Ready to try Beveri rBGH Free Whey Protein Powder?
Post by Pamela | November 3rd, 2011
I believe it’s the things we don’t know that can hurt us the most.
Labels can show us a lot of things: calorie count, ingredient list or serving size are all easily located on a standard nutrition label. What isn’t easily determined is how some of those ingredients were processed or modified.
Whey protein is a great example. I have shunned most dairy from my diet but I continue to drink whey protein. I look for those low in sugar and carbs. I read labels to make sure that they meet my standards. But what I’ve never thought about is the quality of whey protein itself. I never thought about whether the cows that produced the milk that lead to my whey were treated with rBGH or not.
RBGH is a genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone injected into lactating cows to produce more milk. While there is a more aggressive campaign to include it on the label or simply remove it all together milk, yogurt and ice cream, whey protein powders don’t seem to be looked at in the same way.
Supplements aren't regulated the same way medicines and foods are. While I don’t support some of the laws circulating that would cause most supplements to be held up in trials for years (like many potential life saving medical treatments), I think we need to hold our supplements to the same standards that we hold our food. We need to ask whey protein makers to go rBGH free.
Luckily, one company has already made this choice. In my research, I found Beveri rBGh free Whey Protein
My samples arrived and I made sure to give it a try in my next post workout shake. I tried the chocolate (it’s also available in Natural and Vanilla) with my usual unsweetened almond milk. Creamy and delicious till the last drop. It’s sweetened with Stevia, but didn’t have the aftertaste I’ve experienced with some of the other Stevia sweetened powders I’ve tried. Mission accomplished: another way I can continue to improve my nutrition and refuel after a hard workout.
Are you ready to demand more of your whey protein? Want to give Beveri a try? They were kind enough to send me 2 containers to give away to 2 lucky readers, one vanilla and one chocolate. Here’s is what you need to do to enter:
- Get an entry for posting a comment to this blog-how do you most enjoy whey protein? In a shake or smoothie? Do you bake with it? Maybe you put it in your oatmeal like me.
- Get another entry for retweeting this article with the hashtag #livethrivefit.
Winners will be chosen at random. Comments and tweets must be sent by 10 pm CT Wed. Nov. 9 to be eligible for the drawing. Open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be notified by email and a comment to this blog.
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Why We Get Fat Review
Post by Pamela | October 20th, 2011
I am sitting at my desk staring at my copy of Gary Taubes’ book Why We Get Fat
Technically speaking, there is nothing different in this book than Good Calories Bad Calories (see my review of Good Calories, Bad Calories). I would actually refer to it as the simplified version of the previous book, with a lot of the research removed and the arguments condensed to be less dense and more understandable to the average reader.
The problem is, by doing so, he’s written just another diet book. Another book that harkens back to Atkins and the other “cut out all but the barest trace of carbs from your diet” books. Another diet book that presents a plan that may work but is hardly livable. Another diet book that says I have the absolute answer and serves to just add one more source of confusion to the average American’s quest to get healthy.
My frustration is based in the fact that he’s on to something. He’s core ideas are right:
Sugary and refined carbs are responsible for increasing obesity and malnutrition.
We eat too much processed food.
Food quality matters
But he then he goes off track, shifting to the extreme position. He presents data that, on the surface makes sense but if you look closely you’ll find the flaws in the argument. For example, he presents data against exercise, how it doesn’t help you lose weight. He discusses the inability of dedicated runners to maintain a healthy weight. He says if someone is running miles a day, and can’t lose weight, than what’s the point? Yet he doesn’t account for what these runners are eating. I always say you can’t out train a bad diet. Of course running won’t help you lose weight if your recovery meal is a muffin and Frappuccino.
Further, he talks about the Women’s Health Study. Women were asked to follow the standard low fat heart healthy diet yet didn’t appear to be any healthier or lighter for it. What about exercise? Of course you can eat a heart healthy diet and gain fat. You can eat too much of anything. To maintain lean mass you’ve got to strength train.
My mission, my passion for a livable approach to health and fitness, just solidifies every time I read about extremes. I know, there are some who might call my lifestyle extreme. But it’s a lifestyle that has evolved over time. You can just as easily let a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle evolve over time. We get fat because instead of making a conscious choice to live healthy and fit, we let the food industry, sedentary jobs and the needs of others take over. We get fat because we don’t demand better of the food industry, assuming they have our best interests at heart and believing their overinflated health claims. What I am passionate about is educating people so they can make conscious choices about how they live their lives. Those choices may lead to small changes each day or perhaps to a true extreme makeover.
Since I reviewed the first book has anyone else picked it up? Have you read Why We Get Fat? How do these books make you feel? Vexed? Frustrated? Passionate?
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Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness by Robert Cheeke Review
Post by Pamela | May 12th, 2011
18 tofu hot dogs.
When you’re passionate about something, it doesn’t matter what it takes. If that means you eat 18 tofu hot dogs to get your daily calories and protein to build muscle while living a vegan lifestyle then that’s what you do.
Not that Robert Cheeke regularly eats 18 tofu hot dogs anymore. His diet has evolved over time, just like anyone on a mission.
And make no mistake; he is a man on a mission.
His book, Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness
In my opinion, it’s his story and passion for being vegan and for fitness that makes this book a great read. While I found the chapters covering meal plans, supplements and workouts interesting it was his story I enjoyed the most. I always enjoy the journey, hearing personal stories of transformation. I always find ways that I can connect and identify with someone whom I may have never met. It seems there is always something we’ve “shared” on our journeys.
For example, he describes his first real bodybuilding program as the one from Body for Life
I also got a much needed nudge.
We all have times in our lives that we coast a bit. After the first of the year I found myself in one of those places. I was doing what had to be done to get by but not a whole lot more, both personally and professionally. I was letting my stress control plan be the excuse to not get out and meet people as much or turn off the computer before all my work was really done for the day.
Then I read the essay included in the book called Increase Your Work Ethic to Create Your Own Results. Talk about a much needed swift kick in the pants. The reason things weren’t progressing was because I wasn’t really giving it my all. The reason positive things weren’t happening was because I wasn’t making them happen. I wasn’t working nearly has hard as I could have been and that was why my results weren’t as great as they should have been.
When I read this essay, not too long after returning energized from SXSW, I realized I needed to step up my efforts. Once I did, things turned around almost instantly. Now I go as hard as I can every day, every workout. I make every day, every minute count. If I don’t give everything I can to those things I am passionate about, then what’s the point? No more coasting for me.
There are lots of good reasons to check out this book. Interested in a vegan lifestyle? There’s lots of great information and resources for you. Interested in learning more about a solid bodybuilding workout plan? There are plenty of great examples that are easy to follow. For me, however, the best reason to read this book is to be inspired. Need some help with motivation and reigniting your passion? Then check this one out for sure.
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This is Why Your Fat by Jackie Warner Review
Post by Pamela | April 21st, 2011
I love Jackie Warner.
I didn’t watch her Bravo shows, Thintervention and Workout, mainly because we don’t have Bravo anymore and I don’t have a lot of TV time. I love her workout DVDs. Power Circuit Training is my favorite weight based workout DVD of all time.
So I was kind of sad after I read her book, This Is Why You're Fat
Not that there is anything wrong with the book. I agree with a good portion of it. Refined sugar isn’t good for you and it needs to go. Alcohol makes you chubby. Keep a food journal. Have a treat, within reason, every so often. Hormones can make you crazy and affect your weight.
Maybe that was the problem. I didn’t find anything new. I felt like I had read this one before. Except instead of one cheat meal a week you get two.
Or maybe it was when she made the following statement:
Research and my own personal experience support the fact that the body needs some lean meat for optimal performance and weight loss.
What the heck, Jackie Warner?
This statement was made in a sidebar box without any references to research, only she “used to be vegan”. So maybe it didn’t work for her or maybe she didn’t go about it the right way. But with so many amazing vegetarian and vegan athletes (Robert Cheeke, Brendan Brazier, Martina Navratilova and Robert Parish to name a few) I don’t know how she could make a blanket statement like that. Of course, it is her book and she is entitled to her opinion. But I consider it just that, an opinion. And I highly disagree with it.
The workout section was better. I love the exercises. I love the circuit training program, even if I did find the layout of the routine a bit confusing.
This one probably won’t make my top 10 list any time soon but if you’re a fan you might enjoy learning more about her story and her take on sugar, hormones and exercise in general.
Anyone else read this one? Thoughts?
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The Kardea Gourmet Review
Post by Pamela | April 14th, 2011
It’s funny sometimes how the universe works.
The book I chose to pick up after I finished reading Good Calories Bad Calories was The Kardea Gourmet
The good folks at Kardea Nutrition actually sent me this book sometime ago, but since I had been “challenged” by my Twitter friend, Robin, to read Good Calories Bad Calories I picked it up first. It’s not a quick read and I got distracted by SXSW. I finally picked up The Kardea Gourmet
This book also looks at diet and its effect on obesity and heart disease, but has a viewpoint that is a complete 180 from that of the author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes. Reading the two books back to back was a fascinating example of how science, sometimes the same science, can be interpreted in opposing ways.
A primary example of this is the Framingham study. Launched in 1948, the Framingham study has followed multiple generations of residents of the town of Framingham MA. Much of what we know about heart disease and risk factors can be tied back to this still ongoing study. Taubes references this study as part of his evidence that total cholesterol doesn’t really matter when it comes to heart disease, but instead it is LDL and triglycerides that are to blame. He then goes on to link a refined carbohydrate rich diet to the rise in heart disease and makes the case for a diet populated with meat, eggs, butter and milk to stave off heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
The team at Kardea uses this same study to support a more traditional heart healthy diet. They look to some of the more well known experts when it comes to heart disease, Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, and advocate a more traditional balanced plant based diet for a healthier heart and a healthier life.
It’s easy to see then how the general public can get so confused. Two completely different camps using the same study to prove their way is the right way.
As I said before, I believe there is a balance between the two. As a vegetarian, I certainly believe in a plant based diet. In fact one of my main disappointments with the book was that fact that most of the recipes had meat in them. Odd, I thought, for a book strongly advocating a plant based diet as a means to treating heart disease.
I think this book is also easier to grasp for the general public. It’s an easy to read 224 pages of basic information on heart disease, cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. It’s a great place to start when your doctor says you need to do something but doesn’t have time to tell you much more.
Don’t expect a plan, though. While they authors share lots of good basic information and briefly address the low fat/low carb debate they don’t set out their own guidelines. I agree with their recommendation of balance, limiting sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup) and increased consumption of vegetables and fruit but I think most Americans know these things (see my post on the Updated USDA Dietary Guidelines). They just don’t quite know how to achieve them. Telling them to work towards a plant based foundation based on their needs just won’t give most people the structure they need to get started.
I would love to get your opinion on this one. Maybe it’s just me, too far down my own journey to appreciate this book. I want one of my readers to read this book too and write a post for me reviewing this book with their fresh perspective. Leave a comment below telling me what confuses you most about nutrition-heart healthy or otherwise. Post by 10 pm CT April 20, 2011. Open to US residents only and the winner will be drawn at random to receive a copy of The Kardea Gourmet. And remember if you win, you get to write a guest post review.
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