The Need for Speed

I often joke that I only run when chased. In the past I ran a lot and fell out of love with it deciding it was time to see other exercises. At CrossFit I could ignore the fact that workouts had 400/800 meter runs in them knowing that if I lost a few seconds, I could make it up during the strength elements. But everyone in class is getting stronger and I haven't necessarily gotten any faster. It's time to correct that:

By: Mauro Di Pasquale
Three components affect your maximal speed: Stride Frequency, Stride Length, and Anaerobic Endurance. Here's a quick look at all three & how they work together.


Part One: How Speed Is Created
When watching a race you probably have noticed that each person looks like they run differently. These differences are biomechanical in nature.

Everyone can improve his or her basic speed. There are three factors (other than genetic) that determine how fast a person runs:

• Stride Frequency - This is the number of strides a person takes in a set amount of time.
• Stride Length - This is the measured distance of each stride taken.
• Anaerobic Endurance - This is your body's ability to sustain maximum effort for an extended time frame.

All three of these factors are dependent on each other for the creation of speed. In other words, a person cannot become faster without improving all three components. For example, the number of strides a person takes in ten seconds will only make them faster if the length of each stride is greater than another's. This is exactly what I will address.

Conversely, if one person's stride length is the same as another's, they will not be faster unless the frequency of their strides is greater. Finally, we have anaerobic endurance. Without it, stride frequency and stride length are inconsequential because you are physiologically not able to run at maximal effort.

Part Two: Stride Frequency
Stride frequency is defined as the number of times a foot touches the ground in a given amount of time (usually seconds). This determining factor of maximal speed is the most difficult to change, and thus, has the smallest affect on speed production.

However, because the movement of the lower leg with each stride affects it, it is important. More specifically, where the foot touches down with relation to the rest of the body can affect stride length, which in turn, affects stride frequency.

Basically, if the foot touches down behind the body the stride has been shortened. A shortened stride causes a slightly greater frequency rate. Conversely, when the foot touches down in front of the body the stride has been lengthened. Stride lengthening slows the frequency rate of your stride. This is typically called over-striding in speed training. Over-striding is the most common mistake made by sprinters in relation to stride frequency.

When the foot strikes directly under the body and the lower leg is 90 degrees (or perpendicular to the ground), stride length is optimal. This allows the athlete to reach his or her optimal frequency, which allows the sprinter to maintain maximal speed.

Additionally, where the foot touches down with relation to the body, and how often it touches down, can be influenced by biomechanics, or movement of the hip, knee, and ankle joints.
There are a few specific sprint technique drills which can influence the movements of the hip knee and ankle joints which will help maximize the sprinters technique as it pertains to optimal stride frequency.

Nine Exercises For Sprinters! The basic idea of these exercises is simple. Explode off the ground, and then once your feet touch, explode again spending minimal amounts of time on the ground. [ Click here to learn more. ]

Part Three: Stride Length
Stride frequency is one of the max speed factors. This will explain the definition and practical influence of stride frequency and how it affects maximal speed. Stride length is defined as the distance between touchdown of the toe of one foot and the touchdown of the toe of the other foot. This factor varies greatly from sprinter to sprinter. Stride length can even change for an individual depending on whether he or she is racing at longer or shorter distances.
However, we're not going to get into all of that. Instead, we will focus on how, either by shortening or lengthening your stride, you can better obtain your maximal speed potential.
First of all, the length of each stride can vary due to several factors including but not limited to:

Strength
Flexibility
Injury
Leg length
Endurance
Biomechanical technique.

It is relatively easy to determine a persons optimal stride length. All that you need to do is watch where the foot is with relation to the upper-body when it touches the ground.
Optimal position of touchdown should be somewhere between six and twelve inches in front of the sprinters center of gravity. Touchdown any closer to the body's center of gravity (or behind it) will cause a decrease in force applied to the ground.
The greater the force applied to the ground, the greater the speed.

Conversely, touchdown any farther away from the center of gravity and the foot will act like a brake. This over-lengthened stride decreases the amount of force applied to the ground. This, in turn, will slow the sprinters maximal speed.

So, generally speaking, in relation to the sprinters center of gravity, if the foot strike is behind the center, the stride is too short. If the foot strike is too far in front of the body's center, the stride is too long.

What this all means is that a greater stride length will help a person become faster, only if it does not slow stride frequency or decrease the amount of force applied to the ground.
As I mentioned earlier there are specific drills that can be practiced to help an athlete maximize his or her stride length, as well as, stride frequency. I will discuss these in the final installment of this series.

Part Four: Technique Drills
Of the three max speed factors, two of them, stride frequency and stride length, can be improved by executing a few simple drills while training. Here's a look at them.

Now that you understand that speed is a product of both genetic ability and biomechanics (or technical form), I will walk you through a few technique drills that will help you learn and develop proper running form.

There are two drills that can help anyone become faster, if practiced and perfected. They are the "A" and "B" drills. The "A" drill precedes the "B" drill, and both are to be learned in a progression from marching or walking, to skipping and finally running.

Sprint Technique Drill #1 - A's
This is a simple drill to help the sprinter achieve high knees and toes when the leg is up in front of the body during the sprinting motion.

Begin by simply walking forward slowly, while staying up on the ball of your foot. As your toes leave the ground to step forward, dorsi-flex the ankle or pull your toes upward toward the knee and hold them there. While holding your ankle in this position, flex the hamstring and pull your heel upward toward your buttocks.

Then, using hip flexion, pull your upper leg and knee forward and upward parallel to the ground. Note, at this position, your ankle should be underneath and slightly behind your knee with your toe still flexed upward. Then simply extend the hip and knee and put your foot back on the ground.

When you start doing this drill, begin by repeating the same leg for several repetitions before switching to the other leg. Once you become more comfortable with the motion, alternate in a normal walking gate, then speed up to a skip, and finally perform this drill at a slow running pace.

The "A" drill helps to improve both stride frequency and stride length. Flexing the tow upward and pulling the heel directly to the buttocks shortens the leg, thus allowing it to be pulled through the range of motion more quickly and will help to increase the speed or frequency of the stride. While holding the lower leg in this position and flexing the hip to raise the knee parallel to the ground helps to assure the stride length is optimal.

Sprint Technique Drill #2 - B's
"B" is simply a continuation of the "A" drill. To perform this drill, begin by doing the "A" drill, once your knee is parallel to the ground, flex the quadriceps muscles and swing the lower leg forward and upward. Similar to when you are kicking something. By doing this, you are simulating the leg swing that naturally occurs when running.

Remember, at this point, you are performing this drill at a walking pace. As you progress with more speed, the lower leg will extend on its own because of forward momentum.
When your knee is fully extended, use your hamstring to pull the entire leg backward and downward towards the ground. Think of this as a pawing action. Pulling the leg back with this movement causes the foot to touchdown nearly under the body's center of gravity, and allows the force of the next stride to be applied at the proper angle and direction so speed can either increase, or at a minimum, be maintained.

Conclusion
Start practicing this drill just as you would with the "A" drill. Begin by repeating the same leg for several repetitions before switching to the other leg. Once you become more comfortable with the motion, alternate in a normal walking gate, then speed up to a skip and finally perform this drill at a slow running pace.

There are other factors that play a part in the production of speed. However, stride frequency and length are the most crucial and most difficult to maximize. Practice these drills, perfect them, and apply them when you are sprinting at full speed. You will become faster!

This article was edited for space.

A serving of self-control

In 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' - and when it comes to vampires that's my most reliable source - a Vampire can't cross the threshold unless he's invited in. A seemingly simple way to avoid calamity would be an uncharacteristic lack of hospitality. That, I assume, would be far easier for me, a New Englander, than your average Northwesterner. But I'd venture that even the chronically polite could muster a bit of rudeness in order to avoid life sucking evil. Every day though, we all make simple nutritional mistakes that invite life sucking evil into our worlds. OK, maybe refined sugar isn't necessarily 'evil' but at the same time it has the capacity to suck energy and shorten lives.

In the case of vampires it would be easy to laugh at the justifications, "Maybe this is one of those nice vampires," "I'm sure I can take this one," or "he doesn't look hungry." With cookies or your garden-variety baked good, I hear equally comical, "I keep it in case I have guests," "sometimes I just want a little something," or "there not for me." These are the reasons I hear from clients when I'm talking about how a bag of cookies ended up 'dinner.'

Dracula had an aura; so do the cookies. Beyond the obvious chemical pulls, you have an entire marketing machine drawing you in and you don't stand a chance once they've crossed the threshold. Nice try, though.

Brian Wansink - he's one of those nice vampires - is the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Laboratory and, as he explained in an interview with Lynne Rossetto Kasper of 'The Splendid Table' on NPR, the lab runs a restaurant in which scientists constantly study people's eating habits and preferences. His new book is Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think and I'm sure that no food company has taken advantage of any of his findings.

Knowing that manufacturer's are putting their best research into making you eat more should make you more savvy about sidestepping strategies. Your 'wooden stake' is to measure, measure, measure and read labels. The following study, 'Why visual cues of portion size may influence intake' explains it very simply:

"Using self-refilling soup bowls, this study examines whether visual cues related to portion size can influence intake volume without altering either estimated intake or satiation. Research Methods and Procedures: Fifty-four participants (Body Mass Index of 17.3-36.0 kg/m2; aged 18-46) were recruited to participate in a study involving soup. The experiment was a between subject design with two visibility levels: 1) an accurate visual cue of a food portion (normal bowl) versus 2) a biased visual cue (self-refilling bowl). The soup apparatus was housed in a modified restaurant-style table in which two of four bowls slowly and imperceptibly refilled as their contents were consumed. Outcomes included intake volume, intake estimation, consumption monitoring, and satiety."


"Results: Participants who were unknowingly eating from self-refilling bowls ate more soup (14.7 ± 8.4 vs. 8.5 ± 6.1 oz; F1, 52=8.99; p<.01) than those eating from normal soup bowls. Yet despite consuming 73% more, they did not believe they had consumed more, nor did they perceive themselves as more sated than those eating from normal bowls. This was unaffected by BMI."

"Conclusion: These findings are consistent with the notion that the amount of food on a plate or bowl increases intake because if influences consumption norms and expectations and if it lessens one’s reliance on self-monitoring. It appears that people use their eyes to count calories and not their stomachs. The importance of having salient, accurate visual cues can play an important role in the prevention of unintentional overeating."

Beyond the obvious decision never to eat out of self-refilling bowls, it should be clear that 'eye-balling' isn't a reliable option. It turns out, it's not even a reliable option when the food is less than palatable. In the following study, BAD POPCORN IN BIG BUCKETS: PORTION SIZE CAN INFLUENCE INTAKE AS MUCH AS TASTE, serving size dictated consumption even when movie-goers were fed stale food:

"Objective: It is often believed that people overeat the foods they like. We investigate whether environmental cues such as packaging and container size are so powerful that they can increase our intake of foods that are less palatable. If so, there are be important implications for improving the consumption of healthy (but less preferred) foods. Design, Setting, and Participants: In a 2x2 between-subjects design, 158 Philadelphia moviegoers (57.6% male; 28.7 years) were randomly given a medium (120 grams) or a large (240 grams) container of free popcorn that was either fresh or stale (14 days old). Following the movie, consumption measures were taken along with measures of perceived taste."


"Outcome Measures and Results: Moviegoers who were given fresh popcorn ate 45.3% more popcorn when it was given to them in large containers. This container-size influence is so powerful that when the popcorn was disliked (in the case of the stale, 14 day old popcorn), people still ate 33.6% more popcorn when eating from a large container than a medium-size container."

"Conclusions and Implications: Even when foods are not palatable, these results caution that large packages and containers can lead to overeating. A silver lining of these findings may be that portion size can also be used to increase the consumption of less than- favorable healthy foods, such as raw vegetables."

Combating these tendencies takes both measuring and mindfulness. Ask yourself if inviting temptation into your world is really worth all the work of avoiding these foods once they're in your home (or your hands). Make sure everything you choose nutritionally supports your end-goal and be honest with yourself. Avoid situations in which you claim you'll just nibble or sample foods that are off your list for now since it seldom works out that way.

Flunking P.E.

I've been coached by Mike Burgener on a couple of occasions and he's the sweetest man to ever scare me. He smiles and greets you warmly but when he says "SNATCH!", you just do it with an enthusiasm that won't get you singled out. He's an amazing O-lifting coach and many of you have started your own o-lifting endeavors with his warm-up drill. It's the smartest and simplest way to teach something that could easily be complicated.

I was browsing Burgener's website - Mike's Gym - for ideas when I came across this workout with his commentary. It should be clear now why he scares me and why it wouldn't be a good idea to be singled out:


high school or any school or anybody workout
24 May 2005

This workout is performed by my h.s. students when they get a non suit during pe class. in order to make up the class, they have to perform this workout, OR THEIR grades go down 1 letter grade!!

2 hand kb* sqt pull x 20 reps
1 hand kb sqt pull x 10 + 10 reps each arm
2 hand kb swing x 20 reps
1 hand kb swing x 10 + 10 reps each arm
1 hand kb snatch 10+10 each arm

That is 100 reps per round, no resting!!! perform 5 rounds!!!

*KB stands for kettlebell. We don't have them in PRO club but you can substitute a dumbbell. I believe in this case Burgener recommended roughly 24 pounds for women and 35 pounds for men.


By the way, this might be a good time to mention that this is an 'at your own risk' sorta moment. You're all very bright people, please try to justify my belief in that by not doing anything stupid with this workout. In some cases, 'stupid' might mean trying to do this workout at all.

Inspired by 'Angie'

Last week we revisited 'Angie' - 100 Pull-ups, 100 Push-ups, 100 Sit-ups, 100 squats - for time. I missed my PR by 16 seconds and I was sore for a few days. Of course I felt compelled to pass it along and many of my clients got acquainted with Angie over the following week. One client today had some shoulder issues but I wanted to share a little bit of Angie as well as employ a little trick of Michael's. He likes to make us run after squats. I think he wants to see the look of utter surprise on our faces when we transition and can't seem to find the locomotion.

This is a simple little workout if you want to give your upper body a break but still want a bit of work:


The Challenge
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats
1 Mile Run
2 Rounds

A strong structure in the raw

In an earlier post I talked about Harlan who ripped is Rectus Femorus as a result of tendon calcification following tendinitis. The obvious questions would be how to avoid tendinitis in the first place and then, if you get it, how to avoid calcification. In my research on the subject I ran across the following:

"The Wulzen Factor: Called the "antistiffness" factor, this compound is present in raw animal fat. Researcher Rosalind Wulzen discovered that this substance protects humans and animals from calcification of the joints-degenerative arthritis. It also protects against hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland. 63 Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms are reversed when raw butterfat is added to the diet. Pasteurization destroys the Wulzen factor-it is present only in raw butter, cream and whole milk."

I edited this data out of the article on saturated fat from Weston A. Price with the intent of doing further research on this particular topic and because I needed to shorten the saturated fat entry. Then, after slogging through a quagmire of irrelevant studies on PubMed, I ran across the following article (no thanks to PubMed but hats off to goo . . . . MSN Search) which rounds out the data on milk while making a few provocative points of its own:


REFINED FOODS, TEETH, BONE HARDNESS, & PREMATURE AGING

Meyer M. Silverman practiced dentistry in the city of Washington, DC for almost 50 years. He was well acquainted with the work of Weston A. Price, Sir Robert McCarrison and Francis Pottenger. As a GI in Europe, he observed the effects of starvation on people's teeth, and was appalled to find the same patterns of decay and bone loss among well-fed Americans. He staunchly opposed pasteurization and went to great lengths to obtain raw milk from a farmer in New York who sent it down to Washington on the greyhound bus. This article was reprinted from the Journal of the District of Columbia Dental Society, March 1971.

The dentist is in a position to determine whether a person is prematurely aging by the degree of teeth and bone hardness. This factor can help determine whether an individual is well-constructed; it can also be a method of diagnosing how well-built an individual may be. Teeth and bone hardness can be a helpful diagnostic aid in predictive medicine,1 and it can also be one of many factors used to determine the rate of aging.


HARD TEETH AND BONES LEADS TO STRONG BUILDS

I have noted while cutting teeth during operative procedures, and chiseling bone during surgical removal of teeth, that some patients had teeth and bone that seemed as hard as rock. Other patients had teeth and bone that were very soft or with variations between these two extremes. Why should there have been such differences in the character of these hard tissues of the body? The old adage that "we are what we eat" has been found to be the determining factor in the hardness of these oral tissues, and in the aging of the individual.

Throughout the years, when extremes between the hard and soft tissue of patients were noted, the patients were asked about the types of food they had eaten from infancy up to their present ages, as well as questions concerning their general health and history. Generally, those with hard teeth and bones were strongly built and in their youth were participants in different forms of athletics. They were more often born and raised on farms, but also in large cities or small towns where they ate fresh-cooked and raw foods that were freshly obtained from the farm or the garden. They generally started out in life breast-fed and not bottle-fed. The milk consumed in childhood was, without exception, raw and not pasteurized. These people were generally in excellent health. When asked if any of their family or friends with similar diets ever had a heart attack in their early forties or fifties, or died young from any other causes, they would think back and say that their parents, grandparents or others in their family lived to old age-into their eighties and nineties-in good health. They also had many or all of their teeth.


STRONG TEETH AND BONES ARE A RARITY IN TODAY'S SOCIETY

People with strongly built teeth and bone are being lost from our modern civilization in the United States of America. Their children have softer dentitions, and their grandchildren and great grandchildren today are worse off than ever, in spite of the false belief that they eat better than their forebears.

These observations and questions are more than a controlled laboratory experiment or controlled clinical data of a limited number of patients. It is a generation of over thirty years of dental practice in which observations were made to understand clinically the relationship with premature aging. The number of new patients with rock-hard teeth and bone was not recorded, as a report of this kind was not anticipated. In the early days, new patients entering my practice with rock-hard teeth and bone would perhaps average a half dozen per year. In recent years, a full year could go by without seeing even one new patient with rock-hard teeth and bone. Nevertheless, if all such cases were recorded to furnish concise data or documentation, I would estimate that there would not have been many more than 100 patients among over 3,000 new patients.

The remaining patients would fall into the category of soft or not-so-hard teeth and bone, in varying degrees. Therefore, in the early days of my practice the average number of new patients with rock-hard teeth and bone would average approximately three percent. Today's new patients having rock-hard teeth and bone would be practically zero percent.


DISEASE AND REFINED FOODS

The patients who had soft teeth and bone did not generally have admirable food records for themselves and their families. They generally ate refined and chemically treated foods, which were treated to preserve them and to prevent spoilage. The fats were hydrogenated to allow them to be kept out of the refrigerator without spoilage; the milk had been pasteurized to avoid tuberculosis and brucellosis. Fruits and vegetables had been frozen, transported and stored for a length of time with loss of nutrients that are known and that are as yet unknown; the foods they consumed such as cake, candy, ice cream and soft drinks usually contained refined sugars. They ate foods poorly frozen with consequent reduction and even destruction of the natural taste and texture of fresh foods, indicating a deleterious change in composition.

All of these seem to be the culprits causing soft teeth and bone, with probable development of oral and general pathology, premature greying of hair, and shorter length of life for the affected individual. We overcook, preserve and refine our food to prevent spoilage to the point where bacteria or animal life cannot thrive on this food. It is impossible for the human being to thrive and be healthy on the empty calories of this sterile-like food which may be causing the degeneration of the physical health being experienced in recent generations.

As our population increases, it is more difficult to distribute foods that are fresh daily from the farm and garden to so many millions of people.

Nevertheless, it is imperative that ways and means be developed to bring them to the population as fast as possible, such as by air freight or from local farming areas. The foods should then be bought and eaten while still fresh. We should eat the widest varieties of nutritious foods. A picky eater is one who generally suffers the most from malnutrition. We should avoid the refined foods that have had roughage and vitamins removed, and then are enriched with known vitamins and minerals to add to the nutritive value. There are vitamins and nutrients that are not known today, but will be known in the future. It does not make sense to remove the natural known and unknown nutrients through refinement and then add only the known ones which are synthetically made.


ENZYMES IN FOODS DESTROYED IN MODERN DIETS

Wulzen and Bahrs, McCarrison, Pottenger and many others have shown the importance of living on fresh uncooked foods, which are natural for all animals, from humans to the lower forms of life. Undoubtedly, there are nutritional elements needed by the body that are inhibited or destroyed by cooking, refining and freezing. It seems that enzymes may be the substance destroyed, creating one of the missing links in the preparation of foods for digestion and assimilation for the building of strong and healthy animals.

Weiser states that the properties of enzymes may be summarized as proteinaceous biocatalysts produced by living cells to perform a specific biochemical reaction necessary for cell metabolism. He says that they act as catalysts and are called "catalysts of life," because there can be no life without enzymes. Life is just one enzyme reaction after another, and each enzyme has a particular job to do and it cannot be made to do another. An attempt to preserve food does nothing more than create an unfavourable environment for enzyme activity. Low temperatures and cooking destroy them.

Jansen and Balls explain how enzymes constantly change the products in which they exist. The changes during the growth and ripening, and even after the harvesting, of a plant may be good or bad, depending on circumstances. They explain how food processors eliminate enzyme actions by scalding or heating before freezing, and how enzyme actions are delayed by the freezing process. Chemicals are also used in some of these freezing processes to control enzyme action.


ENZYMES IN FRESH MILK

The enzymes found in fresh raw milk are a catalase, a peroxidase, and a phosphatase. The phosphatase seems to ensure the utilization of calcium that apparently helps the formation of rock-hard teeth and bone found in the strongly built individuals in past generations, and as shown in Pottenger's experiments. Pasteurization destroys these enzymes and their presence is a determination of the effectiveness of the pasteurization process.

Therefore, a way must be found safely and legally to market fresh raw milk to the consuming public throughout our country. This would be a big factor in avoiding the loss of these enzymes, which help build strong bodies and help to prevent premature aging.

The effect of freezing and storage of foods on the enzymes to affect the taste, texture and general quality have been discussed by Matz, Gilbert, Partmann, West, Titus, and Van Duyne and others. Frozen foods have become a major source of food supply in recent years in this age of rapid premature aging. Much research is needed in this field to find the effect of freezing on enzymes, the place enzymes have in the breaking down of foods in the preparation for assimilation and the final effect on building rock-hard teeth and bone such as is found in long-lived and healthy individuals.

Sneaky Snacking

Fine! I eat chocolate! Now please stop the infernal dripping noise and get that bright light out of my eyes.

My clients always want to know where my nutrition deviates and they come up with a zillion niggling questions to get the lowdown. The answer isn't really that fascinating since, as most of you know, grains throw me WAY off track so I'm seldom tempted. It's chocolate that melts my resolve, though you won't catch me eating fun-sized anything or any products by Hershey. But if you saw someone who looks a lot like me buying Blanxart Chocolate in the Raw one afternoon at Whole Foods, I may not have an alibi.

It would be an especially good time to cover this particular topic since many of you indulged over the holidays - and you know who you are. In the coming weeks, you may find that reeling it back in proves a bit of a challenge. Sometimes you just want 'a little something' as you try to shake loose that nasty grip that sugar has on you and I have a secret recipe I've been formulating.

Before you all 'Aha!' me in unison, you may want to read all the health benefits of chocolate courtesy of PT on the Net. Following are the key benefits:

• "Flavonoid compounds are found almost exclusively in the plant kingdom, and it’s estimated that there are more than 4,000 of them. Various epidemiological studies have shown that populations consuming a diet rich in flavonoids (including foods such as wine, tea and certain fruits and vegetables) have lower rates of heart disease and stroke."
  
• "Flavonoids present in cocoa and chocolate may protect the heart by inhibiting the oxidation of the “bad cholesterol” called LDL (oxidized LDL is much more likely to result in the formation of plaque on the artery wall). Studies have shown that as the amount of chocolate flavonoids in the blood increases, there is a corresponding decrease in the markers associated with oxidation damage. In addition, the antioxidants in cocoa and chocolate may help spare other antioxidants such as vitamin C and E, which allows them to act longer to fight off foreign invaders."
  
• "Some studies indicate that after consuming flavonoids in chocolate, there is a decrease in markers associated with platelet aggregation and adhesion (stickiness of the blood/blood clotting). Both platelet aggregation and adhesion are associated with a higher risk of plaque formation on the artery wall. As plaque formation increases, so does the risk of a heart attack by blocking flow of blood to the heart. Thus, chocolate can almost have an aspirin-like effect."
  
• "Cocoa and chocolate flavonoids may protect the heart by increasing concentrations of a substance called nitric oxide that relaxes the inner surface of blood vessel walls. This has the effect of increasing dilation of the arteries, which improves blood flow and heart functioning. This function of cocoa and chocolate may help those who have high blood pressure. In fact, a small study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that dark chocolate (but not white chocolate) lowered blood pressure in those with hypertension."
  
• "Research reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that procyanidins (flavonoid found in the cocoa bean) can reduce blood levels of leukotrienes, which are a pro-inflammatory substance. This has positive effects on the immune system. In addition, this benefit could help protect the heart as inflammation in the lining of the artery walls is believed to be part of the damaging process that leads to cardiovascular disease."
  

Here we go with fat again . . . .
"Cocoa butter makes up about 50 percent of the dry weight of a cocoa bean, with 70 percent of that being saturated fat. However, the saturated fat in cocoa butter is mainly stearic triglycerides (maybe this would be a good time to review my fat post again) that are less well absorbed than other saturated fats. Thus, cocoa butter is less bioavailable and has minimal effect on cholesterol levels as opposed to palmitic acid found in fatty meats and butter. Stearic acid has been referred to as a neutral fatty acid. The rest of the fat from cocoa butter is monounsaturated, which is the same healthy fat found in olive oil and avocados."

A Secret Chocolate Concoction
I make these truffles, along with many variations that include cinnamon (for insulin sensitivity), as a treat for many of my CrossFitting compadres. My recipe is based on Performance Menu's Chocolate Ball recipe which I've tweaked several times over depending on what I have for ingredients. This certainly offers all the health benefits of chocolate without the carb-coma and insulin spike of traditional chocolate concoctions. I've done my best to make these as healthy as possible and hopefully, my food processor will get a rest now that everyone has the recipe. For many of you, these will seem far too calorically dense because of the fat content.


Chocolate Espresso Truffles
1/2 Cup Almond Meal/Flour or Macadamia Nut Butter*
1/4 Cup Coconut Powder**
1/4 Cup Cocoa Nibs***
1/4 Cup good quality Cocoa
2 teaspoons Instant Espresso
2-3 Tablespoons Agave Nectar****

More Cocoa to coat

Put all ingredients except nibs in a small food processor and blend until combined. Add nibs and pulse quickly. The result should be a course meal that forms into balls. Use a tablespoon for even sizing and roll formed balls in cocoa to coat.


*You can buy Almond Meal by Red Mill in most stores. Remember that Almonds, though lower in fat, are higher in Omega-6. You can find Macadamia Nut Butter at Whole Foods but I haven't run across it anywhere else.

• Stats on Almonds (100 gram serving) : Of the 52 grams of fat, 33 grams is in the form of monounsaturated fats, about 10 grams is a polyunsaturated omega-6 fat, almost half a gram is the desirable omega-3 polyunsaturated fat, and about 5 grams are saturated fats. No data is available for the last 4 grams
  
• Stats on Macs (100 gram serving): 83% monounsaturated fatty acids, Only about 3% is omega-6 polyunsaturated, and 2% is omega-3 fatty acids; 69 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbohydrate, about 9 grams of protein

**I buy this in Central Market and the packaging leads me to believe it's one full coconut powdered with nothing else added. The nutritional information isn't in English so I'm only a little scared. Depending on the processing, it's possible that the fat oxidizes though it's saturated.

***"Nibs are tiny nuggets of roasted cocoa beans, not yet crushed or ground to homogeneity, not yet transformed into unsweetened chocolate or processed into smoother or more refined forms of sweetened chocolate. In short, nibs are cocoa beans on the brink of becoming chocolate and, as such, they are a unique and fascinating new ingredient," this from Scharffen Berger. You can spend a lot of money for their nibs but you can also find them in bulk these days.

****Agave syrup is a fructose syrup made from the Blue Agave plant. It has a glycemic index of 39 (Traditional sugar, which is almost completely sucrose, has a GI of approximately 110).

A Fat Chance

The entry a couple of days ago regarding fat was a lot to digest. Here's a quick article that explains the health benefits of Coconut Oil and a quick 40-30-30 recipe for a morning shake to help begin a New Year with a better breakfast:


The Truth about Coconut Oil

With the help of poor research and lobbying from the seed industry, coconut oil was determined to be a strong contributor to heart disease since according to many health professionals and organizations “the saturated fat in coconut oil will clog arteries and lead to cardiovascular disease.” However, one only needs to look at the research to find that there appears to be no association between tropical oil intake and heart disease. This fact is highlighted by several studies of populations with a high intake of tropical oil (e.g., India, Polynesian and Indonesia) that have consistently found no association between the saturated fat found in tropical oils and cardiovascular disease.

In fact, some India health authorities believe that the replacing of the traditional cooking fats (e.g., coconut/palm oil) condemned to be atherogenic, with refined vegetable oils promoted as "heart-friendly" because of their polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content has something to do with the rising trend of heart disease and diabetes in this population. The combination of the higher intake of omega-6 fat and oxidized oil is likely a contributing factor.

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Breakfast V.07
2/3 Cup Lite Coconut Milk
1 Cup Frozen Blueberries
2.5 Oz. Orange Juice (or an additional 1/2 cup of blueberries)
1 Scoop (approx. 21 grams of Protein) of your favorite egg protein powder