This week, read about sugar obsessions, compounds in apples and green tomatoes that keep muscles strong, physicians prescribing exercise, pollutants and cyclists, preventing soccer injuries, canned tuna and mercury concerns, sports gels and stomach issues, strength training for endurance athletes, how your feet can help you sleep, and more.
How much harm can sugar do? This is a great article with an excellent perspective on sugar. While I encourage you to read the whole article, the paragraph below stands out for its wisdom. It’s best to focus on an overall healthy diet: obsessing too much about specific foods or food components isn’t necessary for health and is a strategy that could backfire.
“Many nutritionists believe it’s time to stop demonizing individual components of our diet—whether it’s fat, carbohydrates, cholesterol, or even sugar. It’s time to acknowledge that the special diets that obsess us—whether they consist of fruit or eliminate fruit, rely on meat or banish it—don’t work.” (Michael Specter, The New Yorker)
Compounds in apples & green tomatoes keep older muscles strong. Don’t toss the apple peels! They are a good source of ursolic acid, a compound this study identified with slowing age-related muscle loss in mice. The study also found that tomatidine, a compound found in green tomatoes, effective at increasing muscle mass and strength. (Journal of Biological Chemistry, Sept 2015).
Excess weight at age 50 tied to earlier Alzheimer’s onset. Another good reason to control your weight. Excess weight is also linked to many types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions (New York Times, reporting on Molecular Psychiatry)
It’s my nervoussystem that’s lazy. Humans are pros at using the least energy possible for a particular physical task. Researchers at Simon Fraser University conducted a study that confirms this, and shows that the nervous system performs this optimization in real time during a walking task. (New York Times, reporting on Current Biology, September 2015).
Quebec physicians to begin prescribing exercise. A terrific initiative spearheaded by health advocate, triathlete and XC skier Pierre Lavoie (The Globe and Mail)
Cycling the city – should you be concerned about air pollution? People who exercise outdoors in big cities are exposed to variety of pollutants. So far, not many studies have explored this topic. A new study by researchers at Columbia University are investigating how pollution affects cyclists in New York City. Volunteer cyclists commuting and exercising in the city are helping them look at many factors that influence pollution dose, including time of day, various routes, and exercise intensity. They’re hoping their findings will help provide advice to reduce pollution exposure, such as best times of day to exercise, best cycling routes, and hopefully more policies to reduce pollutants. (Science Friday)
How to Prevent Soccer Injuries. Alan Shahtaji, a sports medicine physician who has worked with the US Women’s soccer team, has some good advice on warmup routines to prevent common soccer injuries (hamstring, ACL, achilles, and concussion). (UC San Diego Health)
How statistical deception created the appearance that statins are safe and effective to prevent cardiovascular disease. Although statins are effective at reducing cholesterol levels, they have failed to substantially improve cardiovascular outcomes. This study looks at what they call the “deceptive approach” statin advocates have used to show that statins decrease heart disease risk. (Expert Review in Clinical Pharmacology).
Albacore tuna has way too much mercury for kids’ sandwiches. Consider canned salmon instead, which has little mercury, and more healthy omega-3 fats. For more detailed information and mercury in tuna, Consumer Reports has a good article and video here (Beth Skwarecki, Lifehacker).
Gels may cause more stomach issues than sports drinks. This small study suggests that carb intake from gels is associated with increased gastrointestinal distress compared to liquid carbohydrates during a simulated long distance triathlon (60-min swim; 180-min bike; 60-min run). Total fluid and carb intake was matched in both gel and drink conditions. (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 2015 Aug)
Strength training makes endurance athletes faster. Two articles published this week highlight new research showing that strength training helps performance in endurance athletes.
- Alex Hutchinson reports on a study presented at the Endurance Research Conference in Kent, England, that emphasized how running economy improves performance: even if your fitness remains the same – you can get faster if you’re more efficient. Besides running a lot, Hutchinson cites research showing that one of the best ways to improve economy is with strength training, especially for older athletes. (Alex Hutchinson, Runner’s World)
- Gretchen Reynolds reported on new research looking into changes in running form and muscle activation across age, which noted a large decrease in lower leg muscle strength that adversely affected running form. Researchers recommend strengthening calf and ankle flexor muscles (the article links to some lower leg stretching drills and basic exercises – but I doubt these will do much for lower leg power loss). Consider full body strength exercises like the squat, lower body plyometric exercises (progress gradually), or something as simple as a jump rope. (Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times, reporting on Medicine Science Sports and Exercise Aug 2015).
How your feet can help you sleep. Here’s an easy science-backed tip that might help you get to sleep from The Science of Us (NY Mag).
In Season: Apples
Sweet, crisp, versatile, and robust are attributes that make apples a favorite fruit. The nutritional benefits of apples have been touted since medieval times, and the old English saying “Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed Makes the doctor beg his bread” is still popular, but better known as “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Research is lending support for this expression, as recent studies are revealing that apples may help protect against a number of chronic conditions.
Find out more about the health benefits of apples, and some great recipe ideas (including a terrific Apple Walnut Cake that is mostly apples!) here.
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Cycling photo by Alanroseman (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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