Wednesday, 23 January 2013

The 50 Most Shocking Facts about Diet & Exercise - Part 2

No 30 Trainers.  The global market for trainers is worth a staggering 10 billion per year!  But there seems to be more running based injuries now than in any other time in human history.  In the 1970's a particular brand came out that had thick heels, this correlated with more knee injuries.  This meant you were more likely to strike with your heel making your knee more unstable.  Now experts are trying to get us back to evolutionary running where we run on the balls of our feet.  Your natural disposition would be to place the ball of your foot down first then your heel second.  A little like in 'barefoot running' which seems to be the in craze at the moment.  This type of running has been shown to significantly reduce injury.

When you barefoot run you land on the middle of your foot and the actual arch of your foot flattens and absorbs the impact naturally.  This is how we ran for 1000's of years before the invention of the cushioned shoe.  At the end of the day I don't think you should follow the latest trend, find something you are comfortable in and go with that.

No 27 Diet drinks make you fat!  They say (and I agree) having artificial sugar makes you want to eat more.  Your taste buds will pick up sugar / sweetness and tells your brain 'hey there's lots of sugar on the way down, I've just had something really sweet'.  This has been shown time and time again that people who particularly drink diet drinks end up feeling hungry afterwards and end up eating more!  Many diet drinks also contain lots of caffeine.  All that caffeine will keep you up all night where you'll be tempted to raid the fridge and cupboards!

No 25 Cheap alternative to sugar, namely Aspartame.  Artificial sweeteners are neuro toxic, they cause damage to cells and brain function.  They are thought to be carcinogenic meaning they could trigger cancer cells in the body.  Aspartame is also known as Canderel, Nutrasweet and Vitasweet.

No 23 Butter or Margarine?  This question has been asked for many years.  I personally like butter, why, because its natural and comes from a cow.  margarine is made in a factory, it may start as a solid but then is artificially turned soft by pumping it with lots of hydrogen atoms (a process called 'hydrogenating').  This turns the margarine into a 'trans fat'.  Trans fats are neither here nor there, its molecular structure has been messed about with.  Your body will not know what to do with it, its confused, it can't metabolise or utilise it like it would with the other food groups.  These fats will cause oxidation and damage to your cells.  If you carry a lot of fat around your bum and thighs in particular, it may be down to too many trans fats in your diet.

No 22 Diet Pills.  These could give you up to 10% weight loss but you still need to put some effort in.  Many diet pills work by blocking your fat absorption which means if you have a diet high in fat its most definitely going to be leaving you via the other end most probably in a very unpleasant way!  And you may not have any control on where and when this is going to happen.  You may also be unaware that many of these pills are basically 'Amphetamines' with harmful side effects such as convulsions, heart attach, stroke and death in extreme cases!  Three of the worse are 'Phenylpropanolamine', 'Clenbuterol' and 'Phentermine'.

No 16 Marathons and injuries, sometimes fatalities.  'Chicago Marathon Death', 'London Marathon 2012, woman died while attempting race', 'Four joggers die in Great North Run'.  These were just some of the ones they showed on screen.  They go on to say; this is a substantial amount of exercise and we don't know what shape our bodies are in, whether we have narrowing of our arteries and putting our bodies under that kind of strain could cause us to have a heart attack or something really serious. 

Dehydration is something else that can be very dangerous.  On a hot day you could lose up to 4 litres of water from all that sweating and panting.  But be careful don't drink too much as that could kill you too!  One can reduce the concentration of certain salts in the body, specifically sodium and this can result in the brain swelling up and causing certain death.

Reduce the risk of something serious happening by preparing yourself several months before your actual event.  If you have never run a long distance before then try a shorter distance such as a 2.5, a 5 or 10k run as part of your endurance training.

No 12 Sports Drinks and are they a clever marketing ploy to sell us a load of sexily packaged sugary water!  Many of the experts on the programme said there isn't enough evidence (or what evidence there is is poor) to back up 'sports drinks' being any better than water.  Or that they will make you perform any better.  This debate will probably continue till the cows come home!  If you wanted to read a little more on the subject the Panorama programme 'The truth about Sports products' may also enlighten you.  Click the link to watch on BBCI player

No 11 Can fruit and veg make you fat? Yes its quite possible, some facts;  fruit still contains the sugar fructose, although I'd rather get the majority of my sugar from fruit rather than cakes, biscuits and pastries.  But it's still sugar, and too much eaten with no activity to burn it off still equals fat!  Too much fruit may erode the enamel on your teeth.  A diet rich in too many carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkins can build up too many 'carenotoids' in your system and could turn your skin orange!  And I thought orange skin was a sign of a badly put on fake tan!

Okay Top 10 next time.  Till then, stay healthy and well.

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