Diet
By Dr Joe
I want you to adopt a different approach to your new year weight loss plan resolutions this year.
How?
Hear me out. You are going to love this, I think. Wink, Wink.
And it really doesn’t matter what diet type you have chosen. You can apply these new year’s fat loss tips and principles universally.
You see, I have a perfectionist attitude to life. As good as this looks on the surface, perfectionism can make life just a little bit complicated.
Yes, it is nice to spend that extra time to ensure the task in hand is perfectly executed. After all, it’s going to look all shiny and glossy in the end.
But something I have found out to my cost in life is that; perfection is a moving target. That’s where the complexity comes in.
No, I am not in any way suggesting mediocrity and ineptitude as substitutes for perfection. Instead, I am saying near-perfect may just be good enough.
Certainly near-perfect will do you good…a lot of good with your new year weight loss plan resolutions.
My view is that, this will make you get results that will stick…for a long time.
This will require a change in strategy though.
In the past, I will hazard a guess that you have always wanted to TRY to change your habits when it comes to New Year Resolutions, right?
The thing is, TO TRY, requires a lot of Will Power. Will Power taps into MENTAL energy…a lot of it. And that can be draining.
Mental energy AKA Will Power is not an infinite resource. That is why it becomes so easy to abandon New Year Resolutions in general after a couple of weeks.
Weight loss new year resolutions are no different. Weight loss new year resolutions get abandoned in weeks.
Ask any Gym management personnel. They will tell you the gym membership rush of January fizzles out by mid-February at best.
It’s very easy to slide back to our routine. The reason? Will power gets expended very quickly. It’s not your fault. It’s just human nature.
New Year Weight Loss Plan Resolutions – A New Approach
Instead of TRYING HARDER to Do This and Do That, we are going to adopt a SYSTEM CHANGE.
TRY HARDER won’t last, SYSTEM CHANGE lasts and lasts a long time.
What do I mean by SYSTEM CHANGE?
Okay, here we go.
Will Power #1 – I’m Going To TRY HARDER To Eat Healthier Main Meal This Year
No, we aren’t going to do that. We will adopt a System Change instead.
SYSTEM CHANGE
Having a healthier main meal can take all sorts of forms. It’s easier to do than you think. The idea behind this system change is calorie reduction but that is not to say we will be going hungry.
No, we won’t. Because we are still going to have a plate bursting with food but the main content of the plate will be made of healthier ingredients.
We won’t get into the argument of what constitutes your main meal of the day. It’s your choice. But whatever it is, we will be using this strategy consistently.
What’s the strategy?
It’s about food plating. When plating your food and indeed in the preparation (because you need to have this in mind at the preparatory stage), divide your plate into 3.
Fill half of the plate with veggies. The other half should be taken up by protein and carbs. Simple as it is, this system change works so well and it is effortless.
Veggies are so low-calorie you can eat lots of them without even blinking about how much calories they have.
Gorge on them. You’ve got the Veggie permit.
Will Power #2 – I’m Going To TRY HARDER To Reduce My Food Portions.
No, a System Change will fix this.
SYSTEM CHANGE
This leads on from the last system change. Just simply reducing your food portions is enough to fight the flab.
And I am not contradicting myself. Saying reduce food portion whilst asking you to gorge on vegetables. As alluded earlier on, non-starchy veggies are pretty low-calories, so not a cause for concern.
Also, when you hear this, your mind probably races to calorie counting, right?
No, we are not going to calorie count. I hate it. It’s annoying in the first place. And do you know something? People who calorie count think they are doing it right. No, they aren’t.
They are guessing. Also, remember, all calories aren’t created equal. That’s the main flaw with so-called calorie counting.
Research has proven time and time again that calorie counting is fraught with errors. Lots of errors. Errors on the calories consumed and errors on calories burnt side too. Most successes that have their roots in calorie counting happen mainly by accident rather than precise judgement.
We are going to keep this system change very simple.
Portion sizes is what we shall be using. A simple visual estimation will do. Yes, it isn’t precise, so is calorie counting anyway. I would rather do this than tear my hair out trying to dial in the calories in my food.
Your best instrument has been given to you by nature – your hand.
Protein
Men will need between 40 – 60 gm of protein. This equates to 2 palm sizes of your hand.
Women will need 1 palm size and equates to 20 – 30 gm of protein.
Carbs
Men will need about 2 cupped hands sizes. This will give you about 40 – 60 gm of carbs.
Women will need 1 cupped hand size delivering 20 – 30 gm of carbs.
Fats
Men will need 2 thumb-size portions of fats delivering 10 – 20 gm of fats.
Women will need 1 thumb-size amount of fats rendering 5 – 10 gm of fats.
Veggies
I believe in having as much veggies as possible because they are really low-calorie in output but if you want to be anal about it, then 2 fist-size portions will be just about right on your plate.
If you do that for your meals, you will be fine. However, some people may need to adjust those portion sizes to suit their needs. For instance, if you are very active physically, or you have smaller meals during the day or you are bigger in stature, you may need to up those portions in accordance with your needs.
Adjusting it means:
Men – have an extra 1 cupped hand of carbs and 1 extra thumb-size portion of fat.
Women – have an extra half-cupped hand of carbs and extra half-thumb size of fat.
By the way, by fats I am referring to nuts, seeds, avocados, oils, butter and nut butters like peanut butter, almond butter, cashew nut butter.
This is one of the least complicated ways to construct your plate of food that guarantees calorie cut. You might dismiss it because it looks so simple. Well, simple works. Trust me.
As with everything in life, you have to see how you are getting on with this food portion plan. You can always dial it up and down to suit your target weight. It’s not set in stone. It is a guide…a good guide, at that. You can dial up the carbs but do dial down fats if you are dialling up carbs.
I like this system change because it is way simpler to do than attempting to count calories which will drive you mad.
Will Power #3 – I Will TRY HARDER To Eat Less Takeaways and Restaurant Foods
Erm, yes, but a System Change will get us a better response.
SYSTEM CHANGE
I shall do more home cooking this new year and I will start cooking in advance.
I know times are hectic. We are always in a rush. Looks like 24 hours in a day isn’t enough. We need more like 28 hours to fulfil all the tasks we need to do daily.
With a hectic lifestyle, it becomes increasingly difficult to cook meals. It’s just easier to order food from the takeaway a couple of blocks down the road.
Problem is; takeaway foods and restaurant foods are only optimised for taste. Yes, that’s why they taste so good. They want you to come back again and again. Repeat business is how they make their profits, right?
Foods optimised for taste only, are not generally healthy. They are usually packed with Salt, Sugar and Fats.
Let’s not get into the argument of whether fats are good or bad for you, shall we? That’s a whole new avenue that leads to a blind alley. Point is, uncontrolled fat consumption whether healthy fats or otherwise, will not do your waistline any good. Period.
These can frustrate your weight loss goals.
When you cook your own meals, you know what’s gone into that food. With restaurant foods and takeaway foods, you have absolutely no idea.
No, I don’t want to be a killjoy and say don’t buy takeaway foods at all or don’t go out to your lovely restaurant for a slap-up meal. By all means, do that. But reduce the frequency.
Home-cooking works…when done correctly.
A strategy that works so well is to cook over the weekend and store food in the refrigerator and just re-heat during the week.
That way when you are exhausted from your daily grind, you won’t pick up the phone to order takeaway for that evening. It is understandable when you do that because will power will not be enough to get you into the kitchen when your feet are aching after a hard day’s work.
But it’s very easy to get out your pre-prepared meal, re-heat and voilla, healthy food is ready. Buy another refrigerator if you have to.
Just cook in advance when you don’t really need will power to get you into the kitchen. Eat the food when will power is required and may fail you.
Will Power #4 – I Will TRY HARDER Not To Overeat
Erm, where have I heard that before…
SYSTEM CHANGE For Weight Loss
Everyone is in a hurry today. Everything is rushed. I acknowledge the fact that at work, the luxury of time is just that – a huge luxury. So, this system change may be difficult to implement at work.
But when you are home, it makes sense to adopt this system change because it’s the simplest thing to adopt amongst all the strategies I have mentioned.
What am I on about?
It’s about our speed of eating. Yes, how fast you eat can adversely affect your weight management. It sure does. No joke.
I was talking to one of our younger doctors the other day and he was telling me how patients come in as emergencies with “Food Bolus” when he was rotating through Ear Nose & Throat. Usually a large piece of steak stuck in their oesophagus because they won’t bother to chew their steak before swallowing.
You have to wonder, why on earth is it too much work to chew on your piece of steak before swallowing. Chewing on that steak could have saved those patients a trip to operating theatre.
Perhaps if this lady had chewed her food properly, she would have been saved a 6-year ordeal of being wrongly treated for Crohn’s disease. She unwittingly swallowed a large piece of plastic food wrapper with her food 6 years earlier.
For unexplained reasons, the Heinz plastic food wrapper was stuck in her bowel. She didn’t pass it the other end; if you get my drift and that was the reason she had bowel symptoms all those years. Wrapper surgically removed, “Crohn’s disease” gone forever.
Anyway, that is just a symptom of the world we now live in. Everything is rushed. Food is rushed.
Slow down, folks. Let’s take in a deep breath and slow down the pace.
You will be surprised that when you rush your food, digestion is affected. Not only does fast-paced eating lead to poor digestion, you miss out on the psychological satisfaction that your food is supposed to provide.
Another issue is when you eat too quickly, you feel rushed and the eating episode is over too soon, that you feel the need to eat just a little bit more.
Ultimately rushed eating leads to overeating and of course weight gain.
Eating slowly gives your brain enough time to recognise the “fullness factor”.
And do you know how long it takes for your brain to signal that you may be full?
20 minutes. That’s how long it takes, folks, 20 solid minutes.
How many people take that long to eat? Not a lot. Most people will be done long before that.
The French have an unwritten rule. Never eat whilst standing. That’s customary for the French. Why, because eating whilst on your feet means you are going to rush that meal. You aren’t going to feel relaxed on your feet munching, are you?.
The Japanese have an unwritten rule as well. Eat until you are 80% full. See my write up on why the Japanese tend to have an enviable longevity here. That’s one of their strategies for weight maintenance.
I don’t need to tell you that the Japanese and the French have one of the lowest BMI rates on the planet.
When you dial down the speed of your eating, you will enjoy the food more and your body will have enough time to feel full, feel content, without the need to go for seconds or even thirds. Satiety will kick in at the appropriate time.
The decision to slow down your eating speed is one good reason to have high fibre foods. High fibre foods force you to chew thoroughly before swallowing,
Oh, please do me a favour, just chew thoroughly between bites, will you?
Savour the flavours as though you are a food critic.
Don’t forget to drink a good amount of water. Water helps ease digestion and staves off constipation too.
Another tip is to put your cutleries down inbetween mouthfuls. This will encourage you to slow down the pace as you will chew just a little bit more. Don’t forget that food digestion actually begins in the mouth, through enzymes in your saliva. So, in effect, you are aiding good digestion the longer the food spends in your mouth before swallowing.
Eat until you feel ‘Satisfied’ NOT ‘Stuffed’. There is a difference!
It’s all about the mindfulness!
This is easy to do. But if you feel you are going to struggle because of old habits of rushed eating, then use a timer.
Your clock or watch, your phone alarm, anything that can serve as a timer will come in handy for you.
Set your timer for about 40 – 45 minutes and tell yourself you are going to pace yourself to not finish your dinner until that timer beeps. That’s a system change that will help your new year weight loss resolution stick.
SYSTEM CHANGE No 2 for Overeating
What if you have difficulty with stuffing yourself?
Well, this next system change will do you fine.
It’s intermittent fasting. Yes, I agree, this is not to everyone’s taste. Not everyone fancies the ‘fasting’ idea.
But you don’t have to do intermittent fasting all the time.
Essentially when you overeat and your weight management problems pile up, just make it a policy to do intermittent fasting for 4 days in one calendar month. You don’t have to do more than that. Just 4 days of fasting in a month. 1 day of fasting per week until you hit your weight target. That’s all.
Fasting is safe. If it wasn’t, Muslims and some Christians won’t be doing it, year after year. Check out Brad Pillon’s How to Avoid Complicated Diet Rules and Prevent Rebound Weight GAIN. He simplifies the whole system change right there.
Will Power #5 – I Will TRY HARDER Visiting The Gym This Year
Okay, nice try…
SYSTEM CHANGE
One inevitable event around every new year is that it is smack bang in the middle of winter. It is cold. It is frosty and if you live in my neck of the woods, it gets rainy and windy as well.
Now, is that a recipe for waking up at 6am, and start heading for the gym to get fit? I don’t think so. Your will power may last you up to 1st of February and you will run out steam. Very quickly. Even the evenings are chilly.
No wonder the gyms are empty by mid-February.
You can go with a strategy of small increments when you want to ‘Move More’ in the new year.
You don’t have to go all gung ho.
Start with walking. Just walk a little bit more. Walk more at work, walk more at home, walk more on weekends.
If your office is in a high-rise building, use the stairs all the time.
You should read my article on Non-Exercise ACtivity Thermogenesis for more tips on this.
If you are friendly with your neighbour, hand them your car keys after work. That way you are forced to walk to everywhere except going to work unless of course you have a long-distance journey to undertake. Use your judgement.
You should be looking to walk any distance that is less than 5 miles. Give it a good go. You will discover you may just enjoy it.
As for the Gym, well you don’t have to go. Save yourself that subscription. There are exercise routines you can undertake at home that are time-efficient. No need spending endless hours in the gym busting gut and hurting yourself.
The resource below will tell you more about how to do that.
To round up, TRYING HARDER, is a recipe for failure. It’s a recipe that will make you abandon your new year weight loss plan resolution in weeks. The result – You feel G-U-I-L-T-Y.
Adopting the system change is one way to go about it. I’m not suggesting it is the only way. It’s one way. Adopt one or two system change strategy and you may just surprise yourself, this new year.
Remember, we aren’t striving for Perfection. We just want it to be Near-Perfect.
New Year Weight Loss Tips
Here’s a summary of the New Year Weight Loss Tips offered on this page. Just pick a few of the these tips and you can have a permanent weight management plan going forward.
- Never adopt a perfectionist attitude.
- Forget Will Power. It’s a monumental waste of mental energy and runs out pretty quickly anyway.
- Ditch TRY HARDER to do this and do that.
- Adopt a SYSTEM CHANGE instead. Works way better.
- Overhaul your usual Food Plating distribution plan.
- Dump Calorie Counting. It’s old and tired.
- Your hand is your best tool when it comes to food portions. Use it as instructed above.
- Change your eating speed.
- Home Cooking works but facilitate it by cooking in advance.
- Incorporate Intermittent Fasting for just 4 days a month.
- Include Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis in your overall plan
Suggested further reading
How NOT To Waste Your Time In Exercise Wonderland
No-Hype Minimalist Approach To Exercise
BCAA
By Dr Joe
BCAA and Libido; what’s the relationship between the two. One of the questions I get asked every now and again is whether the use of BCAA kills one’s sex drive.
This is an interesting question because sex is important to humans. We not only want to procreate but we also want to have pleasure.
Sex enables us to achieve both objectives.
Anything that negatively impacts on that human function naturally becomes an “emergency” of sorts.
Most sexual activities start with libido.
- No Libido, No Sex.
- Too High Libido, Raving Sex Lunatic.
It all starts with libido. Libido is the barometer of sex drive.
When libido is low or absent, the interest in sex plummets. Hence, anyone with a libido issue would want it fixed ASAP.
But libido issues aren’t very easy to fix. I wish they were. But oh no, they aren’t. Like I mentioned in my article on the health risks of BCAA, I dread having a consultation that centres on libido as the main problem.
The main reason being; the patient quite genuinely has a problem, a serious one at that and he/she is expecting a solution from me. Sadly, issues relating to sex drive aren’t fixed easily with a ‘pill in a bottle’. Sometimes, yes but most times, it requires more than a pill.
Therefore, blaming something like BCAA as the offending agent for your libido or sex drive problems may be a misplaced anger. Barking at the wrong tree, if you like.
Of the pros and cons of BCAA, I do not think issues relating to sexual motivation are high up there on the most common problems reported. By the way, I also answer the question of whether bcaas work or not here.
BCAA and Libido
Something we do know is sex drive (libido) is modulated in the brain. Yes, your brain is your biggest sexual organ, believe it or not.
We also know from research that libido is affected by:
- Sensitivity to sexual cues.
- Psychological inhibition.
You may be highly sensitive to sexual cues but if your psychological inhibition is high, your appetite for sex will be low.
A good sex drive is a fine balance between being very sensitive to sexual cues along with a low psychological inhibition.
Don’t forget that psychological inhibition that affects libido varies from person to person. Upbringing, religious beliefs, cultural and social factors play a huge role in the psychological mash-up for libido.
We can say for certain that BCAAs do not have a role with the psychological aspects of libido. That will be an unfair blame on BCAA if we swing the pendulum in that direction.
The question then arises: do BCAAs have a role to play in the organic and physical aspects of libido?
Well, there is no straight answer to this question, but we will tackle it anyway.
Something we do know is; BCAAs do reduce 5-HT (serotonin) levels in the brain. Whether that is a good thing or bad thing is open to debate. For one thing, 5-HT is responsible for the feeling of fatigue during intense workouts, so BCAAs reducing 5-HT (serotonin) level is a good thing for fitness.
But 5-HT (serotonin) is involved in sexual function as well. Whereas Dopamine is beneficial for sexual function, serotonin negatively impacts sexual function. Serotonin (5-HT) negatively affects sexual motivation thus sexual initiation; sexual performance thus satiety.
From the above, low levels of serotonin (5-HT) should be your preferred option as opposed to high levels, if libido is important to you. BCAAs keeping the levels of 5-HT on the low side would therefore be a good thing for your sexual function.
Now the flip side of that argument:
You’ve got to remember that low serotonin is a bad thing for our mood. You could also argue that low mood is not compatible with high sex drive. Very few people will compensate their low mood with lots of sex. Maybe there are some but very few will.
> You need to be happy to want to have sex and plenty of it, at that.
It does get complicated though. I told you libido and sex matters are not for the faint-hearted.
Why the complication.
Happiness is not always compatible with high libido. Got proof?
Well, here is one. People with low mood generally get prescribed anti-depressants. Usually the more modern antidepressants called SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are the 21st century rave.
I’m talking about drugs like Paxil, Prozac, Lexapro, Zoloft, Celexa and Viibryd. They are all SSRI antidepressants. What do these meds do?
SSRIs increase serotonin levels in the brain. And what’s the commonest side effect of SSRIs? Sexual dysfunction it is; inclusive of low libido. You wouldn’t think that, would you?
This actually agrees with the scientific fact we talked about above. High serotonin inhibits sexual function in more ways than one. So, it’s not surprising that SSRI antidepressants cause libido problems because SSRI antidepressants work by raising serotonin levels in the brain.
High serotonin levels boosted by these SSRIs make us happy…really happy.
But aren’t we supposed to be thinking more about sex and having lots more sex when we are happier? Go figure.
Here is another fact about BCAAs.
BCAAs do raise the level of testosterone in the body whilst protecting you against exercise-induced muscle damage.
Oh, that’s not all. BCAAs also raise the level of Human Growth Hormone in the body whilst you are taking them. Just in case you are not aware, human growth hormone also plays a significant role in your sex life.
Now with all of these synergy of action, you would have to think that BCAAs are a gift that just keeps on giving when it comes to sex, right?
Think about it this way:
- BCAAs afford you high testosterone, a good influencer of libido
- High human growth hormone, another libido driver
…and to top it all, you can go ahead and have as much sex as you want with the assurance that BCAAs will protect you from any muscular injury during sex.
Oh, Happy Days!
So, when some people complain that their BCAA supplement is making their libido or sex drive to take a tumble, it kinda rings hollow…
…when you look at the evidence and the physiological chain of events that BCAAs do provoke. It’s more of a red herring.
Having said that, sex and libido are complex matters that have an innate capacity to surprise just about anyone.
On this account, I wouldn’t dismiss your claim about BCAAs killing your libido. I think it is unlikely though. But I would instead suggest you explore the psychological aspects of your sex life.
A simple test would be to discontinue the BCAA use, if you are still convinced the supplements are the culprit.
After all, you don’t need BCAAs to survive the next weather change, do you? And BCAAs aren’t heroine either. You ain’t going to have withdrawal symptoms just because you abandoned your bcaa in your supplement cabinet.
Watch and see what happens when you pause taking the supplements. If your libido makes a sensational return, then, voilla, you are cured. And do you know what…you would have proved your point.
Everyone is happy. You, Your partner and may be ‘Little me’ for this advice. Except the BCAA company. They won’t be.
Suggested further reading:
Could You Optimise Your Sexual Health Naturally With This?
BCAA
By Dr Joe
Are there BCAA health risks? What are the BCAA negatives? Is the use of BCAA safe? What are the dangers of using BCAAs?
These are some of the questions I get asked every now and again. So, I thought I might as well tackle them here on this page.
And I need to mention here that talking about possible health risks or side effects of BCAAs is ‘serious business’. Hence much of what you will read on this page is based heavily on science, not conjecture or pure opinions. The resources are also provided.
Of course, there are risks to using BCAAs. Whilst bcaa supplements have become so popular in their use all over the world, sometimes it makes sense to take in a deep breath and examine this new craze objectively.
The sale of bcaa has increased tremendously in the last couple of years. In fact, the bcaa supplement business is now a multi-million-dollar industry.
Why is this?
It’s because the benefits of BCAAs are being exploited by sports enthusiasts, body builders and those engaged in intermittent fasting. BCAAs are also used in the medical world, albeit limited use.
Body building requires a good amount of protein consumption to provide essential and non-essential amino acids necessary for new muscle development and maintenance of existing muscle fibres. BCAA provides that, although some researchers like Garlick PJ may have a different opinion regarding that.
The use of bcaas along with intermittent fasting is a well-honed marriage that works for fitness and fat loss. See article on intermittent fasting and bcaa use here.
All of that is all good but we need to look at whether the use of bcaas poses any health risks to the user. I have written about the pros and cons of bcaas extensively here.
Something to remember, is that using bcaas may in practice mean we are increasing our daily protein consumption beyond the recommended daily average, especially if we are eating normally.
The first thing to say, however, is that short-term use of bcaas does not pose any significant health risk to the user. The side effects of bcaa are not stuff the user should worry about when using these supplements, for just a couple of weeks.
So, let’s dive in and prove or dis-prove some of the feared side effects or health risks of bcaas.
BCAA Health Risks
I will tackle the most commonly asked concerns regarding the dangers of BCAA.
BCAA Affecting Kidneys & Kidney Stones
There has been a lot of talk about bcaas negatively affecting the kidneys or bcaa causing kidney stones. Some people are concerned about bcaas causing kidney pain with or without kidney stones.
In a way, this is a genuine concern because when you consume excess proteins either through your regular diet or through the use of bcaa supplements, there is a theoretical risk that the kidneys are being “pushed harder” than they ought to.
On this account of being pushed harder by excessive protein intake from bcaa or regular diet, the kidneys may then begin to malfunction, at least in theory anyway.
The scientific evidence regarding high protein diets or bcaas causing kidney problems is conflicting and no consistency of results have been demonstrated to reach any foregone conclusions.
This experimental study in rats seems to suggest that a high protein diet does cause the kidneys to get bigger (kidney hypertrophy) and to filter more and more.
And if we go by the Brenner Hypothesis, then things get really interesting.
Brenner hypothesis suggests that conditions that cause the kidneys to filter harder and induce higher pressures within the kidneys will eventually lead to kidney injury over time.
Some scientists seem to think otherwise though. This alternative school of thought believes that excessive filtration that happens in the kidneys on a high protein diet is actually an adaptation of the kidneys to the new demand on it, rather than a kidney malfunction.
This Nurses’ Health Study that enrolled 1624 women aged between 42 and 68 years of age and assessed their kidney functions over a 4-year period supports this alternative viewpoint.
The conclusion from that study was that a high protein diet like using bcaa would not initiate a decline in kidney function in normal healthy individuals. However, if you had pre-existing abnormal kidney function, a high protein diet such as using bcaa would accelerate the progression of decline in kidney function. So, BCAAs are best avoided, if you have a pre-existing kidney malfunction.
What About BCAA and Kidney Stones
What we do know is that the food we eat plays a huge role in the formation of kidney stones.
But do bcaas cause kidney stones and in turn kidney pain? This is a bit hit or miss. There are studies like this one that shows a direct correlation between high protein diet (especially animal protein) and calcium oxalate kidney stones formation.
With a high protein intake, it would appear in theory at least that stone formation in the kidneys would increase because of increased excretion stone forming agents like uric acid and calcium.
That’s the theory and indeed you could argue that BCAAs have a theoretical risk of enabling kidney stone formation.
But when you examine the literature, there is no conclusive evidence that if you embark on a high protein diet for instance by using bcaas, you are likely to form kidney stones. Indeed, this study of 96,245 women aged 27 years to 44 showed a risk reduction between high protein diet and kidney stones.
As it happens that same study also showed that adequate fluid consumption reduces the risk of kidney stones.
So, here is the advice. If you are going to use bcaa supplements, it would be prudent to drink plenty of water to prevent kidney pain in the short term and kidney stones in the long run.
I cannot emphasize the importance of adequate hydration when using bcaas as far as kidney pain or kidney stones are concerned.
Don’t forget that when you exercise you lose a lot of body fluid through sweat and it is very easy to become underhydrated. Dehydration in itself regardless of whether you are using bcaa supplements or not is the bedrock of most kidney stones.
So, drink plenty of water and you should be fine. Also watch out for other supplements that you may be using along with the bcaas that may cause you to pass urine a lot more like caffeinated BCAA supplements.
These are supplements that creatively combine bcaas and caffeine together as one. Personally, you will be pushing the boundaries by using those combination supplements. If you do, my advice will be to drink even more.
BCAA and Insulin Resistance (Type 2 Diabetes)
There has been some grumbling in some quarters that the prolonged use of BCAAs and indeed prolonged consumption of a high protein diet may be associated with the development of insulin resistance and subsequently Type 2 diabetes.
I have been looking at the scientific evidence between bcaas and diabetes. Again, the evidence is conflicting.
This is not surprising because we have evidence that bcaas do signal insulin to spring into action.
Of course, we know that insulin’s main job is to lower blood sugar quite apart from affecting the metabolism of available amino acids.
So, how for heaven’s sake, does a diet high in branched-chain amino acids or prolonged use of bcaas result in insulin resistance and high blood sugar (type 2 diabetes)?
I suppose it’s all in the genotype and environmental interplay. Wolever and his colleagues studied the North American Aboriginal population and confirmed this interplay. They found a 38% increase in the risk of diabetes when the diet was a high protein one in that Aboriginal population.
Having a diet that is deficient or low in fiber, but high in protein can result in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Dietary fiber-depleted foods high in either starch or protein predispose the individual to diabetes.
Now, does that mean bcaa use will result in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Probably not. Especially if you don’t use bcaas for a long period.
Short-term use of bcaa supplements for 4 months and under shouldn’t really be an issue as far as insulin resistance and diabetes are concerned.
But if you are going to use bcaas for a long time, you need to bear in mind the health risk of diabetes or insulin resistance because amino acids inclusive of the ones in bcaa can have a bi-directional effect on insulin, it would appear.
What does bi-directional effect mean?
It means bcaa can positively call on insulin to store proteins whilst at the same time have a negative effect on some of the functions of insulin. Functions such as control of blood sugar.
Just be careful. As a precautionary measure though, if you are going to use the bcaa supplement for a long time, please make sure you add a lot of fibre to your diet. Fiber seems to have a calming effect on the mechanics of blood glucose control and possibly it’s metabolism.
BCAA and Joint Pain
Are bcaas good for joints or are they bad for your joints?
Some individuals have wondered whether joint pain is one of the dangers of taking bcaa supplements. Indeed, when you develop joint pain or arthritis at the time of commencing a supplement, your mind automatically thinks; could the supplement be the cause of this joint pain?
That is fairly natural and rational thinking.
However, in nearly all cases, this is a mere coincidence rather than the source of the problem. Just make sure you don’t have issues with gout though.
Something to realise is:
Branched-chain amino acids actually aid in musculoskeletal injury.
BCAAs may be useful in arthritis. In actual fact, when you do have injury affecting the muscles or joints, you need a good dose of bcaas to facilitate the healing process.
I have talked about how bcaas actually help with the synthesis of proteins already and there is scientific proof to that effect. The protein synthetic function and inhibition of protein breakdown forms the basis on which bcaas should help with arthritis.
BCAAs may also calm the inflammation associated with arthritis especially when used in conjunction with methionine as I will explain shortly.
How:
Your body needs these essential amino acids in bcaa supplements along with another essential amino acid called methionine to help build new connective tissue. Any system that helps connective tissue recovery like cartilage formation is always a beneficial thing for your joints.
A lot of joint pains are the result of problems with connective tissue whether it be related to sports injury or ageing. Arthritis for the most part has its origins from connective tissue malfunction.
Therefore, one needs a diet rich in these essential amino acids to help with the formation of collagen. Collagen is the bedrock of connective tissue. Without collagen, there is no connective tissue. And without connective tissue, joint pain will rule the day.
Methionine, for instance, is one essential amino acid that is needed for cartilage production because it supplies sulphur to the body. I know methionine is not a branched-chain amino acid, but I am stressing the point that along with the bcaas, methionine does actually relieve joint pain and promote healing by stimulating connective tissue formation.
What am I saying here?
I am saying that bcaas rather than cause joint pain, they indeed do the opposite. BCAAs are actually good for joints.
Bcaas promote joint healing rather than cause joint pain. And if BCAAs are taken with methionine they provide anti-inflammatory function which helps to provide relief from joint pain.
BCAA and Hair Loss & Hair Growth
Do BCAAs cause hair loss or do BCAAs stimulate hair growth? That is the question. I have been researching the relationship between bcaas and hair loss or hair growth.
For one thing I do not have a personal experience with bcaas causing hair loss or bcaas causing hair growth, nor do I know anyone close to me that has had any such experience with BCAAs.
So, what I have written here about how bcaa relates to receding hairline or hair growth is based on research. In the course of establishing the facts regarding hair thinning, alopecia and bcaa, I came across claims by two experts who stated that the use of protein shakes containing bcaa actually leads to hair loss.
Their theory in support of this claim is that bcaa use causes a spike in testosterone levels which in turn raises dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels in the body.
Now dihydrotestosterone, DHT, is a weird hormone. Dihydrotestosterone is the active metabolite of testosterone, but it is weird hormone.
What do I mean by that?
Well, dihydrotestosterone is the hormone that stimulates facial and body hair growth amongst other functions. In fact, dihydrotestosterone, DHT, is the nemesis of women with polycystic ovaries. It’s the hormone that makes those women with polycystic ovaries hirsute.
Now whilst dihydrotestosterone (DHT) stimulates facial and body hair growth, it does the exact opposite on the scalp. Dihyrotestosterone (DHT) causes hair loss or hair thinning on the scalp. And the scalp is where you really want your hair to bloom. Now you see why I say DHT is a weird hormone.
Anyway, back to the claim by these two experts. These two experts on the basis of the above weird behaviour of dihydrotestosterone opine that protein shakes and in particular bcaa use does lead to hair loss or alopecia.
I had a good search on pubmed library looking for scientific evidence to back that claim. I saw none.
My view is that, based on dihydrotestosterone effect, it is quite possible that BCAAs may cause hair loss but this has not been scientifically studied yet, as at the time of writing. It is a theoretical association supported by hair expert’s opinion. I haven’t named the two experts here because I may unwittingly be promoting them.
Part of the reason why I haven’t named them is because the two experts have their own registered hair growth products on sale. So, maybe, just maybe, conflict of interest could be at play here. Just a thought!
Are BCAAs good for hair growth?
Now to add to the confusion:
I also gathered from my research that bcaa can actually facilitate hair growth in the same breadth. But not in the regular supplement form as you know it, I should add.
How’s this possible?
Hair growth is naturally engineered by the presence or absence of potassium channels within the hair follicle. Even if the potassium channels are present but aren’t functioning properly, hair growth will be negatively affected.
The absence or poor functionality of the potassium channels reduces the membrane potential of the hair follicle; hence growth is impaired.
What’s this got to do with branched-chain amino acids, I hear you ask.
Well, if you can raise the membrane potential of hair follicles by stimulating new potassium channels, hair will grow. Any mechanism that positively induces new potassium channels within the hair follicle will promote hair growth.
Guess something that has that capability – BCAAs.
BCAAs stimulate development of new potassium channels in hair follicles and as result stimulate the growth of hair growth. That is why new formulations of hair growth products now incorporate branched-chain amino acids in them and they claim to have lasting results.
I haven’t personally tried these new hair growth products containing BCAAs myself, so I cannot vouch for them. I suppose they are worth a good try if you have issues with receding hairline or hair thinning.
BCAA and Libido
Does the use of bcaa cause low libido or heighten libido? Big, big question.
When it comes to libido in humans, things get really murky. Never have I had a difficult and challenging consultation in the clinic than when a patient complains of low libido.
One reason is the patient quite naturally is expecting me prescribe a wonder drug that will fix the problem. How I wish it were that simple.
Yes, there may be organic issues causing the low libido problem but I gotta tell you, the psychosocial contributors to low or lack of libido cannot be over-emphasized.
Here is something you should know.
Libido is hugely affected by:
- How sensitive the frontal lobe of your brain is to sexual cues.
- How strong or weak your psychological inhibition is.
I don’t want to go into huge detail about this because that is a whole topic in itself. Could be a book actually, thinking about it.
So, to accuse a substance like bcaa of causing low libido may be an unjust thing to do because libido issues are too complex. Doing so will be over-simplifying the issue.
BCAAs may or may not cause low libido. The flipside of that is BCAAs may or may not increase libido. The point being…everyone is different.
I could take BCAAs and my libido will be hitting the roof. In the same vein, you could take BCAAs, and your libido may crash. Can you blame the bcaas for your libido? That would be a tricky thing to do.
What we do know is:
BCAAs do reduce the level of serotonin (5-HT) in the brain. Serotonin is involved in both your mood and libido by extension. Once serotonin receptors in the frontal lobe of your brain are activated, psychological inhibition is diminished, but the effect on sexual cues is inhibitory.
So, BCAAs lowering 5-HT in the brain is actually a good thing for libido, rather than having a negative impact on libido.
And there is another explanation:
BCAAs actually cause a spike in testosterone levels as shown in this study and this other one. And would you believe it, BCAAs also cause a rise in Human Growth Hormone (HGH) levels in the body.
Ah, now it gets interesting.
Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone increase sex drive like crazy especially when your body gets a good hit from them. Best effect is at initial exposure.
If BCAAs can drive up both testosterone and growth hormone, then BCAAs should in theory actually revv up sex drive, rather cause it to crash and burn.
The conclusion from all of these hormonal interplay is that it is difficult to point the finger at BCAA if your sex drive takes a hit. If you however still have doubts, then stop using the bcaa supplement and see if your libido picks up again.
If you notice a difference, then you have made your own diagnosis regardless of whatever someone else tells you.
Suggested further reading:
How To Supercharge Your Life and Restore Glowing Good Health
BCAA
By Dr Joe
There is a lot to be said about BCAAs in modern life. There is some debate on-going regarding the use of BCAAs.
Are BCAAs good for you? Are BCAAs bad for you? What are the pros and cons of using bcaas.
What I’d like to do here is talk about bcaas in general and what they can and cannot do for you.
Besides you’ll also learn from this page:
When to take your bcaas, the health benefits of bcaas, whether it is safe to take your bcaas in an empty stomach, should you take your bcaas in the morning, clinical uses of bcaas and a detailed list of foods sources of bcaas.
Quite a lot to get through, so let’s crack on…
Pros and Cons of BCAAs
First of all, you’d like to know what bcaas are, don’t you?
Let’s define bcaas first…
What are bcaas?
The term bcaas stands for branched-chain amino acids. That term refers to the chemical structure of these amino acids. We won’t get geeky here and start blabbing about the actual chemical structure of these amino acids because it is not an absolute necessity. Leave that to the food biochemists.
What you need to know however is that there are 3 amino acids that make up the branched-chain amino acids group.
These amino acids are isoleucine, valine and leucine. Of the 3 amino acids, leucine is the most important metabolically. Isoleucine and valine sort of play a supportive role functionally.
Something else you need to know is that the 3 amino acids are actually essential amino acids. This means you need to take these amino acids either through your diet or through supplementation to have them.
This is because your body just doesn’t make these amino acids. Failure to provide these amino acids through food or via supplementation would lead to deficiency. And deficiency state is a No No…far from ideal.
How to use bcaa
How you use bcaa is fairly simple. Most bcaa supplements come either in the pill format or powder form.
Take the pill with water as you would any other supplement. If it is the powder, simply dissolve it in water, smoothie, oatmeal, sports drink etc and sip it. It is a good idea to drink plenty of water with it.
An advisable daily dose of bcaa will be between 5gm – 20 gm. It is also not a bad idea to split up your daily dose of bcaa into two. This is especially so if you are taking more than 5gm.
When to take your bcaas
The issue of when to take bcaa tends to be bothersome to some people. It needn’t be. There are no hard rules regarding the timing of bcaa use.
Take your bcaa anytime you feel like it. However, for the folk who is a physical activity enthusiast, I will advise using your bcaa supplementation around your workout time. There are obvious advantages at taking bcaas around workout time. Take it just before workout and soon after.
The main reason being bcaas will provide energy support during your workout. BCAAs are also good for muscle metabolism during and after your workout session.
This is even more important if you are involved in intermittent fasting. I have a suggested approach to bcaa use, especially with intermittent fasting here. Go read it.
What are health benefits of using bcaas
Do BCAAs have any health benefits? Let me talk about these as the pros of using bcaas. Why would you want to use bcaas? Are bcaas worth your while?
Okay, here are the pros of using bcaas.
BCAAs good for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness
Ever experienced delayed-onset muscle soreness after a workout session, also known as DOMS? Well, if you are a keen workout individual, you would have gone through that phase of having intense muscle soreness after a good bout of exercise. Post-exercise muscle soreness comes with the territory.
One of the pros of using bcaas is; bcaas do reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness. Prove it?
Well, if you take 12 untrained female participants and make them do 7 sets of 20 squats with 3 minutes intervals between sets, will these participants develop muscle soreness? Of course, they will.
Can you reduce the intensity of this soreness? Well, this study says, you can.
Do a cross-over double-blind study with BCAA supplements and a dummy pill and you will have proof. They did and they found that bcaa supplemented group had significantly reduced muscle soreness on Day 2 & Day 3 post-exercise.
Nosaka and his colleagues seem to provide further proof here that bcaa supplementation does provide a health benefit of attenuating delayed-onset muscle soreness following a workout, as suggested by their own study.
BCAAs protect muscles from exercise-induced damage
One of the pros of bcaa use is the muscle protection it provides. It is an inevitable fact that muscles subjected to intense workout do get damaged by way of micro-tears.
Is it possible to reduce this muscle damage effect by using bcaas?
Well, this small study took 16 participants and subjected them to 2 hours of cycling and measured markers for muscle damage in their blood. In particular the markers for muscle damage in this experiment were Lactate dehydrogenase and Creatine kinase.
The bcaa researchers found the bcaa supplemented group to have very low levels of muscle damage parameters.
This previous study also measured myoglobin level as part of the study. Myoglobin is one other biological marker that can be used to assess muscle damage.
They too, found lower myoglobin levels in the bcaa supplemented group leading the researchers to conclude that muscle damage can be suppressed by bcaa use.
BCAAs are good for muscle synthesis
One pro of bcaa is its role in muscle synthesis.
Quite apart from protecting muscle from excessive damage especially during exercise or physical activity, bcaas also promote muscle synthesis.
You need amino acids to build muscle because muscle is made up of proteins hugely in part. Proteins are made from amino acids. In fact, amino acids are the sub-units of proteins.
For the wear and tear that occurs in everyday life and during exercise routines, you need to synthesize proteins from amino acids to fix these muscle wear and tear issues.
As explained earlier, bcaas are essential amino acids. You need both essential and non-essential amino acids to synthesize muscle.
Of the 3 amino acids in the bcaa group, leucine is the most important when it comes to protein synthesis.
Leucine works in tandem with glutamine to signal muscle tissue synthesis. In fact, it is thought that glutamine will lose its muscle synthesis functionality in the absence of leucine.
Leucine has a direct effect on protein synthesis stimulation because it activates insulin to spring into action. Insulin in turn does stimulate the clearance of amino acids (essential and non-essential) from the bloodstream.
This action of insulin drives the amino acids into the cells where they are needed for muscle tissue synthesis.
Using bcaas will solve that problem. This complex enzyme-mediated process was exemplified in this rat experiment.
The findings from that experiment led the researchers to conclude that bcaa supplementation is beneficial in sports and exercise in general.
This health benefit of bcaa is particularly important in folks who undertake intense exercise routines, especially resistance training like weight-lifting.
BCAAs are good for exercise endurance
Another pro of bcaa is the beneficial effect on exercise endurance. Some Nutraceutical companies have included BCAAs in their energy drink for this purpose as discussed here.
BCAAs being a nutritional supplement actually means they have calorific value. BCAAs are catabolised during exercise. When something is catabolised, it releases energy as a result of that catabolic event.
BCAAs are no exception. BCAA catabolism results in release of energy which the individual can harness to do more during exercise. The health benefit of bcaa here is that; you can utilize the bcaa energy release to increase both the volume and intensity of your exercise routine.
There are 6 amino acids that the muscle likes to utilize for energy production. They are isoleucine, leucine, valine (the BCAAs); along with alanine, glutamate and aspartate.
Of the 6 amino acids above, the muscle cell seems to have a preference for the branched-chain amino acids. This is because the myocyte (muscle cell) has the necessary enzymes needed for bcaa oxidation process readily available inside it.
Some would argue that the muscle cell is designed to burn bcaas for energy supply.
Besides, the branched-chain amino acids are a great source of new glucose production inside the muscle cell. The 3 bcaas can be converted to glucose very quickly although they have to be converted to alanine and glutamate first.
In the liver, the alanine and glutamate are then converted into glucose.
What does this mean?
It means the bcaas are a ready source of fuel during exercise workouts. A fuel pipeline, if you like. This ‘fuel pipeline’ can become very important when stored glucose (glycogen) tank is running low or completely empty.
Something else that is talked about is the fact that bcaas actually reduce the feeling of muscle fatigue as bcaas lower the level of serotonin during exercise. Serotonin contributes to fatigue during exercise, so lowering the levels at the time can only be a good thing.
The net result being; you can exercise for longer.
BCAAs make these essential amino acids readily available
When you administer a supplement either by mouth or by injection, you are essentially providing the active ingredients in that supplement to your body in a kind of ready-to-use format. Not always but most times, it is.
BCAA supplements are no different.
Taking BCAas means you are providing your body with isoleucine, leucine and valine amino acids on demand, if you like.
Your body wants these amino acids because it cannot manufacture them and by taking the supplement, voilla, here they are.
And something that has been proven so far is that these essential amino acids in the bcaa totally by-pass the liver. These amino acids in the bcaa head straight up into the bloodstream avoiding the 1st-pass metabolism.
This is good because if you are one of those active people busy in the gym or exercising at home, your protein turn-over is going to be high.
The reason is; muscles involved in physical activity undergo more wear and tear.
The more intense the activity, the more the wear and tear and the more protein you are going to need.
You will be needing the protein to fix these wear and tear events. Amino acids make up protein. Hence you will be needing these essential amino acids in BCAA and of course the non-essential ones as well.
The use of bcaas before and after workout sessions is known to provide a muscle-sparing effect for the exercise enthusiast.
Having these amino acids readily available especially around the time of intense physical activity like a workout session is quite beneficial. This is one of the pros of bcaa supplements. Having these amino acids available on demand.
This brings us nicely to the question:
Should you take BCAAs on an empty stomach or not?
First of all, it does you no harm to take your bcaa supplement on an empty stomach.
Your bcaa supplement should not cause stomach irritation. If it does, then you either change your current brand or stop using them altogether. Okay, you may then consider using it with food then as another option but that sort of defeats the purpose of using it in the first place.
I have said it before that one of the problems of weight loss enthusiasts is muscle loss. It’s almost inevitable even when you embark on a fat loss journey.
In fact, one of the problems of working out on am empty stomach, especially with intermittent fasting is that, you risk burning protein before you get into the fat-burning zone. Therein lies the problem.
One nice solution to avoid muscle breakdown from protein loss is to take your bcaa supplement about 30 minutes before your workout. An empty stomach makes for quick absorption of the amino acids in the BCAA supplement.
Quick absorption means these branched-chain amino acids head straight up the bloodstream targeting sites where these amino acids are readily needed – the muscle.
Should you take bcaa in the morning?
Well, of course you can take your bcaa in the morning before having your breakfast. If you are considering taking bcaa in the morning, I would suggest you take your bcaa in place of your breakfast.
Probably best you skip breakfast altogether. Take the bcaa 30 minutes before your workout on an empty stomach, do your workout and if you insist on having your breakfast, then have your breakfast after the workout session.
Any clinical uses of bcaas
In general medicine, bcaas do come in handy for certain clinical conditions. Don’t forget, a bcaa prep is an essential amino acid concentrate.
So, it is no surprise that bcaas have other health benefits and can be used clinically for:
- Feeding the frail elderly who may be malnourished.
- Feeding anorexic patient.
- Feeding the chronic kidney disease patient with a poor appetite.
- Supplementing the cancer patient whose feeding pattern may be compromised.
- Treating Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patients. Another name for Lou Gehrig’s disease.
- Treating involuntary jerky movements of the face and body called Tardive Dyskinesia.
- Treat liver disease that’s made the brain to soften up called hepatic encephalopathy.
- Treat some neuro-degenerative conditions of the spinal cord.
Some more medical uses of BCAAs include:
- Overwhelming generalised infection of the body called severe sepsis.
- Treat extensive burns patients.
- Supplement patients confined to beds for a long period.
- Treat people who may be recovering from hunger strike.
- Treat malnutrition in people affected by war and famine.
- There is a suggestion that BCAAs might stimulate insulin sensitivity in diabetics.
- Treat psychiatric patients with mania.
- May help with concentration.
BCAA sources from food
If you have read my other articles on bcaa, I have always said it and I will say it again, you don’t have to use bcaa supplements. BCAA supplements are not mandatory in any way, shape or form.
Why…because you can get the essential branched-chain amino acids in bcaa from food sources. Yes, you can get these amino acids in bcaa supplements through regular diet. Food sources of bcaa are just as good as your supplements, if not better.
I needed to say the above in the interest of balance.
It should be said however that there are some people like your good self, reading this article, who prefer to have their dietary supply of bcaa supplemented with bcaa pills or powder. Nothing wrong with that either.
For them, supplements are a concentrated source of bcaa and the convenience of popping a pill or adding water to a powder and drinking it straightaway is unbeatable.
So, what foods can you get bcaas from?
Well, bcaas are available in a lot of foods even including some carbohydrate foods. Below I share food sources of bcaa. If you look at the list, you may deduce some vegan sources of bcaa from it. The list is a mixture of both animal sources and vegan sources of bcaas.
List of foods high in bcaa:
Dairy milk
Eggs
Soybeans
Green Peas
Beef
Chicken
Tuna
Salmon
Lima beans
Chickpeas
Red Kidney beans
Cannellini beans
Lentils
Whole wheat
Brown rice
Peanuts
Brazil nuts
Cashew nuts
Pumpkin seeds
Lamb
Turkey
Corn
Tilapia
Sardines
Prawns
Quinoa
Almonds
Below is a diagrammatic display of bcaa content in some everyday foods.
As you can see, there is some variation of how much bcaa you get from different dietary sources. The key here is, a varied diet will get you a ready supply of these branched-chain amino acids without the need for supplementation, if you don’t wish to.
To put it bluntly, bcaa supplements are a short-cut. Period.
BCAA Cons
Are there any cons to using bcaa supplements?
Well, generally speaking, BCAAs are fairly safe to take. After all, they are amino acids that your body actually needs.
That said, we do not advise the use of bcaas during pregnancy because there has been no research to back the safety of their use in pregnancy and indeed during breast feeding.
So, if you are pregnant or are breastfeeding, please get your branched-chain amino acids from the list of bcaa foods above.
Even though, bcaas are used in treating Lou Gehrig’s syndrome, this use should be confined to doctor’s supervision because fatalities have been reported in the past.
In theory, bcaas can be used to delay fatigue during exercise and this is backed by anec dotal and scientific bcaa research. Paradoxically however, some bcaa users have reported fatigue and problems with co-ordination which is a weird con of bcaa use. I separate the ‘wheat from the chaff’ regarding the health risks of BCAAs here.
Another con of bcaa use is its effect on blood sugar. If you followed this article, you will notice I mentioned how one of the bcaa amino acids, leucine, signals insulin activity.
This insulin signalling is one of the reasons branched-chain amino acids are useful for muscle growth and muscle building because insulin is an anabolic hormone.
Well, in some individuals, this insulin response may go over the top. This means blood sugar levels may plummet because of insulin’s ability to clear glucose from the blood.
The point being; bcaa may provoke an episode of low blood sugar which is not ideal.
For this reason, it might make sense to stay off bcaas a couple of weeks before surgery. And if you find yourself in an emergency situation where you have to undergo surgery, please do let your anaesthetist know that you have been using bcaa supplements lately.
List of Pros and Cons of BCAAs
Here’s a list of some of the pros and cons of taking BCAA supplements for whatever reason you may have in mind.
- BCAAs reduce Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).
- BCAAs protect muscles from exercise-induced damage.
- BCAAs promote muscle synthesis.
- BCAAs are good for exercise endurance.
- BCAAs provide energy release when catabolized.
- BCAAs are a great source of new glucose production when needed.
- BCAAs make essential amino acids readily available at target sites.
- BCAAs help with muscle repair when it happens.
- BCAAs may be beneficial for insulin sensitivity.
- BCAAs have a wide range of clinical applications in medical care.
Cons of BCAAs
- Not suitable for pregnancy.
- Not suitable for breast feeding women.
- Paradoxically BCAAs may cause fatigue issues.
- BCAAs may cause problems with co-ordination.
- BCAAs may have a negative effect on blood sugar metabolism.
Suggested further reading:
Ever wondered why the last few pounds are the hardest to lose?
Food
By Dr Joe
A flavoured beetroot hummus recipe? Oh, Yes, it is.
When it is dark outside especially in the winter months, you need something to lift you up.
Your mood may not be down in the boots like the weather, but it’s not always a bad idea to munch on something uplifting, regardless.
Not just that, a flavoured beetroot hummus is something that brightens the evening. Get that purple colour out in a bowl and voilla, the room begins to sparkle.
Don’t be surprised. It’s not just colour but the flavoured beetroot hummus recipe does actually tickle the taste buds too.
So, what do we need for this flavoured beetroot hummus recipe?
Red Onion X 1
Garlic X 4 cloves
Bell peppers (Sweet peppers) X 2
Steamed Beetroot X 350 gm
Lemon X 2
Canned Chickpeas X 3 Cans (drained)
Tahini paste X 3 scoops
Cumin X 3 tbs
Coriander X 3 tbs
Paprika X 3 tbs
Black pepper (ground) X 2 tbs
Salt
How To Make the Flavoured Beetroot Hummus
>> Slice up your red onions, garlic and sweet peppers.
>> Slice up the beetroots into smaller chunks.
>> Cut up your lemons and squeeze out the lemon juice.
>> Pour the lemon juice into your food processor and chuck in the sliced red onions, garlic and sweet peppers. And blitz them up in the food processor until fine in texture.
>> Add the sliced up steamed beetroot and blitz as well.
>> Now add the seasoning agents – Paprika, Ground black pepper, Coriander and Cumin along with the Tahini sauce.
Don’t blitz yet.
>> Add the drained chickpeas. If you are struggling to fit all the chick peas in, you can use 2 and a half can of chickpeas.
>> Now top it up with salt and blitz the entire content. Stop every now and again to check the texture. Usually it turns out just about right. But for those who like their hummus thinner, you may add a little water at a time and blitz until you are happy with it.
I like mine fairly thick. Blitz until you are happy with it.
>> Turn off food processor and serve. Garnish with chopped chives and or finely chopped carrots.
Now enjoy your flavoured beetroot hummus.
Does this flavoured beetroot hummus recipe meet my strict blood sugar test? You bet, it does. I got a blood sugar reading of 95 mg/dl (5.3 mmol/l) when I had mine with carrots. Yummy!
Suggested further reading:
The 1 Simple Diet Change That Saved a Life
Dr. Joe