Newsletter
HotBod July 00
Welcome to all the new subscribers to the HotBod newsletter as well as those who have been with us from the beginning. Each month we'll explore issues relating to the three major areas of fitness: exercise, nutrition and supplementation. As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are always appreciated.
TRAINING CORNER: The "Best" Aerobic Exercise
Over the past few years, the market has been flooded with new types of exercise equipment, with each one claiming to be the "ultimate fat-burning vehicle". Fancy infomercials are utilized to market these products, often featuring a celebrity to vouch for its efficacy. With all the hype surrounding these claims, how do you differentiate between fact and fiction?
Recent studies have deemed the treadmill to be the "best" calorie burner. However, these studies only reflect short-term caloric expenditure and ignore the effects of long-term adaptation to exercise. When an exercise is performed on a regular basis, your body adapts by becoming more proficient in the activity. Your cardiovascular pathways used in the movement become more efficient at delivering oxygen to working muscles, thereby requiring greater intensity to elevate your heart rate. Since there is a limit to the amount of intensity that you can generate, utilizing the treadmill exclusively (or any other exercise, for that matter) will lead to diminishing returns.
Thus, despite the hype, there simply is no one best aerobic activity. If you want to maximize your fat-burning endeavors, it is imperative to cross train amongst different movements, varying your activities from session to session. In general, the more variety that you incorporate into your routine, the better your fat-burning results. Even better, since there is diminished stress to your joints and connective tissue, you'll reduce the potential for exercise-induced injury!
NUTRITION CORNER: Aspartame Madness?
Aspartame is a popular sweetener that is added to many "diet" foods. Made up of the amino acids phenylalanine and glatamic acid, and the compound methanol, aspartame is approximately 200 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar). Therefore, it sufficiently sweetens food while providing only a fraction of the calories of sugar.
However, a great deal of controversy surrounds the use of aspartame. There are those who claim that it hastens the development of tumors and is implicated in everything from headaches to nausea to Parkinson's disease. The basis of concern is due to the ingredient phenylalanine. To appreciate the genesis of these fears, a little physiology is in order. Phenylalanine competes with tryptophan (another amino acid) at the cellular level to cross the blood brain barrier and enter the brain. Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, a common neurotransmitter (a chemical imbalance of serotonin has been implicated in depression and is counteracted by many anti-depressants such as Prozac and Zoloft). By suppressing tryptophan absorption, serotonin levels are, in turn, suppressed. Accordingly, high levels of phenylalanine are associated with phenylketonuria--a disease that results in severe mental deficiency. Sounds pretty bad, right?
The truth is, however, that it is virtually impossible to consume enough aspartame to raise phenylalanine to toxic levels. For example, you would have to drink approximately 50 liters of an aspartame-sweetened beverage to reach the toxicity threshold for phenalanine. That's a lot of Pepsi!
It's true that some people are sensitive to aspartame and can experience mild symptoms such as headaches. While uncomfortable, these side-effects are by no means serious. In final analysis, you don't need to fear aspartame. If you experience symptoms, simply discontinue use of products that contain this ingredient. On the other hand, aspartame can be a great way to avoid refined sugar--and the potential detriments of long-term sugar intake are certainly worse than aspartame.
SUPPLEMENT REVIEW: Green Tea
What it is: Green tea is a tea leaf derived from the Chinese plant Camellia sinensis.
What it does: Green tea has potent anti-oxidant properties and is purported to aid in fat burning.
The verdict: Green tea is an excellent health supplement. It is replete in vitamins and anti-oxidants and thus helps to quench the free-radicals that wreak havoc on your cells. It also can help to improve immune function. Its effects on thermogenesis (fat-burning) are still being investigated but recent research has shown it to boost metabolism by as much as four percent. With all these benefits, green tea should be your beverage of choice.
Supplement Grade: A
Until next month, stay fit!
