To say I am an fan of exercise/training would be an understatement. However there are always people who highlight the inherit risks of exercise. Perhaps they know someone who had an heart attack whilst exercising, or maybe they got injured in the gym and just don’t see the point.
You may have also remembered reading a while back on KitchenPT how if you analyse all the Marathons run in the US over the last 30 years you find something quite amazing: they have actually decreased the number of deaths that would have otherwise occurred had the roads the races were run on were open to cars! Perhaps this says more about roads and cars than it does about exercise?
But I believe there must be a ceiling to it all. I really wonder if ultra marathon runners (for example) are really doing their bodies more good than marathoners? I doubt it.
recent research has shown that the risk of dying from a heart attack in a triathlon is nearly double that of dying in a marathon alone.
It would be interesting to collaborate all the data available on exercise & death, and find the ‘optimal’ frequency, duration, type, volume, & intensity of training/exercise on health. I would hypothesise it is significantly lower than what many top endurance athletes are performing.
High intensity & high volume cycling appears to decrease sperm quality. This is pretty old news, and something all male cyclists are aware of I assure you. But by how much?
However, the real kicker regarding this type of information is actually the importance of simply eating carrots – full stop! People who eat lots of fruit and vegetables every day are less likely to get a whole plethora of diseases – including many cancers.
What do you do everyday to ensure you get 5+ servings of fruit and vegetables?
If you answer “not a lot”, then perhaps you could try taking a carrot to work/school/bridge club.
Getting a massage is one of life’s little pleasures. However, the specific physiological benefits that you get from a massage now appear a little more dubious than some massage therapists would have you believe.
The theory that massage “increases blood flow, and assists in removal of lactic acid” always seemed plausible to me. To read research saying that massage actually impairs blood flow after exercise was more than a little of a shock.
And so should you avoid massage post exercise? I think not. I would not be surprised if in the future science proves that the psychological benefit massage brings far outweighs any small decrease in blood flow that it may cause.
It just means all the massage therapists out there are going to have to come up with some other spin line!
Organic food is booming. In my local supermarket it has about half an aisle dedicated to it, excluding fresh organic foods and breads.
So why is it so popular?
Do people buy it for environmental reasons (’it is better for the environment to eat organic’), animal welfare reasons (’a free range chicken is happier than a barn raised one’), or for health reasons (’organic is better for you’)?
The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a great book I finished recently that addresses some of these issues.
I think it is important that you can answer the following question if you do buy organic: Why? And then ensure that your ‘reason’ for buying organic is being addressed.
For example if you are buying organic because they are better for the environment, then consider where out of season organic vegetables come from. Probably flown and then trucked from a far away country (where they have to be refrigerated along the way, and then stored until they are out of season). An example in the Omnivore’s Dilemma is organic pieces of asparagus purchased in January in the States that are flown up from Argentina that week in a 747. Solution: Buy locally produced goods that are in season.
Or perhaps you buy organic for animal welfare reasons. To quote OD:
Organic raised chicken live in very similar conditions to regular birds. They do have access to an outside area after they are 5 weeks old, which sounds ok, but when you consider they are slaughtered at 7 weeks it does not really represent the picturesque ideal of chicken frolicking in wide open fields that we would like to believe from product packaging. By all accounts the chickens do not often make it outside as it represents a potentially dangerous unknown for them. This is fine by the farmers though, as going outside makes the chickens more susceptible to infections and diseases for which they are prone seen as they are not resistant.
Solution: Buy ‘Free Range Chickens’, not ‘Organic’.
And finally, maybe youbuy organic for health reasons. The bad news is there is little scientific evidence to back this up. Personally I feel organic is probably better for you (certainly no worse), and some studies suggest organically grown food has more micro-nutrients that are good for us than regular fruits and vegetables, but this difference has not been shown to result in improved health markers. Solution: Do what makes you feel good. The science is still out on this one.
There is a sad kind of irony in the kid that is struggling to finish their dinner being told they “have to” before they get their dessert. Teaching children to eat until full should be the preferred tactic around dinner time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
So what is the answer? The author of the above mentioned article
recommends that parents provide moderate portions of a variety of foods, encouraging the child to at least try all of the foods, and let them decide whether they want additional servings.
What are the top 10 grocery items you buy from the supermarket?
News out this week showed four types of soft drinks and two types of white bread are in the top 10 for the ‘average’ New Zealander (excluding fruits, vegetables, tobacco, and alcohol).
It would be great if Fly Buys (0r other similar card loyalty programs) would make this type of data available. It would provide a very valuable food diary from which there would be little hiding!
Excluding fruits and vegetables makes it hard, but I would guess for me it would be a grain bread, milk, baked beans, flavoured milk, pasta, fruit juice…?, which would mean I am quite different from your average New Zealander…except for the baked beans!
Consult your doctor before following any of the exercise or nutritional advice posted on this site.
If you feel pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, or faintness at any time stop the activity and/or eating prescription immediately.
KitchenPT.com and Bradley Simpson take no responsibility to any injury or loss incurred from following advice posted on this site.
Organic food is booming. In my local supermarket it has about half an aisle dedicated to it, excluding fresh organic foods and breads.
