Conditioning Research

This abstract went across my screen earlier today as I was trawling for interesting tit bits. Again I've just read the abstract so as ever you need to be aware that the full study might say more in different ways, but I thought it interesting that there appears to be this implicit assumption that archaeological evidence is obvious that cereals cause tooth decay. Here is the abstract: Frequency of dental caries in four historical populations from the chalcolithic to the middle ages. The majority of dental carie studies over the course of historical period underline mainly the prevalence evolution, the role of carbohydrates consumption and the impact of access to dietary resources. The purpose of the present investigation was to compare population samples from two archaeological periods the Chacolithic and Middle Age taking into account the geographical and socio economical situation. The study concerned four archaelogical sites in south west France and population samples an ...

Asclepius over at Natural Messiah recently pointed to the videos of Khan Academy and I have been spending some time looking through the material they have.  It is awesome.  If you have any interest in biology or physiology then you will find some interesting educational material over there.  For example here is his explanation of Cellular Respiration which how you derive energy from glucose:

As usual with me, no commentary here.  Just to say that this is interesting in its implications. Rinse your mouth out with a carbohydrate solution and you are likely to perform better interms of endurance capacity, whether you are fasted or fed. Riddle me this Batman......

......or they will never burn fat! Carbohydrate intake reduces fat oxidation during exercise in obese boys. .........carbohydrate (CHO) intake attenuates whole body fat oxidation during exercise in healthy children and may suppress fat metabolism in obese youth. ............. CHO intake markedly suppresses fat oxidation during exercise in obese boys. True for the rest of us too.

Paul of the excellent Perfect Health Diet (buy the book, it is fantastic) has had some posts on the dangers of zero carb diets: Dangers of Zero-Carb Diets, I: Can There Be a Carbohydrate Deficiency? Dangers of Zero-Carb Diets, II: Mucus Deficiency and Gastrointestinal Cancers Danger of Zero-Carb Diets III: Scurvy Dangers of Zero-Carb Diets, IV: Kidney Stones All very interesting and challenging. Here is another possible concern: High-protein, reduced-carbohydrate weight-loss diets promote metabolite profiles likely to be detrimental to colonic health. Another possible mechanism: the loss of beneficial compounds produced by gut flora feeding on plant foods. With less fiber in the diet, there is less butyrate production - butyrate is beneficial. Apparently the high-protein low-carb low-fiber diet causes gut flora to shift to protein metabolism which causes release of toxic nitrogen compounds. Overall gut flora may become more pathogenic, less commensal. Interesting. ...

Having carbs in your mouth even if you can't taste them or even if you don't swallow improves exercise performance. Oral carbohydrate sensing and exercise performance. Weird.

I've had stuff previously on sugar and cancer Interesting to spot this abstract which - as far as I read it - indicates that intakes of available carbohydrate, glycemic load and sucrose are associated with elevated risks for pancreatic cancer, while fat - particularly saturated fat - intake is associated with diminished risks. Available Carbohydrates, Glycemic Load, and Pancreatic Cancer: Is There a Link? I haven't seen the full study (does anyone have it?) so I am not sure why the abstract finishes with the statement: Rather than being causal, the short-term increase in pancreatic cancer risk associated with high available carbohydrate and low fat intake may be capturing dietary changes associated with subclinical disease. So they are saying that subclinical pancreatic cancer makes you eat more carbs and less fat!

Well that is how I read this abstract: Whole grains and adiposity: little association among British adults Objectives: To examine associations of whole-grain intake with body weight and adiposity in two nationally representative samples of British adults. Subjects/Methods: A total of 2064 adults aged 16–64 years in 1986–1987, 1599 adults aged 19–64 years in 2000–2001. Whole-grain intake (g day -1 and 16-g amounts) was estimated from consumption of all foods with 10, 25 or 51% whole-grain content, using 7-day weighed dietary records. Body weight, body mass index (BMI) and, in 2000–2001, waist circumference (WC) were measured. BMI and WC were considered as continuous and categorical variables. For each survey, associations of whole-grain intake with body weight and anthropometric indices were examined in men and women separately, before and after adjustment for age, occupational social class, smoking habit, region, season and, in 2000–2001, misreporting. Results: In 1986–1987, whole-...

Carbs may be controversial to we paleo types - (I'm not that paleo actually - I like my cream and the odd spud!) - but here are a couple of new studies indicating that carbs plus protein after exercise benefits recovery: Co-ingestion of protein with carbohydrate during recovery from endurance exercise stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in humans. Effects of an amino Acid carbohydrate drink on exercise performance after consecutive-day exercise bouts.

Recipe to recover more quickly from exercise: Finish workout, eat pasta, and wash down with five or six cups of strong coffee. Well that is what this particular press release says. Personally I can't think of anything I'd like to do less! Glycogen, the muscle's primary fuel source during exercise, is replenished more rapidly when athletes ingest both carbohydrate and caffeine following exhaustive exercise, new research from the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology shows. Athletes who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense, glycogen-depleting exercise, compared to when they consumed carbohydrate alone, according to the study, published by The American Physiological Society. Then again it is possible to perform to high levels as an athlete with minimal carbs ...

One of the things that is not discussed that often with respect to nutrition at least, is that men and women are different. (Of course they are, I've noticed) Hormonally and in terms of their broader physiology there are significant differences. Lyle McDonald talks about this a bit in his Stubborn Fat book but I've not seen it addressed much elsewhere. Anyway, this is an interesting study - the full text of which is available - it is mainly about carb loading for endurance events (a topic also discussed here recently strangely in the context of intermittent fasting ) but there is good stuff there about how carbs are actually burned and how men and women differ in this respect. The abstract is below Gender differences in carbohydrate metabolism and carbohydrate loading. Prior to endurance competition, many endurance athletes participate in a carbohydrate loading regimen in order to help delay the onset of fatigue. The "classic" regimen generally includes an inten...