Fat burning process

Hi everybody, this is my first June post!
    Since summer is starting soon, I'm willing to bet that most people researching food and diet posts and publications are mostly interested into weight management issue. So my first June post is going to be about fat burning process.
    First let me break some good news - you burn fat everyday. That's right, fat is body's secondary fuel resource. After there's no more available carbohydrate inside it, your body will utilize fat stored under your skin (subcutaneous fat) and bolster your activities and capabilities. However, this doesn't mean that you will lose fat everyday. While you will continue to burn fat as long as you do any physical ability, you also consume fat throughout the day by eating food. Also it's worth stressing that your total body weight depends not only on fat, but also on carbohydrate and water. But fat has two times more energy value than other macronutrients and that's why it's more "stubborn" and noticeable. Most of the adipose (fat) tissue is concentrated in your belly region, as well as your thigh region. The reason for this is that evolutionary development of our ancestors led to our bodies adapting to the dangerous of the world by securing are vital organs (heart, liver, kidneys, reproductive organs) with as much protection as it can. But in this article, I will only cover the fat burning process.
    Fat burning process consists of lipid oxidation, process in which lipids get degraded through oxidation. This is of little importance on a macro-scale, but it helps scientists research this field. Speaking of researches, let's start listing them. First of all we have a 2004. research showing that resistant starch has been found to have fat burning effect.

[...]replacement of 5.4% of total dietary carbohydrate with RS significantly increased post-prandial lipid oxidation and therefore could decrease fat accumulation in the long-term.

Food that contains resistant starch includes navy beans, banana, corn, lentils, cold pasta. Resistant starch is divided into four categories - RS1 to RS4 but it needn't concern you, it's still resistant starch and has the fat burning properties listed above.
    Another study on voluntary overweight women, published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concludes:

The addition of exercise is seen to enhance weight and fat loss, to prevent a fall in resting metabolic rate, and to improve fitness indices. The benefits accrued by the addition of exercise have applicability in weight maintenance, the most difficult aspect of obesity control.

This shows that portion control is the main contributor to your weight loss.
    While the last mentioned research didn't conclusively prove that aerobic exercises have beneficial effect on the fat loss process, the following researches additionally research it - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17637702, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19196080, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18845966.
    I did mention a lot of things and probably used "most important" phrase more than once. However, when you decide you'd want to lose weight, or explicitly fat, the most important, and actually the only important thing is your determination. If you're determine to do it, you'll do your own research on the internet and experiment with various nutrition plans, but if you can't handle and neglect your cravings, you'll not succeed. This is only the premise of the complex process of losing weight, but I hope this would be enough to intrigue you and send you on your way to published researches.
    Eat well and stay healthy!

Trans fat or trash fat?

This article will introduce you to the (bad) effects that trans fatty acids have on our health. I'll also try to focus on food products you should avoid, rather than what is the proper diet for average person, in the next few articles.
First, let's introduce our target. Trans fat or trans fatty acid got their name from their molecular structure which features trans-isomer (E-isomer). They are largely present in modern societies' food products, such as fast food, quick snacks, bakeries. Manufacturers include trans fat in their products because it enables them to sustain their form (implicitly expiration date) for longer period of time, which enables vendors to make more sales from a single shipment, which in return generates bigger profit. They are also present in refined sweets, candies, ice creams, puddings.
Now let's list the effects of TFA on our health. First of all, we have this research, from Harvard School of Public Health, which explains that trans fatty acid consumption can increase the risk of coronary heart disease, saying:

Trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils have clear adverse effects and should be eliminated.

Additionally, a recent research from Feb 27. 2012. reveals even more dramatic statements. Here's a quote from its text:

[...]in recent years a large number of epidemiological and clinical evidence has indicated that trans fats are a significant risk factor to suffer a cardiovascular event and appear to be involved in the process of inflammation, diabetes and cancer. The increase of 2% of the daily energy by TFA is associated with a 23% increase cardiovascular risk.

Another research (from July 2010) supports the previous statement linking TFA with increased cardiovascular disease risk. It says:

Trans fats increase low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and decrease high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, thus increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

In a 5-year long study, it's been established that higher dTFA (dietary trans fatty acids) consumption is associated with increased aggression¹.
There's more than substantial amount of evidence that trans fatty acids should be avoided. On the other hand this research can teach you how to decrease the risk of atherosclerosis (cardiovascular-type disease) in case you are concerned about it, regardless of your previous trans fat consumption.

Website development

Just wanted to brief you on the progress of my website. Currently, I have the following topics covered - macronutrients, carbs, fats (features Rani's Truth about saturated fats article), proteins, diets in general, smart choices diet, fad diets reviews, fat loss. I'd like to cover popular food products and their place in nutrition, as well as their impact on consumer's health before I launch my website. Thanks for your support and I look forward to your feedback on articles I wrote.

Smart substitiutions

Since I don't have a lot of time, and I would like to keep this blog active, I decided to introduce you, or at least those who aren't already familiar with it, with the smart substitutions diet. This type of nutrition bears many similar names - smart choices, smart substitutions, better choices... And what's connecting all these words is the decision to pick your meals. The basics of this nutritional plan is to improve your current diet rather than implementing an entire new meal schedule, and discarding everything you've done, and probably got used to so far. As the saying goes "There's always room for improvement". And the good thing about this diet is that it's totally subjective, you decide what will you change and to what degree.
Now I'll try to illustrate this "technique" by using the most common example. All people get sugar cravings from time to time. A lot of them consume a piece of milk chocolate or sugar-rich candy. The problem with this type of nutrition is that this causes your blood sugar level to increase which as a result causes insulin spike in order to reduce your sugar level back to normal. As a byproduct of this process your insulin will be deployed into your fat tissue cells in order to leave your blood vessels. I would like to elaborate this process, but it's not the topic of this post. Now the smart substitutions diet suggest that you change your candy of choice to something that causes less or no blood sugar level fluctuations and also have better impact on your health in general. Basic examples are fruits or dark chocolate (a chocolate that's >70% cocoa mass). Fruits are vitamin-rich and fructose (a.k.a. grape sugar) is digested easier than glucose. Cocoa on the other hand contains healthy unsaturated fats and antioxidants which help fight off free radicals (the inevitable by-product of our body processes).
Hopefully, this example helps you understand the goal of this nutritional plan. I'll write once again: the basic idea of this diet is to substitute your current meals with the ones that generally have better impact on your health. Every change for the better counts, and is important, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem (changing from soda to fruit juices or water is great for start).
For external resources, I suggest reading this article
If you're interested in learning more about insulin spike and insulin index for common food sources check this link Cheers, and thank you for reading.

Hydration

The first think I'd like to talk about with you is hydration. The easiest and the most important thing you can do for your health is to make sure you're properly hydrated. Water is the main component of our body. It makes more than 1/2 of human body weight. It has many different everyday functions, so I'll list only the ones frequently relied upon - removing waste from you body, keeping the body temperature at stable level, maintaining cell membrane form, lubricating joints.
Now, if you're dehydrated, your body has to waste additional resources and time to fight off bacterias you digested through food and/or other ways of interacting with your environment. The body temperature isn't so easily stirred up, but when it is, that can be fatal. Cell membrane is also vital for survival because without it, content (including detrimental bacterias, viruses etc.) from one cell could move and spread freely throughout the entire body. I think each of us experienced some muscle and/or joint injury (soreness), so there's no need to explain that part.
Now a bit about how much water do you need to stay hydrated. The basic rule of a thumb is 1l/25kg of bodyweight per day or 1l/50lbs of bodyweight per day. Regardless of the rules, a good way to follow your hydration is to pay attention to the color of your urine when you go to the bathroom. The lighter it is, the more hydrated you are, which is always a good sign. If you notice your urine is more yellow than water-color, make sure you take an additional glass of water every 1/2 hour.
From my personal experience I notice considerable difference between doing the same activity with different levels of hydration. And one of the top examples is when I was preparing for marathon earlier 2012. and ultimately when I ran for Belgrade's 25th Annual Marathon, which was 22.04.2012. I remember taking my usual route one night, it was pretty late and I was at home less than usual that day so I didn't have enough time to prepare my meals or take care of my hydration properly. It was not only harder than usual, but it felt harder than doing shorter tracks in the past. And next day, when I was fully hydrated and properly prepared for my cardio routine, not only was it easier for me to complete it, but after running for an hour I immediately went to parallel bar to do dips for my chest.
Now for the external resources, go here for list of researches on hydration. This link will allow you to use a tool which will help you find out how much water you need to take on a daily basis by answering a few simple questions. You can also find medical guidelines for maintaining your hydration at optimal levels.
Although this post alone isn't even a fragment of the entire story about the water, my goal is to inspire you to personally investigate water and all its relevant studies. Make sure you check out studies about different sources of water, pollution, hydration's connection to detox. And something you might find exceptionally amusing, and likely educating is an 80-minute long Russian documentary entitled Water, the great mystery. A group of Russian scientists present a hypothesis that molecules of water have some kind of memory, and they react accordingly to their environment and chemical reactions that surround them.
The bottom line is Aqua Viva, that's Latin for "Living water". Water literally gives life to almost every living being on this planet. And up till know, at least to my knowledge, no drawbacks or side effects on human health have been connected with water, with the exception of polluted water sources. So, you can't go wrong with drinking lots and lots of water. Good luck, and enjoy your day and life! Nitro

Launch

Nitro's nutrition blog has been launched on 07.05.2012. This blog, along with upcoming website will contain educational posts about healthy nutrition and lifestyle.