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Nourishing Perspectives Nutrition Blog

Coffee Drinking: A Convincing Argument

Researchers at the University of Queensland have released results of a study that showed that drinking coffee can make us more open to the ideas of others and more easily persuaded to see another’s point of view.

But apparently this only applies if a convincing argument is made to support the ideas being put forth. This is thought to be related to the ability of caffeine to enhance cognitive skills and attention.

Researchers compared the results of those consuming a caffeine drink to those consuming a placebo and discovered that the individuals who consumed caffeine were much more likely to change their point of view when presented with a logical argument, however the individuals who were identified as being more distracted were less likely to change their point of view.

The authors of the study stated that an improved cognitive function rather than simply the enhancement of mood is the basis behind why those who consumed caffeine were able to be more easily persuaded because this only occurred when the volunteers were able to concentrate fully and absorb the convincing argument.

You may want to rethink that cup of coffee (or three) at your next business meeting!

Great Tasting Coffee Substitutes

Journal reference: European Journal of Social Psychology(DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.347)

How to Repair a Damaged Metabolism

How To Repair A Damaged Metabolism

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS www.burnthefat.com

If you’ve caused metabolic damage as a result of following starvation diets or losing weight too rapidly in the past, it can be extremely difficult to achieve any further fat loss at all. The good news is, metabolic damage can be repaired. All it takes is the right combination of metabolism stimulating exercise and metabolism stimulating nutrition (NOT just a diet), all done consistently over time.

The big irony is that most of the diet programs that claim to help you get rid of excess weight, only end up making it harder for you in the long run because they use harsh metabolism-decreasing diets and not enough exercise (almost never any weight training).

 It may take a little longer if you have really messed things up with severe starvation dieting in the past, especially if you’ve lost a lot of lean body mass, but it is never hopeless. Anyone can increase their metabolism.

Most people get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate when they start the Burn The Fat program. However, the results are not going to be “overnight.” Give it a little time…

Within 3 weeks your metabolism will already be more efficient. Within 6-8 weeks, it’s burning hot. Give me 12 weeks of consistent diligent effort, sticking with all the metabolism boosting strategies I teach, and your metabolism really will become like a turbo charged engine, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that.

What’s most important for upping your metabolism is CONSISTENCY in applying the Burn The Fat nutrition and training principles every single day.

That includes:

Meal frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day

Meal timing: eat approximately every 3 hours, with a substantial breakfast and a substantial post workout meal.

Sufficient Caloric Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women; adjust as needed)

Food choices: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs)

Cardio training: Push up the intensity a bit if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity is more metabolism-stimulating

Weight training: The basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups or even call into play the entire body as a unit (squats, front squats, split squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, overhead presses, all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises) will have a much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises (concentration curls, calf raises, etc)

The weight training is extremely important in cases of “metabolic damage” because this is the stimulus to keep the muscle you have and begin rebuilding new muscle tissue, which is the engine that drives your metabolism.

The men don’t usually have a problem with the weight training, but I still hear women say they don’t want to lift weights as part of their fat loss programs. Well, people who wont lift weights can expect a very, very long metabolism “repair process” if they achieve it at all.

Consistency is the key.

Nothing will undermine the “re-building” of your metabolism like inconsistency. If you stop and start, or skip meals and workouts often, you will not even get off the ground.

After your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes continued “stoking” of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. Once you get your metabolic engine running, you’ve got to keep feeding it fuel or the fire will die down.

Picture an old fashioned wood burning stove…

Imagine you’re in a cabin up in the mountains in the winter. It’s cold in there and you want to keep the cabin warm. Can you achieve this by feeding the fire once or twice per day? Nope. Not enough fuel to burn, so not much heat is generated.

What if you just toss an entire pile of wood in the stove all at once? Will that work? Nope. Lots of fuel, but can’t all be used at once… it just smothers the fire and the excess just sits there.

How about if you throw some tissue paper or crumpled newspaper in the stove, will that work? Nope – too quickly burning.

You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out.

It’s also difficult to get the fire lit again. In the case of metabolism, it’s like going through that initial few weeks of overcoming inertia all over again.

Your goal is to get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning and this cannot be achieved by missing meals, missing workouts or with sporadic, infrequent training.

I have only seen a handful of cases where all these things were done properly and there was still a longer “repair” process.

For example, one case was former ballet dancer. At 5′ 5″, she was previously 110 lbs and had increased to about 145 or so. She didn’t want to reach her previous 110, but find a happy medium of about 125 lbs.

I figured with 20 lbs to cut, this would be a simple and predictable process, but she had a challenging time (and I didn’t know why at first).

I later found out that she had been anorexic and bulimic for many years. This had caused a lot of damage, and although she did reach her goal, it took about twice as long as we had anticipated.

The good news is, even in this extreme case, the same nutrition and training principles worked! It just took a little longer. And by the way her program included some serious training with free weights and she ate a lot more (clean) food than she had ever eaten before. No “starvation!”

That’s the power of burning the fat and feeding the muscles… Trying to starve the fat with crash diets is what causes the metabolic damage in the first place!

If you’re interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the truth – you have to work at it and you have to be patient.

About the Author: Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to burn fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Nourishing the Body and Spirit

As long as I remember I have had an intense passion for good food. Of course my idea of ‘good’ has changed a great deal over the years in comparison to my awareness but one thing that has remained the same is an appreciation of simple foods prepared with pure intentions.

When I was a child I had a fondness for honey sandwiches which I always had in the garden on a cool sunny afternoon, in solitude, with only ladybugs and other garden creatures for company. I remember the intense sweetness of honey combined with the smooth rich texture of butter between slices of chewy grainy bread. But there was something so special about those sandwiches that went beyond my appreciation of the harmonious combination of their components. It was a time for refueling and of quietude; of connecting with and communing with the world around me. I was nourishing my body but I was also being nourished on other, more subtle levels.Throughout my teenage years I began to use food as a replacement for nourishment in other areas of my life. I did not know how to cope with the newly emerging emotional vulnerabilities and insecurities and food was a way by which I attempted to provide myself with the nourishment that I lacking and was unable to ask for. This continued throughout my twenties as a way to cope with the stresses and demands of adulthood and the challenges that I was faced with during the unfolding of my life.
During this time I developed a strong interest in the potential use of food and diet as a means of healing illness and preventing the development of disease. Looking back I can see that much of this was related to my need to be free of the addictive hold that food had gained over my life. I sensed on some level that a healthful dietary approach was the key to freedom from the heavy constraints that had limited my emotional and spiritual development for many years.I soaked up all the information I could find about health foods and different dietary approaches, however I was particularly drawn to the idea of detoxification and cleansing therapies. I experimented with a variety of approaches and found some short term clarity and enhanced wellbeing, however invariably the pendulum would swing back and I returned to the routines with which I was all too familiar.

It took many years and many failed attempts before I was able to reconcile my emotional and spiritual needs with the demands of a metabolism imbalanced through many years of inappropriate diet.

Now I have come to a point in my life where balance is the main focus. While I still do occasionally use fasting and detoxification diets, it is now as a way by which to support health, enhance awareness, and as an expression of my discipline and inner strength. I am no longer seeking extreme methods as a counterbalance a disrupted emotional state. I appreciate healthy food not only because it is good for my body but also because it nurtures me on other levels as well.

Food nourishes our body and spirit. Pure foods prepared with pure intentions translate into a heightened sense of spirituality; a deeper connection to our environment; a calm emotional state that helps us to see things more clearly.

I believe that a major aspect of health and nourishment is the enjoyment of food and there is no need to deny ourselves one of the simplest of all of life’s pleasures. On the contrary, in order to gain a truly healthy and balanced perspective we must embrace the intimate connection with our food that bridges the gap between the physical and spiritual aspects of our being.