Fitness And Nutrition
5 Nutrients For Your Health and Fitness
Health Fitness Nutrition
Five years after telling a bunch of angry apes to keep their filthy paws off him, Charlton Heston starred in Soylent Green. In the film, a megacorporation solves a starving world’s need for nutritious food by turning the dead into dinner. This is complete science fiction, of course: Most of us are so short on key nutrients we couldn’t possibly be someone’s square meal.
In fact, studies show that 77 percent of men don’t take in enough magnesium, that many of us are deficient in vitamin D, and that the vitamin B12 in our diets may be undermined by a common heartburn medication. And we haven’t even mentioned our problems with potassium and iodine.
It’s time to play catch-up. Follow our advice, and a cannibal will never call you junk food.
Vitamin D
This vitamin’s biggest claim to fame is its role in strengthening your skeleton. But vitamin D isn’t a one-trick nutrient: A study in Circulation found that people deficient in D were up to 80 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. The reason? D may reduce inflammation in your arteries.
The shortfall: Vitamin D is created in your body when the sun’s ultraviolet B rays penetrate your skin. Problem is, the vitamin D you stockpile during sunnier months is often depleted by winter, especially if you live in the northern half of the United States, where UVB rays are less intense from November through February. Case in point: When Boston University researchers measured the vitamin D status of young adults at the end of winter, 36 percent of them were found to be deficient.
Hit the mark: First, ask your doctor to test your blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. “You need to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter,” says Michael Holick, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine at Boston University. Come up short? Take 1,400 IU of vitamin D daily from a supplement and a multivitamin. That’s about seven times the recommended daily intake for men, but it takes that much to boost blood levels of D, says Dr. Holick.
Magnesium
This lightweight mineral is a tireless multitasker: It’s involved in more than 300 bodily processes. Plus, a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that low levels of magnesium may increase your blood levels of C-reactive protein, a key marker of heart disease.
The shortfall: Nutrition surveys reveal that men consume only about 80 percent of the recommended 400 milligrams (mg) of magnesium a day. “We’re just barely getting by,” says Dana King, M.D., a professor of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. “Without enough magnesium, every cell in your body has to struggle to generate energy.”
Hit the mark: Fortify your diet with more magnesium-rich foods, such as halibut and navy beans. Then hit the supplement aisle: Few men can reach 400 mg through diet alone, so Dr. King recommends ingesting some insurance in the form of a 250 mg supplement. One caveat: Scrutinize the ingredients list. You want a product that uses magnesium citrate, the form best absorbed by your body.
Vitamin B12
Consider B12 the guardian of your gray matter: In a British study, older people with the lowest levels of B12 lost brain volume at a faster rate over a span of 5 years than those with the highest levels.
The shortfall: Even though most men do consume the daily quota of 2.4 micrograms, the stats don’t tell the whole story. “We’re seeing an increase in B12 deficiencies due to interactions with medications,” says Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., director of a USDA program at Tufts University. The culprits: acid-blocking drugs, such as Prilosec, and the diabetes medication metformin.
Hit the mark: You’ll find B12 in lamb and salmon, but the most accessible source may be fortified cereals. That’s because the B12 in meat is bound to proteins, and your stomach must produce acid to release and absorb it. Eat a bowl of 100 percent B12-boosted cereal and milk every morning and you’ll be covered, even if you take the occasional acid-blocking med. However, if you pop Prilosec on a regular basis or are on metformin, talk to your doctor about tracking your B12 levels and possibly taking an additional supplement.
Potassium
Without this essential mineral, your heart couldn’t beat, your muscles wouldn’t contract, and your brain couldn’t comprehend this sentence. Why? Potassium helps your cells use glucose for energy.
The shortfall: Despite potassium’s can’t-live-without-it importance, nutrition surveys indicate that young men consume just 60 percent to 70 percent of the recommended 4,700 mg a day. To make matters worse, most guys load up on sodium: High sodium can boost blood pressure, while normal potassium levels work to lower it, says Lydia A. L. Bazzano, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology at Tulane University.
Hit the mark: Half an avocado contains nearly 500 mg potassium, while one banana boasts roughly 400 mg. Not a fan of either fruit? Pick up some potatoes—a single large spud is packed with 1,600 mg.
Iodine
Your thyroid gland requires iodine to produce the hormones T3 and T4, both of which help control how efficiently you burn calories. That means insufficient iodine may cause you to gain weight and feel fatigued.
The shortfall: Since iodized salt is an important source of the element, you might assume you’re swimming in the stuff. But when University of Texas at Arlington researchers tested 88 samples of table salt, they found that half contained less than the FDA-recommended amount of iodine. And you’re not making up the difference with all the salt hiding in processed foods—U.S. manufacturers aren’t required to use iodized salt. The result is that we’ve been sliding toward iodine deficiency since the 1970s. Read more
Bodybuilding Diet
Quick Diet Tips For Fast Muscle Gain
Diet For Bodybuilding
The late “Iron Guru,” Vince Gironda once said that 80% of building muscle is nutrition. While I don’t agree with that exact percentage, I will say that what you eat is just as important as how you train, if not more so, when you are trying to gain muscle fast.
Sadly, this crucially important point is overlooked by the large majority of skinny guys who spend their lives in the gym but never seem to get anywhere.
Many of those that get it often complain that they can’t eat enough or that they aren’t hungry. Other skinny guys come to the gym and tell me that they are eating a ton and wonder why they can’t gain weight. When we sit down and add it up it turns out that they are only eating slightly more than 2500 calories a day. And that just ain’t gonna cut it.
Here a few quick muscle building nutrition tips that will help you get down more calories, easily and quickly:
Eat foods that digest rapidly and cause very little gas or bloating. In other words limit your intake of vegetables and other fibrous foods for a short time while in a mass gain phase.
Eat a lot of white rice and other high glycemic index carbs. You know how you are hungry an hour after eating Chinese food? That’s from the white rice. And that’s a good thing when you are trying to eat more. White rice is absorbed rapidly and actually makes you hungry. So load up on it often.
Have a tablespoon or two of olive oil at every meal. A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. If you have ten per day you quickly add an extra 1200 calories to your diet. Start slowly with a teaspoon per meal and work your way up.
Alternate solid food meals with shakes. It’s impossible and impractical to sit down and eat real food six times per day. So have a solid food meal and then a few hours later have a shake. Repeat this process throughout the day until you have had at least three solid meals and 2-3 shakes.
Always carry raw, organic nuts with you. These are calorie dense, easy to consume rapidly and usually digest without issue.
My Diet Secrets
One of the questions I get asked most is about plant based nutrition. These days, pretty much everyone has heard about the dangers associated with eating too much meat and dairy. But most people are confused about how to get jacked while eliminating these dangerous and fattening foods from their diets. To help eliminate some of the confusion I am going to share my personal diet with you today.
Breakfast. I always start with a shake. This consists of hemp, rice or pea protein or some combination of the three. I mix 40 grams of protein in 8oz of organic coconut milk and 8-12 oz water with frozen berries, a banana, a tbsp of cacao nibs, and 3 tbsp of maca powder, which is tremendous for virility and testosterone production. This tastes absolutely incredible.
Snack. Usually a few tangerines and some pistachios/cashews or two apples with almond butter. Fresh ground almond butter from Whole Foods is one my favorite things and I could easily eat an entire container in one sitting.
Lunch. Usually some kind of beans and organic brown rice or quinoa. I sauté black beans with peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic and mix that in with the rice. I top it with salsa and some fresh avocado. That is my Mexican style rice and beans. Sometimes I just mix the beans and rice or quinoa with marinara sauce. I always cook enough for two days.
I will sometimes have a salad with that or eat some raw veggies or mix some spinach into the whole thing.
Occasionally I will have a couple almond butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I avoid wheat so I get some brown rice bread for the times I eat these.
Snack. Similar to above. When I’m not near food I always carry Raw Organic Food Bars with me and a variety of nuts. If I am home and have had fruit for my first snack I try to make this snack raw veggies and hummus.
Somewhere along the line I also drink another shake. This is usually after my workout. It is similar to the shake above except that I don’t include the coconut milk or the cacao but I do use the maca powder. I blend a banana, almond milk, water, frozen spinach (you don’t taste the spinach at all so this is nowhere near as gross as it sounds) with Vega and some extra protein.
Dinner. Usually some kind of stew consisting of a wide variety of vegetables and some kind of legumes. For example, the other day I got home and all that we had was brocollini, squash, onions, spinach and garlic. I threw it all in a pot with vegetable broth, salt, pepper and yellow peas, which have 10 grams of protein per ¼ cup. I let that cook for 2 hours and then mixed in some quinoa. It was delicious. Other times we’ll mix brown rice in with a variety of other veggies and lentils. If I was trying to get lean I would skip the brown rice.
I also eat soy and wheat free veggie burgers a few nights per week and always have a huge spinach salad mixed with peppers, tomatoes, olives, onions, apples, pecans or walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, avocado, broccoli, carrots, and whatever else is around. I top that with olive oil and vinegar. Read more
