WEEK THREE - April 24th - April 30th

Q. Why is it that some people get "hooked" on exercise?

A. People do get addicted to exercise and suffer withdrawal when they must be inactive, even for a few days. Some go so far as to compare a good workout to a spiritual experience, like meditation.

An avid runner put it this way:

"It means much more than just keeping my body in shape. Running is the major focus of my life. It is the one thing I have complete control over. Every day I can count on my run for a quiet time alone when I can be outside moving, breathing hard. It fills me with a sense of power and confidence as I move quickly through the streets. After the run, I feel very relaxed, confident, satisfied, and in my own world."


This is your brain on exercise compared to sedentary. Research on humans suggests that exercise can not only change brain chemistry but also maintain or improve brain plasticity. Learning, a high-order of brain plasticity, facilitates learning. This predicts that exercise can enhance learning. Indeed, running for example has been proven to improve spatial learning.

For most of us, regular exercise is somewhat less than the focus of our life. Still, along with the physical benefits, we get a definite and persistent psychological bonus -- an improved sense of well-being -- following the activity. Studies consistently show that exercise can lower anxiety and improve mood in healthy, as well as clinically depressed individuals. Why this is so is not clear. But the theories are interesting.

For example:

Physiological Factors.

Researchers have shown that during exercise a morphine-like substance, beta-endorphin, is released by the pituitary gland. Some scientists speculate that this release of beta-endorphin may be responsible for the feeling of euphoria following physical activity. However, studies over two decades have yet to make a clear connection between this substance and an exercise "high." One reason for the uncertainty is that beta-endorphin is hard to measure in the body. Some of it is discharged into the blood and some into the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). And it’s very difficult to assess the amount in the central nervous system and to separate the total beta-endorphin effect from other possible causal factors.

Lately, researchers have been investigating the relationship between exercise and serotonin. Serotonin is found in high concentrations in the hypothalamus (a gland that sits at the top of the brain stem) and helps to transmit messages across nerve cells in the brain. This chemical can suppress appetite and affect a wide range of conditions, including migraine headaches, depression, aggression, sleep disturbances, mood shifts, and anxiety. A recent report suggests, for instance, that exercise may have an effect similar to that of the prescription drug Prozac. That is, exercise may increase the activity of serotonin in the brain, thus benefiting mood and well-being. But here again, the jury is still out.

Psychological Factors.

Some psychologists downplay the possible mood-altering physiological effects of exercise and say that the good feeling we have after exercise is simply due to distraction -- a timeout from our normal activities and concerns. Moreover, they say, exercise provides a sense of mastery and self-esteem. It makes us feel slimmer, firmer, stronger, and more together. And it is a way to help liberate pent-up frustrations, anger and hostility. In addition, the ability to eat more freely without gaining weight also increases pleasure, satisfaction and sense of self-control. Yet, despite the intuitive appeal of this approach, only a limited amount of solid research supports these notions.

Bottom Line.

Certainly, exercise is not a panacea for our psychological problems . But most people do feel better after the activity. Why this is so will probably remain unclear for the foreseeable future, due to the complex interactions of mind and body. Still, we do know that something pleasant happens to the psyche of the active person. "Even if the day ever dawns in which it will not be needed for fighting the old heavy battles against Nature, muscular vigor will still always be needed to furnish the background of sanity, serenity, and cheerfulness of life, to give moral elasticity to our disposition, to round off the wiry edge of our fretfulness, and make us good humored and easy of approach." James Williams

From a FAQ by Patrick J. Bird, Ph.D.Keeping, University of Florida

WEEK TWO - April 17th - 23rd/2006!

Is Peanut Butter a GOOD FOOD or a BAD FOOD?

Canada has just set standards on the content of Trans Fats in food. On August 10, 2005, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) asked City restaurateurs and food suppliers to voluntarily eliminate partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from their kitchens. Why? Because research shows that trans fats are more dangerous than saturated (animal) fats and have been linked to heart disease, cancer, etc.

Unsaturated fats (derived from plants) promote the production of HDL's in the bloodstream. HDL's or high density lipoproteins, are often called 'good' cholesterol because they are associated with lowering cholesterol production in the body.

Saturated fats (derived from animals) promote LDL's - the protiens linked to hardening and blocking of arterial walls that lead to heart attack and stroke. The American Heart Association recommends that saturated fat intake should be less than 10% of the total daily intake of calories.

So that makes Peanut Butter a good food right? Well, it depends on the kind of peanut butter you choose.

Processed peanut butters like Skippy Creamy and Squirrel Creamy play a few tricks with good old fashioned peanut butter. They take natural, unsaturated peanut oil, loaded with good HDL's and Omega 3 and they bubble hydrogen gas through the mixture. The hydrogen atoms grab on to the oil molecules to form new longer molecular strings that make for a creamier product - with no oil seperation.

But the simple act of adding hydrogen turns the beneficial unsaturated fats into dangerous saturated fats. We now call these fats 'trans fats' because they have been transformed. Guess what else? The hydrogenation process removes the Omega 3's as well. Plus - the processed peanut butters also contain loads of sugar.


That's why peanut butter is included in many medically endorsed weight loss and diabetic diets. Natural peanut butter, that is, which contains, well, just peanuts. No sugar. No salt. Nothing else.

Between 82 and 274 deaths every single day from trans fats!!!

"By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually." Harvard School of Public Health report.