Nutrition – Food for thought

“Poor thoughts begin with poor foods. If we eat nutrient-dense foods we can make superior neurochemicals in our brain that allow us to think like a genius”. – Manuel Lora

While studying remedial massage for sports injury in my early 20’s,  I came to think of our bodies as being comprised of tubes and spaces of varying size and density that contract, and release to move fluids and gasses from process to process, and indeed for us to move. Inflammation, adhesions and tension come to interfere with all processes effecting the performance of the whole. Inflammation and inappropriate tension when not released, precedes disease, injury and discomfort.  What creates inflammation in one person, may be well tolerated in another, combinations of factors can accelerate and exacerbate, in short we need to become better attuned to on our own body’s and only resort to medicine after failing with food, thought and action.

The last 80 years of nutritional education and research has been handled very poorly, from the production of our food, through to the medical treatments that result from its consumption. 

With our busy lives and complicated commitments, it is incredibly difficult to filter out good science from that which emulates it. In the case of nutrition it is so difficult that many people either give up, deciding – “all in moderation” or they follow the reasonable and persuasive arguments that match their existing beliefs. 

Neither of these approaches makes good use of the great science that has in fact been done, and neither is likely to allow us to make optimal and well-informed choices. At best, eating in moderation will bring a an average result, when many already have the resources and discipline to live in healthy, strong bodies with clear minds. If average is ok, read no further 😉

Sub-optimal food choices will undermine all that we work hard to achieve in other areas of our lives, so here I will try to point to where I suspect the low hanging fruit, (so to speak) can be found.

 

Nutrition is the key to health – and it will not fall on our heads. While this article also is by no means “the” truth, far from it, my hope is that it will, at best, serve as a stepping stone along the way. Sometimes I wonder if it is job as humans, to run out of questions, open up and let it, (and each other) be as it is. But not today ha ha

We have to learn about it and try what works for us individually. Here are some crucial points that you may not be aware of:

 

If you don’t want to know anything else about nutrition, then try to eat a low crap diet, in other words – JERF Just Eat Real Food. ( thanks for that Jimmy Moore) I feel that we only need rules to the degree that we lack understanding, in the beginning rules on what to eat are helpful. Later, understanding drives choice and rules are just memory aids.

 

Hormones not calories determine growth.

Hormones drive our mind and bodies. More important than exercise and more powerful than will-power – what we eat drives our hormones – Using food to re-train our bodies to be sensitive to Leptin, Insulin and Cortisol is the most powerful step we can take towards healing disease, and enjoying more youthful bodies and minds. The most simple step is to  dump carbs, eat real food, use good fats for fuel and be more mindful of that which affects our stress levels.

If already sick, getting tests and working with a doctor will be essential, but you will still need to understand and steer this process yourself, as few in the medical profession get the role that nutrition plays on the hormones that interconnect our biology and psychology.

Gary Taubes nailed this in his book from 2007, Good calories, bad calories, since then Jack Kruse takes it further in his excellent book Epi-paleo Rx, and most recently David Ludwig’s book, Always Hungry, backs it up with the science and methodology. 

 

Cholesterol – give it to me baby

LDL and HDL – HDL is considered good, and of the LDL the part that is of concern are the small dense particles and they matter much more when your circulating fats, (triglycerides are high) and if your arteries have been inflamed and damaged from prolonged insulin exposure. Cholesterol is vital to your health and your gall bladder produces more than you could ever eat anyway. Lowering cholesterol is a flawed concept, used to sell billions of dollars of dangerous drugs and inflammatory polyunsaturated oils. Low LDL levels are associated with cancer, as LDL cholesterol is essential for healthy cell division. High HDL is linked to low inflammation. Excellent presentation here from Ivor Cummings  on the “real” basics. – just the facts from Ivor.

Concerned about heart disease? – this short but in-depth article goes into the real cause, yes it does involve LDL, but that is not the smoking gun…

 

Insulin

Insulin determines wether fat is stored or used as fuel, sugar in the blood triggers the release of insulin, which strips the sugar from your circulation and sends it to your liver where it is converted to fat and stuffed into your liver and other inconvenient places. 

There will be more saturated fat circulating in the blood on a high carb diet than on a high fat diet as most of those carbs are converted to fat for storage rather than fuel. Being stripped of sugar, leaves the owner hungry, real hungry, for more carbs doh!

Excessive and prolonged insulin exposure causes inflammation and terrible damage to our vascular system, from the capillaries to the major arteries. Becoming desensitized to insulin means you need more to get the same effect, this is the primary cause of obesity and other metabolic disease. It is tragedy on a massive scale, and the diabetes associations of most countries are funded by the makers of insulin. The logic being, keep eating carbs, but dose up on insulin, lucky humans are smarter than dogma, it just takes a while to catch up sometimes.

The diet our bodies evolved to eat contained very little sugars, and omega 6 fats.  All carbohydrates create an insulin response as does excessive protien, of course some carbs such as fructose, sucrose, grains and starches have a large effect and others such as green leafy vegetables and berries have minimal impact. If your overweight chances are you are insulin resistant,  and will benefit from limiting carbs immediately.

Some people like myself seam to have no short term problems from consuming carbs or even refined sugars and fruit juices, this is because my body, (so far) remains insulin sensitive. This means I require lower levels of insulin to regulate my blood sugar, but I have learnt to burn fat as a fuel instead and select my carbs carefully. This is called nutritional ketosis, I will cover this on another post.

Carbs tend to be delicious, but judicious selection of which, how much and when you eat them will change your life. More dramatically in fact, than exercise alone can. If you cut Carbs, you will run out of fuel, but if you replace them with healthy fats, you will have more energy, better emotional stability, clearer thinking and help to unload our bio-sphere. Learn more about fats here

 

Good and Bad Fats – not what we were told

Our bodies use the same mechanisms to process Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids, both are essential but Omega 3 are much more valuable, (serum ideally serum levels are below 4:1). They are synthesized into DHA and EPA which is used in every cell membrane and together with water form our brains. Too much Omega 6 further increases inflammation and blocks our ability to synthesize Omega 3’s. As a very rough guide, seeds are 10:1 Omega 6 and grasses are 1:1. Grains are grass seeds, that is why products from animals that feed on grasses are nutritionally dense and super healthy, whereas animals fed on grains – well they look like we do on the same diet, inflamed and over-wieght.

 

Eating the fat from animals that feed freely on diverse natural grasses rich in omega 3, or any animal on its natural diet, (apart from the wrong part of a puffer fish) has never been proven to cause anything but fantastic health. This is because animal flesh is rich in saturated fats, these fats are safe to heat and cook with and they are nutritionally dense. In fact they are a super fuel. If you want no part in killing animals for food, free-range eggs and diary products, (if you are tolerant) also make total sense.

If you do not want to use animal products at all, coconut, avocado, olives and macadamia nuts and oils truly look like super foods. These along with free range duck eggs are the backbone of my diet, as it is hard to find the fat from large herbivores that have been grazed naturally in this part of the world.

 

Aging- Inevitable, Inexorable, yet Increasing Influenceable

Mitochondria are the organelles within our cells that burn fuel to produce energy. As we age we get progressive mitochondrial dysfunction from chemical and environmental damage causing the mitochondria to loose their ability to provide energy to the cell.

Much of the cells energy is used to repair the DNA in the nucleus of that cell. Impairment of energy production destabilizes that process and we recreate ourselves progressively less accurately and age accordingly.

The correct diet for our current state, drives ideal hormone formation and interaction, this will lower Inflammation while maintaining healthy mitochondria function. Add to that fun, full-filling activities and healthy relationships based on more honestly connecting with nature and you have the recipe for a long and graceful life that will allow and inspire others to have the same.

 

Fat as a Fuel

Healthy fats are a vastly superior source of energy, or fuel to carbs. It takes about 2 weeks for your body to switch to burning fat as a fuel and it can only happen if you stop drip feeding your body on sugar, (glucose, fructose, carbohydratesstarches and fruit juice included) So you will need to do some research here, but not too much. Even a lean person is storing from 10,000 calories of fat, the most you can store from carbs, (glycogen) is 2,000 calories. The fat will burn cleaner, producing less lactic acid, does not feed the damaged mitochondria of cancer cells and is less harmful to cell membranes, (reduces Oxidative stress). Running on Fat is called Nutritional Ketosis, in the absence of glucose the body produces ketones, which are shown to reduce 7 out of 14 key markers of inflammation. This is not the only good diet by any means, Atkins, Paleo, Epi-paleo, LCHF diets are all based on running on fats rather than carbs for fuel, Ketogenic is probably the most extreme and is my diet of choice at the moment. My favorite researchers on this are: Dr. Dominc D Agostino and Dr, Steven Phinney

 

A Gut-full of Gluten

We understand so little about our minds, let alone our bodies. New studies reveal we have 30 trillion human cells, but harbor 39 trillion bacteria. In our gastro intestinal tract, (GI) we have about 1kg of bacteria, about 70 percent of our immune system arises from this interaction between human cells and alien bacteria. The inter-face between our gut and our blood can leak due to infections, allergies and toxins creating inflammation. Our liver is our last line of defense here, so a leaky gut will over-work our liver, as will constantly relying on it to convert excess sugars into fat. Many skin conditions are symptomatic of leaky gut. Gluten causes leaky gut, even in those who are tolerant, there will be a price. It is possible to grow grains that are lower glycemic, non gluten, and less hard on the soil and we better re-establish those old genetic lines now that we have 7 billion people to feed. You can see that eating well has positive socio-economic and political consequences. 

There are many things that we tolerate to different degrees, but are still in fact ruining our health. I have no problem with people choosing to ingest whatever they want. However, destroying wilderness and lives for profit, manipulating government, media and the educations systems never did make sense. The cost is ultimately our bio-sphere, and while we do not have to get everything right immediately, we do need somewhere to live and learn. The best short presentation I have seen on gluten is here.

 

Cancer

Cancer is a metabolic disease, and money spent on treating it as a genetic disease was largely miss-appropriated for the same reason that seeds are modified, patentability. Diabetes, Heart Disease, Alzheimers Obesity similarly are directly related to the way we metabolize fuel in our mitochondria, Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize in 1931 for discovering the that cancer cells have damaged mitochondria. (As Thomas Seymour immaculately presents in his book, Cancer as a metabolic disease) – This makes the mitochondria unable to respirate, (use oxygen) which is necessary to to burn fats for fuel. So they have to ferment glucose or glycogen for energy which creates lactic acid. Starve cancer cells of glucose and they will not be able to compete with healthy cells which can  burn fat.

 

Statins

I have heard it quoted that statins represent a 250 billion dollar a year industry, all based on lowering cholesterol, not only do they not work well and often have terrible side-effects, the premise on which they are based is false. Some do have significant anti- inflammatory properties, but nowhere as good as β-Hydroxybutyrate, one of the main keytones our bodies produce for free in the absence of sugars.

Another highly profitable piece of terrible advice is taking aspirin, which, like gluten causes leaky gut, which is right at the beginning of the heart disease causation. 

 

Environmental Impact of Meat Production – another view

Much of the meat we consume is now grown in Confined Animal Feeding Operations CAFO’s. These are places of extreme cruelty and the animals are mostly fed grains, antibiotics and other ground up animals. However, meat is still massively more nutrient dense than plants. Also animals are absolutely required in both regenerative responsible agriculture. – so what to do?

Many who are able, are now choosing grass fed, free-range animal products to support the demand and growth of those industries and to support the health of themselves and their families. This is not really spreading to restaurants as fast as I would like to see, but the demand must lead that growth.

I totally do respect the choice to follow a plant based diet, and have tried it, but the more I learn, the more I come to see that most of our current health problems are actually coming from growing poorly selected plants for human and animal food.

As a species we are 2 million years old, in the last 10,000 years we have bred the natural insecticides out of the plants we eat, (except for legumes) the most while increasing their glycemic loading. They now need more fertilizer and protection, often both are chemical and destroy the life which is the soil, releasing carbon. 

Demand for real food is returning some of the lands devastated by monoculture soy and carbohydrate production back to regenerative farming practices. By taking care of ourselves we can also be supporting the possibility of stable biodiversity, soil regeneration and carbon sequestration. 

When viewing natural systems it is not helpful to filter the information through the lens of subjective morality, capital gain or any other synthetic perspective. I get why we might do that, but there is always a price for misinterpreting nature, the first price is that it creates conflicts that are hard to resolve. The second price is the world we have at the expense of the nature we had. Hopefully you can see the incredible freedom that re-awaits if we are able to re-verse engineer our current paradigm. 

 

3 Keys to SUP Success

Our bodies automatically maintain our life-support, growth and regeneration processes, (despite our best efforts to poison ourselves).  Athletes complete complex dynamic actions, without having to first work out the forces and angles. Sometimes the response is faster than the brain can send a message to the muscles anyway, (especially before that first coffee).  To me, sport is like physics without the numbers and the key is to get into the “zone”. By focusing their awareness into the present moment, athletes surrender the job to the intelligence in their bodies. To do this, they simply move as much attention as they can, from their inner dialogue and place it into their five senses. Shifting focus from perception to experience – its a reality trip.

SUP is something we do in the environment, not in the classroom or in our heads. Stability and motion is achieved through experience and from that, arises understanding. The best way to learn anything is to be playful, to experiment fearlessly with a sense of curiosity. It took most of us a year to learn how to walk, and after years of sitting, some of you will be amazed at what you will let go off when you re-visit the reality of balance in a liquid environment, (not the kind that comes in bottles lol). 

The perfect paddle technique is no-technique, in other words, let your body work it out, here are some ideas however, that I have learned from observing how my body achieves board speed even in rough conditions. It’s all about efficient use of energy through high quality attention. When we focus on our senses rather than listening to our minds, the quality of our actions increases “beyond belief”, pun intended.

N0. 1 – BALANCE – “I allow the board to move to me”

If we can keep our eyes level with the horizon and our centre of gravity centered over our base of support, then we are able to apply force with-out falling. Sound tricky?, it is at first, very much, then suddenly not at all. Balancing on water is a process of allowing, rather than a “doing”, and therein lay the keys to the beauty and the freedom.

It takes time to surrender a little control, but eventually we learn to let our hips be swayed freely by the motion in the ocean. This works because the force that is transferred up through the board is absorbed by the movement of the hips, (like bamboo swaying in the breeze grasshopper), allowing my head to stay centered over my weight and my eyes to remain level with the horizon, ( I don’t have to watch the horizon, but it helps when beginning).

 In this way, SUP rewards flexibility with freedom, the more restriction I can release from the soft tissues that act across, (particularly, but by no means limited to) my lower back and leg joints, the more narrow the board I can use and the rougher the water I can apply effective force from. When sitting, the emphasis shifts to the shoulders, when standing, your whole body learns to be swayed freely. Our bodies, like our faces store our habitual emotional states. Release the tensions from your body and you may find your ideas and opinions loosening up also. 

Returning to balance is a sub-tractive process, in the ocean we soon let go of that which is not of value. The ironic lesson I have found is that freedom comes, to the degree that I can surrender control to the forces that are already in motion. This is like seeking to understand before we act. Next comes the bit where we get to choose direction and apply force.

No. 2 – DIRECTION – “vertical paddle, straight line”

The “rails” of the board are the bottom edges that engage with the water. As with a train, the rails determine the direction. Dig a rail into the water and you will begin to move in that direction. When we paddle on the right side, we are paddling at least half the width of the board to the right of the centre-line of the board. (you can not paddle down the centre-line of an ordinary board). This acts like a rotational force making the board turn to the left, to turn more, paddle even further from center and to turn less, paddle closer to the centre of the board. To go dead straight, we cancel this rotational force by putting weight on the rail of the same side we are paddling on. You do not need to think about how much weight to apply, simply paddling with the shaft closer to vertical will shift more of your body weight onto one foot, engaging the rail on that side, resulting in a straighter direction. This is counter intuitive to those who are still trying to keep the board flat. The lesson – ” to return to balance and achieve greater efficiencies, some trust is required”.

To turn the board around quickly, it is good to remove the weight from the rails at the front half of the board, by putting one foot back and moving your upper body over it. This is like taking the train of the tracks for a moment rather than trying to twist it over them. Your feet remain shoulder width apart, one foot back. Bending your knees to lower your center of gravity, will help you to stay balanced.

 

 

If I paddle on the right side of the board, my hips circle around to the left, this l allows my right shoulder to drop and left to come up – bringing my paddle into a more vertical line, ready to stroke close to the board. It also shifts most of my weight onto my right leg which engages the right hand side rail of the board, cutting a straighter line to the goal.

To apply directional force, keep the paddle vertical and close to the board, to apply rotational force, move it closer to the horizontal line and paddle far from the board. Pushing the blade away from the back of the board turns it quickly to the same side. When paddling, zero compromise equals zero waste, so make each stroke count if you want to increase performance.

No. 3 – FORCE – “simple machines increase efficiency” 

The Paddle is a simple Lever, (a class 1 lever for the nerds), the bottom hand acts as the “fulcrum”. Force applied by rotating down and forward with the top hand, creates a force in the opposite direction at the blade end, effectively pulling the board over the water. If you move the fulcrum towards the blade, you gain more leverage, but must move more, if you shift it up the shaft and away from the blade, (such as when you use a longer paddle), you decrease the force applied at the blade, but do not need to move as much, can stand taller, but you shift some of the effort away from the core and into the arms and shoulders. SUP athletes will shift the workload to different muscles fibers in order to rest without stopping. Once again, when there is deeper understanding, technique, (knowledge) is not necessary.

Reach forward, weight going onto the balls of my feet, slip the paddle into the water with a little twist, (inclined plane?) Contract the abdominals, breath out, pulsing, almost jerking, the force down through the lever. The contraction is timed to be short and powerful, it runs through the shoulder girdle, the supporting leg and even the toes on the paddle side. The “crunch” contracts the diaphragm, so breathing out now, is natural, as is breathing in when I straighten up, circle my hips back to the other side and reload for another stroke on the same side of the board.

By locking my arms straight, I in effect stiffen and lengthen the lever, and focus its motion, particularly the fulcrum, within a smaller area, this increases efficiency and control. It also limits the contraction. more to the abdominal muscles, placing this motion nice and tidy at the centre of gravity, reducing losses due to inertia, (ok I may be reaching here, I value understanding over abstract knowledge).

How do we re-load the paddle for the next stroke, without bending our elbows? This takes practice, the key is to simply allow your hips to circle back to the opposite side from the stroke as you stand up and breath in. Simple, but it took me a while to understand the wisdom of my body. The left over energy from the stroke is used to re-load. The circle described by my hips acts like a fly-wheel, the stroke powers the reload and gives me time to take a breathe as I am naturally straightening up, expanding my diaphragm. In the stroke phase I am very tense, in the re-load phase I am as relaxed as I can possibly be with out going to jelly, (that is some real Ying Yang shit happening ha ha).

Putting it all together – The Water Dance

So far this all sounds rather mechanical. By keeping the arms straight, we learn how to generate most of the power from a concentrated contraction of the stomach muscles. This has 2 benefits. First, it keeps the contraction on the centre-lne, and second, it limits much of the motion to the hips. The Hips are already moving in an elipse in order to keep the paddle vertical and reload it. Pulse the contractions with your breathing, to find and maintain a sustainable rhythm.

Everything I described needs to be treated like a drill – there is no right way, there is only play. The reason I share these tools, is that water, especially the ocean can be an intense environment, personally I blame the wind, and the sun, (just kidding). If you can paddle with purpose and power you may end up saving somebody, rather than needing to be saved. So play, but please be response-able too. 

On flat water, I notice racers are not circling their hips much, looks more like they are bobbing for apples, but damn they are quick. On the ocean, the water is moving me, the circle of my hips is the most critical of all the cycles of motion I described. So I need to lay down my rhythm in time with the motion of the ocean. The best way to do this is to say “Yes” to all the noise in my head, this little trick allows me to put my attention into my body. Thats when the Water starts to dance me and everything becomes beautiful and efficient.

Our minds are like super computers,(at best) that love to find meanings and solve problems, supposedly helping us to predict, control, acquire and stay safe. When the evidence of my senses differs from my opinions, (I have been known to harbor one or two) my mind gets agitated and goes to work. If I just say Yep, thats how it is right now, it forgets to annoy me for a moment and I can steal my attention back – leaving, (alas briefly) that which is non-sense and returning to my senses.

Personally I love paddling in little rain squalls. The ocean rolls my board, rain comes down to cover the sea in a zillion tiny kisses. White mist like snow blanketing shifting green dunes. I simply have to pay full attention or fall, so I wake up to a world of exquisite beauty, of course in Thailand it is all still bath-tub warm, and home is minutes away, but the sense of Aliveness is well…”mind blowing”.

Thank you for you your attention, I have some small idea of how valuable it really is =8-)   Craig Thompson  July 2015

 

 

SUP Paddle Length

How long should your paddle be?

With the advent of finer tolerances between inner and outer tubes in adjustable paddles, better locking clamps and key-ways to keep the T-piece perfectly aligned with the blade, adjustable paddles are an excellent choice. They are easier to sell also than a fixed length paddle, as they can be used by more potential buyers.

However, a fixed shaft will always be reletively cheaper, lighter and you can select the shaft stiffness and cross-sectional shape – i.e. elliptical shaft. Which raises the question, how long should my paddle shaft be and how do I know for sure before I cut that expensive carbon tubing?

As in many sports it is the racing scene that drives development, not only in equipment but in skill and technique also. Much of that evolution is relevant and finds its way into more general purpose products and uses.

Carbon Boards, High Aspect Blades, touring board shapes and most relevant here – the short, fast and powerful racing paddle technique all come from Paddle-board racing. 

Paddle Technique

What I call Race Technique is still evolving, and I continue to learn by watching, and speaking with professionals. Every so often I help out with some product testing also, where i get to see the direction of new prototyping. 

The trend has gone from large surface area rounded blades with lots of scoop, towards longer, more slender blades that are more rectangular, flatter and smaller. 

The trend has also taken us to much shorter strokes more rapid, (higher cadence) strokes that start as far out in front as you can reach, and end with the blade slipping sideways out of the water just  before it comes level with your toes. The arms are locked, the elbows do not bend, forcing your stomach to “crunch” out the stroke. Most importantly, your elbows do not bend on the return stroke either, forcing you to swing the blade out to the side and back to the front, tracing a letter D shape. 

The longer the Paddle, the further you will have to swing it out to the side to keep the blade clear of the water in the reload. This takes time, and it wastes energy, Since the power is coming from crunching your rectus abdominis muscles, (6 pack) you are leaning forward driving the paddle quite deep, so a longer shaft is also not necessary. 

Modern boards are generally thinner, especially in the standing area, this can amount to standing several inches closer to or above the waters surface.

The stroke I describe is more of training drill, than a hard and fast rule, for instance, over longer distances, paddle-board riders will often vary their style greatly to recruit different muscle fibers, allowing some recovery with-out needing to stop. Once you can paddle like this with-out bending your elbows, or passing your toes, you can relax on the rules of the drill and match your breathing to the flow of your movements and any swell, wake or wind chop that is present.

Conclusion

Your paddling speed and style and the thickness of your board will definitely have a big impact on the length of your paddle. Presently I use the following guide as a starting point:

With your shoulders level, and the blade on the ground centered between my feet, I can comfortably reach over the T-piece with one hand, while my elbow is still slightly bent. 

If you are a hard core sprinter, you may want to go shorter than this, and if you are a cruiser who likes to use big long strokes that end when the blade slips free of the water behind you, then you will probably prefer a longer paddle, (where your hand just reaches over the T-piece with a straight arm). 

Slower Cadence – Larger Blade, longer shaft 

Faster Cadence – Smaller Blade, shorter shaft 

Both techniques can work well over distance, but the Faster Cadence is definitely better for racing or catching a ride from fast moving water.

Of course if you bend forward more, you must also straighten up again, though it is not done under load like the “crunch” it is still done mainly by contracting your lower back muscles – which is worth considering for many of us. Which is why some of the older salty sea dogs prefer a longer paddle. 

It is not a bad idea to test an adjustable paddle at different lengths, try some different paddle-stroke techniques, maybe get some coaching. When you settle on a length that you like, then use that as a guide for cutting your next shaft.