CrossFit Games Widget

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Great resource for nutrition and health!

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. I've recently stumbled upon a incredibly useful collection of blogs and websites and knew I had to share it! It covers many categories, from Paleo to Weston A. Price nutrition perspectives, to food activism, miscellaneous and local resource info sites. The page details each category, as well as gives a brief description of each website or blog. This is definitely a page to bookmark!


Eat This: The Ultimate Food Resource Guide

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Getting Back to Nature - Natural Movements

Here is a great video by The Strength Box, which demonstrates some fun and playful movements. One thing we don't get enough of as adults is PLAY. How often do you just go and climb around  and crawl around on stuff? Trees, walls, hedges, stuff we used to climb all the time as kids. Our society seems to discourage this kind of behavior in adults these days, but why? Playing is good for your mind AND body, you get to have fun while building capacity in balance, coordination, and agility, three oft-neglected areas of fitness. So get out there, rebel against society's ignorance, and climb a tree, explore the outdoors, and play like you used to when you were a kid! But most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Nutrition Series: The Basics - Lipoproteins

Here is the next installment of the Nutrition Series! It may help to revisit the last post in this series, about cholesterol. This one explains a bit about how lipids are carried around in our bodies, and with topics like HDL and LDL abounding in the media, it can be beneficial to know a bit about these hard working molecules that have been indiscriminately labeled good and bad, respectively.


THE BASICS - LIPOPROTEINS

A chylomicron; ApoA, B, C, and E are apolipoproteins, T (Triacylglycerol)C (Cholesterol); green (Phospholipids)

Lipoproteins are complexes of phospholipids and apolipoproteins, as shown in the picture above. Lipoproteins play a hugely important role in the body, by facilitating the transport of non-water soluble triglycerides, cholesterol, and cholesterol esters in the aqueous(water based) environment of our bloodstream. These lipoprotein particles are classified by their density and size, with larger and less dense lipoproteins consisting of more fat than protein. Some of the largest particles may be up to 200 times the size of the smallest ones, but even the the largest, chylomicrons, can only be about 1/20th the width of the thinnest human hair.

Here are the various classifications of lipoproteins, in order from largest/least dense to smallest/most dense:

Chylomicrons are created by the enterocytes in the small intestine. Enterocytes function to absorb nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract. Chylomicrons carry exogenous(created outside the body) sources of lipids, absorbed by enterocytes, to the liver, heart, adipocytes(fat storage cells), and skeletal muscles. After they’ve unloaded their contents, the remnants of these particles are recycled by the liver into VLDL.

(VLDL) Very Low Density Lipoprotein particles are created by the liver and carry endogenous(created within the body) products to peripheral tissues. As triglycerides from VLDL are deposited into the cells of tissues, it becomes an IDL particle.

(IDL) Intermediate Density Lipoprotein are either recycled by the liver, or deposit more lipids and become LDL particles.

(LDL) Low Density Lipoprotein, or the so called “bad cholesterol”, has the role of transferring the relatively large amount of cholesterol and cholesterol esters to peripheral tissues. There are varying sizes of LDL particles, and only the smaller, denser LDL particles have been associated with heart disease.

(HDL) High Density Lipoprotein, often called “good cholesterol”, carries excess cholesterol from cells back to the liver, to be metabolized into bile acids and salts.

Together, HDL and LDL maintain the cholesterol balance of the body, with LDL transferring cholesterol to cells, and HDL carrying cholesterol from cells.

The image below demonstrates the differences between small and large LDL particles, and shows the metabolism of lipoprotein particles in general as well. (LPL stands for lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme which hydrolyzes lipids in lipoproteins)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Sun Exposure - Why you SHOULDN'T slather on the sunscreen


Dr. Michael Eades posted some excellent articles on the ridiculousness of most dermatologists recommendations about sun exposure nowadays. Many dermatologists will recommend you wear sunscreen when you go out into the sun for a long period of time. However, the large majority of the population has been shown to be significantly vitamin D deficient, a deficiency which has been linked to increased breast, colon, and prostate cancer. Here are the articles, I highly recommend you read them, and then go enjoy the sunshine we should be getting the rest of the week!

Sunshine Superman

Heliophobe Madness

Friday, July 2, 2010

The cover of "The Paleolithic Solution" has been finalized!


Robb Wolf''s book is due out in September, and I HIGHLY recommend you buy multiple copies! This book is going to be an incredibly intelligent and thorough guide to diet, as well as training!