Reviews

Arnold Schwarzenegger Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding

This is a must-have for anyone who wants to build muscle. With over 700 pages of densely-packed bodybuilding tips, and over 850 photographs, this book towers above all the others I've read. I bought my hardback copy through Amazon, can't remember what I paid, definitely under £20, worth every penny.

(Footnote: In the late 1960's, Arnold Schwarzenegger came to east London, and met Wag Bennett, who ran a bodybuilding gym on Romford Road in Forest Gate, London E7. This was a life-changing relationship for fresh-faced 19 year old Arnold, who went to live with Wag and his wife Dianne (who Arnold fondly recalls as his British parents) after meeting them at London's Mr Universe bodybuilding competition in 1966. Wag trained Arnold, essentially became his personal trainer and mentor, while Dianne looked after his nutrition and improved his English. By day he trained in their gym, at night he slept on the sofa in their living room. When I met Wag shortly before he died, he told me about the young Arnie, and spelt out the secret of Arnie's success in a single sentence: "Most people only have willpower, but Arnold had want-power". In other words, if your desire is strong enough, you can achieve anything.)

Food Hospital (channel 4, Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 8pm)

Tonight's episode featured a man with gout, Debbie with depression, Tristan with eczma, and Suzie with selective eating disorder.

Gout is where a compound in foods called purins, cause acid build-up, which then enters the bloodstream as uric acid, and attacks the joints, particularly the knees and ankles. High purin foods include red meat, game, shellfish, and alcohol, especially beer. The team recommended eliminating these foods, and eating plenty of vegetables, high vitamin C fruits, tofu, hummus, and seeds. After 8 weeks, the gout-sufferer's symptoms were significantly relieved, and his LDL cholesterol score went down from 5.3 to 3.7.

Debbie was recommended to combat her depression with an increase of tryptophan, an amino acid which helps make serotonin, a hormone which helps improve mental health for those suffering depression and mood swings. Foods rich in tryptophan include brown rice, couscous, oily fish, eggs and cheese. After 8 weeks on this diet, Debbie's depression was significantly reduced, and she was able to come off anti-depressants.

Tristan suffered from eczema, a painful and itchy skin condition which causes hardened, red, bumpy, flaky skin. When scratched, this leaves the sufferer open to infection. It's most common around the knees, elbows, ankles, and hands. Tristan weighed 34.5 stone, with a BMI of 64 (a BMI over 50 is classed as super morbid obesity). With a diet restricted to 2,000 calories a day, with plenty of fresh fruit and veg, fish, complex carbs, and no more refined foods, Tristan lost 3 stone in 8 weeks. Although his eczema was undiminished, the team was confident that continued weight-loss and healthy eating would relieve his symptoms.

Suzie's selective eating consisted of pancakes and chocolate, and nothing else. She was consuming just 800 calories a day, under half the recommended minimum amount for women. Her restricted diet had left her chronically malnourished, with a body composition of under 20% fat, and deficient in iron and calcium, and a range of other vitamins and minerals. Left unchecked, she risked osteoporosis, infections, and organ damage. By slowly reintroducing a range of healthy foods, Suzie's deficiencies were addressed, and her muscle mass and fat composition increased to more healthy levels.

This week's show also looked at detox diets, to see if they were healthy. The expert (George Grimble of Reading University) concluded that they were fad diets with no real benefit to health, which led to destructive behaviour, and the healthy approach is not to binge in the first place, and eat healthily all the time.

Food Hospital (channel 4, Tuesday 15th November 2011, 8pm)

This week's episode saw someone with Crohn's disease, a morbidly obese teenage girl, a man with 'night eating syndrome', and a man with low sperm count.

There are 60,000 people with Crohn's disease in the UK. This chronic auto-immune disorder of the digestive tract (which runs from the mouth to the anus) mainly affects the bowels. The lining of the intestines get damaged and you can't absorb food effectively. It leads to painful cramps and bloating.

We met Laura, who has flare-ups once a month, which are treated by steroids. When the next flare-up occurred, the Food Hospital experts took her off the steroids and with the help of Addenbrooks Hospital, prescribed a special diet of 8 high-nutrition liquid feeds a day, for ease of absorbtion. Phase 2 was the introduction of a limited range of foods (low fat and low fibre), such as fish, soya, skinless fruit and veg, and white rice. Phase 3 was the steady introduction of other foods, to see the effects, and progressively adding more foods. By the end of the 8 week trial, Laura's symptoms were significantly relieved. Conclusion: a food-based treatment like this could send a case of Crohn's into remission.

The morbidly obese teen, Frankee, who weighed 170kg (27 stone), with a BMI (body mass index) of 58, was given a gastric bypass. This is a more radical procedure than a gastric band, because with a gastric bypass the stomach is permanently shrunk, and the intestines are reconnected to the smaller part of the stomach. This is more effective as the patient cannot cheat by eating liquidised food, which is what gastric band patients are able to do, as the band merely slows the passage of food from the upper part of the stomach to the lower part.

After the surgery, Frankee stuck to her new diet of small healthy meals, supplements of calcium, iron and vitamin D, and no more fizzy drinks or junk food, and managed to lose 15kg in 8 weeks.

The night eating syndrome patient, Daniel aged 46, succumbed to his cravings for stodgy food and biscuits every night. The Food Hospital team prescribed a meal of wholewheat pasta before bed, to ensure a slow release of carbs through the night, which cured his night-time cravings, by keeping his melatonin levels high during the night. As a result he was less tired during the day, and he started to lose weight too.

The guy with low sperm count was prescribed antioxidant foods such as oranges, blueberries, and zinc rich foods such as oats, seeds and red meat. We learnt that fruits such as apples and bananas are lower in antioxidants, which is evident when they're chopped up and exposed to the air for any length of time, as they soon discolour due to oxidation. After 8 weeks of this new diet, his sperm count improved, as did the mobility of his sperm (swimming skills!), and the DNA quality of his sperm.

The Food Hospital is conducting a national insomnia study, where half the participants drink cherry juice and the other half drink hot milk (2 x 250ml: once in the morning, once in the evening), to see which is more effective in reducing insomnia. It will be Britain's largest scale insomnia study, and viewers are encouraged to go to the Food Hospital website and take part.

The programme also looked at the effectiveness of commercial sports drinks to boost performance in endurance sports. The tests (75 min exercise bike at 65% capacity, then as long as you can go at 90% capacity) showed sports drinks boosted performance by 10 to15%. But the main conclusion was that you can make your own sports drink for around a tenth of the price of big brand sports drinks, by mixing glucose powder and a small pinch of salt with water.

Food Hospital (channel 4, Tuesday 8th November 2011 at 8pm)

Tonght's episode was as packed with great content as the first one (see below). This is one of the best nutrition programmes I've seen on TV.

We met a boy called Callum who suffered from severe psoriasis, an inflammatory skin-condition. He had itchy sores all over his body, and flaking skin. The experts recommended he cut out sugar, fried food, biscuits, cakes, pasteries. His new diet, devised by the experts to relieve his psoriasis, included anti-inflammatory foods such as oily fish, avocados, nuts, and turmeric. After 8 weeks on this new diet, Callum's psoriasis was dramatically improved.

We then met Rianna, who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, and also an auto-immune form of alopecia which caused patchy hair-loss. These two conditions were seemingly unrelated, but the experts felt that stress might be the underlying cause of both. After a course of pro-biotic supplements, her IBS had reduced dramatically, and re-growth of hair had begun.

After the adverts, we met Sophie who suffered from reflux, a nasty condition where the valve at the top of the stomach does not close properly, and stomach acid comes up the gullet (food pipe, or esphagus) and into the throat. Sophie is a singer, so this condition was seriously affecting her career, as she was vomiting on-stage, and the acid corrosion of her vocal chords (from the hydrochloric acid in her stomach, which are the normal digestive juices) was limiting her upper range of singing.

The experts recommended she cut out alcohol, caffeine, fizzy drinks, red meat, chocolate, and change her habit of irregular eating times and big meals before bed. Her new 'food medicine' diet consisted of plenty of vegetables, particularly green leafy veg like spinach (rich in beta-carotene), berries, fetta cheese, and raw brocolli (high in sulforaphane, a potent antioxidant which kills free radicals in the body). After 8 weeks on this new diet, her reflux had disappeared, and her vocal range was almost restored.

We also met a man in his 40's with obesity and in particular a fatty liver, a dangerous condition where the liver becomes bloated with fat and cannot function effectively. Given that the liver performs over 500 vital functions in the body, including neutralising toxins, fatty liver disease is no joke. It can lead to scarring of the liver (liver cirrhosis), an irreversible condition which severely restricts liver function. After 8 weeks on the new healthy diet devised by the experts, his liver had shrunk back to near normal size, with impressive weight-loss too. All the junk food he'd been eating was replaced by plenty of fruit and veg, and low glycemic index foods such as lentils and wholewheat pasta (which release glucose slowly and provide a steady stream of energy throughout the day, rather than refined foods with high GI which cause radical insulin reactions).

The show also took a look at the nation's obsession with vitamin supplements, and concluded that we're much better off eating a healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals from food. Taking vitamin pills is no substitute for a healthy diet, the experts said. They conceded that heavy smokers and heavy drinkers should take a multivitamin daily until they are able to quit these damaging habits.

 Food Hospital is well worth watching, packed with useful information in a really entertaining format.

Food Hospital (channel 4, Tuesday 1st November 2011, 8pm)

The theme of this programme is 'food as medicine' and it proved how powerful food can be to relieve a range of illnesses and conditions. Our western society is so dependent on drugs to cure symptoms, that we forget the power of food to relieve conditions like migraine, polycystic overies, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and even lower the risk of cancer.

We meet Lauren, 19 stone, with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). Her diet of crisps, chocolate and white bread has sent her insulin levels sky-high. This has triggered excessive testosterone levels (a score of 7, compared to 1.8 for an average woman her age). The resulting symptoms are hair growth on the face and stomach, acne, and an irregular menstural cycle. After 8 weeks of healthy eating, her weight has dropped significantly, and her symptoms are much reduced.

Healthy eating has an even more profound effect on Harvey, a kid with severe migraines three to four times a week. He's been on medication since the age of four, and its effect has steadily diminished over time. By cutting out all processed foods, additives, peanuts, chocolate, citrus fruit and full fat milk (he switched to skimmed), his migraines disappeared.

We then meet Chris with type 2 diabetes brought on by years of inactivity and junk food. His symptoms include excess weight (24 stone), constant thirst and urinating, and tingling toes (the medical term is periphoral neuropathy, which can lead to serious damage to the feet and toes, and in extreme cases amputation). After 8 weeks on a healthy diet with plenty of fruit and veg, lean protein, complex carbs, and no junk food, he'd lost 2.5 stones and his blood sugar was down from 8.5 to 3.9.

These three case studies show the massive impact your food choices have on your health and wellbeing. As a personal trainer in London with clients who have managed to reduce the severity of a range of medical conditions after a few months of healthy eating and regular exercise, I know first hand how true this is.

Fitness For Life Manual (by Matt Roberts)

London celebrity personal trainer Matt Roberts has produced a number of fitness books and DVD's, but one of his best is Fitness For Life Manual, published back in 2002. Matt Roberts is well known for his high-end London personal training studios, the latest being at Jack Straws Castle in Hampstead. And among his TV appearances, you'll probably remember seeing footage of him jogging through one of London's parks with a personal training client such as Samantha Cameron, the prime minister's wife.

I bought this book when I began my personal training career in London, and it proved to be a handy memory-jogger for all the crucial basics of fitness knowledge. If you're looking for a book that covers both exercise and nutrition, this is a good buy. There's a particularly good section on stretching, together with step-by-step photos, which is often glossed over in fitness books.

And of course, being a Matt Roberts creation, it is beautifully produced, with great layout and gorgeous photos.

"As a personal trainer, I believe it's important to understand how your body responds to exercise - that way you can set yourself realistic goals and actually work with your body to achieve them."

Matt Roberts.

Suggestions Please - What to Review?

Do you have a favourite sports club or fitness club in London you think is worthy of a review?

Or a favourite eating place which serves plenty of healthy and nutritious options?

London has plenty of all of these, so let me know.

And if you've read a fitness or nutrition book that you think other Fitness4London visitors would find interesting, let me know and I'll review that.