As our Nutrition 911 series transitions from drinks to food, what could be more natural than to discuss something in between, like fasting? Most people think that the simplest way to lose weight is to not eat. But if you don’t eat, you’ll die, which renders this “theory” ineffectual or, at best, short-lived. As we’ve discussed, we need nutrients to live, and we also need nutrients to transform our bodies from being overweight and out of shape to being svelte and toned paragons of fitness. So what’s the deal with fasting? Is it a trend? Is it dangerous? And should you do it?

First of all, fasting isn’t a trend. It’s one of the oldest therapies in medicine, and its recorded practice dates back thousands of years. But these days, it’s hard to peruse the magazines at your local market without being provided with myriad “trendy” fasting options promising health and spiritual enlightenment, and most importantly, weight loss. It’s also pretty easy to find literature warning of the dangers of fasting. So let’s have a look at its history, benefits, and potential dangers.

If you’ve read any historical literature, you know that fasting has been around a long time. Many of the oldest healing systems have recommended it as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, believed fasting enabled the body to heal itself. Paracelsus, another famous healer, wrote, “Fasting is the greatest remedy, the physician within.” Sounds good, but what exactly is it: simply not eating, or using some sort of product you’ve seen pitched on TV?

By definition, anytime that you don’t eat, you are fasting—hence the word “breakfast.” Most therapeutic fasts last longer than one night, usually from 1 day to a few weeks. Juice or liquid fasts, while not traditional, are quite common because many of the desired results are achieved without as much stress on the body (see 2-Day Fast Formula ® for one option). It’s also common to begin a fast by eating cleansing foods, like veggies or soups. A modern fast is often synonymous with a cleanse, or it’s a very restricted diet designed to reprogram your body. Most fasts only last a few days. Provided that you stay hydrated, the body can function without food for this long with little stress (though it may not feel like it to you, especially the first time).

Those wanting to participate in the longer and more traditional fasts should have medical supervision, or at least be certain they are in condition to undertake such a venture. While strict nutritionists rarely recommend such things, most alternative medicine practitioners, including homeopaths, naturopathic doctors, and ayurvedic doctors, are well versed at supervising and monitoring patients during fasts. Monitored fasts are almost always safe, but they should be entered and exited with care.

We’ll get to the different types of fasts in a moment. First, let’s look at 10 reasons why you might want to try fasting or make it part of your lifestyle.

1. To cleanse your system. Most of us eat more than we should, take in more toxins than we’d like, and are subjected to many other things, like pollutants, that we’d rather avoid. Furthermore, most of us carry around a lot of undigested food in our systems that comes from eating more than we can process. Essentially, a fast will flush these things from your system. Yes, you’ll lose weight. But more importantly, your body will run better than it did before.
2. To change bad habits. When you don’t eat, your body craves sustenance and becomes more sensitive to toxins. Most habits are based on cravings, but when you completely change how your system is running, those cravings also change. Coffee is the easiest example. During a fast, your body is too sensitive to tolerate highly acidic substances or caffeine. Coffee will often make you feel terrible during fasting, when ordinarily it has the opposite effect.
3. To change your health. Many chronic conditions can be treated effectively with fasting, including allergies, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, depression, diabetes, headaches, heart disease, high cholesterol, low blood sugar, digestive disorders, mental illness, and obesity. Fasting is thought to be beneficial as a preventative measure to increase overall health, vitality, and resistance to disease.
4. To reset your body clock. Fasting gives you a clean slate. Without nutrients, you become more sensitive, and sleep and other patterns change. It’s an easy time to revamp your schedule and get your body clock working in your favor.
5. To bring your body into homeostasis. This is the balance point your body prefers to be at but is rarely achieved with our hectic lives. When the intake of food is temporarily stopped, many systems of the body are given a break from the hard work of digestion. The extra energy gives the body the chance to heal and restore itself—plus burning stored calories gets rid of toxic substances in the body. Essentially, you force your body to work efficiently, and thus bring everything into balance.
6. For increased mental clarity. Most of us probably first heard of fasting as a spiritual exercise. There are examples of it in most religious texts. It’s a great tactic for mental and spiritual rejuvenation because it forces you to focus on important thoughts and frees the mind from everyday clutter. When you are deprived of nutrients, your body—in survival mode—begins to focus on things of true importance.
7. To make changing your diet easier. When you fast, you become more sensitive to what you put into your body. It’s easier to understand how nutrients affect you, and hence how bad foods make you feel worse. The easiest time to change your diet for the better is after a fast. Your body will crave healthy foods. All you need to do is give it what it wants.
8. To get a better feel for how exercise and diet make your body work. When you take away nutrients, your body can’t function as well as it did from a performance standpoint. When you add nutrients back, y ou’ll feel your energy increase, and understand how exercise affects you and how your body utilizes nutrients. This understanding can be a great dietary aid. Most of us have a hard time understanding what fats, carbohydrates, and proteins do for us, but coming off a fast, you’ll more easily understand their functions, especially if you are exercising.
9. To improve fat mobilization and physical efficiency. Many physiological changes occur in the body during fasting. Your body turns to stored fat for energy, and this process becomes more efficient under the stress of a fast. Furthermore, the brain, which has high fuel requirements, still needs glucose (sugars converted from glycogen) to perform well. To obtain glucose for the brain, the body finds two sources of fuel, ketosis and muscle, so the body begins to break down muscle tissue during a fast. However, to fuel the brain, the body would need to burn around a pound of muscle a day.So we’ve developed another survival mechanism to create energy that saves important muscle mass, a process called ketosis. Via ketosis, the liver converts stored fat into ketones, which can be used by the brain, muscles, and heart as energy. Those of you versed in the Atkins diet may have a negative association with this process, but “Atkinsers” somewhat abused it. It’s another survival mechanism the body has that can be developed and utilized. Where Atkins may have overdone it was by promoting it as a way of life, not a phase toward improving the body’s functionality.
10. To get a forced rest phase. Our bodies do better when we train periodizationally. This is training in phases of intensity, one of which is rest. P90X ® is based on periodizational training. Since we tend to skip the rest phase because we feel like we’ll regress if we don’t exercise (either that or we overly embrace it to the point of not exercising), fasts force a recovery phase because you can’t do hard exercise. The most exercise you should attempt is low-intensity movements, like walking, hiking, or easy yoga or stretching. During this time, the body heals its cumulative microtrauma that has resulted from exercise. When you come off a fast, your body will be slightly deconditioned. However, its capacity for conditioning will have increased. This means that once you catch up to the fitness level you were at prior to fasting, you will more easily exceed this level, instead of hitting a plateau.

What are the different types of fasts?

There are many fasts on the market, which sounds funny because if you’re not eating, it raises the question, why do you need the market? But most fasts contain some sort of strategy that includes some nutrients.

• The simplest are the “beginner” fasts—Beachbody’s 2-Day Fast Formula® is a beginner fast. These usually provide some liquid nutrients, like fruit and veggie juices or a shake, to make things less stressful. You still get most of the benefits of fasting, and well, you still get to look forward to some meals.
• More complex fasts are ones like the Master Cleanse diet, which allows you to get some nutrients, though very few. With Master Cleanse, you’re supposed to fast for a longer period of time than with a beginner fast, usually at least 10 days. These fasts require that you have a lot of self-knowledge. It’s always recommended to begin with a shorter fast to see how it affects you.
• Spiritual fasts are traditional and strict. They often mean going for long periods of time with no nutrients at all; you just drink water. Since their aim is more mental than fitness oriented, they’re rarely—if ever—recommended by the fitness and nutrition industry.

How often you fast depends a lot on what type of fast you do. Longer fasts should not be done often, but 1-day fasts can be done regularly. An old common religious practice was to skip eating 1 day per week, which can be easily done without any associated fitness loss. So it’s fairly easy to make fasting a regular part of your “diet.”

To enter a fast, no matter which type it is, it’s best if your diet is gradually lightened over a few days. First, heavy foods like meats and dairy products should be eliminated. Grains, nuts, and beans should then be reduced. The day before you begin, eat only easily digested foods like fruits, light salads, and soups. Likewise, you should break your fast gradually, going from lighter to heavier foods progressively. The diet after a fast should emphasize fresh, wholesome foods, which is easier because junk and convenience foods will usually make you feel awful. It’s also vital that before, during, and after a fast you drink a lot of plain water. This keeps you hydrated and helps flush your system.

It’s also important to note that fasting is not appropriate for everyone—especially pregnant and nursing women—and in some cases, it could be harmful. Those with health conditions should always have medical support during fasting.

Now that we’ve covered how not to eat, next we’ll look into how we should eat, starting with the best food in the world.

by Steve Edwards

If you want a drink, you want a drink, and all the bad press you read isn’t likely to quench your thirst. So the Nutrition 911 on alcohol will be to skip the boring science and discuss what to do when you’re going to drink. Besides, studies keep telling us that a bit of alcohol in your diet enhances your health and lengthens your life span. All you may know now is that the last time you hit the bar, you woke up feeling like someone was using a rototiller on your brain, leaving you to wonder, “How can this have been good for me?”

The truth is it isn’t. A hangover means you’ve done damage that needs to be reversed. Unfortunately, a common remedy is a greasy meal, which further damages your system and hinders your weight loss plans. But there’s no doubt that a drink every now and then can help lift your spirits and diminish stress. But all cocktails are not created equal. Just like making smart choices with the foods you eat, imbibing with a plan can be the difference between extending your life and maintaining your P90X®, Slim in 6®, or ChaLEAN Extreme® results, and getting to know your Domino’s delivery guy on a first-name basis. Let’s get started, class, with this week’s Nutrition 911: The Best and Worst Cocktails.

The Best

1. Red wine. Much has been written about wine’s high antioxidant content, the chemical resveratrol, and how wine drinkers are the healthiest sect of those who imbibe regularly. A handful of large-scale, long-term studies on wine have shown that those who drink heavily outlive teetotalers, and those who drink in moderation outlive everyone. This has led to a huge increase in wine production in the U.S.Keep in mind that while you hear a lot about the difference between red and white wines, in virtually every study, both have been shown to improve health. Red wine and its high antioxidant content gain most of the attention, but two recent studies gave white wine a higher rating for both free radical reduction and cardiovascular health. It seems that you can’t go wrong either way.Downside . . . . The sulfates in red wine negatively affect many people, often leading to an inability to sleep. And if you can’t sleep, you’re offsetting all of the positive effects. Consider checking the alcohol content listed on the bottle—the recent trend has been toward high-alcohol-content wines. By drinking high-alcohol wines, it might seem like you’re getting more bang for the buck. While that may be true, do you really want the bang, or just a nice accoutrement to dinner?

2. Microbrews. On a percentage basis, only microbrewed beer production has increased more than wine production in the U.S. The reason for this trend is generally credited to mass-produced American beer, which beer snobs think tastes worse than stagnant water. But another reason is that microbrewed beer is healthier—much healthier, in fact.
   Most mass-produced beers in the U.S. are cheaply made, relying on ingredients like corn, rice, additives, colorings, and flavorings (oddly enough, the same things that make up most of the junk you can buy at 7-Eleven®). Microbrews adhere to the European codes for beer production, which dictate that it’s made from barley, hops, wheat, and water. A good microbrew contains protein (more than double, in fact), more electrolytes (quadruple), and many times more vitamins and assorted phytonutrients (like flavonoids) than cheap beer. In fact, microbrewed beer is better for you than most sports drinks, sometimes even for sports.

   Downside . . . . It can be part of the recovery process, but don’t try making it do all the work. Beer still contains alcohol, and if you down beer as though it were Gatorade®, you’ll wind up with a hangover that will impede your sports performance.

3. Guinness stout. In Ireland, the saying goes that Guinness is food. And sure enough, it tastes like it. Thick, rich, and syrupy, one Guinness can feel as satisfying as a case of Bud Light®. It’s also low in calories and high in iron, making it one of the best choices if you’re going for a mass-produced beer.Downside . . . . It can be addicting. When one doesn’t do the trick anymore, you can quickly pile on calories. And remember that most calories in beer come from alcohol.

4. Top-shelf alcohol of any kind. Straight, on the rocks, or with water. The means of producing hard alcohol ensure that you’re getting what you pay for. Cheap stuff isn’t made with a high-quality distillation process, leaving it with all sorts of impurities and a taste that renders it to be mainly used as a mixer with nonalcoholic, and usually highly caloric, substances. Top-shelf stuff, whether it’s bourbon, vodka, or even rum, is made to be consumed alone, or with water. Slowly savoring your drink is a great way to make sure that you don’t overdo it. Cost is another. It’s much better to slowly relish a glass of Blanton’s than to power down a fifth of Old Grand-Dad and Coke®.Downside . . . . The cost of providing for your top-shelf-only habit could lead to enough extra stress down at the office to offset the stress you’re relieving with your drink.

5. Vodka soda. Vodka is the purest of the hard alcohols, and soda is mainly water. Add a couple of limes, and you’ve got a clean and refreshing cocktail with very few calories.Downside . . . . It’s so clean and refreshing, it’s hard to be restrained. If you have four of these, you might as well have just had that strawberry margarita you wanted in the first place.

The Worst

1. Scorpion. Or just about anything you’ll find at the Kon Tiki Inn, Trader Vic’s, or any place where a drink is referred to as “grog.” If there’s anything worse than mixing a lot of sugar-based alcohols together, it’s mixing them with a bunch of sugary juices in a bowl that’s big enough for six. Drink one of these, and be prepared to skip the entire drunken process and head straight to the hangover.
   
2. Long Island Iced Tea. Forget the word “tea.” There are no antioxidants to be found in this concoction of five different alcohols, sweet and sour mix, and Coke. A few of these and you might as well put in a wake-up call to Domino’s.
   
3. Red Bull® and vodka. If you want to be a supercharged drunk, here ya go. One of the main offenders of the hangover is your inability to sleep well after a night on the town. Nothing enhances the chance of seeing dawn’s early light like a couple of these. The only positive is that maybe you’ll dance all night and work off the calories. Hopefully, you don’t have to work the next day.
   
4. Jack and Coke. You might as well just mainline your whiskey. Nothing’s better than Coke for creating a sugar rush. Adding alcohol to this mix creates the perfect atmosphere for a bar fight. The only saving grace is that being drunk impairs your reflexes. Losing a couple of late-night melees could lead to some restraint.
   
5. Piña colada. The only thing more densely caloric than alcohol is fat, and this baby combines the two, along with all the sugar you need to guarantee a hangover. The result is a virtually nutrition-free milk shake that contains half of your daily caloric requirement. The only possible bright side is that you’re only likely to feel comfortable drinking one of these on an island where you have ample opportunity to shed the pounds you gained the night before.

Well there you have it, the best and the worst cocktails you can be drinking while getting into shape!

by Steve Edwards

Energy drinks have taken over the soft drink market in a caffeine-fueled frenzy. By listening to the ad campaigns, you’d be sure that this has everything to do with your health. Now instead of leaving the convenience store with a gut bomb, you can grab a Monster can of Adrenaline that promises to Redline your performance until you’re partying like a Rockstar. But do energy drinks really give you wings? Or are you more likely to experience a fleeting glimpse of euphoria, only to come crashing down like Icarus? This week, we take a deeper look at energy drinks, 911 style.

Since Red Bull entered the U.S. market in 1997, energy drinks have been chipping away at the soft drink and bottled water companies’ stranglehold. According to an article in The New York Times, energy drinks have now surpassed bottled water as the fastest growing category of beverages. This isn’t to say that they’re hurting the soda companies, because pretty much everyone now makes an energy drink, from Hansen’s to Steven Seagal. Despite a slew of drinks with far more provocative names such as Who’s Your Daddy?®, Cocaine™, Jones Whoopass™, and Beaver Buzz™, the industry leader is still Red Bull, with sales over $3 billion last year.

The where and why?

Energy drinks have been around for decades, particularly in Asia and mainly in Japan. They weren’t soft drinks like they are today. Instead, they were small vials of liquid promising to increase performance. These vials were usually filled with caffeine, many herbs containing caffeine, and some vitamins. Their target audience was businessmen, to aid their long work schedules.

Red Bull took its name and certain ingredients from a Thai supplement. It was watered down and sugar was added so that it could be consumed as a soft drink, targeting the under-30 crowd. And voilà, a new market was formed. Pretty much everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. The more consumer-friendly varieties tend to be larger and resemble soft drinks, but there are still some aimed at more “sports-specific” audiences like bodybuilders and ravers. These will often come in a smaller package resembling the vials that you get overseas, which are probably more suitable for those who want to feel as though they’re doing something illegal.

The what?

So what’s in the stuff that makes it so special and, even more importantly, is it special? The ingredients vary, but there is one constant: caffeine. No matter what any energy drink professes, its secret ingredient is caffeine. Many contain various forms of caffeine like guarana, yerba maté, and tea, but caffeine is the business they’re in. Everything else is a side dish.

As an example, let’s take a closer look at Red Bull’s active ingredients.

• Sucrose and glucose. Like most soft drinks, the number one ingredient by far is sugar (check out “6 Foods with Hidden Sugar” in the Related Articles section below). This is where all of the calories in a Red Bull come from. Sugar provides an instant energy rush, but its effects are anything but energizing after only a few minutes. A study conducted at the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom proved exactly the opposite of this instant energy-rush effect. The study showed that a high-sugar and low-caffeine energy drink would promote sleepiness, not energy.”Energy drinks are a misnomer,” reported Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, to HealthDay News. “Sure, they provide energy in the form of calories, usually from some form of a simple sugar, but simple sugars are digested, absorbed, and metabolized very quickly, so the energy they contain doesn’t last long.”Sugar, however, does speed the other ingredients into your system quicker. That’s the point. Let’s have a look at them to see what they do.

• Sodium citrate. A food additive or preservative, usually added because of its tart flavor. But it’s also alkaline and inhibits blood clotting. Because it’s an effective buffering agent, it may help you utilize other nutrients better. A British study in 2003 also showed that it improved running times. However, in this study, the amount used was 37 grams. Since a Red Bull’s only measurable ingredient is 27 grams of sugar (not counting the water), it’s unlikely that the amount of sodium citrate will add any noticeable velocity to your wing speed.
  
• Taurine. Originally came from bull bile, which is where Red Bull got its name. Now it’s synthesized, and of all the ingredients in a Red Bull, it’s the least understood. While it’s associated with many benefits—and some dangers—virtually nothing is proven other than it is essential for your cat’s health. In the energy drink world, some studies showing that it could reduce muscle fatigue are the most promising. But studies have concluded that it is not an energy enhancer.
  
• Glucuronolactone. A naturally occurring chemical compound produced by glucose metabolism in the liver. Because it was once rumored (now disproved) to be linked with brain tumors during the Vietnam era, it was not a popular ingredient, until Red Bull used it because of its reputation for improving memory retention and concentration. Years later, there is still no conclusive proof, but it’s become a popular ingredient in energy drinks across the board.
  
• Caffeine. Now here’s the business. Caffeine is a plant alkaloid found in over 60 species of plants, including guarana, kola nut, maté, tea, and, of course, coffee. Over 19,000 studies have been done on caffeine and most of them have been positive—the truly dangerous conclusions drawn by some studies have yet to be proven. The upside is so well known that there’s no need to go into it. Caffeine is now arguably more popular than ever, and it’s estimated that 90 percent of American adults consume it in some form. But this is nothing new; it’s been used as a stimulant for as long as we’ve been recording history (and perhaps it’s even the cause of us recording history).Caffeine is not without its downside. Too much can make you jittery, anxious, unable to sleep, and even paranoid. It increases the production of stomach acid and can lead to an assortment of ailments. It’s also addicting. And those who drink caffeine daily will suffer withdrawal symptoms if they can’t get it. It has a toxic dosage, but it’s so high that death by caffeine is highly unlikely, if not altogether impossible, unless it’s consumed in its pure form. It is worth noting that over a certain amount (the average being around 400 milligrams, or 3 or 4 cups of coffee), caffeine intoxication may occur, which is an unpleasant condition that may include heart palpitations, irritability, anxiousness, and insomnia. We discussed this back in “Nutrition 911, Part XI: Coffee, Tea, and Caffeine” (see the Related Articles section below).

• Inositol. I’m only going to go into this ingredient enough to show why many ingredients are added to supplements and drinks—only for show. As a supplement, inositol has some promising science behind it, but you would need to drink approximately 350 Red Bulls—enough to kill you from caffeine intoxication—to get the dosage used in the studies. It merely sounds important. Many “teas” and other convenience-store elixirs also tout important-sounding ingredients on the label, but they only contain trace amounts of those ingredients.
  

How much?

We refer to both the amount of ingredients and the cost of such ingredients. Energy drinks are expensive, and given the amount you get of each ingredient, you’d better really like the way they taste. If not, you’re being ripped off.

Let’s start with sugar. First off, sugar is not performance enhancing, so paying extra for it makes little sense. If you want sugar, buy something that tastes good. Many energy drinks are also made with artificial sweeteners, which are exactly the same low-grade additives that you can get in a can of Big K® diet soda for 25 cents.

Caffeine is cheap, as is coffee, and the average cup of coffee has three times more caffeine than the average energy drink. There are whole Web sites set up to help you do the math on this. One such site, Energyfiend.com, lists the milligrams of caffeine per ounce contained in each energy drink. The more commercial brands like Rockstar and Red Bull have far fewer milligrams than some of the more esoteric brands. But nothing beats a good old cup o’ joe, except the 1-ounce caffeine shots.

While the above-listed ingredients are the flagship ingredients of promotion, they aren’t added in amounts that are effective. If you like the science behind taurine or inositol, you’re better off buying it in bulk and then drinking plain coffee or tea.

So will they give me wings?

While there is little doubt you will gain a burst of energy from these drinks, it’s unlikely to be sustained energy. Furthermore, the type of rush you get will be followed with a crash that will make you crave more. Because these have very little nutritional value, chances are that consuming more than a couple will leave you feeling edgy or downright irritable.

Energy drinks may have a place in your diet, but with proper fueling and regular exercise, you are unlikely to need them regularly. We tend to be low on energy because we make poor food choices, sleep too little, exercise too little, and stress too much. No drug can offset this behavior except during the short term. Energy drinks should be nothing but an emergency solution.

And when you want to party like a Rockstar?

Energy drinks are popularly used as cocktail mixers. Bars commonly promote such concoctions and energy drink companies often sponsor social gatherings. While mixing stimulants and depressants has been common among the partying sect for a long time, that doesn’t make it safe. A 2006 study found a possible link between energy drinks and seizures, and research shows that combining heavy stimulants with heavy depressants could lead to heart failure. Remember that all rock stars don’t make it through their partying years.

How to best enhance your energy

Your lifestyle has more to do with your energy level than anything else. Energy drinks should be reserved for the occasional pick-me-up or for sports performance. Consistent and intense exercise keeps your hormones working in balance and your body on an even keel. A proper diet with plenty of fiber, protein, vitamins, and good fatty acids that’s supported by plenty of fresh water will give you long-term, sustained energy. Finally, getting ample sleep helps you recover from the stress and breakdown of everyday life. This is your real Pimp Juice if you want to keep your Diesel engine going Full Throttle all day, even if you’ve got to catch a Red Eye.

Next time, we’ll wrap up the beverage portion of class by looking at everyone’s favorite elixir, alcohol.

by Steve Edwards

Sources: Lovett, R. (24 September 2005). “Coffee: The demon drink?”. New Scientist (2518).; Escohotado, A. and Symington, K. (May 1999). A Brief History of Drugs: From the Stone Age to the Stoned Age. Park Street Press. ISBN 0-89281-826-3.; Warskulat, U., et al. (2004). “Taurine transporter knockout depletes muscle taurine levels and results in severe skeletal muscle impairment but leaves cardiac function uncompromised”. FASEB J.: 03-0496fje. DOI:10.1096/fj.03-0496fje.; Oopik, V., et al. 2003; 37: 485-489.; Caffeine-related disorders. Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. Retrieved on 2006-08-14.; Kamijo Y., et al. (1999 Dec). “Severe rhabdomyolysis following massive ingestion of oolong tea: caffeine intoxication with coexisting hyponatremia”. Veterinary and Human Toxicology 41 (6): 381-3. PMID 10592946.; Kerrigan S. and Lindsey T. (2005). “Fatal caffeine overdose: two case reports”. Forensic Sci Int 153 (1): 67-9.; Chung S.S. and Iyadurai S.J.P. (2006). “New-onset seizures in adults: Possible association with consumption of popular energy drinks”. Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ; Science Direct. Received 28 December 2006; revised 25 January 2007; accepted 26 January 2007; Available online 8 March 2007.

Last time we discussed why Jamba Juice® isn’t always the healthy beverage chain it’s cracked up to be. We took a brief look at why something that is “100 percent fruit” might not be healthy, even though we’re pretty sure that whole fruit is healthy. Today we’ll look at juice, both the kind you buy at the store and the kind you can make at home. Then we’ll compare them to regular fruit.

Minute Maid® and other mainstream junk

First, let’s talk about what you buy in a store. Almost everything that you can find in a store in the United States is pasteurized to kill potentially harmful bacteria. While this is safer for a big company afraid of lawsuits, it also eliminates many of the most important nutrients of the fruits and vegetables used to make the juice (this is the same for other pasteurized items as well, like milk). Enzymes, in particular, are destroyed by the high temperatures associated with pasteurization, as are many of a fruit’s or a vegetable’s phytonutrients. Most commercial juice is fortified with vitamins to restore some of its nutrients, but many of the most vital elements are lost ,and the resulting item is often little more than vitamin-fortified sugar water. Even “100 percent pure” juice that’s pasteurized has lost most of its nutrients.

The store now has healthier options. These are generally considered smoothies, which we discussed last time (refer to “Nutrition 911, Part XII: Jumbo Juices and Crappuccinos” in the Related Articles section below).

Juice bars

Juice bars, like Jamba Juice, etc., are a small step in the right direction because they use whole fruit in their beverage options. The problem with these juice bars is that they tend to avoid using veggies and also use some concentrated juice that’s mainly sugar. Fruit alone is high in sugar, especially when liquefied because some of the fiber is lost. So even 100 percent fruit smoothies are very high in sugar, unless something else is added to balance out the macronutrient ratio. But we’ve already discussed them too, so let’s move on.

Home juicing

There are two types of home juicing. One is when you throw everything into a blender and mulch it. The other is when you use a juicer, but this type of juicing removes fiber.

Why would you want to remove fiber when you know it’s super healthy? For fruit juices, you generally wouldn’t, which is the main problem with store-bought options. Fruit is sugar and fiber with a lot of great nutrients. And veggies are mainly fiber. What isn’t fiber, however, is the most nutrient-rich food we eat.

Fiber limits the amount of veggies you can eat in a day, so juicing veggies to remove the fiber allows you to drink a ton of nutrients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 75 percent of Americans don’t eat the recommended daily allowance of five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables. Juicing is the easiest and most effective way to meet the recommended daily allowance.

Your blender, the other type of home juicing, doesn’t deplete fiber like a juicer does. This is by far the best way to juice with fruits, and it’s the origin of the fruit smoothie. While some fiber is lost, the mulching process creates a higher percentage of soluble fiber, which makes it easier for your body to utilize a fruit’s phytonutrients.

The only downside to juicing is that it requires some work. You need to buy fruits and veggies and you need to juice them. Drinking them is the easiest part. For those of us who are culinarily challenged, there are places that will do this for you. Many health food stores have juice bars that use veggies as well as fruits. Unfortunately, they tend to be expensive. You can probably buy a juicer for less than you’d spend in a week at the Whole Foods juice counter.

Why not just eat whole fruit?

Great question, especially considering a recent study has shown that eating whole fruit could be the main dietary difference between obese and overweight individuals. At the University of Southern California, researchers showed that the main difference between 52 normal-weight adults and 52 overweight and obese adults was the amount of fiber in their diets, which mainly came from fruit.

In the study, the normal-weight group consumed an average of 33 percent more fiber and 43 percent more carbohydrates than their overweight counterparts. This suggests that fiber, much more than following a low-carb or low-fat diet, is the key for weight control.

So what is fiber and how important is it? That’s a topic for another day. Next time, we’re going to stick to beverages and look at the new kid on the block, energy drinks.

by Steve Edwards

Today, our oh-so-basic nutrition class hits the mall, or at least the strip mall, for a look at popular beverage chains. These range from places we know may not be healthy, like coffeehouses, to juice bars that market themselves as the pinnacle of nutrition. Certainly, beverages named after a cornucopia of healthy fruits must be good for you, right? Let’s take a deeper look at that Mangorangoberry Pizzazz you were considering for lunch today.

Most of the drinks we’re discussing fall under the smoothie category. We’ve been conditioned to consider this word synonymous with healthy, but many of these drinks are quite the opposite. Smoothie’s not a word you need to strike from your vocabulary, but like most things you put into your body, you should pay attention to the ingredients. Some of these beverages are great, while others are little more than ice cream in a cup. Here’s a quick rundown on the types of smoothies you’re likely to encounter and when, or if, you should drink them.

Bottled “smoothies”

A smoothie used to be a blend of various whole fruits with, perhaps, a bit of protein powder and/or other ingredients that were healthy, didn’t taste great, and were best hidden in a mixture of yummy fruit. Nowadays, it can be almost anything. In stores, however, most of ‘em still follow that traditional blend. They also have the nutrition information listed on the side, so it’s easy to see what you’re drinking. I guess this is why you’ll almost never see a Peanut Butter Blast™ at your local market, but you’ll often see spirulina.

Analysis: Most of these drinks are pretty darn healthy, and it’s obvious when they’re not. Just make sure to read the nutrition information on the label.

Jamba Juice®, et al.

I’m using the Jamba Juice model because it’s the biggest smoothie chain, but there are plenty of others. Most follow a similar format of offering varying drink options. Coffeehouses get in on this too, which we’ll get to later. Jamba Juice touts its usage of real fruit and fruit juices to make its beverages sound healthy. When analyzing the final product, we see an abundance of sugar and not much fiber, meaning that fruit juice is being used, which is completely different nutritionally than using whole fruit.

• Traditional smoothies. Jamba Juice calls these “classics,” because it’s all that was offered before consumers caught on to the hype and demanded healthier options. These are mainly made of fruit, with some amount of dairy dessert like sherbet added for a smooth texture. At an average of around 500 calories (for an “original” size, or a medium) and 100 grams of sugar, this is not exactly the “light lunch” many people thought they were getting.Analysis: The only time this would be an appropriate snack (or meal, really) is if you were doing an excessive amount of exercise. Adding protein powder as an option helps balance it a little bit, but basically there’s no way around the fact that this is a high-sugar meal, which is only okay if you happen to be burning a lot of blood sugar.

• Functional smoothies. These use industry buzzwords in drinks like Açai Supercharger™, Matcha Green Tea Mist™, Protein Berry Pizzazz™, Coldbuster®!, and a host of other ultra-healthy-sounding items. Some of them have a slightly higher amount of protein, but checking the bottom line, an “original” also has around 500 calories, 400 or so of which come from sugar.Analysis: Shakespeare once asked, “What’s in a name?” Maybe he was referring to a business he knew would pop up in a few centuries. Don’t believe this marketing hype; the only purpose of these beverages would be to fuel you after a long bout of very intense exercise.

• Enlightened smoothies. How did they do it? They look the same. They’re the same size. Yet these average around 300 calories, about 250 of which are sugar. To reduce the calorie count, these beverages are made with nonfat milk, whey protein, and Splenda®. This does boost their protein content a bit, an improvement over the classics, but you have to deal with Splenda. Analysis: Do two pluses offset a minus? You get fewer calories and more protein, but what’s with the Splenda? This somewhat disgusting artificial sweetener (basically chlorinated sugar, as we discussed in “Nutrition 911, Part VI: Sweeteners”; refer to the Related Articles section below) has a lot of negative press surrounding it. It’s probably fine in small doses, but it raises this question: why? Surely there are healthier options. If Jamba Juice is so into health trends like açai and maca, couldn’t they have sweetened these “enlightened” smoothies with yacon?

• All-fruit smoothies. These beverages don’t use dairy products and stick to fruit juice and fruit. But they’re sweetened fruit juice, so their 300 plus calories are nearly all sugar, with about a third as much fiber as a comparable amount of whole fruit.Analysis: Another sugary sports drink. Sure, there are vitamins and antioxidants in this stuff—it’s made of fruit, after all. But you’re far better off with a piece or two, or three, of whole fruit, which is healthier, more filling, and doesn’t cause a sugar rush.

• Good Moo’ds. These are the chocolate “anythings” that invariably show up on the menu. They’re advertised as being “made with nonfat milk,” or some other hollow promise. But a medium “Peanut Butter Moo’d” contains 21 grams of fat (or 190 calories of fat), 122 grams of sugar, 480 milligrams of sodium, and 840 calories.Analysis: You might as well go for the ice cream. If that’s what you want, there’s not much trade-off here. These have no place in a healthy diet, except as some kind of reward. They are decadence, pure and simple.

Starbucks®, et al.

Coffee chains have gotten in on the game too. Sometimes called smoothies, coffeehouse options are also referred to by various other names. Coffee and tea don’t have any calories and give you a rush. But people seem to want their rush with other assorted items, like sugar and fat. So now when you order a black coffee at one of these places, you often get a strange look, or you’re asked, “Are you sure?” I guess that’s not what the cool kids are ordering. So let’s have a look, shall we? Because the kids won’t stay cool if they keep eating like this.

• Frappuccinos. An average 24-ounce Starbucks Frappuccino® (the large or Venti® size) has around 700 calories, 25 grams of fat, 100 grams of sugar, 400 milligrams of sodium, and 70 milligrams of cholesterol. You can save a few hundred calories by ordering “light,” which substitutes artificial sweeteners for sugar.Analysis: These are dessert items. There is no other way to categorize them.

• Lattes ‘n’ such. These are slightly less caloric and vary quite a bit. A Grande Nonfat Cappuccino might only have 100 or so calories, but a Venti White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream has over 600 calories.Analysis: There’s a lot of variance here, and I believe most of you know the good from the bad. Here’s a quick rundown:
  • Coffee or tea: Zero calories; the best option is to drink them unsweetened and without milk or cream.
    
  • Milks and cream: Nonfat is best. Low fat is the second best option, and last is whole, which is highly caloric and loaded with fat. Half-and-half or cream is even worse. Soy milk is a good option for the lactose intolerant, but it has fat and calorie contents similar to regular milk. Most nondairy creamers are filled with sugar and hydrogenated junk. You’re better off with the real stuff.
    
  • Chocolate, caramel, vanilla, etc.: All of these flavorings are sugar—a lot of sugar.
    
  • Whipped cream: 100 percent fat and condensed sugar and almost zero nutritional value.
    
  • Chai and other holistic-sounding stuff: These follow the exact same pattern as the Frappuccinos. The only difference is that they use tea instead of coffee as their base. Often touted as “a taste of Asia,” or some such nonsense, these have long ago lost any trace of their “exotic spices” and are flavored by the same junk that’s in all the unhealthy stuff.

Today we learned that we may not need to steer clear of these establishments, but we definitely need to be careful about what we order. We touched on the “natural” fruit claim but could probably stand to go into the issue more thoroughly. So next time, let’s look at the difference between whole fruit and fruit juice.

by Steve Edwards

It is one of the most common FAILURE points that people experience when they try to get back in shape. Those dreaded first few weeks of getting started. Carl Daikeler and Tony Horton talk about starting a new fitness routine and the importance of having a support system to lean on in this latest Beachbody News Network video.

Today we discuss the most popular drink in the world: coffee. I don’t actually know where these statistics come from, but since we mainly want to discuss one ingredient, caffeine, I’ll lump coffee, tea, and other caffeinated beverages into the same discussion so that we’ll be sure to address something that’s pertinent to almost all of you. Coffee and tea have been around for the entirety of recorded history, so no matter what science tells us, we begin this edition with some time-tested knowledge that people don’t go around dropping dead over the stuff, nor will it get you banned for cheating when you win at the Olympics (unless it’s too much).

Coffee and tea are probably the most controversial substances we consume. Unlike, say, soda, candy, chocolate, and fast food—which we know are detrimental to our diets—studies swing both ways over the benefits and dangers of our morning cup of java. But whatever the outcome, we drink the stuff with an almost ritualistic glee. If you drink neither coffee nor tea, you’re an outsider in almost any culture on the planet.

Coffee, tea, and other caffeinated drinks

First off, let’s talk about the difference between tea, coffee, and other drinks laced with caffeine. Coffee and tea are both very simple products made from mixing ground-up plants with hot water. So they’re both 100 percent natural, contain approximately zero calories, and have a few nutrients. What they do contain is caffeine. A lot of it. Coffee has nearly twice as much caffeine as tea, but the amount varies by type and the brewing process. As a general rule, trendy green teas have less caffeine than black teas, which have less than coffee. Figure that for each cup of coffee or tea you consume, you’ll get between 50 milligrams and 200 milligrams of caffeine.

Both have other assorted nutrients, mainly antioxidants, all of which are quite healthy. The downside is that both are acidic to the point that habitual consumption can cause stomach problems in some people. But the main hit or miss with folks when it comes to coffee or tea is the caffeine. After this, their choices are usually made by taste, ritual, or the culture they live in.

Caffeine gives you a jolt of energy, which we’ll discuss later, and because of this, many other beverages now come with a healthy dose of the stuff. Most sodas have some caffeine, but the big trend today is toward turbocharged “energy drinks,” a topic for another day. These are often nasty concoctions of sugar, caffeine, and other assorted legal uppers designed to amp you sky-high and provide the illusion that you’re having a good time. They may work, at least for a short time, but they are basically just time bombs of euphoria. When you crash, you crash hard.

Can coffee or tea make you fat?

There is one place we have a definitive answer on this subject, and it’s that neither of these drinks will make you fat. In fact, they should do the opposite. Caffeine is a diuretic, meaning that it affects your metabolic process at a heightened level. Translation: it makes you go to the bathroom more often. It also elevates brain activity, which, technically, should make you less hungry. This is why caffeine is often added to diet aids.

The only things in coffee or tea that can make you fat are the things you add to them. The menu at your local Starbucks contains stuff that makes coffee merely a side dish, if that. And traditional drinks such as Thai iced tea are only tea in name. Therefore, just because something calls itself “coffee” or “tea” doesn’t mean that’s all there is to the story. Like with most foods, reading labels is important. We’ll talk more about coffee drinks next time.

The latest research

Coffee has been in the headlines a lot recently. You may have caught the headlines a while back stating that it could give you a heart attack. Or maybe you caught the study touting it as a superfood, which came out at the same time! Certainly, you’ve heard that it’s a banned substance by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to its performance-enhancing qualities. But then why, you wonder, did you just see a headline saying you should avoid it prior to a workout? And what about that study stating that if you drank enough coffee, it would stave off the effects of all that alcohol you consume?

Coffee, tea, and caffeine are perhaps the most widely studied things we put into our bodies (over 19,000 recent recorded studies), yet no definitive stance can be found on the stuff. If this seems odd, we must consider the fact that studies need to be funded and a lot of money can skew a study to say this or that—a subject I touch on often in my blog (see “The Straight Dope” below). At any rate, let’s wade into some of the more recent headlines, and try to make some sense out of them.

Will coffee give you a heart attack?

Apparently it will—if you’re “at risk for heart attacks,” according to a syndicated article that was all over the Internet a while back. But what does this mean? The article begins with the vague line about how coffee may trigger a heart attack in some people. If you delve deeper, the water becomes muddier, so, tired of sifting through their muck, I went to the source.

For over 4 years, a large Costa Rican study examined the relationship among 503 nonfatal heart attacks. The study found that most of the subjects drank coffee prior to having the heart attack. In the stats, it appeared that light coffee drinkers were at more risk than heavy coffee drinkers. This, as you might suppose, caused some confusion.

Looking deeper into the abstract, we see that the researchers think that the coffee/heart attack relationship stems from a rare gene variation in some people. They also stated that their research was “far from conclusive.” The report on Yahoo!® made no mention of the gene variant and, instead, went with the more alarmist “those at risk” line because “who isn’t, right?” The study also clearly stated that most of the population was at zero risk from drinking coffee.

The bottom line of the study was that most of the population was not at risk, and the few that might be, also may not be. So, for now, I’ll side with Dr. Robert Eckel, former president of the American Heart Association, and remain “unconvinced.”

Furthermore, a study done over 2 decades using 120,000 subjects concluded that there was no relationship between even heavy coffee drinking and heart disease. This study, done in part by the Harvard School of Public Health, showed that there was no link between heart disease and a daily intake of six or more cups of coffee per day. It also stated the risk was the same for those who consumed less than one cup of coffee or tea per month. This study also addressed the Costa Rican findings, stating they were “possible” but “require confirmation.”

Can you lose your gold medal?

Not anymore. In 2004, the IOC removed caffeine from its list of banned items. Prior to that, athletes could be busted for drinking about five or more cups of coffee. Certainly, this means that some highly regarded scientists once thought it was an ergogenic (a performance enhancer). But was it removed because it was found to be ineffective, as there are now better ways of “cheating,” or because the coffee lobby contributed to the IOC? Time may or may not tell, but one thing’s for sure: many people believe caffeine enhances performance.

A recent Swiss study, however, refutes it, at least in one sense. The study of 18 individuals showed that coffee prior to exercise restricted heart blood flow by 22 percent. Obviously, this would be a detriment to performance, but again, the research is far from conclusive. For one, the study used regular coffee drinkers, and participants were not allowed to drink coffee for 36 hours prior to the experiment, so their results may have had to do with a coffee-withdrawal effect. And two, no study of 18 people can be anywhere close to conclusive. But it’s interesting, for sure, and certainly much more will be done. I’d keep an eye out for more on this.

But again, there’s a lot more science showing that it has positive physical effects, even if they stem from better brain function. An Austrian study using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to assess memory skills showed that there was a marked improvement in motor skills and memory after subjects ingested 100 milligrams of caffeine. The study cautioned that the progression was not linear (meaning that more is definitely not better). But the test concluded that caffeine was a a performance enhancer.

According to physiologist Terry Graham, PhD, of the University of Guelph in Canada, “What caffeine likely does is stimulate the brain and nervous system to do things differently. That may include signaling you to ignore fatigue or recruit extra units of muscle for intense athletic performance.” And as to whether this better aids strength or endurance sports he adds, “What’s amazing about it is that unlike some performance-enhancing manipulation athletes do that are specific for strength or endurance, studies show that caffeine positively enhances all of these things.”

Is coffee a superfood?

This would depend, I guess. We’ve seen some downsides, and I’ve yet to mention two others. One, it’s addictive, and two, it’s been linked to insomnia. Performance-wise, sleep is crucial for your body to recover and recharge itself. No matter its benefits, if coffee negatively affects your ability to rest, it’s not going to help you much.

Yet, analyzing data—of 126,000 people and gathered over 18 years—has led to an almost astonishing number of likely health benefits, including lowering your risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer; improving mood; appeasing headaches; and even lessening the risk of cavities.

In some cases, even the “all things in moderation” cliché was put to the test. For example, drinking one cup to three cups a day reduced type 2 diabetes risk by single digits, whereas drinking six or more cups per day slashed men’s risk by 54 percent and women’s risk by 30 percent. Maybe it’s just because coffee makes you want to get up and do something; those participants who reduced their risk may have exercised more.

These findings have been routinely backed up by further studies. At least six studies indicate that coffee drinkers are up to 80 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, with three showing the more they drank, the lower the risk. Other research shows that compared to not drinking coffee, at least two cups daily can cut your risk of gallstones in half, provide a 25 percent reduced chance of contracting colon cancer, and offer a whopping 80 percent decline in liver cirrhosis risk. So abundant is this research that caffeine is added to certain medications to treat headaches, mood, asthma, and now Parkinson’s disease.

So is it time to hit Starbucks?

Since, as I’ve said before, this isn’t Politics class, I won’t tell you not to, but I’m certain that your local organic, fair-trade, mom-and-pop coffeehouse with the open mic on Thursdays will have better coffee anyway (wink). Back to the subject, coffee or tea certainly don’t seem to be harmful as a part of your diet. The problem with them, I suspect, is more often what we add to them. So if you enjoy your morning or afternoon (maybe skip the evening) ritual, then by all means indulge. Just keep it traditional, pure, simple, and forget the word Frappuccino was ever invented.

Speaking of Frapps, that’s where we’re headed next time. See you then!

Sources: Harvard study: Esther Lopez-Garcia, DrPH; Rob M. van Dam, PhD; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; Eric B. Rimm, ScD; JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH; Meir J. Stampfer, MD, DrPH; Kathryn M. Rexrode, MD, MPH; Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD. Coffee Consumption and Coronary Heart Disease in Men and Women. Circulation. 2006;113:2045-2053. Costa Rican study: Marilyn C. Cornelis, BSc; Ahmed El-Sohemy, PhD; Edmond K. Kabagambe, PhD; Hannia Campos, PhD. Coffee, CYP1A2 Genotype, and Risk of Myocardial Infarction. JAMA. 2006;295:1135-1141. Swiss study: Mehdi Namdar, MD, Pascal Koepfli, MD, Renate Grathwohl, MD, Patrick T. Siegrist, MD, Michael Klainguti, MD, Tiziano Schepis, MD, Raphael Delaloye, MD, Christophe A. Wyss, MD, Samuel P. Fleischmann, MD, Oliver Gaemperli, MD and Philipp A. Kaufmann, MD. Caffeine Decreases Exercise-Induced Myocardial Flow Reserve. J Am Coll Cardiol, 2006; 47:405-410. Florian Koppelstätter, MD, PhD., Thorsten D. Poeppel, MD, PhD, Christian M. Siedentopf, Ilka Haala, Anja Ischebeck, PhD, Felix M. Mottaghy, MD, PhD, Paul Rhomberg, MD, PhD, Michael Verius, PhD, Stefan M. Golaszewski, MD, PhD, Christian Kolbitsch, MD, PhD, Stephan R. Felber, MD, PhD, and Bernd J. Krause, MD, PhD Coffee Jump-starts Short-term Memory. Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting, Chicago, Nov. 27-Dec. 2, 2005. American Dietetic Association: “Cutting Down on Caffeine.” News release, Radiological Society of North America. Guelph study: Terry E. Graham, PhD. Caffeine and Exercise: Metabolism, Endurance and Performance. Sports Medicine, Volume 31, Number 11, 1 November 2001; 23:785-807.

by Steve Edwards

This week, our oh-so-basic nutrition class takes a look at bottled water. We drink it because it’s safe, right? Or do we drink it because it tastes good? What if someone told you that your tap water was held to a higher safety standard than your bottled water? Would that get your attention? If not, then how about this: what if I told you that the refreshing bottle of Aquafina® you just paid $2.75 for at the Stop-N-Rob came from the municipal water supply of Detroit?

The bottled water industry is still relatively young in the U.S. and has only recently come under a somewhat underpowered microscope. Even so, the findings are far from pretty, and a much further cry from that pristine glacier-fed mountain spring you thought you were shelling out three bucks a gallon for. But before you go dump that case of Dasani® you just bought into Fido’s dish, read on.

First off, the odds are with you, health-wise. The findings of a recent 4-year study conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) showed that 78 percent of the brands tested were safe. This means that unless you’ve been extremely loyal to one brand on the list, you’re probably okay. Still, knowing that 22 percent of the companies out there have chemical contaminants in their water higher than the state limits isn’t too reassuring.

Add that to the findings that almost 25 percent of the companies selling bottled water are using tap water that sometimes has no further treatment, and it becomes downright maddening. After all, Americans consumed an estimated 25.8 billion liters of bottled water in 2004. At an average of about a dollar a liter, that’s a lot of money to be spending on smartly dressed tap water.

If you’re not offended yet, consider the resources it takes to pour water out of a tap and into a bottle. To create enough plastic to bottle these 26 or so billion liters requires over 1.5 million barrels of oil. This is enough to fuel about 100,000 cars for a year. And this is just in the U.S. alone. Then consider that there’s a flotilla of plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that’s twice the size of Texas and that every time you throw out a plastic water bottle (bottles which are only formulated to be safe for one-time use) you’re adding to it, and you should be fired up enough to enroll in Politics 911. But back to the task at hand, your health.

What’s up with the standards?

This is a good question. Most of us have heard stories about polluted metropolitan water supplies. When I lived in Los Angeles, every year or so, a story would hit the wires about excessive levels of certain substances being found in our tap water. Scary? Of course. So now I live in the city with the best water standards in the U.S., Salt Lake City. For some reason, however, bottled water companies have somehow flown under this regulatory radar. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that most of the big-name water brands are subsidiaries of soda companies with massive lobbying power and, historically, little regard for their consumers’ health. (It’s Pepsi® who brings you the cool drink of Detroit’s finest, for example.)

Whatever the cause, the regulations enacted allow bottled water to contain some contamination by E. coli, or fecal coliform, and don’t require disinfection for cryptosporidium or giardia. There is also no regulation for the types of plastic to be used, and some of these cheap, “throwaway” plastics allow chemicals to migrate from the plastic and into the water. If you don’t understand what any of this stuff is, trust me, you don’t want to be drinking it.

How do I tell good water from bad?

Unfortunately, this is difficult, if not impossible. A list of the offending companies has not been made public, so as of now, there just isn’t much you can do to ensure your safety. Contacting the bottler might be helpful. Contacting the state water boards in the state where the water’s bottled can also help because they often oversee the bottling standards as well. And if the cap says, “from a municipal source,” or, “from a community water system,” you’re drinking tap water, which may or may not be further treated.

The best solution is probably to cry foul (see below). With 78 percent still on the upside, we’ve got a good chance of spurring the good guys to action on this one.

What to do?

Switching to tap water isn’t the perfect answer. While the U.S. has high standards for water purity, the taste alone is often enough to incite dreams of Evian®. A home water filter is probably the best solution. Filters certified by NSF International (800-NSF-MARK) ensure the removal of many contaminants. A certification is not a safety guarantee, but it is better than no certification at all. It’s important that all filters be maintained and replaced at least as often as recommended by the manufacturer. Otherwise, they could make the problem worse.

You can also get the test results of your tap water. All water suppliers must provide annual water-quality reports to their customers. Give ‘em a call and they’ll send you one. Their number is on your water bill.

If you’re fastidious, or suspicious, you can do this test on your own. Call the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791) for a list of state-certified water testing facilities. Standard consumer test packages are available through large commercial labs at a relatively reasonable price.

What about my bottled water?

No matter how you look at it, the safest current option is checking out your local tap water and then filtering it. And when you do opt for bottled waters, try finding those from springs or aquifers, not municipal sources, unless you know which municipal source the water came from and can check it out. At this point, I’d have to recommend bottled water as a supplement only, not as your primary water source.

You don’t have to like it

If you’re mad as hell and don’t want to take it anymore, well, it’s a good thing we live in a democracy. Fire off a letter of indignation to your members of Congress, the Food and Drug Administration, and your governor, and urge them to adopt strict requirements for bottled water safety, labeling, and public disclosure. Specifically, refer to these points suggested by the NRDC:

• Set strict limits for contaminants of concern in bottled water, including arsenic, heterotrophic-plate-count bacteria, E. coli and other parasites and pathogens, and synthetic organic chemicals such as “phthalates.”
• Apply the rules to all bottled water, whether carbonated or not and whether sold intrastate or interstate.
• Require bottlers to display information on their labels about the levels of contaminants of concern found in the water, the water’s exact source, how it’s been treated, and whether it meets health criteria set by the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control for killing parasites like cryptosporidium.

To take even further action, you can encourage (or demand, your call) your bottlers and the International Bottled Water Association (a trade organization that includes about 85 percent of water bottlers) to voluntarily make labeling disclosures such as those listed above.

Contact information:

FDA
Andrew von Eschenbach
Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857

That’s enough for today, where we actually did borderline on politics class. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in. We’re often forced to stand up and fight for things that should be basic, such as the right to non-polluted water. Next time, we’ll stay on the beverage theme by looking at one of the most popular drinks on the planet, coffee.

This week, we’re going to address why we should drink water. You know, water, “like in the toilet.” This line, borrowed from the film Idiocracy, isn’t so far from the way many people think about drinking plain water. In the comedy, the world’s drinking water is replaced by Brawndo, a Gatorade-like electrolyte drink. We will deconstruct Gatorade at a later date, but today, I want you to understand why this is not an option. You can hydrate yourself with other liquids, but every time you do, you’re chipping away at the chances of following a nutritional diet.

It’s likely that the only reason you think you need to drink water is to stay “hydrated,” but you might not truly understand what this means. Let’s delve into the meaning behind hydration and just why you need to drink so much plain, “boring” water.

1. Your body is made up primarily of water. When you’re properly hydrated, about two-thirds of your body is water—muscle tissue is even higher, at around 70 percent, while fat is less. Muscle powers your body and fat protects it. Put two and two together, and you may infer that water is vital to the things that make your body do stuff. When you don’t drink enough water, your body declines into a state we call dehydration. Get too dehydrated, and your body will not function properly, which isn’t too surprising when your body’s low on such a vital nutrient. (Your body can be as much as up to 65 percent water!)
2. You don’t need to drink 65 percent of your weight in water each day. This is because, one, if you lost all the water in your body, you’d be dead, and two, that water makes up most of all the living things on our planet. Since we eat living—or recently alive—things, we get some water from the things we eat. When we cook things, they lose their water. This means that the more raw whole foods you eat, the less water you need to drink. Fruits and veggies lead the group of water-rich foods and contain around 95 percent water. If you eat a lot of plants, you can drink less water. But if you don’t . . .
3. There is more to hydration than just your water levels. Chemicals in your body react with water so that you can function. We lose water in the form of sweat, and sweat is made up of water and body “salts,” which are mainly sodium, chloride, and potassium, but they also include magnesium, calcium, and so on. These are called electrolytes and, basically, are the reason that salt is such a vital component in your diet. Salt is a mixture of sodium and chloride, but generally, we use the term “salts” in reference to electrolytes. Too much salt is bad and too little is bad. Both can kill you. This is why, like water, the amount you consume should be directly related to the workload your body is put under. More P90X ® or ChaLEAN Extreme ® equals more sweat, meaning that you need more water and more salt.
4. What about water weight? Some people are afraid to drink a lot of water because they’re afraid of gaining “water weight.” This is the opposite of what you should do. Water weight is a term for your body holding on to excess water because it’s not getting enough. The best way to get rid of water weight is to drink more water. It works two ways. If you don’t drink enough water or if you eat too much salt in your diet, your body hoards water. This water/salt relationship is referred to as your electrolyte balance.Generally, there’s an easy way to tell if you need more water or salt; because most people drink too little water and eat far too much salt—especially those who eat in restaurants. So when you aren’t exercising, you almost never need more salt. When you are exercising, getting enough salt becomes an issue. Endurance athletes are ever aware of the need to have enough salt to avoid a condition called hyponatremia, a condition that results when you’ve had too much water and not enough salt, basically just dehydration from a different angle. Those who don’t exercise outdoors excessively almost never have to worry about this condition.
5. So what does water do for you? You’ll often hear claims that water helps chemical reactions, regulates your body temperature, and lubricates your joints, eyes, and spinal cord. Sure, it does all of this stuff. In fact, since you’re mostly made up of water, a case can be made that it does almost everything. So why split hairs? Your body doesn’t work, at all, without being fed a lot of water. You can live days, weeks, and, sometimes, even months without food. But you can’t live even a few days without water.
6. Itchy skin. Dry skin. Constipation. Sneezing. Dry cough, headaches, nosebleeds, and acne. These are common ailments related to drinking too little water. Since water regulates your body’s functions, it makes sense that minor glitches in bodily functions may be related to not drinking enough water. And this is just a partial list of common ailments. Many symptoms blamed on allergies are probably due to living in a dehydrated state. When you are properly hydrated, your body can better defend itself.
7. The above symptoms may be worse in the winter. Water is required just to breathe, and you lose water through your mouth and lungs. During winter, when the air is dry, more water is required. Add forced heat in the air—like from home heating systems and fires—and the situation is exacerbated. This means that you need to drink extra water in the winter when it’s cold, even though you are probably less thirsty.
8. Water and your immune system. During winter, lack of water will dry out the mucous membranes of your lungs, gut, and sinus passages and lessen your resistance to disease. These barriers protect your body against bacteria, viruses, and pollutants when you’re fully hydrated and intact. Allowing them to dry out could be the leading cause of the common cold and allergic symptoms, not to mention things like constipation, sinusitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and long-term diseases like hemorrhoids and colon cancer.
9. Water and fat loss. We haven’t yet discussed the importance of fat mobilization for energy and its relation to weight loss and effective exercise because, well, this is Nutrition 911 and that sounds complicated. Anyway, water is the main component of this action. A well-hydrated body has higher levels of oxygen in the bloodstream, translating into an increased ability to burn fat as fuel. The more efficiently you burn fat as fuel, the more effectively you exercise, leading to a better overall body composition.
10. How much water? It’s said you need about 8 glasses of water a day. However, this will vary due to your activity level and environmental conditions. As a general rule, add a couple of glasses during the hot days of summer and the dry, cold nights of winter. During exercise, you may lose a quart an hour or more. While all liquids provide water, sugar, diuretics (caffeine, etc.), and carbonation reduce the hydration effect. Combining all three, as in soda, can reduce the hydration efficiency of the liquid to almost nil.

Now that you’re sold on the importance of drinking water, we better take a deeper look at where that water is coming from. Next time, we’ll discuss what’s in your water.

by Steve Edwards

Since all great things come in threes (or is it celebrity deaths?), we’re going to complete our sugar trilogy with a look at the worst food in the world: soda pop. Forget about brands; whether it’s Coke, Dr. Pepper, or even Hansen’s Natural, it’s all junk. There are different degrees of “junkiness,” but this is Nutrition 911, so we’re sticking with the bird’s-eye perspective. The taste might make you happy, but from a nutritional point of view, soda’s only place in the world is to make people fat, sick, and unhappy.

Alarming statistics

In America, we drink a lot of cola (or “un-cola”). A lot. On average, we each drank 52.4 gallons in 2005, and this figure includes infants, healthy folks, prisoners, etc., meaning that the average soda drinker actually gulps (their word) more than this. Carbonated soft drinks are the biggest single caloric source in the American diet. Teenagers in particular are hooked on the stuff and get an average of 13 percent of their daily calories from “pop.” If this doesn’t scare you, it should. In terms of sheer amount, these statistics could be alarming if it were any one food. A proper diet should have some balance and diversity. And soda pop is the antithesis of “any food.” It’s bad food.

“Empty calories”

We use the term “empty calories” for foods like soda that have no place in a nutritious diet. This term is ridiculously misleading. The calories in soda are far from empty. Most of them come from sugar. In the U.S., it’s nearly always high fructose corn syrup, the cheapest, most processed sugar on the market. Other ingredients include caffeine, various phosphates and acids, and artificial colorings. We’ll get to their effects on the human body in a minute, but first, let’s stick to the simple stuff. Per day, the average teenager consumes between 10 and 15 teaspoons of refined sugar via soda—which, according to government standards, is about their daily requirement for all foods. This means that for the average teenager, his or her soda consumption virtually eliminates his or her chances of eating a balanced diet. There’s nothing empty about that.

Weird science

The soda companies are a marketing juggernaut. They spend roughly $700 million a year on media advertising alone—not to mention hundreds of millions more sponsoring events, athletes, musicians, and such. This volume of cash makes it difficult for consumers to avoid them, by design. To avoid the temptation to drink Coke, you’ve got to be highly principled or living in the middle of the jungle. And even then, well, I once happened upon a soda vending machine halfway up Mount Yarigatake in the Japanese Alps, and a friend traveling in Guatemala found Coke in a rural area that didn’t have running water. Let’s just say that soda companies are going to continue making it easy for you to find the stuff.

This type of marketing machine won’t go away quietly. With the stats listed above, you could certainly put two and two together and link soda companies to the childhood (and adult) obesity epidemic that is arguably the world’s most serious health crisis. Yet, while researching this article, I came across a widely published “study” stating that “soft drink consumption has no effect on childhood obesity.” Suspicious from the get-go (the word “no” being a huge red flag), it didn’t take me long to find this statement: “The research paper was supported by an unrestricted gift from the American Beverage Association.” Bingo. Remember those Phillip Morris tobacco “studies” that promised a long and healthy life from chain smoking?

What makes it so bad?

Besides the simple caloric trade-off, sodas are formulated to give you a rush. The sugar is mixed with phosphates designed to speed it into your system. It’s so good, in fact, that many cyclists prefer Coca-Cola to specific sports food when they need a sugar rush near the end of races. And while a sugar rush is a good thing when you’re trying to exceed your anaerobic threshold and you’re out of blood glycogen (never mind if you don’t know what this is), it’s a bad thing whenever you’re not, which even for a competitive cyclist is 99.9 percent of the time.

Beyond the simple sugar rush, these acids and phosphates alter your body’s pH levels and inhibit the absorption of other nutrients. Then there are the effects of certain artificial coloring agents. For example, yellow #5, commonly used in soft drinks, has been linked to attention deficit disorder, hives, asthma, and other allergic reactions in some children.

Then there is the nutrient trade-off to consider. A person who drinks one Big Gulp per day must go to great lengths to maintain a balanced diet. Otherwise, they will almost certainly be deficient in numerous vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and essential fatty or amino acids—none of which is found in soda. For this reason, soda is often linked to type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, dental erosion, and a higher risk of kidney stones and heart disease. And that’s just a start. There’s plenty of less scientific data linking soda to poor scholastic habits, which we’ll get to in a later class.

Diet sodas and juices

In an attempt to become thought of as healthier, soda companies have diversified into non-carbonated beverages and diet sodas. While these are an improvement in some ways, they are hardly a solution to the problem.

First off, most juices and other caloric non-soda alternatives are mainly just sugar and water without the carbonation. A quick label comparison between a commercial orange juice and a Mountain Dew would show a similar “bottom line” with regards to calories and sugar. The only improvement would be the lack of the non-caloric offenders.

But that’s no small matter, as the true effects of these ingredients have not been thoroughly studied. Despite their no-calorie status, diet sodas have been linked to assorted illnesses. Recent studies have backed up my more anecdotal evidence that I’ve yet to have a client not lose weight by kicking diet soda. Granted, all of my clients drank an excessive amount, but regardless, there is little doubt that the pH balance of diet sodas hinders the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, and that just may be the tip of the non-caloric iceberg.

A large-scale study in 2007 showed that men and women who had more than one diet soda a day were 31 percent more likely to be obese and 25 percent more likely to have both high triglycerides and blood sugar, and they had a 50 percent greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Never mind if you don’t know what metabolic syndrome is. Just trust me when I tell you that you don’t want it.

How can you help?

In my world, soft drinks would come with the same type of regulatory language as cigarettes and booze, at least. Actually, in my world, we’d all be educated and wouldn’t require this language at all, but that’s Politics 911, not Nutrition 911. Anyway, here are five ways you can help educate the public about the dangers of soda, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Contact your local government officials and/or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and suggest that:

1. National and local governments should require chain restaurants to declare the calorie content of soft drinks and all other items on menus and menu boards.
2. The FDA should require labels on non-diet soft drinks to state that frequent consumption of those drinks promotes obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, osteoporosis, and other health problems.
3. Local, state, and federal governments should provide water fountains in schools, government buildings, parks, and other public spaces.
4. School systems and other organizations catering to children should stop selling soft drinks (as well as candy and other junk foods) in hallways, shops, and cafeterias.
5. State and local governments should consider levying small taxes on soft drinks, with the revenues earmarked for promoting health and fitness. A national 2-cent tax on a can of soda pop would raise $3 billion annually.

Are you scared yet? You should be. Or you could just stop drinking soda. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? That’s all the time we have this week. Next week, we’ll take a look at water. We know we’re supposed to drink that, right?

by Steve Edwards