Carrot A Day To Lose Fat And Prevent Cancer

Eat One a Day to Lose Fat and Prevent Cancer

Make your body more resistant to gaining fat. Bonus: The same inexpensive food helps you fight off two forms of cancer.



A while back, I wrote about a really exciting meta-analysis (where scientists combine the results from multiple studies) that showed how eating just a carrot a day could reduce a man's chances of developing prostate cancer by 50%.

The paper found that the more often men ate carrots and the greater the amount of carrots eaten, the less likely they were to develop prostate cancer. They even gave some concrete numbers: For every 10 grams of carrots consumed each day, men reduced their risk of developing prostate cancer by 5%.

That meant that eating just 50 grams of carrot a day – which you can easily get by eating a single average-sized carrot – would offer you some significant protection against one of the most frightening of male maladies, cutting the incidence in half.

But maybe that wasn't enough to make you start gnoshing on carrots. Maybe you need to be hit on the head not only once, but two or three times.

Fine, because science has since been hard at work on several other promising studies on carrots, including one on how they might help people lose fat and put on muscle.

Is It a Carrot or a Long, Orange, Physique Stick?

When that study on carrots and prostate cancer came out, the researchers thought that the root vegetable's beneficial effects had something to do with the large amount of carotenoids they contain.

While that may still be true, scientists are now instead focusing on two fatty alcohols that are found in high concentrations in carrots and other root vegetables. These fatty alcohols are named falcarinol and falcarindiol and Danish scientists found that each of these fatty alcohols block fat cells from absorbing more fat, along with causing muscle cells to absorb more glucose.

The dual-effect of the fatty alcohols was so pronounced that the Danes compared it to rosiglitazone, an anti-diabetic drug that binds to PPAR-gamma (a protein that acts as a receptor for fat) in fat cells and makes them more sensitive to insulin.

The comparison is apt because falcarinol and falcarindiol also act on PPAR-gamma. Just like the drug, the two plant chemicals were actually exhibiting insulin sensitizing properties, which, when combined with proper nutrition and exercise, can lead to increased muscle and reduced body fat.
What Else You Got?

It looks like those two fatty alcohols found in carrots also combat colon cancer. A 2017 study involving rats found that falcarinol and falcarindiol greatly reduced the number of polyp clusters and tumors found in rats that had been fed large amounts of a carcinogen.

More convincingly, though, a 2020 study that followed 57,053 Danish people from the mid 1990s to 2016 found that those who ate between two and four carrots a day were significantly less likely to develop colon cancer than Danes who consumed fewer carrots.
How to Use This Info

How to use this information? Are you kidding? Do I have to spell it out for you? Eat a damn carrot! Every day!

One proviso, though: The carrots need to be eaten raw. Carrot juice will probably suffice, as long as you actually saw the carrot being fed into the blender instead of it being some grocery-store version that's been centrifuged or masticated to death, leaving all its falcarinol and falcarindiol beaten and bleeding.

I should also add that parsnip, another root vegetable, actually contains more of these two fatty alcohols than carrots, but I doubt if anyone wants to eat raw parsnips. Some of them have a tinge of sweetness, but overall they taste like a blend between a carrot, a potato, and a gym sock.

Do yourself a favor and stick with the carrots.

Sources:
Ulrik Deding, Gunnar Baatrup, Lars Porskjaer Christensen, Morten Kobaek-Larsen, "Carrot Intake and Risk of Colorectal Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study of 57,053 Danes," Nutrients, Volume 12, Issue 2, 27 January, 2020.
Morten Kobaek-Larsen, Rime B. El-Houri, Lars P. Christensen, Issam Al-Najami, Xavier Fretté and Gunnar Baatrup, "Dietary polyacetylenes, falcarinol and falcarindiol, isolated from carrots prevents the formation of neoplastic lesions in the colon of azoxymethane-induced rats," Food and Function, Issue 7, 2015.
Rime El-Houri, Dorotka Kotowska, Kathrine Christensen, et al. "Polyacetylenes from carrots (Daucus carota) improve glucose uptake in vitro in adipocytes and myotubes," Food and Function, Issue 7, 2015.
Xu X1, Cheng Y, Li S, Zhu Y, Xu X, Zheng X, Mao Q, Xie L. Dietary carrot consumption and the risk of prostate cancer. Nur J Nutr. 2014 Dec;53(8):1615-23.

Top 4 Numbers Can Tell You More About Your Health Than Your Weight Can

Your walking speed may be an even better health indicator than your weight, according to research.

Image Credit: Rawpixel/iStock/GettyImages

Curious whether you're on track to live a long, healthy life into your golden years? Most health professionals would tell you to hop on a scale, since numbers like weight and BMI (body mass index) are often used to predict your chances of developing certain diseases and your life expectancy overall. The problem? Neither weight nor BMI is truly an accurate or adequate measure of your health.

That's because "weight and BMI are not customized to sex or body type, nor do they take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition and ethnic differences," says John P. Higgins, MD, a sports cardiologist and professor of cardiovascular medicine at The McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

 Take, for example, a bodybuilder with a dense muscle mass. He or she may erroneously fall into an overweight or obese classification for weight or BMI. Conversely, these metrics don't address the problem of normal-weight obese people, otherwise known as "skinny fat" (we hate the term, too), who appear thin with average BMIs but have a high percentage of body fat and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, per a May 2015 study in Cardiovascular Diabetology.

Wondering how to calculate your calories for weight loss? Download the MyPlate app to do the job and help you track your intake, so you can stay focused and achieve your goals!

Instead of putting too much weight on weight, a growing body of research is finding other measures that may be useful tools for evaluating your health and risk of disease. In fact, these four metrics — walking speed, push-up ability, grip strength and waist circumference — can reveal more about your state of health than any scale. The best part? You can track them yourself.

Note: Even though you can calculate these metrics on your own, they shouldn't substitute for visiting the doctor or getting regular checkups. Better yet, as you gather these measurements at home, share them with your medical provider who can best analyze the numbers for a fuller picture of your health.

Your Walking Speed

How fast you stroll is linked to how long you live, according to a June 2019 study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers found that brisk walkers enjoy longer life expectancies than those with a slower stride, regardless of their BMI. Perhaps this is because walking — as opposed to weight — is a functional measure of several important things: "Walking tests balance, coordination, lower limb and core strength, as well as cardiovascular health," says Dr. Higgins. Essentially, you need to be in good physical shape to keep up a swift pace.

How to Measure Your Walking Speed:

Walk 1 mile. Then divide the number 60 by how minutes it took you to walk the mile. For example, if you spent 30 minutes strolling, your speed would clock in at 2 miles per hour.

Alternatively, time yourself as you walk 6 meters. Divide the number six by how many seconds it took you to complete the 6-meter walk. So, if you walk six meters in three seconds, your pace is 2 meters per second.

Ideally, you should aim for a walking speed that's at least 2.4 miles per hour (that's a 25-minute mile) or 1 meter per second.

Your Push-up Prowess

Since push-ups work your entire body — and require strength and endurance — the number you can complete is another predictor of your overall health status. "Push-ups are a good measure of both upper body and core strength, as well as cardiovascular health," Dr. Higgins says. "In short, the more push-ups you can do, the stronger and better cardiovascular system you have."

As a matter of fact, a longitudinal cohort study of 1,100 adult men found that those who could perform more than 40 push-ups had a significantly lower risk of developing heart disease compared with participants who could complete fewer than 10 push-ups, per research published in the February 2019 issue of JAMA Network Open.

How to Measure Your Push-Ups:


First, work on mastering good form.

Start in a plank with your hands under your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to toes.
Contract your ab muscles so that your hips don't sag and your back doesn't arch.
Bend your elbows as you lower your chest to the ground, keeping your hips level.
Your elbows should be about a 45 degree angle away from your body.
Once you lower as far as you can, push yourself back up to a plank.

Try to perform as many push-ups as possible with perfect technique before tiring. Aim to work your way up to 50 to 100 push-ups per day, Dr. Higgins says.

Your grip strength is a surprisingly good health indicator
Image Credit: GoodLifeStudio/E+/GettyImages
Your Grip Strength

Oddly enough, your ability to squeeze a grip meter can forecast whether you'll live to a ripe old age. But why? Well, grip strength may help to identify muscle — and cardiovascular —weaknesses. That's because how tight you can grip something relates to both your upper body strength as well as your heart's ability to handle pumping against a higher pressure (because your blood pressure rises with the act of gripping), says Dr. Higgins.

Not convinced? A study of a half million middle-aged people found that weaker grip strength was strongly linked with the occurrence of negative health outcomes, such as lung cancer and heart disease, according to research published in the May 2018 issue of BMJ. What's more, grip strength was an even better predictor of death than blood pressure or overall physical activity.

How to Measure Your Grip Strength:

To calculate grip strength, simply squeeze a handgrip dynamometer at a gym or your doctor's office. If you don't have access to a grip meter, you can use a bathroom scale, says Dr. Higgins. Simply squeeze the scale with both your hands (thumb on plate and fingers behind scale), then divide the number of pounds by two. The optimal measurement is about 110 pounds for men and 70 for women.

To improve your grip strength, you need to build muscle. Commit to resistance training two or three times per week. Dr. Higgins also suggests investing in a pair of handgrip squeezers. Do a set of 10 squeezes with each hand twice a day.

Your Waist Circumference

A large waist circumference can be a warning sign for future health problems. That's because waist circumference is an indicator of abdominal fat. In other words, your waist size increases as your internal fat deposits do. And excessive belly fat is associated with health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Indeed, a study that looked at data from 650,000 white adults found that a higher waist circumference was connected to a greater incidence of mortality at all levels of BMI, per findings published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

How to Measure Waist Circumference:

On your bare stomach, loop a tape measure around your waist, just above the upper hip bone. Take the measure while you exhale (but don't suck in your tummy!). An ideal waist circumference is less than 35 inches for women and less than 40 for men, according to Dr. Higgins.

Other Health Predictors

When it comes to assessing your heart health, you might also want to keep an eye on your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

"Blood pressure is a big barometer of cardiovascular health," Dr. Higgins says. "When your blood pressure is chronically high, your cardiovascular system and/or sympathetic nervous system (responsible for your fight or flight response) is overstressed."

Whether the root cause of your increased blood pressure relates to something physical, mental or even lack of sleep, the strain on your body isn't healthy. If your blood pressure is greater than 130/80 on a regular basis, you should see your medical professional, who can help assess your situation and assist you in making healthy lifestyle changes to lower your numbers.

Cholesterol is also a good measure of cardiovascular risk, says Dr. Higgins: "The higher the bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol), the higher the chance of heart attack and stroke."

While your cholesterol is often strongly tied to genetics, there are still actionable steps you can take to reduce your levels, according to Dr. Higgins, who suggests limiting your saturated fat intake, following a Mediterranean diet with more plant-based foods and exercising regularly to increase your good HDL cholesterol.

German Volume Training Method

This method has been reported to be the most productive workout tried. It’s hard, but effective to build muscle fast! The method is called The German Volume Training or The Ten Sets Method.

This works by targeting a group of motor units, using extensive volume of repeated efforts including 10 sets of a single exercise.

The body adapts to the stress by hypertrophying the targeted fibres. With this program you can add muscle fast, even gains of 10 pounds or more in six weeks can be achieved.

Guidelines

German Volume Training method is designed to complete ten sets of ten reps with the same weight for each exercise. Beginning with a weight you could lift for 20 reps to failure.

For most people this would represent 60% of their 1RM load. For example: If you bench press 300 pounds for 1 rep, you would use 180 pounds for this exercise.

I recommend using the following body part splits:
Day 1: Chest & Back
Day 2: Legs & Abs
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Arms & Shoulders
Day 5: Off

 

Terminology understanding

Rest Intervals: Often questioned for the first several sets as the weight won’t feel heavy enough. But, there is minimal rest between each set, around 60 seconds when used in sequence and 90-120 seconds when used as a superset, this causes cumulative fatigue. Because of the importance of the rest intervals, you should time to keep the rest intervals constant.

Tempo: When using movements such as squats, dips and chins, use a 4-0-2 tempo. This means you lower the weight in four seconds, immediately change direction and lift for two seconds. For movements like curls and triceps extensions, use a 3-0-2 tempo.

Number of Exercises: One exercise per body part should be performed. Select exercises that recruit a lot of muscle mass. Triceps, kickbacks and leg extensions are out, squats and bench press are in. For individual body parts, you can do 3 sets of 10-20 reps.


Training Frequency: Because this is such an intense program, it takes longer recovery time. The average “Power Factor Rating” of the 10 sets method is a lot. One training session every four to five days per body part is plenty.

Overload Mechanism: When you’re able to do 10 sets of 10 with constant rest intervals, increase the weight on the bar by 4-to-5% and repeat the process. Refrain from using forced reps, negatives or burns. Expect to have deep muscle soreness without having set prolonging techniques.




You should perform the phase 1 program for six splits (six 5-day cycles= 30 days), then, three weeks with a lower volume program using 6 to 8 reps, allowing your body to recover and then start phase 2.

Phase 1

 
Day: 1

Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest
A1 Flat DB Presses 10 10 4020 90
A2 Supinated Chin-ups 10 10 4020 90
B1 Incline Flies 3 10-12 2020 75
B2 Cable rows to neck 3 10-12 2020 75

Day: 2

Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest
A1 Back Squats 10 10 40X0 90
A2 Lying Leg curls feet outward 10 8 40X0 90
B1 Low Cable Pull-ins 3 10 2020 75
B2 Seated Calf Raise 3 10-12 2020 75

Day 3: Off (Rest)

Day: 4

Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest
A1 Close grip bench press 10 10 40X0 90
A2 Incline DB Curls 10 10 40X0 90
B1 Seated Lateral Raises 3 10-12 2011 75
B2 Reverse Curls 3 10-12 40X0 75

Day 5: Off (Rest)

 

Phase 2:

After completing six 5 day cycles of the phase 1 program, choose a three week program using 6 to 8 reps per sets for 4 to 6 sets total per body part.

You can still use the same 5 day cycle or you can use another split that suits your recovery pattern.

After this 3 week block, you continue for phase 2 of the German Volume Training method, with the following changes:

Do ten sets of six reps per exercise instead of 10 sets of 10 reps. Use a load you can usually do 12 repetitions with. The aim in this phase is to do ten sets of six with that load.

Day 1:

Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest
A1 Incline Barbell Press 10 6 5010 120
A2 Wide grip pull-ups 10 6 5010 120
B1 Decline Flyes 3 8-10 2020 75
B2 Incline Sit ups 3 8-10 2020 75

Day 2:

Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest
A1 Front Squat 10 6 31X0 120
A2 Lying Leg Curls feet inward 10 6 30X0 120
B1 Back Extensions 3 8-10 2012 75
B2 Standing Calf Raise 3 8-10 22X0 75

Day 3: Off (Rest)

 
Day 4:

Exercise Sets Reps Tempo Rest
A1 Dips 10 6 31X0 100
A2 Hammer Curls 10 6 30X0 100
B1 Bent Over Lateral Raise 3 8-10 2-0-1-2 75
B2 Wrist Curls 3 10-12 2020 75

Day 5: Off (Rest)




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