What is Inflammation?

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How do I reduce inflammation?

• Are you sure you actually have an issue with inflammation?

• If you are overweight, take steps to reduce body fat.

• If you are a healthy weight, maintain your healthy weight.

• Exercise regularly.

• Eat a varied diet including whole grains, vegetables, beans/legumes, fruits, nuts and fish, including oily fish like salmon and sardines.

Inflammation, like gut health, is a hot topic in nutrition. Both are areas of developing research in which the experts say more research and time is needed before making specific recommendations. 

Both are also areas in which ‘gurus’ are trying to make money from the hysteria and noise. Be very careful of anyone who claims to be sure about inflammation, dietary causes and dietary treatments. If you are considering spending any money on “inflammation reduction” from anyone who is not your doctor or medical professional, be sure to ask them which measures of inflammation they’re concerned about and exactly how their proposed treatment works for the particular inflammatory processes they believe you have. Then take that information to your medical professional before giving any of your hard earned money to a guru.

Now that the rant is done, let’s try to explain things as simply as possible.

What is inflammation

• A complex biological immune response of body tissues to cellular injury

• The purpose of inflammation is to eliminate toxic agents and repair damaged tissue

• We want inflammation to happen, however we also want inflammation to go away when its job is done.

• The resolution (removal) of inflammation once the job is done is also important. 

  • eg. switching off inflammatory processes when the injury has been repaired.

Inflammation is a ‘friend’. However we can have issues if our friend overstays its welcome. 

Acute inflammation

• A great friend. Goes in and gets the job done. As soon as the job is done, leaves you in peace.

• You get a splinter, the area becomes red and swollen as the inflammatory response heals you. The area goes back to normal as the inflammatory response is turned off after healing.

• Exercise produces an acute inflammatory response and contributes to lower chronic disease risk. Not all inflammation is bad.

Chronic inflammation and auto-immune diseases

• A foe. Overstays welcome, won’t leave and becomes damaging.

Eg: Celiac disease, Inflammatory bowel disease

Chronic low grade inflammation

• The ‘hot topic’ inflammation people are telling you to reduce.

• Widely observed in obesity.

• There is an association between chronic low grade inflammation and: 

  • metabolic syndrome

  • non-alcoholic fatty liver disease 

  • type 2 diabetes 

  • CVD (1)(2)(3)

Gut health

• There is a link between gut health and low grade chronic inflammation 

• Interactions between the GI tract and gut bacteria influence immune function and inflammation

How to maintain a healthy gut to help with inflammation

• Research is still developing and recommendations are tentative, however:

  • Eat a varied diet including whole grains, vegetables and fruits, nuts, and fish. This ensures you are eating fibre, particularly fermentable fibre (prebiotic), antioxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids.  (1)(4)(5)

How do we test for inflammation?

• We know that inflammation occurs in the body tissue, however we generally look at blood to find biomarkers and signs of inflammation. (6)

To give you an example of how many markers of inflammation show up, here is a chart from a review of research on dairy and biomarkers of inflammation. 

Here is the key for the graph if you can see the bars:

• significant anti-inflammatory change (black bars)

• no significant change (grey bar)

• significant pro-inflammatory change (white bars) (7)

The main purpose of the image above is to show how many markers of inflammation show up during these tests. Top researchers are unclear as to which markers are necessary to focus on. In fact it could actually be a combination of markers which determine if there is a level of risk or issue which needs to be addressed. 

An expert group, organised by the Nutrition and Immunity Task Force of the International Life Sciences Institute European Branch, stated -  

“Currently, there is no consensus as to which markers of inflammation best represent low-grade inflammation or differentiate between acute and chronic inflammation or between the various phases of inflammatory responses.”  (6)

Despite this, there are ‘inflammation gurus’ out there claiming that they somehow know you have inflammation and obviously know how to fix it.

Foods with anti-inflammatory properties?

• Rather than focusing on individual foods, it’s better to focus on eating a varied diet including whole grains, vegetables and fruits, nuts and fish. Focusing on one particular food and particular markers of inflammation may be too reductionist at this point.

• Some studies indicate that Omega-3 supplementation (fish oils) appear to reduce markers of inflammation however not all positive results have been replicated in further studies. It could help reduce these markers but we are probably talking about a neutral to slight positive effect. (4)

Best way to reduce chronic low grade inflammation?

• It appears that fat gain causes inflammation, not the other way around. 

• An increase in body fat is associated with an increase in inflammatory material. 

• Flip that and a reduction in body fat is associated with a reduction in inflammatory material. 

• Reducing body fat may have the greatest effect on lowering markers for low grade chronic inflammation.  (8)(9)(10)(11)

This is an attempt to simplify chronic low grade inflammation and help you stay informed. To read a more in-depth review, check out the paper from the British Journal of Nutrition entitled “Low-grade inflammation, diet composition and health: current research evidence and its translation.” (1)

To learn more about how to lose and maintain your weight, contact us today.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4579563/

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4612317/

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4243532/

4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156816371730003X?via%3Dihub

5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3575932/

6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23343744

7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26287637

8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC296995/

9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19238154

10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12714437

11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3342840/

Beyond Meat Review

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Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, recently watched game-changers plant-based, pescatarian, primal, paleo, meat-only, meat-less, keto or intermittent fasting the world of fake meats is now more than ever a successfully growing industry. The largest food chains in the world are now endorsing the plant-based alternatives to meat on their menus and it is creating a trend in the meat-less industry as to who can create the closest to meat meat-less product possible.

Beyond meat co. are a company from the United States who pride themselves on having the world's first burger that "looks, cooks and satisfies like beef without GMOs, soy, or gluten".

They are found in the meat aisle, so no smidgen of convenience is missed for you the buyer. 

Beyond burger patties (they also make a few other products which I will mention in a little bit) are kosher (meaning the way the food is made/prepared to satisfy the requirements of Jewish law) so they cater for a particular crowd and have 20g of protein per burger.

The protein in the beyond meat co. is burger is derived from that of pea and rice protein. The ingredients list is interesting, the first thing you can notice is that the burger is predominantly water-based, the second ingredient is pea protein and the third is canola oil. Of those three main ingredients, the level of oil is quite a concern as canola is the lowest of the low on the list of the ideal oil because of its high levels of trans-fats and it also brings up the total fat content to 18g per serve, this is almost on par with the burgers protein level itself making digestibility a slight issue as fats slow the digestive process down, making the meal feel heavier on the stomach.

Taste and cooking

The burger for taste test purposes was cooked in a pan, no oil was used as the burger itself has plenty. The smell of getting the burger out of the packet was a strange one. It was hard to describe but I can best put it down to a plastic smell, maybe due to the manufacturing process? The burger cooks and looks like a regular burger, and has a fluid that comes out in cooking that resembles blood (probably the pomegranate powder). The taste test came after the burger was cooked completely through (as suggested on the box), it wasn’t exactly what I expected and still had that plastic/artificial taste, was also quite greasy after the first few mouthfuls. 

When looking for a plant-based alternative to have as a protein substitute in a meal what should we look for? 

• a start would be at the actual protein content per 100g of the product itself. Most proteins (chicken, beef, fish) are of equal protein value at 100g, this is about 20g. Beyond meat, co have nailed this portion of the product, with exactly 20g in a single-serve. 

• But where they are off-track is having a nearly equal portion of fat in the product. The product includes the use of two oils, coconut and canola.

• As an alternative to the oils being included in such high quantities, the alternative binding agent used cannot be the typical egg which is used in many burgers as the binder, some alternatives that would be suitable for the crowd and also satisfy a lower fat content would be flax meal, bread crumbs or ground chia. 

Comparison 

Beyond meat co burgers retail at $10.60 for two burgers, in comparison to other vegan burgers, these are quite expensive. Not the most expensive but still on the pricier side.

The other competitors 

• Quorn do a vegan range of burgers with multiple flavours for $7.56 with a protein content of 20.5g per burger, and fat content of 13.3g.

• Unreal co do $5.60 for a 2 pack of Italian beef burgers with a protein content of 12.6g, and fat content of 12.3g.

• Veef Plant-Based Burger Patties are 2 for $6.50 at 15.9g protein and 20.9g fat per burger.

• Next Gen2 Plant-Based Burger retails at $8.00 for 2 patties and contains 14.9g protein and 19.2g fat per burger. 

• Harvest Gourmet Plant-Based Incredible Vegan Burger retails at a more expensive $12.00 for a 2 pack, 17g protein and 9g fat per burger. 

• Vegie Delights Not Burger at $4.50 for a 2 pack has 13.5g protein and 10.2g fat per burger.

• Unreal Co Chicken Sliders $7.00 per 2 pack, has 15.5g protein and 10g fat per burger. 

• Naturli 100% Plant-based Minced $9.00 18g protein and 10g fat. 

I thought I would throw in a comparison to a regular beef burger, Grasslands Beef Burgers which retail at 9$ for 4 beef patties and have 21.9g of protein and 7g of fat per serve (125g). The flavour of these are great, they taste like any good beef burger should, just the right amount of fat throughout the burger without leaving a greasy coating an aftertaste. 

Overall rating of Beyond meat co burger pattie 5/10. Good (enough) for what it is supposed to be but there are better, more flavoursome and nutritious burgers out there that don’t moo. 

If you’d like to learn more about plant based nutrition for your individual preferences and goals, contact us today.

Creatine: FAQs and Myths

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In high school, there was one gym bro who took creatine. At the time we all 'gave him crap' for being on steroids (we thought creatine a steroid at the time). 

Turns out creatine firstly isn't an illegal substance, but it's actually the most well studied and confirmed effective sports supplement there is. 

Fundamentally the powerhouse of the body is ATP. Intramuscular stores of creatine help fuel the re-creation of more ATP during high-intensity bouts of activity to maintain the presence of ATP. However, creatine supplies are limited and do run-out as we use them up. While we can get some creatine from our diet, supplementation is required to ensure levels stay 'topped-up'.  

We know creatine helps you perform better in sport and exercise, which obviously matters if you're an athlete wanting to beat everyone else. But this increased performance also means a more appropriate stimulus to enhance the adaptive response to training. Creatine can also help recovery which allows more 'quality' training stimulus to be provided over time again leading to greater adaptations. 

What might surprise you is that creatine does more than just 'get you jacked'. The benefits of creatine are not exclusively sports related, with evidence showing use in lessening the development of chronic illness and disease.

So we know it works. Now down to the practical stuff.

Is creatine safe? 
Studies have shown a needlessly high dose of more than 10 times optimal requirements for 5 years to be safe in multiple population types and ages. 

Will I gain weight and get bloated?
You'll almost certainly gain weight. The key word being 'weight' and not fat. Creatines mechanism of action is increased intramuscular phosphocreatine, glycogen and hydration which all contribute to mass but not fat mass. The weight gain is a by-product of the means by which creatine is effective and don't worry this won't make you look 'puffy'. 

What type of creatine is best?
Just good old cheap monohydrate does the job, there is no need to purchase any more expensive, 'fancy-named' ones. Monohydrate is most commonly used in creatine research with other forms being no better or potentially ineffective. 

How much/ whats the dose?
You can load it to saturate stores faster, but for the sake of simplicity 3-5g a day does the job, but it might take several weeks to see any notable improvements/ effects. Timing across the day also doesn't matter.

How do I take it?

Add a scoop to your morning water, pre or post workout shake, in a smoothie or even in your oats or yogurt.

Creatine, it's good for sports performance, it's good for getting jacked, it's good for recovery, it's good for health and it's damn cheap. Cheap enough that if new research came out drinking all existing creatine research proving it to be ineffective it wouldn't matter a great deal, and the placebo would be worth it anyway.

To learn more about how nutrition can improve your performance in the gym or would like us to bust some supplement myths, contact us:

https://www.fortitudenutritioncoaching.com.au/contact

[reference] International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine