ELEV8 Me! welcomes our California based online distributor: Prolithic.com

Prolithic.com is the original online source for nutrition & Gear for Outdoor Athletes E-Commerce Specialist Since 1994
PH: 800-969-6199 or 530-938-2900

ProLithic Sports offers the finest sports nutrition and gear for athletes and those aspiring to a life of health and fitness. Sports Nutrition, Energy Foods and Supplements: We offer sports nutrition and supplements based on real science plus we institute a "clean food" policy - we will not sell any food that may contain questionable ingredients. We do the research so you can shop with confidence. We have the big names; GU, Power Bar, Clif and Luna Bar, but also check us out for lesser known products such as ReBar and Super Nutrition. In the supplement department we offer proven nutritionals from glucosamine to the daily multi-vitamin.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The average North American consumes the equivalent of nearly two teaspoons of salt every day, almost double the upper limit for good health.

And before anyone protests about hardly touching the salt shaker, consider: The vast majority of that sodium is hidden inside common foods, from spaghetti sauce to frozen dinners. Now public health specialists are pressuring food manufacturers and restaurants to cut the salt, because too much sodium is bad for your blood pressure -- and high blood pressure hurts your heart, brain and kidneys. Reduced-sodium alternatives are rare in grocery aisles. A Food and Drug Administration effort to ratchet down the sodium in some foods the salt-conscious might choose -- those labeled "healthy" -- has largely stalled. Manufacturers argue it's hard to change the recipe but keep the taste.

On one thing do food makers and health critics agree: Making our food supply less salty will require consumer demand, and so far that has focused mostly on trimming the fat. "There's only so much people can worry about when it comes to food," said nutritionist Bonnie Liebman of the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest. "But the fact is high blood pressure rates are going up, the evidence that salt raises blood pressure has only gotten stronger, and people need to hear that message."

Being overweight and inactive are the major culprits for high blood pressure, but too much salt plays a role, too. The 50 million Americans with hypertension are advised to eat a low-sodium diet, about 1,500 milligrams a day. For healthy people, the government recommends no more than 2,400 mg of sodium daily, the equivalent of a heaping teaspoon of salt. But the average American eats over 4,000 mg a day -- three-quarters of it from processed food and restaurant meals, says Dr. Stephen Havas of the University of Maryland. Time-crunched families depend on the convenience of processed foods, so the American Public Health Association, backed by dozens of other health and medical groups, issued a challenge to the industry: Cut in half the sodium in those foods over the next 10 years.

 

Cheryl Clock CanWest News Service

ST. CATHARINES, ONT. - If nothing else, remember these two words: hydrogenated and shortening. It may just save your life one day.

It's called trans fat. And it's been around for decades. It's worse than the much vilified saturated fats. And it's hit the news recently after Kraft announced it was reformulating many of its products to counter obesity and lawsuits. Seems now everyone is talking trans. Trans fats pack a double whammy. They're not only bad because they raise the bad cholesterol and lower the good, but they're found in virtually any processed food. Waffles, french fries, cookies, crackers and chips. You name it, there's likely trans fat in it. It's disguised on many product ingredient lists. Just look for the words hydrogenized and shortening.

Scientifically speaking, they increase our total cholesterol as well as our LDL (or bad) cholesterol. In fact, pretty much any oil that's solid at room temperature is bad. If it originated from an animal, it's a no-no. Likewise, any oil that's liquid at room temperature -- canola, olive, grape seed, etcetera -- is called unsaturated and is not so bad for us. While there are some exceptions, usually anything derived from a plant source (seeds, nuts, grains) is good. Unsaturated fats (both mono and poly), tend NOT to raise blood cholesterol and have some other health benefits. So why, then, couldn't the food industry simply switch to those healthy, liquid oils? Simply put, they just wouldn't work. They can't be easily cut into pastry or flour. They don't spread well. And when they're heated to high temperatures, they tend to smoke. They also deteriorate faster than butter and lard and consequently reduce the shelf life of a product.

So, what to do? Enter the process of hydrogenation. Food scientist types decided to bubble hydrogen gas through liquid oils -- and voila, they turned solid. A new era in food production had begun. Margarine was born to replace butter, shortening to replace lard. Throughout the 1960s, margarine had its heyday. The food industry was happy. And health conscious consumers were happy. Until, that is, someone discovered a big problem. In the hydrogenation process, some of the good fats turned into those bad saturated fats. But of more significance, the process had created a fat with a chemical structure never seen before. A trans fat. No one had anticipated all this. Research suggests that trans fats pack double the trouble of their saturated cousins. Worse still, seems trans fats are found pretty much in every commercially produced food we eat. If it needs to be flaky, crisp, fried, spread, cut into flour or have a long shelf life, it likely has trans fats. The list is long: pizza crusts, french fries, crackers, potato chips, waffles, cookies, popcorn, some margarines, shortening to name only a few.

So, how do we tell which foods contain trans fats? While it will get easier thanks to Health Canada's new regulations on product nutrition labels, companies have from three to five years to make the changes. The new nutrition labels will be called Nutrition Facts. They will have a consistent format and provide information on a variety of nutrients, including trans fats. And unlike the old system in which nutritional labelling was mostly optional, Health Canada will make it mandatory along with the already mandatory ingredient lists. The new regulations came into effect in January and there are already some products using the new labels, which clearly indicate amounts of trans fats.

HOW TO FIND TRANS FATS UNDER THE OLD SYSTEM
1. Look for the ingredient list.
2. Ingredients are listed from most to least by weight. Look for the words hydrogenated or shortening (as in hydrogenated vegetable oil or vegetable oil shortening) at the top of the list. The higher up the list, the more trans fat.
3. To cross reference, look for the chart called Nutrition Information.

Stephanie Childs, spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, said the change will help consumers. "When you turn (a product) over to look at the nutrition table, you're going to see one new line -- trans fat -- directly under saturated fat. It's as simple as that," she said. The FDA also is considering putting a warning on foods that have trans fat -- a move that consumer groups support. But manufacturers argue that a warning would confuse consumers and cause them to eat more saturated fat, which also is unhealthy.

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By Robert Bazell NBC NEWS

A YEAR AGO, Atkins almost died when his heart stopped. Soon after he left the hospital, he appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to point out the cause of his heart problem was an infection — not coronary artery disease from his diet, as his critics had claimed. “So what are they going to say now, that they know I don’t have any blockages? What are they going to say now, that this is an infectious disease? They’re going to have to say, ‘Oh, we could have — we should have kept our mouth shut,’” Atkins said on the show. Atkins certainly had plenty of critics, including most of the medical establishment, who said his diet could lead to all kinds of health problems. But for almost three decades, Atkins persisted, arguing that carbohydrates, such as sugar, bread and pasta, are the true evils of the U.S. diet. “Carbohydrates really can contribute to the formation of fat, and ... the restriction of carbohydrates can allow for a person to lose weight,” Atkins said. In recent years, with the epidemic of obesity in the United States growing ever worse, some of his critics have taken a second look at the Atkins diet. A small study presented last November at an American Heart Association meeting showed that the Atkins diet helped people lose more weight over six months than did a low-fat diet — and that it did not raise cholesterol or blood fat. Atkins called his approach a diet revolution. The revolution is really the urging of the populace to give a second thought as to this old hackneyed idea about counting calories in order to lose weight,” said Atkins. Many millions have tried the Atkins diet, but the controversy about whether it is a safe way to lose weight and whether it works in the long run will likely continue long after Atkins’ death.

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"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.

- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960"

Dear Flabby,
How can I reduce the flab underneath my arms without doing any work?
- G. Howler - Knoxville, TN

Dear G.

Hmm, yuck. Visualizing you naked makes me cringe, and I don't even know your gender. I wish you luck with your non-efforts to lose weight but have no patience for your laziness. Work is truly its own reward G.

For the less lazy, please try 3 sets of reverse tricep curls starting with 5lbs and increasing 2lbs per 10 days. Kneel on a bench and extend your arm backwards and parallel to the floor, raising and lowering the weight 10 times per set.

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