Primalisms: Drug Ads, Low-Protein Diets, Fructose, Heel-striking, Eating in Mixed Company, and Endurance Training

Photo by Josiah Mackenzie

1) I don’t watch much TV, and when I do, it’s via PVR, so I end up watching very few commercials. When I do happen  to watch some commercials, I’m always shocked at the pharmaceutical advertising that’s permitted on TV. Good news – it’s trending downwards.

Spending on the advertising of brand-name prescription drugs on television has dropped more than 20 percent in the last five years.

2) If you’re eating excess calories on a low-protein diet, you’ll gain less weight, but only at the cost of lean body mass.

“On a low-protein diet, the body has to get protein from somewhere, and it gets it from lean body mass,” said Dr. George A. Bray, the lead author and a professor of medicine at Louisiana State University. “You’re losing lean body mass, and there’s nothing to recommend that.”

3) Fructose intake is linked to visceral fat.

After controlling for other factors, the researchers found that higher fructose consumption was associated with increased systolic blood pressure, C-reactive protein (a sign of systemic inflammation) and visceral fat, and reduced HDL (good) cholesterol — all known risks for cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

But when they controlled for visceral fat, the effect of fructose alone was weakened. It was apparently not fructose itself, but its tendency to increase visceral fat that led to a rise in risk factors.

4) Combing through the training database of Harvard University’s distance running squad turned up an interesting observation:

“the heel strikers were much more prone to injury, with a twofold greater risk than the forefoot strikers.”

5) In mixed Groups, women eat less and men eat more.

In mixed company, women show their femininity by purchasing less, while men assert their masculinity by buying more.

6) Dr. Mercola calls endurance training “one of the worst forms of exercise there is”. He quotes a recent study that found that:

“intense endurance exercise causes acute dysfunction of the right ventricle” or RV enlargement. Though the athletes appear to recover in the short term, the researchers found chronic structural changes and reduced function of the right ventricle in some of the athletes, and called for further study.”