Power foods for men
By Oluwatoyin Oluwastoyin
Friday,
November 9, 2007
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Cheese
•Pix: Sun News Publishing |
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Five power foods for men were featured over a month ago,
with a promise to write on more power foods the
next week (sorry about the delay in concluding this story).
These power foods are from the latest book of David Zinczenko
and Ted Spiker tittled “The Abs Diet Ultimate Nutrition
Handbook: Your Reference Guide To Thousands Of Foods, And
How Each One Shapes Your Body.” The five power foods
treated before are almonds and other nuts; beans and other
legumes; spinach and other green vegetables; olive oil and
whole wheat bread and grains.
These have tremendous nutritional benefits for men. This week,
attention is going to be directed towards diary products,
instant oatmeal; eggs; turkey and other lean meats; and peanut
butter.
According to David Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men’s
Health and Ted Spiker, the more of these foods men eat, the
better their bodies would be able to increase
lean muscle mass and avoid storing fat.
These foods have been proven to do one or more of the following:
Build muscle Help promote weight loss.
Strengthen bone Lower blood pressure. Fight cancer Improve
immune function Fight heart disease. They advise that you
do not have to base entire meals and snacks around these foods
to reap their numerous health benefits. However, if you decide
to do so, it is okay. Whichever choice is made, you need to
observe the following guidelines:
Incorporate two or three of these foods into each of your
three major meals and at least one of them into each of your
three snacks.
- Diversify your food at every meal to get a
combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
- Make sure you sneak a little bit of protein into
each snack.
• Dairy Products
Fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese(wara),
cottage cheese.
Superpowers: Building strong bones, firing up weight loss.
Secret weapons: Calcium, vitamins A and B12,
riboflavin, phosphorus, potassium
Fight against: Osteoporosis, obesity, high blood
pressure, cancer
Sidekicks: None
Impostors (Negative Handling): Whole milk, frozen yogurt.
The authors advise you to just take a look at the
mounting evidence that calcium is a prime
belly-buster: A University of Tennessee study found that dieters
who consumed between 1,200 and 1,300 milligrams of calcium
a day lost nearly twice as much weight as those taking in
less calcium. Researchers think the mineral probably prevents
weight gain by increasing the breakdown of body fat and hampering
its formation. Low-fat yogurt, cheeses, and other dairy products
can play a key role in your diet. “But I recommend milk
as your major source of calcium.
Liquids take up lots of room in your stomach, so your brain
gets the signal that you are full, says David Zinczenko.
• Instant Oatmeal
Unsweetened, unflavoured.
Superpowers: Boosting energy and sex drive, reducing cholesterol,
maintaining blood-sugar levels.
Secret weapons:Complex carbohydrates and fibre
Fights against: Heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, obesity
Sidekicks: High-fibre cereals like All-Bran
Impostors: Sugary cereals
You can eat it at breakfast to propel you through
sluggish mornings, a couple of hours before a workout to feel
fully energized by the time you hit the weights, or at night
to avoid a late-night binge. “I recommend instant oatmeal
for its convenience. But I want you to buy the unsweetened,
unflavoured variety and use other power foods such as milk
and berries to enhance the taste,” says Zinczenko. This
is because preflavoured oatmeal often comes loaded with sugar
calories.
Oatmeal contains soluble fibre, meaning that it
attracts fluid and stays in the stomach longer than insoluble
fibre (like vegetables). Soluble fibre is thought to reduce
blood cholesterol by binding with digestive acids made from
cholesterol and sending them out of the body. When this happens,
the liver has to pull cholesterol from the blood to make more
digestive acids, and the bad cholesterol levels drop.
The authors say: “You need more fibre, both soluble
and insoluble. Doctors recommend we get between 25 and 35
grams of fibre per day, but most of us get half that. Fibre
is like a bouncer for your body, kicking out troublemakers
and showing them the door. It protects you from heart disease.
It also protects you from colon cancer by sweeping carcinogens
out of the intestines quickly.”
A Penn State study also showed that oatmeal sustains the blood
sugar levels longer than many other foods, which keeps the
insulin levels stable and ensures one would not be ravenous
for the few hours that follow.
This is good because spikes in the production of
insulin slow the metabolism and send a signal to the body
that it is time to start storing fat. Since
oatmeal breaks down slowly in the stomach, it does not cause
spikes in insulin levels as foods like bagels.
Include it in your breakfast. (A U.S. Navy study
showed that simply eating breakfast raised metabolismby 10
per cent.)
Another cool fact about oatmeal: Preliminary studies indicate
that oatmeal raises the levels of free testosterone in the
body, enhancing the body’s ability to build muscle,
burn fat and boost sex drive.
• Eggs
Superpowers: Building muscle, burning fat
Secret weapons: Protein, vitamins A and B12
Fight against: Obesity
Sidekicks: Egg Beaters, which have fewer calories than eggs
and no fat, but just as much of the core nutrients.
Impostors: None
For a long time, eggs were considered pure evil, and doctors
were more likely to recommend tossing eggs at passing cars
than throwing them into omelette pans.
That is because just two eggs contain enough cholesterol to
put you over your daily recommended
value. Though you can cut out some of that by removing part
of the yolk and using the white, more and more research shows
that eating an egg or two a day will not raise your cholesterol
levels. “In fact, we have learned that most blood cholesterol
is made by the body from dietary fat, not dietary cholesterol,”
say David Zinczenko and Ted Spiker.
That is why you should take advantage of eggs and their powerful
makeup of protein. The protein found in eggs has the highest
"biological value" of protein—a measure of
how well it supports the body's protein need—of any
food. In other words, the protein in eggs is more effective
at building muscle than protein from other sources like, even
milk and beef. Eggs also contain vitamin B12, which is necessary
for fat breakdown.
• Turkey and Other Lean Meats
Lean steak, chicken, fish.
Superpowers: Building muscle, improving the immune system
Secret weapons: Protein, iron, zinc, creatine (beef), omega-3
fatty acids (fish), vitamins B6 (chicken and fish) and B12,
phosphorus, potassium
Fight against: Obesity, mood disorders, memory loss, heart
disease.
Sidekicks:Shellfish, Canadian bacon, omega-3 rich flaxseed.
Impostors: Sausage, bacon, cured meats, ham, fatty cuts of
steak like T-bone and rib eye
A classic muscle-building nutrient, protein, is the base of
any solid diet plan. Turkey breast is one of the leanest meats
around, and it packs nearly
one-third of the daily requirements of niacin and vitamin
B6. Dark meat, if preferred, has lots of zinc and iron.
Beef is another classic muscle-building protein. It is the
top food source for creatine—the substance the body
uses when weights are lifted. Beef does have a downside; it
contains saturated fats, but some cuts have more than others.
To cut down on saturated fats even more, concentrate on fish
like tuna and salmon, because they contain a healthy dose
of omega-3 fatty acids as well as protein. Those fatty acids
lower levels of a hormone called leptin in the body. Several
recent studies suggest that leptin directly influences the
metabolism: The higher the leptin levels, the more readily
the body stores calories as fat. Researchers at the University
of Wisconsin, United States, found that mice with low leptin
levels have faster metabolisms and are able to burn fat faster
than animals with higher leptin levels. Mayo Clinic researchers
studying the diets of two African tribes found that the tribe
that ate fish frequently had leptin levels nearly five times
lower than the tribe that primarily ate vegetables.
A bonus benefit: Researchers in Stockholm found that men who
ate no fish had three times the risk of prostate cancer of
those who ate it regularly. It is the omega-3s that inhibit
prostate-cancer growth.
• Peanut Butter
All-natural, sugar-free.
Superpowers: Boosting testosterone, building muscle, burning
fat
Secret weapons: Protein, monounsaturated fat, vitamin E, niacin,
magnesium
Fights against: Obesity, muscle loss, wrinkles, cardiovascular
disease.
Sidekicks: Cashew and almond butters
Impostors (Negative Handling): Mass-produced sugary and trans
fatty peanut butters
Yes, PB has its disadvantages: It is high in calories, and
it does not go over well when you order it in four-star restaurants.
But it is packed with those heart-healthy monounsaturated
fats that can increase your body’s production of testosterone,
which can help your muscles grow and your fat melt. In one
18-month experiment, people who integrated peanut butter into
their diet maintained weight loss better than those on low-fat
plans. A recent study from the University of Illinois showed
that diners who had monounsaturated fats before a meal (in
this case, it was olive oil)
ate 25 per cent fewer calories during that meal than those
who did not.
Practically speaking, PB also works because it is a quick
and versatile snack and it tastes good. Since a diet that
includes an indulgence like peanut butter does not leave you
feeling deprived, it is easier to follow and would not make
you fall prey to other cravings. Use it on an apple, on the
go, or to add flavour to potentially bland smoothies. Two
caveats:
You can not gorge on it because of its fat content; limit
yourself to about three tablespoons per day. And you should
look for all-natural peanut butter, not the mass-produced
brands that have added sugar. |
