Races

This week, we are delighted to have Holly L’Italien of Merritt Wellness Center share insight into the effects of a high carb diet, and why “carbo-loading” might not be the best idea for your overall health or your athletic performance.

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With the Tour de France under way, you may be watching or reading about the heaping plates of pasta and bread the riders are consuming and thinking “Wow, these guys are super-fit  — maybe I should be eating like that!” First, it’s important to recognize there’s a difference between health and fitness. Health is defined as the state where all systems of the body — skeletal, nervous, muscular, digestive, hormonal, and lymphatic — are working in an optimal way. Fitness is the ability to perform physically. It is ideal to have both health AND fitness, but sometimes people sacrifice health FOR fitness.

High-carbohydrate diets are obviously working for the professional riders in the Tour de France, but are the athletes sacrificing their long-term health for fitness? Possibly… let’s look at the effects of a high-carb diet.

A High-Carbohydrate Diet:

Increases Insulin: Insulin is the fat storage hormone and is released each time you eat carbs or sugar. When insulin is present in your bloodstream, you simply cannot burn fat. Instead, your body has to burn sugar instead of fat, so you “hit the wall” more easily and require frequent intake of more carbs and sugar. This can lead to overeating, and you become overweight instead of well-fueled. More importantly, high insulin levels are also very inflammatory, and as an athlete, you want to avoid this as much as possible because it inhibits your ability to recover.

Stops Production of Human Growth Hormone (HGH): High-intensity exercise naturally increases your body’s production of HGH. This hormone plays a significant role in slowing down the aging process. It also helps you burn abdominal fat. HGH and insulin oppose each other. If you consume carbohydrates, sugar or fructose — especially within two hours after exercising — you will shut off the production of HGH!

Depletes B-Complex Vitamins: The more carbs you eat, the more you deplete B-Complex vitamins. These vitamins are necessary for healthy muscle tone, immune system function, nervous system function, and for regulating metabolism. Low B-vitamin status is often associated with mood disorders and PMS symptoms.

Impacts Stomach Acid: High-carbohydrate diets also inhibit the production of stomach acid. Adequate levels of stomach acid are required for proper breakdown of protein, which is important in repairing and building muscle and is essential in the assimilation of minerals. Low stomach acid is associated with degenerative conditions such as osteoporosis and sarcopenia (the loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength associated with aging).

Leads to Metabolic Syndrome: High-carb diets are associated with metabolic syndrome.  Metabolic syndrome increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. It also causes hormonal imbalances such as infertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Conditions such as acne, “man boobs” and “muffintops” are the more obvious symptoms of metabolic syndrome!

Can You Maintain a Competitive Edge and Optimal Health?

Allen Lim, PhD, the brains behind much of the 2009 Garmin-Slipstream pro cycling team’s training and nutritional preparations believes so. He eliminated all processed wheat from the team’s diet, and replaced high-carb foods with nutritionally-dense fuels such as rice cakes made with eggs, prosciutto, and liquid amino acids.

Doing long-distance riding or running? Get the recipe for his rice cakes at: http://bicycling.com/blogs/theleadingedge/2009/07/07/garmin-slipstream-blog-riding-on-real-food/

But, you probably don’t rely on your athletic performance for a paycheck. Instead you are exercising because you want to achieve or maintain a healthy weight and look toned and trim. Chances are you also want to avoid the degenerative diseases that are epidemic today and you want to age well going forward. And for many, it’s the thrill of competing and performing well that makes exercising fun!

So, How SHOULD You Eat for Optimal Health AND Fitness?

It’s really pretty simple — eating healthy will get you the best performance. Exercise is not an excuse to down bowls of pasta, sugary “recovery” drinks and energy bars! We find our patients do best following these simple guidelines: Keep an eye on your carb intake and eat real, whole foods — real butter, whole eggs, unprocessed meats and vegetables.

1. Eat non-starchy vegetables: Vegetables are a great source of the vitamins and minerals that are essential for good health.

2. Keep your daily carb intake to <60 grams. Count your carbs to avoid triggering the release of too much insulin. Without insulin spiking, you will have an abundant source of energy from body fat and your energy level will be consistent throughout the day.

3. Include a good source of fat and protein at every meal: A serving of protein is essential for repairing and building tissue. Fat is incredibly important in controlling your hunger. Fat is the ultimate endurance fuel, and the heart runs exclusively on it. Low fat diets put the heart and other organs at risk by creating deficiencies in essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins — Vitamins A, D, E, F, and K. Eating fat will not make you fat! Fat is also essential to proper thyroid function and is neccessary for restoring nerve tissue and hormones. Good examples would be to cook with coconut oil, add butter to your vegetables, and use a good olive oil on your salads.

4. Always eat breakfast! Your adrenal glands have been working hard all night long balancing your blood sugar. It’s important to give them a break from this task and let then recover by eating within an hour of waking up.

If you’d like to learn more we have some great YouTube videos available that explain the connection between blood sugarand so many health issues that plague people today. The video was filmed by Dr. Merritt, who rode her bicycle across the U.S. in 26 days, eating low-carb >>

http://www.youtube.com/merrittwellness

I’m Eating Right, Now What?

If you think you are eating well but are still unable to achieve your healthy weight or have other health issues, there may be something else going on. At the Merritt Wellness Center, we use many diagnostic tools including blood tests, hormone tests, tests for immune function, thyroid and adrenal function, digestive function, food sensitivities and more to help identify the cause of your health challenges.

How Can We Help You Reach Your Health Goals?

We look for the root causes of your symptoms rather that just treating symptoms. Then we treat these inbalances with natural methods: lifestyle changes, whole food nutritional supplements, herbal products and acupuncture.

Some of the health challenges we treat:

• insomnia
• cholesterol
• diabetes
• high blood pressure
• autoimmune disorders
• allergies
• menopausal symptoms
• fertility issues
• hormonal imbalances

Not only can we help you improve your overall health with proper nutrition, we can help you improve your performance. We offer specific herbs and supplements to assist with recovery and we can help you avoid and recover from the nagging immune challenges that tend to pop up just before or after a big race. We can also help you address specific problems such as exercised-induced asthma and chronic injuries.

We also have packages available for The HCG Diet, The 21-Day Diet and Detox Programs, as well as The 7-Day Challenge, which is specially geared to managing blood sugar issues. Our patients have had tremendous success with this package, with many of them losing weight during the first week and continuing to lose additional weight with the tools they learned. We specialize in reversing diabetes and this is how we do it!

So, if you are interested in how real food and natural methods can help you achieve optimal health and performance over the long-term, give us a call. We are happy to do a free 30-minute consult, in person or on the phone, to see if we are a good fit for you. After seeing our website, though, most people are ready to see what we can do for them, and come in for a more personalized first visit, which is about 2 hours. Mention you were referred by MyFitList and receive 20% off!

Please visit our website (http://merrittwellness.com) and our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/merrittwellness) to get to know us better!

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Holly L’Italien is a Board-certified licensed Acupuncturist and Applied Clinical Nutritionist, as well as a nationally certified Asian bodyworker. She is certified in Orthopedic Acupuncture (specializing in injury rehab, pain management and sports medicine) and the Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture protocol. As an Applied Clinical Nutritionist, she utilizes her understanding of physiology and nutritional medicine to treat the whole condition, not just the symptoms.

A veteran of several marathons, road races, and triathlons, Holly placed third in her age group in this year’s Danskin Triathlon.

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Find Merritt Wellness and other nutrition resources online at MyFitList.

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MyFitList brings together the latest information on hundreds of local fitness businesses in Austin. We’re your resource for inspiration and information for getting and staying fit. Search hundreds of Austin fitness groups and services like running, triathlon, bootcamps, yoga studios, gyms and more all in one place and narrow them down based on location, time of day, and day of the week! Check us out at www.myfitlist.com