There are certain things we understand to be beneficial to our health. Getting enough quality sleep, getting enough exercise and eating the right amounts of healthy food are generally understood to be the foundation of healthy living. And on the first two areas there is a general consensus as to how much sleep is necessary as well as the benefits conferred by the different types of exercise options. But when it comes to nutrition there still exists some beliefs which don't have support in the primary literature. For example, there are still a number of people that maintain the position that saturated fat is bad and must be eliminated from the diet. These same people will then eliminate foods that contain this fat in an attempt to be healthier. I don't eat red meat anymore.I have egg whites for breakfast.I eat only low-fat dairy.Do these statements sound familiar? When we do a consult and assessment with a new client we go over the nutritional habits of the clients as this will play a huge role towards realizing their results. And many of them give the answers above to demonstrate the efforts they are making towards healthier living. While it's not a new position for us to recommend our clients eat a balanced diet including all three types of fat I was still out to learn more. And so I recently attended a seminar at Kelowna General Hospital on Fats by Dr. Sanjoy Ghosh from UBC-O. Dr. Ghosh presented some interesting notes during his 75 minute presentation. Some were common sense such as the fact we have increased our portion sizes dramatically over the last few generations. And some foods in particular have seen huge increases such as our consumption of soybean oil which in the 1950s was 0.02 lbs per person...

Do you like upgrades? Stupid question, right? I mean who doesn't like going from the a regular room to a suite. Or from a full size to a BMW. Or from coach to first class. Yeah, upgrades rock. Well the other day I was talking about nutrition with the some of the hockey players we work with and I was asking how much cold water fish they eat? I ask this because it's usually a good indicator of how much omega-3 they get in their diet. If they answer rarely or maybe once a week then I'll ask if they take an omega-3 supplement to ensure they are getting enough of this fatty acid found in grass-fed beef, fish, seeds (flax, hemp, chia) and nuts (walnuts) among other foods. One of the reasons omega-3 is so important is that it is an essential fatty acid which our body can't produce. And so we can only get it from the foods we eat. And while omega-3s are important for a number of reasons related to inflammation, anti-oxidation and indirectly to weight loss they are in short supply for most North Americans based on our nutritional habits. On the other hand there are omega-6s which are also essential but which get more than enough in our diets. What kinds of foods contain omega-6? These are contained in oils such as corn, safflower and sunflower and exert the opposable effect to omega-3s. So think inflammatory as opposed to anti-inflammatory. So while taking regular omega-3 supplementation is a great idea there is a better option. And while this better option, or upgrade, isn't anything new it only took a discussion with one of the hockey players to realize this would have benefit for many of our other clients as well. The issue this hockey player...

Often times the seasons dictate what we do for exercise. When it is nice outside people tend to move their workouts outdoors and take advantage of the warmer weather. Around here you see more people boating, golfing, biking and doing triathlons.But when the weather gets cold we move indoors and get in more of our gym-based workouts. I'm not saying that's the way it should be, only that's what many around here tend to do.Even though we may move indoors for a lifting workout there are still somethings we can do outdoors and can actually only be done outdoors in the winter. Consider the outdoor skating rink downtown. Or going up to the ski hill. Going snowshoeing, tabogoning or even just going for a run and you can see that cold weather doesn't have to mean all activity stops.If you're going to do some exercise this winter make sure to check out the following video where I give you a number of tips for going outdoors this winter for some activity. Now there was one more tip I didn't cover in the video that I want to share with you. And this has to do with supplementation. If you're in the habit of taking omega-3 (which I think is a great thing by the way) you don't want to jump up your dosage too much during the winter months. Especially if you plan on going up to the hill. Here's why.You see omega-3 has blood thinning properties which is part of the reason it is effective in lowering blood pressure in some. In the winter however the relative humidity is much lower than in the summer.Basically warm air holds more water than cold air. So in the winter our tissues lose water to the environment as we have a higher humidity than the...