Raw milk is the real deal. Our Sportfuel clients are amazed when we bust the milk myth and tell them to stay away from processed skim milk and go for milk as nature intended. Did you know that pigs are given skim milk to get fat? That’s right..because on whole milk, they don’t put on the weight. Very interesting. (Read more about that in The Liberation Diet)

Here is a recent post from Nourished Kitchen on raw milk and its benefits: I Drink Raw Milk: Fresh, Raw, Local, and Full of Fat.

To sum it all up: “Real milk – raw milk – doesn’t need fortification as vitamins, minerals and enzymes remain intact instead of broken, denatured and destroyed through heat processing by standard pasteurization or, worse yet, the extreme temperatures reached through ultra-high-temperature (UHT) pasteurization.”

My favorite real milk story is about my dad. After I gave him The Liberation Diet, he was so enlightened that he immediately took action and found a relatively close source for real milk for all of us. Once he found it, he never looked back and now both he and my mother are enjoying the taste and feeling the benefits! It’s wonderful to see people of all ages discover the power and wonders of real food, especially after years of eating industrialized chemically-laden devitalized foods.

Other members of my family have started to drink real milk as well and have had positive results too. Real milk’s healthy bacteria has helped one family member’s complexion, and its digestibility has worked wonders for another family with food intolerances.

I recommend that everyone gives real milk a try! You’re welcome in advance.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

At SportFuel, we perform customized assessments to drive our recommendations and start by laying a strong foundation with an organic real foods plan. Of course, specific food recommendations will vary from person to person, and will depend on testing results, body type, training intensity, sport, and body composition goals.  Athletes often look to supplements for performance enhancement, and it’s true that the quality and timing of nutrients from food and food-based supplements are effective when done correctly. For example, carbohydrate intake, while ideally controlled throughout the day, can be strategically consumed post-training along with protein for recovery after high intensity activity.

Before moderate and extended exercise, choose foods that contain good quality protein, some fat for flavor and protein utilization and a small amount of unprocessed real food carb. Examples include: a hard-boiled egg, some berries and a handful of sprouted raw nuts. Some may choose to include some nitrite-free organic breakfast meat too. The goal of this meal is to dispel hunger and to keep blood sugar levels stable so you will be able to tap into your unlimited fat stores for fuel. It’s important to practice your eating routine during training because everyone will differ in the timing that feels right and the amount of food that feels best. If you are competing, never try new foods on race or competition day.

After you have had your meal, your focus should be primarily on adequate hydration. Clean water with unrefined sea salt, coconut water and other hydration beverages without additives are all good options.   If exercising for less than 45 minutes at a low to moderate intensity, water is usually all that is needed. If exercising in the heat and humidity, for greater than 45 minutes, or at a higher intensity, coconut water (nature’s sports drink) or an additive free sports drink may be used to improve endurance and provide available carbohydrate. A good sports drink will have ~13-17g carbohydrates per 8 ounces.

How much fluid do you need to stay well- hydrated? Individuals will vary in their needs, but generally consuming 12-16 ounces 1 hour prior to activity taps off reserves. Continue drinking ~3-8 ounces every 15 minutes or so and don’t wait until thirsty as this mechanism is blocked during activity.  Remember that 2 gulps is about 3 oz. To determine your individual needs after a workout, weigh yourself before and after a workout and for every 1 pound lost, drink ~20 ounces of fluid. You can also check your urine color, which should be pale and not bright yellow if you are well-hydrated and not taking any supplements that may affect color.

Could you be a salty sweater and need more salt than others? After workouts, if your skin has a white film on it or if the inside rim of your baseball cap or clothes are white, you are a salty sweater and could benefit from adding unrefined Sea Salt to your water or sports drink. The unrefined salt helps to replace the minerals you lost through your sweat. Even if you are not a salty sweater, sea salt provides you with important trace minerals and helps prevent cramping, while allowing you to hold onto your fluids more efficiently.

After high intensity training, a recovery drink is crucial. This drink is designed to supplement protein and carbohydrates after vigorous training/workouts. Normally, your body takes 24-36 hours to recover from exercise and replete its muscle energy stores. By having a recovery drink within 30 minutes or less after a workout, you can reduce recovery time in half.

A typical recipe for recovery drinks is as follows:

0.5g/kg of lean mass = grams of protein
•    Undenatured whey protein isolate
•    Avoid soy protein isolate

1.2g/kg of bodyweight = grams of carbohydrate
•    Organic whole fruits (fresh or frozen)
•    Organic 100% fruit juices
•    Desiccated honey
•    Maltodextrin

Carbohydrate and protein needs will vary based on training level, intensity, current body composition, and goals. Additional glutamine, glycine, carnitine, and other add-in nutrients may be added for some individuals. However, do not add excessive amounts of fats/oils (flax/fish oil, coconut milk) right after training as research suggests that it may slow carbohydrate and protein repletion to the muscle.

After moderate or low intensity routines, you do not necessarily need a recovery drink, but should strive to replace fluids and eat real food to provide the nutrients and nourishment your body needs and wants. Laying a strong foundation for wellness and to fuel sport begins with eating real foods and avoiding processed foods and added sugars. We started Eat Like the Pros, an organic meal delivery service in the Chicagoland area, to make premium fuels, as nature intended, available and convenient. On our website (www.eatlikethepros.com), we have sample Pro Plans to guide you. If you live in the Chicagoland area within our delivery area, you may be able to order our Eat like the Pros meals too!

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

This week’s topic of “Sleeping Well” is near and dear to my heart as a mother of triplets. Granted they are 16 years old now and would rather sleep until Noon than awaken with the birds, but sleep is no less critical to their health now as growing teens than when they were babies.

As a new mother with three infants, I quickly realized that having a regular sleep routine was on par in importance with a good diet. While every family is different and will pick and choose what resonates  with them, my husband and I found the tips in the book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child”, by Dr Marc Weissbluth, to be tremendously important in instilling a good sleep routine in our home. Just realizing we needed a routine that did not vary for naps and bedtime was key for us–be it a bath, book and prayer or song or anything you choose.Remembering that we, as parents, are in charge of setting the sleep protocol and not the child, is helpful with implementation and necessary for success.

As a sports nutritionist who works with both young and adult athletes, we always ask about sleep habits as we want to enhance recovery, promote lean mass and health. We ask these questions about sleep:

• Do you sleep well?
• Do you have trouble falling asleep?
• Do you stay asleep?
• Do you have insomnia?

We ask about the number of hours slept on average and if they wake up tired on a regular  basis. Some of our professional male athletes may even have night sweats awakening them due to years of poor sleep and taxed  adrenal glands that require nutritional support. We also ask if they sleep in a dark room and if they get out in the daylight for at least 30 minutes daily to set their circadian clock.

The right foods will also help children adapt to a sleep routine and to sleep long and deep. What children (and adults!) eat affects  hormones, including serotonin, which helps you feel good and sleep well. If the habitual diet is loaded with sugars and processed foods (most foods marketed to kids), kids will have blood sugar imbalances (think crabby kid!), inflammation and tissue damage, which will all adversely affect sleep. The bottom line: Eat Real Food!  Getting plenty  of organic pasture-raised animal protein, (beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck. whole eggs, fish, etc), lots of colorful vegetables with butter, some fruit, nuts and seeds, and really limiting  the processed sugars and grains will help our children to sleep well and be the happy and healthy children they were meant to be!

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

What are some proven techniques to change your subconscious programming?

Human connection is always critical—and when we desire to make any kind of change, we need all the support we can get! By surrounding yourself with people that support your journey, you will find that you begin to attract people that are also working toward self improvement and true inner balance. At SportFuel, when our clients undertake a Nutritional Cleanse, (a large lifestyle change for most!) we teach them to be aware of “energy vampires”. What are “energy vampires and who are yours? You probably know them well–those people that try to suck the life out of you –people continually spewing negative thoughts. Of course, we all have negative thoughts as our mind is always thinking so the thoughts themselves are not the problem. It is our processing and rumination of the negative thoughts that, if not curtailed, can begin to become our reality. Remember that YOU are in charge of what you think about and YOU CAN control what you think about. At SportFuel, we use the Cleanse period to also establish a better awareness of how you nourish yourself, what you are thinking as you nourish differently, and then finally making the connection to how you feel when you nourish lovingly with real foods. The following are a few techniques to explore to help you move toward establishing healthy subconscious programming:

The BodyTalk System:

This concept works to synchronize and balance the body-mind. The body is a complex system with interconnected physiological, biochemical, emotional, environmental, hereditary, and genetic components. The BodyTalk System taps into our “innate wisdom” about our own health. With neuromuscular biofeedback, a protocol of questions, and healing through body ‘tapping’, the body-mind complex is reconnected, which fosters healing and balance. It is a noninvasive and safe complementary or stand-alone treatment.  (See http://www.bodytalksystem.com/learn/bodytalk)

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT):

EFT is an alternative psychotherapy and the theory is that negative thoughts and emotions can cause disturbances in the body’s energy field. Practitioners use acupuncture points to manipulate the body’s energy field, all while the patient focuses on a specific memory, so that essentially, a psychological problem is alleviated. Many SportFuel clients have benefited from learning and using this technique. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Freedom_Technique)

Hypnotherapy:

Hypnotherapy done correctly can bring a person into a deep state of relaxation and an altered state of consciousness, helping a person become exceptionally responsive—although the practitioner is certainly not in control of their mind. Instead, they teach patients how to improve their own state of awareness, which in turn can positively affect their own bodily processes and responses. One hypnotherapy technique involves remembering an event that lead to a negative reaction, and then separating that from the learned behavior and replacing it with a healthier behavior. (See http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/hypnotherapy-000353.htm)

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Are supplements important and necessary?

Yes, but we believe that diet is KING, while food based supplementation is QUEEN! As many studies have shown, the nutritional content in our food system has dropped dramatically over the last 100 years. Add in hectic lifestyles, daily stress, social eating habits, strenuous athletic activities, alcohol intake and the picture becomes even bleaker. While diet will always form the critical foundation for optimal health and wellness, wisely selected supplementation guided by a trained health professional is the ideal.

Remember that supplements are unregulated and thoughtful consideration is needed to ensure their healthfulness, safety, and even legality (especially for athletes subjected to drug testing). That is just one of the reasons why we use and recommend food based supplements.

The second and more important reason is that food based supplements work best because the body can assimilate nutrients from nature’s premium foods the best! Have you ever heard the story about the broken watch? Someone gives you a working watch and then they break it into tiny pieces, then reassemble the watch and return it to you. Will it still work? The pieces are all there, but does it function as a whole unit still and do you still want it? This is very similar to how isolated nutrients work—those commonly found in synthetic over the counter or even professional grade vitamin and mineral supplements.

Please also consider the source of the isolated nutrients in these types of products. For example, many B vitamins are derived from coal tar! The supplements that we recommend are derived from concentrated whole foods and sometimes herbs as these bioavailable and bioactive supplements nutrients work synergistically and gently in the body for optimal health—just as nature intended.

At SportFuel, we have designed a package of foundational supplements that we believe will round out a strong, real food based diet. These include:

• Fermented Cod Liver Oil – a great source of food-based vitamins A, D and K
• Whole Food Based Multivitamin – a broad-based source of whole food nutrients
• Digestive Enzyme support – gentle digestive support from plant based enzymes
• Powdered Green Drink – an essential source of minerals for those not getting 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables. Powdered greens can be very energizing and alkalizing!

Beyond general recommendations, our customized nutritional testing package provides a map of each person’s individual needs to guide appropriate diet and supplementation.

To real food and food based supplements!

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

For everyone who wants to keep avoiding aspartame in our foods (AND drugs AND vaccines AND over the counter medications), aspartame has a new name of AminoSweet. Since aspartame has gotten such a bad name (as it should), Ajinomoto, its key manufacturer in Japan, has renamed this toxic chemical sweetener. Such trickery! Remember to keep double-checking your labels on everything you consume. Of course, most real foods you consume won’t have labels, right? Also, if you are interested in reading more on the topic, try the thrilling Excitotoxins by Russel Blaylock.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.