In September 2013 the next big diet book hit the shelves. The name of the book is “Grain Brain”. The sub-title, which summarizes the main idea of the book in one sentence, is: “The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers”. The name of the author is Dr. David Perlmutter. The fact which summarizes him in one sentence is: “serves on the Medical Advisory Board of The Dr. Oz Show”. The Dietitians of Canada got so worked up (my description, not theirs) by the release of this book that they formulated an official response and emailed to all 6000 members across the country. Here are their key messages about “Grain Brain”: The recommendations and claims made by Dr. Perlmutter are not shared by Dietitians of Canada as they are largely based on testimonial rather than scientific evidence.  Diets that eliminate gluten, carbohydrates or categories of foods without medical justification or guidance from a Registered Dietitian may put the heal
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There can be no doubt that overall; we Homo sapiens are more similar to each other than we are different. However that does not mean that the same nutrition plan is right for everyone. This is particularly true in the field of sports nutrition. Personal nutrition coaching is sure to produce better results than cookie-cutter meal plans. Here are three important factors to consider when customizing a nutrition program for an athlete: His/her health history: This should be the main consideration of any professional working with an athlete. Of course, you don’t need to necessarily tell the athlete that. In fact, when working with a super-dedicated, high-level athlete, trying to sell your plan by playing the “health” card might lose them right off the bat. This is because the prime concern for a super-dedicated, high-level athlete is sports performance – not health. In fact many of them would gladly trade in their health (definitely their short-term health; occasionally even their
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A group collectively known as the branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine) have garnered a great deal of scientific investigation over the years. This has mostly been because of their unique ability to be used for energy directly by the muscle itself. All protein has the potential to be used for energy however with all other amino acids this involves transport to the liver, conversion to glucose via the metabolic pathway of gluconeogenesis and release back into the blood stream. Because of their ability it has been theorized that branched chain amino acids maybe a helpful fuel during exercise (particularly endurance exercise). Unfortunately, actual studies have not yielded consistent results and in fact, most have shown little or no positive effect of ingesting branched chain amino acids on endurance performance. However one of the branched chain amino acids has been distinguishing itself from the others – and for a reason unrelated to energy metabolism. Leucine h
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There’s no question that hockey players are among the world’s toughest athletes. If anyone needed any reminding of this, a great example was provided by Gregory Campbell of the Boston Bruins in last year’s Stanley Cup play-offs. While killing a penalty, Campbell dove to block a slap shot from two time NHL scoring champion Evgeni Malkin. The impact of the speeding puck broke his leg instantly. Campbell got back up and finished the shift. Can one imagine a soccer player reacting in such a manner? Or how would a badminton player respond to breaking a bone in mid-play?  My purpose in singling out these two sports is not to pick on these athletes. I single out these sports only because there are actually scientific studies that have found soccer players and badminton players have “tougher” bones than hockey players. In this case the more accurate term than “tougher” is “higher bone mineral density”. Bone mineral density (BMD) is a measure of the amount of minerals (like
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