Fiber – Do we REALLY need it?

Almost every single ‘health expert’ will tell you that eating tons of fiber will help make you ‘fit as a fiddle’ (and quite fond of the bathroom too), its “Part of a healthy and balanced diet” and all that happy horse-crap. What they’ll never tell you is the “Why and How” of fiber and the human digestive system.

Now, I do enjoy the small amount of fiber I get – but only when it comes in vegetables and berries – since it drops the effective carbohydrate count (ECC) down (i.e. doesn’t cause a rise in insulin), giving me the best carb “bang for my buck” on those foods (not to mention the fact that its INHERENT in those foods).

Let’s have a little fiber class, shall we…

Obama Health Care – Just say NO to CSPI’s “help”

A recent news article has come to light that has me semi-alarmed – but first, some back story on the major players and the possible impact.

CSPI, otherwise known as the “Center for Science in the Public Interest” (for those who are acronym-phobic) is a supposed “consumer advocacy organization” here in the US – but to most they are the “Food Police” responsible for a number of US policy changes regarding food, food labeling, and pressuring others with their hidden agenda. They tend to focus on nutrition, health, food safety, and alcohol policies. Its headed up by a Michael F. Jacobson, who started it in 1971 in order to try and control what people put in their mouths…

LA Boxing – the fighting bravado minus the danger

Several years ago, I (like many of you probably do) belonged to a “regular” gym. It didn’t work out so well. At the time I was completely convinced that this was the tool that I needed to lose weight, gain my self-confidence back, and turn things around. Maybe I was simply a loose screw and this was the perfect screwdriver for the task. Well, turns out it was backwards hammer instead.

Where did I finally find the RIGHT fit? For now, its with the growing “Cardio Boxing” trend…

Is it right for you? You never know unless you give it a try.

“Guide to Becoming Superhuman” by Tim Ferris

Today, Tim Ferris announced (via his twitter stream and blog) that his next book will be (tentatively titled – we hope) titled ‘From Rapid Fat Loss to Strongmen – A Guide to Becoming Superhuman’. Apparently, its something that he’s been working on for the last couple of years and researching on himself for even longer.

I’m just excited to read how he takes his particular brand of “lifestyle methodology” and apply it to fitness and nutrition…

Top Ten Reasons to go Low-Carb Today

Eat delicious food, lose weight, and lower your risk of many major health problems?

Well, that would do it for me – but for other readers who aren’t as trusting or need further explanation, here is a nice list of reasons why restricted carbohydrate eating should be the first (easy) step toward a new YOU – a healthy, strong and sexy you – that is.

The “Eco-Atkins” rundown (once again – for fairness sake)

I’m not a fan – But, I realize that there is very little straight-forward information on the web regarding this new diet, and a good number of people stumbled upon my previous post (as snarky as it is) strictly looking for Eco-Atkins information. So here it is, albeit through the looking glass of my perspective.

This diet was created by Professor David Jenkins of The University of Toronto, it stands to reason that he wanted to try and merge the successful-ness of the Atkins plan with the (so-called) “healthiness and hipness” of a vegetarian diet. The unfortunate thing is that you can’t just combine what you see as the “best parts” of things and create a super-powered version that pleases everybody…

The Path: Self-Image, Mental Fun-House Mirrors, and The ‘G-Word’

Did you ever look in the mirror? Of course you have – No, I mean REALLY look in the mirror? Looking in such a way where you try to see yourself as if you were someone else, all the while wondering “Who is that person?”. If done correctly and honestly – the results can either be refreshing or utterly horrifying. You can never truly know how other people actually regard and percieve you, but if we can at least try to – we can learn a lot about ourselves in the process…

Coming to a telephone pole near you – Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Flyer

Last week, after a few posts of discussing the perils of trying to teach others healthier eating ways (of the ‘primal’ fashion in Mark’s case) and their resistance, not to mention a classic line-up of sarcastic one-liners, Mark Sisson from MarksDailyApple.com posted a flyer for his ever-popular ‘Primal Blueprint’ lifestyle regimen. I’m a big fan of his blog & this flyer in particular because it helps narrow down a kind of “elevator pitch” for people who are still following the mainstream high-carb / low-fat dogma.

I’ve been working on something similar, and this gives me a bit of much needed inspiration…

Modern DNA Madness – Squandering our Genetic Gift of Health

In Dr. Michael R. Eades ‘Protein Power Lifeplan’ he has a chapter on exercise and fitness titled ‘Born to be fit’ – and I can’t help but think about that phrase all the time. We WERE born to be fit, yet we spend our entire lives squandering that very birthright – suppressing or strength, healing power, physical appearance, well being, and even lifespan.

Why do we do this? Are we simply masochists and WANT to be unhappy and unhealthy?

What if I told you that the way we eat – is virtually NOTHING like our bodies were designed to operate optimally on. Would you believe me? The fact that our systems can tolerate it as well as they do attests to the very… Hey… Wait a minute? We don’t handle it well at all! 6 year old kids getting type 2 diabetes, people weighing 900 lbs and can’t get out of bed, and obesity has skyrocketed in the past 30 years! What the hell is going on here?

Pushing the Vegetarian Agenda by Rewriting (Pre)History

Yesterday a Huffington Post article was published entitled “Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians” written by Kathy Freston. In this misguided piece of anti-meat propaganda she seems to correlate “the birth of agriculture” with the start of meat-eating because of herding (what?) – shes’s saying that it only started 10,000 years ago, and we (humans) have never adapted to eat meat, and our anatomy mirrors that of herbivores – which is all just silliness.

The article is absurd – but I was much more disturbed by the comments, because that leads credence to the idea that people actually believe and welcome this kind of misinformation…