Month: August 2017

What’s On The Menu – Pasture Raised Chicken: Is It Worth It?

I, like many of you, am faced with a variety of chicken choices when I go to the grocery store each week. Do I buy organic, free-range, pasture raised or conventionally raised? The choices seem to be growing by the year, but is one superior to the other?

Much like beef, I believe that chickens raised in a way that closely resembles the lives their wild ancestors live (e.g. 24/7 access to open pastures & ability to forge for insects and other food sources) provides a better animal welfare situation than that of birds caged in confined quarters.

When looking into potential environmental impacts of pasture raised chickens, the research is mixed. Some individuals contend that pasture raised chickens take more resources to produce (source) while other cite the facts that these chickens eliminate the need for fertilizer and their food sources don’t require any herbicides to produce (source).

Those aspects are important to consider when purchasing your chicken, but the main goal of this week’s menu spotlight is to determine if pasture raised chicken is nutritionally superiority to its conventional counterpart.

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Let’s take a quick look at the macronutrients contained in both pasture & conventionally raised chicken. One cup of a roasted chicken breast contains 231 calories, 43 grams (g) of protein, 5 g of fat and 0 g of carbs. It should be noted that different parts of the chicken, skin-on or skin-off, contain different nutritional values. No matter what part of the chicken you prefer, they all contain a substantial amount of protein.

To determine which one is nutritional superior, were going to have to look at their respective micronutrients. Luckily, the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA) performed a study in 2013 comparing the micronutritional difference between pasture raised and non-pasture raised chickens. The results of their study showed that pasture raised chickens were higher in vitamin D3 and E, both of which are important to mitigating auto immune diseases.

The APPPA study also discovered that the pasture raised chicken contained an omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acid ratio of 5:1 while the standard 6:3 ratio for conventionally raised chicken is 15:1 (source). This is important because recent research suggest that foods containing large amounts of omega 6’s (e.g. vegetable oils & fast food) could lead to inflammatory disease like cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer, and more (source).

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After looking at the preliminary evidence, I have reached a verdict: pasture raised chicken is nutritional superior. Yes, a pasture raised chicken from the store or a local farmer could cost 2-3 times more than a conventionally raised chicken, but like the old saying goes “You get what you pay for.” If chicken is one of your primary protein sources, and you are interested in optimizing your nutrition, you may want to think about forking over the extra dough.

If you’re a regular consumer of pasture raised chicken, I’d love to hear some of your go to recipes. One of my favorite recipes that uses chicken, pasture raised or not, is chicken pot pie soup (recipe link). I skip the pie crust and do my best to use gluten-free ingredients, but I highly recommed you do yourself a favor and make it tonight! Feel free to send a pic of your delicious chicken recipe to us on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) or you can email it to elementaltampa@gmail.com.

You can also take advantage of the complimentary fitness consultations we’re currently offering by emailing us. Whether you need advice on nutrition or just want workout tips, I’d be happy to set up an appointment with you to discuss how you can improve your fitness.

Addicted to Fitness Show Notes – Zero Calorie Beverage Taste Test

Nick and I start this week’s podcast off with a couple announcements that are likely familiar to any of our regular listeners.

First off, Nick is still offering a complimentary fitness evaluation and all you have to do is email him at elementaltampa@gmail.com.

If you enjoy our podcast and want to show some love, we have a great opportunity for you! Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay 2017 is open for voting until August 23rd and Addicted to Fitness is a finalist for Best Local Podcast (under the People, Places & Politics category).

In terms of our training recap for the week, Nick and I talk about a pair of group fitness classes that we were both involved in over the last week. I did my very first assisting class, which is part of the requirements for my yoga teacher training, by jumping in to help a group of 50 people of different experience levels. It was actually a terrific experience and once I got past the initial nerves, I really enjoyed helping people find proper alignment and offering some hands on adjustments to those who wanted it.

Nick on the other hand actually got thrown into leading a section of a kickboxing class at Title Boxing in Tampa, where he’s been looking into the possibility of teaching classes. Minus being completely new to the Britney-Spears-headset, he admitted that he got right into the 30-min drills on the kickboxing bags that he led. Stay tuned for whether he’ll be debuting his training skills at Title Boxing in future!

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For this week’s episode, Nick had told me that he really wanted to do a taste test, which was just fine with me! We took on a taste test of zero calorie “naturally” sweetened beverages.

You’ll have to listen for the full initial reactions and reviews on each of the three drinks we tried, but here’s a quick recap:

  • Perrier with Lime – Classic mineral water with loads of bubbles and a clean, refreshing lime flavor. We both agreed it was a win, with its natural flavors, if you like bubbles. I even suggested it might make a good mixer for the bar!
  • Zevia – The Mountain flavor was sweetened with stevia and smelled a lot like Sprite. The taste, however, was all stevia. Neither Nick or I could really get past the “blanket mouth” aftertaste that it left behind.
  • Steaz – A half-and-half green tea, lemonade combo that mentioned its zero calorie benefit three times on the front of the can (clearly they wanted to get the point across). Not nearly as bubbly as the other two, this beverage was a hit for both Nick and I. The major sweetener was erythritol, which we’d explored in a previous podcast (check out Episode 29 – the interview with CEO of Swerve, Andress Blackwell).

There are loads of other zero calorie drinks on the market, but these were just a few that we thought would be good to review. Please let us know if you’re a fan of a particular beverage in this category so we can give it a try.

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Also, we called it out early on in this week’s episode but always end with an invitation to share your feedback and ideas for future podcast episodes with us. Message us on social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) or email. We’d love to hear from you!

Until next week’s episode, have a great one!

Links for this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/zero-calorie-beverage-taste-test/id1121420986?i=1000390742956&mt=2

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nick-burch-702220833/zero-calorie-beverage-taste

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/zero-calorie-beverage-taste-test

Weekend Workout – Your Core Is Much More Than A 6-Pack

A lot of people think when they see someone with 6-pack abs that they have a strong core, but that might not necessarily be true. Your rectus abdominis muscles make up your 6-pack, but to improve core strength you need to perform exercises that strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, obliques, transversus abdominis, erector spinae and more. Below is an example of a workout that will strengthen your ENTIRE core and help you get that highly coveted 6-pack.

I recommend performing five 10 rep supersets of this workout. Don’t forget to warmup and modify the workout to match your fitness level. Let us know in the comment section below if you completed this or any weekend workout. ENJOY!

Weekend Workout (5)

What’s On The Menu – More Than Just The Freshmaker

How did mint become the go-to car air freshener scent? Was it good marketing? Did people like how that green leaf looked hanging from their rear view mirror?

It’s visual appeal could be a possible reason but I think it has more to do with how the scent affects our biology. A study performed in the early 2000s found that the smell of peppermint actually affected the amount of anxiety, fatigue and physical demand experienced by drivers on prolonged trips in the car. The study suggested that “periodic administration of (peppermint) odors over long-term driving may prove beneficial in maintaining alertness and decreasing highway accidents and fatalities” (source). Cognitive benefits are just the start to the positive health benefits of this refreshing herb.

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I constantly tell you about the high antioxidant content of certain fruits and vegetables, but I don’t seem to give as much recognition to herbs. Shame on me because mint, which is a broad term for 15-20 different species, contains one of the highest antioxidant capacity of any food. One particular antioxidant contained in mint, rosmarinic acid, has been shown to be an effective natural treatment for seasonal allergies. Also, if you already have the sniffles due to the common cold, menthol contained within mint plants has been long regarded as a natural decongestant because of its ability to break up phlegm and mucus (source).

The benefits of mint not only alleviate cold like symptoms, they can also help prevent you from getting a cold or some other type of infection. Peppermint oil has been shown to stop the growth of certain types of fungus and bacteria including the nasty MRSA. It’s also a good source of vitamin C, which can help improve the performance of our immune system (source). Speaking of performance, mint may be the PED all athletes can use without fear of getting busted.

I already mentioned one study that demonstrated how peppermint enhanced the performance of drivers, but can it do the same for athletes? A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Medicine in 2013 discovered that individuals that ingested a minute amount of peppermint essential oil displayed improvements in exercise performance, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and several other related categories. The researchers believe that these improvements were due to the herb’s ability to relax bronchial smooth muscles, increase ventilation & brain oxygen concentrations and decrease blood lactate levels (source). That means that if you can run and chew gum at the same time, you may have a leg up on your competition.

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I always try to chew gum while working out, except for disciplines that require me to wear a mouthpiece (e.g. kickboxing, grappling, etc.). I’m sure it helps me concentrate but I use it mainly to prevent dry mouth. I use the crappy sugar-free stuff you get at the grocery store, which is peppermint flavored but I doubt has any real peppermint in it. Maybe I’ll perform a little experiment on yours truly to see if ingesting peppermint essential oil has a beneficial effect on my workout performance. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear how you like to incorporate mint into your diet. I enjoy throwing a handful of mint leaves into a tall glass of club soda with lime, essentially making a non-alcoholic mojito. Please feel free to share your minty fresh recipes with us on our social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) or email them to elementaltampa@gmail.com.

You can also take advantage of the free fitness consultations I’m currently offering by emailing me.

Last but not least, we’d really appreciate it if you vote for Addicted to Fitness for the “best local podcast” in the Creative Loafing Best of the Bay contest. Click the following link to cast your vote. Thanks!