SmarterFitter Blog Less diet, more brain

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I usually like Mark’s Daily Apple, but I was really disappointed in his recent post on beans. He really gave these wondrous morsels a bad wrap!

Legumes aren’t, by any means, the worst thing you can eat, but they don’t make the ideal meal either. In my estimation, legumes fall into the “O.K.” category with wine, chocolate, cheese and other dairy, etc.

What the hell? Beans are awesome. Like it or not, we humans have been eating beans for ages. They’ve been found in 5,000 year-old settlements in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, and even in Egyptian pyramids. Pyramids, people - you think these wonders of the world were built on lousy nutrition?

If you subscribe to the notion that you need a high protein, low carb diet to get fit, then fine - beans are not ideal. But neither is this lifestyle (in my opinion). Beans supply an awesome balance of protein and complex carbs, plus loads of vitamins and minerals. And they’re not pumped with nasty chemicals or raised in manure on a factory farm. And unlike most meats, beans have been shown to be awesome for your heart.

• They are a good source of potassium, which may help reduce your risk of high blood pressure and stroke.
• Dry beans are a good source of folic acid, which protects against heart disease by breaking down an amino acid called homocysteine.
• In a large study of almost 10,000 men and women, those who ate beans four or more times a week cut their risk of coronary heart disease by about 20 percent, compared with those who ate beans less than once a week.
• Other studies show that within two to three weeks, diets high in either canned or dry beans (3 to 4 ounces per day) reduce blood cholesterol levels by 10 percent or more: an effect that can result in a 20 percent decrease in the risk of coronary heart disease.
• Beans and lentils have the same potent anti-inflammatory antioxidants—flavonoids and flavonals—found in tea, fruits, grapes, red wine and cocoa beans.
• Beans are among the richest food sources of saponins, chemicals that help prevent undesirable genetic mutations.

So that’s my little rant. Hope you don’t mind.

Here’s more information on beans. Maybe Mark should have a read!

Beans for Health
Superfood: Beans and Lentils
Beans and other legumes: Types and tasty tips

Dr. Atkins left his mark on the world by making protein one of the most debated diet topics of our time. Thanks, doc, no we’re really confused. What is protein? And how much protein do we need?

Lauren, a personal trainer, tackles these questions and more in her post Protein: Why? How Much? When? Though aimed at strength trainers, her post easily applies to the rest of us normally-muscled folk (especially those of us who’d like to put a bit more Arnold in our biceps). She explains in simple terms what protein is and why we need it, and also has a good tip to help you figure out what’s best for you

Check what level of protein you are eating now. Just for one day, write down everything you eat, and then figure out how many grams of protein it was…

If you are strength training regularly and are aiming to build muscle and lose fat, build mass, lose fat and maintain muscle, or you are participating in heavy exercise and your protein intake is currently low, try to get between 1.5-2grams/ kg to start with. Up that intake to around 2.2 grams/kg. If you aren’t strength training…start. There are too many benefits for you to avoid this kind of exercise.

Another way to look at it to start, is to consume at least 30% of your daily calorie needs from protein. I prefer to look at grams/kg however this will also give you a decent number to aim for, and simply another way to look at it.

If you don’t want to count the amount of protein you eat, make a conscious effort to get some quality protein at every meal,

By the way, you don’t need supplements to get enough protein. And if she seems hell-bent on strength training, there’s lots of good reasons for this, but I’ll save that for another post!

Link to Protein: Why? How Much? When?

I write this beside a box of tissue and a mug of hot lemon tea. This is the worst time of year for an office worker: everyone has a cold, and it’s getting passed around like a birthday card that no one wants to sign. Some escape with a few sniffles, others suffer the gamut of mucus, cough, aches and pains. What makes some people more immune to colds than others?

There’s more to a healthy immune system than good hygiene - like muscles, the immune system needs proper nutrition to make it a bad-ass butt-kicker of foreign objects like bacteria, viruses, and cancerous cells. There are three fundamental parts of your immune system, each of which depend on a balanced diet to operate optimally:

• Structural barriers like skin and the gastrointestinal tract keep foreign objects from invading healthy cells
• Immune cells found in the blood stream and lymph nodes that fight invading cells, produce antibodies, and remove toxins
• Messenger molecules detect foreign invaders and tell the immune cells to go to work

Research shows that protein, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and specific vitamins and minerals are especially important to maintain the above functions. Specifically

• Fiber, vitamin A and essential fatty acids support the gastrointestinal track
• Protein is essential for growth and repair
• Vitamin C supports immune cells and provides antioxidants
• B-vitamins (B5, Flolate, B6, B1, B2, B12) enable healthy T-cell functioning
• Vitamins A, E and K are important to overall immune health
• Minerals like zinc, iron, copper, selenium, and manganese help support immune cell functioning and healing
• Antioxidants and phytonutrients like vitamins C and E help free the body of damaging free radicals

I put together a printable table[1] of these nutrients and the 17 foods that provide the highest potency of these nutrients. Each food and nutrient is hyperlinked to a more extensive discussion provided by the World’s Healthiest Foods website.

[ HTML | Excel spreadsheet ]

The table illustrates that a variety of foods and nutrients work together to make our immune system happy and healthy.

There’s no one superfood, but of the 17, here are the six most dense in immune-boosting nutrients:

6 Superfoods That Will Rock Your Immune System

1. Greens - If there is a singular superfood out there, it’s gotta be greens. Mustard greens, spinach, swiss chard, turnip greens - all of these are excellent sources of Vitamins A, C, E, K, Folic Acid, and manganese
2. Mushrooms are an excellent source of vitamins B2 and B5 and the minerals copper and selenium.
3. Cauliflower is an excellent source of vitamins C, K, and folate, as well as fiber. It is also contains B5, B6 and manganese.
4. Romaine Lettuce. We don’t often think of romaine as a health food, but it’s an excellent source of vitamins A, C, K and folate, and a very good source of fiber, B1, B2, and iron.
5. Carrots are an excellent source of the antioxidant vitamins A and E and a very good source of Vitamin C and fiber.
6. Whole grains like oats, bulgar wheat, and barley have loads of fiber. Oats in particular are also a very good source of selenium.

There’s no one magic food out there that will keep you from catching a cold. The message is this: eat a variety of colorful, nutrient-dense whole foods and your immune system will be stronger for it.

[1] The table was derived from the USDA nutrient database, and used the World’s Healthiest Food’s classification system to rate the foods