6 Signs That You're Taking Your Diet Too Seriously

No matter how much time you spend online arguing with people about diet/nutrition, it's too much time. Rarely do these interactions have any worth. Take, for example, the vegan guy who trolled my YouTube channel this week (read the comments). He left several ridiculous comments, like "Oh Eggs, Yummy! One of the cheapest ways to insure you get cancer and/or heart disease!" and "Well there is actually nothing out there that beats the scientific research that was done on the China Study (a popular vegan book)." He really has no idea how much of a jerk he was being. He takes his diet ideology, veganism, far too seriously and personally.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing has become very common... diets are becoming religions... I don't care if it's vegan, vegetarian, paleo, raw vegan, low-carb, low-fat, or anything else, what you eat should not take over your life and turn you into an ignorant zealot. Sometimes we need to check ourselves. Here are 6 signs that you're taking your diet too seriously.

Why You Should Eat More Potatoes

<3 Potatoes

In recent years, the white potato has gotten a bad rap. There are plenty of reasons why, some more valid than others... they've got the high glycemic index, the white color that people tend to associate with "bad" foods, the fact that people are generally down on carbs these days. But I've gotta tell ya... it just doesn't deserve the bad press, the potato is an incredibly healthy food! And here's why.

The glycemic index of potatoes is misleading.The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a carbohydrate food is digested and how much it subsequently raises your blood sugar. According to the theory, high glycemic foods increase blood sugar more than other foods, hence increasing insulin and leading to a blood sugar crash soon after. But there are a few problems in there.

First, the "glycemic score" is based on a 50 gram carbohydrate serving. But what it neglects, however, is how likely we are to actually consume a given food at that level. To get 50 gram of carbohydrate from potatoes, you'd need 253 grams of the stuff, or for the Americans, more than 1/2 pound. That's a hefty potato... probably bigger than you're willing to eat (unless of course you add bacon and cheese, but that's another story entirely). For another high glycemic carb, like white bread, you only need 100 grams of the stuff to get 50 carbs. And to go even further, you'd only need a 16 fl oz serving of soda for that many carbs, or a 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream, or less than 2 ounces of cotton candy. What I'm getting at, is that the amount of carbohydrates matters too. And the fact is, we're not going to eat nearly the quantity in potatoes that we would of another high glycemic food.

Get Up and Move: The Perils of Sitting

When I first heard that sitting too much was associated with chronic disease, I was extremely skeptical. Of course it is, I thought... people who sit more exercise less, they lose cardiovascular fitness, and they burn fewer calories throughout the day, setting themselves up to gain weight. It's not that sitting too much directly promotes disease, I thought; it must be all that goes along with it. It's the lack of exercise and the weight gain that's the real problem.

Welp, I was wrong (1). Turns out, we now know of specific molecular processes that take place when we sit, and they're distinct from intentional exercise. In fact, even if you get the "recommended" amount exercise, 30 minutes a day, you can completely undo those metabolic benefits by spending the rest of your day sedentary in a chair. Sitting continuously sets off a series of unwanted cellular mechanisms that immediately reduce your HDL and increase your triglycerides, two common risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Over the long term, we put ourselves at high risk for chronic disease, and that includes heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.

Elliott Hulse: The Meaning of Strength

If you've never heard of Elliott Hulse, it's time to listen up. It was about four years ago when I first found Elliott Hulse's YouTube channel, strengthcamp. Like most of his fans, I started watching for the exercise/nutrition/supplementation info. He had some cool stuff going on, and that's exactly what I was really into at the time. That's what drew me in. But what really hooked me was something much deeper. It was his life philosophy, which was much the same as mine, although I'd never heard it put so succinctly: Become the strongest version of yourself. It became clear very early on that Elliott was far more than just your average strength and conditioning coach... he's a philosopher, a truth-seeker, a father and husband, and a master in conveying his ideas through words.

Elliott's videos have had a profound impact on my thoughts and my experiences. I'd like to just talk about a few of my favorites and why they've meant so much to me. Hopefully, through sharing how they've affected me, I can pass this information on to others and broaden their horizons as well.

Harvest Your Health Bundle: 71 eBooks (over $1000 value) for $37!!

It's that time again folks! Another amazing bundle of eBooks for an unreal price tag. You may remember last winter's sale of 37 books for $37??? Something like that. Well, this one blows that out of the water. For the next 7 days, you'll be able to get 71 eBooks!!!!!??!!!?! for just $37. This is legitimately the best deal I've ever been a part of, and I hope you take full advantage of it.

Here's what you get!!:
71 eBooks of various health-related topics...

• Cooking and preparing healthy and/or paleo food
• Natural fertility and motherhood
• Natural solutions to hygiene and home care
• Fitness
• And most importantly to me... life improvement books!! Get that mindset right guys!

3 subscriptions to paleo magazines...

• Admittedly not my cup of tea, and probably contains biased, cherry-picked, pseudoscience that needn't be followed by most of us. But hey, it's thrown into the bundle. Just be skeptical.

18 discounts to health/nutrition-related websites...

• Awesome. Worth the price of the bundle ALONE.

Cooking With Gram: Post-Workout Superfood Smoothie

Check out our new Cooking With Gram video, the Post-Workout Superfood Smoothie! It's a great way to kick start your recovery after a tough workout!




Subscribe on YouTube, don't miss a video!

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped kale
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 scoops Standard Process Whey Pro (15 g protein)
Dash of salt

Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 418
Fat: 11 g
Carbs: 63 g
Fiber: 14 g
Sodium: 204 mg
Protein: 20 g

Stay Humble: We Don't Know What We Don't Know

I've used this pic before. I don't care.

I'd like to share a story with you. The other day in one of my classes, we were discussing the history of vitamin D. My professor told us a fascinating story about the early research on vitamin D and rickets, the bone disease children get as a result of a deficiency. This particular researcher, Leonard Findlay, had performed experiments with dogs, and he was convinced that rickets could be cured simply by exercising. In 1908, he published a paper detailing his experiments: "The Etiology of Rickets: A Clinical and Experimental Study".

What Findlay did, essentially, was induce rickets in dogs by keeping them sedentary. He would keep them locked up indoors in cages, providing them food of course, until they would develop symptoms of rickets. Then, as an experimental treatment, he would take some of the dogs outside and let them run around. Allowing the dogs to run around outside cured their rickets, and so Findlay assumed that exercise was the reason why.

Why I Ditched Paleo

It was a little over three years ago when I first heard of the concept of the Paleo Diet. I was introduced to it through a podcast on Underground Wellness interviewing Mark Sisson, the author of the Primal Blueprint. I had never thought about diet in the way that Mark did, and I was immediately fascinated by his approach. You mean we were healthier before we adopted agriculture? And we didn't eat grains, legumes, and dairy?? Interesting. I had just finished reading Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories", so the low-carb approach was firmly in my radar. Things seemed like they were beginning to come together.

In the next few months, I would dive head first into this Paleo/Primal diet concept... I found Robb Wolf's podcast, I read Dr. Cordain's original Paleo Diet book, I discovered several paleo-related blogs... I began to immerse myself in the paleo world. I even wrote a research paper for a class I was taking in Italy in my study abroad experience, called "The Health Benefits of Eating a Paleolithic Diet". No question, I became a paleo machine. I even started this here blog soon after; it all began as a place where I could express my contrarian opinions thoughtfully and back it up with scientific research. I felt like I needed to prove I was right, because everyone in my world thought I was wrong. (I never took on the "paleo" name though... it's as if I knew my position might change some day)

New YouTube Channel: Cooking With Gram

Hi guys, just wanted to notify everyone of my new YouTube channel that I started today. It's called Cooking With Gram; the idea is that I'll be making recipes and showing some cooking tips with my adorable grandma. Eventually, I'll be doing other videos too, maybe some nutrition education videos, some practical healthy eating tips, etc. Anyway, check it out, like it on YouTube, and subscribe!!

Sodium Content of Food: You're Being Deceived. Again.

<3 Salt

It has come to my attention, based on talking to people about their nutrition concerns, that many of us are completely clueless to how much sodium is in food. It's not your fault. There are many reasons why your perception of the sodium content of a food might be skewed. For one, just because something tastes salty doesn't necessarily mean it's high in sodium. Yes, really. Another thing: A product that says "lower in sodium" or "less sodium" does not necessarily have a low sodium content. It may just have less sodium than another similar product but still contain a lot of it. And also, many foods that don't have a salty taste at all might contain more sodium than you think!

Now, there's a caveat with this... because I don't think sodium intake is something you should be overly concerned with. I've written on this extensively in the past (see The Problem With Salt Restriction, How to Prevent High Blood Pressure, and A Snarky Rant on Sodium and Blood Pressure). It's not as important for keeping a healthy blood pressure as you think it is.

Regardless, there are many people out there who will completely ignore this advice because their doctor and the media say otherwise. Fine. If you're going to worry about sodium intake, I can at least provide you with some useful tips.

How to Prevent a Heart Attack

Stressed? This may be the root cause of your heart disease.

And now for the important part: how to prevent heart disease. In my last post, I made the point that most heart attack victims have normal cholesterol levels. In the study I cited, which analyzed 65,396 patients hospitalized for heart disease, the average cholesterol level was a "healthy" 170 mg/dl. Not exactly what you'd expect to see based on our cholesterol-phobic society. Obviously, there's something else going on in the development of heart disease other than just your cholesterol level. 

Some of these factors are uncontrollable. For instance, just being a man increases my statistical risk for heart disease. So does my family history. There's nothing I can do to change that, unless I decided to become a woman. Something tells me that still wouldn't change my risk, but that's besides the point. Here are the things you CAN control, and some quick tips on just how to take care of it.

Most Heart Attack Victims Have Normal Cholesterol Levels

It's been too long since I've spoken about cholesterol, too long I tell you. For those of you who don't know, I would sum up my view on cholesterol like this: it's the most overhyped risk factor for heart disease there is. All you hear in the media is "Watch your cholesterol!" or "Cheerios lower cholesterol!" or "This food is cholesterol-free, so it's good for you!". Bollocks. Bollocks I say.

First of all, the cholesterol in the food you eat barely has any effect on the cholesterol in your blood, if it has any effect at all. And second, let's set the record straight on "high cholesterol"... please for the love of God, quit worrying about it. Your total cholesterol is just about meaningless unless it's taken in context with your triglycerides, HDL, and LDL... even better, your LDL particle number. Despite having no real, accurate clinical implications though, "high cholesterol" has taken on this sort-of boogey man role, scaring every health-conscious person into Lipitor land.

Anyway, I came across something today that was just too good not to write about; this stuff needs to be shared. This study was designed to analyze lipid-lowering therapy, but that's not the part I want to talk about here; it's the cholesterol levels of the patients that piqued my interest. The researchers examined 65,396 patients hospitalized for heart disease (heart attack or angina) across the United States. Below you'll find a screenshot of the baseline blood lipid data, taken within the first 24 hours of admission. You would expect, based on what you think you know, that heart disease patients must have had high cholesterol, right?

Diet Myths: If a Little is Good, a Lot is Better

In the modern diet world, there are so many different theories and ideas on nutrition that it can sometimes be overwhelming. We have diets that don't allow carbs, diets that restrict fat, diets in which you eat exclusively fruit, diets in which you can't eat animal products, diets based on "superfoods"... whatever that means. Whichever food or food group is targeted, most of these diets fall victim to the same fallacy: if a little is good, more is better. Or, in many cases, if too much is bad, then none at all must be best.

Allow me to elaborate. Eating too many carbs can be detrimental, so restrict them all... too much dietary fat can be bad, so get it as low as possible... eating fruit is healthy, so let's eat nothing but fruit. You see the pattern? I don't think I need to go on. None of these diets get at the foundation of a healthy eating plan, and none come close to establishing a healthy relationship with food. What they lack is a sense of balance. Along with a misunderstanding of how biology works.

Flaxseed and Omega 3's: Why You're Being Misled

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably realize that misleading marketing claims really steam my clams. I just wish we could go to the grocery store, look at a food item, and see the real truth right there on the package, without any of the confusing health claims and advertising. You'd have to have a degree in nutrition just to understand them ha! Which is why I'm writing this article.

There seems to be some confusion about flaxseeds. It's become sort of "cool" to put flaxseeds in everything lately, from cookies, to breads, to granola, to cereal, to whatever. And it seems that taking flaxseed oil as a supplement is in style too. Why? Well, they're a great source of omega 3 fatty acids!!

Okay, technically true. But this doesn't tell the whole story.

Why Grains ARE Important For Most People

It's been a while since I've talked about grains. Like over a year. Too long. I've written Why You Don't Need Grains, about why you don't need grains. Duh. And Whole Grain Destruction, providing some hard science on the pitfalls of whole grains. Oh, and then there was Modern Wheat, explaining the difference between the wheat of the past and the wheat we eat today. Despite the nutritional shortcomings discussed in these articles though, most nutritionists still recommend a grain-based diet like the one depicted in this here food pyramid. Yes, it's outdated, we've moved on to the Plate now. The philosophy is still the same.

As a nutrition professional, I think it's important to talk to other nutrition professionals and understand their views on things, as they often differ from mine. Sometimes you learn something new from considering someone else's perspective.

I can remember one situation when I was doing my counseling internship at Student Health Services at UConn. I was shadowing a dietitian there, and a client that day mentioned that she didn't eat bread; she had heard we didn't need it in our diets to be healthy. Being the intern, I kept my mouth shut and let the counselor handle it. Of course, her advice was that we DO need bread, as it provides important vitamins and minerals. She may have had a point; refined flour products like white bread are enriched and fortified with B-vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin), folic acid, and sometimes iron. For people who haven't eaten vegetables or red meat in six months, maybe refined grain products actually serve a purpose.

So I started thinking... I wonder what it takes to get enough of these nutrients without grains?

Brendan Coburn, RD! And What's Next.

Yoooo what's up y'all!?!? It's been a while since I've written anything here, but it wasn't without good reason. For the past month or so, I've been deep in study mode, getting ready to take the Registered Dietitian exam. And on August 7th, I passed! I'm officially an RD! It's been a long road with countless hours (okay, countable... 1200 in fact) of supervised practice, too many classes, papers, and exams, and overall one big ball of stress, but it's finally over! Now, time for the next step.

So what is the next step, you ask?

1. Most importantly, graduate school at UConn. Yup, stepping right back into the school world. Only this time I'll be a Teaching Assistant, complete with free tuition and a paycheck every two weeks. For real! 
2. I'll be getting back to blogging. Maybe not weekly posts like I had been doing, but I'll be posting as often as I can. Or as often as I have something meaningful to write about!
3. Leaving my job as a cook at Whole Foods. Sorry to my beloved coworkers, but it's time I move on... that job just doesn't serve me anymore at this point in my life. I plan on flexing my RD credential and getting some sort of nutrition-related job on the side!
4. Huh, well I guess that's all I've got for ya. There are some other big things brewing in my head involving some future projects, but nothing's set in stone yet, so I'll refrain from talking about it. Suffice it to say, the future is looking bright!

So that's it for today, back to the blog writing in the near future. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and continues to support me, thank you for reading my blog and for the kind comments, keep being awesome, keep it real, peace I'm out!

Are We Living Too Long?

Let's talk about death today! Sorry, just trying to make it seem exciting. If you know me well, you may know that I live with my grandparents, who are 90+ years old. If you know me really well, you may also know that my grandfather is losing his mind... some sort of dementia, maybe Alzheimer's, who knows. Regardless, much of the time he doesn't know who I am, nor where he is, and from time to time, he still thinks it's the 1940s. He also has a hard time taking care of himself. He seems to forget how to perform even the most basic tasks, like brushing his teeth or shaving. Every day is a struggle for him and for those around him.

Essentially, his quality of life has diminished to the point where I question why he wants to keep fighting. Lately I've been thinking hard about some of this stuff... yes, we're living longer lives, but are we really living?

How to Choose the Best Junk Food: 5 Easy Fixes

Nobody's perfect. In a food world like ours, it's near impossible to stick to a healthy, real-food diet 100% of the time. Eating healthy tends to put you in a bubble... a bubble full of kale, grass-fed beef, home-made sauerkraut, and herbal teas. And while I love that bubble, and you may love that bubble, society does not. Nope, our society doesn't value health and food quality like you and I do, and sometimes it's tempting to give in. So there are bound to be times when you feel like you want to indulge in some junk food, whether it's at a party, at a summer picnic, or maybe you just want to celebrate the new Backstreet Boys album! (Only part joking.)

But whenever it happens, whenever that craving comes upon you, I think it's important that you know how to eat junk food properly. You don't have to completely fall of the wagon and binge on a family size Doritos... there are compromises that can be made here. Rest assured, it IS possible to make choices that will satisfy your craving for junk food AND STILL allow you to fit in with your peers.

Recently, I took a trip to Stop & Shop, my local conventional grocery store, to awkwardly remove items from their places just to take pictures of the ingredients. So here you go... 5 junk foods, along with their healthy counterparts!

Earthing: Why Reconnecting With Nature May Be All You Need

Today I want to talk about something a little different. At first glance, it may seem incredibly hokey. Okay, it WILL seem incredibly hokey. But just stick with me here for a moment... I think there's really something to it.

I'm talking about earthing... the process of grounding your body to the earth. Direct contact, no socks or shoes. Skin on earth. (Or with the assistance of a grounding system, as you'll see later.) Believe it or not, there's good science to back it up... and not just through subjective measurements either... there are real, objective, measurable changes that take place in the human body when we connect with our earth. Reconnecting with nature in this way has been shown to reduce cortisol (a stress hormone), improve blood flow, and regulate our sleep cycles, among other things. Allow me to explain a little more...

Silly Adults... Even Kids Know it's Wrong to Eat Animals! (VIDEO)

As I was browsing Facebook the other night, just about to go to bed, I came across an interesting link that fired me up and kept my up far past my bedtime... an article called "Vegetarianism Demystified by a Toddler". It links to a YouTube video, which I'll just embed here for your convenience... voila!



The video has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from YouTube users. Nearly every comment praises this child for being an irresistible, sweet little boy with a big heart...  See?? He's only 3, even a TODDLER knows it's wrong to eat animals!! What an inspiration!!!

Okay. Fine. That's your opinion. I, on the other hand, saw it differently. Here is how I interpreted his message...

Little Luiz Antonio is just sitting down to eat his octopus gnocchi, when he begins to question the ethics of eating an animal. After a little back and forth with his mother, Luiz decides we shouldn't be eating animals because they're cute, and because every living thing deserves to be a winner in life... all of them all at the same time. If there's one thing Luiz is sure of, this is it. It would just be so great if we could all live forever and ever, and we could all live with the animals and pet each other and cuddle. Everyone could be friends. Everyone in the entire world. We'll be pen pals and Skype friends and tweet each other and eat grass and we'll never have any reason to fight. For ever and ever.