The Myth of the Spring Cleanse or Perhaps You Should Just Pay Attention to Your Poop.Spring is here and so are all the "Spring Resets" and "Spring Cleanses" someone wants to sell you. I am hearing more folks talk about doing a cleanse or needing a reset to help us rebound from all the sideways choices we've made since the New Year. That was was only 78 days ago! Let me just put this up front. You don't need to "cleanse" or do a reset. Just start by increasing your fruits and vegetables at every meal and drinking more water. When I decided to bust the myth of a cleanse today I wasn't sure I would be able to do it in less than 250 words. There's just so much to say about the fallacy of cleansing. First, let's just apply some basic biology. You already possess an amazing cleansing and detoxifying system in your body. This system features (FOR FREE:-) your liver and kidneys, and to a lesser extent your lungs and skin. The PRIMARY job or your liver and kidneys is eliminate biochemicals from our body. Yep, it's true! Our lungs and skin also have a role to play through ventilation and and sweating. Our body is an amazing and adaptive collection of organs, organelles, and tissues and it's in our best interest to quickly and effectively shuttle undesirable biochemicals out of our tissues. Second, and this usually stumps most people, what it is EXACTLY you're trying to rid yourself of. Most folks, and especially the people who are trying to sell you the magic cleansing product, will answer with the dreaded T words, toxins. Well, which ones? What kind? How do you know what's toxic? Anything, even WATER, is toxic if it is ingested or inhaled in the wrong amounts. When someone drowns they die of inhaling water in toxic amounts. You can even die by DRINKING too much water. It's called hyponatremia and it's a real problem. Often, a cleanse is usually accompanied by a fast (24-48 hour fasting is the most popular) thus the cleanse has some weight loss element. Let's think about what's really going on here. We need a "re-set" because we've been making a series of lifestyle choices with regards to food, alcohol, sleep, and exercise and we just want to start over. Well, you can do all of that FOR FREE with your next meal. Then you can do it again without any special product or magic drink at your next meal. It's called choice and we all posses the ability to make one. If you're attracted to the fasting element, then just try that. Fasting costs you nothing and yes, you will probably lose some weight. One thing that I can advocate that will help you re-set is to drink water. Water, the universal solvent, is amazing in its ability to lubricate the detoxifying systems of your body. Water will help your kidneys and liver do all of the amazing cleansing they naturally do so well. Water will fill your belly so you don't feel so hungry. Water will make you pee which means your kidneys are doing their job. Water will help you poop which means your digestive system is doing its job of elimination. In fact, monitoring your poop is cheaper than a cleanse and will give you valuable insight into your health. The shape, smell, consistency and frequency of your turds can clue you in to the affect of your lifestyle choices. Here is a great infographic about poop health from the Precision Nutrition folks. I challenge you to drink more water and keep track of your poo for the next week. Starting today through next Monday, I want you to note the frequency, consistency and aroma of your poop. You can keep a handwritten poo-journal next to your toilet, or you can step into the future and download a poop-tracking app for your phone. YES! They exist. You can find one that fits your poop-lifestyle here: The Best Poo Tracking Apps.
How much water? Let's start with 1/3 to 1/2 your body weight in ounces. If you weigh 140 pounds then try drinking 46-70 ounces of water. Do you have a myth you want me to bust? Tell me in the comments!
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3/11 Myth Busting Monday - How to Think Critically About Things you See on the Internet...3/10/2024 ...Or, How Correlation is not CausationIt's Myth Busting Monday and I'm revisiting some blogs I've written previously about how to wade through mis-information and silly bullshit so that you can critically explore the memes and "headlines" you see on Facebook. All across the interwebs the amount of mis-information, silly bullshit, and outright lies is breathtaking. It's important to stop, breathe, and take a step back from the latest meme or headline so you can think critically about what you're reading. There are two very important science concepts, correlation is not causation and confirmation bias, that I want to explore today. Understanding these concepts can help us see through the pseudoscience that often accompanies the latest alarmist meme. Correlation is not causation means that just because two things have a relationship it does not mean one thing causes the other. An example might be, every time you have a PR your Coach is wearing black pants. Therefore, your coach's black pants are the reason you PR. Or, after you washed your car, it rained. Therefore washing your car causes rain. Or, people who have died from COVID-19 used the 5G network, therefore being on 5G increases your risk of dying from COVID-19. Sounds crazy right? What about when someone shows you the data?!? Here's one of my favorite examples of correlation is not causation. This graph shows a relationship between the U.S. per capita consumption of cheese and the number of people who died by becoming tangled in their sheets. Based on the data you could erroneously conclude that eating cheese increases your risk of death by becoming entangled in your sheets. But, you won't conclude that because there is no causal relationship.
What if that graph was people who use 5G and COVID-19 deaths? You might be more inclined to believe that using 5G will increase your risk of dying from COVID-19 because the data "show" that people who die from COVID-19 used 5G. But there is NOT a causal relationship. Believing that 5G will increase your risk of COVID-19 death is an example of your confirmation bias. If you want to believe, you will, no matter what the data show. We are more likely to believe a relationship is causative if it reinforces our beliefs. So the next time someone tries to tell or SELL you something, and they show you a graph that correlates their amazing claim with an amazing outcome, remember, correlative data points on a graph do not show cause and effect AND if you want to believe that this thing is true you're more likely to believe it even if there's no science to support it. Critical thinking skills are fundamental to being able to successfully navigate life and not fall prey to charlatans, quacks and snake-oil salespeople. Want me to explore a myth? Suggest one in the comments. Myth: Creatine is only for bodybuilders and will make you gain weightCreatine is naturally occurring biochemical compound, meaning it's a chemical compound that we make in our bodies from amino acids we eat in our food, that drives a whole suite of vital metabolic processes. In addition to building muscle, it is a key component in brain function and managing cellular hydration. Creatine monohydrate, the supplemental form of creatine, is the world's most tested sports supplement, and has over 50 years of scientific studies. It is the most tested and studied ergogenic aid (a supplement intended to enhance physical performance, stamina or recovery.) Despite all those years of study and all the years of positive health and performance impact, it still carries the stigma of being useful only for bodybuilding and using it will cause weight gain. This is silly bullshit. Creatine monohydrate is one of the most important supplements you can take for body and brain health. It is also the primary driver of one of the anaerobic metabolic pathways that we use EVERYDAY in CrossFit: the phosphocreatine pathway. In addition to making us stronger, more powerful and having increased stamina, creatine has been shown to improve:
Did you notice the second to last bullet point? It has been specifically tested on women and aging athletes! The results from these studies are overwhelmingly positive. If you're an aging athlete, a woman, or an aging woman athlete, you need to start supplementing with creatine monohydrate TODAY! To make sure you start supplementing correctly, listen to this fantastic Feisty Women's Performance podcast from Feisty Menopause on why you need creatine for performance, recovery and longevity. Click on the image below to listen to the podcast on your favorite player. On a personal note, I started supplementing with creatine monohydrate when I was a competitive rower in college in 1997. I continue to supplement with it. I have never noticed any weight gain or bloating. I have only noticed increased power, speed, and general badassery:)
You Are What You Eat, Part 2Friday, I shared an insightful and short podcast from The Consistency Project about the Netflix docuseries You Are What You Eat. What to eat, how much to eat, when to eat and why we overeat have been explored since the very first diet book was published in 1863. That book, Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public by William Banting encouraged people to eat meat, greens, and fruit. He avoided root vegetables, potatoes, butter, milk, pork, salmon, sugar, and beer. He lost 35 pounds and decided that his anecdotal personal experience counted as evidence and thus the psuedoscience of diet and nutrition culture was born. According to this article from Micheal Easter, About 55 million Americans are on a diet plan, and 50% are trying to lose weight. Diet and weight loss books generated $580 million in sales in 2019. WOW! That is a lot of folks who are wanting to make a change and a LOT of people and companies who are willing to sell them something, even if its silly bullshit, to help them lose weight. What's even more interesting is that we are drawn to a particular diet, or eating plan, based on our confirmation bias. Easter summarizes it this way: We often choose a diet based on our underlying beliefs about society. For example: Your personal values, your beliefs, your family food culture, and your general life view will influence what you choose to put in your mouth, and this is the most important factor that will determine if your diet and nutrition choice will actually work. What works is what you can do for the long game. If you can't stay on your "X, Y, Z" elimination diet forever, it's not going to work. Check out the entire article from Micheal Easter, "Wild Findings from an Analysis of 400 Diet Books" by clicking on the link below or reading it on Scribd. You can read the entire article below. The bottom line is that “diets are all equally terrible for long-term weight loss,” Layne explained. But when the scientists stratified the participants by how closely they followed the diet’s instructions, they found that the most adherent people lost more fat. Regardless of the diet—every diet worked when the study participants followed it long-term. |
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