B.A.M.F Athletics

Good day.

Welcome to the first instalment of the BAMF Athletics Science Sunday sermons. That’s right. Science. On a Sunday.

Nice.

I recently had a week off work and was perusing Robb Wolf’s blog specifically for an article written by one Mat Lalonde. I had heard Robb and Andy joking about Mat’s hatred of fructose on the Paleolithic Solution Podcast and wanted to delve a little deeper into that. A link provided took me to the utterly stunning 89 minute lecture given by Dr. Robert Lustig from the University of California in San Francisco about quite how toxic fructose is to the human body.*

Now, I have never had a mind for science, but given my increasing interest in human biomechanics, evolutionary biology and chemistry, this really ticked a box for me. Not only that, but I found it to be compelling. See, I have a problem. I have no official nutrition qualifications to speak of and thus Ben Goldacre would assure you my advice should be avoided. This is why it makes me a very happy man when I have been going on about something for ages, then all of a sudden I come across a lecture from a Professor of Clinical Paediatrics, in the Division of Endocrinology at UCSF who backs up my point somewhat with an assload of mighty science. Now, it’s not all science. There is some banter and some socio-political commentary in there that will make you think.

On top of that, last Friday night, at about 02:30 in the morning I found myself staring in horror at the Food Standards Agency blog. This is the problem when you go to visit your mother in your hometown. There is little else to do but trawl the internet.  In said FSA blog, There was a rebuttal of sorts regarding a recent daily mail article regarding how the governmental nutrition recommendations are making us all fat and ill. In this rebuttal Andrew Wadge, the FSA Chief Scientist, shot himself squarely in the face with a diatribe that reads ridiculous to all but the layest of mans. Oh, it’s okay. You recommend whole grains. My bad. You can see the depth of the hole he’s in by the comments alone. Needless to say, I submitted a comment that has not yet seen the light of day (at the time of writing) linking to two papers on thermodynamics / nutrition and Dr. Lustig’s lecture.

Without further ado, find below the lecture itself as well as some further reading about why the first and second laws of thermodynamics do not and cannot be applied to human nutrition:

Sugar – The Bitter Truth (YouTube)

Paper on reinterpreting first law of thermodynamics

Paper on why “A calorie is a calorie” violates the second law of thermodynamics

Chow down on them NOM NOM NOM. It is worth spending 89 mins of your life watching this. Trust me. Science Sunday isn’t for the good of my health.

Stay Badassed™

*in the absence of fibre and exercise