Month: April 2017

Grilled chicken breast is practically the lifeblood of mass-gaining strength athletes everywhere. And it makes sense: A standard, 3-ounce serving clocks in at roughly 20 grams of protein, just over 1 gram of fat, and about 100 calories. These are some impressive stats when you’re trying to pump up your protein intake without all the extra “stuff.”

Unfortunately, eating a steady diet of chicken, chicken, and more chicken is about as exciting as watching nothing but C-SPAN all day. So if you’re ready to mix up your diet and try something new, consider the not-so-boring world of game birds.

Wild Goose

Goose is definitely a fattier cut of meat than chicken, delivering about 12 grams of fat and 24 grams of protein per 3-ounce serving. But unless you’re really trying to lean out, that extra fat content isn’t likely to cause any real harm. Fat has long since been cleared of its “devil” status. A 2006 study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found that whole milk consumed after a workout led to greater utilization of amino acids for protein synthesis compared to skim milk—despite its extra fat content.[1] In other words, a little added fat isn’t likely to hurt your muscle-building progress, and it could even help.

Plus, a well-cooked wild goose tastes more like roast beef than a bird. The trick is to select a smaller, younger bird (roughly 8-12 pounds), then roast it in a roasting pan, almost like you would a turkey. The resulting dark meat is the perfect break away from your standard white-meat chicken breast.

Duck

Duck has a bad rap for being fatty, too. And yes, the fat content of duck is higher than that of chicken, but most of the fat is in the duck’s skin. If you don’t eat the skin, the nutrition content of a 3-ounce serving is surprisingly similar to that of chicken: 102 calories, 16 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fat. But here’s the deal: Duck, like goose, is a dark-meat bird, so it tastes more like the dark meat on a turkey or the meat on chicken thighs. If you’re a die-hard fan of white meat, duck may not be the right alternative for you.

That said, a well-cooked duck can be delicious, but you have to learn how to cook it correctly. When roasting a duck at home, it’s important to continue pricking the skin as it roasts to allow the fat content in the skin to drain and reduce the oily taste of the meat.

Pheasant

If you’re looking for a game bird that tastes more like chicken, pheasant may be your best choice. It’s a lean bird with a combination of white and dark meat, and it actually does taste more like chicken—but with a richer flavor. If you eat the breast meat only, you’re looking at a nutritional profile almost identical to that of chicken.  A 3-ounce serving has 110 calories, 20 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fat.

And while you might be tempted to hit up your hunter friends for a bird or two, when it comes to pheasant, farm-raised birds actually offer up a better amino acid profile than wild pheasant.[2] They also tend to taste less “gamey.” Just make sure you don’t overcook them. Pheasants are lean, so cooking them for too long can make them dry and tough.

Quail

Quail are small birds, weighing in at about 4 ounces each, which means you need two to get enough meat for a single serving. Their tiny size makes them easy to cook, and they can be roasted, fried, braised, broiled, grilled, or sautéed. Like chickens, they have a combination of light and dark meat, but with a slightly more intense flavor. Their nutritional profile is almost identical to that of chicken, but with a few extra grams of fat — about 4 grams per serving to chicken’s 1 gram.

Dove

Doves are another small bird with big flavor, but you have to cook them correctly or they will take on an iron-like taste. The challenge is that dove meat, like duck and goose, is dark and lean, so overcooking it can leave it tough and dry. This problem is compounded by the bird’s tiny size: There’s less meat to cook, so it’s easy to overcook it. The trick is to marinate the meat overnight, or to wrap it in bacon before grilling, allowing the flavor and fat in the bacon to infuse the dove meat.

As long as you cook dove correctly, there’s not much to dislike about it. A 3-ounce serving has about 130 calories, 17 grams of protein, and about 7 grams of fat, placing them squarely in line with the other game birds on this list.

Sourcing Game Birds

If you hunt, or know someone who does, you’re all set. It’s not always easy to find game birds at your local grocery store, but in most cases, all you have to do is ask the butcher to order some for you. It may take a couple days for the meat to come in, so call ahead and ask if you can pick it up on your next trip to the store. And if your local store can’t source game meat for you, look for it online, or ask around at farmer’s markets or local hunting clubs.

References

1. Elliot, T. A., Cree, M. G., Sanford, A. P., Wolfe, R. R., & Tipton, K. D. (2006). Milk ingestion stimulates net muscle protein synthesis following resistance exercise. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 38(4), 667-674.
2. Brudnicki, A., Kułakowska, A., Pietruszyńska, D., Łożyca-Kapłon, M., & Wach, J. (2012). Differences in the Amino Acid Composition of the Breast Muscle of Wild and Farmed Pheasants. Czech Journal of Food Science, 30(4).
3. Tsironi, M., Andriopoulos, P., Xamodraka, E., Deftereos, S., Vassilopoulos, A., Asimakopoulos, G., & Aessopos, A. (2004). The patient with rhabdomyolysis: Have you considered quail poisoning? Canadian Medical Association Journal, 171(4), 325-326.

With more than two-thirds of all Americans regularly taking at least one dietary supplement, the industry is booming! Even so, rumors and questions about the industry abound. Are supplements safe? Are they tested? Do they actually do any good? Understanding dietary supplement regulations can help you become an educated and confident consumer.

Are Dietary Supplements Regulated?

Despite rumors to the contrary, dietary supplements are regulated. The 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) helps regulate the safety and labeling of dietary supplements. The act is administered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Dietary Supplement Programs. The FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations make sure that manufacturers maintain clean facilities and do ingredient testing on the incoming raw ingredients going into their products.

Prescription or over-the-counter drugs can be sold to consumers only after they undergo studies that produce “substantial evidence that the drug is both safe and effective for each if its intended uses.” Supplements, on the other hand, don’t need to be approved by the FDA prior to being put on the market. Nor do supplements have to undergo clinical trials performed on human volunteers.

How do I Know if a Supplement Is Safe?

In general, dietary supplements can only contain ingredients that are permitted and which have undergone review by FDA prior to use.

The 2006 Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act requires all manufacturers to notify the FDA of all serious side effects associated with a dietary supplement, as reported to the manufacturer. If there is evidence that a supplement poses a significant health risk, the FDA can stop the company from making it, or even pull it off the shelves.

You can choose to report problems with a supplement, but the system isn’t very well-controlled. However, if you do report a problem with a supplement to a manufacturer, the FDA will soon know about it.

Are the Claims on Labels Regulated?

According to DSHEA guidelines, manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements and their ingredients are prohibited from marketing products that are tainted or misbranded. Manufacturers and distributors are responsible for evaluating the safety and labeling of their products before they reach store shelves. They must possess competent and reliable scientific evidence that the claims being made are truthful, and not misleading. This ensures that their products meet all requirements set forth by DSHEA and FDA regulations. Dietary supplements are misbranded if they claim to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure disease.

At the same time, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates supplement advertising, including claims made on supplement labels and websites that sell supplements. The FTC and FDA are responsible for taking action against any dietary supplement failing to conform to regulations.

What Standards are Used for Quality Control?

In addition to GMP regulations, independent verification programs, such as United States Pharmacopeia (USP), NSF International, and Informed Choice, review products for contaminants and ensure quality of ingredients. NSF and Informed Choice also test products to make sure the ingredients are present in quantities specified on the label. Informed Choice and USP also screen for banned substances and conduct off-the-shelf tests on finished products. 

While there is an established regulatory system in place for dietary supplements, consumers should still be proactive. If you’re in the market for a supplement, do some research on the ingredients and only consume them in accordance with their intended use. An informed consumer is a safe consumer!

The way many people do it, calorie counting can sometimes be boring, laborious, and downright discouraging. But note that I said “sometimes,” not “always.” Controlling calories doesn’t have to be difficult, and it is perhaps the most powerful tool we have for troubleshooting nutrition.

Maybe you’ve never done it because it seems overwhelmingly complicated, but it can actually be quite simple. Use these easy tips to improve your eating habits and see results without getting bogged down in numbers.

1. Start With How You Actually Eat

No matter where your fitness journey takes you, the nutritional part of it should start where you are now. Create a simple meal plan based on the way you already eat, without making any big changes or thinking about calorie targets yet. Ignore the “daily goal” that apps or calculators will set for you, and don’t worry about BMR and TDEE equations yet.

Remember, we’re going quick and dirty. Just put together the amount of food you know will get you through the day. If you’re going to make any changes at this point, make them qualitative, not quantitative. In other words, stick largely to whole foods, eliminate totally junky processed items, and do your best to keep sugar fairly low.

2. Use an App

Thanks to modern technology, counting calories no longer has to involve much actual counting. Apps like MyFitnessPal calculate calories for you. You can also put foods together into meals, which is a huge time saver.

Have an activity tracker? Use the built-in calorie tracker that lets you see calories in versus calories out, not just totals. It won’t be 100 percent accurate—especially if you lift and use a basic tracker that just counts steps—but it will be inaccurate in a consistent way, giving you a reliable baseline.

But here’s the key: Be honest and log everything.

3. Identify Obvious Patterns

A common reason meal plans fail is that we tend to underestimate how much we consume during cheats. Maybe your “occasional treat” has become an everyday thing, or what you thought was 200 calories of Greek yogurt is more like 500.

It’s shockingly easy to more than double your calorie intake, which is why counting calories is so much more effective than just writing down what you eat in a food journal. If you see big spikes, consider finding different delicious foods to indulge in.

Inevitably, you will have days where you don’t stick to the template—whether it’s a planned cheat day or a spontaneous night out with friends. Pay attention to what else is going on when you eat more than you planned. Do wings and fries always come after beer, despite your best intentions? Alcohol impairs our ability to make good food choices, so it might be worth limiting the days you drink.

If you find you’re not eating enough to stay satisfied on a day-to-day basis, look for places to add some satiating protein and healthy fats to your template.

4. Establish Your Baseline, Then Adjust

After tracking your intake for a few days, you’ll probably see it fall into a consistent range. This is your baseline.

If you feel good sticking to the plan, (you aren’t too hungry, and you aren’t seeing any changes in your body composition) the template you’ve created is close to your true caloric maintenance needs. From here, you can play around with things.

Think you need to cut calories? Try reducing your portion sizes, or look for places you can swap oils, nuts, dairy, or grains for less calorie-dense options. Hungry all the time? You might not be eating enough. Try raising your baseline or throwing in an occasional refeed day.

At this point, you can designate targets for daily calorie totals. Try shooting for 100-500 calories below or above your baseline, and see how it makes you feel. If you use an activity tracker app, you can decide on a goal range for your daily calorie deficit or surplus.

5. Build Around a Few Core Meals

Trying to figure out the exact ingredient measurements for each meal and writing it all down can make calorie tracking time consuming. A more time-efficient approach is to structure your diet around a few essential meals that are easy to track and prepare the same way every time. This helps remove the guesswork and cuts down on data entry.

No, this doesn’t mean you have to—or should—eat the same thing all the time. Far from it! But having a basic lineup of meals with numbers and ingredients you know by heart makes everything easier.

It might sound boring, but you could even try to eat the same thing daily for a while. Doing this means you’ll only have to enter 3-6 meals into the app once. And speaking from personal experience, the repetition can be satisfying if you pick things you like to eat.

Don’t try to be too perfect, though. Healthy eating shouldn’t be about depriving yourself. If having a slice or two of cheese at lunch helps you get through the day, do it.

6. Get Familiar With Pre-portioned Foods

When it comes to switching from eyeballing your portions to measuring them, pre-portioned foods can be a lifesaver. I’m not talking about single-serving bags of chips, but the rule that food needs to come without nutrition labels to be nutritious isn’t always true.

Yes, packaged foods often cost a bit more than bulk produce or meat, but if you ain’t got time for #mealprepsunday, choosing healthy pre-packaged items can save you time and energy. Their nutrition content is marked right on the package, and they’re probably already listed in your app’s food database. Good picks to help kick off your meal-prep journey include individual packets of nuts, protein bars, chicken sausages, burger patties, jerky, canned tuna, sliced deli meats, eggs, protein powder, and single-serving cups of guacamole, hummus, and peanut butter.

Once calorie tracking stops feeling like a struggle, you can start making more meals from scratch. Initially, though, your goal should be to avoid getting overwhelmed by doing what makes life easier.

7. Have Your Staple Meals Pre-loaded in Your App

This is a serious pro tip! If you know what you’re going to eat, logging it the long way is time better spent elsewhere. Save your meals, and all you have to do is click on “Breakfast” to autofill your oats, protein powder, and eggs. Some apps will even let you autofill an entire day.

Over time, you may change some aspects of your meals, but memorizing the essentials and knowing their numbers will help you learn to eyeball food portions, which will help you stick to your approach over the long term.

8. Don’t Just Focus on Calories

Weight loss has a lot to do with calories, but other factors are also important. Use your app to monitor your fiber intake, and consider tracking your water intake, too. Getting more of both of these can make a big difference in how full you feel, even while eating the same number of calories.

Once you’re on top of calories, play with your macros and question your habits. Do you need those almonds in your oatmeal to stay full until lunch? What happens if you replace them with protein powder? Are your carb refeeds on point, or are they more like saturated-fat refeeds?

This is where a boring, repetitive meal plan can work for you. Changing one variable at a time will let you know pretty quickly if it’s going to help you or hurt you.

9. Finish the Job and Move On

Once you’ve fine-tuned your template and started seeing your body composition move in the right direction, look at what made the difference and integrate that information into a long-term, sustainable template. Create some alternative meals in your app and become a master at prepping your portions. Maybe you could even stop counting.

That’s right; quit counting! You can always go back to it occasionally, to make sure you’re still on track or to reassess if you plateau, but you should be able to stop using your app daily as your previous eyeballing technique becomes more on point.

Think of it this way: The skills you build through understanding the numbers are far more important than the numbers themselves.