Let's continue where we left off with a discussion of popular supplements found in the local gym. There's two more supplements of noteworthy application to the fitness enthusiast and athlete that I didn't have the time to address last week.

* Creatine

Some us associate creatine with explosive sports like football or weightlifting. This is because creatine is a component of your body's "high-energy" system, fueling activities that last for a very short 5-20 second period of time. After this very short effort is over, creatine levels are restored in the muscle and another brief, all-out exercise movement can take place. For individuals who need very quick bursts of speed or power, creatine can enhance the effort by providing a few extra seconds of energy, and a slightly enhanced recovery period. This is useful, of course, for all power athletes, as well as weightlifters who want to lift more reps with a slightly heavier weight for more muscle mass gain. For endurance athletes, creatine can increase force application, delay emptying of carbohydrate stores, and decrease recovery time between bike sprints or quick hill efforts. Some water weight gain and muscle cramping has been associated with creatine, but no serious side effects have been observed.

* Endurance Recovery Formula

An endurance recovery formula has a carbohydrate to protein ratio that differs from a "weightlifting" recovery formula. While most weightlifting formulas range from equal amount of carbs and protein, to a slightly higher amount of protein, endurance recovery formulas typically fall into a 3:1 or 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. Research has shown that this ratio results in optimal re-fueling and recovery. Since your body needs the amino acids from protein to repair and rebuild broken muscle fibers and other tissues, protein is a necessity in any endurance recovery formula. The carbohydrates help to restore the muscle glycogen, or stored energy levels. The 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of protein to carbohydrates allows for carbohydrate uptake into muscle tissue to be accompanied by very efficient protein uptake. This combo allows for enhanced response to the previous workout and a better workout the next day.

I could probably discuss supplements until I'm blue in the face, but the most important thing to remember is that not all supplements are for you. Pay attention to the label, ingredients, and indicated applications, and don't assume that just because it's there, you should take it. Most gyms and health clubs carry a supplement that would benefit almost anyone, but the actual supplement differs from person to person. My recommendation is to approach a personal trainer or coach with the supplement you're considering, tell them your goals, and see what they say.

An internet search engine can't always size you up and tell you if something you ingest will be beneficial or harmful, so talking to a "real person" is a good idea. If you have questions about certain supplements that you're currently taking, and if they're right for you, look into a Lean Body Nutritional Analysis from Pacific Elite Fitness. Next week, I'll include another excerpt from my upcoming book: "100 Ways to Increase Your Metabolism"...

Until next time, train smart,

Ben Greenfield

So what the heck is actually in all those colorful bottles and jugs in the nutritional supplement section of your local gym or health club? More importantly, do they actually work? And if they do, are they just for athletes or for people trying to lose mass amounts of weight? To address these questions, let's take a look at a sampling of nutritional supplements from my local gym.

I literally took each bottle off the shelf and inspected the label. Without any further ado, here's the results:

* Fat Burn: Pyruvate

Pyruvate is basically an intermediate compound in your body's carbohydrate burning cycle. This carb burning cycle acts like a wheel that spins at certain rate. The faster the wheel spins, the more carbs you burn. By increasing the amount of available pyruvate, this supplement would speed up the wheel. When combined with a low calorie diet, this can be effective, especially if you have a high carb intake. This supplement would be most useful for individuals trying to speed up their metabolism without feeling the "overdrive" effect of energy supplements and caffeine.

* Fat Burn: Thermogenics

Just as the name implies, thermogenics increase the body's core temperature, while also stimulating release of fat cells for energy and regulating appetite. People who are not overly sensitive to caffeine or other central nervous system stimulants can actually benefit from this boost to the metabolism. Athletes may also find something like this useful as an ergogenic aid to increase awareness and conserve the body's carbohydrate stores by burning more fat.

* Carb Resist Formula - HCA

The primary ingredient in this supplement is hydroxy citric acid. This compound can help reduce carbohydrate conversion to fat and instead cause formation of glycogen, your body's storage carbohydrate. This process actually tricks your brain into thinking that food is present in excess, thereby controlling your appetite. This would be useful for compulsive eaters or individuals attempting to control caloric intake.

* Carb Resist Formula - CCK

CCK stands for "Cholesystokinin", which is a protein used by your body to control appetite. Normally when you eat food, you digestive system release CCK, and this causes your nervous system to send a signal to the brain that you're "full and satisfied". By presenting CCK in the absence of food, this supplement achieves the same result without the calories. Again useful for people who just need to control their appetite.

* Glucosamine-Chondroitin Join Support

Most of us have dealt with joint pain or arthritis-like symptoms at some point, especially with high amounts of exercise. Glucosamine and chondroitin act by attracting water into a joint (which enhances lubrication), forming healthy joint bone tissue and reducing the level of cartilage-destroying compounds in the joint. Many individuals claim a significant amount of reduced joint pain upon supplementing with a combination of glucosamine and chondroitin.

* Children's Multivitamin

In the absence of a proper and complete diet (which defines most typical Western diets), kids often need more than just food in order to develop properly. While you shouldn't use multi-vitamins as a crutch to ignore poor dietary habits, supplying your kids with a complete array of multivitamins and minerals in a tasty chewable form is a good idea.

* Multivitamin for Protein Diet & Multivitamin for Carb Diet

Depending on the type of diet you consume, you will have a higher requirement for certain arrays of enzymes, minerals, and vitamins. For instance, an individual consuming a high protein diet with lots of animal meats will have a lower need for supplements like vitamin B and iron. By categorizing multi-vitamins according to macronutrient intake, these allow you to avoid ingesting excess compounds that you may not need, while still obtaining adequate vitamin levels.

* Antioxidants

Exercise, pollution, and environmental toxins produce free radicals in our bodies, which can contribute to cell membrane and muscle tissue damage, while at the same time inhibiting proper recovery and immune system integrity. An antioxidant formula contains an array of natural compounds designed to "scavenge and destroy" free radicals. Even though fruits and vegetables also contain high amounts of antioxidants, if you exercise regularly or with a large amount of intensity, your recovery would be highly enhanced by including antioxidants in your diet.

* Vitamin C

High doses of vitamin C have been suggested to enhance immune system strength, maximize the immune system response, and decrease levels of free radicals. Especially during cold and flu season, this can be useful. A vitamin C supplement provides a packaged and convenient way to get your vitamin C, which is nice when you just don't have time to reach for the OJ.

* Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA's)

Amino acids are the building blocks for protein formation, which your body especially needs after heavy amounts of a muscle tearing exercise, such as resistance training. Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine are the three amino acids found in most BCAA supplements, and can not only help minimize muscle degradation, but can also delay fatigue. This would be a great compound for athletes and individuals for which a quick recovery from exercise is important. As a bonus for endurance athletes, it can also be a significant source of energy during workouts that exceed 2-3 hours.

* Volumizer

Most supplements of this nature are designed with one goal in mind: build muscle mass. To achieve this effect, this mixture includes creatine for enhancing intensity and duration of muscular contractions, combined with taurine, glutamine, glycine, alanine, betaine, and inositol for muscle building, recovery, energy conservation, and antioxidant activity. A "mass-builder" like this would be most beneficial for a bodybuilder or athlete attempting to increase size as quickly as possible without sacrificing explosiveness, intensity, and recovery capability.

* Protein Tablets and Protein Powder

As a provider of all the necessary amino acids, complete proteins are necessary for recovery and muscle building. And that's not just for individuals trying to "get heavier" or increase muscle mass. Any individual engaging in strenuous cardiovascular exercise or any form of resistance training must consume a complete protein within 30 minutes after exercise to be properly recovered. The reason for this is that the levels of the hormones responsible for protein uptake into muscle tissue are highest during this time, then begin to drop off as you relax. The convenience of protein tablets and protein powder allows this recovery to take place as soon as you're done exercising. Most gyms will sell some type of shaker or mixer to make your shake on the spot, rather than waiting to eat until you drive home.

* Meal Replacement

The primary difference between protein powders and meal replacement drinks is the presence of carbohydrate in the meal replacement drink. While it's true that protein is essential for muscle recovery, carbohydrate is also also essential for recovery, activity, and the assurance of a good workout the next day. I actually recommend a meal replacement drink *over* the consumption of a protein-only drink during the time immediately following exercise. This way, a protein-only drink can be used at a different time of day, when carbohydrate consumption is not as important, and the excess carbohydrates may actually cause weight gain.

* Nitric Oxide

Nitric oxide, or NO for short, causes vasodilation in your blood vessels. This means that the vessel becomes larger, allowing for a greater amount of oxygen flow, energy delivery and glucose uptake. Individuals who would benefit most from this effect would be heavy weightlifters, who need that extra pump of blood for more oxygen during a large lift, and bodybuilders, who need that "venous" look. Many NO supplements also include other muscle mass volumizing compounds like creatine, branched chain amino acids and whey protein. So although they can be more expensive, you may save money in the long term on such a mixture.

* Cell Mass

I mention this compound because it includes a "muscle cell uptake proprietary matrix". All this means is that compounds are included in the supplement that enhance delivery from the gut into the bloodstream or from the bloodstream into the muscle tissue. Since many supplements are not as easily absorbed as their whole food counterparts, the presense of absorption enhancement can be a valuable addition.

While supplements are convenient, nothing replaces a quality diet that includes high amounts of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and lean proteins. If you have questions about certain supplements that you're currently taking, and if they're right for you, look into a Lean Body Nutritional Analysis from Pacific Elite Fitness. Next week, I'll cover more supplements...

Until next time, train smart,

Ben Greenfield

I do not endorse fad diets. I also do not make a practice of recommending health and wellness habits that are not backed by sound scientific studies and data. However, in my constant quest to help my clients and readers achieve optimal health, I'll occasionally stumble upon an amazing diet or fitness tidbit that is so interesting and potentially beneficial that I just can't ignore it. So this week, I'm going to share with you a powerful method to enhance nutrient absorption and decrease toxin and fat levels, while decreasing heartburn, bloating, gas, and other negative reactions to food. I was skeptical at first, but after trying it for a week, I've enjoyed significantly more energy, less post-meal sluggishness, better workouts and even more clarity of thought!

The process begins with an understanding of how the body digests food. Different types of food require different types of digestive enzymes for proper food breakdown. For example, carbohydrate foods require carbohydrate enzymes, whereas protein foods require protein enzymes. While the carbohydrate enzymes will only properly function in a non-acidic, or alkaline, environment, the protein enzymes will only properly function in an acidic environment.

Therefore, it is believed that when you eat a protein food with a carbohydrate food (i.e. steak and potatoes), digestion becomes impaired, since these two compounds cannot fully digest in their competing environments. Without complete digestion, nutrient absorption is incomplete. This incompletely digested food can also sit in the gut and become fodder for bacteria, which can ferment and decompose the food, causing a build-up of toxins and gas in the digestive tract. Furthermore, as nutrient absorption decreases and digestion slows, the metabolism becomes less efficient, and fat and cholesterol become more likely to accumulate.

While such a scenario has not been proved by science, the concept of "Food Combining" may allow you to avoid this potentially fat-gaining, metabolism-slowing, immune-depressing process. If your results are similar to mine, you may find that you have better endurance and stamina, increased focus, leaps in energy, more comfortable digestion, and an improved overall feeling. By following several rules, you can achieve less hindrance to your body's natural digestive process.

Here are the basic rules (think of it as a game...that helped me). There are more details to the rationale behind the rules, but I thought I'd try not to make this too complicated!

1. Don't eat fruit, especially melons, with any other food (including vegetables). They're too acidic, and likely to sit and ferment while slowing digestion of the other foods. So use fruit as a snack, served alone.

2. Don't combine proteins with starchy carbohydrates. They interfere with each other's digestion.

3. Only drink milk by itself, because it requires a unique environment for digestion.

4. Drink only pure water before, during, and after a meal.

5. Do not add accessory fats to proteins (i.e. cooking fish and chicken in excessive butter, or serving with a creamy sauce).

6. Do not consume starch and sugar foods together, like jam on toast or honey on oatmeal.

7. Eat predominantly protein-only or carbohydrate-only meals. For example, breakfast might be an egg omelet with turkey bacon, or a fruit smoothie with a banana.

Sound tricky to accomplish "food combining" without some serious dietary juggling? It is! Here's what I recommend: a 90/10 approach to diet or lifestyle changes. This means that 90% of the time, you make a conscious and intense effort to implement positive changes, and 10% of the time you just let things "flow" and allow yourself to mess up or break the rules. For example, at breakfast you might have a bowl of oatmeal with a slice of whole grain toast, perhaps a raw apple in the mid-morning, a salad with avocados at lunch, and a handful of nuts in the mid-afternoon. Then, for your company potluck, you get your "10%" and load a plate with corn-on-the-cob, cabbage salad, chicken, a roll, and a brownie (whereas food combining would be just the cabbage salad and the chicken). This allows you a mental break from constantly attempting to achieve dietary perfection, and I find that most individuals who follow this rule are far less likely to completely lose control and go on a 2 week binge of sugar, alcohol, processed/packaged foods, and grease.

A final benefit to food combining may be a longer life. It has been suggested that the body has a certain amount of reserves that, if carefully conserved, will allow us to live longer and healthier lives. There have even been studies that observe longer lifespans with lower caloric consumptions! The depletion of these reserves can be occur much quicker if our bodies are constantly overtaxed in the process of food digestion. Like any dietary or health practice, the concept of self-control, avoiding giant smorgasborgs of buffet food and alcohol, and a general decrease of gluttony just seem to make good sense!

Remember, there's no "perfect diet" for everybody. If you want more dietary advice, fitness and lifestyle coaching, or help with achieving your goals, just shoot me an e-mail at elite@pacificfit.net, or call me at 208-883-7705. I can put together custom training and coaching packages that fit your needs - whether you just want a month of online personal training to shrink your thighs, a 20 minute phone consultation on how to run your first marathon, or an expert to come speak about travel nutrition at your club or corporate meeting - you can arrange anything through Pacific Elite Fitness!

Until next time, train and eat smart!

What is the first thing you hear people talk about eating when they mention that they are going on a diet? The thing that comes to my mind is salads. Everyone turns to salads when they want to improve their eating habits but there are two things you should be aware of. First, when you go on a “diet” you do not have to restrict yourself to eating salads in order to lose weight. Second, salads are not always a healthy choice.

Salads are often times thought of as the ultimate diet food because lettuce is made up of mostly water and is good for you in many ways. It is true that salads can be quite healthy, but if you are not careful about what goes on your salads you could be in big trouble.

Take the chicken Caesar salad from Chili’s for example. This dish packs in 1,010 calories and 76 grams of fat. How about the Steakhouse salad at Applebee’s? This one is going to cost you 1,191 calories and 75 grams of fat. Both of these restaurants have much healthier options on the menu if you do a little research. Do not fool yourself into thinking that the healthy options are always salads.

If you have decided that you are really fond of salads and they are your healthy meal of choice, keep these tips in mind when preparing or ordering one for yourself.

Choose spinach:

When choosing the base for your salad, keep in mind that the darker the leaves the healthier they are for you. Spinach contains nine-times the amount of Vitamin K as iceberg lettuce.

Add color:

Brightly colored fruits and vegetables give you the most nutrients and the best salads contain a wide variety. Try adding artichoke hearts, beets, corn, red and green peppers, and tomatoes.

Pack in protein:

Make your goal at least 25 grams of protein because this will help keep you full longer. Ideas for adding protein include whole eggs (7 grams), cottage cheese (7 grams in ¼ cup), chopped chicken (11 grams in 1/3 cup), or tuna (23 grams in 3 ounces).

Avoid creamy dressings:

Creamy salad dressings contain the most fat and calories. Look for dressings marked low-calorie and/or low-fat such as those that are vinegar based. If you do choose a creamy dressing, ask for it on the side. You will be more likely to eat less of it this way.

Salad bar traps:

There are several items at a salad bar that contain few nutrients and many calories. They include bacon bits, fried chow mien noodles, and croutons, just to name a few. Forgo these items when possible.

Remember, if you are trying to lose weight you do not have to stick solely to salads. You can usually find other items on the menu that are just as healthy.

We have a complex relationship with bacteria in our world. Bacteria is present in our intestinal tract, skin, urinary tract and women’s vaginas.

Too much bacteria can make us ill and too little can also make us more vulnerable to illness and effect our bodies natural processes.

It is key to a healthy life to maintain the balance of good bacteria in the body.

What are Probiotics?

Probiotics are "good" bacteria, or microorganisms, taken as a supplement to replenish the good bacteria in your body so you maintain overall good health.

Probiotics can aid in restoring the balance of "good" bacteria in the body. They can also promote health by suppressing the growth of potentially harmful bacteria.

Other benefits include:
Improving the immune system
Enhancing the protective barrier on the digestive tract
Aiding in overall digestion
Maintains health, users experience less illness and disease
Helping to produce vitamin K *

*Vitamin K (also known as phylloquinone) forms part of your daily diet, and plays a certain role in maintaining your health, vitality and wellbeing)

Why would I need to Take Probiotics?

You may need to take probiotics if ANY of these apply to you:
- You’ve taken antibiotics

Antibiotics are great at killing germs BUT they cannot distinguish between bad bacteria and good bacteria, like those in probiotics.

Taking antibiotics may kill the bad bacteria but it often kills off good bacteria leaving the natural balance of bacteria in the body damaged.

Antibiotics have been indicated in causing yeast infections, jock itch, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and urinary tract infections.

Taking probiotics during antibiotic treatment may maintain healthy balance in these areas of our body by replacing "good" bacteria.

OR

- You Suffer From:

Diarrhea
Canker Sores
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Urinary Tract Infection
Constipation
Lactose Intolerance
Vaginal Yeast Infections
Crohn’s Disease
Ulcerative Colitis
Side Effects from Radiation
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth
Jock Itch
Allergies or Hayfever
Hypertension
Kidney stones
Small Bowel Bacterial Overgrowth
Elevated Blood Cholesterol

Are Probiotics Safe?

Probiotics are considered supplements. They are simply intended to restore the balance of bacteria that already exists in the body naturally.

How Do I Find a Good Probiotic?

All probiotics are not created equal. Probiotics must be made with precision and care.

I would not recommend taking a pill form of probiotics.

Also, beware of "bargain" probiotics. It may be as effective as a glass of fruit juice.

Many companies advertise "25 Billion active bacteria per capsule or serving". While you do want to have a good amount of active bacteria few companies spend the time and research to include the PROPER good bacteria that will achieve the desired healthy effects.

Here is a Great Probiotic I found:

My favorite probiotic is Probiotica by SCD It is the best I have found and is created with great care here in the USA.

They also offer Xtra-EM (EM stands for effective microorganisms), which provides antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids and immune system booster that together maximizes the self-healing power of the body. I recommend taking both of these together.

How Long Do I Take Probiotics?

While you can take probiotics to aid in solving a specific problem, such as diarrhea or constipation, taking probiotics is most beneficial when used daily as part of your dietary routine.

People who take probiotics regularly enjoy less illness and fewer pains and infections due to the overall boosted health created from probiotics.

While almost everyone can benefit from probiotics there are those that really need to restore the good bacteria in their system. If you feel you are in need or can benefit from probiotics, ORDER SOME TODAY and give your body what it needs to function and feel its best!