Friday 120316

Strength

Snatch

3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3

For these sets of 3, don't drop the bar. Keep it in your hands and touch and go!

WOD

Complete 5 rounds for time of:

10 Hang squat snatch, 75#/55#

15 Burpees

Run 200m

Travis pulling out of the hang position!

The other morning at work Tyler grabbed me and asked if I'd watched the news last night. I hadn't, and he told me about a report he saw on both the local news and a national news outlet that said people who eat red meat are 13% more likely to die. Oh crap, I love red meat and eat lots of it, and so does Tyler. We're clearly goners! Since I hadn't seen the report, I didn't have any insight but we both were pretty sure that there was more to the story.

I knew that folks would ask me about this because they know how I eat. I would bet that some of you were asked by your friends if you had heard about this study since they know that you partake in the red meat too. "Haha! You thought you were so healthy by cutting out those processed carbs and eating all that paleo stuff, but turns out it's going to kill you. Here, have some bread!"

Looking around, I found several articles about the study including one on ABC and one on The New York Times. You can find more out there, but they all say the same thing. Some of the findings seemed sketchy at first glance. It said that the red meat eaters were more likely to die from cancer and heart disease. But it also said that these folks were also were less likely to be physically active, were more likely to smoke, and had a higher Body Mass Index. Maybe that has something to do with it? The report goes on to say the data was "controlled" for these risk factors and the results were still accurate. One summary reported an increase in Type II diabetes correlated with the eating of red meat. That doesn't sound right, does it? I mean, it's consumption of large amounts of carbohydrates over time that contributes to insulin resistance, not protein, right?

Co-author of the study Dr. Hu of Harvard fame had this conclusion to help us live longer: "We should switch from a red meat-based diet to a plant-based diet with healthier protein choices." Hmmm.

After reading this, I went to all the go-to sources I use for nutritional info in the hopes that somebody had torn into the data to see if these headlines were really accurate. I didn't find any that day. But the following day, like a little gift, I received this article from Mark's Daily Apple in my inbox. Thank you Mark and Denise (the article's author). When you look at their assessment of the study results versus what the media outlets reported, there's more to the story. Take some time to read the article. There's a lot of information that wasn't included in the headline-grabbing reports that might set your mind at ease. I'm glad I read it - I was about to throw away a bunch of grass-fed beef and head out to buy some bagels!