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Bodytalk
Question: I know nuts are a healthy food choice. I'm also aware that they contain a lot of calories. My question is just how many calories are in an ounce of nuts and how many nuts make up an ounce? Nuts are fatty,
but so nutritiousAnswer: It's true. Nuts are high in fat, therefore calories, but if you limit your servings to one ounce per day, the nutritional benefits far outweigh their high calorie content.
Nuts contain predominantly the "good" variety of unsaturated fat. An ounce of nuts contains a healthy sprinkling of vitamins and minerals, and lots of protein.
Some varieties - hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts and pistachios - contain notable amounts of fiber as well.
Due to nuts' high protein content, they are often lumped in with meat on nutritional charts such as the government's food pyramid. This is unfortunate, because meat contains no fiber whatsoever and is full of artery-clogging saturated fat.
Q: Are our feet designed to run long distances, such as marathons?
A: In terms of human evolution, no. It's biomechanically detrimental to run at a sustained pace for long distances. The survival reflexes in the human nervous system are triggered by three fundamental needs: safety, food and sex. Many thousands of years ago, our ancestors needed to chase down their prey and run away from danger (food and safety). Both these activities called for quick bursts of energy. Our ancestors were major sprinters. They had no need to run at an aerobic pace for miles. Primitive people would have done a lot more distance walking than distance running.
For many eons, primitive people wandered from place to place, moving as the weather changed and food supplies dwindled. A few thousand years later, modern peoples have all but eliminated the need to chase down their food, run away from danger or move as the weather grows colder, and as for food supplies - they don't appear to be dwindling.
So what's the difference as far as our feet are concerned? When we sprint, the foot doesn't strike the ground as often as it does during sustained running, and the ground reaction force during walking is about one third of that experienced when running. This adds up to two things - 1: modern long distance runners, and all runners for that matter, must wear high cushion impact shoes to help absorb some of the ground reaction force, and 2: most runners, especially distance runners, experience various injuries and foot dysfunctions as a result of the stress running places on feet that aren't biologically equipped to handle this level of stress.
So, should we all stop running? Of course not. Just keep in mind that since distance running is not part of our evolutionary wiring, runners must do everything possible to prevent injury and to treat it correctly if an injury does occur.
Once a runner, always a runner. It's hard for runners to become walkers. But as a lifelong runner, I'm beginning to feel the benefits of a good brisk walk now and then.
Health Events
Stephenie Karony is a certified health
and fitness instructor, a personal trainer and the author of
"Body Shaping with Free Weights." Send questions to her at
P.O. Box 262, Wailuku Hi. Her column appears on Wednesdays.