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Home Runs Redux
May 31, 2006 09:53 PM
Finally a journalist has written a good review of the opinions of experts on the subject of home runs and steroids. Nobody knows. Steroids may help or harm a home run hitter. And if pitchers are using them too, and IF THEY WORK (big qualification), then nobody gains.
Mike Hiltzik has this balanced article in the LA Times Inflated Players...Inflated Numbers quoting several experts on the subject as well as my paper.
My only issue with the article is that the rise in the simple averages on which the argument is based is 1. within the statistical variation and completely insignificant, and 2. home runs per game is an unreliable statistic that does not have any kind of distribution on which one could do statistics; it is bimodal and reflects the number of games played more than home run hitting. Think of it as a series of coin flips: where you stop the sequence has a larger effect on the number of heads per flip than a slight change in the odds. And, need I repeat, there is NO evidence of a change in the odds. He could not have made the argument if it were based on home runs per hit, since that has not really changed. Still the most balanced piece you are likely to find in this heated argument. And, in fairness, he had to quote the most often used and abused statistic to even get the argument off the ground.
LINK · Sports · Comments (1)
Drug Testing and Damaged Careers
Just back from Italy and a great ride in the Dolomite Alps.
John Lott sent me this link to a story in the NYT about players banished from the NFL by their drug testing program. There is a human side to the hysteria about steroids that is too often forgotten in the sports journalist and Congressional hype about protecting records and the sanctity of the sport and all that nonsense.
A good article by John Branch in the NYT Players Banished from N.F.L. Find Refuge in Canada.
I have yet to find any serious thought on the false positive rate of these tests. It may be out there, but I have not found it. Any sources that you can suggest?
LINK · Sports · Comments (1)
Protein and HDL
May 8, 2006 05:12 PM
A question: "Hey Art,
I'm curious about the effect of this diet (the Evolutionary Fitness Diet I am assuming) on your cholesterol levels, particularly your total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and LP(a). I'm asking because of this reference:
Effect of a precompetition bodybuilding diet and training regimen on body composition and blood chemistry. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1998 Sep;38(3):245-52.)
The subject increased his HDL 25 points over 10 weeks when switching to a high protein (~70% of calories) diet (or, did the HDL elevate in response to the 10+ kg weight loss?). I know that the evolutionary fitness way is not to go this high with protein, but I'm wondering if, at the ~35% that you recommend your HDL levels are as high."
If you eat 70% of calories as protein you will fry your kidneys. You will get ammonia poisoning and die if this intake is prolonged. Hunter gatherers and frontier people call this rabbit starvation, because living on rabbit induces ammonia poisoning since rabbit has little fat.
My HDL is 87. What is the subject's HDL? We know only the increase from your statement.
My triglycerides are just 68. My tri/HDL ratio, the best predictor of cardiovascular risk, is only 0.78, pretty much off the scale. LDL is 118, if anyone cares (I don't).
You may be misreading the study if you are reporting a protein intake that high. Or, the body builder is doing something very risky that could only be done briefly in preparation for a contest. My own opinion is that he/she is damaging kidney tissue each time this is done. Believe me, you do not want your kidneys to fail. The kidney is a very complex organ that does much more than simply filter the blood.
I repeat, body builders, marathoners, and athletes in other sports often do stupid, high risk things to themselves. They are not a good model of healthy practice and often do not have good health themselves.
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (10)
Framing the Fat Question
A puzzle from paleogal in this comment:
"If the omega 6s found in high amounts in all seeds and nuts except for macadamias are pro-inflammatory -- how does one eat a "healthy high fat" diet by including large amounts of these nuts? Even Cordain and Rosedale state that eating "too much" of these will create fatty acid imbalances? The other "health fat" is omega 9 -- ie olive oil, macadamia nuts, avocados -- but according to Fallon/Enig -- excess body fat is mainly monosaturated -- so they believe the best fat is saturated ie that found naturally in organic, grassfed meats and in virgin tropical oils. Who is one to believe? -- the trim-meat, "healthy fat" crowd or the saturated fat crowd when attempting a paleo like regime??"
It is a sensible question, but it is framed in such a way that it seems to present a kind of paradox in the form of "if you do A you are doomed and if you do B instead you are doomed."
The real issue is not this one. There are no either-or solutions in human biology. As economists would say "Nature does not use corner solutions." A corner solution is either all of option A or all of option B, when they are the possible choices. An interior solution is some of A and some of B. Nature always uses an interior solution, or in game theoretic terms a mixed strategy. All physical measurements reveal that there are always mixtures of distributions of hormones, fat, nutrients, energy substrates, and so on present. All they are always changing, though less often than they should for optimal health because most people are too routinized in what they do and eat.
So, any issue such as fatty acid profile...
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Jason's Difficulties
May 6, 2006 12:56 PM
Jason has a tough problem. He is clearly insulin resistant and his blood sugars are falling rapidly after he eats. So, he has to eat sugary carbs to bring it back up. Then it crashes. And so on. Stress also makes one insulin resistant, further piling on the carb/insulin rebound cycling. He has got to get his insulin down and then it will be easy. As Simon suggests, he should have more fat (the Rosedale Diet is ideal for him; it is a healthy high fat diet) and nuts.
Here is his story:
"Art,
I had posted earlier on wondering how much to work out because I have a very physical job compared to most people. I also climb once or twice a week, so I feel tired most of the time. As for the diet, I was on it before Katrina hit New Orleans and enjoyed good success. Since then I have not gotten back on it totally. (the last months have been crazy at times for our family) I have been weeding out the bad foods and am set to be back on the path by the second week of May. When I have eaten properly (I have gotten right on some days!) with my current job I have noticed that I feel horrible and I am much more tired than when I eat carbs liberally. I have had a hard time following the diet because of this. I know the carbs are killing me, but I feel so much better throughout the day when I have carbs in my diet. I do not know if this is due to my activitly level or to my body not yet switching to being a fat burner. Would high calorie foods like almonds, pecans, etc. be a good !
choice for me?
Anyways, I look forward to reading anything you post and throughly enjoy your site. Thank you,
Jason."
Jason, another point. You burn what you eat. Right now you are eating and burning sugar and sequestering the excess in fat, which you use only with a fairly severe fasting period after all the sugar is gone from your liver and your muscle. These are small inventories and have to be replentished often. Hence, the frequency of your need for simple or starchy carbs. You can't burn fat unless you eat fat (recall how the enzymes change in response to diet).
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (5)
A Comment from shayla
Women do very well on Evolutionary Fitness, once they find their way through the wilderness of carbs, no carbs, comfort food, and other strange beliefs that they encounter. I mentioned one not long ago who has become an inspiration to her co-workers at the hospital where everyone has a bowl of candy on the desk and they all fight seem to battle with their weight and stress management. And the trainer's wife has gone through her own transformation.
Shayla adds her personal experience in this nice email.
"Art.. My boyfriend helped me get on this diet (or a modified version of it) 2 years ago, though I only started reading your site some 6 months ago. I don't pretedt to be familiar with exactly how this diet or my body works with it, I'm just glad it's been doing the trick for me.
The majority of my family is prone to over-weight, and when I started the diet, at 5"4', 209 lbs, size 22, I was still one of the more petite members of my family. So I've been fighting my genetics as well as my poor habits.
Our household eats a great deal of lean meats and vegetables; my cooking style has changed dramatically. Not only that, our tastes have changed. Foods all taste better, and are more filling. We limit our carb intake carefully, no more than one serving/day. The times that I've eaten more than my share of carbs in a day, I always feel bloated and clumsy for 2, 3 days afterwards. Looking around me at other people, the sodium, fats, and carbs that are consumed! I'm astounded that people's diets have morphed into something so unhealthy.,
At this stage, I'm about 130 - 135, size 3, and still slimming down. I exercise an hour a day, varying the workouts in intensity. My energy level is higher than it's been since i was 18, I've got a far more positive outlook on my life.
Your work, and advice given in this blog, is greatly appreciated. Thank you,
shayla
p.s. When did you say those photos would be posted?"
About the photos. You know I don't do things halfway, so I won't be relying on my grandson to take the pictures. But, I can't seem to find a good sports photographer locally. When I do the pictures will appear. I will be modeling for a local sculptor later and he is looking for one too.
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (3)
A Comment from thebeach
Here is another comment that I want to share with readers. More coming.
I think the personal ways in which readers apply Evolutionary Fitness are helpful and inspiring to us all.
"I'll echo what many have said here, a new De Vany blog is a great start to the day and gets the mind thinking, its great to hear new perspectives, not just on nutrition.
----
My WAY..
I weight train 3-4 times per week, before eating in the morning for 30-40 minutes only, never to exhaustion. Occasional other activities (tennis, volleyball, martial arts). The boon of AM training for me is the time efficiency, within an hour of waking your daily exercise is done, and to think that for years I wouldn’t train before eating something, the fearing muscle breakdown and cortisol response! Oh how times change.
---
Dietary-wise, Im currently strict paleo, low GI, unrefined, no dairy. I find this way of eating very easy, no commitment issues, I love eating these types of foods! 3 meals per day generally, usually a late breakfast ~9:30 to extend the fasting period. I occasionally do a 1 day water only fast, must try to do this twice a month though, its quite easy if I keep busy.
My last meal of the day usually ends up being complete at 9-9:30pm though due to work, so possible GH blunting there I guess.
For the 3 meals, I estimate around 120g protein per day, chicken, salmon, tuna, some red meat too. i'm varying quantities of protein lately. Protein cycling interested me when suggested a few years ago, fasting/variety achieves under another moniker I guess.
Quite high fat maybe another 120g from olive oil, meat, flax seeds, salmon, pecans, almonds, sesame, avocados, very dark chocolate on occasion.
Much veg with each meal, much of it raw(convenience!) carrots, red cabbage, broccoli.
Most carbs come from fruit..Perhaps too much..2 pieces per meal (apples, pears, berries, plums). No grains.
Liquid from water, green tea, black coffee sometimes...can't agree with the Budweiser diet though..the Stella Artois diet I’ll buy into though!
That has been my diet for the last 3 months..prior to that, the same, just with additional some carbs from oats, some whey protein on occasion.
I’ve stopped multi vitamin supplementation recently, though continue with R+ALA, and a herbal anti-inflammation caps(zyfelamed).
----
Health status - great! About 8% body fat, im never ill, though i get occasional acne..not sure if this is a food sensitivity(nightshades?), but i think periodic day fasts or perhaps the lowering/variation of protein intake does help.
As for physical 'progress', I'm very lean (always have been), but am not gaining muscle as id like, im 6' tall ~170lb, 32 years young-ish. More acute dietary variation is required perhaps, more fasting and more food at other times. I'm not yet 100% convinced this is the way to build muscle(low carb), but for health, I'm certain.
When the book is ready, I'll be in line!"
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (2)
Evolving Evolutionary Fitness
May 2, 2006 05:31 PM
Here is a very thoughtful comment from RP. I found it so striking I wanted to share it with you during my absence. There are many other valuable comments that I will put up when I return.
Hi Dr,
Your open call for feedback on your writings and diet
have prompted me to write. I had intended to write
some time ago to tell you of my experiences but life
took over. Enough to make one lived.
Okay, enough. Perhaps it would be of interest to know
where I differ from your diet and exercise regimen and
where I follow it exactly, some of the fine-tuning
done, and how your writings have made a positive
impact on me.
First, I had been reading T-nation for some time to
learn how to gain weight, especially muscle mass, as I
am a tall and lanky fellow (although not so lanky
now…). I had been trying their mass eating diets and
lengthy workouts and felt, frankly, awful. All the
frequent huge meals made me feel ill, gave me bowel
intolerance problems, consumed too much time, and the
long workouts seemed to recurrently trigger an immune
reaction. This was with organic produce and free
range diets and a multi-vitamin and a few other key
supplements, no less. In short, it wasn’t me
following the program wrong, it was the program their
various writers recommended.
I read your T-nation interview with great fascination.
I was familiar with evolutionary theory and had many
times tried going off grains and beans. I had
practiced fasting from trying the Warrior Diet a year
earlier but found daily fasting too stressful although
there was clearly something beneficial to it. I could
see the underpinnings of evolution and saw how every
time I got closer to living in accord with this
understanding I became healthier. But how to apply
that to working out? What was the missing element for
diet?
Your writings pulled together principles – Power Law
distribution – and evolutionary research in diet that
gave me a nice Aha! experience. I could fast, which I
had found to be useful from trying the Warrior Diet,
but do it intermittently instead of constantly. And I
could workout when I felt like it, which is usually
every 2-3 days but sometimes more and sometimes less!
So, to work. 4 months ago I embarked on your program
with a sense of relief and have made some
modifications but the core principles remain the same.
In that time I have gained about 10 pounds of muscle
(after 15+ yrs of being Mr. Hard Gainer), my energy
has increased, my mental clarity has increased, and
it's all so much more relaxed and easy. If this isn't
maximum gain for working out less than an hour a week,
I don't know what is. This IS the Way, there is no
question, and your work has been very illuminating.
In more detail, here is what works for me and where I
am still experimenting.
Diet Differences: I eat more saturated fat, quite a
bit more than you seem to recommend (it’s more a
matter of emphasis, I know). Along with the Weston
Price Foundation I am convinced and have found that
high levels of saturated fat consumption are very
beneficial. My consumption is slightly intermittent
like my food intake: I don’t eat every day high
satfat levels but two days out of four is common. I
see this as similar to the rewards that would have
come from being an adept hunter in times of relative
abundance, the signal I very much want to send my body
(Me strong and quick and smart! Rich food is
plentiful but me must work to get it!)
I drink goat milk. I don’t think this is as
problematic as cow milk. There is also a local dairy
where they may produce water buffalo milk; I will
likely drink that if it is produced. I would also
likely drink A2 milk were I in New Zealand
(www.a2corporation.com). However, I am more uncertain
about even these milks than I am about, say, the
badness of grain and beans or the goodness of bison.
I eat quinoa and amaranth. These are seeds, not
grains, and much like goat milk or A2 milk I am
willing to push a little closer to the evolutionary
present.
I do not drink alcohol. Were I to, it would be cider
or wine, not beer.
I eat fewer vegetables than you do. I do eat them,
just not in such quantity. I think the benefits of
vegetables are slightly oversold and are more
beneficial for people with toxic lifestyles.
I do not grill. I cook in water, mainly. Stews,
meatloaf, that sort of thing.
I do enjoy ice cream occasionally, and high-quality
chocolate.
Otherwise my diet is your recommended diet. Free
range turkey and bison, lamb, occasional fish and very
occasional organ meats; eggs; organic vegetables; very
occasional fruits; a lot of nuts and some seeds; olive
oil.
2 meals some days with a vegetable juice in the
morning. Other days 4 meals. Cycle within the week.
Occasionally, once a month or so I eat lightly for a
whole week.
And it works! Easy to digest, very healing and
nourishing, and great because it's easy and feeds
muscle gain.
Workout Differences and Similarities: I keep it
really short. Time is what I use for duration, not
sets/reps or other criteria. When 10-20 minutes is up
I am done! More than 20 minutes only once every 2-3
weeks for one higher rep workout.
Weight is what I use to drive anabolism and strength,
not sets/reps. I usually end up doing 2-3 sets of 3-8
reps per exercise and about 3-5 exercises per workout.
I do occasional alactic sets by default when I do
one-legged deadlifts and other heavy lifting, such as
when I increase weight and reduce reps for my 3’s.
It’s good to get a feel for the new weight and not try
to crank out 3 or 4 right away. Thus, alactic! And
one-leg deads, or deadlifts in general, you need to
pause and rebalance between reps. Thus, it’s not
concentrating on the alacticity, rather the exercise
makes it so.
I do not work out to failure. Just until I feel
relaxed and yet stimulated.
Exercises: One legged squats and deadlifts, rows,
side press, weighted pushups, reverse grip bench press
and floor press. I’d add in chins but don’t have a
bar.
I workout at home and walk long and often in the
country trails and parks, nearby where I live. Once
in a while I sprint, too.
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (1)
Open Comments
May 1, 2006 09:03 PM
I would like to see how you are doing on Evolutionary Fitness. Are you following the Path? What changes have you seen?
Email me directly or comment through the site.
I am off to Moab to close on my property so I will be gone for the rest of the week.
So, this is a good time to let me and others know how it has gone. It will also help me decide how long I am going to keep posting at this site.
Negative and positive comments are welcome. If they are on either side of the equation, discuss what you are doing so that I can comment on central features. Failure is not possible if you follow The Way.
A lady friend is down from--she won't tell me--to a size 6 and stabilizing. She is 68, like me and all her office workers think she is a Goddess. She is, because she is an honor student of the Strange and Faraway Institute of Goddesses, where I am the chief scientist, trainer, and tester of Goddesses.
LINK · Everything · Comments (15)
Metabolic Typing
I keep getting questions about metabolic typing. It is a complete gimmick as far as I am concerned. The thesis is that if you are a certain metabolic type, then you should eat in a certain way to be healthy and lose weight. A lot of the metabolic typing is done on blood. The theory I have seen advanced is that the original hunter-gatherers of the past were type O blood. And the farmers were type A. There are other variants of this hypothesis (it is not a theory, only a wild hypothesis).
Too bad for the theory, but primates show type O and type A blood and none of them were farmers.
But, there is much more about this nonsense. Your metabolic type depends on what you eat, what you do, your body composition, and your hormone profile. All of these are variable and, thus, so is your metabolic type. Consider:
1. Enzyme counts change as a result of what you eat. A high fat diet increases HSL (hormone sensitive lipase) and a high carb diet increases PDH (pyuvate dehydrogenase), among many other enzymatic adaptations. Thus, you become better at digesting what you eat in response to what you eat. Your so-called metabolic type changes. If you quit drinking milk (you should), you will lose populations of lactase enzyme whose purpose is to degrade the lactose in milk (why would anybody drink this stuff?).
Enzymatic adaptation, by the way, is one of the reasons you should vary what you eat. I do this, as you know, and it helps to maintain at least a small population of the variety of enzymes that one may need. But, it has been so long since I have eaten a starch like pasta that I have a bit of gastric distress when I do. And I do only to be polite is someone has cooked it or if I failed to see that pasta was part of the main dish and I could not fail to eat a bit of it.
2. Your enzymes and, therefore, your "metabolic type" will be a measure of what you eat.
3. Your body composition dramatically affects your hormone profile, another important aspect of your "metabolic type". A male whose body fat is above 13% will have a bit of insulin resistance, which will result in high insulin and leptin. Both these are perhaps the most important hormones of metabolic profile. High insulin is a measure of the onset of the metabolic cascade into Type 2 diabetes because the body becomes resistant above these levels. Same thing with leptin. A female should be no more than 20% body fat. Alter your body composition and your hormone profile changes for the better. So, there is no set hormone component to the bogus "metabolic type".
4. Activity alters a host of hormones and redirects nutrients among body tissues. Brief, but intense, activity drains muscle gyclogen and upregulates insulin sensitivity. Glucose goes to muscle rather than fat. It releases GH, which increases fat burning and muscle building, but it does not raise stress hormones. It increases testosterone. So, hormone profile adapts to activity. If you buy the metabolic profile hypothesis, then you have to add that profile is far from fixed; it is highly adaptable.
So much for the metabolic typing gimmick.
LINK · Evolutionary Fitness · Comments (2)
Bernard Lewis
Don't miss this graceful and authoritative tribute and analysis of the work of the great Orientalist Bernard Lewis by Fouad AjamiA Sage in Christendom.
I have his 2003 book, "The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror". I plan to read it again. On that same topic I have also read Stephen Schwartz' 2002 book, "The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and it Role in Terrorism." Both books are authortatively argued and documented.
It was a fascinating exercise to read both these books with Richard Nisbett's "The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why." Though this book is mostly concerned with Japanese and Chinese thought, the same contextualization of thought appears through out Eastern logic.
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