HIIT Will Get You Fit

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An Insider emailed me a link to a press release about high-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short. I’ve always used interval training, when I was a serious runner, and now as a way to increase my fitness level faster. That’s why I was a little surprised that a study suggested that you have to do intervals that are at least a minute long and shouldn’t rest more than two minutes. I checked out what I could find.

The research was presented at a conference and as much as I tried, I couldn’t get the abstract. Fortunately, the press release contained just enough information to figure out what was what. The researchers recruited 26 previously sedentary subjects and put them on a HIIT program. They either took part in 60-second intervals of high intensity with 60 seconds rest or intervals that lasted 30 seconds with 120 seconds rest. While both groups saw similar changes in body composition and arterial stiffness, the 60/60 groups saw bigger improvements in max VO2, a measure of aerobic fitness. In fact, the release included comments from the lead author that the subjects didn’t improve their fitness level at all.

That didn’t make any sense to me. If the intensity was high enough, 30 seconds of all-out effort would need two minutes to recover. I found the problem. One of the purposes of the study was to use exercises people could do at home, so they used calisthenics: push-ups, squats, sit-ups and exercises such as that. That’s admirable, but it made the headline and her comments misleading—extremely misleading.

Using sedentary subjects means they had to overcome localized muscle fatigue. The localized muscle pain may get the heart rate to increase but it’s limited by muscle stamina, especially in sedentary individuals, until they could actually do enough push-ups, etc., to challenge their cardiovascular system. A six-week study is not long enough for them to really master the movements and do them fast enough in order to get a good aerobic training effect.

The Bottom Line

HIIT can be effective if done properly; running and cycling are still the best options to do that. You can reach aerobic exhaustion in 30 seconds if the intensity is high enough, and if you do, you’ll need every one of those two minutes to recover before the next interval begins. You must make sure your cardiovascular system is ready for it, so get your doctor’s clearance before you attempt it.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Resistant Starch and Your Gut

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After last week’s Memos on resistant starches, I received a couple of emails asking me to talk about related topics. I think they’re both important, so here we go.

The first was something I mentioned but didn’t focus on. You may remember that I said that resistant starches can act as prebiotic to produce short-chain fatty acids. The process is by fermentation, so that means it will produce gas. For some people, the gas production is so uncomfortable, it can negatively impact their life; they have to avoid some resistant starches. The good news is that the variety of foods that contain resistant starches is vast, so there are some foods that are less intrusive.

That leads to the second question about resistant starches and leaky gut syndrome. One of the issues with leaky gut is that the mucus layer on the inner gut is not as developed in some areas, and that leads to problems with nutrients and bacteria entering the blood stream directly. Resistant starches have been shown to be beneficial for leaky gut. However, the same issue with fermentation may happen until the bacterial colony grows sufficiently. The approach would be to slowly increase resistant starches to prevent over-fermentation.

There have been many questions, but I’ll wrap this up on Saturday and keep some questions for another time.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Thyroid Function and Cruciferous Vegetables

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A long-time friend and Memo reader asked this question: “Some Internet health experts and websites say to avoid raw broccoli if you have an underactive thyroid; I did that and my scores improved. Why?” The answer is complicated, but here’s what I found.

Raw cruciferous vegetables contain phytonutrients that are important to our health. However, in people with iodine deficiency, those phytonutrients may interfere with the production of thyroid hormones. Cooking broccoli, even a quick steam, negates that impact.

If you’re concerned, here are three things to do. First, get your iodine levels tested to see your iodine status. Most multiminerals have iodine, but you may need even more and your doctor can help you decide that. Second, if your iodine or thyroid hormone levels are low, always cook any cruciferous vegetables you eat. They’re healthy for you, but maybe just not raw.

Finally, and I think this is the most important, always take your thyroid medication without eating for at least a couple of hours (a little cream in your coffee is okay, but not a meal). How do you do that? Most of us don’t have a couple hours to wait around to eat before the day begins. You can take it at bedtime, or you can put it next to the sink and take it when you get up during the night.

Most people avoid dairy because calcium interferes with thyroid meds, and I found after researching this, there are many others foods that also interfere. Just take the thyroid medication by itself. Check with your doctor about other oral medications that may have an impact as well.

If this is a reminder that you need to eat more cruciferous veggies, I couldn’t agree more. Here’s a way to eat more in a targeted way: get my book Real-Life Detox. It includes some tasty recipes, including “I Can’t Cook” Detox Cabbage Soup that requires nothing more complicated that opening bags and turning on the cooktop. You can get both the paper book and e-book for a special price at drchet.com; as always, Members and Insiders get their discount.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Unusual Question: Resistant Starch and Food Prep

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Resistant starch (RS) has qualities that are somewhat unique. As it’s being touted today, RS will help reduce the glycemic response to some carbohydrate-based foods. The issue is that when and how an RS containing food is prepared and consumed seems to be important. Let’s take a look.

Food Preparation Methods

The most natural forms of resistant starch to eat, regardless of preparation, are beans, seeds, nuts, and legumes. The food preparation doesn’t seem to impact the RS in any way, so these are the best ways to get RS.

Eating bananas and plantains when they’re green provides a high amount of RS. The more they’re allowed to ripen, the higher the sugar content and the less RS.

Raw potatoes also seem to have a high amount of RS. Because most people don’t eat raw potatoes, the type of preparation impacts RS levels. The longer the potatoes are cooked, the more the starch is changed into sugars or starches that don’t contain as much RS. In a review study of potatoes, the cooking method that contains the most RS was baked, followed by deep-fried, and finally boiled. The problem with deep-fried is the additional fat.

Does Cooling Increase RS?

We rarely hear about nutrients being increased by food prep, but RS may be the exception. A lot of the recent focus on RS surrounds the possibility of increasing RS by cooking and then cooling the foods before eating. The RS that degenerates during cooking is partially restored in cooling, particularly in rice and pasta.

However, in a study that examined the difference between rice that was eaten immediately, kept at room temperature and eaten eight hours later, and cooled for 24 hours and then eaten, the amount of fiber increased by 0.64 grams, 1.3 grams, and 1.65 grams per 100 grams serving. Stated slightly differently, in a half-cup portion, there was an increase of one gram of fiber per serving. While it’s true, it’s not meaningful in the real world and probably not worth the additional effort.

RS and Type 2 Diabetes

Another benefit of RS is to reduce the amount of sugar that enters the blood stream. In the rice study, the cooked and cooled rice was fed to 15 healthy volunteers. Their glycemic response was reduced. While I think that’s great, there’s no indication that this will happen in T2D. On top of that, think about the additional steps required to achieve that. I think there’s a better way.

The Bottom Line

Resistant starch is legit; it acts as a prebiotic and reduces the glycemic response, but I don’t think we need to go out of our way to get more of it. Increasing our intake of beans, seeds, legumes, and nuts will increase our RS the most without jumping through hoops. If you like green bananas, eat them. Cook your pasta al dente and that maintains some of the RS in pasta. If you like to cook extra rice and pasta to use in later meals, now you know there’s a nutritional benefit. You don’t need to do anything else but eat the foods that naturally contain RS. Simply put, just eat better.

Next week is all your questions, so send them in if you haven’t already.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. Nutrients. 2018 Nov 14;10(11). pii: E1764. doi: 10.3390/nu10111764.
2. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2015;24(4):620-625.

Unusual Questions: Resistant Starch

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Recently an Insider asked what I knew about resistant starch and whether it can help control blood sugar in someone whose blood sugar was higher than normal. Here’s what I found.

Resistant starch (RS) is found in many vegetables and some fruits. It resists digestion and absorption, especially in the small intestine. One of the problems: RS is described on the Internet as not digested and absorbed, but that’s not accurate. It resists digestion and absorption in the small intestine but doesn’t block it completely. Because it doesn’t break down to sugar molecules, RS will not spike blood sugar the way non-resistant starch might.

RS is digested by gut bacteria in a fermentation process. Because the RS feeds healthy bacteria, it produces, among other substances, short-chained fatty acids—fats that can be used for energy without being processed by the liver. The highest amount of RS can be found in beans, grains, potatoes, bananas, and plantains.

However, it’s not quite as simple as that because food preparation happens to be important in this process. I’ll cover that as well as some other research on RS in Saturday’s Memo.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Unusual Questions: The Grit in Pears

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Let’s kick off the 2020 Memos a little differently. Every health website is focusing on weight loss and fitness resolutions. Of course they are—it’s that time of year. But let’s be non-conformist and start by answering questions that may seem a little unusual, such as: is there any truth that cooking rice or pasta and then refrigerating it increases the fiber content? I’ll start with one Paula asked: what are those little gritty things in pears? You know, like the fruit has little pieces of sand in it.

My first thought was that it was some type of fiber. Wrong. It turns out that there are different types of plant cell-wall components. Some are flexible, some are not. Sclereids are cell-wall components that are rigid; clusters of them cause the grittiness in pears. The seed coats of beans, peas, and most other seeds are also made up of sclereids. They’re indigestible and just pass through the digestive system. Are they fiber? The don’t seem to be, but because they’re not digested, they’ll add bulk to the stool. That explains why peas and corn seem to seem to look the same exiting as they do entering.

I can’t let you go without a little nutrition talk: pear and cheese is one of our most frequent evening snacks. You can’t go wrong pairing any kind of pear with our favorite Costco Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar in the black wrapper. Or try a green salad with pear, blue cheese, dried cranberries, glazed walnuts, and balsamic dressing; add leftover chicken, and you’ve got a meal.

The idea of refrigerating pasta and rice was interesting, so I’ll be writing about resistant starch the rest of the week. If you have any questions that seem to be a little out there, send them to me and I’ll answer them next week. If you want to know, I guarantee others do as well.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Chapter 3: Cells, Tissues, And Organs: The Microscopic Components Of Plant Structure. J&P Learning.

Happy New Year!

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Another year has begun, filled with our hopes and dreams of what is possible. It’s a time of setting goals, developing a plan, and then working on seeing those dreams become reality. Most of you probably have a revamped healthier and fitter body on your list.

The question is: what does that mean to you? How do you define health? How do you define fitness? The answers could be different for everyone. That means that you may need a specialized plan to reach those goals.

For 2020, I’m designing the information and programs you need to do just that. As the month and year proceed, I’ll tell you how I’m going to help you achieve those goals. One thing for sure is this: it will all come down to how you answer one question.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Merry Christmas!

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From Paula, myself, and our extended family, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday! And I guarantee our Elf on the Shelf gets into more mischief than yours.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

MRSA at Home for the Holidays

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Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a threat to our health because the potential infections are severe and effective antibiotics to treat it are failing, yet it’s a strain of bacteria that exists just about everywhere, including in our homes. How can we limit exposure, and what can we do to prevent catching MRSA? That’s what a recent study attempted to discover.

A group of researchers recruited 150 healthy children who had been treated for a staph infection from 2012–2015 for a year-long study. All 692 people who lived in the house more than four nights per week were also recruited. That also included 154 dogs and cats. To establish a base line, cultures were collected from three anatomic sites of household members, two anatomic sites on dogs and cats, and 21 environmental surfaces to detect S. aureus. Interviews with household members were also done—no interviews with the dogs and cats. Data collection was repeated every quarter for 12 months.

The objective was to see how many new strains of S. aureus were introduced into the household and how many were transmitted between household members. Here’s what they found:

  • There were 510 introductions of novel strains into households.
  • There were 602 transmissions within households in a variety of ways.
  • Frequent hand washing reduced the likelihood that a new strain would be introduced.
  • Those who were exposed to S. aureus were mostly renters and those who shared bedrooms with strain-colonized housemates.
  • Transmission occurred more between household members who shared towels. I don’t think many people share bath towels, but hand towels are widely shared at home. Giving all family members their own hand towel could quickly become unwieldy in large families.
  • Finally, pets were most often the recipient of the transmission of bacteria, not the transmitters. (Who’s licking their dogs and cats?)

All kidding aside, this study illustrates how bacteria can be introduced into our environment and how it can be passed person to person or animal. It seems the best thing you can do to limit the spread of MRSA bacteria is to wash your hands regularly. With the holidays upon us, more people entering our homes, and more visits to family and friends, that seems to be the simplest solution to MRSA at home for the holidays.

Get yourself a gift of health this holiday season: the Optimal Performance program is on sale. Get prepared to have all the energy you need to achieve your goals in 2020. You can also shed that weight you’ve been wanting to lose. Order your copy today.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30570-5.

How Much Sleep? It May Be in Your Genes

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I know a young woman who goes to work at four in the morning; she has a job with flex time and likes getting out by noon so she has time to spend with her young children. Here’s the thing: she generally goes to bed between 11 p.m. and midnight. She needs only four to five hours of sleep. Her dad is the same way. Not tired, not dragging—that’s all they need. It seems it may be their genes that are responsible.

In a recent study, researchers identified a mutation in a gene called grams protein-coupled neuropeptide S receptor one (NPSR1), a mutation that’s associated with a naturally short sleep phenotype in humans. This mutation is rare, but it does exist. One of the purposes of this type of research is to see if there’s a drug that could stimulate or inhibit the target gene to help others get by with less sleep. That’s decades away, if it can be done at all without raising more problems.

For all the rest of us, we need as much sleep as we need. We may not be able to get it every night, but it’s part of a healthy lifestyle. Getting enough sleep is something we all should try to do to be healthier.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Sci Trans Med. 2019: DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aax2014.