n-6 and n-3 PUFAs are to the beneficial effects of PUFA but many spreads in the UK are formulated to contain both n-6 and n-3 PUFAs.

 

It is also worth noting that the study was conducted in men who had a high risk of mortality, so although the findings warrant consideration, the results may not be applicable to the general population in the UK today. The study participants were aware of which group they were in, intervention or control group, and as such it is possible that participants in the control group made more of an effort to make lifestyle changes such as increasing physical activity. Dietary intake of other nutrients and food groups, such as trans fatty acids and fruit and vegetable intake, were unfortunately not reported. 

 

Summary  

In summary, although this is an interesting study, more clinical evidence is needed before any generalisation of the findings are made.  The advice for consumers should still be to choose foods with a lower saturated fat content and to choose fats and oils that supply primarily unsaturated fats.

http://www.nutrition.org.uk/nutritioninthenews/previous-facts-behind-the-headlines/fats.html



 

Once again we see a celebrity telling (or selling) their tale of dietary woe and subsequent triumph to the media. It is always a story in which they win the "battle of the bulge" in a desperate bid to attain the look that the media decrees to be both desirable and marketable.

Claire from Step's (a 90's pop band for those unaware of her) has once again reached her goal to be a size 10 after many years of weight cycling. And as ever, she is back in the media telling her story to a magazine which no doubt played a part in fuelling her disgust at putting on weight. Research shows that teenagers who read gossip magazines are at a greater risk of disordered eating behaviours (binge eating, skipping meals, caloric restriction or making themselves sick). These unhealthy eating behaviours can lead more serious disorders, and at the very least lead to individuals suffering from a lifetime of battling with diets/shame. 

Dr James White who conducted the study is quoted as saying "What distinguishes gossip magazines is the way they ridicule celebrities who are overweight or even just don't conform to unrealistic ideals, and at the same time they praise celebrities for losing weight. That combination of messages of 'fat is bad', 'thin is good' seems to be a particularly potent influence on vulnerable teenagers." I would add that clinically I see fully grown adults who are just as vulnerable, and many have been suffering for years and years. The longer they diet, the harder it is for them to remove themselves from the war on weight, but they all wish they could turn back the clock and do it all a different way.

"This study suggests that there should be greater awareness of the potential impact that exposure to the kind of images of celebrities and models in gossip magazines can have on adolescents' eating habits."

Claire no doubt doesn't realise the potential impact, she's just sucked in by the media circus in a desperate attempt to stay in the limelight. At first it seems like she may of won her 'battle with the bulge", as she states that her yo-yo dieting has created hormone imbalances which have left her infertile. I had hoped to read that she had finally ditched the diets and had spent time restoring her metabolic function, but it appears this isn't the case.

Sadly, it appears Claire is continuing with the diet and exercise regime, allowing herself a measly 1000 calories per day whilst walking everywhere.

This is a battle she cannot win, despite being at her target weight for 6 months the odds of winning the war against the "bulge" are stacked against her. Biologically we are programmed to avoid starvation, which can help explain why Claire's repeated dieting has been unsuccessful in producing long-term results. Set point theory shows us that body fat percentage and body weight are controlled internally. An attempt to diet is an attempt to overpower your set point, and attempting to overpower (or starve) biological mechanisms is just a battle thats unwinnable.

According to the theory, your set point aims to keep your weight constant via various feedback mechanisms, primarily how much you're eating which is used to regulate fat stores and also to alter your behaviour. It can induce hunger or satiety, which in the case of the dieter causes that desire to eat that we all blame on weak willpower. Fatigue and depression may occur as a method of slowing you down to reduce your caloric expenditure. Set point is protective and wants to maintain a level of body fat which it deems safe for the environment you are in (famine etc). Dieters frequently (if not always) initially lose weight, before plateauing as the metabolic rate decreases, body temperature drops, pulse decreases, hormone levels change, fatigue increases and your hunger increases. 

This is survival, your body defends its fat stores for the principle reason of ensuring you remain safe in a hostile (calorie controlled war). Caloric deprivation signals your body to decrease its metabolic rate and with it body temperature, pulse etc. Energy (calories) is used (burned) more slowly, so that you can function at the most basic level on the most meager of diets. Naturally, anything which isn't essential can decrease such as circulation (body temp and pulse), hormone production, growth and repair (tissue, bone, hair etc) and indeed anything which is deemed non essential such as muscle (added benefit of decreasing energy expenditure), fertility etc. You aren't eating enough to power your body, survival is more important than repair and growth. The body reacts to long term energy restriction as it would a famine. Your body becomes cautious and conserves the energy it already has. This innate biological response makes dieting or exercising less and less effective.

For Claire, sadly I think the battle will be an ongoing one until she either surrenders and makes a conscious decision that she isn't bothered about the weight anymore or changes allegiance. Either way, a major step would be binning the gossip mags.

The government has indicated a desire to ban packed lunches and make school meals compulsory. It states that school meal uptake is low (43%) despite “huge quality improvements” and that if everyone had school dinners then quality could further improve due to the extra money that would become available. Surely that's like McDonalds offering to make their food better, but only if more of us eat there.

They claim that packed lunches are usually less nutritious than a cooked meal. They may be right, but to block a parents rights to choose what their children consume seems a little ridiculous. I'd happily let my daughter eat a healthy cooked lunch every day once she begins school. Sadly despite Jamie Oliver's attempts, school meals are far from healthy. Laden with rapeseed oil, processed and fried foods, with poor quality meats I think I'd rather take the option of buying better quality natural foods for my daughter to eat.

So, if the government wants to feed my daughter and son with £1.90 school meals, but why have our school meals become so dirty and lacking in nutrition? Less and less money is spent due to pressure to bring costs down and in some schools (academy's) actually make a profit on the dinners. Education is big business and its a safe assumption that we'll never see truly nutritious natural foods on the menu, but should they really be allowed to make profit out of your child's school meal?. How will they attemp to fund any minor improvements? Well, the greater the uptake the cheaper the cost of buying the products they use to make the "food", so whilst you may see some improvement in quality (I seriously doubt it) the profit margin will have to remain the same or increase for all those involved. Compulsory school dinner would just ensure one thing, that those involved would make more money.

What would I do given the chance to revolutionise school meals? I'm realistic enough to know that kids are never going to get fed grass fed meats, pastured eggs, unpasteurised milk, and lots of other healthy nutritious foods. I would like to see the removal of polyunsaturated fats, a return to more natural fats such as butter etc, the removal of high fructose syrup and in general a return to real foods that are cooked by cooks and not just heated up, fried or taken out of a packet.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/7934543/

Abstract

How long-term dietary intake of essential fatty acids affects the fatty-acid content of aortic plaques is not clear. We compared the fatty-acid composition of aortic plaques with that of post-mortem serum and adipose tissue, in which essential fatty-acid content reflects dietary intake. Positive associations were found between serum and plaque omega 6 (r = 0.75) and omega 3 (r = 0.93) polyunsaturated fatty acids, and monounsaturates (r = 0.70), and also between adipose tissue and plaque omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (r = 0.89). No associations were found with saturated fatty acids. These findings imply a direct influence of dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids on aortic plaque formation and suggest that current trends favouring increased intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids should be reconsidered.

On top of this I would love clarification on why schools meals are allowed to contain GMO's despite councils denying it.

Despite this, GMO's are banned from the House of Commons canteen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/10135908/GM-foods-kept-off-the-menu-at-Westminster.html

Even Monsanto staff were protected from GMO yet our kids are fed a diet of cheap, non foods cooked in poly unsaturated GMO oils that often contain soy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/gm-food-banned-in-monsanto-canteen-737948.html

I am currently looking for participants who would be willing to take part in my research, which is going to look at the relationships between different calorie intakes, weight, health beliefs/behaviours, adherence to diet, and the metabolic adaptions that occur due to dietary intake. Essentially the base research will involve completing a few short questionnaires and recording your diet on myfitnesspal.com following your own self-determined diet and then engaging in a few simple tests. You will not be asked to follow any particular diet or plan and I ask that you make your own choices about the diet that you follow. The study will then progress to more in-depth study of certain areas. Ideally I am looking for a participants in my local vicinity, (Derby, UK) or people that are prepared to travel, as I wish to complete specific tests with participants. However the research has various aspects so anyone willing to participate will be greatly welcomed. 

All of the information that you provide during the study will remain confidential and all of the collected data will be analysed at a group level, therefore you will not be identified as an individual in the research report. If you agree to take part in the study but decide at a later date that you no longer wish to be involved, you are entitled to withdraw your data at any point by contacting myself. Please note that you can withdraw your data up to two weeks after taking part in the study – after that time the data will have been analysed and it will be impossible to remove individual data points from the group analysis. The results collected during this study will form the basis of a thesis to be submitted as part of a PhD study. Again, I want to re-iterate that confidentiality will be maintained at all times.
Once the data collection is complete I will update you all with an article that gives you a greater insight into the study, and also will allow you access to your individual data should you wish to view/use it. If you are interested in taking part in this study it would be greatly appreciated. If so, please contact me via email (billycraighealthchek@gmail.com) and I will send you more information once I am ready to begin, which you can then review before deciding whether you wish to continue any further.

Two days ago, (15th Jan 2015) the Daily Mail ran a story about why the juicing fad may not be so healthy after all.

They pointed the finger at it and swayed from Jason Vale the "juice master" style claims that juicing is practically a cure all method, to the "it's as bad a coca cola fuelled by all the recent sugar is toxic media propaganda.

Comparing sugar to crystal meth is something I'll be covering later today when I blog again. In general the article doesn't come across as a positive one for juicing or indeed fruit.

So, what next for the Daily Mail in their epic quest to inform you of the dangers of juicing and sugar.

You've probably seen no end of 30 day fitness challenges, from planking to squats (I've even seen 365 press-up challenges), and you may think of them as a harmless bit of fun. They may be just that, unless you ruin your pec minor over-training your mirror muscles.

I've always loved the quote by Kenichi Ohmae;


"Rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction."


If you haven't identified your end goal properly, you’ll row and row and then find yourself in the wrong place. Which ultimately destroys the motivation of those engaged in badly planned methods of overtraining certain areas of their body.

Just because you've started rowing, it doesn't mean you can't reassess the journey and turn your boat around. The sooner you plan where you want to be, and how you'll reach that place, the easier your journey will be. The idea of engaging in a properly designed and prescribed exercise program is to work smarter, not just harder and longer.

In a world that is becoming ever more dependent on technology, it was seemingly only a matter of time before it found its way into the realm of psychology. Therapists are now trying out something that goes by the name of Virtual Reality Therapy  to treat serious mental health issues like addictions to harmful substances such as heroin. This pioneering treatment has been initiated by Patrick Bordnick from the University of Houston’s Graduate School of Social Work.

The therapy works by making patients wear a headset and/or a motion capture suit. This will put them into a specific scenario – for instance, that of a party where drugs such as heroin or marijuana might be proffered. In order to make this more believable and realistic, Bordnick digitised images of real life heroin users as they injected or took drugs in other ways.

Sometimes in conjunction, a scent machine might also be used as well. This is to recreate specific odours and fragrances associated with the drugs, which might initially trigger a patient's craving.

From this, they will be encouraged to find ways of battling the sensations they feel and the mental pressure associated with “giving in” to the craving. Over time, it is believed that the desire to take the drug and the mental and physical associations with it will decrease and eventually stop altogether.

There are some interesting statistics to show that this type of therapy has had decent success with patients who have suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after being in combat and it is hoped that over time this will become an accepted and acceptable method of treating addictions, particularly in patients for whom traditional methods of therapy have not necessarily been as successful as the might otherwise have been. Whether you agree or not, it’s a very interesting aspect of therapy which may well have some solid basis for success.

Thanks to Laura Chapman for the link to the original research. 


Previous posts;
Heroin, Dieting & Exercise. The addiction connection 

Last Saturday I took part in the 100th Scott Trial, an arduous test of both man and machine. I've long been an advocate of avoiding endurance exercise, in fact it made me increasingly unpopular with the bosses at Virgin Active when I often recommended avoidance of such exercise for the majority of their membership base.

However, Saturday saw me once again push the limits of my endurance along with 200 other competitors. It must be said that none of us were doing this for health or fitness, most were taking part for the challenge, to be involved in a unique event on its 100th year, and for some the ultimate glory of winning. 

The above photo is my temperature post event, a reading which continued for 3 days. For those that aren't familiar with temperature readings in relation to health, simply put, it isn't a good state to be in. 

Studies seem to show that, particularly in women, endurance exercise chronically shuts down the production of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3). (1, 2).

Participents in the Baylor & Hackney (1) study undertook a program of weight lifting, rowing and running. T3 levels decreased initially but returned to baseline levels by the end of the study. The Boyden, Pamenter, Rotkis, Stanforth, Wilmore, (2) study involved a group of women running on average of 14 miles per week, who then increased to 44 miles and subsequently 64 miles. This saw initial an initial decrease in thyroid function but overtime function was restored.

T3 acts in various ways to increase heat production. (3) With normal T3 levels you have adequate energy maintain metabolic function including heat production, not enough and the body will surpass heat production to regulate precious energy. This isn't a bad thing, it is just physiology, a metabolic adaption in order to maintain life. Survival is the name of the game and if you engage in endurance exercise whilst being in a calorie deficit (remember I tried to consume as many calories as I could but it is simply too hard to get the necessary amount over that period of time), then it's no wonder the thyroid slows to counter the environment it is facing. Due to this excessive energy expenditure (8 hours) my body compensated in order to ensure my survival. The decrease  of T3 production increased my efficiency and slowed the rate at which I used my energy.

I'm not suggesting that endurance exercise has negative effects for all, no doubt in conditioned athletes they are able to survive for longer, but metabolic adaptions seem necessary and the degree of adaption will no doubt depend upon circumstances. Extreme endurance must down-regulate your thyroid, it has to in order for you to survive the event and it isn't wrong that this adaption occurs, if your a professional supported athlete you may be able to limit this adaption. The problem occurs when extreme exercise is prolonged (and often viewed as healthy) without adequate time to rest and repair, which is often is also coupled with caloric restriction (either intentionally or by those unaware of their need for increased intake).

At the 2012 Olympics the rumours were rife about Mo Farah and Galen Rupp using Thyroid medication for performance enhancement due to their association with Alberto Salazar. Salazar has had a long time association with Dr. Jeffrey Brown who during his work for Nike has diagnosed many track and field athletes, including Rupp and Carl Lewis with (subclinical) hypothyroidism. Naturally in a world full of scandals the web is full of speculation mentioning thyroid medication as a performance-enhancing drug (PED). 

Brown, argues that disagnosing hypothyroidism in endurance athletes is "consistent with research showing that extreme stress is often a trigger for the condition." Mainstream medicine uses the thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) test as the standard for diagnosis and those who fall within the "normal" reference range of 0.4 to 4.5 receive no help despite possibly displaying other symptoms such as decreased body temperature.

After my intense activity TSH increased dramatically to 2.5 mU/L, which whilst within the “normal” range of 0.4 and 4.5 milliunits per litre (mU/L) isn't a great place to be, as evidenced by my current state of health (unable to walk properly and severely suffering the effects of extreme endurance). Prior to this event I was symptom free and with a TSH of 0.1mU/L. My basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) decreased and the tendon relaxation phase of reflex increased, both of which can affect athletic performance and signal poor health. Prior to my initial diagnosis with subclinical hypothyroid I had delayed tendon reflexes and eventually fully ruptured my achilles requiring surgery.

As you can see from the photo above, within 3 days I was able to restore my usual temperature and all is now well. If I'd got back in to training asap and continued to work at increasing my "fitness" I would of continued to suffer and actually decreased my health. It's not to say I won't suffer again for my sport, but it must be noted that it wasn't a healthy outing for me and it took adequate rest and nutrition to restore me to my normal self.

References

Baylor, L,S., and Hackney, A,C. (2003). Resting thyroid and leptin hormone changes in women following intense, prolonged exercise training. Eur. J Appl. Physiol. Jan;88(4-5):480-4.

Boyden T,W., and Pamenter, R.W., Rotkis, T,C., Stanforth, P., and Wilmore, J,H. (1984). Thyroidal changes associated with endurance training in women. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. Jun;16(3):243-6.

Goglia, F., Moreno, M., and Lanni, A. (1999). Action of thyroid hormones at the cellular level: the mitochondrial target. FEBS Lett. Jun 11;452(3):115-20.

Herbalife Formula 1 is a meal replacement shake that is intended as a replacement for actual food. It is marketed as a "healthy meal" but thats debatable. So, whats actually in it and what would you need to make your own.

The ingredients in the pack I got given are....

1. Soy Protein Isolate
   
2. Fructose
   
3. Cellulose Powder
   
4. Corn Bran
   
5. Artificial French Vanilla Flavour
   
6. Guar Gum
   
7. Pottasium Chloride
   
8. Calcium Phosphate
   
9. Calcium Caseinate
   
10. Casein
    
11. Rice Fiber
    
12. Soy Lecithin
    
13. Canola Oil
    
14. Medium Chain Triglycerides
    
15. Carrageenan
    
16. DL-Methionine
    
17. Inulin
    
18. Magnesium Oxide
    
19. Silicon Dioxide
    
20. Liquorice Flavor
    
21. Natural Vanilla Flavour
    
22. Ginger Root Powder
    
23. Psyllium Husk Powder
    
24. Citrus Pectin
    
25. Proteases
    
26. Honey Powder
    
27. Ascorbic Acid
    
28. DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetete
    
29. Papaya Fruit Powder
    
30. Blueberry Powder
    
31. Pomegranate Powder
    
32. Biotin
    
33. Niacinamide
    
34. Beta Carotene
    
35. Ferrous Fumarate
    
36. Zinc Oxide
    
37. Copper Gluconate
    
38. D-Calcoium Pantothenate
    
39. Cyanococbalamin
    
40. Folic Acid
    
41. Cholecalciferol
    
42. Pyridoxine Hydrochloride
    
43. Thiamine Mononitrare
    
44. Riboflavin
    
45. Chromium Chloride
    
46. Sodium Molybdate
    
47. Sodium Selinite
    

That's a lot of products to make a branded product so I thought what all those things are.

Soy Protein Isolate

This is the big one, soy protein isolate is a dry powder food ingredient that has been separated or isolated from the other components of the soybean, making it 90 to 95 percent protein. It may also be listed in foods as mono-diglyceride, soya, TSF (textured soy flour) & TSP (textured soy protein) or TVP (textured vegetable protein), lecithin and the dreaded MSG (monosodium glutamate). In this case it is protein isolate and it is the most abundant ingredient in the powder mix.

So, MYPROTEIN.COM have it listed at £24.99 for 2.5 kg. Thats a lot of it for not a lot of money (imagine what the wholesale price would be). Maybe you could make your own, sell it to your friends, then if they sell it to their friends and you can get your own little pyramid going. Now before you all moan about the quality of the soya I'm fairly certain this will also be GMO just like the original. It's fairly well known why I hate soy products but here's a little overview of it from Mercola.

For those not keen on consuming GMO soy (I wouldn't consume it even if it were GMO free), you may want to look at something like Grass Fed Whey Protein Powders. Personally I wouldn't have either but if I felt compelled to have a shake Soy would be the last thing I would use.

Fructose, (or fruit sugar) is Robert Lustig's worst nightmare. Personally I have no issue with fructose. It is a simple ketonic monosaccharide found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. Commercially, fructose is frequently derived from sugar cane, sugar beets, and maize. All forms of fructose, including fruits and juices, are commonly added to foods and drinks for palatability and taste enhancement. If you wanted to avoid the herbaturd and make your own shake you could buy it from the same website for £5.69 for 1kg.

Cellulose Powder is basically to stop your powder clumping and is made from wood. Who'd of though herbalife would give you wood after so many dieters suffering erectile dysfunction whilst in a caloric deficit. If you need some Wood, for £7.35 for 250g  you can fill your boots.

Corn Bran is the tough outer layer of the corn that is usually discarded. Cunning use of a product thats basically considered a waste product. No real reason for it other than it altering the nutritional profile a little so it looks a little for favourable.

Artificial French Vanilla Flavour can be bought from eliquidlabs.co.uk for £3.50 for 10ml. Most artificial vanilla products contain vanillin, which can be produced synthetically from lignin, a natural polymer found in yes more wood. Most synthetic vanillin is a byproduct from the pulp used in paper making. More wood and more waste products.

Guar gum is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans which are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum and it has many uses.

• Textile industry – sizing, finishing and printing
• Paper industry – improved sheet formation, folding and denser surface for printing
• Explosives industry – as waterproofing agent mixed with ammonium nitrate, nitroglycerin.
• Pharmaceutical industry – as binder or as disintegrator in tablets; main ingredient in some bulk-forming laxatives
• Cosmetics and toiletries industries – thickener in toothpastes, conditioner in shampoos (usually in a chemically modified version)

Potassium chloride (KCl) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. Potassium chloride was historically known as "muriate of potash" which is still associated with its use as a fertilizer. I occasionally use this myself but thats because I've tested myself and proved a need for it. In around half of my clients they don't need it so a generic shake like herdalife wouldn't help them and may actually push them more out of micronutrient balance.

Calcium phosphate is the name given to a family of minerals containing calcium ions. Calcium phosphate is the principal form of calcium found in bovine milk. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest you maybe just buy milk for a £1. Then again, if you're like a lot of people I see, you probably already have enough calcium in your diet already, but then how would you know? Did the wellness coach assess your need with their Tanita Magic Scales?

Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoproteins proteins found in mammalian milk. (80% of the proteins in cow milk and 20% - 45% of the proteins in human milk). Casein is used in cheese, as a food additive, even as binder for safety matches.

Rice Fiber is produced when rice is milled, the hull is then removed to produce the brown rice kernel leaving the hulls which are processed to produce the fiber. Yet again more eco friendly waste material that they reuse yet you pay a premium price for it.

Soy Lecithin is most commonly extracted chemically (using hexane, ethanol, acetone, petroleum ether, benzene, etc.) from soybeans and is sold as a food supplement and as an emulsifier. I avoid wherever possible and certainly wouldn't buy it as a 'health' product.

Canola oil is produced from the seed of any of several varieties of the rape plant for consumption by humans and as a source of biodiesel. It may also be referred as rapeseed oil in the UK and is 'considered' safe for human consumption. Yet many (including me) researchers consider polyunsaturated fats toxic. http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturated-oils.shtml. Would I consume a product that had this in it? Nope not a chance.

Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) contain 6–12 carbon fatty acid esters of glycerol. Sourced from palm kernel oil and coconut oil (just ask Dave at bulletproof). A number of studies back MCT oil as a weight loss supplement, these claims are not without conflict and results are inconclusive. It certainly isn't a magic ingredient.

Carrageenans are linear sulphated polysaccharides that are extracted from red edible seaweeds that are used in the food industry as gelling, thickening, and stabilizing agents. Animal studies have observed colitis-like disease and tumour promotion [Ref] which has raised dietary safety concerns. For this reason, carrageenan is currently prohibited in EU infant formula.

DL-Methionine is sometimes given as a supplement to dogs reduces the urine pH and helps keep them from damaging grass. Handy if you need a pee in your garden.
 
Inulins are a group of naturally occurring polysaccharides produced by many plants, but most often extracted from chicory. Why is it here? No idea really but then I have no idea why any would any of the ingredients.
 
Magnesium oxide is produced by the calcination of magnesium carbonate or  hydroxide or by the treatment of magnesium chloride with lime followed by heat and is used for making Portland cement and in medicine for the relief of heartburn/sore stomach (Antacid tablets), and as insulation in industrial cables amongst other things.

Silicon dioxide, also known as silica ingested orally is essentially nontoxic, yet inhaling finely divided crystalline silica dust can lead to silicosis, bronchitis, or cancer.

Liquorice Flavor, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Ginger Root Powder - Basically a bunch of flavours and powders stuck in for good measure and to make it look herbal.
 
Psyllium seed powder - Psyllium seed husks are indigestible and are used to relieve the constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and diarrhoea that Turdalife may cause...better safe than sorry. 

Citrus Pectin - Pectin is a carbohydrate that is made of hundreds or thousands of polysaccharide molecules chemically linked together. It is found in most plants and is particularly plentiful in the peels of apples, citrus fruits, and plums. Pectin in its natural form cannot be absorbed by the body and is considered a type of undigestible soluble dietary fiber, whereas modified citrus pectin has a reduced molecular weight compared to regular citrus pectin, is mostly linear homogalacturonanic acid, and rich in galactose residues, which are easily processed by the digestive system and absorbed into the bloodstream if of the correct molecular weight range. Who knows what type herdalife include.

Protease is any enzyme that performs proteolysis, meaning that it begins protein catabolism by hydrolysis of the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain forming the protein. Digestive proteases are part of many laundry detergents and are also used extensively in the bread industry in bread improver. Proteases are inhibited by protease inhibitors and without this added inhibitor the raw soybeans are toxic to many animals, including humans. The protease inhibitors perform the role of stopping predators and it is therefore necessary to denature the soy prior to consumption.

Honey Powder - Basically dehydrated honey which has a texture similar to corn flour and is spray dried into fine powder using heat and contains stabiliser such as maltodextrin and fructose. Personally I wouldn't label it as honey.

Ascorbic Acid is vitamin C in its cheapest form.

DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetete - Commercial vitamin E supplements can be classified as these 3 types:

• Fully synthetic vitamin E, "dl-alpha-tocopherol", the most inexpensive, most commonly sold supplement form usually as the acetate ester;
• Semi-synthetic "natural source" vitamin E esters, the "natural source" forms used in tablets and multiple vitamins. These are highly fractionated d-alpha tocopherol or its esters, often made by synthetic methylation of gamma and beta d,d,d tocopherol vitamers extracted from plant oils.
• Less fractionated "natural mixed tocopherols" and high d-gamma-tocopherol fraction supplements

Herdalifes is naturally the first and the cheapest. As far as I'm aware, most sources are from yet more soya.

Papaya Fruit Powder, Blueberry Powder & Pomegranate Powder - Thought I'd group these three together. Basically just dried fruit powder so really natural and not denatured in any way at all...honest. No details forthcoming when I asked but I'd imagine its a chemical process that creates this powdered fruit.
 
Biotin is also known as vitamin H or coenzyme R is a water-soluble B-vitamin (vitamin B7). The only human health condition for which there is strong evidence of biotin's potential benefit as a treatment is biotin deficiency which doesn't seem too likely in the average consumer.

Nicotinamide, also known as niacinamide and nicotinic amide, is the amide of nicotinic acid (vitamin B3 / niacin). Nicotinamide is a water-soluble vitamin and is part of the vitamin B group. Nicotinic acid, also known as niacin, is converted to nicotinamide in vivo, and, though the two are identical in their vitamin functions, nicotinamide does not have the same pharmacological and toxic effects of niacin, which occur incidental to niacin's conversion. Thus nicotinamide does not reduce cholesterol or cause flushing, although nicotinamide may be toxic to the liver at doses exceeding 3 g/day for adults.[ref link] Who knows if this is a link to the incidences of liver problems reported by those on Herbalife.

Beta Carotene, the substance in carrots, pumpkins etc that colours them orange. When used as an additive it is known as E160a. Chronic high doses of β-carotene supplementation increases the probability of lung cancer in cigarette smokers.[Ref Link]

Ferrous Fumarate - This medicine is used to treat and prevent iron deficiency anaemia. It belongs to a group of medicines called iron supplements. This medicine contains the iron salt, ferrous fumarate which helps restore iron levels in the body when levels are low. The ferrous fumarate salt may help reduce the chances of getting gastro-intestinal problems which are usually associated with other iron salts.

One of the most important functions of iron in the body is in the formation of red blood cells. Iron is a component of haemoglobin which is the oxygen-carrying pigment of red blood cells.

This medicine is available in two forms that are taken by mouth: tablets and liquid.

This medicine should only be taken on advice from a healthcare professional ( a herdalife wellness coach generally isn't one of these). Iron supplements contain different amounts of iron and it is important you take the correct dose or to establish if you even need it. Most of the anemics I've seen have done far better without this.

Some foods such as tea, (so best avoid magic calorie burning thermo tea then), eggs or milk may decrease the absorption of iron and should not be taken at the same time as iron supplements. - NHS

Zinc Oxide - An insoluble powder that is widely used as an additive in things such as rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cement, lubricants, paints, ointments, adhesives, and you guessed it foods. Most zinc oxide is produced synthetically.

Copper Gluconate - A copper salt of D-gluconic acid. It is really important that you understand your needs for both copper and zinc prior to playing around with them. Herdalife adds both so you don't have to consider if you need either of them.

D-Calcoium Pantothenate is a synthetic substance made from pantothenic acid and sold as vitamin B-5 supplements. Could you get this from food? Yeah if you ate it instead of skipping food and building a dysfunctional relationship with foods.

Cyanococbalamin is a produced form of the chemical compounds which the body converts to any one of the active vitamin B12 compounds. The amount of cyanide (yes cyanide) liberated in this process is so small that its toxicity is negligible. It's still there though.

Folic acid or folate is a B vitamin. It is also referred to as vitamin Ф, vitamin M, vitamin B9, vitamin Bc (or folacin), pteroyl-L-glutamic acid, and pteroyl-L-glutamate . Folic acid is synthetically produced, and used in fortified foods (i.e. foods that need fortifying after they have been stripped of nutrients) and supplements. Excessive consumption of folic acid (and does your wellness coach know if you're consuming too much?) is a major risk factor for cancer. 

Cholecalciferol is a form of vitamin D, also called vitamin D3. It is structurally similar to steroids such as testosterone, cholesterol, and cortisol (though vitamin D3 itself is a secosteroid). Also a form of rat poison so pretty handy if you have some herbalife left over and need to dispose of some rats. http://www.aspcapro.org/sites/pro/files/n-toxbrief_1201.pdf Couple this with the cyanide mentioned above and its starting to look like the FBI should investigate.

Thiamine Mononitrare Riboflavin is a stable nitrate salt form of thiamine (vitamin B1). It occurs as a white crystalline powder and is prepared from thiamine hydrochloride. It is used as a food or nutritional supplement.Thiamin mononitrate is used in the pharmaceutical industry to treat beriberi and general malnutrition or malabsorption. [1] Thiamine can be found naturally in foods like grains, yeast, molasses, pork and animal organ meats. Dairy, eggs and legumes have smaller amounts. Though thiamine is found naturally in foods, thiamine mononitrate is not. Thiamine mononitrate is synthesized by removing a chloride ion from thiamin hydrochloride and mixing the final product with nitric acid. 

Chromium Chloride is mainly used in medical, food additives, feed additives, chromium compounds, and oilfield industry for chrome plating. In inorganic industry it is used for the production of other chromium salts and pigments used in the manufacture of various industrial chromium pigments. It is used in organic industry for the manufacture of a variety of chromium-containing catalyst. In printing and dyeing industry it is used as a mordant.

Sodium Molybdate 
The agriculture industry uses 1 million pounds per year as a fertilizer. In particular, its use has been suggested for treatment of whiptail in broccoli and cauliflower in molybdenum-deficient soils. However, care must be taken because at a level of 0.3 ppm sodium molybdate can cause copper deficiencies in animals, particularly cattle. Good job herdalife included that copper earlier on in the list...always thinking.

Sodium Selinite - As selenium is an essential element, sodium selenite is an ingredient in some food supplements.The US Food and Drug Administration approved a selenium supplement to animal diets, however the most common form is sodium selenite for pet foods. According to one article, "not much was known about which selenium compounds to approve for use in animal feeds when the decisions were made back in the 1970s .. At the time the regulatory action was taken, only the inorganic selenium salts (sodium selenite and sodium selenate) were available at a cost permitting their use in animal feed.”

However, selenium is toxic in high concentrations. The chronic toxic dose for human beings is about 2.4 to 3 milligrams of selenium per day (Wilber, C, G. (1980). Toxicology of selenium. Clinical Toxicology. 17 (2): 171–230). Much of this would be dependent upon your own current levels of selenium, which I'm guessing your wellness coach/dealer hasn't measured with their magic Tanita scales.

Many thanks to the wonderful wikipedia for the brief research and explanation of some of the weird and wonderful products that go into making a product such as herdalife. And finally, remember if you aren't sure what an ingredient is, don't consume it. At least if a dealer approaches, you can be sure that you have a good amount of knowledge to discuss the product with them. 

I got asked today if it was possible (or if I knew a way) to guestimate your required sun exposure times for vitamin D. I have an answer (when haven't I?).

In 2010 I made this brief post about the topic, so if you're interested have a look and try calculating your times.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to a whole host of diseases  yet sun exposure is frowned upon. Enter the The Vitamin D/UV Calculator from the Scientists at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.

Depending on your current Vitamin D status (i.e if you're deficient) then these figures may be low. However it's a great starting point, and for us brits it will be a useful encouragement to get outside for our required sunlight all year round rather than simply binging during the summer months.

Calculated Ultraviolet Exposure Levels for a Healthy Vitamin D Status Website

http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html

WeightWatchers were happy to pay Fergie (the ex royal not the one from the black eyed peas) and she was happy to take the money. Did it help her long term and did it help WeightWatchers profits? I think it may of helped push the brand in America but I've not really seen any evidence that Fergie has beaten her battle with the bulge.

Celebrity endorsements are rife in the diet business and its often used as evidence that certain products are safe, reliable and not a scam. 

Christiano Ronaldo is often touted by Herbalife drones as a reason why it's a supposedly good product. Bob the Herbalife drone who appeared at my house trying to push his products on me often referred to the fact that Ronaldo was a user, and alleged that Rafa Nadal used it prior to Wimbledon 2013 (despite the fact that Nadal crashed out of the tournament). 

Now why would Fergie and Ronaldo endorse such diet products? If a company offered you a million or two of cold hard cash who wouldn't smile and suck it up? Yep that's right, not many of us wouldn't sell our souls to the devil and take the cash. Does that mean you should buy the products and pay of Fergies debts and fund Ronaldo's swimming trunks and man bag collection?

I am currently looking for participants who would be willing to take part in my University dissertation project, which is going to look at the relationships between different calorie targets, reasons for dieting, calorie intake, weight loss, health beliefs and adherence to diet. More information will be sent to you if you express an interest in being a participant but the study will essentially involve completing a few short questionnaires and recording your diet on myfitnesspal.com (following your own self-determined diet).

If you are interested in taking part in this study it would be greatly appreciated. If so, please contact me via email (B.Craig1@unimail.derby.ac.uk) and I will send you more information, which you can review before deciding whether you wish to continue any further.

The world is set out to make us worry, and worrying is a protective stress that keeps us from harm...or it should do. As with most things, over indulgence can cause problems and in a world that is seemingly growing more dangerous by the day, do we need to be worried about being worried?

In my early days studying health I learned that we work via a hierarchy of protection, safety comes first followed by sustenance and sex or reproduction. For why we must look to the reptilian brain (R-brain), the oldest part of our brain that ensures fulfilment of our most basic biological needs. The aforementioned safety, sustenance and sex must be met in that order.  As an example if one is unsafe (that could come in many forms such as when a predator looms nearby, or when you're late for work), appetite and desire (or ability) to recreate will be inhibited.

Modern day lab test show evidence of this; for example a stressed out female (i.e. unsafe) may suffer raised adrenaline and cortisol, decreased appetite and infertility. Effectively your bran is protecting you by raising cortisol to increase your alertness which should help your chances of survival. You become hyper aware (typical fight or flight response), and becoming safe rightly takes priority over food, or sex. 

All this stress and cortisol gets a bad rap, quite simply it is your R-brain protecting you and ensuring safety is maintained. So, if for example you're under eating, not sleeping very well therefore waking in a stressed state, it is entirely plausible that your R-brain may focus on seeking safety via adrenaline and cortisol release to help you escape the perceived danger. Even if that danger is only the alarm clock and a calorie deficit.

Excess cortisol, as seen in Cushing's syndrome is at times linked with psychotic reactions such as paranoia [1], and cortisol has an effect on the parathyroid gland [2], increasing secretion of parathyroid hormone (hyperparathyroidism) can mimic various psychiatric disorders such as paranoia.

Could paranoia just be an extreme stress state in which your body makes you hyper aware (perhaps even too aware) of danger? Is it it potentially curable with adequate food (milk, sugar etc) and or compounds known to reduce parathyroid hormone such as caffeine, vitamin A and maybe sugar?

1. ​Thompson, J, G. (2013). Psychobiology of Emotions. Springer Science & Media, pp. 44
2. Au,W,Y. (1976).Cortisol stimulation of parathyroid hormone secretion by rat parathyroid glands in organ culture.10;193(4257):1015-7      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/948759

Is it time to start giving health advice in the style of Bane? Do people need a more aggressive push to make better changes? Pass me the mask...

I've tackled diet shakes before but a new product is finally here.


For too long I’ve mocked the diet shake drink business, I’ve claimed its a multi-level marketing sham. I’ve pointed out irregularities in the product descriptions and marketing propaganda. I’ve asked why anyone would believe that a quick fix is available, I’ve debated with many a distributor who naturally wanted to defend their business, and above all why anyone would starve themselves initially and fail to see that any weight/water loss wasn’t down to simply avoiding food and potentially causing metabolic damage, rather than a magic potion.

Anyway, as the old saying goes, “if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them”.

Introducing….

Forever Dead Products

Here at Forever Dead Products (FDP) we own around 85ish% of the worlds toxic byproducts, which we market as natural. This makes us powerful and gives us an unrivalled edge in the front line of health and wellness... yeah you got that right, we are world leaders in selling crap to gullible people. We are a multi-billion dollar company that operates worldwide selling our crap to anyone desperate enough to try it. However, we don’t like paying to display our products in normal shops, so to increase our profit we help other people cling to the hope that our shit products work. Then we offer these gullible or cunning people part-time opportunities in which they can sell our crap for us. We often advertise in employment websites despite their being no actual job. The deal is you become self employed and order stock from us direct. So from a company perspective it doesn’t matter whether you succeed or not, but ideally we’d love you to succeed and sign up lots of other mugs to sell our crap.

For those that are totally committed we have very serious full-time opportunities for the more management and destiny driven individuals. These positions allow you to hassle friends, family and anyone you come into contact with, into joining your team of other self employed suckers.

Imagine the scenario, you sign up as a distributer for me, you then sign up 10 of your friends who each then sign up 10 of their friends and they sign up their friends. You get the picture, basically it makes me the guy sat at the top ******* rich. This isn’t gonna happen to you, your friends and family will begin ignoring you calls and avoiding you like the plague. So it’s gonna take some dedication, you’re gonna have to be super pushy and hope that people feel sorry for you. Another great tactic is hassling people on social networking sites. Hell, no matter how you do it, if you hassle enough people your bound to weed out the weak and vulnerable ones. This may not generate enough income to survive (or indeed enough to clear what you invested in our crap) but it all increases our profits and if you’re prepared to put in the hours you to can make some money eventually.

Would you like to work from home in a self employed position that enables you to choose your own hours and income level? Would you like to cover your car in “work from home stickers” and set up special social media accounts with your name + our company name? Imagine it, you could be Aloe_Vera or FDP Fred. With that sort of kudos people will flock to your account and beg to buy our crap. Your new identity will make you the person everyone goes to for nutrition advice.

I must point out though (I’m forced to now) that it is illegal for a promoter or participant in a trading scheme to persuade anyone to make a payment by promising benefits from getting others to join a scheme. Do not be misled that high earnings or even any earnings are achievable. I mean check out eBay and see the amount of products being sold of by failed distributors of other dodgy shakes.

It may seem odd that I’ve not mentioned the products yet, but seriously it’s more important that we get you on board as a distributor. Wait, you have no training, knowledge or experience? That’s perfect, we prefer our FDP distributers to have no knowledge other than repeating what we tell you. Once you begin using the products you can tell people all about it, along with a few anecdotal stories of how successful others have been. Hell you can even name drop a few celebrities as long as you allege it. “Hey, my friend saw Oprah drinking our drinks”

So, on to the products.

Dirty 9

Get the power of aloe vera with added lemon fat burner that effectively cuts through grease from the inside out. The miracle that is aloe leaf contains tones of good stuff and despite their being shelves and shelves of different aloa vera products in your local drug store, I want you to rest assured, we locate the finest aloa on the planet. Taken daily, either alone if you don’t vomit or mixed with pure fruit juice, it’s one of the best nutritional supplements available, honest!!!

Description and Purpose of our wonderful Dirty 9 Programme

Dirty 9 enables you to become cleaner, “healthier” and delirious as you cleanse your body of unnatural chemicals. It’s truly the fastest way to get the disordered eating that is all the rage. It has been said that attempting to detox your body of toxic materials using a product that contains toxic ingredients is a little odd. But here at FDP we simply ignore that criticism and state that

“as long as the toxins are in small amounts and only in our products then you needn’t worry.”

The 9-day cleanse will kick-start your weight loss plan almost instantly as you begin experiencing the gastrointestinal delights of Dirty 9. Cramps, sweating, and a sphincter that feels like its being shredded from the inside out. The explosions of toxic waste passing from your rear-end will help you shed the lbs and put you on track to regain your health. Once Dirty 9 has helped you shift some weight you’ll be ready to move to Forever Dead Lite, which is engineered to help you manage your weight for the rest of your life. Yes that’s right, you use this powder in place of food for the rest of your life.

Your Dirty 9 pack includes:

Forever Dead Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid (3 x 1 litre bottles)

Forever Dead Lite ( 1 x vile flavour)

Forever Dead Garcinia Turbo Supplement

“Extracts of the exocarp of certain species – typically G. gummi-gutta, but also purple mangosteen – are often contained in appetite suppressants such as Hydroxycut, Leptoprin or XanGo. But their effectiveness at normal consumption levels is unproven, while at least one case of severe acidosis caused by long-term consumption of such products has been documented.[3] Furthermore, they may contain significant amounts of hydroxycitric acid, which is somewhat toxic and might even destroy the testicles after prolonged use.[4] [source: Wikipedia)

Forever Dead Bee Pollen Supplement

“Bee pollen refers to the flower pollen that collects on the legs and bodies of worker bees. It can also include some nectar and bee saliva. Pollens come from many plants, so the contents of bee pollen can vary significantly…

People take bee pollen for nutrition; as an appetite stimulant; to improve stamina and athletic performance; and for premature aging, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), hay fever (allergic rhinitis), mouth sores, joint pain (rheumatism), painful urination, prostate conditions, and radiation sickness.

It is also used for weight loss, bleeding problems including coughing or vomiting blood, bloody diarrhea, nosebleed, brain hemorrhage, and menstrual problems.

Bee pollen is also used for gastrointestinal (GI) problems including constipation, diarrhea, enteritis, and colitis. Some people use bee pollen as a general tonic, to increase urine flow, and for alcohol intoxication.
Bee pollen is used topically for skin care in skin softening products, and for treating eczema, pimples, and diaper rash.

You may hear claims that bee pollen enzymes (chemical compounds that assist in chemical reactions) provide a variety of treatment benefits. However, any enzymes in bee pollen are likely to be digested in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. There is no reliable evidence indicating that bee pollen enzymes or other ingredients in bee pollen are effective as treatment.


How does it work?

The enzymes in bee pollen are thought to act like medicines. However, these enzymes are broken down in the stomach, so it is unlikely that bee pollen has any effect.” [source: WebMD]

Drink Shaker so you can mix our crap anywhere.

Tape Measure to measure how many inches of water you lose.

How to do Dirty 9

Directions

Day 1 - 2 Dirty Phase 1

Morning – Forever Dead Garcinia Turbo Tablets, Forever Dead Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid

Snack – Forever Dead Bee Pollen Tablets (yes that’s right, no food but we still call it a snack.

Lunch – Forever Dead Garcinia Turbo Tablets, Forever Dead Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid, Nutritious Forever Dead Lite Shit Shake, Forever Dead Bee Pollen Tablet

Dinner – Forever Dead Garcinia Turbo Tablets, Forever Dead Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid, Forever Dead Bee Polen Tablet

Evening – Forever Dead Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid

Yes that’s right folks, no food for 2 days! It is essential that after day two you do multiple facebook status updates referring to your 5 lb weighloss. As and example;

“whoop whoop, I’ve lost 5 lbs using forever dead dirty 9”

If anyone questions your weight loss, remember it is the products that made it possible, not the starvation/food avoidence. Also ignore comments suggesting this is water loss, we can’t prove otherwise but all our pamphlets say fat loss so it must be true…honest!

Day 3-9 Dirty Phase 2

Morning – Forever Dead Garcinia Turbo Tablets, Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid, Nutritious Forever Dead Shit Shake

Snack – Forever Dead Bee Pollen Tablets

Lunch – Forever Dead Garcinia Turbo Tablets, Aloe Vera Liquid, Debatably “Nutritious” Forever Dead Lite Shake, Forever Dead Bee Pollen Tablet

Dinner – Forever Garcinia Turbo Tablets, Forever Dead Aloe Vera and Lemon Liquid, a 600 Calorie Meal, and another ******* Forever Dead Bee Pollen Tablet

Evening - Minimum 8 oz of Water (lucky you).

Anyway, to conclude I’d just like to say that I am in no way intimating that other similar diet/cleanse products don’t work or are a con, I mean I don’t wanna get sued so maybe their is a possibility you can lose weight, get a clean colon and become the next Donald Trump. However, Forever Dead Dirty 9 is nutritionally approved by the nutritionist that designed it and by a Doctor who is also at the top of the multi-level marketing pyramid. He says its pretty damn good so why wouldn’t you trust him.

For those of you that feel these products just simply aren’t for you, try TurdaLife as I’m also an independent TurdaLife dealer.   

I'm not a huge fan of soft (soda) drinks, but I know some of you enjoy them from time to time. And why shouldn't you, everything in moderation (my wife's saying). However, I hate high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and the main reason I tell people to avoid these drinks is due to the HFCS.

However, their is a growing trend towards people wanting real sugar just like we had when we were kids. Yep back in the olden days when kids were slimmer and food producers had to use expensive sugar.

So, I'm not suggesting you drink soft drinks, but if you do, or your kids do, maybe get them the best version you can. Same goes for sweet, if they want gummy bears, why not pass on the corn syrup and make them with proper sugar.

Well, not much to say about this article by Julian Morgans other than click the picture, read the article, and discuss.

Could you eat like a real paleolithic man? Or would you miss the paleo brownies and paleo beer?

Leave a comment either here or on facebook and let me know if it's something you'd consider.

This morning I got asked about Hay Fever. Most of you know it doesn’t take much for me to wander in to other topics but I promise their is a link between hay fever and adrenal stress. My initial struggle with exhaustion happened at the end of my career riding bikes in world championships. It was a frustrating and debilitating problem which nobody could diagnose correctly. I tried my GP for the traditional medical route and got worse with each visit. In the end I became a Personal Trainer and burned myself out completely. If you watch a lot of Gym staff you’ll notice they often seem a little hyper which is a sure sign of imminent burn out.

I’ve always been active and moderately healthy due to my sport. My years riding meant that a six pack was always on display (it was hot riding in spain ). On the inside however I was exhausted and really just depressed. I knew that if I stopped and the intense routine I'd struggle to ever get going again. I wasn’t sure what the cause was, but knew that it wasn’t normal to fall asleep at lunch. As I looked fit and healthy no doctor would me seriously when I mentioned how I felt, team coaches just put it down to my laid-back attitude.

 If you have symptoms such as;

• Tendency to gain weight and unable to loose it, especially around the waist. (This is the most obvious sign for most people of excess cortisol)
• High frequency of getting the flu and other respiratory diseases and these symptoms tend to last longer than usual.
• Tendency to tremble when under pressure.
• Reduced sex drive.
• Lightheaded when rising from a laying down position.
• Unable to remember things.
• Lack of energy in the mornings and also in the afternoon between 3 to 5 pm.
• Feel better suddenly for a brief period after a meal.
• Often feel tired between 9 – 10 pm, but resist going to bed.
• Need coffee or stimulants to get going in the morning.
• Increased symptoms of PMS for women; periods are heavy and then stop, or almost stopped on the 4th day, only to start flow again on the 5th or 6th day.
• Pain in the upper back or neck with no apparent reasons .
• Feels better when stress is relieved, such as on a vacation.
• Difficulties in getting up in the morning
• Lightheaded
• Mild depression
• Food and or inhalant allergies (yes even hay fever)
• Lethargy and lack of energy
• Increased effort to perform daily tasks
• Decreased ability to handle stress
• Dry and thin skin
• Hypoglycemia
• Low Body Temperature
• Nervousness
• Palpitation
• Unexplained hair loss
• Alternating constipation and diarrhea
• Dyspepsia 

How does this link into hay fever? Well I can have months pass with little or no symptoms yet once I get stressed (increased work, too much social interaction, not enough food etc) I suddenly start suffering badly with hay fever. I always suffered badly at school but only around exam time.

So, if you're struggling with any of the above symptoms, especially allergies maybe it's time to reduce your stress and give your adrenals a break.

 So you want to get fat? Huh? You don't? Well maybe just read the post anyway and see if it strikes any similarities with your current efforts to beat the bulge.

Metabolic damage is something that gets mentioned lot when people come to visit me. They've either come to a realisation that food isn't evil. Often they're freaked out a little when they realise they need to eat to repair, to re-feed their metabolism and indeed their whole body. They're even more freaked out (good job I like freaking people out) when I tell them this slowed metabolism is fantastic and an important bodily function! However,"we all make mistakes, and we all pay a price." So, the comes a time when we have to undo all the mistakes and that means re-feeding and then doing it properly.

In response to the calorie restriction and mountains of cardio, the body slows down. Your body recognises that you're treating it like a working animal on a farm and so down regulates all the hormones necessary to make you more efficient (some people call this fitter). Yep that's it folks, your limited intake or your exercise output is doing the opposite of what you wanted. I don't care if you meet the RDA for calorie intake, if you show symptoms of decreased metabolism then you're either moving too much or eating too little. I tend not to even ask people what they eat at first "I've found that when you want to know the truth about someone that someone is probably the last person you should ask," so I just test them and show them the data.

So, we've established that with calorie restriction (doesn't matter which way you do it, via exercise, diet or both) your metabolism begins to slow down using metabolic adaptation. The more you increase the milage or cut the calories the more the body will lower hormones to maintain your ability to continue living. Usually people view this life saving metabolic adaption as a plateau, a blip in their weight loss. So, they either up the exercise, drop the calories, limit the carbs or any number of these mind boggling choices. Again they continue headlong into oblivion and then it happens again!! Weight loss stalls, creeps back up or they are unable to beat the desire to binge and curse themselves for being so weak.

Now if you're an elite level athlete, or a celebrity maybe you can push the boundaries of metabolic adaption a little because this is what you do for a living. Do they have the same calorie requirements as you? Does Victoria Beckham really look after all those kids, hold down a day job and come home to the cleaning? Maybe, but I doubt it. What do you do in a day? Cook, clean, work, look after children, get stressed about all the above, curse yourself for not being skinny? Then what do you do next? You limit your diet, start pounding out the exercise.

"The treatments don't always work. Symptoms never lie."

Their can be no doubt that dieting and exercise can have an effect, for most though they ignore the symptoms that it is all going badly wrong. Do it at a level appropriate to your environment and don't even think of beginning if you show signs of a decreased metabolism. Above all though, remember that decreased metabolism is there because you put it there. It isn't a bad thing, it's just a reaction to the environment you created for yourself. 

10 Bonus points to anyone who names the origin of the quotes :-)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12055988/