UPDATE: DMAA and the FDA

Back in March I wrote a short piece about sports supplements that contain an amphetamine derivative called DMAA. DMAA is essentially a stimulant and has effects that mimic other popular stimulants such as ephedra and caffeine;  raises heart rates and blood pressure.  Psychiatric disorders, heart problems, nervous system disorders and death were all reported to the Food Drug Administration as possible adverse side effects. The FDA said they received about 90 of these types of cases.

 In response  the FDA sent out letters to 11 manufacturers of products that contain DMAA, warning them their products may be unsafe. Near the end of April 2013 the FDA announced that any products containing DMAA would be deemed unsafe and should not be sold. Several companies argued against this but ultimately lost and agreed to start to phase out production and sales of these products. The FDA does have the power to ban products from being sold the U.S. but in order to do that they have to undergo substantial testing. The FDA has not done that in this case but has sent warning letters to these manufacturers which was able to gain 'voluntary' compliance.

Both sides have experts that debate whether or not DMAA is safe and I'm not qualified to argue with either of them. Like I mentioned in the earlier post you know your body better than anyone else and should critically evaluate anything you put in your body.  That being said if you do like DMAA products now would be the time to scoop them up.

FDA UPDATE: http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/QADietarySupplements/ucm346576.htm

We have DMAA so buy us now!!!!!

   

Eating Out On Duty Series: Arby's

Arby's is another favorite often seen in substations. Arby's, like Subway, is one of those stealthy 'incognito' fast food restaurants where the food is real, but still you can still make very unhealthy choices at Arby's. 






We will use the same analysis as we did in the Runza review. We want to reduce calories, fat and sodium, keep a close eye on carbs and increase our protein consumption. If you are going to eat at Arby's chances are you are their for their roast beef. Good news is the Roast Beef Classic is one of the best options on the menu. Right now Arby's is offering a roast beef sandwich that has a King's Hawaiian bread as it's bun. If you don't like King's Hawaiian bread, you suck. But if you do then you know it makes a delicious sandwich. Unfortunately like all delicious menu items it is also one of the worst for you.  Not all roast beef sandwiches are created equal, let's compare it in the context of a meal.

King's Hawaiian Roast Beef: 550 calories, 21g fat, 1200mg sodium, 59g carbs, 31g protein.
Medium Curly Fries: 540 calories, 29g fat, 1200mg sodium, 62g carbs, 6g protein.
Medium Pepsi: 210 calories, 0g fat, 40mg sodium, 59g carbs, 0g protein
Meal total: 1300 calories, 50g fat,  2420mg sodium, 180g carbs, 37g protein

Roast Beef Classic: 350 calories, 12g fat, 950mg sodium, 39g carbs, 23g protein.
Jalapeno Bites: 280 calories, 16g fat, 600mg sodium, 31g carbs, 5g protein.
Medium Diet Pepsi: 0 calories, 0g fat, 25mg sodium, 0g carbs, 0g protein.
Meal Total:  630 calories, 28g fat, 1575mg sodium, 70g carbs, 28g protein.

What you'll be saving: 670 calories, 32g fat, 845mg sodium, 110g carbs, -9g protein.

Looking though Arby's nutritional information I was struck by a two things.  

1) Arby's food has a lot of sodium in it. Only a handful of items on the menu are below 1000mg, even the Chopped Chicken Salad comes in at 1000mg sodium. I tried to cut the sodium down more as 1575mg is a pretty high number but I had trouble finding items that weren't off the kid's menu.

2) Curly fries are surprisingly high in calories and fat.

 Large curly fries: 600 calories and 35g fat
 Medium curly fries: 540 calories and 29g fat
 Small curly fries: 400 calories and 22g fat 

 Because of this I substituted the jalapeno bites for the fries. Again typically a side salad would be the best option but people don't really want to eat salads all the time, and the whole point of this is to pick out foods that folks will eat.

Check out http://www.fastfoodnutrition.org/ for more info.



















National Police Week

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial
Day and the week surrounding the day as National Police week. This year's memorial week is Sunday May 12 to Saturday May 18. The purpose of this week is to honor all of the officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Here's a sobering stat: Every 56 hours a police officer dies in the line of duty.  Check out this blog to see photos from this year's events.

One of the cool things about CrossFit is they name some of their toughest workouts after specific military, police and fire personnel whom we lost. CrossFit has some great concepts but some of the moves can be difficult for beginners and you need some special equipment (I don't have any gymnastics rings lying around).  Building off that theme I suggest trying the following workout this week in honor of all our fallen brothers and sisters.

Warm up
No rest between exercises:

200m Sprint
10 Burpees
200m Sprint
20 Push-Ups
200m Sprint
30 Squats
200m Sprint
1 minute Plank

Repeat 3-5 times with 30 Sec in between sets.

Maybe we can name this one the 'Sotto' after this poor cop who got stuck in a tree rescuing a cat. (Yeah NYPD sent two cops to get a cat out of tree, kinda puts watering violations in perspective)

Lunch and Learn Summary

Last Thursday was the lunch and learn presentation by Dr. Matt Johnson from Bryan.  In case you missed it here are the highlights from what I got from the talk.

Essentially there are two types of risk factors; those you can control and those you can't.  For many people there is a genetic or family history of certain types of diseases and/or conditions.  This could include high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease etc.  If you are among the 'lucky' who do have a family history of said conditions then realize theres not a lot that you can do to change that and you have to be extra vigilant on the things you can control.  This can help explain why people who are physically active, eat good foods, not smoke or drink can have heart attacks.   Be sure to discuss your family history with your physician.

Since we have realized there are some things about our health we can't change, let's focus on what we can do to prevent heart disease.

1) Diet No surprise here. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid sugary foods.  Focus should be on lean meats like chicken, turkey and pork.  Dr. Johnson suggested the portion size of red meats be no larger then a deck of cards.  Dr. Johnson emphasized that our diets should be about long term lifestyle choices and not the quick fixes of fad diets.  Although he stopped short of recommending any commercial diet he did say the Mediterranean Diet has alot of healthy elements to it.

2) Exercise  Experts here recommend a 150 minutes week of exercise, which for all you math majors, is 30 minutes a day for 5 days.  This exercise needs to be cardiovascular challenging, we need to be getting our heart rates up.  People who do manual labor often think their work is a good substitute for 30 mins of cardio, it's not. Dr. Johnson grew up on a farm and discussed how he had to convince his dad that farm work doesn't give his heart the same benefit.

3) Healthy Weight  This one obviously flows from the first two.  People who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for developing heart disease. How do you know if you are overweight?  The most common tool is the Body Mass Index or BMI.  BMI is a forumla which determines what is a healthy weight for somebody based on their height and weight.  Determining your BMI is simple you can use this online calculator.  If you are BMI 'obese', like me, don't worry.  One of the limitations of BMI is that it does not differentiate between muscle and fat.  So you could have 5% bodyfat and be an Olympic swimmer, gymnast etc. and still be considered obese by BMI standards.

4) Smoking Tobacco use is also one of the most common risk factors for heart disease.  Not much analysis here. If you don't, don't start; if you do, stop.

Basically don't live like Da Superfans

"Dr. said I had a polish sausage stuck in the lining of my heart"