Get Yer' Shotgun, Earl! It's Christmas!
Well, it finally happened. It's been posted on about a bazillion Paleo-type blogs, and I don't want to be the skinny athletic Paleo kid that gets left out, so I'm posting it here, too.
Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease
ABSTRACT
Background: A reduction in dietary saturated fat has generally been thought to improve cardiovascular health.
Objective: The objective of this meta-analysis was to summarize the evidence related to the association of dietary saturated fat with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cardiovascular disease (CVD; CHD inclusive of stroke) in prospective epidemiologic studies.
Design: Twenty-one studies identified by searching MEDLINE and EMBASE databases and secondary referencing qualified for inclusion in this study. A random-effects model was used to derive composite relative risk estimates for CHD, stroke, and CVD.
Results: During 5–23 y of follow-up of 347,747 subjects, 11,006 developed CHD or stroke. Intake of saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD. The pooled relative risk estimates that compared extreme quantiles of saturated fat intake were 1.07 (95% CI: 0.96, 1.19; P = 0.22) for CHD, 0.81 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.05; P = 0.11) for stroke, and 1.00 (95% CI: 0.89, 1.11; P = 0.95) for CVD. Consideration of age, sex, and study quality did not change the results.
Conclusions: A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.
While that should make most mainstream "eat-your-grains-and-sat-fat-is-bad" nutrition, ahem, "experts" shut the hell up, it probably won't. But to celebrate, I'm cooking bacon tomorrow morning. And looking out my kitchen window into the sky, expecting flying pigs.
A minor news announcement, but announcement-worthy, nonetheless: I've registered for the Optimum Performance Training Certified Coaching Program (CCP) Nutrition component seminar; while I'd love to take ALL of the coaching components, nutrition is where my heart lies, and both my time and wallet are limited. Robb Wolf speaks highly of James Fitzgerald regarding performance nutrition, and seeing as how OPT is in my backyard, I'd be a fool to miss this. It coincides with my regular days off from the fire department, so that's an added bonus.
Speaking of highly educated guys, I've been following the blog of Dr. Kurt Harris, who posts at PaNu - paleolithic nutrition - duplicating the evolutionary metabolic milieu. I really like the way he approaches Paleo nutrition---not from a weight loss perspective, not from an athletic performance perspective, but from a health and longevity perspective. He's a highly educated M.D. who basically picked up Good Calories, Bad Calories, and started his own Paleo journey a-rollin'. He tells it like it is, doesn't listen to bullshit, and is a bowhunter, also. How could I NOT like the guy??
He has a great "Get Started" Paleo list, which I'm going to reproduce in full here:
1 Eliminate sugar (including fruit juices and sports drinks) and all flour
2 Start eating proper fats - Use healthy animal fats to substitute fat calories for carb calories. Drink whole cream or half and half instead of milk.
3 Eliminate grains
4 Eliminate grain and seed derived oils (cooking oils) Cook with butter, animal fats, or coconut oil.
5 Get daily midday sun or take 4-8000 iu vit D daily
6 Intermittent fasting and infrequent meals (2 meals a day is best)
7 Fruit is just a candy bar from a tree. Stick with berries and avoid watermelon which is pure fructose. Eat in moderation.
8 Eliminate legumes
9 Adjust your 6s and 3s. Pastured (grass fed) dairy and grass fed beef or bison avoids excess O-6 fatty acids and are better than supplementing with 0-3 supplements.
10 Proper exercise - emphasizing resistance and interval training over long aerobic sessions
11 Eliminate milk (if you are sensitive to it, move this up the list
12 Eliminate other dairy including cheese- (now you are "orthodox paleolithic")
***I highly recommend you check out his interview with Jimmy Moore here.
Jan 18th, CFLA, 1PM
"Cindy"
AMRAP in 20 Minutes:5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Squats
20 Rounds + 5 Pullups + 7 Pushups.
Pretty damn happy with this, considering just how bad my pushing/overhead strength is---plus, zero pain while doing it. As I type this out at 6:45, I'm still pain free, so I'm extremely happy. Pushups WERE the limiting factor. I was on pace for a 24 round Cindy at 10 minutes (12 rounds), but the last 5 minutes I really hit the wall, and had to break my pushups into groups of 5,3,and 2. Nasty. Kudos once again to Coach Fyfe for urging me on after he finished his WOD---much appreciated, Dave! Solid advice for next time, too.
Here's an actual Crossfit Confession: I've never done a full Cindy. Yup. The only time I've attempted it was waaaaay back in 2007 when I first started. I got to 13 rounds, and had some massive callus tears due to the pullups, and stopped.
Not much else to report in the way of WODs; did a little treadmill/double under/strict pullup/mini Cindy work on Friday at the firehall, but it's not worth posting. One of the guys I'm stationed with trains at the Progressive Fighting Academy, and is going to bring in some Thai pads to kick around during our scheduled fitness training time. I haven't done that in months! Looking forward to it.
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