Really! I saw with my own eyes how they cooked together during a Christmas TV show some potatoes with turkey meat that looked so absolutely marvellous that one could eat the TV.

Probably neither my mother nor Jamie’s mother had heard of Montignac or of the gastric juice diluting in the stomach if you drink water while you eat, still apparently some of us grew up with this combination sold as pure heresy by so many self-declared Google University graduates.

And I write “apparently some of us” because, although I think we all grew up with potatoes and meat, nowadays it looks like some started to argue their parents for not knowing basic things like the one stating potato should not be eaten together with meat. Their parents messed up the metabolism they are trying so hard to fix by finally consuming the protein and the carbohydrate separately and by drinking water at least half an hour after eating to not dilute the juice.

– What juice?

– One, that one, why do you need to ask?!

Digestion of potato starch begins in the mouth, under the action of salivary amylase, stops in the stomach and restarts in the small intestine, under the action of pancreatic amylase, no matter what other foods you eat at that meal.

Digestion of the fat from the butter and milk used to cook mashed potatoes begins in the stomach and mainly takes place in the small intestine, under the action of pancreatic lipase after being emulsified by bile salts, no matter what other foods you eat at that meal.

Digestion of meat proteins begins in the stomach and takes place in the small intestine under the action of pancreatic proteases, no matter what other foods you eat at that meal.

And no matter what you eat at that meal, the main thing that happens to food within the stomach is mechanical digestion because the stomach works just like a blender, mixing very well all the gastric content.

The idea that some things are digested earlier and others later, or that some things do not digest well because you have combined them with something can be a good subject for a glass of wine chat when you’re imagination runs low, but the stomach digestion result is gastric chyme – a homogeneous semi-liquid mixture of nutrients, less than 0.5 mm in diameter, which is gradually eliminated as small amounts through the pylorus canal in the small intestine.

The main role of the stomach is mechanical digestion.

Nothing rots or ferments in the stomach, because these two processes can only be performed by bacteria, and there are no bacteria in the stomach.

Or, if you painfully feel that in your own and personal stomach are some bacteria, you are warmly invited to the gastroenterologist for a Helicobacter pylori test and proper treatment.

And for God’s sake, if one could dilute the gastric juice by drinking water while eating, no one would even need omeprazole.

And if you’re experiencing bloating after eating, avoid eating too much and please don’t nibble in between meals. No fruit snacks, no coffee, gum or other nibbling, because such behaviour disrupts satiety hormones secretion, influencing metabolism and digestive motility.

The glucose, fructose, galactose, fatty acids and amino acids are the result of the intestinal – not gastric –digestion. And intestinal digestion is the same for all pancreas owners.

– So, did my mother and Jamie’s mother ate potatoes and meat at the same meal because they knew they have a pancreas = internal organ secreting amylase, lipase, and proteases (enzymes perfectly capable to digest any food combination – and even the pancreas itself in case of an acute pancreatitis for example)?

– Nope, I do not think they knew all this.

They probably ate potatoes and meat at the same meal and fed as with such delicious foods because, after such a meals we all felt good.

P.S. To all pseudo-nutritionists out there or to people who believe that the entire world’s gastronomy is completely fucked up I cordially recommend reading Illustrated Biochemistry. It helps weed out the non-sense.

Articolul Potatoes + meat = LOVE apare prima dată în Nutrition Services | Nutritionist Dr. Diana Artene.

• They know that gluten can cause allergie or intolerance.
• They know gluten makes them gain weight.
• They know that.
• They know that..
• They know that…

From whom do they know all that?

From people with gluten sensitivities, of course.

And the direct feedback of a person with gluten sensitivity feels extremely valuable for someone who wish to know about gluten side effects. Just that it varies widely from one person to other persons asked for this feedback (1).

And yes, we all would expect this feedback to be:

• negative from patients with celiac disease;
• and somehow improved from people following a gluten-free diet because they think they have gluten intolerance (2).

The fact that someone has the discipline to respect a gluten-free diet is exceptional, just not necessarily healthy (3,4).

On the other hand, people know for sure that running is necessarily healthy.

• They know that it improves cardio-vascular health because it’s said that you won’t have a stroke if you run a marathon (5,6,7).
• They know that it helps with weight loss (8).
• They know that it improves blood lipids profile by increasing HDL-cholesterol level (9).
• They know that it ameliorates depression (10).
• And they suppose that it improves runners immunity (11).

From whom do they know all that?

From runners, of course.

And the direct feedback of a runner feels extremely valuable for someone who wish to know about running side effects. Just that it varies widely from one person to other persons asked for this feedback (12).

And yes, we all would expect this feedback to be:

• positive from short and medium distance runners (after learning to breathe properly). Because if we’d ask, some people would not run even to catch a bus that comes every hour. The next one will come.
• and somehow less positive from runners just ending a marathon or an ultramarathon when – although mentally everything is extraordinary – physically things can be less extraordinary (13).

The fact that someone has the discipline, mental, respiratory and muscular capacity to run a marathon or an ultramarathon is exceptional, just not necessarily healthy.

Without the proper nutrition, long and unltra-long distance running can be unhealthy at least in terms of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and osteo-articular heath (but I will write two separate articles about the last two).

And yes, anyone can decide for himself that my opinion is pointless and keep running for as long as he can without talking with a gastroenterologist or with a sports nutritionist despite digestive symptoms felt during running.

Just that my opinion is not grounded on personal experience. I run with a 6-7′ per km a maximum of 10-15 km per week, and I feel fine. Also, I know many people that run more than that, and that run marathons and ultra-marathons, and they feel fine. My opinion is not grounded on their running experience either.

My opinion is grounded on studies on runners who experienced symptoms from digestive discomfort to digestive hemorrhage durring long distance running events (14).  Because if a behavior/ medication/ supplement is beneficiary for 70 people – this may seem as pretty conclusive for people leaving with a health problem, thus many would extrapolate that behavior/ medication/ supplement as a solution for their own problem.

But what if they are 70 out of a 1,000 people, and that same behavior/ medication/ supplement had no effect or was harmfull for the last 930? If you’d have no problem maybe you’d mostly consider the theoretical implications.

But if you do have digestive symptoms while running, let’s see what studies are saying.

Many long distance runners present digestive symptoms like:

• gastroesophageal reflux (15)
• vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping (16)
• and even digestive bleeding (17).

Thus, because of the fact that gastrointestinal discomfort felt by these runners mimics gluten intolerance symtoms, it has emerged the assumption that a gluten-free diet is beneficial for runners (18).

But a gluten-free diet for an endurance sport seems diametrically opposite of the pasta party concept, right?

Thus, besides the supposed gluten sensitivity, what might other digestive symptoms’ causes be in people that actually experience them only when running?

Long distance running can generate:

• sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity – which inhibits intestinal mucosal cells’ ability to secrete enzymes, causing an inability to digest dissacharides – further transported to the colon where they are fermented by local bacteria (19);
• intestinal dehydration – which increases intestinal absorbability for partially undigested nutrients – causing allergic like reactions like bloating, abdominal cramping, blood in faeces during the sport event – but in runners who have no problem what so ever eating gluten rich foods when they don’t run (20,21);
• intestinal vasoconstriction – which decreases liquids intestinal absorbability during running – especially for water either without/ with a carbohydrates and electrolytes content inappropriate for that athlete – which can cause diarrhea (22).

So, is the gluten-free diet beneficial for long-distance runners?

Yes if the runner has celiac disease or gluten intolerance also when he/ she does not run.

And no if the digestiv discomfort happens only when running because the above mentioned causes does not magically dissapear if we take out gluten for the runner’s diet.

Because they are caused by the sympathetic nervous system (responsable for fight or flight reactions) and by dehydration (if the runner does not properly hydrate according with his own health and training status during that particular run) – during long distance running digestive symptoms will keep happening even on a gluten-free diet (23).

As a general rule – without proper sports nutrition – the higher the effort, the higher both the intestinal ischemia and the intestinal permeability, thus the higher the digestive symptoms.  And, sadly, this type of simptomps don’t occur only in runners, but also in  cyclists, swimmers, triathletes and other athletes involved in endurance sports.

So what can they do to avoid digestive symptoms during sports events?

A. Before the sports event:

1. 1 month before: hydration traing – done repeatedly before the event with the exact same sports drink that will be used during the sports event;
2. 1 week before: eating high quality foods, as natural and as simplest cooked possible: proteins, carbohydrates, fibres and flavonoids supplying foods ± high quality omega-3 fats at every meal (high quality proteins and carbohydrates are mutually reinforcing);
3. 1 1/2 – 2 hours before: take the meal before the event, and then just focus on hydration (proper hydration before the sports event is essential for effective hydration during the event);
4. avoid evitarea antiinflammatory medication just before the event (24).

B. During the sports event:

1. The most important thing not to do during a sports event is to start something new: untested sports drink, new running shoes, miracle supplements. Just keep business as usual and you’ll have a better chance for success;
2. Hydrate regularly with low quantity of sports drinks appropriate for your body, running style and performance – again: use those you trained with repeatedly before the event;
3. Avoid solid foods – which need more time for gastric emptying – and replace them with gels and semi-liquid foods containing electrolytes, amino acids and dextrose (25);
4. Drink water with your gels, and alternate gels with sports drinks to restore blood volume decreased through dehydration (maintaining blood volume protects your heart and maintains your performance during sports events)
5. Avoid caffeine and anti-inflammatory medication if you experienced digestive symptoms in other sports events;
6. However, if digestive symptoms still occur, decrease intensity until they diminish or remediate.

Of course this plan might not suit gastro-intestinal pathology, thus realy pay attention to your gut while running. If you feel ill – better stop and see a medical doctor.

And yes – it is far easier to eliminate complete categories of foods than to follow the above plan, but it surely is easier than to counteract the impact of a gluten-free diet on endurance sports performance.

If you are a runner with digestive discomfort while running, please read the following references.

(1) Capannolo, A., et al. “Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity among Patients Perceiving Gluten-Related Symptoms.” Digestion 92.1 (2015): 8-13.

(2) Newman, Kaylee. “Excluding Gluten in a Healthy Collegiate Runner.” Journal of Sports Medicine and Allied Health Sciences: Official Journal of the Ohio Athletic Trainers Association 1.1 (2015): 19.

(3) De Palma, Giada, et al. “Effects of a gluten-free diet on gut microbiota and immune function in healthy adult human subjects.” British journal of nutrition102.08 (2009): 1154-1160.

(4) Mariani, Paolo, et al. “The gluten-free diet: a nutritional risk factor for adolescents with celiac disease?.” Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition 27.5 (1998): 519-523.

(5) Noakes, TIMOTHY D. “Heart disease in marathon runners: a review.” Medicine and science in sports and exercise19.3 (1987): 187-194.

(6)La Gerche, André, et al. “Exercise-induced right ventricular dysfunction and structural remodelling in endurance athletes.” European heart journal (2011): ehr397.

(7) Herrmann, Markus, et al. “Post-race kinetics of cardiac troponin T and I and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide in marathon runners.” Clinical chemistry49.5 (2003): 831-834.

(8) Tremblay, Angelo, Jean-Pierre Després, and Claude Bouchard. “Adipose tissue characteristics of ex-obese long-distance runners.” International journal of obesity 8.6 (1983): 641-648.

(9) Olchawa, Beata, et al. “Physical fitness and reverse cholesterol transport.”Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology 24.6 (2004): 1087-1091.

(10) Leedy, M. Gail. “Commitment to distance running: Coping mechanism or addiction?.” Journal of Sport Behavior23.3 (2000): 255.

(11) Nieman, David C. “Marathon training and immune function.” Sports Medicine37.4-5 (2007): 412-415.

(12) Neilan, Tomas G., et al. “Myocardial injury and ventricular dysfunction related to training levels among nonelite participants in the Boston marathon.” Circulation114.22 (2006): 2325-2333.

(13) Mann, Nirmal S., and Sital Singh. “Runners’ Diarrhea: Systematic Evaluation of 1184 Cases with Meta-Analysis.” International Medical Journal 22.1 (2015).

(14) 94 de studii despre efectele gastrointestinale ale alergatului: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/gastrointestinal-disorders-in-athletes

(15) Parmelee-Peters, Katrina, and James L. Moeller. “Gastroesophageal reflux in athletes.” Current sports medicine reports 3.2 (2004): 107-111.

(16) Mann, Nirmal S., and Sital Singh. “Runners’ Diarrhea: Systematic Evaluation of 1184 Cases with Meta-Analysis.” International Medical Journal 22.1 (2015).

(17) McCabe III, Marshall E., et al. “Gastrointestinal blood loss associated with running a marathon.” Digestive diseases and sciences 31.11 (1986): 1229-1232.

(18) Lis, Dana, et al. “No Effects of a Short-Term Gluten-free Diet on Performance in Nonceliac Athletes.”

(19) Ter Steege, R. W. F., and J. J. Kolkman. “Review article: the pathophysiology and management of gastrointestinal symptoms during physical exercise, and the role of splanchnic blood flow.” Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics35.5 (2012): 516-528.

(20) Øktedalen, O., et al. “Changes in the gastrointestinal mucosa after long-distance running.” Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology 27.4 (1992): 270-274.

(21) Parmelee-Peters, Katrina, and James L. Moeller. “Gastroesophageal reflux in athletes.” Current sports medicine reports 3.2 (2004): 107-111.

(22) ten Haaf, Dominique SM, et al. “Nutritional indicators for gastrointestinal symptoms in female runners: the ‘Marikenloop study’.” BMJ open 4.8 (2014): e005780.

(23) Lis, D. M. “Gluten-Free Diet May Not Boost Athletic Performance: A new study shows no difference in performance or reduction of GI symptoms when cyclists cut out gluten.” (2015).

(24) Küster, Michael, et al. “Consumption of analgesics before a marathon and the incidence of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and renal problems: a cohort study.” BMJ open 3.4 (2013): e002090.

(25) Murray, Robert. “The effects of consuming carbohydrate-electrolyte beverages on gastric emptying and fluid absorption during and following exercise.” Sports Medicine 4.5 (1987): 322-351.

Articolul Is the gluten-free diet beneficial for runners? apare prima dată în Nutrition Services | Nutritionist Dr. Diana Artene.

To start, let’s define exactly what is used to sweeten light or “sugar-free” soda drinks and what is used to sweeten normal or cola “with sugars”.

“Normal” soda drinks do not contain actual sugar – which is biochemically a disaccharide called sucrose, consisting of glucose + fructose, biochemically bound to each other – but High Fructose Corn Syrup (abbreviated to HFCS) – which is basically a mixture of the same two monosaccharides but unbound to each other and the fructose to glucose proportion in the made-up mixture is quite different from the one in natural sugar.

Light soda contains a lot of chemicals that are mostly inedible, among which aspartame, acesulfame potassium (Ace K) and sucralose (Splenda). However, despite the fact that aspartame is so controversial that it was removed from the market temporarily in some “civilized” countries, it is actually the most commonly used artificial sweetener in the world.

So, when we compare the metabolic impact of normal soda drinks with light soda drinks, we mainly actually compare the metabolic impact of HFCS to aspartame.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener – also named in European Union countries E951 – used for sweetening “light”, “zero”, “diet” or other “sugar-free” soda drinks.

Although it is sweet, aspartame is not a carbohydrate but a protein.

After consumption, aspartame is broken down in the small intestine – under the action of peptidases produced by the small intestine cells – into methanol, phenylalanine and aspartic acid. Thus, the health risks potentially associated with aspartame frequent intake may be due to:

• methanol and its metabolites toxicity – with carcinogenic potential
• increased plasma levels of phenylalanine and aspartic acid – which are potentially harmful for the brain normal function
• increased norepinephrine and dopamine catecholamine concentrations – with addictive potential

However, aspartame is declared “safe for human consumption” in over 130 countries at doses below 40 mg/ day per kg of body weight.

But since these seemingly informative numbers means nothing to the average human, let’s see an illustrative example:

• a can of 330 ml of light soda drink contains about 200 mg of aspartame
• a 70 kg adult can theoretically consume a maximum of 2.800 mg of aspartame per day,
• that is: about 14 cans of 330 ml light soda drinks – and of course, most people keep their soda drinking way below this level.

However, aspartame is also found in many other drinks, foods, drugs and chewing gums – the total daily aspartame intake being almost impossible to estimate as “safe” or “unsafe”.

We can say that no one drinks 14 cans of soda per day, so it’s safe.

And we can say that we actually don’t know all the aspartame intake from other food and drinks, thus it isn’t safe.

But we just don’t really know.

Despite the legal reinsurance that EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) has given us on December 10, 2013, there are many studies conducted by other scientists demonstrating the following consequences of aspartame intake:

• weight gain (3)
• increased risk of diabetes (4)
• increased risk of multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia (5,6)
• increased risk of cardiovascular disease (7)
• disordered appetite (8)
• migraines, depression and irritability (9)

On the other hand, HCFS is a kind of artificial fructose, called in the European Union countries and HFCS-55, used mainly for the sweetening of normal soda drinks – which actually can also be called “sugar-free” because they also contain no actual sugar.

Sugar is a disaccharide composed of a molecule of glucose biochemically linked to a molecule of fructose. The disaccharidases secreted by the small intestinal mucosa are required for sugar to be digested into glucose and fructose and further absorbed into the blood.

HFCS is a mixture of individual monosaccharides – the same glucose and fructose, but as they come biochemically separated the body doesn’t have to contribute to their digestion and intestinal absorption in any way. Thus HCFS is extremely absorbable even when the intestinal mucosa is inflamed, unlike sugar that requires the integrity of the mucosa intestinal for digestion and absorption.

After the fast absorption, the glucose from the HFCS mixture generates an insulin secretion spike followed by reactive hypoglycemia, and the contained fructose is converted inside the liver directly into VLDL fat that will be deposited locally.

Thus, as studies after studies continue to show, consumption of HFCS sweetened soda drinks leads to:

• weight gain (10)
• hepatic steatosis (11)
• increased risk of kidney disease (12)
• increased risk of cardiovascular disease (13)
• decreased perception of satiety (14)
• decreased perception of pleasure (15)
• increased hunger and appetite (16)

In addition, if we take into account that all the enzymes and hormones involved in digestion are secreted long before these beverages actually reach the digestive system, it is clear that both of these aspartame sweetened or HFCS sweetened soda drink variants have an impact on the secretion of digestive enzymes, incretins and insulin, both types leaving the body “high and dry”.

Neither cola light type drinks nor normal cola type drinks provide the body with the real sugar usable as a source of energy, but with synthetic chemicals whose consumption generates de novo lipogenesis.

De novo lipogenesis translates to gradual weight gain, dyslipidemia, liver and kidney steatosis, and a disordered appetite built up on a gradually increasing craving that will make you want to consume them daily.

When one decides whether to consume normal soda drinks or light soda drinks, what one decides is actually just where he or she wants to deposit the fat formed de novo – inside the body – the mechanisms leading to increased fat deposits happening after the consumption both types (17).

Of course, you can continue to “don’t worry, no sugar” and drink them “just for the taste of it”, but keep in mind that you are doing it on your increasing fat.

Quoted studies

(1) “Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of aspartame (E 951) as a food additive”. EFSA Journal 11 (12): 263. 10 December 2013. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2013.3496.

(2) http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/131210.htm

(3) Fowler, Sharon P. et al. “Fueling the Obesity Epidemic? Artificially Sweetened Beverage Use and Long‐term Weight Gain.” Obesity 16.8 (2008): 1894-1900.

(4) Sakurai, Masaru et al. “Sugar-sweetened beverage and diet soda consumption and the 7-year risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus in middle-aged Japanese men.” European journal of nutrition 53.1 (2014): 251-258.

(5) Belpoggi, Fiorella et al. “Results of Long‐Term Carcinogenicity Bioassay on Sprague‐Dawley Rats Exposed to Aspartame Administered in Feed.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1076.1 (2006): 559-577.

(6) Aune, Dagfinn. “Soft drinks, aspartame, and the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 96.6 (2012): 1249-1251.

(7) Dhingra, Ravi et al. “Soft drink consumption and risk of developing cardiometabolic risk factors and the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged adults in the community.” Circulation 116.5 (2007): 480-488.

(8) Qing Yang. Gain weight by “going diet?” Artificial sweeteners and the neurobiology of sugar cravings: Neuroscience 2010. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. June 2010.

(9) Lindseth, Glenda N. et al. “Neurobehavioral Effects of Aspartame Consumption.” Research in nursing & health 37.3 (2014): 185-193.

(10) Basciano, Heather, Lisa Federico, and Khosrow Adeli. “Fructose, insulin resistance, and metabolic dyslipidemia.” Nutrition & metabolism 2.1 (2005): 5.

(11) Collison, Kate S. et al. “Diabetes of the Liver: The Link Between Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and HFCS‐55.” Obesity 17.11 (2009): 2003-2013.

(12) Johnson, Richard J., L. Gabriela Sanchez-Lozada, and Takahiko Nakagawa. “The effect of fructose on renal biology and disease.” Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 21.12 (2010): 2036-2039.

(13) Tappy, Luc et al. “Fructose and metabolic diseases: new findings, new questions.” Nutrition 26.11 (2010): 1044-1049.

(14) Dekker, Mark J. et al. “Fructose: a highly lipogenic nutrient implicated in insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, and the metabolic syndrome.” American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism 299.5 (2010): E685-E694.

(15) Cameron, Jameason D., and Éric Doucet. “Reinforcement and food hedonics: a look at how energy deprivation impacts food reward.” Handbook of Behavior, Food and Nutrition. Springer New York, 2011. 2285-2305.

(16) Bellisle, F., and A. Drewnowski. “Intense sweeteners, energy intake and the control of body weight.” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61.6 (2007): 691-700.

(17) Feijó Fde M, Ballard CR, Foletto KC, Batista BA, Neves AM, Ribeiro MF, Bertoluci MC. Saccharin and aspartame, compared with sucrose, induce greater weight gain in adult Wistar rats, at similar total caloric intake levels. Appetite. January 2013. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2012.10.009.

Articolul What is the metabolic difference between cola light and normal cola? apare prima dată în Nutrition Services | Nutritionist Dr. Diana Artene.

Sport is very important in weight loss, but by sport we only maintain the results from our eating behaviour.

Sedentariness is a basic cause of the fattening, but we cannot lose weight only by making sport.

Studies that have tried to prove that more physical activity helps losing weight failed to show efficacy, at least for two reasons:

• more sport means more hunger, that most don’t knows how to control properly
• and, of course, more sport means that you’ll have to do more and more to see any results because of the physical adaptation of the body to each of your training session

Although many studies have tried to show that the link between hunger and sport does not exist, let’s be serious!

– How many people did a serious hour of cycling, tae-bo or step aerobics without wanting to temporarily move to the refrigerator?

Of course, it is a fantasy that passes after the first banana, but it is so common that researchers who claim that sport actually decreases the hunger feeling probably did not do too much sports themselves in their lives.

Because we feel hunger after exercise, maintaining optimal competition weight is sometimes more difficult than the training itself.

Athletes who practice sports with weight categories (boxing, judo, weightlifting) or those from sports with “artistic impression” (skating, dancing or even swimming) – in which the body of the athlete is practically visible, as the actual sports clothing cannot hide any extra pounds – can certify the fact that doing more sports does nothing to help them losing weight, increasing both their hunger and their aversion to the scale.

Of course, there are many who think that these athletes eat more than they need, putting their performance in jeopardy either because they do not know how to eat properly, or because they do not have enough will to eat properly.

But many of these many, pointing to the straw in the eyes of performance athletes who are struggling to maintain their optimal competition body weight, carry a huge beam with themselves, often being overweight and sedentary, but with a big big mouth.

Insulin resistance is the reason why I do not recommend more sport and the reason why these athletes get fatter despite the huge amount of physical exercise they do on a daily basis – and I will explain it below.

A sedentary muscle cells cannot feed on glucose because the membrane of an unused skeletal muscle cell is kept impermeable for nutrients. Maybe we can debate the idea if the social aid works or not at the society level, but the human body does not feed cells that don’t work.

When you seriously do sports (that is, at least to cannot check your Facebook account while you are sitting on a plank position…), the body starts to open capillaries in areas of unused muscle cells, they get some nutrients, start to contract asynchronously to those you use regularly and you start to tremble.

To start to tremble, the muscle cells you usually use should be oxygen-free, ie the effort you make must be intense enough.

And because the fat used until then in the low and medium intensity effort can no longer be burned in the absence of oxygen, the body starts to use glycogen (glucose being the only one that can be burned without oxygen, but with an 18 times smaller efficacy than in the presence of oxygen).

You are gasping for air, with tired oxygen-free abruptly awaken muscle cells, but if you resist and continue, you start to tremble and feed these several newly active muscle cells – temporarily.

If you keep the discipline up and gradually start to do this regularly, the body will feed them regularly and your metabolism will gradually increase. But you cannot lose weight only by this metabolic increase which is quite tiny. What this gives you is a metabolic flexibility that will allow some room for now and then exceptions allowing you to eat a bit more while weighing the same. The reverse – metabolic decrease – meaning that you start weighing more and more while eating less, and this can happen even in professional athletes.

That’s why we need intelligent trainers and nutritionist who know what they are talking about and who, if possible, have heard of malonil-Coa in their lives. As if they haven’t heard of this little thing, they do not know how you – or them for that matter – could lose weight without some form of obvious or hidden starvation, quoting and selling “personalized” diets copied from Dr. Google.

Returning to performance athletes and amateur athletes, their active muscle cells are many, and their brain knows this, because it needs to feed them daily.

When doing regular sports, the membranes of an increasing number of muscle cells will be kept permeable to glucose even in the presence of fatty acids, because those cells work and consume everything they receive by making glycogen deposits and burning all the incoming fats. This parallels the intensity and amount of physical effort made by the athlete.

When the level of effort decreases, there is a metabolic inertia: the muscular cells that aren’t working today still receive the same amount of fatty acids they received and burned yesterday, when they were working. But today these cells rest, and the metabolic reactions that should have burned these fatty acids do not happen in the absence of physical effort, thus are deposited in the cells.

This is why, the higher the physical effort you make on a regular basis, the more care you must have with your food when your decrease the physical effort level.

This is why, many athletes gain weight after competitions, and this is why amateur athletes have to choose very carefully the level of sport they can maintain on the long run. Because, if they do not chose it carefully and train chaotically, the membrane permeability of their muscle cells will decrease much more than that of sedentary people simply because an athlete is delivering much more fat to the muscle on a daily basis.

A performance athlete who eats chaotically endangers his performance, and one who closely adapts his diet to the level of effort increases his chances of optimal performance. And the trainers or amateurs athletes can get the same consequences if they do not adapt their diet in the days without physical effort.

In sedentary people, a sudden intake of fatty acids in the muscle cell makes their membranes impermeable, lowering their active muscle cells percentage because the delivered fat is being stored in muscle cells without the much needed muscle contraction.

When these former active muscle cells become full of fatty acids (with the marbled appearance of a piece of beef flooded with fat), they begin to have dyslipidemia, the fat being “stored” further in the blood and – if they insist – in the liver.

Please mind that the many weight loss electrotherapy procedures available today actually create more metabolic problems than they solves, and if you do chose such “shortcuts” instead of or on top of working out, you should really consider a consultation to a qualified nutritionist to not throw your metabolism down the trash can.

Researchers recommend for maintaining weight (attention, “for maintaining weight”, not for losing weight!) between 250 and 350 minutes of sports per week – that is an average of 50 minutes a day.

And “the dogs bark while the bear keeps on moving”: that is, most people couldn’t care less about the researchers recommendations related to anything that is not a priority, and therefore the vast majority becoming increasingly sedentary and, of course, fatter and fatter.

People are not more sedentary because they are stupid, but because they are so stressed, tired, busy to prioritise their time at least to walk their dog (if they have one), much less to do sports – before or after work, take the children to school, film and/or park, to went to visit their parents or to go to an art exhibition. There are so many things to do and so little time.

Still, you will never “find” the time for anything, if you want time you must “make” it.

And if you would make the time to regularly do physical activity you would be less fatigued, you would increase your resistance to stress, counteract some of the harmful effects of smoking, increase your level of focus and discipline which would help you gradually become less busy thanks to the increased efficacy,  and keep you away from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s or cardiovascular disease.

However, this sport drudgery would not help you lose weight by itself, whatever it is. It would help you keep the results you achieve by eating properly.

By weight loss efficiency:

1. the best combination is: right nutrition + right sports
2. followed by: right nutrition without sports
3. then followed by: right sports without nutrition

Because of insulin resistance and increasing hunger sensation after sports, chaotic sport practice can have more damaging consequences than sedentariness.

In my first book, “5 Gears Diet”, I detailed how we can do sports in order to lose weight effectively, and I did that because, as I said above, people who do sports without a correct plan have more problems in maintaining their weight than those who do less or none.

Instead of a marathon of hours of mindless sports, it is more efficient to practice a shorter but smarter training actually build up and thought over by someone qualified in sports, and then simply do something else with your life besides going to the gym.

Or you can continue to do two or three consecutive hours of sports the same day, hoping that you will burn more calories and that you will lose weight faster, while everything you gain will be the a harder and harder ability to maintain your body weight.

Sport is good for health, but less and more intense is a thousand times more effective than more and idly.

Articolul Why I do not recommend too much sport for weight loss? apare prima dată în Nutrition Services | Nutritionist Dr. Diana Artene.