5 Takeaways from Dr. Kleiner

I mean the type of presentation where the information is registering on multiple fronts? And you know that you will leave that presentation much more knowledgeable on the topic than an hour prior.

This is the case whenever I have the chance to see Dr. Susan Kleiner present. Not only is she in the know on all things related to nutrition she has the evidence at hand to show you the proof. And with all the elite and professional athletes she has worked with there is a ton of street cred to see the proof in the real world.

I few weeks ago we arranged a nutritional seminar for the AquaJets swim club with Dr. Kleiner. With clientele including the most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, these swimmers were keen to hear everything Dr. Kleiner had to say.

Below are a few of the sound bites from the presentation.

99% of the supplements on the market do not have 3rd party testing. In other words, these companies haven't sent samples of their product to an independent lab to ensure that what is on label is in the product and nothing else. You'll recognize 3rd party testing by the logos for Informed Choice, NSF or BSCG.

By the way, all supplements Okanagan Peak Performance Inc carries have NSF or BSCG labeling.

Sometimes on the ingredient label you'll see an ingredient listed as a 'Proprietary Blend'. And a rep for such a company may dismiss this as an attempt to prevent competitor supplement companies from ripping off their recipe.

Here's the thing though...

If a supplement company creates a new product in the lab that helps performance they can apply for a patent. And when issued this patent protects other supplement companies from copying and profiting off their creation.

More worrisome though is what a supplement company is hiding when they use the term 'proprietary blend'? Are there lessor quality ingredients included? i.e. whey protein concentrate v whey protein isolate. Or are there ingredients included that may induce an adverse health reaction? Or a positive drug test?

So the take home message is to stay clear of anything with proprietary blend in the label.

[caption id="attachment_5692" align="aligncenter" width="300"]                 Big salads = lots of fiber


Are you an athlete with a goal to increase your body mass? If so, you should  know that eating as a vegan or vegetarian will make this much, much harder if not impossible.

The reason for this is that vegan and vegetarian diets share a few things in common compared to the typical omnivore meal plan. And that is because fruits, vegetables, legumes, lentils, grains, cereals, pastas, nuts, and seeds are generally good sources of fiber.

Fiber is very filling. So much so that it makes getting in enough calories difficult. For example, you could eat a big spinach salad, a bowl or broccoli and a few apples. And while there's no question the meal would be high in nutrient density it wouldn't be high calorie.

Don't mistake this as advice to stop eating the foods listed above if your goal is to gain mass. Instead just be aware that it can be a lot harder than eating as an omnivore.

Are you confused about soy? If so, you're not alone. For a while soy was a popular protein option for vegans and vegetarians. But then we had to have the food police examining every soy product to determine if it was fermented or not. And then there was the idea floating around that soy may not be a good protein option for men. This was because soy contains phytoestrogens which were believed to  induce estrogen-like effects on men.

When eaten in normal doses (i.e. 5-10 grams/day)  soy can be a healthy and suitable protein option.

The last few years I'd heard more and more people talk about their macros. And what they mean is how much protein, carbs and fats they eat. This can sometimes be referred to as the percentages of each of these i.e. 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein and 30% fat.

We don't use percentages anymore when discussing a nutritional plan however. This is because the use of percentages was based on a typical 2000 cal/day diet. But there is a large portion of the population that don't fit perfectly to the 2000 cal/day model. And as you move further away from the model i.e. 2000 cal/day, there is more distortion in the percentages of the macronutrients.

For example, if we use the 40/30/30 split described above this means eating 30%  of calories as protein. On a 5000 cal/day diet this would be 1500 protein calories per day. With 4 calories per gram of protein this would mean ingesting 375 grams of protein per day. You would have to eat about a dozen steaks per day to achieve this much protein. Or for those that prefer a vegetable example this would be over 13 kg of broccoli per day! (remember how about we said it's hard to gain weight on a vegetarian/vegan diet?)

Want more of Dr. Kleiner's pearls of wisdom?

You're in luck as we recorded the call and will have this available soon for any that are interested.Shoot us an email or stop in to make sure you're on the list to receive the presentation.

Chris