Nutrition Space

Can grapefruit help fat burning?

" I see some diets recommending having grapefruit at breakfast to help with fat burning. Can grapefruit help with fat loss? how so?"

Ah yes, the Grapefruit Diet. Before I waste too much of your time the first thing you need to know is that the principles of this diet are to eat around 800 calories and have half a grapefruilt or 8 ounces of grapefruit juice with every meal. "They" recommend to do this diet for 12 days. Hmm, sounds like a fad to me.

Now it doesn't take a degree in nutrition to know that if you eat 800 calories you will lose weight, grapefruit or not.

"They" reckon that the enzymes in grapefruit stimulate fat burning. This diet has been around since the 1930's and has been named the Hollywood Diet, The Mayo Clinic Diet and The Scarsdale Diet. I'm sure there must be other names, but they all mean the same thing, starve yourself and have a grapefruit or 2.

A study published in 2006, found that over a 12 week period subjects taking fresh grapefruit lost 1.6kg, the grapefruit juice group lost 1.5kg and the grapefruit capsule group lost 1.1kg. The placebo group lost 0.3kg. But before you all go and rush out for grapefruit by the bundle, the conclusion states "Although the mechanism of this weight loss is unknown it would appear reasonable to include grapefruit in a weight reduction diet". Yes, that's right folks, they did not attribute the weight loss to the grapefruit. The purpose of this study was in fact to test grapefruits effects on insulin resistance.

If I lost only 1.6kg in 12 weeks on a clinically controlled diet (if it was in fact controlled), I'd want my money back.

But back to the main point...the actual grapefruit diet is only 800 calories. If you eat your normal food and expect the addition of grapefruit to be a miracle fat melter, then you will be disappointed.

Grapefruit has been shown to improve cholesterol and serum triglycerides, but one study reports that "The addition of fresh red grapefruit to generally accepted diets could be beneficial for hyperlipidemic, especially hypertriglyceridemic, patients suffering from coronary atherosclerosis"

Do you actually have coronary atherosclerosis? Whether you do or not, this study still doesn't prove grapefruit will burn your fat for you.

This diet works similarly to the Lemon Detox Diet. Starve yourself, lose weight through water, muscle, a bit of fat and a few toxins and then when you can't sustain it anymore put the weight back on.

Eat grapefruit, it's good for you (like all fruit and veg), but if you want to "burn" fat, you require oxygen to do so...and that means get puffing. If you don't want to put back on the fat you have just burnt, then don't overeat. And finally, if you don't want to screw up your metabolism to make it harder to burn this fat then don't eat refined junk.

The Effects of Grapefruit on Weight and Insulin Resistance: Relationship to the Metabolic Syndrome. Ken Fujioka, Frank Greenway, Judy Sheard, Yu Ying. Journal of Medicinal Food. Spring 2006, 9(1): 49-54. doi:10.1089/jmf.2006.9.49.

Red Grapefruit Positively Influences Serum Triglyceride Level in Patients Suffering from Coronary Atherosclerosis: Studies in Vitro and in Humans J. Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54 (5), pp 1887-1892 DOI: 10.1021/jf058171g

Stacey
7 Oct 10

Salicylate Allergy and Sensitivity Explained

Lisa has been struggling with unexplained allergies (Read Lisa's Bodybuliding Poisoning Me article) for some time now. Now, we're not saying it's salicylates, but this week's article explains what a salicylate sensitivity is.

Unexplained sinus problems, hives, eczema, stomach pains, mouth ulcers, swelling in face hands or feet, headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath. Tests, scans, medication, more tests, more scans, more medication and no relief. It's a scenario that some people experience on a daily basis.

Salicylates (Sal-iss-a-lates) are present in varying levels in most of the foods we eat, they're not additives and they are a necessary part of that foods life. Salicylates are hormones found in plants and have a chemical structure similar to aspirin. They act as a ‘protector' to foods to ward off pathogens. Salicylates are mostly found under the skins of food.

Salicylates have the potential to build up in the body faster than it can break them down and may cause problems for those susceptible to sensitivity.

A hypothetical scenario could play out like this: One day you're enjoying a punnet of strawberries (high in salicylates) but as the days go by you may end up with a persistent headache which you treat with aspirin and still continuing to eat strawberries, and perhaps a few tomatoes...you keep treating your headache with aspirin and a month later you end up with what looks like ‘an allergy to something' chronic sinus and perhaps a rash.

Salicylates are also found in other products. They're commonly found in acne medication as salicylic acid, they can also produce a ‘minty' flavour and are used in mints and mint flavoured products and may be referred to as oil of wintergreen. Salicylates are in virtually everything; deodorants, sports rubs, air fresheners, washing powder...the list goes on. Methyl Salicylate toxicity was found in a cross country runner in 2007 who was suspected to have overused a particular topical muscle relief product.

Where to from here? The first step is to assess whether you strongly believe salicylates are the cause of your symptoms.

•· Keep a diary which details every food eaten, medication taken and product used and list any symptoms, severity of symptom and time of day the symptoms occur.

•· Be attentive to your symptoms, sinus in pollen season may just be a pollen sensitivity and it will be hard to assess salicylate sensitivity during this time.

•· Start making a list of foods which you strongly believe are making you sick and then avoid eating them. You have to avoid them to help work out other foods which may be adding to the problem.

•· Assess the level of additives in your diet. Additives (such as preservatives, colourings, flavour enhancers, nitrates, amines, artificial sweeteners etc) can also produce headaches, sinus and other problems.

Before claiming a salicylate sensitivity try eliminating all processed foods for at least a week to see if your symptoms clear. This type of diet would include fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, yoghurt and grains (oats, barley, millet, wheat, rice, corn), tea and coffee with no sugar or artificial sweeteners. Bread contains preservatives and should be left out when attempting a natural diet.

If you still experience mucus or stomach issues, you may have to cut dairy and grains also during this period. Yep that means a diet of veges, fruits, eggs and meat (organic and free range if possible)

If you have done all these things and a natural unprocessed diet is still causing symptoms then it's time to talk to your Nutritionist about a salicylate elimination diet. There are no tests for salicylate sensitivity per se.

Your nutritionist should also be able to provide you with yummy meals you can make from your limited foods list and teach you how to effectively identify problem foods.

Some foods which are low in salicylates may still cause a reaction in people either due to build up in the body or to excessive sensitivity.

This is a list of some of the common foods which can produce a sensitivity.

Aspirin and products containing aspirin or salicylic acid
| Almonds | Apples | Apricots

Berries (all)

Grapes & raisins | Nectarines | Oranges

Paprika | Peaches | Peppers (bell & chili) | Plums |prunes

Tangerines | Tea | Tomatoes

Wine & wine vinegar (grapes) | Oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate)

Rose hips or acerola (often found in vitamins) | Food colorings, preservatives, etc.

The complete list of foods and products is much larger than this.

Stacey, 1 Oct 10

Soy and Whey Protein have same nutrition benefits?

Will I get the same benefits from the soy protein powder as the whey product?

Provided you are eating a balanced diet including other protein sources, yes you will experience the same overall benefits. One to one though, Whey does have some benefits that other protein sources don't, but similarly soy has benefits that whey doesn't.

Protein, as most of us know is made up of amino acids. Each protein food will have a different composition of amino acids. Complete proteins have all the amino acids and incomplete proteins have some. There are 9 essential amino acids, required through diet and 13 non-essential amino acids that the body can produce. A daily diet that contains all amino acids is considered balanced in protein, regardless of just one meal or food being incomplete.

To create a complete protein things like rice & beans can be combined...not a meat, whey or soy in sight!

Whey Protein contains all the essential and branched chain amino acids, and can be either powder, concentrate or isolate. Isolate has the highest percentage of protein and lowest percentage of lactose and milk fat. Many whey proteins are fortified with the missing amino acids.

Soy protein is a complete protein (essential and non-essential) also with high level of BCAA's. Similarly there is concentrate and isolate, isolate having the highest percentage of protein.

Whey is higher in BCAA's (Leucine is the one BCAA that is almost the same in both soy and whey).

However soy is higher in glutamine and arginine, which are 2 important amino acids involved in muscle growth and nutrient transport.

Soy contains phytoestrogens that exhibit estrogen like effects in the body, to women this can either be a good thing for hormones and weight maintenance or not so good - soy seems to affect each person differently. Refer to this earlier post for more information on the soy debate

http://www.gofigure.co.nz/doc/content/view/938/38/

In the last question we touched on the Biological Value of a protein. The BV is a measure of the efficiency of protein utilization by the body. Whey protein has a BV of 104 and Soy protein has a BV of 74. Egg=100, uncooked beef=80. Although it has a lower BV, your soy protein is supplemental to your diet (ideally), so other proteins will fill in the gaps. Don't forget you also get proteins from most foods, including the training staples - rice, oats & broccoli.

The Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) assesses the digestibility of a protein, both whey and soy protein have a PDCAAS score of 1.00.

In a nutshell, Whey does come out better on most criteria. But this does not mean you should throw out your soy protein for the sake of an upset stomach. What is important to you specifically, is that your digestive system told you that it didn't like whey. Poor digestion can disrupt nutrient absorption and energy levels - so the benefits you will now receive from a happy tummy will completely outweigh any amino acid score or whey protein marketing guff.

Many of us tend to get hung up about this whole protein shake thing. What we need to realize is that we are not going to waste away a kg of muscle just because we don't do the "post-workout shake" or the "pre-bed protein hit" or the "omg I have to have protein the second my alarm goes off or any movement I make will lose muscle". Your body just doesn't do that. True muscle catabolism occurs through inactivity and actual malnutrition (malnutrition is not just skipping a post workout shake). Slow muscle growth can be a genetic thing, or can be a result of lazy training, type of training, little to no protein, stress, illness or poor sleep and recovery.

So let's not hang all our coats on the protein rack when it comes to muscle growth, there are other factors to be considered.

To be big and strong, we need good protein sources and effective training. The more variety we have in our diets with the less digestive upsets the stronger we will be.

Stacey
19 August 10

What's the difference between gluten free and low gluten?

Question: Can you explain gluten free and low gluten?

NB: This article written by Stacey originally appeared in the Waikato Times, Tempo Supplement as part of the Fortnightly Body Talk column.

Gluten, for those who don’t know is a protein. It is naturally occurring in wheat and produces strong, puffy and elastic bread. You may have noticed that some gluten free baked goods are often crumbly. Some foods will have added gluten, over and above the gluten found in the base ingredients to enhance elasticity, puff and strength.

As well as being part of bread and wheat based goods Gluten can be in things like sauces that are derived from ingredients containing gluten and also cross contamination in processing.

For those who are sensitive this protein is unable to be processed like other proteins and can cause stomach upsets and other symptoms. Those who are completely allergic to gluten (Coeliac’s disease) will experience fairly similar if not stronger symptoms and their immune systems will try to fight the “invader”. The gluten damages the villi (small fingerlike projections in the intestine). The villi absorbs nutrients and when these are damaged nutrients aren’t able to be absorbed as easily.

There is a debate over whether gluten would result in greater health outcomes for all of us, not just those who are sensitive.

Gluten free standards vary per country. Gluten in food is measured in ppm (parts per million). In Australia gluten free is classified as containing no more than 5ppm. In NZ it is 3ppm – but this depends on what lab the food is tested at. The most sensitive labs cannot detect below 3ppm, therefore the statements no detectable gluten are synonymous with whichever detection level is used.

So when we refer to gluten free it is less than 3ppm, and in the case of low gluten, The current FSANZ code clarifies low gluten as no more than 20mg/100g of food, otherwise known as 20ppm. We have one of the tightest gluten regulations in the world.

But knowing the amounts doesn’t help us when we don’t have labs at home to test a product to see if it is low gluten and that’s where the Manufactured Food Database can help www.mfd.co.nz. This website has been compiled by Nutrition Services at Auckland Hospital and has a whole section on gluten free AND low gluten and will certainly have foods that you and your son will enjoy. You can even download the application for mobile devices when you’re on the move.

The absolute best way to stay low gluten is to base the majority of your meals around vegetables, fruit, dairy, nuts, water and leans proteins and include gluten free breads and cereals. Keep sauces and flavourings natural and home-made. Some gluten free breads are better toasted (and in my opinion better toasted, than normal toast!)

Stacey
30 Aug 10

What are the Pros and Cons of a Raw Foods Diet?

I see that you're a supporter of the raw food diet for bodybuilding. Could you explain the benefits of this please.

I'm more of a supporter of healthy eating for all sports rather than being specific about a particular diet for particular sport, but yes I do support the current decision that Rachelle Chase has made to repair her body through a raw food diet. Now, I don't any more about Rachelle's diet than what was seen on Campbell Live, so I can only speculate on what she is eating. The show reported that Rachelle was fatigued and just not feeling right and has put it down to the very high meat diet along with the stimulants and additives in diet drinks, supplements and gum. The story never indicated whether Rachelle was removing supplements from her diet.

But let's look at the raw food diet in general. This diet is based on the idea that raw and living foods provide the body with greater nourishment, the active enzymes in raw food assist in digestion and transportation of nutrients making these areas of metabolism work more effectively. For example, a fresh pineapple contains the enzyme Bromelain which digests proteins. Tinned pineapple on the other hand has been processed which renders this enzyme is inactive. Try it yourself, Gelatine is a protein - try setting fresh pineapple in jelly in one bowl and tinned pineapple in another bowl - which one sets best. You can try this experiment with a range of fruits, kiwifruit contains actinidin another protease (protein digesting enzyme)... but cooked kiwifruit will lose this.

On the flipside, cooking something like meat means the proteins in the meat are denatured, which may make for easier digestion, but the denaturation makes the protein less functional. So there is very much a debate over certain aspects of the diet. And just for your interest, protein is partially digested in the stomach, the rest is digested in the small intestine and absorbed through the small and large intestine.

While some foods give up their nutrients easier after cooking, this doesn't necessarily mean they have retained all nutrients and enzymes. As the saying goes, fresh is best.

The raw food diet contains loads of raw veg and fruits, nuts, seeds, egg yolks, raw fish (sashimi), raw meat (carpaccio), sprouted and unsprouted grains, coconut milk, sprouts, legumes and beans. Some people will following variations of the raw food diet with perhaps 70-80% of the diet coming from raw food.

The raw food diet may lead to deficiencies in Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, B12 and protein if not undertaken with expert advice. But here's an interesting fact 25g of pumpkin seeds contains more iron that 100g of beef and 40% of the protein. Nutritional Yeast is a popular staple of the vegetarian and raw food diets, and contains B Vitamins, however can contain levels of glutamates that some people are sensitive to. Reports have emerged with a fair amount of conclusiveness that most of us aren't getting enough Vitamin D anyway, regardless of the type of diet we eat.

200g of broccoli contains 22% of the calcium and 78% of the protein that milk does. Calcium should be taken in amounts less than 300mg at a time to enable the body to absorb it better.

100g of almonds contains the same amount of protein as 100g of lean beef. The nuts contain a fair fat hit, so balancing the diet amongst all foods is essential.

The protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) is used to assess the digestibility of a protein, and the biological value of a protein tells us how efficiently protein is converted into tissue. What raw foodists are interested in, is the biological value. Whey protein has the highest BV of 104, and beef has a BV of 80, but beef loses some of its BV through cooking. It is reported that raw food has a higher BV, now I cannot confirm, but only speculate that this is what the raw food expert on Campbell live was referring to when she said raw food "has more protein". BV is all dependant on the source of the protein, how the protein is prepared for consumption and other limiting compounds that may be in the food source.

Which brings us to the question of how is Rachelle going to get enough protein to maintain or build her lean mass?

Much of the protein we ingest is catabolised. Theory shows 10g of a 30g protein meal will be utilised for protein synthesis. In athletes this will is likely to be more, but the exact figure of optimal protein is still widely debated. So let's just assume that Rachelle might retain 20g per meal...

200g broccoli, 2 egg yolks and 15 almonds will give us 18g of protein, with 21g of fat and 6g of carbs. A total of 286 calories. The story on Campbell Live focused around Rachelle needing to be a on a low carb, higher fat and protein diet to get ready for her show in October. Of course we wouldn't eat the same meal the whole time, but you can see that if you repeated this for 6 meals you will get around 1700 cals with 120g of protein. One meal like this will give you a whopping 1168mg of potassium, 86mg of magnesium, 172mg of calcium, 114mg Vitamin C. You'll even get nearly a cup of water out of this meal also.

Rachelle should have more energy to train with as her body becomes more nourished and the ability to push heavier weights will ensure she will have no trouble maintaining, if not growing lean mass. Fats and carbohydrates have a protein sparing effect, so between her training, net protein balance and protein sparing nutrients she really should have no trouble at all. But as the raw food lady said, "So long as everything goes according to plan".

Overall, in my opinion, Rachelle really only needed to cut the additives, review her supplements and decrease the meat portions in order to start feeling better, I'm not entirely sure if an entire raw food regime was needed, but it will certainly benefit her in feeling better.

To the rest of us, if we can keep our diets at least 80% wholesome and nutritious, we can still remain healthy while including some of the nasties. To put 80% into perspective. Think of a food diary grid, with let's say, 5 meals per day, 7 days per week. That's 35 meals, 80% of this is 28 meals. It's something else tangible to strive for that doesn't focus on weight loss, but simply health and wellbeing.

Stacey
9 August 10