Protein
Going back to protein, what is it about red meat that doctors say is bad for you?
Fatty meats or red meats are typically higher in fat and the fat is generally a higher saturated fat than say, poultry. It would be the saturated fat in the meat that doctors are advising against.
To make a blanket statement that red meat is bad for you would be overkill. Even though they may contain higher levels of saturated fat, red meat still has high levels of the essential amino acids, that your body needs to survive.
That means that the protein in the meat provides all eight essential amino acids while the protein in wheat flour or cake flour may only provide one or two amino acids.
It comes down to an understanding of not throwing out the baby with the bath water, if you eat beef, just make sure that you cut all the fat off it - or purchase lean cuts of meat.
What are some of the other sources of protein?
Eggs are a tremendous source of protein. The egg white has an abundance of all the right amino acids and is easily digested and absorbed into the body.
How about an all vegan diet, is it healthy?
Actually it is. There was a pretty significant study done that was widely published. Researchers from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center looked at data from 10,104 adults who were eating different kinds of diets including vegetarian diets, low
carbohydrate diets and high carbohydrate diets and their effects on BMI, energy intake and diet quality. The study concluded that those who were eating a vegetarian diet had low BMI's and ended up eating less energy. (Kennedy et. al Popular Diets: Correlation to Health, Nutrition and Obesity. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 2001 Apr. 101(4) 411-20). There is something to be said for it but it comes down to knowledge and balancing. You have to be cautious when starting a vegetarian diet and you need to make sure you are knowledgeable about it.
It's harder to get the adequate amount of B vitamins on a vegetarian diet and you have to know which foods to eat to get the right amount of vitamins and minerals. So you know which vegetables to eat and how much to eat in order to get the amount of protein that you need.
Carbohydrates
Is it true that there are good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates?
In a word, yes. There is a such a thing as good carbohydrates
and bad. In the past they used to call bad carbohydrates simple sugars and good carbohydrates complex sugars.
Today they have changed this to referring to good carbohydrates as those which release glucose slowly into the blood stream. They call these low glycemic carbohydrates. High glycemic carbohydrates cause blood glucose levels to spike almost immediately after you've consumed them. A high glycemic carbohydrate may be white bread or a sugary breakfast cereal.
Having said this, though, just because a carbohydrate has a high glycemic value does not mean it is bad. Some varieties of carrot can have a high glycemic value, but for it to provide a great burst of glucose into your blood stream, you'd need to eat an awful lot of carrots. High glycemic carbohydrates can also become useful when you want a sudden burst of energy. I was actually just reading that consuming high glycemic food in the three hour period after training can facilitate muscle building.
Low glycemic carbohydrates become useful when you want sustained energy throughout the day. The rate at which glucose is released into your blood stream can also be slowed if you
combine a low glycemic carb with a high glycemic carb. Alternatively, if you combine a source of protein with a high glycemic carb, this can also slow the absorption of glucose into the blood stream.
As a general rule, a bad carbohydrate would be a heavily processed carbohydrate such as a frosted donut mentioned earlier. A good carbohydrate would be an apple or a slice of wholemeal or wholegrain bread.
Vitamins and Minerals
What about vitamin and minerals. Do we get enough from our food or do we actually need to supplement?
It depends on where you are coming from and what culture. Again if you get variety in your diet there is probably no need for vitamin and mineral supplements.
There is a section of the community that don't really get enough variety in their diet, and really just stick to certain foods, so they do need a supplement. However health conscious people who eat a variety of food probably don't need a supplement. If you are pregnant or lactating or if there is some other need for vitamins and minerals then it is probably a good idea.
Vitamins and minerals really only work if you're not getting them in your diet. Some chronic dieters who diet consistently won't be getting enough vitamins and minerals, so sometimes it is a good idea for them to take a supplement.
As you age, does that mean you need a vitamin supplement?
Yes, there are quite a few areas where you may need a supplement. Your absorption of nutrients declines in your later years and your body's need for B6, B12, calcium and vitamin D increase.
What should we know when purchasing a vitamin and mineral supplement ?
You know supplements can be expensive. It depends on the kind of vitamins and minerals you are talking about.
Vitamins break down into water soluble and fat-soluble. Typically there is more concern with the fat soluble vitamins (A,D, E & K) because they are not excreted from your body, unlike the water soluble vitamins like B and C, the excess will get flushed but with the fat soluble vitamins the excess is retained in your body.
That can get to be a problem if you are for some strange reason taking excessive amounts of let's say vitamin D for example. There is no official figure for how much vitamin D you need, but it should be somewhere in the vicinity of 5 mcg - 10 mcg at the most. For those who don't get exposure to sunlight, you can get vitamin D in cod-liver oil but be careful not to consume more than 20mcg's.
Vitamin D is toxic at very low levels, so having too much in your
system can be dangerous.
It comes down to someone not having information to fall back on and they just do it because they are naive. It may start out as a doubling of the recommended daily allowance and they think, "well I'm not seeing any results, so I will triple it." Some of the vitamin companies that manufacture these are no help because they will introduce products into the marketplace with one capsule delivering a mega dose.
It just gets to be like a power struggle even with the manufacturers of those products. People will think that if a little bit in a tablet is good then more will be better. People often think in dollar terms, how much can we get for this amount, if I can get more vitamin for the same or similar amount of money, then that's better - right. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.
There are very well documented cases of vitamin overdoses and the consequences of taking too much of one vitamin or mineral. You just have to be careful. Most supplements if you will look on the labels will tell you how much to take.
When you look at the labels, look at what percentage of the RDI (recommended daily intake) of each vitamin or mineral is included in the supplement. If you see 100% beside one of those vitamins or minerals then you know that taking that supplement will provide 100% for that particular vitamin or mineral. If you intend to eat that day as well as take the supplement, you could be over-dosing yourself on that particular vitamin or mineral.
Or, if it says 150% or 500% then it is supplying 5 times more of the nutrient than you really need. And all those levels are based on typical values in our society. On an individual basis there may be a person who needs more than that or someone who might need even less than that. That's when it becomes difficult to know if you are getting the right amount of nutrients. This is where it comes back to getting variety in your diet and eating according to your lifestyle. People who have an active lifestyle generally eat more than those who don't, their body is ensuring that it gets enough energy, vitamins and minerals to be able to carry out it's normal functioning.
What about water, how much water should we
consume?
You know that whole question has been kicked around a lot too. The people who were studying that were saying for a long time that we don't get enough and we need to be consuming more than we do. Then there were some publications that were saying that too much water isn't good for you either.
I would tend to believe that we don't get as much water as we need. If you drink too much you are just going to eliminate it, so if you drink a lot of water or whatever then you are probably getting enough.
As a general rule of thumb, your body will let you know when it is thirsty. If you ignore the urge to drink then you can get into trouble.
Water level is the maker or breaker of whether or not you are going to have a healthy lifestyle because it is self-regulating, you know if you get thirsty then you drink and if you are not thirsty then you don't drink. So it is sort of self-regulating. So usually
the amount of water you take in is in the acceptable range.
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