We just got back from a few days camping at the lake. And it was great to not set an alarm, to go boating, kayaking, swimming with the kids and to end each day around the campfire. And when we're camping we relax our nutritional choices a little bit to include a cold beer, a smore around the camp fire and other snacks during the day. When you're camping with a group you tend to do things by committee. One group will look after making the meals. Another may handle cleaning up and doing the dishes. When it was my turn in the kitchen I prepared meals with a definite omnivore influence. We made sure to include lots of fruits, vegetables and salads at each meal. But this was to accompany bacon and eggs, steaks, chicken tacos and turkey sandwiches. For a while there the was a real push back against including meat in the diet. We saw a number of people wanting to become 'game changers' and drop meat from their diets. Restaurants were dropping meat or at least adding meatless alternatives to their menus. And overall it seemed as though you had to whisper when you talked about having a steak for dinner on the weekend. Well, with everything in life it seems like when we learn something new we go overboard and over-react in the short term, and maybe under react in the long term. Eating more fruits and vegetables would be an appropriate reaction. Eliminating all meat in favour of processed meatless alternatives would be an over-reaction. A new study helps bring the pendulum back into balance. In this one researchers looked at the difference plant versus animal protein had on grip strength and functional status. Almost 1900 subjects were involved in this study which ran for...

When we young kids growing up our family hosted a young boy from Northern Ireland. Peter Casey was from Belfast and spent about 8 weeks one summer in Kelowna to get away from the turmoil back home. We spent that summer riding our bikes, going to the beach and doing all the things 8-10 year old boys do. And that included getting dragged by their moms to go cherry picking. One time when we were cherry picking, Peter thought it would be funny to throw cherries at my brother Jon and I. It didn't take much for us to get drawn into this fruit fight considering: A. There were two of us and only one of him B. We were in the habit of throwing from playing football and baseball. Peter was used to playing soccer and had a terrible arm. So the war was on. Since August in Kelowna can get very hot Peter soon ditched the tarp giving us this nice, pasty white target to aim at. We quickly realized if we bit half the cherry off a direct hit resulted in red circles all over Peter's body. Now while it's fun to reminisce about fun stories growing up we weren't the only ones cherry picking. If you've seen the 'documentary' Game Changers you'll know what I'm talking about. But in case you haven't here's a quick overview. A MMA competitor injuries himself and spends his recovery time researching the best ways to come back to his sport better than ever. What he discovers is that a plant-based diet is not only better for health but it also gives athletes an advantage as well. Those are a couple of the claims anyway. Having produced some great pieces of fictional content such as Avatar and Terminator I'm sure James Cameron...

Do you eat healthily? If so, what is it that you do that makes your diet healthy?For some people this could mean eating more fruits and vegetables. For others it could mean limiting processed foods, sugar, liquid calories or alcohol. Sometimes we can think of healthy eating as limiting snacking and low nutrition foods. Or it could be an effort to eat more protein,or breakfast. Maybe it's an effort to eat more protein at breakfast.This conversation could take on a number of different angles. And because it has to do with nutrition this can almost become a theology, or a religion, for some.Consider the follow:'I believe in intermittent fasting'or'I believe in eating low-fat'These statements don't reference the science or evidence from research. Instead nutritional lifestyles are based on a belief system which may or may not have the support of science.Recently meatless products have appeared on the menus of fast food establishments. This will obviously appeal to the vegan and vegetarian crowds. Plus there will be some omnivores that will be curious to try a Beyond Meat burger.My question would be why?These burgers are marketed on the basis that it is important to reduce our consumption of red meat. And for those that are looking to be healthier but still satisfy their craving for a burger they can have the best of both worlds. Less red meat and a healthier alternative.But is this the case?Because there are, at minimum, two separate issues here.A. The first is that eating less red meat is healthier for you. There may  be some truth to this but we'd need more details. Who is the individual we're talking about? How old are they? How active are they? What are their goals? How much red meat do they already eat? What else do they eat? What is...

Last weekend we held an end-of-season bike ride followed by a BBQ at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. At the BBQ there were burgers, ice cream and beer. This is typically the kinds of foods that fitness coaches tell their clients to avoid eating. And yet there we were serving it up to our clients. Was this some kind of trick? Do we not care about our clients results? Do we not believe these to be unhealthy foods? Why would we do such a thing? [caption id="attachment_5291" align="aligncenter" width="300"] When you're offered beer or ice cream in a gym. Well for a number of reasons. And the first being is that these are foods and drinks associated with fun times. And we want our clients to be able to relax and have some fun from time to time. The goal is never to go cold turkey with any of the indulgences we may enjoy. If someone loves chocolate we would never say 'you can't eat chocolate again' or worse 'you're a bad person if you do eat chocolate'. Instead the message should be to recognize where does chocolate fit into a healthy living plan? Maybe I won't eat it daily but instead will look to reduce my consumption and set it aside for special times. For example, maybe I'll watch a fun show on the weekend and have some chocolate while I do. We need to find the time and place for burgers, beers and ice cream. The other thing to remember is that these are low nutrition foods. It never ceases to amaze me to look at any 'health or whole foods' store flyer. You will always be to find offerings such as tofu burgers, soy ice cream and vegan cookies. Adding a trendy nutritional label doesn't make these higher in nutritional value....