Olympic Wrap-Up

Now that the 2012 London Olympics have come and gone, let's take a look back at the athletes who dominated, conquered and achieved golden success at the games.

Mo Farah doing the 'lightning bolt' and Usain Bolt returning the favour by doing the 'Mobot'

Here are my top 5 athletes of the games:

1. Usain Bolt

Coming into the games, there was some doubt over Bolt's form after he was beaten by his heir apparent Yohan Blake at the Jamaican national trials only a month earlier.

Bolt eventually went on to win 2 individual gold medals in the 100m and 200m sprints (Blake finished second in both races), and a team gold in the 4 x 100m relay - breaking an Olympic (200m) and world record (4 x 100m relay) in the process. There is no doubt the 2012 London Olympics cemented Usain Bolt's status as a living legend of the track.

“ I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest athlete to live. ”

- Usain Bolt, after winning his seventh straight title in the 100 and 200m at the 2012 London Olympic Games

2. Mo Farah

The Somali born Brit achieved an amazing feat - winning the gold in both the men's 5000m and 10,000m. He covered all the breaks, resisted extravagant changes of pace, matched his talent against the machinations of the gifted Kenyans and Ethiopians and came home with the ferocious tenacity which has typified his career. Only 5 others have ever achieved the rare golden double and no Briton has ever come close until now.

Mo Farah's famous 'Mobot' celebratory move

3. Missy Franklin

The 17 year old all-American dubbed the 'missile' won 4 gold medals (2 individual and 2 relay) and a bronze from 7 events. Franklin also broke 2 world records in the process: in the 200m backstroke and 4 x 100 medley relay.

4.Ye Shiwen

Breaking out of the blocks, the 16 year old swimming sensation from China stunned the world by winning 2 gold medals in the 200m and 400m individual medleys, setting a new Olympic record and world record respectively, both previously set by Australia's Stephanie Rice at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Most shocking was the fact that Ye swam the final 50m in the 400m IM final in 28.93 seconds; 0.17 seconds faster than that of USA's Ryan Lochte, the men's gold medalist. Not surprising was the media's reaction with suggestions of illegal substance use, despite Lochte's overall time of 4.05.18 being 23.25 seconds faster than that of Ye's.

5. Serena WIlliams

At 30 years of age, when most of her contemporaries have retired, Serena Williams shows no sign of slowing down. Winning both the singles and doubles gold medals in women's tennis - and achieving the Golden Slam (all four Grand Slams and an Olympic gold), Williams' dominant display once again showed why she is considered one of the greatest to ever play the game of tennis.

It was definitely hard to pick only 5 athletes to feature in my list. So here are a few more who deserve honourable mentions.

Michael Phelps

Undoubtedly the greatest Olympian to ever compete. Phelps left London with 6 medals in tow: 4 gold and 2 silver, adding to his already impressive collection, bringing his medal tally to 18 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals from 4 Olympic games.

Prior to the Olympics, Phelps announced these games would be his last.

Oscar Pistorius

Amazing does not begin to describe the South African athlete who participated in both the Olympic and Paralympic games. Known as the 'blade runner', Pistorius advanced through to the semi-final of the 400m at the Summer Olympics , finishing in last position with a time of 46.54 seconds. The South African 4 x 400m relay team qualified through to the final with Pistorius running the third leg, the team eventually finished eighth out of a field of nine competing in the final.

At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, taking place from August 29 - September 9, Pistorius is entered into the T44 100m, and the T42–T46 4 × 100m relay.

Female Muslim Athletes

Achieving success at the Olympic games does not always involve winning a medal. Having overcome political, social, religious and sporting obstacles, the chance to compete at the Olympics was a far greater victory than any gold medal.

Despite the lack of sporting success, these athletes have broken down major barriers, one being a Muslim, and two being a female. They have taken great strides for their countries and female equality just by their presence at the world's greatest sporting event.

Tahmina Kohistani (AFG), Fatima Sulaiman Dahman (KSA), Wojdan Shaherkani (KSA),

Shinoona Salah al-Habsi (OMA), Noor Hussain Al-Malki (QAT)

The 2012 London Olympics certainly brought out the best in athletes from all around the world with:

• 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competing
• 85 won at least one medal
• 54 won at least one gold medal
• USA won the most gold medals (46) and the most total number of medals (104)
• 30 new world records in 7 sports

I cannot wait until 2016 for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics! VIVA BRASIL!!!

JW

Cool Runnings

With the excitement of the 2012 London Olympics, it is only fitting to have an article suitable for such an occasion.

With the superstar likes of Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown currently dominating short distance track events, people want to know what exactly makes Jamaicans so fast?

2012 London Olympics Men's 100m Medallists: Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin (USA)

2012 London Olympics Women's 100m Medallists: Carmelita Jeter (USA), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown

And it's not only athletes who don the famous gold and green trim of Jamaica who have made their mark. Olympic 100m champions Linford Christie (for Great Britain in 1992) and Donovan Bailey (for Canada in 1996) were born and bred in Jamaica, as was the now disgraced Ben Johnson, who also represented Canada.

It is baffling that the tiny island nation of Jamaica with a population reaching barely 2.9 million can consistently produce world-beating sprinters, while the whole of Europe can hardly register more than a handful of athletes in the top 100. So is it genetics, training or diet that is responsible for this success? Well according to Professor Errol Morrison, president of the University of Technology (UTech), "TWO of Jamaica's staple crops — the yam and green banana — are said to be partially responsible for the island's world sprinting domination."

So before we get down to the nitty-gritty analysis, let's have a quick look at the stats:

Men's 10 Fastest 100m Times

(as of 7/8/12)

Genetic Structure

It has long been documented that athletes of West African ancestry are superior sprinters, while their North and East African relatives excel over longer distances. The majority of Afro-Jamaicans have West Africa ancestry and Professor Morrison points out a distinct advantage they hold.

"You ever looked at our black athletes compared to whites or the Asiatics, both lower and upper limbs, the relatively narrow hips, lean and thin and the power?"

"There is something called in our parlance, a cock bottom. The shape of the backbone and the hip is angled this way with the pelvis, and the front muscles afford high knee lift as opposed to when the back is more straight. That contributes to the kind of power when you drive that leg down, those are some of the genetics."

Biochemicals

According to Prof Morrison, yams produce a substance called Hypo Steroids which acts as a stimulus, while green bananas produce phytate, which is four times the concentration in the yellow yams and replenishes the energy supply.

"You can't just get up and eat tuber crops like yam and go and run. What is happening is it is a staple diet, so our young people who are using these staple crops are being exposed to these 'anabolic steroids' from very early and Jamaica is the only country with organised programmes from infancy; so you are putting up a stress and demand on these muscle groups which is being further pushed by these 'anabolic steroids' they are going to have an advantage and they are going to grow with that and by the time they are hitting the late teens you should be seeing some responsive muscle mass," explained Prof Morrison.

He added: "People don't know what green bananas do. Phytates replenish the energy supply in muscle called creatine phosphate. The hypothesis is grounded on sound biochemical principles and what we are saying is that the cycle is being passed on from very early on. So you not only have got the 'anabolic steroid' from early, you are also getting the stimulus from these phosphate substances that will give you the energy."

Prof Morrison explained that during the running of races a number of athletes on the world level are probably similar in speed, but they fade at different levels and that's when the quicker replenishing caused by the green bananas gives Jamaican athletes the edge.

"By 60 metres they start to fade and it is because we have the advantage of the replenishing of the phosphate that is allowing us to keep that momentum to the end of the race."

Jamaican culture

Jamaicans love to sprint. Track in Jamaica is epitomised by the prestige, popularity and huge following. In the same way that particular nations adores football or cricket, Jamaicans adore sprinting. From an early age, children can be seen frolicking about, trying to beat each other in mini races. As such, the sprinting spirit is cultured into Jamaicans from a tender age.

Jamaica's most successful son, Usain Bolt is convinced the key to Jamaican success is the intense rivalry of grassroots athletics from an early age.

"I feel we push our young athletes. There is this thing called the Boys and Girls Championships (Champs) in Jamaica, which showcases the talent. The level of competition is really high because it pushes you every day to be the best in your event, in your class."

And even now as Bolt gets down on the blocks at a major championships, that early experience gained is invaluable.

"I think it helped me to get past my fear of running in front of thousands and millions of people because I'm front of a home crowd and we are under a lot of pressure."

The four-day championships play to crowds of up to 30,000 at the national stadium in Kingston, while a TV audience of over a million watch the live coverage. Many of the top stars go back to hand out medals and inspire the next generation.

With 5 more days to go in the 2012 London Olympics, Jamaica is certain to add to its medal tally!

JW

References

• http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/21/sport/olympics-jamaica-sprinting-heroes-bolt/index.html
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/Prof-Morrison-tells-why-Jamaicans-run-so-fast_9306187

So...who can you trust?

Are we all being duped by the big corporations? If you don't think so, have a read of the article below and it may change your mind.

'Lack of evidence' that popular sports products work

By BBC News

Consumers could be wasting their money on sports drinks, protein shakes and high-end trainers, according to a new joint investigation by BBC Panorama and the British Medical Journal.

The investigation into the performance-enhancing claims of some popular sports products found "a striking lack of evidence" to back them up.

A team at Oxford University examined 431 claims in 104 sport product adverts and found a "worrying" lack of high-quality research, calling for better studies to help inform consumers.

Dr Carl Heneghan of the Oxford University Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine led the independent research into the claims made by the makers of sports drinks, protein shakes and trainers.In the case of Lucozade Sport, the UK's best-selling sports drink, their advert says it is "an isotonic performance fuel to take you faster, stronger, for longer".

'Minuscule effect'

Dr Heneghan and his team asked manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for details of the science behind their claims and were given what he said scientists call a "data dump" - 40 years' worth of Lucozade sports research which included 176 studies.

Dr Heneghan said the mountain of data included 101 trials that the Oxford team were able to examine before concluding:

"In this case, the quality of the evidence is poor, the size of the effect is often minuscule and it certainly doesn't apply to the population at large who are buying these products. Basically, when you look at the evidence in the general population, it does not say that exercise is improved [or that] performance is improved by carbohydrate drinks."

In response, GlaxoSmithKline said they disagreed with the Oxford team's conclusions: "Over 40 years of research experience and 85 peer-reviewed studies have supported the development of Lucozade Sport and all our claims are based on scientific evidence that have been reviewed and substantiated by the European Food Safety Authority."

GSK is also the manufacturer of the Maxinutrition range of sports supplements, which is endorsed by some of Britain's top athletes, including the Olympic triathalon team and the Rugby Football Union.

Some of GSK's supplements in the Maxinutrition range contain branch chain amino acids which are found in muscle protein. The company says these amino acids "help hard-training athletes recover faster after intense exercise". The supplements sell for as much as £34 a tub.

'Expensive milk'

But the Oxford research team and the British Medical Journal said the science does not back up that claim.

Dr Heneghan said: "The evidence does not stack up and the quality of the evidence does not allow us to say these do improve in performance or recovery and should be used as a product widely."

Nutrition expert Professor Mike Lean of the University of Glasgow described what little evidence there is that certain amino acids, which form part of proteins, may improve muscle strength as "absolutely fringe evidence and I think that that is almost totally irrelevant, even at the top level of athletics".

Prof Lean said the market for supplements is "yet another fashion accessory for exercise… and a rather expensive way of getting a bit of milk."

GSK said in response: "We stand by the evidence that branch chain amino acids can enhance performance or recovery."

But the company said it accepted recently revised rules from the European Food Safety Authority about what claims manufacturers can make about their sports products and supplements and said it will "revise our label accordingly while we gather further evidence required to substantiate the claims we believe can be made".

In the case of trainers, the Oxford team examined the claims made by Puma that their shoes - endorsed by Olympic champion Usain Bolt - are "designed to... minimise injury, optimise comfort and maximise speed".

Dr Heneghan said his team could find no evidence to back up the company's claims and Puma declined to provide his research team with any studies to prove that their shoes can deliver on those claims.

"That should be really underpinned by good quality evidence... I cannot quite understand how you get from the evidence to that claim. If you can't find research for it, how can you then make that claim?"

Puma declined to reply to the BBC about the Oxford team's findings.Professor Benno Nigg of the University of Calgary in Canada, has been studying the biomechanics of running for more than 40 years.

He said the conventional thinking was that cushioning and control were the key health benefits of running shoes - but that idea has been proven wrong by recent studies that showed no difference in injury rates if runners were prescribed structured shoes meant to control how their foot lands as they run.

"The most important predictors for injuries are distance, recovery time, intensity and those type of things... the shoes come very, very later as minor contributors."

Prof Nigg's advice to runners is to find something that fits.

"If you can find a shoe where you just enjoy that activity and you are comfortable, that's all you need."

To view the article, click on the following link:

'Lack of evidence' that popular sports products work, BBC News Health.

Just out of interest, I wrote an article last year on barefoot running with a brief mention of the multi-billion dollar running shoe industry:

The phenomenon of barefoot running, 6/11/11.

And remember, it's always good to have a certain level of skepticism before purchasing products with big claims!

JW

A Burst of Colour

Make your life healthier and more interesting by injecting some bright bursts of colour. And I'm not just talking about updating your wardrobe.

So what is this mysterious element responsible for giving fruits and vegetables their beautiful red, orange, yellow and some dark green hues? Well it is none other than the plant compound: carotenoids - a large family of fat-soluble pigments.

Carotenoids are not just a pretty face, they also play a vital role in decreasing oxidative damage in our cells. Their anti-oxidising power helps body cells to live longer and improve our overall health and longevity.

Since there are over 600 known carotenoids, I have chosen five of the most powerful and health enhancing carotenoids. Also included is a list of carotenoid-rich foods that can easily be included in your diet.

1. Lycopene

A bright red carotenoid pigment, known to be one of the most potent antioxidants. Can protect against heart disease and may decrease the chances of men developing prostate cancer.

Found in: tomato paste/sauce*, watermelon, guava, pink grapefruit, papaya, red capsicum

*Unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, the processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes. For this reason, tomato paste is a preferable source as opposed to raw tomatoes.

2. Lutein

A yellow caretenoid pigment, most often linked to optimal vision (lessen macular degeneration or age-related vision loss) and skin health (protects the skin against UV damage and increases skin hydration and elasticity).

Found in: peaches, mango, oranges, prunes

3. Zeaxanthin

Found in many of the same food sources as lutein and is strongly linked to eye health (protects eyes by filtering out UV light and lessens the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration).

BOTH lutein & zeaxanthin are found in: spinach, kale, broccoli, peas, egg yolks, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kiwis, honeydew melon

4. Astaxanthin

A bright red pigment produced by microscopic plants such as algae, shown to enhance the immune system by increasing the number of anti-body producing cells.

An interesting fact: astaxanthin is unique in how it journeys into the human food chain. Many marine animals eat astaxanthin-rich algae which then becomes concentrated in their shells and flesh, giving them their red colour - this can vary in intensity.

Found in: salmon, trout, prawns, crayfish

5. Alpha & Beta carotene (α & β)

A rich red-orange pigment, classified as provitamin A compounds due to their conversion of retinol into an active form of vitamin A used by the body. Aside from providing your body with vitamin A, both α & β-carotenes protect cells from free radicals, enhance the immune system and support a healthy reproductive system.

β-carotene is the more powerful of the two, having twice the vitamin A activity than that of α. Research shows that β-carotene protects the skin by reducing the redness of UV-induced skin and improving melasma - a dark skin discolouration.

But too much intake of β-carotene can lead to carotenodermina - a yellow-orange discolouration of the skin, resulting in looking like an oompa-loompa! This is usually harmless and disappears once β-carotene intake returns to normal.

Found in: carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, coriander, silverbeet, spinach, rockmelon

All of these carotenoids can be obtained through numerous food sources. Keep in mind that due to their fat-soluble molecular make-up, carotenoids need to be ingested with a healthy fat for optimal absorption in the digestive tract. Adding extra-virgin olive oil or nuts to your meal can do the trick.

So here is my challenge to you - see how colourful you can make your next meal by including as many different carotenoid-rich foods as you can!

JW

References

• www.alive.com

Happy Birthday!

Today A Sense of Health celebrates its first birthday. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has read, supported and helped to spread the healthy word!

Just out of interest, here are some interesting stats for the last year:

• 32 articles written
• Most read article: The Phenomenon of Barefoot Running
• 1661 readers
• 44 different countries
• Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, US, Vietnam

So here's to the next year ahead. May it be a happy and healthy one!!!

JW

The Diet Dilemma

Today there was an article that appeared in The Age's Sunday Life magazine and The Sydney Morning Herald talking about the dilemmas of dieting. So if you thought losing weight was just about eating less then think again and keep reading!


Eat less, weigh less. Simple? Not quite.

By Nick Galvin

Losing weight is simple in principle. The rule of thumb has been that if you cut out 2100 kilojoules a day - the equivalent of two large lattes or a blueberry muffin - you will lose about half a kilo a week until you reach that magic number on the scales. Simple - but, as it turns out, probably way too simple.

It now appears that dietitians, doctors and others may have been getting it wrong all these years. There's a lot more to losing weight than just kilojoules in/kilojoules out.

Losing weight ... just reducing your food intake is not enough.

When you start to lose weight, your body slows down your metabolism. In other words, you use less energy for the same activities.

This reaction has its roots in our primitive past, says Professor Michael Cowley, director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute. "If you go on a diet, your body says, 'Aha, here is a famine', and it decreases energy expenditure, so you need less energy just to stay at that weight," he says. "This is probably because we evolved in conditions where famine was frequent, and if you had an appropriate physiological response to famine, you were more likely to survive and your genes got propagated."

The result is that if you stay on the same reduced-kilojoule diet, over time the gap between kilojoules in and kilojoules out narrows. In a paper published last year in The Lancet, researchers from the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) found that for a given weight-loss goal, half the loss would occur in the first year, but the remaining kilos would take another two years to lose.

Battling the bulge ... there's a lot more to losing weight than just kilojoules in/kilojoules out.

"The duration of diet you need to achieve meaningful weight loss is much longer than we used to think because there is a law of diminishing returns," says Cowley. "If you are only decreasing food intake, it will take a lot longer for that weight loss to occur because your body fights against it."

All this goes a long way towards explaining why so many dieters shed the first few kilos easily, then get discouraged because it gets harder to lose the rest of the weight (and then hit the nearest bag of chips out of frustration).

The NIDDK researchers also produced an online calculator that shows how many kilojoules you need to consume to lose a given amount of weight and how much you need to reduce your intake for good to maintain that goal weight.

The good news, however, is that it is possible to trick the body and override that primitive instinct to slow your metabolism in times of "famine". You guessed it: exercise.

The National Weight Control Registry is an American research project that tracks people who have lost a significant amount of weight (at least 30 pounds, or 13.6 kilograms) and, critically, kept it off for at least a year.

Researchers are interested in what these successful slimmers have done to keep the weight off. One common tactic is sticking to a regimented diet, but another, says Cowley, is that they "exercise like crazy" for more than an hour a day. "We think this is how they are dealing with the fact that although their body wants to decrease energy expenditure, they are forcing it to [burn energy] by running on the spot or whatever."

But even for those coming from a base of little or no exercise, that doesn't necessarily mean racing out to buy an expensive gym membership. Exercise physiologist John Felton, from The Exercise Clinic in Sydney's Crows Nest, says that, as well as prescribing an exercise plan, one of the things he focuses on are the "activities of daily living".

It is all too easy for people simply to stop moving enough. "If you are in a sedentary job or you have got yourself into a sedentary 'hole' - you come home in the afternoon and sit down and watch television - that sedentary life becomes self-fulfilling," says Felton. In essence, the less you move, the more difficult moving becomes.

Felton has clients wear an accelerometer for a week. The device monitors movement, from waking to going to bed, detecting spikes of energy and periods of inactivity. Incidental exercise can be as simple as doing the ironing or walking to a printer on the other side of the office.

"It doesn't have to be a lot of exercise as long as it keeps people moving during the day to cut down those big periods of sitting," he says. "It's very easy to double the amount of energy expenditure with those daily activities if you start off at a low level."

Another element, however, also contributes to the "plateau" effect in weight loss. Even as we get fitter, we often keep exercising at the same intensity rather than upping the effort and employing a training principle known as "progressive overload".

"A lot of time that is not adhered to," says Felton. "People will do their 40-minute or hour walk, and instead of looking for hills or aiming to maintain a heart rate, they do the same thing. If they maintain the same pace as they get fitter, their efficiency will improve and their heart rate will drop, so they will burn less energy as they do it."

In other words, you have to keep pushing yourself to get the benefit of the exercise as you get fitter.

And stay away from the muffins.

To view the article, click on the following link:
The Diet Dilemma, by Nick Galvin (The Sydney Morning Herald)

So after reading the article, I hope you now have a better understanding of how to (and how not to) lose weight and keep it off!

JW