I participate on a non-nutrition blog where LC is getting trashed, and I am trying to hang in there in the arguments with the little science I know. I can’t find any googles debunking “acidic blood on LC,” however.

I am thoroughly enjoying past posts of yours. Unbelievable stuff. Thank you for enlightening all of us.

Jill

Hi Jill–

Two or three sentences, eh?

A number of foods cause an increase in acidity of the blood: cheese, grains, and meat are the primary ones.  Other foods cause just the opposite: a decrease in acidity in the blood.  These anti acidity foods are green leafy and colorful vegetables and many fruits.  The total acidity of the blood is a function of the total composition of the diet, so if you eat meat, avoid grains, and consume green leafy and colorful vegetables, your blood acidity should be as it should.

Having written these couple of sentences, I must add that Herta Spencer, one of the world’s foremost calcium experts, has done a number of studies showing that a large amount of protein in the diet does NOT cause a decrease in calcium in the urine, which means that the increased protein does NOT cause calcium to be leached from the bones.  I have spoken directly with Dr. Spencer on this issue, and she assured me that all of her work bears this out.

This is probably a topic for a blog post.  Hope these few sentences help. 

Cheers–

MRE 

The new study found that the expression of the Myostatin gene (which limits muscular growth) was reduced by 37% in subjects who participated in high-intensity resistance exercise.

Myostatin Gene Expression Is Reduced in Humans with Heavy-Resistance Strength Training
http://www.ebmonline.org/cgi/content/full/228/6/706

“A 37% decrease in myostatin expression was observed in response to [strength training] in all subjects combined.”

Is it possible that the expression of the myostatin gene is further mediated by the amount of protein vs. carbohydrate ingested? (The controls in the leucine & whey experiment had shakes that contained maltodextrin in place of the leucine and whey.)

Thanks for a great blog, Dr. Eades!

Hi John–

Interesting paper.  I don’t know if the subjects in the paper on leucine and whey did enough heavy-resistance strength training to decrease their myostatin expression.  But I don’t know for sure.  I find the whole myostatin issue pretty interesting, however.  Doug McDuff, M.D. (who trained at Arkansas where I did my medical training), and who promotes a slow motion type of resistance training similar to Slow Burn, has written a good general article about myostatin that you can find on his website.  You have go there, navigate to ‘Articles’ and look for the following: Muscle: The Myostatin Connection.

I suspect that the leucine works in a different direction, however.  It seems to work through a particular signaling cascade involving insulin to stimulate muscle growth.

Cheers–

MRE

Quick question (but only if you’re not feeling swamped!): My layman’s reading of the abstract seemed to indicate that in those on the leucine+whey combo, not only did some of the untrained muscles grow in size and strength, but they grew as much as the trained muscles. That result seems even more far-fetched.

Am I misreading the (rather technical) language, or could such a thing be possible?

Hi John–

In my reading I interpret it to mean that there were significant changes in both, but not necessarily the same.  I’ve got the paper on order through interlibrary loan (unfortunately my university doesn’t subscribe to that particular journal so I don’t have immediate access to an electronic version); I’ll be able to glean more from the paper than from the abstract.

Best–

MRE 

Actually, even this statement by Repovich and Peterson may be false.

The study Effects of leucine and whey protein supplementation during eight weeks of unilateral resistance training by
Coburn JW, Housh DJ, Housh TJ et al. . [J Strength Cond Res, 2006;(2):284-91.] found that leucine supplementation with whey protein resulted in increased muscle volume even in muscles that were not trained.

For the laymen, here’s a summary:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFY/is_9_24/ai_n16820648

Hi John–

Thanks for the article citation.  I hadn’t seen that one.  Run a PubMEd search on Layman DK to find a number of other good studies on BCAA in general and leucine in particular.

Cheers–

MRE 

How moronic is that last statement anyway? It is well-established that one will remain in protein catabolic state when only carbohydrate is ingested after resistance exercise, so traditional sports drinks like Gatorade® are ABSOLUTELY USELESS IN TERMS OF POST-EXERCISE MUSCLE ANABOLISM. In sharp contrast, amino acid ingestion alone significantly increases muscle protein anabolism after resistance exercise. However, consumption of both amino acids and carbohydrate results in much greater effects on muscle protein anabolism, suggesting an interactive effect between insulin, amino acid availability and resistance exercise (1).

It appears that these “exercise physiologists” do not even read ACSM´s own scientific journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. You see, a paper published in that ACSM journal few months ago also clearly demonstrated the importance of post-resistance exercise protein intake (2). In summary, the intended audience of that presentation was obviously clueless goofs.

Anssi Manninen

References

1. Manninen AH. Hyperinsulinaemia, hyperaminoacidaemia and post-exercise muscle anabolism: the search for the optimal recovery drink. Br J Sports Med. 2006 Nov;40(11):900-5.
2. Cribb PJ, Hayes A. Effects of supplement timing and resistance exercise on skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2006 Nov;38(11):1918-25.

Hi Ansii–

Thanks for the comment.  I’ll pull the papers you cited and take a look.

Cheers–

MRE 

For what it’s worth, after reading this article I decided to just have protein w/ very minimal sugar after my training session the other day. All I can tell you is that instead of feeling strong and lively like I do when ingesting a bit more simple sugar…I felt lethargic for the rest of the day, and found myself sore the next morning. Neither of which have happened for quite some time. In fact I can’t remember the last time either happened.

I’ll try and report back, I believe that there was a study pertaining to this subject that was presented at the last NSCA conference that basically said the sooner the better from what I remember.

As always, I trust the ‘real world’ data you can get from logging everything you do yourself and w/ clients than I do from a guys in white coats who have never picked up a weight in their life.

Hi Russ–

Obviously this is a controversial subject.  I’ll look into it deeper and post on my findings soon.  I can assure you that although I wear a white coat when I work I have picked up many, many weights in my life.

Cheers–

MRE 

I’m only into the introduction and I skimmed through a few topics after looking through the index , but my skeptic flag is already raised on some of the “research” this author has done and the “proof” he provides.

While I understand that he may have an issue with the Atkins advice to drink a lot of water and get enough fiber (perhaps rightfully so), he repeatedly indicates that Dr. Atkins died of heart disease, died morbidly obese, and essentially was a hypocrite. His text and the footnotes indicate that he bases this on what was written in the press. My understanding is that after all these negative press reports, it was revealed that Dr. Atkins’ condition at the TOD was was due to all of the treatment and developments that occurred in the hospital after his head injury due to an accident. IMO, popular press reports are not sufficient “proof” to make such statements, anyway.

To me, this taints his “evidence” quite a bit, so as I read further, I will pay particular attention to the rest of the “evidence”, because it is clear that the author has some bias not based on good info. I can understand that he feels the need to criticize the Atkins and South Beach diets, but attack on Atkins personally seems quite off the mark. I don’t care one way or the other how anyone feels about Dr. Atkins (I’m rather neutral myself), but I do want accuracy and better references than the newspapers and TV tabloids.

So reader beware. Dr. Eades, if you get around to reading this book, I’d love to know your thoughts.

Cheers,
Anna

Hi Anna–

As I mentioned in an earlier comment to a comment, this book is poorly edited, and so, for me, at any rate, a real pain to read.  But, I’ll struggle through it and post a review.

I skimmed through it when I got it and saw the same thing you did about Robert Atkins.  Dr. Atkins and I have had our issues, but I don’t like to see him lied about in the press or in books quoting press reports.  At the time of his death Dr. Atkins had actually lost a fair amount of weight over the previous couple of years.  He looked pretty fit and tanned.  He fell and hit his head resulting in some pretty severe trauma.  I didn’t see Dr. Atkins in the hospital, but I have been involved in the care of many such injuries.  One of the mainstays of therapy is large and continuous doses of IV steroids to reduce swelling of the brain.  These steroids in the doses required cause fluid retention and a host of other problems.  I’m fairly certain (based on experience with other such patients) that at the end he probably had total organ failure (including renal failure) which added to the fluid retention problem.  As a result Dr. Atkins gained massive fluid weight in the hospital, which unscrupulous people used to malign him after his death.

The author of The Fiber Menace is supposedly a physician educated in Russia.  He says that he went to medical school and graduated with a degree in pharmacology.  I don’t know if this means a Ph.D. in pharmacology or that he got an M.D. with special training in pharmacology.  At any rate, with his training -whatever it was – he should know better than to rely on press reports to provide accurate medical information.

Having said all that, I will read the book critically and give the guy the benefit of the doubt if he’s come up with anything earth shattering.

Cheers–

MRE 

Exercise uses the stores of glycogen in muscles as fuel. Exercise (especially exercise beyond aerobic capacity) will deplete this. This happens especially in forms where you go to failure, or in marathon-type endurance events.

To retain strength it is ideal to retain glycogen. This is why it is good that fatty acids are released during exercise. The aerobic metabolism picks up, and if you have warmed up, those fatty acids can fuel it, saving the glyogen which can be used for aerobic fuel, for anaerobic fuel. This will allow the glycogen reserves to last longer in exercise surpassing the mitochondrial capacity in cells. This is sort of off-topic though.

As glycogen stores run low (or run out, I’m not sure exactly), gluconeogenesis of amino acids is stimulated. This happens on its own when all tissues are repaired and the amino acid pool is saturated, yes, but it can also happen when there is not an excess of amino acids. I am not sure it is known how depleted glycogen stores must become to avoid this, but it is guaranteed that the best way is to have full glycogen stores.

Some counteract it by taking more protein, to replace the aminos that become depleted. This is a good idea as when you push yourself to the limit some conversion of amino acids will happen occasionally. This is why people take the fast-metabolizing whey or the BCAA post-exercise. Why some take it pre-exercise is usually when they are dieting and want to make sure the AA pool is peaked.

Even so, continually adding aminos like that is expensive and inefficient, why keep replacing glycolized aminos when you can simply replenish glycogen so they will stop getting converted?

That’s probably why I guess. I don’t know about all the insulin-shipping stuff, I agree, confusing literature. I see it as more of a sparing the useful proteins from being broken down into fuel, as well as minimizing unnecessary depletion of the AA pool.

And statins are the current standard for anyone with even minimal elevation of LDL levels according to current scientific research, and I don’t buy that.

Until I see a mountain of evidence that persuades me otherwise I’m sticking to the idea that carbs immediately post workout reduce the production of growth hormone.

Cheers–

MRE 

Great blog, very interesting your take on carbs after a workout. Some circles espouse the need for carbs after a workout, I did the 2:1 carbs to protein post-workout shake for the longest time. I felt bloated, the drink felt heavy, for lack of a better word I felt gross.

Hi Vince–

No problem.

The carbs-after-workout idea is a controversial one.  I need to bury myself in the medical literature and figure it out.  When I do, I’ll post on it.

Cheers–

MRE