BAC for Fitness

Welcome to this month’s BioNews.  We must learn to free ourselves from the control that others exert over us. As we learn we become FREE, we become powerful.  This pursuit of self defense in wellness, I call “The Martial Art of Wellness.” And as we practice we become Wellness Ninjas.

MARTIAL ART OF WELLNESS ( BAC for Fitness )

(Article contributed by Maria Landis, ND, CNC)

It’s a glorious day, the sun is shining, the winds are calm, the air is crisp and you breathe in the joy as you strap on your bicycle helmet and hear the click of your clips melding with your pedals.  And you are off!  Ah, the joy of being healthy!  Whether you are a weekend wellness warrior, a dedicated trained athlete or a newcomer to the fitness world, knowing how your nutritional intake affects your physical performance is crucial to your athletic success. Training your heart, building strength, and keeping your body limber and toned requires more than just exercise.  Today, we will touch upon the importance of the inflammation and the ATP Phase in muscle tissue recovery, and how Bio-Algae Concentrates (BAC) complements these processes.

Fitness Training and Regeneration

Fitness training breaks down your muscles, crushes your blood cells, stresses your nerves and if you do it right, makes you fitter and faster.  Your body is designed to naturally repair itself to be faster and stronger, but only if you help it recover, tapping into your body’s amazing ability to adapt and improve. Contrary to what you might think, resting is just as important as training.  If you train too hard or too often, there won’t be enough time for your body to regenerate.  Your body will deteriorate instead of improve.  It turns out that a proper recovery period after exercising is the key.   That’s your body’s time to regenerate.  To give your body the best conditions possible for recovery there are a few critical steps that we know you should take.

Cooling Down for Proper Recovery

Most people have heard that it is important to cool down after a workout.  With runners for example, cool down or active recovery is critical for removing metabolic waste like lactic acid.  As soon as the muscle and blood lactic acid levels are back to baseline, the muscles start using glucose to restock their energy store, basically giving you a full tank of muscle fuel. The sooner waste parts are removed, the faster your muscles will refuel and recover.  If you choose to recover passively by just sitting around, then the rate of lactic removal from your muscles will be extremely slow.  Your mitochondria will have to work much longer to process and eliminate the lactate.  In contrast, active recovery at a moderate intensity actually speeds up the removal of metabolic waste products.  So take 10 to 15 minutes at the end of your workouts to do some active recovery and you should feel much better, especially the next day.

The ATP Phase within the Mitochondria

The most important cellular metabolism is the fabrication of energy; the efficient transformation of nutrients in our foods into ATP during the “ATP Phase”.  ATP is short for adenosine triphosphate, which is used by the cells as a direct source of energy. ATP is made when you burn sugars and other nutrients, and your cells consume ATP when they engage in activities like building larger molecules and producing movement, and during athletic performance. Cells extract the chemical energy from various nutrient molecules like proteins, carbohydrates and proteins and use it to make ATP. The cells then break down ATP, releasing energy, as they engage in a variety of activities, explain Drs. Reginald Garrett and Charles Grisham in their book “Biochemistry.”  When food is consumed, the intestines absorb the nutrient molecules into the bloodstream. Cells then take these nutrients and chemically burn them to liberate energy. For example, one of the most important sources of cellular energy is glucose, a molecule that comes from starch and many dietary sugars. As the cells break down glucose, they use the energy liberated from breaking down a single molecule of glucose to make approximately 30 molecules of ATP.  Once a cell has made ATP, it can use it to fulfill any of its energy needs. Muscle cells use ATP to produce movement. When a muscle cell contracts, it uses large quantities of ATP to fuel the contraction.

Managing Inflammation for Proper Recovery

Previously, fitness science thought that the faster you could minimize inflammation in the body, the better the recovery.  More recently, researchers have found that the inflammatory response is a key part of the healing process that helps the body rebuild stronger after training.  When muscle fibers are damaged, microphages (a type of white blood cell) rush to the area to clean up the damaged tissue while the inflammatory process stimulates growth factor signal hormones for cells to grow new muscle fiber tissues and repair the damaged ones.  In the end you have newer and stronger muscle fiber. Make sure you are getting the most out of your workouts by focusing on your recovery and regeneration.  Do not inhibit the inflammatory process. Instead, give your body the food that it needs to fuel the process and speed healing naturally.  Plants, fruits and nuts are all great options.

Keys to successful recovery

• Take five minutes of active recovery after easy workouts like your long slow runs.
• Take 10 minutes of active recovery after moderate workouts like running hills
• Take 15 minutes of active recovery after hard workouts like intervals.
• Give your body the nutrients that play a key role in the athlete’s muscular development and recovery.

1.     A diet rich in whole foods,  grains, fruits and vegetables

2.     Choose whole foods over meal replacement bars and protein shakes.

3.     Healthy carbohydrates including oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, whole grain breads, fresh vegetables and fruits.

4.     Choose fats from ground flax, avocado, olive or safflower oil, natural peanut butter and almonds.

5.     Eat small snack-sized meals often to keep hunger in check and provide nutrition to working muscles.

6.     Eating at least every 3-4 hrs. prevents the body from turning to muscle for fuel.

BAC, Performance, Inflammation and Recovery

BAC has been proven to increase ATP production, improve protein synthesis, help maintain muscle mass, improve performance and recovery, and prevent injury from strenuous exercise in endurance athletes.

In addition to supplying an “extraordinary” array of nutrients, the principal value of consuming BAC is its ability to “awaken the genius within”. When BAC is consumed regularly, the mission critical organs of the brain (hypothalamus/pituitary axis), which regulate all metabolic activities, will operate more efficiently.  In turn you assimilate “vastly more” nutrients from your regular diet nourishing your body with the energy it requires for peak performance.

BAC contains spirulina algae, which is one of nature’s greatest sources of leucine. Leucine has successfully been used as a supplement for athletes looking to increase their muscle mass. It helps with muscle recovery by preventing muscle proteins from breaking down from the impact of hard exercise and by helping them to recover faster. There are hundreds of athletes of all kinds from all over the world that take BAC and that have reported an increase in strength and muscle.

Best of all, BAC is not a hormone, steroid or chemical and has been proven to be 100% safe. It has produced a variety of positive effects in a large number of scientific studies and has no known side effects. Listed below are just a few benefits of BAC as they relate to sports and athletic performance.

BAC taken after workouts helps the body rebuild, repair, and grow lean muscle mass. The more intensive the training, the more effective BAC seems to be, promoting fat burning, toning, lean mass building, increased stamina and strength.

BAC contains many antenna pigment carotenoids like beta carotene, lutein, lycopene which protects muscle tissue from free radical oxidative damage during exercise and also inhibits the secondary inflammatory response leading to increased muscle endurance.  BAC also contains astaxanthin, the king of carotenoids, which has been examined in many studies for its sports-nutrition applications, particularly with respect to endurance athletes. A 2002 study among Japanese track athletes found that after one month of daily astaxanthin supplementation, lactic acid buildup following a 1,200-metre run was reduced by nearly 29%.

Here is what a few of our athletes had to say:

Your product sure lives up to its name as a superfood! – “Just wanted to say thanks for all your support. It’s totally amazing how well Bio Algae works. My 2009 campaign is well under way. We have set a 50 and over Maine north to south record riding 390.2 miles in 31 hrs. (Fort Kent Maine on the Canadian border to the New Hampshire border in Kittery Maine). I’d like to say the weather was perfect but we encountered rain and fog so thick that visibility was down to 10-12 ft. for most of the first 8 hrs. Other than a brief thunderstorm and one wrong turn the rest of the ride was awesome. We raced in the Saratoga 24 hrs. over the weekend finishing 3rd overall making it to “the podium”; we rode a total of 368.7 miles averaging 15.37 miles per hr. Your product sure lives up to its name as a superfood. I’m able to recover quickly. I haven’t broken down staying healthy even when others around me are sick. My immune system stays strong, my joints and muscles recover quickly, and even in multi day rides where my daily sleep time is 2 hrs. or less I stay mentally alert.  The big test this year will be in Ireland in September, when we try and win the Race Around Ireland (1350 miles in 5 days or less) averaging 275 plus miles per day with less than 2 hrs. of rest per day. Best Regards.”

 – Stephen Bugbee, Ultra Racer – July 2009

Energy and Revitalization – “I believe that the path to Wellness is firstly a journey within. Eating disorders, depression, lymes; Olympians too have healing to do… Swimming in the vast sea of remedies, foods, and supplements available to us today can be very confusing. I’ve not found anything yet to bring me as much energy and revitalization as BAC. I feel blessed to have come across Dr. Kiriac’s formula to help give my brain and body the food that it needs!” – Catherine Garceau, Olympic Medalist, Sydney 2000

Less Fatigue and Pain – “I am very pleased with Bio-Algae Concentrates. It has really helped turn around my chronic fatigue. I have an even level of energy all day and can exercise without having excess pain. “- Beverly M., California

Fitness is a 24 hour affair

So remember that what you do after the workout is just as important as what you do during the workout.  BAC is a highly efficient energy food!  If you find you need a little extra energy to get through your workout, eating a few more capsules of BAC just may give you the strength and endurance you need.  And BAC is known to dramatically increase recovery and prevention of injuries caused by inflammation.

MARTIAL ART OF WELLNESS (Fruits and Veggies with Most Pesticides)

How to Keep Your Food Pesticide Exposure to a Minimum

Contrary to popular belief, simply washing with water and peeling fruit and vegetables is not enough to protect yourself and your family from pesticides. It will reduce the levels somewhat, but it will not eliminate them. In fact, the fruit and vegetable rankings below have taken washing and typical preparation into account (such as peeling of bananas) before being tested for pesticides.

You really don’t want to peel fruits and veggies like apples and potatoes because the skins contain a lot of the nutrients and antioxidants.

The 20 Fruits and Veggies With the MOST Pesticides

These are the ones that you should always buy organic, if possible. If you do buy conventional versions of the following produce, please be sure to wash them thoroughly (organic produce, of course, should also be washed just in case). These are ranked in order by EWG, with the worst of the bunch, peaches, at #1.

Peaches tend to have the most pesticides of any fruit or vegetable … so if possible buy these organic.

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Grapes (Imported)
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green Beans
15. Hot Peppers
16. Cucumbers
17. Raspberries
18. Plums
19. Grapes (Domestic)
20. Oranges

The 20 Fruits and Veggies With the LEAST Amount of Pesticides

According to EWG, the following produce has the lowest pesticide load, ranked in order with the produce with the absolute lowest pesticides first.

1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet corn (Frozen)
4. Pineapples
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet peas (Frozen)
8. Kiwi
9. Bananas
10. Cabbage
11. Broccoli
12. Papaya
13. Blueberries
14. Cauliflower
15. Winter Squash
16. Watermelon
17. Sweet potatoes
18. Tomatoes
19. Honeydew melon
20. Cantaloupe

Additionally, mostly organic greens food products that contain organic ingredients are also a safe way to get the high antioxidant benefits of fruits and vegetables.