Clean Livin'
A T-man Guide to Health
by TC
While our unofficial motto here at
T-mag is "look good naked," we sometimes forget that it doesn't much matter how good you look, naked or otherwise, if you're as
daid as the mullet that's packed on ice and sitting on the fishmonger's cart.Neither
is it much good if you always feel crummy because you have bad
chemicals gumming up the works, or so much sludge pumping through your
arteries that George W. has recently authorized oil companies to tap
your Alaska-like ass for some crude.And given that we concentrate so much on looking good naked, we often neglect the
health aspect of our sport, passion, vocation, avocation, or whatever category you want to dump this thing we call bodybuilding.It's
with this last point in mind that I offer these simple tips to clean
livin', T-man style. These aren't generally things that you'd read in
GQ, either, like "loofah dead skin off your body so your skin appears
youthful." No such luck. I figure that if you're reading this
site, you know you're supposed to exercise, drink in moderation, get
regular sleep, and refrain from running with scissors. The following
stuff's at
least a little more edgy and scientific.
Avoid fried foods as they angry up the bloodBaseball
player Satchel Paige said it years ago and I'm sure he would have been
hard-pressed as to why you should avoid fried foods, but nevertheless,
he was right on the money.Unfortunately, when you fry foods in
oil, saturated or otherwise, you change the chemistry of the oils, in
effect making them fairly toxic. Add to that the fact that grocery
store oils are already bleached and full of trans-fatty acids (which
are actually more destructive to the health of your coronary arteries
than saturated fat), and you've got yourself one wicked devil's brew.Instead, steam or microwave your food. And if you do fry, use low heat and water or broth and add some good oil
afterwardfor flavor. Or if you must use cooking oil, use small amounts of
something that's more heat stabile like peanut oil, or saturated fats
like coconut oil.
Don't eat fats that are solid at room temperatureYou
know that Skippy's Peanut Butter that comes in a big ol' honkin' jar,
with the tasty chunks on top? Bad stuff. The fact that the oil is solid
at room temperature indicates that the stuff has been treated and as
such, is full of trans fatty acids. As mentioned earlier, trans-fatty
acids could very well prove to be the number one culprit in coronary
heart disease.If you're going to eat peanut butter, eat the
stuff with the liquid floating on top. It's a bitch to mix in, but if
you heat the jar (minus the lid) in the microwave for 30 seconds, it'll
stir right in.Similarly, avoid eating butter and margarine if
possible. While we all know butter is generally nasty stuff, it may
well be that margarine's worse since it's solid at room temp because of
high trans fatty acid content.
Embrace the Salmon
Really,
hug a salmon. It shows the salmon that you love it, and it'll
reciprocate in ways you didn't think were possible for a salmon. No,
what I really mean is to include salmon — scads of it — in your daily
diet.Salmon is incredibly rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which,
because of modern food processing and McDonald's, are becoming
increasingly rare in our diets. If you include more Omega 3's in the
diet — from either salmon or fish oil capsules — you can expect some
incredible things to happen to your body.For one, you could very
well get leaner, as a number of studies have shown that a diet rich in
Omega 3 fatty acids can increase the production of a number of
important mitochondrial enzymes that play a part in fat oxidation. In
fact, some of the changes seen in mitochondria are very similar to what
you might see in a person who just started doing Tae-bo or aerobics of
any kind.Furthermore, these Omega 3's seem to have potent
anti-inflammatory effects, which could lead to relief of asthma and
various musculoskeletal problems such as tendonitis. How much? Well,
occasional
T-mag contributor Eric Noreen recommends as much as
10 grams per day, derived from either Salmon, fish oil capsules, or
other dietary sources such as canola oil (which contains smaller, but
still respectable amounts of omega-3's). Personally, however, for the
reasons stated above, I avoid all supermarket oils.
Don't eat anything that comes in a boxPrior
to oh, about the 18th century, very few people had diabetes. Then came
the invention of industrial-type mills that were able to grind flour to
a fine powder. Whammo! Cases of diabetes start to pop up within a
decade or so.It might be mere coincidence, but I tend to think
not. Instead, I think that the fine milling greatly increased the
glycemic, or insulin, index of the foods it was used in. Prior to
high-powered milling, flour had big chunks of fiber in it, kind of like
the paper you used to use in 1st grade. As such, it digested slowly, as
the bread-equivalent of a two-by-four is wont to do.That wasn't
the case with the new grain products. The fine powdery flour was
digested much more quickly than even sugar, and consequently caused a
big tidal flood of insulin to be released. After years of eating this
way, the peasants first became insulin resistant, and then fat. And
some would develop diabetes.It's no different today. Almost any
food product you can think of that comes in a box is highly processed,
and as such, the insulin index is way off the scale. It's my belief
that eating high insulin-index, boxed foods, causes most of the obesity
in the country.And furthermore, these processed foods almost
always contain an abundance of trans fatty acids, simply because they
don't go rancid as quickly as unsaturated oils.In short, buy fresh foods whenever possible.
Avoid Environmental EstrogensWe've
made the case in this mag that estrogen might very well be more highly
implicated in prostate growth and perhaps even prostate cancer than
DHT. We've also made the case that an abundance of estrogen can cause
gynecomastia, add undesirable body fat, make it harder to put on
muscle, and make you as weepy as Sally Struthers.Most of you
know that it's normal for some Testosterone to aromatize into estrogen.
In fact, the Testosterone and estrogen molecules are very similar; T
has 21 carbon atoms and 21 oxygen atoms. Simply remove one particular
carbon atom and presto! You've got estrogen. Trouble is, as you get
older, levels of this aromatase enzyme increase.As if that
weren't bad enough, those of us in the modern world are constantly
being bombarded by environmental estrogens (xenoestrogens) and plant
estrogens (phytoestrogens), both of which mimic the real thing and are
collectively known as
hormone disrupters.These mock
estrogens are prevalent in some of the foods we eat (soy protein,
predominantly), and in many of the chemicals we use every day like air
fresheners and cleaning products.They're also present in
plastics, and if you heat plastic bowls in the microwave, some of these
xenoestrogens leech into your food. The same thing occurs when you
cover leftovers with plastic food wrap.The amounts that leech into food are infinitesimal, but the exposure can add up over the days, months, and years.As such, follow these simple rules:
•
don't use air freshener, not even those damn scented Christmas trees
that hang from your rearview mirror (not that any T-man would!) • don't heat your food in plastic bowls • don't cover your food with plastic wrap • use lemon or citrus-based cleaners, or vinegar
I
also recommend that you include a dietary estrogen blocker in your
daily supplementation. Biotest's "M" fits the bill perfectly, but in
lieu of that, at least get some of the herb known as "Vitex
agnus-castus." ("M" contains Vitex, among other things, but vitex is
probably the only ingredient you'll be able to find on your own without
too much trouble.)
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