One thing I’ve noticed across the years is that the better someone understands the basic science about a topic, the less likely they are to have pseudoscientific beliefs on it. It’s just like anything else, I suppose; your skill at the basic movements found in a sport is a good predictor of your overall ability […]
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Fructose
Fructose may be the single most well-known—and most despised—food sugar. Since it entered our public spotlight, numerous wellness gurus and associated types have cast aspersions on its safety and linked it to any number of disease states. So much has fructose been derided that even among those who don’t vilify sugar, it is often mistrusted. Given a choice […]
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Why You Need More Oxygen to Burn Fat than Carbohydrates (and How This Affects Your Climbing)
I’ve written before about how carbohydrates are more oxygen-efficient than fat, which is a boon for climbing of all types; what I haven’t really addressed is why. Far from being a dry, biochemical fact of interest only to physiology enthusiasts, knowing exactly how carbohydrates derive their advantage can inform everyone about their diets, as well as […]
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Is a Low-Carb Diet Protective Against Tendon Injury?
I read an article the other day entitled “Your Tendons on Cake” (you can read it here), and I thought it was a good opportunity to explore a topic close to the hearts of many climbers: their connective tissue. Specifically, the author (Dr. James Crownover, a sports medicine doctor) makes some claims about the effects of […]
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Five Basic Lessons on Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are deceptively complex. While their place in the diet is relatively easy to understand because their main function is provide energy, many people don’t realize some finer points about carbohydrates and as a result wind up with skewed or illogical beliefs. Since carbohydrates will play a central role in many of the articles on this […]
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Don’t Be a (Carb) Hater
There is a camp amongst athletes that favors a high-fat, low-carbohydrate approach. Their enthusiasm is fueled almost entirely by the work of three researchers (Stephen Phinney, Jeff Volek, and Tim Noakes), who despite over 30 years worth of research have yet to produce any notable studies that demonstrate a low-carb diet to work better than—or […]
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