Answers to clients' questions

 Separated nutrition in normal countries is an old past. It is one of the diets created after World War I, the basis of this diet is misleading interpretation that proteins, carbohydrates and fats cannot be eaten together. If they are eaten together (like most people of the world do), the products in the stomach will not be digested completely and will start to putrefy poisoning the organism. Therefore the advocates of the diet suggest eating proteins, carbohydrates separately, even at different times of a day. For example, it is suggested to eat proteins (poultry, fish, meat) during day, and in the evening to eat carbohydrates – potatoes, bread, vegetables, etc. The official dietetics does not approve of such a term as “coordination of food”. Food can perhaps be coordinated by taste only. In fact, when any food has been eaten, all types of ferments of digestion are released, food in stomach is remixed and the so-called chymus is obtained. Therefore, it does mot make any sense to separate foods, because if only carbohydrates (even complex ones) are eaten, the level of glucose quickly increases in the blood, and in response to this pancreas release a lot of insulin that negatively impacts the accumulation of fats very much. The level of sugar is increasing and decreasing in the blood, and this is very bad. The main aim of the right nutrition is exactly to maintain the level of sugar in blood as stable as possible as thus to avoid hunger attacks.

 In fact, there are no unmixed products in nature, like there are no straight lines. For example, such a perfect food as nuts contains carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The same situation is with all natural products. I emphasize – with natural ones, not with human-processed ones. Furthermore, in the organism nutrients are digested in different parts of the digestive tract, so nothing bad can happen to us. Even vice versa – athletes that live from the beauty of their bodies (representatives of bodybuilding, fitness) have long ago noticed that proteins eaten together with carbohydrates have synergetic effect, i.e., they supplement each other, as a consequence we satiate faster and having eaten less food. Therefore, when eating one should simply follow the principles of healthy nutrition and common sense, but not some diet.

 There are three main reasons why we plump out. First of all, it can be a disease that disturbs balance of hormones. Most often these are disorders of activity of pancreas or thyroid.

 Secondly, we plump out due to energetic imbalance. Simply speaking, we ingest more calories than we expend. And it does not matter whether we eat healthy, balanced food or not. If we eat much of it, the excess of it will be converted into body fat on our stomachs or thighs. By the way, it is the main, most frequent cause of plumping out.

 The third reason we grow fatter is our family. Heredity, so to speak genes. As a rule the maximum genetic dependence is observed between a mother and a daughter. Slightly lower dependence is seen between a mother and a son and the lowest dependence is observed between a father and his children. Also important are family’s eating traditions – how the child was fed since his infancy. If he was constantly being forced to eat something “for father, for mother”, etc. all day long, then when maturing and even when being an adult he will eat too much. Simply because of the habit. It is very likely that the behaviour of his descendants will be similar.

 The highest number of calories is found in goose fat (980kcal. per 100g.). The lowest number of calories is detected in boiled aubergines (12kcal. per 100g.).

 Calculation of calories is generally not complicated, but a little wily thing. It is very easy to be mislead when reading labels on products and evaluating their nutritive value. For the sake of clarity let us analyze such an example. Say, at a shop we have bought cheese, the label of which tells that 100g of the product contains 30g of proteins, 30g of carbohydrates and 30g of fats (water comprises the remaining 10g). At first sight everything might look clear for everyone: one third of proteins, one third of carbohydrates, and one third of fats. Water has no calories. But in fact this cheese is very fatty and calories from fat will definitely comprise more than half of all calories of the product. Let us calculate. As we know, 1g. of carbohydrates has 4kcal., 1g. of proteins has 4kcal. as well, and 1g. of fats has 9kcal. Therefore, let us multiply the numbers:

 30g. of carbohydrates x 4 = 120kcal.;

 30g. of proteins x 4 = 120kcal.;

 30g. of fats x 9 = 270kcal.

 Calorific content of products of some companies may be indicated on the packages in joules. Therefore in order to find out the calories, joules should be multiplied by a coefficient of 4.1. For the sake of general information I will remind that 1g. of alcohol has 7kcal. As we see from this example, more than half of the calories (even 53% of the product) are calories from fat. It is evident that it is a very fatty cheese that should not be eaten every day. I remind that your nutrition should be adjusted so that 55-60% of calories would come from carbohydrates, 25-30% from proteins, and 15-20% from fats. This percentage has, of course, to be modified depending on the aims. This is the reason why you should not be lazy to read the product label when buying food.

 This is a food-supplement products line that is widely used in dietary nutrition of sportsmen or people who simply observe principles of healthy nutrition. These are food supplements in a form of powder that are mixed with liquid (semi-skimmed milk, juices or water) before consumption. Meal replacements can also come in a form of sweets. They contain virtually all food macro - and microelements and ballast substances that are known to science. Furthermore, meal replacements, in contrast to, for example, meat, contain no purines (these are substances inducing decay). Most products are very tasty, full of ferments that stimulate digestion, and, of course, low-fat. One serving of such a mixture fully replace (considering composition), say, dinner at a café. In addition, it will contain much less calories, which is good news for those who want to get rid of some unnecessary kilograms of weight. Unfortunately, if you have chosen chocolates (sweets), they will contain preservatives. Efficiency of meal replacements is strongly felt after starting exercising. They give a feeling of satiety and ensure the provision of organism with the most necessary nutrients; they also pretty well protect the dry muscular tissue during losing weight, are relatively cheap and easy to prepare. However, it should not be forgotten that they only supplement your food ration, but cannot replace food completely. For this reason they should actually be used to replace only every second or third meal of the day, for example, they can be used instead of breakfast, one hour before workout, or taken on trips.

 It is not difficult to presuppose why hens’ eggs are assessed so controversially. This is because one yolk of an egg contains approximately 200mg of cholesterol. This is almost the ration of one day. As we all know very well, the “bad” cholesterol is excess low-density cholesterol that in form of slices settles on internal walls of our blood vessels thus clogging them. Several years ago eggs were still in the “black list” of food products. However, in 2003 Americans (specifically, the American Heart Association) have carried out in-depth research and prepared recommendations on this issue. In their still unchanged opinion, if your cholesterol level is normal, you may eat eggs without too much restraint. Simply you must control the total level of cholesterol received collectively from all other products (for example, when eating animals’ internal organs (liver, etc.)), not only from eggs. For the sake of fairness it should be noted that for our organism cholesterol is necessary: from it various hormones are produced, it is used in producing walls of cells and for various other similar useful purposes. We should remember that about 80% of cholesterol of organism is produced by liver and only 20% we get with food. But for a sportsperson or a person who simply follows the principles of a healthy lifestyle eggs are one of the best sources of natural proteins. Albumen of an egg is a true repository of amino acids, including the most important ones – amino acids with branchy side chains: leucine, valine and isoleucine. Furthermore, all amino acids in albumen of an egg are balanced in the most appropriate proportions. Albumen of an egg is so ideal that nutrition specialists have accepted it as the so-called “golden standard” in evaluation of other products. Its biological value is very high. Biological value is the measurement of quality of protein product, which shows how effectively the organism uses it for growth. If we were to evaluate proteins in 100-point system, the value of albumen of an egg would be 93.7. Meanwhile the value of milk is 84.5, of meat – 74.3, of rice – 64. It means that the albumen of an egg is absorbed by organism by almost 100%. Furthermore, it is the cleanest and the most natural protein found in nature. Some like to eat raw eggs, but in fact this is not a good choice, because raw eggs are poorly absorbed, because not enough biotin is obtained. It is not absorbed because it is in combination with avidin. When boiling, frying eggs, this connection breaks and then biotin is easily absorbed by an organism. Moreover, when eating raw eggs there is a risk to get salmonella poisoning. Medical statistics reveal that there is one egg infected with salmonella virus among 10000 healthy eggs. Therefore, all eggs should be treated as if they were infected – everything that came into contact with eggs must be washed with hot water. In the USA alone, salmonella poisoning becomes a cause of death for 5000 people every year. Surely, eggs are a very good article of food, but caution is necessary.

Nutritional value of an egg

If women, girls start attending fitness or wellness workouts, “big muscles” will not grow, because females have at least 20 times lower level of male hormones that are directly responsible for growth of muscle mass. In women, female hormones (estrogens) dominate, these do not increase muscle mass. Furthermore, the trainers prepare such exercising programs for females that during workout the exercises are done with relatively light weights, more repetitions are done, and the programs contain more aerobic exercises. This positively influences the muscle shape, increases muscle volume mass – that is, density of muscle increases, but size does not. This also increase endurance – that is, strengthens heart. Moreover, aerobic exercises burn fats. Exercising in such mode, it is practically impossible and unnecessary to grow muscles, therefore you can go and use sports machines with no fears.

 Muscles cannot turn into fats and vice versa, because muscles consist of muscle cells, and fats consist of fat cells, and normally cells of one tissue cannot transform into cells of another tissue. When we stop exercising, muscles simply shrink, because their cells can no longer contain so much water that is so necessary to the organism (the more water a muscle cell contains, the faster the metabolism is, the faster the toxins are removed from the body, which is good) and the total mass of muscles decreases. Meanwhile fat cells, in contrast, start increasing in size in the absence of physical load and in the presence of unbalanced nutrition. A fat cell can increase in size many times. When you actively exercise, fat cells silently rest on hips and waist shrinking more and more, but at the same time as if waiting when you will relax and start eating wrongly. And then they act like dried raisins put into water: they amazingly quickly swell out and balloon, and so amount of fat increases. Therefore for those who do not know these things very well it seems that muscles turned into fat. Surely, it is a wrong assessment of the situation. Actually, it is enough to resume exercising and eating right, and the fat cells shrink again, however, they do not disappear.

 If you wish to find out how many calories you need per day, then firstly you should calculate the so-called basic level of metabolism (BLM). The basic level of metabolism indicates how many calories body uses per day (in 24 hours) being in the quiescent mode and fully maintaining all vital functions of an organism. Usually this comprises 60-70% of all calories used by an organism in 24 hours. The simplest calculation is this:

 BLM is one calorie for one kilogram of body per hour for males and 0.9cal for women and girls.

 For example, for a man who weighs 90kg the BLM is calculated as follows: 90 x 1 = 90 x 24 = 2160 kcal, but for a girl who weighs 60kg the BLM would be such: 60 x 0.9 = 54 x 24 = 1296 kcal. But surely our organism needs additional amount of energy, because almost always we are doing something. And if that would be mental activity, work involving sitting or low physical activeness, then your BLM should be multiplied by a coefficient of 1.4. If during the day you move a little (I do not mean going from bed to fridge), or work is done standing, then BLM should be multiplied by a coefficient of 1.6. But if you do a really hard physical work or seriously exercise, then BLM should be multiplied by 1.8.

 To find out the percentage of your body fat, you simply have to measure this percentage. Nowadays it is rather easy to do that: you only have to step on special purpose scales, these are called body analyzers and can be purchased at most drugstores. The answer is obtained almost immediately, however, it is not very accurate. Another advice would be to visit the nearest sports club. To do that very accurately, one should contact a scientific laboratory. For purposes of general information, I will briefly review the most popular methods for measuring body fat.

-Underwater weighing. This used to be one of the most accurate methods for measuring body fat. At first, body is weighed under water, then on the ground. Data of the measurements are compared and then percentage of fat is calculated. But in practice this method is no longer used. It was replaced by another, more modern method: dual energy X-ray absorptiometry.
-Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. It is a very accurate and modern method for measuring fat. Entire body X-rayed using low intensity roentgen rays and the computer calculates the percentage of not only fat, but also of muscles, bones and liquids.
-Ultrasound method. When measuring by using this method, the time it takes for ultrasound to pass through the body is counted. It can tell the thickness of fatty layer at different areas in body.
-Bioelectric resistance method. Here the amount of water in organism is measured, and thus body density is determined. Then with reference to this indicator the percentage of fat is calculated.
-Skin wrinkle pinch method. The measurement is carried out by a special device – calliper (also known as AccuMeter). Thickness of fatty wrinkle is measured at certain areas of body. Afterwards by using a table is calculated the percentage of body fat. This method is not very accurate, but due to its simplicity it is widely used in practice. Visit our club and in several minutes we will measure the percentage of fat in your body by using at least two methods.