Happy Birthday to my awesome sis, and 8th fittest woman on the planet Jenny O.!!!
Cathcart to Catherine Creek-Part 1
Check out this awesome video of Cathcart to Catherine Creek Part 1. What an outstanding morning! Blessed with good weather, a killer WOD, Full Circle Farms and good friends. Thanks for making it such an awesome time everyone. We got good feedback so be prepared for more installments down the road!
AM Class
“Barbara“
Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
Chapter 9 centered itself around the idea of the over simplification of the cholesterol issue in the dominant nutritional and health research of the 20th century. Many of the same issues were brought up that were dealt with in this article (yes, you should read it if you haven’t already) that I posted the other day. Essentially there are two types of LDL cholesterol and the bad type is raised by excessive carbohydrates in the diet. Your traditional cholesterol test does not break LDL cholesterol into these two categories rendering it much less useful than first thought. The two blood lipid readings that do appear to have some bearing on heart disease are HDL cholesterol (higher is better) and triglycerides (lower is better).
Chapter 10 took a good look at the role of insulin in the heart disease picture. Insulin had for many years been seen only as a “diabetic issue” and not of concern in the role of heart disease. Interestingly, however, many of the same risk factors that present in heart disease patients are also present in type 2 diabetics. Elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, obesity, elevated small-dense LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, glucose intolerance, hyper insulinemia, and insulin resistance are all risk factors for the heart disease patient and are all commonly seen in Type 2 diabetics. Type 2 diabetes is when your body’s tissues become resistant to normal levels of insulin and require excessive levels to be created by the pancreas to operate properly. This condition is brought on by years of excessive carbohydrate intake (this fact is rarely disputed). These same people who have been consuming excessive carbohydrates usually have all of the above listed heart disease risk factors. Interesting.
As complicated as these chapters were they really tied a lot of things together for me. Everyone agrees that high triglycerides, low HDL, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance are bad. They all lead toward heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, and stroke. The only mechanism that can physiologically lead to all of these conditions is excessive carbohydrates and especially refined carbs. Excessive dietary fat doesn’t explain them all. Removing saturated fat doesn’t solve the problem. Excessive carbohydrates are the only explanation that can be given for all of these conditions that so often occur simultaneously. Taubes makes the issue abundantly clear. That, for me, was the take home message of these two chapters. The reason you have never been told this by the mainstream medical establishment is because lowering carbohydrates in the diet inevitably causes increased fat in the diet and Keys’ hypothesis regarding fat and heart disease has been seen as the indisputable truth for so many years that the idea of increased dietary fat scares them to death.
Pictured above is a Japanese noodle called Shirataki. In my mind, this is barely a food. It just always seems wierd to me to consume food with no calories. It is made from the Konjac plant, also knowns as the Devil’s Tongue. It is a no carb, no calorie, technically Paleo friendly noodle. There were two ingredients in the ones that I had, Yam flour and Calcium Hydroxate. The yam flour from the plant listed above is not technically from a yam and is made almost entirely of fiber thus rendering virtually no digestible carbs or calories. The Calcium Hydroxate is a bit of an unknown to me. I researched it and found that in chemical uses is is highly toxic. I am not sure if the food grade version is any different or not. We used these noodles in a spaghetti dish. I was not overly impressed. They are pretty much tasteless, and a bit slimy and rubbery for me. I prefer the spaghetti squash option for this application. Charity preferred these slightly over the spaghetti squash. The kids had no opinion either way. The after effects definitely indicated they had a high fiber content. Yes, the family heard about these from me for the rest of the evening. Anyway, that is the official CFS scoop on Shirataki. I know you were wondering. Shirataki can be purchased at most Asian food stores and Central Market. So…give them a try and share your thoughts with us.
AM Class
Happy rest day!
PM Classes
“Cindy“
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
Introducing the newest member of the CFS 2030 CrossFit Games Affiliate Cup team…Delaney Alexis, Weighing in at 6 pounds 13 ounces and 21.5 inches long she was born at 7:20 PM on February 1st. Congrats Brooke and Ryan. We can’t wait to meet her!
All Classes
Press 3-3-3-3-3
Then…
3 Rounds of 1 minute at each station for max reps of:
Saturday, February 6th is the date for our group WOD with CrossFit All In. It will take place at Valley View Middle School (pictured above). Click here for directions. The WOD is sure to be fun and challenging. Also, to make the event even more special we have a special guest. Delphine from Full Circle Organic Farms is going to WOD with us and then give us a presentation about their product and answer any questions you may have. Click here to visit their site so you can come with some good questions. Shortly after that date we take orders and begin their service. Please make an effort to attend this event so you can make an educated decision on the produce and experience the greater CF community.
All Classes
“Angie“
For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats
I know, I know, I know. We just rowed a 5k. Sometimes constantly varied means doing the same thing twice just a few days apart from each other. Also, depending on class sizes some of you may want to be prepared to run.
Chapter 7 reviewed the history of how fiber made its meteoric rise to the top of the nutritional discussion. It really was a spin off of the carbohydrate philosophy and caught on gaining massive popularity as an explanation for many of the diseases of civilizations. Remnants of this philosophy are still present on the shelves of today’s supermarket. You see many breakfast cereals and other fibrous food items proclaiming their heart health due to their fiber content. Taubes makes the argument that this fiber hypothesis had very little scientific backing. It was essentially more popular than the carbohydrate hypothesis because it could be reconciled with Keys’ low fat diet where the carbohydrate hypothesis was diametrically opposed to it, which was viewed as nothing short of nutritional heresy.
Chapter 8 begins its talk of the scientific backing for the carbohydrate hypothesis with another case study of a primitive culture that was free from the diseases of civilization when eating their native diet that included little or no refined carbs and became afflicted with many of the western health problems when introduced to refined carbs. It then turns its attention to Syndrome X which includes hypertension (high blood pressure), high triglycerides (fat in the blood), low HDL (“good cholesterol”) and diabetic or pre-diabetic conditions including insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and constantly high insulin levels. He points out the negative synergystic effect of the three together and how each one predisposes the individual to the others. Interestingly, he also points out the fact that all three have been shown to be exacerbated by sugar and other refined carbs.
So…what do you think? Is fiber the hero it has been portrayed to be? What are your thoughts on Syndrome X? Who has been totally grainless for the month of January? What are your positive and negative experiences since going grainless? Performance changes? Body composition changes? Post your thoughts on these questions to comments.
