Southern travels....

We have just returned from a wonderful 5-week vacation to South America where we had lots of time to reflect on the differences and similarities in culture, food, music, clothing, people and customs.  We quickly noticed that really no one was overweight ….and obesity was non-existent, except for the North American tourists!  We realize that a few short weeks (as tourists) in another culture is not a scientific sampling that will lead to any type of conclusions as to their whether or not their lifestyle choices make a difference or not.  However, we made the following observations:

·       Everyone walks everywhere.  Even if you have a vehicle, parking is a premium so public transportation is available everywhere …and then you walk to where you need to go.  Grocery stores sell their products in small quantities because when you’re walking, you can’t carry 16 rolls of toilet paper!  Daily trips for groceries are common – along with side-trips to get your meat/poultry and fresh produce.

·       Where are the Doritos!  Although hard candies were sold and ice cream (gelato) shops were abundant, “junk food” was not.  You could find plain potato chips in stores but they were sold is small bags at not located right at the check-outs.  Dorito-style flavoured chips were nowhere to be found, nor was super-sized soda drinks.  Coca cola is everywhere, but in “normal” sized bottles and glasses.  We did see a few McDonald restaurants but they weren’t busy …we were told that they are the place to go for breakfast when the nightclubs close down at 5 am.

·       No take-out?  Yes, Starbucks were scattered throughout the cities and you can get take-out there.  Colombia has Juan Valdez coffee shops that differ from Starbucks only in name.  However, take-out wasn’t available anywhere else.  People enjoy sitting down to eat or drink or enjoy their morning cappuccino.

·       Meat and more meat.  Being a vegetarian might be a challenge in South America.  Red meat (pork and beef) is abundant and serving sizes of meat portions was generous.  We found splitting an entrée was sufficient when meat was involved.  Fish is available also – but Argentina’s free-range carne is famous for a reason – wonderful flavour!

·       Red wine flows constantly.  Chile and Argentina are famous for their wines – mostly reds but many good whites as well.  And wine is cheap – cheaper than soda pop in most areas.  Rarely do you see a meal eaten without vino, yet we didn’t see any drunks either.  Seems the combination of wine, meat and good conversation with friends is magical!

Really no conclusions can be made from our brief observations other than walk lots (get your exercise), avoid junk food (make healthy eating choices) and a bit of wine won’t hurt you (ah…that’s what I wanted to hear!). 

South America was an awesome experience – I hope many of you choose to visit there in the future, in particular Buenos Aires.  Brush up on your Spanish before you go – English is not spoken or understood in many areas but hand-gestures and poor translations leads to laughter and that’s healthy too!

hmmmm.....Coffee!

Coffee is a very popular drink among athletes. Some of the reason for this is cultural -- the get-together after training, for example. Apart from the fact that coffee is obviously a popular drink, tastes good, and seems to contribute to a feeling of well-being and energy for many people, the health and performance benefits of coffee drinking may be due to the stimulant caffeine and other naturally-occurring plant constituents.

Caffeine as an Performance Supplement

Caffeine is one of the sports performance supplements recognized as safe and effective at the recommended doses. Caffeine is not banned or listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency for sport. The reasons caffeine helps is not altogether clear, but it may be to do with delaying neural/brain fatigue -- that is, you don't feel fatigue or pain as early as you would without the caffeine dose. Also, caffeine may provide direct muscle performance effects. The early theory that caffeine enhances fat burning seems to have been discounted as a performance mechanism in athletes. Caffeine does seem to boost performance in the longer endurance events like marathons and triathlons, but has limited benefit in competition in power sports like sprints, or even bodybuilding and weight lifting. However, caffeine may still provide benefit for athletes in these power sports by allowing them to train harder. Caffeine's ability to reduce the "rate of perceived exertion" (RPE) associated with pain and discomfort is likely to enhance high-volume training ability.

In addition, coffee/caffeine may give some trainers and competitors a feeling of well-being and power -- after all, it is an effective brain and adrenal stimulant -- although an effect may be more psychological than physiological and the line between the two can be blurred.

Health Effects of Coffee

In a range of human health studies, coffee and caffeine have been associated with possible prevention of various diseases, with few adverse effects in healthy people up to 3-4 cups a day, averaging around 400 milligrams of caffeine. (In pregnancy, perhaps half this to reflect some uncertainty about caffeine and miscarriage.)

Possible Health Benefits of Coffee

·         Lowers risk of type 2 diabetes

·         Protects against liver disease

·         Protects against Parkinson's disease

·         Reduces risk of endometrial cancer

·         Protects against Alzheimer's disease

Most of these benefits have surfaced in prospective human studies and cannot be regarded as certain because of factors that may not have been accounted for in this type of study.

The role of caffeine and coffee in heart disease remains somewhat controversial, but less so than in earlier decades, with moderate to high consumption showing no increased risk of heart disease in prospective studies of large populations.