Not Balanced Diet On Your Weight Loss Jumps

Not Balanced Diet, On Your Weight Loss Jumps 

IF you are one of the women who had followed a weight loss diet program? Apparently, many cases show, the lady who runs the diet actually gain weight.

Post-diet weight gain occurs in nearly one third of women. This can occur due to errors in diet. Women who diet and unbalanced diet can make the body more than the previous 10 percent fat. The survey in the UK found that one in three women start dieting in the age range 15 to 20 years, as reported by FoxNews.

The most common mistake is that the scheme is too strict diet. This can affect your bodys metabolism. Improper diets can cause an imbalance in the body. Suppose you cut too much fat in the daily diet. This can lead to a surplus of carbohydrates that can not be burned by the body to make fat cells of your body is experiencing shock. Stacking carbs would be stored as fat in your body that cause failure diet.

Portions and balance diet is the key factor that must be considered. Too many foods that you think is healthy, but not balanced will also be bad for your health.

Confirmed All Wheys Not Just Hydro Whey Boost Glucose Uptake And Liver Muscle Glycogen Supercompensation Plus How Could Taurine Be Involved in This Benefits

Do it or dont? If the question is about consuming whey protein, the answer is clear: Do it! Use whey!

As a diligent student of the SuppVersity you will remember my previous article "The Glucose Repartioning Effects of Isoleucine: Falsely Underappreciated BCAA and Its Dipeptides Maximize GLUT-4 Expression and Ramp Up Muscular Glucose Uptake" (read more). If you dont let me briefly bring you up to speed in back in February, I told you about the beneficial effects of a class of isoleucine peptides in whey protein hydrosylate [as the study at hand goes to show you, this is important, see bottom line] on glucose transporter (GLUT-4) expression and thus glucose uptake in skeletal muscle.

Today I am pleased to be able to continue and expand on this discussion based on the results of the latest study from the same group of researchers from Sao Paulo, Brazil (Morato. 2013).

Whey, an anti-diabetic glycogen supercompensation tool

As Morato et al. point out, their own study is by no means the only one that supports the very special insulin sensitizing activity of whey proteins. In fact, whey is already touted as potential anti-diabetic. If the medical orthodoxy or rather its "legislative" arm was not trapped by its own dogmas WPH [whey protein hydrolysate] would already be a central part of the dietary recommendation for type II diabetics. With the current study being the first to show that a whey protein based diet will lead to chronically increased GLUT-4 expression and thus help to lower blood glucose and improve glycogen storage, the study at hand is albeit similarly interesting for the average musclehead and his obese type II diabetic neighbor.

Figure 1: Effects of casein, whey and whey hydro(lysate) diets on GLUT-4 expression, baseline insulin, liver glycogen and muscle glycogen levels (g/100g tissue; Moreto. 2013)

Apropos obese neighbor. You should go and convince him to go to the gym with you. After all, the rodent data in figure 1 clearly shows that WPH leads its trumps only when it is combined with training - in this case treadmill running for 60 minutes at 15 m/min (the exercise took place 16 h before the sacrifice; so the increases are not in response to the exercise! they are just amplified by chronic endurance during).

Suggested read: "The Overlooked Glucose Repartioning Effects of Isoleucine" (read more)

While exercise alone is well known to boost GLUT-4 expression and subsequent glucose uptake significantly (Christ-Roberts. 2004; Kuo. 2004; note. GLUT-4 activity correlates with the degree of muscular clycogen depletion, so no "5 min rest, 2 sets all out and go home workouts!"), the addition of a whey protein hydrosylate with a pre-hydrolysation level of 12.5% (think of it as being enzymatically "pre-digested) as the sole protein component of the baseline diet (15% protein total, 7% fat from vegetable oil, 68% carbs from sugar and corn starches) of the 48 male Wistar rats in the experiment at hand did turn the +100% increase from exercise alone into a  +160% increase.

I have to admit, the increased GLUT-4 uptake per se may not be news, but this is in fact the first chronic feeding study where it was observed in conjunction with higher glycogen levels - ca. 90%, 70% and a whopping 400% in the heart, the musclulature and the liver in the sedentary state for both WPH and regular whey protein. Thats certainly impressive, but you got to remember that this is a result of combining whey with a high carbohydrate diet (69% of the diet vs. 7% fat) which provides the necessary readily available substrate for optimal glycogen super-saturation (=packing in more glycogen than you usually could).

You will and can very well live with the insulin spike!

Though it may not look like it in figure 1, you got to be aware that the values were not taken right after the ingestion of a meal, let alone a protein shake. In other words, it is almost certain that the whey protein groups will have had higher insulin levels immediately after a meal (note: Casein is still way more insulinogenic than meat or eggs).

Ive gone into quite some detail on why insulin spikes (in the presence of glucose) are not a problem, but rather a vital necessity in a previous post (read it)

"One of the primary means to increase the concentration of GLUT-4 in the plasma membrane is through insulin-regulated trafficking (Zorzano. 2005). However, in the present experiment, no increase was noted in serum insulin levels in the groups consuming WPH.

The experimental design of the study focused on the moment of greatest mobilization of glucose transporter-4, and the animals were sacrificed 2 h after consuming the meal; this was too long an interval to observe the maximum plasma insulin response." (Morato. 2013)

It is thus a given that the  GLUT-4 translocation was at least supported by profound and temporary (at least in the presence of an adequate carbohydrate intake, their temporary nature is what makes the whey induced insulin spikes physiologic and beneficial vs. pathological and detrimental as chronic elevations would be; learn more). According to Morato et al. this is however not the only way the ingestion of whey affected the translocation of GLUT-4 (upstream) and the subsequent uptake of glucose into the muscle and liver (downstream):

Translocation of GLUT-4 to the PM [plasma membrane] can also be stimulated in an insulinindependent manner. Carneiro et al. (2009) accomplished this through taurine activation of the insulin pathway, thus raising the GLUT-4 concentration in the plasma membrane independent of insulin. However, the molecular mechanism behind this effect has still not been elucidated (Carneiro. 2009).

There is actually evidence that would suggest that whey protein hydrolysate is not simply not superior, but actually inferior to regular whey proteins when it comes to improvements in body composition in athletes (read more)

In the exercised animals of the WP and WPH groups, the plasma concentrations of taurine (Table 1) were greater (p,0.05) than those in the control group consuming CAS. This could explain, at least in part, the greater translocation of GLUT-4 in the WP and WPH groups.

After investigating the amino acid composition of the WP and WPH, it was found they were rich in sulfur amino acids (Table 2), and methionine and cysteine are endogenous precursors of taurine. Thus, the consumption of WP or WPH provided a greater amount of substrate for the endogenous production of taurine than casein, and the presence of this amino acid may have facilitated activation of the insulin pathway and cell capture of glucose, as indicated in the literature." (Morato. 2013; my emphases)

Thats quite a surprising insight, isnt it? I mean, as a SuppVersity reader you have long known about the anti-diabetic prowess of taurine, but who would have suspected that it could be #3 alongside the active isoleucine dipeptides and the insulin release among the mechanisms behind the profound beneficial effects whey has on glucose? I mean, there is basically no taurine in whey.

---

SuppVersity readers have known for years, that whey is far superior to an amino acid (AA) mixture with the same AA make-up (read more)

Bottom line: Yep, this is support that you better never run out of whey protein for both, health and performance reasons. Personally, I am yet most fascinated by the potential involvement of endogenous (=your bodys own) taurine synthesis. That s certainly going to be a topic in Sundays 2nd installment on supplements to improve and maintain insulin sensitivity (read part I on lifestlye modifications here).

Pratically speaking the most important and eventually less surprising message of the study at hand is however that it does not necessarily have to be whey protein hydrolysate. The regular whey protein did an outstanding job, as well, and the "real-world" = visible / noticeable differences are propably non-significant.

In this context, some of you may also remember the results from another recently published study by Lollo et al. (read it) which did in fact suggest that the muscle building and body recompositioning effects of whey hydrolysate are inferior and not superior to those of regular whey.

References:

• Carneiro EM, Latorraca MQ, Araujo E, Beltra M, Oliveras MJ, et al. Taurine supplementation modulates glucose homeostasis and islet function. J Nutr Biochem. 2009; 20: 503–511.
• Christ-Roberts CY, Mandarino LJ. Glycogen synthase: key effect of exercise on insulin action. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2004; 32: 90–94.
• Kuo CH, Hwang H, Lee MC, Castle AL, Ivy JL. Role of insulin on exercise-induced GLUT-4 protein expression and glycogen supercompensation in rat skeletal muscle. J Appl Physiol.  2004; 96: 621–627.
• Morato PN, Lollo PC, Moura CS, Batista TM, Carneiro EM, Amaya-Farfan J. A dipeptide and an amino acid present in whey protein hydrolysate increase translocation of GLUT-4 to the plasma membrane in Wistar rats. Food Chem. 2013 Aug 15;139(1-4):853-9.
• Zorzano A, Palacín M,Gumá A. Mechanisms regulating GLUT 4 glucose transporter expression and glucose transport in skeletal muscle. Acta Physiol Scand. 2006. 183: 43–58.

Obesity Negates Glucose Sensitizing Effects of Resistance Training Lifting Works Only For Normal Weight Women

The results of the study at hand clearly suggest: There is no single ideal type of exercise; plus: Whats optimal may change when your health / physique changes

"You got to exercise!" When the average overweight patient hears these words coming out of the mouth of his doctor, the type of exercise he usually will be thinking about is "classic" steady state cardio training on a treadmill, elliptical, stairmaster, or ergometer.

Its the textbook approach and still the predominant form of exercise in most of the pertinent studies on nutrition + exercise interventions that are designed to help overweight / obese individuals shed weight and improve their health.

Among the (usually) non-obese and rarely insulin resistant members of the health and fitness community this type of "cardio training" (LISS) has however gotten quite a bad rep as of late.

More and more trainers suggest that it may bet better to lift weights and do the occasional HIIT sessions for everyone - irrespective of your body weight, health and training status. If we put some faith into the results of a recently published study from the University of Massachusetts this could eventually turn out to be another unwarranted over-generalization that disregards the very specific needs of lean vs. obese and insulin sensitive vs. insulin resistant individuals. 

Dont forget you are "evolving": Your journey from fat to fit will not simply change the way you look and feel, it will also have a direct impact on the optimal workout and nutrition regimen for you. Consider it your personal "evolution" that may well start out with a no-carb + endurance approach and "evolve" into a medium-to-high-carb + resistance training approach over the years.

Much contrary to the idea that there must be a perfect way to exercise, Steven K. Malin and his colleagues started out with the hypothesis that

"[...] excess body fat would attenuate the improvement in insulin sensitivity and reduction in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion after acute and chronic resistance exercise" (Malin. 2013)

In other words: The same type of exercise that may be highly beneficial for a lean / normal-weight individual could be absolutely ineffective for his overweight neighbor; and if that were the case, this would at least partly explain why some of the studies in obese individuals suggest that regular strength training would not be a match for the arduous light intensity steady stead training (LISS) approach to fitness.

Despite the fact that the corresponding control group on a LISS regimen was missing in the study at hand, the results Malin et al. present in their soon-to-be-published paper would in fact support just that: As long as you are still fat, weight training may be a good way to maintain lean body mass, but not the appropriate form of exercise to get your blood sugar problems and other health issues under control.

Body fat and pumping iron dont groove

The subjects of the Malins study were 26 young women (21.2±0.7 years) who ere randomized to either a control or intervention group.

Potential explanation of the phenomenon: In the obese the increase in free fatty acids due to the "stressing" (=sympathetic nervous system activity) effects of weight lifting may impair / reverse the exercise induced increase in glucose uptake.

Weights dont work for HDL, either! The beneficial effects of resistance training on HDL are blunted by obesity, too (Nicklas. 1997; study in men).

While the women in the control group had to do nothing but be their lazy sedentary selves, the (un?)lucky girls in the intervention group performed a classic progressive resistance training (PRT) with the following characteristics:

• fully supervised exercise sessions 
• 3 days/week for 7 weeks
• workout duration ~60 min/session 
• intensity 60 % 1-RM
• 3 set of 8-12 repetitions
• 90-120s rest between sets
• 5-10 min of stretching before + after

Otherwise the women in the strength training arm of the study were instructed to maintain habitual physical activity and diet habits throughout the study...

... with one exception, though: On the day before the metabolic testing sessions, they were yet advised to consume a standardized mixedmeal diet with 55% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 15% protein.

Figure 1: Changes in glucose metabolism in response to exercise intervention (Malin. 2013)

With the standardized diets, it was thus not possible that the results in figure 1 (no improvement in insulin sensitivity in the obese women with a mean body fat percentage of 48.2%) were corrupted by crazy candy feasts on the day before.

Could "cardio" really be more than just a necessary evil on your way to a physique like this? (learn more)

So is it weight loss before weights, then? While it is true that there are no direct beneficial effects of resistance training on insulin sensitivity in the obese, you would be ill advised to skip it all together.

Lets assume you can train four times a week. In that case you could progress from a 3:1 to a 1:3 endurance-to-resistance-training-ratio as you journey from obese to normal weight and insulin resistant to "normal" (you can also use a 2:1 LISS : HIIT ratio, but keep in mind that HIIT hits the sympathetic CNS, as well).

It is also possible to combine both, cardio and weights - specifically if you belong to the group of trainees who lack minimal strength (you cant do 10 push ups) and endurance (you cannot jog casually for at least 15min).

References: 

• Malin SK, Hinnerichs KR, Echtenkamp BG, Evetovich TK, Engebretsen BJ. Effect of adiposity on insulin action after acute and chronic resistance exercise in non-diabetic women. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Sep 27.
• Nicklas BJ, Katzel LI, Busby-Whitehead J, Goldberg AP. Increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with endurance exercise training are blunted in obese compared with lean men. Metabolism. 1997 May;46(5):556-61.

Calorie Shifting 45 Beats Calorie Reduction 55 Four Meals Spaced 4h Apart Induce Greater Hunger ! Body Weight Reduction Than More Restrictive Regular Dieting

4x4 are those the optimal numbers?

Alright, if you have 500,000kcal worth of fat to lose, youd sure as hell lose it faster if youre running a kcal deficit of 55% vs. 45%, right? Yeah, I know. As a SuppVersity reader youre smart enough to question the validity of this simple mathematical question and I have to admit that this is in fact one of the major weaknesses of the study at hand. However, lets postpone the criticism to the conclusion and simply assume it would be obvious that someone cutting back by 55% would lose more fat or at least more body weight than someone who consumes only 45% less calories.

Lets further assume this "someone" was an obese and overweight (BMI ≥ 25), nonsmoking adult (age 26-50 years) woman who has been selected from two clinics related to Weight Loss and Weight Gain Unit, Shohaday Tajrish Hospital and Private Clinic in Esfahan between April 2010 and September 2012.

You can learn more about meal frequency at the SuppVersity

Grazin Bad For the Obese!

Breakfast Keeps You Lean?!

Frequent Protein Consumption

Myth: Few Meals More Bodyfat

8 Meals = Stable, But High Insulin

Int. Fasting & Exercise

Now, if you took 74 of these women and randomly allocated them to either the 45% or the 55% arm of the study, you would expect to see a weight loss advantage for the latter, right? Right.

But what if there was another twist to the study? A twist that says: "Eat 4 times per day for eleven days and make sure you leave at least 4h of time to digest between those four meals. Then, eat regular for three days and repeat!" Ha? What would happen?

Figure 1: Relative weight and fat loss after 12 weeks of dieting and after 4 week follow up (Davoodi. 2014)

Surprised? Well honestly, I would not have expected to see a difference like the one in Figure 1, either. Eventually, the study at hand which was conducted to test whether you can tackle some or all of the following downsides of classic weight loss interventions, i.e. non-adherence due to being  hungry, metabolic shutdown reduced physical activity, by nutrient timing provides more compelling evidence to a truth some people in the health and fitness industry have been propagating for decades: Timing matters!

Figure 2: Reduced hunger and no drop in resting metabolic rate - still asking for the reasons?

It matters not only because the subjects in the "eat 4 times a day at fixed 4h intervals"-group lost significantly more body weight. It matters above all, because...

• their "resting metabolic rate tended to remain unchanged" during the CSD phases,
• their plasmaglucose, total cholesterol, and triacylglycerol reductions were greater, and
• their geeling of hunger actually decreased over the course of the 4-week study

Now, all that is certainly fantastic. Whats not so fantastic, though, is the minor "flaw" in the study design of which Ive already pointed out in the introduction that it is based on the (imho) false believe that increases in caloric deficits in the 40%+ region would yield improved weight loss results.

No, no and no! Dont be stupid! Eat to satiety and fast or stay fat forever! Frequent meals will hamper not improve dietary T2DM treatment. Eating four times a day with 4h+ between the meals, on the other hand, is a promising approach to dieting.

Bottom line: Due to the extra -15% deficit in the "regular" diet group, the study at hand fails to "prove" the sole influence of meal timing on weight loss and improvements in glucose and fatty acid metabolism. Thats a pity, but it does not mean that we could not conclude that "meal timing", or as I would rather like to call it "meal spacing" is an important and effective strategy to improve your weight loss results - I mean, on which -45% energy restricted diet does your hunger decrease over time?

So how can we conciliate the results of the study and hand with those of the "Many Small Meals Suck" (read it) study from  a couple of weeks ago? Well, easy! Were dealing with four, not 6 meals and they were spaced 4h, not just 2h apart. This + the fact that the women were  obese or overweight, but not diabetic could easily explain the difference.

Reference:

• Davoodi, Sayed Hossein, et al. "Calorie Shifting Diet Versus Calorie Restriction Diet: A Comparative Clinical Trial Study." International journal of preventive medicine 5.4 (2014): 447.

BE CAREFUL WEIGHT TRIGGERS MIGRAINE !

As many as 81 percent of them are obese are more likely to suffered migraine than those who have normal weight. Thus a recent study from Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Thats because fat cells secrete a protein that is inflamed so as to improve migraine attacks. The attack was so common look, such as if it is a regular pain. Thus research is led by B. Lee Peterlin, D.O. it added.

Other facts that exist in the circle are several migraine medications can trigger weight gain! Add more effects in head pain makes the patient can not move on, can only sit or lie down.

Moving lots

So how do I cope? Its easy: exercise. They who like aerobics - one sport that is easy to do, as many as three times a week (for 10 weeks), relieves headaches by 50 percent. It was in the month. Therefore, a lot of moves and does not rely on drugs only when a migraine attack!

Lady Gaga Continues to Battle Hair Loss

Photo by PR Photos

It was first reported last summer that music sensation Lady Gaga was suffering from hair loss. She soon confirmed that her hair was damaged from constant dyeing and bleaching and that she was taking Rogaine in an attempt to reverse the damage. 

Now, new reports are speculating that her ongoing battle with hair loss is one of the reasons she has retreated from the public eye in recent months. While hair loss is nothing to be ashamed of, it can be especially hard for women to cope with, especially young women like Gaga, who are under constant media scrutiny. Not many realize that Gaga is a natural brunette, because she has been a platinum blonde since launching her career. While this kind of routine is no doubt harmful to hair, it is unlikely that this alone is behind her hair loss. There are many other factors to consider, such as genetic predisposition, diet, medications, etc. 

While Rogaine may help her grow healthier hair, there are other steps she should be taking to optimize her results. I would recommend combining her Rogaine treatments with a regimen of low level laser therapy which is known to stimulate growth and help create thicker, fuller, healthier hair. Hair vitamins, such as Viviscal, can also aid those suffering from hair loss or thinning in achieving stronger, healthier hair. 

3 things to include in your fitness to Slow Down the Aging Process

You cant stop yourself from growing old,
but you can keep your body in great shape as you get older!

Studies have now proven that the natural aging process can be slowed and even reversed under the right conditions. 

People between the ages of 30 and 70 with many of the symptoms; conditions that were traditionally associated with normal aging are in fact the result of sedentary lifestyles.  

Our life expectancy in this day and age is much longer.  50 is the new 30, and while you may be eligible for some senior citizen discounts, you dont have to think of this stage of your life as the beginning of the end.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have finally proven that when you are over the age of 50 you can continue to exercise with great benefits to your health.  In fact, many of the effects of aging can be slowed down through a good exercise program and balanced diet taken in combination.   

1.  Cardiovascular exercises:  take a brisk walk in the park, go swimming, dancing, jogging, recumbent bicycles  and even a few jumping jacks.  Try a fun dance class, Zumba is so popular and burns lots of calories.

2.  Strength exercises:   are an effective way to build muscle mass and maintain your body’s weight. Did you know that there are roughly 300,000 cases of broken hip bones due to elderly people losing their balance and falling over? 


Doing a few balance exercises can help to strengthen those muscles responsible for supporting you body and keeping you mobile.  It’s important that you work with a professional that can help you to put together a strength training program designed for you.

3.       Stretching and flexibility exercises are needed to keep your joints working smoothly and stop them from ceasing up. These particular exercises help to increase the amount of movements that your body can perform. Warming up the muscles and joints should be done before any workout to prevent injury and decrease the amount of pain you feel in your muscles.

I

It’s important along with exercise to have a Healthy Diet.  What you are putting into your body has a great effect on your health.   Many people believe that they don’t need to eat healthy or watch their diet because they don’t need to lose weight. This couldn’t be further from the truth! 

You should put only the best foods in your mouth no matter how much you weigh, what size you wear, or how fit you look.

Gaining muscle fast cannot be achieved if you continue to lift the same weights each workout.

91-year-old bodybuilder Charles Eugster is proof we can continue to be healthy and strong into our 90’s and it doesn’t end there.

At 85 Charles had a crisis. He looked at himself in the mirror, and saw an old man who was overweight, his posture was terrible and there was skin hanging off of him.  Charles said “I looked like a wreck’ Read Charles inspirational story here:

You can read Charles entire story by clicking here.

If you are starting an exercise program, I recommend you consult your doctor first to make sure you are of sound body. This is especially true for seniors who may have weaker bodies. When exercising, start out slow and gradually build up to a long and more intense workout as you gain strength. If you have pre-existing medical conditions, you should definitely make your personal physician aware of you decision to start working out.

"Its never too late to begin"  heres another great article about  Charles Eugster 90-year-old bodybuilder  by Hugh Esling a fitness professional he shares more tips on senior fitness  http://he123.solobis.net/yes-sir-charles-eugster-90-year-old-bodybuilder

When Whey Casein Unite in the Spirit of True Physique Improvements BCAAs Glutamine Better Shut the F Up

Ever wondered, why you hit a plateau, "although" youve started to use this whey protein w/ extra aminos?

I have to admit this is not a new paper and though I have not written about it explicitly, some of you will probably have seen me cite it in previous posts. With some recent rambling about how great BCAAs were and that whey alone could never achieve what its overpriced, but revenue generating parts could do, I just felt inclined to dig into the archives of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research to bring back up one of those excellent randomized controlled, double-blinded long-term resistance training + supplementation studies, you wont find in the supplement write-ups very often, cause they would make most of the "great innovations" look pathetic.

You can learn more about protein intake at the SuppVersity

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Too much ado about protein?

In the case of the paper Chad D. Kersick et al. published in the March Edition of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2006. The latter, i.e. the looking pathetic applies to the combination and addition of "extra-anabolic" amino acids in form of BCAAs and glutamine to a simple whey protein supplement.

Table 1: Overview of the resistance training progamm (Kersick. 2006)

And when I am talking about "looking pathetic" I do not refer to the packaging or the powder itself; no, not even to the strength gains, which were more or less identical in all of the 36 resistance-trained males men (mean age 31, 84kg, 17% body fat) who followed the 4-day training protocol you see in Table 1 for 12(!) weeks.

That was a pretty long time, and as you can see in Figure 1, it was long enough to produce significant results. Significant results that tell you that the only addition you want to make to your cheap whey protein is some (not so cheap) micellar casein to achieve what I outlined in Mai 2012 and on countless other occasions, a stable hyper-aminoacidemia (= elevated levels of amino acids in the blood) for several hours (learn more)

As you should be able to see even without scrutinizing the bars in Figure 1, the latter lead to significant increases in lean mass in an already resistant trained group of subjects.

Figure 1: Changes in total body mass, lean mass and fat mass

The addition of 3g of BCAAs and 5g of glutamine, on the other hand, "made" the whey protein as "anabolic" *lol* as the 48g of plain sugar the CHO control group was guzzling their shakes within 2h (ideally immediately after) their workouts.

"Thats not true, cause Ive had great success with bullocks advanced proteins!"

Now, I obviously know already that there are certain people who dont like to hear facts like this. These people who are actually oftentimes only unwilling to admit that they have been screwed who will now probably be freakin out about "what if"s like "What if the casein made them hungry, so that they ate much more" ... I hear ya, folks, but how would that explain that the fat mass of the whey + casein (WC) group increased by 100g, while the guys on the "advanced" formula gained 200 albeit statistically non-sigificant grams?

Table 2: Energy & macro-nutrient intake in the whey + casein (WC), whey + BCAA + glutamin (WBG) and the carbohydrate control (P) group (Kersick. 2006).

Furthermore, the data in Table 2 clearly indicates that the only significant difference in terms of the total energy intake and the macronutrient content of the diets was the intended difference in protein content between the WC & WBG group and the P, i.e. the carbohydrate control group.

Figure 2: Leucine balance as a measure of protein balance after the ingestion of different forms of protein / amino acids (same net nitrogen load; Dangin. 2001; Bilsborough. 2006)

What? But thats impossible, right!? If we do have a closer look at what Dangin et al. found out about the digestion rate of protein as an independent regulating factor of postprandial protein retention (see Figure 2) and assume that the addition of BCAA and glutmine in this study could have had a similar negative effect on the total net protein retention as the free form amino acid supplement, the six young man in Dangins study consumed, it does no longer sound impossible that not a single gram of what were effectively 48g of protein ended up in their biceps, triceps, chest, quads, hams, etc. for which there was no leucine or any other aminos left, when the free form AAs switched their bodies into "protein wasting mode".

Dangins study did after all demonstrate that the same amino acids you will find in casein will induce a negative leucine balance, when they are administered in their isolated (see Figure 2). If you are still not angry that youve been fooled time and again, you probably havent bought any of the pertaining "improved protein" let alone "pro-anabolic free form amino acid supplements" in the past decade - lucky you; and dont tell me you just couldnt afford it ;-)

References: 

• Bilsborough, Shane, and Neil Mann. "A review of issues of dietary protein intake in humans." International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism 16.2 (2006).
• Dangin, Martial, et al. "The digestion rate of protein is an independent regulating factor of postprandial protein retention." American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology And Metabolism 280.2 (2001): E340-E348.
• Kerksick, Chad M., et al. "The effects of protein and amino acid supplementation on performance and training adaptations during ten weeks of resistance training." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 20.3 (2006): 643-653.

Study Puts Behind Beneficial Health Effects of Veggies! Is There No Correlation Between Antioxidant Content Beneficial Health Effects of Cucumber Lotus Rape!

Dont obsess about "optimal" antioxidant contents, just eat your veggies!

Over the past couple of weeks, ... no actually over the past years I have repeatedly written about the concept of (mito-)hormesis and its consequences for the well-established, but not necessarily accurate free radical theory of aging (and for some people everything else). ROS, i.e. reactive oxygen species, have been established as an important signalling molecule that is - among other things - heavily involved in the insulin sensitizing effects of exercise. "Inflammation" makes muscles grow and burns body fat and the "what doesnt kill me makes me strong" principle appears to reign everywhere you look.

You can learn more about the secrets of longevity at the SuppVersity

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Is a Latent Acidosis Killing You Softly?

That being said, the latest study from the Institute of Health and Environmental Medicine in Tianjin, China, opens another "anti-antioxidant" Box of Pandora. One that puts a huge questionmark behind the implications of hundreds of thousands of scientific studies, when it says in its title, already: "No correlation is found for vegetables between antioxidant capacity and potential benefits in improving antioxidant function in aged rats"

"Skin of Grape Tomatoes Contains Max. Amount of Antioxidants" - You can find this and dozens of other daily updated SuppVersity Science News on www.facebook.com/SuppVersity

This is a title that may in fact change the way we look at study results like those of a recent study by Valdez-Morales, et al. (2014) investigating the "best" = highest antioxidant tomato, the results of which you are about to find among the ~20/day SuppVersity Facebook News @ www.facebook.com/SuppVersity - dont forget to like it, or youll miss out on the latest science news!

If the results of the study can be confirmed by an independent team for vegetables other than lotus root, rape or cucumber and if there is an identical mismatch between the in-vivo anti-oxidant capacity and the potential benefits in improving antioxidant function in (aged) humans.

This would be big and highly consequential news for nutrition experts, scientists and average Joes and Janes like you and me. Why? Well,...

• any ranking of "superfoods" that was based even partly on in vitro data derived with the good old ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay would be invalid, ...
• every scientist who has been following up on "promising" data from FRAP assays would have been wasting his time, ...
• and you may have been eating all the wrong foods for years...

... hell no, as long as you ate your veggies over the past years, I wouldnt worry if you may have made a "suboptimal" selection (which would be different based on whatever new criteria you select).

Figure 1: FRAP value, vitamin C and vitamin E content and total amount phenolics in the powdered vegetables that were added to the rodent diets in the study at hand (Ji. 2014)

Honestly, Id hope that you didnt select your foods only based on the orthorexic principle of maximal antioxidant content, anyways. 

Never forget the three principles of veggie eating: Variety, seasonality, colorfulness

Against that background Id recommend you keep eating your lotus roots, if you like them, although, they have a significantly lower beneficial effect on SuperOxide Dismutase (SOD, a group of antioxidant enzymes) than rape and cucumber.

Figure 2: Serum markers of anti-oxidant status / oxidative damage after 6 weeks on the three experimental diets (Ji. 2014)

Moreover, if you look closely at the data in Figure 1+2, you will realize that lotus may suck at SOD and its ability to reduce hemolysis (the destruction of red blood cells), but will have the most profound beneficial effects on the levels of malondealdehyde (MDA), a marker of lipid oxidation, and the amount of plasma carbonyls, which have - just as in cellular regulation, aging, and disease (Levine. 2002). Just like their similarly radical cousins, carbonyls will thus play a dual role so that in the end, their reduction may not be beneficial in each and every case.

Figure 3: Blood mononuclear cell DNA damage expressed as total injury rate (%) and total tails low (% of all) in male Wistar rats on control and experimental diets (Ji. 2014)

The Take Away: Whatever the role of carbonyls, MDA & co may be and no matter what you believe which of the three tested vegetables may be the "best" one, if there is one definite message you can take home from todays SuppVersity article, its not to overly rely on the abstract data from chemical tests the reliability of which appears to be inversely proportional to their accuracy.

Trust your instincts and go for a broad variety of vegetables. Eat seasonal! Eat colorful! And most importantly eat plenty. Optimal or not, none of the vegetables in the study at hand would harm you - all of them would help you defy diabesity and slow the aging process as best mother nature allows.

Reference: 

• Ji, Linlin, et al. "No correlation is found for vegetables between antioxidant capacity and potential benefits in improving antioxidant function in aged rats." Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition 54.3 (2014): 198-203.
• Levine, Rodney L. "Carbonyl modified proteins in cellular regulation, aging, and disease^{2, 3}." Free Radical Biology and Medicine 32.9 (2002): 790-796.
• Valdez-Morales, Maribel, et al. "Phenolic content, and antioxidant and antimutagenic activities in tomato peel and seeds, and tomato by-products." Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2014). Accepted Manuscript.